#ricky shen x reader
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the psychology of strawberries — [s.qr].
SYNOPSIS. besides being your friend, kim gyuvin also holds the existence of being the worst matchmaker in history. the last guy he set you up with ended with a permanent ban from the arcade. the one before that caused you to file a restraining order. which is why when he tries to set you up one last time with his best friend, you understandably shut him down.
the problem is— why the fuck didn’t gyuvin tell you that his best friend is actually the prettiest man in the world? the most charming idiot to have graced your mortal existence? maybe if he did, you wouldn’t have to resort to pavlovian tactics and strawberries just to bag him. if he did, then you wouldn’t have to hide the fact that you’re kind of balls-deep in love with his friend.
PAIRING. shen quanrui x female! reader.
GENRE. college! au, (anti) matchmaking! au, strangers to friends to lovers, eventual secret relationship. romance, humor, fluff, suggestive, older! reader, this is just lovelicky propaganda. sue me.
WARNINGS. swearing, explicit language, mentions of sex, making out, making out in public, an almost car crash, stalking (not from any of the leads), erratic behavior (mostly from our lead), ricky in a floral shirt, black haired ricky and bathrobe ricky jumpscare.
WORD COUNT. 21k.
TAGLIST. @lovialy @sarang-ae @khaelscafe @jenodreamer @lovelyrickyz @ciaoui @spjhyn @chwesuh-imnida @kgneptun @hanstarrs @dvalitaes @younxii @haesunflower @cyberpunksunwoo @tlnyjoong @bobabunhee @elavin @sassybakaaa @wishfulthnking @lvieee
NOTE. there is evident lack of plot in this. unless you consider thirsting over ricky as plot, then there’s a lot of plot. you’re welcome. feedback and comments are always appreciated, and i hope you enjoy!
AT SOME POINT IN YOUR LIFE, THE PROSPECT OF MEETING A NEW GUY STOPPED BEING A POINT OF INTEREST OR ANTICIPATION. It has now become a harbinger of horror, an inevitable car crash simply lying in wait. Gone are the days where you’re looking forward to the first kiss on your porch and doorstep— now, you don’t even care if you share the same hobbies or not, if you click well or not, neither if your personalities match or not.
Your only hope is that they don’t end up being a stalker or a slob or someone with severe anger issues. And there’s only one culprit for this seemingly permanent shift in your psychology.
“I’m not going on another date! At least one that you’re setting up.”
“C’mon!” Gyuvin clings onto your arm, preventing you from leaving the classroom. He’s crouching on the floor. Your face crunches up, looking down at him like he’s a piece of gum stuck on your boot sole. “This will be the last time. Please? I showed him a picture of you and he thinks you’re cute.”
The sole reason why Kim Gyuvin can get away with anchoring you by the arm with his entire body weight, why he can get away with setting you up with douchebag after douchebag, is because he’s a family friend, and you’ve known him for eight whole years. These tantrums are normal, but the sudden growth spurt he had in ninth grade makes him occasionally forget that you’re still two years older than him. You were already walking before he was even born. This bitch thinks he can make you do what he wants.
“Get off! Are you trying to dislocate my shoulder?”
The moment you raise your free arm to a fist, he releases you from his clutches and puts his arms up innocently, still crouched on the floor. You click your tongue with a sneer, brushing down your sleeve. Anyway, does he have amnesia? Has he forgotten how the last blind dates went?
“Your friend Jaeryeong also thought I was cute,” you start. “Really cute, in fact. To the point where he wouldn’t leave me alone and I had to file a restraining order against him.”
Now, he’s finally looking guilty. Gyuvin clear his throat and jumps back up to his feet, straightening his clothes and not daring to look you in the eye. “He—he had some issues that I wasn’t aware of and I’m sorry for that— but Ricky is different! He’s not some weirdo! I promise you that he’s a good guy and he’s good looking and—”
“You said the same thing about Do Hajun,” you cut him off. “Sure, he was pretty good looking, but he got so mad at a claw machine and started assaulting it in public. I got banned at the Game Plaza, Gyuvin. I’m not allowed there anymore. I was the top scorer at DDR there. I can’t maintain my rank there anymore because the last guy you set me up with had problems with his temper.”
He looks even more guilty now. Your glare softens because it’s not entirely his fault. But this time the guy’s name is Ricky. That sounds like a fuckboy’s name. A fuckboy who probably wears snapbacks and jeans a little too low. You’re not taking any fucking chances.
“Okay,” Gyuvin breathes out. “I understand that I may have made some bad matches—”
“Some.”
“A lot of bad matches,” he corrects, sheepish. “But that’s just because so many people want to date you! If you think about it, it’s your fault for always attracting weirdos! I’m just the connecting bridge and messenger! I’m sick and tired of my friends asking me to set you up with them too!”
“So why the hell are you trying to do it again?!” Man, you’re getting tired. You asked him to meet you in your lecture hall after class because you wanted to check up on his project, but the moment he came in, he tried throwing you into the sharks once again in an instant.
You dig into your bag for a piece of candy, unwrapping it and popping it into your mouth with an unamused expression as Gyuvin tries his damn best to market his friend to you. “This will be the last one, I promise! Ricky is my best friend and I can assure you that he’s a decent guy. He’s hot. He’s got a car. Didn’t you say before that you wanted a hot boyfriend with a car?”
“If he’s so hot then why are you so desperately trying to sell him off?”
You weren’t born yesterday. Hell, you were born earlier than this matchmaking scammer and he regularly forgets about that. “Well,” he starts, clearing his throat. “He’s my best friend, but I need my solo time too! If he gets a girlfriend, then maybe he’ll stop showing up at my apartment every Friday night and—”
“That’s enough.”
You stuff a piece of candy into his mouth, promptly shutting him up. His eyes are wide, shock quickly morphing into a grimace when the flavor finally kicks in. Durian. Serves him fucking right.
“Go set your friend up with someone else. I called you in here for a different reason, Kim Gyuvin.” Nothing like dropping his full name and reminding him that you’re still his upperclassman as a cold splash of water to the face. Gyuvin flinches, suddenly straightening himself. “How’s your project going? You only have two months left to finish it. I hope you didn’t forget.”
His face tells you that he forgot about it, but not totally. He’s reluctantly chewing on the candy you force-fed him. “I’ve— I’ve already picked out a place. Hadong Country in Gyeongsang. I’m planning on going there next week.”
“Alright, good.” You leave him with a pat on the shoulder. “Tell me once you’ve set the date. You should worry about your term paper instead of mine or your friend’s love life. Getting us to date won’t pull up your GPA, Gyuvin.”
“But—”
“No, that’s enough,” you shut him down. “I’m not dating this Ricky guy. That’s final. Nothing you can do or say will change my mind.”
Famous last words. Little did you know that you’d be eating that very statement by the weekend.
ONE OF THE PRIVILEGES YOU’VE GOTTEN FROM SUCKING UP TO YOUR PROFESSORS SINCE FRESHMAN YEAR IS HAVING FULL LIBERTY OF USING THEIR OFFICE AS A HANG-OUT SPOT. The air-conditioning here is better than the classrooms or students lounge. You can even raid their snack pantry as much as you want— grabbing a handful from the candy bowl, now filled with pink wrappers of some strawberry hard candy— and stuffing them into the small pocket of your bag to restock your portable stash.
“Does Prof Yoon know you’re the one that keeps vacuuming his candy bowl?”
The question comes from Hanbin, who’s just as shamelessly making himself a cup of coffee with the faculty’s machine. The both of you are regular freeloaders at the office. A well-earned privilege, you’d like to say.
“He knows,” you reply, snatching a box of pepero for good measure. “He lets me get away with it because I’m his favorite student.”
There’s one more freeloader. Hao is sitting on the cushy sofa set funded by the student’s tuition fees, sharing a conversation with Mrs. Lee, and the two of you join him not long after. “You three are supervising some of the freshmen this year, right?” your professor asks, and her question is met with a set of artificial positive responses. “I guess I can look forward to some of their outputs then,” she leaves with a hearty laugh and a hard pat on Hao’s back. You wince.
“Why is an old lady so strong?” he laments once Mrs. Lee is sure to have returned to her cubicle. Hanbin is feeling and probing around his spine in case it got broken.
“I hear she’s a member at the gym Jiwoong goes to,” you say. “Scary woman. Thank god we’re on her good side.”
Complaining about your professors in hushed voices while being in their office is a rare skill the three of you have mastered over the past two years. The two elicit murmurs of agreement with your statement. “Speaking, how are your kids doing?” asks Hanbin. Kids, referring to the eighteen to nineteen year olds under your care for their term project.
Hao takes your pepero stick offer before grumbling. “I don’t get why we have to supervise the freshmen when he have our own assignments and projects to deal with.”
“Because Mrs. Lee will give us extra points for our class with her if we do,” you remind. “Gyuvin is doing the bare minimum. At least he now has a location settled down.” The project is for their required course in community development. The freshmen are tasked to select a rural area in the country and do a needs-based assessment survey on it. You did the same when you were in your first year. Mrs. Lee is also the head of the university extensions office. You three have theorized that she’s just using this annual assignment to update her data inventory.
“Gunwook is too passionate. He wants to go all the way to freaking Mokpo.”
“At least he sounds hardworking,” you say, disregarding Hanbin’s stress over an inevitable five-hour drive. “Why can’t Gyuvin be the same? All he does is set me up with terrible men and barge into my family dinners.”
You say that, but everyone who knows you knows that Kim Gyuvin, despite being generally annoying, has burrowed a soft spot in your heart. Unlike Hanbin and Hao who missed a 40-point quiz for Mrs. Lee’s class to join a random play dance competition at the plaza (they won), you didn’t really need the extra points merit, so you had no intentions on volunteering to be a supervisor in the first place.
But when you caught whiff of the news that your poor, poor younger friend of eight years still didn’t have a senior-supervisor for the project, you somehow found yourself in front of Mrs. Lee’s office cubicle and signed up at the last moment.
Which is also why you’re up at 5 a.m. in front of Gyuvin’s apartment building on a weekend, no breakfast in the stomach, just to accompany him to Gyeongsang for this god forsaken community development project.
“Morning.”
Gyuvin greets you with a yawn and a heavy ruffle on the top of your head, to which you respond with a side kick to his ass when he walks past you. “You’re late,” you scold him, and though you want to continue berating your dear friend, two more familiar-looking people emerge from his building’s entrance.
“Oh, this is Taerae and Matthew,” Gyuvin informs you offhandedly. The two give you a mix of polite nods and smiles. You sort of know Taerae because you shared a class with him last semester. Matthew is just the guy you see at the campus coffee shop at least once a week. “They’re going to be my survey assistants. More people means more ground to cover at once.”
“How’d he scam you two into agreeing?” you ask.
“He’s buying me lunch for a week,” Taerae replies.
“I just wanted to go on a road trip,” Mathew says in a tone too bright for five in the morning.
You let out a huff of air. Your backpack is getting a little heavy on your shoulders, and all you want is to finally reclaim your lost weekend. Meaning, getting on the road as soon as possibly is priority number one. “So, are we commuting?” you ask. “We should get going then.”
“Oh, no,” Gyuvin replies. He’s already noticed your impatience, and has found himself standing behind you, taking your bag off of your bag so that you don’t snap at him for the next statement he’s about to say. “Actually, we’re waiting for one more per—”
A car horn cuts him off.
“Well, nevermind. He’s here.”
At that moment, a way too expensive looking car drives up to the porch of Gyuvin’s college-level priced apartment building. This is looking way too out of place. Matthew lets out a whistle when the car stops in front of you. “This kid just got his license exchange and the first thing he does is show off,” Taerae snorts. What...what does he mean? Is this your ride? Is this the (at least seventy-thousand-dollar) vehicle that’ll be driving you all the way to the outskirts of Hadong County?
The variables don’t click, but your surprise doesn’t end there. Because the person that emerges from the expensive looking ass car’s driver’s seat is— by far— the prettiest person you’ve ever seen in your twenty-one years of life.
Whoa.
Not even those thick, dark shades can obscure that god-sculpted looking face. They only make his nose bridge look even sharper, and you’re trying your damn best not to stare at those full and cherry-painted lips. Holy shit. Platinum blonde has always looked tacky to you, but now you have to re-evaluate. Oh my god. Kim Gyuvin has a friend that looks like this, and all he’s done is set you up with guys that can’t even fucking compare.
Walking statue of a man closes the car door behind him with a click. “Get in,” he says. Holy mother of god, you’re light-headed. Your brain is fuzzy. You’re about to pass out.
“Ricky! You’re late! How dare you keep the madam waiting?!”
Things start happening a little too quickly.
Wait a second—
“Shotgun!”
That name.
“Fuck off! Let’s play for the seat!”
Sounds Very.
“Rock, paper, scissors, shoot! Rock, paper, scissors—”
Very—
“Paper, scissors— shoot!”
—familiar.
“Dammit,” Matthew grumbles in defeat, joining Taerae in the backseat. You stare at the fist you have held out since earlier. Rock. Rick. Ricky. This guy’s name is Ricky. Isn’t that also the name of Gyuvin’s best friend? The best friend he was trying to set you up with? This is Ricky? This absolute god of a fucking man who’s looking at you with an ounce of confusion, still holding your fist up after somehow winning all rounds of rock, paper, scissors with nothing but a rock, is the Ricky you turned down a date with?
You were correct to assume that his name gives off fuckboy vibes. The problem is, he looks like a really, really hot fuckboy who you don’t mind ruining your life in exchange for three months of fun. Shit. You think you just made eye contact with him through his thick-ass sunglasses. He nods a little with a small, awkward smile before disappearing back into the driver’s seat.
Fuck. He knows. He definitely knows you wrongfully rejected his ass without even meeting him. Gyuvin, that snitching son of a bitch.
“Hey.”
With a heavy grip on his shoulder, you stop the said snitching son of a bitch before he can escape into the backseat. “What?” Gyuvin raises a brow. The audacity of this guy.
“What was your best friend’s name again?”
“Ricky Shen. Shen Quanrui. Shim Cheonye. Pick one.”
“Is that...the same…?”
“Yes, that guy is Ricky.” There’s an impatient honk from the car. You pay no mind, more concerned about the absolute fucking catch you totally drove away, and that regret is seeping through you expression, failing to wiggle out from Gyuvin’s notice. “Why do you ask?” Are you regretting turning down my offer last week? his face seems to say. You want to hit him. Yes, you are fucking regretting it, but there’s no way in hell you’re giving him the satisfaction of knowing.
“It’s just a little awkward,” you say. “Can you switch with me?”
“Matt hyung’s gonna throw a fit if I take your seat,” he simply hums, opening the door to the front seat on your behalf with a courteous bow that drives you further into annoyance. “Now hop in. We’re already behind schedule.”
You’re the bigger person here so you decide against throwing a tantrum. Begrudgingly, you enter the passenger’s seat, trying to ignore aphrodite’s reincarnation sitting right next to you, and prepare yourself for the three-hour drive or torture because you totally screwed over your chance of having him.
“Woohoo! Road trip!”
“We’re here for my project, idiot.”
“Please tone it down, I’m trying to sleep.”
It’s fine, you cross your arms, wiggling uncomfortably on the soft seat. It’s totally fine. None of Gyuvin’s friends have been decent so far. Yes. You shouldn’t judge positively too quickly. Maybe the only thing this one has going for him is his face. Maybe his personality is just as shitty as the last ones and you’ve completely dodged a bullet.
A very pretty bullet. The pretty bullet is looking at you through the rearview mirror. Oh god, why is he looking at you? He’s got his sunglasses down and those eyes are practically staring into your soul.
“Um,” Ricky clears his throat. “You should put on your seatbelt.”
That rasp shouldn’t be as attractive as it is. Fuck. This man is a walking heart hazard. “O—oh, sorry!” You’re stupid. Your brain is fried. You fumble with the dumb seatbelt, forgetting how it works, and mentally swearing at yourself in the process.
“Do you need any help…?”
Fight or flight instincts kick in. You smack away Ricky’s attempt at a helping hand. His eyes are wide in shock. Your eyes are wide in shock. You want to throw yourself out of this vehicle right now. “It’s—it’s fine!” Finally, you manage to put on the seatbelt. Ricky is a mix of confusion and offense when he starts the car, more on confusion, but that’s alright. The aftermath of him pulling a k-drama move and helping you with the seatbelt would have been worse. You would have disintegrated right then and there.
Your only source of comfort is the backpack that you’re hugging for your dear life. The entire ride is excruciatingly awkward because the three boys at the back have fallen asleep— a state you also wish to be in right now, but that’s quite frankly impossible because you’re a million times more conscious about your physical appearance right now with a literal angel next to you.
He’s not asking why you’re pressed so far up against the door. For safety reasons, you tell yourself. The air around him just subconsciously feels a lot hotter despite the air conditioning literally blowing cold air to your face.
“Would...would you like some?”
But that doesn’t mean you could stomach this awkwardness, either. Two hours have passed and neither of you have said a word to each other. You’re a fistful into your candy stash and it feels rude not to offer anything to him when he’s been driving for so long.
You have a cautious arm outstretched, a pink wrapper dangling between your thumb and index finger. Ricky peers down for a split second, a rumble from his throat before saying, “N—no, it’s okay.” The candy disappears into the crevices of his car. You dip your head down, trying to feel around for it, and Ricky continues talking. “Um. I mean. You don’t really have to force yourself to get along with me, seonbae. I already know that you don’t really like me.”
At that moment, you snap your head up. “What?”
Maybe you should’ve been more careful because you scare the shit out of Ricky and the car swerves off the lane.
Screech!
“Ah,” he exhales, parking the car at the edge of the road after nearly killing you all. “That was close.” How the three kids in the back are still asleep is beyond you. They’ve got their necks twisted in all the weird places and you’re pretty sure Matthew is drooling.
But the source of your adrenaline right now isn’t the near death experience.
“What do you mean you know that I don’t like you?”
Translation: what exactly did Kim Gyuvin say to this guy?
“You...turned down the blind date Gyu tried setting up,” he says. Well that’s because Gyuvin never showed you a picture of his face! Instead of using useless words to try and convince you to say yes, he should’ve just sent you his instagram and called it a day. “This car ride must be awkward for you, sorry. I’ll try to get to Hadong as soon as possible.”
He’s sweet and polite too! God, you’ve completely screwed it over. You spend the rest of the car ride overthinking and feeling sorry for yourself. The moment you arrive at your destination, you eject yourself from the car instantaneously. “Alright, we’re wasting daylight. Let’s get moving!” you clasp your hands together, hurrying your barely-awake lackeys into the town.
With five people, the surveys and interviews get done quicker than expected. At one point, while you were surveying a marketplace owner, your attention got inadvertently distracted by spotting Ricky from the corner of your eye helping out an old lady with a cart and you nearly had a meltdown. Again, why didn’t Gyuvin introduce you to him before your impression of his friends got screwed over by Jaeryeong and Hajun and all the fucking rest?
“What a sweet boy,” says the marketplace owner. He is a sweet boy. That sweet and insanely handsome boy could’ve been yours (not guaranteed).
“Hey!” Gyuvin snaps you out of your daze. You look up, crouched underneath the shade of a tree. One of the locals was kind enough to give you a tour of their plum fields in the village, but you’re a little too rattled to actually appreciate the green scenery. “The ahjumma gave us some plums to taste!”
“You’re a bad person,” you suddenly say. Gyuvin’s face distorts in offense.
“Well, if you don’t want any plums, you can just say so, meanie.”
Maybe you are a meanie, but you’re still not over everything today. While the four boys are fucking around from a bit of a distance, you’re still crouched down and absentmindedly petting a stray cat and moping. Matthew says something you can’t hear, and the three burst out laughing— only the three at first, because Ricky looks lost for a second, blinking with a dumb smile, before joining their laughter only a beat late.
Oh no, he’s cute. Oh god, you’re falling. Oh man, you’re a goner.
“Time to go home!”
It’s around four in the afternoon when you finally finish. You’re all gathered around Ricky’s car again, ready for another grueling drive back to Seoul. “Go sit in the back. I’ll drive this time,” says Taerae to Ricky, and there starts another rock, paper, scissors battle for who will take the front seat.
Unlike earlier where you won without even realizing there was a game, you lose even after praying to all the gods you know.
“Nice!” Matthew cheers, not even giving you a shot of negotiation because he quickly disappears into the car. You’re looking at Gyuvin, painted in shock and disbelief. Before you know it, you’re wedged into the backseat, in between the two men you’d like to be around the least at the moment.
Yours and Ricky’s shoulders are touching. This is worse than earlier. He looks just as uncomfortable as you are— arms resting on the open windowsill, head uncomfortably craned away from you and giving you a full view of the tattoo trailing down his neck. Something snaps in your brain. This is your nth breakdown of the day.
“Let me in your candy stash.”
Gyuvin gives himself the liberty to zip open the front pocket of your backpack while you’re hugging it in your seat. The sound of you swatting his hand away seems to catch Ricky’s attention, so you give up defending your property and let Gyuvin snatch a handful of the strawberry-flavored sweets from your bag. “This tastes gross,” he says with a grimace. “So artificial. Blegh.”
You suddenly hear a gasp from your left. “How can you say that?” You’re shocked to find out it’s from Ricky. He’s been relatively quiet all this time. Gyuvin sure knows how to get into everyone’s nerves. “Take it back.”
“I’ll take it back if you dye your hair black for a day.”
A harmless fist zooms in front of your face. “Now way.” Ricky is hitting Gyuvin.
“Gross, this is so gross.” Gyuvin is hitting Ricky back.
“So what.”
“I’m telling your mom about this.”
Your existence is forgotten and your breathing space in between these two relatively large men has significantly diminished. Your face is burning. You can’t do this anymore so you clear your throat, causing Ricky— who’s leaned a little too close, fist in the air mid-punch— to suddenly tuck himself back into his side of the car.
It becomes quiet again when Matthew and Gyuvin slowly doze off to sleep.
Gaze flitting to the front, you notice that Taerae is quite preoccupied with swearing at another car that just overtook yours. You take this as an opportunity.
A slight nudge to his arm, you hold open your palm without looking at Ricky. It’s a handful of the strawberry flavored candy he was so staunchly defending against Gyuvin earlier. He might’ve rejected your offering earlier, but you’re damn bent on ending this day by fixing his impression of you, even if it’s just a miniscule improvement.
He’s got his head trained down, staring at your offering with a face laced with a mixture of surprise, confusion, and uncertainty before a hesitant hand plucks out a single wrapper from the pile. “Thank you,” you hear him say softly, and you don’t miss the tiniest smile playing on his lips when the sweet touches his tongue, poking against the inside of his cheek and you feel somewhat offended because a damn piece of candy can elicit such an expression on his face when you can’t.
It’s not stiff like the numerous bouts of awkward eye contact you’ve been sharing without end. It’s not forced. It’s not uncomfortable.
It’s an expression that makes you feel all the more regretful because you probably won’t be seeing him ever again after this.
“Did you see that guy?! He honked at me! He fucking honked at me!”
But maybe that’s a good thing. Because maybe then, you’ll be forced to stop lamenting the chance you completely wasted.
MAYBE YOU SPOKE TO SOON. It’s the afternoon of a Friday, not even a week after your one-day trip to Hadong County. And Fridays are your cheat days to take a dip into your allowance for some well deserved milk tea at a bougie cafe next to your university.
What isn’t part of your usual Wednesdays is the inexplicable, one in a million chance that you’d be bumping into Ricky Shen again.
“Oh.”
You’re about to enter. He’s just about to leave, pushing open the door with one hand and holding a bright pink drink with so much whipped cream which looks particularly out of place against his all-black ensemble. The only common denominator between the both of you is the look of surprise you’re both sharing.
Ricky recovers before you do. He steps aside, giving you space to walk in while holding the door open. How the bare minimum is making you weak in the knees, you have no idea. “Th—thanks,” you give him a smile and walk forward, before putting yourself to a stop and spinning around. “Oh, wait. Have this.”
You dig into your pockets and drop three pieces of strawberry candy onto his hand. You don’t miss the way his eyes sparkle. “Thanks. See you around.” He leaves. You feel like you’re on top of the world.
From now on, you’re gonna stuff all your pockets with strawberry-flavored candy (courtesy of Prof Yoon from the faculty office) until Ricky gets brainwashed that your presence doesn’t bear awkwardness or discomfort, no— you are a good person. Your presence brings with you strawberries and sweetness. That one psych class you took last semester is finally proving itself to be useful. Ricky will fall in love with you through Pavlov and classical conditioning.
Is this ethical? Probably not. Will this work? You don’t bet on it, but his cute smile makes it all fucking worth it.
That is if a miracle happens that you somehow end up seeing more of each other. You sigh, waiting for the buzzer to receive your order. You remember that Ricky is a freshman, meaning you have zero chances of sharing classes with him, and your only mutual friend is Kim Gyuvin. You’d rather kill yourself than give him the satisfaction of knowing that you have a crush on his best friend.
Well, there’s also Matthew and Taerae. After your trip to Hadong, you somehow got added to a group chat with the two of them. “Same age friends have to stick together!” says Matthew. You’re not sure if you’re already at the point of calling them friends, but you are having dinner with them later, so that’s something. But no matter how much you want to gush about your feelings for the light-haired boy, you don’t think you can out yourself to those two just yet.
The buzzer vibrates in your hands. You stand up to get your order, only to be stopped by a familiar face that you’re not quite happy to see.
“I—I didn’t follow you here, I swear!”
Your expression sours. That last time you saw him was approximately three months ago— when you threatened him with a fake restraining order after Gyuvin and Hanbin helped you move into a new apartment.
“Jaeryeong.” You feel your blood pressure rising from the mere utterance of his name. “Is a restraining order not enough for you? Do I have to put you in jail so you can finally learn your fucking lesson?”
He looks rattled. “I heard— I heard from Siyun that the document is fake!”
Well, damn. You click your tongue. You thought it’d work for a little while longer than this. Maybe you should get a real RO next time. “So does that give you the right to keep stalking me, you damn creep?” You’re getting a headache. This guy’s appearance just makes you miss Ricky even more (gentle remember that Ricky probably doesn’t give a shit about you, nor does he think about you as much as you’ve thought about him within the past six days of your acquaintance).
“I really didn’t follow you here! This was just a coincidence!”
“Sure,” you wrinkle your nose. “Was breaching my privacy and following me all the way to my parents’ place a coincidence too?”
Maybe riling him up is a bad idea, but you’re not exactly the best at interpersonal relationships (case in point, Riky Shen). But this is also a public place, so if he does pull anything dangerous, one of the cafe patrons is likely to take a video which you can use against him. Jaeryeong has his jaw clenched, visibly grated. “Look, I came up to you today to try and clear our misunderstanding, but if you keep on being a little bitch, then—”
“Then what?”
You’re surprised to hear a much welcomed voice from behind you.
“What are you gonna do?”
The last person you expected to swoop in and save you from this clingy freak is your senior who’s been out of reach for months now because he’s dying in post-grad.
Kim Jiwoong suddenly tucks you behind him, wearing the facade of intimidation to scare off Jaeryeong— which, for some reason, ends up working because he runs off without much of a fight. “I’ll— I’ll talk to you later!” he says before leaving. Jiwoong lets out a sigh and turns around, looking at you with both disappointment and concern.
“You shouldn’t provoke guys like that. Who knows what could’ve happened to you.”
“I could’ve handled it even without you, seonbae,” you tell him. His gaze softens. You give him a bright smile. “It’s nice to see you, too.”
You know that Jiwoong is incapable of getting mad at you. The both of you catch up in the cafe once you’ve finally gotten your drink without any further interruptions. Whatever Gyuvin is to you, that’s who you are to Jiwoong. He was your project supervisor when you were a freshman, randomly assigned by a roulette, and somehow, you two still keep in touch two years later.
The both of you settle on a table inside the cafe. “How are your classes?” he asks. You reply with a bitter grunt, and that’s enough of a response for him to laugh and understand.
“By the way,” you rouse, spinning the remnants of the drink in slow spirals. “Seonbae. You’re close with Gyuvin, right?”
If your memory serves you right, you’ve seen them talking a couple of times with each other before, eliciting your utter confusion before ultimately finding out that apparently, they attended the same local dance studio before along with Hanbin and Hao for a period of time. “Well, sure,” is Jiwoong’s reply. That was just the lead-in question to your actual main question, which is—
“How about...his best friend?” you add. “Are you close with him too?”
You can see it in his face. He’s connecting the dots. You’re fiddling with your drink cup, nervous. The moment things click, Jiwoong unleashes a knowing grin.
“Are you crushing on Ricky?”
Well, damn. He didn’t need to be so blunt about it.
“And—and—and what if I am?” Smooth. Very smooth. You clear your throat, tugging on your collar to let some air in while Jiwoong stirs his americano with the straw, chin resting on his palms, evident amusement playing on his face. “So, anyway. I’m taking that as a yes— you are close with him.”
“Sure,” he hums. You want to sock him in the face.
“Well, is he anything like Gyuvin’s other friends,” you question. “Like Jaeryeong, or Hajun, or that one guy that told me to ‘sit pretty and shut my mouth’ because that’s what a woman ought to do?”
“No, no. Ricky isn’t anything like that,” he replies. “He looks a little intimidating, but he’s a nice kid. I don’t even think I’ve ever heard him raise his voice at anyone.” Ricky does seem pretty soft spoken and it’s hurting your heart. This doesn’t go under Jiwoong’s radar. He laughs at your misery and your shoulders slack. “His only flaw is his overconfidence, I think. Next time you meet him, you should compliment his face.”
No, but confidence is attractive. Overconfidence must mean extra attractive, right? Yes? “Thanks for the tip,” you grunt. “But can you not tell Gyoob that I sort of have a thing for his friend?”
This brings Jiwoong’s brows to a furrow. “Isn’t he hell bent on marrying off Ricky?”
“Yes. Well. There was a situation.” You don’t intend on telling Jiwoong about the said situation for the sake of your pride. He looks curious, but thankfully he doesn’t try to prod. The only thing that matters right now is that Ricky is Jiwoong-approved, and that’s good enough of a reason for you to pursue him under Kim Gyuvin’s nose. “Anyway, please keep this a secret.”
“What’s in it for me?” he asks.
“The continuation of my respect,” you flatly reply. Jiwoong, again, laughs and assures you that his lips are shut and sealed.
SOMEHOW, YOU’RE INVITED TO A BARBECUE DINNER AT MATTHEW’S BACKYARD. How long have you known him? Two weeks. Who else is invited to the dinner? His friends of two years the least. You’re not sure how you ended up here. Maybe you’re more charming than you thought. Maybe that’s why you keep attracting weird men.
But Matthew isn’t weird. He’s a little loud and a little too energetic for you to keep up with sometimes, but he’s nice, he’s polite, and you’d introduce him to your cousin if he’d let you.
You show up to his front door step with a convenience store bag full of canned beer. You’re still not sure what the occasion is, but alcohol is always a good gift. “You made it!” Matthew greets you with a half-hug, and upon entering the premises of his home, you spot Gyuvin giving you an unabashed look full of judgment while Matt takes your present out of your hands and into the cooler in the backyard.
“Since when were you two so chummy?” Gyuvin asks with narrowed eyes as he leads you to where everyone else is.
“Scared I might replace you in your friend group, Gyu?” you taunt.
“No. I’m scared of being the middleman again if Matthew hyung falls in love with you,” is his painfully honest answer. The yard is smoky and warm, familiar faces here and there— Hanbin being one of them, who graces you with a look of confused concern upon hearing Gyuvin’s words. “Hyung, you don’t understand my pain. I keep setting her up with my friends, but they’re never good enough for her. At this rate—”
At this rate, you’re gonna be needing a warning whenever Ricky suddenly appears in front of your vision— one of the people you preemptively deemed ‘not good enough for you’ only for it to bite you in the ass.
In fact, he may be too much for you, because for a second there, you had the presupposition that he might be walking up to you. That delusion is quickly evaporated into the barbecue smoke because he’s looking at Hanbin, not you.
“Hyung,” he says. “Woong hyung needs help with the grill.”
“Oh, I’ll be right there.”
In between, Gyuvin has somehow disappeared, leaving you alone with Ricky and the unreasonable amount of feelings you have for him. It’s been a good week since you’ve last seen him. He’s wearing a thick red jacket and that same look of awkwardness whenever you’re around. “Hello,” he greets you softly with a nod.
“Hi,” you do the same. It’s excruciating. It’s painful. There’s a sizzle in the air, music from the stereos, and the loud, rambunctious noises expected from a group of eight, nine boys. Yet it’s everything quiet in between the both of you.
But after that tense greeting, there’s a shift in his gaze, a change in his posture. He’s clearing his throat, balancing himself on the heels of his feet with tightly pressed lips resembling that of a smile— almost as if he’s expecting something from you.
Oh, you realize. Oh, he’s too cute.
Without much of a thought, you dig into your coat pockets.
“Hao!” you call out in a hurry, running off to the long picnic table where the rest are all gathered. Your heart is racing. Your heart is racing like crazy. “There’s still two faces I’m not acquainted with yet. Who’s this?”
While Hao introduces you to Gunwook and Yujin, your eyes flit over to the spot you’d left behind. Ricky is still standing there. He’s staring down, eyes trained on his cupped palms. “Ricky, come carry the cooler!” Taerae yells out for him, snapping him out of his daze. There’s a faint tinge of pink painting his ears when he strides off, fists closed with the same shade painting his knuckles. Your pockets are a lot lighter now. If you were him, you would have quite honestly fallen for yourself.
Dinner starts. You ask Yujin why he’s friends with a bunch of old men. “They’re obsessed with me,” is his reply, and you can’t debate with that. Not when five of them are suddenly yelling at Jiwoong for saying you should all play some drinking games to heat things up. It gets settled when Yujin and Gunwook are given glasses of apple juice, and the word ‘gorae’ is now being repeatedly thrown over the table.
One thing you’ve noticed is that Ricky is always a beat and half slow. It’s stupid adorable. Gyuvin passes the never-ending whale baton to him and he just continues the beat without saying anything, looking around like a lost cat, before letting out a noise and collapsing against Hanbin the moment he realized he just lost.
That’s it. You can’t take this anymore. He’s pocket-sized. You’re stuffing him inside your pocket. It doesn’t help that his flushed face makes him look exactly like the strawberries he loves much— matching the red of his jacket, and it’s driving you insane.
“You really do have a massive crush on him.”
Jiwoong invades your alone time once things have settled down a bit. You’re in the living room, sitting cross-legged on the floor right in front of the sliding doors to the backyard. No, you’re not sitting here because it gives you a nice view of Ricky chasing Gyuvin around with his jacket as a makeshift weapon. That’s not true at all. “Say it louder, will you,” you grunt when he takes a seat next to you, hitting the corner of your beer can with his before he takes a swig.
“I don’t have to. Not when you’re already practically outing yourself with your staring.”
You frown. “I’m not that obvious.” You double take. Then bite the inside of your cheek. “Hey. I think I’m screwed.”
Jiwoong shakes his head with a laugh. “Ricky is cute, isn’t he?”
Case in point, him doing that scrunchy face, gummy smile, when he suddenly bursts out laughing. You nod somberly. All Jiwoong does is make fun of your demise.
Still, you think you’re being subtle enough. Ricky is slow. He told you this was his strength and weakness when Gyuvin asked you to tag along with them on a shopping trip one time. But for someone who’s usually programmed to be in slow motion, he sure is quick to catch onto things when you don’t want him to.
“Seonbae.”
His voice is soft, unassuming. You’re both standing in front of Gyuvin’s apartment one late Friday afternoon. You’re holding open one of his hands, cupping his knuckles from underneath— something you’d never have anticipated to have the privilege of doing maybe three, four weeks prior— dropping five pieces of candy onto his palm without much of a thought.
“Yeah?” you hum.
He closes his hand and stuffs the fistful into his coat pocket, a completely blank and innocent face, before asking— “do you like me?”
Now, this wasn’t in your monthly fucking bingo.
You stifle back a choking noise, completely caught off guard. “H—huh?” Jiwoong was right. His only flaw is his overconfidence. You have no idea how to slip away from this unscathed. “What— what makes you say that?”
Ricky blinks at you. “You always give me snacks.” You’re pretty sure candy doesn’t qualify as snacks, but you digress. “Don’t...don’t they say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach?”
Unfortunately for him, you’re swearing by a different psychological tactic. “W—well, I always have a lot of candy with me! For my blood sugar, you know?” you sputter out the first excuse you can rummage from your short-circuiting brain. “And...and after finding out you liked strawberries a lot, it would be rude and selfish not to give you any if I have them, right?”
Right? Please agree. Please stop asking any more questions. Ricky is pondering over your words, seemingly deep in thought with pursed lips, until those said pretty lips part open to say, “Oh. Oh, I get it.” You don’t know what he gets, but you roll with it. “Then again, it also doesn’t make sense if you like me.”
The fuck does he mean that it doesn’t make sense if you like him? You’d kiss his face right here and now.
“You turned down that date, after all.”
Insult to injury. He doesn’t know that was the biggest regret of your life. You bite down your tongue and exhale sharply. “Ah. Don’t overthink it, Mr. Shim,” you tell him, finally knocking on Gyuvin’s door after standing in front of it for a good ten minutes. “Overthinking causes stress. Stress will give you wrinkles.”
“It’s okay,” he says, turning over the door upon hearing a click. “I’m still handsome when I’m stressed.”
You breathe out a sigh. This is the man you’re down bad for. This is the man you’re helplessly pining for.
“I think you’d be more handsome with black hair.”
Surprisingly, that statement comes from Gyuvin and not from you. He opened the door just at the right moment— an unimpressed look on his face upon seeing his unannounced visitors. “Why have my Friday night invaders tripled?” he laments. Tripled? You don’t ask and let yourself in despite his protests.
“I’m here to check on your term paper,” you inform, kicking off your shoes at the entryway.
“I’m here to play games,” says Ricky, doing the same.
“I’m here to play games too.”
For some reason, Gunwook had the same idea as you two to terrorize Gyuvin’s sacred Friday nights of solitude, but managed to act on it before anyone else. He’s already settled on the floor of the living room like it’s his own, legs outstretched, switch controller in his hands. “Hyung, let’s play!” he calls out to Ricky. Gyuvin reluctantly tells you to sit down before he grabs you two drinks from the kitchen.
“You know what, I forgot to ask.” Gyuvin settles down two glasses of juice onto the coffee table with a suspicious eye directly zeroed in on you. “Why were you two together outside?”
“Seonbae and I happened to meet each other downstairs,” explains Ricky. Which was true. You did somehow bump into each other at the building lobby, Ricky nearly closing the elevator in front of your face in the process.
“Right. I told you I’m here to check on your paper, and I’ll be off once I do exactly that,” you tell him, mentally thanking Ricky for the save. “You had a month to write so it better be decent. Give me your laptop.”
Gyuvin smacks his tongue, but does as you say anyway, while the other two boys loiter around the floor and fuck around with Gyuvin’s switch that’s connected to the TV. They’re playing a Mario game. You pay them no mind, ignoring the non-human noises they make once Gyuvin reappears with his laptop. He warns you that this is still his first draft, but you didn’t need that premise. The first page isn’t even formatted correctly. You’ve got your work cut out for you.
“Hey, hey, move over! Let me play—”
Again, you pay no mind to the noise. It’s mostly coming from Gunwook and Gyuvin because Ricky is quiet when he’s focused— in this case, focused on hopping over some goombas. He’s got a thin pair of glasses perched on his nose, lips pursed unconsciously into a noot noot, and fuck he’s so cute, and — no, you’re not paying attention to him. You’re paying attention to your junior’s paper. You’re proofreading. Simply proofreading. You highlight some errors here and there, marking some corrections.
Yet again, you don’t pay attention to the noise Gunwook and Gyuvin are making—
“Ah. I’m killing Gyuvin’s brothers.”
—but Ricky suddenly makes a quiet remark, and you snort very, very loudly in response.
You slap a hand over your mouth. That wasn’t funny. That wasn’t funny at all and the other two didn’t even seem to hear it. “Why are you laughing?” Gyuvin looks at you, offended by the sound you just made. “Did I write something wrong in the analysis? Why are you laughing?”
“N-no, it’s just—” Your throat rips into a cough because it’s not easy to suppress a fit of chortles. Ricky looks so proud of himself, you’re going to cry. You’re near choking and Gyuvin hops onto his feet and makes a beeline for you in a flurry.
“You’re so mean! Give me back my laptop!”
This isn’t a misunderstanding that you intend on clearing up, so you let him run off with his laptop back into his room to revise in private after you’ve disrespected his work. Gunwook stretches up too, saying that he’s off to buy some snacks outside. “Do you want anything?” he asks. Ricky is feeding you his juice and patting your back because you can’t stop coughing. “Okay. Ginger candy. Got it.”
Gunwook has left. Gyuvin is holed up in his room. And the fact that you and Ricky are alone in the living room right now isn’t helping the state of your lungs. “Are...are you okay?” Ricky, the sweet, sweet angel, asks with those giant boba eyes and soft voice. You want to bite down your sleeve and chew it right off.
“I’m—I’m alright.” No, you’re not. You’re sitting way too close on the floor, knees bumping, and the game over screen being reflected on the television right now is a perfect rendition of what’s going on inside your head right now. “Whew. I’m fine. I’m perfectly okay.”
You honestly have no idea how you’ve managed to keep it together these past couple of weeks. You don’t know how you haven’t jumped this guy yet. The video game is forgotten, and Ricky is scrolling through his phone. He’s wearing a melon green sweater which, objectively, is an ugly ass color, but Ricky somehow pulls it off and looks extra fucking soft in it and you’re not god’s strongest soldier.
He lets out a soft laugh, notices you staring, and tilts his phone and scoots closer for you to see a dumb Tik Tok video. Your shoulders bump. You make a comment that fails to register to your own ears. “By the way,” he starts. He places his phone face down on the tabletop. Whoa, this is a little dangerous. He shouldn’t be pouring all his attention into you like this. “Are you free this weekend?”
You blink. Your brain is jumping into conclusions. “Why?”
“Well,” he fumbles with the tips of his sweater paws. You’re going to eat him. “My uncle’s resort is opening a new branch, so there’s an opening party. Everyone else is coming, including Gyuvin. It’d be nice if you can come as well.”
“Oh,” you open your mouth. You’re a little surprised. “Thanks for the invite, but I don’t think I’m fit for those kinds of events, you know?”
This is quite a bit of pressure. Ricky tilts his head, failing to understand what you mean for a second, but when he does he exclaims, “oh! Don’t worry. We don’t have to join the formal event. We can just eat dinner and mess around at the beach. The actual party will be boring, anyway.”
“Ah.” He’s an angel. He’s so sweet. It hasn’t even been long since you’ve somehow been absorbed into their tight-knit group. You’re not sure how it even happened.
Well, you were already friends with half of them separately. Gyuvin has been buzzing around you since he was eleven and you were thirteen. Hanbin and Hao have been your academic ride or dies ever since you met them in the first week of classes. Jiwoong has been a force you could lean on the moment he took you under his wing for your first major project in university.
And Ricky—
“Tell me if you want to come,” he smiles. “So I can reserve a room for you.”
Maybe this was bound to happen eventually.
“I’m done!”
Gyuvin has finally emerged from his room, stomping back to you and Ricky before slamming the laptop on the table before you. “I edited it. No more errors now. Praise me,” he says proudly. You give him a suspicious glance, sliding the device closer to you. “This one’s good, right? Tell me it’s good. Don’t laugh. Laughing isn’t constructive.”
Ricky is curious and pokes his face closer to yours, and you flinch. “You misspelled ‘debilitating,’” he says. You gasp. Ricky, once again, looks so proud of himself. Gyuvin wants to die.
“Give it back—”
He snatches the laptop once more and starts aggressively typing next to the both of you. At the same time, Gunwook finally returns with a bag of miscellaneous snacks. “Seonbae, here you go,” he tosses a full bag of ginger-honey candy to you, which you now have no use for because you have stopped coughing.
“Thanks,” you gruffly say. When you stuff it into your bag you notice Ricky staring at you. “Do you want some?” you ask. He doesn’t answer your question but says something else entirely.
“You don’t need that anymore.”
Your eyes widen when Ricky snatches the bag of candy from you. He promptly opens it— moving quicker than you’ve ever seen him before, and rips open a piece before tossing it into his mouth.
You’re in shock. What is he doing?
“Hey, that’s not for you!” Gunwook protests. Ricky responds by simply pelting him with another piece. Gunwook is speechless. Then retaliates by throwing a candy bar from his 7-Eleven bag to Ricky’s chest. It bounces onto his lap. Ricky grabs another piece of candy to flick at Gunwook. They start fighting. Gyuvin notices the fun and abandons his paper to join in.
This isn’t how you planned your Friday to end up like. Then again, you didn’t plan on developing a crush on your friend’s best friend either, so you can’t really say anything else.
HANBIN HAS BEEN WAITING IN YOUR BUILDING’S PARKING LOT FOR A GOOD TWENTY MINUTES NOW. You’re already late for the event, so might as well make the most of your tardiness. I’m still getting ready, you shoot Hanbin a text. You keep messing up your fucking eyeliner, and there’s no way in hell you’re showing up to that damned, bougie ass event in front of Ricky with assymetrical eyeliner. His are always perfect and you don’t want to lose to that.
“Dude, we might miss the buffet!”
It’s Matthew yelling at you when the tinted front seat window rolls down as you sprint— heels on, mind you— to the car. “The place is a resort! They’re never running out of food,” you yell back while throwing the backseat open and then throwing yourself inside.
You’re breathing quite heavily. “Are we ready to go?” asks Hanbin, and you shoot him a thumbs up. You’re too busy catching your breath to notice Yujin also co-occupying Hanbin’s car.
“Noona, how long did it take for you to get ready?” he asks.
“Three hours,” you reply with a grunt. It’s a little hot so you open the windows, letting some air in. You can’t risk your makeup melting. You need to be extra pretty tonight to stand a chance against all the rich people flooding that place.
“Really?” Yujin does the same. “I can’t tell.”
You’re speechless. You hear Hanbin swallow down a giggle. Matthew isn’t even trying. This highschooler just roasted your ass. You need to put him in his place. “Why are you out here on a weekend?” you click your tongue. “You should be using this time to study.”
“I study enough already,” he protests.
“What was the Gyeongbokgung palace used for during the Joseon Dynasty?”
Yujin freezes. “Wow,” he says robotically after a significant pause, just as mechanically turning his head to the window. “The night air is so fresh.”
You don’t grill him further because Yujin is right— there’s something different about the wind wafting through the atmosphere tonight. You let yourself sink into the carseat, let the breeze cool your cheeks, eyes fluttered close, until you reach your destination. The resort is far off from the city— the seaside, obviously, but you don’t see the shorelane just yet. Only a towering building illuminated with warm flushed lights as the car drives up to the entrance, surrounded by ferns and foliage and an air of complete refinement.
The foyer floor is so shiny that you can see the chandelier reflecting from it. Are you allowed to step on this? Is this legal?
Upon entering the function hall however, your nerves become nothing. You already see a handful of people being completely, strikingly, and obviously out of place. All for different reasons.
You see Gunwook near the live band, somehow holding a conversation with two men that appear to be twice his age. Gyuvin and Jiwoong have comparatively way too much food on their plates as they camp right by the buffet. Hao is currently talking to a security guard while a suspicious looking vase is sticking out of his pocket. The only person that would be blending in well right now would be Taerae— if he wasn’t wearing that bright purple suit ensemble.
Damn. You shouldn’t have been worrying so much about being a fish out of water. These guys are way worse than you.
“I thought you weren’t coming.”
But of course. There’s one guy that looks like he’s completely at home.
Matthew greets Ricky’s arrival with a half-hug, and the other two boys do the same while you respectfully stand and stare. Respectfully. Yes. You pay no mind to that dangerously unbuttoned-button down under than dangerously low-cut blazer. You are the embodiment of peace and serenity and giving him your business as usual smile. “Hey,” you say. “Sorry we’re late.”
When Ricky returns your stiff smile with one of pure ease and kindness, you swoon like a fucking loser. “Yeah,” Yujin inserts. “She was taking so long to fix her face.”
Your smile stiffens further. “I did not take so long, haha, what are you talking about.”
Yujin gives you a look. “You said you took three—”
And there goes your hand over his mouth to shut him up. “Haha. Let’s go eat, Yujinnie. Didn’t you say you were starving?” Yujin muffles something out. You pinch his arm. “Thanks for the invite, Ricky! We’re off to sweep the buffet now!”
“Wait—”
You book it. Well. As fast as you can book it with these damned heels and with a large shoulder bag weighing you down because you’ll be staying here overnight for free. Does the bag match your dress? No, it does not, but you don’t know where your room is and you’re not well enough to talk to Ricky at the moment, so you suck it up and stress-eat at the buffet table with the Yujin you kidnapped. “Why were you so embarrassed, noona?” he innocently asks while stuffing his cheeks with some meat skewers. “You look pretty tonight and it’s all thanks to your hard work.”
Who has been teaching him these backhanded remarks? Who has been negatively influencing this child? You grunt and put a scoop of mashed potatoes on his plate, much to his displeasure, and continue eating your own damned meal.
“Hey, can you take a photo of me?”
The moment you’re done with your not so pleasant meal, you’re skewed away by Matthew who wishes to hire you as his photographer. After that barbecue dinner last time, Matthew swore that you take the best photos of him and his entire IG feed for the past month is credited to you.
You look at him, displeased because you’re not wearing the appropriate attire to lay on the floor to ensure the best angles. “Go stand by the window.” Still, you take his phone from him and make do with what you can. “What’s your password again?”
“Hao hyung’s birthday.”
“Got it.”
Now, stretching your legs and getting into various lunging positions aren’t easy to do when you’re wearing a long and silky dress. But you are a woman of commitment, and your bag is weighing you further to the ground as you take a low-angle shot of Matthew. “Okay, now hold your necktie. Now look away— perfect. That’s it. Next one.” When you try to get up, gravity decides that it hates you. You wobble on the stilts of your shoes, nearly stumbling back, but you feel someone grab onto your arm and pull you up before your ass kisses the ground.
“Whoa, please be careful.”
It’s Ricky. Of course, it’s him. When you look up, he’s got his eyebrows knitted together out of concern, strands of light wavy hair perfectly falling over said eyebrows and your breath hitches in your throat a little.
He’s got his other hand held out, and he’s probably expecting you to take it to balance yourself to your feet, but you refuse to be a predictable woman.
Instead, you give him Matthew’s phone and help yourself up. “Thanks. I’m fine. Just slipped a little.” You have no idea why you’re acting coy right now. Maybe it’s because he’s being a little less cute tonight, being a little more dangerous instead— flinching the moment you feel his feathery touch on your shoulder as he removes the weight of your bag from your person, before passing it to an attendant that he calls over with a single look.
“Can you bring this to Room 207? Thank you.”
No, no, no, this is too much. This is too much for you. Why is he trying to be smooth? Why is he trying to swoop you off your feet without taking any responsibility?
“Hyung, I’ll take your photos instead,” he says to Matthew, who’s been watching the spectacle unfold and you pray to god that your unsubtle thirsting wasn’t too noticeable. Matthew doesn’t say anything about it, though. You assume you’re in the safe zone because all he’s doing is complaining when Ricky takes way too zoomed in photos of his face. “This is a new trend. Just trust me.”
“Sure? Okay, go on.”
You take this as an opportunity to escape, only to be called by Gyuvin back to the buffet table because, “have you tried their gambas?! This shit is fire!”
When an old guy took the podium, you all took this as your cue to exit— scattered off either to the beach, bar, or your Ricky-sponsored rooms. You have an entire room for yourself because there’s no way in hell you’re sharing a room with any of those stinky boys. Your exhaustion is aching for a shower, and so you grant its request, and by the time you’re done freshening up and changing into a more comfortable set of clothing, you receive a text from Hanbin that they’re all gathered at the beach.
“Ah. The wind is cold.”
Wearing a thick jacket out was the right choice indeed. You stuff your hands into your pockets for warmth, feet sinking into the sand as you watch the mess before you. They’re all either running around, drawing things on the ground, or lounging on a picnic blanket under the starlit horizon. “Sit,” says Jiwoong, tapping the empty spot next to him, and you oblige with a yawn. “It’s only eleven. Can’t believe you’re sleepy already.”
“I’m getting old,” you tell him, letting your head drop onto your shoulder as you hug your knees. The rest are by the shore or in the water. You have no energy to join in at this point.
Jiwoong makes a distasteful noise at your statement. “What does that make me?”
“A fossil.” You yawn once more, craning your neck to bury your face into his arm. “I’m so tired.”
He chuckles. “Are you fine with Ricky seeing you like this?”
“Please be quiet.” This time, you sneeze. Right into the sleeve of his shirt. Then you sniffle. “He’s not even here.” Jiwoong is disgusted. He tips you off, picks up your wrist, and uses your hand to wipe off your ‘germs,’ or so he says.
“You’re lucky he didn’t see that. Where is he, anyway?”
The question is answered by Gyuvin when his energy finally gets exhausted from splashing around, flopping onto the blanket next to you and Jiwoong. “He was still in our room when I left,” he says, out of breath. “I think he wanted to rest for a while.”
Gradually, the rest start to gather too. “We haven’t taken a group photo yet,” Hao brings up. “He’s gonna sulk if we take one and he’s not here.”
It’s as if you just got recharged with a full eight hours of sleep.
“I’ll go get him,” you say, promptly standing up. “I need to pick up something from my bag, anyway.” Total lie. Jiwoong sees right through your bullshit and his teeth are showing through his smile. You flip him off and start making your way back, stumbling when Hanbin asks if you want him to accompany you, bringing back the hop in your step when Gunwook tells him, “she’s a big girl, she can handle it herself.” You’ll get back at him for that later.
Two-one-three, two-one-three, two-one-three, you repeat the room number in your head as you go down each door in the hallway, ringing phone glued to your ear to inform Ricky that you’re going to barge into his room, but he’s not picking up. Maybe he’s asleep? Probably. There’s no response when you knock on the door and slot in the key Gyuvin gave you, and you’re met with dim lights and an eerie silence the moment you crack open the door.
“Ricky?” you call out. There’s no response.
The light from the hallway leaks in to illuminate an empty bed. Huh. Where is he? What rouses even more questions is the odd positioning of what should be a bedside table, for some reason positioned at the foot of the bed and a few feet away from the open bathroom door. There’s also a mishmash of things stacked on the table— books, folded shirts, magazines, and some of which have fallen and scattered to the floor.
But those aren’t the only things on the ground.
You quickly bring a hand to your mouth. “Oh,” you wheeze out. “Oh my god.” You try to cover it up with a cough, but it’s too late. A snort managed to slip through.
“Stop laughing,” he protests from the floor. How could you hold it in when Ricky is right there, lying curled on the ground while hugging what seems to be his knee, bathrobe-clad, with papers and magazines scattered around and on top of him. A memo sheet is stuck on his cheek. His back is turned to you. His buzzing phone with your contact name on it is next to his head.
How the hell did he end up here?
“Are—are you okay?” you manage to say as you crouch down next to him. He doesn’t budge when you try to roll him back. He lets out a grunt and tells you to leave him alone. “I can’t, I was ordered to pick you up. What are you trying to hide? Why won’t you look at m—”
When you finally roll him to his back, you realize why.
“Oh no.”
Ricky’s got a hand hovering over half of his face— the wrong half because you can very clearly see the red gash running down his right temple, but that’s probably not what he’s intending to hide. He’s got his brows in a sad and shameful furrow, glaring eyes refusing to look at you, and you can see the shades of pink coral and pink on his cheeks, slipping through the gaps of his fingers.
He’s pink. He’s so pink.
“Don’t laugh,” he grumbles. “It’s not funny.”
You might as well eat him whole, holy fucking shit.
“N—no, you’re right. It’s not funny. I’m not laughing.”
You’re damn near about to break into a coughing fit again with how hard you’re trying to suppress your giggles. Based on the evidence laid down at the crime scene— namely his still damp hair, scanty bathrobe, misplaced furniture, and the mess of it all— Ricky was likely trying to take post-shower thirst traps while Gyuvin was still out so he wouldn’t be made fun of.
Slipping and hitting his head on the table’s edge in the process was probably not part of his calculations. You fear you might’ve been the unintentional cause of this because you gave him a surprise call earlier.
“Let’s get you up, big boy. Grab my hand.”
Begrudgingly, he lets you pull him up. You instruct him to sit on the bed while you call room service for a first aid kit. The wound on his forehead doesn’t look serious, but you decide to apply some ointment and put a bandage on it just in case. He winces when you clean the dried blood off with water. God, he’s too fucking cute. Your gushing is ruined by an incoming call.
“Hanbin,” you greet, wedging the phone between your ear and shoulder because you’re still trying to patch up the poor boy. He scrunches his nose when the ointment touches his wound. “We’ll be there in ten minutes. A minor accident occurred. No, you don’t have to come up here. Ricky is physically well and alive.” You can’t say the same about his emotional state though. He’s been quiet and frowning this whole time. “Say hi, Ricky.”
You pass him the phone. He looks at your phone wielding hand, a contemplative expression, then takes it. “Don’t come,” is all he says to Hanbin at the other end of the line— a little too gruffly for your liking— before tossing it off somewhere onto the bed.
Ricky’s eyes snap up to look at you. Maybe you’ve been taking this situation a little too lightly.
“Is it done?” he asks in that same tone of voice, and— oh. Oh, no. You’re in a tight spot. Figuratively and literally because Ricky is leaning back against the bed, you slightly leaning into him because you’re simply, very innocently trying to bandage up his temple, and the most comfortable way to do it is having a knee propped up on the mattress, face hovering dangerously above his.
When you unavoidably make eye contact, you flinch and feel your bones rattle.
Oh.
Your gaze falters and your swallow down your dry throat, watching as the bathrobe slips down from his left shoulder in real time. That’s it. You’re gone. Your brain has stopped working. You’re starting to miss cute Ricky who gets excited over your strawberry candies. Where is he? Where did he go? This Ricky is a little dangerous. This Ricky feels like he’s going to fucking eat you alive.
“Y—yeah. One sec.” You’re not sure if you even managed to secure the bandage on his wound because the moment your skin touched his, you immediately flung yourself back from a ghost burn. “Did...did you hurt yourself anywhere else?” you ask. He shouldn’t be looking at you like that. Why is he looking at you like that?
The brief silence that follows swallows you whole.
“I’m not sure. Can you check?”
Then spits you right back out because crazy fucking bastard— what the fuck does he fucking mean by can you fucking check?
“Oh, um.” Dry. Your throat is dry. Does he want you dead? Is that it? Does it not matter whether or not you get out of this room alive? You don’t like this— whatever this is because you don’t know what’s wrong with him tonight. Did he get a concussion when he fell? Do you have to go take him to see a doctor?
Maybe it’s you that needs to go see a doctor. Because you’re pretty damn sure that this heart rate is nowhere near normal.
Knock, knock, knock.
“We’re coming in.”
Karma acts quickly because you stumble back and nearly collapse into the floor as well. The door cracks open and you grab onto the nearest thing for balance, which, in this case, is a curtain you almost tug off from the window out of sheer force. “Ricky slipped and hurt his head,” you blurt out the moment Hanbin and a few others enter the room. Ricky’s face drops into betrayal. Self-defense. You needed a diversion.
Taerae and Gyuvin are the ones that came with Hanbin, the former taking a long look at the room and its inhabitants. “Oh,” he says after acknowledging the mess on the floor and the bandage on Ricky’s forehead. “Okay, Humpty Dumpty.”
Gyuvin lets out a snort. Ricky chucks a pillow in their direction. Thank god for their interruption because you don’t know what would have overtaken you had they come five minutes later. “No wait, did he really slip?” Gyuvin asks, a little too giddy and giggly about the whole ordeal. “Dude, did you fall over while taking thirst traps?”
And you’re subsequently kicked out of the room while Ricky gets dressed into something more decent and gets made fun of by Gyuvin and Taerae.
“Took you guys long enough.”
You’re all back at the beach now with a grumpy Ricky in tow. Gyuvin immediately runs off to snitch on his best friend’s misfortune to the rest. He’s sulking, you notice, face down and hands stuffed in his pockets as the cool breeze flutters his hair in its embrace. “Quit making fun of him!” Hanbin scolds, and you spot Jiwoong’s expectant expression to tell him what you were up to alone in Ricky’s room.
Nothing You were up to nothing, you send the message through your glare. You could’ve been up to something had those three not interrupted, but would you have survived that? Your eyes flicker over to Ricky, who’s trying to push Gyuvin off him— traces of the tension and danger from the hotel room completely gone without a trace that you fear you might have just been imagining it out of the sheer feeling of want you harbor for the guy.
“C’mon, let’s take a picture!”
Before you know it, you’re gathered by the shore in a bluf, feet sinking into the sand, and you feel yourself bump into Ricky at the very moment the camera flashes to capture the scene.
“Hey, this one came out nicely.”
It did. You’re not sure about the rest, but this photo deserves to be tucked into your wallet and kept in a capsule.
Ricky is standing next to you, the tight frame leaving no gap or space in between. You’re both smiling a little awkwardly. It’s cute. You keep staring at it until your attention is pulled away by the very man himself.
“You owe me something,” is Ricky’s introduction when he saunters over to you. You raise a brow, closing your phone. Looks like he’s finally gotten over what happened earlier. Gyuvin has finally stopped teasing him by moving on to messing with the sparklers Gunwook brought. You can hear their shouts and laughter from afar, but it’s all muted down.
“What do you mean?” you ask.
He takes out one hand from his pocket, an open palm outstretched. He’s looking at you expectantly in wait. You break out into a soft laugh and shake your head. Maybe your candy-related scheme worked a little too well.
“I didn’t think I was contractually obligated to do this now,” you hum, fishing out a few pieces of candy from your sweats before dropping them onto his hand. “Maybe I should stop.”
“You can’t just start something by yourself and suddenly stop all by yourself. That’s not fair,” he complains, accepting your offer. “You have to take responsibility.” Only if he takes responsibility for your poor and shriveling heart. His tone is light, a smile playing on his lips, and at this point— you’re sure this isn’t just a crush anymore. You might just be a little in love with Ricky Shen.
YOU HAD NO IDEA HAO WAS SO INFORMED ABOUT PROF SHIN’S MAKEUP PREFERENCES. It’s her birthday this upcoming week. You three freeloaders need to keep sucking up so you can maintain your office privileges, so you decided to buy her a present. Hanbin is unavailable, so it’s just you and Hao browsing the boutiques downtown, and you narrowed down your scope (and budget) to just buying her makeup.
You pull out a bright red lipstick from the display and show it to Hao. “What about this one?” you ask. Hao puts on a look of disapproval.
“She doesn’t like wearing bright colors. Maybe something more on the nude side would be better.”
Well damn, okay. You put the rejected stick back with the rest of its friends. The next one you pick out is also rejected because it’s glossy. “Prof Shin prefers matte,” he further reasons. And now you’re starting to question exactly how and why he knows this. Hao doesn’t humor your queries, though. You settle with a nude Laneige matte lip and a matching blush as a bonus.
“We’re done here, right?” Hao asks after you two pay for the gift.
“Hold on.” You’re stopped by a certain item on display near the check-out counter. You’re convinced that you’ve definitely gone off the deep end at this point. The thoughts blurring inside your head the moment you laid eyes on the strawberry-flavored lip gloss for sale are a little too insane, even for you. You’re not buying this. You don’t even use gloss. This is crazy.
“Thank you, please come again!”
You exit the store with your gift for Prof Shin and a new lip product. You are stressing yourself out.
The buzzing of your phone forces you out of your existential crisis. It’s Gyuvin messaging the group chat. “Hey,” you tap Hao upon reading the message. “We don’t have anything else to do right? You said you have extra gift boxes at home.” When Hao asks why, you show him Gyuvin’s message.
[gyubie cutie: no one wants to send off ricky at the airport with me? :( damn i really am his only friend].
You reply that you and Hao are on the way. You know that Ricky is leaving for a quick vacation to Shanghai today (two weeks before the semester ends, mind you) after an impulsive decision involving alcohol the other day with you and a few of the guys. At one point they suddenly became all emotional and the topic of their families were brought up. Ricky woke up the next morning with a splitting headache and a phone screen that tells him his flight has been booked.
“Well, I guess I’ll just go,” he said over hangover soup and aspirin, as if he doesn’t have exams in two fucking weeks, and as if Shanghai is just a bus ride away. Sometimes, you’re surprised with how easy going he is. The flight is at an awkward time— Thursday mid-noon, so it’s no surprise that no one else is free to see him off. You didn’t mention anything about wanting to send him off and neither did he ask you to, so you thought why the hell would you do that unless you want to expose your ass full of feelings. But Gyuvin presented the opportunity. Who are you to turn it down?
“Over here!”
You spot Gyuvin waving at you two from a distance with outstretched limbs. You preemptively grab a handful of candy from your pocket— battle ready because it’s been getting harder and harder to pass these to him subtly as of late with the amount of eyes constantly on you— but you don’t find the mop of blonde anywhere, even when you’ve finally reached Gyuvin’s spot.
“Has Ricky left already?” you ask, brow raised. You’d be pissed if Gyuvin baited you two here only for the guy to have already left.
“No, no. He’s here,” he assures. “He’s around here somewhere. He bought some snacks not too long ago, but some girl stopped him to get his number. I lost him because seeing him get hit on made me gag so I had to look away for my safety.”
Well, that’s both assuring and not. Then you remember you have no right to be jealous because Ricky Shen, as suspiciously as he may be behaving as of late (case in point, accidentally seducing you in a bathrobe the other week), he is still not your damned boyfriend.
“Oh, there he is.”
Ricky who is not your boyfriend arrives, and the first thing he does is make you feel so fucking sorry that he isn’t.
“Whoa.”
No wonder you weren’t able to spot him right off the bat. His attention-seeking light hair is gone. No, he hasn’t shaved it— he dyed it freaking black and he looks so fucking good. “Oh, uh,” is how you greet him. The words have completely dried out from your throat. Ricky is looking at you expectantly. Your mouth is hanging open pathetically. “Wow.” Your eloquence is award winning.
He laughs. He wants you dead. “Does it look weird? I needed natural hair for visa requirements.”
“N—no,” you sputter out. Gyuvin goes on to brag that he was right that Ricky would look great in dark hair and Hao proceeds to try and touch said hair, only to get his hand smacked by the hair-owner, while you’re still temporarily incapacitated to say or do anything. You don’t get to say anything, because the clock strikes twelve-twenty, and Ricky has to go
“Have a safe flight, dummy,” Hao bids Ricky off with what you can only describe as a glomp, only to be assaulted by Gyuvin immediately after. You’re standing there awkwardly like a fourth-wheel, hands tucked behind your back because you can’t find the timing to say your farewells, and you missed the timing to pass the candy to him earlier after being so rudely jumpscared by his new look.
When Ricky finally manages to swat and push them both off, his eyes flash over to you. Your mouth curls into something sort of a smile— you’re not completely sure. Ricky takes a step forward to engulf you in an embrace.
Oh. Oh, so we’re doing this now, you think, eyes flying wide open in surprise with a pathetic squeak. “Thanks for seeing me off,” he murmurs softly, and you can feel his voice vibrating into your skin and penetrating your bones. You can’t even reciprocate because he locks your arms tightly against your own body, and you feel his fingers unclasping yours behind your back, allowing him to take the strawberry pieces you intended to give, before pulling away with a dumb grin. “Want anything when I get back?”
You try to blink away the violent shock tremors you’re feeling right now. “I’ve— I’ve always wanted to try the sun cakes there.” Deep breathes. You’re normal. You’re totally normal.
Ricky takes his carrier from Gyuvin, sending you a small smile. “I’ll buy you a hundred.”
“Don’t overdo it,” you let out a breath. God, he drives you insane. “Safe skies. See you when you get back.”
The moment Ricky boards the plane, Gyuvin turns around to ask you two what you should have for lunch. “Why are you so happy that your best friend is gone?” you ask with narrowed eyes the moment you three settle with the first food place you see at Terminal 1 of the airport. “Do you secretly hate him? Is that it?”
“He’ll be gone for two days max, give me a break,” he grunts. “And tomorrow’s Friday. That means I can get the whole evening and weekend to myself without anyone barging into my apartment.”
Your friend’s joy is reflected with how energetically he’s inhaling the bowl of stew. “Don’t get ahead of yourself. I’m gonna do a progress check on your paper tomorrow.” Gyuvin sets down the bowl, looking at you like you just sentenced him to prison. Hao is minding his own business and enjoying his meal. “What? Don’t tell me you forgot that your deadline is in two weeks. I’m checking it tomorrow, so make sure it’s at the very least decent.”
When Gyuvin tells you to stop nagging because it reflects your age, Hao had to stop you from throttling the man.
Anyway, the day passes and you’re at Gyuvin’s apartment to check on his paper.
“Why are you smiling at your phone? Damn, she’s finally lost it,” he says over another meal. You finished giving him your feedback and decided to just have takeout dinner with him. While eating, however, you received a text from Ricky— a photo of his own meal and a thumbs up above the plate of skewers. It’s been a day, but you can barely feel his absence with how he’s been texting you every hour from the moment he landed.
[ouricky: (photo attached) touchdown ✌️].
[ouricky: (photo attached) this looks like u].
[ouricky: are u asleep yet?]
[ouricky: gyuvin told me ur at his place. tell him to eat shit for me].
[ouricky: (photo attached) dinner w my sister 👍 our meal is better than yours].
“What the hell, did you get a boyfriend?” You look up from your phone to find a very judgemental Gyuvin. “After rejecting all my attempts to set you up for romance? This is a personal attack. You’re buying ice cream later.”
If only he knew you were texting his best friend. Not that you have any intentions on telling him.
“Hey, why do you smell like strawberries?” Gyuvin asks after your meal, right when you decide to retouch your makeup as you ready yourself to leave. “Is that the candy you always bring?”
“It’s my new lip gloss,” You show off the pink bottle. “It tastes like the fruit too.”
“Whoa, that’s cool,” he snatches it from you, examining it a little too close to his face to sniff it. “Where’d you buy it? Do they have one in mango?”
While trying to convince Gyuvin that he should maybe purchase actual mangoes instead of planning on eating an entire bottle of mango-flavored gloss, you also try to convince yourself that you definitely did not make this purchase yourself to try and seduce his friend. Ricky isn’t even here. You’re not wearing it for him. You’re wearing it for yourself.
“I’m off! I’ll take you to the store next time.”
When you defend yourself and your new lip gloss against Jiwoong’s judgment the next morning, he tells you that Ricky probably doesn’t feel the same way as you do. That you probably shouldn’t think too much of it and hurt yourself with your expectations. But at this point, it’s reasonable for you to start overthinking, right? Right? What does Jiwoong know, anyway? He’s not Ricky’s mother. Ricky’s mother is on a yacht with him right now, and you know because he just sent you a video and you’re damn near the precipice of falling headfirst into the depths of thinking he might just like you too.
“I just don’t want you to get too ahead of yourself and end up getting hurt.”
Assuming you’re right and Ricky does like you back— when the hell could it have started? The barbecue at Matthew’s? That one evening at Gyuvin’s apartment? That night in his uncle’s resort? You have no idea, much like how you have no idea how you somehow got absorbed into their mess of a friend group.
But a few little texts and inexplicable bouts of skinship here and there isn’t enough to set you way too far off-the deep end. The way he looks at you might just be your imagination. Jiwoong could still be absolutely correct and you’re just tripping over your own assumptions.
You’re not that quick to listen to your intrusive thoughts. You’re still a little reasonable. That’s why you haven’t fallen to your knees and blurted out your insurmountable feelings for him yet.
What does set you off to state beyond help, however, is a sudden phone call later that same Friday evening.
Morning, rather. Specifically at four in the morning— waking you up from your sleep by its incessant buzzing. “Hello?” you groan into the mic, voice still croaky and eyes barely open. “What’s up? Why aren’t you asleep?” You have no idea why Ricky is calling you right now. The moment you hear his voice through the line however, you feel all five of your senses suddenly snapping wide awake.
“I thought it’d be a waste to spend my time here asleep,” he says with a soft chuckle. Oh, holy fuck it’s too early for this. You’re not mentally prepared for this kind of voice from him yet— low, almost a deep rumble, reminiscent of thunderstorms and clouds, only amplified by how he’s practically whispering into the core of your being through the phone.
You pull your blanket down and roll over to the side to give your heart a chance to breathe.
“Yet you decide to call me at four in the morning instead of doing something more worthwhile,” you click your tongue, and you only hear Ricky laugh in response. “Are you planning on extending your trip? When’s your flight?”
“No, I’m leaving later. I still have to prepare for finals,” he replies. “Flight’s scheduled at 11 p.m.”
“Ah, that’s too bad,” you say. “I’m pulling an all-nighter at the library tonight. Deadline to catch. I don’t think I can see you at the airport this time.”
“That’s alright,” he hums. “Next time you can just come with me to Shanghai.”
You pause. Wait. Wait a minute. “Haha, yeah, it— it would be nice to visit your hometown with the rest of the guys, yes.” That’s what he probably meant. You probably meant all of you— many, plural— not just you and you alone. Haha. Of course.
But when Ricky takes a while to reply, you start to overthink, start nipping on the skin of your lip so hard that blood might draw.
“Yeah,” he says after an awkward beat. “With the rest of the guys. Yeah.”
You really need to hear Jiwoong’s voice of reason right now. Because all you’re hearing is the sound of your own heartbeat inside your ears like a hyperactive drum.
“Anyway, you must be tired. I should let you sleep now,” says Ricky after ruining all your chances of falling back asleep. You can’t. The best you can do is get up before the sun and go on with your busy day so as to not think about this conversation too much.
“You should be the one sleeping,” you manage to reply. “Don’t forget my sun cakes.”
“Mhm. G’night.”
Crazy. This man drives you fucking crazy.
You don’t return to sleep after that.
“Okay,” is Jiwoong’s expert opinion after telling him what happened later that same evening, having dinner with him at a McDonald’s near the city library. He’s put his kiddie meal on pause while you were telling him about Ricky Shen and his demonic antics at four in the morning. He’s got his elbows on the table, fingers interlocked, and staring at you with a look so serious he might as well be diagnosing you with a disease. “I think you’re right,” he continues. “Maybe he does like you.”
The shriek you let out is almost inhuman.
Jiwoong’s lips quirk into a smile and he goes back to eating. “I told you! I told you I wasn’t overthinking things! My lip gloss purchase is justified!” you proclaim. Jiwoong tosses a fry into your mouth to sedate you, and it works for a few chews until you start yapping again. “But, god, now what? He’s returning later or tomorrow. I have no idea how to face him.”
Your phone vibrates a message. “Is it Ricky?” he asks in an attempt to tease you, but all your face does is turn sour upon reading the text. “No? Who is it?”
“Woong,” you say, setting your phone on the table. “Are you busy this evening?”
He furrows his brows. “I was planning on writing my paper. Why? Is there a problem?”
“Great. You can work with me at the library the whole night.”
When you slide your phone over across the table, Jiwoong understands.
[jaeryeong: can i see you tonight? please? it wont take long. i just need to make things right].
“He’s a persistent fucking cockroach.”
You grunt, taking back your phone. “You should report him,” he says, and you’ve completely lost your appetite. “Screenshot his texts and block his number. I’ll accompany you to the station if you want to handle this legally.”
“No, it’s fine,” you scrunch your nose. He’s a wimp, according to his ex-friend Gyuvin, so you’re sure he isn’t gonna hurt you or anything. And your exams are coming up, so you don’t want to deal with processing this entire thing while you’re already academically burdened as is. “Be my bodyguard for the night. If he tries anything, I can just throw you at him and run away.”
Jiwoong doesn’t approve of your methods, but doesn’t argue anyway. After eating you both finally head to the library where you’ll be cooped up the entire night— tucked in the corner in your own respective cubicles.
Your friend’s worry starts stirring whenever he sees you check your phone every hour or so. He pulls back the desk chair upon noticing the serious look on your face, turning over to your direction in concern. “Is Jaeryeong texting you?” he asks. “Did he follow you here? Should I call the police?”
“No,” you reply. “Ricky sent me a photo of him at the airport. He’s wearing ear muffs. He’s so cute. I can’t do this anymore.”
Jiwoong’s face falls to an expression reminiscent of death and stops talking to you after that.
Well. You have been receiving texts from Jaeryeong, but you haven’t opened them in case he gets motivated by the fact you’ve read his messages. You still don’t know how he and Gyuvin ended up being friends, but then again, Gyuvin was friends with a group of delinquents in high school. He wasn’t part of the group. He just thought their vibe was cool.
“Hey.”
It’s twenty minutes past twelve, Ricky is probably still on the airplane, and you haven’t eaten anything since your 6 p.m. dinner. You poke Jiwoong’s arm, to which he blatantly ignores. “I’m gonna get something from the vending machine. Keep ignoring me and I won’t buy you snacks.” He says nothing but follows you when you get up, and you sneer at the man following you with a silent tantrum. “Quit sulking,” you tell him as you punch the numbers for coffee on the machine. “You’re not cute enough for that.”
“I’m sorry for not being Ricky,” is the first thing he says to you after two hours of silence. “You’re wearing that scheming lip gloss again, but he’s not even here.” You frown. He laughs and takes your place in front of the vending machine by cordially bumping his ass into yours the moment your drink falls down the chute. “Your phone’s flashing by the way. I think Ricky’s calling.”
You look down, bringing up your phone, and sure enough calling ID “ouricky” is giving you a call.
He’s calling. He is calling you.
Your eyes flash back up to Jiwoong, widened in surprise.
Why is he calling you?
“Did he send a message in the group chat that he arrived?” you ask, suddenly panicking as the phone relentlessly vibrates in your hand. “He didn’t, right? Why would he call me first? What time is it? Wasn’t his flight just an hour ago?”
“For someone who’s been pretty confident that Ricky likes you back, you’re sure acting funny,” he hums, leaning against the vending machine and taking a sip from his cold brew while you’re having a mental breakdown. “Answer it. Go on.”
“‘I’m scared!” you exclaim. “What if instead of saying hello I end up blurting out that I’m in love with him and ask him if he feels the same way?!”
You take too long to make a move so the phone line gets cut off. But when Ricky calls again, Jiwoong wastes no time to snatch your phone from your hands, click answer, and put the damn thing on loudspeaker for the entire fucking world to hear. What the hell are you doing? your scrunched up face says to him. Doing you a favor, his arrogant eyebrows reply. You attempt to snatch your phone back, arms in a desperate move to retrieve to device—
“Hello?”
—but they freeze mid-air at the sound of Ricky’s voice blurring through the speaker.
Jiwoong grins. You slowly get your phone back and press it to your ear. “Yes. Hello. What’s up?” You give Jiwoong the nastiest glare you can muster, but flinch back the moment you hear Ricky’s voice again.
“Are you still at the library?” he asks.
“Yeah.” You elbow Jiwoong when he laughs at your sudden switch-up. “Why?”
“Come down.”
What?
“I’m outside.”
It’s almost stupid how your body starts moving on its own.
The cold air bites your skin the moment you break past the doors, met by the dim sky and muted sight of the empty plaza square outside the library entryway. But it’s not completely empty— no. Ricky, who’s supposed to be still on the plane ride back to Seoul, is standing five feet away from you, eyes flickering up from his phone the moment you arrive, a slow, soft smile blooming on his face and cheeks.
You see the suitcase next to his feet. Jiwoong’s words echo in your head— maybe you’re right, he said, maybe he does like you. It’s not just a maybe anymore. It’s not just your mind making things up.
Ricky, who is supposed to be in the air halfway between Seoul and Shanghai, went straight from the airport to the city library just to see you.
You’re usually the one doing dumb things because of him. This time, it’s not you.
It’s him.
“Hey, are you crazy? Did your flight schedule change?” You stomp towards him, closing the gap between the both of you with big strides and quick steps. “Why didn’t you update us? Jesus, you gave me a scare when you said you were here.”
Ricky’s only reply is a laugh, and your intent to scold him more gets stuck in your throat and you stumble a little when you abruptly halt right in front of his feet. You look at him, batting your eyes in an attempt to blink away the possible pink and hazy filter you’re seeing him with, but it doesn’t work. He is just this pretty. He is just this dreamy. He is just soft and soft and soft when his eyelashes flutter above his big, dark irises as he looks at you, when his stained hair frames his face a little too perfectly, when the corners of his lips lift ever the slightest to resemble a smile.
“That’s not how you usually greet me,” he says. “Aren’t you going to give me anything?”
Your heart stirs. “What?” Aren’t you supposed to be the one asking that? He promised to buy you a hundred sun cakes, and you’re pretty sure those won’t fit inside his one suitcase. “Oh. Oh, wait.” You pat around your pockets, only to realize you left all your candy in your bag back with Jiwoong.
“Sorry,” you tell him, feeling a little guilty. “I was in a rush to get down. I wasn’t able to bring any with me.”
Instead of responding with disappointment, Ricky just hums and leans a little closer. “Really?” He suddenly nudges his face into yours, noses bumping, and your eyes widen in surprise. “But you do have something else.”
He’s close. His face is hovering a little too close to yours to be smiling cheekily unaffected like that. You can feel his warm breath on your lips and you’re starting to feel dizzy.
“It smells sweet,” he says and you think— oh. He’s not good for your heart.
Maybe it’s because he’s officially driven you to the breaking point of being crazy, or maybe it’s because the cold has completely frozen all the sane parts of your brain, but the words you’d usually keep tucked between your thoughts and confidentiality suddenly come stumbling out of your mouth before you can stop yourself.
“Do you want to know if it tastes sweet too?”
You gasp after realizing what you just said. You look at Ricky with a face aghast with surprise, jumping back because holy fuck— why did you say that? Why? You’re crazy. You’re stupid. You bite down your bottom lip and taste the dull flavor strawberry mocking the tip of your tongue. You’re insane. You have officially lost it.
If you were Ricky, you’d probably call yourself crazy too, but he doesn’t do that.
Instead, he does something even crazier by taking your offer and pressing his lips against yours.
It doesn’t register that Ricky just kissed you until after the fact, and you’re staring at him with wide, blinking eyes, lips feeling fuzzy, head afloat beyond reach, and him— at an arm’s length away— eyes averted with pink strawberries dusting his cheeks, much like the color slightly glazing his lips, as if he wasn’t the one who just pulled your trigger.
He ran his mouth about taking responsibility the other day.
You’re going to show him responsibility with your mouth.
“S—sorry, that was too sudden, I just— mmph—!”
Two months of pining after him come crashing down the moment you pull him by the collar to finish what he started and god— his lips are softer than you thought, sweeter than you thought, and it’s not just the strawberry lip gloss smudged between your teeth and tongue, melting into what you can only describe as the best fucking kiss in your entire life.
Ricky pulls away to breathe. You chase after his lips once more in a short-winded daze, only to stumble into his chest and he catches you by cupping your face to press another kiss to your mouth. “Ah. This is bad,” he murmurs between barely parted lips. “I don’t think the candy is gonna cut it anymore.”
For a second there, you thought he was gonna say that you’re a bad kisser.
“You should greet me like this from now on.”
YOU WAKE UP THE NEXT MORNING VIA SUFFOCATION FROM THE LOVE OF YOUR LIFE AND A TEXT MESSAGE FROM A PESTERING RAT. Blurry eyes and barely conscious, you try to roll over on the bed but physically cannot with how Ricky is squeezing your torso with his arms, his nose buried against your nape as he curls up into you from behind.
You cannot move. You try your darndest to wiggle an arm out because your phone is incessantly buzzing on his bedside table— the only thing from your belongings that you brought with you last night because your haul to the library was left behind with Jiwoong, who’s probably the one texting you right now for ditching him.
When you finally retrieve your phone however, it is not Jiwoong who’s texting you.
It’s Jaeryeong. Squinted eyes read [how could you replace me with a grey-haired twink???] and [don’t even dare try contacting me, bitch] and the first thing you feel is confusion. Then you remember that Jaeryeong is a freak and probably followed you to the library that night, and saw you making out with Ricky in front of a public educational building.
Well. At least that stopped him from bothering you again. The question now is whether or not you should tell Ricky about this.
“I’m going to kill him.”
You do tell him, in between washing his hair in the bathroom to get the remnants of spray stains out of his hair because Jaeryeong’s comment pissed you off. “I’m gonna kill him the moment I see him,” says Ricky with a lovely towel wrap on his head. You’re looking at him through the mirror and the scary face he’s trying to put on is promptly negated by his spa-day look.
“Do you even know what he looks like?” you raise a brow, freeing him from the towel head to reveal a damp mop of light hair. You throw away the muddled towel and grab a fresh one to dry his head.
“I’ll ask Gyuvin,” he says, face covered by the towel, and you snort.
“I think we’ll have a problem with that. I was kind of hoping to keep this secret for now.”
Ricky suddenly throws his head back, causing the towel to fall to the floor and the top of his head bumps into your stomach. “Why?” he asks, upside down, big brown eyes staring right into your soul like a premeditated attack shooting you square in the chest. He can’t pull this move. That’s illegal.
“Be—because Gyuvin is annoying and he won’t let me hear the end of it,” you manage to say. You’re not going to fold. You’re not going to give in. “You know how I turned down that blind date with you right?”
The mention of it prompts a frown to tug on the corners of his mouth and it’s the second onslaught against your heart. “Right,” he huffs, lifting his head up to turn around and face you, looking up with a displeased expression, yet his actions say all but displeasure when he tugs on the hem of your shirt, pulling you towards him so he can lock you in place with his arms around your waist.
“Quit pouting,” you tell him. It hasn’t even been twenty-four hours. You’re not sure if you’re gonna last a month with him being like this.
“Gyuvin said you thought I was ugly,” he says. “That’s why you said no to the date.”
All the adoration you feel gets extinguished in an instant.
You have never heard a more blasphemous statement your entire life.
“I never said that!” you shriek. “That’s not true at all! I didn’t even know what you looked like until we met for that Hadong trip that day!”
Ricky winces at your sudden volume and you’re quick to simmer it down and apologize by hugging his head to your torso. “Oh god, I’m so sorry,” you say. “I turned down the date because your best friend has traumatized me with all the previous blind dates he’s tried setting up. Jaeryeong isn’t the only disaster I’ve experienced. Every single guy he’s set me up with has been trash, so I thought you’d be just like the rest too.”
Maybe this isn’t a conversation you should be having in the bathroom of his apartment, but you digress. Ricky unburies his head and looks up at you once more. “So, am I?”
Again. You’re going to fucking eat him one day. “No,” you cup his face. You’re perfect, you’re an angel.” Maybe if you’d given him and Gyuvin a shot that day, then maybe your first meeting wouldn’t have been as awkward— but either way, regardless of the situation, you’re pretty sure you’d still somehow eventually find yourself falling for this loser.
You lean down, ready to dip into a kiss, only to hear an alarming noise outside the bathroom door.
“Ricky! Why didn’t you tell us you were back?!”
Oh, for fuck’s sake.
You’re pretty happy that Ricky is quick to listen to your request because he immediately scrambles to his feet and tells you to stay inside the bathroom for the time being. “Hey, he’s not in his room,” you hear Gyuvin’s voice from outside, followed by Yujin suspecting that Jiwoong lied to them, followed by Gunwook saying that Ricky is definitely around, evidenced by his unmade bed and half-unpacked suitcase.
“I—I think I’d have to lock the door,” he mumbles to you, holding the doorknob and ready to leave. “What if they suddenly barge in?”
“It’s okay. You should go out before they actually barge in while we’re both still in here.”
Cue heavy knocks against the bathroom door. “Ricky! Are you in there?” Ricky grumbles out a swear and quickly slips out of the bathroom, a click on the knob, and you’re officially locked inside your boyfriend’s bathroom within the first twenty four hours of dating him.
Now, this is just great.
You have the privilege of eavesdropping into their reunion through the muffled audio on the other side of the door. “Who were you talking to?” you hear Gunwook ask.
“My...myself…” Ricky answers, and you feel excessively sorry for him so you decide to repent by cleaning up his bathroom. The problem is, even after you’ve finished cleaning, you’re still stuck inside because for some fucking reason, those three have no intentions of leaving.
“Hey, should we order some food?”
“Oh! Sounds good!”
“Let’s watch a movie, I’m bored.”
[ouricky: i’m so sorry they just won’t leave 😭]
You slump to the floor, back sliding down the shower glass. Maybe...maybe this is your karma for turning him down the first time and asking him to hide your relationship. Honestly, you should have known it wouldn’t be easy to keep things hidden from seven pairs of eyes (Jiwoong knows and has sworn secrecy in exchange of being his research lackey). It’s especially difficult considering you’re chronically touch-starved and must always have Ricky Shen around you to hold. So when you have another barbecue dinner at Mattew’s the weekend before your finals, and when Ricky— out of a newly formed habit— tries to greet you with a kiss on the face right in front of his fucking friends, you panic and end up shoving the poor boy, causing him to kiss the floor instead.
Your mouth is wide open. “Oh. Oh my god, I’m so sorry.” Hanbin and Hao hear the very distinct thunk and start questioning.
“Why...is he on the ground?” Hao looks down to see Ricky’s half-alarmed, half-confused face as he half-lifts his body off from the floor. Your face is burning. Oh god.
“He’s repenting,” you say through your teeth.
Ricky tries blinking away the shock.“...Yes...I made a mistake.”
You’re going to lock away your strawberry lip gloss from now on. It’s too hazardous. Hanbin tells you that “friends should get along” and asks you to help him set the table, leaving behind Ricky who’s being pulled back to his feet by Hao. When you see Jiwoong, who saw the whole thing, at the table looking at you with an insufferable look on his face, you flip him off.
“Are you in a bad mood today?” asks Hanbin as he passes you a stack of paper plates. “You keep butting heads with the boys.”
You’re speechless. You can’t even defend yourself if you wanted to so you resign to mumbling out a bitter apology and equally bitterly start arranging the plates on the table, much to Jiwoong’s pure and raw amusement.
When you guys start eating, you even make sure not to sit next to him. You are instead sitting next to Gyuvin, and Ricky is sitting in front of him. They’re both bickering over something again— chopstick-fighting against each other over the table while you half-listen to Matthew who’s sitting on your other side, complaining about Prof Shin and her impossible exam coverage as you clean off your plate.
“You took her class last year, right? Which lessons did she focus on?” he asks.
“Review the most recent ones. I think she just took five or six questions from the earlier lessons,” you reply, grabbing a slice of the gyukatsu you bought and heated up as a potluck, and absentmindedly place said slice on Ricky’s plate.
It gets quieter all of a sudden.
Ricky, Gyuvin, and Matthew are all looking at you— one more alarmed than the rest, and the realization drains all the blood out of your face.
“Yujin, you should try this too!” you try to play it off, placing another piece of gyukatsu on Yujin’s plate, who’s sitting right in front of you. And for good measure you do the same to all of the plates within your arms reach, all while swallowing down the desire to bury yourself into a hole, never to emerge ever again.
“Whoa, thanks.”
This whole secret relationship thing is harder than you thought, and Ricky is very visibly sulking that you’re giving away his current favorite dish to just about anyone. Looks like you have a grown man that needs to be coaxed back into affection tonight.
Jiwoong tells you that you should just come clean and stop making it harder for yourself. You firmly refuse because even though you are having a lot of trouble and even though you definitely want to kiss Ricky and his pretty face without the fear of getting walked in on by his friends who don’t know the concept of privacy, this set-up is still better than the bane of your existence, Kim Gyuvin, making fun of you until the day you die.
The said bane of your existence treats you all out to another dinner because he finally got his grade for his community development project. He says you have no choice but to come since you’re the reason he got an A.
It’s an easy dinner. You and Ricky even agreed to arrive at separate times with him tagging along with his hyungs, and you chaperoning the children while waiting for the rest of their arrival at the chinese restaurant. The problem comes when they arrive. Specifically, when Ricky arrives because for some god damned, unplanned reason, he arrives wearing the same distinctly floral-patterned short-sleeved button down you’re wearing.
“Oh.”
He doesn’t even fucking wear florals. Why did he decide to switch up today?
Never had you thought that the day would come where you’d be begging to bring back toxic masculinity, but here you are— mouth agape, aghast, and awkwardly standing from your seat at the round table because the shirts are way too obvious to be left unnoticed.
“Take it off,” you immediately demand. “This is absurd. Take it off and quit copying me.”
“Wow, are you two couple-shirting?” Taerae’s comment stirs a faint blush on Ricky’s cheeks. Why is this idiot blushing?
“I’m sorry to inform you, but Rik wears it better,” says Gyuvin.
You’re thankful that the same-shirt fiasco ended there. You try to ignore Ricky throughout dinner, but god damn it, Gyuvin is right— that shirt does look pretty damn fine tucked into his slacks and framing his broad shoulders like that and it’s making you angry.
Ricky catches you checking him out from across the table and you catch him subtly smirking. Oh, what a psycho. You’re not letting him off.
“I’m going out for a bit,” you announce, standing up quite loudly with how your chair scrapes against the floor. “Need fresh air. Be back in a bit.” Thankfully, they don’t stop you when you retreat to the cluster of grass and trees and plants tucked in one corner of the outside parking lot of the restaurant. When you take out your phone and prepare to send a message, the person you intended to message has already walked into your field of vision.
Ricky leaves the restaurant not long after you did, looking around the lot until his eyes land on your little corner, a sparkle in his eyes, and he jogs his way right over to you.
“Ah. Not today.“
You hold up a hand in front of your face and Ricky’s nose bumps into your palm when he leans in to get a bite of your lips.
He scrunches his face, wincing backward, confused. “You have wronged me tonight, Mr. Shim,” you say, dropping down your hand to complete your cross-armed display of beration. “You should reflect on your actions before trying anything funny.” All Ricky does is blink at you with those pretty brown eyes and no— you’re not going to give in. You’re biting down your tongue very hard so you don’t get swayed by those dangerous weapons (said pair of pretty brown eyes).
Ricky takes a step closer, or maybe he tugs you closer to him because you suddenly feel a pull on the belt loops of your trousers, face hovering just a few inches away from yours, pressing his lips together into a pout as he tries to get you to give in to his whims, but you are immovable. You are a mountain. You are this close to squeezing your eyes shut because he’s making it very hard for you right now to not kiss his stupid face.
When that doesn’t work, he resorts to his other weapon. That is, being sickeningly shameless.
“I didn’t mean to wear the same shirt as you,” he says, voice low. “Should I take it off?”
That’s it.
You hit his chest with a closed fist. “Ow!” Then you use the same hand to grab a fistful of that darned shirt and slam your lips against his because who are you kidding? You are not god’s strongest soldier. If Ricky bats his eyes at you and tells you to jump off a cliff, you might just do it.
When you hear him grunt into your mouth— something snaps. You pull him in deeper, other hand fixed on the back of his neck, the taste of strawberries mixing with spit and short breaths and the only time you’re letting him off is when you get lightheaded from the lack of fucking oxygen.
You pull back with a gasp. Ricky is flushed scarlet and his eyes are out of focus. “Wow, um. Uh.” You wipe off the smudged lip gloss from the edges of his mouth. He looks like he’s about to pass out.
“You two are so fucking disgusting.”
The sudden sound of Taerae’s voice feels like a bullet to the head.
Your face freezes. Your neck creaks, turning to the right, and you see Taerae standing a few feet away from you two, arms crossed with a face wound up in revulsion and sheer judgment and now you feel like the one passing out. You feel five years of your life getting scraped off against a sandpaper bed in real time. You want to fucking die. “H—hyung,” you hear Ricky say. “What—what are you doing here?”
“The guys are wondering where you two went, so I went out to check,” Taerae simply says, scrunching his nose before continuing. “I really did not need to see that.”
You feel the heat running up to your forehead. Oh god. Maybe you should’ve learned your lesson the first time you got caught making out with him in public. “I—” you start, a single syllable falling out of your throat before your mouth completely dries up. What are you even supposed to say in this situation? How do you explain to Taerae that this is not what it looks like— even thought this is exactly what it looks like?
“It’s alright. You don’t have to explain. I knew all this time that you two have a thing.”
“Haha.” You’re sweating. You’re sweating so bad. You feel Ricky squeezing your sweaty hand. God, you’re totally screwed. “What are you talking about, Tae?”
“I heard your conversation in the car on our trip to Hadong like two months ago.”
Well, shit.
“I woke up when Ricky nearly killed us all on the road. You two are the most unsubtle people I’ve ever met. Quit looking surprised. Do I have to mention the way you eyefuck him whenever you’re in the same space? Girl, you’re not fooling anyone.”
You peer at Ricky and he looks a little too happy to hear that. You’re dizzy, you’re nauseous, and you want to sew Taerae’s mouth shut right now. “Does…does anyone else know?” you ask, scared, and you tug Ricky out of your unhelpful corner and start heading back to the restaurant before someone else comes out to look for you.
“Well. I’m not so sure. They’ve never brought it up when you two aren’t around so I don’t think so,” Taerae replies, and you let out a sigh of relief. “I think Gunwook is onto you, but Gyuvin for sure doesn’t know.”
“Oh, thank god.”
Taerae raises a brow. “Why are you even keeping it from him? It’s not like he’s gonna disapprove or get mad. In fact, it’ll be his dream come true since he’s been trying to sell Ricky off since last year.”
The restaurant’s lights get brighter as you walk towards it. “I’m not hiding it because I’m scared he’ll get upset. I’m hiding it because he’s gonna rub it all in my fucking face and I have way too much pride to deal with that, thank you very much.” Ricky laughs. You shoot him a dirty look.
“Okay. I get it,” says Taerae. “You’re not a normal person either. No wonder you get along with everyone.”
“Hyung, that includes you too.”
“I know,” he huffs. You’re in front of the restaurant entrance now, and you make sure to wedge Taerae between you and Ricky for an extra safety layer. “I don’t think doing that is going to help, but whatever. This is none of my business, so you don’t have to worry about me telling anyone that you and Ricky are dating—”
“You and Ricky are dating?!”
Well, shit.
Maybe you’ve been out for too long. Because there’s suddenly seven people right in front of the restaurant doors, probably on their way to look for you, only for you to come walking back and getting absolutely fucked in the ass in the process.
Gyuvin was the one who made the very astute observation. His eyes are wide and his mouth is hanging open in disbelief. You shoot Taerae a look. He presses his lips together and feigns innocence. “Oh. What are you all doing out here?” he says. So much for not telling anybody.
“You!” Gyuvin ignores him to point an accusatory finger at you— “and you!” —doing the same with Ricky as the shock completely penetrates his facial muscles. You swallow, eyes flitting over at Ricky and the both of you share the same guilty look. “What do you mean you’re dating? What?! How?! Since when?!”
Gyuvin throwing a fit aside, what bothers you more is how completely unfazed the other six are— even Yujin. What the hell? Jiwoong is given. He looks like he’s having the time of his life. But why the hell is Matthew looking at Gyuvin like he’s about to laugh? “C’mon, man. They’ve been together since the first barbecue dinner obviously. How could you not notice?” he says, and now you’re just as alarmed as Gyuvin is.
“Seriously?!” your poor friend looks betrayed, but you’re in a state no better than him because what the fuck is Matthew saying? He’s way off the mark but have you seriously been this fucking transparent all this time?
“I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure they started dating when we went to the resort,” inserts Hanbin, and you’re absolutely at a loss. “The phone call, disappearing off together like tonight— the hotel room. I’m surprised you didn’t catch on, Gyu.” Hao agrees. Yujin nods and says “why else would you spend three hours just getting ready for a lame event,” and you want to melt into the ground.
You can’t do this anymore. You want to go home.
“No!” Gunwook butts in, refusing to be left out. “They’ve been together since that one night at Gyuvin hyung’s apartment! I bought noona a pack of candy for her cough and Rick immediately got jealous. They even showed up together. I’m telling you. They’ve been together for longer than you all think.”
At this point, you have no idea how to diffuse this situation. They’re all arguing about when or how you and Ricky got together. Jiwoong is laughing his fucking ass off. Taerae is trying his best to act like he’s had no part in this. Gyuvin looks like you’ve just twisted a knife into his back.
“Can...can I say something?”
It’s Ricky who speaks up and puts everything to a halt. They all look at him. You look at him. He clears his throat, slipping past Taerae so he can reclaim his rightful spot next to you, and makes your face flush a thousand degrees when he shyly hooks his pinky finger around yours and says, “You’re all wrong,” he says softly. “It’s only been sixteen days and twenty hours.”
Oh.
It’s quiet. You can’t look at him. You have your face turned down in a heated embarrassment. You physically cannot look at him and everyone else and the fact that none of them are saying anything is making things all the more worse.
Kill me. Just kill me now.
“Hyung, you’re so lame,” Yujin breaks the silence of dread. And just like that, they go on as if nothing just happened.
“Hey, did we split the bill?”
“Oh, Gyuvin paid for it all.”
“I’m riding in Bin hyung’s car!”
“Thanks for the meal! You three get home safe!”
You’re in a daze. These fuckers just gossiped about your ass and called it a day.
You’re not sure if you should be relieved or offended that they didn’t dwell any more on the topic of your relationship. They leave you behind with Gyuvin and Ricky, who’s legally obligated to drive you both home, and it’s so eerily quiet that you want to die. “I’ll—I’ll sit in the back,” you say, oddly reminiscent of your first meeting with Ricky, and Gyuvin simply sits in front without speaking a word to you. You fear he might actually be upset that you didn’t tell him.
Oh no. You make eye contact with Ricky through the rearview mirror as he starts driving. Do something. What should I do? I don’t know! I don’t know what to do either! and you cut your conversation short the moment you hear Gyuvin scratching his throat clear, and you jolt and straighten yourself in your seat like a guilty convict on the way to the station.
You end up not doing or saying anything until you finally reach your apartment. Ricky attempts to get out of the car to walk you to your door, but you stop him with one look because you feel bad enough as is to leave Gyuvin in the car alone. “Thanks. You two get home safe,” you say before shutting the door. The moment you close it, however, the passenger door clicks open in its place.
“Hold on.”
Gyuvin is out of the car, and you stop in your tracks to turn around and face him, pressing down your lips together because god, you feel so fucking bad. He should be making fun of you right now, not looking all serious! He should be gloating and rubbing it in your face that you should’ve just taken his offer!
He’s got his arms crossed and looks disappointed. You see Ricky peeking out from the rolled down window in concern, ready to step in in case things get ugly. “I knew you’d be into him,” Gyuvin finally says. “I told you, he’d be different.”
Wait. Wait a minute.
Suddenly, he’s grinning again. A stupid fucking devious grin and you feel your soul escaping from your body. “Did I scare you?”
Oh no. You’re not dealing with this shit, you’re absolutely not dealing with this shit at all.
“I’m going inside. Good night.”
“You should’ve just taken my offer the first time!”
“Shut up. Shut the fuck up.”
“And you should’ve told me you changed your mind. Maybe if you did, you wouldn’t have had to wait for two months before you started dating him—”
“I’m not listening, I’m not listening!”
“This is what you get for not trusting me!”
“Leave me alone!” you shriek, stomping up to your building entrance while Gyuvin happily chases you down, and you struggle to press the right numbers on the keypad so you hiss out a swear.
“No way. This is too good. I’m telling your mom about this,” he grins. You want to cry. “Oh, and I can take the bus from here. Ricky, come out of hiding and help your girlfriend get inside her building! She looks like she’s having trouble opening the door.”
It’s almost ridiculous how the urge to throw yourself onto Ricky overtakes you the moment he shows up, but you’re not giving Gyuvin another reason to make fun of you until the day you die. You tell Gyuvin to fuck off and he tells you to not have too much fun before finally going away. You’re tired. You’re absolutely tired, and you let out a groan into Ricky’s chest and let yourself sink into his warmth the moment you’re sure Gyuvin has left the premises.
“It’s open,” he says, prompting you to get inside but you don’t budge.
“Your friend is annoying,” you muffle into his shirt— the damned floral shirt that started tonight’s cataclystic mess.
“He’s your friend too.” You let out a grunt. Ricky soothes circles on your back and lets you throw your silent tantrum a little longer. “Gyuvin is right though. You should’ve just said yes the first time— ow!”
Ricky’s appalled confusion when you land a hit on his chest almost makes you feel a little better. The problem is, you did the same thing earlier and pulled him into a scandalous kiss immediately after, so he’s once again staring down at your lips like he’s waiting for it. Holy shit. Your psych class didn’t warn you about this. This is a little insane.
Your powers are too strong. The power of strawberries is too strong. But you’re not thinking straight right now, emotions at a high after the events that unfolded— so you don’t think and give him exactly what he wants, ending the night with the sweet taste of tart, and another breathless exhale brushing over his now swollen lips. “I think I’ve brainwashed you,” you say in between bated breaths. “Maybe it’s not me you like. Maybe it’s the candy and the strawberries. You should cut off on the sweets.”
“That’s not true,” he grunts, pressing in another kiss, pulling away with his teeth grazing your bottom lip with a tug. “I liked you from when Gyuvin told me about you. I like you. I like this.”
Well, that’s one way to drive a woman mad. Gyuvin was right. Maybe you should’ve taken that first chance when you had it, but it doesn’t really matter anymore because either way— you’re certain that the outcome would be the same.
“Oh, what the fuck? Gyuvin just texted.” The door is still still left hanging open, and you’re still pressed up against him when you look down to check your phone. “That son of a bitch— he sent a photo of us just now to the group chat. Is he still here?”
“Leave it.”
Ricky pulls you back when you turn and try to look for the nosy bastard who’s probably snooping around. He tips up your chin. “One more,” he says, leaning in for yet another kiss as if your lips are the candies you always give him in bulk, like he can’t function without it anymore.
“You’re getting greedy,” you say.
“You keep spoiling me,” he mumbles, feeling his lips graze over yours for the nth time. “You make me lose control of myself.”
Whether you met him earlier or later, you’re pretty sure you’d still end up falling horrendously for Ricky Shen. And you’d still end up doing all the same dumb things you did just to get to kiss him like this over and over again.
the psychology of strawberries.
© hannie-dul-set, 2023.
#ricky shen x reader#zb1 ricky x reader#zerobaseone x reader#zb1 x reader#shen quanrui x reader#zb1 imagines#zerobaseone imagines#shen ricky x reader#zb1 x you#zerobaseone x you#ricky shen x you#zb1 scenarios#zb1 fluff
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pairings: ricky shen x f! reader
warnings: daddy kink + cervix fucking + womb fucking + overstimulation + oral
💌: everyone shut up im hatewatching fifty shades of grey and i HATE christian grey but im thinking of lifestyle dom ricky 😵💫 also had lifestyle dom jay thoughts but ive posted bdsm jay hc’s a while before ps if this is sloppy pls dont mind it ok im sleepy rn
ricky shen is rarely ever told no. he’s used to getting what he wants, when he wants it. his word is law and no one goes against him.
when he meets you he feels an intense need to protect you. to spoil you with lavish gifts and please you every day. there’s nothing he wants more than to be used for your pleasure, abiding by your wants and needs.
he takes his time getting you accustomed to a life where you never have to lift a finger, don’t even need to think because that’s what daddy is for. he’s there to take care of his princess and make sure you’re happy.
when it comes to sex ricky only cares about making you cum. spends hours between your legs, his skilled tongue fucking your tight hole as you fist his hair, fingers pulling at the locks making him moan from the pain, his hips grinding into the mattress in a desperate attempt to calm his aching dick.
when he parts with your pussy there’s strings of saliva and your arousal connecting his mouth and chin to your cunt, the sight making you squeeze your eyes shut in embarrassment. “look at me, princess” he orders, “look at daddy when ‘m fuckin’ you” his swallows thickly, cock throbbing when you shyly meet his gaze.
he fills you up in one quick thrust, his length nestled in your warms walls, the tip piercing your womb. he grunts deeply while driving his hips into yours, the stimulation too much for his sensitive dick making his pace falter for a second before he collects himself, focused on making you cum for the nth time that night.
you completely fall apart on his dick, overstimulation making your mind go blank as you cum around him, rings of translucent cream forming around his cock. he cums not long after, emptying his balls deep inside your womb because you look so pretty like this, mouth hanging open and your tits bouncing while your tight cunt sucks him in, completely ditzy from the feeling of him slamming into your cervix.
#this was supposed to be supes sweet but it turned smutty…sorry#zb1#ricky shen#zb1 x reader#zb1 smut#ricky shen x reader#ricky shen smut#💌.daddy kink#💌.cervix fucking#💌.womb fucking#💌.overstimulation#💌.oral
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you and i, dancing in the moonlight !
pairing: zb1 maknae line x fem!reader
warnings: i think there are none, english isn't my first language!!!
genre: fluff
synopsis: relationship dynamics with the zb1 boys
notes: i had matthew in it too but i hated it so it got deleted 😁 i literally have no idea what i wrote here. read this with your eyes closed and only open them to like and reblog okay? okay thank you🫶 ALSO I NEED TO UPDATE MY MASTERLIST BC I CHANGED MY USER😭 life is so hard😔
SHEN QUANRUI - she fell first, he fell harder
falling for ricky wasn't hard. he's handsome, nice and sweet towards everyone including you, he worked hard and was just straight up lovely. you were in the same class, but you never really talked with each other- well, that was until you two got assigned to do an assignment together. falling for you was easy. after spending some time together and getting to know each other, ricky found himself head over heels in love with you. with each day his feelings grew and he could spend hours thinking and talking about you, to the dismay of gyuvin who had to listen to all of rickys rants about you. as gyuvin likes to call it, ricky is obsessed with you.
KIM GYUVIN - gf with cute laugh x bf who makes her laugh just to hear it
gyuvin liked being funny. making friends laugh was always a great feeling and surprisingly a big ego boost too. that was until he met you. the first time he made a joke around you and you let out a laugh, something in him changed forever. gyuvin now loves being funny. by being funny he manages to make you laugh multiple times a day, even when you're feeling sick or upset. there's nothing he adores as much as the sound of your laughter- and he's ready to make a fool of himself at any given time just to hear it again and again and again. he loves seeing you happy more than anything, so please let him make you happy.
PARK GUNWOOK - obvious x painfully oblivious
getting gunwook to understand you like him is an unexpectedly hard task. how could somebody so smart like him not get what you want from him? everyone else around you knew. everybody knew that you liked him: you couldn't stop staring at him during classes or lunch, your eyes lit up whenever he entered a room, you laughed at all of his (even unfunny) jokes, you were the first one to offer if he needed something and you'd always go ask him first if you needed help. you had to literally spell it out for him in order to understand it and only then he asked you in a shy and suprised tone, "wait, you like me too?"
HAN YUJIN - warm hands x cold hands
the first time you held hands with yujin was still one of your favorite memories with him. a wave of sudden confidence washed over yujin and he did what he wanted to do for some time now; holding your hand. you looked at him with a suprised expression on your face and he looked at you equally suprised for some reason. "what…" you asked, unsure of what was going on on his mind. "why are your hands so cold???" yujin countered. he quickly took your other hand and wrapped his warm hand around it, telling you to please let him warm up your freezing fingers. after months of being together your hands are still always cold while his are always warm. and he still uses the same excuse of 'warming you up' whenever he just wants to hold your hand.
#zb1#zerobaseone#zb1 x reader#zb1 headcanons#zb1 reactions#zb1 scenarios#han yujin x reader#park gunwook x reader#kim gyuvin x reader#ricky x reader#shen quanrui x reader#ricky shen x reader#shen quanrui#kim gyuvin#park gunwook#han yujin#zerobaseone fluff#zerobaseone reactions#zerobaseone x reader#zerobaseone scenarios#zerobaseone imagines#boys planet
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only you. ⎯ ricky shen
pairing: ricky x gn!reader
genre: high school au, i hate everyone but you trope, fluff (sorta ?), friends but both have a crush on each other LOL
word count: 1.2k
note: this is like my first one shot or whatever on here so it isn't the best i'm sorry 😭
Ricky and (Y/N) were currently seniors in high school, with only months left to graduate. But the two have always been friends since childhood.
Sometime around middle school, (Y/N) had developed feelings for Ricky, but they swore to their self that they would never confess to him. But little did they know that Ricky also developed feelings, but just a little later.
Since he had developed feelings, he became a lot more protective over (Y/N). They never really thought much of it since they thought that's just the way he became as he got older. They were inseparable, so (Y/N) thought it was just normal.
"(Y/N), are you gonna come eat lunch with us?" A female classmate asked, she had light brown hair that was put in a ponytail with bangs, she wore round glasses and had dark brown eyes. She sat in front of (Y/N).
"Uh..." (Y/N) quickly looked at Ricky, who sat at the other side of the classroom. His head resting on his hand as he stared at them and their classmate with what seemed like a serious yet dark look on his face, like as if he was glaring at them.
(Y/N) turned back at their classmate, and slowly shook their head, awkwardly smiling, "...Sorry, I'm skipping lunch today," (Y/N) lied. "I need to study since my grades aren't that good."
That was a completely obvious lie. (Y/N) was one of the students with the highest grades in the entire school. "Ah, okay," Her classmate nodded. "Maybe we could hang out after school sometime?"
"Sure," (Y/N) responded, not thinking much of it. "I'll see you later." They got up from their desk and walked over to where Ricky was sitting. That same dark look was still on his face.
"What was that?" Ricky asked with a deep voice. "Nothing," (Y/N) shrugged as they leaned on the desk that was next to Ricky's. "Nothing?" Ricky scoffed. "She isn't even friends with you, why would she ask you to have lunch with her?"
"Maybe so she wouldn't have to eat lunch alone?" (Y/N) responded, giving a somewhat reasonable answer to his question. They looked at him with a puzzled look on their face, "Why do you care about who I hang out with?"
Ricky didn't answer, he just stood up from his desk and grabbed (Y/N)'s wrist with a grip that wasn't so tight. "C'mon, let's get out of here."
They both walked out of the classroom and were walking in the hallway, with some students eating lunch with their friends and others messing around. Ricky didn't let go of (Y/N)'s wrist and only held it tighter as they walked.
One male student who was walking by noticed (Y/N), he immediately grinned as he saw them, "Oh, hi (Y/N)!" They stopped in their tracks, making Ricky stop as well. "Hi Gyuvin!" (Y/N) grinned back, looking up at him. He was the same height as Ricky, or maybe just a bit taller. "How have you been?"
"I've been okay, I guess," Gyuvin responded, his hands now in the pockets of his pants. "You?" (Y/N) responded back with a simple "I've been okay too."
"Oh, hey Ricky," Gyuvin noticed the tall blond figure, his grin slightly faded. "...Hi," Ricky responded in a monotone, his eyes now staring at him.
Gyuvin pursed his lips for a moment when he noticed that Ricky was holding (Y/N)'s wrist. Ricky had a cold and dark look on his face, his eyebrows were slightly furrowed and his stare was so strong that it could probably burn a hole right through Gyuvin.
"Do you have something going on?" Gyuvin asked, now with a somewhat serious tone. "Why-" (Y/N) asked confusingly until they remembered that Ricky still hasn't let go of their wrist. "Oh."
"Why do you ask?" Ricky sneered. Gyuvin scoffed, looking back at him, "What? Am I not allowed to ask something?" (Y/N) looked at Ricky and then at Gyuvin, noticing the now growing tension between the two.
"It's none of your business," Ricky spat. "Get lost." Gyuvin chuckled at his reaction, "Wow, I just asked a question and you got so fucking defensive." Before Ricky was about to say something back, (Y/N) yanked their wrist from Ricky's grip and quickly walked away, leaving Gyuvin and making Ricky follow behind them.
(Y/N) was a bit annoyed with Ricky, he was always so mean and cold to everyone but them. Not that they didn't like it, though. If anything, it felt so nice that there was someone who prioritized them.
The only bad thing about it is how he was with their friends, especially with Gyuvin, (Y/N) was convinced that he saw him as a threat or something.
As Ricky finally caught up with (Y/N), they both exited out of the school building and were now walking to the opposite side of it, Ricky's hand went in his left pocket and pulled out an ignition key for his motorcycle. He always parked it behind the building, since nobody (including the staff) goes there.
As they finally arrived to the other side of the building, Ricky's motorcycle was parked underneath a tree, with two helmets on the seat. There were two since Ricky always takes (Y/N) to school.
"Where are we going?" (Y/N) asked as Ricky inserted the key in the ignition of the motorcycle and turned it, the engine turned on and immediately made a roaring sound.
Ricky grabbed his helmet and sat on the motorcycle, as he put on his helmet, he noticed that (Y/N) was just staring at him. He smirked, "What? Are you checking me out or something?"
(Y/N) felt their face get warm as he said that, they quickly shook their head as they grabbed their helmet and sat behind him. "Ugh, never," (Y/N) responded with a disgusted tone as they put on their helmet.
Despite of what they said, they felt butterflies in their stomach as they wrapped their arms around Ricky's waist.
Ricky drove off immediately, now exiting the campus. Even though the school day wasn't over yet, he had no intentions of him and (Y/N) coming back.
Now on the road, (Y/N) held him a bit more tighter as they asked him again, "Where are we going?" Ricky responded as he made a right turn on the road, "We're getting lunch."
(Y/N) sighed, resting their head on Ricky's back.
(Y/N) and Ricky arrived to a fast food restaurant that wasn't so far away from where Ricky lived. After Ricky parked his motorcycle, (Y/N) grabbed their backpack and pulled out their phone to check the time as they both got off.
They immediately gasped as they saw the time, they looked at Ricky with a worried expression on their face, "There's only ten minutes left until class starts! We need to go back!" Ricky smiled at their reaction, finding it adorable, "Who said that we're gonna go back? Let's just spend some time together."
"But- Why?" (Y/N) frowned. "We don't need to ditch!" Ricky sighed as he wrapped an arm around (Y/N)'s shoulder. "It's only for a day though, you'll be fine."
"I just wanted to spend some time with you only," Ricky spoke, making (Y/N) have butterflies in their stomach again. "You're the only person I enjoy being around with."
#04sqnri#zerobaseone#zb1#zb1 x reader#zb1 imagines#zb1 ricky#zb1 scenarios#ricky shen#shen ricky#shen quanrui#ricky zerobaseone#ricky x reader#ricky shen x reader#zerobaseone imagines#zerobaseone x reader#kpop#x reader#x gn reader
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≡;- ꒰ °𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐅𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐒 ꒱
a shen quanrui au
⟡ ֺ 𓂂 SYNOPSIS ⋆ let's get this, yoon yn is unnoticeable, and he would love for it to remain that way. in a school where 'status' is the only thing that matters, he'd rather be the person in the shadows compared to being the person in the limelight. so why would shen quanrui, the rich, handsome, literal heartthrob shen quanrui ever be interested in him? to him, it seems to all be some elaborate joke, and.. it technically kind of is.
⟡ ֺ 𓂂 PAIRING ⋆ shen quanrui x male!reader
⟡ ֺ 𓂂 GENRE ⋆ high school au, social media au, frenemies (?) to lovers, fluff, very much angst, crack, comedy (i guess?), rich popular kid with a huge ego x quiet kid whose annoyed by his shit
⟡ ֺ 𓂂 WARNINGS ⋆ swearing, kys/kms jokes, bullying, fighting (both verbal and physical), sexual joke, high school hierarchies, literally just high school in general, violence, jokes about mental illness, mentions of smoking, anton of RIIZE as yn's fc, warnings will be added to each chapter!!
⟡ ֺ 𓂂 FEATURING ⋆ zerobaseone members. enhypen (jungwon). tiot (junhyeon). p1harmony (jongseob). maybe some original characters.
⟡ ֺ 𓂂 TAGLIST ⋆ open ^^!! you can send an ask or just comment if you wanna be added :))
⟡ ֺ 𓂂 STATUS ⋆ discontinued.
⟡ ֺ 𓂂 PROFILES ⋆ gyuvin haters | toaster bath
⟡ ֺ 𓂂 TABLE OF CONTENTS ꜜ
˖ ݁ 𓂃 zero ⋆ early dementia
˖ ݁ 𓂃 one ⋆ $50
˖ ݁ 𓂃 two ⋆ gorgeous men that i wanna punch
˖ ݁ 𓂃 three ⋆ STOP!! (being gay)
˖ ݁ 𓂃 four ⋆ non-jenos dhmu
˖ ݁ 𓂃 five ⋆ the psych ward
˖ ݁ 𓂃 six ⋆ defamatory information
˖ ݁ 𓂃 seven ⋆ nct from wish
˖ ݁ 𓂃 eight ⋆ teen angst
˖ ݁ 𓂃 nine ⋆ yeojun's interlude
˖ ݁ 𓂃 ten ⋆ as told by a straight man 👍
˖ ݁ 𓂃 eleven ⋆ #JUNYNENDGAME
˖ ݁ 𓂃 …
#⊹ ࣪˖ not friends#shen quanrui#ricky shen#zerobaseone#zb1#zb1 smau#zb1 ricky#zerobaseone ricky#zerobaseone imagines#zerobaseone drabbles#zerobaseone scenarios#zb1 imagines#zb1 drabbles#zb1 scenarios#ricky imagines#ricky shen x reader#𑁍 ࣪˖ 𓂃 isa's works!
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soulmates unfortunately series [the prologue]
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genre: romance/fluff with adult themes
pairings: reader x park gunwook, reader x kim taerae, reader x seok matthew, reader x shen ricky.
word count: 3.2k
warnings: drinking, character death, nsfw mention (no actual smut), underage puppy love, and other adult themes. rating is 16+.
ABOUT. here's the thing about soulmates, once you meet the one that is meant for you, you start to age. the biological clock starts to tick, and you are no longer a fresh faced 20 year old. years go by, and next thing you know it, you've grown old and wrinkly – right next to the love of your life. y/n hated this concept.
y/n has had many soulmates in her lifetime. chapter zero explores the soulmates that came before she stopped believing in the concept entirely.
⋆୨♡୧ series masterlist/about the series. ⋆୨♡୧
You used to believe in the concept of soulmates.
It could be a beautiful thing, really. In theory, you build your entire future with this person, remaining young until you meet the one that is meant for you. In this world, your biological clock remains frozen – physical and mental aging included.
Life doesn’t start unless you have your other half along with you. Your soulmate.
Growing up, you hear and experience multiple love stories around you. You are taught to look forward to this life changing moment, watching out for the tell-tale signs of your other half. Your chest tightens around them, pulling you closer, drawing you in. Others say it’s as if the universe is physically trying to draw you closer together. But you liken it more to a ‘gut feeling’; There’s no other way to describe it, you just know.
That’s how you felt about Park Gunwook – the first boy you ever came to love. The first soulmate.
PARK GUNWOOK. TWELVE YEARS OLD. YEAR 1920.
Gunwook lived in the same farm town as you, and everyone knew him.
He was the favorite son in his family. He wasn’t the eldest – but he was reliable even from a very young age. He ran errands for the neighbors often and was kind to all the children and elderly. If anyone needed some help with carrying hay bale, starting a fire, or cleaning out the barn, Park Gunwook was the go-to, in which he happily carried out his duties with a large smile on his face.
You first met on a sunny day when you had trouble with your farmwork chores. You were struggling to wrangle the pigs back to their pen, tripping over the mud, and eventually falling into a large puddle.
He must have been watching over from a far, as the next thing you know an, arm is outstretched to you. “Need some help, Y/N?”
You look up to see Gunwook, and you take his hand so he can hoist you up from the mud puddle.
“You know my name?” you ask innocently. Gunwook was fifteen at the time, and you, only twelve.
“Silly girl, of course I know you.” he says as he fixes the bangs on your forehead, temporarily disheveled by the fall. At that moment, you felt it. The undeniable tug at your chest, drawing you to him. You had a feeling he was your soulmate, and your cheeks warmed at the thought.
You reckon he felt the same. For as the years went by, he stayed as a close friend to you.
When you reached fifteen years old, marrying age, he started to see you more often.
He would ask you to join him as he saddled up the horses by the stable, and you’d ask him to accompany you as you picked flowers by the meadow. You often talked about your dreams of seeing the world, leaving this small town and meeting new people. You dreamt of seeing all sorts of buildings, appreciating all kinds of art, trying new food, and experiencing new music. He always listened to you in awe, smiling at how passionate you become when talking about your dreams. He knows it’s your favorite thing to talk about.
Gunwook on the other hand, spoke about inheriting the farm land from his father. He excitedly spoke about starting a little bed and breakfast inn where he could increase tourism in the area, allowing other folk to come experience the beauty of farm life. He once showed you the blueprint sketches he had of his proposed business venture, and with a gummy smile on his face, pointed to a house right by the meadow where your favorite flowers resided, “and here’s where we would live” he said. his cheeks were flushed red, nervous to see your reaction.
It was beautiful. He had promised to build it for you, confirming that he too, felt the same about you. That the both of you were meant to be together.
“I know you’ve always wanted to get out of here. So I’ll save up for it, and we can both go on a large adventure someday” he reassures you.
But you pictured the little farmhouse by the meadow where the two of you would live, running the bed and breakfast, and caring for the horses, pigs, and sheep. You suddenly didn’t mind having this quaint little life at all.
“It’s perfect, Gunwook. I love it.” You reassured him too.
Sadly, these were the last words you shared with him. The wedding never happened, the house was never built, and you were unable to experience being loved by Gunwook like you were meant to.
Gunwook died the next morning, at the age of 18 years old. He was helping out the local lumberjack with a project in the forest, and fell victim to a horrible accident. The townspeople and your family spared you of the gory details, so you never got the full story of how he passed away.
All you remember from that day was waking up and immediately feeling an emptiness in your heart. The tug at your chest was gone, a confirmation that he was dead. You cried.
You wondered if the universe was giving you a sign, an out from the farm town life that you dreamed of leaving. And you couldn’t help but think: what a sick, twisted, way to communicate, universe.
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You tried to continue living life as you once knew it. But everything in this small town reminded you of Gunwook. You’d often visit the meadow where your forever house with him was meant to stand, journalling or speaking to the wind – hoping Gunwook would hear you.
Your family let you grieve for two whole years, allowing the pain to fully wash over you so that you can learn to move on. Gunwook was your soulmate, everyone knew that. And at that time, the concept of having more than one soulmate was unheard of. You had already lost yours, and there was no way the universe would have another one for you.
You weren’t exactly a widow, so you would have to live life as an unmarried woman – which was difficult in that day and age. This is why your father and mother brought up the prospect of arranged marriage, even if it’s just for the sake of living comfortably. You agreed.
KIM TAERAE. SEVENTEEN YEARS OLD. YEAR 1925.
You came to know Kim Taerae at seventeen years old, when your father was sorting out marriage candidates. He had visited a local psychic who had given a shortlist of all the eligible bachelors in the area who would be the perfect match for you – insisting that ‘your soulmate would be one of the names on the list’.
You would have called her a quack if the list didn’t include a certain Kim Taerae, a young gentleman three years older, who had a voice of an angel. You officially met at a chaperoned luncheon, with both your parents and his. He was soft, kind hearted, and had a gentle nature to him.
You met several times after that before your families settled the marriage agreements. You didn’t mind marrying Taerae, in fact, you were scared to admit that he might actually be your soulmate too after all. You felt it during your first few meetings without your parents, the familiar pull at your chest. Eventually soothed by his singing and soft hums he would whisper into your hair.
“Do you think we could be soulmates, Y/N?” he asked you one evening, you were both sitting on the porch of your family home with the stars as your audience. While he strongly believed you were his soulmate, you had a hard time. You weren’t sure if the universe allowed such a thing.
“I don’t know, Taerae. I wonder if the universe is kind enough to gift you as my soulmate” you truly meant your words. He knew about your trauma with losing Gunwook, and would often accompany you as you visited his grave. He’s been patient with you, and was content with spending the rest of his life loving you, even if you weren’t soulmates. You felt the same way.
That year, Taerae turned 21 years old. He was a year older, no longer frozen at 20. Likewise, you turned 18 years old. He got his blood tested to ensure the aging wasn’t a placebo effect, that there was indeed biological change.
Everyone celebrated Taerae’s aging, the confirmation that the both of you were truly soulmates. You couldn’t believe it at first, but considered it as the universe’s way of saying ‘sorry’ for the loss of your first one.
Taerae was excited to build a future with you. He even bought a house for the two of you at the capital of the country, and you were both eager to experience city life as a married couple. But that day never came. He died from a tragic car accident, a drunk driver crashed into his vehicle when he was on his way to see you.
You woke up that day feeling like you were stuck in a recurring nighmare. You were drenched in sweat, and let out the most gut-wrenching scream of grief. You despised how this was all too familiar to you, the loss of the comforting tug at your chest. Taerae was dead, and you wailed for him.
The car company gave you a free vehicle as part of the grievance. As if a free car would cure the immense grief and anger you had been feeling. To make matters worse, the community mocked you with a new nickname: soulmate killer. Because the mere idea of being your soulmate was an automatic death sentence.
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You hated the universe. You were angry at its seeming generosity, rather cruelty of losing two soulmates at only 18 years old.
After Taerae died, your family felt anguish for you. They had immense sympathy, and let you do whatever you wanted to do. You spent another two years grieving Taerae. Though you mostly stayed at home, staring into empty space. You still visited the meadow, this time with a guitar in hand to strum familiar melodies as you thought about the two men you loved. You felt that it was only fair to Taerae that way – if you had grieved him the same way you grieved Gunwook.
It took you years before you could even feel like yourself again.
In 1930, you would have been 23 years old. But you still look, act, and feel like a 20 year old. As if the universe was mocking your unfortunate situation. As if aging was a reward and a privilege you receive after meeting the love of your life. As if the universe was blissfully unaware that you have been ripped away from the opportunity thanks to its cruelty.
You revisited your journal entries from when you were fifteen, talking about your big dream of seeing the world. You felt cursed, and you were determined to make the most of the seemingly short life you would have. After all, if your soulmates kept dying on you – who is to say that you aren’t next?
So you took your free car, and set off on a road trip. And that’s when you met Seok Matthew, a man who sadly, understood you a little too well.
SEOK MATTHEW. TWENTY YEARS OLD. 1930.
Matthew’s soulmate also died in a car accident earlier that year. His chosen method of grieving was to travel the world – discovering new places and meeting all sorts of people. That’s how the two of you met, line dancing somewhere in the south america.
Matthew wasn’t your soulmate, you knew that for sure. But you spent the next five years traveling the world together, making love in cities he took you, and living life as reckless twenty somethings. With him, you were finally able to live out your dream.
As you lay naked in the arms of Matthew in a hotel somewhere in Paris, he asked you “what if one day, one of us meets our soulmate?”. You adjust yourself to see him more clearly, fingers softly running through his hair. The thought has crossed your mind before, more for Matthew’s sake than your own.
“It’s been five years Matt, I highly doubt I’m going to meet anyone else. But you might.” you try to foster a small smile, reassuring him he could still have a chance. Matthew has only lost one soulmate, while you’ve lost two.
“No, I’d never leave you.” He sits up, a large pout on his face. His stubbornness amuses you.
“That’s what you say now, sweetie.” you laugh as you kiss his pout away. "and you know it's probably for the best, people in my hometown call me soulmate killer, you know?" you try to play it off as a joke.
"soulmate killer? that's cruel. it's not your fault y/n. you know that right?" Matthew's brows are furrowed. You smile as you hold his face, releasing the tension in his forehead by massaging his eyebrows with your thumbs.
That night, he promised to stay in your life no matter what.
But this promise turned hazy when on one of your trips to South Asia, he met the actual love of his life. You didn’t protest when he came back to your dingy hotel, head down and in tears. You didn’t argue as you watched him pack his bags, for a trip that you weren’t going to be part of. And you didn’t push him away when he asked to kiss you one last time before he left. You let him go, and you sobbed out of loneliness.
Kudos to Matthew, he did keep his promise. He sent letters every few months to your PO Box, but you didn’t have the heart to open all of it. Last you’ve heard, they had baby number one on the way – and that was your last straw. You changed PO Box addresses shortly after that, unbeknownst to Matthew, who still sent you letters every year until his eventual death.
This was the first man in your life to have a happy ending. He died of old age, with 3 children and 10 grandchildren.
Something changed in the five years you spent with Matthew. More than falling in love with a person who wasn’t your soulmate, you fell in love with the world. You could never, ever imagine yourself going back to the domesticated life at home. The years after Matthew turned you into a cynic, and you didn’t believe in love anymore either.
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PRESENT DAY. 2023.
“Got anything that’ll get me drunk in the next ten minutes?”
You plopped down on the bar stool, haphazardly placing your purse next to you. The bartender is eyeing you strangely, as if in disbelief that you’re even inside their establishment.
You sigh and pull out your identification card, a laminated piece of junk that tells you how old you really are. Scratch that, how old you are meant to be. He picks up the card and raises it up next to your face, comparing the woman in the picture to your face. It reminds you that you need to get it renewed…again. After all, the last time you updated your photo was sometime in the 80s. True enough, your ID card reflects a version of you with big hair and large colorful earrings. You don’t blame him for wanting to double check, contrasting the all black ensemble you have currently.
“Listen pal, I just buried my daughter today. I would appreciate it if you could get on with it”. You might not blame him, but you are impatient.
He slides your ID card back and pours you a whiskey on the rocks. “Sorry for your loss ma’am” he solemnly extends his condolences as he places your drink in front of you. You pick it up, raising it and nodding a “thank you” before taking a large gulp. It burns.
You outlived your daughter. And you wonder if you’ve been going about life in all the wrong ways. Atop the alcohol display at the bar is a small TV, flashing a report about a young woman named Somi who was murdered and found dead at her home – leaving her husband a widower. The news station flashed a photo of the blonde couple, sharing that they had just gotten married a week ago. She was beautiful. A shame.
As the news report slowly drowns you, your mind confronts you with the memories of your past soulmates and lovers.
PARK GUNWOOK. The soulmate you never got the chance to fully love, and died in the year 1923.
KIM TAERAE. The soulmate who was your second chance at life, and passed away in 1928.
SEOK MATTHEW. Who helped you live out your dreams from 1930 to 1935.
KIM JIWOONG. A man you married in the year 1940, who died from alcohol poisioning that same year.
ZHANG HAO. The one who gave you your daughter in 1952, but unfortunately fell victim to a house fire.
SUNG HANBIN. The husband that raised your daughter like his very own. But experienced a very fatal heart attack on the day of your daughter’s wedding in 1973.
Of course, there were others – flings and boytoys along the way. None of which were worth reminiscing about, except maybe for Kim Gyuvin.
At that moment, a tall man enters the bar and decides to take a seat next to you. His presence effectively drew you out from the thoughts circling your brain. Other than the fact that he too, is dressed in all black – you feel a deeper sense of similarity. Like kindred spirits, you recognize broken souls like yours. You order two more rounds of the whiskey the bartender gave you.
“I heard about your late wife in the news, I’m sorry for your loss.” You feign sympathy and slide the glass to the man next to you.
He looks taken aback at first, but accepts your offer. Now facing you, he raises his drink to you. You do the same. He’s strikingly handsome, with platinum hair and dark eyebrows. You also don’t miss that he’s dressed in Yves Saint Laurent from head to toe. He takes a peek at your ID card still laying on the table, making sure to catch your name.
“Next one’s on me, Y/N” he says, taking another swig at his whiskey, finishing his glass. He calls on the bartender, and buys an entire bottle for the two of you. The bartender returns his credit card, with the name ‘Shen Quanrui’ engraved.
“Thank you Quanrui, that’s very generous of you.”
He puts on a small smile, almost no one calls him by his legal name. “You can call me Ricky” he says as he pours into your glass.
“Alright Ricky. Here’s to life.” you raise up. It feels inappropriate to be clinking glasses on the day you buried your daughter, but you figured you could make an exemption. Ricky too, seemed to be going through the same thing with his late wife.
“To life.” he responds, tapping his glass against yours.
Just two broken souls who had lost someone important in their lives, drinking to fill the hollowness. You almost don’t feel the familiar bloom in your chest, tugging at your entire being like a magnet trying to find its other half. And if you do feel it, you pretend it’s the whiskey burning its place in your heart.
RICKY SHEN. TWENTY YEARS OLD. 2023. The man who you assume to be your next soulmate.
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star-crossed ✩°｡ ⋆⸜
two. i
masterlist | previous | next
synopsis ↯
in which you are paired up with ricky shen, who fully convinced himself that you purposely became his partner in order to date him.
࣪𖤐 𖦹 ༘⋆⊹ nara’s note:
JUST TO REMIND YOU GUYS… when y/n sounds fluent on text its cuz she’s texting in her first language which is why she sounds awkward when she’s talking w ricky!!! also we love delulu ricky 😍
#⭐️.starcrossed#zb1 au#zb1 ricky#zb1 x reader#han yujin#ricky#ricky au#ricky scenarios#ricky shen#ricky x reader#shen ricky#quanrui#shen quanrui#quanrui smau#shen quanrui smau#ricky smau#zb1 smau#quanrui x reader#ricky shen x reader#zb1 ricky imagines#zb1 yujin#zb1#zerobaseone#boys planet ricky#gyuvin au#gyuvin imagines#quanrui imagines#boys planet#ricky fluff#zb1 zhanghao
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kitty kat ⋆ shen ricky
◜✧◞ SYNOPSIS ─ in which ricky realizes he might be in love with his best friend after all.
◜✧◞ PAIRING ─ shen ricky x male!reader
◜✧◞ GENRE ─ fluff.
"y/n my eye itches".
"stop moving or i'll accidentally poke you".
ricky scrunches his nose as y/n completely focuses on doing his eyeliner, ignoring his complaints which come up every two seconds.
"ricky i swear to god" y/n grits his teeth, biting his bottom lip. "i need you to stay still before you end up having ink in your eye".
"when you agreed to help me i didn't think you meant threaten me" ricky comments, and y/n rolls his eyes.
"your lucky" he states. "you have pretty eyes".
ricky resists the urge to blink, he can't because then y/n will kill him. "what does that have to do with anything?"
"they're perfectly shaped for this kind of thing".
"that's a pretty weird compliment.."
"take it or leave it kat".
that was the nickname y/n had given him when they were younger, stating that ricky was pretty much identical to a cat. no one really got the nickname, since ricky only allowed y/n to call him that, it was like their little thing.
ricky would never admit that he liked seeing y/n up close much more than he realized, with y/n's focus on doing his eyeliner, he could simply stare right at him and it wouldn't be weird.
"what if my mom thinks i look bad?" ricky decides to ask randomly. y/n narrows his eyes, but simply hums as a small laugh escapes his lips.
"you never look bad" he responds honestly, finally moving away from ricky as he finishes. "there, you're done" he says, but ricky still doesn't blink, afraid.
"you can blink kat, it's okay".
ricky immediately blinks, resisting the urge to rub his eyes because he knows it'll possibly mess up what y/n just spend thirty minutes doing. "see? you look pretty, told you".
ricky feels his face heat up, which is weird because y/n compliments him all the time. he just feels.. different towards all the nice words y/n keeps saying.
am i going insane? why is my temperature rising? and my heart beating faster? he just called you pretty ricky what are you going on about—
"hello? earth to ricky?" y/n snaps his fingers, handing ricky a cup of strawberry milk. "what are you thinking about? the event?" he inquires, not knowing that he was the one running through ricky's mind as he takes a sip of his iced coffee.
"um.." ricky pauses, not knowing if he should tell him the truth or lie. he chose lie. "just— a lot".
"no need to worry, kat" y/n says, smiling at ricky but staring for a specifically long time. "you don't even have to do much, your mom's doing all the talking anyway".
"i know i'm just.. thinking".
"maybe you should think a little less" y/n states, a hint of sarcasm in his voice. "focus on me, i have to take you out after the event anyway".
holy mother of god—
ricky felt like he was gonna combust. how could y/n just say that so casually not knowing how much of an affect such words had on ricky? he felt like he should've exploded by any minute now.
"fine, since you want my attention so bad" ricky mutters, not knowing why he felt so embarrassed.
"i don't want it i need it" y/n says with sarcasm in his voice once again, before ricky can even respond to such words, y/n took his wrist and dragged him out of the room.
"uh, y/n? where are we going?"
"i'm gonna take you to the event silly! i'm the only one of us that can drive!"
as ricky stares at y/n, doing the simplest of things, he can't help but just.. admire him, he looks so endearing even though he's doing something as simple as finding his car keys.
ricky's eyes go wide as he realizes.
oh shit, i'm in love with him.
now it all makes sense.
#shen quanrui#zerobaseone#zb1#zb1 ricky#zb1 imagines#ricky shen x reader#ricky imagines#zb1 drabbles#zb1 scenarios
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Arguement with Shen Ricky
Title: Arguement with Shen Ricky
Pairing: Shen Ricky X F!Reader
Genre: Friends to lovers
Warning: Mention of s*x, kissing, cussing. (This thing's really cringy, idk wtf I did...)
Synopsis: Ricky is your childhood friend, you've had a crush on him since you were little but he's just really oblivious, you know you've done and said things that'll give him the hint that you like him, but one day you accidentally barged in the guest's room in a party and saw him with a girl naked in bed.
Short imagine • • •
-HI!! it's been a while since I posted! But to those who will read this and the ones that have already read this, plsssss like and reblog! Thanks!-
NOTE: Unfortunately, I will not continue any of my series, and the ones that are pending in my drafts! Sorry!!!
• • • • •
It was an ordinary day for Ricky, it was Sunday and he usually go for a walk at 6:30, but his usual isn't applicable at the moment since Y/n have already decided what they should do for the whole day.
"C'mon Ricky!" Ricky annoyingly scratches his ear as he heard the girl whine for the 9th time, and before she could complain any longer, he turned around and face her once again.
"I have a lot of things planned out. Y/n." Ricky said coldly as he shoots Y/n death glares, but the girl mind it not and just gave him an eye roll as she crosses her arms.
"C'mon, I say! I know you're just gonna stay the whole day in your room touching boobs and butts!" Ricky only pinched his nose in response.
"Haa... Y/n. That's what you think of me?" The girl in front nodded a solid yes and proceed to go past him and enter his house without his permission, well, it's not like he can stop her even if he says not to enter.
As Ricky follows Y/n inside, the girl flopped down on the couch grabbing the remote as if she own the place and Ricky could only stare at her coldly.
Y/n wears a white top and a pink crop blazer, white sunglasses on her head, a pair of white boots, and a skirt that's too short for Ricky's liking. But Ricky's sure he doesn't like Y/n romantically since their relationship has always been platonic ever since they were children.
"How come you have Disney+ and not Netflix?? How are you supposed to tell your girls 'Netflix and chill' if you don't have Netflix??" Y/n looks at Ricky disgustingly as the side of her lips goes up. Ricky then grabbed the remote abruptly throwing it to the side, then he grabbed Y/n quite harshly and made her stand up.
As they both glare at each other, Ricky can't help but to look at her tightly shut lips, while feeling something turn inside his stomach as he hears her fast breathing, but Y/n looks at him eyes widening, with her brows frowning looking at him as if she wanted to punch his face. Their position lasted for seconds only staring at each other while Ricky still tightly holds Y/n's wrists closer to his chest.
"Let go of me," Y/n told him off with shaky breath, it's as if she was holding her tears back. Ricky sighs letting her wrists down gently. He swear he didn't mean to be so harsh on her, it was just because of what she said, he doesn't like it, it was as if she was telling him his way of having fun are fucking every girl he sees, and he's not like that, but he knows it was because of last time that's why Y/n keeps on saying things.
Last month, Ricky was out at a party and he got badly drunk and ended up in the guest room, and because his luck was kinda bad that day, Y/n was looking for him and she opened the door when he was doing it with Y/n's classmate. He regretted it, and he was not on his mind that time, he didn't mean to scare his best friend. But Y/n kept telling him it was fine cause it's his life she has nothing to do with it, but he just know she was upset seeing him in that state.
"It was a month ago and I was drunk," Ricky said explaining once again.
"I don't care about that." Y/n crosses her arms again and avoided Ricky's solid look.
"Then why keep bringing it up?" Ricky's patience was thinning already and Y/n just gave him a mocking disgusted look.
"Who says it's about that? And I just know that that wasn't the last time and the first! Who knows how many girls on the campus you already fucked! Looking at you right now, you're really disgusting!" Y/n was half screaming, her face was already growing red and she can feel her face getting hot, her arms are on her side while her fists are hardened stone. She was expecting Ricky to slap her or scream at her back, but she heard a small laugh.
"Why are you laughing? Do you think I'm being funny right now!" Ricky can't believe it, how come asking to go shopping turn into this bad argument that started a month ago?
"Are you jealous?" He looks at her half-lidded, a small smirk plastered on his face as he looks at her down.
Y/n was shocked hearing that, it's as if her face was telling that she was nakedly exposed.
"What?" She responded quietly.
Ricky steps closer to her and she steps back the movement goes on repeat three times when Y/n hit the edge of the cushion falling on her butt. Ricky stares down at her, his smirk earlier was replaced by a sharp look, while Y/n stares up at him with widened eyes. Ricky finds her big doe eyes so cute, it heats him up. Now he can be honest, he doesn't find his feelings for his best friend platonically at all. Right now, he wants her for himself only.
"Y/n...do you like me?" He quietly said, putting his hands in his pocket.
"What?" She stayed with an empty mind for a moment, as if she couldn't process what Ricky had said. "Wha- what do you mean!" Y/n said with a half-nervous laugh. Ricky likes it when she's nervous like that, she's really cute, and since Y/n's always confident, mean, and spoiled, he likes this side of her.
Ricky crouches down looking up at her. "I said do you like me?" Ricky repeated.
"Why would I like you!" Y/n said that, but he can see the deep red on her ears and cheeks, so he just responded with a chuckle.
"Really? Then why do you sound so jealous mentioning the girls you assume I've fucked?" Y/n can only swallow in response, she doesn't have anything to say back.
"I--WHY ARE YOU EVEN ASKING ME THAT!? YOU'RE JUST SO DENSE YOU KNOW?! I--" She stopped for a second and suck a bunch of air and closed her eyes and open them again "I LIKED YOU SINCE GRADE SCHOOL, YOU'RE JUST SO DENSE AND WHEN I SEE YOU THROBBING YOUR ASS OFF WITH THAT GIRL I WAS REALLY HEARTBROKEN, AND NOW YOU'RE ASKING ME THAT? ARE YOU JUST OUT OF YOUR MIND?!" Y/n didn't realize she was tearing up, and Ricky was surprised hearing that, to think he was the only one thinking this relationship was platonic is stupid of him.
Y/n huffs her breath waiting for his response but he just stared at her still surprised. But he advanced closer to her, holding her face while staring into her wide eyes, Ricky closes the gap between their lips, hers is so soft and fluffy, he can feel her face burn up, and seconds later, she finally relaxed and kissed him back, his kiss is so passionate, but that passion turns to something else when Ricky grabbed Y/n's waist closing the gap of their chest, his hands slowly goes downs when suddenly Yunjin opened the door and closing it again after seeing them for millisecond, and they were left laughing after, and Y/n's plan of shopping was fulfilled when Ricky decided that sometimes his usual is better when Y/n interrupts it.
(OMG!! my first fanfic that is not enha!)
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©® Viisator 2023
#zb1 fluff#zb1 x reader#zb1 ricky#zb1net#boys planet#ricky shen#ricky shen x reader#kpop fanfic#kpop icons#boys planet x reader#zero base one#zero base one ricky#zero base one ricky shen#han yujin#zb1 gunwook#zb1 zhang hao#zb1 drabbles#zb1 fanfic#ricky x reader#kim jiwoong#zb1 kim gyuvin#zb1 kim taerae#zb1 kim jiwoong#zb1 scenarios#zb1 sung hanbin#zb1 seok matthew#zb1 seok matthew fanfic#zb1 x reader ricky#shen quanrui#shen quanrui x reader
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parallel lines
You tell me you love her, I give you a grin Oh, all I ever wanted was a life in your shape So I follow the white lines Keep my eyes on the road as I ache
sypnosis ; parallel lines never meet, they go on forever and never touch. same with perpendicular lines. they meet once but then they drift apart. forever.
pairing ; shen ricky x fem! reader
wc ; 3271
genre ; angst, non-idol! & highschool! au
tags + warnings ; swearing, unrequited love, one-sided pining, hurt no comfort, mixed signals, love triangle (kinda), zb1 members featured, ricky's oblivious but reader's also kind of a coward and insecure
playlist ; strawberry blond - mitski, yours - conan gray
author's note ; I'M SO SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG RAGHHH 😭 the ending fell a little flat because i was really rushing to get this out since it was long overdue huhus. i kinda wish i executed this entire thing better but oh well !
———
“Do you ever plan on confessing or are you going to keep hoping he’ll somehow notice you?”
Gyuvin asks you out of nowhere, almost throwing you off from the rhythm game you were playing.
“You bitch! I almost lost my combo because of you!”
You punch his arm once you finish the round, trying to change the subject.
“And keep your voice down, someone might hear you.”
“That doesn’t answer my question, idiot. I’ve known you long enough to know how your mind works.”
“Shut up! Okay, look. He doesn’t even know me like that even though we’ve been going to the same school for years now. Despite all that, we’re only classmates. See where I’m going with this?”
Gyuvin then shoots you a look of disbelief. You stare back at him and you both sit in silence. As he turns back to his food with a sigh, he seemingly spots something and immediately turns back to face you.
“Hey, don’t make it obvious but I think Ricky’s looking in our direction.”
At this, you immediately look his way and briefly make eye contact with him. As you lifted your hand to wave at him, your view was blocked by someone sitting in front of you.
“Hey! Sorry, I got held up. Did I miss anything?”
“Alexa! Don’t worry about it. You didn’t miss much anyways.”
you resist the urge to sigh, dropping your hand and focusing your attention on your other friend.
Alexa was a newer friend to you compared to Gyuvin, whom you’ve known since your childhood.
She was a transferee and yet she was already considerably popular in school, which made sense because she was the full package. Pretty, nice, a straight A student, and well off. Still, she chose to hang out with you two, which came as a surprise for you.
��Hello? Earth to Y/N? Are you okay?” Alexa calls out, waving a hand in front of you. “Everything alright?”
“Ah, yeah. I was just thinking. Don’t worry about it.”
“Hmm... care to share with the class, then?”
At this, you look at Gyuvin, debating on whether or not you really should be honest with her. You look back at her and find her looking at you expectantly. You bite your lip, hesitating before deciding to tell her.
“Say… I don’t mean any offense to this, but why do you hang out with us? We’re like, nobodies compared to you, so it’s kind of surprising to me that you’d hang out with us instead of the more popular kids.”
Alexa’s expression morphs into a surprised one, mouth forming an ‘O’ at the question and seemingly taking no offense to it, to your relief.
“Ah well… compared to them I can definitely be myself around you guys. It’s too much pressure to keep up an image for them, it‘s no fun…” she mumbles. You exchange glances with Gyuvin as he decides to change the subject to something else.
You start to zone out and block their conversation as you look back to Ricky, who was still looking in your direction, and you two lock eyes. Not knowing what to do, you show him a small smile and he returns it, before looking away and back to his friend group.
———
“Alright everyone, we have a dyad project coming up. This’ll take up a big percent of your grade, so you have to take this seriously. That aside, I’ll be selecting some students to draw a piece of paper with their classmate’s name and whoever they draw will be their partner for the project.”
The teacher states.
One by one, he reads names off a list and they all draw their respective partners.
“Shen Ricky.”
He calls out, and you hold your breath. As well as like, 5 other girls in your class.
Everyone carefully watches him pick out a piece of paper and unfold it.
“Y/N L/N?” he calls out and your head snaps up so fast you could’ve sworn you almost broke it.
You wave him over and you can hear a few people grumble and sigh in disappointment here and there as he approaches you.
“Hi.” you smile at him politely.
“Hey.” he smiles back.
You look across the room to look at Gyuvin, who was paired with Gunwook. He lets out a chuckle at your wide eyes and wiggle his eyebrows in a teasing manner.
———
“So you’re Y/N? I’m Ricky, it’s nice to officially meet you.”
Ricky smiles warmly at you as everyone is left to discuss with their partners.
“Oh, please, there’s no need to be formal! We’re classmates, so don’t worry about it. It’s nice to officially meet you too.”
“Mhm. I don’t know if you remember, but I hope you didn’t find the little thing back in lunch earlier weird. I don’t normally do that.”
“You don’t normally stare at randos in school?”
You tease, amused at how Ricky visibly tenses up and gets ready to explain himself.
“I’m kidding, don’t work yourself up over it. If we’re working together, we might as well get to know each other a bit better. Or, something along those lines.”
His shoulders then sag as he relaxes and chuckles. You two hit it off pretty well and spend the rest of the period warming up to each other.
———
Your screams become muffled as you bury your face into a pillow, kicking your feet and thrashing around frantically.
….
“Are you done yet?”
Gyuvin plops down next to you, looking at you with disgust as you look up and stop.
“I don’t know what I’ve done in my past life to deserve this, but I can’t believe this is happening! I’m gonna get on my knees and start thanking all the gods above.”
“Please don’t.”
You throw the pillow you were holding at him, as the exchange erupts into an argument.
“But seriously though, what are the odds that we’d get partnered up! It must be a sign.”
You grin as Gyuvin groans.
“Girl, please. Half of the school’s population is also crushing on him as well, so I wouldn’t get my hopes up if I were you.”
“Okay, okay, yeah. But does half of the school have his number too?”
You pull out your phone, showing him the contact you had saved for Ricky. He rises from his position and snatches your phone to get a better look.
“Holy shit, you actually have his number….”
Gyuvin mutters, handing the phone back after a quick scan.
“Still, is that really a flex? I have his number too, because, y’know. We’re literally friends? If you wanted it that bad I could’ve just given it to you.”
He laughs as you scoff. As you were about to hit him for the nth time that day, your phone suddenly lights up and you see that it’s a text from Ricky. Seeing this, you immediately shoot up from your position.
“Shut up! Ricky texted me, hold on…”
You trail off as you frantically fumble your phone around.
‘hey! hope this isn’t a bad time but are you free tomorrow? we can discuss the project details at a cafe somewhere if you are. my treat :)’
The text read.
A pause came before you started shrieking in your pillow once again.
“Oh my god, shut the fuck up!” Gyuvin groans in annoyance, you sit up and quickly type a reply back.
‘hi! yeah, that sounds great <3 just send me the details and we can meet up by then.‘
———
“Hey, thanks for the free food, really. I should treat you next time as thanks.”
“It’s nothing, really.” Ricky places the tray down, setting their respective orders on the table.
“I looked over the project and it seems easy so we don’t have to do much. We can honestly just use the time given as an excuse to hang out.”
“...You wanna hang out with me more?”
“Hm? Well— yeah. I dunno, I feel like I can be more like… myself? When I’m around you, which is refreshing to me.” he trails off, pausing to look at you.
“Was that weird? I’m so sorry, just ignore what I just said. Your boyfriend might get mad so—”
“Boyfriend?”
You echo, flabbergasted and wondering who he was talking about.
“Huh? Yeah, Gyuvin? I know we’re friends but he hangs out with you a lot. We keep asking if you two are together but he avoids the question every time.”
Your eye twitches and you force a smile, horrified to think that anyone would mistake you and Gyuvin as a couple, let alone conceptualize it.
“Oh. No. Gyuvin and I aren’t dating. Like, at all. We’re actually childhood best friends so I guess that's why we’re always together.”
Ricky’s mouth formed into an ‘O’ shape, nodding in acknowledgement.
“Oh! I’m sorry then. He hadn’t really told us about you that much so we always just saw you as some mystery girl who he was always with. The fact that he’d just act weird when asked kinda left us questioning. That was also why I was looking at you that one time during lunch, so. ”
You nod, taking note of this. The subject changes and the little “date” carries on but Ricky’s mention of your best friend’s behavior still lingers in your mind.
You were to ask Gyuvin about it later that night.
———
Weeks passed by and you and Ricky quickly grew closer to each other. The cafe became your regular hangout spot and they constantly met up from that point on, even outside of school purposes.
“Oh my god, hey Y/N!”
Alexa calls out and walks next to you as you return her greeting.
“Girl, I saw you at a cafe yesterday with a really cute guy. Is he your boyfriend?”
She asks with a teasing smile on her face. Your face burns up, as you hesitate to answer.
“Ah, no… I got paired up with him for a class project, so we’re not that close.”
“Seriously? So is he single?” she tilts her head.
“I guess…? I mean, I don’t know, I’m sorry.”
You start to be more vague, not liking where this conversation was going. Alexa notices the change and your unreadable expression.
As she was about to say something else, the bell rings and you use that as an excuse to rush to your class, muttering a quick ‘bye’ and leaving her behind, confused.
———
“So you just left her behind there?”
“Yeah, and I feel so bad! She didn’t even do anything wrong which makes me feel even worse.” you groan, head in hands as you and Gyuvin walk home from school.
“Well, why don’t you just tell her that you like Ricky? Maybe she’ll stay away from him if you do, she’s too nice to steal someone’s crush away.”
You look over at Gyuvin, a little frustrated trying to figure out how to handle the situation.
“That would mean I have plans to pursue him, and he’s like, way out of my league. Man, couldn’t you think of something else?—”
Gyuvin abruptly stops in his tracks and seems panicked. Confused, you look to the direction he was looking over at and your eyes widened.
You see Ricky and Alexa laughing as they stepped out of the same cafe from yesterday, drinks in hands. Upon seeing so, you instinctively grab Gyuvin and pull him away from their view. You two try to discreetly stalk them as they walk in the opposite direction.
Once they were out of view, Gyuvin pulls away and looks at you, unsure of what to say. You had an unreadable look on your face, equally unsure of what to make of the situation. In the end, you simply sigh and usher your friend to move along with a quiet “let’s go.”
———
Ever since that day, you started avoiding both Ricky and Alexa. They constantly sent you messages which you’d ignore, on top of pretending like you didn’t see them whenever they’d wave or look over to you.
However, you were unsure if that really was the right choice, because that only allowed them to spend more time with each other. In the middle of your avoiding and ignoring, you’d see them walking in the hallways and eating lunch together. Rumors about them dating have already started because of their sudden closeness and it became a hot topic pretty quickly.
One day, you and Gyuvin were over at his house to hang out and you couldn’t help but burst and rant after losing a round to him.
“God knows what I should do! I feel like it’s too late for me to go back on what I’ve done since I’ve been ignoring them for days now and it’s a little embarrassing to talk to them out of nowhere.” you finish.
“Maybe it’s better for you to talk to Ricky and Ricky only. This way you can communicate, tell him everything and probably even confess to him. At the rate everything’s going, it’s now or never.” Gyuvin tells you, putting down his controller and watching you throw yourself on his bed face down.
After a brief silence, you mutter a muffled “Yeah, maybe you’re right.”
Getting up and grabbing your phone, you look for Ricky’s contact and see his recent message from yesterday.
“hey. it's been a while. is everything alright? you’ve been avoiding and ignoring me all of a sudden. please let me know if i did anything to offend you and i hope we can talk again soon. i’m sorry.” it read.
Biting your lip, you hesitate, thinking of what to say. After typing and deleting your message back and forth, you were finally able to send him a message.
“hi. I’m so sorry for everything that’s happened. are you free tomorrow? i was hoping to talk to you. does the nearby park sound good if ever?”
It took less than a minute for Ricky to respond, taking the best friends by surprise.
“oh my god, you responded. and ofc, it’s all good with me, i’m free tomorrow. i’ll see you then.”
You stared at your phone, rereading the short convo you two had. Getting up, you look over to Gyuvin to tell him you’ve made up your mind.
“I’m confessing to him tomorrow.”
“Seriously?” He was completely surprised at this. “I mean– go for it! I can’t believe you finally have the guts to tell him.”
“Yeah. You were right about the now or never thing. I’m gonna tell him no matter what happens. The sooner I do it, the sooner I’ll get over it. It’s much better that way.”
You sigh and grab your bag. “I’m going home. It’s getting late.”
“You want me to walk you home?”
“Nah. I kinda need some alone time right now. Y’know, to figure out what to do and say tomorrow.”
“Oh okay, get home safe.”
You exchange goodbyes, and leave Gyuvin’s house.
Unbeknownst to you, the boy is left behind alone with negative and conflicted feelings to your plans.
———
The park was quiet, which was unusual. It made you feel even worse than you already did, as if it was a reminder about your impending doom.
Thousands of scenarios run through your head and you can’t help but wonder if it was stupid for you to continue hoping that you’d still have a chance. That maybe, just maybe, he feels the same way towards you after everything you’ve been through.
You easily spot Ricky at the spot you decided to meet up at. It took you by surprise how early he was, but the feeling was quickly replaced with dread as you approach him. The thought of bailing crossed your mind but it was quickly erased when Ricky noticed you.
“Y/N!” he called out, and stood up, gesturing to you to sit in the empty space next to him. As you do so, he looks at you expectantly, trying to guess if he should go first or not.
“I am… so so sorry for the way I’ve been acting these past couple weeks. I should’ve at least tried to communicate with you instead of leaving you in the dark.” you start.
“Hey, hey. It’s alright, I promise. I was just worried that I did something to offend you, or that something happened. Don’t work yourself up over it.”
You nod and stare at him, trying to figure out what else to say to keep the conversation going and make it go your way.
“Um, so how’s life been going for you?”
The way his face almost instantly brightens doesn’t go unnoticed by you. You could feel your heart drop to your stomach as you could already assume what it was about.
“It’s been going well, actually. I started talking to this girl, Alexa was it? She’s your friend, right?” he asks and you almost couldn’t bring yourself to nod. At this point, you were just waiting for him to say it outright so you could confirm it.
“She’s a very nice person,” he continues and seems to hesitate and lowers his voice “you’re actually the only person I’m telling this to, but I actually really like her. I plan to confess and ask her out next week.”
Ah. There it is.
You purse your lips and abruptly stand up, interrupting Ricky and he asks what’s wrong.
“Ricky, maybe it’s better for both of us to stop whatever this is. I can’t do this anymore.”
“Being friends?”
“Yes! If that’s what you think this is, then sure. Let’s stop being friends.”
Ricky stands up as well, you look up at him towering over you with a confused expression. You could’ve sworn he looked pained as well.
“Why? I thought we already sorted things out? Wasn’t that the whole point of meeting up here? Did I do something wrong?”
He grows desperate at your silence and lack of response, voice slowly raising. The fact that he even cared enough to fight against the idea made things even more complicated. You thought it’d be easy, and that he wasn’t attached enough to actually care.
“What’s it to you anyways?” you couldn’t help but snap at him, a little mad that he had to complicate the situation.
“Because we’re friends! I genuinely enjoy your presence! Did all of that mean nothing to you? Can’t we just––”
“It’s because I like you, Ricky!” At this point, tears were spilling from your eyes.
“I’ve liked you for fucking years now and it hurts to know that I‘ll never have you. I was always a nobody at school, and I was fine admiring you from afar. But now that I know that I was so close, yet so far pains me.”
…
Silence overtook the conversation as Ricky’s face softened, any trace of desperation leaving his face and being replaced with an unreadable expression.
“I’m so sorry—”
“Don’t. I can’t even blame you. You’re way out of my league anyways, you and Alexa are a great match.”
You sigh, wiping your tears.
“I’ll be going now. I’m sorry it all turned out like this, really.”
As you walk away, Ricky calls after you and you turn around, deciding to give him your last words.
“It’s not your fault, Ricky. It’s mine and only mine. Maybe I was just unlucky, or maybe I just gave myself too much hope. But all I know is that something about you made me feel a little more alive and far less lost. Thank you.”
And with that, you walked away and decided that from there on, you’d go back to being strangers to each other.
#ricky x reader#ricky shen x reader#ricky scenarios#zb1 x reader#zb1 imagines#zb1 scenarios#youthinluv
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YOURS TO KEEP.
p — SHEN QUANRUI x female! reader. g — college! au, exchange student! ricky, fluff, very very lightly angsty. w — swearing, alcohol consumption. kdrama references and misquoted quotes. 3.2k words.
note — dreamt of ricky. vomited out.....ricky as ur cute bf who behaves like a cat and whose favorite forms of cross-cultural exchange is receiving headpats and watching kdramas. only 2 scenes are actually inspired by my dream 😭 if someone guesses which line/s were extracted directly from my dream, i'll reward u with a gyuvin drabble how about that 👍
you picked up a cat from the university’s foreign exchange program.
however, he did not come in a box. he came in a louis vuitton tracksuit and balenciaga sunglasses, which very much caught you off guard when you came to meet him at the admin building, and you greet him after mustering the courage to finally walk up to the cat’s imposing presence. “h—hello! are you perhaps shen quanrui?”
he takes off his sunglasses, meets you with a pair of pretty swoopy, pretty eyes, and says, “oh. yes. are you my owner?”
you pause. you’re taken aback because that...that doesn’t sound like the right word. “ah, um. i’m the person assigned to help you around the campus and the city for the semester, yes! it’s nice to meet you!” but you brush it off because of language barriers and all. his mouth falls into an ‘o’ shape when you tell him the correct term.
“oh, sorry.”
“it’s alright!” you say. “hope we get along!”
quanrui tells you that you can just call him ricky, and gives you a small smile. one of many that you’ll be graced with for the duration of the semester.
“i’ll be in your care.”
your new cat is a little intimidating at first, clad in all black at all times. the night you helped him first settle into his dorm, even his pajamas were reminiscent of an abyss— like a white ragdoll trying to disguise itself as a panther because you later find out that he’s actually a really sweet, really polite, and really clingy cat.
“um. knock, knock.”
you look up from your laptop, ricky in a long leather coat hesitantly peeking out from your half-open bedroom door (you gave him a copy of your apartment key. your cat needs a way to get in by himself somehow). he texted you earlier, asking if you can help him out with an essay, and you assume he’s right here right now for that very reason.
“do you have your paper?” you ask, closing your laptop. he nods and lifts up his ipad, showing it off. you have a very cute cat. you scoot aside and pat the empty space on your bed, and ricky comes padding in, mattress sinking when he settles beside you, making sure to maintain a respectable enough distance and hands you his device with the google doc open.
“oh. i marked the parts where i’m not sure about my vocabulary,” he mentions the moment a yellow highlighted part came up on the screen.
you give it a once over. “i think this is right. yeah, you did good.” when you turn your head, you’re met with a pair of proudly sparkling eyes. you stifle out a laugh. “what? do you want a head pat for that?”
“maybe i deserve one?”
you let your fingers sink into the fluff on the top of his head. again, he’s really sweet, really polite, and really clingy. but maybe a little too clingy sometimes, especially when he finally got a lot more comfortable around you.
comfortable enough to hiss at your friends.
“oh, you signed up as a student-helper for the exchange program too?” hanbin asks after seeing you walk in the classroom with ricky in row, trailing behind you like a shadow.
“yeah, i can’t miss the extra points prof choi baited us with.” you nudge ricky with your elbow, noticing how tense he is all of a sudden and how he’s looking at your senior with a bit of a glare. perhaps he’s threatened by another feline presence.
“nice to meet you!” hanbin greets with a bright, an arm outstretched before you, meant for ricky, but he keeps tucking himself behind you with his hands fixed on your shoulders.
hanbin has his hand left unshaked for five seconds too long now. you nudge him again. he won’t budge.
“ah, ricky is still a little shy!” you exclaim, trying to salvage the situation by grabbing hanbin’s hand instead with both of yours, swinging it around, left and right. you’re lucky your senior is so easygoing. he laughs along with you and says of course, of course, he totally gets it, merrily swinging your arms together back and forth. “he’s still not that confident with his korean. right, ricky?”
“keep holding her and i’ll claw your eyes out.”
you freeze. you leer back at ricky shen, giving him your what the fuck are you saying look? he maintains his stance, tugging you back by the shoulders. you twitch out a smile and try your best to defend your clingy and jealous cat. “ahaha. he’s picked up some weird things from all the dramas he’s been watching,” you say. “sorry about that seonbae! we’ll get to our seats now!”
“haha, it’s alright! nice to meet you ricky!”
“what was that?”you snap back at him the moment hanbin leaves the premises. all ricky does is shrugs and steadies his hold on your shoulders, aiming your body somewhere and he starts making you walk to the back of the classroom— far, far away from where hanbin is sitting.
your cat is a little weird sometimes, sure. gyuvin finds him entertaining enough though. they play tennis every weekend, and ricky started picking up even more weird things from him and all the rest of your friends that you’re starting to think they’re not very good influences.
case in point—
“if you drink this, we’re dating.”
the grape juice he poured into your paper cup nearly spills over from shock. you look at him, eyes wide and brows furrowed, cheeks burning and heart racing because what the hell? “seriously, where have you been learning these things?”
ricky looks satisfied for eliciting that kind of reaction. he pours himself a paper cup of grape juice as well because it’s a weeknight, and you have a quiz tomorrow, and getting wasted is off of the table, so you two settled for juice and chips on your living room floor to relish in your academic misery.
“jiwoong hyung and gunwookie recommended me some movies for me to watch.” he sets down the juice bottle after screwing the cap shut, and you fear the other movies those two gremlins recommended him come from a list of top 50 movie pick-up up lines to woo an unsuspecting victim. next thing you know, he’s gonna invite you to have ramen at his place or go see freaking butterflies with him. “i just watched a moment to remember earlier. my pronunciation is getting better, right?”
ricky is looking at you with his eyes all big and his lips all pressed together expectantly. he’s waiting for your praise. you feel your chest swell. the grape juice feels heavy in your hand. gosh, he’s such a needy cat. a needy cat that deserves all the praise in the world.
“yeah. i’m proud of you. c’mere.”
you leave your cup on the table to focus on more important things— that is, giving ricky his well deserved pats on the head. you don’t recall how your relationship with him managed to get this far, still remembering how intimidated you felt when you first met him. now he’s on your living room floor, head laying back on your couch with a drama playing on the tiny laptop screen settled on the coffee table, both of you barely paying attention because he’s looking at something on his phone, and you’re gently rubbing his head as you reply to some messages on yours.
“ah, gyuvin is seriously annoying,” you complain. “he’s trying to get me to join his club. coding club he says, when i’m pretty sure he’s just starting it as an excuse to play games on campus.”
“are you going to join?” he asks, bumping his head against your palm when you stop giving him scratches.
“mm, i don’t think so.” you set down your phone to pour all your focus into satisfying your needy cat’s attention requirements. ricky lets out a satisfied rumble when set his head down onto your lap, raking your fingers through the tufts of his hair as he lets his eyes flutter to a close. “i’m already too busy this semester to bother with those things. maybe next time if he’s that desperate to fill in the member numbers..”
“yeah,” he mutters. “you’ll be too busy spending most of your time with me.”
your fingers stop moving.
ricky looks up at you, confused as to why you stopped petting him, and you’d eat him right up if you could. but you can’t keep your cat for too long. it’s only a matter of time before you get your last opportunity to coddle him like this, to shower him in unabashed affection disguised as friendship because the exchange program is temporary, and he’s returning back to china at the end of the semester.
so why is he raising your hopes up if he’s just going to leave anyway?
“i meant my acads, silly,” you say, picking up your untouched juice cup from the table, feeling the weight of the drink slosh around the paper cup as you let it hover in front of your lips.
he’s raising your hopes up and you’re letting him. you know this is gonna end in a disaster.
still.
“but if you put it that way—”
the sharp taste of sweet grapes hits the back of your throat, swallowing down the lukewarm juice that’s been sitting since ricky poured a cup for you. if you’re gonna crash down at the end of this, might as well crash down from two thousand feet above the ground.
“are we dating now?”
you set the cup back down on the table, gaze flickered down at ricky, whose face is flushed in surprise one moment— easing into understanding the next, and he props himself up from your lap, reaching out for the back of your neck to pull you into a sugary tart kiss.
yeah, you think, feeling the softness of his lips brush against yours, his eyelashes tickling your cheeks when he pulls you in even closer. if your time with him has a deadline, might as well make the most out of it.
“i was disappointed when you didn’t drink it the first time,” he says, drunk on sweet juice and the feeling of your mouth against his. “jiwoong hyung said that line was effective.”
“can you not think about another man when i’m kissing you?”
he lets out a laugh, “‘m sorry,” then presses a fluttering kiss on your temple, tip of your nose, until his lips meet yours once more at last. “let me try again. ahem. i like you. i don’t need a rainbow.”
“you got the line wrong, baek yijin. try again next time.”
if he’s going to leave anyway, might as well make his departure as heart wrenching as all the dramas he’s so fond of watching.
“looks like our friend here got more than just extra credit for volunteering to help out the exchange students.”
you look up from the stack of papers on your table, only to have more dropped off by taerae with a thunk. hanbin, gyuvin, matthew and ricky are also loitering around the classroom— not that they’re helping you and taerae check the test papers your profs asked you to grade as a favor. at least the constant yelling and arguing and meowing noises(?) are making things a lot more lively.
“congrats, you lucky bitch,” he says.
“you sound like you want to covet my cat,” you raise a brow at him, adding the new set to your pile as taerae grabs a new stack as well.
“your cat for this mutt,” he points his thumb at matthew, who’s currently tucked in the to answer an evaluation sheet on taerae. ricky’s doing the same evaluation about you, somewhere. you’re not sure where your cat went, but he’s probably just around. “are you perhaps open for negotiation?”
“matthew isn’t a mutt. he’s a cute golden retriever.”
“well, your cat doesn’t seem to appreciate you calling someone else cute.”
taerae swerves off to reveal a pouting ricky. he’s got his arms crossed, the evaluation sheet folded in between the fingers of his right hand, and you have to hold back a laugh. “did you finish my evaluation?” you ask.
“i did, but i wanna redo it now. negative points for you,” he protests, but lets you snatch the paper from him anyway. you scoot your chair to the left to give him some space next to you. he grabs an empty armchair and nudges his nose close to your face when you start reading his note at the bottom.
“mid-semester evaluation. my student-helper is very acommodatimg. she has been helping me adjust to korea very well. you spelled accommodating wrong, angel.”
“i did it on purpose to test you. good job. you pass.”
you roll your eyes, free hand absentmindedly reaching out for the top of his head, and you hear ricky let out a noise of satisfaction. “she always answers my questions and is…very pretty and smells nice,” you set the paper down. your cat is looking at you expectantly. “ricky, i don’t think you can submit this.”
“why not?” he asks. “professor choi said to be as honest as possible.”
your cheeks grow warm.
gosh. this makes things even harder knowing your cat has to leave eventually.
“what did i tell you?”
the convenience store lights need to be replaced soon, you note. it keeps flickering intermittently against the dim night— reminiscent of how you’re feeling right now when you called jiwoong out for a few drinks two weeks before finals, but you’re not depressed because finals are near. you’re wallowing in tear stained sniffles because the exchange program will be over soon, meaning you only have two weeks until ricky has to pack his bags and leaves.
“not to get too attached because he has to say goodbye eventually,” you lament, a puddle of soju burning your lips. jiwoong looks at your pathetic state with remorseful sigh.
“and what did you do?” he says.
“got too attached and now i have to say goodbye to him eventually.” you groan and swallow down a shot. you’re about to pour yourself another, but jiwoong pulls back the bottle— maybe your third one of the night, you’re not sure— away from your reach, and pushes you a plastic bottle of water instead.
“you just had to go ahead and start dating him like an idiot,” he cracks open the water for you when you don’t do anything with it. he pours it in a shot glass, and you take the bait, drinking down the water, eyebrows furrowing when it doesn’t burn your throat like you expected. “maybe if you tell him to say, he might listen to you.”
you let out a gasp. “i can’t do that! that’d be so selfish of me!”
jiwoong can’t do anything to help you but share your miseries tonight. he simply sits in silence, waiting for the owner of the number he texted a while ago to make an appearance, and listen to your drunk ramblings at eleven in the evening.
“i miss my cat. i haven’t seen him the entire day because he says he had things to do with hanbin and hao.” you’ve melted into the table. high pitched whines aside, he’s surprised you’re still coherent at this point. “bring me back my cat. i miss him so much. i miss my cat. i miss my ricky. i wish he’d never leave me.”
jiwoongs eyes flit up. “looks like your cat misses you too.” he pulls himself up from his chair and picks up his jacket from the backrest. “took you long enough.”
when you tip your head back in confusion, wondering who the hell jiwoong is talking to, you’re pleasantly surprised to see the upside-down face of the cat you’ve been missing.
“ah,” you sound out. “you’re here.”
“thanks, hyung,” ricky settles a hand on the top of your head. you blink. now you understand why he liked headpats so much. “i’ll take care of her from here.”
this is eye opening. you feel your eyelids growing heavier as ricky continues to massage your head, his and jiwoong’s faraway voices talking about something, something you can’t really hear, until jiwoong waves off, and it’s just you and ricky in front of the quiet flickering lights of the convenience store entrance.
you hear yourself whine when ricky’s hand disappears from the top of your head. “you should’ve called me if you missed me,” he says, circling from behind the chair to being in front of you now. he crouches down, settling his crossed arms on your lap, and he looks up at you with his pretty swoopy eyes. “why didn’t you call me?”
“i need to get used to you not being around even if i miss you,” you say, letting your fingers sink into the soft strands of his hair.
ricky lets out a questioning hum. “why wouldn’t i be around?”
“because your deadline is near,” you grumble. “i have to return you to where i first picked you up, but i don’t want to. but you have to. this sucks so much.”
you’re still saddled with insobriety, and the fact that your sweet cat isn’t purring like usual when you’re patting his head is making your bottom lip quiver and your eyes sting because you fear you might’ve said something wrong. “aren’t you gonna ask me what i did today?” he simply asks. you suck in a wavering breath and swallow a lump in your throat.
“what...did you do today?”
“hanbin hyung helped me settle the requirements for my transfer” ricky lands a gentle hold on your wrist and brings your hand down to the side of his face, cupping his cheek. it’s warm. “i’m going to continue attending here. hao hyung is too.”
you blink at him. “w—what?”
“i don’t have to leave. you don’t have to keep missing me.” he brings your hand down palm to the front of his lips, pressing a kiss into your palm. “i’m not going anywhere. i’m yours to keep.”
it takes you a moment to register ricky’s words, so you stay there for a while— sitting frozen in cold silence until the warmth of his messages finally settles in to thaw you out. oh, you think. “oh,” you repeat out loud, voice wavering. ricky hums out a smile at your reaction. he rises, pulling you up to your feet, and you stumble into him.
“i think i know the perfect line for this moment,” he says, steadying a hold on the small of your back. “what was it? if I don't see you, i get upset. If you're depressed, i get curious. something like that?”
“it’s the other way around, dummy.” you sniffle. “why do you keep quoting nam joohyuk?”
“because he’s cool,” he says. “let’s go watch start-up at your place once you’ve sobered up.”
the cat you picked from the university’s foreign exchange program is clingy, sweet, and is for some reason obsessed with quoting the dramas he’s been watching. he keeps an arm around you when he walks you back to your apartment after grieving over his departure, only to kiss you with the news that you don’t have to return him any time soon.
YOURS TO KEEP.
© hannie-dul-set, 2023.
#shen ricky x reader#ricky x reader#zb1 ricky x reader#zerobaseone x reader#zb1 x reader#ricky shen x reader#shen quanrui x reader#zb1 ricky x you#zerobaseone x you#zb1 x you#zerobaseone scenarios#shen ricky fluff#ricky shen fluff#zb1 fluff#zerobaseone imagines#zb1 imagines
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lightning straight to my heart !
pairing: zb1 maknae line x gn!reader
warnings: none i think, english isn't my first language!!!
genre: fluff
synopsis: their reaction to their crush falling asleep on their shoulder
notes: first zb1 post! tbh i love the zerose community on tumblr so i hope i find lots of friends here🫶🫶 part 2 will be posted on friday or maybe saturday :D
SHEN QUANRUI
this is fine. this is fine! this is… AAAAAHHHHHH
you two were just peacefully hanging out and watching a movie at your place but you ended up falling asleep. with your head on his shoulder. obviously.
eyes widened, he still tried to maintain his cool guy facade (literally no one else is in that room) but soon enough he couldn't fight the lil smile anymore and then shyboy lovelicky took over
takes your hand into his and softly caresses it (he will let go of it the second he notices you're about to wake up)
his heart is pounding slightly faster for the entire time being, but tries to distract himself by watching the movie you picked for the two of you to watch
clears his throat every 5 seconds??? pls save him he's too shy for this
KIM GYUVIN
uhmmm
uhm?
he just… broke???
doesn't move, doesn't breathe, just stares at your peacefully sleeping figure on his shoulder
so suprised that he has no idea how he's supposed to react
windows shut down sound
his heart is beating like CRAZY though. super loud too! he probably dies from a heart attack soon
he thinks you're totally adorable 💔💔
starts to move again after a minute and takes like 50 pictures of you, firstly to remind himself of this moment and secondly to tease you with them afterwards
yes he likes you a lot but he would never not tease you🤭
sets one picture that came out well (in his opinion) as his background wallpaper
PARK GUNWOOK
inner panic
screaming inside his head
trying DESPERATELY to control his face muscles- he feels so many emotions at once, he might break his face if he allows all of them to show now😭
but he can't fight the redness on his cheeks HEHEHEHE
ready to hush everyone with that unnecessarily loud "SHHHH" and a death glare if anyone dares to make a sound 👹
he tells himself that he should be confident rn, as you, HIS CRUSH, just fell asleep on him during a study session in the library
… wait. you fell asleep. during a study session.
he's flustered, head over heels in love, ready to marry AND kind of upset now😒
HAN YUJIN
you're on a schooltrip and you're sitting next to each other on the ride back
his eyes went as wide as a saucer as soon as your head hits his shoulder, he didn't even notice you falling asleep because he was busy playing a game on his phone
literally as stiff as a board and more awkward than ever
of course he finds this whole thing kind of cute but… pls give him a notice like 1 week in advance so he can mentally prepare himself for this next time
puts his baseball hat on your head in order to save your eyes from the blazing sun or something idk he saw it in all those romance kdramas
he may looks like he wants you to wake up to everybody else, but he actually wants to spend more time like this (maybe in private next time *cough*) 💔
#zb1 headcanons#zb1 x reader#zb1 scenarios#zerobaseone#zb1 reactions#zerobaseone reactions#zb1#ricky shen x reader#kim gyuvin x reader#park gunwook x reader#han yujin x reader#ricky x reader
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synopsis : their relationship getting harder to the point that they decided to break up for their own sakes, but fate have another plan, they met again after they debuted as idols.
profiles : 3 princess + 1 dawg (buy 3 get 1)
@ favhong a.k.a Hong y/n : 05 liner, maknae, main vocal, sub-rapper, lead dancer, visual, center & FOTG of Eclipse. friends with zb1's gunwook, enhypen's ni-ki, dohoon tws, le sserafim's eunchae, danielle newjeans. (i'm using Krystal jung as face claim, but i'll try to search for more faceless pict!)
@ theordinarygigi a.k.a Uchinaga Aeri/Uchinaga Giselle : 00 liner, main dancer, lead rapper, sub vocal of Eclipse. friends with treasure's jihoon & junkyu, nct's 00L, jeon somi, g-idle's shuhua, itzy's lia.
@ rinaria a.k.a Karina Yoo : 00 liner, leader, main rapper, lead dancer, lead vocal of Eclipse. friends with nct's 00L, riize's shotaro, itzy's Yeji, le sserafim's chaewon, treasure's jihoon.
@ hotnerd a.k.a Kim Jeongseob : P1HARMONY member, y/n's childhood friend & close friend to karina and giselle.
ECLIPSE : girl group under SM entertainment, debuted in 03 - 03 - 2023.
debut album : youth (full album)
second release : sunrise (mini album)
third release : season (EP)
fourth release : holographic (2nd EP)
note : pleaseplease ignore timestamp. this has been sitting on my draft for a while, but last night, i had to revise the profiles ●.●
taglist : @kaynunu @vash-yuu @mimisamisasa
#—○ you were (are) beautiful#zb1 smau#zb1 x reader#zb1 ricky#ricky x reader#ricky smau#ricky shen smau#ricky shen x reader#zb1 imagines#zb1
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≡;- ꒰ °𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐅𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐒 ꒱
EIGHT. teen angst
WARNINGS. mentions of sleep deprivation, lowkey angsty?
"that makes no sense, why are you carrying an x!?"
yn tuned out of the conversation moments ago, he doesn't really care anymore, he's much too busy zoning out at the ceiling, he blinks, somehow ignoring yeojun and narae's very loud and very clear arguing. he's become accustomed to them arguing over anything at this point.
"yn.. help?" jungwon's voice rings in his ears, and he finally snaps out of his daydreaming. he sighs, grabbing his pillow and hugging it close to his chest. "please, they've been arguing about geometry or something for like.. ten minutes".
"not like the two of them are passing geometry anyway.." he mutters to himself, the two arguing didn’t catch his words, much too immersed in their argument about geometry to hear his mumbling.
"alright children!" jungwon's voice powers over the entire argument as a whole, putting the two to a stop. "you two have an exam tomorrow, go to sleep".
"are you my mom?"
"i do your mo—"
"please, do not finish that sentence" yn breathes, closing his eyes, yeojun's very loud and obnoxious laugh resonates in his ears, he flinches a little bit at how loud it is, his fault for deciding to wear headphones.
narae huffs on the other side of the line, and yn can hear the shuffling of her bedsheets. "fine, good night, yeojun if i fail the test tomorrow it's all your fault" she comments before hanging up, but not before yeojun dramatically gasps like that was the most single offensive comment someone's ever said to him.
"okay well i've been up for too long, he's your problem now yn".
"problem!?"
yn lightly laughs at the way jungwon decides to say those words, he bids a goodnight before hanging up, leaving yn and yeojun as the only ones in the call. "why aren't you going to sleep?"
"why aren't you?" yeojun counters, immediately ignoring yn's previous question. "you always look sleepless at school, at least four hours would be good for you" yn frowns at the way yeojun says those words.
"you don't have to say it so.." yn pauses, poking his tongue through his cheek. "obviously" he finally adds, and yeojun resists the urge to sigh on the other end of the line.
he pauses for a specifically long time before sighing for real this time. "listen yn, i care about you a lot and i know you like to act like everything is okay but, you know you can always talk to me and i don't want you to feel like you have to hide how you feel".
yn should laugh at the immediate shift of tone, but he can't bring himself to, because what yeojun is saying is true, and he hates that it's true, he closes his eyes. "i— yeah sorry, take care of yourself okay?"
yn only musters a hum, and yeojun mutters something small to himself. "don't stay up stalking gyuvin too much" he comments.
yeojun laughs, snorting. it makes yn laugh even more, because yeojun snorting is so stupidly adorable that he can't help but laugh at it. "okay okay, good night yn, i love you".
"uh huh, love you too".
as soon as yeojun hung up, yn removed his headphones and placed them on his bedside table. he pauses and simply stares for a moment, he wants to sleep, but he can't bring himself to.
he glances at the photo on his bedside table, and his stomach tightens together in an uncomfortable way. he's always hated the photo, even with the huge smiles on his and his mother's face, it's the way he was there that made him hate that photo.
he flips the photo down, and immediately hears a notification from his phone, a just sent text.
lock the doors, i'm not coming home tonight.
yn had already done that, mom never comes home on thursday nights, he responds simply with a heart, because he knew his mom wouldn't acknowledge any other kind of texts.
yn considers setting down his phone and finally going to sleep when he gets another text, but this time it's not from his mom, it's from the one person he never thought would text him at this time.
ricky.
he blinks at his phone, confused on why he is being texted at this time, and by ricky of all people. for some reason though, yn feels himself smile at his phone.
i shouldn't open it, i should go to sleep...
well goddamnit, he opens it anyway.
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̨𖥔 ִ ་ NOTES …if you ignore how this chapter is hot ass, um.. yeah you can't ignore it cause it is, stream fact check though!!!
📸 tags; @junjiie, @wave2love, @planethyuka, @poollabug, @kimgyuuu, @alwayswook, @jinkiseason, @bbangricz, @kpoprhia, @bitte-ein-bit, @shinyyirene, @haohyo
#⊹ ࣪˖ not friends#shen quanrui#ricky shen#zerobaseone#zb1#zb1 smau#zb1 ricky#zerobaseone ricky#zerobaseone imagines#zerobaseone drabbles#zerobaseone scenarios#zb1 imagines#zb1 drabbles#zb1 scenarios#ricky imagines#ricky shen x reader#𑁍 ࣪˖ 𓂃 isa's works!
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the soulmates unfortunately series (zb1) [preview]
⋆⋆ ˚｡⋆⋆ ˚｡⋆⋆ ˚｡⋆⋆ ˚｡⋆⋆ ˚｡⋆୨♡୧⋆ ˚｡⋆⋆ ˚｡⋆⋆ ˚｡⋆⋆ ˚｡⋆⋆ ˚｡⋆⋆
ABOUT. here's the thing about soulmates, once you meet the one that is meant for you, you start to age. the biological clock starts to tick, and you are no longer the fresh faced 20 year old. years go by, and next thing you know it, you've grown old and wrinkly – right next to the love of your life. but here's the thing about y/n, she hated that.
y/n has had many soulmates in her lifetime, 4 of which had made a significant impact on her life. namely, her first husband, kim jiwoong. the man that she had a daughter with, zhang hao. the husband that raised her daughter, sung hanbin. and finally, ricky shen. (un)fortunately for her, her soulmates keep dying.
genre: romance with adult themes
warnings: mentions of death, blood, character death, killers, cursing, etc. contains adult themes. each chapter will have specified warnings.
note: yujin is not in this series as he is not 18 yet.
CHAPTERS
chapter zero: the first few soulmates
chapter one: the man she first married, kim jiwoong
chapter two: the man she had a daughter with, zhang hao
chapter three: the man that raised her daughter, sung hanbin
chapter four: unfortunately, ricky shen
chapter five: the finale
PREVIEW OF CH ZERO. (below the cut)
“Got anything that’ll get me drunk in the next ten minutes?”
You plopped down on the bar stool, haphazardly placing your purse next to you. The bartender is eyeing you strangely, as if in disbelief that you’re even inside their hole in the wall establishment.
You sigh and pull out your identification card, a laminated piece of junk that tells you how old you really are. Scratch that, how old you are meant to be. He picks up the card and raises it up next to your face, comparing the woman in the picture to the you that sits in front of him. It reminds you that you need to get it renewed…again. After all, the last time you updated your photo was sometime in the 80s, reflecting a version of you with big hair and large colorful earrings. You don’t blame him for wanting to double check, contrasting the all-black ensemble you currently sport.
“Listen pal, I just buried my daughter today. I would appreciate it if you could get on with it”. You might not blame him, but you are impatient.
He slides your ID card back and pours you a whiskey on the rocks. “Sorry for your loss ma’am” he solemnly extends his condolences as he places your drink in front of you. You pick it up, raising it and nodding a “thank you” before taking a large gulp. It burns.
You outlived your daughter. And you wonder if you’ve been going about life in all the wrong ways.
Atop the alcohol display at the bar is a small TV, flashing a report about a young woman named Somi who was murdered and found dead at her home – leaving her husband a widower. The news station flashed a photo of the blonde couple, sharing that they had just gotten married a week ago. She was beautiful. A shame.
At that moment, a tall man enters the bar and decides to take a seat next to you. Other than the fact that he too, is dressed in all black – you feel a deeper sense of similarity. Like kindred spirits, you recognize broken souls like yours. You order two more rounds of the whiskey the bartender gave you.
“I heard about your late wife in the news, I’m sorry for your loss.” You feign sympathy and slide the glass to the man next to you.
He looks taken aback at first, but accepts your offer. Now facing you, he raises his drink to you. You do the same.
He’s strikingly handsome, with platinum hair and dark eyebrows. You also don’t miss that he’s dressed in Yves Saint Laurent from head to toe. He takes a peek at your ID card still laying on the table, making sure to catch your name.
“Next one’s on me, Y/N” he says, taking another swig at his whiskey, finishing his glass. He calls on the bartender, and buys an entire bottle for the two of you. The bartender returns his credit card, with the name ‘Shen Quanrui’ engraved.
“Thank you Quanrui, that’s very generous of you.”
He puts on a small smile, almost no one calls him by his legal name. “You can call me Ricky” he says as he pours into your glass.
“Alright Ricky. Here’s to life.” you raise up. It feels inappropriate to be clinking glasses on the day you buried your daughter, but you figured you could make an exemption. Ricky too, seemed to be going through the same thing with his late wife.
“To life.” he responds, tapping his glass against yours.
Just two broken souls who had lost someone important in their lives, drinking to fill the hollowness. You almost don’t feel the familiar bloom in your chest, tugging at your entire being like a magnet trying to find its other half. And if you do feel it, you pretend it’s the whiskey burning its place in your heart.
REPLY OR SEND AN ASK TO BE TAGGED TO THIS SERIES
tagging: @dwcljh@snowflakemoon3@kpoprhia@en-ct@jiaant11@caocoamamam@mashihope@wonluvrbot@littlegirltacos@ihrtgw@ollieluvrs@thejadeazalea@keiwook@yjhcloud@gyuvinnie@doobinnies@forrds
#zb1 imagines#kflixnet#zb1 series#zerobaseone#zb1#sung hanbin x reader#kim jiwoong x reader#ricky shen x reader#zhang hao x reader#zb1 fluff#zb1 angst#haesunflower_soulmatesunfortunately#zb1 scenarios#zb1 reactions#sung hanbin#kim jiwoong#zhang hao#shen quanrui#zerobaseone imagines#zumblr fics#zb1 x reader
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star-crossed ✩°｡ ⋆⸜
six. the
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synopsis ↯
in which you are paired up with ricky shen, who fully convinced himself that you purposely became his partner in order to date him.
࣪𖤐 𖦹 ༘⋆⊹ nara's note:
might do a double update if im feeling silly
🏷️ ; @shiningstar-byulxx @jiaant11 @jeonghyeonsgf @okkomi @justemalove @blaycke @lvieee @softyminhee @raeewe @starhyeon @rikislady [ taglist request is open! ]
#⭐️.starcrossed#zb1 au#zb1 ricky#zb1 x reader#ricky#ricky au#ricky scenarios#ricky shen#ricky x reader#shen ricky#han yujin#ricky fluff#zb1 ricky fluff#zb1 ricky x reader#ricky shen x reader#ricky shen fluff#quanrui imagines#quanrui#shen quanrui#zerobaseone#zb1#zb1 yujin#gyuvin imagines#zb1 ricky imagines#boys planet ricky
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