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stargazer-sims · 7 months

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Eden + Toy + Drink + Bearded (I know this is three words but I'm curious to see what you come up with. Plus I got these words randomly from a writing app I have.)

I’m working my way back to the rest of these @dandylion240. Here’s the next one. I had fun with this 😃

—————

Eden Seong is tired of group skating classes, he’s tired of his cousin Yi-Joon calling him by his Korean name, and most of all, he's tired of people thinking he needs a babysitter.

He's ten years old — practically a teenager — and he doesn't understand why someone can't just drop him off at the rink and pick him up again after. That's what the other kids’ families do. But no... stupid Yi-Joon has to sit there the whole time with his tall caramel macchiato or whatever and watch Eden practice like he actually knows something about skating.

Eden is just so... mad. About everything.

It's bad enough that Mommy can't bring him to the rink for his Saturday group class because it conflicts with Charlie and Sadie's art lessons, but now Dad can't bring him either because he decided it would be a good idea to join a community theatre group. So, that leaves his eighteen year old cousin, Yi-Joon as the only adult available to take him to the rink.

Yi-Joon came from South Korea back in the summer, and he's supposed to be living with Eden’s family for a year. It's February, which means Yi-Joon's time with them is only half over. Eden's not sure if he can put up with him for another half a year.

Eden grabs an orange safety cone and starts to push it around the ice. These silly orange pylons are another thing he dislikes. It's so babyish to have to skate around them like a beginner. He can already do a bunch of double jumps, and he’s secretly taught himself to do a triple toe loop, even though his coach said she didn’t think he was ready for it. He's so far ahead of everyone else in the group class, he feels embarrassed on their behalf.

His coach, Beth-Anne, isn't here yet. No one is, except for him and Yi-Joon. HIs cousin is obsessed with not being late for anything, so they're usually at least thirty minutes early for everything, and it's annoying.

Keeping one hand on the pylon, Eden rotates himself around it. Then, he picks it up and pretends he's ice-dancing with it.

"Yeon-Jin! That's not a toy!" Yi-Joon shouts from the stands, where he's sitting with his drink from the fancy coffee place he insists they have to stop at every Saturday.

Eden puts the pylon down and turns to glare up at his cousin. "My name is Eden!" he yells. "And stop telling me what to do! You're not the boss of me!"

"I am when your parents aren't here," Yi-Joon says.

"You are not!"

Frustrated, he spins around and kicks at the pylon. He's not sure how it happens, but he somehow loses his footing in the process of swinging his leg forward, and ends up landing on his bum. He yelps, startled by the impact.

He doesn't mean to cry, but Yi-Joon is laughing. He calls down to Eden, asking if he's okay, but the amusement in his voice completely wipes out any kind of concern he might've been trying to show. Eden can think of a thousand mean things he'd like to scream at his cousin, but he can't make any of them leave his brain and make their way to his mouth. He's crying too hard for that.

It's in this state that his coach finds him. He doesn't realize she's there until he hears her say his name. There's a lot more empathy in Beth-Anne's voice than had been in his cousin's.

He swipes his hand across his eyes and then looks toward one of the gates that opens onto the ice surface. Beth-Anne is there, and she has somebody with her; a slender, bearded man with glasses and floppy brown hair. The man is dressed in athletic pants and an oversized blue sweatshirt as if he's going to skate, but he obviously isn't going to because he's on crutches.

"Eden, are you okay?" Beth-Anne asks as she begins to glide toward him. "What happened?"

Eden scrambles to his feet and skates directly into her waiting arms. He sobs for all he's worth, heedless of the gaze of Yi-Joon or the bearded man. Beth-Anne hugs him tight. She's really the best at hugs, maybe even better than his mother.

"Everything is awful!" he manages to get out.

"Now, I wouldn't go that far," Beth-Anne says. "Everything can't be awful. There's got to be something that isn't."

"No... everything."

"Are you sure?" she asks. “What about grilled cheese? And ballet?"

Eden has to pause for a second to consider her words. He sniffles, and concedes. "No."

"There. You’re not awful either, and I’m pretty sure I’m not. So, everything's not awful. Just certain things."

"Yeah, I guess."

"Can you tell me why you're crying?"

"I fell.”

“Did you hurt yourself?”

“No.”

“Is there anything else that’s upsetting you?”

“I don't want to do agility with the cones any more," he says. That's only part of it, but he can't tell her the whole thing. Not with Yi-Joon there, and not with a stranger standing nearby. "I don't like group class. It's too easy and boring."

"I've been thinking about that, actually,” Beth-Anne says.

Surprised, Eden pulls back so he can see her properly. He’s pretty much done crying, and he rubs his eyes to clear them of tears. "Really?"

"Hmm..." She lets go of him and straightens up. "You'll start competing in the Novice division next season."

"Yeah," he says.

"I'll need to talk about it with your parents, of course, but I agree with you. I think you've outgrown group classes, and I think if you really want to keep skating competitively, you should have individual coaching all the time."

"Will you do it?" he asks. He hadn't expected this particular plot twist, and he suddenly forgets all about being angry and upset. Instead, he's excited. "I want to keep skating and maybe even get to the Olympics some day, and if you were my coach, that'd be awesome."

"I'll be your coach for the next couple of years, if that's what you and your parents want," Beth-Anne tells him. "When you're ready for Junior division, you might need somebody who can give you more time and attention."

"Somebody?" he echoes, curious. He can't imagine not having Beth-Anne as his coach. "Like who?"

"We'll have plenty of time to figure that out, but maybe this guy." She gestures at the bearded man. "You know, if he learns everything I'm going to teach him about coaching, and if the two of you get to know each other and decide you can get along."

Eden shifts his attention to the man. "Do you even know about skating?"

The man looks entertained. "I might know a thing or two."

Beth-Anne smiles. "Eden, this is Nikolai Pavlenko. He won gold at Worlds last season." She gestures at Eden and continues, "Nik, meet Eden Seong."

Nikolai Pavlenko. Eden scrunches his brow in concentration as he studies him. He recognizes the name, but... "My parents let me stay up to watch a bunch of stuff from Worlds last season. I watched your free skate, but you look different than you did when I saw you on TV."

Nikolai strokes his chin. "Maybe it's the beard. It's new."

"I like it. You think I can grow one some day?"

"Probably when you're older," Nikolai says.

"I'd look cool with a beard." Eden strokes his own chin, trying to imagine himself older and with facial hair. "If you were my coach, could you teach me to do quads?"

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," Beth-Anne says. "You can't even do a triple yet."

"Yes, I can!" Eden retorts, and then quickly claps a hand over his mouth when he realizes he's just tattled on himself. "Um, I mean... Triple? What's that?"

Nikolai laughs out loud. "Oh, I already like you."

Really?"

"Beth-Anne, remember the back flip?" Nikolai says.

"Oh, lord..." Beth-Anne groans. "Don't give him ideas."

"Back flip?" Eden inquires.

"Never mind," says Beth-Anne. "Forget you heard that."

"Can you really do a triple, Eden?" Nikolai asks.

For a second, he panics because he doesn't know how to answer without getting in trouble. He glances at Beth-Anne, trying to guess how she might react.

It's almost like she's reading his mind. She shrugs. "If you can, you can. Never mind that I told you not to try it."

"I can," he confesses. "A triple toe loop."

"You don't become a champion without taking risks," says Nikolai. "You told me that, Beth-Anne. Remember?"

"You were my first student. What did I know back then?" she says.

"Eden, how old are you?" Nikolai wants to know. "You're starting Novice next season, so ten or eleven, right?"

"I'm gonna be eleven in May," he says.

"And you can do a triple already. Nice." Nikolai meets Beth-Anne's gaze. "Can he show me?"

Beth-Anne spreads her hands ln a gesture that Eden decides must mean basically tne same thing as shrugging. "Does it look like I can stop him?"

"You really wanna see it?" Eden says. "Beth-Anne, can I show him right now?"

Beth-Anne waves him back toward the centre of the ice. "You might as well go for it. Move a few of those cones first, though."

Eden grins, thrilled by this new turn of events. He pushes the pylons off to the side, one by one, making sure to get Yi-Joon's attention as he moves them around. Yi-Joon is frowning, as if he's the one who's mad now because Eden got to play with the cones after all and didn't get scolded for it by his coach. He feels a kind of wicked pleasure over that.

Once the pylons are all out of the way, Eden prepares himself for his jump. He pretends he's at a competition and that the stands are filled with spectators. Even if it's only in his imagination right now, his music is playing and he times his strides to the rhythm in his head, building up momentum.

Beth-Anne always tells him to picture his body as a spring, coiled tight and ready to unfold as he jumps. When he's ready, he leaps, spins...

One rotation. Two. Three.

Yes!

The landing isn't great, but he doesn't fall or stumble as he touches down. In his imagination, the crowd goes wild, cheering for him. The pretend spectators toss teddy bears and bouquets of flowers onto the ice.

In real life, Nikolai Pavlenko actually does cheer, and Beth-Anne lets out a breathless, "Well done!"

Eden skates back to them and gets rewarded with another hug from Beth-Anne. Still exhilarated from what he's just done, he exclaims, "Did you like it? Was I awesome?"

"You were awesome, sweetheart," she says. "I'm not letting you do that again for a while though, understand? You're brilliant, but it's not a good idea to rush you along. There'll be plenty of time to work on triples and quads when you're really ready, okay?"

He nods. "Okay."

"All right. Your friends are going to start showing up for class soon, so it's time to start putting the cones back. I'm going to help Nikolai find a place to sit, and then I'll help you set them up. Sound good?"

"Sounds good," he agrees.

He can't help showing off a little as he slides one the pylons back to the middle of the ice. He stops every few seconds to do footwork around it, and checks for Yi-Joon's reaction. He thinks he notices Yi-Joon mouth the words, "I'm telling your mother."

Eden sticks out his tongue at him and goes back to dancing with his cone.

Behind him, he distinctly hears Nikolai say. "When we're both ready, yeah. I definitely want to be his coach."

#writing #writing challenge #eden seong #yi-joon seong #beth-anne jones #nikolai pavlenko #stargazersims

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whetstonefires · 1 year

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Political arranged marriage

Okay so this is actually a challenge option! For 1) how likely am i to write this fic trope and 2) whom for.

Because see, it's an interesting topic to me broadly speaking, but as it's used in fandom it's primarily a romance vehicle. A contrived scenario to set up a pairing in a Situation. Specifically a situation involving forced intimacy and externally imposed sexual pressure.

And like. It's not that I'm incapable of enjoying that, if it's the right blorbos handled in a way that works for me, it's a structure you can run a lot of fun dramas in, but I don't have anything I particularly want to deliver in that line, either.

Statistically at this time I'm most likely to find myself writing one of these about wangxian, because 1) my brain is in a rut help i have never cared about a ship like this in my life and 2) there are SO MANY of these damn fics in this fandom (modao zushi/the untamed), and historically 'high concentration of trope i find mildly annoying' has a high rate of inspiring me to process my feelings by producing my own iteration of that thing.

The Thing about wangxian politically arranged marriage scenario in particular is that it's a direct inversion of the context shaping their relationship in the canon.

Arranged marriages for political purposes require both parties to be actively embedded in high-status formal social webs which very proactively sanction their official attachment, regardless of personal sentiments, and any ensuing relationship develops within the framework of not being free to part.

All of this is the exact opposite of their situation; they are deliberately the exact opposite of this.

Now, if you engage with the thematic inversion on some level in your fic that's good fun, but if you try to edge awkwardly around it it gets very stale very fast. If I hadn't seen anyone doing anything fun with this I'd probably have been possessed and produced something by now, but I have, so it's eh. We're fine. It's fine.

More generally, I'm absolutely likely to depict politically arranged marriages, in general, but I don't know that it counts as doing the trope because I'm chiefly fascinated by all the ways these relationships can develop that aren't particularly close matches for romance as we typically block it out.

You know the bit in Fiddler on the Roof where after all the drama around love-matches rather than relying on the matchmaker, the dad asks the mom if she loves him, after like 30 years in a normal, traditional arranged marriage? And after initial bewilderment, having never considered the question before, she finally says she supposes she does, and he says he supposes he loves her too. Compelling. I'm intrigued.

If I'm going to write a political arranged marriage as a central feature of a story it's going to be about the social construct of matrimony and how it's conceptualized within the society in question. Necessarily this means it will also be about gender. The household as a sociological unit. Power and property.

It will also, obviously, be about politics.

So I'm much more likely to wind up doing this as a subplot in original fiction than as the premise of a fic, basically, but now I admit I am tempted to go figure out a premise for a one-shot political marriage fic for wangxian that I would find inherently interesting. I am easily baited, what can I say.

Alternate answer: i'm brain stuck in mdzs so technically the correct answer to this is like 20% and Jin Zixuan/Jiang Yanli because they're this in canon already and i'm basic like that.

#ask #hoc est meum #wearethekat #mdzs #trope ask game #fic #for wangxian political arranged marriage you have to both #a) either make wwx a political power or give him a family or both so there's something to be political and arrange about #and b) address the gay #if you're halfhearted about either of these the premise becomes horribly floppy #this answer contains me being like 4 distinct flavors of nerd #all of them kinds the other nerds bully #lmao

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stillness-in-green · 3 years

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Ahistorical, Absurd, and Unsustainable (Part Three)

An Examination of the Mass Arrest of the Paranormal Liberation Front

Introduction and Part One Part Two

PART THREE: Ethical Problems

Law Enforcement Conduct

The first thing that jumps out—the thing everyone talks about first and foremost about the raid—was Hawks’ murder of Twice. Murder is a controversial word in this context, I know, but I stand by it: regardless of his guilt or his intent, Bubaigawara Jin was a fleeing man who Hawks made a cold, rational decision to quite literally stab in the back. In that moment, Hawks appointed himself as an executioner of the state and murdered a man without due process—no trial, no judge, no nothing. It was an extrajudicial killing,[26] and while I know many people in the U.S. have gotten kind of jaded about that sort of thing, let me assure you that police brutality is still police brutality even when it’s being exercised against people who have committed crimes.

To illustrate this, allow me to share a few more excerpts from the Penal Code:

Assault and Cruelty by Specialized Public Employees: When a person performing or assisting in judicial, prosecutorial or police duties commits, in the performance of their duties, an act of assault or physical or mental cruelty upon the accused, suspect or any other person, imprisonment or imprisonment without work for not more than 7 years is imposed.

Abuse of Authority Causing Death or Injury by Specialized Public Employees: A person who commits a crime prescribed under the preceding Article and thereby causes the death or injury of another person is dealt with by the punishment for the crimes of injury or the punishment prescribed in the preceding Article, whichever is severer.

The punishments for Criminal Injury are imprisonment for not more than fifteen years or a fine of not more than 500,000 yen or, if the injury results in death, imprisonment for not less than three years. That’s really what Hawks ought to be looking at for Twice's murder, save that apparently heroes just aren't liable for this stuff, otherwise they'd be up against it all the time in the course of “fighting villains.” Certainly, Hawks doesn’t seem to have faced any repercussions thus far, beyond having to apologize in a press conference.

Now, again, many American readers of My Hero Academia are deeply embedded in a culture that normalizes police violence, and so there is a lot of callous handwaving about how Hawks did the right thing because Jin was a significant threat. In response to such dismissal, let me provide a few more numbers:

In the U.S. in 2019, law enforcement killed over a thousand people.

In the same year in Japan, law enforcement killed two. Two people.

In the U.S., a major factor in how police keep skating on these deaths is the legal doctrine of qualified immunity, which is nominally intended to protect officers from frivolous lawsuits in cases where they’re ruled to be acting in “good faith,” a vague ruling which has made successful prosecution of police brutality and negligence all but impossible.

Japan, and I cannot stress this enough, does not have this doctrine. The significance of law enforcement taking a life is not so casually brushed aside in other places in the world, so please don’t try to tell me that Horikoshi was trying to get across the idea that Hawks did the right thing, easy as that. The critical depiction of heroes and Hero Society dehumanizing their enemies is all over the manga.

When the Tartarus guards discuss what the government is doing about Gigantomachia, one of them complains that the higher-ups can’t use missiles—missiles!—on him because he’s quote-unquote-human.[27] During their battle at Kamino, All Might tells All For One that this time, he’s going to put him in a prison cell—he characterizes his attempt to kill All For One six years ago as a mistake. Even in the spin-off manga, Vigilantes, designated police representative Tsukauchi[28] looks absolutely aghast at Endeavor’s willingness to use lethal force against Pop Step, an innocent-until-proven-guilty minor, even though, at that time, they have all the evidence in the world that she is actively engaged in setting off bombs in populated areas.

Most prominent is the series’ treatment of the High End Noumu. The heroes rationalize them as corpses, monsters, inhuman, all in order to kill them guilt-free,[29] and this rationalization spills over to Shigaraki during the War Arc, as the chasm of understanding between heroes and villains reaches its most stark. Yet, that same arc was proceeded by the reveal of the truth about Kurogiri, which had Tsukauchi directly acknowledge that they may have misunderstood the Noumu as the series dangled the possibility that Kurogiri possesses lingering awareness from Shirakumo Oboro. Earlier, we had Ending, a man who wanted Endeavor to kill him and thought Endeavor would do it specifically because Endeavor killed the High End, and this act set him decisively apart from the non-murdery heroic norm. Even into the War Arc itself, we were getting new information on the Noumu: to wit, we were shown incontrovertible proof—in the form of Woman’s internal monologue in Chapter 268—that the High End Noumu do think.

Even if we assume the government has relaxed its prohibitions about public servants assaulting people in the course of carrying out their duty, it does not follow that Hawks’ extrajudicial execution was totally fine. Heroes are not supposed to kill because police are not supposed to kill, and in Japan, it isn’t assumed that they will the moment they run into resistance.

And look, this is not to say that Japanese police never get away with police brutality. Obviously, the country has its own problems with the issue, typically involving racism and ethnocentrism. But the way that some people in the fandom just brush off Jin’s death does a disservice to the way the series frames Hawks’ actions and what that framing is communicating to a Japanese reader.

Also, even putting aside the matter of his death, openly taunting a mentally ill man about how easy it was to fool him definitely pings me as an act of mental cruelty, though of course there’s no one to sue Hawks over that one, seeing as he murdered the victim and only witness. (Chapter 264)

That all said, there are other issues with the heroes’ actions during the raid. One is called out right in the text: Midnight acknowledges that the use of chemical agents is illegal, but calls upon Momo to engineer knock-out drugs to use against Gigantomachia anyway. Is that an action Momo will face any repercussions for at all? And if not, what does it imply about the setting that she won’t?

Here’s another big one: what’s the legality of heroes using their quirks against civilians? Because that’s what the vast majority of the PLF are, civilians. Oh, they’re suspects, sure, but throughout the manga, “heroes” aren’t set up as people who just fight any and every tiny crime they come across. From the very first chapter, heroes are set up as a specific counter to “evildoers” designated as “villains”—legally defined as people who use their quirks illegally two or more times.[30]

There is a very illuminating scene in the second chapter of Vigilantes in which Aizawa confronts Knuckleduster for his assault of a random businessman and, the moment he realizes Knuckleduster is quirkless, apologizes for the misunderstanding and walks away. If Knuckleduster doesn’t have a quirk, Knuckleduster by definition cannot be a villain, and thus, Aizawa is not authorized to throw down with him.[31] It’s somewhat unclear, not least because a lot of the evidence is in the more-interested-in-systemic-worldbuilding Vigilantes, but there is reason to believe that heroes are not allowed to use their quirks against people who are committing mundane crimes.[32] If anything, I should think that heroes only using their quirks on people who are using their quirks illegally is part of the philosophical scaffolding that gives heroes their moral authority—you see this argument from the first bearer of One For All, who loudly espouses that people not only should not use their quirks selfishly, but that quirks should only be used to help others. This kind of supposed selflessness is what MHA’s current society is built on.

To see the relevance here, consider Trumpet. Oh, he absolutely was using his quirk illegally, but can the system prove that?[33] After all, he only ever used it on allies—do you think they're in a big hurry to snitch on him? Do you think Mr. Compress is going to? And if the police can't prove Trumpet used his quirk illegally, then is he even a capital-V Villain? What about all those other rank and file types? Certainly we saw the ones at the villa fighting back with quirks, but what about those supporters at bases scattered around the country? Did they fight back, and if so, did they do it with quirks? If not, was it legal for them to be targeted by heroes?

More importantly, can they mount an argument on that, be it a legal or a moral one?

The Scope of the Operation

The next big ethical problem actually predates the raid itself, and it’s this: how did the Commission know where to target their raids? How did they obtain that information? Specifically, how many privacy violations were involved? It strains credulity well past my personal breaking point to imagine that Hawks and the Commission were able to get every name, every base of operations, especially given the limitations they were under—the fact that Hawks couldn’t communicate openly, the hard time limit before the PLF put their plan in motion, making sure they didn’t tip off someone in the massive secret organization that had people working in heroics, the government, the infrastructure, etc.—but let’s consider the sorts of avenues the HPSC did have available to them.

So to start with, they send in Hawks, who’s specifically trained to extract information from people without raising suspicion about his motives. Doubtlessly, he’s able to get all sorts of names,[34] starting with the higher-ups—not just Re-Destro and his inner circle, but also any of the advisors that e.g. run businesses that they invite him to patronize, MLA heroes, and so on. And with a decent crop of names in hand—let us assume for the sake of argument that Hawks had some way to communicate those names to his handlers—the HPSC can start doing background checks and digging in.

Where do these people come from? Where were they born, and, if they moved, where did they settle? Where do they work? What are their social pastimes? Trace the commonalities, look into publicly available records, use wiretaps…

Yes, the police in Japan can totally use wiretaps if they suspect organized criminal activity—it was one of the powers expanded significantly under that controversial 2017 law I footnoted earlier. One thing to note is that this does require a warrant, or at least the expectation that a judge will grant a warrant.[35] But how far does that go? Can they get a warrant for financial records? How about phone records? E-mail accounts?

Can they wiretap people for no reason save their association with a name Hawks provided? If a PLF member attends a Jazzercize class on Thursday mornings, does every member of that class start noticing a weird little reverb on their phone calls for a week? Does Re-Destro’s hometown have an influx of people poking around evaluating its potential as a place to live? If Slidin’ Go once snatched your dog out of traffic and you subsequently bought a Slidin’ Go keychain, are you and your family now under investigation?

Getting details on people like the CEO of Detnerat and the head of the Hearts & Minds Party is probably pretty straightforward; heck, investigating Kizuki Chitose’s publication history was probably a goldmine in and of itself. That sort of surveillance gets more complicated and difficult to justify—and to make credible to the reader—the further down the chain of command you go, though. Sooner or later, the HPSC would have had to make a call: knowing that they don’t have the time, freedom, and resources to perfectly get only and exactly everyone that’s a real threat, do they overcompensate or do they undercompensate?

You only have to look at Hero Society to know which answer they were going to go with.[36]

To be fair, undercompensating, while it clearly would have been easier on their strained resources, ran the risk of leaving threats out there to come back to bite them later. They likely thought that they’d done enough undercompensating for Shigaraki Tomura, compounded by the fact that apparently there hadn’t been enough done about Destro’s followers back in the day, either. I mean, better to grab everyone and then let the courts sort it out, right? Rather than risk innocents getting hurt?

Well, let’s talk about innocents. Innocents, and the costs of overcompensating.

Pictured: a man who was in daily close contact with the leader of the movement and who was at one point in time in possession of a copy of the movement's manifesto. (Chapter 218)

The problem with grabbing everyone in a group, even the most obviously PLF-aligned groups, is that there are always going to be both people who don’t seem to know anything because they’re very good at living double lives and aren’t particularly active on the recruitment front, and people who don’t seem to know anything because they legitimately don’t know anything.

The Gunga Villa is straightforward enough—on paper, it was probably reserved for a business retreat for four months, because you certainly wouldn’t want some random newlywed couple booked for a nice mountain honeymoon recognizing Shigaraki Tomura wandering around. Same story for the employees; the MLA wouldn’t have put the League up at the villa if there was a chance that anyone there would rat them out. So I think we can assume relatively fairly that anyone in the building the day of the conference is solidly implicated, whatever their claims might be otherwise.

Of course, plenty might well try to claim that they were just there for the vacation, or just started work last week and had no idea the place was a nest for conspiracy, but that was where Hawks spent most of his time, and most of the people at the villa presumably fought back against the heroes. It might be a complicated process, matching hero eyewitness testimony to every person there, but you can at least sort of see the path to it.

Other groups, however, are a lot less straightforward. Consider the following categories:

The Liberated Districts

As I discussed earlier, Deika was presumably a high watermark on societal saturation, but Deika still only counted 90% of the population as “Liberation Warriors, lying in wait.” That leaves 10% unaccounted for. So who are those 10%? Are they children?[37] Some children too young to know anything about the PLF, and some old enough to know but not yet old enough to be considered warriors for the cause? Are they instead elderly people, maybe remnants from when the MLA first started to infiltrate the town that have just never had enough close family or social life to get pulled into the Liberation Army by the usual vectors?

By far the worst option is if Trumpet’s 90% accounts for anyone even remotely connected to the MLA—that would mean one out of every ten people in Deika is legitimately completely ignorant of what the powers that be had brought in. How on earth are you supposed to tell those people apart from the other 90% when the heroes sweep in and arrest absolutely everyone? Or are we to believe that the HPSC had time to get in an agent to flash a covert L-sign at everyone in town and they only arrested people who visibly acknowledged it?

These problems only get worse for our hypothetical town that’s 70% PLF. That opens you up to far more people who have only recently started getting drawn in. Consider the disaffected twenty-something whose family has no idea what’s been keeping him out so late in the evenings. The young mother who met the nicest and most convincing people via the daycare, but whose husband is always out of town on business trips so she hasn’t had time to introduce him to anyone. The working parents who just joined up and whose kid, away at hero school, doesn’t know anything—yet.[38]

Evaluating these peoples’ social circles and financial history for other PLF attachments is going to turn up a ludicrous number of false positives unless the Commission can narrow down exactly when and where such people crossed paths with the ideology of Liberation. So many people would have been raised to it, people whose entire lives are suspect, but mistaking even one new recruit for a lifelong loyalist gives you exponentially more avenues to baselessly suspect people—and as established, the Commission just doesn’t have the time to be overly discerning.

Detnerat, Shoowaysha, and Feel Good Inc.

This is another line of attack that seems like it should be a bullseye, but is actually quite the opposite. Detnerat is a business that is run by the leader of the entire movement, yet the fact that not everyone who works there is a member of the MLA is one of the very first things we find out about them! Miyashita was something akin to a personal aide or secretary to Rikiya, someone Rikiya liked well enough that he was on the verge of introducing Miyashita to his other friends—and Miyashita didn’t know the first thing about his boss’s true affiliations. It’s patently obvious from that alone that not everyone at Detnerat is PLF, and it's likely that the numbers of the faithful are even thinner at Curious and Skeptic's outfits, where they're high-ranked executives but, crucially, not actually in charge.

This is, of course, complicated further by the fact that people who work at e.g. a publishing house are probably there because they agree with that publishing house’s politics, whether or not they know what’s going on behind the scenes. Ditto with Detnerat—certainly there would be people there who just needed a job and could charm their way through an interview without an inner passion for the work, but loads of people probably work there because they legitimately believe in the company’s ethos. So how do you tell people who have relatively radical personal politics without having any idea about the terrorism apart from the people who are absolutely PLF/ex-MLA but who are now lying about it because their organization's cover is blown and the response to that is, “Well, time to go back underground!”

The Hearts & Minds Party

Membership of this party would seem to be a good indicator, but using it that way too unquestioningly is also very flawed. This is because the HMP particularly is probably an excellent recruitment tool for the MLA/PLF. The note above about having radical political beliefs but still being ignorant about the planned acts of terror is especially true for the HMP. The Commission cannot just pull the voting records and arrest all of them because plenty of them are going to be totally ignorant of what was really going on with the heart of the party, only joining up because they believed in the kinds of things the HMP was platforming on—less repressive quirk use laws, prison reform, very possibly issues like the abolishment of the legal category “villain” or greater social safety nets. Just because someone votes for those things, doesn’t mean they know about or would support the MLA’s violent extremism or the PLF’s anarchic goals.

So at what level of initiation does the Commission call a cut-off? How long does someone have to have been voting straight-ticket HMP for them to be considered condemned by that association?

Over and over again, the question arises: how did the heroes and the police distinguish the initiated from the uninitiated? And given that Japan’s legal system at least nominally requires that guilt be proven, what are they going to do when huge numbers of those people claim innocence?

The Presupposition of Guilt

Let’s take a few minutes to circle back to what I talked about earlier, the presumption of guilt and how it relates to arrests, convictions, and the perception of arrestees in Japan. This is going to swerve hard back towards real-life Japan issues for a bit, but it is exceptionally relevant when examining what’s likely to happen to the people arrested in the raids, innocent and guilty alike, so thanks in advance for bearing with me.

In Japan, the rate of conviction is extraordinarily high—if you’re in anime fandom and active in social justice circles, you may have seen the tumblr posts about the country’s famed 99.9% conviction rate.[39] There are a range of explanations for this. Defenders argue that, compared to police in many other countries, police in Japan are very cautious and don't move to prosecute unless a case is all but airtight; thus, many who are arrested may well be released without charge if there is even the slightest doubt that the case will hold up in court. One can easily see truth to this by looking at the numbers on how many people are arrested in Japan versus how many are actually charged: Wikipedia notes (albeit without citation) that in the U.S., roughly 42% of arrests in felony cases result in prosecution, while in Japan the figure is only 17.5%.

Conversely, critics note that a major feature of convictions in Japan is the confession, and confessions can be coerced, particularly in the sorts of conditions that those imprisoned in pre-trial detention are kept—no legal representation, no contact with their families, loved ones or employers, no requirement that they be informed about what they’re being charged with, potential weeks upon weeks kept in isolation, sessions of questioning that can extend for most of the day.

There have also been cases in which confessions have been found to be falsified, for example by having the suspect sign a paper and then filling in or altering other details after the fact.

There are some other factors about confessions to be aware of here:

In Japan, it is not legally permissible for a suspect to be convicted solely based on their confession. The constitutional provision in this regard is something called himitsu no bakuro, the “revelation of secret.” The revelation of secret is something in the confession that is factually verifiable and which, at the time of the confession, only the suspect could have known. Common examples are things like the location of a previously undiscovered body or the time and location where a weapon used in the crime was purchased. The majority of verdicts that are overturned in Japan are overturned because of issues with a confession.

Sentencing is also very lenient compared to the U.S., particularly if the suspect was cooperative with police and admitted guilt (seen as showing remorse). Thus you wind up with a situation in which suspects believe that they’ll lose a case if they go to trial (because practically everyone does) and prosecutors—rather more aware of the weaknesses in a case than a confused and vulnerable layman—don’t want to bring a shaky case to trial, and thus both parties are invested in whatever will get the suspect out with a minimum of effort. The result of this is a high number of people released on “suspended prosecution,” which is an admission of guilt, but with a prosecutor's decision to show lenience while still establishing precedent for possible later offenses warranting more severe punishment. This is a particularly common result for first-time offenders, especially in non-violent crimes.

Note that suspended prosecution is not at all the same thing as being released for lack of evidence; a suspect is conceding their guilt by accepting the arrangement. However, many suspects who the police might not be confident in convicting are known to sign confessions and accept the arrangement regardless, because, along with fear for their livelihoods, it’s known that judges tend to view extended time in detention as a sign of guilt. Also too, if admitting guilt is seen as showing remorse, then maintaining one’s innocence is often perceived as a lack of remorse—leading to fears that fighting the charges will result not only in defeat, but also in harsher sentencing!

All of these factors combine into a problem with perception of guilt that feeds on itself endlessly at all levels. Let me use a run-on sentence to summarize: the general public views anyone who is even arrested as probably guilty, because the police are seen as generally only moving on those who are guilty, because police specifically only prosecute those who they can all but prove are guilty, but guilt can be “proven” by a sufficiently detailed confession, and while confessions are required to have some corroborating evidence, they can easily be falsified and may well be offered up with minimal resistance because the suspect is also convinced that judges will only be harsher on them if they put up a fight because suspects also believe that they will be convicted at trial because everyone knows the conviction rate is unbelievably high.

Japan likes to think of itself as a “safe” country, which is in large part why its deeply concerning arrest and detainment procedures have held up repeatedly in court. These things help keep people safe, after all, and who wouldn't want people to be safe?

Returning, then, to the matter of My Hero Academia and the Paranormal Liberation Front mass arrest, I don’t think it’s overstating things to claim that the dehumanization of villains and the glamorization of heroes has probably exacerbated these problems.

Cruel punishments are illegal under Article 36 of the Japanese constitution? But what if someone really, really deserves it, though? (Chapter 94)

You can see that willingness to shrug off civil rights violations as long as it means safety in the symbol All Might represents, a hero who is there to beat up baddies, not ask questions about why they're being bad. Ditto Tartarus, where the Bad People get put, regardless of whether their Bad really warrants so awful a punishment or whether the severity of such a punishment serves as an effective deterrent.[40]

As to the presupposition of guilt, if a hero thinks they saw someone Doing A Bad, and confidently testifies to that effect, who’s going to doubt them? It’s blunt to the point of headache-inducing that Midoriya Izuku, the boy who will be the greatest hero, who’s treated by the story as if he’s the first person in history to think about “saving” a “villain,” doesn’t even start to think about such a thing until he literally experiences a psychic impression of a five-year-old crying within the heart of Shigaraki Tomura.

At the press conference in Chapter 306, it’s illustrated numerous times that huge portions of society don’t particularly care about Dabi’s accusations. They don’t ask for Hawks to face justice for the murder he openly admits to committing; they don’t ask for apologies for the heroes’ wrongdoings. They ask for heroes to make them feel safe. Even if it means lying to them; even if it means asking Endeavor to go out there and “take down” his firstborn son. People are uneasy about the accusations, certainly, but what they want is not for heroes to take responsibility for their actions, to atone for them, but rather to deny that there’s any truth to the accusations at all.

This is not a society that, in the wake of Gigantomachia’s rampage, is going to be open to the possibility that some people caught up in the mass arrest are legitimately innocent and that everyone, even villains, deserves to be afforded the full extent of their rights.

The Dissolution of the HMP

Speaking of rights, let’s go over one that we can immediately see has been flagrantly violated in the manga compared to the state of real-life Japanese law—the overnight dissolution of the Hearts & Minds Party.

As discussed earlier, it's unlikely that every member is a dyed-in-the-wool terrorist. There are bound to be perfectly innocent people in the country who just so happen to agree with the HMP’s campaign platforms. Now, all of those people are going to turn on the evening news[41] and be blindsided with the news that their political party has just been dissolved and some enormous percentage of its membership arrested. This was not publicized or forewarned; it just happened, in a matter of hours. Do you think those people—people who are members of a party that specifically opposes the current status quo—are just going to nod and say, “Oh, wow, that sucks, but who am I to question the wisdom of the government and its agents? Time to find a new political party, I guess!” Would you?

I can assure you that you wouldn’t, because let me be clear: under current Japanese law, what we’re told happened to the HMP is unbelievably illegal—not only because they were dissolved at all, but particularly the speed with which that dissolution was carried out.

I mentioned earlier, in the section “Japan and Illegal Organizations,” that there were methods by which organizations can be dissolved. Now I’d like to look at that in more detail.

Any organization that’s been flagged as a potential threat—that “terroristic subversive activity” designation—can come under investigation from the Public Security Intelligence Agency. Their recommendations are then passed up for evaluation by a member of the Public Security Examination Commission,[42] who can pass a variety of prohibitions—the bans I mentioned earlier on printing activities, public assembly, and a few others. These prohibitions are issued in periods lasting up to six months, at which point they are re-evaluated and can be dismissed or renewed.

If the Public Security Examination Commission decides that the comparatively soft-pedal restrictions on freedom of the press or freedom of assembly are not sufficient to deter the organization in question from committing terroristic subversive activity continuously/repeatedly in the future, the Commission can elect to order the organization dissolved. This revokes their rights mentioned above entirely, and further stipulates that they liquidate their assets,[42] and that no member of or representative for the organization can take actions in the organization’s interest (e.g. things like opening bank accounts or buying property). The only exception to the latter restriction is a designated representative for the organization who is granted the right to manage its assets in the process of overseeing the dissolution.

Any of the designations above can be appealed, but dissolution is permanent until specifically overturned.

Now, it might well seem that the HMP could be targeted under the “advocating for subversive terroristic activity” criteria, but here’s the problem with that: that criteria is based on the organization engaging in/advocating for such terroristic subversiveness as an organizational activity—that is, the activity in question is a foundational, core aspect of the organization’s endeavors. And I simply don’t think that’s how the HMP operates. To reiterate, I believe they’re a recruitment tool, meant to siphon people into the MLA (later the PLF) proper, but otherwise a perfectly legitimate political party with real political aims, outreach, goals, and so on.

Of course, I can easily see the anger over all the destruction leading the Ministry of Justice to being heavy-handed in its response to the Paranormal Liberation Front and any organization even suspected of being associated with it, of which the HMP is the most prominent. I could also simply be wrong about what the HMP says at their rallies. Regardless of either of those possibilities, however, there is still the matter of the timetable.

There was a period in Japanese history that organizations—political parties especially—could be dissolved on the spot. The Meiji Constitution granted that right to the Minister of Home Affairs, a Cabinet position appointed by the Emperor, and indeed, any number of socialist, communist, or labor-oriented parties were banned and dissolved within scant months of their establishment for their alleged leftist or subversive leanings.[44] The Farmer-Labor Party of 1925 was dissolved three hours after its establishment! So clearly there’s some precedent—or at least, there was. Like many things, the power to summarily dissolve organizations did not survive the Meiji Constitution’s transformation into its modern-day incarnation after World War II.

The Subversive Activities Prevention Act, the same one that lays out the causes for dissolving an organization, also details a legally mandated process by which this dissolution is carried out. Most prominently, organizations cannot just be dissolved with no notice, no chance to defend themselves. Any disposition curtailing an organization's activities, from the bans on their printed material to complete dissolution, is required to be announced both via the government's official gazette[45] and, if the residence of a chief officer or representative of the organization is known, also via written notification. These notifications must be sent at least seven days before the hearing date—a hearing which, further, the organization has the legal right to send agents to in order to present statements and evidence in their own favor, as well as examine the evidence being presented against them.

This clearly did not happen. Bare minimum, Hanabata Koku, as leader of the Hearts & Minds Party, should have had an address the Commission could get ahold of, especially given all the snooping they so obviously must have been doing to unearth the extent of the PLF’s reach.

It’s instructive, in this regard, to look to history. To wit, I’ve said a lot about how gun-shy Japan is to dissolve organizations outright, thanks to its history of governmental repression—but how true is that really? If the government really wanted to, couldn’t it just decide to crack down on something and ride out the controversy? Has it done as much before?

To put all this into proper perspective: no. It hasn’t. The government has invoked the Subversive Activities Prevention Act against a group rather than individuals only once in all the time since the act was passed in 1952.

It was against Aum Shinrikyo, and it didn’t happen until seven months after the subway attacks. Even with nearly unanimous desire to prosecute, even though Aum had been under police surveillance prior to the attacks, even though lawsuits against them were and had been ongoing, meaning at least some measure of investigation was being done openly, it still took seven months to gather the evidence, submit it to the Public Safety Examination Commission, allow Aum their appeal, and enact the ruling. That’s because, in a society ordered by democratic processes, these things take time.[46]

But the HMP? No one who wasn’t a member knew about their affiliation with the League of Villains—much less an underground army!—until Hawks got the word out, and the Hero Public Safety Commission had to be rigorously careful that news of their investigations not leak because they knew they had their own moles to deal with. So far as we know, the Hearts & Minds Party remained a legit organization right up until the day of the raid. It is functionally impossible under current Japanese law for them to have been dissolved in the scant few hours between the commencement of the raid and the attack on Tartarus in which the two guards mention the dissolution.

Even if the relevant agency in the Ministry of Justice submitted their paperwork the absolute minimum of time in advance, there is no way the HMP and Trumpet—and therefore Re-Destro and the League and everyone else—shouldn’t have known that the government was moving against them. The only answer is that the Ministry of Justice was evading its legal obligation to notify both the public[47] and the HMP itself, or that the Japanese government, in the wake of the Advent of the Exceptional, throttled back on constitutionally guaranteed freedoms exactly the way human rights activists today are always warning about.

Stigma and Recidivism

In the same way that In Custody is not (or shouldn't be) a magic status effect preventing villains from escaping from police, In Jail is not an endgame state. Most people in prison are not there for life (or death) sentences, particularly not in Japan. Even if the majority of the PLF gets stuck in prison for decades, there will, eventually, be an “after” for them. So what happens “after”?

Well, like many countries, Japan has made efforts in the modern day to offer training classes and parole officers to help reacclimate ex-convicts into society once they’ve done their time, but it remains a difficult process, and the country has a relatively high recidivism rate. Given the stigma against criminals—present to a degree in all countries, but particularly exacerbated in Japan—it is frequently difficult for released prisoners to find stable housing or employment—both key factors helping to prevent recidivism.

So does MHA’s Japan have similar programs? Well, it’s hard to say, given that the only prison we’ve actually seen is Tartarus, which is obviously a poor model to base a lot of judgement on—save, of course, that any country that could develop a place like Tartarus is a country with an appalling deficit of care for criminals’ human rights, which doesn’t bode well for their other prisons.

Speaking of things that don’t bode well, though, we have two obvious examples in the canon of how convicted criminals fare: both Gentle Criminal and Twice are, it’s suggested, prosecuted for their foundational fuck-ups—Tobita for obstructing public duties[48] and Jin for his traffic infraction. It’s unclear whether they went to prison or not—given the relative lenience shown to first-time offenders, I’m inclined to think probably not—but even given these very mild offenses, their lives were turned completely upside-down, and no apparent efforts were made to help them through chaotic periods that saw Tobita apparently disowned and Jin losing his job.

Consider the harsh reactions they garnered and the apparent lack of assistance from any social structure despite the relative mildness of their wrongs, and things start to look very bad indeed for the PLF. Will there be any steps taken at all to deradicalize them? Does taking such steps seem likely, given what we've seen of MHA’s legal and carceral systems thus far? Further, if there is no plan for deradicalization, how exactly do the heroes propose to stop this from happening again (and again, and again and again and again)?

Here’s another alarming thought: what will be done with the children? There’s no way around the fact that the MLA, and therefore the PLF, included children[49]—and I don’t mean it in the tumblr sense of describing a sixteen-year-old as “a literal child,” though there would be some of those, too. No, I mean the grade-schoolers, the toddlers, the babies. Maybe some of them will have non-PLF family they could hypothetically go to, but as I have written about in the past, there’s a very real bias about orphans and other children separated from their parents in Japan, and even blood ties are not always enough to overcome that stigma. Alternative care is in a woefully sorry state as it is in Japan, and this would only be compounded for PLF kids—damned first for their criminal associations and again for being the children society doesn’t want.

However many thousands of them that may be.[50]

So here again, a question recurs. Where before it was, “How do you tell the guilty from the innocent?” here it’s, “How do you stop the societal backlash from ruining countless peoples’ lives both now and for decades into the future?” What kind of stigma will all these people—rank and file who come out of prison deradicalized and ready to rejoin society, children who were too young to understand why heroes took their parents away, ignorant family and friends who just lost loved ones to a massive government sweep, innocents swept up in the net and imprisoned for crimes they didn't commit—going to be facing? How long, then, before that stigma sees them radicalized in turn?

You cannot sweep 115,000 people under the rug and not expect there to be a stain—and given the narrative themes of the rest of My Hero Academia thus far, it’s absurd to think that’s even an option.

Next time: how scrapping the ex-MLA portions of the PLF undermines MHA's narrative integrity.

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

Footnotes (Part Three)

[26] And in the legal sense, murder in the second degree.

[27] For the monstrous callousness of his comments in that conversation, said guard is immediately murdered by karma All For One. I very much hope we ever get Shishikura’s opinion on this, because I’m pretty sure the guard was his dad.

[28] Who, in Chapter 35 of that series, leads a group of police firing rubber bullets at an active villain, emphasizing that the police are trained in non-lethal tactics, and any escalation from that is not to be taken lightly.

[29] Indeed, you could make a fair argument that that’s exactly why the manga included the Noumu to begin with, though the lower-tier ones wind up captured as often as not.

[30] Vigilantes, Chapter 74.

[31] This sidesteps the matter of “rescue heroes,” those who focus on disaster response and evacuation. Note, however, that this is not a categorization that pits those heroes against non-quirk-abusing civilians. Non-quirk-abusing civilians are criminals for police to deal with, not heroes of any stripe.

[32] This would be in keeping with real-world de-escalation tactics. So for e.g. the purse-snatcher in Chapter 1, where we’re told he didn’t use his quirk until he’d been backed into a corner, I would bet that Kamuy Woods or whoever confronted the thief didn’t start actually using their quirk on the man until he went into giant mode. That is anyway a kinder interpretation than noting that he was a heteromorph and would have been using his quirk automatically just by virtue of existing in public.

[33] After digging him out from under the stairway it had a teenager drop on top of him, I mean. Did he even have much of a chance to use Incite at the villa, do you think?

[34] Though given that literally every member of the MLA we’ve met is addressed solely by their code name, I don’t for a second believe he could have gotten real names out of everyone he talked to.

[35] And judges virtually always grant warrants. It’s that presumption of guilt thing again.

[36] But that panel of the normally taciturn Edgeshot shouting at a bunch of high schoolers not to let a single person escape is pretty damn telling too.

[37] 14% of the Japanese populace is under 14 years old, so that’s not too far off, though I’d be inclined to think, based on everything we know about them, that the MLA was having more kids than Japan at large, not fewer.

[38] This should have been Uraraka, by the way.

[39] An exaggeration, but only by a handful of tenths of a percentage point.

[40] Though until recently, it’s served as a great check on recidivism, clearly.

[41] You know, assuming that they weren't all arrested in the middle of their workday or cleaning house or going to university or what have you.

[42] Both are among the agencies that make up the Ministry of Justice. I’d be willing to bet that, in-universe, the Hero Public Safety Commission is also under the Ministry of Justice umbrella.

[43] The funds are then remitted to the National Treasury.

[44] Though one thing to note for our current context is that, even when those parties were dissolved, it did not automatically follow that any duly elected representatives were expelled from office. Unless there was legal reason to remove them, any elected officials were simply rendered “Independents” rather than being affiliated with a political party. The constitution stipulates that Diet members can only be expelled by a two-thirds majority vote, though in such circumstances, most politicians choose to step down from their positions before it comes to such drastic measures.

[45] A newspaper or other bulletin officially authorized by the government to publish public and legal notices—in Japan these days, it’s an online site/newsletter.

[46] And they’re often still controversial with progressive activists, as the invocation against Aum was even contemporaneously! Incidentally, Aum’s dissolution lasted for a mere two years before the government panel ultimately declined to make it permanent.

[47] And if you don’t think the HMP had someone watching the official Japanese government website, you’re clearly not taking them seriously.

[48] And possibly more besides; the dialogue in question trails off in a way that suggests that the obstruction charge is only the first in a list.

[49] Start at Yotsubashi Rikiya being inducted when he was still in schoolboy shorts and continue right on up through the people we see in school uniforms in various mass battle scenes involving the MLA rank and file.

[50] And it easily could be thousands. If, say, even 10% of the PLF are minors, that’d be well over 10,000 kids, and thus we’re right back to overcrowding problems, except this time they’re about Japan’s child services programs, and the last thing they need is a new group of kids that numbers a full third of the number of children already in their care in real-life Japan. Naturally, the number only climbs if you think Re-Destro wasn’t counting kids in his initial reckoning of the MLA’s membership.

#bnha analysis #bnha meta #paranormal liberation front #meta liberation army #boku no hero academia #my hero academia #bnha #bnha spoilers #my writing #plf arrests #stillness has salt

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kreactionsentertainment · 6 years

Text

BTS Scenario: Exposing Me (Yoongi)

This is an ask based on this reaction.

Trying to figure out Yoongi (or even his girl version) is one of the great mysteries of BTS. I'll try my best!

~ Admin Destiny 💜

Yoonji, as they've often referred to her as in private, is disturbing similar to Yoongi.

From sleeping habits to how they hold their chop sticks, they practically mirror each other. Since Yoonji came into their lives four months ago, Jimin and Jungkook have tried to get the others to play a game: who said it, Yoonji or Yoongi. No one ever wins.

The maknaes are convinced it's a conspiracy created by the government while the older members aren't sure what to think. Yoongi, though, is the most indecisive. He is the only one like him.

Of course, he's beginning to see what the others see. It was the most obvious to him when Seokjin made a joke and Yoonji covered up her joy, just as Yoongi does. The humor may be lost in most statements, but Jin gives off such wonderful energy, it's hard to mask. Yoongi has long given up on Hoseok and Namjoon, the members he's known the longest. The maknaes' adorable actions are touch and go some days. Sometimes, they're too cute.

Yoongi once wondered if she's happier than he is. Just like any clone of Yoongi, however, Yoonji hides all of her pain.

For years, not even the other rappers could get through Yoongi's thick walls. Now, he's able to release tracks to the world expressing his struggles. With Yoonji, Yoongi finally understands the annoyance his group members had with him at times.

It's so obvious that Yoonji needs to talk about something, but none of them can get her to open up. She's been extremely quiet lately. Naturally, everyone pointed at Yoongi to figure it out. The trouble is, despite popular belief, he has no idea where to start.

During his darkest days, Yoongi could go through a hundred feelings that made him feel like shit. Anxiety, depression, and stressing about perfection are just the tip of the iceberg. Hell, sometimes he can't even tell what's wrong with himself. How is he supposed to know about someone else?

Regardless of the difficulty of the task, Yoongi wants to help her. All he needs is to speak with her alone.

Everything happens for a reason.

Taehyung invited her over last week, but, due to a scheduling confusion, he can't spend time with Yoonji until later. Everyone else, too, is busy working on the next album. A strange twist in normal occurrences has resulted in only Yoongi having a few free hours. It's perfect.

Once Yoonji is greeted at the door, the similar pair move to the couch, not saying another word.

Great start, Min Yoongi thinks to himself. Much like him, Yoonji has no idea what to say. Let the awkwardness begin.

"So anything new lately?" Yoongi asks.

She tells him no. Yoongi knows he doesn't feel like himself and Yoonji catches on to this. Instead of politely probing her, Yoongi recieves a question from Yoonji.

"I am here if you need to talk. Do you?"

Yoongi decides just to jump into the belly of the beast. He would hate if someone else beat around the bush.

"I am actually curious as to how you are doing," Yoongi states states bluntly, "the kids are, too."

Yoonji pauses for a while, but nods.

"No matter what I do, you always see through me, Min Yoongi," she replies naively.

Funny how she herself doesn't see what the group sees. Maybe the others just opened Yoongi's eyes.

"Perhaps that's why you talk with the kids so easily."

Easily?

"Nothing about our friendship is easy," Yoongi says honestly, "Namjoon and I have taken eight years to understand each other."

"Really? It seems like you all instantly connected and I'm the outsider," Yoonji shyly ends.

So that's the issue.

Feeling that way causes stomach aches that last for weeks. Yoongi knows. Since he went through that, though, he can now help Yoonji.

He begins telling her tricks to have conversations with the boys. Get Jungkook going on video games and he won't stop, but Hoseok likes discussing books, mostly fiction. Obviously, only quick examples, though Yoongi he knows fearing rejection by any of the them is pointless. Most days, he was the one rejecting them by his cold front.

"It takes time and hard work," Yoongi assures her, "Every relationship needs maintenance."

This is something he believes whole heartly. The others have their flaws, of course but so does he. Living and working together can be far from perfect at times, though, Yoongi would hate being alone now. So much has changed in less than ten years, it makes his head spin. Regardless of all the bad, he wouldn't trade it for the world.

All through his explanation of the boys' small habits and likings, there's a glow in Yoongi's eyes. A grin grows on his face as he's telling a story from one of their stupid adventures. Naturally, Yoonji can barely respond in any human language to such a strong bond. Still, she tries.

"You seem to really care about them."

The other, too, is lacking the words. At times, even now, Yoongi doesn't express his true feelings as he should. He has been proud of how well he's done lately, despite still struggling. With Yoonji, however, he'll reveal his heart. If he can't be honest with himself, there's no chance he can be with the ones that mean the most to him.

"They're my family. My brothers," Yoongi says with a smile, "I love them."

#bts #bts scenarios #min yoongi #admin destiny

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hoseokutie · 7 years

Text

Market Boy pt.3

Part 1 Part 2

Words: 2.3K

Warnings: None

____________________________

It's been about a month and a half since you and Jungkook have been together, and things are going amazing. You two always spend time with one another while on your breaks, and you both are starting to spend time at each others apartments.

You guys have been spending so much time together that you both seemed to have forgotten to introduce one another to your friends, and they are starting to get curious. Especially Jungkook's friends.

"Jungkook you can't hide her from us forever. We're you're family too and we deserve to know." Jimin said as he followed Jungkook around the back of his parents shop.

"Jimin, I told you when the time is right then you will get to meet her, but as of now I want to wait." Jungkook told him setting the box down.

"Now are you going to help me unpack, or did you come here to pester me?" the younger boy asked cutting open the box and taking out its contents.

"Well if we're being honest here, I was sent by the other boys, because they thought that you would tell me who she was, but now that I see that I've failed, I'm going to buy some snacks for the get together tonight. Which you will be going to, correct?" Jimin asked him.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure I am. Unless you guys aren't telling me something." Jungkook said looking at him with an eyebrow raised.

"Not that I know of, but if you want to bring your mystery lady tonight then that would be great too." he said nudging Jungkook with his shoulder and raising his eyebrow.

In return Jungkook gave him a straight face and went back to unpacking the boxes diligently.

"So I'm going to assume that your silence means that you'll think about it!" Jimin patted Kookie on the back and walked towards the exit.

"Hey can I have one of the little candies?" He asked referring to the bowl of candy that was kept at the front of the store for the customers.

"Are you a paying customer?" Jungkook asked staring at him.

"I'm your best friend. That should be enough" He grabbed more than one piece of candy and Jungkook rolled his eyes because now Jungkook has to refill the candy bowl which is what he was trying to avoid.

Jimin smiled brightly and took his rations before leaving the tiny store.

"Have good day Mr. and Mrs. Jeon." Jimin said in Korean before walking out.

Jimin sighed to himself and pulled his phone out of his back pocket as he received a call from one of the boys.

"Well did he tell you who she was or what she looks like?"

"Well hello to you too Yoongi, and to answer your question, no he didn't tell me anything. I think we should just leave him alone and let him introduce her to us when he's ready" Jimin suggested as he popped the piece of candy into his mouth.

"Yeah and maybe I should go bald and move to a Buddhist temple." he said and Jimin stopped in the middle of the market and stared at his phone.

"You know sometimes I hate talking to you, because the words that come out of your mouth make absolutely no sense whatsoever and I wonder why I get my advice from you." Jimin said then stopped when he heard somebody call his name.

"Yoongs I'll call you back. Taehyung and Hoseok just walked in here." He told him just as he was about to hang up the phone.

"Hey! Tell Taehyung that if he doesn't buy me the candy that I asked for that I will hide the things that he loves the most." he said in a serious tone.

"Hyung you can't hide me, I'm too big." Jimin said jokingly smiling to himself, taking advantage of the moment.

"Don't underestimate me Park. Deliver the message and have a nice day." He hung up the phone and put it back into his back pocket.

"Hey, did you end up finding out anything about mystery lady?" Hoseok asked walking up to Jimin and wrapping arm around his shoulder.

"Nope, he's a difficult book to read. He really wants to keep her a secret. He's very serious about her, it's actually really cute." Jimin informed him as we went into the candy shop.

"Well I still would like to meet the lucky lady very soon." Hoseok said as he grabbed a small basket.

"Taehyung do you know what you're supposed to be getting?" Chim asked looking at a pack of gummy bears picking them up and putting them in the basket.

"Tae?" The older boy asked turning around to see why he didn't answer the question.

"Yeah hold this for me." He said handing him the mini shopping list and the basket he got for himself.

"Where the hell are you going?" Hoseok asked watching as he walked out of the shop.

"It looks like he's going to talk to the girl over there in the tea shop." Jimin mumbled.

"Oh dear God, why is he like this. Tae! We have places to go. Can you please do this another time?!" Hoseok whisper-yelled, but Taehyung still continued to walk over.

"We have to go with him, I want to see this. Yoongi and his candy can wait." Hoseok said putting the basket back in it's spot

"But Seokjin is expecting us home at a certain time so that he can start dinner." Jimin said as we walked over and into the shop setting ourselves down at a table.

"Well we'll just tell him that we were in traffic." He said picking up a menu.

"We live within walking distance!"Jimin said a little too loudly then quickly looked down becoming embarrassed.

"Stop your worrying Jimin. You worry too much." he said hitting Jimin on the shoulder. The older boys both looked over the menu and watched Tae as he walked up to the counter to talk to the girl at the register.

Taehyung walked up to the counter and leaned on his hand smiling at the girl at the counter. She was wearing a yellow sundress and her curly hair was in a large poof.

"Hi, how can I serve you today?" she asked smiling at him.

"I'll take a green tea, a blueberry muffin and maybe your phone number?" Taehyung asked smiling at her and she chuckled.

"I can only give you two out of the three things that you asked for, and my number isn't one of them." she said and he pouted taking out his wallet.

She's really cute, but I also have been craving green tea and blueberry muffins. Taehyung thought to himself.

"Well that's a bummer, but I'll take what I can get." He said handing her the money and taking my receipt from her.

"Is there actually anything I can get from you? Like maybe an Instagram, or even a twitter. I'll make a twitter if it means that I'll get to talk to you." He said and she laughed a little louder at his statement, grabbing his muffin then handing it to him.

"I win a lot of arguments if you didn't know by now." Taehyung said also taking his tea from her.

"Well don't get me wrong, you're definitely attractive, but I don't know if my-" Taehyung saw her pause as she looked towards her right.

He turned around to see what she was looking at and all he saw was Jungkook standing there looking lost.

"Hey Kookie!" Tae said loudly waving at him, he gave him a weird smile and waved back then quickly walked off nearly running to his family's shop.

"Do you know Jungkook?" He asked once she looked back at him and she shook her head.

"Nope, not all, I've um only seen his parents. Totally never met him before." she said clearing her throat.

"Interesting, ah right you were saying that you find me attractive but..."

"Well, I think you are very handsome and all, but I uh. Well I am actually a lesbian and I don't think my girlfriend would appreciate me dating a guy. I'm sorry." she said and Tae frowned.

"Well now I feel really bad." she said looking down.

"No don't feel bad. You like what you like. I should be the one apologizing. I didn't even let you get a word out. No hard feelings?" Tae asked and she smiled shaking his hand.

"No hard feelings, hey what's your name by the way?" she asked.

"Just call me Tae.." He told her and she nodded.

"Tae, I like that. It's got a nice ring to it." she said.

"Well I appreciate it Y/N"

"How do you know my name?" she asked and he chuckled.

"Well it's the name of your shop, and it's also on your name tag." He pointed that out and she placed her hand on his forehead shaking her head.

"Yeah I'm definitely not the most smartest girl in the world." she muttered out

"Well neither is my friend Jimin, isn't that right Chim?" Tae turned around and smiled at him and he smiled back and waved. She laughed and shook her head.

"I'm sure you guys are all smart in your own ways, oh look at that. More customers, I guess this is the end of our journey. It was great meeting you Taehyung." she said walking away

He smiled and walked over to sit with the two older boys who followed after him.

"So it looks like you lost this argument huh Tae?" Hoseok asked while laughing at me as he stood up.

"Sadly yes, but when you lose a battle, you can always win a war." Tae said proudly walking back to the shop where he was supposed to be originally.

"Yeah, I don't think that applies to this moment right now." Jimin said and Tae pushed him to the side.

"What the hell guys! Nobody has been answering my calls or texts, I got worried!" The boys turned around slowly and saw Jin, Namjoon, and Yoongi standing at the entrance of the store.

"Oh h-hey guys. I was just um strolling around the shops and well-" Jimin started.

"He was flirting with a girl, but she turned out to be a lesbian!" Hoseok said loudly and the guys laughed at him.

Tae crossed his arms and hit Hoseok on his arm.

Why the hell must he be so loud all the time. Taehyung thought to himself.

"Look, it all worked out okay? Her and I are friends and there are no hard feelings you jerks."

"Well that's obviously karma for not going to get the things like I asked you to. Now come on so I can make this meal for guys night." Jin demanded as he grabbed a shopping cart

"Why do you need a shopping cart and not a basket?" Tae asked knowing that they would probably be there for a little while.

"Don't ask questions Taehyung."

______________________

It was closing time and you wiped off the last table of the day and walked back to the sink rinsing off the washcloth getting rid of any germs. You heard the bell on the door chime and rolled your eyes sighing lowly in annoyance.

"Sorry, we're closed!" you announced not bothering to turn around.

"Are you sure that you can't fit in one more person?" A familiar voice asked and she turned around smiling only to frown a few seconds later.

"I don't know, are you asking your girlfriend or the owner of this shop?" You said with an obvious attitude.

"Yeah, can we please talk about that?" he asked grabbing a seat and sitting down at a table

You sat the rug down and walked over sitting across from him crossing her legs and sitting back waiting to hear what he had to say.

"The reason I didn't want to introduce you to the boys yet, is because I'm scared and I like you a lot, and you're also the first girlfriend that I've ever had. I just want this to all work out well. I wanna take things slow with you and make sure that everything is perfect, y'know?" He always knows what to say to make someone feel like shit.

"Jungkook, I'm sorry. I was just upset, because of things that have happened in the past, and I didn't want that to happen again. Can you forgive me, please? For the second time this week?" You asked taking his hand in your own.

"As long as you can forgive me." He kissed your hand and smiled at me.

"Deal." You both said standing up and grabbing your bag from the table next to you both.

"What did you end up telling Taehyung anyway?" He asked you while he took the bag from your hands and you smiled awkwardly looking down.

"I told him that I was a lesbian, and that my girlfriend wouldn't appreciate me going out with a guy." You told him and he laughed loudly.

"Oh that will definitely be an interesting story to tell when you two officially meet, won't it?" he asked me and you hit his arm playfully.

"Oh shut up. I'm sure there are embarrassing stories out there about you that I don't know about, well not yet at least." You smirked at him and held his hand after locking up the shop.

"Yeah it's official you will never meet the boys now." He pulled you closer to him and kissed your cheek.

"Aw you're no fun." You said to him jokingly as you pulled away from him.

"Oh I can show you fun." He said suggestively and simply laughed loudly hitting his his arm again.

"Go home Jungkook, you're being weird."

"Yes ma'am, I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

"I can't wait!" Was the last thing you told him as you walked to the right of the sidewalk with a bright smile on your face.

#jeon jungkook #jeon jungkook scenarios #jungkook #jungkook scenarios #BTS #bts scenarios #fluffy scenario #fluffy bts

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authorskookies · 7 years

Note

so this is my first time ever requesting a prompt but i just got so excited knowing you're back i just had to; would you mind doing an enemies to lovers!au where kookie and jimin aren't as close as what fans are being led on and actually dislike each other but they have this sexual tension until it just breaks one day and BAM! hate sex but no one knows and slowly they fall for each other thru small gestures but w a lot of angst bc i like pain. omfg please and thank you !

Title: I Hate You (But I Really, Really Like You)Pairing: Jikook (Jimin/Jungkook)Word Count: 5,832Rating: NC 17Warnings/Notes: Mild sexual content (+ there’s a choking scene too).Summary: Jimin and Jungkook hate eachother, but Jimin can't really tell if this is what hate is supposed to feel like after a while.

Jeon Jungkook.

The Golden Maknae.

Confident, talented, charming, lovable, innocent Golden Maknae Jungkook who makes all the Noonas' hearts swoon at every wink or smirk.

The Jeon Jungkook who gets nearly all the vocal lines in their songs, who receives all of the extra praise for doing things that the other members are doing just as well if not better.

All because he's just. So. Perfect.

He's the Golden Maknae, they say!

Well he's a little shit, Jimin thinks.

Park Jimin is not a fan of Jeon Jungkook. He can't stand the brat, the way he looks at everyone as though he's innocent and playful, childish and fun loving, just sheepish and hard working like a good kid his age would be. Well Jimin knows he isn't, he knows what lies beneath that facade, the narcissistic, sarcastic, cocky son of a bitch that Jeon Jungkook really is.

But alas, the mask is way too convincing to the rest. Everyone just gives him a pat on the back for it, Jin even gets motherly over him; that seriously pisses Jimin off actually, because Jungkook is not a baby and he shouldn't get that goddamn special treatment. What was so great about him? That he could sing? Couldn't they all? That he could dance? Jimin could dance entire routines while circling around that show off. That he had a baby face and cute bunny teeth?

Oh, because visual members are so hard to come by in a world of idols and thousands of trainees with faces just as pretty.

"You're doing the entire routine wrong, your feet are getting too sloppy and that's gonna mess us all up."

"Oh? And what, you're doing any better? Your half-assed body rolls are stiffer than Namjoon hyung's were back when we were trainees."

"You know you're talking a lot for someone who's usually too busy sucking PD-nim's dick." It's a low blow, and Jimin knows it but he doesn't back down at all, he's been holding it in for a while, how obvious it was that Jungkook was that much of a kiss up.

However it does more than just voice Jimin's annoyance on the topic of Jungkook receiving special treatment for his schmoozing. It throws more wood to the flame already growing inside the younger, definitely hitting a nerve. "Say that again, and I swear..."

"What, that you're a kiss ass? Sorry to break it to you, 'Golden Maknae', but some of us here actually gotta work to get noticed, instead of just winking and acting all young, cute and innocent."

"Work? Oh so flashing your abs at every chance you get is hard work, you think? But hey, that's what got you noticed huh? Why come at me for what got me noticed?"

"I'm not... that's not even... Shut up, that's not the same. I work hard to get my body in shape and it's part of a routine we learn, I don't think that's the same as getting praised for shit that isn't even valid half the time. Oh look at that, Jungkook got out of bed! Wow! He's so grown up now, Kookie Oppa, stop growing up!! Ohhh!!"

At this point both boys are in each other's faces. They can definitely see the pure rage burning within the other with one meeting of gazes, both squinting as this little argument continues to roll on.

"You're just fucking jealous."

"Jealous?! Of what?! You're a little brat with way too much credit for what you actually do! I fucking hate people like you."

"Well you don't have to worry, that feeling sure is mutual, I hate you just as much; but then again, since I am the Golden Maknae, and obviously do evening better than you? I hate you more."

From an outsider's perspective, the two would resemble that of cat and dog, always at each other's throats, barking and hissing at every chance presented. Sometimes the others wish their practices were public, so that they would have to play nice again as part of their usual act. It would so be well worth the lack in privacy in Yoongi's opinion if he at least got some quiet when trying to work. Obviously trying to write lyrics here wasn't a smart idea.

"Are they still fighting?"

"Obviously, when are they not?" Yoongi gives Seokjin a look of annoyance, and the elder frowns, just holding out a hand to help him up, then looking to the others packing their things.

"Just leave them behind, they'll get tired and realize eventually. Unless you wanna hear this go on in the dorms." Namjoon offers, and no one makes any argument because they're all exhausted and really want sleep.

"I hate you," Jungkook pants out in between harsh, breathtaking kisses, tongues tangling and teeth present more than they should ever be in kisses. He thinks his lower lip is bleeding, but who gives a shit right now. "I fucking hate you so much." It's repeated over and over while Jimin presses him against the wall of the closet, the younger latched onto him tightly.

Jimin can feel nails pressing into his back, digging even deeper every time he thrusts into Jungkook, like the kid is trying to make him feel just as much pain, like he's punishing him for not properly using lubricant. Hey, it's not exactly like he planned this to carry that around with him or anything!

It's such a small area, too, it doesn't give the elder much wiggle room, they're on the floor and Jimin's on his knees in between Jungkook's bent legs, Jungkook's got his back pressed to the wall and by some miracle they manage to fit this way. It's not in any way perfect, no, the Maknae sure as hell isn't going to shut up about the fact that his shoulder blades keep hitting the wall the faster Jimin goes, that his voice isn't going to be on its usually perfect pitch because Jimin's making him moan too goddamn loud.

But maybe that's what he wants, to piss the younger off like this.

Especially when things get even more heated, when the entire closet is just full of their exhaled breathing and they can only hear each other's panting and moaning, hissing and cursing. When Jimin can feel the younger unravel near his peak, even the older male feels like his body is going to give out, sweat coating his skin and more than likely Jungkook's as well.

Nails pull out of his skin, and instead of inflicting such pain on Jimin's back Jungkook just wraps his arms around his shoulders, gripping him close and tight as he reaches climax and it's probably the most beautiful sound that Jimin's ever heard. Not that he'll ever say such a thing, but it's definitely something to think about in the small time they both take to calm down from their high.This isn't how it's supposed to be. They're supposed to hate each other, he knows; well, technically, they're supposed to love each other as group mates of course, but in reality they hate each other, although behind that, they don't...? It's all just so confusing to Jimin, it's like going in blind to what used to be a clear pathway, now dark and foggy, much resembling the hazy lines between I hate you and harder, Jimin, harder.

Which is what Jimin heard, over, and over again. It's not new to him that Jungkook is vocal, they've been at this little unspoken agreement for a while, but Jimin doesn't like to be told what to do... At least not by those younger than him. Especially not by Jeon Jungkook.

"Jimin, go sit in between Taehyung and Jungkook."

"Why?"

"The fans will like it, they like the Maknae line, just do it. Hey, stop looking like that, look alive boys! Turn on the charm, especially you Jimin." Their manager warns, pointing at the shorter boy, who just groans at the thought, going over to sit as directed, not understanding why he has to be here, why he of all people was cursed with the task of "loving Jeon Jungkookie" for the rest of his on-camera career. God he wonders what would happen one day if the cameras figured out what they really thought of each other--at least Jungnkook got it easy, he can at least shove him away and show that he doesn't like it playfully as a rejection. Jimin's stuck playing the lovesick monkey here.

"Hello we are Bangtan Sonyeondan!" The others chirp at the camera and Jimin realizes a bit too late, but smiles none the less, hopping into the conversation and listening to the others speak.

The entire interview goes by rather slowly, in Jimin's opinion. It's supposed to be shorter than what they're used to, however the fact that he's bored out of his mind doesn't help he time pass by. Most questions were reserved for Namjoon or even Yoongi about the album, a few for Taehyung for comic relief. It's only when they mention Jungkook that Jimin realizes his only real purpose in being here.

Ah, of course. As always. Make the little shit look good.

"I would rank myself very low--"

"Aigooo our Jungkookie, so modest. He's so shy, really these kids these days. We all know he's so perfect at everything. What can't he do?" Forced smiles are so much easier to come by when you have other humorous thoughts in your head, and that wasn't very difficult for Jimin because his entire presence here was a joke in his opinion. His only way to chime in was praise the maknae, and of course, he'd do it well. Like told. "You know he's even taken up his hand at writing, too, he's been helping Yoongi Hyung in the studio lately, with our last Outro, tell them all about it Jungkookie."

Bullshit, Jimin thinks to himself as Yoongi joins Jungkook in talking about the song he had a hand in writing. Big deal, it wasn't as if he'd put in as much work as Yoongi did, or as Namjoon, or as anyone involved in composing their music. But of course, the Golden Maknae touches a piece of paper and suddenly it goes platinum.

Jimin's never felt so good hurting someone. It sounds sadistic, but the way his fingers curl around Jungkook's neck while his palm keeps him pinned against the bed, it feels so incredible. Not just the fact that he's pretty much choking Jungkook... But the noises Jungkook makes, they're not that of serious pain or cries for help. They're... Encouraging.

Jungkook's enjoying it. His own nails are digging into Jimin's forearm, barely open eyes gazing at the elder as lips remain parted to try and grasp any form of oxygen.

Never in his entire career did Jimin think he would ever fuck, and partially choke, Jeon Jungkook.

"J...Jimin..." Hoarse voice brigs him out of his thoughts, loosening tight grip from around the younger's neck a little as he realizes the double tap to his forearm, signaling that he was getting lightheaded. His thrusts are slowed, and Jimin has to lean down to capture his lips... Not because he wants to, but because he needs to make sure he's responsive and well, not actually passing out. That's all. It has nothing to do with the way Jungkook's sweet lips taste or how delicately soft they still manage to be even after Jimin's spent their time together biting and sucking and nipping at them; they should be outright mangled and split at this point, but of course, Jungkook's just so goddamn perfect that even laws of logic don't apply to him. The only sign of imperfection when pulling away is the slight swell in his lips, looking even more so as they part to pant out for air, the flush in his cheeks evident at their eyes meet momentarily. Imperfection never looked so perfect. And that pisses him off.

Thrusts pick up new found speed, elder releasing Jungkook's neck and growling lowly as he grips at the bedsheets along his sides. Jungkook whines out, back arching as the bed creaks in ways they both know would be heard so easily had the other members been home... But they weren't. And as always, whenever left alone, Jimin and Jungkook either resulted to arguing, or fucking.

It's become more the latter as of late. And that makes Jimin nervous.

Because when he used to look down at Jungkook like this, he wouldn't feel an ounce of regret, his marks would be angry and red and he'd find pride in pissing Jungkook off, they'd curse and shout and Jimin would want nothing more than to make him feel true pain. But now... Now he was having difficulty leaving marks dark enough to last anymore. His skin was soft, fair, it was too per... No, he was not going to result to calling Jeon Jungkook perfect after so long of hating the kid.

When he used to look down at Jungkook, he'd know this was just for the sake of release.

When he looks down at Jungkook now... He finds himself watching the younger, coaxing him into release as well, pleasing him before himself―

Shit.

"I have a problem." Jimin blurts out upon entering the room, causing the other presence within it to glance up to him. He has a seat next to Taehyung, who's set aside his phone to give him the attention requested and Jimin takes a moment to make sure no one else is around. "Is this a Jungkook problem?"

The question has his heart stutter several beats, because for a moment he thinks Taehyung has found him out― but how, so easily?! "I mean if you guys got in another fight leave me out of it man." Relief washes over Jimin, figuring that of course, Taehyung hadn't meant it the way he thought. "No, no... I wouldn't come to you with a problem about our fights... Again."

Taehyung chuckles, thankful because as the mutual friend, he hated having to take sides which was often a desired result between those conversations. "Girl problem?"

"Yeah, let's go with that..." Jimin licks his lips. "How do you know when one emotion ends and one begins?"

"I'm not sure I'm following?"

"I mean... Like, let's say I'm not sure how to feel about this girl. Because I thought I felt one thing, but now I'm feeling another. Does that make sense?"

Taehyung's eye brows are furrowed by the time Jimin finishes his explanation, but nonetheless he nods. "I think... So you're saying your feelings are changing? Well that's normal, isn't it? As time goes on, a relationship has to develop. Things change over time."

"What if I don't want them to change?"

"Then don't let them? I don't know, Jimin, these are your feelings so control them somehow. You have the power to do that you know."

No, he really doesn't.

He thanks Taehyung, despite not finding any of this helpful... He just hopes his friend won't go mouthing off that Jimin has some girlfriend or is in love or something dramatic like that.

"Your voice is scratchy. It's ruining our harmonies." Jungkook complains while he and Jimin are supposed to be recording, but alas being sent into a small booth alone was not a smart idea, as Yoongi and Namjoon were soon to find out upon trying to get them to harmonize for the past half hour. "Can you two just try again? Christ, if one of you cuts it off one more time I swear I will fucking lock you in there for the night." Yoongi growls, and it's no surprise because their bickering really has been driving him crazy today.

"It's not my fault! He's the one who keeps stopping!" Jimin snaps, pointing at Jungkook before the younger shoves him. "Bullshit! You keep hitting the wrong note and ruining everything!"

"For fucks sake, just do it, I'm the one who says cut and determines whether or not it's wrong. Got it?" The eldest cocks a brow and starts the track again, waiting for the two to at least try to cooperate this time.

Both decide to suck it up, ignoring the others presence as they sang and this time when Yoongi cuts the track, it isn't due to their bickering, it's actually constructive this time. "You don't sound like you wanna sing together."

"What else is new."

Yoongi's one more smart remark away from back handing this brat.

"I mean, your voices aren't in sync. The point of harmonizing is so that your voices sound smooth together, not like individual recordings forced into the backing vocals of a track." He sighs, playing back the recording; it wasn't terrible, both of their voices fit nicely with the song, but individually, not as a whole. "Maybe I should... Get someone else to pair with one of you. Or just get two others completely. Tae's voice might work..."

"What? No! No no, we're sorry, Hyung let us try again! Please. We'll work harder!" Jungkook immediately starts, not wanting to possibly lose his part. Of course Yoongi doesn't need that much convincing, because Jungkook's begging can get to anyone, and Jimin takes obvious notice of this... Why doesn't he hate it like he usually would? Probably because Jungkook is saving their asses. Yeah, that's it. It has nothing to do with how he pouts out his lower lip and pleads for another chance, or the fact that he squeezes Jimin's shoulder like he's trying to prove further to Yoongi that they'd 'play nice'.

This time goes a lot more smoothly. Instead of ignoring each other's existence... They worked together? It's a little off, but it's a start.

He's hard.

Plain and simple.

Usually it should've been easy to handle this... Usually Jimin could've just gotten himself off, or better yet had another rough session with Jungkook because he's always up for it... But oddly enough his time he doesn't want to seek out Jungkook. Lately he's been avoiding it, which is odd, but after that last session with those... Feelings... He fears the possibility of it happening again. He doesn't know what that feeling is, and he doesn't want to, he hates Jungkook. Hates him. That's it.

Speak of the devil, and Jeon Jungkook shall come. Said teen makes his way into the dorm, probably coming back from the dance studio of course with his attire all athletic and sweaty. "Has anyone showered yet?" He asks, kicking off his shoes and praying that the answer was no, that there was still some hot water left. "Uhh... I think Jin hyung might be showering." He mutters, shifting a bit and holding one of the couch cushions in a way that would cover his crotch, pretending to focus on the television.

Jungkook groans, hearing the shower in fact running and this meant there would be at least another fifteen minutes to wait. "Are those my shorts?" He asks suddenly, and Jimin's brows raise, shocked he would even dare accuse him. "They are not!" Without thinking he yanks the pillow off, getting up to show the obvious white stripe at the top hem that Jungkook's didn't have.

If only he'd realized the small smirk on the younger's lips earlier. The little shit tricked him. "Made you get up." He's getting way too cocky for Jimin's taste, and he scoffs. "Okay, fine, what? You're acting like you've never been fucking hard before. Which I've sure as hell witnessed, thank you very much."

"I didn't say anything actually, but nice save." Jungkook slips his hoodie off and tosses it aside, leaving him in his loose tank top. He doesn't hesitate to go over to Jimin, shoving him back to lay on the couch, and before they knew it the younger was crawling into the space between Jimin's legs. The elder leans up on his elbows immediately, and while usually... He should've just let this happen, he didn't. "Yah, what are you doing..." He mutters as his zipper is tugged down, reaching down to grab at Jungkook's hair to pull his teeth away from the hemline of his boxers, forced to look up at him in a quite irritated manner. "The fuck does it look like?" The younger asked as if it was clear (which, it kind of was).

"Well don't."

That's different. Jungkook gives him a weird look, not moving still. "Since when do you say no to getting off?"

"Since when do you offer so easy?"

Well that shut him up. Well played. The younger decides it isn't worth it, he's tired and he sure as hell isn't in the mood to argue more than they already do, so he gets up. He shoves Jimin's thighs so he could move his legs to allow Jungkook off, and he grabs his hoodie on the way out. "Fine, get off your self, asshole."

The moment he's gone, and Jimin knows it because he can hear Jungkook slam his bedroom door, Jimin drops back against the cushion of the couch, letting out a large groan as he palms his face. What was wrong with him, they had a good system, and here he was fucking it up.

"You want some?" Jimin offers from his yogurt, holding out the container with the spoon still in it. Jungkook pauses and glances up from his phone, half expecting maybe Taehyung or Hoseok to be sitting next to him and be the ones Jimin was really talking to. But no, it was him.

"What'd you do, poison it?"

"What? No―I'm offering you some yogurt, damn."

"You're acting weird. I don't know what it is but I swear, if you're up to something, and before our comeback..."

"I was just being nice!" He snaps, groaning and slapping the container back down onto the counter, before storming out. Jungkook frowns, watching him go in confusion because what the hell was that?

"Jimin it's me, open up—"

"For the millionth time, use your goddamn honorifics, I'm older than you." He grumbles once he's opened the door to see the other standing out in the hall, rolling his eyes at Jimin's words. "Fine, Jimin hyung, get me off."

"Excuse me?" Jimin snaps in hushed tone, in case any of the others were listening in; Jungkook knew better than to say anything about their activities out loud like that, so he must've been sure no one was around before having come to him. "I haven't properly gotten off in like a week, and neither have you so if you'd kindly let me in and get it over with I'd like to get back to my room before the other's get home." Jungkook states nonchalantly, crossing his arms as he waits for the other to decide; he doesn't expect to be turned away, after all Jimin never turned him away and the younger's pretty sure it's just because they're both hormonal and need a release somehow and being so busy with work it's just easier. Well that's what he tells himself, too.

Jimin takes a moment to look back and forth in the hallway, just to make sure no one was around before pushing the door to his room wider to allow the other in. Part of him thinks he shouldn't go along with this again, because of the feelings he's been having, but after having to get himself off last incident when pushing Jungkook away on the couch, he really can't compare his hand to the younger and he's had to figure it out the hard way.

"First of all, what makes you say I haven't properly gotten any? Who says you're the only one I'm fucking?"

Jungkook gives him a look that wreaks of smugness, holding back a snort at the comment over how ridiculous he found it. "Right."

What a pain, Jimin thinks, and doesn't comment further because he really can't think of anything else to help his nonexistent case since Jungkook is right. He won't let him know that, though.

By the time Jimin locks the door, the maknae is already tugging off his t shirt.

Things go how they always do. Tongues tangle and skin presses against skin, and suddenly the air around them starts to thin out rapidly in Jimin's opinion. He needs to breathe. It's unfortunate that the moment his lips are free, they let out more than just exhalation. He doesn't know what causes it to happen, but it just happens.

"I like you."

"What?"

What started out as harsh kisses and playful tugs has now turned into a tense atmosphere and silence.

"I can't do this because I like you now. It's hard because I want to fucking hate you but the more I do this the more I really fucking like you."

Jungkook's stares in bewilderment, not having expected that answer at all. He knew there was something going on, something that was messing with their usual system but he never would've thought of this as a possibility.

Without a word the younger pulling away completely to reach for his clothes, picking them up rather awkwardly before just carrying them in a bundle over to the door to leave in his underwear. He didn't care if the others were to see him that way, he just needed to get out of this room now.

And with that, Jimin stood alone in the middle of his room, eyes closing before palming his face and groaning a quiet 'fuck' into his palm.

They haven't spoken for days.

Not like they used to gab like best friends before, but their bickering took up a lot of the conversations had in the practice rooms and even at home. Now, though, it's almost always silent. And that's unusual for the group.

Don't get them wrong, they've been begging the two to shut up and stop fighting for years now, but now that it's actually happened and they have the peace to get their own words in... it's almost awkward to try. They're used to having to yell over the two to talk to each other. They're also not used to them just looking mopey and or tense like they were, something was clearly wrong and they could all tell.

"Hey, you okay, Kookie? You haven't been seeming yourself lately." Taehyung starts, using a rag to wipe the sweat off of his forehead after a long choreography practice. Jungkook hadn't given any input the entire time, even when Hoseok was instructing him, which is usually when he liked to give ideas to the elder. "I'm fine... Sorry, I guess I just haven't been very up to talking lately."

"I noticed, you're so quiet, it's even got Jiminnie quieter... you two haven't even been fighting lately, how weird." He wrinkles his nose as Jungkook flinches at the name, not wanting to think about it.

"Right, weird..." Forcing a small laugh, Jungkook picks up the bag that he's finally finished loading up.

"Just try your best to hit the note, you've done it before, Jungkook. Stop acting modest all of a sudden." One of their producers tries to get through to him, sighing when the younger frowns and tugs off the headphones from where he stood i side the booth. Yoongi sits up in the chair near the man, raising a brow at Jungkook through the glass. "You alright there Jungkook?"

"I don't think I can get it, can one of the others do it?" He pleads, earning a shocked look from both Yoongi and their producer hyung. It's uncharacteristic of Jungkook to just give up or say no to a challenge at all, and here he was giving his solo away?

So, Yoongi spoke up. "Jungkook this was written with your voice in mind. What is going on with you?"

Flinching, Jungkook just shakes his head and sets down the headphones, making his way out of the booth and bowing his head apologetically. "Just tell Jimin hyung to do it or something." And with that, he takes his leave, confusing the man and making Yoongi even more so.

"You need to talk to Jungkook."

Well, that's one way to say hello, Jimin figures as Namjoon takes a seat on the couch across from him, the others joining them in the living room like some kind of intervention. "Excuse me?"

"You two haven't spoken in almost two weeks."

"Aren't you the ones who always used to tell us to keep it quiet or stop fighting?"

"Yeah because it's annoying. But now he's barely managing his vocals, his focus is all over the place, he won't even look at the interviewers—he's a mess over it.""I'm sorry, I didn't catch how this was my fault? You guys are seriously blaming me over him acting weird?""Oh for fucks sake, Jimin we know you two are fucking!" Yoongi snaps finally, and Jimin tenses up, cheeks flushed as he looks between the others to see that they'd all pretty much agreed. "You guys aren't very subtle..." Seokjin offers apologetically, before Jimin clears his throat and looks away to try and avoid any awkward eye contact with Taehyung especially; he wonders if the other knew when they had that conversation a while back. "Were not judging you, I mean we've kind of respected your privacy for the past few months..." Months, they've known for months?! "but what ever happened, you need to fix. It's messing with the group."

Jimin thinks he's going to be sick. All of his hyungs, in the same room, talking about him and Jungkook's sex life like they've known all along. It was the most awkward encounter he'd ever had.

However they do have a point. If it was messing with the group, something needed to be done, but...

"I don't know what to do. I don't know where anything went wrong." Yes he does. He had to open his big mouth and let out his feelings. He couldn't just accept what they had that was good.

Taehyung has an idea.

"Let's take a walk."

Jimin and Taehyung's walk doesn't end up being what Jimin thought it would be. He expected them to have a long, dramatic talk about how he didn't tell Taehyung and why he kept this from him, maybe even explaining the relationship itself. But no, instead they just... walked. Like they normally did, sharing stories in what they did that day, how Tae was hungry, etc. It almost calmed his nerves, even.

Until they reach their destination; the company building. Jimin's not sure what to make of it, but he follows the other in without asking why they're there or where they're going.

The practice room is where Taehyung stops, opening the door for the elder to go in first, and he does, expecting the other to follow him although all he hears is the click of the door shutting and locking. Spinning around immediately, Jimin starts to knock at the door, shouting "Taehyung!" and asking what he was doing, until the younger responded with "I'm sorry Jiminnie, hyung's orders! You two need to make up! Call me when you have, I'll be back later!"

And that's when Jimin realizes why he's here, and that he's not alone.

"Uh, did Tae just lock you in here?" He hears Jungkook ask from the other side of the room, in his sweats, clearly looking like he'd been practicing and probably confused as to why he was interrupted. Jimin awkwardly nods, watching the look of confusion on the other's face.

As it turns out, Jungkook's grown a bit more calm over the past few days. Who knew that when they weren't arguing, they could actually have a normal conversation. Jimin's slowly starting to realize it as they talk about what Jungkook's day was like (after coming to terms with the fact that they were stuck in there, of course, and were just sat down in need of something to pass the time).

"... So yeah. I've just been here all day I guess, I mean the others didn't shove me in here like you, but... Why'd they do that again?"

"They think we need to make up."

"Hasn't that been a concern for years? Why this now?" Jungkook laughs, wondering just why they would do this now if they were barely even arguing anymore. They were barely speaking, even.

Jimin is quiet for a moment, deciding to finally bring up what they probably should have for a while now. "No, they mean recently. How we stopped talking. And stopped, well..." Pausing for a moment, he can see the look of confusion in Jungkook's expression and decides to just be honest. "They know about us. Well sort of. They want us to make up in that sense."

"They want us to have sex?"

"Jungkook." The elder gives him an annoyed look because he knows he's not taking it seriously, and Jungkook shrugs awkwardly after trying to humor the topic considering he knew this was going down a path he would soon find uncomfortable and nerve wracking. "They kept telling me that you're like, acting weird and not acting like yourself and just... why? What's going on with you? If it's because of what I said then just forget about it because I know it was messed up to say. We're not like that, we can just go back to how things are, I swear."

"What if I don't want that?"

"What, you don't want to fight everyday and act like a smart ass?" Jimin mocks, watching the younger roll his eyes.

"I get tired of fighting sometimes."

"Then why have we been doing it for years?"

"I don't... know. I'm competitive. And when you rile me up, I just do it back to you. I didn't know how else to react and it just kept going back and forth. How would you act when hearing someone say they hate people like you?"

"I didn't mean... I... But you—"

"I said it back because you said it first. Not because I wanted to." Frowning awkwardly, Jungkook shuffles back against the wall and hugs his legs. Jimin stares at him, almost speechless. "I don't hate you. I never hated you, I actually liked you a lot—" At that the younger stops talking, growing sheepish and looking up at the ceiling to avoid having to look at the boy sitting in front of him.

Jimin doesn't need to hear it twice. Something comes over him, and the next thing he knows, he's leaning over to press his lips against Jungkook's. The younger doesn't pull away, instead closing his eyes and just accepting the soft, plump lips against his own and for once, not trying so hard to compete for some kind of dominance in something that wasn't even a competition like they'd done so many times before.

For once it feels nice, to not have to fight him over something.

"I want to hate you, but I really... really like you."

#jikook #jikook fanfic #jikook drabble #jimin #jungkook #works #long #canonical #nc 17 #smut #not super explicity but to be safe ig #enemies #bratty!jungkook #taehyung #yoongi #hate sex #sorry if this didn't fit expectations of the prompt i hope you still like it ><#anonymous

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