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#but still i have these in my drafts and the art is cute

attaboy-art · 2 years

Note

HENRY

[Image ID: a digital drawing of henry ledore in front of a partly cloudy sky while wind blows blades of grass around him. he has long hair which is tied back into a ponytail by a red bow, and he is wearing a green and white striped button-up that exposes his chest hair, and a dark teal pleated maxi skirt. his hands are resting on his thighs, holding his skirt down, and he is smiling. /.End ID.]

#i liked coloring this fank yew #still getting used to these new brushes... discovered that the one i used to line my last al piece works better as a coloring brush #Oh Henry. I wish you were characterized better by Level-5 and the internet #this piece was a tad difficult to figure out at first ill admit... i tried many different poses n outfits before landing on this one #the main idea was Henry's Day Off. one first draft included henry taking a cat nap in some cute pajamas #another was a classical inspired portrait... but i have done. one too many. of those in my lifetime #but anyways. I LIKE THIS!#art #fanart #illustration #henry ledore #professor layton #miracle mask #digital art

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halorocks1214 · 1 year

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i hate how the found family genere as well as platonic relationships in general—things i tend to prefer reading because i genuinely enjoy them and find representation/comfort in them—have been weaponized into some weird form of “progressive” ammo against shippers (other queer people, dare i say) because a loud but vocal minority of twits don’t know how to use the back button on things that squick them out, something i’ve been able to do without complaint since i was literally twelve fucking years old, and now any time i venture out of said platonic spaces i have to feel like shit because i’m getting lumped in with said idiotic twits

#i get it. i was also young and irritated at just how much fandom is all about shipping (i occasionally still feel that way tbh)#but you know what i did? i didnt make it their goddamn problem! i learned to ignore stuff i didn't like #i literally started writing more /purely/ because i wanted to share my honest joy about platonic stories with other people #not because i thought queer ppl were the devil for *gasp* making their own content that they also feel represents them #bcuz god knows mass media has barely done that!#what a concept am i fucking right #lord. im aroace and im tired #this is okay to rb but just know that if it stays relatively noteless im deleting it in a few days #fuck it i have drafts saved lets queue some cute art

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number1jeonginstan · 4 months

Text

Always been there 🏡

pairing: the boy next door!Chan x afab!reader

warnings: alcohol, swearing, kissing, smut, some fluff too!

word count: 7.1k (wow.)

18+ Minors DNI

A/N: This took so long to get out, and I'm still not confident in it, I feel like it's kinda lame ngl. I don't know, I just feel like my writing hasn't been improving, but I can't expect to be a god-send after only writing for 4 months... Thank you so much for @quokkawritesarchive for looking at my draft for this, I truly appreciate it <3 I hope you guys like it!

smut warnings below the cut:

smut warnings: unprotected sex (please don't!), fingering, oral (fem receiving), consensual kissing, some nipple play, slight edging, male masturbation, cumming inside

You and Chris have been friends since you both were 5 and you moved into his neighborhood. Their parents had slowly become close friends with yours and invited your family over to their house for dinner. That was the first time you had ever met Chris.

You were hidden behind your parents, too scared to say anything. In front of you was a boy wearing a striped shirt and a grin. He ran up to you “Hi! My name is Chan” he grinned at you. Your parents forced you to say hi back, which you reluctantly did.

“Hi,” you said, still a bit scared. “What’s your name?” he asked, still excited. “It’s y/n” you whispered, still a bit afraid of him. “That’s such a pretty name!” he grinned at you.

Since they, you both were inseparable. Your parents thought it was cute, the both of you being so inseparable. When you guys were younger, you would have sleepovers in each other’s rooms. Your favorite one was when you both created a fort in your room and had Tim Tam slams, causing a mess all over the blankets, but it was so worth it.

As time went on, your parents didn’t let you have sleepovers, so instead you two bought walkie-talkies. Since both of your windows faced each other, whenever you wanted to talk, you would just flash a flashlight through the other’s window to signal each other to turn on their walkie-talkies. Your parents thought it was adorable, but you guys felt like spies on an undercover mission.

As you guys ventured onto middle school, Chan was participating a lot in swimming, wanting to fill in his father’s footsteps while you really got into art and painting. While he was always in the pool, you were always in your art studio working with different mediums trying to make something new.

You remember one specific day that you started working with clay, wanting to make a little wolf, because Chris reminded you of one, and he had come into the art room after swim practice.

“You are dripping wet” you groaned as Chan shook his head, causing water to spray everywhere. “You are no better than a wet dog.” you groaned, trying to hide your clay figure from his prying eyes.

“What’s up?” you asked him, taking a bit of the fruit that you had laid out while working. He stole a grape, popping it into his mouth. “I think I want to start pursuing music,” he said with an affirmative smile.

“That’s great Chan, I’m so excited for you!” you gleaned. “Yeah, I started picking up the guitar and vocal lessons, it’s been fun.”

“Channie, I’m so happy for you! Don’t forget about me when you get famous” you giggled. He ran over to you, trying to hug you. “I swear to god, you are still soaking wet, you are not about to hug me, or so help me.”

That didn’t stop him, he gave you a big squeeze, making your clothes damp and smell like chlorine. You felt the need to retaliate, throwing paint at him. It caused a game of cat and mouse to occur, you both chasing each other, until your art teacher came in putting an end to it. She yelled at both of you for acting so childish, but as soon as she left, the both of you erupted in a fit of laughter.

Laughing with Chris had always been so freeing to you. His laugh was infectious, and no matter where you were or what you were doing, it always spread onto you, As you both left the studio, you both ran to your mom’s car. “Y/N!” she yelled, startling you “Did you throw paint on Chan here?”

You and Chan just look at at each other, losing it and laughing again, causing your mom to laugh too.

It was the end of Year 8 and you and Chris were on the beach, enjoying the view. “I don’t know why we have to go to high school” you groaned, licking the popsicle in your hand. “We have to grow, plus, high school girls are hot.” He took your popsicle from your hand, sucking on it. “Gross Chris, you are too short for any high school girls anyway.” you giggled, stealing your popsicle back.

“Really?” he said starting to get up, you knew what was going to happen. You quickly got up, not having time to brush the sand off your clothes as you tried running away. “Come back here!” he yelled, causing you to giggle.

Before you could get out of your arm's reach, he caught you, picking you up and throwing you over his shoulder. “What’s next, are you going to call me weak too?” he just laughed. “Put me down Christopher Bhang Chan,” you said while hitting his back with your hands. “Wow, the full legal name, don’t you think that’s a bit too much?”

Before you could say anything, he threw you into the ocean, laughing in your face. “Oh, you are so done for!” Before he could react to what you had just said, you dragged him into the ocean with you, laughing at his shocked expression. You began splashing water on him, causing you both to have a water fight.

You never wanted this day to end, thankful that he was always by your side.

As you both finally ventured back to the beach, you told him to close his eyes. “What are you going to do? Because if you throw me back into the ocean, I’ll drown you so help me god.”

“Will you just shut up and open your hands?” you groaned, pulling out the little wolf charm you had made him, and placing it gently in his hands. “You can open your eyes now.”

He opened his eyes, looking down at his hands and grinning. “Omg, I love it, is this supposed to be me as a wolf? It’s so cute, you are so cute for thinking about me.”

You just grinned, happy that Chan really loved the little trinket you made him. “I also have something for you, it’s not that well thought out, but you know how I started learning the guitar?”

You just nodded, not sure where he was going with it. “Well, I got this little gift for you, it’s nothing much, but it’s my first pick on a necklace for you, just to remember how you supported me through everything.”

“Channie, I love it, I’m never going to take it off.” You turned around, the back of your neck facing him, “Can you put it on me please?” and he did so. You felt his still-damp hands run along your neck, tying the necklace. You turned around hugging him, “I’m never going to take this off” You grinned at him

“Promise we will always be like this?” he asked.

“I promise”

It was the summer of your sophomore year of college, and you and Chris had grown apart. You both still occasionally talked, but it was nothing like before. You never took off the necklace he gave you though, still trying to uphold your promise. It had become a part of you, knowing that, although the both of you didn’t talk, you still had each other's side, hopefully.

You were in two different crowds, Chan started taking his music much more seriously, while you were known as a goodie two shoes because you got good grades. It was because you guys went to a small high school, and unlike the rest of the people in your grade, you and your friends never found an appeal in drinking and getting high. That didn’t make you nerds, did it?

Your group consisted of Felix, your closest friend after he helped when you tripped and fell in front of the entirety of your homeroom class freshman year. He had extra pokèmon bandaids and helped fix the scrapes on your legs. Since then, you both are always next to each other, stuck to one another like glue.

The next was Seungmin, you guys had met sophomore year of high school, after you accidentally dropped a book on his head in the library. In your defense, you didn’t know that he was on the other side of the shelf. You ran to him apologizing, and from then on began talking since the both of you had a lot in common. With Seungmin came Jeongin. The two of them were like peas in a pod before meeting you, and nothing could separate them.

Jeongin was a year younger than the three of you, but he fit in perfectly. His older brother, Hyunjin, was part of Chris’s group. Chris was already popular due to him being on the swim team and constantly winning awards, the icing on the cake was when he started creating music in a group called 3racha. They got especially popular in your freshman year of college.

“Hey, what do you think about attending a party this weekend?” Seungmin asked. You were both home for summer break, you guys were playing Super Smash Bros in your room while Felix was downstairs getting snacks from your kitchen.

“Seungmin, are you sick? You out of all people want to go to a party?” you asked, taking a sip of your water. “Where are we going?” Felix asked, placing a bowl of grapes on your bed. “Jeongin’s house this weekend, his parents are out of town and Hyunjin’s hosting a party,” he said, popping a grape in his mouth.

“We should go, it would be fun” Felix grinned, grabbing the controller from Seungmin’s hands. “You know what, it would be. We could pregame at mine because my parents are still on their anniversary vacation” Your parents decided to treat themselves for their 30th anniversary and you were happy to have the house to yourself for a month.

“Okay, works with me!” Seungmin said before looking out your window to be met with a shirtless Chan. “Damn, that’s why you decided to keep your curtains open” he laughed. You looked up confused only to see Chan. Your face flushed a bright red as you ran over to shut your curtains.

“Aw, no need to be shy, he literally has the abs of a god,” Felix said looking down at his own stomach “Maybe I should ask him for some tips?” Before you could even say anything, Felix ran to your window, opening the curtains and window and screaming through the panel. “Hey, Chan!” he yelled, causing Chan to look up, a bit puzzled, and open his own window to hear him clearly.

“Can you start taking me to the gym, I need your abs!”

You could hear Chan’s laugh clear as day like it hadn’t been almost 4 years since you last heard it. “Yeah, dude! I’ll give you my number, one sec come outside”

Felix ran out of your room, opening the front door to meet up with Chan. “Do you think he did that just to get close to Changbin?” Seungmin questioned out loud.

That caused you to giggle out loud. Felix had been obsessed with Changbin since sophomore year when he started to get buff. It wasn’t a crush, but more like admiration for Felix. He just thought he was cool, but was too shy to befriend him even with his outgoing personality.

“This is all your fault Minnie” you said pinching his cheeks, causing him to roll his eyes at you.

“Shit, I have to go pick up my older sister from work, pre-game at your house tomorrow at 9?” he asked running out of your room, almost tripping trying to put on his shoes. “You are bringing the alcohol this time!” you yelled at the door as he ran out.

You decided to lie down on your bed and scroll on your phone while you waited for Felix to come back only to get a text from him

Brownie Boy!

What if I told you, I’m already at the gym with Chan…

You

I’m not even surprised…

You groaned, deciding to watch random YouTube videos on your laptop til you passed out since you had nothing else to do.

Three hours had passed and you had gone down a deep dive of paranormal videos. It was only 11:30 at night and you knew that you had to get up, but you were so scared. You kept hearing noises from downstairs, trying not to think much of it, you were still freaked out.

The best course of action would be to change into your pajamas and sleep and pray that there were no ghosts in your room. You were too scared to even leave your room so you decided to change, right there, in the middle. What you forgot was that your window was still open, and Chan had gotten home from the gym.

He had just gotten out of the shower, a towel on his waist, and his hair still a bit wet. He looked up to see his window still open, going to close it, he saw you. You were in just a bra and panties bending over to put on your tiny sleep shorts from freshman year of high school. He groaned watching you pull them over your ass.

You slowly unclasped your bra, the side of your tits on display for him as you pulled a camisole over your head covering your body. The necklace he had given you at the end of 8th grade lying between the valley of your breasts. He wished he had taken a picture, but before you could turn around to see your window still open, he quickly closed his curtains.

He lay on his bed, having the picture of you bent over engraved in his mind as he unraveled the towel from his waist. His already semi-hard cock resting against his thigh. He began to pump his hand around his cock, taking the pre-cum that was escaping from the tip of it and spreading it against his head.

He groaned thinking about you, his childhood best friend, wearing the necklace he gave you. He had claimed you as his, but you never noticed. Too oblivious to what he was trying to tell you. That was why he tried to move on in his sophomore year, trying to date any girl he could, but he could only think about you.

Your innocent eyes and willingness to help anyone and everyone. Are you still innocent or did you let another man put their dick in your sweet cunt. He groaned at the thought of your moans, how you would sound as he put his cock into you. How you would look with the necklace he gave you bouncing between your tits. You were such a good girl, but he wanted to ruin you and make you his.

He continued to stroke his cock faster at the thought of that. How good your tits would look covered in his cum. Would you suck his cock like a good girl? Would you let him cum inside of you or would you beg to take it in your mouth?

That was all Chan needed to cum into the palm of his hands. Fuck, he needed to shower again. He was back under the hot water, trying to calm himself down from his orgasm as he thought about you. After going to the gym with Felix today, he found out he wasn’t a threat. You and Felix were just friends, the same went for Seungmin. You thought of them as brothers and nothing more.

Do you still think about him? He knew that he stopped talking to you in 10th grade, but you stopped talking to him too, it wasn’t all him, was it?

He got into bed, boxers on in case anything happened, and stared at his ceiling thinking about you. If he had one more chance, he would take it.

You were getting ready at home while Seungmin and Felix were on your bed scrolling through their phones. “Oh Lix, how was your gym session with Chan?” Seungmin asked, turning on your bed to face him.

“It went good, but that dude doesn’t rest, like damn I felt like I was dying after our third set” he groaned, tossing his phone to the other side of your bed to pay attention to you.

He got up and came behind you, fixing your hair a bit as you were applying a coat of mascara to finish your look. “You look good, trying to get someone’s attention in particular?” he giggled before pinching your cheeks.

You just rolled your eyes at him as Seungmin finally looked up from his phone. “Wow, you don’t look like a slob for once” You threw one of your brushes at his face, causing a quick “Hey!” to escape from him.

You had finally finished getting ready, wearing a cute mini-skirt and a plain black top. You didn’t want to be too extra, but your outfit was cute and simple, just how you liked it, especially knowing how crazy Hyunjin’s parties get, you didn’t want to risk anything getting ruined.

You walked downstairs to see Seungmin on his phone while Felix was holding a shot out for you. “Let’s have fun tonight” he grins, throwing the shot back as his face turns into one of disgust.

Every time y’all drank, Felix would always be the first to black out. He wasn’t a lightweight per se, but he loved drinking a lot when he had the opportunity. Seungmin was the designated driver, so he wasn’t pre-gamming, but y’all were most likely going to stay at Jeongin’s anyway so he could still enjoy.

“Can we please get going before I turn 60?” Seungmin rolled his eyes, grabbing his keys off your kitchen counter. You just giggled at his impatience, not understanding his need to be there already.

“Hey old man, are you going to Hyunjin’s party?” Seungmin spoke up as you looked up to see who he was talking to.

You saw Chris getting in his car. He was wearing his usual all-black outfit, but instead of his usual beanie and sweatpants, he was wearing black jeans with a black shirt and silver chains adorning his neck. His hair was a bit curly, framing his face perfectly.

You loved it when Chan had his hair curly, but you couldn’t compliment him on it, especially after barely talking to him for the past 4 years.

“Oh yeah, do any of you need a ride?”

Before you could say no, Seungmin spoke up. “Actually, that would be great. I only have enough space for Felix and me, so if you could take y/n with you, that would be great!”

You glared at Seungmin confused, thinking he was lying. But he was right, his back seats were filled with camera supplies from earlier in the day. He told you he was practicing taking scenery pictures before coming to your house, so you thought he had taken them out before coming over, but he didn’t.

“Oh, that’s fine, hop in!”

You reluctantly agreed, walking across your driveway to Chan’s. You could feel your cheeks slightly blush with embarrassment, you didn’t want to be a burden.

“I promise you I haven’t had anything to drink, so don’t worry” You simply nodded, sitting in the passenger seat, watching Seungmin’s car leaving as Chan sat in the driver's seat.

“Thanks for taking me, I didn’t know Seungmin had so much stuff in the back seat of his car” you feebly said. You felt bad, you hadn’t talked more than 5 sentences to Chan in so long and now he was giving you a free ride.

“Don’t worry about it, what are neighbors for” he grinned at you, his signature smile warming your insides. “Plus, if you need a ride home, I’m your guy!”

“Aren’t you going to drink?” you asked as he backed up from his long driveway.

“I don’t drink, I just go to spend time with Bin and them” he chuckled a bit before putting the car in drive.

You simply nodded, looking down at his arm and grabbing the stick shift. He was much more muscular now, his veins prominent even in the dark. Before you could even think about what you were doing. You grabbed the necklace that he had given you when you were younger between your fingers.

“Wow, you still wear that?”

You looked up at him confused, not understanding what he was saying. “The necklace I gave you, you still wear it?”

“Oh, yeah, you asked me to never take it off, so I kept my promise”

He simply nodded, turning on the radio as you both fell into a comfortable silence. What you didn’t know was that Chan’s heart was racing.

Even after all this time, you didn’t want to break his promise. His heart swelled at the thought of how cute you were. He wanted to stop the car right there and then to tell you how he felt about you, but he couldn’t. He was too embarrassed, scared that you wouldn’t feel the same way, so he stayed silent.

It was another 5 minutes of silence til you arrived at Hyunjin and Jeongin’s house. The party was already in full swing, people spilling inside and out.

Chan parked the car on the street, and before you could even open the door yourself, he ran to your side and did it for you. You thought the sentiment was sweet, chuckling at his eagerness to open the door for you.

“Thanks” you grinned and he just nodded. You both entered the house to see people making out in the corner and red solo cups splayed across the floor. It wasn’t too loud that it was disrupting everyone on the street, but it was loud enough that you could barely hear Chan next to you telling you that he was going to go find Changbin.

You simply nodded trying to find your own friends. As you began to walk deeper into the house, you spotted Jeongin sporting ginger hair in the corner talking to Seungmin. You ran up to him, giving him the tightest hug known to man.

“Your hair!” you screamed trying to make sure he heard you above the music. “Do you like it?” he asked, raising his eyebrows at you and giggling.

You ran your hand through his hair, “I love it, it’s so you Innie”

He gleaned at your compliment, which caused Seungmin to sport a disgusted face. “Please stop flirting in front of me” Causing the both of you to look at Seungmin with a face of horror. “Ew,” you both said simultaneously, causing the both of you to erupt in giggles.

“We need to take shots before all the good alcohol is good” You took Jeongin’s and Seungmin’s hands and dragged them to the kitchen.

As you were pouring the three of you some shots, you looked up to see Felix and Changbin talking while Chan and Lee Know were standing next to them.

“Are my eyes deceiving me right now? I don’t think I’m that drunk, but is that Changbin and Felix and they are talking?”

Seungmin also looked up after taking a shot “Holy shit, he finally did it”

“Should we take a picture to commemorate this moment, or would that be weird?” you asked, pulling your phone out from the pocket of your skirt.

“Put the phone down” Jeonging laughed, taking it from your hands and holding it above your head laughing. You tried jumping up to get it from him, whining a bit in the process of retrieving it from his hands.

What you didn’t notice was Chan staring at you, chuckling to himself at your antics, which caused Lee Know to look at him weirdly. That was until he looked up to see what he was looking at.

“You are still pinning after her after all these years?” Lee Know asked, patting his friend’s back.

“I’m not pinning, I’m just laughing at them, she looks cute”

“Dude, you’ve been like this since 7th grade, don’t you think it’s time to move on?”

“I don’t think I can ever move on” Chan groaned, trying to look away from you. You were like his own personal drug, something that he knew he should look away from, but he physically couldn’t, you were addicting.

You were walking his way with your friends on your side and a drink in your hand. He fidgeted with his hands a bit, not knowing what to do, only to receive a “told you so” look from Lee Know.

“Hey guys!” you giggled, already feeling a bit tipsy from how much you had already drank. “What are you up to?”

Before Chan could even speak up, Hyunjin and Jisung had run up behind them. “Guys come on, they are playing truth or dare in the basement” pushing all of your friends to come with them.

You followed them downstairs, drink in your hand. There was a whole group of people in the basement all sitting in a circle. You plopped down in between Jeongin and Seungmin, your head resting on Jeongin.

“Okay guys, are we doing only three truths in a row?” Ryujin asked. Everyone nodded, beginning the game.

Lily was the first to start, spinning the bottle. It landed on San and he was forced to take his shirt off for the rest of the game, which no one was opposed to.

The game continued on like this for around an hour, the bottle had now landed on you again. “Truth or Dare?” Felix asked

“I choose dare” you grinned feeling a bit more confident with the alcohol flowing through your system. “I dare you to kiss” he pondered for a second, giggling at himself “Chan!” you simply shrugged, going up to Chan.

“May I?” you asked wanting to make sure he was comfortable with it. He simply nodded allowing you to kiss his lips. He thought it would last for longer, but it was only a quick peck.

The feeling of your lips caused his body to tingle, the sensation shocking his entire body, but he attempted to play it off as nonchalant even though his ears were beginning to turn a slight shade of red.

“Aw come on, that was barely a kiss” Felix groaned

“You never said how long” you teased at him, poking out your tongue

You guys had been going at it for hours, you still drinking along as the people playing began to fizzle out, leaving only a few of you guys playing.

You decided to get up, underestimating the amount you had drank. You had begun to stumble a bit, Chan quickly getting up to catch you. “Hey, why don’t we go home? You need to sober up”

You whined “It’s okay Seungmin can take me, you don’t need to” He simply shook his head and pointed you in Seungmin’s direction. He was asleep on Jeongin’s shoulder a light snore leaving his mouth causing you to giggle.

“He looks just like a puppy” You tried to walk over to squish his face only to be stopped by Chris. “You can play with him tomorrow sweetheart, why don’t we get you home first?”

You simply nodded, feeling your cheeks redden when he called you sweetheart. He walked you up the stairs of the basement to be met with Changbin and Felix sitting on the couch in the living room talking about some show.

“I’m taking her home, she’s had quite a lot to drink, text me if you need anything”

They looked up at Chan, simply nodding and going back to their conversation.

Chan took you to his car, opening the passenger side only to be met with your face inches away from yours as he put you into the seat. “You know Chris”

“What do I know?” he asked a bit teasingly

“You are really hot, and I’m not saying that because I’ve known you for so long, I’m saying that as a fact”

He just chuckled, “Sweetheart, why don’t you tell me in the morning, when you are sober”

You just hummed in response as he walked around the car into his own seat, turning on the music and opening the windows so the cool air could hit you as you drove.

When he finally reached your house, Chan asked you where your keys were and you simply shrugged in response.

“Come on, don’t you want to be comfortable, in your bed, in your pajamas? Now, where is the key?”

“Don’t wanna go home, there are ghosts” you whispered to him as you looked around to see if they heard you.

“Now come on, there are no such things as ghosts, please it’s freezing and I want to make sure you don’t get cold in this short skirt of yours”

“Nope, you can’t make me” you giggled. Chan gave up, throwing you over his shoulder, causing you to scream.

“You need to be quiet, or else you will wake up the ghosts,” he said playfully. That was all you needed to shut up. He opened the door to his house, grateful that his family was on a camping trip so they wouldn’t question anything that was happening.

He took you to his room, placing you on his bed. “Cold” you whispered and he went into his closet finding some clothes from high school that might fit you. Before he could even give them to you, you had already stripped down to your bra and panties.

He quickly turned around, trying to cover his eyes. As much as he wanted to see you in nothing on his bed, you were drunk, and he was sure as hell not going to take advantage of you. “Here, put these on” he tossed his clothes to you, allowing you to put them on.

“These are comfy” you sighed, which gave him confirmation to turn around and look at you. You were on his bed, in his clothes, and he wanted to groan.

“I’ll be back, stay here okay?” you just nodded, playing at the drawstrings of his hoodie. He quickly went downstairs, getting two bottles of water and some painkillers for the headache you were sure to have in the morning. He also rummaged through his mom’s drawers in hopes of finding makeup wipes.

He came back to his room to see you lying on his bed, head in his pillows. “Hey, let me take your makeup off okay?”

You got up, simply nodding, allowing him to take off the makeup that was on your face. Each swipe was tentative and gentle, allowing you to feel his hands run across your face. When he finished, he was slowly getting up, but you didn’t let him.

You grabbed his wrists, not wanting him to go. “Please, stay with me, for old time's sake?”

He nodded, telling you to wait a minute as he went to go change. You simply nodded, waiting for him to come into his bed with you. His scent was engulfing you, every pore in your body was covered with him. He finally came into the bed with a black t-shirt and basketball shorts covering his body.

You wrapped your arms around his body, hugging him like a koala bear, your legs lying on top of his. “You know Channie, it was a really good kiss, even though it was so short” you mumbled into his chest.

“Yeah?” he asked, wrapping his arms around you.

“Yeah, I hope we can do it again” you sighed, falling asleep in his arms.

You woke up discombobulated, your head throbbing. You took in the room around you, one that you knew well, but it wasn’t yours. The wolf figurine you had made him in the corner confirmed it. You were in Chris’s room.

You slowly began to recollect everything that happened last night. The getting drunk, the game of truth or dare, the kissing Chan, then confessing to him that you wanted to do it again.

You had made such a fool of yourself, you groaned into your hands embarrassed, slowly falling back into the bed. You were met with Chan’s voice near you. “Here drink this” he passed you two painkillers and a bottle of water that you happily took.

“You okay?” he asked. He was next to the bed, his shirt off and sweat dripping from his body. “Wait fuck” he quickly threw on a shirt, trying to appear decent in front of you.

“Yeah, I feel much better” you groaned, taking another healthy gulp of water. He sat down on the bed, it dipping under his weight as he sat next to you. “Why don’t you go home and take a shower, I’ll make you some food and bring it over okay?”

You just nodded, wanting to get into your own pajamas even though Chan’s were extremely comfortable. You walked over to your house, quickly running to your room embarrassed. You checked your phone to see if you had gotten any texts, but you hadn’t received anything, what could you expect from your friends when it was eight in the morning?

You wanted to curl up and die, how could you do that to Chan? Not to mention telling him you wanted to kiss him again. The kissing part wasn’t a lie, but it was just so embarrassing. You went to shower, hoping the heat from it could help relax you just enough that you didn’t make a fool of yourself in front of him again.

When you got out, you were greeted with a ring of your doorbell. You quickly made your way downstairs, to see Chan with wet hair and a box of donuts in one hand and coffee in the other hand.

“Have I ever told you how much I love you?” you asked, quickly snatching the food from his hands and allowing him to enter your house.

“Hmm, I do recall sometimes that you did” he giggled, coming in. “Wow, this place hasn’t changed at all” he whistled taking in your house. Pictures of you as a kid, leading up to your teen years littered the walls. Pictures of family vacations, even pictures of Chan were still around the house.

If you want to see something that hasn’t changed at all, you should see my room. You grabbed his hand, leading him up the stairs to your room. It wasn’t that cluttered, only some makeup from yesterday littered on your dresser.

“Wow, you weren’t joking, it still looks like a unicorn threw up all over your room” you just giggled, allowing him to take in the paintings that you had made over the years. “You’ve improved so much,” he said, running his fingers across the paintings.

“So have you” you grinned, causing him to look at you and cock his head to the side. “Your music, I’ve listened to all of your songs”

He rubbed the back of his neck embarrassed. “Oh, I didn’t think you did”

“Of course I did, I told you I would support you no matter what! It is kind of sad though, you did forget about me as you became famous” you teased.

He came closer to you, the back of your knees hitting your mattress. “I would never forget you sweetheart”

Before you could even register what you were doing, your lips attacked his, causing him to groan in your mouth.

You pulled him onto your bed, flipping the both of you around so you were on top of him straddling him. “Baby, are you sure, I’ve wanted to kiss you for years, but I want to make sure you are sure”

“I’m as sure as I will ever be Channie, please just want you”

Chan felt like he died and went to heaven. Your lips resumed to crash against his, it was the perfect mix of lust and love. He wanted to devour you, but make you feel like how he felt about you. How you were the only one in the world for him.

As the kiss turned more intense, you began to grind on his crotch, trying to get any sort of friction. A moan escaped your lips as your clit rubbed against his hardening cock at the perfect angle. He took this as an opportunity to place his tongue in your mouth, trying to devour you whole as you continued to grind on him.

“Fuck baby” he pulled away, “you are so good for me”

Before you could do anything, he flipped you around, your head hitting your pillows as he slowly pulled down your tank top revealing your breast and the necklace he had given you years ago. You forgot you weren’t wearing a bra, giving him full access to your tits. He groaned at the sight, taking one in his hand while kissing the other. He licked your nipple, causing you to moan.

“Channie, fuck.” He looked up at you, admiring the way you already looked fucked out and he had barely touched you. “Feels that good?” he asked, and you nodded as he continued to attack your breast.

He took his knee and slowly ground it into your cunt, trying to give you some sort of stimulation as he moved on to the other breast. You were a whimpering mess underneath him. “Please need more” you whined.

He looked up at you and chuckled. “Is my knee not enough? Does my slutty little baby need my fingers?”

“Yes please sir, need your fingers” he moaned at you calling him sir. He slowly began kissing down your stomach to your thighs, his pillow lips feathering kissing close to where you wanted him, but he still felt far away.

“Please sir, will be a good girl, just want your fingers” you whined, you needed some sort of stimulation and he wasn’t giving it to you.

“Good girls don’t complain,” he said sternly, lightly slapping your thighs. “I know it’s bad to play with your food,” he said while pulling down your shorts and underwear in one swipe “but you will be a good girl and let me right?”

You nodded as he began to trace his wetness between your folds. “Wow, my baby is so wet. Is this all for me? You want me to fuck you this bad?”

“Yes sir, please I need it so bad” you whispered. He slowly inserted a finger into you as he moved down kissing your thighs once again.

Chan felt like he could cum just like this. You were so wet for him, that he felt like he was gonna go crazy. He slowly moved up to your clit, pressing a wet kiss to it as he continued to add another finger to stretch you out for his cock.

Your moans were becoming more fervent, your hand latching to his hair as he began to eat you like a man starved. The only thing on his mind was making you feel good, making you cum with just his fingers and his mouth.

He began to lap at your hole as he continued to finger you, trying to taste all your juices. It wasn’t until he hit that one spot inside of you and hummed his lips against your clit that you felt like you were about to cum.

You were about to cum, your walls clenching around his fingers, your high almost there when he pulled out of you.

“Channie!” you whined, the loss of his fingers caused you to whine, you were so close and he had ripped that pleasure away from you in seconds.

“The only way you are cumming is on my cock baby” He pulled his cock out of his boxers, the tip hitting his stomach causing you to go wide-eyed.

You have had sex before, but never with a cock that big. “Now baby, where are your condoms?”

“Don’t want to use one” You looked up at him with your doe eyes and he swore he had just cum.

“I mean, I’m on the pill and I’m clean and I trust you, and I just want you to fill me up” you babbled on.

“Fuck baby, it’s like you are trying to kill me” he groaned. “Want you to ride me okay? So you can take as much of my cock as you want or can. Can you do that for me baby?”

You simply nodded, getting up from the pillows and aligning the tip of his cock with your cunt. As you ran his head, which was leaking pre-cum, you both groaned at the sensation. You slowly began to push his cock inside of you.

You felt so full from only the tip, the girth of his cock being too much. You moaned when you got his cock halfway inside of you, slowly bouncing up and down until you fit the entire thing inside of you, causing you both to groan.

He watched his cock slowly go all the way inside of you as you began to ride him. You moaned as you felt him hit a particularly deep spot inside of you.

“Always been mine haven’t you been baby?”

“Yes Channie” you moaned as he watched the necklace bounce up and down as you continued to ride him, trying to chase your high.

“Fuck baby, you even wore my necklace to show it off,” he said while wrapping the necklace around his hand, pushing his hips to meet your pace.

That was all you needed to cum on his cock, he was right behind you. The clench of your cunt around his cock was all he needed to cover your walls in his cum.

You both fell back onto your bed, his softening cock still inside of you as you began to kiss his lips once again.

“I hope you know I’m always there for you baby,” he said while kissing the crown of your forehead. You just hummed in response, wrapping your arms around him. You weren’t going to let him go now that you had him after all these years.

#ju <3 writes #bang chan fluff #bangchan smut #bangchan #bang chan smut #bang chan #skz #stray kids x reader #stray kids fluff #stray kids smut #straykids #stray kids #skz smut #skz fluff #skz x reader #straykids x reader #straykids smut

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mysicklove · 3 months

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Summary: Yuuji has a bad day, and all he wants is for you to make him feel better <3

Warnings: cheesy/sappy writing!!!!!! like so cheesy. I can't help it. he makes me sick. slight dom/sub dynamics (reader being dominant), suggestiveness/talks about sex, kneeling + praise heavy, aged up! character! gn! reader

Wc: 2.0k

A/N: i saw this in my drafts and just wanted to finish it up before starting my other wips. i am lovesick with him, do not mind me. i am actually embarrassed at how sappy this is

art here! by @mpsql - super super super cute!!! <333

Yuuji was exhausted. It was just one of those days that seemed to drag out – the watch Nanami gifted to him seemed to tick as slowly as possible. Nothing was going his way, and although he never made a fuss to the people around him, he still was frustrated by all the events.

But now he was home – he didn’t have to worry about those things anymore. He could crawl up to you, and with the gentle caress of your fingers through his hair, he was bound to be left thoughtless. Or maybe you would touch him tonight – he has been good, so he doesn’t suppose that it was out of the question.

He takes a deep breath, snapping out of his thoughts – getting a hard-on would not be appropriate right now. The man opens the door to your shared apartment, mumbling out a greeting and scanning the room. He calls your name, setting down his bag and walking toward the living room. You pop your head out of the office, wearing your blue light glasses. “Ah! Welcome home, love,” you call, smiling at your boyfriend, “I am doing some work right now, but dinner is in the oven. You are welcome to eat it without me. Gotta finish this!”

He doesn’t say anything, but a frown pulls at his lips. Suddenly, he feels his previous emotions resurfacing just from the sound of your voice and the familiar warmth of his home. Itadori pads over to you, ignoring the wafting smell in the kitchen until he stands directly next to you. Then, he grabs the back of your rolling chair and flips it away from the screen. You blink at him in surprise, being torn away from your work. “Yuuji?”

His lip wobbles at the concern in your voice, and the boy immediately falls to his knees in front of you without a word. He presses his head against your clothed thigh and wraps his arms around your waist. “Just….bad day.”

You frown at him and place your hand on his head, gently petting him. “Poor thing,” you coo, and his whole body shivers, but he nods into your leg. “Do you want me to do anything for you?”

He thinks back to his previous idea: sex. Something that he was opposed to, but now, in the moment, he didn’t crave it as much. He wants your touch – he always does, loving physical affection more than anything, but maybe tonight, it didn’t need to go below the waist. He was content just being close to you.

“No. But, can I stay here?” Itadori asks, voice soft and barely above a whisper. He was content in this position, finding that it strangely made him feel small, and your words made him feel safe.

You cock your head to the side, slightly confused. “Kneeling? You might get uncomfortable.”

He blinks at you, shaking his head stubbornly. “No, ‘s fine. Like it down here.”

You grin at him, now using both hands to rub through his hair and gently massage his scalp just the way he likes it. “Does it have anything to do with what you are facing?”

He eyes at your crotch for a split second and then looks up at you, a small pout on his face. “‘I’m not some perv, you know.”

“Just teasing you,” you sigh, ruffling his hair slightly. “Anyways, I have to do work, Yuuji. I can’t keep petting you.”

He yawns into your leg and sighs. “It’s alright. I’ll sit and be quiet.” Then, he closes his eyes, cheeks pressed against your thigh, content.

You face back toward the computer screen, not paying attention to the boy who seemed to be pressing himself impossibly closer to you. Ten minutes go by, and you are more than surprised to not hear Yuuji’s usual light snore. He tended to fall asleep pretty easily, so it was shocking that he was awake right now – you dont comment on it, letting him rest his eyes.

But his silence doesn’t last much longer than that. His dark eyes peer open, and he glances up at you. His voice is soft, as if afraid that you will be upset at him for distracting you. “Can you do the thing?”

“Hmm?”

“Where you uh…compliment me.”

Your eyes flicker to him, and you notice the tips of his ears turning a shade of red. “You want me to praise you?”

He readjusts himself on the floor nervously, but nods his head. A hand returns back to his head and the boy seems to melt at the touch, eyes already fluttering shut again. “Well, I suppose it’s not hard to. I could list about fifty things I love about you without even thinking about it.”

He gulps, face now a bright shade of pink, and sighs into your pants. “Me too.”

You trace the tips of his ears with your pointer finger. “Cute,” you say, smiling at him as your computer screen darkens with its lack of use. “Hmmm. Where do I begin?” you ask yourself rhetorically, and Yuuji waits in silence, trying not to buzz with excitement.

He readjusts himself on the floor, pressing more of his muscled frame on top of your lap. It reminded you of a great dane trying to be a lap dog, because they believed they were the size of a chihuahua. It’s cute, and you didn’t mind his extra weight. “Well, I guess I could start with how kind you are, but that sort of a no-brainer.”

“’s not,” Yuuji mumbles into your pants.

“No? I disagree; everyone knows Yuuji Itadori is kind. It’s been like that since high school and probably before that. The boy who makes everyone feel comfortable. Who radiates warmth, light, and happiness. Y’know, you could easily compare to the sun.”

Yuuji squirms in your lap, making a small noise of complaint. “Now you are just exaggerating.”

You beam at him, shaking your head. “I wouldn’t lie to you.” Your fingers ghost over his lips before he tries to argue again, and he remains quiet at the gentle warning. “I think you are very pretty Yuuji.”

You use both of your hands to cup his face, rubbing your thumbs against his cheeks that were warming up steadily. He wants to complain about the word choice, but he finds himself remaining silent, finding the compliment strangely endearing to him. He has been called handsome before, hot even, but pretty was not common. You preferred to call him cute most of the time, which he has grown to love even if most men didn’t.

You lean down and press your lips to his hair. “Your hair is pretty, soft, and easy to pet.” Then you move down to his eyes, kissing at the scars beneath them and his eyelids when he instinctively shuts them. “Your eyes are pretty, a warm shade of brown, or maybe an amber color?”

He squints at you, one eye remaining shut from where your thumb pads just below it. “I just call them brown.”

You pout at him. “Aw, you're no fun! They are much more than brown, and you know it. Now, your nose.” You peck the tip of it, and he blinks at you, waiting for what you are to say next. “Hmm, I guess I don’t have too much to say about it, but it is really cute.”

“I like your nose a lot,” Yuuji interrupts, and you bark a small laugh. In return for his remark, you teasingly press your thumbs into the corner of his eyes when you catch him staring at it. He shuts his eyes with a whine, trying to pull away.

You breathe out another laugh and then move your fingers again to trace his skin, peppering it with small kisses. You go back to complimenting him. “The prettiest skin, with the cutest scar beneath your eyes.”

“Dont remind me,” Yuuji grumbles, thinking about his time with the curse. He was exorcised a while ago, and Yuuji can safely say that he enjoys being able to think for himself once again. Plus, the flirty comments about you from the king did not sit well with the boy.

He shifts on the floor again from the thought, and you frown. “Are you sure you don't want me to grab you a pillow for your knees?”

When you try to stand up, he simply presses more of his weight onto you – successfully pinning you to the chair. He looks at you with a small pout, “I said I was fine. I was comfortable in that position!”

You pinch his cheeks with a teasing smile, ignoring his small whines of protest. “So whiny. I just want to make sure you dont get bruises on your knees. Could lead to some misunderstanding, hm?”

He looks away, rolling his eyes but smiling again. “You have a dirty mind.”

“Y’know, I can’t help it when it comes to you.”

His cheeks flush again, and he groans into your pants. “Please dont tease me. You know how easy it is for me to get turned on.”

Your nails drag over his neck, and he does a full-body shiver, while he hides his face in your leg again. But you continue running your fingers over his shoulder and down his back. Then, you tilt his chin up to look at you. “Dont hide. I am not done praising you.”

“Sorry,” Yuuji mumbles, trying not to gulp at the way your thumb drags over his lips. He keeps looking away, but also leaning closer in hopes that you may kiss him. It was so easy to in this position.

“Did I compliment your whole face already?” you ask, knowing the answer. You have kissed and praised every facial feature except for his lips.

He was waiting for you to finally kiss him for real. Your lips grazed every part of his face except his own. So, he shakes his head and blinks at you. “Uh, you haven’t said anything about my lips yet…”

You cock your head to the side, frowning at him. “No? I am sure I did.”

You were teasing him – he knew it. You knew that he wanted you to kiss him, and you were being purposefully cruel. But, Yuuji was known to getting straight to the point. “Please kiss me now.”

A laugh falls from your lips at the whiny demand, and you shake your head with a grin. But, you listen and lean forward and peck at his lips. Yuuji pouts at you, furrowing his eyebrows and shaking his head. It wasn’t the type of kiss he wanted, and the both of you knew that. “You were so nice earlier. Why are you teasing me now?”

Your thumbs rub at his eyebrows, smoothing them out until he relaxes them. “You make it too easy.”

“Can you kiss me for real?” Your thumb continues to rub at his lip, and you stare at it, waiting. Yuujis face was flushed from embarrassment, and his tongue runs over his teeth before he says, “Please?”

And with that, you smile at him and gently press your mouth to his. This time you dont pull away and instead let Yuuji lead the pace. He, like you expected, nearly pounces on you, tilting his head up and placing his hands on the back of your hair. He makes a small moaning noise and pushes himself closer to you until his knees hover above the floor so that he can reach your mouth more easily.

You are the first to pull away, and he tries to follow you, chasing the trail of saliva connecting you two. Pants leave your mouth, and you laugh breathlessly as he obviously waits to kiss you again. You lean back in your chair, and to this, Yuuji leans forward, now resting his arms on either side of your legs.

The action makes you raise your eyebrows, and you gently squeeze his cheeks together, shaking your head. “You are quite spoiled.”

He frowns at you, upset that you dont want to kiss some more. “Not spoiled enough,” he mumbles, and at this, you laugh while he continues to pout, even when you let go of his cheeks.

Your hand goes back to tracing the skin on his face, and Yuuji leans into the touch like he is some sort of cat. “Is there anywhere else you want me to praise, Yuuji?”

The comment was meant to be lighthearted, hoping that you could compliment something he was insecure about. But, the boy, in return, pauses for a moment and looks at you with wide puppy dog-like eyes before slowly dragging his hands down his body until his hands touch his crotch. He gulps and says, “I think, um–I think here needs some attention too…”

Your lips curl up in a grin. “Aw, I thought you said you weren’t a pervert?”

He thinks back to what you said earlier and lets out a small laugh. “Y’know, I can’t help it when it comes to you.”

Your lips are back onto his in an instant. It always ends up like this: Yuuji says that maybe he didn’t need sex tonight, but somehow, one way or another, the two of you end up in bed together. He didn’t mind it one bit.

#mello.writes #yuuji x reader #gn reader #x reader #reader insert #itadori yuuji #yuji itadori x reader #yuji x reader #itadori x reader #jjk x reader #yuuji fluff #yuji fluff #yuji itadori fluff #yuuji itadori fluff #jjk fluff

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skycowboys · 25 days

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Pegasus Masterpost

Here's a little guide to the main classes of pegasi in the Sky Cowboys world!

Sky Cowboys pegasi generally follow these "rules" -

They have beaks - most are similar to raptor or seabird beaks. Used for opening nuts and snapping up small prey. They do still graze on long-stalk grasses.

Coat colors stay within the equine range, but feathers can be any color.

They have horse-like brains and so are trainable similarly to horses.

They cannot speak like some birds can.

The standard flight range per day is 150 miles. It's called a "hop".

Broadwing Pegasi

These are the main workhorses of the world. They're hardy, agile, and tend to have solid temperaments. Most pilots fly these for all sorts of jobs and have been bred into many unique breeds.

Quick visual - Quarter horses or mustangs with eagle or kite wings.

Longwing Pegasi

Longwings have as much attitude as they do wing surface, but they make up for it with sheer endurance. These pegasi can stay aloft for weeks, diving into the sea for fish or ocean plants to eat.

Quick visual - Thoroughbreds or arabians with seabird wings.

Shortwing Pegasi

Calm and huggable, shortwings are the draft horses of the Sky Cowboys world. These are flightless pegasi (since their wings are so small), but are still very useful on the ground like for all sorts of things from riding to pulling wagons to working in farm fields.

Shortwings tend to have colorful/fancy plumage.

Quick visual - Percherons or clydesdales with songbird wings.

Scrapwings

These little guys are feral - no one has really domesticated them. Partly because they're difficult to work with and partially because no one really sees a point. They're all-around too small to be useful and tend to just get into stuff. At least they're cute!

Quick visual - Zebra/quagga or donkey with dodo wings.

And there you have it! What would your SC pegasus look like?

If you want to learn more about my pegasi, I have an art/lore book on Kickstarter! Also there's lots here on my blog, it's just not as organized :)

Discord | Patreon

#masterpost #broadwing #longwing #shortwing #scrapwing #pegasus #sky cowboys #art #longpost #worldbuilding #lore #drawing #creature design

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attleboy · 3 months

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okay, doodle drop for the late night crew because i realized i actually have a lot more art piled up than i thought and i didn't post anything today

this gangle one was from today but the rest are old ... just wanted a bit of practice drawing her because i love her but she's really hard to draw man

these are the first doodles i did of ragatha i did after i figured out the basics of how i wanted to draw her... they're like 2 months old?? which might not seem like a lot but it's only a few days after my first post here that gained significant traction so it's relatively old

i've changed how i draw her a lot since then but idk she's still cute here i think...

and similarly, me trying to figure out how to draw jax... mainly an excuse to show off 'sports mode' bc i haven't had the opportunity to work that into a drawing since...

this is an unfinished buttonblossom comic i forgot about... might finish it still but i'll give you some parts just in case i forget it again.. that way you at least have something... or you can like poke me w a stick until i finish it if that's what you really want idk

ooo and here are the carnival pomnis that snowballed into the bug collection post!!

the left one was where i was first trying to draw her and i saw the possibility of a butterfly shaped hat... it's preserved exactly as it was when i got the idea because i immediately dropped everything to doodle the first draft of the outfit [on the right]... then i did... everything else lmao

oh and here's the holiday card posts without text and the border i don't think i ever ended up actually giving you guys these

okay that's all i think... goodnight

#i'll probably rb this again in the morning bc i know it's a weird time i just think i'd back out if i waited till then #i get weird about posting old stuff but i also dont wanna let this rot if there's people who might enjoy it haha #the amazing digital circus #my art #gangle #ragatha #jax #pomni

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hwangskitten · 11 days

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Minors do not interact

this is way too self indulgent. I'm obsessed with this look of him.

reader is a med student working on a research 🙄

I'm sorry it's rushed, it's 2am and I haven't been able to add a word to any of my drafts recently but I needed to write this.

it was just another chill movie night you were spending with your boyfriend and his members. with the new album's preparations coming up, it was going to get hectic so you wanted to spend all the time you could with him.

the movie ended an hour ago and almost everyone was in bed. it was just you and hyunjin now. he was holding you on his lap, leaning on his chest with your eyes closed while he caressed your hair.

"we should do something tomorrow. do you wanna get coffee? or breakfast? I don't have anything to do in the morning."

"that'd be nice baby but I have to go to the lab and check on some stuff."

"it's fine. my little scientist. we'll do it another time"

"do you wanna come with me? I won't be long."

"to the lab? I can see your research?"

"of course angel. it's not an album I have to keep as a secret. it's for a simple article. and... we have extra lab coats you can wear."

"you still didn't get over me wearing one for that last skz code? you're so obsessed with me."

you could literally hear him smile. you weren't exactly hiding the way seeing him with a white coat affected you, nor were you doing much to cover the hickeys that littered your chest. it took one look at him after they were done shooting that episode and you couldn't stop yourself from touching him.

your field was almost the exact opposite of his. it was the perfect balance of art and science. he was fascinated with what you did and you were amazed by his. you had seen him write lyrics, pain, record, take pictures but all he'd seen you to was study and write. the boring side of being a med student. but the lab was one of the fun parts. maybe you could arrange for him to see you do other thing another time. for now, this would do.

the next morning he was up before you and possibly more excited than you thought he'd be. you had gotten him a real lab coat, asked him to do little things so he didn't get bored, answered every question he had and you may have taken a picture of him putting gloves on. no one could blame you for it, it was attractive. he was attractive. and cute. especially when he looked like a kid in a candy factory every time you showed him the petri dishes and explained what was in it.

hyunjin kept asking question after question for the rest of the morning. and honestly, it was endearing that he was interested in everything you did and showed it.

he didn't know it yet but it was the little things he did that made you fall in love with him more.

#stray kids scenarios #stray kids imagines #stray kids fluff #hyunjin x reader #hyunjin fluff #hyunjin scenarios #hyunjin imagines #stray kids x reader

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sungbeam · 1 year

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OFF THE RECORD ▷ PART ONE (EP1-8)

nonidol!ji changmin x fem!reader

everyone thinks changmin is cute and harmless, but you know that's not who he really is.

▷ genre, part warnings. e2l, childhood friends gone bad, (extra) slow burn, fluff, angst, mentions of childhood trauma and parental manipulation, arguing, bittersweet galore, nct ten is there for the sole purpose of being nosy like the rest of us or for being a 2nd male lead who knows!, swearing, hurt/comfort, ji changmin dancing. (need i go on), symptoms of panic/anxiety, a lot of non-tbz moments sorry i meant it when i said extra slow burn, pining haha...ha (very subtle)

▷ PART ONE WC. 18.5k

this is the third installment of the love in unity series! this can be read as a standalone, but i encourage u to read jacob and eric's storylines too! all prev and future yns will be referred to as _!yn ;) / otr part two

a/n: this was going to be a very quirky author's note, but it's not anymore bc i'm really mad at tumblr. pls enjoy :')

EPISODE ONE (PILOT): OFF THE CLOCK

"NIGHT, Yn!"

"Good night, Yn-ie."

"Make sure you get some rest, Yn-ah! Good luck with the report."

The door out of the laboratory building shuttered closed after your last coworkers and peers swept out to leave you to the white noise of the lights above your head and the cooling units. You were probably the only person crazy enough to still be chained to your lab workbench on a Friday night, especially when it was already six o'clock. Your stomach growled its complaints as you tucked a pen behind your ear with a sigh. There was probably a bag of shrimp chips in the break room snack stash, and you pushed your stool beneath the workbench to head into the break room.

Now that the laboratory was practically barren except for you, it wouldn't be a bad idea to take the reign of Kun's speaker…

The sound of your phone ringtone blared out loud from your pocket, and you scrambled to grab it with your other hand not occupied with shrimp chip crumb dust (after having washed your hands, of course). You put the call on speaker then deposited your phone onto the countertop so both hands could be used for eating. "Yo."

"You've been hanging around Mark too much," Yeri answered from the other end.

You snorted, covering your mouth for a moment, then replying, "Well good evening to you, too, my beloved. What's up?"

You could hear the muffled sounds of your friends from the other side of the phone. A car door slammed shut. "Hey-yo, is that Yn? Yn, what's up, my dude?"

"Mark, can you speak like a regular human?" That was Seungkwan. "Hi Yn-ie! We miss you, mwah!"

"Look, man. Me and Yn are homies, and this is literally just how I talk—"

The car door opened and Yeri must have taken initiative to get out of the car herself at this point. You laughed at her audible eye roll. "Okay, now that you've heard what I have to deal with, will you tell me that you're coming to the dance draft show tonight?"

Your mood soured.

It wasn't that you didn't want to go for Yeri's sanity's sake, you just didn't want to go, period. What the performing arts called a rehearsal, they referred to as a "draft" stage, where they planned rough runs of acts for the showcase. It just so happened that the dance department was holding their draft show for people to sit-in to watch tonight; their final showcase would be held on the Friday night of finals week, which was only in a few weeks now.

(Why did they call it a "draft" stage instead of simply a "rehearsal"? Well, you had no clue, and you didn't have any plans to ask anyone who would know the answer.)

When you didn't immediately answer, you heard Yeri's grumble. "Don't nerd out on me, Miss Yn Ln."

You gasped. "Nerd out on you? I'm being responsible—"

"You're being a workaholic!"

You pursed your lips together and quickly rinsed your fingers of shrimp chip crumbs. "Fair. But I'm sorry, I'm not going."

A brief pause. Then, the sigh. "Okay. That's okay," she said. "Wanna meet us for dinner afterwards at least?"

Your stomach grumbled, right on cue. It wasn't loud enough for Yeri to hear on the other end, but the timing made you laugh to yourself. "Definitely."

There was a smile in your friend's voice. "Cool! I'll text you details once we figure out what's happening. In the mean—" her voice was interrupted by the sound of muffled yelling on the other side, and Yeri pulled her mouth away from the phone so she could screech at Seungkwan, Mark, and now, Kim Jungwoo, to be quiet and put their seatbelts on. You heard vaguely about Jungwoo being late for his call time, and you were not at all surprised. She returned to the phone with a grumble. "You're really leaving me with the kids, Yn?"

You giggled. "Sorry, Yeri. I'll pay for your dinner."

"Deal. See you soon, babe."

"See ya, love!"

When the phone call ended, you realized just how thick the silence fell around you. It settled like a blanket over your senses, and it all became a bit overwhelming, especially after such a loud phone call.

You sighed, putting the shrimp chips back in the snack stash. You might as well go find where Kun hid his speaker to fill the silence then.

— ✶

People were yelling. And tripping. And crying.

In retrospect, this constituted as a normal backstage environment for something like a finals showcase draft rehearsal. It was hardly even a rehearsal, but more so a sneak peek showcase. There were people in the audience, after all.

Ji Changmin would know. This would be his third winter draft show out of his three years here in university. There were always showcases at the end of each quarter, but the winter show wielded the title of most anticipated. With the cold and rainy weather keeping most people indoors, it allowed for a larger crowd to come flocking toward said indoor modes of entertainment. Thus, the winter showcase and all of its hype.

Changmin lingered in his little corner of the backstage area, calmly stretching out his lanky limbs while chaos erupted all around him. He had two acts this time around—a duet with Lee Juyeon, as well as a solo performance. It had been enough to keep him busy for the quarter, among his other classes.

"—Jungwoo, you're late!"

He raised his head at the sound of Lee Minho’s voice from across the room, the dirty blond sending a deadpanned glare at the man in question. Kim Jungwoo’s eyes were wide with doe-like innocence as he made his way toward his friend, his posse following behind and taking in the chaos with amused awe. Changmin could easily recognize those present—Kim Yeri, Mark Lee, and Boo Seungkwan.

He turned his head away; it wasn’t his business, and he had much bigger things to worry about.

He raised his hands to his neck to put his headphones over his ears, but paused when he caught a few more echoes of their conversation.

“ — sorry Minho, but you know I can’t resist getting a free carpool ride,” Jungwoo said while setting his duffle bag in the corner and swiftly joining Minho in stretches. If Changmin was a hard ass when it came to dance and schedules, Minho was much worse. But Changmin respected him a lot, especially in a craft like dance and performance—he saw him as an equal.

A sigh from Minho. “Yeah, yeah. Poor Yeri.”

Yeri huffed, her hands shooting up into the air. “Thank you!”

Minho folded his arms over his chest as he stood up straight to stand next to Yeri as the two of them absentmindedly watched Jungwoo fold himself in two to stretch his long legs out. “Huh, no Yn tonight?”

Changmin didn’t know why he was still listening. He slowly lowered his headphones back to their position around his neck, then resumed stretching out his hamstrings. He could wait a couple more minutes before getting into his choreography…

“You know you’re not gonna see her anywhere near this place,” Yeri said with a pointed look. Changmin held back a retort, or even a snort. “Wanna get dinner with us tonight? She’s coming to meet us after the show.”

“Ah, I’d love to, but I promised Jisung I’d swing by the studio afterwards. Hey, have you met Ten yet? You should ask…”

Changmin decided that this was an appropriate moment to tune out. He swiftly donned his headphones and reached for his phone hidden in the pile of his duffle bag and jackets in the corner. He didn’t even know why he listened in when your friends brought you up. Why were you even still connected to the dance and performing arts department people anyway? He huffed, rolling his eyes with a small shake of his head. It wasn’t like you wanted to be connected to dance anyway. So why give him a constant reminder of your existence and the past you shared—

“Changminnie!” Juyeon appeared in front of him, waving to him with that goofy smile to get his attention.

Changmin broke into a smile as he shifted one side of his headphones from his ear. “Hey. Wanna go over some of the routine?”

Juyeon nodded. “Yeah, I’m ready. I was trying to get your attention, but I think you were just occupied.”

Whoops. Changmin flicked his wrist as he followed Juyeon down the hallway to a more private place to practice with his friend. “Yeah, sorry. I was just thinking of something.”

“Oh, okay,” Juyeon ducked his head into an empty dressing room in the back hallway, beckoning Changmin to follow him in. “Nothing to worry about though? You can talk to me; no judgment.”

Changmin chuckled and closed the door behind him. “Nah, nothing important. Let’s just focus on the performance.” Anything involving you? Definitely not important anymore.

— ✶

Late February brought the cold, bitter winds of night to the university, so the trek all the way across campus from the laboratory buildings to the performing arts hall was a hellish one. You kept your head tucked into the puffy collar of your puffer jacket, hands stuffed into your pockets, a happy tune blasting in your ears to keep you going all the way up the road. It was around nine o’clock by the time you made it to the front of the performing arts hall, and you could already see the sea of people meandering outside its doors post-draft show.

You shivered and pulled your phone out from your pocket to see where your friends were waiting for you.

“Yn-ie!”

Your head lifted and you grinned, waving your hand at Seungkwan who was making his way over to you. “Hi Kwannie,” you greeted and wrapped your arms around him in a warm embrace.

When you’d pulled away, Seungkwan made a face as he shuddered. “Jesus, it’s cold. I should have brought a scarf or something. Did you walk here?”

You began to nod, but he tsked. “Aish, Yn. You should’ve called! No one should have to walk in this torturous cold.”

You laughed. “It’s no big deal. We’re about to go get some hot food, so it’s cool.”

“We might have to wait for a little longer.” Both you and Seungkwan turned toward Yeri, Mark, and Jungwoo who were walking over. Jungwoo had a sweatband holding his bangs out of his face and his duffle slung over his shoulder. He had his jacket draped over his arm; he was probably warm from the showcase. “We’re waiting on Ten to finish up.”

“Hi Jungwoo,” you greeted him, and the man returned the expression with a side hug. You furrowed your brows. “Who’s Ten?’’

Mark replied with a sniffle from the cold, “Oh, he’s a new exchange student! Well, he was originally admitted here, but he went abroad for a year. He's with the NCT frat. Super cool, super funny. He’s great at dance though.”

“I think you’ll vibe with him, Yn,” Yeri chimed in. “He’s asking a couple people for their opinion on a few parts of his routine, so I think he’ll be out soon.”

You nodded in understanding. You didn’t mind waiting, but you hoped what Yeri said about him was true. Hopefully you did get along with him, because you were honestly far too tired to forcefully play nice. You were hoping for a chill night anyway. Then again, as long as you could avoid a certain someone tonight, this would turn out to be a chill night in general.

You and your friends chatted for a few minutes only before Jungwoo caught someone’s eyes from behind you, Yeri, and Mark. He brightened. “Ten! Ten, over here!”

You all swiveled.

Ten was just as lean and lithe as Jungwoo was, but with black bangs, a pair of round spectacles hanging from the collar of his white T-shirt, and a cute smile on his face. You and he made brief eye contact before Jungwoo was hopping on the balls of his feet to greet him.

Jungwoo slung an arm around Ten’s shoulders as he brought him over to the group. “Yn, this is Ten Lee. Ten, this is Yn-ie—the friend we mentioned earlier.”

Your eyes widened slightly. “Why was I mentioned?” You laughed nervously.

Ten flashed you a boyish kind of smile. “Oh, it was nothing; don’t worry. It’s nice to meet you though.”

Your heart didn't slow at his assurance. “Ah, okay then. Uh, nice to meet you, too!”

“Did you get your routine settled?” Seungkwan asked as the lot of you began to move in one, loose blob toward Yeri’s car. (How all of you would manage to fit, that was something you mentally were trying to figure out. In Yeri’s tiny sedan, you might have to squish four people into the back seat.)

Ten nodded enthusiastically. “Yup, it’s all sorted. Minho and Changmin were really helpful with their comments.”

You felt the people around you freeze at the mention of Changmin’s name. You stiffened as well, but tried to force the strange feeling to go away. Your friends knew the drill, too, but you saw the way they glanced at you from their periphery.

Ten was smart, you realized, when his head tilted at all of your reactions.

Time for damage control. “That’s—that’s good!” Mark’s voice cracked and coughed to clear it. “I mean, Minho’s always been really attentive to details and stuff. I think he was almost recruited to become an idol or something like that…”

Ten pursed his lips, as if silently saying, ‘I’m not buying this bull’. You decided to just… do it. “Changmin’s a great dancer, too,” you said, and everyone shot disbelieving glances your way, but you could already see how Ten was grasping onto everything you were saying. You forced a neutral tone into the way you spoke, forced yourself not to let the bitterness seep through. No one deserved to fall victim to the feelings that were only meant for one Ji Changmin. “I’m glad he helped you out. He’s really good at sharp movements and isolations.”

“Oh, do you dance, Yn?” Ten piped up with a twinkle in his eyes.

“Ruh roh,” you heard Seungkwan murmur, and he shuffled away from you to go to the other side of Yeri’s car.

Maybe you purposefully let him see right through you. “Not really. It was a long time ago.”

You and Ten held eye contact, the silent tension like communication passed between the two of you—this was personal, but Ten could figure out that there was more to the story. It was odd though; the way he didn’t fear prodding just a little bit. You didn’t know why you were letting yourself feed him more bait, but Yeri was hollering for the two of you to squeeze into the backseat, and you snapped out of it.

Weird…

Ten held the backseat door open for you. “Looking forward to getting to know you, Yn,” he said pleasantly.

Your eyes narrowed slightly as you slipped into the backseat. “Same to you…”

EPISODE TWO: OFF THE TABLE

YOUR curiosity won you out.

In fact, it won you over so much that you agreed to get coffee with Ten Saturday afternoon—with Mark and Yeri, of course. The four of you had coordinated stopping by one of the coffee shops in the shopping mall just down the hill from the university to hang out and destress a little from the incoming second wave of STEM midterms. Well, you needed to destress. Mark was in communications, Yeri in psychology, and Ten was… what was Ten’s major again?

“Foreign affairs,” he answered before lifting the straw of his iced americano to his lips. “Lots of foreign language classes and politics and history. Politics and capitalism classes are not my favorite, but all the cultural courses on campus are really great.”

You bobbed your head, propping your chin onto your palm. You sat across from him at one of high tables in the cafe; Mark and Yeri’s stools were barren, save for the belongings they left for you and Ten to watch, while they literally sprinted across the mall to the grocery store because they forgot they were supposed to bring booze to the NCT-RVE joint alumni homecoming tonight. You probably weren’t going to go just because social energy came in short supply these days, but you promised to send a card for your friends in RVE.

“I can imagine,” you commented. “I took a really neat course on African tribes and culture in freshman year, and I miss my professor a lot. I sometimes wonder what would have happened had I joined his study abroad program in Ghana instead of staying here.”

Ten’s head did the tilt thing again, the one you recognized from last night as something he did when he was intrigued. “That does sound really cool. What made you stay?”

Where do I even begin? “My major,” you replied simply. It wasn’t really a lie—not entirely a lie. You sipped on your latte, a faraway look in your eyes. “I was so set on a plan that I guess I got nervous about the unknown should I have gone on that trip.”

“Mm, I understand.” He had taken on a softer look now, something more akin to empathy. “It is a little scary, but while I was in Indonesia, I realized I wouldn’t have traded such an experience for anything else."

You set your cup down. "Have you always wanted to dabble in global affairs?"

"Uh, I'm not sure," he said, head tilted upward with a scrunch in his nose. He nudged his glasses up the smooth slope of his sculpted nose. "I was kind of put in a situation where I had to learn a lot of new languages, and I luckily turned out to be pretty good at picking up on them."

"Wow, that's really cool," you chuckled. A talent you definitely envied. And it seemed like Ten had made the decision to pursue this future of his on his own. You wished you could say the same.

From the counter of the café, you heard one of the workers call out your order number for cinnamon rolls, fresh from the oven.

You began to slip off your stool, and Ten spoke up, "Oh, I can totally go get those."

"It's no problem," you chirped, "I'm already down anyway." You were swift to scurry over to the counter and pick up your table's tray of cinnamon rolls with a smile at the worker in deep gratitude. The thick, warm sweetness wafted into your nose, and you inhaled the delights with a blissful grin.

However, as you turned to head back to the table, you halted abruptly, nearly knocking the plates on the tray into each other.

There, standing next to your table and chatting with Ten, were Ji Changmin and Choi Chanhee.

Great.

The sweet dessert smell soured and tasted like acid on your tongue. Bitter, like the taste of hot coffee straight from the pot. You schooled your face into neutrality, but there was no way all of the uncomfortableness could stay away.

You made your way over; the tray was getting heavy.

"—actually here with Yn, Mark, and Yeri—" Ten was pointing your way and you had to control your urge to hide.

Changmin and Chanhee's heads turned in sync, but only Changmin's eyes narrowed at the sight of you. You returned the expression wholeheartedly.

Chanhee held his breath, muttering a "Yikes" under his breath, while Ten observed the interaction with slightly parted lips. Huh.

"Ji."

"Ln."

You deposited the tray onto the table and your biceps sighed in relief. Those four cinnamon rolls truly were quite hefty on their own.

You could still feel Changmin’s eyes on you as you slid onto the stool across from Ten. “Something you’d like to say to me?” You addressed him with ill-suppressed snark.

Changmin’s eyes narrowed. “Nothing that you’ll take into importance anyway. Just didn’t think you would ever hang out with someone from the dance department.”

“Ten’s got a life outside of dance, Changmin,” you replied. You flashed him a thin-lipped smile. “He gets it.”

“And you’re so much better than me for having a so-called life,” he rolled his eyes. “You know, some people are just really passionate about dance—something you seem to still not understand.”

“I really don’t think you want me to bring up the trove of things you don’t understand—”

Chanhee subtly moved over to Ten’s side as the two of them observed the sparring match between you and Changmin. A sigh fell from his lips, and his eyebrows raised up all the way to his pink-dyed hairline.

Ten had taken one of the plates of cinnamon buns in front of him, silently offering Chanhee some. The latter refused, and Ten began to peel away one of the sultry, sweet dough layers. “Is this… normal?” He asked Chanhee under his breath, motioning to the still-bickering couple across from them.

Chanhee snorted. “It’s their mating call.”

It seemed he had said those four words loud enough to catch yours and Changmin’s attention. A miracle, indeed.

“Ew,” both you and Changmin immediately grimaced at Chanhee. Then you looked at one another with a greater degree of disgust. “Stop copying me!”

…Or, less so a miracle, but rather, a tragedy.

Chanhee let out a haggard sigh, eyes sullen to a deadpan. “One of the few things the two of you will ever agree on.”

“The last thing we’ll ever agree on,” Changmin grumbled as he shoved his hands into the pockets of his jacket. “C’mon Chanhee. We should probably order before JC!Yn and Kei finish loading up the car.”

Changmin was already making his way over to the cashier when Ten managed to get in a final question, “Are you guys coming to the NCT-RVE homecoming tonight?”

“Sure—”

“No.”

Chanhee sent Ten an apologetic look for Changmin’s brusque answer. “Sorry about him. We were thinking of it, but he might be practicing with Juyeon tonight. See you later, Ten—and Yn!” He chased after Changmin, ambushing his friend by practically leaping onto his back and then smacking his shoulder.

Now that Changmin was away from you, the red in your vision had begun to clear away, and you finally remembered the set of delicious cinnamon rolls waiting for you.

Ten propped his cheek against his fist. “So… you and Changmin…”

You made a sour face as you cut off a slice of your cinnamon roll. “What about the gremlin?” You asked. As soon as the buttery, sweet delight hit your tongue, you felt your body lighten and you did a little happy dance in your seat.

Ten chuckled at your behavior. “Lovers gone wrong?”

You choked on the bite.

Your new friend’s eyes widened comically to the size of saucers as he literally pounced across the table to pat your back. “Shit—sorry, Yn. I probably should’ve waited for you to finish swallowing, huh?” He winced when you’d managed to breathe correctly and washed the bite of food down with a sip of coffee. He returned to his perch, letting you recover while he talked through his thoughts. “I don’t mean to pry—actually—” he paused, reconsidering, “—I do mean to pry. Sorry, I’m kind of a sucker for this kind of stuff.”

One of your eyes squinted at him as you massaged your throat. “Yeah, I kind of figured.”

He beamed at you boyishly, the kind of expression that almost had your defenses slipping. Almost. Ten was one slippery fellow. For some reason, you kind of respected him for being upfront about the nosiness, and if you were being honest, if this drama wasn’t yours, you would also be curious about the whole thing.

“Can’t help myself sometimes,” he confessed with a mere shrug. “You don’t owe an explanation or backstory, of course.”

You sucked in a breath, opting to hold back on eating your pastry until you and Ten were done with this topic. “I’m just going to say that Changmin and I were not ‘lovers gone wrong’,” you said, body shuddering.

“Mm,” he hummed. His eyes wandered behind you and over your head, swiftly followed by the action of waving to Changmin and Chanhee on their way out of the cafe. “It’s just interesting to me. Didn’t you just advocate for him the other night at the draft show?”

That rang a bell, unfortunately. “It’s complicated.”

Ten pressed his mouth into a saccharine smile. “I can imagine.”

EPISODE THREE: OFF THE PHONE

THERE was an avid knocking at the laboratory door, usually done by those who didn’t actually work at this specific lab. This lab area was usually reserved for upperclassmen and graduate students and their work.

“Yn-ie, could you get the door, please?” You heard Kun called out to you from his office. It wasn’t just the two of you tonight, but rather, just a few others you didn’t know as well as you did Kun. He often worked late hours like you did, always overworking himself even more as a fresh grad student. You, on the other hand, were trying to finish up this one research paper resulting from last quarter’s research project. If you were lucky, you would be able to send it off to be peer reviewed soon.

You slipped out from behind your workbench and maneuvered the maze of workbenches to head out into the corridor. Exhaustion wore at your bones from having such a long day, but you really did need to get some productive work done so you could focus specifically on your midterms approaching at the end of this week and the beginning of the following week.

However, as you turned the corner into the corridor, you nearly missed your footing. At the end of the hallway where the glass door to the outside was, you found yourself identifying one Ji Changmin and his friend, someone you didn’t recognize. The latter wore a gray hoodie beneath a black puffer vest, and he reacted the opposite to how Changmin did when they caught sight of you.

“Hey! Could you open the door, please?” Not-Changmin hollered through the glass, furiously shaking his sweater-pawed hand down at the door handle.

You didn’t want to. God, you really didn’t want to.

Changmin stared you down, as if daring you to come closer.

You opened the door, and let the cool gust of late February air and two outsiders into the safety and warmth of the laboratory building.

Hoodie Guy shuddered violently to get the cold out of his system. “Jesus, it’s cold outside. Thanks,” he said to you. Then he nudged Changmin with his elbow, as if jolting the man into reality.

“What are you doing here?” You asked, words directed toward Changmin in particular.

His dark bangs were tucked beneath a black beanie with his pair of black headphones hanging around his neck. “You think I want to be here?”

His friend sent him a look, his eyes flickering between you and Changmin furiously until the pieces clicked into his mind. “Well, uh oh…” he muttered while turning away slightly to scratch his head. He gathered his wits then. “Uh, Yn, right?”

You perked up. “Yes.”

“Uh,” he drawled. “We’re actually here for Jacob Bae. You see, we told him we’d come pick him up to take him over to—”

“Is he here?” Changmin asked.

Your eyebrow shot upward. At least they were here for a proper reason. You crossed your arms over your chest, glancing back toward the main laboratory floor way down the hall. Man, the safe zone felt so far away. “He actually just left like, ten minutes ago. Sorry.” The apology was said to Changmin’s friend, the one who seemed to have been able to figure out who exactly you were to Changmin. Not that you were anything to him. And did Changmin just talk about you to all his friends or something—?

“Oh.”

Changmin tapped his friend with the back of his hand. “C’mon Sunwoo. We’ll just meet him over there.”

Sunwoo wrinkled his nose. “I just think it’s weird that he didn’t text us to let us know before we came over here.”

There was a pause and you could practically see the gears in Changmin’s head turning. You would have left them to their own company, but you technically weren’t allowed to leave unauthorized students alone.

It was strange seeing Changmin break into something akin to sheepishness. You saw the dimples appear in the apples of his cheeks as he cupped the back of his neck. “I might not have told him we were coming…”

Sunwoo’s eyes and mouth widened and he whacked his friend with the length of his hoodie sleeve. Changmin let out one of those hyena laughs that set off triggers in your mind. It’d been awhile since you heard that… “Hyung! You’re so unreliable sometimes, oh my god. Even Eric would have remembered to tell him!”

Changmin made a noise of dismissal, slinging an arm around his friend. “Ah, it’s fine. We’ll just meet him there—as you said.”

“Worst texter award goes to,” Sunwoo rolled his eyes.

“I guess some things never change.” The words slipped out of your mouth before you could stop yourself, and both Sunwoo and Changmin suddenly remembered that you were in the hallway with them. Sunwoo had perked up as if he were surprised you would even comment on their situation, but Changmin cut an unreadable expression your way. You didn’t want to read into it.

“You literally forgot to answer a text I sent for three days,” Changmin quipped.

Well, if he was going to play the back and forth game. “That was once out of how many other times,” you scoffed. “You refused to answer anyone’s texts in the mornings anyway, so don't get on my case about that.”

“He did that to you, too?!” Sunwoo cut in with fire behind his words.

You could’ve sworn you saw the slightest bit of blush grace Changmin’s cheekbones as you hid a laugh behind your hand. “He did that to everyone—”

“Hey, I’m better over call; you know that!” Changmin argued. “Sunwoo, you can’t even talk about being a bad texter. I have to hunt for you on discord sometimes to get a straight answer.”

Sunwoo groaned, “Yah! Whatever. It’s still better than your average three-business-day reply speed.”

Changmin stammered, “It is not an average of three business days.” If your ears were not deceiving you, Ji Changmin was whining. “It’s a couple hours at least.”

“A couple hours means half a day,” you said to Sunwoo.

Changmin whipped his attention back to you, finger jabbed accusingly in your direction. “Hey, missy! You always fell asleep on-call, even when you promised that you would stay up to help me study.”

You shook your head. “Not my fault! You know that I always fell asleep around midnight back then.”

“Well, back then—”

“Is everything okay out here?”

Everything in the corridor came to a stand still, and Changmin closed his mouth, mid-sentence. Kun had his head poking out of the door to the main floor, a crease pressed between his brows and right above the rim of his thin spectacles. He eyed the two non-laboratory students with a slight grimace. Of course, Kun was aware of who Changmin was. He could recognize him because of his famed performer reputation on campus, but he knew his history with you because you had spent far too many late nights here at the lab with things plaguing your mind. You and Kun both had a problem with trouble sleeping and being workaholics.

You turned slightly to Kun. “Yeah, everything’s okay, Kun-ge.”

He sent you an unimpressed look.

“We,” Changmin piped up as he urged Sunwoo to the door, “were just leaving.” The mirth and fire from the bickering just a few seconds ago had faded, and you could feel him slipping away.

Kun drummed his fingers along the doorframe, eyebrows shooting up for a second. “Oh-kay… Yn-ie, Ten says he’s right around the corner and asks if you want some company walking home.”

The door to the laboratory behind you was held open, and the night breeze brushed through your hair. When you looked back, you saw that Changmin had stalled in the door for a second. But, it had only been that second before he and his friend were gone.

“Oh.” You made your way over to Kun. “That’s really cool of him. I’d love that.” Some company on a late-night walk back to your apartment did not sound bad at all. You’d done plenty of trips on your own, but sometimes having even one person with you would have been nice.

Kun nodded, pursing his lips, as the two of you walked into the main lab together and toward his office off to the side. “Okay, I’ll let him know. You’re for sure okay though? That must have been… not nice, seeing Changmin here.”

You gave a stiff shrug, your hip leaning against the door of his office while Kun settled back at his desk. “It’s fine,” you said. To be honest, you weren’t even sure if that was a lie or not. You’d heard Changmin laugh for the first time in years. You’d seen the dimples in his cheeks, the sheepishness in his expression—you swallowed.

Once upon a time, you associated all of those things with something like happiness. Your happiness.

Kun fixed you with a pointed look. “If you need to talk.”

You gave a firm nod. “I know where to find you.”

He clicked his tongue, shooting you a finger gun, then shooed you off to finish your work and pack your things. Ten was just around the corner, after all.

EPISODE FOUR: OFF THE RECORD

CHANGMIN liked to think that he became nosy, and that he wasn't born this way. But ever since he overheard that Kun guy asking about Ten wanting to walk you home, he couldn't help but wonder…

He shook his head, brushing his hair out of his eyes and off his forehead, before those same bangs flopped back into their place. He walked back onto the main stage of the performing arts hall to the soundtrack of a hype playlist blasting from the ears of his headphones. As he made his way past groups and individuals doing their own thing, he absentmindedly searched for one person in particular.

Conveniently, he found Ten setting himself up right by Changmin's things. He was shouldering off his black puffer jacket, rolling the material up into a manageable ball to shove into his duffle bag.

"Hey," Changmin greeted, bending down slightly to grab his water bottle.

Ten straightened and flashed him a smile. "Hey."

It wouldn't be awkward would it? Probably not. Just be cool about it, Changmin. He smiled slightly, the dimples in his cheeks disarming his acquaintance. "I didn't know you and Yn were close."

Your name felt so… foreign, yet familiar, on his tongue. It was like tasting déjà vu, like eating a treat from childhood that had been associated with good feelings, but he couldn't decide if it was still as good as he remembered or a trick of his mind.

The mention of your name brought a jolt of energy to Ten's body and Changmin saw the man lean into the conversation. Curious… "Oh? Well, I mean—" he gave a shrug, "—she's really cool. She just seems like a good person to get to know, y'know? Why do you ask?"

Changmin couldn't tell how much he trusted the slight narrowing of Ten's feline eyes. There was no way you hadn't mentioned him to Ten at some point or another. To be honest, he didn't like the feeling of you still lingering in his head if he didn't linger in yours. It meant a myriad of things that he loathed to admit.

He let the feeling slide away, let his mouth tilt upward like his eyes to the spotlights in the ceiling. "Just be…" He shook his head. "Nothing. It's nothing." He flicked his wrist, as he spun his water bottle cap on tight. "You can forget about it."

Ten sent him a look that Changmin pointedly ignored.

Somewhere within the depths of the performing arts center, Changmin could hear the howling laughter of his friend Hyunjae as he most likely bugged his best friend out of her mind, both to her chagrin and her delight. That was another can of worms entirely.

Ten piped up as he settled onto the backstage floor while Changmin mentally went through some of the problem sets he had to review today. "If you don't mind me asking, why are you and Yn on such… uneven ground with each other?"

There it was. Changmin snorted. "Uneven ground? I don't even know if we're on the same ground."

"You're both really friendly people," Ten added, "so it just doesn't make sense to me."

Changmin pursed his lips. He never felt the need to divulge this stuff to anyone but his friends, but he didn't know what Ten already knew. He didn't know what you told him, but based on the fact that Ten wasn't looking at him the same way you did… Changmin scratched the back of his head and leaned his side against the wall to face him. "Something happened a long time ago. I guess we just both hold a grudge well."

Ten huffed a laugh in response. "Remind me never to get on your bad side then," he joked.

— ✶

There was a buzz about the university newspaper room. The Daily had only a handful of crew members onboard, mainly because it was so selective. Over the past few years that you had been apart of the staff, you and a few others had gradually loosened the reputation of the Daily's elitist interview process—there was still some level of intimidation that ensured the publication took on the hard workers and not those simply looking for an extracurricular to put on their resume though.

So when there was talk of a new staff member, everyone knew about it.

You let yourself in the door with a sigh, brushing the hair from your eyes held up with a random, blue claw clip you found on your bathroom sink. The bus had been late this morning because it broke down, but you luckily were able to make it to your lecture on time. You had run over here for a quick meeting that Kim Doyoung had summoned you for, no doubt about the new hire.

"Hey guys," you said as you passed by clusters of desks piled with copyedits and heads buried in monitor screens. The sounds of typing stopped briefly with each head you walked past:

"Yn!"

"Hi Yn!"

"Sup Yn—HEY! I just did my hair this morning!" Mark yelped, hands smoothing down the braids in his hair.

You giggled as you patted his head. "Your hair needs a break, Mark."

As you disappeared around the corner, you heard him shout back, "So do you, but you never hear me complaining!"

You rolled your eyes with an ill-concealed smile. The door to Doyoung's little editor in chief office was right down the hall next to the office for the sponsoring professor. As much as you and the others teased him about getting the "Boss man" office, he always complained to you about being on edge with the professor's office next door. You didn't quite understand since Professor Woo was almost never in his office anyway, but you supposed you could see.

Doyoung's door was open, and the fourth year's head perked up at the sound of your voice and nearing footsteps. He didn't even wait for you to knock or say hi, before beckoning you inside. "Yn, thank god you know how to hustle. Close the door on your way in. Thanks."

Your eyebrows shot up at the terseness in his tone, but didn't question him until you'd closed the door and settled into the chair opposite him. His desk, much like those outside, was covered in a sea of paper, with his laptop being the only land in sight. "What's up? You sound stressed."

He shot you a look over the rims of his thin glasses. "When am I not stressed?"

"Valid."

"Okay," he began with a sigh that made your concern rise just a bit more, "you know the situation with our performing arts review section, right?"

You nodded. "Of course."

The situation with the performing arts review section of the paper was inherently a mess. For a handful of years, the performing arts section was written under a pseudonym (lovingly dubbed Opera Glasses)—the identity of the reviewer was anonymous—which was a product of an incident a few years ago where a performer was unhappy with a review left by someone on the paper and came to ask, very unkindly, for a rewrite. Since then, the paper had been swallowed up by so much that finding a permanent writer or reviewer for the section became less and less of a priority.

When you joined the publishing team, it had been in the middle of freshman year when you were also putting your application out for research projects. Joining had felt like the right thing to do, as much as it was an act of rebellion against your mother and your childhood. They had asked if you knew anything about dance of all things.

And well, you did know.

You'd written one piece—one piece that was entirely you. It had been for one of the dancers just debuting at his first winter showcase. Since then, you couldn't stomach writing another one or watching another one.

You ghost wrote, you edited, you advised—but you stuck to putting your energy into covering the STEM-related sections of the paper now.

So Doyoung already knew your relationship with the performing arts review section. "Well," he cleared his throat, making a vague flourish with his hand, "I'm sure you already know that I just interviewed a new prospective recruit. I was wondering if you would be willing to take them under your wing and to show them the ropes."

Oh. That wasn't exactly what you expected him to say. Your heart kicked up for an entirely new reason, however. You'd always wanted to be someone's mentor. To be someone's older sister. "I mean, yeah. I'd love to," you stammered, a smile slowly curling onto your lips. "That would be really cool."

Doyoung sighed, his shoulders sinking in relief. "Thank you."

"But wait." You cocked your head to the side as you asked, "What does Opera Glasses have to do with this?"

"I want her to eventually take over for it," he explained. "She knows quite a bit about theater and music—little less about dance, though. I know that you have your issues with the dance department, but out of everyone here, you probably understand dance stuff the most. I just ask that you help her out a little with that, and maybe even introduce her to some of the people there so we can ease her in with interviews—"

You opened your mouth to interrupt him, but he sent you a pointed look. He continued, "Just hear me out, okay? If you're uncomfortable at all, you can back out. And you don't even have to back out right now or completely; maybe you could have Mark introduce her to Jungwoo for interviews, and you can just stick to the behind-the-scenes stuff."

Doyoung exhaled. "Okay, so what are your thoughts?"

You worried your bottom lip between your teeth. What did you think… What did you think?

Even the thought of stepping foot into a practice room made the yelling and screams echo in the caverns of your mind. But you'd missed them—missed the polished wood floors, the floor-to-ceiling mirrors, the people. God, you couldn't even stay away from the people if you tried, no matter how much you tried convincing yourself you could.

You weren't fooling anyone.

You swallowed. You'd always wanted to be a big sister.

What was the harm in giving this a try?

(Changmin. You'd probably run into Changmin a lot more often than if you didn't accept. But you could see him from that one night: the sheepishness, the dimples, the laugh. Why couldn't you get over that interaction?)

You mustered up your courage and straightened in your seat. "I'll still do it. When do we start?"

EPISODE FIVE: OFF THE MARK

IT turned out that Doyoung intended for you and your new recruit, Bae Sumin, to get started right away. With the winter showcase only a couple weeks away, it was imperative that the two of you dived right in.

"—so what made you interested in joining the team?" You asked, shoving your hands into your jacket pockets to hide signs of nervousness from your underclassman peer. The two of you were walking from the Daily's newsroom and over to the performing arts center. It was about a ten minute walk, but you figured that it would give you two the opportunity to get to know one another.

Sumin was a multimedia major, as you had been told earlier when the two of you just met for the first time in the entryway of the Daily newsroom. She was cute and well-dressed—she wore a pleated skirt and sweater with a white collar peeking through. Her smile was dazzling, and reminded you of someone who would do well on stage. No wonder she had theater and performing experience.

"Oh!" She shot you one of those dazzling smiles, her hand shooting up to shift the white, fluffy earmuffs seated over her head. "I actually had a cousin who came here and shared with me some of the Daily's earlier issues. She always said it was kind of competitive to get in, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to try."

You bobbed your head. "That's really cool." A small laugh fell from your lips, "I'm glad you did try! Lots of people just assume they're gonna get turned away and they don't try at all, you know?"

Sumin hummed in understanding.

Something had settled nicely in your chest throughout this walk. Even if your past anxieties were beginning to bubble up to the surface at the sight of the nearing performing arts buildings, Sumin's easy conversation calmed you. It was one less thing to worry about.

Yesterday, when Doyoung had proposed this job for you, you had asked Mark to accompany you and Sumin to the arts buildings. He couldn't walk with you two, but he promised to meet you there. Now, you were kind of glad you got to have this bit of bonding time with her.

“I think Doyoung said that I should introduce you to a few people in particular,” you said offhandedly and pulled your phone out to check yours and Doyoung’s text thread.

Sumin did the same, most likely taking out any notes she had taken from Doyoung’s instructions. “Yeah, something like Lee Minho, Kim Jungwoo… the Hwang?—the Hwang siblings, uhm and Ji Changmin…?”

Your footing faltered for a second, and Sumin asked if you were all right, but you recovered quickly. You let out an embarrassed laugh, feeling heat crawl up your neck. Why in the world did his name catch you off guard like that? Maybe it was because you assumed Doyoung would just let you avoid Changmin, but realistically, if Sumin was going to do an interview with the dance department’s most prominent members, then there was no avoiding Changmin.

You just had to suck it up and be an adult about it.

It was three years ago… What was the big deal?

But as you moved to open the door to the backstage area for Sumin with your ID card, you felt your throat tighten in on itself. You forced a smile to your face as you let Sumin go in before you so you could turn your head out to inhale a large lungful of fresh air. Then, you ducked in after her.

The backstage corridors were as hustle n' bustle as you expected them to be. The lights were dim-looking from the black walls and floors marred with scuff marks from years upon years of use. It was an overwhelming tidal wave of sensory details—what, with the clashing sounds of chatter and music, the smell of some kind of polish (or maybe that was resin?), the warmth of energy in the air and all around you.

The hairs on the back of your neck stood like you could sense someone was coming this way.

You gestured down the opposite direction to Sumin. “Come on; I’m pretty sure they’re down this way.”

It was a curious thing, memory. You could recall late nights of catching the bus to these very practice rooms and backstage rooms from when you were in high school. Performing on the stage was a whole other experience in itself, and though part of you missed it, there were other feelings that dominated the hints of nostalgia now.

You could hear the chatter even clearer now, even if their words were muddled.

The door to one of the larger practice rooms were left ajar, and though you only peered in, you felt the warmth hit you like a wave. Your throat was closing up again—breathe—

“Hey,” you said into the room, catching quite a few eyes. From an initial scan, you determined that Changmin wasn’t amongst the crush of people socializing in here, and you couldn’t identify the feeling manifesting in the pit of your stomach.

Jungwoo was the first to bound over toward you, swiftly followed by Minho and Hyunjin, one of the Hwang siblings. “Yn-ie! I can’t believe you actually came. I thought Doyoung was joking.”

A smile made its way onto your lips and you accepted Jungwoo’s side hug. “Yeah, well Doyoung doesn’t joke around.”

“He really doesn’t,” Hyunjin said with a grimace. “He’s kind of scary, that one.”

“If you can survive Minho,” you said to him, “then you can survive Doyoung.”

Minho made a face at you. “What have I ever done to you, Yn?”

Nothing; this is just me trying to pretend I’m not seconds away from quivering like a leaf in the wind. You laughed. “Nothing yet. Guys, I'd like you to meet Sumin. She’s our new recruit at the Daily, and she’s gonna be the one conducting interviews for the winter showcase this year.”

Sumin didn’t need much prompting to smile and wave at your friends in that same charming way. “Hi, nice to meet you!”

The three dancers before you replied in kind. Jungwoo offered to introduce her to some of the others in the room, and before you knew it, she was swept away.

Hyunjin made a comment about needing to go check up on a friend of his, leaving you and Minho chatting to the side of the room.

“Wow,” Minho said offhandedly as the two of you watched Jungwoo and Sumin work their way around the room, “she’s a natural at this. Where’d Kim find this one?”

“She saw some of our older issues,” you replied. You watched as Sumin ignited a sort of brightness in every conversation she started. You struggled to swallow; now that you didn’t feel obligated to keep up appearances, especially in front of Sumin, your jitteriness was beginning to come on just a little stronger. You absentmindedly massaged your throat, willing it to loosen up.

Minho glanced over at you, his eyes catching your anxious actions. “Must have a lot of confidence in her if he’s throwing her straight into taking charge of interviews. How’re you holding up?” The latter was said lowly and under his breath in case someone just happened to be close enough to catch onto your conversation.

Minho didn’t know your history with the dance department as thoroughly as your close friends did, but it didn’t take a genius to see that you weren’t at your absolute best right now. You gave a stiff shrug. “I’m alright,” you managed to say.

He nodded, though it was probably more for your sake than him saying he believed you. “It’s funny,” he drawled, “one might think that by sending you here on behalf of the paper, that you were behind Opera Glasses.”

Now that, you could let out a genuine chuckle at.

Minho gauged your reaction but smiled to himself. He wasn’t one to really care for the drama and gossip side that came privy to the performing arts review section, but you couldn’t blame him if he was curious.

“That would be really stupid if that was the case,” you mused.

“It would be,” he agreed. “Is this a sign that this will be the end of Opera Glasses then? Finally a face to the name?”

You pursed your lips. “Actually, I’m not too sure what Doyoung will end up doing. I’m sure he’ll call for a board meeting to decide what the review’s fate will be, but it’s not exactly our top priority—”

Your voice and words trailed off as your eyes met a pair coming into the practice room. You and Changmin froze at the sight of one another, two deer caught in headlights, and you felt your heart palpitate violently in your chest. Your breath left your lungs—his expression was filled with surprise, until it morphed into something you couldn’t read.

“What are you doing here?” He deadpanned.

Minho’s eyebrows shot up. “You didn’t know Yn was stopping by? We all got the email from Director Lee, man.”

Changmin pressed his mouth together and it made the dimple in his cheek deepen. He looked you up and down, and he opened his mouth to say something else, but paused when you unconsciously brushed your thumb against the hollow of your throat. (Dear god, why couldn’t you breathe? Breathe, breathe, breathe—)

He seemed to lose whatever he was going to say. You swore the sharpness in his gaze softened.

But then his jaw tightened; you didn’t know why. “I didn’t think you’d actually show,” he muttered under his breath.

Ouch.

The words from his mouth pricked uncomfortably at the back of your mind. You found your voice again. “I’ll be gone before you know it,” you replied tersely.

Your response touched a nerve for him, too. He cut his attention to the rest of the practice room. “Where’s your new girl?”

“Over there,” you said, inclining your head across the room where Sumin and Hwang Yeji were currently swapping contact information. Something soared in your chest at the sight, but you couldn’t tell if it was pride or envy.

Without any additional prompting, you watched Changmin make his way toward Sumin and away from you. You didn’t realize you were holding in a breath until you finally exhaled—

“Yn! Sorry I’m late.” Mark bumbled into the practice room, wiping a drop of sweat from his forehead as he quite literally crashed against the wall next to you and Minho. He was panting and gasping for breath, and you and Minho couldn’t help but express your amusement.

“It’s all cool, dude,” you assured while patting his head.

“I should probably get back to it,” Minho said as he began walking away from you and Mark. “Nice to see you, Mark. Feel free to take a water bottle from the green room.”

Mark thumped his head against the wall with his eyes closed. “Thanks, man,” he huffed.

With a snicker under his breath, Minho went his separate way.

You gave Mark a moment to catch a breath or two, and you slid down next to him against the practice room wall. Folding your knees up against your chest, you copied Mark’s position with his head tilted back as you both inhaled through your nostrils and breathed out through slightly parted lips. While Mark might have been trying to get a moment of rest from (no doubt) running here from the bus stop, you were trying to steady yourself.

The anxiety was starting to make your hands feel numb cold.

“You don’t have to stay, y’know,” came Mark’s voice, followed by the back of his hand gently nudging your arm. When your eyes fluttered open, you found him already looking at you. “You asked for my help; you can go take a breather outside and come back in—or maybe don’t—whatever you’re comfortable with. This can’t be easy.”

You were struggling to swallow again. One of your hands drummed messily against your kneecap. “It’s—” you shook your head, “—I’ll be okay. Thanks for coming though.”

“Yeah, dude. Of course.”

Something prodded at the side of your head, like someone was staring at you, but when you turned to see, it was just Changmin talking to Sumin. They were both smiling and making good conversation, it seemed.

You let out a sigh and closed your eyes again. Wishful thinking.

— ✶

Mark stayed behind to “vibe” with the remaining dancers still at the performing arts building while you and Sumin pushed out into the crisp, cool evening. Even after walking all the way to the bus station, your hands were still numb, and the cold definitely wasn’t helping.

“How do you feel about the dance interviews now?” You found yourself asking Sumin as the two of you sat on the bench at the station waiting for the bus to come pick the two of you up.

Sumin beamed. “I definitely feel a bit more secure about conducting them. I’ll definitely need some help with dance terminology and editing and stuff though.”

You nodded. “No problem at all.”

“The people are all really so chill and nice…” Your eyes definitely weren’t tricking you when you saw the bashfulness that her expression took on, and the little giggle you heard could not have been the wind. “Especially Changmin.”

Ha. What.

A weight fell to the pit of your stomach. Maybe you were hearing things… “Sorry?”

She blinked, and the blush on her cheekbones darkened. “Oh, haha, it’s nothing! I just… he was really sweet, and he has a really pretty smile and stuff—do you—uh, do you know if his previous dance showcase performances are online?”

(Something about that detail—he has a really pretty smile—rang a bell for you.)

It was really an innocent question, but you knew if Sumin went searching online for Changmin, and if she went deep enough, she’d find you there, too. You sucked in a breath. “I can—” you winced inwardly, “—send you some of his performances, if you want?”

You couldn’t deny the warm and fuzzy feeling in your chest when Sumin practically lit up at your suggestion. “Would you? I would really appreciate it, Yn! You’re the best.”

From your periphery, you saw the bus approach from down the street, and you gestured for the both of you to stand up and get your ID cards ready to board. You sent her a small smile—at least it felt good to help her out. You could pretend for a second that this was just a little crush or infatuation on some other colleague of yours that Sumin had. “Yeah, no worries.” No worries at all.

EPISODE SIX: OFF THE [TOP OF YOUR] HEAD

FRIDAY night brought you, Seungkwan, and Doyoung to the hotpot place located in the university district. The three of you were the unconventional combination of your friends, but Kun and Ten were supposedly on their way over as of five minutes ago. Thus, with the last of your party nearing, the three of you deigned to begin ordering almost everything off the menu—just to whet your appetites, of course.

Doyoung slumped down in his seat across from you and Seungkwan as soon as the waiter left to input your table's hefty order. "Ugggggggh."

Seungkwan snorted. "Ah, my favorite sound."

Doyoung passed him a dirty look over his lenses. "Is that sarcasm I hear, Boo Seungkwan?"

"I have no idea what you mean," he said with feigned innocence as he looked away and scratched the side of his head.

You chuckled to yourself, drawing your phone out from the inner pocket of your puffer jacket when you heard the series of buzzes. Your screen lit up with notifications from Sumin, all of them thanking you profusely for the spam of links you'd sent her way. These were on top of the videos you had dug up from your secret locked folder in your phone—and here you were, wondering why in the world you were doing this to yourself and for her?

"I can't decide if I dread Doyoung's noises of discontent or your expressions of pain more," Seungkwan commented, effectively pulling your focus away from your phone.

Both of your friends were now looking at you, patiently awaiting your answer to what ailed you tonight. Where should you begin?

"I'm not in pain," you scoffed. You set your phone facedown on the table next to you to avoid looking at the notifications. Huh. "Did I look like I was in pain?"

Doyoung's smile was wide like his eyes as he nodded. "Yup," he chirped in that sweet sarcasm of his. "Like you'd just watched a video of someone stubbing their toe against a doorframe."

Seungkwan blinked. "That's so—specific."

"You do not want to know what my For You Page looks like—"

You recreated the look of pain from earlier, holding your palm up. "Respectfully, Doie? I don't."

Seungkwan let out another snort of delight and had to hold a hand in front of his mouth.

Doyoung leveled a half-hearted scowl at you. "You're lucky I'm not your boss right now."

"As opposed to every other moment in time?"

"You have a mouth on you tonight."

"I do like to use it every so often," you quipped, the corner of your mouth lifting in an amused smirk.

Doyoung sighed, raking a hand through his hair. "I don't get paid enough for this."

"You're literally not getting paid at all—" Your words were sliced off at their end when you gasped—it was all a blur: a mass of reddish-brown hair, your phone snatched from right in front of you— "SEUNGKWAN!"

Seungkwan held his breath with an impish grin as he turned his back to you and shielded your phone from your attempts to get it back. "I just wanna see!" He said with a cackle. "Every time you've looked at your phone today, you looked like you wanted to fall into an abyss."

You glared at him, pulling away to cross your arms firmly over your chest. "You can't just steal my phone, dude!"

"What's so important on your phone anyway, Yn-ie?" Doyoung asked good naturedly, reaching for his glass of ice water. "You're usually not so attached to that thing."

Your lips snapped shut and you wondered if the heat creeping up to your face was obvious.

"You've been sending Changmin videos to Sumin?!" Seungkwan bursted out, his eyes so wide that you could see your reflection in his pupils. As you'd feared, Seungkwan still had his fingerprint registered into your phone from before (long story; don't ask), and had cracked the device open, as well as your most recently opened application—yours and Sumin's text messages.

You did nothing but stare at the table like you were getting war flashbacks, while Doyoung had even gotten up out of his seat to take a peek at your phone, too.

"I haven't even seen this video before," Seungkwan hissed as if you weren't right there.

You fixed them both with a stink eye, but at the same time, maybe this was for your benefit. They could help you without you actually asking for help—

Doyoung's face contorted into a laughable expression of shock (eyes wide, mouth wider, eyebrows pinched, nose wrinkled) as he viewed what Seungkwan had selected. "Oh my god. He's a child in this!"

"Actually he was a senior in high school—" You slapped a hand over your mouth. Whoops.

Both of their heads whipped over toward you. "I thought you deleted all your high school shit!" They chorused together. If it had been any other situation or context, you might have laughed at the hilarity if it all.

Instead, you averted your gaze, making a show of looking for the waiter or maybe even Kun or Ten. What was taking them so long anyway?

"Yn," Seungkwan addressed with a tone akin to that of a parent on the verge of lecturing their child, "what in the name of god are you sending Sumin and why?"

Helpless, you held both your palms up in a sheepish shrug. "The kid has a crush on him, and being the best mentor figure ever, I… did some compiling for her." You paused, "Now that I say it out loud, it does sound pretty stupid."

Doyoung returned to his seat. "Ya think?"

You wrinkled your nose at him. "Hey! Sometimes, some of us have bad nights and we wanna feel something." Out of context, this was a really suspicious conversation.

"Isn't this just you torturing yourself?"

Seungkwan slapped his hand against the table, and both you and Doyoung startled. "That's it! I'm calling for an intervention."

Your mouth parted open. "Right now?"

He deadpanned at you. "No, when Kun and Ten get here—of course, right now!"

You returned his deadpan expression. The adrenaline from all this back and forth was slowly fading, and what you were left with was something that felt like emptiness. So… now they knew.

Doyoung and Seungkwan exchanged looks with another from across the table, but it was the former who spoke first. "Why do you still have videos from back then, Yn-ie? I thought you told us you deleted them all?"

"I mean, we're not trying to be judgmental or anything," Seungkwan added firmly, but not unkindly, "they're your videos and photos, your past and memories, but… based on everything you've already told us before, wouldn't it be best to delete them?"

You didn't like the emptiness. The adrenaline had stripped you of energy and confidence when it faded. "I," you stammered, "I just… I couldn't bring myself to delete them." Your voice was quiet, almost inaudible compared to the liveliness of the hotpot shop around you and your friends. "I mean, how could I? Sometimes, I want to watch them and try to find the courage to say that I'm sorry first."

Yeah, you wanted to feel something. That "something" was actually a lot of things—courage, happiness, nostalgia, anger, melancholy, love, passion, pride. A life and childhood you had lost; who's fault was it but your own? You felt nothing short of pathetic.

Seungkwan frowned deeply, his eyes softening. He leaned forward and drew you into his embrace, his hold warm and comforting. "Oh, Yn. I'm sorry; I shouldn't have pried like that."

You wrapped your arms around him, eyes shuddering closed. "Yeah, you shouldn't have."

He grunted into your shoulder, a noise of defiance and attitude.

Doyoung had a similar expression of sympathy present on his face. You didn't often see something like that from him, but after years of friendship and working together, you'd begun to see a lot more of him. "I'm sorry too, Yn. It probably still hurts, and I know I was probably really insensitive when I asked you to introduce Sumin to the dance department—"

"Hey guys! Sorry we're late."

Everyone jolted at the sight of Kun and Ten arriving at your table. Kun sent Ten a sharp look along with a sharp jab with his elbow for interrupting. Kun shot you an apologetic look. "Sorry, we didn't interrupt anything, did we?"

You shook your head as Seungkwan pulled away. Doyoung and Seungkwan were both looking to you to make the decision of whether or not you would let Kun and Ten in on the prior conversation.

No, you didn't want to put a damper on dinner any longer. "Ah, no worries. We were just… discussing a couple work things. What took you guys so long?"

Luckily, no one (namely Ten) called you out and the two newcomers slid into their respective seats. Dinner would arrive soon, and you could fill your belly with something other than negative thoughts for once.

— ✶

boss bunny: hey, i didn't get a chance to say this earlier, but i'm so sorry for expecting u to introduce sumin to the dance dept

boss bunny: i didn't think at all abt how that might trigger u, and i still want u to know that u can back out whenever u feel uncomfortable. seriously.

your phone: it's okay, doyoung. i get it, i really do. and i promise that it didn't feel like u were forcing me or assuming that i would do it either

your phone: i knew it would probably trigger me like this too, but i kind of really wanted to be someone's mentor yk? it just… called to me ig

your phone: sounds kind of sad lol

boss bunny: nonono! not at all :( i understand that too

boss bunny: i admire ur strength, yn

your phone: DOIE 🥺

boss bunny: …okay love u and all, but let's not use that emoji yeah? T-T

your phone: okay wtv 🤧 now stop texting cuz ten is starting to realize ur not slick at this

boss bunny: AM TOO. >:(

— ✶

"He kept looking at his phone and then at you, like, every five seconds," Ten giggled, his shoulder absentmindedly brushing against yours as the two of you strolled side by side through the numbing cold night. Dinner had concluded just about half an hour ago, and while Kun ferried Doyoung and Seungkwan home, you and Ten decided to head down a few blocks to get milk tea and hang out.

You clapped your hands together in delight, your laughter lighting up the night. “That’s what I’m saying! He just wasn’t subtle about it and he kept arguing with me that he was.” You shook your head, tongue darting out to lick your lips, “It’s okay though. I think Dad Doyoung’s antics are charming.”

Ten grinned. “Dad Doyoung? I think he’s more of an uncle; ‘Dad’ is Kun’s title.”

“Fair enough.”

“Ayo, Ten!”

Both yours and Ten’s heads whipped upward at the sound of his name being called. You didn’t actually recognize the voice, but when you saw the lineup of four young men coming toward you from the opposite end of the street, you didn’t need to recognize it. Because, well, you recognized their faces.

Huh, you had been running into Changmin and his like a lot more often recently.

Heading straight for you was Changmin, Chanhee, Juyeon, and—you thought his name was Kevin. Kevin was the one who had called out to Ten, and he waved excitedly over to your friend. Based on Changmin’s not-so-subtle frown at Kevin, you could assume that this was not expected. Maybe he was going to advocate crossing the whole street to avoid you.

“Oh, hey Kev!” Ten greeted back cheerily, glancing at you beside him. “Do you know Kevin and Juyeon?”

You bobbed your head. “Briefly,” you replied. The two of your groups met in the middle, two blockades in the smack middle of the sidewalk. Impromptu meetups like this always seemed to end up clogging up the sidewalk for some reason.

After a swift greeting, Chanhee was already gesturing to the direction his group had already been headed in. “Hey, I’ll probably run up the street and get us a table. Haknyeonie says the tables fill up fast after eight o’clock.”

Juyeon perked up. “Oh, I’ll come with!”

Chanhee made eye contact with Changmin from across the group, and a silent form of communication passed between them. You watched this happen quietly, standing to the side with your hands tucked into your pockets while Ten and Kevin caught up from the last time they saw each other (apparently, it was a drawing and painting course from last quarter). However, instead of leaving with Chanhee and Juyeon, Changmin lingered with the three of you.

He naturally came to stand semi-close to you since he wasn’t exactly a part of the “drawing and painting” conversation. The frown from earlier had disappeared, though, and you didn’t know if you could call that a win or not.

Perhaps to you, the tension between the two of you was palpable. There were… far too many things up in the air at this moment, and it was nearly impossible for you to figure out just one thing to start with.

Plus, now was no time to get into all of that baggage. You needed to finish that intervention with Doyoung and Seungkwan before you could handle that kind of conversation—at least, that was what you would have preferred.

But for now, you found yourself clearing your throat and sparing him a glance. “Hey.”

Changmin’s eyes darted over to yours in ill-concealed surprise. “Hey.”

And that was that.

Luckily, Ten nor Kevin dragged on their conversation longer than it needed to be, and soon, you and Ten were passing by Kevin and Changmin as both parties went their separate ways. (You were going to pretend that you hadn’t looked back to watch Changmin walk away. Definitely not.)

“All good?” Ten asked, though, his voice was quieter than it had been before.

You could meet his eyes and nod. “Yeah.”

Ten followed up with an idle sort of humming noise, like he was one of those really loud computer fans (what in the world led you to think of that—?), “A few days ago, I kind of asked Changmin what the deal between the two of you was.”

“Oh?” Nervousness bubbled up the column of your throat. “What’d he say?”

He gave a shrug. “Something like a long-standing grudge.”

You let out a laugh that didn’t exactly sound like a laugh. “Well, I guess that’s one way to put it.” Was that how you would put it? In a way, that was what it was, but there was so much more to that, wasn’t there? Did Changmin think so little of what transpired between the two of you or was he just trying to deflect Ten’s interrogation?

The two of you had arrived at the tea shop by now, and Ten opened the door for you. The shop’s insides were warm and bright, and the tables were already filled up with fellow students who decided to hang out with friends on their Friday evening. You and Ten shifted over to the self-order kiosks to the side of the room and continued your conversation in low volumes.

“How would you put it then?” He asked. When you looked over at him, you realized that there was something scarily disarming about his eyes. “No pressure, of course. I mean, you can call me out on being nosy whenever; I figured it wouldn’t hurt to ask.”

You pursed your lips as you turned back to the screen to absentmindedly swipe down the page to find your preferred order. On the inside, you fought for the right words. “Changmin and I were best friends since we were kids,” you started, inputting your preferred level of sugar and ice like clockwork, “and we met through dance.”

Ten nodded to signal he was still listening, and the two of you swapped places so he could input his order.

You cracked your knuckles and rubbed your palms together to generate some kind of heat between them. “I didn’t really like dance at first. It was just one of those things my parents put me in to occupy my time after school and while they were working. But… well, you know how Changmin is with dance—it was and is his livelihood.”

“Even then?”

A nod. “Even then.”

When your orders were paid for, the two of you moved to a quiet corner of the shop to wait for your number to be called from the counter. You leaned your side against the wall next to Ten, your eyes staring blankly at a crack in the floor. “He was actually the reason I grew to love dancing,” you confessed. “As we got older and went into high school, sneaking out to practice together and performing together on stage became as easy as breathing air and as normal as…” You shook your head. “It was just a lot easier I think, back then.”

Ten tilted his chin toward you. “What happened between you two, Yn?”

You swallowed roughly. “In my first year of high school, my parents got divorced. I always suspected it would happen, but my mom kind of changed after that.” Your eyebrows crinkled as you recalled the memories of your early teenage years and tried to grapple with an adequate way to express them aloud. “And, to be fair, the more I danced, the more I didn’t want to focus on school work, but my mom became really hard on me about all that and I started to crack down on that stuff.

“Eventually, she got tired of taking me to dance practices and shows, and she blew up at me about how useless dance was going to be if I was going to become a doctor or something like that.”

Ten heard your number being called and nudged you to follow after him. He handed you your drink, and the two of you pushed back out into the chilly night. You didn’t really know where you were trying to go, but you didn’t really care. You both ended up in one of the small parking lots squeezed between two fast food restaurants, and you sat yourself down on the curb.

You continued, “And so, she would purposely forget to come home in time to take me to competitions and rehearsals. By the time I realized she wasn’t coming, I was already late every time. I would start walking myself there and taking the bus instead. Changmin started noticing that I was slacking, but I…”

“He didn’t know?”

“No.” You didn’t want him to know. Maybe it was your stupid pride that was preventing you from admitting that aloud. Maybe you were ashamed that your mom wasn't as accepting of dance as his parents were. You let out a shuddering breath and watched it come out in a visible puff in front of your face. “She made me grow spiteful toward dance,” you said stiffly. “I would be trying to stretch or practice movement in my bedroom while studying for exams, and she would come in and berate me.”

The yelling echoed in your mind, all too vividly. Your mother never physically hurt you, but there were still scars. “She’d discourage me from rehearsals or signing up for competitions by telling me I was nowhere near good enough, that dancing wasn’t going to put food on the table, and that I was—” A complete disappointment. You could pick those exact words out of a line up.

Ten’s eyes glistened with silver in the amber glow of the streetlight above you. “Jesus, Yn. I’m so sorry; that’s—that’s awful.”

You didn’t know how to accept the sympathy, even after having received so much from your other friends already. No matter how many times you retold your story, it was never quite right or in the way your brain wanted to portray it. You didn’t want to portray anyone as the villain; you figured that maybe you could have done something back then to prevent this. (You couldn’t have, actually, and that was the most difficult part to accept.)

“Yeah,” you murmured, setting your drink on the ground as you curled in on yourself slightly. “Anyway, by senior year, Changmin was obviously really into dance and was probably really stressed about auditions and end-of-the-year competitions. We basically… we basically took out our anger on each other. He said some things, I said some things. The rest is history.”

It was quiet for a moment as you let the words sink into the open air. Your chest loosened a bit after being able to tell another person about it, but for the most part, your hands still trembled. You reached for your drink again to take a sip and to force some kind of liquid down your throat.

After a while, Ten piped up, “Yn… I hope you know that you are not whoever your mother was trying to make you believe you were. You’ve probably realized that already—or maybe you’re still working on it—but please know that you’re probably one of the strongest people I know. It must have been really hard for you and I…” He exhaled, “Sorry, I’ve never been great at this.”

You sent him a small smile in return. “It’s okay; I still appreciate it.” After a beat, you added, “I know I act like I hate him, but I still want to see him succeed. I can’t think that ill of him, especially when he wasn’t the only one at fault.”

“Ah, that’s why ‘it’s complicated’, huh? I get that.”

“Yeah.” Your hands—god, if they could just stop shaking—

Ten reached over and covered your hands with one of his, and you let the heat of his palm warm yours. “You’re doing great, Yn. You know that, right?”

You couldn’t choke out an answer to that. You could only really say, “I just miss him sometimes.”

A sad smile. “I know. Maybe he does, too.”

You wanted to laugh, or maybe cry, at that. Anyone who got in the way of Changmin’s passions was no one to him. You would know exactly how that felt.

EPISODE SEVEN: [ROLLS RIGHT] OFF THE TONGUE

WHENEVER Changmin was feeling unsure of himself, he would retreat to his safe space: the practice rooms. Even if it was some time in the ungodly morning, like 2am as it was now, he would make the trek beneath molten gold streetlights and barren cobbled streets. It was the one place where he could focus his energy solely on dance, and forget about everything else.

Once upon a time, it had been your safe space just as much as it was his.

Changmin huffed a sigh as he hiked up the remaining flight of stone stairs that led up to the backdoor area of the performing arts building. It was a handful of hours since he and Chanhee parted ways with Kevin and Juyeon after enjoying dinner together. Chanhee was probably dead asleep by now—he was probably going to wake up and continue studying for his exams anyway.

As he turned to his right, his breath hitched as he caught sight of someone standing right outside the door. Usually, he had no trouble getting in and security wasn’t exactly strict in this area of campus. In fact, he almost never bumped into anyone, as strange as it sounded. Maybe he should have counted his blessings.

But then he recognized your jacket from earlier this evening, the very same one you were wearing while walking next to Ten—practically squished up against each other, two peas in a pod. He didn’t like how irked he was by that detail. He still couldn’t wrap his head around the fact that you had said “hey” first.

You weren’t looking at him, rather, your body was completely turned toward the door as if you were trying to decide whether or not you should go in. You were as still as a statue, frozen in time.

The moment, however, faded as quickly as it had come. You must have sensed his presence, and your head whipped around to face him.

There.

His heart leapt into his throat—dear god, why did you look so afraid? And then he noticed that you weren’t frozen still, but rather, channeling all your energy into keeping your body from trembling. Were you cold? What were you doing here so late? Why weren’t you with Ten?

He watched your throat move as you gulped. And then you were walking toward him—no, past him—wait, come back— “So that’s it?”

The grip he had on his duffle bag strap tightened when you stopped next to him just as you were going to walk past him toward the stairs. Your gazes clashed like a pair of twin lightning bolts slicing through the night sky. There had always been a sort of energy between the two of you, and when you were young, he had been so very attracted to that kind of power, one so similar to his… he didn’t think he was mistaken back then.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” You said, still there. Your voice was low, but he could detect the edge.

He didn’t know what it was supposed to mean; he just didn’t want you to leave without knowing why you were here. Were you looking for him? “You’re not gonna say anything to me? Why are you here?”

(He swore it wasn’t supposed to come out that brusque-sounding, but he also didn’t know what it was supposed to come out sounding like…? He felt like he didn’t know you anymore.)

There was a narrowing of your eyes, and you both angled your bodies to face one another like a standoff. “No one said I had anything to say to you. And I—” You tripped over your words, “—I don’t know why I’m here. That’s why I was leaving.”

Oh.

Why was he disappointed by that answer?

“So you’re not here with Ten or something?” He asked, unsure what else he could say to keep you here, even for just a couple seconds longer.

Your mouth curled. "Clearly not. Why are you so pressed about me and Ten?"

Changmin pressed his lips together. "I'm not." Okay. Very believable.

The face you made said the same thing. "Okay, yeah. I didn't expect you to care so much anyway."

For a reason he loathed to admit, anger spiked in his blood and he felt the distinct need to defend himself. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"I don't know," you replied sarcastically, your volume rising, "maybe it's that you've never really cared that much about things that concerned me in the first place?"

"Now that's rich coming from you."

Your glare pierced his. "Oh, please. As soon as I started slacking—god, it took so little for you to just abandon me."

His jaw fell slack. Where the fuck did this conversation just turn to? "Abandon you? You abandoned me!" He exclaimed, finger flicking between the two of you as if he could impale both of your chests with the sharp edge of his accusations.

"How could I have possibly been the one to abandon you?" Your face contorted with so much more emotion than Changmin had ever seen from you over the past three years. Suddenly, he could see the underlying desperation and devastation hidden beneath the lines of bitterness and anger. His heart sank, but his blood still boiled and pumped. He couldn't get the distinctly awful hole in his chest to stop aching. He could remember exactly when you just stopped coming to practice with him. He could remember exactly the day he gave up hope.

"You—" you stammered, your hand flying to your throat. It was the same action he had seen from you just a few days ago while you were in the practice room. He recognized it as a habit of yours for when you were anxious or overwhelmed because your throat closed in on itself. If that wasn't enough to make him want to lay down his sword… "—you stopped caring. When did you stop caring? I just want to know."

Everything went silent for him, just for a split second. You thought… you thought he stopped caring? How could he ever stop caring about you? Wasn't that why he was so upset in the first place?

And when the world zapped back into play, he was sure his skin was ashen. His throat bobbed. "How could you think so little of me?"

Your forehead creased. "Little? Changmin, you were everything to me."

Dear heart—

You were shaking your head and taking a step away from him then. "You couldn't possibly understand."

Just like that, there was fire in his veins again. "That's because you never gave me a chance to understand!"

You threw a look back at him and again, he could read everything there like an open book, so much unlike the wall he had been met with all this time. "And I can say the exact same thing about you. If you think I kept things from you, Ji Changmin—" you said with the undertone of a snarl, so fierce that, as you turned on your foot to face him again, your breath came out like that of a dragon's smoke, "—then how much have you kept from me?"

His nostrils flared and his hands gestured wildly, vaguely—he pressed his palms to his eyes with a haggard sigh. "Why are you here, Yn?" He asked again, finally. He lowered his hands and took a step toward you. "Are you here just to pick a fight with me?"

You paused.

He watched you open your mouth, then close it.

You pursed your lips, finally murmuring, "No. I didn't come here for you."

For some reason, that hurt even more.

— ✶

The practice room was colder than it usually was.

Changmin kept the lights dim for the sake of his stinging eyes, and he dumped his duffle bag in the corner of the room before making a beeline for the aux cord for the speaker system. He hooked up his phone and opened up his music files, his forehead pressing against the cool mirror wall.

For a moment, he simply let his eyes flutter shut and his lungs to breathe.

You were long gone by now, and Changmin considered just going back to his apartment, but he knew he would just lie in bed awake for hours if he did.

When he opened his eyes, he swiped out of his music and instead went to a file kept deep down in the depths of his storage. He had purposely named it so it would remain at the absolute bottom of the list when alphabetized, and the pass code on it was supposed to dissuade him from accessing it.

Supposed to.

He punched in the four digits of your birthday and the lock clicked open to reveal a hefty file of video after video. There were photos of you, too, somewhere, but the videos were all at the top of the file because of their size. He didn't know what he was gonna do when his phone ran out of storage; he figured that when that day came, it would either be when you and he finally figured shit out, or he got closure and could delete them all.

He sighed.

His thumb hovered over one of the video files near the top, one where he could see your face in the thumbnail.

When he opened it, his younger face filled the screen. His tongue poked out from his lips as he carefully settled his phone against the wall next to yours as both of your phones recorded the run-through that was about to happen.

"Changminnie! Come on, I'm starting the song!" Your voice echoed against the practice room walls, and his laughter soon followed as he scurried into place next to you.

Changmin watched his younger self transform his expression into something more serious, while you had looked at him through the mirror and burst out laughing.

Younger Changmin broke his facade, the dimples in his cheeks deep, his smile bright. "What?"

You grinned back at him. "Sorry, sorry! Nothing; it's just interesting how you can just shift your facial expression like that."

"You have to practice like you perform though!"

"I know, I know. I just like your smile better, y'know?"

Changmin could see the hearts in his younger self's eyes. Jesus, had he really blushed that hard? Younger Changmin cupped the back of his neck bashfully. "Really?"

You punched his arm playfully. "Yeah. It's really pretty, Changmin. I thought I told you this before."

"Well yeah, but it doesn't hurt to hear it again—yah! Hey, I can bite back, you know—!"

Changmin's eyes shuddered as the familiar melody of the song flowed into his ears. He abruptly slammed his thumb down onto the pause button.

No, he couldn't stomach hearing it. Not when he could recall every move from memory and not when he had no partner to complement those moves. It just reminded him of the gaping hole in his chest and the emptiness of this room.

"Let's get to work, Changmin," he muttered to himself as he swiped out of the folder and back to his music files. He had an actual to-do list in mind, after all, and it did not include a dive into the forbidden folder. (No matter how much he needed to hear your voice again, for once, not arguing with him.)

EPISODE EIGHT: OFF THE HOOK

"HE'S been pissy all morning—"

Changmin suppressed a groan of frustration as he heard his friend's voices nearing the dressing room he was in. All morning, the performing arts building had been a madhouse, even worse than the night of the draft showcase. Everyone just decided to be here today, whether they were his fellow dancers trying to score a practice room, one of the prospective actors auditioning for a part in Hyunjae's best friend's thesis play, or one of the tech members trying to make sure everything worked behind the scenes.

Changmin had gone from room to room in an attempt to find an empty one where he could have some peace in working on his own. He would have just gone home at this point, but Chanhee was stressing over his own exams, so Changmin was stuck here.

So taking all of that into account, including the rough encounter he'd had with you a couple days ago, plus a lack of sleep and coffee—not the happiest squirrel on campus.

(How could you just drop a bomb like "You were everything to me, Changmin" in his lap and expect him not to think of anything else for days on end?)

The door to the dressing room he was hiding in cracked open, and all of the cacophony from the outside flooded in, as well as a crush of his friends.

"Don't you guys have class?" Changmin moaned, his hand coming up to rub his sleep-deprived eyes.

"Well, yeah, but this is much more fun," came Younghoon's teasing chuckle as he walked over to Changmin and clasped a hand on his shoulder.

Changmin made a face. "I just wanted some peace and quiet."

Sunwoo scoffed. "Peace and quiet? You've come to the wrong place, hyung."

"Yeah," Hyunjae added on, "might as well take a break for once and come watch auditions with us! HJ!Yn needs help judging people anyway."

Changmin cocked a brow at the blond. "You should call Chanhee for that then. Shouldn't you be out there, Younghoon?" He nodded toward the tall, lanky drama major present.

Younghoon shook his head, bouncing on the balls of his feet. How did he have so much energy? "Nope. I'm auditioning for a part, so she's gatekeeping me from watching."

Changmin turned from his friends slightly as he reached down for his phone that he had situated on top of the small bluetooth speaker he had the good sense to bring. Then again, maybe he should have just stuck to earbuds… whatever. He was too tired to care. Part of him wanted to add to the chaos anyway.

"What's her thesis play about again?" He asked no one in particular. Sunwoo waddled over to him and stole his phone right from his hands and began browsing through the music selection.

"It's a modern take of one of Shakespeare's plays: Much Ado About Nothing," answered Younghoon. "It was really funny actually, like the original play. Lots of matchmaking, lots of stupidity. I think they dump someone in a lake..."

Hyunjae perked up. "Oh yeah! That was probably my favorite part of the whole script."

Changmin chuckled. "I was expecting you to say something like 'the whole thing's my favorite because my best friend wrote it'."

"Oh, no, that still applies."

Changmin, Sunwoo, and Younghoon all exchanged knowing looks with one another. Mhm… so they thought. There were a few too many in their friend group who had interesting relationships with their other friends. Exhibit A: whatever the fuck was happening with Hyunjae and his.

Hyunjae caught their silent communication and furrowed his eyebrows. "What?"

Sunwoo snorted, but Younghoon was the one to drawl, "It's absolutely nothing."

Changmin pressed his lips into a cheeky smile, brushing the bangs from out of his vision. Hyunjae's lips quirked to the side in a frown, but didn't make any comment on it. It wasn't a new reaction from the group, by any means, but… oh well. That would be a tale for another time.

With that being said, Changmin followed the three of them out of the relative privacy of the dressing room and out into the hustle-bustle of the main backstage corridor. As soon as that dressing room was vacated, however, somebody was swift to occupy it. Changmin cursed inwardly; guess he wouldn't be able to come back to that room later.

With the switching of theater leadership over the past year (a changing of the guard, if you would, but with professors and sponsors), the management of the entire performing arts department was a mess and a half. There were a few stand-out graduate students and undergraduates who were keeping everything in check for all of the events happening over this year—like Hyunjae’s best friend, Lee Jihoon (a graduate student specializing in sound and music production), and Moon Taeil (a graduate who was a soloist in the chamber choir).

As the four young men made their way closer to the immediate backstage, the sound miraculously dulled down. The lights were a lot dimmer here, as the spotlights were turned toward the main stage. Changmin spotted a few people scattered throughout the backstage area with phones or folded script packets in their hands as they recited their lines to themselves, with some even making exaggerated facial expressions and grand hand gestures.

Hyunjae’s best friend was one of the up and coming director-screenwriter “prodigies” that the drama department championed. She was a year older than Changmin was, and he didn’t need to be a genius to know that there were a crowd of people vying for a role in her graduating thesis play. It must have been stressful as fuck, but he knew that she had a good head on her shoulders—

“—I’m gonna stop you right there.”

HJ!Yn’s voice resounded from the other side of the hefty velvet curtains separating the backstage from the main stage. Hyunjae made a show of pressing his index finger to his lips to signal his friends to be quiet—Sunwoo thus made a show of rolling his eyes (“Duh, we’re gonna be quiet.”). They all huddled to the side of the curtain and poked their heads out to see what was going on.

The university performing arts hall was likely one of the most magnificent places on campus. It featured a vast array of floor seating, while also boasting three levels of balcony seats. Changmin remembered once briefly learning the anatomy of the theater seating: the floor or nosebleeds, the slightly lofted box seats, the grand circle, loge circle, and upper circle—the gods. It was all very antiquarian, but it was a place Changmin had become quite familiar with over the years.

The director herself sat in the dimmed nosebleeds section, in the smack middle. Someone had dragged out one of those plastic, foldable tables for her to set her paperwork and a small, battery-operated lamp on top of.

Curiously, sitting next to her was none other than Bae Sumin, your new recruit.

Changmin straightened, accidentally bumping into Younghoon’s shoulder as he did. “Sorry,” he whispered.

Younghoon shook his head to say that it was all good, his hand lifted in acknowledgement.

“Did you know Sumin was here?” He asked his friend.

Younghoon’s expression was thoughtful. “I think so? I left to go find you when I thought I heard someone say they saw her come in. Why? Did she not tell you when the dance department interviews were gonna be held?”

Changmin recalled receiving no notice. “No. I—I figured Yn would be here, too, then. Right?” Was he ready to face you again so soon? Would you even acknowledge him this time—?

Younghoon passed him an amused glance with a small smile fitted over his face. “That would make sense,” he murmured with his arms crossed over his chest. One of his hands reached up to idly massage his jaw. “I’d imagine she would be with her friends, somewhere around here. Though, it would also make sense that she would be sitting with Sumin, too. Then again—”

“You are… no help,” Changmin deadpanned.

His friend chuckled lowly, eyes upturned into slim crescents.

“Uh Jihoon-ah?”

Changmin and Younghoon’s attention flitted over towards the far side of the backstage and they watched as a girl chased after the resident sound producer graduate student. He was, perhaps, smaller than one might anticipate from the intimidating man, but he still harbored so much scary energy and talent within his body. Like all of the staff on the technical team, the pair were clad in all black.

Jihoon glanced up from his clipboard and at the girl. “Hm?”

The girl nodded toward the curtains. “Director is calling for a break and is asking if the house lights can be turned on.”

“Ah okay, come on then. Follow me.”

As the two of them strode across the length of the backstage, the girl’s eyes found Changmin and Younghoon, and… She was looking past him now at someone else. She lifted her hand in a small wave, paired with a smile, “Hi, Sunwoo.”

Changmin whipped his head around, only to realize that Hyunjae had disappeared, but Sunwoo was now standing on Changmin’s other side. He watched in utter delight as his younger friend flushed, even in the dim lighting, at the girl’s greeting. His eyes were wide as he squeaked out a quick, “Hey!” in return.

When Jihoon and his charge had gone out of view, Changmin turned on Sunwoo with a hyena cackle. “Oh my god! Who was that, Kim Sunwoo?”

Sunwoo seemed to shrink into the collar of his hoodie. “No one.”

Changmin’s laughter lit up the room just as the house lights thunk-thunk-thunk’d to life. Younghoon had slipped away, most likely to meet Hyunjae in the nosebleeds, which left only the two of them there alone. “Do you have a crush on her?”

“Yah! You’re such a menace,” Sunwoo groaned, whacking Changmin with the extra length of his sweater paw. “You can’t even talk, dude! You’re in love with a girl who can barely stand to be in the same room—” Sunwoo realized his slip up and slapped a palm over his mouth.

Ouch. The truth hurt, didn’t it? Changmin chuckled, though it was noticeably quieter now. “Well, you’re not wrong—” He shook his head, eyebrows creased together, “—wait, no. Wait, I’m not in love with her!”

Sunwoo rolled his eyes so hard he must have seen his brain up there. “Oh, please. The last time you were drunk and emotional, you showed us that secret little folder in your phone.” He jabbed his finger accusingly at the phone in Changmin’s hand.

Changmin scowled, pressing his phone to his chest as if to protect it in case Sunwoo decided to have wandering hands. “That was told to you in confidence!”

“No, it was told to me in a drunken stupor—” The two of them began to make their way back toward the edge of the curtain, ducking out from its shadow and onto the main stage. Hyunjae and Younghoon were indeed in the nosebleeds now, but Sumin was nowhere to be seen. Maybe she had only been here to observe the audition process. “And you guys say I’m the lightweight.”

“That’s because you are the lightweight.”

Just as the two of them hopped down from the stage and onto the ground floor of seats, Juyeon came in from the doors located at the back of the seats. He raised a hand in greeting to all present, cheerfully waving with that golden retriever-esque grin. “Hey guys! Oh, Changminnie, I was just looking for you.”

Changmin’s eyebrows flew up. “Oh? What’s up, Juyeon?”

Sunwoo retreated into the rows up where Hyunjae and Younghoon were, while Changmin met up with Juyeon in the rightmost aisle.

Juyeon threw a thumb behind him toward the direction he had just come from. “Sumin was asking if you would be willing to do your interview right now.”

His eyes widened slightly. “Right now?”

“That’s what I just said, wasn’t it?”

Changmin pressed his lips together, before nodding. “Uh, for sure. Yeah, lead the way.”

The two dancers hiked their way back up to the back of the area and through the door Juyeon had originally entered through. The main lobby was much less crowded—it was practically barren, which made it the perfect environment to conduct an interview in. Sumin was setting herself up at one of the couches, setting her laptop, phone, and coffee cup on the coffee table opposite to her.

She raised her head when she heard the door open and close, and a bright smile graced her features. “Oh, you found him! Thanks, Juyeonie.”

“Yeah, no problem,” he chirped. “I’ve got a couple things to handle first, but just ask someone to come find me once you and Changmin are done.”

With Juyeon swiftly taking his leave, Changmin was left to take a seat on the other end of the couch that Sumin was sitting at. “Hey, nice to see you again, Sumin,” he said, crossing one ankle over the other and resting his arm along the back of the couch.

The corners of her smile widened. “Nice to see you, too, Changmin! Sorry this was so sudden; I figured that I could get started on some of the interviews while I was here.”

“Oh, yeah, no worries,” he chuckled.

She reached for her phone, fidgeting as she swiped to a simple recording application. “I hope you don’t mind me recording this…?” At his consent, she nodded. “Okay, cool. I did wanna say something before we started.”

He sat up just a bit. “What is it?”

There was a sort of twinkle in her eyes, and if he wasn’t mistaken, her manner became a lot more bashful all of a sudden. “I have to confess that I asked my mentor, Yn, if she could send me some of your dance performance videos and I’m literally in awe of your talent. Like, I wanted to tell you how starstruck I am just being able to tell you this right now, but I just wanted to say this before we started.”

He broke into a boyish grin at this, his dimples becoming craters of joy in the apples of his cheeks. “Ah, thank you—that really means a lot,” he smiled.

Sumin added on, one of her palms pressing against the couch cushion as she leaned toward him slightly, “I mean, I don’t even know how Yn was able to find videos of you from high school, but I’m so glad she did, because—”

Wait what. Changmin was watching Sumin’s mouth move as she talked but he wasn’t truly hearing what she said. His humble, albeit a bit dumbfounded, smile remained, but her words from just before resonated in his head. There were definitely a few of his dance performance videos online from his high school days, but did you keep links to them? Did you keep the recordings on your phone?

The fact that Sumin asked you meant that she probably had no clue about your past, only that you were the person Sumin could rely on if she had any questions.

What did it mean? What did it mean?

His heart pounded in his chest at the thought that maybe he could possibly have an excuse to get you to talk to him, even if it was one, truly dumbass excuse.

“—ready?”

Changmin snapped out of his dazed state. “Sorry?”

Sumin blushed slightly, clearing her throat. At some point, she had pulled her laptop onto her lap and prepped her phone by placing it in between the two of them to record the following conversation. “Are you ready to start?”

He coughed, straightening and adjusting his position. “Oh, yeah—uh, sorry. Yeah, whenever you’re ready.”

Sumin gauged his reaction carefully, but instead of pressing the record button, she hit the power button. “If I may, you seem a little distracted. I don’t really want this to feel like a burden if you’ve got a lot on your plate.”

Shit. “No, I mean,” he shook his head, “I’m sorry. I guess my mind just wanders really easily when…” He huffed a sigh, dragging a hand down his face. “I’m a little tired, that’s all.”

“I totally get that,” she sympathized. “You’ve probably been practicing non-stop lately for the winter showcase. We don’t have to do this today if you’re not in the right headspace.”

He sighed and couldn’t help but feel just a little relieved. He needed to talk to Chanhee about this, math exam or dance practice be damned. But there was a part of him that definitely felt awful about having to cut off her interview even before it began. He gestured to her phone. “How about we reschedule? We could meet up sometime else during the week to redo this and I promise I’ll be all yours.”

He didn’t know what he did, but the pink on her cheeks deepened to a cherry red. “Oh, uh, sure!” She giggled, taking her phone and passing it over to him. “You can just put your phone number in there and I’ll text you to ask when you wanna meet up.”

Changmin nodded his agreement and swiftly inputted his contact information into the given slots. “Definitely,” he said before handing her phone back to her. The phone fumbled between the two of them, but Changmin was already standing up with the goal to go retrieve his bag (wherever it was), and to go consult Chanhee and the man’s infinitesimal opinions. “Really sorry again, Sumin.”

“Yeah, don’t worry about it!” She dismissed his worries with a flick of her wrist. “Would you mind finding Juyeon, though?”

Changmin sent her a thumb’s up over his shoulder on his way to the door. “Yeah, for sure.”

She returned the gesture, watching as he disappeared out of the main lobby. It was only when he was definitely gone, she covered her mouth with her hand and stared at his saved contact in her phone. Then, with a silent scream of happiness, she ran to her text chain with you to tell you all about it.

a/n: PLS STILL REBLOG THIS PART EVEN THO ITS NOT THE FULL THING PLS PLS PLS IM BEGGING

read part two here (also linked at top)

permanent taglist: @honeyhuii @crazywittysassy @seomisaho @stopeatread @enhacolor @rnjfy @jaehunnyy @kpopjackie @spiderrenjunfics @soobin-chois @ethereal-engene @mingiholic @ja4hyvn @vatterie @yogurteume @justalildumpling @hyunjaespresent-deobi @hongyangi @pxppxrminty @nerdypastacalzonespy @jcmdoll @kflixnet

taglist: @oi-miya @loveliestfelix @sickvision @jaerisdiction @stealanity @magnificentjudementmoneyhands @inthesunnn @igotkpoopsss @letsnotdoanything @starryjww @sodafy @rreneeeeee @dajanxekiwi @sseastar-main @jenowithjaem @moonyswolf @sleepymoon27 @floatingpluto @fictionlover100 @winterchimez @softie00 @sseuyeon @qkyuscult @hwanunjin @zlebooks @mcu-incorrect @nctzennikki09 @hrt4cheol @moontyuns @quill-ink

#kflixnet #the boyz x reader #ji changmin x reader #changmin x reader #q x reader #the boyz fanfic #the boyz drabble #the boyz fluff #the boyz oneshot #the boyz angst #the boyz imagines #the boyz scenarios #ji changmin oneshots #ji changmin drabbles #changmin imagines #changmin oneshot #changmin fluff #changmin angst #changmin scenarios

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yesihaveaobsession · 23 days

Text

Hells Prom

Alastor x female reader

Summary: Hell's annual prom is just around the corner! And Alastor needs a date.

A/N- Prom season has arrived! ART NOT MINE SO CREDITS TO WHOEVER MADE THIS BEAUTIFUL PIECE.

I'm just exposing all my drafts to yall 😭

Alastor hummed as he grazed his forest, which occupied the other half of his room. The annual Hell's Prom was just around the corner, and the infamous Radio Demon didn't have a date. That simply wouldn't do! He could go by himself, sure, but what's the Radio Demon doing at prom without his plus one?!

As he continued his way, humming a merry tune and twirling his cane, it all stopped when he came face to face with a bush. It was your (f/f) -favorite flower. He could've easily stopped off at a florist, but wildflowers are always simply better.

Picking the flower, he headed out of the forest part and then out of the 'normal' part of his bedroom. Now he found himself making his way down the streets of Hell when he stopped in front of your house. He fixed his bowtie, straightened out his suit jacket, and had an arm behind his back that clutched the cane, while the other held the delicate flower.

You were in your living room folding some laundry and watching a rerun of your favorite show. You then heard the doorbell ring, so you turned off your TV and put the clothing you folded down, heading to the door.

As you opened it, you were met with Alastor, wearing his usual smile. "Good evening, my dear," he greeted with a charming smile, his eyes gleaming with an otherworldly allure. "I hope I'm not intruding. Might I have a moment of your time?"

You only smiled with confusion as you opened the door more. "Not at all, Alastor. What do you need?" You asked curiously and looked at the flower that still was clutched in his hand. You could tell by the grip that he was nervous. He's never really asked anyone for such a favor.

Alastor's hand that held the flower extended towards you, and as he inched closer, you noticed little droplets that appeared on his hair, but you didn't want to say anything and ruin the moment. You took the flower out of his hand, and his tall structure bent down in a bow. You just smiled and stifled a giggle. This was just too cute. He looked up at you, making his stance more "professional" by slightly stepping back with his right leg.

"My dear, would you do me the honor of accompanying me to Hell's prom? I assure you, it promises to be a night unlike any other, filled with music, laughter, and perhaps a touch of delightful chaos."

Your eyes danced with excitement. His gaze held yours, a silent invitation dancing in the depths of his eyes. "What do you say, my dear? Shall we make memories that shall linger in the corridors of Hell for eternity?"

You nodded. "I wouldn't want to go any other way." You saw the look of relief in his eyes despite his grin that was always plastered on his face. He took your hand and kissed the back of it before standing back up to his usual stance.

"So are we matching?" You teased, and he looked at you, expecting him to fight back. He just spun on his heel but froze and turned his head back towards you.

"I wouldn't want it any other way, darling." That made your heart flutter as you watched him disappear into his shadow. You shut the door and slid down it, clutching the flower. Your cheeks heated up.

You were going to the prom with the Radio Demon.

#alastor #hazbin hotel #alastor x you #the radio demon #alastor imagine #hazbin alastor #alastor x reader #i have an obsession

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venturelovebot · 17 days

Text

A/N: It's the sequel to part one! I've been feeling kinda down lately so i made this one extra fluffy and special for everyone out there going through a rough time as well. I hope y'all enjoy! Writing this gave me so much serotonin! ( ´͈ ◡ `͈ )

Premise: G/N!insecure!reader draws a new tattoo for their crush teehee,,, just trust me when I say it's pure cotton candy fluff!!!

Warnings: None! Pure fluff!

"It'll be okay. Just call me if you need help." Illari turns away from you and opens the door.

You gulp softly as she turns the knob. At the door was your date– just as cute as the day you first saw them. A gentle pink lights up your cheeks and you feel yourself involuntarily begin to smile.

"Y/N! Didn't think you'd be here!" Sloane jokes, taking a seat across from you on the floor.

You both now sit facing your coffee table with traditional art supplies scattered about on its surface.

"I guess I could say the same for you." You reply awkwardly, unsure if it was the proper thing to say or not. Your circuits are fried from anxiety.

"Please, I'm not that bad!" Sloane laughs lightly. "I may of slept in but I wouldn't want to miss a first date!"

First date... it feels unreal.

Illari locks the door behind her before you're both left alone. In the distance you can hear the thunder rumbling from an oncoming storm... it's the only noise you can hear besides the deafening silence.

"I-I can turn on a movie if you want!" You offer, "Or maybe some music if you prefer?"

"Music sounds good! What do you like to listen to anyway?" They ask, taking a peak at your phone.

"Oh– mostly [favorite genre]. It helps me focus when I'm drawing." You tap on your work playlist and set your phone aside.

"I can dig that!"

The atmosphere begins to lighten and you exhale inaudibly. Your fingers glaze over your drawing supplies before you pick up a blue pencil for sketching outlines. Sloane sits across from you with their eyes glued on your movement.

"So... did you decide on what you wanted for your tattoo yet?" You ask.

Sloane takes out their phone and lays it down on the table. They show you a picture of a skull adorned with a ceramic flower crown that appeared to be on display in a museum somewhere.

"Last year I got to visit this archeological museum in Greece. I thought this was so cool!" They explain. You take a good look at it.

Immediately you begin by tracing a circle and sketching out the guide lines. Slowly you begin adding more details. First one socket, then two. The nose was third. Last came the mouth and teeth.

"Wow. That didn't take long at all..." Sloane slides over to your side to get a better look. You feel your face warm up as their knee gently touches yours.

"It's just the rough draft. We still have a lot of work to do." You lay the paper back down on the table. "We still need to decide on the flowers."

"Hmm... well, what're your favorite flowers?"

"My favorites? Why mine? This is your tattoo. It should be your favorite flowers."

There was a moment of silence as the two of you thought together. Another rumble of thunder in the distance as the sunset was covered up in a blanket of gray clouds.

"What about chrysanthemums? You said you saw this skull in Greece. Chrysanthemums are very popular there." You begin to sketch out the flowers along the top of the skull.

Sloane watches as your drawing slowly began to come together. Your fingers moved elegantly across the paper as you added more and more detail to your sketch. There was something fascinating about the way you did things that had them utterly engrossed with the whole process. Anyone else could do the same thing and it would bore them to tears– but not you. Something about you was different. Their heart softly pounded in their chest as you steadily continued your work.

"There. What do you think of it so far?" You ask, handing them the paper again.

There were no words. The silence from them made you anxious.

"You don't like it?" You frowned and bit your lip realizing you probably shouldn't have said that.

"It's beautiful. Of course I like it–" Sloane's face flushed from nervousness. "No, that's not true... I love it! You're crazy talented!"

You couldn't help but laugh. Sloane's gentle pink face turned bright vermillion– they had never been more flustered in front of another human being before. Not in a long time.

"I mean that!"

You tuck some of your hair behind your ear and glance away.

"I believe you. I've just never seen you so red before."

They place their hand on their face in an attempt to hide themself. "I–" They stop talking before they can embarrass themself further.

"Hm?" You teased them by poking their cheek. You simply couldn't help yourself this time.

Then you're caught by complete surprise when Sloane brings their hand to cup yours and place it on their warm face. Their other hand moves from their mouth and they look at you in complete seriousness.

"I mean it– you're different. I haven't ever felt like this before. It's weird– I love to talk to you. I love spending time with you. You're talented and interesting in every way–" They pause for a moment.

All is still. The only sound is the soft music playing in the background and the soft pattering of rain against the nearby windows.

"I mean it! I... I like you, okay? I mean it." They confess.

"Oh." Your faces now share the same flustered red. "Wow."

"Well... I fucked up, huh...?" Their hand begins to move away from yours.

You cup their face with your other hand and move in closer. Before you could think you press your lips up against theirs and kiss them. It feels like an eternity passes before you slowly pull away.

"C-can you do that again?" Sloane's voice cracks. Their smile lights up their entire face.

You do as they ask and kiss them again.

"One more time...?" They beg.

You kiss them one more time before the two of you separate for good. Afterwards you couldn't help but glance at the floor in embarrassment as the shame hit you all at once.

"Thanks." Is the only thing they can muster.

"Please don't tell Illari, she'll never let this go." You plead.

"I won't tell if you don't." Sloane smirks, still trying to recover from the whole ordeal.

"Then... umm... let's get back to it."

"To what?" Their heart begins to pound again.

"To the tattoo."

"Oh. Yeah. That." They exhale softly in both relief and disappointment. They made a mental note to ask for more kisses in the future.

You begin the slow and arduous clean up process. You're extra careful to brush off loose eraser rubber in a way that doesn't disturb the rest of the drawing. Outlining with ink proved more difficult than usual as your hands noticeably shook from all of the excitement. You made sure every line was neat and fluid before scanning the drawing into your laptop for back up.

Neither of you talked for the remainder of the process, but the silence was a comfortable one this time. Outside the rain had steadily turned into a light drizzle.

"Do you want to color it with me? You can choose the colors, obviously."

"Would I?!" Sloane grinned before catching themself. "I mean... I would love to!" They add. They couldn't help but cringe internally from being so awkward.

"You're so cute," you smile. "I mean it." You echo the sentiment that was given to you earlier.

"Aww... stop it! You're making me blush!" They grab the black color pencil and get to work coloring before they face further embarrassment.

"That's the point." You tease them gently before joining them.

The two of you color in silence before Sloane grabs the yellow color pencil. They look back up at you.

"Say, Y/N, what's your favorite color?" They ask.

"Oh. Probably [favorite color]. Why?"

"I want to do our favorite colors for the flowers."

You smile... but only for a moment. "Are you sure, though? Not to be a downer but what if you regret it in a couple years? Or meet someone else? Or get tired of me?" You frown just thinking about it.

They grow serious for a moment. You're afraid you made them angry from the expression on their face.

"Y/N. I need you to remember this when I say it now, okay?" Sloane says.

You nod nervously.

"Nothing could ever make me regret this. Nothing could ever make me regret spending time with you tonight. Nobody could ever come close to making me feel as safe and welcome as you do."

You exchange glances with them for some time afterwards. The words linger in the air and you feel your heart fluttering as they reach out and hold your hand.

"I want to spend a lot more time with you. Not just tonight. I want to see you again. And again. And again. I never want to stop seeing you, actually." They swallow their nervousness harshly before continuing. "I want to wake up next to you someday. I want to make history together with you. I want people to see our bones in thousands of years and know that I loved spending time with you. Does that answer your questions?"

You're left absolutely speechless.

They grin. "I know I said I wanted to be a mummy but it's not worth it if we can't be in the same tomb together. You know what I mean?"

All at once you feel hot tears spilling out on your cheeks like a broken dam. Your arms wrap around Sloane and you bury your face into their chest. "Oh my God!" You cry, and they wrap their arms around you in support. They softly rub your back as you continue to helplessly sob into their shirt.

"Just like Pylades said. It's not rotten work if it's you." They quote.

The rain continues drizzling outside. All is quiet once more as they pull you into the most comforting hug you've ever been given in your entire life.

"Come on. Let's watch a movie together." They pick you up bridal style and lay you down on the couch. "What do you want to watch?"

"Hm... can we watch [favorite movie]?" You suggest.

They nuzzle their face into yours and give you a kiss on the cheek. "Sounds good to me!"

The finished skull artwork lays unattended on the coffee table as the two of you snuggle underneath the cover of a soft blanket. They wrap themself around you carefully and nuzzle into you once again. Your head presses up against their chest and you listen quietly to their racing heart as you both gently descend into sleep.

Just outside, the rain has finally stopped.

#god help me but i might continue this...#venture x reader #venture overwatch #sloane cameron #overwatch x reader #overwatch x you #overwatch fanfiction #overwatch #overwatch 2

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lilacmingi · 8 months

Text

MY MUSE

My works are 14+ ONLY. If you’re under 14 DO NOT interact with me or any of my works

Word count: 840

Pairing: Hyunjin x fem reader (all my imagines are fem reader but there are no gendered terms in this one)

Note: I enjoy drawing and painting, so this might be a bit of a self-indulgent drabble haha

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Art supplies sat neatly on the table in front of you, each one ready to use. Pencils, sharpeners, erasers, and blending tools were laid out before you. Anything you could possibly need was within reach and at your disposal.

Hyunjin's sketchbook sat across from yours lying open on a blank page, his supplies lined up tidily beside the book. Your setup looked very similar; your pencil case was positioned beside your sketchbook, your own sharpener right beside it, as well as your eraser.

Hyunjin had some time off and so the two of you had planned to have a night of drawing together.

You watched as he grabbed his plastic headband and put it on, pulling his lengthy onyx hair away from his face, displaying his perfect features. He then grabbed his phone, humming to himself as he scrolled through his music library perusing the different genres and selecting a song to play before taking a seat across from you.

He gave you a gentle smile. "You ready to get started?"

"I am." You nodded.

You opened your sketchbook to an empty page, unzipping your pencil case and pulling one of them out. Unsure of what to draw, you sat idly for a few seconds, twiddling your pencil while waiting for inspiration to strike. That's when your eyes landed on the man sitting before you, already hard at work sketching across his page.

Your muse.

The tip of your freshly-sharpened pencil hit the page and you got to work, sketching out shapes and rough outlines, glancing up at Hyunjin every few seconds to make sure your draft matched the model.

The ball of your socked foot tapped against the carpet, matching the rhythm of the relaxing indie song that played from Hyunjin's Bluetooth speaker as you allowed yourself to get immersed in your work. All of your focus was zeroed in on the masterpiece in progress. The sketch was coming along well, though there was a couple times you had to keep erasing the lips and redrawing them because your sketch just wasn't doing justice to the real thing.

You loved this. Sitting peacefully while drawing with your loving boyfriend and listening to music was something you've been wanting to do with Hyunjin for a while. Even though there were no words being exchanged and you were both sitting in silence while concentrating on your own artworks, it was still absolutely perfect. One of the many things you loved about Hyunjin was being able to be in his presence and not having to say a word. Wether that be drawing, cuddling, or watching a movie. Just having him there was enough.

Your sketching ceased for a few seconds as you swapped out your pencil for one with darker lead so you could begin shading and darkening the lines of your drawing.

No more than thirty seconds later you were back to work, dragging the sharpened edge of the lead along the faded lines you'd roughly sketched out earlier.

"Relax, love." Hyunjin chuckled, pressing his thumb between your brows to smooth out the creases.

Your face relaxed under his touch as you let out a soft chuckle. "Sorry."

"You're really focused, aren't you?"

"Yeah."

"That's cute." He murmured, his eyes lowering to your sketchbook which you were quick to cover with your hands.

"No peeking."

"Alright, alright." He chortled, picking up his pencil once again and proceeding with his sketch.

The supplies which had once been laid out neatly were now scattered across the table, each one being dropped without a care as to where it landed. Neither of you had time to gently place down each item once you were finished with it, you were far too focused on your sketches. An unknown amount of time had passed since you first sat down, both you and Hyunjin getting lost in your craft. You were so engrossed you didn't get a chance to see what he was drawing.

"Alright." You huffed out, pushing your hair away from your face. "I'm finished."

Hyunjin was quiet for a moment as he quick scribbled his signature at the corner of the page.

"Me too." He announced.

You held your masterpiece to your chest, not wanting him to see just yet.

"Are you ready?" You asked.

He nodded and you flipped the page around.

Hyunjin's brows raised as he took the paper from you so he could look at it closer.

"You drew me." He stated in awe.

"Of course I did. You're my muse."

He chuckled softly, handing you his drawing.

To your surprise, an image of you sitting and drawing was portrayed in shades of gray pencil lead.

The both of you were drawing each other without even knowing.

"You're my muse too." He mentioned.

Your eyes gazed over the sketch in awe, admiring his seamless shading and the way he captured your features so well. He truly was blessed with a talent for art.

"You made me look so beautiful." You murmured softly under your breath.

"Because you are beautiful, darling."

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Masterlist ᝰ — enjoyed this imagine? reblogs & comments are very much appreciated!

DO NOT steal, plagiarize, copy, repost, alter, or translate my works in any way

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#stray kids imagines #stray kids #hyunjin x reader #hyunjin imagines #stray kids x reader #stray kids drabbles #hyunjin drabbles

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minnielvr · 4 months

Text

december - hwang hyunjin

˚ ༘ pairing bf! hyunjin x fem! idol! reader

˚ ༘ genre fluff, song fic

˚ ༘ wc 892

˚ ༘ listen to december - ariana grande (seriously, listen to it.)

˚ ༘ note the arianator inside me is coming out😭 this been sitting in my drafts since the beginning of december🙏

you had just released your new solo song today. it was a christmas themed loved song. hyunjin was on your mind the whole time you were making it, so you guess it was a little early christmas gift for him.

you opened the door to your guys' shared apartment and kicked off your shoes. you ran towards hyunjins little art studio and barged in.

"babe babe! did you hear the new song i released?!?" you hoped he did already.

he chuckled softly and put down his art palette, wiping his hands and taking off his little apron, he invited you to sit down on his lap.

"no i have not baby, wanna show it to me?" his soft eyes were staring right into yours, making you shy. you nuzzled your face into his neck and muttered something incoherent to him.

"hm? what was that honey?" he tried to lift your face out of the crook of his neck but it was no use.

"j-just search it up and play it.." you looked up a little bit into his eyes.

"but thats no fun," he pouted. "how about you sing it for me? it can be an early christmas gift." he smirked. almost as if he knew it was for him.

"fine, but no laughing!" you took his phone and went to youtube to search up the song.

he giggled. "okay baby, i won't laugh, i promise." he moved you a little bit backwards on his lap so he could get the full view of you.

you pulled up the music on his phone and started singing, trying to avoid eye contact with him.

when december comes, i bet you want to wrap me all up and take me home with you see what i look like under them lights we'll keep it quiet, whatever we do

you winked at him after that verse. his mouth opened a little bit but he still smiled nonetheless. your voice sounded like honey to him. he liked where this song was going so far.

i'm just tryna keep my baby warm through the wintertime i'm just tryna give you something to remember through the summertime and whatever is on your list, i'll do it boy, whatever it is, you know i'll do it

his smile grew wider realizing that the song was about him, he grabbed your chin with two fingers and tilted your head up to meet him eyes. he really wanted to kiss you right now, but that can wait until after you're done.

merry christmas, here i am, boy gonna love you, gonna give you all i can, boy merry christmas, here i am, boy i'm the present and you know it, here i am, boy merry christmas, here i am, boy gonna love you, gonna give you all i can, boy merry christmas, here i am, boy i'm the present and you know it, boy

he smiled so softly but wide at you and his eyes did that thing when he smiled so big. everything about this moment was so perfect to him. your voice, the song, the lyrics, everything. he really couldn't believe you made a whole song dedicated to him

so he did the only normal thing anyone would do in a situation like this. he paused the music, grabbed your chin, and kissed you.

you felt fireworks going off in your stomach. this definitely wasn't your guys' first kiss, but it sure felt like it. you guys stayed like that for about five seconds until you both pulled away for some oxygen.

"y/n i seriously cant believe you, that was the cutest and hottest thing ever." he pulled you closer and let his head rest on your chest.

you started cascading your fingers through his soft hair, taking out any tangles. "well thank you very much," you giggle a little bit. "but i wasnt even finished singing." you pouted.

"oh honey i'm sorry. it's just that i thought it was so cute that i had to kiss you." he looked up at you and smiled. he then sat up properly and grabbed your cheeks. "i love you so much darling, thank you for writing that about me." he connected his forehead to yours and gave you a tiny peck on your lips.

"i love you more hyune, you don't have to thank me by the way. i would do it for you in a heart beat." you gave him a little peck on the lips back.

"so, im expecting you to be wrapped up in a bunch of bows on christmas day okay? since you're my present and all." he teased.

"in your dreams lover boy" you winked at him and got off his lap, making your way to the bathroom to go shower. it was hot in his studio, not to mention and the tension that was going on. he pouted at you and asked where you were going.

"i'm going to shower!" you called out from the main area.

hyunjin perked up at that statement. he scrambled off his stool and almost tripped to go catch up with you.

"w-wait for me!" he ran towards the bathroom but he was too late, you had already shut the door.

"get your head out of the gutter hyunjin" you called out from the bathroom and laughed at him.

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maniculum · 4 months

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Bestiaryposting Results -- Gligglae

Sorry this is later than usual; traveling for the holidays makes it difficult to keep up with this sort of thing. The smart move would have been to write it up a couple days ahead of time, then on Monday just update it with anything new that had been posted since, but see, what happened was that I did not do that. Instead, I tried to type this up Monday evening in between various family obligations, realized I didn't have time to do it properly, and just shoved it in my drafts. Then all of Tuesday was taken up with the long drive back home from where my family lives, and now you're getting it on Wednesday.

(Also, don't worry, I followed all CDC guidelines appropriate for someone who had recently had covid, and wouldn't have traveled for the holidays at all if I hadn't been without a fever for 48 hours prior to departing. Plus I drove instead of flying, didn't visit anyone but immediate family, and had a mask the whole time, so even if I am still contagious somehow, exposure was pretty minimal.)

Anyway, the entry that our artists are working from is here:

And, of course, all previous material on this matter can be found at https://maniculum.tumblr.com/bestiaryposting.

I think a larger number of people than usual identified the animal in question right off the proverbial bat, because this one has some pretty blatant tells, but as always I appreciate everyone trying to put it out of their minds.

So, anyway, in rough chronological order:

@coolest-capybara (link to post here) (thank you for providing your own alt text, I really appreciate it) brings us her usual impeccably medieval-stylized rendition -- the swirls and curves in this one give it a really interesting vibe, I think. We can see the Gligglae in full-body profile on the left there, and a group of them doing their cluster behavior on the right. The, like, griffin/cockatrice/vampire look is pretty great, also. I enjoy the overall design, which you can find some discussion of in the linked post. Gold foil also a nice touch.

Coolest-capybara also notes that the entry is very interested in the ways in which the creature is "almost, but not quite, entirely unlike a bird," and I can explain why that is. It is because this entry is in the Bird section of the bestiary, so officially this is a bird -- I mean, it flies, what else can it be -- but it's sufficiently un-bird-like that it really sticks out to the authors, so they need to explain the ways in which it's Doing Bird Wrong. Everything else in this section does X, so we need to point out that this one does Y, kind of thing.

@silverhart-makes-art (link to post here) has drawn an absolutely adorable little Gligglae. (Adorable if you have my sense of aesthetics, that is -- I suspect if you're among the portion of the population that finds aye-ayes more creepy-looking than cute, that might apply here as well.) There's an explanation of design decisions in the linked post, including a number of references to real animals that provided inspiration. I like the decision to play up the "lowly" and "mean" part of the description by making it small and kind of scruffy. And the general concept of blending "gliding rodent" with "nocturnal primate" to make an arboreal mammal with elements of both really worked out well here, in my opinion.

@aethereaii (link to post here) has done this beautiful piece in a style that kind of gives "19th-century naturalist" vibes. (Actually, it makes me think of James Gurney, but I suspect that association says more about my childhood reading habits than anything else.) This is a great design in my opinion, and you can find some brief discussion on design decisions as well as an earlier version of the Gligglae in the linked post. The earlier design is also very good, but I agree with Aethereaii that this one is a step up, particularly with the Anomalocaris-inspired faux-wings. I also really like the inclusion of the juvenile Gligglae (Gligglings?) clinging to their parent's back in the corner there.

@karthara (link to post here) decided to go in a reptilian direction with this one, which (a) works well and (b) caused me to spend a chunk of time reading about flying snakes on Wikipedia just now. So in this version, the "rowing motion with its skin" is a description of the Gligglae flaring its ribs and undulating through the air -- which I genuinely think really makes sense. The entry seems to legitimately disagree with itself about whether this critter has wings (or, taking it entirely literally, it has wings but flies through a completely separate method that specifically does not involve said wings, which I think we're justified in deciding is Wrong), so I think going with such a non-wing-like flight method works here. Also like the concept of making these very cuddly (and apparently loving, according to our bestiary author) creatures into a type of animal that usually isn't seen that way. The linked post also contains some brief notes on design decisions.

@strixcattus (link to post here) has, as per usual, provided a really excellent modern-naturalistic description of the creature they've designed in the linked post, and you should definitely go check it out right now. I'll wait.

... back? Okay good. I particularly like their interpretation of the "grape-cluster" behavior as a social group that's specifically not a kin group; and also the fact that said group is officially referred to as a "cuddle". The choice to make it a whole genus and show us several different wild and domesticated species, also very good, love it. As with several of these drawings, Strixcattus's Gligglae (Gligglaes?) are extremely cute -- which, really, does also fit the description provided in the entry. They're like tadpoles crossed with sugar gliders.

@cheapsweets (link to post here) credits Ken Sugimori's Pokemon illustrations as a stylistic inspiration, which I suppose explains why the Gligglae cluster seems to be hanging from a Sudowoodo. The linked post also draws certain parallels between medieval bestiaries and the Pokedex, which I think is actually pretty insightful. There's also a breakdown of their design decisions there, go read it. I think this is a pretty good rendering of something that is like a flying squirrel but distinctly not a flying squirrel, and I like the shaggy look of the fur.

Also, thank you for providing your own alt text.

@pomrania (link to post here) is, I think, the only person to take the bestiary author at their word that this animal has wings but flies through some other, non-wing-related method. You can see the tiny useless wings at the shoulder there. I really think that's fascinating as a concept: what evolutionary pressures would produce an animal that (a) has wings and (b) flies but (c) those two things are unrelated? Although this many appendages on a fur-bearing creature puts us firmly in the "alien biology" territory, so maybe it's silly to expect it to make sense by the standards of terrestrial biology. Regardless, I like it, and I think the decision to run with the "rowing" description by giving it those oar-shaped appendages is a good & creative one. The post linked above contains a fair bit of information on design decisions and the drawing process here -- there are sketches and everything.

@vindikat (link to post here) has interpreted this in a way I find really charming. The art is of course excellent, very well drawn, and I appreciate the effort that went into doing these different poses. However, I really like it from a worldbuilding perspective: this gives me the impression of a small species of griffin that's adapted to urban living, more pigeon/cat than eagle/lion. (Come to think, both pigeons and cats are examples of feral populations finding a successful niche, rather than wild ones that adapt to a city, so maybe we can speculate that these guys are also descended from domestic ancestors.) Also the Gligglae under the eaves there remind me of pictures of chimney swifts that have made the rounds on Tumblr.

The design is also generally very appealing; I think the extra wings and the long tail really work here. The linked post includes an explanation of the design decisions that I think is worth taking a look at.

@moustawott (link to post here) has given us another very cuddly version of the Gligglae. I particularly like the wing design here, how it's kind of a mammalian version of a pterosaur -- Moustawott indicates that they were specifically trying not to draw the animal that they're sure this is, and I think the pterosaur-squirrel design here is a great way to make something that could fill kind of the same niche while being an unmistakably distinct creature. The little round head and eye markings remind me of a chipmunk, also, which is cute.

@rautavaara (link to post here) continues to do interesting stylistic stuff with their contributions. I like how the limited color palette here makes this look kind of like a single-block woodcut or similar relief printing. Like, you could plausibly see this as a design someone's carved into a wood block, then printed on mustard-yellow paper with purple ink. (I'm actually not 100% sure that's not what it is; I would just be surprised if someone actually went the extra mile of breaking out the engraving tools for my little bestiaryposting thing.) Very dynamic scene, also, and a charming creature design; love the huge mouths with pointy little fangs.

All right, these are all the ones that come up on the search; if I missed yours, let me know please.

(I have to apologize here for another delay that's absolutely my fault -- I would have had this out a few hours ago, but I got derailed by impulsively deciding to check out that Hbomberguy plagiarism video everyone's talking out, and... yeah.)

Anyway, as a number of this week's artists indicated, this one was really easy to guess, so the reveal seems a little pointless, but we have a format, so:

Obviously, this was the sheep.

What? Look, you can't make assumptions with these things. Some of these medieval bestiary entries are really counterintuitive. Medieval Europeans believed there was a species of small, highly-social, flying nocturnal sheep native to Ethiopia.

Really, it's in Pliny the Elder.

...

Yes, fine, I'm just lying to you for fun. It's the animal you all think it is, there are no flying sheep to my knowledge. Here's the Aberdeen Bestiary illustration.

Yep, it's the bat. Oddly human face on that one, and generally I don't think this was drawn from life, but it's definitely a bat.

I do kind of find the way it's described in this entry kind of interesting, though. The confusion about whether bats count as having wings (even after having been placed in the "bird" category) is kind of odd, and the "rowing" description is not one I would have ever thought of. I very much like the declaration that the way bats huddle together is "an act of love of a sort which is difficult to find among men"; it's a sweet way to talk about a creature with a generally negative reputation, which contrasts interestingly with the fact that the author also thinks of them as "lowly" and "mean". You kind of get the idea of a creature that's a bit wretched but in a sympathetic way. "Scrungly", one might say.

#maniculum bestiaryposting #gligglae

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lizaluvsthis · 5 months

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By the way- quick announcement !

HAVE THIS CUTE ART I MADE <3 I HATE EM THEY'RE TOO GAY FOR THIS TBH /POS

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I'm gonna be revealing the

Chapters of "Indigo Secret"

Quick note: the colors you see are available while the blank white colors still remains drafted and will be continued working on very soon

- ★ LizaLuvs

[COMPLETED] Chapter 1 - The Purple NoteBook

[COMPLETED] Chapter 2 - SMG4?

[COMPLETED] Chapter 3 - 'Forgettaboutit'

[Pending...] Chapter 4 - The Special Moments

Chapter 5 - WHAT. THE. F!CK.

Chapter 6 -

Chapter 7 -

Chapter 8 -

Chapter 9 -

Chapter 10 -

Bonus chapter...

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U-u-uh no you're not allowed to look at the other titles of the chapter because it's erm... teehee <3

Anyway I hope you guys are liking the comics I made! I drew them with love and joy from my heart- I love two gay people even tho I'm being in denial that I don't

OKAY THATS IT- BAIII I hope to let you guys read further more comics until the end!

I'll be back soon so stay safe out there my lil pooks! Liza out!

- ☆ LizaLuvs

#smg3 #smg34 #smg4 #lizaluv #smg4 smg3 #indigosecret #little purple diary #mario #my art #fanfic

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