#seriously i hope you guys are all staying healthy!

[pomefioredove]

i just noticed on your 'yuu gets sold' sorta series that there was a good ending, by chance could you do a bad ending one? if not that's totally ok! keep safe and stay healthy ❤️

oh god. I have a very evil idea for this.

parts 1 | 2 | 3 | kalim

summary: a bad (or good, depending on your stance) ending type of post: short fic characters: surprise :) additional info: yuu is gender neutral, this is short, HELP

Everyone waits.

The chatter and banter which once occupied the courtyard dies down to dull whispers and foot tapping.

Everyone waits, and there's no Crowley.

"Wonderful," Jamil sighs. "He's probably taken all the money and run off. I told you all that-"

"Maybe he's late!" Kalim shouts. A few in the crowd murmur in hopeful agreement.

Silver coughs. "Maybe he realized this whole thing is ridiculous and is processing everyone's refunds,"

They don't like that option as much.

The sun hangs lower and lower in the sky, threatening to shroud everyone in darkness as the minutes tick on.

"Well, I've had enough of this," Vil says, turning towards the exit. "I've put off my afternoon long enough."

"For once, we can agree on something," Leona murmurs, dragging Ruggie along with him.

No one is exactly surprised with this turn of events- but there's a definite sense of disappointment that everyone is sharing.

"He probably just forgot or 'somethin," Epel says, walking alongside Ace, Deuce, and Jack back to Ramshackle to update you on the happenings.

Jack shrugs. "He's definitely not the most organized, but there's no way someone could just "forget" about this. I think Jamil is right, he probably ran off with the money while he could. The swindler..."

Deuce is the next to add something to the pity party. "And yet, we should've known this was a possibility,"

"Shoulda seen it coming..." Epel murmurs. "I shoulda listened to Vil and pulled out while I still had the chance. Dang it..."

The lights are on in Ramshackle as the four approach, a warm and welcome sight after their disappointing afternoon. And the front door is open- were you expecting them?

"Hm. Well, think of it this way," Ace pushes the door the rest of the way open. "We may have been scammed, but at least nothing changes. I mean, it could've been worse."

"A lot worse," Deuce murmurs, following him inside.

The four make it into the foyer and stop dead in their tracks.

There are many things to expect walking into Ramshackle- cobwebs, dust, ghosts, you- Crowley is usually not one of them.

"You- you've been here this whole time?!" Epel shouts, throwing his arms out. "We were all 'waitin for 'ya like a bunch of idjits!"

Deuce and Ace wince. "Dude, chill... but seriously, where were you?"

Crowley doesn't have the chance to answer before something else steals away their attention.

You walk into the room, suitcase in hand. "Guys?"

The four turn to greet you, eyes wide at the luggage you're carrying. "What's that... Crowley?"

The man himself just stands there, pretending to ponder something. "I could have sworn I sent someone to break the news... how peculiar,"

Epel's brow knots. "What news?"

"A third party somehow got wind of our little... venture and donated a very high sum at the last minute. Along with a very passionately worded letter about our dear prefect's safety here at school," he pauses. "Or lack thereof."

Crowley sighs. "The name rung a bell, but... I couldn't imagine how or why anyone outside of NRC would be following the prefect's moves so closely,"

Deuce's eyes narrow. "Crowley. What are you trying to say?"

"Well, I..." he says, seemingly at a loss for words. "I'm afraid to say that our prefect is being transferred to Noble Bell College,"

#twisted wonderland x reader #twst x reader #okay. admittedly I had a little TOO much fun with this concept. mostly because I've always wanted to write an 'everyone fighting over yuu #just for him to swoop in at the last minute' type thing. because it's funny and I actually really like mr. catholic guilt #I'm a big fan of the character he's based on anyway

[asahicore]

all i see is gold - pjs (m)

this work contains smut - minors please do not interact

pairing. jay x fem!reader

synopsis. Pretending to be your number one's rival girlfriend to please his parents isn't how you would usually spend a Thursday night, but you really owe Jay a big one this time. You'd sworn this was just a one-time thing - and yet when his parents ask you to come again, the word 'yes' is out before you can stop it. Before you know it and much to your dismay, your feelings for Jay start to change, and you're in too deep to backtrack.

genre. college au, academic rivals to lovers, fake dating au, rich rich millionaire ceo's son jay x poor ass scholarship part-time job reader

warnings. heeseung is a mega asshole sorry to this man, slight violence like the girls are fighting, these two are pathetically in love w each other it's laughable actually, rich people being annoying slightly and also y/n's friends having way too much knowledge about fanfiction tropes... i like my fourth walls broken

word count. 27.1k

a/n. hi sisters user asahicore is back with another repost because she can't be asked to come up with anything original... sorry! i did add a new scene to this fic for.. character development. hope you guys enjoy it, as always let me know your thoughts otherwise i will find you and hold you at gunpoint, have fun love you stay healthy keep slaying bye bye!

“Actually, I think what you just said is complete bull.”

Jay rolled his eyes for the thousandth time in an hour and a few sniggers were heard around the room.

Your tutor sighed and, in an exhausted tone, asked you to “keep it polite, please. This is still a classroom setting.”

“Right, sorry.” You cleared your throat and sat up straighter. “I completely disagree with your statement, Jongseong. Just because a movie has young teenage girls as its target audience doesn’t mean it is completely insipid and has no value, like you’re insinuating. If you look at Mean Girls, for example-”

Jay scoffed. “Oh please, you’re not actually going to use Mean Gir-”

“Ah, would you look at the time? Class is over,” your tutor interrupted. “You can all go home and ponder the riveting discussion Jay and Y/N led today.” 

You were pretty sure you heard a general sigh of relief from your classmates. After all, you couldn’t really blame them: it was only the first tutorial of the semester for that course and Jay and you were already at each other’s throats, having something to say about every idea the other put forward, no matter how small.

“Oh, and Jay, I do have to side with Y/N here. There’s a surprising amount of things that can be said about that film,” your tutor admitted with an apologetic smile. You, however, were harboring a triumphant expression. Nothing better than having the tutor agree with you against Jay. 

As you packed your stuff away, mentally patting yourself on the back, Jay approached you, looking visibly annoyed. “Seriously, Y/N? Symbolism in Modern Cinema? Since where do you even care about movies?”

You gasped dramatically and put your hand over your heart, feigning shock. “Why, I’m offended that you think you’re the only one who’s allowed to love cinema, Jongseong.”

“Yeah, it’s my thing!” he whined like a child, and you gave him a look that hopefully made him reflect on what he’d just said.

You started walking out of the room and he followed, a step behind you. “I mean, there’s no way you didn’t know I was taking this class. Are you like, obsessed with me or something?”

“Yes, Jongseong, that’s exactly the case. I’m sooooo obsessed with you, I took this class just to see you.”

You were obviously joking, but he looked at you with a smirk and said, “I wouldn’t put it past you. I wouldn’t put it past anyone, to be honest; I mean I am the most good-looking, smartest, richest guy on camp- Ouch! That hurts!”

You had just punched him in the shoulder, not wanting to listen to his self-indulgent ramblings. “Get your head out of your ass, Park. I just thought it would be an interesting class. Why are you even taking it, anyway? I don’t think a cinema course is gonna teach you much on how to run daddy’s company,” you asked him, a smirk teasing your lips.

He rolled his eyes (you thought they might stay stuck at the back of his head, with how often he did that) and took a tone one might use to speak to a child. “You see, Y/N, I also major in Visual Studies. I’m not a single honors Econ major like you. Loser.”

He’d added the last word with a playful smile on his face, purposefully trying to rile you up. You were about to reply with an equally petty remark when you heard your name being called out. 

“Y/N! Wait up!”

You could recognize that voice anywhere. Your heart started beating a thousand times a minute and you felt your hands get clammy. As you turned around, you forced a relaxed smile and told yourself to stay calm, but as soon as you made eye contact with the boy, all rational thought left your brain.

“H-hi, Heeseung.” You heard Jay snort behind you but were too entranced by Heeseung’s presence to tell him off.

Clearly enjoying your nervousness, Heeseung smiled at you and bent down so that he came directly face to face with you. “It was nice seeing you last Friday. You should come to our parties more often, not many people can set fire to the dance floor like you did.”

Your cheeks had already turned bright red when he’d called your name, but now you probably looked as crimson as a fire extinguisher. Over the weekend, you’d tried so hard to forget about that party where you had gotten black-out drunk and made a fool of yourself on the dance floor. Sure, you’d had a lot of fun, but when you remembered that Heeseung literally lived in the frat house that had hosted the pre-start of term gathering, you’d felt so embarrassed and wanted to never have to face him ever again. Yet here he was, and he had obviously seen you.

“O-oh, right, haha. Um, I was pretty drunk, but, yeah, um, it was f-fun.” You cringed at yourself. Where was the Y/N that had torn down Jay’s every argument just moments prior? You were usually self-assured and confident, but whenever you were around Heeseung, you didn’t know how to act.

Heeseung stood up straighter and patted your head. You thanked yourself for having washed your hair that morning. He chuckled and said, “That’s good to hear. Guess I’ll see you around, then?”

“Yeah!” you replied with a tad too much enthusiasm. 

“Great.” As he walked past you, you didn’t need to turn around to see the nasty looks exchanged between Heeseung and Jay. 

“Jongseong.”

“Heeseung.”

The venom with which they had spat the other’s name would’ve sent a chill down your spine any other time, but right now, you were too busy mooning over what had just happened. Like many girls on campus, you’d had a crush on him since freshman year; but unlike most, you’d never actually tried to do anything about it. Realistically, you could probably bag him - Heeseung could be seen with a different girl at every party and didn’t seem to be too picky about who he finished the night with. But you also couldn’t stand the idea of being just another drunk fuck to him. So, you’d never revealed your feelings to him, although he could most definitely see the effect he had on you.

As soon as he was out of earshot, Jay burst into laughter. You turned around and looked at him, arms crossed, waiting for him to be done with an impatient look on your face. When he finally caught his breath, he had tears pooling at his eyes and was holding onto his belly.

“H-hi, Heeseung,” he breathed, trying to imitate you by making his voice higher in pitch but laughing too hard for it to come out properly.

“There’s nothing funny about this, Jongseong.”

“Oh, but there is, Y/N. And you know what the worst part is? You could do so, so much better than that guy. I mean, he’s a Business major, for fuck’s sake.”

“And what’s wrong with that?” you asked hotly, starting to get defensive.

“You’re studying Econ, Y/N. Dating a Business major, that’s like, the highest betrayal possible.”

You rolled your eyes at his stupid values and started walking towards the exit of the building, bumping into his shoulder on the way. He started following you again and added, “It’s not even just about that, Y/N. You know his reputation, he’s clearly bad news. There’s no point in liking a guy like that.”

Because you knew how much he hated it, you always made sure to call him Jongseong instead of Jay. But right now, you didn’t feel like joking around. You turned around abruptly, Jay almost bumping into you, and looked at him pointedly. “Look, Jay, I know you and Heeseung have this weird competition between the two of you of whose dad can make more money. But that doesn’t give you the right to tell me I shouldn’t like him.” And with a mumble, you added, “I can’t help liking him, okay?”

You went on your way again and Jay caught up with you so that the two of you were now walking side by side. Sighing, he said, “Whatever. When he inevitably hurts you, though, I’ll say I told you so.”

—

After flipping off Jay as your way of saying goodbye, you joined your friends in the cafeteria. You told them about your encounter with Heeseung, and as much as they wanted to support you, they couldn’t help but think your behavior at the party on Friday was hilarious. 

“I wasn’t gonna show this to anyone, but I can’t hold it in anymore…” Sunoo said, pulling out his phone.

It wasn’t hard to guess what he might be hiding in there, so you quickly protested, “It’s been three days, Sunoo. I’m sure you can hold in whatever it is longer than that.”

He looked at you with a sheepish smile and said, as if he didn’t have a choice but to show everyone, “It’s so funny though.”

Sieun and Keeho were urging him to show them, so you just hung your head as Sunoo pressed play. You didn’t even need to look at the video to know what it was: even in his drunken state, Sunoo had had the foresight to film you as you danced like there was no tomorrow, knowing this was a special occasion. Your friends tried to reassure you that you didn’t look that bad and you just seemed to be having fun, but the sniggers they tried to hold back in vain told you otherwise.

Keeho seemed to take pity on you when seeing your defeated expression. “Y/N, I promise you it’s not that bad. You were very obviously drunk, and so was everyone else. If anybody remembers this, they’re probably thinking that you were fucking awesome. Can’t you see how everyone is cheering you on in the video?”

With an exasperated sigh, you replied, “I don’t care that everybody saw me. I care that Heeseung did. I only started drinking that much because I thought it’d help me relax and talk to him. I didn’t think I’d go wild on the dance floor.”

Your friends exchanged a look and immediately burst into laughter. You wanted to get mad at them, but even you had to admit the whole situation was pretty funny. You let them make as much fun of you as their hearts desired, then, to change the subject, told them about the tutorial you had in the morning with Jay and how much fun it had been arguing with him.

Sieun was looking at you thoughtfully, until she said, “You know, I think it’s…” she paused for a second, trying to find the right word, “interesting, how much effort you put into getting into the same class as Jay when you could’ve directed that energy towards getting into one of Heeseung’s class.”

The sudden statement took you aback. “Well, I wouldn’t say I put that much effort into it…” you stammered in an attempt to defend yourself.

“Y/N,” Keeho started, an accusatory tone to his words, “you literally asked Jake to tell you what courses he was taking this semester and when his tutorials were, and when you somehow managed to be enrolled in a class that’s supposed to be reserved for Visual Studies students, you emailed the tutor to make sure you’d be in the same group as Jay. I’d say that requires some effort.”

You huffed, mildly offended. “I- Well- I just thought it’d be fun to argue with him about something else than economics, you know. There’s only so much to say about that.” Your friends didn’t look very convinced. “Plus, there are no classes that Heeseung’s taking that seemed interesting, and even if they were and I managed to get into them, I just would’ve stuttered trying to answer easy questions. At least if I’m in a class with Jay, I know it’ll be fun.”

After that last sentence, Sieun looked at you like you had proven her point. What a smartass, you thought. What was she even trying to prove? 

“Is no one gonna say it?” Sunoo asked, bewildered, looking around at your friends. “It sounds like you like him, Y/N.”

Oh.

Your automatic response was to go, “Pfffft,” but when Sieun and Keeho didn’t disagree with Sunoo, you looked at them, wide-eyed. “Are you guys serious? I don’t like Park Jongseong, that’s ridiculous.”

Sure, you liked arguing with Jay, that wasn’t a secret. That didn’t mean you liked him, or anything like that. Just the thought made you shiver. Dating Jay had never even occurred to you; as soon as you’d met, you had taken on a rival-like relationship, arguing about everything and anything. Sure, he was smart, and not too bad-looking, and he was really rich, and when he wanted he could actually be quite nice - but that was not the point! Most of the time, he was just annoying and argued with you for no reason other than to rile you up, and had the most unreasonable opinions you’d ever heard. He took his wealth for granted and sometimes came across as so privileged it made you want to puke.

Sieun took your hands in hers and tried to convince you with her eyes, her eyebrows furrowing slightly. “But think about it, Y/N. It’s the enemies to lovers trope!”

You snatched your hands out from her grip and gave her a pointed look. “This isn’t Wattpad, Sieun, this is real life. And Jay and I aren’t enemies, we’re merely rivals.”

“Even better!” she exclaimed.

“I completely agree with Sieun,” Sunoo said. “Y/N, you’re such a rivals to lovers type of gal.” You rolled your eyes, but Keeho was fervently nodding his head in agreement.

“By the way, did you guys hear about his parents’ company throwing a fundraiser?” Keeho said. This piqued your interest, but after your friends’ accusations, you couldn’t look too excited about anything Jay-related, so you nonchalantly asked him to go on. “It’s for some charity, they’ve invited all the big names, and apparently it’s gonna be huge so they need some people to waiter. I’m thinking of applying. It pays really well and it’s gonna be so fancy. It’s not like I’ve got much else to do that night anyway.”

“When is it?” you asked, still trying not to sound too interested.

“Friday in two weeks.”

“Well, if it’s a Friday, I’ll be getting wasted, so count me out,” Sunoo replied.

“I’d come, but the idea of serving rich people as they give out ten thousand dollars when they could give a million and it wouldn’t even affect them in the slightest, not to mention having to do it with a smile on my face, makes my skin crawl, so no thanks,” Sieun said. She wasn’t wrong, but this was also Jay’s parents you were talking about. Not only would Jay be there, and your presence would surely piss him off, but his dad’s company was one of the top of the country and being introduced to their world, maybe even getting to know some people there, even just as a waitress, could really benefit you in the long-term. You’d never admit it to him, but you’d been dreaming of working there ever since you’d first heard of it. Nothing might come out of this, but it was worth trying.

“What about you, Y/N? You in?”

You looked at Keeho and said, “Yeah, let’s do it.”

—

The next time you saw Jay was for your Economics of Cities and Regions lecture a couple days later. As appropriate of the top students, you two always sat at the very front row along with only a few other brave students. Keeho was always bugging you to sit with him at the back, but you liked being able to look the professor in the eye so they could see how much attention you were paying to them. You listened carefully to the whole lecture, and when it ended, you turned to Jay and called his name in a sickly sweet voice, smiling as warmly as you could. He turned to you with a horrified look on his face.

“Please never do that again.”

Your smile instantly dropped. You should’ve known there was no point trying to be nice to him. “So, I’ve heard about your dad’s firm’s fundraiser…”

Before you could even finish your sentence, he interrupted you. “No. No way. You’re not working there. Nope. Not happening.”

“What? Why not?”

“Because this is an important night for me to make myself known as the CEO in line and I can’t have you distracting me.”

You didn’t question why he considered you a distraction and just pressed further. “C’mon! I promise I won’t be in your way.” He looked at you as if to say I don’t believe you. “I need the money.”

“Then get a part-time job.”

“I already have one! And it doesn’t pay very well.”

He looked at you and crossed his arms over his chest. No, you didn’t notice how his shirt tightened around his biceps. Shut up. Exasperated, he asked, “Do you even know what this fundraiser is for?”

That hadn’t even crossed your mind. Why did you need to know what it was for? All you needed was to work there and make some money. You just shrugged “No.”

He rolled his eyes at you. “You’re unbelievable. It’s to help students in need of scholarships. You know how my parents sometimes pay for students’ tuition fees? Well,” he sighed, and started to pack up his stuff. “This is to encourage CEOs of other companies to do the same. They’ve invited a few students to talk about why scholarships are important for them.”

Interesting, you thought. It’d have been nice to be one of those students, but being a waitress was already good enough. You’d have to be quicker to get the role next time. “I’ll be part of the waitering team, so I won’t embarrass you, don’t worry.”

After a beat, Jay asked, “Why are you even telling me this? I can say no all I want, I’m not the one deciding on the staff. I’d just really, really appreciate it if you didn’t come.”

You eyed him for a second until realization hit you. Right. It wasn’t like Jay had any say in this, so why were you trying to get him to agree? It had just seemed natural to you that you’d talk to him about this.

You shook your head and said, “Well, I’m gonna go anyway. I just thought I should let you know. That way you know you’re gonna need to bring your best game to impress me.”

You noticed Keeho waving his arm impatiently at you, waiting for you to leave the lecture theater. Jay watched you walk away, and he couldn’t stop the smile spreading on his face. 

—

“So… Y/N will probably be working at the fundraiser,” Jay said, looking down at his notes. As on most days, Jake and Sunghoon were over at his place, half-studying, half-messing around.

The two boys in front of him groaned in unison. He raised his head and added defensively, “What? I’ve barely said anything yet.”

“Yeah, but you’re talking about Y/N. Again,” Jake said, as if stating the obvious.

“You know, I’m actually surprised he’s managed to not mention her for that long. It’s been what, fifteen minutes since we got here?” Sunghoon half-joked.

Used to his friends’ teasing, Jay ignored them and continued. “On any other occasion, I’d be more than happy to have her around” - cue another groan from Jake and Sunghoon - “but I really have to impress my parents and all the guests that evening. If I don’t, I’m gonna have to work twice as hard.”

Indulging his friend’s rant, Jake asked, “What’s wrong with her being there? She’s not gonna go around and tell everyone you’re a little shit as she hands them champagne glasses.”

Jay rolled his eyes. “No, of course not, but I’m gonna be hyper-aware of her presence and I don’t want it to distract me.” A third groan. “Plus, I don’t like the idea of her being there as a waitress. She should be with the students who talk to the guests, she deserves it more than anybody I know.”

After a beat, Sunghoon, with gracious subtlety and tact as always, added, “You know, if you had just manned up and asked her out in freshman year when you still had the chance, maybe you could’ve taken her to the fundraiser as your girlfriend and not have her go there as a waitress. Just saying.”

“It’s 2022, Sunghoon, nobody says things like ‘man up’ anymore.”

“You dumbass, is that all you’re hearing from what I just said-”

“What I think Sunghoon is trying to say,” Jake cut in, “is that this could have been avoided had you had the guts to tell her how you feel. But rest assured, my friend, it can still happen. No such thing as too late.”

“You always say that, but how the fuck am I supposed to ask her out when she’s only ever seen me as her rival? Plus, she’s head over heels for that prick.”

Sensing that Sunghoon was getting ready to deliver another one of his punchlines, Jake quickly replied. “Who cares about Heeseung? It wouldn’t be hard to make her see what an asshole he is. And once that’s done, you can just give her the Park charm,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows.

Sunghoon fake gagged at the thought of his friend trying to flirt, and even Jay had to admit he hated how Jake had formulated his sentence. “That’s all I do though. As soon as we met, we got into arguing, and that’s just how we communicate now. She wants competition, so I give her competition. I don’t know what else to do.”

His friends sighed, unsure what to tell him after having had the same conversation hundreds of times. “Did you ask her why she took that cinema course? I thought it was weird she asked me for all that info. She wanted me to keep hush-hush about it, too,” Jake asked.

Jay thought for a second, then answered, “I did ask her if she was obsessed with me.” A fourth, deserved, groan. “She just said she thought the class seemed interesting. She didn’t even know I was a double major, by the way.”

Jake and Sunghoon chuckled, both thinking but not daring to say that, indeed, no one knew Jay also majored in Visual Studies. The three boys continued chatting for a while until they fell into silence and finally started getting some work done.

Jay managed to get you out of his head for a couple hours, but when his friends left and he was alone, his thoughts immediately drifted back to you. When the two of you first met in freshman year, you had become instant rivals, both top of your class, and always disagreeing on everything. He hadn’t minded the dynamic at first: he thought your ideas and the conversations that stemmed from them were always interesting, and he had a lot of respect for you. He wanted to know why you thought that way or what made you say certain things, and soon enough he wanted to know everything about you. He’d noticed things like how you chewed on your pen when you were in deep reflection, or how you’d look intently at anyone who was talking, as if you were making mental bullet points of their arguments only to break them down afterwards. When he finally realized his feelings for you (not without help from Jake and Sunghoon, who thought he couldn’t get any more obvious), he felt like your rivalry-almost-turned-friendship had gone too far, and you’d think he was stupid for liking you. It didn’t help that your confident attitude always broke down in front of his arch nemesis Lee Heeseung, making it painfully clear that you had a crush on him.

That night, he kept tossing and turning in his bed, trying to fall asleep. He hated the idea of you having to be there as a waitress, handing out drinks and mini toasts to entitled guests who probably wouldn’t even look at you. There had to be a few strings he could pull, right?

—

In all twenty years of your life, you had never been to a place like this. As soon as you’d entered the lobby of the building in which the fundraiser took place, you’d been overwhelmed by the sheer extravagance of the room. Every surface was shiny marble, the ceilings were at least fifteen meters high and the whole place was lit up by tiny wall lamps. You were almost scared to see what the actual ballroom would look like.

The fundraiser started at 8:00 p.m. but the staff had been advised to come earlier to prepare everything. You went further in, and now that you had somehow acclimated to your surroundings, you noticed how busy everyone was. People were running around, going from the kitchen to the back room to the main hall in quick strides. You tried getting one woman’s attention, hoping she could direct you to where you were supposed to go.

“Sorry, hi, where do the wai-”

She stopped dead in her tracks and barely looked at you as she whipped out a sheet of paper from her blouse pocket and asked for your name.

“Um, Y/N-”

She checked something off and looked up at you and smiled. “Great, follow me.” You had no time to ask anything else before she swiveled on her heels again and marched towards another room, you in tow behind her. “We’ve got a script ready for you. You just need to learn it in time for tonight and then use your charm on the guests. Oh, and don’t worry about your outfit and all that, we’ve got it covered. Good luck!” And with that, she was off. 

Script? Outfit? What was all this about? You panic-texted Keeho, telling him some lady had dragged you somewhere and told you to learn a whole script. When he didn’t answer after five minutes, you assumed he must be busy helping out, but it made you panic even more. You looked around the room and noticed a girl you thought you recognized from one of your classes. You walked up to her, and after saying hi, asked her what the hell was going on here.

She looked at you a bit oddly, as if it didn’t make sense you didn’t know where you were, but clarified things nonetheless. “Basically, the six of us are going to be wearing these tags so that the guests know who we are, and we’re gonna give them a pity story about how we’re so poor but also so smart and able to change the world if only they give us money. That’s what the script is for, it just makes it a bit nicer.” Right, that’s what Jay had told you. But why were you here when you had signed up to be a waitress? It was what you had wished for, but it made no sense whatsoever.

Registering your still confused expression, the girl went on, “They’re also gonna give us nice outfits and make us look more presentable. But not too much, you know, cause a thousand dollar gown wouldn’t really fit with the scholarship kid aesthetic.” You laughed with her. You had to admit the whole situation was a bit ridiculous, but if it could help you out, you would take it. You had needed to take out a loan when you started studying, and the enormous debt you would be in as soon as you stepped out of college already stressed you out.

You learned your script, which was actually just more like detailed examples of the things you should say and what direction your conversations with the guests should take, until somebody called out your name, telling you it was time to get you ready. You were led to another room which was full of clothing racks holding fancy dresses and suits. Your immediate thought was that the clothes in this one room were probably worth more than your entire house. 

You could only admire the room for a few moments before a stylist threw a dress in your arms and practically pushed you into a dressing room. You took a good look at black dress before putting it on. It wasn’t overly fancy; the girl you had talked to was right, it wouldn’t make sense for you to look like you were the richest person there. With its modest cleavage and mid-thigh length, it was what you assumed to be formal enough for this type of event, and surprisingly fit you like a glove. It made you look put-together and accentuated your features in the subtlest way. 

When you walked out of the dressing room, the stylist eyed you up and down, adjusting the dress here and there, then stepped back and mumbled absent-mindedly, as if thinking out loud, “Wow, he does have good taste.”

You didn’t have the time to ask her what she meant as she had already turned away, looking for jewelry to finish off your outfit. The earrings, necklace and ring she gave you weren’t huge 20 carat diamonds, but you’d never worn such delicate jewelry before, you were almost too scared to move with them on you in fear of breaking them. The stylist, however, didn’t seem too fussed, and as soon as she was done, said, “Well, that’s all for me. Off you go to hair and makeup now!”

Hair and makeup? You were going to get your hair and makeup done by professionals? You felt like a celebrity. Your whole life, your mom had cut your hair, and you bought your makeup at the drugstore. 

While they didn’t make you look like a Hunger Games Capitol citizen, when they were done with you, the reflection that looked back at you in the mirror was uncanny. You were still you, there was no doubt about that, but you looked like a perfect version of yourself, which only makeup expertly applied could create. Although they’d never seen you before, the makeup artist had managed to accentuate or make disappear lines you had never noticed on your face before, and the hair stylist had done your hair in a simple but very flattering manner, letting it cascade naturally down your shoulders.

The stylists let you admire yourself for a few moments, knowing you probably weren’t used to such pampering, but soon ushered you out to the ballroom; the fundraiser was just about to start, and you needed to be there for the beginning of it. You were made to sit at a table with the other students at the front, close to the stage. An organizer came to see you and explained how the evening was going to go down. Most of the evening would be spent standing, chatting to the guests and persuading them to donate, except when the main course was served. There was no fixed seating chart, so you could go with whomever invited you to sit with them. All in all, your goal was to be as likable as possible, and get guests to understand why scholarships were important without sounding desperate, just like the script indicated.

Tapping your foot nervously, you watched as more people trickled in, each looking richer than the previous. Soon enough, the whole room was seated, and a man you recognized as Jay’s dad arrived on the stage, welcomed by polite applause. You listened intently to his welcome speech, and you could see Jay’s presence and charisma in him; every word of his seemed to be thought out and to have purpose. He did a spectacular job at kicking off the fundraiser, and you were clapping enthusiastically when he was done, not expecting what he was about to do. 

With an extended hand, he pointed at you and the five students you were sitting with. “Of course, this wouldn’t be possible without these six brilliant students whom we have the honor of welcoming tonight. Would you all come up on stage with me?” he asked warmly, although you knew it wasn’t really a question. You all looked at each other bemusedly, but you didn’t have much of a choice, so you all got up and walked up the stairs to the stage.

You hadn’t realized how many people were attending until you were standing right in front of them. The bright spots lighting the stage made it hard to distinguish anyone’s face in the crowd, which only made your position more intimidating to you. Thankfully, you didn’t have to introduce yourself; Jay’s dad did it for you, and after a few minutes, you were free to walk off the stage and start mingling with the guests. Whew.

As soon as the six of you stepped off the stage, guests started approaching you, engaging you in conversation right away. You were a bit taken aback, but remembering you needed to be perfect tonight, you put on the most genuine smile you could muster. Them coming to you was better than having to chase after them. 

An hour and a half passed, and you had been engrossed in so many conversations that you hadn’t noticed so much time had already gone. The only time your attention had been pulled out was when Keeho came to your group, offering you toasts of caviar and bubbly champagne, and discreetly (or at least as discreetly as Keeho could be, which wasn’t very) gave you a wide-eyed look, which you returned. You had no idea why you weren’t working like him either. 

When somebody announced the main course would soon be served, a lot of guests went to sit down, so you were now stuck with the most pretentious man you had ever talked to. All the other guests, no matter how rich or famous or successful they were, had managed to stay somewhat humble and not flaunt how much higher they were in society than you, but it seemed that it was all this man knew how to do. You knew you needed to stay polite even in front of scum like him, but it was hard giving him your undivided attention when he was going on and on about basic economic principles you had learned in your first year of college. Your eyes started drifting around the room, until they fell on a certain someone.

Lee Heeseung was here. Of course he was; his parents, although they were rivals to the Park family, were still huge names in your country’s economy, and they couldn’t not be here tonight. Heeseung’s presence wasn’t required, but you imagined it couldn’t hurt his image to be seen by many adults at a gathering like this one. He was standing by the bar, talking to a girl who was clearly trying to flirt with him, but he didn’t seem to be into her. You hadn’t meant to stare, but his eyes soon met yours. You immediately felt heat rise to your cheeks. He didn’t break eye contact, even when he replied to whatever the girl was saying. His eyes started drifting down from your face to your body, as if he was undressing you with his gaze. You opened your mouth and let out a small gasp at the sheer indecency of the way he was looking at you. The sound you made made you snap out of your daze, and you turned your attention back to the man in front of you, who hadn’t even noticed you weren’t listening to him anymore, so enthralled he was by his own conversation.

You excused yourself, not wanting to be in Heeseung’s sight anymore. You weren’t sure what to make of the interaction - you loved the idea of Heeseung paying so much attention to you, but there was something about the setting and the fact that he was talking with another girl the whole time which made you a bit uncomfortable. Disheveled, you sat down at the nearest table, not paying much attention to who was there.

“Everything alright, miss Y/N?”

That voice was too familiar. Of course, you just had to sit next to Jay’s dad, a.k.a. one of the richest CEOs in the country, a.k.a. the man behind this fundraiser. You changed your expression from distressed to spirited, not wanting him to think you weren’t handling tonight well. Before you could say anything to reassure him, he added, “Not easy, is it, entertaining so many people? I’m sure you’ll get used to it.”

Relief immediately washed over you. You looked down and said, “It hasn’t been too bad, just depends on the person you’re talking to.”

He chuckled. “I thought I saw you talking to CEO Jung. Or rather, CEO Jung talking at you. Sorry about him, he’s just the kind of person you have to learn to deal with.”

You continued talking to Mr Park, and he even invited you to stay at his table when the main course was served. He was surprisingly easy to converse with; he intently listened to you, even though he probably met infinitely more interesting people than you every day, and bounced off of your words naturally. You wondered how such an easy-going man could give birth to an argumentative boy like Jay.

You suddenly wondered where Jay was. You hadn’t seen him all evening, and he wasn’t sitting at his dad’s table either. You assumed he’d be busy with other people, but you couldn’t help being curious about his whereabouts. Not wanting to look around the room searching for him and appear disinterested in his dad, you just asked him directly if he knew where his son was.

Mr Park quirked an eyebrow and asked, “Oh, you know my son?”

“Yes, we’ve had a lot of classes together since freshman year,” you explained.

He seemed deep in thought for a second, until he started slowly nodding his head as if he’d just figured something out. “Of course, you’re Y/N. I knew that name was familiar.”

Why would your name be familiar to Jay’s dad? “Oh, did Jay mention me or some-”

Before you could finish your sentence, Mr Park said, “Ah, there he is,” gaze directed behind your shoulder. And indeed, as you turned around, you saw Jay coming towards your table.

 “Dad, mind if I steal Y/N for a second?”

“She’s all yours,” he replied, sending a wink his son’s way. You looked at Jay and he seemed just as confused about his dad’s words as you. But then his eyes found yours and he motioned for you to get up and follow him with a tilt of his head.

“It was really nice talking to you, Mr Park, thank you so much for your time.”

“Of course. It was lovely meeting you, Y/N. I’m sure we’ll see each other soon enough,” he said with a knowing smile. 

You didn’t even try figuring out what he meant, and just walked with Jay as he took you to a quieter area of the ballroom. Most people had finished eating and had stood up again, so you’d needed to weave through them, and Jay put a hand on your lower back to guide you better. You ignored the warmth that spread on your skin where he touched you, blaming it on the glasses of champagne you’d had. 

When you’d reached a spot where you could talk easily, he turned towards you with a smirk. “I can’t believe you’re already charming your way up to my dad. You’re definitely ambitious, Y/N.”

You rolled your eyes but then remembered where you were and thought it might be best to not give in to Jay’s taunts here, so you kept your voice low when you replied. “I didn’t even do it on purpose. I just sat there, and he happened to already be at the table.”

His smirk only grew wider. “Right.” Then he stepped back a bit, and took a good look at you. Unlike Heeseung’s gaze earlier, the way Jay looked at you in that moment, like you were the only thing worth looking at in this beautiful ballroom, made butterflies erupt in your stomach. God, you really had had too much champagne. “I knew that dress would look good on you.”

You should’ve been flustered by the compliment, but you were too confused by Jay’s words: how could he have known about this? Why did he make it sound like he had chosen the dress? The stylist’s words from earlier suddenly pop up in your mind: “he does have good taste.” There was also the fact that you had applied to work as a waitress tonight but ended up as one of the scholarship students. Slowly, things started piecing together in your mind, and you looked up at the well-dressed, smirking boy in front of you in disbelief.

“Jay. Did you do this?”

“Do what?” he said, an innocent tone to his voice, but a mischievous look in his eyes.

Your eyes widened and you lightly slapped his arm. “You did! I- You- Ugh. Thanks, I guess,” you muttered, looking down at your shoes. You were beyond grateful, but your ego stopped you from being too showy about it.

He smiled at you, and you ignored how much you loved it. “It was no big deal. Just had to change your name from the waitering group to the student reps. Took me two seconds,” he said, following your gaze down, bashfully admitting to helping you out.

“Why’d you do it?”

Because you’re the most amazing person I’ve ever met and the world should know about it, was his immediate thought. But of course, he’d never say that out loud, so he opted for, “I just felt bad for you, really. I know you like to think of us as rivals, so I thought the least I could do was to put us on equal footing tonight.”

Although you had a feeling he wasn’t telling you everything, you weren’t going to press any further. You chatted for a bit longer, the both of you enjoying a relaxed conversation after hours on being on your best behavior, and your ability of talking normally to Jay and not wanting to claw his eyes out surprised you, not to mention the fact that you were… enjoying yourself.

“Anyway, I’m doing the closing speech soon. I’m gonna be awesome, so look closely, yeah?” You knew he wanted to look cool, but you thought he sounded like an excited kid who was about to put on a show for his family. How cute, you thought, and immediately chased that thought away from your brain. That damn champagne must’ve been laced with something.

You both went back into the crowd, and quickly your name was called out by someone you had talked to earlier who wanted to introduce you to someone else. You quickly waved goodbye at Jay, a smile on your face. If anybody had seen him, they would’ve noticed how his cheeks fired up and how he waved excitedly back at you.

And indeed, he had been seen.

His dad had been talking with one of his business partners, but tried to keep some of his attention on you and Jay. He couldn’t help but be curious as to why his son, who had previously never expressed any romantic interest in anyone, was suddenly making sure you attended the fundraiser as a student rep and not a waitress, and why he’d even gone the extra mile and chosen your dress for you. He hadn’t missed the way his son’s face lit up when he was talking to you, and how his gaze lingered on you as you walked away. But he also hadn’t missed how you’d followed Jay without hesitation, and how relaxed you’d looked talking to him. He thought the both of you acted as if it was just you two in a room full to the brim with people. When his wife joined him at the table, he’d told her about their son’s unusual behavior, and she said that she had noticed him looking around as if searching for someone a few times during the evening. They exchanged a knowing smile.

Heeseung had also noticed Jay leading you away from the crowd, and had intently watched your interaction, not even trying to make the girl he was talking to think he was still paying attention to her. He knew you had a crush on him; you couldn’t make it any more obvious. But he also knew how comfortable, how yourself you were around Jay; he’d seen the two of you banter around campus, always arguing about something, whether it was the new law that was being put into place or whether pineapple belongs on pizza or not. Heeseung wasn’t stupid, he’d seen enough rom-coms to know that the girl always ended up with the friend she joked around with and not the hot popular guy that made her feel nervous.

Jay and him had been rivals since he could remember, and not rivals like you and Jay, but proper rivals, who actually had to fight for something. Well, technically, it was their fathers who were competing as CEOs of some of the top firms in the country, but since they were bound to take their place at some point, it had felt like their competition as well. Nothing was off-limits when it came to their rivalry, and you were most definitely not an exception, not to Heeseung. He couldn’t stand seeing Jay have something he didn’t. At that moment, he made up his mind.

Heeseung had to have you.

But before that, Jay needed to give his closing speech. As soon as he’d stepped on the stage, the chatter started to quiet down, and everyone turned their attention to him. Much like you earlier, he hadn’t realized how bright the lights were when standing onstage. He could only see over a hundred people staring right at him, and his confident demeanor from moments ago crumbled at his feet. He scanned the crowd for your face, desperately needing something, or rather someone, to anchor him. When his eyes finally found yours, he felt strength regaining his body. His mother followed his gaze and found you looking right at her son, sending a reassuring smile and thumbs-up his way.

Jay’s speech went very smoothly, and everybody congratulated him for it as they left the room.

—

Back home after a stressful but rewarding evening, all Jay wanted to do was take a shower and pass out in bed. But his parents had other plans.

“So…” started his mother, a mischievous glint in her eyes.

“So?” Jay asked, already fearing whatever his mom was about to say.

“Y/N’s a nice girl,” she simply stated, hoping Jay’s reaction would give her more to go on.

And oh boy did it. He immediately started blushing and stuttering at the sudden mention of your name. He knew you’d spoken with his father at the fundraiser, but he hadn’t thought his mom would bring you up.

“Y-Y/N? Yeah, I guess. But what about her?” he said, looking away and trying to sound uninterested, but blatantly failing.

His parents exchanged a look. “C’mon, son,” his dad picked up, “you don’t need to hide something like that from us. We’re very happy that you’ve found a nice girlfriend like Y/N.”

A nice… girlfriend? Had Jay heard that correctly? His parents thought you two were… dating? 

As he stared at them wide-eyed and mouth agape, they just chuckled softly at him. “It’s okay, Jay, really. She made a dazzling impression on all of the guests tonight, and on us. She’s exactly the kind of person you should be dating, so don’t worry about us getting in your way of anything. We approve of your relationship.”

Jay started laughing in disbelief, and his parents just took it as a sign of his relief. If only they knew. “Right,” he said between chuckles, “thanks, guys.”

Why he didn’t deny what his parents were saying was beyond him. A part of him didn’t want to disappoint them by telling them the truth - his mother had always urged him to get a girlfriend, saying he wouldn’t have the time for dating later on in his career, that he should enjoy his college years as much as he could. Another part of him loved the idea of dating you, and it hurt him too much to shatter that thought.

So he just nodded along, saying he was glad they liked you.

“We really did,” said his father. “In fact, you should bring her over for dinner sometime this week. It’d be nice getting to know her in a less formal setting, don’t you think? Ask her what she likes, I’ll ask the chef to cook it specially for her.”

“S-sure,” Jay said, already panicking - he’d either have to come up with an excuse as to why you couldn’t come to dinner, or with ways to convince you to be his pretend-girlfriend for a night. If he actually did ask you, he’d have to be very careful about it, otherwise it’d end up with you trying to pull his hair out.

What the hell had he gotten himself into?

—

At 10:43 a.m. the next day, you were waiting for Jay in front of the library. Right when you were about to turn your bedside lamp off, you’d received a text from him, asking to meet. Apparently, there was something he needed to tell you, and whatever it was, you were absolutely dreading it. Jay always had a lot of things to say, but he’d never felt the need before to warn you in advance that he needed to tell you something. Those kinds of messages were never very pleasant, and even less so when they came from Park Jongseong. Rereading the messages, you really couldn’t figure out what was so important that required you to take a break from your weekly Saturday morning study sessions.

00:44 archnemesis: Hey Y/N

00:44 archnemesis: Are you still up?

00:44 you: do NOT fuckboy text me jongseong

00:44 archnemesis: Sorry

00:45 you: go away im trying to sleep

00:45 archnemesis: Not trying hard enough obviously

00:45 you: shut up

00:45 you: what do u want

00:45 archnemesis: I need to tell you something.

00:45 archnemesis: Can we meet up tomorrow morning?

00:46 you: wtf

00:46 you: what is it ???

00:47 you: cant u just tell me now??

00:49 you: jay ???

00:49 archnemesis: Um.

00:49 archnemesis: I’ll tell you tomorrow!

00:49 archnemesis: :D

0:49 archnemesis: library 10:45?

0:50 you: ughhhhh

00:50 you: yeah whatever

00:50 you: this better be worth it istg

00:51 archnemesis: Good night Y/N <3

00:51 you: EWWWW

You’d stayed awake for a while after that, trying to figure out whatever it was he needed to tell you, but the only thing you were sure about was that it had something to do with the fundraiser, since he’d texted you after it. Had he finally realized how superior in every aspect you were to him and would finally bow down to you? That seemed pretty unlikely. Did one of the guests there really like you and had spontaneously decided to pay for your studies and offer you an internship at their company? Were they impressed by your intellect and wanted you to become their kids’ private tutor? Possible. Or even better, maybe it was Jay’s parents whose attention you had particularly caught, and they wanted to reward you in some way. Maybe they thought you were amazing and that you’d be a perfect girlfriend for their son, and Jay, ever the daddy’s boy, would now shower you with gifts and attention in order to capture your heart.

Ha, as if, you thought, laughing to yourself. It was a lot less funny when Jay told you about the little misunderstanding.

You were sitting at the library café with Jay, who’d wanted to postpone delivering the news as much as possible and had bribed you with the promise of free hot coffee. Well, free for you, at least. Not that a coffee would create much of a dent in his bank account. After five minutes of chit-chatting, you were getting annoyed with him and didn’t understand why he was being so uncharacteristically awkward and asked him to cut straight to the chase. When he told you his parents thought you were his girlfriend and wanted to have you over for dinner this week, it took all you had to not spit the coffee right in his face. Not only was it ridiculous, it was practically exactly what you had imagined.

“Are you kidding me, Jongseong? I can barely pretend to be your friend, how the hell am I gonna pretend to be your girlfriend?”

Your words were like bullets piercing right through his body, but he had to ignore the pain, telling himself you were just shocked by the sudden news. “I’m sorry, Y/N, I just- I panicked, and I didn’t know how to tell them the truth. They seemed so happy,” he said, head hung low. You knew he was genuinely sorry, because he’d almost never actually said those words to you, so he had to mean them. The only other time you could think of was when he’d dropped his water bottle all over your laptop. The next day, he’d offered you a brand new MacBook with all of his notes already downloaded on it.

You sighed, unsure what to make of the whole situation. At any other time, your first reaction would’ve been to flip Jay off and tell him to get out of his own mess, but you felt like you owed him after what he’d done for you at the fundraiser. Even though he made it seem like no big deal, it still meant a lot to you that you’d gotten to spend the evening making yourself known to the guests and not serving them smoked salmon toasts, and that was all thanks to him.

“I guess I do owe you one, Jongseong.” His head snapped up and he looked at you with the most hopeful eyes you’d ever seen. “But before you get carried away,” you warned, “this is a one-time thing. Find an excuse, say we broke up or whatever. Fake dating is like, the most predictable trope ever,” you said, remembering all the heated discussions you’d had on the topic with Sieun.

But Jay paid no attention to that last sentence - he leapt up from his chair and came over to your side, engulfing you in a surprisingly warm hug. He muttered thank you over and over into your hair before realizing hugging wasn’t something you guys did and he might have just made things way worse. To his relief, when he took a sudden step back, you didn’t look upset at all, but rather amused at his sudden burst of excitement. 

He returned to his seat and cleared his throat. “Right. Thanks a lot, Y/N. My dad likes to have family dinners on Thursdays, so it’ll probably be then. I’ll, uh, I’ll take you there, so don’t worry about that.”

You chuckled at him. “You know I’ll never let you live this down, right?”

He sighed and shook his head, saying, “I know. But I’d rather have that than disappoint my parents, to be honest.” He smiled at you as if to take away some of the gravity of what he’d just said. You thought it wasn’t something he wanted to delve into, so you took a sip of your coffee and brought up the topic of this week’s tutorial for your cinema class, knowing it was a surefire way to start an argument with him. 

—

On Monday at lunch, you were sitting at the cafeteria with your friends. Keeho was telling them how fancy you’d looked and how you’d managed to charm everyone.

“I feel like I should be jealous, but what you did looked a lot more tiring than what I did, to be honest. When you’re a waiter at that kind of event, those rich people don’t even register your presence, so they just say the wildest shit in front of you. Apparently, CEO Cha is having an affair with CEO Liu’s wife, whoever they are.”

You chuckled at your friend, feeling even more thankful towards Jay that you didn’t have to spend your evening like that. The four of you continued chatting, which mainly consisted of complaining about how you already had so much work only two weeks into the semester. You were intently listening to the niche topic Sieun was learning about in her Bio class when someone dropped a bag on the table right next to your tray. The letters ‘Gucci’ were written on it in the iconic but simple font.

Your gaze went from the bag to the person holding it, and of course, it was none other than Park Jongseong himself.

“Hey, Y/N. Hey, guys,” he said, giving your friends a simple nod. They all replied with a confused hi. You were just staring at Jay, wondering what he was doing here.

“I got you something for Thursday night,” he explained. “Gotta wow the parents, you know?” he added with a wink.

“Uh-huh” was your very clever reply. You could feel your friends’ gaze ping-ponging between you and Jay.

Jay looked around the table, an awkward silence spreading between everyone. He cleared his throat. “Well, let me know if it fits or not. See you around.” And with that, he was gone as quickly as he’d arrived. You turned back to your friends, and their confused faces echoed your own. 

“What are you waiting for?” Sunoo nudged your arm. “Take a look inside!”

You took the bag on your lap and pulled out a magnificent green satin dress that was a lot more elegant than the one you’d worn at the fundraiser. You guessed Jay really did want for you to make a good impression on his parents. It seemed to be quite long and to not show too much skin, which you appreciated. You could only hope it would look as good on you as it did seeing it like this.

As soon as you’d taken it out, you’d heard your friends gasp. 

“Oh.”

“My.”

“God,” they’d said in turn, obviously mesmerized by the gift. 

You handed the dress to Sieun, who clearly wanted to admire it up close, and looked into the bag in case there was anything else. You were maybe hoping for a pair of earrings or a necklace, but it was wishful thinking. Instead, you found a sticky note signed Jay, which read, Wear the accessories and shoes from last week. I can’t spoil you too much just yet.

You hadn’t even noticed Sunoo was reading the note over your shoulder until he put his hand over yours in what seemed to be a confidential manner and said, with all the seriousness in the world, “Y/N, be honest with us. Is Park Jay your sugar daddy?”

Sieun and Keeho’s head snapped up and they stared at you expectantly. “What the hell? Why is that the first place your mind goes to?” you said, almost laughing in disbelief.

Bewildered, Sunoo replied, “How can it not? The wink, the Gucci gift, the note? It screams sugar daddy!”

“Wait - didn’t he say something about his parents? I’m not an expert, but I don’t think meeting the folks is sugar daddy etiquette,” Keeho mused, taking this way too seriously.

You took a deep breath. There was no point in not telling your friends what had happened, so you explained the events of the past few days to them, from Jay changing your role at the fundraiser, to his parents thinking you were dating, to dinner with them on Thursday.

When you were done bringing them up to date, they all looked at you with incredulous looks. After a moment, Sieun broke the silence: “Y/N, you’ve become a real walking rom-com. I’m so proud of you.” 

Keeho was tearing his bread apart, throwing chunks into his mouth. “I don’t know. Fake dating is kinda boring, to be honest.” Sieun let out an offended gasp and Sunoo nodded in agreement. 

“We’re not gonna be fake dating. Just for this one evening, I’ll pretend to be his girlfriend, and it’ll be over as quickly as it started,” you said, hoping that’d be the end of this conversation, but your friends wouldn’t back down so easily. 

“Y/N, that’s literally the whole concept of fake dating. You’ll think it’s only that one time, and before you know it, you’ll be married with three children, and it won’t be fake anymore,” Sieun warned, but you just shook your head and laughed, stealing Keeho’s other piece of bread from his tray.

“You guys are blowing this way out of proportion.”

“And you’ll be blowing something else soon…” Sunoo muttered, just loud enough for your table to hear. You let out an offended gasp but Keeho and Sieun just burst into laughter.

“Sunoo!”

“What?!” he replied, imitating your outraged tone but sporting an amused smile. “Your whole rivalry thing is too cute, I can’t take it seriously. You won’t admit it to yourself, but you clearly like Jay a lot more than you do Heeseung,” he said with a shrug, as if it was all so obvious. You tried to find support in Keeho or Sieun’s eyes, but they avoided your gaze, guilty expressions on their faces.

“Guys, come on, you can’t be serious. Jongseong and I are just- we’re just-” Rivals? Friends? Soon-to-be fake boyfriend and girlfriend? Who knew anymore. You took a deep breath. “It’s not like that.”

“Whatever you say,” Sunoo sighed, but to your relief that was the end of the conversation. Your friends quickly moved on to another topic, but their words gnawed at the back of your mind like rabid bunnies. Either they were completely insane, or you had gravely misjudged Jay this whole time. 

—

When Jay rang your doorbell at 7:00 p.m. sharp on Thursday, you were just done applying a thin layer of gloss on your lips. That morning, he’d texted you to ask for your address and tell you to be ready at seven. You took a good look at yourself in the mirror and headed down the stairs to get the door, but your mother had beat you to it. 

Not used to keeping secrets from her, you’d told her everything. She’d looked at you curiously the whole time, a slight smirk on her face as if she knew something you didn’t. And sure enough, when you were finished talking, she’d said, “I knew there was something between you and that Jay boy. You talk way too much about him.”

Not her too, you thought, but you didn’t need to encourage her delusions by telling her your friends thought the same, so you’d tried to defend yourself. “Mom! I just told you, I’m only pretending, I’m not actually his girlfriend. If I did like him, you’d be the first to know.”

She looked at you with a knowing smile that moms loved to wear. “I do know. You’re the one who doesn’t.” You’d dismissed her with a roll of your eyes. Everybody around me’s going crazy, you thought.

When she opened the door, it revealed a very smartly-dressed Jay (but when was he not?), bouquet in hand. He immediately handed them to her and introduced himself.

“Nice to meet you, Mrs Kim. I’m-”

“Jay, I know. Y/N’s mentioned you.”

“Has she?” he asked, a genuine grin blooming on his lips. You ignored how the glint of surprise and - hopefulness? - in his eyes tug at your heartstrings.

“Just once or twice, and never positively,” you interrupted, appearing next to your mom. Taking your appearance in, she nodded at you approvingly, but Jay just stood there, mouth agape, seemingly transfixed by you. He only snapped out of his daze when you called out his name.

“You ready to go?” you asked, and hoped that the heat that had traveled to your face was hidden by your makeup.

“Uh, yeah, yeah. Let’s go. It was nice meeting you, Mrs Kim.”

“You too, Jay. Thanks for the flowers. I hope Y/N will be a good fake girlfriend to you tonight.”

“Oh, you told her?” Jay asked you, looking somewhat disappointed. 

“I wasn’t gonna lie to my mom about my boyfriend,” you said, nudging him out of the door. “Bye, mom!”

You ignored her reply (“Don’t have too much fun!”) and walked speedily towards Jay’s car, which looked far too expensive for this neighborhood. As you got closer, he took a few quick steps in front of you and opened the passenger door for you. You rolled your eyes, not wanting to let on how the gesture made your stomach flip. “No need to go that far, Jongseong. Don’t try to woo me.”

He hurried to the driver’s seat, looked at you with a grin and said, “Might as well get into character now.” His gaze lingered on you for a second too long, and you started feeling self-conscious when his eyes moved up and down over your body. When you coughed, he suddenly turned his attention back to the front and gulped, then started the car. He looked taken aback himself, as if he hadn’t even noticed he was staring at you. After a few seconds of silence, he said, “I really do have good fashion taste.” 

Although he was technically complimenting himself, you caught yourself hoping he also meant you looked good in the dress he’d chosen for you. “You could have included shoes and jewelry, you know. I wouldn’t have taken it the wrong way,” you said with a playful tone. 

“Sounds like you’re already getting used to a lavish lifestyle,” he retorted, making you smile sheepishly. 

“I’m just not used to dressing up nicely like this. It’s nice,” you said truthfully. You weren’t sure where the honesty was coming from, but something about being in a car with Jay made you feel like you could say anything - it felt safe, like whatever you could tell him would stay between the two of you. What happens in Jay’s car, stays in Jay’s car, or something along those lines. 

Jay wanted to tell you that if you gave him a chance, you could do this anytime you wanted. He’d buy you all the dresses you could dream of, and give you a taste of his world, which he so often found bland and shallow, but that he was sure you could light up in the blink of an eye. But he couldn’t say that, so instead, he said, “Yeah, I noticed. I don’t think anything you’ve ever done or said offended me more than that one time you showed up to class wearing a ‘where the hell have you been, loca?’ t-shirt.”

“Shut up, that shirt is amazing!”

“Maybe, but the movie it’s quoting is an absolute trashfire of a film, if you can even call it that,” he claimed, knowing it’d get a reaction out of you.

“Don’t talk shit about Twilight, Jongseong, or I’ll mess tonight up and your parents will think you’re dating a psycho.”

He turned to you with a smirk. “I’d like to see you try.”

You’d always known Jay was a confident man. It’s obvious in the way he holds his head high whenever he enters a room, or how he manages to stay calm and collected during an argument with someone who’s practically shouting at him (you, usually). And while he was always self-assured during your debates, seeing him act like this to practically flirt - could you describe it like that? - with you rendered you speechless. And you hated being speechless.

So you crossed your arms with a hmph and looked out the window, turning away so he couldn’t catch your fluttered state. 

You finally arrived at his parents’ house after a half-an-hour drive (“You live so far away, do you seriously drive to campus and back everyday?” “Yes, Jay, not all of us can live in a three-bedroom flat in the middle of the city”). As soon as you walked in, his mother greeted you with a warm hug, telling you how pretty you looked, and his father clasped your hand tightly, the lines around his eyes showing as he smiled at you. By the looks of it, you wouldn’t need to do much for them to like you.

You could tell Mr Park was a businessman by the way he didn’t beat around the bush when talking to you. As soon as you’d sat down in the (or at least one of the) living rooms for drinks and small appetizers, he asked, “So, Y/N, tell us about yourself.”

Having anticipated such a question, you started, “Well, I’m an Econ major-”

“Yes, but I know there’s more to you than just academics,” Jay’s dad interrupted with a well-intentioned smile.

You looked at Jay, hoping he could help you out. He just looked back at you as if he was waiting for your answer as much as his dad was. “Right. Um. Where should I begin?” you said with an awkward chuckle. You felt a bit put on the spot, but there was only genuine curiosity in all three pairs of eyes looking at you, so you felt comfortable enough to go on.

“I’ve always lived here. Or, technically, in the suburbs. Since I spend most of my time either studying, working at my part-time job or commuting back and forth between school and home, I don’t have much time for hobbies. I just use my free time to spend time with my friends or my family.” You looked at the three people in front of you, wondering if you’d said enough. After a beat, you added, “Sorry, was that too depressing?”

Mr and Mrs Park chuckled at you, and he instantly reassured you, saying, “No, no, not at all. Tell us about your family.”

You were expecting that one too. “Well, it’s just my mother, my little sister and me. But she’s at boarding school right now, so I only see her during the holidays.”

“Boarding school - that’s pretty impressive,” commented Jay’s mom.

You smiled fondly at the thought of your little sister. “Yeah, she’s a smart cookie. Got there on a scholarship and everything. She likes it most of the time but she does complain about how the people there are all-”

You stopped yourself before your tongue could slip up and potentially offend Jay’s parents. But to your surprise, they smiled and, in turn, said, “Rich and self-centered?” 

“Little kids who think they run the place when they’re only fourteen?”

A chuckle escaped you, not expecting them to share that kind of opinion with you and your sister. An amused tone in your voice, you nodded your head and said, “Yeah, exactly.”

“Yeah, I know all about those. Your boyfriend here might have been born into wealth,” he started, and you tried not to choke on your drink at Jay being referred to as your boyfriend, “but my father’s company, the one I’m in charge of now, only started being successful when I was in high school. My dad worked his way up from the ground, so he and I both know what it’s like to not be well-off. I’ve tried to not turn Jay into one of those rich kids who think they’ll rule the world just cause they have money, and… well, I hope I did a good job.”

You looked at Jay with a grin. He looked right back at you as if to say, I dare you to tell my dad he’s wrong. If this was anyone else in any other situation, you definitely would’ve told them Jay is one of the most privileged people you’ve ever met. You thought for another second - yes, Jay was definitely privileged, but there was a sort of innocence about him. He’d never used his wealth to make you feel inferior to him or anything of the sort. When he’d bought you that MacBook, it was to apologize, not to show off. It was as normal for him to have his meals cooked and laundry washed as it was for you to sigh in defeat every time the price of milk went up, even by just a cent or two.

So, still looking at him, you replied, “Yeah, I’d say you did a pretty good job.”

The way Jay’s eyes looked in that moment, fond and soft, made you want to never look away. But you didn’t want to make it awkward, so you turned back to his parents, who were watching the two of you with affection. Maybe Jay and you were a little bit too good at this whole fake-dating thing.

A maid came into the room to announce dinner was ready, and you all headed to the dining room. When plates of your favorite food arrived, you looked at Jay, astonishment written all over your face.

“How did you know?”

“You might’ve mentioned it here and there…” he sheepishly answered, knowing fully well that he’d gotten the information from a tweet you’d made eight months ago.

As conversation picked up again and you exchanged with his parents over a bunch of different topics, from childhood memories to that weird new Netflix show that’s strangely addicting, you tried to ignore Jay’s stare that was burning into the side of your face. 

“What about your dad?” he suddenly asked, catching everybody in the room off guard. Noticing your confused look, he continued, “Earlier. You said it was just you, your sister and your mom. What about your dad?”

His mom furrowed her eyebrows at him and said, “Jongseong, leave her be. If she hasn’t told you, she probably doesn’t want to talk about it.”

You took a deep breath. “No, it’s alright. I don’t mind talking about it, I just don’t usually bring it up cause it makes people think of me differently? Like they start to pity me just because my dad’s out of the picture, when, really, it hasn’t affected me that much. I’ve never known him, my mom has always raised the two of us on her own.” You looked down at your hands. You hadn’t even realized you’d been fiddling your fingers. “It just seems too cliché, the poor girl who lives in the suburbs and is on a scholarship and doesn’t have a dad and redeems herself by having good grades. Which is why I like to usually keep it to myself.”

You looked back up at them and were relieved when you found understanding and not pity in their eyes. If there was one thing you didn’t want to happen, was for them to think you were leeching off of Jay or trying to get his money. Even though you weren’t actually dating, it would’ve still damaged your ego if they had seen you that way.

A few hours later, dessert was finished, and you could tell everyone was starting to tire (or had had too many glasses of wine) by the way the conversation was starting to make less and less sense. Jay was looking at the three of you in amusement, stone cold sober, as he knew he’d have to drive you home later.

“Well, Y/N, son, we’re not going to hold you hostage here any longer. You still have classes tomorrow,” Jay’s dad said.

His parents led the two of you to the door as you gathered your coat and bag. “It was so lovely getting to know you more, Y/N. You truly are a sweet girl, and we can tell you’re making our Jay very happy,” his mother said, pulling you into a hug.

“You better treat her well, son,” said Mr Park. Jay looked over at you, and there was something in his eyes you couldn’t quite explain; all you knew was that it sent shivers straight down your spine. “I will,” he simply said, but with so much honesty, it made you wonder if he actually did mean it.

“Oh, and Y/N, there’s an event this Saturday. It won’t be as fun as ours last week, but I’m sure you could find a way to enjoy it. Plus, it wouldn’t hurt for people to see what a nice, hardworking girlfriend Jay has,” his father said, beaming down at you.

Jay and you exchanged a look, and the panic at the sudden invitation made you say, “Yes, I’d love to attend!” instead of finding a palatable excuse.

You exchanged final goodbyes with his parents, and as soon as you were in the car, you let out a hearty groan.

“My God, what’s wrong with me? Why did I have to say yes to that?”

Jay started the car. “I’m surprised too. If you had given me three seconds, I could’ve come up with an excuse for you. But I mean, I’m not gonna complain.”

You turned your head towards him, a pout on your face. “What do you mean?”

Jay kept his eyes straight on the road as he answered. “Well, like he said, it won’t be a bad look for me to have you on my arm. As much as it pains me to admit, you’re charming and intelligent, and,” he glanced quickly towards you, “I have good fashion taste, so you don’t look like an absolute fool in that department either.”

You snorted at his coyness. “Just say I’m pretty and move on, Jongseong.”

“Is that what I said, though?” he asked, a devilish grin on his face. 

You gasped dramatically, trying to appear as offended as possible. “Your dad literally just told you to treat me well, I’ll have you know.”

“They really fell for it, didn’t they?,” he said with a sigh. “I have to say, you did a pretty good job tonight. Almost got me wondering if you’re not used to being people’s fake date for the night.”

“Yeah, it’s my side job actually.” You smiled at each other, and when the eye contact lasted a second too long, you both quickly turned your head to the road. “So, what’s Saturday night about?” you asked, wanting to break the silence.

“Oh, it’s probably just another boring event where the grown-ups go to socialize and flaunt their wealth or their children’s prowess.”

“Wow, look at you being all critical. I thought you lived and breathed that kind of stuff.”

“I like it when it has a purpose. Like a fundraiser, or a company opening, or whatever. But this is just another excuse for people to show themselves off. You don’t have to come, you know. I can probably find a way out for you.”

Once again, without thinking, you immediately answered, “I’ll come.”

Jay glanced at you quickly, an eyebrow raised. “Wh- Really?”

You shrugged, trying to stay casual. “I mean, I don’t have anything on Saturdays. Might as well keep you company. Turns out you’re not always insufferable.” You’d lowered your voice for that last sentence, only half-heartedly admitting it. But of course, Jay wasn’t going to let you go with it.

“Huh? What was that? I don’t think I heard you,” he teased, leaning slightly towards you.

You gently nudged his shoulder, saying, “Shut up, you heard me. Just because I tolerate you slightly more doesn’t mean you’ve stopped being my number one rival.”

You’d never seen Jay smile that much. You sometimes caught glimpses of it when he was with his friends, but with you, he usually had an arrogant smirk, so seeing his genuine grin made your heart swell with joy you couldn’t explain. 

“Of course not. I wouldn’t assume anything else.”

He dropped you off at your house and made sure you were inside before driving away. When you told your mom about your night, she watched you with a smile, that knowing glint in her eyes still there. When she tried hinting at you having feelings for the boy, you’d gotten off your chair and shouted good night! before heading to bed. 

—

Saturday quickly rolled around the corner, and you were in your room with Sieun, trying on the two dresses Jay had given you to pick from. “They’re both good, I just wanted to see if you’d choose the best one,” he’d said. This time, he’d also included a new pair of shoes and a set of matching jewelry. Your friends kept teasing you about him being your sugar daddy (“you can’t deny it anymore, Y/N”), and you had to admit you were starting to feel a bit like that, even though you weren’t really giving him any sugar. He was just spoiling you like it was his day job.

He was right; both dresses were gorgeous. They were both black, but one of them was body-fitting with an open back, while the other cinched in at the waist and had puffy sleeves. You couldn’t deny that you looked good in the first one; Sieun had let out the loudest gap when she’d seen you in it. But you both agreed that it was on the riskier side, and it was probably more appropriate to wear the second dress.

You were laying on your bed, talking about this and that. It’d been a while since it was just the two of you, and it was nice catching up with her.

“So…” she’d started, an impish tone to her voice. You knew immediately what she wanted to talk about and let out a loud groan, but that didn’t deter her. “Wanna tell me about Jay?”

It was obvious what she was trying to get at, but you weren’t going to give her what she wanted. “Well, he’s rich and has a huge house. Not surprising. He drives well. He’s not half as annoying when he’s in front of his parents. Probably not trying to be as much of a smartass. He seems to think he’s all that. He-”

“Okay, okay, I get it!” she said, laughing. “What I mean is, has anything changed between you two? Have you finally come to your senses about the boy?”

You thought about it for a second. Something had definitely shifted in your perception of Jay. You felt it in the pit of your stomach every time he smiled at you. But it was scary: this wasn’t you and Jay. You and Jay argued, and riled each other up, and got on each other’s nerves. You didn’t crack jokes so you’d hear the other laugh, or agree without thinking when they asked you for a favor. It was confusing, so instead of voicing out those concerns, you lied. “No. Not really.”

But your friend wasn’t buying it. “C’mon. The guy buys you dresses, gets your mom flowers, drives you to his parents’ for dinner. I know it’s not for realsies, and you’ve got integrity or whatever, but you can’t completely be indifferent to it, Y/N. Even you’ve got to admit Jay’s hot.”

You laughed at your friend’s reasoning. “Fine. Maybe he’s not just someone to beat anymore. I guess that’s what fake dating will do to you. But that doesn’t mean I have to say he’s hot.”

She turned to fully face you. “Not even when he’s all dressed up? Or when he hands you a bag that has contents worth thousands?”

Her eyes were telling you that you had to agree with her. You tried to suppress a smile, still not wanting to admit anything. Just because you and Jay had been rivals since you’d met didn’t mean you went blind every time you saw him. Of course, you knew how attractive he was. But you had conditioned yourself to never see him that way, so letting on that you didn’t think he was completely repulsive felt like betraying yourself. 

Sieun laughed at your reaction. “C’mon! Say it!”

You pursed your lips together, suppressing a smile, and shook your head. The tilt to Sieun’s head and the devilish glint in her eyes told you your friend was up to no good - and indeed, a second later, she was on you, tickling your sides and asking you to “say it! Say it!”

“Fine, fine!” you said between breathless giggles. She finally relented. “I think Jay’s hot.”

“Do you, now?”

The sudden male voice made you and Sieun shriek. You sat up in your bed and found its owner - sure enough, Jay was standing in your doorway, leaning against the wall and clearly liking what he’d just heard. Your mother soon appeared behind him, explaining that he’d knocked and she let him in, telling him to go up to your room. She mouthed sorry and quickly scurried down the hall.

“I’m not sure why it took you so long, but I’m glad you’ve finally opened your eyes, Y/N.”

Sieun’s eyes were going back and forth between the two of you, until she stood up and said, “Well, I guess that’s my cue to go. Have fun you two, and tell me all about it on Monday, Y/N!”

Before you could protest, she had already left your room, sending Jay a wink as she passed by him. It was silent for a few seconds as you sat there in embarrassment, cursing the Gods for your awful timing. He walked in and sat down at the edge of your bed, comfortable and keeping his distance at once. The sentence there’s something perfect about him flashed in your mind but you were quick to brush it away. “So, which dress did you choose?”

“The one with the puffy sleeves,” you replied, unable to look him in the eye.

He tutted, shaking his head disapprovingly. “Wrong choice.” You rolled your eyes. “Show me?”

This made you look at him. His smile was taunting, but his eyes were soft. With the way he looked right now, you thought he could ask you anything and you’d say yes. You hadn’t imagined that him sitting on your bed would make you stammer like a schoolgirl in front of her teacher crush, but here you were, almost rendered speechless by the mere sight of him. The fact that he was manspreading and leaning back on his hands, the top buttons of his shirt undone and his trousers stretching against his thighs, wasn’t particularly helping. More shyly than you intended, you told him to turn around and close his eyes, then quickly put the dress on. You were thankful for its lack of zipper - you don’t know if you could have handled Jay zipping your dress up for you.

“Okay. You can turn around now.”

This was already the third time Jay was seeing you all dressed up, but his gaze managed to make the heat rise to your cheeks every time. The corners of his lips rose slightly. “Wrong choice,” he repeated, “but you still look really good, Y/N.”

You couldn’t stop the smile spreading on your face as you coyly replied, tugging at the hem of your dress, “Why thank you, Jay.”

“You gonna be ready to go soon?” he asked, checking the time on his phone.

“Yeah, just need to put on jewelry and shoes, and I’m good. Sieun did my makeup for me earlier.” You put on the thin silver earrings and ring Jay had gotten for you and checked your reflection in the mirror. You put a hand to your collarbone, thinking the area looked a bit empty without a necklace.

“Should I wear the necklace from last time? It looks a bit weird without anything right now,” you asked Jay, keeping your gaze on the mirror. 

“Um, I’ve got something, actually. I forgot to give it to you with the rest of the things.” He fished a small box out of his bag and got up to stand behind you. He took out the necklace and put it around your neck, asking you to hold your hair up. You complied, looking at his reflection in the mirror. His hands slightly brushed the back of your neck as he locked the necklace, and you had to keep yourself from visibly shivering at his touch. This was infinitely worse (or better) than him zipping up your dress.

He absent-mindedly let his hands slide along your shoulders until they came to a halt on the sides of your arms. His eyes met yours in the mirror, and with a smile, he said, “All done.”

—

Nothing, not even the fundraiser of the previous week, could’ve prepared you for how lavish this party was. Whereas the fundraiser has been in an 18th century ballroom, in the old part of your city where most of the architecture was traditional, this event was taking place in the newer, richer part of the city where skyscrapers constituted most of the area. You were at the top of one of those skyscrapers, and from the huge windows that made up two of the four walls of the spacious room, you could see the whole city laid out right in front of you, as if it was yours to take. If having money meant seeing this everyday, you thought you could understand why rich people got addicted to it. 

As Jay and his dad had warned, the atmosphere that evening was very different from that of the fundraiser. Instead of gathering for a cause, this just felt like an excuse to get drunk and eat tiny, tiny appetizers that probably cost a hundred dollars each, all while looking rich and fashionable. The room was quite dark, only the moon outside and the small LED lamps on every table bringing light in. You’d never seen such an impressive collection of alcohol (to be fair, you’d only ever been to frat parties where most of the alcohol was cheap beer and dodgy brands of vodka), and you were really going to have to restrain yourself from trying out every cocktail the barman offered. Although most of the people there were in their forties to sixties, and the younger people were only there thanks to their parents, the dress code wasn’t as formal as you’d have imagined it to be, and Jay’s assessment of your dress as the “wrong choice” now made more sense. The women wore dresses that showed quite some skin, or didn’t leave much to the imagination, and the men had left their suit blazer behind and hadn’t buttoned their shirt all the way up.

It was all a bit mind-boggling at first, but you soon got used to it, and Jay’s warm hand on your lower back reassured you. At first, the two of you walked around together, talking to different people, and hoping you were making your “relationship” clear to them. You were glad Heeseung or anyone that would’ve recognized you wasn’t there: you could handle pretending to be Jay’s girlfriend in front of his parents and other random people, but in front of the whole school, that would’ve been a whole other level of fake dating.

Watching people slowly slip into a drunk state as the hours passed was just about the only source of entertainment you got that night. The two cocktails you’d tried out were way too strong to your liking, so you didn’t feel like drinking anymore, and Jay couldn’t because he was driving you home later on. When most guests were beyond the point of being able to hold a coherent conversation, you and Jay took it as your cue to leave. You found his parents among the crowd to tell them goodbye, and you could tell they weren’t completely sober by the way they kept telling you you were amazing and made you promise three times you’d attend more of these events. Guess you couldn’t back out now.

And indeed, as weeks passed, it became a normal thing for you to accompany Jay every time he had an event to attend. Your wardrobe was going to burst from all the outfits he kept buying you, but you weren’t going to complain. Jake and Sunghoon, as sons of CEOs of smaller but still important companies, were sometimes present. They usually ditched these types of events, and you couldn’t blame them, but they still made the effort from time to time. You were already friends with Jake before; the two of you had lived in the same dorm building and kept finding each other in the study room late at night, then started to bond over insolvable questions and watered-down instant coffee. Sunghoon, on the other hand, you hadn’t had many chances to talk to, and you couldn’t lie, judging by his appearance alone, you had first thought he was even more self-centered than Jay. But after talking to him for just a minute, you found that that cold facade quickly broke down and he was easy to talk to and very funny - in his own way, but funny nonetheless.

Heeseung wasn’t always at these events, but whenever he was, you couldn’t miss him. He always garnered attention, especially from the female guests, but he always kept his eyes trained on you. In all your three years of liking him, he’d barely spoken a word to you, so why the sudden interest? Usually, you’d have craved his attention; but for some reason, at those parties, you felt indifferent towards it. You hated how he was always with a different girl and never approached you, yet wasn’t trying to keep his glances towards you discreet at all. Jay noticed it too, and a couple times you’d even had to stop him from going up to Heeseung and asking him what the hell he wanted. 

Since you didn’t have money to bedazzle people with, you always tried to make a good impression with your conversation and intellect, but some nights you just weren’t up to it and spent most of the time laughing with Jake and Sunghoon, as Jay was often too busy talking to someone else. Tonight was one of those nights; half an hour into the party, an important businessman approached Jay and started talking to him, completely ignoring you. He always ended up apologizing later on, but you didn’t reproach him for it - you knew he had a reputation to uphold and that these events were important for him. Plus, it wasn’t like he owed you anything - you weren’t his girlfriend after all, even if the line between real and fake had started to blur more and more often as of late. 

Feeling out of place, you looked around the room and found Jake and Sunghoon at the bar, six shots lined up in front of them. You had never gotten drunk at any of these events, not wanting to risk embarrassing Jay or his parents, but tonight seemed like it was gonna be the most boring one as of yet. So you gestured to Jay that you were leaving and joined the two boys.

“Room for one more?” you asked when you reached them. They turned around and smiled at you; this was clearly not their first drink of the night. 

“Of course!” replied Jake excitedly, beaming at you. You could tell he already had a few drinks in his system. Without further ado, you each took a shot glass in your hand, clinked them and brought them to your lips, dipping your heads back. The burning of the alcohol as it glided down your throat was both repulsive and intoxicating, and you were soon reaching for the second one. The boys cheered you on and quickly mirrored you. 

Although you’d promised Jay you’d always be on your best behavior, as the evening went on, you never refused a drink that the servers approached you with or the boys offered you. Without Jay to make snide remarks about the snouty guests with, the evening was a lot less fun, so you couldn’t help but down every glass of alcohol that came near you; since Jake and Sunghoon were doing the exact same thing, none of you were realizing exactly how drunk you three were getting. At least, you weren’t going around the room, mumbling drunkenly to everyone; you were staying at a table in the corner, mumbling drunkenly to each other.

Jay was observing you from afar, trying not to worry and stay focus on the conversation (no matter how mind-numbing) he was having; but when he saw you almost fall out of your chair and burst into laughter right away instead of regaining your senses, he thought it was time to come check on you. He couldn’t help but feel guilty for having left you alone for most of the night, and he knew Jake and Sunghoon never stayed sober through these events, but in his defense, he didn’t think any of you would go that far.

He took a seat in the chair next to you, leaning close to you so you could hear him over the music and chatter of the guests. He asked you how you felt, and you gave him a lopsided smile in response. “Me? I feel great. This place is awesome once you’ve had-” you hiccuped, “a few drinks.”

Jay sighed but had an affectionate look on his face. “Right. I think it’s time to get you home.” He saw you open your mouth in what was probably going to be protest, so before you could say anything, he added, “And don’t even argue with me. I’m taking you home, let me just go let my parents know first. You two figure it out on your own,” he told Jake and Sunghoon, who had already started to doze off on their chairs.

He got up and headed towards his parents, and you watched him walk away with a pout on your face. Your vision was blurry from the alcohol and you could barely make out any faces, but you waved in what you hoped was the general direction of his parents. 

“She just keeps getting better, doesn’t she? Even when she’s drunk, she doesn’t embarrass herself,” said Mr Park when Jay announced your departure. “I’m glad you have her, son.” Jay was glad for the dimness of the room, which meant his dad wouldn’t notice how hard he was blushing. Even if it was all an act, thanks to his parents, he had gotten closer to you than he thought he ever would.

He bid goodbye to his parents and a few other guests, including Jake’s and Sunghoon’s parents, making them aware of their kids’ state, then went back to get you. The trek to the car wasn’t the easiest as tiredness had started to hit you and your body grew heavier against your will. You fell asleep as soon as your head hit the back of the passenger seat and Jay couldn’t help but think you were the cutest thing in the world. He then realized how far gone he must be to think you still looked precious in your current state.

The car ride was silent, your quiet snores and the soft chatter of the radio the only sounds filling up the space. Jay thought you were dead asleep as you didn’t wake up when he fished your keys out of your bag and carried you bridal style out of the car and to the door, but really, you just didn’t wanna have to walk. When he got to the door, though, you thought it would’ve been unfair to make him struggle that much, so you opened your eyes and quietly told him to let you on the ground. He walked you to your room, tucked you in bed and even got a wet wipe to take your makeup off for you. 

As he gently swiped it over your eyes, trying not to hurt you, your drunken state got the best of you and you asked, voice barely over a whisper, “Why are you doing all this?”

He didn’t say anything for a minute, and you thought he might not have heard you, until he replied, “Because I want to.” You were too tired to press the matter any further, although you desperately wanted to. You’d have to wait until you were sober - if you’d have the courage to bring the subject up then.

When he was done and got up from your bed, the sudden absence of his presence around you made you panic, so you called out, “Jay?”

“Yeah?” he said, and you hoped you weren’t imagining how expectant he’d sounded.

“Will you stay?”

Your eyes were too heavy to even open, so you couldn’t see his reaction. After a second that felt like an eternity, he answered, “Of course.”

You heard him steal a pillow and lay down on the carpeted floor next to your bed. Maybe it was the remnants of alcohol in your system, or the fact that spending so much time together, especially as his girlfriend - fake girlfriend - had made you see him in a new light, or the fact that you felt like your whole world would collapse if you didn’t have him next to you at that moment, or all three of those things. All you knew was that something beyond your control made you whisper “come here” in the quiet of your room, and, when he got under the covers with you but kept his distance, made you wrap your arms around him and cling onto his shirt as if he would disappear.

You slept like a baby that night, but Jay barely got a wink of sleep, the sound of his own heart beating uncontrollably keeping him awake.

—

You woke up that Sunday morning with a ringing headache, an upset stomach and a thirst you knew you wouldn’t be able to quench no matter how much water you drank. Your bed was empty, and the only thing that reminded you Jay sleeping overnight wasn’t a fever dream was his scent lingering on your pillow. The pang in your heart at his absence was hard to ignore - you were definitely curious about what it’d be like to wake up in Jay’s arms. 

The busy chatter coming from the kitchen forced you out of your bed, although you would’ve rather stayed there all day. As soon as you opened your bedroom door, the smell of pancakes and sizzling bacon attacked your nose, and you hurried downstairs.

The sight of Jay cooking breakfast for you and your mother alone was enough to cure your hangover. You sneakily watched from the staircase as he expertly flipped pancakes and cooked eggs at the same time, all while holding a conversation with your mom. You walked into the kitchen and poured yourself a cup of coffee before taking a seat next to your mom, trying to but failing to suppress a smile. “I didn’t know you were also a housewife, Jongseong,” you said, voice still groggy with sleep.

“I thought it was the least I could do after making you attend such an awful event,” he answered, and you had the suspicion he was only being nice because your mom was there, even though she knew you two weren’t actually dating. 

He kept that energy all throughout breakfast, making your mom laugh, and you watched him play his charm on her, glad you didn’t need to participate in the conversation. Any mom would be lucky to have him as a step-son, you caught yourself thinking.

Your mother hugged him when he left, and turned to you with a smile as soon as she’d closed the door. “Y/N, there’s no way in hell you don’t wanna date that boy. Hell, if he wasn’t half my age, I probably would.”

You took a cold water bottle from the fridge and said, “We’re not talking about this,” then headed up the stairs to your room. You ignored her calling after you and laid down in bed. Last night had given you a lot to think about.

—

You never got as drunk as that night again, not wanting to repeat that situation. Your relationship with Jay had already changed so much in so little time, but now, there was a lingering tension that always kept you on edge, and it wasn’t due to the constant arguing. It was due to the way you couldn’t get his scent on your sheets out of your head and the way he couldn’t forget how you had held onto him that night. You two had always said whatever was on your mind to each other, especially if it was something that would annoy the other, but now unspoken words constantly lingered between the two of you.

Your friends saw right through you; even though you tried to play it cool, it was painfully obvious that Jay was much more than just competition to you now. You hadn’t told them about the time he’d slept over and made you breakfast, knowing you’d never hear the end of it; but they didn’t need to know about that to see something had changed. It was clear in the way you talked about him, which had gone from irritated to excited, or how you never mentioned Heeseung anymore. One time, you’d even said “dating Jay” instead of “fake-dating,” and Sunoo had immediately picked up on it.

“That-that’s what I meant!” you’d exclaimed defensively, but they’d all looked at you with teasing smiles.

Jay hadn’t been very discreet when he’d given you bags of designer clothes all over campus, like in the cafeteria, in a random hallway, or in a lecture hall, and given his immense popularity (you know, being handsome and rich and all that), a few rumors about you two dating were being spread around. But they hadn’t really blown up, since the both of you always denied them whenever someone asked you if they were true, because you didn’t need to keep the pretense at uni. 

The pretense - because that’s all it was, of course. Play pretend. Fake dating, keyword fake. But everything with Jay felt too real - the laughter in his car on the way to and fro the events, the smiles you exchanged from across the room, his hand brushing against yours when you sit next to each other during lectures. It wasn’t enough to have his arm around your waist once or twice a week, and it drove you crazy that you had him in bed right next to you but that you’d let him go. You needed to have him close, and for it to be real.

It was a sunny March afternoon when you realized this. Your week was surprisingly unbusy - along with the preparation for your lectures and tutorials, you only had two small online quizzes to complete, and all your bigger deadlines were so far away that even you didn’t see the point in starting on them already. So, armed with your favorite book and plenty of snacks, you’d decided to head to the park next to campus and spend a relaxing afternoon in the sun. It went as planned for about an hour, when an all too familiar voice called out your name - a voice that used to make you sigh in annoyance and roll your eyes automatically, but that now made your heart skip a beat in nervousness, you realized with some alarm.

“Hey! What are you doing here?” He sat down next to you on your picnic blanket, beaming at you like you were his good old friend he’d just run into. He had a professional-looking camera with him, something you’d never seen him carry around. You were so taken aback by his excitement at seeing you that no words formed in your mind, and you just raised your book and waved it stupidly.

Jay chuckled when he saw what you were reading. “Twilight, of course. And that’s the last one, isn’t it?” He shook his head in mock-disappointment at you. “I can’t believe you would put yourself through the torture of reading four of those books, Y/N.”

You just mumbled something about them being fun to read, turning your gaze back to the cover of the book you were holding. What the hell was wrong with you?! Usually, you’d be quick to shoot an answer back at Jay, either defending yourself or attacking him on one of his own weird preferences (you’ll never forget the day they had corn at the cafeteria and Jay had scarfed down at least five cobs in one sitting). But right now, Jay’s presence next to you turned your insides to liquid and rendered you unable to think properly. You hated it.

But then you noticed something on the book cover - “Jay, how do you know this is the last one?” From the corner of your eye, you saw Jay’s head snap up while you turned the book in your hands. “There’s no number on it.”

“O-oh,” he started, and judging from the growing blush on his face, you knew you’d caught him. This brought some of your usual confidence back to you. “Isn’t it common knowledge that Breaking Dawn is the last book in the series?”

You giggled at that. “Absolutely not.” His guilty expression only made you want to press further, and you added, “That’s something you’d only know if you’d watched all the movies and made the effort to remember the separate titles.”

He looked away, letting out a small hum as he found sudden interest in his camera. You were still smiling at him in disbelief. “Jongseong, have you seen all five Twilight movies?”

He furrowed his eyebrows and kept avoiding your gaze. “Pffft. No.”

“Jongseong.”

At the sound of his name, he abruptly turned his head in your direction, and his glare only made you smile even more. “You’ve actually seen all five movies, I can’t believe this,” you said, almost laughing. Jay’s eyes softened slightly, just enough for you to notice. He turned his attention back to his camera, but he was smiling down at it as he spoke this time.

“It’s just that you’ve mentioned them so often, I thought I should check at least the first one out. Turns out they’re pretty addictive,” he admitted sheepishly.

“So you watched them for me?” you asked, and your voice was more admirative than you’d had intended it to be - you wanted to tease him, not let him know that what he’d just said actually touched you.

“I watched them for… research purposes,” he conceded. Your eyes met. Your cheeks were starting to hurt from all the intense smiling this conversation was bringing you, but you couldn’t help it. This time, you were the one to look away.

“Research purposes, of course.” A short silence ensued, the sort of silence you should’ve been used to with Jay by now but that always made you feel giddy - the sort that’s awkward in a lighthearted way, the sort where you’re repeating all the words that have just been said in your head and committing them to memory. The sort where you hope the other is feeling all the things you’re feeling.

You broke it first. “What about you, what are you doing here?”

Jay raised his head, looking like he’d just remembered he had come here for another purpose than just talking to you. “Right. I have a project for this elective I’m taking, so I need to film some stuff and I thought it’d be nice to do it here,” he explained, shrugging.

“Sounds cool,” you said, and you hoped he knew you actually meant it. He looked at you again, and he seemed surprised. “Tell me more,” you added, and from the way his features lit up, you could tell you had said the right thing. You positioned yourself more comfortably on the blanket as you listened to him.

“Oh, well, our professor’s a bit of a romantic so the project is all about finding beauty in the small things, the happiness around us, love…” 

Your gazes locked the moment he said that word, but it only lasted a second. Jay was quick to clear his throat and go back to his explanation, but it took you a few more seconds until you could focus on his words again. When you snapped out of it, he was showing you some films he’d already taken. They were all very short, just three or four seconds long, but a peacefulness emitted from each of them. An encouraging message scribbled into a lecture hall table, a cat laying on a windowsill, enjoying the sun, an old couple walking slowly hand-in-hand, teenage girls celebrating a birthday at an ice cream parlor, the metro passing quickly through the frame as the sunset paints the sky orange in the background. All beautiful moments that make up life, but that you never take the time to fully appreciate.

“This… this is beautiful, Jay,” you breathe, mesmerized by what he’d manage to capture.

“Yeah? Not too cheesy?” he asked, a small smile on his lips.

“Not at all. I think your professor will love this, you completely grasped the subject.”

He let out a shaky breath of relief, his smile getting wider. “Nice,” he said under his breath. Then he suddenly turned his head to look at you, an intensity in his gaze you hadn’t expected. “Would you mind if I took a video of you? Add you to the film?”

“W-what, like here? Right now?”

“Yeah,” Jay said, and when he smiled at you like that, who were you to say no?

“Okay, sure.” You tried to shrug, play it cool, but something about Jay looking at you through his lens and adding a video of you to all those beautiful ones he’d just shown you made your heartbeat speed dangerously.

“Great,” he beamed. “Just read your book. Pretend I’m not here,” he instructed. As if you could be anything less than hyper-aware of his presence, you thought.

Thankfully, the video was shot in just a few minutes as Jay searched for the best angle to take it from. Before you knew it, he was already back next to you, mirroring your position on the blanket as he laid on his stomach. You tried to ignore how his shoulder brushed against yours as he leaned on his forearms, showing you the video. You had to admit, it looked really nice - from this angle, the sun shone down on you perfectly, and you could see the wind blowing through the tree leaves in the background. It fit perfectly with the other videos.

“Beautiful,” Jay whispered, looking at the film with nothing but fondness in his eyes.

You didn’t linger on his words too long, just took the chance to tease him: “Are you complimenting me or your videography skills?”

The look in his eyes didn’t change as he turned his head and gazed down at you. “You, of course.”

A smirk tugged the corners of his lips up as he took in your flustered expression, your incoherent mumbles. “Whatever,” you mumbled when you regained the ability to speak. 

Another comfortable silence settled between the two of you as Jay busied himself with his camera while you read the same paragraph over and over, unable to concentrate on the words. You desperately wanted to say something, but had no idea what, so you were grateful when Jay broke the silence.

“Just need to edit this all together on my laptop, and then I’m all done. Thanks for your help, Y/N.”

“I didn’t do anything, though,” you said with a small smile. His compliment from earlier was still ringing in your ears.

“But you did. I think that shot of you will end the film perfectly.” 

Sure, Jay had gotten nicer and nicer to you as time passed - but today, he was really laying it on thick. He was making it hard to breathe properly. All you could do to save yourself was change the subject.

“So, this is for the Visual Studies part of your degree, right?”

For the second time today, Jay’s expression went from surprise to delight - you remembered, he thought. “It is, yeah,” he replied, with a wide grin he couldn’t control. He seemed to hesitate for a bit, as if deliberating whether he should say whatever it was he wanted to say or not. You were happy to see he opted for telling you. “If it was up to me, it’s the only thing I’d have done.”

You studied him for a bit. With just this simple sentence, you realized Jay’s life wasn’t as simple as you’d always imagined it to be. “But it’s not up to you, I’m guessing.”

He smiled sadly, and you had to resist the urge to take him in your arms. All these things you had been feeling for him, they weren’t supposed to be there, and you were getting really tired of fighting them back.

“It isn’t, no.” He turned over to lay on his back, and you imitated him, so that you were now both staring up at the sky. He sighed before speaking again. “My father isn’t a particularly conservative man, but he does like tradition. He wants to keep the company in the family, and as his only child, I’m the one the responsibility falls upon. He’s never even asked me if this was what I wanted to do, just assumed I’d be happy with it.”

In your three years of knowing Jay, you’d thought how unfair it was that he wouldn’t have to go through the hoops of job applications and job interviews. He already had a top position waiting for him as soon as he got out of college. But now you realized that he was completely trapped in the position - all of the decisions you’d taken academics- and career-wise had been your own, while Jay’s had been chosen for him in advance.

“I picked up photography as a hobby to get away from it all and ended up really falling in love with it. I have control over my camera even if I have zero control over anything else in my life,” he explained with a defeated chuckle.

You let your head fall to the side and looked at him. “I had no idea about any of this.”

Jay met your eyes and smiled. The sun was right behind you, so he had to shield his eyes from it to look at you. “Of course not. I never mentioned it.”

“I feel like I should’ve known, for some reason.”

His smile got wider. You looked away. “Why?”

“Just ‘cause. Maybe I would’ve gone easier on you if I knew you were also struggling.”

“I wouldn’t have let you.” He bumped your shoulder with his, making you let out a chuckle.

A beat passed before you spoke again. “Guess we both have a lot of pressure on our shoulders, huh? Even if they’re different kinds.”

“Guess we do.”

“Then we’re more similar than I’d thought,” you said, and looked at him again.

“Guess we are.”

A smile bloomed on your lips, and Jay’s eyes drifted down to it. That simple action made you panic, and you suddenly sat up. He didn’t have time to ask if everything’s alright, you were already throwing your stuff back in your bag and mumbling something about the time and having to go. You stood, and turned to Jay before scurrying off. “I’ll see you around.”

Jay chuckled, slightly confused, but let you go. It wasn’t until he left himself that he’d realized you’d left without your picnic blanket.

— 

After that afternoon, you tried to pretend nothing happened, and that you hadn’t run away just because of Jay glancing down at your lips. You were already getting worked up over things you shouldn’t even be thinking about when it came to him - you didn’t need to have Jay kissing you on your mind.

Thankfully, Jay didn’t bother you about it, and you got back into your routine of arguing by class and pretending to be a couple by night. Everything was fine.

That is, until Mr Park happened.

You had waited all week, hell, all month for this: Jay’s dad was about to give a special talk for the School of Business on how to get a company started and efficiently run it, but most importantly, he would announce how to apply for a summer internship at his firm. You’d made sure to get there early so you could get a good seat. He noticed you when you walked in the amphitheater, and motioned to you to come see him.

“Y/N! Lovely to see you, thanks for coming,” he greeted, beaming down at you. It always surprised you just how similar his smile was to his son’s.

“Of course, Mr Park! I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

“Come and see me after the talk, yeah? There’s something I want to tell you.”

God, what was it with Park father and son to announce things like that? Why not just say it straight away? You kept those thoughts to yourself and nodded, then sat down at a seat in the front.

You listened intently the whole time and took down rigorous notes. When it was over, you had to wait another twenty minutes as people asked him questions, until he finally announced that was all he had time for today. You headed down towards the stage, and complimented him on his talk. Most people in the room had started trickling out, but there were still a few students waiting at the doors, hoping to catch him before he left.

“Oh, thank you, thank you,” he said with a chuckle, before taking a deep breath. “I realize now what I said earlier might have made you nervous, but don’t worry, you’re not in trouble.” 

You released a breath you didn’t know you were holding. Good. “I just wanted to thank you for being such a good girlfriend to Jay. I’ve always been proud of him, but I know he has a lot on his shoulders, so it’s nice to see that he has someone like you to rely on.”

You smiled at Mr Park, saying it was nothing, but you felt guilty. He truly believed in you and Jay, when the two of you were only pretending. Even though it didn’t always feel that way anymore. 

“Oh, and for the internship, I’m sure you’ll understand that it wouldn’t look too good if I gave it to you. But don’t worry, I’ll put in a good word for you wherever you decide to apply.”

A second passed. Then another, and another, until your lack of answer was becoming weird, and you had to say something. “Oh. Right. Of course, I understand,” you replied, hoping the disappointment in your voice wasn’t too obvious. You exchanged a few more words until you said you needed to get back to studying.

As you turned around to exit the room, you noticed everybody who had been waiting for Mr Park was staring right at you, wide-eyed. You tried to ignore them and get to the doors, but a girl stopped you. “So the rumors are true, you really are dating Jay?”

You’d never seen her in your life and were a bit shocked that a stranger could demand information about your love life, but you nonetheless shook your head and started to say, “What? No.”

“Why are you lying? We just heard everything,” said another voice.

“Yeah, it doesn’t matter anyway, just don’t lie.”

You turned your gaze away from the students to look behind you at Mr Park. Or more precisely, at the lecturer mic wrapped around his waist. From where you were, you could make out a tiny red light on the mic, signaling it was still on.

Crap.

—

As soon as you were outside, you called Jay. He picked up after a few rings, groaning, “What? I’m at the library.” Ah, there was the Jay you knew.

“I’ll be here in two, come outside.”

“But-”

“Right now,” you said sharply and hung up. 

Jay had wanted to scold you for disturbing him like that, but as soon as he saw you, eyebrows furrowed and biting your lip nervously, worry overcame him. “Hey. You okay?” he asked gently, placing his hands on your forearms.

“Yeah. I’m fine, but, um, everybody knows. »

He looked at you questioningly, and when you wouldn’t explain further, he asked, “Knows what?”

“You. Me. That we’re dating. Well, they think we’re dating.”

“What? How do they know?”

“Your dad. We talked after his presentation, and he thanked me for being a good girlfriend, except his mic was on. So everybody heard. And you know how gossip travels here, so everybody’ll know by tonight,” you said, sighing in exasperation.

Jay thought for a while. “Well, who cares if they know? We don’t have to change the way we act with each other. That’d be more suspicious, if anything. We’ll just have to not deny it when people ask if we’re dating.” 

Your frustration got the best of you and you scoffed, giving Jay a harsher look than you wanted to. His hands left your forearms. “How far is this gonna go, Jay?! How much longer do we have to-” You realized how loud your voice was, and switched to whisper-shouting instead of just shouting. “To pretend? I can let you parade me around those CEOs and whatnot, but I don’t wanna have to keep the charade up on campus, too.”

Jay’s law locked. He looked like you’d just punched him. But he didn’t say anything, so you dropped it. “Anyway, that’s not even the bad part. Your dad told me I wouldn’t get the internship.  And it’s fine, I guess I can get one somewhere else. But I wasn’t expecting it, and I was really looking forward to working at your dad’s firm.”

Again, he was silent for a small while, until he muttered, “Right.”

You looked up at him, and he was avoiding your gaze. Why wasn’t he surprised, or angry? Why wasn’t he reacting?

“Did… did you know?” you asked, unable to keep your voice from shaking.

Nothing.

“Jay. Did you know?” you repeated, tone harsher, more impatient.

“Um. Yeah, I knew,” he mumbled. He still wouldn’t look you in the eye. 

You shut your eyes for a few seconds, trying to grasp the situation. “Wh- you knew? And you didn’t say anything?” 

“Sorry,” he said, eyes trained on his shoes.

“Sorry? That’s it?” You shook your head in disbelief. You almost wanted to laugh. “How long have you known?”

“Since the beginning, really. My dad’s not the type to do favors, and he wants to keep up that image. So if you’re my girlfriend, he wouldn’t give you the internship.”

You couldn’t say anything. Not getting the internship was one thing. You could get over it. But Jay knowing from the start and keeping it from you, that was what really hurt you. You could feel tears forming in your eyes, but you walked away before Jay could see just how much he’d upset you.

“Y/N!” he called after you. He grabbed your wrist, making you stop in your tracks and turn around. The sight of you, teary eyes and staring at him with fury in your eyes, and knowing he was the reason behind it, made him indescribably angry at himself.

“Whatever it is you have to say, I don’t wanna hear it, Jongseong.” He tightened his grip on your wrist before you could snatch it away from him.

“I’m so sorry, Y/N. I didn’t know you wanted that internship. If I did-”

“If you did? Then what? You wouldn’t have asked me to be your pretend girlfriend? You would’ve let me have a chance at the internship?” You shook your head. “Of course not. So save it.”

You managed to get out of his grip and continued walking away, ignoring him as he called out your name again. When you were a few meters away, you turned around and said, venom only in your voice, “I hope you realize how selfish you are, Jay.”

That’s when his heart broke.

—

Jay had been right when he said people wouldn’t care about the two of you ‘dating.’ However, the people who did care, your friends, were more confused than anything: you had gone from bickering non stop, to denying couple rumors, to not talking to each other. It’d been a week since your argument with Jay, and you still didn’t want to hear him out. You didn’t want to have anything to do with him: you straight-up ignored him every time he tried to get you to talk to him, had blocked his number and shut down your friends and mom whenever they mentioned him.

You missed him; you missed his stupid arguments, and his stupid jokes, and his stupid face, and how it had started to feel like he genuinely cared for you. Or at least, that’s what he’d made you think. And he’d made you think it so well, that you thought you might have been starting to genuinely care for him as well. Which only made his betrayal a hundred times worse.

You’d decided to drown your sorrows in textbooks, and spent most of your time at the library. On Thursday, you were searching for the week’s essential reading in the Econ section, and as you took out the book in question, you saw a pair of eyes staring right at you. You tried not to shriek but you felt like your soul had left your body. You’d barely had time to gather your spirits when the culprit had come round to your side of the bookshelf, and of course, it was none other than Lee Heeseung. God, you thought, could that boy get any weirder?

“Trouble in paradise, or so I’ve heard?” he asked in lieu of a normal greeting. Whatever happened to hello?

“That’s none of your business, Heeseung,” you replied curtly, opening the book.

He tried not to be taken too aback by your attitude. He was used to stammering and blushing Y/N, not you-better-not-give-me-any-shit Y/N. He wouldn’t say he disliked the change.

“I’m not sure why you thought dating a guy like Jay was a good idea in the first place, anyway. You could do a lot better, you know,” he said, and you couldn’t help but chuckle at the irony of it all. When you didn’t answer, he went on. “You know, we’ve missed you at the frat parties. I know you’ve been going to all those boring company events, but don’t you think it’d be more fun to let loose with us? Tomorrow night?”

This made you look up at him. He had that gaze again, the one you’d seen all those times, and you remembered why you’d liked him for so long. Something about his eyes, about the way he was waiting for you to say yes, made you reply, “I’ll think about it.” You returned his smile and headed back to your seat. You did think going to his party would be fun, and you definitely needed some of that right now.

Plus, you had the perfect dress for the occasion.

—

So here you were, standing in front of the frat house’s door, Sieun, Sunoo and Keeho at your sides, in the tight black dress Jay had given you but you hadn’t chosen for that one event. They were all used to this kind of party, but you’d only been a few times, and although they’d all hyped you up for it, you suddenly felt yourself deflate. 

“Guys, what if I just embarrass myself like last time? I don’t think I could live with that-”

“Nope! We’re not having this conversation again!” Sieun exclaimed, already pushing you inside. “You look hot as fuck, and tonight you’re gonna have so much fun and forget all about Jay.”

Keeho and Sunoo gave her a stern look. “Sorry,” she quickly apologized, but you barely heard her over the bass of the booming music. It was 11 p.m. and the party was well into motion. People were drunkenly dancing on the designated dance floor, and you tried to not conjure up memories of that last party. There were people everywhere you looked: on the staircase, in the backyard, in the kitchen. 

Your friends and you headed first to the mini-bar and shot down some vodka for liquid courage. As you started chatting, trying to see who was there, Heeseung approached you.

“Y/N! You came! And you look really good,” he said, taking in your figure. He pulled you into a hug which you returned warmly. The vodka was already having its effects on you, apparently.

“Can I get you guys a drink?” he asked you and Sieun. Keeho and Sunoo had already disappeared to the dance floor. 

“Sure,” you said, smiling up at Heeseung.

Sieun looked between the two of you, and said, “Actually, I’ll join the others. Come dance with us soon, Y/N!” And like that, she was gone, giving you no time to protest. She thought she was being slick, that one.

You and Heeseung chuckled. He got you a red cup and you watched him as he expertly poured different juices and liquors in it. “So, what made you decide to come?” he asked, handing you your drink. You took a sip of it and nodded approvingly.

“I just needed a good party. To let loose, like you said. Plus, who am I to deny an invitation from the great Lee Heeseung?”

Neither of you was sure where all the confidence was coming from. As soon as you’d said that, you looked down at your cup and smiled shyly. Heeseung looked at you curiously, but he couldn’t help but grin as well. You chatted a bit more, drinking one, two, three cups of the heavenly concoction Heeseung made for you. 

“Wanna dance?” he suddenly offered, extending his hand. Right at that moment, you saw Jay enter the house with Jake and Sunghoon. You saw him look around the room until his eyes zeroed in on you and the boy in front of you. Perfect, you thought. You smiled at Heeseung and took his hand, letting him lead you to the dance floor.

Somebody had dimmed down the lights and Lost in the Fire by The Weeknd was playing loudly, creating a sensual atmosphere in the whole room. Your body started swaying to the music, and you were thankful for the alcohol in your system, ridding your mind of any negative or self-conscious thought; you were just enjoying yourself, exactly like you’d wanted to do tonight.

You were getting lost in the music, when a pair of hands on the sides of your waist brought you back to reality. Heeseung got so close to you, you could feel his lips on your ear as they moved to whisper, “Having fun, princess?” 

You nodded fervently, leaning your head back on his shoulder, closing whatever gap there was between your two bodies. His hands traveled from your waist to your hips and you could feel his broad chest against your back as you two moved to the rhythm of the music. From where you were, you had a view of the living room. Jay was sitting there, a girl sitting so close she might as well have been on his lap, but he was staring right at you. You knew never hooked up with random girls at parties, so he had to be doing this to get a reaction out of you. You hated that it worked, that it only made the fire in you burn harder - so as a response, you started grinding your ass against Heeseung.

When the girl actually sat on Jay’s lap, you couldn’t look anymore, so you turned around and put your arms around Heeseung’s neck and faced him. His eyes had glossed over and he was looking at you with a hunger you’d never seen before. Well, that wasn’t true - you’d seen him look at other girls that way, and you always knew what happened after that, but you chased the thought out of your mind, forgetting all about that promise you’d made to yourself of never becoming another one of his drunk fucks. Now that his attention was on you and you only, you felt yourself wanting more. His hands traveled further down your body as he grabbed at your ass, bringing your hips closer to his. He bent down to press wet kisses up your neck until he reached your ear. 

“Wanna take this upstairs?” he asked. It sent shivers down your spine, but you couldn’t tell whether they were good shivers or not. You willed away your hesitation, smiling at him as he took your hand once again, this time leading you to what you assumed was his bedroom. As you walked up the stairs, you scanned the room and sure enough, found Jay sitting on a couch, staring right at you. You thought the beer can in his hand might explode, he was holding it so tight. Feeling you slow down, Heeseung tugged at your hand, and you detached your gaze from Jay’s, trying to drown out the feeling of guilt that was creeping up inside you.

As soon as he’d closed the door behind you, Heeseung wasted no time in pressing you up against the wall and kissing you hungrily. You hadn’t been kissed many times before, and surely not with such energy, but you were sure it was supposed to feel better. Heeseung was in no measure a bad kisser, he seemed to have the technique down to a T and kept a perfect rhythm. But you felt no fireworks, no butterflies, no light-headedness you’d always hoped would come with a good kiss. There was just no passion to it.

After a few minutes of making out, when you were starting to hope he’d get on with it, he said, breath irregular, “What would Jay say if he saw this, huh? Probably hates the idea of me kissing his precious girlfriend, don’t you think?”

The mention of Jay hit you like a ton of bricks. “Wh-what?” you stammered, not letting Heeseung kiss you when he leaned in again.

“Jay? Your boyfriend?” he repeated, looking at you bemusedly.

You chuckled once. Then twice. Then you just started laughing. “Oh, Jay? We’re not actually dating,” you revealed, your filter completely gone because of all the alcohol.

“What?” Heeseung took a sudden step back from you. His confused gaze had turned cold.

“We’re not dating, I said. It’s all fake, it was to make his parents happy,” you explained, yourself confused by Heeseung’s sudden attitude change. 

It was his turn to laugh. “Wow. That’s impressive. You managed to fool me.” His smile dropped. “Now get the fuck out.”

“Excuse me?” you said, crossing your arms over your chest. Who the hell did this guy think he was?

“You heard me. Get the fuck out. There’s no point in fucking you if you’re not Jay’s girlfriend. You’re just a random loser.”

You stared at him for a few seconds, until you started laughing. It only seemed to make him angry. “What the fuck are you laughing about? I told you to get out.”

You sighed amusedly as if Heeseung was just joking around. “I just think it’s funny that you won’t fuck me because I’m not actually Jay’s girlfriend, when that’s not stopped you from getting with a different girl every single weekend. Whore,” you said, adding that last part in a whisper. You didn’t actually care that Heeseung slept around, not anymore, at least, but you wanted to get a reaction from him after the way he’d treated you.

But perhaps you went too far, because Heeseung’s eyes turned even angrier, and he pushed one of your shoulders harshly, making you almost hit the wall. “I’ll tell you one last time. Get out, you pathetic little bitch.” 

Just at that moment, the door burst open, revealing a very angry Jay. 

“What the fuck did you just call her?” he growled, heading straight for Heeseung and grabbing him by the collar. The other boy didn’t seem fazed, a smile back on his face, as if this whole situation was funny.

“Aw, Jongseong is mad I’m not being nice to his little fake girlfriend?” You guessed Jay must’ve looked confused, because Heeseung continued, “Yeah, she told me. To be fair, I should’ve known even you wouldn’t date a fucking beggar like her.”

You weren’t quick enough to stop Jay from bringing his fist up to Heeseung’s nose. You swore you heard something crack. But as soon as you saw him get ready for another punch, you ran to him and held his arm, shouting, “He’s not worth it, Jay!” and God, you almost wanted him to punch you because of how cliché that had sounded, but you truly thought Heeseung wasn’t worth losing any energy over.

Your voice seemed to make Jay snap out of his fury, and he looked at you, worry written all over his face. However, that only lasted a second, as his expression then shifted to something you’d never seen on his face before, and he grabbed your wrist, leading you out of the room. The commotion had gathered some attention, and you left the house under a bunch of people’s curious looks and chatter.

What was it with men grabbing you and leading you wherever tonight? You were tired of it, so as soon as you’d reached the front yard, you got your wrist out of his grasp, and demanded to know where he thought he was taking you. He grabbed your wrist again, and said, “To my place. We need to talk.” 

The tone in his voice told you it was better not to test him, so you got in his car. Jay was always a safe driver, but this time, he sped through the whole city, even burning some red lights, reaching his apartment on the other side of town in a matter of minutes. You quickly texted your friends your whereabouts so they wouldn’t have to worry. The whole car ride had been silent but you could feel him fuming next to you, and you had no idea what to expect when you entered his apartment.

His place was exactly like you’d imagined it: modern, spacious, and way more organized that any other university student’s flat would be, but also had a lot of personal touches. It was very Jay, and if it hadn’t been for the tension between the two of you, you’d have immediately felt at ease there.

Jay walked through the dark apartment to the kitchen, where he turned on a single light. You followed him, unsure what else to do. He leaned against his hands on the island counter, head hung low, and you went to stand on the other side of the counter, waiting for his next move. When his head snapped up and he peered straight at you, you could barely decipher the look in his eyes, but thought it contained a mixture of jealousy, anger, and… hunger. He’d never looked at you that way before, and his gaze itself created a ball in the pit of your stomach. You told yourself it really wasn’t the moment, but you couldn’t help but feel desperately attracted to him.

“What the fuck were you doing with Heeseung?” he asked, finally breaking the silence.

You scoffed. “What the fuck were you doing with that random girl?” 

“I wanted to make you jealous.” He hadn’t hesitated a second before answering, and his confidence destabilized you. You’d guessed that had been his plan, but hearing him say it made you feel weirdly shy. “Now answer me. What the fuck were you doing with Heeseung?” 

You couldn’t hold eye contact anymore, so you looked down at the counter, and replied, “I um, I was drunk, and I… I wanted to make you jealous too, I guess.” You looked back up at him, wanting to gauge his reaction. He was now wearing a smug look, like he’d won something over you. He slowly walked over to your side of the counter, and when he reached you, he put his hands on the counter on each side of you, making you lean back against it. You gulped at the way he towered over you

“And why did you want to make me jealous?” He was so close to you now that when he uttered those words, voice barely over a whisper, you felt his breath fan over your face. As much as you tried to keep eye contact, your gaze fell down to his lips, and you saw him smirk. He caught your chin between his index finger and thumb, nudging your head up. “Eyes up here, doll.”

Your eyes met his again. He was looking at you so intently, you thought your knees might buckle under you. He cocked an eyebrow, patiently waiting for your reply. “Because I…” 

It was so obvious, but you hadn’t been able to bring yourself to say it, or even let yourself think it, before. But it needed to be put out there, once and for all. There was no point in fighting it anymore. “Because I like you, Jongseong.”

To your surprise, his smirk turned into a cheeky grin. It made some of the tension dissipate, but not enough for you to breathe properly again. “I like you too, Y/N.” You sighed out of relief at his words and mirrored his smile. 

“Can I kiss you?” he said, the thumb that had been holding your chin caressing your bottom lip.

“I thought you’d never ask,” you breathed, and he leaned in, your lips meeting delicately. It stayed that way for a few minutes, until the pent-up feelings that had been threatening to come out finally did, and hunger and passion took over the kiss. Jay was kissing you like a man starved, and all you could do was return everything he was giving you. This was nothing like you’d imagined it; it was infinitely better. Talk about fireworks, or butterflies, or light-headedness, you felt like you were on another plane of existence, like a kiss that felt this good and was this freeing wasn’t humanly possible. 

Your hands slipped under his shirt and the sudden contact of your cold hands against his warm skin made him shiver. You were glad to see you had as much effect on him as he had on you. Never breaking the kiss, he led you to his bedroom and sat down on his bed, gesturing for you to straddle his lap. Your dress rode up your calves a little bit, and he used this opportunity to pull it further up until it bundled up around your hips, leaving your lower half almost naked. You could feel how hard he was getting underneath your clothed core, and as the kiss grew needier, you started grinding against him, getting the both of you off. When you heard him groan against your lips, something snapped in you, and you wanted to hear that sound over and over, so you doubled down on your actions. 

His hands, which had been resting on your ass, came up to the nape of your neck, and he grabbed you by the hair, exposing your neck to him. He started pressing down eager kisses along your jawline, throat, and collarbones. When he found a spot in the crook of your neck you particularly liked, he started attacking it like crazy, sucking at the skin and turning you into a moaning mess. One of his hands came to cup your breast and he was very glad to find you were not wearing a bra. Your nipple had hardened through the fabric, and he started playing with it. That, as well the feeling of him in your neck and against your core, was overwhelming, and you felt like you were about to pass out because of how good it all felt. You didn’t know what to do with your hands so you alternated between running them over his arms and tugging at his hair.

As your lips met again, teeth almost clashing because of the intensity, you started unbuttoning his shirt. When it was off, you couldn’t not stare at him. You’d had an idea already, but you still couldn’t believe how toned his arms, chest and abs were. You thought to yourself, God, he’s so hot, and hadn’t realized you’d actually said it out loud until he jokingly said, “Yeah?”, looking up at you with the biggest smile. His hands ran over your calves, your thighs and your ass, sending shivers along the way, and he said, “You’re not too bad yourself, doll.” He kissed you with much more gentleness than before. “In fact, you’re the prettiest girl I’ve ever laid eyes on.”

You kissed him so he wouldn’t see the blush spreading on your face. He put his hand on your lower back, and guided you down on the bed until you were laying on your back, him hovering over you. He pulled your dress all the way up, helping you get rid of it. You were now left in only panties in front of him, and you would’ve imagined that to be intimidating, but his gaze was truly making you feel like a goddess. Nonetheless, you didn’t want to be the only one naked, so you tucked your fingers under his trousers’ waistband, gesturing for him to take them off. He chuckled but immediately obliged, getting rid of them in a matter of seconds. You had an even better view of his now fully-hard cock, and its size made you gulp. Your mind was quickly off of that, though, as he started trailing kisses all the way down to your breasts, taking one of your nipples in his mouth as his hand came up to the other. Your back arched at the sensation, and you only wanted more, more, more. Your fingers tugged at his hair and you breathed out his name between moans. 

After a few minutes, he traveled further down your body, until he was face to face with your dripping core. He hooked his fingers under your panties, looking up at you and asking you if this was okay. You nodded impatiently and he chuckled at your reaction. How could you be so cute even in this moment? He took your panties off excruciatingly slowly. You wanted to take your time, but you also wanted him where you needed him the most.

You did feel a bit shy when he stared at your sex with the utmost wonder, musing to himself, “So pretty.” He slid a finger between your folds, making you moan in relief and pleasure, and added, “So wet, too.”

You had lifted your body onto your forearms so you could take a good look at him. He peered up at you and, with a small smile, asked gently, “Tell me if it feels good, okay?”

“Okay,” you replied, nodding fervently.

Without wasting another second, he licked a stripe up your core, making you moan again, louder this time. He took that as confirmation to go on and continued exploring your pussy with his tongue. You practically screamed out in pleasure when he found your clit, and by the time he started sucking on it, your thighs were shaking like crazy. You didn’t have any strength left in your body and your forearms gave out under you, so you just lied down on your back, fingers still tangled in and pulling his hair. You hadn’t been able to actually tell him it felt good, but you were sure he understood that much.

One of his fingers, and then a second, entered you, filling you up. “Shit, doll, you’re so tight. How are you gonna handle my cock?”

He curled his fingers inside you and they hit a certain spot that made you see stars, and you were coming all over his fingers and tongue in a matter of seconds, screaming out his name and a string of blasphemies. You had to physically lift his head from your core, telling him it was too much, otherwise he would’ve kept going. He gave you a sheepish smile and you couldn’t believe the boy grinning at you was the same one who’d just said and done all those lewd things to you. He pressed a small kiss on your inner thigh, then lay down next to you on the bed, taking in your flushed cheeks and blown-over eyes. He couldn’t believe he got to have you like this, in your most vulnerable state, all to himself. 

When you’d calmed down from your high, you managed to say, “That was amazing, Jay.”

He let out a soft chuckle and kissed your forehead, then trapped your lips with his own. You could taste yourself on his tongue, but you didn’t mind. After a few minutes of lazily making out, you threw your leg over his to position yourself over his hips, and started pressing feather-like kisses down his neck. He’d made you feel so good, and you intended to return the favor.

You felt him sigh at your touch, but before you could go too far down, he stopped you by bringing his hands to both sides of your face, making you look up at him.

“Did I do something wrong?” you immediately asked, worry laced in your voice.

“No, no. God, no, you’re perfect.” he replied. “I just… I still feel so guilty for what I did, and I feel like I don’t deserve you right now.”

“Jay…”

He hid his face in the crook of your neck and held your waist tightly. “I’m so sorry, Y/N. You’re right, I was being selfish. I should’ve known you wanted that internship, and I knew you wouldn’t get it if my dad thought we were dating, but… I’ve wanted to be with you for such a long time, and when I had the chance to have you, even if it was just pretend, even if it meant lying to you, I couldn’t bring myself to not take that chance. I’m so sorry.”

You had completely forgotten the events of that week, and of that night. Your argument with Jay and Heeseung’s words seemed light-years away. “How long have you liked me?” you couldn’t help but ask. You should’ve been surprised by Jay’s confession, but for some reason, it made sense - what didn’t make sense was how you hadn’t noticed it, or how you’d thought it wasn’t possible that you might like him, too.

“Since we met,” he admitted shyly. “I would’ve told you, but you seemed to enjoy arguing with me so much, I was scared you’d just make fun of me.”

Since you’d met… so, three years? And he’d never said anything? “To be honest, I probably would’ve made fun of you at first,” you agreed light-heartedly. “But I also think it would’ve made me realize what an amazing person you are earlier. I’m sorry it took me so long.”

“That’s okay. I would’ve waited my whole life if it meant I could have you at the end.” Butterflies erupted all over your stomach at his words. You kissed him like you’d stop breathing if you didn’t.

Now that Jay had gotten what he wanted to say off his chest, you’d hoped you could continue your previous actions, and started pressing kisses down his neck, but he soon stopped you again.

“I’m getting the feeling you don’t want me to go down on you,” you said, half-joking.

He grinned and closed his eyes, as if fighting himself back. “I do, I promise you, I do.” When he opened his eyes again, they were full of affection. “But we’ve got so much time for that later. I just want to feel you around me right now. Would that be okay?” he asked, voice soft.

Your core pulsed at the thought of Jay inside you, and you nodded, breath growing erratic again. Jay gently lay you on your back, and took off his black boxers so that the two of you were finally completely naked, revealing his throbbing cock. He was right, how were you going to handle it? He rummaged around in his bedside drawer for a condom, and put it on with nervous hands. 

He lined his tip at your entrance, pressing soft kisses all over your face and neck before pushing in as if to get you to relax. He kissed you gently on the lips. “Tell me if it hurts, and I’ll stop right away.”

He waited for you to nod again, and finally entered you. It immediately stretched you out like never before. The sound of you taking a sharp breath in made Jay stop in his tracks. You wrapped your hands around his biceps for support, then, letting out a deep sigh, told him to go on. He pushed in inch by inch until he finally bottomed out. You both let out a hearty moan at the feeling. It was so perfect.

He didn’t move for a few minutes, letting you adjust to his size. You had your eyes closed and were focused on relaxing, until all at once the pain of the stretch turned into pleasure, and you breathed out, “Please, move.” He obeyed and started rocking in and out of you, making you feel each inch of his length inside you. The sensation was intoxicating. You couldn’t stop any of the moans escaping your throat, and Jay took that as a green light to go gradually faster. Your bodies were moving at the exact same pace and you thought the two of you molded together perfectly, as if this was what you had been meant to do your whole life. His fingers were tightly gripping your hips as he thrusted into you harder and harder, making you moan so loud you were practically screaming in pleasure.

“You feel so fucking good, Y/N,” he said, throwing his head back and letting out a deep moan himself. Your hands roamed all over his body, unable to stay in one place at a time. He suddenly changed the angle of his hips and started hitting that spot inside you he had found earlier with his fingers, making your mind go hay-wire. 

“Fuck, right there, Jay!” you screamed out, as he brought your hips down to his faster than you thought was humanly possible. Soon, you were coming again, and the feeling of you clenching down around him made him shoot his release into the condom. He fell on top of you, unable to carry his weight on his arms anymore. He only had enough strength to pull out and discard the condom, before nestling his head between your breasts. Tiredness seeped through your bones, and you both fell asleep in seconds, completely naked and arms around each other.

Jay woke up a few hours later, a cramp in his arm because of how you were laying down on it - the two of you had apparently switched positions at some point during the night. He softly pulled his arm away, trying not to wake you up. He checked his phone; it was 4:29 a.m. He looked down at you, admiring how soft you looked when you were sleeping. He still couldn’t believe his luck, it all felt like a dream to him. But then you shifted slightly, letting out a small whimper, probably because of a dream, and Jay knew this was happening for sure. He hugged you tightly, breathing in the scent of your hair, and, knowing you were fast asleep, murmured, “I love you.”

—

The sunlight peeking through the curtains and hitting your face softly was what woke you up the next morning. You were relieved to feel Jay’s arms around your waist as he hugged you from behind. You gently turned around, curious about what he looked like in the morning.

As expected, he was perfect.

You observed him for a while until his eyes fluttered open. “Good morning, handsome,” you whispered, pushing away the hair that had fallen in front of his eyes.

“Good morning,” he replied, smiling sleepily. “Creep.”

Quietly, you gasped dramatically and said, “Is a girl a creep for looking at her boyfriend as he sleeps in the morning?”

He cocked an eyebrow. “Boyfriend, huh?” he teased.

You grinned at him. “Yeah.”

“Well,” he said, returning your grin and tightening his grip around your waist, “my girlfriend can look at me all she wants.”

You’d technically been dating Jay for over three months now, but knowing it was finally real and not just pretend made you giddy. You buried your face in the crook of his neck and kissed him there, trying to hide your shy smile. 

He took your head and lifted it to place a delicate kiss on your lips, which you returned like it was second nature. When you pulled away, you jokingly said, “Mh. Morning breath,” but Jay’s eyes opened wide and he immediately put his hand over his mouth, asking, “Seriously?”

You laughed at him and pulled his hands down, going back in for a kiss. It soon escalated, and you were reminded of the fact that neither of you had clothes on when you could feel Jay’s hardness pressing against your thigh. He apologized shyly, but you told him it was fine, and that you’d take care of it. 

This time, when you two made love, it was much slower and light-hearted than the previous night, as if the two of you had finally realized that you had all the time in the world and could enjoy every single second. It was the perfect thing to wake up to.

You two lazied in bed, alternating between slowly making out and daydreaming together, until his stomach rumbled loudly and you really needed to pee. When you joined him in the kitchen, he was heating up waffles on the stove. You hooked your arms around his waist, pressing your chest to his back, and he hummed softly.

“Jay?” you whispered, lips just millimeters away from his ear.

“Yes, doll?”

“I love you too.”

permanent taglist: @k-ingzo @bbujiikseu @sunghoonmybeloved @lalalalawon @sd211 @w3bqrl (ask to be removed/added!) © asahicore on tumblr, 2023. please do not repost, translate or plagiarize my works. feedback and reblogs are always appreciated!

#enhypen x reader #jay x reader #enhypen smut #jay smut #enhypen fluff #jay fluff #enhypen angst #jay angst #enhypen fanfiction #jay fanfiction #enhypen imagines #jay imagines #enhypen scenarios #jay scenarios

[writeshite]

How would Thor/Homelander/Soldier boy react to them accidently hurting (emotionally or physically) their bf?

Thor:

Probably the only one here with some emotional intelligence, and yeah, he used to be arrogant, but he's a sweetheart, an absolute angel. Thor is most likely very in tune with how you convey emotions, I mean he worships the ground you walk on.

If he hurts you physically, and you end up scared of him, I can see two things that could happen, he either distances himself from you for a while to work through the mental breakdown that probably hits him. Second option is he hovers; I mean, the man can summon thunder and control lightning - regardless of what species you are (Kree, Human, Asgardian, Elf, Skrull, etc.) - he's gonna be concerned cause I mean, he could maybe indirectly stop your heart, or crush your internal organs, or just hurt you brutally and painfully in any other way.

If he hurts you emotionally, he's groveling; he's doing everything in his power to show how sorry he is and how much he loves you. He'll probably ask you what you want, if you want distance he'll give it to you, he'll stay away until you call back and hopes it doesn't lead to a breakup.

Homelander:

Like father like son, I guess. Sort of. I think with all the time he's spent around people and getting high of approval, he at least has some sort of knowledge on emotions, but not like in a healthy normal way, more in a 'I've been around people crying and whining before I know enough to be able to speedrun the crying stage and get to the forgiveness part' if that makes sense.

Also, I feel like it would also depend on how your relationship is; if you and Homelander have a genuine thing going on, then he'd probably put in effort cause he doesn't want to lose the only source of actual genuine affection in his life. So you'd probably get an apology, some gifts, anything Homelander thinks will get him back in your good graces. And then cuddles.

If your relationship is a fling of some kind or fake relationship to hype the masses with no romantic feelings of any kind involved on his end, then you ain't getting no apology honey 💀, because I mean, he likes to embarrass people who he perceives have wronged him, so even if he's the one at fault for hurting you physically or mentally, it'll somehow become your fault, so he'll probably bring the fight out into the public, use Vought to paint you as the one in the wrong, if you don't want that to happen then you should apologize, you're the one who's wrong here.

Soldier Boy:

I love Ben, I do, but I know this man has like the emotional bandwidth of a rock like he's probably still trying to process being attracted to not only women while also trying to unpack his goofy ass douchebaggery.

I don't think Ben would notice at first if he hurt you emotionally, or if he does, he'd probably think you'd get over it and then be shocked if/when you don't. He'd feel bad and experience the wonderful world of guilt.

If he hurt you physically, he'd notice a lot quicker, and probably feel worse, I feel like he's the kind of guy who takes physical injuries/pain more seriously than emotional and mental.

#shiteanswers #shitedrabbles #thor x male reader #thor x gender neutral reader #homelander x male reader #homelander x gender neutral!reader #soldier boy x male reader #soldier boy x gender neutral reader #shiteheadcanons

[end3rs-eye]

Trolls Band Together and the Way it Presents Family Relations

Do you ever watch a movie then get possessed and write a 1623 word long essay about the complicated nuances of sibling relationships? ….me neither

Before we get into it I’m just going to say that a boy band made out of teens and children is never going to end well (look up the jackson 5 if you don’t know who they are already). Seriously, who let them do this? Also as a disclaimer I am the oldest of two so I will obviously not have as much experience with the position of the middle child or the youngest. This is written with the rough estimate of bro-zone ages as John Dory (~19), Bruce/Spruce (~17), Clay (~15), Floyd (~14), Branch (~5). Here's why I’m going with these: link. This got a little (a lot) out of hand but I hope you enjoy :]]

John Dory

John Dory’s role in the family is the leader, the responsible one. He embodies the oldest child syndrome, defined as: Obsession, desire for perfection, high self-esteem, or pressure to meet parents' expectations (link). For the most part John Dory is the closest thing they have to an adult (excluding Grandma who didn’t seem like she was doing much). Keep in mind he’s in his late teens in Bro-zone. He’s given this HUGE amount of responsibility of watching his four younger brothers and isn’t really given credit for it, only being “the bossy one”. This is mentioned once in the movie during their fight on the bus, but isn’t really mentioned afterwards or anything. This is pretty typical for the oldest sibling. Having to take on huge amounts of responsibility at a young age. 

John Dory wants his brothers to be happy so he pushes them to be perfect. He forgets there are other ways to be than just perfect. He ended up pushing them and pushing them until he had pushed them all away. Because of this want, this need to be perfect, John Dory ends up not realizing that people, including himself, are allowed to change. This is seen with his constant babying of branch and deadnaming of Bruce. He even says “Well, I wasn’t allowed to change! I’m the oldest. I had to be the leader” 

Bruce/Spruce

Bruce is introduced as the hearthrob with chiseled abs. There are a couple of main features that people associate with the heartthrob character. Hot, irresponsible, and noncommittal. Out of all Bro-zone members, Bruce has the most healthy relationship with his boy band history. He balances what he hated in Bro-zone with what he liked. He disguards his name and any association with the band (although his reaction to John Dory calling him Spruce shows that he is recognized from time to time).  He settles down quicker than any other member, something that goes directly against heartthrob stereotypes and has an (frankly unbelievable) amount of children. But despite separating himself from Bro-zone, Bruce stays in the spotlight in his co-ownership of Vacay Island. 

Clay

Clay falls into the common comedy relief middle child trope. Clay is also the one that suffers the most from stereotyping during the Bro-zone era. The audience's first introduction of Clay is him being told that he needs to continue being the funny one despite his protests. 

This is made even more evident when he’s introduced post Bro-zone breakup. Clay spends the majority of the 20 years apart being the opposite of the fun guy. He feels like he has something to prove. Clay tries his hardest to distance himself from Bro-zone and in the end he dedicates years to it. His entire personality is trying to escape the stereotypes he was put in as a teen.

Floyd

I have SO MANY feelings about Floyd. He’s the one in the Bro-zone that we get the most character development (other than Branch of course). Floyd’s role in the family is the mediator. He’s the one who watches for the other’s mental health and steps in when John Dory gets a little too intense. In the opening scene he not only checks in with John Dory, telling him to take deep breaths, he also helps Little Branch through some first show nerves. It doesn’t seem like this is the first time either. Floyd is also the one that seems most reluctant to break up the band and to leave Branch alone so it’s clear how much he cares for Branch. He ends up being the rock of the family. Branch tells Poppy that Floyd would be the one brother that he’d be willing to go on another adventure for.*

*I’m not sure if this is actually true, Branch also might do this for his other brothers but definitely not as willingly

Comparatively, Floyd changed the least after the band broke up. He takes a mediator role even in Velvet and Veneer’s relationship and continues to show a people pleasing, other-people-first attitude. This proves true to the real life people pleaser experience, these habits stick around long after leaving the environment that created it. Velvet and Veneer stealing Floyd’s talent is a metaphor for the way that people take and take from a selfless person like Floyd until the person is completely burnt out. Some, like Veneer, are more worried about the person's health but still end up taking it. Others, like Velvet, don't care and take it without thought. 

Another key factor with Floyd is his selfless, self-sacrificial nature. During both John Dory and Branch’s visits to him in the dressing room, Floyd insists that they leave him to save themselves despite his life being in danger. 

Branch

Branch is basically abandonment issues personified. Okay it’s a little more complicated than that but when you get down to it yeah. When I think about Branch, maybe 6 years old, in a boyband it makes me think of family vlog channels. IT’S SO INCREDIBLY UNHEALTHY. I promise I’m normal about this (lying).

Of course these problems start with the fact that he was ACTUALLY ABANDONED??? Then these abandonment issues are only accentuated by his grandma’s death. Whether or not Floyd meant to, he put the weight of taking care of Grandma on Branch’s shoulders. This just means he felt worse being the major cause of her death. This creates the feeling that he’s not only been abandoned again (this time in death) he feels like it’s his fault. Fun!

Branch shows a very interesting combination of self isolation and building his life around making people stay. Particularly his brothers. Branch hides in the fear of being abandoned again, first from the outside world and then from Poppy in his refusal to open up. At the same time he says he doesn’t want them [his brothers] to come back into his life then makes a bunker based on the base they wanted to build together. He keeps wearing Floyd’s old jacket and he holds onto the dream they once had. I mean for someone who claims to want his brothers out of his life did you SEE those puppy dog eyes when they told him they were planning to separate after rescuing Floyd.

Branch’s actual place in the family is the baby of the family. Although this label may have fit him 20 years ago, Branch has long outgrown it. Not that anyone else cares (other than Floyd). His family continues to treat him as the baby and ignore his maturity and needs. Upon reuniting with his older siblings Branch is promptly picked up, pinched, and generally treated like a child. Even Clay and Bruce who except each other in the ways that they’ve changed, still treat Branch like a small child. Now he feels like he has to prove that he isn’t a child, i.e. refusing the pacifier from Baby Diamond over and over again. 

In conclusion, Trolls Band Together is a wonderful movie that presents common band stereotypes and the ways that being put in boxes affect the real people behind the band. It highlights people stuck in their boxes, John Dory as the leader and Floyd as the sensitive people-pleaser. It also shows those who try (to vairing degrees of success) escape the boxes, Branch as the baby, Bruce as the heartthrob, and Clay as the funny one.

#trolls band together #trolls 3 #main tagging this bc i actually want people to see it #john dory #trolls clay #trolls floyd #branch #trolls spruce #analysis #character analysis #essay #long post #cas whispers to the void #i think thats all the tags?

[in1-nutshell]

Hi, is it okay to request in Transformers Earthspark?

so since we have a twin sister for TFA Elita-1, is it okay to have a twin sister for TFE Elita-1?

Buddy as the TFE Elita's twin sis.

TFE Elita's twin sis has the different/opposite of Elita, like Buddy's meek/shy, pacifist (yet has passive-aggressiveness), nurse, and/or mom friend. Or similar to Disney Belle from Beauty and the Beast.

"Buddy" is not their original name, used to be named "A-2 or E-2".

With Optimus (Orion Pax), Megatron(us or D-16), and Elita (Ariel) from their Pre-war times. You can put romance if you like

You can add this idea/s if you like:

takes place on pre-war Cybertron

TFE Elita's twin becomes techno-organic (like TFA Elita's (twin) ), or something else that is somehow related to Quintus Prime (something like, Quintus left his homeworld, using his Emberstone to seed life across the galaxy. Let's say there's an unknown/undiscovered planet related to Quintus Prime, and somehow Elita's twin landed/crashed/stranded on this planet), or not

then something happens to Elita's twin, became a missing/'dead' bot, she lost contact with her sis and friends and/or Cybertron. Later, she's found by the Decepticons, and she joins the cons, still has the same personality, also she didn't know there's a Bots Vs. Cons war happen before her missing

become a missing con, again, during the (nearly end) war on Earth, and only Megatron knows about it (ex. He and Elita's twin had a secret meet and he somehow found a stasis pod and hid her (in Witwicky near the Terran cave), or other ideas of your own)

And I'm stopping here for now since this long request, i'm putting the part two of this, and I'm so sorry if it's too much/been making too many requests

Thank you so much and also stay safe and healthy!

This... this is good.

A chance on writing Elita Ones's twin sister in a different way?

Count me in!

Friendly reminder this has nothing to do with TFA twin sister

Hope you enjoy!

Elita One's twin sister pre war backstory

SFW, Platonic, Familial, Mention of injury, Angst, Cybertronain reader

TFE

Buddy and Elita were the best of sisters.

But they weren’t always known as Buddy or Elita One.

Before the war, Elita One was known as Ariel.

Buddy’s original name was E-2.

Ariel was the more outgoing twin who always tried to get her twin to go outside of her comfort zone and to make more friends.

E-2 on the other hand was much quieter than Ariel, still held a strong presence with her.

Ariel was the one who introduced her to Orion Pax and D-16.

“E, this is Orion and D-16. Guys this is my twin E-2.”--Ariel

Orion waves at E-2 with a warm smile on his face.

E-2, who was partially hiding behind Ariel, waves back shyly.

Ariel gently pushes her forward at D-16.

D-16 smiles at E-2.

E-2 smiles back.

“Hi.”—E-2

“Hello.”—D-16

Ariel swings both of her arms around them all.

“I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship.”--Airel

E-2 gives them all a shy smile.

The four of them were a nearly inseparable group.

Orion and E-2 got along well, looking after Airel and D-16.

The two often had data pads they exchanged every other cycle and little chat about what they were about.

They were also the second voice of reason for Ariel and D-16 when they thought of activities or thoughts.

Ariel and D-16 looking at the tall drop off towers.

“I wonder what would happen if we went up there…”--Airel

“And what if we jumped off?”—D-16

“Exactly!”--Ariel

“Or!”--Orion

“And just hear us out, we DON’T jump off of the building, hmm?”—E-2

“We’ll be fine E.”--Ariel

“Ariel, just because I’m close to becoming an actual nurse doesn’t give you and 16 a free pass into a hospital.”—E-2

“Of course not, we have you and Orion for that.”—D-16

“D-16, you and I know that Orion is terrible at patch work jobs. Seriously just ask Ratchet.”—E-2

“Hey! I’m not that bad.”--Orion

“You fainted when you saw D-16’s injured servo. You’re not ready for any patch work.”—E-2

D-16 and E-2 got along like a house on fire.

Both wanting a better change for Cybertron, they found many things they could agree on.

Often D-16 would come to E-2 for help on his upcoming speeches and practice in front of her.

E-2, Ariel and Orion often went to D-16, now named Megatron, speeches about change on Cybertron.

The group could agree that changes needed to be made, but Buddy thought that maybe a more peaceful approach would be in the best interest of the bots.

This would soon cause a rift between the groups as Ariel backed Megatron’s bit forceful approach while Orion tried to play mediator.

It was around this time another one of E-2’s closest friends had offered her a chance to go on an expeditionary trip.

It was just to look at some planets then return to Cybertron.

Out of pure spite, E-2 agreed to go.

Anyways, he needed a medic with him in case something bad happened and E-2 had just finished with her tests and licenses.

“I’m sorry, you’re what?!”--Ariel

“Ariel calm down, I’m just going on a quick trip and I’ll be back in a couple of weeks. Two months the most.”—E-2

“Why can’t he just go by himself? Doesn’t he have a lab partner?”--Ariel

“His lab partner had something going on at the last minute and couldn’t go. Anyways he needs a medic in case something goes wrong.”—E-2

Ariel had a frustrated look on her face and crossed her arms.

Orion looked at E-2.

“When will you be leaving? The docking ports are notorious for taking long time to—”--Orion

“I’m leaving tomorrow.”—E-2

“…”--Everyone

“YOU’RE WHAT?!”—Ariel and Megatron

E-2 flinches at the loud noise.

“How can you leave at a time like this?! We need as many bots on our side as possible! Not galivanting through space like its some sort of vacation!”--Megatron

Buddy feels her servos tighten as her anger rises.

“This is not some sort of vacation Megatron. I’m being a good friend—”—E-2

“If you were a good friend then you would stay here!”--Megatron

E-2 takes a step forward, surprising all three bots.

“And if I don’t?”—E-2

Megatron angrily takes a step forward almost menacingly.

“Do you want to find out E-2?”--Megatron

E-2 clenches her servos and walks away.

“And where are you going coward!”—Megatron

E-2 turns on her pedes fast and angry.

“I’m going before I say anything that I might regret!”—E--2

E-2 storms off into the night.

Orion looks at his friends.

“Ariel?”--Orion

Ariel looks a bit conflicted.

“…She should be supporting the movement Orion.”--Ariel

Orion looks appalled before starting to walk in E-2’s direction.

“Orion? Where are you going?”--Ariel

“To check on your twin sister.”--Orion

E-2 was honestly still surprised to see them all at the gates for the launch.

Buddy said her goodbyes in hugs.

Orion hugged her tightly and wished her the best.

Ariel gave a halfhearted hug.

Buddy tried to hug Megatron, but he moved away.

Hurt, Buddy waved goodbye instead.

Megatron just huffed despite Ariel slightly jabbing his side.

Buddy grabbed her kits and began walking to the front of the door to wait for her friend.

Her friend came rushing in, giving her a hug, and thanking her for wanting to join.

“You’re a life saver E! Star had something wrong with his tanks and—”

“Is that him?”—E-2

E-2 sees a seeker lingering around the drop off point not too far from where her friends and family were.

“Yeah, that’s him. He wanted to see how the launch went.”

E-2 smiles at the seeker and waves at him.

The seeker looks a bit shocked but waves back.

“Are you ready to go?”

He stretches his servo for E-2 to grab.

She does looking up at her friend.

“Lead the way Skyfire.”—E-2

They made their way into the security area before reaching their pods and shooting into the starry sky.

None of them knew it was going to be the last time they were going to see each other.

The two came across the planet Skyfire had been raving about.

It was a smaller planet splashed green and blue.

It looked like a peaceful world.

Skyfire wanted a closer look at the planet.

E-2 was a bit hesitant, but she followed her friend downward.

Neither were expecting the harsh jet streams to be so strong.

E-2 felt everything about this being a bad omen and tried to radio in Skyfire to start getting out of the area.

Skyfire reported that his pods navigation systems weren’t responding.

E-2 tried to fly closer to Skyfire’s pod in attempts to attach a cord to get him out when her pod suddenly went dark and dropped.

E-2 screamed in terror as she plummeted to the planet below.

Skyfire managed to get out of his pod and managed to get to E-2’s pod opening it and dragging her out.

He tried to fly with her out of the Jetstream and back into space, but the winds proved too cold and strong.

Next thing E-2 realized was that she was falling again while the stream carried a screaming Skyfire far away.

She tumbled onto the cold ground below and rolled into a hole in the ground.

With all her tumbling, she accidentally caused a cave in.

E-2 hit her helm against a boulder before landing in a pool of cold water.

Her helm was bleeding profusely as she tried to stand up.

Trying to get up, she noticed a strange rock in the center of the cave and a small organic creature on her armor.

She didn’t notice the rock glowing until it was too late.

Her entire frame felt like it was on fire, screaming in pain.

When it was over, she fell backwards into the cool water, slowly closing her optics from the pain.

The last thing she thought about was Ariel, Orion and Megatron.

They were probably thinking she was going to come back home any day now.

She wanted to say sorry to them…

Sorry that she wasn’t coming back home…

…

Back on Cybertron the life signals on the pods had turned dark.

The station had called Orion, Areil, Starscream and Megatron to tell them about the freak accident.

Most likely faulty wiring on the pods.

Either way, none of the passengers survived.

Everyone was in shock.

Ariel then started to sob horribly.

Orion immediately came to her aid hugging her tightly trying to keep his own tears at bay.

Megatron just stood there in shock.

Starscream demanded to know whose fault this was.

He nearly clawed at the poor bot across the table if Megatron hadn’t grabbed him back.

He held Starscream noticing the shakiness of both of their frames.

There was nothing they could do now.

One of the biggest regrets Megatron had in his entire life was not hugging Buddy that day or trying harder to make her stay.

Elita regretted not being able to stop her twin from leaving and not saying love you one last time.

Orion regretted not going with her.

Maybe he could have done something to help with the faulty wiring or something.

They weren’t going to see her again, not until it was their time to go to the Allspark.

Until then… till all are one.

#transformers x reader #maccadam #bot buddy #tfe x reader #tfe x platonic reader

[yankpop]

Yandere Kun (WayV): Being too overprotective during your pregnancy

Summary: Your “husband” wants your unborn baby to be healthy and for that, he’s willing to manipulate you until he gets what he wants.

This is a FICTION work only made for entertainment purposes so please don’t take any of this seriously. I do not support or encourage any type of abusive behaviour.

All copyrights belong to @yankpop (aka me) so do not post/translate my works on any other platforms without my consent/knowledge.

Check more: Masterlist.

WARNINGS: Implied kidnapping; forced pregnancy; intense manipulation; gaslighting; forced eating.

(Female reader)

AN: It a bit messed up but i still did it. Hope you guys like it and let me know 💖

-

"What's that?”

You hesitantly ask as you enter the kitchen. The kitchen counter fully decorated with colorful fruits that Kun keeps picking, putting them into the blender, creating a suspicious juice. Even the odd color manages to scare you. 

Kun gives you a bright open smile, rushing over to you. His hands immediately take a hold of you, one of them going to your swollen belly, making you slightly flinch.

Even after all this time, you still hate his touch. 

“Oh this? I’m just following the doctor’s orders.” he calmly says, carefully maneuvering your body to make you sit on a chair.

Your brows twist in confusion. You don’t recall the doctor saying something about fruit juices.

Kun notices your confusion, a small smile decorating his face as he leans on and places a small kiss on your forehead. 

“I asked the doctor for extra recommendations, just to make sure you and our precious baby will be healthy the entire time.” he elucidates you, his calming voice inciting the baby to start kicking, making you gasp in surprise.

Kun panics for a moment, his eyes going wide in concern, until he sees your hand going to rub your belly. He kneels down to the floor, his face at the same level as the growing bump. 

“Daddy’s here, princess. He’s gonna make sure that you’re safe and have all the vitamins that you need, baby.” Kun coos, his voice flooding with adoration as he presses small gentle kisses all over your stomach.

You merely stare at him, an emptiness filling you as you feel like you’re not even on your own body but more like someone who's watching the scene from afar.

One of the many coping mechanisms that you developed over your time with Kun.

You didn’t blame the baby but it didn’t stop you from dreaming what your life would’ve been if you had managed to get away from Kun before he got you pregnant. Not that he’d let you run away even if you didn’t want to stay with him.

You had already come to terms with the fact that you would never get away from him but lately hormones have been making your irrational fantasies of escaping grow stronger.

“I also got you more vitamins, later I’m  gonna make a schedule for when you have to take them.” Kun declares, looking above towards you. His words make you huff in annoyance, his controlling personality starting to bug you immensely. 

He ignores your action, going back to the counter and grabbing a juice filled glass and handing it to you. You gaze at the peculiar shade of green of the juice, hesitating before bringing it to your lips.

Taking in a small sip, you immediately gag with the liquid, spitting it back to the glass and putting it back on the counter.

“Ew, it tastes so bad.” 

Kun only sighs at your reaction, once again grabbing the glass and returning it to you, his hand coming to your back, rubbing small comforting circles.

“I know it doesn’t taste great, but it’s a small sacrifice you have to make for the baby.” 

Your brows narrow in exasperation, crossing your arms above your baby bump you shoot back at him.

“I already take 3 different types of vitamins, I don’t think the baby needs much more. You’re just going overboard with this, Kun.” Your words don’t have much effect over Kun but you definitely notice his fingers tightening around the glass cup. 

“Look, this is all for the baby, darling. Don’t be such a bad mom that can’t even put our baby’s health over your own comfort.”

Your mouth drops as his words hit you hard. You aren't being a bad mom. You aren't. Right?

“Yes, you are.” Kun says, almost like he’s reading your mind. He tilts the glass into your direction.

“Just drink it. Cause if you don’t and our daughter is born with any type of health problems, I’m blaming you for it.” He concludes without so much of a blink, making you doubt yourself.

Your mind runs through various scenarios and as much as you hate Kun and his overprotective nature, maybe he was right and the baby really needed this. 

Reluctantly picking back the glass, you drink small sips of the liquid, constantly gagging back on its taste yet forcing it down your throat. From your peripheral vision, you see Kun giving you a satisfied smile, his hand coming back to rub your back, somewhat making you feel better as you keep consuming the nasty drink.

The disgusting flavor burns your throat as you force it down. 

“You're doing great, honey. Just a few more sips and you’re done.” Kun incentives you, his eyes attentive towards you.

After a few more bitter and agonizing gulps you finally end the whole glass, immediately pushing the glass away from you. Kun’s features morph into a pleased expression, his hand coming to your stomach to lovingly caress the bump. 

“See, it wasn't that difficult, was it? I’m glad you were reasonable enough to not jeopardize our baby’s health.” You turn your eyes away from him, unable to look at him.

You know that the reality is that Kun is a master in manipulation and that you just fell for another of his tricks, this time using your own child as leverage to manipulate you. 

You hate him. 

----

⚠ Please reblog and comment, if you liked this.

It means a lot :)

-

Tags:

@mwitsmejk

#yandere nct #@yankpop #yandere wayv #yandere kun #yandere kun x reader #yandere kpop #nct yandere #yandere kun drabble #kpop yandere

[yelenasdiary]

Enough

Pairing: Wanda Maximoff x Reader

Summary: Wanda, known as a huge player. A quickie and leave type of woman. All your friends told you to stay away but she had you wrapped around her finger before you even had a chance. You saw she loved you differently to the others, she’d always somehow come back to you but now being about to see her true effects on you, enough was enough. 

18+, Swearing, drinking, small age gap (Wanda being older) | 2.08K

Type: Fluff, Angst & Light Smut

Author’s Comment: Think of AOU Wanda! Flashbacks are in Italic. 

Here you are once again, locked yourself in the bathroom as the showered covered the sobs you couldn’t control anymore. Downstairs was the party Tony had planned for weeks, no real excuse to have a party but it was Tony and he invited everybody. You’d been working as a medical intern at the compounds medical bay, patching the Avengers up after a mission and making sure they stayed healthy.

 Everything was going great; you loved your job even though the pay was little, but Tony gave you a place to stay in after the team saved you from one of the many Alien attacks on the city. You got along with everybody, quickly making friends with the Avengers, Thor being your favourite, not that you would admit that, but you found him quit fun to be around. 

It was any normal day, the Avengers just came home from a small mission, Natasha, Clint and Wanda needing a touch up. Wanda had a graze just above her left eyebrow that only needed a couple of stitches. She made you nervous, you’d heard the stories and you knew they were true. Wanda had a reputation for being a player, she’d already slept with one of your friends before and you were confident she’d shared the bed with Natasha more than once. 

“You have very beautiful eyes” she whispered as you forced fully on stitching up the graze. “Thank you” you smiled softly not taking your eyes off the thread. Wanda hissed in pain as you finished up. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you” you replied, placing the bandage over the stitches to stop it from getting an infection. Wanda smirked while you took a step back from her “what are you doing Friday night?” she asked. Instantly you shook your head, “I’m sorry but I like to reframe from dating people I work with” you respectfully declined. “But we don’t work together love” she bit her bottom lip lightly. You watched as she rang her tongue over her bottom lip to refresh it, her eyes watching how you deep down wanted nothing more than to go out with the green-eyed woman. 

“Come on, I know you want too” she said, snapping you out of your thoughts. “Huh? What? No, I mean, I can’t?” you stuttered. “Why not?” she questioned a flirtatious smirk forming in the corner of her lips. “Yo-you slept with my friend, and I think it would just be a little we-weird?” you spoke, hating how she already had such an effect on you. 

“Seriously? We’re adults. What’s wrong with going out on one date?” 

“Well,” you sighed “it’s…just”

“Just what?” she sat up, leaning forward. 

“Just that you… I’ve heard things” you looked to the floor hoping you didn’t hurt her feelings. 

“And what do you think of those things you’ve heard?” 

You slowly looked up into her eyes, they were beautiful despite the hurt you could see crystal clear behind them. “I don’t think I really want something like that. You understand, right?” you said honestly. Wanda slid off the bed, running the side of her pointer finger over your cheek, “If you change your mind, I would love to take you out for dinner. You know where to find me” she smiled before leaving the medical bay. 

Now, a year later you were caught deeply under her spell, and she knew it. Although you guys never made anything official, and she never hid the fact she was still sleeping with others here and there it hurt you. You gave her your all, never looking twice at anybody who showed interest in you. The hot water ran over your body as you sat in a ball on the floor of the shower, wondering how you let yourself be played so much. You’d cried yourself to sleep countless times when she’d leave. She came home from mission and buttered you up and every damn time you fell for it, thinking this time would be different but every time you saw her phone light up with another mystery woman begging for her attention. 

You’d been at the party downstairs for not even an hour before you attention was drawn to Wanda flirting with the bartender. You felt so stupid trusting her words at 4 in the morning saying you were the best thing that’s ever happened to her or when she was drunk, stumbling into your room, crying into your arms as she missed her twin. Where was she when you needed her? The missions you accepted but the “I’m out with Natasha” while Natasha sat across from you broke you knowing she couldn’t be truly honest with you. 

“Y/n, baby, are you here? You’re missing the party!” Wanda’s voice travelled to from your room to the bathroom. Sighing, you turned the shower off and wrapped yourself in a towel before showing yourself to her. 

“Hey, darling what’s wrong?” she asked with concern, reaching out to hold you. “Don’t” you spat, moving away from her, “Y/n, it’s okay, I just wanted to give you a hug. What’s wrong? You’ve been crying” Wanda spoke taking a step back to give you space. 

“Can you please just go. Go enjoy the party” you avoided making eye contact with her, your fingers quickly playing with a loose piece of threat from the towel. “I don’t care about the party; you’re upset what’s wrong?” she asked once more. You rolled your eyes at the question and with great thought you slowly looked back at her “this, us, whatever this is, it’s over” you brokenly said. 

“What? Don’t be stupid” Wanda spoke in disbelief. 

“I mean it Wanda. I’m done. I don’t want to be just your little number on a list anymore” you admitted. 

“A number on a list? Baby you’re upset, you’re not thinking straight”

“I’ve been thinking about this for months actually” 

Wanda tilted her head slightly before taking a seat on the end of your bed. “You’re serious” she said softly as the reality of losing you hit her. 

“I can’t do this anymore Wanda. I feel like such a fucking idiot. I told you from the start I didn’t want this”

“Woah, hold up. I gave you an offer and you took it”

“Yeah, because I thought you wanted something different, but I was wrong, I have been wrong over and over again. I’m just a fuck to you and a shoulder to cry on when you’re drunk” tears building up in your eyes once more. 

“You were never just a fuck to me!” Wanda stood from the bed with a stern voice, “you know what we have isn’t just a fuck here and there” she added.

“Then what is it? Am I just somebody you can let your frustrations out on? Am I just a backup for when nobody else is free? Because where I stand, I’m just some tail you like to chase”

“No! Why would you think that?”

“Because look at us!” you walked back into the bathroom, slamming the door before drying yourself off. “Y/n, please” Wanda whispered outside the door. You threw on the fresh PJs you had sitting on the countertop before opening the door. Wanda looking at you with unspoken words of apologies. “We both want different things Wanda. I can’t keep convincing myself you’ll change one day; I can’t wait around for that. I don’t even know what I truly mean to you but what I do know is that slowly, you’re draining me” you spoke, walking over to the bed and slowly sitting on the edged, Wanda sitting beside you. 

“You’re not like the others Y/n, you’re different” she said.

“Save it, please Wanda. I need you to understand that I’m not okay and I haven’t been for a while, but you never saw that. You just kept playing your game of lust and I kept getting caught up in” 

The two of you sat in silence as the tears fell freely down your cheeks. “Why did you even ask me out?” you finally broke the silence only for the room to stay silent once again. “Just forget it” you sighed, getting up and walking over to your door. “Can you please just go?” You spoke, opening the door. 

“I asked you because I like you” Wanda finally spoke. “Yeah, I figured that much” you mumbled. “No, Y/n I mean I…actually like you” you stood in silence, slowly closing the door. “The people I’ve slept with meant nothing. I suck at showing it, I know, and I see how much I hurt you when I leave in the mornings, but I care about you too much to let this go” she added. She looked at you, her eyes telling you the truth and you knew deep down that you were different to those who she spent her time with. 

“You’re so cute when you’re tired” Wanda whispered, leaving kisses on your bare back while your eyes fluttered shut. “You’re so beautiful” she added, her kisses leading up to your cheek. You smiled softly once she reached your lips. She kissed you with care, softly but full of passion. “You don’t have to flirt with me, I’m already in your bed” you joke. Wanda chuckled as she laid beside you, you rested your head on her bare chest. It was these small moments you loved the most, she made you forget the world and for once you felt home. Wanda kissed your forehead, the fingers on her left-hand tracing patterns on your naked back “shush detka, rest” she whispered before your eyes would give up the fight of staying awake. 

The short-lived comfort came to an end when you’d wake up in the morning in Wanda’s bed alone, a note on the bedside table next to a warm mug of coffee always read the same “had to go, thank you for last night x – wands” and every time you sighed, crunching the note before throwing it to the side. 

“I wish you had of seen this earlier” you said softly, eyes falling to the floor trying to shake the good memories you hold deeply. The touch of Wanda lifting your head with her thumb by your chin hurt. She had a hold over you that nobody has ever had before, any touch from her and you felt comfort but now it hurt. “I want to fix this” she whispered looking into your eyes, “I mean it, I’ll stop it’ll all, I’ll do anything…. I don’t want to find another you, Y/n” she added. 

Every bone in your body was hating you right now, her words felt like salt being poured over your broken heart but yet you still leant forward and kissed her softly. She kissed back with care. “We’re just not on the same page Wanda. We want…need different things and I don’t think this is healthy for me” you spoke honestly. “Tell me what you need, whatever you want, I’ll do it” she pleaded. Shaking your head, moving away from her hold. “It doesn’t work like that Wanda. You can’t just pick and choice when you want all of me and when I’m not enough to fulfil your needs” 

“You are more than enough for me!” 

“If I were, we wouldn’t be having this conversation” 

“Please, Y/n let me show you the real side of me, none of this sleeping around crap, I can give you everything you need, anything you want, I mean it” 

You shook your head once more, “I need you to go now, please. You’re missing the party” 

“Fuck the party. I’m not going anywhere. Not until we work this out” 

“Wanda, there is nothing to work out. It is what it is. I can’t trust you anymore, there’s been too many little lies” 

“Like when?”

You huffed “like when you tell me you’re out with Nat but she’s fucking sitting right across from me. You didn’t care enough to even come up with a more believable lie while you fucked around. I know we never agreed to label whatever we had, and I don’t even know if I have this right to be so upset and hurt but fucking hell Wanda, it’s killing me!” you broke, tears falling harder. “Seeing you tonight, flirting with that bartender is the reason I came back to my room. I can’t do this shit anymore. You either want me or you don’t, so what do you want baby?” you asked, letting the pet name slip without realising.

#wanda maximoff #wanda maximoff x reader #the avengers #the scarlet witch #marvel #wandavision #fanfiction

[angelic-dew]

Hi!! I don't mean to be a bother, but could I possibly request rengoku and tengen (without wives and separately done!) smut hcs please? I understand if you don't do it! stay healthy 🤍

# smut headcannons !

✧༉‧₊˚୨ 💌 ୧・author's note :: sure anon! I hope these are okay, I'm not the best smut writer qnq also! sorry for the huge delay, I've been lacking motivation lately. when I get tengen's part done, I'll update it here!

✧༉‧₊˚୨ 🍫 ୧・pairing :: Uzui T. x afab reader [not completed yet.] ⁞⁞ Kyojuro R. x afab reader — {you/your pronouns | separately done}

✧༉‧₊˚୨ ✖ ୧・trigger warnings :: mentions of female and male genitals. dirty talk. daddy kink. praise kink. size kink. biting. hickeys. slight mentions of rough sex. semi-public sex. fingering. raw dogging. spanking. ⁞⁞ 18+ content, children dni please. proofread.

𝐊𝐘𝐎𝐉𝐔𝐑𝐎 𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐆𝐎𝐊𝐔.

꒰🔥꒱. I see Rengoku being into praising his precious lover in bed {consciously and subconsciously he does it}, he is a cinnamon roll after all, and a total sweetheart as a whole. Our beloved Umai King would also be extremely cautious with what he says; always taking into consideration your every action and signals with how you're feeling in bed. This time is precious to him and he takes it very seriously, always muttering phrases and short words of adoration and encouragement for your full enjoyment. Whispering ever so softly in your ear, always singing your praises to his heart's content.

꒰🔥꒱. Back in the Era Demon Slayer does take place in {1912-1926 || Taisho Era}, condoms did in fact exist, however, I believe Kyojuro prefers to go in fully raw for maximum pleasure as your walls tighten around him. That can translate to him wanting to prepare you a bit to take his entire length properly and with ease. He takes pride in prepping you, taking his time and lubing his fingers with some oil to make the process much easier.

꒰🔥꒱. He begins slow and gentle, soft to the touch; always treating you like some sort of dainty, delicate piece of porcelain throughout the process. Checking up on you at every moment as lewd cries of contentment escape from underneath your lips.

꒰🔥꒱. The flame Hashira does have a somewhat "rowdy" side to him. The thought of being able to do the deed with someone he loves ever so much really gets the blood flowing, to certain areas of course. So even though he's such a gentle sweetheart, he can still be rough in some subtle ways at times.

꒰🔥꒱. These can include bite marks along your body — hickeys and even light bruises peppering your breasts and neck; a few sprinkled along your collarbone area as well, as a finishing touch. It depends on what exactly is being done, but, he does tend to leave a few playful bite marks along your inner thigh area while giving you oral.

꒰🔥꒱. Because, let's face it, you know he's eating you out like there is no tomorrow. Rengoku is the Umai King after all, it's no surprise he can take that same talent of eating sweet potatoes and do the same to you, instead this time, he's eating out something that's definitely better than any food. He would ultimately prefer to give oral rather than receive, your needs come before his, always!

꒰🔥꒱. Rengoku is definitely an ass guy, don't try changing my mind. I see him loving to hold it within his palms gently, something about it just feels so enthralling that he can't even begin to come to his correct senses when he sees you in doggy style. That alone will make him pounce on you with little to no hesitation. Regardless of the size as well, he doesn't really care how big it is, once there's enough for him to grip and drool over as he pleases, it'll be a true treasure.

꒰🔥꒱. Kyojuro seems like the type to have a liking towards things smaller than him, so those rules will definitely apply to his lover as well. Especially if you're a bit shorter than the average person, bonus points to you right there, it only makes his size kink worsen each time. He simply adores the fact you're so tiny compared to him, yet so strong and able to take each, individual inch of his meaty cock every time; it makes him feel a sense of endearment per se. His little person's ability to feel all of him, honestly, makes him melt for you.

꒰🔥꒱. An alternative take on his size kink would also be a size kink, but you're bigger than him. He would have just as much adoration and love for you even if you were taller than him in just height alone. The cream of the crop that really gets him going has to be when he actually enters your warm hole. He practically dotes at the sight of your expressions as you tremble under his soft, loving touch. Despite your size difference, you're still extremely tight and sensitive to the touch — the Hashira is indeed fond of that.

꒰🔥꒱. He would most likely have a huge daddy kink as well. Of course, he wouldn't exactly mention it upfront, he would be a bit embarrassed to do so. I don't think he knows he has one until you call him it while he's ramming himself into one time. When you called him that, it almost made him feel a sense of power, but moreover, if he were to be frank, he could've felt himself get harder inside you from that word alone. Rengoku would definitely want you to say it more often; I firmly believe he would even imply it in his words as well while whispering sweet nothings into your ear.

꒰🔥꒱. Sex position-wise, I see him having a preference for wanting to have a view of your angelic face while also being able to please you to the fullest, of course, there are a few exceptions like doggy style, but here's some in line with his preferred liking. So, mating press, missionary, cowgirl {reverse cowgirl at certain times}, g-whiz and the seashell, to name a few. Ideally, Kyojuro would like to do it in a place of privacy so he can focus on you and you primarily, always putting your needs first. However, if there ever came a time when you wanted him urgently, he wouldn't hesitate to take a risk. Whether that be behind a large building or a bathroom stall for a brief moment to have a quickie.

꒰🔥꒱. As I stated directly before, he has a particular fondness for ass, specifically yours, rather than anything else. So out of impulse he would spank you or leave slight bruising along your waistline as he holds onto you.

꒰🔥꒱. He doesn't spank you hard, it's usually a simple small slap, but from the moment you start asking/begging for more, just keep in mind, his normal sweet demeanour will change to something otherworldly; trust me, he will not hesitate to give you what you want by any means. Whether that being you want him to be rougher, harder or even leave more marks on you, he will make sure you're satisfied down to the last touch.

© yandere-smoothie :: please don't re-claim or translate my works without permission! <3

#headcanon #kny x y/n #demon slayer #kny x you #rengoku kyojuro #kyojuro smut #kyojuro x you #kimetsu kyojuro #kyojuro my beloved #kyojuro imagine #kyojurou #rengoku smut #kimetsu rengoku #rengoku x you #rengoku x reader #demon slayer rengoku #kny x fem reader #kny x reader #demon slayer smut #hashira

[activemelil-blog]

ʚ ˏˋ ꒰ 💌 ꒱ ˎˊ ɞ YUMMY !!

───────── ⊹ ࣪ ˖ ꒰ঌ ♡ ໒꒱ ⊹ ࣪ ˖─────────

───────── ⊹ ࣪ ˖ ꒰ঌ ♡ ໒꒱ ⊹ ࣪ ˖─────────

⟢ more headcannons for dating sukuna <3 i have a love hate relationship with chiki 😕🫶

⟢ i would like to mention i love ayesha erotica and she made the song yummy aaaand thats why i named it that cause this song reminds me of him 😭

⟢ warnings: slightly toxic relationship, sukuna being overprotective, slight 18+ topics being spoken of, etc…

───────── ⊹ ࣪ ˖ ꒰ঌ ♡ ໒꒱ ⊹ ࣪ ˖─────────

you bet this man would toxic. he would probably gaslight you into thinking he didn’t break your phone because he saw you get a message from your brother, and he saw the contact name and panicked because he thought you were cheating on him.

boundaries would probably be where sukuna is loyal. realistically, no he probaaaably wouldn’t care but pretend he would okay!! i feel like if you two were dating, and you push him away, he takes the hint, but then ignores you because hes upset he got his feelings hurt by a mortal.

you two would take edibles together.

his favorite thing to chug would probably be redbull. something about him would make me feel as if he would like redbull, and would beg you to buy it for him, and when you didnt, he would threaten to kill the cashier.

you let him spend the night? hes staying the rest of the week for sure. your bed is probably the most comfortable thing ever for him, and also laying against you, putting all his weight onto you, until you shove him to his own side, which makes him agitated.

he would get mad if you try to move him away, and he would try to make you feel bad by ignoring you the next morning, and when you nag at him, he immediately clings to you like a kitten.

it might be weird to imagine, but he would definitely be clingy, and overprotective. the second this man catches some other guy looking at you, they’d be dead the next day. anytime you guys are together, he would definitely keep his hand on your ass, or near your hip.

he loves you. he doesn’t have to pretend, he doesn’t know how, but he does actually love you. but, when he fucks you, it makes you question if he does, cause.. the way he fucks you; he does it like he hates your guts, and hits all the right spots, which would make a mess on him, in result.

sukunas favorite nicknames for you would be something like: idiot, my love, mine and spoiled. it would be a little weird to imagine him calling you brat, since it would be what he calls yuji. im not too fond of the idea of him calling his s/o a brat, more so he would call you spoiled.

he reminds you that hes strong, and has to tell you stories from centuries ago, and you listen intently, but often end up falling asleep. he also reminds you his actual form has four arms.

it still haunts you.

in a modern au, sukuna and you would definitely freak out about social media, which is why he would refuse to get it, and when he does, he only follows you, and a good ten other people, but man would he have a few good followers. he would also only let you follow him.

more so, you and sukuna wouldn’t be very healthy together, even if your perfect, he isnt by any means. but, if you were dating him, with no reprecussions such as him being in yuji; and or his real form, if he were just his own person, well you two would definitely be quite a pair.

he calls you immature for sure when you two get into an argument and he knows your right. he often picks fights with you, since he believes makeup sex is the best kind. what can you say? seriously.

i dont think he would pressure you into anything, if you were uncomfortable, he’d keep going, until you tell him to actually stop, is when he takes a clue, and stops.

when you two would be in your talking stage in a modern universe, you bet this man would leave you on delivered, and on seen/read for a week at most, with him swinging his feet hoping you’d be a bother; but when you do it back, for two weeks he doesn’t get it, and bothers you with questions.

he would he the type of boyfriend to make a promise and break it, then probably make a new one and try his best, but i think sukuna would lowkey be a good gossip buddy.

he would definitely talk the most shit in a modern au, and has beef with every other popular guy, and he would probably get into twelve fights per school year. he would win, for sure.

oh, how in a highschool universe, oh how you two would be the it couple. your relationship would probably start SO much drama, and especially him, how he’d purposely start up rumors about you two; making you two skip out on school.

^

he would suck at math, and history. he’d definitely be good at english and science. you would be the opposite, which is why you two are perfect, supposedly.

overall, maybe dating sukuna in different universes wouldn’t be all too bad. jjk universe easily the worst though🤓🐥

───────── ⊹ ࣪ ˖ ꒰ঌ ♡ ໒꒱ ⊹ ࣪ ˖─────────

interpet these however youd like, but goood how much i hate sukuna, but my god i love him (ntm) at the same time 😕💔

i need a sukuna and reader in highschool now 🐥 (me omw to make it😣🤌) no cause tell me you two would not be the power couple and he’d have beef with gojo and geto AND nanami and their whole group, but he’d probably get annoyed by his own friends. pretend him, choso, mahito and (kenjaku as his own person) would be friends with him ‼️

anyway if ur gonna repost this on anything give credits 🫶🫶

#jujutsu kaisen #jujustsu kaisen x reader #sukuna x reader #sukuna #ryomen sukuna #jjk ryomen #jujutsu sukuna

[inklore]

— CELEBRATING TWO YEARS OF LOVE.

let's pretend that i posted this on the real anniversary date (july 18th) and not a few weeks late ok. but i'm still shell shocked i honestly stayed around on here for this long, seeing as how i've been on this hellsite for over ten years maybe even longer, have left many blogs and sideblogs behind, but have stayed put on here for longer than it feels. even through all the craziness and friends gained and lost. i have not grown sick of this place and i know it's all because of my mutuals (and followers) aka the most beautiful, hilarious, talented souls anyone could ask to have on their side.

whether we are friends or have never spoken i love you, i adore you. thank you for making my time spent on here worth it even when times get tough and this little hobby of ours seems more like a stressful nine to five.

@deathmotif, @authurials, @theauthorvt, +annie — hey remember when we all met on wp and i started that silly little michael langdon gc on kik and it was a dozen of us in there but then it soon dwindled down to us five and kik was on the verge of imploding and we all moved over to snap and now we literally all talk every day, if not every other??! my day isn't complete without seeing one of you sending an unhinged video in the gc. IT'S BEEN SIX YEARS with you guys in my life and you know me better than anyone. i can tell you my darkest secrets, traumas, thoughts, and there's no judgment. it's literally the most healthy friend group ever. i'm forcing ya'll to dress up as barbie's for my bachelorette party, like you're stuck with me. barbie is serious. just as serious as my love is for each and every one of you. when i think about my life and future you guys are always in it. idk if we should thank cody fern or the antichrist or both. but whoever brought us together in this life i hope they do it in the next because life without y'all would suck.

@psychedelic-ink — you should already know how much i love you, but let me remind you, let me go on for ever and tell you how special you are to me ok. when i was balling my eyes out on the phone/discord you were there to listen to me be a blubbering mess, you were there to talk me down, to listen, to validate my feelings. when i need someone to be motivating and get shit done with me you're there. when i need to rant about something horny you're there to encourage the unhinged. our discord sleepovers are my favorite thing in the world. i'm still shocked when i think back to our casual messages on here turning into a friendship so close and tight that my man spent over $100 to send you a magazine (without question) because he knows how much you mean to me. you have my heart always!

@pedrito-friskito — i have the most vivid memory of me and sil talking about you on discord and how great you were and i was like um?? i wanna be friends with kay! so after we got off of the phone i messaged you and then before i knew it me, you, and sil were in a gc together and the rest is history. i love that you and i like to disappear without a word sometimes but always come back like lol sorry but here's this love and support and encouragement and let me just life update you but also make you horny with this thought, and sil just puts up with us and i love it. ily. i'm forever forcing you to write and publish every story you write because you're going to put sjm to shame with the beauty your brain comes up with.

@tom-whore-dleston — i know i'm the worst at replying but you never make me feel bad for it. you're like 'oh yeah her adhd brain will get back to this text in 2 to 3 business weeks it's ok', and i love you for it. but no seriously ily so much. you're the first person i think of when all i can think about is dick because i know you're thinking the same thing. i know you'll understand. every time i see you post on social media i'm like wtf?? why am i halfway across the states and not with the loml right now?? it's truly unfair because i know if we were together we'd be the most chaotic, loud, sluttiest duo ever. your talent always amazes me, your beauty makes me jealous. both of our partners better watch out because i'ma run away with you one day i swear!

@chaseadrian — the fact that we grew close in a fandom that i despise now and is more toxic than not and a beautiful friendship came out of it?? iconic. every time i think about you all i can think is 'they just seems like they have everything all together, their ideas, their graphics, their mind, the way they speak is like talking to that really cool english teacher' like lmao i cannot explain how much i want your vibe. i adore your vibe. i ADORE YOU.

@greenorangevioletgrass — as one of my first friends on this little blog of mine i feel like i need to do more than put into words how much i adore you, how grateful i am to call you a friend, to be a part of your presence on here. hearing your ideas, your living breathing fic-like life is serotonin to me. like please share in the sexy wealth bestie!

@sapphireplums — when i see you in my inbox i literally get this overjoyed feeling inside me like charity thought about me today?? took time out of her day to send me something?? i'm blessed. i hope you and your beautiful mind are thriving bestie because you're literally one of the nicest, softest, people i've met on here and i'm in your corner if you ever need me. to show you love and support. to continue to convince you that your themes will always be more superior than mine!!

@rae-gar-targaryen — if success and talent and beautiful prose (and face) was an olympic sport you would have won by now. you HAVE won. we may not talk as much as we used to but just know that i always am thinking about how you are, waiting patiently for you to bless us with more of your fics (even if it's a crumb i'm like a little mouse savoring it because hello?? emily henry who? she got nothing on you). as my lawyer i love knowing if i needed you you'd be there with a simple text, as my bestie, as someone i look up to, as someone who radiates elegance and something else i can't even put into words because that's literally how you leave me, speechless: never change and know i'm always here for you.

@allaboardthereadingrailroad, @littledemondani, @wroteclassicaly — the three of you were those 'big' accounts that always intimated me. i stood in the background reading your stuff and being like ok they're going to put me out of business and then being absolutely shook when you followed me, i felt like i made it. like this was what being on here was all about having the accounts you find the most talented and amazing, and who have wrote some of your fav fics, follow you. and we may not talk a lot but i cherish you guys so so very much. like even before i made this account, on my old accounts, i've always been your #1 fans!!

@kittyofalltrades, @namorwife, @yoditopascal — i may have all but died out and disappeared from the discord server, and we may not talk anymore, but some of my best memories are with you guys. the unhinged, the thirst, the games, the rantings, i've never been more entertained and chaotic and rowdy than i was with ya'll and i love it. i miss it. ya'll are still my favorite people, my loves, my besties. one day i will be horny over the same characters as ya'll again and you'll be annoyed with my thirst again.

@eupheme, @tripleyeeet, @wint3r-h3art, @ohcaptains, @celestianstars, @flordeamatista — if there were ever a group of beautiful people i constantly compare myself to because the way they write, the way their themes look, the way their fic layouts / set ups look, their graphics, their vibes, their talent, their so many damn things: it would be ya'll. like i'm constantly like how do i get on their level? like i know there's not levels on here and everyone is so uniquely special and amazing at what they write and do and make, but i'm always in the trenches of devoting and heart eyes over EVERYTHING ya'll post. ya'll are the cool art kids i want to hangout with but instead i'm screaming in cheer in the silent museum where your creations should be showcased.

@mothdruid, @moonlight-prose, @moondirti, @angrythingstarlight, @amywritesthings, @oncasette, @withahappyrefrain, @navybrat817, @bakerstreethound, @villenelle, @refined-by-fire, @ladylannisterxo, @emerald-chaos, @mxgyver, @foli-vora, @jettia, @moreofem, @bits-and-babs, @woodlandmouth, @fluffyprettykitty, @cocoamoonmalfoy, @galatially, @ladylannisterxo, @saintlike78, @buckys-estrella, @ghostlyfleur, @arctvrvs — through the two years of me being on here i have had the pleasure, the joy, of talking to each of you. whether that be screaming in asks, inboxs, discords, pms, where we were hyping each other up, sharing ideas, support, check ups, screaming over each others fics, whatever it may be. there has been love and support and every time i see ya'll in my notfis, reading my stuff, your thirst posts or rant posts or your rbs, i'm always grateful to see it. for it. to be a part of it. but most importantly i'm like: hello why are we not closer?? why do i not bombard them with my love?? annoy them with it so much so that they have no choice but to be my bestie and feel all the doormat love and support that i'm constantly feeling when i see their little icons and usernames. so this is me both saying i adore you, ily, we may not talk as much as i wished but i'm here supporting and loving everything you do and beware that i will annoy you with my love when you least expect it and soon you'll be wishing for me to get out of your pms. you have a friend in me, a supporter, a hyper, seriously i got lucky with y'all being my mutuals <3.

there's so many other babes that i'm missing but tumblr has a tag limit so i couldn't get everyone on this list but just know ily ily literally every single one of my mutuals is a gift from god to me. you put up with my posts and insanity, i have no choice but to give ya'll my whole ass heart!!!!

#two year celebration #forever hating tumblr for not letting me add all 227 of you ilysm

[gxdsfavgal]

Closet

Pairing: JJ Maybank x Kook!Reader

Warnings: blurb, fluff, slight religion mentioned, OBX3 spoiler, not edited

A/N: I was inspired by this oneshot and also a scene from Ginny and Georgia (I've never watched it I just remember seeing it on TikTok)

-

-

It’s been almost a year since the Pogues came back after finding the treasure of El Dorado, the event to celebrate was close. It was hard for them, coming back from so much trauma.

My arms and home were open for them, especially for JJ. He’s always had a soft spot for me, and me for him.

A few months after they came home from South America, JJ and I decided to keep our relationship a secret. Hidden from the eyes of our parents and the whole Kildare population, except his friends.

Now here we are, JJ and his friends standing as I was in the audience clapping and cheering for them. I am truly happy for them, happy that they have peace after everything they've been through.

After they got away from the attention, the Pogues were all in a group smoking while I was distant from them, not wanting to be by them while my parents were just a few feet away.

I was admiring JJ. I felt so lucky to have him and that he finally lives a safe and healthy life. I was admiring their friendship and how it was life or death with them.

"Are you okay?" JJ asked as I flinched, not knowing he was next to me already. He giggled at my easily frightened state.

"I'm perfect." I said with a wide smile, my eyes found his sharp blue ones immediately.

"Perfect as in you're really feeling good or perfect as in you're hiding your emotions?" he stood back away from me to get a better look at me.

"Jay, I was just admiring you guys." I smiled up as him as I secretly intertwined our fingers.

"You mean admiring me, not them." he teased.

"Whatever Jayj." I playfully rolled my eyes.

"Wanna come with us on the HMS after this?"

"Y'know my parents, they won't let me since we got church in the morning." I pouted as I looked over to my parents who were coincidentally talking to the priest.

JJ threw his head back in a groan, letting out a loud and breathy sigh.

"Come over after?" I lifted my eyebrows in hope. "Through the window of course."

The side of his mouth lifted in a grin. "Yes, I'll come straight after." He gave my forearm a squeeze, knowing that if my parents saw us hug it would end differently.

"Now go." I playfully hissed at him, using my hands to shoo him towards his friends.

"Man I want to kiss you all over your face." He faked grabbing my face in the air, making a playful mad face about no PDA.

"Me too, but go seriously. Have fun." I nodded at him.

He sent me a warm smile, the smile that I knew meant that he will miss me even though it's for a few hours.

We had to get used to it. The whole not being able to hangout together, staying up on the phone all night, and stealing glances at the local restaurants.

But it never made him not want to be with me, he was committed and so was I. He understood the need to hide things from parents.

-

Late last night, JJ snuck through my window with my help. We quietly maneuvered through my room and just watched a movie, enjoying each others presence in our arms.

I fell asleep first, tired from waking up early to help set up for their event earlier in the day.

When I woke up it was already bright outside, the sun just hitting the sky. The warm air coming through my window, and the quiet chirps of the birds made it sound like a movie.

I felt a warm presence behind me and a heavy arm on my shoulder. JJ was sound sleep, his peaceful state made me smile hard.

I turned my head back around to watch the sun rise through my window, but my peace was interrupted once I saw the time on my phone.

"JJ wake up." I sat up quickly and tried to shake him awake but failed.

I quietly cussed as I thought of different ways to wake him up.

"JJ" I shook his body harder. When that didn't work, I pulled the warm blanket off of his body, the now cooler air hugging his skin.

He groaned loud so I rushed to cover his mouth with my hand. His eyes shooting open quickly, his body going into fight mode.

"Jesus." he dragged his hands over his tired eyes.

"JJ, I have to get ready for church." I pointed towards the time, hoping he was conscious enough to understand.

"So?" he settled back into the bed, his eyes already threatening to close.

I heard my parents bedroom door open, the footsteps descending to the kitchen.

"JJ please." I kneeled next to him on the bed, shaking his body again.

"Five more minutes." he mumbled into the pillow.

My patience was running low, and I did not have a lot of time until my parents came into my room to tell me to get ready. I grabbed my pillow and repeatedly hit it against JJ's shoulder, trying not to be so loud.

I heard the footsteps of one of my parents going up the stairs, I knew that their next stop was my room.

"JJ now." I pulled him up by his shirt and pushed him into my closet. His half asleep body was heavy and made a loud thud.

"Hey hun?" I heard a quiet knock on my door.

"Yes?" I pretended to have a raspy morning voice.

The door opened to reveal my dad with two mugs of tea in his hands.

"We're leaving in 30 minutes, I'll set your mug down." He pushed the door a little more to set my tea down into my desk.

"Thank you dad." I smiled at him as I rubbed at my eyes.

"Oh one more thing." He turned his body back towards me.

"Yeah?" I looked up at him with wide eyes.

"JJ, get out of the closet please."

My heart dropped out of my ass when my dad said those words.

JJ opened the door of my closet to reveal his groggy state, but the words of my father scared him awake.

"Good morning sir." JJ said nervously as he stood up straight.

"Morning JJ. Next time, just use the front door." my dad smiled at him and came towards me to leave a kiss on my head.

My dad turning his back away from us to walk out the room, our backs returning to a relaxed slouch.

"Oh and JJ?" he turned back around before reaching my bedroom door. We both straightened up again.

"Yes sir?"

"Would you like to join us at mass today?"

JJ looked at me with wide eyes, not knowing how to answer but I just shook him off; only because I didn't know how to answer.

"I- Uh- Yes. I would love to join you and your family." JJ said with a nervous smile.

"I have some clothes that could fit you. Let me get them." my dad left my room with a smile, leaving us to get ready for mass.

I sat down on my bed with my jaw on the floor and my heart pounding so hard.

"What just happened?" I looked up at JJ that stood over me.

"I don't know, but I love it." he had a soft smile on his face.

"I can't believe that happened." I giggled out into his stomach as I wrapped my arms around his hips.

"No more hiding." his palm rubbed over my back.

#gxdsfavgals masterlist #jj maybank #jj maybank fluff #jj maybank obx #obx jj maybank #obx #outerbanks #obx3 #jj outer banks #obx jj #jj x reader #jj fluff #jjm

[kimbap-r0ll]

Hi!! Can I request Malleus,Vil,Riddle and Floyd with a very frail reader that has to take a lot of medications and can get sick quite quickly??

Hello, thank you for the ask!

Malleus, Vil, Riddle, Floyd x frail!reader

Malleus

He knew humans were weaker than fae, but he still feels sad whenever he sees you sick.

Malleus won't think that you being frail is anything to be ashamed of. He doesn't think it's anything bad and instead he just focuses on making sure you can stay healthy.

If you are sick, he'll try his best to make you feel better. He cuddles with you, sometimes with a blanket wrapped around the two of you to make sure he's keeping you warm. Lilia might ask if he wants help (ex. food?) but Malleus declines haha.

I feel like because he's a fae, Malleus won't get sick. He doesn't have anything to worry about so he uses this as an excuse to stay with you longer than usual.

Vil

He hates seeing you sick. You're disheveled, you have dark circles under your eyes, etc. You just look sad but he can't imagine how you must be feeling on the inside!

He knows potions and medicines that work the best for you, so he remembers to take care of you. If anyone tries to make fun of how frail you are, let's hope they can withstand some strong poison.

Doesn't cuddle that much when you're sick because he can get sick too. But that doesn't mean he won't try his best to make sure you're feeling better. He let's you stay in his super comfy bed and strokes your hair when you're lying down. He might give you some warm foods too.

Overall he wants to help, and he wants you to know that being frail isn't something that is negative to him. He still thinks you're beautiful, he just wants to make sure you're not feeling sick.

Riddle

Similar to Vil, he doesn't like how disheveled you are when you're sick. That doesn't mean he hates it when you come to him for help. Honestly he would stick by you 24/7 if he wasn't so busy chasing down Ace and Deuce for all of the chaos they do haha.

He might know that you're sick before you even show symptoms. Riddle keeps headache pills on him whenever you need it and he isn't opposed to having tea with you. If it helps calm you down or feel better, then he would be more than willing to participate.

When you are really sick though, he does keep a bit of distance. He wants to cuddle with you, kiss you so much, etc. But he knows that if he gets sick, it wouldn't be good for you or him. Because of this, he might not do too much physical affection, but he makes sure to visit you all the time and bring soup or other warm foods for you. He might also deliver homework haha.

Don't think of your fragility as a weakness. Riddle wants you to know that to him you are the person he loves the most. He just wants to be the best for you in return, he wants to keep you feeling better.

Floyd

Unlike Riddle, he's less careful when around you. Maybe it's because he's not human, but he doesn't think he'll get sick when he's around you. He also doesn't take your fragility into consideration on certain occasions (like throwing a ball at you without warning :/).

He does, however, take people that make fun of you being frail very, very seriously. If he even hears a little bit of sneering, Floyd will turn to the harasser(s) with a terrifying glow in his eyes. Just know that you'll be safe from bullies with him on your side!

Though he might not be the best at being gentle, he loves cuddling with you. When you're sick, he makes that as an excuse to be with you even more than usual. He just flops into bed with you and you guys end up tangled in the blanket together. He will kiss you a lot too.

He knows however that you need to get better. He asks Azul for some help, and he might show up with some food on certain occasions. He loves being with you and cuddling with you, but he wants you to be healthy. Either way, just know that if you are ever sick, you won't feel lonely.

#twst #twisted wonderland #twst imagines #twst scenarios #twst headcanons #anon ask #twst x reader #twst malleus #twst malleus draconia #twst malleus x reader #twst vil #twst vil schoenheit #twst vil x reader #twst riddle #twst riddle rosehearts #twst riddle x reader #twst floyd #twst floyd leech #twst floyd x reader #gn!reader #twst diasomnia #twst octavinelle #twst heartslabyul #twst pomefiore

[cubur]

Don't let me go…【part2】 I won't let you go！

Well… hi all！ Firstly, I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy out there！🙏 And secondly, as you guys know, i've been quiet for a while. I had to deal with some of my real life problems… albeit unintentionally… And it was a period that seriously hurt me emotionally. So if you remember, when I was at the beginning of everything, I posted an art about it, also mentioned that I will share the rest of that art depending on the situation. And according to this result, it would end as a good or bad ending…

So today, this problem finally came to a conclusion！

What do you see when you look at these pieces? It feels like a bit of a bad ending, right!? But it's not！Yes, the result is really the good ending one！！！I'm just happy to be back with good news after such a long wait！And guys, half of these results are thanks to you, i know！'Cause you all sent so many positive comments and wishes that things turned out well (y'know I have some superstitions like good wishes)！So I can't thank each and every one of you enough！

I really thought for a moment that I had reached the end of the road… And I don't know if I can use the right words about my feelings during this period… That's why i'm not even going to start that "feelings" part. Just… I guess I'm a little old-fashioned. I mean I can't get used to the changes easily. Ofcourse one day I'll say that I'm done！(I can't draw these two boys until i die). But I can only accept this if it is a situation under my control. And since I don't feel like saying I'm done yet, this just damaged my emotional state indescribably. Many days when I was quiet and inactive, I kept telling myself "be patient, be strong, be patient, be strong" and I didn't tell anyone how hard it was for me because didn't want to bother any of you with my *constant* emotional breakdowns. So, special thanks to the few people who didn't turn down my request for help to avoid a panic attack (they know themselves)！

Honestly, this problem is about a topic I'm uncomfortable talking about. That's why I won't talk too much about it. (But even so, I was going to tell you all what this is about, if this had ended with a bad ending. Because if i had to leave i think you guys have the right to know why…) So for now, it's just enough to know that this is about a serious legal issue. I may be just a simple fanartist that you all see here but there are some serious issues going on in my real life and can't have fun with. And it was an issue that would hinder my entire artist career, not just about my fanarts. That's why I asked all of you for help (normally i hate asking for help but…) And the bad ending one is still in my documents, but i will never share this. Because I'm still afraid of something and maybe this will cause things to go bad in the future, idk… But mmh for those who are still wondering, I can explain a little, i guess. So it was the same beginning but a different ending, something like Sasuke leaving without looking back, and he couldn't even hear Naruto's voice and what he was saying behind his back… like an unstoppable farewell…… So I still feel lucky that I didn't have to post this one！

But, after this period that I lived for almost two months, I cannot say that everything is over now… unfortunately. 'Cause from now on it seems like another period awaits me. A period when I will be much busier and not even have time to talk much… But i'm not complaining, because I can still stay around. So i haven't planned it yet but i will try to prepare a monthly schedule for myself. And nothing is finalized but for now it looks like I can only spend two weeks a month on fanarts/commissions. Sorry in advance for being less active from now on！

But HEY i'm still happy！！！

I'm happy to be able to continue what I love to do, happy to be able to stay here with you all and happy that I don't have to leave my accounts. So, endless thanks to everyone who spoke up or stayed silent but never stopped supporting me！I never asked you to do, but y'all just don't know how much strength you give me with your words and support！

Hope the future brings more fun and happiness to all of us！Let's have fun doing the things we love！And don't also forget to take care of yourself！！

(Uhm… Ok I won't be writing such long articles for a long time, don't worry, I won't have time for that ^^;！So just, thank you if you've read this far) ！

See you guys around！❤️❤️

#narusasu #naruto #sasuke #Naruto Uzumaki #Sasuke Uchiha #sns #Don't let me go... I won't let you go! #Yes it's raining but they are with each other #So nothing to worry about now #Good Ending #Thank you to everyone who has been patient with me and never stops supporting! #my otp #my art

[mjlovescm]

Can you do Rodrick x reader who is like Eddie Munson from stranger things

The freak and his cheerleader, Rodrick Heffley

A/N: I really hope you mean Rodrick is like Eddie and not reader is like Eddie because thats how I wrote it. But if that is what you mean I'll be happy to write one for fem black Eddie type reader or of black male Eddie type reader. I needed some practice, so I wrote this in first person. I hope you like it.

To say Rodrick and I were an unlikely pair was an understatement. But what can I say, opposites attract and me and him are very opposite. He was the loud, trouble making drug dealing drummer who stayed back. And I was the friendly social head cheerleader. And as if the clash of our personalities and interests weren't confusing enough, there was our appearances.

Rodrick loved to wear dark, simple things while still adding his own spin on them. Like when he cut up his dad's old jean jacket and painted the Löded Diper logo and name on the back. Me, on the other hand, I can't get enough of bright colors, short skirts and my cheerleading uniform. Although Rodrick was strongly against any and everything that represented our school, he made an exception for my uniform. And, of course, for me.

“Do you really have to drag us to every one of these things?” Chris complained as Rodrick led him and Ben up the bleachers.

“Seriously, Rodrick, I really don't think she'll mind if it's just you in the crowd.” Ben agrees.

“Come on, guys, she's always at our shows. Just smile and cheer her on.”

“Fine.” The two put it to a rest.

Confused and bored, the three boys watched the game with absolutely no knowledge of whether our school was winning or not. Rodrick had no idea what the score was, nor did he care. He only really came to see me perform.

“There she is.” He pointed to me, smiling, as I led our school's cheer team.

As we perform, I can hear him screaming my name. Praising me and my moves, as if he hadn't seen me practice them for weeks on end.

Although a small part of me understands people's perplexity with me and Rodrick. A bigger part sorta liked the differences. With Rodrick being someone who was “weird” and okay with it, it brought out a different side of me. One I only showed to him.

“Do you maybe wanna talk about it ?” Rodrick's small suggestion was all that was needed to set me off.

The past few days, hell weeks, had been rough. Everyone was always expecting something from me. If it wasn't my teammates, it was my teachers. If it was my teachers, it was parents. Usually I could stay on top of things to keep a healthy balance to make everyone and untimely myself happy. But sometimes I slip and when I slip I just start falling. And suddenly everyone was convinced that I only make mistakes and excuses. I tried to explain, but I know they didn't want to listen to my troubles. So I just didn't tell them. Sometimes it really does feel like Rodrick is the only person who I can complain to.

“Math sucks for everybody, okay, It's not just you.”

“I know it's just he wants me to take it when I have cheer practice. But I was already sick and missed the last one, and I tried to tell him, but he said I take it then, or I don't take it at all.” I complain, frustrated.

Climbing onto Rodrick's bed, I bury my face into his pillow. Rodrick is quick to join me. Laying on his side beside me, he pressed a kiss to the back of my head.

“How about we just sleep it off for now.” He whispers against my head. “Then we can study and practice your cheers, okay?”

A bit more calm, I agreed with Rodrick. “Okay.” I said, lifting my head slightly from his pillow.

Rodrick didn't put me on a pedestal the way other people did. And I didn't put him down the way everyone else did, either. I think that's what makes us work so good. Sure, Rodrick would always be a freak to some, and I'd always be a golden girl. But when it's just me and him, we were just each other.

“I don't think I'll ever get used to this.” Rodrick told me as he took his blunt from my fingers.

I looked at him with a curious expression as I blew the smoke to the side.

“Get used to what?”

“You.” He took a deep inhale from the blunt, holding the heavy smoke in his lungs before releasing it. “This.”

My curious expression stayed, and Rodrick tilted his head slightly.

“I don't get it.” I admitted and he smiled before laughing.

Setting the blunt aside, he pulled me into his arms.

“I mean you and me.” He clarified. “I don't think I'll get used to the queen b of our school smoking with me or being my girlfriend.”

I rolled my eyes at the title “queen b”. I hated it.

“I hate when you call me that.” I told him pulling away only to be pulled back to my boyfriend's body.

“Yea I know. I know.” Rodrick plants his face in the crook of my neck. “I mean, I don't know, I guess it's just like weird you're dating me and not some muscle for brains athlete.”

“You're only saying that because I'm a cheerleader. That's such a boring clique.”

“And what the popular girl and the weirdo in the band isn't?”

Materslist Drum Lesson, 🍋 She keeps to herself

#mjlovescm #rodrick heffley #rodrick x reader

[star-girl69]

Ultraviolence

Natalie Scatorccio x Fem!Reader

—-

a/n: the next chapter is short but will be posted soon! i hope you all enjoy!!

warnings: mentions of blood, mentions of knives, mentions of death, fire, cremation, swearing, kissing, tell me if i missed anything!!

Chapter Twenty Two - Counterproductive

Chapter Twenty Two - Counterproductive

—-

1996-

The longer winter goes on, the colder is gets, the less food there is. You’ve all taken to one small meal a day at dinner time, barely enough to sustain anyone, much less the three of you hiking each and everyday- fueled by Travis’s reborn belief in his brother being alive.

You’re exhausted and tired, and all of you are getting weaker and sicker by the day, but you’re not sure how much longer your body can sustain going out into the woods today.

You lean against Natalie as you wait for dinner to be done, day-dreaming about french fries.

“I’m pretty sure it’s done by now,” Crystal, one of the younger girls, says.

“Yeah,” Misty agrees, and Mari turns around slowly.

“Oh, great. There are two of you now?”

“Is Shauna in the shed again?” Akilah asks, sitting down next to you at the table.

“It’s freezing outside,” Natalie says.

“Well, then, maybe you should go out and get her,” Coach says. It’s obvious the weight of being here surrounded by girls is weighing on him.

Everyone looks around the table, but no one makes a move. Finally, Taissa drops her fist onto the table and stands up, heading towards the door.

“Don’t,” Lottie says. “She’ll come when she’s ready.” Taissa stops and turns to Lottie.

“You make it sound like she’s doing her homework, Lot.”

“She’s processing and she needs our support. It’s healthy.”

“So healthy.”

“Everyone who’s seven months pregnant should risk getting pneumonia by staying up half the night chatting with their dead best friend,” Natalie says, sarcastically, drumming her fingers against the table.

“We’re always waiting on her,” Misty moans.

“Well, maybe we should just eat hers tonight,” Mari says, lifting the pan off of the makeshift stove. “That’ll get her to move her ass.”

“No one is eating Shauna’s food,” Taissa says.

Everyone turns to Lottie.

“No one is eating Shauna’s share,” she affirms.

Natalie looks at you and sighs, standing up, and your eyes droop. You’ve been so tired for days.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” she asks.

“‘M just tired,” you mumble. “From hiking, ‘n stuff. My legs hurt.” Natalie looks at you oddly, but she doesn’t say anything else.

“Okay, who reeks,” Taissa asks.

“We all do,” Van scoffs.

“Yeah, but this is next-level.”

You can’t help but smile and watch as everyone starts sniffing themselves, until you hear the sound of metal clanging.

“Are you fucking serious?” Taissa hisses, holding out the bucket. “Who took a shit in the pee bucket?” Everyone groans and covers their mouths, and you lean against the wall.

“Why do we have to do this before we eat?” you groan, and a few of the other girls groan in agreement.

Natalie rolls her eyes. “Come on, guys, we made a rule. If it’s yellow, it can mellow. If it’s brown, then fucking do it outside. Just fess up. Who was it?”

“Does it look like it’s a girl poo or, you know… a boy one?” Misty asks, turning towards Coach Ben and Travis.

“What?” Coach asks.

“That is definitely not a thing,” Travis frowns.

“Seriously?” Taissa breathes. “You all need to grow up. Whoever did it, just admit it, and then go throw it out.” The room reminds silent. “Oh, for fuck’s sake. I’ll do it.”

She walks over to the door, before setting the bucket on the side table and turning back around, and you can’t help but smile, wondering to yourself who is so hell-bent on making Taissa’s day so horrible.

“Where’s the other lantern?”

“Akilah had it yesterday,” Misty is quick to say.

“I put it back, Misty,” she defends.

“Oh, my God. You’re all a literal shit show.” Taissa rolls her face mask up, grabbing the bucket. “Don’t let anyone eat mine,” she says to Van, before going outside.

With that over, you lift your hand off of your face, and walk over with Natalie to the edge of the table, watching as the girls all dig it greedily.

—-

“Y/N?”

It’s so late at night, and you’re so tired you can’t even force yourself to open her eyes at the sound of your voice. You make a mumbling sound in your throat, affirmative, and she lets out a breath, tugging you closer.

“What’s- what’s wrong?” you ask, finally opening your eyes. She’s staring at you, wide awake, that look in her eyes that lets you know she’s been up for a while.

She places her cold hand against your face, her thumb swiping just under your eye, where you’re sure there’s a dark circle under it.

“You’re exhausted,” she says after a moment, like she’s accepting it. “You’ll make yourself sick if you keep going like this. I will. Travis will.”

You frown. “Maybe we just rest for a day-”

“Travis won’t ever rest. You know that, Y/N. We need to be looking for game, we need to be conserving on strength. We can’t go on these suicide missions anymore.”

“Natalie…” you breathe, because she’s right. All of you are killing yourselves for a dead boy. “You’re right. Travis won’t stop- what are we supposed to do?”

She looks deep into your eyes, into your very soul.

“Do you trust me?”

“Yes. Of course I do.”

“And you… you really believe Javi is dead, right?”

You sigh. She takes that as an answer.

“I… I have an idea,” she mumbles after a moment, staring behind you, to Travis’s room. “Promise me you’ll stay back tomorrow? Not- not ‘cause of this, but so you can rest.”

You smile. “Do I look that bad?”

She smiles back. “No. No, you don’t.”

—-

Natalie and Travis leave late the next day, and you had watched as she stuffed a pair of Javi’s pants into her bag, along with a hunting knife.

When you tried to ask her about it, she only said she didn’t want to talk about it.

And in this cold… for this long… Javi was long gone. And Travis needed to break into order to stitch himself back together again. Maybe it was cruel, maybe it was necessary, but all of you were killing yourselves looking for a dead boy- not even the wilderness wanted you to find him.

Travis needs to break- so he can heal.

You sit on a bench outside, feeling cooped up in the cabin after spending so many days hiking. She tends to something in the pot, something for her “wicca bullshit,” as Natalie would say.

You dig the tip your sneaker into the snow, digging until brown dirt starts mixing with the bright white powder.

Someone’s footsteps crunch along the snow, harsh footsteps, someone with a mission, a target-

“What the ever-living fuck, Shauna?!” Taissa shouts, dragging Shauna up to stand from where she crouches, disgust and worry and heartbreak all mixed onto her face.

“Hey!” Lottie shouts, standing up and pushing Taissa back. You stand up quickly and put your arm on Shauna’s shoulder, and she only stands there, blank.

“Did you know about this?!” Tai shouts, pushing lottie back. “Have you been encouraging her?!”

Van manages to hold Taissa back for a moment. “What is happening?!”

“Fucking told you that it wasn’t okay! I knew it wasn’t all right!”

“What?” Van breathes, her hand on Taissa’s shoulder.

“Go on, Shauna. Tell them. Tell them what you’ve been up too with Jackie.”

You turn to Shauna and squeeze her arm. She looks at you.

Shauna is so strong- pregnant and grieving, starving and sick, and she deserves to talk to her dead best friend in a meat shed. The worst has already happened to all of you- what more could this do?

“You don’t have to say anything, Shauna-” you start, not sure why Taissa is making such a big deal about Shauna’s odd way of grieving. But what else about this place is normal?

“No! No, she does.”

Shauna looks back to the ground. “Just… talking,” she stutters.

“Talking?” Taissa scoffs. “Shauna’s been braiding Jackie’s hair. She’s been doing her fucking makeup.”

“Holy Christ,” Coach Ben mutters.

Taissa turns back to Shauna, stepping forward, while everyone places such accusatory, disgusted glares on her you find yourself wanting to close your eyes.

“And you’ve been posing her, right? Adjusting her limbs like some fucked-up doll. Is that normal, Lottie? Is that healthy?!”

“It’s okay,” Lottie says to Shauna, but you let your hand fall from her arm.

“It’s not fucking okay,” Tai breathes in disbelief, anger etched onto her face.

“She was her best friend, Tai,” Lottie hisses, steeping forward into Taissa- who pulls back.

Tears fall down Shauna’s face, and Lottie steps back, letting Tai come forward. All the anger falls from her face- until there’s only a sadness and concern.

“Shauna, this has to stop. For your own good. And for the good of the baby.”

Shauna meet’s Tai’s eyes and steps toward her.

“Like you… or any of you… know what’s good for the baby.”

“Well it sure as hell isn’t this,” Tai spits back.

Everyone stands in silence for a second, no sounds besides the low rustling of wind.

“We are getting rid of Jackie’s body. We are getting rid of Jackie’s two month old corpse-”

“No!” Shauna shouts, and she’s just a girl who misses her best friend. Who will find scraps of her anywhere, any memory.

“Yes.”

“We… we can’t even bury her. The ground is frozen solid,” Shauna says, looking around, like she’s falling from the edge of a cliff and she’s grappling with the edge.

“We can cremate her,” Tai whispers, tears in her eyes.

Shauna’s face melts into horror, and she shakes her head slowly.

“Help me gather firewood.”

“Tai, no,” Shauna pleads.

“Now! Move! We need to do this before the sun sets.”

Taissa keeps talking in the background, how we should have done this months ago, we have to do it- but all you can do is stare at the horror on Shauna’s face. She places a hand over her stomach, like she’s gonna be sick, something inside of her physically rejecting it.

Shauna looks around, but no one says anything. No one steps forward to help her.

“I’m so sorry, Shauna,” you whisper.

—-

Shauna sits on a log and watches at the girls build a pyre. The stack the sticks up high, like a little platform, an altar for Jackie to sleep on one last time.

Taissa and Lottie carry Jackie’s blue, stiff body to the pyre, laying her on the snow one final time, her hair braided and her face covered in makeup.

“God,” Van mutters, and you stay where you are on the porch, wrapping your jacket around you- not wanting to look too close.

“Should we save her clothes?” one of the girls gathered around her body asks.

“You wanna strip her naked?” Tai asks.

“I mean, her jacket, mostly. It seems a shame to waste it.”

“No one is taking Jackie’s jacket.”

Shauna’s voice leaves no room for discussion, the first she said in an hour, but the girls all turn to her.

“Shauna… it’s worth talking about,” Van says.

“No! Okay, we’re not fucking debating whether Jackie gets to keep her clothes,” Shauna yells, standing up from the log and walking over to face the girls.

A few of them look down, away from her, but Taissa faces her head on.

“It’s not like she needs them,” Mari mutters, leaning down to Jackie, but Shauna pushes her off.

“Stop!” Shauna yells, and Mari falls back into the snow, Taissa helping her up.

“Oh, now you’re her protector? Too little too late.”

“Fuck you, Mari! Fuck you!” Shauna shouts, trying to attack her, everyone else left to try and hold her back- until Tai falls to the ground, and Lottie manages to push Shauna back.

“Give her some space,” Lottie breathes.

Taissa slowly stands up, dusting herself off.

Shauna sits down beside Jackie, fixing her letterman jacket, and you can just see the Yellowjackets logo on her sleeve.

Lottie crouches down beside her, grabbing Jackie’s gold heart necklace, and clasping it around her neck.

—-

You stay inside for the rest of the day by the fire, staying so close and wrapping yourself up until you’re sweating- until you realize you’re alone in the cabin, and all of the girls had gone outside. To light the fire, you assume, and you stand up to follow them.

Shauna kneels before the pyre and Jackie’s body like it really is an altar. And you wonder if prayers can be heard in a place like this- or if the wilderness is too much, and the prayers can’t seem to get through.

“What the fuck is going on?” Natalie asks, her and Travis coming into the clearing, and you run down from the porch, zipping up your jacket. “What did you do to her face?”

“Natalie,” you whisper, and she turns to you, her mouth parted in shock.

“It was time to move on,” Tai says.

Natalie shakes her head and let’s out a breath- and that’s when you look up at Travis.

You lock eyes with Natalie, and she looks away, and you know.

Travis has this hopeless, broken look on his face, and even if you didn’t already know what had happened- just by the look on his face would you have know.

“This has been a fucking day,” Natalie swears.

Something falls down your face, warm and salty, and Travis holds out the bloody pant leg to you.

“I’m so sorry, Travis,” you whisper, crying now, wondering if the tears will freeze on your face. “I’m so sorry.”

“Are those Javi’s?” one of the girls whispers, tentatively, like she doesn’t want to be true. You bundle up the pant leg and press it back into his hand.

“No. It can’t be,” Lottie whispers,

You hug him, your face pressing into the rope hung around his shoulder, and finally, after a moment, he wraps his arms around you- and you can feel the pant leg bunched up in his hands.

“Not another word,” Natalie hisses.

“No, Javi’s alive, I can feel it.” you pull back from Travis, pulling your sleeve to your palm, and wiping away a few collected tears near his jawline.

“I’m sorry,” you whisper again-

“I can feel it,” Lottie whispers again.

“For fuck’s sake, shut up!” Natalie yells. “Don’t you see how much damage you are doing?”

Travis looks up at her, his eyes blank.

“Why? Lottie, why?” Natalie asks. “What is making you fucking do this? You can’t just keep-”

Fire comes to life in Shauna’s hands, burning bright at the end of the stick she holds. Everyone quiets down, nothing besides the crunching of snow and the low whisper of the wind.

Shauna stares at the alter for another moment, at Jackie’s body, holding the firey stick in her hands.

You can faintly hear her whisper something, but even in the quiet, you can’t hear her. She speaks low, so it’s just for her and Jackie.

She looks over her shoulder, tears falling down her face, before she lights the pyre.

And slowly, the flames rise, and Travis steps forward, sticking the pant leg in between some untouched pieces of wood.

“Goodbye, Javi,” he says, not caring who hears it.

And you find yourself muttering a goodbye too. For both of them. For the life you used to live. For everything.

—-

The light of the fire is the only in the room, roaring strong, fueled well to last all of you through the cold night- and it makes Natalie's skin look sun-touched.

You take the damp cloth and wipe the dried blood from around the wound, furrowing your eyebrows together, careful not to irritate the delicate sliced skin.

This is what she had done for you and Travis.

The least you can do is clean her wound.

“I’m sure it's fine,” Natalie whispers.

“I’m making sure,” you mutter, finally finishing. throwing the damp scrap of someone's shirt into the fire. It flares for just a moment, sparking up, before the edges of the tan fabric turn red and curl up- and after a few moments, it's all ash.

Natalie puts the ends of her fingers around your jaw, turning your head to face her, her fingers climbing higher, until she softly traces her pointer finger against the scar on your face.

With only the reflection of the windows- it's easy to forget it's there.

You reach up and grab her hand, taking it away from your face, pressing it against your chest. You look up, and she meets your eyes.

“Did you know I pulled you out of the plane?” she whispers, her other hand rising to your face, to your scar.

“Hm?”

“Yeah. Well, first I cried a bit,” she smiles, and you do too, “Then I looked over and you looked like you had fallen asleep against the window. But there... there was so much blood. I mean, I don't remember much after that, but I remember you, asleep against the wall, blood everywhere.”

She tilts her head and traces her finger against the long, silvery scar. This time, you don't stop her.

Instead, you lean down and grab another piece of fabric you had set aside, wrapping it around her leg, tying it in a messy, lopsided knot.

“Thank you, Natalie. For getting me out of the plane. For doing this... for Travis. Thank you.”

“I did it for you,” she whispers, leaning closer. “Travis... but, Y/N…”

And there are a thousand words unspoken in the air.

There is violence and peace and it is all rolled up into one. There is a whole world out there, but when she kisses you, like she's hungry for you, like she needs you, everything narrows down to her and this cabin.

When you open your eyes, all you can see is her, and she is everything for just a moment. She is the wilderness, she is you, she is peace and violence and ultraviolence.

There is a hunger in your stomach, and it will never end, and a part of it is for her.

—-

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[yanderelovlies]

𝓗𝓾𝓻𝓻𝔂 𝓾𝓹 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓯𝓪𝓵𝓵 𝓲𝓷 𝓵𝓸𝓿𝓮 𝔀𝓲𝓽𝓱 𝓶𝓮, 𝓼𝓽𝓾𝓹𝓲𝓭.

You and Dante had been friends since you both had been seventeen. At first, the two of you were allies fighting against the Demon hoard. However, the more you ran into each on the mission, the more friendlier the two of you became. By the end of the mission, you were buying him pizza while comforting him.

After that, the two of you were nearly inseparable. Always going in missions together and always there to help picking up the pieces. You had become something special to the Demon hunter, but it was not the type of special you were hoping for.

You weren't sure when, but at some point, you had grown to love Dante beyond a friendship. However the he never seemed to feel the same since on the rare occasion he brought someone to the shop you were dubbed "Best friend" or "Like a sibling to me".

No matter how much it hurt to hear them, though, you couldn't leave him. Not when the nights get so bad you are the first person he calls just so you could hold him and reassure him everything is okay. Or when he all but begs you to stay just so he won't have to be alone. You knew the whole situation wasn't healthy for both of you, but it was so hard to leave when you loved him so much.

.

"Dante, I can't do this anymore."

Dante had stopped mid-conversation, staring at you for a bit. "Hey....I'm gonna call you back, doll..okay bye." He put the phone back on the receiver, waiting for you to elaborate on what you said. When you didn't, he cleared his throat. "Can't do what anymore n/n? Demon hunt?"

You shook your head. "I can't sit here anymore listening to flirt with someone else." You had tried to keep your cool. It was now or never, you figured. If he didn't accept your feelings, then at least you guys could stay friends. It wouldn't be the same as before, but at least you could still stay by his side.

Dante raised an eyebrow at this "Well this is new, and here I thought you were taking notes." Dante sat back, putting his feet up on his desk. "Maybe it would help you find someone."

You could feel yourself grow nervous. "Yeah, well....it hasn't worked on you.." You mumbled, keeping your eyes to your lap.

Dante froze, clearly catching what you had said. "What?"

You paused, gathering all the courage you could before opening your mouth again. "I-I said they didn't work on you...So maybe they aren't as effective as you think."

Dante blinked at you owlishly before he smirked at your raising an eyebrow. "Oh yeah? Then...use your own on me."

"What?"

"Use your own pickup lines on me."

If your face wasn't red before it was now. You cleared your throat before looking away from him. "Fine."

Dante sat up, putting his feet back on the ground. "You have to say them to my face, though." You tensed up as he continued, "I mean, when people flirt, they are usually facing each other, right?"

He had a point, and you knew it. Taking a deep breath, you steel your nerves and turn back to him. "You know I'm photographer, but I can picture me and you together."

He stared at you again for a minute before letting out a chuckle. "I'm not sure if that's the most smoothest or cutest thing you've said."

You looked away face bright red again. "Shut it, corny."

He chuckled again but continued to stare at you even when your eyes met his "How long?" He asked his voice more seriously than before.

You knew playing dumb wasn't going to get you anywhere. This is what you wanted after all. "I-Im not sure....three or more years?"

Dante's eyes widened. "What?? How come you didn't say anything?!"

"I was scared you wouldn't like me back! You always brought over girls and called me your friend or sibling!'

Dante stood up. "That was to cover my own feelings!"

It was your turn to be shocked what you had just heard. "What..?"

Dantes face was red as he quickly made his way to your side, showing a sort of desperation you've never seen before. He held your hands as he made eye contact with you. "Y/n...I'm not good with my feelings or even know how to show them. So instead ignored them and tried to be with people who vaguely reminded me of you." He sighed, thinking back on his mistakes. "It was stupid, and I'm sorry....but I do like you....might even say love you."

You stared at him in disbelief. "Do you mean it?"

"More than you know, Angel"

Over come by emotions, you pulled him close and finally kissed him. You could feel Dante's arms wrap around you as he pulled you close, pouring all his emotions into the one kiss. When the two of you finally pulled away, a smile immediately graced both of your features.

"You don't know how long I've wanted to do that." Before you could respond, Dante pulled you in for another kiss. God, you guys should have done this a long time ago.

#dmc x reader #dmc dante x reader #dmc dante #dante x reader #dante sparda x reader #dante sparda #dmc devil may cry #devil may cry dante x reader #devil may cry dante #devil may cry x reader #devil may cry