#like I understand confidentiality laws and all that | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

cursedcola · 2 years

Text

Synopsis: After attending NRC, our beloved characters suddenly find themselves transported to your world! The thing is, they have no idea where you are and have to make a life for themselves in the meantime. How would they adapt to life on earth? A/N: Hey guys! I had this idea during a 4am mind-dump and rolled with it. May reference it if I do any Modern AU writing. Just some general Headcannons like what their residence, settlement of choice, work, general modern interests, style, etc. would be Characters: Everyone. Mix of Sentient AU! and Modern AU! Warnings: None lol. This is for my own enjoyment! Part(s): Heartslabyul, Savanaclaw, Octavinelle, Scarabia, Pomefiore, Ignihyde, and Diasmonia You are here!: Heartslabyul

Nothing could have prepared the students of NRC for what lied beyond the mirror. A world unlike any of them ever known with magic being virtually non-existent ( or so it appears to the general public). With nothing but the clothes on their backs, falsified basic identification, personal items, and the small bits of knowledge gathered from your vessel Yuu; these young adults have one mission-find the player and stay out of prison. It was time to split up, cover as much ground as possible, and make a life in this unknown world.

Let us see how these fresh minds conform to life on earth, yes?

Heartslabyul Residence: United Kingdom

Riddle Rosehearts

Residence: Cambridge, England

Lives together with Trey in Cambridge, England. They share a two-bedroom apartment that's settled above the small bakery Trey works at.

Occupation: Government official. Likely somewhere in politics and law enforcement.

Riddle doesn't have a specific job listed simply because no one actually knows what it is that he does. He's very hush-hush about his personal affairs, which is understandable considering he respects the rules and confidentiality laws. Do not ask how he got a government job or how his falsified documents were overlooked. He has his ways, and that's all he is going to say.

Uses his job as a foot-in-the-door to try and find you. All they have is your data that was imputed into your TW account and phone app store, so he's going to cover all ground.

Very well off financially. He's taken more to the 'dark academia,' aesthetic going around on earth. Despite this he still shares his home with Trey, but is decorated like an academic's laboratory. Plenty of cherry wood furniture, plants, warm tones, and he surprisingly has pictures of the Heartslabyul gang everywhere.

One look at his clothes and you'll know who decorated the apartment. He loves corduroy pants, loafers, sweater-vests, turtle necks, and don't tell his mother but he got his ears pierced. Ruby red studs are his staple to match his hair.

Riddle easily conformed to earth's more mature audience. Just like in TW he struggles to understand recent trends and social media (Example: man will not go near Tik Tok). He picked up Linkdln and buisness platforms quickly, and not a week goes by where he doesn't have a buisness dinner. He's so well educated that he breezes through university life on earth and is on the path to get his Ph.D. in Political Science.

He loves the literature your world has to offer. He's collected so many new books that Trey had to convince him to rent a storage unit for them all (or get a kindle but Riddle likes to have the physical copy, so that's vetoed). He likes audio-books though because they're convenient, and he's taken up gardening

The one to consistently contact everyone with updates on your whereabouts. The leader of the UK gang in the search.

Ace Trappola

Residence: Cardiff, Wales

Lives together with Deuce in a one-bedroom apartment. They're broke as all hell and so they've got to make due. They've accommodated so that the living room is Deuce's room and Ace gets the actual bedroom. They're the tenants that constantly get complaints for being too loud and always scrape the deadline for rent. The type of duo to use bowls as cups because they fought over who would do the dishes. Now they've got angry neighbors, no clean dishes, and are at each others throats until the next day.

Occupation: Mechanic in training

Ace can't stand customer service but also isn't the type to do university. What is up his league is trade work, and the man wants a motorcycle so bad. At first he wasn't too into it but with time the field grew on him, and he gets along great with his mentors and coworkers. He's got the spunk and charisma to handle the job that's for sure.

He blends in so well, deadass. Yeah people know he's a foreigner and that he stands out appearance wise-but like, he's so outspoken that people take him for what he is. Basically the fresh youth on the block who's everyone's annoying little brother. The kind invited for after-work drinks (he is of age here. Remember they are all of age) and spend a couple rounds telling fun stories with.

We touched a bit on the living situation, but his bedroom is full of pop culture references from earth. He's a big marvel fan and he loves doing those lego-sets that come with instructions. He's got the infinity gauntlet model one on display and is eyeing the lego-store for when he can afford another big project. He's dreaming of seeing Disney world, and his room has lots of travel brochures for exciting trips

He often plays sports with the neighborhood kids and his friends and has random supplies thrown everywhere.

He's taken a liking to grunge fashion. Lots of flannel, skinny jeans, beanies, layered t-shirts, etc. He's a skater boy. Loves fashion jewelry and fidget rings

I feel that if Riddle or someone else had an idea of where you were, Ace would be the one they send to go see in person. Both himself and Deuce are confident that they'll know you when they see you without much work. Ace also has this disarming affinity where if he offered to buy you a coffee, it would just come off as a chill guy shooting his shot at a spontaneous date

Deuce Spade

Residence: Cardiff, Wales

Lives together with Ace in the one bedroom apartment mentioned prior. He's the one who tries to keep some semblance of order in the house. His space is generally clean but he gets super annoyed when Ace makes trips to the kitchen in the middle of the night. He's definetly the more responsible one of the two and the favorite if his neighbors had to choose. Deuce just wants some privacy and to get a full night's sleep, but knows that he couldn't afford a place of his own. He's the one who chose Cardiff on a whim, but ends up liking that they're close to the coast.

Occupation: Firefighter also in training

If coming to your world did one thing for Deuce, it was knock him on his ass in a good way. At NRC it was his focus to do well in school and make something of himself. He was doing it for his mom, but here he had to work with what he had to succeed. He gave university a shot for a semester before deciding that it wasn't getting him anywhere. Then he saw that dangers on earth couldn't be fought with magic, and was amazed at how firefighters, medical staff, etc. work to help others. All was history from that moment, and now Deuce is playing to his strengths AND doing something meaningful.

Like Ace, Deuce is loved by many people. He is the polite young man that all the grandmas bake sweets for in return for him carrying their groceries. He has amazing manners, and this pure aura that makes people want to help him. He's the guy you call when you need help during a move, or when you want someone to keep you company while building ikea furniture. He has such a genuine interest in people's stories, and often comes home with leftovers because he was invited to chat with the family next door over dinner.

He talks a lot about his mom and about the person he's in search for. He doesn't go in detail about you aside that you were friends and he moved here so you can be together. It's always a tear-jerker that pulls at people's heart-strings. He just loves and misses his mom so much, and he wants to see you more than anything. So touching~

Deuce is definetly a sports and social gathering kind of guy. In the living room there are many picture of events he's volunteered at and prizes from contests that he's entered. Like Ace, he wants to travel your world. He wants to go to all the famous nature spots and climb the highest mountains. He's also a gym jock. If he's not volunteering, at work, or socializing then he's at the gym

He's bought into the department-store aesthetic 100%. It's sweatpants, mesh shorts, dorky t-shirts, and too many different sneakers to keep track of. He actually let his hair grow out after coming to your world and now we have man-bun Deuce.

Trey Clover

Residence: Cambridge, England

The one who suggested splitting up in the first place. He wants in-and-out of your world as soon as possible (at least at first), and is by far the most lowkey of his the Heartslabyul gang.

Lives with Riddle in an apartment above his workplace. It's simple, really. He saw a 'help wanted' sign in the window of a family-own bakery. Strolled in, asked for an application, and then did a test run to show them his skills. He played a bit dirty and used his magic to cater to the owner's tastes but got the job instantly. The shop was run by an old couple that was conveniently looking to rent out the loft above their shop, and Trey jumped on it. Now he lives quietly and lets the others do the dirty work as he does what he knows best.

He lets Riddle take over the entire apartment aside from his bedroom. That he keeps very simple, and it's a complete contrast from the rest of the apartment. It has neutral whites with tinges of lemon yellow and lavender purple here and there. A bed, dresser, desk, and honestly it's so orderly that you wouldn't know someone was living inside. He often invites the bakery owners for tea and they're in awe of what the duo have done with the place. Trey and Riddle are the perfect tenants for any landlord to have.

He's by far the best at blending in with the common folk. Like Riddle, he does dress a bit more formally than the rest of his friends. He likes to stick to loafers, tan pants, and a button down shirt. Occasionally he'll toss in a sweater or a blazer to spice things up. However, one look at him and you'll think 'that's someone with their life together alright'

Occupation: Baker, if it isn't obvious by now.

As stated before, Trey sticks to what he's good at. He saw an opportunity and he swooped in. No doubts or questioning. The job was his before he knew it and he loves the quaint life he's been living on earth

Trey is also beloved by all in his neighborhood. Riddle is seen as someone to be highly respected and is slightly intimidating to the common man. Trey though? He's the cute baker boy that recently moved in and will happily chat about the weather with you over tea. He's mischievous and reads the atmosphere well. He's got a level head, and is very good at getting people to spill gossip. He balances out Riddle's imposing aura, making the two a good conversation topic for any passerby.

He uses this attentiveness to his advantage. If Riddle's the one snooping around the government and politics, then Trey is the extra eye and ear he needs to catch missed information. when Riddle gets home from work and Trey closes up shop, the two are good at working together to combine their formal knowledge with city gossip to find clues.

Trey and Riddle's place is where Heartslabyul meetings take place. It wasn't hard for Trey to convince the shop owners to lend him the lower level for 'family gatherings' on days the shop was closed.

On earth, Trey loves the freedom he has. The planet has it's own issues yes, but there's something about a world without magic that is utterly calming to him. No spells, no competition, no worry of overblot, etc. He just gets to live the simple life that he has always wanted, and a part of him wants to stay once he's found you. He likes learning the world's history, exploring different cultures, and spending his time outside.

Cater Diamond

Residence: Aberdeen, Scotland

Now if anyone is going to last by themselves, it is Cater.

Riddle was initially supposed to go to Scotland alone but everyone knows that he needs someone for emotional support. Cater offered himself to the wolves in his stead.

Cater owns a studio somewhere around Aberdeen. It's confusing because while he owns it, he is never there. No one has ever visited his house or been invited over once. His landlord doesn't have to worry about paparazzi or anything because no one ever sees him enter or leave.

Just for an idea though, it is decorated very retro-chic. He's got everything you can imagine from the 70s and 80s. The style just really resonated with him, y'know? All the bright colors and fun textures. He loves shag rugs, lava lamps, chalk-painted walls, etc. He definetly has a water bed and incense burners. I think he would have a cat if he was home to care for it.

Occupation: Influencer

C'mon, this is to be expected. It's why he's never home! He's a travel influencer that runs a pretty well-known blog and many other media pages. There isn't a day he doesn't live stream his latest adventure and is the easiest to get a hold of out of everyone.

There isn't a single person that doesn't know of Cater Diamond. Need I say more about his social life?

Despite it all, he's still off by himself and he always makes sure to video chat everyone every day. Not to get too deep...but while he's loved he definetly has that outsider complex. Out of everyone, he is the one who is excited to go home the most. He's thriving but there is no place like home.

Just like Deuce, he tells people about you. He's had his friends appear as guests in his videos/streams (imagine the crowd when Riddle of all people appeared lol), but the one person they've never seen is Cater's supposed 'special person'. He's hoping by some miracle that one of his videos will reach you, and that you'll know it's your Cater. I mean, you must have noticed the missing characters in your game, right? Connect the dots hunny.

Cater's known for his exploration with fashion and hobbies. He's tried everything from gothic lolita to cottage core. The man flips like a light switch on the daily. One thing that's constant though is the color red. It reminds him of his roots, so he always has a splash of red or a hidden rose in his outfits.

I mentioned a travel blog, right? Well mixed in there he writes about new hobbies or discoveries he makes along the way. Imagine the first time he saw a rubix cube? He streamed himself trying to solve it and it's one of his most quoted moments. No one could believe that he had never seen one until that moment.

1K notes · View notes

wonwoosthetic · 1 year

Text

Amour Haine & Co. | Chapter 16 |

series masterlist

word count - 13.3k

warnings - cursing, alcohol consumption, mentions of non-consensual sex, prostitution; this might be a kinda heavy chapter for some, so please do read with caution! I will never ever write a scene where any of the mentioned trigger warnings are actively happening to the reader, but there are mentions of it in this chapter

a/n: none of the things happening in this story are things that I put into relation to the real people that exist in this story! I also want to send every single one of you an immensely huge thank you!! For your patience, for your love, and for your support! I'm getting back into writing more frequently and hope to give you weekly updates from now on ˙ᵕ˙ I also hope that you of course enjoy this chapter and do not worry, there is so much more to come for this story! We're not getting towards the end of the story in the next few chapters.

I HOPE YOU ENJOY IT GUYS🫶🏼🫶🏼🫶🏼

"You're not gonna be able to walk away from this conversation forever, just so you know."

"Is this even legal?"

Your leg hadn't stopped shaking ever since you had stepped foot into the modern law firm. In the elevator, the air started feeling restricted again, just like it did back in the car that you had to share with Wonwoo. Only Wonwoo. Wonwoo and you.

His head snapped towards you, looking slightly down at your frame, hidden underneath the oversized clothing you were wearing, "What?" His eyebrows were scrunched, and you could tell his head was somewhere else, his thoughts were not in the room with you.

"This," you pointed towards the envelope, holding the possibly most important papers of your career in his hand. "What we're doing here. Is this legal?"

With pure confusion written all across his face, he kept his gaze interlocked with yours. "Are you seriously asking me if talking to our lawyer is illegal?"

"No," you rolled your eyes, a soft sigh escaping from your lips, "You know exactly what I mean. These are confidential, and I'm just not sure if... you know... we're allowed to use them to get an advantage in court."

Your eyes fell to Wonwoo's chest rising and dropping again heavily as he took a deep breath, adjusting his jacket.

"We got this information legally. We didn't steal it," he explained sternly, making sure that you were listening to him, "Sehun came to you, gave you this and that's it. It's an important part that we can't leave out when explaining it to the judge, but I'm gonna leave that to Jihoon. We'll see what he says." You nodded in understanding. Fidgeting with your fingers didn't help ease the nerves, but the CEO's words seemed to do a good enough job - at least a little bit.

It didn't feel right. The whole situation felt off. First, Sehun just showing up in your office and then just dropping such heavy info onto you, giving you everything you could possibly need to take down the worst enemy you had ever had to face in your entire life: Park Chanyeol. You trusted Sehun, there was no doubt of that. Whether that was a good thing or not, you didn't know just yet. Maybe you had been too forgiving too quickly and you were sure that Wonwoo would remind you of exactly that again, once you were back at the office. As if his rant back at his apartment wasn't already enough. Oh god,... that apartment. Too much had already happened there, and more shit just keeps piling up.

“Can I help you?”

The squeaky clean voice of the beautiful woman in front of you kept echoing in your brain. Beautiful doesn't even cover it. Gorgeous. Breathtaking. That's it. Breathtaking. Because that's exactly what she did to you.

The rain that had drenched your hair suddenly added so much more weight onto your head, making even the clothes on your body feel too tight. When did taking a breath become so difficult?

The raise of her eyebrows along with a tilt of her head brought you back as you just stared into her light-brown eyes, beautiful like soft caramel. Even her skin seemed too perfect to be true. Out of which fucking magazine did that woman just jump out? With that oversized sweatshirt hanging loosely on her body, it would most likely have been more of a YA novel rather than a magazine, but such a face could decorate the covers of each Vogue magazine across the world, and no one would question it.

You shook your head hesitantly, "S...Sorry," gulping hurt, "I- ehm-" Thank God, another voice interrupted you because who knows what would've come out of your mouth if you had continued.

"Jesus, Yeri, I told you not-" Wonwoo came to a sudden halt once his gaze stopped at your figure, standing in the hallway like a lost puppy. "Y/N? Why aren't you at the office?" Taking in your heavy breathing, and the wet clothes sticking onto your body, his eyes quickly found yours, "What happened?", immediately realising what was about to happen when you started shaking your head.

"Nothing," you quietly spoke, not trusting your voice to be any louder, "I... I'll get going... See ya," turning around, ready to make your way back to the elevator, back to the office building, back to your normal work day, or as normal as you could be after what had just happened. Not even two hours ago, this man was standing in front of you, his fingers tracing over your chin, desperately wanting to pull you closer and intertwine your souls. Even his ghost of a touch was still imprinted on your skin, making you want to scream. Not even eight hours ago, he was sitting down, looking up at you with those big brown eyes, almost begging at you. Admitting to his feelings, revealing the deepest of his feelings towards you. And now, not even ten seconds ago, he let it all fall. Every word he said, every sentence he spoke just evaporated into thin air.

Before you could let the tears in your eyes dwell up, a harsh yet soft tug at your wrist made you stop and turn back around, immediately faced with the body of the man you had become so familiar with, whether you liked it or not - this position didn't feel all too foreign to you.

"What's going on?"

His low voice mixed with his touch sent an electric wave through your body, yet you avoided his eyes, knowing exactly it would hurt too much. You rather kept your head down, looking at his hand wrapped around your wrist, shaking free from his grip.

"Nothing, forget it, I'll tell you later-"

"No," he stopped you, "Come on," and nodded towards his apartment since you were still not looking at him, he repeated the action you dreaded so much as his fingers found their place on your chin again to tap it, making you look up and move away from his touch. "Let's go inside."

You gulped, hugging the envelope closer to your chest, "No, it's fine, you seem-"

"Busy?" There was something teasing, yet slightly concerned, in the raise of his eyebrows. "She's my cousin."

"Hm?" You met his eyes quickly after the last word left his lips, which have slowly but surely curled up.

"Mh," he nodded, "Yeri's my cousin." He didn't let you intervene as you opened your mouth but just kept on talking, "My mum called her over to spend some time with her. On the way here, it started raining, so I gave her something warm to wear. They were just about leave, that's why she was close to the door and opened it even though I told her not to open it to anyone that doesn't use the bell downstairs, but oh well." He turned towards the open door, raising his voice slightly, "It's not like it's her first time here."

The female voice shouted a soft, "Sorry!" back, making him shake his head with a sigh, before catching your gaze again. You held your mouth tightly shut. Oh.

Locking eyes with him seemed too intense, explaining your drifting glances around the hallway that slowly fell to the floor, looking down at your shoes.

"You didn't have to explain that to me," you raised her head again, "I-... It's none of my business... you know..."

An almost chuckle escaped Wonwoo's mouth, just almost, with that stupid smirk still plastered proudly on his face. "Sure." Sharing a quick one-second glance at each other before he took the word again. "Would you like to come in now and explain what's going on?" So soft, so gentle. As if the person in front of you had just found out about the vulnerable side of you and was trying to speak as softly as possible to you.

You nodded, rushing past him without sending him another look, just praying to forget this scene had ever happened.

Chaewon was surprised to see you back at the apartment, but she got the message after a quick explanation that you and Wonwoo had to have an important discussion - 'business stuff' as he put it without even knowing the exact reason for your sudden appearance.

After the two women had left, you took a seat at the dining table, putting the envelope down, expecting the CEO to sit down across from you when he suddenly disappeared.

"Wonwoo?" Your voice echoed through the apartment.

"Yeah? What?" He exited his bedroom and came back into the living space.

"What are you doing?" You wondered, nervously tapping your nails on the glass of the table.

He put the sweat-set he had carried from the room over to you onto the surface, nodding towards it, "Getting you something warm to wear."

You were quick to shake your head, "No, don't worry, it's fine," and pushed the envelope towards it, the sound of it scraping over the table scratching your ear, "You should see this."

"And you should put something on that's not drenched in water. Go change." You opened your mouth to protest, but he beat you to it, "I'll take a look, but you go. Now." With a sigh, you gathered the clothing into your grip as he mumbled, "I don't need you calling in sick to work tomorrow."

You rolled your eyes and were about to make your way to the bathroom when a comment tickled your tongue that you just couldn't let go. "You really enjoy giving away your clothes, huh?"

A deep sound that could be counted as a chuckle came from Wonwoo as he reached for the letters you had brought along. Once you were a few more feet away from him, he sighed, eyeing your figure disappearing in the bathroom, "To people I care about." Before you closed the door, a small smile appearing on your face.

You decided to leave your pants on as they were spared by the rain, unlike your top, but happily accepted the soft sweater Wonwoo had offered you, the name of his past university on wide display across your chest. Once you were back in the open living space, your eyes drifted to the dining table, expecting the CEO, but coming to sight with empty chairs. The pieces of paper were spread all over the glass, clearly only hastily looked at.

You were about to call out for Wonwoo, when his voice caught your attention, "Jesus Christ, Jihoon, pick up." Low and angered, just like you used to hear it all the time. Before. Before... all of this. It almost seemed unfamiliar to you, that's how long it must have been.

Turning to walk to the kitchen after hanging your wet clothing over one of the empty chairs and the sweatpants on the seat, you found said CEO leaning against the countertop. What caught your eyes though was the glass he had put up to his lips, throwing the brown liquid down his throat.

"Wonwoo, it's 9 am!" You called out, catching his attention. He threw his phone to the side with a clearly annoyed sigh and put the glass down, right next to the Whiskey Decanter.

Ignoring your exclaim, he raised his hand, gripping the pieces of paper tightly, wrinkling them harshly, "Are those real?"

The stern tone of his voice made you take a deep breath and reach forward in a hopefully somewhat calming manner, "Can I explain?" But that didn't calm him at all. Not in the slightest. He rushed past you.

"Yes, in the car. Put your shoes on."

"What?" You turned around, watching him hastily compiling all the evidence and stuffing everything into the brown envelope. He brushed past you once again, back into the kitchen to grab his phone before getting to the front door and slipping into his shoes.

"Jihoo's not picking up his fucking phone, so we're gonna go visit him. Come on," he nodded for you to come closer. You knew it wasn't the right time to ask any questions and just followed his order, right until he reached for his car keys. A slap on his hand made him flinch back.

"Are you insane? I just saw you jugging down Whiskey! You really think I'm gonna jump into a car with you now?" He was quick to shake his head, trying to get some sense back.

"Right, right... sorry," he opened the door, "You got your keys?"

You nodded, "Yeah, let's go," with a calm voice you pushed him out, praying this was gonna go at least somehow the way you expected it to go.

The elevator doors opened, bringing you back to the present as you thought back to the car ride where you had tried to explain everything that had happened in your office. Wonwoo had 'only' interrupted you about twenty times with 'what the fuck was he doing there?', 'Are you being for real right now?', 'you're fucking with me, right?', 'I'm gonna fire Jisoo, for fuck's sake'. A separate argument had started on behalf of that last statement of his as you tried to talk him out of that thought, but at that point, you had already reached Jihoon's law firm building, and everything was forgotten again as you stepped into the elevator and let silence overcome the two of you.

Just as you were about to step onto the designated floor, Wonwoo's call made you stop, "Y/N."

You turn around with a hum.

"Who did you think Yeri was?" Was that why he had been so quiet the entire elevator ride? Was he really gonna ask that now?

"What?" You scrunched your eyebrows, slightly shaking your head, "N-No one."

As the door wanted to close again, the CEO stepped forward, putting himself in between.

His eyes never left yours and you couldn't get yourself to break the intense stare you two shared.

"You still don't believe me?"

You shrugged softly, "Believe what?" There were more important things to discuss, was he really not gonna let this go?

"You thought Yeri was some girl I slept with. Be honest."

...

Yes. Yes, you did. Alright? And you hated it. Every fucking second of it.

"So what, Wonwoo," you barely whispered, "Can we go now?" Motioning towards the hallway. You didn't wait for an answer but just stepped forward, stopping at the extended arm suddenly in front of you.

"I meant what I said. Last night." Again, his eyes were still trained on you. Even with your gaze straight, you could feel his burning the side of your face, making you turn your head.

You nodded, your eyes drifting down to the floor, "I know. I did too." Your comment seemed to have calmed him as you could see his eyebrows relaxing and his eyes softening.

"But still, you..." You could tell, he himself wasn't sure where this was supposed to go, so you stopped him with your palm up.

"Can we talk about this later?"

Wonwoo nodded with a heavy breath leaving his nose. You were ready to walk forward, but his finger pointing at you made you stop once again.

"You're not gonna be able to walk away from this conversation forever, just so you know." With a roll of your eyes, you pushed his hand aside and walked past him, waiting for him in the hallway to show you the way.

Similar to your office building, you stepped through glass doors but came to a halt at what seemed to be like a reception.

"Oh, Mister Jeon," the voice of the woman behind the desk rushed through your ear, "Do you have an appointment with-"

"I'm sorry, but I need to see him now," he interrupted her quickly.

"He has a client in there, and I don't think he's free until-"

"No," he stopped her again, "I didn't ask. I want to see him. Now."

She nodded, "I understand, but I can't interrupt-"

"If you can't, I will," his tone grew more and more serious with every word falling from his lips, making you step closer to him, your soft hand finding its way to his shoulder.

"It's fine," you said out loud, everyone knowing it was more directed towards Wonwoo than to anyone else, "We can wait."

He shrugged off your touch, "No, we can't," and turned around without another sound, crossing the floor with quick steps, and running down the hallway as he definitely already knew the way to Jihoon's office.

"Wonwoo!"

"Mister Jeon!" The two of you that had stayed behind called out, before you looked at the woman with a gentle smile, "I'm sorry," but still went to rush after him.

You caught up just as he opened the door to an office.

"Jihoon!" With a quick look inside, you were met with the surprised eyes of the man you were looking for and a second pair sitting right across from him, gazing at you in shock and confusion.

"Get out," Wonwoo motioned to the stranger to get up, "Come on."

"Wonwoo, I-" the lawyer tried to stop him, but the man in front of him was already standing up, clearly intimidated by the stature of the CEO. He almost bumped shoulders with you with the rush he was in, excusing himself quickly, not even daring to cross gazes with you.

"We have to talk," he sternly told Jihoon, throwing the envelope onto his desk.

The smaller man sighed, "And that can't wait?"

"No."

Wonwoo and you had taken a seat across from Jihoon, each in their own seat as your eyes were fixed on the man in front of you. You had wanted to start picking at your nail polish, but once you realised that it truly was all gone, your fingers found new entertainment by playing with the leather of the chairs. While you could practically hear and feel your heartbeat slowly coming up to your throat, your foot twitching out of nervosity, Wonwoo next to you seemed to be doing just fine. A deep breath would leave his lips every now and then as his gaze drifted around the room, taking in the decor on Jihoon's shelves and the big windows showing you the skyline of the city. After that became too boring for him, he stood up and started pacing around the room, clearly getting impatient by how long the lawyer was taking, which you could definitely relate to. One quick look at the digital clock on his desk though let you know that it had only been four minutes. Four long fucking minutes.

"So?" Wonwoo was the first to break the silence, making his friend sigh, look up and lean back in his chair. His eyes first fell on Wonwoo, but then travelled to you, suddenly a confused look written across his face.

"You went to Seoultech?"

"Hm?" You wondered, copying his facial expression before you lowered your head to where his gaze was fixed on. The sweatshirt. You forgot. "Oh, no," you stuttered, "I-It-"

"It's mine, not important," the CEO finished the explanation quickly, not wanting to dive further into the reason why you were wearing it, making Jihoon's eyebrows jump up in surprise. His change in expression went uncommented. "So, what do you say?" Wonwoo steadied his figure by placing his hands on the backrest of the chair he had sat in only a minute ago, not looking anywhere else but at the man whose opinion mattered the most at that very second.

"I think you know what I'm gonna say," he answered calmly.

"Well, I wanna hear it," Wonwoo argued back.

The lawyer sighed, "It's great evidence. Amazing even."

"Exactly," the younger man nodded with somewhat of a proud grin on his lips.

"But," Jihoon started again, catching both of your attention suddenly.

"But?" The CEO and you questioned in chorus. That was never a good start.

He gathered the papers together in his hands, waving them gently, "It's too good. And too much."

"What the fuck do you mean, too much?" Wonwoo didn't seem as confident anymore as before, annoyed by what he had to be confronted with. "That asshole did all of this, how could it be too much?!" You didn't miss the slight raise in his voice, neither did Jihoon, but he seemed unfazed by it.

"I mean it's too much." He stated once again. "You bring this amount of evidence to a judge out of nowhere, they're gonna start questioning it. All of it."

"So? Let them question it."

The shake of his head, made Wonwoo stop in his tracks. "That would give Chanyeol just more time to come up with something to fight this. Because he WILL find out that everything's getting delayed because of a sudden appearance of evidence the court needs to look through."

"Fuck that," the CEO shook his head with a deep mumble, followed by a sigh.

"How did you even get this?" Jihoon wondered, his eyes flicking between you two, waiting for an answer.

You lifted your head to find Wonwoo's gaze already on you. The soft nod towards the lawyer along with a gentle, "That's your story to tell," made you take a deep breath.

With your fingers holding on tightly to the sleeves of the sweater, you started, "Sehun came into the office today."

"Oh Sehun? Park's guy?" To which you nodded, but Jihoon had more questions, "Why? You know him too?"

"Yeah... he..." you tried finding the right words, "He used to be one of my best friends before... Chanyeol and I became a thing. So- I don't know, he just was there, sitting in my office with that envelope and told me to use it for the lawsuit."

"Just like that?"

"He feels really guilty for what they did," as much as you didn't want to defend him, since you knew the other party was still in the wrong, you couldn't help but let your feelings play into it, "He wants to be better than that them-"

"That sounds pretty sketchy to me, not gonna lie," Jihoon sighed, crossing his arms over his chest as he stood up. Wonwoo was back to sitting down next to you, his eyes never leaving your side profile.

"It's not," you argued, "I trust him. Kinda..."

"Kinda?"

"I know that it's hard to believe, but if you knew him like I do, you'd trust him too. Of course, I don't want to put all of my trust into him and into this," you pointed at the papers on his desk, "But I do believe he meant what he said. He wants to take down Chanyeol just as much as we do. He's done with his bullshit."

"Alright," Jihoon nodded, "I'll take your word for that," and took a few steps closer to his desk again, suddenly separating the papers into two piles, "This," he pointed to the left one, "We can use. I'll get that to the judge as quickly as possible." Then turned to the right one, "But this. We can't use it like that."

You sat up straighter, trying to get a glimpse at what pieces of evidence he was talking about when you found the statements of the women Sehun had told you about.

"What?" You called out, "What do you mean, we can't use that? Are you kidding me? You just wanna throw that away?!" Your voice got louder with each sentence, desperation and shock lacing every word. Frustration started building up in your body like a slow fire spreading.

"Listen, we-"

"These women deserve to be heard! They had the courage to talk about what happened to them, and now you don't even want to use it?! You can't be serious right now..." The rough hand gently covering yours on the armrest of your chair made you take a deep breath. You didn't need to look down to feel the intensity.

"Jihoon," Wonwoo spoke up, much calmer than you, "Their statements are just as much evidence as that other shit-"

"No, it's not."

"Yes, it is-"

"Not, it's not, Wonwoo!" Jihoon was the last person to raise their voice in the room, but it had to happen at some point. Before either of you could interfere, he continued, his tone much lower but not any less strict, "We know what law enforcement is like these days. You out of all us should know it the best," he pointed at the CEO, who shifted in his seat and his grip on your hand tightened. He hit a nerve with that. "What they're gonna do once they read through these is give that Park idiot a warning and those women some money because they think it's gonna make them feel better and forget everything that happened. This is their way of handling these types of situations these days, and it's not gonna benefit us in any way or bring Park down."

The three of you sat in silence. You understood now. Wonwoo did too. And Jihoon was right. When it comes to sexual assault cases, law enforcement was the worst to deal with it and whatever the outcome would be, it never benefited the women on the lower end.

"There's a big difference between the raid videos and the statements," the lawyer started again, sitting down opposite of you, "Here with have video evidence, which is VITAL in a case like this. Yes, videos can always be edited, but these idiots forgot that you have a watermark on all of your security camera footage, like smart people would." His comment almost made you chuckle, but it certainly made Wonwoo smile. "Statements won't get us far, that's the problem. They can be faked easily. They can even say we bribed these women to say bad shit about Park." You nodded in understanding. "But."

"Can you stop with these 'buts' and get to the fucking point?" Wonwoo started becoming impatient again, never breaking the cold demeanour you had become so used to.

Jihoon took the right pile of paper into his grasp, "Did you read through them?"

"Not all of them, why?" The CEO shook his head.

The smaller man sighed, "I figured," earning himself an unamused facial expression from his friend, "Some of these women stated that the sexual harassment happened at the workplace. There's no way we're getting camera footage from their office unless Sehun helps us with that, but that again could get us into some deep trouble as well," he explained, knowing he had both of your full attention. "But not all of them talk about their workplace. Some of them mention a club."

Wonwoo stared at him in confusion as he noticed the slightly smug look on the lawyer's face, "What club?"

Not giving him a verbal answer, Jihoon pushed the papers towards the two of you, making Wonwoo's hand lift from yours, leaving a cold empty space. It was only then that you noticed for how long his warm palm was covering your entire hand. The man next to you got a hold of the papers, reading through them quickly until his eyes stopped and what he was looking for.

"The Monbebe..."

"The Monbebe," Jihoon nodded with a smirk, a pen of his now in between his fingers as he played with it.

Wonwoo shook his head in slight annoyance or disappointment, you weren't sure, "Fuck..."

Your eyes switched between the two men, hoping someone would explain what had just happened, but since neither of them continued, you decided to speak up, "What's the Monbebe?"

Wonwoo was quick to answer, "A club downtown."

"And part of our past," the lawyer continued, a subtle smirk daring to escape on his face.

"Jihoon. Don't." The CEO looked up, glaring at his friend. But he just rolled his eyes.

You didn't miss the sudden change in the atmosphere that ran across the room, the tension that had started to build up again, and you couldn't help but let your curiosity win over, "W-What do you mean?" Eyes on Jihoon first, but when he pointed towards Wonwoo, you switched to look at him, "What does he mean?"

The man next to you shook his head as he threw the papers back onto the table with a huff, "Nothing, it's not important."

"Oh, it is VERY important," Jihoon contended.

"No, it's not, you fucking know I don't want to have anything to do-"

"You can't run from your past, Wonwoo!" The two men started to argue. You stayed seated, watching the heat in both of their eyes as they took a trip down memory lane, to a memory that Wonwoo seemed to want to forget.

The CEO stood up with an angry breath leaving his lips, "That was never supposed to be my past! Or any of our pasts! You forgot about that?! Oh sorry, my bad, just because it got deleted from your record, you're just gonna pretend like it was fine what happened back then?!"

"Don't start with that," Jihoon, now also standing as a defence mechanism, pointed a finger at his friend, "I'm not the one trying to erase everything that happened. Yes, it wasn't okay, but like I said, it's in the past, Wonwoo." He shook his head with a sigh, "Jesus Christ... I'm not saying you should go back there and become their best fucking friend."

"Then what exactly are you trying to say, Sir lawyer?!" Wonwoo spat those words at his face, almost sounding like he was holding them against said lawyer.

"Will you let me finish for once?"

The CEO raised his arms in defence and motioned for the other to continue talking. You just hoped to soon get out of this misery of the unknown.

Jihoon took a deep breath, taking a look out of the window before turning his attention back to you, "I told you. The security camera footage that Sehun brought you won't be a problem. That's good evidence. But the statements are not enough-"

"You already said that," Wonwoo interrupted him, earning him a glare from both you and Jihoon, receiving an annoyed sigh in return.

"BUT, we know that the Monbebe has security cameras all over that freaking place, and those also have a watermark, meaning that the judge and everyone else would look through, but they wouldn't question the sincerity of the footage. Because those are harder, if not, impossible to fake in the period ever since it happened to now."

"And... how do we get to this security footage?" You had started picking on the fabric of the chair again, still not feeling an ounce of casualty or calmness yet.

Jihoon dared to look at his friend from across the room for a split second before answering, "That's why I mentioned our past," looking at his shoes and meeting your eyes again, "We-"

"She doesn't have to know everything," Wonwoo stopped him sternly, taking the last piece of patience you had with those final words. You shot up from your seat and turned your entire body towards him,

"I'm in this shit as much as you are! So yes, I do in fact have to know everything, are you kidding me?! While you two have been fighting over God knows what shitty past you have, I've been sitting here and just listening to this, not knowing what the fuck is going on. So you better start telling me about this right now! I've had to tell you everything about Chanyeol as well-"

"That's not the same!" With a few quick steps, Wonwoo got dangerously closer to you, "Your fuckhead of ex-boyfriend is suing our company, so I think I'm damn well entitled to know who the fuck he is and why he's doing that!"

"Yes, and now this is also part of that whole fucking trial, that I'm in as well, so stop arguing and start fucking talking," you had lowered your voice, remembering that there was still another person in the room with you and you were in fact in an official law firm, holding multiple other lawyers that worked next to yours.

Wonwoo couldn't tear his eyes off you, but the same went for you. He captivated you once again. So easily. And he didn't even try.

"The owners of the club are old friends of ours," Jihoon spoke up, making you turned towards him, but you still caught the sigh escaping the other man's lips as he shook his head,

"Friends..."

"They were." The lawyer repeated, much sterner this time and definitely directed at Wonwoo.

"Exactly, there WERE."

"But they'd still help you," Jihoon argued, "If they saw you at the Monbebe, you don't think they'd want to talk?"

The CEO nodded with a smirk, "OH, I know they'd want to talk, but I wouldn't let them finish whatever the fuck they're gonna say."

"Well then, you're gonna have to learn to in order to get those security camera videos."

You switched your weight from one leg to the other as you crossed your arms, "You think they're just gonna give us that footage?"

Jihoon motioned you a clear 'no' with his head, "No, not just like that. But if that idiot over there could get the stick out of his ass, I'm sure they'd be more willing to do it... Maybe bring Mingyu along too. They always got along with him the best."

Your gazes switched between the annoyed CEO and the calm but smug-looking lawyer, while you stood in the middle, unsure of what was to come next. Wonwoo was for sure not going to take the next word as his friend's last sentence was still running through his mind. You decided to take the initiative to get out of this situation as quickly as possible.

"So...?" Eyeing the two men, "What are we gonna do?"

Jihoon took a seat behind the desk again, leaning back in the chair, looking straight at you, "You might want to go shopping."

"What?" You scrunched your eyebrows in confusion, "Why?"

A quick glance at Wonwoo made the smile on his face only go wider, "The Monbebe is... how would you put it, Wonwoo?"

"Don't." The other man growled, catching you off guard, but Jihoon chuckled.

"It's... a very special kind of club. With... a very special audience."

But that only fed into your confusion.

"You’re kidding.” You stated matter-of-factly, rather than as a question, gazing at Wonwoo with raised eyebrows. Your eyes travelled to the dress he held by the hanger. Scratch that. Piece of cloth, that’s what it was. You could not call that a dress or any type of clothing, just something that should represent a form of shorts? Undergarment? A small little cover of some sort with a top not wider than a headband.

“Underwear has more fabric than that.” Your comment made him chuckle, followed by a roll of his eyes.

“You wanted to find out what the Monbebe was all about. And I hate to break it to you, but this is exactly what women that go to that club would wear. Although this here is already very modest for that kind of club.” He put it back on the clothing line and continued walking behind you as you passed multiple other racks filled with not much different attire than he had just held in his hands.

“I don’t want to find out what that club is like, especially after what you told me, but if Jihoon thinks we could get the security footage by talking to them, or with you talking to them, then I’d say let’s give it a try,” you explained while continuing your search of something appropriate to wear.

He swallowed the ball that had formed his throat, "You know if you'd just stay at home like I proposed-"

"No," you turned around too quickly for him to react, catching him off-guard as you pressed your fingers into his chest, "Don't even start with that shit again. We're in this mess because of me." Before you could continue, Wonwoo wrapped his much bigger hand over yours, releasing your finger from touching him, but keeping you just as close as he leaned down.

"And you don't even start with THAT. We're in this because your ex is a fucking moron. This could've happened to anyone he wanted to fucked over."

You shared two more seconds of silence, just gazing into each other's eyes before a voice tear you apart again.

"Hi," she screeched into your ear, "Can I help you find something?"

"N-"

"Yeah, we're looking for something for her to wear to the Monbebe," Wonwoo answered for you, earning himself a quick glare from you that just made him nudge you towards the direction the over-motivated lady was heading.

"Oooh! Special night, I see, I see," she rushed over to a corner you didn't even dare to look at, already sensing the 'not my style' vibes from miles away. "Well," she picked out the first outfit, as skimpy as it could get, "You can never go wrong with a classic black bodysuit."

"That- That's not really what I was going for, you know?"

She shoved it back on the rack, nodding quickly, "Alright, alright, well then, what exactly were you looking for?" Her big caramel eyes were digging holes into your soul, almost making you want to give in and just go with whatever fabric would cover the most important parts of your body. What a great selling strategy...

"Something...." you started motioning around your body, trying to think of the right way to say out loud what was going on in your head, "that maybe looks a little bit more like... clothing?"

The questioning tilt of her head made you sigh in frustration, but Wonwoo was quick to come to the rescue.

"Maybe more coverage. More fabric."

You nodded, holding in a deep breath, "Yeah... that would be great," looking back at the woman, who just stared blankly at you, blinking with her big eyelashes.

"More coverage? For the Monbebe?"

"I already explained that to her, but... yeah," the CEO nodded in defeat.

The sales assistant seemed to think for a few seconds before clapping her hands, "Okay okay, I think I may have a few pieces, but I'm gonna have to check the back. How about you go take a seat in the changing rooms, and I'll get back to you once I've got something."

The two of you went off on your own, trying to find the changing rooms that were on their individual floor, where you were welcomed by two other women, who just couldn't keep their eyes off the man by your side. You'd like to say it didn't bother you, that you didn't even notice the way their eyes basically undressed him before they turned to each other only to start whispering and giggling like little school girls. Oh, what you'd do to be able to think like that. But that was not the case. You didn't like their gazes on him. You couldn't help but try to stay as close to him as possible. He must've noticed at that point. And that thought made you want to crawl into a hole and never come out again. You prayed he couldn't tell how your heart had started speeding up anytime he had more or less accidentally touched you. You begged he didn't notice the chill running down your spine, making the hair on your body spike up when he would bend down to whisper something in your ear.

But he did. He observed you like homework. He wanted to be able to read you better than anyone else. And he wasn't going to be subtle about it - why should he? He had already confessed almost on his knees to you, what else was there to lose? You already held his heart and his dignity in your soft hands, whether you knew about that yet, he wasn't sure, but he was going to find out. There was no doubt about that.

You had taken a seat in one of the dressing rooms, the curtain still open, giving you a perfect view of Wonwoo, who was sitting right in front of you, making himself comfortable on the soft cushions in the middle of the room, probably specifically made for the boyfriends to wait for their girlfriends. Or rather sugar daddies that would wait for their sugar babies to put on a show for them in the dress they would be getting just for them.

"Sooo...," you wanted to break the stillness and tension that had started building up, "What exactly is the dress code for the Monbebe?"

He leaned back slightly, the upwards shift of his hips didn't go unnoticed by you, making you take a deep breath in. "You want mine or the official one?" Wonwoo had his head turned to the side, leaving you to stare at the sharp line of his jaw.

"What?"

He looked at you. Gazed at you.

"Come as you are. Be and feel free. Don't hide. That's how they word it."

"And yours...?"

A sigh tumbled from his lips, "Skimpy. As less as possible to give us easy access."

You scrunched your eyebrows at his comment, "Us?"

He met your eyes with a guilty look, "Men." You nodded. Right... you remembered the explanation of him in the car. What the Monbebe club was. A whorehouse basically. The more known and official designation was 'Gentlemen Club' but everyone knew what it really was. You felt the sick feeling in your stomach come back when your mind brought you back to that part of your conversation.

"So, prostitution?"

"Pretty much," Wonwoo had looked out of the window the entire ride, not even sending you a quick glance.

"But," you swallowed at the hard fact that was reality, "I mean, it's definitely not legal, but the police doesn't care about it, right? They just seem to turn blind when it comes to that. Those women know what they're doing, so... why do Jihoon and you talk so bad about it?"

"Because they don't." You stopped at a red light and turned to face him, answering him with a questioning hum, hoping to get his attention. He did change his line of sight but kept his head straight ahead, still not meeting your eyes. "It's not consensual prostitution."

Oh.

"I mean," he cleared his throat uncomfortably, "In a way, it is because they're the ones who come to Monsta X to start working there, but... their... clients... and visitors... they can do whatever the fuck they want with those women. And they can cry as loud as they want... it doesn't bother those pigs. If anything, it only turns them on even more."

You had heard enough.

Disguised as a club with a bar, but in the back was where the 'fun' for the visitors truly was at. Wonwoo had also mentioned something about a fighting/boxing business even further down into the basement, but he didn't want to go into further detail about that area of the entire building, hoping that he'd be able to keep the two of you as far from it as possible.

"But I'm not working there," you told the CEO as he crossed his arms, watching your legs that you crossed, "Why should I dress the same as the women that do?"

"Do you think they care? The people that go there do not give a fuck about who officially works there and who doesn't. They just try to get their hands on anyone that's available and the Monstas need to uphold their honour in the industry." He explained. You could tell he didn't enjoy talking about this which seemed to have been a part of his past at some point. It scared you. He hadn't told you how he had gotten involved with them just yet, but you were terrified to find out. Scared of what side of him would be revealed to you. It seemed like such an unlikely place for a man like him to be, for any of his friends that you had met so far, so you were curious to find out more.

"But...," the start to your question made him look up, "If they're so infamous for such things, how did you guys-"

"Alright!" The familiar voice of the saleswoman rang through your ear, making you stand up. With four steps, you were out of the dressing room, only to stop right next to Wonwoo, but with your eyes on the lady, or rather the stuff hanging on her arm. The questionable things hanging on her arm. Your eyes caught some glitter, some pearls, and... chains?! "I know, I know, some of it might not look THAT good at first, but just try it on and trust me, okay?" She beamed the brightest possible smile at you, her bleached teeth blinding you as you unsurely nodded, opening your arms to get the pieces of clothing handed over. She brushed past you and hung everything on the hangers on the wall before stepping out again,

"I'm gonna leave you two to it, but if you need anything else you can just ring that bell over there," and pointed towards what looked like a light switch. With one last, what you presumed to be, fake smile, she left you two to have the entire floor to yourself.

"Wonwoo...," you gasp-whispered as your gaze travelled across the fabric hanging on the wall.

The CEO shot up from his seat, with one big step closer to the dressing room, pretty much standing inside of it with you, "What? What's wrong?" You didn't notice the slight worry in his voice as you were still trying to calm yourself from the embarrassment you were about to experience as soon as you would put on any of these things.

"What?" He repeated.

You shook your head, "I-I don't know..."

"What do you mean?" He kept on digging for a proper answer from you, but you just stared at him with a blank expression.

"This. This dress. All of them. No." The words fell quickly from your lips before you could even think of properly forming sentences.

"Y/N...," he spoke softly, "You haven't even tried any of them on-"

"Look at them!"

"I am," he calmly answered you.

You motioned at them wildly with your hands, "Well then, you should see the problem."

"Look," the man sighed once again, "I told you, it's their fucking dress code, if I could change it, I would. Trust me."

"I knowww," you whined, a defeated breath of air leaving your lips. Wonwoo was patient with you. Too patient. But at some point, it had to be over.

"You know, I can still do this on my own-"

"On it," you were quick to interfere, pushing him out of the dressing room, making him fake gasp,

"I don't even get the full show?" You revealed your face from behind the curtain with a scolding expression.

"Watch your mouth, mister." Leaving him with a smirk on his lips to fall back onto the cushioned seats.

Two minutes later, the curtain was pulled back again as your head out, finding his eyes immediately. Before he could even open his mouth, you started,

"I look ridiculous."

He couldn't help but grin at you, "I highly doubt that." Wonwoo couldn't lie, his position was making him excited. The thought of what the clothing this particular store was selling would look like on your body made his own react in ways he wished it wouldn't.

You shook your head, the blush evidently on your cheeks, "You can't see me like this." But that only made him chuckle as he leaned forward, letting his forearms rest on his upper thighs.

"I think we've crossed that boundary a few times already, don't you?" He teased. You knew the answer. But you kept your mouth shut and just motioned him 'no' once again.

"Still."

"Come on," you tilted his head, but you stood your ground, sending him a blank facial expression, "What? You're getting shy now? It's too late for that."

With a sigh, you disappeared again, mumbling a loud enough, "I hate you," for him to hear, making him grin.

That smirk got wiped off his face as you surprised him by stepping out of the dressing room fully, standing in a skimpy little black lingerie dress in front of him. A dress that pushed your boobs up so much, they almost quelled out of the cups, and your boobs had never been THAT big.

Wonwoo whistled, "Well, hello," his eyes were clearly not on your face.

"Stoooop," you whined, hands coming up to clasp your breasts in defence, hoping to hide a little bit.

He chuckled, "What? I said hello," raising his arms in defence.

You squinted your eyes at him, "I know who you said hello to," hands still on your boobs. The chuckling continued. He couldn't help it. He couldn't hide it.

"And what were you so worried about?" Wongoo genuinely wondered as he kept eyeing you up and down, he really tried to stop but it was almost as if his eyes moved on their own.

You sighed and turned back to take a look in the mirror, your backside now facing him, not making it any better for the poor man in the chair. He decided to stand up to not have your ass on perfect eye level and was only graced with the beauty of your reflection.

Your hands caressed the dress, trying to get every single crease out of it. "I mean-," you breathed out in frustration, "just look at it! The fabric is way too thin, my boobs are on the verge of falling out and one wrong move and I'm flashing my ass to everyone."

"I'm not complaining," he grinned, hoping to get a similar reaction from you, which you gave him, but it quickly changed to a shake of your head.

"Clearly." Wonwoo didn't like the tone of your voice. He knew it all too well. It reminded him of his mother. All the times she would check her reflection in any passing mirror, trying to fix every hair that was possibly laying wrongly on her head. Any tiny smudge of her makeup had to get corrected, and every inch of her body had to either be hidden or look fit and young.

The comments of his father rang through his memory. The words he had thrown at his mother as she, slowly but surely, aged like beautiful fine wine, much to the dismay of his father, who had looked like the molerat he had always been. He hated the way his mum saw herself. Just because that asshole couldn't keep his mouth shut. Wonwoo promised himself to never make that same mistake.

"Well," he wanted to touch you, oh so badly, but he kept his hands to himself. For now. "If my opinion is of any importance to you, I think you look beautiful. But so did you in my old ass university sweater, so I don't know how much of help I really am."

You raised your head, meeting his gaze in the mirror, sending him a shy and tight smile as you grasped the seem of the dress tightly. God... why was he doing this to you. Well, you knew it. He had told you. He told you exactly what he was thinking, so, you knew. But what were you going to do with that information?

"Thank you," you softly told him, to which he just nodded. "But I still don't feel comfortable in this."

"Then let's try to find something you at least find somewhat comfortable to wear," he suggested kindly, sitting back down as you went back into the dressing room, pulling the curtain close before you released a heavy breath.

"They can't be serious about this," you commented as you stepped out in your now fifth dress. ...Dress? If you could call it that. It was much rather just a bunch of chains that were intertwined with each other, creating something you could throw over your upper body.

Wonwoo looked up from his phone, putting it back into his pocket immediately.

"Why are you wearing underwear with that?" He exclaimed, getting a wide-eyed stare from you in return.

You stuttered, "Wh- Am I- Am I supposed to just go bare?!"

"Well, with this, clearly," he stated like it was the most obvious answer possible.

You crossed your arms, "You'd like that, wouldn't you?" He didn't answer you verbally but just shrugged, making you roll your eyes with a chuckle.

"But this is actually something that a woman would wear to the Monbebe," he quickly added before you could disappear again.

"This?" You pointed to yourself, "Without underwear? Seriously?"

Wonwoo kept quiet for a few seconds, eyes interlocked with yours, before sighing, "I know, you don't actually want me to answer that." You nodded.

With the curtain closed, you started to get undressed again.

"You know," the CEO stated, "The more time we spent here and the more dresses you try on, the less I enjoy the idea of you coming along," he decided to just throw out the facts as they were. He didn't like it at all. He was almost terrified. Almost.

"Well, too bad," you got the dress off and put it back on the wall, "Because you're not getting rid of me now." You could hear the quiet mumble from outside but couldn't make out what he said. But you knew better than to ask him and just decided to let it pass.

Standing half naked in front of the dresses, you realised that the fifth one had been the last, and now you were left in your underwear, gazing at the clothing in desperation.

"You okay?" Wonwoo had gotten up and walked towards the curtain, his voice now closer than before.

You sighed, "That was the last one. Last dress."

"So then? Which one is it gonna be?" He wondered, only adding to your frustration.

"I don't know," you soughed, running a hand through your hair, "No fucking idea..."

"What about that third one," the CEO suddenly suggested, "You said that wasn't too bad, right? I think it was the best out of all of them."

You reached out to look for the mentioned piece of clothing, getting it out and hanging it at the front once you had found it, studying it with your arms crossed.

"But you said it had too much fabric on it," you argued.

"Mh, guess why it was my favourite," he commented back, almost getting a chuckle out of you. "Do you need help?" His question made you grin.

"No!" You shouted back, "Don't you dare come in here." Looking at the curtain as it started moving, you found fingers creeping in and grasping the seem of the hanging fabric, making you jump forward and slap it before poking your head out.

"Won-" you hisses but stopped as soon as you realised just how close you were all of a sudden. This position felt familiar with him. Too familiar. You could feel his breath on your lips, and you did not mind at all. It was too close and yet not close enough.

"Are you sure, you don't need any help?" He whispered.

The breath that left your lips was clearly shaky, yet you hoped he didn't notice. Although... maybe it wouldn't be too bad if he did notice it... right?

You smiled shyly, "Yes... thank you."

Wonwoo copied your facial expression, "Look how considered I am."

"Mh," you hummed with a nod, "May I go back and change now?"

"I'm not stopping you," he stated, smirking, knowing damn well what he was doing. Without another noise, you were about to close the curtain fully again. "Y/N," but his soft voice stopped you and made you look back at him. Why did he still have to be so close?

"This morning," he started, "What did you want to do?"

"What do you mean?"

"In the kitchen. Before we got interrupted." He didn't take his eyes off of yours, but you couldn't help but to lower your gaze, feeling intimated by his question. The gentle touch of his finger made you lift your head again, "I think there's something we need to catch up on." The almost kiss. Before Binna ruined your pretty much perfect morning. Was he so caught up on that? The memory made you grin. Oh how bad you wanted to kiss him. You still wanted to. Damn you Wonwoo...

"You really want to do this here?"

"A beautiful woman is half-naked in front of me. What more could I ask for?" His comment received a soft chuckle from you, "But I want you to do it. Because you want to, not because you feel like you have to."

"Wonwoo...," another whisper escaped your lips as you could feel yourself leaning more into him, now only millimetres away from his lips. He noticed it too.

"I just need to know that you want to," he copied your tone, his hand coming up to brush your hair on the side of your face.

You would've trusted your heart to stop right then and there. It was beating so hard, it had to be close to exploding. Your breathing had quickened, the adrenaline rushing through your body just like you had missed it.

You nodded so very gently, someone could've missed it, "I want to." Earning an even wider grin from Wonwoo.

"Well then," he just answered, not moving from his position, waiting for you to continue. You knew what you had to do. And yes God, it didn't matter how much of a mistake this maybe was, you were about to do it. Just one last time, you dared to look down at the man's lips, before meeting his gaze again. That was the last thing you saw as you closed your eyes and finally closed the small gap between the two of you. Finally. It had been way too long. Well, at least it felt like it. The soft moans coming from both of you just emphasized that. Finally, you felt his lips move against yours again. His hand held your cheek, his thumb brushing smoothly over your skin, trying to pull you in closer while you had a tight grasp on the curtain, hiding your body from the chest down. It didn't matter that you were in the middle of a clothing store. You could not give less of a fuck. What mattered was the man in front of you with his lips on yours, keeping you as close as he possibly could. The lips you had found so much comfort in.

Whatever this was... it was complicated, yes. But you were so ready to find out what exactly it was and how you could make it work. Finally ready.

You pulled back before it could get any more heated, out of breath, your eyes met again. You bit down on your lip as he opened his mouth.

"I meant what I said last night."

You looked down with a soft grin, "How often are you gonna say that?"

"Until you believe me," he stated, finding your hand that was still choking the fabric of the curtain.

Your gazes met. His once cold and dark eyes had turned so soft. The face you had once wanted to avoid at all cost had become so warm and comforting to you. You felt seen. You felt safe.

The subtle nod of his head brought you out of your trance, "Go change, we gotta get ready for later."

You turned around, careful to not let go of the curtain, taking the clothing hanger with the 'dress' into your hands, "Okay, take that for a second, we still gotta pay for that. I'll-"

"Alright done." He grasped the dress and took a few steps back to give you some space again.

"What?" Your question made him look up, "When?"

"I gave them my card and told them which dress you're gonna take," Wonwoo got a hold of his phone, just shrugging his shoulders, looking as comfortable as ever while you were still desperately hiding your body behind a curtain.

You squinted, "How did you know which dress I was gonna pick?"

He stared at you with his soft gaze, "You really think I would've let you pick any of the others?"

Already out of breath, you kept running through your apartment, trying to find the pieces of accessories you were looking for, groaning when they weren't in the bathroom, or your bedroom. You rushed into the living room, hoping you had maybe left them on the coffee table, but no luck. You had been looking for your earrings for at least ten minutes. Ten long minutes. After showering and literally shaving every single inch of your body, you had taken the time to do your makeup better than ever before, but now the problem was something else. Fucking earrings.

The shoes you should wear were already waiting for you in the hallway, along with the little black bag you had decided on. With one last groan, you chose to forget about the accessory and went back into the bedroom to finally put on the dress as you were sure Wonwoo would be here in no less than five minutes.

You took it out of its cover, revealing the beautiful stitch it had, along with the chains and pendant attached to it. It was gorgeous. Hot. Nothing you'd ever wear anywhere outside, not even a nightclub - and you had been to clubs before.

Putting in on seemed easier back at the store, you realized as you tried to close the last hook in the back. God dammit... why did expensive clothing also have to be so extra.

The ringing of your phone caught you off guard, making you have to walk into the living room again, where it had sat on the sofa. Wonwoo's name lit up the phone screen as you accepted the call, still trying to somehow get that freaking dress to close.

"Hello?"

"Hey, you can come down, we're here."

"Ehm...," you thought about it for a good second before continuing, "Could you maybe come up?"

"Why?" His voice was laced with confusion, and a little bit of worry, "Are you okay?"

You quickly assured him, "Yeah yeah yeah, I just... I need help with this dress, I ca-"

"On my way."

"Thank you," a gentle smile crept its way onto your face, "Fourth floor, ap-"

"I know." Were you ever going to be able to finish sentences with that man around? Who knew.

Not even two minutes later, there was a knock on your door, letting you know he had arrived. With your hands still behind your back, you entered the hallway, opening the door just a little to make sure that it, in fact, was who you were waiting for.

"Hi," you beamed brightly at him.

"Hey," your facial expression made him chuckle. He was about to ask you something else, but the sight of your entire figure in front of him made him stop, "Wow..."

You rolled your eyes as you felt the heat in your cheeks come up, "Don't."

"What? Am I not allowed to compliment a beautiful-looking woman." You didn't know what to say. What do you answer to a comment like that just being thrown at you? Multiple of those comments as a matter of fact.

Wonwoo's eyes fell on your hands that were holding onto the piece of clothing in the back. He took a step forward to get closer to you, making you almost breathe out at the sudden close distance when he put his hands on your shoulders to turn you around. His hands replaced yours. "You're gonna have to get used to me complimenting you."

You shrugged, "I just don't know how to react."

"Then you're gonna learn," he placed his palm on your lower back, "Done." You turned back around to meet his gaze.

"What if I don't want to?" The teasing question even surprised you, but for some reason, it felt fitting. And God did it feel good.

He grinned, his eyes running down your hair, his fingers followed, "You'll have to." Making you roll your eyes with a shy smile,

"You don't look too bad yourself, Mister Jeon." You brushed an invisible piece of lint off his suit jacket. Seeing him in suits every day at work didn't change the excitement that crept up your stomach at the sight of him in this clearly much more expensive anorak. All black.

"Shoes on." You nodded at the demand and brushed past him to bend down, forgetting how short your dress actually was. Only when you felt the sudden wash of cold over your clothed core, you shot up again, taking the shoes to the little stool you had placed in the hallway. Wonwoo waited patiently for you, watching you put on one shoe when he bent down onto one knee, taking the other shoe into his hand before moving to put it on your foot.

"Thank you," you told him, watching his fingers move so gently and skillfully over your skin, trying to make sure he tied the strings of the heels just the same way you did with the other one.

With a pat on your leg, he let you know he was finished, looking up to smile at you. If you hadn't been sitting down, you for sure would've melted to the floor at the look on his face. When had the cold-hearted bachelor turned so soft?

"Ready?"

You shifted in your seat, sitting up straighter, moving closer to him unknowingly as you put your hands underneath your thighs, trapping them between skin and cushion.

"I don't know," you let him know in full honesty, shaking your head in the process.

"As long as you stay next to me, you'll be fine. Alright?" He tried to find your eyes as you looked away, not being able to shake the unweary feeling you had about this whole situation you were about to run into. "I won't let anyone there touch you. I promise." His hand on your knee assured you even more of his statement. He promised. You knew he meant it.

With a nod, you agreed, "I know."

For a few more seconds the two of you stayed in your positions, sharing gazes as you watched his eyes go from concerned to reassuring to... something you couldn't quite put your finger on. So much had happened over the past few months for you to sit right there with the man in front on his knees. Just like he told you...

"What?" His question brought you back, making you shake your head,

"Nothing, let's go." You stood up to walk past him, but his hand on your naked leg stopped you when he stood back up, only to let it travel up slowly, knowing damn well what it did to you when he caught your eyes again, and your lips slightly parted.

"What was that look on your face?" Again, he tried to dig deeper. You shook your head. But you knew there was no escape from him. If he wanted something, he'd get it.

His fingers grasped your chin to make you look at him. You were quick to wrap your hands around his wrist, ready to pull back whenever you wanted to. If you ever wanted to.

The raise of his eyebrows let you know that he wouldn't move until you answered his question in proper words, so you took a slightly deeper breath.

"I was just trying to read you."

You saw his eyes falling to your lips before meeting your gaze again. "You don't have to try to read me. Just ask me."

A quick look down at your shoes got you the small amount of confidence that would hopefully be enough for what you were about to do.

"Can I ask you something?" You whispered.

He nodded, "Everything," lowering his voice to match yours.

You swallowed, tightening your grip on his wrist, as your heartbeat quickened, "Can you kiss me?"

He grinned right away and didn't waste a second to pull you in, only stopping when your lips brushed against each other before he whispered, "You don't have to ask for that."

You could've cried if you wanted to. The emotions had been building up for too long, and there were oh so close to spilling out of you.

The passion his lips wrote all over yours let the tingle in your stomach errupt. The butterflies were finally freed from their cage, letting an exciting chill run across your entire body. God... it felt so good. Too good. His warmth made you feel finally safe again. You felt... loved. Truly loved. Cared for. Anything you could ask for. Right there in front of you.

But all good must come to an end, and so did this kiss.

Wonwoo smiled all so gently at you again, his thumb caressing the faded touch of his lips left on yours, almost making you moan.

"Ready?"

But even in your dizzy state, you were able to hear him. You saw him. You felt him.

You answered him with a nod, followed by a soft, "Yeah."

In the car, driven by Hongseok, on the way to the club, the two of you had fallen into a comfortable small-talk-like conversation. Wonwoo let you know about the day in the office run by Mingyu as the two of you had been busy. He also informed you that the co-CEO would not be joining you that evening since he "never wants to ever put another foot into the cursed, run by the devils themselves, building", as he had worded it apparently.

The man's rough hand was on your naked thigh throughout the entire drive. It wasn't uncomfortable. Not at all. It didn't even make you nervous. It just made you feel safe. But you couldn't hide the shaky breath tumbling from your lips whenever he'd start moving that freaking thumb over your skin. Fucking tease.

Before you knew it, Hongseok notified you of your arrival, making the breath get stuck in your throat. You were about to enter a lion's den. A literal hell, just like Mingyu had put it. If it wasn't for the CEO next to you, you would've already had the worst nervous breakdown of your life, but his presence assured you. He wouldn't let anything happen to you. He promised.

The driver opened the door for you and you were greeted with a mix of blue, red, and purple light blinding your eyes once you stepped out, Wonwoo's hand right there to help and steady you before his moved to the small of your back, leading you forward. You two thanked Hongseok and wished him a good evening before he disappeared again, but not without sending you a warm smile.

You walked ahead, stopping a few feet away from the bouncer in front of the big, fancy-decorated doors. There was no line, which surprised you, but they probably wouldn't want to catch too much attention, you explained to yourself.

"Jeon," the big man suddenly exclaimed, making you jump at the tone of his voice. Not welcoming, that was for sure. "The fuck are you doing here?"

"Good to see you too Sidae," Wonwoo nodded at him, changing the placement of his hand as it was suddenly in front of you, making you pause in your tracks.

"Why are you here?" The man was not about to let you two off easily, you could tell. His eyes came to you, running up and down your body, sending an uncomfortable chill down your spine.

The CEO closed the button on his jacket, "I need to talk to them."

The doorman was quick to shake his head, crossing his arms in front of his massive chest. "They're gonna talk to you."

"And how would you know that?" Wonwoo argued back, earning himself a growl from the man in front of you to which your arms snaked over his, trying to keep close to him. His hand immediately found yours, hoping to give you some form of comfort.

"Do I have to remind you of what happened the last time you and your friends were here? The mess you idiots left." His comment made you scrunch your eyebrows in question. Wonwoo hadn't told you everything. He didn't want you to know the entire story of this part of his past. But slowly more and more was coming to the surface, whether he wanted to or not.

The CEO looked around, "Am I here with my friends? I don't see them anywhere," annoying the bouncer just a tad bit more, "Just me. And I just want to talk."

The big man in front of you nodded towards you, "And her?"

"You really think she's gonna start something?"

"I don't trust any bitches you bring along," he commented, earning a warning glare from Wonwoo.

"Careful with your words, man. I'd better shut my mouth if I were you." Even though the man was double Wonwoo's size, he didn't seem intimidated in the slightest. The past they shared together must add to that.

The bouncer sighed, before turning to the barricade, opening it and motioning for you two to go through. The man on your arm took a step first, making you follow. You didn't get far though as the doorman stopped you by grabbing Wonwoo harshly by the arm.

"If I hear anything about you starting God knows what shit, it's over for you, Jeon." If you hadn't gotten the message before, you sure as hell got it now. You gulped. Wonwoo just nodded relaxed, opening the door to let you go in first, but he was still hot on your step.

Immediately, loud music and darkness, only lit up by the same colour as outside surrounded you. While the entrance was empty, only men lined up next to each other, one bigger than the one next to them - must've been bouncers too - the open space, functioning as a dance floor was FILLED. You didn't think another person could fit into the mass. The bar to the side was fairly empty too, with only a few men sitting there, waiting for one of the women that walked through the room to stop by their side.

Your eyes widened when you saw the outfits. That's what Wonwoo meant... Those were rarely clothes... not even underwear... you guess they were supposed to be covers, but they hardly covered anything. There were a few women in another corner that were wearing slightly more, but still not enough for a normal nightclub in your opinion. You felt out of place. Wildly out of place.

Wonwoo was next to you again within a second, taking your hand and taking it to loop your arm with his.

"Just follow me, okay?" He shouted over the loud music, to which you nodded.

He took you to the right and right before you passed the bar, he brought you in front of him, his hands securely on your hips as he lead you straight forward, past all of the men on the side and women on the other. It was bigger than you expected. From the outside, it looked like a smaller nightclub but just could tell that that was just an illusion.

One more turn around the corner and through deep black curtains, you found yourself in front stairs but waited for Wonwoo to continue. He noticed you hesitating and stepped forward, taking the first step down. He turned around again, extending his hand for you to take and leading you down.

Black stone surrounded you, and the temperature dropped a significant amount as you were now in a basement - still lit up by blue, red, and purple lights.

Arrived on the lower floor, two signs let you know where everything was. With one look to the right and left, you also found multiple doors, leading to more rooms. You could guess what was going on behind those doors. Wonwoo had told you, and you didn't want to imagine what those men were possibly doing with the women that worked there.

You were dragged towards the 'lounge', passing all those doors. You didn't question anything, you knew this was the moment to shut your mouth. If you had any questions, you could ask those later.

The two of you came to a stop at the end of the hallway, one bright red door right in front of you. Your eyes fell to Wonwoo to your left, watching his chest rise before falling again. Maybe he wasn't as relaxed as he pretended to be. You squeezed his hand a little tighter, just to let him know that you were also still there. He wasn't about to do this alone. He copied your action, followed by a gentle shake of your hands.

He brought his other hand up to the door, knocking hard against it three times. Not even trying to open it, he knew only seconds later it would open up just like it was supposed to. His hand dropped yours the moment a beam of light came from the other room. You looked to your side, hoping to catch his attention as you didn't expect the sudden action. He sent you an assuring smile, tapping your palm with his finger before looking straight ahead again, walking in first to keep you secure behind him.

You were about to follow him when the sight in front of you made you stop in your tracks. A lounge with a big U-sofa, massive even. But more importantly, were the people on the couches. You found three men, sitting with their legs wide apart, surrounded by multiple women, one dressed skimpier than the other, all over those men. Their lips and hands running all over their bodies and all you could do was stare blankly.

The one in the middle caught your attention first as he saw you walk in. A bright smile, that you could only describe as creepy, brightened up his face.

"Jeon Wonwoo!" He shouted, pushing the women off him while gaining the attention of the other men left and right who had turned to look at the two of you. "A face I never thought I'd ever see again." With a slight tilt of his head, he also met you. A wink was sent your way making you quickly walk up right behind the CEO. The door behind you closed. Turning around you found two security men on either side of it. Those people here really care for their safety apparently. "To what do we owe the pleasure? And tell me why I shouldn't tell my men to pop your eyes out of your skull immediately."

You wrapped your arms around your torso in comfort as you started to feel the chill coming down your spine once again. He maybe didn't look as scary. But he sure as hell sounded terrifying.

Wonwoo sighed, putting his hands in his pockets, "Good to see you too, Shownu. And that would just make a terrible mess, don't you think?"

The man on the sofa looked to his left and right, sharing glances with his colleagues before gifting you his attention again.

"Well," he smirked, "Can't be worst than last time, right?"

Can’t even explain how nervous I was finally releasing this bc I haven’t written in so long, I hope I haven’t lost my spark… thank you for taking your time to continue reading this series🤍

Taglist: @nctxtrash @leicy0756 @hoe4wonwoo @jeonwonhi @nothingbutadeadesceane @smileywoo @angelarin @onewoowonderboy @goodforgyu @kavvs @sugarmilkchan @sweetheart-gs @wonforgyu @lilactangerine @meltinghershey @wonw00t @soonchanshua @jayswifeuwu @allorysayshi @shaurenlaw @drama-1998-girl @yoonren07 @malakasae @sseuyeon @venusprada @jeminiepabo @billboard-singer @safsaf1980 @monmarguerite @ji-jii-visha @renjunphile @haogyuslut @destinyg237 @taestrwbrry @renkkuri @travelleratheart101 @love-svt @sunshinein17 @morklee02 @wonuziex @pwwarkjisung @hokuuu @clvudisan @awyunh @restlesswritings @woohaosworld @everyw0nu @woo8hao

#wonwoo x reader #wonwoo series #jeon wonwoo #Wonwoo imagines #x reader #series #imagines #imagine #seventeen #svt #kpop

215 notes · View notes

swallowerofdharma · 11 days

Text

Jealousy

One of the occasions when I strongly feel like my opinion is at odds with other people’s is when Doumeki’s jealousy comes to the surface. I am not sure if maybe this is a result of how unacquainted I am with romance literature or portrayals in media of romantic relationships, heterosexual ones mostly, since I have always been very impatient with those tropes. And that’s maybe what it is, that many readers of Saezuru are more comfortable or acquainted with straight romances and are used to read jealousy or possessiveness from the male partner as a sign of interest and proof of affection or love. I can’t take it like that tho, personally, honestly I can’t see a man being jealous of his partner or potential partner as a positive. Jealousy is a sign of insecurity for me and men being insecure? Potentially bad news, my alarm bells are going off and I don’t get any enjoyment from that part of the story. So is Yoneda Kou using Doumeki’s jealousy uncritically and just as a romantic motif?

Again what Yoneda-sensei did with the yakuza plot in the first half of Saezuru is very interesting to me, because within the whole Hirata’s debacle jealousy was a very central theme. Yashiro’s thoughts about the relationships between men in the yakuza are also quite revealing, and he tends to think about those men as behaving in their relationships like they would in romantic situations. The first we see of one of Hirata’s passive aggressive behaviors towards Yashiro, he is taking his wakagashira to a function at the Matsuhara group’s place. That place is tied to a period of Yashiro’s life when he was completely adrift, those aren’t good memories, here is Yashiro’s unreliability again in revisiting the past and always downplaying it or seeing it in the lighter way possible. In this case, being in a room full of men, yakuza men, those types of violent and ruthless men tied together by either exclusion from normal society, or money interests and money debts, or complicated emotions under the surface waiting to shift the uneasy balance, Yashiro is thinking of them and of their dynamics in homo erotic terms. The fantasies that he has here, in my opinion, surge from anxiety, as part of his normal coping mechanisms and part of the pattern where he is being fucked all the time and the best he can hope for is to enjoy it or find some form of empowerment in it. When Misumi comes in and sits beside him and not at the front of the room, where his place should be, and Hirata and the others notice, Yashiro is uneasy about it, like he was when Doumeki reported what was being said at the other office by the manager Kirishima (the one in charge of collecting money from debtors and that hired Doumeki in the first place). Yashiro interrogates Kirishima only about those rumors that could potentially become a threat due to jealousy and resentment in a highly hierarchical environment.

Yashiro correctly understands that a man’s jealousy is an open door for trouble. Hirata is keeping track of his movements and of his interactions with Misumi. Rumors are spread widely across the group, but again it is more troubling that these rumors involve Misumi now that a succession process is underway in the Doushinkai. Sexual relationships between men in the yakuza can’t have a legitimate place because of this fear of a perceived unfair competition and advantage, because a sexual relationship has the power to potentially build intimacy and trust in a way that isn’t like any other (that’s the primary function of sex in a marriage, and that is a unique type of relationship protected by several laws and where the bond is considered so strong that each party is exonerated from having to report confidential information exchanged between them to any other authority). That is why men in these environments tend to prefer a very strong unbalance of power in sexual relationships and to keep women separated from their business relationships. Hirata breaks many rules considered fundamental in the yakuza, having betrayed a sworn brother (Kurobane) and having ordered the killing of a sworn son (Yashiro) and remarkably letting his men use sexual violence to gain information from Ryuuzaki’s girlfriend. In the yakuza all those things are strictly forbidden, and the need for protection of the members’ women is another sign of the place these women have in this world, a position of inherent weakness where no one expects them to stand on their own and where they have no power.

While Yashiro correctly perceives jealousy as a threat, he also shows a certain disappointment when Doumeki denies that he is angry after discovering his relationship with Ryuuzaki. Yashiro shows many contradictory behaviors, signs of his decision to hide himself and his vulnerability. But he has been effected by the way Doumeki keeps looking at him and the possibility that maybe this person might care. On the other hand, Doumeki is alerted early on to the fact that showing his true feelings now that he regained potency (remarkably by watching Yashiro while recounting his time with the nurse) is potentially going to cost him his position as Yashiro’s bodyguard. From this moment on Doumeki is misguided by this insecurity. After the reunion, Doumeki discovers that Yashiro is in contact with Inami and he is taken by anger and jealousy, and he is misguided once again by those emotions.

Yashiro’s feelings towards Izumi are so complex that we can’t really conclude if he is jealous or not, only that he is suffering, and that he can’t quite manage to picture himself beside Doumeki. Both scenes played between the entryway of his building and the elevator have shown a Yashiro yearning for Doumeki, a Yashiro who doesn’t want to let him go. These scenes happen before he witnesses Doumeki and Izumi together. Yashiro really struggles with this new and assertive Doumeki, a full yakuza now. He entertains the desire to be chosen, but he feels like that is probably no longer a possibility if his competitors are women.

I do understand what Doumeki wants and why he keeps pushing Yashiro. Doumeki wants him to admit out loud what is it that he really wants: whether the truth has always been the same and Yashiro hasn’t changed - he can’t have a normal relationship, he likes to be treated roughly, gentle sex makes him nauseous and so on - or whether he has been lying all along - he might have wanted to be embraced by Doumeki and treated gently, since that time in the bathtub when Doumeki asked for the first time, he ultimately wanted what happened between them at Doumeki’s house and he still wants it. Why Doumeki has to torture this information out of Yashiro is what I have a problem with. Doumeki senses that Yashiro is lying, but can’t be sure. He wants the truth, but he never quite understands in the first place why Yashiro is lying, why the mask was there in the first place. He hasn’t asked the right questions yet, in my opinion, since the very start. And I believe that Yoneda has been very consistent in showing the readers that Doumeki is misguided. Does it matters that he cares for Yashiro, that he loves him if he acts like that? Is jealousy a good sign? Yashiro knows that the person closer to you has the power to really hurt you. Other people don’t have the power to hurt Yashiro in any way that matters to him, even if they beat him, or rape him again, even if they kill him, they would do him a favor. But the ones he let close to his heart have suddenly all the power. Yashiro is a liar because lying is tied to his survival instinct and Yashiro’s survival instinct is tied not to the preservation of his own life, but of his sense of self. This is trauma at its most deep level, something I always thought Doumeki, like most people for that matter, never has been fully equipped to understand. Which is completely normal, but it is all the more important that people become aware of how important are boundaries and dialogue. And those are the areas where Doumeki is a dog with a bone, or more of a policeman with a suspect than a sympathetic character or a younger man blinded by love or infatuation. As I said in a previous analysis, I truly believe that Yoneda is so clever that it is actually an intentional subtext that Doumeki’s motivations aren’t all about selflessness. That he needs to prove to himself that he didn’t rape Yashiro back then, because he himself isn’t so sure about it.

#saezuru tori wa habatakanai #saezuru analysis #yoneda kou #eri reads saezuru #going again in uncomfortable territory #sorry if I am unable to be more brief #I have multiple interpretations of this story but when I write down I have to give priority to some ideas above others #the yakuza is such a incredibly interesting setting for this story and #how it is used is so unconventional and above the romanticized #idea of crime and criminals #so good #yashiro #doumeki chikara

37 notes · View notes

belit0 · 8 months

Note

Hiii I love your writing! I wonder, how would Itachi react to finding out he unknowingly killed his girlfriend’s father when he was in the Anbu?

Upa, interesting one,

It is unexpected, and he only manages to tie up the loose ends in his mind, without mentioning a word about it. Itachi is the most committed person to his work, always maintaining the confidentiality of his tasks and the professionalism to perform them, but never expected to find himself in a situation like this one.

It is (Y/N)'s face that first brings back memories, feeling as if he has seen those eyes somewhere else before. By building a relationship with her, he forgets about it, and goes on with his life and work.

Something ignites inside him the moment he hears her talk about her family, her parents, and how her father was cruelly killed by an expert. His girlfriend's grief is so severe she even manages to relate the exact wounds found on the body, triggering that nagging sensation again of having seen this before, of knowing this story.

He can't quite fit the pieces together, but he knows there is something strange about it all.

Only when he visits (Y/N)'s house for the first time and sees the family photos on any nearby wall does he understand. It was his kunai that stabbed into her father's body and made him bleed to death, it was his objective to end his life and take (Y/N)'s father away from her.

Itachi remembers clearly, and everything makes sense when he sees the face of that man in family portraits, comprehending the gravity of that mission. He did not hesitate to steal his life, leaving an innocent household without a father.

He feigns ignorance at the moment, just to avoid raising doubts in (Y/N), saving himself from questions he won't be able to answer if he collapses in front of her. He goes through the afternoon as best he can, ninja accustomed to not showing truth in his eyes, numb and destroyed inside.

When he gets home and into the privacy of his home, he finally collapses, unable to imagine the pain his own girlfriend must have felt when his hands stole the last seconds of her father's life. It is uncontrollable crying and the helplessness of being unable to reverse time, having not a shred of empathy for himself.

The Uchiha fails to understand it was simply a mission, that the man was a target and he had to do it, with no options or choices in the face of death. He cannot forgive himself, nor can he live with the guilt of knowing what happened to his father-in-law and not telling (Y/N).

He will choose to deal with whatever happens after he delivers the news of that unfortunate fate, bearing whatever consequences his girlfriend deems necessary.

#uchiha itachi x reader #itachi uchiha x reader #itachi x reader #uchiha itachi #itachi uchiha #itachi #naruto imagines #naruto shippuden #naruto #uchiha clan #anbu itachi #anbu #naruto x reader

54 notes · View notes

life-winners-liveblog · 2 months

Note

The making of the teapot is actually quite tedious but fascinating! I wouldn't normally tell anyone about the production process, business confidentiality and whatnot, but you can't leave the Winner's Void, so it's fine.

The teapot itself is made with porcelain that's enchanted to be practically indestructible and decorated using gold and mother of pearl. As for how it makes tea, it's a very complicated process that involves both magic and chemistry.

See, by the laws of magic, science, and the world in general, something cannot come from nothing, there must be something there. Essentially the conservation of material. So the tea doesn't just come from nowhere, I actually have to magically link the teapot to something that already exists, like a large body of water or a celestial object (after checking to make sure it's not particularly important and no living organisms exist, of course. thankfully I've only needed to do that once). The link basically creates a portal which the teapot siphons materials from. This is the first magic part.

Then comes the chemistry part. The materials, whilst being siphoned, go through a process of purification to remove any contamination and germs. Then it goes through another process called transmutation. By definition, that means "the action of changing or the state of being changed into another form". In chemistry or physics, it's the action of one element becoming another element through the exchange of protons and electrons.

And after the transmutation process comes liquidization, which is exactly what it sounds like as the materials become liquid form, which isn't always needed because water is both very common and the most used ingredient as the teapot primarily dispenses drinks. Plus, water is a relatively simple compound consisting of two hydrogen molecules and one oxygen molecule-

*five minutes later*

-then the mixture goes through another process of purification-

*ten minutes later*

-so by holding the handle or any part of the teapot, the teapot connects to the mind of the user and identifies what the user wants the teapot to dispense-

*five minutes later again*

-This all happens within the body of the teapot. And because the production process is extremely tedious, the teapot is so expensive that it exceeds all monetary value by multiple digits and regular currency can't be used to buy it. You're quite lucky I gave this to you for free, really. I've only sold six teapots, and five of them were to gods. In fact, it was actually my second customer who suggested the idea of being able to make complex drinks, so I added three more components that put the drink through the process of-

*twenty minutes later*

-and this part happens in the spout. So that’s how the teapot can make latte art and ice-cream sundaes! There's also a feature that prevents the lid from falling off and spilling anything. And that happens through the process of- Ha, no, I'm kidding. It’s called “not making an actual lid”, it just looks like there is one.

Rae-non

Pearl: I totally know what most of that meant, yep.

[Am I stupid for not understanding?]

Pearl: No! No, of course not Olive, It's just a very very complex thing, It's ok...

#asks #trafficblr #traffic series #pearlescentmoon #Rae-non

25 notes · View notes

twig-tea · 7 months

Note

A question for you because you seem like one of those people who has watched everything: how did you get started watching bl, and what are your ultimate favorite shows?

Double-barrelled! I'm honoured.

How did I get into BL?

The short answer is that ~2016 the YouTube algorithm served me up Lovesick and I immediately went EXCUSE ME WHAT IS THIS and looked up everything else available and watched literally everything I could get my hands on (which at the time was easy because there was only a handful compared to today, but it still felt like a wealth of content to enjoy).

The longer answer is that I used to be really involved in GL (I was the secretary at the first Yuricon in North America in 2002 or 2003) and then BL manga fandom (was in a scanlation group for awhile) through ~2006? so its extra hilarious that this wasn't my route in; I apparently took a break right before they started making live action versions in Japan. But when I got into Thai BL it was fun rediscovering these tropes in a new medium and through the lens of a new-to-me culture, noticing how they differed and how the genre had matured (and how it hadn't), and on catching up on the stuff out of Japan, seeing some of the manga I read over a decade ago come to life! So I mention this history because it's definitely a part of why I stayed (and probably why the algorithm found me relatively quickly).

I only started tracking things in a spreadsheet in 2020 (and it's not nearly as comprehensive or useful as @absolutebl 's), but I did try to backfill the highlights of what I've seen and I have over 550 rows on there, fwiw. I'm a completionist so I do try to watch everything, though that's getting more and more impossible these days.

Ultimate Favourite Shows

This question is so hard. I know you didn't even give me a limit but you have to understand @lurkingshan, I can't choose favourites, I have a draft top ten list that has been blank for 3 years because I can't commit. Okok. I'm just going to list shows as they come to me (not in any particular order):

Thailand: Until We Meet Again, He's Coming to Me, Diary of Tootsies, WhyRU, Ingredients, Not Me, Secret Crush on You, I Told Sunset About You & I Promised You the Moon, Triage, You're My Sky, Make it Right, La Pluie, My Ride, Bad Buddy, My School President, Laws of Attraction, Moonlight Chicken, Dear Dr I'm Coming for Soul, To Sir With Love/Khun Chai, The Eclipse, Midnight Museum, Lovely Writer... Grey Rainbow [ducks, hides, runs away]

Japan: Doushitemo Furetakunai (no touching at all), Kinou Nani Tabeta (What did you eat yesterday?), Our Dining Table, Takara-Kun and Amagi-Kun, Old Fashioned Cupcake, 7 Days (mon-thurs & fri-sun), His (miniseries & movie), I Want to See Only You, Kieta Hatsukoi/My love mix-up, the Cherry Magic Movie, Life~Senjou no bokura/Love on the Line, 180 Degrees Longitude Passes Through Us, Given (anime is my fave version), Tokyo in April Is..., Cornered Mouse Dreams of Cheese, Utsukushii Kare/My beautiful man

Korea: Our Dating Sim, Semantic Error, The Lover [BL side], Color Rush, Blueming, Cherry Blossoms After Winter, Love Class 2, Made on the Rooftop, Discipline Z, Light on Me, To My Star (yes both seasons), Strongberry (faves are Long Time No See, Confidential Coffee Break, and A First Love Story), Sing My Crush, Just Friends?

Vietnam: Goodbye Mother, Hey! First Love, Nation's Brother, You Are Ma Boy, Follow My Sunshine, FOOLs, Tien Bromance: My Small Family, Love Bill

Philippines: Gameboys, Gaya sa Pelikula, Boys Lockdown, Cheat [warning: horror], Your Home, Better Days

Taiwan: Be Loved in House, My DNA Says Love You, We Best Love (1 & 2), HIStory (Crossing the Line is my fave, and second fave is...Make Our Days Count [ducks, hides, burrows into ground]).

Other: Summerdaze (short from Singapore), Stay Still (Hong Kong), HeHe and He (Hong Kong, final season in progress but s1&2 are so funny) and the bromances/difficult to categorize: Scumbag System, Word of Honor, The Untamed, Guardian, Coffee Prince, Bromance (Taiwanese), Great Men Academy, Mr Queen, Sleuth of Ming Dynasty, SCI Mystery

*deep breath* ok I'm stopping lol narrowing it down any less than this gives me pain so I won't try. Also I'm sure I forgot something obvious (and Tumblr was eating drafts of this at various points). All I can say about this list is it's under 100 and that's the best I could do.

Thanks for the ask, and to anyone who made it this far thanks for reading!

#thank you for the ask!#multi bl #rec list #i remain a parody of myself and unable to choose favourites #thank you for coming to my ted talk #ask game #typed so i can stop thinking it

46 notes · View notes

gyumibear · 9 months

Text

✂️ three's a crowd — 00: my clematis

synopsis — being an ex-obsessive fan is hard, but you've been doing well so far. that is until your rival is revealed to be dating choi soobin, the idol you've been dreaming of for years! so, now your road to recovery is detoured because you're not going to let that slide. you're going to break them apart at all costs. doesn't she know three's a crowd?

taglist — open! send an ask or comment on the main masterlist to be added! @imsiriuslyreal

warnings — violation of hippa laws 😭, mentions of mental illness (codependency, obsession, parasocial relationships), allusions to suicidal thoughts and mentions of violence.

(wc — 1.5k)

It is our intention to include a transcript of the therapeutic sessions run by Dr. [REDACTED] with his client [REDACTED]. These transcripts are protected by doctor-client confidentiality laws (HIPPA) and should only be accessed by the verified person(s). Please call [xxx-xxx-xxxx] if you are in fear of those laws being violated.

August 24, 2019 / #Session 1

Note: C refers to client [REDACTED] while T refers to Dr. [REDACTED].

T: Hello, [REDACTED], it’s nice to see you today.

C: I’m only here because [REDACTED] wants me to be.

T: And might I ask who that is? Is he your father?

C: He’s my cousin, in a way. He’s more like a brother though.

T: Is he your legal guardian?

C: Yes, but only for a few more days. I’m about to turn 18 soon.

T: I’ll note that down. Well, thanks for coming, and I’m happy to help you. First, I want to go over a few things with you. I just want you to know that everything we talk about here is confidential.

C: Obviously. You’d get sued if you didn’t keep things between us.

T: *Dry laugh* You’re correct. Let’s start talking, what happened today that brought you here?

C: Hm.

T: Feel free to start whenever you’re comfortable, [REDACTED].

C: I pushed a girl down a flight of stairs.

T: Did she do something to anger you? Why did you push her?

C: She said that [REDACTED] is the weakest member of [REDACTED].

T: Can you enlighten me as to who that is? Is he a celebrity?

C: Yes, my favorite! He’s the leader of [REDACTED] which is a K-Pop group.

T: Ah, right. Why did her comment about him upset you so much?

C: Because he’s the love of my life? She was spewing absolute bullshit and she doesn’t even know him. Not like I do. I know how hard [REDACTED] works, how much he does for the group and the other members. She deserved to get put in her place.

T: Hold on, [REDACTED]. You said he’s the love of your life? Can you explain that?

C: He is. We’re gonna get married one day. I know it.

T: Let’s dig deeper into this, okay? Tell me more about [REDACTED].

September 28, 2019 / Session 3

C: So, I doxxed her, and I got her expelled.

T: All because she said she preferred [REDACTED] to [REDACTED]?

C: Yeah! I like [REDACTED] and all, but the best member will forever be my [REDACTED]. He’s not the leader for no reason, Dr. [REDACTED].

T: I understand how you feel, but [REDACTED], she is allowed to have her own opinion. You can understand that, correct?

C: She can. That doesn’t mean she won’t face the consequences for them.

T: Hm.

January 4, 2020 / Session #10

T: Welcome back, [REDACTED]. How was your Christmas?

C: It was pretty good, [REDACTED] bought me two [REDACTED] albums. I pulled [REDACTED] of course. It’s because he loves me. He made sure I got his PCs.

T: Hm. Have you been taking your medication regularly?

C: …

T: [REDACTED]?

C: No. I just… forgot. [REDACTED] got really mad at me over the break and I felt like he was gonna leave me and I- I just couldn’t focus on anything else.

T: Why did he get upset with you?

C: I spent the rent money on some [REDACTED] merch cause his birthday was coming up. December 5. He had to call [REDACTED] and ask him to pay this month. They both were really pissed at me, [REDACTED] was the angriest though. I felt bad, like genuinely bad about it.

T: When you say bad, do you really mean sad?

C: Yeah… I just, I don’t ever want him to be mad at me. He’s all I have… But, it’s like… When it comes to [REDACTED] I just can’t control myself. It’s like I’d [REDACTED] if he asked me to.

T: Do you want to [REDACTED]?

C: Sometimes.

March 4, 2020 / Session #14

C: Lately, I’ve just been feeling… Empty? Today’s supposed to be a happy one, cause it’s their one-year anniversary, but I just… Don’t feel anything?

T: Why do you think that is? Did something happen?

C: My classmate recently started biasing him and she actually met him. She ran into him at the convenience store or something and he… talked to her.

T: Continue.

C: At first I thought she was lying, just to piss me off, but… She pulled out her phone and she showed a whole group of us. He took a picture with her and she said he even called her pretty…

T: How did that make you feel when you heard that?

C: Pretty upset. I didn’t do anything to her though, I just walked away.

T: That’s good, [REDACTED]. I’m glad nobody got hurt.

C: Doesn’t mean I didn’t want to hurt her.

T: I understand, but we’re working on that, now aren’t we?

C: Yes. Yes, we are.

August 5, 2020 / Session #25

T: Woah, [REDACTED] you seem very upset today.

C: I’m not in the mood Doc.

T: Would you mind telling me why?

C: [REDACTED] has dating rumors. With this random bitch [REDACTED]. Literally, just because they’re working together as emcees does not mean they’re dating! He wouldn’t do that. He knows that would crush me.

T: [REDACTED], you remember [REDACTED] doesn’t know you, right?

C: That’s not true! He responded to my message on [REDACTED]. Twice. He knows me.

T: Oh dear. [REDACTED], I’m sorry. That was out of line on my part.

C: It’s fine, just don’t say that again. I’m already in a bad mood.

April 16, 2022 / Session #x

Note: C stopped seeing T for a few years due to her time in [REDACTED] after an incident in which she [REDACTED] after an altercation with her classmate. A few of her files were lost, these were the earliest we could find.

C: I’m going to [REDACTED] for University. It took a lot of hard work, but I’m gonna study fashion! [REDACTED] is paying my tuition, but I’m gonna work so I can pay him back.

T: That’s a good idea, [REDACTED]. I’m proud of you.

C: It is a little scary though…

T: What’s scary?

C: Being away from [REDACTED] and [REDACTED]. Cause I have to move into a dorm, I’m not going to see them every day like usual… I’m a bit nervous. I think it’s my separation anxiety.

T: That could be it. Let’s talk more about this.

May 31, 2022 / Session #x

T: This is the last time I’m going to be seeing you regularly, [REDACTED]!

C: Yeah, it feels like it was just yesterday when I met you for the first time.

T: How are you feeling? Been keeping up with your meds?

C: Yep! I’ve been feeling pretty okay! When I start feeling bad I just remember the exercises and the practices you taught me and I work around them. I’m healed, basically.

T: You were never broken, [REDACTED]. You just needed some guidance. You are doing exceptionally well, but don’t start slacking off. We don’t want you to relapse.

C: Yeah, I got you Doc. I’m gonna be on my best behavior!

T: I believe as much. So, what music do you have to share with me this week?

C: I’ve been listening to [REDACTED]! She’s so cool, she makes me wanna learn how to play an instrument.

T: That’d be a good hobby, don’t you think?

C: Yep. Also, Doc..?

T: Yes, [REDACTED]? You look concerned?

C: I, um… I saw some photos of [REDACTED] online… I blocked all the tags that I could, but I guess they just slipped through.

T: That’s alright. these things happen. How did you feel about that?

C: I felt like screaming. I don’t know how to describe it, but it wasn’t a good feeling. So I turned my phone off and I went to go talk to [REDACTED] about it.

T: Is that fully true?

C: …

T: [REDACTED], please tell me the truth.

C: Hm… No.

T: What did you really do?

C: I binge-watched all the fancams I could find of him…

T: Is that all?

C: I also argued with some people online… But then [REDACTED] came and he distracted me.

T: *Sighs* Let’s have another session tomorrow, I want to investigate something.

C: Okay…

August 1, 2023 / Session #x

T: You’re going back to school soon. How do you feel?

C: Fine. It’s just school, you know?

T: Mhm. How’ve you been feeling?

C: Fine. I spent the weekend at [REDACTED]’s so I’m pretty out of it, haha.

T: I see. Did you keep up with your medicine?

C: Do you even need to ask? Of course. I haven’t missed a day in months.

T: I’m very proud of you. Why did you schedule this meeting though, might I ask?

C: I dunno… I just felt like I should.

T: That’s okay! I’m here for you for that very reason. So, tell me what’s on your mind?

C: There’s this girl who’s supposed to be my roommate… I don’t like her.

T: What’s her name?

C: [REDACTED]. She’s a music major.

T: What don’t you like about her?

C: She just… Seems fake? There’s something off and it makes me feel weird.

T: Hm… When was the first time you two interacted?

C: Well… Let’s see…

Note: End of recovered transcripts.

a/n — this was just a simple prologue/teaser to show what yn's mental state is like! i've never done therapy transcripts so i'm sorry if they're an inaccurate portrayal? let me know if there's something that needs to be tagged or changed.

playlist / masterlist / next

#k-labels #kflixnet #kbookshelf #kpop smau #soobin x reader #soobin smau #choi soobin x reader #txt x reader #txt smau #soobin angst #soobin fluff

43 notes · View notes

nellycanwrite · 2 years

Text

Our Son

Austin Butler!Elvis Presley x Filipino!Reader

Summary: After a tender love-making in California, you got pregnant with Elvis' child. As soon as you go into labor, you were adamant to tell Elvis that he was not the father for his and your son's safety.

Words: 688

Rating: PG (13+)

TW: Mild Angst

This is Part 1 of the Austin!Elvis x Filipino!Reader blurb. Part 2

Elvis comes in sweaty into the maternity ward, his secretary lying on the pristinely white bed while she cradles her son—their son—in her arms. There were nurses tending to the I.V drops on her arms; they looked like they were just cleaning up. As soon as they saw him enter, they had to remember that they were attending medical professionals, not some women who would stop and gape at the King of Rock ‘n Roll. The embodiment of lust personified.

Yet they caught themselves doing just that. Only did they snap out of their amorous gazes when you had to clear your throat and gesture towards the unfinished work they have yet to do.

“Oh, lil mama, I—I came as soon as I heard. How are you—”

“The baby's fine, sir. I didn't expect my boss to personally come here to congratulate me.” You gave Elvis a stern look, your head tilting subtly to the attending nurses. Elvis tried his best to not let his disappointment show. With his years of acting, he knew he nailed it right.

“Can you excuse us, ladies? Gotta talk to my secretary here for her schedule. Confidential work, ‘ya see.” Elvis winked. The nurses giggled and batted their eyelashes at the man until they shuffled out one by one. Finally, with the door now locked and the both of you finally alone, Elvis practically ran besides you and kissed your forehead tenderly.

“Why didn't ya call me sooner? I would've come in a heartbeat.”

“You were having a concert. Besides, you being in the labor room would cause suspicion,” You replied whilst rocking the child in your arms, “my boss shouldn't be this concerned with a child that has an unknown father from a one night stand in Cali.”

“But he's our baby,” Elvis' voice cracked, his fingers ghosting over the blanket that wrapped around their son—his son. “I have every right to be in that labor room while you push our baby out.”

“My baby, Elvis. Not ours.” Your voice was strained, as if you were holding back the tears.

“What are you saying?” You looked down at your son. Your son, not his. There were no traces of your features on his face; he was all American to anyone who would lay their eyes on him. He was going to grow up handsome, you thought. Just as handsome as his father.

“You can't tell anyone he's your son. It would ruin your and this child's lives. From now on, he's going to be my child. He will have an unknown father from California; the result of a drunken one night stand. Do you understand?”

“But he's my child too.” He didn't mean to make it come out as forceful. But everything that you said was true—he just couldn't accept it.

You shook your head, “From this day on, he is not. Please understand, Elvis. It's for your career and for Enrique's safety.”

“Enrique," Elvis parroted, "his name is...Enrique?”

You let out a tiny smile. "Enrique Dallas. My…” you trailed off when you spoke, your eyes darting to the disheartened image of your secret lover, “...our sweet little boy.”

You gave him such a small sliver of that happiness, but he ate it up like a fool in love. Perhaps that was the case. He was, indeed, a fool in love. And as were you.

As much as you wanted to declare Elvis as Enrique’s father, you knew you couldn’t take the risk. A Southeast Asian immigrant—poor, colored, and had little to no right in the land of the so-called free. You and Elvis couldn’t even get married, not with the laws that were implemented to separate folks like you from the Americans.

"...How I wish I could give him my family name," Elvis leaned in and kissed his forehead tenderly, "Enrique Dallas Presley; that should've been your name."

“And he should’ve been our son,” you felt a lump on your throat as you said that, but you swallowed it whole; there was no time to back down from this decision, “but we can’t have that, can we, sir?”

#austin butler #elvis 2022 #elvis presley #elvis presley x reader

207 notes · View notes

minniepetals · 2 years

Note

ahhhh part 13 was so goooodd!! can't wait for 14!!

part 1 / part 2 / part 3 / part 4 / part 5 / part 6 / part 7 / part 8 / part 9 / part 10 / part 11 / part 12 / part 13 / part 14 / part 15 / part 16 / part 17

You’ve never been so scared in your entire life. So afraid, so…lonely.

You’ve never really felt overwhelming emotions of stress or sadness before but a part of you always felt confident that if you were to ever feel such things, you’d be able to go to your owners and they’d be right there to make it all better but right now? You aren’t so confident anymore.

Even a hug alone isn’t something you can ask for.

"Can I have a hug?" You hear Jungkook’s question in the back of your mind.

"Is that a wish?" You remember asking him at the time, and then he continued to whine before you eventually allowed yourself to open your arms and let him in.

You want a hug, to let everything out, to feel safe, to feel assured, but you’re too much of a coward to ask for such a thing. After all, what happened that night at the party will never leave your mind.

They don’t think your feelings to be true and as you sit there, clutching onto the invisible pains on your body, you can only shed quiet tears, hating the fact that you have to face all of this alone because there’s no other choice. You’ve given them a note before you left to deal with the pains alone, telling that you had no idea how long you’d be long but that you’d return soon enough.

Soon…when the pain becomes a little more tolerable, when you can face them with a little more bravery.

Soon…

“You’re rather strange these days,” Jungkook says one day and you turn to him, a small knit in your brows.

“Strange?”

“You’ve always been more…energetic,” he explains slowly. “Did something happen while you were away? You mentioned you had to meet the authority, right? What did she tell you?”

“Ah.” Even as it’s been a few days since you returned to their sides, the pain is still there. It isn’t as harsh as the first few days but it still exists.

“The punishment wasn’t too harsh, was it?” Taehyung asks, worry in his eyes since he’s the cause of this.

“No, no,” you shake your head with a forced smile before hesitating a little. “Well…maybe if I hadn’t angered her, the punishment would have been a bit lighter but it was tolerable so you don’t have to worry about it.”

“You angered your authority?” Hoseok asks, his eyes widened as he knows you aren’t the type to do something like that.

“What did you do?” Jimin asks.

“Nothing! It’s fine,” you lie with a light tone, “the punishment wasn’t even that bad.”

“What was it?”

“Can’t say, it’s confidential.” You say another lie to Yoongi’s question. You know that telling them the truth will do no one any good. A part of you wants to believe that if you were to ever tell them, then perhaps they’d finally understand your feelings, or at least accept them to be true. You took Taehyung’s pains for yourself after all, broke such a law you were almost deemed a criminal, but even despite wanting to hope for such a reaction, you know that it would be selfish of you.

After all, it’d only hurt Taehyung. He’d likely blame himself and then what would you do? Tell them oh, I took on his pain because I love you guys. Now do you believe me?

What a selfish wish.

You feel an ache against your abdomen and take a stand. “Um, I’ve gotta go now.”

“Huh?” Seokjin looks at you, confusion plastered on his face.

“Gotta catch up on the books I was reading,” you say as you begin to walk off. “Kids' fairy tales are very interesting. Did you know, many of them are based on real events that have happened in the past? Though that Rumpslik dude is one of the fakest things I’ve ever read. His name in itself is dumb.”

They watch as you leave through the door and once it closes, the room falls silent once more.

Namjoon lets out a sigh to break it. “Even if she tries to return to her normal self, she can’t hide her emotions on her face.”

You’re much meeker these days, less talkative, more listening, and every once in a while they’ll expect a floating body zooming through the walls, surprising them out of nowhere, but even that doesn’t happen. You don’t even fly around anymore and have only resorted to walking.

“Now that I think about it, she’s also only ever been in her solid form these days,” Jimin states, his brows furrowed slightly. “She hasn’t gone invisible to the publics’ eyes once.”

“Maybe the authority revoked some of her privileges?” Jungkook suggests before he rests his hand on his chin. “But to what extent..?”

“Wondering won’t do us any good.”

“It’s not like we can just ask her. She doesn’t seem to want to tell the truth these days.”

“Perhaps we went too far that night. What if her feelings are true and we just accidentally invalidated her feelings?”

They pause at Hoseok’s suggestion, brows knitted, because even though they want that to be true, to believe in your feelings, they know that they can’t let themselves give into hope. As easy as it was to give in, to tell you that they felt the same, they also don’t want something that’ll eventually wither away and turn out to be something out of the moment.

You’ve always been sincere with everything but even then, it scares them because just as sincere as you can be, you can sometimes be naive as well.

Namjoon lets out a heavy sigh. “For now, let’s just focus on the matter at hand,” he states as he stands from his desk. “Y/N’s always been careful not to show up visible to people but these days she’s only ever been visible everywhere at anytime. If it’s really the work of her authority then it’s quite dangerous. An enemy might see her as a target.”

“If that’s the case then to what extent have they revoked her powers?” Jimin asks. “Because Y/N mentioned that genies can’t die and they can heal their own selves. I’ve seen it with my own eyes.”

“Huh?”

He looks away at their questioning gazes, falling a bit hesitant as he scratches the back of his head. “She uh…kinda sorta shot herself in the arm this one time and—”

“What?!”

“And you let her?!”

“Why haven’t you told us this?!”

“It’s fine! It’s fine!” He’s quick to refute their worries with both hands held up in the air. “She healed as easily as that bullet went into her skin.”

“Hells,” Yoongi groans as if a few years have been cut off from his life.

“Well then that means we don’t have to worry when an enemy tries to attack her, right?” Taehyung asks, hopeful.

“We still don’t know what her punishment is,” Jungkook states and Namjoon sighs again, calling out your name.

“Y/N.”

You appear in a split second, but unlike those other times they’ve called for you before, you don’t pop out of thin air as gracefully as you have done. This time you stumble on your feet, head ready to meet the floor if it weren’t for Namjoon’s quick reflexes.

Crap that hurts! You scream inwardly to yourself upon the pain that stings a little more after being caught off guard.

“Are you okay?”

When the worries come, you’re quick to stand back on your feet, rushing away from Namjoon’s touch because unfortunately sometimes a touch alone does things to you.

“Sorry, you caught me off guard,” you say, an awkward laugh leaving your throat.

Namjoon stares at you with narrowed eyes. “So we were right,” he utters and you look at him with a small tilt in your head. “You haven’t turned invisible ever since you returned, Y/N, don’t think we haven’t noticed.”

“Ah.” Why’re they always so good at noticing things?

“Is this a part of your punishment?”

“Uh…maybe.”

“So it is,” he declares. “You do realize how dangerous that is, right? Now that you can’t freely turn invisible before others, there’s bound to be eyes on you soon being as you’re always by our sides.”

“Eyes?”

“The enemies.”

Sometimes you forget what they are, who they are, but you’ve never had to be too careful dancing around that fact because a genie can always heal themselves and can always turn invisible to the eyes of the humans — all but their owners.

“There’s probably already eyes on you.”

“Really? You think so?” You turn to the windows, staring out at the darkness that lies before you. “Like right now? If I’m not too careful, I could just—ah!”

Your body forces itself back, right into Namjoon’s arms when something small and sharp hits you right against your shoulder.

“Y/N!”

The curtains close, bodies surround you, and as you sit there leaning against Namjoon, clutching onto your shoulder, that’s when you realize that for the first time, your bleeding real blood that won’t soak back into your body. Soaking red crimson, and the pain that you’ve felt so immensely as if it were your own for the past few days now falls permanent and real to your skin.

Your hand trembles as blood pools against it and when you look up at Jimin, you know what he’s thinking.

Why aren’t you healing? Why is the blood only oozing out more and more? Why is the bullet still within your body?

“Y/N…” He calls, a whisper, as realization begins to dawn on him. “G..get the medic, Y/N can’t—”

“No.”

“What?”

“I…There’s no one that can heal me,” you whisper, tears forming along your waterline as you hurt from everything. “This is part of my punishment.”

They can only stare at you in horror.

When a tear drop falls from your eye, you wipe it away with your bloody hand, staining blood on your cheek but you don’t care. “It’s okay,” you assure with a tight smile so transient, and they realize you’ve been hiding so much of your pain from them all this time. “It’s okay, genies can’t die.”

Jimin’s hands tremble as he reaches out for you, his eyes filled with pain as he watches you. “...That doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt.”

Just how much more are you hiding from them?

#�� asks

220 notes · View notes

blacktofade · 1 year

Text

Feb 6 — Inferno

Dustjim

CW: nsfw, lap dancing, semi public sex

Dustin leans against the bar, his sleeve immediately soaking in god knows what — maybe beer, maybe condensation if he’s lucky. It’s yet another shitty part of an already shitty night and he shakes it off with a huff as the guy sitting two stools down glances over.

He looks out of sorts, shoulders high like he doesn’t want to be noticed, dressed far too casually for a strip club. Dustin wonders how he even got in.

“What a shithole, huh?” Dustin says, a master of small talk, and the man looks over at him with a bored expression.

“I work here.”

Oh, Dustin thinks, feeling like a real dweeb. “Cool,” he says, which is somehow even worse.

The guy must be a bartender or something. Maybe just stopped by for a drink and his paycheck.

Dustin stares forward, not ready to make another mistake, his focus on the bottles lining the back of the bar, reading the labels and processing none of them.

“You here for a boys’ night out?” the man asks and Dustin glances over, unable to hide the surprise in his expression at the fact that this guy apparently wants to continue the conversation.

“Uh,” Dustin says, the height of wit, “something like that. Bachelor party.”

The guy nods. “Makes sense. Not yours, though. You look like you’d rather be elsewhere.”

“I’m that obvious, huh?” Dustin jokes and the man smiles, teeth bright and straight. “It’s for my soon-to-be brother-in-law.”

“You’re not having fun here?”

“Depends on your definition.”

The guy smiles again. “Half naked women aren’t included in that?”

“They are, just not when it simultaneously makes my wallet lighter.”

The man tips his head in understanding. “They’re good at that. You’re in the wrong place for freebies.”

“You work here,” Dustin tries, “don’t you have like a coupon I could use?”

The guy thankfully understands that it’s just a joke, laughing like it’s caught him off guard. It’s a weird laugh, not that Dustin has room to judge, but it’s — unique.

“Funny guy,” the man says, tapping idly at the bartop.

“It’s all I’ve got going for me,” Dustin says with a wry smile and the guy laughs again.

“Here you go,” a voice says loudly beside Dustin, startling him embarrassingly, and he turns to find the bartender nudging three beers toward him.

He glances at the guy and then reaches for his wallet, tossing a twenty onto the counter and gesturing that the bartender can keep the change, solely because he doesn’t have enough hands nor energy to deal with it.

Carefully, he gathers up the drinks and tips his head at the man he’d been talking to.

“Have a good shift,” he says awkwardly, “if, y’know, you’re working tonight.”

Dustin doesn’t wait for a response. He’s already ruined any chance of seeming cool, and he can only fit so much of his foot in his mouth at once.

He turns away, tail tucked, ready to drown himself in alcohol and women he can’t afford.

“Hey, Sweetheart,” someone purrs over Dustin’s shoulder. “You’ve been requested in the private rooms.”

Dustin chokes on his drink and glances over. “What?”

“Someone bought you a dance, Darling,” she says. “Want to join me in the back?”

Dustin’s alone for the moment, the others distracted — perhaps the only reason she’s wandered over — and Dustin sets his drink down. He’s most of the way drunk now and following her almost seems like a good idea. It might actually make his night a little better.

“Someone bought it for me?” he asks and she nods with a smile. “Who?”

Her grin widens. “Sorry, Baby, that’s confidential.”

He doubts it, but isn’t sober enough to argue. Instead, he lets his gaze trail down her body, definitely not subtle, though she doesn’t complain. He would be more than happy to receive a free dance from her.

“Yeah, okay,” he agrees. “I’ll take it.”

The private rooms are exactly that — private.

The music from the rest of the club is just a distant thud and Dustin buzzes with a strange kind of energy — a mix of anticipation and the fact that he’s never been able to afford being in a private room in his life.

“Here we go, Darling,” the woman says, gesturing to one of the closed doors and Dustin draws up short. “Go get yourself comfortable.”

Dustin nods, palms already sweating as he reaches for the door handle. She pats his shoulder and he watches her as he steps into the room, but then weirdly, she’s pulling the door shut behind him, her on the other side.

“Wha — ?” he starts, glancing over his shoulder and yelping as he realizes he’s not alone. “Jesus!”

“Not Jesus,” the man says with a grin. “Jim.”

It’s the man from the bar, the one who’d said he worked at the club, but Dustin had never believed — he’d never suspected he was a dancer. He looks different now, no longer in his casual clothes. He’s wearing more fishnet than Dustin knows what to do with — a shirt that’s see-through and showing off a set of abs that Dustin can only dream about having, stockings that only make it halfway up his thighs. Paired with the tiniest of daisy dukes, it’s a combo that has Dustin stumbling over his words.

“Did I — am I in the wrong room?” he asks, glancing around, but it’s just them and an armchair that’s probably seen too much over its lifetime.

The man — Jim, apparently, which might be his real name because Dustin’s never met any other exotic dancers called Jim — shakes his head and offers a smile.

“Heard you were having a bad night,” he tells Dustin. “Thought I’d try to make it better. Unless you’d rather something from someone else. Maybe Abigail?”

He gestures toward the door with his head and Dustin’s going to assume that the lady who’d led him back there is Abigail.

He watches Jim for a long moment, silent, though not necessarily on purpose. He’s still feeling stunned by the whiplash. He doesn’t know what he can say.

“I won’t be offended if I’ve read the room wrong,” Jim says and Dustin finally finds enough brainpower to shake his head.

“No, I — you just took me by surprise.”

The corner of Jim’s mouth curls up and Dustin’s stomach flips.

“How does this work?” Dustin asks, and Jim’s head tilts in clear interest.

Jim takes a step closer to the chair in the middle of the room and touches the back of it.

“You wanna come take a seat over here?” Jim asks. “I’ll try my best to make your night better.”

Dustin swallows, mouth suddenly a lot drier, but he nods and takes two unsteady steps forward, carefully easing himself down into the seat and staring up at Jim, who smiles softly at him.

“What do you want me to call you?” Jim asks and Dustin wipes his sweaty palms on his thighs.

“My name’s Dustin. You can just call me that,” he says and Jim nods.

“Hi, Dustin,” he replies with another smile and it feels like Dustin blacks out for a moment because suddenly there’s a gentle beat of music in the room and Jim’s crowding closer, almost straddling Dustin’s thighs.

Dustin drops his hands to the edge of the seat cushion and grips it for all he’s worth. He knows he’s not allowed to touch Jim, so it’s best to remove the temptation.

Obviously, Dustin doesn’t know Jim. Doesn’t know what he does for fun when he’s not working, doesn’t know what makes him laugh — apart from cheesy jokes at a bar — but the way Jim watches him as he moves against him makes Dustin want to find out.

“You’re tense,” Jim murmurs, face close to Dustin’s ear, hips moving tantalizingly.

All Dustin can do is nod. He sure as fuck is.

With his hands on Dustin’s shoulders, Jim eases Dustin backward, forcing him to slouch into the armchair, his spine no longer ramrod straight.

“That’s it,” Jim encourages and Dustin’s dick twitches, his face flushing, and he just hopes it’s dark enough that Jim can’t see.

Dustin’s chest feels tight and hot, like there’s an inferno spreading through his body.

Jim bites his own bottom lip and watches him, grinding forward and — fuck — Jim’s actually hard. He can feel him through the tiny shorts and Dustin didn’t know that was a thing. Maybe Jim took a viagra before Dustin arrived, because it’s not like Jim would actually be interested in him. But then again Dustin doesn’t have much experience with strip clubs.

If Dustin had his way, he’d get his hands on Jim’s hips and pull him right down into his lap.

His knuckles ache from gripping the seat cushion.

Jim slips away, off of Dustin’s lap for just a moment before he instead turns and grinds backward against him, and Dustin wants to put his hands on Jim’s waist, to feel the warmth of his skin.

“Is your night improving?” Jim asks, glancing over his shoulder at him, and all Dustin can do again is nod, face burning, tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth.

Jim smells like hair gel and an oaky kind of deodorant that clings to the inside of Dustin’s nose. He’s so close it’s probably rubbing off against Dustin’s clothes and he’ll go home smelling like Jim and poor decisions.

Jim leans back, body pressed flush against Dustin’s. There’s no way he can’t feel that Dustin is very interested in him, but then Jim tips his head back, mouth close to Dustin’s ear.

“You’re less handsy than the others,” he says, a weird kind of compliment.

Dustin swallows, trying to get moisture back in his mouth.

“Thought it was polite,” Dustin tells him, which feels like a funny thing to say when Jim’s grinding against his hard dick through their clothes.

“You can put your hands on me,” Jim says mildly and Dustin lifts one hand just enough to point at the sign by the door.

“The sign says not to.”

Jim turns around to face him again, perched delicately on Dustin’s thighs, looking like the kind of person Dustin would love to ruin. He holds Dustin’s gaze, his eyes a dark, piercing blue.

“And I’m telling you to put your fucking hands on me.”

Jim’s face looks as flushed as Dustin’s own feels, but he looks serious and Dustin lets out a shuddering breath.

“Yeah, yep, sure,” he agrees, immediately sliding his hands up Jim’s thighs, enjoying how smooth they are under the fishnets.

His fingers briefly tease at the hem of his shorts and then he slips his palms around to Jim’s ass, pulling him closer. Jim’s expression shifts as though pleased with the change and he dips down, fingers suddenly in Dustin’s hair, pulling his head back gently, hovering above him.

“Please tell me you’re single,” Jim says, and Dustin definitely doesn’t think he’s getting the typical strip club experience.

“Embarrassingly single,” Dustin agrees and Jim leans the rest of the way in to kiss him.

Dustin can’t stop the noise that escapes him, but Jim swallows it down. His mouth is warm and wet and Dustin can’t get enough.

When Jim pulls back, his lips are reddened and his eyes are heavy.

“We’re not really supposed to — ” he starts, and doesn’t finish the sentence, but Dustin can fill in the blanks.

His experience is one of a kind.

Jim shifts in Dustin’s lap and Dustin tightens his grip, guiding Jim as he rolls his hips, giving them both much needed pressure against their dicks.

“You’re really fucking hot,” Jim tells him and Dustin’s too stunned to reply. He’s just a guy. But apparently Jim’s super into that.

To make a point, Dustin slides a hand up Jim’s stomach, thumbing at his abs and making Jim groan.

“If I thought we could sneak out of here without anyone noticing, I’d let you come across them,” Jim says and Dustin doesn’t stand a chance.

The next time Jim grinds down against him, he comes, his whole body feeling electrified, head tipping back as he stares at the ceiling, the post-nut regret hitting hard and fast and without mercy.

“Holy fuck,” Dustin grits out and Jim mouths at his jaw and murmurs things like yeah, and god, and that’s so hot, Dustin.

The inside of Dustin’s slacks are a mess and he has no idea how he’s going to get through the rest of the night with cold come all over his cock. He’s going to have to shower the second he’s home if he wants to try to get it out of his pubes.

“Fuck, Jim,” he pants and Jim nods.

“Yeah, that’s the point,” he says, but then he’s tensing up against Dustin, shuddering and clutching at Dustin’s back as though he wants to somehow get even closer, maybe just straight up crawl inside him.

Just as suddenly, he slumps forward, face tucked against Dustin’s throat as he breathes heavily, smelling like a mix of alcohol and minty gum.

Dustin suspects they’ve broken a lot of rules and made more of a mess than anyone rightfully should, but he’s not sure he’d change anything about it.

“Fuck,” Jim exhales after a long moment before finally sitting up to meet Dustin’s gaze.

His face is still flushed, mouth still red, but his eyes are bright with the kind of happiness Dustin doesn’t really understand.

Slowly, Jim leans in, eyes open as he seems to gauge Dustin’s reaction — perhaps expecting him to pull away now that they’ve both finished — but Dustin presses forward to meet him, kissing him gently.

“Y’know, I don’t usually have this much fun,” Jim admits as he pulls back, when Dustin’s lips are starting to tingle. “Can I buy you a drink sometime?”

It takes a moment for the words to process in Dustin’s mind, but eventually he smiles and nods, hands very briefly squeezing at Jim’s waist.

“I’d like that,” he says, and supposes perhaps the night hasn’t been that bad after all.

#jo does feb fic fest #dustjim #went overboard with this one #but i've been threatening to write this au for a long while since grac drew it #and now i am free #fic

32 notes · View notes

jonathanvik · 1 day

Text

Luyten V - Chapter 5

“You must understand, your daughter is the world’s only defense against the Altair,” Director Shapley said, his tone measured.

“I don’t care!” Her mom’s voice raised to a fevered pitch. “You’re not making my Rose a soldier! Besides, it makes no sense. Why is my daughter the only one that can pilot that demonic monstrosity?”

The two adults continued to argue, neither giving an inch. As usual, nobody seemed to care what Rose thought. At least her father was more understanding about the reality of the situation. He tried to intercede on her behalf, trying to calm down his wife. Still, getting thrust into a war didn’t thrill her, either.

“Thanks, future me! Thanks a lot!” Rose scowled. Still, if she didn’t have a choice, she’d fight. She could do this. After all, she destroyed those Altair without issue. An entire invasion? Piece of cake! She hoped.

“I’m going to the lady’s room.” Without seeking permission from the adults, Rose abandoned the room and its tiring conversation. She wandered the government facility, curious about its workings.

“Wow,” Rose stared wide-eyed at the facility they used to conduct Luyten V’s maintenance. Despite its flat, implacable features, the robot seemed to watch her with interest as she entered. The tech was bleeding edge, far beyond anything she’d ever seen in her dinky little town. Some scientists eyed her with curiosity, but continued with their work.

“Fascinating, right?” A nearby scientist at a workstation said, interrupting her gawking. He was tall but well-built, with a bushy mustache fluttering as he spoke with a thick Russian accent. He smiled at her and waved for her to come closer.

On the man’s terminal were computations that boggled the mind, Rose having difficulty absorbing it all. “Wow.”

“I heard you have quite a knack for the mechanical,” the scientist gestured to the project he was working on. “What do you think?”

Rose peered closer. It appeared to be Luyten V’s mechanical skeleton. “It’s masterful. The legs are thick and strong to support the Luyten V’s weight, yet light and delicate enough to move like a human. I’m amazed anything that size can even stand. Wouldn’t the square-cube law work against it?” The larger an object gets, the greater the strain on the structure because of its increased mass.

“Clever observation,” the scientist replied, pleased. He extended a hand. “Doctor Vasiliy Idelson.”

“Rose Brahe,” she grabbed the older man’s hand and shook it. “What is the Luyten V made from? Steel couldn’t hold that much weight.”

“That’s still a mystery,” Idelson admitted sheepishly. “An alloy of unknown composition. Very unusual.”

Rose nodded and asked other technical questions. Much to her satisfaction, Doctor Idelson was happy to supply the answers. While the advanced scientific principles were difficult to understand, Rose gained a vague understanding of how the robot worked.

“There you are,” an annoyed Sandage said, walking up to them.

“Just exploring,” Rose said without shame. If she designed this stupid thing, she deserved to know its inner workings.

“I’m showing her how the Luyten V works,” Idelson said.

“Doctor Idelson, that confidential information,” Sandage scowled. He eyed the Russian scientist with a guarded, suspicious expression. Old prejudices died hard, she supposed. They were at war with aliens. Shouldn’t they all be friends as fellow humans?

But like Rose, Idelson held no shame. “Ms. Brahe is a talented young lady. We should recruit her to the research team. Her input would be highly valuable.”

“Funny,” Sandage said, unamused. “Come, Rose. Your parents are ready to leave.”

“Fine.” But she smiled as Idelson gave her a conspiratorial wink. If she returned, she’d love to speak more with him. It was rare to meet someone with a similar love for the unknown. She burned with the desire to tear apart the Luyten V and see how it all worked.

“You’ll be happy to know your mom ok’d you to pilot the Luyten V,” Sandage said without preamble as they walked down the halls.

“Really? How’d they convince her?”

“Director Shapley can be quite persuasive.” Yet, Rose detected this development didn’t please Sandage.

“Is something wrong?” Was he convinced she couldn’t do it? It was an odd change, considering his encouragement when she fought with the Altair scout. Was something going on?

“I argued against it, but they went ahead anyway,” Sandage fought back the bitterness in his voice. Rose pressed the point, but the government agent refused to elaborate as they walked down the halls.

“Okay.” An awkward silence hung between them as they walked. It broke as Sandage said something else.

“Just know this, Rose,” Sandage hardened his jaw, his face filling with determination. “We will do whatever it takes to protect you. We have your back, always.”

“Sure.” Rose blinked in confusion. Wasn’t he against her a second ago? Whatever. Adults were weird and often contradictory. Still, the encouragement heartened her. With this awesome team behind her, how could she lose?

---

“I’m fine, Georges. You don’t need to worry about me.” Rose stuck her head further into her book.

“I’m just worried about you, Rose. Apparently, they’ve recruited you to mold you into their personal soldier, brainwashed to do whatever they want!” her friend said, scowling.

“That’s not true!” Rose snapped back. It wasn’t like she wanted this.

“Just leave her alone, Georges,” Vera said, rolling her eyes. “Stop being so pushy.”

“So, it doesn’t bug you that the government has a jack-booted thug trailing Rose wherever she goes?” Georges whispered, pointing to the black-suited man in the corner of their study hall.

“Mr. Brown? He’s cool,” Rose waved towards her bodyguard, who responded with a slight nod. While on duty, the granite-faced man seemed more like a stone carved statue. While alone, however, she found him friendly and easy to talk to. They shared similar interests and enjoyed bouncing ideas off him.

“It’s like Grandpa says, they’re always tracking us.” Georges took on a conspiratorial tone. “Did you hear about the secret chips they install in microwaves? Totally a way to spy on us.”

“How would that even work? Why would you even spy on someone from their kitchen?” Rose said, exasperated.

“I’m just saying,” Georges replied. “Trust me. Things are going to get bad soon. They’re already talking about a world government!”

That particular conversation had recently gained some major steam, trending on many social media sites. With people scared about the Altair, some proposed that a single world government would better pool humanity’s resources to fight them. Politicians were throwing their weight around to strengthen ties with their allies and once-rivals. While Rose didn’t give it much credence, it was an interesting thought experiment.

“It’s awfully convenient that the Altair showed up when our relationship with the Russians was at an all-time low. Grandpa says we’re way too friendly with the Russians now. It isn’t natural!” Georges continued.

“Georges, stop parroting whatever your grandfather says,” Rose said, annoyed. Since Georges’ parents died when he was three, he’d lived alone with his grandfather almost his entire life. While a nice enough man most of the time, he seemed somewhat unhinged sometimes.

Georges opened his mouth to continue his rant, but Hans stopped him in his usual curt way. “Shut up, Georges. No one cares about your ridiculous theories.”

Thank you. Rose sighed in relief. For once, they were in total agreement. Georges grumbled to himself, chastened.

“Anyway, I’m surprised they’re still allowing you to go to school here,” Vera said, changing the topic. “You’d think they’d lock in some lab somewhere.”

“Eh, they want some stability in my life. They said the normality would keep my spirits up.”

“Are they having you train?” Hans suddenly asked. “Piloting the Luyten V can’t be easy on your body.”

“Don’t remind me. They have me up three hours early every morning for physical training.” Rose’s muscles ached from being pushed far past their natural limits. Worse, they promised to amp up the difficulty. She really wanted to complain to her future self for putting her through this nonsense.

Much to Rose’s surprise, Hans’ expression softened. “Keep with it.”

“Huh?” Rose blinked, surprised by the sudden kindness. Before she could comment, Hans had disappeared. She only shook her head. The world was getting crazy lately. It seemed like anything could happen. For reasons that ashamed Rose somewhat, she wished they remained that way. Despite the ever-present dangers, it was exciting,

“Hello, class,” Ms. Sagan said as they entered math class. They each took their seats, but their teacher didn’t start the class as expected. Instead, a girl Rose had never seen before entered their classroom. The first thing that struck her was the newcomer’s unusual size. Rose almost assumed the newcomer was a high schooler, the girl reaching almost her father’s height.

“Hello. My name is Cecilia Burbidge. It is nice to meet you,” the tall girl gave the class a bow.

“What’s with the formality?” Vera whispered to her. How the girl spoke was odd, stilled. The newcomer’s clothes were simple, baggy pants and a pink sweatshirt. It was an unusual contrast to the prim and proper way she spoke. She didn’t seem like someone from high society.

“I wonder if she was homeschooled,” Rose wondered. The newcomer seemed oddly wide-eyed as she entered the classroom, like she’d never seen one before. While everyone was whispering about how strange their newest classmate was, Rose’s heart warmed to the girl. The poor thing seemed lost as class began, having trouble concentrating with so many strangers around. Rose swore to lend Cecilia her notes later.

“Is this seat taken?” Rose said, sitting next to their newest classmate. The lunchroom bustled with activity, each student rushing to their usual click or friend group. Rose, however, chose a different option.

“Oh, Brahe. Um, hi!” Cecilia said awkwardly. “Sure, why not!”

“Good. Are you adjusting well to Dee Middle?” Rose asked, biting into her garlic bread. While the lasagna wasn’t anything special, garlic bread was impossible to mess up.

“Perfectly,” the other girl replied. “Shouldn’t you join your other friends?” The other girl pointed to her pair of friends waving her over. But Rose only dismissed them with a shake of her head.

“Nonsense. I’m more interested in you. You’re attending a new school. It can’t be easy. Were you homeschooled before this?”

“Yes, you could say that, Brahe.”

But Rose only laughed. “No need to be formal. We’re all friends here.”

“Friends, but we’ve just met?” The other girl looked down, blushing. Had this girl never had friends before? From her stilted position, Rose supposed Cecilia didn’t hang out often with others her age.

“Nonsense. We’ve talked, so we’re friends now.”

“I’ve read it takes years to develop a deep connection to someone. Yet, you’ve only known me for seconds before calling me a friend?”

“Like I said, don’t worry about it.”

The girl looked down, fidgeting somewhat. “Thanks. Everyone’s been staring at me. They think I’m some oddball.”

“They’re just not used to you. Give it a few weeks. You’ll just be another part of the furniture.”

Cecilia stared at her hands before replying. “You’re not what I expected. You’re upbeat, considering the scary stuff that’s happened to you.”

“That?” Rose snorted. “I’m not worried about the Altair. Luyten V and I are becoming a great team. We’ll smash them like the others.”

This comment made Cecilia go quiet, her face going pale. She started quaking.

“Is something the matter?”

“Aren’t you worried that you’re in over your head?”

Rose saw the worry and sensitivity in the other girl’s eyes. “Look, I’m just trying to make sure everyone’s safe. With the Altair threat hanging over us like a noose, people need to know I’m standing firm, that I’m invincible.”

This comment made Cecilia speechless. She stared down at her hands, troubled. Rose wanted to reassure the girl everything was okay, but Vera had lost patience and butted onto their table. Vera introduced herself and asked hundreds of probing questions that Cecilia had trouble answering. After the rather grim nature of their conversation, it was a comedic and welcome relief.

“And who dressed you?” Vera said, picking at the shoulder of Cecilia’s plain sweatshirt. As usual, the girl liked to speak her mind and forgot about tact. “They have no fashion sense.”

“Really?” Cecilia looked down at her outfit. “I suppose so. The doctor thinks that function takes precedence over appearance.”

“Doctor?” Vera asked, perking up with interest.

“I don’t really have parents, so Doctor Burbidge raised me,” Cecilia replied. It explained the girl’s remarkable intelligence. While socially awkward, she’d answered every question the teachers had asked her with perfect accuracy.

“I’m sorry to hear that.” Though it must be nice not having parents muck everything about. While she loved her parents, Rose had to admit they were often difficult. In their rush to attend to her other siblings, she’d regularly get missed in the rush.

Vera clicked her tongue. “Yes, this won’t do. After school, we’re having an emergency shopping session.”

��Fine,” Rose said, rolling her eyes. While she enjoyed shopping, she didn’t share her friend’s passion for fashion. “Then we can watch Stella afterward.”

It was her friend’s turn to roll her eyes. “Must we?”

“Stella?” Cecilia asked.

“She’s an indie vTuber.” When the new girl responded with a blank stare, Rose clarified. “Basically a streaming celebrity, but with more anime.”

“Oh, it’s an internet thing,” Cecilia replied. “I’ve never really used the internet growing up. I was more interested in reading and drawing.”

“What?” Both Vera and Rose stared at the girl like she’d grown a second head. Did Cecilia live in a cave before today?

“Then you must watch Stella’s stream with me,” Rose said, declaring this like it was a holy decree. “She’s doing karaoke tonight.”

“Oh.” Cecilia showed little enthusiasm to this pronouncement. She sighed as her new friends rambled at her excitedly, ignoring her meek protestations.

---

Ever consuming nothing pressed against them as they traveled through the void. Nothing existed here, not even time. Even to the implacable Altair, the void was oppressive and lonely. To less single-minded and focused beings, they would’ve long broken their sanity. But to the Altair, it only heightened their appetite when they arrived at something. There, they’d gorge themselves on reality. This newest universe seemed the most appetizing, full of life and vigor. They’d feed well. All they needed to do was wait for the scout’s report.

The odd, unknown scout had led them to a world brimming with intelligent, industrial beings. While their technology seemed primitive and non-threatening, the Altair wanted all their children to enjoy the fest. It won’t throw away its numbers for only minimal gain. So it’d sent the scout to soften up their defenses, filling the planet with despair, as they failed to fight even a single of their number.

In the void, the Altair slept, conserving their energy for the feast. Only the Grand Intelligence stayed awake, planning and scheming until the Altair scout returned with news of its success.

“Impossible!” A jolt slashed through the Grand Intelligence’s mind as its child died, consumed by fire. It wailed in pain and grief over the loss of its child. It’d bravely thrown itself into an unknown world to gauge its strength. Rage filled the Grand Intelligence, lashing out in fury at the outrage. How did these tiny beings kill such a formidable foe as the scout?

As the Grand Intelligence’s outrage subsided, icy, frigid logic replaced it. Clearly, this planet has sharper teeth than it’d first suspected. They would need to handle this Earth with delicate care to avoid senseless Altair loss. It read the flashes of insight the brave scout had sent through the void before its death. While fragmentary, the images of the Red Demon were clear to the Grand Intelligence.

The countenance of this terrible foe was quite fearsome, its power mighty. But its readings were odd, of an almost familiar color. The demon didn’t belong, somehow alien to this reality.

Grand Intelligence projected a command to one of the mightiest of its three generals. And Okab the Terminator answered the call. Green floated before the Grand Intelligence, subordinate to its wishes. It nodded its understanding, compiling in perfect obedience. This child won’t fail. It’d destroy this new enemy through cunning instead of brute force.

The Altair shifted in the void, waking from their slumber. They hungered after their lost voyage, eager to hunt. The Grand Intelligence coxed them, working them up into a frenzy. Once Okab’s mission was complete, they’d feed.

#anime #anime stories #action #fiction #stories #scifi #superhero #story #science fiction #giant robot #family #young adult #action adventure #female hero #heroism #luytenv #lovecrafian #lovecraft #literature

2 notes · View notes