#nct jisung fluff | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

taexoxosgf · 3 months

Text

THIS DECEMBER

PAIRING park jisung x fem!reader | ft. friendgroup!nct dream

WORDS 5k

SYNOPSIS Your horny friends try to pull a little prank on you in the days leading up to Christmas. One thing Park Jisung likes to remind them is: he totally doesn’t want any part in it. Except, he totally does.

WARNINGS smut, ANGST, fluff, lots of dialogue, vag fingering, unprotected sex, creampie, vanilla vanilla vanilla, they're in love basically

NOTES I have to admit, this isn’t my best work lolllllll. though this was supposed to be posted on christmas, this can be my new years gift! 2024 here we come babyyy

★ Part of A Dreamy Christmas Collab!

“Why don’t we all be her secret Santa?”

“What are you talking about?” Jaemin chuckles, eyes dancing as he seems intrigued by the idea. But what pervades his mind was nothing like what Donghyuck was about to propose.

“Think about it…” he trails. “She used to say, if it’s an SOS, and we need help in that department,” he points to his crotch– “She would help us out.”

“You’re fucking crazy,” Jisung rolls his eyes when he catches on to Hyuck’s sudden idea.

“So you’re saying we all get her a present?” Chenle asks.

“Yes… But we all have to give her the same… present,” he walks between each of the men like a devil hovering over their shoulders.

“Hyuck, just get to the point,” Jeno huffs.

“Okay, bu–”

“No ‘buts!’ Get to your point,” Renjun groans.

“The gift we’re giving her can’t be put into a shitty little box.”

“Oh my god, NO!” Mark whines.

“What’s so wrong with a little fun?”

“Are you seriously suggesting an… orgy?”

“No, you idiot,” Hyuck pinches his nose bridge. “Let’s all give her our present one by one leading up to Christmas… Like an advent calendar,” he shrugs, unable to hide the pride beaming off of him from the simile.

“So you’re suggesting we all have sex with her in the days leading up to Christmas? Am I hearing this right?” Jaemin intervenes once more, orbs gleaming with interest.

“Ding Ding! We have a winner!”

“Jisung’s right. You’ve gone insane,” Renjun fully laughs.

“You know I’m insane, and that’s why we have fun. But you know what? Let’s make this more interesting… When we tell her after Christmas, the person who she says is her best fuck, get’s her secret Santa present,” Hyuck smirks. “You know she goes all out.”

“I’m in, but it might be hard for Mark because he’s actually in love with her,” Jaemin turns his body towards his friend who avoids eye contact before offering a retort.

“Why just me? You guys are all in love with her!” His claim is met with a group of huffs and groans.

“How do you know she’ll even agree to this?” Jeno points out, earning a nod from the others.

“She doesn’t have to if she doesn’t want to. If she does, then great! Amazing even! But if she doesn’t, then man, I feel kinda bad because we all got a thing for her.” Hyuck accepts the facts of the predicament. “Hopefully we can laugh about this on New Years.”

“I don’t. I guess I’m the only one,” the youngest of the group speaks out but it’s not taken seriously by his older friends as a fit of laughter echoes within the small space.

Hyuck’s the first one to speak– placing a hand on Jisung’s shoulder, “You’re the worst out of all of us.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You guys always bicker and talk shit but I know all you want to do is rip each other’s clothes off,” Jeno jumps in. “Nice try though. I almost believed it.”

“I’m not! She’s annoying as hell!”

“So annoying you want to fuck it out of her, right?” Jaemin joins.

“You guys are jumping me right now, I’m leaving,” Jisung excuses himself earning a look of victory from his friends.

“Wait! So you agree to it, right? Jisung?! Hello?” Chenle and Renjun yell out in unison, but the only reply heard is the slam of a door.

“You’re serious about this Hyuck?” Mark asks one last time.

“No, but this is just so those two kids will finally admit they’re down bad for each other. I think this will be their breaking point.”

“Damn,” all the other boys yell in unison.

“I know right? Someone needs to hire me for something! I don’t know for what, but something!” he crosses his arms to bask in his actions.

“Yeah, yeah,” Mark laughs at his friend. “You’re so dumb.”

“Just wait and see. He won’t make it to Christmas…”

Everyone is being… weird.

On the very first day of December, you and all your friends come together to pick a name out of a jar. The game of Secret Santa is an annual tradition you love partaking in. But once the weather dropped thirty degrees, all the boys started acting shady. They were canceling plans with you on purpose, avoiding eye contact when you spoke to any one of them, and just running away the first chance they got. It was easy to get mad, even call them out for it, but the replies would always be the same– that there was nothing wrong or they were just tired.

And you’re not going to lie, it was starting to make your skin crawl. The sudden shift in dynamic between you and the boys has you wondering if you did something wrong. But if they were trying to pull something, then they had another thing coming. It was frustrating, trying to shake it out of them in every way possible, but no one would budge.

December eighth rolls around and you know everyone is free today because you all collectively promised Sunghoon that every year until the day you die, this day will always be open for him. It’s always an annual trip to the snowy mountains– a secluded cabin and powdery snow that’s fit for snowboarding. Surprisingly, but not so surprisingly, everyone’s busy up until the car ride to the cabin.

Their persistent avoidance, even for an event like this, just pulls on the strings even harder.

You’re leaning against the island of the kitchen, glaring into their souls from across the room as the music's bass reverberates throughout the warm cabin; and the bitter liquid in your plastic cup disappears like water down a drain.

“Why are you standing here all by yourself?”

You turn to the voice, sporting a grin once you realize who it is. “Hey, birthday boy. Just glaring at the boys. Don’t know if they notice though,” you squint a little harder, hoping they’ll finally notice.

Sunghoon’s orbs follow the seven of them scattered around the living room. “They notice alright. I’m sure they’ll come crawling back when they realize you don’t play.”

“Oh, they know I don’t. But they’re still gonna try anyway,” you let out a heavy sigh. “I just wish I knew what they’re up to. It’s killing me.”

“Just ask Jisung.”

“Why Jisung?” The mention of your friend’s name causes the subject of your orbs to shift to him, but he’s already looking your way. When you make eye contact, he hurriedly glances away, confirming the suspicion that something’s up.

“I feel like whatever they’re planning, he’s telling them he doesn’t want to do it.”

“Why is that so detailed? Do you know what they’re up to? Spill right now!”

Sunghoon shakes his head in denial, raising the cup to his lips before responding. “Nah, you guys are always going at it. That’s all. It’s just a hunch.”

“Fine, maybe I will. But I was gonna do it anyway.”

You’re already making your way towards Jisung when Sunghoon blurbs out. “If it doesn’t work, I’m always available.”

“You wish, Park.” But you stop in your tracks. “Wait, what?”

Sunghoon walks off in a hurry, “Nothing! Had to try at least once!”

Rolling your eyes at the birthday boy, you finally make your way to your destination but all seven of your friends go completely mute once you reach it. There’s not a sound emitting from them, and it practically forces smoke out of your ears.

“Okay, what’s going on?”

“What do you mean?” Jeno murmurs.

“You guys have been ignoring me ever since December started! Spill your evil plans right now!”

“Nothing’s going on,” Chenle adds, but it’s met with a crack of his voice at the final word, and you know one hundred percent they're lying.

“Haechan! I know you’re the mastermind,” you turn to your friend, but all he does is shrug, eyes still looking everywhere but yours as he nonchalantly sips from his drink.

“Nothing whatsoever. We’ve just been busy that’s all,” Jisung speaks out, but you chuckle, knowing he’ll eventually give in if you press him hard enough.

“Of course, you’re a part of this! Sunghoon told me you weren’t, but I doubted him as soon as those words left his mouth!”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Jisung’s tone changes, as if he’s warning you.

“That little shithead!” Jaemin groans.

“I knew it!” you exclaim.

“What did he tell you?” Renjun interrupts.

“Nothing, just what I said before.”

“Nothing is going on. You don’t believe us?” Jisung is still firm on his decision to make you believe otherwise. With that stupid smirk he’s trying to hide and how his form influences you to shift back.

“Of course, you’re still on that even though Jaemin just admitted you guys are planning something! You’re the worst!”

“And you’re a dumbass,” Jisung mumbles once you turn away.

“Look who’s fucking talking,” you don’t realize you’re stepping closer at every syllable exchanged and you don’t know why your friend loves to push your buttons so much.

“You always say I’m the worst and then you come right back. I don’t think you hate me as much as you say you do,” Jisung’s eyes glimmer with a playfulness to them, closing the space between the two of you as the bickering reaches its climax. But his words only fuel your rage.

At this point, you can only see red.

All you do with Jisung is bicker or fight about stupid shit. Your friendship with the other boys is the glue that holds you and Jisung together. No one could guess that you met all the boys through him. You both had been friends with benefits long ago— practically another lifetime. But you’d jump off a cliff before admitting that the shards of glass remain. And that it still cuts.

It’s impossible to act like everything is fine and you both can get along. So instead, you fight and fight until no more words can be said.

“Ooooo,” you hear Jeno say, reminding you you’re still in a place full of swarming bodies.

“What about you? You either hate me or you love me. It can’t be both,” you mutter, condemning yourself as you catch a glimpse of his lips hovering above yours. You're both staring one another down, and you notice the same vein on the side of his temple, and his jaw clenches with each phrase that escapes your lips.

“Watch it,” Jisung seethes.

“What? If you wanna play this game, let’s pla—“

“Okay! Enough of this,” Hyuck groans before dragging the both of you by the wrist and out of the main room.

“What are you doing Hyuck?” you urgently inquire, but he doesn’t reply. He only hurriedly rushes along, throwing you both into a bedroom you don’t recognize. And as you rush to escape the enclosed space, your friend shuts the door in front of your face– leaving you with your hands practically clawing at the door.

“Lee Donghyuck! Open the fucking door right now!” you yell out, unable to comprehend how your friend could think this was a solution. “Open the door before I beat your ass!”

“He’s not going to open the door,” Jisung reminds you of his presence amidst the chaos. “Not until the morning.”

“What?! No. No. No. This is not happening right now.”

“Let’s just sleep. So when we wake up, we can just get outta here.”

You scan the room, realizing there’s nothing for you to rest on except the bed in the center– the one Jisung is currently sitting on. “You think I can fall asleep with everything that’s going on? And I don’t even know what’s going on,” you’re shifting awkwardly, habitually rocking yourself on the heel of your feet following the eye of the storm.

“Just sleep. It’ll be over soon,” Jisung already makes himself comfy, placing his legs under the covers and rearranging the pillow to his liking. He’s too calm. Way too calm for what just occurred.

“Where am I supposed to sleep?”

“I don’t know, figure it out,” he mumbles, lids already fluttering shut. You hate how you admire how long his eyelashes are.

His eagerness to ignore the dilemma influences you to the bed to pry his lids open. As Jisung opens his eyes willingly, you finally take notice of how close you both are. His eyes widen at the proximity and he shifts back to the edge of the bed in surprise. You’re caught off guard because there seems to be something lingering in the air between the two of you. And you brush it off because you know it’s annoyance.

“Just sleep,” he softly lets out before returning to his original position. “Next to me.”

His softness in these last words has you admitting some defeat– realizing fighting won’t solve anything. “Fine.”

There are still zero answers that will satisfy your scrambled mind.

And you’re trapped in a room with someone you can’t stand for more than five minutes.

It’ll be over soon. Right?

You’re fucking drenched.

As the daze of sleep washes over, you notice the stickiness between your thighs. And not the good kind.

It felt as if you just entered the fiery pits of hell.

“What the fuck?” you whine. The air was so humid, you were practically suffocating. And as you turn to the side, you see an irritated Jisung. If you thought you looked gross, Jisung didn’t have a dry spot on his clothing.

You try your hardest not to stare at the clothing sticking to his abs. This is not the time.

“Don’t,” he warns, thinking you’re about to poke fun at him.

You chuckle at the sight of his discomfort, offering a half-assed apology. “Sorry.”

“Lee Donghyuck! Turn off the fucking heater!” he yells out, but there’s no answer.

“Fuck. We’re going to die.”

“I’m not dying here with you. That’s not how I’m going out.”

“Is that so bad? Chill the fuck out,” you roll your eyes.

“Yes it is! I’m gonna kick the door down and beat Donghyuck’s ass.”

You don’t know if it’s the unbearable heat, or the constant fucking attitude from Jisung all night. Maybe it was the pent-up frustration from all the other times you both didn’t get along. But you’ve decided enough is enough.

“What’s your fucking problem?”

“What are you talking about?”

“You’re always so fucking mad at me. I do nothing and you’re mad. I breathe and you’re mad. It pisses me off! At this point, I should be the one giving you the attitude you give me!”

“And you know what? I always cared what you thought. But not anymore. I’m done caring so pretend I don’t even exist,” your heart is beating out of your chest as the words spill out like vomit.

“That’s no–” Jisung’s unable to finish his sentence when suddenly his orbs follow your fingertips gripping the hem of your top to bring over your head– leaving you in a bra. “Wha-”

“It’s hot as shit and I’m not going to suffer. Do what you want,” you huff, continuing with the removal of your jeans. You notice Jisung's stare lingering on your contours as you eventually pull them off, and it appears as if a million different things are running through his mind when he suddenly glances away and shakes his head.

You’re not going to lie, it’s amusing seeing Jisung’s usual persona falter. Your boldness and the situation it creates masks the uncomfortable predicament the two of you are in. “It’s not like you haven’t seen me like this before.”

“What did you mean by ‘you used to care about what I thought?’” He swallows nervously.

His words have you stopping in your tracks, not realizing your words were true candor. “Nothing, I was just saying nonsense,” is all you can render as you make your way to the bed, but Jisung beats you to it, grabbing your wrist to prevent you from escaping.

“Tell me. Please. I know it wasn’t nonsense,” his voice is like syrup, the usual bite to it completely gone.

You turn to face him, though you regret it the moment you notice how his eyes match his voice. “Well, I cared what you thought because of what we did before we all became friends. And us… Or whatever we are. I don’t know what we are now but I cared about you and what you thought about me.”

“Cared?”

“I still do…”

“Then why do we fight?”

“I don’t know. I guess you hate me so I just returned that energy.”

“I don’t hate you,” he sounds hurt, the similar bite of his voice attempting to escape. “You annoy the hell out of me, but I could never hate you.”

“Oh…”

“You really act like you hate me though,” Jisung offers a small smile.

“I don’t hate you. You’re annoying as hell. And I just don’t know what to do with everything lingering in the air when I’m around you,” you bite your lip at the confession, realizing it wasn’t a very good one. And you see him watch you do so.

“You mean the tension?”

“Yeah… The tension… The tension causes us to fight. Right?” The air becomes more suffocating than it already is. Maybe it’s the heat, maybe it’s Jisung so close to you, or how you’re basically naked in front of him.

“What else would we do?” his eyes are still trained on your lips.

“I don’t know,” you murmur not above a whisper. “You tell me.”

“Let me try something,” he takes a step forward, shortening the small space between the two of you. “Promise you won’t get mad.”

“No promises,” you urge, because you’re unsure of what Jisung planned to do after the indirect confessions made in the room today. One things for sure. This territory hadn’t been visited in ages and it scares the shit out of you.

“What are you go–” You’re cut off the lips that make its way onto yours.

When you see Jisung dipping his head down to capture your lips onto his, you're taken aback. However, the minute he makes contact, your legs almost buckle. It's a familiar sensation, and you melt into him as he tests the waters with increasing devotion.

When you reciprocate the kiss, it gets feverish, and your trembling lips work together haphazardly, interwoven with airy sighs. His arms reach for your waist, pulling you into him harder than ever before. He knows your body like no one else, and it drives parts of your brain haywire. It feels like only yesterday that you both would rendezvous.

He groans into your mouth and squeezes your ass as you tug on his hair the way he likes it. It makes you whimper since the combination of the sloppy kiss and the rush of pleasure is far too satisfying.

It feels good. Way too good.

That's why when Jisung pulls away, you chase his lips and he emits a small chuckle at the action. “Tell me you missed me. Tell me you don’t hate me and never did,” his shoulders rise and fall at a rapid pace as he catches his breath.

“I don’t,” you look up at him, and you want nothing more to kiss him again. It feels like all the frustration aimed at him was sexual. It’s honestly his fault for always looking so tempting while offering some smartass retort. “I never did.”

"God, I missed you," he smashes his lips against yours again, this time much more aggressive, and the back of your knees reach the edge of the bed, briefly disconnecting your lips. You laugh, and he smirks before diving back into you as soon as your back comes into contact the mattress.

Something possesses him at that moment, makes his hands glide up the back of your thighs, to kiss down your neck, sucking and biting to leave small bites that he later licks over to soothe the sting. “Know how much you love to be marked.”

“And I know how much you love me choking on your dick,” you giggle, licking a long stripe along his neck up to his jaw.

“You’re dangerous,” Jisung hooks your thong aside, unsurprised when he notices the sticky arousal coating his fingers. “Fuck, I forgot how wet you get.”

“It’s from the heat.” Your words contradict themselves as noises of pleasure leave your lips when he runs his fingers along your folds. Jisung, on the other hand, knows the meaning behind your words like no other. “All this stickiness is from the heat? I don’t think so baby,” he offers some stimulation to your clit and your back arches once he comes in contact with your bud.

You shake your head and he dips his head down onto your neck offering a small kiss against the side of your neck. God, he looks so hot, with the sweat dripping down the side of his temple and his puffy lips from kissing.

The lewd sounds from his fingers running along your folds sends you into a frenzy. You’re attempting to gain more friction, bucking your hips to feel more. You’re so needy for his touch. You've been longing for this touch. "I'll be nice, baby," he says, inserting one finger inside your hole, your walls engulfing him up to the knuckle. Jisung experiments with twisting and curling his fingers, enjoying the way you gasp and pulse around his fingertips.

The wet glide is so satisfying and you moan, basically fucking yourself onto his fingers. “Sung–” is all you can choke out as he begins thrusting with a rhythm you both can’t forget. “Wai–”

But Jisung can’t withhold any longer, not with you looking so pretty underneath him. Not with the sounds that he remembers all too well. His cock practically throbs at these thoughts, begging to be free from its confines when you’re already a mess. He’s pressing against your clit along with the constant thrust of his fingers. “Shit, Sung!” you wail, already foreseeing your high from the short time.

Your nails dig into his forearm, body twitching from the overwhelming pleasure only he can give you. “Oh, fuck,” the words are combined with a moan as your orgasm takes you by surprise, coating his fingers in a creamy pearl substance. It drips down your folds as he pulls away, and the wash of the aftermath runs from your toes to the crown of your head. It’s blissful, but your hunger for him doesn’t stay satiated. “Good girl,” he says as he revels in your figure.

“I need you,” you pant. “Now.”

“Whatever you say, Mom,” he jokes as he pulls his shirt over his head before discarding the rest of his clothing.

“Ewww. Never say that again,” you say, earning a laugh from Jisung.

“Like words ever stopped me before pretty girl.”

He's tugging the side of your panties, dragging them down the side of your legs while practically gaping. He continues with your bra and he gazes, unable to believe everything taking place currently. You're like a dream, sprawled out beneath him. The pretty girl he could never get close to after being so close with.

“Ready?” he asks after he shakes himself out of the trance you have him in.

“Mhm,” you nod.

He pushes inside, sighing into your ear at the creaminess of your cunt. Your arms are wrapped around his neck as he bottoms out, fingers burrowing further into his scalp. Jisung, rather than staying against your neck, takes advantage of the chance to peer at you. When his nose brushes up against yours, all he sees are your lips caught between your teeth.

At the feeling of his big cock inside of you, you clench around him. He groans against your mouth, habitually bucking his hips forward. “Fuck,” you moan out, back arching at the feel of his cock dragging against your walls. Your brain is already a mess and it has been since the moment he kissed you. But Jisung loves how you’re a mess around him. He takes pride in how he makes you feel, and that turns him on beyond belief.

“Move Sungie, please,” you plead and Jisung groans at the nickname you know he loves so much. It’s enough for him to grab your wrists to pin them above your head before he begins moving.

“Sung,” you call out again when he begins to move. His calculated movements have you squirming beneath him, but you’re still perfectly fit against him and it’s as if you both never stopped this routine.

“You’re mine. I’m not letting anyone touch you,” he coos, and you’re quick to agree. “Yours.”

The constant rhythm he keeps has your eyes rolling to the back of your head, and you're shivering when he picks up the pace--giving him a look that seems to make Jisung's cock practically explode. He snaps his hips forward, so close to the edge that you shudder at the perspective.

He's fucking you so well that your eyesight is fuzzy, and the brush of his dick against the spot that drives you insane only adds to the sensation. "I-I'm so close," you warn, your irregular breathing hitting his face.

“Wait S-sung-g no.” Just as you’re about to hit your peak, Jisung flips you over so that you’re sitting on his thighs. Though you’re disappointed in the delay of your orgasm, the angle has his cock pushing deeper than before, tip nudging against your velvety walls harshly. “Fuck, I can’t,” you beg as your back arches at the smallest movements.

As fast as words leave his throat, Jisung dips down to suck on your nipple, occasionally leaving purple blossoms. “Wait I’ll–”

“You’ll what?” he says, chuckling when he sees you instinctively grinding forward against his member. “Cream my cock?” He watches your fucked out expressions, loving how your eyes are lined with tears.

“I’m planning on it, “ he smirks before thrusting up into you.

“J-jisung!” you’re a sobbing mess above him as his harsh thrusts sends pure pleasure up your spine. His name falls off your lips like a mantra, and the gibberish he can’t make out only urges him to move furiously into you. Though your brain is a puddle of mush, the band in your lower abdomen is about to snap, so you grind your hips against him with newly found fervor, stimulating your clit in the best way possible.

Jisung watches you above him as his fingers dig into your waist. You’re so beautiful, he thinks. Everything about you, every part of your mind and body he worships, and he swears he’s not going to let go of you this time.

“S-sung,” you moan again and again, and Jisung continues to abuse your boob, kissing up your throat as you inch closer to your high. “So perfect.”

You let out a high-pitched moan at a specific thrust, and your thighs tremble against his. "I got you," he says as he places a gentle kiss on your lips. And after a few thrusts, you're collapsing against him, again repeating his name. You're just a lick away from teetering off the edge.

“I want it so bad,” you blabber against his neck. “S-so close. Don’t stop.”

“Give it to me,” he dips underneath to circle your bundle of nerves with the perfect pressure and you come undone, high-pitched moans and whimpers against his ear.

The mix of cum and the slick from prior allows the glide to be that much easier for Jisung to glide against as he tips over the edge as well. You’re still pulsing and gripping his cock like a vice and it’s a done deal for Jisung. “Inside?”

“Inside me,” you kiss the side of his neck. He feels euphoric as your noises against his ear urges him on and his arms hold you tightly. And after a few more thrusts and desperate hips, his cum shoots inside you. “Fuck.”

It's so much energy that when the sensation of your high washes over you, you collapse against Jisung, who also collapses against the mattress.

“You’re sticky,” you look at his face and admire how good the afterglow of sex looks on him.

Jisung massages little circles across the small of your back in comforting stillness.

“I’m going to murder Hyuck,” he realizes how much the humidity encases the room.

“Maybe not too brutal, because his plan to lock us in here so we can finally make up worked,” you notify him and his eyes light up.

“I think everyone’s asleep. How about we torture them some more?” he smirks at you.

“I say Hyuck isn’t going to get a wink of sleep tonight,” you mischievously grin and it’s enough for Jisung to dive down and continue drowning in your lips.

DECEMBER 31 11:59 PM

“Damn, I can’t believe my plan worked! You guys are attached to the fucking hip,” Hyuck comes over to you and Jisung hand-in-hand.

“Your plan worked for once dumbass,” Jeno butts in abruptly, almost spilling the alcohol in his cup.

“We have no more arguing but I don’t know if it’s worth it,” Jaemin points.

“You guys are like rabbits!” Mark yells out.

“Gross! Not the fucking time! I need to find someone to kiss,” Renjun groans.

“Yeah but everything Hyuck does to end our suffering, it just reappears as something else!” Chenle laughs, earning a middle-finger from the subject of his words.

“Guess you were right. We can laugh about this on New Year's,” Jeno turns to Hyuck.

“Happy new year motherfuckers,” Chenle says before clinking all the cups together.

You turn to Jisung as the clock counts down, his arm around your waist. “Happy New Year, boyfriend.”

“Happy New Year, Girlfriend,” he smiles the hardest you’ve seen him in a while.

“Happy fucking new year,” he says before smashing his lips onto yours.

Happy fucking new year indeed.

1K notes · View notes

ofjunemoment · 1 year

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let me teach you how to smash | park jisung

In the list of sports, ranked from most to least sexy, badminton would be found at the very bottom if not ranked last. But why is it that when Jisung plays the with a feathered shuttle your heart flutters?

OR: Jisung helps you improve your badminton skills.

pairing — badminton player!jisung x fem!reader

genre — sports!au, university!au, (one sided) enemies to friends to lovers, slight slow burn

wc — 22k (😀 huh)

content — university/sports class setting, humour, fluff, the tiniest bit of angst, idols mentioned, very heavy on the dialogue/backstory at one point sorry babies <3, smut (MINORS DO NOT INTERACT)

smut tags — making out, fingering, switch!jisung and reader (there's no strong dynamic tbh), protected sex, pet names (jisung gets called a good boy), lmk if I missed anything!

a/n — YAYYY i can finally share this with u guys!! i have been cooking this for some time and im actually so excited to release it!! I'm a badminton enthusiast so I went a bit ham on the descriptions and back story sorry (not rlly),, I hope this is a good readdd I read through it so much to fix it up and now Im a bit sick of it oops BUT its a story I've been wanting to write so here you go <3 enjoy!

sfw version here!

You enjoy sports.

You liked dancing sometimes — which is certainly a type of sport — and you dabbled with different sports at one point in school, but you don’t actively go out of your way to do any intense exercise. It can be sweaty and painful and maybe it’s a little like hitting the gym, but in most sports you need sportsmanship, and why would you be kind to the person who not only won but is rubbing it in your face?

You once yelled at Taeyong for kicking the ball in the wrong goal when your group of friends went out of their way to play makeshift soccer to bring back memories. You yelled, at precious Taeyong, who flinches at the sight of a fly

Okay, so you tolerate sports.

But in an effort to have your resume look pretty after finishing your degree, your friend Juda had shed light on this one program that has you do a bunch of extracurricular activities and in turn, you’ll gain extra credit. Seamless and effortless, you didn’t need to pay anything towards the program as most of the work was volunteering; like reading to kids or helping clean up lecture rooms now and then. What Juda failed to mention was the other extracurricular required of you, which was to go to a sporting class set up by the university.

Sporting classes; two hours a week minimum.

They were kind enough to provide you with options, but it still wasn't easy to choose whether you wanted two whole hours of HIIT fitness or football, which caused you to almost give up on the whole thing. Until you saw the word ‘badminton’ printed in the faintest ink, almost as if it was a mistake.

So here you are, in the campus’ sports equipment shop with Chenle, looking through what seems like badminton rackets.

“Do you think this is good?” You pick up a racket that has a mix of matte white and mint around the frame, with the string sporting the shade black, testing the weight in your hand.

“That’s a tennis racket stupid.” He goes to ruffle your hair but instead gets his hand slapped away and a frown etched on his face as you scoff at him. “I knew that,” You scowl.

“Well then don’t be an asshole about it, asshole.”

“I wasn’t being—” Both of you jump at a sudden sound that pitched in between your shoulders, as your hand flies to your chest in shock while Chenle’s eyebrow hitch up.

“Sorry?” It was Chenle who said that to the person who snuck up behind you two, his arms crossing defensively and landing on his left chest, as he positions himself subtly a little closer to you, almost as if he’s instinctively shielding him.

“Ah, sorry for surprising you; I just came to ask if you guys needed help with anything?” It was when the employee raised her ID card that was hanging on a white lanyard around her neck that Chenle’s defence began to soften as you brought your hand down, replacing the confused look on your faces with one of realisation.

“Ahh, uhm, I was wondering if you could recommend a badminton racket, nothing too fancy, maybe something to last a good two years.”

“Two years?” Chenle was the one that turned to you with a look of disbelief. The employee merely smiled and gestured her hands towards the very other side of the store and quickly turned to guide you.

“Hold on, you’re doing this stupid thing for two years? Half of your courses years? You’re just gonna voluntarily stress yourself with even more work?”

“ . . . Yes? I don’t know what to tell you, that’s my main intention. That’s why I joined this program. You’ve asked me multiple times like I’m going to miraculously change my mind and thank you for it like you’re a rich person, giving me, a homeless person, a piece of bread and then barely look at me as you record the whole thing for your livestream.” You huff while going to lie down on your back on the floor around your newly bought badminton equipment; a set of badminton rackets and some cylinder packets full of shuttlecocks, the feather ones because the plastic ones suck ass, the employee had smiled at you.

You sit up just as quickly as a dull pain shoots up your back. The motherfucking shuttlecocks.

“That’s one way to make up an analogy,” Chenle’s eyes land on the shuttlecock you had freshly crushed, now looking all squashed and disoriented. Poor thing didn’t even last a minute.

“What’s she moping about this time?” Juda’s voice echoed from the door as she places the tote bag she had brought down next to the shoe shelf.

“I’m not moping; I never mope. What do I even look like when I mope?”

“She’s just crying about the fact that she has to do this thing program for another two years.” His words elicit a shout and the gradual flinging of a nearby couch pillow from you. Chenle’s neck cracked as the pillow hit his head downwards.

“Did I kill him yet,” You voiced your disinterest, sitting up on your elbows briefly to analyse Chenle’s face before giving up and laying back down. Chenle stayed in that position for a while before getting up in a fury, ready to avenge you. Juda stopped him with a kick to his leg.

“Such disrespectful words, is it hard to show some courtesy around here?” You huff and go to lie down once more, not before feeling around the surface for any stray shuttlecock.

“When it comes to you, yes,” Juda throws Chenle a Yakult, and she flings you one straight at your stomach. You attempt not to flinch.

“Here’s to either two more years of moping about this stupid badminton class every week, or two months of hardcore whining from both of you until you break and drop out.” Juda raises her Yakult bottle and clinks it with yours — that’s still on your stomach — and against Chenle’s who was drinking out of it the moment she did so, spilling what little there was of it on his face. Chenle recovers and yells out offensively, causing Juda to squeal as she stands up and goes behind the couch, using it as her shield.

You inhale and try to tune them out.

Chenle smiles as you giggle at him, the loud music of EDM mixed with Kidz bop playing in the background as the sound of metal basketball hoop clanging echoes just enough for it to have a rhythm. He looks determined to beat the high score of this stupid basketball game, as Juda and you take turns watching him play the game and criticising his moves, even when none of you know much about basketball as he does. It’s been a few weeks since the start of the semester and hence, the beginning of your program. The kids you read to are either sleepy or disinterested as you start early in the morning, and the cleaning of lecture rooms is bearable at most times.

So things are going great at this point.

That was until Chenle called out to you: “How’s badminton going?” and, you’re not gonna lie, that did dampen your mood just by a bit, but you give your best attempt at masking it and smiling through; you didn’t want them to pick up on the fact that it’s been one lesson and you’re already sick and tired of it (or, at least sick and tired of one certain person). But Juda’s just too smart and catches on too easily with anything that you and Chenle try to brush under the rug. She raises one eyebrow at you before retorting: “What, are you whinging about it already?”

“Am not!”

“Then what is it?” Juda says at the same time that Chenle swears, a little too loud for a kids arcade, but it’s around 8 PM and the only kids that are here probably do some sort of drug or something if they have parents who allow them to be out this late.

“Nothing, okay? The coach is great and the other people who are there are fine too, and I actually learnt a lot —”

“But?” Juda’s lips are pink as she wraps them around a straw poking out from her slushie cup. You lean back in retaliation, back pressed against the basketball machine as you try to find a leeway.

“. . . But.”

You’re late. And you can’t even use the excuse that you woke up late because it’s seven p.m. and you’ve scoffed down your early dinner two hours ago. You simply decided to just procrastinate to the next level in an attempt to gauge if you truly want to continue with this program or not. But now here you are, on a bus that’s severely delayed due to the evening traffic and running frantically to make it to class on time.

Minkyung is a 50-year-old dad who coaches this class; he was also at the office where you had submitted your form for the program, and was over the moon that you had decided to try out his class, hence asking you questions about your knowledge of badminton, and went on this spiel when you had made the mistake of being truthful.

He now looks at you with a kind and wrinkly smile as your shoes squeak against the floor, one hand to your rib in an attempt to not show how much out of breath you were. “Don’t worry,” his voice was quiet enough for you to register only. “You arrived on time, I just finished the information briefing that you heard from me some time ago.” His smile was tight-lipped but genuine. Trying to even out your breathing, you set down your equipment and quickly join the rest in a circle. A clap echoes throughout the quiet hall as the coach drops his hands and clears his throat while letting out a puff of air, his eyes grazing by everyone’s heads in what you assume to be his way of counting the participants of the class.

“Glad to have everyone here today, I hope with this class you guys would not only learn about badminton but also be able to learn about its sportsmanship and benefits,” His eyes dart around the rather small circle. You expected the hall to be filled with as many students as that one Zumba class you were forced to attend in high school, but it was a rather tame class.

The coach hums, thinking about something deeply as the other students shuffle around, shifting their weight from side to side in the silence engulfing the court. He looked up and clapped again softer this time. “I’ve decided to treat you like my children’s class.” He concluded, “I want you guys to introduce yourself to each other. Now don’t be shy; everyone's new in this class. Maybe you can find a friend in this class to learn better and more quicker. Okay, let’s start with you.” He pointed towards a guy that was to his left, who looked back at him with wide eyes. He looked around and smiled sheepishly yet brightly. “My name’s Haechan, and uh, I’m 22?” He finished it off with bound lips as he refers to the person after him to begin.

And as you all finish introducing yourselves to each other, with a girl named Minji being last, the introductory circle ends, meaning the coach can now start the stretching and warm-up exercises. But he hasn’t.

“Uh, coach, are we gonna—?” Minji stopped halfway as the coach whips his head to look at the gigantic clock on the wall next to the hall’s equally huge entrance. You crane your head curiously towards the direction of his vision, straining both your ears and vision to see what he was looking for, as everyone around you catches on and seems to do the same. It isn’t long after till the squeaking of shoes against the rubber ground echoes throughout; soon enough, the coach screams ‘fourteen minutes!’ as another person steps into the hall, wide eyes darting around everyone as he swallows in an attempt to simmer down his erratic breathing. As the guy's breathing evens out enough for him to probably mutter an apology, your breathing picks up.

“First day and you’ve already fallen for someone? Very on brand for you,”

“What the fuck does that even mean?” You scramble to hit Chenle with his golden pokemon card folder he brought to the arcade. Juda calmly stops you using her right hand, as her left hand picks up her drink to take another sip from.

“She didn’t even finish her story, Chenle. Go on,” Juda set her slushy down as her grip loosens from around your wrist, signalling to continue the story.

“Thank you, Juda, for you’re my favourite of them all—”

“Are you gonna finish your story?” Her grip tightened.

“A-as I was saying,”

You like to analyse people to some extent, thinking about how body language is cool and how it can depict everyone's different life, contrasting drastically from one another yet sometimes being so similar even with all of our different circumstances. This is why you tried analysing everyone in your class of busy people attempting to hit the shuttlecock in a streak longer than ten, as your eye flitting around the court and landing on your next target, the new guy, simply because that’s in your nature.

(“In your nature? Or was it just the mysterious guy that came into the class so suddenly, panting and out of bre—“

“Shut up? Anyway,” )

“Ah Jisung, this is the latest you’ve been,” The coach nodded innocently towards the guy, as if he hadn’t scared the piss out of all of you when he shouted.

He’s a bit stiff with his walk, and his shoulders seem to harden like a board when his eyes scan around the class and its participants. With wide eyes, he looks like a lost puppy with the way he looks back at the coach in some sort of silent confirmation of something. It’s probably his first time having a general class with coach Minkyung, you realise as you see Jisung bow sheepishly to his teacher.

“Sorry,” his voice was hushed, rumbling as he talked. His eyes scanned briefly once again across the now sparked class doing forehand and backhand practices that the teacher has instructed them to do. You locked eye contact with him from afar and quickly looked away, ears feeling a little bit hotter than it was a second before.

Soojin leans in towards you and Ryujin a bit and whispers, “Do you think he’s new? Like . . . All of us?”

You and Ryujin glance at each other for a quick second, before you smile profusely as Ryujin places her hands on the pole that holds the badminton net, her racket clenched fist supporting her chin as she ponders. “Not at all.” She says rather flatly, a cheeky smile following up after. Solely looking at him doesn’t give you any insights on his level of badminton playing, which is weird, because till now he could pick up on some people's skills; you’ve so far guessed correctly with a few of the participants (including yourself, you think you’re an average player in this class) so you feel a bit stumped.

He stands stiff as he talks to the coach, keeping his gaze stern on his coach. He seems to be wearing normal trackies and only has a very slim back for his racket.

“He’s obviously a beginner, his bag is so thin compared to Coach and even Haechan, he also doesn’t look like a long-time player” Jaemin pipes in.

“Who are you to say? You said you’ve been playing for how long and you’re still this bad?” Soojin smiles as she dodges Jaemin’s hand by a fraction. But Ryujin isn’t having any of it as she breathes in with her teeth clenched, hissing out a sound of suspicion.

“Coach seems to know him, which makes me think he’s either been here before, or he’s just the coach's nepotism offspring.”

“Okay!” The coach claps his hand, forcing everyone to act like they were practising. “Gather around; we’re gonna do a basic skills test for this lesson, then I’m gonna split you up into groups and we’ll get to work with the people with the same skills. Cool?” He throws two thumbs up as everyone stays silent, with one of the two people nodding. You watch as he sees the coach's enthusiasm die down a little.

“Cool?” The coach had yelled now, startling everyone else in the second round of heart attacks; everyone else yell back this time, the word ‘cool’ echoing around the grand sports court. You notice that everyone’s responded to the coach's request except for Jisung.

“Oh girl . . .” Juda now has her manicured hand placed on your sulked shoulder of realisation.

“I know, I’m so sorry, Juda.” You look into the distance of the arcade, feigning sorrow; or maybe it’s not much of a feign.

“The fuck,” Chenle turns to see both of you huddled in what looks like a cry fest. “Did someone fucking die?”

“Watch your tongue,” An old woman wearing a neon orange vest belonging to the arcade staff points at Chenle, who bows down as he murmurs ‘sorry’, with you two trying your best not to laugh, following and bowing your heads down too when the seething woman’s eyes meet your figures.

“How dare you anger the poor lady, her blood pressure is probably already high enough,” Juda picks at Chenle, who is now quietly trying to slip in the token to play another round.

“I wouldn’t have if you guys didn’t just suddenly go emo for no reason. What the f—” Chenle’s eyes waver back and see the woman’s eyes (Are they naturally red? Or is it the arcade lighting?) glaring back at him once more. “Frick. What the frick happened.”

“Oh Chenle, we must mourn for her. She’s fallen for another mysterious guy who barely has any personality.”

“Oh my god,”

“Oh my fucking god, what—”

“Fuck,” Jisung sighed when he missed the shuttlecock by just a hair's width. Everyone was standing in a line-like formation, at the tip of their toes against the line that made the distinction between the playing court and outside. Jisung and the coach were having a match, the first test that the coach had implemented to determine who goes into what group according to their skills, and when no one volunteered, Jisung silently centred himself on the court as the coach's face broke out into a glow.

Although his face was adorned with wrinkles even when still, and his skin did seem to look just a smidge pruney all the time — the I’m growing old look he had on his face was impossible to miss — the coach’s never looked sharper and younger than he does now, zipping through his side of the court like a bees race. Jisung on the other hand, seems to have a calm demeanour, quietly and tranquilly stepping forward and back, delivering lobs and clears, limbs outstretched to effortlessly hit the shuttlecock back even if it seems that his position doesn’t allow such moves.

In the cold of Autumn, the stiffness of everyone's bodies was just the tiniest bit evident after a round of stretching, but two right in front of you look as if they’re playing in the heat of the summer, arms and legs effortlessly moving around the court. You try not to look too intently into the thin glisten of sweat forming on Jisung's neck.

Soojin raises her hand without taking her eyes off of the two people playing intensively in front of her, as Jaemin reaches in his pockets to place ten thousand won into her open palm, not letting his gaze wander away from the game either. “Thank you for your service.”

“I can’t believe he’s that good, I should’ve known from his cocky demeanour.” Haechan sighs, his fist resting against his cheek, hoisted up by his other hand. Everyone looks in his direction.

“You would think that it takes one to know one,” Minji almost barely whispers as she looks away from him by her side, looking back at the game with everyone else following.

“Ah, fine. You won.” Coach drops his racket down from its first stage position, going towards the net with an open palm. Jisung barely takes a step forward before he’s lifting his hand too, shaking hands over the net as everyone claps behind them.

“Okay then, who’s next?”

You spend half the lesson just like that, with everyone playing against the coach followed by him then instructing everyone to get into the key badminton positions. You suspect that this is the core of learning badminton as the coach guides you from the way you hold your racket to the way your feet are positioned, but all you’re really thinking about right now is how badly you just want to go home.

“Okay!” The coach claps, as people gather around him in a semi-breathless state, just from being told to carry out a few sets of actions that badminton has. You don’t know why badminton necessarily needs ladder crossovers, but you barely get to give out a sigh before your eyes catch on Jisung’s seemingly calm composure. He’s done so much and maybe even a round extra, but he’s barely breaking a sweat.

Why does he look so good? Show off.

“Believe it or not, we’re done already! I now have an understanding of what level each one of you is in and will put you into groups.” You keep trying to wipe at your face to keep the sweat away, but an even coat of sweat is now settled on your hand after wiping it many times, so it only feels like you’re spreading it evenly.

All while mysterious Jisung barely lifts his shoulder to have the cloth of his shirt wipe away the bead at his temple.

How utterly gross of him. You wonder if he’s single.

“So I will see you all next week and give your level, thanks for joining!” And everyone disperses, spreading around the hall to get to their bags and start packing. You are standing above your bag, packing it and taking your bottle out to take a sip when you see Minji and Soojin whisper shouting, which defeats the whole point of whispering in the first place.

“How much do you wanna guess that he eats and sleeps here?” Soojin is practically bouncing in her place, taking multiple obvious glances at Jisung’s figure, who’s seemingly roaming around in his bag instead of packing it like everyone else, his racket placed neatly on top of his bag instead of inside.

“Nothing, because at this point it almost seems like a fact.” And with that, you shoulder your bag and head for the door, too tired to function.

“And you have no muscle aches? Impressive.” Juda pipes, her eyes glued to the road as she drives them back home.

“Oh no, I do. I just plastered a few KT tapes.” You say from your position in the passenger seat, elbow resting against the rolled-down window with your hand against your forehead, getting a nice breather from the wind outside. Chenle who’s sitting in the middle reaches his hand forward and pulls your sleeve up from behind to reveal your arm and shoulder lined up with tapes of blue and green.

“A few huh,” Juda smiles and Chenle retorts, as you tch at them both.

“I didn’t want to risk it, okay?” You say, yanking the cloth back down and slapping at Chenle’s hand, facing forward once again with your hands crossed defensively and gaze set outside again. The car lights up in the yellow of the street lights, as Juda drives through the night.

“So when’s your next class?”

“And group A has . . . Jisung. Just Jisung”

“No, bad dog. Stop taking your anger out on Chenle’s biceps,” Juda attempted half-assedly to swat at your hands while her eyes were still glued to her phone, as you retell what happens with your next class.

“It hurts, Juda. Make her stop!”

You were furious. Group C? You knew you were better than that, having played almost every other sport growing up, even if occasionally, you’d gotta be good at badminton. Why is Jisung the only one in group A? Yes, fine, maybe he plays well, but it also means that you’ve been ranked down a group just because he was too perfect. Why does he attend the class if he’s already so good?

Subconsciously, you try to convince yourself to not take this whole grouping thing quite literally, as the coach had said that they’re not ranked or anything; but how can you not take it personally when the people you thought you were on par with were in group B. It takes all of your willpower for your scowl to not be displayed, but you soon find that you don’t have to try too hard as the coach assigns you all to your positions.

“Lighter on the feet,” Coach ordered, the squeak of shoe soles rubbing against the floor echoing throughout the sports hall. You, Soojin, Jaemin and Minji go through what the coach calls fundamental steps; right foot northeast with a forehand flick, right foot northwest with a backhand flick. It helps with the basics of the game, which everyone forgets, but you don’t think half an hour of the same steps helps with remembering either.

While group B, which consists of Haechan and Ryujin, go through the same phases with some extra steps added to strengthen their posture while playing. It’s not that you think your play better than the people in your group or group B, but mainly your irrational annoyance stems from the fact that you’re position in the class is gonna be recorded into your progress report, and you know for a fact that if Jisung wouldn’t be participating this dead class, you would be in group B. Yes, it’s still the last group out of two, but you can say that you’re merely ranked second. Instead, you’re last out of three.

As the steps turn repetitive, you let your eyes wander around mindlessly, your feet carrying you throughout as your hands attempt to do the actions in a somewhat muscle memory process. Your gaze eventually settles on Jisung, whose back is facing you as he smacks the shuttlecock against the wall, which bounces back only for him to smack at it again, repeating this one-man game he seems to have made up for himself. You glare lasers into his back, thinking about how maybe you’re not into this whole mysterious demeanour as you thought you were, seeing him just making up his own moves as the coach merely bounces back between the two of your groups, only checking in on Jisung after a few rounds of lecturing your moves and correcting your mistakes.

Three consecutive claps echo around the tall indoor court, as everyone drops their rackets at their bags and gather around the coach in a circle, somewhat holding some sort of formation with Ryujin to his right and Jisung to his left, and with you positioned almost opposite of him. “Good job everyone, now it’s time to cool down, exactly how we warmed up,” Clueless, most of you follow the coach’s steps while he urges each person to take turns counting, counting up to eight in a clockwise direction. Your eyes can’t stop fleeting to Jisung, the star of every badminton night, as your petty envy prevents you from minding your own business. Throughout the whole night, you’ve seen him take only warming up and cooling down somewhat seriously, as he crosses his arms and holds up a good posture, compared to the rest of the class who simply just slump over, wanting the session to end and finally catch a break.

One final clap and you’re all free to go. And you don’t waste a second, grabbing all your essentials and bag and quickly darting for the door, ready to go home and wash up and just not support your whole body weight on your feet. As you bid everyone goodbye and bow your head lightly to the coach, you watch as Jisung strides up to the coach in a meek manner, as his eyes fall on your retreating figure just slightly before softly calling out the coach's name.

It’s nine p.m. on the dot when you step out of the court and breathe in the cold air.

Juda’s on the couch when you step into the apartment, toeing off your sports shoes as you rest your badminton bag against the shoe shelf, at hand for your next trip to your class.

With a mouth full of chips, Juda barely takes her eyes off the screen before asking “How was class?”

“Same old,” You shrug.

“Same old? You’ve only been twice. How in tune are you with the coach for it to—” Your groan stops her teasing, as she smirks at your tired form squatting against the floor, hands clutching at the door and your hair in frustration.

“Could you have at least let me get home first before frying my brain?” Your hand falls to your face, and that’s when you feel the residue of your sweat from earlier, having turned into oil. The urge to shower now tenfold, you attempt to raise yourself and pass out in the shower.

“I’m gonna wash up now, and probably go to sleep,” You mutter just loud enough for Juda to hear, to which she hums while you retrieve a towel.

“Oh wait, before you go,” She calls just as you inch towards your room, “Do you know where my umbrella went? I’m going to campus tomorrow and I think it’s gonna rain again. I tried calling you but I don’t think it went through,”

“Oh yeah, It’s by the door.” You recall taking the umbrella to class today, as the forecast has been filled with rain symbols with the Autumn weather. Digging in your bag, you push past your essentials in order to find your phone which Juda’s called. “That’s weird, my phone is not here.”

“Did you take it with you today?” Juda mumbles as she munches on a few more chips, rubbing her fingers against her pants after every serving.

“I’m sure I did,” You ponder out loud, as you remove your hands from your bag in favour of patting at your pants and jacket resting on the clothing hanger, in case you somehow shoved it in your pockets without knowing.

“Did you forget it?” As soon as the words leave your roommate's mouth, you are met with a vivid picture of your phone, abandoned on the bench in the badminton court you left in a hurry. You sigh, placing your towel on the bathroom counter briefly before grabbing your house keys while putting your shoes on.

“I’ll be back Juda,”

“Good luck,” She waves.

You’re beyond tired, and a little frustrated at yourself for being impatient and forgetting your phone. You can’t risk losing such a thing, hence you’re glad that the lights were still on when you arrived at the building, giving a wave to the receptionist.

Stepping onto the court, you immediately zero in on your phone which is perched on the bench, the black shade of the screen a contrast against the silver metal bar. But a squeak of a sole against the floor earns a squeal out of your mid-march, as you clutch your shirt next to your heart and turn towards the perpetrator.

“Oh my god,” Jisung’s gaze is what you’re met with as you let out a sigh of relief, the man in question only turning around as you mutter under your breath.

“Sorry,” That’s the first time you’ve heard his voice all day, and there’s something about the tone of his voice that calms your heart down just a bit.

“What are you still doing here?” Your curiosity gets the best of you, your forgotten phone laying there, continuing to be overlooked as you question the presence of your classmate.

His eyes squint ever so slightly at your question, as his eyes ghost over you, as if he’s seeing you for the first time. “I’m practising,”

Practising? After two hours of badminton class, he didn’t seem like he did much then, but he’s still staying back to practice. You hum in slight adulation, rocking back and forth on your feet as he turns back around and runs through steps you’re unfamiliar with. As you inch towards your phone, you think more about his prominent presence in the court; is he too shy in class? Or maybe he gets private classes from the coach?

But as you scan your eyes around the court, you’re met with a near-empty court, as the only thing in sight is his bottle and slim bag. You’re not sure exactly what you’re waiting for as you hold onto your phone, fidgeting on your spot as your eyes follow Jisung’s swift movements. He seems more tired now than he ever was in the two classes you’ve shared with him, as his shoulders ride up more with an attempt of regaining stability with his breaths.

You’re not sure how long you’ve loitered around, but it must be a long amount of time for Jisung to look at you with disdain and shock.

“. . . Why are you still here?” He seems more reserved — something you didn’t know could happen — as he asks you this question, holding his racket subconsciously closer to his body. Your eyes widen at the prospect of being caught, as you shake your hands vehemently, stumbling back a bit.

“Sorry, I wasn’t—” You didn’t know how you were going to explain yourself, but one glance at the door of the court is all you need.

Bowing your head as quickly as you can in a lieu of a goodbye, Jisung could barely apprehend what you did before you’re bolting out of the badminton court.

A week later, you’re not sure how you’re supposed to face Jisung with your awkward encounter, and it is evident that the incident has been plaguing your mind as you stand at the door of the sports centre, both hands gripping the strap do your bag.

“What if he thinks I’m a weirdo for just standing there and stalking him?” Your wandering mind does nothing to help ease the situation, as more arbitrary scenarios flow after one another. Maybe he told the coach how much of a creep you are and now when you step in, you’ll be banned from class.

“Oh dear god,” You let your head fall forwards, trying to tip over the thought out of your head. Closing your eyes, you try to think of the things you can do once the class is over when a tap on your shoulder brings you out of your reverie. You turn to look behind your shoulder, fearing that it's someone robbing you or worse— Jisung; only to see coach Son, smiling at you with a hint of worry laced on his forehead.

Your shoulders sag with relief. “Hi coach,” you wince internally at your response, voice coming out high-pitched as you clench your grip on your bag.

“Let's go in and start some warm-ups, yeah?” And as you follow the coach to the class, you make sure to subtly hide behind him in case you catch s glimpse of Jisung anywhere, not wanting to run into him. As you quietly peek your head over his right shoulder once and his left shoulder next, you feel like a secret agent sneaking up on your target. A clearing of someone's throat snaps you out of your act, as your shoulders bunch up and in shock and you quickly turn, only to be met with the feared man of the night.

It seems like he’s been trying to go up to the coach and maybe say hi, but your lurking figure both stopped and perplexed him, not knowing why you were just peeking your head around like a mole rat.

“Sorry,” You mumble slightly, eyes wide as you back away towards the closest wall, wanting to blend into it and live with the bricks. Maybe you’ll face less embarrassment that way but knowing you, anything is possible.

“It’s okay,” His voice is as unassuming as always, eyes looking anywhere but you now that he’s caught your attention. You think his shyness is quite cute, but not for long as you think back to being scared of him from last week to being jealous of him, also from last week. That’s a lot of emotion for you to process.

He pulls up his hands, now shaped into a fist and looks past you, but you know he’s talking to you when he mutters, “Fighting,” before fully facing away and walking past you as if the mortification of his action has caught up to him. You barely contain your shocked expression behind your hand.

“Good job today guys, now we all have a basic grasp of the initial steps and our skills when it comes to badminton.” You brace your hands on your knees, just having done a set of wall squats as a way to build stamina, or so you’ve been told. You thought that maybe a month into these classes and you would’ve had some sort of energy stashed away in you when attending class, but it’s week five and you’re fighting for your life three seconds into a plank.

“Now I don’t wanna treat this class academically, but for those of you who truly care, there will be an assessment in the midst of this course to reevaluate your standing and see if you can advance from your group! But other than that, remember that this class can be solely for fun reasons too . . .” The rest of coach's words were white noise to your ears. Reevaluation? Does that mean that you can advance? That you’ll have a shot?

“Are you okay?” Soojin leans in toward you, whispering while pointing to what you assume would be the shock on your face. You turn to her, drawing a thumbs up to reassure her. And before you know it class is done and you’re pulled to do a series of cool-down moves. You eagerly follow through, now somehow charged with motivation to stay back and go over your moves a few times. You figure that the least you can do to move up a rank is to spend an extra hour going over your moves, even when you sometimes think about the significance of them.

You tread up to the coach and ask in your kindest voice if it was possible for you to stay back. “Of course, are you gonna go through the steps again?” He questions as he shifts his bag from one hand to another. You give a nod and wave goodbye, watching as everyone litters out of the court.

Well, almost everyone.

You can feel, more than anything, Jisung’s gaze piercing your figure through the hood of his jumper, while you give your best attempt at stretching. You’re not sure really what stretches best help with reducing the ache in your muscles the day after, but you figure the endeavour of reaching your toes should do.

Even after a few minutes of trying to appear mellow, Jisung’s presence alone makes you feel on edge as if you’ve stolen his territory. But you figure that nothing will change and that all you can really do right now is, well, practice.

The squeak of your shoes echoes every now and then, followed by a whip sound of the racket you’re flinging in the air. If you do this quickly enough, surely your skills will improve, right? From what your coach Son demonstrated earlier, you realised that as he would start off the steps slowly for your group to get a hang of, he was able to transition the speed to his liking, doing each step quickly and efficiently.

“Okay, should be easy,” You’re careful not to speak too loud in the almost quiet hall, giving yourself words of encouragement. Hand braced in the first position, then in the second, then a slight step back, and then your hand straight and quickly bend.

You finish the routine with its final step of hitting the imaginary shuttle as fast and as straight as your hand can go with such speed. With one round done, you brace yourself in the initial position to do it again. One, two, three and four.

You only get to pump out four, maybe five rounds of this pattern before a clearing of someone's throat scares the daylights out of you. With a barely contained shout, you’d forgotten — however briefly — that you weren’t alone. You’re looking at Jisung, who seems shocked at accidentally shaking you up so much, before he says something to you.

“What?” Even with the stillness of the court, the man’s words were barely comprehensible, as yours echoed slightly throughout the court.

“You’re doing it wrong,” Oh, so the first comment he ever mutters to you are words of criticism. You furrow your brows, head tilting slightly out of habit as you encourage him to go on.

“When you’re recoiling from hitting the shuttle, your racket still faces forward instead of down,” He explains, but none of it makes sense to you and it must be evident in your face, with Jisung looking slightly frustrated that the words did not register in your head.

“If you keep your racket facing forward, the ball isn’t going to go down but head straight, which allows your opponent to retaliate better.” He continues, and you somewhat understand where he’s getting at, but he’s not really helping you at all. All he did was point out your mistake, which makes you feel that he’s just trying to show off his knowledge.

“Well, what should I do then?” You can’t help but seem a bit agitated, as you slump your shoulders and let the racket settle by your ankles, your hold on the handle tightening ever so slightly.

“Hit it face down,” He raises his arm and demonstrated the step to you, causing the head of his hoodie to fall, shining the light of the court on his face. You’re briefly stuck looking at his face instead of his step, but were reeled back in when he makes eye contact. You clear your throat as he goes through the step again, which you think were exactly the steps you were doing a second ago.

“But, how was I any different?” You say as you mimic his steps, bracing yourself in the positions without much thinking, and hitting the imaginary shuttle right as when he does.

“No- see, you did it again,” He steps a bit closer as he gestures to the racket in your hand. “You’re hitting it straight on. You’re supposed to go down.” You sigh as he says this, feeling a bit irked that a mere student is trying to tell you what to do. He is in the top rank, so maybe he has a point.

Attempting to set your implicit annoyance aside, you intently look at his hand and the way he moves his wrist at the end of the step, trying your best to imprint this into your head. He looks a bit flustered with how much your gaze is focused on him, but still goes on two more times before nodding his head at you, encouraging you to try once more.

You look at the position of your hand this time instead of him, going through the initial steps and tweaking your wrist to face more downwards this time than your last few attempts, before your eyes quickly flit towards Jisung, looking for some sort of confirmation with your try. The subdued purse of his lips assures your suspicion, which is that you’re doing it right this time round.

“Good, did you kinda find out what you were doing wrong?” The words come out on reflex, and you don’t think twice this time about him being in the same class as you and yet trying to coach your steps, as you ponder on his question.

“I mean, I found out I was doing something wrong when you pointed it out, but I’m not quite sure what you meant when you said I was hitting it straight on.”

“Wow, you were really into him weren’t you?”

“Shut up Chenle, I was into the badminton technicality.”

Jisung steps forward a little bit and is about to say something before he hesitates. You look at him sceptically, waiting to see what he was gonna say before he shakes his head and seemingly snaps himself out of it. “Can you go back to the third position?” He asks of you, which you raise your hand and assume the position. Your racket and arm are raised pointed straight to the ceiling, while he positions his fisted hand in front of you. Your questioning look doesn’t go unnoticed, as a slight smile appears on Jisungs face before he nods at you, saying, “Okay, now gently go down like you would and stop at my hand.”

You do as you’re told, with Jisung’s eyes settled on your concentrated face following his orders, as the face of your racket meets his fist, the white of his knuckles colouring for a bit.

“See, you’re hitting the front of my knuckles, but that will send the shuttle forward.” He demonstrates by pulling his fist back, “That will give the other player a better opportunity of retaliating.” He then readjusts your racket by the throat, having the net hit the top of his fist. “This gives you a better chance.”

“But like, how am I giving them a better shot?”

You’re not sure what was funny or amusing about your question, but it seems that there must be something there for Jisung to sport a cute small smile, as he picks his racket back up and moves to one of the set-up nets, and funnily enough, you find yourself following him subconsciously. He picks up a shuttlecock on his way to the net and positions himself, as you stand at his side.

“See, let’s say the shuttle is coming at you this way,” He holds the shuttle with one hand as if the opposing player had shot it at him over the net. “If I hit it the way you had— actually, why don’t you try receiving the ball.” And so you shuffle over, standing opposite of his ready stance with your arms crossed, intrigued.

“I’ll throw the shuttle back to you and try seeing if you can hit it back.” You realise that this is the most you’ve heard him speak in the past five weeks that you’ve attended the class together. You bring your hand up and stand in the ready position you remember coach telling you about when initiating a game, and Jisung takes that as a sign that you’re ready and hits the shuttle at a moderate speed. You hit the ball back with ease, as it goes over back to Jisung’s side, who catches it with his other hand. You let out a long ‘ahh’ sound of understanding, hand clutched at your side.

“You’re right, that was hell easy,” You brood aloud, but not before asking one of your other endless questions. “But then, how would the other way be any different?”

From the looks of it, Jisung seems over the moon that you asked such a question, holding back a smile by biting on his lips lightly and quipping his head to the side. He holds up the shuttle and looks at you, gauging to see if you’re ready to receive the ball once again. As you regain your ready position, you see the ball suspended in the air briefly before Jisung hits it at the ‘better’ angle, which is seemingly from the head of it, but before you can process anything else a zip sounds past you and the ball has landed behind you.

Your gasp resonates through the hall as you look behind you to where the shuttle has landed, with a hand coming to your mouth as you look at Jisung. The latter contains his smug smile behind his own hand, as you point at the ball and look back and forth. “What did you just do?”

“Ah, that’s a technique that's called smash.” You falter slightly.

“That’s a weird fucking name I’m not gonna lie,” You glance at the ball once more with a look of disgust, before shaking yourself out of it. “Oh my god, that was so cool.”

You didn’t think that you would be getting a one-on-one lesson when you decided to stay behind today, but you’re quite surprised with how he was able to spot such a little detail so quickly. And that gives you an idea.

“Jisung,” You call his name for the first time since you met him five weeks ago, which surprises the said man, as you see his eyes startle and a few strands of his hair jerk. “Do you stay after class every week?”

He’s a bit quiet for some time, processing your question thoroughly. He nods his head briefly, but not before a bit of hesitation.

“Is it . . . Can you help me improve?” You’re a bit shy now that you voice your question out loud, but you’re determined to move up at least one rank and land second place; or even just have a good academic score, even in badminton.

Seeing the blank face that Jisung is now sporting, you think about the unfair offer you’ve just made to him. Why would he spend his extra time after class to teach you, his potential competitor, without getting anything out of it? You’re not sure what you can offer him, maybe some sort of payment? But before you can ponder even more, you catch a slight nod of his head from the corner of your eye.

“Is that . . . a yes?” You lock eye contact, as he nods his head once more but with more vigour and confirmation.

“Why?” It’s your turn to look at him with confusion.

“Are you asking me?” He points to himself, as he slightly tilts his head as if he was going to look as if you were talking to someone else. You shake your head quickly once he asks the question, raising even more questions.

“Actually, no. I take back what I said. You said yes, right? You can’t change your mind. Or, I mean you can but like I would be pretty bummed about it because you already said yes but I’d respect your choice.” You take a deep breath in once you finish, looking at him and clasping your hands together a bit too harshly.

“No, it’s okay. I’ll help you with what you need.” Relief washes over you and you can’t help but smile in thanks.

“Oh, and there’s one more thing too.” Jisung hums for you to continue, as he goes towards his bag and retrieves his bottle to take a sip.

“Can you teach me how to smash?” And maybe you should’ve waited for him to be done with that bottle first.

You think you’re quite good at being subtle and on the low, no matter how much Juda and Chenle counter that argument. You can be sneaky if you put your mind to it, and it's been proven many times in high school when you would sneak your favourite snack during the middle of the class without your strict teacher finding out.

So you’re not sure where you went wrong when you held out a snack bar in Jisungs direction, only for the whole court to look at you weirdly. You merely strutted up to him with maximum placidity and poked out the bar from your hand into his torso, looking away and hoping he would get the memo and take from you as with a mutter of something that sounds really close to the word ‘thanks’.

But it’s been a solid fifteen seconds and not only is the bar still in your hand, but everyone in the class has slowed down their activities in favour of looking at you two. Even coach’s staring as if he’s trying to solve a very complex puzzle.

“Is this . . . for me?” Jisung’s voice comes out as a rumble, not knowing if he should whisper or talk normally, sounding out something in between instead.

Of course this is for you, idiot. Why am I holding it in your direction??

You ignore his question and shake the bar in your hand with a bit more intensity, hoping that he would finally get the memo. It isn’t until ten more seconds pass that you lose all hope and turn to him, grabbing his hand and placing your gratitude in his open palm, closing his fist around the energy snack.

You stomp your way to start your warm-ups before Jisung could say anything.

“When you aim your hand, you’re not really looking at the shuttle,” Jisung starts after a few rounds of one-on-one games you’ve started after class. “Your eyes are just hovering around it for a few seconds before you look around and put yourself in position. You’re supposed to go in position without looking, it should be intuitive.” You huff at his explanation, dropping your hands by your sides.

“How do I ‘look’ at it more, then?” You’re grateful that Jisung is helping you, but it’s just the tiniest bit unnerving for him to recognise your every move and be able to point out your mishaps. He moves back from the net, creating a decent amount of space in his playing circle. He starts throwing the shuttle up with his badminton racket, the distance from the shuttle and its net growing with each hit.

“Practising this move helps,” He says as he works through what you remember the coach demonstrating the first few classes. As the shuttlecock goes higher and higher with each impact, your eyes catch on the silver of skin poking out as Jisung lifts his hand to meet the shuttle, his shirt rising for a few seconds every time.

“I think it would be better if you looked at the shuttle?” His words catch you off guard, as you look up and meet his gaze already settled on your, eyes gleaming as he pokes at his cheek with his tongue.

“Shut up,” You look away, flustered that you got caught, before attempting the moves, refusing to look back at him.

The condensation of the electrolyte drink is addled with the dampness of your hand, as you make your way to class the week after. You see Ryujin talking to the coach as you enter, and Jisung at his bag, seeming to ruffle through it in order to retrieve something. You strut your way up quietly, not wanting to attract any awkward attention by giving gratitude in the form of a drink to your unofficial instructor. As you open your mouth to call Jisungs name, the tall man turns around and gives you the faintest hint of a smile, before his eyes land on your hand.

“Hi, here.” You spout, as you extend your hand straight towards him, some of the condensation dropping on the floor and finding solace in the gaps of your fingers. His hands feel dry and warm as it brushes against yours, retrieving the drink from your grasp.

“You didn’t have to. Thank you; for last time too,” Your cheeks heat up at his words as you avert your gaze away, opting to look at the playing net instead. “Don’t mention it,” Your damp hand wrings against the dry one behind your back, as you slowly let your gaze wander back to Jisung, who’s now looking at the blue bottle in his hand.

“Did you know,” He twists the drink in his hand and looks at what you think is the nutrition information. “Electrolyte doesn’t actually help when you exercise.” Your expression sullens as he continues to look at the drink you gave him. “Your body loses more water than electrolytes when you exercise, and so there is no use consuming more electrolytes. Water helps way more in comparison,” The scowl on your face makes Jisung stop in his tracks as he looks up after finishing his bite-sized lecture.

“Well, if you’re so ungrateful—” You reach your hand out to snatch the bottle from him but are stopped short as his hand wraps around your wrist, stopping you. “No!” He exclaims and a chuckle slips past as your struggle to get the drink, reaching out your other hand before he captures that too, now both of your wrists trapped in his hand. Your eyes widen, with your wrist bound and fighting up a struggle, all impaired with Jisung’s hand wrapped. Before your mind can wander to what other scenarios can result in him bounding up your hands, he continues; “I’m very grateful. You don’t have to give me these things just because I give you a few tips after class.”

You pause your struggle, letting your hands be weighed down. “Well, I don’t think I’ve been helping you at all. Sometimes I even set you back, so it’s the least I can do.” You say truthfully. You do sometimes feel like a burden when Jisung gives you a tip and you don’t adapt immediately, sometimes it takes you maybe two after-class lessons until you can successfully cast back the shuttle over the net with a short distance. The only way you could think about paying him back was through these pick-me-up snacks.

“Okay, how about this,” You miss the warmth and pressure of his hand against your wrist as soon as he lets go to put the drink down behind him and straightens back up, looking away as he slowly grows flustered with what he’s about to say next. “Treat me to ice cream maybe?”

You smile at his antics, happy to have been told how you could repay him. “Deal,” He visibly deflates with relief as you zealously agree, putting your bag down next to his as you both start to unpack.

You shuffle to the bathroom as soon as practice is over, giving Jisung a quick point towards the direction you’re going to ease his worries about you running away. Once inside, you’re met with the cool breeze and a mirror that reflects your spent figure. Oh god, how were you gonna go out like this? Is this what you looked like this entire time? Shuffling to the sink, you shoulder your bag back as you lean over the sink and lightly dab at your face with some water, before cleaning yourself up and dabbing the paper towel against your face.

You don’t know why you were so nervous to do this; it’s truly just some ice cream with your temporary and unofficial coach. But you truly wanted him to see your gratitude, and soon enough you’re thinking if ice cream isn’t enough, and budgeting how you can come up with enough money for an all-you-can-eat buffet at this time of the night. But before you could even add up the numbers on your fingers - it was a two in one hand and three in another, not quite sure what they meant - the sound of the door opening echoes in the bathroom, jumping you out of your reverie.

Turning around, you just catch Minji stepping in, looking taken aback at your shocked expression, as if you weren’t expecting anyone to enter this public bathroom. “You okay?” She calls after you, and you can only hope that the smile on your face is convincing enough.

“Yup! Just . . . tired,” You cringe a bit at the overused excuse, but your shoulders slump when she just smiles back at you.

“It’s okay, maybe your date with Jisung would cheer you up?” You feel something lodge in your throat, coughing out in surprise.

“No!” You retort, hands coming out from behind you as if to stop all ideas from forming. “We’re- It’s not like that. He’s just-” Minji looks at you with amusement, as she shifts her weight and crosses her arms, urging you to continue. The mind blank you’re sporting is not at all helping with a way to express what you truly are doing with Jisung, and so you try: “I just owe him something for smashing his racket.” And that was the best you could do.

Minji’s smile falls, as her arms drop at her sides. “You . . . smashed his racket?”

You don’t know why her voice was laced with such concern, but you figure that you have to finish what you started. “Yeah, to pieces actually. Sometimes the adrenaline truly gets to you, right?” You chuckle a bit, trying to find a gap in the conversation where you can squeeze back out of the bathroom.

“Well, I’ll see you next week,” You clench the strap of your bag and exit the bathroom, ready to dart out of the place. As you turn a sharp right, you are immediately met with a sheet of white, which suspiciously looks like the colour of the shirt Jisung was wearing today. Hands are placed at your shoulder and you’re quickly set back half a step from the wall, or at least enough to recognise that it wasn’t a wall, but rather Jisung’s tall figure.

“Sorry,” you mutter, eyes flicking from his own to the arms stretching to your shoulders, catching a few veins adorning his forearm. A clear of his throat has you looking entirely away, as you grab at his wrist and start tugging towards the exit.

The white lights of the LED sign of the ice cream place illuminate most of the dark street, with most businesses having closed earlier in the day save for a few convenience stores littered with tired college students like yourselves. You eye the shop and its extravagant decor, sceptical about being brought to such a high-end ice cream shop.

“You know, when you said ice cream, I thought you had wanted me to buy you some popsicles from some convenience store. Not someplace about exorbitant ice cream with fifty years of craft in making,” You nudge your elbow a bit to Jisung’s side, to which he responds by twisting his head in your direction.

He splutters, “Oh, I’m so sorry I forgot that, you know you were gonna pay,” You notice his hands move as he speaks, something you’ve picked up from when you would talk to him or notice him talking to coach; it’s as if his words are spelt with his hands first and then brought out through his lips, now adorning a pout as he tries explaining himself.

“. . . I thought we were just, going out.” Your eyebrows raise a bit in surprise at his words. Going out? As in, going out on a date?

You wonder if your thought bubble is something he can see, as he quickly puts out his hands again, shaking them vehemently. “Not on a date! It’s just, I didn’t know what-”

“Jisung, it’s okay. I was just messing with you,” You decide to put him out of his misery, reassuring him before continuing, “I’ve never been here but I’ve been meaning to try it out, so I’m glad you suggested this place. Let me treat you to something good,” And without thinking, you link your arm through his and push through the door, the cool of the interior washing over both of you. The shop was mostly white, with white tiles placed as half-walls as well as the flooring, the only hint of colour being the green of a few plants and of course the various ice creams. The employee, who seems to be the only person in the shop, straightens up ever so slightly at the sight of the two of you entering, before slumping back down when you head towards the self-serve ice cream booths. Picking up two cups, you hand one to Jisung who’s at your right, before you pick up the scooper from a mini bucket of water, waving it around your choices.

“Tell me which flavour you want me to pick out for you,” You eye the various flavours of ice creams, seeing if you can find your favourite. You look at Jisung to see if he’s doing the same, only to see his eye zeroed in on one bucket which is contrastingly fuller than the different flavours around it.

“Mint chocolate ice cream?” Your question has JIsung nodding his head as he looks at you sheepishly. “I can’t believe you would choose the most controversial ice cream. You’re so original.” You tease, to which Jisung nudges you in retaliation.

“It’s a good flavour, if people stop comparing the mint and the chocolate and instead choose to see how much they complement each other, we would be one step closer to world peace.”

“That’s a bold claim, what’s your source?” Jisung grabs the scoop out of your hands with mock aggressiveness, opting to scoop his serving of the mint chocolate ice cream. “Your references? Where is your citation—” He cuts you off by placing his hand on your mouth after taking a scoop of his ice cream, as his chest meets your arm.

He shushes you, “Just get your ice cream, yeah? I’ll go get my toppings,” He nods and lets go of your mouth, missing the way your cheeks heat up from his proximity and touch on your face. You bring the back of your hand to your face, prying the heat to go away as you shake your head and pick the scooper back up, reaching for your favourite flavour of ice cream.

Meeting Jisung at the counter, you place your cup of ice cream next to his on the weigh and fish through your bag as you wait for the person behind the counter to calculate your total. However, as soon as you probed your wallet out of your bag, the sound of a completed transaction peals out, making you turn your head up just to see Jisung putting his wallet back into his sweatpants.

“It was supposed to be my treat,” You insist, looking towards Jisung’s direction to generate some sort of guilt for his action. Instead, the man avoids your gaze, picks up two spoons, and places them in your cups, grabbing yours when he spots you not budging from the corner of his eye and turning to head for the door. You grab at his sleeve to force out his reasoning but are slowly pulled with him as he heads out, quickly turning around and bidding goodbye to the staff before he opens the door.

“Well, maybe you can pay next time,” At the mention of another time of you and Jisung hanging out, your initial sorrow washes over by a wave of giddiness.

“Then give me your number,” You propose, fishing your phone out. “So I can see when you’re next free and make it up to you,” With wide eyes, Jisung’s hands hesitate as they reach out for your phone; before either of you can second-guess yourselves, he takes the phone and smiles shyly, typing in his details. Handing the phone back to you, you take a look at his contact before pocketing your phone as Jisung starts to speak.

You scoop a spoon of your ice cream into your mouth to hide your smile, but from a light chuckle that emits from your left side, you don’t think your efforts amounted to much.

You stretch your arm to reach the end of your leg, warming up your body before the mass class warmup, more so to have something to do instead of staring at Jisung who’s also here early and is also doing his own unique sets of warm-ups.

Nothing about badminton is sexy; there’s nothing sexy about moving your wrist just in time to deliver some sort of groundbreaking delivery with the shuttlecock. Even the word shuttlecock grosses you out, as you suppress the urge to shiver at this very moment.

So you’re not sure why the act of playing badminton with the wall is such an attractive sight to you; as Jisung grunts every now and then, seemingly surprised and unprepared by his own backhand delivery against the wall, which makes him take quick steps back and forth and side to side to meet each hit. His quick movements allow for his loose clothing today to move around freely, exposing toned skin every now and then. It takes a lot of your willpower to have you not to drool right then and there, as if you were back in high school once more.

One hit, in particular, bounced off high and far from the wall, the sound of the shuttlecock smacking against the wall echoing louder as it heads for Jisung’s left side, a direction that you’re situated in although with a safe amount of distance. The tall player retaliates by turning his body a whole hundred-and-eighty degree, facing away from the wall and essentially towards you as he tries to continue his streak of hits. Briefly, you see his eyes look at you and back at the shuttles descend, but his focus on the said thing falters when he looks at you again, realising that you’ve been watching him play.

The shame of being caught should’ve arrived by now, as your shoulders stiffen with being onslaught by Jisung’s intense gaze. But before the chagrin could fully settle in, Jisung has completely passed the point of positioning his racket, causing the shuttle to fall and bounce off of his head and onto his feet. Gently clasping your hand at your mouth, you stop your giggles at the warning glare that Jisung sends to you; although his flushed cheeks aren’t making it any better.

“Say something and see what happens,” He points at you with the tip of his racket. You remove your hand and open your mouth, curious to see where this goes.

“Are you really gonna say something?” He steps closer to your figure, which is now sitting cross-legged on the ground with both hands placed on top of one another in front of you. He drops his racket on the ground, as if it doesn’t cost a limb, and instead places his hands right above his knees, looming over your figure. You can’t help it this time when your gaze follows towards the gap in the collar of his shirt, showing the sharp cut of his collarbone peeking through. It’s when your gaze is caught on his chain necklace dangling from his neck that the sound of a basketball bouncing echoes closer, as both of you look towards the direction it’s coming from. Not long after, a boy no older than ten shuffles in with his shoes squeaking against the floor, looking shocked at the fact that the two of you are here.

The ball lightly hits Jisung’s calf, who simply picks it up and passes it back to the boy who’s seemingly frozen in place. As soon as the ball arrives at his own feet, he quickly picks it up and dashes out of the place.

“Do you wanna bet to see who can reach past their toes?” Your question snaps Jisung out of his thought. The boy chuckles and sits down to your right, stretching out his legs and shaking them out as a form of warm-up.

“You’re so on,”

Your hands are clasped behind your back as you strut up to Jisung, who’s at his bag, taking out his needed items. With a tap on his shoulder, he turns to face you, giving you a smile as a greeting before scanning you.

“What are you doing this time?” You gasp in mock offence.

“This time? I haven’t even done anything yet?”

“But you’re going to,” He points his fingers at your hidden hands. “You’re either gonna scare me or pull the lamest prank ever known to date.” Your smile drops and a scowl replaces it instead.

When Jisung fully turns to face you, you smile once more and lean your shoulders in. “I actually brought you something to thank you. Again.” You shift the item from your left to your right hand, feeling nervous and embarrassed for saying it all out loud. “Because of you, I can hit a backhand serve and not smack myself.” The boy stands taller with your gratitude, a blush sporting on his face as his eyes look anywhere but at you. You must look like high schoolers confessing to one another with the way you’re both flustered and shy, which isn’t a thought you’re fully opposed to.

He nods his head, still avoiding looking directly at you, as he reaches his hands out, ready to receive what you’ve brought for him. You giggle slightly as he shuts his eyes and shakes his hands in anticipation, “Since you said electrolyte drinks don’t really help, and you like your proteins after class, I thought of a better third option and brought you,” You reach your hands out and place the gift on his palms, urging him to open his eyes.

Cold and dripping with condensation, the plastic water bottle perched on his hands seem small as his hands close around them to keep from falling. His eyes fall as he looks dimly at the bottle in his hands, and you look away briefly to keep from laughing straight in his face.

“Now I know what that kid felt like when he got gifted an avocado for Christmas.”

“Wait,” Chenle plops down next to Juda as he says this, but is quickly shoved to the other end of the couch with a complaint ‘It’s too hot for you to stick your gross body next to me’.

“What’s his deal then?”

“What?” You turn to look at Juda first as if to check that you’re the only one confused. The furrow of the girls’ eyebrows proves the fact that you aren’t alone, as you both look at Chenle with visible empty thought bubbles surrounding you.

“Well, he’s a badminton prodigy according to you. Seems to have surprased all the basics and is just a step away from being a professional.” The initial shove and retort from Juda barely set him off, as he goes back to his original position and maybe squeezes himself even more to her side and pulls a spoon out, digging into her tub of ice cream.

“Why is he still coming to class if he’s qualified enough to teach you?” Unfortunately, for once Chenle does have a point. You’ve thought about this a few times at the beginning of the semester when you were a little more than irritated by the fact that he joined the class and made you rank down a notch; ever since he agreed to lend you a hand, you’re sometimes even happy when you see him come in.

“He has a point sadly,” Juda waves her spoon towards Chenle’s direction. “If he’s as good as you say he is, why bother coming to class?”

“Maybe you should ask him that on your next date,” The boy wiggles his eyebrows at you, squealing out a laugh when you pull your fist back in a threatening manner.

“Maybe I will,” you blurt out, attempting an aggressive tone. Before you could let anyone, even yourself, comprehend what you said, you pressed play on the tv and snuggled up to Juda’s arm on her right, with Chenle leaching off of her to her left.

“The things I put up with,” She huffs as she stabs her spoon into her ice cream tub, feeding you diligently.

[WEDNESDAY; 10:37 PM]

you: you

jwisung: ?

jwisung: what happened to hello

jwisung: ‘how was your day’

jwisung: wheres ur decorum

you: shut up you dont even know what that means

jwisung: :(

you: >.<

you: are you free this saturday at 9

jwisung: you mean

jwisung: the saturday 9pm where we just finish our badminton class?

jwisung: idk i gotta check my schedule to see if i have a badminton class around that time

jwisung: omg wait are you gonna spoil me

you: 😐

you: yes but not anymore

you: bye

jwisung: WAIR

jwisung: pleahse im soreu

you: not forgiven <3

you: i know this place that actually has good mint choc ice cream

you: not too minty not too chocolatey

jwisung: you rmbrd that i like mintchoc?

you: dont do this to me

jwisung: okay i wont 😁

you: good boy

jwisung: …

you: ?

you: oh!

jwisung: no

you: ill remember this too 😋

Your bag is bigger this time when you go to class, having packed an extra set of clothes and a towel to have a quick rinse after class before your not-date with Jisung. Arriving just in time for the warm-up session, you’re met with gloomy faces left and right. Plopping your bag down next to Soojin’s, you whisper when you ask, “Why does everyone look like they’ve been kicked?”

She looks up to you with a pout adorning her features. “Coach declared today a ‘cardio’ day. Something about wanting to boost our stamina or whatever the fuck.” She sighs as she shoves her stuff back into her bag, sadly shuffling across the court to do her designated warmups. You grimace as you follow, hoping your travel-size soap is enough.

Turns out Coach’s definition of cardio was way more intense than what you remember your gym friends raving about, as you put your hands on your knees to keep yourself from collapsing. A whistle from the coach signals a shift in your rep, making you change stations and do the next cycle of workout.

“Coach, how much longer are we gonna do this—”

“Until I start sweating, Jaemin. Now keep up!” Coach demands, which is absurd, because he isn’t doing anything but watching you do push-up planks and try not to collapse.

“Okay, stop,” He blows the whistle once more and you fall to your hands and knees, with everyone else modelling a variation of your position. Haechan’s high-pitched groan startles you, but not as much as the coach’s yelling that follows after.

“Don’t sit down guys! Sitting down after exercise is terrible for your stamina,”

“This sounds like some facebook myth my mom would tell me,” Ryujin pants as she shoves her fringe out of her face.

Coach smiles as he claps this time around. “You guys were great today, well done! As a gift, you can only do the stretching cool-down activities and I’ll finish class earlier today,” At that, the class erupts in out-of-breath cheers and barely lasting claps.

You look to find Jisung, just to see how he’s holding up after this exercise round from hell, and you find yourself more than relieved to see him affected for once. Halfway through class, he’s opted to take off his hoodie, which left him in a white shirt and navy sweatpants, with sleeves bunched up to show his biceps and their carvings. The sight of him adorned with sweat and panting sends a twist to your stomach, and you’re quickly reminded that you’re supposed to go out with him after this.

Shuffling to your bag as quickly as you can with the ache pulsing through your legs, you’re about to head for the courts' public showers when you’re met with Jisung’s figure.

“You can’t leave that easily, I have to try that ice cream,” He murmurs with a crooked smile. You smack at his shoulder.

“I wasn’t gonna leave, I wanted to take a quick rinse before we go out. That cardio really did a number on me,” Jisung falls a bit quiet at your words, as you visibly see him suddenly deep in thought. Before you get to question it, he beats you to it by straightening up and looking directly at you with an idea in mind.

“Why don’t you come to mine?” You blanch at his words but aren’t allowed to react more than that as he continues. “I live really close, and you can just use the shower before heading out. You have your stuff with you and I need a rinse too.” He points at your bag behind you, making you flush and subconsciously move to cover up your efforts. His idea doesn’t seem too bad, and you think this could be another excuse for you to make up to him. Let’s go out one more time because I used up all your hot water. Couldn’t think of a better idea.

With a nod and a smile, you’re quickly guided out of the building shoulder to shoulder.

Jisung’s apartment really wasn’t far at all, as you arrive at the complex within a five-minute walk from the sports grounds. Living in a two-bedroom apartment with his roommate, who Jisungs said to have gone home this winter season, the place looks relatively clean with the effort of one person living in the area. He directs you to his room, where you place your bags and pick up your clothes before he points towards the bathroom.

“You can use my shampoo and soap, they’re both in some type of white bottle. Don’t use the blue ones because they’re my roommates’ and he has a sixth sense when it comes to these things,” You salute him and shuffle to the bathroom, trying your best to be as quick as possible to not leave him waiting and to not actually use up all his hot water. The bathroom was just slightly messy, with towels stacked on one another in a haphazard manner and shaving bottle caps abandoned and soap remnants staining the sink, you feel warm with the idea of getting to see this side of Jisung. A university student trying his best, not some badminton prodigy.

Rinsing your body one last time, you close the water tap and open the glass door of the shower, reaching out your hand blindly to retrieve your towel. After a few seconds of mindlessly flinging your arm and only coming back with a bang of your knuckle against the metal towel holder, you don’t really recall pulling out the towel from your bag, much less hanging it anywhere near the bathroom.

“Oh my god, why today?” The cold of the world outside the shower cubicle washes shivers over you as you open the door wide enough to fit your head around, scanning to see if there’s any alternative you can use instead. All you’re met with is bundles of toilet paper rolls stacked on top of one another and used toilet paper rolls dumped into a basket haphazardly. Your panic settles a bit quicker as your mind blanks from solutions, but not before a knock is heard through the door with your name being called.

“Yes?” You hide the waver in your voice as best as you can, closing the glass door just a bit more.

“Is everything okay?” Jisung’s voice rumbles through the door. Your hand flies to your body, suddenly feeling exposed with the reminder of Jisung’s presence. Slipping back into the shower, you raise your voice as much as you can to be heard through the door; “Yup! Everything’s fine. Just . . .” It’s just I’m dripping and naked in your house and the only remedy is a towel, which I don’t have.

“I noticed you forgot your towel,” The muffle of his voice cuts you out of your trance, “I can give it to you— I mean of course I won’t look! I can just— maybe I’ll stick my hand in?” You laugh slightly at the fact that he’s just as flustered as you, before replying with an agreement.

As he opens the door with the smallest gap to fit the towel and then his wrist, the cold air of the outside reminds you again of your stark nakedness, one hand going across your chest as you reach your other to grab at the towel. With a skim of your wet fingers against his warm and dry ones, you retrieve your towel with a shy thanks, as Jisung quickly goes to close the door.

While getting ready as quickly as you could in the bathroom, your mind was filled with thoughts of how you were supposed to face Jisung after that whole incident. You couldn’t think if it was better to joke about it and get it over with or forget about it and have to come back one day for some form of closure. You hoped there was no need for closure.

But before your overthinking could get to you, Jisung regarded you like he would any other day when you stepped out of his bathroom — with a shy look and awkward hands — and you immediately relax, shoulders slumping as you go up to him, slinging your bag over your shoulder. Jisung’s eyes flit towards it, but not for long before he opens the door and lets you lead the way.

The trip to the ice cream store was a short one, requiring only a train ride to the han rivers’ skirts where the shop is situated. The store itself was busy with people sitting all around snacking on its offerings, but once you get your respective ice creams and head out back towards the river, it’s a bit quieter; a breeze slips past you as you wrap an arm around yourself. With spring in the air, the trees’ full bloom flowers scatter around the pavement and are imprinted by the soles of your hoses as you walk by.

Finding a bench by the tree, the two of settle down on it, as you turn and face Jisung in anticipation of his first try.

“It’s really good, trust me. And it’s like a bit thicker with its mint rather than the chocolate bits which is a bit hard to do when you eat mint chocolate ice cream because it’s always the chocolate that's richer and you get si—” a spoonful of your ice cream is stuffed into your mouth, spluttering you to a stop as you glare at Jisung whos laughing at your expression.

“I had to shut you up one way,” You fist your hand at him in faux aggression, pulling out your spoon and placing it back into your cup.

“Just eat it quickly before it melts,” You exclaim with a hurried expression, feet bouncing up at down in anticipation. Jisung glances at you while he picks up his spoon, prodding at his ice cream before he picks up a spoonful of his ice cream, slowly bringing it to his mouth as he looks at your expression. He only laughs and detours his spoon once, bringing the spoon back up to his lips when the expression on your face shifts to a deadpan.

The pink of his lip contrasts with the mint colour of the ice cream dripping slightly from the spoon, as he finally fits the ice cream in and gives it a taste. Looking at his eyes with suspense, Jisung’s default expression of scepticism is what you see first, before it shifts into surprise, into confusion, and finally into the same expression as a kid getting candy. The glint in his eyes shines bright in the dim lighting that you’re in, as Jisung points to the ice cream while he continues consuming the ice cream.

“It’s good,”

“Of course it’s good. I wouldn’t bring you to try good mint chocolate if it wasn’t actually good mint chocolate,” You stifle a giggle when Jisung throws you a glower.

“You know what I mean,” At his positive reaction, you comfortably dug into your own ice cream, a comfortable silence blanketing you two with background noises of cyclers whizzing by and people talking in the distance.

“You’re doing really well,” Jisung starts with his eyes darted away, suddenly shy to look at you as he says, “In badminton, I mean. Your overhead shots are cleaner than mine.” Eyes still averted, he elbows you lightly with his compliment. You preen at his praise, leaning forward subconsciously to him with a thank you.

“It’s all thanks to you. If you weren’t as good as you are I wouldn’t even know that there are two methods of serving the shuttle.”

Jisung’s laugh sounds less humorous, “Yeah, it must’ve been weird seeing me play alone during class,” There's a heavy pause as you visibly detect the boy sort through his next words. “I didn’t think you guys were . . . fond of me. When we first started,” You feel your stomach go white, colours flush from your face from his words. Did he know? Were you that blatant? You feel bad, remembering how isolated the boy was at that time as everyone distanced themselves since learning his level of expertise. You weren’t any better, the bitter feeling you harboured when you got ranked into the third group now coming back to you after three months of attending practice.

At the glum expression on your face, Jisung quickly goes to wave his hand. “Ah, it was— it wasn’t your fault or anything. I secluded myself too, so of course it would’ve been hard to talk as comfortably.” He rests his hand on yours that’s pressed against the bench, comforting you as if you’re the one whos been wronged, and not the other way around. Frowning at his consolation, you don’t know what comes over you as you flip your hand around, making your palm face his as you clasp his hands in yours.

You avoid looking at his expression as you make your bold move, looking at the river as you start. “If it makes you feel better, Jaemin always talks about how jealous he is of you whenever you do a smash,” Gathering the courage, you squeeze his fingers as you look at him, another question popping up in your head.

“Can I ask you something? You don’t have to answer it if you don’t want to, of course, but—” You cut yourself short when Jisung nods his head at you, looking at you with a calm demeanour.

“Why do you still come to class if you’re already so good? I mean, I swear you’re at national levels at least,” Jisung snorts at your words, growing shy from your praise.

“I’m being serious, don’t laugh!” Even as you say your words with furrowed eyebrows, your efforts barely last as you smile at his bashful posture. Puffing his cheeks, he ponders a bit on how to answer your question; you’re about to tell him to just forget it, not wanting him to answer something so personal, when he straightens his posture and stares ahead with a determined expression.

“The first time I played badminton was at a family gathering for new years, and I might’ve been four or maybe five when my dad put a racket in my hand and swung my arm around to hit at the throws my cousins would send my way. Then when I got older and was forced to play actual sports in school, the only thing that I was willing to play was badminton. I didn’t try hard in the beginning and was there because I heard that the teacher conducting it didn’t really care,” You snort at the picture of young Jisung barely lifting his hand to play, or letting the shuttle zoom right past him while flinching away entirely.

“But when the interschool competitions came around and I was ranked in the last group to play, I had won by pure luck,” He rubs his hands up and down his pants as he reminisces, shoulder rubbing against your subconsciously. “And then everyone started cheering me on because apparently, my accidental win had helped us accelerate to the next round. It made me feel good that I was the cause of such a thing, so I tried a bit harder the next time. Then I asked the higher ranking kids to help me with my serving, and then my mom to admit me to a badminton class, and I ranked up from F to D, and then to B and then A. My class started to admit me to local competitions outside of school hours, and then it had become such a big part of my life that I was determined to get to a national scale.”

“Did you?” Your voice was quiet when you spoke, ending with a bit of a rasp from its lack of use. You were on the edge of your seat if your position meant anything, arms wrapped around your knees, thighs pressed to your chest, making the waistband of your shorts dig a bit higher. Jisung’s smile is a sentimental one, reminiscent of a win resulting from years of effort.

“I was fifteen when I was cast by a racket sports centre, which focused on training people ranging from kids to young adults to get to national competitions and even more. I was over the moon and became one of those kids you barely see in class and when you do, they’re just sleeping through the subject. My first competition was scheduled three months after my admission, which was unheard of; even kids who have been learning at the place for two years would struggle to pass the first rounds for the entry.” Your eyes move along Jisung’s hand, as he comically explains his words through the movement of his fingers, expanding and collapsing joints onto one another.

“I didn’t win the first one, but I won the second, and the third, and built a streak - although short, just four months into training. In the beginning, it was all so exhilarating, the thrill of winning the title of first place with all these people who were just as gifted, if not even more. And so I would win because I was capable, I didn’t win because I was it was expected of me.”

“But,” You murmur as Jisung halts, bringing his hand down as his fingers fiddle with the texture of the bench.

“But,” His excitement has burnt down to a sort of nostalgia, and you reach your hand down and clasp your hand over his again, before he looks down and turns his hand, palm facing yours as he links your fingers together. “But then, when I was seventeen, I had passed the initial rounds for the national Olympic competition. It was big news; our centre hadn’t had someone do that in decades, and that was when the pressure was tangible.

“My parents would schedule my day down to the minutes, and my coach made my diet strict, telling me what exactly I should eat each day until the competition. I loved the order and agenda that was set for me; I didn’t have to think what’s next? I just had to keep doing what I was good at. But then came the first round of the match, and the people were ruthless. No one was there to watch two teenagers play badminton, but instead fight for their lives. I didn’t think much about it until my third round that day when the kid I was playing against deliberately tried to hit the ball to my face.”

You couldn’t help it, your laugh had spilt out before you could even think of stopping it, but Jisung’s squeeze against your hand assured you that it was fine, as he chuckled with you.

“Who the fuck practices hitting the ball at someone's face?” Your voice was pitched higher with exasperation. “Do you reckon he had a cardboard cutout of you to practice on? I doubt someone can do the calculations of face-hitting range that quickly under pressure.” Jisung contemplates your idea teasingly, tilting his head and measuring random angels with his free hand. Seeing that, the weight of your hand held against his now weighs tenfold, as the butterfly in your stomach flutters with the subconscious squeeze of his fingers. You bump at his shoulder as you squeeze yourself closer, bringing your linked hands to rest against your stomach, wanting to hold him closer.

“It was definitely weird, but it didn’t set me off my rhythm, I just thought that it was a way to rile people up. But my coach was the one irritated, and when the boy had almost hit my eye, that was when my coach started to interfere,” You can only imagine the noise surrounding seventeen-year-old Jisung, his coach stepping forward to halt the game and talking to the referee to take some sort of action, pointing accusing fingers at the opponent and their mentors.

“The place that we were competing at was big, bigger than what I was used to back then, and there were a lot of people and so it was noisy; but the noise that my coach and the kid were making was something else. When my coach came back to me, all riled up, I couldn’t do much but take in his energy. I remember being very tense, thinking that I should just step my ground a bit more next time ‘round so they wouldn’t think of doing something like aiming the shuttle at my face.

“I think it was either the fifth? Or the sixth round, when I was in the zone of playing ‘professionally’ rather than doing what I was already good at. I would do overhead deliveries and front-hand serves even though I’d rather do a simple back-hand. Then there was an opening for a smash, it was a weak point for the guy— and I was over the moon with the opportunity. I’d only done the smash successfully maybe enough to count off of my fingers, but I knew that if I timed it right I would get it,” Dread fills your stomach at the direction that Jisung is going, You’re sure if you clench your fingers any harder there would be an imprint left of the poor boy's hand, but Jisung either doesn’t notice or simply doesn’t care.

Jisung’s chuckle drifts lightly in the air, “I was too enthusiastic, and I bunched up all my energy into hitting the ball that I’d missed the perfect time and instead had delivered a simple overhead. It would’ve been okay otherwise, I mean, I was able to deliver something instead of losing a measly point, but before I could recover, the shuttle had travelled to the back end of the court, and in my attempt of getting it, I’d tripped and landed pretty badly,” While telling the story, Jisung’s free hand had been wandering over his clothed knee, fingers fiddling with the fabric and one another. Bunching up the fabric at the end of his pant, he pushes up the lax fabric up and over his knee, where a pink and slightly faded surgical scar paints the inner side of his knee. Your hand clasps over your mouth once met with the scar, and your heart fills with admiration as you see him trace his healed gash with sentimentality. Bringing your linked hands to rest on your knee, you prop your cheek against it while looking at him, sparkling eyes encouraging him to continue.

“I couldn’t play anymore after that, not with the same vigour I had before. Suddenly I had to go back to class regularly and didn’t have to do any sort of reps just so I don’t fall behind on my weekly plan. My schedule had more free time than anything, and so I had enough time to get to thinking; what if I hadn’t misstepped? Would I have won? But I knew that all of that thinking wouldn’t do me any good. So when I was watching the Olympics months later, I remember seeing the camera pan onto the coaches, and how happy they were to see their student playing. I missed the joy of playing for the thrill and adrenaline of moving around, and so I thought, why not become a coach?” Understanding fills you as you realise why Jisung is going through all this effort of attending a class that he’s exponentially overqualified for. His cheeks go red as he realises your gaze settling over his figure, now looking away from you and onto the still water.

You can’t help it, you find it simply so endearing that he’s set his time into achieving something to allow people to have fun with badminton. Feeling overwhelmed with affection from his story and words and actions, you lean over and place a peck on to his cheek.

The contact was brief, as your lips barely took in the smoothness of his skin before you’re coming back with a start. “Oh my god, Jisung. That’s so cute, you’re generous and you’re going out of your way to do such good things, and you didn't deserve to go through that at such a young age—” Your words were smushed together as you barely reach the end of your sentence, the cause being Jisung’s big hands gently attacking your cheeks at once. His wide eyes stare straight at yours as his colder hands warm against the puff of your cheeks; and you are seconds away from voicing your confusion before you see his gaze settling on your pouted lips, glistening and redder from the ice cream.

You couldn’t even smile teasingly at him, as his hands refrain you from doing so. The nervous adrenaline running in your vein might be another reason too, but you don’t get to ponder on that for long before you see Jisung’s tilted head leaning closer, hooded eyes glancing at your eyes before focusing back on your lips, wanting to imprint it’s cute pouted shape.

The warmth of his lips lands on your cold ones, sending a wave of warmth to wash over you. You can feel his desire through the pressure of his lips against you, his soft lips fitting over yours lovingly. You mourn the loss as soon as Jisung pulls back, but not for long before he presses another close-mouthed kiss, this time with his hand tilting your head the other way, fingers slipping and cupping your jaw gently. Your stomach warms as you feel the fervour within Jisung, from the tip of his cold fingers on your heated cheeks to the push of his body towards you, wanting to get closer with each passing second.

When he pulls back, his eyes are clouded with the haze of your kiss and a bit of timidity. Your giggle bubbles between you, causing him to smile along with you, his shyness catching up. Not wanting his hand to stray far as they fall from your face, you clasp at his palm and lace your fingers, pulling down to get his face closer to yours, placing a peck at his nose first, scrunched from being bashful, and then one on his lips. And another, and another, then it’s him who’s leaning in and slotting his lips against yours, and you’re pulling your linked hands behind your back and let go, opting to slot your hand behind his neck.

After two, three, and four more kisses to the cheek, forehead and lips, you tuck your head into the junction of his shoulder and neck, feeling shy from doing all of this in public. Jisung’s laugh is sweet to your ears, hands rubbing up and down your back before brushing at the ends of your hair.

“Give a warning next time round, will you?” You tease as you pull back, hand falling on his forearms, eyes looking everywhere but at his.

“Sorry, you just looked too cute. I felt this sudden urge to either bite you or kiss you,”

You pull back even more, hands coming up to shield yourself in mock reservation. “I don’t know if I should be thankful you chose the second option or fear for when the first option will happen,”

Jisung hums, “Maybe both?”

Your pinkies are linked as you walk along the river, basking in each other's presence as you talk, shoulders brushing every now and then. It’s when you’re both childishly debating about who had fallen first when Jisung suddenly points his finger at you accusingly.

“Is that why you forgot your towel?” His question comes out more genuine than anything, as he tilts his head quickly in thought. With a light gasp, you smack at his shoulder before your arm falls back and crosses on your shoulders, scandalised. “I didn’t!”

“Was that how you were gonna seduce me? By forgetting your towel and having me bring it to you? What was next, you wanted me to lotion your legs for you too?” You can tell he’s teasing this time around, as his tongue pokes at his cheek ever so slightly to withhold the grin that was blooming across his features.

You point your finger at him, catching on. “You probably distracted me with your whole ‘which bottle of shampoo’ debacle just to make me forget it.” Poking at his chest with eyes squinted in suspicion, “You wanted to see me naked on the first date? That’s not very decorum of you.”

Jisung scoffs and rolls his eyes at your accusation, shoulders squaring to better defend himself. “I don’t need to go through all of that just to get to you,” He throws you a quick glance from the corner of his eye, a rush of giddiness washing over him with the look of your flustered expression.

“You’re right,” This time, you’re looking at his lips as you say this, catching Jisung off-guard with your compliance. Moving closer, you rest your hands on his arms, pushing yourself up and closer to his body, chests brushing. Your voice, barely above a whisper, brushes against his ear, “It’s gonna take a lot more than that to get to me, baby.”

You know the smile on your face is menacing if Jisung’s gaze on you is anything to go by, partly annoyed and part timid. Ghosting one of your hands down his arm, you slip your fingers in between his and give them a squeeze, giggling as you swing your arm back a forth a bit like a school couple.

Jisung’s next sentence takes a bit of effort to say if his demeanour is anything to go by. With his gaze settled on your intertwined hands and a slightly open mouth— as if to say something, you give his hand another gentle squeeze to encourage him.

The gleam in his eyes looks more assured as he straightens his posture and looks directly into your eyes, giving your hand a squeeze back. “Do you wanna go back to mine?”

Leaning in, you give another peck on his cheek, his scent pleasantly wafting through your nose. “I’d love to,”

You can feel the tension grow with the sound of the door closing and sounding its locking chime, toeing off your shoes as you look up at Jisung. He reaches out a hand towards you once you straighten up, pulling you close and guiding you towards the door of his bedroom.

Like the rest of the house, Jisung’s room is clean but still spotted with signs of use, with his desk having papers and laptop wires strewn around while a plethora of empty hangers are placed at the foot of his closet. As he sits on the bed, with his hand still holding yours, he tugs you forward, his free hand going to your thigh, clasping above your knee.

His eyes glisten as he looks up at you, “This okay?” his touch ghosts on you as he asks this. You nod your head, wanting him to touch you, needing him to touch you more. His fingers grow bolder and heavier in weight, as his hand clasps at the back of your thigh, bending your leg and resting it next to his thigh. Understanding his movements, you follow suit, settling yourself on his thighs with your linked hands resting on his stomach. He leans in and presses a soft kiss against you, easing in with feathery light touches. The slot of your mouths against each other starts a small fire in your stomach, as you push yourself onto him more, needing him to know that you crave more.

He sighs against your lips as you settle down more, the pressure not far from where he wants it the most. He kisses you feverishly, the smack of your lips growing louder with each plant of his lips. His touches grow heavier as his fingers go from grazing against your knees to tracing lines up your thighs, barely a touch away from settling under the seem of your skirt. Knitting your fingers in his hair, his hand flies to your love handles, squeezing them in an attempt to ground himself. A sigh leaves his lips when you separate just the slightest bit, taking a breather as you kiss the corner of his lips, hands falling from the ends of his hair down to his collarbones and at the bottom of his shirt. Your spread your fingers on the skin of his stomach, nails skimming ever so slightly making Jisung’s breath hitch, his stomach tensing under your touch, eyes still closed as he takes in your touch, his stomach knotting from finally being able to do this with you.

With his grip already tight on your waist, he maneuvers you off his lap and sits you on his bed, crawling between your legs, making you open them and welcome him in as you lie down on his bed. He kisses you again, his hands now staking claim everywhere he can, pushing your shirt up to your ribs, fingers grazing against your bud form under your bra before he brings his hands down and kneads at your thighs.

“Jisung,” You sigh when he swipes his tongue against your lips. He takes your tongue in his mouth, humming against it at your call, its vibration sending hot waves down your body. His touches on your body take you higher, but you need more.

And so you say just as much, “More, give me more.”

“Fuck,” He sighs against your lip, “Yeah? Okay, I’ll give you more, anything for you,” Pressing one last peck against your lip, you see his body slide down your figure, his fingers going to unhook your bra as you arch your back. He groans at the sight of your breasts free from your bra. “I love your tits, so much,” His hands are big against you, but they fit perfectly against the cup of your breasts, squeezing them together as he smothers himself against your cleavage. He licks a stripe of each bud, before focusing on your left one with his mouth, tongue lapping around the swell as he sucks, opting to circle his fingers on your other tit before pinching it harshly, making you keen against him.

You rake your fingers in his hair, petting him. “Such a good boy, you make me feel so good,” Your words make him whine against your breast, making his hip stutter against the mattress, for some sort of friction. He releases one hand from cupping your breasts, opting to use one hand while his now free hand dances its way down your torso, unzipping your skirt and taking it off, before meeting the seam of your panties. With his pointer finger, he hovers a line ever so slightly on your slit, eyes wide as he glances at the pleasure breaking out on your face and the wetness of your underwear spreading.

He keeps his touch light, drawing circles on your clit through the fabric of your underwear, frustrating you. You huff when he uses the point of his fingers and presses the slightest amount into your hole, the fabric refraining you from feeling his direct touch. You pull at his hair that’s winded through your fingers, urging him on; he moans at the pull, getting the memo once he looks up at your face with an eye squeezed closed from pain or pleasure. Or both.

He licks at your entrance briefly through your panties, the heat and wetness making you moan, before his fingers finally fit themselves into the seam, sliding them down your legs. You feel more than see his gaze on your core, hooded eyes watching it squeeze around nothing as his fingers tease around it. He comes back up to you and presses his lips against yours, lips slotting together briefly before you feel his thumb rub against your sensitive nub, his middle finger prodding at your hole, eyes watching your face as he pushes the pad of his finger against you. You keen when his finger fills you, as he pushes his finger back and forth, his thumb following by pressing into your clit and pulling away rhythmically. He brings his head against your neck, licking a stripe against you before his teeth catch on your skin, lips wrapping themselves around you straight after, sucking into you before parting and finding another part of your skin to taint. He quickens his pace with his one finger, but it’s not enough, you can barely get enough of him.

Hugging his head that’s still tucked at your neck, you scratch at his scalp soothingly before pulling at strands of his hair. “Jisung,” You pant, “Another one, fill me up, please,”

“You want more?” He bites at your jaw lightly, before he pecks your lips lovingly, as if he isn’t trying to have you come undone with his fingers alone. You nod your head, “Please, I’ve been good, haven’t I?” You beg as your cup the side of his face, your eyes looking at his blown-out pupils, probably no different than yours.

Jisung gronas at your words. “You’ve been so good, such a good girl.” He pulls his finger out so just the tip of it hangs onto your gaping hole, before he joins in another finger, two fingers now filling you. You whimper out a thank you, hands clutching at his shoulders as he picks up the pace, hand now slapping against your cunt, fingers curling inside your sopping pussy. Your body feels like it’s floating and coiling into itself all at once, with Jisung’s unrelenting fingers contrasting his gentle pecks and scrape of teeth against your skin. Every few thrusts and squeeze against his fingers have his hips grind down, sometimes grazing against your leg, making you feel his hard-on.

You bring your hand down from his shoulder, curling it at the bottom of his shirt before tugging at it, mumbling the word off. He pulls back slightly and pulls his shirt off with his free hand while you help with getting it over his head. You scratch your nails against the lines of his stomach, eliciting a hiss out of his before you palm at the outline of his cock through his sweatpants. “You listen so well, don't you? Always doing your best,” You pant out, testing the waters as you tuck the tips of your finger under his waistband. His moan comes out higher in pitch with your words, hips jutting forward and into your touch.

“Good for you,” he breathes against your cheek, eyes squeezed shut at the brush of your fingers against his clothed cock, muttering another fuck under his breath, rutting into your palm for more.

You’re losing your patience, as Jisung speeds up his hand even more, the pleasure bordering with pain from his pace and harsher bites Jisung plants on you, too far gone with pleasuring you to be mindful of his strength.

You can feel your orgasm reaching, breath hitching and your stomachs coil tightening further and further. You wrap your hand around Jisung’s wrist, slowing him down slowly before prodding them out of you. You whine at the emptiness briefly but are soothed when Jisung plants wet kisses against your collarbone. You push yourself up onto your shoulders, making Jisung shuffle back slightly in order to not lose touch with you, Reaching over, you dig through your bag and pull out a condom, shaking it between your bodies to bring Jisung’s attention to it.

The sound of the plastic wrapper catches his gaze, “You’re gonna let me put it in?” He grabs the packet from your hand before gently pushing you back down. He kisses you again, seeming to not get enough, as he pushes his pants and boxers down in one go, his tip smacking against the soft lines of his stomach and leaving a glisten. The rip of the packet sounds before he rolls it on, and you shift closer when you feel the tip of his cock lined up with your pussy.

The sheets ruffle around you as Jisung comes down and places a kiss on your cheek before looking into your eyes. “Ready?” He asks, and with a nod of your head, you feel him slowly ease himself into you. The stretch feels amazing, as you both moan into each other mouths, your hands squeezing and wandering everywhere around Jisung’s shoulders, back, torso.

Jisung sighs, “Fuck,” His grip on your waist tightens, the pressure turning you on even more, squeezing around his cock. “You feel so good, so tight,”

“Fuck, Jisung,” You groan out as he quickens his pace, the sound of his hips slapping against your skin picking up. “Fuck, you’re doing so well. Stretching me out so good,” Jisung throws his head back, eyes squeezing shut at the pulse of your pussy around his member. He looks back down, wanting to see the join of your bodies, pulling out till his tip, before ramming himself back in, losing himself to the blissful feeling.

The knot in your stomach tightens. “Jisung, I’m close—” You’re cut off by your own moan as Jisung starts rubbing at your clit again, building a rhythm to his thrusts into you.

“Yeah? Fuck, let go baby,” He grunts as he bends down, his cock twitching inside of you as he kisses your lips before tucking his head back into your neck, lapping at your skin as he keeps up his speed with his fingers on your clit and his thrusts inside you. Your body curls up as your orgasm crashes into you, hands hugging at Jisung’s shoulders tighter as your thighs squeeze around his hips, keeping him in your pulsing core. Panting, you release your grip from his hip, bringing your leg down and patting Jisung’s head, wanting to kiss him again.

As he pulls away from you, you lean up and plant a kiss on his lips, chest bursting with the affection you feel while coming down. Jisung pulls his cock out from you, going slow as to not overwhelm you. He pulls off his condom, not having cum yet as his cock smacks against his stomach, the precum from the tip joining the light sheen of sweat covering his body. He fists his hand around his cock, tugging and pumping himself to a finish. You’re too spent to give him a helping hand, but you decide you haven’t spent your mouth enough.

“Pretty boy, you’re doing so well,” He hunches over your body at your words. “Looks so good fisting your own cock like that,”

“Fuck,” He groans, “If you keep going I’m gonna—”

“Cum baby, make a mess on me,” You run your hand up his thigh, before pulling up and grabbing at his hair and combing through the strands. His moan comes out high pitched as his hips stutter into his fist, before a spurt of come shoots out and lands on your stomach. He twists his fist around the head of his cock as he milks it out, before heaving a sigh and slumping down, placing a kiss on your shoulder before he lies by your side, cupping his body into yours. You continue running your hand in his hair as he settles on your shoulder, his cheek poking out which makes you poke at it. A giggle is shared as the giddiness of you two being together in the moment settles in, and when you go to place a kiss at his forehead, you’re reminded of the wetness of sweat all over your body and the slowly drying cum on your stomach.

“Oh, let me go get something,” He gets up and goes to his bathroom, coming back with a few paper towels and a wet cloth. Rubbing down your spent body, he pats you dry with the paper towel before putting them away and plopping down next to you, wrapping his arm around you and tucking himself close.

“I didn’t know you were the cuddly type,” You say as you hug at his shoulders, hands rubbing up and down as a faux massage.

“Well, I mean, I can let go?” Jisung’s nervous front grows again, as he goes to put some distance between the two of you. But before he could get far, you wrap your arms tighter around his shoulder as you hook your leg around his, stopping him from pulling away.

“I never said it was bad; I like this girlfriend bonus.” Jisung’s hair bounces as he pops his head up to look at you.

“Girlfriend bonus? Does that mean you’re my girlfriend now?”

“Only if you agree to my boyfriend bonuses,” You shrug. He laughs as he places his head back on your shoulder. “What are these so-called ‘boyfriend bonuses’ of yours?” You tap at your chin mockingly as you think.

“You can fuck my boobs next time?” You shrug again. His head whips up faster this time ‘round.

“Are you serious? Don’t joke about it, because if you are I won’t be—” You smack your hands on his cheeks, squeezing his lips into a pout. His shoulders slump at your attempt of shutting him up, eyebrows drooping as he gazes at you, making you laugh at his expression as you squish his cheeks repeatedly.

“Okay, good job guys, take a water break.” Coach Son claps, as everyone shuffles to their bags and grab at their bottles. Jisung’s elbow brushes against yours as he grabs his bottle from his bag next to yours, taking a few light sips before he places it down, looking at you with his cheeks full of water. It takes all his might to not spit the water out as you elbow him back and raise your fingers tauntingly, moving closer as if you’re about to tickle him.

Before you can successfully begin your quest, Coach lets out a sound as to gather you guys back ‘round, clapping his hands twice before waving you guys in.

“Since we’re coming to the end of the semester and you guys have proved to work really hard, I’m gonna conduct one last test to see how much your levels have changed since the beginning of the semester!”

“Oh my god,” You whisper out to Jisung as your hand cups your mouth, wide eyes looking at his as his eyebrows raise in surprise. This could finally be the moment that you can prove yourself, advancing onto a higher level to have an overall better ranking.

“Who wants to go first?” Jaemin steps up and raises his hand, confidently wanting to prove his skills.

He plays a round with the coach, showing signs of trying his best and knowing how to play, but his reaction speed comes a bit too late as he misses the shuttles by a step. Sometimes two. Sometimes he mixes up his left from his right, but that’s just occasionally. Minji and Ryujin play a round each, and show good improvement throughout the semester.

“You should go next,” Jisung leans into as he whispers, both of your gazes settled on the coach and Ryujin going back and forth with clears being delivered. Your blood rushes quicker at the thought of playing an official round, thinking of all the mistakes you can make that would cost you.

Sensing your nerves, Jisung places his hand on yours, grabbing it before giving the palm of your hand soothing rubs. “To help with the nerves,” He says when you look at your joint hands questioningly.

“Alright, next player?” Giving your hand a light squeeze, Jisung lets go and ushers you forward onto the court, as you raise your hand slightly, grabbing at your racket once Coach nods you in.

Arranging yourself, you pick up the shuttle left at your side and get into your serve position. You hit the shuttle and serve, commencing the game. You are able to reciprocate most of coach’s deliveries, stepping left and right when needed and angling your racket to optimise your own delivery, but it’s when you’re halfway through the game with Coach Son’s and your score being eleven and ten respectively, coach starts playing with a more advanced method. The drops become more frequent, catching you off guard as you have to run from the back to the front of the court in order to make it to the shuttle, as well as the clears going in different angles making you almost trip a few times as you attempt to make it to them.

Jisung has his fist at his mouth as he watches you from the side, with everyone else in awe at how quickly you’re moving compared to the last time they played officially.

“How did she get so good?” Haechan questions with his hand pressed on his racket. The whole class shifts their head from left to right at the sidelines as they watch you battling it out with their coach, the shuttle relentlessly being delivered with neither of you wanting to lose touch of it.

“It’s the perks she gets for having an almost professional-level badminton player of a boyfriend.” Ryujin’s smile is devoid of any callousness, patting at Jisung’s shoulder as she says this. Jisung can feel his cheeks grow red as he splutters into his sleeve, hiding his flustered expression as the rest of them shout out their reactions.

“All credit goes to her, she’s just a diligent student.”

“I can be diligent too,” Jaemin bats his lashes as he leans in from Jisung’s other side, but flinches and clutches at his shoulder when Soojin smacks him.

Back on the court, you’re starting to lose your breath when Coach delivers another serve to the back of the court, shuttle going straight as you attempt to create enough distance to successfully hit back. As he does a clear delivery, you position yourself at the back fo the court in order to meet his hit, before quickly centring yourself, preparing for his next move. From a steady pattern of his serves growing in your head, you were more than ready to reciprocate his short hit of the shuttle near the net, as you step forward and hit back.

Usually, you would’ve stumbled to hit the shuttle back at maximum velocity, sending it flying up and giving Coach more than enough time to think of his next move. But from your extra hours of playing with Jisung, you’re picked up the knack of delivering a short end with another short end, making the shuttle travel only the slightest bit over the net and plummeting down into the court. Coach Son is caught off guard when you do this, but his reflexes from years of practise kicks in, and before he could process his actions, he delivers a lob, sending the shuttle high in the air. Jisung gasps from the sidelines, making everyone alert.

He calls out your name, “Smash! Do a smash!”

With your eye settled on the descending shuttle, you think back to the one class you had with Jisung.

“You hit a clear when the shuttle can meet your hand at twelve o’clock. You have to wait for it to drop to the same level that you’re hand would be at a ten o’clock position to be able to deliver a smash; but remember that you have to keep going with your delivery until your hand reaches six o’clock.”

“What the fuck does that mean?”

You’re still not sure what he meant, but with the fall of the shuttle, you’re not really at the privilege of recalling things for a long amount of time.

Positioning your hand at the first base, you wait for the shuttle to be at least a few inches from your head before you reach out, smacking at the shuttle and aiming at the bottom of the court. Coach, who was ready for you to hit the shuttle to the back of the court like you usually do, was not ready for the shuttle which was arriving at a quick pace. In a blink, the shuttle lands just past his ankles, and you’ve officially scored a point.

“Jisung!” You scream once the shuttle lands, looking at your boyfriend who was staring intently at your match. A look of victory glows across his face as his mouth drops in disbelief, eyebrows raised and fists clenched, over the moon at what you had just accomplished.

“I smashed! I did it! I smashed so hard oh my god, I think my arms gonna fall off,” The game is far from done for you to be celebrating like this, but you’re without care when the rest of the class cheers for you, Minji running up to you to give you a hug. You both start jumping with giddy while the rest join in, all while the coach looks at your huddled bunch with a smile on his face.

“This is Juda and this one is Chenle.”

“Why’d you talk about me as if I was a dog?”

“Because you are,” Juda shrugs before she plucks out a Yakult bottle from the packet in her hand, swingin it above Chenle’s face. “Who wants a treat? You do! Who’s a good boy?”

“Nice to . . . meet you guys too?” Jisung’s wave hangs mid air as he looks at Chenle slowly shift from a expressionless face to enthusiastically nodding his head up and down, wanting the drink.

“What did I tell you? You’ll fit just right in with us,” You link your arm through Jisung’s elbow, pulling him into your shared house with Juda before sitting him down on the couch. Juda and Chenle follow after, with the latter having his own bottle open and already emptied halfway. Juda offers Jisung yakult bottle, and goes to pick up the remote, going through the movies to put something on. You quickly grab a few snacks from the kitchen and come back, settling yourself right next to Jisung, leaving no space between the both of you.

“Wait,” Chenle turns to look at you from his positon on the ground, grimacing a bit at the sight of you two cuddled up, before continuing. “What happened with the new ranking then?” Your smile is shy when you look at him and Juda looking back at you expectantly.

“I got into group B.”

“YES!” Chenle whoops, grabbing Juda and shaking her by the shoulders. “No more whining and complaining and whinging about the class!” You chuckle as you cheer alongside him, with Jisung looking at your interactions with raised eyebrows.

Laughing, you tuck yourself into his side, linking your arms again as you rest your head on his shoulder. With Juda and Chenle bickering about settling on what movie to watch, you press a quick kiss on his cheek in appreciation.

“I couldn’t have done it without you,” You smile at him, to which he grins shyly at. “Even though I lost, the smash pulled me through. Your smashing abilities were so flawless that even I, a young duckling was able to smash through,”

“Okay, thank you for the compliment but maybe don’t say how good my smashing abilities are—”

“You just smash so hard and so well—”

“Please—”

“Jisung the smash master!”

if you liked this, dont be afraid to tell me !

#park jisung x reader #jisung x reader #nct jisung #park jisung smut #park jisung fluff #nct dream smut #nct jisung fluff #nct jisung x reader #nct jisung smut

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f4irys4n · 5 months

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random texts with bf! jisung pt1 <3

afab! reader | fluff, suggestive, smut

pt2 | pls ignore the time stamps!!

requests are open <3

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goldyeokki · 8 months

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‎ THEN VS NOW ★ PARK JISUNG AS YOUR BOYFRIEND

★ CONTENT WARNINGS! ★ none tbh it's just fluff and crack and i wanted a reason to do smth for jwi bc im heavy in his feels lately

‏‎ ‏‏‎ ‎ 『 when you first started dating! 』

‏‏‎ ‎ 『 after a couple of years together! 』

#park jisung x reader #park jisung fluff #nct jisung fluff #nct jisung x reader #jisung x reader #nct fluff #nct dream fluff #nct x reader #nct dream x reader #7dreamnet #h.fluff #h.dream #h.socmed #h.jisung #hua writes

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alicanta77 · 6 months

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pairing: alien!jisung x human!reader themes: fluff, angst, alien au warnings: abduction, experimentation, imprisonment, execution (sort of?) words: 16k synopsis: waking up from the deepest sleep of your life to find out that you had actually been abducted by aliens and were on their ship was not how you had thought your tuesday morning way going to go. but when a shy alien bursts through the door asking for your help you find yourself saying yes. however, as the two of you get closer to each other, you find yourselves uncovering a twisted web of lies that threaten everything the two of you have ever known.

i. good morning sunshine

Your eyes fluttered slightly, the hold that sleep had on you felt much deeper than you were used to. Normally you weren’t a seriously heavy sleeper, but somehow you felt absolutely knocked out. You rolled over onto your side, reaching for your duvet to pull it over your head and drown out the sound of your alarm. However, your hand grabbed at empty air instead of your warm covers, causing you to squeeze your eyes further shut in confusion. You must have kicked your duvet off during the night. Annoying, but it wasn’t the first time it had happened. You rolled over and buried your face into your pillow, groaning in the usual frustration that came with waking up.

You made no attempt to get up, already tired at the idea of going off to lessons. It was only then, in those seconds you weren’t moving, that you took in the silence around you. There was no high pitched repetitive beeping of your alarm, alerting you that it was time to wake up. You couldn’t hear your mother downstairs, banging pots and pans around as she made breakfast. There was no shouting from your father as he tried to reason with his business partners over the phone. Nothing. No, your room was completely silent. There was no sign of life anywhere.

Your eyes slowly peeled open, hoping to check the time on your phone by your bed. You flung an arm out, a small yelp leaving you when it hit nothing and instead the momentum of your movement caused you to roll rather ungracefully off your bed.

You landed on the hard ground, confusion and sleep clouding your mind. You must have been lying on the very edge of your bed. But you hadn’t fallen out of bed since you were a kid. Also, since when was your bed that small? And your floor somehow didn’t feel like carpet anymore?

You pushed yourself up into a sitting position slowly, rubbing the part of your forehead that still dully ached from you not so gently landing on the floor. As your eyes gradually adjusted to the light, you took in your surroundings.

The walls and floor were a matching light grey colour. In fact, the entire room was varying shades of grey. You jumped up, practically throwing yourself to your feet, but your body felt like jelly and you stumbled backwards into your bed. You closed your eyes tight, trying to get rid of the black dots slightly clouding your vision. Your control over your body began to come back to you, just as you came to a terrifying realisation.

You had no idea where you were.

Your breath began to shorten as you tried with everything you could to keep yourself calm.

Had you been kidnapped? What kind of place is this? Are they holding you for ransom? Why did they want you? Who on earth could “they” be? How long have you been asleep? How much danger are you in?

Just as these worries began to completely consume you, you heard the door begin to click, signalling what you assumed was a lock. Your eyes shot around the room, looking for anything that could pass as a weapon if you needed. However, the room was minimalist, basically empty, and there was nothing that you would be able to pick up and defend yourself with if you needed. Your heart was pounding so hard you wondered if it would be heard by whoever was trying to get into this room. Whoever had taken you.

Dear god you hoped not.

The door suddenly opened at speed, and a tall figure burst in before shutting it again behind them just as quickly. They turned around as you finally got a look at their face.

It was a boy. He was tall and slim, and staring down at you with his eyes wide with panic. His hair lay messily on his face and you couldn’t quite tell if it was a very dark blue, black or purple. It was as if each colour changed with the movement his head made. He kept looking over his shoulder, checking behind him for something before turning back to you. When he spoke his voice was deeper than you were prepared for, the husk in it surprising you. But nothing surprised you as much as the words he spoke.

“You have no idea how many rules I’m breaking here but my human studies final is coming up and I really need help because I’m going to fail it.”

Your mouth hung open, the words that left the boy’s lips making zero sense to you. You tried to form a sentence, no words making their way out of your mouth. You wanted to ask him so much, what he meant by ‘human studies’, who he was, where you were, yet all you could get out was:

“You’re long.”

Long... not even tall. Long. Wow, well described y/n.

You shook your head, looking around you again, taking in the grey walls. Your gaze eventually came back to rest on the, according to you, long boy who stood, now with a perplexed expression on his face. He looked down at himself, as if trying to understand what you meant.

“Umm,” You muttered, brushing your hands off on your pyjama bottoms, feeling the hard material move under your fingers.

Wait... your pyjamas weren’t hard. Your head shot down, finally taking in the grey jumpsuit you were in that was definitely not what you had gone to sleep in. A scream built up in your throat, one that you tried with all your might to stifle, leaving just a squeak to get through.

“Ahhh.” The boy muttered and your panicked eyes looked up at him. “Yeah, the materials you humans use to make clothes don’t really work here, so that’s the best I could do.” He looked down, biting his lip nervously at your reaction.

You stared at your clothes again, your mouth opening and closing without any words coming out of it. The amount of questions that were swimming around your mind were suffocating you and, even though he had tried to give you an answer of some kind, all it had done was made you even more confused.

“Are- are you okay?” He stuttered, his deep voice wavering slightly.

“No.” You answered blatantly. “Of course I’m not okay! I went to sleep at home, in my own bed and now I’ve woken up in this strange grey room, in clothes that aren’t mine, and you’ve appeared telling me that you need help for a human studies final? I have no idea what the hell is going on.”

The boy swallows, his expression changing to one of guilt and sympathy.

“I’m sorry.” He mutters. “I really need to pass this exam and I panicked. I promise you can go straight home afterwards.”

“Afterwards? After what?” You asked, wanting nothing more than to get off this ship and go home now.

“Well, you’ve been asleep for longer than I expected so we moved off and we won’t be coming back to this place for a little while...” He revealed.

The realisation hit you and you stepped backwards, your legs hitting the hard bed you had been lying on. You let them give out, sitting down on the grey material, breathing out a shaky breath. You couldn’t go home. And, whatever this place was, you had no idea how long you’d be stuck here for.

You looked back up at the tall boy, tilting your head at him, and watching as he did the same thing back. The seemingly innocent action might have brought a small smile to your face if it weren’t for the dire situation you were in.

“I’m stuck here?” You whispered and he nodded in response. Your heart sank and a new kind of fear set in. “For how long?”

“I’m not sure. Time doesn’t move the same way for us as it does in your world.” He explained, yet his explanation, once again, made no sense.

“My world? What do you mean by my world? And what did you mean when you said ‘you humans’?” The way he was speaking was starting to scare you, as if he was something strange that wasn’t from Earth. He looked human, but he seemed to believe he wasn’t.

“I guess I’m what you would call an alien?” He revealed and you raised your eyebrows at him. “Really I am!” He insisted, his voice whining a bit when he realised that you didn’t believe him.

“So what... are you like E.T. or something?” You scoffed slightly, getting a little offended that he expected you to believe something like that

“My name is Jisung and I’ve never left this ship. My planet was destroyed before I was born and we’ve been travelling around in this ship trying to find a new place to settle.”

You frowned at him disbelievingly. This has got to be some kind of prank right?

“So, you’re telling me that I’ve been abducted by an alien and I’m currently on your UFO because you need help passing a human studies exam?” You summed up, almost laughing at how ridiculous the whole situation sounded.

But Jisung just shrugged mutter a soft:

“Pretty much.”

You shook your head, looking down at the grey floor again.

“Can I just go home please?” You asked, your voice much firmer this time as you knew none of this could be real. You stood up, pacing around the room as you spoke. “Or can you at least wake me up? Oh my god, I’m dreaming! Of course I’m dreaming. Oh this is fun I’ve never had a lucid dream before, I wonder what I can do.”

“Listen!” Jisung grabbed you by the shoulders, forcing you to look at him. “You’re not dreaming, look out that window.”

You followed where Jisung was pointing, approaching the six-sided window that sheltered the view from you by a thin cover. You pulled on it, letting the cover fly up and reveal all that you had been missing.

“Wow.” You gasped, staring out at what you saw in front of you.

Jisung came up behind you, looking out of the same window. “Does that look like something you can see in a dream?”

“Kind of.” You answered honestly. “But not one of mine.”

The sky was black, stretching out for miles beyond where the eye could see. Small bright dots that you recognised at stars decorated the view. But closer, closer than that was a planet. Bright purple with white and yellow swirled through it like paint. It had a moon next to it too, the tell tale white colour with craters carved out of it.

You still couldn’t understand how people thought the moon was made of cheese.

You lifted a hand and placed it on the glass, unable to find the words to describe how you were feeling. The colours seemed to move as you went shooting through time and space. Watching the planets move away from you only reminded you of the fact that with every second that passed you were being taken further and further away from your home.

Your hand slid down, falling limply by your side. You let out a deep breath, your gaze falling down to the grey floor at your feet.

Jisung watched you from behind, a harsh guilt flooding his system at the sight of you. He truly hadn’t realised that you would be stuck here and now all he could focus on was how selfish he had been. He opened his mouth to ask if you were alright when he was stopped by the sound of you clearing your throat.

“So... um...” You started, blinking away the few tears that threatened to form on your waterline and turning around to face him. “How come everything is grey here? Is this the same for all of your rooms?”

“Oh, no,” Jisung replied. “The walls aren’t actually grey but because you’re human you wouldn’t be able to look at the colours we have.”

“Why? Would I go blind?” You joked, cracking a small smile.

“Yeah.”

“Oh.” Your smile dropped as fast as it had formed, that familiar sense of fear bubbling up again as you swallowed it down. “Cool.”

You walked a bit around the bare room, running your fingers along the walls as you did.

“How far away is your exam?”

Jisung blinked a few times. “Exam?”

“Yeah? The exam you need help with?” You reminded him, holding back a smile as the realisation formed on his face.

“Oh! Yeah, well, it’s hard to explain. Time moves differently in space compared to Earth. It will feel as though it passes the same, but it’s moving at a completely different speed. One that you aren’t able to measure. Earth time is almost standing still at the moment, so when you do go home no time will have passed at all there.”

“At least my family won’t worry about me.” You sighed. Now that was one issue out of your mind. But you now really had no idea how long you would be here. How else were you going to pass the time?

“I guess... what do you need to know?”

ii. space school... about earth... but in space... sure

“Okay, what do you want to work on today?” You swung your legs off the edge of the desk you were sitting on. Jisung had adjusted some type of colour setting in your room and helped add some “human” colour to your previously grey surroundings. As well as that, in order to help you both easily identify who was talking about which species, you’d agreed amongst yourselves to refer to them as “humans” and “aliens”. Even though Jisung had pouted and insisted it was a large generalisation, he agreed eventually and promised to never call you an Earthling - not that you understood why. But you assumed it wasn’t a compliment from aliens.

Jisung opened his large folder, a load of papers falling out as he did and landing on the ground with a loud thud.

You chuckled at him. His clumsiness was a rather endearing quality of his, and one that you had grown to like first. In truth, his overall personality was very endearing, from his clumsiness, to his initially shy nature to how now that he was comfortable around you it was hard to get the boy to stop talking. He seemed to want to do anything other than focus.

You were starting to see how he was failing.

“How about... biology? Or education?” Jisung suggested, trying to find the relevant papers.

You jumped off the edge of the desk, reaching out and grabbing a paper that you saw had fallen further from the pile. You brought it up to read it, studying the information there that Jisung had yet to learn.

“Biology.” You decided. “We did education recently so there’s no point in going over it already.”

Jisung groaned, flopping face down on the bed, allowing his arms and legs to hang off the edge.

“I hate biology. Plus your education is so difficult to understand I think I need to go over it again.”

“No you don’t.” You laughed at him. “Plus we have so much to get through in so little time, your exam is getting closer everyday.”

“But we’ve started Biology!”

“So tell me what you’ve learnt! Talk to me about how to differentiate humans from aliens.” You shot back, grinning at him.

He sighed, pushing himself up into a sitting position.

“There were multiple things we’ve covered but the biggest thing, that’s also the weirdest by the way, is that you have different reactions than we do. While our emotions can come out in changing our hair colour, yours can come out in your cheeks, through... blushing?” He repeated, his face splitting into a grin as you nodded. “Can’t believe your face turns red, how weird is that...”

“Well, not everyone. It depends on skin colour and stuff. Basically the level of pigmentation in the skin depends on how visible blushing is.” You corrected him, flipping through his textbook for your next subject.

“That’s cool.” Jisung mused. “I wonder what I’d look like if I blushed... Would it show up on me?”

You looked over at him chuckling. “Well you’re on the lighter side of skin tones, so yes, I think I’d assume it would. I can’t believe this book didn’t mention anything about blushing...”

You turned another page in the book, searching for some paragraph about it but frowning as you read what was written instead.

Jisung noticed your expression, asking a quick “What’s wrong?”

‘It’s just... the information in this book... When did it come out?”

“Last year. Why?”

You shook your head. “That doesn’t make sense. It says here that aliens and humans have a long history together. And it goes into saying how, when it comes down to it, we have a very similar history. Like, we basically come from the same place.”

You looked over at Jisung who was looking back at you, looking a little lost as to what you were saying. “I don’t follow. How is this important?” He asked.

“If we started so close together, how did we drift so far apart? And what is it that actually separates you from me? What is it that makes us so different? Because it’s not from the fundamentals.”

“Oh...” Jisung murmured, shifting closer to you on the bed. “Do you think that’s why some of the books are inaccurate?”

“Possibly.” You mused. A while back, you had been flicking through the biology textbook and some of it had made you quite confused. There were details in there that you knew were wrong and inaccurate and you couldn’t figure out why. “Maybe they think that we’re still the same? And that’s why it’s wrong because they assume we work the same way as you!”

“But we don’t work like that.” Jisung shut down your idea. “Aliens don’t have to shed their skin each month either.”

You looked back at the book, flipping towards the page that held those details and began to read out loud.

“Humans have skin that covers their entire bodies. It is this skin that provides a defensive layer over them and keeps their bodies in its proper shape. To ensure the quality of their skin layer, they undergo a ‘shed’ each month, which consists of using force to lose the recent skin layer. They have tools that may help them with this, of which these tools have harsh jagged edges to encourage the shed to commence.”

You sighed to yourself at the paragraph. You couldn’t wrap your head around how it was so outlandish and wrong.

“Technically people do exfoliate, which is where they remove dead skin off their bodies. But not like this, this is bizarre.”

“Are you sure? There’s no way these things could have gotten confused?” Jisung asked, and while you were sure he was searching for a solution, you knew that this wasn’t it.

“Absolutely not. Exfoliating is something people do in the shower to keep their skin smooth. This is an exorcism.” You giggled to yourself slightly at your own joke, but sadly it seemed to go straight over Jisung’s head. You shook it off realising he probably had no idea what an exorcism was and moved on.

“Right, well where in Biology are you least confident?”

Jisung groaned. “All of it! Especially since you say that half of it isn’t even true. What do I do then? Do I write about what you say or do I write about what’s in the book?”

“Well, I would write about what’s in the book I guess. After all, that’s what you’re being taught.” You answered.

“Can we please take a break?” He pleaded, bringing out his puppy dog eyes.

“We’ve barely started-” You began to protest but he cut you off.

“Then let’s learn but why don’t you ask me questions? What do you want to know about how I live?” He swiftly changed the topic but you completely fell for it, invested in the secrecy around who he was, even if you hadn’t said so.

You shrugged, playing it off. “Okay then. I guess, what happens if we don’t get back to Earth before you take your test? What happens to me then?”

“I’ll keep you hidden until we do.” Jisung replied as if it was that simple.

“So you’re not going to turn me in? Allow them to perform experiments on me, figure out how I work so they can update their textbooks?” You joked. And even though you were joking there was a part of you, a rather large part of you, that was terrified that that might actually happen.

Jisung just stared at you in complete confusion.

“No.” He answered slowly. “Why on earth would I do that? And why do you think we would perform experiments on you? We’re aliens not barbarians.”

You blinked a few times, confused at yourself for your reasoning.

“I- I don’t know, I just assumed that’s what aliens would do if they captured a human.”

“Okay.” Jisung pointed a finger at you, as if you were under some kind of inspection. “I haven’t abducted or captured you, just... borrowed for a short period of time. And second of all, have you ever thought that, maybe the reason you think aliens would experiment on humans is because that’s what humans would do if they discovered we exist?”

The normally shy alien raised an eyebrow at you challengingly, his eyes never left your face and you had to force yourself to look away under his intense gaze. You felt guilty at what you said as he continued to talk.

“We know that’s what you would do. And that’s why we keep ourselves so hidden. And why we don’t... borrow... humans.”

“So, why did you ‘borrow’ me?” You asked him, adding some air quotes around the word “borrow” as you did.

“I was desperate. You really don’t want to fail classes here, it decides what job you have after you graduate and I am not going to be stuck in something I hate. And, I guess I trust you now that you’re not going to say anything about me.”

You smiled to yourself slightly, looking down at your hands at his words. For some unknown reason you found it rather difficult to meet his eyes at this moment. A warm feeling spread throughout your chest as you looked back at him.

“Understood, my presence here can never be discovered from either side. So what about Area 51?”

Jisung groaned at that, falling backwards on the bed as he did.

“What?” You whined. “Stop doing that, you said you’d answer my questions!”

“Area 51? Really” Jisung complained. “Do you think I’d be going through all this trouble to hide you and make sure you keep our existence a secret if you had this base filled with aliens back on Earth? It’s just humans being bored, dramatic and wanting to believe there’s something more to this world than what they were told.”

“But there is.” You said softly, smiling down at him as that warm feeling spread through your chest again. He looked over at you. “There’s you.”

A shy smile broke out across his face at your words. And if you didn’t know better, you could have sworn you saw him blush.

iii. quarantine deja vu

Jisung had been right when he said that time worked differently here. You had no idea how much time had passed, you couldn’t even begin to guess really. But one thing you knew for certain, was that warm fuzzy feeling that you got whenever you were around him was not going away. In fact it was getting worse.

You weren’t sure what it was about him, but somehow almost everything he did made your stomach flip. But no matter what, you knew it wasn’t love. There was no way that you had fallen for an alien.

No matter how many textbooks told you otherwise...

But none of that mattered. You would be leaving soon apparently. Jisung’s exam was coming up and they would be close enough to Earth to drop you back home the night before.

And you would never see him again.

“Y/n?” Jisung’s voice cut through your thoughts. “Are you okay?”

Jisung had been looking out for you a lot recently, and part of it was because he felt guilty about bringing you here to help him. He knew he had turned your whole world upside down and you hadn’t ever faltered at helping him.

Jisung had always been shy. It was part of the reason he struggled so much in school. It takes him ages to open up and trust new people, but somehow you had just appeared and walked through all of those nerves without trying. There was something about you that made Jisung be his complete open and honest self. And that scared him slightly. No one had ever had that effect on him.

And on top of that, you were human. He couldn’t afford to get this attached to you. Not when he had to send you home.

But then you looked at him, with that smile on your face that Jisung was sure made his hair turn colour and exposed him and he knew.

God he was dreading the day he had to let you go.

“Yes, of course, sorry. Your exams are nearly here, how are you feeling?”

“I think I’m okay!” Jisung grinned at you, something he’d noticed himself doing more and more these days. “Without your help I really would have failed.”

“What would happen if you failed the exam? I mean, it must be pretty bad for you to have gone so far as to bring me here to teach you.” You mused, your hand reaching up to the paper plane necklace that hung around your neck. You fiddled with the pendant, dragging it up and down the chain.

Jisung watched your movements. He’d noticed that chain from the moment you arrived. It must have been important to you if you’d slept in it, which he realised when you noticed it was missing and almost cried. He couldn’t have snuck you onto the ship in your human clothes, so he found something else for you. Luckily, since then you’d found a way for you to wear outfits that weren’t a grey jumpsuit so you were happy with that. But finding your necklace was the most important thing to you.

“If I’d failed the exam I would have been kept back a year.” Jisung said, and you nodded at that.

“That doesn’t seem like the end of the world.” You said. “I’m just wondering why it was so desperate that you needed to bring me here to help. Would your parents have gotten mad or something?”

“I don’t really know.” Jisung replied. “Our system doesn’t work that way. Parents have a very little impact on and relationship with their children. They are with them when they’re babies but after that we all just go through school.”

You were silent, not sure how to respond. You couldn’t imagine having your teachers as parental figures for your entire life.

“That sounds lonely...” You murmured, feeling sorry for the alien boy in front of you.

“It’s not when it’s the only thing you’ve ever known though.” Jisung shrugged. “I don’t know what it’s like to live in a home with parents doing whatever it is that they do for you. That seems weird to me. Instead we go through each year and when we pass the exam we move onto the next. That way, everyone is at the same level and once you finish school you get assigned a position based on your result. The faster you go through school and the better grades you get, the better position you have.”

You began to understand. “So that’s why you said it would affect your job.” You realised and Jisung nodded, smiling as he saw you grasp the concept.

“Yep. If I get held back a year, it basically rules out a bunch of good jobs and I don’t want that to happen. There is nothing worse than being stuck in a job you hate for the rest of your life. Also each level has a higher pay so... yeah I really didn’t want to be held back.”

You lay backwards, your back resting on the hard floor, looking up at the ceiling. You wondered how many stars were out there, and how many more civilisations there were.

“What’s that around your neck?” Jisung’s voice cut through your daydream.

You hummed at him while sitting up.

“On your necklace. What is it?”

Your hand instinctively came up to grab at the silver pendant. “It’s a paper plane.” You answered.

Jisung shook his head at you, signalling that he had no idea what you were on about. Your jaw dropped slightly.

“Origami!”

“Origami?” He repeated, his face a picture of confusion.

“It’s called origami.” You explained. “It’s where you take a piece of paper and fold it to make different shapes.”

Jisung tilted his head, looking intensely at your necklace. “And people can do that?”

“I can teach you.” You offered, and he nodded at you.

You stood up, walking over to the desk he was sitting at. You rummaged through some of the papers until you found a blank sheet.

“Okay, so the first thing is to fold in lengthways...” You gave him the instructions, demonstrating as you did, so that he could watch what you were doing. “And then bring in these corners... flip the paper over and fold again...”

Jisung was watching you intently. His eyes never left your hands until you held up the newly made paper plane. His eyes widened at the finished product reaching up to grab it to look it over, but he stopped before he reached it, looking up at you as if for permission. You nodded eagerly, holding it out to him to encourage him to take it.

The paper plane rested in his big hands and he turned it over multiple times, trying to make sense of what you had created. He looked at it as if you had created it out of thin air using magic.

“Throw it.” You instructed.

His head shot around, his face a picture of confusion and slight offence.

“Not out. Don’t throw it out, just throw it in the air. Use the tip as a guide and throw it in a straight line.”

Jisung looked at you questionably, but still complied. He lifted the plane up and gently threw it. The paper plane soared, travelling to the other side of the room. his jaw dropped and he spun around to look back at you with a huge smile on his face. You grinned back at him, unable to stop the surge of happiness you felt every time you saw that gummy smile appear.

“It’s streamlined. The sharp point and triangular shape allow it to easily cut through the air.” You explained, walking over to pick it back up.

Jisung looked at you in admiration and awe. He couldn’t believe that he’d got so lucky as to get to know you. You brought so much light into his life that he had no idea that he had been missing.

“Streamlined...” He repeated the unfamiliar word to himself quietly, a habit he had gotten into recently.

In between your study sessions you and Jisung had been talking about alien and human life, where they overlapped and where they differed. Such as, how you had after-school clubs and Jisung was horrified at the idea of voluntarily staying in the school longer than you had to every week. In his words it was ‘torture disguised as a fun activity’.

He had a tendency to be a tad dramatic sometimes.

Slang had become Jisung’s favourite thing. The fact that humans had become so lazy that they didn’t even say full words anymore was hilarious to him. His current favourite word to say was lol, but he had been enjoying the use of sarcasm and was developing a big habit of saying ‘same’ anytime something goes remotely wrong.

He also had a habit of singing to himself. You’d noticed it during an intense study session early on, you had been falling asleep with a textbook over your face to block out the light when you heard him mumbling. You didn’t move, just listening to his voice, shocked at how beautiful it was. He had a deep voice with a soft tone that put you at ease anytime you heard it. Jisung was far too shy to actively sing in front of you so you had to settle for listening in when he sang to himself.

If only you had your phone you would have taken a voice recording of it. God, you wanted some piece of him to take back to Earth with you. You hated the idea that you’d have to just pretend like this whole experience never happened, like Jisung never existed. The thought made your stomach tighten.

“Do you ever wonder where aliens and humans come from?” Your thoughts were interrupted by Jisung’s question.

Honestly, you had, multiple times. But no matter how many textbooks you read, or how long you thought about it, you couldn’t seem to figure it out. All of their books seemed to say different things.

“Yeah, it’s confusing. There’s something so similar about us yet so different.” You mused, watching Jisung continually turn the paper plane over in his hands again. It was something he’d started doing often recently. He’d have something to hold onto that he could flip between his fingers, as if he had too much energy that he always needed to be doing something.

In reality, Jisung just needed something else to look at otherwise he would spend all his time staring at you.

“Maybe we’re the same. Not similar like that book said, but actually the same.” Jisung grinned, finally allowing himself to meet your eyes, and feeling that grin grow the second he did. “Maybe we’re like two descendants of the same species that have evolved in different ways.”

“That actually makes a lot of sense, you know.” You laughed, sitting yourself down in the chair that Jisung had abandoned to play with the paper plane. “Our anatomy is identical and it’s only certain things that put us apart from each other.”

“Like hair colour and blushing.” Pride was in Jisung’s voice, happy that he was bringing in his Biology studies without being prompted. “But there’s one really big one as well.”

“Oh yeah?” You raised an eyebrow at him.

“Yep. You can’t survive in space. We can. Our lungs can adjust to different atmospheres so we can live anywhere in the universe.” Your jaw dropped at his words.

“Really? How have you never told me this? That’s so cool!” You exclaimed excitedly. You loved when Jisung spoke about alien life, it was fascinating.

Jisung shrugged, chuckling at your reaction. “Never came up I guess. We have a setting in each room of what atmosphere we’d like to breathe in. This one is set to Earth so that you can breathe.”

You looked around for what Jisung was talking about. You weren’t too sure what exactly you were looking for but this had intrigued you.

“It’s over here.” Jisung answered the question that you hadn’t been able to ask yet, gesturing to a small white panel that hung on the wall next to the door.

You wandered over to it, analysing the object that could quite possibly kill you if it malfunctioned. Then you realised that you probably didn’t want to go down that rabbit hole of how easily you could die here and that your life was literally in Jisung’s hands, so you closed that door up and left the panel alone.

As you turned to face Jisung, you saw him already looking at you. There was a soft smile on his face, such gentleness in his gaze that you felt the urge to curl up in his arms and hug him until time ran out. You had nothing to be scared of when Jisung was around.

Jisung would never hurt you.

iv. it wasn’t fair

The paper plane necklace that usually hung heavily around your neck was on his desk, hidden inside his Biology folder. You wanted Jisung to have something to remember you by.

The unspoken sadness in the room was evident. Jisung’s exam was in two days and you were hovering over Earth at that very moment, meaning... you had run out of time. You had to go home. And you had to say goodbye.

Jisung had been especially quiet. That had been your first clue that something was wrong. He hadn’t come bounding into your room like an excited puppy, instead he’d opened the door slowly, unable to meet your eyes and you felt your stomach drop at the sight of him.

“We’re over Earth, but it’s our only day here because we’re moving fast so we have to get you home tonight.” His voice was wavering as he spoke, and he tried to swallow the lump in his throat but it was too difficult. It was taking everything in Jisung not to break down and cry and beg for you to stay, but that wasn’t fair and he knew it.

In fact, as far as Jisung was aware, none of this was fair.

It wasn’t fair that he’d had to get your help. It wasn’t fair that you had agreed. It wasn’t fair that you had become possibly the closest friend he’d ever had in his entire life. It wasn’t fair that he’d fallen for you. It wasn’t fair that he had to send you home. It wasn’t fair that he had no idea how he was going to continue his life without you in it. It wasn’t fair.

Maybe in another universe, there was somewhere that the two of you could have been together. And Jisung would have spent his life searching for that place if he could. But he couldn’t.

And it wasn’t fair.

You walked up to him, slowly lifting his face to look at you in the eyes and smiled sadly. You could feel the tears forming so you quickly hugged him. You wound your arms around his waist as he grabbed you pulling you closer before wrapping his around you as well. His cheek was pressed against the top of your head, with one hand stroking your hair and the other around your shoulders. You breathed in the scent of him, trying to memorise everything that you could.

This was the first time you’d ever hugged Jisung. All this time together and yet, this was your first hug.

Jisung couldn’t believe he’d never done this. You fit so perfectly in his arms it was as if he had been built for this purpose. He didn’t want to let you go. Why did your first hug have to be your last?

It wasn’t fair.

Jisung knew that he hated fair. He would scream and curse out fairness for the rest of his days if he had to. Fair took you away from him. Nothing about this is fair.

“Grant me one last favour? Can you... shut your eyes?” Jisung whispered, hoping that you couldn’t feel his tears falling onto your head as they made their way down his cheeks.

You nodded. You put your head fully into Jisung’s shoulder and cried, finally allowing the emotions to overcome you.

Then you closed your eyes.

v. sometimes things break

It had been two weeks. Well, by human time at least. You had no idea how much time had passed for Jisung. But for you, it had been two weeks since you had left Jisung.

That night you had hugged him goodbye, you had closed your eyes and when you opened them, it was to the sound of your alarm clock waking you up for school. God, you really didn’t want to go to school that day.

But you had to. You’d gotten up, gone to school, done your work, come home and lived your life as you were supposed to. But it all felt so much more empty now. Now you knew that there was so much more out there, everything felt so incomplete. And without Jisung, it was all so boring.

Your friends didn’t seem to understand you like you remembered, and none of them got you the way Jisung did. You didn’t feel as relaxed around them as you did around him, you didn’t feel as at home.

How did you feel more at home when you were in space?

Of course you knew all of this was because you loved him. That tall alien boy with the gummy smile had a hold on your heart you couldn’t break. And you were grieving him in silence as nobody else even knew he existed.

You took a sip of the glass of water you were holding. Sleep had gotten more difficult each night you had been back to the point where you had almost given up now. You had one hand resting on the sink as the other held the glass, hoping that the water would be able to settle you slightly.

You sighed, absentmindedly reaching up to your empty neck where the silver paper plane once sat.

You wondered if Jisung had found it yet. Or if he maybe wore it. And you wondered if he was thinking about you the same way you were thinking about him.

You sighed again, before refilling your now empty glass and taking it back to your room with you. You walked through your house, your feet making soft noises on the carpeted hallways as you went and you quietly shut your door behind you, knowing that your parents had long gone to sleep.

You moved towards your bedside table, going to place the glass down next to your bed. As you walked closer, you stopped to take another sip, letting out another huge sigh. It felt as though that was all you did these days.

The glass was placed on the coaster on top of your oak bedside table. Without the coaster your mum would have lost her mind at there being a water ring on the wood. You turned around, a slight flash catching your eye as you did.

That’s weird. As far as you were aware there wasn’t anything reflective on your bedside table. You turned back slowly, approaching the surface and looking down at it. You moved your glass off for a better look and gasped at what was lying there.

The glass had slipped out of your hand in shock, hitting the floor and splashing the water everywhere. But you didn’t care. You reached forward, picking up the object that you thought you would never see again.

And there, hanging from your fingers, was your silver paper plane necklace. The one you had left with Jisung before you’d left him.

You whirled around, looking for some sign of him. There was no other way that this could have come back to you. But you could see him. Your room was completely empty.

Next to your bedside table were your curtains. You rushed towards them, throwing them open and staring out into the garden, desperately looking for some sign of him between the trees and your mother’s prized rose bushes.

Where was he? He had to be here...

That was when you saw something. A flash of a shadow of something. You couldn’t tell if it was him, or a bird, or a fox, or just your eyes playing tricks on you but you didn’t care. You had to find out.

You ran. You ran out of your bedroom, flying down the stairs and sprinting through the kitchen until you reached the back door. You grabbed the handle, but it wouldn’t turn. Your father must have locked it for the night.

Luckily, the keys were hung up next to it. So you grabbed them, fumbling to find the right one before unlocking the door and throwing yourself outside to try to find him.

You ran out into the garden, the grass soft under your bare feet.

“Oh come on.” You pleaded to yourself. “Please please please be here.”

You kept turning, your hair flicking around you as you tried to spot him. The word ‘please’ kept leaving your lips, a quiet prayer that you would get to see him again.

You ran further, going outside of the back gate and onto the fields of the local park. Then your feet came to a sudden stop.

Normally, when you came out here, you would see people walking their dogs, or sunbathing, or having a picnic with their loved ones, but none of those sights were better than seeing Jisung standing in front of you.

“You’re here.” You whispered, the words escaping you in disbelief.

Nothing could have stopped you. You ran forwards, and once you got close enough you grabbed onto him, holding him in one of the tightest hugs of your life.

Jisung had reacted instantly, his arms wrapping around your waist as soon as you were within distance. He dropped his head, burying it as close to your neck as he could get. He held onto you as if you two were the last people on the Earth. It was like the rest of the world faded away.

You couldn’t believe it. He had some back to you.

You tried to pull back, to see his face and ask him why he was here, but Jisung wouldn’t let go of you. And that was when you heard him.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry y/n. I’m so so sorry.”

Jisung was crying. He couldn’t seem to stop apologising, the same words leaving his mouth over and over again. With each time he spoke you felt your nerves rising.

“Jisung, what’s wrong?” You asked fearfully, not knowing what could have happened to get him so upset.

Out of nowhere, a huge harsh light shone down on the two of you. It took a second for your eyes to adjust again, and when they did you finally took the time to pull yourself properly out of Jisung’s arms.

He didn’t want to let you go, still trying to grip onto you, he didn’t want to face you, he couldn’t. But you got away, stepping backwards slightly and looking at him, the constant apologies finally starting to make sense.

He looked up, meeting your eyes for the first time since he had arrived again, and the sight nearly broke him all over again.

“What have you done?” The words fell out of your mouth, each one laced with hurt, and that was all it took.

The tears streamed uncontrollably down Jisung’s face, and he saw the hurt in your face morph into the realisation that he never wanted you to have.

Jisung had betrayed you.

“Jisung?” You said in disbelief as you finally understood. “No... Jisung.”

You felt yourself beginning to lift off the ground, the sensation sending you into panic. You had no control, and you couldn’t get back down. You began to speed up, rising upwards and towards a large dark shape that you could just make out above you.

You twisted in mid air, looking out for Jisung again. And when you saw him, he had his head down, his hands covering his eyes and you could see his body shaking as he cried. Then someone came out of the darkness. All you could tell was that they were older by quite a bit.

The last thing you saw was them putting a hand on Jisung’s shoulder and walking him into the centre of the light.

vi. i didn’t sign up for this

Jisung walked down the corridor, trapped in between two guards who stalked down either side of him. Since he’d been caught he wasn’t allowed anywhere unaccompanied. He had been living in hell since being discovered and punished. Every day had been awful, and since you had been taken, his life had dissolved into hell.

He didn’t understand why they had to take you, all of this had been his fault but they hadn’t understood that. Or if they had, they hadn’t listened. But no one had wanted to hear his side of the story. No one had been willing to listen to him talk about you, and convince them that you should be left out of what was going to happen.

But they had wanted you as well as him. And they had made him go to get you.

That might have been the worst part. Seeing you look at him with so much hurt, it was as if Jisung could see your heart breaking and it tore him to pieces. He didn’t know what part of him was left to break because having to hurt you had shattered him into so many pieces he didn’t think he could ever put himself back together again.

Then he had reached it, the cell you were being held in. Alien ships don’t have “prisons” exactly, but there is a glass solitary confinement unit, and that was where you were being held.

And there you were, sitting against the wall facing your bed, the glass wall Jisung was standing across from you so that he was looking at your side profile. Your food tray sat half touched, as if you had picked at what you could and Jisung could see the dried tear marks down your cheeks.

And another part of him broke.

“Y/n?” Jisung approached the bars, sinking to his knees to be level with you and lifting a hand to place it on the glass. “Y/n please... Please just look at me.” His voice was breaking, but he could help it. You hadn’t looked at him since that night where he betrayed you.

And Jisung didn’t blame you. He had lured you outside for his people to kidnap you, Jisung wouldn’t blame you if you never looked at him again. It was what he deserved.

“Y/n... I just- I didn’t- I...” Jisung didn’t know how to put into words what had happened after he took his exam, and how quickly everything had fallen apart.

Instead he just leant his head against the glass, allowing the tears to fall down his cheeks. It felt as though all he did was cry nowadays, but there was nothing else for him to do. It was hopeless. All he could do was cry and beg for your forgiveness.

“I’m so sorry.” He whispered, closing his eyes and feeling the cool glass underneath his forehead as he imagined that if glass didn’t exist, he could wrap you up in his arms and apologise that way. But he had to settle for a glass wall and broken words filled with tears.

And you sat there, still staring down at the floor, crying silently over the boy you lost and found again, and how he broke your heart.

vii. please don’t

A loud beep woke you up, startling you into a sitting position. If you thought you had no sense of time when you were last on this ship, you had a whole new definition of that now. At least with Jisung there was some element of time passing, with his exam getting closer. But here, you didn’t know what was morning and what was night. You didn’t know whether you’d been here for days, or weeks. You were completely blind to what was going on in the world around you.

With the harsh beeping noise, two guards burst into your cell. They grabbed you under one arm each and hauled you to your feet, quickly snapping on some kind of handcuffs as they did. You scrambled to get your footing, wanting to walk to wherever they were going to take you rather than be dragged.

Part of you was expecting to see Jisung with them. Whether he would be trying to stop them or walking silently next to them... well you’d rather not find out.

You were walked through the corridors, and as you went you couldn’t help but look at the surroundings. When they’d brought you here, you had been crying so much you couldn’t even see what was around you, not until you were put into your cell. The walls were the same grey as the previous room was, but, of course you’ll never know if that’s their actual colour because, if what Jisung told you was correct, you couldn’t see their colour spectrum. Flashes of light passed every few seconds, and after a while it was so intense that you were forced to look away.

Instead of watching the walls, or looking around for Jisung, you watched the floor. Seeing your hands held together by the strange glass-like material. There wasn’t a chain connecting them, instead they seemed to be held together like magnets, making it impossible for you to move your hands away from each other.

You thought about Jisung a lot. In fact, Jisung was practically all you thought about these days. But every time you thought about him, that hurt feeling spreads throughout your chest and takes up your being.

It was impossible to think of Jisung without feeling your heart break all over again.

You couldn’t understand why he had done it. Why had he sold you out? Did he get something in return for it? Maybe he’d been found and had no other choice? Maybe they had threatened his future? Maybe they’d known about you first then discovered about Jisung?

All these questions and many more had been circling around your head for ages. But the thing that really hurt you, was that Jisung had been the bait. He must have known what was going to happen to you, because he was apologising over and over again when you found him. Someone only apologises when they know they’ve done wrong.

No matter what you were threatened with, you would never have tricked Jisung the way he tricked you.

And now, you had no idea what was going to happen to you. You didn’t know if they were going to let you go, or if they were going to force you to stay with the alien community, or if you were going back to Earth, or if you were just some pawn in Jisung’s punishment.

There were so many unanswered questions you felt as though your head was about to explode.

When going over all of this, you hadn’t noticed how far you’d been taken. You only came back to reality when you were pulled to a stop. You were standing in front of these huge doors, with massive bolts going across them.

The bolts began to unlock and you were taken through. This was when your heart started to pound and the fear began to kick in. You really had no idea what was going to happen to you.

It was quite a large room, and looked a bit like a theatre, only it was all grey and incredibly foreboding. The second those doors opened goosebumps grew all the way down your arms. You were taken towards what looked like just beyond the back half of the room and placed on a small circular platform facing the front which held a semi circle of raised seating, in which were countless aliens. Of course, they looked just like humans, if not for their ever changing hair colour.

It slightly resembled an amphitheatre staging set up. Except it felt as though you were on trial more than putting on a show.

At the middle, and halfway up the seating, there was a panel of five aliens who you assumed would be the ones judging you as everyone else was sitting in the “audience”.

“We are the governing body of this community and we are brought here today to discuss the crimes committed against us by y/n l/n. Y/n, you stand here on trial for treason. We will discuss the evidence to the court then we will decide on a suitable punishment for your crime.”

The alien in the middle said all of this, and the more he spoke the more panicked you began to get. What was the point in giving you a trial when they clearly had already decided on your guilt?

“Here is the first piece of evidence of y/n’s presence on this ship.” The alien in the middle, who you now assumed to be the head of all of this, stood up. And there, dangling from his fingers, was your paper plane necklace. “This is a human piece of jewellery, found around the neck of one of our own. The alien who took her here, and hid her. Park Jisung.”

Hushed murmurs echoed around the room and heads turned in sync, all of them looking for Jisung. It was at this moment that the doors opened again, and Jisung was brought in. He wasn’t wearing the same constraints that you were, but he was held by two guards, one on each arm and was standing at the corner of the room, near the only door.

The alien continued.

“Jisung hid y/n here, unknown to all of us for quite some time and also managed to sneak her out. And if it weren’t for this necklace and Jisung’s exam, we may never have known about this crime.”

The alien to his left passed some papers to him and the head flipped through them.

“Question 4 section C of Jisung’s human biology exam. Describe one biological difference between aliens and humans. And Jisung answered saying ‘A main difference is blushing. This is where blood rushes to the human’s cheeks when struck by certain emotions, or after heavy exercise. However, it is important to note that not all humans blush depending on the pigmentation of the skin.’ We do not teach this here. It is not in any text book or database and there is no way for Jisung to have come across this information without human help.”

At this, he threw the papers back down on the desk with a loud smack. You flinched at the sound, your entire body alight with nerves. Your eyes flickered back to Jisung and you found him already looking at you.

This was the first time you had looked at Jisung since being brought back here, and the sight of your eyes nearly made his knees go out from under him. He was already terrified, worried to death about what may happen to you. He was exhausted from being so constantly scared for you. But you had to know that he was here for you and he would fight for you no matter what happened or what that meant for him.

“On top of this-” The head’s voice cut through the room like a chainsaw, destroying everything in its path. “Aliens can’t blush. Yet, Jisung somehow seems to have this ability. And his hair, it hasn’t changed colour in a long while.”

Shocked gasps rippled around the room, and your jaw dropped at that revelation. You thought you had seen it but as far as you were aware, it couldn’t have been possible.

Yells of ‘How is that possible?’ and ‘I won’t believe it until I see it!’ were heard everywhere, each shout bouncing off the walls. The head lifted up his hand for silence, and it fell immediately. He then gestured to the back wall and something began to play.

You turned around to see what it was and saw a video there, and it seemed to be of Jisung. It looked like he was on trial just like you are, the cuffs were around his wrists and people were shouting all around him. It looked like he went through hell.

Then you heard what the video said.

“She has done something to one of our own, and as a result must be punished.” You recognised the head alien’s voice.

Jisung’s head shot up at this, his eyes wide and pleading.

“No! You can’t, just leave her out of this, it was my fault. I brought her here, and I’ve changed because of it, just punish me, not her. Leave her out of this.”

“You, Jisung, will go back down with us to bring her back. If she cares for you as much as you seem to for her, then seeing you will be an easy way to bring her out. Then we will put her on trial ourselves.”

You watched as Jisung’s eyes filled with tears on the video and he started struggling, pleading with them not to do this.

“Don’t take her, please! Do whatever you want, whatever you need to do to me, not her! You can break my soul, take my life away, beat me, hurt me, kill me even! But for the love of god, please don’t touch her.” He begged, the tears falling down his face at this point.

The video faded to black, leaving the arguments to start all over again at the evidence.

You couldn’t believe it though, all this time, they had made it seem like Jisung had betrayed you, yet he had tried as hard as he could to protect you. You turned around, searching for him, wanting to find some way to communicate to him that you trusted him and you were sorry for ever doubting him.

His eyes found yours easily, as if they were the only thing he was searching for. Even with tears clouding your vision, you could still see him as clear as day. He just sent you a sad smile, as if he was apologising, but you didn’t want him to do that.

“Y/n has infected one of our own!” The head’s voice cut through your moment once again, causing your head to snap back towards him. “She is nothing more than a parasite. Y/n L/n has turned Jisung human! And as a result she must be charged with treason. And since she is in our land, she will face the same punishment one of us would.”

The room erupted into shouts, and it seemed as though half the room agreed with it but the other half didn’t.

Jisung couldn’t believe what he just heard. At those words he felt as though everything went underwater. Treason... That was a horrible punishment even if you were an alien, but for a human like you... There was no way you would survive it.

“Take her to the ejection capsule!”

The guards moved on that final instruction from the head, grabbing you again and they started to drag you away. Even though you had been sentenced, you still had no idea what was about to happen to you, and you were terrified.

When Jisung saw them moving you, his entire body burst into action. He couldn’t let them do this. Not to the person he loved. He began to struggle, trying to break free of the guards holding him captive.

“No!” He screamed. “Y/n! No!”

But no matter how hard he found against them he couldn’t overpower them. And he was helpless as he got dragged down the ship after you. He kicked and screamed the entire way, trying to reach out for you, but to no avail. He saw you trying to do the same thing, attempting to wrestle out of their grip but it wasn’t working

They reached the ejection capsule slower than due to Jisung struggling, but once they got there, more guards helped to hold him down and before he knew it, he was pinned up against a wall, unable to do anything but watch as you faced your fate.

You were brought up to a much smaller glass door that shot open to reveal a space big enough for one person. You knew now, was that you were on the edge of the ship, and the name “ejection capsule” was starting to make a lot more sense.

They were going to send you out into space.

Jisung was still screaming for you, trying to break free to grab you, but you could see the number of people holding him back and you knew, there was no way he was going to be able to save you from this.

This was it. You were going to die. You couldn’t survive in space.

The head governor approached Jisung and grabbed his face to force it towards you.

“You will watch this.” He growled, his grip tight as iron. He held Jisung’s head towards you, and gave a nod to one of the guards.

Jisung cried out for you again, and you looked back at him.

“It’s okay.” You whispered, praying that he would understand.

Inside your stomach was turning at a million miles an hour and adrenaline was pumping through your body and you were trying with everything you had not to cry, but you couldn’t let Jisung feel guilty about this. He had tried so hard to keep you safe and it wasn’t his fault.

The guard turned back to the capsule, and pulled the level next to it. The door behind you opened and you shot out into the atmosphere.

The guards holding Jisung released him as he screamed and sank to the floor. He was on his hands and knees, crying and screaming out for you as you drifted further away from him into space.

Being weightless was a strange feeling, it was like floating on top of the water, but effortlessly. You had the urge to move your hand around, when the realisation hit you like a truck.

You were alive. And as well as that, you were breathing. You were breathing in space. But that isn’t possible, you couldn’t understand it. All you knew is that somehow, you were floating untethered in space and you were alive.

You managed to turn back to face the ship, and that’s when they saw you.

They all stared at you, none of them able to move from shock.

Jisung was the first one to react, and it gave him a chance. He ran to the door, and pulled on the level to open the glass doors. From there he could just about reach you.

Your hand drifted out, tiredness pulling at you as you tried to reach him too. God you were exhausted.

“Come on y/n, reach me.” Jisung pleaded, stretching out further.

Eventually, he grabbed onto the ship tightly with one hand and jumped out of it to reach you. This gave him the final distance he needed to grab your hand and pull you in.

You floated towards him and he held onto your waist tight as you got back into the ship and the door closed behind you, causing gravity to take hold on you once again.

You collapsed in Jisung’s arms, and he fell to his knees holding you. Your vision went black as the world around you faded away.

Jisung frantically checked you over, but there was nothing to show you were in any distress. Even your pulse seemed strong. You were passed out in his lap, but there were a lot of unanswered questions.

Sadly, there was no time to discuss them as the guards wasted no time in grabbing you both again.

But the truth hung over everyone’s heads that day.

Not only was Jisung not alien anymore, you weren’t human.

viii. what are we?

You felt as if you were in a dream, completely dazed as you finally came to. Your memory was fuzzy, the details were a bit muddled and you couldn’t quite remember what had actually happened or what you had dreamt.

“Y/n?” You heard a muffled voice and as you struggled to force your eyes open, you saw a blurry figure above you.

Were you dead? Was this it?

“Y/n!” The voice was clearer now, and you recognised it as Jisung’s.

You tried to say something back but all that came out of you was a pained groan. You brought your arms behind you, in an attempt to pull yourself into a sitting position, but your whole body ached and they gave out immediately.

You would have smacked your head on the floor if Jisung hadn’t noticed what was happening and caught it last minute. He got his arms underneath you and pulled you up, resting you against a wall as he went to get you water.

Jisung handed you the cup, and you took a few gulps, feeling your strength come back to you as you did.

“Better?” He asked, his brow furrowing with worry and you nodded in response.

“What happened?” You croaked out, hoping that he may have some answers.

He let out a sigh, sliding down on the wall next to you, his feet planted on the floor and his knees up, close enough that your legs were touching.

“How much do you remember?” He asked quietly, and you thought for a second.

“I remember the trial, then getting pushed into this small room when...” You looked up at him with wide eyes as the memory came rushing back to you. “They pushed me out into space! I was left out there and I thought I was going to die, but I didn’t. How is that possible?”

“The same way it’s possible that I can blush and my hair doesn’t change colour anymore. We’ve changed. Somehow I’m not just an alien anymore and you’re not human.”

You weren’t sure how to react to what Jisung said.

“What does that mean ‘not human’?” You asked, but Jisung just shrugged sadly.

“I don’t know.” He turned to face you, his eyes watering. “I’m so sorry y/n. This is all my fault, if I had just let you be then none of this would have happened.”

“Hey...” You whispered comfortingly, bringing a hand up to cup the side of his face. “You have nothing to apologise for, you couldn’t have known that any of this was going to happen. This isn’t your fault, it’s theirs. I saw how you tried to protect me.”

“But I couldn’t.” He choked out, a tear tracing its way down his cheek and you shook your head.

“But you tried. That’s what mattered. I’m sorry I didn’t hear you out, I thought- well I don’t know what I thought. But I’m sorry that I blamed you.”

Jisung leaned his head forward at your apology, resting his forehead on yours. He let his eyes flutter shut, breathing out a sigh of relief. His entire world was crashing down around him and the only thing that he cared about was that you were alive.

“I guess you were right all along. They are going to abduct us for experiments.” He joked dejectedly, and you let out a sad smile.

“I’m always right, you should know that by now.” You teased. You leaned back on the wall, Jisung watching your movements with a heavy heart. “Is there anything we can do?” You asked, and he could hear the fear in your voice no matter how much you tried to hide it.

But he shook his head. “It’s hopeless. They’ve made up their minds and even if we broke out of here, there’s nowhere to go, we’d end up wandering the stars for eternity.”

“What do they think we are?”

“They told me some things while you were unconscious. I don’t know why exactly but I guess it was about time we got some answers.” Jisung answered you, explaining as much as he could remember from the conversation. “Apparently, aliens and humans are like two branches of the same species. For example, like how doves and penguins are both birds even though they look different and work in different ways. We share almost exactly the same make up, but it’s our brain that’s different. Now it’s been so many generations that aliens don’t associate with humans as they don’t remember how we used to be alike.”

“So you were right in the end. But, why did we both change after spending time together?” You wondered.

“They seem to think that the more aliens learn about humans, the more human they become.” He said.

“That’s why the book was so inaccurate.” You realised, and Jisung nodded. “But, that still doesn’t explain me.”

“That’s where the experiments are going to come in...” He revealed, his voice trailing off at the end.

You looked up at the ceiling, the realisation of what your life is going to become, finally dawning on you.

“This is horrible.” You whispered. “They’re going to experiment until they figure out what parts of us are human and what are alien.”

“Yeah.” He sighed. “And, I know it sounds completely insane but, if I was going to be stuck in a cell for the rest of my life, I’m happy it’s you.”

“Me too.” You agreed, smiling at Jisung’s words. “You’re the only person I want by my side here.”

Jisung tilted his head to the side, watching you as you closed your eyes and took a deep breath.

“I love you y/n.”

His confession made you snap your head towards him, checking to see if you heard correctly. But he was calm. For once in his life, Jisung wasn’t scared, he wasn’t shy, he wasn’t overthinking every possible outcome, he just loved you. And if he was going to die tomorrow, he wanted you to know that.

You two were sitting so close now that your noses were almost touching. Jisung was done being scared, he brought his hand up to the side of your face, stroking your cheek with his thumb as he leant in for a tender kiss.

Finally, after all this time, all the waiting, the longing, the pining, the secret whispers, the hidden feeling, you finally kissed. The rest of the world faded away as he kissed you. It was as if nothing could touch you and for a second there it felt as though time actually stopped.

“I love you too Jisung.” You whispered to him, so quiet that not even the stars heard your confession.

Jisung wasn’t sure if he believed in soulmates but he definitely did now. There was no denying it. You were made for him and him for you.

In that moment you both knew that no matter what happens next, you would be okay. Because you had each other.

ix. all the stories are true

“You’ve got three days. Then we begin.”

The words were still ringing in your head, even more so now that you knew you were on the final day. Tomorrow, the experiments would begin. The guards weren’t watching you 24/7 anymore, instead stationed outside in the hallway. They’d dropped off a few books each day, providing a small amount of entertainment, and your new selection had just arrived.

Selection was a generous word considering they gave you three books between the two of you, and Jisung knew them all already. Apparently, they’re recommended reading books during their school years.

‘So what’s this one?” You asked, holding up a large black book with white writing on it.

“That is a full detail of our history. It tells how our planet got destroyed and how we’ve adapted to living in ships and flying through the stars instead of settling.” Jisung explained and you flipped the book over, looking at the cover.

“Sounds interesting, I’d love to know more about your history.” You said. “Though they’re probably doing this to make me as ‘alien’ as possible before they start testing us.”

“Yeah, probably.” Jisung muttered. “Though I doubt they’re even looking at what they’re giving us. They’re probably grabbing from a pile and chucking them in here.”

The two of you both tried cracking small jokes, attempting to lighten or challenge the situation with humour, but the atmosphere was so heavy that it was almost impossible.

You grabbed the next one you saw, and held it up for Jisung. “This one?”

“Biography of our previous head of government. And probably the most boring thing I’ve ever read.” Jisung groaned at the sight of it.

You chuckled, throwing it back down into the small pile that had accumulated over the past three days. You crouched down, grabbing the final one. It was a smaller book, with a dark green leather cover on it and gold writing on the front that was partially rubbed off with age. The title read “The Forgotten Land.” You opened it, the smell of the old book gently surrounding you as the aged pages stared back at you. You handled it with care, knowing that too much force might damage it.

“What’s this?” You asked, gently closing the book and showing it to Jisung.

He looked up, but brushed off the answer with a simple “That’s just an old legend.”

You looked back at the book, your fingers tracing out the delicate lettering on the front when you heard Jisung saying something to himself.

“Wait a second... That’s- Wait a second!”

Before you knew it Jisung was looking over your shoulder, staring down at the book. You held it up, looking at him quizzically.

“Do you want to read it?”

He took your offer, taking the book and flipping through the pages, skim-reading it as he went. He finally stopped on a certain page, his finger tracing under the sentence he was reading before slamming it shut with a triumphant shout.

“Are you okay?” The question slipped out of your lips at Jisung’s erratic behaviour.

He spun around to look at you, his face alight with excitement. Jisung’s mind was running at a million miles an hour, because if he was right about this, he might have just saved you. And for once, he wouldn’t have failed at protecting you.

“This legend, we used to read it when we were children. They would read it to us in school, and every alien child knows this story. But, I don’t think this is just a story. Because a myth is more than just a tale. It often hides the essence of a true story. This story talks about how our true form is a halfway point between alien and human, and how these will be brought out of us to help us achieve who we are truly meant to be. This isn’t just a legend. It’s the legend we’re currently living.”

You gasped at this, jogging towards him and taking the book from his out-stretched hand. You opened it, reading through as fast as you could. You came to stop on a certain page.

“This says that each of us has a fated soulmate... And only that person brings out the hidden side to us.” You looked up at Jisung, only to find him already looking at you. “Would that mean...” You trailed off, unable to finish your sentence from the way Jisung was looking at you.

It was as if you could see the love he had for you in his eyes.

“We don’t know how much of the book is true but...” Jisung’s voice faded away as he abandoned the end of his sentence.

Enough was said from the way the two of you were looking at each other, you didn’t need to say it out loud. If this part of you the book was true, you and Jisung had been destined to find each other.

It made sense to him now, how he hadn’t been able to explain why he chose you to help him, and why he’d found himself more able to be himself around you in such a short amount of time than he had with people he’d known his entire life.

Things were adding up for you as well. You understood how it was so easy for you to say yes to staying with him, and how you’d felt so far away from home when you came back to Earth.

You and Jisung were destined to find each other.

“So what happens now?” You asked tentatively. “I mean, this is incredible but we don’t even know if it is real, and on top of that, there’s no way to find this and we have a day until we’re taken from here.”

“I know.” Jisung said. “But I think we should try to find it.”

Now that got your attention.

“What? Did you not hear what I said? It might not be real. And where would we even start?” Question after question was thrown at him, but still a grin grew on Jisung’s lips.

“I’m not staying here for them to experiment on us. Not a chance. I’ve found the one person who I need in my life, and I’m not letting them choose what happens to us. I would rather get lost in the stars trying to find a better place for us than give up and let them take us.” Jisung had never been so sure of anything. He wouldn’t give up on this. He wouldn’t give up on you.

It wasn’t fair that these were your choices. But Jisung was done with fair, he was done with choosing between options that sucked, he wanted to take back some control, for once he wanted to be able to protect you.

“Jisung...” You breathed. “I’ll follow you anywhere. But how do we get off here? There are guards in the hallways and, I know we can survive in space but I don’t think us floating around is really a stealthy getaway.”

Jisung simply grinned even wider. “I’ve got a plan.”

x. run until we’re lost

“I don’t like this plan.” You muttered, pacing back and forth. “I really don’t like this plan.”

“I know. But it’s the only one we’ve got. Besides, we have nothing to lose.” Jisung shrugged.

If he was being honest, he had very little faith in his flimsy plan as well, but he wasn’t about to tell you that. It would take a miracle for the two of you to get off this ship with your lives, but, hey a miracle brought you into his life so he had to believe in them.

“Ready?” He asked and you nodded, sending up a silent prayer knowing it was now or never.

Jisung nodded back at you, sending you a comforting look before he suddenly collapsed to the floor. You repeatedly whacked your hands against the wall dramatically, screaming for help.

The guards came running, sluggishly stumbling into the cells. You pointed down at Jisung still yelling incoherently.

“What happened?” One of the guards asked.

“I don’t know.” You cried. The tears began to fall easily down your face from how scared you were of the whole situation. “He just collapsed and he’s not waking up and I don’t know what to do!”

“We need to get someone.” The second guard said but the first one shook his head rapidly.

“We were meant to be watching them! How will we explain that we fell asleep!” The first one snapped back, before suddenly looking back at you. “Move aside.”

You did, still hyperventilating and crying as they walked towards Jisung. You waited until they had both walked past you before shoving the smaller guard as hard as you could in the back, sending his stumbling over Jisung’s legs. Without wasting a second you deftly delivered a hard kick to the back of the left knee of the other guard.

He went flying as well, still drowsy from sleep and completely taken by surprise at your attack.

Jisung sprung up at the commotion, not hesitating a second before grabbing you and sprinting for the door. He got you there before turning around and pressing random buttons on the control panel.

“Come on.” You urged and Jisung desperately hit them trying to find the right one. He eventually opened up a new menu, clicking on the blue hexagonal shape just as the guards picked themselves up.

A beep sounded and the doors slammed shut, locking with a resounding click and the two of you looked at each other in amazement, letting out a deep sigh of relief.

“Well, that’s phase one.” Jisung said excitedly. Maybe this plan would actually work. “But we won’t have long before those two gain attention so we need to run.”

You nodded and the two of you took off down the hallways. This whole process was going faster than you thought it would. Jisung had told you that you needed to head to the navigation room to get the maps and then the escape pods. According to him there were smaller ships that you could take and escape in.

You ran down the halls, your heart beating faster than your feet were moving. The adrenaline was coursing through your veins as Jisung led you through the maze of corridors.

“Okay.” He said, skidding to a stop so suddenly that you almost ran into the back of him. “We need to cause a distraction to evacuate the navigation room.”

“Like pulling a fire alarm or something?” You asked.

“Kind of.” Jisung said. “But something that is going to keep them busy for longer... like cutting the lights. The electrical room is right next to it.”

“And we can use the vents to go to the next room.” You couldn’t help but let out a little giggle at your own joke.

“Yes we could!” Jisung grabbed your hand and took off again.

You were taken completely by surprise. Apparently Among Us was more accurate than you thought.

Jisung turned a sharp corner and burst through a door that led you into the electrical room. He pointed out a vent on the floor, telling you that if you went through there it should take you to navigation.

“How do we cut the power?” You wondered, completely overwhelmed by the huge number of wires in front of you.

“I don’t actually know.” Jisung mumbled.

“Maybe just pull the main switch.” You offered, only to be responded to with a confused look. “There. It’s like a giant switch that should shut off power to the whole place.”

“That will draw attention.” Jisung mentioned and you nodded.

“Probably. But so will the guards shouting for help in our cell. At least it may make running through the ship easier as we’d be harder to recognise in the dark.” You proposed.

Jisung went up to the switch, grabbing it with his right hand. “It’s our only option.” And with that he pulled it.

For a second nothing happened. Your heart began to beat faster again, a feeling you had become all to familiar with.

Then, everything went black.

“Wow. That’s darker than I was expecting.” He said. Jisung rubbed his eyes, trying to get them used to the new light enough for him to see you.

Once he saw an outline of your body he reached for your hand, slipping his gently into it. You jumped slightly when he made contact but the feeling of him rubbing his thumb on the back of your interlocked hands provoked a rush of calmness through your chest.

He tugged on your hand slightly. “Let’s go.”

You let Jisung lead you through the room, hearing the vent be pulled open. He climbed in first, offering you a helping hand. The vent was bigger than you were expecting, so big you could stand if you bent over slightly.

As a second thought, you reached up and pulled it shut after you. Then you followed him down the tunnel. You tried to run as quietly as possible, but the metal clanged underneath your feet and all you could do was pray that it wasn’t heard from anywhere else.

It wasn’t long before Jisung pushed open another vent and you poured out into a small room.

“There’s normally only one or two of us in here, so I’m not surprised it’s empty.” He explained. “Grab as many maps as you can.

You wasted no time, placing multiple pieces of paper on top of each other and folding them over and over again to hold them together. You knew you didn’t have long.

But when you reached for the last map you could see, something fell off it and onto the floor. You crouched down, grabbing the small object and held it up. You couldn’t quite make out what it was, but gradually you recognised the feeling of it.

It was your necklace. Your eyes had adjusted a lot better by now and you could see the chain lightly hitting your hand as the paper plane sat between your fingers. You couldn’t believe it.

You looked back at the map and your jaw dropped again. It was your city. This must have been when they were trying to find you. You traced your fingers over where your home was, thinking of what your life used to be. You hoped everyone would be okay. And you wondered if you would ever make it back.

At least time moved slowly there in comparison to up here. It had probably barely been a minute since you had been taken.

After thinking about it for a second, you grabbed that map as well. You never knew when you might need it.

“Ready?” You looked up, seeing Jisung looking down at a particular map as well. You walked over to him. “Jisung?”

Jisung swallowed. This map had hit him like a sucker punch to the gut.

“This is our planet. Where I came from. I thought it was destroyed and that’s why we are travelling around but this is dated as two years ago.” He didn’t know what this meant. Was his home still intact? He was told it was hit by an asteroid and became uninhabitable due to the atmospheric changes that were caused but this map was making him question everything he ever thought he knew.

“Jisung, bring it with you. Fold it up but we have to move.” You shook him gently, trying to get through to him.

Jisung nodded, messily folding the paper and pushing it into the small pile he was holding. He grabbed your free hand with his and began to run again.

You ran through the hallways, trying not to get spotted by anyone but people were running everywhere. They were trying to reach the electrical room but there seemed to be some kind of commotion outside it.

“I blocked the door from the inside.” Jisung leaned down to you and whispered in your ear. “That should buy us some time.”

You nodded, squeezing his hand as a signal to go. If they knew the problem was in the electrical room then it wouldn’t take long for them to figure out you two were behind it.

“How far?” You asked between breaths.

“Down this hall and to the left, then down the stairs.” Jisung explained.

Thankfully, the left turn came up fast and the two of you thundered down the stairs, jumping down the last three.

Jisung let go of your hand and handed you his pile of maps as he set to work organising an escape pod.

“Thank god I actually listened in engineering class.” He muttered to himself, thankful that his teacher had found a way to get through to him. It was the only subject that he had enjoyed and the one that he had hoped to go into once graduating.

He fiddled with the controls, overriding one of the ships and instructing you to go inside.

Just as he did that the lights came back on, blinding the two of you as they shone in your eyes

“They’ve escaped!” A voice echoed down the hallway and you and Jisung looked at each other in fear.

“Go!” He whisper-yelled at you, pushing you into the ship.

You climbed in the hatch, going down the ladder and landing on the floor. Jisung closed the hatch behind him, locking it with a twist and took off down the hallway again.

You followed him. While this ship was easily miles smaller than the previous one, it was still big for the two of you and took a solid minute of running to get to the front.

Jisung opened a door and you burst into what you assumed to be the front of the ship. There were two seats facing a large window and a maze of buttons on the control desk. Lucking Jisung seemed to know what he was doing.

“They have to know that we’re going for one of these.” Jisung said, pressing the buttons to start the ship as fast as he could. You put the maps down on the seat that Jisung wasn’t stood next to before stepping back to get out of his way. The buttons lit up in front of you and the ship hummed to life. “We’re ready.” He whispered as if he couldn’t quite believe it himself.

“Jisung!” You suddenly said and he spun back in a panic, thinking you had been caught. “Are you sure? I just want to make sure you’re one hundred percent sure you want to do this.”

“I am.” He said with such confidence that it was almost hard for you to believe it was the same awkwardly shy alien you met all that time ago. “If you’re sure as well?”

You nodded in response and he stepped forward and stroked your hair.

“There’s no going back y/n.”

“I know. You’ve gotten braver since we first met.” You told him, resting your hands on his sides.

“I’ve got something to be brave for.” He confided, leaning down to kiss you sweetly.

You didn’t think you could ever get tired of Jisung kissing you.

“As long as I’m with you, I’ll travel the stars forever.” The words came from your heart, and Jisung said the two words you’d heard multiple times today from him, but this time they caused excitement to run through you instead of fear.

“Let’s go.”

You were done being afraid.

Down you sat in the seat, staring out at the vast, never-ending space in front of you. You didn’t know what you were anymore. You were too human for outer space, but too alien for Earth. And you were going to spend your days walking through two worlds but belonging to neither.

Just as the legend intended.

Jisung pushed a level forward and the ship dropped down before taking off. He turned it to the side and you saw the huge spaceship you had been held captive in to your right. The two of you watched it for a second, but you didn’t want to stay so, once again, Jisung pushed forward and you shot off into the stars.

“We’re going to get lost.” You said breathlessly, as he nodded in agreement.

“Yep. But you have to be lost to find a place that can’t be found.”

His words brought a smile to your face, and you looked over at him to find him grinning into the sky as well. You found a notch in the ceiling and reached up to hang your necklace from it. It had meant so much to the both of you that it only made sense to have it close.

“Hey.” You called for his attention, and he looked over at you. “I love you.”

His grin grew even more into the huge gummy smile that you adored.

“I love you too.”

Together, the two of you shot off into the stars, searching for the forgotten land you were destined to find. With nothing but a few maps, and the paper plane hanging from the ceiling guiding your way.

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dawn-in-neocity · 11 months

Text

[8:01am]

the morning light peeks through your bedroom curtains, highlighting jisung’s features. his hair falls messily in front of his forehead and you can’t resist the urge to gently brush the strands away from his eyes. his nose creates a perfect slope that leads down to his puffed out, pink lips.

you know he’s awake when he shifts closer to you, making the sheets fall to his waist. he sighs contently when you take the opportunity to gently drag your nails down his bare back.

“i could do this everyday,” jisung murmurs, pressing a lazy kiss into your collar bones and slinging an arm around your hips, effectively trapping you with him until the late hours of the morning.

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lonelystczennie · 8 months

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"How could my day be bad when I'm with you?"

Jisung x Reader

Summary: Jisung always feels better when you're around. Inspired by the song Bad by Wave to Earth

Word count: 500+

Warnings: one swear, not proofread

A/N: Thanks to the lovely anon who requested this! I got a little stuck, but I think it's still cute, I hope you like it!

Masterlist

Requests are open

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Today had not been Jisung's day.

He'd missed his alarm and woken up late, forgot his phone charger, fought with the members during rehearsals, and had managed to drop an entire coffee right on his brand new white shoes.

Normally at this point, he would be counting the minutes till he could go home, crawl under the covers, and just try to forget about everything for a while. Instead, he was sitting anxiously in the park by himself, bouncing his leg nervously as he waited,

hoping he wasn't too late or that you'd decided not to come, even though you always came on Thursdays.

"Hey you."

His head whipped around at the sound of your voice, a relieved smile spreading across his face for the first time today at the sight of you coming down the path towards him.

"Hey!" He said, jumping quickly to his feet to greet you.

"Were you waiting for me?"

“I-uh, maybe.” He admitted, rubbing his neck self-consciously.

You grinned at him, biting back a teasing remark in favor of an invitation. “You wanna grab some coffee or something?”

“Yes, please.” He responded.

The two of you had met purely by chance a few weeks ago, and what had started as polite conversations in passing had progressed to both of you intentionally planning your walks for the same days and times so that you could meet up.

You never did much, mostly just talked about whatever was on your minds that day, but your random little afternoons together had come to be the highlight of Jisung's whole week.

Normally, he was quite introverted, preferring to just keep to himself, but with you, he found himself opening up an almost alarming rate, talking easily for ages, without worrying about whether any of it made sense or if he fumbled over his words. You had a way of putting him at ease that no one else quite managed, able to make him laugh even in his worst moods.

Even now, as you walked togther, he found himelf feeling lighter just from being near you. He couldn't help studying the details of your face, the way the sunlight brought out the color of your eyes, looking away quickly whenever you turned them towards him.

You had your drinks and then slowly began to make your way back, reluctant to part yet.

“Can I ask something that’s been bugging me?” You asked as you neared the park entrance.

“Sure.”

“What happened to your shoes?”

“Ah,” He let out a flustered laugh, glancing down at the stained sneakers he’d forgot he was still wearing. “I spilled coffee on them this morning.” He explained, going into a full accout of the day.

“Damn, I’m sorry you had such a bad day.” You said.

“It wasn’t bad.” He replied, making you look up at him confusion.

“How was that not a bad day?”

“I got to see you.” He said, immediately ducking his head as his face flushed in embarrassment. “Agh, that was cheesy, I'm sorry.”

“No, it was cute.” You said, taking his hand, making his face heat up again.

“Can I also ask something that’s been bugging me?” He looked at you nervously.

“Mhm.” You nodded.

“Could I please have your number? I can’t take maybe getting to see you anymore.” He confessed.

You giggled. “Yeah, me neither.”

As you finished typing you number into his phone, you didn’t miss the way his hand twitched, as if wanting to take hold of yours again, but hesitating.

Without saying anything, you offered your hand out to him, letting him make the decision on whether or not to take it, which he did immediately, weaving your fingers together tightly.

Maybe he was right, maybe it wasn't a bad day at all.

#nct jisung fluff #park jisung fluff #park jisung fic #park jisung drabble #nct jisung x reader #jisung x y/n #jisung x reader #nct x y/n #nct x reader #nct dream x reader #nct dream x y/n #nct dream fluff #nct dream imagines #nct dream drabbles #nct dream scenarios #nct fluff #nct reactions #park jisung x reader #lonelystczennie

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ja3mln · 9 months

Note

jisung as lovers

someone who sings you to sleep as he runs his fingers through your hair then leaving a peck on your temple and forehead after you've fallen asleep

pleaseeeee:(

he's just so soft when it comes to you and even more when you both lay in bed and talk about your days. and hearing your voice getting sleepy makes his heart so warm and he can't help but smile, gently kiss your face and pull you closer. he knows how much you love when he sings you to sleep so you don't even have to ask, he will start singing and cuddle you til you fall asleep and fall asleep himself once he made sure you're comfortable and safe. :(

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#park jisung #park jisung fluff #park jisung x reader #nct dream x reader #nct x reader #nct dream reactions #nct reactions #nct jisung x reader #nct jisung #nct jisung fluff #nct dream fluff #nct dream

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pagesofmiracles · 10 months

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cyberdating 🎮

summary. where jisung and reader end up dating on roblox for shits and giggles but don't realize their feelings turn into something more . . .

game 12. i-i-i-i

notes. my interpretation of how ppl react after a break up 💔 BROKEN MELODIES IS SOOOOO GOOD PLS STREAM IT

[ home page 🎰 ] [game 11] [game 13]

taglist. open ! comment or send an ask to be added !

@renjunoya @haechansbbg @maleegayuh @jisyng @iscocohere @jaeminnanaaa17 @jising-jisang-jisung @jaeminanklelicker @adriloren @xoxoparkji @hinaaloverr @yooonz4u @ahnneyong @rikirritated @antiv3nus @makiswrld @gyehyeonist @int3rstell4r @lesserakura @qiankunslove @aussiekpopginger @lynnfv @milkpier @moonstar127 @woonhakist @mika-t3t @gothhyucks @he4rtsforyujun @rksbae @jisungiscutee @beemarkie @produmads @welljustshit @suungs @nagyaons @leewonha @chimicurri-a @vianna99 @shwizhies @savluvsmingi @ilovewonyo @haychhans @222brainrot @jinsfavoritedoll

bolded can't be tagged :(

#nct fake texts #nct dream fluff #nct dream jisung #nct dream smau #nct smau #nct dream #nct fluff #nct jisung fluff #park jisung #jisung smau #jisung fluff #nct jisung #jisung x reader #jisung fake texts #nct dream fanfic #nct fanfic #nct x reader #nct dream x reader #nct dream fake texts

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ofjunenote · 11 months

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let me teach you how to smash | park jisung

synopsis — In the list of sports, ranked from most to least sexy, badminton would be found at the very bottom if not ranked last. But why is it that when Jisung plays the with a feathered shuttle your heart flutters?

OR: Jisung helps you improve your badminton skills.

pairing — badminton player!jisung x fem!reader

genre — sports!au, university!au, (one sided) enemies to friends to lovers, slight slow burn

wc — 18k

content — CLEAN VER. university/sports class setting, humour, fluff, the tiniest bit of angst, idols mentioned, very heavy on the dialogue/backstory at one point sorry babies <3, swearing, dirty jokes bc of the word smash (lmk if i missed anything!)

a/n — HIIIIIIII. this might seem familiar to some and its because this has been posted before. This is the SFW version on my SFW blog!!!! so minors are allowed to interact with this as it’s been altered to fit for a general audience. as always, i hope you enjoy reading. all comments are welcome!