Lucas // How To: Kill an Idea
i have been really struggling with feeling numb lately and i super projected that onto this character. i really do apologize if it doesn’t make for the most interesting read. i may or may not end up rewriting this when i’m feeling better.
Warnings: emotional numbness and detachment
Masterlist
THIS IS PART 2!!! Read part one here: How To: Hurt My Feelings
Lucas x Reader (angst // 7.3k words); ft. stepbrother!Johnny
The way the lights reflected off the water brought only distant memories of the Han flowing through the city of Seoul and mirroring the life around it. The bustle of the city, the calm of the river banks. The things that you neighbored so long ago.
You could become so lost in the remnants of the past - that you would forget to lose yourself in the readiness of the moment.
You owed the Garonne. After tirelessly looking over you for months on end, you owed her your presence at the very least. How dare you look at her in all of her beauty and only think of another.
She smiled at you nonetheless. The Garonne sat with you one last night and told you how much she would miss you - how much all of Bordeaux would miss you. She told you that the stone buildings, the ones in the alleyway that you cut through every night as you return to your dorm, didn't know what they were going to do without you. She told you that the little birds that had nested outside of your window had practiced a sadder song to sing after you left. She swore that the lights in the city shone brighter than they ever had before when you landed and that they would fade upon your departure.
She made you promise that you would come back to see all of them: the buildings, the birds, and the lights. On your own accord, you promised you would come back to see her.
The Garonne waved you off that night, sending you to bed and wishing you a restful slumber and a safe flight in the morning.
Tired and stiff, you limp out of the terminal with your laptop clutched to your chest and a yawn escaping your lips. You mindlessly followed the crowd of other travelers to baggage claim and patiently waited for your suitcase to be sorted onto the conveyor belt.
"Pardon me, Mademoiselle," a familiar voice reached your ears, "I believe a poor boy has been waiting far too long to see you here."
You spun on your heel, a bright smile suddenly overtaking your features. "Lucas," you call quietly as you envelop him in a tight hug. You had barely moved for sixteen hours straight, but once in his arms, every desire for motion ceased. It seemed that he agreed, as he latched onto you and refused to let go.
"I missed you," he admitted before placing a kiss on the top of your head and moving to grab your bag off the belt.
"I missed you more," you answered softly.
He took your hand and kissed it before leading you through the airport and down to the parking garage where your brother was waiting, leaned up against his car, and dusting the cigarette ashes off of his sleeve.
"Hey there, Miss France," he says as he moves to envelop you in a hug of his own. "How was your flight?"
"It was fine," you answer simply. "Long, but fine."
"Well, you have an hour-long car trip to give us the highlights of France, if you're not too tired. We could stop by a late-night diner too if you're hungry."
You nodded along as you climbed into the car, enjoying the banter after your long trip. But as you rode in the passenger seat home (funny, you thought, that you still called it home), you took in things about the city that you never really appreciated.
The locals that ignored the do-not-cross signs, the billboards that were so shrouded in smog that you could barely read them, the stray cats that freely wandered the city like it was their own personal playground. All the things that you used to neighbor.
And when you got to the bridge that you'd longed to see since you left, the Han welcomed you home with as much love for you as it had six months ago. You made it a point to tell him about the Garonne sometime. You think he would enjoy hearing about her.
"The pastries," you say simply. "It was France; of course the pastries were the best."
Johnny dropped you back at your apartment and your boyfriend opted to stay the night, helping you settle back into the space that you could once again call your own.
Another tenant had contracted your apartment for the time you were away - there were a few more cuts and bruises than you remember leaving, but it was nothing you couldn't patch up. The bed wasn't where you had it, the shower knobs had been replaced, and an empty curtain rod rest stretched along your window seal.
"The stuff you left with us, it's still back at the frat," he chuckles awkwardly.
"That's okay." You offer him a small smile and plop down on one of the only four pieces of stand-alone furniture left in the space, the old black sofa in the same spot it's always been. "At least they didn't take my couch."
"Y/N, darling, I don't know if I would lay on that if I were you."
His words took a moment to register, but when they did your eyes shot open and you were out of your seat comically fast. "Oh God, ew..."
He laughed again and pressed a small kiss to your temple. "Let's take a shower and then we'll figure things out, okay? And you know, you don't have to sleep here tonight. There are no sheets on the bed or anything, so you can-"
You cut him off with a quick kiss and lead him to the bathroom, ready for a warm shower to take away all of your travel pains.
"Not really," you answered honestly, rolling your head to the side to look at your boyfriend. You'd been looking at his ceiling for a while, head resting on his thigh while he played with your hair. It felt nice, you thought, to get a chance to live in your memories - specifically the memories you had left with him here in his room, the ones that always waited for you while you were away. "All of my days in France were spent doing something or another. By myself, with the people that I met. So no, it never really got mundane. I didn't think that kind of life existed for anyone over the age of nine." You let out a small but heavy breath. "I guess I had to experience it for myself to understand."
Lucas doesn't say anything for a moment. Instead, he focuses on gently detangling a knot that his fingers had caught on. Your hair was longer now than it was.
"I'm happy for you," he reassures you. He doesn't quite know what he's reassuring, but he reassures you nonetheless.
"Lucas?" you ask softly.
"Hmm?" he responds, his gruff voice sounding tired.
"What would you have done if I didn't come back?" His finger stop working in your mess of locks and all of his attention is focused on dissecting what you just asked him.
"I don't know what answer you want me to give you," he says smally, glancing down at you before retraining his gaze on the ceiling, its texture nearly lost in the dark.
"There isn't a certain answer I want. I'm just curious."
"I don't understand the question," he almost interrupts, suddenly a bit tenser than he was only moments ago.
"I don't mean anything by it, Lucas. It's not a loaded question." Your soft voice is enough to lul his hand back to its comforting motions. "Would you have gone after me or would you have let me go?"
"I would have gone after you without a second thought. Definitely, I would have."
"I thought about staying you know."
There's a pause, a small silence of thought on both ends.
"Why didn't you," he asks with genuine curiosity.
"It wasn't home. You weren't there."
A wolf whistle follows you into the kitchen the next morning and you feel the need to suppress your groan.
"If I knew you were staying the night, I would have held a cup against the door."
"Oh, gross, Jaehyun," you sneer, turning to jab your elbow into the older boy's side.
"What? Not everyone gets to tour France." You can't help but dramatically roll your eyes and threaten him with a punch.
"Do you want a cup of coffee? I was about to put on a pot."
"Sure," he smiles gratefully. "And you can tell me about Bordeaux while we wait."
"Oh, it was beautiful," you think back as you prepare the grounds. "As the sun was setting, the sky would turn golden. If there were any clouds that evening, they would turn all different shades of pink. The lights over the water - words wouldn't do it justice."
Jaehyun chuckles before yawning out, "Well, that's a first."
"Jung Jaehyun, if you are trying to say that I talk too much-"
"That's not what I'm saying," he defends. "I mean you always have a way with words. It's your thing, ya' know. Words."
You hum, turning back to your task. "I guess I hadn't thought about it that way - at least not for a while."
The door to the kitchen swings open and another boy ungracefully stumbles into the kitchen. Haechan is clad in a plain T-shirt and dark shorts (if you could call them that). His hair is no longer silver; it's now a dusty brown, curling up into the picture of a sandstorm blowing about his head. He looked healthier, or maybe just more mature since you last saw him. He'd filled out a bit, and grown into those long limbs of his.
"Man, what's will all the commotion in here? It's Saturday and- Y/N?" The boy immediately perks up upon seeing you. "Oh my gosh, Y/N! You're back!" He hugs you and sits down at the island beside his older friend, suddenly as energetic as a child on Christmas morning. "Great, because I made a list of pranks we're gonna pull together. Jaehyun, since you're here, I guess you can help us too. Okay, first of all, we're gonna shove a bag of chocolate powder mix down the shower drain. I'd like to make sure that one gets Mark because he blamed me for breaking Johnny's lamp."
There were things you would have to readjust to in Korea. Things that you didn't think would catch you off guard, yet still managed to turn you around every now and again. The wet bath was one of them; you were going to miss your tub. You also suddenly found bowing a bit more strange than you originally had, as well as keeping personal space when you greeted someone altogether. Most prominently, the language barrier that you weren't so sure you'd ever really overcome in your first life in Korea.
Words were suddenly weird to you again. Ideas that could manifest themselves in one language but not another. At times, there were no proper parallels, nor were there ways in which to express everything going on inside your head.
Though you tried your hardest, what little French you learned simply wouldn't translate properly to English, or the English wouldn't translate to Korean, or the Korean to French, or the French to Korean, or the Korean to the English. The words just never came out the way you wanted them to, and in a way, it was like a piece of you fell away from the rest, lost somewhere between all of your different lives.
Lucas noticed how much quieter you seemed since you'd returned.
You made it a point to generally avoid contact with everyone while you were away. You occasionally checked in with them to let them know that you were alive, but other than that had kept your space. You became more dedicated to learning about yourself and how to care for your well-being. You began making decisions of your own, from what you would eat every night and how early you would wake up every morning to what debacles were worth your time and energy. You decided that most of them weren't. You decided that pondering your life was taking years off of it, and that you didn't like to eat snails. You decided that you weren't so bad after all, and for that matter, no one else was either. You decided to live.
"Hey, can I see something on your Instagram real quick?" you asked softly, setting your bowl of fancy ramen on the coffee table in front of you. "I think one of my friends just had a baby and I wanted to see if she's posted any pictures yet."
Without giving it much thought, Lucas hands you his phone and turns back to his meal. "What happened to your Instagram?" he questioned.
"Deleted it," you quip, pulling up your friend's account. He hears you coo before you shove the device back into his hands, urging him to look at the baby. He thought the child, redfaced and wet, looked like an alien, though he'd never tell you that.
"Why'd you delete it?" he pursues.
You simply shrug and cover more of your legs with the blanket that rested on the both of you. "Didn't need it." He gives you an unsatisfied groan, but you can't think of a better answer. It was simple - while you took plenty of photos to document your life, you no longer found it necessary to post them.
"Okay," he tries, "what about your Kakao Story?"
"Deleted."
"So you no longer use Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Skype, Instagram, or Kakao Story? What if someone needs to contact you?"
"I still have Kakao and Discord."
"Okay, what about my posts? Or your other friends'?"
"If they have something to tell me, they will," you sip your hot tea and lean into his side.
"It’s like she doesn't want to talk to me. She doesn't want to talk to anyone," groans Lucas as he sprawls out on Mark's bed. "She doesn't talk nearly as much as she used to."
Mark's hand didn't stop relaying notes to his journal as he talked with Lucas, translating as many of his lyrical ideas onto paper as he could keep up with.
"She's not the same person she used to be, Lucas."
Lucas had trouble making sense of it, why Mark sounded so sure about that. It almost hurt his pride that one of his roommates was telling him something about you, his girlfriend.
"Who is?" Lucas rubs his eyes. "We've all grown up since then."
Mark's hand halts. "Since then?"
"Since-" he sighs. "Ya' know, since... Since we..."
"Don't hurt yourself," Mark chuckles. "Maybe," he offers, "this chapter of your life is written in a different style. Did you even notice? That your life hasn't been going the same since she got back?"
"Of course it's not the same," the elder defends. "It's infinitely better."
"Spare me. Look, I'm just saying, the less she talks, the more dialog you're putting in your own book. And I think it's better this way. I mean, I can't tell you how to write your life, but I can honestly say I think you're doing better now than you were before. You started using your words instead of acting on impulse. That's not easy, man. Words are hard."
Words: your staple, your foundation, your life. They were your nothing anymore.
And Lucas didn't know how to understand.
He tried not to take it personally, but soon you fell into almost complete silence both with him and his friends. When you joined them for a Smash Bros competition, you didn't exclaim your victories nor mourn your defeats. When you dressed, you didn't ask for his opinions on the color of your lipstick nor the type of heel you should wear. When you laid in bed with him and watched his fan turn above your heads, you refused to humor his desire to hear your voice. And he took the fault upon himself.
He felt guilty asking anything of you anymore because you never opened your mouth to ask for favors in return.
"Y/N, will you come cuddle with me?" he calls with as much endearment as he can shove into his tone.
This was for your own good, he reminded himself.
You hadn't watched the news in months, and he knew that. You, ever the stickler for meaningful conversation, had devoted large portions of your time to staying up to date before. As of late, however, you preferred "to watch the world crash and burn around you from a first-person point-of-view rather than a third-person point-of-view."
He hoped that sitting you down to watch the news for a while would spark a fire in your opinionated soul. So imagine his reaction when you crawled into his arms and fell asleep, paying absolutely no mind to the colors or words on the screen.
His next plan was to plant your favorite novel in the hands of your favorite philosopher.
This was for your own good, he reminded himself.
He shoved the book into Doyoung's hands with a stern "fix her." Needless to say, Doyoung had the book read within a couple of days and Lucas invited you over as soon as his friend flipped through the pages for the final time.
"A piece of modern art," he suggests. "A sorrow lost to the sands of time and a meaning forgotten by society."
Lucas watches in amazement as you sit and nod along to everything that Doyoung says. You didn't interject your ideas even once. You just listened.
He was running out of ideas. So his last plot was his last hope that there may be a bit of yourself left inside of you. He would take you on a date - the best date you've ever been on - and thrust so much happiness and gratefulness onto you that you wouldn't be able to contain it so silently. He knew it was a dirty trick, but how else was he to make sure that you were okay if you would no longer tell him anything about yourself.
This was for your own good, he reminded himself.
Really, he should have asked you out first, before he came barging into your apartment (tidier than he'd ever seen it before and reeking of cleaner) with a bundle of flowers and demanding your attention for the evening.
Surprise.
He was about to push open the door to your bedroom when he heard a soft sniffle from inside. His eyes widened and his shoulders fell. His heart broke when he heard a small sob fall from your lips.
He peeked inside. It was dark, mind the laptop that sat on your desk and illuminating your shaking form. You laid your head on one arm and used your other hand to rake through your stringy hair. Your glasses had been tossed to the shadowy void and your cheeks were wet and sticky.
The header of your philosophy paper stared you down as you unraveled before it. The rest of the blank page was absolutely daunting. Your acceptance of the world around you had drained away your ability to have a coherent cognitive thought about it, forget about writing one.
To some extent, you missed the days when you were confident in your ability to build empires out of words. Now, you couldn't even build a ten-page paper, especially not by 11:59 pm that night.
To a greater extreme, you couldn't understand why you would want to return to your opinionated ways or your charismatic skills that abused fact until it bent to your will. What purpose did fact or, more importantly, idea have anymore, other than to aid your ability to charm others to abide by your purpose?
It felt wrong to write a definitive philosophical thesis, especially when you couldn't bring yourself to definitively believe in anything particular.
"Y/N," you jumped at the sound of your own name and quickly wiped your cheeks with the back of your sleeves, sitting up straighter and making yourself more presentable before you turned around to face him. Lucas saw it all. He watched you put your mask back on right before his eyes, and he realized that you were hurting in ways that he couldn't see until now.
"Lucas," you cursed your shaky voice. "What's up? Why are you here?"
He takes a few quiet steps until he's standing before you and kneels to look into your eyes. There are things that he wants to say, 'you're scaring me' being the most prominent, but he knows he should choose his words more carefully.
"I want to know what's going on. I want to help." He slips his hands into your own and rests them on your knees.
"I just don't think you can," you answer simply.
"Can you tell me what's the matter?"
You shake your head and the tears come rushing back to your eyes. "I don't know what's the matter." It's honest. You don't know why your head can't wrap around your assignments, or your conversations, or your own thoughts as of late.
All that time spent with yourself taught you how to understand yourself and your own needs. You feel that you have exchanged your understanding of the world around you for a simpler version of life. Did that make you selfish? You didn't know.
All Lucas could do was watch you as you fell back into your frustrations. It didn't take long before your brows were knitted back together, your nose was running, and your eyes had glazed over as you retreated back inside of yourself.
"Y/N," he softly called. Your eyes only met his for a second before they were cast somewhere else and your attention ran away from you once again.
"I think," you started, unsure of every word that slipped past your lips. "I think you should go."
You didn't know how to explain to him that you were afraid of what he might think of you at that moment, or that you didn't want to hurt his feelings any more than you guessed you already had.
"I don't want to go. I'm tired of leaving you alone." He stood, gently pulling you to stand with him, and led you to the edge of your bed with a delicate touch. "You don't have to sleep. You don't have to talk. Just lay here with me for a little while and let me be close to you."
"You know," Lucas started as he tossed the noodles in the pan. He'd tucked you into the couch earlier that evening and told you to forget the paper you'd been stressing over. You happily complied. "I don't know how to say this any better." You listened keenly as you pulled a throw pillow into your lap and wrapped yourself around it. "I know that this is probably the last thing you want to talk about, but I did something very wrong to you. I'm still sorry, and I hope you know that. But..." He cast you a quick glance over his shoulder before reaching for the seasoning in your pantry. "I don't think I ever gave you the chance to yell at me. Or like, to be mad at me - ya' know?"
You thought for a moment, front teeth chewing on your thumbnail before you shook your head softly and answered, "I don't want to yell at you. I don't want to be mad at you."
You heard a repressed sound of discouragement before looking to see him dishing your dinner plates. "I wish you would. I wish you would yell at me and tell me what I did was wrong. I wish you would be angry with me for a little while. I wish you would just tell me something about how you feel about it."
He handed you your plate and watched as you ran back inside of your own head. He watched your eyes glaze over as you replayed his words, and yet you made sense of almost none of them. You didn't understand what he was asking of you.
You toyed with your food as you tried to process his request. You didn't even notice when he took his seat beside you, nor did you notice the burning gaze he watched you with.
"Y/N," he called, shaking you out of your trance. "I want you to yell at me." You looked at him like a deer caught in headlights - big black eyes staring down a deadly light. "How did you feel when it happened? Shout something horrific at me about what was going through your head at the time."
You took a small bite and swallowed, training your eyes on the coffee table before you. "I don't remember."
You looked so small, so helpless, and so distant. You were there, right next to him, and yet you were so far away. He was having trouble finding you.
"Yell. Break something. For fuck's sake, please."
The more pressure he applied, the further you seemed to slip away. Before he knew it, you were gone.
"That's not her anymore." He found himself on Mark's bed once again, tucked into the younger boy's covers and pouring out his heart. "She's not all there. She just looks so empty now."
"Dude, I don't know why you come to me for this sort of thing. It's not like I'm just great with girls," the younger quips from his desk chair. "And Johnny would know more about her than I would-"
"No. He absolutely cannot know that I broke his sister."
Mark hummed in thought for a moment before he laid his pen down in his textbook and turned his full body to his friend. "Lucas, be honest with me about something." Lucas nodded. "Did you see anyone else while she was in France?"
Lucas shook his head as he took in his friend's words carefully. He had no right to be mad at the accusation, so he kept his temper in check until a particularly vile thought trotted across his mind. He sat up immediately. "Oh God, do you think that she did? Do you think she considered it a break and she slept with someone else?"
"No, that's not what I'm saying- hey- Lucas, stop." Lucas was already to his feet and out the door before he could finish. "So not my fault," he grumbled to himself.
Finally, it all made sense to him. You couldn't be mad at him if you were also guilty. You couldn't yell at him for committing a sin you'd also committed. He was going to redress the scale. He was going to make you the word again. He was going to be the action.
The solid thuds against your wooden door made you jump up from your floor. Adrenaline spread through your fingertips and you took a step back towards your bedroom.
"We need to talk."
Lucas sounded angry. You pushed and pulled with your memory, but found no trace of experiencing this feeling before: fear of him. You moved against your gut to let him in. You barely opened the door before he pushed his way inside, rattling off accusation after accusation.
"Did you think we were on a break? Because we weren't on a break."
You just listened.
"Did you just forget about me while you were there? Did you just ignore the fact that I was waiting for you? I was stuck here, waiting for you every day while you were in France."
You didn't speak.
"So you just got to do whatever you wanted while I had to sulk here? You just couldn't control yourself, huh? Do you know how hard it was to keep control of myself while you were gone?"
'It was hard?' you thought.
"How about we take another break then? How about this time, I get to sleep with whoever I want? Well? Aren't you even going to open your mouth to defend yourself?"
You didn't.
"Am I wrong?" He prompted. "I didn't think so. Now we're on a break. Now you can fuck around with whoever you want."
Shocked couldn't begin to describe the state he left you in. You stood there, clambering for answers as to what could have sent him on a warpath to your apartment in the first place. His seemingly unprompted fit of jealous rage couldn't really have been sparked without a cause, you figured.
Maybe he'd seen pictures of you with your male friends in France. Maybe a rumor had been spread about you. Maybe he was just tired of you and feeding himself a rotten narrative as an excuse to break up with you.
You didn't want to know. You opted to rather accept his decision, and all of your own emotions that came flooding back with it.
"Hey man, have you talked to Y/N lately? She took one of my classes last year, and I wanted to see if I could get her notes before semester tests." Haechan asks his elder who lay sprawled on the couch.
"Nope," he said, popping the 'p.'
"What?" Haechan asked, looking up from his phone. "What do you mean you haven't talked to her?"
Lucas lazily yawned and reached for his soda can beside him. "It's not like she's my girlfriend or something. I'm not her keeper."
"Shit, Lucas, you didn't," Mark groaned, rubbing his temple.
"No, you were right. She was sleeping with other guys while she was in France. She didn't even try to deny it."
"Hang on, I never said that. You conjured that one up all on your own, buddy."
Haechan frowned as his frat members debated. He was focused on a much bigger issue at large.
"When did you break up with her?" he asks cautiously.
"Hey, we're just on a break. Don't go getting any ideas-"
"Jesus fuck, can your ego get any bigger?" Lucas crossed his arms and refocused his attention on the television, jaw clenched tightly. "You're so annoying," Haechan mumbled under his breath, already moving towards the door and shooting your brother a message telling him to meet in front of your apartment.
"Damn, you got called annoying by Haechan. How does that feel?"
"Can it, Lee."
You could feel it all, the swarm of emotions swirling and twirling around inside your chest, and yet you couldn't begin to name any of them. All you knew was that it hurt and you wanted it to stop.
You laid in your bed and watched your ceiling fondly. You liked how it didn't move. You didn't struggle to keep up with it. And it was dependable; it would always be there.
You didn't move when the knock at your front door finally registered in your ears; you were tired of playing doorman in your own residence.
You were just tired actually.
"Y/N," Johnny called, lightly pushing open the door to your bedroom. A strong sense of deja vu winded you. You knew this scene, you'd lived it before. "It's me and Haechan. I'm sorry we didn't call first." You didn't know how they managed to get inside, nor did you care. You just wanted to sleep.
Johnny took a seat next to you on the side of your bed. He brushed a strand of hair out of your eyes in an attempt to capture your attention. That's when the smell hit you. The heavy stench of cigarettes washed over all of your senses causing you to retract from his touch. He looked shaken at first, scared that he might have hurt you.
"You didn’t smoke before," you recalled. It was almost a feat in and of itself to remember the bitter past, but the small victory was stifled by the thick, wet air of the bitter present.
His eyes softened before he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a pack he'd bought just a few days before. "I started a few months ago while you were away. I knew you wouldn't be happy about it."
"I don't care," you answered promptly before slowly pulling yourself to sit up against your headboard.
Haechan watched from the doorway. He wondered if he'd ever seen someone in this state before, or if he ever would again. He looked at you and almost failed to see the human being in front of him. He watched you move like a frightened animal, stiff and weary. He watched your untrained gaze flicker between your brother and your brother's outstretched hand.
This couldn't have just been the work of Lucas, he concluded. There were more deeply rooted implications here. There was an unresolved issue before your idiot boyfriend played to his own role.
"Can you tell me what's wrong?"
"I don't know," you answered honestly.
Johnny looked to Haechan for support, but the younger could offer only his presence in this situation.
"That's okay," your brother soothed. "Haechan," he turned to your mutual friend, "can you call Ten and Yuta and see if they've, uh, noticed anything weird lately about..." He gestured to you. Haechan excused himself to place the calls. "Food? Food always helps, right?" he tried with a dry chuckle. You paid absolutely no mind to him.
"I can't take this," Ten muttered to himself, excusing himself from your bedroom. Five boys had soon found themselves huddled in your doorway, watching your every move intently as you resisted every attempt your brother made to move you.
You felt like a lab rat, being looked at from all angles as Johnny poked and prodded to see what would make you tick. It felt humiliating.
"Let's just go for a drive," he tried again, gently pulling your arms away from your chest and trying to guide you out of bed.
"No," you answered again, pulling yourself away from him and settling further back into your bed.
"Maybe we should just let her be for tonight," Jaehyun suggested, moving to stand beside your brother whose head was fallen in defeat.
"I can't just leave her like this, Jae. I still don't understand what's going on."
"Just give her some space," Jaehyun tried again. "This clearly isn't very effective."
Johnny sighed but ended up in compliance as everyone except for Jungwoo moved to your living room. They quietly deliberated as Jungwoo read allowed one of your favorite novels from the end of your bed, hoping against all hope that it would in some way bring you back from the void in which your mind seemed to currently reside.
"Honestly, we had planned to just come and cheer her up," Haechan had said. "We didn't know we'd find her like this. But I can't say it really surprised me, she's been off for months now."
"I thought something seemed weird. She hasn't said much to me in a while."
"Me either."
"Yeah, same."
Everyone generally agreed with Ten's statement.
"Do you guys think something happened in France?" Jaehyun suggests.
"Or maybe things haven't been going so well between her and Lucas for a while?" Yuta offers.
"Everything just feels like it's spinning," you said, cutting off Jungwoo's reading of Mary Shelley's finest work. He was just happy to have heard you say anything at all. "Everything is going so fast around me. I just wanna take a nap, sleep for a while." As you relayed your simple disposition, you found yourself moving to lay on your side, plenty warm but unwilling to relinquish your comforter. "I don't feel like I belong here, so I'm going to sleep instead."
Jungwoo set the book to the side and laid himself down at the end of your bed. "I don't feel like I belong here sometimes either," he relates.
"But you do," you say, looking over his features and seeing every sharp and jagged curve for the first time.
"You do too," he promises.
Hours of hushed worries bled into the night, and you awoke alone in your apartment in the morning. You had no initial intention of getting out of bed. It was the hardcover copy of Frankenstein standing upright on your bedside table that stirred your aching joints into motion.
Then you remembered.
How could you ever even forget?
The Han River smiled when you arrived, taking a seat on his bank. He asked you why you'd been such an unfamiliar face as of late, to which you had no reply. He thanked you for coming to visit him nonetheless and told you about how much Seoul had missed you while you were away. He told you about the alley cats and how they missed the treats you would occasionally leave for them on your way to classes. He told you about how much the sky cried about you spending spring away. He told you that the city lights drowned out the stars while you were gone, but let them peak back into the city when you returned.
You had no beating heart to pour out into his water, so instead, you gave him your soul. The Han understood and sat with you until you bore no more faults on which to complain. He told you he missed you. You told him that you missed him too. You told him about the Garonne and how much you thought he would like her. Then he sent you off into the afternoon bustle of the city with a watchful eye.
You wondered the streets for a while. Not a penny in your pocket, and still you found so many little joys in all the cracks and crevices of Seoul. You pet the stray cats; they'd always been particularly fond of you. You walked around an antique shop making wild guesses about the past lives of every item in sight. You climbed a tree in the park without a damn to spare the onlookers. By sunset, your feet had taken you back to your campus and directly to the front door of your apartment.
"How about some tea?" you ask yourself as you push the door open, not half expecting to be ambushed by a group of concerned young men demanding to know where you were.
"Would you all like some tea too?"
It was still a struggle to hear your voice most of the time, but visible relief settled over those who'd seen you cowering from your brother in your bedroom only days prior. They all continued to check in on you frequently, as they still had difficulties coaxing you away from your apartment.
"Lucas," Johnny had finally caught him lurking in the kitchen around midnight. He was beginning to grow irritable with how troublesome he had become to locate.
Lucas froze, cup ramen clasped in one hand with chopsticks in the other. Busted like a child with their hand in the cookie jar.
"Look, I'm sorry about your sister," he started without really knowing where he was going. "I know that I kinda jumped the gun-"
"I don't want to fight with you again," the elder said. He had kept his calm since the situation had arisen. The last time you and your boyfriend had a falling out, all hell broke loose in their dorms. He had landed a good solid punch on the more-than-deserving idiot and held the belief that he probably deserved a few more. However, he'd rather not have everyone in a frenzy once more, turning against one another. "I just need you to tell me what was going on before you left."
Lucas's shoulders slump and he sets his late-night meal on the countertop. "I was just so frustrated. She always let me into her head before - but when she came back, she just stopped talking to me. She shut me out," he relayed. "I tried everything I could think of. I tried to make her really happy, I tried to make her really mad. She wouldn't talk to me."
"She won't talk to me either," Johnny said, resting a reassuring hand on Lucas's shoulder.
"I'm sorry," he responds, taking some measure of the blame upon himself. He felt that maybe if he'd had more patience with you, he could have helped you to get better. Now you were detaching yourself from not only him but your other friends and family as well. "Do you think she would want to see me?"
Your brother shrugged but a small smirk played on his lips. "I dunno. Maybe you should go find out tomorrow."
Needless to say, Lucas felt displaced and burdened by heavy guilt as he stood in your doorway, looking down on your fragile body. The last time he came knocking on your door in the most awful hours of the morning, he begged and cried on his knees for you not to leave him. He felt himself resist the urge to fall to the ground and repeat his mantra of pleas.
You didn't ask him why he was there so early in the morning, nor did you ask him if he wanted to come in. Your stare made his skin feel cold. He cleared his throat to dispel some of the awkward tension that he felt clawing at his airways.
"Can I come in?" Without a word, you moved to the side. "Thank you. Were you asleep?"
"No," you say simply, trailing behind him as he steps into your kitchen.
He lets out a low chuckle as he glances around the room. It looked so surprisingly unhomely and clean. Not a single dish in the sink, nor a potted plant out of place. "I keep messing up pretty badly, don't I?"
He hated the empty way you looked at him. It was as if you didn't know him. It was as if you had just let a complete stranger into your apartment.
"I don't understand, and I'm really trying to. I know that you know that things have changed since you got back. I don't know what that means yet, but I do know that I still love you. And that I'm stupid. I know that too."
You hummed along, a thoughtful expression overtaking your blank features.
"And I know that I’m sorry. I let a stupid idea get into my head and I let it hurt my own feelings. I shouldn’t have taken that out on you. Please don't leave me."
You didn't offer an answer, instead opening your arms and inviting him back into your embrace. He placed a small kiss on your lips, something he felt like he hadn't done in ages, and wrapped himself around you in an effort to keep you by his side forever.
"Are you happy here in Seoul?" your boyfriend asked, picking at the grass in front of his crossed legs. He looked at you as you looked down at the water. "I mean, I know you don't want to go back to (country), and I have a feeling that you don't exactly want to go live with my family in China. But like, would you rather be in Bordeaux? Or would you rather stay here?"
"I don't know." He hummed and waited for you to elaborate, but you made no real effort to.
"I know that we're still young and we don't have to make any decisions about where we want to live yet," he cooed, looking up to watch the sun set behind the large city towers, "but would you stay here in Seoul with me for a little while?"
You nodded, reaching over to take his hand in your own before pulling him to lay in the grass with you.
"You know, you're not the same person that you were before you left. I've realized that," he said with a sad smile as he looked over at you and placed a small kiss on your chin, pulling a small giggle from your lips. "It's a pleasure to meet you. I can't wait to get to know you again."
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right here, right now
1.5k Words | suggestive (no acutal smut)
↳ fem. reader + haechan
↳ 📁 extra info: when you two are at a your sisters sweet 16, its hard for hyuck to keep his hands to himself with you in that dress and all.
You ran your hands down the front of your dress, smoothing out the bumps. The dress hugged every curve on your body and you looked beautiful. Hyuck stood beside you fiddling with his tie, huffing and pouting. You watched him from the corner of your eye, smirking to yourself.
“You’re such a baby.” You tease, turning to face him and grab a hold of his tie.
He watched your fingers intensively, moving in ways he’ll never understand. Hyuck was good at a lot of things. He’s an amazing singer and dancer and never failed to crack a smile, but learning how to tie a tie was never something he could do.
“But I’m your baby.” he caught your eyes and you smiled.
“You’re so cheesy.”
You finished working your magic and placed the tie down, letting hit his chest. You grabbed a hold of his collar, adjusting it for him. He could not take his eyes off of you. You were so beautiful to him, the way your skin glowed, that little spark in your eye whenever you said I love you. He took in how good you looked, how sexy you were...
The effect you had on him was unreal.
“What?” You asked, dropping your hands from his collar.
He shook his head and you frowned your brows at him, crossing your arms. He turned on his heel, and made his way to the nightstand.
“What do you mean no?” You asked, agitated at his silence.
Hyuck sat at the edge of the bed, the mattress dipping. He reached towards the nightstand drawer and pulled it open. You walked over to him, your heels clicking against the wood. You sat beside him, an annoyed expression on your face. He loves to do this, see you get all bothered with him. That little pout on your face, and your flushed cheeks drives him crazy.
He reached in the drawer for a long black box. The anger on your face faded away and was replaced with curiosity. He shifted his body to face you. You’re eyes left the box and you looked at him but he didn’t look at you.
He opened the box, facing it towards him so you couldnt see it yet.
“Close your eyes.”
“Wha-”
“Just close them.” He whined, a small smile creeped onto your face. Even when he was trying to be all serious his lack of patience always got the best of him.
You shut your eyes tight, waiting for Hyuck to do something. The silence was eerie, until you heard the box snap back in place. The weight shifted on the mattress, and you heard Hyucks dress shoes tap against the wood.
He made his way behind you, sitting again. You could hear his breaths, and him being this close to you made your insides light on fire anticipating his next move. His finger tips grazed the side of your neck as he gathered all your hair to one side.
Even his small, simple touches, made your skin spark. Every time he would touch you it felt like the first time he ever did. Something cold hit your chest and you jumped a little, and you could hear Hyuck chuckle. You heard a small ting of metal snapping together and you smiled to yourself.
Hyuck lowered his hands from the back of your neck, removing one completely but keeping the other one there. The smile on your face faded away as you heard his body shift closer to yours, his chest flushed against your back. Your breath hitched.
Your eyes were still shut, every breath he took sounded like a gush of wind, and every touch sent shock waves through your body. Hyuck dragged his fingers across the back of your neck, bearly touching it, bringing them them all the way around slowly till his hand reached the front of your neck. You could feel a burning pit in your stomach and you swallowed hard.
His hand tightened lightly, putting some pressure but not too much, a small gasp leaving your lips. Hyuck’s lips pressed into your shoulder ever so softly. His lips worked their way up your neck, and you tossed your head back to rest on his shoulder giving him better access. His hot breath against his skin, and his touch was making you hot and bothered and he knew so.
You let out a whine when his lips disconnected from your neck, missing his touch. He moved his lips to your ear, his breath like a fire breathing dragon.
“I don’t know how you expect me to keep my hands to myself tonight when you’re in that dress” He whispered in your ear.
Your eyes snapped open and you pushed yourself off of him. You turned your head, giving him a dumbfounded look.
“Donghyuck! There are going to be actual children there.” You scold him.
“They don’t need to know...” He trails off, grabbing your hand.
You jerk your hand away from his and push yourself off the bed. Is he really being serious right now? He can’t keep it in his pants at a 16 year olds birthday party? He was being incredibly ridiculous, you glared at his smirking self.
“Hyuck I swear on everything holy, if you do not keep your hands off of me tonight.”
“What are you going to do about it sunshine?” He provoked, standing up. He looked down on your small figure.
“Hyuck-”
“Alright, I’ll behave.” He groaned.
“Thank you.” You sighed in relief.
You should have fucking knew it. Little boy blue could never keep off even for a few hours. He always had to touch, even in front of young teenagers. You were visibly angry as you stood by the carter, asking for some water. You sipped on your drink, watching Hyuck approach you. His eyes were dark, and you knew his exact intentions.
“You’ve been hiding from me. I had to resort to talking to your crazy aunt with the 4 cats.” He pouts.
“Maybe you should stay over there.” You offered, raising a brow at him. As much as you loved him, when he was needy, oh boy was it like taking care of a toddler.
“Y/n” He whined. “Stop being mean.”
“Stop being horny” You snarked.
Big mistake.
Something flipped in Hyuck, like a light switch. He grabbed your free hand and pulled you along. You scoffed and tried to pull away, but he shot you a look that immediately shut you up.
You followed him through the banquet hall, no…more like he dragged you through the banquet hall.
Hyuck opened the staff room door, closing and locking it behind you two.
You placed your cup of water onto a shelf and crossed your arms.
“Hyuck what the hell?” You questioned.
“I know this is a high schoolers birthday party but we cant just fuck in the closet like some high school students.” You snapped.
You opened your mouth again, but shut it immediately your eyes met with Hyucks lustful ones.
“So you want to act like a brat huh?”
You stayed quiet. He stepped closer to you, the gap between you two becoming smaller by the second.
“You were so loud and proud a few seconds ago. What happened baby girl?” His body was a few mere inches away from yours. Your chest rose and fell rapidly, as you stared him in his eyes.
He grabbed the back of your head roughly, your hair wrapped in his fingers. You’d be lying if you said you didn’t want him to take you right here, right now.
He moved his lips close to yours, hovering above them ever so slightly. You became so desperate for his kiss as you watched his lips. He looked into your eyes, his orbs dark filled with lust and hunger. Something told you that when you got home you were in for it.
“Enough.” You thought to yourself. You went to kiss his lips but he pulled your head back and chuckled.
“Oh no Y/N, remember…I have to keep my hands off of you tonight.”
“Hyuck please” You whined. You caved into him.
He wanted to see your fucked out expression, he wanted to hear the way you would moan his names, your nails down his back, but you started acting up. He couldn’t give you what you wanted now.
“Actually you know what? I think I’m okay now.” He let go of the back of your head.
Your eyes widened as you watched him walk towards the door.
“Wait, are you serious right now? All night and now you just want to stop?” You scoffed in anger.
He stopped in his tracks and turned his head over his shoulder.
“You better keep that mouth of yours in check baby girl or you’ll really be in for it when we get home.”
And with that, he walked out of the small staff room leaving you high and dry.
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pairing: jaemin x reader
word count: 1.5k
type: barista!jaemin, you guys get stuck in the café cuz of haechan’s bet, minor injury, mentions of dream, fluff, angst only if you squint
song suggestion: make you mine by public
authors note: this is another one from my old Instagram account while i work on new things
Oh god, end me. You muttered to yourself, as you try to pry open windows. “That’s not going to work,” Jaemin spoke up, as his eyes averted else where.
The day was going great. You woke up, finished all your work, had classes, and even went to hang out with friends.
So how did you end up getting locked in the café with Na Jaemin?
You both share the same group of friends (never really speak to each other though), and tend to always see each other when your friends make plans.
Today, Haechan, the usual Rock Paper Scissors bet maker, decided to do one for two people to get snacks in the café; for his idea of a movie projector in his house to hang out.
Which, clearly you and Jaemin, both lost.
Lucky for the group, Jaemin works at the café. In fact, he’s got that name flowing out “Barista boy Nana”, not that you’ve ever call him that. Jaemin is the number one employee of the café, considering how much he loves coffee.
So lucky to both of you, Jaemin had keys to the café. To your luck, it has a thread too. You don’t even remember the last time you spoke to Jaemin. Last year of high school? First day of university?
Yes, you and Jaemin have a past. You both use to be very close. Even before he met the guys, he always spoke to you. Until the group got bigger, and the distance between you also got bigger.
You ended up drifting.
But that didn’t stop you from being in the same friend group. I mean: shit happens, move on. But that’s not what happened, you ended up having feelings for him anyway.
Well, you question yourself, who wouldn’t fall for someone as attractive as him?
So here you are, your heart nearly beating out of your chest as you both are stuck in the café.
Jaemin’s manager let you guys in, so Jaemin didn’t have to open the doors. And as you both got snacks in silence, Jaemin’s manager got a call, and immediately left the café, saying her home had a electricity cut out.
You both didn’t mind at first, so you continued on with what you were doing. Well, at least until the electricity cut out for the whole place.
With no electricity, the doors can’t open. They function automatically, and you curse to yourself for them not even thinking of an emergency exit.
Now, you looked outside the windows, seeing how empty they became (since it’s midnight). You perk up, “Um.” You let out. He looks up at you with a hum.
“I-I was wondering if you have wifi, or even any signal. Like maybe we can call the others, and then they can get help or something.” You tell him.
“Oh,” He pulls his phone out and huffs, “No signal or wifi.” You sit down on one of the seats and look out the window. Jaemin stood behind the counter, peering over to you. “Y/n,” He spoke.
You look up at him with a nod. “You’re shivering,” He walks up to you, as he took off his jacket and draped it over your shoulders. You shake your head, “I don’t—.” He plops down onto a seat at another table. “You need it more than I do.” He says, looking at his phone.
You huff, before walking up to him, as you reach out his jacket. “I don’t need it.” You say, with a soft face. All he does is look at you, before trailing his eyes down to your hands, “You’re shaking.”
“It’s okay,” You place his jacket on the table, before giving him a soft smile. “I’ll live.” You walk back to your seat, as his eyes burn into your back.
About minutes of silence, you hear a sound from outside, and Jaemin gets up from his seat, and walking to the door. He tries pulling on the doors, letting out a harsh breath when he pulls away.
You perk up at his pain, and walk hastily towards him. You grab his hands without thinking, motioning him to sit. You examine his hand, “You have a scratch.” You mutter under your breath. Your hands held his slender fingers, as he looks at your focused face.
Suddenly, you stand up, making the boy perk up in confusion. “Where are you going?” He asks, finally speaking. “Getting a cloth and some warm water to rinse your scratch,” You pace yourself behind the counter.
“Pretty sure your manager would care more about your health than the use of water.” You dampen a cloth, before walking back to him.
He shuts his eyes as the cloth makes contact with the scratch, soon easing into the touch as it stopped the bleeding. He looked at your soft expression, his own expression softening.
“Uhm,” You spoke up, and he comes back to reality as you pull out a bandaid from your pocket, “Do you always keep bandaids in your pocket?” He asks you, making you giggle softly. “I’m a clumsy person,” You wrap the bandaid on his finger.
You raise your own hand up, “Look, we’re matching.” You show the bandaid on the same finger as his. He chuckles, and you both feel the heat rise upon your cheeks as you look down, breaking eye contact.
You lean back into the booth seat, diverting your eyes to the ceiling. With minutes of silence and hesitance, he envelops your hand with his, making you widen your eyes in surprise. He doesn’t tighten his grasp, making sure you’re comfortable with his touch.
As he feels your stiffen settle, he breaks the silence. “Why did we stop talking?” You’re taken aback at first, before shrug your shoulders slightly. “I don’t know. I never really understood.” You mumble.
“If—“ His breath hitches. “If we didn’t stop talking, would you...” He grasps onto you arm tighter, eyes digging into your own
“Would you consider me more than someone who’s just a friend in the group?”
And that’s when you knew, barista boy felt the same way you do.
You look at him for a second, your heart pounding out of your chest. You hold a grasp onto his hand as well, “And if I say I already do?” You question him. His eyes light up, and you can see the smile on his face by just looking at his eyes.
“I’d say I already do as well.” He tells you. You smile softly, before tracing your fingertips over his hand. “I’ve liked you since the beginning. Even after we drifted, I watched you while our friends hang out,”
You pause to laugh, “I know that you hate strawberry flavoured things,” You raise your hand and touched his slightly.
“I know you’re still the coffee addict I knew in high school.” You pause.
“And I also know that you’re selfless, always putting others first.” You mumble. He smiles looking at you. “If we didn’t get locked in here, I don’t know what I’d do. Not talking to you is hard.” He says.
You laugh, “Trust me, it’s hard to talk to my challenging ass sometimes.” You tell him. “Well, you’re a challenge I’m willing to take.” He places a soft kiss on your forehead. “Please do.” You smile at him.
Suddenly, all the lights flicker open and you both hear a loud voice. “FI-NA-LLY!” Haechan’s voice echoes as he walks through the sliding doors with the others, applauding with a smile on their face.
You look up at them, as Haechan opens his mouth. “You know, Jaemin literally never shuts up about you?” He dramatically sighs. “I didn’t know we had to get you guys trapped in a place together to finally talk.”
You and Jaemin wear visible blushing and flustered expressions, “I love playing Cupid.” Haechan boasts to himself. “Lee. Haechan.” Jaemin glares at him, before getting up (playfully, of course).
“Oh well, you better run, Haechan.” Jaemin’s manager pops up after turning on the switch on the café’s electricity and signal. Haechan hides behind Jeno. “Y/n, stop your boy!” He exclaims.
“Oh hell no, you’re getting it from me too.” You cross your arms when you get up, you and Jaemin sharing a laugh.
You leave the café that day, holding Jaemin’s, Barista boy’s, your lover boy’s, hand.
The love language was louder in actions than it was in words. — loverboy!jaemin
copyright © ukiyoneo 2021.
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