#'theme replies' to group the asks together somehow | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

seungkwansphd · 2 years

Text

fixer upper

pairing: minghao x reader wordcount: 9.5k summary: you love your friends dearly, but do they really think that they can match make for their resident matchmaker? minghao’s certainly interesting, though, so maybe you can fix him up with someone else instead. genre/themes: s2f2l. “beg” minghao. LOTS OF PLOT with eventual smut. slow and i mean SLOW burn. some member slander(affectionate), lol. set in the ‘we get along infamously’ universe.

a/n: i have nothing to say for myself regarding the length of this.

You tapped the bartop impatiently as you waited for your blind date to show up. You couldn’t believe that Danbi had roped you into this, but you had lost the game of darts fair and square. As a result, you were here waiting for a man named Minghao to show up. Part of you really wanted to skip out on this, because you just did not trust Danbi’s romantic sensibilities. She had dated a string of truly boring and strange people for months before you had finally set her up with Seungcheol. There was no way this Minghao was going to be anywhere near suited for you, but you were a person of your word, so you would do the date and be done with it.

“Hey, are you YN?” a voice called from above your left shoulder. You turned your head to see a tall, lanky individual with dark hair looking curiously at you.

“Yes, are you Minghao?” you sat up straight, fixing him with a smile. He wasn’t your usual type, physically, but you couldn’t deny he was handsome.

“Yes, nice to meet you,” he smiled, taking the barstool next to you.

“So how do you know Danbi?” you asked after he had ordered with the bartender.

“Ah, so,” Minghao looked almost sheepish, “I helped Jeonghan get together with the person he’s dating now. One of my close friends! And so I met Seungcheol and Danbi through Jeonghan.”

“Oh?” you calculated the degrees of separation quickly in your mind. “So you don’t really know Danbi at all, then!”

“Not well,” Minghao shook his head. “I was kind of surprised when Jeonghan told me that she wanted to set me up on a date.”

“I-,” you laughed, somehow relieved to find out that this hadn’t been any serious effort on your friend’s part. “Honestly, thank god! No offense to you, I obviously don’t know you, but Danbi historically has not impressed me with her taste in men.”

“No offense taken,” Minghao chuckled, bringing his cocktail to his lips for a quick sip. “So does that mean you’re the resident matchmaker in your friend group as well?”

“Very much so,” you nodded, “So I’m not sure exactly what Danbi thinks she’s up to, trying to take my title. In fact, I bet even I could set you up with someone better! And I don’t even know you at all!” you blustered.

“Oh really?” Minghao’s eyebrow raised. You were funny.

“What, you don’t believe me?” you furrowed your brows at him.

“I mean, no one is a better matchmaker than me, so my bar is pretty high,” he replied smugly. “I’ve only ever had one couple break up, and it was due to one of their jobs making them move away.”

“Out of how many?” you found yourself curious.

“...Eight?” Minghao had to tally in his mind quickly.

“Hah! That’s nothing!” you waved him off easily, “I’ve successfully set up eleven couples and none of them have broken up yet!”

Minghao smiled, amused by your bright and confident energy. While you clearly weren’t suited for him, he found himself wanting to beat you at your own game.

“Set me up then,” he invited confidently. “But I bet I can find you a match sooner than you can find one for me.”

“Oh?” you grinned at his gamelike proposal. Before you even knew it, the words came out of your mouth, “You’re on!”

Minghao laughed, shaking your hand enthusiastically. You spent the rest of your “date” exchanging phone numbers and excitedly reviewing each other’s basic likes and dislikes. Minghao wasn’t your type, but he certainly was interesting! He worked in HR for a tech company, had interests in art and fashion, and also had trained in mixed martial arts as a child? Quite a strange array of hobbies, but you were so going to win this thing!

…

“So, how did it go?” Minghao’s voice sounded slightly tinny through your headphones.

“Not good,” you were almost excited to report on how badly the date had gone. “I would rate your matchmaking skills like a 4 out of 10 right now!”

“Excuse me?” Minghao stopped in his tracks. Surely he had misheard you.

“Four. Out of ten.” you repeated yourself, grinning at the way you could tell he was surprised by your feedback.

“No, that can’t be right.”

“Allow me to elaborate,” you pressed on as you decided to take the long way home so you could regale Minghao with every last detail of why your date with Wonwoo had not been stellar. “First…could you have found someone more quiet or disinterested to have set me up with? You’d think I was trying to pull his teeth out!”

Minghao squeezed his eyes together. He and Wonwoo had built up their rapport over many years and he’d somehow forgotten just how tight-lipped his friend could be when meeting someone new.

“Also his only hobby seems to be gaming? I don’t know anything about that nor do I have an interest,” you continued. “Ah, it’s so nice out!” you commented as an aside while you pulled a pink bloom to your nose to inhale.

“Oh are you outside?” Minghao couldn’t help but ask.

“Yep, I’m walking home!” you nodded, “Oh I’m glad I took the long way! I forgot how much I like this park.”

“It is a nice day out,” Minghao looked out the glass panes of his office. He was painfully close to the end of his day and truth be told, he was excited to run out the clock with you on the phone. “So anyways, where are my four points coming from, because I haven’t heard anything positive yet.”

“Oh, well, I mean. I’m going to chalk that up to Wonwoo’s looks, really. He’s unbelievably handsome. Almost too handsome!” you threw your hands up in the air, drawing a few odd looks from other pedestrians.

Minghao laughed. It was true, Wonwoo was probably his most conventionally attractive friend, so it wasn’t a surprise to hear you say it too.

“Okay, so then…very cold on the personality traits, but very hot on the physical features. I can work off of that,” Minghao nodded, scanning through his mental roster of friends. Luckily, Wonwoo was probably the most introverted of them all, so it could only go upwards from here.

“Yep. Oh which! I have a candidate for you,” you clapped excitedly as you waited for the crosswalk to turn green. “My friend Yena!”

Minghao nodded contemplatively as you rattled off the list of compatible points that you saw for him and this Yena. He had his doubts, but he put your proposed date and time in his calendar. A deal was a deal.

“Okay, I’m almost home, so I’m going to hang up now! I’ll text Yena to confirm! Eee, I’m excited to hear what you think!”

“Okay, bye,” Minghao laughed, glancing at the clock again. It was officially quitting time, so he packed up his bag and headed out of the office. You’d been right, it was a beautiful day out, so he decided to switch up his commute as well. As he walked, he found himself wondering which park you had passed through on your way home.

…

[yn]: ‘sooooooo…………yena?!?!???!’

[minghao]: ‘6/10’

You narrowed your eyes in disbelief. Six out of ten?!

[yn]: ‘BE SO FUCKIN FR RIGHT NOW’

[minghao]: ‘no, I actually really liked her, but she said she doesn’t eat chinese food?! i can’t live like that’

What? Surely you had eaten Chinese food with Yena before, right? You racked your brain, but unfortunately came up empty handed. You had to admit, that was a big blind spot on your part.

[yn]: ‘.........i guess that has never come up before. my bad! i know that’s important to you’

[yn]: ‘i’m still up 2 tho! 6 against your 4.’

Minghao threw his head back to laugh. You were so competitive.

[yn]: ‘ok feedback on other qualities tho! plz & thank u’

Minghao waited, an amused smile on his lips, for your three dots to vanish before providing your requested feedback. As he had said, overall he had quite enjoyed meeting Yena. She had been a little quiet and shy at first, but had opened up quite a bit as the date went on. They shared an interest in art and had had quite a nice discussion before she revealed that she did not like Chinese food. Normally an aversion to specific food wouldn’t bother Minghao so much, but after moving, it was important for him to continue to engage with his culture and food was a major way in which he did that.

[yn]: ‘ok, got it, got it. that makes perfect sense’

A soft smile settled on his lips. Minghao was glad that you weren’t taking too much offense to his negative feedback. Part of him was glad that the date hadn’t gone that well and he was sure that it was just his competitive nature. It would have been humiliating for him if you had actually found him someone perfect on the first try.

[minghao]: ‘what are your plans for the weekend?’

[yn]: ‘theres a textile and apparel exhibit opening at the folk art museum that i wanted to check out’

[minghao]: ‘oh?? i was planning to go too! when are you going?’

You cocked your head curiously at your phone. That was weird. But you realized it would be very helpful to observe Minghao in the wild so as to do a better job choosing prospective dates for him. Then you could review your roster of candidates for him after the museum, so it could be a productive time! With a fluttery feeling in your chest, for whatever reason, you chose a meeting time to visit the museum with Minghao. Together.

…

You tapped your fisted hands against your hips as you scanned the crowds for Minghao. It had been a few weeks since you had first met him in person and you had an unreasonable worry that you’d forgotten what his face looked like. Glancing at your watch, you wondered if you had gotten the time wrong.

“YN!” a clear voice caught your attention.

“Ah, there you are!” your face cracked into a smile up at Minghao. “Ok, I’m glad I decided to dress up!” you exhaled with relief after taking in his outfit. He hadn’t been kidding when he’d said he was interested in fashion.

“This outfit is very cool,” he nodded approvingly, eyes raking over you. An unreasonable warmth spread across you at his assessment. You had spent longer than usual picking and re-picking necklaces to match the hardware on your boots. It was nice to see that it was appreciated.

“Thank you!” you beamed up at him, eyes creasing into semi-circles. “Now let’s go!” you gestured forcefully at the museum entrance.

“Okay, okay,” Minghao chuckled goodnaturedly, allowing you to lead the way.

“Holy fuck,” you breathed, hands fisted in excitement as you peered closely at the thread and beadwork on a contemporary bobbin lace exhibit. “Unreal.”

Minghao had to do a double take. Your mouth had fallen slightly open, enthralled, as you took in the detail and your eyes were as wide as saucers. You looked like a cartoon frog.

“You’ll catch a fly like that,” he teased, slipping two fingertips under your chin to snap your mouth shut.

You narrowed your eyes at him. If you’d learned one thing today, it was that Minghao was quite prone to teasing. It was a good thing that you had agreed to this museum trip after all, because otherwise your list of next candidates would’ve been wildly out of order.

“Do you want to see the other exhibits too? Or are you only interested in fiber arts?” Minghao asked, looking up from the museum layout map.

“No, I’m interested in all mediums!” you nodded at him. “I just think textile arts have been woefully excluded from the mainstream art world because, you know, misogyny,” you rolled your eyes theatrically at him as you followed his lead. “So I am particularly interested when museums put together exhibits like that!”

Minghao’s lips pinched slightly in amusement. He agreed with you, of course, but he found your animated enthusiasm in high contrast to the serious backdrop of the museum hall. He led the way to one of his favorite areas and you two passed the rest of the afternoon walking through the displays in contemplative quiet.

“I’m hungry,” you frowned as you left the museum.

“Me too,” Minghao grabbed at his midsection. “Let’s go find something to eat!”

“There’s a Chinese restaurant around here that I like! Let’s go there!” you suggested. Minghao nodded furiously, stomach grumbling insistently at him.

…

You glanced at your date out of the side of your eye as you wondered how rude it might be to just leave. While Joshua was certainly your physical type, all arms and chest, you quickly found out that the contents of his brain were just not for you. You weren’t religious at all and if he broke out into song, singing ‘Sunday Morning’ at or near you one more time, you might actually run away.

After going through the motions of saying goodbye, you pulled your phone out to dial Minghao as soon as you started walking home.

“Hello?” he answered, sounding slightly groggy.

“I need to understand your thought process with this one,” you shook your head in disbelief.

“Huh?” Minghao rubbed his eyes, pulling his phone away to check who had called. “Oh, hey! Sorry I just woke up.”

“Oh, did I wake you up?” you paused, “Shit, sorry! You didn’t have to answer me!”

“I didn’t know it was you! I also hadn’t meant to fall asleep,” Minghao chuckled and you heard some rustling of sheets in the background. “Sorry, what did you ask me again?”

“I need to know why you set me up with Joshua,” you frowned. “Do I give off a vibe that he’s my type?”

“Is he not?” Minghao wondered, “He’s more outgoing than Wonwoo, still handsome, and family oriented.”

“Okay, those things are true, but he’s also super religious, which I’m not. And I do not like to be sung at in public…or at all, I don’t think.”

“No, please,” Minghao started laughing, “Did he? I didn’t think he’d bring that out on a first date!” Minghao couldn’t stop laughing, practically kicking his feet in delight at the absurdity of it.

“Yeah, several times, in fact,” you rolled your eyes.

“Why are you so difficult to match for?” Minghao found himself asking. He was partially teasing, but also somewhat serious. People generally threw themselves at both Wonwoo and Joshua, so to hear you be so turned off by them was surprising and confusing.

“I’m not difficult! I think my expectations are more than reasonable,” you nodded firmly to yourself.

“Okay, elaborate on these expectations, please, because I’m clearly missing the mark.”

“Hm, well, okay. Someone funny and intelligent with a wide variety of interests or knowledge. Someone who would challenge me in ways that make me grow. Someone who also can understand that I should have my own endeavors and activities without feeling insecure. I dunno, someone who just gets me!”

“Very reasonable,” Minghao’s flat voice came back across the phone.

“It is reasonable!” you stamped your foot. You felt like he was teasing you again, but it was hard to tell over the phone.

“No, that’s helpful!” he clarified.

“Why are you asleep at 8pm anyways, you old man?” you suddenly remembered.

“Ugh, it was a long day,” he groaned into your ear, “I had to get to work early to prepare onboarding materials for new hires and then when I got home, I just passed out I guess.”

“Ah, well, do you want me to let you go? You should go back to sleep and catch up on yesterday.”

“No, I’m up now,” Minghao shook his head, reluctant to end the phone call. “Tell me about the restaurant, was the food at least good?”

You smiled, happy to stay on the line with him. The food had indeed been good and you described your meal and cocktails to him in vivid detail. You were now in your second month of knowing Minghao and your relationship had evolved into a tentatively comfortable friendship. Between all of the set up activities, you’d actually gotten to know him a bit and grown used to discussing and sharing other aspects of your lives. Minghao was definitely an introvert, but he was well balanced with an energy and enthusiasm that ensured you were never bored.

…

“Wait, I’m confused. You told me that the date with Minghao didn’t go well, but you’ve stayed in touch with him?” Danbi’s forehead wrinkled in confusion.

“What are you confused about? That’s exactly right,” you returned her confused look.

“Why would you stay in touch with someone you don’t like?”

“I never said I didn’t like him!” you shook your head, confused at her statement.

“You liked him, but the date didn’t go well? Why wouldn’t the date go well if you like him?”

“I can like him as a friend and not want to date him!”

Danbi narrowed her eyes at you. She didn’t think you were that petty, but it was almost as if you were purposefully maintaining a distance between yourself and Minghao just to spite her.

“So what do you two talk about?” she was curious.

“We’ve been setting each other up on dates! Supposedly he’s the friend group matchmaker, like me, but he’s pretty bad at it,” you chuckled, rolling your eyes. “But we talk about other things too! He likes art and fashion. We went to the textile exhibit opening a few weeks ago.”

Danbi shook her head; she was lost. Wasn’t that just a date? Luckily she knew you better than to prod too much further.

“Well that’s good! It’s always nice to make a new friend,” she smiled at you, “He should come to Soonyoung’s housewarming party next week!”

“Should he?”

“Yeah, of course! Jeonghan will be there and I think he invited a few of his coworkers too so see if Minghao wants to come!”

“Ah, I guess so,” you nodded, somehow nervous, “I’ll ask, but no promises.”

“Sure!” Danbi laughed, “Now let me show you some pictures of Doyun with Jeonghan and his new partner! Who you also have to meet!”

You giggled happily as Danbi flipped through her photos. Doyun had always looked more like Seungcheol as a baby, but now that he was getting older, he was taking on more and more of your friend’s features.

“Ah, he looks so much like you there! Ahhhh!” you shook your fists excitedly.

“He does look more like me recently, doesn’t he?” she beamed proudly at you.

For all the headache you had posed to her with this Minghao situation, she did love you and was grateful towards you for gently nudging her towards Seungcheol many years ago. You were very astute at reading others and as a result, she now had a wonderful husband and son. It had always interested and amused her that your insightfulness didn’t quite extend to yourself.

…

“Eeeee!” you and Soonyoung clapped your hands together excitedly after you’d sunk another ping pong ball into a plastic cup.

“Just perfect! Look at that technique! You duds don’t stand a chance!” he crowed, jeering at Seungcheol and Seokmin excitedly.

Danbi giggled excitedly at her husband’s rotten luck, to which Seungcheol pouted.

“Ya! Who are you even cheering for?!” he shouted playfully, leveling an accusing finger at his wife, inspiring another round of giggles.

“Me, of course! I can find her another husband, she can’t find another me!” you laughed, jumping up and down in delight at the way that Seungcheol fumed.

“You’re dead!” he furrowed his brows at you, “You’re so dead!” He made a show of stretching his neck and shoulders before taking his next shot at beer pong.

“Hah!” you shouted and shook Hoshi excitedly, collapsing into a puddle of laughter as Seungcheol’s ball ricocheted dramatically off of the rim and bounced anticlimactically across the ground. “Oh no, oh Cheol please I’m crying!” you hiccuped, wiping your eyes.

Minghao had slipped in quietly while you were taunting Seungcheol and he was shocked at the way you did it so loudly and unapologetically. He didn’t know Seungcheol quite that well yet, but he had been under the impression that he probably shouldn’t be messed with too much. A smile toyed at the corners of his mouth before he moved away to grab a beverage.

“You made it!” Danbi appeared at his side while he popped the cap off of a beer.

“Hi Danbi,” Hao smiled kindly at her. He had met Danbi through Jeonghan a while ago and for whatever reason, she had really taken a shine to him.

“Did you find the place alright?”

“Yes, YN’s instructions were very easy to follow.”

“Great! Let me know if there’s anyone here that you haven’t met yet, but I think you may know them all!”

Minghao nodded. Looking around the room, it did seem like he knew most of the attendees. Jeonghan and his girlfriend were flanked by a few of their other coworkers. By some miracle Seokmin and Seungcheol had both managed to find babysitters tonight, and so were able to attend with their wives, Hana and Danbi. Joshua was on another date, after he and YN had not managed to hit things off, so Jeonghan’s friend group was short just one of the usual count.

“Ha! Ha! Ha!” you laughed with Hoshi after winning yet another game of beer pong. You and he had been nearly undefeatable since college and it was nice to see that this hadn’t changed, even after he had moved away for a few years. “Oh pink?” you wondered aloud when you spotted Minghao chatting with Jeonghan over a beer.

“You’re here!” you interrupted their conversation easily, fingers itching to touch his pink hair. “Is this a fade out color?”

“Yes,” he laughed, “The murder scene every time I showered was starting to get old.”

“I can’t believe your hair hasn’t just fallen straight out of your head,” Jeonghan’s girlfriend shook her head with a laugh.

“Hah!” you laughed heartily, struggling to imagine Minghao bald.

“I’d love it if you didn’t curse me with this foul energy,” he rolled his eyes at all of you.

“Did you all see how I swept the floor with Seungcheol? Again?” you crowed excitedly to Jeonghan.

“Yes, yes, very good,” Jeonghan rolled his eyes at you. You were always such a braggart about pong.

“I can’t believe he lets you tease him like that,” Minghao gestured to Seungcheol incredulously.

“Ah, I’m a lovable scamp!” you shrugged, sticking your tongue out at your newest friend.

“That’s true,” Hao laughed, a soft smile crossing his face.

Jeonghan and his girlfriend both looked at Minghao with interest while your attention was pulled elsewhere. Danbi and Hana summoned you from across the room so you gave everyone a small wave before you left.

“So-,” Jeonghan opened his mouth to dig, but his girlfriend stopped him with a quick shake of her head. She knew Minghao would not respond to anything that direct, so it was best to meddle gently.

“What is it?” you asked once you were close enough to Danbi and Hana for them to hear you.

“We were wondering if Minghao had set you up on a successful date yet?” Hana asked, “If not, I actually met this kind of cool guy at the school yesterday.”

“Oh, no, not yet. I actually need to follow up with him on that,” you shook your head.

“Follow up? You’re being so project manager-y about this,” Hana laughed.

“I mean…it is a project that I’m managing,” you flushed, already knowing that you would say no to Hana’s proposed guy.

“Well, what do you think? He came to service the computers, so he works in IT. He’s tall, pretty broad, and has a very nice smile.”

“What’s his personality like?” you queried. It didn’t make any sense at all, but for whatever reason you felt guilty of the idea of being set by someone other than Minghao.

“I didn’t get to talk to him too much, but he seemed nice! He volunteers at an animal shelter.”

“Aww,” Danbi cooed excitedly.

“You’re going to make fun of me for saying this, but I don’t think I care,” you inhaled deeply before rejecting Danbi’s proposal. “It feels weird to think about going on a date with someone that Minghao doesn’t pick for me. So I kind of want to see how things play out with that?”

“I’m not going to make fun of you!” Danbi looked at you indignantly.

“I am!” Hana made a face at you, “You are so attached to him, like come on YN!” she gestured forcefully at you.

“Of course I’m attached to him, we’re friends!” you shrugged. “I’m attached to you doofuses too,” you gestured back with your palms up. Hana and Danbi laughed. Your love language was, indeed, teasing and they’d grown used to it long ago. You were watching them whisper to each other suspiciously before Danbi jutted her chin out, pointing at something behind you.

“Oh, JESUS!” you jumped after realizing Minghao was standing behind you. “Snuck up on me, fuckin’ hell,” you mumbled curses as you put a few paces between him and yourself.

“Let’s go play beer pong. Apparently you’re unstoppable and I need to witness this for myself,” he smirked, giving you a disbelieving once over.

“Don’t…,” you found yourself shivering under his gaze, “Look at me like that! I will win,” you let yourself think that you had recovered smoothly.

With each ball that Minghao sank into your cups, you stood up just a little straighter and your expression grew just a little more baffled. You’d never been in such a closely matched game of pong before and, honestly, you didn’t care for it.

“Hey, let’s make this more interesting,” Minghao spoke up when you were each down to one cup. You raised an eyebrow at him, gesturing for him to proceed with his idea. “If I win, I take you out on a date.”

“I-,” you choked, heart clogging your throat momentarily. “What?”

“For research purposes,” he clarified, triple checking his foot placement as he squared up his aim. “You can give me feedback and that’ll help me better tailor my matches for you in the future.” He launched the ball into the air and it sailed into your final cup easily.

“I-, wait,” you stuttered, partially in disbelief over your loss and partially for a reason that you weren’t able to identify yet. Your mouth opened and closed a few times before you could accept it.

“What, are you scared?” Minghao stepped towards you. He felt a perverse joy in the way you were reacting to his win. Something about seeing you flounder tickled his brain very specifically.

“You lost fair and square!” Soonyoung waved you off to make room for the next players.

“What exactly would I be scared of?” you blustered as Minghao herded you away from the table. “A date with you?”

“Scared you’ll like it,” he laughed, peering down at you, stepping into your personal space just slightly.

“Hah!” you let out a honking laugh. That was absurd, right? “Fine, take me out on our little date. I’m sure I’ll have plenty of feedback.”

“Great,” he grinned at you, patting you on the head condescendingly.

You were baffled. You could tell you were blushing and you weren’t really sure if you could just blame it on the beer pong loss. You snuck a glance at Minghao, whose attention was back on the party, watching Soonyoung trounce Seokmin quite soundly. He was right, you were terrified for this date.

…

“Ugh you look so cute!” Hana squealed excitedly, “It’s such a shame it’s just for a practice run!”

You chuckled. Sure, it was true that this date with Minghao was just for research purposes, but it hadn’t stopped you from thinking of it as if it were real.

‘wear a dress or skirt. something short or unrestricted at the bottom and shoes you can move in’ was all of the instruction that Minghao had given you.

“Maybe he’s taking you dancing?” Hana wondered aloud. “It’s kinda romantic that he’s keeping everything a surprise!”

“So romantic,” you parroted at her sarcastically.

You didn’t know why, but you felt quite nervous about this one. You had been on more than your fair share of first dates recently, so it really didn’t make sense to feel this way about the fake one. Probably just because everything was a surprise.

“Ya! Why am I nervous!?” you jumped up and down aggressively, shouting at yourself.

Hana shrugged, even though she knew the answer. Best to let you come to your own epiphany. She fretted and cooed the appropriate amount as she helped you finish your makeup and hair. You were satisfied when you looked in the mirror, but that didn’t make your armpits any less sweaty. Thank god for prescription grade antiperspirant.

“Ready?” Minghao greeted you at your door with a bouquet of flowers around half an hour later.

“I think,” you eyed him suspiciously, still irked that he hadn’t spilled a single clue about your activities.

“Put these in water so we can go!” he thrust the bouquet at you impatiently.

“Okay, okay,” you muttered. You scanned the blooms quickly and were pleased and surprised that all of them were cat safe. He’d remembered. You grabbed an empty jar and plunked the stems into it before returning to Minghao. “Is this outfit acceptable?” you paused to check, turning in a full circle so he could inspect.

“Yes,” he nodded, eyes full of something you couldn’t quite place, but it vanished just as quickly. “Now let’s go! We need to be on time.”

Minghao shepherded you into the car and drove towards your destination. You were, strangely, at a loss for words and so spent the time inspecting his car and marveled at how clean it was. Usually you couldn’t stop yourself from babbling about nonsense at him, but this simulated date seemed to have rendered you speechless. As he pulled into the parking lot, your eyes lit up reading the sign.

“Hana was right!” you grinned at him triumphantly. “It is dancing!”

“Yes,” he chuckled at your expression. It wasn’t like you were the one who had guessed right, but he’d never know that with the way you beamed at him. “Intro to Rumba! I thought it’d be fun to try something new together.”

“Rumba?” you thought hard. You weren’t well versed in ballroom dance styles, but the name rang a bell. You had definitely seen it on a ‘Something-est Things To Do With Your Partner’ kind of list. “I don’t know how to dance,” you whispered to Minghao as the other students filtered into the class.

“That’s why it’s fun,” he grinned down at you.

After beating you at beer pong last week, Minghao had been itching to get the upper hand on you again. While he wasn’t very skilled at ballroom, he did have some dance experience from his past. Rumba was also fairly sensual in nature and he would be lying if he said he wasn’t looking forward to watching you squirm and be flustered over it.

With your hands tucked behind your back, you watched intently as the instructors demonstrated the short routine that you would work on during class. You did your best to keep your cool, but you felt like everyone probably heard the sound of your loud gulp as you registered just how close together you would be with Minghao. There was probably technically some distance between the instructors, but not that you could see with the naked eye.

Minghao blinked a few times as he watched the demo with you. This was closer quarters than any other style of dance he had ever tried before and he wondered if he had made a mistake.

“Okay, right hand to left hand. Leading partner’s right hand on the following partner’s waist. Following partner’s left hand resting gently at the back of the leading partner’s neck,” the instructions came.

“Okay, right hand here, left hand here,” you muttered to yourself as Minghao clasped his left hand into your right and you hooked your left hand around the back of his neck. You managed to follow the first set of steps without tripping over yourself too spectacularly, but the next combination threw you for quite the loop.

“So now comes a sexy part,” the instructors grinned mischievously, “Leading is going to spin the following out and then pull them back in to face them. And then following partner is going to drop in a slow and sexy wiggle, their hand trailing down the leading partner’s chest.

Oh. Your lips pursed as your mind painted the mental picture of what that would look like. You resisted the urge to glance furtively at Minghao, pink rising in your cheeks.

Next to you, Minghao blinked. Once, twice, and then one more time for good measure. He had been so busy considering how this class might affect you that he hadn’t even thought of himself. The idea of you trailing your fingertips down the centerline of his chest made him want to shake his head furiously.

“Five, six, seven, eight!” The rapid counts snapped both of you out of your thoughts. “Spin out!”

You held onto Minghao’s fingers tightly as you spun away from him.

“Fancy arm!”

You flung your arm out theatrically and were inordinately pleased to make Minghao laugh.

“Now tuck your arm as you spin back in!” the instructions continued.

You bit your lip to keep from laughing before you brought your arm back to your center and spun into Minghao’s chest. Slowly, your hips drew figure eights as you worked your way down into a squat and your eyes followed your hand’s slow trail down his chest. Like watching a train wreck.

Minghao looked to the instructors for the next directions, desperate to be not looking at you. He wanted to groan. Even in this wordless touch, you were mischievous, not drawing straight down, but rather trailing a wavy line, timed with the movement of your hips on the way down.

“Now leading partner, you are going to pull them back up! Forceful! Dramatic! What are they doing down there? They’re up to no good!”

You had wanted to laugh, but when Minghao dragged you back up to your feet and looked deeply into your eyes…all of that went out the window. For a moment, the directions barked by the instructors faded into the background and all you could hear was a soft buzzing in your ears as you held his gaze.

“Very good, very good you two!” the instructors clapped excitedly as they walked towards you. “Tension! Eye contact! That’s what the rumba is all about, excellent!”

“Thank you!” You almost shouted. You were so excited to be able to rip your eyes away from Minghao that you plastered a wide grin across your face and gave an awkward thumbs up to the whole class.

“How do you do this dance without falling in love with each other?” another student wondered aloud.

“You don’t!” the instructor replied with a laugh. “Every so often you get a pair that falls in love and gets married, but in general you break up but you keep dancing together because you have good physical chemistry.”

“Yikes.” you turned to Minghao with a bemused look on your face. You were relieved to see that the tension seemed to have dissipated and he found your instructor’s comments as strange as you did. The rest of the class passed with relative ease, but the feel of his fingers resting at your waist and nipping into your hips certainly lingered longer than was ideal.

“What’d you think?” Minghao asked as he started driving to the next destination.

“That was fun,” you nodded after some consideration. “Definitely out of the box and a new experience for me. Also a very good way to gauge physical chemistry. Honestly a very good early date activity. Ten out of ten.”

He preened under your compliment. You wondered what your next activity would be, but knew that asking would get you nowhere, so you tried to fill your brain with other thoughts. After a while, you ran out of things to think about and your eyes decided to regard Minghao as he drove. His right hand lingered at the gearshift, fingers tapping every so often as his eyes stayed glued to the road. You shifted in your seat as you watched the tendons of his forearms flex in a very distracting way. The way he looked when he was focused was…unfortunately attractive.

Minghao could feel your eyes on him as he drove. He struggled to keep his attention on the road as his mind played back snippets from class. Namely, the moment when he had pulled you back up to your feet and locked eyes with you for just a little too long. Your eyes had widened and your lips had parted just slightly as you gazed back up at him and rational thought had almost left him completely.

“No, Minghao! Really?!” you squealed excitedly as he pulled into the parking lot of the botanical garden. “You remembered!”

“Of course,” he nodded, parking the car. You had mentioned the Poisonous Plants special exhibit off-handedly a few weeks ago and he had filed it away in his brain. He liked the botanical garden too.

“Look how beautiful!” you gasped as you looked at the Atropa belladonna, or Deadly Nightshade. “I can’t believe a flower this beautiful is also poison! Isn’t that cool? Such a good name too.”

Minghao chuckled. You were making your little frog face again. He didn’t know if he thought of poison as cool, but he enjoyed seeing your excitement over such a morbid topic. The expression you made when you were enthralled by something was painfully endearing to him.

“Thank you for bringing me here,” you wrapped your arms around him excitedly as you headed towards the exit archway of the garden.

“You’re welcome,” Minghao was surprised by your sudden physical affection. “You’re such a nerd, I’m glad you had a good time,” he teased as his arms folded around your waist naturally.

You wrinkled your nose at him playfully. You couldn’t help the slight hitch in your breath before you pulled away, looping your arm in his happily as you walked through the other areas of the garden. This closeness grew less and less foreign as the day went on and was directly correlated to your concern for your own sanity.

…

“So…what do you think?” Minghao inquired after you had settled in at your table at a rooftop restaurant and bar. He really enjoyed the ambiance here and thought you’d enjoy the food as well.

“Of?” you replied blankly, having been busy reading over the menu.

“Our date?” his brows creased together, he had not been expecting that response.

“Oh! Good! Really good, actually,” you nodded, trying to speak of it in a detached way. “You did a really good job picking activities and this restaurant. This menu is so interesting! But at the same time, I feel like you are at an unfair advantage because you know me pretty well by now. I don’t think this is a reasonable expectation to have for a first blind date. I also probably wouldn’t agree to so many things in one day with them, because what if we didn’t hit it off? Also wouldn’t let them drive me because what if they’re a murderer?”

“You think I’d set you up with a murderer?”

“You never know,” you shook your finger at him playfully, “People are full of surprises, unfortunately.”

Minghao watched you as you watched the sunset. He agreed with you, this had been a really good date. For whatever reason, you had leaned into the physical affection at the botanical garden and it had made his brain go haywire. He found that he not only didn’t want this date to end, but he wanted a second and a third (maybe to infinity) with you. He wanted to watch you try really hard at things that you had never done before and wanted to watch you make your little cartoon frog face when you were delighted by something.

“What?” you asked, turning back to meet Minghao’s lingering gaze.

“Nothing. I’m just having a really great time with you today,” he smiled back.

Your smile faltered as your heart pounded. You searched his face for some hint that he was teasing you, like usual, but it wasn’t there.

“Minghao!” an excited voice pulled your attention away suddenly. You turned to see two men, one tall and muscular and the other slighter and shorter.

“Mingyu, Jae,” Minghao waved at them easily, “Coworkers,” he explained to you as they approached. “This is YN.”

“Oh, are you on a date?” the taller man’s eyes flitted between you and Minghao, slowly coming to a realization.

“Wait no. YN. No, they’re not dating!” the other man interjected as he connected his brain cells, “Jeonghan told me about this! You two have been setting each other up on dates, right? Or something like that?”

“That’s right,” you laughed, “So sorry, who’s Mingyu and who’s Jae?”

“Ah, sorry, yes,” Minghao chuckled, “Mingyu and Jae,” he gestured towards them respectively.

“Nice to meet you,” you smiled, unable to help the way your eyes raked over Mingyu. He was your exact physical type and his eyes sparkled obviously at you when he talked.

“Well, we’ll get out of your hair! We were on our way out,” Jae nodded at you after not too long.

“I hope to see you again sometime,” Mingyu smiled at you, leaning down for another handshake before they left. Minghao bristled.

“Him,” you turned to Minghao, oblivious to his irritation. “Set me up with him, he’s my exact type!”

“Mingyu?” Minghao’s nose wrinkled slightly. “You don’t even know him.”

“He’s so hot though,” you exhaled theatrically, not really caring what his personality was like when he had a body like that. “That’s what a blind date is for, right? Blind to the red flags that I don’t want to see.”

Minghao scoffed at your absurdity. On the one hand, Mingyu was a perfectly nice guy. Maybe too eager and bubbly for you, but he trusted that he could treat you well. On the other hand, he had just been grappling with the idea of wanting you for himself, so the two sides of his brains clashed violently and he really had no explanation for the next word that left his mouth.

“Beg.”

“Excuse me?” you must have misheard him.

“Beg me. And I’ll set you up with him,” he leaned back, smirk playing across his lips as he teased you mercilessly.

“P-please?” you stuttered, thighs pressing together inexplicably at the look on his face.

“Cuter,” he goaded you, tongue tracing across his lips as the flush rose in your cheeks. Your heart threatened to stop.

“Hao, please?” your eyes became doe-like and your lower lip pouted out just slightly. You didn’t even know why you were humoring him, you’d never let a man make you beg for anything before.

“There, see? That wasn’t so hard,” he sat back up, clearing his throat slightly as he glanced away. “I’ll set it up,” he nodded, heart sinking in his chest.

“Great,” you smiled, chest feeling tight. Your heart was racing.

…

You found yourself perplexed and kicking a small pebble down the sidewalk after your date with Mingyu. It wasn’t that it had gone poorly, no in fact just the opposite. You were surprised that he had even been available to be set up because he was, on paper, perfect. He was funny, sweet, eager and all in that body? It was simply unfair.

No, the thing that you were confused and frustrated about was that you didn’t really want to go on another date with him. For whatever reason, the only feeling you could muster for him was a lukewarm fondness and it really made you mad. Typically, you would call Minghao to debrief, but you were mad at him too! Your date with him last week was the reason the bar was so unreasonably high now, after all.

“Damn,” you sighed to yourself as you gave the poor pebble another swift kick.

…

Minghao glanced at his phone, irritated to see that you still hadn’t messaged him with any updates. Dinner had to be over by now, right? Normally you at least snuck away to text him from the bathroom, so for his phone to be this dry could only be a sign that the date had gone well. Probably too well.

[mingyu]: ‘dude! YN is wonderful! thank you for setting this up!’

[hao]: ‘ah, so it went well?’

[mingyu]: ‘i think so! she’s cool as hell man’

[mingyu]: ‘she makes such a cute face when she gets excited’

Minghao saw red for a moment. The intensity of his jealousy caught him by surprise and he had to reign himself in before he replied to Mingyu’s text.

[hao]: ‘yeah, i like her too, lol’

Minghao threw his phone onto the sofa. Stupid idiot.

…

[hao]: ‘are you ever going to admit defeat or are you going to just ignore me forever?’

You had been doom scrolling in bed when his text appeared and before you knew it, you were calling him.

“Hey,” his voice was soft when he picked up. The way his heart had jumped when he’d seen your incoming call was unreasonable.

“Hi,” you greeted him, your voice sounded small.

“So…,” Minghao waffled. He didn’t really want to talk about Mingyu, but he wasn’t really sure what else to talk to you about. “Mingyu said he liked you.”

“Oh, did he?” you chuckled, “He seems like the type of person that likes everyone.”

Hao laughed because you weren’t wrong.

“It went well, though, right?” He wished that, like all the other dates, this one had been a dud too.

“It was okay,” you shrugged, “I don’t see myself going on another date with him though, to be honest. He’s a little too…I don’t know?” you trailed off trying to explain.

“Oh?” Minghao’s voice piqued with interest, “Well I’m starting to run out of friends,” he joked.

“I don’t think I want you to set me up with any more of your friends,” you sighed. “No more first dates for a while, I think.”

Minghao froze as he saw his opening. He knew he would forever be kicking himself if he didn’t take the shot now.

“Are you home?”

“Yes?”

“Okay, I’m in the middle of errands, but I’ll be there in ten. I have to ask you something in person.”

“Oh okay.”

Minghao didn’t leave much more room for discussion as he hung up and turned the car around, driving towards your place. You checked your appearance nervously as you waited.

[hao]: ‘here’

Your pulse pounded in your ears as you opened the door for him, more nervous now than you had been for your date.

“Hi,” he greeted you from under a black baseball cap. It was annoying how he looked so good in it. “Can I come in?”

“No,” you joked as you opened the door for him.

“So no more first dates, does that mean you’re officially tapping out of our game?” he asked, looking down at you.

“N-,” your instinct was to push back, but he was right this time. “I mean, yes, I guess so. I’m tired of this meeting people business, I just want to spend time with people that I already like.”

“Would that include me?” he grinned, stepping towards you and until you backed into the kitchen counter.

“I-, I have mixed feelings about you,” you answered honestly, unable to meet his gaze.

“Can I take you out on a second date?” he ducked his head towards yours, hands coming to rest at your hips.

“I-,” you squeezed your eyelids together. In the past you would’ve panicked, but this closeness was now familiar to you and you only wanted to sink into it further. “Maybe you should beg this ti-,” you raised your brows, flicking your eyes mischievously to his.

“Ah!” Minghao cut you off sternly. “I’d think twice about that.”

“But-,” you couldn’t help yourself.

He cut you off with a firm grip at the base of your throat. His longer fingers tapped against the side of your neck as he regarded you sternly. “Will you behave?”

You knew you should say yes. Part of you might have even wanted to say yes, but you were you to your core. “Maybe.”

“We’ll just have to see, won’t we?” he teased you in a sing-songy voice. “Where’s your bedroom?”

“There,” you pointed to a door towards your right. Without so much as a warning, you found yourself being hauled and plunked onto the edge of your bed.

“You have been driving me crazy for months, so let’s see if I can return the favor,” he looked down at you, tongue poking in his cheek.

“Months?” you wondered, thighs squeezing together nervously.

“Yes, months,” Minghao reached out and patted you on the cheek condescendingly. “So picky and difficult about every single person that I set you up with. Were you doing it on purpose or did you really not notice?”

“Not on purpose! They just…,” you trailed off sheepishly.

“What’s that? Speak up.”

“They sucked cause you’re bad at picking,” you squinted at him defiantly. You hated that you loved the way he was treating you.

“Try again?” he grabbed you around the jaw, his fingertips pressing your lips into an unflattering fish face. You could see in his eyes that he wouldn’t humor you for much longer.

“They weren’t you,” came your muffled reply, your lips moving in an exaggerated manner between his long fingers.

“One more time?” Minghao’s eyes danced at you, fingers relinquishing their grip. He wanted to hear it again, clearly.

“They weren’t you!” you replied, sickeningly sweetly eyes creasing into sarcastic half moons as you smiled at him.

“Tch,” he scoffed, pushing you back onto the bed and climbing over you. “You are so difficult,” he shook his head as his eyes raked across you, admiring your shape. “You’re lucky I like you.”

You let out a simpering sigh as his lips nibbled from just behind your earlobe down to your collarbone. His teeth nipped roughly as his fingertips trailed from your knee to your hip and gripped tightly.

“Hao,” you sighed, “Kiss me?”

“Hmm, do you deserve that?” he rebutted, pulling back to look in your eyes.

“Please?” you pouted, tugging at the front of his shirt. “I’ll be good.”

“Somehow I don’t believe you,” he laughed, his lips grazing yours.

“Minghao, please,” you insisted and he indulged you.

Minghao brought his lips to yours, kissing you thoroughly. His hands kneaded possessively at your hip as you nipped at his lips. Your kisses were peppered with soft moans and exaltations.

“You make such desperate sounds,” he teased appreciatively. You flushed at his description, but he wasn’t wrong. “Lay back and let me appreciate you,” he pressed a kiss to your temple before helping you undress completely.

Starting at the bottom of the bed, he trailed soft, plush kisses from your ankles to your knees and then from your knees to your hips. He nipped, bit, and sucked his way up your inner thighs until you were glistening and slick for him. His fingers pried your legs apart, allowing him to taste you for the first time.

“Hao!” your thighs closed instinctively around his ears as he lapped long, leisurely strokes with his tongue. You heard him chuckle as he gripped above your knees, holding you open for him. He teased you with his hot breath, enjoying watching you shift and writhe, just for him.

“So gorgeous,” he rested his cheek against your thigh for a moment, enjoying the way your chest heaved with shallow breaths as you came down from the edge for the second time.

“Ming-hao!” you squealed as he brought his lips back around your clit, sucking with a torturous pressure. “I-, I-, I,” you malfunctioned, hand gripping his hair tightly as you came hard against his lips.

“Very good,” he grinned up at you, his lips and chin glossy with your slick. “Can I finger you now?”

“I mean, yes?” you laughed nervously, a little concerned at what his hands would be able to achieve after experiencing his mouth alone.

“Don’t cum until I say so,” he directed as his fingertips slid through your wet folds. “You are so wet,” he commented offhandedly as he pressed two fingers in a v-shape against you, squeezing around your swollen clit. Your mouth formed a silent ‘o’ shape as he ground his fingers against you, avoiding direct contact where you wanted it most.

“Hao,” you cried, hand resting around his wrist as you squirmed helplessly under him. “Why are you torturing me?!”

Minghao paused for a moment. He supposed he was going a bit more out of his way to undo you than was typical for him. It wasn’t fair, but his pent up jealousy was manifesting and you were there to pay the price.

“Are you telling me you don’t like it?” he asked, cocking his head at you.

“Well, no,” you blushed, sinking into the pillow shyly.

“Then let me torture you a bit, sweetheart,” he grinned sweetly at you, fingers pinching together firmly around your clit again. “You’re so incredibly wet, just for me?” he marveled rhetorically as he slid two fingers into you, parting your wet, warm walls.

“Yes,” you nodded, pressing your hips up to meet him. You rolled your hips, desperate for as much as he would give. “More,” you begged until he added a third finger, stretching you slightly.

“Look at you,” Hao cooed appreciatively, nipping at your upper thigh as he stroked his fingers in and out of your deeply. The scrape of his teeth oversensitized you suddenly and you became a whimpering, desperate mess quickly.

“Hao, please, darling,” you clutched at him urgently, “I need, please let me cum!”

“Cum for me, darling,” he cooed the pet name back at you as he kept up the pace until you had collapsed into a pile of mush for him. “So good,” he praised you, pressing soft kisses along your jaw as you recomposed yourself.

“Blurple?” you asked, now that you had the presence of mind to register his hair color. “This is pretty,” you grinned, running your fingers through the colorful strands.

“You’re pretty,” he nuzzled you gently, fingertips trailing across the underside of your breasts.

“Oh,” you flushed.

“You are.”

“You are…wearing too many clothes,” you observed impishly, fingers tugging at his waistband. He laughed as he helped you shrug off his layers.

“How would you like me?”

Minghao visibly thought as he slipped on a condom. “You would look absolutely gorgeous on top of me, riding me,” he smiled.

You flushed, grinning at his flowery praise as you straddled his hips, grinding yourself along his length. Your hands splayed across his chest and you took a moment to admire his lithe physique. “So handsome,” you whispered before lowering yourself onto him slowly.

“Fuck,” he hissed as you took him in completely. The tendons in his neck were taut as you drew back up and back down.

“You feel good, Hao,” you breathed, holding onto him for support as your hips found a comfortable rhythm. Each stroke, each intrusion made you shudder with pleasure and the wet sounds were joined by your soft moans and Minghao’s tense hisses.

“You feel incredible, petal,” he grabbed you tightly around the ribcage, bringing you down on him with slightly more force. You faltered at the additional impact.

“I’m so close,” you leaned forward, looking directly into Minghao’s eyes. Nodding, he gripped your hips, grinding your clit against his pubic crest as he bucked up, deeply, into you.

“Come with me, YN,” he coaxed breathlessly. The way he purred your name undid you. An anguished wail left your lips as you clenched around him, triggering his release as well.

“So did I earn a second date?” Minghao teased as he folded you into his chest, cuddling you closely.

“I think you might have,” you grinned up at him, pressing a soft kiss to his nose.

“Danbi is going to be happy when she finds out about this,” Minghao chuckled into your hair.

“Oh we’re never going to hear the end of it,” you moaned. “Maybe let’s no-”

“Ah,” he reached to press your jaw shut and you stilled. You delighted at this subtle, domineering action. Quite a match indeed.

#minghao fic #svthub #minghao fluff #minghao smut #the8 fic #the8 smut #the8 fluff #seventeen fic #seventeen smut #seventeen fluff #minghao imagine #minghao scenario #the8 imagine #the8 scenario #seungkwansphd:writes #we get along infamously #minghao fanfic #the8 fanfic

2K notes · View notes

ingravinoveritas · 8 months

Note

Hi! :) So, about posting habits and copying:

Georgia posts this screenshot of someone asking her to tell David that they're in love with him/want to marry him (not sure anymore, but I'm counting on you to remember haha), responding yeah, I'll get right to that, or something akin to that.

It's funny enough and her reply doesn't come across as anything more than humorous, in my opinion, especially since we've seen this theme for years, on Twitter and Instagram. It's on-brand-Georgia.

Her tone, albeit the sarcasm, is still pretty nice, playing the ball back by pretending that she's not telling David because then she'd have to compete with the person who wrote in. I'm sure whoever texted her this was giggling at their phone when Georgia responded. I'm not sure if the same thing will be the case with fan interaction number two, however: Cue, Anna.

Because now, a few days later, Anna posts what is pretty much the same interaction with a fan (about Michael, obv.), but all the charme is gone? Or is that just me?

Let's get something straight, though: The fan message she got was a lot less "sweet" than the one Georgia received (how many kisses does it take for a message to become either passive aggressive or just too hyper or even kind of insincere in tone?), so I won't be too harsh on her for responding in kind (xxxx). Still, had me cringe a little.

Thing is, the more or less blatant copying of Georgia's social media voice keeps fascinating me. Whilst, at most times, it's obvious but still fine as its own thing, this time the whole post really just seemed too...Georgia. Firstly, because it really is like a total replica, secondly because Georgia has worn the "playfully possessive"-badge for years now. I'm not saying that Anna is just pretending to also be that, I genuinely don't think that's true, at least not fully, but what I am saying is that she's clearly aware of this sort of humour being well-received within the fandom and also very intentional about timing. It's always... funny? Noticable? exactly when these "replica posts" appear.

Although, in this case we also have to consider that she responded at the time she got the message (or a day later, at most), so the timing isn't really on her. In fact, this might just be a fan actively going for having the same interaction with Anna that another fan had with Georgia, basically setting her up. Especially considering how the DM was worded - again, it seemed a little too intentional/over the top.

(But yeah, a couple of hours earlier: The Tennant's face sitting post (and, whew lol), so is this trying to somehow keep up with their dynamic again?)

I want to stress that I don't think that any of this is a bad thing. There's literally no harm in her trying to cater to the fandom with this tone of voice and seeming a bit unoriginal. And what do we know, maybe she and Georgia really are that similiar, it's not like Georgia's humour and interactions are that singular. But I'm still having a different response to Georgia's posts in comparison to Anna's, even though they are so similiar, and that's what it comes down to.

Maybe that's completely unfair towards Anna (to some degrees it must be, since Georgia simply has been around longer and therefore claimed her kind of tone, if that's even a thing), but maybe it also comes down to authenticity - or a lack thereoff?

(Grouping these together since they are related.) Well, I hadn't seen AL's story this morning until I got your message @wanderingsemi, so thank you for the heads up. And it is, as you said, an almost exact replica of an Insta story Georgia posted a week ago. Let's get the visual up here, so folks can see both stories:

So, the first thing I will say is that I often have difficulty with discerning people's tones online, as the lack of vocal inflection/other indicators tends to make things challenging. I appreciate you sharing that Georgia's tone came across as humorous to you, because while I definitely did get the sarcasm, I also felt a sense of contempt coming from Georgia's reply, too. I do agree, however, that her response was very much "her," in her trademark style, and is something we've come to expect over the last few years now.

It's probably worth mentioning that these are both odd/weird things to send to your fave's partners. I know social media has largely eroded a sense of boundaries in a lot of fans, but it's just an awkward thing to say overall. (I submit that it's actually more awkward/inappropriate than RPF, because RPF is fantasy and is not something any of these people would come into direct contact with unless they went looking for it.) That being said, while neither Georgia nor AL can control the things fans send to them, they can choose to respond (or not) to said comments. So thinking about your Ask, @armangelus, we have Georgia here essentially doing the same thing as AL--being possessive of David in response to a random DM--yet the results are wildly different.

Which then brings me to AL's response. Going back to our discussion on tone, I am not sure that I interpreted the message AL got as being "less sweet" than the one Georgia received, as they seem incredibly similar to me. I'm not sure the message-sender was actually being passive-aggressive, but because AL seemed to look at it that way, it is then reflected in her response (and is fitting with her past responses/personality, which has been passive-aggressive on multiple occasions).

For a little backstory (and this largely comes from @problematicwelshman, whose blog is well worth reading for a lot of tea related to Michael and AL going back to 2019): AL's social media was entirely scrubbed when her and Michael's relationship first came to light (end of June 2019). This also coincided with Michael's longtime PR person quitting, and a seeming overhaul of AL's social media presence. Initially, though, a lot of her posts were in her own voice, but they did not seem to go over well/she was not connecting with the fandom (see this post for links to examples, most of which involve belittling Michael/making fun of his weight and appearance).

Then in mid-2021, this all shifted with an event Michael appeared at for the 150th birthday of the Royal Albert Hall. Suddenly AL was praising and complimenting him in ways she never had in any of her past posts. This also happened to coincide with Georgia starting the #Shebergs hashtag (which sounds like an iceberg, a.k.a. the thing that took down the Titanic, so I'm still not sure why that was chosen as a portmanteau of AL and Michael's names), as well as AL promoting Last Train to Christmas, a movie of Michael's that she appeared in that was released at the end of 2021. So this was another social media overhaul/PR effort, seemingly perfectly timed with AL having something to promote and trying to advance her acting career.

But what this was also the start of is what you alluded to, which is that inauthenticity. I can completely understand you having a different reaction to AL's story than Georgia's, because as you said, that charm is not there, which I think is because it's Georgia's charm, not Anna's. And as much as she might copy Georgia's tone or the types of content she posts, you can't really copy charm--it's either something you have, or something you don't. I think it also ties into the other thing you referenced, which is the "playfully possessive" thing. It actually is something that Anna has copied, also on multiple occasions (see below)...but much like with this story, it doesn't come across the same way as when Georgia does it:

(Another notable thing about the response on the left is that AL was not even tagged in the original tweet, which also copies Georgia's pattern of randomly replying to fans on Twitter--usually as a result of searching David's name, which she has been known to do.)

So yes, I think we can definitely see a clear pattern here, which has seemingly only become more blatant as of late. And while I agree there is no harm on one level of trying to appeal to the fandom, I don't think it's unfair to AL at all because there is such a clear, agenda to what she is doing that becomes more obvious as you look back over the past few years. That, in my opinion, is what makes it seem so forced and not genuine, and is why one might feel a different reaction to her post versus Georgia's.

Those are pretty much my thoughts, rambling as they were. I appreciate both of you sharing yours as well so that we could have this discussion. Thanks for writing in! x

#wanderingsemi #armangelus #reply post #michael sheen #welsh seduction machine #david tennant #soft scottish hipster gigolo #georgia tennant #the more i think about it the weirder this all seems #the Georgia copying is getting more obvious #but so are other things #this is cringey all around tbh #but yeah #and the more she tries to look like she owns him the more obvious it is she doesn't #because Georgia has earned that. but AL has not.#fandom woes #anna lundberg #discourse

43 notes · View notes

lesbian-empress-nero · 8 days

Note

Yuuki Mishima was a liar, through and through.

There were truths scattered into his lies, yes. The Phantom Thieves were incredible, and he owed them everything. Those were truths. He liked Akira and Ryuji. Those were truths.

But what weren’t truths... The lies outweighed them all.

He was fine. He didn’t need help. Everything was okay, don’t worry.

Lies. Lies and deception. Yet somehow, no one ever questioned it. Before Kamoshida’s heart had been changed, he had been told by everyone he was a terrible liar. Every emotion, every thought, was written on his face. It was as though he had donned a mask, hiding his real face. His real self.

When had he gotten to the train station?

It seemed more and more frequent that he lost entire chunks of time to his own thoughts. It was unsettling, how often he found blanks in his memory when he knew there ought to have been something there. Nevertheless, he took a breath.

Trains had always fascinated him, ever since that accident back in spring. It intrigued him how easily destruction could be wrought by a machine, how easily one’s life could be cut short.

How did it feel to suffer a mental shutdown? Was it painful? Did the victims know what was happening to them?

What did they think of in their last moments?

“Yuuki! You good, man?”

Ryuji’s voice startled him out of his thoughts. Once again, he found himself losing chunks of time to himself.

“I’m okay. What’s up?” Mishima forced himself to answer, wrenching his gaze away from the tracks.

“You were just sorta... Standin’ there. You looked like... Eh, never mind. Hey, wanna come over to LeBlanc with me? The others’ll be there.”

Mishima pretended not to feel sick. He knew what Ryuji was about to say.

He looked like he was about to walk onto the tracks.

“Sure, yeah. We can go to LeBlanc together. Sounds like fun,” he answered, glad at least that he didn’t have to go home.

Ryuji grinned, grabbing Mishima’s hand and leading him onto the train. Mishima pretended not to notice the way Ryuji seemed to almost hug him when they climbed on.

It was loud at LeBlanc.

Every Phantom Thief was there, chatting and laughing.

Mishima silently sat in the farthest booth, reserved and quiet. He didn’t belong there with them, with this tight-knit group of friends. He was just support, a figure in the shadows. He wasn’t a Phantom Thief. Just a Phan-Boy.

He could pretend all he wanted that he was one of them, that everyone appreciated him and his work. But he knew they were their own group, and he was on his own. He would always be on his own.

“Hey, kid. Want something to drink?” A man asked. Mishima looked up from the table, nodding.

“Uh, sure. What do you have?”

“Water and coffee. We also got curry, if you’re hungry,” the man said, and Mishima sighed quietly.

“Coffee, please. Any kind, I don’t mind,” he replied, and the man nodded, disappearing behind the counter ro work.

The Thieves took no notice of him, content to simply continue talking among themselves. Mishima was content to stick to himself.

He sighed. He would always be by himself, though he didn’t think he entirely minded.

No, he decided. He didn’t mind being alone.

THE MISHI!!!! love the way he has this theme of lies. putting on a false self. he is the moon arcana after all, a card of deception and masking your true face. he looks down on himself because he thinks he's not as important as the phantom thieves. they do so much more than him and he's just a fan. he cant do anything to help. all hes doing is making a website to spread the love for them. he's nothing compared to them because its not like he can go into the metaverse like them. GOD GIVE HIM A PERSONA RIGHT NOW!!!! AND MAKE HIM STOP COMPARING HIS WORTH TO OTHERS!!!!!

#nero answers #shackle-foes #yuuki mishima #mishima yuuki #persona #persona 5 #p5 #p5r #persona 5 royal

12 notes · View notes

densi-mber · 5 months

Text

The Squid and Dagger Returns

“To the second grand opening of The Squid and Dagger. May it be her last,” Deeks toasted, raising his glass above his head. Kensi stood next to him, and surrounding him in a semi-circle were their former team. Eric and Nell had even made the flight in to celebrate the occasion.

“Amen!” Nell called out, whistling loudly. Deeks grinned at her enthusiasm. They all drank, Sam pausing to sniff his first.

“Hey, that’s actually really good,” Eric commented in surprise. He took another drink, as if to double check.

Still looking mistrustful, Sam took a tiny sip, and nodded in reluctant approval. “It’s not bad.”

“Why on earth would the beer taste bad?” Kilbride wondered, looking bemused and slightly out of place in his three-piece suit.

“You’ve never heard the saga of Deeks and Callen’s microbrew ventures?” Rountree asked in surprise.

“No. And I’m beginning to think that’s a good thing.”

“It involved a series of increasingly terrible beer,” Nell explained. “Squid being a memorable one.”

“No, no the seaweed and salmon was definitely the worst,” Sam said firmly. “The flavor is ingrained in my brain.”

“Three years with this team, and I still fail to understand any of you,” Kilbride commented, downing the rest of his beer. “Which means I need something stronger.” He wandered off to the bar, muttering to himself.

“Nice to know some things don’t change,” Kensi said dryly.

The rest of them gravitated towards each other, forming a small group as they sipped at their drinks. Nell had somehow acquired a large red drink with a cocktail umbrella.

“You know, contrary to popular belief, Callen and I are capable of crafting normal beer—remembered the orange and nectarine?” Deeks said, nodding to Kensi. “We just choose not to.”

“I still maintain that none of our stuff was that bad,” Callen insisted. He frowned, holding up his glass, tilting his head to examine the light amber liquid inside. “Though this is kind of bland.”

“You’re ridiculous, you know that, right?” Sam said in exasperation. He gave Callen a slight shove towards the bar. “C’mon G, let’s go get you some more skunky beer.”

“Mmm, it almost feels like we never left,” Nell said, watching the two fondly bicker.

“It does. Especially with having the bar back,” Deeks agreed. “Speaking of which, I can’t thank you guys enough for helping buy it back.”

“It means a lot to us,” Kensi added, sliding her free arm through Deeks’.

“You’re welcome, but guys, I told you before, I literally would not be where I am without the money that you loaned me for years. Especially Deeks,” Eric replied. “I probably owe you about 10 bars at this point.”

“I think we’ll call it even with one.” She glances at Deeks and he nodded in agreement.

“We’ve got everything we need.”

“Ooh, speaking of needs,” Nell paused to take a healthy gulp of her drink, her Christmas themed had shifting precariously. “When do I get to see my nieces and nephews?”

“Well, I’m guessing the sitter already put the twins down for the night, but we’re free tomorrow. And I’m sure Rosa would love to see you when she’s done with classes,” Kensi replied.

“Awesome! That’ll give us time to get all their gifts together.” Eric nodded enthusiastically. “It’s amazing what they’re doing with kids toys these days.”

“I’m not sure I want to know.”

“He’s teasing, Deeks.” Nell rolled her eyes at Eric, lightly tapping his shoulder with the back of her hand. She giggled, adding in a couple pats lower down on his chest.

Beside him, Kensi hastily stifled a snort, and when Deeks glanced at her, she had her lips tightly pressed together.

“Oh, I love this song,” Nell announced, as the playlist running in the background switched to the next selection. “Mr. Beale, may I have this dance?” Bending at the waist, Nell waved her hand in an elaborate flourish.

“My lady awaits,” Eric said with a shrug as he let Nell tug him away.

“I missed this,” Kensi said wistfully.

“What, Callen and Sam arguing over beer and the Wonder Twins drunkenly dancing on our non-existent dance floor?”

“Yeah.”

“Me too.”

Kensi swayed into his side, wrapping both arms around his waist. “I’m glad we have this back.”

He watched Nell and Eric put on a two-person act to “Santa Baby”, giggling the entire time, and couldn’t help but agree.

***

A/N: Once again bringing back the Squid and Dagger as well as Callen and Deeks making beer of dubious quality.

#densimber 7.0 #densimber 2023 #densimber day 5 #ncis la fanfiction #densi #marty deeks #kensi blye #and co #the squid and dagger #fluff #by ejzah

19 notes · View notes

slashingdisneypasta · 6 months

Note

OK EVER SINCE YOU ANSWERED THE SAD SMARTY-POP EXCERPT, I'VE BEEN THINKING ABOUT DRAGON!TOON PATROL (and princess Poppy *cough*). Now that asks are open, I need to vent these thoughts.

I'm not entirely sure how they'd work in this AU. But all five of these dragons somehow found each other, and have decided its best to stay together. I can't decide if they hang around an abandoned, dilapidated castle or they've got a big cave in the mountains (maybe they could be the reason the castle was abandoned? 👀)

Smartass is the smallest dragon, but that only gives him more incentive to be as tough and viscious possible. It's how he can be the leader of these insane overgrown lizards.

Greasy is a sort of secondary leader, when for whatever reason Smartass isn't available to keep everyone in check. And even has been the mastermind behind some of their raids. One thing is for certain though; His tastes in the fairer sex go beyond scales (ladies? 👀)

Wheezy is the silent, scary one of the group with the best fire breather of them all. Dirty, kind of torn up, and smoke billowing from his mouth all times, this dragon's favorite places to terrorize/raid are tobacco farms (no cigarettes, but he can chew the stuff)

Psycho is the one who gets the most kicks out of striking fear in humans the most. While the others may be busy finding whatever goods that interest them in a village, Psycho can easily be found chasing the villagers.

Stupid, although the strongest and biggest, is the most easily swayed dragon out of them all. You could offer this big lug food, and he'll gladly take the bribe.

To keep with the gang theme, maybe these guys keep a few villages in line? If the people give them what they want, they'll be mostly left alone. (I'm not quite sure. I haven't though of much lore behind this AU 😅)

I'm not sure how Doom could come into play here. Maybe he could be a corrupt king that pays them to do his dirty work like in the Fairytale AU?

I don't have tid-bits for all the dragon boys, but here's one for Wheezy. I imagine that he can do some pretty neat tricks with his fire. Like blowing out certain shapes, or knowing how to control it where it won't burn you, but just leave a very hot tickle. Imagine him showing them off to you 👀

Alright, I wasn't sure if I should have included Poppy in this, but I feel obligated to share my thoughts XD Poppy is a princess who got married off to a prince who treats her coldly (Ben). When the dragons attacked her home, by some circumstance or another, she got taken (I'm not quite sure how yet. Maybe she was trying to be diplomatic and it all went wrong. Maybe it was Smartass just being cruel to the royals. Or maybe it was Greasy's idea because- you know why 🙄 or Psycho felt enamored with her). Either this can go in a classic Beauty and the Beast style, or a angsty/darker route.

Anyways, those are my thoughts! I hope dragon weasels bring you as much joy as they've been bringing me lately XD

DRAGONS!!

Sorry for the late reply, I am finished with Placement but I still have assignments to finish and get before... well, the end of today 😅 Its okay though, I only have 2 left. I am very very excited to hear about dragons!!

First of all- YES to the idea of them causing a castle to be abandoned!! I can only imagine the chaos, but its glorious. These 5 terrifying, mean dragons deciding this place is their new place, and they have some fun with the humans there for a while (By which i mean Psycho and Greasy had fun with them... ) ... but when they escaped, that was fine, now they have the place to themselves! XD

Ahhhh! I love them!! || Smartass being kind of feral?? Like, I bet he's bigger then a human but he's smaller then the other dragons so he's so vicious-- that would be terrifying. I love that! || Greasy... Greasy lemme just quickly remind you I am a Certified monster fucker- || WHEEZY! Okay he is definitely my favourite. I'm imagining gassy, fumy smoke just slipping and rolling uncontrollably outta the corners of his mouth at all times, so he looks monstrous and gross. And just, the fact that you mentioned he'll chew the tobacco!! (Cowboy!!) and also the tricks! XD Yesssss, that's so cool XDD || OF COURSE you are the gremlin dragon, Psycho, of course XD I love this, its so perfect for him. I kindof imagine him to be a more lithe, lizard-like dragon. Creepy to be around, freaky to look at. Genuinely makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up. || Awwww Stupid!! He is my next favourite after Wheezy XDD I wanna feed him so bad!! I wanna make him my huge terrifying dragon friend XD I will take a leaf out of Mrs Bickermans book XD Not Sadie's... though- maybe if I could get Ben- XD

And yes!! Always include Poppy! When in doubt, include her ^^ You knowwww she's canon to me XD And ahhhh! I love all those ideas, I honestly dunno which I like more <3

#thank you for sending these!!

14 notes · View notes

inahallucination · 2 years

Text

anderperry au where todd asks neil out first hehe

now with a part 2 (neil’s pov)

todd knows who neil is but they dont room together

he only knows neil through their numerous classes together and he may have an itsy bitsy crush

neil’s fucking pretty - todd’s known this since the first time he saw him laughing with his group of friends and almost tripped over his feet

luckily no one noticed

anyway neil’s fucking pretty but he’s completely different from todd and wayy out of his league so obviously todd doesnt have a crush

of course then on the second day of classes a teacher asks a question and looks at todd and he panics and neil’s behind him and he must notice because he answers in todd’s stead

and then when todd gets a little lost trying to find where the soccer practice was neil’s the one who finds him and walks him to practice

and neil’s on the team and he’s so fucking hot when he gets competitive and if todd himself wasnt playing todd knows he’d be distracted - luckily having an older brother has ensured that todd is nothing less than fiercely competitive in things he knows he’s good at

that doesnt mean that when practice ends he doesnt hurriedly walk away, pretending he doesnt notice neil approaching, to calm himself down and prepare himself to face post soccer neil

he volunteers to help clean up solely so he doesnt have to see neil

neil doesn't get the hint and stays back to help

todd spends more time doodling neil’s name on his notebook than homework that night and thats when he realizes that his small teeny tiny crush may be not so small nor teeny tiny

and at first todd is very very very determined to ignore it

he stops himself from glancing back at neil or somehow finding him everywhere

he erases all his neil perry themed doodles

but neil doesn’t stop being pretty, the absolute asshole

nor kind nor sweet

and everytime he notices todd is alone (which is always) he comes to sit next to him - he invites him to study with his friends - he answers questions directed at todd in class

honestly he’s a fucking asshole ( theres no way he doesn’t know that he’s gorgeous and sweet and like a dream come alive and there’s no way he’s not using his evil powers to make sure todd thinks about him way more than he should )

and in the end todd’s half in love with him

ignoring his feelings dont work so the only thing todd has is to stop liking him

so he starts watching neil more because surely he cant be completely perfect surely he’ll have one habit that will be something todd hates - maybe he’s a sweater hater

neil is not a sweater hater - and he looks really cute in his stupid sweaters turns out

he’s also actually perfect

he’s kind, friendly, funny - he helps people, he wrinkles his nose when he’s concentrating, he runs his hands through his hair when he’s frustrated

and todd should be furious but now he’s just resigned

the perfect idea actually comes from neil’s friends in the end

todd’s there studying, minding his own business, trying to pretend that neil coming over earlier and asking if he wants to sit with his friends didn’t send his poor poor heart on fire practically

he overhears two of them - charlie and knox he thinks their names are - talking about how one of them (knox) fell in love too quickly and said one of them (knox) replies that actually “i didn’t fall in love with Nancy, Charlie” “yeah because she shot you down before you could”

its genius

todd just has to ask neil out

a tiny part of todd, that he immediately ignores, wonders what it would be like if neil shot him a sweet smile and said “yes i’d love to be your boyfriend”

“woah who’s got you smiling like that?” neil’s voice comes, breaking his neil being hopelessly in not quite love - because todd was not in love - with todd daydreams

neil laughs when todd stares at him wide eyed and points out that he’d left his pen here and that todd had been supporting a very sappy look - in nicer words

todd feels heat rush to his face and he shakes his head denying that he was thinking of anyone neil doesn’t look like he believes him but he nods and todd remembers his new genius plan

ask neil out and get rejected and thus fall out of not quite love with him

todd also ignores the part of his brain that tells him heartbreak is a vicious thing because of course his heart wont break he’s not in love

“H-hey Neil?” Todd asks quietly as Neil moves to go back to his friends.

“Yeah? What’s up?” Neil replies immediately, turning back to face Todd with his bright smile. Todd glances around making sure no one’s looking.

“Um.. this weekend... do you maybe wanna go somewhere...? W-with me, I mean.” Oh, sorry Todd. I already have plans. Maybe you could join my friends and me instead? I’d love to be your friend.

Todd’s waiting for those words to spill out of Neil’s rather kissable looking mouth. For Neil to kindly let him down and state that he only wants to be-

“Y-yeah, I’d love to.” Neil’s smile is blinding and that combined with the pink on his cheeks makes Todd want to reach over and see if his mouth is actually as kissable as it looks. He doesn’t do that. Instead he gapes unattractively because did Neil just agree? Did Neil just-

Oh.

Well that didn’t go as planned.

But Todd can’t bring himself to be disappointed because the small part of Todd that had hoped Neil would like him back is singing. He’s helpless to do anything but smile back at Neil as Neil’s friends call him back and he leaves.

He watches, still not a hundred percent processing that Neil had agreed to go on a date with him, as Neil leans in and whispers something frantically to his friends, his smile still there. His friends whoop and clap him on the back and Charlie catches Todd looking and smirks at him and Todd realizes that Neil must be telling them about their date.

He ducks his head down, wondering if Neil’s friends reaction meant that Neil might have had a bit of a crush on Todd too. And though he can’t understand why he would when he’s so out of Todd’s league, he can’t help but be pleased by it.

Todd stares at his half done math homework and then flips to a clean page in his notebook and starts writing.

He has a date to plan out.

All thoughts of how to get over Neil leave his mind as he debates whether dinner and a movie is too basic. Instead, plans on how to properly woo Neil start to form.

He may be a teeny tiny bit in love.

#todd being an idiot hehe #dead poets headcanons #dead poets society #deadpoets #dead poets #anderperry #todd anderson #dps headcanons #todd and neil #neil perry #neil and todd #neil x todd #dps #dps fandom #anderperry au #anderperry fanfic #anderperry fanfiction #dead poets fanfic #anderperry fic

230 notes · View notes

ning2lilac · 4 months

Text

Take My Breath - Jaemin

Christmas Melodies - 01

series masterlist

pairing: jaemin x fem!reader

tags: fluff, christmas themed (yeah, this late), high school

words: around 7.3k words

note: Christmas was ages ago and this is just the first story, so let's just pretend it was always supposed to be "winter" melodies ig...

I walk this cold street with you, as if we were lovers . Yeah, what should I do? I’m awkwardly frozen. My checks turn red, ayy

YN and Jaemin hated each other, or that’s what YN though. Somehow, both ended up sharing the same groups of friends. When all planned to spend their last Christmas holidays together before university, things didn’t turn out how YN expected. Yeah, YN was forced to get along with Jaemin during all the holidays— or was she really forced?

Chapter 0: It's severe when I stand in front of you.

15th of December

“Forget about it, I won’t go,” YN replied while drinking her strawberry juice and shaking her head. Both Yunjin and her were sitting in the school’s cafeteria on the 15th of December, the last day of classes before going on Holidays.

“You can’t say no; you are our friend, and you are coming; that’s it!” Yunjin replied while stabbing her dessert. “Also, this is Yizhuo’s first Christmas since she moved here, so you should try.” Yizhuo moved from China just a couple of months ago with her family due to her father’s new job, and Yunjin always tried to use it as an excuse to drag YN everywhere. All this discussion started when her friend told her excitedly about all the plans they could do together and that their other group of friends, a couple of guys from the boys’ school in their same town, would tag along. YN was fine with it, and she almost agreed, until Yizhuo mistakenly told her which guys they were (Yunjin tried to keep it a secret from her).

“All I’m saying is, why do we have to spend almost all of our time with them?” Yunjin and Yizhuo were more than enough, she didn’t need to spend the Christmas Holidays with a random group of guys (although they weren’t exactly “random” if YN was being honest with herself). “I thought we were better alone, Yunjin, or that’s exactly what you said last year when I asked you if Lee Yewon from class B could come with us to the Christmas Market”.

“That was different, Yewon is a total bitch!” Yunjin screamed while getting the attention of some people in the cafeteria. “And by the way, your problem is not with them, it is only with one of them. And you will have to deal with that”.

And to be honest, Yunjin was completely right; YN didn’t really hate them; in fact, almost all of them were nice to her, and all of them were their age. Renjun was a nice guy who also moved from China (the only thing is he did it when he was only five years old), and they often talked about TV shows together and even discussed the episodes of Single’s Inferno. Haechan was hilarious, YN at first thought he was going to be the worst one, and bonus points, he would always get on Yunjin’s nerves (she definitely has a crush on him but will always deny it), which was really fun to watch. Jeno was surprisingly nice, he looked a bit tough the first time she met him but turned out to be a total cutie pie. And then there was…him…

“Excuse me, but Jaemin hates me as much as I hate him,” YN answered, trying to defend herself. “It is a mutual relationship of pure hatred. It’s not my fault he acts like a total angel with all of you, he is the devil.”

“Yeah, sure, but I don’t care”, Yunjin replied while both started picking up their trays since the school’s bell signalling the start of the second period just rang. “I love you with all my heart, YN. But I would really like us to do all these things together. It’s our last Christmas before graduation, so we should have fun”. YN was about to defend herself when Yunjin threw her a glance. “And I don’t want to hear anything from you again”.

“What’s the point of going to an all-girls’ school if I will end up hanging out with men? Geez”, YN whispered to herself while taking her backpack and following Yunjin to the corridors.

“Girls!” They both turned their heads to meet Yizhuo, who was running excitedly towards them. “Look what I saw! The boys’ school is organising a mini-Christmas market this afternoon, and everyone is invited! Isn’t this great?” The nightmare was starting sooner than YN expected, but with Yizhuo looking at her with those big doe eyes and pure happiness, she couldn’t tell her no, so she simply nodded. Yunjin smiled after seeing YN’s compliance and took Yizhuo’s arm, not after giving YN a last glance.

“Maybe this is the year in which you finally give each other a chance,” and after saying that, the three of them parted ways.

“Of course that bitch, Lee Yewon, came,” Yunjin huffed after noticing the girl. “I never saw such a pick me girl”. She said this while putting on her gloves and grabbing YN’s arm in case she thought about running away. She was exactly thinking about doing that.

“What happened to defending women’s rights and wrongs?” YN answered while brushing her hair with her fingers, they couldn’t even go home to change after class, so they had to go with their uniforms and backpacks. Which also meant YN couldn’t fix her bangs at home, she hated to have messy ones.

“The exception is that girl, I’m sorry” The taller one, YN was definitely the smallest one out of the three, replied after throwing one last glance to the girl she hated so much. “Did Renjun tell you where they were?” Yunjin asked Yizhuo who was checking her phone.

“Yes! He just replied, they are next to the stairs”. The market turned out to be a small one, only a couple of booths with food and others with games so students could compete to get prizes, nothing too special, but Yizhuo was excited since it was her first year. YN could differentiate the four guys sitting on the stairs of their school’s main door.

There were lots of things YN hated about Jaemin. In fact, one day she made a whole list, the same one she was repeating at that moment in her head.

1. He hated strawberries. YN loved them, not only the fruit, but all types of desserts with strawberry flavour or even decorations (her favourite jacket was one with strawberries).

2. He was irresponsible, to the point where it looked impossible. Out of all the years she has known him, she has never seeing him turn up on time or be organised, something she detested.

3. He got along with everyone (except her), why was he so “nice” with everyone? His behaviour always ended up annoying her, it looked so easy for him to befriend people, while she sometimes struggled. She considers herself to be friends with everyone, or at least she tries. The problem is that he doesn’t need to try, and she hates that.

4. His brother was friends with her brother, the main reason she knows him. Her younger brother and his both play football on the kid’s team from their town.

5. His smile

6. The fact that she couldn’t deny he was handsome, and she will always hate herself for this. But it was a fact, he was attractive.

7. He hated her, and YN hates not liking people. He was never nice to her.

And she also hated how good he looked that day. YN never got to see him in his uniform before. She reminded herself to add that to her list, is not like she has it written on her diary…well, perhaps she does. It’s okay, she thought, she just had to ignore him for the whole season. No one was going to ruin her last winter in high school, not even Na Jaemin.

“Hi girls, I’m so glad you came. Renjun started talking about some stupid TV show, and I was close to killing myself,” Haechan exclaimed as soon as the girls got close enough. Soon, the seven of them started walking through the booths, although no one paid attention to that.

“It’s not a stupid TV show, it’s literally the best sitcom known to earth. How come you don’t know The Office?” Renjun defended himself after greeting everyone with a big smile. “YN tell him how great it is.”

“I actually never watched it.” She smiled shyly and quickly started excusing herself as soon as she saw the disappointment in his eyes. “But I definitely will start it as soon as I get home, don’t worry.” It’s not her fault, she couldn’t dare to make anyone feel a bit bad; she hated to disappoint people, especially if they were as adorable as Renjun.

“Of course,” Jaemin replied with a mocking smile. That stupid smile. What does he even mean by that? But she decided to just ignore him and try to focus on staying warm.

“Did you forget your gloves again?” Yizhuo asked after noticing how the shortest one was trying to warm her hands, putting them in her pockets. YN felt a bit shy when everyone diverted their attention to her. She just nodded. “You always do, I will have to glue them to your hands at one point.”

“Hey, maybe over there is not as cold,” Haechan joked, referring to her height, fist bumping with Jeno, who found it funny.

“Come here, I suddenly feel the urge to touch your ugly face with my freezing hands.” She joked while trying to get closer to him. She almost tripped on the slippery floor, but one hand kept her still, Jaemin.

“Sorry, sorry, I will never do it again, ma’am. Forgive me.” Haechan jokingly begged when he saw her trying to approach. He furrowed his brows when he noticed a light blush on her face. “YN, are you red?”

“It’s because of the cold!” she tried to explain herself when she noticed Yunjin’s suspicious glance. She would never admit it, but it was definitely not because of the cold.

The group of teenagers continued engaging in some small talk and sharing everything that happened in their last weeks of classes. YN was having more fun than expected, although she couldn’t completely ignore his presence, which sometimes threw glances at her.

“By the way!” Yunjin screamed after noticing how everyone went quiet on the way home. They spent around two hours at the school until they decided it was time for them to go home and have dinner. “I heard someone in class talking about it, and I thought it could be a great idea to go to the city for two days or so!”

“It will be Yizhuo’s first Christmas here, so we have to celebrate it.” Haechan mimicked her before she even got time to repeat that same phrase. “Yeah, we know.”

“That would be a great idea, I saw that this year’s Christmas market is much better,” Renjun replied, ignoring the bickering between the two of them. All of them nodded, including YN.

“My brother lives there, and he just came back for Christmas. Maybe I can ask him if we can spend the night there,” Jeno suggested.

“Jeno, you know I love you, right?” Haechan answered after sending him a kiss. “Would everyone’s family be okay with that, though?”

“The hardest one might be YN’s mom, but we will figure it out, right YN?” Yunjin replied while looking at YN, who just raised her shoulders dubiously.

“I’m not sure about that, I still have to study.”

“Common, you will have enough time.”

“It’s not because of that; it’s because she hates the idea of being near me for more than two hours.” Jaemin suddenly spoke after being quiet for almost all the journey home. He was talking with Jeno before the topic came up.

“That’s not true, don’t say that.” Renjun tried to excuse YN before she even had time, since she was just looking at Jaemin getting pissed off. Her bad temper got worse when she saw how the corners of his mouth turned up.

“Well, maybe if you weren’t that annoying, I wouldn’t mind spending time with you.”

“I never did anything, although…” He hesitated now, smiling, knowing that he had succeeded in getting her mad. “Perhaps it is because I don’t immediately adore you like you want everyone to do?”

The group stayed silent, watching the two of them bicker, throwing glances at each other, and trying to decide if they should stop both of them. YN was about to reply until Yizhuo noticed. They had to split up.

“Well…this is where we part ways.” Each one went their own way except for Renjun, Jaemin and YN. Sadly, their houses were in the same part of the town, so the three of them were forced to stay together.

The way home wasn’t as bad as expected. Renjun and Jaemin were talking about some essays they had to do for their literature class, so YN could spend some time thinking about the things she had to do the next day. Soon, Renjun said bye since they had arrived at his house, which was on the way. As soon as both of them saw him enter his house, Jaemin looked at her with his lips pressed together.

“You never notice, right?” And then he left her there, speechless. She thought about replying and asking him what he meant, but when she woke up from the surprise, he was already changing streets.

Chapter 1: When I see your black eyes looking at me, I freeze all over

16th of December

“Good morning!” She greeted her mother and her younger brother, who were in the kitchen having breakfast. It was a Saturday morning at nine o'clock, but she wanted to use the day to get organised and study. She wanted to enter university and study medicine, and for that, she needed to try hard to get high marks.

Her brother smiled sweetly after she ruffled his hair. He just turned nine and was the cutest fluffy ball she ever knew. Her brother had always been super affectionate, partly something she and he had inherited from their parents. One day, she would be as affectionate with her partner as her parents were with each other. But her smile faded away after his brother started talking.

“Tomorrow morning, I will go with Jaesung to play football in the park, Jaemin will take us.” He spoke excitedly to her sister; YN knew he loved to tell her everything. “YN, did you know that he is super good at playing football? He's also going to take us out for hot dogs if we're good.” YN just nodded her head while she prepared a glass of strawberry milk for breakfast, trying not to show she was affected by hearing his name.

“Don't you think it's great that he is going to take the kids to do things, even on holidays? He's a wonderful kid.” Her mother told her, and she just nodded. “I am not surprised that his mother is delighted with him, maybe you can join them. This way, you spend time with your brother.”

“No, I can’t, I should study for the exams.”

“Jaemin must have to study too, just go and distract yourself for a little. You also need to enjoy your last days in high school.”

“Jaemin this, Jaemin that, why is everyone talking about him these days?” She murmured before drinking milk. “But I really can’t, maybe some other day.” She spoke louder. “By the way! My friends are talking about going to spend a couple of days in the city to see all the Christmas decorations and all. Yunjin told me that I absolutely have to go.”

“I’m not sure about that, honey.” Her mother replied, a bit worried. YN smiled internally; it was just what she wanted to hear.

“It would be the girls and a couple of guys.” Her mother was definitely not going to allow her to go, the best thing ever for her.

“Which guys?”

“Oh, some guys from the boys’ school, you know, Jeno, Haechan and Renjun.”

“Oh, so Jaemin is going too?” Her mother asked, stopping doing what she was doing.

“I suppose”

“Well, you can go, don’t worry.” YN furrowed her brows, confused.

“How come you are immediately convinced because of that? It makes no sense. “You should tell me I can’t go, mom.”

“It would be great if both of you got along.” That’s all she said for her reasoning, and she just continued with her morning routine, leaving YN more confused.

Yn: my mom said yes to the trip

Yunjin: yay, I know you are not excited

Yunjin: but we will have soo much funnn

Yunjin: and who knows

Yunjin: maybe you find your soulmate there, there’s nothing as romantic as Christmas

Yn: sure…

Yunjin: btw wanna come have lunch with me? Haechan and I are going to the place close to my house

Yn: no! have fun on your little date. I will spend the day studying for our first exam.

Yunjin: not a date lmao

Yn: yeah stay delusional

Yunjin: you are the delusional one when you say you don’t want your lips and his lips to meet

Yn: I don’t, I literally hate him

Yunjin: sure

“Sure?” She scoffed while reading the last message, what does she even mean by that. Yunjin was the delusional one. She turned off her phone and tried focusing on the notes she had in front of her, but she couldn’t help but go back to the same conversation.

17th of December

Yizhuo added you to a group chat called “It’s Christmas”

Yizhuo: we are going ice skating at 5pm! We are meeting next to the flower shop.

Haechan: I got the tickets, so everyone has no other choice but to come. Also pay me please

Haechan: my mom got mad at me for using her credit card

Yn: do any of us even know how to skate?

Jeno: Jaemin only I think, he used to take lessons

Yn: great

Jaemin: :)

“I’ll be going ice skating later at 5pm with my friends,” YN said while she was with her family eating. Her mother nodded, not surprised by the new information.

“Yeah, Jaemin told us when he came to drop your brother off,” her mother smiled. “They had so much fun, perhaps next week you can go.”

“Such a nice kid,” her father intervened. “Are you sure you aren’t interested in him?”

“Oh, not again.” YN sighed, knowing where it was going to lead. The good thing is that her mother never complained when it came to him. “What happened to not be able to get a boyfriend until I graduate from university?”

“I mean, if is Jaemin I wouldn’t mind.” She scoffed, what was with everyone these days.

“You look beautiful, but what’s with that face?” Yizhuo asked her when YN got out of her house. She went to pick her up, in fear that YN might decide not to go in the end.

“You don’t want to know,” she replied while putting on her scarf, she noticed she had forgotten her gloves again, but was too lazy to go back to pick them up. After seeing Yizhuo’s worry gaze, she immediately started talking again. “My family is acting a bit weird, but everything is okay.”

“How’s the studying going? You really shouldn’t stress too much,” Yizhuo answered, a bit worried, knowing her friend.

“I’m honestly quite okay, perhaps more okay than I should,” she honestly replied. Maybe she had been spending a lot of her time complaining that she wasn’t paying enough attention to the important things, but who knows. Both spend the ten minutes’ walk talking about some gossips they heard in class and about their plans after graduation.

“How’s Christmas at the moment?” YN asked when both of them arrived at the meeting point, they were the first ones.

“It just started, so who knows, but I’m quite excited.” She answered, smiling again and picking up her phone to message the other guys. “By the way,” while putting her phone back in her purse. “I hope you are really okay with all we are doing, seeing Jaemin all days, I mean.”

“I’ll be okay, don’t worry.”

“I never understood what you two have going on to be honest, for a long time I thought it was just you two denying what you feel for each other, but maybe I was wrong.” She said while saying hi with her hand to Renjun, Haechan and Yunjin who were just arriving.

“Jeno and Jaemin will meet us at the ice ring, Jaemin had to stop to buy something.” Yizhuo nodded, but YN was too preoccupied thinking about what Yizhuo had just said.

“Have you ever tried ice skating?” Renjun asked YN while everyone was putting on their ice skates.

“No, I never tried it,” she replied with a smile that soon faded away when Jaemin scoffed because of her answer.

“That’s a lie” Jaemin intervened, still not looking up and still focusing on tying up his skates. YN furrowed her brows. Renjun was smiling, a bit amused by the conversation taking place.

“Yeah, and how do you know?” Jaemin finally raised his head to look at her with a teasing smile.

“Your brother told me you once took him two years ago, and you did terrible,” he said, which made YN’s smile fade, why did he have to tell him? “If I don’t remember wrongly, he also said something about having to go to the hospital.” He wasn’t wrong though, she fell so terribly that she and her family had to rush to the hospital to get stitches at the back of her right ear, if you looked carefully, you could still see the mark.

“Oh, true, I sometimes forget you know each other for a long time.” Renjun joked, ignoring the side eye from YN. “Well, leave this fight for the rink, you lovers.” He replied while getting up and leaving her dumbfounded next to Jaemin.

“Common guys! You will miss Haechan falling all the time,” Yunjin screamed, catching their attention and making them enter the ice rink.

“You’ll see, I’m the best one out of all of you.” And, as soon as he said that, he fell down.

Luckily, Haechan was as bad as her, so she didn’t look that dumb. Both spent most of the time together, looking jealousy at the others, specially at Jaemin. Jeno didn’t lie, he was indeed good, YN couldn’t take her eyes away from him, enjoying it.

“C’mon YN, it is time to be brave together,” Haechan talked after an eternity of them trying to remain by their feet and YN trying to warm her hands since she forgot her gloves. He took her arm and tried to skate, dragging her, resulting in both of them falling.

Yunjin hurriedly went to pick her up, but not before slapping Haechan’s arm affectionately. After the fall, she couldn’t feel her hands any more due to the cold.

“Here,” Jaemin appeared next to her out of nowhere while handing her some gloves he had on his pocket. She looked at him confused until he furrowed his eyebrows and showed her the gloves again, making her understand what he meant.

“Oh, it’s okay,” she replied with a lower tone than she had intended to, did he notice it all the time? She felt a little embarrassed, “You can use them instead.”

“Can’t you see I have my gloves on already? Don’t be dumb and take them.” He said again while taking her hand and forcing her to grab them.

“Thank you,” she replied, trying to hide her blush. But the cute moment finished sooner than expected, Haechan showed up pushing her back to the ground, again.

That night, YN couldn’t sleep again while looking at the gloves. She tried to give them back to him after ice skating on the way home, but he just shrugged his shoulders and ignored her. It was that night when she realised something, something she would hate herself so much for. She realised that she might have been developing feelings for Jaemin for a long time. Maybe her mother was right, once again.

Chapter 2: I walk this cold street with you, as if we were lovers.

19th of December

Her worst nightmare was about to become real; it was the day of their short trip to the city. They lived in a small town of around 800 inhabitants, so, as expected, they didn’t have many things to do in there. A lot of weekends, YN and her family would go to the city closest to their home and go buy groceries or clothes.

She would never admit it, specially to Yunjin (she would spend five minutes laughing at her and saying “I told you”), but that day she tried to make herself look better. She even put on her favourite jumper with strawberries embroidered, just so Jaemin would notice. Furthermore, she was finishing brushing her hair and putting on her jacket when her mom screamed her name, asking her to go down.

“YN! Come down, a gentleman is waiting for you!” Huh? She thought, a gentleman? Renjun? But Renjun told her he was going with Yizhuo and meeting her at the train station.

“Jaemin? What are you doing here?” She asked confused when she saw him at her door with his backpack on and a big big smile.

“We are going to the city, remember?” He replied as if it was the most normal thing for him to pick her up.

“Yeah, I meant on my door, actually.” Her mother was behind, trying to spy on their conversation.

“To pick you up, c’mon,” he simply answered while maintaining his smile, probably because her mom was still looking.

“Oh Jaemin! You came to pick her up? That’s so nice of you, you’re such a gentleman.” Her mother said, interrupting both of them. Jaemin smiled even more, what a beautiful smile he had, she thought.

“Yes, I’ll get her back safe again, don’t worry,” he replied while taking her hand and getting her out of her house, her heart started beating like crazy, did it ever happen to her? Perhaps it is because she now knows what she really feels about him.

“Have fun, bye.”

YN couldn’t help but look at him confused on the way to the station. Jaemin kept quiet the whole journey, not speaking as soon as her mom closed the door, which made her feel a bit sad. But honestly, she couldn’t blame him, she kept giving him the cold shoulder for years. Wait, was she defending him?

“Did you pick me up for my mom to like you? I don’t know what type of spell you have on my family, but it worked so well.” She asked, genuinely confused, although starting to understand now what her family saw in him. “They can’t stop talking about you somehow.”

“So, you think about me all days?” Her mouth quickly fell open, wishing he didn’t notice how she was blushing.

“I never said that.” She quickly answered, flustered, making him cackle with laughter.

“But you didn’t deny it.” He answered.

“Can’t you stop fighting for five minutes?” YN asked a bit annoyed seeing how Haechan and Yunjin were bickering quite loud on the seats next to her. “I’m trying to study.”

“Why did you even bring that? This is a trip, you also have to enjoy the train ride,” Yunjin asked her while trying to suppress her smile, acting like she didn’t notice how YN acted when they had to choose seats. “Why don’t you talk with your seatmate?” Perhaps Yunjin was the one forcing Jaemin and YN to sit together, who knows.

“Why don’t you tell Haechan that thing you told me yesterday while crying?” She replied, making Yunjin lose her smile. “Something about liking…”

“Huh? Tell me what?”

“Okay, you win,” Yunjin screamed, flustered, “for now only.”

After leaving their things on the flat, it was already night, so all of them decided to go to the big Christmas market. For which, as YN could tell, Yizhuo was so excited, is not like she spent the whole journey talking about that… Which also made her studying impossible at one point.

“Omg did you see how beautiful the lights are?” Renjun asked, mesmerized by the sight, while picking up his phone to take a photo. Jeno chuckled, finding him cute.

“Yeah, we saw when you told us five minutes before,” he replied. Both of them and YN were behind the rest of the group, going more slowly since Renjun was busy appreciating the lights. “But let’s all be a bit careful, there’s a lot of people. Let’s not get lost.” YN nodded with her head while taking out the gloves she saved on her pocket and putting them on. Soon Jeno noticed surprised.

“Oh, those are the gloves Jaemin picked up for you,” he said. “I’m glad you liked them.” He replied while smiling. YN blushed, trying to hide it with her scarf.

“Gloves? YN not forgetting her gloves? And the gloves are from Jaemin,” Renjun said, forgetting about the lights when he noticed what was happening and smiling widely. “Wow, you must really like them then,” he paused while looking at Jeno with a smile, “or perhaps the person who gave them to you,” he suggested. What could YN do in this situation? Become defensive.

“What?” she screamed, getting the attention of the other group of friends and some families that were around them. After noticing, she blushed. “I don’t know what you mean,” she replied, whispering that part after, not without getting a questioning look from Jaemin and Yunjin.

The rest of the night went quite well, everyone had fun, specially Yunjin and Haechan, who kept flirting and giggling like kids (YN will tease her that night). It was when they finished eating some pancakes on one stand when she noticed they started acting weirdly, all of them.

“By the way, YN,” Jaemin suddenly appeared next to her with a teasing grin, she nodded letting him know that she was listening. “I couldn’t help but see how you are wearing gloves today,” he replied, completely grinning with a teasing smile.

“Oh, do you want them back?” she asked, totally oblivious of what he was trying to say, too busy looking at the floor (trying not to blush). “Huh?” YN said after looking around her trying to find her friends, “Jaemin, where is everyone?” Jaemin looked around, noticing that everyone suddenly disappeared, being just as confused as she was.

“No idea, they were next to me one second ago, there’s a lot of people now though.”

“Do you see them?” YN asked trying to find them between the crowd, but as he said, it was the busiest just at that time, 9pm.

“No,” he replied after he scanned the place, since he was taller than her, YN furrowed her brows confused.

“One moment they were here and suddenly all of them disappeared,” she mumbled to herself, trying to stay as close as possible to Jaemin to not get lost too. “What should we do? Yizhuo has my phone, she asked for it a moment ago.”

“Oh, I forgot my phone at the flat, so,” he said, “yeah, I guess we are alone then.” Great, she thought.

“It’s okay, let’s just finish the market and get out, maybe they are outside waiting for us,” she nodded.

“Do you want that teddy bear?” Jaemin asked teasingly while checking how YN was looking at the stand. She quickly denied it with her head. “It’s okay, I will get it for you.”

“No! Why would you?” she asked in a rush moving her hands trying to let him know that she didn’t need it, “you also gave me your gloves the other day, is okay.”

“And? I’m acting good for once” YN tried to stop him, but it was too late. “It’s okay,” but it wasn’t okay for her heart.

“It was not that bad,” she mumbled while walking to the exit holding the big teddy bear. Jaemin, who was in front of her, turned dramatically to look at her.

“Oh, am I hearing right? Is YN saying it wasn’t bad to spend time with me?” he replied while exaggerating his moves. “Who would have thought that? Crazy.”

“Hey, you are the one being annoying, it is not my fault,” she defended herself.

“Well, let’s get back home, I’ll put the GPS,” he answered while taking out his phone.

“I thought you left it at the flat?” she asked, confused.

“I didn’t? When did I say that?”

“This feels like you are trying to gaslight me, but I’ll let it pass ‘cause you bought me the teddy bear,” she answered, not completely sure and proceeding to follow him until her flat. When they arrived, all of their friends were already there, and, as soon as they saw them, they faked to be worried. One can tell because they don’t know how to act. But YN just let it pass.

20th of December

“Oh, wait, I’ll go check that part, I’m looking for my mom’s present,” YN said after all of them stopped on one shop on the way back to the station to go back home, they spent the whole morning sightseeing, and after having food, they went back to pick up their things and go pick up the train. The rest nodded, going back to look for things they needed to buy.

She stopped on the jewellery section since they had some discounts, so she could afford something for her mother. She picked up one, she found one bracelet on the silver section and was looking at it when she heard a scoff.

“You really chose the ugliest one, YN.” He kept shaking his head, disapprovingly with what she had chosen. YN rolled her eyes.

“I didn’t ask for your opinion,” Jaemin smiled, finding her bickering cute. She went back to look at the others, putting it back. “Would this one be better?” She genuinely asked picking up another one.

“I’m more of a gold person, and I like necklaces more” he said while looking at the other things.

“Well, is for my mother, not you,” she replied while looking at other options, “she does like bracelets more, I do prefer necklaces too, to be honest.”

“This one,” he said while picking one up, one that had tiny stars and moons hanging from the bracelet, YN smiled please, her mom would like that.

“Oh, you liked it, I can tell,” he teased when he noticed how she was trying to suppress her smile. “I’ll buy you one necklace if you recognise it,” he teased again. YN shook her head, running away and going to pay, leaving Jaemin behind.

“I have a big problem,” YN announced as soon as she sat down next to the girls on the train station, the boys were busy buying some food. “I think, well, no, I’m sure I like Jaemin.”

“Yn, you have been liking him for years, do not laugh at our faces.” Yunjin said while braiding Yizhuo’s hair.

“You think so?” she genuinely asked, looking with big doe eyes at the two of them, who looked at each other and busted out laughing.

“Everyone knew, except for the two of you. At least you finally do.” Yizhuo replied with a big teasing smile. “When are you confessing, then?”

“I could ask the same about you and Haechan,” YN replied, trying to forget for a moment about what was she feeling. Yunjin busted out laughing again.

“YN, we have been dating for three days already,” she replied, YN gasped surprised.

“And why didn’t you tell me?” she asked, a bit offended; they always tell each other everything.

“I was going to, but then I decided it would be more fun to check how long it will take you to notice,” she replied, finishing Yizhuo’s hair at the same time, who just smiled at their interaction. “But turns out you were too busy ogling about Jaemin.”

“So, when’s the wedding?” Yizhuo asked.

24th of December

She spent the last four days on her room, studying and thinking. Not thinking about the exams, but about Jaemin. She was in her room getting ready for dinner. Her family always had dinner together with some of her parent’s friends on their living room, and that year wasn’t an exception. She picked up a box she had saved in her drawer and looked at it for the ninth time that day, but she put it back again where she saved it.

That night not only was her grandma going to her house, but Jaemin and his parents were also coming, her mother insisted on inviting them, and obviously they accepted. Leaving YN with no other choice but to confront her fears: Jaemin. After giving it another thought and looking at her drawer, she thought, fuck it, and took the box out, putting it on the pocket of her dress.

“YN come down! They arrived.” YN quickly went down the stairs, politely greeting everyone, trying not to fixate her sight on Jaemin, who was smiling. As soon as they arrived, everyone sat down on the table, not without getting a big hug from her grandma, literally everyone got the hug. Her brother and Jaemin’s sat down together, and YN had no other choice than to sit between Jaemin and her grandma.

“I remember when YN was a tiny girl,” her grandma started telling him, they were already almost done with dinner and Jaemin ended up becoming friends with her. “She was such a sweet girl, always wearing those big ribbons on her head.”

“She’s tiny now too,” Jaemin joked, making her grandma laugh and YN roll her eyes, but not in an annoying way.

“She is, that’s true.”

“Grandma!” she said, a bit embarrassed.

The rest of the dinner went incredibly well, and YN couldn’t help but picture Jaemin as her boyfriend, coming to spend time with her family. She was crazy, wasn’t she? She thought while mindlessly touching the pocket in her dress.

“Jaemin?” YN said when she saw Jaemin knocking on her room’s door.

“Your mother told me to come and say bye before I go, I hope I’m not intruding,” he said while looking at her room, he never got to go upstairs her house. YN shook her head.

“No, it is okay, you can come in,” YN smiled while he entered and sat next to her on her bed.

“I had fun,” he admitted with a smile, “isn’t it nice when we aren’t fighting each other? Also, your grandma is lovely, so nice.”

“Yeah, I guess,” she replied while touching again her pocket thinking whether she should do it or not, “and, yeah, she is super nice, although she enjoys teasing me I guess.”

“You’re so fun to tease, I get her,” he replied after emitting a chuckle. “I’ll go, I guess they are finishing saying bye to each other.”

“Wait, I want to give you something before you go,” she shyly said after getting a bit of courage. “It is not something too special though, but I got you something,” she added after seeing how Jaemin’s eyes lighted.

“A present?” he asked intriguing while getting closer to her and looking at the tiny box. “Oh, YN, but I didn’t get you anything,” he replied, feeling truly sorry, specially after seeing how excited she looked to open it.

“It’s okay, really,” YN was crying on the inside when Jaemin opened it, but, gladly, he immediately smiled, looking touched by the present.

“Oh, is a necklace,” he replied smiling and giving her a hug happily, YN blushed by the action.

“I know, it isn’t that crazy to be honest,” she said rambling, “and don’t think it was too expensive, believe me.”

“Don’t lie, this is actually a big present, I told you I liked them,” he answered, still looking at the necklace with a smile. “I should have bought you something, it was dumb of me.”

“No, no, Jaemin, it’s okay.”

“Maybe I can make it up to you with a date,” he suggested, smiling, YN almost died from a heart attack.

“Huh?”

“Jaemin, we are going home!” his mom screamed from downstairs.

“I gotta go, but I’ll text you,” Jaemin rambled, not before giving her a last smile and taking his necklace. Another day without sleeping, she thought to herself.

Chapter 3: I can't say anything except that I like you.

26th December

She spent all her 18th’s Christmas day thinking about Jaemin and waiting for his text. That morning she called Yunjin and Yizhuo to tell them everything about what happened, and all of them, and Haechan (who was next to Yunjin and overheard everything), started screaming. However, his message didn’t arrive until 7pm.

JM: Ynnnnn, I’m so sorryyyyy, my phone died forever

JM: had to search for my mom’s old one

JM: I’m picking you up tomorrow at 5pm ;)

“Again? Did you bring me here to laugh at me?” YN said when he smilingly gave her ice skaters. “I think everyone already saw how bad I am,” she said while putting them on without complaining.

“It’s okay,” Jaemin replied with a big smile, helping her put on her skaters. “We couldn’t do it properly last time,” he explained while helping her get up and guide her to the rink. “Also, I will teach you and I won’t leave your side.”

“I hope you won’t push me like Hyuck did,” she mindlessly joked while grabbing the rail when entering.

“Hyuck? Since when did you talk with nicknames, YN?” He asked, changing his smile for a pout, “and nothing for me.”

“Haechan uses nicknames with everyone,” she excused herself quickly.

“But you don’t,” he answered sulky, so cute, she thought. “Not that sure I want to help you now,” he replied while acting like he was leaving her alone, making her laugh.

“Jaemin, he’s dating my friend, remember?”

“Wait, they are dating?” Jaemin stopped skating and turned back to look at her.

“Oh, you didn’t notice too? I’m glad to know I wasn’t the only one,” at that moment YN thought about what Yunjin told her. “Jaem, please,” she said, trying to get him to get close and take his arm. Jaemin approached her again to take her hand with a big smile.

“That’s what I wanted to hear, my Ynnie.”

27th of December

“I’ve been thinking about making a nickname for you,” he said the next day while both were sitting on the small park next to his house eating the ice cream his mom bought for the two of them. When both of their moms discovered they went on a date, both went crazy and almost hugged each other happily. “YN is too basic; I have to use one only I can use.” YN smiled at him with curiosity while stroking his hand.

“You could be my kitty,” YN almost chocked with her ice cream when hearing his words.

“I’m leaving you here alone if you say that again,” she replied while giving him a side eye.

“Hey, I love kittens,” he excused himself while grinning. “Don’t worry, you would be my favourite kitty.”

“That’s it, have fun,”

“Sorry! Forgive me.”

1st of January

“You will do great, YN; I really think so,” he said the first day of the year when he was walking her home. Both came from meeting their friends to celebrate the new year. YN smiled brightly at him. “You’ll get the highest grades, and I will brag to the guys about my girl.”

“Your girl?” She jokingly asked, stopping in her tracks to look at him, who was smiling back.

��But isn’t that great? We complement each other better,” she said, speaking from her heart.

“I really want to kiss your pouty lips.”

“That’s-That’s really bold to say.”

“Aw, you never went speechless when we fought, I like this side more,” he said after getting her close to him and giving her a big peck on her lips.

In the middle of winter, so the hasty spring comes just for the two of us. I'll stand by your side.

#nct dream #nct dream imagines #jaemin x reader #na jaemin #jaemin #nct #christmas #au

18 notes · View notes

graygiantess · 2 months

Note

Thank you for In Hell Together After All, it absolutely crushed me (in a good, painful way). ❤️ It made me wonder what is your history with IWTV/The Vampire Chronicles: how did you become a fan, what caught your attention and what made you want to "stay"?

And also, you probably write a lot of your headcanons into your stories, but do you have any specific headcanons of any of the characters/relationships in the series?

Hey Nonny!

Sorry for the late reply. Covid broke my brain and I can only focus on reading/writing for very short stretches of time.

(I love getting these asks, though, so please no one feel deterred by this, lol!)

I'm so glad you enjoyed In Hell Together After All! And thank you for your ask. 😊

Putting my answer under the break again so as not to clog up people's dash with my novel-length ramblings.

Luce and TVC

I first got into TVC when I was 14, which is almost 21 years ago. My 13yo foster sister and I were completely obsessed with Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

I was aware that there was a vampire movie with Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt and wanted to see it. I have a much older half-sister and the three of us ended up having a movie night at her house. We watched Interview With the Vampire and The Blair Witch Project.

We were all very 👁👁 throughout the entire movie. Then I bought a boxset of the first four books, foster sister and inhaled the first three books, watched the QotD movie and got very pissed off by how terrible it was. 😂

We were like, "Guess we'll always have the books 🤷‍♀️". I ordered TVA, because QotD had left me completely Armand-obsessed, and started reading Tale of the Body Thief.

I don't remember quite what it was, but Lestat says something at the start of TotBT that my 14yo self just thought was so stupidly retconny that I went, "Yeah, fuck that". I think it was something about how he only ate bad guys and that that was somehow in service of Jesus? Whatever it was, I wasn’t having it, so I put it down and never picked it back up. 😂

Then in my late teens/early twenties I followed Anne Rice on Facebook for a while, but I got kinda creeped out when she started addressing everyone with 'dearest People of the Page'. I distinctly remember thinking, "Lady, I'm here for gay vampire reasons, not to be in a cult". 😅 So I unfollowed her and spent about a decade not thinking about TVC very much at all.

AND THEN in early summer of 2022 the YouTube algorithm informed me that AMC was making an IWTV show. I reread IWTV and in October thought, "Let’s give this a go."

I had my reservations because I still remembered my teenage rage at the QotD movie, and I wasn't sure how I felt about them changing the time period and casting 'some old guy' as Daniel (sorry Eric! 🙈).

BUT THEN Jacob came on all, "Dear Mr. Molloy, did you know you can orgasm just from hearing a man's voice? Wanna finish what we started half a century ago?" and my head just about exploded!

This is the second interview?! They’re revisiting it 49 years later?! OMGGG, that's the most genius storytelling move in the history of storytelling! 😱

I watched ep2 right after and then desperately needed to yell about the show with other sickos. So I joined Twitter and started reading fic again (which I'd only really done when I was 17 and obsessed with that wizard school franchise), started writing fic, joined fic-themed group chats/Discords and made a Tumblr so I could (lovingly) yell at other fic writers.

And now I've published over 150k words in fic and there's IWTV fan art all over my house. 😂

So it was really the show that made me come back to stay. It's just thee best TV show of all time to me.

And as much as this fandom can be a shit show, it's really helped me stay sane while grappling with my long covid, which has left me very incapacitated in many other areas of my life.

Luce's headcanons

Asking me for my headcanons has the same effect as asking me for my favorite movies or songs in that it immediately makes me forget any headcanons I ever had. 😂

You're right that I write a lot of them into my fics, which are mainly me exploring my headcanons and asking myself what if...? I have a couple others, though I'm not sure these are really headcanons or more actual theories, though, so I apologize if this wasn't what you were looking for.

- I've mentioned this one before, but Louis and Lestat had a grand old time during their honeymoon phase between Louis getting turned and Louis almost eating Grace's baby. I think people tend to make too big a deal out of Louis being an unreliable narrator but it's a little too convenient how quickly he skips over those 6-7 years. I think he doesn’t like to think about how much fun he had with Lestat just having all the sex, getting super rich and eating whoever the fuck he wanted.

- Daniel isn’t going to give a single fuck about the ethics of killing people in order to survive once he finally becomes a vampire. We already know he’s selfish and a hypocrite. I can just see him fully ready to view all humans as savory inferiors once he’s no longer one of them.

- If show!Daniel ever met Marius, he would punch him in the face. 🤭

- Santiago is going to be SO jealous of Louis's relationship with Armand. I don't care if Santiago and Armand end up having zero homoerotic tension between them on screen, they're fucking to me.

- I'm also a Claudeline truther. Show!Claudia doesn’t need a parental figure the way book!Claudia does but she very much yearns for romantic love, and she did say Charlie was the last boy she'd ever love, and went after the woman when Lestat asked her if she wanted the Mr. or the Mrs. in ep7.

Kudos to anyone who made it all the way to the end of this answer! Your prize is getting to choose if I share:

A) A silly anecdote about that movie night I had with my sisters.

B) A shocking fact that might get me cancelled as an Armandaniel fic writer. 👀

(Though tbh, if you pick B, I'll probably still give you A for free.)

#asks #headcanons

5 notes · View notes

rosesradio · 2 years

Note

portwell and drama club halloween party?

here you go, a 365 word drabble ! set in i guess s4 era but portwell is still together...and see what their costumes are based on...👀

(reblogs are appreciated !)

"A witch, huh? I thought you were the one who suggested a couple's costume."

EJ's voice was low by her ear, making Gina's cheeks heat as she turned away from the snack table, taking in his costume. He was in a full ensemble of silver and blue, with some kind of tech-band on his arm with blinking buttons. The crowning jewel--or worst part, depending on who you asked--was the blue wig he was wearing. It looked like his hair in shape, but was tackily bright, and Gina could see the line where just a hint of brown hair peeked out.

"An alien," Gina blinked, taking it all in. How he could somehow pull off this ridiculous Party City look was beyond her. "You look..." she started to grin, holding back a laugh, which was successful for about two seconds.

"What's wrong with it?" EJ asked, seeming genuinely surprised. "I thought it was cool! You know, sexy, like Katy Perry's E.T.? A whole other world, a different dimension?"

Gina shook her head, turning back to the concessions table, loading her plate with one of everything. If her friends were good at anything besides theatre, it was going all out for Halloween treats; Ashlyn's ghost-themed chocolate dipped strawberries looked particularly good.

"If you were looking for that kind of costume, you could've went as, like, a pirate? Or a vampire?" Gina suggested.

"Or a catboy," EJ added sagely. "That way we could match." he nodded towards Gina's purple witch ensemble.

"Yeah, maybe," Gina grinned, imagining EJ in a pair of fluffy cat ears. "But I'm glad you're dressed how you want--even though I will be bullying you for thinking it's a sexy look. I still think it's out of this world." she stood on her tip-toes and kissed EJ's cheek.

"And I think you've put a spell on me," EJ replied with a smug smile, as if he were smart for thinking up that line. He plucked one of Carlos's spider-themed pretzels off of Gina's plate and walked off towards the group's Halloween dance off. Right now they were doing Monster Mash, but Gina smiled to herself at the thought of asking them to play E.T. next.

#the stupid thing is that if this were the show they'd use the 'not dressing in couple's costumes = inevitable breakup'#but like...couple's costumes are cool but also dress how you want lol #i was probably too on the nose about their costumes but yk #my fic #rose's asks #portwell #ej caswell #gina porter #hsmtmts

25 notes · View notes

multistanisms · 6 months

Text

Merry Christmas, Darling | NCT

FANDOM: NCT

PAIRING: Yuta x Reader

WORD COUNT:

RATING: PG-13

POTENTIAL TRIGGERS: N/A

SUMMARY: You and Christmas aren't exactly on good terms. Your boyfriend has a scheme to maybe help your point of view on the holiday...with a little help, of course.

You and Christmas have never really gotten along. There has been a lack of the so-called "Christmas magic" in your soul for some time, and despite having a beautifully lit tree sitting in the patio window of your apartment on Christmas eve night, it just doesn't feel like Christmas. You know your boyfriend was busy with his little band of brothers and likely calling his own family. You're sitting on the floor in front of your couch, a cup of hot chocolate held between your fingers as you stare blankly at the tv as nothing in particular plays. Yes, you may have turned the tv on and spent ten minutes clicking through things and then randomly picked something that was holiday themed, but you don’t have it in you to actually pay attention; you’re much too lost in your own head. You can’t recall the last time you actually, truly enjoyed a Christmas. And while some would say to spend time with a significant other, you and Yuta have only been together for a few months, so you don't expect him to stop his usual holiday plans and cater to you. The sound of a familiar tone chiming has a distracted smile curving your lips as you open your phone to read the message.

{From; Yuta 💙}: How's my princess?

It's a simple question and yet, somehow, that helps you feel better. You want so badly to lie and say you’re fine, but you know at this point, anything that sounds dismissive will alert Yuta and he’d be at your door in minutes. You can’t ruin his usual plans to be selfish.

[⇚]: I’ve been better. At least I’m off tomorrow.

{From; Yuta 💙}: Do you want me to come over?

[⇚]: Yuta, no. You have plans with the guys already. I can’t intrude on that. You can always come over tomorrow. I’ll be fine, I promise.

You regret sending the message when you realize the last line of text. That’s one of the things you didn’t want to say. You frantically move to type in a reassurance, but the reply has already come in.

{From; Yuta 💙}: Are you sure? I can come get you, you know.

Emotions are already raw enough right now, and the way Yuta always takes care of you, even when you say you don’t need it, is one of the reasons you adore him so much. Your heart melts at the way he treats you like royalty, and it’s such a strange thing compared to any relationship you’ve ever had.

[⇚]: You enjoy your night with the guys, baby. You can come over tomorrow.

It takes a little longer than anticipated before the reply comes in.

{From; Yuta 💙}: Remember to stay warm. I love you.

He doesn't have to tell you, you know he loves you. He knows you know, but he does it at least twice a day anyway since the first time either of you said the words. 'I don't want you to ever forget.' he had said when you asked one time while he'd visited. You'd had a terrible migraine and he had come to take care of you, ending with your head in his lap as you laid on the couch listening to music quietly in a dimly lit living room. Small moments like that keep you going when work keeps the two of you apart. A smile has curved your lips in fondness as you reply back.

[⇚]: I will. I love you, too. I'll see you tomorrow, okay?

{From; Yuta 💙}: Bright and early. 😜

There's a laugh at the reply, and you shake your head a little. The group is barely four days into post-tour right now, which means the chances of Yuta actually being able to get up early, let alone get Johnny up to bring him over because his license test isn’t for another few days, is slim to none. Jet lag and overall exhaustion from giving their all will no doubt have them sleeping in another day or two. You lean back onto the front of the couch, deciding to try and pay attention to the show you’ve put on. It takes a couple of episodes, but you’re finally starting to enjoy the show and the chaos that’s ensuing on screen when there’s a knock on your door. A glance to your phone shows there’s no other message from Yuta, but you aren’t dumb. There’s no one else who would just show up at your door at this hour. Getting up from your little cocoon, you find yourself sighing as you make your way to the door. “Yuta, you didn’t have to make Johnny drop-” you cut yourself off when you open the door to find not Yuta, but all nine men standing on the stoop of your apartment. There are presents being carried and a few bags of gifts held in hands and you stare at them despite the cold seeping into the warmth of the apartment. “What are you guys doi-”

“We couldn’t let you be alone, Y/N.” Johnny begins, grinning.

“Yeah, it’s Christmas!” Jungwoo chimes in with childish glee.

You open your mouth but can’t speak, so instead you use the next few moments to take all of them in. Johnny clearly drove, you can see the keys in his hand, but he’s carrying a large bag that’s taped shut with a bow on it. Taeil is smiling, carrying a few of the boxes himself as he regards you curiously. Mark and Haechan look like children seeing Santa because it’s the first time you’ve met them in person. Jungwoo is balancing a large box under one arm and leaning into Jaehyun, whose hands are tucked into a jacket, but there’s a bag of gifts hanging from his left arm. Doyoung looks to be the most cold, hovering in the corner with a set of presents in his arms. Taeyong stands just behind Yuta, looking like a big brother as he rests his chin on Yuta’s shoulder, looking at you. Yuta himself is front and center, hidden behind a stack of boxes, but you recognize the jacket he’s wearing and the familiar sight of the silver dragon ring you gave him for his birthday.

“You guys…”

“Are you gonna invite us in, Y/N?” Taeyong teases. “It is kind of cold out here.”

Rolling your eyes, you reach to remove the stack of presents from your boyfriend’s arms, carrying them to the tree that only has a small batch of presents beneath it. The others follow you inside, placing their own carried packages around the tree. You step back so they can arrange everything, unable to keep from chuckling as you start toward the kitchen to put your kettle on - you’re going to need more than the little keurig for warm drinks. Yuta catches your wrist as you walk past where he’s closed the door and locked it, pulling you close to seal his lips over yours in a quick kiss. You let him hold you, not caring about the chill in his jacket as you return the gesture, one hand resting at the side of his neck. “Yuta, you know you didn’t have to come.”

“I wasn’t going to let you be alone, princess.” he whispers against your lips. “Not on Christmas.”

“But the guys-”

“Have been wanting to meet you anyway. If they weren’t asking me, they were asking Taeyong and Johnny.” Yuta cuts you off, reaching a chilled hand up to brush some hair out of your face. “They wanted to come. You’re a part of our family now, baby.”

Despite the chill of his skin, you lean into his touch, watching him with the pure adoration you regard him with at any given time. “Thank you. I love you so much.”

“I love you, too. And I never want you to forget that.” Yuta replies. The quiet moment of assurance between the two of you is broken when you hear Johnny from the kitchen.

“Hey, Y/N, where’s the big kettle? I know you have one in here.”

Both you and Yuta laugh softly, and you lean in to steal one more quick kiss and usher Yuta towards the mass of bodies in your living room. His arms move from where they hold you, taking his jacket off, which allows you to join the eldest of the ‘95 liners in the kitchen to open the cabinet above your stove. Johnny goes to reach for it, but you smack at his chest playfully. “No, sir. You are guests.”

“Family is never considered guests.” Johnny counters, staring at you sassily while easily reaching over you to pull the kettle from the shelf. He chuckles at the indignant huff you give him, but turns away to fill the kettle with water. “Go get settled.”

You shake your head and sigh at his words, turning instead to the breakfast bar to open the cabinet above and pull out mugs. You find that you’re lucky you’ve acquired such an odd collection of mugs over the years, otherwise you may not have enough for all ten of you. Johnny doesn’t argue when you get mugs first, but you don’t have to see his face to see the playful look to know he’s amused at your determination. You find yourself moving towards the living room, nudging Jaehyun from in front of the couch enough to sit and curl against Yuta’s side, your fingers finding his to lace them together. Mark insists on finding a movie to watch, and you nod to where the remote sits on the end table furthest from where you and Yuta are perched. It isn’t hard to notice the way the members who haven’t met you - which is most of the group - watch not just you but the way the two of you kind of settle into each other. Your mind is starting to spiral when Yuta’s hand squeezes yours and brings you back, laying a kiss at your temple.

“Breathe, Y/N.” he explains. “They wanted to come, to see you.”

“Why?” you whisper back, tucking further into him.

“Because I love you, and they want you to know you’re welcome.” The words make you smile just the littlest bit, turning your head to kiss him.

“What would I do without you?”

“You’ll never have to know. You’re stuck with me now.” Yuta answers.

“You’re stuck with all of us, really. But mostly Yuta.” Taeyong counters as he finds the place next to Yuta, having heard the last of the conversation. Your eyes take note of where everyone is making themselves comfortable, letting your head rest on Yuta’s shoulder. Jungwoo sits on Taeyong’s opposite side. Taeil has found a place on the chaise next to Doyoung with Mark and Haechan nearby on the floor. Jaehyun has moved down to settle between Taeyong and Jungwoo’s leg space, one arm draped over Jungwoo’s thigh casually. Johnny is still in the kitchen, making sure glasses are set up and ready for when the kettle screams at all of you. You know there have to be questions they want to ask you - ones they’ve probably already hurled at your boyfriend, but none come. Whether they’ve been told not to or simply don’t want to pressure you when literally all of them are there, it doesn’t matter. You’re grateful for the lack of interrogation.

“How was work?” Mark finally asks, clicking play on a movie before turning to look at you.

“Busy. I’m glad we closed early today.” you answer. “Last minute shoppers can be such a headache.”

“I’m glad we already had all our gifts bought.” Jaehyun muses with a laugh. “We thought about coming to visit, though.”

“Visit me? At work?”

“Yeah, but someone wouldn’t disclose where you work, so it fell through.” Haechan replies, only to be met with a stern voice as Taeyong scolds them for wanting to bother you on your most hectic work day.

You can’t help but smile, and the familiar vibration of Yuta’s chuckle makes you nuzzle him gently, enjoying the way it feels and wanting to remember the moment forever. It’s a familial presence to be around, brothers coming over for the holiday just because they can. The feeling is something you’d forgotten you’d even missed. Tea is made and sipped (with a few mugs of cocoa), pizza delivered despite the unusual hour, games played and movies going as background noise as you hear stories about insanity that happened behind the scenes during the latest tour. You aren’t sure where the time goes, you don’t even remember falling asleep, but you wake up when it’s still dark out, tucked in your bed with the familiar warmth of Yuta laying beside you. Blinking a little in the darkness, you blindly reach for your phone, double tapping the screen to wake it up, wincing at the brightness as the clock reads 3:52am. You sit up on one arm, rubbing at your eyes and reach to turn on the lowest setting of your bedside lamp, just enough to see by. You probably should be, but aren’t surprised when you look beside to find dark eyes looking up at you, half asleep as well.

“I’m sorry, baby. Did I wake you up?”

Yuta shakes his head a little at your question, moving to sit up and press a kiss to your cheek. “The others are asleep, too.” he adds with a yawn, running his fingers through your hair.

“When did they go back?” you ask sleepily, leaning into the touch and smiling as he kisses you. When he doesn’t answer, you tilt your head. “They did go back to the dorm, right?”

Yuta shakes his head again before explaining softly. “You fell asleep around one-thirty, and the rest of us were already settled in, watching tv. Taeil was asleep by two on the chaise, Jaehyun was asleep on the couch with Jungwoo by then. Once we realized that Doyoung, Mark and Haechan had fallen asleep on the floor, there wasn’t a point in trying to get back to the dorm. I showed the guest room to Yongie and Johnny. They’re on those beds. We made sure everyone had pillows and blankets, then I carried you to bed.”

Listening to him, you lean over to press a kiss to his lips. “My prince. What would I ever do without you?” you muse again, moving to stand. “Let’s go check on everyone real quick? I just want a head count.”

“You sound like Yongie at an airport.” Yuta teased, pulling back the blankets and following you down the hall to the living room. Despite being told, you’re still surprised to find that the living room is indeed filled with six of the members. Blankets from the hall closet are draped over the three on the furniture; Taeil is facing the wall behind the chaise while Jungwoo is curled into Jaehyun on the couch, his head tucked under Jaehyun’s chin. There’s a single blanket cocooned around Doyoung by this point, and the ones over Mark and Haechan have tangled by now as the pair lay facing each other. It’s a giant holiday sleepover, like the kids have fallen asleep waiting for Santa to show up. The sight warms you, and you tilt your head as you take in all of them. “I’m glad they’re comfortable enough to be affectionate and relaxed like this here.” you say quietly, looking up as Yuta’s hand takes yours. “None of us were surprised when Mark and Haechan admitted to their relationship. Those two, though, I think caught us a little by surprise.” Yuta answers, nodding towards the couch where Jungwoo and Jaehyun sleep.

“It’s family though.” you reply, leaning into him and resting your head on his shoulder. Your eyes close when you feel Yuta press a kiss to your head. There’s a warmth in your chest, a happiness you didn’t even realize you’d been missing until this moment, standing in a living room full of Yuta’s friends, knowing all of them wanted to spend this time with you simply because their friend loved you. “Alright, let’s check on the other two, let these guys sleep some more.” Yuta gives a nod and leads you back down past your office and to the guest room, where the door is still open. Taeyong is on the main bed, half curled in a ball while Johnny is on the trundle bed, head on the opposite end of the leader’s which sadly has him facing the window. You enter the room quietly so that you can close the curtains, knowing the fabric is room darkening and will help. Returning to Yuta, you slip your arms around his neck and lean up to kiss him. “Alright, let’s go back to bed.” you whisper. “Tomorrow is Christmas and I get the feeling it’s going to be a long day.” He keeps you from moving for a moment, and you find that you’re alright with that despite the way your head tilts curiously.

“Are you okay now, princess?” Yuta asks genuinely as the two of you stand there, looking down at you in the gray-ish light the dimly lit lamp of your room gives you to see by. You can see the concern on his face and one hand moves to cup his face as you lean up to steal another kiss.

“Much better, thanks to you, Yuta.” you reply, moving to pull away and head back to bed. You know he’s walking with you, closing the door as you crawl back into bed. As you settle into the blankets, Yuta’s there behind you, draping his arm over your waist.

“Merry Christmas, Y/N.” he whispers, pressing a kiss to your shoulder as the two of you settle into each other’s warmth and relax. Your eyes close as you smile, adjusting so your arm lays over his, tucking your fingers between his.

“Merry Christmas, Yuta.”

#making a fantasy…a beautiful galaxy ✾ my fics #nct fanfiction #nct #yuta #yuta x reader

3 notes · View notes

voidtwins · 1 year

Text

Group 13

Survivors - Rue / R ("Servant") - 13-?-1 - Devil ("Barista") - 13-0-2 - Evelyn Rose (Spy) - 13-1-3 - Abrahymn Lance (Predictionist?) - 13-0-4

Hunter - Executioner - 13-?-5

T.W.: Mentions of blood & dark themes + swearings

"The theme of this match is "betting".

Abrahymn said as the survivors all looked at him, they are all group together in a match. But apparently the match seems to have a theme, "Give me the note." Evelyn took the note from him and read it.

"Bet and predict your actions.... The living fuck is this.."

"Basically bet our lives."

All look at Abrahymn, "We will betray each other, don't expect that we will be all buddy buddy now. There are chances that we will kill each other." Devil who seems to understand the situation walks forward, "But can't we at least introduce ourselves before we start?"

The two are hesitant before the servant decided to speak up, "Rue. Servant."

"I am Devil, a barista." Cheerfully replied as the two were reluctant to speak but decided to give it a go.

"Abrahymn Lance, a predictionist."

They all looked at Evelyn curious about her introduction, she sighs.

"Evelyn, blah blah blah-Look, knowing that if we know each other’s names we all fucking die. Just forgot who I am and start the game."

Evelyn leaves the room as Abrahymn looked at Devil, "Good start, I'm leaving now. I better bet that nothing happened." He said leaving the room for just Rue and Devil to just be alone. "We should also do the same thing, we don't even know who is the hunter." He said as Rue nodded before going on their separate ways.

But it seems that it was just the beginning of the bet.

'Rue~ Don't you think Devil is familiar somehow?'

Rue was typing on the cipher machine, but hears a distant gun shot. "I can hear you... not now." Rue said trying to finish the first cypher just to hear from the radio, "The hunter is nearby!" The voice was Abrahymn who seem to be haunted as Rue finally finished her cipher and leaves the area.

Time has passed a little but nothing seems to be happening.

Plus R is still silent for a long time.

But what she was not aware is that, 'Someone is following us.' R finally spoke but it was a serious voice, Rue felt a chill on her spine knowing that was not a lie, ‘Go somewhere else.’ As the next second cipher machine was finished, Rue meets up with Evelyn who happens to be almost done with the machine pissed as hell.

“Betting my ass, like what is the actual point of this game.”

“...”

Rue did wanted to say something but Evelyn looked at her, “Oh its you Servant, do you really understand this death game we are facing?” She asked but the servant can’t seem to find the right answer to this. Evelyn sigh before gesturing Rue to finish the cipher with her.

“If you can’t understand this game then fucking say so.”

The third cipher is finished before Rue looked at Evelyn, “Also If I were you toss that shit away,” Evelyn said pointing at the walkie talkie that was somehow hidden on her, Rue obliges before Evelyn stepping on it.

“Servant.....do you have any idea...any fucking idea that your are involving yourself into a mess.”

Rue glares back, “What exactly do you mean.”

Evelyn went closer to Rue just to whisper in her ear, “Don’t play dumb with me, your life if now in danger cause of someone.” She said as Rue’s eyes were widened, “But wh-”

“I know it cause that is what an spy does.” Rue who saw a hidden mirror saw a familiar presense. “I am helping you this one cause.... Isn’t it odd why that predictionist say that quote when no one was really saying anything?”

Rue can tell that something was not right, as an explosion happened from a building. Fire was slowly being spread around the map as sprinklers were activate it to lessen the fire.

“Were done here, now move or I will kill you.”

Rue was about to reply but Evelyn shoves her through the door and locked it as Rue was trying to open it, it was locked. But a gun shot was heard, Rue can see blood splatter from the door window.

“Your still here...?”

Rue wanted to reply but can’t seem to move, ‘Don’t reply.’ R’s said and Rue had no other choice but to obey. But Rue can hear a familiar voice.

“Yeah, you are too obvious for someone who is keeping the vessel.”

“I still don’t fucking care of what you think.... But I am still betting that you will lose-.”

Another gun shot was heard and Rue’s eyes were filled with terror, ‘Hide. Now.’ R warned as Rue decided to find the right place to hide at the right time, the door was kicked opened. Rue can’t see who it was but only just the feet, it was a chilling silent before watching it go away before went out of her hiding spot to see Evelyn trying to recover from two bullet wounds on her arms.

Evelyn saw Rue, but Rue tells her to be silent before pulling out two bandages and needed and thread. Evelyn gulps silently before accepting her help in silence, thankfully Rue was fast, carrying Evelyn and puts her to a hiding spot before going away. Evelyn who doesn’t understand Rue saw the one who shot her passing by, ‘I had a bad feeling about this....’ Evelyn decided to get up before exiting her hiding spot.

Rue who knew that she was getting stalked went to an open field area, feeling a bullet wound on her right shoulder before looking behind her. Revealing Devil who had a dark smirk.

“It took forever for you to realize what is happening.”

He said as Rue had to remove black blood that was dripping from her lips, “What happened to Abrahymn?” Rue demand an answer, “The predictionist was just a burden is all. Isn’t it Void Walker?”

“?!”

“We meet again Void Walker, aka regret?”

Rue’s eyes who were glowing cerulean eyes cause Devil to chuckle, “It’s been so long and yet, you almost forget about me~”

“Nick.....”

R said knowing that it was a man she knew, “I hate to break your bubble in this place. But its time to go home you know. The traveler misses you.”

“Stop lying, they all wanted me dead.”

“But its the truth~ Give your family member a hug?”

R used the card and uses the flare gun to leave Devil to have a scar on his cheek. Before looking back at her, through her disgust his face was slowly revealing to something she didn’t want to see.

“You were never a family member to me...”

Meanwhile Evelyn who manage to find Abrahymn, but as she feared he was dead through an explosion where extra bits of fire was seen.

“This is fucking disgusting....”

Evelyn picked up a bucket of water before using it on him, but her heart rate was up but saw Executioner who she thinks he was the hunter. “If your going to chair me do so, but....go to that b*tch who is aiming at the servant.” Evelyn said as the hunter was silent.

“Where they are, I don’t really fucking know. Maybe an open area.”

It still stands there.

“Oi!”

Evelyn shouted but her hand was greeted but a crowbar, she looked at Executioner leaving the area before Evelyn sighs in relief.

“It seem that it understand me....”

Evelyn looked at Abrahymn but her face remained solemn, “It sucks to see you like this... buddy.”

Fire was spreaded.

Wounds are visible.

Rue and Devil panting over the wounds they use on each other.

“Its scary to know that you improve, your daddy must have been proud.” Devil said as Rue’s glares darkened. “Now your including dead family members already?”

Devil made a dark laugh as Rue was trying to get him down but can’t seem to find a way.

“Let’s bet shall we?”

Devil starts playing with the pistol on his hand, “If I win you will go back home and serve your purpose.”

Rue who was in denial was trying to understand.-

“Regret, you need to listen.”

Devil aimed the gun at her.

“You need to snap back to reality, and take this game seriously!”

Rue’s eyes were widened by fear.

“WAKE UP!!!”

Rue immediately grip her head shaking any fear as her loud cries of agony was loud for him to hear, Devil was about to pull the trigger but the bullet was reflected. He is amused at this knowing that she finally snapped.

“Finally waken up, death gambler?”

Glowing cerulean eyes stares back to his soul, a crooked smile forming on her lips. A simple tear fell from her eyes.

“I will bet that I will kill you~ So I will never go back home.”

------

Game conclusion:

1. Rue manage to eliminate Devil, but Rue vomited as a result of her first kill. Executioner who happened to witnessed that, she asked him to send her back to the manor through the chair.

2. Evelyn escaped but is now never going back. But will remember Rue’s kindness.

3. Devil was disposed in secret by Executioner while Rue was isolating herself in her room.

4. Rue is now haunted by Devil aka Nick her ex-family member.

#rue #exe #story

4 notes · View notes

princessdreamie · 5 months

Text

DBH part 24

It didn't take long for the planing once S, C & Ll put their heads together. They could have asked Mt for help but he was busy with his wedding arrangements. It would take a while till be could come back full time.Yes, even if he is preparing for his own future, E lets him work still, even if he only works half of his usual work routine.

The invitation wer sent out the following week. As expected some of Se's friends declined for family related reasons. S was suspicous over their reasonings but Se could confirm that they were actually true on what they replied back. His friends even send birthday wishes his way and hope that he had a good time at the beach.

At Na's home

A maid came into the living room where Na was currently spenting her time at, watching some medical related topics, and informed her that a letter has been adresses to her.

Na sat up from the couch and took the evelope from her b4 the lady excused herself. It was an invite to Se's bday. Na was perplexed on getting one bc her Ferguson cousin doesnt really celebrate that much, and if then it was bc of his dad. But even then she wouldn't get invited. Not like she was bothered by it.

They werent really close tbw b4 they watched Grave gem together. But it was still a pretty big surprise to her that she got into his party nonetheless.

A few hours go by, Na sat at her garden bench when she got a huge commotion in her friends group chat. To which Lo & Xa were now part of. All of them, exept Xa were invited. The other kids assumed the boy was sad about it but it was the opposite. Xa was afraid of the ocean (early childhood trauma) so he was relieved to stay home. Mi was just surprised to know that Lo got invited as well. She still didnt trust him fully.Na cleared up her confusion, explaining that she and Se talked about Lo after they discussed the new filler episodes they currently aired. They joined a community chat for GG (short for Grave Gem) and somehow she let it slip that Lo is their friend now.

Everyone was shocked, while Lo was secretly happy about it, that Se didnt questioned it and just took her word for it.

They started talking about what to get her cousin. At first it was hard to come up with something. What do hou get a kid who jas dich parents amd barely showes interest towards other ppl.

Na suggested to buy him a givt where all of them pitch in. There was a gaming console with a new RPG of GG and C already put a wish list for the guests. The link was on the QuR code on the letter, so they could see what Se wishes for.

And would you look at that. The game and the console were on top of the list. The site even had a fature to check off the things they got so they wont get a duplicate of anything. Some other stuff included, a pencile set, books, some music Cd's and so on. Some weren't GG themed among other things. But the majority was themed around the cartoon.

The game station + game was not cheap, so Mi & Le were brainstorming on how to get easy money for their share of the money.

Lo still got some of him mom's pocket money for helping around the house and the rest he could help with T, since he had to grinding for his portion the most. T's parents werent exactly what you call elite but their jobs payed the bills.

That only leaves Na for her part. Her friends Believed that she would ask her mom or dad for the rest of the money but she threw their expectations out the window. Saying she is gonna ask for a small side job.

The chat made fun of her, joking that she would just be child labor. She scoffs at their reapones and plans to prove them all that she would work better than the adults at this place she was planning to help out.

#dbh #divorced billionaire heiress #eric #eric ferguson #chance #billionaire heiress #better ending #alternative ending #alternative

1 note · View note

hueningshaped · 2 years

Note

first of all your emoticon for me,,,,,, about to make that become my whole personality😈 also i realized later on that yours should've been with a heart instead,,, the heart just doesn't do you justice you literally radiate love😾 ଘ(੭ˊᵕˋ)੭* ੈ♡‧₊ the only right way!!!😌 the soobin tweet??? why does it look like a mugshot😭😭 but working feels like being imprisoned so it's very on theme ig😐 ofc beffie let's go txt did not create run away for us to just live in these conditions!!!!! stop it i'm lit erally blushing and giggl ing rn.......... ur NOT evil!!!!!!!! i know that you always need to set aside some time to reply!!! you know i will always wait for u💘🫂💖🫶🏻💓 no because the "SICKENING" combined witch the crutches emoji had me laughing so hard😭😭😭 i can't believe instagram would do that to me though. currently walking towards zuckerberg's office with pitchfork in hand😾 i'll send a ss of it along with this ask!!! i get it beffie i always put off listening to new songs for sooooo long😭😭 the only group i follow really closely is txt but the 4th gen girls seem soooo lovely and they're doing so well too!! i still remember when the 3rd gen girls were basically fighting for their lives bc nobody gave them a chance but nowadays they are ON TOP!!! i like ive's music and they seem like such sweet girls too🥹 aside from them i also listen to stayc (run2u and stereotype,,, i'm kissing the forehead of whoever made those songs!!!!) and aespa (i usually don't like their songs (not illusion though!!! absolute banger🫶🏻) on first listen but somehow i hear them everywhere until i get obsessed with them🧎🏻) plus newjeans seem to have very good music!! but i've only heard snippets so far and i'm kind of intimidated by their age they're still babies to me i can't believe how young idols are getting😭😭 NOOOO THE VIDEOS tyun really just left him to fend for himself😭 choi line is so unserious i'm pretty sure they've convinced themselves that bickering is as important as oxygen🤨 AND THE SOOBIN VID you're so right that IS us!! OFC I LISTENED TO THE CB!!!!!!! as expected from txt it was a masterpiece🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻 ESPECIALLY RING oh m ygod ring,,,,,, it has been on repeattttt along with hitori no yoru!!! and the mv😧😧😧 it was so different from the korean version and the theories about it are so😵‍💫😵‍💫 what about you beffie!!!!!! here is the first the second and a third one to add onto the one you sent me!!! take care and give ur cats a kiss from me I LOVE U!!!!!!!!!!!

🤯❤️‍🩹⁉️⁉️ oh my god it’s literaly ben 9 days:?.?.?.!:!2&2&!/:!;! i feel like this is the first time ive been able to breathe for a little hehe :( anyway sheesh…… (im pathetically sorry btw, like very very very sorry) nono the hearts (+sparkles) are for YOU !!!!!! u radiate love 😿 it’s all you for heaven’s sakes… a lotta bit of this .˚ * ⊹ • and ♡ᐝ and boom = APPLE, everything good and nice in this world :”) yes.. work = prison. i want out 🗣 !!!! i think… i think that i’m going to try (as much as this wrenches my heart) to make messages more concise(?) at least in an efficient way so that it tricks my brain into making me answer them first before doing all my stupid monotonous tasks (idk why im set up this way 🥺 wish i could change) i just feel like im making things 100x times worse by doing nothing *cries* anyways i say this all the time so it’s pointless i suppose hehe you’d think by now i’d get myself together 🥺 nyway the last of my intentions was to just take up all my talking with my deprecation anyway haha anyway omg we mob zuckerburg’s office together ? im Down 🥹 (that picture is so funny omg ty 4 sending it to me) twice runs this world <3 twice world domination omg i enjoy those groups’ music too !!!! tho i rlly rlly love stayc im a swith 🫀 moaswith before human hehe and ahhh txt vocals in both songs?!2!2?2?3’!2!2! really appreciate the way soobin’s voice was used 🫶 good job kings 🫶 i cant even make up my mind on what really happened in the music video agh i kinda love it when something is sooo open ended that it can fit multiple theories and there’s room for it to be looked at differently through different perspectives idk the human mind is so :0 when u think about it… at the end of the day we’re just ants on a log idk 😧 i havent a clue as to what has happened since we last spoke since i feel like ive lost track of the entire world it seems 😔 imwsorrymmmm let’s see…. anything new that’s happened in ur life ? 🧐 anything that ur looking forward to or that you’ve got coming up ? 😿 i’d lov to know <3 also one thing i know is selugi solo cb *cue gasp* was there any of the rv solos that you liked more than the others ? i have to know or ill implode jk hehe also i still haven’t seen the new season for talk x today but camping with beomgyu ??? 🥺 sounds so nice hnckdjffjf AND UR LINKS!!1!1!2! ty for forwarding the penguin hyuka agenda 🫡🫡🫡 im respectfully devastated 🫡🫡🫡 the soobin tweet for some reason glitched my phone out so bad i had to restart my phone rn haha made me giggle thanks soob <3 never a dull moment with u guys and the third one disappeared ☹️ nonetheless i hold it all very dear and close to me thank you 🥹 always for thinking of me so nicely though i don’t deserve it ! YOU’RE THE ONE WHO’s…. You rock 🫶 these yeonkais are so adorable ouchies 😭 ur links for this 📫: beomgyu cat 💔 bg’s duality 🙀 the snow just like we want 😿😿😿 and us probably in an au and um here’s a song for you that ive become emotionally and physically attached to anyways… i think im rambling and contradicting myself so badly i feel like a dog that tore up a sofa while its owners were gone wjhfjsjfjsjjfj anyways. Bottom line is… i adore you and i truly hope that things have been going well for you and will continue to do so and if you are encountering a rough patch it shall pass <3 and you won’t have to endure it alone for i love you and am here for you

#ask >3<#i might have cried #i have a stye so i cant see that well rn omg #[❤️⭐️]—aquí te amo

0 notes

bastillewolf · 4 years

Text

Shinigami Eyes (I)

Pairing: Corpse Husband / Reader

Summary: When you’re paired up with Corpse as imposters in a game of Among Us, you seem to somehow apprehend each others strategies even though it’s the first time you’ve ever played together. He appreciates a good impostor.

Notes: I know I still have many fics I need to finish, but I just wanted to throw out a quick Corpse one because sad to say I’ve been simping for him too. By the way, this is my interpretation of him and this is just for fun. Also, I haven’t written for second person in a while, so I’m sorry if this sucks.

TAG LIST CLOSED!

Shinigami Eyes - Oneshot

“Hey, I wanted to invite Corpse,” Sean said right as the Among Us theme started playing on your computer.

“Great vooooice,” Grease called out.

“Oh, I haven’t played with him before,” you said. It was true, but you’d heard of his legendary voice before and your viewers had been asking for him. You’d only allow it because No Simp September was over. Chat was already going mad.

“You’ll love him. Unless he murders you, because he’s a great imposter,” Sean replies. “He’s too good,” Felix adds.

After a moment, you heard the familiar noise of someone joining the Discord. “Hello everyone,” a deep rumble greeted. The group all said their welcomes, while you introduced yourself. “Very nice to meet you, Corpse,” you added. You didn’t want to comment on the obvious. He must hear it all the time. But you couldn’t deny it was like silk to your ears.

“Nice to meet you to. You make great vids.” A blush spread across your cheeks, “You shouldn’t say things like that, chat is already jealous.” He chuckled.

5… 4… 3… 2… 1…

Impostor

Great, you’re instantly sweating. Thankfully, though, it seems you were lucky enough to have been teamed up with the king of lying himself. Corpse’s name is as bloodred as yours.

You decide to follow him after Toast and Sean, and think about how it was Sean who ironically invited the person who was going to murder him in just a few moments. All four of you were being decontaminated below lab, when Corpse made stepped a tad closer to him. You almost synchronically chopped their heads off, and you squealed in excitement. 2 down, 4 to go. As long as no one would find their bodies for a while, you still had time.

Next thing, you’re out of the South entrance and you’ve split up. You join Sykkuno in electric and just wait on him to do his task. Felix joins you afterwards in the next room. That’s when Toast’s body, and ultimately Sean’s, is reported.

Corpse had run back and self-reported.

“Corpse and I just ran into decontamination and found Sean and Toast,” Rae announced.

You were still muted. “Oh god, he’s playing a dangerous game.”

Sykkuno decided it would be the perfect time to call you out. “You and Felix only joined me a while later and decided to stay. Kinda sus of you.”

“No, she was with me at the beginning. I watched her do a task in office,” your fellow impostor vouched. They’d been right, he’s a damn good liar. He manages to hide any sliver of emotion in that deep baritone.

“I don’t trust Corpse anymore, he does stuff like this all the time when he’s impostor,” Lily noted.

“Stuff like what?” He huffed in amusement.

The group agreed the accusation made was a bit vague, and it had affectively directed the attention away from you and onto Felix. After another round of some serious investigating and threatening you all decided to skip.

“Corpse makes me feel less nervous about being an impostor,” you tell chat, “He seems so chill about it.” You ran down to Weapons, but decided against killing anyone when you found three people doing tasks there. You shoved yourself into the clump of bodies and waited until everyone had finished. Running back up to centre with both Lily and Rae, you felt restless that you would eventually have to kill one of them. You just hoped they wouldn’t take it personally.

Corpse ran past, alone. Your characters didn’t have eyes, but somehow they showed a mutual understanding. He killed Lily, you killed Rae. You sputtered and chortled and followed right on after him down into the venthole. He met you in the bathroom stall. “Cosy,” you joked. Until Grease walked in. “Oh, that’s awkward.” You realized you were still standing suspiciously over the venthole. “Shit.”

You didn’t know where Grease had gone, but your first instinct was to hit the red emergency meeting button in the Office. “Grease was in the bathroom stall hovering over a vent.” You may not have your fellow impostors emotionless tone, but you knew laughing through your accusation usually worked.

“Are you kidding me?! I just saw you and Corpse standing in there doing I don’t know what!” Grease yelled.

“That’s a bold statement. You know I’d never cheat on Sykkuno,” Corpse said. “Wait, what?” the man in question replied. Corpse ignored him.

“Corpse was with me when I found you there. On another note I don’t think I’ve ever seen two people vent at the same time before.” Two truths, technically.

“Alright, I’m voting Grease,” Felix said, “I’m sensing liar voice.”

Sykkuno suspected Grease and you, but promised he’d vote you out after if he was wrong. “We have to vote now,” you reminded them.

Grease was ejected.

You met Corpse again in laboratory, where only Felix was doing a task. No one moved. “Oh no, you may have the honours,” you gracefully called out to an unsuspecting impostor. He seemed to get the message through however, and swiftly killed Felix when the Kill button was set to press again.

Defeat.

“Oh my god, that was so stressful,” you cried out. Corpse chuckled, “Don’t worry, you did great.”

“Hey, don’t you dare steal him,” Sean threatened, “He’s my impostor mate!” You laughed.

“You murdered me and Lily almost synchronically,” Rae sputtered, to which Sean added, “Oh my god, same here. It was some nasty psychic shit.” “Corpse and I just have the Shinigami eyes,” you explained. You saw Corpse’s name flash in the top left corner, but only heard him exhale in amusement. It was cute.

5… 4… 3… 2… 1…

Impostor

“Oh… my… god.” Has this ever happened before in this game? Either way, no one will suspect both of you to be it again. You imagine he was feeling similarly, as he hadn’t moved from the spawn point yet. “How in the fuck…?” Chat was confused, but seemed to enjoy the spectacle.

You and corpse split up this time. Don’t use the same tactics twice.

You followed Felix and Sykkuno into Office and faked a task. They decided to wait for you, and you kept your eyes on the green bar until it moved. You travelled trough Admin and Decontamination until you met up with Lily in Labs. “Shit,” you murmured, “There’s too many people. I’m gonna look suspicious.”

Corpse showed up. Lily and Sykkuno left. You killed Felix. Toast walked in, and unfortunately at the hands of your teammate, he did become toast.

You ran in a circle around him and hoped it was enough of a hint for him to follow you. He picked up on it and followed you into the bathroom stall. But neither of you vented. You let a smile slip, almost forgetting you had a face cam. Awkwardly clearing your throat, you explained to your viewers in a very non-convincing way this was just a good impostor strategy. They’d do well to learn from it.

The bodies were reported instantly, and you cursed under your breath. Lily was the one who reported it. “So, I found Felix in Labs and there were only two other people in there before me and Sykkuno left.”

“I went down through Decontamination,” you explained, “I lost Corpse back at Labs.”

“I went back North, I passed you on the way there, Lily.”

Lily was sus of you. “What? Why?!” You asked. “Because I didn’t see anyone in Decontamination and there’s no way you could’ve gone through there that quickly. I wasn’t gone that long,” she said.

Well, shit. “Weren’t the lights off? You couldn’t possibly see me in Decontamination. I’m wondering why you walked back into Labs anyway, Lily.”

A series of ‘ooh’s were heard through the Discord call.

“But I was running up that hallway, I didn’t see you come out,” Grease suddenly spoke up.

“Why were you in there, Grease?” Corpse asked, but you knew it was already too late.

“I was running up to do my task in Labs. I didn’t see her come through the doors before the body was reported.”

“I wasn’t out of Decontamination yet,” you ground out. It was of no use, however. More than half of the people left voted you out, including Lily, Grease, Sean and Corpse, since he had an image to maintain as fake crewmember.

HeartEyes was ejected.

You decided, both out of your own interest and for content’s sake, to follow Corpse as a ghost. He seemed to be having the same trouble as you, suddenly being surrounded by a group of people. “That’s rough. He’s gonna have to kill five more people.”

That was when he bravely decided to take action. Sabotage the reactor, follow everyone there, jump into the lump of people trying to fix the problem and kill so no one would know who did it. He self-reported it in the blink of an eye.

The group was indeed confused, to say the least. Grease had died. “Wait, who was the last to come in?” Sean asked. “It was me,” Corpse admitted, “But I did the handprint scan because no one else was doing it. Weren’t you standing there doing that with Lily?” “Yeah, I had to wait because it wasn’t working.”

“What?!” Lily exclaimed, in only a way she could, “I was doing the scan! It was Sean, then!” The two suspects were starting a heavy discussion, whilst your eyes were trained on the red of Corpse’s name.

The group decided to vote out Lily, as she was the one to report the last murder.

“Is he just… Killing the people who voted for me?” you muttered. Shaking your head, you continued, “Nah, it has to be coincidence.”

But then a body was found, and Corpse said he suspected Sean again. Was he actually working down the list? “Is he avenging me? That’s so sweet, no one has ever done that for me before…” Just a video game, you had to remind yourself. It was just a video game you were playing with friends. And a man with a very nice voice who’d just murdered everyone who did you wrong. Just a game, yes.

Turns out, Corpse really knew how to put his voice to use, as Sean was ejected. He managed to kill Sykkuno and Dave after that, and the game was won by the imposters.

“AGAIN?!” Felix yelled, “How did you two get teamed up again?!” “That’s bullshit,” Sean laughed.

You smiled, as Corpse said, “Us Shinigami’s have to stick together.” It made you blush. “Thanks for avenging me, Corpse. That was very sweet of you.” He chuckled, “Any time. I don’t mind killing people when I have a good teammate.”

“Hey! I’m still here too, you know!” Sean yelled upset.

“It was really fun playing with you guys,” you said, stretching your arms. You’d already been streaming for three hours, it was time to go. Everyone said goodbye, but you didn’t hear Corpse. And you wished it hadn’t twisted your stomach in the way it did.

You wished your viewers a nice day, and promised to update them on Twitter when you’d be streaming next. You were done for the day.

Yet, as you’d closed all tabs and were about to close Discord, you got a call. It was private, and it was from Corpse.

“Hey, miss me already?” you jokingly said.

He chuckled quietly. He suddenly seemed a lot shyer now, being extracted from the group. “Nice game.”

“Yeah, you really know how to keep your emotions hidden. I was impressed, to say the least.”

“You were really good, too. I can appreciate a good imposter.”

You bit your lip. “Hm, I hope to see some more of that appreciation in the future. It was rather nice having someone avenge me.”

“I’d do it again any time. Hiding in the toilet was a good strategy, by the way.”

You snorted at that, “Not good enough, it seems. They voted me out.”

“Big mistake. Nobody kills my teammate.”

“Aww, did the Shinigami catch feelings for the human?”

He rumbled, “I thought you weren’t human?”

You didn’t comment on the fact that he’d failed to answer the original suggestion you’d made. “Touché.”

It was quiet for a moment, and you wondered if you’d crossed a line there and made the wrong assumptions about where the conversation was going. You quickly added, “Are you playing again this week?”

“Yeah, Sean said they’d stream again this Thursday.”

“I suppose I’ll see you there, then.”

He hummed. You sensed there was more to it, though. He hadn’t made any indication he wanted to end the call yet. But then he finally said, “I hope we get teamed up again. So you can get your own revenge.”

“I hope so too.”

***

Might do a follow up to this oneshot, if anyone asks for it. Will definitely create more for Corpse, he’s a lot of fun to write.

#Corpse Husband #Corpse #Corpse x reader #corpse husband x reader #jacksepticeye #pewdiepie #youtube fanfiction

7K notes · View notes