## Marriage Discount. P. Sunghoon

## marriage discount. — p. sunghoon

from the world of buy one, take me.

synopsis: after endless of weddings that sunghoon attends to, he's been spending non-stop. so, upon hearing about a discount for married people even if it's just in the dry cleaners, sunghoon tells the employee that the girl, who happens to be you, walked in in the shop is his wife. even if he doesn't know you.

pairing: sunghoon x fem!reader

mentions of: botm!heey/n, botm!jay

content/genre: just a short one (i'm not sure if i will give part 2, but hey let me know), fluff, slight crack

warning(s): swearing. sunghoon jokingly calling heeseung 'daddy' 😭 if there's something, let me know. unproofread

note: this is rlly just short but i think its still cute lol,,, hopefully u guys enjoy this vv short piece HKVDBSHDF im sorry that its short, i rlly wanted it to be long, but yeah HBDSJHSF,, u dont need to read the smau, but for context, 'flower' is hee's nickname for mc in the smau

wc: 2k

sunghoon was annoyed lately. everyone he knows is getting married, so it annoyed the hell out of him. oh, don’t get him wrong. he’s not annoyed because everyone is getting married but him. he’s annoyed because of the fact that weddings are so much work and have to spend money for decency. speaking of money, he’s almost out of it.

sunghoon recently just got promoted in his job and had a raise, but the money just went by a snap because of the said weddings. he had to buy a tux, and it’s the only tux he’s been wearing in weddings. he just attended one the day before, now he’s here in the dry cleaning shop to have his tux cleaned. next month will be jay’s wedding.

he’s happy for them, he really is. and heeseung, too. heeseung recently reconnected with flower and he was insanely happy about it, but sunghoon can’t help, but think that it would heeseung’s wedding next and his money is out again.

“good morning, sir!” the employee greets. he was a bit younger than sunghoon, probably riki’s age or younger. sunghoon mumbles a hello, giving the boy his tux. “where’s your wife, sir?”

“what?” sunghoon asks.

“it’s just, we have a discount for married people.” the boy says and sunghoon, of course, will do anything for discounts. so, when the next person pushes the door open to get in, he wasn’t even thinking.

“there she is.” sunghoon says, pointing at you causing you to stop. he nervously looks at you as you just look between him and the employee.

“what?” you say, raising an eyebrow at him.

sunghoon’s doomed.

“i’m just asking him where his wife is, ma’am. he said it’s you?” the boy asks for confirmation and you look at the man who said that you’re his wife. hm. he’s fucking gorgeous, why not?

“he’s cute.” you mumble under your breath, but you knew they both heard when the man’s cheeks started to grow red. “sure, yeah!” you say and the boy raises an eyebrow. “i just like complimenting my husband. what is this even about?” you ask, chuckling nervously.

“we have discount for married people, ma’am.” he says and sunghoon swears he saw your eyes shine when you heard the word discount.

“really?” you ask and he nods. sunghoon softly smiles when he watches you. “how much?”

“20%.” the employee answers and you nod. “but ma’am, i don’t see any ring on either of you.”

sunghoon softly curses under his breath, but of course, just like sunghoon, you would do everything for discounts. “we pawned them last week.” you lie and sunghoon looks at you. “you know how tough life is lately.” 

“right, i’m sorry. is this tux and that gown all you have for dry cleaning?” he asks and you look at sunghoon.

“yup, that’s all.” he says as you give the gown to the employee. he immediately hangs it on the rack along with sunghoon’s tux and puts it together. “it will be ready in 24 to 48 hours. you can pay for it by then when we text you to pick it up. can i have any of your numbers?”

“sure.” sunghoon says as he takes the pen and paper that the employee gave. “okay, thank you.” he says and the boy says thank you as well. you and sunghoon come out of the dry cleaning shop, turning to the left right away.

“i’m sorry about that—”

“no, no! i needed the discount, too. i should be thanking you.” you say and sunghoon laughs, shaking his head. “you don’t have anyone, do you?”

“no, no!” sunghoon says, shaking his head. “you?”

“no,” you say, chuckling. sunghoon clears his throat, nodding as he doesn’t know what to say anymore, but he needs your number. he was about to speak when you beat him to it. “there’s this bakery that sells these insanely expensive cakes, but they’re good. they give discounts to married couples.” 

sunghoon smiles. “is it that bakery just downtown?” he asks and you nod, smiling. “we need rings, first.” he says and you chuckle. sunghoon talks to you as he drags you to an apartment building, exchanging names, numbers and information that you two need to know about each other until you two started talking about the most random things.

turns out, you were in the same university as he was.

“really? for discounts, you’re pretending to be married to someone you barely know?” sunghoon friend says, then he looks at you. “please don’t take offense, you seem like a lovely person.” he says and you laugh lightly, shaking your head.

“none taken, i know how it sounds.” you say.

“as if you didn’t take flower as a freebie in jay’s bouquet six years ago.” sunghoon says and his friend glares at him. “you barely knew her that time, yet you still did.”

“i didn’t take her as my wife!” he defended and sunghoon only raised his eyebrow at his friend. “and you know i can’t lend you their wedding rings, jay will fucking kill me.”

“how about the wedding rings you bought for you and flower?” sunghoon asks and his friend sighs. “i’ll return it safe and sound, not even a scratch. i promise. and like, let’s be real, you wouldn’t propose right away when you two reunite.”

“excuse me?” he says.

“come on, it took you a century to admit you like flower.” sunghoon says and he feels a poke on his arm. he looks through his shoulder to see you shaking your head.

“not helping.” you say and his friend sighs for the hundredth time. “and you know what? there’s an arcade somewhere where there’s a wedding booth for some reason, let’s just ask them for some fake rings.” 

“no, no.” his friend says, turning around to go to the nearby desk and pulling a drawer out. he grabs a velvet red box, giving it to sunghoon who is holding his hand out. but his friend pulls his hand back. “listen,” he says and sunghoon hums. “you’re going to be careful with this, you’re going to return it to me in the same state that it is, you’re not losing this, and you owe me, okay?”

“yes, daddy.” sunghoon says, jokingly, raising his eyebrows and his friend shakes his head, rolling his eyes as he gives sunghoon the box. “thank you!” sunghoon laughs as he turns around, exiting the apartment as he grabs your hand on the process.

“thank you by the way!” you exclaim and sunghoon’s friend nods. you jog along with sunghoon as you two stop outside of the building. sunghoon puts the ring on you as he puts the other on him. “wait, was that lee heeseung?” you ask. 

“yeah!” sunghoon says. “why?”

“i just remembered the one time i was in flower’s aunt’s shop. she was there with him helping her, but he wasn’t much of a help, actually. he was just goofing around and clinging on flower, trying to pull her away from her work. he kept saying he wanted to go to the movies with her.” you say, remembering six years ago as clear as a day.

sunghoon smiles. “i bet flower said something about kicking seungie’s ass?”

“she did. heeseung stopped and flower just glared at him, putting the flowers down and grabbing her coat, causing heeseung to smile widely.” you laugh, shaking your head. sunghoon chuckles. “anyway, bakery?” 

turns out, not only did the bakery give you a discount, they gave the cake for free and with some drinks. the employees were pretty convinced you two were recently married. sunghoon was just thanking the universe that you were the one who entered that dry cleaning shop.

“well, free lunch. that was great.” you said, walking out of the bakery with sunghoon holding your hand in his. he laughs, nodding. 

“and heeseung thought we were insane.” sunghoon says to which you nod, chuckling. “so… would you mind going around for a bit?” he asks, stopping as he faces you. “i kinda wanna see what more we can abuse with this thing.” he says, pointing at the ring on his finger. you laugh, nodding.

“sure, of course. you wanna see, i don’t know, there?” you say, pointing at an arcade. you look at sunghoon who was just looking at you to which you smiled.

that was the whole day. you two went around town to see if you can get any discounts, even with the stuff you don’t even know. you both acted like a married couple and it was honestly nice. and hey, sunghoon even got a discount for his wedding gift for jay. 

around 11 in the evening, you and sunghoon were silently walking on the way to your apartment. not that you two were tired of talking and got tired of each other, but it felt nice being in comfortable silence with each other as sunghoon softly holds your hand in his. he insisted on walking you home to which you, of course, did not decline. 

park sunghoon is pretty damn cute, after all.

you never know why you never noticed him back in college.

“this is me,” you softly say, stopping as you gesture on the building and sunghoon nods, smiling at you. “today was pretty fun.”

“it was nice being your husband for a day.” sunghoon says and you laugh, nodding. you remove the ring from your finger, giving it to sunghoon as he takes it and puts it in the box, along with his. “i’ll text you when we can get our tux and gown from the dry cleaning place.”

you nod. “thank you, sunghoon.” you softly say and he smiles. you sigh, nodding as you start to walk into the building, but sunghoon was quick to stop you.

“hey, y/n?” he calls.

you turn around right away. “yeah?”

sunghoon gives a soft gentle smile which he gives when he’s shy. “you maybe wanna,” he clears his throat, shrugging. “i don’t know, go on a date after we get them from the dry cleaning place?”

“sure, why not.” you softly say.

“i’ll pay this time.” sunghoon says with a smile. “no pretend marriage for a discount, but as two people on a date where we… get to know more about each other.”

you smile.

“and then, i don’t know,” sunghoon chuckles, shrugging. “from there maybe we can see where it goes.”

“i would love that.” you say, nodding. “um, you have my number, just text me.”

he nods, smiling. you keep your hands in your pocket, smiling as you nod. you were about to go inside, but you stop, turning around to sunghoon and walking up to him. you press a kiss on his cheek, smiling up to him through your lashes.

sunghoon, like the entire day, didn’t know what he was thinking. he leans in, pressing his lips against yours as impulsiveness takes over him. he pulls away, looking into your eyes filled with shock. he nervously chuckles, shrugging.

“i’m sorry.” he apologizes. “i just couldn’t wait for the date, you looked too beautiful up close.”

you chuckle, shaking your head as you bashfully look away, hand on your mouth to cover up your smile. a guy who you didn’t know went to the same university with whom you went around town pretending to be married to get discounts just kissed you.

the guy you know for less than 24 hours has kissed you.

and you wanted to do it again.

you looked at him, chuckling as a big grin grows on your lips. “one more,” you say, holding your hands out to cup his cheeks. sunghoon softly laughs, hands on your elbows as he presses his lips against yours as he feels you kiss back.

eventually, you two had to pull away as you two were smiling too wide, sunghoon resting his forehead against yours. “alright, good night.” you mumble and sunghoon smiles.

“good night.” he softly says and you smile as you pull away, turning around to go inside the building. sunghoon turns around when you’re out of sight, smiling to himself as he walks home.

he stops when he hears his phone ping, he takes it out and reads the message. it was from the dry cleaning place. they can get it tomorrow before lunch right away. sunghoon grins as he goes home.

too excited to see you again.

and who knows, maybe the next wedding he will attend after jay’s is finally his own.

a/n: if botm!heey/n is "she fell first, he fell harder", botm!hoony/n is "proof that you can fall in love within 24 hours". im sorry if this was boring ahbdsjksfhb but yas thank you for reading <3

ALRIGHT. i’ve been eyeing this for so long just wAiting for the perfect time to sit down and read it in one sitting and KSDHIDNDDKH? literally could not stop reading it once i started 🧍. FIRST OF ALL, it’s very difficult to do a mind reading au, yet you absolutely NAILED IT. i can’t put into words how amazing this story is, i adore ynwon’s dynamic they’re just so adorable, teasing won is my favorite 😭

and the way you made every side character just as loveable?? like JIWON MARRY ME, AND NIKI? HE WAS HILARIOUS, each character was so interesting and felt so real despite only having a few lines 🥹🥹🥹 MY FAVORITE SCENE WAS THE CONFRONTATION WHERE SUNOO WONYOUNG AND NIKI FORCED WON TO SPILL THE TEA PLS, love that friend group 😭 ANYWAY, DEAR AUTHOR, YOU HAVE SO MUCH TALENT IT’S UNBELIEVABLE !!

chasin’ your pretty thoughts

PAIRING — Yang Jungwon x Fem!Reader

synopsis: let’s get one thing clear, Jungwon wasn’t a superhero. So what if he woke up one day with the ability to read minds? His lifestyle didn’t need to go through a drastic change. Needless to say, he went on with his life, carrying the weight of responsibility that came with the whole ‘having ESP ordeal’. But it wasn’t until his 18th birthday where his life took a new turn once letting his barriers slip and he found himself lost in your thoughts—your thoughts that revolved around him and maybe, just maybe he finds the quiet daydreamer (you) and the inner workings of her mind intriguing.

(alternatively: in which Yang Jungwon can read minds and he finds himself slowly falling in love with Y/N, an avid daydreamer, through her thoughts that strangely enough were full of him).

GENRE — one-shot, highschool AU, strangers to friends to lovers, fluff, kind of a character study, a smidge of angst.

WARNING(S) — swearing lol, mentions of death but like from embarrassment

WORD COUNT — 22.9K (that definitely exceeded my expectations 🗿)

Keep reading

ADORABLE

dear bus noona — n.rk

pairing: non-idol! nishimura riki x noona! reader

genre: romance, fluff, letter, bus crush (i know cafe crush is kind of a genre but what about bus seatmates?)

inspired by: my bus rides lol

summary: in which ni-ki writes a letter to the noona who’s on his bus every day :)

wc: 646

warnings: older crush(?), mentions of crying, cat canvas bags, sad books (???i liked it so im not sure if it needs a warning)

dear bus noona:

the first time i met you, you stole took my seat. my favourite seat!!! the window seat. and because you were sleeping, your head blocked my view so i nearly missed my stop >:(( next time sit on the outside okay? but you looked kinda cute when you were asleep…

then i started seeing you on the same bus. every single day. IN THE SAME SEAT. i caught a glimpse of your id while you were putting away your bus pass. that’s how i know you’re a noona. clever, aren’t i? :> but anyway. at least you weren’t asleep the second time. you know noona, you should sleep more, instead of relying on the horrible-smelling coffee you carry around all the time. sometimes you stare at the trees passing by, and i guess it relaxes you because after 5 minutes on the bus you look less tense than when you first get on.

last week, you started carrying a really ugly canvas bag. noona, i love cats too but please stop carrying that bag around the poor kitten’s face is misshapen. the manufacturer of your bag doesn’t do cats justice. seriously, the cat face print looks more like a pig than a cat. return it if you bought it, unless you got it as a gift, which in that case please never bring that out in public again. it’s an eyesore.

the other day, you had a new keychain on your bag zipper, with cha eunwoo’s face on it. does noona find him handsome? are you really a cha eunwoo fangirl? i’m even more good-looking than him what’s your favourite kdrama then? i’ve watched a few of the really popular ones but i don’t really know what else to watch. can noona give me some suggestions? so long as they don’t have cha eunwoo in them.

noona, you looked so funny on the bus last wednesday, crying while reading that english book that i can’t remembering the name of. (was it swing sideways? i don’t know.) i’m sorry for laughing at you. but if i hadn’t laughed you wouldn’t have yelled at me for teasing you! so you should thank me for laughing, ok? don’t be mad at me…i just thought it was cute that you could be so worked up about books. even though i’m not close to noona, just watching you has already told me so much about what you’re like. our chat was really fun, and you’re really fun too.

ahhh, noona, sometimes you’re so cute when i see you. your fashion sense makes me wonder if i’m older or you are. you’re so weird, noona! you’re such an odd person, and i can’t help but want to be friends with you. so dear bus noona, talk to me more ok?

with love,

the kid on the bus who squished your crocheting project by accident ♡

riki sighed, head tilting backwards as he leaned back into his chair. the white light from his desk lamp illuminated his ghostly complexion, and he realised he’d been up far too late for a kid who still had school the next day. twirling his favourite pen absentmindedly, riki reread his letter one more time, before humming in satisfaction when he found no more areas to be corrected. in went the fancy parchment paper, and all that was left on riki’s desk was a lavender-scented manila envelope held in place by a piece of twine. (he’d borrowed konon’s perfume, and he’d make sure sola took that secret to the grave.)

unbeknownst to riki, there was a small smile gracing his lips as he went to bed that night. he needed the sleep, after all tomorrow was going to be a big day. with the flip of a switch, the room was plunged into darkness, but the tiny flame of hope in riki’s heart glowed brighter than anything.

a/n: so…here we are. i just think ni-ki’s adorable. i’m not even older than the beloved maknae so why am i writing about being his noona T-T but anyway! this is my first time writing fluff in a long while so im very rusty but it’s my soft hours so enjoy it while it lasts

𝑇𝐻𝐸 7𝑇𝐻 𝑆𝐸𝑁𝑆𝐸: 𝑆𝑈𝑁𝐺𝐻𝑂𝑂𝑁

➪ pairing: dragon!sunghoon x female human!reader

➪ genre(s): angst, fluff

➪ tw: hoon's overworked in one scene, near injury incident, painful shifting scene (poor hoonie :c)

➪ wc: 10.3k

➪ with being the town's resident heartthrob, there isn't a time in your day where you don't hear sunghoon's name leave the mouths of fawning teenage girls. you've never really gotten the hype about him, though maybe that's because you just needed to be given a chance to talk to him for yourself. you quickly find that you're learning more about him than you intend and maybe, just maybe, you start to understand the incessant chatter about him.

a crisp morning breeze swirled around your walking figure and left tendrils of your hair blowing wildly behind you. you shivered lightly, closing the ends of your school uniform jacket tighter around yourself as you made a conscious effort to quicken your pace to the bus stop. the weight of your school bag had you hunching forward at an angle that certainly wasn't going to be helpful to the growth of your spine. you swore that by the end of the year, you'd end up with a back like quasimodo's.

you arrived at the bus stop where your few friends greeted you with equally hunched backs and quivering limbs littered with goosebumps. yuna immediately curled her arms around you and shifted your back to the direction the wind was blowing, effectively using you as a human shield.

"gee, thanks," you murmured less than enthusiastically, but you allowed her to remain hidden nonetheless. "i need to stop by the school library on the way to class to return my book. anyone wanna come with?" you invited, searching between each of your friends' faces and receiving the same sheepish expression in return.

"we kind of already made plans to watch sunghoon's morning practice before class started," ningning confessed apologetically, twirling a strand of her hair mindlessly around her finger. chaerin shrugged her shoulders, mouthing the word sorry to you.

you grunted displeasingly, though you should've expected as much. it seemed to you like every girl and their mothers wanted to bend over backwards just to breathe the same air as park sunghoon. you never understood why, though. you'd admit that he was extremely gifted in the genes department and you knew he was an above average student with exceptional grades, but that also applied to many other guys in your town. what made park sunghoon so different? was it simply because he could skate without falling on his ass with every step he took? jung sungchan could burp the alphabet backwards yet nobody seemed to be impressed by that mad show of skill.

the bus ride was as excruciating as ever having to listen to your friends giggle obnoxiously over the forbidden boy. you let a long sigh draw from your lips as you dug out your library book and began to read it for a third time in a desperate attempt to block them out. the ride could not have lasted any longer and as soon as it pulled into the school parking lot, you, being the ever so lovely friend you were, nearly knocked yuna into the aisle as you clambered over her to be one of the first to exit the bus.

you rushed inside to get away from the incessant sunghoon chatter and the biting wind gusts that nipped the tips of your nose and ears a dull shade of red. with your beloved book clutched firmly to your chest, you easily navigated through the slowly crowding hallways in the direction of the library where you had become a weekly visitor to. greeting the librarian with a warm smile as you slid your returning book over the countertop to her, you turned on your heel to scavenge through the fantasy section for the next book in the series you'd been invested in recently. after locating the next book, you briefly flipped through some of the pages to look for any rips or signs of damage, and to secretly get that bookish scent you weirdly liked.

a ping chimed from your phone in the pocket of your school bag and you hurried to snatch it out, feeling a little flustered at not remembering to have turned the ringer off before you entered the school. a text notification from chaerin asked you to snag a book she needed from the nonfiction section tagged with a bunch of hearts and kissy emojis that had you rolling your eyes fondly. you ventured over to the appropriate book section and began to scan the shelves for the requested book, finding it in almost no time at all. you whirled around in a hurry to check the books out and get to class early and somehow didn't notice the presence slipping along the wall of shelves behind you until your two bodies collided.

"ah, sorry!" you rushed out at the same time the other person had, both of you reaching out to steady the other purely on instinct. your two books tumbled to the floor with muted thumps that the rough carpet muffled slightly. glancing up at the person who you'd nearly ran over, you felt the oxygen inside of you come to a screeching halt behind the invisible barrier your throat had created as your eyes made contact with the forbidden boy's.

"it was an accident, no worries. are you alright?" a gentle smile easily graced his lips as he retracted his hands from you before bending down to gather up the two books you had dropped, handing them out to you after straightening back up. you accepted them back into your own hands as you tried to force your lungs to start working properly again, quickly dropping your gaze from his face so that you could do so easily.

"i'm fine, thank you," you echoed quietly, immediately clutching the books to your chest like you had done previously. what was wrong with you? more importantly, what was wrong with him that resulted in there being something wrong with you? "shouldn't you be at the ice rink?" you blurted out, surprising even yourself with the question that really was none of your business nor did you really care what the reason was...didn't you?

sparing another glance at his face proved to be a fatal mistake as you were once again left with dysfunctional lungs. a short chuckle reverberated from him as he shoved his hands into the pockets of his uniform's pants. "i'm just looking for something before i go. are you eager to watch?" something about the way he asked the question didn't seem arrogant like you'd expected it to, though that definitely didn't stop you from instantly becoming defensive in the face of fluster.

you scoffed, letting the puff of air pass humorlessly through your lips as you moved to take a step around him. "i'm not exactly the fangirl type. my friends are going down there to watch you so i thought you'd be there already," you objected, beginning to take slow and languid steps towards the front desk to check out the books. sunghoon's eyes followed you as you moved and you couldn't help but feel nervous under his burning gaze.

"oh, i see. well, you're always welcome to stop by if you ever find yourself with some free time, no fangirl label attached." he flashed that charming smile once more before turning to slink further into the library, leaving you to scurry to the desk and then to your class.

"you'd better never give that book back," yuna decreed with an envious pout casted in chaerin's direction from across the table. you rolled your eyes briefly before returning to the paragraph you were in the midst of reading from your newly acquired book, only half listening to the conversation at hand.

"it's checked out under my name, don't do anything unspeakable with it. i'm not letting any of you ruin my reputation as a responsible book handler," you quipped, your eyes not once leaving the pages sat open before you.

"forget about the book, y/n actually made physical contact with him. look, i think her skin is glowing now." ningning abruptly grabbed your hand to inspect it too closely under the fluorescent lighting of the classroom, yuna leaning in to observe your palm as well.

jerking your hand back to yourself with your lip curled in revulsion, you placed your marker in your book and closed it up just as the professor entered the room to start the lesson. you hadn't made it more than half an hour into the lesson when you experienced your lungs failing you once more. the professor started the class by briefly going over a new project you would be starting this semester, only the project was one half of a collaboration with another class that you weren't taking and each person would be paired up with someone from the other class. it wasn't that bad in your opinion, though you'd definitely much rather work with one of your friends. where it all went south for you was the minute the professor began to read off the pairing assignments aloud.

"chaerin will be partnered up with yang jeongin." chaerin shrugged, muttering something along the lines of how her partner could have been worse. "y/n will be partnered up with park sunghoon."

the millisecond the words had been uttered into existence, it seemed as though everyone collectively stopped everything they were doing and turned to stare you down. your wide eyes frantically searched your friends' equally shellshocked faces, their mirrored expressions letting you know that you had indeed heard the professor correctly. slowly, you slumped down in your seat as you could feel dozens of envious eyes boring holes into you from all angles of the room. a dizzying mix of emotions flooded you at once and left you barely functioning through the remainder of the class.

as you wandered down the hallway with your friends pestering you about your newly acquired project partner, the dread you'd been feeling amplified tenfold after rounding the corner and spotting the forbidden boy just at the opposite end with his own friends. you kept your head down and prayed to every god, goddess, and magical holiday being that he wouldn't say anything to you. of course, you'd probably forgotten to have a little chat with the tooth fairy or something as the exact opposite of what you'd been asking for happened.

"hey!" you'd planned to just pretend to not have realized that sunghoon was calling out to you, but of course your conniving friends weren't allowing that to happen. ningning grabbed at the nape of your shirt, promptly halting you in your steps and simultaneously nearly choking you out. you swallowed back the urge to groan aloud and forced a tight-lipped smile as sunghoon veered from his group of friends to stop directly before you. "you're y/n, right? i think we're paired up for that project."

you nodded stiffly. "yep, looks like we are." you were acutely aware of the stares you got from students passing by and the much unwanted attention had you shrinking in on yourself slightly.

"when should we meet up to start on it? i'm free after practice so if it works out for you, we can head to the library or something." an invisible cloud of warmth seemed to envelop you out of nowhere, causing you to squirm in slight discomfort.

before you could open your mouth to respond, ningning's voice spoke up on behalf of you much to your dismay. "she'll meet you there!" she chirped, successfully dodging the elbow you tried to land against her abdomen.

"cool, i'll see you later then," sunghoon answered before moving around the four of you to catch back up to his friends once more.

"did you feel that? he's so hot that he has his own climate," yuna hissed out in a harsh whisper as the group of you continued on towards your collective destination to the art room. you rolled your eyes, this time allowing the defeated groan to slip past your lips. though now your curiosity had been sparked knowing that the other girls had felt the wave of heat, also.

by the end of the day, you were sick of hearing about sunghoon more than usual. but, with all the unlucky energy you'd somehow managed to absorb over this 24-hour period, you found yourself begrudgingly following your friends to the school's ice rink for the first time in, well, ever. your lack of appearances to sunghoon's practices proved to be more of a disadvantage than you'd first thought after seeing your friends bundle up in warm coats and hats. thankfully, chaerin had additionally brought a blanket that she was more than willing to let you use.

you weren't sure whether or not to feel surprised by the number of seats in the stands that had already been taken up by female students of varying grade levels. did all these people really not have anything more important to do? following your eager friends into one of the rows closest to the front, you dropped your school bag to the ground and immediately fished out your book before slouching in the cushioned seat. you had no problem tuning out the noise around you as it had been a skill you'd learned to do quite quickly in your school career. however, it wasn't the constant buzz of conversations being held around you or even the sudden burst of cheers and encouraging words shouted from the stands as you imagined sunghoon gliding out onto the ice that distracted you, but it was the sight you caught from your peripheral vision of a lithe body launching up into the air in a triple axel before landing with such grace back onto the ice.

from all the talk you'd heard around school, you knew he was good at what he did though you did convince yourself that his talent was being a bit exaggerated by overenthusiastic fans. you definitely didn't expect him to be this skilled, and you couldn't help but let your eyes subtly follow him over the top of your book as he continued to flawlessly execute impossible looking tricks. with each successful landing, high pitched shouts of praise would echo into the rink and it didn't take long for your head to start ringing with signs of an impending headache. the chilly air definitely wasn't helping your case either and left your ears, nose, and cheeks dusting a light shade of red.

"ooh, y/n's interest has been sparked," yuna crowed teasingly above the noise of another cheer, giving your shoulder a playful shake. it didn't take long for ningning and chaerin to join in on the friendly banter at your expense. though you once more showed your displeasure with a signature eye roll, you couldn't mask the small smile that crept onto your lips as you tried to fixate your attention back to the words littering the pages of your book.

"he's alright," you admitted quietly. he may be alright, but that didn't mean you were going to drop to your knees at the mere sight of him. you simply had to tolerate him long enough to get your project finished with a decent grade, then you'd hopefully never have to be seen with him again.

clearly you underestimated the effort you'd have to put into deliberately avoiding the forbidden boy. it seemed as though every corner you turned, he was there with his flock of fangirls crowding him and his friends. and of course he couldn't go a single encounter without acknowledging you each time with a wave or a smile which effectively drew the attention of his fanclub to you. you couldn't even use the restroom without noticing a trio of girls whispering in the corner and casting pointed looks in your direction.

ningning and yuna brushed your concerns off each time you brought up the situation which only frustrated you even more. maybe they were right, though, maybe you really were just overreacting. you had nothing to hide, there was no secret relationship to keep from the eyes and ears of the student body. in fact, you wouldn't even consider there to be a secret friendship to conceal. you met up at the library after school each day to work on the assignment, rarely speaking about anything off the topic of such, then you'd pack up and head your separate ways after about an hour or two of working. there was hardly anything for anyone to be jealous about.

one thing that you could appreciate, though, was sunghoon's punctuality. every day after his practice, he was meeting up with you in the library at exactly 4:45 sharp to begin working. it had become an unspoken agreement that was shared between the two of you that 4:45 was your designated meeting time. so, when you'd glanced up at the wall clock ticking above the library door and saw that the time read fifteen minutes past, your brows furrowed confusedly. pulling out your phone to make sure that the clock on the wall wasn't just running fast, the digital numbers on your lockscreen confirmed that it was indeed past time and sunghoon was late.

it was only then that you slightly regretted not exchanging phone numbers, of course only for emergency purposes such as this. deciding you'd wait just a few minutes longer, you continued to work on your portion of the joined project. after glancing up a bit later and noticing that ten more minutes had passed with still no sign of sunghoon, you let out an irritated huff and began to pack up your things, swinging your bag over your shoulders before wandering out of the library. there was only one possible place you could think to look for him in which, unfortunately for you, was located at the opposite side of the school.

you made the three minute trek to the ice rink and pushed inside of the double doors leading into the stands. unusually, there were no students occupying the seats, but there was one person occupying the rink. sunghoon. you ventured further into the chilly arena with your arms folded protectively over yourself, a shiver creeping up your spine as goosebumps rose on the exposed patches of your skin. you opened your mouth to call out to sunghoon when another voice echoed much to your surprise.

"do it again!" scanning the seats, you didn't see anyone else out there which only served to confuse you more. taking a few more cautious steps down the aisle, you could just barely make out the top of someone's head on the other side of the rink's walls, the person watching as sunghoon glided around inside.

"i need a break," you heard sunghoon call back to the person, the exhaustion in his voice painfully evident as he bent over slightly with his hands braced against his thighs for support, his back heaving up and down with heavy breaths. copious amounts of steam rolled off of him and nearly enveloped him in a smoky cloud, and you wondered just how cold it really was in that rink.

"what you need is to perfect that transition, now do it again," the person barked back mercilessly. your eyes grew slightly wide as you watched in silence, too afraid to make your presence known now.

without another word, sunghoon straightened back up and wiped at the sweat collecting on his forehead before skating a few laps around the rink to build his momentum back up. you noticed the way that he seemed to drag his feet as he went, and a small pinch of worry had your heart skipping a beat or two. as you'd seen him do the week before, he launched himself into the air in a perfect triple axel, then again in a double, and then– an involuntary shriek slipped past your lips as sunghoon's body collapsed onto the ice with a hard thud, your hands immediately flying up to cover your face.

"hey!" the man outside of the ring whirled around abruptly at the sound of your shriek. "we said no watchers today, get out!"

sunghoon's head lifted at the sound of you being scolded, the steam still rising around his body as he lay in a heap on the ice. "y/n?" he called out, tiredly pushing himself back up to his feet. despite the seething glare of the man, who you'd figured was a coach of some sort, you found yourself rushing down the aisle of the stands and hurrying to the gate leading into the rink. just barely making it to the wall before his legs began to buckle again, sunghoon grabbed onto your outstretched hand and hobbled over the threshold.

"are you okay? do you need to see the nurse? i think she's still here." you allowed sunghoon to lean against you as he slipped on the blade guards, the heat radiating off of him causing you to feel immensely hot in a matter of seconds. you pushed that to the back of your mind for the time being as you helped him over to the bench, gingerly lowering him down onto it.

"he'll be fine," the man sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose as he followed the two of you over. wordlessly, sunghoon weakly lifted a finger to point behind you and you easily located the object he was asking for.

you grabbed the water bottle and even took the initiative to open the cap for him before handing it over, fixing a hard glare at the man standing over you shortly after. "i don't think that's for you to decide," you bit out harshly. "you should feel ashamed of yourself, he told you he needed a break."

a small chuckle sounded from sunghoon after he had lowered the water bottle from his lips, quickly wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "i'm not hurt, y/n, promise," he assured you with a warming smile. "just a little tired." still, you shot one last unfriendly look towards the man before rising from your crouched position in front of sunghoon, crossing your arms over your chest.

"we need to get back to practice, so if you'd kindly take your leave–"

ignoring the man, you pointedly kept your attention on sunghoon. "you should get back home and rest, it seems like you've been here long enough." you weren't sure where this sudden urge to look out for him came from. just minutes prior, you were thinking up new ways to dodge him in the hallways and had even considered asking the professor to trade partners. you definitely still weren't one-hundred percent happy about the situation, though something inside of you now deterred you from your negative thoughts. maybe you actually felt bad for sunghoon, at least for now.

brushing off your words of concern with another pretty smile, sunghoon instead sat his water bottle down next to his feet before leaning with his back against the concrete half wall separating the three of you from the stands. "i'm sorry i didn't make it to the library today. we can work an extra day this weekend if you'd like to make up for it," he apologized sincerely, reaching up to wipe more sweat from his brow.

you were quick to shake your head adamantly. "no, don't worry about it. we're almost done with it anyways and we still have plenty of time before it's due."

sunghoon's gaze remained fixated on your face as you spoke, his eyes tracing over your features with a certain intensity that made you start to feel hot all over again. you swallowed thickly, shifting your weight to one side as you were the first to break eye contact with him. you hated that, you hated how you slowly began to see and understand the things that your friends gushed about constantly. sunghoon had a way of making you feel like you were the main love interest in a cheesy romance drama with the constant lingering gazes and endless smiles casted in your direction. surely it was your own mind playing tricks on you as you gradually found yourself beginning to think more and more about him regardless of your persistence to avoid him. no matter what it was that you were thinking about, it somehow always involved sunghoon.

clearing your throat awkwardly, you adjusted your bag on your shoulders and began to take slow steps towards the stands in order to make your exit. "so, you're sure you're going to be okay?" you queried, your brows furrowed with uncertainty.

sunghoon nodded. "i'll be okay, thank you. i'll see you tomorrow, y/n, and i promise to actually be there on time," he answered lightheartedly despite having nearly suffered a serious injury just moments prior. with one last wary glance, you nodded before treading back the way you had come.

"are you going to the dance?" your hand paused mid-writing and your eyes briefly darted up to glance across the table, finding sunghoon still working diligently. you narrowed your eyes slightly before diverting your attention back to your open textbook.

"no," you deadpanned in response.

"why not?" sunghoon pressed. "i'm going."

you snickered, "is that supposed to make me want to go?" perhaps it did a bit, but you were far too stubborn to admit it even to yourself.

sunghoon just laughed lightly in return, then it stayed quiet between you two as you continued working on the last bits of your project. it had been three days since the incident at the ice rink and neither of you had spoken about it since. in fact, neither of you had spoken at all until just moments ago; he had even stopped saying hello to you in the hallways. it didn't bother you...no, really, it didn't!

"are you not going with your friends?" he asked, sitting back in his chair after dropping his pencil atop the table with a short clatter. once more, you glanced up at him briefly before adverting your gaze away from him.

"no, chaerin's going with someone from another school, ningning will be out of town that weekend, and yuna's stuck babysitting for the night. besides, i have tests to study for," you sighed heavily, also dropping your pencil between the pages of your textbook before leaning back in your own chair. still, you refused to meet sunghoon's gaze.

"i'm sure if you asked someone to go with you, they'd say yes. you only get to experience high school once, you know."

you snorted lightly in response, crossing your arms over your chest. "unless you're lucky enough to repeat a year or two. besides, i don't have anyone i'm interested in asking."

sunghoon hummed softly, nodding as he reached out to begin twirling his pencil between his fingers. "i see, but what if there's someone who's interested in asking you?"

you raised your eyebrows skeptically, finally managing to spare the forbidden boy a few seconds of eye contact. "if you're implying that you want to ask me, then i'm sorry for bursting your bubble but i'm not going."

sunghoon's mouth dropped open for a few seconds before it closed again and he cleared his throat awkwardly. "uh, actually one of my friends, jisung, wanted to ask you. don't worry about it, though, he'll ask someone else."

you wanted to punch yourself. of course sunghoon wasn't going to ask you, why would you assume he was going to? your face flushed red with embarrassment and you were forced to look away from him. "oh," you answered dumbly, your fingers finding each other as they twiddled nervously.

"i'm already going with someone." of course he was, you weren't surprised at all by this revelation. were you disappointed, though? maybe just the slightest bit.

you forced a tight-lipped smile as you picked your pencil back up, hunching back over your textbook once more. "she must be a lucky girl, then," you ventured, indicating with your lack of enthusiasm that you were done with the conversation.

picking up on your cue, sunghoon let a long sigh draw from his lips before leaning over his own book. you sucked your bottom lip between your teeth as your brain failed to focus on the task at hand and instead opted to flood with thoughts about the dance. your school hosted its annual halloween dance the week before the spooky holiday and you'd never been interested in going until that point. of course the one year you'd decided to try coming out of your antisocial shell, the universe wanted to work against you by taking your friends out of the equation. not wanting to go alone, you had stuffed the thought to the back of your mind, but now that you actually had a chance to go, you were definitely starting to rethink your decisions.

finally getting fed up with your overthinking, you hastily opened up your notebook and tore out a piece of paper. you scribbled your contact information down before folding it up and shoving it across the table at an unsuspecting sunghoon. "give that to your friend," you spoke shortly before resuming your task, thankfully with much more peace of mind.

another silent week passed before the halloween dance was taking place and you were anxiously waiting in your living room with chaerin and her date for jisung to arrive and pick the three of you up. you felt that you looked like the female lead in a cheesy coming of age movie who'd just had her glow up, and you honestly couldn't decide whether or not it was an experience you enjoyed. with your hair twisted up in an elaborate updo and shimmering eyeshadow decorating your lids, it was safe to say that you hadn't felt this feminine in a long time and it made you a bit self-conscious.

glancing up at the sound of a car pulling into your driveway, you were met with a momentary wave of relief as you stood from your seat and smoothed down the silky material of your dress. however, that relief lasted all of five seconds when your overenthusiastic parents came scrambling into the living room with cameras galore, insisting that they get pictures of you with everyone before you left. your cheeks flared bright red as you opened up the door to let jisung inside, muttering a quick apology for what was about to take place before accepting your defeat and letting the slightly embarrassing photoshoot happen.

after your parents were satisfied, the four of you left in a hurry and you hobbled to jisung's car in your uncomfortable heels. you thanked him genuinely with a smile as he opened the passenger door for you and helped you inside, even going the extra mile to make sure the skirt of your dress was safely tucked inside of the car before gently closing the door. jisung was a sweet boy, that much you had come to learn quite quickly. he was prone to becoming a flustered mess in your presence and he ever so shyly asked if you wanted to match color themes with him for the dance which you couldn't say no to. there was definitely nothing wrong with him, but your mind constantly seemed to be somewhere else.

that proved to still be an issue as the next thing you knew, your door was being opened once more much to your surprise. trying to mask the fact that you had just completely zoned out the entire eight minute ride to the school grounds, you placed your hand in jisung's offered palm and allowed him to help you slide out of the car with grace. your arm naturally slid to link with his as the four of you made your way to the entrance of the school where each couple or friend group paused to have their pictures taken by the school's yearbook team.

a short wolf whistle caught your attention after the last photo was snapped, then the unmistakable voice of the class president bellowed above the noise. "is that miss y/n?"

your cheeks flushed with embarrassment as multiple pairs of eyes instantly drew to you. "shut up, chenle!" jisung hollered back before swiftly leading you into the gymnasium with chaerin and her date close behind.

the vast room was fully decked out in halloween decorations and pulsing purple lights lit up the otherwise darkened gym. orange and black streamers seemed to hang everywhere you turned and decorative tablecloths lined the snacks and drinks tables. a photo booth was set up in the far corner and students were already moving around on the open dance floor as overplayed songs bumped from the large speakers placed near the stage.

"let's go, what are we waiting for?" chaerin called above the sound of the music before grabbing both your and her date's hands and dragging you to the dance floor, your free hand instinctively clasping onto jisung's to take him with you.

you had no idea how to dance and you quickly started kicking yourself, thankfully not literally, for not thinking to learn different moves other than the awkward shuffle you had been doing for the last two songs. luckily, it seemed that jisung had no idea what he was doing either and both of you continued to giggle and poke fun at each other into the third song of the night. well, that was until jisung got suckered into the middle of a dance circle where he completely changed your assumption on his dancing abilities as he absolutely decimated the classmate who had challenged him to the small dance-off in the first place.

"where's sunghoon?" just as jisung had returned to your side after being congratulated with slaps on his back and encouraging words, a girl whom you were slightly familiar with had strutted right up to the two of you with her arms folded unamusedly over her chest. "i've been looking for him for ten minutes, text him or something. he's your friend, isn't he?" she demanded jisung with an unpleasant scowl on her otherwise pretty features.

jisung's lips parted slightly in bewilderment before hurriedly starting to pat at his various pockets to locate his phone. you quirked a challenging eyebrow in her direction, "you don't have his number?"

she scoffed, fixing her steely glare at you. "no, do you?" she bit back venomously, a satisfied smug look crossing her features as you remained silent.

"i'll come find you when he replies," jisung announced, locking his phone to slot back into his pocket when the device was abruptly snatched out of his hand.

"or," she snipped, "you'll stay with me until he replies."

jisung glanced back and forth between the two of you unsurely, prompting an irritated noise to rumble from within your throat as you bent down to hastily remove your shoes from your feet. "for god's sake, i'll go look for him," you sighed before whirling around and storming out of the gymnasium with your bare feet slapping noisily against the tiled floors of the hallway. you immediately knew where to look as should anyone who knew anything about sunghoon.

bursting carelessly through the doors leading to the ice rink, your voice immediately rang around the echoey arena. "park sunghoon!" as you marched down the aisle between the stands, you found the body of none other than the boy of the hour laying flat on his back in the middle of the rink with his limbs spread out. his head turned in your direction as you eventually made it to the gate, your figure already beginning to quiver with the cold that blew over your exposed skin. "what are you doing in here?"

"i like to come here when i need to cool off," he answered nonchalantly, not making any effort to move from his starfish pose on the hard ice. surely it was uncomfortable, right?

"right, because it must be such hard work being adored by the masses," you surmised, rolling your eyes despite the small smile that wanted to tug the corners of your lips up.

sunghoon's mouth dropped open in mock offense. "ah, if it wasn't so cold in here, i'd almost say that burned."

once more, you granted him another eye roll though this time a half-hearted chuckle managed to escape from your lips. the steam rolling off of him caught your attention once more, and this time you couldn't find it in yourself to let it slide. "wow, you really do have your own climate," you commented, leaning forward to drape your arms across the top of the gate leading into the rink.

sunghoon raised his eyebrows in question. "i do? is that your way of saying i'm hot?" the amount of heat that rose to your cheeks should've created your own shield of steam in the chilly arena.

you quickly diverted your gaze to somewhere off in the distance to refrain from showing him just how flustered that stupid question made you. "no," you asserted, "it's something stupid my friends say."

"right, of course..." he trailed off before finally pushing himself up into a seated position. "how did you know i'd be here?"

you scoffed, "please, you're so predictable. the school's ice skater disappears during a time where he's needed, of course the only logical place to look would be in the ice rink. it doesn't take rocket science to figure that out."

sunghoon laughed lightly, giving a short nod in response. "i guess you're right. can i ask another question?"

"you just did," you deadpanned, "but sure, go for it i guess."

"why did you come looking for me?" the teasing glint in his eye gave away exactly what he was thinking and you were quick to shut that theory of his down.

"funny you should ask. your date is holding mine hostage until you return, so unless you'd like to explain to her parents why you're returning her home damaged, then it may be in your best interest to come claim her."

sunghoon held your gaze for a few moments longer before nodding and pushing himself up onto his feet. taking slow and stiff strides towards the gate, he once more grasped your outstretched palm and stepped over the threshold onto solid, non-slippery ground. the heat he radiated engulfed you just as it had done before and the goosebumps and incessant shivering you'd been enduring ceased at once. something about it felt odd to you, no person should constantly be running this warm. previously you'd just chalked it up to him overworking himself in the rink, but this time he had simply been laying there. your curiosity got the best of you as you fell into step next to sunghoon while making your trek back to the gymnasium.

"are you feeling okay?" you asked, twirling the strap of one of your heels around your hand as you walked. you peeked at him through your peripheral vision and noticed him doing the same in your direction.

"yes, i'm okay. just a little nervous, i guess. why do you ask?"

you almost wanted to ask why the hell he of all people would be feeling nervous, but you were sharp enough to see what he was trying to do. "you're always abnormally hot, and before you let it boost your ego, i mean it quite literally."

sunghoon breathed out a small laugh. "i wasn't going to think about it like that, anyways." he shook his head slightly before continuing, "i guess i just always run a bit warmer than other people. i get that from my father's side, he's quite a heater, as well."

you sucked your cheeks in slightly, not buying his story for even a second. but, for argument's sake and because ultimately it wasn't really your place to poke your nose in his business, you gave a simple nod and paused just outside of the gym to slip your heels back on. a sharp intake of breath filled your lungs as sunghoon stopped alongside you, then knelt down to begin fastening the straps of your shoes after you'd slid them back on. wordlessly, he rose back to his feet and flashed that swoon worthy smile of his before entering the chaotic gymnasium with you following in tow, your mind void of all things except for the forbidden boy.

"hey, y/n!" a voice hissed in a loud whisper. you turned to your left, ready to use the book in your hand to defend yourself with until you recognized who the owner of the voice was. you let your guard back down with a small sigh, clutching the book to your chest as jisung came trotting up to you. "are you busy this friday?"

you hesitated before shaking your head negatively, your brows creasing together slightly. "no, why?"

jisung scratched the back of his neck which, you'd learned in the few days prior to your date to the dance, was a nervous habit of his. it was endearing, you decided. "well, some of my friends and i are gonna go trick or treating and i wanted to see if you'd like to join us," he explained in a hushed tone, shifting from one foot to the other as he glanced between the library book shelves.

"oh," you started, "uh, who specifically does that include?"

"me, chenle, taehyun, jinha..." he listed off a few more students before the name you were silently hoping you wouldn't hear; or, maybe you did hope to hear it, "...and sunghoon."

you swallowed thickly before shifting your focus to your worn shoes below. "do you mind if i bring some of my friends?" you finally asked, bringing your eyes back up to meet jisung's once more. he nodded rapidly, and you found yourself agreeing to tag along much to his delight. he quickly told you where the designated meeting spot would be before bounding further into the library with a giddy smile. you knew how he felt about you, he was really quite horrible at hiding it whenever you were around, but you couldn't find it in your heart to shut him down. you'd never had anyone crush on you before, at least not to your knowledge, what were you supposed to do with this information?

it didn't take very much convincing for your three friends to agree to going after you'd said the magic word, that being sunghoon. so, that friday night you found yourself waltzing to the decided meeting spot dressed as one of four ninja turtles to correspond with the three others your friends represented. you honestly couldn't remember what your turtle's name was, but you did enjoy the fact that you got to carry around a huge wooden staff. at least you now had a reason to yield a weapon to knock yuna upside the head with if she pestered you about the forbidden boy too much.

"are we ready to go?" ningning asked aloud after the four of you had arrived, swinging her empty pumpkin bucket around.

"no, sunghoon's not answering," the only other girl there answered with a harsh huff, and you immediately recognized her from the school dance.

you frowned a little, glancing around until you caught jisung's eye from across the group. he only shrugged animatedly and glanced back down at his phone like he was waiting for a notification to suddenly pop up.

"has anyone checked up on him at his house or anything?" you questioned, a scoff of disbelief falling from your lips as everyone shook their heads. "some friends you are," you sighed heavily. "then maybe we should split up to search for him? some of us check at his house, some check at the places he's at most, and the rest can check at the school. maybe he got held back during practice or something."

slowly but surely, the group dispersed in small search parties which resulted in you traveling to the school with jisung and jinha. "hey, geniuses, how do you plan to get into the school? we can't break in unless we want to start criminal records," jinha nagged from the backseat.

"chenle snagged his mom's id card so we can get inside," jisung replied, holding up the school staff badge that all school workers wore clipped to their shirts during the day.

you took the badge from jisung's hand to examine it, seeing that it was indeed the vice principal's id stamped on the front of the glossy plastic. "why does he just randomly have this?" you implored before handing it back to the boy just as he pulled into the school's parking lot.

"he stole it last year and made her think she lost it so she'd get a new one. he keeps this one in case he needs to get inside for...certain activities." sensing that jisung wasn't going to elaborate any further, you didn't push for more details and climbed out of the vehicle.

"great, so now i'm associated with a criminal," jinha pouted as the three of you charged up to the entrance, jisung hastily swiping the card across the reader panel before the doors unlocked with a loud clunk.

you rolled your eyes, leading the way inside where you were met with nothing but darkness. "don't worry, i'm sure your boyfriend will find a way to bail you out," you retorted as the three of you collectively fished out your phones to utilize their flashlights.

"of course he will, but i still don't want it on my track record."

"i think we should split up to look," you announced, quickly growing fed up with jinha's whiny attitude.

"you're insane, there's no way in hell i'm wandering around this school alone! that's how the characters all die in horror movies. jisung, you're coming with me," she stated firmly before grasping his wrist and yanking him down the east wing.

"good riddance," you muttered to yourself as you made your way down the west wing. you had to admit, the school seemed much more daunting at night with the eerily quiet hallways and the usually blocked out sounds of various electrical units running. your heart began to thud harder and faster in your chest the further into the school you crept, and eventually you had to stop and lean against the wall of lockers to collect yourself. you'd finally gotten your breathing and heart rate back to normal when you heard it, and your blood turned to ice immediately.

you held your breath, the thumping of your heart rising again as you strained to listen for the sound to come again. you took a few hesitant steps forward with your flashlight shakily guiding you before you heard it a second time. a cry of pain, it was distant but you definitely heard it and it only served to frighten you more. immediately, you began to back up the way you had just come from when a sudden feeling struck you hard.

go look.

the feeling was intense and it had you halting in your backtracking steps. why would you want to investigate? you had no idea what or who was making that noise, and you wanted no part in whatever was happening. but, no matter how hard you tried, you couldn't shake the incessant feeling that begged you to go see what was going on. with a final deep breath to clear your body of its nerves, you began to move forward down the hallway again. you weren't sure where you were supposed to be looking, but you guessed you'd just follow the sounds. another anguished cry faintly tickled your ears, then–

the ice rink.

swallowing down the urge to break down under the immense fear coursing through your veins, you bolted for the arena and came to a halt just outside of the heavy metal doors leading into the stands. you pressed your ear against the door to listen for any signs of life inside and jumped back with a yelp of surprise as the heated metal made contact with your cheek. why was it so hot? was there a fire inside? what if someone was trapped?

clutching your phone tightly in your hand, you busted through the doors and were met with a wave of unbearably sweltering heat that choked you up for only a moment or two. the air was thick with humidity and it didn't take long for your body to begin reacting to the overwhelming warmth of the arena.

in the center of the ice rink, a thick cloud of smoke nearly hid the hunched silhouette of a person who emitted the same pained cry that you'd been hearing. it couldn't be...

"sunghoon?" you called out above the loud sizzle that echoed off the walls of the vast room. throwing caution to the wind, you charged down the aisle and over to the gate where you had stood all those times prior. the closer you drew to the rink, the hotter the air became until you were sure your hair would singe if you moved any closer. "sunghoon, is that you? what's going on?" you called again, watching with squinted vision as the shadowed figure curled in on themself after letting out a guttural groan.

"leave!" he growled out quite literally, the sound unlike anything you'd ever heard a human produce. it shot a spike of fear down your spine, but regardless you remained planted by the gate. the ice around him was rapidly melting into water and evaporating into the air, adding to the thick fog encasing his body.

"i'll call for help, just stay put!" you called out once more, your shaky hands fumbling with your phone as you tried to navigate from your flashlight to your phone app to call for emergency services.

"no, don't!" the same gravelly voice grumbled, effectively stopping you from proceeding with your actions as you glanced up with wide, panic stricken eyes. slowly, he began to drag his body out of the curtain of steam and a stunned silence fell over you as a pair of brightly glowing green eyes met with yours. your phone fell to the ground with a clatter and your lips parted in a silent scream that never made it out. "y/n, please, don't tell anyone," he pleaded before dropping to the ice with another cry, his body twisting and writhing around in discomfort.

red scales painted his bare torso in random patches that ran all the way down his arms and crept up his neck, and his spine visibly rippled as small spikes began to push through his skin. if you weren't in such a state of shock, you'd almost be sickened by the sight of it, though that shock quickly morphed into concern as you watched him drag his nails against the ice in a feeble attempt to relieve the pain undoubtedly coursing through his body. now, you felt bad, bad enough to have you pushing the gate open and crouching down to scoot along the melting ice towards him.

"y/n, i'll burn you. stay back," he wheezed out, taking immediate notice of your presence creeping closer to him. against your urges, you heeded his warning and remained planted in your spot near the rink's wall.

"what are you?" you couldn't help but ask as you watched more tiny spikes travel down the length of his spine.

sunghoon's green eyes tiredly met yours, then a small amused grunt tumbled from his lips. "what are you?"

sensing that he wanted a distraction from whatever it was he was going through, you found it in your heart to play along. "i'm a ninja turtle, duh," you proclaimed, pointing to the colored bandana tied around your head. "leo, i think," you mused, racking your brain for all names you could remember.

"you're donnie, y/n. he's the super smart one," sunghoon corrected with a fatigued laugh which quickly turned into a whimper as he winced in pain. your body screamed at you to crawl over and console him, but your brain won the argument and you remained seated.

"oh, well then i guess i should take that as a compliment since my friends threw this costume at me," you chuckled, gesturing to the props and clothing covering you.

"he's also kind of a nerd and hopelessly in love with a girl he can't have."

"there's always a catch, isn't there?" you sighed dramatically, leaning back on your palms. "well, i guess he and i aren't very different after all," you admitted, your face flushing even hotter than it already was. was this really how you were going to confess your feelings? in a melting ice rink with some sort of hot demon boy rolling around in front of you? the thought alone was absurd enough to pull a laugh from you.

"you like a girl?" sunghoon teased, and you soon found yourself wanting to use your staff to whack him with but decided he was already suffering enough.

"no, stupid, i like–" you cut yourself off before you could say it out loud, swiftly moving your attention to the watering layer of ice beneath you. "never mind."

you felt the air heat up even hotter for a split second before it suddenly died down, like a bucket of water had been thrown on the blazing fire heating the room up. taking a glance around, nothing seemed to have changed other than the cloud of smoke that had now moved to encompass the both of you. sunghoon pushed himself up with shaky limbs and began to crawl closer to you much to your surprise before dropping down right beside you with his head in your lap.

he was still burning up and the heat was highly uncomfortable, but the way that he instantly sighed in relief upon making contact with you had your heart doing somersaults in your chest. with a weary hand, you gently brushed the sweaty locks away from his forehead and allowed him to nestle his cheek into the palm of your hand. the blood rushed through your veins tenfold as little sparks of something ignited inside of your chest. there was no point in denying it now, it was inevitable from day one and you knew it no matter how hard you tried to deny your feelings.

you liked park sunghoon.

"you know," he cleared his throat, his eyes slipping shut, "i hopelessly like a girl who i can't have, too." you tried so hard to not stare at the sharp canines inside of his mouth as he spoke.

"oh please," you scoffed quietly, "name one person in this school who wouldn't throw themselves at your feet."

"you," he answered without missing a beat, a small smile gracing his lips as his eyelids fluttered back open to greet you with his glowing irises. "i wanted to take you to the dance, you know."

your mouth fell agape at the revelation, your brain turning to absolute mush as you tried desperately to form a single coherent thought. between the heat of the room and the heat of sunghoon's stare trained on your lips, you felt like you were mere minutes away from ascending to the afterlife.

you shook your head slightly to wake yourself back up, your brows drawing together slightly in confusion. "then why didn't you? you could've asked me before you asked jinha," you queried, finally able to collect yourself enough to speak again.

sunghoon scoffed, "did you not see the way you reacted to me when you thought i was asking you? i knew you'd reject me, it's kind of your thing."

"oh," you answered dumbly, busying yourself with combing his damp locks back away from his face as they insisted on falling down to cover his forehead.

"plus, jisung had already expressed that he wanted to ask you and it would've been shitty of me as his friend to ask you first." he sighed, pursing his lips as his gaze dropped back down to your own once more. "can we have a do-over?"

you blinked, your eyebrows shooting up in surprise. "right now? while you're like that and i'm like...this?" you gestured to his obviously exhausted figure laying in a heap before motioning to the ridiculous halloween costume you were sporting.

sunghoon shrugged, "why not? are you bad at dancing?" a glimmer of a challenge twinkled in his eye and you found yourself caving at an alarmingly fast rate.

"as a matter of fact, i am bad at dancing, especially on melting ice," you shot back, giving his shoulder a playful shove.

not taking your excuses, sunghoon began to push himself up to his feet and steadied himself before stretching his palm out to you. "you can just step on my feet then, come on," he smiled that same beautiful smile that you hated yourself falling for each time it showed. clicking your tongue defeatedly, you grabbed ahold of his hand and allowed him to pull you up onto your wobbly legs.

"one thing first," you paused before he could bring you any closer. "i want to know what's going on, sunghoon. what's happening to you?"

he let out a drawn sigh, glancing down at the scales covering splotches of his skin before turning back up to your concerned face. "it happens every time during this year. the lunar cycle makes everyone like me go haywire, though i guess i'm one of the lucky ones. not everyone can remember who they are during this time..." he trailed off before taking another deep breath, his voice shaking slightly as he declared his next words. "i'm a dragon, y/n."

you took all of ten seconds to digest the information before pushing it aside, instead stepping forward and nearly collapsing into sunghoon as your feet slid on the slippery ice. with quick reflexes, sunghoon caught you and brought you into a tight embrace until your feet were securely planted on the tops of his own. you'd have time to think more about it later, but right now the atmosphere was far too uncomfortable for you to give yourself a headache over it.

sunghoon's hands planted firmly on the dip of your waist whereas your arms found their way around the back of his neck, your fronts pressing flush against each other as he began to take small swaying steps that somewhat resembled a slow dance. your cheek found rest against the bare skin of his chest, and the once unbearable heat didn't seem quite so unbearable now.

"you're not hurting any more?" you asked softly, glancing up at him through your lashes as he continued to maneuver the two of you around.

shaking his head slightly, he smiled adoringly down at you. "not enough that i can't handle it any more. you took it away," he confessed with a hint of shyness crossing his features.

you pulled back just enough to look him in the eye properly, then your gaze drifted downwards to rest on his pink lips. "sunghoon," you whispered breathlessly, and as if reading your mind, he wordlessly leaned in and pressed his lips against yours in a gentle, perfect first kiss.

you slammed your locker door shut after gathering the materials you needed for your next class, struggling to hoist all the books up off the floor. suddenly, a pair of hands began grabbing a few of your books off the top of the stack and you followed up the length of the arms until you were met with the sight of an all too familiar face.

"this seems like deja vu, doesn't it?" sunghoon smiled warmly as you gathered the remaining books before straightening back up on your feet. gently, he placed the books back on top of your stack before turning to follow you to your next destination.

"thank you," you blushed, the heat rising to your cheeks amplifying as you felt sunghoon's arm snake around your shoulders protectively. "did you pass your portion of the project?" you asked, desperately trying to find a distraction from the attention being drawn to the two of you as you traveled down the hallways.

"i got a 96% so i'm pretty happy with it. how did you do?" he asked in return, never once removing his arm from around you until you stopped in front of the door of your classroom.

"i got the same," you smiled back, that expression only growing wider as he leaned in and planted a kiss against your warming cheek.

"good, i'll see you at lunch?" you nodded, trapping your bottom lip between your teeth to keep from giggling obnoxiously at the show of affection before bidding him goodbye and venturing into your class.

"y/n," yuna blurted out the second you'd sat your things down on the joined tables your three best friends occupied, "you have some major tea to fill us in on."

you sat down and watched as all three girls leaned in with eager smiles and twinkling eyes, and for once you found yourself excited to talk about sunghoon with them. you spent the entire class period filling them in on your newly acquired boyfriend, though you made sure to leave out the whole part about finding out he was a living, breathing dragon. the more you thought about it, the more ironic you found the situation to be. the school's ice prince turned out to harbor a creature inside of him that could easily melt the ice he skated on, and you'd watched that very scenario play out just a few nights ago. then, it slowly but surely began to make sense to you in your head.

it all explained the heat you'd feel whenever he was nearby and it explained why it seemed like he was always in that rink. the uttered confession of "i like to come here when i need to cool off" clicked perfectly like one of the many pieces of the puzzle you'd been trying to solve for weeks now. of course back then you'd assumed he meant it as a way for him to relieve stress, but now you saw that he meant it quite literally. it both amused you and made you feel a bit silly for having not read all of the clues so easily before.

"ugh, i'm so happy for you but i'm so jealous," ningning sighed heavily, dropping her chin into the palms of her hands.

"you have such a hot boyfriend, y/n," yuna agreed with a wistful sigh of her own.

"oh, i know," you snickered lightly to yourself. "i definitely know."

© enhasfever

I AM SO GLAD I FOUND THIS. first of all this deserves WAY more love, this fic is fr one of the best niki fics out there ☹️ I AM LOVING THIS NEWSPAPER CLUB IDEA N’ THE WHOLE LOVE COLUMN THING, ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE 🙏 EVen though niki is a whole jerk thoughout the whole thing, i could not contain my excitement for their lil ice cream date (jake’s a real one fr 💯) 😭😭 THAT MF BETTER TREAT YN WITH LOTS OF LOVE AFTER ALL THAT HE SAID !!

AUTHOR, YOU’RE ABSOLUTELY AMAZING AND SOSO TALENTED 🥹 THANK YOU FOR SHARING THIS I’LL BE SURE TO REREAD THIS MANY TIMES IN THE FUTURE HEHE <3

prettywon presents... SIXTEEN EIGHTY-FIVE

?!#%$ synopsis: You and Riki were the hardest workers on the newspaper staff. Despite this, you two are never to be seen working together. He avoids you and you avoid him, until you're both put up for the task of running the "Love Seekers Column." As the column gains popularity, so do you and Riki, and no good can come from that.

OR You and Riki are forced to work together. Why are his small habits, formerly irritating beyond means, suddenly so charming?

?!#%$ pairing: nonidol!Riki x gn!reader

?!#%$ wc+genre: 6k words of angsty fluff (mainly fluff? we'll see)

?!#%$ warnings: swearing, 4th wall gets broken ??, Riki is asshole

?!#%$ cast: Jake+Riki of enhypen, LOONA+ITZY cameo 😍

?!#%$ a/n: for a collab with @iwonzzi !! so much thought went into this tbh I shed TEARS.

?!#%$ perm+collab taglist: @gloomysunny @candidupped @illiterateliz @jiwlys @soobin-chois @acciomylove @ja4hyvn @vantxx95 @sbnchaos @yizhoutv @nikisgirlfriend — @ayayiiie @dstarsz

ISSUE ONE : Nishimura Riki.

–

YOU typed away on the keyboard, monotone clicks filling the room. The silence was welcomed and all you'd ever wanted while working on the school newspaper. Words came to you naturally, fully enjoying the rare silence you had.

Unfortunately, it was short-lived. Riki burst into the room, saying farewell to his just-as loud friends. He didn't spare you even a glance as he neglected to close the door, per usual, and instead grabbed a Chromebook. It was the same routine you both always followed . He forgets to close the door, you do it for him, he complains his computer is dead, you remind him that he had forgotten to plug it in before leaving yesterday. At least, that's what usually happens.

“Riki, for once could you close the door yourself.” Things like a shut door may seem minor, yes, but were essential if you were to focus. Which is something Riki knew well. “Y/N, for once could you get off my back about every little thing I do?” While his friends call it caring and you wanting him to be well-mannered, he calls it being picky and a perfectionist.

“I wouldn't be ‘on your back’ if you weren't acting like a 5 year old, forgetting the most basic things.” You continued working on the front page of the newspaper, wishing he would stop being petty and just close the door. “It's not that hard, I'm not asking for-”

“Shut up” Riki stood up to close the door, the sound louder than what you expected. “Can’t you let me work for 5 minutes?” He ruffled his hair, sitting down to finish up the page he had been working on.

“Why should I? You never let me work in peace considering all you do is leave a mess for me to clean up.” Your leg bounced at an increasing tempo. You hated him but complaining about him when he was right in front of you felt different from doing it behind his back.

"Who said you had to? It's not like we're dating."

Both of you stopped. You stopped typing, he stopped digging through his backpack in search of a chip bag. Riki had words forming in his head, a desperate explanation as to why he said that. Even a laugh at the very notion of you two dating would work. But he couldn't find anything to say as he slowly thought about the two of you more. Stuck in the same classroom after school nearly everyday, the feelings he held were always a slip of the tongue away.

You cleared your throat and that was enough for the two of you to somewhat agree that what just happened would never see the light of day.

In all honesty, you and Riki had never before talked this much, ever. So as the tension grew, he constantly reminded himself that he hates you and you hate him. That's how your relationship worked, and that's how it will always be.

A short apology was on the edge of your tongue as someone rushed through the door. Jake, whom you liked far more than Riki, had his hands on his knees, “I just had the smartest idea ever.”

***

“What do you mean, love column?” It didn’t seem as if Riki liked the idea, and you could see why. Everybody is already so obsessed with love anyways. Why feed the addiction?

“You know what I mean, it's like The Lonely Hearts column, except we have a little section for love advice as well.” Jake paced around the room, eyes filled with excitement, more excitement than when he had first introduced the idea of a school newspaper.

“Jake, that column is older than my great-grandma. Not to mention there's dating apps out there, they wouldn't be that interested.” You didn't have time for his ideas, the latest issue hadn’t been completed though it was set to be published tomorrow. “But it's simple, people submit descriptions of their ideal type,” Jake paused, choosing his next words carefully, “and you two can choose which one you want to feature.”

“What?” Riki half-shouted, almost dropping the computer he was putting away, “You think Y/N has the kind of experience to be giving other people relationship advice?”

“You want me to work with someone as careless as him?” Your typing slowed as you stared at Jake, tone more aggressive than you intended.

“Look, I know that you two aren't on the best terms,” Riki cut off the older boy, “We aren't on any terms. I'd rather hang out with Mr. Park before working with them.” You nodded dully in agreement.

“You two have the time in your schedules to work on the column, and think about the popularity we would get.” Jake placed his hands on the table before him, trying to get you two to see the bigger picture.

“I'm fine with working on it, but couldn't I do it with you instead?” Ignoring the scoff from Riki, you continued, motivated to spend more time with Jake, “It's just sorting through submissions and coming up with some half-assed romantic advice, right?”

“I would if I could but considering it's February, there's gonna be dozens of submissions and I'll have to be running the club on top of that” Jake sighed, “Not to mention soccer season is coming up, I just can't.”

“Put an ask for submissions in the front page. We'll publish it tomorrow.” Jake glanced in your direction. You did as he asked, hesitating; why did Jake want this so badly?

“I still don't think this is a good idea,” Riki stood up, tired from arguing with you and Jake suddenly showing up with some idea about a love column. Jake seemed confused, and reasonably so, you don't think Riki has ever been so against something before. “The newspaper is already hard to manage as is because of some people.” He glanced your way, which you decided would be better for you to ignore.

“Well that doesn't matter, it's already final. I've asked the principal to make a call for submissions in the morning announcements tomorrow” Jake spoke in a cool tone, not letting Riki’s hot headed tendencies get to him.

“Whatever, I told Heeseung I would hang out with him today,” Riki gathered his stuff, biting the inside of his cheek. “I finished my page, I don't slack off as much as one person might think.”

Jake bid his farewells to Riki and walked over to you, placing a hand on your shoulder, making your palms sweat more than you'd admit. “Please, this'll help stop the newspaper from shutting down.” He held back the second reason why he wanted the column as he gave you a smile and left the room. “Wait, Jake,” you called out to him, turning around slightly.

“Yeah?” He responded, reacting to your voice.

You paused. You considered voicing your complaints about Riki. You could tell Jake absolutely anything in these few moments, and Riki wouldn't be here to rudely interrupt.

“Don't get too stressed about the newspaper, focus on school and soccer, Riki and Ii can handle it.” Jake, nodding in thanks, left the room.

Now it was just you left with a front page waiting to be finished.

***

“Riki, why the hell did you disagree?” Jake caught up with him, knowing that he didn't have plans with Riki. “I didn't want to agree too easily,” he lazily threw away a gum wrapper, “I'm supposed to hate them, remember?”

“Yeah, and I thought we were changing that.” Jake swung his arm over Riki’s shoulder, “I worked my ass off with the principal to let us add that column. You know they're considering cutting us off in terms of funding.” Jake sighed, feeling the gray hairs growing already.

“And like I said, this column will help, people are stupid for love,” Riki said, shrugging off Jake's arm and quickening his pace. “Yeah, like you” Riki scoffed and continued walking without Jake, who was laughing a bit too hard at his own joke.

ISSUE TWO : LOVE SEEKERS COLUMN

—

You biked to school, noticing something odd ass you entered the campus. People were actually interested in the newspaper. Usually only teachers picked it up and the select few students that liked crosswords, but to see so many holding the newsletter? Unheard of.

You put up your bike and found Jake, surrounded by more people than usual. Making your way through the small crowd, you gave Jake a questioning look. “I told you the column was a good idea Y/N, the newspaper’s going to be everywhere!” Jake's happiness couldn't be hidden as he repeated, “Please drop off your submissions for the Love Seekers Column in the box in the front office” to all the curious people in search of a significant other.

Passing through the aforementioned front office, a decent line had formed in front of a small box titled ‘LS Column Submissions Here!’

Before you could make it to the hallway, Yeji approached you. “Y/N, you're with the newspaper right? Do you think you can give some advice on how to know if he's the one?” Yeji walked with you to class, “I'll owe you big time, my parents want me to get into long term relationships, but I can't choose just anyone.”

“I can't do that Yeji, and no offense but we've only talked once.” You gave the girl your sympathy as you entered your biology class, only to find that Riki was in a similar situation as you.

“I'm telling you, I can't just give you the spot in the column,” Riki tried shoving off the hand on his shoulder to no success, “Jake told me that we had to be particular with what we choose.” Yuna, who had been questioning the boy, wasn't hearing a word.

“C'mon Riki, I thought we were like this,” Yuna crossed her index and middle fingers, “Do me a favor this once. Please?”

Since when did Yuna ask others for favors? Guess love really could change people.

“Yuna, Riki made it clear that we'll be choosing the name appearing in the Love Seekers Column ourselves,” You cleared your throat, hating the thought of defending Riki, “it's just Tinder in a newspaper, why bother going through all of this?”

Yuna left her spot next to Riki and grabbed your shoulders, less gently than she intended to. “It's Valentine's day soon.” She emphasized the second word as if you didn't already know, “Not to mention we're almost done with our second year of high school, people are getting desperate for someone to date” Yuna finally let go of your shoulders, sighing like it was obvious.

“Which is why,” Yuna dragged out the last word, a sweet tone enveloping the sentence, “I need to be the one in the column.” You rolled your eyes and tried moving past her to no avail “I’m serious Y/N” she continued her fruitless pleads as you wondered why the hell Riki wasn't here fending her off with you.

Turns out, he had moved to the other side of the classroom, hanging out with his friends and laughing about something. He left you to deal with Yuna’s desperate pleas as he kicked back at whatever he was talking about.

“Yuna, I'm sorry but I can't help you” You finally escaped the suffocating conversation and, ignoring the complaints of the girl, sat down.

You barely had time to unwind when you were approached by another girl, Ryujin. “Hey Y/N, I have some spare change if you're down to let me feature in the newspaper.” You leaned back into your chair, trying your hardest not to snap at the unknowing girl.

“I can't do that, besides it doesn't even matter that much anyways.” You wholeheartedly believed that this was an idiotic idea, and barely believed that Jake was behind it.

“Doesn't matter? Do you know how hard it is to find someone your type that actually goes to your school?” Ryujin gawked at your nonchalant attitude, “You have all the power right now, anyone who gets their submission posted will probably get into a relationship soon after.” She took your hand, successfully catching your full attention.

“You can bribe anyone with the chance of being in the column,” Ryujin emphasized ‘anyone,’ like you didn't grasp the concept, and honestly you really didn't.

“That's exaggerating, it's not that big of a deal.” You shook off her hand as you looked at the board behind her, curious about what you were doing in class again. Ryujin re-entered your line of vision, “You could even offer some girls a date with Jake or Riki, they're some of the most pined after boys in the entire school.” After seeing you laugh, Ryujin lightly hit you,

“I'm serious! I wouldn't be surprised if most of the submissions were just love confessions to them.” Ryujins face was full of everything but playfulness as she continued trying to buy her way into the newspaper, and unbeknownst to you a certain boy was listening in.

Idea after idea formed in his head as he finally realized how he was going to confess.

***

You walked into classroom 168, tired from dealing with people wanting to be in the newspaper all day. “It looks like you've been through hell” Riki was already there, sifting through the submissions. A pen and a ripped piece of paper sat beside him, but you thought nothing of it.

“Wouldn't you like to know,” scoffing, you took off your backpack and rolled your shoulders, allowing them to relax after a long day, “you're the one that left me to deal with them. Always running away like an idiot”

“Yeah well I'm not the one that's exhausted after talking to one person” Riki spun around in the swivel chair he was in, facing you, “I actually have a life.” He placed down the submission he was holding and picked up another, laughing.

“Look, this person said that their type was you,” drawing your attention, Riki noticed the hint of joy in your eyes. He didn't even say who it was from yet. Why were you so happy? When he saw you walking towards him, he ripped up the submission. “Of course, we won't be putting that into our newspaper. It was probably just a dare anyways.”

Stopping momentarily, you cleared your throat and sat in the chair next to him. It probably was a dare anyways, he just loved rubbing salt into every wound didn't he. Picking up a slip of paper from the box, you read it out loud.

“Tall guy that plays sports, has good humor and isn't too possessive” humming, you read the back of the paper “oh, this was Yuna's submission.”

“Let's just pick a random one and get this part over with, and do you have to read it out loud?” Riki continued without a care for your response “I'm mainly worried about the advice part, we both know I'm more experienced but Jake would never trust me to write something like that.”

Once again, he continued. It was one of the many traits you hated about him, he never gave you a chance to be nice towards him. If he let you speak you could've proposed him giving the advice and you writing it down; but he spoke before you could interject. This wasn't the first time, on various occasions you have tried being polite by throwing away his leftover chip bags, cleaning the classroom after he leaves, etc.

But not only does he ignore your efforts, but he acts like your kindness is your fault. You vividly remember the time he loudly called you “his servant” when talking to his friends, making sure the entire class could hear. You were doing things for people for weeks after that.

“Seriously, why did Jake trust you to work on this column” Riki laughed, ever so clearly at you than with you, “you're hopeless, have you ever even had someone confess to you before today? Not to mention it was anonymous” he continued smiling, picking at random pieces of paper.

“Honestly, not only do you lack self confidence but so do the people you attract. How pathetic.”

Your hand made contact with his face, something you've wanted to do for months. Of course you didn't expect to be crying while doing it, but that was a minor detail. Violently using your sleeve to stop the tears, you took a deep breath.

“You think I want to work with you? I haven't talked to you for the past 4 months for a reason.” You stood up, eyes red and stinging. “And honestly, I hate you. I hate how you're in the one club I like at school, how you always leave your shit around for me to clean up, how you always talk about me and never with me,” You took a shaky breath as you walked across the room to pick up your bag, “I hate everything about you and honestly, I'd rather move countries than be with you”

You left the classroom, bag in hand as you pulled out some change to buy a snack on the way home as a desperate grab for comfort. Riki was about to call out your name, but knows he won't be able to repair what he's done so quickly. He picked up the pieces of paper he ripped up, and gently put them together. They read, ‘My ideal type is you, Y/N’ just like he mentioned before. But if you carefully flipped the torn paper over it, you'd see something else.

Thank you for always keeping me in line, Riki

ISSUE THREE: Jake Sim

—

Riki was worried. Not only was two days ago the first time you had left classroom 168 before him, but yesterday was the first time you ever missed working on the newspaper on purpose. Or so he thought.

“What do you mean Y/N worked on the paper yesterday?” Riki stopped walking next to Jake, who had a strawberry milk in hand. “Y/N said they came by in the morning to work on it, they finished all of their pages so they're good for this week” Jake tossed the milk carton, eyeing Riki. “You're mad at me aren't you.” he continued, hands in his pockets.

“Of course I am, how am I going to fix my mistake if I can't even see Y/N?” Riki rushed to match the pace of the older boy.

“Riki, I already helped you out by setting up the column,” Jake sighed, stopping in front of his classroom, “this was your opportunity to tell them, you messed it up not me.”

“At least try and get them to be in the same room as me, please?”

“... sure”

***

Jake ruffled his hair as he stepped into the classroom, which you also happened to be in. He sat next to you like he always did, and pondered how he should go about asking you about Riki.

Jake started speaking before he knew what he was going to say.

“So…” he trailed off, not preparing what he was going to say next.

“So..?” you raised an eyebrow, laughing at the boy's awkward posture.

Y/N totally thinks I'm the male lead in this. I should probably change that, right?

“Why'd you stop by in the morning yesterday? I thought you hated waking up early.” Regret was quick to settle in, as he saw your face flushed in a shade of light pink. He didn't even realize that he remembered such an insignificant fact about you.

I made it worse?!

“Well I guess you could say me and Riki got into a small argument,” you propped your chin up with your palm, “he was being an asshole so I just left. And to be honest I don't really want to see him again.”

“Well, you can't be in the classroom in the mornings anymore,” Jake started lying, coming up with anything to get you two together, “It's being used for.. tutoring starting today. And you're kinda aggressive when you type so it would be distracting.. maybe?”

“You're such a bad liar Jake, I'm not going to spend time with Riki if that's what you're planning.” You raised an eyebrow, aware of the boy's tactics. Of course you had no clue why Jake wanted you and Riki to be together.

“Oh..” Jake turned away, leaving you to bask in your success. Until tomorrow, that is.

And so Jake found himself being trailed by Riki once again as he entered his classroom. “Make sure you actually do something this time you stupid furry” Riki called out from the end of the hallway, causing some weird looks as Jake hurriedly ran into the classroom. Of course, not before shouting “Yeah but you owe me ice cream after school” to his love sick peer.

Dodging a few kids running around the classroom, he made his way to his desk. “Morning, Y/N” You turned to the boy's voice, smiling and waving like you usually did. Now was the perfect time to set Jake's plan into action.

“Oh, I forgot I had to ask you something, did you finish the love advice part of the LS Column? I didn't see it when you handed me your work yesterday.” Jake looked at your notebook, and watched as you broke the lead of your mechanical pencil.

“Shit, I totally forgot about that, I'll work on it after school today.” You closed your notebook, getting ready for class, “I'll finish it before Riki gets there. Whatever you were trying to do yesterday isn't going to happen.”

“Great! How about we get some ice cream after?” When he saw you eagerly agree, he couldn't help but hold a bit of guilt. But after all, Riki just said he wanted to be in the same room as you, he never specified that it had to be classroom 168.

***

Riki patiently waited for Jake at the ice cream place. At least, he thought he was waiting for Jake.

You rushed to the ice cream shop after finishing at the school, eager to spend some time with your more-than-little crush; Sim Jake. This was the first time Jake had ever initiated a hangout between you two so you were beyond excited.

Riki checked his phone, the message read as follows:

Sim Furry

Hey, so uh.. you're gonna be getting ice cream with y/n instead of me! THIS IS THE LAST THING I'M DOING FOR YOU. I'm not pushing this along any further. I WANT TO GRADUATE IN PEACE!!

Looking at his phone in alarm, he glanced back up to see you walk in. Fuck. This was not the plan Riki had in mind. He didn't have a plan, he was going to come up with something with Jake over ice cream.

Clearing his throat, he took out one of his airpods, the faint sound of pose by loona playing in the background as he approached you. “Why is someone like you here? It's not like you have a date or anything..” Riki bit his lip, noticing how you ignored him.

“I do actually, I'm supposed to meet up with Jake here” you replied, knowing it was a lie. Well, half-lie. You were supposed to hang out with Jake, but you're 99% sure you were the only one that considered it a date.

Jake Sim that asshole.

“I was actually supposed to hang out with Jake here too.” Riki decided playing dumb was the best choice, and honestly it was the only choice.

“Oh”

“Yeah”

You two stood in front of each other for a moment, the eye contact making Riki’s palms sweat and his ears embarrassingly red.

“Order for Riki?” The cashier called out for the boy, and he turned for 5 seconds to get his beloved double scoop chocolate cookie dough ice cream.

“Wait, why are you leaving?” Riki rushed to be at your side “I uh, bought too much ice cream and Jake would be mad if I left you alone after he stood us both up”

And I got two spoons on purpose so we could share.

“Thanks for offering the ice cream but I'd rather not spend time with you.” You turned back on your heels and you were nearly at the door when Riki tapped your shoulder.

Strange, didn't your heart only race when Jake did that?

“I don't want to be seen with you either, but like I said Jake wouldn't like it if I left you alone.” Riki offered you a spoon, which you hesitatingly took.

“Fine, but I'm only doing this for the free ice cream.”

***

Riki happily walked to the park with you, though clearly you didn't feel the same. “About yesterday, I'm sorry about what I said,” Riki started, nibbling on his spoon, “I was completely out of line and deserved to be hit by you.”

“You did deserve that, but I doubt you actually think that.” Of course, you don't buy the apology. Riki had always treated you horribly, why would this time be any different? “Thanks for saying sorry I guess, but let's just accept the fact that we'll never be anything more than peers.” You halfheartedly said, not thinking much of it.

Those words cut through Riki like no other. Not even friends? His heart ached and his happiness was all but present as you two reached the park. “Yeah, sure.”

You two found a bench to sit on, you sitting further away from Riki than needed. “So uh, are you still mad at me?” Riki held the cup of half-eaten ice cream in his hands, glancing at you occasionally. “You called me pathetic.” You not-so gently reminded him.

“Yeah I don't really have an excuse for that,” Riki bounced his leg nervously, “I just wanted you to know that I'm not some total jerk that always makes fun of you.” Riki chose his words very carefully, making sure that he kept his semi-long term crush on you under wraps.

“But you are a total jerk that always makes fun of me,” You responded, “remember when you told everyone that I had a crush on Sunghoon even though I had never even talked to him before?”

The boy recalled the exact memory you were referencing, wincing at his past cruelty. “Yeah I'm sorry about that too..”

“Are you really Riki?” you stood up, brushing your pants off, “Thanks for your consideration, really, but I'll head home now.” with a turn, you headed towards your neighborhood, but once again Riki tapped on your shoulder.

“Let me walk you home at least, it's getting cold anyways” He silently offered you his jacket, and ignored the leaps his heart did when you saw you hesitatingly put it on.

The walk home was awkwardly silent, but you appreciated the gesture, even if it was by the one guy you hated. You walked on the side of the sidewalk facing away from the street, hands in the pockets of Riki’s jacket. Riki coughed, doing anything in a desperate attempt to fill the silence.

“Feel free to keep the jacket.” Riki said once you reached your house after an embarrassingly long walk. “I'll throw it away then” You said without hesitation, and without saying goodbye you walked into your house.

You bolted upstairs to your room and threw Riki’s jacket off, landing on your chair. You jumped onto your bed as you hugged your pillows. You looked through your window and saw Riki walking away. Why did your face feel so hot when you saw him smile?

ISSUE FOUR: A Crush.. on Riki?!?!

—

You tapped your pencil on the desk, it was the next day and you sat next to Jake. Ignoring his supposedly indirect glances in your direction, you found it strange how his sudden interest in you didn't make your heart race like it had so many times before in the past. Your mind had been filled with Riki since the ice cream ‘date’, but it couldn't be because you liked him, right?

You two had just walked to the park and talked for a bit. That's it. Even though you two were mistaken as a couple once or twice, that was all it was, a misunderstanding. Even if the silence was nice and you wished you stayed with him for 20 minutes more, it's only because he offered you free ice cream. He only did that to apologize for his behavior, and you knew better than to shamelessly accept the aforementioned apology.

“Hey, Jake.” You stopped pondering and turned to face the boy. Worry filled your mind when the butterflies you used to feel whenever you looked at Jake disappeared.

“Yes?” He replied, a little too quickly, “Is it about Riki? Are you two getting along? Tell me everything that happened yesterday.” He shot out question after question, and your suspicions were confirmed.

“So you did set that up!” You sat up straight, still surprised that the golden retriever-like boy could pull off something like that. “Yes.. why?” Jake started, “Did nothing happen? Damn that kid.”

Your heart skipped a beat, “Was something supposed to happen?” you leaned towards Jake, curiosity apparent. “Well yeah he was supposed to-” He loudly cleared his throat, “Anyways did you do the English homework?” He laughed when you responded with a groan. Your doubts were confirmed when once again, butterflies didn't erupt in your stomach at the sound of his laughter.

You found yourself in bed that evening, thinking about Jake, and feeling nothing, and then thinking about Riki and feeling your heart race. You looked at his jacket resting on your chair, and remembered the walk home you had together. You buried your head in your pillow, searching for your phone.

—

YOU: Jake are you up?

JAKIE: OFC DO YOU HAVE ANYTHING TO TALK ABOUT?

YOU: I swear to god you cannot tell anyone

JAKIE: OF COURSE!!!!!

YOU: I think I like Riki

JAKIE: SECOND MALE LEAD CURSE IS GONE LET'S GOOOO

YOU: What.

JAKIE: Nothing <3

YOU: okay r u just gonna say that and not help me.

JAKIE: bro why do you need my help you see him everyday when y'all work on the newspaper just talk to him then

YOU: hmm.. no!

JAKIE: THE FUCK YOJ MEAN NO?!?!???

YOU: He hates me remember 😂😂

JAKIE: I wouldn't be saur sure abt that one .. anywayz!

YOU: huh

JAKIE: just act like you do around me after school tmr LOLZ

YOU: I have no reason to be there tho like I finished everything

JAKIE: Riki has been procrastinating on choosing a submission for the love seekers column go help him or something GOOD NIGHT

YOU: WHAT?

YOU: JAKE

YOU: HELLO??

—

***

And that's how you found yourself in classroom 168 the next afternoon, nervously looking at the door to see if Riki was going to walk in.

As if on queue, Riki barged in like he always did. He was ecstatic to see you in the room, the past two days were incredibly dull without you. Tossing his backpack to the left, he glanced at you, wondering if he should close the door. Deciding that would be a too obvious notion towards his affection for you, he acted against it.

“I thought you finished everything already” Riki asked, sitting on the other side of the room as per usual. “I did, but we still need to pick which submission is going into the paper this week.” Standing up, you walked to the other side of the room.

And so the next 20 minutes were spent with Riki, laughing at people's type and holding eye contact with each other for a second too long.

“This person said they wanted a person that would wear cat ears” you pointed out, laughter heard from both you and Riki as smiles filled the air. “That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard, cat ears?” Riki tossed the paper out before picking up a random paper. He blushed a light shade of pink before hiding the paper away.

“What was on that one?” You raised an eyebrow at him before reaching for the paper still in his hand, “C'mon give it, was it a declaration of love or something?” You reached over, completely focused on grabbing the slip of paper. Riki, needless to say, was focused on other things.

Like one, how you were trying to grab the other love confession he submitted, two, how you smelled like coffee milk. And three, how you were inches away from him, making his face redder than ever.

“It's nothing really,” Riki tried maneuvering the paper so it would be out of your reach but he only made matters worse. He accidentally revealed the back, which read ‘I’ve always loved you, from Riki’

Dramatically gasping, you hid the bitterness resting in the pit of your stomach, of which you would later find out to be jealousy. “You like someone? Who is it you asshole” you said, reaching even further.

The chair Riki was sitting in tipped over, and unsurprisingly, you landed on top of him. You saw the black fabric of his hoodie as you wondered, is his heart supposed to be beating this fast? No, the real question was is your heart supposed to be beating this fast?

While Riki was distracted, you glanced at the sheet of paper that put you two in this very situation. It was clearly written by a shaking hand, but you could vividly see the words scribbled on.

‘I know I've been annoying to you for months, but I don't want to pretend that I hate you anymore. This is sort of embarrassing but I've liked you since our first year here, and I joined the yearbook club because you did.’

No name was mentioned, but you didn't need one to know who he was talking about. “Riki” you said, barely above a whisper. The boy in question felt his heart pounding within his ribcage, he knew that you knew and that he was either going to hate today or love it.

Gently grabbing his chin, lifting it slightly, the boy melted under your touch. “Is this.. okay?” You mumbled, glancing at his lips, leaning in just enough to send Riki insane. “Yeah, it's okay” he barely formed the sentence, stuttering and pausing between words. Your noses were aligned, you could feel each other's breath as you ran your hand in his hair. Riki felt his heartbeat over everything, over the sound of the athletes talking in the hallway, over the air conditioning, everything.

Two years of stealing glances at you, two years of talking about you because you were all he thought about, two years of wanting your hands intertwined, he endured acting like he hated you for this moment.

Well maybe not at this exact moment.

Jake ran into the room through the open door, courtesy of Nishimura Riki, to see both of you, mere centimeters away from a kiss. “Oh… sorry, bad time, I'll just uhm..” Jake silently backed out of the room, closing the door.

You burst into laughter, hiding your face in Riki’s shoulders as he wrapped his hands around you, hand resting gently on the back of your neck. You made eye contact with him once again and lightly hit the boy, “Why don't you ever close the door?” Riki laughed along with you, a chorus of melodies neither of you could get tired of before he finally planted a kiss on your cheek.

You stood up, using a chair for support as you then pulled Riki up. You fixed your hair, he tried cooling down his burning face.

“Does this mean we're..”

“A walking enemies to lovers cliche? Yes.”

Riki blinked a few times at your response, “I was going to say a couple but I think I like the sound of lovers better” he smiled, picking up the tipped over chair as his eyes landed on the basket of papers still on the table.

“Shit, we still don't know which submission to put for the Love Seekers Column.”

I FEEL LIKE I SHOULDN’T BE ALLOWED TO READ THIS SHIT FOR FREE. LIKE IM IN SHOCK ABSOLUTELY FLABBERGASTED AUTHOR. your talent is seriously unbelievable like THIS SHOULD GENUINELY BE A REAL BOOK? YOU COULD SERIOUSLY GET THIS PUBLISHED LIKE IM IN AWE OF YOUR CREATIVITY WHERE DO I EVEN BEGIN?!!?

i have no idea how you thought of this plot and how on earth you did this but ITS AMAZING. LIKE ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING THE STORY IS JUST SO UNIQUE AND WELL THOUGHT OUT I CANT IMAGINE HOW LONG THE PROCESS TOOK YOU. at some times i had no idea what was going on (woops) YET I WAS STILL HAVING A GREAT TIME !! everything was so on edge? like i just could not put this down even though i should’ve since it was 2AM 🧍ALL THE SIDE CHARACTERS WERE SO INTERESTINF AND MEMORABLE I LOVED HAIR SALON GIRL PLS WHEN SHE GAVE YN THE SCARF I WAS LIKE YESSSS UR ONLY NICE CUZ U THINK SHES SUNGHOONS SISTER BUT STILL 🙏😭💀

dont even get me started on hoon and yn they’re so cute 😭 tho i was kinda hoping we’d get more romance later on BUT THERE WASNT A LOT OF TIME I SUPPOSE WITH EVERYTHING THAT WAS GOING ON so im just gonna cherish the few cute moments we got like yn sleeping on hoons shoulder <3

AND PLS THE SCENE WHERE HOON LITERALLY DUG OUT THE BULLET WITH A SPOON?? 🧍🧍🧍 MAN WTF 😭 I WAS LIKE HELLO YN YOU BETTER BE SCREAMING IN PAIN BECAUSE THAT SOUNDS LIKE THE OMST PAINFUL THING EVER DAMN. then she rlly got shot again 💀 IM STILL CONFUSED ABOUT THAT SCENE WHAT HAPPENED? THEY WERE LIKE DYING IN THAT LIMO OR SMTHN BUT THEN SOMEONE SHOT HER? OR WHAT NSJNDK

anyways this is literally not enough to express what i felt reading this but it took me on a RIDE thats for sure and i thank you author for blessing us with your insane gift <33 I WILL BE SURE TO CHECK OUT MORE OF YOUR STUFF IN THE FUTURE !!!

miracle aligner | park sunghoon

or, you can’t deny that he was born to blow your mind.

synopsis: Miracle Aligner—the name itself is as mystifying as the man who bore it. Sunghoon was always aware of the magnetic attraction he exuded. Any woman would fall to their knees whenever he would grace them with his presence, no matter how hard they tried to resist. It’s not to say he looked down on the opposite sex, but his gift came with a mundanity that prevented him from experiencing the thrills he once had.

Enter a woman with the exact opposite of his abilities. You were almost invisible to the human eye, and every single date you’ve subjected yourself to ended in an amalgamation of failures. From reading dating advice to religiously following magazine articles, you did it all—yet romance never came. By coincidence, you meet the so-called Miracle Aligner one night, and find yourself completely unfazed to his enchantment. He, on the other hand, is immediately intrigued.

cast: sunghoon x fem!reader

genre: magical realism, romance, drama, thriller, crime, loads of sexual tension, alternate history set in y2k.

wc: 47.9k

warnings: RATED 17+; suggestive content; mentions of recreational drug use and the black market; loads of crime; some graphic violence ; and last but not the least, i.e., the worst crime of all, bad google translated spanish because ya girl can’t speak the language; anyway, italicized dialogue means mc is speaking in spanish or any other foreign language, since i don’t wanna butcher them any further; since this story is set in the year 2000, Kolkata is referred to as Calcutta in this fic. for basic wikipedia-level history, Calcutta was the city’s official name until it got changed to Kolkata in January 1, 2001.

a/n: sorry for constantly reposting my old works from @/dhoya. again, for sheer word count alone imo, i can’t let this one rot in the docs. i think this is one of my most original works to date despite the synopsis implying the whole opposites attract cliche. i was the proudest of this one when i wrote it last year, and i hope you guys enjoy this one. new stuff coming soon when i have the time to mellow down and write again, i promise. also, please triple check the warnings before you read. remember, you are responsible for the content that you consume. also hoon may be somewhat ooc in this one because i’m channeling 2022 weverse magazine sunghoon with the pretty rhinestones and the classy fashion week fit, not his usual, awkwardly timid yet dorky self.

playlist: miracle aligner, my mistakes were made for you, standing next to me, dracula teeth, everything you’ve come to expect, sweet dreams tn, the borne identity, and the element of surprise by the last shadow puppets.

© orpheyeux 2022. please do not repost, translate, or cross-post my works onto other websites or forums.

Prologue: Everything You’ve Come to Expect

“What is this?”

Picture this;

A flurry of rose petals slowly dances with the gentle flows of the wind as the man right next to you throws his suit jacket out from the top floor of a Baroque balcony. You watch as it hits a vintage car parked on the stone-finished streets, prompting a man with a beret to utter a string of curses in a language the two of them never even spoke. In unison, you raised your middle finger with him—a universe gesture in the purest form.

Never in your life would you have ever believed that a man would stay right by your side even after a single day.

Sure, a day seems small for most folks. Love was something that was supposed to take time, and the wait was often worth it a la testimonies through the world wide web. However, this was you we’re talking about.

Unfortunately, you were different. Different in the saddest way possible.

So as you stared at the man you now gladly called yours, you began to trace the beginning, the present, and perhaps the truth.

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