Read It In The Newspaper

Read It In The Newspaper

Pairing: ten X fem!reader

Genre: rivals to lovers, fake dating, college au, smut

Word count: a little above 24k

Includes: tbh pointless plot; yangyang as side character; yangyang doing god's work tbh; cameos by sicheng, louis and leon; random small bursts of fluff i think; slow burn but only if you squint and imagine literally everything in the month of storyline that i decided to just skip; an offensively vague description of dancing; a dash of unnecessary drama; mc having a plot-relevant talent for pickpocketing that is only mentioned once; marking kink; mc and ten kind of being in constant competition for the power dynamic; mc calls ten 'slut' once; blowjob; fingerfucking; riding; nothing too wild but it's like 4k words long lmao; unprotected sex (do not attempt unless carefully considered)

Summary: being in the college newspaper club was amazing. writing for the university newspaper was a dream come true. except when it came to your lifelong rival, ten lee. you hated the guy with your whole soul. and yet somehow you ended up pretending to date him. you now officially also hate liu yangyang.

!Requested by @georgespiffincloone (thank you ♡)

Author's note: so i wrote most of this while watching all 6 seasons of teen wolf, do with this information whatever you want; also i didn't mean for it to get this long like what happened? what happened is i almost deleted half of it because im scared that it's too long; i hope that you will enjoy it nonetheless and thank you for wasting your time here ♡ disclaimer: i have literally no experience in journalism so im only going off of how it works in the imaginary world of my head

Why is it so hard to find some interesting gossip in this goddamn college,” your best friend Yangyang whined for maybe the 16th time this week. “I have less than a week to come up with something or I’ll lose my spot.”

“Yeah, well better get digging then,” you said, empathy absent in your voice. It’s not that you didn’t really care, your mind was just a little too occupied with the article you were working on yourself.

Both you and your best friend were part of your college’s newspaper club. Yangyang had the gossip page which meant that every month he had to find the most interesting useless pieces of information that the student body could care about and make them sound important. And you, on the other hand, kept a record of the academic achievements of anyone and everyone in your college.

The piece you were working on at the moment was about the science club. There had been a competition recently and sadly they had lost, so now it was your job to report about it in the next edition of the college newspaper. At the moment, you were working on the closing paragraph and you just didn’t seem to be able to make it sound good.

“Can’t you be a little more considerate and helpful?” Yangyang whined once again, breaking the fantasy that you had built in your head of him not disturbing your work. “Come on, you’re basically famous, there must be something you have heard?”

“Whatever made you think that people would come and share their problems with me?” you raised your eyebrows at him in question. “How do you usually find what to write about?”

“I have a large network of spies who provide me intel about people’s dirty business,” he grinned and you would have smacked him if he wasn’t on the other end of the large table in your club room. Instead, you glared at him. “Okay, I just overhear stuff most of the time and then go around asking until I have enough information. But I haven’t heard anything good enough recently”

Your only response was shrugging as you focused again on the document in front of you. It was quiet for a while longer and you managed to finally write your paragraph. Not ideal, obviously, but it was enough for now and you could go back to it if you came up with something better. Once again, you had almost forgotten that your best friend was in the room. Until he spoke up again.

“You’re a terrible best friend, Y/N. Ten would have offered to help me.” You froze in your spot and slowly looked up at him again, death glare on your face.

“What did you just say?” you asked quietly, tone dangerous as if you were giving him the opportunity to fix his mistake before it was too late.

“Ten would have just shown a little more sympathy, you know?” he went on though. “He would also offer to help me find something, he wouldn’t blow me off like that”

Ten Lee, another member of your newspaper club, was nowhere nearly as nice as your best friend implied. In fact, he was a little bitch that would laugh in Yangyang’s face if he heard him complain about something like this (and you could say this from personal experience). You were very aware of the fact that what the boy was doing was manipulating you for his own gain. You were smart enough to know that. But not smart enough to resist.

“Give me three days and you’ll have something to write about,” you said through gritted teeth. The grin that spread on Yangyang’s face made your blood boil. You hated the fact that he could control you that easily. But you wouldn’t break your word.

“You’re the best!” he cheered, shutting off his laptop as if the fact that you agreed to help meant that he had no more work to do. Infuriating.

“Remember that for the next time you decide to compare me with Ten, dumbass,” you rolled your eyes, adding a barely audible “brat”.

“Of course, of course!” he said cheerfully. “I gotta go meet up with Hendery now, but I'll text you later, okay? Let me know if you find anything good!” he said as he packed his things quickly. You hummed in response and waved at him weakly as he rushed out of the club room.

Three days, of course you could come up with something until then. You were an experienced journalist after all.

…

Three days later, you had nothing.

“Why the fuck is everyone in this god-forsaken establishment so boring?” you sighed dramatically, forehead resting on the desk in front of you as despair filled your every cell.

“See, I told you it's impossible to find something right now,” Yangyang sighed next to you. “I have been scrolling through thousands of Instagram comments all day just in case someone somewhere is causing drama and absolutely nothing…”

“How can this be possible, you can't tell me everyone is suddenly peaceful and loving with each other,” you lifted your head, pouting in your best friend's direction.

“At this point I am willing to go and-” the boy started but he couldn't finish as the door opened and someone walked in.

“Ah, dumb and dumber,” you heard a painfully familiar voice and you looked up.

There he was, the infamous Ten Lee.

When it came to you and Ten, there was a long story to tell. Well, not really that long. But you hated the guy ever since the first day that you'd met him in freshman year. He was an insufferable annoying little shit and no amount of fangirls could change your opinion.

And yes, somehow the little (and by little, obviously you also meant short) fucker was one of the most popular faces in your college. Somehow people found him attractive. You credited that mainly to the fact that he was part of the dance team. You'd heard incredible things about his dancing, yet you refused to believe any of it simply out of the stubborn belief that there was no way he could be that good at anything besides pissing the hell out of you.

There was one good thing that came out of your deep despise for Ten and that was the newspaper. Both of you were in the club and your initial irritation with each other quickly turned into a fierce rivalry for the first pages and the best articles. Little by little, as a result of that, the newspaper had gained more and more readers, nowadays almost everyone read it. But that only meant that the importance of the quality of what you wrote only grew, and so did your rivalry with Ten.

You quickly recollected yourself, never in a million years would you let him of all people see your little mental breakdown.

“Have you two losers been in here all day?” he asked and you sighed in despair. Of course, there was no way you could have a moment of peace with him in the room.

“Some of us take this newspaper seriously, you know” you retorted, glaring at him as he chuckled at your response.

“Didn't you submit your, ahem, very interesting and important article yesterday though?” he asked, mockery in his voice. “Or you're already starting next month's one? It wouldn't be a bad idea, maybe this time you'll manage to finish it without the editors complaining that they can't do their job because you're running late.”

“Well, unlike some people, I don't write about the same thing every month, so I need some time to do proper research,” you rolled your eyes, closing your laptop in frustration.

“Actually, she was trying to help me,” Yangyang spoke up and you looked at him in disbelief - it wasn't Ten's business what you two had been doing. “Y/N, he might be able to help,” the boy reasoned, noticing your displeasure.

You didn't respond, instead simply crossed your arms and let the younger one make the mistake he seemed to think would be a good idea.

“I haven't been able to find what to write about this month,” he explained to the older one. “So she agreed to try and search for a topic with me.”

“And what is the masterpiece that you're helping him with?” Ten glanced at you, raising his eyebrows. You gritted your teeth together. He simply couldn't not be a little bitch for a second, could he? “Surely, a renowned journalist like you must have found the biggest hit of the century.”

“We have nothing,” you hissed through gritted teeth. You felt almost physical pain from admitting your failure in front of Ten.

“I'm sorry, did you just say that you have nothing?” he asked, blinking as if in confusion. “You haven't started it yet or?”

“No, I said we have nothing,” you raised your voice, your annoyance taking the better of you. “I was not able to find anything at all for him to write about. Are you happy?”

It took a moment for your words to register into Ten's brain (you supposed that thing was so rusty and unused, it probably needed a couple of years to process information and load a response).

"Amazing!" Ten laughed out as if you were the brightest comedian he had ever heard speak. "And you call yourself a journalist?"

"What, like you could do better?" you spat defensively. "90% of what you write is about your own dance team"

"I write about the things people care about, darling. You should try it too, maybe then you would be able to finally make it to the first page."

"At least I put in actual research into my work. If Yangyang had asked you for help, you wouldn't even know what to do!"

"Oh really? Remind me again, with all your research experience did you find anything, Sherlock?"

"You guys just gave me the best idea!" Yangyang's voice suddenly interrupted your argument. You turned to look at him, halfway having forgotten that he was in the room as well. "What if you guys dated?"

Neither of you had what to say at first. You stared at the younger boy with a mix of utter shock and disgust on your face. Ten blinked a few times, before chucking and crossing his arms.

"I thought she's the dumb best friend," he said, grinning but his own surprise slipped through. "Makes sense though, a sane person wouldn't stick around her"

"Excuse me, last time I checked, your single brain cell is only passing classes because your team got first place in the dance championship two years ago," you retorted.

"Academic success being your only personality trait doesn't make you smart." That one hit a little too close to home so you opened your mouth to say something back, but Yangyang spoke up again.

"Guys, seriously, this is perfect!" he said excitedly, the grin on his face so big you were scared his head would split in two. At least it would provide a chance to confirm your suspicion about the void in his head where his brain was supposed to be.

"Would you please care to enlighten us how exactly this abomination of an idea is any good?" you asked, raising your eyebrows at him in disbelief.

"Everyone knows Ten," the boy started, causing a smirk on Ten's face. You rolled your eyes. "And by relation, everyone knows you," he turned to you.

"I'd hardly say that people really know me, Yang," you objected.

"Yeah, it would require being at least a little bit interesting for people to care about her."

"Can you shut your fucking mouth for one second please?!" you let out an exasperated sigh.

"No, but I'd like to see you try to make me," he winked at you, making you roll your eyes again.

"Oh my god, if this wasn't already so ideal, I would drive both of you over with the dean's car," the youngest laughed again. "Please let me finish, everyone knows the two of you. But more importantly, everyone knows how much you two hate each other. And that's precisely why literally everyone in this university is betting on how long it will take before you two get together!"

You could only stare gaping. Across from you, Ten choked on a laugh. For the first time since you'd known him, the two of you shared something in common - the absolute disbelief you felt right now.

"They are doing what now?" Ten asked finally, laughing as if that would break the spell on Yangyang and the younger would stop talking nonsense. Sadly, that wasn't the case.

"Come on, guys, you two would be the perfect example of the enemies to lovers trope! I've heard even professors talk about the sexual tension between the two of you."

You couldn't help but fake gagging at the last part, the idea of there being literally any sexual attraction in you for him making you cringe, in addition to the fact that apparently, your teachers were discussing your potential sexual life.

"It's okay, Y/N, you don't have to pretend you wouldn't fuck me if you had the chance, I won't judge," Ten said sarcastically. "Take it as a compliment though, people think you actually stand a chance with me."

If it wasn't too much effort for you, you'd walk over and kick him in the crotch for that. But instead, you chose to completely ignore him.

"Assuming that's true and people do think that way," you started, "it still doesn't mean I would ever date him."

"That's the thing, you don't have to!" Yangyang said as if that explained anything. "All you have to do is pretend that you're dating!"

"And why would we do that?!" Maybe it was your brain lagging but you didn't see what Yangyang wanted to achieve.

"And then she gets offended when I call her dumb…" If this was any other normal person, he would at least have the decency to say this quietly. But Ten Lee didn't have even a drop of decency in himself. "He wants to use us for his article, idiot."

"Exactly!" Yangyang nodded excitedly. "All you have to do is pretend that you're madly in love for a month or two. You can keep bickering as you already do, people love seeing it anyway, just with less murderous glares. After that, you can have a dramatic breakup and I will write about that as well, of course."

The room was silent for a while again. You glanced at Ten and found him already looking at you. For a second you were scared of what would come out of his mouth - you didn't care about his opinion and you didn't want to do this, to begin with, yet you knew he could reject you in the most brutal ways.

"Fine, I'll do it," he said instead. There was no way you could have been prepared for this. "But you owe me a favor," he added, chuckling at Yangyang's little happy dance.

"Hold up, I am not doing it," you protested quickly. "I have no reason to agree to such a thing. And I don't want to. No."

"Oh, come on, Y/N," Yangyang whined at you. "Aren't you as my best friend supposed to always have my back and help me when I need it?"

"Not if it requires being near Ten?!" you exclaimed. Honestly, you couldn't even process how your friend had come up with the idea - he knew better than everyone how much you hated the older boy.

"But you promised that you'd help me come up with something to write about," he pointed out, a pout curving his lips.

"And I worked hard, trying to dig up something to help you, but I never agreed to be the thing you write about in your gossip page."

"What are you so scared of, Y/N?" Ten butted in your conversation suddenly with a tempting tone in his voice. "Are you afraid that you might fall for me for real?"

“Wow, sorry to burst your bubble, but I am pretty sure I will be more than capable of resisting your so-called charms,” you rolled your eyes. “I am more worried about my sanity and IQ, I’ve already lost enough brain cells just by talking to you at the moment.”

“We don’t have to talk to each other to convince people we’re dating,” he had the audacity to wink at you suggestively and lick his lips and you faked gagging once again. He rolled his eyes. “Right, sorry, forgot you’re a prude with no sense of humor. On second thought, you probably wouldn’t even be able to act your part properly. There’s no way anyone would believe us if you keep being yourself.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” you asked quietly, offended at the idea that you would be a bad actress.

“Exactly what you heard, angel, I don’t believe you’d be able to put your ego aside and act like a normal human being for long enough to convince people we’re really dating. No matter how much they want to see it, with your character they will know it’s fake,” he said, looking you dead serious in the eyes despite the smirk curving his lips.

“Just because I don’t flirt mindlessly with everything that walks, doesn’t mean I can’t act like a whipped high schooler for a couple of months,” you hissed out, lifting your chin proudly.

“Oh, really?” Ten said, tilting his head to the side in mock curiosity. “Prove it then. Kiss me, here and now. Yangyang over there sure knows painfully well how bad your opinion on me is. Convince him. Make him believe at least for one second that you are deeply and hopelessly in love with me. And I will admit to being wrong.”

You glanced at Yangyang for a second. The younger boy was paying close attention to your exchange, perhaps still hoping you’d end up agreeing. No help was coming from him, that was clear. If you were a bit more rational, you’d think that this was not worth it. But rationality left your brain whenever Ten was around. Especially if you had a chance to prove him wrong.

So you took a deep breath and stomped over across the room until you were standing in front of him.

“Very romantic approach,” he noted mockingly and you rolled your eyes before immersing yourself into your role, changing your expression to a more sensual one. You took a moment to slowly look him up and down as if appreciating the leather pants and nearly see-through shirt that he wore. You found the outfit extremely inappropriate.

“You come to school looking this hot and you expect me to remain indifferent?” you asked instead though, tone somewhere along the lines of ‘giving out that you’re turned on’. “Have you seen the way other people look at you when they pass by? They all want you so much…”

His arms that had until now stayed crossed in front of his chest relaxed and fell by his sides.

"You've noticed the way others look at me?" he asked, kind of sounding genuinely surprised. You chuckled softly.

"Of course I have, it's hard not to, especially when I have to listen to them swoon over you all the time," you replied, proud of yourself that you managed to sound only borderline jealous rather than very sick and tired of hearing his name wherever you went. "But I have to be honest with you, Ten," you went on, grabbing the collar of his shirt. "It's getting on my nerves. Don't you think it's time they know you belong to me?"

You didn't wait for his response. Instead, you leaned up and pressed your lips against his. It was a good thing that he wasn't that much taller than you so you didn't have to tiptoe or stand in an uncomfortable position in order to kiss him. It didn’t take him more than a second to kiss back, his arms wrapping around your waist and before you knew it, you were already deepening the kiss, pushing your tongue in his mouth.

Fuck, why did he have to be a great kisser… You’d started this with the full intention of pulling your best act at enjoying it, but instead, you were getting lost in the kiss, high on the way his tongue moved against yours. Somehow his hands slid under your shirt, fingers digging into your skin as he pulled you closer. A soft moan escaped you as you felt his teeth scrape your bottom lip and you felt him smirk in the kiss.

That was your sign to pull away, gasping for breath as your lips lingered against his for a little bit longer. You opened your eyes slowly meeting his. For a moment there, he wasn’t Ten Lee that you hated from the bottom of your heart. For a moment, you could see why people were attracted to him. And maybe in the heat of the moment, you leaned your lips closer to his ear and whispered: “If Yangyang wasn’t here, I’d make sure to mark you up so that everyone else would know you’re mine”.

Then you pulled away as if burned from his touch. You took a few steps back for good measure and turned to your best friend, waiting for his final judgment. You didn’t dare check what Ten’s reaction was to your words. Mainly because they didn’t make sense, Yangyang wouldn’t hear what you had said. And you sure as hell did not want to do anything of the sorts to him.

“I think that was a pretty convincing scene,” the younger boy said, shrugging slightly. “I have no idea what you said to him, but if he keeps looking at you that way, no one will even doubt you two.”

You didn’t check what Yangyang meant by “that way”, you didn’t want to know. Instead, you just shrugged and walked over to pick up your bag from the chair it had been peacefully sitting on during this whole shitshow.

“Month and a half. And we’re breaking up because of him,” you declared, still only looking at Yangyang. The boy clapped his hands excited, stars glimmering in his eyes. “Now excuse me, I have no desire to look at either of you unless it is a matter of life and death, and maybe even then. I have a class to get to.”

With that you walked out of the club room, mentally cursing yourself for agreeing to this. How ridiculous, your hands were shaking.

…

About three minutes after your last class for the day ended, your phone rang. You didn't recognize the number, so you didn't pick it up. But your phone rang again. And then a third time. You caved in and picked up.

"Yes?"

"Wow, when I don't have to look at your face, I can almost enjoy hearing your voice," a familiar mocking tone sounded through the speaker and you couldn't help but groan.

"How'd you get my number, idiot?" you hissed out.

"I asked Yangyang," he replied casually. "You know, it would be weird if we were dating and didn't have each other's phone numbers."

"Great, so you have mine and I have yours, now you have three seconds to hang up or I will."

"Hold up, we have some things to talk about," he said instead and you raised your eyebrows even though you knew he wouldn't see you.

"Pray tell, what would that be?" you asked confused.

"Details about our relationship, love," he chuckled. You gagged at the pet name and a tsk sound came from the other side. "First of all, you gotta stop forcing yourself to act disgusted around me."

"If you genuinely think I am forcing it, you're delusional. Sorry to break it to you," you hummed, sighing. "But surprisingly, you have a point. We should… ugh, I can't believe I'm saying this, we should meet up and talk about it."

"How shocking, a thought has appeared in your pretty head for once," he hummed and you tried to ignore the weird almost compliment in his words. "Hopefully, by the end of the next month and a half, it won't be so lonely."

"Yes, and maybe you'll stop being such a little bitch," you muttered, fully aware he would hear you over the phone. "Meet me in the library in 10 minutes."

"No," he said quickly, "we need people to see us. To make it seem like we started slipping so that people believe easier once the article is out. The cafe. And you better be there in 5."

He didn't even bother waiting for you to respond, instead just hung up on you. You cursed under your breath, muttering about an annoying little jackass who thinks he owns the world as you saved his number into your contacts list. You were tempted to not listen to him and just go home, but reminding yourself that you're doing this for Yangyang, you unwillingly made your way to the campus cafe.

Contrary to what you expected, he wasn't in the center of the room and surrounded by people. Instead, he had taken a seat at a small corner table with only one other seat across from him. Taking a deep breath, you made your way over to him, ignoring the glances you got.

"You're one minute late," he said instead of greeting you as you sat down on the empty seat.

"Wow, a whole minute! Plus, you're lucky I even came. If you try ordering me around one more time, the next thing Yangyang writes about will be your death under mysterious circumstances," you rolled your eyes.

Completely ignoring your comment, he slid one of the two cups in front of him over to your side. When you looked at him in confusion, he sighed.

"Hot chocolate. Yangyang said you like it."

"You asked him what I like?" you asked in confusion, being considerate enough for something like that wasn't a trait of his.

"If we're going to do this, we need to know things about each other, you know," he rolled his eyes as if your question was the dumbest thing someone could ask. "And I didn't really think you'd tell me if I asked."

You didn't reply. He did have a point. You hated the fact that he had had a point on more than one occasion today. Instead, you wrapped your hands around the warm cup and took a sip, looking around. People were looking at the two of you, you could see some of them whispering to each other. There were two options - either they were just genuinely surprised to see you together, or they really did think something was going on between you and Ten.

"So, how did we start dating?" Ten interrupted your thoughts and you looked at him startled. Rolling his eyes, he clarified: "Yangyang is close to both of us. It makes sense that he knows how it happened. Plus if he writes about it, we won't have to explain it."

"Ah, well…" you hummed, thinking. "Honestly, I cannot imagine any scenario where I'd fall for you. But, uh… we hooked up at some party?"

"Have you ever been to a party in your life?" he mocked and you were tempted to pour the hot chocolate over his head. "Also, that's lame. And I don't do hookups at parties, everyone knows that, too many people have tried. We need something different."

"Okay, calm down," you muttered, crossing your arms. "What do you suggest then, top 10 hottest male celebrities?"

"I don't know how you manage to make something like that sound offensive," he laughed. You shrugged. "Okay, what if we tell them we were working on an article together and in the process, we discovered that we don't entirely hate each other?"

"But that would mean that we have to actually work together and publish something," you pointed out.

"What, you don't think you can manage with that?"

"Of course I can, I know how to be professional"

"Then I don't see the problem. We have a month to come up with something for the next edition."

"Fine," you agreed. You couldn't imagine what topic the two of you would be able to write about together, but you were willing to try.

"Now for the next month, people will have to see us together often. And acting appropriately for a couple. If there is something you'd like me not to do to you, tell me now," he said, looking at you seriously. You raised your eyebrows.

"Well, I'd appreciate it if you don't try to fuck me in public."

"So I am allowed to try in private?" he smirked and you groaned in exasperation. He chuckled. "Fine, no sex, I didn't think we'd have to clarify that, but okay, anything else?"

"I don't really know, if we're gonna be going off the sexual tension everyone sees between us, it doesn't make sense to just hold hands and stare at each other lovingly," you said, mostly thinking out loud. "And it wouldn't be us. So, as Yangyang said, we keep acting as we always have, just less hostile and with occasional making out." Ten just stared at you for a moment so you leaned back, suddenly cautious. "What?"

"I didn't expect you to be so rational about it," he responded. "I expected you to freak out more after your initial disgust with the idea."

"Oh, don't get me wrong, I still hate this. But I promised my best friend, so I can at least make an effort."

He looked at you for a bit longer. A small smirk curved his lips before he stood up from his seat.

"Finish your hot chocolate, I'll call you if I have an idea for the article," he said and you blinked at him, startled by his abrupt leave. Then he winked at you. "See you on Monday, babe."

…

"Do you believe in love at first sight, or should I act like I hate you for a few years first?

It is finally happening, my friends! The moment we have all been waiting for since we first saw them together. And I am delighted to be able to report to you straight from the crime scene: our own local heartthrob Ten and his life-long rival, none other than my best friend Y/N, have finally found love. And by that I mean, with each other. Yes, you heard me right! The enemies have finally become lovers! And they will both probably kill me when they see their names on this page, but I could just not hold my excitement, I had to tell you as soon as I heard!"

After that, Yangyang went on with your made-up story of how you'd fallen in love and how "disturbing it is to have to share the club room with you, now that you two are all over each other all the time".

You took a deep breath. The news was out. Which meant that the moment you set foot on the campus, everyone would think that you're dating Ten. You weren’t sure whether you were ready to go through that. But there was no going back now. So you made your way to campus.

“Is it true?!” a girl you had never met in your life jumped up as soon as she saw you.

“Is what true-” you asked dumbfounded as more girls seemed to notice you and rush over.

“You and Ten, of course!” the first girl clarified, rolling her eyes as if you were acting dumb. Maybe you were. But so what, you deserved to act however you wanted in this case.

“What about me and him?” you asked, scrunching your nose in disgust and glaring at her.

“Well, are you two together or not?!” another girl asked impatiently and you made a point to look at her in utter distress.

“What- what do you mean “together”-” you stuttered out, looking from face to face frantically. They were all looking at you expectantly, excited or ready to kill, you weren't sure.

“Well, it was in the newspaper,” a girl said, almost sounding as if she was forcing herself to be patient with you. “Y’know, we just didn’t wanna assume-”

You gritted your teeth, exhaling sharply through your nose. “That little brat,” you hissed out to yourself.

“So it is true then?!” someone squealed and a few gasps flew by. You almost broke into a smirk, this was just too easy.

“I- well-” you tried to look like you’re panicking, like you don’t know whether to admit it or not. A giggle came from your left. You let out a defeated sigh. “Uh, yes? It’s true…” Squeals were all you could hear for half a minute. Gosh, were these girls in high school still? You barely held back from rolling your eyes.

“You have to tell us everything!” someone tugged your arm. You genuinely didn’t recognize any of the faces around you yet questions were pouring over you as if every one of these girls had known you since you were a baby.

“Uh, maybe some other time-” you responded, slowly making your way out of the crowd, trying to be the least violent that you could. “I’ve got classes in a bit so I don’t- it’s not the best time-”

Despite your best effort, it took you almost 10 minutes to finally shake off the last of the intruders and get to your class. Sadly, the peace was only temporary as almost everyone who had managed to sit somewhere around you had just as many questions. And once class was over, it was more people in the hallways stopping you and asking for more details. It was draining you so quickly, you were considering going home early.

“This is all your fault,” you grumbled to your best friend. It was time for lunch break and you were hoping that they would at least let you eat in peace. All hope was lost though as yet another girl you’d never met in your life asked if Ten was good in bed. What the fuck did that matter to her anyway?!

“Oh, come on, give them three days to accept it and they’ll stop,” Yangyang chuckled, patting your back sympathetically. “I told you it would be big news.”

“Yeah, and I thought it would be big news that they would talk about amongst themselves!” you whined. You could hear whispers, you could feel eyes all over you. It was already getting colder, which meant that everyone would be eating inside. So you decided that eating in the cafeteria wasn’t an option. “Come on, we’re having lunch outside.”

Yangyang looked like he wanted to protest but a murderous glare from you had him making the wise choice to not open his mouth. You sent him inside to get some food for the two of you as you made your way to the backyard to find a nice spot where you could sit.

Suddenly, a familiar voice called out your name and you felt like crying. You had hoped that you wouldn’t have to be around him so soon. But luck was never on your side, was it? You looked over in his direction and met eyes with a grinning Ten that was waving at you. You took a deep breath and made your way to him.

“Shut up, idiot, I barely made it here without one of your dumb fangirls asking me what your favorite sex position is,” you hissed out as soon as you made your way over to him. The poor excuse of a human being had the audacity to grin back at you.

“So what is it?” a new voice popped up and you glanced to the side, meeting eyes with a pretty-looking boy. You must have looked confused, as he went on to clarify. “His favorite position?”

“Why would I-” you almost finished with ‘know’, yet stopped yourself on time. Taking a deep breath, you crossed your arms in front of your chest. “I don’t think it’s any more of your business than it was theirs.” You were fuming, barely holding back from shouting at this kid that obviously was a friend of Ten, since the two of them were there together.

“Love, you know Sicheng?” Ten chimed in as if to prevent you from actually lashing out. You looked back at him, a grin spreading his lips as if he was holding back a laugh. Your mind went over the name a couple of times. Oh, yes, Sicheng, he was also on the dance team.

“Right, Sicheng, sorry,” you sighed, relaxing your posture again. “I’ve just- had a rough day,” you hummed apologetically at the boy. He smiled at you slightly, nodding as if to dismiss your concern.

“See, that’s better,” Ten cooed and before you took notice, grabbed your wrist and pulled you sideways in his lap.

“What the fuck-” you nearly screamed, immediately trying to get back up but an arm wrapped quickly around your waist and held you down. “Ten, let go right the fuck now, I am not sitting in your lap!”

“Come on, babe, please?” he looked at you, all pouty lips and pleading eyes. He was mocking you and you had no way of escaping it. “It’s not like we have to hide anymore,” he added and you would have clawed out his eyes if you could.

“Y’know, I will leave you two alone,” Sicheng said suddenly and you felt like begging him to stay. You opened your mouth to protest but he beat you to it. “No, really, I don’t mind finding some of the others instead. You two spend some time together.”

Smiling at you again, he collected his stuff and walked away. You followed him with eyes, glaring at Ten once the boy was out of sight.

“Great job, there are probably not many people who really enjoy your company and you just made one of them uncomfortable enough to leave,” you muttered.

“But look, at least you don’t have to pretend you like me for a little bit,” he smirked at you, his fingers playing with a strand of your hair. To a side-eye, you probably looked utterly in love and just being touchy.

“As long as I am sitting in this exact spot, I need to act like I enjoy it here,” you rolled your eyes, fidgeting with the hem of his shirt.

“Well, you better make yourself comfortable because this is where you’re spending lunch break.”

“Damn, you must be really desperate to feel any kind of intimacy if you’re so willing to keep me here against my will.”

“Where’s your little pet?” Ten narrowed his eyes at you, completely ignoring your words. You decided to take it as a win.

“Yangyang? He’s getting food for the two of us,” you responded, raising your eyebrows at him slightly. “There aren’t really rules set in stone when it comes to dating, okay? We made a point, you can easily have something to do that requires you to get up and leave now.”

“Yeah, but I’d rather stay here,” he grinned. “You’re not the only one that has to deal with nosy questions, I prefer you over them,” he added. Then his eyes moved from you as he waved to someone behind your back. “Ah, there he is. Over here, we have room for one more.”

“I swear to fucking-”

“Ah, young love... I see you two have already found each other,” Yangyang’s voice suddenly entered your bubble and you turned to look at him. “I hope you include me in the stories you tell your grandkids,” he added and you rolled your eyes.

“Stop talking nonsense, Yang, I want my lunch,” you mumbled, reaching your hand out to him.

“I could be your-” a voice started from next to you and you put a finger up to stop him from going on.

“If you continue that sentence in the way that I think you want to, I will stab you to death with my fork.”

The only response that came from Ten was a chuckle. You didn’t look away from Yangyang as he handed you a box with baked potatoes. You fished out your little purse from your bag, took out the fork you carried with you and opened the box. The food was still warm so you hummed happily and started eating.

You felt a slight weight on your side and glanced over. Ten had leaned his chin on your shoulder, eyes closed as his fingers kept twirling your hair. There was a weird intimate feeling creeping in on you and you were tempted to move away or at least tell him to stop that, yet… it somehow felt nice. So you didn’t say anything. You looked ahead again, meeting Yangyang’s eyes.

He was analyzing the two of you, you could see it. But why would he be doing that, he knew the truth - you were doing it for him. He should be grateful, you thought, scowling slightly. You would have never agreed to do something like this - sitting like this, if it wasn’t this dumb promise that you had given.

“Are you two usually just sitting in silence when you’re together or is this a special occasion?” Ten asked, his voice quiet and distant, almost as if he was getting sleepy.

“Not usually, no,” it was your best friend that responded. “But usually, I don’t have to look at my best friend, sitting in the lap of her arch-nemesis, who is also my other best friend.” You raised your eyebrows at him, since when did Ten qualify as his best friend? He rolled his eyes and chuckled, his only acknowledgment of your reaction.

“You can leave if you want to,” Ten shrugged.

“No, I will literally kill you if you leave,” you protested. You wouldn’t be able to do this on your own.

Being the amazing friend he occasionally decided to be, Yangyang did stay. It took you a couple more minutes, but you finally managed to engage in a comfortable conversation. You could almost ignore Ten, as he didn’t really join you two. Yet the soft weight on your shoulder was a constant reminder that he was in fact there. And at some point, you started feeling conscious about it.

You couldn’t help but glance over at him as you shifted uncomfortably. His eyes opened slowly, almost cat-like, and met yours, a silent question in them.

“I think I should really get up,” you started quietly. You felt his arm around your waist tightening its hold. “Come on, Ten, I feel like I’m going to crush you or something-”

“Shut up and stay here,” he said softly, you could swear that he sounded like he was going to fall asleep for real.

“But I’m-”

“Y/N,” he didn’t even let you finish. “I am the one that gets to decide how much I can take. Trust me, I would have literally thrown you off if it bothered me. Now finish your meal.”

With those words, he made a point by wrapping his other arm around you as well, hugging you closer to himself. You could hear your heart pounding and it took you a lot of effort to go back to eating and chatting with Yangyang.

It was much later into the day, when you were already home on your own, that your mind went back to what had happened. You hadn’t particularly enjoyed the situation, having Ten cling onto you was very very low on the list of things you’d like to experience, if on it at all. But you couldn’t say it had been all that bad. Now, the question was why would he do it in the first place. You wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d used the position you two were in to tease you and make you uncomfortable. Yet his touch on you had been gentle and comforting in a way. You couldn’t make sense of it. You weren’t sure whether you wanted to know what was going on.

…

Yangyang had turned out to be right. It took just a couple of days for the ‘news’ to settle down in everyone’s mind and people stopped intercepting you in the hallways and interrogating you on your (nonexistent) relationship with Ten. You’d also not spent that much time with the man himself, thankfully. You wouldn’t have been able to take another inexplicable cuddle session in the middle of campus. Especially since the first one was still haunting your thoughts.

Your luck seemed to be running thin though, as you entered the newspaper club room and found him buried in his laptop, glasses popped up on his nose. You’d never seen him with glasses before. You didn’t even know he needed those. He did look kinda good with them though.

“Since when do you need glasses?” you voiced out as you took a seat across from him.

“Uh, since quite a while ago?” he looked up, cocking an eyebrow at you. A half-smile curved his lips. “You’ve known me for more than three years now and you only find out now? What an attentive girlfriend I have…”

“How am I supposed to know when I’ve never seen you with them?” you rolled your eyes. “It’s not something that would just naturally come up in a conversation that we’d have.”

“Fair enough,” he shrugged and went back to whatever he was working on.

You were caught aback. Usually, he would take the chance to keep bickering with you, he would say something mean or dumb, but he sure as hell wouldn’t just… agree and leave you alone. You couldn’t help but stare at him.

“Can I help you with something?” he looked up once again, noticing your stare after a while.

“I still hate you, you know.” You heard the words leave your mouth before you had thought them through. Ten’s eyebrows shot up and his so far neutral expression changed subtly to a sarcastic smirk.

“I am well aware, love, thank you,” he chuckled. “Am I supposed to give you an award for it or something?”

“No, but-”

“Or is my presence disturbing your fine tastes, princess? Should I get up and leave the room immediately once you enter?”

Now he was just being the asshole that you had known for the past three years. Narrowing your eyes, you huffed in annoyance.

“If the offer is on the table, I’ll take it, thanks,” you bit back, tapping your fingers against the table in front of you in annoyance. “And here I almost thought you might actually be a decent human being.”

“And that’s how you treat normal people? You tell them you hate them?” he laughed out. “You call me a bitch, but I’m not the one here attacking people for no reason.”

“I’m confused, okay?!” you blurted out as if to defend yourself. “It’s like you’ve done a one-eighty and become a different person and it’s confusing me! Usually, I can’t have a moment of peace if you’re in the same room and now you’re just- working quietly.”

“Maybe I have something important to do? Hate to burst your bubble, but you’re not the center of my world. I thought that you’d appreciate some alone time to focus on your work if you’ve come here, sorry for not knowing that I was meant to bother you.”

“Ten, that’s not what…” You sighed, there was no point in this. He had gotten defensive. And maybe he had a reason to be. “Okay, this is on me,” you raised your hands in surrenderer, “but what the fuck was that on Monday?”

“What do you mean?” he asked, narrowing his eyebrows.

“I mean whatever the fuck took over you during lunch break,” you hissed out, crossing your arms in front of your chest defensively. You hated the fact that he had you so worked up over probably nothing at all. Realization lit up in his eyes. It seemed like he was hesitant for a second but that was gone in a blink.

“It’s called hugging someone, has it been a long time since the last time a person hugged you?” You pressed your lips together, glaring at him. He rolled his eyes. “I specifically asked you if there’s something you wouldn’t be okay with. If you’re going to make a scene every time I touch you-”

“That’s not how you touch someone you don’t like, idiot,” you couldn’t help but raise your voice. “You don’t hold them tightly and play with their hair and nearly fall asleep on their shoulder. And don’t tell me that you were just pretending because that wasn’t fucking acting!”

He flinched back. You could swear that you saw him flinch, the sarcastic mask on his face breaking for a second. It was quickly replaced by a cold expression.

“I know you have this perfect little idea of a world where you are a victim of life and I am the devil incarnate whose only purpose in life is to bother you, but news flash, Y/N, I am not. I have feelings of my own and my life does not revolve around you. Sure, I may enjoy annoying you and all, but sometimes… Maybe I just need a moment to myself. I apologize if I made you that uncomfortable.”

“Ten, I-” you started but you didn’t know what to say. You’d never seen him like this - cold and closed off. It was like you had managed to somehow hurt him for real. As far as you could remember it had always been you the one who had to hold back tears because of him. You were lost.

“I made a list of some topics that we could write about together,” he said suddenly, taking away from you the chance to say anything. As he said that, he slid over to your side a piece of paper. You could see his suggestions noted down prettily in neat handwriting. “Let me know if you like any of them.”

And before you knew it, he had walked out.

…

You were waiting for 20 minutes already in front of the campus gym. You knew for a fact that Ten had a dance practice today and that his group used the practice rooms that your college offered. And according to what Yangyang, your main source for Ten information, had told you, their practice should have finished 10 minutes ago. But no one had come out yet. And the coffee in your hand was already starting to cool down.

Now, the thing is, Ten was ignoring you. Ever since whatever had happened in the club room a week ago, he had been avoiding you, he would only speak to you if there were other people around and even then if he saw you nearby, he would make an excuse as to why he had to leave almost immediately. You had already realized that you had crossed a line somewhere. Now, you were feeling bad about it.

And you didn’t really know why you cared so much about it. He never really cared when he hurt you, he probably hadn’t even noticed that his words could get to you. You should have been happy that you didn't have to spend time around him, you should have been feeling good that you managed to get him to leave you alone… but you weren’t. So here you were, feeling cold, a cup of coffee in your hand and waiting for him to finish practice so you could talk to him. You felt dumb, he probably wouldn’t care…

“What are you doing here?” a voice cut through your thoughts and you were startled. Great job, you had gotten distracted and missed the one thing you were here for.

“I brought you coffee,” you said quickly, offering him the cup. He glanced down at it but didn’t take it.

“I prefer it iced,” he said and took a step to the side as if he was going to leave.

“Wait!” you reached up and grabbed his coat with your free hand. “I thought it would be too cold for iced coffee, I’m sorry-” you tried but he didn’t seem like that changed anything. “Are you going to keep avoiding me forever?” you asked, your frustration slipping in your voice.

“I thought you’d like that,” he raised his eyebrows, tilting his head to the side. Your first instinct was to disagree, but this was Ten, you couldn’t just say you hate the fact that he’s not talking to you.

“We’re still dating, idiot, how are we supposed to look in love if people can’t even see us in the same room?” you said instead and he scoffed.

“Don’t pull the fake relationship thing on me, you don’t even care about any of it.”

“I care about the promise that I made to my best friend,” you flinched slightly. “I thought you would too since you were the one to push me for it.”

“Yeah, I pushed for it and I have made you do unimaginable things that made you uncomfortable so we can just call this thing off and tell Yangyang that we’re done.”

“Listen, I’m sorry!” you pushed the words out with a little difficulty. He finally turned to look at you fully. “I obviously hurt you the other day and I don’t know what it was exactly that made you pull away like this but I am genuinely sorry.”

“Never thought that I'd hear you say that to me," he chuckled and you narrowed your eyebrows. "You're already warming up to me, aren't you?" The teasing tone in his voice was back in a blink and you rolled your eyes.

"No, I just actually felt bad for what happened, but now I'm starting to think that you were just pretending to be offended," you huffed. "You don't deserve this coffee."

"Hey, hey, no" he smiled, taking the cup from your hand quickly. "I appreciate it. The coffee. And the apology." You couldn't help but smile a little too. "However, I am freezing so-"

"By the way," you interrupted him quickly. "I looked through your ideas and I did like some of them. I was thinking maybe we should discuss them?"

"Well, right now, I am not in the mood as I am freezing, as I mentioned already," he hummed. "But if you can handle the sacrifice of spending a little more time with me today, you can come over."

"As in, go with you to your place? Right now?"

"Yes, genius, come with me to my place right now," he rolled his eyes. "Don't worry, I won't murder you and hide your body in the freezer. My freezer barely fits my groceries as it is."

"I didn't think you'd do that until you mentioned it," you narrowed your eyes in suspicion. "But I'll take my chances. I'll just warn Yangyang where I am, if I don't come to class tomorrow, he'll know what happened."

It didn’t take long to get to Ten’s. You tried not to look around too curiously as he led you inside the small apartment.

“So… you live here alone?” you asked awkwardly as you took off your shoes.

“Not really,” he chuckled, glancing at you. “My roommates are probably sleeping at the moment. But if you’re lucky, you might get to see them.”

“I didn’t really ask to meet anyone but sure,” you shrugged and walked after him to a room that you assumed was the living room.

You took a seat on the couch and Ten chose the armchair on your left. You took a long look around the room and finally turned to him and found him already staring at you curiously. You couldn’t stop the awkwardness creeping up your back as you realized none of you had said anything in a while.

“So how’d practice go?” you asked.

“It was okay. We have a performance coming up in a few weeks so we’re working on that,” he replied, seeming surprised that you’d asked.

“Really? Like, you have some competition or something?”

“Competitions are usually later on during the year,” he chuckled. “This is going to be local, so to say. We do these performances every year before the season opens so we can gather new members. Curious what it’s gonna be like?” he smirked playfully.

“I’m just asking to be polite,” you rolled your eyes. “I’m sure you’ll do great and blah blah, imagine some motivational speech here.”

“And you’re coming to watch, obviously,” Ten said and you blinked in confusion.

“Uh, I wasn’t aware of that- Usually, I skip those…”

“Yeah, right, you do,” he rolled his eyes. “Well, you’re watching this one for sure. You’re my girlfriend.”

“Your girlfriend could be busy. I could be attending someone’s funeral at the same time,” you protested.

“Sure, sure, love, I will remind you when it comes and you’ll decide then, hm?” he offered and smiled at you, a condescending smile that told you that he was 120% sure that you’d be going. Yet you nodded in agreement. “Also, I hate to change the topic but didn’t you say you wanted to talk about the article?”

“Ah, right!” you nodded as you leaned over to take out the list of ideas he’d given you. “I looked over them and I really like some of them, like, you have some very interesting ideas. But I wanted to pick a topic that would be, like… I guess, a bit more universal, so…” you handed him the paper, pointing to the article you wanted to work on.

“The student council representative elections?” he asked to confirm and you nodded.

“I just think… It's something that should be important to most students. We could, like, interview the candidates as part of their platform and it could be a way for everyone to meet them. And if we work on it together, I’m sure we’d have different ideas and questions to ask so it would be more… uh, beneficial, I guess?”

“Sounds good to me,” he nodded, leaving the sheet on the table. “I figured you’d want something like that.”

“If you don’t like the idea,” you started, a little anxious.

“No, no, I do,” he assured you quickly. “I like the idea, otherwise I wouldn’t have put it in the list. Now, let’s figure out the details, hm?”

You hadn’t intended to spend hours at Ten’s place, yet the two of you seemed to get pretty caught up in what questions you were going to ask and how the article would look like. You were so caught in the process that a sudden brush against your leg startled you and you jumped in your spot.

Looking down, you were met with a pair of light blue eyes. A cute siamese cat was looking up at you as if wondering what you were doing here.

“Ah, there you are,” Ten smiled, reaching over to pet the little ball of fur. “Y/N, this is one of my roommates, Louis.”

It hadn’t occurred to you that his roommates could be something else but human so you were a bit surprised. But the cat, Louis, looked so pretty so you couldn’t deny that it was a nice surprise.

“Hey, buddy,” you cooked, reaching down and stroking his head gently. He didn’t seem to mind and a small smile crept up on your lips. “But wait, you have more than one?” you looked up at Ten, the fact that he’d mentioned this being ‘one of his roommates’ only now processing in your head.

“Yeah, I have one more,” he nodded, a smile still on his face as he looked at his pet. You could see in his eyes the affection he had for him and that made you a little softer. “Would you like me to go find him?”

“If it won’t be a problem,” you nodded. You were momentarily distracted as Louis decided to use the opportunity to jump up on the couch next to you and examine you thoroughly. You let him do his thing while Ten got up and walked over to another room.

He didn’t take long, only enough for Louis to climb up in your lap and spread over it so that you wouldn’t be able to get up, returning with an abyssinian cat in his arms.

“Leon, we have guests, say hi,” he cooed as he walked over to the couch and sat down next to you. “I see Louis has already gotten comfortable,” he chuckled, noticing the new position his pet had settled in. “It’s nice to see that he likes you.”

“Feels nice to have him like me, too,” you chuckled, petting the black and white ball of fur in your lap with one hand as you carefully reached out with the other one to let Leon sniff you. “I keep finding out new things about you these days,” you glanced up at Ten for a second. “First the glasses and now you’re also a cat mom? What’s next, you read to sick kids every second Sunday?”

“No, but I used to,” he hummed and you looked up at him again, unsure whether he was serious or not. “What, your mind can’t handle the possibility that I might be a good person?” he laughed and reached over, flicking your forehead gently. It wasn’t hard or really painful, but you pulled away from the surprise.

“They are really cute,” you switched the topic back to the cats and Leon meowed as if to agree with you. “Honestly, I’d endure your presence if it meant I’d get to spend time with them.”

“Well, the good thing is that you have an excuse to come over whenever you like at least for the next month,” he chuckled, hugging Leon closer to himself. You couldn’t quite be sure whether the cat enjoyed it, but he didn’t try to run away so you guessed at the very least, he didn’t mind.

“Great, so we’ll work on this article here,” you chimed up, smiling down at Louis.

“You could come over just so too,” Ten mumbled and you almost didn’t hear it. You chose not to mention it. Instead, you focused again on the fluffy thing you were cuddling.

It did, however, indeed become a regular thing, you hanging out at his place whenever you could find an excuse for it. The two little fluffs would run out to greet you whenever you entered at this point. Of course, that meant you had to spend time with Ten. But usually, it ended up either with you two talking about the article, or each of you doing their own thing in silence.

There were three candidates in total for representative of the student council and you had already interviewed all of them. Now you just had to wrap up everything that you’d gathered and present the finished piece for editing. So you were once again at Ten’s.

“Okay, I think this one question didn’t really get us anything interesting, what if we don’t include it?” he offered, reading through the notes you had taken during the interviews. He’d pointed out that you could just record it, but you had insisted on taking notes.

“Yeah, that’s fine,” you agreed, glancing over to check what he meant exactly. Then your eyes returned to your own sheet. It was from one specific interview and you were rereading the answers that you’d gotten for maybe one time too many now. “Listen, I know we’ve been over this but there is something off about this guy,” you huffed.

“This again…” Ten rolled his eyes, setting down the papers in his hands. “Darling, you insisted on three interviews with him just to catch him ‘slipping’ somewhere and you still got nothing.”

“But there is something, I’m sure of it,” you whined out, raising your voice, and Leon looked up at you from the spot between you and Ten where he had spread out to sleep. “I’m sorry, baby,” you pouted at him, stroking his back gently as he relaxed again.

“I’m sorry, baby,” Ten repeated mockingly, rolling his eyes. “I swear, you care about my cats more than anything else now. They’re still my cats, okay? Not yours.”

“Yeah? Do they know that? Because I’m the one they come to greet when we enter,” you smirked. “Are you jealous?”

“No, I’m not,” he huffed, crossing his arms. Your eyebrows shot up and a grin spread on your face.

“You are!” you laughed, leaning a little closer to him. “Are you jealous of me? Or them? Whose attention is it that you want, babe?”

Maybe it was the fake relationship rubbing off on both of you, but pet names had become so common between the two of you that you barely even gave them any thought. But there was also the fact that from mocking each other, you’d gone to teasing. You refused to think about it. It somehow worked out and as long as he didn’t mention anything, you wouldn’t either.

“Don’t ask questions you wouldn’t like the answer of,” he replied, pushing you back with a finger against your forehead. You scoffed, picking up Leon and hugging him as if to rub in Ten’s face what he’s missing out.

“Anyway, about that guy-” you started again and you almost laughed at the dramatic roll of Ten’s eyes. “No, I’m telling you! We should investigate more!”

“How much more do you need?” he whined. “At this point why not go and straight up ask him “Hey, are you planning on doing something bad?”

“Okay, okay, look,” you huffed. “I can take the dean’s keys to the student council room. And I know at what time no one is there. Would you come with me to look around? Like, maybe look through his things or something…”

“I’m pretty sure that would be illegal,” Ten pointed out. You rolled your eyes.

“I didn’t ask, are you coming or not?” you asked again.

“Why would you even ask me to come with you?” he turned the question, looking at you suspiciously.

“I need someone to blame if they catch us, of course,” you responded with a matter-of-fact tone. “Plus, we’ve worked on this whole thing together so far. I promise, if nothing comes out this time, I’ll give up.”

“Fine,” he caved in, shaking his head a bit as if disappointed with himself.

“Okay, so we can go tomorrow-” you started but he shook his head.

“Not tomorrow,” he said simply.

“Why not? It’s gonna be pretty much empty the whole afternoon,” you tilted your head in confusion.

“Yeah, you know why? Cause tomorrow’s the performance,” he said and realization hit you. He’d been talking about this for the past week every day, he’d been late to most of your meetings because of practice. You could see how important it was to him. You'd grown curious about it as well. And yet you’d managed to forget. “So you either do it on your own, or you’ll have to pick another day.”

“No, yeah. That’s fine,” you agreed quickly, feeling dumb. “Not tomorrow. How about Thursday? I know there will be about half an hour of clearing.”

“Sure, works with me,” he smiled at you and you couldn’t help but smile back. “So you’re coming tomorrow, right?” You were caught off guard. You stared at him for a long moment. “Well, since you are free tomorrow…”

“I hadn’t really thought about it,” you lied. Obviously you lied. You’d actually been considering it ever since he first told you to go.

“Well, you need to,” he insisted. “Imagine, I’m one of the best dancers in this team and my own girlfriend won’t even come to support me. What are people going to think?”

“I could be supporting you from home, cuddling the cats,” you hummed, not acknowledging the fact that in a way you had just called this place ‘home’. “Besides, do you really care what people think?”

“No,” he grinned. “But I still want you to come.”

He wanted you to go. It took a moment to process and then another one to figure out how to react.

“Come on, in a couple of weeks we’re going to break up dramatically because of me, at least come watch as my girlfriend once,” he went on, leaning a little bit closer to you. You weren’t sure whether the movement was conscious or not.

“What makes you think that I’d even wanna go?” you asked instead of replying.

“I never claimed to think that way. All I’m saying is that I would like you to come watch the performance tomorrow. You can still say no if you don’t want to. The choice is up to you but that doesn’t mean I won’t keep trying.”

“Okay, fine,” you agreed and by the way he looked at you, you guessed he hadn’t expected you really would. “I’ll come, but it better be worth it.”

“It will be,” he smiled. "But you better really be there or I'll kill you."

…

The next afternoon, you couldn't believe that you were still on the campus an hour after your last class and not in the club room, working on something. Instead, you were standing in the corridor next to the big hall for ceremonies, near the backstage changing rooms door, with Ten.

"I still can't believe you managed to force me to come," you voiced out, glaring down at his hand that was holding your wrist.

"I didn't force you to do anything," he argued as his fingers tapped gently on your skin in the beat of music that you couldn't hear. "It's you who wanted to come." You wanted to argue with that. Unfortunately, both of those statements were true.

"Do you really have to be doing that? There's no one here," you said quietly, nodding to his hand. He let go of your wrist immediately and you did your best not to think about the sudden disappearance of the warmth of his fingers. "So what should I expect, really? What kind of dances do you usually do?"

“Have you really never been to any of our performances?” Ten asked and you could swear that for a second he sounded genuinely hurt.

“Honestly, no,” you admitted. “I knew you’d be there.”

“How insightful of you, are you always this bright or was that a special case?” he rolled his eyes. “Well, you are here now and if you try to skip it or something, I will know so you will have to watch it.” There was a smug expression on his face as if this was something he’d planned all along. “And you better make sure to really enjoy the show.”

“Jesus, you’re so persistent,” you huffed. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think that you’re trying to impress me.”

He stared at you for a long moment. All of a sudden you felt conscious - was he actually hoping that he would impress you today? You couldn’t imagine that being true. You couldn’t imagine him making an effort to impress anyone, but you specifically even less so.

“It’s a good thing that you know better then,” he said finally, grinning at you. “No offense, your opinion is not something that really matters to me all that much.”

You knew that, obviously. With the way you two acted around each other, it made perfect sense that he wouldn’t need your approval, the same way you didn’t care whether you had his. And you were not surprised that he had no problem saying it to your face. But for some reason, it still hurt you. You gritted your teeth and smiled at him in fake sweetness.

“Good to know. But just so you know, if you’re not at least 60% as good as everyone claims you are and I end up disappointed, I will never let you and your enormous ego live it down.”

“Wouldn’t expect anything else from the queen of saltiness herself,” he chuckled.

There was no hostility in his voice. And in all honesty, there was no hostility in yours either. You weren’t sure when exactly the two of you had genuinely stopped trying to hurt each other with every word that came out of your mouths. And you weren’t sure what to think about that change. So you just did your best not to think about it at all.

Instead, you leaned up and pressed a quick kiss on his lips, resting your hand at the back of his head gently. You hoped that he wouldn't point out the same thing you had mentioned just a couple of minutes ago - that there was no one to be pretending for.

“Go out there and make me proud to be pretend-dating you, fucker,” you mumbled. You looked up to meet his eyes and found an unexpected depth in them. Almost as if all of this was real.

“You might have to channel back that possessiveness from the club room after the performance, love,” he warned. You couldn’t tell whether he was joking or not. It sounded like a joke, but his voice lacked humor.

“I’ll deal with that if needed,” you chuckled, pulling away from him. “Just do well.”

With that, you walked away to find a seat for yourself. Your eyes traveled over the seats - most of them were already taken and you realized you’d probably have to sit way back and not really see much. And then you saw Yangyang, sitting peacefully in the middle of one of the front rows, and the empty seat next to him. You quickly made your way over.

“Never thought I’d get to see you here,” he said instead of greeting you.

“Then why’d you save me a seat?” you raised your eyebrows at him.

“You’re assuming that I was saving it for you. Maybe I’m here with someone else, as I am so used to you ditching me every time I offer you to come,” he sighed dramatically. You rolled your eyes. “Okay, fine, I knew he’d make you come watch. He wouldn’t miss the chance to show off.”

You wanted to ask him whether Ten really was that good. But you didn’t get the chance to, as the lights in the great hall suddenly turned off. That was everyone’s clue to focus their attention on the stage, so your mind drifted away from the question. Well, you guessed you’d know soon enough anyway.

The dance team took over the stage almost right away and you were mesmerized. The kids were really good. With each second, it was becoming more clear to you why everyone cared about them so much, why someone would want to read Ten’s each and every article about them. The choreography was beautiful, full of small details that you risked missing if you as much as blinked for too long and yet they made it look like something so easy.

It took you a while to notice that something was missing. Someone. Among all the things you could focus on during the performance, Ten wasn’t an option. He wasn’t on the stage. You narrowed your eyes in confusion.

“Where is he?” you asked quietly.

“That excited to see him?” your best friend glanced at you, the corners of his lips curving slightly.

“Well, I did come to watch him, after all,” you hummed, but your eyes never left the stage.

“Don’t worry, you’ll get to see him in action very soon,” Yangyang assured. For his own good, you chose to ignore the teasing tone in his voice. “He usually has solos at the end of the performances. He is their star dancer after all.”

You hummed again, keeping your eyes on the dancers on stage, letting Ten out of your mind for a while and just admiring the show that these kids had obviously worked hard to prepare.

Turns out it was a bad idea to let your guard down that way. Because the moment he showed up on the stage, your brain practically malfunctioned. He’d changed his outfit since the last time you saw it. And his stage outfit consisted of tight black jeans, a mesh top that practically left him naked whenever he moved and a velvety coat in black and dark red. Up till now, you had never seen Ten in the light of someone who could be even remotely attractive, not consciously at least. You knew people found him hot but you never really understood why. Yet at the moment, no matter how much you tried to, you couldn’t ignore his toned upper body, a tattoo peeking from under his shirt (which, honestly, really did absolutely nothing to cover his torso, thank god for the coat over it) or the way his jeans hugged his thighs.

And then he started dancing. And as much as you had loved the show before him, it couldn’t compare to the way he moved. He seemed so perfectly in control of everything, capturing everyone’s attention like it was nothing. His stage presence and the way he pulled every move effortlessly had your breath hitching in the back of your throat.

"Pick up your jaw," Yangyang laughed at your side and you'd glare at him and threaten to cut off his dick if it wouldn't require looking away and focusing on something that wasn't the way Ten moved on stage.

You were in a daze, you could clearly see why everyone talked so highly of him and it was almost driving you into an existential crisis. He was hot. He was beautiful. He was talented. He was… he was everything you didn't want him to be.

When the performance finally ended, the crowd erupted in loud cheers and screaming. You couldn't hold yourself back from joining in. At least you could tell yourself that it was only in case someone was watching your reaction - you should be cheering for your boyfriend after all, right?

"Come on, it would be best if we get there before the fangirls," your best friend said suddenly, grabbing your wrist and pulling you away.

"Get where?" you asked confused. You didn't get a response, instead, you were pulled once again to the hallway that led to the backstage space.

Now, you understood what he meant by "before the fangirls". And what Ten had meant when he said you might need to bring out your possessive side. There were girls lined up all around the door, squealing excitedly to each other about the performance just now. You could hear some of them discussing asking him out. You scoffed, who did they think they were? Why did they think they have a right to try to ruin your pretend relationship?

Your eyes moved to the door as it opened and a sweaty and still slightly panting Ten walked out. The girls immediately started crowing around him. And that's where your brain completely gave up on you.

"Excuse me, girlfriend passing through, make way," you muttered, your tone far more annoyed than you'd deem appropriate, but you couldn't care. You pushed through the pack of girls, shoving some of them quite roughly until you finally stood in front of Ten. His eyes met yours and you could see anticipation in them. He was… waiting to hear your opinion, you realized. He’d said he didn’t care, but you could see the pressure in his shoulders.

You didn't speak. You weren't sure what would come out of your mouth if you did. Instead, you hooked your fingers into the holes of his mesh shirt and pulled him closer to you, crashing your lips against his. It wasn't a soft and gentle kiss. No, it was your anger pouring out from your mouth in his. Anger at him for being so good at something that you were left with no choice but to be in awe. Anger at all the girls around you for thinking they could just come here and think they could have him. And mostly, anger at yourself for caring so much about both of those things.

He was caught aback for a moment, probably because of the intensity of your actions, but then his arms wrapped around your waist as he kissed back. He didn't seem to mind that you were practically devouring him in front of half his fan club at the moment. Instead, he met your force and returned it, making you moan out into his lips. As your arms moved around his neck, you could hear gasps and whispers around you. You couldn't help the smirk that curved your lips.

"You were fucking brilliant," you breathed out against his lips once you finally pulled away. "And if you tell anyone I said that I will deny it with all I have."

"And what was the kiss for?" he asked, chuckling quietly. "A reward for a job well done?"

"No, it was because some people do indeed need to learn that you're not theirs," you hissed out, fingers brushing through his hair as you pressed closer to him. "I don't care if it's real or not, as long as this thing is going on, you're only mine."

"You so wanna fuck me right now." A smirk curved his lips to accompany those words. The angry part in you growled in confirmation.

"No, I don't. And if something like that as much as crossed your mind one more time, I will make sure that you are not able to fuck anyone ever again."

He chuckled, but instead of replying, at first he just looked at you. One of his hands let go of your waist and instead cupped your cheek, his thumb gently moving over your lower lip. You blinked at him in surprise.

"Well, I'm not ashamed to say that I do want to fuck you right now. Quite a lot. You look so hot when you're jealous."

You gasped out quietly, not expecting to hear those words from him. He chuckled again, pecking your lips before pulling away from you.

"As much as I love being this close to you, babe, I need to go get changed," he said and you hummed. "Thank you, everyone, for the support, it is always a pleasure performing for you," he turned to the girls and they cheered excitedly. It almost felt like you were at a K-pop concert and everyone was screaming because the idol had opened their mouth. You couldn't help but roll your eyes.

You didn't wait for him to close the door on his way back to the changing room before you were also walking away. Yangyang caught up to you quickly, a grin you didn't like on his face.

"Are you just taking your responsibility as my best friend too much at heart," he teased, " or is something actually going on between you and him?"

"Not even in his wildest dreams," you grumbled, shoving your hands in your pockets so Yangyang wouldn't see your clenched fists.

"No, I'm pretty sure you're not just pretending right now, Y/N, I know you," he insisted, somehow a bit more serious.

"Shut it, Liu, you have no idea what you're talking about," you hissed, stopping in your tracks to death glare at him.

He raised his hands in surrender and you let out a sigh, the anger washing out almost as quickly as it appeared. You stood in your spot for a little more. Yangyang would understand if you told him, he wouldn't judge you. Maybe he'd tease you for a while but he'd understand. He seemed to take notice of the conflict on your face and a small smile curved his lips.

"Oh, sweetie, you're falling in deep, aren't you?" he asked and you huffed out in annoyance. Scratch that, you're not telling him, ever.

"No, I'm not," you rolled your eyes. "What I'm doing is going home." And hoping that you’d be able to forget everything that had happened today.

…

A couple of hours later though, laying in your bed, you couldn’t get Ten out of your mind. Pieces of his performance earlier were replaying in your mind, frustrating you more and more with every passing second. And it didn’t help that you could also still vividly hear his words from earlier.

Did he mean it? Or was he just messing with you? If he’d been serious, that could make all of this harder. Because if you were to actually sleep with him, that could blur the lines between pretending and real feelings for you. Especially since those lines were already kind of blurry, as much as you refused to acknowledge that. And if it was just a sick joke on his side… that would hurt you more than you would like to admit.

You knew that knowing the answer would not be good either way. But you couldn’t just stop thinking about it. So you ended up picking up your phone and dialing Ten’s number.

“Hello?” he picked up, sounding confused. You could understand why. There was no way you could excuse any of this with the article.

“Are you free tonight?” you asked, not willing to allow yourself to procrastinate.

“Am I- Y/N, did you dial the wrong number? Are you aware who this is?” he asked and you groaned.

“Yes, you idiot, I could never forget the voice that haunts my nightmares.”

“Does that mean that you dream about me?” you could practically hear the smirk in his question.

“I dream of murdering you painfully and slowly, yes, if that’s what you were thinking about.”

“So you have a thing for sadism, noted,” he hummed. “I can work with that.”

“Oh my god, shut up,” you groaned, feeling your face hear up slightly. “Answer my question, are you free tonight?”

“Well, usually after performances I stay at home and cuddle my cats, so… yeah, I guess, why?”

You suddenly felt bad - you hadn’t thought about the fact that he was probably tired and wanted to rest.

“Nothing, never mind,” you tried to change your direction. “Tell Louis and Leon that I love them, I’ll see you to-”

“Hey, loser,” Ten interrupted you. “Leave the kids out of this, what do you want?” You didn’t reply for a bit, contemplating. “Look, you can tell me, the worst I can say is no.”

You scoffed, yet after taking a deep breath, you pushed yourself to ask the question.

“Would you wanna come over to my place?”

“What?” he asked, as if in disbelief. You already regretted this and wanted to hit yourself and never speak to him again, yet there was no going back.

“Look, Yangyang promised me to watch movies together tonight but then he ditched me and now I have the snacks but no one to share them with so-"

"So you're inviting me over for a movie night," he finished your sentence. He still sounded doubtful. You sighed.

"Yeah, that's pretty much it. It's fine, forget I asked, it was a dumb idea anyway. Good night-"

"I'll come," he said before you could hang up.

"Really?!"

"Yeah, just text me your address, I'll be there in a bit."

And so you did. You had to make a quick trip to the store as the Yangyang story was obviously complete bullshit so now you had to have some snacks around. But 20 minutes later, you had a convincing enough amount of chips and cookies on your table as your doorbell rang. You rushed to take it.

"Hey," you greeted awkwardly.

"Hey," Ten said back, chuckling at the way you stood there.

Not going to lie, you were staring. He looked so soft, wearing a lilac hoodie and sweatpants, his hair fluffy and messy as if he'd just washed it. It was so different from the styled-up Ten you saw every day.

"I figured it wouldn't matter much how I look for a movie night with you of all people," he shrugged, glancing past you to the inside of your house. "Now may I come in?"

He was right, of course. It shouldn't have mattered. Which is precisely why you couldn't tell him how much it mattered. Instead, you shook your head, stepping to the side so that he could walk past you to your living room.

"Make yourself at home or whatever," you waved your hand mindlessly.

"Look, darling, I know I am not your favorite person out there, but you could at least try to appear welcoming, hm? Have I ever neglected you like this when you’re over?" Ten laughed as he took a seat on the couch.

"Shut up, dumbass, I am already starting to question my decision to call you," you rolled your eyes, yet made your way over to the couch and sat down next to him.

"Great for you! That means you haven't completely lost your mind! Now, what movie are we watching?"

"I don't know, usually Yangyang is the one who chooses them," you shrugged, that much was true.

"So you wanna pick it this time?" he offered but you shook your head, handing him your laptop.

It took him a good 10 minutes of searching but he finally played some movie and set the laptop on the table in front of you. Each of you opened a pack of chips as you sat on both sides of the couch and watched.

20 minutes in, you wanted to scream. It all felt so weird. Neither of you was talking, as compared to how usually you couldn't keep your mouth shut when watching a movie. You couldn't help but keep glancing at him, thoughts running in your mind.

“We can cuddle if you want," Ten said, breaking the silence. You glared at him. "What? You've been staring at me since the beginning of the movie. I do consider myself extremely good-looking but as far as I know, you don't really think the same way. Either you wanna cuddle, or there's something you want to say. Whichever it is, go ahead because you're really keeping me from enjoying the movie."

"You said you wanted to fuck me," you blurted out, without thinking it through. Ten raised his eyebrows at you.

“Yeah, I did. And you said that you don’t. What about it?”

“Well-” you weren’t sure how to word out what was going on in your head. “What if- What if I told you I lied about- that?”

“I’d tell you that you are a pretty bad liar,” he chuckled, a smirk curving his lips. “It was obvious. But I figured you’d want me to leave you with your lie and not mention it.

“How noble of you,” you said sarcastically, out of pure instinct. But you did appreciate the idea that he would give up on using it against you, just because you asked. “But my point is- I am… I am admitting it now. If you still-” you weren’t sure what you were saying.

It took Ten a while to say something again. He was looking at you with an unreadable expression, making you even more nervous than you already were. When he finally moved, it was to reach over and pause the movie.

“So let me get this straight,” he said. “You called me over with the fake ass excuse of a movie night with Yangyang because you’re horny and I said that I wanted to fuck you?”

“Well- yeah, it sounds kind of lame when you put it that way, but yeah,” you sighed. “It’s just- you really looked amazing out there and seeing all those girls piling up to talk to you, hearing them talk about asking you out… it pissed me off so much and I have no idea why but what I do know is that I haven’t been able to get you out my mind since then and-”

You were getting frustrated. The thoughts had been fighting in your mind for the whole afternoon and finally getting them out in front of Ten was both terrifying and relieving at the same time. You were so lost in your little rant that you didn’t notice him moving until his fingers had gently wrapped around your wrist. He tugged you, not harshly but enough to make you lean forward and reach up, gripping onto his shoulder for balance.

“Fine,” he said quietly. “But only if you promise me that you won’t regret it later.”

Could you really promise that? Could you really get out of all this unfazed? The answer was probably no. Yet you nodded in confirmation. Next thing you knew, he was kissing you. Hard, just like you had kissed him earlier today. You kissed back, your frustration slipping as you slid your hand in his hair and tugged on it. He let out a small hum as he leaned back and pulled you on top of himself. You didn’t need a second invitation to get comfortable in his lap as his free hand settled on your hip.

You pulled away for a short breath with the intention of going right back in but instead, your lips latched onto Ten’s neck, biting down and sucking hard. Soon enough, a bruise appeared on his skin. You knew that because you pulled away to look at it. Then you looked up to meet his eyes. He had his eyebrow raised at you.

“Come on, don’t look so surprised,” you huffed, rolling your eyes. “I already told you that I wanna do that.”

“I thought it was just you trying to get back at me for doubting you,” he shrugged. “And since you never asked questions about that day, I figured I wouldn’t either.”

“Wait, now that you mention that… What did Yangyang mean back then? What was the way you were looking at me that-”

“Y/N, that day… you could have had me on my knees if you had asked,” he said. You froze, confusion clouding your mind. He chuckled at your reaction. “Come on, I thought you were smarter than this, love. It’s practically all written out for you and you still don’t get it?”

“Get what, Ten, I-” you started, but he didn’t let you finish. He was kissing you again before you had the time to think about it more. By instinct, you kissed back.

This time it didn’t last as long. He pulled away pretty soon and leaned his head back against the couch, almost as if he was baring his neck for you. You bit your lips and took your chance. Your lips were back on his neck, biting, sucking, licking as you left marks all over his skin. What you were surprised by were the soft moans that quickly started falling from his mouth. From your spot in his lap, you could also feel him growing harder with every new mark that you left.

“Who would have guessed that you have a thing for being marked up,” you couldn’t help but tease him.

“Only when it’s done by an extremely hot and possessive girl that’s been getting on my nerves ever since I met her,” he laughed.

“I’m not possessive!” you quickly shot back defensively. Then did your best to calm down your voice so you got back to teasing him. “It just looks really pretty on you.”

“Yeah, sure,” he rolled his eyes. His hand finally let go of your wrist and moved up, gently holding your neck, fingers threading through your hair as he pulled you closer. “You know what else would look really pretty? Your lips wrapped around my dick.”

“Maybe in a little bit,” you hummed. You felt bold enough to roll your hips down against him and loved the way his breath hitched and his eyes fluttered closed. He looked almost vulnerable, like if you pressed just hard enough, he would break under your fingers.

“Quit looking at me like that,” Ten said softly and you blinked in confusion. “You’re looking at me like any of this actually matters to you. And if you keep looking at me like that, I will not be able to go through with this.”

You felt a shot of pain in your chest - would it really be that bad if it mattered? Would it be that bad if there was something more than just lust that was urging you on at the moment? Would it-

Yes, you thought to yourself, practically scolded yourself actually. It would be. You couldn’t have developed feelings for him, and he definitely didn’t have any for you. Being attracted to each other didn’t mean anything.

“Fine then,” you rolled your eyes, going back to the safe zone of treating him as your rival that you were used to. “It’s not like any of it could matter anyway,” you voiced out your thoughts, tone slightly harsher than you intended.

You saw him flinch for a moment, visibly taken aback by the shift in your behavior. Yet it took him almost no time to put on the mocking expression you had grown so used to in the past three years.

“Glad we’re on the same page, get to it now,” he urged you with a roll of his hips and you bit your lips to hold back a reaction.

“You should ask for it politely, maybe I’ll think about it then.”

“You want me to beg for you? Love, you’re seriously confused about how things work here.”

“What, I’ll be the one begging or something?” you mocked, rolling your eyes. “Good luck with that.”

“Really, you have the option to do something nice with your mouth for once and you still choose to talk nonsense?”

“Oh, was I not doing nice things with my mouth here?” Your fingers traced the hickeys on his neck. “You seemed to enjoy those.”

“If you stop fucking stalling, maybe you’ll have something more to talk about than a few hickeys.”

“Just so you know, babe, the fact that you’re not begging, doesn’t mean it isn’t obvious how desperate you are.”

You got off his lap, getting instead between his legs. You could feel his eyes glued on you but you chose to ignore them. Instead, you untied the knot on his sweatpants and quickly slid them down his legs. You threw them to the side, before taking off his underwear as well. His length came into view and you licked your lips slowly. Wrapping your hand around it softly without really doing anything, you finally looked up at him.

“Gonna ask me politely this time?” you asked, fluttering your eyelashes at him.

“Why, the first thing worked just fine,” he smirked.

“What if I just made an exception once?”

“You’ll make one more then.”

“Ask. Politely,” you repeated slowly, suddenly tightening your grip around him.

“Jesus-” he hissed out, hips bucking up slightly. “Please suck me off, Y/N. Is that what you wanna hear?”

“Yes, that’s perfect,” you smiled sweetly as your wrist started moving, stroking him slowly.

You were just about to lean closer when you noticed him starting to take off his hoodie.

“Leave it on,” you said quickly. He raised his eyebrow at you in question. “You look cute and fuckable in it,” you smiled fake-sweetly and he rolled his eyes.

“You better swallow it all then, I like this hoodie”

“Whatever made you think you’re cumming,” you hummed, more a threat than a question.

After that statement, you decided not to waste much more time and wrapped your lips around the tip of his cock. You felt him tense up and couldn't stop the corner of your mouth from twitching. Teasing the slit with your tongue, you let your hand glide along his shaft as you focused on riling him up even more. You'd seen it, the opportunity to wreck him, and you wanted to use it.

"Are you planning on doing anything today or should I go home?" he groaned from above you, you were pretty sure the needy tone of his voice hadn't been intended.

"You know," you pulled away, humming. You still kept the slow movements of your hand though. "You keep doing that thing with your mouth that I really hate. Stop talking. If you're not happy with the pace that I set, I'll just stop completely."

"Baby, you're the one who asked for all of this, remember?" he laughed. "Don't threaten me with something we both know you won't do."

You glared at him. He was right, obviously. But you didn't want him to be right. In all honesty, you wanted to see him break down.

"You know what? Fine."

You didn't bother going slow. Instead, you moved your hand away, gripped his thighs for balance and took him all at once. You felt the tip of his cock hitting the back of your throat and you fought back against gagging around him. Now, you didn't really do this often, but you were glad that you could hold back for the time being.

A startled moan fell from Ten's lips and you closed your eyes for a second, enjoying the sound. His hand immediately flew to your head, gripping your hair tightly enough to cause slight pain. Not that you minded. You pulled away almost completely then went back down. A shiver ran down his body and his hips bucked up. Normally, you wouldn't mind encouraging your partner to go ahead and fuck your mouth if he wanted to, but with Ten it was somehow about having the upper hand. So instead you pushed his thighs down, digging your nails slightly in the soft skin as a warning. He glared at you but you just raised your eyebrows as you pulled away again, letting him out of your mouth so you could speak up.

"My rules, doll. Be a good boy and sit still."

You could see him open his mouth about to protest, yet never gave him the chance to as you went back down on him, this time allowing yourself to choke slightly. Whatever he had intended to say turned into a moaned-out curse, his fingers curling in your hair. He was cracking already and you loved it.

So you went all out. You bobbed your head up and down as fast as you could, hollowing out your cheeks and moaning around him occasionally just so you could hear the beautiful broken moans he let out whenever you did that. You looked up at him, meeting his eyes as his tip hit the back of your throat and you let out another moan. The sight you were met with was criminally hot. Pupils blown wide and sweat dripping down his forehead, he barely had the strength to whine out your name.

"Fuck, love-" he gasped out, "fuck, if you don't stop- I'm close- please, please just-"

You could feel how difficult it was for him to speak up at the moment and pride swelled in your chest. So you decided to let him have his moment.

You pulled away so that your lips were wrapped around his head, sucking on it gently as you let your tongue do the work. You wrapped your hand around his shaft once again for assistance. You hummed at him in encouragement. You could see the exact moment he broke down completely - his eyes fluttered closed, head thrown back against the couch as his hips shivered slightly. And then he was filling your mouth. You let him ride out his high, swallowing down whatever he had to give before you pulled away.

“What a cute little slut you are,” you mumbled to yourself, still panting for breath. He must have heard you as he forced his eyes open to glare at you.

“You’ll regret that sentence,” he threatened. You chuckled.

“Baby, can you even move right now?” you teased him, enjoying the way he narrowed his eyes at you. “You look like a wreck.” As you spoke up, you got off your knees and sat down in his lap, careful to leave some space between your body and his cock. “And what happened to no begging?”

“Shut up,” he rolled his eyes as he wrapped his arm around your waist. His other hand reached up, gently moving away the hair strands that had stuck to your face. “Give me a moment and you’ll see why you shouldn’t be messing with me like that.”

“Can’t wait to see it, because I really can’t take you seriously at the moment,” you giggled.

“Really now?” You nodded. “So I guess I should get to work then.”

His free hand quickly found its way between your legs, rubbing you over the shorts you were wearing and you gasped in surprise. You were sensitive. You’d been horny since before this had started and the sight of Ten completely wrecked because of you had made things even worse. So after the long wait, a sudden stimulation sent a shockwave through your body. Ten grinned, his finger moving in slow circles. You couldn’t help but press down against his fingers a little.

“Impatient, are we?” he hummed teasingly and you sent him a glare.

“In case you weren’t aware, I have needs too.”

“And I’ll be more than happy to help you out with those,” he smiled at you. “If you ask politely.” You scoffed.

“Could you be any less creative?”

“You know, I liked you better when you couldn’t run your mouth like this. But think for a second, you can either do as I say and get fucked properly, or keep acting like a brat and deal with this here on your own.” He tapped his fingers gently against your core as if to illustrate his words.

It was tempting to keep pushing and see where that would go. You were pretty sure he wouldn’t follow up on that threat. Yet you were not exactly in the mood to stall anymore. And what Ten didn't seem to realize was that you'd go to great lengths to get what you want. So you leaned down closer to him.

"Please, Ten, make me feel good," you almost whispered against his ear. "I'm all yours, fuck me and make me scream, I promise I'll be good for you."

When you pulled away, you were met with wide eyes and a surprised expression. You held back the smirk that was threatening to curl your lips and instead rolled your hips down as if in an attempt to grind down against his fingers. His touch was so light the action was basically pointless, yet it was more of a show for him than for you.

“Damn it, you’re so fucking hot,” he muttered, the words coming out more like a breath and barely audible. “You already made your point earlier, do you have to keep driving me crazy?” he added, obviously not expecting an answer.

Instead, he quickly discarded your shorts, as well as your top, leaving you in your underwear only. His eyes went over you slowly as if he was appreciating the sight, before returning to your face. You met his gaze, anticipation bubbling inside you as his fingers pushed inside your panties. A whimper fell from your lips as you felt his fingertips glide over your entrance and up to your clit, rubbing gently.

"Baby girl, you're dripping," he cooed as if that was the most endearing thing in the world and you rolled your eyes. "All for me, hm?"

You didn't think you were supposed to respond to that. Yet when you didn't, two of his fingers suddenly pushed inside you, making you flinch and clench your thighs or, well, at least try to.

“I asked you something, love,” he mused, pulling them out again and going back to drawing slow small circles against your clit.

“Yes, fuck,” you gasped out. “All for you. Unless you see someone else in the room that’s wasting time asking dumb questions.”

“I remember you promising to be good,” Ten raised his eyebrows. “But since you’re that impatient…”

The gentle touch on your core was suddenly replaced with harsh fingers rubbing against your clit, causing you to moan out loudly and lean forward so your head would fall on Ten’s shoulder. Your fingers grabbed onto his hoodie, tugging on the fabric as he left your clit in favor of teasing your hole with the tip of his finger. Apparently, he’d taken the part about wasting time to heart as he was barely giving you time to process his actions.

Before you knew it, a finger was pushing in and out of you in slow movements. A second one joined in almost as quickly and you were almost shaking. Whenever your mind could catch on, Ten just gave it something new. It was almost overwhelming. But it was also not enough. You couldn’t help but try to roll your hips to meet the movement of his fingers. As soon as you realized it, you tried to stop yourself. A soft chuckle rang near your ear.

“Go ahead, love, you don’t have to hold back,” Ten encouraged and you were too far gone to respond.

All you could do was let go and let yourself ride his fingers. He didn’t leave you all on your own, meeting your movements, curling his fingers inside you, mumbling soft praises in your ears. The heel of his palm would occasionally press against the sensitive bundle of nerves between your legs and you couldn’t stop the whimpers and moans that were falling from your lips.

The tension was building up inside you, ready to reach its peak any moment now, when he suddenly pulled his hand away from you. You whined out before your mind had even processed it and glared at the boy. He had the audacity to laugh at your reaction.

“Relax, baby, okay?” he smiled. There was a dark glimmer in his eyes. “I just want to see you cum when I’m inside you.”

Now that his fingers weren’t directly on you, you had regained a bit of your ability to bite back so you lifted your chin daringly.

“Well go on then, I’ve already been waiting for far too long.”

“Bold words from someone who was not able to sit up properly until a second ago,” he chuckled.

He didn’t stall anymore though, instead quickly took off your bra and panties, then reached down for his hoodie. As you didn’t protest this time, he pushed the clothing off his body and threw it to the side, followed by the tshirt he had underneath it. Your eyes traveled along his torso and arms, taking in the tattoos that covered his skin. You reached up to touch the one on his chest and he tensed up slightly. You pulled your hand away quickly.

“So, princess, would you like to lay down or are you comfortable like this?” Ten asked and despite the teasing tone, you knew he would do whatever you asked without another word.

“I like it here,” you smiled as you raised your hips and positioned yourself over his already hard again cock. He held you up with one hand as he adjusted himself so that the tip would be at your entrance.

You met his eyes once again. This was happening way too many times for one night, you thought to yourself. You could see the question in his eyes, making sure you were still fully on board with this. So you slowly started lowering yourself on his length. The stretch was bigger than his fingers, obviously, so it took you a while to bottom out fully. Once you did, you took a moment to breathe, overwhelmed by the feeling of being full with him.

He seemed to be in a similar state, eyebrows narrowed as he embraced whatever it felt like being inside you. You bit your lip, the pleasure on his face was one of the most beautiful things you'd ever seen. You wanted more of it, of the sounds you'd heard earlier and, well, you also wanted to finally get to your own high. So you started moving.

At first, you went slowly, but once you got accustomed to the stretch, you couldn't hold back even if you had wanted to. And unlike during the blowjob earlier, he didn't either. His hips thrust up to meet you every time you lowered yourself on him, reaching spots inside you that made you see stars. His hands moved to your ass, gripping on it as he helped you move.

Your thighs were hurting and you loved it. Your moans were mixing with his and the sound of skin meeting skin. Your body was burning and so was his under your palms that were resting on his chest for balance. Your nails dug into his skin and he hissed out, thrusting up sharply inside you. This time the moan that left your lips was his name.

"Say it again," he moaned out and you weren't sure if those were actual words or you were imagining them, your head was cloudy enough for that. But he repeated it, voice barely a whisper this time. "Please, my love, say my name again."

And so you did. You didn't think it was possible but his movements got even more intense. As for you, once you started, you couldn’t stop his name from falling from your lips. You’d already given up on moving yourself, your thighs had given out already, yet that didn’t bother him as he fucked into you. Already having been worked up before this, you were approaching your orgasm quicker than ever.

“Come for me, princess,” he said, more of a plea than an order.

But it was enough. Once again, your head fell on his shoulder as your body shook and you let out one last cry of his name. You clenched around him and suddenly, he was spilling inside you again. Pressed so close to him, you felt the breath hitch in his throat as he came for the second time today. You pushed your exhausted body to move up again so you could help him ride it out, but his arms wrapped around your waist again, stopping you as he pressed you close to himself again.

Closing your eyes, you let the bliss wash over you. His heavy breathing and the fast beating of your heart were the only things you could hear for a while. It took both of you some time to finally calm down again and you pushed yourself to sit up straight again to look at him.

The look on his face matched the exhaustion you felt yourself, but his eyes were alive and shining. Sweat was glistening on his forehead, hair sticking to it. And he was looking at you in a way that you could not put a description different from pure adoration. You were pretty sure it was an aftereffect of the orgasm, yet it still made warmth grow in your chest.

“I’m going to say this only once,” you said quietly. “You are so fucking gorgeous.”

You didn’t wait to hear what he had to say about it as instead, you crashed your lips against his in a deep kiss and, as always, he kissed back immediately. Kissing Ten had always been amazing. And the more you did it, the more addicted you were to the feeling. As your lips danced against his, you weren’t sure how you were supposed to go from this to never touching him again. As your fingers found their way into his hair, brushing through the soft dark strands, you realized that you didn’t want to. The thought terrified you. But it was not something you’d ponder over in this state. So you brushed it to the side.

“Why do you keep doing this?” Ten asked, chuckling, once you pulled away. You looked at him in question. “You say something that I want to hear and then kiss me so I don’t have the chance to respond. You’re beautiful, Y/N. So beautiful, utterly and mind-blowingly perfect. Why didn’t you let me say that first?”

It was too much. The way he was looking at you and the things he was saying. And the way your heart fluttered to both of those things. The way you wanted nothing more but to stay like this, with him, forever. You didn’t respond to his question, you were scared you’d let out too much if you did.

“Will you stay the night?” you asked instead. It was a simple question. It made sense to ask something like that. And if he minded the fact that you ignored his words, he didn’t say anything.

“If you’ll be okay with that,” he said softly, reaching up to play with your hair. “I do hope we could use the bed though, nothing personal against your couch but I’d rather sleep somewhere comfortable.”

That one sentence was enough to break the spell that he’d put on you before, making you roll your eyes as you hit his chest lightly. He wasn’t being mean to you, but not saying and doing things that felt like taken out of a romance novel sure helped you get back to your senses.

“I am using the bed, you’re still sleeping on the couch,” you retorted, raising your eyebrows at him. “What made you think we’re sleeping in the same bed?”

“Darling, my dick is still inside you, I don’t think sleeping in the same bed would be the end of the world,” he laughed.

You couldn’t argue with that. Deep down, you didn’t want to, either. So when the two of you got dressed again, you showed him to your room. And who would have guessed, sleeping curled up next to him turned out to be more comfortable than you could have ever imagined.

…

Ten left early the next morning. Much too early for your brain to be functioning properly yet. He’d said something about needing to get ready because he had to look presentable or something, but you had barely been able to keep your eyes open as you sent him to the door, you didn’t really listen attentively. You’d gone back to bed the moment he left.

When you woke up again, everything that had happened last night crashed over you like a plane. You had had sex with Ten Lee. Ten Lee that you hated with every cell of your body. Ten Lee that had made your life living hell for the past three years. Ten Lee that… that you apparently didn’t really hate anymore.

The last part was what terrified you the most. Did you really… Had you really… Were you really in love with Ten? The logical part of you wanted to say no so much. The part of you that you’d protected from him behind sarcasm and passive-aggressive remarks wanted to deny him the chance to hurt you again. But the other part was already too deep to worry about that. You did your best to ignore that part.

A glimpse of something lilac caught your eye on the armrest of your couch. His hoodie. He’d forgotten it. You reached out to pick up the clothing item. It was soft and warm. And it smelled of him. For a short moment, you were tempted to put it on but you quickly decided against that. Instead, you folded it carefully and put it in your bag.

On your way to campus, you tried to decide how to act around him now. You didn’t want to let your guard down with him. And sure, there were moments when he seemed soft and loving and it was so tempting to think that maybe he shared the feelings. But you knew better than to trust him. So in the end, you decided that you’d go back to how things used to be before. Before the stupid idea of pretending to date each other. You were due to break up soon anyway. You ignored the bitter taste in your mouth at that thought.

By now, you’d learned his schedule by heart. So you knew exactly how to avoid him throughout the day. Everything was going smoothly and even Yangyang didn’t suspect a thing. Or at least you thought so. The two of you were sitting in the club room. You were working on the part of the article that had been left up to you. You glanced at the clock on your laptop, in about 5 minutes everyone from the student council would be out of their room and you were going to take action on your little operation.

“Ten’s been looking for you the whole day,” your best friend said, distracting you from the thought.

“What does he need me for?” you asked, voice as neutral as you could manage.

“He didn’t say,” Yangyang shrugged. “But he thinks you’re avoiding him.”

“It’s literally been less than a day since he last saw me,” you scoffed, rolling your eyes. “He’s a grown-ass man, shouldn’t he be able to handle himself on his own?”

“Did something happen between you two?” the boy asked, starting you, and you looked up at him with wide eyes.

“What do you mean?” you tried to act clueless. You forgot that there was no way you’d hide anything from your best friend.

“Y/N, my dear, you have many strengths, but subtlety is not one of them,” he shook his head slightly. “The moment I mentioned him you got tense. Either you tell me what happened so that I can help you, or you talk to him.”

“You wanna know?” you turned to him, chuckling drily. “Thanks to your amazing idea, nothing is the way it should be anymore. I had fucking sex with Ten last night. He slept in my bed. And what’s even worse, I didn’t hate that. And to top it all, I am in love with fucking Ten Lee and I am about to lose my fucking mind.”

Whatever Yangyang had thought he would hear, he clearly didn’t expect this little rant. He stared at you with a surprised expression for a while.

“Well, in that case, I suppose you’d like to know that I did tell him you’re here and he’s on his way,” is what he said when he finally opened his mouth again.

“What?!” you couldn’t help but raise your voice. “Okay, no, it’s fine, I have to go do something anyway. When he gets here, please just tell him I went home or something, okay?” you pleaded, desperation slipping in your voice.

“Yes, of course,” Yangyang nodded quickly, smiling at you. “I’m not going to tell him about this. But I do think you should.”

“Yes, uh, no,” you huffed as you quickly collected your stuff and headed to the door. “Thank you though, love you, bye!”

You headed over in the direction of the student council room. But, of course, it was just your luck that on the first corner on your way, you’d stumble into him. He looked as good as ever, carefully picked outfit, styled hair and, oh god, was that eyeliner? You reminded yourself that you’re not supposed to stare.

“Hey, there you are!” Ten smiled as soon as he realized it was you.

“Great job, you found me,” you muttered sarcastically and you watched his expression fall. It felt like a kick in your guts. “Sorry, but I kinda have something to do so if there’s nothing-”

“Wait,” he interrupted you quickly, eyes quickly scanning you from head to toe. “You’re not wearing it?”

“Wearing what?” you blinked in confusion. “Ah, right!” you remembered the hoodie and quickly took it out of your bag, handing it back to him.

“I… I left it for you…” he sounded confused and… a little hurt?

“Why would I wear your hoodie, Ten?” you raised your eyebrows, keeping your expression neutral as you waited for him to take back the hoodie.

“I don’t know, I… maybe it’s my bad, I thought you seemed to like it so…” Maybe he was waiting for a reaction from you, yet you forced yourself to not give any at all. Finally, he reached up and took the piece of clothing from you.

“Great, now I have to go-” you tried again but he seemed dead set on not letting you leave quickly.

“Student council, right? You’re going to investigate,” he smiled again and you nodded. Lying seemed pointless. “So then I’m coming with you.”

“Why?” you asked, staring at him blankly.

“Because we agreed that we’d do it together? Babe, you’re the one that asked me to come in the first place.”

You had indeed. You’d hoped he would have forgotten.

“Well, you don’t have to. I’ll be fine on my own.”

He looked at you for a long moment as if trying to analyze you.

“Yeah, no, I’m still coming.”

You figured there was no point arguing. Instead, you made your way to the student council room, Ten following behind you. You didn’t speak and you were glad that he didn’t either. It was easier to be cold when you didn’t have to look at him or talk. Once the two of you reached the door you needed, you quickly glanced around, making sure there was no one to see you. You pulled out the keys and unlocked, slipping inside. He followed after you.

“Why are we sneaking in? Didn’t you say you could get the dean’s permission?” he asked and you rolled your eyes.

“I said I can get his keys, I never mentioned his permission,” you responded.

“Wait, so how do you have them?”

“Don’t question my ways, for all I know, I risk facing legal consequences if I tell you.” You weren’t going to discuss the pickpocketing skills you’d developed as a child. It was almost like a magic trick and 12-years-old you had been fascinated by the idea. At your current age, you knew that it wasn’t a socially acceptable skill to possess or practice.

“Did you really steal them?” Ten asked, eyebrows shooting up in surprise.

“Borrowed,” you muttered, looking away. “He’ll find them peacefully waiting on his desk first thing tomorrow morning.”

“I find this little criminal side of yours very hot,” he leaned closer, a playful smile curving his lips, and your heart jumped in your throat. This was not part of the plan.

“Stop talking nonsense. We have work to do,” you shut him down coldly, stepping back away from him. “I’m not sure which desk is his so you go check over there and I’ll start here.”

You noticed the way his eyes darkened a bit, the smile leaving his face. You turned around so you wouldn’t have to look at him. Instead, you focused on the various notes and documents in front of you. Rummaging through them quickly caught up your attention.

Soon enough, you’d checked everything you could find on this side and looked up to check with Ten. And found him staring at you, leaning on his arms that were resting on the table in front of him.

“You do know we don’t have an infinite amount of time, right?” you narrowed your eyes at him. “The quicker we get out of here, the better. Get back to work.”

“Not until you tell me what’s going on,” he said seriously and you froze in your place.

“What do you mean?”

“You’re avoiding me. You’re acting cold and distant. I’d say you’re being a bitch again, but you lack even the feistiness you had whenever you’d speak to me before. So what the fuck is going on?”

“Nothing’s going on, Ten,” you hissed. “I’m just trying to focus, try it out maybe, hm?”

“Is it because of last night?” he asked suddenly, pushing himself off the table and making his way over to you. You couldn’t help but take a step back. He sighed, taking another step closer. “You promised me you wouldn’t regret it.”

“Yeah, well sometimes people don’t get what they expected,” you rolled your eyes and he froze in his spot.

“So are you saying you didn’t like it and that’s why you’re acting like this?”

“God, no!” you said without thinking. “No, this has nothing to do with-”

“Then what is it?” you could see him losing his patience, raising his voice slightly. “Love, you were the one to invite me in the first place, you were the one to offer it even though you were the one pretending not to want it earlier the same day. You were the one to bring the whole thing up, you don’t get to also be the one regretting it now.”

“Then maybe you should start regretting it and leave me alone. You make it sound like all I did was take advantage of you and use you so why are you here talking to me?”

“For fuck’s sake, are you really this dumb or are you just trying really hard to not get it?” he laughed humorlessly. You opened your mouth to argue, but you didn’t get the chance.

Suddenly, you heard a voice near the door. It was muffled, but you could recognize it easily - precisely the man you were here for. Except you had hoped he wouldn’t be here in the flesh. You looked around quickly but couldn’t see anywhere you could hide. And there was no way you could get out either.

Just as you saw the doorknob twist, Ten quickly pushed you to the vending machine (that you were jealous of). You realized he tried to use it as a cover as he pressed closer to you, pushing you as close to the wall as possible. You wanted to protest against the proximity but you knew better.

“If you keep quiet and if we’re lucky, we might get away with this,” he whispered against your ear. You decided not to mention the fact that ‘lucky’ was rarely a proper description of you.

“-and I have it all figured out,” the guy said as he entered the room. You figured that he was on the phone as you didn't hear anyone reply to him.

"No, you're not hearing me. It doesn't matter who they want as representative, okay? I got it all figured out."

Your eyes widened. Was this it? Was this the moment your suspicion got confirmed? You glanced up at Ten and he nodded slightly. Now he would believe you about it! Carefully, you reached into your back pocket, pulling out your phone. You opened the recording app, if he was about to confess to something, you'd need proof for it.

"Listen, I know. I know my chances, okay? That's why I have someone on the inside," he said, laughing. "I mean I know who will be in the commission when counting the votes."

You inhaled sharply and Ten shot you a quick glare. You pressed your lips together.

"No, I haven't talked to all of them yet, but I know how to get to them. When they announce the results, it will be my name leading the list no matter what."

You felt anger bubbling up inside you. Not only was he planning to rig the elections, you knew for a fact he wouldn't really care about the students if he was elected as representative. Despite his well-prepared answers to all of your questions, you had noticed during the interviews that his intentions weren't to provide a better environment for the people he was supposed to be speaking for.

"Yes, glad to hear that you are starting to get it. And don't worry about the dumb article. Those two are probably more focused on fucking each other than making something of at least decent quality for once anyway. Okay, I'll see you later, I gotta go."

And now it got personal. You could feel Ten's body tensed up against yours and you could see on his face that he was not pleased by the assessment of your abilities either. You stopped the recording.

You listened closely, you weren't sure what the guy was doing now. And you couldn't really check so all you could do was wait and hope he would leave quickly.

For once, life smiled upon you. He shuffled through some sheets of paper for a while, humming to himself, and shortly after you heard the door open and close again. You waited for a couple more minutes just to be sure before you finally spoke up.

"Told you there was something fishy about him."

Ten finally moved away from you and you took a deep breath, tension relieving in your shoulders. Sure, you'd been concentrating on the half of a conversation going on but the thought of Ten's body pressed against you hadn't made things easy on you.

"Okay, you were right," he said, shaking his head slightly. "I'd say this guy definitely lost my vote just now but it seems like it doesn't really matter to him." You couldn't help but chuckle.

"Oh, but what do we know, we're just too busy fucking each other to write something good, you know." You meant it as a joke. At first, he smiled, rolling his eyes. But you saying that suddenly reminded both of you of the conversation you'd been having before the guy had walked in.

“Do you really regret it?” Ten looked at you again, his tone suddenly serious. “If you do, I will leave you alone. For good.”

It was so tempting to say yes. It seemed so easy to lie to him and avoid him from now on until whatever feelings had grown inside you left. Except that it wasn’t easy.

“No,” you admitted quietly. “I don’t regret sleeping with you. But that doesn’t mean I want to talk about it. Because no matter how good of a time we had, all of this just complicates things.”

“Why does it complicate things, my love?” he asked softly, taking a step closer to you.

“Don’t call me that way,” you shot quickly before thinking it through as panic quickly took over you. You were making it all too obvious. You were already preparing for the mocking words that would follow.

You were not prepared for the hand that gently cupped your cheek.

"Are we going to do this again?" You looked up at him in confusion. "Are you going to deny the things you feel while I am here in front of you, willing to give you the world if you ask for it?"

"Ten, what-" you started but he rolled his eyes and pulled away.

“If you're going to act like you still have no clue what I mean, we're continuing this conversation out of here. Almost getting caught once was enough for me.”

You couldn't argue with that logic. Plus, you had what you needed already. So the two of you quickly made your way out and to the yard. Somewhere along the way, he'd taken your hand, pulling you after himself, maybe worried that you'd run away if he didn't have a hold on you. You couldn't really say that you hadn't thought about it.

You found yourselves on a bench in one of the far ends of the yard, a spot where people rarely came. People probably thought you were coming here to make out undisturbed. You pushed away the thought that claimed it wasn't such a bad idea.

"So listen here, I don't care how obvious you think you're being," you started once you were seated facing each other. "I need you to say it, whatever it is."

"But I already did?" he chuckled. "Did you think it's a joke? ‘My love’, did you think it's just something I say to everyone? I have, unfortunately, despite my better judgment, fallen in love with you."

You widened your eyes, flinching back slightly. You had done your best to discard the idea that this outcome was possible. You had convinced yourself to expect anything but that. And yet here you were…

“And you know what?” he spoke up again, probably realizing you weren't going to. “I don't mind it.”

"But you said," you finally managed to speak. "Yesterday, you told me not to look at you like it meant something?"

"I said that because I thought all you wanted was the sex," he chuckled. "I didn't mind being used by you, as long as I knew what to expect in the end. And when you said it couldn't matter anyway, I assumed that I was right, that you didn't feel anything but physical attraction."

"So what changed your mind?" you asked quietly, unconsciously lifting your legs on the bench and hugging your knees. You couldn't look away from him as he spoke. Thoughts were fighting in your head, looking for the best way to react.

"The way you acted after that. Something changed in you. And in the way you looked at me. And I thought that, maybe, you were just better at hiding your feelings than I had expected. So I tried to let you know. But you still ignored the obvious hints I gave you. The hoodie was kind of… my last attempt to confess without confessing."

"But I turned up hating you all over again." you sighed. He nodded, laughing. "To be fair, I did think about putting it on," you admitted.

"Why didn't you?"

"I thought you'd simply forgotten it. Imagine if you hadn't intended that, I show up wearing your hoodie without even asking you first. You'd mock me for it. And I didn't want to live through someone mocking me for my feelings."

"You thought I'd mock you for that?" He sounded taken aback, surprised. You scoffed and looked up at him.

"Look me in the eyes and tell me that's not a reasonable concern after everything we've put each other through in the past three years."

"Okay, I understand your point. But I would have never made fun of your feelings. And… it was never me that started this whole thing, okay? Not to play the victim here but… I never even knew why you hated me so much."

You looked up to meet his eyes. He was being sincere, you believed that. But the idea made you laugh. Things that had been so important to you had gone… simply unnoticed by him.

"Well, Ten, you have this special talent of saying the meanest things about the people around you without even realizing it," you said and he flinched back. "Remember how we met?"

“Yeah, we had both just joined the newspaper club. The first thing you said to me was ‘Talk to me again when you learn how to keep your opinion to yourself.’”

"Wanna know why I said that?" you chuckled and he nodded. "Before you noticed me next to you, you were reading an article. And you were talking to the recruiter about it. You said that it was a literal piece of garbage and you weren't sure why anyone would ever publish something like that. The fun part is that the article was mine." He stared at you for a long moment, eyes wide with horror.

"Y/N, I'm so sorry," he said quickly. "I never meant to-" You raised your hand to interrupt him.

"You were right, it was an abomination, written by a kid who didn't know how to put two words together properly. But that kid had worked hard on it. And she took it personally. Thanks to you, I have improved so much. I stopped being upset about that a long time ago. But we had already started on bad terms and I suppose neither of us wanted to be the one to offer peace, it just stuck."

"I mean, if it had been the other way round, I would have probably murdered you on the spot," he chuckled. "I get it. And I'm really sorry. For everything. I am offering you peace now if you want it?"

You looked at his outstretched arm.

"I don't think peace is exactly the thing that works for us," you hummed. "But I think whatever we've had for the past month was pretty good."

"Yeah, I can work with that." A smile spread on his lips. "I'd actually love that. After all, imagine how heartbreaking it would be to explain to Louis and Leon why their mom is never coming back." You laughed out.

"No, look, I'd never leave them. If we break up, I’ll just steal them from you."

"You wouldn't dare!"

"Oh, I would! I treat them better anyway!"

It was just that easy. You couldn't believe that after all this time, this was what it took to make things right between the two of you. But thinking about it, you figured it wasn't all that bad.

…

You and Ten were in your club room. You still needed to finish up your article. And now, you also had another project to work on - the attempt at rigging the elections. Ten had some friends in the student council, he had taken on the task to find who was on the other side of that phone call, hopefully you could convince them to help you out. As for you, you were researching the votes counting committee so that you could find who was the accomplice.

The two of you were sitting on different ends of the big table, yet his presence was enough to make you feel comfortable in the silence. A small smile was playing on your lips when the door opened and you looked up to see Yangyang entering. He stopped at the door, glancing at you, then at Ten, then back at you.

"I see you two are…" it seemed like he wasn't sure what exactly he was seeing. "On ‘sitting in the same room without killing each other’ terms again?"

"Yeah," you chuckled. "You could say so."

"That's good," the youngest said, almost awkwardly as he made his way over to you, leaving his backpack on the table to take out his stuff.

"Babe, I think I have a clue about who it might be," you said suddenly and Ten glanced up at you. "I'll go talk to her tomorrow."

"Need company?" he offered, pushing his glasses higher up his nose. You shook your head. He nodded in understanding and looked back at his screen.

"So, correct me if I'm wrong, but this is new," your best friend spoke up again and you looked up at him. "My dearest lovely best friend, would you please care to enlighten me what the fuck did I miss?"

"Yangyang," you started, smiling softly as you glanced at your boyfriend buried in his laptop across the room. "I don't think you'll have to write that break-up article for the time being."

"Oh…" was his initial reaction. He was quiet for a while, before finally deciding what to say. "Well, I am really happy for the two of you," he patted your back gently. "But what the fuck am I supposed to write about next month?"

dino's danceology with seungkwan

Hey so I’ve been seeing many of the writers I follow reblogging the “why authors are leaving” blog and I totally understand why and was wonder are there other ways to support them other than reblogs and donations

hi! so i'm guessing you saw this post, and i’ll try to explain it in my own words since the infographic must not have been helpful for you-

there are only these 4 options for posts

blue box: Share - allows you to share to other tumblr friends - this one could be okay, it’s similar to reblogging, but you’d be directly sending it to friends and being like ‘hey i think you might like this’, this is good! But with this one, the writer will have no clue you did this, so, while it will help spread the fic, you’re not interacting with the writer in any way, and they will have no clue you enjoyed the fic enough to send it to a friend unless you also send them an ask telling them how much you liked their fic, or respond to the fic through the reply bubble

orange line: Reply - allows you to respond to the post without reblogging it. while this will let the author know you liked the fic, it also lets us know you didn’t like it enough to reblog it on your blog - regardless of blog aesthetics etc, reblogging is always the number 1 way to support tumblr content creators works. A number of people have pointed out how you can make a second account to reblog smut if your primary account aesthetic is something that’s REALLY important to you.

Green circle: Reblogs - reblogs are what make tumblr go round. there’s no other way about it. this is so much the case that if i post a fic at a time when people are not online as much, i’m guaranteed to have less interaction because the location it will show on their dash, however, if people are reblogging throughout the day, that means my content will be on numerous dashes at numerous times, allowing the most amount of people to see my work and enjoy it. Reblogging is the number 1 way to support content creators, even if you don’t have the time to leave a comment.

red x: Likes - likes, while it’s nice to have them, are again, just another show that you enjoyed our fic/content but not enough to put it on your own blog/dash for others to see. 

if creating a side blog to protect ur primary blogs aesthetic, ur reputation, ur privacy- for any reason- will let you reblog more content, then DO IT. 

As you can see, given the way tumblr works, with it’s 4 options, Reblogging truly is the only way to support content creators outside of donations through kofi/donations/outside sources.

Including the original infographic’s suggestions on what to do as well.

if you dont want to start a second blog to support content creators, and are too protective of your primary for any reason to reblog smut there, then the LEAST you can do is send in asks or reply to the fic, or share it with your friends, however, you will do so KNOWING it does very little to help the creator get exposure for their work

and you should also know that if more and more people decide not to ever put in TINY BIT OF work for content creators through a reblog, content creators are going to stop putting in the HUNDREDS OF HOURS of work for you.

i’ve already seen a number of my friends delete their blogs due to lack of interaction, and while i’m lucky in the fact that my followers are extremely kind and supportive, not every fanfic author has that- and we need to be more supportive of each other :) 

He owns my heart 💖💙

---

okay so this isn’t a request but i’m convinced that me and lilly share the same brain bc chan lives in my brain rent free ALWAYS and he’s not even my bias i’m so down bad for that man hhhhh

so true bestie only chan on the brain 😞😞😞😞😞😞😞😞😞😞😞😞😞 literally none of my biases from other groups have this effect on me <///3

speaking of only having chan on the brain…….chan pounding into you while murmuring in your ear about how he’s going to fuck you so hard you’ll only remember his name by the end of the night and how he’s going to make you his cockdrunk slut………okay bye 🧍🏻‍♀️🧍🏻‍♀️🧍🏻‍♀️

— lily

“Best” Friends To || l.yh

PAIRING || Ten x female reader, mentions of Mark x female reader

GENRES || Best Friends to Lovers, Fluff, Angst, Humour

SUMMARY || Best friends to lovers trope. Probably the best trope to exist. What was not amazing about it? The mutual pining, the comfort, the sexual tension, the everything. And to say that you were nearly living your fantasy trope was an understatement, for you were madly in love with your best friend Ten. All you wished for was for him to return those feelings to you because all best friends eventually fell in love right? But maybe sometimes…the laws of the universe were meant to be broken.  

Or, in which, after an unexpected turn of events. you find your heart broken by the last person you thought would ever do that.

WARNINGS || Angst

WC || 2k

COLLAB || Part of the Leftovers Collab by Amy @dulceamar (thank you for letting me take part!!!), part of the Love Shot event by @neowritingsnet​ and part of the Dionysa event by @ankathi-a​ .

TAGLIST || @moonsclover @shrutiajit @lovebug-com @gu-nil @cloudyhaos @nctisthecity @woo-minhee02 @justchuji @buttvi @vllxchor @stayinzencity @joepomonerof @imdamnconfused @078-jay @moonchilddfics @xavi-in-kpopland @spacebyuns @fifty-shades-of-mischeif @whatudoing @midnightmoi @kpoploverxx-12 @softmark1999 @myluv-yeonjun @bobatonin @cara-18 @ongshimi (If you want to be added to my taglists, fill in this form)

“So,” He said, stretching himself like a slender cat over the couch, catching your eyes as you looked up to him from the book you were reading.

“So?” You asked back, wondering what must have been on his mind that it was more urgent than the nearing-the-deadline project the two of you were working on. It wasn’t a really group project, in fact it was just a thesis you had to write about the book you had been assigned to read. But the two of you had decided to do it together, like countless other things you did together. Because that’s what best friends were for right?

Always together and never apart.

Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul, or as you called him Ten, had been your best friend since the two of you were in diapers. You both were like two peas in a pod, spending enough time together to make anyone who didn’t know you well wonder of you were a couple or not.

You couldn’t imagine replacing him with someone, and neither could he. Both of you were partners in crime, bound together for eternity of friendship and mischief.

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