Description. You And Your Friends Have A Pact, No Dating Unless You Are. This Is Only Fair Seeing As

Description. You and your friends have a pact, no dating unless you are. This is only fair seeing as you’re highly unlikely to ever get in a relationship, seeing as you tend to brush off every males advances. Unfortunately for you though, Na Jaemin really wants to date your friend, he’ll do anything! Even go as far as pay Lee Haechan, resident playboy, to change your mind about the whole dating thing. 

Pairings. Lee Haechan x Female Reader

Genre. Romance, Enemies!(Sorta)To!Lovers, Comedy, Angst

Warnings. Mentions of sex, drinking, kissing, reader and Haechan argue for a bit, crying, etc. Let me know if I missed anything.

Word count. 16K

Note. It's finally done, my baby, my longest fic. Words can't even express how much a roller coaster this was. Please, please leave feedback <3 Thank you for everyone who voted for this haha.

ONE, THEY MAKE EVERYTHING ABOUT THEM.

You laid sprawled on your couch as your friends continued to gossip. This was a normal thing, you’d invite your friends over, have a few drinks and gossip would ensure. You didn’t mind it, truth be told, but there was a reason today was particularly sour.

Na Jaemin, Huang Renjun, and Lee Jeno had crashed your impromptu get together. Well, more like Yeji invited them, bless her heart. But did she really have to? Her explanation was that her and your other friend Chaewon ran into them on campus. From there, they had invited the boys to drink with them. 

Sure, you get it, the boys paid for the alcohol. But really? Was it necessary?

They had taken all the attention away, practically commanding the room, and you couldn’t stand it. Of course! Here come’s buff jock Jeno, charming Jaemin, and pretty boy Renjun to steal the spotlight. And you detested all of it.

You and Karina sat with mild scowls on your faces, her’s from her lack of knowing other guests were invited. Being your roommate, she had done little besides change into a fresh pair of sweatpants and t-shirt, not expecting boys to come over. She freaked out for like five minutes after opening the door, you assuring her that she looked fine, but she was peeved for lack of warning anyways. 

She took the loss and just decided to sit in self loathing over these boys seeing her without makeup. Doing little to contribute to the conversation, you just twisted the string on your hoodie as they called out your name. 

“Do you have any lemons?” Jeno asks, looking over at you. His tone somewhat softer, trying not to piss you off. Even though he was already failing.

You barely even realize its you that he’s addressing, having tuned everyone out. You almost roll your eyes as your face scrunches upon realization of his question. “Why do you need lemons?” 

“Jaemin likes his vodka with some lemon juice.” He explains, the other staring at you expectantly before looking between you two. 

Of course he does, you just sigh and get off your spot in the couch. Karina follows after you, clinging onto you as a source of warmth. She didn’t want to be left alone without you after all.

“What kind of guy drinks their vodka like that? Be a man!” She mutters, pulling out a cutting board and knife as you open your refrigerator in search of the lemon. 

“I don’t even know if we have one.” You say, standing in front of your fridge with your hands on your hips. Digging through the drawers, you pull out the only round object to be found. “We have a lime.” 

Karina snorts and grabs it from you, slicing it in half. “It’ll have to do.” 

You laugh at her remark as she makes her way back into the living room with the wedges of lime. Karina was your oldest friend, you two meeting in middle school. Attending university and living with her was a no brainer, and it was going really well. During your freshmen year, you two had met Yeji in the library, Karina befriending her after basically living there during exam season. You two welcomed her into your friendship shortly after that. She then introduced you to her desk partner in finance class, which was Chaewon. You guys all clicked and that led to your little found family that you had here. 

You hoped these boys didn’t expect to squeeze their way into this sisterhood. 

Karina hands Jaemin the lime, shrugging as he looks at it, then back at her. He awkwardly smiles and squeezes it into his drink. Though you can definitely tell he thinks this is the worst thing in the world, well at least he’s polite. 

You and Karina go back to practically cuddling on the couch, her head right next to yours as you share a blanket. For the next ten minutes, you two sit in silence showing each other pictures on your phone, to which earns a nod or a hum of agreement. 

The others sit on the floor, around your rectangular coffee table, with the bottles all over it. Yeji nudges Chaewon though, tilting her heads towards you two. You guys were usually so loud, had something happened? 

Yes, something happened. Boys happened. 

“Don’t you guys wanna sit down here?” Chaewon asks, patting the carpeted ground next to her. “And have a drink maybe? I haven’t even seen you two touch your cups.” 

Renjun speaks up. “Yeah, you guys should come talk!” 

“We,” You begin, gesturing a between you and Karina. “Are talking plenty.”

“How’s the lime, by the way?” Karina speaks up, smirking at Jaemin. 

Jaemin just gives a forced smile and a thumbs up, though his drink remains untouched minus a sip. And even that, was a stretch. 

Yeji gestures for you two to come sit, giving you two a stern look this time. She definitely was just wondering why you guys were acting so reclusive. She’s adamant, you’ll give her that. 

Deciding that, maybe you’ve had enough attitude for one day, you take Chaewon up on her offer, plopping next to her. The spots also next to Renjun, who you deem to be the most bearable of the boys, so its not too bad. Karina sits on the opposite side of Chaewon, sandwiched between her and Yeji. Damn, you should’ve thought of that first. 

“So, are you all single, or what?” Jeno asks, pouring himself another shot. He asks only out of genuine curiosity, but you think your demeanor spoke for itself.

You lied, you can never have enough attitude in one singular day. 

Yeji nods. “Yeah, for a while now.” 

“Can I ask why?” Jaemin asks, taking a sip of his drink. “I find it hard to believe none of you have found anyone you’ve liked here.” 

“Why is that hard to believe? I find boys quite insufferable.” You speak, finally letting yourself have a taste of that vodka. The boys turn to you and you smile back sarcastically, having no qualms about what you had said. 

“That’s why.” Chaewon sits up, looking at you. “We have this sort of, pact thing.” 

“You really wanna get into this now, Chae?” Karina pipes up, knowing how this usually goes. 

“A pact?!” Jeno looks confused. 

“We have this rule, since we started this year, that we wouldn’t date anyone. You know, to keep our focus on academics and our jobs.” Yeji explains, the boys looking at you like you were all crazy. This was the normal response, shocked and somewhat disappointed looks, not like you cared though.

“So what? Plenty of people do that and still have relationships.”

“We’re just trying to stay as focused as possible.” Karina defends, shooting you a knowing look.

“There is however,” Chaewon starts, putting down her empty glass. “One exception to the rule.”

“Well?” Jaemin asks, leaning closer like a kid waiting to be told an answer. 

“Yn is the most responsible one between all of us. If anyone can do both, it’s them. Therefore, if she gets a boyfriend, the rest of us are free to date!” 

“That sounds stupid.” Renjun deadpans, and you’d kind of agree. It wasn’t even your idea anyways, they just held you to such a standard that they believed the day you got a boyfriend would be the end to all. Therefore, they placed their bets on staying focused onto you staying single. Normally, you’d be offended, but so far it was shaping up to be true. 

“We take this super serious as well.” Yeji nods. “Absolutely no boyfriends unless she has one. It’s just the pact of this friend group.” 

“Plus, Yn runs from boys like the plague. So it only seems viable to stake our academic performance on her.” Karina adds on, shooting you a teasing smile.

“Wow thanks guys.” You mumble. “I feel so loved.” 

Chaewon rolls her eyes. “You don’t have a boyfriend because you don’t want one. We are just following in your example.” 

“So basically, this exception is impossible. Which is why you put it as one?” Renjun tries to follow and all the girls nod in response. 

Oh Jaemin was in deep shit now. He knew about you, everyone in the room did. You laughed in the face of anyone who tried to romantically peruse you, not that they wanted to anymore anyways. Last time he heard a boy try to hit on you, it ended horribly for the entire hockey team.

 To put it plainly, you were never going to get a boyfriend. 

Jaemin wishes he had known about this before he fell head over heels for Chaewon. How could he not? That girl is perfect! But now upon hearing about her absolute refusal to date, this only meant certain rejection for him. He wanted to just be swallowed into your deep shaggy carpet, just let Jeno pry him out with a stick or something. This was just mission impossible, and he was no Tom Cruise.

“So none of you have dated before?” Jaemin asks, hoping he can get a hopeful response out of his crush. 

“I had a boyfriend when I met Yn,” Karina starts, face turning sour. “Let’s just say there’s a reason I was down for this agreement.” 

“Never had time.” Yeji looks away, clearly embarrassed at sharing her lack of relationships. 

“Me neither!” Chaewon agrees, and Jaemin all but deflates. She was absolutely unattainable, as if she wasn’t before, it’s even more amplified now! 

“And you?” Renjun asks, giving you a small smile as he tries to include you in the conversation. Though, you're not really having it. 

“Doesn’t really matter, does it? It’s not like I’m getting one now.” And with that you decide to find solace in your phone, choosing to ignore the rest of the conversation for the night. If only it was that simple.

TWO, THEY’RE LIARS.

Damn it, after all the kindness (read: not killing him.) you had showed Renjun, he does this to you! He’s around fifteen minutes late, leaving you to awkwardly muddle around the stores front door. Goodness, you look like a loiterer. 

You two had struck up an unconventional friendship after meeting again at your favorite burger place. You recognized him, and normally you would’ve walked off and pretended you didn’t know him. But you were caught off guard by his hat, and you just had to know where he got it from. He actually admitted that he crocheted it himself and you practically jumped up. This led to you rambling about how badly you wanted to learn to crochet. So, after exchanging numbers, you two agreed to meet at the craft store to pick up supplies. Afterwards he would help you learn crochet patters and all that good stuff. 

But he’s late, and you’re about to discard Renjun as another “Failed Male.” on your list. All in all, it’s a list of males you’ve given a chance to, friendship wise, that had proved you right every single time. (Lee Jeno was on that list.) Renjun’s liar status was slowly creeping up right about now. 

Hearing a car door slam, you spot Renjun pushing his hair back from his face, running towards you. He’s in a full on sprint, and he looks apologetic. 

The boy in the drivers seat, who you recognize as Mark Lee, offers you a smile and wave. You manage to offer one back, what a weird kid.

Renjun slows as he approaches. He looks stressed as he speaks. “Sorry I’m late, Mark clogged his toilet and he doesn’t have a plunger in his apartment and-”

You cut him off. “Hey, whoa it’s fine. I’ll be honest, I thought you had ditched me, but hearing you were just unclogging toilets made me feel a little better.” 

He stifles a laugh and just heads into the store, you following behind. This stores was huge, and with all these materials, you could likely be in here for days. Renjun’s familiar with it though, so he leads you straight to the needles and yarn.

Hm, maybe he’s not so bad after all. For one, he seems helpful with his friends, and he’s spending a chunk of his time hanging out with some random girl. He was alright in your book, and definitely not just because he was helping you.

Grabbing a couple patters and some yarn, Renjun throws it into the cart you’re pushing. Standing before the needles he looks around. “I have no idea what the best needle for a beginner would be.” 

You blink, who else would know? “What needle did you start with?” 

“My grandma gave it to me, I don’t know the millimeters on it or anything.” He shrugs, grabbing the needle set that looks most like his. 

You just agree, not like you had a choice anyways. About fifteen minutes later, you two push the cart into the lengthy line. Renjun had grabbed a few things for himself as well, saying he could never have too much yarn. You started conversing about which pattern to try first when his phone rings. 

He shoots you an excuse me, and pulls out his phone, groaning at the sight before answering it. The person on the other end speaks frantically as Renjun tries to keep up with his reponses. “Hello? What? No-”

He’s cut off by the voice on the other side loudly shouting. “Fine! I don’t care, I’m just with Yn so...No! You’re disgusting.”

You watch as he hangs up abruptly, pushing his phone back into his pocket as he sighs. “It was Donghyuck.”

“Who?” 

“Haechan,” Renjun clarifies but watches as you still look confused. “Lee Haechan.” 

Though your expression remains as you shrug. “Never heard of him.”

“Well,” Renjun starts but waves himself off. “Doesn’t matter, he was calling saying he had a girl over. He’s my roommate, and hes loud.”

You laugh a little. “Try living with Karina.”

“No,” He shakes his head. “Haechan is like living with fifteen Karinas, but they’re all men, and they’re all really horny.”

“Ew?!” You manage, watching how Renjun was dead serious as you laugh at his expense. 

“They’re all messy too!”

Before you can comment back, the two of you make your way to an open register as the number is called. The man bags your things and you head out, excited to finally start this intimidating hobby you were interested in.

“So to my place then?” You ask, assuming this Haechan wouldn’t want you around if he’s boning someone. Renjun just groans, “But my patterns are at my place, I wanted to work on one of my projects.”

You don’t know what to say. “We can go pick them up?”

“Then sneak out and hope his fuck buddy doesn’t hear us?” Renjun continues, but the more he thinks about, the more he thinks he can do it. It couldn't be that bad anyways, right? Then he's reminded of his whole mission today. “I’m crocheting a bunny and I really need those patterns.” 

You wait for him to continue as he looks like he has more to say. So you offer a simple, “Cute.”

“It’s for a girl,” He resumes, his face heating up slightly as he thinks of her. “I really wanted to finish it as soon as possible, so I could ask her to be my girlfriend. Bunnies are her favorite animal.” 

“Awe!” You beam, that was such a cute gesture. Your heart fluttered for something as adorable as that. “Renjun, that’s so sweet!”

“Really? Funny coming from the romance hater.”

You roll your eyes as he kills the mood. You didn’t exactly hate it, it was just something that left you scarred. Something you didn’t care for much anymore. Though, sometimes you can’t suppress the little hopeless romantic in the back of your mind. Renjun doesn’t have to know all that though. “I don’t hate romance, I just find it rather trivial.” 

“I find you rather trivial.” Renjun remarks back sarcastically and you can’t help but laugh at how stupid he is. He fake winces as you hit him on the shoulder. 

“Let’s get you those patterns loverboy!”

“Don’t call me-” But you slam your car door closed before he can continue. You just wait for him to slide into your passangers seat, unamused expression still present on his face.

He grabs your phone as you hand it to him and inputs his address. “Is this the first time you’ve gone to a guys house?”

“Very funny.” You scoff, facing the road. “I’ll have you know I’ve been to a guys house before.”

“That’s surprising.”

You fight the urge to playfully (kinda) hit him on his arm again. Opting instead to turn up your radio and make the ride without anymore stabs at your love life.

It doesn’t take long for you to arrive there. Renjun was really helpful with directions and where to park, so now all that was left was getting the stuff.

“You want me to go in alone?” Renjun asks, like he can’t believe the girl he’s known for a week doesn’t want to enter his apartment with him. You knew Renjun sure, but you had watched too many crime shows to not be a little cautious.

“Why wouldn’t you?” You ask, genuinely as he frowns.

“Just come grab them with me, I need another set of hands for my yarn too!” Renjun pleads as he continues to beg, you sighing as you give in.

“Fine!” And you turn your car off as you follow behind him slowly. You wish you had more resilience but you just wanted to get back into the warm confines of your room so, who could blame you? You watch as Renjun unlocks his apartment and listens in as he’s met with silence.

“That’s weird-“ Renjun starts but is cut off by a loud moan. You mentally beat yourself up for agreeing to enter with him.

“If I have to hear it, so do you.” Renjun continues as he enters his apartment further, and you just stand still. How could he so calm about this? You weren't a prude or anything, but you'd think you'd die of embarrassment if you came home to your roommate moaning up a storm. “Well come on, the yarns in my room!”

You just stand in disbelief, before hastily walking behind him. You couldn’t believe this. He goes to what you assume is his room and fumbled with the door, only to realize it’s locked.

“Is this not your room?” You tease, eyebrow raising. He gives you a glare as he tries to open his door again, still not budging.

“Of course this is my room. How big of an idiot do you think I am?” Renjun shoots back, and you almost laugh with how quick he is.

“Well..” You pretend to think and he looks halfway offended.

“I don’t remember leaving it locked when," He changes the subject as he trails. A look of realization on his face. "Oh my god.”

“What?” You asked, sure something was dawning on Renjun, but you were lost. He basically freezes in place as he stares at his door knob and the tips of his ears turn red.

You’re both derailed by another chorus of moans striking the air, but this time it’s apparent who’s room they’re coming from. It’s Renjun’s.

“You freaks!” Renjun screams, pounding on the door. “Open this damn door Haechan or I will pull it off the hinges and throw it at your big ass head!”

Once again, you’re quiet in disbelief. Almost managing to stuffer a soft “What?”

“It’s a kink he has. Fucking idiot does this to me even though I told him to stop!" Renjun shouts the last part so that his friend can hear, though he's met with no response. He bangs on the door again, "You're gonna pay for this!"

A laugh comes from inside his room as, who you assume to be Haechan, teases him. "Yeah right, what're you gonna do? Fuck that Yn girl on my bed?"

"You two are fucking on my bed?!" Renjun shrieks, ignoring the dig Haechan took at you. Geez, he sounded like a complete dickhead.

"What? You thought we were on the floor?" Haechan responds, the girl trying, yet failing, to stifle her moans.

"Oh my god, this is the worst day of my life." You whisper, jaw slacked.

"Of your life?!" Renjun yelps, staring blankly at his door. "I'm going to need all new sheets."

You tug on his arm, wanting to sprint out of there. "Lets just go, you can make that bunny another day."

"I'm going to kill him." Renjun groans, pulling back slightly before giving up and treading out of his apartment. You just keep your mouth closed as Renjun's face sours.

"Wanna sleep on my couch?" You offer, knowing you'd want someone to do the same if that had just happened. "I know you're going to have to like.. burn those covers."

"If it's not a big deal," Renjun trails, thinking about it. "Yeah I would."

"Fun!" You clap your hands. "We can have a sleepover! I can do your nails and show you my favorite movie-"

"Please shut up already." He rolls his eyes as he pushes you out of the elevators towards your car as you giggle. "This is going to be a long night."

..

About ten blocks away lays Na Jaemin, on his couch as he stares at his phone, awaiting another text from Chaewon. The two have been talking a lot recently, albeit on a friendly level, but he's spoken to her enough to know he's definitely whipped.

Jeno, his roommate, walks into the room as he stays glued to his own device. Although he's in a Chaewon induced haze of love, Jaemin notices that odd behavior. Jeno isn't one to be on his phone like that, so what was so interesting? "Who are you texting?"

"Karina." The other responds, eyes not leaving his phone for a second as he takes a seat on the couch opposite of Jaemin.

"Seriously?" Jaemin begins, and Jeno rolls his eyes, knowing what the other is implying. Jaemin sits up slightly, "She's off limits."

"Yeah and so is Chaewon," Jeno pauses, giving the other a dirty look. "But that isn't stopping you."

Jaemin wants to launch the nearest pillow in Jeno's face. "I actually like Chae-"

Jeno interrupts him before he can continue proclaiming his love. "Chill out, it's not even like that. Karina's just texting me about Renjun."

"She's into Renjun?!"

"No!" Jeno responds, annoyed. "He's just crashing on her couch."

"Boring." Jaemin says, refreshing his DM's to see if he missed a reply from his crush yet. Surprise surprise, he didn't. "I'm never going to get a chance with Chaewon, am I?"

Jeno shrugs, finally placing his phone down as he gets to grab a bottled water from the fridge. "There are other girls."

"She isn't just some girl," Jaemin responds, sincere in his words. "I really like her, man."

"Well then do something about it."

And Jaemin just might have to.

THREE, THEY DON'T MIND THEIR BUSINESS.

"So you really did bone?" Lee Haechan stands against your door as you fight the urge to slam it in his face. Your face is showing clear signs of displeasure at this stranger standing at your front door, but if he noticed, he sure wasn't doing anything to brighten your mood. But then again, he's just a guy, what more did you expect from him?

"It's really none of your business." You declare, not backing down. If he wanted an argument, then who were you to refuse?

"Whatever, Renjun will fuck anything that walks." And that statement sounds so funny coming out of the mouth of someone who'll actually fuck anything, according to Renjun. Who was he to slutshame anyways?

"What? Are you self projecting right now?"

Haechan opens his mouth to speak again but you stop him with a glare and a wave of your hand. "Let me just go wake Renjun so you can get off my damn property."

Leaving Haechan at your front door, you shake Renjun awake by his shoulders as he lays. He lays as still as a rock, not reacting to your small "Wake up, Haechan's here to take you home."

Renjun groans in response, stretching as he mutters out a "Tell him to fuck off."

"Good luck with that." You smirk, holding back a laugh. "Don't forget you have to spray your room for bed bugs later."

"You're not funny." Renjun shoots back but ironically lets out a laugh. He's still half asleep as he lazily makes his way to your front door. Yet, upon spotting Haechan, he seems to be wide awake.

"What the hell are you even doing here?!" Renjun all but shouts, "I should beat your ass right here for that stunt you pulled!"

"Stunt?! I was pleasing a girl, something you would know nothing about! Especially if Yn's attitude is any indicator, you must be a bad lay." Haechan cackles, yet the two of you remain anything but amused.

"If you actually payed attention to your friend, you might know he actually has someone he likes." You step in, tired of the comments. "And it's not me."

"So? Doesn't mean he can't sleep with someone else." Haechan furrows his brows at your statement. His eyes widen upon realization of what you're saying. "Awe, you're so naive to think that. It's kind of cute honestly."

"Get out." You say through gritted teeth. Haechan backs up and you watch Renjun step out of your apartment, knowing he had to leave too if you wanted any peace in your own place. "Renjun, you can-"

"No I'd better go, I have to knock this one's head against the wall." He nods, promptly grabbing Haechan by the ear as the other protests. Dragging him away as he leans down, letting out a string of ow's in his wake. You just watch, he deserved it anyways.

..

"Why have I been seeing Lee Haechan everywhere?!" You exhale, stabbing a fork into your food. You and your friends were having lunch outside on a picnic table on campus, shaded by the strong oak tree's nearby. It's such a beautiful day, but the proximity of an unwanted face makes your mood dampen.

Karina chews her food. "You sure you're not imagining him?"

You put your fork down. "If I was imaging someone, it'd be like.. Song Kang or someone hot! Haechan is like a rodent!"

"Rodent is a little harsh, no?" Yeji scrunches her nose, picking something off of Karina's plate. "He seems nice enough."

"Nice?!" You groan, looking to Karina. "Help me out here."

Karina just shrugs. "I haven't met him."

"And yet he's literally everywhere." You stare blankly at the open grass next to you. There sits Haechan, accompanied by Mark Lee and a boy you don't recognize. They're talking to girls, smiling as Haechan puts his full flirting charms to those poor victims. You pity them.

"Jaemin say's he's funny." Chaewon interjects, like Jaemin's opinion was worth a damn in your book.

Still you vocalize. "Funny doesn't mean he's a good person."

"I just don't get why you hate him so much." Yeji speaks, pointing her spoon at you as she chews.

You roll your eyes before crossing your arms. "If you heard the way he spoke to me, you'd hate him too."

"I don't doubt it." Karina admits, taking a sip from her water bottle. "But I also just think you're beginning to give him way too much attention."

"What?! How?! First, he violates Renjun's bed and makes us listen to those moans. Then, he shows up to my house like a maniac the next morning and then starts insisting we slept together, like it even mattered!" You scoff, the girls listening to your rant. "But not before making several inappropriate comments about me!"

"Since when did you care what a man had to say?" Yeji raises her brows as she awaits your response. She was somewhat right, you usually never gave a man this time of day over simple remarks. But Haechan just managed to get under your skin far more than anyone ever had.

Chaewon jumps in before you can formulate a response back though. Keeping her voice low, as he leans in a hushed tone. "So did you sleep with Renjun?"

"Chaewon!"

"I was just asking-"

"Wait?" Yeji stops, putting her hands down on the table. "Since when are we allowed to sleep with people?"

"What do you mean?" Karina looks at her. "I've had hookups since the agreement, I thought it was just serious relationships out of the question."

"Oh my god. I could've been fucking Changmin from creative writing class, this entire time?!" Yeji asks, mouth agape as she mourns a missed opportunity.

"Yes.." Chaewon trails. "Though, I don't see why you'd want to."

"Hey!" Yeji defends and the two begin bickering. They always had the opposite type in boys, never agreeing on a males attractiveness. So it was safe to say you were used to the silly little arguments.

Chaewon say's something about his short hair while Yeji starts to point out how the other likes 'stick skinny' boys. This then prompts Chaewon to go on a tirade about how 'muscles don't matter."

You're so wrapped up in the two's words that you fail to notice approaching figures in the corner. That is until the girls still and Karina greets, "Hey Mark."

Your head whips around and low and behold, there standing (a little awkwardly) is Mark Lee. You could've sworn just ten seconds ago he was across the field, curse you letting your guard down.

Honestly, Mark isn't all that bad, its the two he's brought with him that are trouble. And as Haechan flashes you a smirk, you really wish they would've stayed across that damn grass.

"Jungwoo! I haven't seen you in a while." Yeji says, the aforementioned boy rubbing his neck in embarrassment.

"I dropped the class we had together." The guy you've learned is named Jungwoo, responds. "I'm an engineering major now."

"No need for British literature there, huh?" Your friend responds back as Jungwoo laughs.

Yet you can't bring yourself to laugh at anything, given how Haechan had made himself comfortable at the table, choosing the seat right in front of you. Great. Haechan figured that this way, he can force you to stare at him, even if it's just for a little bit. Yet, you're looking anywhere but at him right now.

"How's Renjun, baby?" He breaks the silence, and you move to look him in the eyes, a scowl present on your face. You know he's not talking to you like that.

You've never wanted to punch someone so badly. "Doesn't he live with you? And don't call me that."

"Call you what? Baby?" There he goes again.

You really didn't want to deal with this right now, especially since it's like the male had been following you lately. You were being honest, you had truly been seeing him everywhere. The last thing you wanted was any type of interaction with him after finding him in all your favorite spots. The bench outside your building. He was there. The table you sit at in the dining hall. He was there. The craft store you went to with Renjun. Ding ding ding, you guessed it! He was there.

Moving to stand up, you grab the attention of the others. Karina looks at you quizzically. "Where are you going?"

"Away from Haechan." You speak honestly, closing the water bottle you were drinking from.

Yeji turns to you. "What, why? Mark was just inviting us to a party!"

"I'm tired." You say, as politely as you can, thinking of any excuse to not go to this party. You didn't mind parties, they were okay sometimes, but right now you just really wanted to be out of Haechan's general vicinity.

Chaewon peeks behind Yeji. "Come on, why not? Jaemin texted me that he'd drive us home! It could be fun, we could get wasted!"

Yes, because your ideal Friday night involved getting wasted and throwing up so hard you can't remember your own name. That was exactly your scene. "No thanks, I'm gonna sit this one out."

Yeji stands with you. "Everyone's gonna be there! It could be fun!"

They were persistent, as they were persuasive.

"Ok, fine." You really need to learn to stand your ground a little harder.

So that was how you found yourself, a couple hours later, back in the company of the one you swore you despised. It was inevitable that Haechan would be present, this was Mark's party after all. From what you've gathered, the two were close as well as the other boys your friends knew.

Jeno and Jaemin were here, Jaemin sober as he promised while he spoke to Chaewon, and Jeno? Well, if him and Karina making out on the kitchen counter was indication, not so much. Renjun just snickered at that, "That's gross."

You nod in agreement, opting to save your poor eyes from viewing anymore. Renjun is quick to take notice of the lack of drink in your hand though. "You're not drinking? Again?"

"Don't feel like having a hangover tomorrow."

"I'm starting to think you're a party pooper."

"Think?" You pause, as you make eye contact. "You know very well that I'm a party pooper."

"I didn't want to have to say it!"

"Say what?" A voice speaks as you instantly recognize who it is. He's slinging his arms over you and Renjun's shoulders, you being quick to brush it off.

"Can you leave me alone?"

"Why? So you can chat up Renjun? I'm protecting him."

"Only thing Renjun needs protection from is you."

Haechan raises a brow at that. "At least I know how to have a good time, misses sober."

You cringe at his newfound nickname for you. "Get lost."

"Only if you get loose."

That was by far, the weirdest thing a guy has ever said to you at a party. And trust me, you've been told many things at parties before. "Is that a challenge?"

"Depends, you up to it?" Haechan smirks that stupid grin of his.

Renjun's quick to pull on your arm, pulling you back to reality. "You don't have to if you don't want to."

"Okay Lee," You ignore the boy beside you. "I'll bite."

"Save that for the bedroom princess."

You and Renjun both look disgusted at that. "Fuck off, you know what I meant. Meet me at the beer pong table, and we'll see who really gets loose."

It only takes an hour and half for you to regret this weird thing you and Haechan had going. It consisted of matching shots with him, as well as chugging as many beers as he did. You didn't even like beer that much, it was just the competitiveness flowing in you that made you continue to down the fuzzy liquid. You could keep up, you had to, you had to make this idiot eat his words.

But a little voice kept etching in the back of your head, why did you care so much? You barely knew this guy, you didn't even know the simplist thing about him, like his major or favorite color.

Well, then again, you didn't need to know all that to know you wanted to beat him in this imaginary game you're playing. No rules at all, just drinking and drinking, a competition to see who could hold their alcohol, and maybe you were losing.

Stumbling to take a seat on a.. bean bag? You get engulfed as you sink in, mind as heavy as your limbs feel. You barely able to lift your head to look around the room, taking note of a few familiar faces here and there. Chaewon and Yeji are dancing in the crowd, Jaemin and Renjun are cashing out on bets of who'd get the drunkest tonight, and Karina and Jeno are nowhere to be found. Amazing, now you probably couldn't go home. Hopefully you could just crash at Chaewon's.

"Feeling it yet?" Haechan slurs into your ear as he sits on the beanbag to your right. He's well past the point of drunk, likely slightly worse than you, seeing as he was drinking before you had arrived.

"Nope." You lie, barely able to make eye contact with him. Why was it so hot in here? Were you sweating?

Haechan quirks his head to the side. "Liarrr."

You shift your eyes. "You're more wasted than me."

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Alright you win." Haechan mumbles, throwing his head back into the seat. "Wanna get out of here?"

"Ew!" You reject, still having half a brain.

"Not like that," He says, words mushing together, and you can tell hes being honest. "Let's go swing on the swing set."

"Mark has a swing set?!" You sit up, practically yelling like it was the greatest discovery ever made.

He matches your energy. "The neighbors do! I'll even push you on it."

You just nod rapidly as you grab his hand and lead him off the bean bag, eyes following curiously as Yeji wonders why the hell you're holding Haechan's hand in yours. You definitely wouldn't remember this tomorrow.

Haechan pushes the patio door open, you two spotting the playground that must've been from years ago. Yet, this didn't detour you as you raced to it, barely able to keep up with the boy beside you.

Not because he was fast, but because you could barely stay on your own two feet without falling over. Haechan helps though, a steady grip on you as he helps you onto the swing.

"Woah!" You yelp, as you almost fall off of it, forgetting to grab the sides.

Haechan's quick to stop you and laughs as you can barely keep your head up. "You're in another world."

You lift your face up slightly, "Yeah? Then you're on another planet."

"Another planet is closer than another world!"

"Aren't they the same thing?"

Haechan's silent for a minute as he thinks. "I don't know."

You laugh, way too loud for your liking, but what did it matter? It was just you and Haechan here, and you could care less what he thought. "You know, you're cooler when you're drunk."

It's quiet for a beat before Haechan puts his hand on his heart, pretending to wince out in pain. "I'm cool all the time"

"Nuh uh," You argue back, childishly. "When we got here, the first thing you did was make fun of me! Then you dragged me into this."

"It's a game! It's fun!" He waves his hands around.

It's truly funny how things worked. A week ago, you didn't even know who Lee Haechan was. And an hour ago, you wouldn't have been caught dead with him alone. Yet, here you were, laughing as you try to keep your grip on the swing as he pushes you. Almost falling off balance a few times, but manages to keep himself up.

The breeze blows from behind you, almost giving you goosebumps with a lack of a jacket. Your mind vaguely begins to wonder what time it was, the pitch blackness of the neighborhood (Minus a few streetlights) throwing you off.

"You're more fun when you drink too." Haechan yells, even though you're directly in front of him. "Not pushing me away and running, or slamming doors in my face!"

"You deserved that!" You giggle as he stops pushing you, sitting on the swing next to you to take a break.

He stares at the stars for a few minutes before he looks at you. You look so cute, even in such dull lighting. Haechan leans in a little closer, to where you can almost smell the alcohol on his breath. "You look really pretty."

You can't help the way your heart quickens, but you shake your head, deducing it to be all the drinks in your system. Sober you would never react this way to Lee Haechan. The man of your nightmares.

Or so you told yourself.

You lean in a bit further, his eyes never leaving yours. "I know."

Haechan's taken aback but before he can reply, his name's being shouted across the back. "Haechan! Are you out here?"

"No!" Haechan yells in response, watching as the shadow of a person approaches them, leaves crunching beneath their feet.

Mark's face falls in relief as he notices you with Haechan. "Man we've been looking everywhere for you. Karina said she couldn't find Yn either."

You stand up from the swing, leaving Haechan sitting by himself. "I should be getting home."

Mark just looks between you two, confusion across his face. Since when had you gotten close with Haechan? He could've sworn you two were arguing earlier, even when you arrived at the party. Was he missing something? "Jaemin will drive you."

"I can drive her." Haechan says, ironically as he nearly tumbles over himself attempting to get on his feet again. He fishes his keys from his pocket and waves them around as Mark snatches them from his grip.

"You're not driving anywhere." Mark rolls his eyes. "Renjun's taking you home too."

And like a dad caring for his children, he leads you both back inside, careful not to let Haechan run off to who knows where. (He had a tendency of doing that.)

"But it's not even midnight!" Haechan protests, with his head down.

"It's two in the morning!" Mark corrects as he shakes his head, grabbing Haechan by the arm. Your eyes widen, was it really that late already? Time flew by weirdly fast with Haechan. Not that you enjoyed it or anything, must've just been the alcohol. Yeah, definitely.

"But I don't wanna leave her." Haechan says, prying himself off of Mark and onto you. Clinging to you like you were best friends. You, not knowing better in your state, hug him back.

"You two look like idiots." Mark comments, trying to separate you guys, the both of you telling him to stop. Your grip on each other tightening with every tug.

"Wait!" Yeji catches up to you, smirking as she pulls her phone out. "Let me take a picture first."

You just hum, drunkenly posing for the photo as Haechan throws a peace sign up. The two of you with stupid smiles on your faces. Idiots, that would be the correct thing to say about you guys now.

"Okay," Renjun approaches, eyes heavy as he just wants to go to sleep right about now. He tries to pull the other off of you, but you tighten your grip as well. "Haechan, let's go!"

He shakes his head and Renjun just about gives up as he throws his hands in the air. "Find your own way home."

Haechan nuzzles into you for about two more minutes before he registers what Renjun said. "Oh no! Renjun's leaving me!"

You just nod and Haechan lets go of you, running towards the front door as he yells a small goodbye to you. You yell back across the house, and he shoots you a thumbs up as he almost trips over the steps leading outside.

You pout slightly as you watch him go, your source of warmth being gone now. Oh well, you start looking around for your roommate, but you spot Jeno in the kitchen alone without her. Where the hell did she go? Didn't matter, you were just going to relax on the couch now.

It would be okay to close your eyes for a minute right?

Well, you closed your eyes for a bit longer than a minute. In fact, when you opened them next, there was sunlight shining through the living room windows.

The headache hits you first, feeling like you had been ran over as your whole body was sore. Likely from the amount of dancing and running you had done. You even vaguely recall going outside. To swing? With Haechan?

You sit up, a little fast for your head, and look around. You spot Chaewon and Karina on the couch across from you, legs intermingled as they hugged, they must've been wasted when they went to sleep too. You can see Yeji's jacket still on the couch, registering the sound of a toilet flushing.

Why was it so loud? You throw your head back on the couch as Yeji enters the living room. "You're up." She whispers, sitting down on the love seat next to you.

"Yeah, where are we?" You groan back.

"Mark's house." She answers back, watching your facial expressions. "Do you really not remember?"

"No." You rub your eyes, the headache still present.

"So you definitely shouldn't check your phone." Yeji laughs, picking your phone up from the ground and throwing it in your lap.

You place your phone beside you. "Why are we at Mark's house?"

Yeji leans back. "Jaemin ended up getting too drunk to drive us. Mark offered to call us an uber but he couldn't find his phone. He tried to find Renjun too but he had already left. Then Mark just gave up and went to bed. Jaemin and Jeno are asleep in the other room."

You barely even process all of that as you just raise your eyebrows , picking up your device. And to your surprise, its full of notifications, yet all from one app.

There, laying on your Instagram dashboard, is a photo of you and a clearly drunk Haechan. He's leaning into your face, the sides of your faces pressed together inside the small frame. He's smiling that stupid little smirk and you're grinning widely. To make matters worse, its accumulated the most likes you've ever seen on your page. There's tons of comments too, most stating how cute you two are. The others commenting that they didn't even think you knew each other. There were a few random ones too, talking about couple goals and how you made the explore page. What?!

Your finger hovers over the button to delete the post, but it is a rather cute picture. Despite the fact that you were going to kill whoever posted it on your page, maybe you'd keep it.

"Who the hell posted me and Haechan?!" You speak, not caring for the volume you were speaking at. It was in fact ten already, hopefully no one would mind too much.

Yeji shushes you, "I don't know-"

"It was Jaemin." Chaewon nods, shifting to get Karina off of her, though the latter doesn't move a bit. But when had Chaewon even woken up?

Your eyes widen, getting up as you're blinded by the need to cuss Jaemin out. Entering the first room you come across, you spot Mark asleep in his bed, Jaemin and Jeno on the floor.

You lean down and smack Jaemin, waking him up as he looks startled. "Mom?"

"No!?" You yell, shaking him by his shoulders. "Why did you post that photo?"

"What photo?"

"Motherfu-"

"He was drunk." Mark sits up, rubbing his eyes, making you feel slightly guilty for waking him too. "Why don't you just delete it?"

"It has a few thousand likes already!"

"You're famous?"

You shake your head. "No, but this means all of his fangirls are going to be at my door this morning after our post made the explore page."

"So what you're saying is," Jaemin pauses, looking at you. "I made you famous? You should be thanking me."

"What the fuck?" You blurt out, "I'm going to strangle you."

Jaemins eyes grow big as you reach towards him, he struggles to avoid your hands. "I just thought it was a cute picture! You guys looked so friendly!"

"Well we're not! I'm not even friends with him!"

"You are after last night." Mark comments, looking around for Jeno's shirt. You had been so distracted that you didn't even notice the half naked boy across the room as he slept. Then you realize Mark's words, you two were friendly last night? You'd rather dive into a dumpster than hang out with Haechan. Well, apparently not?

"I'm going home." You give up. "Sorry for sleeping on your couch Mark."

The latter just shrugs. "Anytime, I don't mind."

What a weird guy.

You locate your keys in a bowl on the kitchen table, promptly placed there with many others after Jaemin had confiscated all your keys. You look over to Karina on the couch and decide you don't want to be the one to wake her, she was usually grumpy when hungover. Eh, Jeno can drive her home.

After grabbing your jacket and making your way to where your car sits, you gape in horror. "Someone vomited on my car?!"

FOUR, THEY CONFUSE BEING FRIENDLY FOR FLIRTING.

This one was one you had seen time and time again. You've experienced it first hand, as well as had to swoop in and save your friends from it. It always goes the same, every time. A boy approaches you, usually meeting for the first time, and takes your friendliness as a sign of being interested.

Like the time Chaewon had to awkwardly explain to the worker at the Van's store that she wasn't giving him her phone number, she just wanted him to look up her loyalty account for points. To which he had insisted that she was smiling at him so much, how could he not think she wanted to give him her number?

Or when Karina and you were at Starbucks and she held the door open for a guy to walk in. He then immediately turned around and asked her for her Instagram so they could talk. Then when she said she wasn't interested, he walked away angrily.

Moral of the story: Men always think you're hitting on them just because you're being nice.

More than half of the time, they're wrong.

This is why you're not friendly.

However, your judgement seems to be impaired when you're drunk. Considering how your attitude with Lee Haechan had died down, he took it as a sign of a new bestfriend. And even worse, he thinks he can flirt with you.

He's even managed to convince himself that you're desperately in love with him, teasing you every time he sees you.

Karina thinks it's hilarious as you complain to her, "He's just naturally flirty."

You roll your eyes. "He thinks I'm in love with him!"

"Maybe you are." She responds and you don a repulsed look on your face.

"Me? In love with Lee Haechan? Never."

"Your adamance on not being in love with him is suspicious."

"How?!" You ask as you continue to finish off the last of the bows that you were crocheting for Renjun's bunny. He had decided last minute that he wanted the bunny to have cute accessories, so he had set you up to the task as a repayment for teaching you how to crochet at all.

"Well for one, you've been spending an awful lot of time with each other." She points out and you hate that she's right. These past few weeks since the party, they boy has been glued to your hip.

"Not voluntarily. He follows me everywhere!" You respond.

"You go to his apartment!"

"Because Renjun lives there." You reason, and it was true. Renjun was a friend, and you were learning something from him. Why wouldn't you be at his apartment? "I don't go to see Haechan!"

"Are you sure?" Karina quirks a brow and you look at her in disgust.

"Yes I'm sure."

"Okay, so what about you leaving that post up?"

"What post?" You feign, knowing full well what she was referring to.

"You're insufferable." She replies. "And in love with Lee Haechan."

You almost throw the needle at her. "Nope. Nuh uh, not in love with him."

"So why is he coming over right now."

"We're going to help Renjun ask his crush out, remember?"

She shakes her head. "I zone you out sometimes."

You scoff. "Worst roommate ever."

"Yeah yeah, heard it all before." She giggles as she continues scrolling through her phone. The door bell rings though, and she decides to do you one and get the door while you put your shoes on.

You immediately hear the voices of the boys as soon as the door opens, both greeting Karina as they enter.

You ignore the small talk though, "How are we feeling, Renjun?"

"Nervous." He responds, deadpanning. He wipes his palms on his jeans, sweaty and all clammy.

"You'll be fine!" You assure him. "She's like in love with you."

"Yup," Haechan agrees. "Just like how Yn is in love with me!"

"Shut up!"

"You didn't even deny it!"

"Gross," Renjun interrupts. "This is about me right now, can we go back to focusing on me?!"

"Yeah, sorry." You respond, knowing Renjun was worried out of his mind. It's all for no reason though, you know his crush returns his feelings. There's nothing to worry about, he shouldn't be so worried.

But, as you thought, he didn't listen to a single thing you said. He had barely even managed to calm his heart when you dropped him off at the restaurant he had invited her to. You and Haechan shoot him a thumbs up, the other muttering some words of encouragement to him, that apparently made him all the more nervous, but at least he was trying.

You remind Renjun to call you when you needed to pick him up, wishing him the best of luck. Though, as Haechan commented, hopefully his crush would be taking him home after this.

You just hit him in his shoulder.

Unfortunately, you never thought about the aftermath of this situation. It seemed normal on paper, two of Renjun's good friends drop him off for a gut wrenching date, offering their support.

Now what? Were you two just supposed to wait around? Should you go back to their apartment? Or should you drop Haechan off and just go home? You underestimated what you were getting yourself into here.

"So?" The male speaks before you can, raising his brows at you. "Got any confessions of your own?"

"Here's one, I think you're annoying."

"See, I already knew that. Not much of a confession." He sticks his tongue out, turning to face you as you keep your eyes on the road. You're quiet as he speaks again. "Well I actually have a confession, if you'd like to hear it."

"I don't, Haechan."

He rolls his eyes as he moves on. "Enough with the Haechan! Call me Donghyuck, like my friends do."

"We're not friends." You maintain, raising your brows.

"Yes we are! You just won't admit it!" He whines, not taking his eyes off you of you. "Doesn't matter, I'm still going to confess."

"Go on." You say, a hint of amusement in your tone. You were actually kind of curious on what he wanted to say.

"I want to take you on a date."

You scoff, of course that was it. "Lot's of other guys want to take me on dates."

"I'm not other guys!" He defends, whining in your ear.

"You're right." You begin, turning to face him back. "You're worse."

He lets out a wail at that. "Look, it doesn't have to be a fancy date or anything! Just let me buy you dinner, or take you to Dave & Busters!"

"Dave & Busters?!" You laugh, did he really take girls there? Not that you minded it but, this was Haechan we were talking about. You didn't take him as the type to take a girl out there on a first date. Huh, the more you know.

"Please," He puts his hands together, with pleading eyes. "Pretty please."

It sounded fun, that you'd admit. But you didn't really want to spend endless energy, and money, trying to win rigged arcade games and claw machines. "How about this? You buy me a pizza and a cinnamon roll from the mall food court and I'll let you think it's a date."

"Then it's a date!" He bats his eyes, smiling ear to ear.

..

It's been three hours. Three hours of radio silence from you and Haechan. Renjun figures he'll just send a bomb to your house. Nice and prettily wrapped with a bow, noted that it's from him. In this scenario, Haechan is with you as well, and you two just get blown up. To smithereens. Yes, that was a perfect scenario.

Renjun's not even in a bad mood, in fact, he's quite overjoyed that his confession was returned. His (Now) girlfriend beaming as she hugged the knitted animal, saying how Renjun was so romantic and how she felt the same way. He even got to kiss her!

However, this now brings him to an empty apartment, having taken the bus with her so he could walk her home safely. He had thought about just calling you to let you know, but he figured you'd answer later.

Now though, he feels really weird. His roommate is usually blowing up his phone, no matter the situation, yet he hasn't heard a word from him all day. So to say this was odd, was an understatement.

He's barely left to think for long before Haechan literally comes barreling through the door, you following right behind him.

You're both bickering playfully about something, you talking with your hands as Haechan tries to speak louder than you. "I told you that you were going to lose!"

"You cheated!"

Neither of you even greet Renjun, it's like he's not even there, though he's literally standing right in the kitchen. And Renjun can't say he approves of the sight.

You continue on talking. "You're just a sore loser!"

"You were taking basketballs from my side!"

"Well hey to you too," Renjun drags, waving his arm sarcastically. "I'm here, if you hadn't noticed."

"Oh my god, Renjun!" You say, grabbing him by his shoulders. "How did it go? I'm so sorry, this idiot made us go to Dave & Busters after the mall! Then, my phone died and Hyuck left his here and-"

Renjun raises a hand to stop you, getting straight to the point. Trying to hide by how he was slightly caught off guard by you and his friend spending so long together, alone. "I'm fine, she accepted my confession. We're dating now."

You squeal. "Renjun has a girlfriend! Hyuck, Renjun has a girlfriend!"

"Maybe you can stop being so moody all the time now!" Haechan pokes, squeezing the other in a hug. "I'm so proud of you, never thought you'd do it!"

"Well, I believed in you!"

Renjun smiles, "That's great. Actually, can I talk to you for a minute?"

You look confused, realizing that Renjun's looking at you. "Sure, walk me out to my car?"

He nods and Haechan wraps his arms around you, to which you push him off. "Go shower!"

"Aye aye, captain!" He salutes, causing you to giggle, before waving bye to you as Renjun waits. "Text me when you get home!"

You shoot him a thumbs up and turn to head out the door, Renjun following behind you eagerly. You wondered what he was going to talk to you about. Its funny, you felt like a child awaiting a scolding, just a tad bit scared.

He walks slowly next to you for a couple seconds as he closes his door, walking you to his complexes elevator. He looks a little nervous, opting to stare at his shoes as he speaks. "I"m going to ask you something, and I need you to be honest."

"Okay." You answer, a little warily. He was freaking you out with how formal he was being.

"Do you like Haechan?"

You open your mouth. "As a friend, yeah."

He shakes his head. "No, I mean, as in do you have a thing for him?"

"Why would you think that?"

"For starters, you called him Hyuck, twice. And then, you two spent three hours on a date, apparently forgetting about everyone else."

"It wasn't a date."

"Listen to me, he takes all his flings to Dave & Busters, okay? That's kind of his thing, I think it's weird personally, but it's tradition since he did it with his first one." He stops as he tries to figure out how to word things.

You just stare back blankly. Of course you didn't think it was special, he was simply taking you to hang out. It wasn't a date so why wouldn't he take you there?

"I want to know because, I used to be really good friends with this girl a while back. Everything was cool until Haechan got his hands on her, then it turned into this whole mess, and she ended up hating me for it. All because she had tried to get serious with him, and he just hated the thought of tied down."

You lean against the elevator wall. "But why-"

"I'm telling you this because I value our friendship and I don't want you to get hurt. Haechan's my friend, yes, but hes a really shitty guy to be with. I don't want to lose you too, just take this as a warning."

You nod calmly, but your stomach is turning. "Thanks anyways, but I don't like him like that, we're just being friendly."

You were lying straight through your teeth, even if you didn't know it yet.

FIVE, THEY'RE EASY TO FALL IN LOVE WITH?

You hadn't seen, spoken to, or thought of Haechan in a week. (The last one might be a lie, but what is that they say? Fake it 'till you make it?) But you decided to heed your friends warning, maybe you were getting too attached. Goodness knows you can be the type to get too comfortable with someone, not expecting to have the rug pulled out from under you. At least this way you were prepared, right?

What you couldn't avoid, unfortunately, was your friends pestering you about the sudden disconnection from the male. Apparently, Jeno had spread word about it to Karina, and it just fueled her theories.

She had pestered you about six different times this week alone as to why you had been dodging Haechan. You'd always just shrug and say you were busy, but she wasn't buying it. The girl lived with you, she knew something was up.

You had spent less time with Renjun as well, only meeting once at a cafe for lunch, but that could just be attributed to his newly attained girlfriend as well. So you used that as your main excuse for not swinging by the apartment.

Haechan had no idea what he had done, why the radio silence all of a sudden? Had he made you uncomfortable? Did you really not want to go to Dave & Busters? Was something wrong?

Had you found out?

No, threre is no way you could've found out. Jaemin's plan was foolproof, and Jeno was airtight, nothing was going to slip. At least, that was what he hoped.

You're currently sat in Yeji's room, Karina and Chaewon having lost a game of who had to go buy the food. (You had all played rock, paper, scissors for it.)

So the two of you sit cross legged on the floor, sliding beads onto bracelets. Sure, people might deem this a little childish to do at your grown age, but you could truly care less. It was a fun little thing and all of you got to have matching ones, like middle school kids.

Yeji hands you a bucket of letter beads, noting how you nearly finished one side of colored ones. Then she winks, "Who's name is going on it?"

"Mine," You look at her confused. "Who else?"

"Oh, I don't know," She rolls her eyes. "Maybe Haechan's?"

You almost knock over the container. "Not you too!"

"What?!"

"Karina is already up my ass about him! We're just friends." You frown. "There's nothing going on between us."

"Well, I think either you're lying, or you're too dumb to see it. Both are very plausible." She laughs. "I'm just surprised, didn't think he'd be the one to change things."

"He hasn't changed anything." You chide, and you believed it. Somewhat? Everything felt the same, it wasn't like you shot heart eyes at the boy every time he was around. You two just simply got along, in the same way you and Renjun did. Sure, you and him never spent as much time alone as you and Haechan, but that was just 'cause he was so clingy. Surely not because of anything else.

"He's the only boy you don't yell about! I haven't seen you like this since-" Yeji stops herself before she can go on.

You whip your head up, her face guilty as she regrets having opened her mouth. "Since Sunwoo? Is that really what you were going to say?"

She defends, "I didn't mean to!"

"I know," You agree, you choose to stay calm. You know she meant well, she'd never say it to hurt you. "I just don't like to bring him up. That's all."

"But my point still stands."

"And we all know how things ended with Sunwoo. He ended up breaking my heart into tiny little bite sized pieces. Thank you for reminding me exactly why I hate boys again." You go back to your bracelet, trying not to think about your ex-boyfriend.

She sighs, "I'm sorry."

"For what?" You shake her off. "Not your fault he was the world's worst boyfriend."

"I was out of line." She apologizes again, though you're already over it.

"It's alright. Everyone thinks I like Haechan anyways. Even Renjun pulled me away and started going on a spiel of how I need to be careful." You start, not noticing the look Yeji's giving you.

"So, you don't?"

"I don't.." You trail, hating how you're even thinking about it. "I don't know."

She sits up. "Wait a minute-"

"I just enjoy spending time with him." You admit, but you feel like you're about to throw up. You couldn't believe you felt this way. You couldn't afford to, not again. "More than I do with the others anyways. Can we move on?"

Yeji seems reluctant but nods, looking over into her kitchen space. "Jaemin's been spending a lot of time here, broke my favorite mug."

"The one with the cat on it?" You gasp, more worried for the cup than the boy.

"Yes! The one Ryujin made me in her pottery class!"

"I'd kick him out!" Your jaw drops, knowing how Ryujin would've dragged that poor boy across the floor.

She just feigns annoyance. "Chaewon would have a cow! The two are like bestie's now."

"Seem's like you're all teasing the wrong person!" You stick your tongue out.

"Nope, she honors the pact!" Yeji responds, "Like a lot."

"You're all stupid."

"Hey!"

You two are stopped by the sound of the keypad outside beeping as the code buzzes incorrectly. "Open up! Karina's making me carry all the bags!"

"I literally have soda's in both hands!" The other yells as you get up to get the door, Yeji toddling behind you with a half made bracelet in her hand.

The girls barrel in, rushing to place the food down on the counter as you and Yeji itch to get your hands on the bags.

Karina falls into conversation with Yeji over the wait time when you feel your phone buzzing in your pocket. You pull it out to see Haechan calling you? That was weird, he had never really called you. You two barely even texted since you gave him your number last week.

You just excuse yourself and step into Yeji's bedroom, answering the unusual call. "Hello?"

"Finally! Well, where the hell have you been?!" The voice on the other end pesters.

"What? I've been busy." You lie, tightening your grip on the phone.

"I miss you." He blurts out suddenly, the words making your heart drop. Sure, he had said tons of flirty stuff to you before, but now that you were slightly aware of some feelings? Yeah, this was making your heart race. His comment is followed by silence, neither of you speaking.

You manage to collect yourself, putting on your bickering tone. "Shut up."

"I'm serious! Let's do something tomorrow. Just you and I, wanna show you something."

"What could you possibly want to show me?"

"Besides my dick?" Of course he'd never miss an opportunity to make that kind of joke. What was he, fourteen? But you hated how it made you laugh.

"That's fucking gross." You make a fake-vomiting noise.

"No but all jokes aside," He begins again, speaking quieter through your device. "I'll see you here at 5?"

"I don't know," You respond, staring at your shoes as you think about it.

"Well then who knows?"

One day couldn't hurt, right? You'd spend time with him again and realize that you two are just platonic friends. Yeah, everyone wanted to make it so complicated, when it wasn't like that. Surely, you'd feel at ease after confirming things. "See you at five."

..

"You're ditching us?!" Chaewon's jaw slacks as you shake your head.

"Ditching? I spent all yesterday and this morning with you guys, don't be dramatic." You say as you slip on your shoes.

"For Lee Haechan?!" Karina speaks up, equally as shocked.

"Why are you all so surprised?"

"Because a few months ago, you would've been barking up any tree to get away from him!"

"What does that even mean, Chaewon?"

And the group stills, laughing at what she said. She just leans against the door frame, "Fine, go abandon your friends!"

Yeji pouts before patting the back of a fake-crying Chaewon. "Shame on you."

"I'll be back soon, we all know Karina's going to crash on your couch again anyways." You state, about to open the door.

"Whatever, not my fault you like to sleep toe to toe with Yeji in her bed." She rolls her eyes, referencing to how she had found you this morning. And yes, you were in Yeji's bed, but to say your toes were interlocked? Well..

"Just text us, we were thinking about stopping by Jaemin and Jeno's." Chaewon says, the others nodding their heads.

You shoot them a thumbs up and open the door, not expecting anything that would happen that night.

..

Haechan throws himself on his couch, groaning as he's lost another round of Super Mario Bros. to you. To make it worse, you're just laughing at his defeat, who even knew you were so competitive? He couldn't complain though, you had warn fair and square, unfortunately.

He pushes his soda towards you, a brand he beamed about for the entire day, saying he had picked it up on a grocery trip. (Your friend had whopped him when he realized Haechan brought home the wrong brand, but Haechan actually grew to like it. Well, considering now he had three cases of it, you guess he had no choice.)

He sees your eyes land on the can, before nudging your shoulder. "Try it."

You deny immediately. "I don't know where your mouth has been."

He gasps dramatically as he places a hand on his heart. "You wanna find out?"

"Get me my own and I'll try it." You ignore him as you give in, to which he salutes you and stalks out of the living room like a soldier. That guy was weird.

But the main thing on your mind right now, was what Haechan could possibly be showing you. You two had done nothing for the past hour besides play video games on his couch. So unless the soda brand - Or the potato chips - were what he wanted to show you, then you had no idea.

He returns with the soda, placing it was a clunk on the table, having no idea of your impending thoughts. "Try it and if you like it, then you can have a case."

"So that's what this is." You laugh as you crack the lid. "You're just trying to dump those cases on me."

"No I'm not!" He denies though he smirks a little.

"So," You begin. "What was it that you wanted to show me?"

"All in due time." He teases, grimacing as he downs another can. "Didn't anyone ever tell you that good things come to those who wait?"

"Didn't anyone tell you I was impatient?"

Haechan laughs, brushing his hair from his eyes. "Let's go."

He gets up from the couch, offering you his hand, to which you take. You don't know why, but you trust Haechan. He could lead you to a trap and you'd follow. But you have no idea why.

As you pester as to where it is that you're going, he just tells you to put your seat belt on and not to ask questions. He keeps his patience though, ignoring your whining about this mystery trip.

He just laughed though, telling you how cute you looked when you were pouting. You just shoved him and rolled your eyes, never admitting how hot your face would grow at the random compliments.

Then suddenly, you two were there.

Haechan wouldn't elaborate on what there was. To you, this just looked like a park in the city. But you could tell, with the way he was looking at the trees, this meant something to him.

You two walk up the trail in silence, you choosing not to say anything as he seems determined to get somewhere. You follow without qualms, admiring how dark it was starting to get around this time.

There were families still out though, couples laughing on benches as they fed ducks, and people walking their dogs. It was such a beautiful sight.

Haechan suddenly turns as you make your way up a hill, grabbing your hand as he points to the grass. "Sit with me."

You nod, sitting cross legged on the ground as Haechan stares out into the view. And you can admit, it's breathtaking.

You can see everyone from there. All the people, all the animals, all the trees, you can see it all. You catch glimpses as the sun sets, the sky painted orange as it illuminates the view below.

"It's so pretty." You comment honestly, thankful for the wind on such a hot day, you had never felt more comfortable.

You know why you do though, and it has a lot to do with the boy beside you. The boy you had only known for a few months, but had managed to wring your heart into a knot, he was right here. He made this moment perfect, he made this what it was.

You regret running away, for that week wasted, when you felt like you belonged with him. Your heart swells, and you wish it would stop, but it doesn't cease, not for a second.

Moment's spent with Haechan, they were never a bore, he was someone who you felt genuinely cared about you. Sure, he might have gotten off on the wrong foot with you, but no one was perfect.

He had a past, but damn it, so did you.

You know why you trusted him so much, why you backed away so fast, why you'd follow him anywhere. You knew it all too well.

You couldn't help it, you were in love with him.

"It's beautiful." He responds, resting his head on your shoulder.

You hum back, "Why did you bring me here?"

He turns towards you. "To do this."

Haechan cups your face, tilts it towards him, and then leans in as your lips meet. You don't move for a minute, taken aback by the sudden action, but when you regain your senses you kiss him back.

He pulls off a little before you grab the nape of his neck and bring him in again. You can't get enough, you love the taste of Lee Haechan, you feel like you could kiss him forever. You want to kiss him forever.

You separate again to breathe for a moment but he's pushing your lips back together, it seems the feeling was mutual.

You know you two look like horny teenagers just making out on a hill, something straight our of a coming-of-age movie. But you couldn't care less, you didn't care about what anyone thought of you. All that mattered right now was the boy in front of you.

And loving someone? It never felt this right.

..

You walk into your apartment wearing a dopey smile, Karina texting you that they she had went home, and you're thankful because your pillow sounds so good right now.

After the sunset, Haechan had took you to eat at a small diner, then to a little box arcade to pummel you in every shooting game out there. So, for lack of better word, you were exhausted.

You and Haechan didn't talk about the kiss after, he just smiled at you and then told you he liked you. You'd never felt such butterflies in your life, not even with your ex-boyfriend. It was different.

You call out for your roommate when you walk further in, turning on your lights as she responds. "Can you come here for a minute?"

You walk into her room, seeing Yeji and Chaewon on her bed. You giggle at the two. "Need me to help you move them?"

But she's not laughing, serious as she looks at you. "Maybe we should talk in the living room."

Your heart races. Did something bad happen? Was she okay? Were the others okay? Did the boys piss her off? There were a million things running through your heard at the turn of this night. Nevertheless, you follow her out into the living room, sitting with her. "Is everything alright? You're scaring me with how serious you're being."

She looks down at your attempt to lighten the mood. "As you know, we went to see the boy's today."

You nod, scared to speak. You even feel guilty, but you know you did nothing wrong, why did it seem like you were in trouble?

Karina continues, "They started drinking, a lot. But I stayed sober because I'm having breakfast with my mom tomorrow, remember?"

And now, its oddly apparent to you how she seems to be beating around the bush. You lean in, "Did something happen, Karina?"

"Well, Jeno and I were talking in his room, and all of a sudden Jaemin walks in, drunk obviously. Talking about how he won, and the bet's off now. I thought he was talking about sports or that sort of thing, but then he mentions Haechan." She avoids your eyes.

"What are you saying?" You whisper, meekly.

"Long story short, I got out of Jeno that-" She closes her mouth, and you can see her trying to word it, but your patience is running thin. "Jaemin payed Haechan to talk to you."

"What?!" You exclaim, standing up from where you were sitting. No, no that couldn't be right, that couldn't be true. It barely even made any sense. "Why would he do that?"

Karina stands as well, muttering two words. "The pact."

And it clicks in your head.

"He thought if anyone could sweep you off your feet, it'd be Haechan. So he messaged him randomly and set this whole thing up. He figured if the bet was broken, he could get a chance with Chaewon."

"So he," You start, struggling to speak. "Payed Haechan to make me fall in love. For this stupid pact I didn't even ask to be apart of?!"

"I'm so sorry, I had no idea. Once Jeno told me, I told him I never wanted to see him again! And look I know it doesn't even matter because you don't care-" She pauses as she looks at you, stunned at the sight. "Are you crying?"

And you let out another choked sob at that, her rushing to your side immediately. Your tears are flowing as you rub at your eyes, overwhelmed by the emotions taking over you. "Why are you crying?"

"I loved him."

She staggers back. "You.."

"And this happens." You continue to bawl. "This keeps happening, and I don't know why it keeps happening to me!"

Karina pats your hair as she hugs you. "You didn't do anything wrong."

"I know! I know, I didn't! So why do boys keep doing this to me?! Why do I keep getting used?!" You cry, the words slipping out. "First you, and now Chaewon. Will no one ever just love me?!"

Karina tightens her hug on you, she knows it hurts, she was there. She held you a year and a half ago when you broke up with Sunwoo. Weeping in her arms as you recalled a text message you had viewed on his phone. How he was only using you to get to Karina. She hated him, she hated his entire being, and she still does.

But you didn't love Sunwoo. No, you liked him a lot but love? That was never there. You cried because he treated you like garbage, not because your heart was broken.

She can practically hear it shattering now.

You want to throw something, anything. You want to stomp into Haechan's apartment and throw shit around, making him hurt the way you are. You feel anger, and you feel hurt.

But what you feel most of all, is fear.

You still don't want to lose him, and that's what hurts the most.

SIX, THEY'RE NOT SO EASY TO HATE

When you were fifteen, you wrote a list. Clear cut and simple, straight to the point. It listed six reasons why you hated boys. And so far, to this day, every word has held true.

Sure, people might sit and laugh about it now. Say how it's outdated and how it's rude to generalize an entire gender because of personal experience, but you'd beg to differ.

You lean your head back against your car seat, sniffling as you sit. It's about twelve in the morning at this point, but you can't bring yourself to feel tired. You don't know what to do, you don't even know where you're going. So you go back to the root of this, the boy you thought you could trust. Huang Renjun.

You typed the name easily, not even expecting him to pick up. You don't know what you're going to say, you were so filled with anger that you could explode.

"Hey, what're you doing up so late?" The soft voice chimes as he picks up, half asleep as he yawns.

You burst into tears. "You were my friend?! How could you do this to me?! I trusted you!"

You can hear him shuffling around as you assume he sits up in his bed. "Hello? What? Yn?"

You grit your teeth. "Don't play stupid now, I found out. Are you happy? I know you set me up!"

"Set you up? Are you drunk right now or-"

"Don't you dare!" You scream into the phone. "What, did they promise you a cut of the money? Or did they tell you-"

"What are you talking about?" He yells back, completely confused. "Who promised me money?"

You start crying even more. "I hate you so much, you're just as fake as Haechan."

"Haechan? What do I have to do with him?"

"Do I have to spell it out for you!? Why won't you just admit you helped Jaemin and Jeno?!" Your voice is horse now from the yelling and your eyes rubbed raw from the crying.

"Yn." He calms, lowering his voice. "Talk to me, what did they do?"

His tone takes you off guard, wasn't he just screaming back at you? "Do you really not know?"

"Know what - Please, you have to help me out here - I don't know anything." He responds, and you want so terribly to believe him. He had your back, he warned you, he probably saw all of this coming.

But boys lie, that you know for certain.

"So you don't know that Jaemin bribed Haechan to get me to break that fucking pact?" You curse, voice low, and you hold your breath for his answer.

"He did what?" Renjun speaks, sighing. "And Haechan went through with it? That's so typical of him, but you know what? I warned you."

"Are you trying to preach to me right now?!" You say, pissed off.

"No- Fuck, I'm so sorry." And you can hear him sit down on his bed. "I swear to you, I didn't know about this. They probably didn't tell me on purpose, please, I can't lose you too."

"Renjun," You speak in the mic. "What am I gonna do now?"

"What do you mean?"

"I liked him a lot."

And the other end is silent.

..

If Renjun hadn't proved his friendship to you yet, now was definitely his time to show out. Well, judging by how he's literally tearing up the dance floor for your amusement? Yeah, he's gone above and beyond.

You laugh at him from your little booth, sat next to the guy he had brought along, Renjun's girlfriend across from you as she giggles at her boyfriend.

Her name is Heejin, and she practically crushed you with a hug earlier. Telling you all about how shes begged Renjun to meet the girl responsible for making her precious bunny those bows. Also laughing and giggling about how pretty you were, cheeks slightly red.

The boy beside you was Yangyang, a cousin who Renjun was convinced would make you head over heels. ("Hyuck and him are both stupid!" He had said, trying to point out their similiarities. "And both medium ugly, so they have a lot in common! Give him a chance.) But Renjun was mistaken because you didn't want a boy like Haechan, you wanted Haechan. And it stung.

Yangyang was funny though, and he was polite but it had only been a few weeks since you ghosted Haechan. You weren't ready or open to the idea of anyone new just yet. Yangyang didn't seem to mind though, he was just here for a good time, which he seemed to be having as he made you down a matching shot with him.

"Haechan's a total asshole." Heejin suddenly spouts, likely from having too much to drink. "I would've fallen in love with you for free!"

"Right?!" Yangyang shouts over the music. "Wait, who's Haechan?"

You groan, "Thank you, Heejin."

She sits up. "No problem, and I'm glad you came out with us tonight! Renjun said he hadn't seen you in weeks, I almost thought I'd never get to meet you."

"No seriously," Yangyang speaks, looking around. "Who is Haechan?"

"Okay, you're both trashed." You laugh, staring at your unfinished drink, pretending to stir it. Moving, you slip your heels back on.

"Awee, are you leaving?" Heejin pouts, and you shake your head at the sweet girl. "No, I'm just going to pee. Think you'll be okay?"

She just nods and you stand, pulling your too-tight dress down as you make you way through people. What were you even doing here tonight? Karina had basically kicked you into Renjun's car to leave, saying you needed to be out again. But what was the point anyways? You felt like you finally reached your limit about caring about boys anymore, especially one's that weren't Lee Haechan.

Goodness, there you go again. Thinking about the very person who left you like this, who didn't even fight for you or come looking. He knew what he had done, and you hope it eats at him everyday.

But you also hope he's okay. You hope that, maybe just a tiny part of him actually liked you, and that maybe your absence made a small dent in his life.

But you doubt it, not like you knew anyways. You would ask Renjun but they got into a fight, presumably over what he had done to you, and now the two don't even talk anymore. According to your friend, the other just comes home to sleep, busy going who knows where during the day.

Coming back from the bathroom, you find Renjun having returned, coddling his girlfriend as Yangyang watches with a displeased look on his face. You can relate.

Then you realize something, Renjun is drunk. Which means, he's incapable of taking you home. You confirm this as you and Yangyang, the only one's about to stand by themselves, sling Renjun over your shoulders and walk to his car. You grab the keys from his pockets as he protests. "It's fine, take my car and call us an Uber."

"Are you insane?" You ask, trying to ignore the pain in your arms. "Stuff three drunk people in an Uber and hope they make it home? Who do you think I am?"

But you're a bit thankful that Renjun wants to make things easier for you. You were a big girl though, you could handle driving them to his apartment, even if Haechan was there.

Right, you'd be fine.

That's what you keep repeating as you make the drive, unfamiliar with this car, but driving just fine. You can see Renjun and Heejin cuddling in the rear view, Yangyang sat up front as he stares out the window.

"I've been wondering all night," He speaks, taking you off guard. "What's got you all upset? Is it that Haechan that Heejin mentioned?"

You keep your eyes on the road. "It's embarrassing."

"Well, my girlfriend of four years cheated on me." He speaks, causing you to shift in your seat. The confession offbeat, not expecting his openness. "That's why I'm here, I live an hour and half away. But I can't go to my place knowing she's there, I can't stand to be around her."

"I'm really sorry," You say, sincerity in your voice. "You deserve better."

He just shrugs. "That's not even the embarrassing part. I can't be around her because I know I'll take her back, I still love her. Isn't that weird, loving someone after they did you so wrong?"

"It's not weird." You whisper back.

"Renjun's the one who drove me down here himself, he knows I'm weak. He knows I view love irrationally." Yangyang drops his head.

"That's not irrational, we can't help who we love."

He tries to piece things together. "Did Haechan cheat on you too?"

"No," You respond, gripping the wheel. "Well, we weren't even together."

"So you're upset over someone you weren't with? Ditto. I think we've all been there, I guess the only thing left now is if you think he's worth forgiving." And for how much the boy drank, you hated how he seemed so wise.

"I don't know, I think I was more upset that he didn't reach out. It's like he doesn't care, like I'm not worth chasing."

"Maybe he's giving you space." He suggests. "That's what I'd do."

"Do you think your girlfriend's worth forgiving?" You hated cheaters, and you'd personally never forgive one. So depending on Yangyang's response, will deduce how helpful his advice is.

"Fuck no." He laughs, leaning his head back. "But your situation is different, you didn't catch your partner in bed with her neighbor so."

Your eyes grow big as you stammer. "I-"

"Don't," He stops you. "If anyone else tells me they're sorry again, I think i'll throw up."

You nod. "I get it."

"Anyways, you can still save your situation. Just depends if you think he's worth your time." He yawns, just in time for you to approach Renjun's complex.

You stay silent, unbuckling your seat belt. What was all the contemplation even for? He could very well not even be home.

But those words are swallowed when Renjun's front door is opened, the boy you'd been dreading in front of you. He rubs his eyes, muttering how he could hear Yangyang's loud voice from inside the house.

Then he quiets, eyes meeting yours.

And you missed the sight terribly.

Yangyang grabs his cousin from your side, pushing past Haechan with Heejin following.

You just stare Haechan up and down. He looks down, opening his mouth and then closing it instantly. He has a million things he wants to say, but he doubts you want to hear anything from him.

So you talk first. "Why didn't you come after me?"

He stops. "What?"

"You didn't even call!" You throw your hands up. "I would've heard you out! I would've let you explain, but you didn't even send a text!"

He takes in your words with disbelief. "I- I assumed you didn't want to hear from me and-"

"That's right, you assumed! You didn't even try, you were just going to let me go." You hold back your tears as your eyes well up. "I waited for days, sitting by the phone for an explanation, for you to call and apologize. I would've taken it from you, you idiot!"

Haechan moves forward. "I'm more sorry than you could imagine."

"Was it all just a chore to you? Everything, all of it?"

"Listen to me." He shakes his head. "I didn't take the money, okay? I took it initially, but after the first time we met, I backed out. It felt horrible to keep doing that to someone."

"And yet you still kept following me around?!" You say, not understanding.

"That was because I was interested in you." He says without hesitance. "And after I ruined everything, I just couldn't bear to see you hurt. I feel horrible every day, it's been hell without you."

"You should've called." You meek, a tear running down your face.

"I know, I should've done a lot of things differently. I should've been honest with you sooner, I should've came clean."

"You know what the stupidest part of it all is?" You cross your arms, as you wipe at your eyes. "I would've forgiven you."

"I'm-"

"Because I love you." And you cry. God, you hated yourself right now. Crying because of a boy? And even worse, crying because of a boy? One you hadn't even known that long, but that managed to worm his way into your life, but had also caused you such sadness.

But as Haechan wraps his arms around you, whispering that he loves you back, you know he's someone worth forgiving.

EPILOGUE

As mentioned, you had made a list when you were fifteen. Unleashing your wrath among the male population after another one had cut you clean.

The list read as followed,

6 Reasons I hate boys,

1, They make everything about them.

2, They're liar's.

3, They don't mind thier business.

4, They confuse being friendly for flirting.

5, They're easy to fall in love with.

And 6, They're not so easy to hate.

Haechan cackles as you read it out, shaking his head as he stirs his coffee. "That's ridiculous."

"How so?" You place the paper down as you narrow your eyes, "Every single thing here has been proven."

"Well its not about the contents of the list," He begins, grabbing your hand. "To me, that sounds like a list of things you like about boys."

"What?!"

"C'mon, you like that I'm the center of attention. You also like when I lie to you about drama spoilers you see online to spare your feelings. Hm, and you love when I poke my head into you and Yeji's gossip sessions to give my input." He lists, counting on his fingers.

"And if I didn't confuse you for flirting, then I would've thought you hated me this whole time." He winks as you scrunch your nose. "And the last two are pretty self explanatory."

"Whatever," You roll your eyes. "You're the worst."

"But you're still dating me so."

"Against my will."

He mocks you, quirking his head to the side. "I'm going to make a list of things I love about you, but I think it'd be more than 6."

"Eww," You drag, still not used to such a sweet side of Haechan. "Corny!"

"Let me be corny!" He waves. "As long as it gets you into Renjun's bed with me."

"For the last time," You lower your voice, looking around the coffee shop. "We are not having sex in Renjun's bed!"

"He does it to me!"

"Only as revenge! And you guy's barely got on good terms again, do you really want to push it?"

He thinks about it. "Well.."

"Nope, not happening." You dismiss, looking over to the cafe counter. "Now go get me some of those cookies."

"Anything for you, my love."

And even though he's a boy, who hopelessly fits into your list.

You could never hate Lee Haechan.

Taglist: @fairyofshampgyu @lislis80 @jenoteamo @smwhrinthehazehaze @matchahyuck @ohmykwonsoonyoung @emvrd @allu-23

frozen cold proposal

✧ seungcheol x reader

✧ summary: seungcheol is stubborn and decides to try and make soup over the fire. you stumble upon a surprise in his pockets when trying to huddle against him for warmth.

✧ wc is approx 1.5k

✧ notes: cursing, bickering but nothing serious. a little brother is mentioned. a lot of choi seungcheol stubborness. inspired by the new in the soop photos. not edited.

“Oh my fucking god,” you whispered, shoving your hands between your thighs for warmth. Your hoodie was pushed up and as tightly wound around your face as you could bear, but that did nothing to save your nose from the cold and bitter winter air that nipped at it. 

You were a fool, a giant fool. What sort of person wanted to go camping in winter? Your boyfriend, the one and only Choi Seungcheol, of course! Seungkwan had said he was crazy and you had agreed, but what did that say about you for agreeing to go with?

“This is it,” you monologue, eyes staring into the crackling fire. “This is how my nose goes. It’s going to fucking drop off into our soup.”

Your boyfriend throws you a look over his shoulder. He’s standing next to the fire, dutifully stirring the soup he insisted on trying to make. 

We’re camping, he said when you exclaimed at him bringing out a pot and cans. I saw someone make soup while camping once. It can’t be that hard.

As much as you loved Choi Seungcheol and wanted to spend the rest of your life with him, you knew better than to get your hopes up when he said “it can’t be that hard.”

That phrase was reserved for special occasions. It was used on your first date when you had despaired over losing to the claw machine for the third time, which in turn had prompted Seungcheol to spend the next twenty minutes there. It was used when your brother had come back to the house upset, tears leaking from his eyes as he relayed that his remote-control boat had gotten stuck in the middle of the lake. 

It can’t be that hard to get it, Seungcheol had said, your little brother’s cheers amplifying his arrogance. 

Five minutes later the heavens had opened up and began pouring down rain, thunder crackling in the distance. You were begging Seungcheol to return to shore while your brother continued to cheer for him, egging him on, intent on getting his boat back. 

So when Seungcheol said that special little phrase, you knew it was best to just kick back and try to relax. But with the winter wind sharp and smacking against your skin, you found it hard. 

“Cheol we have a perfectly good stove inside the cabin,” you begged, shivering. “We rented the damn place for this very reason! For convenience!” 

“Mingyu said it wasn’t hard.” Seungcheol returned, resting the ladle on the side of the pot. “Do you think the fire isn’t hot enough?”

You sighed, flinging yourself back in your chair. Mingyu. Of course it was Kim Mingyu who gave him this idea. Removing your hands from between your thighs, you shoved them inside your armpits. “Seungcheol. You’re the love of my fucking life and I literally can’t wait to spend the rest of our days together. But I swear to every single fucking god on this earth --”

“You can go inside if you want,” he replied. You watched your boyfriend go to the wood pile, removing a few logs. “But a thousand years ago, this was how all humans made their food, you know? Outside, exposed to the elements.”

You guffawed. “Seungcheol! One thousand years ago it was 1000 A.C. They fucking had houses and inside ovens by then! The cold is fucking getting to your brain, oh my God!”

He sighed, turning to you. Seungcheol placed his hands on his hips, narrowing his brow and pouting out his lips. “If you don’t believe in me just say so.”

“I believe in you,” you said, “but not when it’s fucking thirty degrees outside, not counting the wind chill! And! And! I’m fucking starving! Cheol, please, baby, darling.”

Pushing out his lips, Seungcheol threw you one last look before turning to the fire. He grabbed the ladle again, leaning over the pot. “Just go inside and have a sandwich and some chips then.”

Fuck. And now he was sulking. 

Sighing, you stood from your seat. Dead leaves and grass crinkled underneath your boots as you made your way to him. You pressed yourself against his back, removing your hands from your armpits and fumbling with the hem of his three layers. 

“Wait --”

But then you found the edge and lifted it, hurriedly shoving your hands underneath and against his stomach. Seungcheol shrieked, a loud and pitchy sound, one of his hands slapping at your forearm. “Get! Get out! Your hands are fucking cold!”

“I said I was cold,” you murmured, mashing your face against his jacket. Your boyfriend constantly radiated warmth, and somehow, despite the winter weather, tonight was no exception. “This is your price.”

“My price for wanting to make my lover a homemade meal?” He returned, shortly and with a great amount of audacity. 

You pinched at the little roll of fat on his stomach, ignoring his little yelp. “Quiet. You don’t want the bears to hear you.”

“There’s not even bears here,” Seungcheol murmured, but quieter all the same. 

You closed your eyes as you leaned against him, soaking in his warmth. Sometimes you found how hot he ran unbearable, like during the night when the two of you were under blankets and he decided to press himself against you. More times than not you woke up covered in sweat, wrapped in his embrace. 

But now?

Now you were burrowing closer, hands moving to get a better grip on your boyfriend. 

“Baby,” he began, voice strained. “Stop moving.”

Impish, you kept on running your hands over your boyfriend’s skin. You felt his hips, his stomach. You continued exploring his skin beneath the many layers he wore, ignoring his pleas. 

“If you’re getting horny,” you said, one hand moving to where his pants began, “we can solve that. We’re in the middle of the forest, baby. With no one around.” “Y/n, I’m serious,” he said, dropping the ladle in the soup. Your hands froze against him, Seungcheol turning in your hold. “I know you have a problem listening, but --”

When his eyes met yours, he knew it was up. 

Your eyes were wide, mouth hanging open. If it wasn’t so cold and the flies weren’t all hibernating, you’d be swallowing them. 

“Baby?” He tried, voice pitched and on the verge of panic. 

“You --” You pressed closer again, and this time Seungcheol didn’t stop you. You shoved your hand into his pocket, immediately coming upon what had stopped you in your tracks. 

Withdrawing it from his pocket, you cradled the box in your hands. “Cheol?”

Sighing, as if his lover had just discovered a ring box in his pockets when he had intended on setting up a romantic scene to propose to them in, Seungcheol tilted his head back and peered up at the night sky. 

For the moment the two of you were quiet. You could hear the wind whistling, the crackle of the fire. 

“Well?” Seungcheol finally said, his hand in his hair and dislodging his hoodie as he looked down at you. “Aren’t you going to open it?”

Gulping, and with half-frozen fingers, you pried open the box. A beautiful ring stared back at you, silver and brilliant, perfect, beautiful. You could barely see what the ring truly looked like, could barely see all the details Seungcheol would’ve been hellbent on including, but you knew it was gorgeous. You knew it. It was a promise from Choi Seungcheol; a promise for forever. A promise to love and care and be there for you for the rest of your lives, and how could it be anything but perfect and gorgeous?

Then Seungcheol was gently pulling the box away from you. You watched, still awe-struck, as your boyfriend sunk down to one knee. 

The firelight illuminated his profile, casting shadows on his noble face. His grey hoodie was lopsided on his head, revealing his thick dark curls. His nose was red from where the cold had bitten at it, and his lips were horribly chapped. 

But what could be more beautiful than that?

Softly, and with gentle eyes and shyly grinning lips, Seungcheol said your name. Nothing could sound as beautiful as that, you knew. 

“Would you do me the absolute honor; would you give me the privilege of being able to marry you?”

You licked at your lips, feeling something sting at the corner of your eyes. Maybe it was just the wind. You sniffled, your palm reaching up and rubbing at your eye. “If -- If I say yes, will I have to stay out here with you while you make your soup?”

Seungcheol laughed, loudly and boyishly. “If you say yes I’ll order us a fucking pizza and beer and we can spend the rest of the night in the heat.”

“Well, in that case,” you said, grinning wildly. You held out your hand, wiggling your fingers. “Hurry up, lover boy, before I lose one of them to the cold.”

“It’s not too late for me to take it back,” he said, taking the ring from the box. Seungcheol’s other hand went to yours, cradling it, as he brought the ring to your fingertip.

You shook your head, the metal of the ring not yet cold as he slid it against your finger. “Nope! You asked so beautifully, Cheol. No take backs.”

“Damn,” he sighed, peering up at you with those beautiful brown eyes that first captivated you, smiling and holding your hand in his. “And here I was really looking forward to that soup.”

---

Please Love Me! | JJK

Pairing: Frat President Jungkook x Succubus Reader

Genre: Smut, Fluff, Comedy (my humor is broken), Light Angst (because everyone is an dumbass)

Summary: By thirsty popular demand, I present to you a small sequel to Please Teach Me? Your succubus self has been going back and forth to the human realm to be…friends with benefits??? With your first task, Jeon Jungkook. Though you only see it as him, finding the good in his humanity, and helping you with your training, Jungkook suddenly thinks otherwise. Yet, he's in denial.

Until he meets and sees you with Seokjin and thinks you're in a relationship with him??? But is Jungkook willing to break free from his infamous womanizing ways and finally admit his love for you??

Warning: We’re going on another adventure!, Seokjin is the bestest :D, granola x succubus reader, let’s all guess what the fuck is OC feeling rn, BUT GUESS WHO’S IN DENIAL, I wanna say seokjin x OC but let’s not LOL, jealous/possessive jungkook, someone becomes a straight up LOSER, idk what’s going on half of the time. Sir kink is back, dom sadist jk heyyyy, sub masochist oc, the size kink we all know and love, Ass slapping (once with a belt), tail pulling (remember when I said they’re sensitive ;-)), rope bondage, candle wax play fvhidsvsdil, fingering (lowkey fisting), oral (f. receiving), multiple orgasm denials, clit pinching, nipple pinching, dumbification again :D, dirty talk, degradation, again with the tail sucking…but different (oc and jk licking her tail together like a lollipop), cum play, unprotected sex, creamiest of pies, I tried to make it as nasty as the last time

Word Count: 19.3k (yes, small sequel indeed)

A/N: This can be read stand alone but highly recommend reading Please Teach Me? LOL I really wasn't intending a part 2 like I posted this MONTHS ago and dipped but SOOO MANY of y'all wanted sexc demon things so here we goooooo I really pulled this out of my butt and idk if I lived up to the first part's standard . But the smut was longer than expected hreoiheoihg

Also posted on AO3!~~

Flying through the corridors of the dorms, Seokjin’s mind raced faster than he could exclaim how handsome he was—which was a lot. Right now all his thoughts were from what the higher-ups have said…more or less affecting him. But all in all, it had to fucking deal with you.

And now, he needed to have a word with you pronto but has not heard from you for almost…thirty-six hours, which shocked him because he’d typically hear you bitching from a distance.

Once he reached your dorm door, he knocked fire-rapid fists and yelled, “Little one, open this door immediately! I need to share with you some details!” No answer. Then he began kicking in fury, “Fucking bitch, answer! This is important.”

Aggravated and impatient, Seokjin decided to throw in the big guns. With the light use of his highly-acclaimed incubus powers, the demon blasted an energy ball through the wooden entranceway, creating a rather larger-than-regular soot-filled darkened hole. Some of your things even got destroyed in the process, but nonetheless, he opened your door!

He entered fashionably, scanning if there was any sight of a dense yet adorable little succubus. Everything in your living space except your plants and half of your mirror remained intact and still. Bed was neatly made with the mountain of plush toys you’ve accumulated through the months. Books that you never read but were somehow open laid on your study table with your chair pushed out. 

He groaned, rolling his eyes at the discovery. Of course, you weren’t here when he needed you to be here again.

Sometimes, he regretted permitting you to play around with your little first task. 

-

“Hungggghh, sir!” You moaned as you attempted balancing and gripping the cold tiled wall, yet there was nothing to grip on.

Showers of water pricked your heated skin, heaps of steam circulated the closed space, and the echoed sounds of steady and heavy pumps, your whimpering, and his moaning filled the rest of the bathroom.

Jungkook thought it was an excellent idea to shower after practice to get ready for another school event he had to attend, but also have a little bit of fun with you in there. Think of it as killing two birds with one stone.

So now there you both were—you were going into your sixth orgasm while having to tippy toe to level with his fast-pacing industrial hips. You arched your back, pushing your ass at Jungkook so that his dick can go deeper into you. Since you were a lot shorter than he was, the angles were always harder to reach when the two of you stood up.

The slapping of his thighs to your meaty fat progressively grew in volume as he held onto your sensitive tail and the left side of your wing—the way he loved manhandling you. Your moans went a tone higher as you let out sobbing pleas. “Sir, pwease!” Your cramping legs were trembling, slowly losing their strength by the human. “I-I can’t!”

Though the frat president rolled his eyes, he accepted your begging, finding it absolutely endearing. You’ve grown to be accustomed to his wild kinks and likings, but you finally knew when you needed some care to his sadist ways.

He slithered his muscular arms around your soddened waist while keeping his piston thrusts in control. His front pressed onto your wings and back with your little demon tail swinging to the side. He nibbled on an edge of your wings, causing you to moan sharply before he smooched a kiss onto the same area and then maneuvered to the shoulder to peck more snogs.

“My little slut is tired?? We just started.” He smirked at your disheveled face. You didn’t just start, you were in here for almost an hour. His fingers were pruny!

You couldn’t even speak, just blabbering incoherent sounds. One of his hands steered lower to your soaking center, fingers trying to find your inflamed clit. Once you shuttered, he knew he hooked onto it. Making tiny circular motions, you started heaving heavily.

“Kooooooo!” You dragged your new nickname for him, almost like a warning that you were almost there.

His ears twitched pridefully at your calling as he quickened his tempo. His movements became messier, indicating he too was chasing his cloud nine. “Almost there, angel. Cum with me.”

At the immediate order, you snapped, going into ecstasy. Your left eye twitched as you found spots in your vision. Then, Jungkook slammed into you one last time before clenching his stomach. Your squishy cunt walls throbbed around his thickening cock, milking the cum out of him. He coated your insides with white, getting in a few more loads than usual.

Your tail sprayed like a sprinkler, feeling the orgasm wholeheartedly this time. Some of it goes onto Jungkook’s defined abs. But it didn’t really matter because you were in the shower.

Knowing how weak you were after sex, the best he could do right now was lay both of your bodies on your sides on the shower floor. You respired out so hard, he had to move your head to the water splashing your forms so that you can get some hydration. Once you were semi-stabilized, he finally pulled out of you. You winced at the stimulation but he kissed your forehead and murmured praises.

“___, are you okay?” Jungkook asked. Your eyes were closed, with your chest raising slowly.

You hummed softly with a nod before peeling open your eyes. “Why do you have so much stamina even after your practice?”

The human chuckled at your complaint and shrugged, “Maybe I always have energy when I’m with you.”

“Please use at least 25% of that energy into something else, like knitting.” You mumbled as you turned yourself to face him. “Are we done showering?”

“You still need to clean your body, maybe somewhat more since we made lo—I mean have sex.”

“Please clean me?” You always asked so sweetly, with no rush, no hint of irritation, but super whiny.

Yet Jungkook would always say yes to you. “Of course, angel.”

-

You were finally out of the shower. Jungkook carried your exhausted form back to his room. He puts on one of his shirts on you (you had the habit of sucking back your wings inside of you for this reason only) and even moisturizes your skin with a body balm. Once he finished getting you dressed, you situated on his bed like a starfish. He did the same routine on himself but only threw on a pair of boxers.

“Angel, I have something for you!” He bounced towards his backpack and ruffled the insides to retrieve the content.

“What is?” You were fatigued after the intense session. Even with having someone like a bunny-infused bouncy house like Jungkook, you never improved from your feeble power.

He dramatically pulled his “gift” to you and raised it over his head like he was enacting the beginning scene of The Lion King. Enjoying your entertainment, you went along and stared up, rasping at the big reveal.

You sat up and levitated up in joy, flying towards the human with grabby hands. “Granola!!” You cheered like a child.

“And it has honey-coated pecans and almonds.” He said proudly. “I got two packs…” You squealed, suddenly twirling in the air. “But just one for now. You inhale it and get a tummy ache if you get more.” Once you stopped your twirls, he handed you the bag of your favorite human treat. 

You snatched it off of him before hugging it like it was the love of your life. Distracted and mindlessly, you began drifting away to a corner of the room but Jungkook pulled you back down by the hips to sit you with him on top of his covers. He kissed your temple, gripping his hold around you. 

“Thank you, Jungkook! This is wonderful.” You continued to not face him, staring at the granola so you didn’t see the endearing and longing eyes that the human had on you. “I will save it for home.” You threw the treat into the tote bag that was wide open on the side of the bed. Jungkook got for you a while back when you kept carrying your treats and clothes with your arms. He said it was more efficient for you.

The human laid the both of you down as he nuzzled into your neck. You whined at how touchy he was being and didn’t help that it progressed the more you saw him. “Angel, you don’t like my touch? I thought you loved it.” You felt him smirking which caused you to blush red.

“I didn’t say I didn’t like it. But I would like my space.” You pouted as you distanced him away slightly, making him grumble. “You radiate much body heat for a human. It feels like I’m back in the demon realm.”

Jungkook hummed, faulty listening to your speaking only because he felt colder without you fully in his arms. “How is the demon realm? Is it nice there? What’s it like?”

There he went again. After every session or when you’re back on Earth (you learned that’s what the human realm was called), Jungkook seemed to be very interested in learning more about you. Whether it was about you, what you liked, and this time it was about the demon realm. Maybe he was just curious, which you didn’t mind at all, you were a succubus after all and it was the least you could do for him.

For the past months, you’ve been sneaking back and forth to Earth after completing your first task, Jeon Jungkook. Still the frat president of Beta Tau Sigma, still an active partygoer, still what humans call a fuck boy, but now your unofficial task helper. One of the reasons why was that you grew comfortable with him. You technically didn’t need to have a different human all the time when you were completing your training tasks, and Jungkook just so happened to be willing to help you without getting anything back besides your cunt and being.

Typically it was not a big deal as a succubus and other demons travel to the realm, but since you were still in training, it can be quite controversial. When you go on Earth, you always needed supervision in case something happens, especially with a demon like you.

Seokjin would be surveilling you or communicating with you through your minds when you do have tasks while documenting your experience. But when you weren’t completing anything, he doesn’t look over you like a child—though, at times, he begged to differ. So when you’re on Earth without guidance, there was really no telling what would even happen. You could kill someone and your authorities wouldn’t even know. You weren’t fully trained, and you obtained some powers, but overall you were still in need of oversight. Which was now. Seokjin didn’t know you were here.

But you didn’t think you were doing anything terrible. Sure, your exams were borderline passing, you still made your mentor uncomfortable, you were fucking a human behind the higher-ups’ backs and at times, you’d accidentally absorb some of Jungkook’s life force (but you always try to give it back), and you may have begged Seokjin to grant you permission to even do what you were doing, but you weren’t doing anything wrong.

In a way, you were surprisingly progressing! You’ve completed many tasks over the months with Jungkook, got to know more of the human culture, and learned new kinks that you liked with him, maybe even only him.

Though Jungkook was a bit rough around the edges, you swiftly learned that he was indeed a sweet human to you. When he wasn’t fucking your guts out and pulling on your tail like naughty mischief, he liked taking care of you. He washed you up, fed you human foods, gave you piggybacks, kissed you on your forehead, stared at you instead of completing his human studies…what else?? Oh yeah! He always complimented you in your dresses, called you beautiful or ravishing, and even exchanged numbers with the cellular device you kept to talk to or video chat with him when you were away. 

All that was listed made you think about how friendly he was to you! Get this—he was usually quite mean to his friends. You constantly heard from other succubi how humans can be really selfish and vile, but it wasn’t like that with Jungkook! He was so kind to you, except in the bedroom.

Nevertheless, you couldn’t believe how much good he had in him to be willing to help you. You couldn’t be any more grateful, such a wonderful human man!

“Oh! It’s much different to what humans think it is, especially when they like to affiliate Hell with us.” You simply replied as you shifted forward and laid your head on his chest. Jungkook liked that, so you did it. “The simplest answer is to say Hell but we’re far from Hell. There are many realms where many creatures like witches, trolls, and us demons reside!”

The human asked while he gently played with your horns, keeping you calm. “And where would that be for you, little succubus?”

“Naameth.”

“You always fascinate me every single time.” Jungkook blushed, but when he realized what he was doing, he slapped it off of his face. Yet you didn’t even acknowledge or see it.

“I guess so.” You shrugged, getting off his chest as you sat up. “I am a succubus and you’re a human. Many things are different from our kinds.”

“Do you think I could visit Naameth?”

“No, absolutely not.” You deadpanned.

Jungkook suddenly smiled smugly, assuming that there was a bit of poison to your tone indicating you were jealous. “Why, angel? You think my amazing human charm will attract other succubi and that I won’t want you anymore?”

You furrowed your eyebrows. “No, because you will die.” His fucking smirk vanished and his face went pale. “Remember that succubi feed off human men. I even did that to you on accident. I can give your life force back, but that won’t mean others will.”

Suddenly Jungkook’s eyes lit up, “So you care for me? Care if I die.”

You nodded slowly, “Yes. I need you.” For some reason, his heart fluttered at your reply. His lips curled upwards. “I need your help with my tasks.” Okay, it went back down. “I refuse to find another one.”

“O-oh, okay…” Jungkook couldn’t help but feel upset about that. He expected that feeling to be let go all those months ago, but it stayed and he didn’t like that one bit.

“I can take you to the other realms.” You added in, without realizing what you’ve done. “They’re as lovely as Naameth. We can go to the waterfalls, forests, maybe even hiking, I know you love those things. I can let you try other foods besides human food because…” You rambled on and on but Jungkook stopped listening to observe how eccentric you were being and planning trips in the future with him. It caused him to roar in glee on the inside.

While you kept blabbering off, he encircled his veiny arms around you and kissed your cheek, making you shut your mouth. You slowly turned your head, revealing the bunny smile you enjoyed seeing on him. He then proceeded to attack you with kisses to your neck, making you laugh, a sound that brought jubilance to his ears.

But before you could say anything, you both heard a knock followed by an opening of the door. Luckily, you were dressed, unlike in other instances. These men in this fraternity do not know how to wait.

On the other side was Jimin, one of Jungkook’s close friends, grinning at the both of you as he shook his head with his slit eyes. “Again, with your demon role-play? Jungkook didn’t expect you to like it that much.” You forgot that your tail and horns were exposed again. It was a miracle that his friends bought the whole “demon kink” and you weren’t levitating during the disruptions or else you’d be more fucked than you already were.

Shyly, you parted away from Jungkook and pulled your tail to your back. You grabbed a pillow to hold onto, covering yourself a bit. As a succubus, you were naturally comfortable with your body and showing some skin. However, you also didn’t like letting other men see you bare except for Jungkook.

Slightly annoyed, the frat president leered at his shit-grinning friend and asked, “The fuck do you want?”

“I wanted to talk to you about the event tonight. But I see that you’re nowhere near ready and we have to leave in less than an hour.” Jimin reminded him, checking his boxer-covered friend out.

Jungkook cursed under his breath as he palmed his face and rubbed his skin aggressively. The school event mentioned was a dinner with the university’s board of directors, ensuring a good relationship with not only the dean but maintaining excellent and sufficient status for the fraternity.

“Do you wanna talk out of the room or?” Jungkook questioned.

“Right here is fine.” The shorter man shrugged. “Nothing top secret that ___ can’t hear.”

“Alright, I’ll talk to you while I’ll get ready then.” The frat president got off the bed. He opened his closet and then resumed the conversation with Jimin.

Meanwhile, you too had an unexpected chat but it wasn’t all that exciting as your stomach dropped in fear and scared the shit out of you. “Hello, you little motherfucker! Where the fuck have you been?”Your one and only mentor yelled into your mind out of nowhere.

You screamed and flinched from the ambush, flinging the pillow to the wall as a reflex, causing the human men to stop and look at you questionably. You made eye contact back before smiling and giving a thumbs-up that you were okay. Weirded out (well, more so Jimin), they continued their talk again.

“Seokjin, Seokjin.” You whispered so that the humans wouldn’t hear you. But it was so quiet that Seokjin found it slightly inaudible.

“Why are you whispering? This isn’t a time to whisper, little one!” Seokjin complained. “Are you in the fucking human realm again?” You couldn’t get in a word as he continued his rant. “Of course, you fucking are. That’s where you go if you’re not here. Look, now is not the time to bitch what I say. But you must come back here this instant.”

“Why?” You asked softly and he finally heard you.

“I have important news. In short, you’re kinda fucked.”

“Wait, what? Are you serious right now?” You unknowingly shouted, jumping out of bed as you paced around the room. “What do you mean I’m kinda fucked? What did I even do?!?!”

As you were distressed, Jimin raised an eyebrow while observing you. “Yah, is she okay? Why is she talking to herself?”

Though Jungkook knew what you were doing as you had to tell him when he first saw what Jimin was seeing now, he didn’t know how to explain the situation well. “Uhh, she’s praying?”

“Praying?” The shorter man questioned incredulously. “Doesn’t seem like praying…”

“It is…she does it randomly from time to time. It’s part of her faith.” Jungkook responded the best he can. “Just don’t worry about it. If you interrupt her, it won’t be good.”

Cue back to your freak out. “I say kinda fucked because there is a bit of good news. It may even be a relief for you.” Seokjin clarified.

“You could have fucking said that instead of telling me I’m fucked, Seokjin!”

“Seokjin?” Jimin faced back to you again. “What religion has a Seokjin?”

Okay, that was a name that the frat president heard but never understood but he couldn’t think further into it just yet. “Uhhh, Jinnism. It’s common from where she’s from.” His friend was about to protest but Jungkook beat him to it. “Dude, just fucking ignore her right now. Talk to me about what you wanted me to hear in the first place.”

“Yeah, sure. Whatever.” You can sense Seokjin shrug casually and unbothered by your reply. “Either way, you must come back to Naameth immediately.”

You sighed, “Give me ten minutes.”

“No, you can’t tell me what to do. I’m supposed to tell you what to do.”

“Seokjin, give me fucking ten minutes. I’ll get there, I promise!” Again, Jimin eyed you and your “prayer” but decided to let it go.

“Fine. Do what you have to do before coming. I’ll be seeing you soon.” Seokjin huffed, giving in. “By the way, I made a giant hole in your room door.”

“You fucking dick! AGAIN? I have to get that repaired!!” You complained, but he was already gone and out of your mind. You rolled your eyes before plotting back on the mattress. You kicked your feet up in fury and whined into the duvet. You rolled like a fish on the sheets to exert more of your frustration. 

Jimin couldn’t help but scrutinize you once again for the last time. “Dang, that’s your type, man.” He mumbled more to himself, but Jungkook who was already dressed heard his commentary.

“Fuck off and get out of my room!” Before Jimin could see him in a blushing frenzy, the frat president pushed his friend out without warning. Though the shorter man protested, a slamming of the door sealed the demand.

The frat president exhaled while fixing his tie, loosening it for now. “___! What’s wrong, baby?” Oh my goodness, why the fuck did he say that? He didn’t catch himself before saying it. Fuck, he hoped you didn’t notice.

Though he hoped you did.

But like always, you don’t seem to bother acknowledging it. “I have to go back to my realm now.” You rolled to see him.

Damn, he wore black and grey checkered dress pants with a black dress shirt tucked into them, exposing his petite waist. Buttons on his shirt were unbuttoned. His sleeves were rolled up to his elbow; his forearms were revealed with parts of his tattoos shown on the right of him. The thin fabric practically adhered to his skin as his muscles protruded out. All he needed to do was style his hair, but it didn’t matter either way because he looked so fucking hot you needed to cleanse your mind…and you were a sex demon.

“I think I’m in trouble.” You frowned.

“In trouble? Oh, fuck. Are you okay?” With enlarged irises, panic ran through Jungkook. “Holy shit! Will I be okay? Am I gonna die?”

“No, no, Koo. You won’t die.” You always tried to comfort him because he has had near-death experiences caused by you. That gave him a bit of relief. “I won’t let anything happen to you. If you die, it would be by the hands of me.” Never mind, his stomach churned and he felt like throwing up. “But I won’t kill you! I told you I would never!” You tried to save what little reassurance he had from you.

He exhaled, trying his best to stay positive and lighten the mood. “So you need to go back now?” You nodded. “Do you know why you’re in trouble?”

You shook your head, “No, Seokjin said I’m kinda fucked but he said there might be good in it.”

Again with that name.

The entire time Jungkook has been…friends with benefits??…with you, you’ve always mentioned someone or something called Seokjin. He assumed it was someone since you’ve always been talking to him through your mind, but he didn’t necessarily know who it exactly was.

It was constantly “Oh, Jungkook, I have to go. Seokjin is waiting for me,” or “Hold on, Seokjin wants to talk to me.” Even when you were fucking the human, you would be like “Seo-k-jin! Pl-please n-not right no—ahhhhh!”

The point he was getting at was he didn’t know who the fuck Seokjin was, and it made him annoyed. But he refused to ask about it because he thought you’d probably think he was jealous, which he clearly wasn’t. He was just fucking curious about who the fuck this Seokjin was and how important this Seokjin was for you to drop everything to go to Seokjin and not be with him?

He couldn’t resist it this time.

“Who’s Seokjin?” He began.

“Huh?” You gaped at him confusingly. You noticed how he bit his lip and met your contact with a much more intense stare.

“Who’s Seokjin? You’ve been mentioning and saying that name all the time.”

“Hmmm.”

That’s it? That was what all you had to say about Seokjin?!?!??!

“Oh, Seokjin. Yeah, don’t worry about him.” Him??? “Just another sex demon, he’s an incubus.”

First of all, Jungkook felt his chest twist when he heard it was a dude! Second, he was a fucking demon!! Of course, he would be. What else would he be? A gremlin? But the human betted this demon was ugly and revolting. Lastly, why did it sound like you were hiding something? Were you trying to change the subject to avoid it? What was going on?

Jungkook got pulled out of his mind when you changed into your clothes. “Anyways, I truly have to go which makes me sad because I was hoping to stay with you tonight.” You slipped out of his shirt and pulled over the purple sundress Jungkook bought for you.

His lips quirked up as he slowly walked to you. He patted your head before caressing your cheek. You were so short that you had to stretch your neck up. You reached the top of his chest and it made his heart melt. You made an innocent smile and he wanted to die in moe.

“Unfortunately, I also had plans tonight,” Jungkook spoke out, feeling rather bummed.

“That would have been okay! I would have waited for you in your room!” Now, why would you say that? He was going weak in the knees as is, you made it worse.

“Though that would be fun and kind of you, maybe going back would be good.”

“I promise if I don’t get punished, I’ll come back to see you soon. Okay, Koo?” Your Bambi eyes sparkled, swearing to your statement. You truly did want to stay, but you had duties…or shit that you had to deal with.

Jungkook had so much adoration when you promise things like that. As cute as you were, you kept your promises no matter what and that was one of the purest things about you.

“Of course, angel.” He pulled you into his chest, embracing you once more before you depart.

-

Jungkook walked down and outside with you as a courtesy and he wanted to spend a couple of more minutes with you.

Though you could teleport to your realm, he realized how suspicious his friends would be if you left without them seeing you leave. Most of the frat members liked to lounge around the kitchen and living room. Being in a household filled with testosterone, all the men could sense a woman or any feminine body in and out of the house like a built-in radar detector in their brains.

While you walked down with Jungkook, you had a habit of intertwining your fingers with his. You didn’t think much of it as you grinned casually towards the front door, but the frat president flushed like an idiot and cheesing a little too hard. Playful winks were on the two of you. His frat brothers noticed it, especially when their frat president was with you.

The human opened the door. You stepped out and he followed behind before closing it, giving a some privacy. He observed the area, perceiving that the coast was clear for you. You were ready to go, waiting for Jungkook to give you the go. But the human disliked seeing you off again. It was common for him to do this. You came often, but not as often as how he wanted. You’d come back a day or two later, but sometimes, it would be more than a week. If it was his choice, he never wanted you to leave.

You thought about how winsome he was every time you left. Your task looked so funny and lovesick that it felt so real. You then held his cheeks, pushing them together to puff them up.“Stop being sad, Jungkook.”

“I’m not sad!” He mumbled, leaning into your touch. “It’s just…”

“Do you want me to video call you when I’m done with Seokjin?”

The fuck you mean when you’re done with Seokjin? “Yes.” He said with no hesitation. “Text me when you get home too.’ You grinned, nodding like the adorable demon you were, and let go of his face. He sighed at the sight of you.

Jungkook bent down, closed his eyes, and puckered his lips. He hoped to feel yours on the other side, but the more he leaned in, the more breeze he got. He almost fell forward and ate shit. He peeled back his eyes to not see you in front of him anymore.

His head pivoted to the side, finding you skipping down the walkway. You looked back at him before saying, “Bye, Koo!” You fluttered your fingers at him, then you disappeared into thin air. You basically Houdini’d.

Despite that, Jungkook’s smile grew as he replayed the very memory of you saying goodbye. He loved when you said that nickname. He groaned in amazement and couldn’t wait to see you again.

With his rabbit teeth still on display, he went back inside. When he closed the door, he rested his back on the wooden surface. His eyelids closed shut as he tried stabilizing his heart rate. It was going faster than the last time. 

"Dude, you're fucking whipped."

He snapped his eyes open, finding all his frat brothers half-circling him with Cheshire Cat-like smiles. "Pfft, no I'm not." Jungkook pushed himself off and stood tall on his feet, attempting to be all cool and casual. “Just another fuck…”

“Just another fuck, yeah? What is this, the three hundredth time with her alone?” Hoseok retorted, rolling his eyes.

“Seeing you all bright and dandy like the Teletubbies seeing the fucking sun!” Yoongi mentioned. "She's practically curing you, a fucking angel if you ask me."

"So you think she’s an angel…" Jungkook side-eyed his friend.

“We refuse to hear your rancid details.” Namjoon gagged before making a sour expression.

“Well, I’m never telling you.” The frat president informed. “Not like I wanna tell you anything between me and her.”

“Oooo, keeping secrets instead of stories??? What’s going on? What happened to the Jungkook we knew and put up with?” Hoseok laughed, calling his hands to emphasize his statement.

“Fuck off, Hobi Hyung!” Jungkook couldn’t defend himself on that because what happened between the two of you was really between each other, especially with your succubus status.

"JK, this has been going on for months.” Jimin pointed out, trying to be a little mindful compared to the others. Though Jungkook was the frat president, he was the youngest amongst them which meant they can fuck around and get away with it from time to time. “You're never with the same chick unless…Oh my God, are you in love with her?"

“Jungkook in love? Has the world revolved counterclockwise?” Namjoon teased, raising his fingers to his opened mouth like he was in shock.

"Can't blame him. She's so pretty and kind." Yoongi reflected, thinking back to a memory of you back at the party where you practically met everyone. “A bit of an airhead though and has so much shame.”

Yes, all of us were being reminded of how much of a fuck boy frat president of Sigma Tau Beta, Jeon Jungkook, was. He had a different person at every party, every gathering, every lunch, every day, every hour, it shocked them how he didn’t catch anything. But finally, he did.

He caught feelings for you.

"She eats our granola though. How am I supposed to eat my yogurt?" Hoseok complained.

“Shut up you idiots, I'm not in love," Jungkook stated, shaking his head in denial. “She just wants my dick and she has such a great p…beautiful personality.”

YeAh, hE’S deFINitelY noT iN lOvE.

“You brought her to your family’s house during your birthday dinner!” Jimin countered.

“She was visiting that time! Remember she doesn’t go to school here anymore.” Jungkook reasoned, trying to cover the lies. You both had to create lies about you not being in classes with him and Jimin. “I didn’t want to leave her here!” 

“You could have left her here with us.” Hoseok alluded, a smirk morphing on his face.

“Absolutely fucking not.”

You, a clueless succubus, in a house alone with other men that weren’t Jungkook? Nope!

To be honest, he may have had to because though it may not be intentional, he guessed that due to your succubus aura, you kinda charmed his father a bit.

Of course, his mother was there to smack the sense back to him.

“You cuddle with her and fall asleep on the couch, and when you wake up, you carry her to your room!”

“I see you smiling at your phone and I look over to see you texting her. She barely even responds besides an “ok,” or “sure.” She doesn’t even get your memes sometimes.”

"You also take her out almost every weekend and if we have a party, you're either alone or with her. You don't even try anymore."

"What's your point?" Jungkook muttered, his attention roaming elsewhere but his friends. He even kicked his feet in frustration to ease off his embarrassment. 

"JEON. JUNGKOOK. YOU. ARE. WHIPPED. FOR. ___!" The older group of friends shouted in unison.

“No, I’m not! How many times do I have to fucking tell you that I don’t have any feelings for ___?” The rosy-coated cheeked frat president was persistent, he refused to believe such accusations. “If I did, which I’m not, she doesn’t even like me!”

“Huh, well, we’re unsure about that too,” Hoseok told them. “We don’t see any part of her liking you.”

“She did make him a gourmet meal when he passed an exam!” Yoongi notified, snapping his fingers.

“She does praise you even the smallest shit.” Namjoon scoffed. “But you shouldn’t compliment the bare minimum in my opinion.”

“She even is willing to role-play JK’s demon kink!” Jimin boasted, adding to Jungkook’s humiliation.

“Okay! All of you, for fuck’s sake, let this go. Nothing is going on with us. I don’t love her and…she doesn’t love me.” In that last part, the frat president said it to convince not only them but himself. “We’re only fuck buddies, that’s it.”

“Oh, sure, and if Hoseok and I make out, we’re just bros, right?” Namjoon snorted jokingly. “There’s always one person that catches feelings.”

“And it’s you, bud.” Yoongi patted his youngest friend’s back in empathy. “And you’re downright bad.”

“Yeah, you may be feral for her, but that doesn’t mean she like that back.” Hoseok brutally mentioned, which earned a few glares around.

“Hobi Hyung! Don’t say that. We don’t know what she thinks.” Jimin lightly pushed his friend as his scolding. “But Jungkook, he is lowkey right. I mean didn’t you play with others’ emotions before?”

“Yes, but not for months!”

“So? Girls are much more cunning than we are. She’s probably waiting until she destroys you.” Namjoon shrugged.

His friends were not helping at all. They were throwing shade about how much of a player he was too. In fact, they were making him question his relationship with you, which was good…in a way? 

“I’m not sure if you’re trying to support me or insult me. But either way, you bitches suck ass right now!” Jungkook exclaimed.

“We just don’t want you to get your hopes up if she doesn’t like you. Unlike you, she’s not obvious with her emotions besides confused and whining.” Jimin voiced out. “We've never seen you like this. It’s wild and scary.”

Jungkook rolled his eyes, getting immediately tired of this conversation. “Look, Hyungs. I’m not obvious nor do I have feelings, and that is my final answer. You’re all being insane and stalkerish, like observing me and her? Do you even have lives beyond this story?”

“Probably, not,” Jimin answered. “We’re only saying.”

“Well, stop.” Then Jungkook finally ended the discussion as he stomped away from them and back to his room.

When he slammed his door shut, he felt the heat intensify in him. He rubbed his face with his palms as he treaded around his bedroom, thinking about what his friends said. Him being in love with you?? Thinking about that…it would take a deranged enchantress to make him head over heels, with googly eyes, and on his knees to be in love.

Well, for starters, you weren’t deranged…he assumed. As for an enchantress, you certainly weren’t that. You were a demon, a sex demon, a succubus that uses human men to gain power. As a matter of fact, Jungkook was expected to fear you the moment he saw you. But that didn’t happen, considering he threw you around like a cum cloth the first meet.

Yet as time went on, nothing bad overall—highlighting because you would accidentally drain Jungkook’s life and burned him sometimes—happened. If anything, a budding bond flourished between the two of you. How was it that a teeny succubus like yourself was able to get him through your cute smile? Your compassionate presence? Your everlasting patience? Your baffling innocence? Your exasperating oblivion? Fuck, this was bad.

He wasn’t in love, he couldn’t, he can’t. It wasn’t right, it was against all his values and beliefs.

Yeah, right. When did his values and beliefs incorporate a demon into the picture?

Despite getting to sleep with you, any other thing with you was deemed pointless in his upsetting reality. You weren’t as cuddly as him, you didn’t initiate kisses, and you answered his questions objectively. All were similar to what he does to women from his fuck boy mindset.

Yet he hasn’t been with any other apart from you when you came back into his life after the initial time. That’s what’s frightening about all of this. He was willing to drop everything to be with you. He chose not to be with other women. Instead, he thought about what places to bring you like the carnival, wrestling, sky diving, or any rigorous physical activity he could think of to make you fit. He hated it but wanted more.

You know what? Fuck you. Perhaps he should be done with you and your ways. He should tell you that he refused to help you any longer because you’re fucking up his lifestyle, the person he was before and quite enjoyed. He had no regrets prior, and now he was contemplating all his pondering decisions apart from his choice with you.

So basically fuck you and your bomb-ass cunt.

A buzz rang through his room. His phone vibrated on top of his bedside table. He went up to grab his device before unlocking it. It was a simple message from you.

My pretty Angel 😇😩😍🥰: home!

Human Jungkook: Please safe and good luck angel! Text me when you’re done

Human Jungkook: Actually video call me I wanna see your face :-(

Five minutes later…

My pretty Angel 😇😩😍🥰: ok

Jungkook didn’t realize how much he was beaming like a damn idiot. Heart thumping at your two short ass replies. He sat on his gaming chair and giggled like a schoolgirl, swinging his legs up. Oh, how he wished he look at you again. Pulling his phone to his sternum, he yearned for you and hoped you were alright.

Yup, definitely not whipped.

-

“Listen here, you little shit! You can’t keep disappearing on me like that!” Seokjin scolded you as he floated around the office as you sat on his desk with your head hung down. “I already permitted you and hid it away from the higher-ups. The least you can do is notify me before you’re going to your dick appointment!”

“I-I’m sorry. I took advantage of your consent, I should have told you I was on Earth.” You nodded, taking in his yelling.

“Yeah, well. For that, the higher-ups found out and now they wanna expel you!”

“What?!” Your head snapped up with your bottom lips pushed out. How was that even possible? You were a succubus, all succubus had to go through this training no matter what. It was part of your life! Was there even such thing as expulsion within your training? Was there anyone else who got expelled? Were you the first dumbass to get kicked out? “Really, Seokjin? Awww, noooo.” You shivered in panic and you started crying. Tears falling down your reddened puffy cheeks and weeping gradually escalated. You’ll be nothing anymore, you weren’t worthy enough to call yourself a succubus.

“Nah, I’m just fucking with you.”

His fucking windshield wiper laugh belted over your softened cries, echoing off his office walls. “You should have seen your face. It looked like I stole a part of you and annihilated it!” He slapped his knee because it was that funny he pranked you like that. But an immediate glare from your blinking ruby-infused irises drilled through your mentor’s delight, causing him to stop himself promptly. His spine aligned upwards and he cleared his throat, apologizing feebly.

“It’s nice to fucking know that my own mentor wants to see me crash and burn!” You hissed, crossing your arms over your chest. You levitated up and rushed to him with your scarlet vision and newly developed fangs that grew last month. Seokjin winced in fright, trying to hide behind his lamp. “That was so fucking mean! You know how much I wanna complete this training!”

“Put those fangs away!” Seokjin shrieked. He wished he developed to be a little bit more mindful. You weren’t as weak anymore compared to when you first started, having obtained powers and other features. You were pretty fucking weak in contrast to him anyways, but it still freaked him out.

You moved backward, morphing your teeth and pupils back to their normal size. Your burgundy wings fluttered behind you while your tail slithered like a serpent. Your mentor got out of his hiding place and adjusted himself before continuing his thoughts. “Okay, consider that as punishment for not telling me where you were.”

“Whatever,” You rolled your eyes but there was still sadness in them. “Am I really expelled though?”

“No, you aren’t,” Seokjin reported honestly, relieving you. “But the higher-ups did find out.”

“How?”

“For the record, I didn’t know. But when I would turn in your completed tasks, they noticed a pattern and got suspicious of how you were able to complete so many with ease.” He explained. “Makes sense, considering you’ve been in this training for years and this is a year-and-a-half preparation.” You shrugged as you understood that part. “They didn’t tell me specifically, because they knew I’d tell you, but I think they hired someone to follow you back on Earth. They saw you with your human.” You gasped. “They brought me in today to inform me about it.”

“What did you say?”

“I naturally said that this was all your fault and that you should take all the blame because that’s what you wanted in the first place.”

So much for him protecting you…

“So am I in trouble?” You were perplexed, creasing your eyebrows.

“This is where the good news comes in. You’re actually not.” He reassured, releasing all the stress that has been built up today. “They weren’t mad because you’ve made tremendous progress in the past months as opposed to starting years. To be honest, all they want is for you to fucking pass and if it involves indirectly cheating or using a human for assistance, they’ll turn a blind eye to your case.”

This was good, you didn’t need to worry about keeping secrets and sneaking around. You could go into the human realm without thinking you’d get caught. A weight has been lifted off your shoulders.

“However, they wanted safety precautions, knowing that you are a walking hazard,” Seokjin informed, grabbing your file from his desk drawers. “Seeing that you have a human task helper, they thought it was a great idea that I meet Jungkook.”

“Why do you need to meet him?” You asked, not seeing the purpose of it all. You weren’t killing the human!

“Well, while I instruct, give you advice, and keep a record of your training, it’s only fair I meet the person that’s helping you.” Your mentor clarified. “We’ll be able to collaborate and work together with what’s best for you. You know improve your skills, maintain and enhance your strengths, analyzing in-field observations.”

“Like a damn parent-teacher conference?” You questioned, showing a face of “are you serious right now?”

“Correct, little one.” Seokjin grinned, blooping the tip of your nose. “Plus, I also wanna get to know who Jungkook is besides that task folder. Like how the fuck he was able to get you in a chokehold for him? I can’t even put a leash on you!”

“But who’s who?” You wondered aloud, thoughts going in another direction and ignoring Seokjin. “Would Jungkook be the pare—”

"I'm gonna stop you right there because that's wrong on so many different levels." He interrupted you, trying to steer it back to the main topic. “In conclusion, I must see him. It's only fair if he's helping you and I'm your mentor. After that, higher-ups would want a full report on how capable this human is. They think he’s a wizard since he can even deal with you as is.“

-

Seokjin meeting Jungkook was somewhat concerning. Though your mentor was present at that frat party where you met your task, Seokjin didn’t officially meet him. All your mentor knew was through the paperwork he had for you and that was it.

If you learned anything about Seokjin, it was that he was a fucking menace to you. Though you had a tendency to fuck things up yourself, at times he liked making things worse. He said that it was to challenge you but it was a load of bullshit. Always making damn excuses.

Still, you never saw Seokjin interacting with human men and that idea terrified you. What if he exposed your secrets? Like when you had to practice oral with a cucumber to impress Jungkook! You didn’t want him to know. 

What if he was mean to Jungkook and scare him away? You couldn’t have that; you didn’t want to stop seeing Jungkook. You liked being with the human. His presence made you feel comforted. He always cheered you up when you felt like you weren’t a good enough succubus. He made you feel safe even when being a sadist in the bedroom. You didn’t want anyone else but him!

Like who was also gonna help you with your task??!! You didn’t wanna go through that process again.

But it had to happen whether you liked it or not. If Seokjin meeting Jungkook was the only way for you to get away with in succeeding your training as well as obtaining permission from the higher-ups, then so be it.

Currently, you were video chatting with Jungkook as promised. He kept yapping his mouth about what happened during the school event while you rested on your bed listening in and out. “Overall, it was sooo fucking boring and they expected us to dance on the dance floor.” Jungkook scoffed as he loosened and undid the tie around his neck. “Like how can I shake my ass to Party Rock Anthem? Like at least Gasolina!”

“What are those words?” You rolled over to the other side of your bed.

Jungkook opened his mouth but quickly closed it, “I’ll tell you later. Als—” He stopped for a second, observing your fallen expression. “___, what’s on your mind?”

“Numerous things and one of them has to deal with you.”

The human smirked cheekily, thinking something else about what you said. “Baby, be more clear. I wanna hear the words out that pretty mouth of yours.”

“The higher-ups of my succubus training, aka the succubi and incubi council, found out about you.” You notified. “They saw that I’ve been sneaking to Earth when I’m not supposed to.”

Jungkook felt like he was about to throw up. “T-t-they found out about me? Oh my God, AM I GONNA DIE?”

“No, Koo, you’re not gonna die!” You had to tell him again. “I need your help…”

“What do you mean? Aren’t I helping you already?”

“It’s another thing. I’m sorry I keep asking you for all of this. You must think I take too much from you.” You gloomed, letting out a few of your inner thoughts. You didn’t want Jungkook to think that you were taking advantage of him. You constantly tried to make it up for him somehow.

“Angel, I wouldn’t have helped you if I thought you were taking advantage of me. I know my limits.” He assured but lied because there were no limits when it was with you. “Now what were you going to ask me?”

You paused, breathing in and out before saying, “Seokjin wants to meet with you.”

“Uhh, excuse me. What the actual fuck? Why?”

It wasn’t because he didn’t want to meet Seokjin…wait, that was exactly the reason why. Why would he meet this mystery demon that is very close to you?

“The higher-ups thought it was a good idea for him to meet you since you’re helping me with my tasks.” You clarified further. “If anything, they seem to like you because you helped me progress in my studies!”

“…but why him?” His tone sounded flat but on the inside, he was burning.

“Because he talks to the higher-ups and I guess he knows me better than any other demon.” Your vague answer felt like a shot to his chest. He didn’t even care how you said it, he cared about the words. So this Seokjin demon knew you better than any other demon, huh?

Well, does Seokjin know how you sneezed like a kitten? Does Seokjin know your tail waves happily when you get granola? Does Seokjin know how much joy was in your laugh when you see something funny? Does Seokjin know that you liked to cuddle with something when you’re sleeping? And when you slept over, you’d have your arms wrapped around his torso like a koala?

Seokjin may not know everything about you.

“Please meet him? I promise it’ll be okay. He won’t lay a finger on you. If he does, I’ll try my best to rip him off of you.” You pleaded with your shimmering eyes that you didn’t know was one of his ultimate weaknesses. “Of course, he is one of the most powerful demons in our realm…”

As always, you asked so preciously. He couldn’t say no to that face of yours. It may be the hidden power you had over him or maybe not. Yet Jungkook wasn’t going to sway his decision.

“When do you want us to meet, angel?” He gave in to your request.

You squealed, bouncing off of the bed as you held your phone. “Really? You’ll do it?” He nodded in confirmation before you got elated. He’d do anything to see that stunning pearly whites. “I must tell him now! We’ll have everything set up and I’ll tell you the details, okay Koo?”

“Of course, angel. I’m only a call and text away.” He chuckled, gazing into his device.

You checked the time and calculated how late it was for both of you. “It’s already late, and you have class early tomorrow. You should hang up and sleep.”

Jungkook hummed in response, “I’ll start getting ready for bed soon…but you should hang up first.”

You tilted your head in wonder. “Why? Shouldn’t you hang up first?”

“No, you hang u—”

“‘Kay! Good night!” He didn’t even give you a response as you hung up so hastily. You tossed your phone onto the mattress. You rushed out your door—that was fixed and paid off by Seokjin—and went to your mentor to announce the news.

Meanwhile, Jungkook stared blankly at his darkened phone screen for a good minute after you ended the call. He tightened his grip on his smartphone as he bit his lip in an aggravating manner. He took deep breaths, soothing himself. He needed to relax on this whole thing. 

He doesn’t love you. You don’t love him.

That’s that.

But why does he feel so sad about it?

-

“Why are you in a suit?”

Okay, quick little update—It has been a week later and you and Seokjin decided to have Jungkook meet the two of you at the house that Seokjin stole—you honestly don’t know but you have it again—since it wasn’t safe for the human to come to the demon realm.

You haven’t seen Jungkook since because you prepared for the conference. You planned the dinner, begged Seokjin what certain topics of discussion were off-limits, took a midterm that you probably failed, and overall mentally prepared for your mentor and human to meet.

Though you prepped, with Seokjin, there was no telling what was happening. He was being vague with what he had intended and usually shoved a fucking hundred-page intake form in your face. You were nervous, flying around the living room and keeping your hands busy with cooking just hours prior.

Now it was happening and you opened the front entrance right after Jungkook texted you that he was here and afraid. Mainly because the house appeared otherworldly and resembled a murder scene.

When you opened the door, you raised your brows in bewilderment, seeing the human clean cut, looking too professional compared to your pastel green baby doll dress under the strawberry printed apron you had over and bunny house slippers. 

Jungkook wore an all-grey suit with black Chelsea boots. The attire included a matching fabric belt that wrapped around his waist, accentuating his proportions. Underneath, he wore an ebony button-down shirt and the same colored tie. But the best part of it all was that his hair was gelled and pushed back, revealing his supple sexy forehead and bold brows with his lip and ear piercings on display. Lastly, in his hands, he had a bouquet of purple roses.

This was a prime example of how he can get you naked with the faintest look to you.

It wasn’t that you hated him dressed like that. You pondered why he was so formal for a dinner inside an abandoned building.

“Wanted to dress to impress.” More like dress to feel better than that fucking Seokjin guy because I am better.

“You do realize it’s only us three. I’m boringly dressed like this.” You presented your dress even twirled around. Your succubus form was mellow and revealed. You didn’t like hiding your wings and tail because it can get cramped for you. You felt at peace when you didn’t need to hide when you were around Jungkook.

Your hair was pushed back by a green headband, making you extra lovely in his eyes. Though obvious with the seductive succubus stereotype, it fascinated the human how…contradicting you were. Most of the time you didn’t know what you were doing especially with other human men, there were times when you made the room feel disturbingly awkward, you were shit at flirting, and every flirt directed to you was in and out of your ears.

Regardless, that was what made you you and Jungkook loved everything about it. You had your own charm and approach to things. When others expected you to do one thing, you do it in another way. You kept your kindness high and on lock. Sometimes thinking of others before you.

An advantage that Seokjin may have used in the past…for education reasons of course.

“And you look so pretty, ___.” Jungkook complimented you in awe of your beauty. He hasn’t seen you for over a week and finally seeing you in person instead of on his phone screen, he wished to never part with you anymore.

“Aww, thanks, Koo.” You cooed and felt a little heat creeping on your cheeks. “I guess you don’t look bad yourself. Very handsome.”

“So you think I’m handsome?”

You giggled loudly and awkwardly. That was…concerning to him. “Yeah…” You almost sounded bored and he regretted bringing it up. You paused for a bit until you finally brought up the flowers he brought. “You brought flowers?”

“Oh, yeah. I got them since tonight felt pretty important.” He replied, handing them to you. You examined the pretty petals and blooming of the roses before sniffing the aroma. “They’re actually for y—”

“They’re so pretty, Jungkook! Seokjin’s gonna love them!” You interrupted him as you went towards the kitchen to find an empty vase for them, leaving the human standing like the emoji. He watched your form disappear to another room before you shouted for him to follow.

Once he reached you, you planted the flowers on the granite counter while you searched through the cabinets for the flower holder. As you did so, Jungkook brought up a question. “So…where is Seokjin?”

You finally found a vase when he asked. “He had to do something in Naameth before this. He should be arriving any minute.” You said as you filled it up with water.

“Huh? Late to the meeting? Doesn’t seem like a reliable person…” Jungkook tried to be discreet but he really wasn’t.

“You’re both late. Almost an hour and a half.” You pointed out without thought as you positioned the purple roses inside the jug and decorated them at the center of the kitchen table. “At least he told me beforehand.”

You weren’t scolding the human, though you were blunt and stated facts. It caused Jungkook to feel ashamed because he was indeed late, but didn’t bother to speak up about it. “Sorry, I got nervous so I had to use the bathroom a couple of times before coming here.”

“Oh, Jungkook!” You chuckled at his shy state, turning back to him. You’ve never seen him like this before. “There’s no reason to be nervous. I think Seokjin will like you.”

Why were you making everything about Seokjin? That wasn’t why he was nervous. “No, it’s not that.” He denied, holding the edge of the kitchen surface.

“Then what is it?” You came forth, grabbing and holding his hand with your two smaller ones. You looked concerned, almost like you wanted to take action to make his worries away.

He still was in denial.

Jungkook could only open his mouth when the two of you heard a loud bang erupt, making you both flinch and search for the noise. It came from the front, so you scurried together and passed the living room to find the cause.

In all his fucking glory and shining ego, your one and only mentor arrived like a celebrity on the red carpet. The Seokjin wore a white double-breasted blazer with a dress shirt that matched underneath. The shoulder pads of the jacket made his wide-set shoulders even more like the hypotenuse of a Pythagorean theorem. The right side of it draped down reaching his thigh, giving an asymmetrical look. Instead of going monochrome, the incubus opted for black pants and boots.

Seokjin’s hair was also pushed back, but there was a ridiculously enormous ivory fedora sitting at the top of his head. What made it even worse was a gold feather attached to it. Though it sounded outrageous, the demon somehow made it work.

Seokjin’s eyes strolled around the house until they landed on your puzzled ones. A smile beamed on his face then he spreads his arms wide open before strutting up to your stature. “My darling love!!”

Once he got to you, he pulled your body into his chest and spun you around. After that, he puts you down and kissed the top of your head, leaving you flabbergasted and Jungkook’s jaw clenched. What the fuck Seokjin?

“Uhh, Seokjin, what are you doing?” You questioned, not understanding what was going on. You stepped away from him and moved closer to Jungkook.

“What do you mean, little one? I’m greeting you.” Your mentor responded oh so causally.

“You’re not really lik—”

“Ahh, you must be Jeon Jungkook.” Seokjin ignored what you said when he immediately faced contact with the only human in the room. “It’s great to finally meet you. I’ve heard so many things about you!” He extended his hand for a handshake.

Hmmm, that seemed to give Jungkook a bit of satisfaction so he accepted the introduction and shook his hand. “Same for you…but I never knew she talked about me.”

“Yes, of course. She does…when we’re in her room alone together.”

Jungkook’s face sank. His head craned to you to see you…nodding???

“Yeah, and sometimes in his office.” You agreed. Uhhhh, was this going well?

“Anyways, shall we get started Jungkook?” Seokjin recommended. “You and I can chat in the dining area while our ___ here will finish up cooking. She’s making her signature dish! It’s incredible. Believe me. I’ve had it before.” He exaggerated the last parts towards the human while rubbing his stomach.

Jungkook’s right eye twitched and it doesn’t go unnoticed by a close-lipped smile from Seokjin who seemed unbothered.

Meanwhile, you didn’t see anything. “I wouldn’t call it my signature dish, but I wanted to be mindful of Jungkook’s taste. He doesn’t like anything too sour and many of demon’s dishes taste quite sour.”

Again, you were acknowledging his preferences, being so cautious with him. Jungkook’s heart palpitated quicker than before when you ended your statement with a smile and gaze at him.

“Plus this dish doesn’t have garlic and Seokjin is allergic to that!”

It was great while it lasted.

-

While you were preoccupied in the kitchen cooking and listening to this band that shined through the city with a little funk and soul, Jungkook was alone in the dining room with Seokjin. They sat across each other on the long table, one sat on the farthest end and the other did the same on the other end. Their posture was straight with their hands intertwined, resting on the table, almost like they were mimicking one another.

Though it only has been five minutes, nothing was said just glares. More so, towards the nonchalant Seokjin who kept his eye contact, Jungkook leered aggressively at the sight of the demon. All because he had three reasons to act this way.

Number one—Jungkook was pissed off because Seokjin was fucking gorgeous and hot. He was wrong. How was this level of sexiness possible? You informed him that sex demons were born to be visually pleasing, but this fucking dude took the prize of most handsome and went home within the minute. He dreaded it so much but had to give props to the incubus.

Number B—was the way Seokjin held and kissed you…and like you accepted? He never wanted to see you in the arms of another, that idea made him want to vomit his brains out. 

Finally, letter 3—it was almost as if Seokjin indirectly challenged him, eyeing the human out every chance he had. Was that it? Does Seokjin want a competition? What was his catch? Weren’t they supposed to discuss your training and abilities? Why was this turning into who gets to claim you?

Well, you shouldn’t be claimed regardless…but in Jungkook’s defense, you were his.

“So are we gonna discuss ___ and her training?” Jungkook was the first to break the ice as scowling at the strong demon was going nowhere. “I want this to be productive for not only her but myself too.”

“Wow, you seem to care a lot about her, human,” Seokjin commented, slowly nodding his head as he wrote down something on a piece of paper in his opened manila folder. “Do you know why I wanted to see you? Better yet, do you know why I’m talking to you?”

The human cocked an eyebrow. “Uhh, ___ said that the higher-ups said we needed to meet.”

The demon hummed in response as he leaned back into his chair. “Well, that’s the main reason, but there are other answers to that question.”

Jungkook grew confused. “What do you mean?”

Seokjin sagged his head to the side to look past Jungkook to watch you dancing stiffly. “___ is a special demon. So special that she had to get a task helper for her training.” He began. “And so special that she’s important to me.”

Okay, we’re getting to the good stuff because Jungkook squinted his eyes at the demon in front of him. “She’s important to you?”

“Yes, why do you sound like it’s shocking?” Seokjin replied, eyes testing the human. “I mean you had to meet me for her sake.”

“Isn’t it the other way around?”

“Nope, because the higher-ups needed me to see how capable you are. You think a strong, powerful, and handsome demon like myself would willingly want to meet an egotistical zealous human like you? You’re practically a side bug ready to be flicked away if I say you go.”

“What even are you to her?” The human scoffed, not caring if he was being rude to a demon who kill his ass with one hit. “You’re acting so high and fucking mighty. You could be meaningless in all of this.”

“Funny you ask that…” The incubus chuckled darkly. He leaned forward as if he was telling a secret to him despite the one-and-a-half meter distance. But with his powers, Seokjin whispered, “She’s my little play toy.”

Though soft-spoken, his words traveled loud and clear in Jungkook’s ear. The tone mocked the human’s ego and pride, his possession over you. He hated it. He fucking hated it. 

And to make matters worse, Seokjin had the power to replay those words in his head. She’s my little play toy. She’s my little play toy. She’s my little play toy. She’s my little play toy. She’s Seokjin’s little play toy.

Jungkook gritted his teeth as he held onto the table tightly to ease his anger. He needed his positive mindset to overcast the shit Seokjin was doing. You were not his play toy. You weren’t Seokjin’s. You weren’t his to play with.

It should be him. But not as a play toy. But one to be with and to be cherished by him. He should be the one to call you his. He should be the one to hug you and twirl you around. He should be the one to kiss your forehead. He should be the one to call you “my darling love.” He should—

“Dinner’s ready!” You announced flying in all perky and filled with joy. Your horns wiggled in delight at the food. Wings flapping in the air, you patted Jungkook’s head, snapping him out of his trance to gawk at you.

Your puffy smile and crinkled eyes consoled his inner turmoil. How was it possible that the sight of you washed away his worries yet made his heart ache so bad he felt like he was about to explore? What was going on with him on the inside? He couldn’t understand it. He didn’t want to understand it. There was no way.

You flew towards your mentor, ready to slap that goofy grin off his bothersome face when Seokjin grabbed you by the arm and tugged you down. You landed on his lap unexpectedly, making a “humph’ sound. You blinked profoundly at him before saying, “What the fu—”

Usually, Seokjin interrupts you by talking and not caring about anything you say, but today was different. He halted your complaint by kissing you on the lips. Your eyes widened, and you didn’t dare to kiss back. Sure, they were soft but fucking disgusting. It was like kissing an uncle.

It was also different from what you’re used to and you couldn’t help but compare.

You stayed still like a dead fish as your mentor tried deepening the kiss. You were too shocked to even push away. But it was a voice that you knew all too well that ultimately stopped your interaction with Seokjin.

“NO!” Jungkook slammed his palms on the table, standing up from his seat.

Seokjin parted away from you and didn’t even bother to look at your disturbed expression. On the other hand, he was very much interested in finding a furious and raging Jungkook before him. Seokjin swore he heard growls from the human. This human must be a different breed, the incubus thought.

Livid heat dragged down his neck, his jaw sharpened and clenched, and steam blew out of his nostrils. Jungkook charged toward the two of you. Though you were innocent and puzzled by all of this, the human snatched you off of your mentor by the waist with one arm, carrying you. 

With his vacant arm, Jungkook thought it was a fast and effective solution to beat the shit out of Seokjin. So using all the force and techniques he learned through boxing, he punched Seokjin once, causing the demon to fall to the ground.

However, it seemed that Jungkook was done with Seokjin as he began to walk away with you now in both of his arms. You said nothing, not knowing how to contribute to this. But you chose to glance over to your mentor.

Knowing Seokjin, he doesn’t hold if someone attacks him. But at that moment, he watched the two of you walk away calmly before winking at you cheekily.

Seriously, what the fuck was going on?

You spoke no words to Jungkook as you migrated elsewhere into the house. It was when he threw you onto a bed, you realized he brought you into your bedroom. You followed his moves when he locked the door and removed his jacket from him. With piercing irises meeting your fazed doe-eyes, he loosened his tie before taking it off as well. He rolled up his sleeves up to his elbow to his comfort and liking.

He stalked around the bed, eyeing your every move, every facial expression, every breath. You sensed his dominating presence radiating the whole area, growing by the second. You surely understood what was going to happen when he was like this but still unsure of why was it happening right now and before dinner.

You feared him in an arousing way because you were excited to do this with him. It has been a while since Jungkook has been very clingy lately. You thought you anticipated his every move but tonight, you were going to be wrong and sorry that you assumed in the first place.

Your submission gradually exposed itself, afraid to speak up but you needed to know. “U-uh, Jungkook, why are you—”

“It’s sir to you, angel. Have I not been clear from the fucking start?” His dark voice spat venom, leaving no signs of care and cuddles for you.

“Yes, you’ve been clear, sir. I’m sorry, sir.” You hiccuped, you felt yourself shrinking before him. It was the way you both loved it. His mouth twitched but restrained himself from showing anything else but this. He came forth, being on the end of the bed, and leered down at you with that familiar stare. “S-sir, I’m just wondering why you—Eeek!”

Perhaps it was Not Let ___ Talk Day because you couldn’t finish your sentence when Jungkook flipped you over effortlessly by your waist. He pulled your legs and rested your knees onto the mattress, ass raised high in the air. He used his other hand and pushed down your back, bending your spine while your face was smushed into the sheets.

You wiggled as a reaction, but Jungkook wasn’t having it. He lifted the skirt of your dress, revealing your purple lacy thong that barely covered your tiny but chubby pussy. Though he wanted to let out a sigh of please, he was on a mission. With a heavy hand, he smacked your ass to keep you still.

You squeaked at the stinging sensation but felt yourself getting leaking down your hole. You couldn’t help it…he was that attractive, you were a sex demon, and you wanted more.

 “You should know to keep still, you fucking slut!” He spat, giving you another spank and you groaned. “Do I have to repeat myself?”

“N-no, sir.” You sniffled, digging your face into the comforter.

Slap. Slap. Slap. Slap. Slap. Each slap got harder and harder. You swore your ass cheeks were getting numb from the ache. Your skin probably had his hand imprint, feeling raw and tender from his continuous slaps.

You heard the noise of unbuckling and a belt slithering out. You waited quietly until you voiced out a cry when the leather strap touched your swollen red ass cheek and coccyx. “Nooo, Koo!”

The evilness in Jungkook softened when he heard your pleading cry. He dropped the belt and crawled beside you. He helped you move your head to face him. You were flushed, and tears threatened to fall down your cheeks but he found the lust still in your eyes. He noticed how your ass trembled, but your tail looked in shock by it. 

“Angel, did I hurt you?” With no words, you nodded timidly. Fuck, Jungkook wanted to beat himself up for pushing your limits. “Fuck ___, I’m so sorry. I’m such a shithead. We’ll stop this right no—”

“No, we don’t need to, sir.” You reassured, giving him such a precious grin. “Just no belt, please?”

He saw you, serious and promising as ever. He didn’t deserve you at all. Yet you still took him in with all your might and will. You wanted him to continue, he knew it. It was all over your face.

He smiled ever so gently, truly taking you in. He moved down to kiss your ass cheek and caressed your tail which made you inhale sharply. He went back to you grinning once more before came the cynical expression. 

He stood up from the bed, observing your position. You daringly wiggled your behind once again, releasing any guilt Jungkook previously had. Shit, you’re such a tease.

He gave you one last spank before rubbing your pained bottom. You jolted from time to time, experiencing the ghost of the slaps. Once you seemed laxer, Jungkook turned you over on your back and wings. His stare leering at you while you peered open with eyes that screamed “more!”

“Take off everything, slut.” Jungkook demanded.

So with the blink of an eye, your clothes and undergarments were gone, leaving you bare. One interesting power you obtained from the past months was your ability to take your clothes off when you feel like it without even moving an inch. You were confused by it, even telling Seokjin about it. But your mentor told you succubi can develop special and personal powers on top of the standard skills. It was great for you, extra great for Jungkook. 

He paused for a while, pupils dancing all over your supple body. It was something he knew he would never get tired of seeing. From the top of your head, down to your plush breasts, the curves of your waist and hips, and your captivating legs. But in between your legs laid the cunt he wanted to devour for years.

You were already practically flowing a river, drenching the bedsheet under you. He could see a translucent string connected from your hole to the dampened area. You were always so ready for him. 

He grunted softly, his mouth watering at the sight of your center. He wanted to taste it, yet he still had other plans with you. Grabbing his belt off the floor, he walked steadily to your form. “Arms up.” You obliged within half a second. He hoisted you up the bed. Tying your wrists with the leather, he attached it to the headboard. He tugged on making sure it wasn’t too tight for you, so when you nodded, you were ready to go.

He climbed the bed. Your eyes met with his, his warm breathing hit your cheek. He gulped then clenched his jaw, demeanor hardening the more he kept his gaze. “You deserve to be punished, you stupid whore.”

Your irises enlarged, growing puzzled by his statement. “Why do I have t—“

“Did I say to fucking talk?!?!” He fumed, making you flinch. You quickly shook your head in denial. “You talk when I tell you to, and you do as I fucking say! When I ask you a question, you better answer! I’m not gonna repeat myself. Am I clear?”

You nodded cowardly but it wasn’t the right answer. Jungkook groaned in frustration, which led him to reach over to your nipple and pinch it hard. You winced at the pain yet pleasure of his touch. Your body wanted to submit to him. “Yes, you’re clear, sir!!”

“Good little demon.” He finally complimented and your horns twitched, which doesn’t go unnoticed by him but won’t acknowledge out in the open.

Jungkook had his hands on your knees before spreading them wide to get a clearer view of your glistening cunt. Fuck, he wanted to die. So pretty and swollen, just for him. He bent down to be on eye level. You felt him lingering before he lightly blew into your heat. You moaned softly, the cool air touching you though it wasn’t what you wanted. But you stayed quiet so that Jungkook doesn’t get angry. 

He pulled back and it killed you, almost barking back. But when he shoved two fingers in your sudden hole, all thoughts disappeared and a high-pitched whine snapped out of you. He was not slow and steady. He wasted no time pumping hard in circular motions into your pussy, trying to find your sweet spot. When your voice raised higher, he knew he had already found it.

He then pushed in another finger to help you get more stretched out. It was immaculate how tight your cunt was despite taking in his thick dick. He cursed under his breath, watching you having a harder time breathing from all the mewling you did. Your face was already so enamored with what little he did to you, making him grin like an asshole.

“Such a little slut. Do you like it when I finger this tight fucking cunt?”

You nodded like a child wanting candy. “Yes, I love it, sir.” He kept hitting your g-spot and you got so dizzy. Jungkook decided to test your limit again by adding another finger in you. It was a snug fit but he was still able to continue his thrusts. His palm was practically inside of you getting messed up by the amount of essence you spurted out.

The stretch gave a dull pinch, but you handled it well. You dug your fingers into your palm as it was the only thing you could do besides attempting to break free from the belt which was unsuccessful. But holy shit, so many of his fingers touched your nerves. Each swipe to your rough patch made you go crazy. Your petals sang choir songs to his ears, body, and soul. You felt the knot in your stomach breaking, getting closer and closer to your finish line. Jungkook could feel you reaching your high, so he fastened his pace.

You moaned loudly, knowing what was about to come. However, the human decided to pull out of you a second before you came. You winced as your stretched-out walls pulsed around nothing. Your soaking cunt dripped and ached in pain from the denial. Tears escaped your eyes, your nose getting stuffier than before, and the painful eyes you gave to an unbothered human.

“I didn’t say to cum. You cum when I tell you to.” Jungkook growled, then slurping all of your wetness from his palm to the tip of his fingers. 

“P-puh-please, s-sir.” You tried to speak, but you were getting intoxicated by the horniness you had for that man. “C-can…I…cum?”

“Aww, you’re begging. How cute.” He spoke condescendingly yet you gave no fucks because all you wanted right now was his dick. Which by the way looked insane hard and large in his pants. “But no, you don’t deserve it.”

“H-huh?”

“You wanna cum, you gotta earn it.” He sneered before slapping your inner thigh so close to your wet folds but not close enough. You could only let out a pliant sound, watching his menacing aura boost. “Do you still have those red candles?”

In a haze, you nodded. A while back, one of your tasks was the use of BDSM and you got provided a box filled with toys and other items to use. Besides rope, blindfolds, and ball gags, there were scarlet strawberry-scented massage candles. But they were never used because there was no time and that task went on for AGES.

However, Jungkook thought now was a good time to use them. “Bring them in.”

To his command, you magically brought it from Naameth. They were displayed on your nightstand, unused and neatly placed with the violet-colored lighter next to them.

Jungkook reached over for one of them and the lighter. Concentrated on what he had in his hands, he examined the two. The long candle presented hefty due to its thickness but it weighed light. He wafted the fruity aroma and hummed in delight before igniting the wick.

Ember appeared before him, illuminating a small bubble around it. He waited until he started seeing a small pool of liquid for the real games to begin.

Hovering it over your intoxicated cunt, he titled the candle. The ruby fluid flowed down and dripped onto your sensitivity, making you yelp at the burn. He moved all over your form, going from your nipples, your navel, back to your center, your neck, and any of your parts he knew you were sensitive in. 

The stinging pain electrified your body, cascading a new tsunami of emotions you’ve never experienced before. Streams of wax trickled down and solidified on your burning skin, marking you.

“You like this?” Jungkook interrogated while you measly nodded, quaking as more of the candle wax landed on you. “Of course, you do. You filthy demon.” He scoffed, rolling his eyes before placing the still-lit candle on the table.

Suddenly, he flipped you over in the same position you first started in. Your wrists rubbed along the belt, probably going to get bruises. He wasted no time slapping your ass again once. He retrieved the candle back, which had melted an abundance of fluid that created a deep pool.

Jungkook enjoyed seeing you in painful pleasure when a sinister smirk morphed on his hot fucking face. Without thinking any further, he had the candle over your back and poured all of it on your wings.

If Jungkook had seen your face, he would have seen your eyes shrink into beady dots. An elongating shriek fled out of you, froth foaming around your mouth. Your burgundy tail rested on the side, hiding away from the utter surprise. Your wings fluttered out of control, shaking like two Christmas ornaments filled with mung beans but not at all in a fun way. 

You tried breaking free but you were scrawny as shit. The burn rushed through your blood and went straight to your agonizing cunt and oozing more of your wetness on the bed. A pleasant sight for the human behind you. The sensation didn’t hurt as much as you expected, but fuck, you were about to go pray to the heavens for something to happen. You sobbed harshly into the pillow because though you felt so much but not enough to reach your peak. Your thighs quaked like a wet cat. you wanted to fucking cum, but he wasn’t letting you. 

“I’m impressed that you’re still not talking and taking it like the whore I know you are,” Jungkook commented before blowing out the candle. The smell of smoke mixed with the artificial strawberry scent lingered in the area.

You didn’t bother turning back to him. Instead, you dug your head into the duvet and unconsciously arched your back lower to accentuate your rounded ass. Jungkook groaned at his perfect vision of you. He guessed you deserve something. “Just for that, you deserve a little treat.” Putting his hands in the dips of your waist, he hoisted the lower half of your body up in the air.

Being so small, it was easy for gym rat boxing galore Jungkook to carry you like you were a feather. He settled the tops of your thigh onto his shoulders. You practically were levitating since Jungkook was huge even when sitting down. He pushed your spine down and you don’t even know what position this was. He was lucky you weren’t human because you were practically shaped as a “u.” Thank you demon bones.

Jungkook had such a delicious view of your petaled sex, so bloated and drenched just begging for him. He scooted closer to the headboard, bringing you with him. Now only your head was shoved onto the bed because you hung upside down. His strong arms wrapped around you with your shivering thighs still on him.

He leaned his head before sticking his pink tongue into your cunt, making you mewl like the needy little thing you were. The muscle then swiped up and down, pushing its way into you. Then the tip found your clit, causing you to shudder. Tears broke free but they went straight to staining the sheets. You were too stimulated and not enough to feel the release.  

Fuck, you tasted better than the last time like he was eating sweet cherries freshly picked out from the farm. He loved that you can actually change your essence’s flavor but honestly just as it was natural was the best one in his honest opinion.

Then your horns twitched.

Suddenly the arousal changed to your original taste, shocking Jungkook as his eyes widened but didn’t complain one bit. It only gave him more reason to latch on to your sensitivity and suckled the way you loved. Your legs trembling in ecstasy but he kept you still in his arms. Your moans increased by the second, wanting to speak his name but you didn’t dare to.

Until he gripped your tail.

“Sir!” You wept out, turning your head to breathe some oxygen. Jungkook surprisingly didn’t punish you and continued stroking your appendage. His thumb applied pressure, amplifying the state you were in. If you weren’t a moaning mess before, you most certainly were now. Your mind turned into cotton. Your eyes rolled back as your hips pushed towards his face.

His lapping tongue embedded your shaking center while the tip of his nose poked your aching bud. He ran his fingers from your tailbone to the heart tip. He went back to your base and pulled on it not too harshly but not too lightly either. You swore you were about to see stars from all this stimulation. The build-up in you got stronger and stronger, almost toward the finish line. “O-oh, I gonna cu—”

Subsequently, he stopped again. He released your tail and plopped your body back onto the mattress, bouncing from the impact. “No, you’re not.” He scooted away from you, legs spread open as he felt himself losing patience with him.

You whimpered, hot streams going down your cheeks. Dammit, you were so close. As sadist as Jungkook was in bed, this by far had to be the cruelest thing he has ever done to you. You’d rather have a bajillion orgasms than get denied them.

“Remember what I fucking said, slut. You can’t come unless I say so and you don’t deserve it after what you did.”

You were on the verge of losing the 3% of insanity left in you. You weren’t understanding your position right now. Yes, you loved the pain and the pleasure he gave but why did he do it right before dinner time? Tonight was supposed to be important but now you’re suddenly blamed for reasons you don’t know. So you spoke without caring about the consequences. You twisted onto your back to face his darkened blushed expression. Your wrists were hurt from the constraint. “W-why can’t I c-cum? I ne-never did a-anything!”

Wow, you finally yelled back. It took you long enough. But Jungkook, being stubborn and never wanting to back down, wanted to punish you. Unfortunately, his feelings for you were in the way and he had to let out his thoughts, or else, he was about to explode. “Because you let Seokjin fucking kiss you!” He spat out. “You don’t get to cum until you realize you don’t need him in your life!”

You blinked dumbly, taken aback. What the fuck was he talking about? Seokjin was your mentor, you needed him! Even after you finished your training, he was your mentor for all eternity. “Wh-what? I do need him! He can’t go away!” A bit of logic crept into your brain, trying to understand what Jungkook was getting at.

“Wrong answer, angel.”

Jungkook got off of the bed, pupils never leaving yours. Button by button, he unloosened his shirt, exposing his glistening tan skin and chocolate bar abs. Once he flicked it off of him, his sleeve tattoos were fully visible. He unzipped his pants, freeing him from the clothing. The outline of his hardened girthy dick and the wet spot on his boxers was clearly shown and it made your mouth water. Damn, this human was so defined. You wanted to throw up at how sexy he was.

He cupped himself to relieve some discomfort he went through. He bit his lips while staring into your gleaming pupils, so clueless about how he truly felt yet you still managed to bewitch him regardless. He removed the last article on him, now bare with his curved cock bouncing from his movements. He played with his lip ring, smirking at how you got unconsciously rubbed your thighs together as he played with himself. “What do you want?”

You gulped, “I-I-I want you, sir.”

Jungkook snorted haughtily, “Yeah, right. Go to Seokjin, maybe he’ll give you the half-ass orgasm that you deserved.”

You furrowed your eyebrows again. What the fuck does Seokjin have to do with all of this? You would never let him touch you the way Jungkook does. Why does he sound like he has so much hatred for your mentor? They fucking met an hour ago.

You shook your head naively, “No, I want you, Jungkook. I always have.”

Your voice and words stabbed his heart. How could you even say that when you’re with Seokjin? Wait, hold on…are you cheating on the demon with him? Are you a cheater? But doesn’t Seokjin know that you’ve been fucking him? Maybe it was an open relationship? What the fuck was between you and Seokjin?

But Jungkook realized—he was only your task helper. Nothing more, nothing less. That was why Seokjin was okay with all of this. That was why you weren’t acknowledging what he did for you. It was mindless. You needed a human to help you with your training, and that was what you got.

Your relationship was nonexistent, and it ached Jungkook. Fuck, he can’t do this anymore. He couldn’t suppress it any longer. Demon or not, you were you and he was him. You were vulnerable and dense to everything, you almost killed him by accident every single time, but he loved it because you still had a good heart and you cared wholeheartedly. You were the literal perfect being in his life.

He was in love with you and there was no way of stopping him.

Was this how the hookups and flings felt? Because it was hurting him on the inside very deeply. This was probably karma.

“Jungkook?” You called out, snapping him out of his trance.

The human blinked a couple of times before acknowledging you again. You were naked, legs spread apart. Your perspired skin glowed under the warm light. Breasts were perky and nipples were pointed. Your arousal leaked down your perineum, even landing on your puckered anus.

He thought this was the last time that he would see you like this. He had to stop seeing you. It was no good for his human heart. He didn’t want to go through this unrequited love any longer. He had to give up immediately. Well…after he fucks you into oblivion as a last hoorah, then he’d give up.

Like a hyena attacking its prey, Jungkook was back in bed. He felt his emotions threatening to get to him through his tear ducts. He couldn’t do that right now, he had to suck it up and release all of it through fucking you. He blinked rapidly to keep his cool. His hands reached the back of your thighs, opening you up.

His eye contact was fierce, scrutinizing your soul. It made your demon heart skip a beat at how intense he looked at you. Without breaking, he took himself and positioned it to your slit. He didn’t ask if you were ready as he was already going in but slower than usual. Inch by inch, he disappeared in you and you mewled at the stretch of him. He pushed in once more until the head touched your tiny cervix, promptly making you go unhinged. 

You were drooling, getting the drug you finally wanted. You talked nonsensically as you bit down on your lower lips. You could practically cum, but you knew you couldn’t. How was it possible for a human dick to ruin your entire existence? That, you don’t know but you weren’t complaining.

All you could think about was Jungkook, his body, his cock, his personality, his soul. Jungkook, Jungkook, Jungkook, Jungkook. It was all about him.

He didn’t ask to move; he just did. Knowing you, you also wanted him to start now. However, he wanted to make this last as long as he could. But he felt too stimulated he thought he was going to burst in you once he filled you up. The love he had for you overpowered his control, his dominance. His pace was different, it was slower yet way harder than usual.

Each thrust made you squirm under him. You looked so pretty, cross-eyed, with hair sticking on your forehead, and trying to escape your confinement. You pleaded to get out of it by weeping high-pitched noises. You badly wanted to touch him, hold him. “Pweesh, t-t-toush you!” You yanked on the belt, attempting anything. You were numb on your wrists, only sensing the cock pounding you like there was no tomorrow. “Toush you!”

Jungkook refused for him to touch you because it will only break him into a million pieces. If you laid a hand on him, he wouldn’t want to let go of you. But he was selfish, so so so selfish. He needed this way more than you did. It was for his one last time and his everlasting memory. 

Without contemplating any longer, he penetrated deeper into you. With one hand on your hips for stability, he untied your wrists. When you were free, the weight of your hands felt heavier as they bounced onto the wrinkled covers. They were much more tired than expected but Jungkook took your wrists with his hand to examine the marks that formed around them, noticing the red and purple sores.

He held them to his lips and pecked endless kisses like it was medicine to the pain. It was sort of like that because they weren’t as delicate as they appeared. His tongue lapped around the bruises. Your hands were lighter than before, allowing you to wrap them around his nape. You caught him by surprise as his big bunny eyes widened.

You pulled him near you, your noses meeting. Your lips were swollen and red, relentless moans escaped your mouth. You ran your fingers into his damp raven hair, securing hold onto him. You had no brain anymore, no thinks, no words. You lived and breathe to obey him. You were now and always will be Jungkook’s pocketpussy.

You stretched your head, puckering your lips to finally meet his, also shocking him and his brain. His heart thumped faster than normal, especially when you swiped your tongue over his teeth. The kiss grew messier, slobbering around the rims of your mouths and exchanging and swallowing each other’s spit. 

Jungkook stopped tonguing you but his mouth was still on yours. “Say you’re mine. I wanna hear you say it.” He grunted. His long cock dragged in your battered pussy. “Fucking say it!”

“Y-yours, sir! I yours!”

“No, say my name right now!” Jungkook commanded. Even though he loved his sir kink, he needed to hear his name out of your mouth. “Whose are you?”

“I’m yours, Jungkook!”

“That’s right. Fucking slutty demon creaming around my big cock, you better be.” His pace increased roughly, making the pressure in your abdomen come back again. Your walls ached in hopes that you weren’t going to be rid of another orgasm. The connectedness between you two sounded sticky and wet as his dick collected the ring of foaming white from you. 

“I am—hunghhh! I-I-I’ll always be.” You truthfully said, but Jungkook didn’t believe you. You were drunk in carnality. 

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep.” There was envy and wrath in his voice but it was to cover his frail judgments. “You take what you fucking get.”

“But mo’! More! Mo’!” You begged brainlessly, wrapping your legs around his waist. “Pweesh, sir!”

“I must have fucking spoiled you. Begging for more that you can’t even handle, slut! Bad demon!” He ridiculed you, but you loved it so much. Your weakened succubus mind loved his cruel insults.

“I not bad!!!” You sobbed, tears bubbling up around your eyes from the stimulation.

“Yes, you fucking are. Bad to me because I can’t get enough of you! Bad to my body, bad to my cock that only wants to be wrapped around this tight fucking pussy.” He impaled you rampantly, your cunt bawling at the crude action. “Bad! Bad! Bad! Bad!” With each thrust, he emphasized and then pinched your inflated clit in between his index finger and thumb. 

You screamed as you knew you couldn’t hold it in any longer. The knot in you played tug-o-war. Body vibrating endlessly like a cellular device’s alarm, you were about to die if you kept it in. “Cum! Cum! Cum!” You chanted, wishing he’d finally let you. “Cum! Cu—”

“Cum all over me, baby.”

Once he said those words, the sound that came out of you was neither inhumane nor demonic. Your eyes crossed, making you smell the twinkly little stars around. The warmth coursed through your blood while your brain melted into a puddle. You wailed, gasping for air, sounding like a dying pig that was about to turn into bacon. Body convulsed, shuttering every millisecond while helplessly holding onto the solid man above you. He guided you through your high, rocking into you. You clenched tightly around his flaming cock, making him whine that how he was getting closer to his high.

When you finally came, your tail swiveled out and up then sprinkled cum all over your bodies. Jungkook snatched your squirting appendage, causing you to yelp at the sensitivity. He pressed the tip of it into your slightly parted mouth. “Suck up your cum.” Moaning, you succumbed to his command and opened your mouth as he inserted your spewing heart-tailed end. With your tongue sticking out, you tried swallowing your non-stop cum, but it ended up splashing all over your fucked out face.

Jungkook leaned down and joined in on your slurping session. Both of your tongues glided up and down your gushing limb. He followed the pattern of your tail, shaping around smooth ripples. Your muscles met at the tip, drinking in your pool of essence. You were intoxicated and delirious with passion and overstimulation. Your skull was hollow as an abyss. Nothing from you made sense.

He parted away before gripping back onto your hips harshly and faster, causing you to purr. It was too much, but you sucked it up. His dick continued thrusting inside of you, but he was in shambles from also trying to chase his high. 

“Wanna get stuffed?” He grumbled. You could only nod, tongue lolling from side to side. “Get filled by my golden human cum.” You nodded needier. “Are you worthy of it? Are you worthy of me?”

You thought you said yes but gibberish came out instead. But it was his cue to finally cum too.

His head dropped to the crevice of your neck. He pumped into you once more before stilling himself. He whined in your ear, calling your name like a mantra. His trembling abdomen squeezed hard and his grasp on you tensed as he shot out ropes and ropes of sticky white in your battered cunt. He painted your inside, your exhausted body taking in the warmth.

Your eyes glowed scarlet again, absorbing his semen into your powers. Jungkook felt a slight tingle when you unknowingly took particles of his life force again, but he was used to it by now. It was going to come back to him anyways.

He delicately removed himself from you, but you still wailed. He peppered light kisses on your shoulder to ease you. He sat up, seeing how fucked out you looked with his cum spilling out of your wheezing hole. You looked so gorgeous like this and it was all because of him. Not Seokjin. Fucking him.

Fuck, Seokjin.

He didn’t want his cum to go to waste so he scooped the excess from the sheets and pushed it back into you. You let out a long moan, trying to push away his hand but you were too tired to. Once he was satisfied, he lay beside you, gazing at your blushing expression. You were panting heavily, as usual, never going to catch up with his energy. But you were so beautiful, it pained him. 

You turned your head, drooping eyes saw the sparkles in his. He was utterly out of this world. A star shining above the rest, yet he was next to you and you wouldn’t change it anywhere even if you were realms apart.

Your shaking hand engulfed his cheek, your thumb rubbing his sweaty skin. You closed your eyes and moved towards him to close the gap, but you suddenly felt him pull away. Your eyelids snapped open when you saw him staggering out of bed.

“I-I-I have to get out of here.” He announced, rushingly scanning the room for his clothes. He had to leave now or else he was never backing out.

Though you were in a disoriented daze from post-coital, him saying he had to leave triggered your senses. You jolted up, watching him collect his garments. You never saw him this frazzled or in a hurry before. Every time you had sex, he enjoyed cuddling with you or keeping you in his arms. You were baffled and actually peeved off he was acting like this and he wasn’t telling you why.

“Koo, what’s going on?” You questioned, but you grimaced at how groggy your voice was.

“Don’t you fucking Koo me!” He swore at you. Though Jungkook was vile in bed, he was never like that outside of it. This complete 185 frightened and sorrowed you. “You know what you fucking did.”

“No, I don’t.” You informed but it sounded like a question because you didn’t know what you did. Damn, did you fuck up on dinner or something? “Jungkook, why are you so heated? Right now, in bed, more heated than usual.”

His glare on you softened when he realized the dim-wittedness lurking in your pupils. Not a damn thing in you figured out what was going on. You still knew nothing. “Forget it. It’s nothing but I have to—”

"Okay, even I know that's a straight-up lie." You interrupted him, not buying anything he was saying. You wanted to understand his reasoning. He looked so angry and frustrated. Yet you weren’t, so you wanted to calm him down and be mindful of whatever you did to make him this upset. "Talk to me. I've been easygoing, haven't I?"

"No."

"What do you mean?" You pouted cutely, and it only angered him even more.

"You're so frustrating!" Jungkook groaned, then paced around the room with his flaccid dick swinging around like a pendulum. "You really have no sense of what's going on, do you?”

Okay, that offended you. You gasped, “Now you're sounding like Seokjin—“

"Oh, Seokjin now? Wow, me sounding like him. Pfft, you might as well go to him instead of getting someone like him."

“I am confusion!”

"You're confused? You're confusing me!!"

"Jungkook, what the fuck is going on? Be clear with me!” You probed for the last time, losing your unwavering patience. You stood up wobbly from the ruined mattress. Though your legs were practically falling apart, you stood your ground. “Do human men also have periods?"

He paused his steps and pivoted towards you. He encircled an arm around your stature, chests pressing each other. He kept your balance when he picked you up and rested his forehead on your shoulder. He needed to say it before he was free from you. "I love you, ___."

Your jaw dropped, stunning you with his confession. Sadly, for the both of you, you don’t react well so you said, ”Uhhh, excuse me?? What the actual fuck?"

He chuckled but there was so much sadness to it. He knew it was too good to be true. He lifted his head, then touched your forehead with his, smelling his warm garlic bread breath (when did he have garlic bread?), and graze your nose. "I said I love you…and I'm embarrassed and miserable because you're with Seokjin."

You morphed a face of horror when he revealed that. “Huh? I’m not with Seokjin. Fuck that!" Never in your whole life would ever think to be with that conniving, irritating, egotistical, yet handsome incubus. You never had a level of attraction to Seokjin as opposed to Jungkook. 

Now Jungkook grew more puzzled. “Then what the fuck is he to you?"

"He's my mentor!! He guides me through and is in charge of my training. As a mentor, he is with me for all eternity!” You explained.“He's the one who wanted to meet with you. I thought I made that clear!"

"No, you didn't!"

"Oh."

You were flabbergasted, you assumed you told him everything about Seokjin. But when you thought about it a little longer, it seemed your explanations were empty and filled with avoidance. In your defense, you never wanted to think about your mentor, especially when you were with Jungkook.

“Yeah, he's touchy and affectionate with you, even calling you pet names. I assumed you were with him before meeting him too.” Jungkook was distraught, reminiscing about today’s incident in his mind. The way Seokjin held you, and talked to you, it all seemed so real. “Like why else did he kiss you and call you his play toy?”

"Because I like to fuck around!" Seokjin burst through the door unapologetically into the sexed-up scented room, hearing everything that was done and said. You both flinched from the sound, spotting the incubus appearing amused. At first response, Jungkook was quick to protect your body from being shown to another. You weren’t as alarmed. Seokjin saw you naked before due to a physical examination. You glanced blankly at your nosy mentor. "She’s my play toy as in I like to play around and mentally scar her.” Your mentor’s eyes wandered around the mess before landing on Jungkook’s bare ass. “I knew you loved her! Even the higher-ups could see it! You were just being stubborn and ___’s a fucking dumbass to see it!"

“So…Jungkook loves me?” You finally recognized his feelings towards you.

“Did he or I just fucking say that, you dipshit?” Seokjin complained, shaking his head at you.

"But you don't love me either way," Jungkook muttered, peering down at your toes.

"Who said I didn't love you?" You fussed rhetorically. You thought you pointed out your feelings towards him well. "That has to be clear!"

"No, you are immune to my affection. What the fuck?"

“This is spicy.” Seokjin’s commentary was made aware when you leered at him.

“Can you leave us alone?” You yelled. It wasn’t even a question. He needed to leave now.

“Fine, I’ll be right outside by the door.” Seokjin huffed before exiting the broken door and frame. Though he closed it completely shut, the entire door fell, breaking into shattered chunks of wood and leaving the incubus to hear anything you both said. 

"No, I'm sorry! I do love you!" You confessed, taking his large hands into yours. “I’ve always loved you!”

“Finally, fuck!” Seokjin cheered.

Jungkook’s pupils dilated. His heart palpitated faster at your declaration. Was he dreaming? “Stop, no. Really?" You nodded, smiling at his disbelief. “B-but how? You're a demon! I'm a human!"

"So? I love beyond what I am." You simply shrugged before resting your chin on his pectorals, your neck extended to see his face. "I'm also not the first succubus to love a human. Why else did I keep coming back to you?"

"For sex? To help with your training?"

"Well, yes…” He did say something matter-of-factly, so you couldn’t help but agree. But it made him deflate, and you realize it right away. “But also I love being with you because I'm in love with you, Koo!" You tried mending the damage. “I think I can remember my horns twitching during sex. If you thought of something you may like or want on me, I can automatically change it! That only happens when a succubus is in love!” You started saying all kinds of things that were truthful and how much you loved him. “I love spending time with you, I love your kisses, I love your cuddles, I love when you get nasty, and you have very nice penmanship too!”

Your continuous list made his inside warm and flutter like butterflies. He loved every bit of it. He finally glowed brightly with that bunny smile you adored. 

He clutched an arm over your waist before bending you backward and dipping down. “I’m in love with you too." Your noses touched and your lips were only centimeters away. "You've changed me. I don't know if it's because of your powers, or your charm, or your fucking obsession with granola, but I can't think of and refuse to be with anyone else but you, my beloved angel."

“Then please love me, Jungkook?” You asked oh so sweetly and lovingly, curling your lips with the bats you were getting in your tummy.

“Baby, that shouldn’t even be a question. I’ll always love you.” He chuckled before meshing your lips perfectly together. A kiss that was filled with so much love and devotion, neither of you wanted to let go. You were both fucking dumbasses who were in love with each other but had miscommunication to thicken the damn plot.

Fuck you, writer.

Jungkook pecked little kisses on your lips, cheeks, and forehead, making you giggle. He then pulled back and placed you back on your feet. “But you must take responsibility for turning me into a loser who giggles at your short text messages."

"That I will!" You jumped and clapped, beginning to float into the air. Your wings and tail danced happily. “I’m glad to have had you as my first task!" You smooched Jungkook’s cheek, hugging his muscular form.

"You were bitching at me about him!" Seokjin came back into the room with his arms folded into his chest.

Not bothered by your mentor’s interruptions, you rolled your eyes and whined, ”That was beforehand! I didn't know him!"

"Yeah, whatever. So are you all good and together I assume?" Seokjin grinned with the “okay” sign before reaching Jungkook’s attention. "Don't worry, human. She was never my type—whiny and a pain in my gorgeous ass."

"Hey!" You fretted.

Jungkook focused on the sex demon. Maybe Seokjin wasn’t all bad. Though he did it in a fucked up way, the human comprehended how much Seokjin did care for you and he assumed himself too since your mentor helped your relationship finally blossom. He just didn’t like saying how much he cared outwardly. “We're good! Thank you, Seokjin. Sorry for punching you.”

“It’s fine. I felt like I was in a drama and I was the antagonist though I like to consider the anti-hero in this fanfic.” Seokjin glanced at the reader through the screen. You and Jungkook stared at one another, not sure what Seokjin peeked at. "Well, anyways, everything will be fine. I’ll send a positive report to the higher-ups. But Jungkook, you must be okay with helping ___ with her tasks. Some are more far-fetched than others."

"It should be fine with me. We've been experimenting plenty in our love life." He glimpsed at you rubbing your cheek onto his chest, even inhaling his musk. He kissed the top of your head with satisfaction.

Seokjin hummed in response, knowing what he would say may be bad news to the human “However, I did notice the uncompleted tasks that require a bit…more."

"Like what?"

"A threesome, and considering your jealous dick, you wouldn't like that." The incubus informed, making Jungkook’s smile fade.

You halted your cheek rubbing to stare at your official boyfriend miserable at the discovery. “Jungkook, please! I need this for my training." You begged, intertwining your hands together in front of you. "It won't mean anything, I swear!"

Though he understood it was part of your school, he was still wary. ”Does it have to be human?"

"Not necessarily. Just more of a being." Seokjin answered, watching the situation go slightly bad for the human. "But at least one of you has to be a human, which is you."

“Fine.” Jungkook sighed, pessimistically giving in. But your animated cheers put the grin back on him. “So I'm not letting any of my frat brothers near you like that. Do you have any potentials, my love?

"Hmmm, not really.” You replied, tippy-toeing to kiss his cheek. “Many demons try not to perform sexual activities with each other—wait! I do know one!"

"Who is it?" Your boyfriend cocked an eyebrow.

"He's a warlock from Wennale, the witch realm! He goes by Taehyung!"

"Ahh, yes. Taehyung! Gotta love him, so nice and real talker." Seokjin had a hand over his demon hard with the cheesiest yet wicked grin plastered over his beautiful damn face. "Saw him a few times with little one. Real deal if you ask me.“ He directed it towards Jungkook.

"I'm sorry, what?" Your boyfriend asked monotonously.

"It was nothing serious!” You waved it off. “He did take my virginity, what humans call it, and we did see each other a few more after it. He was sweet, called me pretty, gave me flowers, even tied me up and fu—“

"NOPE! I WILL NOT LET YOU NEAR THAT FUCKING GUY."

A/N: The end…for now. AHAHAHA JK PLS that’s it for the couple as an actual fic. Maybe Drabbles who knows. But thank you for reading <3 Also yes, they were talking to seokjin naked ;-;

All rights reserved for ©️ icedmatchatae 2022 (｡●́‿●̀｡)

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Mansae | Choi seungcheol

☆ミ Every day in my dreams,you put your arms in mine.

Summary: Seungcheol having a hard time making his classmate Seoyun falling in love with him. ( ft. Seoyun's friend Nabi, Mingyu, Wonwoo )

Pairing : Seungcheol x oc

Genre : She fell first then lost her feelings, he fell last but harder, high school!au, enemies to lovers.

Warning : cursing, pet names ( darling, sweetheart, .. ), a little angst, mentioning of crowd, rushed at the end a bit ^^.

W/c : 4k

Note : This is for caratland event on seventeen songs, and that's my fic ever! so I'm thrilled ＼(^^)／

" So which one you gonna date ? "Nabi asked while packing her suitcase.

" Neither of them," I answered briefly, zipping the suitcase.

" the fuck seoyun !"

I shrugged with a straight face. " Sorry, my heart didn't beat for neither of them, nabi,"

" Then it must be an idiot like its owner." Her brow raised." Who on the earth won't fall for Jeon wonwoo or Choi seungcheol? " she folded her arms.

" it's me, nabi. besides, i hate seungcheol." I shoved my hands in my pockets.

" Then date wonwoo! He is the cool, quiet kid. He wo– "

" no,no,No dating— stop talking about this stupid subject," I snapped, slamming the doors of the wardrobe," So shut the fuck up and don't forget to pack another panties cause I won't lend you mine when you lose yours like you did last time" sticking my tounge out teasingly before leaving the room .

" DON'T NEED YOURS ARROGENT BITCH !!", she gave me the finger.

I returned back and leaned against the door's jamb. " Nabi, darling , you're the only bitch here and to be more specific mingyu's bitch not me cause i didn't even hold a guy's hand "

I really enjoyed the fact that nabi gets annoyed easily when I tease her about her relationship with mingyu. She didn't hesitate to throw a pillow at my face as a" shut up," so I picked it up and threw it back on her, announcing the start of our pillows fight.

Such a normal day in my life with nabi, my middle school friend, i ran to know her since moving to their neighborhood 8 years ago. same middle and high schools now, that's why we know each other pretty well.

She was the loud one that knew the entire world, not only people at the school and in spite of the big difference in our personalities. I totally adored how she is kind-hearted, pure, and selfless, not like the other at our school.

Nabi was my no.1 supporter and protecter from any bullying, or at least that's what I thought till some day!

Even when nabi started dating mingyu two years ago, everything was quite the same. Nothing changed a lot other than she would send more time kissing/making out with him instead of finishing her projects and tasks.In my opinion mingyu was not that bad he was the ' okay ',I'm not going to talk about the fact that I sometimes wanted to slap him or even threw him from a claft, because he stole some of her attention that used to be ALL MINE :)

It was 7 in the morning when the sunlight sneaked through the blinds. I got up from the bed, stretched my body for a few minutes, then looked at the dead body of nabi still sleeping like she didn't in a million years. I chuckled at the way she was lying on her tummy, and the saliva wetted the pillow under her head , garbed my phone from the drawer beside the bed and snapped some pictures for her to blackmail her later.

" Hey woman, wake up," I poked the exposured part of her tummy.

She whined, pushing my hand away, turning her back away." Stop—"

" Get up, lazy ass we have to be ready by 9," I said , started tickling her.

" Stop! Stop! I'm awake, "she shouted, throwing the pillow at me.

I giggled while pushing her closer to the edge of the bed. She let out a loud groan, " PARK SEOYUN! I WILL KILL YOU "

I ran for my life because she wouldn't hesitate to beat the shit out of me ." I'll prepare the breakfast in the time you take a shower,"

" I hate you.." she whined, burying her head back onto the pillow.

After 15 minutes, nabi finished showering. We sat for breakfast talking about the things we're going to in 3 days of school trip . It's our second time since attending high school, which, by the way our last year, so I wanted to make it special since I'm not sure if I'll be able to see her more often like now because we made our minds to study different majors.

"Seoyun— please," she begged.

" No! You're going there to have fun just.you.and.I not to sneak out in the dark to lay in mingyu's arms"

" PLEEEEEASE " her eyes went round like the little puppy.

" Just one night !! I'm begging you .. I'll stay the other two with you," she promised.

" Fine," I huffed.

" YAH FINALLY!!" shouted enthusiastically, " I LOVE YOU SEOYUN !! "

" I don't," I replied.

" Stop, i know you're lying," she laughed.

" put a fucking sock in your mouth, grap your suitcase and hurry up we will be late " i informed.

" YES,SIR!" she said, thrilling.

We took the bus straight to the school, 10 minutes and we were there. a lot of students summoning up in front of the school's gate,that's started to freak me out a little bit , I'd always hated the idea of socializing with people, but nabi gave me the courage to stop being more introverted than needed and try to open up a little bit since I wanna be a doctor and I'll be dealing with maybe tens of people daily.

We both get off the bus, carrying our suitcases. I was maintaining calm expression on my face, feeling confident in myself till the moment our eyes accidentally met, the moment of eye contact from across the crowd that magically blurs everyone out of the world. it's just us.

God ! Why is he still existing? Why are the dinosaurs extincted, and he's still alive— and why the hell is he checking me out his stupid cow eyes ? I really wanna pock his two with my fingers, so he never sees the light again.

I turned looked away, muttering all the cursing words I learned and know in my entire life. The only thing that I was relieved about is that I won't see his ugly face the entire trip as we are going to stay in separate buildings.

"My dear students, please gather up here. I've something important to say." That was Mr Jung's voice, the headmaster.

" So I've bad and good news. With which one should I start ?"

" The bad one," some student said.

" Unfortunately, our buildings' reservation was canceled due to a short circuit that caused a small fire but fortunately was controlled, and no one was injured .." he explained, and I could hear the sighs of frustration from all the people around me.

" And where is the good news here ?" questioned another student.

" Well, we managed reserving a small hostel so we all don't miss the fun," The whole crowd started bouncing and cheering in excitement, I was happy too, a little anxious at the same time, i didn't wanna have any partners other than nabi, but unfortunately what I fear happened..

" Now let me pair you alphabetically seeing we don't have many space for 24 students "

' No.. no..this can't be real... It's a nightmare, and I'll wake up now.. I'm sure. ' I was losing every single brain cell I own in my mind the minute I heard, Mr. jung saying the word ' alphabetically ', I can’t end up with that seungcheol..

" Park seoyun— did you hear what I've said ?" My thoughts were intruptured by Mr Jung.

" S.. sorry.. I was a little distracted.. "

" No problem, so you'll be with seungcheol for this trip, okay ? " he gave me the widest smile ever literally knew nothing about my suffering after what he's said.

"Well, well, well, the jerk is here—" he was heading to me with a lifted head and all puff like he won in the war.

“Sweetheart, I know I’m your favorite. no need to pretend.” he smirked.

" Favorite! Huh,never Choi seungcheol in Your.Wildest.Dreams. " I pointed my thumb at his face.

" Just watch me make it happen, honey," the pet name made me seethe.

I feel the weight of the world on my shoulders. Why am I the unlucky one here ? Like everyone seemed to enjoy the whole pairing thing, even nabi ended up with the stupid mingyu. I don't wanna be dramatic, but 72 hours with seungcheol are unbearable...

" Will you stay there till the rest of your life? Move ! " his hands grabbed my suitcase.

" Don't act like a gentleman! " I protested.

He turned to face me."I AM— since my birth, sweetie."

"Huh,whatever, wanna sit by the window," I raced as he placed both suitcases in the overhead parcel.

"Let me open it for you, darling." His hand crossed me reaching the window handle and opening it.

"I can do it myself and stop calling me pet names !! " demandly voiced.

" I refuse —" he said.

"That mouth of yours does nothing but talk dumb shit?"

He leaned slightly toward whipering, with a small smirk made on his face . "You wanna know what else it does?"

The warmth that radiated off his body sent chills down mine as I locked eyes with him, I gazed into his eyes unintentionally for seconds, they held the hue of tea-stained lace, cozy, soft, and delicate, with wash of gentle brown against the harsh dark shadows of millions of stars. That was the prettiest thing I've seen for a long time.

" My eyes are fabulous, aren't they ?" he interpreted the silence.

" N..no..they are pretty normal." I glanced away quickly to look through the window.

" it's obviously a lie, but okay "

I didn't reply, and the silence filled our space for minutes. As sight of his eyes cast was sat unintentionally in unlimited loops in the cogs of my mind.

This daydreaming didn't last long as my head started spinning, I've had motion-sickness since I was a kid, and out of the pocket, I forgot to pack my medicine.

I facepalmed, tried to regulate my breathing pattern, and drink some soda as my mum taught me, but everything seemed fruitless.

" I can give you a shoulder if you want,"he suggested ,lightly tapping his chest as a ' sleep here '.

" I'm fine..only a few minutes, and everything will be okay," I stuttered, drewing my lower lip between my teeth.

I felt his fingertips gently sneaking into the hairline at the back of my neck, guiding me to rest on his chest. Somehow, I threw in the towel and allowed my body to dive into his arms. As His cologne devoured every single cell in my lungs, that seductive scent with a burst of deep, tart blackberry juice, blending with the freshness of just-gathered bay brambly woods sent me to Utopia.

" Just relax, seoyunna," he whispered softly near my ears.

"I hate you..."

"You hated me. Big difference, sweetheart," he corrected, wrapping me and pulling me, and I spontaneously nodded off.

I finally woke up to a vision of him and our faces inches apart, I freaking out and jerked back " WHERE THE FUCK ARE WE AND WHY ARE YOU SLEEPING ON THE BED BESIDE ME !? "

" Calm down, yunna. we arrived two hours ago, and as a gentleman, I didn't wake you up, so I carried you and your suitcase to our room. " he laughed loudly on my freaked expression,holding his tummy.

" Two Hours!! " I let some mocking chuckles as i pulled my hair back, " Do tell me everybody saw you holding me ? "

" Yes, they did " he simply replied.

" Fuck—"

tipping my chin to make me look into his eyes. " You should at least thank me for not waking you up, yunna,"

" I WON'T THANK SUCH A PERVET JERK WHO USES PEOPLE TO FULFILL HIS DESIRES!! " I clenched my teeth,pushing his hands off my face as I rose from the bed.

He startled, "p.p..pervert ..my desires, what're you talking about ?"

" Yeah pervert!! Do you wanna me say it louder so everyone can hear it, Choi seungcheol??! " I burst out in anger, throwing hands into the air.

"What is.. wrong with you.." he pent up with diluted pupils.

I huffed, raking a hand through my hair, trying to control my anger.

"Come on, bury my heart deeper, seoyun. If that's what you're trying--it's working." with a painful smile as the tears started rolling down his face.

" Is this how you thank the person who protected form day one since high school? Do you think nabi is the one who did !! Nabi can not even protect herself from a mosquito! "he boomed with words that I knew after that those were facts not just randoms said to me to make me like him, " Seoyun, I regret every second I spend under your window watching you day and night just to make sure everything is going alright with you since your mother's death, "

I stayed limp in front of him as my voice was lost in my throat, realizing that I went way too far, destroying his feelings, I didn't know what to do or say at that moment, feeling the regret and ashame torturing me.

" Alright.. seoyun, you'll use the slient treatment, fine.. I'm leaving you alone as you want, " his anger and despair drained out as he exhaled before his body vanished behind the room's door.

Half an hour passed and the voices of my head never shut up about making me feel guilty and how this wasn't the perfect way to push him and my feelings for him, and yeah, I admit I was wrong and I deserve so—and now it's time to gather some courage, give up my stubbornness and make everything right.

I managed to run to him before leaving the hostel's gate, grabbing him by the wrist, and surprisingly, he neither resist nor push my hand of him, maybe shocked, maybe surprised or both, I don't know.

" Don't leave! please.." I commanded, looking him in his bloody colored eyes from crying.

Glistening tears in my eyes bright and crystal as I rapped those words, "Cheol.. I'm sorry for hurting you, I didn't really mean it.. I was just trying to push my feelings for you away, " my grip loosened as I slowly kneeled down.

He bowed after a few seconds to hold my hand in his and started rubbing its back gently as he hushed " Why you did so, seoyun?"

" Our mixed signals back then, don't you remember? I gave upon dating you because you were playing the cold boy game "

" I know, and I've to apologize for being an idiot— but after awhile I was head over heels in love with your dumb fucking ass, seoyun, So please, don’t stop thinking about me. Don’t stop… Don’t stop being in love with me." he vocalized softly as he drew me closer to him till the space between us vanished." Every day, where the school is buzzing with people, I would navigate through to see your face,if you're here or not ? If you're all okay, or is something off today ? I'd care for every single detail about you, Seoyun." His tone slowly turned into whispering those sweet nothings.

those delicate words were enough to form my own little bubble amidst the sea of chatter and laughter. I buried my face in the nape of his neck and mumbled between my smile," I won't seungcheol, I won't— enough being tongue tied, I like you,No,no, I love you— actually I have loved you since the day when only both of us were at the basketball court and you were showing off how you're such a prefect player and how you were over the moon once yourm scored a point !! "

" Is that a confession ? " he smirked.

" Yeah, whatever." I jerked back to sigh and roll my eyes, trying my best not to laugh and keep it as cool as I could.

" Wow! Look at your blush invading your face, " he addressed teasingly while pinching my cheeks.

" What The Fuck Choi Seungcheol ! "

" If you called me with my full governmental name again, I'll shut you up with my mouth in yours"

For the first time in a long time, my mind went blank. All I could do was stare as I felt those warm breaths of his ghosting my cold lips.

" Wow..that was wild.. but yeah, please do— " feeling giddy in love, hot in our fingers, warm near our bodies, gazing at each other lips ,shy under the sheets, he grinned while brushing his thumb gently against my cheek. " I've been waiting for your permission for years,baby, now it's time to taste each other's heaven "

he immediately slotted his cherry flavored lips to mine, kissing me passionately but slowly. My eyes fluttered close with how gentle he was. Every argument we had ever had, every misunderstanding happened, every hurtful word we said in the past. They had all lived behind this moment and were finally coming to the surface. His mouth was searing as he tilted my jaw to get a better vantage. I rest one of my hands at the side of his face and the other at the back of his head. That was my first kiss, and I'm sure I'll never be kissed like this again from someone else in my entire life. Because there was no anyone else. There would only be him.

He slipped his tongue into my mouth and let out a low hum of satisfaction when I ran my fingers through his black hair. His words broke along my lips, 'How could we have waited this long?'

We parted, gasping for air as we let out a few giggles. Seungcheol pulled me closer by the waist on his lap, gazing into my eyes. " Baby, I love you .. I love you so much, seoyunna. " his voice was so soft that I could barely hear it over my speeding heart.

I grinned, glistening at him as I brushed my thumb along his face. " I love you too, Cheollie .. And I promise won't quit till the day I die. "

'And that's how I fall in love with seungcheol, My seungcheol, In a random November night, with the first fall of snow celebrating our love with a Mansae!'

Tagging: @caratsland

Please reblog if you enjoyed ^.^

---

— mirage ⟢

he loves with a passion that bleeds into his actions, never his words. you can see it in how he doesn’t make a sound. how he’s seemingly on the cusp, teetering dangerously across the knife’s edge. you're nothing but a stranger to him and yet he looks at you like you’re the most precious thing in the world.

★ FEATURING; wonwoo x gn!reader

★ WORD COUNT; 3.5k words

★ TAGS; strangers to lovers, lawyer!wonwoo, one night stands, smut

★ WARNINGS; graphic sexual content (MINORS DNI!)

★ NOTES; i've been studying non stop for this exam i gotta take on wednesday and instead of getting some sleep, i reworked another old fic into a svt one HEHE this was a tears of themis fic i wrote almost 3 years ago and couldn't help but imagine wonwoo in artem's place 🧍‍♀️

★ SMUT TAGS; no specifications abt gendered anatomy, soft sex, really vanilla, aftercare

★ TAGLIST; i'll update this when i get on my computer lol

You spot him early into the evening—lights dim and music blaring, but the sight of him is no less blinding, no less enchanting to someone like you.

He looks like a white-collar fellow, shirt buttoned all the way up as he hangs a stuffy-looking coat across one arm. Vigilant eyes, neatly gelled hair, domineering presence—everything about the man screams ‘professional’ and ‘sophisticated’.

But what is an Adonis like him doing in a place like this?

You continue observing from a distance, nursing a drink you sweet-talked a college boy into buying for you. God knows where that guy went off, so you let yourself ogle the gorgeous newcomer a few minutes longer.

He’s no regular—this you’re completely sure of. Even if you didn’t spend as much time as you did in this bar, you can tell from the tension in his shoulders that he isn’t well-acquainted with Seoul's nightlife.

The man takes the laminated menu that the bartender slides over the counter, perusing its contents like he’s ordering at a family restaurant. When he’s made up his mind, you could almost hear how polite he probably sounds while ordering the mildest drink on the list. Sparkling water, maybe.

You don’t waste any time.

Mister tall, dark and handsome becomes considerably wary the moment you slide into the stool next to his—complaining about your ghastly work life out loud. The bartender eases into his role as your wingman seamlessly, much to your amusement. He tells you how his new patron needed a break from the monotone of a nine-to-five biorhythm, too.

“No, it’s not that,” mystery man laughs softly, and God, if sex had a voice, he is most certainly the one behind it. “A friend recommended that I drop by when I have the time.”

“You’re not the type to get plastered alone, though, are you?” A tentative smile worms its way onto your face. “This your first time?”

You half-expect him to deny it, like every stingy salaryman you’ve tried to seduce in the past. But Adonis here seems more honest with himself than most.

“Kind of. And I do have my reasons,” he sighs, dark eyes piercing through yours as he holds out his hand. “I’m Wonwoo. Jeon Wonwoo.”

Wonwoo. Beautiful name befitting of a beautiful man, but thank the gods you aren’t cheesy enough to say that out loud.

You introduce yourself out of courtesy, yet you find yourself quite fond of how the syllables of your name roll across his tongue when he repeats it. There’s nothing even remotely erotic in the way he speaks, but something about this man just pulls you in. Like the polar ends of two magnets, you’re unable to resist the attraction.

The small talk is sparse. You learn he’s an attorney in one of the city’s big-shot law firms, and you tell him about your childhood dream of opening a flower shop in return. He already lives the same cycle of corporate slavery as you do so you doubt he’ll be interested in your trivial work stories.

But…he asks anyway. About your job, your boss, even the work environment. Wonwoo seems like someone who likes to delve into the details—even if you’re no one but a complete stranger he just happened to meet tonight. He’s so catastrophically different from the idiots you settled with for a good time, and you’re afraid he might be setting the bar a little too high. No man looking for someone to warm his bed for the night can be this sincere.

Although, there is one thing that Wonwoo and the unwitting men in this place have in common.

You know the look in his eyes a bit too well. Sadness. Dejection. Resignation?

Who did he lose? A girlfriend? A boyfriend? You have no means of making sure without asking him directly, but you’ve encountered enough heartbroken souls to pick them out of a crowd with ease.

A man as prolific as he is won’t purposely visit a shoddy establishment like this. That’s if he isn’t rearing to forget whatever—or whoever—is weighing on that pretty little head of his.

Wonwoo patiently sips on a glass of bourbon (not sparkling water, thank God) as he listens to you drone about the flowers growing in your balcony. From the looks of it, he doesn’t seem like an ordinary ‘yes man’ either. He even asks for tips on growing aloe vera because he’s heard the natural gel is good for the skin. A handsome hunk that’s polite and gives a damn about skin care? You could marry him on the spot at this point.

“Do you have any favorite flowers?” you wonder.

He considers your words for a moment and you watch the way he traces the rim of his glass with his finger. When Wonwoo meets your gaze, you see it again. That hint of sadness carefully hidden beneath a kind smile.

“Roses,” he murmurs. “As cliché as the preference might sound.”

You shake your head. “Not at all. Roses are big in the market for a reason, but…”

“But?”

“You’re going to think I’m petty if I say it...”

Wonwoo laughs, bringing the glass to his lips as he takes another sip. God, why does he look so unintentionally sexy in everything he does? It’s so unfair…

“I won’t question the expertise of a veteran gardener,” he reassures, and your heart warms at his blatant sincerity. “I take it that you’re not very fond of roses?”

You nod slowly. “Yeah. They’re kind of tricky to take care of. Once, I tried to grow a rosebush but I kept pricking myself on the thorns. Roses are pretty but they hurt.”

“Pretty but they hurt,” Wonwoo repeats the words under his breath. “That’s one way of putting it.”

And then comes the silence.

For a moment, you’re seized by a twinge of panic. The atmosphere suddenly became stale the moment Wonwoo uttered those last words, and you aren’t sure how you should respond. Bartender-wingman is serving someone else on the other side of the counter, so you can’t exactly rely on him for moral support. Oh, God. What if Wonwoo thinks you’re just some pick-me person that makes growing plants a personality trait?

“It’s getting pretty late.”

You startle the moment he speaks again. Wonwoo downs whatever’s left of his drink before flashing you another heart-wrenchingly genuine smile.

“Yeah. The night just passes by when you’re enjoying a conversation,” you laugh. “Do you really have to leave so soon, attorney?”

Wonwoo shakes his head. “No, not really. It’s my day-off tomorrow. How about you? Didn’t you mention you’re from downtown Seoul? That’s a bit far from here.”

You wave away his inquiry. “Nah. I can just take a train back. I’m used to the commute.”

“But you’re under the influence.”

“But I’m not drunk.”

“My apartment is just a few blocks away,” he insists, clearing his throat. “I think it’s safer if you stay the night first. It was raining quite heavily when I got here.”

You stare at him with your lips slightly parted—the gears turning in your head when you finally realize what he was trying to do.

“Jeon Wonwoo,” you say, grinning from ear-to-ear, “are you saying you want me to go home with you?”

His face flushes so badly, even his ears turn red. “Is it working? I mean— I didn’t think I’d really meet anyone worthwhile when I decided to go here, so—?!”

“Good enough for me,” you sigh, getting up from your stool as you link your arm in Wonwoo’s—tugging him along. He sputters a little before fishing out his wallet, and you don’t comment on how he drops a fat wad of cash onto the bar without counting it.

“Are you sure about this?” he asks, unfolding his coat to drape it across your shoulders. “I don’t want to be imposing.”

You scoff when he leads you to the parking lot. True enough, the rain still hasn’t pittered out when you got out of the bar. Maybe taking advantage of his offer isn’t so bad after all.

Grabbing Wonwoo by the front of his shirt, you make him lean down to your level with a smile. He makes a disgruntled noise out of surprise, but doesn’t struggle. You take it as a positive sign. The coat on your shoulders smells like fresh detergent and expensive cologne. You’d be a fool to walk away now.

“Yes, attorney, I’m sure,” you tell him sweetly. “Now why don’t you show me where you plan on growing those aloe vera, hm?”

Spoiler alert: he does not get to show you at all.

Despite how demure he looks, Wonwoo is surprisingly responsive when you jump him the moment the door to his apartment shuts. His lips are sinfully soft, molding his flesh against yours as he pushes his coat off your shoulders, onto the floor.

Though you’re very much liking the feel of his large hands slotting themselves on your hips, there's still a hint of hesitation in his touch. Like he’s unsure whether he wants to carry on with this or not. You pull away with a pout, fingers teasing the buttons on his iron-pressed shirt.

“We can just…hang out if you don’t want to,” you offer.

Wonwoo laughs breathlessly, taking one of your hands in his. You shoot him a weird look before heat starts to creep up your face as he plants a soft kiss on your knuckles.

“What makes you think I don’t?”

His hands travel south again, fitting the swell of your ass in those large palms. You sigh, slotting your lips together again as you jump—wrapping your thighs around his waist before you feel Wonwoo pressing you up against the wall.

Even the way he kisses is enough to drive you over the edge. He doesn’t have the displaced ferocity that most of your old flings thought made make out sessions hotter. You’re not particularly fond of overeager men, and Wonwoo’s pacing is tempered just the way you like it.

He licks into your mouth slowly, sensually, as if he wants you to embed the feel of him tonguing his way in your frazzled brain. You can’t help the moan that reverberates in your throat when he detaches himself from your mouth—taking the time to pepper your neck with little bruises.

But while he’s busy making his mark, your eyes end up focusing on the picture frames Wonwoo hung on the walls of his doorway.

You thread your fingers in his dark hair to distract him as you study each picture. One depicted what you assumed is Wonwoo with his colleagues at the law firm, smiling professionally for the camera. Wonwoo himself looked like a million dollars—tailored suit, unwrinkled shirt, debonair visage. You wouldn’t have mistaken him for anyone else.

But you also notice how his right hand is entwined with someone else’s. A man in a sleek gray blazer, his blond hair falling across cat-like eyes.

He’s present in the other frames, too. The first is a shot of him and Wonwoo sitting on a park bench, the other man sleeping soundly with his head on his shoulder. Wonwoo gazes at him with so much endearment in his eyes, it could only be called love.

There’s another photo with two more men in it. The blond grins brightly with one arm draped around Wonwoo's wide shoulders, while the other attempts to headlock another man whose eyes disappear when he smiles. In the background is someone much shorter than the three—equal parts annoyed and amused by their antics.

“Hey.”

You startle enough to lose your grip around Wonwoo’s legs, and you end up barely balancing yourself on the carpeted floor. Wonwoo laughs, and you shoot him a disgruntled look.

“You’re distracted,” he comments.

Well. Now that the cat’s out of the bag…

“Is he…your boyfriend?” you ask nervously, pointing at the blond in the picture frames. “I’m not committing adultery, am I?”

Wonwoo manages a sad smile, undoing the top buttons of his dress shirt before casting a sidelong glance at the frames mounted on his wall.

“He was about three years ago,” he admits. “But he’s getting married soon. You don’t have to worry about being a third party.”

The house is silent as you observe Wonwoo with keen eyes. It’s been three years, yet the grief in his gaze is still so raw. You’ve been with enough people to know if they’re only doing this with you for a good time, or to forget about someone else.

And you’re more than willing to help him with the latter.

You hook your arms around Wonwoo’s neck before bringing him down for another kiss—one with more fervor, more intensity than you would otherwise offer. He doesn’t reciprocate for a moment, seemingly astonished with your sudden vigor. But in time, he melts against your lips until one after the other, both your clothes start to litter the hall.

His mattress is soft when Wonwoo gently lays you atop the sheets, worshipping every inch of skin you’ve willingly exposed. But after he rises back to meet you in a fleeting kiss, he presses two fingers on your bottom lip. You’re embarrassingly compliant, parting your lips at the same time, inching your thighs apart somewhat subconsciously.

You get his long, dextrous digits nice and wet—tongue swirling around his skin as you cover them in a sheen of saliva. Wonwoo doesn’t say a word, but there’s an uncharacteristic glint in his eyes that you never would’ve associated with him earlier in the evening. A smolder in his usually composed gaze that makes you want to see just how far you can push him.

Wonwoo embraces you with one arm when he slides those spit-slicked fingers along your entrance, preparing you with a delicious stretch that has you keening his name into the cold air of the bedroom. He remains silent still, but you can feel those eyes on you regardless. The heat of his gaze penetrates into your being as his fingers make good work between your legs. When he kisses you again, your lungs feel like they’d been set aflame.

“Wonwoo,” you whisper, lips trembling as he rests his forehead against yours. “Please…”

He chuckles again, soft and reassuring as he lifts your thighs with strong hands, bracketing them across his hips. The cut of his abs from where you can see them look so well-defined, you wonder if he works out regularly. But once he maneuvers around to rid himself of his boxers, your thoughts drift to another impressive segment of his too-perfect-to-be-real body.

The familiar sound of a foil package being torn open snaps you out of your reverie. Wonwoo sighs as he rolls the rubber around his length—face red with lust or embarrassment, you aren’t quite sure. But when he glides the tip of his cock along your swollen entrance, you nearly sob.

“Want you…so bad,” you whimper, grinding down against him. “Wonwoo, please, please—!”

His initial preparation is all for naught, it seems. Because when the beautiful man above you finally buries himself to the hilt, you’re momentarily blinded by the pain of his entrance. You gasp out loud—tears welling in the corners of your eyes. But Wonwoo swallows the noise with an open-mouthed kiss, framing an apology on your lips as he wipes away the tears.

“I’m sorry,” he murmurs, brushing your hair away from your face. “I got a little excited.”

He stays still inside you, watching you get used to the stretch. The patience is a little endearing, given that you’re accustomed to just getting fucked out of your wits. Wonwoo even takes the time to trace comforting shapes along the skin of your thighs in an attempt to calm you down.

“You can move now,” you tell him shyly, turning your head to avoid his gaze.

Wonwoo nods once, pulling his hips back slowly before easing inside you once more. You sigh, burying your face in your hands as he builds you from the ground up, stoking the flame he started inside you the moment you laid your eyes on him.

“I want to see you.”

You jolt when he pins your hips in place with one hand while seizing your wrist with the other. There’s a crease on his brow, like he’s disappointed with you hiding your face from him. But the look immediately morphs into something more captivating.

Then he makes a particularly rough thrust that coaxes a broken moan from your lips.

His sudden, unrelenting pace continues from then on out. Wonwoo grips your thighs hard, but not enough to leave bruises. His discretion makes your heart flutter, but you can’t quite bask in the sentiment given that his cock is hitting all the spots that make stars dance in the seams of your vision. You clench your walls around his length, desperate to get a reaction out of him, and it works. Wonwoo bites his lip like he doesn’t want to make any forthcoming noises, but you bring him back down again for a kiss before anything else.

“You don’t have to hold back so much,” you murmur. “I can take it.”

Those dark eyes widen with surprise, and you can almost feel his self-control snap.

But contrary to your expectations, Wonwoo doesn’t start fucking you into the mattress like a wild animal. Instead, he hoists your hips even higher, holding your body at an odd angle. You’re about to ask what he’s trying to do, but when he plunges his cock back into your weeping hole, the words evaporate on your tongue.

Deep. He’s so impossibly deep that you fear it’ll take you days to sweat him out. A trail of saliva dribbles on your chin as Wonwoo slowly guides you to the apex of an orgasm. Your toes clench, your fingers tangle themselves in his hair. His name sounds like an incantation on your lips, and you wonder if the gods would let you have this man forever.

But…

He loves with a passion that bleeds into his actions, never his words. You can see it in how he doesn’t make a sound. How he’s seemingly on the cusp, teetering dangerously across the knife’s edge. You’re nothing but a stranger to him and yet he looks at you like you’re the most precious thing in the world.

That man is lucky, you think—to be loved by someone as devastatingly devoted as Jeon Wonwoo.

Wonwoo comes down from his post-coital high a bit later than you do. But regardless, he takes it upon himself to carry you over to the bathroom despite your protests that you can do it yourself.

Even the way he washes the evidence of your sultry affair is equal parts firm and tender. He cleans you up patiently, doing the same for himself before handing you a fluffy white towel from the rack. You blush, noting how the fabric smells exactly like him as you dry yourself.

The two of you climb back into bed thereafter—not bothering with clothes, and instead choosing to bask in the heat of your bodies. It feels nice, pressing yourself against his toned chest, and Wonwoo doesn’t seem to have any complaints to raise either.

You don’t expect any pillow talk, nor does it come. After all, this is just one night. Though you’re curious about that old flame of his, you don’t really want to ruin the nighttime mirage you’ve weaved for yourself.

The rain continues to pour outside his windowpane, but the feel of your bodies slotted together can keep you warm for the night. It’s just you and Wonwoo, legs tangled underneath his expensive sheets.

Nothing more, nothing less.

When morning comes, you’re alone on the queen-sized mattress.

Last night’s rainshower has long passed, and you’re forced to squint at the sunlight filtering through a crack in the blinds. You blink groggily, fumbling around Wonwoo’s room for your clothes. You don’t know where he is, but you’re sure as hell going to see yourself out before he gives you a polite rendition of ‘please get out of my house’.

As softly as you can, you shut the door once you’ve dressed yourself—glancing around in the living room to check if the coast is clear. You remember leaving your bag somewhere on the couches last night, and it should be—

“Hmm? You’re leaving?"

You jolt like a cat thrown into a bathtub at the sound of Wonwoo’s deep voice. When you turn around to meet his gaze, you see him at the entrance to the kitchen. Like you, he’s fully dressed now, albeit in more casual clothes compared to last night’s corporate uniform. But what baffles you the most is the cat-printed apron he tied around his waist. The scent of frying pancake batter fills your senses, and your mouth immediately waters.

“Uhh, I figured you’d want to kick me out first thing in the morning,” you laugh nervously, scratching the back of your neck. “Didn’t want to overstay my welcome and all.”

Wonwoo shoots you a confused look before laughing. “Kick you out? I’m not that terrible a person, you know. Come on, I’ve made breakfast.”

He marches back into the kitchen like you have no say in the matter. Like he actually expects you to follow and join him there. Your jaw drops into a semi-offended scowl…

But you stride after him anyways.

⟢ end notes: if you spot any mistakes, do forgive me. it's 3 am and my brain is mush LOL. and if it wasn't obvi enough, the ex is junhui and the dudes in the photo are the 96z 🫡

---

「✦」 oh, how i adore you

joshua x dokyeom, non-idols, fluff, angst, humour, mutual pining, friends to lovers, inspired by the song 'jump then fall' by taylor swift

total word count: 22.2k+

warnings: adults drinking alcohol near the beginning, seokmin is scared of heights? but hes good at dealing w it, overuse of "shua hyung"s bc seokmin is a Simp, kissing

summary: "and joshua... well, joshua had realised something. seokmin's laugh was, without a doubt, one of the best sounds that he had ever heard." - in which joshua never really realised that he'd fall for seokmin, but always has and always will do anything for him. and perhaps that should have been his first sign that he'd well and truly fallen for seokmin a long, long time ago.

notes: it's here!! vv heavily inspired by that one lyric in ms. swift's song that goes "without a warning/i realise your laugh is the best sound i have ever heard" bc it's just sooo seoksoo coded. pls b kind to the fic bc it actually took me forever to write lmaoo and enjoy ^^

The day Joshua fell in love with Seokmin started out like any other.

Well, no. That was a lie. But with friends like Joshua’s, it was impossible for any day to be classed as ‘ordinary’. 

On the day he fell in love with Seokmin, he woke up to someone poking him in the shoulder.

Which was weird, because Joshua lived by himself, and his first thought was that it was some intruder coming to murder him as he slept. He couldn’t find it within him to be scared about that, though, still in a mostly-asleep state as the bony finger continued to poke him incessantly right in the shoulder bone.

He was too tired to be dealing with this. Trying to bury his face into his pillow, Joshua reasoned that if someone was trying to murder him, then it was highly unlikely that they’d want to wake him up first, right? 

Either that, or they were an incredibly polite murderer.

“Shua hyung,” the polite murderer whined, and Joshua groaned as the familiar voice finally registered in his ears.

With a heavy sigh, because he now knew exactly who this intruder was, he let himself be manhandled up into a more upright position, propped against his headboard. His eyes were still shut, refusing to accept this disturbance to his sleep.

“Shua hyung,” the person said again, and Joshua could hear the bright amusement in his tone. “Shua hyung, it’s gone 10 in the morning. You promised me cookies.”

Defeated, Joshua blinked slowly as his shoulders were shaken back and forth, making his head loll drowsily like a doll. He squinted blearily.

“Good morning to you too, Seokmin.”

Seokmin beamed again, wide and happy as if he hadn’t just forcibly woken his hyung up and was now shaking him around like a baby rattle. He was practically sitting in Joshua’s lap, having clambered over him in order to shake his shoulders, and Joshua really was beginning to feel like nothing more than a toy doll at this point. 

“Good morning, hyung!” Seokmin chirped, and sat back on Joshua’s knees, making the elder let out a small ‘oof’ at the sudden weight. “Now hurry up, you said you’d bake me cookies.”

Joshua sighed yet again. He really needed new friends.

───────────── ‘✦,

Joshua had met Lee Seokmin for the first time during his third year of university. It had been an odd encounter, but it had been an encounter brought on by one Yoon Jeonghan and so, when Joshua thought about it, by that man’s standards it hadn’t really been all that odd in the slightest.

“Joshuji,” Jeonghan had declared one afternoon, opening the door and flouncing through the small dorm into their kitchen, dragging a tall boy by his oversized hoodie sleeve behind him. “Meet the first-year that I’ve collected this year.”

Joshua, who had been peacefully sipping his fifth coffee of the day, didn’t even bat an eye at Jeonghan’s declaration. “Another one?”

Even in the present, Joshua could very truthfully admit that Jeonghan had been the sole reason he’d decided to carry on going to uni in Korea and not turn on his heel and return to the States three months after the first day. 

It was because Jeonghan had had this… thing, where he liked ‘collecting’ first-years in their literature department who he wanted to take under his wing. During their first year at uni, he’d latched onto Joshua, who’d been a confused Korean-American student that Jeonghan had, for some reason, taken an immense liking to. Their second year, it had been Lee Jihoon, prickly and snappish but who had a hyper boyfriend who Jihoon stared at with hearts in his eyes.

It was a weird, almost mother hen-like act from Jeonghan, but it was a sweet habit, and Joshua had long since given up questioning anything that he did. 

And so, a little absently, Joshua had turned to look over at Jeonghan’s newest adoptee, a polite smile on his face, before promptly freezing.

“Meet Lee Seokmin,” Jeonghan had said, proudly, like a mother introducing her favourite son. “Isn’t he just the cutest?”

Joshua blinked rapidly, because goodness, Lee Seokmin really was cute.

He was biting his lips nervously, tugging at the sleeves of his hoodie before Joshua finally made eye contact with him, and his eyes rounded as if surprised that Joshua had looked his way.

And then Seokmin waved, before ducking his head, as if attempting to (unsuccessfully) hide behind Jeonghan’s much shorter form. The action was so startingly cute that Joshua couldn’t help the genuine smile that tugged at his lips, giving a small wave back even if Seokmin looked too busy avoiding his gaze to see it.

“Hello,” Joshua said, and awfully, his voice managed to crack on that single word. Jeonghan stifled a snort. In an attempt to cover the awkwardness, Joshua apparently decided it was best to do something even more awkward, and stuck his hand out in Seokmin’s direction. “I’m Joshua Hong. Or, Hong Jisoo. You can call me whatever’s easiest.”

Seokmin had stared down at his hand for several seconds, confused, and Joshua wanted nothing more than to turn back time and restart this entire interaction because really, how much more embarrassing could this get?

Before he could retract his hand, trying to forget the handshake and hopefully forget the new layer of awkwardness, Seokmin leaned over and grasped Joshua’s hand, strands of hair falling into his eyes as he looked up at Joshua, eyes startlingly warm and earnest.

His hair was awfully fluffy, Joshua realised suddenly. And he had big eyes.

He looked like a large, adorable puppy, if adorable puppies were tall uni students who drowned themselves in oversized hoodies.

Seokmin’s cheeks were rather flushed as he shook Joshua’s hand, eyes wide. He had a brief thought that maybe Jeonghan had chased him around their apartment block until he finally reached their floor.

Jeonghan did that sometimes.

And then Seokmin smiled, so brightly that it was like a blinding beam of sunlight, his earlier perceived shyness completely forgotten as he released Joshua’s hand and instead lunged forward to engulf the elder in a hug.

“Hello!” Seokmin chirped, arms still wrapped around Joshua’s shoulders, and when he pulled away, he was still smiling so widely that Joshua felt a little dazed. “It’s nice to meet you, Jeonghan hyung’s told me a lot about you. I like your eyes! Can I call you Shua hyung?”

Joshua blinked rapidly, surprised by the sudden and random bout of chatter coming from the boy, but Seokmin’s eyes were lit up with that white gold light and he was so cute that Joshua couldn’t be anything but endeared.

“Sure,” he said amusedly, and marvelled internally at how Seokmin’s eyes crinkled and he seemed to vibrate happily on the spot. “You can call me Shua hyung.”

Seokmin let out a small laugh, delighted. “Shua hyung!” he cried, and then launched himself into Joshua’s arms again, pulling him in for another hug as the elder stumbled back, arms wrapped securely around Seokmin for balance.

Jeonghan had met Joshua’s eyes over Seokmin’s shoulders, face set in a curiously indecipherable expression. When Joshua furrowed his brows, he just grinned, nodding proudly. “Seems like I chose my first-year very well.”

And, well, Joshua couldn’t say anything at that, because Seokmin still had his face buried in his shoulder and he was just so warm and friendly and also because—

Because Jeonghan might have been the tiniest bit correct.

───────────── ‘✦,

Five years later, however, as the Joshua of the present tried to stop Seokmin from drowning his cookie batter in sugar, he wondered whether Jeonghan had, instead, been very, very incorrect.

“Hyung,” Seokmin complained, when Joshua forcibly wrestled the bag of sugar out of his hands. “Hey, Shua hyung, let me help! I wanna help!”

“You can help by staying away from my poor cookies,” Joshua said firmly. 

When Seokmin wilted pathetically, bottom lip jutting out in a pout, he just poked him in the cheek as he set the sugar far out of Seokmin’s reach. 

“Put the pout away, Min-ah,” he said, using the affectionate nickname that always managed to make Seokmin melt and eventually agree with whatever Joshua said. ““Remember the last time I let you do what you wanted with my cookies?”

Seokmin hung his head. “I almost gave everyone food poisoning,” he muttered miserably.

“You almost gave everyone food poisoning,” Joshua agreed. “Besides, you barged into my house at 10 in the morning to demand that I make you cookies. At least let me actually make them, you know?”

Seokmin rolled his eyes, leaning against the counter as he watched Joshua pick up his wooden spoon and continue mixing the batter. “I didn’t barge in. You gave me the passcode.”

“For emergencies.”

“This was an emergency.”

Joshua shook his head. “Whatever you say, Seokmin. Whatever you say.”

“I do say!” Seokmin said, nodding vigorously. “You promised, hyung. And it’s very important that you keep your promises.”

“Because you always keep yours?”

“I do!”

“Then why haven’t you paid me back for all those times I paid for your food back in uni, hm? When you somehow forgot your wallet while going out for dinner with us?”

Seokmin opened his mouth wordlessly, frowning as Joshua chuckled at him. “Hey,” he said finally. “Don’t bring up my dark past like that.”

Joshua laughed properly, and Seokmin’s face brightened into a smile, as if an automatic response to the sound of someone’s happiness. It was kind of cute, and had Joshua laughing again, leaning over and pinching Seokmin’s cheek with a sticky hand.

“Look at you. You’re like an adorable puppy,” he said, grinning at the residue of sticky dough smeared against Seokmin’s cheek when he pulled away.

“Thanks, hyung,” Seokmin chirped. “So does that mean you’ll allow me to help?”

“No,” Joshua said bluntly, heart squeezing with something warm when Seokmin dramatically made a show of looking disappointed. He leaned over and pinched Seokmin’s other cheek, smearing more cookie dough on his skin. “Just sit there and look pretty while I bake them for you.”

Seokmin grinned, all blinding light. “You think I’m pretty?”

Joshua hummed. “Sure. Not when you have cookie dough on both your cheeks, though.”

“Hyung! You—”

Seokmin huffed, rubbing his cheeks and turning his nose up annoyedly at Joshua, before Joshua offered him a cookie dough-covered spoon not seconds later, and he instantly opened his mouth to obediently lick at it. 

“You really are a puppy, huh?” Joshua shook his head, smiling, and turned back to the mixing bowl. “There. Now shh. Eat that and let me finish your oh-so important cookies.”

Was it kind of weird that Seokmin had barged into his apartment because he wanted cookies? Well, yeah, but that was the kind of friend that Seokmin was. And Joshua was the kind of friend to let him.

If Joshua thought really hard about it, there wasn’t actually any real reason for him to be making Seokmin cookies at all, though. 

There was no special event coming up soon, no celebration or holiday or any reason why Seokmin couldn’t make the cookies himself (save for the fact that he may accidentally leave someone horribly incapacitated in the process).

But last night, Joshua had spent several hours on the phone to Seokmin—something which had somehow become a weekly thing for the two of them, which worried Joshua a little but only if he thought about it for too long—and inexplicably, their conversation had turned to cookies. Seokmin had whined that his favourite strawberry and chocolate chip cookies were no longer being stocked in stores, and before Joshua knew it, he’d promised to bake Seokmin those cookies as soon as he could.

Honestly, the things he did for Seokmin.

Joshua looked over at Seokmin again, who had somehow managed to hop up onto his kitchen counter and was now swinging his legs like a little child, chattering mindlessly while watching Joshua make his cookies for him, and he couldn’t hide the exasperatedly endeared smile that tugged at his lips.

Joshua was always doing things for Seokmin, really. He should start making the guy pay for his services.

Probably.

Seokmin made a delighted noise when Joshua scooped him another spoonful of cookie dough to eat, and Joshua tried not to think too much about why Seokmin’s joy made him feel light too.

“There we go,” Joshua announced, setting down a plate of still-warm, home baked strawberry and chocolate chip cookies onto the table, along with a glass of milk. “Your cookies. Now eat.”

Seokmin lit up, and positively beamed up at Joshua, clasping his hands together. “Oh, wow. They look so good.”

Joshua smiled, pulling up another chair and collapsing into it. “Yeah?”

He watched as Seokmin stuffed a cookie into his mouth, eyes instantly widening as he began nodding his head vigorously.

“The best,” Seokmin said honestly, words muffled, and there was a pink stain of strawberry on the corner of his mouth already. “Shua hyung, how are you always so good at baking?”

Joshua didn’t reply, and just watched Seokmin stuff his face with the cookie, laughing a little as the younger sincerely expressed his compliments, words garbled and unintelligible, and smiled and told him to chew his food properly.

For all of their bickering and teasing whenever the two of them interacted, Seokmin was a soft person at heart, sincere compliments spilling from his lips as easy as daylight.

Speaking of daylight, however, the morning had well and truly come and gone, the early afternoon sun spilling through Joshua’s windows and reminding him that Seokmin had been in his apartment for a good five hours now. He ought to kick the man out soon.

“You’re going to choke yourself if you keep shoving them in your face like that,” Joshua said, nudging the glass of milk closer to Seokmin. “Take your time, the cookies aren’t going anywhere.”

“Yeah, and that’s the problem,” Seokmin replied, cheeks puffing out like a chipmunk as he sipped the milk. “These cookies need to be in my mouth. Right now.”

Joshua chuckled, leaning back in his chair as Seokmin finished off the last of the three cookies on the plate. The rest of the batch were sitting on the cooling rack, waiting to be put into a container for Seokmin to take home, of course. Joshua wasn’t going to go to all the effort of baking cookies if he was only going to make a few.

“Happy now?” he asked, smiling again when Seokmin nodded fervently, beaming, cookie crumbs around his mouth. Joshua shook his head in faux disbelief. “I can’t believe you forced me to make you those cookies.”

“It’s because I’m Shua hyung’s favourite,” Seokmin sing-songed, grinning cheekily. “I’m your most favourite friend in the entire world.”

“Wrong,” Joshua deadpanned. “That’s Jeonghan.”

“Just because Jeonghan hyung’s your best friend doesn’t mean he’s your favourite,” Seokmin said, and Joshua wanted to point out that it kind of did, but Seokmin was already carrying on. “Speaking of Jeonghan hyung though, don’t forget that he’s taking us all to a restaurant for dinner tonight.”

Joshua blinked, closing his mouth. “Really?”

Seokmin looked at him, head tilted, and then grinned. “You forgot, didn’t you?”

“No. Of course not.” Joshua stood up, taking the plate and empty glass and walking into the kitchen. “No I didn’t.”

Seokmin laughed, following Joshua into the kitchen and watching as he washed the crockery. “Oh, you definitely did!” he crowed delightedly, and it was such a Seokmin thing to be delighted by that it had Joshua smiling again, even as he tried to maintain a long-suffering frown. “Can’t believe you forgot all about it. Good thing I reminded you, huh? What would you do without me, Shua hyung?”

Seokmin sounded so endlessly smug, eyes shining for reasons that Joshua couldn’t quite fathom. The warm afternoon light from the windows spilled over his face and gave him a golden glow, and so Joshua finally broke, laughing and drying his hands before ruffling Seokmin’s hair, moving away from the sink and over to the rest of the cookies.

“I dunno. Die?” Joshua suggested, making Seokmin laugh suddenly at the answer.

“Maybe not that extreme,” he said. “You’d probably just miss the dinner that hyung planned to celebrate our friend group’s 2000 day anniversary. Which, actually, on second thoughts, probably would lead to your death,” he added thoughtfully.

Joshua smiled, beginning to deposit the cookies into a plastic container. “In which case, thank you for saving me from certain death, Seokmin.”

“You’re most welcome!” Seokmin said brightly, with a grin. “Do I get a cookie?”

That made Joshua chuckle, looking up from the container to raise his eyebrows at Seokmin. “This entire batch is yours, Seokmin. You can have as many as you like.” 

He placed the container into Seokmin’s hands, and then started walking out of the kitchen.

“Also, you have cookie crumbs all around your mouth.”

Seokmin’s loud whine of annoyance echoed throughout his apartment. “Hyung!”

───────────── ‘✦,

And so that was how Joshua’s morning had gone. Relatively uneventful and, truthfully, rather ordinary (well, as normal as a morning could be when you had Lee Seokmin for a best friend). So Joshua wasn’t truly expecting anything different during dinner that evening.

Their overexcited yells blurred together and echoed noisily throughout the BBQ restaurant, and Joshua laughed into his glass of water as half of the table shouted over each other for some reason or other.

They were getting a fair amount of concerned stares from the general public, which was understandable, because Soonyoung was vibrating like he was due to explode any minute and half of them weren’t even sitting in their chairs anymore, but this was how their dinners out together always went, so Joshua didn’t even bat an eye.

“I’m sure if you strap a jet pack onto the ostrich, then it could definitely fly,” Mingyu was insisting, and Seungkwan stared at him in utter disbelief.

“If you strap a jet pack onto a hippo then it could definitely fly!” Seungkwan screeched, and Wonwoo nodded vigorously in agreement. “Doesn’t mean that ostriches can fly!”

“It does!” Mingyu said, but his eye twitched as he talked. It was a sure sign that he knew he was basically talking nonsense, but Seungkwan looked far too irate to notice. “Flying is when stuff goes into the sky, right? I fully believe that a hippo can fly too.”

Wonwoo’s eye was twitching, too, and definitely not for the same reason that Mingyu’s was. “You think that hippos can fly.”

Mingyu grinned. “I do.”

“I support him!” Soonyoung cried out suddenly, and everyone exploded, eager to take part and voice their opinion.

Their conversation had long ago strayed from being in the realm of anything that made sense, and at the end of the long table that they were all eating at, Jeonghan was quite peacefully picking meat off of his barbeque grill, him and Seungcheol making pleasant conversation and ignoring the shouts coming from next to them.

Joshua shook his head. Typical Jeonghan behaviour.

Ducking his head to avoid Soonyoung’s flailing arms as the younger vehemently defended Mingyu’s (frankly very stupid) opinion, Joshua reached over the table for the bottle of soju, filling up his shot glass and knocking it back, observing his friends with a grin on his face.

So far, the dinner had been going incredibly normally. 

They’d taken part in drinking games, and Mingyu and Seokmin had made a show of cooking the meat for everyone, and the conversation had switched topics hilariously fast a span of fifteen times. 

And Joshua was having a great time. He’d been seated between Chan and Hansol, who were actually rather good people to be seated between, because Hansol ended up dozing off three hours into the dinner and Chan ended up disappearing to sit somewhere on the other side of the table, leaving Joshua in peace to observe and laugh at his friend’s antics.

He’d been doing what he always did at their friendaversary dinners: replace half his shots with water, watch his friends’ drunk arguments (and occasionally interject with one random statement to rile them all up again), and also eat as much beef as possible because, well. Jeonghan was paying. He may as well make the most of it.

Joshua listened to the shaking, booming voice of Wonwoo going “What do you mean you’ve never heard of a penguin before?”, and chuckled. 

Everything was indeed going very normally. 

“Shua hyung,” a voice said in his ear, one bony finger poking right into his shoulder blade before a cold hand pressed against the nape of his neck, making him yelp and turn around.

Seokmin grinned at him from Chan's previously-empty chair, eyes looking a little too bright to be wholly sober.

“Shua hyung,” he said again, his grin full of mischief. “Don’t look so excited to see me. Desperation isn’t a good look on anyone.”

Joshua just rolled his eyes, tweaking Seokmin’s ear for good measure. “As if I’d be excited to see you.” Seokmin pouted, and pressed his entire cold palm against Joshua’s cheek just to be mean. “Hey, don’t put your gremlin hands on me, you brat. Why are your fingers so cold, anyway?”

Seokmin shrugged, holding his hands up and looking at them like he’d never seen them before. “Guess they just get cold really easily.” He looked up, and his smile seemed to widen even further, holding his hands out to Joshua. “Warm them up for me?”

“Warm them up yourself,” Joshua said, but he was already reaching out for Seokmin’s hands, warming his fingers between his palms.

Seokmin just beamed, pleased, like he’d known that Joshua would immediately give him what he wanted. Hands still being held by Joshua, he turned back to the rest of their friends, observing them with bright eyes.

He grinned at something that Junhui said, and Joshua watched him, smiling a little. 

There was always just something about Seokmin’s happiness that made one feel happy too. Back when they first met, five years ago, it had been one of the things that had endeared Seokmin to Joshua in the first place.

Joshua looked back at the rest of their friends, listening as Soonyoung was yet again doing his terrifyingly accurate impression of Seungkwan. He smiled, but didn’t pay attention for long, because next to him, Seokmin slipped his hands out of his grip, clapping delightedly and then raised his hands to cover his mouth.

And then Seokmin laughed: loud, brightly, full of golden light as he tipped back in his chair before leaning forward, yelling encouragement to Soonyoung on the other end of the table.

He laughed again, and Joshua just—

Joshua just watched him. 

He was unable to tear his eyes away as Seokmin snorted inelegantly, bursting into fits of laughter and collapsing into Joshua’s shoulder, seemingly unable to hold himself up due to the force of his laughs.

All he could do was stare down fondly at Seokmin, giggling into him. Seokmin, whose eyes had crinkled so they were nothing more than overjoyed crescents, whose laughter was ringing in the air, and even the yells of their friends had become muffled in Joshua’s ears, his focus solely on Seokmin by his side and his bright, unabashed laugh.

Seungkwan said something then, and Seokmin looked up, eyes bright with mirth as he made to stand up. 

“Hey! Seungkwan!” Seokmin yelled, getting up from the chair and leaning on the table. “Look, you—”

And then he cut himself off, bursting into laughter as Soonyoung said something, arms waving in the air, and Seokmin hurried over to them before Seungkwan could get his hands around Soonyoung’s throat, still laughing the entire time. 

“Hey, let me go! Let me go after Soonyoung hyung! This guy deserves it for sure—”

Seokmin was waved off by Seungkwan, but he still kept a close distance, hovering over the younger with his face crinkled into a smile and seemingly unaware of how he'd left Joshua with his head in shambles on the other side of the table. 

And Joshua… well, Joshua had realised something.

Seokmin’s laugh was, without a doubt, one of the best sounds that Joshua had ever heard.

Which was a good thing, Joshua mused, watching Seokmin from across the table, watching him say something and then burst into laughter at his own words. Seokmin was a chronic smiler and chronic laugher, and could never be seen without his lips curling upwards at something or other, letting out at least a small snuffle of a laugh.

Joshua had heard Seokmin laugh hundreds, if not thousands, of times. Never before had he realised how good Seokmin’s laugh sounded, though. Or how good he looked when he laughed.

Happiness was a good look on Seokmin.

Sometimes, his laughter scrunched his face up hilariously, and sometimes, it turned into loud shrieks more than actual laughs. Even so, Joshua thought it was rather endearing, and still sounded like golden chimes in a spring breeze.

It would be incredibly easy to fall in love with a laugh like that.

Joshua froze, mind going blank as Seokmin tilted his head back, laughing and smiling widely, his golden laughter ringing in his ears. 

Oh.

Oh, no.

“Alright, you three, shut up,” Jeonghan finally interrupted, seemingly having had enough of their fighting. “You’re gonna give me a headache. And you’re going to wake poor Hansol up,” he added, gesturing to Hansol who was still sleeping in the chair next to Joshua.

Seungkwan whined immediately. “Hyung! Soonyoung hyung’s doing crazy stuff again!”

“So is Seungkwan!”

“I know,” Jeonghan said, “but you’re both being ridiculous. Sit down. Why don’t we play a nice, quiet game?”

“Or,” a voice said, “you can leave.”

One of the restaurant workers was frowning at them, and handed Jeonghan the bill. 

“In fact, please leave.”

Jeonghan blinked down at the bill in his hands, before his eyes widened and he made a slight distressed sound. “Who ordered this much beef?” He looked around, eyes wide. “Who ordered all of this?”

Seungcheol grabbed his arm before he could work himself up into a fit. “We’ll be on our way, thank you,” he said to the server, bowing. “Our apologies. Jeonghan, come on, you said you’d pay.”

“I’m not paying for all of this,” Jeonghan said stubbornly, even as Seungcheol pushed him towards the desk. “Cheol, split it with me. Look at this! This is crazy! I swear, when I find out who ordered three different cuts of wagyu beef I’m gonna—”

Their gathering split up rather quickly after that, though it did look like Wonwoo had a difficult time trying to drag an incredibly drunk Chan out of his seat. Joshua was rather grateful though, partly because he didn’t want to stick around if Jeonghan managed to catch a whiff of who’d ordered the most expensive meat on the menu, and partly because it would give him the chance to process the sudden realisation he’d just had.

Jihoon was putting very little effort into dragging Soonyoung away from Seungkwan, while Mingyu was bodily hauling the younger man out of the restaurant. The sight would have made Joshua laugh, only he was too occupied with gathering all of his own things and booking it out of the restaurant and back home as soon as possible.

“Shua hyung!”

A hand suddenly squeezed Joshua’s arm, making him whip his head upwards, almost knocking right into Seokmin’s chin as the younger leaned over him.

“Oh my g—Seokmin,” Joshua said, stepping back a little so they weren’t practically nose to nose. “You scared me.”

“Sorry,” Seokmin said, and then grinned. “Are you walking home, hyung?”

Joshua looked over at the counter, where Jeonghan seemed to still be arguing with Seungcheol about splitting the bill. “Probably,” he said. “It looks like those two’ll be arguing for a while. It’ll be, like, three in the morning by the time Cheol drops me back off if I wait for them to be done.”

Seokmin’s lips twisted, eyes round with concern. “You shouldn’t be walking home by yourself at this time of night, hyung.” His face lit up. “D’you wanna come with us instead? Myungho and Junhui hyung are driving me back home. I’m sure they could drop you off too.”

His first instinct was to say yes, of course and that would be great, but his heart was racing unusually fast in his chest, and looking at Seokmin’s bright, earnest eyes for even a second too long made Joshua feel all warm and melty inside, and considering the obscene amount of alcohol he’d consumed (even with his half-water scheme going on) it probably wasn’t a good idea to spend a whole car ride next to Seokmin.

“No thanks,” Joshua said, rather too hurriedly, and then looked down to adjust his shoulder bag, embarrassed at his own abrupt answer. “I mean—I don’t live that far away. I’ll be fine.”

Seokmin looked at him for a long moment, and he must have been more drunk than Joshua thought, because his eyes were coloured with a glittering expression that made him pause.

Seokmin looked almost disappointed.

And then he blinked, and the expression was gone, replaced with a slightly lopsided grin as he pulled Joshua in for a hug then instantly stepped away, wringing his hands together. “Well, goodnight then, Shua hyung,” Seokmin said. “I’ll see you?”

Joshua managed to dredge up his own smile, giving a small wave. “Yeah. See you, Min-ah.”

So Joshua bid him goodnight and the rest of them goodbye, and walked out of the restaurant, his heart thumping in his chest, Seokmin’s smile glowing in the back of his eyes.

And the knowledge that he was in love with Seokmin etched into his brain.

───────────── ‘✦,

Joshua and Seokmin’s friendship went something like this.

They teased, bickered, pinched each other’s elbows and pressed palms against faces. They doted, coddled, cared for each other and talked over the phone until the wee hours of the morning. Seokmin would whine for something, and Joshua would give it to him. Joshua wouldn’t even have to say a word, and Seokmin would be reaching out to hold him, in an instant knowing exactly what Joshua needed.

Seokmin was loud, almost obnoxiously so, but when Joshua went out seeking solace he went to Seokmin first, because Seokmin was always, always soft and comfortable for Joshua.

Joshua sat down on his couch and stirred the sugar into his coffee with a teaspoon, frowning down at it thoughtfully.

Jeonghan was Joshua’s best friend. The other half of his soul.

But even if Jeonghan was half of Joshua’s soul, then Seokmin was the soul that was made to fit with Joshua’s. Not an identical copy of his own, but something that melted and moulded into his edges, slotting together as if they’d been designed to fit into each other all long, like they were—

“Puzzle pieces,” Joshua said to himself, smiling a little fondly. Seokmin was terrible at puzzles. 

He couldn’t help but think of that one jigsaw puzzle that Jeonghan had bought Seokmin for his birthday, and the two of them had bickered for fifteen minutes straight on whether Seokmin would actually be able to complete it. Seokmin said that of course he could, and Joshua said he definitely could not.

(In the end, it turned out that Seokmin could not, but Joshua helped him finish it anyway.)

When Joshua pushed, Seokmin pulled.  Where Joshua was cat-like, easy grins and quick thoughts, Seokmin was puppy-like, bright and boundless energy and endless kindness. Seokmin could never say no to anyone, and while Joshua was getting a little better at it, he could still never say no to Seokmin.

A myriad of not-quite contradictions, of almost-opposites and nearly-differents. Of “Shua hyung?”s and “Yes Seokmin?”s and “Nothing, I just wanted to see if you were still listening to me”s.

Soulmates, but in the truest sense of the word—the person whose soul was meant to reside next to his.

Joshua set down the teaspoon, frowning thoughtfully. When he put it like that, it did sound an awful lot like they were in love. Perhaps he should’ve realised he’d fallen for Seokmin a lot sooner.

Because that was what it was, wasn’t it? Joshua had fallen for Seokmin, perhaps long, long ago, fallen for his entire being and everything he was.

And it took him listening to Seokmin’s laugh to finally realise.

His phone rang, then, a wonderful tune of Jeonghan screaming really loudly that the man had set as the custom ringtone for himself, and with a sigh, Joshua set down his coffee and picked up. 

“What do you want?” 

“Let’s go out.” 

“No thanks. I’m flattered, Han, but I don’t like you in that way.” 

“Idiot,” Jeonghan said, and Joshua chuckled. “Come on, let’s go for a walk down the river.” 

Joshua hummed, looking down at his coffee, tracing a finger over the rim of the mug. “What if I have plans? And what if I don’t want to go out?”

“Joshuji. If you were busy, you wouldn’t have picked up so fast,” Jeonghan said, tone patronising, like this was obvious. “It’s a very nice day for a walk today, you know. Also, Seungcheol’s coming. We all wanna go on a walk together, so join us.”

That made Joshua wrinkle his nose. “No thanks. I don’t have plans to be a third wheel today.”

There was a pause.

“I’ll ask Seokmin to come too.”

Joshua blinked, and then cursed his own heart for jumping hopefully at the mere mention of Seokmin’s name. “And why are you telling me that?”

“Just because,” Jeonghan said, and Joshua could almost picture his flippant shrug. “He said he hasn’t seen you in a week. Have you been avoiding him, hm?”

“No,” Joshua said, and then coughed. Jeonghan hummed sceptically at his words.

“Sure.”

“Why would I be avoiding him?” Joshua continued. “He can come invade my home whenever he wants. He’s done it before. I’m not avoiding him.”

Joshua was definitely avoiding him.

It had been a week since their friendaversary dinner, and Joshua hadn’t seen Seokmin once, too preoccupied with sitting on his couch, staring blankly at the wall and contemplating the fact that he was in love with Seokmin.

He couldn’t bring himself to see Seokmin, not just yet—not before he was sure that he wouldn’t do something utterly ridiculous when they next saw each other. He wasn’t keen on abruptly professing his love the moment he saw Seokmin’s face. Or ruffling his hair and kissing his cheeks and staring, wide-eyed and in awe as Seokmin did something painfully ordinary, like breathing or being alive or just smiling even remotely in Joshua’s direction.

Joshua blinked rapidly as suddenly, his thoughts conjured a vivid image of Seokmin beaming at him, his sunshine smile glowing prettily in his mind’s eye.

“Maybe Seokmin wants you to be the one to come and see him first,” Jeonghan suggested when Joshua didn’t say anything.

Joshua ignored him, dragging a hand down his face. “Why would you telling me that Seokmin’s coming change my answer, though?”

“Oh, it will,” Jeonghan said cheerfully. “I know things, Shuji. So come on out, we’ll meet at the front of Cheol’s house in fifteen minutes. See you.”

He hung up, then, leaving Joshua to stare down at the blinking contact, shaking his head and wondering whether Jeonghan actually knew something or if he was just being Jeonghan yet again. 

And then, he got up from the sofa and went to his room to get ready.

───────────── ‘✦,

Yoon Jeonghan, that little rat.

“Yoon Jeonghan, that little rat,” Joshua muttered, watching as Jeonghan walked away, arm slung over Seungcheol’s shoulders. It was a bit of a struggle, because Seungcheol was one broad guy, but Jeonghan managed.

Of course he did. He'd do anything to ensure the success of his schemes, and this was all part of his ploy to abandon Joshua with Seokmin.

Seokmin, who was pressed close to his side, as they both watched Jeonghan and Seungcheol walk away.

Seokmin, who just turned to Joshua with a bright smile, seemingly undeterred by Jeonghan’s horrific betrayal. 

“Well,” he chirped, eyes crinkling prettily, and suddenly Jeonghan’s betrayal didn’t feel so bad. “Guess we get to spend the rest of the afternoon as just the two of us!”

Indeed they did.

Jeonghan and Seungcheol had been with them for a total of forty five minutes before suddenly, an inescapable emergency emerged, one that urgently required both of them to rush home and leave Seokmin and Joshua alone. Not before insisting that they had to finish the walk together, of course.

Cursing Jeonghan inwardly, Joshua plastered a smile onto his face, a smile that softened into something a little more genuine as Seokmin continued beaming.

“Yeah. Seems like it’s just us.”

The gentle rushing sounds of the river seemed to gurgle in harmony with Seokmin as the younger resumed his chattering, the two of them continuing their leisurely strolling alongside the river.

It really was a nice day for a walk. Joshua hadn’t really had the chance to appreciate how pleasant everything was that day, too busy avoiding Seokmin and even trying to squish himself between Jeonghan and Seungcheol so that he didn’t have to talk to Seokmin for too long and stare into those pretty, pretty eyes.

But now Joshua had no choice but to walk with Seokmin and so, accepting his fate, he was able to look around and acknowledge that today truly was a nice day.

The sun shone brightly, glistening and glinting off of the waves of the river, off of the leaves of the trees, off of the sparkles in Seokmin’s eyes. There was a pleasant breeze, rustling the reeds and ruffling Seokmin’s hair and giving him an adorably windswept fringe that he kept brushing back with one, delicate finger. It was a nice day to look out at the picturesque river, at the general public going about their daily business, at Seokmin’s adorable eye crinkles as he animatedly told a story.

Okay. Maybe Joshua spent half the time staring at Seokmin’s face rather than doing anything else.

It was kind of unavoidable, however, given the way that Seokmin was comfortably pressed into his side, his hands warm as they tucked themselves into the crook of Joshua’s elbow, clinging to him in a way that Joshua, admittedly, thought was very adorable. And Seokmin kept talking, his voice bright and bubbly and every time he smiled, Joshua had no choice but to direct his full attention to Seokmin and Seokmin only.

“And I just watched them the entire time, seeing what they would do after they saw the seagull slip on the log and fall off. Because surely they’d try to go around the log, right? But then the ducks just—” Seokmin cut himself off, one hand coming up to muffle the laugh that escaped his lips, and Joshua found himself smiling too.

“The ducks did what?”

“They just waddled up to the log and one by one slipped off and landed into the water,” Seokmin laughed, and mimicked a duck’s waddle with his head before putting on a dramatically surprised face and pretending to fall into imaginary water.

It had Joshua laughing, endeared, steadying Seokmin as the younger stumbled into him. They really were walking quite close together.

This was the unfortunate thing about being friends with a Lee Seokmin for five years. The man developed a complete lack of understanding for something called ‘Joshua’s personal space’. 

It was a concept that didn’t exist. Not to him, not when they’d known each other for far too long after Jeonghan had introduced Joshua to him all those years ago. For Seokmin, it was totally natural to be practically walking together as one person with Joshua as they made their way down the riverbank. Totally normal for him to be leaning into Joshua most of the time, rather than actually standing on his own two feet.

Joshua wouldn’t normally have a problem with it. He was well aware of Seokmin’s clinginess, and would either respond by pushing him away or letting him do what he wanted, without thinking too much about it.

Now, though. Now things were different. 

Because he was in love with Seokmin, and that made everything a lot harder.

“Did you know that ducks are half-nocturnal?” Seokmin said abruptly, and Joshua blinked.

“I did not know that,” he said. “Why do you know that?”

Seokmin just shrugged casually, his shoulder bumping against Joshua’s. “Got bored,” he said. “Remember, like, a month ago, when you just kept talking about all your different cousins for an hour straight and you accused me of not listening to you?”

“I do. You started sulking.”

“Yeah!” Seokmin grinned, like it was no big deal. “Well, I lied to you, hyung. I wasn’t listening. I was searching up duck facts.”

“Wow.” Joshua stared at him. “You’d choose searching up duck facts over listening to your own hyung talk? I’m hurt, Seokmin. How could you?”

Seokmin only laughed, reaching out for Joshua when the elder dramatically ripped his arm away from his hold, beginning to speed-walk down the path away from him. It didn’t take long for Seokmin to catch up with him again, latching himself to his side once more, even when Joshua refused to look at him.

“Shua hyung, I didn’t mean it like that,” Seokmin whined, pouting. When Joshua didn’t react, he whined again. “Shua hyung! Hey, hey, pay attention to me.”

Joshua steadfastly avoided looking over at Seokmin. Part of it was to keep up the act of being mad at him, but part of it was because if he looked over at Seokmin at that moment, there was a good chance that Joshua would simply combust on the spot.

When Seokmin pouted like that with his huge, round puppy eyes and made those whining sounds in the back of his throat, it was so utterly endearing that it took everything in Joshua to not just fall to his knees right then and there. Seokmin was quite easily one of the most adorable people that Joshua knew, and what made matters worse was the fact that Seokmin didn’t really seem to know just how adorable he really was.

“Shua hyung,” Seokmin said again, very sadly, and Joshua finally looked at him. The moment they made eye contact, Seokmin’s entire being positively lit up, and Joshua had to look away again.

Goodness. It was so hard being in love.

“Alright, I forgive you,” Joshua said, before Seokmin could do something ridiculous like pout all pathetically and whine out a sad Shua hyung again.

“Cool!” Seokmin said instantly, beaming, the earlier sadness wiped from his expression like it never even existed in the first place. “That’s good, ‘cause you’re my favourite hyung, Shua hyung, so I don’t want you to be mad at me.”

Seokmin sounded like he was teasing, when he said it like that, but Joshua couldn’t be too sure. Thinking about it for too long made his head feel all dizzy.

Woah. This really wasn’t good.

While Joshua didn’t necessarily dislike being in love with Seokmin, because it was impossible to put the word ‘dislike’ and ‘Seokmin’ in the same sentence, it dawned on him now that it made it very hard to function normally around the younger man. It made him feel all melty and gooey inside whenever Seokmin so much as looked over at him, and when Seokmin smiled, Joshua could feel himself melt and could hardly even think straight for several seconds after.

But, well. Seokmin was grinning widely at him, tugging his arm to pull him along the path and saying there was normally a very nice lady selling roses on the riverbank and wouldn’t Shua hyung like a rose too?, and he was being just so very Seokmin that it made Joshua smile.

“Of course,” he said, chuckling, as Seokmin slipped his hand into his and they began jogging down the path. “Of course I’d love a rose. Only if you’re paying, though.”

───────────── ‘✦,

“I'm in love with Seokmin,” Joshua declared, loudly, the moment he opened the door to Jeonghan and Seungcheol’s shared apartment.

Seungcheol blinked at him from the hallway, a half-eaten slice of toast on the floor from where he’d dropped it in surprise at Joshua's sudden entrance.

“Um. Nice to know?” he said. “Took you long enough, though.”

Joshua blinked back at him. “Where’s Jeonghan? Why are you here?”

“Hey. I live here, you know,” Seungcheol pointed out, before bending down and picking up his slice of toast. He winced down at the crumbs. “Dang, that’s gonna bring in ants. Also, why are you here?” he asked, in Joshua’s direction. “And how did your date with Seokmin go?”

“It was not a—wait, if you knew I wasn’t in love with Seokmin yet, why did you set us up like that? How did you know I’d fall in love with him in the first place?”

“Because you’re you,” Jeonghan said, emerging from somewhere with a handheld vacuum cleaner in hand. He handed it to Seungcheol, who stared at him like he was some sort of holy saviour. “And because Seokmin’s Seokmin. It was bound to happen at some point.”

Joshua frowned. “That doesn't make sense.”

“Believe what you wanna believe,” Jeonghan said, shrugging. “Anyway, why did you barge into our apartment like this?”

“Oh. Yeah.” Joshua frowned again. “I hate you for abandoning us today at the river.”

“Hey, we were being helpful!” Jeonghan said, over the sound of Seungcheol noisily vacuuming up the crumbs. “Did you not have a good time? Seokmin even bought you a rose, it seems.”

“What?” Joshua looked down at the plastic-wrapped rose in his hands. He’d come straight from his walk with Seokmin to Jeonghan’s apartment, and he’d completely forgotten that he was still holding the rose. “How can you be so sure that Seokmin bought it for me? Maybe I bought it for myself.”

Jeonghan smiled, all-knowing. “This is Seokmin we’re talking about, Joshuji.”

“So?”

“So,” Jeonghan said, “you should come in. Or do you wanna stay by the doorway forever?”

Fifteen minutes later, Jeonghan had ushered him into the living room and seemed to be attempting to stuff Joshua with all the snacks in the world before he left.

Joshua sighed. “Come on, Jeonghan, why are you—”

Jeonghan simply shoved a lollipop into Joshua’s mouth, effectively shutting him up. “Shh. Let me do the talking, okay?”

“Hey, I’m the one who came to talk to you,” Joshua protested, taking the lollipop out only for Jeonghan to shove it back in again. “Why are you—What do you even have to say to me—”

“I have a lot of stuff to say to you,” Jeonghan said, and then his face abruptly morphed into a stern expression. “I am very displeased with your behaviour, Joshua-ssi.” He waved a finger in Joshua’s direction. “You haven’t been treating Seokmin well.”

Joshua choked on his lollipop. “What?”

“You’ve been avoiding him,” Jeonghan said, still in that stern tone. 

“Avoiding him? What do you mean?”

Jeonghan straightened, adjusting imaginary glasses and began listing off of his fingers. “First, you talked to Seokmin for a grand total of 7 minutes and 43 seconds during our friendaversary dinner the other week. Out of a five hour gathering? That’s terrible.”

“Were you timing us?”

“Next, you ignore him for a whole week. You don’t call him, nor do you reply to his texts, nor do you even text him first.”

“I never reply to anyone’s texts.”

“And then today,” Jeonghan declared, throwing his hands up like a grand climax, “you did everything in your power to avoid him entirely while we were all walking together. I’m terribly displeased with you, Joshua-ssi.”

Joshua raised a hand confusedly, the lollipop held in the other. “Okay, Jeonghan, what are you talking about? Why are you displeased?” he asked. “Also can we, uh, backtrack a bit? You didn’t fully acknowledge the… thing.” He reddened slightly. “The fact that I have, uh, feelings for… him.”

“Hm?” Jeonghan unwrapped a chocolate, offering it to Joshua before abruptly popping it into his own mouth. “Oh, I knew about that.”

Joshua’s eyes widened. “How?”

“That dinner, for starters,” Jeonghan said with his mouth full. He shook his head at Joshua’s surprise, the ‘you’re being weird right now’ tone clear in his voice. “Honestly, did you black out for the entire evening? You were watching Seokmin the entire time, Joshua. Seungcheol even has a video.”

“I do,” Seungcheol said, his voice appearing out of nowhere right over Joshua’s shoulder, making him jump.

“Oh my—Where did you come from?”

Seungcheol just grinned, whipping out his phone and showing Joshua the video.

And the video was… pretty incriminating. It was a little blurry, made ambiguous by the haze of smoke wafting from the meat and the frankly terrible cameraman-ship, but Joshua could recognise himself easily. 

He watched as video-Joshua sat back in his chair, glass in hand, and there were about five people standing up and yelling at each other on screen but video-Joshua’s gaze was unmistakably, undeniably fixed on Seokmin and Seokmin alone, eyes crinkling adoringly, smiling so ridiculously wide as Seokmin just continued talking, entirely oblivious.

Seokmin said something intelligible, words lost to the noise of the restaurant, but video-Joshua just smiled even wider, eyes turning into endeared crescents and Joshua could almost see the hearts emanating from his own gaze. 

“Huh,” he said weakly, once Seungcheol vanished after showing him the video. Like he was nothing more than a cameo in Jeonghan's entire interrogation, or something. “Well.”

Jeonghan nodded, smug. “Although, I did know even before that,” he added. “I predicted it from the moment you first met him. I wanted to show you the video, though, because it makes it pretty obvious.”

“The mome—you know what, I’m not going to ask,” Joshua said, and then sighed. “Alright, so you know. And you have nothing to say about it?”

“Other than the fact you should stop being mean to Seokmin?” Jeonghan shrugged, taking out another chocolate and eating it. “Nope. You guys would be great together.”

“What?” Decidedly ignoring that last statement, Joshua waved the lollipop he was still holding in Jeonghan’s direction, annoyed, and in answer, Jeonghan just shoved it back in his mouth again. “I’m not being mean to him. When am I ever mean to him?”

He took the lollipop out of his mouth again  and then set it down on the coffee table, ignoring the affronted noise Jeonghan made when the sticky sweet came into contact with the wood. 

This entire conversation was not going how Joshua thought it would. He’d expected at least some degree of surprise from Jeonghan, maybe even a little bit of comfort whilst Joshua had a small mental breakdown in front of him. He certainly hadn’t expected Jeonghan to somehow already know everything, even before Joshua knew. Nor had he expected to be scolded for how he’d dealt with his feelings.

“This past week! I just told you, Joshua-ssi,” Jeonghan said. 

“Can you stop calling me ‘Joshua-ssi’? It makes it sound like you’re mad at me.”

“I am mad at you,” Jeonghan responded, sniffing and turning his nose up. “Okay, but seriously, Seokmin thought that he’d done something wrong. He thought you were upset at him, which is exactly why I made you come out on that walk today.” He stabbed a finger in Joshua’s direction. “You, sir, are terrible at handling your feelings.”

Joshua sighed. “Can you blame me, though? Being in love is—is weird. Seokmin is just so…” He paused, wringing his hands. “He’s so sweet and kind and genuine and realising that you’ve fallen for someone like that is, I think, a very justifiable cause for having a breakdown for a week.”

Jeonghan frowned. “It makes it sound like you don’t think he’d like you back.”

“Of course he wouldn't,” Joshua said, like it was obvious. “He’s Seokmin, and I’m—” Joshua swallowed, a lump rising in his throat. “I’m just me.”

“Just you?”

“Look at it this way,” Joshua explained, since apparently Jeonghan didn’t understand this horribly simple concept of Joshua being literally a potato compared to Seokmin. “Seokmin is a star, a brilliantly shining ball of light. And then this is me.”

Joshua unwrapped one of the chocolates, holding up the brown ball. Jeonghan blinked at it, before taking both the wrapper and chocolate from him, popping the treat into his mouth.

“I still don’t get it,” Jeonghan said. “So what? Chocolate is yummy.”

“I like him too much to risk melting away under his Sun, if I get too close,” Joshua explained, and then shook his head. “Seriously, I like him so much, Jeonghan. Him and his smile and his laugh and that ridiculously loud voice of his…” He smiled slightly, and then sighed. “I like Seokmin far too much to risk even thinking about if he could like me back. It’d ruin our friendship.”

Jeonghan tilted his head. “Is it really that absurd to consider that Seokmin may like you back?”

Joshua thought of Seokmin and his golden smiles, his beautiful bright voice and his gentle hands and his warm presence, and swallowed.

“Yeah,” he said, a little hoarsely. “I think it is.”

There was a short silence then, as Jeonghan bit his lip, seeming to soften a little at Joshua’s answer, a complicated expression filling his eyes.

Then he leaned over and hit Joshua over the head with the chocolate wrapper.

“Hey!” Joshua protested, brushing at his hair. “Why did you do that?”

“Because you’re an idiot,” Jeonghan said matter-of-factly. “You think it’s absurd? I think you’re absurd, Joshuji.” Oh, good, at least he wasn’t calling Joshua ‘Joshua-ssi’ anymore. “You're being a coward. Don’t deny it, it’s true. Taking a whole week to process your feelings? Please. You were just hiding because you were scared.”

That made Joshua wince a little, because Jeonghan was, unfortunately, quite correct.

“Just take that leap,” Jeonghan said, gentler. He poked Joshua in the cheek affectionately. “Jump. Jump towards Seokmin, Joshuji, because I promise, he’ll be there for you. Even if he doesn’t feel the same. Which, I assure you, is highly unlikely.”

Joshua’s eyes melted, irises looking a little shiny. “But what if I jump and just… fall?”

“He’d never let that happen,” Jeonghan promised. “Jump and fall into him, Joshuji. He’s there to catch you.”

───────────── ‘✦,

It was only a few days later that Joshua realised Jeonghan had essentially told him to confess. Luckily for Joshua, though, there was no way on Earth that was happening.

“You’re an idiot,” Jeonghan said into his ear. “The biggest idiot I’ve ever met. Even more of an idiot than Mingyu, which is definitely saying something.”

“I’m not doing it, Jeonghan,” Joshua said with a shake of his head. “I don’t know why you thought that I would.”

“I gave you a whole emotional speech and everything! Of course I thought you would!”

Jeonghan had called him five minutes ago, asking if everything had been going well in regards to ‘The Business’, where it had been revealed that Joshua a) had no idea what ‘The Business’ was, and b) had not gone through with it at all.

“Listen, Joshua. Seokmin, he’s always talking ab—” Jeonghan cut himself off again with a frustrated groan. “I’m friends with idiots. All of you are idiots.”

“Whatever you say.”

“Please do it,” Jeonghan said, and now he sounded like he was begging. Joshua didn’t quite know why. It wasn’t like the world would end if he didn’t confess. “For my peace of mind, please confess.”

“For your peace of mind?” Joshua repeated. “What?”

“The weather looks pretty good next weekend,” Jeonghan added. “Seokmin hasn’t gone to the amusement park in a while. He’s always said he wanted to go on the ferris wheel, even though he’s scared of heights. And you know how much of a romantic at heart Seokmin is.”

Joshua frowned. “Why are you telling me this?”

“You know why.” Jeonghan didn’t add anything further to that statement. “Anyway, I gotta go. See you. Make use of this info, okay?”

“What am I even meant to use it f—Jeonghan? Jeonghan?” Joshua looked down at his phone, where Jeonghan had abruptly hung up on him, mystified. He really wished sometimes that Jeonghan would do things that made sense.

He set down his phone, tilted his head back, and sighed. He was sighing an awful lot these days. He was just considering whether being in love could give you some sort of illness that caused excessive sighing when his phone rang again, but this time with a different ringtone: Seokmin’s ringtone.

Joshua had annoying and clingy friends who, apparently, really loved customising their ringtones on his phone.

“Hello, Seokmin,” Joshua said, unable to stop the small smile spreading across his face as the name left his lips. “How are you?”

“Good evening, Shua hyung,” Seokmin chirped, and he sounded so lovely and bright that the smile on Joshua's face widened a little. “I’m doing good! I was just calling because it’s a Friday, and we normally call on Fridays, so I was just—I wanted to call you.” He fumbled with his words, stumbling a bit before hurriedly adding, “Of course, if you’re busy, we don’t have to talk! Since, like, we didn’t call last week, if you don’t want to from now on then I totally respect your decision, you know?”

“No, it’s okay,” Joshua interrupted, before Seokmin could begin spiralling. “I mean. Yes. I’d like that. For us to continue calling, that is.”

“Oh. Really?”

“Yeah,” Joshua said, biting his lip to stop himself from smiling ridiculously wide to himself. “Yeah, really.”

“Oh,” Seokmin said again, after a flusteredly warm silence. He coughed a little. “Um, in which case, I’d really like that too.”

Joshua closed his eyes and leaned back, smiling into the phone and trying desperately to calm down his heart because goodness, it should be illegal for someone to make him feel this fluttery on the inside.

“So, anyway,” Seokmin said, and even Joshua could detect the smile in his voice, “I heard that it’s going to be really sunny for the next week or so! Seungkwan wants to plan a long weekend where we all go to the beach to make the most of the sun.”

“Does he really?” Joshua said, with a laugh. “Just because it’s sunny doesn’t mean it’ll be warm, though.”

“That’s exactly what I told him! But he’s still insisting we go,” Seokmin complained.

“What, all of us?”

“I think so. He’ll definitely drag me along, at the very least. Me and Soonyoung hyung and Hansol and Chan. Chan’s definitely going to ditch, though,” Seokmin said conspiratorially. “I think he’s gonna make up some pretend event that he accidentally double-booked himself with so that he doesn’t have to go.”

“Oh, really?” Joshua said with a laugh. “Seungkwan’s not gonna like that at all.”

Seokmin laughed too, bright and delighted, and if possible, Joshua’s smile widened. “He’s really not. I’m also really hoping he’s joking. Because otherwise, I might have to accidentally double-book myself too so I don’t have to go.”

“What would you double-book yourself with?”

“Hm, well…”

Joshua liked talking to Seokmin. Not only because he was in love with him (a fact he was slowly getting used to, having repeated the words so many times to himself) but because Seokmin was an incredibly fun person.

Without a doubt, every time they talked, Joshua would find himself laughing, either because of something he’d said or in response to Seokmin’s own laughter. 

And as Seokmin continued talking, little laughs escaping him whenever he thought of something particularly funny, Joshua listened intently, the smile still on his face. Seokmin really did have such a wonderful laugh, he thought, a little fondly. Beautiful, like golden bursts of light.

“Poor Hansol’s gonna get dragged into Seungkwan’s whole thing, though,” Seokmin was saying, and then laughed. “He's so whipped that he’ll literally do anything that he wants, no questions asked.”

Joshua chuckled. “That sounds like a very Hansol thing to do.” 

“Yeah,” Seokmin laughed, “So Seungkwan’s telling us to keep next weekend free. So of course, I’m gonna do my best to book up my entire weekend.”

Joshua chuckled, about to say something before blinking, Jeonghan’s weird information dump from earlier suddenly hitting him like a lightning bolt, as if someone had struck him on the head with it to remind him of Jeonghan’s words.

“Hey, Seokmin,” he said after a moment. “If you’re trying to book up your weekend, then do you want to go to the amusement park with me?”

A pause.

“Seokmin?”

“Sorry, sorry.” Seokmin sounded a little wheezy, like he’d run a marathon in those last three seconds of silence. “What did you say?”

“I was asking if you wanted to go to the amusement park with me,” Joshua repeated, trying to keep his voice steady and calm. If he started having a breakdown at that moment, there was a good chance that Seokmin would say no. Maybe. Probably. 

Another pause.

“Seokmin?”

“Yes,” Seokmin replied, the word leaving him as a rush of air. “Sorry, hyung, there was just—something. I had something in my, uh, ear. But yes. I’d love to go to the amusement park with you next week.”

Joshua breathed a silent sigh of relief, the beginnings of a smile making the corners of his lips twitch upwards. “You would?”

“Yeah, of course I would!” Seokmin said a little too quickly, and then coughed. “I mean. Yes. You’re my favourite, how could I not?”

That made Joshua laugh, certain that Seokmin was teasing, just like how they always teased each other. “You’re my favourite too,” he said back, smiling. “Okay, in which case, I’ll book the tickets and text you the details, okay? Would you prefer Saturday or Sunday?”

“Any. We can even go both days so I can avoid Seungkwan’s trip, if you’d like,” Seokmin offered, and Joshua laughed again.

“Got it. Well, I guess it’s a date,” he said, too delighted at the prospect of spending time with Seokmin like this to fully process the words until they had left his mouth.

To his surprise, however, Seokmin didn’t seem to freak out, or pause for a scarily long time that made Joshua rethink his entire life’s decisions.

Instead, Seokmin laughed: a sweet, melting sound, all delicate and tiny, like little stars.

“I guess it’s a date,” he agreed, almost shy. Joshua didn’t get to dwell on it for long, though, because Seokmin was already launching into the next conversation topic that popped into his head, rambling about some new training regiment thing that Mingyu recently dragged him into that left him with an aching body for days on end.

And Joshua listened, the smile dancing across his lips, the blush warm on his cheeks, realising that he’d finally accepted that he was in love with Seokmin, now, and he wanted only one thing.

To stay close, by Seokmin’s side, and jump and fall right into his arms.

───────────── ‘✦,

“So that’s how I ended up securing this date,” Joshua finished, and Jeonghan stared at him, eyes wide, mouth open.

“You actually did it,” he said, the surprise evident in his tone. “Wow. I thought you’d chicken out again.”

Joshua punched Jeonghan in the shoulder, giving the man a wry smile. “Thanks for the vote of confidence,” he said dryly. “This isn’t even a real date, though. I don’t know why you insisted on coming to drop me off.”

The two of them were waiting outside the amusement park entrance, because Joshua had told Jeonghan that he’d booked the tickets for himself and Seokmin, and the man had instantly insisted that he’d drive Joshua there and hear all about how it had happened.

So here they were, chatting and standing around, waiting for Seokmin to arrive. 

Jeonghan shrugged. “I wanted to hear the story.”

“Of course you did,” Joshua said, not unkindly, a small smile raising the corners of his lips. “No but, also, I realised something, during that conversation.”

“What?”

“I had time to think it all over, right? And I was just thinking that I didn’t really want to run away from him,” Joshua explained. He smiled, his gaze distant. “I want to stay close to him. ‘Cause I really, really like him a lot.”

Jeonghan looked over at his best friend, noting the way his eyes had softened in the way they only did when he was thinking about Seokmin. He smiled to himself, before punching Joshua in the arm as payback, shaking the man out of his thoughts.

“Good,” Jeonghan said with a smile. “It’ll break Seokmin’s heart if you try to stay away from him.”

Joshua chuckled. “You’re saying that as if Seokmin has a crush on me.”

Jeonghan wiggled his eyebrows. “He might. Who knows? Maybe he’ll end up falling for your ridiculous charms today.”

Joshua laughed at that, properly, and then punched Jeonghan in the arm just because, prompting the two of them to get into a childish little punching fight. Eventually, Jeonghan conceded with a haughty sniff, as if he’d abruptly decided he was above such petty disputes.

Then he stuck his tongue out at Joshua, making him laugh.

“So, anyways,” Jeonghan said, simply carrying on with the previous conversation as if they’d never stopped, “remember. Seokmin likes the ferris wheel, so take him on it, will you? He might talk about it, but he’ll be too shy to offer to go on it, so you need to be the one who asks,” Jeonghan said.

“Why do I need to take him on the ferris wheel?”

“Because Seokmin wants it.”

“Oh.” Joshua thought about it for a moment, and then nodded. “Sure. I’ll do that. Anything else?”

Jeonghan hummed thoughtfully, before shrugging. “Nothing that you don’t know already. He loves the snacks. Buy the matching headbands if he so much as mentions them. Don’t go on any roller coasters unless he sounds like he wants to go on them. Make sure that you win him at least one plushie otherwise he’ll sulk for hours.”

Joshua smiled a little at that, because he really did know all of that already. “Got it. It’s a good thing I’m better than you at those fairground games, huh?”

He received another punch on the arm for that comment.

“Shua hyung!”

A bright, delighted voice made him look up, however, and when he finally pinpointed the voice, there was Seokmin, a brilliant beam on his face as he ran over to where Joshua and Jeonghan were standing, and Joshua’s heart positively swelled at the sight.

“Hi,” Seokmin said, a little breathless, when he finally came to a stop beside him. His eyes were shining. 

“Hi yourself,” Joshua said back, smiling. 

Seokmin beamed, before seeming to finally notice Jeonghan’s presence, looking over at the elder who was watching them with a slight smirk on his face. Almost imperceptibly, the smile on Seokmin’s face wavered.

“Oh, Jeonghan hyung. Are you, uh, joining us?” he asked. “Is it gonna be me, Shua hyung… and you?”

Jeonghan blinked, and then chuckled. “No, no. I just came to drop Joshua off, and make sure you arrived safely too. I wouldn’t want to impose on your date.” He patted Joshua on the shoulder, and then pinched Seokmin’s cheek, steadfastly ignoring the way both of them looked a little flushed. “Be safe, you two. Don’t stay out too late.”

“It’s an amusement park, not a club,” Seokmin laughed, and he eagerly waved Jeonghan off, already interlinking his arm with Joshua’s. “Bye, hyung! Drive safely!”

Joshua watched Jeonghan go, and had the pleasure of having a scarily intense conversation through eye contact with him, one that was mainly full of messages of Be good to him and You better take that leap today otherwise I’m coming after you before Joshua finally turned away.

Damn. Jeonghan really could be intimidating when he wanted to.

“Well,” Seokmin said brightly, making Joshua look over at him. He looked like he was glowing with excitement. “Shall we go in?”

His lips lifted upwards, a soft pink curve of happiness, and Joshua smiled too, using their linked arms to ever-so-subtly pull Seokmin just a little closer into his side.

───────────── ‘✦,

“Oh, hyung, look at that! Are those balloons? Are they selling balloons?”

Going to an amusement park with Seokmin, Joshua was quickly realising, was a lot like venturing into a sweet shop with an excitable child.

Chaotic.

Seokmin was a ball of energy, bouncing on his feet and vibrating by Joshua’s side the moment they entered. The golden-brown puppy ears of the headband he was wearing bobbed up and down with his movements as he dragged Joshua around the park by the hand, eagerly pointing towards the man selling large, obnoxious metallic balloons like they were the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.

Joshua just laughed, letting Seokmin pull him along, the ears of his own headband flopping against his head. He was wearing a headband too, because of course he was, because Seokmin had picked up the white bunny ears and claimed that they fit him so well, so who was Joshua to refuse?

They almost looked like a couple, with their adorable headbands. 

Thinking about it for too long made Joshua feel all squiggly and happy inside, though, so he tried not to think at all and instead let Seokmin do whatever he wanted.

“Can we buy one, Shua hyung? Please?” Seokmin asked, turning to Joshua with big, shining eyes, and really, it was like this entire day was trying to test whether Joshua really would never say no to Seokmin.

“Sure,” Joshua said, smiling when Seokmin’s eyes crinkled delightedly. “Which one do you want?”

Seokmin glowed. “That shiny strawberry one!”

And so, the rest of their date-not-date carried on. Joshua held onto the string of the strawberry balloon, following Seokmin around as the younger man bounced across the amusement park, hyped up on all the sugar that Joshua had been feeding him. Seokmin looked around the park with a child-like fascination, eyes big and round like he’d never been to an amusement park before, and it made Joshua laugh, endeared, offering Seokmin more candy floss and churros and letting Seokmin grab his wrist and pull him through the park.

“I haven’t been to an amusement park in ages,” Seokmin said to him when they were riding the carousel for the third time in a row. He leaned over to Joshua, bobbing up and down slowly on his horse, nudging the elder in the side with a grin. “Thank you for taking me here.”

“Of course,” Joshua replied, eyes crinkling, patting Seokmin on the back. “I’m glad you’re having fun.”

Seokmin’s eyes sparkled. The flashy golden lights of the carousel made him look like he was glowing from an ethereal light within as he beamed widely.

“I’m having the best time,” Seokmin confirmed. “Way better than Seungkwan will, anyway.” Joshua tilted his head with a smile.

“Oh?”

“I bet the others are suffering right now,” Seokmin confided gleefully, as his horse gently rose up and down. “Seungkwan managed to beg Junhui hyung and Chan to come with him.”

“Wait. They really went to the beach?” Joshua asked, surprised. 

“Mhm!” Seokmin nodded. “Kwan didn’t let Chan double-book himself, and then he went all sulky on Junhui until hyung caved. And then Hansol’s with him too, because duh.”

Joshua chuckled a little at that. “I can’t believe he went through with it. Well, it certainly is sunny today, so maybe they’ll still have a good time?”

Seokmin laughed. “It’s going to be so cold along the coast,” he said, delighted. “They’re gonna freeze!”

His obvious joy at their friends’ misfortunes was rather adorable, and it had Joshua laughing properly, the squeaky carousel music and Seokmin’s laughter ringing in his ears.

After they’d ridden the carousel thrice, Seokmin took Joshua to the photobooths, and then went hunting for more snacks, adamant about avoiding all the rollercoasters with a determined pout on his face that Joshua, devastatingly, thought was terribly cute. 

Joshua was content to allow Seokmin to dictate whatever they did, paying close attention to the younger’s expressions, dutifully carrying around that strawberry balloon, buying snacks, watching a rip-off ‘Punch and Judy’ puppet show with him, and taking all the pictures for Seokmin whenever he wanted.

That was what they were doing right now, the balloon string tied around Joshua’s wrist so he could use both hands to take pictures of Seokmin with the giant shiba inu plushie that Joshua had just won him.

It had taken him a good half hour along with an obscene amount of money, and he’d almost given up countless times, but Seokmin was vibrating so hopefully by his side, so he’d carried on. Even when the guy manning the coconut shy stall looked at him like he was mad for putting so much effort into a silly fairground game, the look of utter joy on Seokmin’s face when Joshua handed the plushie to him more than made up for the struggle.

And it seemed that it was yet another item to add onto the list of ‘Ridiculous Things That Joshua Hong Would Do For Lee Seokmin’.

“Oh, wow, you look adorable,” Joshua said, amazed, as he looked through the photos he’d taken of Seokmin. “Look. The colours of your headband’s ears match the plushie, too.”

Seokmin leaned over, chin resting on his shoulder as he peered at the photos. “Oh, you’re right!” He laughed delightedly as Joshua handed the camera back to him. “Thank you so much, Shua hyung. These are so pretty.”

Joshua chuckled. You’re prettier, he wanted to say, but he swallowed the words down, smiling. 

“It’s ‘cause the plushie is so pretty,” he teased, laughing as Seokmin glared at him. “Why? Do you not like it? Should I take the plushie away?”

Seokmin danced out of Joshua’s reach as the elder made as if to take the toy out of his arms. “No! No, never! You gave it to me, so it’s mine now,” he said, incredibly seriously, squishing the plushie protectively against his chest. “No take-backsies.”

He glared in faux anger, and Joshua laughed, relenting, putting his hands up placatingly. “Okay, okay, I won’t. Are you gonna give the plushie a name?”

“Hmm.” Instantly, the glare melted from Seokmin’s face, replaced by a thoughtful look as he drifted closer to Joshua again, patting the head of the shiba inu, bumping shoulders with him as he did so. “I’m not sure.”

“How about ‘Mingyu’?” Joshua suggested, grinning, chuckling when Seokmin elbowed him in the side. 

“Never. He doesn’t get the honour of having the same name as something that Shua hyung won me,” Seokmin said, pursing his lips thoughtfully as he held the shiba inu up. “How about Seokmin Junior?”

Joshua wrinkled his nose at that, shaking his head. “No. That’s a terrible idea.” 

Seokmin pouted, and Joshua just pinched his cheek affectionately, still thinking. He crossed his arms, and the movement made the metallic balloon (still tied to his wrist) shift too, the floating, bubblegum-pink strawberry balloon bumping against the side of his head. He looked over at it thoughtfully as he swatted it away.

“How about,” he said after a moment, “How about ‘Berry’?”

“Berry?” Seokmin repeated, and then looked at the plushie contemplatively. “Berry the shiba inu.” He looked up at Joshua, grinning. “I love it! It can be Berry the shiba inu.”

Joshua smiled, endeared by Seokmin’s sheer happiness as the younger hugged the plushie tight, pressing a kiss to its soft forehead. And then, because he couldn’t help it, he reached over and ruffled Seokmin’s hair fondly, and began to lead them away from the coconut stall.

“Alright. Where do you wanna go next, Seokmin?”

───────────── ‘✦,

They ended up in the line for the spinning teacups ride.

It was well and truly the afternoon now. They had been there since late morning, and Joshua’s feet kind of hurt from the amount of walking and standing they’d been doing, and even Seokmin was beginning to look a little uncomfortable as he shifted from foot to foot.

Nevertheless, neither of them suggested going back home, and Joshua couldn’t help but feel a little touched at the notion that Seokmin wanted to spend time as just the two of them just as much as Joshua did.

So here they were, patiently waiting in line, because Seokmin had suddenly gotten an eager, shining look in his eyes and insisted that he wanted to ride the spinning teacups even when Joshua had told him that it might make him sick. But Seokmin had been adamant, so here they were, leaning against the railing and watching the people getting into the teacups.

“Remember when we all went to the amusement park a few summers ago?” Seokmin was asking. He was bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet, vibrating. “It was so hot that day, and half of the rides had been shut down for maintenance, but we made the most of it.”

Joshua smiled a little. It had been a fun outing. They didn’t go out with all thirteen of them often, because it was a huge group of people to manage, but whenever they did, they split up into smaller groups for most of the day. 

“You weren’t in our group, unfortunately,” Seokmin carried on, a smile spreading across his face as he reminisced, “but, oh, I really wish you had been! Myungho lost a game of rock, paper, scissors and had to be the one to go on this teacup ride with Jeonghan a total of seven times in a row. Seven!”

Joshua laughed as Seokmin animatedly recounted the event, his eyes round and earnest as he delightedly told Joshua all about how queasy Minghao had felt afterwards and how as karma, later on, Jeonghan ended up getting utterly soaked on the water boat ride.

Seokmin always recounted every story like it was the most important thing in the world, with a sincerity that was rather adorable, and Joshua would be lying if he denied paying attention to the gentle curl of Seokmin’s lips and the way they softened into the most endearing pout as he formed certain words. 

He had a very soft mouth, Joshua thought idly. Despite the amount of talking Seokmin did, Joshua thought he had very kissable lips.

It would probably ruin a thousand things if he leaned in and kissed Seokmin right then and there, unfortunately, but oh, how much Joshua really, really wanted to.

Stars in his eyes, he watched as Seokmin talked animatedly, seemingly oblivious to the way that Joshua's entire inner monologue was nothing more than a chant of “please kiss me please kiss me please kiss me” repeating over and over again. 

“So,” Seokmin finished, clasping his hands together, and Joshua finally zoned back into his ramblings. “I’m hoping our experience goes better, hyung!”

Joshua blinked, having heard the words that Seokmin was saying but only able to think of how utterly adorable he looked with his eyes shining like that. So as Seokmin beamed, bright and beautiful, he just smiled, reaching over and pinching Seokmin’s cheek, endeared.

“Of course,” Joshua said, and then winked cheesily. “Don’t worry. I’m here to protect you, Min-ah.”

Seokmin stared at him, his gaze coloured with playful disgust and another emotion that Joshua couldn’t quite name. He was about to say something else before the line finally started moving again, and it was at last their turn.

“Oh, hyung! Hyung, it’s finally us!” Seokmin exclaimed, delighted, the earlier emotion completely dissolving, replaced by giddy excitement. “Come on, we gotta go sit in the cup that spins the most!”

Seokmin dragged Joshua into the teacup that he claimed he’d seen spin the fastest, and after the brief safety introductions, the ride finally began.

“We have to spin it as hard as we can, okay,” Seokmin said, incredibly seriously. “Okay, hyung? Can you do that?”

“Of course. Can you?” Joshua teased, and Seokmin rolled his eyes. 

“Duh! Hey, move over, you're taking up so much room on the wheel. Why are your hands so big?”

“As if you don't have huge hands too, Seokmin-ah—”

They bickered over having enough space on the wheel to spin it properly, but it didn’t take long for them to get going.

Seokmin relinquished control over the wheel a few seconds into the ride and Joshua ended up with both hands on it, spinning them around at a rate that was definitely not good for anyone's stomach because Seokmin kept on insisting they go as fast as possible even though he genuinely sounded close to tears and—well. This was the reason that Seokmin didn't go on rides often. 

He was screaming with laughter, mouth open wide and refusing to close, and Joshua hardly thought he was able to breathe with how much he was laughing. Seokmin’s hands had slipped from the wheel and had instead found purchase in Joshua's shirt, doing nothing other than clinging to him and curling into his side, still screaming the entire time, sounding like he was both scared out of his mind and having the time of his life.

“Seokmin? Seokmin! Should I slow down?” Joshua yelled, because the wind was whipping in his ears, and he was sure that they looked like utter idiots to anyone who was watching them in the line.

Seokmin just screamed even louder, eyes squeezed shut, shaking his head rapidly and holding Joshua’s shirt like a lifeline. “If you slow down, I’m going to kill you!”

Joshua just laughed, tugging the wheel so hard that he almost sprained his wrist, but it made Seokmin yelp and squeeze himself further into Joshua’s side, the screams dissolving into laughs, and the bright, overjoyed sound was all that filled Joshua’s ears. 

It was beautiful. Joshua was reminded, yet again, just how much he loved Seokmin’s laugh.

If it were up to him, then for as long as he lived, Joshua would make sure that Seokmin would always, always have a reason to laugh like this.

Eventually, the ride came to a stop, and Joshua let the wheel go, allowing the teacup to slow down at its own pace, the pink-fond chuckles lingering on his lips as Seokmin continued laughing, forehead pressed against Joshua’s shoulder.

“Oh, my God,” Seokmin breathed out in between giggles, breathless from how much he’d been laughing and screaming. “Wow.”

They exited the teacup, wobbling and stumbling around like baby deer on new, spindly legs, and Seokmin just giggled uncontrollably at his own uncoordinated state.

“We left the stuff over there, Seokmin,” Joshua said, staggering forward on unsteady feet towards where they’d left the shiba inu and the giant strawberry balloon and their headbands, because Seokmin had fretted that they'd lose them if they wore them on the teacups. 

He tugged on Seokmin’s arm, because the man was walking in the completely opposite direction. The younger stumbled into him with a giggle. 

“I knew that,” Seokmin laughed, and he sounded mildly drunk, the sound giddy and loud and making Joshua chuckle. As Seokmin grasped the balloon tied to the fence, however, he tripped on his feet, hands giving the balloon a sharp tug and suddenly, somehow, there was a loud pop as the balloon inexplicably burst in Seokmin’s hands.

They both jumped, and Seokmin stared wide-eyed at where the popped balloon pieces were scattered across the floor, plastic string in his hand, before turning to look at Joshua.

“Oh,” Joshua said, after a moment, and that was all it took for Seokmin to start giggling.

“It popped,” he laughed, almost in disbelief. “Hyung, the balloon popped!”

“What did you do?” Joshua asked, laughing a little as he shook his head, amazed. “How did you manage to pop the balloon just like that?”

Seokmin shrugged, giggles subsiding as he just grinned at the string in his hands. “I dunno. That’s so weird.” He pouted suddenly. “Aw, no, that means my strawberry balloon’s all gone.”

“There, there,” Joshua said consolingly, placing the puppy ears back on Seokmin’s head before picking up the plushie and handing it towards him too, beginning to lead them out of the spinning teacups area—albeit rather slowly, since they were both still wobbly on their feet. “But look, you still have Berry the shiba inu with you, don’t you?”

Instantly, Seokmin brightened, though it took a second for him to be able to hold the plushie without dropping it. He blinked his eyes hard several times, gaze focusing and unfocusing on the shiba inu as he pouted in concentration to get his vision steady again. Joshua could almost see the little cartoon birds flying in circles around his head as he kept a wobbly pace next to Joshua, grinning dopily down at the plushie before directing that same grin up at Joshua too.

Adorable.

It took several minutes, along with a good sitting-down session on a nearby bench, but eventually both of them stopped feeling like the world was being rattled around like a snow globe, and they sat side by side in comfortable silence as they watched the people walk by.

The sky was streaked with yellows now. It was nearing the end of the day, and Joshua calculated that they probably had time for one last game or snack before they eventually had to leave.

Then, his date-not-date with Seokmin would be over.

Hm. Joshua glanced over at Seokmin, heart twisting sadly. That was a sad thought.

“Seokmin,” Joshua said, nudging Seokmin in the side, “we’re gonna have to leave soon. Is there anything you want to do before we have to go?”

Seokmin turned to him, and Joshua had the wind knocked out of him for a second because wow, Seokmin was so pretty. The sun hadn’t dipped quite low enough for it to be classed as a sunset just yet, but the grey-yellow light across Seokmin’s face brought his cheekbones into sharp relief, silvery shadows being painted down his cheeks from his eyelashes every time he blinked, the soft shape of his mouth scrunched up in thought.

Humming contemplatively, Seokmin’s gaze slid away from him for a moment, and now that he was no longer staring right into the eyes of the most beautiful person on Earth, Joshua felt like he could finally breathe a little easier.

“Let’s do something that Shua hyung wants to do,” Seokmin said, smiling, and Joshua’s poor heart jumped into his throat once again. 

“Something that I want to do?” Joshua asked, a little croaky. “Do you not have anything that you want?”

Seokmin just shrugged, smiling, strands of hair falling into his eyes as he ducked his head. “We’ve been doing the stuff that I wanted to do all day,” he said. “We should do something that Shua hyung wants, too.”

Joshua’s lips quirked into a fond smile, and he resisted the urge to tell Seokmin that all he wanted was to see Seokmin happy.

Instead, he just pinched Seokmin’s cheek affectionately, and gazed out at the rest of the park, looking around for something that he’d like to do.

But, as always, his gaze drifted back to Seokmin again. Seokmin, who had his eyes fixed on one certain structure in the distance, looking at it almost wistfully, and Joshua remembered what Jeonghan had told him several hours before.

“How about the ferris wheel?” he suggested softly, and smiled a little at the way that Seokmin instantly whipped his head round to blink at him, wide-eyed.

“The ferris wheel?”

“Do you not want to?” Joshua asked, double-checking, because while he was 90% sure that Jeonghan would never feed him false information that would make Seokmin uncomfortable, it was always good to make sure that he was really okay with it. “We don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

“No! No, I—I want to.” Seokmin swallowed, and there were stars in his eyes. “I wanna ride the ferris wheel with you, hyung.”

Joshua smiled, heart feeling full to bursting as he reached over and brushed away the hair that fell into Seokmin’s eyes. Then he held out his hand, smiling impossibly wider when Seokmin reached for him without the slightest hesitation.

“Come on, then. Let’s go.”

───────────── ‘✦,

The line for the ferris wheel was relatively short, given the fact that it wasn’t long before the amusement park shut for the day, and Joshua and Seokmin didn’t have to stand in line for long before it was their turn.

“Are you sure you’re okay with this?” Joshua checked for the fifth time as they boarded the carriage. “It goes relatively high, Seokmin. If you don’t want to, then it’s fine.”

Seokmin laughed as they each sat down on a bench in the carriage. “I’m fine, I promise. I think it’s a bit too late to get off, anyways,” he said as the wheel slowly began moving. “Besides,” he added, a little shyer, “I really did want to ride the ferris wheel with you, hyung.”

Aw.

“Aw,” Joshua said out loud, and it came out more adoring and in-love than he’d intended. He coughed. “That’s so cute, Min-ah. You wanted to spend time with hyung like this, hm?” he tacked on, grinning teasingly and leaning forward to ruffle Seokmin’s hair and tug at the puppy ears of his headband in an attempt to mask his previous sincerity.

The younger man didn’t pull a face and try to lean away, however, unlike how he normally acted around Joshua’s exaggerated coddling. Instead, he just smiled, eyes crinkling, shoulders rising towards his ears bashfully, and he really looked like a small, shy puppy. 

“Yeah,” he said, the sunlight golden on his face. “Yeah, I did.”

The sun was very much beginning to set now. Yellow light was replaced by something warmer, and the coppery colours spilled in through the windows of their carriage as the wheel continued spinning them all the way to the top.

Joshua checked on Seokmin constantly, making sure that he wasn’t too scared by the heights, but the man seemed to genuinely be having a great time, staring out of the window with wide eyes, Berry the shiba inu sitting forgotten on the seat next to him. 

“It all looks so pretty,” Seokmin said, voice hushed in awe. “Look, hyung, you can see all the places we went to from up here!”

Joshua leaned over to look down at where Seokmin was pointing. “Oh, wow. We’re so high up.” He looked at Seokmin again. “Are you really sure that you’re okay?”

Seokmin laughed a little, raising his gaze to look at Joshua. The golden sunset spilled caramel-coloured light across his irises. 

“I’m really fine,” he promised, eyes crinkling. He reached out for Joshua’s hand, interlacing their fingers. “It’s okay, ‘cause Shua hyung's here with me, isn't he?”

He squeezed Joshua’s hand, once, and then turned back to the window, and Joshua’s ears positively burned.

The wheel spun them a total of three times, and on the third round, Seokmin finally leaned away from the window, sitting back in his seat and beaming at Joshua. Joshua blinked back, and tried to pretend that he hadn’t been gazing adoringly at him the whole time.

“Thank you for bringing me here today,” Seokmin said, all sweet and sentimental and sincere. “It’s been so much fun.”

“Of course,” Joshua responded simply, smiling. “I’m just glad you had fun, Seokmin.”

Seokmin beamed, then, and Joshua smiled back, and they sat there smiling at each other for a good few seconds longer before the ferris wheel creaked to a stop at the top of its rotation for the third and final time.

“Oh!” Seokmin’s eyes lit up, and he scrambled to reach for his phone. “We need to take our last pictures of the day before the ride finishes.” He nudged Berry to the side, and then patted the empty space next to him. “Shua hyung, come sit here.”

And so Joshua went, squishing between Seokmin and the plushie, and he’d barely had time to make himself comfortable before Seokmin was huddling even closer into his side, phone raised in front of their faces.

He let Seokmin bully him into as many different poses as he wanted, with v-poses and finger hearts and cute little pouty faces that were utterly adorable on Seokmin. Eventually, Seokmin lowered his phone, but before Joshua could get up and return to his own side of the carriage, Seokmin was holding his hand, interlacing their fingers to keep Joshua by his side.

Joshua looked down at their hands, and then up at Seokmin, but the younger just blinked innocently at him.

“The sunset looks so pretty,” Seokmin said suddenly, and Joshua looked behind him to follow Seokmin’s line of gaze.

And then he looked back at Seokmin, watching the sunset light his skin up gold.

“Very pretty,” he agreed.

Seokmin’s lips twitched up into an almost wistful smile, as his gaze slid away from the window to look at Joshua, eyes sparkling. 

“Thank you for bringing me here,” Seokmin said again, smiling. “I think it’s prettier because I’m here with you.”

Joshua chuckled, squeezing Seokmin’s hand once. “Of course,” he said, and Seokmin smiled even wider. “Anything you see will be prettier because of me, you know.”

Seokmin’s eyes crinkled. “Really?”

Joshua quirked a grin. “I’m just that handsome.” 

The wheel was slowly descending now, the warm sunset light dipping behind the tall amusement park structures, and Joshua had the most beautiful view of the rays brushing and fading away from Seokmin’s face.

“So,” Joshua continued, mesmerised by Seokmin’s smile, “I think you should only see these pretty things with me. So they’ll always look even prettier.”

His words hung suspended in the air, golden and full of eternal promise, and Seokmin’s eyes widened. Joshua’s eyes widened at his own words, too, stunned at how his internal thoughts had somehow escaped his lips, but every syllable rang true. He wanted to see these beautiful things with Seokmin and Seokmin alone.

“Shua hyung,” Seokmin whispered, eyes meltingly warm. And then he didn’t say anything else.

He truly was just so beautiful, Joshua thought. With his sunlight-clear smile and those eyes, big and glittering and crystalline: Seokmin’s eyes that captured Joshua’s own and kept him mesmerised, unable to do anything other than gaze adoringly as Seokmin did anything at all.

And those very same eyes were the ones holding Joshua in place right at that moment, so awed that he hadn’t even noticed that Seokmin had drawn closer. He was so close that there was merely a miniscule distance between them, and Joshua could count every one of Seokmin’s lashes again, so close he could see the way they fluttered nervously as he took a quiet breath in.

So close that eventually, the miniscule distance between them became no distance at all.

Seokmin kissed him, gently, slowly, a warm press of lips on lips that had Joshua simultaneously melting and freezing up because Seokmin was kissing him. Seokmin was kissing him.

And, oh, his lips truly did taste as soft as they looked.

It was heart-achingly sweet, and only Seokmin would have been able to kiss him so chastely and yet still make his brain crash and shut down because of it. He wanted to have Seokmin’s lips on his forever, to lick into his plush mouth and find out what Seokmin liked and what he adored, wanted to press him against the wall of the carriage and kiss him and kiss him and kiss him—

Seokmin pulled away, then, before Joshua even had a chance to pull him closer and kiss him in the way that he deserved.

He blinked, dazed, far too disoriented to even think of forming words, and it was a little crazy how Seokmin managed to render him utterly non-functional after such a brief kiss.

Only Seokmin, truly.

But he was staring at Joshua now, eyes bright and almost hopeful, and the terrible thing was that Joshua’s brain was still in its melting, post-’first kiss with the love of his life’ state, and he had no idea what Seokmin could be hoping for.

He coughed, licked his lips, heartbeat thrumming far too loudly in his head.

“Huh,” he said, incredibly eloquently. “Oh.”

It was an “Oh” of utter besottedness, Seokmin having successfully removed Joshua’s ability to form proper words, but it turned out to be the wrong thing to say because he watched, confused and worried, as the light slipped off of Seokmin’s face in an instant.

“Oh,” Seokmin echoed, but the syllable sounded utterly heartbroken as it fell from his lips. “Oh, no.”

Joshua blinked as Seokmin backed away, scrambling to kick-start his brain back into action. “Wait,” he said. “Wait, wh—”

“I’m so sorry,” Seokmin rushed out, and he dropped Joshua’s hand like he’d been burned. “Sorry, sorry, please forget about that, I’m so sorry, I—”

“Wait,” Joshua said again, still not quite comprehending what was going on. “Seokmin-ah, you don’t n—”

He tried to move forward, and Seokmin instantly stumbled back, plastering himself against the back wall of the carriage. It rocked slightly, swinging back and forth, but still Seokmin stayed against the wall, like he wanted to be as far away from Joshua as possible.

“Sorry,” Seokmin said, yet again. “I just— You took me out for this whole day, and I thought— But then I— And then you didn’t— So obviously you don’t feel like that and I’m just so, so, so sorry. I’m so sorry, hyung, please just forget that happened.”

And oh, now Joshua realised, and his eyes widened in panic, because Seokmin had gotten everything completely wrong.

“No, wait, Seokmin, no, you didn’t do anything wrong.”

Seokmin didn’t seem to hear him, continuing to babble apologies over and over again, the syllables blurring together as his eyes also seemed to blur with tears. 

This was really, really not good. Seokmin had leaned in and kissed him, and what had Joshua done? He’d just sat there and let himself be kissed, and when Seokmin pulled away, he’d done nothing but mumble a small “Oh” that could have been interpreted in a whole range of different ways.

And Seokmin had interpreted it in the worst way possible.

Joshua opened his mouth, and had half a mind to just surge forward and kiss Seokmin again to show him the truth when the carriage door swung open, and the park attendant was standing in the doorway and politely asking for them to leave.

Instantly, Seokmin took the opportunity to grab Berry and lunge past him to make his escape, and Joshua wanted to wring his hands together in desperation.

“Seokmin!” Joshua called out, almost tripping over his feet in his haste to exit the carriage. “Seokmin, I— Wait!”

He caught up with Seokmin as he was speed-walking through the park back towards the entrance, resting a hand on his shoulder and hating how Seokmin instantly flinched back.

“Hyung, please—”

“Seokmin,” Joshua said, softly. “Listen to me.”

Seokmin visibly swallowed, holding Berry tight. His eyes were big, almost looking like they were turning down at the edges and, coupled with the ears headband he was still wearing, he looked far too much like a devastated puppy that Joshua felt his heart tighten in his throat.

“Seokmin,” Joshua started again. “You don’t have to feel bad about it. I… I didn’t mind it.”

Joshua smiled gently, but to his horror, Seokmin’s eyes began to well up with tears.

“I really am sorry for what I did, hyung,” he said, voice wobbly. “You don’t have to say those things to try and make me feel better. I’m okay. It’s okay. I know that what I did was wrong so please—please just leave me alone.”

And with that, he stepped back, and began to make a dash towards the park entrance again, leaving Joshua standing there, dumbfounded.

“Wh—Seokmin!”

Seokmin didn’t listen to him. He continued speeding towards the entrance as Joshua called out to him, even as groups of people blocked his path and he walked into a small child more times than he could count.

How had Seokmin managed to misunderstand what Joshua was saying so, so horribly? With a helpless sigh, Joshua watched as Seokmin disappeared around the corner, before promptly apologising to the little girl he’d bumped into and beginning to follow Seokmin again.

Joshua managed to get to the amusement park entrance at last, just as Seokmin seemed to be trying to leave without talking to him at all.

“Seokmin,” Joshua said desperately, jogging up until he was standing in front of him, preventing Seokmin from walking off into the late evening. “Please, listen to me. You don’t have to feel all guilty like this. Let me—”

“Hyung, it’s okay,” Seokmin said, cutting him off yet again, and Joshua wanted to cry in desperation.“It’s okay, Shua hyung, I’m okay. You don’t have to try and comfort me.”

“No, Seokmin, listen, I actually—”

“Don’t worry about it,” Seokmin said, and tried to smile, but his voice trembled too much for it to seem genuine. “I’m so sorry for doing that to you. I’m really sorry, so I hope you don’t feel too d-disgusted.”

His voice hiccupped on the last word, and oh, Seokmin was properly crying now, the sadness spilling out of the corners of his eyes and dimming their shine.

Joshua had made him cry. 

“Just let me go home, hyung, please,” Seokmin said, quiet, and the soft begging tone in his voice made Joshua’s heart plummet to the depths of the Earth.

He swallowed thickly. “At least come home with me and Jeonghan,” he said, giving up on trying to talk to Seokmin about this. “I don’t want you going home by bus, all by yourself. Especially when you’re like this.”

Seokmin didn’t say anything for a long moment, and then nodded, lips pressed tight together as the tears continued silently spilling down his cheeks.

It made Joshua’s throat feel tight. Unthinkingly, he reached over and brushed at the wetness under Seokmin’s eyes, flinching back when Seokmin skittered away at his touch. 

“Sorry,” he whispered, voice thick. Seokmin didn’t reply.

They walked back to the entrance, and Joshua texted Jeonghan to let him know they were finished and wanted to go home. And then, with nothing left to do, they loitered around, waiting for Jeonghan to arrive, a stiff silence falling between them.

There was a great deal that Joshua wanted to say, countless words to explain himself and tell Seokmin just how terribly, terribly in love he was with him. 

This was all a terrible misunderstanding, he wanted to say, and he was totally okay with the kiss. More than okay, and in fact, he wanted nothing more than to kiss Seokmin again and again for all of eternity.

He looked up at Seokmin, who was quivering a few feet away from him, clutching the plushie like a lifeline as he stared resolutely out at the car park. A chill was setting in now that the sun had gone down, but Joshua knew that Seokmin’s shivers had less to do with the cold and more to do with something else.

Couldn’t Seokmin see? Just how much he had Joshua wrapped around his finger? Had him clinging to every syllable that fell from his lips, every twinkle of his eye, every bright, ringing laugh?

It was truly bewildering, how Seokmin apparently had no idea. Joshua wanted to explain this to him, wanted to tell him just how deeply he'd managed to fall for him, but the feelings of warmth and light and clean-cut gold were far too big and precious for words. 

He wanted to try, because he truly would do anything for Seokmin, but right now, there was no point. Not when Seokmin wasn’t in a state to truly understand.

Jeonghan arrived some minutes later, pulling up near the park entrance, and Seokmin wordlessly climbed into the shotgun seat while Joshua sat in the back. Jeonghan beamed, entirely oblivious to the tense atmosphere.

“So, how did your day go?” he asked, all pleasant. “Did you guys have fun?”

Seokmin simply buried his face into the plushie.

“Can you just take me home, please?” Seokmin whispered, voice muffled, but there was no way that Jeonghan wouldn't have been able to hear the tears in his voice. 

Jeonghan’s expression changed, and instantly, he eyed Joshua in the rearview mirror, his gaze a searing accusation. Joshua just winced helplessly, and hoped that the desperation in his eyes could help soften Jeonghan’s glare just a little.

Jeonghan narrowed his eyes, before turning to Seokmin again, gaze softening. “I like your headband,” he said gently, tugging at one brown puppy ear. “They suit you.”

Seokmin didn't look up from the shiba inu. He gave a small, wet sniff. 

Jeonghan looked back at Joshua, observing the white bunny ears headband which were on his head, and then the pieces in his head began to click together, and he raised an eyebrow questioningly.

Joshua just stared back.

Pulling out away from the amusement park, Jeonghan glanced over at Seokmin and then at Joshua through the mirror again, before giving a sigh. The “I’ll talk to Seokmin” was clear in his eyes, and Joshua’s shoulders sagged in relief.

Whilst Joshua really, really wanted to talk this over with Seokmin himself, he knew that Seokmin wasn’t in the right headspace to listen to him. But still, there was a chance that he would be able to listen to his beloved Jeonghan hyung who, hopefully, would be able to express a calm thought process that Seokmin would listen to, even if he wasn’t willing to listen to Joshua.

That was okay, though. Because Joshua didn't even know how he would express his thoughts, other than perhaps screaming “I really really like having your lips on mine and I kind of want to kiss you forever”, and he thought that that maybe wasn't the best way to explain how he felt. 

Thank you, he said with his eyes, when Jeonghan looked back at him again.

Jeonghan just nodded once, and looked over at Seokmin again before turning back to the road. 

The car was silent for the entire ride back.

───────────── ‘✦,

“I’m already on it,” Joshua said, when he opened the door to Jeonghan standing on his doorstep the next morning.

Jeonghan blinked, and then shut his mouth with an audible click, nodding approvingly and stepping into Joshua’s apartment. “Good,” he said. “I’m proud of you, Joshuji.”

Last night, Jeonghan had dropped Joshua off home first, with a silent message of “We’ll talk tomorrow” in his eyes. It had been clear that Jeonghan had wanted to spend that evening talking with Seokmin first, which Joshua thought was a good idea since Seokmin had definitely been the most visibly distressed out of them.

Even now, though it had been over twelve hours since Joshua had last seen him, the memory of Seokmin’s tears still made his chest feel tight.

As it was, he hadn’t had the chance to talk to Jeonghan until today. That didn’t mean he hadn’t been busy thinking of ways to resolve this whole situation, though.

“You need to make things up to him as soon as possible,” Jeonghan said as he took off his shoes. 

“I know. That's why I'm already on it.”

Jeonghan nodded again, mildly pleased, before his face melted back into a frown. 

“Still, I wanna say that you’re both idiots,” he informed him. “Both you and Seokmin. Utter idiots.”

“Thanks,” Joshua remarked dryly, and walked back into the kitchen, Jeonghan trailing behind him. 

“You’re welcome. So you better be planning a really good thing to make it up to Seokmin, because otherwise—oh my God. Are you baking?”

Jeonghan stood there, surprised, looking at the mixing bowl and the bags of sugar and flour and the baking trays, lined with greaseproof paper, neatly placed on the table as everything else overflowed across Joshua’s counter.

Joshua grinned, pleased at Jeonghan’s surprise. “Strawberry and chocolate chip cookies,” he said, picking up the mixing bowl again. “Seokmin’s favourite.”

“Huh.” Jeonghan smiled, nodding approvingly. “Good choice.” He sat down at the table, watching as Joshua continued mixing the cookie batter.  

“I know,” Joshua said, a little proud, looking up from the bowl to smile at Jeonghan, all bashful and dusty pink cheeks. “I figured that they might help cheer him up.”

Cute, Jeonghan thought, and then his heart melted at the idea of Joshua baking for Seokmin. There was something so domestic about that, and he knew that Seokmin would really love it.

Seokmin had been utterly distraught yesterday, tears quietly streaming down his face as he recounted the “disastrous” events in a wobbly voice. Jeonghan had feared the worst: Seokmin, for all his gentleness and emotional openness, still hated to cry around other people. So for him to burst into tears in front of Joshua and Jeonghan, it meant that something truly terrible had happened, and Jeonghan was more than ready to (get Seungcheol to) gently beat up Joshua for being the cause of his tears.

Jeonghan thought it would be something horrific, like Joshua had… well, done something really bad. He hadn’t actually had an idea of what Joshua could have done, but he’d been terrified all the same.

He had definitely not been prepared for what Seokmin had told him instead.

“What’re you gonna do with the cookies?” Jeonghan asked, leaning forwards as Joshua set down the bowl, looking for spoons to use to scoop the batter onto the trays.

“I’m going over to his place today,” Joshua said, rummaging through the drawers. “And I’m going to talk this out with him. No matter what it takes.”

Jeonghan tilted his head, smiling a little, a curious sense of pride swelling up inside of him. “No matter what it takes?”

“No matter what it takes,” Joshua confirmed, turning back to face Jeonghan, spoons in hand. “I won’t run away anymore. Seokmin deserves to know that I love him too.”

“I definitely think so,” Jeonghan said, and his tone was dry but his smile was warm. “Especially considering the fact that he kissed you yesterday and then proceeded to have a breakdown because you didn’t kiss him back.”

Joshua winced. “Let’s not talk about last night.”

Jeonghan shrugged. “I think it was a good bonding experience.”

“I don’t need a bonding experience. Seokmin and I are already friends.” Joshua furrowed his eyebrows. “How was that a good bonding experience, anyway?”

“Hey, at least now you know that Seokmin’s as pathetically in love with you as you are with him,” Jeonghan pointed out. “I think you should look on the bright side, Joshuji.”

“I think you’re talking too much,” Joshua said, waving the spoons beratingly at Jeonghan. “If you’re gonna be in my home, then you need to help me. Come on, get some spoons and make the cookies with me. Why are you even here, anyway?”

Jeonghan begrudgingly stood up, rolling up his sleeves. “I came here to see whether I needed to beat you up or not.”

Joshua snorted. “You and those noodle arms?”

“I was assessing the situation first,” Jeonghan said, and sniffed disdainfully. “If you didn’t show evidence that you were trying to make amends instantly, I would have.”

“Good thing I was making cookies then.”

“Exactly. I also came to check up on you, though,” Jeonghan added more sincerely. “To see how you were doing after being kissed by the love of your life.”

That made Joshua chuckle, beginning to spoon the batter onto the trays laid out on the table. He nudged Jeonghan in the side, a silent demand for him to start helping, and Jeonghan reluctantly complied.

“I’m fine. I had my entire worldview altered because apparently Seokmin likes me back, but other than that, I’m doing great,” Joshua said with a grin, and Jeonghan laughed.

“See? A good bonding experience.”

Joshua shook his head, still smiling. “Yeah. A great bonding experience. 0/10, would definitely recommend.”

The sarcasm made Jeonghan laugh again, looking over at his best friend as he diligently bent down over the baking tray, making cookies for the person he was in love with, big hands having turned soft with gentleness and care. 

Joshua’s hair was all over the place, as if he’d rolled out of bed and then immediately started making cookies for Seokmin without even stopping once. Half of his bangs were falling in his eyes but he hardly seemed to notice, and he straightened up to blink at Jeonghan, who was standing there with the spoons unmoving in his hands.

“If you don’t want to help, then you can just say so,” Joshua said wryly, eyes twinkling. “Though Seokmin might be heartbroken when I tell him that his favourite hyung didn’t help make the cookies.”

Jeonghan snapped out of his reverie, busying himself with helping Joshua. “You’re Seokmin’s favourite hyung. You know that,” he retorted, a little sulkily. Though he’d long ago accepted it, he was still a little annoyed that Joshua had stolen one of his dongsaengs from him.

“Nonsense. He was your friend before he was mine, wasn’t he?”

“That means nothing,” Jeonghan said dismissively, waving a spoon around and accidentally flinging cookie dough into the wall. “Whoops. Anyway, you’ve been Seokmin’s favourite since day one, Shuji. Surely you know that.”

Joshua sighed long-sufferingly at the spoonful of wet mixture sliding down his wall. “You’re cleaning that up later.”

“Sure. But seriously, he’s always been in love with you. I promise.” Jeonghan punched Joshua lightly in the arm. “Why are you thinking so much about this, anyway? You know that he loves you.”

“Hm.” Joshua twisted his lips thoughtfully, and he gazed off into the distance, eyes going melty soft and Jeonghan just knew that he was thinking about Seokmin. 

Disgusting, Jeonghan thought affectionately. It reminded him of the way that Seokmin’s eyes never failed to shine just a little brighter whenever he thought of or talked about Joshua, even when he was in tears. These two truly were made for each other.

“Seokmin thinks the world of you, you know,” Jeonghan said gently. “He always has. Ever since he first met you.”

Joshua’s face, somehow, melted even further at that. Jeonghan had been worried that his silence was a sign of insecurities creeping in, a sign of his hesitancy to continue taking that leap for Seokmin, but Joshua’s face was softening into the softest, sweetest smile, and Jeonghan knew that there was nothing that could deter Joshua now.

“Well,” Joshua said, light and full of love, “It’s a good thing that I think the world of him too.”

───────────── ‘✦,

It was some hours later that Joshua ended up on Seokmin’s doorstep, wondering whether he should ring the doorbell or lift his hand and knock.

Jeonghan had shooed him out of the apartment (Joshua’s own apartment) with a pat on the head and a half-serious threat to “Go make out with Seokmin or there will be consequences”, pushing the basket into his hands and telling him to just be himself.

Apparently Seokmin liked that, or something.

So Joshua now stood at Seokmin’s doorstep, resisting the urge to rock back and forth on his heels as he contemplated which would be the best way to drag Seokmin out of his wallowing.

He hadn't been nervous when Jeonghan had come over, too focused on making Seokmin his favourite cookies and thinking about how he needed to make Seokmin not sad as soon as possible, but now that he was here, he had to admit that there were definitely a few butterflies in his stomach.

Confessing to the love of your life was no easy task, after all. 

But, like always, Joshua would do anything for Seokmin, anything at all, so after taking a deep breath, he raised his hand and pressed the doorbell.

It took a few moments, but the door eventually clicked open to reveal Seokmin, sleepily rubbing his eyes, nose scrunching adorably as he suppressed a big yawn.

“Jeonghan hyung, I told you, I’m f…”

His voice trailed off as he realised who was standing at his door, and his eyes widened, the sleepiness falling away from his face almost instantly. Joshua smiled, a little awkwardly, giving Seokmin a wave.

“Hello.”

Seokmin stared at him, and then began to slowly edge behind his door, hiding behind it until only his face was visible. “You… You’re not Jeonghan hyung.”

“I’m not,” Joshua agreed, and his heart twisted at how Seokmin had instantly retreated away once he learned that it was Joshua at his door. “Is it okay if I come in? I wanted to talk about what happened yesterday.”

Clutching the edge of the door a little tighter, Seokmin squeaked out a small “Oh dear” that Joshua had a feeling he hadn’t meant to say aloud.

“Maybe we shouldn’t?” Seokmin suggested meekly. He retreated further behind the door, hiding away so that Joshua couldn’t see his face anymore. “Maybe… Maybe that’s not a good idea.”

Joshua bit his lip. “Please?” he asked. “I even baked you cookies. If you want them.”

A pause. And then Seokmin slowly peeked out from behind the door, eyes widening in surprise as he noticed the basket in Joshua’s hands before his gaze dropped to the floor again. He shook his head.

“Please just go. Shua hyung, please let me—Let me deal with this by myself first,” Seokmin said softly.

It sounded so gentle and reasonable when he said it like that, and Joshua would have believed it, would have accepted it, if he didn’t know Seokmin as well as he did. But Joshua did know him, knew him like the soul that fit perfectly against his own, and he knew that Seokmin was using this as an excuse to wallow in his sadness. He’d only make himself more miserable if Joshua let him be.

“Please,” Joshua said again, pleading. “I think we should talk about this. Please, will you let me in?”

Seokmin swallowed but didn’t say anything, gaze still directed at Joshua’s shoes rather than his face. His fingers pressed into the side of the door as he clung to it, still not quite opening it fully, but Joshua felt a little comforted by the fact that Seokmin was considering it.

“Min-ah,” Joshua said softly, ducking his head to get Seokmin to meet his gaze. Seokmin blinked in surprise, but he didn’t look away. Joshua straightened slowly, and smiled as Seokmin continued to keep his eyes on him. “Please. I’m not mad about what happened, I promise. I just think that you and I need to talk. Please, Min-ah?”

Seokmin’s eyes widened even further at the nickname, a splotchy blush reddening the apples of his cheeks in a way that was still utterly endearing in Joshua’s eyes. And then he nodded, opening the door wider. “Okay. Okay… you can come in.”

Joshua smiled again, a smile of relief as he stepped into Seokmin’s apartment, clutching the basket of cookies in his hands. 

“It’s a little messy,” Seokmin said, a little sheepishly as he led Joshua through the apartment. “I wasn’t really expecting anyone. I didn’t think anyone would come over.”

“That’s okay. I wanted to check up on you.”

Seokmin looked over at Joshua, too many colours swirling in his irises before he blinked rapidly and looked away,

“Oh. Thank you.”

As Seokmin led them to sit on his couch, however, Joshua realised that he hadn't really planned what he was going to say. Which, in hindsight, he really should have done, but it was too late to wonder about that now. 

And besides, he was talking with Seokmin. The right words would find their way to him, especially if he was trying to confess to the love of his life. 

“So… cookies,” Joshua started, and then held the basket out to Seokmin. He smiled a little. “They're your favourites.”

Seokmin gasped, momentarily seeming to forget his apprehension at Joshua’s visit as his eyes widened, taking the basket from him and peeking inside. “Strawberry and chocolate chip cookies?”

“Strawberry and chocolate chip cookies,” Joshua confirmed, resisting the urge to laugh at Seokmin's adorably awed expression. “And don’t worry. I made sure that they won’t give you food poisoning.

Seokmin, already stuffing a cookie in his mouth, gave a petulant huff. “Hyung, that was one time.”

Joshua laughed, unable to stop the delighted warmth bubbling up inside him as the natural cadence of their interactions came peeking through, Seokmin relaxing now that he had something sweet in his mouth. Seokmin looked up at him, a little surprised, before his face melted and brightened at the same time, eyes crinkling.

“So,” Joshua said, still smiling, “I was hoping that we could talk about yesterday.”

At that, Seokmin’s expression changed, and he slowly swallowed. He rubbed at his cheeks, attempting to brush away the crumbs and only kind-of succeeding.

“I just wanted to say I’m sorry,” Joshua rushed to carry on, before Seokmin’s face fell even further and Joshua’s heart fell along with it. “I’m sorry for how terribly our day at the amusement park ended.” He gestured to the basket. “The cookies were kind of an apology present to try and make up for it.”

“Oh,” Seokmin said softly. “No… It’s—It’s okay, hyung. It was kind of my fault, anyway,” he added, laughing a little stiltedly. “I was the one who, well, you know.”

Seokmin bit his lip then, teeth sinking into the softness of his bottom lip, and Joshua remembered with startling clarity how his own mouth had been over Seokmin’s less than twenty-four hours ago.

Joshua blinked rapidly, trying to dispel his thoughts so he could focus on the conversation at hand.

“It was just me being an idiot. You don’t need to apologise, Shua hyung,” Seokmin said, attempting to smile. “It was all my fault. I’m sorry.”

“It wasn’t, though,” Joshua said, taking a breath. Seokmin was still biting his lip, a nervous habit, and it was kind of cute and wholly distracting and it took everything in Joshua to keep his gaze on Seokmin’s warm, warm eyes rather than on his soft, soft lips. “Min-ah, it’s okay.”

He smiled, then, as gently and as reassuringly as he could, putting on his prettiest smile for Seokmin to try and comfort him.

Seokmin’s eyes widened and softened at the same time, before he looked away. “Please don’t look at me like that,” he said, all mumbly. There were still crumbs on his cheeks, and Joshua wanted to lean over and dust them away.

“Like what?” he asked, before giving in to the urge and brushing a finger over Seokmin’s cheeks, wiping at the crumbs. And then, using that same finger, he guided Seokmin’s chin towards him so they were facing each other again. “How am I looking at you?”

Seokmin huffed a little, and pouted. “Like… I dunno,” he said, cheeks turning red, “like you love me. Like—Like you didn’t actually mind the… the thing.”

Joshua’s gaze softened, and he lowered his hand to find Seokmin’s knee instead, giving it a reassuring squeeze. “What if that’s true? What if I didn't mind the kiss?”

Seokmin was shaking his head before Joshua could even finish speaking. “Don’t say things like that, hyung,” he pleaded, almost a whine. “I’m sorry for kissing you yesterday, I really am. I promise, it won’t happen again.”

“What? No,” Joshua said, a little mystified, wondering where on Earth Seokmin had gotten the idea that he didn’t want it to happen again. “No, Seokmin, I want it to happen again. I want you to kiss me again. And again, and again. Forever, essentially.”

“Wait.” Seokmin’s face scrunched up, confused, and goodness, Joshua was hit with the fact that he truly did adore him. “What?”

“I like you,” Joshua said, the three golden words leaving his lips and spinning through the air, and he could almost hear the magical ding as they landed like little chimes in Seokmin’s ears. “I like you, Seokmin. You and your smile and your kindness and your gentleness and the way you make me feel so happy, always. I like you so much, and especially your laugh—” Joshua took a breath, feeling the flush rising up his cheeks— “Oh, I love your laugh, Seokmin. It’s the most beautiful thing in the world.”

Seokmin’s eyes had steadily widened the longer Joshua had carried on, and there was that familiar, warm, beautiful shine in his irises once more, all full of hope. “Really?”

“Yeah, really,” Joshua laughed, smiling widely. “I like you. I love you. I adore you. All of those things. I think you’re wonderful, truly, and it’s like my heart belongs only to you.”

And then, his Seokmin-owned heart made a little whooshing sound as Seokmin’s eyes rounded, and Joshua couldn’t help but laugh. It was kind of incredible, how saying those words didn’t feel like taking a leap, like jumping and hoping that when he fell, someone would catch him.

Rather, it felt like coming home.

Seokmin’s frame melted, the biggest pout forming on his face as his whole body relaxed, seemingly just as comforted by Joshua’s confession as he was. His irises looked a little shiny as he blinked, hard.

“You love me,” Seokmin said, almost to himself, like he couldn’t believe it, all tiny and adorable. And then he looked up at Joshua again, face crumpling into something between a pout and a giddy smile. “Oh my god, you love me.”

He said it in an almost awed way, words getting all blubbery-sentimental and he held out his arms, reaching for a hug that Joshua instantly gave him, smiling as Seokmin wrapped his arms around his neck to bring him even closer, burying his face into Joshua’s shoulder. Seokmin was always so warm and lovely but right now he seemed even more so, melting into Joshua’s arms, the thumping of his heartbeat matching the cadence of Joshua’s own. 

He nuzzled even closer into Joshua's shoulder, making small, content noises into his shirt, and Joshua could feel something in his chest bursting into a spray of cerulean blue joy. 

“I love you,” Joshua said again, just because, just to marvel at how light and perfect those three words felt. “I love you.”

Seokmin pulled away, arms still looped around Joshua’s neck, eyes shining brighter than the brightest, sunniest summer day. “I love you too,” he breathed, and then he laughed—that soft, beautiful laugh that Joshua loved far too much. “I love you. I’ve always really, really liked you, truly. So much. Ever since we met.”

Joshua chuckled a little, tilting his head. “Since we met? That’s a long time.”

“I know,” Seokmin said, almost whining, and it had Joshua laughing again. “You have no idea how hard it was to be loving you for so long. You’re so loveable, hyung. I can’t help but just—love you. Always.”

“I can’t help but love you too,” Joshua said back, and it was incredible how those words managed to make Seokmin’s smile light up even further. He leaned forward and nudged his nose affectionately against Seokmin’s, adoring the delighted giggle that it elicited from him. “You can ask Jeonghan, if you’d like. He’ll tell you how pathetically in love I’ve been with you for weeks.”

“Weeks? Hyung, I’ve been in love with you forever, I swear,” Seokmin said, and the earnest truthfulness of his words made Joshua’s heart swell, hands tightening around Seokmin’s waist. 

“I think I’ve been in love with you before I even knew that’s what it was,” Joshua returned, just to try and one-up him, and laughed softly at the affectionate huff that Seokmin let out.

“Whatever you say,” Seokmin said, playfully rolling his eyes before beaming at Joshua again. His arms were still around Joshua’s neck, his weight still pressed comfortably in Joshua’s lap, and as he continued beaming at him, it was like Joshua's vision was filled with nothing but the gentlest, prettiest, most breathtaking golden light. 

He could have stayed like that forever, actually, with Seokmin in his lap, his weight draped over him like a sure and solid promise, positively glowing with happiness despite the fact that he'd looked close to tears not even 24 hours ago. 

It made him realise that Seokmin really did love him, had loved him forever, and thinking about it like that made him short circuit because oh—

Seokmin loved him. 

And they were just smiling at each other, smiling and grinning and smiling like a pair of idiots and it was all because Seokmin loved Joshua just as much Joshua loved him. 

As if he knew all of Joshua's thoughts, Seokmin smiled even wider, eyes crinkling happily, and Joshua knew that he really would do anything to see Seokmin smile like that forever. His lips were stretched wide, emanating light, and happiness truly did look so beautiful on him. 

Joshua wanted to kiss him.

Oh. He hadn't kissed Seokmin yet. How had he not kissed Seokmin yet? 

He needed to kiss him. Right now. 

“Can I kiss you?” Joshua blurted out, completely out of the blue, and he would admit that it wasn't the best way to ask for a kiss, but Seokmin always made him do weird and awkward things. 

Seokmin blinked in surprise, a blush rapidly rising up his face, but he nodded almost immediately. 

“Yeah!” he said, the eagerness clear in his tone before he blushed even further, shoulders rolling inwards shyly. “I mean. Yes. Yes please.”

And then he beamed, his expression so open and loving and filled with wonderful golden light that Joshua couldn't help but smile too, leaning in closer, one hand releasing Seokmin's waist to slip upwards and cup his cheek, brushing a thumb over the smooth softness of his cheekbone. 

“Beautiful,” Joshua whispered, quiet, and could feel the blush that spread across Seokmin's face as he adjusted his hand, held him more firmly and finally connected their lips in a kiss. 

And, oh, this kiss was even better than that first one they'd shared. The instant Joshua kissed him, Seokmin melted impossibly further into him, hands threading through his hair to bring him even closer, soft lips pressing against soft lips. 

It was dizzyingly sweet. Seokmin tasted like strawberries and chocolate and sunlight, and when Joshua gently nipped at that plush bottom lip, his heart positively soared at the small noise that Seokmin let out, easily opening up so Joshua could kiss him as deeply and as fully as they both desired.

Seokmin twisted his hands in Joshua’s hair, kissing him even deeper, and it made him laugh into Seokmin’s mouth, his head feeling all happy and bubbly light. Seokmin laughed too, an automatic response to the sound of Joshua’s happiness, and they ended up smiling into each other’s mouths rather than actually kissing once they finally parted.

Joshua opened his eyes, watching as Seokmin still kept his eyes shut, drawing back with an adoring smile on his face like he wanted to treasure the moment.

It was so heart-achingly endearing that Joshua leaned in to press a light kiss to Seokmin’s mouth, smiling as Seokmin’s eyes fluttered open at last, a white-gold shine making his irises glow.

“Oh,” Seokmin said, soft, his kissed-pink lips spreading into a wide smile. He still had his hands in Joshua’s hair, still had his knees spread over Joshua’s lap, and he looked so beautiful. “Oh.”

“Oh?” Joshua echoed, amused, the hand on Seokmin’s cheek moving to brush away stray hairs as they fell into his face. “What’s up?”

Seokmin’s eyes just shone even brighter. “You love me,” he said, and he sounded so happy that Joshua laughed again, so in love that his heart felt like it was floating towards the heavens as Seokmin continued to look at him with all the awe and wonder in the world.

“Yes, Min-ah,” he said, devastatingly fond, and Seokmin scrunched his nose in a way that was just so endearing, very clearly delighted by the nickname. “I love you.” 

Seokmin beamed adorably wide and launched himself back into Joshua’s arms again, clumsily pressing a kiss to Joshua's cheek before burying his face into his shoulder, and Joshua could feel him grinning with happiness. 

Joshua had jumped towards Seokmin, taken that leap, but instead of falling, he’d floated right back up towards the sun instead. 

In fact, it hadn’t even felt like falling, he mused, as Seokmin drew away from his shoulder, smiling shyly before leaning in and kissing Joshua softly once more. 

He cupped Seokmin’s face, kissing him again and again until they were smiling so hard that they couldn’t kiss properly anymore, and yet they still tried, smiling lips meeting smiling lips over and over, the taste of sunlight sitting gently on Joshua’s tongue like that was where it belonged.

Perhaps, Joshua thought, it was because Seokmin had been beside him all along. All he had to do was walk right into Seokmin's arms, right into Seokmin who already had, and always would, adore him with the entirety of his heart.

And oh, how Joshua adored him too.

thanku for reading! pls rb w a comment if you liked this :)

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