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ggukcangetit · 4 years

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Dreamcatchers 5

Pairing: jungkook x oc

Summary: DI Jeon didn’t need a new partner. Unfortunately, his superiors felt otherwise; especially considering the extremely high-profile murder that had just taken place in the port city. Recent transfer, DI Choi Yuri finds herself confronted with a new cityscape, unfamiliar people, a hostile partner, and a homicide that is certain to bring back unpleasant memories.

Genre/AU: fluff/action/mystery | detective! au | police!jungkook, police!oc

Word Count: 3.7k

Rating: NC-17

Warnings: mentions of violence, alcohol, blood, drugs, death. basically stuff you’d associate with a murder mystery/crime drama.

Chapters: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | A/N: found a lovely group of people at bsh and their enthusiasm is infectious enough to get me to write a lot more than i had originally planned. reminding everyone that this story features a named oc because i’m still very unfamiliar with writing second person reader inserts. i’m not aiming for strict accuracy in this story, and all criminal investigation/forensics knowledge i have has been gathered by watching crime drama/procedural dramas! my knowledge of geography is also not totally accurate so apologies for that. once again, one thing right by @hobios prompted me to write a police inspector! jungkook story. would highly recommend reading that because it’s probably one of my most favorite pieces of writing! additional note: the timeline at the end of the post is what i imagine yuri and jeongguk were constructing on the station’s white board in the last scene.

20th December

Seokjin was inside his bakery, getting ready to open in a little bit, when frantic knocking interrupted him. Checking his watch, he saw that it was 6.52 am, which meant that he had 8 minutes until opening. While people in this town were known to wake up at the crack of dawn, he had never had anyone knocking at his door before opening time. A second set of knocks - much louder this time - made him rush over to the front door.

"They've arrested Jimin on suspicion of murder."

Taehyung stood there looking more lost than he had ever seen him. Even more than when he had found Seokjin months after the latter had left home. Even more than when he had been given the responsibility of taking over the company. Taehyung, who struggled to wake up in time for 10 am meetings, was wide awake before the clock struck 7 and looked like he hadn't slept a wink the previous night.

"Did you run all the way here?" Seokjin asked. Taehyung's hair looked windswept and beads of perspiration lined his forehead despite it being the middle of winter.

"Why've they arrested him? He would never do something like that!"

"Come inside first. You'll catch a cold if you stay outside like this."

Once inside, Taehyung didn't look any less perturbed - his expressive eyes glistening with many different emotions. Seokjin brought out a cup of hot chocolate and a red bean bun, sitting down opposite his younger brother.

"Now, tell me what's going on."

"Jimin was arrested last night on suspicion of murder."

"Murder? You mean Eunwoo? They think Jimin had something to do with Eunwoo's death?"

Taehyung nodded his head, the initial rush of adrenaline having worn off, leaving him looking significantly more worn out.

"Do you know why? How did you even find out? Did Jimin tell you?"

"No. Ahreum did." Taehyung rubbed his face with his hands, trying to rid himself of the terrifying thoughts rushing through his mind. "She was there when Yuri - that's her friend who's also Jeongguk's new partner - made the call. There must be some mistake!"

Seokjin bit his lip worriedly. While Jimin had been Taehyung's best friend since they were little, there was no doubt that the former led a very wild life involving many questionable escapades. He didn't know much about Yuri, but there was no doubt in his mind that Jeongguk was a very competent detective who knew what he was doing.

"I don't know what I should do." Taehyung's voice, jolted him out of his thoughts. "I should go down to the station, shouldn't I? Jimin probably needs someone there with him. What about getting a lawyer? Should we ask Namjoon? I-"

"Slow down, Taehyung," Seokjin said, patting his brother's shoulder reassuringly. "I'm sure Jimin's gotten a lawyer himself. His family has a lot of resources. But if you want, you can drop by the station in case he needs something."

"Y-yeah, I should do that. I'll go right now. I- Shit!" Taehyung patted his coat pockets frantically. "I can't find my car keys!"

"You didn't drive here," reminded Seokjin, gently. "Do you want me to drive you there?"

The bell hanging above the front door jingled softly at that moment, signalling Seokjin's first customer of the day.

"No, you shouldn’t leave your bakery. It would be bad for business." Taehyung shook his head, the helpless look in his eyes not leaving him despite his conviction to leave his brother out of this.

"Why don't you ask Ahreum if she can give you a lift? Isn't she usually up by this time?"

"You're right! I'll do that!"

Seokjin busied himself with the customer who had just come in, his eyes wandering towards his brother ever so often. Ahreum picked him up 15 minutes later, but Seokjin couldn't shake off the worried feeling he had gotten after seeing Taehyung so frantic and helpless.

...

Yuri had reached the station at 6 that morning. She hadn't slept last night, going through every inch of evidence and every statement they had taken related to Kang Eunwoo's murder. Her stomach had dropped when she had read the email from Seulgi last night. It wasn't that she was convinced that Jimin was a saint who had nothing to do with this, but the fact that he had finally decided to give a blood sample suggested either that he was innocent, or that he was guilty but somehow knew that he would be able to escape the charges. Both options did not bode well with her.

Jeon arrived around half past 6, the bags under his eyes suggesting that he had also had a sleepless night. He didn't say anything, just heading straight for his desk and pouring over a set of files like he had a final exam he was cramming for.

Chief Inspector Goh had spoken to both of them on a conference call last night once news of Jimin's arrest had been confirmed.

"Are we completely sure about this?" His voice hoarse, indicating that the call had disturbed his slumber.

"Yes, sir," Yuri replied, not waiting for her partner to chip in. She was the one who had received the email from Seulgi, she had been the one to convince Jimin for a blood sample - this was her line of inquiry. Which made her all the more nervous.

"I'm sure I don't need to remind either of you that the Parks are difficult customers. Young Mr. Park does not have a criminal record despite his many infractions over the years."

"We are aware, sir." Jeon answered this time, being more familiar with the social landscape than Yuri. "Everything will be carried out according to proper procedure."

"Good. Be prepared to deal with lawyers as well. I have a suspicion that that bastard Song will be representing the Park boy tomorrow. Jeongguk, I'm sure you're aware of his reputation and the kinds of clients he usually represents."

Yuri did not know about this particular lawyer, but made a note to look up his previous cases to get an understanding of what they were up against. She had no doubt that Jeon would be as unhelpful as he had been since she had first arrived.

"You can't start the interview before 8 am, but given that he was arrested just before midnight, we will have lost 8 precious hours out of the total 48 before we have to either charge him or release him on bail. Be clear, be smart, and do not allow anyone to string you along."

"Yes, sir." They both replied, before ending the call.

"Do you want to go over the interview strategy?"

Jeon's words took Yuri by surprise. She had been expecting a cold shoulder at best, and unfiltered hostility at worst.

"Y-yeah sure," she replied, turning her chair around to find that he had moved over to her side of the cubicle already.

"I think we should lead with the blood match," he continued, frowning at a sheet of paper. "What do you think?"

"While that is the most efficient way to approach it," said Yuri, pausing to organize her thoughts. "We could also press him to provide us with an alibi."

"Why'd you think that?"

Yuri tapped her fingers on the table, wondering how far she should try and explain her idea to Jeon. "I just... He was very uncooperative about providing an alibi last time. But then he came down and voluntarily gave a blood sample, which has put him in a much worse position than not providing an alibi. I don't know why he would refuse the low risk option in favor of the high risk one."

Jeon scoffed. "Well you clearly don't know Jimin then."

"Well obviously not like you lot do," she frowned, folding her arms across her chest.

"Don't get me wrong," he continued, leaning against the divider. "Your confusion is completely valid, but this behavior is very much in character for Jimin."

"How'd you mean?"

"He's a loose canon. He has no regard for authority - half of what he does is to piss off people in power or positions of authority. Jimin's always been like that as far as I can remember. But-" he paused and rubbed the back of his neck tiredly - "this is much more serious. This is murder."

Yuri pressed her lips together, wondering how difficult the interview was going to be.

8 am

"You are aware that you have been arrested on suspicion of the murder of Kang Eunwoo on 16th December."

Park Jimin looked very different from the previous few times Yuri had met him. His silver hair was devoid of any gel, making him look drastically younger. He was not wearing expensive lounge wear like he had been during the previous interview. The only thing that remained unchanged was the emotionless look in his cold grey eyes.

His lawyer, on the other hand, looked quite cheerful - smug even. As if he knew in advance that his client would get off without any charges no matter how serious the offense.

"When you were here a couple of days ago, we asked you where you were on the night of December 15th. And you did not provide us with an answer." Yuri paused, trying in vain to discern something from Jimin's expression. "So let me ask you again - where were you on the night of December 15th?"

"No comment."

"I must impress upon you the importance of this matter. You are the prime suspect in the murder of a rival family's heir. If you do not provide an alibi, we will be forced to assume that you do not have one."

Silence.

"Your blood was found on the victim's clothes." Jeon took over, moving along to the main line of inquiry. "What can you tell us about that?"

"No comment."

"The victim's father says that you visited their house on the night that the victim was murdered. What do you have to say about that?"

"No comment."

This was not going any better than the previous interview. In fact, Yuri thought this one was much worse. Even though they should have had the upper hand, Jimin's unperturbed, stoic expression indicated otherwise. The blood on the sleeve was enough to charge him, but with the Park family's resources there was always a chance that Jimin would be able to get off in court. Which was why they needed to build a stronger case against him.

Jeon continued persisting with the questions, receiving an emotionless "no comment" every time. The lawyer looked rather relaxed, and Yuri tried her best to avoid looking at him. Instead, she focused on Jimin. Everything about him was unreadable - his eyes, his body language, his face, his tone of voice. Despite his more casual appearance this time around, his fingers were still adorned with multiple rings. Her eyes lingered briefly on his hands, absentmindedly counting the number of rings when something struck her.

Jeon had paused to look through his notes, and Yuri took this opportunity to dive in.

"Mr. Park," she began, placing a hand on Jeon's knee to stop him from interrupting her. "I noticed that you always wear a lot of rings on your fingers."

"As far as I can remember, DI Choi," said Jimin's lawyer. "Wearing a lot of rings is not a criminal offense."

"And I commend you on your immaculate memory," she replied, dryly. "Getting back to what I was saying, you wear a lot of rings. Are they supposed to be a fashion statement? Or do they have some greater significance?"

Jimin's expression flickered for the briefest of moments.

"For example," she continued, indicating the ring on the little finger of his left hand. "That's an unusual design - quite old-fashioned compared to the rest of your rings. Is there anything special about that ring?"

"I don't understand how this is relev-"

"Then why don't you let your client answer himself."

For the first time since the interview had begun, Jimin's posture changed slightly. "That ring belonged to my mother."

"I see... that must hold a lot of emotions for you." Yuri removed her hand from Jeon's thigh, indicating that he could continue. He didn't say anything to her, preferring to hold eye-contact for a few meaningful seconds

"I'm going to ask you one last time," he said, taking over once again. "Where were you on the night of December 15th?"

"No comment."

...

"What was that about?" asked Jeon, once they were out of the interview room.

"What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean," he sighed in exasperation. "The ring, Choi."

"Just wanted to bring down his guard a bit," she shrugged.

He looked unconvinced, but dropped it seeing as they had more pressing things to deal with at the moment. Shaking his head, he went into Goh's room to update him on the outcome of the interview.

Making sure that the door to the Chief Inspector's room had been shut completely, Yuri switched on her laptop and pulled up every bit of information she had on Jimin. Even though she had gone over it less than 2 days ago, there were some things she needed to confirm. If what she thought was even remotely possible, they had been looking at things wrong the entire time.

"Hello? Telecoms Division? This DI Choi Yuri, badge number XXXX. I wanted to check whether this phone number is currently being used in Korea. Yes, I'll hold."

She tapped her fingers on the desk nervously, hoping she could get the information before Jeon came back. While it was true that he hadn't been openly hostile with her over the past 24 hours or so, she didn't want to risk pissing him off without something concrete.

"Yes, I'm still here," she breathed a sigh of relief when the person on the other end of the line took her off hold. "Really? Okay. And can you tell me if the number was being used overseas at any point in the past 2 months? I see... Would it be possible to send this to my official email? Great! Thank you very much for your help."

A couple of minutes later, Yuri's laptop pinged, indicating a new email. She read through everything carefully- once, twice, making sure she had gotten everything down accurately.

Fuck...

"Going somewhere?" Chief Inspector Goh walked out of his office to see Yuri putting on her coat and packing her bag.

"I- uh- yes."

"There's a lot of paperwork that has to be done, I'm afraid," he continued, checking messages on his phone. "You and Jeongguk will probably need to be here well past usual hours."

"Of course, sir." Yuri shrugged off her coat and sat down with a sigh.

6 pm

Seven hours. It had been seven hours since Yuri and Jeon had begun working their way through the piles of paperwork Goh had instructed them to finish.

"I'm hungry." Jeon stretched his arms above his head, yawning with his entire being. "Do you wanna get some takeout?"

"What?" Yuri looked up from the page she had been trying to read for the past fifteen minutes. Her eyes were glazing over with exhaustion.

"Food. Dinner. Sustenance."

"Y-yeah," Yuri blinked her eyes rapidly. "Sorry what were you saying?"

"You know what? Never mind. I'm just ordering a bunch of things- " He unlocked his phone and began typing away furiously. "Eat whatever you like from there."

Yuri gazed at him for a few moments, trying to reorient herself with the three dimensional world. She noticed that he was sitting on the swivel chair with his feet tucked beneath him - something oddly endearing which didn't really fit her image of him.

"I like dumplings," she said, more to herself than anyone else.

Jeon smirked but didn't say anything.

Half an hour later, a dozen or so takeout containers lay open in front of them - occupying more of Yuri's desk than Jeon's, much to her annoyance. He had rolled up the sleeves of his black shirt, slurping the hot noodles rather noisily.

Yuri threw him a quick glare and reached over to pick up a couple of fried chicken pieces.

"So why'd you ask Jimin about the ring?"

"I see you haven't forgotten about that," Yuri rolled her eyes, biting into the juicy meat.

"It was too specific to be a random thought," he shrugged. "So, are you gonna tell me or...?"

"I don't know if I can trust you, Jeon," she replied, simply.

"W-what?" he spluttered on the noodles, gulping some water to stop choking. "I'm your partner! Why can't you trust me?"

"I don't know..." Yuri tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Is it because you only glared at me on my first day? Or is it because you haven't greeted me civilly even once since I joined? Ooh, I know! Maybe its all of these combined with the fact that you've been an uncooperative bastard since I got here."

Jeon stared at her guiltily, his eyes widening considerably - giving him an expression akin to a deer caught in the headlights. "You're right. I apologize for that."

"Against my better judgment, I'll accept your apology. But you have Yoongi to thank for that."

Jeon smiled into his noodles at the mention of Yoongi.

"You also have Yoongi to thank for what I did yesterday," she continued, setting down the empty container. "I nicked your 2nd Nov case file and went through it."

"You what? When?!"

Yuri waved her hand dismissively. "Details. Unimportant. Yoongi suggested I should and I did. But that's not what I wanted to talk about."

"Anything else of mine you've nicked in the 5 days that you've been here?" grumbled Jeon, but there was no real bitterness in his tone.

Ignoring his comment, she pulled out her phone from the charging socket. "The reason I asked Jimin about his rings, is this -" she scrolled up to a particular picture and passed the phone over to him - "The ring found at the 2nd Nov crime scene is identical to the one Jimin wears on his left little finger."

"Are you sure...?" Jeon asked, raising an eyebrow uncertainly. "Even if it is, what's to say there aren't hundreds of other identical rings belonging to people across the country?"

"I did think that initially," Yuri took her phone back, and pulled up another image. "Which is why I asked Jimin about it during the interview. He said that it belonged to his mother. I'm sure you know this much better than I do but the late Mrs. Park came from a very old, distinguished family. That ring that Jimin was wearing is a family heirloom - from his mother's side. Here's an article that covered heirlooms of famous families in Korea, and it mentions the Park family."

Jeon took the phone from her, a frown forming on his face. The article was dated around 3 years ago.

"According to the article, there were three rings in total. One that belonged to Mrs. Park - which was buried with her after her death - and two others belonging to Jimin and his older brother Minhyuk. Not just that, there's a picture of Jimin and Minhyuk in the article, where they're both wearing the rings."

"Shit... You're right." Jeon pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling a headache coming on. "During the investigation, we just assumed that the ring belonged to the victim and had slipped off her finger during the struggle."

"Three rings," said Yuri. "One that has presumably been buried in a grave for over 10 years. One that was definitely on Jimin's finger today. And one that was found at the 2nd Nov crime scene."

"Minhyuk? You think he had something to do with it?" asked Jeon, sharply. "It was pretty clear that the drunk and homeless father of her child had stabbed her."

"Hear me out," she continued, opening her laptop this time. The food lay forgotten at this point. "I went through what we know about the victim - paints a pretty tragic picture. Although it wasn't always like that for her. She worked for a few years, saved up enough money before enrolling into a professional degree program at Busan National University."

"Yeah, so what?"

"Her time at Busan National University coincided with Park Minhyuk's Masters program."

"What?"

"Yeah, but," she continued, finding the university website. "She dropped out after less than a year because her father passed away, leaving behind a huge pile of debt. We know that her mother had passed away when she was about 10. Now if you look at her daughter's birth certificate, it would appear that she got pregnant while she was still enrolled at the university."

"Are you saying the baby was his?! There's a pretty big stretch from attended university at the same time to father of her child."

"Let me finish, would you?" she groaned, throwing her hands up in frustration.

"Fine, go ahead."

"In order to see if they were acquainted with one another, I resorted to the most informative source available - social media. Our victim didn't have much of a social media presence, but I scrolled through anything and everything Park Minhyuk has been tagged in. And guess what I found?"

Jeon stopped eating, and moved closer to the screen to see a picture of a few university students having a picnic together. It was dated January 2016, and two of the people in the picture were recognizable immediately.

"Holy shit! They did know each other! And quite well apparently." Jeon wheeled his chair forward, bumping into her chair in the process. "Shit, sorry."

Yuri rolled her eyes and moved out of his way. She had no desire to get slammed into again.

"Since I'm not part of the original investigation, I thought of checking whether Park Minhyuk was in the country around the time of the stabbing with a different excuse. I called the company, asking if he was available to chat about Jimin. They said he's abroad at the moment. Has been since October, apparently. But- " she rummaged through the papers on her desk before finding the post-it she had hurriedly scribbled on a few hours ago - "Telecoms did an analysis and found that his cell phone has been operating in Korea for a while now. So...?"

"Either someone else has gotten a hold of Park Minhyuk's cell phone," said Jeon, frowning thoughtfully. "Or the Parks are knee-deep in murder and perjury."

XXX

a/n: sorry there was such a huge delay between chapters. i was writing out some of the chapters beforehand so that there wouldn’t be too many plot inconsistencies.

#c me write bangtan #jungkook fic #jungkook x oc #jungkook #hoseok #yoongi #namjoon #taehyung #seokjin #btsbookclub #bts fic

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minteagalaxea · 5 years

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the devil’s angel | song mingi

mingi and raehyun

genre: fluff, sporadic steamy bits

word count: 4.1k

inspiration: mingi during the damn say my name photoshoot, a compilation of things at high school. i was just the person that heard it, and “hell’s kitchen angel” by max schneider.

note: i’m back, if anyone actually wanted to know.

If there was a universal truth in the world of KQ High School, it was that Song Mingi loathed cheerleaders as if his life depended on it; nobody understood its origins or the reasoning, simultaneously never interrogating him over it, either, given his notorious reputation. He personified danger, with his lip piercing, sleek motorcycle, baritone voice, and a myriad of ever-constantly-changing colors of hair. While it earned him a group of admirers, he appraised his attention on a girl that defied the principle he lived by—Park Raehyun.

She wasn't loud like her fellow counterparts, opting to remain independent from their antics, more thoughtful in regards to her actions, placing her academic record above her extracurriculars as an object of adoration for the athletes. The girl carried herself with silent fortitude, confident in her ability to remain relatively unknown amongst those in her circuit, yet immediately noticeable with her ombre purple hair, styled to perfection. Whereas he could hear whatever Top Forty song the other girls played, Raehyun settled on classic R&B and underrated albums, her movements to the music rhythmic in comparison to the attention-seeking gimmicks of flips and tumbles.

Perhaps, Mingi decided, her style of dress outside of her traditional cheerleader uniform was why he remained so enamored with her—described by her adoptive elder brother, Seonghwa, as, quote-unquote, preppy baddie (consisting of plaid skirts, cropped turtlenecks, boots, and ever-so-constant fishnet stockings) Park Raehyun's sense of style starkly paralleled the pastel miniskirts and blazers of her teammates.

Raehyun observed his predatory eyes preying on her, a seductive wink in his agenda, her skintight uniform and ponytailed hair providing an incentive to defy all concepts of public decency—her instinctive reaction was to cower away from the scrutinizing attention, yet she resolved to deliver him a sarcastic roll of her eyes trademark to her taciturn persona. As she averted her attention away from the boy with the freshly-dyed brown hair and lip piercing, Raehyun detected the message he wished to convey to her—good luck tonight—her onyx eyes relaying one of her own, departing with her teammates—thank you, I love you.

Advanced Astrology proved a bustling affair as students mingled with each other to analyze one another's natal charts while simultaneously speaking of whatever romantic drivel was occurring during the school week. Silence her ally, Raehyun deftly transmitted a text message to Mingi, bewildering him as he received questions regarding his birth, of which he attempted to answer to the best of his ability, intrigued and excited at the prospect of having a proper natal chart. A classroom on the opposing end of campus, Mingi's only solace in his class of boisterous students was recalling his first encounter with Park Raehyun, an incident that remained ingrained in his cognizance due to the ironic humor.

Raehyun once sold brownies in her freshman year to fund the junior varsity team for their preliminary competition travel; however, on a particular occasion in their shared chemistry class, a swarm of teenagers barricaded her, demanding for something along the lines of weed-laced brownies, startling the cheerleader. A moment of contemplation later, and she realized the culprit behind her newfound semi-notoriety: Kim Hongjoong had made a sarcastic comment to Lee Minho regarding her brownies—"these brownies taste reminiscent to one with marijuana"—and Minho, a publicly known recreational user of the drug, released the word out to his fellow student body.

A pair of long fingers assisted her in the silent distribution, handing out the pastries as Raehyun managed the monetary portion of her temporary business, a sigh breathing past her violet mauve lips as she held the final bag of her supposedly weed-laced treats, her fingers briefly grasping his as the cheerleader inserted the gift into his hands. She evaded any form of eye contact with the taller male, Mingi's leather coat, threaded blue hair, and lip piercing intimidated her, regardless of how well she associated with him, or his like.

"Apologies," he started, baritone voice startling her in kind, positioning himself in the seat next to Raehyun's as the girl proceeded to review the test information, "Hongjoong's deadpanned comment led to this, I presume."

"Regardless, I sold all of my brownies, even if it required your friend to state that it contained tetrahydrocannabinol in them," her voice responded, a gentle timbre as her eyes maintained its attention on the assignment directly in front of her, "Tetrahydrocannabinol is the predominant active ingredient in marijuana," she supplied, eliciting a brief chortle likened to billowing windchimes.

"Song Mingi," the taller boy introduced, enough for the petite young lady to peer up at him, appearing less imposing as his eyes softened and lips parted into a gummy smile, fortunate their classmates failed to observe it, preoccupied with the addicting brownies.

"Legally, it's Park Raehyun; however, it was previously Lexington Marie Park," she mused, shaming herself due to her delayed knowledge that he knew who she was, considering her relationship with her elder brother, one of Mingi's closest and most loyal friends.

Despite her shying away from him in partial embarrassment, the warm, baritone chuckle directly in her ear as he mused, "Raehyun is stunning," sufficient for the brunette's cheeks to bloom a rosy fuschia.

Long strides alongside a devilish smirk greeted Raehyun's peripheral vision as her teacher returned her designed natal chart to the student, praises overflowing from his lips at her diligence, the cheerleader only bidding farewell after a gentle "thank you" of kindness, traipsing outside to have the imposing young man snake his arm around her waist.

"According to your natal chart, your Ascendant Scorpio sign indicates that the presentation of your character is intimidating, bordering on malicious, yet your Cancer Moon details that you're simultaneously an emotional wreck that holds grudges," Raehyun explained. "Your Venus-Mars combination states that you carry a subtle allure, which naturally coincides with the knowledge that you embody an unusually romantic sexual energy," she mused, attempting to stifle a bout of amusement, "From my personal experience, I would agree with that sentiment—perhaps it describes you overly so."

Seonghwa had once entrusted Raehyun to manage their apartment while he accompanied his friends as the designated driver in their outing to a football afterparty his junior and her sophomore year, as their parents had business affairs to attend to, and the younger sister held an aversion to large social gatherings that involved alcohol and drugs.

Her voice reverberated throughout the pristine white walls of her apartment bedroom, an ability she suppressed from the general populace to spare her from garnering mass attention from unwanted others. Raehyun's singing reached a note that bewildered a young man as he ascended the terrain of fire escapes, body aching when he reached his desired destination; "Raehyun?" he called, gentle undertones painting his tone as said girl's expression contorted from confusion to fretful, exerting her entire might into heaving the taller boy past the narrow window. Rushing out of the haven of her bedroom to retrieve a first aid kit stowed away in the depths of the adopted siblings' shared bathroom (a futile attempt to cover the knowledge that their adopted daughter was consistently tending to an unruly group of high school students that may or may include their son).

The purple-haired girl silently, deftly, treated the wounds of the boy with the now caramel brown hair, disregarding his winces and hisses haplessly as the antiseptic-soaked cotton ball made way to his cheek. "Relax," Raehyun informed, resonance atypically harsher than her usual gentle mannerisms, "You were willing to sustain the injuries when you hurled yourself into this situation; I suppose you can endure some rubbing alcohol and antiseptic." Obedient to her instructions, Mingi maintained silence despite his desire to press his lips onto her with an intense fervor, never overlooking the sight of pink hue on Raehyun's complexion, especially following her statement of, "Remove your shirt."

"Pardon?" he replied instantaneously, incredulously even, at the abrupt request; in his astonished daze, the exasperated cheerleader shrugged off the inky black coat, followed promptly by his turtleneck, exposing a mismatched array of bruises that hadn't healed properly, and fresh scars from whatever incident Mingi stumbled himself into that he refused to explain to Raehyun. Her sharp fingernails grazed against the boy's waist, cheeks dyed a rosy tint upon the sight of a shirtless young man, contrary to her upbringing as a Barbadian, applying pressure to the myriad of wounds against the surface of his skin with a fresh cotton ball.

"Would you mind providing me an explanation as to how you managed to acquire these bruises?" Raehyun surmised, Mingi immediately detecting a delicately quirked eyebrow directed at his countenance, attempting to shroud the growing desire to scream in agony with the athletic tape replacing the sting of the antiseptic when her clawlike nails swept against his abdomen.

"A student thought it would be amusing to try his hand at making some...sexual comments intended for you, which pissed me off enough to get into a fight after school," Mingi recanted in brief, her warm eyes freezing into a glare as biting as puncturing icicles, and the boy refrained from recoiling in surprise.

"Mingi, I'm from the Carribean"—Raehyun tore the athletic tape to seal her wrappings—"It would be scandalous had someone not make such a comment at least once; you shouldn't have lost your temper from such jargon."

The boy shook his head vehemently, vexation overcoming him as he growled, "The words were vile, Lex, Yunho had to restrain Seonghwa from attacking him; I protected your reputation, considering you could lose everything."

"Don't preach to me about upholding whatever reputation I have"—the violet-haired girl propelled herself off of the comfort of her bed, inching precariously close to the recently-dyed brunette with an uncharacteristic fire burning in her eyes—"Whatever statements and accusations they choose to say about me is none of your concern." The warmth of the candlelight allowed Mingi to see her features with more clarity, from her sharp cheekbones and almond eyes (the only similarity between her and her adoptive brother) to the birthmark located next to her left eye and her heart-shaped lips, currently parted as Raehyun elicited a huff of frustration directed at the taller male.

She gasped as he abruptly tugged her into him via her waist, her arms latching onto his biceps as she peered up at him, whatever hostility previously prevent evaporating as the young boy in front of her caressed her waist with a gentle, uncharacteristically so, fervor. "It becomes my motherfucking concern when they speak about my girl with that type of vulgar language," Mingi growled, roughly slamming his lips onto hers with an assertive ardor that it nearly paralyzed Raehyun into a state of nonreaction.

Parting away from the kiss, Raehyun slammed his figure towards her bedroom door, the prospect of its integrity falling apart at the corner of her mind as she retorted, "Who said that I was your girl, Song Mingi?"

Recuperating from the surprising amount of force Raehyun exerted against him, he towered above her sitting posture, her eyes narrowed into serpent-like slits, unwavering as he leaned down with his hands propped against either side of her frame, her legs and arms crossed once more—"Me, Park Raehyun."

"Liar," Raehyun seethed, a chill overcoming her as a devilish smirk etched itself onto his countenance, subconsciously grateful her stockings were removed a while earlier; pressing featherlight kisses on the crook of her neck, progressing into obscure nips and bites around her ear, knowing full well that her turtleneck sweater irritated the young man in front of her.

"With pleasure, babygirl," he whispered in kind, returning to paint a nebula of purple across her flesh, Raehyun's eyes fluttering shut as her head tilted upwards, a hitched whimper easing its way past her vocal cords, a sound that Mingi discovered was his absolute favorite sound, determined to derive the mellifluous tune out of her throughout the evening.

The violet-haired cheerleader twirled her pen between the grip of her fingers, organizing her system of ideas as she articulated them into her exam paper, ignoring the look her fellow teammate bored into her skull during the silent testing session and not privy of the glare directed at the other cheerleader from her boyfriend. Raehyun applied her attention to concluding her paper, strutting forward to the front of the classroom, the final student to finish her exam paper with meticulous consideration, submitting her essay to her teacher, a furtive nod approving her entry, her classmates heaving sighs of relief upon the notion they could finally speak to each other.

"Why do you like him so much?" the girl, Kwon Jisoo, interrogated Raehyun, shuddering fear as her fretful eyes widened at having Mingi pierce his unyielding gaze at her; from his peripheral line of vision, said boy detected Raehyun's biting stare.

"Pardon?" Raehyun wondered, her center of attention now a technological conversation with the boy with the lip piercing and swept blue hair, exchanging a relay of flirtatious, bordering suggestive, messages that previously would leave the cheerleading captain flustered, yet now relatively desensitized in reaction, progressively mustering more courage to counter his darker thoughts with feisty rebuttals of her own.

"Song Mingi isn't like us," Jisoo interjected, "His reputation is starkly different from ours, especially yours—you have absolute stellar grades, a prestigious spot on the KQ social hierarchy, and virtually every boy on campus at your beck and call—why would you settle for less than your worth and risk your entire reputation for a troublemaker like him?"

"I never realized the term 'us' existed until now," Raehyun responded coolly, swerving her figure to face her teammate with an unreadable expression, "I also had the realization that my romantic life is none of yours to be privy about." Receiving the note of excuse from a member of the ASB crew, Raehyun exited the premises with a wry grin on her face, Mingi sending Jisoo an assertive, bordering cocky, grin in her vicinity, the other cheerleader eliciting a groan in vexation from her captain's frustrating companion.

The pep rally permeated with people, almost compact as the lights dimmed and the notary introduction of "Partition" by Beyoncé indicated the opening performance of the rally, displaying the intricate movements and stunts that Raehyun had spent weeks choreographing, teaching, and reviewing with her teammates. Seonghwa and Yunho, both athletes for the football team, identified the former's sister with ease, her golden complexion her most distinguishing attribute amidst the clique of pallor. Her movements reflected her natural demeanor, highlighting the acquired combination of aggressive precision, sultry gazes, and poised winks that the cheer captain knew would anger Mingi into oblivion, and Seonghwa could only watch as his younger sister and best friends, San and Wooyoung, incorporated a series of seductive steps in time with the French in the song.

Following their ending poses, the student body president began their rhetoric in thanking the students for attending the rally, placing acknowledgment on Raehyun for her bombastic choreography as she bashfully bowed in thanks as the cheers roared before fleeing the scene, immediately meandering over to the tall-limbed bad boy. Mingi pulled her in close to him, Raehyun standing in between his legs as he sat on the concrete benches sequestered away from their fellow peers; as her two male cheerleader friends arrived, the captain couldn't resist the urge to stick her tongue out at their impishness, a perfunctory smirk on the girl's lips.

"Your comment surprised me earlier, babygirl," Mingi commented, noting her perplexed expression, "Whatever you said to Jisoo in history class before leaving for the rally—did she always think that way?"

"Don't mind her, Mingi," Raehyun concluded, tilting his chin upward to have her large brown eyes inspect into his own, the scent of his cologne (Allure by Chanel: the girl spent months saving up money to procure him the gift), "Her high school ideology differs from ours, especially when you consider her family's legacy attending this high school." Following her statement, she leaned down to peck his lips briefly, only for it to deepen as he tugged the small of her back towards his tight embrace, the lack of discretion much to her personal entertainment and his satisfaction.

The stadium lights illuminated the cheerleaders' beaming grins and upbeat as they led chants for their audience to follow, ranging from spoken cheers to rhythmical feet-thumping that felt like an earworm more than an actual song. Seonghwa, on the field, preparing to catch Yunho's throw, jolted slightly at the sight of his younger sister and her pompoms enthusiastically providing him support, voice carrying louder than intended, the quarterback amused at her antics.

"I have never heard her cheer as passionately as she does," Seonghwa remarked following their touchdown, admiring his younger sister as her teammates held the girl steady as the touchdown song resonated from the marching band, exciting their audience with the opening lead, "Perhaps if Mingi played football, Raehyun would cheer even louder."

Said boy caught the whiff of her trademark perfume during the halftime, her hair matted with sweat as she performed her routine, displaying her most well-rounded stunts and tricks with an enthused swagger that made her movements seem effortless—at that moment, he supposed, he became her own cheerleader, with resounding cries of support for her. It naturally was a far parallel from the traditional narrowed slit for eyes and aggressive frown, but the cheerleading captain appreciated the gesture nonetheless, briefly delivering him a smile before continuing her routine, and Raehyun properly kissed him following their victory, anticipating the impish growls from their friends, particularly their youngest and second-eldest in their circle, Jongho and Hongjoong.

"Care accompanying me to the afterparty tonight, my devil?" she mused against his lips, the sultry smirk intentionally provoking the leather-clad boy to a less-than innocuous reaction, and the girl understood his hidden, impure intentions. Mingi returned the gesture with a sensual grin of his own, parting with her to allow photography, either of the two of them, Raehyun's cheer team, her brother (who thought it amusing to lift her in midair), and her immediate friend circle, childlike expressions and antics that reminded her of her first encounter with them:

Seonghwa, the more lively Park sibling, invited her to a group outing with his group of friends, the only people of which she had a personal rapport with being Wooyoung and San, the male freshmen cheerleaders that she captained in their junior varsity division, and even with their relationship as teammates, Raehyun never engaged in anything aside from professional matters. Thus, it felt more like a surprise to her that her two male teammates were consuming alcohol until obscurity, yet, she was unable to complain, as the girl herself was holding a glass of pinot noir, the stem between her middle and ring finger as she spectated the festivities in front of her vision with a detached observance.

Her two teammates and Yunho, the energetic quarterback, were dancing to some voracious song playing on the vinyl player, Wooyoung already experiencing whiplash from bobbing his head back and forth too intensely, the other two not too far behind.

Yeosang, a classmate in her Introduction to Comparative Literature class, revealed himself to be a quite clingy drunk, expressing his love to his company to the point of near-suffocation, in Raehyun's perspective, noting several instances in which he engaged in displays of affection that she visibly stiffened at.

Jongho, a middle schooler that was supposedly related to San in some shape or form, proved to be unusually combative, nearly punching Yeosang under the duress of his bourbon-induced stupor, while Hongjoong from her chemistry class spouted expletives that made her wonder how exactly did he manage to maintain his creative brain, despite his fifth bottle of Dos Equis Amber.

Yet, the real question of the evening was how exactly did Seonghwa, the reliable, mature, calm, and more level-headed sibling between the Park duo, decide at the moment to perform a strip-tease performance, mortifying his younger sister as she aggressively flung the articles of clothing back to her brother, unsuccessfully shielding her eyes from the display of skin.

Raehyun's only solace happened to be the only other relatively sober person—the tall, lanky-limbed boy with acne on his cheekbones spectated the affairs with an air of indifference, taking a sip of his Bohemia before slamming it down onto the glass table, inverse to the wisp-like motions of the girl resting her wine glass against the glass surface.

"Should I offer an apology to you now for their idiocy, or should I abstain until they have warring hangovers tomorrow?" Mingi proposed, a scoff escaping the cheerleader's lips in amusement.

"Don't offer me one, then," she acknowledged airily, "They were the ones that suggested this outing; therefore, they should handle the repercussions of their actions without our assistance." Concluding her statement, Raehyun maneuvered her figure so that her left arm clung onto the head of the chair, her legs crossed right over left on the chair's arm, flaunting her form-fitting romper and stockings to the boy in interest, the mesh fabric exposing the navel piercing from years prior; "Is there something you like, Mr. Song?" she inquired.

"Something I like quite much," he responded, intentionally neutral—it dawned upon Mingi that the seductive smirk was an expression Raehyun trained to perfection, perhaps during her period in Barbados, during a time where her unchecked behavior allowed her to reap benefits far too mature for her legal age.

Desire was a local hotspot heavily driven by their teenage audience, as established by the purple-haired cheerleader when she witnessed a litany of her fellow classmates inhabit the club; yet, she heeded them no mind as she resided on Mingi's lap, allowing him to nuzzle his nose into the crook of her neck. The traditional, casual wear of her cropped sweater, plaid skirt, fishnets, and stiletto boots presented the illusion that she was a gangster's girl (which she indeed partially was), not privy to her squeaky-clean facade as the head of KQ's Varsity Cheerleading. Raehyun basked in the sensation of Mingi kissing and suckling on the spot behind her ear that he knew would make her elicit his favorite whimper, a product of becoming highly attuned to her, with all their restless nights at his apartment and her own when her parents and brother left her to her independent activities in the nighttime.

Yet, the girl felt her evening of intentional peace ruined, as an angry Jisoo stormed over towards the small clique of friends, Mingi halting his actions temporarily to deliver a preemptive glare at his girlfriend's fellow cheerleader. "You seriously think that you're able to get away with everything because your boyfriend happens to be the most notorious person on campus?" Jisoo spat, her captain resting her empty on Mingi's thigh, placating him temporarily as she rose from her seating arrangement, her posture upright with an air of sophisticated and refined confidence (much like her image, of which she was forced to cultivate), starkly differing from her teammate's brazen recklessness, hair disheveled and sweat permeating her features.

"Isn't there something more entertaining than attempting to poke a peaceful bear, Jisoo?" Raehyun questioned dryly, the boredom in her voice noticeable to her close friends, all of whom stifled a chuckle at her straightlaced humor.

"That bear is not peaceful, Raehyun—he's already manipulated you into becoming somebody you aren't," Jisoo reasoned, "You began attending nightclubs the more you interacted with him, wearing revealing outfits because of him, and I caught you smoking an electronic cigarette the other evening with him."

"How bold of you to make the assumption that I didn't perform this exact shit before I even moved to South Korea, Kwon Jisoo," she deadpanned icily, Wooyoung cackling at the barbed humor that earned himself a warning glance from Mingi, "Besides, you are not my parents, and you certainly do not carry my interests in mind."

A frustrated whine escaped Jisoo's lips, storming off angrily while Raehyun breathed a sigh of relief, retreating to the soothing embrace of her boyfriend, who allowed her to return his initial favor, raking both sets of her fingers through his fluffy, currently silver-turquoise hair, pressing featherlike kisses against the side of his angular jawline, maneuvering downwards towards his neck.

Mingi hissed as she bit firmly on the tender spot marking the bridge between his ear and carotid artery, eyeing him with an innocuous gaze; he established that in their position, she genuinely appeared reminiscent of a gangster's girl, but Mingi didn't mind—he never did, to begin with.

"Who would have ever thought that the angelic beauty would have a devilish side to her," he remarked, fingers skating from the nape of her neck to the bottom of her spine, Raehyun initially shuddering from the coolness of his fingers.

"Well," the girl mused, "It appears to me that every devil needs to have a guardian angel, and every angel needs to have a guardian devil to watch over each other." Pressing her lips to his, they allowed the dark, red, hazy glow to bask over them lightly, Mingi making a mental note to remember the current song that was playing over the loudspeakers.

Hell's Kitchen Angel—red, hot, and dangerous You broke the devil's poor heart with the way that you're loving me. I said, "Hell's Kitchen Angel—red, hot, and dangerous." You're a little too much for most, but you're just right for me.

#ateez mingi #song mingi #mingi #song mingi ateez #ateez scenarios #ateez imagines #ateez blurbs #original character #mingi imagines #mingi scenarios #song mingi scenarios #oc #valentines #probably really late

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cupofteaguk · 6 years

Text

breath of spring

summary: he works with color all day, but you just might be the brightest thing he’s ever laid eyes on.

pairing: taehyung x fem!reader

genre: florist au | fluff

word count: 9k

The regular nine a.m. call time finds Kim Taehyung at the forefront of the shop, gritting teeth together as he tries to balance the morning coffee along with his keys while trying to make sure his backpack won't fall down his arm to disrupt his attempt. He barely manages the feat, somehow able to unlock and push open the front door before the coffee spills over. Both hands find their place again underneath the tray as he uses his hips to propel the door closed behind him.

Much like usual morning greetings, he doesn’t get one except for the sweet, floral fragranced scent that is as sharp and prominent as it is comforting and sweet. He's been working here for a little more than three years, yet the sight and smell of flowers never fail to bring a smile to his face, never fails to help bring forth some good cheer to his day as he roams towards the back of the shop. He rests the coffee on the counter, slipping off his backpack to situate it in the back room, returning back to the floor to get things started before Kim Namjoon arrives. There isn’t much, just setting up the cashier and watering the plants and rearranging some bouquets that are due to be picked up first thing in the morning. Some adjustments here and there, giving the flowers a last minute spray to give it a fresh, dewy, appearance. He’s just setting down the second of five bouquets when the bell overhead jingles in correspondence to the arrival of someone new.

Taehyung looks up from his spraying, eyes lighting up as he takes in the newest addition to the shop. “Good morning!” He greets brightly to the customer, a man with a hesitance in his step, looking lost yet like he’s supposed to be here and Taehyung is well-tuned to his attitude at once. “Can I help you with something?”

“Um, yes,” The man speaks up. “I’m here to pick up a bouquet? My brother placed the order a few weeks ago, but I’m just here to grab it for him.”

“Of course,” Taehyung remarks, asking for a name of the order that the man fills in with at once. He finds the bouquet with ease, gently placing the vase atop the counter and setting himself up to ring up the order. “Is he aware that we have a delivery service where we offer to drop off the bouquet for our customers for free?”

The man perks slightly at that. “No, I don’t think he was aware of that. But I’ll let him know in case he decides to come back.”

Taehyung grins. “Well, that’d be awesome if he decides to come back.” He then proceeds to relay the total, a dollar amount given by the man, before Taehyung is gently pushing the vase of flowers towards the man. “Tell your brother he’s welcomed back anytime, as are you.”

The grin is returned, thanks exchanged, the man taking the vase carefully within his grasp as he makes his way back towards the entrance. For a moment, it looks as if he's on route to struggle with opening the door, and Taehyung is about to detach himself from his position behind the counter to offer his assistance, before a familiar figure through the glass makes him ease his movements and the smile spread itself across his lips.

On the other side of the door, the familiar figure quickly opens the door to allow the man to step through and out with the vase still in his hand, the former bidding him a quick and easy farewell. “Morning pick ups already starting, huh?”

“Morning to you too, Jimin,” Taehyung greets as he sets aside an extra copy of the receipt to be recorded down into the books for later in the day. He then holds up the tray of coffee he had brought in. “I have coffee.”

Jimin visibly beams at the sight. “Thanks Taehyunggie,” The boy gushes, pulling his respective order out and bringing the cup to his lips to immediately down some of the liquid. He lets out a sigh of satisfaction, lowering the cup back onto the table. “Are the orders for this morning’s pickup done?”

“Almost,” Taehyung answers. “I just need to give them one last spray.”

So the morning is spent in this fashion, like a routine, but amongst this dizzying assortment of colors and smells and variety, it still manages to feel like home. More than a home, it feels like a piece of himself has been permanently rooted to the shop, this little corner where the flowers allow him to express emotions that are often too afraid to make its way to the surface of his face. He takes a particular joy in getting to structure declaration of admiration or love for other people, people who trust him to add in and deliver forth a creation made to the best of his abilities. He’s been working with Kim Namjoon in this floral shop for nearly three years, yet there is always variety in his days—even in the most seemingly of insignificant ways.

Much like most small brick and mortar stores, the place is a comfort, an inclusive area where he gets to do what he loves with the coworkers who are more friends and family than general business associates. The workers and himself have known each other for so long that there is no expectation beyond working hard for the customers and providing forth the best quality of flowers and bouquets as possible—which has never been a hard order for Taehyung to fulfill. He’s always worked hard no matter the circumstances, no matter if Kim Namjoon’s shop has seemed to garner a high reputation for their craft throughout the years. If anything, it’s about maintaining the quality, constantly desiring to better himself both on an individual level and for the loyal and new customers.

He and Jimin are just finishing the final touches on the morning bouquets when the door opens to reveal the man himself entering the shop, looking as if he’s been running around for hours and Taehyung would not be surprised if that were actually the case. As the owner, Namjoon shoulders more than anyone else here. He takes on more orders, does more deliveries, manages the financials, makes those connections, and so much more that Taehyung cannot even begin to imagine the responsibility that comes with being held accountable for the entirety of a store. But it suits Namjoon.

“You look like you’ve had a long morning already hyung,” Jimin notes, drumming his fingers on the counter as Namjoon approaches and immediately makes a note to grab the last coffee in the tray.

“I just had to be here early to pick the orders and then drive around for delivery,” Namjoon brushes off as if this is no big deal, although Taehyung knows from some previous firsthand experience that it’s relatively exhausting to drive out from location to location while trying not to get lost and making sure that the delicacy of the flowers are not ruined from the ride into a vehicle. “Oh, Tae, that reminds me, I need you to do a delivery during the afternoon—it’s in downtown and pretty out of the way for the other order locations so I won’t be able to make it in time, but it needs to be dropped off today.”

“Yeah, no problem,” Taehyung brushes off, fishing out the box of orders that contain details of expectations as well as potential addresses for delivery or pick up times. Distributing today’s deliveries and pickups, he and Jimin immediately set on preparing the orders.

It’s like clockwork, but the boy wouldn’t have it any other way. He loves everything about it. He loves selecting the lilies and the roses and the sunflowers, the tulips and apple blossoms, the sweet williams and the baby’s breath, lily of the valley—all the names he knows by heart. He loves the arrangement of colors that give him an outlet to express his feelings on affection, friendship, appreciation, and love, especially considering how difficult it is for him to do it on his own.

People come in and out of the shop as the morning slowly bleeds into the afternoon, orders being picked up or regulars coming in for small conversation or to browse possible new selections or to ask for advice on certain flowers or gestures of romantic intentions. It’s normal for Taehyung to receive questions about what kind of flower would suit certain occasions, and the boy definitely does not mind. He answers the inquiries with ease or to the best of his ability, given the information that different customers supply him with.

In fact, today strangely feels busier than the average cycle of the sun, so much so that Jimin has to disappear for thirty minutes to pick up some McDonalds for the trio to munch on in between attending to pick-ups and walk ins.

Around three o’clock, Namjoon enlists Taehyung to help load the van of bouquets and vases, fresh and finished and glimmering underneath the sunlight as the crates ensure nothing will topple over unexpectedly during the drive. Taehyung confirms the addresses and corresponding orders before Namjoon is off with one last reminder in regards to Taehyung’s own little delivery into downtown.

At three-thirty, Kim Seokjin enters the shop and the reassuring sight of two people manning the counter is enough to let Taehyung take his own leave. The bouquet for this particular drop off had been made for some surprise birthday gesture, a man to his girlfriend, and the red passion of roses intermingling with the pink and white and the yellow and the purple is enough to reflect that the girlfriend is probably as bright as she is cheerful and kind-hearted. It’s definitely one of Taehyung’s favorite bouquets that he’s been able to make, in spite of its traditional and rather cliche aspects, but his adoration for it is all the same as he carefully stores the vase into a crate in the trunk of his car for the drive into downtown. The city skyscrapers and architecture landscapes loom overhead as Taehyung takes in the bustling crowds of people, phones in hand as he notices that everyone is trying to get everywhere at once and it’s all chaos and relentless nature and he may have spent years under the company of traffic and rush but he doesn’t miss it. He doesn’t miss the pressure of schedules and contact phone calls, emails and travels and demands of the corporate setting. He doesn’t miss the black and white, more than happy that he traded in that life for colors and expressions.

He finds parking out in the front of the building corresponding to the provided address, making sure to have a receipt and a nametag with the corresponding shop name across the front before stepping out and elbowing the handicap button to order for the doors to slide open automatically. He slips through, walking towards the well-dressed man in a suit behind the counter, just getting off the phone with someone.

“Hi, what can I help you with?” The man inquires.

“Hi,” Taehyung replies. “I’m from Kim Namjoon’s Floral Shop and I have a delivery here for a…” He takes a quick glance at the to on the order sheet. “Karly? It says here that she works on the eighth floor.” He hands over aforementioned order sheet to the man.

“Kim Namjoon’s Floral Shop, hm?” The man says, sneaking a quick glance up at Taehyung. “Your boss comes in here a lot doing deliveries. Everyone here in the building seems to really like what you guys are doing.”

“Ah, well, yes, he’s out doing deliveries on the other side of town for today,” Taehyung discloses, but he smiles. “But thank you, I’m glad to hear that.”

The man nods. “Let me give the eighth floor receptionist a call to let her know that you’re coming up before I send you on your way.” Taehyung barely returns the nod before the man has put the company phone to his ear, dialed a few buttons, before he’s speaking. “Hey, someone from Kim Namjoon’s floral shop is here to drop something off for Karly. Okay, cool, I’ll send him up.” He puts the phone down. “You’re good to go. Here, let me put you through.” With the jerk of his head, he leads Taehyung towards the glass barriers closing off access to the elevators. A slide of a card, and he’s through, guiding Taehyung to an opening elevator, where the card is pressed to a pad once more, this time followed by a floor number button being pushed.

“Thank you,” Taehyung says, just as the elevator is closing before he is soon alone with the company of his thoughts and the light jazz that floats through the air. He taps his foot lightly on the ground, eyes roaming about to take in his surroundings, waiting, until a noise of confirmation sounds through to let him know that he has reached the eighth floor.

The doors slide open to reveal a small little separate room of three elevators lined up side by side, the wall on the opposite end decorated in photographs. Turning to the right, Taehyung notices a desk at the end of the hall, a girl situated behind said desk, a phone cradled in between ear and shoulder, keyboard clicking furiously to keep up with the depth of the conversation. A goodbye is bidded, phone hung up, finishing the activity, and Taehyung finally decides to approach the desk.

You look up after catching movement out of the corner of your eye, and you deliver forth a bright smile. “Hi there,” You greet, straightening out of your seat at once. “You’re from Namjoon’s shop, right?”

Something about your smile is dazzling, startlingly so, and Taehyung stares. “U-Um,” He stammers, looking down at the bouquet of flowers and realizing that perhaps, he’d rather look at something else for a little bit longer. “Y-Yes, I am.”

If you notice Taehyung’s completely nervous, slightly star-struck disposition over the encounter, you don’t say anything. “Well, the bouquet is absolutely beautiful,” You say, sighing as Taehyung notices you leaning across the space to rest your elbows on the counter separating you and him. “Are you a florist like Namjoon or do you mostly do deliveries?”

“I actually mostly just arrange the bouquets,” Taehyung says with a shrug. “Delivery isn’t really something I do a lot.”

“Well, you’re friendly and polite, and you’ve got a charming smile—you seem to be ticking off all the right boxes so far!”

He can’t tell if you’re joking around to try and ease the tension in his shoulders, or if you’re trying to flirt with him, but provided that you’re wearing the same patient and understanding smile from a few seconds ago, he can only assume the former. Still, the fact that you’re able to get the compliment out with such ease launches his heart into an overdriving state as he can feel the flush crawling up the back of his neck. “T-Thank you,” He manages, staring over at you through his lashes to avoid receiving the full impact of your smile. It doesn’t work, because your smile appears to merely widen.

“C’mon, I’ll show you where Karly’s desk is,” You say, smiling still plastered as you jerk your head and detach yourself from the desk to lead Taehyung into the main office space that is littered with cubicles and conversations and people running to and from in order to reach whatever destination has been previously implanted in this mind. “It’s Karly’s birthday today,” You explain, continuing to step in front of Taehyung, giving him a perfect view of your backside—not that he’s trying to stare, or anything. But when he can barely make out the curve of your shoulders from the sleeveless blouse you’re wearing, it leaves behind curiousity and even more embarrassment to light itself in his chest. “Her boyfriend even called me to let me know about the flowers.”

“It’s romantic,” Taehyung adds in with a shrug, pressing his lips together when you throw another smile at him over your shoulder, turning back around quickly to take him down the long wall of desks until you finally near one.

“Karly, guess what came for you!” You inquire suddenly, stopping to prop yourself against one of the cubicles as you give your attention to one of the girl’s who just appears to be finished responding to another long list of emails.

The girl behind the desk, who Taehyung can only assume at this point is the infamous Karly, immediately starts grinning at the sight of the bouquet. Having someone else’s attention besides yours relaxes Taehyung to a certain extent as he delivers a little smile and offers the bouquet. “Happy birthday,” He says as Karly jumps out of her chair and gingerly takes hold of the flowers.

“Thank you!” Karly gushes, taking her time to admire the flowers, to take in the colors that her boyfriend had a hand in selecting. Although Taehyung cannot remember what this boy had looked like, or what expressions had overcome his face while describing Karly to him, he wishes that he could remember. He wishes that he could remember what love looks like or could feel like, instead of having to guess everything for himself. People like Karly and her boyfriend are Taehyung’s window into feelings and emotions, to give him a reference point to go off of when he has to design bouquets of such a manner. “Wow, these are beautiful.”

“Your boyfriend has good taste,” Taehyung supplies with a smile as Karly thanks both him and the receptionist next to him before she’s showing off the bouquet to fellow coworkers. Left with nothing else, he is forced to turn back to you. “Thank you for taking me.”

“Of course!” You exclaim back, making your way back to the front desk with Taehyung right at your table. “I should thank you for coming all the way over here just to drop off the order.”

“Oh no, it’s totally fine,” Taehyung brushes off with the wave of his hand, still finding that he is unable to meet your eye completely. “It’s nice to get out of the shop every once in awhile.”

“Well, I’m glad,” You say, lingering by his side, voice softening as your eyes remained fixated on his face.

The longer you stare at him, the more Taehyung feels this urge to say something—what, he doesn’t really know, for the words feel like they are lodged in the back of his throat—but there are so many questions he wants to know. There are so many things he wants to say, and it frightens him to feel a pull this strongly for someone he does not even know. All you’ve done is show him the way to a fucking cubicle yet you’ve also smiled at him enough to show off some glimmer in the gray patches of an office career, the warning bells of initial attraction setting themselves off in his head.

He wants to know more about you.

He’s about to open his mouth, to ask for a name or a phone number or just to try and crack another joke to get you to smile, before the phone on your desk rings.

You rip your gaze from him first to study the object on your desk. You turn back to Taehyung to give him a guilty smile. “Sorry, I should probably take that.”

“No, of course,” Taehyung returns, swallowing the questions he doesn’t even know he would have asked as he forces himself to look you in the eye long enough to give you a smile. “I’ll show myself out.”

“Have a good day!” You call after him as soon as he has his back turned, and when Taehyung dares to spare you one last glance over his shoulder, your attention is fixated on the phone call and he can’t help but think that this is why he doesn’t like to do deliveries.

“How did the delivery go?” Jimin inquires as soon as Taehyung slips in through the shop door, the bell overhead ringing to announce his presence as the latter lingers by the entrance, mind reeling over the previous encounter. It’s like some annoying parasite, the way you’ve weaved your way into his life with no effort whatsoever. He doesn’t know what it is about you. He has a vague feeling that you are outrageously kind to everyone, and that smiling at him the way you had is just a mere extension of your personality.

But you hadn’t shut him out, you hadn’t sought to rid of him as quickly as possible. You had welcomed him into your day, and Taehyung normally doesn’t take risks, but you remind him of the morning sunflowers and the fresh breath of daisies, which has to mean something.

“Where’s Namjoon?” He asks instead.

Jimin raises an eyebrow, since it’s rare for Taehyung to avoid answering simple questions of this degree, but he answers. “In the back room.” He points his thumb over his shoulder for extra emphasis. Taehyung follows suit immediately, barely sparing Jimin or Seokjin a glance as he enters said back room, followed by approaching another door that leads into Namjoon’s private quarters. It’s where all the filing of expenses are, business plans, five year goals, ten year goals, rent due dates, town meetings—everything that makes Kim Namjoon’s Floral Shop and keeps it running is hidden within the confines of that office space. Taehyung doesn’t know too much, only managing to hear information on the difficulties on starting and maintaining a business from fleeting comments Namjoon slips when he’s particularly stressed. The older boy, however, hides his emotions well.

“Come in.” The voice on the other side sounds distracted, but Taehyung still pushes open the door anyways to enter the room of messy files and calendars. Namjoon is situated at the corner desk, putting away some paperwork. “Hey Tae,” He greets, pushing away whatever had previously kept him distracted before he’s turning in his chair, fixating all his attention on the younger boy. “How was the delivery?”

The repeat of Jimin’s question hits Taehyung more this time as he rubs the back of his neck. “The delivery went well,” He discloses. “I, um, just had a question. I didn’t know you did deliveries to that particular building a lot.”

“Oh, right.” Namjoon smiles. “They make plenty of orders to our shop, most of the people I’ve encountered there are pretty nice.”

“Would you say that you’re familiar with some of the workers? Like, on a name-to-name basis?” Taehyung inquires, making quick effort to make his point as quickly as possible before he got shy and lost his nerve.

“Depends, but I supposed to a certain extent with some workers,” Namjoon answers, mirroring Jimin’s slightly suspicious, slightly curious eyebrow raise. “Why? Did something bad happen?”

“N-No!” Taehyung retorts. “Nothing like that! It’s just… do you know the girl who works on the eighth floor?” He spits out the question very quickly, clearly trying to get the words out before he choked or could take a second to take it all back.

“The girl who works on the eighth floor?” Namjoon repeats, actually looking as if he’s trying to seriously consider the question in order to provide the best possible answer, rather than immediately teasing Taehyung for asking in the first place. The gesture, or lack therefore, surprises Taehyung for a moment. Although, in Namjoon’s defense, the latter always happened to be slow and dense about things of this nature and maybe the gravity of Taehyung’s question hadn’t quite hit him yet. “Hm, I only know Y/N—she’s the receptionist…”

“Y-Yeah, her,” Taehyung interrupts, letting the name wash over him like a wave. Y/N. He now has a name to match with the face, the girl with the smile like sunflowers caught in the morning breeze.

Namjoon, however, still seems confused. “Did you have a problem with her? She’s always been really nice when I go up to see her…”

Taehyung presses his lips together. “I-I didn’t have a problem with her.”

“Then what other reason—oh.” Namjoon shifts his gaze to Taehyung and the latter wonders if there is some international record on how long it has taken someone to regret opening their big fat mouth in the first place. His skin definitely feels hotter than it had a few seconds ago and he feels guilty, as if he was just caught in the act, which in a way, is pretty accurate. Namjoon delivers forth an ear-splitting grin. “Oh, okay.”

“I-I was just curious, so—!”

“You like Y/N, don’t you?”

“No!” Taehyung retorts hotly. “She was just very nice and very friendly and I wanted to know a little bit more about her.”

“You know,” Namjoon returns, leaning back a little in his seat. “It’s okay to have a crush, Tae. And Y/N is a very nice person. I’m sure the two of you would get along nicely. Besides, you spend too much time in the shop.”

“Did you purposely send me to do the delivery because you knew I would meet her?” Taehyung inquires suddenly.

Namjoon bursts out into laughter. “Of course not, Tae. But since you did get to meet Y/N, that was just a nice additional bonus for me.”

“Great,” Taehyung grumbles because this really is great, just great. He has a crush on an office receptionist whose name just so happens to roll perfectly off the tip of his tongue and a shit eating boss who also likes to play match maker on the side. It’s not that he hates it, per say, but it’s an interesting sensation. He can’t remember the last time he developed a curiosity like this for someone.

“Are you going to see her again?” Namjoon asks suddenly.

“That’s not important,” Taehyung retorts back, using the silence to take his immediate leave and enter the main shop. It’s empty, save for a woman walking in to make a bouquet, a feat that Kim Seokjin is currently offering assistance to at the moment. Park Jimin is arranging flowers, his gaze finding Taehyung’s and the concern is palpable through the air.

Taehyung, however, does not say anything, as his mind chooses instead to ask itself a very important question and what exactly he was going to do to answer it.

Ten o’clock a.m.

The double doors open before Taehyung, revealing lips pressed nervously together and hands curling tightly around a bouquet of white. White lace around the edges, baby’s breath, white petaled lilies, daisies, all stringed together. The bouquet is supposed to represent purity, the apprehension of something new, the promise of tomorrow, yet all Taehyung can think is how he might not live to see the next day if this plan doesn’t go the way it’s supposed to.

He had left early from the shop, before Namjoon could check in and telling Park Jimin and Jeon Jungkook that he was going to make a quick delivery into downtown. For a brief moment, he had fret—worried if perhaps Jimin would make the connection, or maybe Jungkook would realize that the “order” Taehyung had fulfilled had not been a part of any previously made calls or walk in orders. But it’s too late for Taehyung to turn back now.

He steps onto the eighth floor, turning the corner just in time to see you approaching the front desk. This time, you’re donning a black A-line skirt with a white button up, your hair curled up into a bun with the stray pieces cascading down your face, but your smile is all the same as you tilt your head up after noticing his approach. “Hey, you again!” You greet, not quite reaching your seat before you’re rounding the desk again to face him. This time, there’s no table for him to hide behind. “Who’s the delivery for this time?”

“A-Ah, it’s for Y/N,” Taehyung says, pretending as if he’s merely reading off some card even though he’s actually spent the past thirty minutes trying to practice saying your name in his car. “Do you know her?”

You furrow your eyebrows together and he thinks that he might have said something wrong, before you’re tilting your head and he can see the confusion in your eyes. “Yeah, I know her. That’s me.”

“Oh!” He’s glad that he’s able to act surprised—or, at least, he hopes that it’s a surprised expression. “Then, I believe this is yours then.”

Although you still look caught off guard by the gesture, you still take the bouquet gently into your arms. “That’s weird,” You comment offhandedly, keeping your gaze on the flowers and slowly taking in the white petals. But he can see the softness of your features and knows immediately that you don’t suspect a thing. “I don’t have a boyfriend or anything, so I can’t think of anyone who would get my flowers…”

You’re probably mentioning this more to yourself for a personal observation, but it represents so much more to Taehyung and he makes a mental note of this. “It must be from a secret admirer then,” Taehyung finds himself adding. His eyes roam across your features when he notices the way you press your lips together and you bow your head slightly to hit the quirk at the corner of your mouth. The endearing sight makes him duck in an attempt to hide his own smile.

“Well, there are beautiful,” You say, turning to gently place the bouquet onto your desk. That bashful, embarrassing smile is still playing on your lips. “So there’s no return address you can give me so I can try to hunt this guy down?”

The thought of scaring you off with the truth, of watching that smile slip off your lips and letting the uneasy silent settle over the pair of you keeps him on his guard. “I don’t know if he’d want me to do that,” He answers, scratching the back of his neck when you flicker your gaze up to look at him. “He’s pretty shy.”

You steal another glance at the flowers. “Well, the bouquet is beautiful—did you make it?”

“I did.”

“Ah, I should have known,” You remark brightly. “I’ve only seen two of your bouquets and you seem extremely talented!”

“W-Well, I’ve been working at the shop for a few years so I’ve had lots of experience,” Taehyung says, smiling both at you and at his own ability to actually reveal something about himself beyond murmuring a simple thank you.

You lean against the desk. “Working at the shop for a few years, yet this is only the second time I’m meeting you? I believe an introduction is in order, since you now know my name.” You hold out your hand. “I’m Y/N.”

He reaches over to take your hand. You’ve got a good grip on his hand, solid and firm, yet gentle and he tries to return the gesture without coming off as too strong. It’s hard to tell, especially since he’s thinking so deeply about every single move. “Taehyung,” He returns before he could get too caught up in the touch of your hand against his and loses track of what he is supposed to be doing as a result.

“Taehyung,” You repeat, joined hands moving up and down in a shake before you retract your hand. “Will I be seeing more of you later?”

He misses out on the hopeful quality in your tone, the glimmer in your eyes as you take in his facial expression, head tilting the side and a much more private smile playing at the corner of your lips as you continue to watch him.

He flickers his gaze from the bouquet on the desk to the smile on your face, and thinks that maybe this will be worth a shot. “Count on it.”

One week later—one-thirty in the afternoon.

Taehyung strolls out of the elevator, a collection of purple flowers tucked into a low pot that he holds upright with both of his hands. Purple—to represent the admiration he holds for you, to represent the accomplishment of breaking past that barrier to start something new and something foreign. Much like how a flower opens up to take in that first breath of spring, he takes that change, takes the risk, of stepping outside himself. He had worked hard on this particular bouquet, tried to match that feeling of that very first conversation into the colors and the playful variety, in your willingness to get to know him more, into every single stem and petal placement.

You’re lowering the phone back onto the receiver when he appears into your view, and there is a certain exhaustion etched into your features, like you’ve had to do too much in the span of just a few short hours and Taehyung knows that he already hates the idea of you being overworked in this manner. Yet, your smile is one of contentment and all previous stresses seem to wash themselves away from your features as you take him in. “Hi Taehyung,” You greet, brushing the hair out of your face. Your gaze immediately shifts down to the flowers.

“It’s for you,” Taehyung answers before you could get the question out as he approaches your desk and sets it down atop the surface. “He came in to see me again.

You straighten to study the flowers closely, to catch a whiff of the scent that rolls off each petal. “Did he have a hand in designing this again?” You flicker your gaze up to him after asking the question.

“He actually took a lot of initiative with the flower selection,” He says, resting his hands on the edge of the counter, trying for a smile of his own. “You accepting that previous bouquet must have boosted his ego a little bit.”

You sigh, taking the pot of flowers to rest them next to your computer. “I wish he would say something though, these gestures are incredibly sweet and it just makes me want to know more about him. Thank you for making the delivery again.”

“I’m sure he’ll come around eventually,” Taehyung returns although he’s not entirely sure of the answer right now. He looks at you again, takes in your tired eyes, and can’t help but let the next question slip out: “How are you doing?”

You look up to study him. If you are taken aback by the suddenness of his question, how it immediately breaches the line between acquaintances into… perhaps, something more… it’s hard to tell. Your eyes suddenly flint to your computer before finding his curious gaze again. “Are you busy right now?” You ask.

If asking for one’s mental state could be considered an out of blue question, then inquiring about a gap in a schedule is definitely enough to earn a widened eyes reaction, especially on Taehyung’s end. His heart spikes up and he says the first thing that comes to mind: “No, of course not!” He wonders if it sounds more forceful than he originally intended for it to, but his curiosity to know why you had asked such a question makes it difficult to ignore.

You’re inputting something on your computer before you straighten up and make a grab for your purse. “Well, I actually haven’t eaten lunch yet, and I would hate to go to the coffee shop on the street by myself.” You place the strap of your bag atop your shoulders while rounding the desk and approaching Taehyung. “Of course, you don’t have to if you’re busy, or if you don’t want to.”

Although something in your expression tells Taehyung that you would not take it personally either way regardless of his answer or reaction, he still finds himself unable to turn you away. Not that he would want to reject you either way. “No, of course I want to. I don’t think my boss would mind if I was out for a little longer.”

You grin. “Okay then, let’s get going.”

So you lead him down the elevator, out of the building, onto the streets. The bustling city crowd isn’t as suffocating with you by his side, guiding him down the sidewalk and seeming to know immediately where it is that you’re going. Taehyung doesn’t ask questions about the destination, but as the seconds tick by, he finds himself beginning to care less and less. You decide right then and there to answer his question about how you’re doing, briefly touching on the occasional stresses of your job and how you’ve been taking on more responsibilities beyond just the simple answer the phone and the occasional email.

It’s almost amusing how quickly it takes for you to break down the walls that surround Taehyung and his emotional state of mind, how easy you can drag out a genuine laughter from his lips, whether it be from your jokes or your stories. It’s not hard and it doesn’t take long for the conversation to shift from your jobs to other things such as your interests and your childhood. He realizes that not only are you a very thoughtful and expressive individual, you are also incredibly open and fearless and conversational in a way that doesn’t clash with his more quiet disposition but pairs together nicely with it instead.

You end up taking him to a deli rather than a coffee shop, the rows of meat lined up in a way that makes his mouth water as both of you make your selection from a variety of sandwiches offered behind the counter. You occupy a corner booth, unwrapping the paper of your meals and taking your time to nibble at the food whist sharing more details about different general aspects of each other’s lives. He learns about your dream to work in PR, learns about your aspirations to work your way up from the bottom and in knowing the value of hard work. Taehyung shares his own experience, the long years he’s spent working at the floral shop and the relationship he’s developed with all his coworkers through that period of time, disclosing the embarrassing and those moments that may seem insignificant. You take in everything with such a wide-eyed curiosity and nothing feels too dull and by the end of that very first meal, it feels as if the pair of you have known each other for months rather than just a few days.

He walks you back to the office building, stopping just outside the entrance into the company before the pair of you stop—for he has a shop to get back to and questions to answer to while you have paperwork about a mile high probably stacked upon your desk.

“This was fun,” Taehyung says, and he speaks the truth because he really has enjoyed himself in your company. He thinks back to the purple flowers and wonders if he knew he would end up adoring you as much as he does right now in this particular moment.

You grin. “It really was, thank you for keeping me company.”

“Oh, it’s no big deal,” He manages with a shrug.

“Oh! That reminds me, there’s something I wanted you to do for me.” You reach into your bag and fish out a pen and a spare napkin you had stolen from the deli. Using your hand as a base, you scribble something down atop the rough surface before waving the napkin for Taehyung to take. “Here, this is phone number. Let me know when the secret admirer comes back to your shop, alright? I told you I was going to try and hunt him down.”

Taehyung laughs good-naturedly. “Wow, you’re pretty on top of everything already.”

“Of course!” You brush a lock of hair behind your ear. “Well, I should get back to work. I’ll see you later, okay Taehyung?” With one last wave, you turn on your heel and disappear behind the glass doors that make your office space. Taehyung remains rooted to the spot, watching as you slide your worker card through the machine, the way you disappear into the elevator, making your way up to the eighth floor as always and he really does hope he’ll be back soon.

One and a half weeks later, ten o’clock, the shop bell at the top of the door ringing just as Taehyung is adding a lily of the valley to his new bouquet, with Kim Namjoon entering the shop before the younger boy has a chance to hide away the flowers.

“Hey Tae—what is that?” Namjoon stops short when he catches the bouquet settled on the table, a collection of bright yellows: sunflowers and lilies and white petals to keep the singular color from being too overwhelming. Next to Taehyung, Namjoon can see the leftovers of the trimmed tickseed, the hibiscuses on the table, and he flickers his gaze up. “What are you doing?”

“N-Nothing,” Taehyung stammers, trying to gather the leftover flowers in his hands to shove them anywhere—preferably in Namjoon’s face so he could rush out of the shop and never be seen again—but Namjoon has always known more than he dares to reveal.

“Is that for Y/N?” Namjoon inquires suddenly, and Taehyung must be making a very clueless, very stunned expression, because the owner of the shop immediately breaks out into laughter.

“H-How did you know?” Taehyung stammers, furrowing eyebrows together, looking down at the nearly completed bouquet. The yellow he’s selected this time reminds him of your smile, the joy you’ve brought into his day even with just a day’s worth of conversation. It’s probably too fast, too much, too quick all too soon, but he doesn’t care.

“So that’s where you’ve been disappearing off to every week!” He concludes. “I knew you had an interest in her but I didn’t know you were such a romantic.”

“S-Shut up hyung,” Taehyung interjects, staring intensely down at the yellow flowers, hoping that it could blind him enough to keep the blush from dusting across his cheekbones.

“So, like, she’s totally cool with you dropping bouquets on her like this?” Namjoon asks. “Because, if I can recall, you gave her that white one right? And then the purple one like a week ago…”

“W-Well,” Taehyung manages, scratching the back of his neck. “She doesn’t know that it’s me giving her the bouquets.” At Namjoon’s confused look, Taehyung is quick to spill the tale of what the past few weeks have consisted of, how he had spoken about some secret admirer yet started to build a friendship with you in a way that has just been so easy given your easy-going nature and your ability to drag stories and tales of his life with your questions. At the end of the story, Namjoon looks like he’s about to burst into another string of laughter and Taehyung doesn’t know if he’ll ever hear the end of this.

“Wow, pretending to deliver bouquets sent by a secret admirer,” Namjoon sums up, tapping his chin, an infuriatingly amused smile playing on his lips. “I really did not how much romantic you were, Taetae.”

The nickname is enough to make Taehyung feel as if his entire being has just been set aflame. “Shut up hyung.”

It looks like Namjoon has to put in some sort of conscious effort to get himself from having a complete breakdown on the floor, but when he straightens, the traces of laughter is still evident in his eyes. “Ah, sorry Tae, you know I’m just messing with you. But I do thing that you need to tell her, otherwise the lie has a possibility of blowing up right back into your face.”

“I’ll tell her eventually,” Taehyung promises, still not quite sure how much he believes in himself yet. While a part of him does feel guilty for dragging this on, for making you believe that there was some distant secret admirer who held a certain fondness for you, he can’t help himself. And besides, it’s not entirely a lie—he holds a certain fondness for you. He just can’t bring himself to share something so personal so suddenly. But he loves watching the way your eyes light up at the sight of the bouquets, the way you ask questions, the way he strives to create something that could make you fall in love.

If Namjoon is against Taehyung’s vague answers and promises to spill his biggest secret at the moment, the boy doesn’t say anything as he sends Taehyung off at eleven o’clock with a smile and a pat on the shoulder. Like clockwise, Taehyung drives into downtown, approaches the familiar office building and receives a nod from the man behind the counter. He takes the elevator up to the eighth floor, exiting the sliding doors and turning the corner to find you just beginning to straighten out of your chair.

You turn your gaze to stare at Taehyung. “Hey!” You greet. “Nice seeing you again.” You flint down to eye the flowers, blinking as if remembering that his visits always had a purpose, and your lips part. “Hey, you said you’d text me if he ever dropped me!”

“I didn’t have time to do that!” He retorts, giving you the flowers and watching the way you take them, the way you observe them, the way you grin at the color, and he feels his heart melt. “He was very insistent on having all my attention this time.”

“One of these days, I’m going to catch him in the act, and you’re going to watch me do it,” You say with a grand gesture in your words before you turn around to gently place the bouquet onto your desk. “Tell him that I won’t wait around forever, alright?”

“Don’t worry, don’t worry, I’ll mention something to him next time,” Taehyung brushes off with the wave of his hand, stuffing them back deep into the pockets of his bomber jacket. He eyes you, noticing your purse slung over your shoulders. “Are you, uh, are you heading out?”

“Yeah, I’m taking my lunch break early cause I have meetings to attend for the rest of the afternoon,” You say, rolling your shoulder. You tilt your head, looking over at him. “Would you like to accompany me?”

There’s such an easy air to your stance, to your question, makes Taehyung smile as he steps to the side. “After you,” He says, following closely behind as you lead the way.

This time, you take him to a coffee shop on the quieter part of the city. Granted, it had been a longer walk, but somehow the pair of you are able to converse as if no distance had ever been carved between you in the first place. There is no awkward wall, no strange conversation about what the past week of your lives had been in desperate attempts to fill the silence. The pair of you had gotten off as soon as you both stepped out of the office building, with Taehyung asking about the state of your job and everything losing its blur shortly afterwards.

You take him to a little cafe nestled in the corner, wedged between towering skyscrapers and the bustle of people that surround it. Unlike the chaotic mess of the outside world, the interior of the shop is peaceful and settling, and the cashier smiles brightly at the pair of you as you place your orders before taking a seat next to the windows. The tables are marble, moderate, yet there are polaroids that hang on the wall and wide glass to let in all the light possible. The coffee is brought in cute mugs with drawings and designs across the back, and Taehyung takes a sip to let the warmth and the caffeine wash over him, allowing it to fill him with the same warmth the sunflowers situated in the center of the table had done.

“I had no idea a place like this existed in the middle of the city,” Taehyung comments, circling his coffee cup, flickering his gaze up to you to watch you nibble at your lemon loaf you had purchased at the counter.

“Me neither,” You reply, wiping at the corner of your mouth with a napkin. “But I come here a lot—kind of reminds me of that calm in the storm, don’t you think?”

“Yeah…” He says back, keeping his eyes on you, even as you shift to fix your attention outside the window. “I know exactly what you mean.”

“Do you know someone in your life like that?” You inquire suddenly, turning your attention back to him as you lean forward, resting your chin with one hand and making a grab for the coffee with your other hand. “Someone who keeps you calm in spite of all these other things that life is throwing at you?”

“Not quite,” He answers, watching the way you shrug a little at his answer, turning your gaze back to the life beyond. He watches the way you sip your coffee and notices that there’s something very calming about your presence, whether it be walking through the disarray or watching it from a distance. He realizes that in spite of the level of comfort between the two of you, there is still so much he doesn’t know about you. He doesn’t know if you’ve always been like this, doesn’t know if being kind and open has always been a natural reflex for you, but he wants to know and he wants to stay. “But I might one day.”

He walks you back to the office building as per usual, bodies closer together as hands brush each other, yet he thinks that the building approaches too soon, too quickly, and he’s not ready to leave you or your side Yet he has to, because he knows of your obligations and you know of his own, so you send him off with the wave of your hand and the quirk of your lips. He misses the way you watch him leave, misses the way you smile to yourself, casting your eyes downwards before shifting back up just in time to catch his departing figure enter the space of his car before he’s off and moving further away from the city.

Sunday afternoon, an hour before closing, and Taehyung is situated in the empty shop alone, currently making the final trimmings to the peonies, the poppies, the daylilies, slipping in the gladiolus to the height and stringing everything together to reveal a bouquet of red, a bouquet of desire and courage and strength, of finding that will to finally tell you the truth, to finally tell you his feelings and to hope that you won’t turn him away in spite of all those things.

He’s glad to have the shop to himself, glad to have this time of peace for himself in order to collect the last remaining pieces of his thoughts so he could put together this bouquet in exactly the same way he’s always wanted to. There is no Jimin or Jungkook breathing down his neck, no Namjoon to ask questions—although the latter is in the back of the shop, shifting through the expenses for filing purposes.

It doesn’t take long for Taehyung to finish the bouquet, which is a strange sensation for him. With you, it’s always easy to embody the wide breadth of his emotions and always easy to express that creative sound of him, always easy to reach within himself to make such a gift with you in mind. But he finishes it with about fifteen minutes left until closing, so he sets the bouquet in the back room and gets to work on the closing routine. This mainly consists of sweeping the floors, and wiping down the countertops, making sure the flowers are hydrated enough to survive the night.

He’s in the middle of cleaning up the remains of his own personal bouquet of red and stems when the shop door opens, the bell echoing through the interior just as Taehyung finishes collecting everything into a little pile of trash on the floor. “Hi, welcome—!” He starts, turning his attention to the door and unable to stop the way his voice dies down at the sight before him.

Standing in the doorframe of the shop, a long gray coat and black jeans but no less professional, no less graceful, no less beautiful, is—!

“Y/N, hey!” Taehyung greets, resting the broom against the counter. “What are you doing here?”

You grin. “Taehyung, hi,” You say back, stepping deeper into the stop and taking in the sight that he’s considered home for the past three years. He watches the way you observe the flowers, observe the sight of all the bouquets he’s spent the day working on in containers so time can’t eat at its petals, and for a moment, he’s nervous. It’s so strange seeing you in his life in this manner, like he can no longer hide behind desks and bouquets from a nonexistent stranger. “I was in the area, and thought that I’d drop by.”

You approach the desk just as Taehyung is leaning across the surface, folding his hands together. “What can I help you with?”

You smile, pressing your lips together, your eyes looking like they’re in the middle of some battle, before you’re looking at him again. “I need a bouquet.”

At first, Taehyung’s mind draws to the worst conclusion possible. He thinks that maybe you’ve gotten tired of the secret admirer facade, no longer desired to wait for him to show himself, and that you’ve found someone else. It takes a moment, but he calms himself down with the reassurance that you only wanted to buy a bouquet for a friend or family member. Nothing more, nothing less. Besides, he trusts you enough to know that perhaps you would let it slip about your feelings regarding the secret admirer if his chasing was no longer something you desired to put up with. “Okay then.” He gets to work nonetheless, laying out the plastic sheet across the table. “What for?”

“Actually, I need your advice for this,” You say, licking your lips, and for the first time you actually look nervous. You take in a breath. “What’s a bouquet or a flower that says ‘you’re really cute and we’ve been hanging out for awhile now because you’ve been bringing me flowers from some secret admirer that I know is you but I think it’s about time I tell you I like you too’?”

It takes a moment for the realization to hit Taehyung, but when it does, it practically knocks him off his feet. He feels his cheeks flush, feels like his soul might depart from his body, as he swallows thickly and suddenly can’t find it in himself to look at you in the eye. He barely catches the fond smiling curling itself at the corner of your lips before he remembers that you had asked a question. “Peonies,” He says after a moment, scratching his neck.

You look at him for a moment longer before rounding on your heel, head turning from side to side.

“They’re, uh, right next to the sunflowers over there…” Taehyung supplies, and he doesn’t know why he’s assisting you on such an endeavor but the words can’t help itself and soon you’re directing yourself towards the sunflowers and fishing out a pink peony.

You turn back around, approaching him and looking at him straight in the eye—which would be a little unsettling under normal circumstances, but this is you and he would be lying if he said he expected anything less from you—and offering forth the peony. “Taehyung, will you go out on a date with me?”

Taehyung finds himself unable to tear his gaze away from you, so he does the only thing he’s capable of doing at the moment. He laughs, shakily and forcefully, but bites his lip in order to take the flower from your hand. “H-How long did you know it was me?” He asks.

“Honestly? I had a hunch from the moment you brought in that white bouquet.” You say, laughing after a moment. “I have to say, definitely one of the more romantic things a guy has done for me.”

��S-Shut up,” Taehyung grumbles, but it’s a term of endearment and judging from the smile on your face, that’s a fact you’re perfectly aware of.

“Were you ever going to tell me the truth?”

“I was planning to say something this week…” Taehyung answers, rubbing the back of his neck, finally daring himself to spare another glance at you. “So, uh, can I… can we…?”

“I’m free this weekend,” You fill in.

“Great.” Taehyung replies breathlessly. “I, uh, was just working on another bouquet for you. It’s in the back.”

You brighten. “I bet it’s absolutely beautiful. You haven’t failed me yet.”

“W-Would you like to see it?”

You smile, and suddenly every other flower seems to dull in comparison. “Save it for our date.”

#taehyung x reader #taehyung x you #taehyung scenario #taehyung fluff #bts scenario #bts fluff #bts x reader #repost: workofteaguk #traci writes

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ryanmeft · 5 years

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Ranking the Marvel Cinematic Universe, part 3

Part 1: https://ryanmeft.tumblr.com/post/183962601514/ranking-the-marvel-cinematic-universe-part-1 Part 2: https://ryanmeft.tumblr.com/post/184208179827/ranking-the-marvel-cinematic-universe-part-2

10. Avengers: Age of Ultron

Yes, the third act goes on way too long, and is uninspired and even a bit dull. It deserves the criticism it gets. Thing is, that’s pretty much all this one deserves criticism for. Right up until that final showdown, everything in the movie clicked. It starts right off with the Avengers already a team, in a semi-cold open where every member just works. Throughout the movie, Joss Whedon proves he deserves his reputation for snappy dialogue, as nearly every exchange between every character zings. The additions of Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver may not feel like the most vital parts of the formula, but they work every bit as well as they need to, and the defeated Avengers retreating to an off-the-grid hideout to hash out their issues is still among the franchises’ best sequences, more than worth the silly Ragnarok tie-in Whedon had to trade for it.

It also has a great, underrated villain. While it does seem that no one really planned in advance to have Ultron in the MCU, he works perfectly, backed up by the voice and personality of James Spader. He never comes across as a robot, but rather as artificial life, dropped into a supremely messed up world and taking---well, can we really say the wrong interpretation? Skewed, perhaps, but driven by the very true reality of mankind’s brutal nature. It seems obvious Whedon got tired by the end of the film, but everything prior to that is gold. Unless you’re one of those people who watches the original on repeat, it’s now hard to deny that the sequel tops it.

9. Iron Man 3

Fanboy cries of “they didn’t do the Mandarin right” have unfairly dogged this one since release. I don’t read the comics regularly anymore, and I find that after more than a decade outside of regular readership I have the glorious freedom of judging a movie apart from whether it matches the comics’ often-contradictory and confusing continuity. So, with that out of the way: Iron Man 3 is genuinely good. Recovering from the train wreck that was Iron Man 2 with new director Shane Black and co-writer Drew Pearce, this one decided to de-glamorize the hard-party aspect of the character and let his frat-boy nature lead him to near-ruin, getting his home destroyed and his suit crippled by a mad terrorist. That led to an excellent middle act in which Tony has to make a go of things without his vaunted suits to help him, against a mysterious villain. When the nature of that villain is revealed, it’s actually quite clever (while also being a way to avoid massively ticking off the all-important Asian box office). The new supporting cast, especially Ben Kingsley and Guy Pearce, add a lot, while returning favorites get actual development. The third act goes on a little too long, but the device of having Tony manipulate multiple suits of armor at once is a clever twist on the usual Marvel shtick of an army of bad guys vs. one hero. As Marvel’s first post-Avengers movie, this one needed to prove the MCU concept still had gas in it even though the big event it had been building to was come and gone. It succeeded.

8. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2

Which Guardians is better? They’re both some of the more pure fun movies in the MCU, kind of like Suicide Squad, but not shitty, and in space. Some people prefer the first one for sheer irreverence and comedic chemistry, while others appreciate the more personal story and stakes in the sequel. I had a raging debate with myself on this (there were injuries) but ultimately, more personal won out. The first movie has a bunch of misfits who get together to stop a generic cosmic evil baddie bad guy seemingly for no other reason than the heck of it. The second gives them actual reasons to be together, with a truly interesting threat to fight. Peter Quill’s dad Ego, played with just the right amount of swagger and just the right gleam in his eye by Kurt Russell, is the lightning this team needed to really live. There’s a lot of “Oh, come on, stop pretending he’s not the bad guy” in movies, but in this case you really don’t want him to be; he’s the kind of guy you’d like to have a beer with, and you get the sense he really cares for his son in his own twisted way. That’s villain gold.

The family themes don’t end there, with Gamora and Nebula working out their differences and Rocket learning to be (slightly less of) a little shit and appreciating his adoptive family more. And, of course, there’s Yondu’s emotional death. In fact, one of the more interesting takes I read casts the movie in the light of overcoming abusive relationships. That may seem a little grand for a superhero popcorn flick, but tilt your head a bit and you can see it. The greater amount of heart on display in this entry makes up for some occasionally ramshackle plotting, and provides a worthy sequel.

7. Black Panther

One of the few superhero movies that genuinely created a believable world, the land of Wakanda comes to vivid and incredible life, a more visually varied, colorful and detailed setting than anything in the MCU or even the Marvel catalogue; there’s nothing else like it in the genre. Ritual battles for the throne are fought amid towering waterfalls, while light speed trains blast by beneath the rural African facade. The action in this amazing setting is driven by two great characters. Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challa is a doubtful king, unsure of his country’s place in the world or even his own necessity to his country. Michael B. Jordan’s Killmonger is a radical with a reason; his motivations feel genuine and his rage earned.

Ultimately, the supporting cast decided this one’s ranking. Other than fan favorite Shuri, the secondary players in this one are…well, dull. Lupita Nyong’o, Angela Bassett and Danai Gurira are given minimal-if-any character development, and it’s impossible to ignore the fact that in the age of MeToo, all of the women here are subservient to a man. The third act devolves into an obligatory battle scene, when it could have been so much more given what it had to work with. By any measure, it’s an excellent tights flick, but we’re going to have to wait for the sequel to see what the setting is really capable of.

6. Captain America: The First Avenger

Just in case you were wondering if this list were biased, here’s my personal favorite MCU movie, down here at #6. One of the few films in the studio’s catalog that feels it was made entirely by humans with visions and not a marketing committee, Joe Johnston lends this one a feel that is a distinct mix of genuine World War II and the boys magazine vibe that originally birthed Cap. The result is a superhero film that stands as unique in the genre. Actual scenes of warfare are mostly avoided due to that PG-13 rating, but the costs of war are seen in relatively realistic depictions of refugee soldiers returning from a doomed mission, or the jaded responses of hardened troops to Cap’s USO-style shows. Light elements of camp come in with the deliciously over-the-top performance of Hugo Weaving as the Red Skull and that wonderfully hammy montage of Cap selling war bonds. The whole thing is tied together by Chris Evans playing the MCU’s most naturally likable protagonist, who gets a last line that, for my money, easily tops “I am Iron Man”.

5. Thor: Ragnarok

It may not be the weightiest film in the MCU, and the apocalyptic, full-stakes tone of the Asgardian story occasionally clashes strangely with the full-comedic tone of the Planet Hulk-inspired material, but Ragnarok was nonetheless the tonic we all needed in a world where blockbusters often don’t know how to relax. Sure, there’s plenty of humor in other MCU films, but it can occasionally feel as though a committee of people is sitting around with a page of one-liners and a stamp. Taika Waititi’s material does not feel like that. From the banter between Loki and everyone else to the fact that Hemsworth is finally allowed to tap into his comedic abilities, it feels like kids having fun, which we need more of. Cate Blanchett completely devours her role as Hela, while Jeff Goldblum’s Grandmaster is a preening drunk who gets some of the best lines. It pretty much erases the previous Thor continuity---including the only clever bit of plotting from Dark World---but what we lose is more than made up for by the fun we gain in the process. Oh, and visually, it may be the only MCU film other than Doctor Strange which fully taps into that wonderfully bizarre 60’s Marvel vibe.

4. Spider-Man: Homecoming

Spider-Man’s long-awaited starring debut in the MCU may not have been quite as earth-shattering as some hoped, but then, it wasn’t supposed to be. Of all the heroes in Marvel’s vast catalog, Spidey is the most like us. He has girl troubles, he can’t pay the rent, his boss is a jerk, and there’s always someone in the bathroom when he really needs to go (probably). Many of the hallmarks of the classic character didn’t make the transition, but the spirit is alive. Peter comes across as a hyperactive, overconfident millennial, which is what he’d be these days, and his classmates are updated from a rotating roster of stock characters straight out of 1950’s pamphlets on The Modern Teenager to a varied group of personalities that connect with today’s kids. Most crucial of all, though, is the Vulture, widely regarded at the time as the best MCU villain to date (and still this writer’s favorite). He doesn’t want to rule the world, he just wants to make a living, and that makes him the perfect opponent for Peter. Michael Keaton was the ideal choice for his casting. This is a case where a pretty darn good movie is bumped several slots simply because of how great the villain is. Sure, Downey seems to be phoning in his support role at times, and some great comedic actors are relegated to tiny roles, but these are flyspecks on the movie that redeemed the Spider-Man name after a decade of cinematic missteps.

3. Iron Man

The original and…still the best? Not quite, but it’s up there. At the time Iron Man released, it seemed flawless in part because of the odds against it. It’s hard to imagine a time now when Shellhead wasn’t a household name, but when Marvel decided to launch their new line of films with him, he was second-tier at best. The success of the movie and, crucially, Robert Downey Jr.’s casting elevated him to essential. The impact was so great that if you go and read a modern Marvel comic, you’ll find them pretending he was always front and center. It all started here, and it started because the movie was so good. It not only rehabilitated Downey’s image, it cast the great Jeff Bridges as a villain who seems to plausibly believe his version of events, and a pre-Goop Gwyneth Paltrow as an effective romantic foil for Tony. The humor, the action, the pathos all clicked. Looking back now, the decision to have Stane go completely evil by the end of the film cheapens it a bit, especially compared to truly complex villains like The Vulture and Loki, and the character himself has evolved beyond these beginnings---despite his moral conflicts, he still revels in being an irresponsible playboy here. These are incredibly minor quibbles, but ten years later, they stand out just enough to cost it a couple rungs on the ladder.

2. Captain America: The Winter Soldier

The popular favorite for the best MCU movie slides in at #2, and before you hit me, it’s all because of Marvel’s need to insert cookie cutter, blockbuster endings in their movies, regardless of what kind of movie it is. They’ve gotten better as time goes on, but the giant ships over the city, flaming and falling from the sky while superpeople jump on, in, over and around them was incongruous with the slower, more measured spy stuff of the rest of the movie, and felt obligatory, causing this to lose the top spot. Still, it had to have ranked second for a reason. The plot up until the third act may be the tightest and most tense of any MCU film, with genuine mysteries unfolding and an unexpected payoff when we get to the what’s-really-going-on-here moment. New additions Anthony Mackie and Robert Redford fit well, while Black Widow is such a perfect compliment to Cap that it’s a crime they didn’t team up more often without all those other hangers-on (and there’s an unexplored romantic chemistry that seems much more apt than that between Cap and Sharon Carter). The first two acts of this one define what the MCU is capable of.

1. Captain America: Civil War

Civil War plays like one of those old Marvel Annuals, with the double-sized page count and the promises of things you wouldn’t normally see. Unlike those annuals, the movie isn’t padded out with recycled material, either. It gives audiences exactly what they’re expecting: the answer to what would happen if the good guys turned on each other.

That answer, of course, is: one hell of a fight. The airport battle in particular shows off the powers of every available hero, including the newly introduced Black Panther and Spider-Man, and the Russos (with their small army of effects people) come up with every trick and use of the hero’s powers they can for this lengthy sequence. In many ways, it’s the best of the Avengers movies.

Yet despite some wags who say it isn’t really a Captain America movie, it is. The story heavily involves both him and Winter Soldier, and Rogers ends up being the one whose decisions shape the outcome. The stakes may involve everyone at first, but they eventually come down to a very personal battle between Iron Man and Cap, after a highly clever fake-out by Daniel Bruhl’s Zemo. The ads may have promised fireworks, but just like the other Cap movies, it’s the personal stuff that makes this one work so well.

#Avengers #marvel #robert downey jr.#black panther #spider-man #guardians of the galaxy #Chris Evans #thor #tom hiddleston #captain america #movies

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thefilmsnob · 6 years

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Glen Coco’s Top 10 Films of 2017

Unlike last year, 2017 was a stand-out for the film industry. There wasn’t an abundance of undisputed masterpieces per se, but there were still more than enough excellent motion pictures that deserve recognition. As always, it killed me having to omit so many great films, but that’s just life I guess. You got your ups and you got your downs. Anyway, here are my picks for the ten greatest films of 2017. But first, I’ll list the runners-up and the traditional bonus track. There’s always a bonus track.

Runners-Up

-Blade Runner 2049 ***

-Get Out

-Kong: Skull Island

-Last Flag Flying

-Molly’s Game

-Phantom Thread

-T2: Trainspotting

-Thor: Ragnarok

***Blade Runner 2049 probably would make this list in another life. The thing is, when I saw it, I was very tired and frustrated and I found it hard to focus. Because of this, I missed some important plot details, so the whole time my brain was trying to catch up with the narrative. It never did and I was lost. This is a gorgeous-looking film with excellent performances, direction, cinematography, visual effects and production design. But, I can not, in good conscience, include it without a second viewing. I’m a fucking nerd.

And here are the top 10!

#10b. (Bonus Track) The Lost City of Z

Director: James Gray

Starring: Charlie Hunnam, Robert Pattinson, Sienna Miller, Tom Holland

For a movie with a dashing lead who takes multiple expeditions into the Amazon rainforest to find a fabled lost city while facing perilous conditions from treacherous landscapes to hostile natives, The Lost City of Z has been seen by a total of zero people. That’s a shame. This is a movie that reminds us of pulp magazines and classic exploration films of old, promising mystery, intrigue and adventure. The film takes place over several years in the early 1900s and follows Percy Fawcett whose interest in a lost city turns into an obsession and whose multiple trips to find what may not exist threatens his family life and reputation. Directed by James Gray, The Lost City of Z is a refreshing antidote to the modern action film full of CGI and empty noise. The rich cinematography provides a natural and vivid look which amplifies the sense of danger Fawcett and his men must face. And Charlie Hunnam shines as Fawcett, pulling us into his world with his passion and charisma and even when disillusionment threatens these qualities, we remain invested in his struggle to the end.

#10. Mother!

Director: Darren Aronofsky

Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Ed Harris, Michelle Pfeiffer

Mother! is undeniably polarizing and that’s understandable. Darren Aronofsky’s films aren’t meant for a mass audience and his use of surrealism can be frustrating at times, but it can also be deeply profound and Aronofsky is nothing if not ambitious. Mother! is perhaps his most challenging film but also one of his most mesmerizing. It starts out relatively calm as we see Mother (Jennifer Lawrence) living with Him (Javier Bardem) in a large country home in what seems like a tranquil existence, albeit with eerie undertones. Things get weird when unexpected guests arrive, played by Ed Harris and a deliciously chilly Michelle Pfeiffer. You think you’re in for a standard thriller until Aronofsky takes us down a wildly unexpected path. Never has a movie escalated so quickly and severely. Toward the end, it becomes a beautifully chaotic mixture of bizarre images and themes that blur the lines between reality and fantasy while grappling with topics from religion and death to the burdens of celebrity and motherhood. It’s a tumultuous journey, but if you suspend your disbelief and accept the mayhem, it’s like nothing you’ve ever experienced.

#9. The Florida Project

Director: Sean Baker

Starring: Brooklynn Prince, Bria Vinaite, Willem Dafoe

Rarely do movies focus their attention on the poor, uneducated and unfortunate souls we’re introduced to in The Florida Project. But writer/director Sean Baker has decided to observe the beauty and excitement in their lives. Brooklyn Prince, in one of the most impressive performances by any child actor, plays Moonee, who, along with her friends, makes the row of motels that line a street in Kissimmee, Florida her playground. It’s fascinating watching what these children get up to, from the innocent to the questionable to the downright illegal. But, Baker never judges; he merely observes the products of a sad reality. He highlights the joy in their lives while never ignoring their present struggles and the troubling future they probably have in store. Bria Vinaite gives an impeccably raw performance as Moonee’s mother, Halley, who drinks, does drugs, recruits Moonee to resell perfume to tourists and is no more mature than her six-year-old daughter. Willem Dafoe is the manager of the motel in which they reside who’s constantly solving everyone’s problems while unconsciously acting as a father figure at times without being unrealistically portrayed as a saint. Dafoe’s great here. But, it’s Moonee who shines at the end in one of the most emotional and heartbreaking scenes of 2017. Sadly, Moonee may not be destined for greatness, but Prince sure is.

#8. Dunkirk

Director: Christopher Nolan

Starring: Fionn Whitehead, Mark Rylance, Kenneth Branagh

Christopher Nolan is a master of creating spectacles that are as thought-provoking as they are thrilling and Dunkirk is no exception. With the help of Hans Zimmer’s relentless score and many turbulent scenarios, Nolan stresses the utter fear and desperation felt by hundreds of thousands of soldiers evacuating the beach at Dunkirk in 1940 while also highlighting the collective heroism displayed in the process. The film is split into three distinct yet interweaving story lines set on the beach, on the water and in the air, intercut expertly and involving a superb ensemble cast. Nolan’s wise omission of extraneous elements like generals strategizing in war rooms allows the movie to focus on the the event itself, making it a more urgent experience. Even with all the moving parts, we’re guided by Hoyte van Hoytema’s masterful camerawork; what could’ve been a disorienting jumble of images is, in fact, impeccably vivid and coherent, eschewing rapid-fire cuts. But, this is Nolan’s pride and joy and there’s no denying it’s a work of a man so unabashedly dedicated to his craft, one who’s created a breathtaking experience with such a sharp attention to detail that’s at once sweeping and intimate.

#7. The Post

Director: Steven Spielberg

Starring: Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, every TV actor of the last 5 years

Calling The Post timely isn’t so much an opinion as it is a truism. The parallels between the deceptive presidencies of Nixon and Trump are so painfully obvious that the film couldn’t be timelier. Back in the Nixon era, the Vietnam War was the source of deception which led to the release of the Pentagon Papers detailing more than 20 years of admissions of the failing American war effort, contradicting previous information. The Post is the story of how some journalists decided to print this information, specifically Washington Post heiress and publisher Katherine Graham, Meryl Streep in an Oscar-worthy performance in which she masterfully and subtlety conveys the weight of responsibility on her shoulders regarding a decision with potentially disastrous consequences. Streep makes her anxiety increasingly palpable until it all comes to a head in a powerfully assertive speech. Tom Hanks is great as Post Editor-in-Chief, Ben Bradlee, who’s fairly aggressive about getting the big story and improving his reputation, though Hanks still lets us admire this gruff character for his fierce dedication to journalistic integrity. Also great are the countless TV actors from Bob Odenkirk to Sarah Paulson to, yes, David Cross. As usual, Spielberg does a workmanlike job on the film and adds that elegant, classic Hollywood sheen to the material. He avoids an abundance of exposition, keeps his focus on the human crisis of conscience and allows the proceedings to flow smoothly. This is a very important story about heroes who risked everything in the name of truth and freedom of the press.

#6. Lady Bird

Director: Greta Gerwig

Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, Tracy Letts

In her directorial debut film, Lady Bird, Greta Gerwig puts a fresh spin on the high school movie without relying on overly quirky characters, gimmickry or excess. Its breezy naturalism helps it transcend the genre with the stripped-down, straightforward and ordinary nature of the movie, paradoxically, making it so complex. A celebration of autonomy and liberation, Lady Bird follows the titular character (Saoirse Ronan) who feels trapped in a mundane life at an all-girls Catholic school in Sacramento with a mother (Laurie Metcalf) who’s mastered the art of passive aggression. But, Ronan turns Lady Bird’s normalcy into a thing of beauty and makes her an embodiment of perseverance in subtle ways. Metcalf is exceptional here too, often ruthless but always sympathetic as the overworked breadwinner of the family. But most of the praise should go to Gerwig, already a great actress and now directing with a gentle and pure touch, allowing the film to breath with little contrivance. She keeps her scenes brief and adds her unique observations and unorthodox comedic sensibilities to the dialogue which is authentic, witty and often shockingly hilarious. This is a smart and insightful film that’s all but devoid of flaws.

#5. Stronger

Director: David Gordon Green

Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Tatiana Maslany, Miranda Richardson

Once again, Jake Gyllenhaal has been snubbed by the Academy. In Stronger, he gives yet another magnificent performance playing Jeff Bauman, an underachieving Boston native who loses his legs during the Boston Marathon bombing while cheering on his ex-girlfriend, Erin (Tatiana Maslany), at the finish line. The movie recounts his rehabilitation as well as the accompanying emotional turmoil he and his family must endure. Movies like this have been done before but rarely with this much brutal honesty. Gyllenhaal is so convincing, making you feel his every ache and bruise; we’re heart broken just watching the poor man trying to enter his bathtub. He completely transforms in front of our eyes from an overeager and fun-loving young man to a bitter, often angry victim with impressive ease. Maslany is equally impressive, wrestling with a multitude of emotions from compassion to guilt to frustration to anger, often simultaneously, in this refreshing take on the ‘caring loved one’ role. In less competent hands, this would be a conventional TV movie full of cliches and sentiment. But David Gordon Green imbues his work with so much realism whether it’s the injury itself, the recovery process, the reactions from friends and family or Bauman’s mental state. It’s a truly inspirational film and meditation on heroism that actually respects its audience.

#4. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Director: Martin McDonagh

Starring: Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell

Not only is Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri timely, but it has one of last year’s most original premises. Enraged by the lack of progress made by the police in identifying the person who raped and murdered her teenage daughter, Mildred Hayes, played by the force of nature that is Frances McDormand, takes action by renting three billboards near her home in Ebbing and posting messages calling out the police for their lack of competence and urgency, especially Chief Willoughby (Woody Harrelson). Obviously, this starts a chaotic chain of events, crafted by writer/director Martin McDonagh, that deals with relevant social issues in a way that’s by turns tragic and shockingly hilarious. But, contrary to the marketing campaign, McDonagh’s film isn’t so black and white; he illustrates the complexity of the matter by exposing fault in all parties involved as well as the tragic consequences of their actions. McDormand shows us an utterly depleted woman with nothing but rage and a mission, making some of the most scathing remarks you’ll hear to anyone in her way, yet still able to sympathize when she sees her adversary in pain, like Willoughby who’s dying of cancer. Harrelson gives an incredibly poignant speech related to this that’s one of the films highlights. Sam Rockwell is also sensational as a racist scumbag of a cop who nonetheless embarks on a path of redemption. The ending is ambiguous. What happens is irrelevant. Whether you think Rockwell deserves redemption is also besides the point. What matters is that there’s a dialogue starting, progress being made and, indeed, something being done. In other words, there’s hope.

#3. The Disaster Artist

Director: James Franco

Starring: Dave Franco, James Franco, Seth Rogan

Apparently, James Franco might be a bad dude and shame on him if he is. But, I’m here to talk about movies and The Disaster Artist is a damn good one. Most of the credit should go to writers Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, anyway, for crafting an insightful, hilarious, yet oddly touching screenplay about the wildly misguided Tommy Wiseau (James Franco) who was responsible for The Room, one of the worst movies ever made. We’re oriented by Dave Franco playing The Room star, Greg Sestero, from when he meets the awful but ambitious performer, Wiseau, in an acting class in the late ‘90s through the early ‘00s which sees the pair become friends, move to LA to act, fail miserably and decide to make their own movie. Dave Franco charms as the wide-eyed optimist who’s accepting to a fault. James Franco, still maybe an ass, is great as Wiseau, capturing his voice and mannerisms perfectly, giving us a character who’s as delusional and jealous as he is free-spirited, also to a fault. Their relationship is charming in the beginning and no less intriguing when its threatened by one’s pride and the other’s loss of confidence. The story’s at its best when Wiseau is filming his dream project and we see his lack of talent and leadership grate on cast and crew, specifically Seth Rogen as Sandy Schklair, whose exasperation is priceless. But the film makers are wise to tease without deriding and actually give some credit to Wiseau for, when you think about it, the man accomplished more than most of us ever will, illustrated in a film about a film that moves effortlessly from start to finish.

#2. Wind River

Director: Taylor Sheridan

Starring: Jeremy Renner, Elizabeth Olsen

If there’s any justice in this world, Taylor Sheridan soon will be swimming in awards and money for the man is responsible for the scripts of wonderful films like Sicario, Hell or High Water and now Wind River which he also directed. Few people are better at crafting profoundly entertaining commentaries on the dark and controversial pockets of America. With Wind River, he focuses on problems faced by those living on Indian reservations. The film seems like a recipe for a generic crime thriller starring Hawkeye and the Scarlett Witch until you remember Sheridan’s track record and the fact that Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen are actually great actors. After we’re shown a chilling prelude involving a teen girl running, and collapsing, in the snow in freezing temperatures without appropriate clothing, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agent Cory Lambert (Renner) finds the body and gets the narrative wheels in motion. Once rookie FBI agent Jane Banner (Olsen) arrives, they team up to solve the case that takes them to dark and twisted places. Sheridan let’s the film take its time to develop; it progresses clearly and logically, making it easy to follow along, unlike similar films. And unlike these films, you actually care as much about the people investigating the case as the case itself. Though used sparingly, Sheridan composes some of the most realistic and tense action sequences you’ll see. There’s one scene that’s almost unbearably intense but so utterly effective in making you feel the horror this community feels. It, like this film, gets under your skin and stays with you well after the credits roll.

#1. Call Me by Your Name

Director: Luca Guadagnino

Starring: Timothee Chalamet, Armie Hammer, Michael Stuhlbarg

If you consider just how many love stories have been written in the history of humanity, you might think it impossible to create another great one. But what director Luca Guadagnino does with a script from James Ivory is pure bliss. Not only will you fall in love with the characters, but you’ll also fall in love with the gorgeous, picturesque northern Italian countryside on display. It’s here, during a lazy summer of 1983, where an introverted, music-loving Italian-American teen, Elio (Timothee Chalamet), meets an older, classically handsome and outgoing graduate student named Oliver (Armie Hammer), forming a relationship that will change their lives forever. Elio’s father (Michael Stuhlbarg), an archaeology professor, invites Oliver to live with them for the summer to help with his research and although Elio initially is turned off by this ‘intruder’, gradually he forms an attraction. How the film makers deal with this attraction and eventual relationship is simply perfection. The way in which the two characters subtly feel each other out at the start feels so true to life and each subsequent step from attraction to bonding to seduction is equally realistic and even more entertaining.The film benefits from the actors’ fearless performances, especially that of newcomer Chalamet who’s a ball of pent up sexual energy. The movie ends with Stuhlbarg having an irresistibly touching discussion with his son, full of warmth and understanding, and a final heartbreaking scene, so simple in concept yet so emotionally complex. Chalamet takes your breath away here with an array of emotions parading across his face as Sufjan Stevens’ gorgeous ‘Mystery of Love’ plays in its entirety. It’s one of the the most entrancing endings to a movie you’ll see, capping off the best film of 2017.

#top 10 films #top 10 list #movie review #2017 films

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kennithmolino-blog · 6 years

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farawayhills2-blog · 6 years

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Carrie Underwood: Cry Pretty Album Review

This album represents Carrie's first formal role as producer (although there have been indications that she frequently discussed production and made suggestions before.) Here she shares production with David Garcia, a relatively new connection, that evolved from songwriting together. Although Garcia has had some recent connection with Mainstream Country, his main experience has been in Pop and Contemporary Christian Music, enabling him to bring mixed influences, and probably relatively few genre preconceptions, to the production desk. Many of the songs do strike me as having a definite "Carrie" feel, and I think she has made considerable use of the freedom her co-producer role has given her to innovate and express herself in a variety of ways. What I believe is likely to have been of considerable help to Carrie in expressing musically the styles she wanted to develop, and in giving much of the album an overall cohesion is the continuity of key musicians. Throughout her major label career, Carrie has shown a marked tendency to use the same session players on substantial parts of her albums. Her favoured rhythm section, of Chris McHugh on drums and Jimmie Lee Sloas on bass, have appeared on every one of her albums, as has electric guitarist, Tom Bukovac, and although the same combination is not heard on every track, it is on the majority. Other players, such as multi string specialist, Ilya Toshinskiy, and flatpicking acoustic guitarist, Bryan Sutton, are also well known from several earlier apperarences. This tends to give rise to a situation in which she knows and trusts the musicians, and they are pretty familiar with her singing styles. A number of other specialist players also make a strong contribution, and the combinations show that the two producers have been prepared to put considerable effort into musical planning and innovation. This has resulted in a situation in which the music and the vocal lines seem particularly to complement each other, and, for me, this remains apparent even when bold and complex production is being employed. One result is that I find that Carrie's exceptional vocal talent often comes across with more variety and clarity than ever.

The two albums with which I'd be most inclined to compare this one are "Storyteller" and "Some Hearts". "Storyteller" is an easy comparison, since I think this album noticeably builds on directions which Carrie was already exploring on its predecessor. In that category I'd place the willingness to explore more personal and intimate themes, the desire to push some songs in a deeper Country stylistic direction, and the Pop-leaning experiments in other songs. All those trends occurred, to some extent, in earlier work - but I feel it is in the two most recent albums that they find a fuller expression - a sign of Carrie's greater maturity and confidence, and perhaps willingness to explore areas she chooses, with relatively less concern for the expectations of outside interests.

The comparison with "Some Hearts" may be less obvious, but I mention it for two reasons. Firstly, both albums have a group of standout songs that are stylistically different from other parts of the album, and which I consider to be among Carrie's best work. The four Country singles from "Some Hearts" were largely responsible for winning her critical acclaim and her early spate of award wins at the Country trade shows, and it was only later, with lighter songs such as "Last Name" and "All American Girl" that some of that support moved away from her, notwithstanding her continued commercial success. I believe there is a block of songs on "Cry Pretty" which, if they receive sufficiently wide exposure, could restore her earlier reputation.

The second reason is that both "Some Hearts" and "Cry Pretty" appear to be aimed at a mixed audience - probably to a greater extent than the intervening albums, which, while varied, stemmed from a situation in which Carrie's career seemed securely focused on a prominent position within Mainstream Country radio. "Some Hearts" came at a time when that position was not secure, and her reputation as a Country singer of note had to be established, while, at the same time keeping faith with the more mixed audience which had encountered her on "American Idol". In the case of "Cry Pretty", Carrie is arguably also at something of a career turning point, since gaining a wider international audience is one of the stated objectives of her move to a new label group - which, by definition, means, to some extent, looking beyond Mainstream Country radio. I think it would probably be a mistake to over-emphasize that point, because much of the album has the feel of being personal to Carrie, expressing what she wants to say, as an individual and as an artist, rather than simply being targeted to particular tastes. But, nevertheless, the potential audiences for different types of song do seem to have been taken into account,

(The bonus track, "The Champion", is the only one with a different producer, Jim Jonsin, and, while the new direction it explored, and the interest and popularity it aroused, justified its album place as an extra, because of its very different origins and purpose, I've not included it in this album review)

CRY PRETTY

This title track, and lead single was co-written with the three Love Junkies, who also provided one of the most memorable (and emotional) songs, "Like I'll Never Love You Again", on Carrie's last album. This one sets the scene for the new album, by emphasizing some of the developments in production, vocal delivery, and more personal themes that Carrie is experimenting with. The first minute is a slow, stark and emotional statement of feelings, accompanied by a sparse arrangement that creates a sense of foreboding. This is probably one of the longest passages of quiet vocal development that Carrie has used, and is very effective in identifying the raw sense of dichotomy between an artist's inner feelings, and the expectations of glamour that her public role insists on. It's followed by a bursting out of Carrie's well known power singing. Inevitably, perhaps, this section seems less innovative, but it serves to reassure the many listeners who principally identify with this style that it is still an important part of her stylistic range. It is in three quarter time, evoking the traditional Country Waltz feel - a reminder that Carrie likes to combine striking modern arrangements with touches that still pay homage to older styles. What I find becomes particularly impressive and unusual about the later development of the song is that both the music and the voice continue to build up into an increasing sense of chaos and despair, in which the lyric sometimes melts into a wordless wail. This is very effective in expressing the theme of the song that, regardless of appearances, an artist might be almost overwhelmed by her own inner feelings, that can arise from matters quite beyond the artificiality of her stage role. In that sense I would regard this song as one of four on the album that deal with topical issues: the demands of the entertainment world (here); substance abuse ("Spinning Bottles"); empathy with victims of gun violence ("The Bullet", and "Love Wins"); political division and prejudice ("Love Wins"). Carrie has addressed social issues before ("Temporary Home", "Change" and "Nobody Ever Told You" being earlier examples), but "Smoke Break" on the previous album, and the four songs on this one, represent a definite development in both depth and emphasis

GHOSTS ON THE STEREO

Sadly one of the writers, Andrew Dorff, passed away shortly before Christmas, 2016, at the early age of 40, and this remarkable song must serve as one of his memorials.

I have seen some criticism that Carrie, a leading Mainstream singer, may have chosen this song as a "nod" to evoke a nominal allegiance to traditional singers whose work runs counter to her own - but that criticism strikes me as missing the whole point, in two important senses. One is that Carrie, although a contemporary singer, who draws on a mix of influences (something which, if we're honest, we should admit has happened throughout the genre's history), she does show a persistent and marked loyalty to her place in the genre (something she would have had numerous opportunities to reject), and does take more trouble than many contemporary chart artists to include specific references to the genre's traditions in much of her own work. Hating on the Mainstream is often understandable (I share that emotion often enough myself!), but singling out Carrie as the symbolic target is far from identifying the worst offender. The second reason is contained in the song itself - the character is described as going through a separation, but finding solace in listening to recordings of past heroes. The point is that the party mood described is imaginary - it seems like a haunted house, with just one car in the drive. But the singer finds her company in identifying with the timeless mood of the songs she recalls. Far from being a "nod" to a set of names, connecting with the stream of emotion those singers represent is the whole point of the song. And we should not miss the significance of the guest artists brought in to supplement Carrie's more usual session players. Holly Williams is Hank's granddaughter, and Ben Haggard is Merle's son. Steel player Steve Hinson often worked with George Jones. These people didn't need to appear, and the fact that they did is consistent with my own experience - years ago, I was persuaded to look up Carrie's work by remarks made by women singers in Roots Country who admired her. The reality is that she often gets more respect from artists in that sector than from some of the more partisan critics. "Ghosts on the Stereo" is one that I find to be among the most memorable tracks on the album. I like the concept, find the music interesting with the slow build up, and the sequence of notes that keeps recurring through the changing background. And Carrie's vocal conveys the mood well, knowing when to draw out the emotion, and when to emphasize the sense of recovery, showing enough power singing, without going over the top, in a song that might be spoilt by too forceful a delivery,

LOW

A standout track, with some of the best lyrics, and one of the best vocal performances of Carrie's career - this is a singing style that I would hope Carrie will continue to develop. Coming after the last song, this track clearly reflects the influence of Hank Williams' landmark album "Moanin' The Blues", both in the general singing style, and in the lyrical references to the whippoorwill and to lonesome, which recall the track, "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry", often considered his lyrical masterpiece. However, I would also point to possible influence from Bill Mack's 1958 song "Blue", both in the drawn out vowel wail, and in the specific wording "so lonesome for you". Williams' album (which has influenced generations of Country singers, especially in the more Roots-leaning sectors) came out in 1952, but was really a collection of singles dating from 1947 onwards - so in drawing on these two influences, Carrie is probably reaching back 60 to 70 years in the genre's history. But nothing stands still, and this is not just a derivative track - the strong percussion that breaks in, and the electric guitar work of Danny Rader and Rob McNelley add notable modern progression to the arrangement. Since the album came out, Carrie has revealed that she suffered three miscarriages in the years since her last album. There is a prevailing sadness in several songs on this album, but some of those seem to involve broken relationships, or other issues affecting people in general - "Low", though, strikes me as one of the most personal, in which Carrie may have focused particularly on her own feelings. The line "Everything that was right is wrong, ever since baby you've been gone" seems especially poignant, in light of what has since been revealed, and may go beyond the more superficial interpretation of a departed lover. And it is interesting that Hillary Lindsey plays acoustic guitar on this song. She has sung on every one of Carrie's albums, but just playing seems new - it is tempting to interpret this as a friend, who was with her in the writing session, accompanying her while she tracked her vocals, to support her on what may have been a difficult song for her to sing.

BACKSLIDING

In my opinion, this song could be a strong launchpad for a thrust into the UK General Music market. It demonstrates the advantages to Carrie of taking control of her own production, since it enables her to use a multi-layered arrangement to create a song that seems to transcend genre, in a way that ties together varied modern elements, without sacrificing an underlying Country feel. Dan Dugmore's pedal steel glides through the song, giving it a haunting, timeless quality. And there is an interesting lyrical point, that I think reinforces the sense of the song bridging a transition through time for Carrie herself. She uses a line which is almost a doublet for a line in the very first Country song she recorded after "American Idol" - Gretchen Peters' "Independence Day". The line in the older song (on which Gretchen herself played strings for Carrie's recording) was "Word gets around in a small, small town", and the line Carrie uses here is "word gets around in such a small town". That close resemblance seems unlikely to be accidental, and suggests to me that Carrie might be using it to emphasize that this album too is a new turning point in her career. Her vocal line in the verses comes across as particularly clear and expressive, not swamped by the complex, but relatively light, musical production. It is combined with choruses that bring in an element of her signature power vocal, and allow her to express the sense of desperation and inevitability in the repetition of the word "Backsliding". The background vocals (where Carrie joins her co-writers Hillary and David, in tracking her own voice) are an interesting element, which adds mood to the song, and Bryan Sutton's melodic riff gives it a perfect finish.

SOUTHBOUND

While the more memorable songs on this album lean towards sadness and retrospection, this track breaks that mood with a nod towards the prevailing Mainstream liking for party songs. That may increase its appeal to radio, and to listeners seeking a lighter, upbeat song to balance the more serious tracks. Those considerations may justify its inclusion, but for me, this is a disappointing song, which seems an ill fit for the mixture of progressive innovation and deep genre references that characterize the album as a whole. It is Carrie's second venture into "getaway" songs, but in my opinion, her earlier "One Way Ticket" showed a greater individuality, having more of the feel of a parody, and a touch of defiance in telling the boss to "stick it". By contrast, I feel that "Southbound" seems too accepting of "bro country" conventions of parties, boys catching the eye of pretty girls, tan lines and outdoor dancing. The music seems to include a slight Louisiana Cajun influence, but that strikes me as virtually the only concession to variation, in a rather obvious pitch to an arguably over-used Mainstream sub-genre. Carrie has always enjoyed some fun songs - but her singles have usually striven to add depth and originality to the general run of radio hits. This, I feel, would risk that reputation, and it's an album track I'd be inclined to skip.

THAT SONG WE USED TO MAKE LOVE TO

This is one of the most experimental songs on the album, and indeed, of Carrie's career so far. Some might criticize it for going too far "off genre", but I find that criticism misplaced, and would judge the song a success. Hilary Lindsey's co-writer here is Jason Evigan, a Californian writer and artist/producer, who has worked widely in innovative Pop. His involvement, and the use of electronic programming give this song a definite General Music feel in its experimentation. But, while it may be a reasonable criticism that this trend is increasingly watering down the character of Mainstream Country, especially when simply copying other musical forms, Carrie seems to have planned to take care here to have woven this innovation into Country. Her vocal retains a strong Country tone (ironically, perhaps, more noticeable here than in some of her more soaring "Pop Country" chorus-driven songs). And she relies heavily on her familiar cohort of Country session players, with Dan Dugmore, Danny Rader and Ilya Toshinskiy all playing variations on the steel guitar. The resophonic tone more than holds its own amongst the electronic instruments, and this combination strikes me as closer to some of the Progressive music being played in Alternative Country circles than to the off-genre music of some of the contemporary male Mainstream singers. I get a somewhat similar impression here to the one I gained several years ago, when Carrie collaborated with Swedish Pop producers, on "Quitter" - namely, that she will try new approaches, but is confident enough to use them to enlarge a genre that she's at home in, rather than attempt to leave it. The complex vocal on this song is all Carrie, tracking her own voice - again, a confident move. And another point that I find striking is that she's prepared to use quite erotic lyrical lines, "When you laid my body down, and then got drunk on me like wine"; "baby go on, let it take my breath" - making this probably her most passionate song since she covered Maria McKee's "Show Me Heaven" as a teenager. All told, this is a bold experiment, by an artist not prepared to always accept limitations.

DRINKING ALONE

Another experimental song, with synthesized programming, and a variety of vocal effects tracked into the mix by Carrie herself. This time, she relies on Danny Rader's dobro to add some acoustic twang, but that element is generally less evident here than in some of the other songs. Perhaps because the theme suggests a classic Country "tear in my beer" motif, I would have preferred more emphasis on the twang (but, presumably, that would miss the point that Carrie wanted to ring the changes with something more unexpected). As it is, her vocal tone in the main chorus line is one of the most Country aspects of the song - and this is one of the few occasions where I prefer her chorus delivery (which, in other songs, can sometimes prove too overwhelming for my taste). Here, her verse narration, which is often the most interesting part of her songs, strikes me as rather rushed in parts, where I would have preferred a more lingering, reflective delivery. Although I don't find this song to be the most successful of the album's experiments, I admire the uncompromising tone of some of the lyrics, such as "Tonight all I need is a stranger, lips with a whiskey chaser, and a corner booth kiss to make me forget that he's gone" - which shows a willingness to defy the more one dimensional "girl next door" image that some might want to persist in applying to a mature and varied artist.

THE BULLET

A much needed song, and one that I find stronger and more effective than the album's somewhat similarly themed and topical song, "Love Wins". "The Bullet", too, may fall rather short of being a perfect track - mainly, in my opinion, because the production tends to become rather forced and overly dramatic as the song develops, blurring some of the sense of emptiness that is at the heart of the lyric - but it is, nevertheless, one of the most significant statements by a leading Mainstream artist, and a topic which would shame the genre if it was kept suppressed as something too controversial to be broached. I've seen criticism that the song ducks placing any blame - but I disagree. It says plainly "You can blame it on hate, or blame it on guns" - and those are the very things that the root of the issue can be blamed on, rather than taking refuge in secondary excuses about loners, misfits, social degeneration, patchy background checks, or failure to arm more responsible civilians. I admire Carrie for tackling the topic - and it both strengthens the song's impact, and seems very much in line with her personality, that the lyric focuses on the pain and ongoing effects of premature loss on the families and survivors. The recording seems most effective in its mainly acoustic opening passages, where Carrie's vocal delivery is at its simplest and most sensitive. This style returns at various points, including the very effective closing chorus. But, in general, as the song progresses, the production becomes more complex, and the vocal (where Carrie is supported by Hillary, although neither was a writer here) becomes more forceful, and the delivery rather more hasty. This strikes me as the style Carrie often prefers, when dealing with emotional topics. It can be effective, in stressing a sense of desperation and anguish - but the downside can also be that it puts the singer rather more into a staged role, a little removed from personal immersion in the feelings expressed in those parts of the song. Carrie has said that she would find this song difficult to perform live - and if this more detached, role playing style is the one that helps her deal with more heart-rending topics, then we must accept that that may be the price of including such significant themes on her albums. This may not become a single, but I consider it one of the corner stones of the album.

SPINNING BOTTLES

Drinking references have played have an increasing part in Carrie's songs, on both "Storyteller" and "Cry Pretty", and this album, in particular, shows how they can be used, in the stronger songs, to reflect a range of themes, including desperation, recovery and abuse. This is one of the starker, and in my view, most effective, songs, which focuses on the way alcohol addiction can destroy a relationship. The song is skilfully constructed, to show first the apparent harmlessness of the over-indulgence, by comparing it to a children's game with empty bottles, and moving on to the anguish of the wife, waiting at home, not knowing when, or if, the addict will return - then considering the addict's own perspective, wanting to quit, but knowing he won't, and that it will finally lead to separation, before collapsing in a lonely hotel room. The track begins with a sparse piano arrangement, and later two keyboard parts (played by Dave Cohen and David Garcia) intertwine, being joined by melodic lines from 'cello (Austin Hoke), and pedal steel (Dan Dugmore). This amounts to one of the more contained musical arrangements on the album, but the interaction between the instruments is more complex than it might at first appear, and its relative lack of additional effects brings out the disparity between apparent normality, and the mounting despair of the lyric. It enables Carrie to concentrate on a more intimate, emotional, vocal delivery, which I think proves to be one of the most expressive of her career. I've been hoping that she'd explore song constructions and vocal deliveries more along these lines, as her career matures, and I hope this development continues.

LOVE WINS

This song has attracted considerable attention, much of it focusing on whether it can be seen as a Gay anthem (for which it's both been applauded as a relatively bold step in the context of her career limitations, and also criticized for not going far enough). But that entire area of interpretation requires the listener to relate the song to an external back story - something which doesn't actually appear in the song itself. I think it's worth emphasizing that the two actual issues that are highlighted are the effects of a shooting, and the political divisions that are so apparent in society today (and not just in the USA). As these are specifically mentioned, they deserve to be considered as issues that Carrie considered important in her choice and development of this song (especially as it is the second album track to focus on shooting). Beyond that, the song is a general appeal for love - something that any listener can apply, regardless of context. That generality can be a strength - we need that uplifting message, and it certainly deserves support. But, sadly, I do feel that the wish to make the song as general as possible has led Carrie into its relative weakness. The main problem for me does not lie in what it may fail to say (I understand her wish not to see the song lost in bickering and controversy) - but rather in what I see as its relative failure to live up to the overall feel and spirit of this innovative album. It involves virtually the same musicians as appear in "Kingdom" (which I regard as a much more exceptional and successful track), and they provide some pleasing touches in the musical backing - but the overall production here seems less innovative and more wary of challenging listeners' expectations. And, for me, that becomes even more apparent in the vocal style that Carrie mainly adopts, after the opening stanzas. I'm not questioning that she is, indeed, an exceptionally gifted singer, nor that a great many listeners do relate to this style. But the fact that this seems mainly a reprise of a style that she's used many times before, with an emphasis on power singing, hastened delivery, and considerable lyrical repetition, makes it appear something of a backward-looking approach and a rather problematic fit for much of the rest of the album. That does make this a rather disappointing song for me - something I regret in view of its potential and its positive message.

END UP WITH YOU

Another of Carrie's interesting use of cross genre influences, this song is one that might fit well into today's Mainstream radio chart. The mix of musical backgrounds is a particularly striking feature here. Of Hillary Lindsey's co-writers, Brett McLaughlin (who also records as Leland) is generally known for his Pop work (though he has also worked in Country with Kelsie Ballerini) - while Will Weatherley has, for example, also worked on Dan Tyminski's innovative album "Southern Gothic", both as writer and electronic programmer, as he is here. The music also reflects this innovative mix, with a leading role given to Rob McNelley, who has won Guitarist of the Year at the ACM, and performs with Bob Seger's Silver Bullet Band, as well as being a leading session player in progressive Country Rock. Here, he shares the rhythm role with Nir Z, an Israeli drummer with a distinguished career in General Music, working for example with Genesis, and John Mayer. (Carrie's own interest in percussion is also seen here, as she adds her own support to the mix). There will, inevitably, be those who regret the tendency to blur the Mainstream's musical identity in stylistic mixing - but this also occurs in many of the Roots fields, where it usually seems more acceptable. The key point is often not the fact that it occurs, but more the way in which it is done. In this example, I think Carrie has taken steps to handle the experimentation along lines sympathetic to current trends, but also in a way that evokes interest in the forms the innovation takes. For those listeners who prefer a soaring, pure voice led delivery, the staccato, singalong lyrical couplets of this song may not be among their favourite Carrie styles, but it is unrealistic to expect an artist to become stereotyped to a particular style, and I think this could stand out favourably among many of the contemporary radio offerings.

KINGDOM

Leaving aside the bonus track (which, for all its merits, has no production or thematic connection to the album as a whole), "Kingdom" is effectively the album's closing track - a placing that Carrie traditionally reserves for a song that has a special meaning for her, and which has often been different, in style and theme, from the rest of her albums. This time, the personal meaning is certainly there - but rather than being an outlier, I see it this time as a culmination of the production innovation and stylistic growth that Carrie and David Garcia have been experimenting with on this album. And in that, I would rate it as a success, and one of the best songs on the album. I love the way the production develops through this song. It could be described as an increasing build up in sound and power - but that would also oversimplify its complexity, for there are also a variety of sections, where different instrumental and vocal textures predominate - and that is what holds the interest. Although they are very different songs, "Good Girl" is the earlier one that most reminds me of the complexity and surprises in the music that can make a song exceptional. In "Kingdom", I love the acoustic beginning, led by Ilya Toshinskyi and Dan Dugmore, with special touches like the pedal steel echoing Carrie's opening hum. I like the part where Chris McHugh's drums dominate. The speciality string playing of Kris Wilkinson (viola) and Carole Rabinowitz (cello) - two ladies who, between them, have played with so many of the great names of the contemporary scene, in Roots music and well beyond - is effective here. And Carrie's multiple tracking of her own voice in the latter part of the song was a bold additional element that worked well, in my opinion. We know that Carrie loves power vocals and strong production - and I have found this approach overwhelming in some of her earlier work (her Greatest Hits album, where the songs included lacked the counter-balance of the more varied textures of their original albums was a case in point). The power elements occur in "Kingdom" - but here, they seem more in context, with the layered production itself supplying the variety of interest, and I prefer this approach to some of her more "concert stage" vocals. Much of the song is built around Carrie's own life, with domestic details, due weight given to her personal faith, and a willingness to acknowledge that life can pose personal challenges, even for the glamorous and most successful. But, at the same time, God, Home and Family are classic Country themes, and the stanza about hard times seems aimed at people generally, and this can be a relatable song for many in her audience. I get the impression that much of what Carrie wanted to say and do with this album finds its conclusion in this song.

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