DRABBLE MARATHON #1:

DRABBLE MARATHON #1:

LEE SEOKMIN + internship

1,7k words /// genre: fluff (?) /// warnings: food mentions.

In which Seokmin becomes your own ray of sunshine.

Hands shaking and panic in your mind, you entered the office. 

What had been a goal and a dream just a few weeks ago was now your reality. You had scored the very internship you had aimed for. But that didn’t make you any less anxious about it all.

People dressed in business casual scurried around you, a cup of coffee in one hand and a printed report in the other. No one seemed to notice you.

Unsure who to talk to, you stood off to the side, offering a polite smile to anyone who gave you a curious look as they passed by. None of them seemed to realise who you were or what you were in their office for.

The door opened, startling you just a little, and revealed a young man. He entered and politely bowed to a woman who walked past him. His hands seemed to be shaking as much as yours were as he also stood off to the side, a little away from you.

“Are you–” He cleared his throat and leaned closer to you. “By any chance, do you work here?”

You shook your head. “Just an intern.”

He seemed relieved at your words, his body visibly relaxing as he took in the information. Realising he must’ve looked like a fool to you, he put on a smile. “I’m Seokmin. I’m an intern too.”

You smiled back at him. “Really? What’s your major?”

“Marketing. You?”

“Translation and localisation.”

He looked a little stunned at your answer, a dumb expression on his face. “Translation?” A lightbulb seemed to go off in his head right at that moment. He lit up again. “Oh, maybe we’ll get to work together then.” 

“Right,” you replied with an awkward smile. 

You feared he’d interpret your expression as unfriendliness – a bit unfortunate because you were only socially anxious and actually wanted to make a friend at this internship – but he seemed to see right through you. 

He offered a bright smile and gentle nudge, as if you were friends already. “Hey… I’m scared too. This is my first ever internship. I’m not even entirely sure what I’m going to be doing here. But that’s okay. We’ll be fine.”

“Do you really think so?” you asked him, feeling a little better at the display of camaraderie. 

He nodded confidently and that was all the assurance you needed.

You were given a desk near a ceiling-high window. Though you first couldn’t believe your luck, it quickly became clear why they gave this seat to an intern: the afternoon sun shone right through the glass and onto your desktop screen. This made your work just a bit more difficult, but hey: dream internship.

Your schedule had you coming to the office for full days on Mondays and afternoons on Wednesdays, right after your lectures. The first Wednesday proved to be challenging. You were overcome with the urge to take your post-lecture nap and yet you had to drag yourself to the office where a folder full of documents to be translated had been placed on your desk. 

The sight made you both giddy and weary. But at least the chair was comfortable. 

“I knew we’d be working together!” you then heard a familiar voice. When you looked up, Seokmin was smiling brightly at you as he approached your desk. His eyes shone in the afternoon sunshine – it was easy to get lost in them. 

He placed a folder on your desk. “My supervisor told me to bring these to be translated, but then the translators here told me to bring this to you instead.”

“What are these?” you asked, opening the folder to find the answer to your question. “Oh. What do I do with these?”

“I honestly have no idea,” he answered, his eyes widening to convey his apologies for him. He quickly squinted his eyes again as the sun began to hurt them. “Can you even see anything here?”

“Barely.” You sighed, still eyeing the marketing materials he had brought for you. 

He frowned. “Why not just close the blinds?”

“Because this is the only window in this department that doesn’t have working blinds,” you replied and offered him a tired smile. “Yeah, I can’t believe my luck either.”

“Well,” he paused and tried to find some comforting words to say. It took him a moment, but he got there eventually: “There will probably be less sunshine when autumn sets in.”

You hummed in agreement. “I both dread it and can’t wait.”

“Right?” He offered you an encouraging smile. “They said those materials need to be translated by next Wednesday. Can you do it?”

“I can try,” you answered hesitantly, looking up at him and once again getting lost in the pretty golds and browns of his eyes. 

He took your silence for worse than it was. “Do you want me to beg my supervisors for an extension for you? Because I can do that. I’ve practically perfected the whole ‘getting on my knees and begging for an extension’ thing.”

You laughed. “How come?”

“I suck at meeting deadlines. It’s a miracle I’ve made it this far, honestly,” he confessed before offering again, “So, should I?”

“No, no,” you shook your head quickly, grinning, “I’ll be fine. I’m a quick worker.”

“You sure?” 

You weren’t entirely sure why this stranger – an acquaintance at most – was so hell-bent on getting on his knees for your sake, but it was a sweet gesture. You offered him one last smile. “I’m sure.”

He narrowed his eyes at you as if he had a built-in lie detector, but if he did have one, it proved to be ineffective. Before long, his scowl melted back into a warm, sunny smile. “Well, I’ll come back for these in a week then.” He turned to leave. But before he got more than four steps away, he turned on his heel and made a cheering gesture, bellowing, “I believe in you!”

You hid your embarrassed (yet flattered) face in your hands and waved him away. He laughed and waved you goodbye for the day.

Lunch breaks quickly became your favourite part of internship days for three reasons: 1) lunch, 2) break, and most importantly 3) Seokmin. 

Without fail, on every Monday, at 1 pm sharp, Seokmin appeared at your desk with a sweet smile. Every time, he’d invite you to get lunch with him – even when marketing team members invited him instead. 

“Eating in the park was a great idea,” you told him on this Monday, happily eating your salad. “The weather is so nice today.”

He smiled at that. “It’s the last nice days of autumn. Might as well enjoy them before it gets cold and rainy.”

“I can’t believe it’s been a whole month at the company already. Feels like we met just yesterday.”

“I worried I’d get bored, honestly,” he responded. “I’m not actually a big fan of marketing.”

You chuckled. “Then why are you a marketing major?”

“Mom told me to study something useful,” he grimaced before bursting into laughter. “It’s not all bad though. It’s more creative than business, at least. Or engineering. God, I would’ve sucked at engineering.”

“Yeah, I figured maths wasn’t your strong suit,” you joked and pinched his cheek. 

He rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Slander.”

You laughed as he dramatically turned his head away from yours. You laughed because you knew that any second now he’d burst out laughing with you. He always did. 

He did it because he knew that it would make you laugh even harder and make your day better. He did it because he had fallen in love with your smile.

Seokmin was good at pretending he wasn’t nervous. Years of drama club participation had paid off in that aspect even if he could never fulfil his dream of becoming an actual actor. And yet, you seemed to see right through him at your last lunch together.

“I can’t believe it’s our last week here,” you breathed out, watching people pass by the otherwise empty break room. 

“Time flies when you’re having fun,” was all he offered, apparently more interested in the fried noodles his roommate had so kindly packed for him.

You looked at him, seated across from you at the table, his back facing the hallway and his face the sun shining through the windows (he always sat on that side, not wanting you to suffer with sun in your eyes). Today his usually sunny expression had been replaced with gloomy skies. 

You reached for his hand across the table. “Are you okay?”

He glanced up, startled by your touch. “I– Yeah. I’m okay.”

“No, you’re not,” you replied. Weeks of knowing him had made you more perceptive to his moods. “You can tell me, you know. I won’t judge.”

He took a deep breath. “... You promise?”

“Of course.” You had thought it was a given.

He took another breath, even deeper. He fingers wrapped around yours and squeezed them tightly. Then, he said, “I have a confession to make.” You nodded for him to continue. “I… (Y/n), I like you.”

“You… like me?” Your eyes widened and you almost slipped your hand out of his on instinct. 

His grip only tightened. “I like you. I’ve liked you since the first day we met. You’re so kind and so sweet and so, so dedicated to your studies and the work you do here. You’re gorgeous inside and out. I can’t help but like you, as more than a friend, and I’m scared that you won’t–”

“I like you too, Seokmin,” you breathed out and rushed to stand up and round the table to hug him. He tensed only for a moment before relaxing into your embrace, relishing in the feeling of your lips against his hair. You repeated and kept repeating, “I like you too. I like you so much. Gosh, of course I like you. How could I not? I like you.”

He wasn’t sure which was warmer: your embrace? the warmth of a blush on his cheeks? the sun shining on his hands as he wrapped his arms around you?All three. He liked all three. But he liked you the most.

A/N: is this my best work? no. could i have written a full slow-burn-ish fic out of it if i was in the right space of mind? yeah. am i proud of it? meh. however, i wrote this, like, a day before scoring an internship so i think it deserves to be uploaded anyway :)

ukiyo | xu minghao

SYNOPSIS. in which you and minghao spend the day together. PAIRING. xu minghao x gn!reader GENRE. angst, hurt/comfort, fluff, established relationship  WARNINGS. language alluding to death, reader is in a wheelchair, mentions of an unnamed terminal disease that causes reader to have weakened limbs n feel very weak in general, vague mention of nudity (hao takes off reader’s clothes and gives them a bath) but nothing is explicitly described, descriptions of a hospital, terms of endearment (love), one curse word WORD COUNT. 4311

ukiyo ( 浮世 ) 𑁋 “the floating world”; living in the moment; detached from the bothers of life.

notes: there’s not really a plot to this. it’s just brainrot because i love torturing myself and my heart. i saw pics of the beach of hai cheng mv and immediately wanted to write something sad for no reason. 

The late morning sunlight pours in through the small window of the bathroom as you hold a steady, blank gaze at the running water gushing out from the faucet. The sounds bounce off the walls of the bathroom, and you bring your eyes down to your legs. 

Keep reading

you say the stupidest (sweetest) things

pairing: seungkwan x gn!reader rating: 16+ (for swearing) wc: 4.5k prompt: seungkwan + "things you said at 1am" summary: you say stupid shit on the best of days, so when seungkwan comes over when you're having a bad bout of insomnia, the last thing he expects to hear from you is an accidental love confession warnings: insomnia, mental health issues, dissociation mention tags: fluff, friends to lovers, first kiss, reader is a little unhinged but who isn't tbh, they're also highkey allergic to genuine expressions of love/affection but they're working on it, banter, stimming, wrestling like children to try and work through emotions, reader is some flavor of lgbt+ (they make an "i've never done anything straight in my life" joke), reader's pov is dramatic bc they're dramatic oops a/n: this is for @dokyeomin as a part of my emergency commissions (check out the post here) and this was only supposed to be 1k but it 100% got away from me... i hope you still enjoy the fluff and all of the attached nonsense <3

From: Y/n 🔪 [11:47pm]

yo kwannie if i impulsively decide to go to the 24h convenience store how harshly do u think they'll jusdge me for buying every flavor of gummy candy available *judge i wanna see if i can melt them down into one Ultimate Gummy u know for Science

Seungkwan pauses brushing his teeth and stares down at your messages.

To be fair, it's probably not the strangest thing you've ever texted him. He's known you since your second year of college, after all, so he has about half a decade of experience with all of your various y/n-isms under his belt now.

Which is how he knows to trust his gut when it tells him that this probably isn't your usual brand of nonsense.

He spits the toothpaste into the sink and dials your number. You answer on the second ring.

“Before you say anything,” you start, “I was only half-serious about the gummies thing. Like, it's a fun idea, you know? In theory. But in actuality? I do not want to deal with the mess that it would create. Or the smells. Well, the smells might actually be pretty good depending on—“

“Uh-huh,” he interrupts dryly. “Y/n, when's the last time you slept?”

The beat of silence that follows is enough to confirm his suspicions, and the hesitant “Um” that follows is just the icing on the cake, really.

He sighs. “The fact that you have to think about it says enough.”

“I don’t need to think about it,” you argue petulantly. “I just… don’t wanna tell you.”

“Y/n...” he groans, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Look, I know, I'm sorry.” And you do sound a little bit sorry, at least. “I'm just. Having an episode. Don't worry about it.”

His shoulders droop as the words sink in. “Episodes” are what you've taken to calling your intermittent bouts of serious insomnia.

Generally speaking, you sleep about as well as the average twenty-something with a caffeine addiction. But every few months or so, it's like your brain completely forgets how to shut off and you end up staying awake for 40+ hours straight.

“Well,” he says, putting his toothbrush away and going back to his bedroom. “You know that ship has sailed, right? You know I'm gonna worry about it.”

Your deep sigh crackles over the line. “Yeah, I know.”

“So. Where're we at this time?”

He mentally braces himself. The two of you have done this enough times now that he knows that you know there's no point in trying to lie or beat around the bush.

“Uhhhhhhh, I'll be hitting the 46-hour mark in about 20 minutes.”

“Aish.”

The fact that you can say that so casually makes his heart hurt. He knows that whenever he doesn't get enough sleep, he makes sure everyone knows it and thus babies him accordingly. But you've always been so intent on hiding anything and everything you struggle with. It's taken years for him to bully himself past the walls you keep hidden behind shit-eating grins and an over-willingness to help.

“Okay,” he says, moving to the dresser to grab an extra set of clothes. “I'll be over in an hour.”

“Wait. What?”

“You heard me.” He tosses the clothes onto his bed before going to grab one of his duffle bags, firmly asserting, “You've got an hour to mentally prepare yourself for my arrival.”

“Honey, you've got a big storm comin',” you quote at him without hesitating.

“You sure do,” he assures with a snort. “Better get ready to feel the wrath of my friendship.”

“Why do you have to love so aggressively?”

He rolls his eyes while he throws his clothes into the duffle bag with one hand. “Because it's the only way you'll accept it, idiot.”

“No, it isn't.”

Your pout is so audible through the phone that Seungkwan has to stop and glance at the screen in disbelief.

“Y/n. Y/n L/n. Do not stand there and lie to my face like that.”

“I'm not lying!”

“Not—” He gesticulates wildly with one hand like he's going Can you believe this shit? to an invisible TV audience. “Okay, tell me this: what did you do the last time I sincerely monologued at you about how much you mean to me as a friend, hmm? No bits, no bullshit, just me telling you how much I love you and how amazing you are.”

A beat. “I'll hang up on you, Kwannie, don't test me.”

He barely resists the urge to shove his face into the bedspread and scream. “You're literally proving my point right now!”

“Kwannieeee,” you whine, because you know he's right.

“Also, because I'm never letting you live it down, I will remind you exactly what you did."

You say his name again, but it's muffled, and he assumes it's because you're hiding your face in shame.

“I gave you a sincere, heartfelt speech about how much your friendship has changed my life for the better and made me become a better person—” he ignores your wordless pterodactyl screech, “—and how do you respond? By staring at me like a deer caught in the headlights, slowly raising your arms to give me double finger guns, winking, and then slowly backing out of the room like an awkward mannequin!”

“...”

“Well?” He puts his free hand on his hip. “Do you have anything to say for yourself?”

“… I’ve changed a lot since then.”

Seungkwan rolls his eyes before moving to continue packing his overnight bag. “It was literally three months ago.”

“Yeah, and? Doesn't change the fact that I've changed,” you assert.

“Into even more of a nuisance? Yes, you're absolutely right.” He smiles when he hears you scoff playfully.

“Listen here, Boo Seungkwan. You know that well-rested Y/n is ready to throw down with you at a moment's notice. What do you think sleep-deprived, zero-impulse-control Y/n is going to do the second you get to their front door?”

“Stop referring to themself in the third person, hopefully,” he mutters, finally zipping up his bag and heading to the door. “And then after that, they're going to let me bully them into resting.”

“Hmm. The council has heard your proposal, briefly pondered it, and deemed it “unnecessary” on the basis of: they're a bad bitch that can't be stopped by neither time nor physics nor any god of your choosing.”

Seungkwan scoffs as he puts the call on speaker and sits to put on his sneakers. “Well, “the council” can go fuck right off.”

“What if the council would like to fuck right on?”

Pausing in the middle of tying his laces, he blinks down at his phone. “I'm— what?”

“Okay, real talk, what do you think it would mean in this case? Like, would this be like a 'hop on' versus 'hop off' situation? Or more like an 'I'm down for this' versus 'I'm up for this' kinda situation? Because it would have very different outcomes depending.”

Seungkwan decides that this is a debate better left for another time. “I think it means that I'm going to be at your house soon and that if you're not in your pajamas with hot Sleepy Time tea and the series Planet Earth ready to go, there will be consequences.”

“Booooooo, you whore.”

He finishes tying his laces and jabs his finger at the phone. “Consequences, Y/n.”

“Ugh, fine.”

“See you soon, love you, bye.” He hangs up before you can get another word in, but doesn't move from his seated position in the entryway.

Slowly, he takes a deep breath in and lets it out, taking a moment to lean back on his hands while he stares at the back of his front door. Specifically, at the large collage of sticky notes and pictures and doodles that have taken up residence there.

A few of the notes are ones he's gotten from other members of your shared friend group over the years (the one from Chan that reads "if u eat my rice i'll eat ur kneecaps xoxo" hangs proudly in the center, right next to a picture of him sleeping that Seungkwan managed to capture from an extremely unflattering angle). But most of them are from you.

Dumb puns, meme references, bullshit animal facts you made up just to get him to laugh… almost all of them are stupid in that extremely charming way that only you somehow manage to pull off.

But the one he's staring at now is almost completely hidden by other notes and pictures that have been added to the collage. It's a pale blue, the ink starting to fade a bit with time — the first note you ever gave him, back when you two were just people who happened to sit next to each other in an astronomy class.

Even though most of it is hidden, he doesn't need to be able to see all the tiny words you crammed into the small space to already know exactly what it says.

how do u make a space party? u planet :P u looked sad today, hope this makes u feel a little better also if this is 2 forward feel free 2 pretend i don't exist. or punt me in2 the sun idk u'd be doing me a favor tbh

He'd almost skipped class that day because of how bad he'd been feeling, but he'd decided to try and push through. And before that day, neither of you had interacted with more than a polite greeting and the occasional question about the homework.

But then you'd passed him that note, and he'd passed one back that said “that's dumb. but thank you” with a smiley face, and you'd passed another one back that said “do u think lizard people have ever been to space?” and the rest, they say, is history.

Seungkwan shakes his head with a sigh before standing up and grabbing his bag and his keys, striding determinedly out the door. He's got a best friend to take care of.

Seungkwan should be at your place soon, and you're not quite sure what to do in the meantime.

You have your laptop hooked up to the monitor in the living room with Planet Earth queued up, you have the kettle filled with water and ready to go on the stove, and you have mugs and teabags ready on the counter next to it.

The Required Tasks™️ have been completed as much as possible without the arrival of your best friend, and now all that's left to do is wait.

Which, normally, you're not the worst at. You're excellent at entertaining yourself, actually, mostly because there's always something to think about. Whether it be about cute dogs that you've seen over the past week (I wonder if the pomeranian down the street will let me pet him next time), potential plot twists for the new fantasy drama you're a little bit obsessed with (what if Gregothy was cursed the whole time???), or generic ponderings of the human existence as a whole (do souls have the metaphysical equivalent of a fingerprint?), you're pretty much always thinking about something.

Which is totally fine and dandy and cool or whatever when you have the ability to, you know, shut it off. For example, when you need to do something simple and necessary like, oh I don't know, go the fuck to sleep.

You also hate when that manic mental energy somehow translates into kinetic energy as well. It makes you feel like a hamster in a cage, watching yourself running and running and running on that stupid wheel until you exhaust yourself.

Tonight's metaphorical wheel: stimming like wild in the kitchen. Flapping, rocking, (gently) slapping, making weird and fun mouth sounds, the whole shebang.

And again, normally stimming is fun. Stimming is great. But stimming because you feel like if you don't stop moving you're going to literally vibrate out of your skin is, to put it lightly, Not It.

It takes you about ten minutes to work out all of the energy until you no longer feel like your blood was replaced with pop rocks.

With a groan, you lower yourself to the kitchen floor and lay down face first. Because despite how exhausted you feel in every possible way, there's still something like an itch in your conscious, a fucking pea underneath the miles of mattresses that refuse to let you just. Fucking. Sleep.

Your pity party must've lasted longer than you realized (or, more likely, you dissociated for a hot second there) because suddenly someone's knocking at your door at the same time you get a text from Seungkwan.

And you know it's a text from Seungkwan specifically because you got Vernon to help you change your notification settings so that whenever Seungkwan texts you, the "i love you.. bitch" sound clip plays instead of a normal text tone.

For a fraction of a second, you contemplate slowly inching your way to the door like an uncoordinated caterpillar, but you swat the thought aside like you’re swatting a gnat and you awkwardly roll to your feet and make your way to your front door.

Without hesitating, you unlock the door, swinging it open with a flourish and sticking a finger right in Seungkwan's face before he can utter a single syllable, forcing him to cross his eyes.

You open your mouth wide like you're going to say something, pause for a moment, then tap your pointed finger to his nose with a quiet "boop."

He blinks, expression turning deadpan, and sighs. "I should have expected this, honestly."

“Yep!”

You let him into your apartment, and he makes himself right at home, mildly bitching at you as he goes to get the tea ready, and something within you shifts.

The inside of your head is still a bit of a dumpster fire, unfortunately, but inside your chest... something clicks into place that you're not sure that you're ready to name. Whatever it is, though, it's soft and warm and kinda feels like your heart is being hugged.

Smiling to yourself, you follow him into the kitchen.

💤 💤 💤 💤 💤

It was pretty much straight to “business” after that, and it only takes Seungkwan one cup of tea and two episodes listening to David Attenborough's dulcet narrations for him to knock right out, leaning heavily against your shoulder on the couch.

Which means it's now the perfect time to sit there and Admire Your Bro™️.

It's rare to see him so still, you think. He's an active guy, in pretty much every sense of the word, and you always feel a little honored when you get to be witness to his quiet, vulnerable moments like this one.

He looks so serene, face smoothed out and painted in soft twirling shades of blue from the screen of the monitor, though you can't see too much of it from this angle. Mostly you just see his cheeks and stupidly adorable button nose.

And you've seen the same thing a million times before — in all kinds of states and expressions — and despite how much you've tried to ignore it, each and every time you've caught yourself noticing just how cute Seungkwan is, it's caused that thing in your heart to scrunch up, full of the L-word feeling that you've kept unnamed for what feels like forever now.

Except, maybe that thing in your heart is tired of scrunching up. Maybe it's decided that it's tired of forever.

Maybe that thing has finally decided to burrow itself out of the walls you've built up because you find yourself finally allowing yourself to think, Holy shit, I think I'm in love with you.

You don't realize that Seungkwan has completely stilled against you, but you certainly notice when he suddenly throws himself forward so he can turn around and stare at you incredulously. Only he overshoots a little bit and ends up falling off the couch with a squawk and a dramatic flail.

"Oh my god, Kwannie are you okay?!"

He stares at you from where he fell, wide-eyed like you've grown a second head or like the time you'd tried to convince him that birds weren't real and actually just a government conspiracy.

"Am— am I okay? No??"

Now it's your turn to move off of the couch, coming down to his level to see if maybe he hurt himself when he fell. "Fuck, okay, did you hit something? Do you need an icepack?"

Seungkwan being Not Okay is maybe one of the worst things that could ever happen in the entire universe and you're trying not to panic as you reach out to check for injuries.

"No, no, stop—" he bats away at your hands and you stop in your motions, now kneeling in front of him. "I'm not hurt!"

Your brain does the cartoonish screech thing as it comes to a halt, and you furrow your brows. "But.. you just said you're not okay?"

"I'm not!" His eyes are still wide in shock, but he also looks confused and maybe a little bit like he's about to cry?

Oh no. If he cries and it's somehow your fault (because it has to somehow be your fault) you think the world might actually end.

"Okay, uh. I am— confused,” you start, sure you must look as lost as you feel. “But, um, what can I do to help?"

He swallows, and a part of you realizes that he's looking at you with an expression you've never seen before. "Did you mean it?"

Knowing that it's significant but not yet knowing why, you maintain eye contact. "Mean what?"

"What you just said."

You blink. "...that I'm confused?"

He shakes his head. "No, before that."

You have a hard time remembering what you just said when you're not sleep-deprived and worried you've just somehow accidentally caused irreparable emotional damage to your best friend. "Uh... when I asked if you were okay?"

"No, fuck," and it's a shock for some reason, hearing him cuss right now. You hear him say much worse things all the time, but you think it might be the way he said it — with a kind of desperate vulnerability that you're not sure you've ever heard from him before.

That thing in your chest twinges and you think maybe you're the one who's gonna start crying.

He says your name like a plea, and then he's on his knees right in front of where you're kneeling on the floor, reaching forward to cup your face in his palms. "You said— Y/n, you said "holy shit I think I'm in love with you.””

Oh.

You're pretty sure your heart falls right out of your ass and bounces across the rug, judging from the way it comes to a dead stop. You blink at him. Full of new and sinking kind of dread, you whisper, "...I said that out loud?"

He laughs, but it's tinged with incredulity and sounds a little too close to a sob for comfort. "Yes! You did!"

And wait, no, your heart is still stuck in your chest, because you can feel it start pounding against your ribcage in double, triple, quadruple time. He must see the fear in your expression, because suddenly his eyes are narrowed in a determined scowl and he growls, "Oh no you don't."

Then you find yourself going down with a yelp as Seungkwan octopuses himself around you, trapping you within the confines of his surprisingly strong arms and legs as he basically tackles you to the floor.

You try and wiggle away even as you know it's useless, and he grits, "Y/n dammit, answer my question."

"Why were you even awake?” You deflect, getting an arm free and trying to give him a wedgie. “You were supposed to be asleep!"

"I was supposed to be asleep?!” He screeches, easily evading your reach and poking your ribs to get you to reflexively pull back your arm. “You're the one who hasn't slept in literal days! And stop avoiding my question!"

"No!" He has you trapped once again, and you resort to licking his arm.

"Oh my god!"

He muffles his scream into your shoulder, long and frustrated, and then he just... goes limp. He loosens his hold and just lets his full body weight kinda crush the parts of you he's ended up lying on and just... lays there.

This is your chance, you know — to wiggle free and escape and run away from your feelings just like you always have.

But, for some reason, you don't — that scrunched-up thing in your chest holds you back. You stay there, lying beneath Seungkwan on the floor of your living room at one-something in the morning, and the two of you just breathe.

"It's okay, you know," he murmurs after a moment, so quiet you barely hear him over David Attenborough still narrating softly in the background. "If you didn't mean it. It's okay."

Holy shit, I think I'm in love with you.

And you realize how easy it would be to play it off, to blame it on the sleep deprivation, the way you blurted it out like that — to say (to lie) you meant it completely platonically, like the way you propose to Mingyu at least once a month when he cooks you all dinner.

And you also realize, quite shockingly, that despite how a part of you still desperately wants to run away, the larger part of you wants to stay. Doesn't want to run. Doesn't want to lie anymore.

You swallow heavily, briefly close your eyes, and take in a deep breath. "And if I did? Mean it?"

This time, you do notice when Seungkwan goes still. Slowly, he lifts his head so he can look you in the eyes.

When he doesn't say anything, just continues to look at you with an unreadable expression, you try to continue.

"Would you— would that— would it be okay? If I meant it? When I— when I said that I'm in love with you? Is— because um, like you said, it's okay if it's not, and uh—"

Your nervous rambling comes to a stop when he once again cups your face, but it's gentler than before, closer to a caress. The whole time you'd been talking he'd been slowly sitting up, and now he's on his knees next to where you're still lying down on the floor, looking down at you like all the hope in the world is somewhere to be found in your expression.

"Y/n." he says your name like it's something precious, and you feel the absurd urge to burst into tears. "It would be very okay." His thumbs make gentle arcs across your cheeks. "And just to be clear: you mean it in a non-platonic sense, right?” He chews on his lip. “Hopefully, in a very much romantic sense?"

Staring at him staring at you, eyes bright with hope and a little bit of wonder... you can only imagine you must be looking at him the same way. Your chest feels like it's full of helium but also like something warm and gooey is sloshing around in there. And all that hope and wonder and holy shit is this actually happening? is causing your tongue to stick to the roof of your mouth, and all you're able to get past your lips is a breathless, "Hopefully?"

"Oh my god," he groans in frustration, but it's light and airy and makes you think of amusement park rides and fairy lights and how you want to annoy the shit out of this man for the rest of his life, if he'll let you. He's shaking his head, smiling, beaming, and he asks, "Why can you never give me any kind of a straight answer, huh?"

"Because it's my life's purpose to be the bane of your existence until the day we die," you say, reaching up to hold his face too. "Also because I've never done anything straight ever in my life."

And then your body is moving before your brain can think it though, dragging him down until you can press your lips to his and finally, finally know what it's like to kiss Boo Seungkwan.

He makes a little noise of surprise, one that you can feel buzz against your lips before he melts into you. And oh, any thoughts you might have had are forcefully ejected from your brain because all you can focus on are his lips pressed to yours, the way they move slowly, gently, turning this chaste kiss into the most scorching experience of your life. His nose bumps against yours and the heat of his warm breath sends tingles throughout your body, and his hands, fuck, his hands are still holding you gently but also with a firmness that feels like he doesn't want to let you go.

And then he's pulling away, and you whine at him because this may be the cruelest thing he's ever done to you ever in your entire life. "Noooooo, why'd you stop?"

"Because, as much as I'd love to continue to make out with you on your floor while an old British man narrates about life on the Serengeti—” he mercifully ignores the way you choke on your spit at the way he talks about making out with you so nonchalantly "—it's past someone's bedtime."

Your mouth drops open in offended shock. Was he actually going to put you to bed like a child? Like you both hadn't just declared your romantic love for each other? "Are you fucking serious?"

He just stands up and crosses his arms, looking down at you with a single raised eyebrow. You take the part of you that finds it annoyingly attractive and promptly smother it, crossing your own arms from your position on the floor.

"I'm not a baby," you definitely don't pout.

"Hmmm...” And then the bastard fucking pouts at you. “But you're my baby."

You blink at him.

"Welp, that was nice while it lasted,” you grunt, rolling to your feet, “but I suddenly need to relocate to Antarctica and become a penguin herder.”

He pulls you into his arms with a laugh, and you let him, burying your face in the crook of his shoulder.

“You know,” he starts after he's held you for a few moments. “This isn't how I ever imagined how us confessing to each other would go.”

You snort.

“But also,” he continues, “it feels very 'us' doesn't it?”

"Yeah,” you murmur, not bothering to lift your head from his shoulder.

“Mmm, is someone finally sleepy?” he teases, starting to waddle you both towards your bedroom. “Did all the emotions finally wear you out?”

Instead of nodding, you lightly kick him in the shin and the sappy part of your brain that is currently in charge of everything thinks that his indignant squawk is one of your most favorite sounds.

The sappy part of your brain is right, of course, and when you wake up in your bed 15 hours later and accidentally smack him in the face, the urge to run is a little bit smaller than it was before. And the way he flushes bright red after you sleepily kiss him on the cheek is an image you're going to cherish until the day you die.

❃Seventeen and surviving the Titanic❃

a/n: this prompt was suggested by a good friend of mine. As much as I love writing more serious prompts, I live for these idiotic scenarios. The serious prompts will come, but for now, CHAOS!

Scoups/Seungcheol: Dead

❀ He wasn’t having a good time even before the boat began to sink. Instead of enjoying the luxurious holiday he deserves, he was too busy running around the deck trying to get the members to stop doing cannonballs in the community pool. DK and Hoshi had been such nuisances that they almost got banned from the upper deck, leaving Coups to smooth things over. Thus, when the ship starts to sink, he can’t even feel stressed about it; it fits perfectly with how the rest of the holiday had been going. 

❀ Despite being absolutely done with everyone and everything, he remains perfectly rational. He knows he has to act fast; he will stress about his situation later. His eye hasn’t stopped twitching, though. Ever since he realized that he would have to find all twelve of his members on the massive ship, he has been on the brink of a nervous breakdown. 

❀ Coups will be running across the boat, searching every nook and cranny to retrieve each member. Nobody on the ship dares to talk back to him when he picks the members up by the scruff of the neck to throw them into one of the dinghies. He is about to snap, and nobody on the ship wants to be the one who receives the brunt of his rant. Truly, with Coups on the boat, the members actually will have a decent chance of making it out alive.   

❀ He ultimately doesn’t make it to a dinghy because someone tries to argue with him. A Karen pops up next to him and demands that one of the members should switch with her. The moment she insults Seungkwan for being ‘selfish’ when he quietly tells her that he doesn't want to give up his seat, Coups grabs her by the hair, ready to tie her to a pole so she and her rudeness can die with the ship. Who does Karen think she is, insulting his children? Unfortunately, in his anger, he forgets to put his safety first, and as he is tightening the knots to ensure she won’t be going anywhere, the ship sinks. 

Jeonghan: Alive

❀ Why do you think the ship is sinking in the first place? He has been brewing this plan since the moment he set foot aboard. Do you think he wanted to go on an expensive boat ride, stuck with twelve energetic children? He made sure to puncture a hole in the hull of the boat the night before, hoping for the journey to be cancelled. Nah, I am kidding, but yeah, he definitely survives this. He is too clever not to, and with his quick thinking, he will make it out alive. He won't feel too responsible for the others' safety either, prioritizing his safety before anyone else's.

❀ Mr. Gaslight-Girl Boss-Gatekeep convinces everyone around him to let him onto the dinghy. He made up an entire backstory that makes him look like a saint. If they had to believe Jeonghan, he is currently working on a ground-breaking treatment against Rat Hallucinations. It is a very serious disease for rats, as when they hallucinate, they tend to mistake people's fingers and toes for food. He reveals that he has stumbled upon a massive finding in his research. Apparently, certain cheeses can induce hallucinatory effects, but before he was able to share it with his fellow scholars, he had to leave for this trip. 

❀ Hey, he had very little time to come up with something, and all he could think of was rats after he saw one scurry past him as he made his way over to the dinghies. If he had had more time, he probably could've come up with a more believable story.

❀ Surprisingly, the people waiting for their turn to board the dinghy actually believe him; most of them find the prospect of rats gnawing on their toes scarier than drowning.

Joshua: Dead

❀ Joshua finds himself stuck in a loop when the ship starts to sink. He made his way to the dinghies just fine, arriving at the correct side of the boat just as the crew began disembarking people. 

❀ Initially, Joshua was fully prepared to Gaslight-Girl Boss-Gatekeep himself onto a dinghy, ready to make up some ridiculous background story that would give him priority. However, once he saw people's desperation to get their children onto the dinghies, he couldn't get himself to lie.

❀ He starts helping the crew load the children onto the dinghies, doing his best to save as many people as he can. He doesn't take a single break until most of the children in his vicinity are aboard the dinghy. However, even when spots do open up for adults, he still refuses to disembark the ship in favour of letting others go first. In Joshua's opinion, it would be rude of him to leave the ship before everyone else has done so. It wouldn't be very gentlemanly of him.

❀ Everyone around him agrees that he deserves to leave; he acted so selflessly and helped so many people that it is only fair that he gets another chance to live. One lady, in particular, tries her best to convince him to board the dinghy. It turns into a "no after you" loop, where Joshua and the lady keep trying to get the other to disembark first. 

❀ Yes, Joshua wastes precious time being too polite, and it gets him killed in the end. 

Jun: Alive

❀ It is genuinely a miracle that Jun manages to survive the sinking of the Titanic. You see, he remembered a single survival tip and decided that now was as good as any time to try it out. He once read that fridges are great to hide in during nuclear attacks; surely, they can protect him from drowning as well. 

❀ He spends a considerable amount of time walking around the ship, selecting the most promising-looking fridge. Somewhere tucked away in the corner of a kitchen, he finds one that looks like it would work. It is big enough for him to fit in, but small enough that he can maybe get it to the upper deck. He is feeling very optimistic about it.

❀ It takes him a considerable amount of time to drag it up to the upper deck, getting help from a confused staff member passing him on his way up. They have asked him whether he wants to try to get on a dinghy instead, but he maintains that his fridge plan will work. The only reason they help him move the heavy fridge is because, well, they are going to die anyway. At the very least, his insane plan might work.

❀ They lower it into the water before Jun gets on. For those of us who are not aware of this fact, fridges float. Jun didn't even know that they did until he saw it casually float on the surface of the sea. It is not the most functional impromptu dinghy, but it works well enough to allow him to drift to the nearest piece of ice. 

❀ Yeah, he survives by sheer luck and insanity. 

Hoshi/Soonyoung: Dead

❀ In his never-ending quest to convince everyone that he is a tiger, Hoshi has decided the best moment to prove his theory is when the Titanic starts to sink. He reasons that being a tiger and all that, he must be skilled at swimming, considering that tigers are naturally born swimmers. Thus, in all his stupidity, he jumps straight into the ice-cold water. He regrets it immediately as the cold chills him right to the bone, realizing that the waters in which the tigers swim are probably considerably warmer. 

❀ Luckily for him, that is the moment when he meets DK in the water, floating aboard a door. He is just as soaked, but at the very least, the door is keeping him afloat despite his exhaustion. In the true Jack-and-Rose fashion, the two try their best to share the door. However, when Hoshi tries to climb aboard, their collective weight results in the door sinking beneath the surface. In order to save his best friend, he tries his hardest to cling on to its side, hoping that he can stick it out until rescue arrives. 

❀ DK has a death grip on his arms, and the two keep making stupid jokes the entire time, trying to keep each other awake and distracted. Some of the jokes might be made a bit too soon, like "What do you get when you cross the Atlantic with the Titanic? About halfway." or "Titanic, sorry, that was a terrible icebreaker." At the very least, DK and Hoshi are having a great time, giggling at their stupid jokes. 

❀ Despite Hoshi's sheer motivation, even he won't be able to deal with the hypothermia. Even when DK and he take turns resting on the door, Hoshi has been in direct contact with the water for much longer and will ultimately succumb to hypothermia. 

Wonwoo: Alive

❀ Well, technically, Wonwoo is screwed. Wonwoo has admitted before that he can't swim, so if he ends up in the water, he is most certainly dead. At the very least, he will not chance his life by jumping overboard, hoping that maybe he can swim ashore. No, he will try his chances with the overloaded dinghies instead. 

❀ What ends up saving Wonwoo in the end is his knowledge of boats. He has been researching the Titanic ever since Coups mentioned they would be taking a trip on it; it is a technical wonder, after all. He has been recounting fun facts about the Titanic the moment they stepped aboard, but the other members found them boring and told him to shut up. Well, guess who is having the last laugh? 

❀ He knows that something is wrong with the boat even before the crew does. When the other members wave away his worries, he decides to take action in his own hands. Even before the first alarm sounds, he has already reached the dinghies, ready to leave the ship. 

❀ He is one of the first ones to board the dinghy and part of the first batch of people who leave the sinking board. Thanks to his Titanic facts, he was able to be first in the queue and, therefore, made it out alive before the crew realized they needed to prioritize who would be leaving the boat. 

Woozi/Jihoon: Alive

❀ If it had been up to him, he would've given up on surviving long ago. The moment the boat started to sink, Woozi had accepted his fate, ready to go down with the ship. Why bother running around in a panic, trying to save yourself when you could use that time to enjoy your last moments? 

❀ Woozi is in no rush to make it off the boat; he even pauses in front of the orchestra, which has continued to play music as the ship sinks. It is a beautiful scene in his eyes; despite the chaos aboard, music continues to fill the night air, trying to tame the rising panic. For a moment, he feels overwhelmed by the strong emotions, before inspiration hits him. He has such an amazing idea for a song that he needs to write it down somewhere. Well, pen and paper are hard to find on a sinking ship, forcing Woozi to make his way to the dinghies. 

❀ The only reason why he can make it out on one of the dinghies is because people mistake him for being a child. He is so tiny that he won't take up much space anyway, and the crew argues that it doesn't matter whether he is a child or not. Woozi considers arguing with them before realizing that they are practically giving him a way out, so he lets the short comments slide for the first time in his life.

❀ He is grumpy the entire time, sulking that what saved him was being vertically challenged. When he meets up with the other surviving members, he will lie and tell them he was let on, as they trusted him to take care of the other children aboard. He will take it to the grave that they thought he was pocket-sized and a child.

DK/Seokmin: Alive

❀ Ah yes, the other member who finds himself floating on top of a door. DK survives by pure luck. Immediately when the boat started to sink, he grabbed onto the first object within his reach, and he still hasn't let go of it. That object happened to be a door. He blacked out for most of the sinking; he blinked twice and suddenly found himself in the water, floating on top of the door that he initially grabbed onto. Fortunately, he isn't too soaked; somehow, the door has been keeping him dry, for the most part, that is. 

❀ He is just as lucky to find Hoshi as Hoshi is to find him. DK has been panic crying the entire time, and Hoshi has been able to divert his attention from the disaster that the two have found themselves in. Hoshi is the one to suggest cracking jokes about their situation, knowing that DK could do with a cheering-up. The jokes are stupid, which is precisely what makes them funny. DK is the one to propose switching positions on the door, feeling bad for Hoshi having to float next to him in the cold water. 

❀ Once Hoshi drifts away, DK considers floating away with him. By some sheer luck, it is precisely that moment that a dinghy floats nearby, and they hoist him aboard. Huddled between all the dry and warm bodies, DK warms up in no time and gets some much-needed therapy from the sweet older ladies who sit on either side of him.

❀ After that night, they practically adopted him. After the rescue efforts have passed, they stay by his side, helping him find what is left of his members, before heading off to find their own family. He still visits them every other weekend and he makes sure to write them weekly letters to let them know how he is doing.

Mingyu: Dead

❀ Welcome to the tales and woes of Kim Mingyu's time on the Titanic. He wasn't really having fun, to begin with. The rocking of the boat constantly made him lose his footing on the deck, as he couldn't find his balance on the ship; he couldn't remember how many times he had tripped so far. Even worse were the waves, making him either fall over or drop whatever he is holding in order to steady himself. 

❀ When the ship started to sink and slowly tilted to one side, Mingyu found himself in a tiring game of evading rolling objects. So far, he is miserably losing, getting repeatedly hit by random things. He can't even make his way up to the dinghies; he hasn't even been able to move from the spot he was first in when the ship started sinking. For every step he is able to take, he ends up tripping and falling five steps back. He doesn't even understand how every object seems to hit him; he has somehow managed to trip over fifteen rolling cups and stepped right into the path of a sliding beach chair. 

❀ He finally gets taken out by a flying parasol that hits him squarely on the head, successfully knocking him out. Instead of stepping out of the way, he manages to step right into its path. His limp body rolls, together with everything else, off the side of the ship, and he hits the water, unconscious. 

❀ If he doesn't die from the head injury inflicted by the parasol, he will definitely die from drowning or hypothermia. Nobody bothers hoisting his unconscious ass aboard a dinghy; he is too tall to fit on the already overly full rescue boats. 

The8/Minghao: Alive

❀ Minghao has meditated so much that he simply levitates above the surface of the sea. Why worry about floating when you can fly? This is the moment he has been training for, to let go of all his worldly ties and, quite literally, ascend. Consequentially, as the chaos ensues around him, he can be seen sitting perfectly still on top of the deck, meditating. 

❀ All jokes aside, his meditation does allow him to keep cool, calm and collected. Compared to some of the more stress-prone members, he can stay level-headed, understanding that it will do him no good if he starts freaking out. He is the only one who notices when Wonwoo slips away and does not hesitate to follow him; he knows that regardless of whether his warning is unfounded, it would not hurt to follow Wonwoo to the dinghies. 

❀ As a result, he finds himself happily next to Wonwoo when the ship starts to sink. Wonwoo feels incredibly touched at the trust Minghao put into his deduction; in reality, Minghao didn't really expect the boat to sink but partly wanted an excuse to take a break from the other members. Still, he will pretend for Wonwoo's ego that he definitely thought that Wonwoo was onto something. 

❀ He will be the type to point around, trying to spot the other members, judging them for how well they managed to escape the sinking boat. Honestly, he and Wonwoo are having a bit of a blast with it. 

Seungkwan: Dead

❀ Seungkwan is so incredibly scared when the ship starts to sink. Not because he feels like he will drown, but because he feels like he has made so many enemies aboard who would want him dead. He should've known better than continuously nagging the crew and other passengers, but could you really blame him? The coffee they were serving was atrocious, and if he didn't suggest changing it, they would all still be drinking dirty bean water instead of quality crafted Iced Americano.

❀ He regrets it now, as he hurries towards the dinghies, constantly watching his back. Despite his paranoia and vigilance, he doesn't notice the dark figure slowly creeping up behind him, following him closely like a shadow. Seungkwan does feel a chill running up his spine, and he can't shake the feeling that someone is watching him, but every time he turns around, he can't figure out why. Unfortunately, that is the last time that Seungkwan is seen alive.

❀ Before he knows it, he suddenly gets ambushed as someone grabs him from behind. Nobody knows where he went or whether he made it off the boat for the longest time. It's only when the rescue team recovers his body, floating face-down in the water, that it becomes apparent that foul play is involved in his death. 

❀ To this day, his death has gone unsolved; his story is hugely popular in conspiracy communities. He would be proud of the countless videos discussing his death and how he managed to inspire decades worth of conspiracy theorists. 

Vernon: Dead

❀ Vernon was never in any danger to begin with. As an alien who travelled back in time from his planet to observe how humans deal with catastrophes, he is rather enjoying his time aboard the sinking Titanic. He looks completely out of place as he wanders around, humming a tune under his breath as he observes the absolute chaos around him.

❀ Okay, I know I have used the Vernon-is-an-alien-joke way too often, but, in reality, Vernon will not survive whatsoever. Vernon isn't even aware that the boat is sinking; he decides to take a relaxing bath after dinner, and he is so absorbed in his own world that he doesn't even notice that the boat is dangerously tilting to one side. Even when he does, he gaslights himself into believing that it is part of the experience or due to some rocky waves.

❀ Even when it slowly starts to dawn on him that the ship is sinking, he can't move fast enough to get to the deck, let alone the dinghies. Vernon doesn't run; he is not about to change that for a life-threatening situation. At most, he is jogging up the many flights of stairs, trying to make his way to the upper deck. Nobody knows where he is, either, leaving him to figure out what to do all by himself.

❀ He arrives too late on the upper deck, noticing that all the dinghies have already left and that most people have already taken whatever object might help them stay afloat. Instead of trying to jump into the water, he will simply sit down and accept his fate. He finds some left-behind food, which he nibbles on as the ship sinks, taking him with it.

Dino/Chan: Alive

❀ You might be thinking, "Wait, Dino survives? How? Do you mean to tell me he survives his members, all whilst a boat is sinking? Do they suddenly baby him?" The answer is no; he survives because they forgot to bring him in the first place. In his hurry to leave on time, Scoups miscounted, and Dino, who was still on the toilet, got unceremoniously left behind. Honestly, he doesn't even mind it that much; being home alone was better than any holiday where his members would bully him. 

❀ He is thriving back home. Suddenly, his skin has cleared, and for the first time in a long while, he doesn't constantly feel hopeless. He gets to do and eat whatever he wants, not getting out-vetoed by his members. Sure, eating pancakes drenched in syrup and a mountain of whipping cream for breakfast every single morning for weeks might not be good for you, but he is young; his metabolism can handle it. 

❀ Still, when he hears about the Titanic sinking, he makes his way to the dock where the survivors gather. Initially, he is worried sick, praying that his members make it out okay, but when it becomes apparent that they hadn't noticed he was missing for the past few weeks, that worry melts away really quickly. 

❀ Honestly, as he listens to their stories, he can't help but wonder whether he can stage another maritime disaster where the remaining members accidentally perish. Maybe he can drown them himself in the harbour when nobody is watching. 

masterlist

SEVENTEEN (세븐틴) 11th Mini Album 'SEVENTEENTH HEAVEN'

🎼 2023.10.23 6PM (KST) 🎼 2023.10.23 5AM (ET)

#SEVENTEEN #세븐틴 #SEVENTEENTH_HEAVEN

IMA -EVEN IF THE WORLD ENDS TOMORROW SEVENTEEN . 2023

when the world's final night comes, i want to treasure our "now"