Tumgik
#I’m almost almost done with this study guide I just need to write my starting paragraphs
Text
Sevika with a Girlfriend in college
So sorry for the lack of updates, but in case you missed the announcement me and @abitohoney are working on a fic together! So I swear I’m still writing. Also, this is just a bit of a projection because college is kicking my ass
Sevika, being like a strict mother, especially if you keep complaining about all of the things you need to do. Asks you everyday, “you got any homework?” and refuses to let you procrastinate. She knows your routine; you wait until the last minute for a big assignment, somehow gain a mysterious ailment and do not feel like doing it, get so stressed you cry and don’t have a moment of peace until it’s finished. Rinse. Repeat.
“Stop fucking complaining. Sit down-hey. Sit. down. Read me two pages.”
Sev taking notes just so she can quiz you. Doesn’t accept shrugs as an answer. A little harsh when you get it wrong. Not that she’s disappointed, or judging you, but just because that’s her tone. And as one of the big bosses, she’s used to getting on someone’s ass until they do something correctly.
“Wrong. What did you just read?” Sevika’s eyes peer into your very soul, judging despite having no right to. It’s almost like she was possessed by your professor because Janna forbid you not have the material ingrained into your mind as long as he exists in this plane of existence. You know she’s just being thoughtful, caring, a supportive girlfriend, but for the last thirty minutes she’s been an asshole. You’re starting to see why everyone is so scared of her.
“Sev, I know this concept is foreign to you. But can you be a bit more gentle?” Frustration bleeds into your tone because you’re thoroughly sick of the ruthless critique you’ve been under. It doesn’t seem to phase her, as her face remains stoic, gaze fixed on you like she’s debating what reprimand will get you to learn faster.
“I am.”
Oh, well then.
“Baby, you’re not.”
A twitch in her eyebrow lets you know her patience is waning. She breathes a deep sigh around a cigar, smoke gathering over the table you’ve been at all night. Papers are splayed in a dramatic way to emphasize how much left you have to go, as if you’ve forgotten.
“The longer you wait, the more stressed you’ll be.”
“But-”
“And the more I’ll have to hear you complain about professor fuckface when he gives you a bad grade.”
“Hey! That’s not my fault. Nothing is ever good enough for him.” You quickly wipe away the moisture gathering in your eyes. Not fast enough, as evident by Sevika’s sigh and the soft placement of her hand on your thigh.
“Honey. Look at me.” And okay, perhaps you refuse just so one of those large hands will grasp your chin like you’re made of glass. “You are enough.”
Okay, well now you’re crying.
“You’re smart. I know you can learn all of this boring shit.” Her exasperated gesture at the various study guides have you laughing through tears. “You just need a little discipline.”
“Oh? Kinky- ow!” A flick to your nose has you squawking, and then melting as the same offending fingers wipe tears off of your cheeks.
“That too, brat. Seriously, you’re smarter than you think.”
Sev helping you because she’s gonna use ‘no sex until you get your shit done.’
“Hell, I’m doing this for me too.”
Definitely the type to read the question louder if you get it wrong.
However, when you do get a question right, you can expect some short praises. “Good.” “That’s it.” “Attagirl.” “Good girl.” … definitely gets you flustered.
She reads the syllabus. Just to mark down dates on your shared calendar, so she can ensure you’re doing your work and make sure you don’t forget an assignment.
Honestly, she would be living through you. Since she didn’t have the opportunity to go, she’s taken an interest in some of the more interesting classes. She also lets you know which ones are boring as shit.
Another example of when her position of authority comes out: not letting you skip. Yes, even if it’s review day. Won’t force you to go if you really don’t want to, but is very persistent and annoying until you decide to just go.
530 notes · View notes
wackus-bonkus-maximus · 10 months
Note
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Hi It is me back at it again with sentitwin telepathy au propaganda. Heres felixs live reactions to adrien and marinette not being able to kiss each other for a painful amount of days
i think you will be pleased to know this propaganda worked, my dearest moonie. upon seeing this art i immediately went into a frenzy and realized i needed to combine my ♊twin telepathy au♊ with the 🤴🏻princess and the pauper au💂🏻‍♂️ to maximize the senti-twins' suffering.
here's a bit of an excerpt from what i wrote 👀
What color was Henry IV’s white horse? Félix stared at the page before him, even more baffled by the abundance of lines beneath the exam question. Glancing around, he found no sign of confusion from the other students filling the auditorium. While some were sneaking glances at the professor stationed down by the podium, or checking the time on their phones, most were bent over the exam booklets, scribbling away as though every question on the test made perfect sense.   It was a trick. It had to be. Maybe Félix hadn’t done all the readings for this English History class, but he was certain this particular question hadn’t been on the study guide.  Gray, came Adrien’s voice through the bond.  Félix started at the sudden interruption, dropping his pen to the floor with a loud clatter. Several of his classmates turned to look at the offending noise; the professor was already glaring his way as he bent to retrieve it.  Would you stop that? Félix shot back, hunching in his seat and dropping his head so low to the paper, he could no longer see anyone else. I’m in class. Henry IV’s horse was gray, not white. Félix pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to look like he was concentrating rather than being pestered by his twin. Are you some kind of historical horse expert now? Most horses that look white are actually gray, Adrien explained with more gusto than Félix’s history professor had ever demonstrated. Their dark coat loses pigmentation over time. There are some pure white horses, but they’re a result of cross-breeding techniques that didn’t exist during the time of Henry IV.  Félix put his pen to the page, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. Is that what they teach you in prince school? he asked, writing out Adrien’s answer word for word. That fancy royal education better not disappoint, Your Highness. I’m surprised you didn’t already know the answer, Felix. Adrien’s thoughts turned smug, a hint of glee slashing across the brooch on Félix’s chest. Since you always paid so much attention whenever I had lessons with Kagami.  Félix ducked his head again, face hot as he moved to the next question. Sod off.
basically what's happened is, felix and adrien were separated at birth. adrien went to go be the prince of france while felix was raised as a filthy peasant british boy. they find out they're senti-twins when felix steals the peacock miraculous 👀
it's also love square prpr so all those adrinette almost-kisses would definitely happen, and felix will DEFINITELY be making those faces as he judges his loser twin (even though felix himself is just as big a loser ❤️)
132 notes · View notes
bendingthelaws · 4 months
Text
10
Tumblr media
Demitri and Colt had left shortly after the meeting in Colt’s office to go and talk to some of their contacts.  They also needed to decide how to handle the fact that they WERE still the attorney on record for Constant Rakeovich and neither of them wanted to remain such.  After what had happened in his office, Colt thought it better for that conversation to happen somewhere that Abby would not overhear them again.
Sensing his dark mood, Abby covered the top of Colt’s desk in post-its. Each one with something goofy, or a question out of her Bar Exam study guide. He'd left those post-its of hers from the other night on his desk all night, ones she’s just put smiley faces on after he’d won his latest court case...she wondered what he'd do with all these.  She knew if left to just the two of them, both Colt and Dimitri would stew.  Somewhere in the last five years, she had become the one to break the tension, and this was her newest way. Dimitri would get a dozen pryaniki on his desk in the morning, he was brightened up more with food, and seemed to love teaching her to bake treats from his homeland.
***
Colin was in danger, his intern being tortured and murdered, and Colt was in a fucking shitty ass mood from everything he and Dimitri had found out while they were out of the office. So when he opened the door to his office and saw the top of his desk, he came to a complete stop. The little imp that was his assistant had covered the top of his desk in pastel colored post-it notes…again. Dear god, there were dozens of them.  He thought there had to be even more than the last time she’d done it.  Her antics from the other night had been topped, but what the fuck had she put on them this time?
He went over to his desk and started looking at them. Her elegant writing was on each of them. Some made him laugh and others just had him shaking his head. What in the fuck was she doing?
Then it hit him and he felt like an idiot, she was distracting him. That's what she was doing. And she'd done a damn good job. While I'd been reading every single one, two hours had passed and I hadn't thought of where his brother was, or what was going on with him. He had relaxed. He had even laughed. It was what he needed. Damn little imp.
"ABBY!" Colt’s voice rang out it his office, more than loud enough for her to hear in her little alcove of an office off of their waiting room.
Abby's head peaked around the corner, her brows raised as she pretended not to know what was going on. "Yeah, boss? Has something more happened?  You didn’t need the Smith filings until the morning, I’m still working on getting them all entered.  I hate this case, just so you know."  She gave him a sarcastic smile, still playing stupid
Had something more happened? So, the imp would play stupid. It almost made him laugh. "Yes, it has. SOMEONE has vandalized my office. I need you to call Detective Kase and tell him he'll need to come by. This is the work of someone devious.  Boxes left on Colin’s desk and apparently pastel post-it notes on mine.  Might be the work of the same person." He was smirking and he was trying to keep from busting up laughing.
"Vadalism?  Are they threatening?" She stepped into the doorway. Surely he recognized her handwriting. "Are you sure it's not a friendly prank? Someone just being silly?" If he hadn't docked her pay in the past, he was going to now. Or maybe even fire her. Her heart raced and she felt light headed, the color draining from her face slowly once more.
Wrong day to be sarcastic, apparently it was the wrong day for Colt to do anything. Putting down the few post-its he had in his hand, he walked over to where Abby stood looking like she was about to panic. Demitri was eventually going to kill him for upsetting her, it was just a matter of time.  Maybe he’d get a warning shot in the shoulder if he was lucky.  Although he’d never known his partner to be especially generous in that department.
"Sweetheart, I was teasing." He took her face in his hands and tipped her head to look at him. "Just a tease. I knew it was you, and it has helped my mood." He leaned forward slightly to look her in the eyes. "You need to relax, or you're going to have your other boss kicking my ass." He chuckled as he looked down at her.
Heat flooded her cheeks, bringing with it a bright pink tinge. "Oh, oh god, I'm sorry, Colton. I guess I'm just on edge." The feel of his hands on her face was distracting, as was how close he was. The scent of his deep and rich cologne wasn't helping. You weren't supposed to be attracted to your boss. "I'm glad it helped. If Demitri gets too grouchy, I'll just pour more Yellow Spot in his coffee. That seems to do the trick." She gave him a nervous smile, trying not to get lost in those yellowish-green eyes of his.
"I'm sure it does help," Colt chuckled and moved his hands to her shoulders. If he kept them on her face, he was going to end up kissing her and then there really would be problems. She was a decade younger, and he was her boss. There was no way that it would get him anything but slapped and hated. "You know I'd never really dock your pay, right?" That had bothered him, Demitri was right that she was far better than either of them deserved.
"I, umm, well I would have deserved it if you had." Butterflies were filling her stomach and she felt very nervous suddenly.  Her hands fidgeted nervously between them as she was now very acutely aware of how close he was, the weight of his gaze, and the feel of his hands still on her.
There was little she could have said that would have made him feel like more of an ass. They were going to lose her when she passed the Illinois Bar Exam.  It was far past time to talk to Demitri about that. He wasn't ready for her to walk out of his life, maybe it took such a situation to make him realize it.
7 notes · View notes
ninjagirlstar5 · 11 months
Text
Protag Teruya AU - Kokoro Mitsume Design
Tumblr media
Kokoro, I love you, but you’re also kinda messed up, and LINUJ’s writing doesn’t really help. And I’m not saying that because people with alexithymia can’t be bad people because that would be ableist and puts people with that condition on a pedestal and almost “babies” them. It’s just the way LINUJ wrote her being a bad person because of her alexithymia and not because she chose to be a bad person is…*sighs* Yeah. I’ll try my best to write Kokoro, but it really depends on my skills and the research I’ve done. Especially since she’s the mastermind in the Protag Teruya AU.
Due to Kokoro being the mastermind, she’s not going to be a good person at all throughout the story. But I want to make it clear that she’s doing this because she wants to do it and not because of her alexithymia. And since she’s a Void, that means she met Utsuro when they were both children so she’s about the same age as Teruya. I’m not completely sure what kind of Fortune Utsuro blessed her with, I just know for sure that she only gets blessed once compared to Mikado since I don’t think there would be a reason as to why Kokoro would see him again except for that one time. But the best one I could think of is one that allows her to read and judge people’s emotions better than anyone else so she could help her mother with her research better. She still needs to collect data and the context of the situation in order to understand why someone reacts the way they do, but otherwise she’s skilled enough to come across as a mind-reader. And she only improved over time with her studies as a psychologist, trying to understand cognitive, emotion, and social behaviors by observing, interpreting, and recording how people relate to others and their environment. She deals with it very objectively, though, and can come off as quite distant due to her difficulty in expressing emotions. She still can’t easily identify or describe her own emotions like other people can. The best one she can confidently identify is curiosity but other emotions need a bit more context clues and are dependent on how strong they are for her to understand what kind of emotion she’s feeling at the moment. Nonetheless, her Fortune allowed her to be in a position that improved her relationship with her mother…supposedly. She’s been pursuing her mother’s research for most of her life as it’s all she has left of her and it’s the only thing she knows she’s good at. And it’s not like she doesn’t want to do it either. It’s something she’s become…passionate about. And she will do anything to complete that research.
But first, she has to revive Utsuro. Because without that Fortune, she may lose her edge in psychology and it’s bad enough that the members in the lab that are significantly older than her don’t really like taking orders from someone so much younger than them. The only reason they follow her is because her skills are clearly above theirs and the data and research she puts out in the field of psychology makes her a fantastic asset as someone to guide the other lab members in their own studies as they work together. If she loses that Fortune, someone may notice the dip in quality in her psychology work and usurp her, preventing her from continuing her mother’s project as she was only able to access it as the boss of the lab. She can’t let that happen. She refuses to let that happen. And if it means starting a killing game underneath the lab and doing it behind everyone’s backs, she will do it.
As for her relation to Mikako, I’m thinking that Kokoro and Mikako are siblings but I can’t decide if I want to make them fraternal twins or make Kokoro about two years older than Mikako. Either way, that connection is still there. But it’s still quite…fragmented, I guess you can say.
As for her design, since she’s about the same age as Teruya and Mikako (at least before she, you know, died), I used her teenage self as a base but changed her clothes and hairstyle to show how different she is compared to her teenage self. AI!Mikado had a slight change in appearance with his cape and glitchy appearance so I thought it’d be fitting to show what Kokoro really looks like as a young adult. Since she took over her mother’s lab, she has to keep up the appearance of a professional psychologist, so no sweatpants, slippers and tank tops for her. She tries to accommodate for this by having a loose appearance that still looks professional, with her hair tied up, a vest, Mary Janes, a long skirt and a bow tie. And of course, the lab coat she wears almost everywhere. Because she’s so hard at work with her research and such, she also has bags underneath her eyes to show that she’s not nearly getting enough sleep as she should.
I’m hoping to write Kokoro well as the mastermind without making it ableist, and I think these concepts are a good start. It’s just a matter of whether or not I can execute these well. But if anyone has any pointers with these ideas and critiques about them, I’m open to hearing them. I want to write this as respectfully as possible, after all.
The Protag Teruya AU was inspired by @/anotherprofessional’s post! Beware of Void spoilers though!
15 notes · View notes
dovahkinniez · 2 years
Note
ur writing smacks, neloth nsfw headcanons?
thank you very much! <3 but uhhhhhh ;) let’s get into it…
18+ only! sexual content awaits your very eyes, my kind soul. ps, i will try and stay gender neutral as much as possible but there is a tiny mention of a female bodied reader, so either don’t read if that’d make you feel uncomfortable! or skim/ignore that part. :]
ps. i haven’t wrote anything sexual in a very long time, so if it’s not the best.. my apologies!
Remember to not be a silent reader, like and share your thoughts! I love hearing everyone's feedback. <3
Tumblr media
SPICY NELOTH
— nsfw headcanons
Tumblr media
rubs hands together, let’s get it. :D
he’s a busy man, he takes his time management seriously because with his time he needs to focus it on things that truly matter!
that’s why when it comes to you and the ‘bedroom acts’ he takes it slow, and almost studies your body and sees what exactly makes you tick and what personally isn’t for you.
i see him as a person who believes the whole, ‘as long as the two are having fun does it really matter who is dominant or submissive?’ - which is a fact but this doesn’t mean he doesn’t have certain sides to him.
naturally, he’s a service top. he loves to make you feel good, comfortable and ultimately satisfied during and especially at the end.
if you feel good, he feels good. he feeds off your pleasure because he loves to watch you, and it’s pretty much memorised and scorched into his brain, the images and even sounds of you, that even when he’s trying to do work he feels himself annoying growing stiff in his you-know-what area.
people have came to a conclusion that he gets a hard-on over his research, i’m not sure which is the most embarrassing - the truth or this theory?
your body is a map, his hands and mouth is the adventurer, he’s affectionate and touchy and wants to explore all across your body.
i saw somewhere in a post where they say he probably is the type to use spells during sex, which i completely agree on.
using spells and creating them to be able to pin you down without using physical items, or spells to make your body more sensitive.
heated hands from flames to heat you up, making you flustered with the odd shock that’s enough to arch your back against the bed.
master with his hands, spells aren’t the only things he can play with. takes his time, teasingly slow at times because he likes to hear you whine and he’ll say the odd comment, ‘aww, are you frustrated? you’ll be fine, sweetheart’ as he presses a sweet kiss against the corner of your mouth.
he knows what he’s doing and at times he can sound very condescending and bitchy, let’s hope you like the mild degradation here and there.
loves it when you’re on your knees, worshipping him with his cock in your mouth, “come on, you can do better than that.” he’d groan out as he taps your cheeks before pushing your head down further.
guides you through it, tells you what to do and instructs you between shaky breaths with his hands gripping onto your hair or shoulders.
body worshipping mf. likes it both ways. the feeling of your lips and tongue all over his skin as you reach further down sends him dizzy and his dick pulsating.
he likes to fuck you with his tongue before he even thinks about actually fucking you. you deserve the best treatment, that involves multiple orgasms.
likes to edge you, playing with you until you’re clinging to him before he stops with a short laugh, “i’m not done with you yet.” before he starts again once you’ve calmed down. changes tempo to keep the rhythm bumpy, the bigger the patience the bigger the orgasm.
after a stressful day he just wants to be inside you, sometimes you don’t even fuck. cock-warming and falling asleep in a very close intimate cuddle. the best.
sat on his lap, his hands roaming around your body as your nipple is caught between his lips, you grind down on him teasingly as you grow wetter, his teeth nip at you which just turns you on even more.
deep kisser, passionate and electrifying. sweet pecks and lustful makeout sessions, both are a must. his lips are soft and the words that leave them have you begging for more.
he just wants you to beg a little more until he gives you exactly what you want.
Tumblr media
128 notes · View notes
sonicstalker123 · 2 years
Note
Hiii can you write Twogami x tired student reader please?
Sure!!! This is my first time writing an x reader for them, so I’m trying my best! Sorry if it sucks Orz
✨Gender neutral pronouns used! ✨
TW:
Twogami and Y/N are just chillin out at the cafeteria eating some lunch together. Of course, the essentials, like some deep fried Teruteru chicken and whatever fast food they wanted. Whatever drink they wanted too.
Teruteru comes up to check up on the two. “Everybody doing okay in here? Anything else I could get you two lovebirds~?”
Y/N shakes their head and Teruteru leaves. “Hey so, Byakuya? Would you like to… maybe help me study for this math test coming up? I’m really bad at math and getting help from you would be the best since like… math is right up your alley?” Y/N’s face reddens as they blush nervously.
Twogami smiles to themself. “Sure, I wouldn’t say no to helping somebody, especially you, because you’re absolutely precious to me.”
Tumblr media
Y/N smiles to themself and stretches and they make a little noise. “Mmm! I feel more confident knowing that I’ll have you by my side.”
Twogami laughs. “Forever and always, my dear, forever and always. I’ll be by your side…”
Tumblr media
Y/N smiles to themself and looks up at Twogami and Twogami notices their S/O looking up at them. “Byakuyaaaaaa,” They start to say.
“What, Y/N?”
“Wanna go study at the library? It’s nice and quiet there and we could get a lot of studying done in there, like a few chapters at least.” Y/N asks. Twogami nods.
“Sure. Let’s go get the things we need to study, come along, Y/N.” Twogami holds Y/N’s hand as they both make their way to their respective cottages.
Y/N packs up a whole backpack filled with a school binder that has a bunch of notes in it and the study guide.
They then put on the backpack and they slowly but surely make their way to Twogami’s cottage. They yawn and knock on the door.
The door opens with Twogami smiling. “Are you ready to go, Y/N?”
“Yep! Let’s go!” Y/N responds, smiling to themself.
The two eventually make their way to the library and Twogami pulls back a chair and lets Y/N sit first.
What a sweetheart 😭
Y/N reaches into their bag, getting out all of their notes and organizing their notes into little neat piles.
Twogami likes that and smirks. “Y/N, I love all of the neat piles you have. Impressive.”They sit down next to Y/N, blushing.
Tumblr media
Twogami also reaches into their bag and gets out their math notes, flipping through their notes.
“Alright, what sections of this math unit are you confused about?”
Tumblr media
Y/N looks down at the study guide that Monomi gave them a week prior. Much to Twogami’s surprise, some bits of the questions about division and some multiplication are blank.
“I… A lot of these are blank because… division is a huge weakness for me. Some multiplication questions are hard for me too.”
Twogami picks up Y/N’s study guide and flicks through the pages. “You did really well with these. Nice job.” They pat Y/N’s head, causing Y/N to blush and giggles a bit. Twogami blushes a little bit.
“Al-Alright, look at this one. 39*283. And don’t forget that there’s three multiplication symbols. The asterisk one is kind of common, along with the usual ‘x’ shape. So you can use whichever you want during this test. I also brought a calculator, since calculators are allowed on the test.”
Y/N gasps. “That’s a THING??? Like… a genuine thing???”
“Yes, you didn’t know..? Monomi has let us do this for a while now. Sure it makes Monokuma really mad, but it’s alright.”
Twogami hands his super fancy calculator to Y/N and they type in the math question. “Ha! It’s 11,037!”
Danganronpa jokes are the literal best lol
They yawn and without even realizing it, cross their arms, lay them on the table and lay their head on their arms, falling asleep almost instantly.
Twogami continues to flip through the study guides and notices some little doodles in the little corners, like little hearts and star shapes.
“Seems like you know most of what’s going to be on the test, dear Y/N.”
No response.
“Y/N?“ They turn their head to see Y/N, completely asleep. He moves closer and gently shakes them, waking them up.
“Hm..? What… What’s up, Byakuya? Did I fall asleep?”
“Yes, are you feeling alright? You look… exhausted.”
Tumblr media
Y/N looks up at Twogami, stretches, makes a little noise from the stretch and looks nervous.
“I… stayed awake for several hours in hopes that I actually could finish this damn thing. Then I fell asleep at my little table at three in the morning… I’m just really worried that I’m gonna fail!!” They look at them, with really sad eyes. They then cry into Twogami’s chest, startling them.
“H-Hey, Y/N, I promise that everything will be alright! My name is Byakuya Togami and I will make sure you get a 100% on this test!” They continue to pat Y/N’s head.
Tumblr media
“Now, dear, please stop the tears, you’re going to make yourself even more tired.” He pats their head and gives them a gentle hug. Y/N lifts up their head and smiles while wiping the tears.
“Okay..!”
Twogami continues to help Y/N study for a little while longer, going into length about division and multiplication.
Honestly fuck all of that tbh
“Well, I think we should both head to our homes, I never how realize how late it got. I don’t want you to get so tired that you fall asleep during the test and fail. Come with me, let’s go home.”
Y/N nods and picks up all of their notes, feeling confident. They smirk once they get all of their notes picked up.
They head back to their cottages. They both eventually make it and Y/N looks right up at Twogami. “Thank you so much for the help today, Byakuya. I greatly appreciate it. You’re literally the best partner ever!”
They give Twogami a quick peck on the cheek and dash to their cottage room, their face is tomato red and they giggle a bit. They turn around and wave like this:
Tumblr media
Y/N eventually closes the door after exclaiming “YOU’RE THE BEST!”
Literally Thiccakuya:
Tumblr media
They, too, also walk to their cottage grinning proudly and just… bLUSHES hard and eventually goes to bed.
18 notes · View notes
nebulousneuroticism · 2 years
Text
Oops today’s post accidentally turned into a long essay about how I feel stuck in life (spoiler: it’s the same as always).
I was able to haul myself out of bed today, somehow.  I attended my meeting, and then stayed awake for a while because people needed my attention.  Things quieted down around lunchtime, so I snuck off for a nap.  It was a nice nap, with vivid dreams that I can’t quite remember anymore.
I didn’t leave the apartment today.  After work, I made myself a turkey sandwich for dinner, and then spent the night with my usual unproductive pastimes.  Around midnight, I made myself a baked potato.  Healthy, I guess?  Healthier than my usual diet, at least.
It’s late again, and I’m sure I’ll regret it.  I have this general sense of unease about work, lately.  There hasn’t been enough work to do for quite some time, and it’s almost time for performance reviews... writing my self-eval is going to be awful.  I just hope my boss can figure out how to justify the fact that our team has nothing to show for itself.  I have to depend on him, because there’s not much I can do.
Well, I suppose I could have depended on myself by being a responsible employee and seeking out important things to work on over the last few months.  But I haven’t done so.  At some point, during the pandemic, I just... stopped caring about work.  My mind checked out.  I remember the first year or so of working from home was awful, because I was frustrated that I couldn’t be productive--I missed the office, having a quiet place and an environment made for getting my job done.  But then, instead of adapting to the new work style, my values shifted instead: I just started caring less and less about my job.
It’s strange, really, because I’ve always been a very conscientious person.  It feels weird to say I just don’t care about my job.  Especially since, by all accounts, it’s a very good job.  It’s out of character for me.
I guess I feel adrift.  I always used to have a firm goal, a guiding star: money.  Study, get good grades, get a well-paying job, save money.  And I still love money, of course.  But I feel like the path forward is less clear, now.  My job has stopped being interesting, and the politicking necessary to advance up the ranks is repugnant to me.  But leaving would, without a doubt, be a bad financial decision.  So I feel stuck.  I’m not motivated to move upward, but I don’t want to lose the ground I’ve gained.
I don’t know what the conclusion is.  I rambled a lot here, but this isn’t anything new; I’ve been writing the same old thing for more than a year.  How will I break free of this dilemma?
Well, I didn’t mean to write that much.  I feel clear-minded tonight, so I suppose it’s an auspicious time to think about these things.
1 note · View note
testingforhope · 1 month
Text
Chapter 20 - Floating
I walked back to my home, guiding the beautiful creature into my oasis. Her feet crushed the leaves that covered the trail through the garden to the front door. As we walked, I picked some fresh berries to put in some tea for later.
I turned around after getting enough fruit and grabbed her hand, pulling her from the lollipop plants my mom planted as a reward for me doing my studies years ago. I took her inside and sat her down in my living room. She looked at me in wonder, but also satisfaction. Perfect. I then got up to the kitchen to start the tea.
“Where are you going?” She asked in a curious tone. Her eyes were looking at me, holding me in place.
“Just to the kitchen to start the brew. Why did you want some company?”
Her eyebrows raised at that comment, then she said, “No.” She looked around the room as I left the area to get the kettle.
I reached up into the first counter over the stove top and got the iron teapot down and put it on a burner. I turned the water in and made it go into the kettle with magic, levitating it into the pot. I then turned the heat up to medium and started working on the herb collection for the flavouring.
“Can I look at these?”
Hearing her ask this, I leaned over to the doorframe and saw her staring at my bookshelf. “Sure! There are plenty of good stories in there.”
She reached for a book called Abandon. It was a surprise when it appeared on the shelf at first, because from the date listed, it looked like it was from another time and the description the writing used made it seem like it was from the future. After a while, I ended up just ignoring the book entirely, but it will always hold a place in my memories as the first outlier amongst the books.
She must have noticed that I wasn't paying attention entirely because she had walked over in the time I was in my head and started snapping her fingers in my face. “Snap out of it, will you? It’s creepy enough that you weren’t responding, now you won’t even flinch?!”
She was standing so close that I almost forgot how to breathe. I then heard the steam coming out of the teapot in the kitchen and grabbed her hand to bring it down, holding it there for a second longer than necessary.
She followed me as I left into the kitchen to get the cups set up, her taking a seat at the table. She had the book closed next to her and she was staring at me. I turned around to face her, two cups in hand when she must have decided enough was enough.
She grabbed the cups out of my hands and held my hands, dragging me back to the living room. She must have really looked around my house because in no time she had put a song on the record player I had forgotten I had.
She let my hands drop and stepped back a little and bowed slightly. I smiled as heat rose to my face. She smiled at my reaction and grabbed for my hand again, but also reached for my shoulder. Noticing the placement, I placed my hand on her waist and started dancing to the music. When the song started, we slowed down slightly to soak it in.
Late night telephone,
Calling all the wallflowers I know,
Out the dark and into the light
I had a feeling that she was planning something and my suspicions were confirmed when she started singing along. “Floating on my lowkey vibe. Floating on my lowkey vibe, vibe, vibe. I don’t need that late night high. I’m floating on my vibe, vibe, vibe.” Her voice was so mesmerising that I didn’t even realise when her hands started raising to my hair, messing it up slightly by the upwards motion.
Her hands started cupping my face, but then she looked distracted before she pulled away. She looked at me with the worst betrayal, then I remembered what I had done.
I raised my fingers to my ears and felt them. I took them out and looked at them. The earplugs were there the whole time.
Out of touch in harmony
Designer drugs from dead end streets
Break the air to feel the fall
Or just anything at all
1 note · View note
randomaccessmike · 11 months
Text
The Best Books to Help You Get Through Grad School in 2023
Photo by energepic.com on Pexels.com This post contains Amazon affiliate links I'm sure when many professionals look back on their grad school experience, there are a few things they'd tell their past selves. "Slow down." "Pace yourself." "Take care of yourself." Face it, grad school requires a ton of time and effort. And many grade students are working full-time while they're in school, adding to the pressure and lack of time to complete school work. Yes, there's lots to do in grad school, but taking time for yourself is still important. Doing well in grad school is important, too, but if you don't take care of yourself, your accomplishments in school are for naught. So, let's get back to your reading habit. Reading books can help you develop new habits, stay motivated, and increase your energy levels. And reading keeps your brain engaged more than binging 17 seasons of your favorite shows on Netflix (although, sometimes, you need a binge). Reading for Leisure I have lots of reading to do in my studies. Let's face it: most reading for grad school is NOT fun. It may be interesting and, hopefully, informs your work, but it's not stirring anything deep in your soul. Should you read for pleasure when you're in grad school? OF COURSE! Even if you get in just a few hours a week of reading your favorite genre, you will benefit. Don't overlook the benefits of jumping into another world for a few hours and forget about the pressures of grad school. Let's take a look at some books to help you in your grad school journey. These books cover the writing process, productivity, self-care, and some fun reads. Books to Improve Your Writing Skills How to Write a Lot: A Practical Guide to Productive Academic Writing by Paul Silvia If you're having trouble making headway with your writing, you might want to check out "How to Write a Lot" by Paul Silvia. It's not going to turn you into Shakespeare or anything, but it can help you build good writing habits and make it easier to separate your writing time from your personal time. The book breaks the writing process down into bite-sized chunks, making it easier to tackle and giving you plenty of opportunities to celebrate your progress. Definitely worth a shot - you might be surprised at how much you can get done. Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott This book is a total classic, and it's all about how to write and how to get over writer's block and all those pesky mental roadblocks that get in the way of writing. It's not specifically about grad school or academia, but it's on this list because it's basically the bee's knees when it comes to writing advice. The title comes from a story the author wrote when she was a kid about writing a paper about birds. Like "How to Write a Lot," this is all about taking it slow and steady, tackling one small task at a time. Several Short Sentences About Writing by Verlyn Klinkenborg A unique book that can help snap you out of typical academic writing mode “…thus the present findings elucidate a novel method for exploring the behavior and interactions of…” Almost poetic. Almost rhythmic. Straight to the point. The author explains in free form the fallacies and illusions of forming sentences and getting them onto the page. This will force you to re-think your mental process resulting in better sentences and better papers. The end of the book covers examples of common sentences and calls out the superfluous wording, re-writing it with only the essentials. Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day: A Guide toStarting, Revising, and Finishing Your Doctoral Thesis by Joan Bolker If you’re lacking motivation, struggling to get started every day, orare completely overwhelmed by the massive task at hand, give this book a look. It doesn’t offer any real advice on the details of a dissertationbut instead aims to instill confidence in the reader. The author guidesyou through setting daily page goals, storing ideas, and gettingsomething--anything--down on the page each day. Essentially a personalconfidence coach for writing, applicable to more than just adissertation. The Literature Review: Six Steps to Success by Lawrence Machi Starting your literature review is the hardest part. It feels like adaunting task without a clear path to success. This book helps breakdown each step in the process into achievable goals supplemented bystrategies for efficiently and effectively approaching each one. The fewhours spent reading this book will be paid back to you in saving timeresearching and writing later.  It will help save your sanity and reduceanxiety approaching your first literature review. Books to Increase Your Productivity and Focus The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod This book has been instrumental in maintaining my sanity. Hal Elrod's book shares his technique of six popular morning routine practices: exercise, reading, journaling, visualization, affirmations, and meditation. He started doing all of them every morning after a near-fatal car accident left him physically and mentally impaired. He refined the timing and intentions around each practice and shared it with friends, which exploded by word-of-mouth. Eventually, he wrote a book to share the technique with the world. This book is highly recommended for anyone with a self-driven and self-structured workday, like a typical grad student. Read it soon to see how it can greatly impact your life. Getting Things Done by David Allen In my mind, this book is the bible of productivity. "The Getting Things Done (GTD) program is designed to help you do the things you have to do with less time, energy, and effort so you can do more of the things you want to do. The crux of the GTD system is to store every task, reminder, and note bouncing around your brain in an external organization system to free up your mental energy to actually focus on the task at hand. Your brain is great at creating and processing things but not at remembering them, so trying to keep track of everything in your head saps your brainpower from doing what your mind does best. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aD8WG49PY4 For more great books for grad students, check my ever-growing list right here. Read the full article
0 notes
balslevengel0 · 2 years
Text
Fantasy Books For Women
Have you seen the signs held up by fans at sports venues that simply read, John 3:16? The one in the cornerstones of the items Christians believe. Look in the King James Bible in the third chapter among the book of John, verse 16. "For God so loved the world, that he or she gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Is there a better, more concise, statement of such things as God loves us bunches of that he would do anything for us to have eternal life with Your? When The Shack came out in paperback in 2007, it received critical acclaims and critical reviews. Incidents where called system heretical and un-biblical. They, and I, to an extent, could not have been more screwy. The Shack was not intended being a theological study of the triune nature of God. Much of this unfair criticism was because it had been too summary. The personages of the story are intended to resemble, but are still not be exactly like, the Holy Trinity: God The Father, God The Son, and God The Holy Spirit. All God site that will direct co-equally Who. John Reyer: Wow, dude, I asked at a sluggish start the interview if you possessed taken your coffee. May sound like your mood is incurable or I'm so captivating that you forgot to get caffeine. Anyways, can handle. The man saw her waiting and offered backyard her company while she was waiting alone within their wheel massage chair. He quoted the book of John and referenced knowing that she needed guide his next-doors. They developed such a rapport, my mother asked the man to pray for her, that her leg may heal. His angelic wife walked forward and without hesitation, kneeled down inside the crowded waiting room, and placed her hands on my small mothers leg to pray for Gods healing and direction. John: Everyone knows that breaking into the publishing industry is hard. I worked at it for a long time, and was frustrated on more occasions than I desire to remember. So linkassistant must continue doing the job. They need to believe in themselves and within works. Whenever they have this conviction, as a result willing to function very hard, then anything is possible. But it isn't an instant process individuals need for patient (easier said than done, I know). In The Shack, Mack almost resembles crackback church is not important. It's only important to follow Jesus (Olson, p. 120). However, the Apostle Paul wasn't developing a long list of Jesus followers, he was planting church buildings. His letters were to churches, not individuals. The book of Revelation, the truth of Jesus Christ, not John, defines a message to the seven churches, not record of Jesus followers. This is not a macho-man pep rally. It is a search for authentic masculinity. wonderfox dvd ripper requires something of us, puts us for the test. Though we may fear the test, at the same time we yearn to be tested, get that has actually what it takes. If a man has lost this desire, says he doesn't want it, measuring only because he believes he will fail the test. So he decides it's do not to look. Eldredge reveals many ways to change that. Fiction is not the same. Many novelists start off writing with nothing more than an image, or emotions. Be relaxed about quip for desktop . Your left mental faculties are logical and wishes to know just what you're generating. However your creative right brain isn't verbal, and doesn't care. Have confidence in your right brain: your innate creativity will deliver.
0 notes
kirnet · 3 years
Text
Tumblr media
Sweet baby kirnet
1 note · View note
yyxgin · 3 years
Text
lee felix’s guide to hating you
Tumblr media
— ♡ FIC BANNER MADE BY THE AMAZING @chogiwow !!
pairing: lee felix x fem!reader genre: college au, tutor au ; fluff, angst, slice of life, slow burn word count: 21 k warnings: mentions of alcohol, mention of weed, swearing, bad family relationships
a/n: this story is very briefly inspired by jaemin’s drama ‘the way i hate you’ :) also this idea has been in my mind for such a long time, so i’m happy i finally managed to write it. this is also my longest fic so far, i hope it’s worth it. uhh yea enjoy <3
Tumblr media
taglist: @feyregels​ @missskzbiased​ @hyunyin​ @koishua​ @crispy-chan​ @rindomo​ @soulssung​ @thatrandomoneinthecorner​ @90shermione​ @chogiwow​ @creatichee​ @freckledberries​ @hyunnies-stars​ 
Tumblr media
There’s a list of things Lee Felix knew before applying for college-- and that is: 1) he really, desperately needs a degree for his grandparents to value him as an equal adult, 2) college in young adult movies seems like fun and partying and alcohol really does sound like his wettest dream, 3) he doesn’t need to work for another 4 years, which is fun and 5) he is really, horribly bad at studying.
Here’s a list of things Lee Felix, however, did not know before applying for college, and even though it’s fairly shorter, it hits you in the guts deeper, and that is: 1) studying for college means never ending chapters of insomnia and 2) he is always going to feel like the second choice for everyone. 
You see, girls don’t like Felix that much. Well, that’s a lie-- girls do go after him, tell him he’s cute and his freckles are adorable, but that’s only after they find out there’s no use in chasing after his best friend Han Jisung when he gets himself a new significant other. Boys don’t go after Felix either. Why, you may ask? Read the paragraph over again-- just change the word girls to the word boys. It’s as simple as that. He’s always the second choice, the back-up plan. It feels silly to drag his grandma into this, really, but the truth is, he’s a second choice in every aspect of his life, and that, too, includes his big (and still growing) family that treats him as something less than a human just because of the fact that his grades aren’t as good as his cousin’s are and he doesn’t have a degree in biological science, although he’s too young for that and his college years only started. It’s hard, living in his shoes.
What is Felix, however, really good at? 
Cheating.
Yeah, well, you see-- it’s not funny to be the outcast of the smart Lee family and it’s also not enetaining in the slightest to be the only single one at family gatherings (read as: weddings, because every single one of his relatives decided to fuck up their life with marriage in the past three years for some unknown reason). So Felix does what he’s the best at, and that is going by his favorite life motto: fake it ‘til you make it. 
He cheats on every single one of his exams and believe me when I tell you he’s the top of the class just because he’s the best cheater in town. Good cheating techniques equal good grades and suddenly, Felix’s life seems much brighter when he spends his sleepless nights with creating cheat sheets instead of studying and copying essays written in korean, translating them to english and submitting them as his own because no one will ever notice-- his degree is within the reach of his hand and he can already feel all the grandmas of the family clapping in joy, maybe even wiping away a stray tear on his graduation ceremony in a few years with bouquets of flowers in their hands and expensive watches in their gift bags, ready to welcome him back into the family.. 
What he doesn’t expect, though, is the cute little saying of ‘every lie has short legs’ he swears he heard sometimes in his linguistic class before, coming to life right in front of his eyes as the professor of his Biology class makes him the assigned tutor of the sweet Y/N Y/L/N, because, well, he clearly doesn’t know anything-- what’s he supposed to tutor now? 
The best cheating techniques?
Tumblr media
The freckled boy sitting in front of you looks at you with furrowed brows and you wonder what’s the matter with him. Is there something on your face? Are you not dressed appropriately for the occasion? I mean, it’s only a tutoring session, so you didn’t put that much effort into it, but judging from the casual outfit enveloping his body, he didn’t really try to look fancy either. So what was it with him that made him stare you down as if you had horns on your head?
“Shall we start?” he asks once he’s done staring, voice sounding determined. You wonder if he sees the hints of nervousness on your face and if he notices the way you shrink in your seat in the mention of biology, but you guess he doesn’t know you that well to know that you fear the subject as much as you fear dying. 
“Yeah, sure,” you nod, scooting closer to the edge of your seat so you’re not so far away from the table. Felix-- your new biology tutor-- is sitting opposite of you and it’s quite difficult to read the text book once it’s upside down, but you don’t dare to mention it to him for a reason that’s unknown to you as well. It’s like you don’t want to overstep any invisible boundary on your first tutoring session, and telling the person that is teaching you to turn around the text book so you can actually see and learn something seems to be one of the taboos in your eyes. 
You take a quick glance at the waiter that just stopped next to your booth and smile, opening up your mouth to order yourself a meal. “Can I get you anything else?” she asks.
“No-” Felix offers her with a shy smile, but you cut him off with a voice a little higher in the octaves, not wanting your tutor coming in between you and reaching your biggest goal you’ve set for yourself.
“Actually, yes. Could I please get the chicken wings? With fries?” you ask, trying to look as innocent as you can, smiling at her in politeness. You ignore the confused look Lee Felix is offering you from the other side of the table. You mentally send him a signal to tell him to mind his own business, watching the waitress leave with a nod and a polite smile. 
“Okay, now we can start,” you nod at him and focus all your attention to the boy with sandy hair in front of you.
“O...kay?” he answers, obviously trying to bat away his rising confusion, because ordering yourself chicken wings on your tutoring session is prohibited now, apparently. “So,” he starts, sighing and scratching the back of his neck, “what do you not understand from this section?” 
You nervously chew on the bottom of your lip. Well, that’s a sweet question, you think. It would have been much sweeter and much easier to answer, though, if you understood at least a bit from the things you’re supposed to know. You went to university with the urge to prove something to yourself, but the only thing you’re proving to yourself right now is the fact that you are actually kind of useless, when it comes to biology.
“Just like the… whole thing, actually,” you nod, trying not to look as defeated as you feel and also trying not to burst out in a manic laugh as you always do when you feel slightly nervous about anything.
“Cool, cool, yeah,” he nods, taking a deep breath in, turning the textbook around and sighing, “I don’t think I can help you with that.”
“What do you mean you can’t?” you ask, confused. 
Lee Felix is the top of the grade. He is the best at biology, he is the best at chemistry, he is the best at his farmacy class. You’re sure he’ll be a fine biochemist in a few years, when his college times are over. Lee Felix is the smartest boy in your biology class and you are, coincidentally, quite the opposite on this spectrum. Which is exactly why your teacher managed to make Felix tutor you in his free time. You weren’t surprised at the fact that the blonde boy agreed to this-- he was quite the sweetheart, really. All the girls in your class fawned upon the way his freckles shined in the sunlight and the way he opened the doors for older professors. He was quite the boy you would want to introduce to your parents. Not quite the one every girl goes after, but the one that you would want to settle down with after your college years are over.
So why is he, the sweet, but also smart boy that agreed to tutor you, now telling you he can’t help you?
“It’s just.. I’m not really good at this section, I mean-”
“Felix, you’re the top of the class. Of course you’re good at this section.” you mumble, gazing deep into his eyes, trying to search for an answer.
“I-” he says and takes a sharp breath in, stopping himself in continuing his train of thought and just opting to shrug, not giving you a proper response either.
You feel like someone just punched you in the gut, and that’s when you realise-- here it is again. Another person that doesn’t believe in you-- another person that needs proving that you really can do it, you just need a little push. You can see it in his eyes that he doesn’t think you’re smart or bright enough to pass the exams, you’re not good enough to get good grades. It’s nothing new to you, but it still haunts you just the same.
“Is it because you know I can’t do it?” you bluntly ask, sighing. 
“No! No, no, I never said that-” he says, almost panicking with the way his hands fly into the air hurriedly, waving them around as if it was meant to calm you down. 
“You’re acting like it, though. I promise I’m not stupid- well, maybe I am, but-”
“You’re not stupid! It’s me! I’m the stupid one here.” he says, effectively silencing you with his words as you stare at him, dumbfounded. He’s joking, right?
“How can you be stupid when you get only the best grades? Felix, if you just don’t want to waste your time here, tell me, but don’t try to hide behind poor excuses.” you roll your eyes, feeling frustrated at the boy’s antics. Does he really think you’re that stupid that you can’t see right through his lies?
“I cheat.”
You blink a few times as if to reset your brain, gazing at him with pure confusion written in your orbs. He cheats? No. That’s a lie. A person as good at biology as Felix can’t cheat. All his exams are on 100% and he never makes any mistakes. He’s the epitome of the smart kid. The little Einstein. The prodigy. There’s no way it’s all cheating.
“No.” you shake your head in disapproval. “Don’t lie to me.”
“I’m not lying! Look, I genuinely, really want to help you. I really do. The thing is, though, I don’t know how to study. I make cheat sheets and I use them at every exam and every test, that’s why everyone thinks I’m super smart, but that is really not the case,” he shakes his head, staring into your eyes with his wide open in honesty, wanting you-- no,-- needing you to understand. “I would tutor you if I could, really, but I just don’t know how to,” he sighs finally, acting like he’s just given birth or ran a marathon, exhaustion written all over his face.
“So why did you offer to tutor me, then?” you ask.
He takes a moment for himself to collect his thoughts, before he speaks up again. “Well, I didn’t really want to get caught. You see, I would never turn my back to anyone. Really. So I thought I could at least try to learn something? So I could help you? But I failed, as always, so I’m just coming clean in front of you and you have to promise me you won’t tell anyone.”
The moment the last sentence leaves his mouth, you notice the apparent fear in his eyes, realising that he just shared an information with you that nobody really knows. It’s a secret he’s been hiding and keeping from everyone just to appear as the smartest one-- fooling everyone, including you. You feel even more stupid now, under his gaze. You feel played. You came to the tutoring, hoping to finally get a grip, when all you get is a person that is stepping all over the sandcastle of your fragile dreams, kicking every little piece of sand away with his lies. You know you shouldn’t feel so invested in this. You shouldn’t feel so hurt. But somehow, you still do. 
“So you just told me you are lying to everyone and cheating on tests and you want me to keep it a secret from everyone?” you ask in disbelief.
“Yes.” he nods, eyes hopeful. He’s been lying for the last year as if his life was depending on it and now he wants you to do the same-- keep quiet in front of everyone.
“And what do I do when the professor asks me why I’m not getting any better? Huh? Ever thought of that?” you leash out, harshly chewing on your bottom lip in nerves. “I want to pass. And I want to do it fair and square.” you get out in between your teeth.
“I didn’t… I didn’t think of that yet, but-”
“Leave.” you say, looking him sternly into his eyes.
“What do you mean, leave?”
“I don’t want to talk to you anymore. And you’re clearly not here to teach me anything, so you can just take your things and leave.” you spit out, crossing your hands over your chest.
“You leave, then,” he mutters, looking rather offended. You’re not sure why he’s the one hurt right now, but you guess that’s just how men and their egos are, there’s nothing more under his hurt eyes and shattered self-esteem.
“I ordered food, I’m not leaving.” you calmly respond. Once you say this, you’re reminded of the little quest you made for yourself. Never once did you feel silly for taking it so seriously in front of your other friends, but now, in front of Lee Felix with freckled dusted cheeks, you feel almost invisible as you realise why you even ordered the chicken wings and how you’re going to write a yelp review about them later.
Well, someone has to do it, and if not you, then who will, right? It’s the only valid way to find out who makes the best chicken wings in the town and not even your traitor-tutor is going to stop you now, when your list is only getting shorter and shorter. 
He stares at you for a few moments, dumbfounded, before he sighs and accepts his defeat. “Okay, I’ll just have to text my roommate to pick me up,” he admits.
You nod, just in time the server comes back with your food, offering her a welcoming smile. “Fine. But don’t even think of talking to me from now on. I’m not interested in more lies,” you spit at him, scowling as you take a look at the plate of chicken wings sitting in front of you in their full glory. You sense a very bad review, judging from the way the chicken wings look nothing like wings, rather full on small chickens dipped in oil, but dive in nonetheless. 
“Why do you have to be so dramatic?” he asks, voice coated in disbelief.
“Because I was scammed!” you yell out, mouth full of chicken, not caring a second about the way you might look in the boy’s eyes. Yes, you could have at least swallowed before speaking to him, but did you do it? No. No, you didn’t. 
“Oh come on-”
“Don’t even try arguing with me!” you spit at him-- quite glad that this time, it’s not literal-- and huff out in annoyance, when the door opens and a short boy with a bucket hat on steps into the bistro, the red fabric of the seats of the booths contrasting with his shoes in a way that makes you feel captivated, your eyes refusing to tear themselves away from him. 
The boy is taking quick steps to your booth and you almost choke on your chicken wings as you admire his full glory-- tanned skin and car keys in his hand, but his eyes meet the boy sitting opposite of you and that’s when everything clicks. This is not the boy of your dreams, this is Han Jisung. Your tutor’s best friend and roommate-- also known as the resident heartbreaker. You shouldn’t feel weak in your knees when you look at him, but that’s exactly what happens and you won’t feel ashamed about it. Well, not now, at least. In a few hours when you’re lying in your bed? Maybe. But I’ll tell you then.
“Yo, dude, I texted you like five minutes ago that I’m waiting for you outside, what are you still doing here?” he asks, furrowing his brows at his roommate and slowly moving his eyes to you, scanning you up and down, leaving your heart to do the stupid cartwheel you haven’t felt since, like, middle school. 
“We were in the middle of an argument, so I didn’t hear my phone ring.” Felix answers, glaring at you with spiteful eyes. You almost prepare to kill him with yours, but you focus on wiping the oil from the corner of your mouth and smiling heavenly, trying to look like a lady in front of your new visitor.
“Was Felix being absolutely unbearable again?” he asks you, surprising you with his subtle way of engaging you into the conversation.
You giggle, rolling your eyes slightly. “Yeah. You know him too well, don’t you?”
“Unfortunately,” he admits, looking defeated, when he moves his eyes to Felix, looking rather sulky on the red seat in front of you as you chat with his roommate, when Jisung’s tone of voice changes into a more worried one, speaking up again, “does she… did you…?”
“Yeah,” Felix just nods. 
Jisung sighs, sitting down next to his roommate, pushing him a little so he has more space in the booth. “What are you supposed to tutor her anyway?” he asks.
“Biology,” you mumble sooner than Felix gets the chance to speak up, motioning to the textbook still sitting at the table in front of you. 
The boy takes a look at the papers, his face changing from a focused one to a one more lighter, his eyes scanning the papers with ease. You notice his mouth moving a little as he reads the words under his breath, catching yourself from staring when you feel Felix’s eyes burning into the crown of your head, snapping you back to reality. 
“You know… maybe I could help you with that.” he says, looking like a business offering you a deal that you’re sure involves something illegal. He looks like a focused squirrel with his cheeks puffed out a little in what you sense is pride, something in his eyes glowing as you nervously chew on your bottom lip.
“Really?”
“Yeah, of course. I’m actually quite good at biology, to be honest. Well, not as much as Felix over here-” he jokes, scowling when the blonde boy punches his arm, “but I think I could tutor you a thing or two.”
“What’s the catch?” you ask, nervously watching him. Something in his composure is telling you he’ll want something in return, but you don’t know what yet. You’re quite sure you’ll sell your soul for the adorable boy in front of you if he asked you to, but it never hurts to ask beforehand, right? 
“What do you mean, what’s the catch?”
“Like… what do you want in return?” you muse out, taking a bite of a fry, noticing how soggy it feels under your teeth.
“Woah, you spend 15 minutes with Felix and you already think there’s something illegal behind everything? I’ll let you know, I’m better than that.” he scoffs. “I’m just doing it because I see how miserable you are. And I also don’t want you to tell on my buddie over here.” he adds, smiling warmly.
You take notice of the way Felix’s eyes grow twice their size and how Jisung’s knee lightly bumps into his under the table. It’s subtle, but you think that maybe this is when you fully fell for the short boy in front of you-- when he offered to save his best friend’s ass by helping out a lost girl with biology. And who are you to say no now? I mean, you need the tutoring nonetheless. Who cares if the boy tutoring you is someone else? Maybe it’s even more appealing to you this way, but you’ll never admit that out loud.
“Okay then, sure.” you nod, grinning from ear to ear, feeling satisfied.
“Great. Now, give me half the fries and we can arrange our next tutoring session,” he smiles, “oh, and I’m Han Jisung, by the way.”
He winks. 
You should be disturbed, but strangely, you’re not. You grin back at him, offering him the soggy fries you’re sure you’re going to give a really bad review in the evening, watching his composure change into a more laid-back one, engaging you in a conversation and slunging an arm around his best friend’s shoulders.
Lee Felix remains silent. He feels it once again-- he feels the loneliness of being left out. 
And he’s sure it won’t be the last time.
Tumblr media
Lee Felix knows damn well how it feels to be the third wheel. He’s hung out with Jisung and his potential love interests multiple times, he’s even been on double dates with the said male, yet, he always somehow ends up being left out. So why does it still feel the same? Why does he still feel that restless feeling in his stomach, the emptiness in his chest, just like the first time? I guess you never get used to some things and emotions are one of them. No matter how much you argue that you know a feeling so well it doesn’t even surprise you anymore, it still hurts the same. That’s funny about emotions. Sometimes, they can’t even make you numb.
“Hurry up dude, the bistro closes in an hour and half!” Jisung rushes the taller male (not tall, just taller. Don’t misunderstand.) with his car keys in his hand, twirling them around his fingers in a nervous manner. Felix notices his roommate has put some effort into his outfit today, considering the lemon supreme shirt enveloping his body that he saves only for special occasions, yet, Felix doesn’t realise why he had to put it on when they’re literally just going out to eat some soggy fries in the bistro close to their house. He doesn’t ask, though. He doesn’t want the car key stuck in his forehead. He also doesn’t know why they have to rush so much, since they have an hour and half left before they close, but again, he doesn’t dare to say it out loud. 
Felix quickly puts his shoes on and rolls his eyes at his roommate. “I’m ready,” he announces.
Jisung swiftly takes a bottle of cologne from the table in their small hall (it’s so small they don’t even have a mirror in it, because there was no use in taking mirror selfies when all you can see on the picture is your phone case due to the fact that the room is too narrow for you to move further away) and sprays his body wit hit, efficiently confusing his roommate. “You wanna smell great for the waiter there? Because from what I remember, he was a stoner-”
“Oh, shut up. You never know when you’re gonna meet someone cute, am I right?” he asks, grinning from ear to ear like a cat, taking his backpack with him and opening the front door, “gotta look and smell presentable at all times.”
Felix wonders if this is why everyone always goes after his best friend. 
No, he thinks, it cannot be the cloud of cologne hanging around his body. It’s heavy and it makes Felix cough a little, but he tries to mask it, because he’s fairly sure Jisung won’t pay for his fries today if he doesn’t. And Felix is a simple man-- if he can get something for free, he will do anything to achieve it.
They arrive at the place in a few minutes and Felix can already feel his mouth watering at the thought of the salty fries and cheeseburger he’s going to get himself, joyfully skipping inside the bistro and waiting in the queue. Jisung follows him, standing next to him, efficiently covering the smell of the oil and all the good things on this earth-- read as fast food-- making Felix scowl. The boy behind the register, is, in fact, Na Jaemin-- the resident frat boy. Felix’s heard all about him from the girls staying at the dorms and to be honest, he’s quite glad he doesn’t have to live the stories of getting caught with weed at Jaemin's party on his own. That, and the fact that hot water runs in his apartment. Na Jemin might have the weed, but he surely doesn’t have that in his college dorm room. 
“Three milkshakes, two large fries, chicken wings and a cheeseburger, please.” Jisung orders, confusing Felix in one sentence. Since when is his best friend a bottomless pot for food? Is he really going to eat all of that?
“Coming right at you. Anything else?” Jaemin asks, voice considerate and polite, still turned on his customer service mode, even though Felix is sure him and Jisung have had shared a joint or two on one of his parties before.
“No, that’s all. Thanks, man,” Jisung answers, leaving with Felix right behind him. 
“Who’s gonna eat all of that? I hope you know you’re paying, and before you protest, yes, I did purposefully leave my wallet at home-” he rambles, still moving, when his train of thought is cut off by a person in his view.
You are sitting there in your full glory, smiling brightly at the boys approaching you. You’re dressed nicely, he notices-- you look like you put some effort into what you’re wearing. You don’t look that much different, but he can still see the slight changes you made to look neat. You’re glowing, Felix notices. You look excited.
“Hi, Y/N,” Jisung greets, taking a seat opposite of you. He doesn’t even give Felix an answer, he doesn’t even give him an explanation. He’s left there only to take a seat next to his roommate after collecting his thoughts, chewing on his bottom lip.
The conversation never moves his way. He is silenced. Felix wonders why he was even invited, watching the people behind the window laughing with their friends, happy to order some tasty food and have fun on this Thursday evening. He watches his friend and his classmate have fun-- well, as much fun as a tutoring session could be. You’re laughing at every single one of Jisung’s jokes and he swears Jisung’s eyes never leave your face, even when he’s explaining something to you. He wonders why Jisung didn’t tell him where they’re going. He wonders why he even had to come.
Lee Felix knows how third-wheeling feels. Yet, it still makes his little foolish heart hurt just the same every time.
Tumblr media
You nervously chew on your bottom lip, cracking your knuckles in a habit your friends always scream at you for, waiting for your tutor-- well, he’s not really your tutor anymore-- to appear in the bistro on the other side of the town. You admire the decorations for a while, liking the way it looks modern here and the purple led lights make the whole place look aesthetic. You can already imagine multiple college kids going here and taking instagram pictures to look cool. It’s nice and you’ll definitely include it in your yelp review-- it won’t make it more stars, though, if the chicken wings don’t taste like heaven.
You tug on the sleeves on your hoodie, as if you were trying to make yourself disappear. I mean, you do feel embarrassing. You feel pathetic that it had to come down to this, but you guess desperate times call for desperate solutions. You’re not here to look put-together anymore. You’re going to show him your full glory and although you regret it a little, you still have a little spark of hope in you that Han Jisung-- the boy you, admittedly, were crashing on real hard right now, won’t find out.
Felix comes into the bistro in his full VSCO boy glory, as always. He is wearing a jean jacket and his freckled cheeks are dusted pink, you’d almost think he’s blushing all the time. He doesn’t quite fit the aesthetics of this futuristic looking bistro, you notice. The retro places you’ve been to so far fit him much more-- his sandy hair contrasted well with the yellow walls and red booths. It was starting to get a little repetitive, though, you must admit.
“Hi,” he greets you as he takes his seat, smiling at you with what you can only describe as a feeling of full uncomfort. You wonder what made him feel this way about you, but you don’t dare to think of it twice as you focus on the main quest of the day-- forcing him to teach you his ways.
“Hello,” you smile. 
Felix notices how natural you look-- it feels like now is the first time he’s seeing you in your full glory. You aren’t wearing your neat clothes for a meeting with Jisung and you’re not too casual like you were at your first ‘tutoring session’ either-- you’re just you. The way he doesn’t even see you in classes. He likes the fact that no one else than him can see you like this-- he likes the fact that Jisung is nowhere around, yet, he wonders why is that, exactly, since the two of you seemed to be hitting it off quite well so far.
Felix hasn’t been with Jisung when he last tutored you. He figured there’s no use, he’s going to get ignored all the time anyway. 
“So… what’s the matter?” he asks, folding his hands into his lap. He dares to take a quick look at you, noticing your worn-out shirt and dark circles under your eyes, worry washing over him. Did something happen? Was Jisung a jerk to you? 
“Well, I sort-of have a little problem,” you mumble out, tearing your gaze away from him. You seem shy for the first time in front of him and he wonders why. He doesn’t understand your sudden change of behaviour. This isn’t the you he’s used to. “Well, turns out, I am really stupid.” you propose, leaving Felix to gaze at you in surprise.
He chuckles. You swiftly look up at him with piercing eyes telling him to stop, and he almost does, but your face looks too adorable when it’s scrunched up like that, so he only giggles once more. “You’re not stupid.”
“I am!” you whine out, finally letting your whole shy facade fall, exposing the true you once again right in front of Felix’s eyes-- direct and fierceful. “Even Jisung’s tutoring isn’t helping and I feel so stupid with him! And I don’t want him to think that I’m stupid, even though I am, and I just… I can’t pass my exams like this, so I need your help.” you say, eyes big, looking almost pleading.
“And I am supposed to help… how? Exactly?” The confusion is written all over his face, and it almost makes you frustrated. You knew he must be smart, if his cheating has been so good he’s getting through college with straight As, but really, is he really that smart if he can’t read in between the lines?
“Help me cheat.” you quickly get out, biting down on your lower lip just as you say it, as if you were regretting it.
The silence that overtakes the two of you feels like it’s slowly going to eat you up alive, angrily biting into your skin. It feels heavy and suffocating, your palms sweating as you watch Felix blink at you with mouth agape, breathing in and out. You pray for him to make up his mind soon, or else you’re going to run out of the bistro without a yelp review, tearing the skin of your cuticles as you see him blink quickly a few times before shaking his head in disbelief, clearing his storage.
“You want me to help you cheat?” he asks for clarification, furrowing his brows at you.
“That’s correct.” you nod, chewing on the inside of your cheek. You haven’t been this nervous since you took your college entrance exams, and that shows a lot, considering you used to say that has been the most difficult experience of your life so far.
“Because Jisung…. isn’t tutoring you well enough?” he asks again, making you roll your eyes in annoyance.
“Hey, don’t put the blame on Jisung! I’m just stupid, that’s all.” you say, looking down into your lap, because his gaze suddenly feels like he’s judging you and you really don’t feel like maintaining eye contact with him when you’re under pressure.
“If you don’t stop saying that, I will kick you.”
“You wouldn’t dare-”
“I would and I will-”
“Okay, but is that a yes, then?” you look up at him with hopeful eyes, resembling a puppy just a little too much, and, well, Felix can’t just reject you now, can he?
“I.. guess…?” he says, watching your face light up in joy as you clap a few times in excitement. 
“Great! Can we start today? We have to start today! I brought my text books and papers and sharpies and-” you are cut off by Felix’s face lighting up at the sight of you, his eyes looking warm and admiring. You quickly shake away the excitement before it goes too far and you actually go to hug him or something, taking a deep breath in and out to calm yourself down.
Just in that moment, the server appears with two servings of chicken wings and two large fries, making Felix look at you in confusion. 
“I ordered you food, since I thought we’ll stick around for a while..” you mumble, seeing him eagerly nod and take one fry into his hand, biting down on it with a face full of pleasure. 
“Perfect. Just let me eat a few of these and we can get right into work, I promise,” he mutters with a mouth full of food, prompting you to take a bite yourself. It doesn’t taste the worst-- the bistro you went to after prom last year was definitely worse than this, but still, you don’t think Felix’s face quite resembles how the food tastes. He looks as if the Queen of England made it. In reality, it’s just a soggy fry. 
“Why do you always order the same thing? Aren’t you tired of eating the same thing over and over again?” he asks suddenly, examining your face with real interest. No one’s ever noticed your eating habits before, just shrugging off what you order every single time. Your little fast food experiment has been a secret so far, even though it wasn’t that hard to cover it up-- nobody really cared until now. 
You feel blush creeping on your cheeks as you shrug, feeling a little embarrassed for like the hundredth time today, when you reply to the boy in front of you. You know his secret, so it only feels valid for him to know yours. “I have this experiment… like, I try chicken wings and fries at every single bistro, restaurant and fast food chain in the town to find out which one’s the best…” you mumble, looking into your plate instead of facing him out of the ugly feeling of patheticness creeping up your back.
“Oh, that’s cool!” he exclaims, pointing his fry your direction, a response you didn’t quite expect, “Where do they have the best ones so far?” he asks, genuine interest painting his features.
“Oh,” you get out, feeling your lips unvoliteraly tug into a smile, “I don’t.. I still have a few bistros and the McDonald’s on the highway out of the city left, but I’d say the best ones so far were at Wendy’s. I didn’t quite like the chicken wings there, though, so…”
“Hmm,” he nods, deep in thought, “we just get food at where’s the closest.” he says, munching on a chicken wing. “I guess we could pay a little more attention to the food from now on, because after eating this, I’m never going to eat the food from the bistro right in front of our flat again.”
“Yeah, that bistro’s really awful. I only gave it around 2.5 stars, I think-” you say, before you realise you just spilled out another secret to him, feeling your cheeks heating up. 
“2.5 stars? What, do you write yelp reviews or something?” he asks, clearly amused by your accidental spill-out.
“And what if I do?” you defend yourself, glaring at him with fake annoyance. No man will ever make fun of you because you write yelp reviews. Not Lee Felix, even though he seems too nice to actually make fun of you because of something, not anyone. 
“That’s cool, though! Those help so much when you travel,” he says, eagerly nodding at you with big eyes and an adorable grin plastered on his face, making you feel understood and happy with just the sudden sign of acceptance. Turns out your little weird obsession isn’t as embarrassing as you thought it was. Or Lee Felix really is the sweetest guy walking on this earth. Either one is fine in your books.
You stay there for a few hours and Felix teaches you the basic cheat codes-- never meet the teacher’s eye, never finish your tests too quickly, always forcefully pick the wrong option before scribbling it out and putting in a correct one to not seem too suspicious. He even takes a piece of paper from you and scribbles down the basic cheat-sheet making structure. 
He feels good with you. He feels useful. He knows he shouldn’t be teaching you this, but really, is it really doing any harm? We all have to go through college somehow.
Yet, all evenings always end the same for Felix, with a bad feeling in his gut and a fake smile on his face hiding the true meaning behind his actions. He’ll never be the first choice and you remind him even today, after you leave the ‘tutoring session’ with a quick hug to the male, lowering your voice so only he can hear when you pay him your goodbyes.
“Don’t tell Jisung, okay?”
Of course. It’s all because you don’t want to look embarrassing in front of his best friend.
Tumblr media
It goes all how you planned it to-- you’re sitting at your next tutoring session with two males in front of you. One of them is your supposed tutor and one of them is a boy that’s helping you pass your exams for real. You’re into one of them, even though you shouldn’t. You wonder how you even ended up in this mess. You swear you were a good student in high school, always submitting your assignments on time and making sure your tests were on 100%. It was kind of fueling your ego, in a way. You had no other plans in your life to hold on to, no dreams to dream, so you reasoned to do the only thing that you were good at-- getting good grades. You had to prove to yourself that there was a reason, a meaning behind your life. You had to prove to yourself that your existence was valid.
You watch Jisung with interest. You pray to god that he doesn’t catch you in your act, because that would surely be embarrassing. You don’t want him to find out that you’re just fine with cheating, because that meant your tutoring sessions with the male would end and there was no other reason for you to see him. You knew Han Jisung wasn’t interested in you. You were sure you’d see it on him if he was. And even then, you weren’t interested in only a short relationship without any good point. You liked Jisung, but you didn’t like his reputation. One week wasn’t long enough for you to waste your time on him and get your heart broken. You weren’t sure if he was a player, or if he just wanted to desperately find the one by trying all the possibilities, but you weren’t going to find out. 
Felix watches you with interest in his eyes-- but you don’t notice. He prays that Jisung doesn’t find out about your secret little ‘tutoring sessions’, because that would mean he wouldn’t have a reason to hang out with you anymore. And Felix really doesn’t want that to happen. For some reason, he doesn’t want you to ever frown. And he’s sure that’s exactly what would happen if Jisung cancelled.
It doesn’t click to him what’s happening inside of his little, foolish heart when he sees you smile at Jisung and his stomach fills with worry. 
It doesn’t click to him what’s happening with him when every time Jisung subtly takes your hand in his makes his insides twitch in frustration. He thinks it’s just because of the fact that he’s third-wheeling again, like all his life, and maybe that is partly true, but it’s not the whole reason behind the cloud around his head.
It clicks only when him and his roommate are back home, sitting at the dinner table with the left-overs from the new bistro you three went to, munching on the chicken wings and another pack of soggy french fries and the cola they had in their fridge.
“So… what do you think about Y/N?” Jisung asks suddenly, making Felix furrow his brows in confusion.
“What should I think? She’s smart, I guess…” he mumbles, mouth full of food, not quite grasping the full meaning of his roommate’s question. 
“Yeah, yeah,” Jisung quickly nods in approval, “she’s getting really good. I mean, you can still see she’s having some troubles when I’m tutoring her, but at least she always gets good grades on tests now,” he says, biting down on another piece of chicken wing. Felix feels a wave of pride wash over him after hearing the words-- of course you’re doing well on exams. It’s all Felix’s doing. You’re a quick learner, when it comes to cheating. 
“Yeah, she’s good,” he says. 
“Well,” Jisung suddenly starts, meaning to sound nonchalantly, but only sounding like he’s determining his biggest life secret in front of his friend instead, “I like her.”
Felix almost chokes on the piece of chicken in his mouth, trying to play it off with a small chuckle. “Oh? You do?”
“Yeah. Should I.. Should I ask her on a date or something?” he asks and Felix swears he can see his friend’s cheeks reddening a little, even though the last time he’s seen Jisung embarrassed was when he accidentally called their Math’s teacher mum in eleventh grade. 
“You don’t date, though,” Felix opposes.
“That’s not true-”
“Two weeks long relationships aren’t relationships, Jisung.” 
“Not my fault they’re never the one! It gets boring after a while, Felix, I can’t just-”
“Why are you even asking me this?” Felix suddenly cuts him off, glaring at him. He doesn’t know why he’s reacting in such a way. It’s not like it’s the first time Jisung is going to date someone for two weeks just to break their heart, it’s not the first time they’re going to run after Felix a week after just so they can still be around the one that broke their heart. This time, though, he does not want to see another heart get broken.
“Jesus, chill, man… I was just asking, since you two seem closer. Did she mention anything about me? Is she dating anyone?” Jisung asks, eyes lighting up.
Felix could be an asshole. He could tell Jisung that you’re already dating someone, he could tell him to back off and that you’re not interested. However, he does not do that. Instead, he does the quite opposite. He pushes his best friend into asking you out, he tells him he should try it, because that’s just the kind of person he is. Besides, he knows you’re into him. Maybe the smile on your face could make him forget about the fact that you’re going to get your heart broken. 
“Sure, go for it.” he shrugs, “I don’t really care anyway.”
“Fine, then-”
“I’m gonna shower.” Felix says, quickly standing up from his chair and moving to the bathroom, quickly escaping the conversation.
Only then he realises what he feeling in his gut means, only then he notices the way his sigh feels like the weight of the world is sitting on his shoulders and he can’t breathe any time you’re around Han Jisung. 
He realises he likes you. 
And clearly, you don’t like him back.
Emotions are something you never quite get used to. Even the emotion of feeling rejection, the emotion of always being behind his best friend’s shadow. Lee Felix is always just the friend. Never the love interest. This time, though, it feels even more heavy, because in a way, you seem way more special in his eyes than the people that went after him just to get with his best friend.
This time, he does not want to see another heart get broken. Because it’s your heart we’re talking about.
And to prevent his heart shattering to even more pieces, he has to do something.
He has to stop liking you.
As soon as possible.
Tumblr media
“Y/N?” 
“Mhhm?” you ask, raising your eyes up from the cheat sheet you’re creating with Felix’s help, the grease of the fries you’re eating glistening on your chin. You’re with him in a yet another crappy bistro, trying yet another soggy fries, and even though there’s nothing special on you to a stranger’s eye, Felix’s heart can’t help but run twice the speed of light. 
“How do you stop liking someone?” he mumbles, furrowing his brows a little, deep in thought. 
“Oh, do you like someone?” you ask, and Felix momentarily lights up at the thought of you caring if he’s interested in someone, but when his eyes meet yours and he notices them glistening and lightening up in curiosity, he realises it’s just because you’re happy for him. As a good friend should be. 
“No, no,” he quickly shakes his head in disapproval, snickering to himself, “I’m just asking. Because, think, what if, hypothetically, there’s someone who is into someone else. Easy, right? But what if their best friend likes the same person? And you know you shouldn’t like them because they’re into their friend as well? What is there to do at that point?” 
You scan his face for a few seconds, thinking to yourself. “Hmm,” you start, “I guess you have to start hating them. So the feelings disappear.” you nod, satisfied with your answer.
“How’s that possible?” he asks, scoffing.
“Well, I don’t know, since it’s all hypothetical anyway,” you giggle, focusing back on your cheat sheet. Your notes are getting smaller and smaller and Felix notices the improvement in your small lettering, making your cheat sheet less noticeable. You’re learning quickly.
“Oh come on,” he whines, kicking your leg under the table, “talk to me. How can a person start hating someone? Give me a tutorial.” 
“Well, since you really need to know,” you roll your eyes, putting away the pen from your hand and resting your back against the seat of the booth, “there are a few steps you can take.”
“For example?”
“Well, you have to stop hanging out with them, first thing’s first.” you start. “Because if you don’t hang out with them, you will eventually hate the fact that they’re not near, which will, logically, make you hate them instead.”
“Is that really logical, though?” Felix asks, furrowing his brows at you. In his books, this made no sense at all, but you seemed pretty satisfied with your answer.
“Of course it is! Then, you have to find something about them that you can hate. Anything. Find even the smallest thing, and blow it up in your mind until you hate it. Easy, right?” 
“...I don’t think that’s helping at all,” he says, tone of voice unsure. 
“Of course it is! You’re just refusing that it can be true, because you think I’m stupid.” you stick out his tongue at him, focusing on your work instead.
He kicks you under the table, making you scowl. “Ow! What was that for?”
“I told you that if you’ll make that comment again, I will kick you. So I just did right that.” he says. “Besides, your ideas are stupid. Not you. There’s a difference in that.” he smartly points out, making you roll your eyes at him.
“So, who is it that you like?”
“No one. I told you, it’s hypothetical.” he glares at you.
“Right,” you nod, sighing, “well, I’ll just stick to that, since that means Jisung doesn’t like anyone and I still have a chance.” you smile at him, obviously missing out on the way your words just punched him into the gut. Felix laughs it out, kicking you in the shin instead.
“Right. Of course you do,” he nods. He wishes he didn’t mean that.
You two remain in silence for a moment, while you get back to your work and Felix pretends he’s playing a game on his phone. You don’t notice the way his eyes scan you over, admiring you, once in a while. No one ever does. He guesses this is the perk of always being just the friend. The one people are friends with just because they want something from him. The one that gets taken advantage of. He chooses not to think about it more. Maybe if he did, he could hate you over it, if he wasn’t so used to that feeling anyway. 
“We should hang out on the weekend,” you say, taking him by surprise.
“Oh?” he mumbles out, “with Jisung?”
“No?” you furrow your brows, “look, I know I look like I’m obsessed with him, but I actually just want to hang out with you alone as friends once in a while, you know.”
“We’re hanging out now, though.”
“It’s midnight, Felix,” you point out, “and we’re working. I want to hang out with my friend, like a normal person, you know.” you shrug.
“Yeah…” he says, when your words resonate in his mind like a broken curse. ‘Don’t hang out with them.’ Don’t hang out with her. You have to hate her. He has to start hating you-- there’s no other way. And so, he turns to taking your words into consideration. He can’t meet with you if he’s not ‘tutoring’ you. There’s no way. “We’ll see. I’ll tell you if I’m free.” he smiles warmly instead, because truth be told, he’ll never tell you no to your eyes. He’s always been a bit of a coward. And he also doesn’t want you to frown. Ever.
“Great!” you smile. 
And when Felix comes home that night, at 2am in the morning when his roommate is already asleep-- not knowing of your secret meetings, he lays down in his bed and repeats your advice like a broken mantra. He can’t like you. He has to hate you.
Lee Felix’s guide to hating you: 1. Don’t hang out with her. Only meet her when it’s necessary. If you don’t meet her, you’ll start hating her absence, resulting in hating her altogether. 2. Find a small thing about her to blow up so much you start to hate it. 
That’s not difficult. He hates that you like Han Jisung. It’s a small mistake, a small flaw, but he’s ready to blow it up so much he hates you for it. He hates that he’s not the first choice. He hates that you don’t like him.
Maybe he would hate you more if you were dating his best friend for real.
Lee Felix’s guide to hating you: 1. Don’t hang out with her. 2. Find a thing to hate about her. SUCCESS! 3. Set her up with Han Jisung.
Now, this plan is bulletproof, isn’t it?
Tumblr media
Felix unexpectedly breaks the first step of his guide only a few days later-- on a chilly friday afternoon, when his body is hurriedly skipping to the edge of the town centre only to meet with you. Just for the record, though, Felix didn’t intend to break the promise he gave to himself. He really wasn’t going to hang out with you if he didn’t specifically need to, but, well… you called Jisung to hang out. Felix’s heart almost skipped a few beats when he was added to a three-person big group chat with you and his roommate and at that point, he wasn’t going to reject an invitation to the fare in town, because he was fairly sure Jisung didn’t like rollercoasters and he wanted to see you laugh your ass off at him in front of everyone. Is it a little spiteful? Possibly. Does he care? Not that much.
Besides, it’s only one time. It will never happen again!!
He finds you with your black leather jacket on, stepping from one leg to the other, looking around like a lost puppy. Felix mentally curses at himself for not coming sooner so you wouldn’t feel so alone and awkward in the mass of people, when he realises he’s already 15 minutes late because of his afternoon class and his roommate is nowhere to be found.
“Thank god! I thought you were going to bail on me as well,” you call out when Felix is close enough, smiling at him.
“Where’s Jisung?”
“He texted me like 5 minutes ago that he can’t make it today. Something about his mum being in town? I’m not sure,” you furrow your brows, “at least you’re here now, though.”
Felix is met with the realisation that he’s left alone with you again, mentally cursing at himself. This surely does not look like a plan to hating you. It looks like a bullet-proof plan on how to fall even deeper for you, with how your stray hairs are flying around your head and you adorably scrunch up your nose and sniffle from the cold. 
“Should we go?” he forces out of himself, looking at you hopefully.
“Yeah!” you nod, striding a few steps in front of him like a happy school girl excited to go to school for the first time. Felix can’t surpass the gentle smile forming on his lips, shaking his head in disbelief. You look so cheerful and so joyful, making his heart swell with how easily you manage to make him feel so young again. 
He follows you gladly, managing to match his speed with yours, almost forgetting for a moment that he’s not on a date with you, almost forgetting about the fact that you like his best friend and the smile you’re giving him is nothing against the wide grin you offer to his roommate.
“Let’s go on that one!” you cheer, taking Felix by the hand and tugging him your way, not once giving him the opportunity of letting go as you drag him all around the fare. You remind him of his younger sister with how excited you get about the smallest things and he realises he wants to protect your heart from the world just as much as he wants to protect his little sister’s. It’s not the same feeling, though. The affection he feels for you is different. 
Felix doesn’t find it in him to tell you no whenever you tug him on another ride, even when his legs are tired and his jaw hurts from smiling. He finds himself wanting to capture your image into his brain forever, imprint the happy memory in there so he can find it and look at it whenever his heart feels lonely. For the first time in ages, he forgets about everything. He forgets that he’s just the friend, the other choice. He completely forgets that Han Jisung was supposed to be there, at his place, sitting next to you on the ferris wheel as you watch the night city under you with cold cheeks and frozen bodies.
“You must be sad that Jisung isn’t here with you right now. That would surely feel much more romantic than sitting here with me,” Felix says bitterly once the reality hits him for a second, once his heart is unsheltered for a short moment and your eyes meet.
“Oh, don’t be ridiculous,” you roll your eyes, “Jisung can’t be romantic. Besides, if I really wanted a date with him so badly, I wouldn’t have asked you to come with us, would I?” you smile at him, swinging your legs forward and backward, focusing your eyes somewhere into the distance again.
“Well, if you really want to go on a date with him, you can just ask him, you know?” he mumbles, playing with the dead skin on his thumb.
“So he can stand me up and go on a date with his mum again? I don’t know, Felix, is that really worth it?” you giggle, not noticing the way you’re messing with the boy’s head, not noticing the way a small spark of hope lights up somewhere in the deep pits of his stomach when you mention not wanting to ask his best friend out. 
“I don’t know, is it?”
“I’ll have to think about it.” you muse out, and the spark is gone. Of course it’s not that simple. 
Felix just nods and grins at you. The chilly air helps him hide his red cheeks when he thinks of how embarrassing his thoughts must have been in the past quick seconds. He focuses on your face, on the way your eyes crinkle up a little when you stare somewhere far into the distance and your hair flies a little with the breeze. The ferris wheel just reached the top, so he has plenty of time to keep admiring you from so close, but somehow, the moment still feels so short and he wishes he could stop the time. He wishes he could stop the time so he didn’t have to face the reality when he comes down from the ferris wheel. He wishes he didn’t have to see you fall in love with his friend, he wishes he didn’t have to act like he doesn’t care at all. 
“Thanks for helping me, by the way. I wouldn’t have passed my exams if it wasn’t for you and that… that would be really hard on me.” you get out, locking your eyes with his sincerely. He sees your eyes shining even so high above the ground, convincing him the sparkles really must be the stars, when he takes a deep breath in and responds.
“It’s no problem, I get it… I mean, it’s what you gotta do. What we gotta do, when we want to pass. And graduate,” he chuckles. 
Does he really want the degree, though? Or does he just need it to feel like he has some worth? Does he want to graduate or does he just want his parents to value him as an adult, does he really want to continue working so hard on passing or would he just be so much happier if he just dropped out. And saved himself so much stress. He should have known he was never smart enough for college.
“Yeah. I despise the smart kids in our class. I wish I were them,” you scoff, “I despise Jisung, in a way, too,” you add after a dramatic pause.
“Jisung?” Felix furrows his brows.
“Yeah,” you nod, like it’s the clearest thing in the world, “I mean, he’s smart enough to pass. He’s… he’s got his life figured out, in a way. He’s just fine. Getting all the girls and the guys, getting good grades, going on dinner dates with his mum on Fridays,” you giggle, “I mean, I want that. That sounds nice.”
Felix huffs, staring into the distance, “I guess you’re right.” He knows damn well how jealousy feels. 
“I came to college to prove to myself that my life has some worth, but I guess the only thing I prove to myself is that I can’t even pass my exams without help.” you sigh, sounding defeated.
“Hey,” he nudges you a little with his foot, “don’t say that. Life isn’t about grades, degrees and that shit. Of course you have worth and value.” 
He sees you smile in defeat, leaning your head on his shoulder. The feeling of acceptance, pure understanding washes over the two of you, when you gently speak up again. “Try to explain that to my brain.” 
He lightly giggles. “I’m trying, as you can see.”
You look up at him from his shoulder, scrunching up your nose and leaning closer to him, whispering. “It’s not working.” you laugh.
“I know it’s not easy,” he shakes his head, “I’ve been trying to tell that to my family for the past 21 years.” he slips out. Something about you makes him spill out even things he’s never told anyone before, but he finds himself not caring as you approach his eyes with pure serenity mixed with melancholy.
“Is it all because of your parents?” you ask, “the cheating, I mean.”
Felix feels his eyes giving him out, so he chooses not to look at you anymore. “I mean, I would have dropped out long ago if I didn’t have to feel so worthless around my family then. Every single one of my cousins is smart, has a degree and earns a killing. I’m just me-- living from the money I earned over summer, trying not to lose my mind with biology.”
He hears you humming next to him, your head moving as you nod in understatement. The ferris wheel is slowly reaching the bottom again and Felix finds the fact quite relieving. He doesn’t mind having deep talks with you, he just fears he might spill out something both of you don’t want to hear.
“I’m glad you came with me today, Lix.” you smile at him once the two of you reach the bottom, “wanna hear a secret?”
“Spill it out,” he dares you, grinning.
“I only invited Jisung because I thought you didn’t want to hang out with me alone.” you confess, quickly turning around in your spot as you jog a few steps in front of him, carelessly, as if you just didn’t make Felix’s heart stop and insides twitch in excitement. He prays and hopes it’s not just you giving him false hope, he wishes it’s not his mind playing tricks on him. 
“I-” 
“And now that I know you don’t mind being around me, do you wanna go to the dog cafe with me next Wednesday? You know, the one I talked about.” you turn around, flashing him a smile worth a billion dollars, taking him by surprise as his breathing hitches and he doesn’t find it in him to reject you ever again.
“Sure.”
Tumblr media
Second step of Lee Felix’s guide to helping you: find a small thing about you he doesn’t like to blow up so much he starts hating you altogether. 
He was so sure that he found the small thing just a few days ago. He thought that the fact that you like his best friend could be enough for him to start hating you. He could sit on that thought for long enough to pick it up to the smallest pieces and over-analyse it to the point he could start hating you. 
And he tries to do just that-- he lies awake at night thinking of how every single person he’s ever been interested in slipped right between his fingers just because of Jisung’s existence. He wonders why he’s never good enough to anyone, why he always has to be the second choice even for tutoring (even though it’s not even tutoring, but we won’t talk about that anymore). He thinks of how you’re so foolish to think your relationship with Jisung is going to last, because Jisung’s feelings never stay the same for long. He over-analyses the smallest things he notices on you when you’re in Jisung’s presence until the point he’s almost sure he can do it, he can hate you for it just a little, in a way, but then, the thought flies right out of the open window as his roommate crashes into his door in the middle of the night.
He startles awake, sitting up at his bed, watching the short male going in with much difficulty, sitting on his bed without a word.
“Jisung?”
“Lixie, I fucked it all up, didn’t I?” Jisung whines, laying down on the bed next to his friend. Felix doesn’t think it’s only due to the late hours of the night that his friend’s words aren’t making any sense, but he doesn’t dare to put his finger on it until he makes sure for himself.
“What are you talking about?”
“Y/N.”
Your name coming out of his lips hits Felix like a baseball bat, hurting in all the right places, as the young male finds it in him to continue the conversation.
“What about her?”
“She asked us to hang out together. And I didn’t go. I know it wasn’t my fault, because my mum was in the town, but still, I feel so bad, because now it must look like I’m not interested in her and that I don’t care and I really don’t want that, you know?” he stummers, making Felix realise his friend talks a lot when he’s under the influence of alcohol just the same second Jisung’s breath catches in Felix’s nose, only proving his point. 
“You didn’t fuck it up, don’t worry.” he muses. And it’s true. Jisung could never truly fuck it up with anyone. Even his exes always crumble up around his feet, wanting attention even after getting their heart broken. Will it be the same with you?
“She must think I don’t like her. And that’s horrible-that’s- that’s- I like her. Very much,” he whines again, getting closer to Felix and wrapping his arms around the blonde’s torso in a wave of affection that only washes over him when he’s drunk.
“Sung-” he stutters, desperately trying to push him away, but even though Jisung doesn’t look like it, he is a strong individual when it comes to involuntary cuddling. Felix can never escape his arms.
“I think she’s special, you know? She’s like- I can’t explain it. It’s like with her, I actually want to try. I want to ask her on dates and love her and give her my heart, because you know, I never dared to give my heart to anyone. And no one’s ever made me feel truly special before…” he mutters, forcing his nose to Felix’s neck, “I’m rambling too much, aren’t I?”
“Yeah,” Felix sighs, nodding. He doesn’t battle his arms anymore. Jisung is his friend, at the end of the day. He can hold him when he needs it.
“Sorry.” he says shortly, sighing as well. The room falls into silence and Felix’s head spins again, his thoughts spiral like a tornado and the eye of the storm is you-- standing there with that stupid smile on your face and he once again realises that he needs to hate you in order to shelter his own heart, because you’re like a hurricane when it comes a to a person’s emotions.
The fact is, though, he could never hate you for liking his best friend. 
Han Jisung is too likable for his own good. His heart is too big for this world, and truth be told, he’s been sharing it with everyone for such a long time now, he deserves to find someone he’s willing to give his all to. 
He could never hate you for liking Jisung-- the boy who smiles at everyone in the halls, the boy that offered him to live in the flat his parent’s bought for him in freshman year, the boy that helps him hide his cheating secret every day. He could never hate you for liking Jisung, because he himself knows too well how much of a treasure his dear friend is. 
He gets it. He gets why people always choose Jisung over him. He could never blame you.
“Sung?”
“Hmm?”
“Ask Y/N out to the dog cafe on Wednesday. She'll love it.”
Felix could never hate you.
Tumblr media
Step three of Felix’s bullet-proof guide to hating you is quite simple and actually the only one he completes with success. Setting you up with Jisung on a date is easier than he ever imagined, considering the fact that his roommate decided to finally take things into his own hands and call you on a date after the drunken weeping episode in Felix’s bed. 
Jisung invites you on a date to the dog café in town. The two of you go on Wednesday and although Felix feels like he just gave his roommate a piece of him, an invitation that was never meant for him in the first place, he feels at ease, because at least one part of his plan is working. He could never hate you, but at least now, it will be easier for him to ignore his growing feelings for you when you spend all your time with Jisung on dates and ice cream runs. He only has to ignore his feelings in school and at your ‘tutoring’ sessions. He wonders how long these will be a secret in front of your new boyfriend. Jisung’s not your boyfriend yet, but Felix can only imagine how short the time he isn’t is going to last. 
Felix does the stupid mistake of opening the instagram app in the evening, when he’s curled up in his bed with an embarrassingly big bowl of popcorn on his bed side table, serving him as his depression food. He sees your post show up, an adorable picture of you from the dog café, a big golden retriever in your lap as you giggle at its face. The picture is candid and looks like the kind Felix would like to keep as his lock screen if he had the chance. He’s sure his best friend took it for you not only from the fact that you went out with him tonight, but also for the fact that he’s tagged in the post’s description with a big blue heart emoji. 
He could stop staring at the picture if he really wanted, he could mute your posts and pretend you never existed to shelter his poor heart. He could do everything in his strength to cut all his ties with you. That would make it so much easier for him, wouldn’t it?
But he doesn't. And maybe he doesn’t even want to-- he’s used to the pain anyway, isn’t he? The bitterness, the feeling of being pushed away, ignored and left forgotten. 
He was supposed to be in Jisung’s place now, but that doesn’t change the simple fact that he isn’t-- maybe it was never his place to claim anyway. 
Felix stares at the picture for minutes, wondering of how things could be if you only didn’t fall for his best friend. Or if he came with you today. Who knows, maybe it wasn’t too late for him to ask you on a date. Maybe he could still change your mind. Felix likes to give up on things too quickly, though, and that is the curse that will follow him his whole life. 
Lee Felix is good at cheating. He is insanely good at it, he would also say it’s the only thing he’s ever been good at. Pretending.
It’s his time to shine again. It’s time to pretend he doesn’t like you, pretend you don’t hurt him, pretend he isn’t in love with his best friend’s crush. He’s been always the best at cheating and now it’s time to cheat his way out of liking you. 
Sounds easy, doesn’t it?
Tumblr media
“You must be really hungry, if you’re planning to eat all of that in one setting,” Felix mumbles, watching you as you eat yet another plate of chicken wings in yet another pointless bistro in town. Felix wonders how you even know about all of these, since the one you’re both sitting in right now, in the middle of the night, looks rather lonely. It doesn’t even seem that welcoming-- it has graffiti on the walls and the seats are a little torn on the edges, but you don’t seem to care as you munch on the chicken, eyes big when you stare back at your companion.
“I eat a lot when I’m stressed,” you mutter in between your bites, mouth full. You look natural like this and Felix realises this is you in his mind-- cheeks full of food, that little wrinkle in between your brows when you look at him, eyes staring big into his like a loyal dog. This is how he knows you, in your rawest form, and this is coincidentally, also, how he likes you the most. He loves and treasures every single version of you, but your late-night meetings feel of different kind of intimacy to him that he’s sure he’s going to think of even when he’s old and his college years are dusty like an old polaroid picture.  
“Stressed?” he asks, tone of voice a little more worried than usual. Felix always worries about you. Even when you quietly take out your cheat sheet from under the table and write your answers down. He doesn’t fear being caught-- he frankly doesn’t care that much, but he knows that you are having a battle with yourself and he really doesn’t want you to feel like you lost. He didn’t know it was so easy to put someone else first when you worry for the future. 
“The finals are coming up.” you clarify, the words coming out a little bashful and smitten.
“Oh.” he nods. 
You’re both quiet for a while. It would be cheesy to say the silence was comfortable, and Felix knows, he’s seen enough teenage dramas to know these words are used in situations like this, but the truth is, there’s no other way to describe it, and he understands that now. Your determination shines through all your edges and he’s glad you’re doing what you can with the resources you have. You’re not exactly studying for your Biology finals, but it’s still as hard and as stressful as that. It can feel a little embarrassing at times, but there’s no other way around it. You have to battle your enemy, even if it means the game is not fair.
“And those chicken wings are fucking good, dude,” you mutter after a while, offering him one of the paper baskets the server brought you a few minutes ago, looking rather stoned and not interested in your presence at all.
“Don’t tell me this rotten place is winning your chicken wings and fries contest,” Felix snickers, taking a bite that, to his surprise, actually tastes the best out of the amount of fast food chains and restaurants you’ve brought him to. You should never judge a book by its cover and this bistro is clearly one of the examples.
“I have only one place left to go, so we’ll see then, but I guess it might just be the top place right now,” you muse out, a wide grin decorating your features as you glance up at Felix that watches you scribble down your notes on a mini piece of paper.
“Wanna go with me there? After the finals, of course. We can celebrate if we pass,” you point out, licking your lips in nerves, “I don’t think I’ll need these ‘tutoring sessions’ anymore then, but I still want to hang out sometime.” you say, putting air quotes around the words tutoring session, looking at him with expectations in your eyes.
“Oh, sure,” he agrees, nodding. “I have to be there when you finally declare your last yelp review.”
You only laugh at him and shake your head, eating some more as you look down into your notes again, lost in work. “I still don’t get how you can do these so fast.”
“I already know what’s the most useful. You don’t have to copy the whole textbook on there.”
“You can never know! What if I’ll need it all?” you exclaim, only making him laugh harder.
He points his eyes out of the window, watching the empty parking lot. You didn’t come in your car today, telling Felix your house is close anyway, and Felix doesn’t dare to drive his car anywhere unless he doesn’t need to. He has a little bit of a trauma since the last time he drove with his dad and he almost ran the car into a tree, getting a shower of swear words and exclamations from his dear father, so he only drives his small white Renault when he needs to go home. Which is, coincidentally, next week. 
“I really don’t want to go home next week,” he sighs.
“Your family is still onto you for the smallest shit?” you ask, tone of voice sympathetic.
“Yeah. Can’t wait to graduate so I don’t have to listen to them talking about a degree anymore,” he rolls his eyes, “I only have to find myself a partner so my grandma can shut up about me being single all the time.”
You softly laugh, making Felix look at you for a moment, his heart skipping a few beats when your eyes meet for a little more seconds than usual. “I’m sorry. You can always text me, though, if you need anyone to talk or gossip with.” you say, averting your eyes from his.
“You’d have to be on your phone 24/7, then. My mental stability comes down by 70% when I’m back home and it’s already only on 15% now,” Felix snickers.
“Oh, I don’t mind. I’ll be staying here anyway.” you say, giggling.
“You’re not coming back home?”
“No,” you shake your head in disapproval, quickly glancing into his eyes before speaking up again, “it’s my parent’s wedding anniversary, so they’re going on a holiday. There’s no use in me coming home if I’m just going to be alone there anyway,” you shrug.
Felix hums, nodding in understatement. “That makes sense. I’m sorry you can’t meet your family on holidays, though.”
“It’s okay,” you say, “I see them often anyway. One Christmas won’t kill me. I have a whole season of Game of thrones to catch up on anyway.” you light-heartedly laugh, sounding like Felix’s favorite song. He smiles with you, shaking his head in disbelief at how positively you can always see the world, when he glances out of the window for a moment again, only to be met with a surprise. 
There are white flakes of snow falling from the sky and something in Felix wakes up-- something he’d call happiness, maybe even joy, when he quickly shoots up from his seat and calls you with excitement coating his voice, “Y/N! Y/N! Come on!”
“Come where? Felix, what are you-” 
He doesn’t let you finish as he takes you by the hand and tugs you on your feet, tugging you out of the empty bistro out into the dark parking lot, admiring the snowflakes falling onto the ground and every surface in his sight. He sees some stick into your hair, making him giggle as his outstretched hand dusts them off subconsciously, when he starts running around like a happy child, laughter coming out of his throat filling the silence.
“It’s snowing!” you exclaim, when Felix reaches your body frozen in its place again. He reminds you of a golden retriever when he jumps a little in his place, his feet happily crouching in the snow. You laugh at his antics when he starts acting like a little boy, this side of Felix being so new to you, yet you can’t help but feel your heart swell with admiration when he asks you to catch some snow into your mouth.
“Felix! That’s disgusting!” you refuse, laughing.
“Oh come on! It’s just water!” he cheers, leaning his head back and opening his mouth wide, waiting for the snow to fall into his mouth. 
“But it’s unhygienic and dirty! You have to be kidding me!” you still reject his idea, standing your ground firmly as always in your life so far, when a face of a boy looking like an angel takes you by surprise and his big eyes plead you in a way that makes you drop all your grudges and all your beliefs down, rolling your eyes when he pouts, leaning your head back as well and opening your mouth with a loud ‘aaaa’ sound to satisfy his foolish heart.
Once you both feel a snowflake hitting your tongues, you look at each other with your tongues out, laughing at how stupid the other one looks, pointing to your tongues. You shake your head. “It melted off, you stupid!”
“You did the same thing!” he bursts out laughing, bending over in the force of his emotions. You watch him with a wide grin plastered onto your face. It feels like watching a movie. You don’t think you’ll ever have a brighter memory with the boy in front of you, with his cheeks red from the snow and smile so wide it hurts both of your jaws.
You instinctively take his hands into yours, looking down on your feet as you start going around in a circle with him, going quicker and quicker as you watch your footprints in the snow mixing with his, the dry skin of his hands making you feel strange. You laugh out when your head starts spinning, looking up at him to find him already staring at you with stars in his eyes, when you wonder,
isn’t this how love is supposed to feel?
Tumblr media
All of his life, Felix had thought that family gatherings could always either go two ways, and that is: 1) a normal, boring meet-ups where your grandma asks about how school’s going, when you’re going to finally find a partner and another one of your cousin’s announces their engagement party, or 2) the actual engagement parties-- every single family member including the senile grandma from mum’s side gets drunk and you don’t have to think about more fake reasons why you have yet to lose your virginity.
You see, Felix is wrong in a lot of things. And this was surely one of them-- it’s the December 27th and he’s sitting in his grandma’s old kitchen, the wind blowing through the cracks of her window and the sweets on the table have already melted from the heat being too high, because his aunt is always cold and they can’t compromise. That sounds fine, even usual, Felix would say, however, the fire lights up a few moments later when his head starts to hurt from all the talking and he begins to dissociate a little too much, meaning that his grandma now has to shift her attention from all of his other relatives to him, because how dare he stay quiet on a family gathering where he has nothing to add to the conversation, right?
It starts off as usual, the answers to these questions digged deep into Felix’s brain since the first year of college. He doesn’t even bat an eye when he answers the questions directed at his studies and grades, telling all of his interested relatives that he’s working hard and it’s paying off. Nobody complains or disagrees-- his grades are awesome. His degree is here soon. Felix almost thinks he’s over with when his grandma laughs at a poor joke that comes out of his mouth, but that was only a bad prediction as he moves on to questions about his love life, which are, believe me or not, much more boring and much more ego-hurting for the blonde.
“Do you have a girlfriend yet, Felix?” she asks, tone of voice sounding rather interested, but don’t believe her-- it’s only an act. She’s ready to laugh into his face when he gives her the answer she’s hoping for.
“No, not yet, grandma,” he mumbles, averting his eyes from her wrinkley face as soon as possible. He really doesn’t need to look at her any longer to know she’s silently judging him on the inside, because that’s just how his grandmother is. 
“That’s such a shame… I wonder why… You’re such a pretty young boy, aren’t you?” she mutters under her nose, tone almost whiney, “what about your roommate? Jisung, was it?”
Felix takes a deep breath in, closing his eyes for a second to calm his rising heart beat. He could have predicted questions like this coming, because the conversation always somehow diverted to his roommate even when he was at home with his family. It’s crazy, how everyone just seems to adore Jisung much more than their own family member. 
“He’s.. Yeah. He’s always with someone, you know him. Not now, though, now he’s single,” Felix nods, explaining.
“Well, I’m sure he’ll find someone soon,” she admits, “he’s such a gentleman. And so handsome as well, isn’t he?” she asks, his aunt from her right side nodding quickly at the mention of Han Jisung. 
“He always has so many people around him, he’s so charming. If only you were more like him, maybe then someone would date you as well,” his grandma says calmly, not even noticing the way her words cut deeper and deeper into Felix’s heart, kicking him and punching him like a boxing bag, “you should try to be more like him.”
Felix bites down on his lower lip, rolling his eyes. Frustration coats his voice once he speaks up, the built-up anger living inside of him like an animal kept well in its cage. He doesn’t want to let it out, because he fears what it might do once it’s free, but he still retorts to a dig addressed to his grandma, huffing in annoyance. “Should I send Jisung home instead of me next time?”
“Oh no, Felix, what are you even saying right now?” his grandma looks rather offended, eyes twice their usual size as she glares at him.
“Well, since you like him so much.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I was just saying that-”
“Leave it.” Felix says. 
The atmosphere is too heavy now, all eyes on him as if he was in a circus, watching him just moments before his breaking. He realises he no longer feels welcome in this place and maybe he never did, he just chose to ignore it by now, because that’s what he always does when a problem appears-- he chooses ignorance. Ignorance is Felix’s best friend, and although it may sound like he’s running away from his problems all the time, it’s always worked so far. He’s just protecting his heart, building walls around it. 
He doesn’t want to fight. He hates conflict. So, even though he’d like to snap, even though he’d like to leash out like an animal, he doesn’t. He steps back-- as he always does, taking the car keys from the table and escaping the house, hearing the calls of his mother after him. He doesn’t bother to say goodbye, he doesn’t even bother to look back nor take the Christmas gifts his grandma brought for everyone. 
He sits into the small white Renault he drives once a year when he comes back home, starts the engine and speeds up to the limit, driving away from all of his problems. He doesn’t want to hear their complaints, he doesn’t want to listen. It’s the best this way. He wants to ignore the words that came out of his grandma’s mouth, but he can’t find it in him as he hears them resonate in his head over and over again. 
He’s the second choice even in his own family. He’s a joke to everyone, isn’t he? Just the side character, the one that never gets the spotlight. It hurts, it hurts him so much, but he pays no attention to his blurry vision, because even though he’s fairly sure no one from his family would miss him, he doesn’t want to drive off the road and kill himself with his escape.
He parks the car in front of his and Jisung’s flat after a few hours. He’s fairly good at it, considering he never drives, and mentally puts up a middle finger to his dad in his head for screaming at him so much. He was in a much calmer headspace when he was driving with his dad than he was now, yet, he didn’t manage to drive anyone over. 
Putting his feet into the cold, empty apartment, turning the heating on and plopping down on the sofa, he once again realises how lonely it feels. Not only because of the feeling of abandonment the dark flat resonates, but also due to the fact that it truly feels like now, he’s all alone in this world. The silence screams louder than any words ever could, his ears lowly ringing without any sound in the small room, which makes him wonder if he’s truly the only one that has to spend his holidays pretty much alone. Maybe it’s his fault that he’s fucked it up with his family, who knows-- but that’s a topic for another overthinking session of his, when he decides to let it go once his eyes meet the snow silently falling down behind the window. 
The dark mixed with the white balls of fluff in the air remind him of you. Your bubbly laugh, the feeling of your skin on his when you held his hands and danced around with him in the snow. He feels a smile growing on his face, despite everything he’s heard today, his fingers involuntarily texting you to see if you’re doing anything and if you can hang out with him today. 
He meets you at the door a few minutes later, your nose runny from the cold and hands dry, smiling at you with a sense he can only describe as belonging, because he realises, maybe you feel just as lonely as him on holidays and suddenly, he no longer feels sorry for leaving.
“Why are you even here, Lix? Shouldn’t you be at home?” you ask him when you’re taking off your shoes and hanging your coat on the hanger by the door. He bites down on his lower lip to suppress a bitter chuckle. 
“Christmas got cancelled this year.” he shrugs. 
It’s not like he doesn’t trust you. You know better than anyone what his struggles are-- he asked you to keep his secrets numerous times. It’s just that now that you’re here, it’s like his soul finally feels calm and he no longer wants to whine about his grandma or his aunts anymore. It’s just you and him and the empty apartment. If he was anyone else, maybe he’d try to get into your pants. He’s just Lee Felix though, and he’s absolutely, wholeheartedly in love with you, he realises, and believe me, it kind of takes him over the edge, and so he doesn’t try anything. 
And you look at him in understatement, no other questions asked.
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. It’s all a capitalistic holiday anyway,” he shrugs.
You follow him into the living room and he throws the remote control into your lap, telling you to choose a movie before he comes back with popcorn. 
“If you don’t pick anything before I’m done, we’ll just watch Venom, I don’t care,” he says, seeing you adorably scrunch up your nose at him in response. 
When he comes back and you’re waiting for him with Howl’s moving castle paused on Netflix, he can’t help but grin at you. He places the popcorn on the coffee table and notices himself staring onto your body next to his far more often than the TV and wonders if he really drove away from all of his problems or if he just drove away from one problem to another, because now, it’s getting really hard to focus on staying away from you. 
And when you shiver and curl up into his side, placing your head onto his shoulder, he can’t help but jolt at the contact, staring at you in surprise. 
“It’s cold,” you mumble, pouting.
Felix smiles. He rolls his eyes at you, even though on the inside, he finds you absolutely adorable, taking a blanket from the side of the sofa and putting it over your cold bodies, tucking you both in. You feel warm against his side, your hand resting on his chest. He wonders if you can feel his quickening heartbeat, his stiff body and the nerves rising in his heart. Everything else disappears, the fight back home long forgotten and Han Jisung left somewhere home with his own family, the weight of your body overwhelming him when you fall asleep and that’s when he stops and thinks,
isn’t this how home’s supposed to feel like?
Tumblr media
The halls of the university building are empty as Felix stands right in front of the closed door, silently pacing around the corridors and bumping his knee up and down. He just got his final’s results and even though his soul was supposed to be at peace, he finds himself stressing over you, currently sitting in the room behind the closed door in front of him, getting your final’s results from biology back. The professor decided to split your class into two groups for the finals so you can, quote, ‘focus better when there’s less people around’ and even though you managed to cheat on your exams without any problems, he still wonders if you did well and if you passed. 
Once the voices behind the closed doors get louder and louder, he figures it’s near the end of your lecture and he can finally see you again and ask you how you did. 
The last time he talked to you without the stress of finals breathing onto your back was back on Christmas break-- more than a week ago. Ever since then, you two have been meeting in the middle of the night again, preparing for your upcoming tests. You didn’t really manage to talk a lot about anything else and even though Felix didn’t mind, he still missed your mindless rambles and weird jokes you used to crack when you weren’t stressing your mind off. 
The door opens and reveals people coming out, a few of them wearing a toothy grin on their faces as they glance on the paper in their hands, a few of them frowning as they pin their eyes to the ground. It’s not easy to differentiate the ones that passed and the ones who did not do that well and even though Felix feels sorry for them, he wonders why they just don’t cheat their way out of bad grades just how he does. It’s not that hard. It just takes a lot of practice. 
Once he finally sees your face, a big, toothy grin decorating your lips, a big stone falls off his heart, a weight lifts itself from his shoulders, because frankly, you wouldn’t look so happy if you failed, right? You’re not a total psychopath.
“How did you-” 
His words are cut off from his mouth, all air kicked out of his body once he feels you so close, the soft skin of your lips pressed up against his in a happy kiss. He’s startled, to say the least. His cheeks are reddening in the instance and he doesn’t even know if time stopped or if it’s just the rising anxiety and excitement in his chest, but he bites down the confusion and kisses you back finally, closing his eyes and bringing you close by your shoulders. The kiss is a little sloppy and messy, but he doesn’t mind-- all that’s occupying his mind right now is you, your sweet lips, your mouthy kiss, your excited hands creeping up around his neck, your bag that fell to the ground next to his feet, your exam paper marked with the big red A+ flying around the two of you when you let it fall from your grasp, your hair tickling his cheeks, you, you, you.
There’s only you. In the air he breathes, in the ground he walks on, in his hands and on his mind. You’re everywhere. Intoxicating.
You pull away from him after a while, grinning at him. It still manages to startle him a little-- how just the small gesture can light up his whole world, how your smile can make him feel like he’s the luckiest person on this earth. He sees stars in your eyes and he wonders who put them there, hoping to be the one, believing he could finally be the one, with how you look at him and hold him in your arms-
but it’s Felix’s life we’re talking about. There’s only you, you, you and maybe somewhere, far away in the distance, there could even be him, but who’s always there for sure is Han Jisung.
Han Jisung staring at the two of you from the open door, mouth agape in shock. Han Jisung with trembling hands, Han Jisung with his books clutched close to his chest as Felix’s heart drops and reality finally hits him. You were never supposed to be his to kiss. You were supposed to be Jisung’s-- his roommate’s, his best friend’s -- you fell for him long, long ago and that’s how it’s always been. 
He opens his mouth to say something, anything, to comfort his dear friend that looks like he’s heart’s being broken, but he finds no words in him to console his actions. He feels bad, he feels so, so guilty when their eyes meet, but he doesn’t manage to say anything before Jisung turns around the corner and leaves. 
The sound of Jisung’s quick steps is the only thing resonating in Felix’s mind like a bell, a signal for him that he fucked up, he did a really, really bad thing. 
His insides clutch and eyes water in the empty college corridor when he wonders,
is this how it feels to break someone’s heart?
Tumblr media
You kick the small rocks beneath your feet, gazing into the distance. The cold in your bones makes you shudder, your eyes trailing around the neighbourhood so foreign to you, putting your hands into your pockets so you shelter your fingers from the frozen air. You think how this place looks exactly as you imagined it to-- tall apartment complex and a single big tree in front of it, the cars parked in the driveway obviously having their spot as the neighbours have lived together for a long time to know not to park anywhere else, because it’s more efficient this way. 
You’re waiting and waiting, hoping to see the one you’re waiting for soon, because you doubt your confidence will last you for any longer if you don’t talk to him now. You could lie and tell yourself it’s okay and that you’re not nervous at all, but after Jisung ran away the other day and his roommate followed him a few moments later, you feel nervousness creeping into your skin after not seeing or hearing from Felix for three days now. 
You remember him telling you that he likes to go for late-night convenience store runs every evening to get his favorite snacks. It wasn’t hard to find out where he lives-- it’s the 21st century, for god’s sake. You asked a friend of his friend and here you are, waiting  for him to appear in the door of his apartment complex, ready to talk to him about the events of this week.
Once you hear the door opening, you feel your head snap to its direction quicker than the speed of light, knees almost getting weak at the sight of Lee Felix standing there, confusion written all over his face once his eyes meet with yours. The frown forming on his face only deepens your stress as you wonder if he didn’t want to see you today, which, considering the fact that he’s been ignoring you for the past few days, might just be the case, but it still makes your heart break just a little when you hear him sigh once he makes his way over to you, the sound of his sneakers on the ground being the only thing heard in the middle of the night.
All the snow has melted-- as if all the bright things have left just in time with it, leaving you sad and cold, the clouds of your breath hitting the cold air being the only thing reminding you of the weather as you feel your body heating up in his presence. 
“Can we talk?” you ask, voice steadier than you expected it to be.
“I- I mean,” he starts, a shaky and husky voice hitting your ears, signaling that he probably hadn’t spoken to anyone for a long time now, “you’re already here, so I guess…”
You nod at him, averting your gaze quickly to the ground, when you realise you suddenly don’t know what to say. You try to search for words, yet none come out of your mouth. Your mind is blank and it seems like his presence took away all your vocabulary, but deep on the inside, you know damn well that if you don’t speak up now, you won’t have a second chance and you really have to get it now.
“Why- why…” you mutter, “why did you leave without saying anything the other day?” you ask.
The silence is overwhelming as you start to hate the sound of your own breath, opting to hold it for a few seconds as you await his response. 
“I mean, isn’t it obvious?” 
You shake your head in confusion, finally meeting his eyes again. “No.”
“Jisung… Jisung saw us. I didn’t feel like it was right,” he explains, cracking his knuckles in a nervous habit you noticed in him a long, long time ago when he first tried to teach you how to cheat in class without getting caught.
“What does he have to do with anything?”
“You two like each other.” he says bluntly, taking you off-guard.
The moment these words come out of his mouth, you realise not one, but two things. One of them is fairly new to you, the fact that Han Jisung liked you back was something you never knew you could experience, but even though you should be flattered, you realise it no longer holds a meaning in your heart. The second thing is connected to the first-- and that is, Lee Felix doesn’t know that you like him now. His foolish, silly mind convinced him you were still in love with his best friend, his confused and frustrated brain didn’t let him realise that for a long, long time now, the freckled boy in front of you has been the only one you thought about when you were falling asleep at night.
You don’t even know when it happened. You guess it just did. You wondered how it’d feel to know what exactly made you fall for Felix, what that moment was, but something inside of you is telling you that maybe, it was even more wonderful this way. Unexpected, but totally reasonable.
“Why would I be kissing you if I still liked Jisung?” you ask, the fear of directly confessing to him and getting rejected creeping up in your shadow.
“I- I don’t know-”
“Exactly.” you cut him off before he rambles and manages to find a stupid, silly reason in his head to justify his wrong expectations. You know how he is-- if he overthinks things hard enough, he’ll surely find an answer. There’s none, though, so you don’t dare to give him time to think about it and ponder on the thought for any longer.
“But that doesn’t matter now anyway,” he shrugs, putting his hands into his pockets.
You wonder what’s going on inside of his head right now. You wonder if he regrets what he’s done-- if he wants to turn back time and never let you kiss him. The nerves make you bite down harshly on your bottom lip and you only catch yourself when you feel iron in your mouth, quickly licking your own wound on the surface of your mouth and take a deep breath in. 
“Why?” you ask. 
“Why would it?” he says, eyes boring into yours.
“Because… I thought it meant something to you? I mean, it meant a lot to me, at least. That’s why I’m even here in the first place,” you chuckle airly, feeling your throat get dry.
“I’m not saying that it didn’t, I just think it had no point.”
His words feel like knives thrown into your chest, like a fire burning the pit of your stomach. You feel your legs getting weaker at his arguments, your fingers harshly tugging at the skin of your cuticles hidden in your pockets. You don’t trust your voice to sound steady this time when you speak, but you don’t care. Maybe it’s time to show your real emotions. Maybe it will change Felix’s mind.
“And why is that?”
“Because people like you don’t date people like me. You’re supposed to be in love with Jisung. You’re supposed to be dating him, he’s supposed to date you. You’re too good for me anyway.” he shrugs.
“Is this all about Jisung?” you ask, eyebrows furrowed.
You watch Felix sharply inhale in and out, averting his eyes from your figure. The distance between the two of you is unnatural, as if to singal how the two of you are slowly drifting apart. You see him fold his hands on his chest, preparing for what he’s about to say.
“It hurt him, back then. And I hate that. He loves you and I just.. I can’t do that to him, when I know  how much he cares about you.” he says.
Love is a strange thing. You hear Felix say how much Jisung loves you, but is that really true? Does Han Jisung even know you? The real you?
Does Jisung know how you look with your mouth full of fries and a greasy forehead? Does he know how you look when you’re stressed out of your mind because of finals? Does he know your favorite bistro, does he know your favorite movie? Did you cuddle up with Jisung on the couch just because you wanted to be close to him, comfort him and tell him you’re there just a few days after Christmas? 
Or does he just know the self you put up in front of him when you went to meet him? The put-together you that cares even about the sound of your own laugh, not wanting it to sound ugly in his ears? 
Han Jisung can’t love you. He doesn’t even know you.
And you never loved him-- just for the same reason. The feelings you had for him were merely a feeling of attraction, so far away from love.
But now you know how you feel about Felix, how his smile lights up the world and how his presence makes you feel understood. How even the silence with him speaks louder than a million words, how he knows you like the back of his hand and how he treats you like his closest friend. You know that what you feel when you’re with him is stronger than anything you ever have and although it used to scare you for a moment, now you’re ready to embrace it and live with it, if he lets you.
Lee Felix doesn’t tell you he loves you. Maybe you can see it in his eyes.
Why does he have to put everything above love? Why does he care about Jisung more than you? It’s breaking your heart. 
“Felix… I’m sure he’d understand. He’s a good person. I’m sure he’d want you to be happy.”
“Y/N, you don’t understand-”
“He’s a grown adult!” you yell out, the built-up emotions coming to the surface in the form of frustration, your words sunding spiteful and angry. Maybe you are furious, maybe you are full of fire right now, but it’s all because of the boy in front of you and the things he refuses to let himself enjoy.
“Why do you even care about it so much, huh? I was your fucking second choice all along anyway!” 
You look at him in shock, your eyes watering at the sight of the frown sitting on his face. Something inside of you breaks and you think it’s safe to say it was your heart, choking you up as you shake your head in disapproval. 
“Felix-” you protest, but there’s no use.
You see him turn around on his heel, opening the door to the apartment complex and leaving. It feels like you’re losing him, it feels like he’s gone forever. He turned his back on you, refusing all the love you were willing to give him, all the love you were offering to him right here, your heart in your hands.
He gave up on your love.
Tumblr media
People in movies go out to party after a break-up to get drunk and numb their feelings. They either go to the club or go to a stupid college party, which is, coincidentally, your case today, but you’re not here to get drunk tonight. You’re not here to drown out your feelings and numb your pained soul-- you’re simply here to try to have some fun.
Your mum told you long, long ago that happiness is a choice. You could argue with her and tell her that depression and heartbreak aren’t a choice and that they, by themselves, are causing people the most sadness, but you had to give your mum a point. If you don’t choose to try, if you don’t do anything to at least try to stimulate your own brain, you can’t expect happiness to find you by itself. That’s just, sadly, not how life works, and you weren’t going to drown out in your own tears just because of Lee fucking Felix, because if you weren’t worth trying for him, he’s not worth any of your tears.
You appear on Lee Haechan’s end of the semester party. You have A+ finals to celebrate and although you would be much happier to drink to them with the one that basically helped you get through the semester, you won’t pass the chance to socialize. You worked hard and you did a good job-- you deserve a party. Alcohol truly isn’t the best for your brain, but you will just decide to call it selfcare. It’s not like you’re getting blacked-out drunk tonight anyway.
You manage to have small talk with a few people from your class. Though it’s not exactly what’s stimulating your brain, you don’t mind it. You barely know these people and you couldn’t care less, but you guess this is the downside of socialising. 
The alcohol in your veins doesn’t give you a chance to loosen up, though. You only feel your body warmer with the beer hitting your system, but your feelings still taste of salt, your brain not cooperating with your grandiose happiness plan and you think the people talking to you notice, since no one really tries to keep you in a conversation long enough when you start to absently nod at them and pay zero attention to what they’re saying. You don’t blame them, though. You’d probably do the same in their place.
Your feet move their way to the front door when you decide that maybe your mum wasn’t right, completely ready to go home and pity yourself for a few more days before coming back to life, when a familiar voice calls you from behind, making you freeze in your spot.
“Y/N, long time no see.”
Han Jisung watches you with glossy eyes, yet he tries to look nonchalant at the sight of you. It doesn’t feel like his heart is breaking when he sees you right here and there, chewing on your bottom lip, more or less, it feels numbing to his heart and his head. It’s like he expected it all from the start-- the outcome that once so surprised him. But after all this time he spent overthinking and dwelling on the memory of seeing you kissing his best friend, it made sense to him. 
“Jisung…”
He can see your eyes growing worried when you watch over him and he mentally slaps himself for not handling his emotions with more care back then. He could have spared you a lot of pain and trouble if he hadn’t reacted in such a way in the doorway of your classroom, but the truth is, Han Jisung hadn’t really known just how much a true heartbreak feels and nothing could ever prepare him for the physical pain numbing his chest. He didn’t know it could hurt so much. 
He doesn’t want to worry you. You are still his friend, after all, right? That’s all you always have been and he should have understood it from the first moment he saw you gaze at his friend so lovingly in the university halls one day. He thinks you, yourself, didn’t even recognise the emotion in you when you watched over Felix with so much care, with so many stars in his eyes and a big grin on your face. He could never compare himself to Felix.
He doesn’t want to worry you anymore, and so he decides to talk to you like a friend would. You looked like you could use a friend tonight.
“How have you been?” he asks, smiling at you. He hopes his eyes convey the emotion he feels-- how after all this time, he still feels comfortable with you and desperately needs you to do the same. He can’t lose another friend. Not to love. 
That happens every single time. Truth be told, Jisung used to have a problem with differentiating true love from platonic feelings sometimes. He used to think he falls out of love just as quickly as he falls in, but the truth is that it was never even love at all. Sometimes, it was just pure admiration. Feelings for a friend. And he managed to ruin all his friendships just because he started dating them. 
And then, he just kept searching and searching for the right one, because no one ever felt right. No one ever made him feel loved, no one ever made him feel love. It felt suffocating, but so, so addicting. He could never give up on trying to find love.
And then he met you. And it finally made sense-- it finally felt right.
“I’m… I’m fine, thanks,” you say, smiling at him with that smile that still, admittedly, made his heart race and swell with love. He’s not afraid to call the emotion by its name. It doesn’t feel wrong. He used to think he wants it to stop, but the truth is, it still feels nice. 
Love feels like loneliness sometimes. It’s a bittersweet feeling. But it’s still so, so addicting.
“Are you sure?” he asks. He knows you. He knows when something’s wrong.
He also knows your eyes have been searching for his roommate for the past few minutes of your conversation. He knows you want to meet him and avoid him all at once, love him and leave him-- it was a paradox. 
He knows his roommate way too well, though. He knows he can’t fall out of love with you. He knows, though, that he’ll never act upon it. Lee Felix has always been the sweetest person in this whole entire world-- putting the needs of others before his own. He can’t keep doing this to himself.He can’t keep doing this to you.
“I think you know the answer, Jisung. Why do you keep asking, then?” you bitterly snicker, going around him and escaping the noisy house. Jisung doesn’t know if you want to leave, if you want to escape his presence, but he can’t leave you just like that, and so he follows you outside, seeing you sitting at the doorstep, as if you were waiting for him.
“You don’t have to think of me, you know that, right?” he says once he takes a seat next to you, watching your expression change into a pained one. 
“It’s… I don’t know. It’s complicated. And Felix- he doesn’t think it’s right. I can’t force him into anything. It was his choice anyway,” you mutter. Jisung sighs heavily, the feeling your words on his chest heavy and solemn. He hates the fact that he is standing in the way of your happiness. He hates the fact that he is the problem, the invisible wall keeping you two from each other. 
“It’s simple, though.” he shrugs.
Your eyebrows furrow in confusion, a heavy sigh escaping your lips. He takes it upon himself to explain before you begin to tell him that it’s not, opting to open your eyes on his own.
“You two are in love with each other. So you should be together. Isn’t that simple?” he asks, smiling at you subtly.
You scoff and shake your head. “He gave up on us.”
“Did he, or did he just do what he felt was right?” Jisung argues. “You can’t keep hiding from each other. You can’t keep trying to ignore your feelings just because I like you. That’s not fair for either of you.”
You don’t argue with him this time. He wonders what’s going on inside of your head at the moment, with your eyebrows furrowed and your bottom lip trapped in your teeth. You look just like all the times he watched you during your tutoring sessions-- focused and lost in thought. It will feel weird to not see you in that way anymore, but he has to try.
The same way Lee Felix always tried for him.
“You’re too sweet, Han Jisung. What a shame our timing’s off.” you say, bitterness coating your voice. He looks up at you again, wondering what your words mean. “I used to like you back then, you know,” you smile.
Here it is, the strange emotion again. The emotion of almost physical pain, a hand squeezing his heart, a knife stabbed into his back. It feels like his world is crumbling down on him, because he’s stupid-- so stupid. He could have had you back then. He could have been with you all this time, only if he wasn’t late. He missed his biggest chance, the biggest opportunity, the happiest time of his life. All because he was too hesitant. 
He didn’t deserve you anyway.
“But now your timing’s right with Felix. Don’t waste that,” he says, biting through the pain.
Because the truth is, if anyone deserved love, it was his roommate. The one that refused you for him, the one that rejected you for him, the one that set him up on a date with you even though you invited him in the first place. The one who gave up on his love only so he wouldn’t hurt his friend. You could say that Jisung was too good for this world, but Lee Felix is the one that deserves the whole entire world, in his eyes.
Maybe these two were just too good of friends. Caring about the other one twice as much as about themselves. And that’s exactly why Jisung will get over this-- he’ll push you to his friend. So he could be happy, finally. 
“Jisung, I don’t know-”
“Do it,” he cuts you off, “reach out to him again. Try it. For me.”
Tumblr media
y/n: meet me at the 8Bistro at 9 
Felix can’t believe himself when he finds his legs moving to the direction of the bistro at the edge of the town. He knows it’s the last one on your list, the one you invited him to so you could celebrate your finals in and he finds himself wondering if he could have gone here with you earlier only if the two of you didn’t share that kiss back then.
That damned kiss he couldn’t stop thinking about for the last few days-- even weeks, every time he opened his eyes in the morning and closed them when he was about to sleep. It kept following him like a curse, a thing he couldn’t escape, as if it was testing him like the snake tested Eve in paradise. Foreign fruit. 
You’re sitting there already when he arrives, fingers playing with each other as you gaze at the door in expectation. He sees your usual order already on the table, assuming you got here early, but it’s untouched as your knee bumps up and down under the table and you bite down harshly on your bottom lip.
He takes a seat, allowing himself to look at you again after such a long time. It feels like it’s been ages, yet you still look the same to him-- the same beauty that hit him when he first met you and shared his biggest secret with you.
“Why aren’t you eating? You have to finish off your list,” he mumbles awkwardly, motioning to the food at the table.
“I wanted to wait for you.” you say. Your voice is quiet, almost shy, when you speak to him. He wonders just how much he fucked up that it made you act this way. He knows it’s probably a lot, but considering he’s sitting here right now, he can still fix it.
At least he hopes so. 
“Did you.. Do you want to talk to me about something?” he asks, nervosity filling his veins as he feels his hands form a little swimming pool with just how much he’s sweating.
“Yes,” you nod, taking a deep breath in and out. He wonders if you’re just as nervous as he is. The answer is probably yes, considering your tense shoulders and restless legs, but he doesn’t comment on it as he watches you begin speaking again. “I wanted to tell you that I’m- I’m in love with you. And that it’s for real, and it’s for you and no one else,” you start, quickly wetting your lips and continuing again, “and I know you must feel like a second choice, or like you weren’t important to me at all, but that’s not true.”
“You helped me so much, really, but the more I hung out with you, the more I realised just how wonderful you are. And how your heart is so big, how you’re fun to be around…” you ramble, taking Felix by surprise with your heart-felt monologue, “and that Jisung is not the one for me, because, well, it was just.. it was just a crush. I didn’t know him. He didn’t even know me that well. Crushes… they don’t mean anything. They’re silly. But what I have with you, Felix…” you say, drifting your eyes away from him for a second,
“I know you. The real you. And you know me. You’ve seen me at my worst. You’ve seen me struggle and you know exactly how to help. You know me and I know you and the feelings I have for you are much more than a silly crush. I love you, Felix. And I don’t want to just forget about us.” you complete and Felix swears he can feel his eyes watering at your words. He chooses not to speak up, afraid of his voice breaking, afraid he’s going to embarrass himself in front of you. His emotions got the best of him and right here and now, no one else matters. 
It’s you. You that feels like home, you, the only girl he’s ever loved. You, the only girl that ever loved him back, you, who he foolishly rejected. 
You’re everywhere. In his veins, in his heart, in his foolish, stupid mind.
“Felix… I don’t want you to give up on us.” 
He looks up, seeing your sincere eyes and a look full of worry. You seem so wonderful to him, even now. You’re everything he’s ever dreamt of, a home without a roof and walls. With you, he feels at ease. He trusts you. He’s never felt this way for anyone before.
He watches you and he hears your laugh, he hears your whines when he used to tease you so much. He hears the sound of your memories when he chased you around in the snow. He hears the opening song of Howl’s moving castle, reminding him of the warmth he felt when you hugged him so close that evening.
He used to want to hate you. He should have known that could never be the case.
You’re all he needs-- all he wants. You’re everywhere he looks, in every beauty of the world and in everything that’s dear to him. 
You, you, you, you.
And so he decides-- it’s time to change his plan.
Lee Felix’s bullet-proof guide to loving you: 1) hold her hand, 2) get rid of the guilt, 3) lean in and kiss her.
“Does that mean you’re giving us a chance?” you ask, hopeful eyes glaring at him with millions of stars in them, sparkles swimming around in perfection.
“We’ll talk after you eat. You have a yelp review to write,” he laughs.
“Feli-”
Lee Felix’s bullet-proof guide to loving you: 4) shut her up by forcing french fries into her mouth.
“I love you too.”
2K notes · View notes
alphabet boy II
SYNOPSIS: college AU. Armin, your brilliant tutor, invites you over to his house for some studying. Naturally, you're nervous and he seems to be giving you a reason to be.
PAIRING: SCUMBAG!Tutor Armin x FEM!Reader
WARNINGS: half edited, noncon/dubcon, fingering, non-penetrative sexual content. gaslighting, manipulating,
A/N: really need the motivation to write again and I've been slacking on my multi-parters so here's a somewhat highly anticipated one. Armin fuckers, this is for you. non-Armin fuckers, I hope this converts you
WORD COUNT: 2.0k
Tumblr media
II. I.
“You’re not paying attention.”
You feel his voice right by the shell of your ear, and the proximity nearly makes you reel back in surprise but you manage to catch yourself.
“S-sorry” You apologize, wishing you didn’t stutter.
The thing is you’re just really out of your element. This is the first time you’ve been to Armin’s house for personal tutoring, and it was hard to focus on the material when his presence was so distracting.
It wasn’t like you were fantasizing about him or anything [well…]-you always tried to banish those thoughts as soon as it came. But still, being alone with an attractive boy with a disarming charm was causing some jitters. You felt like a shy middle schooler, on edge and jittery.
The last tutoring session in the library when he [basically] called you stupid plagued your mind. The memory of him feeling up your thighs lived in your head rent-free.
“Let’s take a break.” He sighs. Your heart drops at the noise of disappointment but you suppose it’s what you deserve.
You push your laptop lightly aside on the table, the bleak light straining your eyes, and ask for the bathroom. You just wanted to freshen up and be alone for a few seconds. The bathroom is meticulously clean, something even you knew was unexpected for a boy. You looked at yourself through the spotless mirror, scrutinizing every flaw.
You sigh, fiddling with your dress collar. Why you had tried dressing pretty for a boy so out of your league, he may as well be in Mars--you didn’t know.
When you return, there is a tall glass of lemonade waiting for you.
“Thought you might be thirsty.”
It’s a simple gesture that makes you blush so you thank him earnestly. Like the gentleman he is, he assures you it’s no problem. Not wanting to prolong the awkward silence, you compliment his apartment, “This is a really nice place. So much light and space.”
You’re babbling but he engages you regardless, and you two are mindlessly discussing the benefits of living at off-campus housing over dorming. His words are pleasant but there’s a sinking feeling within you as you notice he’s bored. Or maybe distracted was a better word.
“So, do you have a boyfriend? Or anyone you’re seeing?”
You nearly choke at the question uttered through a buttery voice.
“Oh um, not really.”
“Not really?”
You made a mental note to answer in definitives. Armin seemed the type to snuff out anything he reasoned as half-truths.
“No. I uh, don’t have a boyfriend.” And then you clarified a pin-drop later, “And I’m not seeing anyone either.”
The blond hums a playful tune that’s vaguely nostalgic.
“Have you ever had a boyfriend?”
You don’t understand the point of this line of incessant questioning, and can’t calm your heart rate.
“I-um, I don’t-“
Taking one look at your serious face, eyes rimmed with worry and cheeks pink, he laughs. It’s a startling sound like bell chimes.
“Relax. I just wanted to know if you had any experience.”
The sentence flies out of your mouth before you can even ponder it: “What do you mean by experience?”
It’s not his fault if he can’t hide the feral grin that crosses his mouth right at that moment. You can’t discern his expression as you’re staring at anywhere but him, so you don’t notice the uncontained excitement that glimmers in cerulean eyes.
“Let’s move to the couch. You’ll be more comfortable there.”
You think about saying that you’re fine wherever you are and didn’t really feel like changing positions, but he’s already striding towards the couch. So you start packing up the materials, before a clear voice calls out to you, “It’s okay. You don’t have to bring all that. Just bring your flashcards.”
You hoped that wouldn’t mean he’d quiz you, but that’s exactly what he meant to do.
“Law of diminishing returns.”
“Wait! I know that one!” You brightly exclaimed, “ Uhh..it gives way to the catch-up effect which means poor countries tend to grow more rapidly and they’ll one day essentially catch up with wealthier economies.”
The blond ran his hand through his hair before sighing. You could feel your heart drop. You were sure you were right. Was your answer wrong enough to cause exasperation?
“Stick with the formal definition next time. I didn’t ask for the theory based on the law.”
You pouted, and Armin couldn’t help but relish in how eagerly you sought his approval, like a puppy performing tricks to appease their master.
“You should sit closer. Can you even see the word?”
You moved closer to him, knees knocking into each other. He looks down at the completed set.
“Well, you didn’t do as bad as I expected.” Ouch. But maybe he meant it as a compliment?
“But,” the corners of his mouth curled, “I’d say you’re still struggling.” Never mind.
“T-this is a new chapter though. I don’t think we’ve even gone over it in class.”
Blue eyes narrow, and you wonder if he’s going to give the well-meaning spiel about how staying ahead was the only way to keep up. That mantra may work for someone with high ambitions and an extremely good work ethic but you were no well-oiled machine. You had other classes too!
“Why are you so defensive?”
Your eyes widen in surprise at the question, spoken so softly and casually, you almost miss the disdained lilt.
“Oh uh-“
“Listen to me. I quizzed you so I’m able to assert your skill level. And your response to my assertion is that it’s something you haven’t gone over in class yet. Do those things relate to each other at all?”
Meekly, you shift your attention to the rug.
“Answer me.”
“N-no”, you squeaked.
“And what have I always told you? The only way to keep up is to-“
“Stay ahead.” You finished, “I’m sorry, I just-“
“Did I say you could interrupt me?”
You could feel the blood rushing to your ears, unsure when the atmosphere had shifted. Your heartbeat was beating rapidly and you could feel your body go warm.
He sighed, and placed a hand over over your folded ones, squeezing your palms.
“You know I’m just looking out for you right? It almost feels like you don’t care-“
“No!” You exclaim, “I-I do.” Heat pools into your cheeks once you realize your grave mistake, “I-I’m sorry for interrupting you.”
The blond smiles radiantly and it nearly melts away all of your worries…until he opens his mouth to deliver another damning remark.
“You know, with your looks…you don’t really even have to graduate. Maybe choose an easy major and then get some rich husband to take care of you.” There’s a distinct lack of humor in his tone as if he wholeheartedly believed every word he was saying.
Your eyebrows furrow in blatant confusion, and in the back of your mind, danger signs are flashing at the back of your head. Your thighs are growing warmer. Oh no, this could not be happening right now.
“That’s what most girls’ dreams are anyways.” He inspects his spotless nails, “You chose this class because Ackerman’s attractive right? That’s why his class has such a high drop rate…silly girls join, not understanding how harsh of a grader he is.”
You open your mouth to defend yourself but the next inflammatory remark he spews almost sends you to shock, “Though I bet, if you got on your knees for him, you’d be getting an A on those finals.” He laughs as if he was saying something particularly amusing, an undercurrent of spite coloring his words, “You wouldn’t even need me as your tutor.”
There are a million things on the tip of your tongue but no voice to speak them out. You want to ask him why he’s been so weirdly invasive, what his weird hang-up with professor Ackerman was, and of course, the casual sexism was really throwing you in a loop. Still, you have no doubt Armin could beat you to a bloody pulp several times over in a verbal lashing, and your mind was too fragile to deal with this.
You’ll sign up for a new tutor or better yet no tutor. You’ll get over your social anxiety and join a study group. You’ll go to all of Professor Ackerman’s office hours. Anything had to be better than this. You’re giving yourself this pep talk in your head but there’s no denying that your legs feel warm, and the self-improvement speech is withering away in your mind as it seeks to instead process how Armin fucking Arltert is touching you right now.
He pins you against the cushions, one hand locking both of your wrists. You’re shaking but your pupils are blown out wide.
He smirks, “There’s an excellent stress reliever for studying you know.”
You limp in his hold but the cocky attitude behind his words brings you back. You thrash under him, earning an annoyed growl from the blond.
“I’ve been so fucking patient with you, you know? Planning out your study guides, sharing my notes with you, proofreading homework, going over the mock exams—don’t you think I deserve a little compensation?”
“I-I’m sorry.”
He's right. He's right. Armin actually has done so much for you. Maybe it was too easy to take for granted because of how efficient he was, and how he acted like it was nothing. But right now, nothing really was everything.
He smiles. Yeah, this is who you were. Add just a little bit of pressure and you crumble. That flash of bravery from before was nothing but a petulant outburst from a child who didn’t know any better.
Armin coos, “Isn’t it a little embarrassing to be a virgin at your age?”
With unbridled precision, while he’s still holding your lower body down with the weight of his legs, he unbuckles his belt and ties it around your strained wrists. Red fills your face, and like always, you’re struggling to find the right words to respond. To say anything at all. Most of all, you can feel a wetness building at your core.
“I know the way you look at me, you know.” He kisses the dip of your neck, slender fingers splayed from under your shirt, “I know you’re into this.”
And because he is a scientist who must have evidence to back up his hypothesis, his hands find themselves under the waistband of your floral skirt that you foolishly wore, pushing the cure pastel underwear aside. You’re writhing in his grasp but maybe not as much as you should be, but it’s not your fault your movements are sluggish right?
“You have such a funny habit of not deleting your windows and keeping your bookmarks open.”
You freeze.
“This entire time I thought you were some prudish virgin even though you dress like a whore. Someone with who I had to be gentle. But all that fucking porn you read? Nasty. Is that why you need help in this class?” He punctuates slowly, "Because you're wasting your brain for something else?"
Immediately, you remember how you left your laptop on the table. You remember how many times he used your computer to double-check the notes, and you trustingly let him, forgetting that despite deleting your tabs, the hidden windows of steamy erotica were not yet erased out of their existence. Embarrassment violently paints your body.
He doesn’t wait or care for your response as he starts a vigorous assault on your clit with his slender finger, rubbing up and down in a vicious manner. The second finger prods at your entrance, feeling a tight cavern despite the amount of slick collected. Your eyes roll back in pleasure-is this what being with someone is like?
Stop. Get a hold of yourself. Why are you so fucking horny right now? It doesn’t matter what Armin said about you or how he called you out for the fiction you’ve read, because this is real life. But Christ, it’s Armin, the boy you’ve had a crush on since the moment he explained to you what a marginal abasement curve was. Stupidly handsome Armin with a gentle voice and too-blue oceanic eyes. Stupidly handsome Armin who coerced you into being under him.
You’re so fucking warm and tight, and Armin can’t wait to sink himself inside of you, can’t wait to humiliate you further. With nimble fingers he untied the ribbons of your dress like you were a Christmas present, groping your soft mounds and marking up your collarbone with teeth and tongue. Crystalline tears roll down the side of your face. You really shouldn’t be crying when you’re this wet.
“So fucking funny how you can’t look at me in the eye when we have a conversation but you read the filthiest fucking smut I’ve ever seen.”
taglist: @candy-hime
1K notes · View notes
jaehyunnie77 · 3 years
Text
Crave
Tumblr media
summary: All the sexual tension leads up to one house party with none other than your best friend Jaehyun.
pairing: jaehyun x f. reader (featuring johnny and mark)
genre: college au; f2l!, smut, humor, fluff
warnings: alcohol, daddy kink, fingering, dirty talk, oral recieving (both), overstimulation, unprotected sex (wrap it up kids)
word count: 3.5k
taglist: @jaehyunfirstlove thank you for encouraging me <3
a/n: I wrote this for fun one night haha I tried my best since this is my first time writing a smut and fic. I hope you enjoy this as much as I had writing it <3
---
“Hurry up y/n! By the time we get there all the booze will be gone and I won’t get to see Johnny!” your best friend yelled from the living room. “You always see Johnny” you yelled back from the bathroom. “Not the point! I’m trying to get some dick!” You could only roll your eyes and chuckle. “Give me a second. I’m almost done!” If you were being honest, you didn’t want to go to the house party your friends Mark and Johnny were throwing. 
The two guys and your best friend have all been pointing out reasons to go out, especially after your break up with your ex boyfriend. “Y/n, you need to have some fun and live a little. You can’t stay cooped up in your room or in the library forever. That’ll just make you more weirder.” Mark said one afternoon. “Yeah, and you have nice clothes y/n! They need to see light!” your best friend chimed in. You knew there was no point in trying to argue your point, so here you are, on a Saturday night, getting dressed in what feels like forever, to go to a house party. 
You leaned over the sink to put on your lipgloss and do a glance over of your makeup and looked at yourself in the mirror. After weeks of wearing nothing but baggy shirts, sweats, and no effort in doing hair and makeup, you hardly recognize yourself. In replacement, you are wearing tight black jeans that hugs your waist and a red crop top along with black heels. You definetly didn’t recognize yourself. As you made sure everything was to your liking, you headed outside to the living room where your best friend stood. 
“About damn -” she gasped and you instantly felt panicked rushing through your body. 
“What? Is it too much? You know what I’m just going to change.” you said already turning back. 
“No! You look hot as fuck! If I wasn’t chasing after Johnny’s dick, I would be making moves on you.” you both laughed. 
“It’s not too much though? I haven’t gone out since -”
“No, here is what we are not going to do. We are not going to talk about that sore loser of an ex of yours tonight, tomorrow, or any other night because tonight you are going to find someone and get laid!” You couldn’t help but groan out loud. “Trust me y/n. You deserve a night out to have fun and just be you again. You look beautiful.” She gave you a cheeky smile. Before you could say anything, she was pushing you through the door. 
By the time you arrived 10 minutes later to the party, you were honestly speechless. Sure you’ve been to other parties before the boys threw, but nothing compared to tonight. What was supposed to be the front lawn was full of people and even the balcony was people. It looked like the entire school was here partying. Once you found the front door, more people crowded the entire house with bodies against one another, red cups and bottle of beers on every surface, and smoke in the air. Without wasting any time, you both walked toward the kitchen to get yourselves situated. 
As you were about to grab a drink, you were greeted with hugs and yells from Johnny, Mark, Yuta, and your best friend Jaehyun. “About damn time you two got here! We were wondering who kidnapped your sexy asses.” Johnny said, already tipsy. He gave you a one sided hug as his eyes roamed all over your best friend. 
“Oh yeah, what would you have done if my sexy ass was kidnapped?” your best friend flirted back. You couldn’t help but fake vomit as you see your two closest friends flirting in front of you. 
“If you guys are going to flirt and fuck, please don’t do it around me.” you fake  gagged making everyone laugh.
You were then handed a shot glass and when you looked at the owner of the hand, you find yourself smiling widely at Jaehyun as his arm wrapped around your waist giving you a one sided hug. He gives you his infamous smile and dimples as he pulls you close and whispers in your ear, “You look beautiful.” At this point you forget how to breathe because the smell of his cologne and the way he makes you feel becomes all suffocating. 
You and Jaehyun first met in your first year of college in one of your shared classes. At first it was small talk, asking questions if either of you written down notes from the last class, to studying together at the library to coffee runs and making movie nights at one another dorms. Within a short span of time, you two were inseperable and becoming the best of friends.
Sure you have found him extremely attractive, but you knew better than to let your emotions get the best of you. Plus, you were dating your ex, while he had flings here and there. You knew there was never a chance for you both to be more than friends. Or so you thought. 
With your last relationship, Jaehyun had helped you through your break up and made sure to keep you occupied. He did a good job if you’re being honest because after two weeks, you forgot all about your ex. 
One night after a heavy studying session in your room, things got interesting. You don’t know how it happened or who made the first move, but next thing you knew, you are kissing your best friend! The kiss was hot and needy and it made you feel all the tingles everywhere in your body. No one broke away and the more you two made out, the more you craved for him. You found yourself straddling him and begun to grind your hips down on him. You could feel his bulge grow, earning a tiny moan from him. He gripped your waist and started to move you faster against him. Just then there was a loud knock on your door. “Delivery.” You both sigh as you get off of him. 
You come back with the food and didn’t know how to look at him. “Um, I, that...” you stuttered, embarassed at what just happened. He looks at your flustered state and starts to chuckle. You look at him wide eyes as you let out a laugh.
“It’s okay. Glad we got that out of the way.” he said.
You scoffed and threw the nearst pillow at him, not bothering to dissect his words. His laughter booms throughout the room. He calms down and looks at you seriously. “Honestly though, it’s okay y/n. I know I’m hot.” he laughs again. 
“Jaehyun! Oh my god. Shut up!” you cried back as you start to lightly hit him anywhere on his body you could hit. 
As much as you wanted him to make you feel good and fuck you dumb, you weren’t ready to risk your friendship just yet. From that day on, you two never talk about it nor made any other moves to steal kisses or have sex. That didn’t mean you two stopped flirting with one another or the sexual tension in the air. 
With two or four, maybe six, shots downed and however many refills you had, you had lost count, you were having fun. You and Mark played beer pong and won against Yuta and Jaehyun, to which Jaehyun wasn’t that pleased. When he looked over at the table in disbelief, he couldn’t help but soften his emotions when he saw you smiling and laughing. He thought to himself that he would let this go just this once. 
After your victory, you roamed around to the living room and began dancing with a couple of people you’ve seen in classes. Your best friend was nowhere in sight, most likely upstairs with Johnny. Feeling loose and happy, your eyes stopped at the man across the room whose eyes were all on you. 
From where Jaehyun stood, he could see how much fun you were having. He loved the way your body moved to the music and how all he wanted to do was take off those jeans that clunged to your body. He was leaning against the wall and couldn’t stop himself from having thoughts of what he could do to you if you were his. There was no denying that when you two were left alone, there was always an electrufying electricity throughout the room. He wanted more and he was ready to take that risk. He craved you. 
You began walking towards Jaehyun, eyes never leaving one another. His eyes were dark and full of lust and made your whole body shiver. As if the universe was on your side, ‘Pussy Fairy’ started to play. You gave him a smirk as you turned around and started to dance on him. He puts his whole chest behind you, his head finding its way to your neck, and match your movements. You were thankful the room was dark to hide your flustered face as his breath brushed against your skin. 
He kisses your neck ever so softly, letting out a moan only for him to hear. You felt high on ectasy. He put his index finger under chin making you turn your head to him as he kissed your lips. What started off as soft and teasing turned into hunger as your tongues collided exploring ones mouth. Oh how you missed his lips. You pulled away smiling at him as he studied your face, understanding what you wanted. He put his drink down as he took your hand and guided you upstairs to a nearby empty bedroom. 
He closed and locked the door quickly and pushed you against the nearest wall kissing you. You grunt as you felt the sudden impact on your back. “You don’t know how long I’ve waited for this moment.” he said in between kisses. Your tongues were fighting for dominance, but you knew better. You sucked on his tonuge earning a moan out of him. Satisfy with yourself, you bit lightly on his buttom lip. 
He undid your jeans sliding them down and helping you out of it along with your panties. He kissed you up until he was back to your lips. Your arms around his broad shoulders and hands in his hair. He put his thigh between your legs as you mindlessly bucked into him. You could feel him smirking. 
“You’re so fucking sexy. Will you let me be yours tonight?” he asked looking into your eyes. 
“Ruin me ... daddy” you quietly say. 
“Say that again.”
“Ruin me da-” before you could finish your words, he inserted a finger into you. A loud gasp leaving your mouth as your eyes rolled back.
“You’re so wet baby girl. Daddy is going to ruin you tonight.” he inserted another finger, stretching you out completely as you moaned loudly. God his fingers felt magical inside you. He kissed and bit your neck as his other hand started to caress your boob. “So fucking perfect.”
“Jae, I’m going to cum.” 
“Cum on my fingers baby.” 
Without being told twice, you felt your release flowing through you. He helped you ride out your high, fingers never stopping from pumping into you. He kiss your lips and withdraws his fingers and place it into his mouth. “Mmm. You taste so good.” He takes off your top and bra and walks you back to the bed. You helped him discard his shirt and jeans, leaving him only in his boxers. 
He settles in between your legs as he starts to nibble, flick, suck, and massage both your breasts. You were so turned on by his touches and mouth, you almost cum on the spot. “Please don’t stop daddy” you say breathlessly. 
“Does my baby girl love when daddy’s mouth is on you like this?” he lightly bites your erected nipple. All you could do is nod, words completely leaving your mind. “Words baby.”
“Yes daddy. Please don’t stop doing that.” you bucked your hips towards him. 
“Not yet princess, I’m not done yet. Now be a good girl for me and don’t cum until I say so.” he leaves trail kisses down your stomach to your thighs and to your slit. He circles his tonuge on your clit making you arch your back. “f-fuck” you say. 
“Is all of this for me?” he teases you. With every lick, every squeeze he gives your breats, you felt yourself losing your mind. As he sucks on your clit, he inserts his fingers and pumps into you. 
The feeling is so overwhelming you were close. “J-Jae, I’m so close. Please.”  you begged him. That just made him more determine to make you cum for the second time. He looked up at you between your legs and see your o face and that in itself was the perfect image for him. He loved that he was the one making you feel good and calling out his name. Your hands gripping his hair a little too harshly, but he didn’t care. All he cared about was making you feel good. 
He could feel your body begin to tremble as he put his arm over your stomach to keep you in place and the other over your thighs to keep them open. Without warning, you are cumming for the second time. You felt hazy and on cloud nine, his tongue making you oversensitive. 
He lets go of your clit with a pop. “Did daddy say you could cum? his deep voice sends a shiver down your spine. He gets up to take off his boxer and his hard cock springs up. You couldn’t wait any longer as you got on your knees bending foward and taking his cock in your hands. You looked up at him with innocent eyes as you gave his cock a stroke and kisses along the side and finally the tip. He hisses at the sight of you as you put him in your mouth. You bobbed you’re head up and down before he put puts his hands through your hair keeping you in place. You take him in deeper until he was hitting the back of your throat.
“Oh fuck y/n. Just like that. You’re a bad girl, but daddy loves your mouth so fucking much.” 
You pulled him out of your mouth with a pop to get air. Saliva and precum dripping from your mouth. You giggled and take his cock into your mouth again as he thrust into your mouth. You tried your best not to gag, but the sounds you were making made him thrust harder. “Fuck you’re going to make me cum!”
He pulled you back and gently pushed you back onto the bed. Before you could adjust yourself, he lined up his cock at your entrance and thrusted into you knocking out the wind in you. “You’re so big!” your head rolls back onto the pillow as you could feel every inch of him inside you as he bottoms out. He stills for a second to let you adjust to him. “You’re so tight baby.” You grabbed his face down to yours and kiss him. 
“Ruin me Jaehyun.” you say breathlessly.
He pulls out leaving only the top in as he starts to pound into you. With every thrust felt like heaven. The bed starts to hit against the wall at his rapid pace as everything around you turned into nothingness except for him, the slapping of skin on skin, both of your heavy breathing, panting, and moaning. 
The sight of you underneath him was enough for him to hold out on his orgasm. Jaehyun wanted to show you just how badly he wanted you. Your tits bounce perfectly as he pounds into you. The moans coming out of your mouth, his name rolling easily off your tonuge. He leans foward, his forehead against yours, as he perfectly hits your g-spot. “ohmygod, fuck right there, daddy don’t stop. please don’t stop!” you pleaded as you clenched your walls around him coming undone, stars blurring your vision. 
You could tell Jaehyun was nowhere near his orgasm as he slows his movements down. “You’re so beautiful. How did I get so lucky?” he kisses your lips softly and moves again Everything was too much for you, but you loved the feeling of his cock in you. 
“Jae please, I don’t think I can take it anymore.” you stated as you have tears in your eyes. 
“You’re doing so well baby. Oh so good for daddy. Can you hold on for one more? Just one more princess.” You nodded your head the best you could as he flipped you over onto all fours. You tried your best to hold yourself up, but as always without warning, Jaehyun rams into you, making the new position feel bliss. You collpased into the bed as you muffled your screams and moans into the pillow. He grabbed your hair, pulling you up to his bare chest. 
“You like this don’t you princess. No one has ever made you feel this good huh?” your brain turned into puddle as you try to look for words. You feel your legs begin to tremble as his thrust start to become uneven. 
“Yes daddy I love your cock stretching me out.” 
“I can’t believe we never fucked until now.” he says in between breaths before reaching down to rub your clit. “Cum with me baby.”
With one final thrust he releases into you filling you up as you reached your fourth orgasm of the night. 
He kisses between your shoulder blades before collapsing next to you. You two lay there for a moment catching your breaths. 
You were the first to break the silence, “That was amazing.” You turned to face him as you see sweat glistening over his body and his hair sticking to his forehead. How could he look so damn attractice after sex. You no longer felt intoxicated from alochol, but intoxicated from Jaehyun instead. You two look at each other before he pulls you to him and cups your face. He presses his soft plump lips onto yours. From what was hunger a minute ago, was replaced with gentleness and love. 
After your last relationship, you didn’t know if you would ever fall in love again, but in the last couple of months, you realized you fell in love with your best friend without meaning to. Or maybe you had always loved him since the first day you two talked. Unbeknownist to you, he was already in love with you from the moment he laid his eyes on you. 
“I love you.” he quietly says as he strokes your hair mindlessly. You look at your interwined hands as a smile crept up on your face. You looked up at him, “I love you too Jung Jaehyun.” He looks at you with loving eyes as you give him another kiss and falling asleep in his arms. 
It was 7 in the morning as you had a throbbing headache. The memories of last night still lingered in the air as Jaehyun’s arms are wrapped tightly around you. You felt safe with him and you wondered how did you ever get so lucky to have him in your life. 
There was a loud banging on the door and you remembered that you both fallen asleep at Mark and Johnny’s house. “Hey! Get up! Come and help clean up this house!” Mark yells. 
Jaehyun groaned at the loud banging and held you tighter. You couldn’t help but laugh. “Good morning cutie” you say as you give him a morning kiss. His eyes flutter open as a smile crept on his face. “Good morning beautiful.” He snuggles his nose against the crook of your neck. You try to get up to get dress when Jaehyun grabbed your wrist and pulled you back to him.
“Jae we have to go. I’m pretty sure the person who lives in this room wants his room back.” 
“Eh Mark can wait. It’s not like he can make do the dishes when I do them every night.” 
“Huh?” you look at him confused. 
He realizes your confusion and chuckles. “The guys asked me to move in with them a couple of months ago. I thought I told you or at least one of them did.” 
You gave him a are you serious right now look and pout. You smacked his chest lightly, “No they did not and neither did you!” 
He laughs wholeheartedly and pretends to be hurt. 
“I’m sorry princess.” He gives you a kiss to the lips. “I was so lost in being in love with you, I forgot to mention it. What can I do to make it up to you?” he kisses your forehead, cheeks, nose, jaw, and finally your lips. He lingers there for a second before a smirk is plastered on his face. “Want to go for round two?” he wiggles his eyebrows and you couldn’t help but laugh.
“Jae I love you, but I’m sore.”
“I’ll be gentle I promise.”
Without waiting for a response, he climbs on top of you.
Far in the distance, Mark is heard pounding on another door asking for help to clean the house. 
846 notes · View notes
yoongiseesawmp3 · 3 years
Text
just about perfect - seonghwa
howdy folks, back with another fic but i’m switching it up on ya! i might start writing regularly for ateez as well so y’all are cool with that right? right.
summary: this is NOT inspired by seonghwa saying he watches nevertheless. why would you even think that.
warnings: not the kind of warning u were expecting but there’s no smut (i know its based off a show abt friends with benefits so that’s why i’m warning u. do not get ur hopes up) a little cussing, a lotta me waxing poetic abt the perfect man park seonghwa. also slight tomfoolery from the teezers
word count: 10.6k
the bookstore just off campus is your current go-to study spot, mostly because the cafe inside has a drink special where you buy one coffee and get a voucher for the new bakery next door. so, let’s just say the past few days you’ve been well caffeinated and well fed. you’re on the way there now, already planning out what your treats are going to be. 
today you were supposed to meet your “study group” after your last class of the day, but it looks like you’re the only one here so far. and you say “study group” loosely, the professor for your music theory elective encouraged everyone to make a study group for the upcoming final and your group of friends chose to work together. there’s been no studying going on, though.
especially not when hongjoong’s new friend seonghwa has been flirting with you literally nonstop. he’s apparently friends with everyone else in your group too. san knows him from an art class they took together last semester, meanwhile wooyoung and yeosang claim they lived on seonghwa’s floor freshman year and he always bought them booze. seonghwa denies it, only because hongjoong would slap him if he admitted to buying alcohol for underage kids. 
tasteful delinquency aside, seonghwa is a fine person. you mean personality fine, not like, fine fine even though san would beg to differ. he knows you’ve developed a thing for seonghwa despite trying not to, and he’s secretly trying to get you two together. 
which is why san suddenly texts you and says he can’t make it, and neither can yeosang or wooyoung. they decided to ditch studying to practice for the final in their dance class instead, so it’ll be just you, seonghwa and hongjoong. and little did you know, hongjoong was trying to do the same thing as san. so we’ll see how this goes. 
“y/n, you can’t do that,” hongjoong warns you, referring to the scale you were trying to fill out. 
“why not?” you ask, looking down at your work and wondering what’s wrong.
“because it’ll sound like shit,” seonghwa replies before sipping his coffee. 
“what he said,” hongjoong agrees, grabbing your paper and erasing some of the notes you had scribbled out. “it should look more like this.”
you glance over at what he’s done on top of your old work and sigh. you took this class because you like music, and you thought learning about how it works would be interesting, but it’s hard. 
“can’t you just do all my work for me?” you plead. at this rate, you don’t think you’ll be able to pass the final. 
“no, i don’t want you dragging me down in this class,” hongjoong replies. “my grades are great.” 
“i hate you.”
“what are you struggling with, y/n?” seonghwa asks as he finally looks up from his laptop. he had been working on an assignment for another class this whole time because he, like hongjoong, is great with music theory. so maybe this study group was a good thing. 
“here, you can switch seats with me,” hongjoong says as he clears the spot next to you on the weathered loveseat. “i’m going to look for a book i should’ve started reading two weeks ago.” 
before you can protest, seonghwa is sliding his laptop across the coffeetable and slides himself into the spot next to you. when he sits you notice your thighs are touching, which is weird because there was plenty of space when hongjoong was here. you don’t know that seonghwa is doing this on purpose, that hongjoon really left so he could flirt with the cute cashier in the cafe to give you and seonghwa some alone time. 
“so,” seonghwa starts once he’s settled. “what are you struggling with?” 
“hmm, all of it?” you reply. your answer makes seonghwa smile, and you like the way his eyes sparkle when he does.
“then i guess we’ll be here a while.”
-
about an hour later, seonghwa has walked you through all the major and minor scales you need to know for the test and you’re starting to understand a little more. you’re still having problems with the back of the study guide where you have to come up with note combinations that can apply to those scales, but you have time to work on that since the final is two weeks out. right now, your brain is fried and you need a break. 
“do you mind if i go get a coffee?” you ask seonghwa, who was in the middle of sending you the minor scale cheat sheet he made. he looks up from his laptop and shakes his head before he speaks.
“i would only mind if i can’t come with you.”
“it’s literally right over there, why do you need to come with me?” you question.
“i think i would just miss you too much,” he pouts, and you roll your eyes. seonghwa shuts his laptop and stands up. “what if i need coffee too?”
“you already had one,” you remind him as you stand.
“yeah,” he nods. “but teaching you is exhausting, so i need another. c’mon.”
he walks ahead of you to the counter, and you’re too busy searching for your wallet to notice he took his jacket off, revealing a sneaky tattoo on the back of his neck. it isn’t until you’re behind him in line that you get a look at the hand drawn star right on the nape of his neck, and you have to refrain from reaching out to trace the lines.
“i didn’t know you had a tattoo,” you decide to say. he turns around and instinctively rubs his hand across the tattoo, smiling at you with those sparkly eyes again.
“yeah, i have a couple,” he replies. “but this one is my favorite.”
“why?”
“because my name means ‘to become a star’, so i like knowing that i have a reminder with me all the time,” he explains.
“nice. it’s really pretty.”
“thanks, so are you.”
“sir?” the barista calls, pulling seonghwa’s attention from you. he steps up to give his order as you stare at the tattoo again, noticing alongside it a couple of freckles that almost make it look like a constellation.
“y/n?” seonghwa’s voice draws you out of your thoughts and you realize he’s finished ordering. “what do you want?”
“oh, i can get it,” you begin, but he cuts you off.
“no, my treat,” he insists, and you sheepishly walk up to the counter to give your order. seonghwa makes a mental note of what you get, and he also snatches the bakery voucher from you before you can put it in your pocket. you make a confused sound and seonghwa laughs. 
“why’d you do that?” you whine.
“you only get to use it if you come with me to the bakery later,” he teases. “say yes or i’m drinking your coffee and getting myself an extra cupcake.”
“fine,” you huff. “but i have an assignment due at midnight, so i can’t stay long.”
“it’s 4pm, that’s not enough time for you to finish it?” he asks while you step out of the way for the next customers.
“i haven’t started yet,” you admit. 
“you like saving things until the last minute, don’t you?”
“what makes you say that?”
“well, it looks like you haven’t been studying music theory at all, and now this,” he shrugs. 
“not everybody can be perfect like you, park seonghwa,” you grumble as the barista places two coffee cups on the bar. you hear seonghwa giggle shortly, and you give him a questioning look.
“so you think i’m perfect?” he smirks.
-
it’s the next day, almost midnight, and you really need spray paint. 
why? well, you’re stressed because you have so much to study for your finals and you don’t know where to start. yes, seonghwa helped yesterday, but he’s not in all your other classes, so you’ve decided you need a break from tearing your hair out over the material you can’t comprehend. the best way to distract yourself from that is to finally paint that dresser you got from a garage sale a few months ago, hence the spray paint. 
thankfully, san is still awake, and he has a car, so you ask him to pick you up for a quick run to the art supply store that’s surprisingly still open. a bonus of going to college in the city, you can get anything almost whenever you need it. 
“thanks for coming to get me,” you tell san as you hop into his car. 
“no problem,” he replies. “i was bored and hongjoong said he needed paint pens so this is a win-win situation. plus, i get to hear about your date with seonghwa yesterday.”
“it was not a date,” you groan, choosing to ignore the suggestive way san is looking at you right now. 
“but you spent the whole afternoon together,” san starts. “he bought you coffee and you went to the bakery together and talked about, like, your favorite colors and stuff. sounds like a date to me.”
“how do you know all that?”
“seonghwa told hongjoong and then hongjoong told me,” he explains as he turns onto the street that’ll take you to the art store. 
“well tell hongjoong that i’m still mad at him for ditching us,” you reply. “and i’m still kinda mad at you and the other two for bailing in the first place.”
“hey, if it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t have had your first date with seonghwa,” san points out.
“it was not a date!” you cry. “we studied most of the time we were together, then he bought my coffee and bullied me into going to the bakery. i couldn’t stay long because i had a paper to write, so we talked about stupid shit until i had to leave.”
“it sounds like the beginning of true love to me,” san sing-songs. 
“stop the car, i’ve decided to walk.”
-
when you get to the store, san separates from you quickly because he sees his friend mingi behind the counter. they’re busy talking while you search the store for the paints, and you’re so busy looking up at the aisle names that you don’t notice you’re about to run into someone. 
“hey-” you start to complain, but you recognize the man you almost bumped into. “oh, seonghwa.”
“y/n,” he smiles at you. “what are you doing out so late?” 
“uh, distracting myself from how small my brain is,” you explain. “what are you doing here?”
“hongjoong needed paint pens,” he says, and you’re about two seconds away from finding san and slapping him. did they really plan this too? 
“why didn’t he come get them?” you ask as you remember what you’re here to find. your eyes scan the aisle behind seonghwa and you spot the paint cans at the end, but he’s in your way.
“i offered,” he says with a shrug.
“you must be a really good friend, then.”
“well you did call me perfect yesterday, so...” he trails off, smirking. you roll your eyes at him but can’t help the blush creeping up your neck. he interrupts his new favorite activity of staring deeply into your eyes (just to fluster you, of course) and he sees that you’re looking past him at the shelves of paint. “you need something down here?” 
“um, yeah, the spray paint,” you reply, awkwardly trying to skirt around him to get into the aisle. he steps aside to let you through, but still follows you as you search for the color you want.
“what are you making?” 
“i’m painting a scuffed up dresser i’ve had for a while, so i want something simple that’ll go with the rest of the things in my room,” you explain as you stop walking and crane your neck to scan the bottles on the top shelf. seonghwa stops behind you and places his hand on the small of your back as he reaches for a can just out of your reach.
“what about this one?” he offers, handing you a can of light blue paint. it’s really pretty, and it’ll stand out with the white furniture you already have, but you really like it.
“oh, that’s perfect!” you say as you take the can from his hands.
“there you go again,” seonghwa teases, and you shoot him a questioning look. he smiles as he responds. “calling me perfect?”
“i said the paint was perfect, weirdo,” you snap. “but thank you for finding this.”
“anytime,” he tells you. “you said your favorite color was blue right?”
“right...” you mumble, thinking back to the conversation you had at the bakery yesterday. “how’d you remember?”
“ugh, i’m hurt!” he exclaims, hand flying to his chest in mock surprise. “i can’t believe you already forgot that it’s my favorite color too.”
“hm, guess i was too distracted by how perfect you are,” you joke. seonghwa laughs at that, a sharp sound that seemed to catch him off guard. he covers his mouth to stifle the sound, but you’re close enough to the cash register now that it draws attention from san and mingi.
“find what you need?” san asks with a shit eating grin.
“hm, just about,” you say as you place the paint on the counter. “couldn’t find a hammer big enough to drop on your head, though.”
“wow, harsh,” san scoffs. “and to think i brought you here out of the goodness of my heart.”
you’re too busy half-bickering with san to notice that seonghwa has paid for your paint and the pens he promised hongjoong. he mumbles something to mingi, who then hands him a piece of paper. he scribbles his number down for you before handing you the can and his number. 
“i gotta go, but i’ll see you later for study group, right?” he confirms. you’re still processing the fact that he keeps buying things for you and you can’t respond in time, so san steps in.
“yeah, y/n will be there,” san assures seonghwa. he nods and shoots you one last smile before he excuses himself and leaves. you’re stuck with san and that stupid grin again. he looks at you and then checks the paper with seonghwa’s number on it. “yep, i think you got what you needed.”
-
even though seonghwa very willingly gave you his number, you’re still afraid to text him. it’s kind of hard to believe that he’s into you the way you’re into him, so you’re fine with just seeing him for study dates. or, uh, not study dates. study gatherings. with just the two of you. because the other guys have bailed, again.
this time, though, you’re not working on music theory. you have an assignemnt due for your ethics class, and you need family and friends to read about your results from this morals test. you wanted san to do it, but he’s currently “chasing a sweet piece of ass,” whatever that means. he’s probably bothering his lab partner that he claims descended from greek gods. you would usually tease him for saying something like that, but it’s a thought you’ve had about seonghwa, so you kept your mouth shut.
anyway, you know you need someone to answer these questions for you, but you can’t bring yourself to ask seonghwa. he kept up his “perfect” demeanor again today, showing up at the bookstore before you so he could get you the coffee you like. you would ask why he keeps doing things like this for you, remembering your favorite color and your coffee order, but you’re afraid he’ll stop if you bring it up. little do you know, every time he learns something new about you, he writes it down in his notes app, keeping a running tab of the things you like.
“y/n?” you hear him ask. his voice snaps you out of your thoughts and you realize you’ve been staring at him this whole time. the smirk you’ve become so familiar with makes another appearance as he gets ready to tease you. “something on your mind?”
“no, i...no,” you stutter. “i’m just thinking.”
“about what?” he questions as he lifts his coffee cup to his lips. you watch the way he slightly pouts them before taking a sip and you have to stop yourself from staring again.
“just this ethics assignment i want to finish,” you explain. “sorry, i didn’t realize i was staring at you.”
“must be an important assignment,” he nods, leaning forward to put his cup back on the table in front of you. you get another glimpse at the star tattoo on his neck as he does. “because i was definitely staring at you too, and you didn’t even notice.”
“oh?” 
“yep,” he confirms. “i was giving you my best puppy dog eyes and everything.”
“puppy dog eyes?” you ask, unsure of what’s coming. “do you need something?”
“eh, not really,” he shrugs. “i’m just worried.”
“why?”
“you never texted me the other night.”
“after the art store?” you ask incredulously. 
“isn’t that when i gave you my number?” he smirks. 
“i didn’t think you wanted me to text you immediately...”
“well, it’s been three days and i still don’t have your number,” he pouts. 
“hold on a second,” you mumble, reaching for your bag. you fumble around in there, searching for the piece of paper with seonghwa’s number on it as he watches you fondly.
“what are you doing?”
“looking for your number,” you reply like it’s obvious. seonghwa laughs a little and places his hand on your arm to stop you. 
“you do know i’m right next to you, and i could just put my number in myself?” he asks, eyes sparkling as he half-smiles at you. you blush, because no, you weren’t thinking about that. you sheepishly hand him your phone and watch as he adds his number and then texts himself. he gives your phone back and replaces it with his own before asking, “what’s your favorite emoji?”
“um, the smiling cowboy?” you offer, not sure why he’s asking. he laughs again, like he did in the art store, but this time it’s harder for him to quiet the breathy giggles coming from his chest.
“why that one?” he asks, typing something quickly.
“it’s funny,” you shrug. “why?”
“needed something cute to put next to your name, but you’re a weirdo, so it’s not as cute as i was imagining,” he explains, showing you the contact card in his phone. your number is saved as “y/n 🥰🤠” and you can’t help but laugh. you look up at seonghwa, warmth in your eyes, and he starts laughing too.
“see?” you giggle. “it is funny.”
“whatever, at least now i have your number.”
-
after exchanging numbers with seonghwa, you’re starting to let yourself believe little by little that he might feel the same way you do. it’s not anything serious, but there’s definitely something there. the texts he sends are always flirtatious, and it has your heart beating faster every time you get a notification, hoping that it’s him. you’re in the middle of studying for your spanish final when you feel your phone vibrate on the bed next to you, and you smile when you see who it’s from.
seonghwa 🥺💫, 6:28pm: are you busy rn?
you, 6:28pm: not really, just studying
seonghwa 🥺💫: can’t be studying too much if you replied that quickly 🥸
you: what do u want
seonghwa 🥺💫: be nice :-(
you: sorry
you: hi seonghwa, how are you? what do you want.
seonghwa 🥺💫: come get dinner with me? 
you: right now?
seonghwa 🥺💫: no, in 30 years. yes right now 
you: but i’m studying ://
seonghwa 🥺💫: liar!
you: fine, when and where?
seonghwa 🥺💫: i’ll pick you up in ten 🤠
“you sure like staying close to campus, huh?” you ask seonghwa as he walks you about a block from your usual hangout and to a little hole in the wall restaurant that looks like it could seat maybe 20 people, uncomfortably. 
“i know what i like,” he responds with a shrug. “speaking of things i like, you look nice.”
“oh, thank you,” you semi-laugh. you’d been close to panic trying to figure out what to wear (because you’re not sure if this is a date) so you went with something simple, but you’re glad seonghwa likes it. not that you wanted to impress him. but you did, a little. anyway, he looks...well, perfect, wearing black ripped jeans and a velvet-y navy shirt. you continually have to stop yourself from reaching out and stroking his arm just to feel the soft fabric (and maybe his muscles). 
“so i take it you’ve never been here before?” he asks as he hands you a menu. you shake your head no in response. you can’t tell if he’s doing it intentionally, but seonghwa leans closer into your side as he explains. “you pick a main entree, but each dish comes with these sides. they say no substitutes, but i know the guy behind the counter so you can ask for more of something else if you don’t like one of them.”
“i might do that,” you say. “i don’t really want dumplings, so could i get extra sweet potatoes?”
“of course,” he nods, noting the way you smile slightly. it makes your eyes light up, and his heart does a little backflip knowing that he’s the reason for it. well, the sweet potatoes probably are, but he’s the one getting the sweet potatoes, so he’s taking that win for himself. once you both confirm what you want, he places his hand on your back and guides you to the counter.
“hey seonghwa!” the tall guy with a lopsided smile behind the register greets. “long time no see. who’s your friend?”
“hey yunho,” seonghwa smiles back. “this is y/n, a vip, so make sure you give us the good stuff.”
“extra sweet potatoes?” yunho laughs. you and seonghwa both nod as yunho continues taking your order, and you find yourself comfortably leaning into seonghwa as you wait for yunho to calculate the price. before seonghwa can even think about taking his wallet out, you’re handing yunho cash for the food, which makes seonghwa sputter.
“what? y/n, i was going to pay,” he whines, and you simply shake your head.
“nope, my turn,” you tell him. “you’ve bought me coffee too many times.”
“but i asked you out! i don’t want you to pay on our first date if i’m the one who brought you here,” he continues to complain.
“so this is a date?” you confirm, right as yunho asks suggestively “oh, this is a date?”
“yunho, give y/n’s money back,” seonghwa says, ignoring the two of you. “i’m paying.”
“yunho, if you give me that money i’ll be forced to leave and stand seonghwa up for our date,” you say, emphasizing the last word. now you’re glad you wore clean pants.
“seonghwa, why don’t you let y/n pay for this, and then you can get the next one?” yunho suggests, sending you a wink before he turns to the kitchen to share your order with the chef. you’re left with a flustered seonghwa, which is a sight you’re not used to, and it makes you laugh.
“c’mon,” you say as you pull on his arm. “let’s go find a table.”
you’re the only ones in the restaurant, so the food comes out pretty quick, and you have to stifle a laugh when you see that someone has arranged the sweet potatoes on a separate plate in the shape of a heart. seonghwa blushes at this, and you’re taken aback by how shy he’s suddenly become.
for some reason, seonghwa showing signs of nervousness puts you at ease, and you lead the conversation to something stupid san told you about the boys and their shenanigans at their dorm. the story has seonghwa laughing, and he confirms that yes, yeosang does have a sword by the tv, and yes, hongjoong did threaten to use it on him after he lost an intense match of fifa. 
“in hongjoong’s defense,” seonghwa begins, “i do think yeosang cheated. wooyoung was definitely helping him.”
“it still sounds ridiculous,” you tell him. “why does anybody need a sword?”
“yeosang is just...yeosang,” seonghwa replies. “he’s weird but he won’t admit that to anyone.”
“i’m just saying, if i went to someone’s house and there was a katana by the tv, i’d haul my ass outta there.” seonghwa giggles at how serious you look, but this conversation reminds him...
“you never showed me your room,” he says bluntly. you pause for a moment, spoon halfway to your mouth, and seonghwa realizes how that must sound. “i mean, the paint, your dresser. you never showed me a picture once you fixed it up.”
“oh,” you breathe out. “let me grab my phone, i can show you.”
“show him what?” a familiar voice suddenly asks from the seat next to you. when you notice that san, and some of your other friends, have snuck their way into the restaurant, you have to keep yourself from groaning.
“why are you here.”
“i’m hungry,” san replies, then turns to seonghwa. “you didn’t tell us you were getting dinner.”
“i didn’t want to,” seonghwa deadpans. “ i wanted it to be just me and y/n.”
“too late for that, pal,” honjoong says as he slides into the seat across from you. “hi y/n.”
“hey hongjoong,” you grumble. “please tell me you’re getting your food to go.”
“we were, but then we saw our good friends eating all by themselves and thought we should join them,” hongjoong teases. by now, the rest of the boys have sat down around you, some at other tables, and one of them you don’t recognize. that must be jongho, their younger “roommate” who technically lives in first year housing but doesn’t get along with the other guy in his room. you’ve heard seonghwa complain that jongho eats all of his snacks. 
“well, i hope you enjoy your food, but seonghwa and i were just about to leave,” you lie, looking at seonghwa with a stare that pleads ‘please go along with this.’
“where are you going?” wooyoung asks, one table over.
“my apartment,” you respond quickly, standing up as seonghwa follows your cue with a stupidly adorable look on his face.
“oh, perfect!” san chirps. “we’ll come with you!”
so much for your date with seonghwa. it was hard to stop the boys from insisting they all join you at your apartment, especially after yunho said his shift was over and he could really use some destressing. and by destressing he meant booze, so you currently have 8 tipsy boys scattered across your living room. if you thought they were loud before...it’s amazing that your neighbors haven’t complained yet. 
it started off innocent enough, you were just playing card games at first and the loser of each round had to drink. then it turned into never have i ever, and each time you put a finger down you had to drink. then yeosang suggested shots, and it really went downhill from there. san tried convincing everyone to play a round of spin the bottle just for the chance of making you and seonghwa kiss, but mingi and wooyoung were the only ones down, so majority ruled there. 
“san, stop pouting,” you laugh, noticing that he’s upset over his evil plan not working out.
“it’s fine,” he lies, duck lips on full display. 
“spin the bottle is such a tween-y game too,” jongho pipes in. “and we’re adults, so it would be kinda stupid to play it anyway.”
“says the baby of the group,” yeosang scoffs. 
“what about truth or dare?” hongjoong suggests. “still immature, but we can make it fun.”
“yes!” san shouts, suddenly back in a positive mood. 
“i’ll start,” mingi volunteers. he takes a deep breath as he looks around the room, eyes narrowing when he looks at you and seonghwa. you’re currently smushed into your armchair together, not really by choice, because the couch is completely full and neither of you wanted to sit on the floor (you know how dirty it is, and seonghwa has a bad hip). thankfully, mingi has mercy on you and directs his gaze to his best friend. “yunho, truth or dare?”
“truth,” yunho slurs out. you’d say he’s the opposite of stressed by now.
“did you sleep with that girl you met at the party last week?”
“no,” yunho replies quickly, cheeks turning a knowing shade of red. “i just walked her home.”
“and went missing until the next morning?” yeosang asks. he gets a few snickers, and you laugh a little too because you remember san and wooyoung talking about their friend who disappeared for a few hours last weekend.
“whatever,” yunho groans. “yeosang. truth or dare.”
“dare,” yeosang chooses confidently. 
“kiss wooyoung on the cheek.”
“no,” he replies, just as confidently. 
“then take another shot,” yunho concedes, waving his hand at the stubborn boy. wooyoung mumbles something about how kissable he is as yeosang downs what looks like more than just a regular shot.
“this is boring,” jongho whines, which makes him the next target. he chooses dare, and you have to detach yourself from seonghwa so you can go into your kitchen and find the lemon juice in your fridge so jongho can chug what’s left. he’s sputtering after a few sips and gives up, grumbling up to you, “ i hate you for that.”
“hey, it wasn’t my dare,” you defend yourself. “you owe me lemon juice.”
“i’ll give it to you if you choose dare,” jongho challenges. you roll your eyes and take the bait, earning a round of ooo’s from the boys around you. 
“make her kiss seonghwa,” someone hisses.
“or me!” wooyoung chirps. jongho looks over at him with a death glare, and wooyoung shrugs. “i just want someone to want to kiss me.”
“i think you’re cut off,” hongjoong says as he leans across your coffee table to move the bottle away from wooyoung.
“everyone be quiet!” san shouts. “jongho has to give y/n a dare.”
“hmmm,” jongho starts, tapping his finger on his chin. “what should i do?”
“for someone who said this was boring, you’re really milking this,” seonghwa says under his breath. you’re perched on the arm of the chair, close enough to hear him, but thankfully no one else does.
“what’s that other childish game called?” jongho wonders aloud. “seven minutes in heaven? i think you should do that with seonghwa.”
“do i have to?” you pout, and your reluctance makes seonghwa stiffen. he thinks you said that because you’re uncomfortable, and not because you don’t want the boys pressing their ear up to the door while the two of you make out.
“rules are rules,” hongjoong concludes, nodding his head toward your room. “go have fun. i’ll keep the kids from bothering you.”
you look to seonghwa, who isn’t looking directly at you. you tentatively take his hand, giving it a squeeze before you stand up and lead him to your room. there are so many catcalls, whistles and cheers coming from your friends that you barely hear san say “take your time! it doesn’t have to be just seven minutes!”
once you get to your room, you let seonghwa go in first and then you lock the door behind you. he quirks an eyebrow at that, and you shrug shyly. 
“don’t want one of them bursting in,” you explain. seonghwa nods, and you both fall silent. it’s not necessarily awkward, just tense. you both want to do what seven minutes in heaven is meant for, but you’re not gonna make the first move and seonghwa still isn’t sure you even want to be in this situation. so he takes this time to turn around and take your room in, pointing to your dresser.
“is this it?” he asks. you hum out a yes in response, and he runs his hand over the freshly painted wood. “it looks nice. whoever picked out the color sure knows what he’s doing.”
“eh, he’s just lucky,” you joke, and you both laugh. you move to stand next to him and place your hand on top of his. “sorry we couldn’t finish our date.” 
“sorry my friends are so annoying,” seonghwa adds. 
“sorry san pushed me into your lap earlier,” you continue, and seonghwa smirks.
“well, i didn’t mind that,” he says. “i wanted you to sit with me, but i didn’t want to draw attention.”
“oh,” you squeak, feeling a blush on its way to your cheeks. a heavy silence falls over you, and seonghwa is the first to break it.
“listen, if you don’t want to kiss me, that’s cool,” he begins. “i kinda got the vibe earlier that you didn’t want to do this, and that’s cool. if you don’t want to do this we’re still cool.”
“you don’t sound very cool about it,” you chuckle, and seonghwa’s face flushes. “but i was only nervous because i didn’t know if you wanted to kiss me.”
“oh i want to kiss you,” he says firmly. “have for a while.”
“why don’t you do it then?” you challenge. seonghwa takes a step closer to you, and before you know it he’s pinned you against your dresser. you balance your hands on it and the cool wood helps you ground yourself as your body heats up from having seonghwa so close.
“are you sure?” he asks, only a few inches from your face. you nod and whisper out “i’m sure” and seonghwa quickly cups your face and smothers you in a kiss. it starts off slow, and your face warms at his touch. once you relax into it you move your lips against his, nipping at his bottom lip slightly and earning a groan from the man before you. you take the chance to slip your tongue past his lips as you bring your hands up to the nape of his neck, slowly brushing through his soft hair. his hands find their way to your waist, gripping tightly but not too hard, and he leans in to get as close to you as possible. you keep kissing for a few moments, but eventually you need to breathe so you lightly tap on his neck. he pulls back, breathing heavy, and his smile shines like the most beautiful stars in the sky. “so?”
“so?” you repeat, equally out of breath.
“that was nice.”
“it was.”
“the boys are gonna know we made out.”
“of course they are,” you laugh. “your lips look swollen.”
“so do yours,” he counters. 
“but wasn’t that the whole point of us coming in here?” you ask. your hands have fallen to his chest, and you finally get a chance to smooth out the soft velvet of his shirt. and you notice his chest is very, uh, firm, too.
“we didn’t have to kiss,” he says with a shrug. “we could’ve just talked.”
“about what?” you ask with a smile.
“my keen eye for interior design,” he replies. “how sexy you look in low lighting.”
“so you think i’m sexy?” you tease, and seonghwa rolls his eyes.
“i just had my tongue in your mouth, does that answer your question?”
another silence comes over you both, but this one is lighter than before. you’re subconsciously rubbing your hands over his shirt, and seonghwa brings a hand up to cover yours, stopping it right over his heart.
“we don’t have to tell them,” you offer. “i mean, they kept it a secret from us that they were trying to get us together this whole time.”
“oh no, i was fully aware of that,” seonghwa tells you, and you scoff. “do you think i really wanted to get out past midnight just to buy hongjoong some expensive markers? he never even paid me for them.”
“well now i really don’t want to tell them we kissed,” you whine. “how could everyone be in on this except me?”
“it was more fun that way,” seonghwa teases before pecking your lips. “but we can keep this between us, for now.”
“i think we should,” you say with a nod of finality. “it’s more fun that way.”
“c’mon, let’s go back out there before they send a search party.”
you return to the living room before seonghwa (so he can sneak into the bathroom and fix his hair) and you find most of the boys asleep on the floor. you sigh as your eyes meet hongjoong’s, and he shrugs.
“at least they didn’t bother you,” he says. 
“can you help me find pillows and blankets for them, please?” you ask, and he nods before jumping into action. he throws one of the couch pillows down to yeosang, who takes it and hugs it to his chest. you have a couple extras in your hall closet and you pass them to yunho, who’s sitting up when you come back. he places one under mingi and another under jongho and keeps the last one for himself. san and wooyoung are on the couch, and hongjoong tells you he’s fine with the armchair. seonghwa is out of the bathroom by now, and, like the perfect man he is, he’s carrying blankets in his arms. the three of you work on getting all the boys covered before you realize that seonghwa doesn’t have a place to sleep.
“i can take another spot on the floor,” he assures you. “do you have another pillow i can use?”
“let him sleep in your room, y/n,” san mumbles from underneath wooyoung. you pause and look at seonghwa, who’s looking back at you with something you can’t read in his eyes. 
“it’s not a bad idea,” hongjoong pipes in from somewhere within the blanket cocoon he made for himself. “he was just there. you can put him on the floor.”
“y/n?” seonghwa asks, pulling your attention back to him. “i don’t have to if you’re uncomfortable.” 
you would try to fight it, so you could hopefully ignore taunts from the boys in the morning, but you’re suddenly really tired and you just want to lay down.
“i’m ok with it if you are,” you yawn. “take the rest of those blankets, we can use those for your bed.”
“make good choices,” honjoong mumbles as seonghwa leads you back to your room, and you hear san going “oooooo” as you close your door a second time tonight. this time you don’t lock it though, and when you turn around you see the blankets on the floor and seonghwa sprawled out on your usual side of the bed, so you tell him.
“well why don’t you come join me then?” he teases with a grin. you blush and shake your head.
“scoot over.”
he does, but only by an inch. he still looks at you with that flirty glint in his eyes, and you can only shake your head again as you crawl into the tiny space next to him. he immediately wraps an arm around your waist and gives you a tight hug, placing a kiss on your shoulder.
“thank you,” he whispers into your back.
“for what?” you reply.
“for not putting me on the floor. and for liking me.”
-
you just woke up from maybe the best night of sleep you’ve ever had. seonghwa’s arms and legs are draped over yours, so you can’t get up without waking him, but having him so close is a welcome source of warmth. your apartment is quiet, and the sun is peacefully filtering into your room through your curtain. it’s the perfect moment, with your perfect boy, until- 
“i think they’re still asleep,” you hear someone whisper from the hallway.
“wooyoung, leave them alone!” another voice hisses. there’s silence for a moment, and then a smack, followed by someone jiggling the doorknob to your room. you quickly untangle yourself from seonghwa before you watch as the door cracks open a bit, revealing wooyoung in all his bed-headed glory. you close your eyes as much as you can while still peeking at who’s sneaking into your room, and you see jongho close behind him. he must’ve been the one who got smacked. or did the smacking. either way, they’re both staring at you and seonghwa in your bed, but you notice wooyoung smile and pause.
“i knew it! they definitely got together last night.”
“how do you know?” jongho asks. “maybe y/n let seonghwa sleep on the bed because of his old man hips.”
“whatever. they’re in the same bed, so that’s at least something,” wooyoung replies. “lame, but still something.”
“what did you expect?” jongho asks incredulously. “you thought we would catch them doing it?”
“i mean, not exactly, but couldn’t i get a little cuddling maybe?”
“you want me to cuddle you hyung?” jongho deadpans.
“yes, actually-”
“hey!” a third voice whisper shouts. you hear footsteps and then you see hongjoong pulling wooyoung out of your room by the neck of his shirt. “leave them alone. and you, jongho, i’m surprised you’re playing along with this.”
“well...” jongho mumbles.
“well what?” hongjoong asks, sounding like the mom-est mom to ever mom.
“they’re the only ones that know how to make breakfast.”
“both of you, out! now!” hongjoong semi-shouts, and you feel seonghwa stirring behind you. hongjoong doesn’t realize you’re both awake and closes the door as he leaves.
“what time is it?” seonghwa grumbles out, and your heart skips a beat hearing how deep his voice is when he wakes up.
“early,” you reply, turning around to be face to face with him. his arms slowly snake around you as you look up at him and share a sleepy smile. “how can you look this good when you first wake up?”
“weird, i wanted to ask you the same thing,” seonghwa replies, leaning in to kiss you but you touch your fingers to his lips and stop him, so he pouts. 
“uh uh, not until i brush my teeth,” you say as you try to get up, but seonghwa’s grip on your waist keeps you down.
“please,” he pouts again, sparkly eyes on full display as he pleads with you. it takes about half a second for you to cave and kiss him quickly, catching him off guard. he shifts to pull you on top of him and deepen the kiss, but he loses his grip on you and you’re able to slip out of bed before he can stop you. a noise comes from deep in his chest that almost sounds like a growl, and you shoot him a glare.
“hey, you got your kiss,” you warn. “now i’m going to make breakfast for the gremlins. do you want to help me?”
-
after the intrusion into your bedroom, wooyoung obviously told the boys what he saw. but, like jongho said, most of them thought it was just because of seonghwa’s hips that made you share a bed with him. there wasn’t enough evidence otherwise, and none of them really expected either of you to make a move despite their efforts. but they’re starting to get suspicious.
little do they know, after the set up fell into place, seonghwa wanted to take you on a real date. the only way to do that without your friends knowing was to sneak around without them, which was kind of fun. it was nice having this bubble with seonghwa, just the two of you, but it was getting harder to avoid your friends. seonghwa lived with them after all, so they pestered him about how often he was out and who he might be out with. 
“san keeps asking if you’re a good kisser. i told him i didn’t know, and then he asked if he could find out for me. should i be concerned about that?”
“we need to be more careful, yeosang said he saw us at the taco place yesterday, and he said we hold hands weird.”
“hongjoong has been saving seats for us at the bookstore, and each time we don’t show up i think he steals something from me.”
you have been ditching study group lately, but that’s more because you need to do some deep studying for your other finals and your friends are too much of a distraction. seonghwa can be distracting too, but at least he can take a hint and back down when you really need to focus. it’s been nice actually, just spending time in his presence. you were so nervous around him just a few weeks ago, and now you feel like you could trust him with just about anything.
today, you don’t get any personal study time, though. your music theory final is coming up and seonghwa wants you to get all the terms memorized before the review session in class tomorrow. he’s motivating you with a kiss for each right answer and the promise of him making dinner once you’re done. you’re currently cruising on five wrong in a row, and you’re getting frustrated. 
“c’mon y/n, you know this,” seonghwa encourages you, but you just whine in response. “we did this like four minutes ago, and i told you the answer so you could remember it.”
“yeah, well i obviously didn’t,” you snap, and seonghwa fakes being hurt. “sorry. can we skip this and come back to it?”
“sure,” he agrees quickly. “but first you need to write down the circle of fifths for me.” 
“i hate you.”
“hm, wrong answer,” he hums. “but kiss anyway. maybe that’ll keep you from getting so grumpy.”
“i am not grumpy,” you defend after kissing him gently. “i’m stressed.”
“you know what you need?”
“hm?”
“you need to go on another date,” he begins. “with me, obviously.”
“damn, i wanted to know if yunho was free,” you tease, and seonghwa doesn’t think it’s funny. “now who’s grumpy?”
“ignoring that,” he scoffs, but you can tell he’s trying not to smile. 
“when would we go? i’m really busy the next few days.”
“what about after class? we could both clean up and do something nice before we get some dinner?” seonghwa suggests. “why don’t we go to that art exhibit you told me about?”
“ugh,” you groan as you learn your head on his shoulder. “that sounds amazing, but we both said we’d be at study group tomorrow, remember? hongjoong practically begged me to be there, and i said i would ask you to come.”
“what about not letting them know we’re a thing?” he pouts. you don’t tell him about the youngest two that saw you all cuddled up, but instead you assure him that you inviting him to study group wouldn’t look unusual to the boys.
“plus, if we both cancel last minute, they’d know for sure we were up to something together,” you continue. “so yes, we need to go on another date, but just not tomorrow.”
“fine,” he mumbles. “now i am grumpy.”
“would something from the cafe make it better, my little boba ball?” you ask in a baby voice.
“ooh, actually, boba sounds good,” seonghwa smiles. “let’s go.”
-
the next day you get to the bookstore late because your professor gave a pop quiz at the end of class and you’ve been so busy studying music theory you forgot to study for anything else, so you needed all the time you could get. when you finally arrive, all of the boys are there, surprisingly. since you’ve never seen yunho, mingi and jongho here before you’re a little confused, but happy to see them nonetheless. 
as you walk up to the usual spot, you notice a coffee cup sitting in front of an empty chair, and you point to it as the boys greet you.
“is this for me?” you ask, placing your bag on the ground before grabbing the warm mug. “thank you, coffee angel.”
“you’re welcome, actual angel,” seonghwa replies, and you almost choke on your first sip. what is he doing?? you’re supposed to be sneaky sneaks and keep your relationship quiet, but here he is flirting with you in front of everyone!
except, that’s what he did before you started dating too, so it’s not out of the ordinary. in fact, no one pays any mind to it, so you’re left with a burnt tongue and blushy cheeks while seonghwa looks at you with a stare that only you would understand. you quickly shoot him a wink before you put your mug down and reach for your notes.
“um, hello? what are you guys doing?” you ask yeosang next to you, who’s rabidly tapping at his phone, just like everyone else. if they weren’t distracted they might have picked up on the vibes between you and seonghwa, but thankfully they’re the oblivious ones now.
“playing a game,” half of them respond, just as hongjoong says “writing lyrics” and jongho mumbles “texting my mom.”
“aren’t we supposed to study?” you ask. “or did you already learn everything in the world while i was gone?”
“well you’ve missed a lot of study sessions, y/n,” san begins. “so yes, we have learned everything. now we just come here to hang out.”
“so then why did you insist on me being here, joong?” you ask newly orange-haired hongjoong. it’s been a while since you’ve seen him, he must’ve dyed it recently. 
“we missed hanging out with you,” he says simply, eyes peeking up from his phone. your heart constricts at this, and you catch seonghwa’s eyes again. you might have to rethink the whole sneaking around thing if they really do miss you.
“yeah, we missed you AND we had to make sure you and seonghwa are still spending time together,” wooyoung adds, wiggling his eyebrows. 
“where have you been anyway?” yeosang asks. “you don’t have other friends.”
“yes i do,” you scoff.”
“give me names and numbers.”
“ignore him,” yunho tells you, and you nod.
“i always do. but i’ve been really stressed about finals, so i had to do some soul searching on my own to decide if i need to graduate or not.”
“seems fair,” mingi agrees. “i almost had to drop a class.”
“because he forgot he was even enrolled in it,” jongho clarifies, and you laugh.
“but seonghwa has been missing a lot lately too,” san starts. “i wonder what he’s been doing.”
“or who,” wooyoung snickers, and hongjoong reaches over mingi to slap him.
“i haven’t been feeling well,” seonghwa says with a shrug. “i’ve mostly been in my room, or at the pharmacy to get medicine.”
“oh, so you could’ve bought new paper towels for the dorm then, huh?” hongjoong asks, and as the two of them start to bicker, yeosang nudges your arm.
“i saw you two,” he says quietly. “at the mexican restaurant.”
“i know,” you whisper back. 
“so i know you’re dating.”
“are you gonna say anything?”
“hmmm, no,” he thinks. “but you have to buy my silence.”
“with coffee?” you offer, and yeosang smiles. he stands up and puts his phone away before speaking, looking directly at seonghwa.
“my best friend y/n is gonna buy me coffee, we’ll be back,” he says as he loops his arm around your shoulders. seonghwa watches as you walk away (and stares at your ass) but he’s mostly thinking about how he’s a little jealous right now. like, he knows you wouldn’t do anything, he trusts you, but he doesn’t want his friends thinking you have a thing for anyone but him. so while you’re gone, he talks.
“i haven’t been sick,” he admits. “i’ve been seeing y/n.”
“we all knew, dude,” hongjoong says casually, and everyone agrees.
“then why didn’t you say anything?!”
“because YOU weren’t saying anything,” jongho replies.
“yeah, we figured that we did enough trying to get the two of you together, so if you didn’t end up dating then that was your fault. we were just waiting on you to make a move,” san explains. 
“then why did you let us lie to you like that?”
“it was fun,” wooyoung shrugs. “by the way, did y/n let you sleep in the bed because of your hips, or because you wanted to cuddle?”
the red tint on seonghwa’s cheeks gives him away, and the boys start laughing and ooo’ing so loud he’s afraid you’ll hear it over by the coffee counter.
“ok, ok, just. keep this quiet for now,” he says. “y/n may still want this to be private.”
“but you just told us about it,” yunho says. “why would you do that if you knew y/n wouldn’t want you to?”
“well,” seonghwa begins. “i need your help with a date.”
-
seemingly by an act of god, you have time this weekend to go on a date with seonghwa. little did you know, he’s the reason your plans suddenly freed up. san said you could critique him and wooyoung for their dance final another day, hongjoong said he would send you his music theory notes from the review and save you hours of studying and then yeosang found the exact spanish book you needed to finish your performance final ahead of time. it was the perfect circumstances, orchestrated by your perfect boy and his perfect-adjacent friends, who all agreed to help him with this (hopefully) perfect date. 
it starts with seonghwa picking you up from your apartment, coffee in hand. 
“you’re the man of my dreams, you know that?” you say in passing as you grab the warm to-go cup. even if you were only saying it lightly, it made seonghwa’s heart soar. you notice he hasn’t said anything to you, so you meet his eyes to find them full of stars like always, but this time there’s something scheme-y in there. he’s up to something.
“are you ready for the best date of your life?” he asks with a smile that puts the stars in his eyes to shame.
“yes, i think,” you respond, grabbing your keys and locking your door. “but i don’t know what we’re doing.”
“and it will stay that way until we get there,” seonghwa says firmly as he laces his hand into yours. you squeeze his hand and sigh.
“i guess i just have to trust you then.”
“but that won’t be hard right?”
“wait, didn’t you say something earlier about going to that art exhibit? is that it?” you question, even though you know he won’t budge. seonghwa just shakes his head no and punches the button for the elevator. a moment of silence passes before you guess again. “a movie? you rented out a movie theater, like you said you wanted to?”
“i tried, but it was expensive,” he admits and you have to laugh. “funds are tight right now.”
“i watched you buy a couple hundred dollars worth of legos the other day babe. maybe that’s why the date fund is lacking.”
“you’re not coming between me and my collectables, y/n,” seonghwa scolds. the elevator pings to open to the parking garage under your building, and you’re confused for a moment before he explains. “i want this to be a nice date, so yunho let me borrow his car. it would be no fun if we show up all sweaty because we were walking.”
yunho’s car, which is actually pretty nice thanks to all the tips he gets from flirting with clientele, is parked by the elevator. seonghwa leads you to your door and opens it for you, revealing a basket of flowers and candies in the seat. you coo as you pick it up, and seonghwa looks on proudly. you lean over to give him a kiss, and you whisper your thanks as you pull away.
“that was mingi’s idea,” seonghwa tells you, smiling brightly “i got all your favorites.”
“i see that.”
“but look around the flowers,” he guides you. “there’s something else.”
you hold the basket up to eye level, noticing the silver sparkle around the stems of the flowers. is it glitter? you tug at a flower and realize it’s a chain, and attached is a hand drawn star charm to match the tattoo on the back of seonghwa’s neck. 
“seonghwa, this is beautiful,” you say breathlessly. “we’re gonna match! that’s so cute. who’s idea was this?”
“would you believe me if i said it was mine?”
“no.”
“that’s what jongho said too,” seonghwa laughs. “it was his idea.”
“tell him thank you,” you say as you play with the charm. “mingi and yunho too. it’s a good date so far.”
“oh baby, it hasn’t officially started yet.”
-
in the car, seonghwa plays a mix of songs that he really likes, and he’s mixed in some of your favorites too. he has to keep convincing you that the songs aren’t clues, because you ask every time a new song plays.
“so are the songs just distractions?” you ask, finally giving up on getting any information out of him. 
“why do you ask that?” he smirks as he turns down a familiar road.
“because i can tell you just took the long way to the record store,” you explain. “are you stalling?”
“me, what? why?” his response does nothing to manage your suspicions, and suddenly you remember how your friends have helped with the date so far. are they all in on this? you need answers.
“seonghwa, i swear to god, if san or wooyoung jumps out to surprise me wherever we’re going-”
“that won’t happen,” seonghwa laughs while he parks the car. “we’re here anyway, and i promise this is the last surprise of the night.”
“the record store?” you question, looking up at the shop you’ve been to countless times to shop and to bother hongjoong while he works. 
“yeah, you said there was a new album out you wanted to get, right?”
“yeah,” you blush. “but i just said that in passing, i didn’t expect you to remember.”
“y/n, i want to know everything about you,” seonghwa says seriously. “so of course i remembered. wait, don’t get out yet. i’ll open the door for you.”
as seonghwa helps you out of the car, you quiz him on the other things you’ve said around him that you didn’t think he remembered. sadly, he does remember you saying your favorite disney movie is ratatouille and you’ve always wanted to try the mushroom/cheese concoction remy makes in the first scene.
“that’s a little embarrassing,” you sigh as you reach for the door. you’re going to complain some more about how seonghwa doesn’t need to remember everything about you, but the sight in front of you makes you stop mid-breath.
the record store has been decorated from floor to ceiling in fairy lights, and there’s more flowers all over the place. as you look around, you notice the flowers are tucked in the shelves next to your favorite artists. next to the door is the album you were talking about, and a little further down you see your favorite album of all time with a few extra flowers next to it. you’re still taking everything in when you notice hongjoong behind the counter.
“did you help him with this?” you ask breathlessly, and hongjoong nods. 
“yeah, but the flowers next to the albums was my idea,” hongjoong explains. “we’re running a new special called “y’n’s favorites” so everything that’s marked with a flower is yours, if you want it. everything is on the house.” 
“i...i don’t know what to say,” you start. you turn to seonghwa and there are those starry eyes that you love to see. you reach out to cup his face and smile. “thank you. this is...perfect.”
“it’s even more perfect now that i’m here!” wooyoung shouts from the front door of the shop, followed by san and yeosang. you look at seonghwa and all he does is laugh.
“what? at least he didn’t jump out and scare you,” seonghwa teases.
“oh, i would never,” wooyoung nods with a half-serious look on his face. “but i definitely wouldn’t do that when i have your dinner in my hands, i can’t let all this hard work spill.”
“especially not on my clean floor,” hongjoong warns. 
“you made dinner for us?” you ask wooyoung, but you’re looking at seonghwa, who simply shrugs.
“yep, i made one of your favorites and then threw in a couple recipes i thought you’d both like,” wooyoung says as he and the two other boys place food down on the counter by the register.
“and what did you two help with?” you ask san and yeosang.
“who do you think made this place so beautiful?” yeosang asks incredulously.
“yeosang did the lights and i bought all the flowers,” san explains with a smile that makes his eyes turn into happy half moons. “you’d be surprised how many places i had to go to get all your favorites.”
“i really don’t know what to say,” you whisper in disbelief. “i can’t believe you all did this for me.”
“it was all seonghwa’s idea,” san tells you. “we did it for both of you.”
“yeah, we’re just his little minions,” yeosang jokes, and wooyoung giggles. 
“you tell me how that food tastes, got it?” he asks as he backs out of the store. “don’t say anything mean though. i only accept compliments.”
“wooyoung,” seonghwa smiles tightly. “please leave.”
wooyoung holds the door open for san and yeosang as he gives seonghwa a thumbs up. san waves goodbye sweetly and yeosang gives you a knowing smile before the door closes behind them.
“well, i think that’s my cue to go,” hongjoong says, handing the keys to seonghwa. “don’t make a mess. if i get fired, i’m selling all the stuff i stole from you when you were sneaking around with y/n and not telling us about it.”
“i’ll keep him under control,” you assure hongjoong, who nods as heads to the door. you don’t see him leave because seonghwa has stepped in front of you, and he places his hands on your waist to pull you closer.
“so,” he begins.
“so.”
“what do you want to listen to while we eat?” he asks, pulling you by the waist over to a row of records. you stand there quietly, looking over the albums hongjoong pulled to the front for you, and you just can’t believe how much work went into this date. you can’t believe how sweet it is that each of your friends helped, and you put your hand on seonghwa’s and give it a squeeze.
“hwa,” you whisper. he hums in response, but you place your hand on his cheek and guide his gaze to yours.
“thank you,” you tell him. “thank you for this.”
he smiles at you with a look in his eyes that can’t be anything else but love, and you smile back with that much love, if not more, in your own face. you use the hand on seonghwa’s chin to guide his lips to yours, and you lose yourself in the kiss, in seonghwa, for who knows how long.
“mm, y/n,” he mumbles against your lips before detaching. “the food will get cold.”
“you’re right,” you sigh. “but we didn’t pick any music.”
“how about this?” he asks, pulling an album out from the top shelf. you smile at the cover, knowing exactly what song seonghwa wants you to hear. 
“perfect,” you agree. “i’ll put it on while you get the food?”
and that’s how you end up eating the perfect meal, on your perfect date, with all of your favorite things around you, sitting right next to your perfect boy.
334 notes · View notes
jackmfvegas777 · 3 years
Text
Trans Guy Tips #4; Socially Transitioning
Now this one is a tricky one, and it's a situation almost every trans person has to go through at some point in their life, unless they stay in the closet for life, but if you're planning to come out, and you don't know how to approach the situation and don't know how to judge if it's safe, I hope I can be a reliable guide for you on this journey.
This is usually the first step in any trans person's journey, before they physically transition, (which some don't as well). However here we're talking specifically about trans men.
So while some of the things I say could apply to trans women, always remember I'm writing about trans men from a trans man's point of view, so that's the targeted demographic here.
Once I learn more about trans women's struggles and things they go through, since I don't have the personal experience of it, I will definitely write trans women articles as well, and as well non-binary people.
So let's begin, with a list of important things to keep in mind whilst coming out to the world or at least to your family and close friends.
1. Safety is everything.
Always no matter what.
A good way to test if someone is going to be safe to come out to, is to casually bring it up in in a conversation topic, something like "What are your thoughts on lgbtq people, or specifically what are your thoughts on trans people?"
If they become aggressive and violent about it, and start being transphobic or defensive or any of the signs of bigotry, do not and I mean do not come out to them yet.
If it's a parent, I'd suggest at least wait until you're of age to move out, or have moved out, to come out to them. Sometimes people will get verbally and physically violent towards you if you come out to them and they're not accepting of it, so the most important thing is to always judge the reactions of people, and if they react well, then you can come out to them.
2. Always choose trustworthy people to keep your secret whilst you're in the closet.
There's been a lot of people who trusted idiots who they thought were their friends and they ended up outing them to the whole school they were in, etc. etc. But there was a lot of stories about this happening multiple times.
Make sure the people you tell would take the secret to their grave, especially if you're in an abusive household and can't come out for fear of violence.
3. If you're in a very abusive household, especially one that's openly homophobic and transphobic, as hard it is, please wait to come out as long as you possibly can until you have a place of your own and you're safe for sure.
A lot of people have been known to kick out their own children on to the streets because of them being LGBT, or do much worse...
Now of course these are some of the worst case scenarios, but being LGBT you always have to think about every bad thing that could occur so that you can prevent it.
4. When it comes to actually coming out, I would always recommend bringing a good friend or close family member who supports you, so that you have backup, not only for them to chime in and tell their piece and defend you, but just them being there makes the other person not want to be as violent towards you, because they fear what others will think of them.
If you're coming out to an extended family member or anyone, don't trust to do it alone, always bring a good friend.
5. One of the best ways to come out that I've seen are ways that are jokey and hilarious!
It seems to smooth over and make it a much more pleasant transition for everyone, and usually even homophobic people won't get too mad, they might even laugh!
I've seen people bake cakes with the words "Surprise I'm gay!" on it, things like that.
Just little cute things that are nice to do for your parents or people you're coming out to, but make it a surprise and that you're actually lgbt!
Now remember though, always follow the first rule and make sure safety is priority, but if you know you're safe, but you're just not sure they understand, starting out with jokes helps a lot.
6. The second step you should do after coming out is always try to explain your side of the story.
If there are people who don't let you get a word in, let them know that you have important things to say and that they need to listen to you and then they can say whatever they need.
Explain how it feels to be trans, explain why you know you're trans, of course you shouldn't have to ideally, but unfortunately a lot of people won't understand unless they're given more information, as the subject is completely foreign to them.
I know my grandma specifically reacted so well, all she did was ask me questions about it, and once I answered all her questions, she hummed in satisfaction and she never questioned it again and completely accepted me.
And a lot of times you'll get people who are pretty neutral, people who will call you by your chosen name and gender but don't really totally care as much as you want them to, but they still go along with it and just kind of assume you know what's best for you, which is a really kind thing really.
I've had a few people react neutrally and it's actually relaxing, there's no pressure put on for being gay, either over positive or over negative. but I have to say as a trans person and gay person, and grey-ace person, I love the people who ask questions the most.
I don't mind answering, and it means they're trying to learn more about something they don't understand, which means they have a huge heart and huge open mind.
Some people may get annoyed at the constant questions, but I absolutely adore them.
To me, every time someone asks about me, they're showing interest in my life and my feelings.
7. Next the scientific method.
Look up on any scientific article anywhere, and you'll find studies done on trans men and women's brains.
It was shown factually multiple times, over and over, whenever they repeated it it did it again, that trans men have the same brain structure as cis men, and trans women have the same brain structure as cis women, and non-binary people have somewhere in the middle. This was factually proven, you can look it up, so if they try to use science to defend against you, educate that that science is actually for LGBT rights and has explained how it works even.
8. Try to be gentle when it comes to pronouns.
For a lot of people, especially people of foreign languages where some languages don't have genders, or will have different genders, or other things like that, or even just English speakers that aren't used to saying 'they', or your family not being used to your pronouns yet.
It can take a while, and I know it's frustrating, it could take even a few years for them to finally get it right every time.
It's not supposed to be an attack towards you, it's genuinely hard to reprogram yourself when you think someone is one thing your whole life and then it turns out they're the other thing! So be sure to be gentle with them while they're practising, remind them every time they make a mistake, but remind them gently, as they are trying to do the right thing, they're just slipping up due to habit.
In general, be patient with non-lgbt folks, if we're mad at them, it just drives them away, rather than driving them toward us to help and assist us.
We should be grateful for our allies.
9. Once you've come out and your parents probably still have questions, I would recommend sitting down and having family night where you read together some good articles about transgenderism, and LGBT+ in general.
If they're not familiar with it, this type of education can help them a lot to understand the terminology and how to address you, and basic respect for trans & lgbtq+ people.
Overall it's a learning experience for both of you, and it would be amazing to do if they're willing to learn.
Remember that it's a journey for all of us, and everyone has a lot to learn.
10. When selecting your name, I have one piece of advice/a question for you; "Does it spark joy?"
The most important thing, it doesn't matter how odd sounding it is, or differently spelled it is, or whatever your name is, if you enjoy your name, that's what matters.
Always pick the one that calls out to you.
And it's okay to change it from time to time, people need time to figure out who they are!
And with that, I conclude my fourth part!
I hope you were helped by this in any way, and thanks for reading.
278 notes · View notes