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jaylver · 1 year

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HOW YOU GET THE GIRL — P.JS

SYNOPSIS: Beach parties are supposedly fun and exciting, aren’t they? Wrong. Experiencing college parties is rare for you, but you decided to give this one a go after your best friend’s constant pleas. Things were alright until everything turned sour when trouble found you and eventually you were roped into a fight alongside the campus’ famous hockey playboy. As if that wasn’t enough, the devil himself conjured up an idea that you found yourself being entangled in. It was all fun and games up until confusion arose, feelings being confessed and played, in the end, Jay had to learn how to get the girl, his girl.

PAIRINGS: ice hockey player!jay x afab!reader

GENRE: strangers to frenemies to lovers, fake dating au, college sports au, romance, fluff, angst, secret pining

WARNING(S): drinking, parties, profanities, slight violence, possessive jay, mentions/hints of cheating, miscommunication, slow burn-ish, a pinch of suggestiveness

WC: 21k

AUTHOR NOTES: yes, the title is based on taylor swift's song, the story is lowkey inspired from it hehe! i also included a scene which was inspired from "sleet kitten" so credits to that ;) PLEASE LEAVE A FEEDBACK! it would mean THE WORLD to me <3 hope you enjoy!

part 2 of 'no competition' series | series masterlist | masterlist

“WHY AM I HERE?”

You found yourself asking your best friend, Minji, only after barely ten minutes of setting foot into the party. Look, you didn’t wish to complain, but a beach party basically equaled sand in shoes, which you absolutely hate and despise, yet you were stuck here against your will.

It all started on a random stroll across campus where Minji brought up the night beach party hosted by some rich frat boy, typical. Being the anti-party person you were, you brushed the idea away initially. Hey, staying in bed with a cup of tea was miles better than having sand in your shoes and frat boys trying to get into your pants, yuck. But eventually, you gave into the idea of relaxing and letting go for once after a horrid chemistry test. How you absolutely regretted that choice now.

“You’re here to enjoy yourself,” Minji hissed through her teeth, holding onto your hand as the two of you walked past strangers. “What’s wrong with getting free booze and some hot hunky beach boys?”

“Everything is wrong with that. Their booze sucks and the beach boys hide at night,” you huffed, hugging your body tight as the wind blew across your face, the smell of sea lingered in the air.

“There are still some cute guys here,” Minji kicked at the sand lightly, staring around where people were littered in groups here and there, a small bonfire alighted in the middle of the beach. “The hockey guys are here,” she nodded at the loudest bunch in the area.

You knew a part of them since you did occasionally stop by to watch a few major hockey games, but definitely not well enough to pair their names to their faces. You spotted the captain first and the one with freshly dyed white hair, who you recognized was also his usual partner on ice, then there was the player with a really odd number, 99. Was it Jason, James or Jeremy? All you could remember was him being number 99 and having a J name, not to mention, an interesting reputation to his name.

"They're cute, don't you think so?" Minji nudged you and you shrugged.

"Cute but fuckboys, and I need them to step up during major games too,"

"You should ignore the hockey part about them. It'll hurt less when they lose," Minji's head turned and she pointed to another group. "The footballers are there too. Trust me, they're bigger fuckboys,"

"Oh, I can tell," you spotted many of them already having a girl by their sides, whispering and giggling while they poured each other more drinks. "This is why I'd rather go back to the dorms,"

"Maybe, maybe not. Something entertaining will eventually happen at these types of parties,"

"I feel like you'll jinx it,"

Minji threw her hands up in defence, raising her eyebrows and shrugging. "Don't blame me, blame the system,"

"There's no system," you shot back, suddenly feeling the need to walk away for a moment as the beach slowly overwhelmed you. (you hated the beach, can't you already tell?) "I need to stop by the restroom for a while, look after my drink, will you?"

You were practically racing to the nearby restroom, finally escaping the area and being able to breathe freely without drunk college students bumping into you. The restroom was basically just a single cubicle, so you were squeezed tightly and you felt uncomfortable as each second passed. You were praying to God that you get to leave this place pronto.

Leaving the cubicle made you feel slightly more grateful about the beach, but upon only a second from exiting, you started hearing shouts coming not far from where you were. At first, you wondered if you’ve reached the point of hallucination, but following a few more grunts and yells, you knew you weren’t. Your body tensed immediately considering it's a distance from the main area. What could even be happening here?

You knew this was how horror movies usually start, but your curious mind just had to wander off further into the abyss and bring your leg along, so you chose the stupidest decision and followed the distant commotion.

'I'm not dying tonight. I'm not dying at a beach. I'm going to be fine' were the affirmations you repeated in your head, though you felt quite the opposite of that.

"Fuck you, are you banging my girl?"

That was when you stopped in your tracks completely, thrown absolutely off guard, eyes widened and lips forming into an 'O'. It wasn't a murder case, but from the way the conversation sounded, it was about to be one.

"I didn't bang your girl, who the fuck are you?" Another voice spat back and you inched closer, hiding behind the other cubicle and you peeked your head out, shocked at the sight before you.

There was already a small crowd surrounding the commotion, who wouldn't want to miss a free show anyway? But the bigger matter on hand was the centre of attention, the two guys were the campus' well known hockey player and footballer.

You recognized the footballer at once, remembering the time where Minji practically shoved his Instagram profile into your face. Yoon Keeho. Star player paired along with his amazing features, he was a popular figure who had a popular girlfriend from the dance team, Karina. They were basically every comics' perfect couple.

Then there was the hockey player, your jaw could only hang lower in plain shock. Mr 99, hockey star and infamous playboy, you knew he was trouble, but this kind of trouble? A little unexpected from him.

"Look man, I know people say I fuck around a lot, but I never fucked her!" It was obvious Mr 99 was starting to get heated, but the footballer was relentless in egging him on.

"Oh fuck off man, I know you did it!"

This back and forth had you rolling your eyes, eventually getting bored from the “no I didn't”s and “yes you did”s thrown back and forth, so you slowly crept back, trying your best to avoid tripping over rocks and shells.

'Crack'

You spoke too soon. Way too soon.

"Hey!"

You took a few cautious steps ahead. Maybe if you just pretend nothing happened and continue walking, it would be fine. Maybe if you walked away, he wouldn't notice—

"Hey!"

You squeezed your eyes shut, contemplating between immediate death or a quick dash away, but neither could be decided when the voice kept on calling after you, ruining your patience completely and you whipped around, looking like a deer caught in headlights.

"Yes?"

Mr 99 stared back at you, a sinister look in his eyes. From the looks of it, he had something evil brewing in that head of his and soon, you were about to be the victim of his dodgy plan.

What came out of his lips next definitely made you wish you were home instead and simultaneously, wishing you had the freedom to strangle him. This fucker—

"That's my girlfriend there, she can vouch for me," you heard him telling Keeho, a smug smile on his face. Girl … friend? Gasps were heard and all eyes were on you in an instance. "Come here, babe, I've been looking for you!"

You blinked, your body absolutely rigid and unmoving as if paralysed. This couldn't be happening, right? Please wake me up from this dream. I'm just hallucinating—

"Babe, come on," your brief dissociation had you completely unaware that Mr 99 was now in front of you, dragging you by your wrist towards the scene of commotion.

"What are you doing?" You whispered harshly into his ear, making sure it wasn't loud enough for the other couple to realise from a distance away.

"Play along, please, I'll pay you," he pleaded, desperation clear in his voice. Who were you to say no to free cash? Nevertheless, you still hated being the centre of attention, and Mr 99 here was only making matters worse.

"I don't even know you,"

"I'm Jay from literature, so technically now you do. Just help me for a few minutes," he grunted through his gritted teeth, flashing his best version of puppy eyes that failed to execute its purpose.

“Do you even know my name?” you hissed lowly, glaring pointedly at him. He could only sigh in exasperation. He had the audacity to seem annoyed while you were literally the one who’s getting dragged to her demise.

“You’re Y/N from English literature. We have the same classes and I’m not a douche for not knowing my classmates, okay?” you were slightly pleased, but not enough to be someone’s fake girlfriend for show. Against your free will, you and Jay were finally standing face to face with the couple.

"So you're his girlfriend?" Keeho had an eyebrow raised, a sense of accusation and suspicion in his gaze. He was so not buying this.

You glanced at Jay, face twisted in uneasiness, not loving the idea of this, but instead, he shot you an encouraging look which was screaming 'go on, tell him'. "Y–yeah. Girlfriend,"

Keeho was unconvinced and you couldn't blame him, you were doing a shit job at pretending to be someone you weren't. "Where was your boyfriend yesterday at night? Was he out?"

"He—" the words got stuck in your throat and Jay raised his eyebrows at you, mouthing some random words you totally couldn't decipher. "He went out on a date with me,"

"To?"

"Baskin Robbins …?"

Keeho remained unamused, his girlfriend holding onto him snickering silently under her breath, and you, on the other hand, got naturally defensive.

"What's wrong with ice cream? At least my man cared enough to bring me out for ice cream dates instead of letting me cheat on him freely. Just saying,"

"What?"

Now it was Keeho and Jay's turn to stare at you with their jaws hung low. Karina's face gradually grew scarlet, her lips twisted into a snarl. "What do you even know about my relationship? Keep out of my business, you bitch,"

"Hey, who the fuck are you to call her a bitch?" Jay stepped in front of you, an arm shielding you and Karina cowered away. Damn, he was good at this.

"Don't talk to her like that, you fuck," Keeho spat at Jay, daringly pushing Jay on the chest and he stumbled slightly into your arms.

Jay scoffed, brushing his front and adjusted his shirt, shaking his head a little. "You're such a dick, Yoon Keeho. You're the prime example why I hate footballers,"

"And you hockey players are the reason why you're dragging the school's name to the ground,"

"Save the talk, we literally won the playoffs while you and your team could barely crawl to the top—"

You gasped, and so did everyone else watching. Keeho had thrown a hard punch across Jay's pretty face, which meant Jay's aggravation unfortunately worked a little too well on the footballer.

To your surprise, Jay took the hit better than you'd expected. He did seem taken aback at the start, but then he started laughing instead. Was he secretly psychotic?

You would be lying if you said you weren't shell shocked initially, but after a moment of recovery, you peeked over his shoulder, staring at his face for any obvious bleeding or bruising, unaware of how close your face was to his.

"You okay, big man?"

"Took it like a champ," he muttered back, a smirk pulled at his lips, seeming as though nothing had even happened. "Permission for me to punch him back, girlfriend?"

"He's all yours. Go beat his ass, boyfriend,"

Jay shrugged nonchalantly, rubbing the side of his face roughly and in a flash, he threw a punch back at Keeho and panicked whispers broke out in the crowd.

"Look man, this is a misunderstanding, I totally didn't fuck your girlfriend," Jay panted, his eyes narrowing at Karina.

"Don't look at me like that," she snapped back, but her voice wavered, giving away the fact that she was obviously hiding something and was intimidated by the way Jay could see right through her.

"Oh come on, fess up, I'm pretty sure I saw you with Yeonjun,"

Karina stilled, her eyes beginning to twitch. Bingo. You didn’t sit through a boring psychology talk once for nothing.

"You don't know shit about me,"

"Okay, say that to Yeonjun the next time he finds you,"

Maybe you did regret having too big of a mouth. You just had to blabber on and agitate the mean girl and now you were reenacting a scene from one of your favourite high school rom coms.

Before you could even register what's happening, you felt a sharp tug at your hair and pain washed over your whole head. Getting bald wasn't the thing you wished for upon reaching here. You screamed on instinct, reaching over to grab Karina's hair in defence, invoking a loud cry from her.

Jay and Keeho were left stunned at the turn of events. Hell, you were stunned at the attack yourself. Who would've thought you would be sacrificing strands of hair to Miss Dancer? They eventually came to their senses (thank heavens) and tried to pull you and Karina off of each other. It was strenuous work just trying to break you two apart, your hand was unwilling to let go and neither were hers.

She might’ve been a dancer, but you’ve experienced more fights than this. Jay managed to rip you off of Karina and you were left dishevelled, heaving heavily, Jay's hands wrapped around your chest from the back.

"Calm down. Breathe. You're so close to ripping all her hair out," he whispered into your ear, his breath fanning your ears. If you weren't so out of breath and adrenaline spiked, you would be weak in the knees by now.

"Good. She was the one who laid her hands on me first," you spat, glaring straight at her and she did the same, hair and attire equally as messy as yours.

"Look man," Jay called out to Keeho, grabbing his attention away from his murderous girlfriend. "I might fuck around a lot, but I swear I didn't touch your girl. I never stoop that low and you know it. Go ask her for the truth yourself, I'm leaving now,"

Jay got ahold of your hand and pulled you away from the wandering eyes and lingering attention. You almost got a whiplash, unable to even yourself completely together and digest what even went on before he dragged you towards the main area.

"Woah, woah, wait," you yanked your arm away, stopping abruptly which made Jay turn around, a questioning look on his face. Why is he looking at me like that? You thought as you crossed your arms.

"Look, you might've saved my ass from Miss Crazy over there, but the part where you dragged me in your stupid drama, so not cool,"

"I know, I'm sorry, okay? You were just coincidentally … there,"

"Wow," you exclaimed in disbelief, face scrunched in slight distaste. "Girlfriend, huh … I hate to burst your bubble but there were people there and if—" you poked at his chest and he stared at you, a slight smirk on his lips, "—people actually believe we're dating, I'll beat you up,"

"What's so wrong about me?" He whistled, leaning down to meet your challenging gaze, a sarcastic grin wide on that devilish face of his. Maybe if he wasn't this annoying, you would've found him pants-dropping hot.

"I hate you," you continued your journey back, brushing past him and he could only let out a laugh at your words.

"Oh, come on," he caught your wrist and pulled you to him, making you land on his chest with a soft thud. If only someone could take a picture of this, it would be something straight out of a 2000s classic romcom.

"You're ridiculous, let go," you tried to get your hand out of his, but he persisted in holding onto you.

Pushing and pulling was something you hated. Whether it was in relationships or just whatever this was, you wished it was gone, because in the next second of tug of war, one of you decided to lose balance and fall to ground.

To your biggest nightmare and headache, you ended up lying on top of Mr 99, Jay, the devil in disguise. The beach was already a nightmare for you, but a fucking man under you? You wished you could disappear now.

"Do you always like this position?"

"If only I could choke you to death in it, then sure,"

"Kinky. You're really romantic,"

"I know," you gritted out, finally mustering all your energy to push yourself up and away from Jay, almost losing your balance in the process. You definitely wouldn't want to fall on him again.

You dusted sand off of your shorts, peeking slightly at Jay, who remained on the ground, his hands behind his head to support him as his stare remained on you, a small smile on his face. You truly wondered what was running through that head of his. Knowing him, it was probably nothing good.

“Do you think we’ll meet again after this?”

You scoffed, a frown etched on your features. “You’re acting like I’m cinderella. I’m on the campus,”

“I mean, we both might be on campus, but that doesn’t mean we’ll cross path,”

“It sounds like you’re trying to propose something—” Jay opened his mouth to respond, but you continued off, not letting him interrupt, “—whatever it is, it’s a ‘no’ from me, okay?”

“Alright, rude,” Jay pushed his body up from the sands, sitting cross legged paired with an offended look. “I’m not trying to propose anything. What’s that dirty mind of yours thinking? I was simply wondering,”

You squinted at him, doubt in your gaze and your face scrunched, humming softly. “Let’s leave our next meeting to fate again. I’m afraid if I keep seeing you I might—”

“Fall in love?”

“Explode. Close enough,” you grimaced, shaking the sand off your shoes. "Look, I'm leaving now. Good luck on not getting beat up again," you turned to leave, but halting once Jay spoke again.

"Will I be seeing you at my matches?"

You pondered for a second, then shrugged. "Depends. I'm not a big hockey fan, but who knows?"

You heard a small chuckle from Jay, rolling your eyes a little. "Fine by me. Let's see how fate sets us up then, Y/N."

You wished fate didn't set you and him up. You wished fate would never ever do so. You didn’t wait for another minute and quickly dashed away, finding your way back to the main area that (thankfully) wasn’t far from where you were. It seemed that the fight didn’t reach the main area where everyone was from the way they were all dancing and drinking like normal.

“Where were you?” Minji pulled you close to her once you had managed to locate her amongst the bunch, concern laced in her voice. “And what the fuck happened to you? Why’s your hair messed up? Wait—” the worry in her gaze soon turned into suspicion. “You didn’t have a secret hookup right?”

“What? No!” you shrieked, glancing around in slight embarrassment at your voice rising unintentionally. Just thinking about what had happened just now gave you a first degree burn of embarrassment, it was going to be your first and last experience, never again. “I … got into a fight,”

“You what?”

“Listen,” you placed a hand on Minji’s shoulder, trying to calm her down while inching closer and making sure to keep your voice down. “I stumbled upon a messy couple related drama and somehow I got roped into it. It’s all Jong Seong’s fault, okay?”

“Jay? What did he do?”

“Accused of fucking Keeho’s girl. It would be funny to witness the whole thing without being apart of it, honestly,”

“I need more context,”

“He called me his girlfriend so that I could vouch for him and I said something bad to Keeho’s girlfriend so we … kinda got into a tussle,”

Minji was stunned to say the least, but there was still a hint of amusement from the way she smiled. “I won’t directly say she deserves it, but she does,” she let out a small laugh and you two shared a look before bursting out laughing, having to hold your chest from the random jokes she threw in between.

“So, time for us to leave?”

“Fucking finally, I was waiting for you to say this,”

“No girls trips to the beach in the future, huh?”

“Nope.” you mumbled, letting Minji wrap an arm around your waist as the both of you start making your way to Minji’s car. You strangely felt a pair of wandering eyes pinpointed on you and you turned your head slightly to the right, meeting Jay’s playful gaze among his group of hockey guys. It was barely a second before you were dragged away anyway, leaving you minimal chances to process anything.

Park Jong Seong, please don’t ever drag me into your schemes ever again. Fuck it, let’s never cross paths again.

IT SEEMS THAT FATE HAS PLAYED ITS ROLE ONCE MORE IN TORTURING YOU.

In what way was ‘never getting involved with Park Jong Seong’ so hard to understand, huh, fate? You found yourself having an angry internal monologue on the way back to your dorms, your coffee threatening to spill out of the cup with the aggressiveness in your walk. It all started out like this: you just got your donut for the morning, walking to lecture with your earphones blasting your favourite music, what could possibly go wrong? Everything.

You were just walking as per usual, until a girl tapped you from the back, and like every normal person does, you stopped and turned around, a confused look on your face. Who’s this? You wondered. That’s the last thought you could form before everything started crumbling eventually.

First, she asked whether you were dating Jay. Eye roll. You knew this was bound to happen. So, you said ‘no’, which was a reasonable answer since you were, in fact, not dating him. But the girl thought otherwise. You turned to leave, halfway to shoving back your earphones in when she grabbed hold of your wrist. Woah.

“I know you’re dating him, everyone do after he made y’all official during that party,”

“Okay…?” it was no use trying to fight back with her persistence, so you just went along with it, not knowing what you were even getting into.

“You do know he fucked me before right—?” TMI much. “Can you tell him to come over and get his stuff? It feels wrong having a man’s stuff around knowing he’s in a relationship,”

“Oh,” was all you could muster out. This whirlwind of information being smacked into your face at 10 in the morning was something you hadn’t expected. “You can tell him that yourself. I’m … busy. I have to go,”

Like any sane person would, you dashed away, possibly leaving the girl in a confused daze but you couldn’t care less, pulling out your phone to angrily type Jay’s Instagram handle and sending him an annoyed text message.

you: a girl just told me she fucked you and she felt it was wrong that you left your stuff while you’re ‘dating’ me. can you please sort this out? istg i’ve been asked too many times whether i’m dating you today fr

Not even after a minute of sending that, Jay replied back at once.

jaypjs: how did you know what my Insta profile is?

You rolled your eyes, your fingers working hard but careful to not accidentally break your screen with the vigour you had whilst typing.

you: is that so important right now? can you at least answer my question?

jaypjs: just ignore it, it’ll pass soon, i swear. ttyl i have practice ;)

Jerk.

As much as Jay had asked you to ignore it, it seemed to have backfired instead. At the library, cafeteria, girl’s restroom, you were bombarded with the same question over and over again. ‘Are you dating Jay?’ You swore if you had a dollar everytime someone had asked you this question, you would’ve been a billionaire by now.

Evening soon fell upon the campus grounds, students were rushing around to find a place for dinner, but the hockey team were still remained in training, and being you, you just had to impulsively barge into the arena, practically rushing down the stairs to the glass panes, spotting your target at first glance.

You would be lying if you said you didn’t find him mesmerizingly attractive in that split moment. He reminded you of someone that had just appeared straight out of a scene from ‘Top Gun’, except on ice. He had his helmet in his hand, his hair wet with sweat, his eyes trained on his coach as he lectured the team on that and this.

You thought your staring had gone unnoticed, but that’s when one of his teammates pointed at you, his gaze turning to you now, a hint of curiosity and surprise in his face. If only he knew you were actually there to murder him.

“Y/N?” You heard his muffled voice through the glass as he skated towards you right after his coach had dismissed them, inching closer and closer until there was barely any distance, only a singular glass pane separating you two apart.

“Jay,” you started, pushing down whatever volcano that was close to bursting inside you right now.

“Did my girlfriend miss me so much until she decided to give me a surprise visit?”

“If I hear that word one more time today, I think I might jump down the nearest building,” you snapped, poking a finger on the glass threateningly. “Look, I’m here because we need to talk—why does this sound like an actual couple conversation—whatever, just get your ass out here immediately,”

“Fine, fine,” Jay threw his hands up in defeat, sensing the seriousness in your voice, you did not come to play. “I’ll be out in a second,”

He disappeared out of sight, and to your dismay, that left his teammates a great opportunity to approach you. Just your luck, huh?

“You’re dating Jay?” the captain, Heeseung, shouted over at you, waving his hockey stick in the air in an attempt to grab your attention.

“It’s complicated,”

“Friends with benefits?” the one with a head of freshly dyed white hair, Sunghoon, chimed in. You recognized the both of them from the party, what are the odds?

“Non-physical type of complicated,”

“That does sound complicated,” Heeseung hummed, practising passes with Sunghoon. “Played with your feelings?”

“I don’t know if I can count it as that…yet,”

Heeseung and Sunghoon shared a brief glance at one another. “Jay might be a playboy, we all know that, but he’s a softie at heart. Hear him out, he might not look like it, but he’s the best at talking,”

“That’s why he’s so good at picking up girls—” Heeseung slapped Sunghoon’s head, giving you a small reassuring smile while the other winced in pain, not appreciating that one bit.

“I’ll hear him out, don’t worry,” you said rather begrudgingly, sitting down on one of the empty seats now, rubbing your hands for warmth as you awkwardly waited for Jay.

“Stop pestering her already, damn,” Jay’s footsteps were heard thumping down the stairs in the empty arena. “Go wash up,” he slid into the seat next to you, now in clean clothes, a towel hung around his neck, his hair wet and messy, his shirt hugging his body and biceps tight. Lord, give me strength.

“Hey! I’m the captain!” Heeseung shouted, but abided, pushing Sunghoon along and out of the rink, leaving you two to yourselves in the ambiance.

“So, what did you want to … talk about?” Jay stared at you expectantly.

“Us? I suppose, if there’s even an ‘us’ in the first place,” you gestured between you and him. “It’s just everyone’s thinking we’re together and all your past fuck buddies are up my ass for it. So—” you tried to put on the nicest smile you could muster. “—could you please, somehow spread it around that we’re not together?”

“But what if I don’t want to?”

“Jong Seong!”

“Government name and all, it’s serious,” he murmured under his breath, suddenly seeming anxious. “You’re going to kill me for this—”

“As if I’m not going to already,”

“Let me finish,” he pressed a hand on his forehead, running it further back into his hair and he let out a distress sigh. “I know you’re going to hate this but I need your favour in this. I have this hockey event next Saturday, a charity event, and I need a plus one,”

“You’re asking me out on a date basically?”

“Kinda? But not really—this is so stupid—but this event will be after a home match, so our opponents and many others from different schools will be a part of this event. The thing is…our opponent, one of their players, is dating my ex,”

“And?” you raised an eyebrow at him, urging him to continue on, his cheeks gradually turning red in embarrassment.

“They’ll be there together, and I was hoping—since we’re already in this mess—to bring you as my plus one, to try and prove to her I’m way better off without her,”

“You’re kidding,” you breathed out in disbelief. “Give me one reason why you need to prove to this girl about you being happy and taken,”

“She cheated on me multiple times while we were dating…the guy was one of them and they’re still together surprisingly,”

“Damn, I’m sorry about that,” you swallowed, a little taken aback from the fact that the infamous fuckboy had his heart broken in the past. Maybe that was the starting point of his fuckboy journey. Gosh, everything felt so cliche, you thought you were in a web series by now. “So…you want me to fake date you?”

“Why are you saying it as if the idea of dating me is an offence?”

“Jay, this isn’t some 2000s romcom, for fuck’s sake,” you snapped, your frown deepened and your blood pressure heightened. You swear you might actually explode soon.

“I’m aware,” Jay sighed, a small whine in his voice. He did seem desperate, and you wondered why out of a hundred girls that were practically lining up for this man, you just had to be the one that had to be a part of this mess with him. Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Worst of all, you were about to agree to something as dumb as this. “Help me out this once?”

“And what will I get from this?” you crossed your arms, hesitatingly giving in slowly and gradually.

“You like Juyeon don’t you?” Jay questioned all of a sudden, his features remained stoic and serious as he watched you experiencing another whiplash, cheeks turning into a shade of light pink at his bombarding question.

“W–where did you get that information from?” you demanded, completely thrown off. Look, you did say you liked him a little from his sweet smile to his nice style, and not to mention, his athletic side, but it was to Minji, not Jay. How in hell could he have this information?

“I’m not wrong am I?”

“Am I being blackmailed?” you gasped and Jay rolled his eyes, leaning further back into his seat. He wasn’t making this easier by looking good. “I don’t like like him in that type of way, I just think he’s kinda cute,”

“So, you’re interested,”

“You could put it that way, I guess?”

“How about I help you make him jealous,”

You choked out a laugh, Jay surely succeeded in always surprisingly you with the way his mind turned. “Dude, I literally only know him from that one Chemistry class, and we were partners once. We barely talk now except some greetings,”

“That’s better than nothing,” he mumbled, his lips pressed in a flat line. “Hey, I know him more, okay? He goes to parties and so do I, I can help you get closer to him,” Jay raised his eyebrows, as if trying to convince you that was the smartest plan ever.

“You’re an idiot,”

“I don’t hear a ‘no’,”

“Don’t push your luck,” you poked his forehead gently, letting out a deep sigh as you contemplated for a second. Future you was going to kill the present you. “Fine. But honestly, I don’t care about Juyeon,”

“I’ll try my best to repay you either way,” Jay beamed, his whole demeanour changing entirely compared to the nervous and shaking version from earlier. “So, what ground rules should we set to make it at least quite convincing?”

“No kissing, unless we are pressured into one,”

“You’re not completely objecting the idea of kissing me,”

“Believe me, I’d rather have virgin lips than kiss you,”

“Ouch,” Jay held onto his chest, feigning hurt. “Wanna try practising?”

“You have other girls to practise on anyway, no thank you,”

“But you’re my only girl now,” he shrugged, staring down at his fingers and avoiding your stare. Was he shy? You would be lying if you said he didn’t make your heart flutter slightly with his words, but you forced yourself to push those thoughts down, denying them instantly.

"Shush," you rolled your eyes, the man opposite you snickering instead. "Maybe a soft launch might work,"

"I literally called you my girlfriend in the middle of a fight, I don't think that's any part of a soft launch,"

"You're right, we've already skipped that part," you tapped at your chin, pondering thoughtfully before Jay interjected.

"You have to come to my matches,"

"Every one of them? I don't watch hockey much,"

"Just be there for show, most of the teammates' girlfriends are there and trust me, they don't care much either," he glanced over at the rink for a brief moment, then turned back to meet your eyes. "You'll fall in love with me the moment you watch me play,"

"Alright, hotshot. When's the next match?"

“This Friday,” he winked, resting an arm on the seat and casually leaning a little closer. “But before that, wanna come to a party? It’s pretty much a ‘pregame party’, that’s what they call it, but I’m sure it’s a lame excuse to just have a party in general for every week. I can pick you up though, we'll get to have our second hard launch,”

“You’re lucky I’m not feeling murderous anymore,” you snapped back, still in disbelief at yourself that you actually agreed to all this. “Pick me up at 7,” you mumbled begrudgingly, watching a smile stretched on Jay’s face.

“Say less.”

“YOU’RE DATING WHO—”

Spilling the tea to Minji on a random Wednesday morning was a chaotic decision. You couldn't help yourself from letting loose all of the information that was bottled up internally. She took everything in rather calmly and fairly, that was until Jay's name was mentioned.

It was just a day before the party, and you couldn't lie, you're starting to panic. What if you didn't know anyone there? What if you're under dressed? What if you're overdressed? What ifs stormed your mind, you were a natural overthinker after all.

"Fake dating," you corrected, cringing once the words left your mouth and you realised how ridiculous it sounded.

“I didn’t know you liked Wattpad cliches so much,”

"Shut up," you muttered half-heartedly, pursing your lips slightly. "Do you think I'll regret this?"

"Will you end up falling for him?" Minji shot back and you hadn't expected that.

"God forbid," you chuckled, though rather nervously. Chances were low at the moment, but it wasn't completely impossible, and that was the problem.

“This won’t be like those movies where they pretend to date and actually end up falling in love,” you laughed, trying to play off the hidden horror you had.

"This will come back and bite your ass," Minji said simply, not noticing your wide eyes and panicked gaze.

"Don't jinx it, hello!"

"My bad," Minji shrugged nonchalantly. “How did he even convince a non party goer like you to attend one?”

“He wants to ‘hard launch’ us for a second time,”

“Cute?” Minji mused, nudging you softly, wiggling her eyebrows. "Any outfits planned?"

"Nope," you regretted saying this because in the next second, you noticed a menacing grin on Minji's face. If there's one thing you know about her, it's that she loves dress ups, and you were about to be her next model.

Minji dragged you back to your dorm, pushing you onto the bed and ripping your closet doors open, rummaging through intensely.

"This won't do," you heard her mumble quietly before pulling out a mini skirt and a simple crop top. "Bingo,"

"You can't be serious,"

Turns out, she was. Both of the pieces have yet to be worn in a long time, so you didn’t know how it would fit you, leading up to the moment when you tried it on, you instantly felt your head pound. The skirt was God forbiddingly short, the crop top hugging tight against your body. The entirety might've looked plain, but it was a slutty plain.

You were already running late, panic and stress in your system giving you slight adrenaline as you finished up some last touches on your makeup. If Minji wasn't out for a dinner date, you would've been strangling her for the outfit and for the untimely lack of support.

“You took quite a while in there,” Jay said the moment you entered his luxurious sleek black Mercedes. You knew he was loaded, everyone did actually, but it still managed to shock you somehow.

“I was giving myself a pep talk to not try and run away from this party,” you flashed him a sarcastic smile.

“Haha,” Jay replied flatly, unamused. “It’ll be an easy party, don’t worry, you won’t get mauled. I’ll just introduce you around and then you go have some drinks, soon we’ll be back before you know it,”

“You’re not drinking right?”

“You think I’d like to be charged with a DUI?”

“Have you ever thought about that when you drive multiple girls home after parties?”

“It’s not nice to slut shame,”

“Whatever you say.”

The car ride to the house was quick and loud. It was calming when you and Jay were vibing to some music along the way up until the two of you started fighting over who was the best rapper in the industry, that eventually led to debating which genre is the greatest. The debate continued on even after entering the threshold, but nervousness washed over you once you were met with unfamiliar faces.

“Pop is not even considered in this deb—”

“Jay, hold my hand,”

“What—”

“Hold my hand,” you repeated firmly, and he listened despite being in a daze, intertwining his hand in yours, instinctively pulling you closer. “We have to make this convincing, remember?”

“Right,” he squeezed your hand lightly, unknowingly giving you a hint of reassurance. “Stick by me, some of the people here are not the best,”

“Thanks, I can’t wait to get out of here,”

Jay only rolled his eyes at your words, a slight grin tugged at his lips. He held onto your hand tightly, pulling you further into the crowded house, occasionally turning his head back to check on you. “There, my hockey boys,” he nodded towards a small group by a small makeshift bar, instantly recognizing them from that day at the rink.

“What if I told you now that I have social anxiety,” you whispered into his ears, trying to give him your best pleading eyes.

“It’ll be a little too late now,” he returned a knowing stare, clearly unfazed by your tricks. Smart bastard. “Come on, you’ve already met them anyway,”

“Y/N!” Heeseung was the one who spotted you first, waving his hand enthusiastically, Sunghoon following suit. You returned a small wave, but you tensed, feeling Jay removing his hand from yours, sneaking onto your waist instead. You were not strong enough for this, you were a woman with desires at the end of the day.

“Hey,” Jay greeted them, resting his hand on your hip, your hand unconsciously travelling to his back, his smirk at your touch going unnoticed.

“So, Y/N, is he still in ‘complicated’ status?” Sunghoon brought up, eliciting a small laugh from Heeseung, meanwhile Jay was equally confused and unimpressed at his teammates’ unseriousness.

“Don’t worry, he has upgraded,” you prodded him, passing a pleased smile to the other two.

“Will we be seeing you at our games?”

“Maybe,” you said vaguely, feeling Jay’s hand leaving your hips and sneaking lower towards the hem of your skirt and slowly pulling at it. You turned your head, meeting his eyes and at that moment, you felt something you denied over the last week. You were weak, you were definitely not God’s strongest soldier. It was bare minimum, but you still appreciated the little things.

“Let’s go walk around,” Jay suggested, leaning close to you, his face only inches away from yours, his hand squeezing your hip gently. Who knew he was this good at acting?

“Don’t be too protective over her, Jay boy!” Sunghoon called out as he dragged you away from his friends, earning a soft laugh from you and grudging mumbles from him.

“They tend to be quite a handful sometimes, sorry about that,” Jay said apologetically, leading you to a room full of people playing beer pong and some other drinking games.

“Don’t worry about it, they seem fine,” you brushed him off, pressing yourself closer to his side in caution as your eyes scanned the whole room. “They don’t look like they believe the fact that you’re actually ‘dating’ someone though,”

“They once said they would be married by the time I found someone,” he scoffed, pulling you into an unoccupied coach. “Which isn’t true,” he continued, placing a pillow on your exposed thighs. “I just haven’t found the one, or just not yet. Maybe I already did and I just didn’t know, ”

“Take it easy, loverboy,” you softly punched his shoulder, making him grin a little. He was cute, you couldn’t lie about that, but your heart continued to. “You’re still young, you should be worrying about it only if you’re 35 and single,”

“You’re right,” he nodded solemnly, his attention averted away. "It's Juyeon,"

At that moment, Juyeon walked into the room, greeting some of his friends and welcoming hugs from them, the atmosphere in the room became noisier. Your gaze followed his figure, blinking quicker than usual as you suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of alarm.

"Don't drool," Jay clicked his tongue, his eyes turning fierce. What's up with this guy now?

"I'm not," you gritted out, your heart dropping slightly at the sight of Juyeon interacting with other girls. You were lying when you said you didn't care, maybe you did.

"I don't get why you like him anyway, he's a jock, a football jock," he said the last part in distaste, making it seem as though footballers were the worst on earth.

"It's called being interested, dumbass. Having someone to admire makes college life fun," you fought back, caving into Jay's touch when he draped his arm over your waist. You shouldn't be liking this skinship. You mustn't.

"He's coming over, he spotted us," Jay mumbled, flashing his smile at Juyeon's approaching figure. "Act natural,"

"Thanks for the advice," you gritted out dryly, shifting around uncomfortably.

"Yo Jay," Juyeon called out to Jay, dabbing your supposed boyfriend up, a friendly smile on his face that blinded your vision and made your heart eyes appear. Fuck.

"Sup," Jay greeted back, breathing out a quiet laugh. “Oh, this is—”

“Y/N,” Juyeon finished Jay’s sentence at once, his gaze shifted onto you now, causing you to shy under his stare. “Partner from Chemistry?”

“That’s me,” you beamed at him, clapping your hands together, absentmindedly leaning further into Jay’s hold.

“I don’t normally see you at these type of parties,”

“Not a big party person,” you scratched the back of your neck, the feeling of awkwardness creeping up on you. You were never the best at meeting new people, though Juyeon wasn’t exactly a total stranger, but he wasn’t someone you were close to either.

“Right,” he paused for a moment, peering back and forth between you and Jay, a slight raise of his eyebrow. “So what brings the two of you here? You’re Jay’s date for the night?”

“She’s Jay’s girlfriend, actually,” the man himself spoke beside you, his hand on your waist pulling you closer to his side, a tight smile on his face. "My girlfriend,"

You could feel heat crawling up the back of your neck, choosing to avert your attention away and see what Juyeon’s reaction was. Turns out he was grinning, he was fucking grinning?

“Jay with a girlfriend? For real?”

Jay let out a scoff, seemingly offended by everyone’s surprise. Hell, if you didn’t know him and found out he had a girlfriend, you’ll be surprised too. “Yes, dickhead, surprise,” he grumbled, earning a chuckle from the footballer, who clearly loved irking Jay.

“Chill, good for you, man. About time,” he lightly slapped Jay’s shoulder and you sat quietly, not knowing what to say either. You really wanted to leave. “I’ll be at tomorrow’s match, see you,”

“Yeah, yeah, bye,” Jay bid a half-assed goodbye to Juyeon while you just waved at him instead, a tight lipped smile on your face. Once he was out of the picture, your head whipped to stare at the hockey player next to you, an impatient plea to leave this party written all over your features.

“Fine,” he sighed, letting you slip your hand in his. “How was all that?” he asked coolly, but you noticed a hint of displeasure in his tone, yet you waved it off again.

“I don’t know, he’s … okay, I guess,” you shrugged, truly confused about your current feelings. The thought of Jay stormed your mind. Juyeon? That’s the last J name of your concerns right now. But will you ever admit out loud that you were thinking about Jay, the man who constantly gives you headaches? Fuck no.

“Just ‘okay’?”

You hummed in response, sensing that he was a little bit more at ease after hearing your answer. He was easy to read, too easy.

“Does that make me better than him?”

“Woah, don’t get too ahead of yourself, Park,”

“Don’t hurt my ego like that,”

“Am not,”

“Come on, say I’m better, hotter and funnier than him,” he egged on, inching closer to you, a teasing grin stretched on that stupid face of his.

“Zipping my mouth shut,” you gestured at your lips, deadpanning at him.

“You’re too afraid to admit it,”

“Whatever you say, big head,” you bumped his shoulder and he stumbled a little, narrowing his eyes at you, a challenging smirk plastered on his face. Oh no.

In the next minute, Jay swept you off your feet and threw you over his shoulder. You let out a sharp yelp, unable to process everything at once, hearing Jay’s playful laugh fill the streets in the quietness of the night.

“You’re so dead,” you seethed, hitting his back with your utmost might, but he only cackled in response.

“Whatever you say, pea brain,” Jay mocked, earning him another hard punch on his back and this time, it actually made him wince. Choosing the safest route for himself, he kept his mouth shut.

Thus, you had no choice but to give into hanging over a hockey boy’s shoulder as the two of you ventured into the night in search of his car, not realising the mess you’ll be facing soon.

IT’S OFFICIAL. YOU'VE REACHED THE STAGE OF REGRET.

It was the next day, hockey game day, you turned up at the arena and copped a good seat. You might be wondering, ‘what’s so bad about a hockey game to the point you start regretting everything’, well if you could trade places with anybody in the world right now, you would, and that said a lot.

Jay had greeted you for barely five minutes before the game, rushing away immediately once he saw the time, giving you an apologetic hug that almost had you convinced this was real. What he hadn’t prepared you earlier, was the fact that there was a fucking kiss cam. One look at the jumbotron and you knew you were doomed.

‘KISS CAM’ was written clearly on the screen, the music in the arena was drowned out completely and you felt your heart drop. It might’ve seemed overdramatic for you to react like this, but in reality, kissing a stranger was terrifying. Your first kiss was already a nightmare, let alone kissing someone you don’t know, what would make it better?

“Nothing will happen,” you assured yourself over and over again, unaware that somebody had just slipped in the seat beside you.

“Hey,”

You flinched, brought out of your daze and you met Juyeon’s eyes. Good-fucking-bye to the world right now. His smile distracted you, having you muted and malfunctioning. Cool. This was cool. You’re cool.

“Hi,” you gave him a small smile that turned out more awkward than you thought.

“Supporting Jay today?” he nodded at the rink where the team was currently practising, your eyes wandering over to Jay’s figure.

“Him and the team. School spirit, you know?”

“Yeah,” he chuckled. “I heard about the kiss cam—” he pointed towards the screen and you wanted to close your eyes instead, but basic courtesy mattered. “—apparently for raising funds,”

Raising funds through a kiss cam? What was this? ‘The Kissing Booth: hockey edition’?

“That’s … interesting,” you uttered, nervousness laced in your voice.

You were saved from the awkward tension just as the game started, secretly wishing you had Minji with you instead of a mouth watering football player next to you. The game was intense, effectively grabbing your attention away from your surroundings, but the flash of the kiss cam starting its quest on finding couples was distracting.

As the game progressed, you grew confident that your mind was just playing games in making you anxious and nothing would happen. Your mind eased as you joined in the cheering when the home team finally scored a goal, watching the team celebrate had you grinning, staring down at a specific number 99.

The high soon died down and you chose to glance up at the jumbotron, the kiss cam focused on a cute couple who were weirdly making out instead of just simply kissing. PDA, yucks. It then swiftly moved on to another pair, thankfully. They were probably strangers, but being good sports, they shared a quick peck, earning some ‘awh’s from the crowd. Another change, your eyebrows furrowed, a frown tugged at your lips, was that—

It was. Your nightmare has come. For a moment you wondered if you were hallucinating, but a couple of beats later, you came to the realisation you were not. The kiss cam was focused on you and … Juyeon. When you said you were interested in him, you didn’t mean this, nope not at all.

Embarrassingly and reluctantly, you avoided the footballer’s gaze and shook your head, feeling tripped out as you stared at your own self on the screen, catching some disappointed groans from a few people. “I have a boyfriend,” you mouthed, trying your best to seem apologetic, but Juyeon didn’t look like he wanted to back down.

“You don’t want to kiss me?” he murmured, attempting to seem as lowkey as possible.

“I have a boyfriend, sorry,” you pressed your lips into a flat line, not enjoying this for a bit. The kiss cam swerved away to pinpoint another pair, but Juyeon was persistent.

“Come on, don’t pretend you don’t want to kiss me,”

You glared at him, your features turning sour, in disbelief at what you’ve just heard. Was he serious? “Excuse me?”

“Forget about Jay, I know how you were looking at me that night,” he whistled lowly under his breath and you scoffed, but you were caught off guard almost immediately when you saw the kiss cam lighting up in the corner of your eyes, and it zoomed into your face again. FML.

“He’ll never know,” he arched an eyebrow, welcoming the idea hugely. Scumbag.

“I don’t stoop that low you fuck—”

Before you could jump Juyeon and curse him out, a loud crash startled you and everyone around. You jumped in your seat, your head turned towards the direction of the noise. Jay was in front of you, his fist against the glass, helmet in hand. If looks could kill, you would’ve been dead.

Wet strands of hair stuck onto his forehead, his eyes narrowed into a death stare as it trained on Juyeon. “Fuck off,” he yelled through the glass barrier, his fist clenched. “Back off,”

The blood in Juyeon’s face was completely drained, obvious embarrassment and shame washed over him, but knowing him and his ego, he played it off, pretending as if that didn’t happen. “Whatever,” he got up from his seat and stormed off. Deserved.

You hid the small smile forming on your face, your sights redirecting towards Jay, your heart beating wildly against your chest the moment you met his eyes, softening when he mouth ‘you okay’. You nodded back at him and you could tell he instantly loosened up, returning a half smile before turning away and joining the team.

Moral of the story: don’t fall for playboys, which sounded pretty ironic considering the situation you were currently in.

The game had thankfully ended in a win for the home team, and honestly, that whole experience seemed to be years instead of just a few hours. Never again. You were glad to see Jay and everyone else cheerfully exiting the rink, taking that as the cue for you to chase after him.

Upon arriving outside the locker room, you found yourself standing awkwardly as you waited for him to appear, greeting his friends half-heartedly when they were on the way out. Your patience was thinning and only until then, he only decided to appear, a little shocked that you were there.

“Congrats on the win,” you joined his side and walked together, letting his shoulder brush against yours softly.

“Thanks,” he mumbled, a lollipop in his mouth. You didn’t enjoy this questionable tension between the two of you, noticing his rigidness.

“Hey!” You cut to the chase, snatching the lollipop from his lips, finally getting his attention as he turned to stare at you with wide eyes. “What was that for?”

“Nothing,” he shrugged it off, and you didn't understand why, you could tell he was blatantly lying.

“You're acting really weird,” you narrowed your eyes at him in accusation.

“Am I?”

“Ask yourself that,” you huffed, instinctively putting the lollipop into your mouth, not bothering to care anymore. “Anyway, I think mission Juyeon is officially cancelled, he gives me the ick, didn't know he was such a big douchebag,”

“Told you so,” he shrugged, his gaze wavering from your lips to your eyes. Woah. “Keep the lollipop, I have loads,” he gulped, avoiding your eyes.

“Drop me off?” You suggested, putting on the most convincing, sweetest smile, which somehow worked since it got Jay to grudgingly mumble a ‘yes’.

“I would give you a kiss right now if I could.” You skipped on, leaving Jay to tail behind you, your words ringing in his ears.

Maybe somewhere inside, he did wish you would.

“SEE? I TOLD YOU HE WAS A JERK,”

Minji continuously flailed her hands dramatically as you and she made your way through the campus. It was the week of the hockey event that Jay had mentioned, meaning another restless week of frat party, dress shopping, hockey match and then a fancy event.

“Yes, yes, I know, you've made your point,” you grumbled annoyingly, having not one but two people saying the same to you.

“It's quite cute that Jay stood up for you though,” she nudged your side, her eyes glinting. You knew what she was indicating.

“Fake dating, fake. Not real,” you threw your hands up in defeat, but internally, you were beginning to second guess if you even wanted to call it fake, maybe deep down, you didn't want it to be.

“Whatever helps you sleep at night,” Minji mumbled, but you were able to catch onto it, huffing in denial next to her. “Anyway, when are you going shopping? The event’s this weekend already,”

“Fuck, I forgot,” you brushed your hand through your hair, having another headache to add on to. “Do you have any nice fancy dresses? I'm sure Jay is ready but I'm not,”

Minji flashed a knowing smirk, she definitely had something up her sleeve. “You know I do. I'll bring them to your dorm and we're going to have a whole makeover,”

“You're not going to burn my hair this time right?”

“We'll see.”

A few days had passed and it was your second hockey pregame party, repeatedly cursing that your Thursday night was ruined once more, but seeing Jay’s pleading eyes at your doorstep, you just had to give in again. How did he have that effect on you?

“She’s going to be at the party,” Jay noted casually on the way to the house.

“Oh,” you pursed your lips, not knowing what to say next. “What’s her name? You’ve never mentioned,”

“Sujin,”

“Her?” you gasped, eyes widened in plain shock. Out of all the girls he could’ve had his heart broken by, it had to be the infamous Instagram blogger who was known to play around. Look, you've always been a supporter of every woman's rights and wrongs, but she was way beyond any defending.

“Yeah …” Jay sighed, his fingers drumming lightly on the steering wheel. “We were high school lovers, but things went sour in college,”

“Well, forget about her, you want to prove her wrong right? Then prove her wrong,”

“You're oddly over confident today,”

“What's wrong with confidence, Park?”

He glanced over at you briefly, a wide grin on his face as he shook his head. “Nothing. I just like to see confidence on you,”

You rolled your eyes, but something inside you twisted, finding yourself ignoring whatever feelings that sparked internally. “Are you ready for Saturday?”

“Suit’s ready, but me? So so, I guess,”

“You sound pessimistic, don’t tell me you’re starting to regret all these,”

“Hey, now you’re just putting words into my mouth,” Jay grumbled, putting the car into park right outside of the familiar frat house. “I won’t ever regret you or this whole thing, now come on,”

You weren’t left a single second to even process the fact that he said he won't regret you. Yes, you, not just this stupid scheme, but you. Upon entering the threshold, you were met with a cup of beer thrusted into your face from a passing Heeseung, your other hand occupied by Jay’s, trying your best to make it past the crowd without stumbling over. Everything was a whirlwind.

“Fuck, she’s here,” his hold on you tightened and you followed his line of sight, your gaze landing on the over dressed Instagram model, her skirt a little too small and her heels a little too high.

“Just act normal, Jay. You said you’re over her, then you should act like that,” you yanked him close to you, walking over to the mini bar, pouring yourself a drink. “That’s her boyfriend?” you nodded at the taller man towering beside Sujin, his face contrary to the one you had in mind.

“Yeah, that’s Intak,” he said quietly, aware of the lingering ears around the two of you. “Seeing him every time we have a game against his team is revolting, I can’t believe I have to see him here too,”

“Then look away,” you pushed his face softly, earning a huff of annoyance from him. “Come on, it’ll be over in an hour,” you rubbed the side of his arm in comfort, his lips twisting into an endearing smile.

“You’re right,” Jay sighed, blinking harshly, his gaze flickering between you and your surroundings. “I’ll go find Heeseung and Sunghoon for a moment, is that okay? Will you be alright alone? You can come along too. If you want—”

“It’s fine, Jay, really,” you laughed, putting your hands up to stop him from blabbering on. “Go find them, call me when it’s time to leave,”

“I’ll come find you once I’m done,” he held onto your shoulder, pressing a hasty kiss on the top of your head before turning away to another room in search of his hockey teammates.

Safe to say you were able to find yourself a company, who turned out to be a girl you knew from your literature class. Why was she there? She didn’t know either and you thought the best was to not question further, grateful that you were not alone in this house of strangers. The clock was spinning fast, soon it was already past midnight and Jay was nowhere to be seen. You were praying that you weren’t in a remake of ‘Scream’.

The feeling of unease crept up on you and you couldn’t handle it any longer, standing up from the couch and storming into different rooms of the house, all occupied and filled with people, none of those were Jay. The last option you had was the upstairs, which lied the unimaginable behind those rooms that you were not about to explore, thank you very much!

Wandering the upstairs of a rather large frat house all alone was quite a challenge, especially when you were trying to hunt a 5’10 hockey jock, adding onto the fact that you literally and physically bumped (crashed, actually) into said hockey jock’s enemy in the corridors, shit was turning upside down.

“Fuck—sorry,” you coughed out, regretting your last sober choice of bringing your beer cup along.

“Shit—it’s fine, no worries,” Jay's enemy/ex’s boyfriend, Intak, reassured, dabbing himself off with some napkins that were miraculously lying on a table nearby.

“I feel bad, if you need it cleaned I can help,” you frowned, leaning over to see the damage you’ve caused: a yellowish stain on his once perfect white tee.

“No, it’s completely fine, shit happens,” he laughed, waving his hand, an awkward silence filling the air momentarily. “So, why are you even up here?”

“Oh—I’m finding … someone,” you gave him a tight-lipped smile.

His eyes lit up. “Me too, actually. I can’t leave the party without them and gosh, I’m getting a headache already,”

“Twins, I think the beer is getting to me soon,” you clapped your hands, glancing around for any signs of Jay.

“Before that happens, may I know your name first?”

You raised your eyebrows. “It’s Y/N,”

“Nice to meet you, Y/N, I’m Intak,” you accepted his handshake, trying your best to be friendly and not seem awkward. "I play in a hockey team, the one that's playing against yours for tomorrow,"

"Right," you nodded as though you hadn't already known that prior to this. "I would wish you good luck on normal occasions, but since it's against the home team … I need to keep my school spirit,"

Intak let out a small laugh. "Totally understandable," he met your eyes, a hint of sheer curiosity in them. "Do you have a date for tonight—"

"Intak?"

"Y/N?"

You, together with the hockey player, turned around to find each other's partners standing down the corridor next to one another, a look of confusion written on their faces. But you, you had anger and an obvious "what the fuck" painted onto your expressions, and it was clear that Jay had noticed it too when he came close.

"Uh—we're leaving now, bye," Jay murmured, grabbing a hold of your wrist and dragging you away, giving you only a brief second to say goodbye to Intak.

You didn't and couldn't understand what was happening, just hating the way Jay was acting. You kept your mouth shut until you were completely out of the house and walking towards the car when you yanked your hand out of Jay's hold, causing him to look back at you in a daze.

"God, you're such a dickhead!" You seethed, breathing heavily.

"What?"

"'What' was all you could say? Jay, you left me in that party alone for God knows how long and then you disappear on me just for me to find you running back to your ex? Make it make sense,"

"I didn't run back to her, Y/N, for fuck's sake," Jay ran a hand through his hair, his lips pressed into a thin line. "She pulled me away and started claiming weird shit that never happened, I wanted to leave but she kept persisting until I managed to break down the fucking doorknob,"

Silence fell between the two of you, the dark of the night consuming your thoughts and the moon was staring down at you, your mind and soul in a daze. You couldn't understand why you were feeling this way, after all, it was fake, it wasn't real.

"I believe you," you sighed, gulping down the anxiety building up within you. "Forget it, it's fine, sorry for being so worked up, it's not like we're really dating, right?"

You looked at him, noticing his eyebrows furrowed and eyes glinting with something unreadable, his mouth opened then shut, wanting to say something but nothing came out, heaving a small sigh. "You're right, it's not real anyway."

As much as you wished to forget it, you couldn't. The way he wasn't even fighting and being in denial, his words stemming sadness into your heart and reminding you again and again that it was never real to begin with.

Fake dating was meant to be fake, wasn't it?

“I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU'VE BROUGHT ME HERE FOR EMOTIONAL SUPPORT,”

Friday night hockey was something you loved, but after what happened yesterday, you dreaded coming.

You still remembered the tension filled air on the way back to your dorms, the silence in the car and the quiet exchange of "goodnight" haunted you. Crashing into Minji's bed having a breakdown definitely made you two come to a conclusion that you were indeed harbouring something for Jay. Were you going to straightforwardly admit it? Never.

Now, you had zero balls to be at the game alone, choosing to drag Minji along and you knew even if she was vocally complaining, she was actually enjoying the hot hockey players secretly.

"Did you talk to Jay after yesterday night?"

"No,"

"Will you?"

"Maybe,"

"I think that's a 'yes',"

You stared pointedly at her and she shrugged, resuming her watch on the hockey players practising. You watched along as well, your eyes instinctively following Jay's figure, but then you noticed Intak on the far end as well. Somehow, you knew that this match wasn't about to end well.

"Is this seat empty?" A voice startled you from your internal monologue, snapping your head just in time to see little miss ex standing over you.

"Oh—yes," you said uneasily, grabbing your phone immediately to text Minji.

you: it's her

jiji: who

you: the girl next to me!!! that's jay's EX.

jiji: YOU'RE KIDDING

you: i wished

You exchanged a wary look with Minji, playing it off as natural as you could as you sensed Sujin sitting next to you, elbowing Minji in panic and she does the same back to you, making it look wild and weird from a third perspective. You stopped the frenzy nudging war with Minji, swallowing thickly and hoping nothing happened, but actually, something did, hooray!

“You’re Jay’s girlfriend?” you heard her asking and you turned your head slowly, meeting her blinking eyes and curious gaze.

“Yes,” you tried your best for it to sound convincing, and it seemed to have worked.

“Cool.” she whistled under her breath, returning her gaze back to the arena and you resisted rolling your eyes, biting back a snarl.

The game started in a haze, both teams trying to break one another’s defence and score a goal, yet it all failed in the end, turning it into a tie for two periods straight. You and Minji sighed in disappointment, watching the home team giving their best to not collapse there and then. Sujin, on the other hand, looked nervous throughout the game, occasionally standing up and clapping.

The third period approached in a blink of an eye, two teams eager to score and win, the tension was high and you could tell they were sweating heavy loads. It began in a peaceful and lowkey attack, but shoving and punches were seen here and there, earning entertained jeers from the crowd. You sighed, both in exasperation and stress, hoping nothing would land Jay a bad game. But everything proved you the opposite once more.

Your eyes widening in the next moment, noticing two players shoving each other and throwing gloves onto the ice, punches almost thrown but was interjected by the referee and teammates. Lord, it just had to be Jay and Intak, it was basically written in the stars, wasn’t it?

Once the game had ended, you couldn’t care less about the scoreline, listening to Minji’s brief rants on how not to fumble your emotions about Jay and stopping her halfway through, pointing to the clock as your time ticked. You were attempting to squeeze your way out when you heard a cough behind you and to your disappointment, it had to be Sujin.

“You’re aware of who I am, right?” you heard the sneer in her voice, holding in the urge to rip her hair out and instead, remained facing away from her.

“Don’t worry, I do. You’re Jay’s dumpster ex girlfriend,”

“What—”

Timing was right and you took the chance to slip away, thanking the world that you were finally miles away from Jay’s dusty ex. All of that didn’t matter though, the important aspect was finding Jay now, awkwardly speed walking to locate Jay’s whereabouts.

Upon arriving at the front of the familiar locker rooms, you patiently waited, feeling a sense of deja vu. That wasn’t all. Your anxiety was at its highest point. What were you about to say to Jay? Can you even face him? What if you pussied out and ran away—

“Y/N?” speaking of the devil …

You whipped your head around, Jay’s curious eyes meeting your panicked ones, your whole body frozen to the spot as he approached you, taking a cautious step at a time.

“Are you alright? Were you hurt?” you couldn’t help it, after seeing the minor fight on ice, your first natural instinct was to ask him this. Jay lowered his head, hiding a smile that was threatening to appear. A small sense of relief washed over you.

“I’m fine … thanks. Just a small conflict,” he muttered, then proceeded by a brief moment of silence, where you swore it felt like forever considering how it was just quiet stares and exchanges of friendly smiles, and you couldn’t really handle it much longer, being the one to break first.

“Jay, I—uhm—yesterday, the party thing, I’m sorry about it, I don’t want that to make things awkward between us,” you gesture wildly at the space between you and him, his eyes following your movements. “And it’s wrong for me to say those stuff,”

“It’s partially my fault too. I’m the one to blame to ditch you,”

“I’m the one who accused you of shit and I feel really bad for assuming something I don’t know. I just got worked up, I’m sorry,”

He took hold of your hands, grasping onto them tightly as though he was fearing you’d run away. “Y/N, do you trust me?”

Do you trust him?

In a heartbeat, the answer was an obvious ‘yes’. You had to admit, you did initially find him annoying and a total fuckboy that you knew would break your heart, but as time passed, you couldn’t care anymore. Even if it meant your heart was on the line, at least you knew Jay was genuine about you; at the very least, there was someone who would stand up for you, listen to your rants about music, and put you first.

“Yes,”

Jay pulled your hand, practically yanking you towards him, landing on his chest with a thud and a heart thumping crazily, butterflies swarmed your stomach and you could feel heaven getting close, aka you dying in Jay’s arms. He pressed his head on the top of yours, feeling his heart beating against your chest, his cologne no stranger to you now.

“When I said you’re my girl, I meant it, it doesn’t matter if it’s fake or not, I’ll always care for you, and I will never ever hurt you, so please—” an underlying mix of desperation, hurt and care were laced in his voice, and you were weak, weak for him. “—trust me, and even if it means I need to earn it or whatever, I will,”

“Jay…” you faltered, resting your chin on his shoulder, arms wrapped around his waist. “I’m sorry for not trusting you, I should’ve heard you out, of course I do trust you,”

Jay was silent for a second, whispering a quiet ‘thank you’ and pressing a swift kiss on your forehead, which didn’t get completely unnoticed by you, but you decided to not say anything about it, letting yourself melt into his arms. Internally, you were conflicted, torn between whether your feelings about him were mutual, you were scared, petrified that you’ve already broken the first and most important rule of fake dating:

Do not catch feelings.

jayjay: DUMPSTER EX? you’re soo foul for that

you: truth hurts unfortunately :/ you never told me what happened that day

jayjay: it was stupid, he just started attacking me, for OBVIOUS reasons, so i couldn’t help defending back :(

you: i’m glad you didn’t get your ass beat

jayjay: gasp you have zero confidence in me!

Tossing your phone to the side was a hard task considering how Jay was basically spamming your message inbox, ranging from panicking about the event that was happening at night to gossiping about exes, he was certainly experiencing many emotions. You were similarly distraught, having a hard time choosing between a black dress or a red one, placing them in front of you for evaluations that just ended up failing.

“By the time we’re done I think the party would’ve ended,” Minji groaned from her side of the room, lounging on her bed as she watched you glancing between the two dresses.

“Not helping,”

“I literally chose the black one and you told me, in your words, ‘what if I looked better in red’ girl, that’s your problem now,”

“I'm indecisive and you know that,” you mumbled sourly, picking the black dress in the end. You were grateful for the fashion Gods, the dress was an absolute banger and you didn’t understand how you even picked it out, you just knew.

“See? I told you,” Minji whistled, manhandling you to do a forceful 180 turn for her, and from the way her face morphed into a smile, you could tell she was pleased. "Jay would drop dead when he sees you," she squealed.

"God I hope not," you joked, squeezing onto your clutch tightly.

jayjay: im outside :)

"He's here," you hissed, becoming frantic all of a sudden, double checking everything at the last minute before slipping your heels on, making sure to give Minji a small kiss on the cheek too and off you went dashing towards Jay's car, noticing his figure faced away, leaning against his car as you got nearer.

"Hi," you panted, masking the fatigue and exhaustion from the amount of panic and stress you went through in those 5 minutes.

You could see Jay glancing up from his phone, then shoving it into his back pocket and turning his head around, his burning eyes locked with yours. A smirk slowly stretched onto his lips, a mischievous glint in his gaze as he sweeped your figure. You were no better, eyes shamelessly boring into him, scanning his attire and you swore your legs were shaking.

Him in a plain black suit shouldn’t be affecting you, but it was. The prada tie hung around neck was equally distracting, how was he making something so simple seem breathtaking? You hated him for it, yes, you absolutely do. His hair was styled back and a single loose strand hung over his forehead, practically challenging the Zayn Malik look.

“Hey,” his hand instinctively reached for your waist, bringing you closer to him. “You look amazing—you’re amazing,” he breathed out, completely transfixed.

“You look great too,” that’s a lie, he looked more than just great.

“Getting complimented by you for once? Honoured,”

“You should be,” you snickered, letting Jay guide you to the passenger side and adoring the way he opened the car door for you. Although it was a small gesture, you appreciate it greatly considering how literally no man had done this for you before. Known fuckboy Park Jong Seong was proving you wrong day by day.

The drive there began quietly and you knew it was going to take a while since it’s quite a distance away, fearing it would be awkward silence once more, but the moment Jay had switched the radio on, the music discourse started, then it progressed into movies.

“I can’t believe you hate rom coms!” you gasped, staring at him in horror as he fumbled to defend himself.

“Look, I didn’t say hate, but it’s just pointless,”

“You’re telling me you’ve never watched the classic rom coms before?” you dramatically leaned away from him, earning a huff.

“No,” he grumbled.

“That’s criminal,” you exclaimed, a little evil idea forming in that brain of yours. “I’m making you watch them,”

“You’re so not,”

“Oh, I am,” you beamed, clapping your hands together. “There are ‘How to Lose a Guy in 10 days’, ‘Notting Hill’, ‘Pretty Woman’, the list goes on and on and Julia Roberts is literally a rom com legend—oh my God, please tell me you’ve watched Mamma Mia before,”

“Of course I did! I’m not that bad,”

“I’m glad,” you let out a sigh of relief, sinking into your seat and making a mental note to write down a list of rom coms to watch with Jay. A rom com marathon date with Jay, cute. The rest of the ride, you listened to Jay’s hilarious rants about the pizzas he tried and the interesting stories from his trips abroad.

The venue was absolutely spacious and screamed sponsored. It was at some five star hotel, the parking was already a clear indication that it wasn’t a hotel to be taken lightly in consideration. Even Jay was surprised, his head twisting and turning to look at the small details of everything, his hand in yours and it genuinely felt like you were dragging a curious child around.

“Didn’t know the hockey associations had this in them,” he cooed, entering the ballroom of the hotel, a big hockey banner hung at the stage, round tables littered here and there, a huge space in the middle for the dancefloor and as for the cherry on top, a wide array of food and drinks displayed freely. Maybe you didn’t fully regret coming.

Despite all that, you only managed to recognise one or two people from the hockey team, but the rest of them were plain strangers, players from different schools that only Jay could probably recognise. You simply felt uneasy.

“Remind me what this is for again?”

“Literally nothing, it’s the same as the frat party but classier I suppose,”

“Real charming,”

“Come on,” Jay said quietly, his hand resting on the small of your back, guiding you towards your designated table, actually glad for once when you saw the hockey team, including Heeseung and Sunghoon. “It’s going to be over soon and hey, you can always talk to the guy’s dates,”

“Will I be seeing their dates the next time?” you arched a quizzical eyebrow at him, knowing their reputation, you wondered if this was a one night exclusive kinda thing, but you weren’t there to judge.

“Hard to say,” Jay frowned.

“Wait—” you paused, placing an arm on Jay’s shoulder. “What about us? This whole deal was for tonight, but what happens after?”

“I don’t think it’s the right time to discuss this right now, Y/N,” Jay glanced back and forth between you and his friends at the table, making sure his voice was extra hushed. “Let’s just survive tonight first, and we’ll talk about the rest after. Capiche?”

You nodded, but deep down, you could tell that talk was already dreaded by the both of you. You’d hate to admit it, but after being with Jay for a while, you were not willing to let go. What if he didn’t feel the same and you’ll just end up being those clingy girls he dated before? It was such a wrong time to think about all these when you’re in the middle of some stupid event, but your mind has its way to put you off, always.

“You okay?” Jay was close, his eyes scanning your face for any signs of emotions. It definitely helped in snapping you out of your daze, and it took your utmost willpower to not shy away or kiss him at that exact moment, he was so pretty, painfully pretty when he was up close for you to be able to capture his every feature.

“Yeah,” you breathed out, squeezing his shoulder lightly before looping your arm around his. “I’m a little hungry,”

“Me too,” Jay groaned, his head turning over to where the buffet was, evidently displaying heart eyes. “I’ll go get us some, you should join them first, and save me a seat too, please,”

“‘Please’? That’s a first from you,”

“Do you want your food or not?”

“You’re so romantic whenever you threaten me,” you shooed Jay away, forcing him to fetch some food while you trudged your way towards the table, Heeseung and Sunghoon nodded at you when you caught their eyes.

"Y/N," the two hockey players regarded you, their dates giving you friendly smiles and you took a seat next to Heeseung's date.

"Heeseung, Sunghoon," you raised your eyebrows. "And the ladies," you have to admit it, at least they had great tastes.

Heeseung and Sunghoon introduced you to their dates, one was Chaewon and the other was Kazuha, both of them being the nicest people you've ever met and you swore you were about to ditch Jay for them instead.

"Hey," Jay finally appeared, his hands were occupied by two plates and thankfully, he was smart enough to fill them up to the brim. He slipped into the empty seat next to you, acknowledging his friends and their dates.

“This is a first,” Heeseung noted thoughtfully, catching both you and Jay off guard.

“Hm?” Jay hummed, passing you the utensils.

“Don’t ‘hm’ me. This is literally my first time seeing you treat a girl like this,”

Jay stared back at his friends as if they were insane, you just stayed amused. “You’re making me sound like I’ve treated other girls like a dickhead,”

“You know what I mean,”

You didn’t. But it seemed Jay did, silently sighing underneath his breath and shrugging Heeseung’s words off, turning to you instead. “I got you some strawberries, I remembered you mentioned loving them once,”

There was a tug at your heartstrings, it was your absolute weakness: people remembering your favourite things; Jay most definitely had a great way to get into your heart and mind. He was slowly but surely ticking off the boxes on the list you’ve created in your head, titled ‘things Jay is forbidden to do so that I WON’T end up liking him’ and he was proving you wrong by checking them off one at a time, damn it.

The food wasn’t the best but the company surely did help. The whole of the hockey team was cracking jokes around the table, you were laughing until your stomach was hurting, the atmosphere high and wild, you were too busy trying not to choke at the jokes to notice that you were practically leaning onto Jay’s side, shoulders touching and you could feel the warmth emanating from his body.

What’s a fancy event without a speech at the end of the night? Other than that boring part, you were relieved to hear there was at least a dance to end the night off on a high with, since the dance floor was there for a reason. The team around the table started dispersing in pairs, until it was only you and Jay left.

“Were you waiting for me to ask?” Jay teased, his eyes lingering on you.

“Isn’t that how it’s supposed to go usually?” you mused, raising an accusing eyebrow at him and he stifled a laugh.

“I’m playing with you. I was waiting for the other’s to leave first so that I could be alone with you—” he bumped your shoulder gently with his, “—and ask you personally,” he stood up from his seat, the soft glow from the lights shone across his face, alighting his delicate features, he looked like a fantasy, too good to be true, and maybe he was. “Would you like to dance?”

“I would love to,” you accepted his hand, allowing him to lead you to the dancefloor and you suddenly felt nervous, hoping you wouldn’t end up tripping or stumbling, or worse, stepping on Jay’s toes. Somehow, he would always sense your distress and this time, it was the same.

“Don’t be nervous, I won’t start hoisting you up like those Disney shows,” he said with his recognizable playful smile that you’ve grown used to.

You were facing him now, his hand not leaving yours and only tightening its grip, pulling you in closer and closer until you were only mere inches away from him, noses almost touching. The other hand of his rested on your waist, yours on his shoulder, eyes not leaving one another. The lights were dimmed down, slow music was playing in the background and you swore you saw something sparked in his gaze as you two started moving to the rhythm.

“I might’ve said it earlier already but genuinely, you’re absolutely breathtaking,” Jay whispered, his voice low and his gaze piercing.

“Have my love potions finally worked?” you smiled, hoping and praying that Jay wouldn’t notice the slight tinge of pink rising to your cheeks.

“I think they did,” Jay nodded slowly, biting his lip for a moment before leaning even more closer, space was basically nonexistent between you two now. “I might want to keep you forever now, keep you by my side and never let you go,”

Could this be his answer? An answer to your countless doubts and thoughts that piled in your mind. This was stupid, he was stupid. Stupidly handsome and charming it had you going insane and you thought hockey jocks wouldn’t have this effect on you, guess you were wrong all along.

“Really?” you breathed out, barely audible, but expectant.

“I don’t think I was ever joking,”

“I—”

“Jay!” Sunghoon’s voice boomed through the crowd and you could see the hope drain from Jay’s face, his eyebrows furrowed and features twisted into annoyance. “Dude, I heard there’s some free booze that costs thousands! Can we please go check it out—am I interrupting something here?”

“You think?” Jay seethed out, taking off his suit’s blazer and placing them over your shoulders. It was something small, maybe even insignificant to others, but to you, it meant a lot, and you were hoping no one noticed your slight shyness after.

“It’s fine,” you placed a reassuring hand on Sunghoon’s shoulder. “You can whisk him off for the night, but don’t make him drunk,”

“Got it,” Sunghoon showed you two thumbs up, throwing his arm around Jay's shoulder.

“I’ll see you later? Call me if you need anything,”

“I’ll be okay, I have Chaewon and Zuha here,”

Jay only silently nodded, begrudgingly following his friend but making sure to turn back and take a last peek of you before fully disappearing away. You were left alone standing in the midst of the dancefloor, feeling a pair of eyes on you and you knew exactly who it was, Sujin.

Maybe this whole plan worked too well, it had you totally forgetting its original objectives and you couldn’t tell if it was a good or bad thing. All you knew was that you needed a long and deep talk with Jay and whatever he said earlier definitely had you on the edge all night while he was somewhere getting wasted. Hey, someone had to be the responsible one, and it happened to be you.

“You’re telling me Heeseung spilled a drink over a girl a few days ago?”

You found yourself giggling and messing around with Chaewon and Kazuha, the three of you sharing odd stories of one another and it evolved into gossiping about your own dates. Chaewon turned to you, a cheeky grin wide on her face.

“You and Jay are dating right?” she nudged you playfully, Kazuha followed with a smile.

“I guess so?” you threw your hands up, sipping from a drink you didn’t really like but still endured.

“You seem unsure—oh wow, did he never confirm it between you two?”

“No, not that—” it was that, it was complicated. “It’s just something’s bugging me,”

“What is?” the two girls leaned in closer.

“Just, the other day at a party, I saw him coming out of a room with his ex and I got mad—”

“Rightfully so,”

“I heard his explanation and I felt bad for jumping to conclusions,”

“Oh, honey, it’s our first instinct, you don’t have to beat yourself up for it,”

“Yeah, I know, I do trust him, he didn’t seem to look like he had just freshly made out with her or anything, but something in me just doesn’t feel like I’ve fully made peace with this whole thing,”

“Which means?”

“I don’t know exactly, I think I’m either super paranoid or simply scared something bad might happen,”

“I might’ve not been with Sunghoon for long enough and I don’t even think we’re a thing, but I’ve hung out with him and Jay included, and it’s enough for me to say that Jay is a good guy. He might be a well known fuckboy at first encounter, but the more you got to know him, you’ll realise he’s actually the sweetest and nicest guy ever,”

“Excluding his reputation,” Chaewon added thoughtfully.

“Excluding that,” Kazuha repeated. “But he probably changed, I don’t see him at many parties anymore after he got with you. It’s cheesy to say but I think you might’ve changed that man,”

“Mhm,” Chaewon nodded along, placing a hand on your thigh and giving you a comforting pat. “Please don’t let some ex overwhelm your thoughts and sever your relationship, I’ve been there and it sucked, believe me. I see the way he looks at you, I can tell he likes you a lot, I really don’t wish anything to happen between you two,”

“Plus, the three of us needs to hang out more, go on dates together, it’ll be fun,”

“Agreed,”

You broke into a smile, laughing softly and leaned into Chaewon’s embrace. “I know we’ve barely met but would it be too soon to say I love you guys?”

“Never,” the two girls snickered in unison.

The night gradually passed without your knowledge, time practically nonexistent when you spoke to your new found besties, only noticing how late it was when you saw people slowly making their way to the exit, hand in hand with their partners, and you thought of Jay. Please don’t be high or drunk somewhere, or just both in general.

“God, look at the time, should we go find them?” Kazuha pointed out, Chaewon stretching her arms out beside her while you readjusted yourself uncomfortably in this dress.

“We really should, they’re probably drunk or something. Come on,” Kazuha pulled you up and it took your utmost strength to not collapse from the pain, all thanks to your killer heels you were now wincing everytime you walked. Beauty is pain indeed.

It didn’t take long for the three of you to spot the hockey guys, distinguishing Sunghoon’s glorious silver hair that shone particularly brighter under the lights from the mirrorball. Although they seemed sober still, you could tell they were beginning to be at their wits end, but forget about them, Jay was nowhere in sight and you couldn’t help feeling unease.

“Where’s Jay?”

“Oh, Jay?”

“Yes, Jay,” you folded your arm, staring expectantly at them.

“He got a call or something just ten minutes back, he said he was supposed to be back soon, as in right now, but he’s not here,” Heeseung said, trying to take a swig of his cup before it was swatted away by Chaewon. “He did go that way,” he pointed at the door that led out to the terrace.

“I’ll go get him,”

“Do you need any of us to help?”

“I’ll be fine … for now,” you gave them a smile of assurance, but you yourself were far from being assured.

Trudging your way past the dispersing crowd, you were wondering where Jay was, silently cursing him out as you continued your way even if your shoes were killing you. Never again. The terrace was a nice place to getaway, the open space looked out to a night sky that was illuminated by skyscrapers and stars, plus the cool night breeze made it even better.

The area was wide, tables and chairs littered here and there, but there was no five feet ten hockey player anywhere. You decided to walk around a little bit more, pulling your phone out and dialling Jay’s number, praying he was somewhere near. There was no way this would be a second reenactment of the party at the beach except this time it’s actually a real scary movie, right?

Wrong.

The moment you rang Jay, you managed a sigh of relief once you heard a ringtone sounding from a distance away, so as anyone would, you followed it, turning around a corner and you saw Jay’s back, elation filled your heart, but before you could even shout his name, your perfect bubble burst.

Jay wasn’t alone, no, he was with someone, a girl. You squint your eyes and you swore your knees turned into jelly in that second. Sujin, the dumpster ex, pulled him into a kiss. A mix of countless emotions swelled in you, whether it was anger, shock or sadness, all you knew was that you needed to get out right now. You couldn’t believe it, Jay, the guy you actually considered was doing this. Maybe trusting him was the worst idea you could ever conjure up your entire life.

“Fuck me,” you cursed out, maybe a little too loudly because it definitely did make Jay stumble back from his ex, turning around to meet your eyes and you could tell he was not expected you here, hell you weren’t even expecting yourself to be in this foolish position.

“What—Y/N?” Jay somewhat looked too disoriented, unaware of what was happening as though he had just woken up 10 years later. But you couldn’t care less, you were hurt and you weren’t about to pretend nothing had happened and start acting jolly good. No, you weren’t going to stand there to let the scene before you swallow you whole, no way, you were going to leave this situation, this stupid event and this entire agreement.

You stormed away, not daring to look back, mustering every bit of courage you had to swallow down a sob and remain prideful, even if it meant you had to fake it till you made it. Hurt wasn’t a stranger to you. You’ve experienced hurt in many forms. Physically, when you fell down on the rough rocky road; emotionally in terms of family, friends, love. But this was a hurt that resembled a deep cut, the feeling of being stabbed in the heart haunted your soul.

“Y/N, wait,”

Fuck, not here, not now, not when you were inside and standing in the middle of the room. Even though there was barely any one here by now, the guys from Jay’s hockey team remained, including Heeseung and Sunghoon, you were not ready to confront or be confronted.

“No, Jay, no ‘wait’,” you put your hand out, distancing yourself away from him, but you could still smell the alcohol in his breath. You wished and hoped he was sober enough for this, because in the next hour you were going to be the one drinking to death instead.

“I can explain—”

“Can you?”

“What?”

“Can you explain this time? Is it just a drunken mistake? Is that what you were going to say?”

“For fuck’s sake, Y/N, we aren’t even dating,”

Heads turned, you could sense people’s attention on the two of you now, but you were far from caring about that, not when Jay’s words felt exactly like a dig at your already fragile heart. God, you were so so stupid and naive.

“Say it again,” the words came out in a whisper, your lips trembling. “Say it again, say how we were never real, how all of this was just a fucking scheme to get back at your ex, and ha—!” you threw your hands up, swallowing down a lump in your throat, “it worked, didn’t it? I ended up falling for your tricks and I ended up falling for you too, funny isn’t it?

Jay’s face twisted upon digesting your words, but you went on.

“I should’ve known that you were using me all along just to get back with her…” you faltered, your voice eventually failing you.

“Y/N, come on…” he said weakly, but you just shook your head.

“Go back to her,”

“Don’t you get it? Fuck, I’d choose you over her, any day, any time. I’d choose you over everyone God damn it. Can’t you see that?”

Your mouth fell open for a second, but nothing could come out as a response.

To say that you were bewildered was an understatement indeed, you were absolutely stunned speechless. The man before you, despite looking in a daze from God knows how much alcohol he had consumed, showed that his eyes said otherwise, staring back at you with desperation, longing, pining and sadness. Your heart could only take so much.

“Goodnight, Jay.”

What pained you more was the fact that he didn’t even try after that. No, he didn’t call for you nor did he stop you from leaving like those scenes from your favourite rom coms, he just decided to let you go.

At one point, you really wished someone would come out and yell ‘this is a prank’ at you, but obviously, no one did. This whole thing was basically a reenactment of Cinderella, except it was a modern day and much more angsty version of every kid’s favourite movie.

Of course, you happened to be Cinderella and he was Prince Charming, the clock struck midnight, you were leaving him in a haste and he was left stranded alone in the middle of a dance, how ironic.

Oh, how you wished you were able to hide away from your own Prince Charming like the old mediaeval days.

“ARE YOU GOING TO CONTINUE CRYING OVER ‘HOW TO LOSE A GUY IN 10 DAYS’?”

“Leave me alone,”

“It isn’t a good coping method,”

Somehow, it was already almost a week since that night. You remembered calling a cab in the dead of the night (dumb idea) and phoning Minji the whole way sobbing till the point where the driver had to pull over. You were pathetic and even a stranger could tell so, but you know what, he was nice about it and that’s the positives you’d take from that.

“And it’s ironic how I actually did somewhat lose a guy too,” you tried laughing, but it only sounded like a choke, Minji shaking her head sympathetically at you.

Speaking about Minji, she definitely wasn’t pleased to hear what had happened. Knowing her, you knew she was about to say ‘I told you so’ but seeing you in your pathetic state, she kept her mouth zipped and quiet, letting you into her bed and having a sob session. It was a crazy night.

“When will you hear him out—did you even hear him out in the first place?” Minji eyed you accusingly and you began cowering under her intense gaze.

“No…”

“Y/N,” Minji sighed, shifting closer to you. “I know the whole picture is super messy and totally off putting, but what if it was an accident?”

“Him kissing his ex is a pretty clear picture to me, how would it be an accident?” you wrapped your blanket tighter around you, mumbling disheartedly.

“What if he fell on her or something?”

“Now you sound absolutely ridiculous,” you scoffed.

“What I really mean is, you should go and talk it out with him, if not, this thing will just drag on and you’ll hurt more,”

“I don’t think I’m ready, the wound’s still fresh,”

“I get it,” Minji placed her head on your shoulder, snuggling on your side. “It takes time, and I don’t think he’s ready either.”

Jay wasn’t ready, in fact he thinks he’s never going to face you again.

The moment he watched you slip away from him that night, he knew it was best to just let you go. Or so he thought. Best believe he got an earful from both Heeseung and Sunghoon, not to mention their dates. He could still remember the bursts of disbelief from them, the amount of ‘it was fake?’ and ‘what did you do?’ rung through his head till now, where he stared blankly back at the rink, sitting silently on one of the seats in the stands.

“It’s barely 24 hours and it’s also a Sunday, what are you doing here?” the team’s captain boomed through the empty arena, approaching Jay and eventually taking a seat next to him.

“Taking my mind off … things, what are you doing here?” Jay regarded Heeseung for a moment.

“I figured you’re here,”

Jay nodded at Heeseung’s words, silence eventually filled the space between them. It was one of those moments where they knew something was wrong, but no one wanted to speak up about it.

“Are you not going to tell us what happened? Or did you simply decide to kiss your ex?” Heeseung broke the ice, coming off slightly harsh, detesting the silence from Jay. He knew this wasn’t the best friend he trusted his life with, the Jay he knew wasn’t a cheater, even if the relationship wasn’t real.

“Would you even believe me?”

“I would, I’ve known you for years, there’s no way you’re doubting my trust for you,” Heeseung rested his hand on Jay’s shoulder, giving him a reassuring squeeze.

Jay ran his hand across his face, blinking momentarily before sighing deeply. “I wasn’t the one who kissed her. I don’t know what happened to lead up to that, but I swear she suddenly turned me around and pressed herself onto me. I was just chilling outside for fresh air,”

“You’re kidding,”

“If I was I wouldn’t be here at all,”

“Have you confronted Sujin?”

“Kind of? If you count screaming at her and telling Intak about it as a confrontation, then yes,” Jay was fidgeting with his fingers, his eyes trained on the rink. “I think Intak broke it off with her after,”

“Deserved,” Heeseung mused, a small smile on his face, karma truly worked wonders. “Now that’s settled, what about Y/N? I still can’t believe you roped her into a fake dating scheme just for that event,”

“Alright, alright, I’ve done some dumb shit and this was one of them, I know,” Jay admitted, throwing his hands up in defeat. “And I know I’ve hurt her … a lot, that’s why I don’t know how I can ever face her again,”

“I don’t understand why you didn’t chase after her that night,”

“I admit I did pussy out a little—”

“‘A little’?”

“Shut up,” Jay narrowed his eyes at his captain, who stared back, equally unamused. “I thought letting her go was the best choice, I was scared of hurting her more,”

Heeseung’s gaze softened, remaining quiet as he listened to his best friend opening up. Heeseung had these types of deep talk with Jay many times before, but this time, it was different. Being the one who stuck alongside Jay since his first breakup to now, he was the clearest when it came to Jay and his feelings. Over the years of witnessing Jay and his casual one nights, Heeseung expected it to last until the very day Jay retires from hockey, but your sole existence proved him wrong, and it definitely proved Jay wrong as well.

“Jay, do you like her?” Heeseung said after a while, catching the latter off guard.

“I–I–” Jay stammered, his body rigid and thoughts were circling in his mind. He didn’t just like you, he knows he’s fallen for you, you were the first girl to ever caught his eyes way before he even got to talk to you.

He remembered it clearly, you were the one who called hockey stupid in front of his face, oblivious to the fact that he played the sport. He was injured at that time, sitting in the stands and watching his team play when he heard your voice complaining, your then boyfriend next to you. Offended Jay was once he heard the insult, though he was fascinated by you, but it was just his fuckboy side talking and he ended up staying silent instead.

Next thing he knew, he was all recovered and you were in the crowd, your face blank, the seat next to you was empty. Jay assumed it was a break up, something in him was giddy and he went on to score a hat trick that night. After all that, people might assume he would’ve gotten your number already, right? Nope. He never had the guts to and you stopped coming to games, only appearing once in a few months, until that fateful night at the beach.

“I do like her, fuck,” Jay threw his head back, leaning into the seat and his hands on his face, swallowing deeply as if he was in trouble, maybe because he was. How was he going to tell you he liked you and confront you about that night? There were two big stones thrown at his head. "I like her so much till the point where I think the amount of denial I had is turning into delusions instead,"

"So, you've reached insanity, got it,"

"God, I haven't been romantically in love with many girls before, but I'm pretty sure this is what being in love feels like, right … ?"

Heeseung stared at Jay's pathetic expression, sighing deeply, clapping his back. "It's different for everyone but I can guarantee that you're on the right track, buddy,"

"Okay," Jay said breathlessly and nodded blankly, seeming as though he had just freshly figured out his feelings, putting the missing pieces into his puzzle. "Got it, but how do I apologise to her now?"

"What do you mean? Just go up to her and talk, say sorry and explain,"

"I feel like that's not enough,"

A sudden spark alighted in Heeseung's eyes, a shiver equally went down Jay's spine when he witnessed that before him. Lee Heeseung and his ideas were a mix of trouble and sometimes success, mainly trouble. “You know, Sunghoon pitched this idea to me yesterday, he said something about this is how you get the girl,”

The mention of Sunghoon's name and his idea didn't help at all.

“Write her an apology on our jumbotron,”

“You're insane,”

“And we happen to have access to it,”

“... tell me more.”

YOU WERE REGRETTING YOUR CHOICE OF AGREEING TO HEESEUNG AND SUNGHOON’S INVITE.

Hockey games were never up your alley, they knew that, but somehow they still managed to pull you into attending their game, even after what had happened. They did offer to bring you out for a luxurious buffet and you guessed it was their way of an apology, not passing up on it either.

“This better be worth it,” you grumbled under your breath, settling into your seat, glancing down at the rink, making it a strenuous effort to not stare at him. Ladies, do not chase, attract. You were not about to go running after Jay, nope, never.

No matter how hard you tried suppressing the thought of Jay, it lingered nevertheless. You wondered when he would talk to you again, or if he ever would, and being the most stubborn person you were, you weren’t going to confront him despite the need of an explanation clawing at your deepest desires.

The first and second period rolled by mindlessly and you were starting to be at your wits end, reminding you why you barely ever attend hockey games after your ex, but at least the home team was leading. The third period was slightly more thrilling thanks to the small fight between two players, enraging you and the crowd, but once the puck landed on Jay’s end of the stick, everyone was on their feet, watching him zoom past the defensemen.

Without saying, Jay scored the game’s winning goal, the crowd going wild. You couldn’t help smiling, the whole team engulfed him wholly, making you let out a small giggle, and you had to admit, times like this where teams win crucial games do make you happy. Meanwhile, what you hadn’t noticed was the fact that Jay was glancing up at the crowd, his eyes searching for your figure.

On the other hand, what you did notice was the jumbotron. A video of Jay doing his celebration flashed big on the screen, a giant ‘GOAL’ next to his head, but there was another line of words under that caught your attention at once, knowing it was directed at you. ‘I’m sorry and I miss you. I’ll wait for you, even if it’s a lifetime. Please come back to me.’ Totally not heartbreaking and gut wrenching for you!

Screw being a cold hearted girl boss, all you wanted was to run back to him.

Slinging your bag onto your shoulder, your mind was in a mess as you made your way out, squeezing past people and mumbling apologies in return. You mentally made a list of things you were going to do. First, run back to the dorms. Second, cry. Third, figure shit out. Just to make matters messier, your journey out wasn’t the smoothest, especially when you had to bump into Jay’s dumpster ex. What great timing this was.

“Y/N?” Sujin was shocked to see you, but you were clearly unimpressed.

“You still have the guts to turn up in front of me? In here? In a school you don’t go to?”

“I–I just wanted to talk to you,”

“Me? What’s there to say?” you crossed your arms, staring expectantly at her.

“Look, Jay didn’t kiss me, I kissed Jay, you get it?”

You blinked. Were you supposed to get it? As much as you wished you didn’t, you did, and your mind turned into a worse state of mush. God rest your soul, you were about to pull someone’s hair out.

“What?” you exclaimed incredulously, furiousness crawling into your system. “So, you’re telling me you basically threw yourself onto him?”

“I suppose?”

“Wow, you really are a freaky ex, not freaky in a good way either,” you gestured at Sujin, a sick feeling in your stomach. It was never Jay’s fault, but his dumpster ex, and maybe all along he was trying to explain his side, yet you didn’t listen. Now, you felt like an idiot and an asshole. “You can stay in the dumpster and never return. You’re sick and twisted and I hope you’ll never turn up and harass Jay ever again, you got it? Or else I’ll curse you into being single forever,”

“I—”

You didn’t let her finish, you couldn’t bother to do so, instead you turned away, speed walking towards the locker rooms that unknowingly became yours and Jay’s meeting spot. Heart beating quick, your feet stumbling from walking too fast, your breath heaving, you were getting anxious. By the time you were standing in front of the locker room, sweat was trickling down the side of your face, whether it was from pure anxiety or just walking, you didn’t know. All you knew was that you needed to talk to Jay.

“Y/N, what brings you here?” Heeseung had his hands in his pockets, headphones around his neck, looking fresh off the shower as he greeted you. “I know Sunghoon and I invited you for dinner but I don’t think it’s tonight—”

“Where’s Jay?”

“Jay?” Heeseung repeated, he didn’t seem like he was believing what he had heard. You resisted the urge to roll your eyes to the back of your head.

“Are there other ‘Jay's' that you know?”

“Uh—no,” Heeseung stammered, shaking his head as if he’s trying to shake his dizziness away. “Jay left already, Y/N,”

“Oh,” it was obvious how deflated you became, the drop in your voice and disappointment written all over your face. Heeseung gave you an apologetic smile, but you could only manage a small wave of goodbye and a quiet bid of goodnight before turning back to the original path to the exit.

To say you felt frustrated, embarrassed, sad was an understatement, those words would never amount to the real emotions you were feeling. You were a mess, your love life was in a big distress and practically crumbling apart. The walk home couldn’t be more depressing than usual, can’t it?

Taylor Swift playlists to sob to, a tub of strawberry ice cream, a random rom com were all going to be your biggest hug of the night.

“GODS, THIS IS MISERABLE,”

A tub of half eaten ice cream sat sadly on your bedside table, a 90s romcom remained playing in the background. You couldn’t help frowning at the sight of the two leads falling in love, everything felt pathetic at this point.

You truly did stick to your words. Arriving back to an empty dorm room, courtesy to Minji for staying over at her boyfriend’s place, you practically had the whole dorm to yourself, meaning a space of free self loathing, you ran to your bed and plummeted into it. It took everything in you to not let out a blood curdling scream, instead you just took your laptop out and put on your favourite movie.

It was still early, midnight was barely approaching, so you were glad to be able to stay awake longer. It began raining heavily outside, a perfect sign for you to be in your sheets, reading your unfinished book that you’ve left hanging since months back. The whole scene of you being in bed on a rainy Friday night truly reflected a part from a romcom, how ironic it was.

In the midst of ‘16 Candles’ playing loudly on your laptop, the doorbell rang out of the blue. You froze, pausing the movie, slight paranoia creeping onto you. Right, being alone in an empty dorm room with a thunderstorm happening outside definitely wasn’t a common plot from horror. At first, you planned to ignore it, but a second ring prompted you to muster your courage to open the door.

‘I’m going to be fine’ chants were circling your mind as you approached the front door, one hand on the door knob, eyes glancing back and forth at the kitchen knife, you weren’t going down without a fight. A turn of the door knob and a pull of hand, the door swung open to a man. Wait. Not just any man—

“Jay?”

His name naturally rolled off your tongue, but your eyes couldn’t believe he’s actually standing right in front of you.

Jay stared back, equally startled, as though he hadn’t expected you to open the door for him. He was standing there like a ghost, fully drenched from head to toe, shaking from the rain. His face was impassive, but his gaze showed otherwise, a hint of sadness and desperation painted in his brown irises.

“Are you insane?”

Jay glanced down at his attire that was basically soaked to the core, a small sigh escaping his lips. “We need to talk, Y/N,”

You nodded wordlessly, your eyes unknowingly avoiding his piercing gaze as you slowly backed away to the kitchen, grabbing a dry towel. “Here,” you handed Jay the towel, your hand shaking a little.

“Thanks. Can I—” he took a peek over your shoulder, “—come in?”

“I—yeah,” you were slightly alarmed, moving to the side for him to enter before shutting the door, making sure to draw in a big breath to calm your nerves.

“Y/N, please let me explain—”

“Jay, I’m really sorry—”

The two of you halted, realising that you’ve spoken in unison, the silence dawning on the both of you. Jay broke into an awkward smile and you felt yourself grinning just a little. Jay gestured at you to continue, so you did, letting out the things you’ve bottle in for days.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know what happened and I just jumped to conclusions, which was wrong for me to do but—” you swallowed, blinking hard, “—but it was heart wrenching for me to see you kissing someone else, especially when it’s your ex, and it’s stupid, it’s so stupid that I’m feeling this way when we’re not even a thing!”

“It’s not stupid, Y/N,”

“It is,”

“It’s not,” Jay repeated, taking a step closer, a look of pining in his eyes as he searched for yours. You didn’t realise how much you’ve truly missed him until you saw him close. “I never intended to kiss Sujin, you know? I went out because she called me saying she needed help, and she took the chance when I was confused to kiss me. I know I’ve asked for you to trust me before, but if you don’t, I’ll get it,”

“I do,” you said at once, eliciting a small look of surprise from him. “I spoke to her,”

“What?”

“She admitted it to me, and I wanted to find you after the game but you were already gone, then I realised how much of an Idiot I was,”

“Ah,” Jay said softly under his breath, combing his fingers through his hair, seemingly trying to digest everything in. The beat of silence was suffocating you gradually, uneasiness hung in the cold air of your dorm. It took you everything to pour the words you’ve been holding in your heart out.

“I trust you, I do, but what are we, Jay? What are we doing?” you breathed out, chewing anxiously on your bottom lip. “If you want to end it here, then say it—”

“We can be anything you want,”

“I want you, Jay,” you blurted out, it was too late to turn back and run now. “I don’t want you to need me, I want you to want me, just as much as I want you,”

Jay stepped closer, testing the waters between you and him before sensing the green light from you to continue further. Space was practically nonexistent, you were inches from him, letting his hand wander from your face to the back of your neck, naturally leaning into his warm touch that reminded you of the feeling of fire on a cold night. The hand resting on the back of your neck pulled you in closer, one wrong move and you would be kissing him.

“I do want you,” Jay said quietly, the minty scent laced in his breath entering your senses. “I like you, Y/N. There’s no doubt about that, I know it. I’m aware that this whole thing started out fake and I expected nothing from it, but when I realised I felt something more for you, I was scared you would leave, especially since I had a history of—”

“Being a fuckboy?”

Jay rolled his eyes, grinning at the unamused look on your face. “That. So I thought letting you go after that night was a good decision, that my feelings would eventually disappear and you wouldn’t be hurt anymore, but God, I ended up hurting you instead and you have no idea how I had lost my mind,”

“Jay…” you were quite literally speechless, his words didn’t just had to tongue tied and had rendered you wordless completely, it made your insides twist and turn in the most childish way, it made you feel like you were a teenage girl who had just talked to her crush for the first time, you were giddy.

“I choose you, my love. Any day, any time, anywhere. It’s always going to be you, only you,”

You were resisting the urge to break into the cheesiest smile ever, Park Jong Seong was about to be the death of you. “I like you too, big head. If you don’t kiss me now, I might change my mind,”

“You’re going to be the death of me,”

Jay finally closed the space between you and him, pressing his lips on yours feverishly, your honey flavoured melting onto his lips and his cologne swarmed your senses, this was heaven. His hand travelled back to rest on your cheek, while yours was having a field trip travelling up his chest and into his hair, giving a slight tug which resulted in a groan from him. You tilted your head, feeling Jay part his lips and deepening the kiss, his other hand on your waist to pull you much more closer, your body now pressed up against his.

“Y/N,” he mumbled against your lips as you gently pushed him towards your couch.

You hummed in response, feeling his body fall onto the couch with a thud and you followed suit, falling onto his lap, his arm wrapped tightly around your waist. You opened your eyes, pulling away to meet his heavy gaze that was staring back with equal desire.

“Be my girlfriend?” his voice came out in a whisper, but your ears perked up at those three words, a teasing grin pulled at your lips and your hand instinctively reached for his cheek to squeeze, earning a look of annoyance and endearment from him.

“Only if you take me out to dinner first, big head,”

“You’re such a tease,” he chuckled, pressing a haste kiss on the side of your lips and you giggled, brushing the strands of hair from his forehead.

“I’d be crazy to say ‘no’ after all this, you idiot,” you flicked at his forehead, eliciting a sharp hiss and a piercing glare from him, reminding you of a black cat. “So, yes, I’d like to be your girlfriend,”

You watched the man before you smiling wider than the time he won the championship with his team last season, his eyes shining bright and face beaming. Gosh, he was such a dream. One hand cupped your cheek, pinching it softly, “Don’t worry, I’ll treat you like my wife instead,”

You rolled your eyes at his words, deadpanning at him. “You’re too cheesy, Park Jong Seong,”

“And you love me for that.” he said in a sing-song tone before bringing you in for another kiss, this time softer and gentler, as if Jay was scared he would shatter you if he had kissed you too hard.

If you had the choice to stay just like this for the next few hours, you would gladly take it. You were relieved everything was well now, even if it meant Jay's wet pants were staining your couch, but you're sure Minji would understand.

Just as Taylor Swift would say, you believe you were entering your 'Lover' era, and you couldn't wait to be with your hotheaded hockey boyfriend. Yes, boyfriend, with no space.

“SO … YOU’RE TELLING ME YOU’VE ALWAYS BEEN INTO ME ALL ALONG?”

It has been a few months since you and Jay made it official together. To top off the unforgettable experience, Minji came home the next day to see you and him cuddling in bed, not missing the chance to get a picture and proceeding to give Jay a humble Ted Talk during breakfast, but it was all good after.

Jay did stick to your request and bring you out for dinner, but Heeseung and Sunghoon unintentionally beat him to it first by dragging you to the buffet they promised before Jay’s fancy dinner night, and he was forced to follow begrudgingly. Breaking the news to Heeseung and Sunghoon was definitely an interesting occurrence, including the usual bro talk and the crazy ship names, but in the end, they were glad you were finally together with Jay and was miles prouder of Jay for finally working up the courage to confess.

Now, here you were, on a Saturday night at Jay’s apartment enjoying a glass of wine, a random rom com in the background as promised of a marathon, and listening to your tipsy boyfriend spill about his first impression of you, which led to him unveiling the part where he laid eyes on you during the hockey game.

“Not always, don’t get ahead of yourself,” Jay cut you off, raising an eyebrow at you. "I still can't believe you called hockey stupid,"

"It was a moment of hatred, okay?" You tapped his chin, swirling the wine glass in your hand. "Now, I'm a big hockey fan,"

"You're stupid,"

You feigned a dramatic gasp, punching his shoulder softly. "You're stupid … stupid,"

"Yes, yes, I am," Jay eventually gave in, closing in and pressing his lips onto yours, tasting the familiar taste of the red wine on your tongue. "I'm so grateful to have you with me, lovely. What would I be doing without you?"

"Fucking other girls?"

"You've ruined the mood,"

You laughed, pressing a kiss on his cheek. "I'm kidding. You would be in a ditch without me,"

"You're not wrong," Jay's thumb was grazing against your lip, his eyes half-lidded, the alcohol in his system overpowering. "God, I love you,"

"I love you more, big head," you said, feeling a swarm of butterflies fluttering wildly in your abdomen. Jay was perfect, too perfect that it intimidated you, but what you didn't know was that he felt the same way about you too. "Are you turning red, Jong Seong?"

"What? Pft, it's the wine," he waved your words off, turning away to hide the obvious that he was becoming a shade of pink and maroon. You snorted at his ridiculousness, pushing his face to face back at you.

"Kiss me again?"

"You make me such a happy man, you know that?" Jay grinned, saying nothing more and pulled you in, abandoning his wine glass.

Jay couldn’t help but smile against your lips, being the happiest man in the entire universe at this moment, because he knew he finally got the girl, his girl, and there was no way he would ever lose you again. Never.

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enhypens-hoe · 2 months

Text

YOU’RE PATHETIC ⛪️ - teaser!!!

⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡𐙚 summary: Jay and you go to the same church school. He and his friends make fun of you for actually following the rules. You think he hates you, but little do you know about his obsession.

pair: park jongseong x goody too shoes reader (fem reader)

warnings: nsfw, cursing, smut, bj, corruption kink, hard dom? jay, sub reader, talk about religion, masturbation (jay), jay and reader go to a church school, jay’s 20 and readers 19 turning 20. + more coming soon

p.s. in no way am I trying to mock anyones reilgion. I mean no harm this is all fiction and in creative fun. If you are not comfortable with this topic please do not read and look for something else.

series: 80’s love

There he was for the third time this week, fist pumping his cock with the swollen red tip sticking out. Moaning your name like it was some sort of ritual because he couldn’t stop thinking about you and your pigtails. Oh, how much he wants to tug on them and push you to your limit while fucking you hard. He really shouldn’t be doing this and if his parents found out he’d be in so much trouble but that doesn’t stop Jay. It didn’t stop him when he was 14 so why would he stop now at the age of 20.

“yea- oh f-fuckk” he grunts as white ropes spill out of him onto his hand. His breathing is unstable as he closes his eyes imagining how you’d clean him up so well. You’re so vulnerable and pure, that’s what Jay loves most about you. You’re always following your parent’s rules like a good Christian girl, but Jay always wonders if he could change that. Minutes pass by and you’re the only thing running through his mind.

He flinches when he hears the front door open letting him know his mom is back from the store. Jay groans wiping his hand with a napkin and yanking on the nearest pair of sweats before running to go wash his hands. He runs downstairs taking the bags from his mom’s hands setting the bags on the kitchen counter and taking out the groceries.

“Thank you. Oh, guess what that girl.. the one with the pigtails. We saw her and her family at church on Monday. I saw her at the store today and she helped me carry my bags to my car. She’s cute and seems like a good girl… hmm?” Jays head rises suddenly not interested in what his mom bought.

“Oh, ___?” his mom snaps pointing at him meaning he guessed right. “She’s annoying and such a crybaby. I’m not even worried about girls right now mom.” He hates how nervous he gets talking about you. The more he tries to conceal his feelings the more they pour out. His mom just laughs putting some groceries in the fridge. “Hey! Be nice.”

She looks up at him her look suddenly showing some disappointment. “I thought I told you not to skip church school yesterday. -” I know I’ll go tomorrow, Mom. “Park Jongseong I’m serious. You’re a Christian man you need to continue on the right path. You’re a good kid you always have been.” Jay just looks away and nods not wanting to argue with his mom. His mom is trying to study his expression wondering whether to drop the conversation or not.

She sighs before speaking again. “Well, go upstairs and shower then come help me cook and set the table.” his mom softly tells him rubbing his shoulder. Jay listens dragging his feet across the floor and up the stairs.

Your white sneakers hit the floor as you walk in the halls, skirt slightly swaying. Books pressed up against your chest like someone will steal them. Your friend throws her arm around your shoulder, and you flinch looking up before smiling. You guys walk to your locker telling her updates on your new pet bunny.

And well Jay watches you from across the hallway…

jazi’s note: this teaser is ass but I wanted to put this out because im almost done with Jay’s oneshot. I’m not sure If I will include this first “scene” in the actual one shot because it will be a little longer than I wanted. If you guys want me to keep it in lmk. love you guys hope you enjoy the oneshot when i put it out💗

taglist: n/a (open)

@enhypens-hoe 2024 - do not steal, copy or translate.

#enhypen #jay enhypen #kpop smut #park jongseong #park jay enhypen #jay enha #jay smut #jay x reader #park jay x reader #park jay fluff #enhypen x reader #enhypen imagines #enha #enhypen jay

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talaok · 2 years

Note

Hey! Can you do one of Joe where he and the reader are shooting a movie together and they have to shoot a sex scene and they both end up horny? thankss

Pairing: Joseph Quinn x fem!reader

summary: Today's the day you have to shoot the infamous sex scene with your least favorite co-star, Joseph Quinn. And, even if you certainly didn't expect it, you find yourself confusingly turned on by it.

warnings: SMUT: unprotected sex

a/n: Sooo... I tried something here and it's probably not what you had in mind when you requested this, but I was tired of making the reader a simp, so.. here we are. I hope you'll still like it

THE PROPOSAL

You were so bored you thought you were gonna die. Today was the day. The set was closed. The unnecessary staff was sent home and you were in your trailer, wearing a rope with just underwear underneath, waiting for someone to call you and tell you it was time. You had to film the sex scene today. The director had been talking about it for weeks and so had your co-starts. You hated all the fuss around it. It was just pretend-sex, most of the time it was even fun. That was, of course, when the other actor wasn't a total creep, like the time you worked with James Franco and he kept touching you even when the cameras weren't rolling, or, when you didn't despise your colleague, just like this time, unfortunately for you. It's not that you hated Joseph Quinn entirely, it was just that he was so.... much. Like, he always had something to say or do and he was constantly joking or fidgeting and just being so annoyingly exuberant that you sometimes dreamed about taking his head in your hands and screaming at him to calm the fuck down. Ok, maybe you did hate him, but you sure as hell had your reasons, and it's not as if he liked you lots either. It was a miracle you two still hadn't torn the skin off of each other. from the moment you met at the table read, it was clear you couldn't stand each other, so you started avoiding him, as he did the same. You thought of yourself as a professional, and being one, you always treated him with respect when you shot together, smiling politely and pretending to not wanna roll your eyes at everything he said. A dream colleague, as to say. him, on the other hand, obviously wasn't a professional as much as you, since he definitely didn't hold back on eye rolls or snarky comments. but it was fine, you could look past that, you were an actor after all, and acting like you didn't want to punch him was a fairly easy job. The problem now was that today, you had to do a lot more than say a few lines to each other, Oh no. you had to pretend to have passionate and loving sex with him. Wich was a tiny bit diffrent. You had no idea how you were gonna do it. Being a good actress was something, but this... you needed to be Maryl Streep kinda good to do this. But there was nothing to do. you had tried talking to the director, telling him that perhaps the scene wasn't necessary, or that maybe it could have been done in a different way, without you in it, for example, but it hadn't worked, and so now, there you were. "Y/N, it's time" your assistant stated, as she opened your trailer's door. You took a deep breath "let's do this".

"there she is" Joseph said as you stepped on set "late as always" he whispered to you as you got next to him. You exhaled through your nose, already annoyed "Hi to you too" you said, giving him the fakest of smiles. You looked around. It was a nice set, It was supposed to be His character's (Adrian) bedroom. It looked like the inside of one of those little houses you find in villages in the mountains. The walls and roof were all wood, or at least, made to look like it. In the middle of the room was a huge bed with two wooden bedside tables on each side and there were about 10 candles lit all over the place, giving it a really romantic atmosphere "Ok guys, you know how this works" The director, Mark, said, stepping closer to the two of you. "There isn't a script for this scene because I want it to be as raw and real as possible. the only thing you have to remember is that you both love each other immensely" he explained enthusiastically. "Adrian just saved your life Maya!" he exclaimed, using your character's name. "And now, finally, you get to be with the man you love, and you, Adrian" he turned to Joseph " finally get to be with the woman you have longed and fought for so long" he said, obviously very into the narrative. "So I wanna see the passion, ok guys?" Mark asked. You and joseph turned to each other and raised your eyebrows "Of course" you answered in sync.

You took off your robe and placed it on your chair while also taking off your slippers. You took a deep breath and turned around, starting to walk towards the bed, but just as you did, you heard a stroked sound coming from your left. You frowned and turned around, just in time to catch Joseph's eyes scanning your whole body while his mouth opened slightly as he swallowed thickly, clearly hypnotized by your figure. You smiled to yourself, proud of the reaction you had caused, and pretended not to have noticed him, continuing to the bed. You got underneath the covers and set up against the headboard, waiting for him. He was talking to someone, probably his assistant and as she walked away he took off his robe and placed it on his chair, just like you had. You held your breath and bit your lower lip as your eyes took him in. How had you never noticed how fit he is? His arms were strong and his chest was big and muscular. He looked...hot. Wow, you would have never imagined finding someone you hated so much that attractive. But there you were, in complete awe of him. Your eyes traveled up his body once again, this time finding his. Oh no, you thought as you felt your cheeks redden. He smirked smugly and raised an eyebrow, walking towards you. "See something you like?" "Oh please, you wish" you lied, as he got in the bed. You were side by side, looking at each other, trying to get in character when Mark yelled action. You didn't have time to even process that before Joseph crashed his lips with yours in a passionate and rough kiss. It took you a second, but you started to reciprocate, granting his tongue access to your mouth, and pulling him closer by the back of his head. You moaned softly into his mouth and he put his hand behind your back and let it roam free. You whimpered at his touch, and as much as you would have liked to pretend you were reacting in character, that was all you. His hand traveled up to the back of your head and he took a fist of your hair, pushing your face against his. God, who knew he had it in him? Without warning and without breaking the kiss he got on top of you. "You're so beautiful" he murmured against your lips. You felt butterflies in your stomach and you swallowed thickly. God, get it together Y/N! You smiled at the compliment and intertwined your arms behind his neck, pulling him in for another kiss. He broke the kiss, his breathing ragged, and pretended to position himself at your entrance. He moved some hair away from your face with a gentle caress and smiled genuinely. "I love you" he whispered. You looked up at him with heart eyes(You deserved an oscar after this) and whispered "God, I love you too Adrian", right before he pretended to push into you delicately. You moaned and started to move with him, simulating the act, making your tits bounce with each movement. You opened your eyes to look at him and saw how, just for a moment he broke the character, remaining amazed by the beautiful sound you'd just made. You internally grinned proudly, as you produced another moan, this time louder. "Oh, Adrian" you cried out, throwing your head back against the pillow and digging your nails into his back. You could see in his eyes how hard he was trying to concentrate, and you couldn't be happier about how hard you were making it for him. His eyes kept shifting from your breasts to your filthy mouth and he felt like if it weren't for the cameras pointed at him, he would have cummed there and then, and he hated himself for it. What was he, 13? But you were just too hot, there, moaning underneath him, biting your lip in ecstasy and shutting your eyes close from the pleasure. If this is what you looked like when you pretended to have sex, he couldn't imagine what you were like when you did it for real. You moaned again, this time even louder and he snapped out of his thoughts. Right, there was a scene to shoot. "God,Maya" he growled, sending a shiver down your spine. He sounded so sexy. he took your hands in his, pushing them against the mattress, and you couldn't help but wish for a moment that this was really happening, and that you weren't just shooting a corny sex scene. "cut!" Joseph didn't move. He looked at you and bit his lip, he opened his mouth to say something but closed it immediately again. You could see confusion across his eyes. You looked at him with the same stupor and swallowed nervously. "he said cut" "oh yeah, sorry" he said, clearing his trough and getting off of you. What just happened?

"hi" joseph said as he entered your trailer. Oh no, not again. You had just finished shooting the scene and it had been confusingly both the worst and the best thing ever. You needed to get away from him to get a clear head. I mean, it was impossible that you actually fancied him, right? you hated him. You hated him, you really did, but that, unfortunately, didn't exclude the fact that you still wanted to fuck him. Oh god, this was terrible. "Joe, listen I need to go home, so whether this is, can it wait till tomorrow morning?" you asked, getting up from your chair and taking your bag to show him you were being serious. " I just wanted to talk" "about what?" you asked annoyed "about before" You swallowed thickly "there's nothing to talk about" you stated, feigning confidence. "Oh, come on, don't pull that bullshit with me Y/N, I know you felt it too" he said, irritated. "What are you talking about Quinn?" you lied "Listen," he said, coming to stand in front of you" I'm not here to declare my love or any of that bullshit, all right?" You rolled your eyes, there was no point in faking naivete, he obviously had figured you out. "I have a proposal" he bit down a smirk. God, he was so hot and so punchable at the same time. "You let me fuck you this one time, so we can get it out of our systems, and then we can forget about it and go back to hating each other" You chuckled "You're kidding right?" "C'mon, I know you want it Y/N, don't play dumb now" he said irritated, as he brought his right hand up behind your neck. "just once" he placed his other hand on your waist " and then we'll pretend it never happened" he whispered against your neck. His hot breath sent tingles all over your body. You never had much willpower anyway. "Whatever Quinn" you mumbled as you let your bag fall to the ground and grabbed his face, kissing him roughly, your hands grabbing his hair and without doubt messing them up as he gripped your neck and forced his tongue into your mouth, all while stumbling towards the make-up table. You stopped once the back of your legs hit it and without breaking the kiss he leaned down and pushed everything that was on it onto the ground. You gasped, most of that stuff was really expensive. "get on there" he growled, and you did as told. He smirked and opened his mouth but you cut him off before he could say something stupid "Don't even start, I'm just horny" you breathed out."He laughed softly "Well, then that makes two of us sweetheart" he whispered before going back to kissing you. He was in between your legs and you could already feel his erection through trough his pants, so you started grinding against it, desperate for any kind of friction. The bastard grinned at your impatience and abruptly pushed your dress up, starting to caress and squeeze your ass, making you whimper into his mouth. You desperately started to tug at his belt, trying to get it off him. "I knew I was right" he smirked proudly and you rolled your eyes, taking the opportunity to catch your breath. "Shut up and fuck me" you exhaled as you put your hand behind his neck and pulled him down for a desperate kiss. "gladly" he purred as he undid his belt swiftly and pulled down his boxers and pants. He kissed you again, briefly before he moved your panties to the side and pushed into you completely, earning a clamorous moan from you. He smirked and, without even giving you the time to adjust started pounding into you aggressively, making the whole table shake. Everything he hadn't thrown off of it before was now falling on the ground, and probably you would have hated yourself for it tomorrow, but that was a future you problem, present you, was getting fucked out of her mind and had other things to think about. "Lemme see your tits" he said as he grabbed the top of your dress and pushed it downwards, revealing your breasts. He groaned "Fuck yeah", as he continued thrusting into you. "Oh my fucking god Joe!" you shouted as he leaned down to take your right tit into his mouth, and started sucking on it. He took your nipple into his mouth and softly bit it, as his left hand made its way to your clit and started massaging it. You were moaning so loud you were certain people outside could hear, but who cared. "Oh god, please Joe" you cried out as he kept sucking, thrusting, and massaging. This man obviously knew what he was doing. "I-I-I'm gonna cum" you moaned as he let your breast go from his mouth, spread your legs more, and pounded into you even harder, smugly looking straight at you, making your eyes roll in the back of your head. "That's right, cum on my cock Y/N, make me feel how good you can squeeze me" he groaned. "Oh fu-fuck" you stuttered as he sped up his hand's movements. You felt a familiar pressure form your lower belly. He groaned at the feeling "Oh fuck you feel so f-ucking good" he hissed, clearly close too. You were getting closer and closer. "Cum for me baby" he grunted. and you did, a wave of pleasure overwhelmed you as you threw your head back and your eyes fluttered shut while you shouted his name. Joseph groaned loudly at the feeling of your walls tightening around him. "Shit Y/N" he whispered, as he continued pushing into you, making you ride out your high. Just as you came down from it his thrust became sloppy, he was about to come. "O-Oh,f-fuck" he groaned as he pulled out of you at the last second and his cum shot onto your belly and dress. That was gonna be hard to clean. He exhaled deeply and put his head on your shoulder. You stayed there for a few moments. Just silently catching your breath and taking in all that had just happened. He chuckled "that was fun" "it was" you agreed He pushed himself off of you and pulled his pants and boxers up. "I still don't like you" you reminded him. "Oh, don't worry. The feeling's mutual" he grinned.

#joseph quinn #joseph quinn x reader #joseph quinn smut #joseph quinn stranger things #joseph quinn x fem!reader #joseph quinn x y/n #stranger things #stranger things x reader #starnger things #Smut #joseph quinn fic #request

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pandorxxx · 7 months

Text

Kinktober

DAY 1 (Hand job) - Lo’ak

All characters are aged up

Warnings: cursing, intense orgasm, lo’ak crying/whining, dom-reader, subby-Lo’ak

MDNI

You two were watching a movie on the couch. One that he seemed to really enjoy. You on the other hand, couldn’t care fucking less about this movie. You were too busy staring at him. The glow from the TV hitting his sexy ass just right. It had you ready to get on your knees for him, to please him…in any way possible.

“Lo’ak?” You asked, voice full of lust. You eyed him up and down, titling your head when your glance made its way to his loincloth.

“Wassup, baby?” He spoke in monotone, eyes still glued to the fucking tv. Almost as if he didn’t care that you were sitting next to him. As if he wouldn’t even notice if you got up and went to bed.

“I’m bored….and horny.” You confessed loosely, shrugging your shoulders. He snickered at you, eyes still on the tv. “When are you NOT horny?” He began, causing you to smack your lips and roll your eyes.

“And how are you bored? It’s the TRANSFORMERS baby.” He smiled, not once turning to look at you.

“Not too much worried about that transformer….” You began, you dainty hand finding its way to lo’aks loincloth, massaging him through it. He sucked in a sharp breath, readjusting his hips to feel alittle more friction.

“Im more so worried about THIS transformer.” You finished, kicking your leg over to straddle his lap. You wasted no time; pushing his loincloth to the side to set his cock free. It began to rise right before you, meeting his stomach with a loud and heavy smack.

“That’s what I’m talkin about.” You smiled, gripping his cock firmly. He let out a low moan, throwing his head back against the couch.

“C-Come onnn- mmm!- thought we were watchin the movie?” He whined, your hand pumping his raging cock at a steady pace.

“Yeah yeah. You wanna do the honors, or should I?” You asked, leaning over his limp head to engage in serious eye contact. You planted a small kiss on his lips, still going to work on his cock.

“You…please, baby.” He pleaded. You smiled, both of you watching the show between you. You gathered a good amount of spit, hollowing your cheeks before sticking your tongue out seductively. You both watched as your clear saliva cascaded down to his tip, flowing down his entire shaft. Then you began to pump again. Twisting firmly around the tip before slowly stroking him up and down.

“Ahh-ha- ohh fuuck.” He moaned, eyes rolling in pleasure as a delirious smile crept across his lips. “You like that, lo’ak?” You teased, speeding up the pace.

“Mhmmm…spit on it again. I-I need it.” He nodded, watching the scene below with his lip between his teeth. You obliged, spitting on his cock again before pumping him hard and fast.

“Fuuuck yes!” He groaned, his head falling back slowly against the couch again.

“Gonna cum, baby?” You whispered in his ear, before attacking his neck with sloppy kisses. He nodded, a small pout forming on his lips. His eyes were watering, and the whining began. “I-It’s coming, y/n.” He muttered in between shaky breaths.

“Let it come, lo’ak. Don’t be shy.” You whispered in his ear again before pulling back, jerking him off with the intention to make him blow. His eyes crossed, mouth agape and small grunts leaving his throat. His voice began to ripple from the forceful handjob.

“Ohh that’s it, lo’ak. That’s it!” You praised, kissing his bottom lip numerous times, sending him spiraling. “Shiiiiit, I-Im cumming-I…” he started before his orgasm took over his entire being.

His whole body seizing underneath you while you continued to send small, teasing little pecks to his lips. Shortly after, ropes and ropes of cum found their way to his and your lower abdomen.

“Mhmm.” Lo’ak hummed, heavy breaths escaping his nose while he calmed down from his high. You quickly shifted to your knees, licking his shaft and lower abdomen clean.

“Damnn, are we still doing the movie or no?” He joked, still out of breath and sweating from your little performance.

“Fuck that movie. I got something better you can do…” you muttered in between kitten licks to his tip.

“Yeah? Like what?” He asked, nothing but lust behind those eyes as he watched you. You looked at him before speaking.

“Me…”

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guyfieriii · 11 months

Text

Get Us Strung

We're back to our regularly scheduled programming with another angst-y piece. Inspired by the song Dirty Love by Mt. Joy comes the tale of John Price and his best friend. My apologies if it seems a bit disconnected, it was originally much larger but I decided to scrap a lot of it (See? I can be nice sometimes.), but I tried my best. Also, this was edited on pure audaciousness, a bottle of wine, and a pitcher of margaritas. Do with that what you will.

Lastly, the biggest thank you to @mvtthewmurdvck for once again tolerating me bombarding her with snippets galore and supporting me as she always does.

(Can we consider this as a somewhat happy ending? My original one was A LOT worse.)

Pairing: John Price x f!Reader Warnings: Explicit Sexual Scenes and a gallon of pain :)

Nostalgia is a cruel consonance of sentimentality and longing. A honeyed trap you could easily get caught in if you aren’t careful.

You weren’t.

All it took was one precarious step forth into its birdlime confines and you’re stuck, forever adhered to moments gone by. Try as you might to break free, to rid yourself of the persistent fog that looms and live in the present — you’re simply unable. The struggle of it brands ropes into your skin. A chemical burn that scabs eventually, but it leaves you debilitated of every ounce of strength you have to leave.

With time, you make do.

You adjust to the circumstances you’ve found yourself in. It’s easy enough — to simply give in. It’s like the call of a warm bed on a cold winter morning. The arms of a man you love held open in an invitation. It’s the perfect balm to your stinging disappointments and embittered thoughts.

Witness, reminisce — rinse and repeat.

A moment here. An admission of love there, just not the right kind. Not enough to keep you satisfied, just enough you keep you—

There. Still. Stuck in time. Recycling the same out-of-date echoes through your trench of despondency till they fossilize.

It’s his eyes that do you in, really. Lapis set in moonstone white reminding you of the ebb and flow of deep ocean currents that gently coax you inwards to drift among the waves.

They were the first thing you noticed about him.

A skinny kneed boy of eleven, head full of bistre-brown hair, and the bluest eyes you ever saw that suddenly wanted to be your friend. He was loud and brutish in contrast with your more reluctant and constrained demeanour and yet—

He was your best friend. Your first. Your only.

Is your best friend.

Five years later, he left to join the infantry.

He departed, eager to prove his worth. While you stayed back with a poor facsimile of a supportive smile as he promised his eventual return.

I’ll be back on leave before you know it.

But—

I’ll be back.

And I’ll be here.

You clung to him when he told you he was enlisting, fingers curling into the sleeves his Fleetwood Mac t-shirt — a gift from you for his fifteenth. He’d asked if you wanted to keep it, as a reminder of him.

Wouldn’t need to if you just stayed, Johnny.

In the fortnight leading up to his departure, you prayed for a last-minute change of his mind. Maybe the realization that he couldn’t stay without you would finally come to the surface.

It had to. Eventually.

You couldn’t bear the thought of walking up the morning after he left, just missing a part of you. Feeling a crater right in the middle of your chest grow wider and deeper as the distance between you and him extended.

But as the days counted down, his excitement grew nearly as fast as your despair.

It began with you pulling out all the stops, reminding him of the comforts of home, of you. To him, it was only the perfect gift farewell.

It wasn’t until just the day before that you decided to take the cheap shot and just beg.

Don’t leave. Just— please just stay, okay? You don’t have to go. You don’t have to leave me— please, Johnny. I can’t—

He stood at an arm’s length and listened to you in silence, watched you scrounge every ounce of emotional ammunition you could, until your voice ran hoarse, and your tears ran dry.

The pained expression that your outburst gradually chiseled onto his face left you shamelessly hopeful, and you took a step forward to close the distance between you and him.

He wordlessly took a step back.

The time slowed, and the seconds hemorrhaged until he finally spoke.

All he responded with was—

I have to.

You saw him standing out on my pavement by your house the next morning, walking across the same yard over and over. He’d glance upward at your window every now and then in such excruciating hope that you might grace him with something as simple as a wave goodbye.

But you didn’t. You simply stood there, watching from the shadows, trying to find some relief in tears shed, but you came up dry.

And he left.

When he returned, he came as Private Johnathan Price.

Nearly half a foot taller since you saw him last. Mostly the same in disposition if only a bit more self-assured.

In the 18 months of his absence, all you had was a shoebox full of unopened letters and that chasm left behind that grew deeper, still. Every week, unquestioningly, there’d be an envelope addressed to you. And every week, you’d hold it with measured trepidation and excitement. The first one brought you relief to know that you hadn’t lost him in your near ruinous parting of ways. But as you felt the weight of it in your hands, your fingers prudently tracing the ink, you couldn’t bring yourself to read what lay inside. It felt it would be ripping the bandaging off of a wound that had barely begun to heal.

So, you kept it aside.

18 months. 72 weeks. Every corresponding letter that followed underwent the same approach. You held them, appreciated them for their infallible arrival, and locked them away with repentance as the pile grew.

The letter that followed, came hand-delivered.

“You could have written back at least once, y’know.” He says with a smile.

“I’m—”

Sorry, Johnny. Forgive me. Forgive me. Please—

Your ensuing apology dies at your lips, and you nearly suffocate under the weight of it until—

“It’s okay.” He promises.

“It’s not.” You assert back.

His gaze softens and he tries again. “Hurt ya when I left, didn’t I?”

“You did.”

“So, it’s okay.”

He means to placate. You know this and an infinitesimal part of you appreciates it. But what takes more prominence is one blazing question left behind.

It blisters and leaves behind the blackened soot of your unmatched expectations. A skeletal impression of his well intended albeit anticlimactic confession.

All you’re left wondering is—

Why didn’t it hurt you to leave me, too?

You met him in London to celebrate your collective 21st birthdays some time halfway in between them.

It took some coordination, between your school and his training in Sandhurst. He never told you — said he wanted to keep you detached from that part of his life.

How’re the— I don’t know what to ask, John. You never tell me anything.

I tell you plenty.

He does well— his mother informed you as much. But the details remained vacant. You try to fill in the blanks, hazard a guess — a poor approximation of the real thing, you’re certain.

It wasn’t something you liked, but never fought him on it. It felt as though your paths diverged at too steep of an angle and you were the only one trying to get them to realign. He seemed content in this compartmentalization, while you worried your margin in it would grow smaller still.

The disconnect it created left you unsettled. Like a trail down the woods that suddenly ends midway. You’re disoriented and unanchored, forever caught in an abridged narrative with his part missing.

But you couldn’t keep waiting around—

Something you tell yourself to make it better.

“Didn’t bring him with you, then?” He slides a glass of ale across the table to you, the bottom of it catching on the adherent buildup of many a spilled drink, causing the foam at the top to dribble over.

“You asked me not to, John.” You mutter, indignant.

You wouldn’t have asked to begin with, but for appearances sake—

“Didn’t want to have to share you with some other bloke, is all.” His self-satisfied grin tells you he sees right through it.

The implications that simmered beneath that statement cut through you instantly.

He didn’t want to have to share.

What would happen if you told him that it was never even brought to question? That you were his, and his alone.

Would he make it come true?

Would he—

“I’d like for you to meet him eventually, y’know.” You opted for a safer route. Something more dependable. Everything John isn’t.

That’s a lie. He’s nothing but.

“If he stays around long enough.”

“Johnny.” You snap, irritably.

“Been a while since you called me that.” He murmurs, his grin slipping into something less presumptuous and more unshielded. Vulnerable.

“We’re not kids anymore.” You turn your gaze downward, nails digging into the chipping laminate on the cheap bar top until he flicks the side of your palm to make you stop.

“No, we’re not.” It’s his tone that makes you look back up— hinting at some kind of unspoken understanding that you recognize right away.

Let’s not pretend, then.

It’s in the dimming obscurity of alcohol when it finally happens. With your dress hiked up over the curve of your ass, and panties pulled to the side — he fucked you in a rush, outside in the cold fall air. The grain of the brick wall scratched your cheek with every thrust he buried himself in you. His ale-laden breath at the cusp of your ear, his hands cupping your breasts, squeezing — they were your only source of warmth.

“Fuckin’ hell, I’ve wanted to—” He confessed.

“So have I, Johnny.” You matched his revelation with your own.

But this wasn’t how it was supposed to—

You’ll take what you’re given. Even if it’s just this once, just tonight. A fleeting taste is better than the fantasy of him you’ve held on to.

He’s better than what you’ve had in the past. Better than what you’d thought he’d be like.

Or maybe, it’s just how well knows you.

He knows how deep you need to feel him, no matter if it hurts just a little. It’s the kind of hurt you enjoy.

How many women have you been with, John?

Does it matter?

Yes. No. Maybe?

It was you that crossed the line. A temerarious lapse in judgment, a flick of a wrist that knocked down an already precipitous house of cards when suddenly your lips descend upon his. He tastes of stale beer and the cigarette you bummed off an old man at the pub. With a grunt of surprise, he reciprocates, his tongue invading past your lips.

In a flash of somewhat sloppy adjustment, your back remained firmly pressed against the brick wall of the side of the pub, while his hands to the side of you effectively cage you in.

It’s not soon after that he takes the reins.

His mouth is everywhere — your lips, glossing over your jaw to the underside while he firmly grasps a fistful of your hair at the root, tilting your face upwards. He lays siege to the delicate column of your neck, armed with a stinging bite and the consolatory swipe of his tongue after.

John. Johnny.

The straps of your top hang loosely off your shoulders as he pulls the front of it down haphazardly to latch on to your nipple. You helplessly mewl beneath him, fingers trembling as they undo the buckle of his belt.

“Tell me to stop, love. Tell me, or I’ll—” He groans. Your hands sink in past the zipper to palm his erection. Warm. Solid.

“Please, don't.” You sink to your knees with the excitement, the need to taste him chafing at your rib cage with every beat of your heart.

“Fuck— fuck, okay. Just slow down—”

“John. Please.”

“I’ll make it good, yeah? For you. I will.” He swears.

I know you will.

You moved to Liverpool a year later. Something about staying in Hereford without him just kept you trapped in a state of inertia. Spending your time waiting more than anything else. It was time to move on.

Or try to, at any rate.

Humble beginnings for you — a modest apartment, a job that paid the bills and nothing else.

You settled into a routine — oscillating between work, home, and bisected friendships that you formed.

It’s not the same. It’s not the same.

It’s hard not to hold him somewhat accountable for your perpetual state of futility. There’s an essence of banality that follows you wherever you go. A life lived in half measures, mediocre and prosaic. It isn’t fair, and yet—

Why couldn’t you just stay, John?

It’s usually at night when the bitter tendrils of your regret slink up your limbs, like stalks of Golden Pothos, that collect around neck and squeeze.

A fire that kindles all too easily.

Can you even call it your own, when it’s caused by the choices of another?

It’s when you think back to that night in London, the weight of his cock in the palm of your hand— the way his eyes pinched shut and his head tilted back as you attempted to take him all the way in.

“Where the fuck did you learn how to do that?” He’d asked in a choked groan.

Had the head of his cock not been pressed against the back of your throat you’d have answered with:

Upset you weren’t the one to teach me, aren’t you Johnny?

Whatever remnants of that night that weren’t washed away by the glassy comber of one drink too many, replayed themselves a hundred times over. Every reiteration leaves you breathless and wanting — the evidence of it clearly shining on the inside of your thighs and the tips of your fingers.

Until—

A knock.

“You moved.” His voice was weight down by many an unspoken accusation.

“I did.” There’s no point in an apology— he’s here now.

“You never said.” Anger. Hurt. Betrayal — all in coalescence that lacerates you so deeply, you might stain the walls blood red.

“I— Do you want to come in—?”

He walked across the threshold, brushing past your shoulder before you even finished inviting him in.

“You— it’s not much. I’ve only just—” You stumble your way through some kind of explanation as he sheds himself off his duffel and coat. Any reasoning you were able to muster trickles back down your throat as he makes himself comfortable on your sofa, the floral embellished cushion sinking under the weight of him like it’s his right to be.

“It’s nice.”

You’d have expected him to feel out of sorts in this new home of yours, but he finds his place in it so naturally it fucking stings.

It really could have been that easy— a life with him. It’s a dangerous thought experiment but you wonder if he also aches for that near miss of a surrogate life. A peripeteia of decisions that might have led you down a different path entirely.

“How long are you on leave this time?” It’s a jibe and he notices. There’s an unmistakable clench in his jaw, a steely look set in his eyes at your question like he’s willing you to challenge him.

You almost do.

Good of you to waltz by after a year, Johnny. I’ve been waiting.

You really have.

“Two weeks. If you’ll have me.”

You considered turning him away simply out of spite. A laughable thought, really. An egomaniacal deliberation you pretend to have.

You’d never—

“Aren’t you going home?”

Don’t say yes. Please, don’t say yes.

“Would’ve — yeah. But you moved.”

Fuck. Don’t—

“You make it sound like I’m the only reason you come back.”

The words decamp themselves from you without any realization. Subdued embers relight themselves. Veiled desires now unwrapped — a festering infection that itched beneath near-mended dermis now touching air simply because you couldn’t keep your mouth shut.

“Would— would it be so bad if I said yes?” He asks, wavering slightly in his footing only to gauge your reaction, and you pray you’re not giving anything away.

Yes. Yes, it fucking would, John. Because—

It means nothing in the scheme of its payoff. You don’t know what he expects, because to you his disclosure only exacerbates the acridity of his absence tenfold. It makes his eventual departure seem like a harsher slap to the face.

You could accuse him of pretense. Tell him how hollow it makes you feel.

Or simply—

“No. Of course not.” You lie with a smile, instead.

He believes you.

His parents pass within a year of each other. He attends both funerals in uniform — having only singular days granted to him in lieu of bereavement.

It might have been a personal choice in his father’s case, which happened to be the latter.

The first was an open casket, the second closed — both lowered into the ground while his hand firmly grasped yours.

And after—

On both days, he found himself buried in you, however in polar opposite ways.

It began gentle, with his need to be held and your need to oblige. You straddle him in the backseat of your busted-up Mondeo Estate, soaking in his silent grief as you whisper condolences. He finds his home in the crook of your neck, bedewed with the warmth of his breath and his tears.

He tastes of grief.

Regret, even.

Maybe, one day, you’ll tell him it didn’t have to be that way.

Imagine what we could’ve been, John.

Only seven months later, you find yourself in circumstances alike only in one solitary way. This time, it’s his anger that transcends the grief. You’re turned away, bent over the disjointed desk in the corner of his childhood bedroom. His fingers etching your skin in a mosaic of blue and purple, willing you to acquiesce to his baser instinct rather than envelop him in comfort. He fucked you, brutally — bare teeth, white knuckles. A lacquer of vitriol to coat you in. Only apologetic in the aftermath.

And—

He wouldn’t let you kiss him.

Change is a weight borne poorly by most relationships.

You try to blame the distance between his visits, and the fact that he always seems more worse for wear than the last. A chronic transformation with every visit, like rust on iron — sandstone shaded corrosion bleeding into his edges.

He tries to shed himself of it when he’s in your company but it’s ever-present, like a phantom limb. An undeniable extension of himself.

You tell him not to pretend.

Not with me, John.

You might as well be white noise.

What started out as concern he’d brush off with a ‘this isn’t something you need to be worrying about, love’ slowly evolved into disregard which concluded with blatant contempt.

This isn’t what I—

He stopped himself a moment too late.

“This isn’t what I came back for.”

“Glad we’re both disappointments to each other.”

Finally, some truth spilled out. It felt oddly cathartic, even if it meant having your worst fears confirmed.

He makes an implicit plea to retract what’s been said, undo the hurt caused, and return to your perpetual state of synthetic decorum. Two people who tip-toe around each other, chat about the weather, and when all redundancies are through and done with—

Let’s just leave it be. Dinner’s nearly—

He feasts on your cunt like a man starved.

It’s funny how rarely you consider the sheer probability of his safe return. Is it simply denial? Is he so deeply rooted within your being that imagining him not being there isn’t an ending you can enumerate?

To you, there is simply no finality to John Price. Forever seems like a paltry presumption to have in his line of work and yet, you can never imagine the alternative.

You’ve tried. You even asked him once.

Just once.

“You’ll be informed if— I — they know you’re my— you’ll be informed.” He spoke with such unambiguous apathy like he was reading it off a manual.

Ten different ways to prepare your loved ones for your eventual demise.

“I’ll be informed?” This isn’t the hill to die on, but you just can’t help yourself.

“I don’t know how else to—”

“I’m glad to know I’ll have the privileges of being your widow without you having to marry me, John.”

He recoils away like you just struck him.

It was an unscrupulous remark to make. Atonement is futile, he’d see right through it. All you can do is wait for the dust to settle and carry on.

But he—

“I’d marry you tomorrow if I thought it would fix things.”

It wouldn’t.

Some things are just predestined to remain broken, you suppose.

“I know you would.”

You find yourself at an impasse. Anyone pragmatic might think to cut their losses and retreat. Start anew.

That’s just not who you are.

You find other ways to meet each other halfway, on an equal plane of vulnerability and certitude. Nothing to hide behind in the arms of one another. There are shared breaths, harmonies of impassioned confessions and you find yourselves in the other once more.

You shed the pain you wear like a second skin, disrobed in ways both actual and metaphorical.

He’s kinder and you’re more forgiving.

He tells you it’s his last night with you for a while and you request your goodbye before the morning. You need something to remain unsoiled.

He leaves before you wake.

Sometimes, he leaves a note.

I’ll be back soon, darling.

Empty words. Hollow promises. An interminable echo in a cave that ripples in the subterranean waters you float in.

Except—

I’m doing the best I can.

And that’s enough.

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bookishdiplodocus · 1 month

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A longread on writing comedy

This is what I do to research writing comedy:

What helped me most was analyzing a lot of jokes: "It's funny. Why is it funny? How does this joke work?" Usually it's something that subverses the expectations in a specific way or an unexpected collision of two things. (Like a pun is a collision of sound and meaning.) For my analysis, I wonder: "What is the expectation after the set-up? Why do I have this expectation? How does the pay-off subverse the expectation? Why does it still make sense in relation to the set-up?"

For example: I unleashed this kind of analysis on the movie George of the Jungle. It has a surprisingly high hit rate, I think around three jokes per minute in the first one third of the movie, and it still manages to get the story going and the characters introduced. I’ve mentioned this before, but I don’t think I gave examples, and you know I’m all about the teaching.

I found at least 17 types. Heads up, this is going to be a longread.

Type 1: Puns

Narrator: “When they finally beheld the mighty Ape Mountain…” [They see a mountain shaped like a gorilla head.] Narrator, cont’d: “… they reacted with awe.” All: “Aww.” Narrator: “I said ‘awe”. A-W-E.” All: “Ooh!” Narrator: “That’s better.”

Explanation:

The pun lies in the fact that “awe” and “aww” sound the same.

There is a visual type of comedy as well that we can’t effectively reproduce in writing: the mountain is shaped like a gorilla head.

BTW: the narrator defies genre expectations by interacting with the characters, and the characters defy genre expectations by being able to hear the narrator.

Type 2: Tone of voice

Narrator, about the main characters: “Scraped and boo-booed, they searched high and low.

Explanation:

“Boo-booed” is a children’s word, not the tone you would use for a hero. Compare “tummy” and “stomach”.

Type 3: Defying genre expectations

[The guide falls off a rope bridge into a deep chasm.] Narrator: “Don’t worry—nobody dies in this story. They just get really big boo-boos.”

Explanation:

The narrator is breaking the fourth wall.

Again: tone of voice with the “boo-boos”.

Contrast between the boo-boo and the injuries one usually suffers after falling into a deep chasm.

Type 4: Not defying genre expectations

[A lion appears from the bushes. A baby monkey makes a sound like “uh-oh”.] [The baby monkey does the Tarzan call and bangs its chest.] [The lion flees.] [The monkey giggles.] [The monkey gives George a thumbs up.] [From the bushes, the lion winks at George. George winks back.]

Explanation:

Expectation: the lion is a danger to the baby monkey and George will need to fight it to save the monkey.

Defying expectations: the monkey and the lion are in on the plan.

Not defying genre expectations: George of the Jungle is clearly based on Tarzan. George doesn’t refer to that fact, but the monkey does, by doing the Tarzan call and banging its chest.

Improbable: monkeys who giggle and give thumbs up.

Impossible: lions who wink.

Type 5: Contrast

Narrator: “Meanwhile, 43 vines away, George’s kingdom is being threatened by a terrifying intruder.” [We see the adorable Leslie Mann, who plays Ursula, smiling and talking to the camera.] Ursula: “Hi! It’s me again!”

Explanation:

Contrast between what the narrator says and what we see.

The narrator isn’t lying. He refers to Lyle and the poachers who will be introduced in this scene.

There’s also humor in the phrase “43 vines away”, because of the overt specificity and because a vine is not a measure of distance.

Type 6: Oblivious character

[Lyle takes a Polaroid picture of one of the guides.] Lyle: “Do you like it? Magic picture. Yet another gift from America. Here you go. You’re welcome.” [The guide replies in Swahili. There is no translation in the subtitles.] [All the guides laugh.] [The guide continues in Swahili. Only the last few words are in English: “35 mm.” The guide takes his own camera and snaps a picture of Lyle.] [All the guides and Ursula laugh.] Lyle, not amused: “Translation, please.” Other guide: “He says he likes your magic pictures, but he prefers the resolution of the Leica 35 mm transparencies.” [Everyone but Lyle laughs.] Other guide, cont'd: “He also says your lens is dirty, but he has the equipment to clean it for you.”

Explanation:

Lyle doesn’t understand Swahili, while the guides understand everything Lyle says to them in English.

The fact that Ursula, Lyle's fianceé, understands Swahili and laughs along with the guides, is adds contrast to his obliviousness.

Lyle is the butt of the joke. He humiliates the guides and now he’s humiliated on his own turf while the guides don’t stoop down to his level.

This joke is threefold: 1. The set-up: Lyle is the arrogant asshole who thinks he’ll show the locals about technological development. 2. The guide is not only not impressed, he knows Polaroid and has a camera of his own, and is knowledgeable. 3. And he demonstrates his superiority in a (more or less) polite way.

Type 7: Slapstick

[George is swinging on the vines.] Narrator: “He is swift. He is strong. He is sure. He is smart.” [George hits a tree and falls.] Narrator, deadpan: “He is unconscious.”

Explanation:

Slapstick is another type of humor that barely translates to written fiction, when the actors behave silly, for example by falling over, hurting themselves, or others. It's often over the top. Laurel & Hardy is a well-known example of slapstick.

Type 8: Alliteration

Narrator: “The tired trekkers trudged on feverish footsies over perilous paths.”

Explanation:

If several words in each other’s vicinity start with the same letter, it’s called alliteration.

Note that "footsies" is another example of a contrast in tone of voice—it’s another children’s word.

Type 9: Improbable things

[George spins a lion over his head.] George: “George not even trying hard.”

Explanation:

While not impossible, spinning an actual lion over one’s head is improbable and thus goes against real-world expectations.

Type 10: Impossible things

[A gorilla called Ape enters George’s tree house and scares Ursula.] Ursula: “What does it want? What does it want?” Ape: [points at a big book] “It wants its Physician’s Desk Reference, if you don’t mind, unless you’d rather die of dengue fever, of course.” [Ursula faints again.]

Explanation:

Gorillas can’t talk, can’t read, and aren’t usually well-versed in curing tropical diseases.

Type 11: Breaking social norms

[Ursula is unconscious. George licks her face, clearly meaning well.]

Explanation:

In our society, it is not only considered impolite but also gross to lick the face of a stranger. The fact that George does this anyway, clearly not realizing he does something wrong, is a subversion of what we’d expect of social norms and behavior.

Type 12 and 13: Hyperbole and understatement

[Earlier, Ursula fainted when she saw Ape talk and do human things.] [Ape is reading when he sees Ursula look at him. He panics, throws the book away, starts grunting, and bangs his chest.] [Ursula faints again.] Ape: “Eh.”

Explanation:

Ursula fainting again is a hyperbole: a reaction that is stronger than expected.

Ape saying “Eh.” is an understatement: a reaction less strong than expected.

Type 14: Obvious repetitions

Ursula: “… And I didn’t want my fianc—Um, this guy I was with, to worry.” Narrator, a few moments later: “George and Ursula set out on a desperate search to find her fianc—Uh, that guy she was with.”

Type 15: Stating the obvious

[We see the guide’s hand, pointing at a really big footprint in the mud.] Narrator: “Meanwhile, back at the really big footprint in the mud, (...)”

Explanation:

Stating the obvious can be funny because the audience doesn’t expect you to do or say this because it is so very obvious.

Type 16: Adult humor

[George watches Ursula sleep.] George: “George having stirrings of special feelings right now.” Ape, drily: “I see.” George: “Good thing she same species, huh?”

Explanation:

Ape’s reply, “I see”, could be an innuendo, but it doesn’t come across as a joke (to me at least). Maybe it’s downplayed because it’s a children’s movie.

If this is an innuendo, it’s a play on words. “I see”, figuratively, for “I understand”, or literally for “Yes, I can tell from your erection.”

“Good thing she same species” because George shouldn’t have stirrings of special feelings for animals.

Type 17: Rhyme

[George is swinging on a vine.] George: “Look, like this!” Song: “He flies through the air with the greatest ease.” Song, cont’d: “Our daring young man on the flying trapeze.” [George hangs upside down from a vine.] George: “Look, no hands.” Song, cont’d: “His movements so grateful, all girls he could please.” Song, cont’d: “And with love he is swinging away…” [On the ground, gorillas frantically run back and forth with a safety net.] Song, cont’d: “He flies through the air with the greatest of ease.” Ursula: “George, watch out for that—” Song, cont’d while George yelps: “Our daring young man on the—” [Song stops abruptly.] [Thud] [George grunts.] Ursula: “… tree.”

Explanation:

When words end in the same sounds, we call it rhyme.

It’s physically impossible to hang from a vine with no hands.

The gorillas with the safety net imply that they expect George to fall.

Also, it’s improbable that gorillas would do this.

Slapstick: George hitting the tree.

Comedic timing: Ursula being just too late to warn George about the tree.

Song + Ursula: “Our daring young man on the—tree.” Because by then he is literally stuck to the tree.

Or throw everything at the audience, whatever.

[George has a pet elephant, Shep, who behaves like a happy doggy.] [Shep is chewing a humongous bone.] Narrator: “Later, they rested, while the tired tusker teethed on a… Wait a second, the dog bone is too much. Lose it.” [The dog bone disappears.] Narrator: “That’s better.” [Shep whines.]

Explanation:

Improbable: Pet elephant who behaves like a doggy.

Alliteration: “tired tusker teethed”

Fourth wall: the narrator comments on the story while it is going on, and edits it.

*** Here are some other funny situations from the movie. Try to analyze what’s going on. Usually you can spot several types.

Situation 1

Narrator: “Meanwhile, at a very big and expensive waterfall set, Ursula was amazed that she was lost in the wilderness with a jungle man.” Ursula: “And here I am, lost in the wilderness with a jungle man.”

Situation 2

Narrator: “The guides came dangerously close—” Narrator: “That is, dangerously close to shove a coconut up in Kyle’s—” Narrator: “Sleeping bag.”

Situation 3

Lyle: “I am the richest, handsomest, smartest guy here, so I get to go first!” [Lyle pushes past everyone, trips over a tree stump and lands face first in a steaming pile of elephant poop.] Lyle: “There’s an elephant here.” Guide, while looking straight into the camera: “Bad guy falls into poop. Classical element of physical comedy.” Guide, cont’d: “Now comes the element where we throw our heads back and laugh.” Guide, cont’d: “Ready?” Other guides, while also looking straight into the camera: “Ready!” [All the guides throw their heads back and laugh.] [Monkey laughs and points at Lyle.] [Off-screen, other animals make laughing sounds.] Lyle, spitting out poop: “Those are nowhere near properly digested.” Lyle, cont’d: “In case anyone is wondering, I’m okay.”

Situation 4

[Cliffhanger: it looks like Lyle has shot George from up close.] Narrator: “Whew! Okay kids, let’s settle down and review the important information. Lyle is a big doofus. Poor George was actually shot but can’t die because, let’s face it, he’s the hero. So, the naturally concerned and preternaturally wealthy Ursula Stanhope whisked George away on a private jet bound for the country of his birth—” [George has a tiny band-aid on his forehead.] Narrator, cont’d: “—where he’s gonna get the finest medical treatment available!” Ursula: “I’m gonna get you the finest medical treatment available.”

Situation 5

Narrator: “Well, Ursula […] could use a best friend now.” Best friend: “Hi!” Ursula: “He’s in the shower.” Best friend, distracted: “Not anymore.” George, naked: “Bad waterfall. First, water get hot—” [A sexy saxophone plays] George, cont’d: “Then George slips on this strange yellow rock.” [Perspective: the camera looks at the two women, seen from between George’s legs. They are clearly ogling his crotch.] [Ursula swoons.] George, noticing the friend: “Hi! George of jungle.” Friend, eager: “Charmed, I’m sure.” [Ursula hands George objects that barely cover his crotch. The camera switches back to a frontal view of George. The friend is still ogling George.] Best friend, mumbling appreciatively: “I see why they made him king of the jungle.” *** I hope this was helpful. Don’t hesitate to ask me any questions, and happy writing!

Follow me for more writing advice, or check out my other writing tips here. New topics to write advice about are also always appreciated.

I'm too tired to bother with a tag list. If you like to be added to my list and get a notification whenever I post new writing advice, let me know.

#writing #sanne #creative writing #writing advice #writing tips #writing comedy #comedy #humor #humour #writing humor #writing humour #george of the jungle #how to tell me a story

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batneko · 5 months

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bowuigi rock star x roadie AU.

The Mario bros are still plumbers by trade, but they're friends with the guy who manages the nearby concert venue and often get roped in to help out during big shows. They're both stronger than they look, and have plenty of experience at repairs even aside from plumbing. And Luigi has always been good with machines so he takes to the new equipment with ease. Though Mario is better with people and makes friends faster, Luigi is the one that everyone comes to rely on when things go wrong.

At a concert a few years ago Mario got into an actual physical fight with the star, but since the guy was already well-known as an asshole Mario's friend pretended to "fire" him and then brought him back to help out again next week, no big deal. Just can't work the next Bowser concert, that's all.

Bowser got famous when he was only eighteen, which means he never really had to grow up. He's spent the last ten years getting his way and experiencing no consequences (as long as he punched down). However now that his son is old enough to talk about how he feels and what he wants, Bowser is starting to realize he's been absent at best and a phenomenally bad example, and wants to start being better. Too bad he has no idea how.

His star is also starting to fade, and he feels conflicted about that. He's had enough hits now that as long as he manages his portfolio well and does enough stupid celebrity appearances to keep himself in the public eye, he'll never have to work again. But he likes performing, he likes rock, he doesn't want to be the "cameo appearance by" guy. He's not even thirty yet, dammit!

So he's doing this show at a slightly-smaller venue he hadn't ever intended to return to (some little guy with a mustache tried to step to him last time), and trying to figure out how much he can cut down on touring and still be able to afford the nanny and all the stuff he likes, and some intern just told him "my grandma loves you!" and then one of the subwoofers explodes and the replacement won't work for some reason and the concert is in twenty goddamn minutes and Bowser is going to lose it.

But out of nowhere another little guy with a mustache (not the same one as before? that one got fired, right? this one's cuter anyway) turns up and fixes the replacement and gets everything back on track so efficiently that Bowser is on stage ready to go with ten minutes to spare.

Come to think of it, that same little guy had been the one organizing the roadies to unload all the equipment earlier. And Bowser's pretty sure he was running the sound check. Does he do everything around here?

In the middle of his concert as Bowser is about to start a rather raunchy song, he suddenly says, "This one goes out to the guy who fixed my subwoofer and saved the show. Come to my dressing room after and I'll thank you properly." There's laughter from the audience (plausibly-deniable bisexuality has been a part of rock music for as long as there's been rock music) and Bowser adds, "I'm not joking," and then starts the song.

After the concert, Luigi comes to his dressing room.

True to his word, Bowser is all set to get down to business, but it turns out there was some work that needed running by him and everyone figured Luigi had earned some goodwill so they made him go. He didn't even watch the concert, he was too busy working behind the scenes.

Of course this only comes out after Luigi was halfway seduced to go ahead and let an asshole rock star blow him, but Bowser is so embarrassed at the misunderstanding that he throws him out into the hallway, breathless and disheveled. A lot of people see him and a few people caught Bowser's dedication, so by the end of the night everyone assumes it happened anyway.

And that was just the Friday show. There's one more to get through tomorrow.

#bowuigi #luigi #bowser #super mario bros #luwser #bowigi #green shell #suggestive

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starryjeekies · 4 months

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~ Watch Out For the Shy Ones ~

Pairing: kang yeosang x fem!reader x yang jeongin (gn pronouns used)

Genre: smut, pwp

Summary: after working on the set of kingdom, you landed yourself working for the company of the winners, stray kids. now a year later, i.n invites you to his birthday party at a club. after meeting up with him and running into an old friend from the show, yeosang, the usually shy members of their groups let slip a little secret. will this secret lead to more secrets between the sheets?

Warnings: pure smut, threesome, oral (m receiving), cum eating, protected sex, pet names (doll mainly), alcohol consumption (drink responsibly), switch!yeosang, switch!jeongin, dom!reader, nothing too crazy, if there's more let me know!

Words: 8k

A/N: long time no see! I did start writing this not too long after i wrote double trouble (please check it out if you haven't!) but took a break due to work/life. once I saw ateez announced that it's you was going to get an mv, i decided to start working on it again. now, i am posting this in celebration of the it's you mv dropping. any and all feedback is appreciated! i have more ideas for the future so stay tuned <3

There wasn’t a day that went by that wasn’t filled with chaos. You had landed one of your first jobs with Mnet and even thought the management itself was really shitty, it did pay decently well. You had started there right as Mnet was finding groups to compete on Kingdom. You had already known The Boyz were going to be on since they won Road to Kingdom, so you could only imagine what other idol groups would be competing. You didn’t have any say in picking out who else but you were happy to see some of your other favorite groups be there.

You had known Stray Kids and Ateez would be there thanks to Hyunjin and San performing with Juyeon and that made you excited. They both had immaculate talent that needed to be showcased. You were glad to help throughout their time on Kingdom. Sure, you didn’t work specifically with only those groups, but being a stage tech crew member, you were excited to see their stages the most. You created the bell in Stray Kids’ Side Effects/God’s Menu stage, you did the research for how much the tentacle was going to cost for Ateez’s Symphony No. 9 stage, it was cool to see your hard work be part of the reason both groups you enjoyed rank top 3 in the end.

There wasn’t too much interaction you got with the groups themselves besides right before a performance to do prop checks, but they were always super nice to you. You appreciated their kindness, not seeing it from your own company most of the time. All of the idols, in fact, were very sweet and thankful for your help during the show. You ended up staying late with many of them to make sure their practices ran smoothly with scene changes, props, ropes, everything. Many times, that’s when you just simply stayed the night at the studio in one of the dressing rooms because the drive to your apartment would take too much time.

Then, once Kingdom was done and Stray Kids had won, you were able to land yourself a temp position at JYPE doing exactly what you were doing at Mnet but with a much more rewarding crew to work with. Someone in Stray Kids put in a good word for you, you believe. Eventually, that position became a full time set design crew member for their music videos and jacket shootings. Now, almost a year later, you are getting ready for a party. Jeongin’s birthday party.

Surprisingly, he had invited you out to his 21st birthday party. Well, Chan had invited you on I.N’s behalf because he couldn’t do it himself. Now that you had gotten closer to Stray Kids, it was easier for you to talk to them regularly. You would still be formal with them, but it was easy to have fun with the boys when time allowed it. If there was downtime between scene setup and when the boys had to start shooting, it wasn’t uncommon for one of them to strike up a conversation with you. Jeongin, however, did it more so when it was just you two or everyone else was far enough away. It wasn’t like your conversations were necessarily private or anything, but he was one of the more shy ones from the group.

Chan told you about a club that I.N wanted to go to; it was an underground one that allowed idols to party away from the general public. The only people who knew about it were other idols and some staff members from the companies. Trainees or low level employees had no knowledge of its existence. There were many around Seoul, being as big of a city as it is and how many kpop groups there are now. People know they exist, but the locations of them are kept hidden.

Since it is a club you’re going to, you decide to let yourself dress freely. A low cut red top and a tight black leather skirt with some pumps is your way to go. When looking at yourself in the mirror, anxiety starts to grow in your belly. How formal should I be with the guys? It’s after work hours but I still work for them. I shouldn’t get too crazy, but I do want to have fun. Jeongin did invite me after all. You decide to suck it up and have fun, wanting to enjoy celebrating the idol.

Leaving your apartment, you start your journey via subway as it’s still open at 11 pm. You quickly get to Hongdae and start walking towards the club. After downing the soju bottle you bought from 7-Eleven on the ride over, you feel ready to get the night started. The club is hidden behind a restaurant on the corner, allowing you to sneak into the back alley and down the stairs. There’s a small neon sign on the brick next to the door, a keypad, and a large metal door. After punching in the code Chan gave you, the green light flashes and the door unlocks.

You quickly step inside and let the door close heavily behind you but no one notices. The music is loud and booming and you realize the door makes the rest of the place hidden because of the soundproofing. There’s no bouncer at the front door but there is someone for a coat check which you graciously hand them your thick coat you wore since it is February. You look around and see some of the members of different groups you’ve met or seen before as well as people you don’t recognize who might be employees from their companies.

You make your way to the bar, squeezing in between people to try and order a drink.

“Hi, what are you looking for?” The bartender asks you, leaning his elbow on the counter.

“Something strong, please.” You respond back, leaning closer for him to hear you.

“How about some soju bombs for the birthday boy?”

You turn and see Jeongin standing there, his huge cheesy grin plastered on his face. You smile back at him and shout, “Hey!”

He laughs and pulls you in for a hug, obviously feeling the effects of the alcohol he’s already consumed. He’s glad when he feels you squeeze him tightly back. When you pull away, he’s eager to look at the bartender for more drinks. “Two soju bombs, please.”

“Well, happy birthday to you, Jeongin.” You hold onto his arm lightly as he does the same to you.

“That’s only, like, the fourth time you told me that today.” He laughs again, causing your ears to flare up hot. “But I appreciate it, thanks for coming out tonight.”

“My pleasure, there’s no work tomorrow so I can be out as late as you want me.” You smile, leaning against the bar.

“That’s good to hear, because I plan to party for a while.” He winks at you which makes you even more flustered, causing him to shake your arm lightly. “Hey, let loose, have fun, no-no need to have formalities tonight.”

You shake your head lightly, watching as he looks into your eyes. “This is the loosest I’ve seen you act in my whole time at the company, so I think we’re pretty even in the ‘who needs to let loose’ games.”

“Alright, alright,” The younger man shakes off your remark and instead motions behind you to the two beer glasses sitting behind you. “I have a tab started so don’t even worry.”

You ended up being with Jeongin for a significant part of the night. You would dance together, get a drink, break off whenever he had someone else who would wish him a happy birthday, then meet back up at the table for another drink, talk for a while about him or you, and repeat. That cycle has happened about two or three times now and you’re currently at the table, checking your phone for the time. It’s past 2 am and you’re still not exhausted which is interesting.

“Not getting bored, are you?”

You look up and see another familiar face, a cheeky smile beaming down at you. You’re delighted to see the man standing there. “Yeosang!”

He invites himself to sit next to you, squeezing in close on the semi circle booth. “It’s been a while, Y/N.”

“Awh, you remembered my name,” You chuckle, resting a hand on his knee. “I’m flattered.”

He laughs incredulously, covering his mouth with his hand. “What do you mean? Of course I remember your name. You act like we didn’t work together for months.”

“That was also a year plus ago.” You smirk, looking at him. He’s fucking gorgeous. His hair is a beautiful blond, long and thick. He definitely looks dressed to party; he’s wearing a shirt with only one sleeve and the opposite hip cut out with leather pants. His blond locks are pushed back with a few strands falling in front of his face. His beautiful heart shaped face has light makeup which accentuates his features delightfully. In your intoxicated state, you’d jump his bones right then and there if it was acceptable. “People grow and change.”

“I mean, I don’t think I’m that different from a year ago.” He looks to the table for a moment, only glancing at you briefly.

“Well, you’re just as hot.” You smirk, watching him get flustered and wave you off.

“And you’re more bold.”

“And you’re just as shy.”

He looks at you somewhat defiantly, not wanting to give you the satisfaction of being right. “I prefer to call it more introverted.”

You smirk again, resting your chin in your hand. “Fine, have it your way then. And besides, it’s just the alcohol. Jeongin and I are almost going shot for shot and he’s not as much of a lightweight as I thought.”

“Oh, you’re here for his birthday too?” He smiles lightly, seeing that you stayed in contact with someone else from Kingdom.

“Yeah, I work for JYPE now so I get to see him pretty regularly.” You giggle, updating him on the new thing that’s happened. “He invited me out and we’ve been hanging together for the most part but I’m pretty sure I saw Allen from Cravity steal him away.”

“Ah, he invited me too but I haven’t-”

“Kang Yeosang!” On cue, the birthday boy comes to the table with three double shots of what is presumed to be soju. “Took you forever to show up!”

“I’ve been here!” He retorts back, looking teasingly at the boy. “You just finally made yourself free.”

“I had to buy you a drink first, sorry it took so long.” He slides the shot glass to his friend while also giving you a drink. “It’s the least I can do for you before you go back on tour.”

“You’re in the middle of a tour?” You look towards the older guy as you down your shot.

He takes his with little grimace and pushes the glass away. “Yeah, we just finished our USA leg and we are heading to Europe in a week or so.”

“Wow, big things!” You smirk, then look to I.N who has slung an arm around your shoulders. “We’ve just been catching up since the last time we saw each other.”

“Ah, telling him how much cuter you’ve gotten?”

“Oh my god!” You squeal at his comments, Yeosang laughing at your response. “You, sir, have had enough to drink. You’re usually as bad as Yeosang yet here you are hitting on me.”

“What, can I not compliment you?” He looks offended at your statement. “Come on, Yeosang, don’t they look great tonight?”

He looks put on the spot, but you notice that the Ateez member does, indeed, look you up and down to take in your appearance. It makes something stir inside you to be checked out by an idol you’ve looked up to, something dangerous. “I have to give it to I.N, he has a point.”

“Wow, okay, you two.” You hold your hands up in defeat, relenting to the men on either side of you. “Color me shocked as neither of you had said anything in the time that I’ve worked with you both.”

“We never said it to you directly.”

You look between them, not believing what you’re hearing. Your face heats up more as what’s insinuated sets in. “You guys have talked about me before?”

Now their real personalities shine. Now being confronted with the reality of what they’ve acknowledged to be doing, Yeosang looks at the pushed away shot glass while Jeongin’s eyes are focused into his lap. The tension is…weird. It’s awkward but also sexual. You swallow down the awkwardness that you feel and decide to look at Jeongin since he’s been more liberal with his answers tonight. “What exactly have you two talked about regarding me?”

He rolls his eyes lightly, finding his rings more interesting than your eyes. “Just things…”

You huff and look towards the dancer, seeing his ears are bright red. “What things?”

Yeosang looks over to the younger man, blinking a few times. “Uh, well…”

This time, your sigh is dramatic as you push your hair back. “Well, boys, it’s been lovely with this little chit chat, but if you can’t entertain a simple gossip question, then I guess it’s time to call it a night.” You move to get out of the booth, but go over Yeosang’s lap and “accidentally” let your ass rub over his crotch. A short groan escapes his lips and his hands immediately place themselves on your hips, keeping you on him. You turn your head to glance at him, your hand grabbing onto his strong forearm. “I’m sorry, what was that?”

His breathing wavers as he finally locks his eyes to you, specifically your neck. “We…we wondered, if,” You moving yourself farther up on his lap caused him to groan again, his eyes fluttering and his dick hardening underneath you. “I-If you wore black underwear under your black stage crew outfits.”

“Is that all?” You look at the birthday boy, expecting an answer from him too.

He shakes his head, his black hair falling into his eyes. “We thought about whether you've had any experience or not.”

“And if you’ve ever, you know, had two guys at once.” The Ateez member pipes up again, his hands still holding onto you tightly.

“Would you like to find out?” You ask them, feeling the path down the rabbit hole turn this way. Jeongin looks up at you with his mouth slightly agape while you can feel Yeosang’s hot breath at your neck. “Subways are closed but we can take a taxi to my place. No one would ever know.”

You can feel the heat radiating off of Yeosang while he looks at Jeongin. The younger one looks just as surprised before there’s a switch. You can see it in the way his eyes become trained on you after he closes his mouth. He had no telling that his drunk confession would actually lead to this. He was actually betting on you telling him you were going to quit. So this is different. He grabs the empty shot glasses and shoots up from his seat. “I’ll pay the tab, you call the taxi.”

“If you insist.” You smirk, watching him practically jog away from the table. You manage to snake out of Yeosang’s grasp before holding a hand out to him. “Are you going to join us?”

“This is not just the alcohol talking, is it?” He takes your hand and stands up with you. He wants to make sure you don’t regret whatever you three are thinking of doing tonight.

“Listen, if I have to sign two NDAs then I will.” The Ateez member laughs at your statement. “Besides, I like seeing the birthday boy happy and I have been deprived of your hotness for a year. I’m curious as to where the night is going to go.”

You and Yeosang head outside, dressed in your coats and masks while you wait for the taxi to arrive. I.N isn’t too far behind you and you all pile into the car, telling the driver the address to your home. The drive over is tense in the best way. While the ride isn’t too long, the boys are trying hard to contain themselves. Yeosang is bouncing his leg slightly while I.N bites at his thumb. However you aren’t any better, fiddling at the hem of your skirt. You’re sure the driver feels the tension too.

Upon entering the complex, it starts settling in on what’s happening. Two idols, one of which you work for, want to fuck you. At the same time. There’s no going back from that statement. Walking into your apartment, you take off your shoes and coat, putting them where they should be so you don’t trip in the morning. “So did you two have an action plan or did you not get that far?”

“To say we had a plan is going a bit far.”

“But we did have an idea.”

You cock your head to the side, glancing between the two men who now stand there. “Then what are you waiting for?”

I.N gives a quick glance to his partner in crime before walking up to you. Now, standing in front of you, his shyness not holding him back, you can truly grasp how people can say he’s intimidating. But his touch is gentle as he cups your cheek. His face is angled in a way that silently begs for a kiss. You nod and move forward to help close the gap. You easily note how eager he is in the kiss. He wastes no time with little pecks and instead goes for the open mouth kisses. It takes a moment for you two to find a rhythm that works, but once you do, you can tell that Jeongin isn’t inexperienced. His ability to hold you captive with just his mouth is impressive. He tastes like soju, but then again you probably do as well. He makes sure that you become enthralled in him, letting you melt into his touch. His hand does remove from your cheek and instead, is placed on your breast, giving you a light squeeze.

He enjoys the moan you let out and smirks into the kiss. He makes sure to palm your breast again when he asks, “That feels good, huh?”

Your words of agreement falter as he does it again. Your hand wraps behind his neck and into his hair. “So good.”

He makes sure to take special care of your nipple over your shirt. You’re definitely certain he can feel the hard nub poking through your shirt now that your arousal is climbing. You don’t know how much time has passed before you feel another presence behind you. This time, you reel in having Yeosang’s lips on your neck while his hands are firmly on your hips. He holds you in place against him, feeling how hard he is through his tight leather pants. Something leaning more towards a whimper comes out, causing Yeosang to chuckle at you.

“Now who's the eager one?” The blond man mutters, pushing himself against your ass to get another response from you.

“Didn’t think you’d want this so bad.” The kisser pulls away for a moment to focus both hands on both of your breasts, watching your eyebrows scrunch up and mouth become agape.

“I didn’t know you two even thought about this.” You try to retort back, but you know better than to fight two versus one. Your head is spinning with multiple pleasure points.

“Sorry, we shouldn’t have kept you waiting for so long.” Yeosang slips one of his hands down your front, underneath your skirt. He cups your pussy and loves the way you inadvertently push back against him. “Our deepest apologies.”

You blink a few times to come to your senses so you don’t blast off to cloud nine then and there. With a huff, you glance at your new lover before making eye contact with the birthday boy. “Keep this up and I might just forgive you.”

Jeongin laughs before capturing your lips in his. This kiss is harsher and more needy, tugging at your bottom lip before he releases again. “We won’t keep you waiting any longer.”

While I.N’s hands are skillfully rolling over your nipples, Yeosang’s fingers rub between your folds, palm brushing across your clit with every stroke. It’s hard not to basically pant against I.N’s lips when you have two sets of hands working up all of your nerves. Soon enough, it’s also two pairs of lips at different pleasure points. Yeosang is focused on your neck while I.N travels down to your collarbone. Their approaches are much different. Yeosang is looking to please, making sure to take his time in sucking on your skin so you can feel him. Jeongin is aiming to elicit a reaction from you, nipping and teasing every which way to get you to squirm. Both are hoping to mark what’s theirs.

With their bombardment, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep yourself upright even with holding onto both of them. Yeosang’s fingers between your legs seem to be also holding you up as his fingers push harsher on your nub, causing you to jolt upwards and consequently pushing your tits into Jeongin’s face. “You’re going to make me cu-um before you even see me undressed, y-you know that?”

“Oh, we can’t have that, can we, Jeongin?” The Ateez member slows down his fingers, eyes shooting up to his counterpart. He can see through hooded eyes that the younger isn’t ready to start slowing down at all.

“Not yet, it’s still much too early in the night.” He comes up from your collarbone and grabs your chin with his hand, pulling your head back towards him to look you in your eyes. He can see just how much you were enjoying their attack. “Wouldn’t you agree, doll?”

You blink away your haziness, trying to come back to your senses. It doesn’t help that the lust you feel is the same lust you see in his eyes. You nod your head. “I’d also prefer to cum on my bed instead of on the floor.”

Both men chuckle at your witty remark. They partially pull away from you but still hold onto you as you lead them to your bedroom. It was nothing extravagant but it was at least clean and the bed was made. You sit them on your bed and decide to give them a little show since they will be taking care of you tonight. First to go will be your top with no bra underneath, so you let your tits fall free. Jeongin’s mouth opens slightly upon actually seeing you bare whereas Yeosang’s jaw clenches in an attempt to restrain himself. With a light smirk, the zipper of your skirt comes undone with a small tug of your fingers and falls to the floor. The only undergarment you had was a black thong that is now rightfully stained by your own arousal. Their reactions seem frozen, taking in all of you that you let them see. “You were right, black is my favorite color after all.”

The youngest’s ears go bright red, feeling like he’s stumbled upon something so brilliant but isn’t for his eyes. The older takes a moment to look at you before his eyes start darting around the room, landing on everything except you as he feels the strain in his pants become unbearable. Seems like the reality of the situation sets in for the men, now sitting in front of you while you present yourselves to them.

“Finally sobering up?” You giggle at their reactions, hooking your fingers into the strings of your thong. “Because I’m still dead serious if you two are.”

“You are?” Yeosang looks at your face, some of his blond hair now falling into his eyes as he takes in your tone.

“You really don’t have to, i-if you don’t want to, you know.” I.N doubles down on it, hands anxiously messing with the comforter beneath him.

“I mean,” You start, pulling down your underwear slightly. “I would like to see if I could make you cum at the same time. And like I told Yeosang, if you need me to sign an NDA I will. In the morning, though, because I don’t know how fucked out I’ll be once we are done.”

That seems to break Jeongin out of his shyness again, feeling more confident in himself than before. He looks at Yeosang with a smirk. “Who are we to deny our little doll a new experience?”

The muscular dancer looks at you and you can see the way the confidence darkens his eyes. “I suppose it’s only right if they are willing to give themselves to us like this.”

With a slight shimmy of your hips, you pull down your underwear the rest of the way before resting your hands on your hips. “Now, should we let the birthday boy choose what hole he wants? As a little gift?”

His eyes light up like a kid in a candy store with the option you presented him. You can see that he’s getting excited at the prospect of using you how he wants. “I want to feel your pussy, so badly.”

“Then happy birthday.” You wink at him, then look sweetly at Yeosang. “Would you prefer oral or anal?”

“Have you ever done anal before?”

“I have a butt plug so it’s not too foreign.”

“You have what?”

“Really?”

“I asked if you’d like to find out.” You shrug lightly, crossing your arms to bolster your breasts. “I’ve taken anal a couple of times, or I can take about six inches in my mouth without gagging. Your choice.”

“Fuck, you get hotter the more we find out about you.” His chest heaves with your suggestions and takes a moment to think through what would be best for him. Seeing the little pout on your lips makes him think about what they’d feel like around him. “Oral, if you’re up for it.”

You giggle at his remark, wiggling your hips slightly as you feel the alcohol exiting your system. Instead of the complicitness the alcohol presets, you start to feel the anticipation in wondering how big Yeosang could be. “There’s a lot to find out about me.”

“What else do we not know about you?” Jeongin asks, positioning himself differently thanks to the strain of his cock in his pants.

“Well, I assume you mean sexually and not as in ‘what’s your favorite animal’,” You walk up to I.N, gently grab the back of the collar of his shirt and pull it over his head. You discard the shirt and let your hands run over his bare shoulders; he shivers at your light touch while his eyes flutter to stare at yours. “But a fun one is I don’t mind experimenting. I’m down to try most things. So if we have fun tonight, maybe we can try other things in the future?”

“If we have fun?” The blond has a playful tone to him. He pops the buttons on his pants watching you caress his friend. “I’m certain the two of us will, so we will be aiming to make sure you will.”

“That’s good to hear. But I’m not letting you spit roast me tonight.” You smirk, seeing the confusion on both of their faces. “I’m not letting the first time I have a threesome be with a cliche sex position that’ll leave my knees sore. I have a better idea than that.”

“Then by all means,” I.N smirks, grabbing ahold of your hips to pull you closer. “Lead the way, doll.”

“Wonderful,” You peck his lips while your hands tangle into his hair. “Yeosang, would you be a dear and strip for me please?” You tilt your head slightly to see him turn bashful at your request. “I need to make sure Innie here is ready to stuff his cock in me while I blow you.”

“F-Fuck okay.” He likes the sound of your voice, all sultry while asking him politely. He immediately gets off the bed to strip, all while watching what you do to the other man.

“Good, now,” You turn your attention back to I.N who is also more than ready to listen to you. “I can’t have you pounding into me while I take as much Sangie in my mouth as I can.” You give him languish kisses to draw out his eagerness. Your hand palms against his crotch, seeing just how hard he is currently. He lets out a cute whimper when you do. “I’ve got to pleasure you both. So work on long, deep strokes, okay?”

“Whatever you say, you’re the boss here.” His voice is deep as he returns another kiss to you. He stands up as he kisses you, going to remove his pants in the process.

“If we are being technical here, you’re the boss.” You chuckle, watching his chest follow you in the sentiment. You help push down his pants and underwear as well. You take a second to see what you’re working with. You’re definitely not disappointed and are excited for what your future position will give you in terms of pleasure. Your hand takes his dick and slowly pumps him. His moan is low, but that combined with the slight twitch you receive tells that he is ready. “But I appreciate the sentiment.”

You turn to see if Yeosang has stripped and you are more than pleasantly surprised. He is stripped, but also definitely shy now being naked in front of not one, but two people. His ears are red and he’s staring at the clothes on the floor. You smile and give Jeongin one more kiss before turning your full attention to Yeosang. You instruct the younger man, “Condoms are underneath the bed in a box on the right side. Grab one and wait for me. I want to give Sangie a little more attention before we start.”

Yeosang gives you a half smile, easily melting into your touch when you approach him and hold your arms around his neck. His hands find themselves on the small of your back. “Kinky and considerate?”

“Like you said, we all gotta be having fun.” With your hand on his jaw, you bring his face closer while you repeat the act to him. Yeosang kisses you for real the first time that night, and you wish you would’ve let him sooner. Sure, his lips on your neck were nice, but to feel his lips on yours was better. He was precise in what he did, no matter how much he started to unravel underneath you. His hands immediately went for your ass to pull you to him so you can feel how hard he was. You moan into him, feeling how hot and bothered he was and involuntarily grind against him.

“If this is as close to your cunt I’ll be tonight, then I’m going to take it.” He breathes out while grinding back against you.

“There’s always next time.” You smirk, kissing him again. You let your teeth graze his bottom lip this time. By him gripping your ass tightly, you know that was the right move. “If you want a next time.”

“I already want a next time.”

“Then let’s get on with this time, yeah?” With a nod of his head, you instruct him. “On your back, on the bed. Half way up.”

He listens and crawls onto your bed, watching as you start to follow him. He props himself on his elbows, watching as you bend the top half of your body forward into the bed.

You lean forward enough to be face level with his cock. His tip is already a pretty pink color and he’s girthier than Jeongin, but probably just as long. You peer over your shoulder to I.N, watching him watch you two with his dick in hand. “Don’t be shy now, come and take me.”

You don’t have to tell him twice as he comes behind you, watching you spread your legs for him. He holds your hip with one hand while starting to line himself with your slick entrance. His tip prods your entrance before slowly sliding in with only a little resistance. He lets out the breath he was holding as he starts to push his way into you. It’s going to be a snug fit, but it won’t take long until your body is used to him.

You release a short moan at his cock finally entering you before you place your lips over Yeosang, letting your moan stimulate his tip. His hand is immediately in your hair and you feel the grip he has. He’s not forcing you down on him, not yet anyway. You go down on him to see just how much of him you can actually take. As I.N bottoms out into you, dick thick and stretching you in the most delicious ways, Yeosang hits the back of your throat before you’re able to brush your nose against his pelvis. The three of you moaning in unison tells that your anticipation is well worth it. You just hope that your neighbors can’t hear the three of you now because there’s no telling how loud you all will get.

“Fuck, this is better than I thought it would be.” The birthday boy slowly pulls out while you move up on his friend’s dick. “You feel so good, doll.”

“Their mouth feels just as good.” He breathes out heavily as you push back down on him, making sure to make eye contact with him the whole time. As you continue to slowly suck him, he throws his head back when he feels himself hit the back of your throat. “Shit, so good.”

You try to time your bobbing to Jeongin’s thrusts. He’s listening to you in taking it slow and deep, for now. With your hands on Yeosang’s hips and Jeongin’s hands on yours, you form a deep moving train. You’re not going to lie, it’s hard to focus on one or the other with how full you feel. There’s no need to move your hips backwards into Jeongin as he’s kindly doing that for you with every stroke. And soon, Yeosang starts to guide you on him. He lets you keep the speed but he wants to see just how far you can take him, and you let him. The amount of arousal from your pussy and their cocks, combined with your spit, everything easily becomes a mess.

I.N watches as your ass presses into his hips with every thrust and how slick his dick is every time he pulls out. He smirks at the sight, then looks up to drink in the rest of you. He watches as your head goes up and down on Yeosang, reveling in the pleasure of you giving as well as receiving. The voyeur in him raves watching the two of you enjoy yourselves, and he gets an idea of how to aid with it. With his shit eating grin, he starts to roll his hips into you which brings another moan to your lips, and therefore another groan from Yeosang. “How do they look when I do that, Yeo? Do they seem to like it?”

He lifts his head from the bed to see your eyebrows knitted together, struggling to look at him. The sweat is forming on your forehead, causing your hair to stick together. A light chuckle escapes his lips as he drinks up your face. He glances up to his partner, seeing how proud he is of his accomplishment. “If that moan couldn’t tell you, their face definitely can.”

“Since I can’t see their face,” He pushes into you again with his full weight to press your hips fully against the bed. A higher pitched moan is muffled by Yeosang’s member but it gets the point across. “I’ll just need to keep hearing them.”

You remove your mouth from Yeosang, letting yourself actually get a decent breath in before I.N take this as his one opportunity to smack his hips into yours and get the reaction he wanted. You nails accidentally dig into Yeosang but he doesn’t seem to mind apart from the tighter grip to your hair. “Fuck, Jeongin! Ca-an’t focus when you do that.”

“There’s no need to focus, doll.” Yeosang grabs your chin in his hand, making you look at him. You can see just how much he’s enjoying this too with his temples and chest glistening from his sweat and his eyes hazy and lidded. “Just let me guide you and you can focus on yourself.”

With a smugness of your own, you ready yourself by giving him a long lick on the underside of his dick. He swallows deeply at your action before you say, “I’ve got to have my own fun.”

“Your own fu- shit, oh fuck me!” He almost regrets teasing you like that as you take him fully and quickly. He has to bite his lips and still his hips. He tries so hard not to thrust up into your mouth as you swallow him down like a champion. Your warm mouth is already starting to make him dribble pre-cum against your lips, so he can only imagine what your pussy would do. It almost makes him whimper at the thought. He tries to take matters into his own hands by eliciting the help from the other partner. “I think they want you to go faster, In-ah.”

“Oh do they?” When he does speed up, your drawn out moan lets him know he’s at a good pace and rhythm. A smirk comes to his face when he hears the break in your moan every time your hips meet his. He can see Yeosang starting to take control of your head movements now too. He feels pride in seeing you relinquish your pleasure to the two of them fully. “I guess you were right.”

Being in this position, it’s hard to not fall into their trap of letting them use you how they want. After all, once you give them rights to do what they wish, both of them start moaning like crazy. Yeosang has more of a gritty grunt that threatens into growling territory. You can only describe it as borderline animalistic. The only thing that keeps him from crossing that line is when you pay special attention to his tip when he brings you back up and there’s a short moment where the pitch increases towards a whine. That combined with his curses really creates a dominating sound.

Jeongin draws out his moans. They’re breathy and they’re loud, as if he’s trying to create a symphony with them. They’re pretty, that’s for sure, and he’s making sure you hear just how good you feel around him. When you squeeze your walls around him, that’s where you get the swears and praises that almost aren’t real words. He practically cuts himself off with more moans. You are going to be very surprised if he doesn’t give you a noise complaint in the morning from your landlord. Then again, all three of you can be at fault because you aren’t necessarily quiet either.

Though your sounds are muffled by a cock most of the time, there are moments where you pop off to breathe and one or two or three escape your lips. But you can’t really help it. Even when you jump right back onto the dancer, you aren’t fully quiet which causes Yeosang to moan out and the cycle continues.

“Fuck, I-I’m going to cum, shit.” Yeosang tells you two, his hips stuttering on the bed. He can barely contain himself as you hollow out your cheeks to get as much friction as possible. He had been leaking precum for a while, but didn’t want the night to end so soon.

“Me too, you feel too good, doll.” Jeongin smiles, his chest heaving and sweaty. “Maybe next time we can switch roles?”

“That would be fun, that way you can feel my cock stretch you out, huh?”

“And I don’t mind if you’re rougher.”

You look up at Yeosang, out of breath and ready to hear what he sounds like when he orgasms. Moving off of him for a second so you can prepare yourself, you let your hand stroke him before you say, “Get prepared to cum, Sangie. I’m not a spitter.”

Your mouth was latched to him like a leech, unwavering in sucking him dry. He felt what he can only akin to electricity jolting through him and pushing his hips up into your mouth. You start to lightly squeeze his balls, then roll them between your thumb and fingers to try and give him as much pleasure as possible. He threw his head back into the mattress, unable to focus on anything besides your mouth. When your tongue started to swirl around his tip, he knew he was a goner. “Oh fuck, oh fuck, ah fuck!” That was his mantra as he felt his orgasm bubble up and over and spill into your mouth. Once he started cumming, he looked at you to see your reaction and he swore he started cumming more as your hazy and fucked out eyes bore into his. He was definitely pumping so much of his cum into your mouth, he didn’t know if you could hold all of it. But sure enough once you knew he was done, you slid off of him while remaining eye contact and swallowed his whole load. You showed your sticky translucent white tongue to him as proof. “Holy fuck.”

You turned your head to Jeongin, who had slowed his pace so you can focus on the task at hand, and commanded, “Fuck me, Innie, hard.”

“With pleasure.” Once you turned your head back, he wasted no time in slamming into you to get him to his own prolonged orgasm. He could’ve sworn you were some kind of sex deity as you knew what buttons to press for Yeosang, and now him. Your ass bounced back to him with a loud slap every time and now that you weren’t gagged, he could hear just how loud you could be. When he would roll his hips into yours, you made sure you had a grip on his dick that made the friction so much more intense. This drove him crazy as he felt the burn of his own orgasm impending. He was getting sloppy with his thrusts which wasn’t hard given how much of your arousal had coated him at his point. You hadn’t even cum yet and you were so wet, it made his head spin. Soon, his moans reached the highest pitch of that night as he finally came inside the condom. His hips slowed down but still pushed you further into the bed. He heard your moans start to falter too, so he took matters into his own hands as his seed kept spilling. He reached between your hips and the bed, not allowing you to ride the edge of the mattress and instead rubbing your clit. “It’s your turn, doll.”

“Fuck me, ah!” You squealed, your body involuntarily contracting itself. Feeling so full with I.N inside you, his fingers roughly circling your clit, you couldn’t help but hold onto Yeosang’s thighs for dear life as you felt the burn of your orgasm approach to your core. While getting fucked in two holes, your orgasm was always two steps away and now its knocking on your door. You feel the coil release and the flood of your orgasm washes over you. You string out some more curses and moans and your body convulses with the power of your orgasm. Once Jeongin starts slowing down and starts milking your cum out of you, you can’t help but hum as your body takes a while to descend from your high.

The air around your three is hot and heavy from your cum, sweat, and panting. Trying to blink away the haze, Jeongin realizes he’s still inside of you. He gently pulls out of you and gently rubs your shoulders when you groan in protest. Yeosang gently scratches your scalp as the other man goes to find your bathroom to throw the condom away in. He watches you regain your breath and look up at him. He notices that while your eyes are still glazed, the lust and excitement is gone and is replaced by what he believes is fondness and content. “You doing okay?”

You nod lightly, starting to prop yourself up on your elbows. “I didn’t realize you two would have it in you.”

His chuckle is back to being bashful, the same chuckle that you adore. “We are full of surprises.”

“I can see that.” You wipe off your chin, covered in cum and drool at this point and look at the time on the clock. “Damn, didn’t realize it had gotten that late.” You hear footsteps enter your bedroom and see the birthday boy come back in, then watch him open your dresser drawer. “You know, usually, men take the panties that their lover wore as a trophy, not the one from their drawer.”

“I’m trying to be nice here.” He grows flustered at your comment, handing you a comfortable pair of underwear while grabbing his and Yeosang’s from off of the floor to put back on.

“I’m just teasing you.” You smile at him, grateful that he’s kind enough to think of you first in that way. You’re glad he can go back to the same, shy boy that you grew to form some kind of a relationship with.

“We can help you wash the sheets and everything tomorrow if you’d like.” Yeosang offered, pulling his briefs back up.

“If you don’t mind that we stay the night.” Jeongin sits at the edge of the bed, anticipating your answer.

“We’ll shower first and then wash the sheets in the morning.” You smile at them, watching their faces turn softer. “After breakfast.”

“I’ll help make it, Wooyoung has taught me some things.”

“But we can sleep in a little, right?”

You laugh and pull back the covers, ushering the boys to come join you. “Yes, but we have to go to sleep first. I’m fucking exhausted.”

Both of the boys smile and climb in on either side of you, nestling themselves into your sides for post-sex cuddles. While you are content sleeping on your back, eyes easily drooping closed from the events of tonight, the boys choose their positions with I.N resting his face in the crook of your neck and Yeosang’s head on your chest. Yeosang takes a look at your face, watching you fall asleep easily, then looks up at Jeongin. Their eyes meet, and suddenly there’s a wave of fulfillment that the two share. That feeling lulls them to sleep, holding onto you dearly.

In the morning, you’re awoken to the light coming in between your blackout curtains. With a groan, you stretch lightly and open your eyes to see that Jeongin is on his back, already awake and scrolling on his phone. You smile lightly and reach up to grab his bicep before whispering, “Good morning.”

His head turns to you with his big toothy grin, his free hand reaching up to run his fingers through your hair. “Good morning, how do you feel?”

“Pretty good, I haven’t moved much to test how sore I am.” You do try to move a little but are stopped by Yeosang who has a strong grip on your waist. He stirs a little at your movement, but not enough to wake up. “How do you feel? After last night?”

“Honestly, it was probably the best birthday gift I could have received.” He looks at you genuinely, his chocolate eyes warm when meeting yours. “I never thought I would ever have the courage to do it.”

“Thankfully we were all in agreement of what we wanted.” You rub your eyes lightly, trying to rub the sleep from them. “It was a good time, for sure.”

“Well, good,” He smiles lightly before his smile turns into a yawn. “I would’ve slept longer, but your phone buzzing woke me up.”

“Can you hand it to me?” You ask, then watch him grab your phone from the nightstand. “Hopefully it’s not the company asking me to come in.” You unlock your phone to see a few notifications, one of which is from Jeongin himself. You click on your messages and see he sent you a text that just said “Non_Disclosure_Agreement lol”. You hit his chest lightly and say, “You fucking prick.”

He laughs at you, knowing that would think it’s funny. “You said you would sign an NDA.”

“Do I have to make them sign an NDA too?” Yeosang rouses from his sleep, only having caught part of the context in his half asleep state.

“Unless we want to continue this little arrangement?” You ask them, wondering if last night was just a one time thing or if they want more. “I wouldn’t mind doing this again.”

“I think Yeosang and I make a pretty good team.” The youngest looks at the other idol, a small smile on his face.

Yeosang buries his face in your neck, looking over at his partner in crime. “I can agree to that. I think we should do this again. Soon.”

“Soon, huh?” You chuckle, running your hands through both of their hair soothingly. “I guess we will have to see about that.”

“But I think we need to ask some more questions first.”

“Like what?”

“Like what’s your favorite animal?”

You can’t help but smile at them both, relishing in the way they’re both looking at you. Maybe this might become more than just an NDA situationship.

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sshadowritestoriess · 1 year

Note

UH HI TELEPORTS BEHIND YOU.

would u be willing to write reader comforting cassidy. my mind is set on “i can fix him” mode rn i need to hold that man

HAHA certainly, I’ll give this a shot :]

Comforting Cassidy

Mind you, Cole Cassidy is far from being a dependent man. He enjoys his life and how far he’s come, likes what he’s got going. Gets a kick out of being a hero, really, even if that is a bit selfish

But that doesn’t mean things don’t get to him every now and again

A reputation can be a man’s greatest curse, and Cole has quite the ledger dragging behind him.

As much as he leans into the things he does now, figuring himself a better man— though a lot harder than robbing banks, he’d often say. But that just meant the work is worth it— the past never quite lets go, even if he did.

The Deadlock gang was just becoming more of a nuisance every time they happened to find him. He couldn’t help a smile for the nostalgia, but as time ebbs on it starts to get old

His involvement with Blackwatch wasn’t entirely his fault. At least, not in terms of all their wrongdoings. He just wanted to do right, but Reyes turned out to be quite the conflicting role model

And then Overwatch ended up disbanded after he’d already walked out. It’s what the world had wanted, apparently. Every news story preached about the fall of these “terrorists”, something he took to heart a little when his name kept getting used as one of the bad examples.

He knew he hadn’t been the best person. He couldn’t deny the things he did, but that’s why he had come to Overwatch— to try and make up for those things by enacting Justice for others.

So while he’d been doing a whole lot of trying for the last several years, he sure was getting a whole lot of shit for it. Still. Even when he was beginning to believe his good deeds were finally outweighing the bad.

So, yeah, it got to him sometimes. A recent headline, CRIMINAL MISTAKENLY EXPOSES JUNKER HEIST, ESCAPES POLICE SHOOTOUT — which was no accident.

He’d slipped a tip to the head chief when he’d run into the man at a bar, having intercepted a call between some other wanted felons. There was a literal recording of the conversation in the envelope he’d left— what part of that was “mistaken”?

When their troops didn’t arrive, Cassidy took it upon himself to hold them off until they finally realized he wasn’t bullshitting. Yet when help finally came, he was roped in with the bad guys, and he was shot at.

Adrenaline and frustration makes for one hell of a drug. Even through the fray, he didn’t stop taking down the junkers until he was positive the police could handle what was left of them. Then he fled.

He’d had to take off his hat and wrap it carefully into his serape, ducking behind a dumpster just around a building to tie his hair up— then glancing down to realize he’d been shot through his side— and slipped away from the scene through an alley. He held the bundle of red cloth between his arms like a football, covering where he’d been hit.

It was a lousy disguise, but the hat made for a pretty recognizable target when he’s being pursued. Hiding it lowered his chances of being approached, despite the soft clanking of peacekeeper in its holster.

So he’d managed to limp all the way back home, a temporary apartment just in the outskirts of the city. Your car was parked by the curb across the street— home early. Damn.

He came inside and you greeted him as normal, but noticed quickly the hard look in his eyes and the sweat on his brow. There was a scrape in his prosthetic, a dent in the armor of his chest, and a growing dark spot in the bundled serape.

Your worrying was always endearing, he just hates being the cause for your fret.

“I’m alright, pumpkin, just had a bit of a tussle-“ he’d try to tell you gently, a blatant lie that sank like a rock in his throat when you’d spotted the bullet wound.

You hurried him to lay on the couch, fetching some medical supplies you kept under the kitchen sink. Treating bullet wounds was a skill he’d had the misfortune to teach you, this wasn’t anywhere close to the first time he’d been shot since he met you and it absolutely wouldn’t be the last.

He could do it himself, but you had more careful hands than he did.

You demanded to know what happened, and he gave you the rundown. He always made sure to reiterate these encounters as if he were telling an exciting story, glorifying his actions like he were some kind of superhero.

This often lessened your concerns, but you still didn’t like when he gets hurt. You weren’t going to try and convince him to stop, though— you knew he was likely going to remain on this road until something eventually gets in his way

And then you asked a question he most commonly lied about.

“Are you feeling okay?”

Thus his default response, “Course I am, darlin’. Why wouldn’t I be?”

A soft smile, and a kiss. But you always had your suspicions that he didn’t want to be open about what was really going on in his head.

Surface level, he really was okay. He didn’t need to talk about this things, what did it matter if he knew he’d never be deterred?

But a couple hours later, seeing that damned headline from the events of today, you actually caught his solemn sigh from where he sat at the edge of the bed, glaring into the screen of his phone that was far too bright this late into the evening.

You caught sight of the large capital letters and his troubled stare, but the screen went black and his gaze softened the moment your hand touched his back

“You’re allowed to be upset.” You told him, “You’ve got no reason to pretend around me.”

“Caught me, huh?” He offered half of a smile, but it was tired. He couldn’t meet your gaze anymore.

You pulled him to face you, embracing him as tightly as you could, and told him that he was a good man. He hugged you back, though far more gently than the way you tried to squeeze him

He would chuckle to you, “I know, I know,” then wait a couple moments before finally giving in, starting with a defeated, “…it’s just…”

He rambled a bit about his frustrations, and how conflicted he felt about himself at times. He knew he was doing the right thing, but what was most important was if he felt it was worth it— right? Was it worth it?

You would assure him that, yes, he’d done more than enough. He should do what makes him happiest— only to have him make a sappy joke about being with you in response.

“I’m serious.”

Another sigh, he sinks into your hold. “Yeah, yeah… I hear ya.” it was just hard not to deflect.

He felt your hand come up to his head suddenly, and you thread your fingers through his hair to pet him.

He melts. Comically, he pushes all his weight on you until you’re forced back onto your elbows, his face in your chest. He’s happy to hear your laugh

You both get into a more comfortable position, but you keep combing your hand through his hair. He has your waist trapped in his arms, sealed against him, and his eyes are closed.

“Y’always know what to say,” he murmurs eventually, “my lil’ corner of good in the world. How’d you manage that?”

“I know you. It’s not hard to guess.” You tell him, “And… you don’t owe me your thoughts Cole, but I hope you know I’m here for you. You can always talk to me, you know?”

He takes a while to finally nod against you, a grunt being a weak acknowledgment that he understood. “Jus’ hard, a bit. But I gotcha.” He presses a kiss into your jaw.

“We’ll get there.” You say patiently, and he grins.

He wasn’t a dependent man, but damn it all if he didn’t enjoy leaning into you like this sometimes. With you, he knew he’d do better for himself too.

#Cole Cassidy #overwatch #overwatch2 #cassidy x reader #cole cassidy x reader #reader insert #jesse mccree #mccree #fluff #comfort #cuddles #imagines #headcanons

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atinystaypixie · 10 months

Text

Game of a Slutty Virgin - Pt. 2

Overview: “Look at you. Such a mess.” Jean says as he admires the work he has done on your body.

Warning: 18+, MDNI!!, shower masturbation, sex club scenes, everything is consented to, rope play, nipple clamps, let me know if I missed anything

Word count: 2.5k+

Part 3

Game of a Slutty Virgin Masterlist

"Y/n, you really are a slut" A deep chuckle is heard from behind your tied blindfolded body. Plump lips wrapped around the ball of the gag and ropes tugging at your skin as the man lays heavy slaps on your exposed ass. You're laid over his lap giving him the perfect view of your essence running down your pretty, brown thighs. You feel him smooth over the sensitive flesh before giving it another unsuspected slap causing you to cry out. The hits cause you the most pleasurable pain, making your core clench and eyes roll.

You squirm on the man's lap wiggling your ass silently begging for more. He smiles before responding, "patience dear, you will get what you want soon." You go to protest, but before you can get the muffled whine out you hear your alarm going off. Cracking open your eyes to be met with the bright sun, empty bed, and your overworked vibrator on the pillow next to you. The most irritating part is the dripping mess between your legs. Your dream causing your needy cunt to wake before you, soaking through your thin panties. Insatiable to say the least, your body is always desperate for a release. Cumming is just another part of your daily routine.

It’s the weekend and you decide you deserve to get the release you crave. Your exchange with Armin was a couple weeks ago and you haven’t seen him since. Sasha tells you he has been asking about you, but you brush it off because you weren’t interested in being with him. He’ll get over it and chalk it up to being another one night stand. There’s no reason for him to get attached.

You don’t have time to worry about that. The important problem at hand is the ache between your legs. With nowhere major to be, you can take time to pleasure yourself as needed. Deciding on using the morning as a self care one, you head to your bathroom. Pulling your faux locs to a bun and starting with a skin care routine then shaving away all the little hairs from anywhere needed. Your pussy being one. She’s so sensitive that you can’t help but run your hand over the smooth mound causing your clit to twitch. Getting excited, you turn the water on and get in the shower. Sighing as the warm water caresses your smooth brown skin. You lather your body till soap is dripping off of you enjoying the contrast between your skin and it. Running your manicured hands up and down your body till you stop at your hard nipples and twist them between your slick fingers. The feeling causes your body to buzz and squeeze your thighs together.

You rinse all the soap off and grab the shower head adjusting it to the strongest setting. You widen your stance and place the strong stream of water directly between your legs. Breathing picking up as the pressure stimulates your sensitive core. You can’t help but to reach back and slip two fingers inside your greedy hole. The mix of water and your own juices coating your hand. Your fingers taking their time to poke at your walls, feeling the warmth from your insides and water pouring from the showerhead. You love having selfcare days.

After treating yourself to four orgasms, a nice meal of your favorite food, and relaxing on your sofa, you decide there is one more thing to do to complete your self care day. You go style your hair, put on a tight red, strapless dress, braless, with a matching pair of heels before leaving to your destination. An outfit this alluring is used only when going to feed your deepest desires. The place where you come closest to being satisfied.

Stepping through the door of the building, you are greeted with light music and moans. The building being one belonging to the home of people looking to live out various kinks. Some on display for the entirety of the club to see. You often come here when looking to release your sexual tension that your regular vibrator and hand can’t give you.

“Y/n, you here for your usual,” you hear a voice speak to you next to your ear. The voice that was the cause of your release when you are here.

“You know me well, Jean,” turning to flash the man a smile. “Are you going to treat me well as usual?”

Jean takes your hair and pulls, making your head tilt upwards and your eyes meet his, “that’s not even a question. Follow me.” He starts leading you to one of the private rooms. Neither of you are for being on display and prefer to enjoy your activities in private. The secluded rooms are soundproof and well equipped with toys to satisfy the guest.

“Strip.” It’s one word, a command. A command you would usually follow if you weren’t looking for getting treated roughly tonight. “Not listening tonight?” The man questions before stepping closer to you, “fine. I’ll do it for you.” He pulls the top of your dress down causing your breast to spill out, landing smacks on both of them before he lowers the dress to your ankles. Moving to stand behind you, he takes both of your arms and leds you to bend over the bed. He runs his hand down your spin and leans over you, “color?”

“Green,” you let out in a breath of air while wiggling your hips back towards him. Your hard nipples rubbing against the sheets adds to the pleasure shooting to your pantie covered pussy. Jean knows you are needy which is why he is taking his time with you. The hand on your back lower to cup the curve of your ass. He squeezes it before giving the flesh a sharp smack.

“Cuffs or ropes?” He offers the option to you while backing away leaving you bent over the bed. You tell him to get the ropes. You want to feel the material on your skin. Your last few encounters with men not close to the roughness you crave. Jean returns and slowly slides your panties down your legs. Removing the soaked material and trailing a hand back up your smooth skin. He stops right where you need attention the most, fingertips grazing the area before pulling away.

Jean takes the rope and ties your arms behind your back and leaves your legs free. “Turn over and hang your head off the bed.” While you adjust, Jean readies the assortment of toys you will be using tonight. All will be providing you with the most pleasurable pain causing your arousal to flow at the mere thought.

“Want you to just focus on the feeling tonight, love.” He states before your vision goes black. The soft blindfold covering your eyes leaves you to rely on your hearing. You feel a callous hand run down the center of your ribcage making your thighs clench in anticipation. “Be still or I’ll tie your legs too.” He warns. The mix of his voice and hands make you more excited by the second. “Let me know if they’re too tight.” Is the statement he releases before you feel tight pinches on both your nipples. The nipple clamps squeezing them making your back arch. You feel a tug suggest that they are attached to a chain making it easier for him to manipulate them. A moan escapes you when he pulls again giving him the signal that you are enjoying yourself.

Reaching down to wrap a hand around your breast, Jean leans further and bites at your thigh. The drag of his teeth causes the muscle to flex from the sudden action. “Okay, Y/n. Let’s put those pretty lips to work.” Jean is about to give you what Armin didn’t. The one thing you look forward to when you are getting your throat stuffed.

“Gonna fuck this pretty throat.” You hear his zipper and then the shuffling of clothes. Jean runs his thumb over your lips before dipping it inside and pressing on your tongue. With his other hand, he starts guiding his cock into your awaiting mouth. Pushing it in then pulling out, teasing you. “Tap twice if it becomes too much.” You hum in acknowledgment letting him push his cock into your spit soaked opening. Thrust picking up making you gag as he pushes deeper and harder. The angle causing the task to be more difficult just like you wanted. Jean wraps his fingers around your throat as he watches it bulge from the intrusion of his dick. He can feel your muscles working, taking him so well.

“Just like that. Fuck,” he lets out enjoying the pleasure your wet tavern is giving him. The pressure on your throat releases and you can hear him grabbing something. The chain to the nipple clamps is snatched upwards towards him. There is nothing gentle in the action. It makes you release a yelp around his girth but the shock of the heat you feel on your body overtakes his previous action. Wax pouring on your skin sets you off. Squirming, moaning, clenching your tied hands, kicking your legs, and curling your toes. Jean gives no mercy and delivers harsh slaps to your thighs. “I don’t care. Be still!” He grunts and pushes into the confines of your throat harder. His roughness only makes your juices spill out more and onto the bed. He pours wax for a few more seconds on the expanse of your stomach before pulling his dick from your mouth. Your face has evidence of his actions. Cheeks covered in the spit he managed to push out of you as he made room for his girth.

Your legs are pulled apart but you don’t have long to notice because Jean is pinching at your clit. A shock running up your spin causing you to attempt to close your legs. He doesn’t appreciate that and lands a hit to your clit. “Spreader bar should keep them open. Protest and I’m gagging you.” He finishes knowing you were about to reject what he was saying. Jean knew you were comfortable with what he was saying because you didn’t use your safeword as he stepped away.

Securing your legs with the bar, Jean kept you on your back and started delivering harsh blows to the back of your exposed thighs. Hand to flesh echoing throughout the room. Your whines and moans fueling his sadistic side while feeding your horny masochist side. “Some throat fucking and wax is all it takes to get you dripping?” He gives a light laugh as he looks between your legs.Your inner thighs covered in yourself.

Jean runs a finger down your slit before taking both hands and spreading the wet folds. There’s a pause before you hear it then feel it. He spit on your soppy cunt. He hums in approval of his work before taking the ball of his hand and applying pressure to your clit. He slaps at it once more before pulling at the nipple clamps, “come on. Sit up.” He instructs while heavily pulling on the clamps. He adjusts you so that now you are on your knees, chest to the bed, and ass in the air. The position is uncomfortable but he doesn’t care and neither do you. You weren’t here to be treated nicely.

The heat returns and this time it is on your back. The feeling causes you to arch as the wax falls down your skin. You don’t expect to feel the sudden coldness at your entrance and jerk at the feeling. Jean holds a piece of ice between his fingers rubbing it up and down your folds as he pours more of the wax. The sensory overload causes your hole to clench. Jean watches in with lust in his eyes as your holes are presented to him. Proud that he is causing the girl in front of him to writhe in pleasure. His dick twitches as watches the scene in front of him.

Stopping the wax from pouring and picking up another object, Jean places the remnants of the ice cube on his tongue. His tongue finds its way to your folds, licking your arousal and spreading the ice. Once the ice is completely melted, he places the new object between your slit. The vaginal beads covering you clit to crack. He gives a test tug which makes you bury your head in the sheets. Satisfied with the response, he tugs back and forth on the beads. The stimulation hitting your clit repeatedly. He laughs when he sees your legs trying to close but failing due to the spreader bar. Jean places the end loop of the beads around his now leaking cock and leans over you, “let’s finish this together,” he says.

The sensation he is creating is driving your brain wild. Not being able to see or touch, making you more sensitive than ever. He places his cock between your ass cheeks and starts thrusting. The beads continue to stimulate you as he gets pleasure from the softness of your ass. The flesh jiggles and strokes him as he moves back and forth. You feel him take the chain in his hands again making you whimper and moan. A familiar heat rises in the pit of your stomach as you start to meet his thrust. Pushing back against him, rubbing your clit on the beads and enjoying the feeling of his heavy cock on your ass.

You feel a sudden vibration on your clit, not noticing Jean placed one more toy underneath you. A wand pressured between your cunt and his balls. You both cum from the strong buzz. He reaches around and chokes you through your orgasm, painting your back in his milky cum. Both of you panting as you recover from the orgasm. He unties the blindfold, ropes, and undoes the spreader bar. He guides you off the bed and to the mirror in the corner of the room. “Look at you. Such a mess.” Jean says as he admires the work he has done on your body. “Let’s get you cleaned up.”

After cleaning and Jean applying cream to your body to relieve any aches and pains. You get dressed again and leave the club. You’re glad you treated yourself that morning. Jean was rough, just not what you were looking for. Leaving the club you think back on how it is nice to explore kinks with him. He is your go to partner every time you visit this place.

You always leave Jean slightly unsatisfied. He’s a kinky man with a less than kinky tongue. He plays with your body, marks it, but leaves your ears wanting for more. The pain he puts you through physically needs to be the pain you endure verbally. This whole arrangement started from him taking a liking to you and him feeling he would be the perfect man to show the world of kinks to you. He didn’t need to know you had been introduced to it long before he was in the picture. Jean never received a kiss from you when you left him. It wasn’t because you knew you were coming back, you just didn’t want his lover boy problems.

He was good for a cum session, not staying with you.

Thoughts of a Slutty Virgin - 🧚🏽‍♀️

Hii!! I'm so happy you are enjoying my works! More to come with Y/n's slutty adventures. I hope you enjoyed the time at the sex club. Feedback is always appreciated and my inbox is open!

ENJOY!

Game of a Slutty Virgin Masterlist

Pixie's Masterlist

#aot smut #aot x black reader #jean smut #jean kirschtein smut #jean x black reader #aot x black reader smut #aot x y/n #aot x reader #aot x poc!reader #black reader smut #anime smut #pixie.aot smut #pixie.aot fic

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tbcanary · 5 months

Text

for arrowfam week day one: "ghost" and "grow"

(set sometime around ga vol 7, but not exactly accurate based on current timelines within the run. suspend your disbelief with me for a sec.)

There’s a girl sitting at Mia’s desk.

Not that that’s unusual, or anything. Mia might come from a family of famous caped crusaders, but the vigilante business doesn’t exactly pay well enough for Ollie to foot all of her bills in the heart of Star City. She has roommates – two of them, actually, girls who have known each other since college but needed a third while so-and-so is studying abroad for a year, blah blah blah – and they’ve been known to sneak in to use her desk so that they both aren’t stuck studying at the kitchen table like they’re in the opening scenes of a Dickinson novel or whatever.

The point is, people sit at Mia’s desk sometimes. It happens, and normally it wouldn’t bother her, even coming home from work this late. Even after she spent all evening cleaning up the cafeteria in the community center after some kind of Bean Incident none of the kids would blab about, no matter how much she tried to wheedle it out of them.

Anyway. That’s not what bothers her. The thing that bothers her, actually, doesn’t hit until the girl looks up at her. The hood of her sweatshirt falls back from her head, revealing a shock of bright pastel hair, and Mia doesn’t know anyone with that hair color but –

But she knows those soft brown eyes. She knows that dimple in the left cheek, accompanying the uncertain smile.

“Lian,” she says. “What. The fuck.”

And then she slaps a hand over her mouth, and the laughter spills between her fingers despite her best efforts. “I mean, shit, I shouldn’t — goddammit, Roy is going to be so mad at me for cussing, but I —what?”

“Um.” Lian shrugs. It is her, after all; her voice sounds exactly like Cheshire, somehow, but the way her eyes crinkle at the corners is all Roy. “Hi.”

Mia stumbles into the room, sets her duffle bag to the ground with a thump that feels more like an earthquake. She drops down onto her unmade bed and stares – not bothering to hide her astonishment, her disbelief – at Lian, somehow so much older, somehow exactly the same.

“If I’m being haunted, you legally have to tell me,” Mia insists.

Lian shrugs. The toes of her sneakers drag against the floor as she kicks her feet, hands gripping the sides of her seat. “Nope. Not a ghost.”

Well. It’s not as weird as it sounds, probably. Roy had come back, and Ollie had, too, hadn’t he? But Mia… Mia had been there when Lian died. Sort of. Or at least, it was her not being there that had done it, and she’d done everything she could to find a loophole, but there had never been one. Nothing. She’d been gone; it had sat in Mia’s stomach like a weight, like a rock she’d swallowed and couldn’t spit back out.

“Clone?” she tried.

Lian shook her head. “Mm-nn.”

“Hallucination.”

“Nope.”

“Prank?”

“Only from the universe.”

“Alternate dimension.”

“Maybe.”

“Well,” Mia said.

And then she swallowed.

And then her breath came out in a flurry of hysterical giggles again, a fountain she just couldn’t stop, and she dropped her face into her hands and let the flood come, let it pour out of her chest like an open wound.

“Fuck,” Mia hissed. “I—Fuck me. God. Lian, does Roy, does your dad know?”

Lian hums her confirmation. “He’s on the roof. He and Uncle Connor brought me to see you.”

“They’re…?” Mia pushes off the bed and stomps over to the window. She throws open the glass and leans out, looking upward.

Sure enough, a grappling hook arrow is hooked into the brick of her building with a rope dangling down. That must be how Lian got in. Mia should really start locking her windows, but it’s just so much easier to make a quick escape that way instead of going out the front door.

She doesn’t give a fuck about the neighbors, so she shouts as loud as she can. “Hey! Assholes!”

Two heads peek over the edge at her, one with shaggy red hair and one with a series of blonde braids. Connor, at least, has the decency to wave. Roy just raises an eyebrow at her, like she’s the one inconveniencing him.

Ugh. Brothers.

“What the fuck?” she shouts. “How did she get so tall?”

Roy snorts, and it echoes off the building next door. “Blame the multiverse, or something!”

“I can hear you,” Lian offers.

Mia waves a hand. “Shut up, I’ll deal with you in a minute. The adults are speaking.”

Lian huffs, and Mia can practically hear the eyeroll. As if she doesn’t get enough crap from the kids she works with all damn day, now she’s got a bratty teenager who’s going to be expecting a cool aunt she can come play hooky with, or whatever kids do. Mia wouldn’t know; she didn’t exactly have aunts and uncles to set an example.

“Can you at least come down here and walk me through it, instead of sitting around like two old farts at a chess tournament?” Mia demands.

On the streets below, someone must take offense to their big family reunion. Mia hears the distant – but distinct – sounds of someone telling her to shut the fuck up, lady! from the sidewalk.

Star City. Gotta love it.

“Fine, fine,” Connor says. He’s still smiling, though, and she watches as he pulls a rope arrow from his quiver. “Give us a second. Arsenal’s not as young as he once was.”

Roy lets out some kind of offended comment at that, Mia’s sure, but she doesn’t pay him any attention. Instead, she turns to face Lian again and all but tackles her, trapping her head in the bend of an elbow and ruffling her hair as she squeals.

“And you, you little brat,” Mia says, holding on tight as Lian laughs and tries to wriggle free, “are going to tell me everything.”

#arrowfamweek2023 #arrowfam week #mia dearden #lian harper #arrowfam #EHHHH WHO NEEDS CONTINUITY.#this is only a stretch because roy is here. bc based on [REDACTED] he may not be when mia shows up #ASSUMING mia shows up #but i'm going to IGNORE all of that #in favor of mia and lian #roy harper #connor hawke #fic.tb

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demonslayedher · 2 months

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Shall we talk ☆Pillar Filler???☆

(As well as the rest of the episode?)

Keeping it behind a cut because it's not yet available for everybody and a lot of people will appreciate being surprised (I know I did)!

First, how about that new OP??

I love how it sets this arc up for being a pause in the constant life or death struggle (for the Pillars anyway, hahaha), and pricks at how the Pillars always feel they are struggling to compensate for their weaknesses, and the inky hatred that fills their hearts which Oyakata-sama knows they've channeled into defeating Kibutsuji Muzan at all costs. I also had a passing thought the other day about how so many Japanese legends of demon slaying require the hero to call upon a non-human higher power, or use something like a poison or alcohol to weaken a demon before they stand a chance of defeating it. In the end, the medicine that Tamayo and Shinobu develop does serve this crucial role (and the sun fulfills the role of a higher non-human power), but it's otherwise ironic that instead of temporarily weakening a demon to their own level, the usual course of action is to use Breath to temporarily increase their power to that of a demon.

Attaining a mark sure increases the role that "temporary" already played in their lives, and it's really no question that they would choose to pursue that option, even knowing the result.

(Also, CHUNTAROOOOO)

So anyway, onto that filler!!

I loved it.

First, the nitpicking just to get it out of the way: why did a demon need to bother tying up a victim???? Whhhhy? Like, at least they didn't pull a Speedy with some contrived "this demon just toys with victims and leaves them injured instead of killing them" routine that makes for a happy low-stakes Piller Filler episode while showing utter disregard for what demons are and why the Corp risks themselves to stop them. (That said, I always love seeing other Corp members fulfill their own Corp duties with no relation whatsoever to Tanjiro, who is just one piece of a much, much larger whole.)

But rather than write what would ultimately be stupid dialogue with an insignificant filler demon, it's nice that Ufotable did not bother developing the Castle Demon. The totally undeveloped baddies are easy to cast off as Blood Technique (but maybe they could have looked a little cooler if, like, they were vaguely wearing samurai armor or something instead of just being in skin suits? Whatever, not important.) I appreciate that Ufotable did not bother to answer these questions of "why is the victim tied up" because the point of this scene was very obviously not about her or the demon. (I like to think Iguro cut the ropes and then told her to get to safety but just, like, left her there on the top roof).

So as for what this scene WAS for... hot dang, did it accomplish that!!!

The purpose was to make Sanemi and Iguro look cool, and it sure as hell did that. WHAT GOOD CHANBARA, those show-offy sword-play moves against a mob of nameless villains were just so deliciously well choreographed, and the people who can appreciate that were also likely to really appreciate the use of a castle as a purely fun battle setting. Ufotable was probably like, "Our biggest fans are nerds for KnY's touches of traditional Japanese folklore and culture, and for swords and swordplay, so you know what else will probably get them riled up? Yeah, let's give them a castle fortress."

And then everyone cheered, like, "Yes, yes, the fangirls like demonslayedher on Tumblr will never know what hit them."

But then some brilliant person spoke up and said, "You guys, I have the perfect finishing blow."

And everyone said, "What? How could we possibly top this scene that not only purely makes Sanemi & Iguro look cool, but also serves their characters and the plot nicely by showing how the Pillers don't feel they can rely on the other Corp members, and that even though they speak sharply to them they show concern for them by their actions? You know, especially slyly since anime-only fans will get to appreciate a new side of characters whom they haven't gotten to bond with much yet for only having seen their mean sides mostly and none of their battle coolness, and also slyly because the hardcore manga fans know that these two are buddies?"

And then the brilliant person says, "Let's give them that fortress."

The brilliant person was then crowned Ruler of Ufotableland and the fans lived happily ever after.

Speaking of Pillar Filler, I also want to point out how nice that opening exposition between Shinobu and Kanao was. First, what a nice way of incorporating Kanao into a nice episode that gives us a nice little dose of everyone in the Corp cast, even by adding that little scene of Amane and Ubuyashiki too. I loved the little touches that develop the Butterfly Mansion, like the fact that on the path there, they have a stone sign that says "Butterfly Mansion" and a line of carved Jizo statues (to protect travelers and (deceased) children) with little butterflies. And that moment of Nezuko frowning as the sunlight goes behind a cloud? Wonderful. And Shinobu essential saying to Kanao, "I trust you with defending everyone here in the now VERY LIKELY EVENT OF KIBUTSUJI MUZAN ATTACKING while I have to go off to a Pillar Meeting now that you're back"? I looooove iiiiiiiiit. That also says a lot about the trust other Pillars have in Shinobu to entrust her with Nezuko instead of putting any pressure on her to take part in Pillar Training, as clearly they don’t know about Tamayo, and it's really anyone's guess if they know about the poison or not (though the light novel implies Himejima might have an inkling but doesn't know). Being Pillars, though, I doubt any of them would tell her she's wrong for being prepared to take down a demon in any possible way.

I love, love, love, love the treatment of all the straight-from-the-manga scenes, like "Welcome home, Inosuke" (except for the added 'did you miss me, Aoi-chan' because canonically Aoi is the one kind of girl who is not his type), Tamayo speaking with Oyakata-sama's bird, Mitsuri's "explanation" of the mark, and every single Pillar interaction. I love the amount of respect they show to Himejima (and how Ufotable slightly expanded on this), and I am so excited for the extra Himejima content this season. In the new marketing materials released on the same day as the episode/movie, they make stark use of one of the kanji characters in his name ("cry out"), which is a very nice touch. And the use of BGM!!! Especially the touches of Giyuu's and Mitsuri's themes during the meeting!

*happy sigh*

It is nice to be a fandom citizen of Ufotableland.

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atiny-for-life · 4 months

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Ateez's Full Storyline Explained - Part 20

( MAJOR LORE UPDATES - I'm really excited!)

Masterlist

Will - The World Ep. Fin Diary Entries:

The Intro provides us with a bit of backstory to the setting of 'Crazy Form':

The city is currently mid-Revolution: the people who left the system (now classified as Sense Offenders) are actively fighting against the ones still trapped within - tensions are mighty high to say the least.

Graffiti proclaiming "Wake up" and "Be free" covers the city walls, though it has been hidden by the suppressors under concealment screens (this is something we get to see in the MV).

Fed up with the Black Pirates' activities, the government is no longer satisfied with just denouncing them as a terrorist group and asking for them to be turned in - they now deem anyone who joins their cause to be a co-conspirator. Simply put: If you're caught inducing emotions in anyone, you'll be executed on the spot. You won't even be taken to the Disposal Site.

We cut to a scene right in the center of the city square where Guardians pull up in their cars and approach the display erected there for one clear purpose. A rope is lowered and pulled, hands are dusted off and the Guardians take off again. Words are no longer needed. They leave behind, hanging below the display, the corpses of multiple captured and executed Sense Offenders. A warning to all who dare to resist: the next one could be you.

Unbeknownst to them, it has the opposite effect. Tears and sobs fill the air, cries of sadness and anger. The loss of innocent life reinforced what they already knew: it can't go on like this. Their deaths won't be in vain. The system can be changed.

The aftermath of the raid on Prestige Academy had spread by word of mouth, getting past all attempts at censorship, and showed them a path of resistance.

We now rejoin Ateez and Black Pirates right after the Prestige Academy raid where Seonghwa had left with the leader of Thunder.

The boy's brother, exhausted from crying, is sleeping in the corner while the remaining Ateez members are freaking out over Seonghwa's disappearance. Though luckily, he isn't gone for long and rolls up to the bunker shortly after.

Hongjoong immediately pounces on him and is like: "Tell me you didn't run off with that girl because she looked like the 'Be Free' girl like Yeosang suggested." And Seonghwa's like: "It's not like that."

He pulls out an unfamiliar map and explains it was provided by the girl as the leader of Thunder, the students' version of the Black Pirates, aka fellow revolutionists.

They'd put a tracker on the boy before he was captured and believe he's being taken to the Disposal Site which is the place the map is of.

Still doubtful, Hongjoong questions the girl's and Thunder's motives - why not join the Black Pirates? Why act behind their backs? - but Seonghwa reassures him: as the elite of the elite, Thunder has access to information that can lead them directly to Z.

We now get more background information about the Z-World and Strictland's main oppressor 'Z' in particular (which has me personally very excited because we're tying in some more old plot threads; side note: the Glossary has been updated accordingly):

He's the Z-World's leader of Sciensalvar. However, unlike in the A-World, where this organization was founded in 1999, is still rather small and lead by Henry Jo (see Fever Epilogue Diary Version), this Sciensalvar is a pseudo-religious scientific organization spearheaded by 'Z'. They're behind the creation of the AI simulation for the 'best solution', aka the answer to their question of "What do I need to do to gain absolute, unchallengeable power?" To which the self-learning AI answered: get rid of all human emotions. With this knowledge, they created a political party under the catchphrase: "The pursuit of a peaceful world without religious conflict and terror through emotional control." Said party grew in size until they were powerful enough to pass the 'Emotional Regulation Act' which lead to the solidification of the class system to the point where 'defective' people are now being 'disposed of'. However, as they have not yet achieved total control, Z and his political subordinates stay exclusively in Z's hideout near the city center where only the elites reside. They never leave the building, only the elitest of the elites ever get to enter and once they exit, they remain under strict surveillance by the Android Guardians to prevent the spread of insider knowledge. Android Guardians, who are collectively referred to as the Imperial Watch, are the only ones allowed to freely come and ago since they're not human and thus immune to being corrupted by emotions if captured and interrogated.

The Black Pirates have never been able to obtain the precise location of Z's hideout despite past efforts to catch a hold of suspects who they then coaxed into spilling by utilizing their breakers to surface long suppressed emotions.

Working with Thunder, despite the risk, thus now seems like their best shot at finally eliminating the hideout and securing a massive leap forward in the revolution.

We cut to Z's office where the Prestige Academy principal was just executed by the Head Guardian of the Imperial Watch.

A new order is given by Z: "Now that we've set the bait, the Black Pirates will go to the Disposal Site to save the child. Take care that no mistakes like this are repeated at the Disposal Site. Or you'll be the one replaced this time."

With a troop of 100 Android Guardians, the Head Guardian enters the Disposal Site alongside a slew of blue butterflies who spread out among the workers with red, marred skin from the furnaces.

The Head Guardian refers to them as the 'Red Humans' who are 'so hideous' they 'resemble goblins more than people'.

The troop marches after a butterfly fluttering down a hallway toward the cells where the to-be-disposed-of people are kept - humans who've been classified as physically disabled or harboring feelings.

They appear enchanted by the sight of the butterfly, unlike the Guardians who took no note of them, which leaves this singular one to continue onward past the cells toward a boiling furnace filled with the remains of the disposed. 'Red Humans' are stirring the remains in the incinerator as the butterfly rises up past the executioner platform.

Upon closer inspection, the butterfly can be identified as an animatronic containing a camera.

The next entry informs us that it's Yeosang who's in charge of the tiny delicate butterfly drone and here, to me, everything regarding these blue little critters finally falls into place (which is why Part 5 - Deja Vu and Part 15 - Answer have now been updated accordingly):

Back in Deja Vu, Yeosang took note of the blue butterflies fluttering around Strictland and how they're so common and, despite their beauty, get fully ignored by the unfeeling Android Guardians. As a result, he studies their appearance and anatomy, creates a 3D rendering (which we catch a glimpse of in Deja Vu and its appearance is similar to the one of the pirate ship hologram we got to see in Crazy Form, leading me to believe this is their usual modus operandi when they develop tech). By the time Answer rolls around, the 3D model has been turned into a fully functional animatronic with a built-in camera - a drone. This explains why the butterfly in Answer looks more artificial than the one in Deja Vu - it's not organic, it's a delicate little machine. A spy gadget.

Moving on to Ateez who are parked outside in their van: they're utilizing the beautiful little butterfly drone to compare the map to what they're seeing.

Deeming it all good enough, they strap in and Mingi crashes through the gates. They storm inside, trap the workers with their burnt skin in side-rooms and split into two groups - one in charge of freeing the imprisoned, the other in charge of warding off the guards.

The first group was left with the Cromer since they'd need to transport all the imprisoned to the Black Pirates' Bunker as fast as possible, which left the others at a significant disadvantage in their fight against the Guardians, even with the weapons provided by Left Eye.

They quickly get overpowered and Hongjoong is left on the ground with a gun pointed straight at his head. Jongho is left to call for back-up.

Back at the hideout, however, things are also going south - a fellow pirate bursts through the doors and informs them their location had been leaked to the Guardians. He barely gets to finish his warning before a beam saber cuts down his back and leaves him coughing up blood before he drops dead.

Wooyoung's thoughts are racing as he questions how their location could've possibly gotten out before Mingi looks to Seonghwa: "Please tell me you didn't share the location of the bunker with the Thunder girl".

Seonghwa, previously extremely sure of where the girl's loyalties lie, begins to doubt.

Meanwhile at the Disposal Site, a scream rings out - the Prestige Academy boy's.

The Guardian still aiming at Hongjoong's head offers an ultimatum: "Tell the members with the Cromer to come over here. I'll give you 10 minutes. Or this kid- well, you know what'll happen."

The timer is set. Hongjoong relays the information to the four members at the bunker.

Unable to leave the bunker fully unprotected however, the four try to fight off the Android Guardians before they depart, only to be struck down. Left on the ground. Spitting up blood. Seonghwa. Mingi. Wooyoung. San. Four down.

At the same time, at the Disposal Site, the remaining four are dragged along the ground to the execution area.

All eight of them think about how much happened to them since they entered the Z World - how much it felt like fate. They realized how powerful music and performance can be, how it can stir emotions in other people, how it's powerful enough to be used as a weapon against oppressive forces in this world. It allowed them to feel emotions they'd almost forgotten about and gave them a goal to achieve. They'd been happy here. And now they might die here.

But just then: a zap. And a Guardian hit the ground in the bunker.

People wearing "ridiculous masks" (according to Wooyoung) and armed with modified electro shockers flooded the bunker and began to take down the Guardians before helping the four Ateez members to their feet.

With their identity hidden behind their masks and voice modifiers, they promise to take everyone to safety and ask the four to come back once they're done at the Disposal Site. Their leader also hands a note to Seonghwa.

With no other option, the four take off with the Cromer's help, though the boy's brother manages to leap on them quickly enough to be taken along.

They make it just in time and use the Cromer to zip across the room, disposing of the Guardians' weapons by throwing them in the incinerator, but the one clutching the boy is quick to raise the kid by his throat and threaten to toss him feet-first in after them.

Momentarily defeated, Ateez get tied up with rope, but the boy's brother, who'd remained hidden nearby, manages to slide a jackknife he'd been keeping in his pocket to Yunho. One by one, the knife gets handed around as they free themselves.

Meanwhile, the boy begins to talk to the Guardian who'd dropped him back to the ground - it's revealed he'd been working alongside them all along to obtain the location of the Black Pirates' bunker.

When the boy had first found out about his older brother's break, he'd fled Prestige Academy and posted a message on Black Link (the system set up by Left Eye in Movement Diary Version: The Revolution which pings the Black Pirates when a citizen's chip fails so they can reach out and contact them) after failing to find the Black Pirates and their bunker.

With no one to help him, he hid out at the Disposal Site in hopes of finding a way to safe his brother once he was dragged there by the Android Guardians.

While still there, he received a message from his brother, asking him why he hadn't come home last night. Relieved, he returned home and discovered a message from the Black Pirates who disclosed a rough location of their bunker and offered to help him if he still needed it, though they'd have to clear him first over their security system.

However, after seeing the reality and experiencing the horrors of the Disposal Site, the boy chose to return to Prestige Academy instead and beg for mercy for both himself and his brother.

The Guardians agreed but requested the exact location of the Black Pirates' bunker in return.

Upon hearing this, Ateez felt betrayed which the boy's brother openly voices. He tells his brother that, after experiencing emotions, he can't go back and pushes him to leave the wrong side and rejoin them while there's still time to make things right.

Yeosang manages to trip one of the Guardians with his newly freed legs which gives the boy a chance to take his brother's offered hand, but just before they can make contact, the Head Guardian grabs the brother by the collar and throws him off the execution platform down to the incinerator.

The members threw off their ropes and pushed the Head Guardian into the incinerator while the boy jumps after his brother and Mingi activates the Cromer.

Mingi catches the gaze of the boy's brother as his legs slip into the incinerator. His eyes close. Mingi grabs the boy's arm before he could share the same fate. The boy screams.

Newly traumatized, Mingi drops the boy in a safe place and rejoins his members who're actively fighting the Guardians and makes quick work of them by tossing them in the furnace one by one.

The boy breaks down in tears.

Only the Head Guardian was left. But unlike all the others, he was suddenly tackled from the back by the boy who was rushing at full speed and dragging them both toward the incinerator.

Hongjoong's hand shot forward, grabbing the boy's arm who mouthed "I'm sorry" right before the Head Guardian's weight dragged them over the edge and out of Hongjoong's hold.

Hongjoong had no choice but to sit by as they disappeared into the incinerator below.

The distant sound of an explosion. "I know how you feel but... We need to get out of here first. The bomb's about to go off," Seonghwa reminds Hongjoong.

San takes them away with the Cromer right before the blue butterflies spread throughout the building flash red and explode, collapsing the Disposal Site.

While all this was going down, the masked people who'd helped at the Bunker were revealed to be Thunder and the note handed to Seonghwa was revealed to be a map.

By the time the Disposal Site went down, Thunder managed to pack all the prisoners into a big bus and take them past all the security barricades into the city center thanks to their high ranking elite status.

Thunder's main base has a garden. It consists of trees and flowers bearing the names of the two brothers and all the fallen Black Pirate members lost in the battle.

Dressed in black, Ateez, the Black Pirates, and the Thunder members bow to the dead as fireflies circle over their heads. "I will not let your sacrifices be in vain. I promise." Yeosang's words echo everyone's thoughts.

The fireflies ascend above them as if they were carrying their wishes to the stars. They watch them rise for a long time.

The village is located in a forest away from all government surveillance. A small haven. Thunder's leader is showing Seonghwa around as she tells him her story:

She met the Grimes siblings in this place and when she heard them sing, she realized that something valuable had been taken from humanity. Taken by Z. Reminder: the Grimes siblings are the ones who first helped Ateez when they landed in the Z-World (see: Fever Part 2 Diary Entries). At that time, she was already recognized for her talents at Prestige Academy and put in the position of Thunder's leader. As a skilled actress, she managed to continue on undetected, even while she silently planned find a way to rise high enough to meet Z - an opportunity very few ever got. By using her status at the Academy, she managed to prevent students from getting taken to the Disposal Site: spewing empty threats instead of reporting them as 'defective'. Her time there also allowed her to carefully approach others who had awoken thanks to the Grimes siblings. Together, they held a funeral for them after their souls were taken (see: Fever Epilogue Diary Entries). They heard stories of the Black Pirates and Ateez but, as a smaller group, needed to be more careful and couldn't reach out to them.

Her story gives Seonghwa hope that there are more groups out there fighting for their cause.

When he voices the thought, the girl feels the same hope for the future.

After the raid at Prestige Academy, the school is shut down and repurposed while students are transferred to other schools in the area based on their performance.

Thanks to a heart rate controlling device provided by Left Eye, the girl passes the emotional detection checks and manages to excel in her studies and is deemed the superior candidate among all students - she earns the position of Z's protocol manager. A position which will take her to Z's hideout.

They take her to the city center and into the underground parking lot by the central bank's building. From there, she's guided through corridors until they reach Z's office.

Inside, he's already waiting for her and immediately addresses how closely she'd been paying attention to her surroundings the entire way there - from the car ride all the way up to now. As if she were curious. "Curiosity is also an emotion. Curiosity is dangerous, you know."

Ever the perfect student and actress, she replies with "What is 'Curiosity'?" and offers her chip to be checked - a chip that has been modified by her to switch on and off on her comment to avoid detection at school.

She passes the final test and is hired on the spot.

#ateez #ateez lore #hongjoong #seonghwa #yunho #yeosang #san #mingi #wooyoung #jongho #will - the world ep fin

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deepouterspacecandy · 3 months

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Chronicles of Ember: Part One

Violence and sexual themes. 18+ only

Sometimes, when you’re alone and feeling nostalgic, you travel back to the memory of her simply to remind yourself it happened. It was real. Her touch engraved in your mind and hidden at the depths of your soul.

A towering pang wrenches at your chest every time you let yourself remember, really remember the brush with fate you experienced that morning.

The universe gifting you more than you bargained for during an otherwise dreadful scavenging effort. And it’s the skiff you notice first, with each trip down memory lane.

The way the pebble-strewn shore had nearly swallowed it whole. You can still taste your salt-bitten lips as you approach the small boat, gnawing at the dry skin you’d long since given up finding a consistent remedy for.

You weren’t sure what you’d find as you crept closer. History and hard lessons failed to remind you to scope it out from a higher vantage point before making your approach.

Sure, the scene appeared harmless from a distance, all wrapped up in giant swaths of dried kelp and peppered with barnacles.

A beautifully cruel trap. A stroke of dumb luck between strangers at the darkest edge of a desolate coastal town.

__________

“Holy shit.”

There were no supplies inside this boat. No ropes, no fishing line. If there was ever food, it would be difficult to find proof of it.

Instead, and to your utter amazement, there lay two frail bodies with just enough colour left in their cheeks to prompt you to check for a pulse.

“Holy shit,” you repeat, louder this time. The emaciated forms don’t so much as twitch and you’re not as relieved as you might otherwise be.

Huddled together, they appear lifeless.

You check for obvious signs of infection and its feeble work. Something, or someone, riddled one of the motionless bodies with injury. You knew a knife wound, or two dozen, when you saw them. These weren’t bites or scratches. But maybe you were just hopeful.

“Can you hear me?”

It had been weeks since you’d seen another living person.

You climb inside the boat and lose your footing, algae thick beneath your shoes. You catch yourself before you end up in the same unfortunate condition—piled on top of them like a soggy bag of laundry.

Your knee catches the sharp-set limbs of the woman below you and you hear her groan.

“Oh god, I’m so sorry!” you say as you kneel beside her. “I swear I’m not trying to hurt you.”

Deep-set scars paint the face of the boy curled up next to her, the rest of his body littered with lacerations, many healing badly. A side effect of a brittle immune system, you suspect, but you’re no doctor.

This world is unkind to most everyone in it, and you presume these two have survived more horrors in recent months than most face in their lifetime, based on their physical condition alone.

The harsh reality of the matter is that there’s no workable way for you to transport both to a safer location. It’s a twenty-minute hike to your current hideout, and that’s on a good day. Today didn’t feel like one of those. Rain is coming down in a drizzle, but it’s only a matter of time and you’re sure the screams you hear beyond sight belong to an unwelcome visitor or two.

“I don’t know what to do,” you say.

The bodies inside the boat offer no suggestions. Another shriek rings out from afar and your heart hammers inside your chest.

“If you can hear me, please open your eyes.” You wait for the flicker of eyelids or a cough. Anything to show there’s something left to save.

The scream you hear next sends a frigid chill down your spine. You twist awkwardly to investigate and immediately regret the decision. One hundred and fifty feet away, maybe less, you see it, extremities flailing in the distance like gangrenous, water-logged tree branches.

“I think he’s blind, but we don’t have much time,” you say, mostly to yourself. “Hey! You need to wake up. Now.”

The woman groans again as you shake her ailing body. You squeeze her shoulder harder and while you wish there was time for a gentler approach, you also recognize the abject danger you’ll face in about six seconds if you don’t make an escape.

“I really need you to get up—do you hear me? He’ll tear us all apart.”

You swear the woman mumbles something, but the sky tears open, giving leave to sheets of rain that thrash against the boat like a drum.

It’s impossible to focus through the pounding in your ears.

You lean in, close enough to feel her erratic breath on your face.

“Lev,” she rasps. “Take Lev.”

“What?”

She grimaces and clenches her teeth, her trembling hand weakly pushing the small body next to her.

You gripe, “I can’t move him by myself,” but she falls quiet and a sobering realization dawns on you.

She may have used her final breath to save this kid. It’s worth attempting, if for no other reason than to pay tribute to her last wishes.

You turn around once again to gauge the distance between you and a brutal death when you notice the weather has given you a leg up. Raindrops reverberate off rusty debris on the beach, disorienting the plague-ridden creatures that inexplicably travel in packs during your most vulnerable moments.

Although you’re not built for hauling the sick and wounded, you lift the boy until the boat lets out a deafening creak. It immediately draws the attention of a writhing monster, whose click-clack squalls turn your stomach sour.

You strip the coat from your back and place it over the woman you’re forced to abandon.

“I’m so sorry,” you say. “I’ll try to lure them away from you.”

******

Embers explode from the firepit and land directly onto your lap. You leap from the mossy log and flail around as if they have set you on fire.

His laughter booms.

“You little shit,” you say, and it only serves to make him laugh harder.

“My bad,” Lev smirks, proud to overuse the phrase he adopted from your experience with the old world. “It was my turn. I’m just trying to be useful.”

“Oh yeah? And you figure setting me on fire is the best way to accomplish this?”

Lev giggles and drops another log onto the flames, this time with more precision. “You’re being dramatic. It wasn’t that bad.”

“Tell that to the hundred tiny holes in my pants. I think you singed my leg hairs.”

He shakes his head, but the smile hasn’t left his face. In the year or so you’ve been travelling together, this might be the happiest you’ve seen him. You’d gladly accept another bucket of embers in your lap to witness it again.

“I guess we better try that camp after all,” Lev says. “Maybe they’ll have clothes. You’re going to need new pants.”

“And all thanks to you.”

“You’re welcome,” Lev retorts.

While his sense of humour has only improved, this kid has always made you laugh with a combination of his sheltered upbringing and naturally playful disposition. There’s darkness in the experiences he’s endured, but it hasn’t altered his humanity.

Which is more than you can say for most people you’ve encountered on the road.

“You’re probably right,” you say. “We’re running low, and I don’t think we’ll last much longer out here without better shelter.”

Lev’s smile fades. “They have tents. Good ones.”

It was the first thing you noticed. A group with large canvas tents and an abundance of ammunition, unlike any you’ve seen outside quarantine zones.

“It’s dangerous,” you say. “We’ll have to wait until it gets dark and even then, we’re walking a thin line.”

“What line?” Lev asks before shooting you another playful smirk.

He understood more than he let on sometimes.

“If we only take what we need, we should be able to get in and out of there before anyone notices.”

Lev nods, his attention lost to the pop and glow of the coals. He collects a handful of leaves, damp from the forest floor, and balls them up in his hands. They sizzle when he tosses them onto the fire, and you watch as their edges curl. He repeats it until there aren’t any leaves within arm’s reach.

“You doing okay?” you ask.

He frowns and ponders, pulls his knees to his chest to rest his chin. You figure it’s a step in a healthier direction. A few months ago, he might’ve recited the easiest answer before changing the subject.

“I miss her.”

“Your sister?” you ask.

“Everyone, I guess. My mom. My sister,” Lev says as he reaches for the crooked stick he’d been using to poke at the campfire. “Abby.”

You resist the urge to ease his grief with a string of useless discourse, but it rakes at your soul to see his expression fall. If there’s anything you understand at your core, it’s the anguish and despair the loss of a loved one can leave behind. You find it hard to swallow as you wrap your arms around yourself and listen.

“Sometimes I play it out in my head over and over, you know? Trying to figure out what I could’ve done better or quicker, or—I don’t know,” he explains, blinking back his sorrow. “Everything always happens too fast.”

He’s right. Between survival and catastrophe, there’s rarely time to pause and even less time to calculate. It’s a breakneck world where the infected aren’t the only ones looking to cause destruction.

You wish it could be different for him.

“I’m scared something will happen to you,” Lev says. “And then I’m alone. I don’t want to be alone.”

Your vision blurs and you concede to spilling a few futile words. “Well, I’m not going anywhere. Not if I can help it, okay? We’re in this together.”

“Even when I try to set you on fire?” Lev says, rubbing his palms against tired eyes.

“Yeah, even then,” you chuckle. “But you better watch yourself, because I hold one hell of a grudge.”

Lev sticks out his tongue in mock defiance before curling up to get some rest.

You wonder where he learned it from.

Based on his stories from his life with the Seraphites, you doubt it was a tolerated form of communication, even between siblings.

“Thank you for not leaving,” he whispers, and it strikes through you.

You wait for the easeful rise and fall of his chest before letting yourself shed silent tears. One for every collective piece of heartache, neither of you will find time to heal.

“Thank you for giving me a reason to stay.”

----------

If there were such a thing as past lives, it’s unlikely you were a notorious thief or covert operative—especially since you’ve spent an excessive amount of time lurking around a camp you planned to rob with zero advancement.

The makeshift barracks are crawling with soldiers draped in military fatigues, their bedraggled boots bludgeoning the muddy ground with every step. It has you frozen in place, sweat dripping down your back against the subtropical air.

“Food, shelter, disappear,” you chant under your breath, eager to feel that surge of effective fear Lev always talks about.

Instead of valuable terror, what you discover is that it would take multiple trips from the base camp to your small plot of land to manage building a complete shelter and a fierce pit settles into your abdomen.

You kneel and observe. If you’re sneaky about it, you’ll have a better chance leaving with a backpack full of ammunition and a stray weapon or two. Perhaps a hearty meal to boost your energy reserves so you can both return in better shape.

Or maybe it’s finally time to think about moving on and going about searching for a more permanent home. Before the thought of disappointing Lev can permeate, the whiz of his arrow flies past your head and sinks into the canvas behind you.

You spin on your heels to find yourself face to face with an angry gunstock. A burst of intense pain radiates through your jaw, accompanied by the metallic taste of copper pennies and a warm trickle down your ragged shirt.

Another arrow lashes the canvas, this time with a soldier pinned to it by the bulk of his shoulder. He cries out for his comrades and if you weren’t so dazed from the blow to your face, you’d have the good sense to run.

“Don’t you fucking move,” a stern voice warns. The frigid muzzle of a pistol presses into the base of your skull, the heat of a formidable body searing you from behind. “You move, and I end you where you stand.”

You struggle to snap back, reaching an instinctive hand up to your face instead. Your chin is a throbbing, tender orb as you slip your tongue across your teeth to check if there’s been any casualties behind your split lip. Thankfully, not. Dental care wasn’t exactly abundant in these parts.

The troop gathers instantaneously, surrounding you and your captor, and your body becomes a strained rope threatening to break. You’re acutely aware of the hand at the small of your back constricting your wrists. Maybe if you just twist—

“Don’t,” she snarls before yanking you closer.

Your shoulders ache.

“Who are you with?” she asks. “How many?”

“None,” you croak. “Nobody. I’m on my own.”

A gruff soldier trudges toward you, and you’re confronted by his rancid breath. “Bullshit,” he all but spits in your face. “Someone is slinging arrows and you either tell us where to find them, or we find them and make sure it’s the last arrow they shoot.”

“Please, just let me go,” you say.

The soldier pinned to the canvas seems to have a much worse go of it, his breaths becoming laboured as his gaze loses focus. It’s a frenzy of tending to his wounds and searching for the person responsible.

Lev has the astonishing gift of becoming a ghost when he needs to make himself scarce, but this group has clear militance and strategy that the two of you lack, especially in your bloodied state.

“We need a plan, Anderson. He’s bleeding out.”

A huff of breath hits your neck, and it’s miraculous her grip hasn’t eased up. Your shoulders and wrists are desperate for respite.

“Let me go,” you say. “I won’t be any trouble. You won’t see me again.”

The woman sniffs and clutches you harder. “I’ve heard that before. Fool me once.”

Her anger radiates with every twitch of her tight restraint, and you understand. But this fury feels deeper than it should.

When a soldier calls out from the field about a boy with a recurve bow, you lose composure and resist her stranglehold, lunging yourself forward. She fumbles but uses it to her advantage, taking you to the ground.

Gravel and twigs grate the skin on your arms as she flips you onto your back.

You shout in the face of the woman holding you hostage. Wriggle and try like hell to drive your knees into her back as she straddles you.

“Relax,” she says, and it’s an order. You crane your neck, desperate to locate Lev among the bedlam. “Hey—fucking relax!”

You don’t relax and you do not stop trying to break free. She grabs your face to redirect you and it’s the first time you cry out in pain. It shocks you both, her hand retracting so fast she takes her whole upper body along with it.

“I won’t let you hurt him. I swear to God if you touch him, I’ll kill you myself,” you spit and she’s still staring down at you like she can’t believe she caused pain to a stranger that, let’s face it, she is well within her rights to accost.

“Nobody is killing anybody,” she says, her brows furrowing into an irritated arch. “But you did this, okay? You and whoever you’re with. Why the hell wouldn’t you just approach our camp like a normal human being?”

“Oh, hilarious,” you retort, back to writhing against the unpleasant grip of her iron thighs. “I’ve seen your group, and every group like it. You’d have killed us on site.”

“You’re wrong,” she says, her tone arctic and deep. “We’re not all the same.” She gestures to the injured soldier being transported into a Humvee on a cobbled together stretcher. “But this shit has consequences.”

The Humvee is past its prime, but it starts up with a roar, soldiers packing in like a clown car. Your hip bones are raw from the friction of this brawny woman on top of you, and you’re not all the way convinced she won’t knock your lights out, so you relinquish any attempt to escape.

“What kind of consequences?” you ask.

She narrows her eyes at you. “What would you do in our boots?”

“I wouldn’t be in your boots,” you grumble. “I don’t fuck with community anymore—people are untrustworthy,” you continue, giving her a once-over, “and violent.”

“Are you referring to people who roll up and steal shit for no reason, or just the ones who hold you accountable for your stupid ass choices?”

Before you’re able to retaliate, her gaze wanders into the far distance and her unforgiving grip on your body slackens. Her eyes become fixed on the only person on this planet you care to protect.

“No. No! Please don’t,” you beg, but she’s on her feet faster than you can blink.

You scramble to put yourself upright and slip on the muddy ground before regaining composure. Your heart falls through your body as you watch this woman barrel toward Lev, helpless to prevent it.

You run toward them, fuelled by the ice-cold panic coursing through your veins and suddenly you’re clinched to her back, arms around her neck, weightless against her force but determined to take her down.

She’s agile in her movements and shrewd in combat.

You’re on the receiving end of her expertise.

The soldier holding Lev separates the two of you before the world shrinks in a way you never expected.

“Abby,” Lev chokes out. His bottom lip is wobbling, and you’re fighting to catch your breath before it clicks.

Abby is on her knees by the time Lev wraps himself around her neck, this time with no threat of bloodshed.

This is the person Lev has been holding out for all along—the person preventing the two of you from moving on to a more stable environment and you get it now.

You see why he needed to check the beach often. You understand why even after all these months and the deterioration of hope, he still dragged you down there from time to time.

What if she made it out? What if she comes looking?

You notice her for the first time when she spins to look at you. Steel-blue eyes, red rimmed and damp, raking over your form. She is rugged, and scars of every shape and size carve her face. But when she tilts her head, she becomes feather soft.

“You’re the one who saved him,” Abby says, her voice high and thick with emotion. “I thought it was a fever dream.”

Speechless, you feel yourself shrug.

She frowns at you, and then you hear it. The most melodic amalgamation of joyful laughter between Lev and Abby, while the combatants still lingering in the camp, gather in relative confusion. The soldiers murmur among themselves, and you’re suddenly overwhelmed by the worry of what to do with your hands.

“What now?” you ask.

Abby dips her head before finding your gaze. “I don’t know. We head back home.”

“What—what exactly happens when we do that?” you stammer.

“Well, we ask the boss how to handle you,” she says. “Maybe get this kid a bite to eat.” She gestures at Lev but locks her eyes on yours.

“Is your boss the scorched earth type? Because we didn’t mean to hurt anyone, and I’m not looking to walk us headfirst into trouble.”

She tucks a tuft of hair behind her ear, tidying up the mess you made of her low ponytail. Abby looks nothing like the frail human you found at the water’s edge. She is a mighty force, restored and rosy-cheeked.

Your fingers are a pretzel, and she studies the way you twist them together to soothe your nerves.

“I’ve got you,” Abby says. “Both of you.”

“What about your boss?”

“Right. Scorched earth and whatnot,” she smirks. “I think you’re safe for now.”

“You think? Well, that’s great.”

If you grab Lev and run for the hills, you might have a fighting chance at survival. Perhaps you’re overestimating your ability to outrun this absolute behemoth of a woman, but you’ve never been one to throw in the towel.

Abby orders her group to call for transportation and to prepare to move locations. They all seem to scatter in the wind, gathering supplies and organizing their gear.

Oh.

“You’re the boss,” you say.

“Yes ma’am,” she says, stripping off her sweater and handing it to you. Underneath is a tight black shirt you’re loathed to linger on a little too long. “Something like that. Play your cards right, and I might just show you how well we operate.”

Lev beams at you. “You can trust her,” he says.

Abby gave you the shirt off her back—that counts for something. You turn it over in your hands and there’s a patch stitched neatly below the collar. You skim over it with the pad of your thumb and let out a deep breath.

----------

The drive to their settlement calms your racing heart. Despite a serious reluctance to leave yourselves vulnerable, there’s comfort in an armed and disciplined group surrounding you.

Abby and Lev shift between gabbing and sharing their stressful trials and tribulations. You overhear bits and pieces about the weeks leading up to their separation and it adds up to exactly the state you found them in. You try to mind your business, but the journey Abby traversed just to get both feet on the road to recovery captivates you.

She slept for nearly a week after reuniting with the Fireflies. You suspect she battled profound grief the moment her eyes opened back up. If Lev’s own voyage is anything to go by.

“You like cats?” Abby asks. It isn’t until Lev elbows you that you realize she didn’t mean the question for him. “You know, with the whiskers and the purring?”

“No, I know,” you say. “Uh—yeah. I mean, it’s been a minute since I’ve spent time with any. Cats are alright.”

She chews on your answer without breaking eye contact.

Heat creeps up your neck.

“Cool,” she grins.

You need a quick distraction and make a point of staring through the windshield, sitting rod straight in your seat. You swear you hear Abby chuckle in tiny, quiet puffs of air, but it’s simpler to concentrate on the weathered trail nature has reclaimed.

“Almost there,” Abby says, tapping on the driver’s shoulder. “We’re going to hang back for a bit. I’ll bring them around in the morning.”

He nods and surveils you through the rearview mirror.

“Hang back where? You’re not separating us,” you say. “I’m staying with Lev.”

“Easy,” she warns, but she appears oddly gratified by your proclamation before giving Lev a nudge. “Quite the guard dog you’ve got here, huh?”

Your antics, as usual, amuse Lev. “Yeah, we’re not a bad team.”

“I can see that. Got room for one more?” she asks.

Lev grins, and before you know it, you’re the three musketeers.

The military vehicle lurches to a squealing stop, and you’re ushered onto a driveway overrun by weeds. Beyond it is a decaying structure snaked through with vibrant vines. Broken windows reveal the interior’s abandonment, but on the porch, a beautiful wind spinner catches the light.

“It’s a little rough, but it’s got potential,” Abby explains. “Good bones, as my dad would call it.”

“You live here?” you ask.

“I do. Well, sort of. I’m needed in town, so I stay there sometimes, but I’m trying to build something more permanent, I guess. I was going a little nuts without a project.”

A makeshift greenhouse rests to one side of the property, busy nurturing plants and vegetables you notice through the glass. Your stomach growls.

“Plenty of that to go around,” she says, nodding at her garden. “Venison too. We just got back from a buck hunt, so you’re right on time.”

“I could eat a whole deer,” Lev groans.

“Oh, yeah? I might be able to arrange that,” Abby chuckles. The steps that lead to her front door are rickety and she reaches her hand out for you to grab.

You hesitate before accepting her assistance.

“Thanks,” you breathe. “I’m pretty clumsy.”

“I figured,” she says, and her smile rivals the wind spinner.

Abby is a gorgeous woman, and the acknowledgment of it deposits a hard lump in your throat that you’re forced to swallow around. If you hold her hand all the way into the living room, it’s strictly for safety reasons.

“Home sweet home,” she announces, dropping her arm around Lev’s shoulders. “You’re getting tall, kid.”

“And you owe me a deer if you want me to keep growing,” Lev says. He leans into her and your heart squeezes.

Their bond gives you hope that chosen family still matters in this world.

Abby gives him a playful shove toward the staircase. “Go grab a shower, Goober. You stink.”

Pure excitement breaks out all over his face and he’s upstairs in record time. You haven’t set up camp near fresh water in ages and the thought of a hot bath is ecstasy.

“Any chance you’ve got a tub?” you ask, toeing at the dusty carpet.

“You bet,” she says. “I’ve gotta be honest—I didn’t take you for a bath girl, but it makes sense. Being clumsy and all.”

“You’re quite the comedian.”

“That’s what they call me. Abby, the comedian,” she titters. “The water tank is about as magnificent as this house, but it’ll do the trick if you wait a while. I can boil some water if you want.”

You fidget, and she picks up on your lack of enthusiasm. It’s a long-broken habit to accept any favours.

“It’s the least I can do,” Abby continues, and she mirrors your anxious hands.

“I tried to rob you.”

She draws her bottom lip between her teeth and steps closer. A breeze drifts through the fractured window and lifts her woodsy scent. An intoxicating blend of fresh pine needles and the sea helps your shoulders drop from your ears.

Abby raises a slow hand to your chin. “I’m sorry we did this.”

“You did nothing. I earned it.”

When she disappears into the other room, you take inventory of the few luxuries she’s placed around her home. A shelf packed with war-torn medical books. Another, littered with novels and wrinkled magazines. Oddball lamps, placed strategically around furniture to indulge her hobbies.

Maybe the two of you have more in common than you expect.

“Here!” Abby announces, and you jump nearly an inch off the ground. “Shit, sorry—I didn’t mean to spook you.”

“It’s fine.”

She flames up into a crimson red, peppered down her neck and onto her collarbone. “Sit down,” she orders, gesturing to a lonely Lawson chair. “Please.”

“Why?” you ask.

When she huffs in what you can only perceive as annoyance, you fight back a smile. Lev and Abby share characteristics only you would likely notice. Little idiosyncratic behaviours buried from the naked eye.

“I’d like to clean that up for you, if you’ll let me.”

“Is it that bad?”

Abby winces. “I don’t want it to get infected. An ounce of prevention, a pound of cure. It’s more relevant than ever lately.”

You amble past the couch and pause when you hear her slide a chair across from yours. It’s shrill as it drags across the floor, and your breath catches.

“You startle easily,” she says, and it’s to herself more than anything—reminiscent of a doctor taking notes to save in your personal file folder. “I promise I won’t hurt you, okay? Please let me take care of this. I’ll be gentle.”

“Gentle Abby. Any association with Comedian Abby?”

“They’re one and the same. I’m extremely dynamic.”

Your uncertainty fades as you drop onto the reading chair. It’s rather comfortable for a piece of furniture you suspect is on the wane. She taps your outer thighs, and you make room for her between your knees.

“Wow. You’re pretty confident for a nerd,” you tease. “Do they know their boss reads romance?”

Her mouth quirks up into a half-smile. “You’re awful nosey for a scaredy cat.”

“I’m observant,” you correct. “One of many skills I’ve gained.”

“Now who’s the cocky one?”

Lev, for an archer of stealth, shocks you both into submission with his thunderous jaunt down the stairs. His hair is a porcupine, sticking up in every direction. Haircuts have been sparse and poorly done with a dull knife until now, but it has made for some funny conversation along the way.

“Can I eat?” Lev asks, making his way into the kitchen. Cupboard doors squeak open and closed, and he hollers to make up for the distance. “Oh man, look at all this food! What’s this brown leather stuff?”

The corners of Abby’s eyes crinkle as she gazes up at you. She hollers back, “Jerky.”

“Can I eat it all?”

Abby’s glee strikes a match to your chilly skin and melts you like ice. You want her to take her time mending your wounds and the thought sets free a butterfly net of flutters between your ribs.

“Knock yourself out,” she shouts.

“What does that mean?” he shouts back, muffled by the jerky you suspect he has shoved into his mouth with both fists.

Abby wrings out the cloth she’s been using to clean the dried blood from your face. She soaks it in a basin of warm water before repeating the process, pressing it to your lower lip. Your eyelids fall as she dabs and glides the spongy cotton along your chin, collecting stray droplets of water as they escape down your neck.

“Is this okay?” she murmurs. “Does it hurt?”

It’s a concerted effort to speak. “No.”

She stops.

“I mean, yes, it’s okay. It feels good—or you know. It doesn’t feel bad.”

Hidden behind your sleepy eyelids, you avoid the embarrassment of your tangled words. Her hand cradles your jaw as her breath chills your wet skin. A deep ache blooms at your core and you catch yourself squeezing your knees against her in response.

It has been a lifetime since you’ve experienced euphoria from human connection. You gnaw on the lip she’s trying to mend, and she delicately scolds you.

“Tired, sweetheart?” she murmurs, and you’re fading fast.

Staying alive has cost you the lavishness of meaningful rest. Inside the walls of Abby’s peaceful home, knowing that Lev is safe, you are losing the resolve to combat sleep. You whimper as the heat of her body abandons you, but before you can protest, you’re off the chair and in her embrace.

“What’s wrong?” Lev asks. “What’s happening—she’s okay, right?”

Abby’s whisper reaches your ears, but your energy has drained from every muscle. “She’s okay. Exhaustion has a way of catching up. I’m going to get her to bed.”

“Good idea,” you hear Lev say. “Make sure a blanket covers her feet. She won’t stay asleep if you don’t.”

“Gotcha. Thanks,” Abby says.

The creak of the old wooden stairs and a pair of powerful arms lull you into a potent slumber.

#abby x you #abby x reader #abby the last of us #abby tlou #tlou 2 #abby anderson #abby x fem!reader #abby x y/n

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