Just Two-fake Dating Besties In-love~ (PART 3 Playing Favourites~)

Just two-fake dating besties in-love~ (PART 3 — playing favourites~)

JUST FRIENDS, a timestamp mini-series (3/5)

[14:35] → [11:13] → [15:37] → [18:00] → [01:21]

making this a small series because i really enjoy writing this au. 

aka in which you and your best friend jaehyun pretend to date each other because you are a broke university student who likes to take advantage of some deals that require you to be, well, not single.

[15:37] Jaehyun had invited you out to the aquarium, knowing how much you loved animals. But despite how much you adored animals, you still didn’t bode with the idea that the animals were enclosed in such small spaces. Luckily, Jaehyun reassured you that he did his research and that the aquarium served as a sanctuary for wounded animals to recuperate and they will be released into the wild after they were better. 

While going through the numerous exhibitions, you two discussed the past study you had participated in, not having to go in for the research project for another two weeks. And as much as you hated to admit it, you two successfully passed as a couple. Something you weren’t sure whether to be happy about, or not. 

You finally ended up at the gift shop, where you were perusing which small souvenirs you should buy as a memento. You had your eyes on this cute enamel penguin keyring. However, it came as a set with an enamel polar keyring, almost like a couple accessory. But you had no use for a second keyring, causing you to pout at the dilemma.

“What’s up?” Jaehyun asked as he crouched down next to you.

You blew your cheeks and pointed at the two keyrings. “I want this.”

“I can see that.”

“But… it’s like… a couple set.”

He raised an amused brow at you. “And, why would that stop you from buying it?”

You frowned at his answer and stuck out your tongue at him. “I don’t need a set of matching keyrings to remind me just how painfully single I am right now.” You then motioned the price tag. “Not to mention the discounted price can only be sold to couples. What is this?”

He chuckled lowly at your answer and grabbed the set of keyrings before getting up. You looked at him, confused, as he made his way to the cash and paid for them. The cashier seemed to be telling him setting, probably the fact that the keyrings couldn’t be sold to him. Against your expectations, he pointed at you and then waved.

You waved back, unsure of what was he planning. But he was successful in his purchase. Jaehyun then jogged back to your spot and crouched back down again before dangling the penguin keyring in front of your eyes.

“Here you go,” he said with a teasing smile.

“What the hell? How did you manage to buy it?”

He bobbed one side of his shoulders. “Just told the girl that you were my girlfriend.”

“So, you lied?”

“I learned from the best.”

“Hey–”

He cut you off. “Do you want it, yes or no?”

You jutted your lips out. “What is that supposed to mean? Of course, I want it.”

“I’ll give it to you on one condition.”

“Ew, never mind, I don’t want it anymore.”

He tsk-ed at your retort. “Just tell me who’s your favourite person in our whole friend group?”

“Sicheng.”

“Sicheng doesn’t count, we just met him this year.”

“Fine, Doyoung.”

“You’re really going to be like this?”

You scoffed dramatically and blinked your eyes repeatedly. “Doyoung lied to the waiter about how it’s my birthday and got us free cake! You know how I am when it comes to cakes! And it was a strawberry shortcake too!”

“I pretended to be your fake fiancé so that you could sample wedding cakes!”

You waved his words aside. “That’s old news.”

Jaehyun narrowed his eyes at you. “Will it really kill you to say that I’m your favourite person?”

You rolled your eyes and grabbed the keyring from Jaehyun before he could react.

“Fine, Jeong Jaehyun is my favourite person in the whole wide world! Happy?”

His lips lifted up in a small smirk. “I could do without the sarcasm, but I’ll take what I can get.”

You jokingly pushed him to the ground before walking away from him. But not before telling him, “I still prefer Sicheng over you.”

“Hey!”

You giggled as you skipped away, happy that you could tease Jaehyun a little. But, really, you were just trying to hide your ever blushing cheeks that somehow matched with the colour of his ears.

But you didn’t know that last bit.

“Blind sided by a feeling he’s never known” trope 🤭 (Part 3)

♡ Reblogging from my shadow-reader days ♡

iii. breaking up is hard to do

prev • masterlist • next

words: 4.8k

warnings: none

——————————

You and Kai still hadn’t kissed since Yeonjun’s party months ago, when you were two weeks into your fake relationship.

That thought crossed your mind from time to time, and it crossed your mind again while you sat in the bleachers with Aeri and Yizhuo, watching your school’s soccer team go up against their rivals from AG High. It was the final match of the season, AG were the defending champions, and you were losing.

Until Kai scored a goal, putting both teams neck-in-neck. Even amidst the chaos of all his teammates huddling around him, cheering, and ruffling up his hair, his eyes found yours instantly. You beamed.

Throughout the game he’d missed every goal he attempted, and you could tell he was getting frustrated. His brows were low and his jaw was clenched, and he barely glanced in your direction. Now, he was glowing so bright you’d think they’d already won the championship.

“Did you see how Kai looked straight at you?” Aeri whispered to you, a wicked grin on her face.

“Shut up,” you whispered back.

They did win the championship, and Kai scored the winning goal.

All around you, the students in the bleachers erupted into cheers. Kai’s captain tackled him to the ground and his teammates piled on top of him, yelling and laughing. You let them celebrate on their own for a while, but when the other players’ friends and partners started making their way down to the field, you had to follow them.

The second he saw you he pushed past his teammates and wrapped his arms around you, hugging you tightly. He was sweaty and out of breath, but you didn’t care.

“The MVP of the championship finals doesn’t even get a kiss?” Yizhuo teased.

Pointedly, you cupped Kai’s face in your hands and gave him a peck on the lips.

“Well, hello there,” he grinned, kissing the tip of your nose. His eyes shone with pride, and he couldn’t stop smiling as he basked in the glory of their win.

“That’s it?” Aeri baited, egging you on with a mischievous smirk.

“Damn. I remember when you couldn’t walk down a school corridor without finding Kai making out with someone inside an empty classroom,” Yeonjun joked.

You tensed up, praying Kai hadn’t noticed. You didn’t know if your heart could handle having to kiss him again properly. It took you two full weeks to get over the first one.

“Y/N’s different,” Kai said calmly, his hands still on your waist, speaking to the group but looking only at you.

The justification you’d both been giving all this time for the lack of PDA in your relationship, as opposed to all his previous flings, was that you were shy. And it was true. Sure, you flirted with people a lot, but you weren’t ever one to kiss and tell, and people knew that.

He had felt you tense up after all. You could tell from his eyes, sweet and worried and reassuring. Maybe it would’ve been less painful to just kiss him instead of having to listen to him call you different while he looked at you like that, knowing it was a lie.

——————————

You kissed (for real) the very next week.

For the first time that weekend, you were going to spend the afternoon at Kai’s house instead of him coming over to yours. You vaguely remembered visiting his house before, most likely for a party a couple of years back, but it didn’t look all that familiar to you when you arrived.

His parents were out of town, and you had expected him to seize the opportunity to throw a wild party because of it. But all he wanted to do was order fast food and have you over for a movie night, and you weren’t complaining. He had promised you that movie projector system in his basement all those months ago, right?

“Welcome to my humble abode,” Kai said, opening the front door and inviting you in. He realised the insensitivity of his words the second he said them, wincing slightly and giving you an apologetic look. You shrugged it off.

There was nothing humble about his abode. You were fairly sure his foyer alone, large and cavernous and grand, dwarfed your entire house. The long driveway bracketed by gorgeous flowered hedges and the front garden complete with a koi pond and waterfall feature had already rendered you speechless long before you stepped over the threshold.

You found such ostentatious displays of wealth gaudy as all hell, and you felt the same way about Azeri and Yizhuo’s houses. It was a wonder any of them, let alone all three of them, could turn out as normal as they did.

“Do you want a house tour, or-” he trailed off, rubbing the back of his neck, clearly uncomfortable. He’d shrunken into himself, eyes glued to the floor and his broad shoulders rolled inwards, somehow appearing small despite his height and impressive stature. Awkwardness was a new look on him, at least as far as you knew.

“That’s alright,” you said. You actually did want a house tour (and to see his infamous basement, complete with movie projector system, retro arcade games, and mini bowling lane) but that seemed like the last thing he wanted to do. “Let’s just go to your room.”

So he led you up a coiling marble staircase with dark wood handrails, sturdy and polished, down a long corridor with more rooms than you could count. More rooms than were in your entire block of flats, it appeared. He looked embarrassed, almost ashamed, as you arrived at his bedroom.

When he finally pushed open the door and let you in, he couldn’t stop watching your expression. You knew this because you could feel his piercing gaze as you glanced around his room.

It was massive, more than thrice the size of yours, with an attached en-suite bathroom, walk-in wardrobe, and private balcony. He had a king-sized bed, a small sofa by the wide windows, and a large desk complete with a full gaming PC setup. Half of his bed was covered in stuffed animals.

“I like your plushies,” you said, before you noticed the wall above his desk.

Like he’d mentioned to you all those months ago, he had put up a collage of pictures of him and his friends, notes, letters, and the like. But there were pieces of memorabilia that were very familiar to you.

The first one to catch your eye was the photo you took of him at the botanical gardens, the one with the red leaf over his face as he stared mysteriously at the camera from behind it.

The second one was of you, also from the botanical gardens, except you weren’t aware it existed. You were facing away from the camera, a broad smile just barely visible in your side profile, your eyes wide while you admired the autumn leaves. When had he taken that?

You looked closer.

The receipt from Stackies, where he had paid for you and refused to let you pay him back. A recipe for crepes you’d scrawled on the back of a napkin for him one night while you cooked together for your little brothers. A polaroid of you and him taken on the field after his championship game, with your hands cupping his face and his hands on your waist. You were both looking at each other, paying no mind to the camera.

When he said you were different.

“This is a cute picture,” you complimented casually, trying to sound like your heart wasn’t aching. “Can I have it?”

“No! That’s my copy,” he refused. Ah, the perils of non-digital photography. He reached over your shoulder and pulled a different polaroid off of his wall, handing it to you. “Here, you can have this one.”

The polaroid was from Yizhuo’s party a while back, after most of the guests had gone home and you were helping with the clean-up. Kai was preoccupied with gathering used cups into a bin bag and you were trying to get his attention. You had on Kai’s student athlete jacket and were tugging on his sleeve.

It took a while, but you eventually remembered why: you had found an unbelievably embarrassing love note in one of the cups, perhaps written as a drunken confession. The folded piece of paper, a torn receipt stained with whatever had previously occupied the cup, was pinned between your fingers.

The photo captured the exact moment he turned around to look at you, his eyes falling to the sight of his jacket on your shoulders. The smile on his face was soft while yours was excited, wanting so urgently to make him laugh. Was that really how you looked at each other?

“Thank you,” you said, still studying the picture, running your thumb over its glossy surface. Finally, you turned back to Kai, who now seemed even more embarrassed than he was earlier.

“Yeah, don’t mention it. What do you want for dinner?”

——————————

You were drowning. In a mountain of stuffed animals.

“Can we move some of these to the floor?” you asked, moving a blue shark plush aside so you could lean back against the pillow behind you.

“No, they’re my children,” Kai said. “Why are we watching Ratatouille, again?”

“It’s a good film,” you answered, hugging one of his many teddy bears to your chest.

He laughed. “Okay, I guess I just thought we’d watch something more ro- conventional.”

You expected to be nervous, but you weren’t. It felt surprisingly familiar, lying on Kai’s bed with him as rain battered his closed windows. When he first hit play on his laptop, you two were barely touching. By the time the film ended, his arm was around your shoulder and your head was on his chest.

“That was a good film,” he admitted, somewhat begrudgingly.

“See? I told you.”

He was about to respond when a loud crack of thunder ripped through the room, scaring you half to death. You jolted at the noise. Somehow, neither of you noticed just how much heavier the rain had gotten. It was storming now, with howling winds and lightning repeatedly flashing across the dark sky, even though it was still early in the evening.

How were you going to get home now?

You pulled yourself out of the bed — which was difficult to do given the rocky terrain of stuffed animals on which you struggled to find purchase — and over to the window. Kai was right behind you, drawing his heavy cream curtains back with the push of a button. Automated curtains, you mused. Both interesting and wholly unnecessary.

“Maybe you should spend the night here,” he suggested, frowning at the way the rain fell in thick heavy sheets and the way the wind whipped so ferociously that even the biggest trees wobbled.

“I can’t leave my brothers by themselves,” you said, shaking your head, your fingers curled tightly around his windowsill. “The power in our building always goes out during storms and they get scared.”

Kai paused to think. “It’s still early,” he began calmly, trying to soothe you. “Let’s wait and see if the storm lightens up.”

He tried to distract you for the next hour, even offering you the house tour he so desperately wanted to avoid giving earlier in a bid to take your mind off the storm, but nothing worked. You weren’t really listening to him the entire time, constantly fidgeting with your phone and glancing out the window.

“It’s calmer now,” you mumbled to him, biting your nails. That was a bad habit from your childhood you’d mostly gotten over. Mostly.

The winds were nowhere near as ferocious as before, and the lightning and thunder had stopped. The rain was still heavy, however, and the storm was only going to worsen later that evening according to the forecasts.

“How are your brothers?” Kai asked quietly, wrapping his arm around your waist and pulling you into his side to comfort you.

“Scared. The power’s coming and going,” you replied, your phone pressed to your ear. If you weren’t so anxious, his gesture would’ve given you butterflies.

“I’ll send for a car while the road conditions are good,” he offered, half looking at you and half watching the rain outside. “They can spend the night here.”

You chewed on your bottom lip. Daeseong, the elder of the two, was only seven. “They’re kids. They’ve never taken a taxi without me before.”

“Not a taxi. I’ll call my driver,” he answered immediately, without a hint of hesitation.

You were speechless as he took out his own phone and began tapping away at it, only snapping back into action a full ten seconds later to call your brothers again.

Too anxious to talk, you passed the time helping Kai work on his current Lego project while he sang excerpts of songs you both liked to keep your mind off of the storm. As much as he could, anyway. He could see it in your eyes even when you tried to hide it from him.

Your brothers both arrived in one piece just as the storm began to pick up again. You fed them the leftover pizza for dinner while Kai set up the guest room, even changing the bedsheets for them.

He returned from upstairs once he was done and you were just finished with the dishes. “We can put them to bed now,” he said.

We? We? WE?

You ushered the two boys upstairs, with Kai staying silent as they squealed at the size of the house and how fancy all the furniture was. He watched on with amusement as you ordered them into the bathroom to change into their pyjamas and wrangled them into bed.

“This bed is softer than mine at home,” Daehyun whined. “I want this one.”

You shoved one of Kai’s stuffed animals into his arms so you wouldn’t have to explain the economics of quality mattresses to a four-year-old. He’d been complaining incessantly earlier about how much bigger Kai’s kitchen was compared to your own.

“I packed Daehyun’s bag for him. He’s too young to do it himself,” Daeseong told Kai proudly, eager to be complimented. You stifled a laugh, watching them from afar.

“You did? Good job, little man,” Kai praised, ruffling the boy’s hair. He was always so sweet with them.

The second your brothers were asleep and you were back in Kai’s room, you threw yourself at him with enough force that he stumbled back momentarily.

“Woah. Everything okay?” he asked with a light laugh, hugging you back.

“Yeah. Thank you,” you mumbled into the front of his hoodie before letting him go. Looking up at him, too exhausted to feel embarrassed, your gaze shifted down to his lips. “I want to kiss you, Kai.”

Again, just like at Yeonjun’s party nearly three months ago, he didn’t bat an eyelid. He placed a hand on your lower back and pulled you towards him. “Me too.”

You kissed him gently, tangling your fingers in his hoodie strings just to give your hands something to do. You remembered why you needed two weeks to get over the last kiss now; he was addictive, everything about him.

It was a bad idea to kiss him for any reason other than to add credibility to your fake relationship in front of witnesses — you knew that logically. That’s why you’d refused him the very first day he’d come over to your house. Then again, if logic was your strong suit you wouldn’t have been in a fake relationship with him to begin with.

When he pulled you back in for another, you didn’t stop him. His lips were so soft, his hands were so warm, and his cologne was just strong enough to be pleasant without being overpowering.

Like before, the way he kissed was slow and patient, not a shred of urgency detectable in his motions. He tilted your head back to deepen the kiss with a low hum, reaching under the hem of your jumper.

Not for the first time, you clammed up, splaying your fingers across his chest and pushing him away.

“Sorry,” he whispered.

“I- I haven’t-” you were too nervous to finish your sentence, settling for gesturing vaguely to his bed instead despite knowing he was the last person who would make fun of you over something so trivial.

“That’s okay. We don’t have to,” he said. His ears were red.

By the time both of you wound down, the storm had eased up considerably. The drumming of the rain was still heavy enough to be audible through his closed windows and heavy button-operated curtains, but in the absence of vicious thunder or wind it was more soothing than frightening.

With Kai next you, though, you didn’t think you would be scared even if those were present. He had offered to sleep downstairs in the living room like the gracious host he was, but you’d wrapped your fingers around his wrist and asked him to stay.

And he did, turning off the lights and joining you under his duvet.

“Thanks for letting us stay over,” you whispered for the fourth or fifth time that night, resting your head on his chest. You could hear his heartbeat, slow and steady against your ear, above the backdrop of the rhythmic rainfall.

He kissed the crown of your head. “Of course.”

——————————

Kai didn’t understand how he went two and a half months without kissing you, because now that he had (and not for show this time) it was all he wanted to do. Every time he met you at your front door so you could walk to school together he was filled with an overwhelming urge to feel your lips against his.

“Daeseong and Daehyun love the plushies,” you told him on Monday morning. He’d let both of them pick their favourites from his collection and take them home the night of the storm. As you were showing him pictures of your brothers with their new toys, he caught a glimpse of the polaroid he gave you in your phone case.

His friends had asked him more than once why he never invited you over before then, or why the two of you were so much less physical than he normally was with other people. He usually just brushed it off with a comment about commute times or your shyness and left it at that, as unbothered and nonchalant as ever.

But when another soccer player in the year above him asked him if you were as good in bed as you were at flirting, Kai punched him in the face and got sent home early. No one ever mentioned the subject again.

“What’s with 53? Why does he keep glaring at me?” you asked Taehyun one day when he came to the bleachers for a water break.

Taehyun turned around. “Who, Hangil? Kai almost broke his nose. Didn’t he tell you?”

“What? No. Why?” you asked. Kai didn’t have a violent bone in his body; he hardly ever raised his voice, let alone a hand. Taehyun just grinned cryptically and returned to the field.

For the last two weeks, Kai hadn’t been able to get that night out of his head. The way you’d rushed to hug him after your brothers fell asleep, the sleepiness in your voice when you declared you wanted to kiss him, how naturally you nestled into his side as you slept.

If someone had told him a year ago that he’d be perfectly happy to go three months without getting laid just because of a fake relationship with someone he barely knew, he would never have believed them.

You continued coming to his soccer practices when you could, spending your afternoons doing homework by the field until you absolutely had to leave, and he continued coming over to your house for dinner to hang out with you and your brothers.

But something had changed, and you were acting differently.

He realised that when he kissed you in the bleachers after his practice on Friday. You were kissing him back, your hands in his hair like you didn’t mind his after-practice grossness (you never did), but he could tell you were distracted.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, pulling away and reaching for your hands.

“You need to stop kissing me like that, Kai,” you sighed, staring down at your intertwined hands, at his thumb running soothingly over your knuckles. “I can’t- I can’t keep doing this.”

His heart sank. He stayed silent, not knowing what to say.

“I can’t tell what’s real and what’s not anymore. You say this is just for your friends, but you put my brothers to bed and have photos of us up on your bedroom wall,” you mumbled, your voice so soft he could barely hear you. “I know I shouldn’t have kissed you that night, but at least at the start I could tell when you were pretending. I can’t anymore, and if we keep going like this I’ll break my own heart.”

His thumb stopped. “I- I like spending time with you,” he said hesitantly, his heart pounding in his chest.

That was the understatement of the century and he fucking knew it, but he couldn’t bring himself to say what he refused to admit was true.

“That’s not an answer, Kai. Either we date for real or we break it off. I won’t be mad no matter what you choose,” you promised, shaking your head and pulling your hands out of his grasp. Your fingers were trembling. “But not knowing hurts too much. I’m sorry.”

The thought of you hurting, hurting because of him, sent a stab of pain through his heart. He didn’t know either. He didn’t even know what you were apologising for.

“Can we at least get to our 100 day anniversary?” he asked, his face twisting at his own demand before he’d finished his sentence like he was already aware he was being selfish. You stayed silent and reached for your bag.

His friends were right; he was immature. He wasn’t ready for this. He wanted nothing more than to grab you, hug you, and tell you he loved you. But he couldn’t.

What he ended up saying was, “Can I walk you home, please?”

An agonising few seconds passed of you looking at him without saying a word. He couldn’t read your expression, but it was the same one you’d had on at his championship game when he chose not to kiss you.

Finally, you spoke. “Yeah. Let’s go.”

He walked you home in silence. Your hands kept brushing accidentally as you walked side-by-side on the narrow pavement, neither of you daring to hold the other’s. Normally when you reached your house he’d give you a kiss goodbye. This time, you headed inside without even so much as a glance in his direction.

——————————

That was just about the last conversation Kai wanted to have with his friends before he talked to you.

After your fight (it felt wrong to call it a fight when neither of you had even raised your voices, but he didn’t know how else to describe it) on Friday, he hadn’t spoken to you at all over the weekend.

But he still picked you up from your front door on Monday and you both showed up at school together as if nothing had happened. In front of your friends he still wrapped his arm around your waist, and you still laughed at all of his jokes.

He pulled you aside at the earliest possible opportunity.

“Can we talk? Please?” he asked in a whisper, half-expecting you to just walk away.

You didn’t. “When?”

“After my practice today.”

Although you agreed then, you didn’t show up after school. He kept glancing over at the bleachers searching for you, trying to spot your trademark Rick Astley QR code laptop sticker throughout his practice. Unsurprisingly, he wasn’t playing very well.

“Kai! Get your act together or get off the field!” his captain shouted the second their third practice game ended as everyone else scattered for a quick break.

Kai gritted his teeth, squeezing his eyes shut to keep his sweat from dripping into them, and bowed in apology before scurrying away.

“Why are you so out of it today?” Taehyun asked, frowning as he handed Kai his water bottle.

“I have a stitch,” Kai lied, pretending to double over in pain.

His captain’s call-out worked. Once he was convinced you weren’t going to come, he stayed focused enough on the game to not be singled out again. He wasn’t looking over at the bleachers at all, fighting every urge in his being not to think about you.

So he didn’t notice you when you turned up right when his practice ended until Beomgyu pointed you out.

“Where’s your stuff?” Kai asked as he jogged over to you. Really? That was the riveting question he was opening with?

“I went home first to get dinner ready,” you replied, explaining your lack of school bag and binder.

You had left and come all the way back to school just for him. For some reason, that made him feel worse. He sat down beside you, dabbing at the sweat on his forehead, still breathing heavily from practice. He couldn’t tell if you were angry or not.

“Uh- wait.”

He fumbled for his phone and opened his Notes app, looking for the two paragraph-long sappy idiotic stream of consciousness he’d written the previous night. His eyes glossed over it, and he understood then why his teachers were always yelling at him for not proofreading his essays.

“Kai,” you called, watching him stare at his phone screen. “I thought you wanted to talk.”

“Fuck. Yeah. I-” he looked at your face, then back at his phone. You didn’t seem angry or nervous or upset, just calm. Your hands were folded patiently in your lap, not fidgeting at all. He wanted to hold them.

I feel the same way. Why was that so hard for him to spit out?

“You’re right,” he forced out instead through gritted teeth. “Let’s break things off.”

You closed your eyes and turned away. I take it back, he screamed at you in his head.

“Why were you so nice to me?” you asked after a few seconds of silence, your voice starting to shake. “You did things you didn’t have to, things no one else was privy to. What was the point of all of that?”

Down on the field, his teammates were all packing up their things and getting ready to head home. Beomgyu stood around watching you and Kai talk, but Taehyun eventually managed to drag him away.

He glanced back down at your hands, now curled into loose fists in your lap, so he wouldn’t have to look at your expression.

“I’m really sorry, Y/N, but I’m not sure what else you expected out of this,” he said, his heart beating so fast he felt physically ill. “I hope we can still be friends.”

All he could think about was the pancake doodles on your calendar. When you took that photo of him at the botanical gardens. How you hummed quietly under your breath as you washed dishes together. Like you’d said, things no one else was privy to. The moments belonged only to you and him.

“I really liked you, you know,” you mumbled, picking at your nails and trying not to cry. “Before all of this started.”

It hit him like a freight train. You liked him? More worryingly, did he on some level know that in his subconscious? Had that been the reason he’d chosen to ask you, of all people, to pretend to date him? Had he used you?

“What-”

“I spent the last three months trying to figure out if you felt the same,” you told him, turning your phone over in your hand and unintentionally flashing him the polaroid in your phone case. He made the mistake of glancing down at it, at the smile on your face immortalised in the flimsy frame. How you looked at him with stars in your eyes.

“I guess I don’t have to wonder anymore,” you muttered.

It wasn’t like him to be speechless, but for all the words he was screaming at you in his head, he couldn’t get his vocal cords to cooperate.

He watched in silence as you strode across the field, taking long, brisk steps like you couldn’t get away from him fast enough. It was a cold night and you were just in your school uniform, and he wanted nothing more than to give you his jacket.

You had granted him a second chance and he tore it apart right in front of you. Why? All because he was too afraid to admit he liked you back?

——————————

thanks for reading!

-minastras <3

adorkable hockey captain Mark <3 (part 2)

let’s break the ice | m.l | two

🏒  SYNOPSIS— in which your college’s hockey team crashes your lunch plans after practice and you have to get away before dying of embarrassment 🏒 GENRE— fluff, humor, crack, college!au, ice hockey!au 🏒 PAIRING— ice hockey captain!mark lee x reader 🏒 WORD COUNT— 1.5k 🏒 WARNINGS— sexual innuendos made; povs switching during the same scene; cursing 

🏒 AUTHOR’S NOTE— oh shit, does that say part two?? l m a o

y’all asked for it, so here it is! i’m turning this into a mini-series featuring random snapshots of mark with his love interest! no regular updates, the parts are just going to be randomly uploaded as we go. surprise surprise! i have a couple of moments planned already, so stay tuned! (i’m still working on the requests i have left as well as my other wips, please be patient with me!)

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ongoing — author last updated: 20/04/2024

|| series masterlist || next // previously

parings -> ( eventually ) enhypen x reader genre -> soulmate au, fantasy au, angst warnings -> angst, self-harm word count -> 1.5k

abstract -> "i'm not a monster"

y/n’s perspective

I don't understand why Jake would want to know how it feels. Seeing someone hurt should give him an idea… He even wanted to keep it a secret, but why?

I wonder if K already gave it to him… if he drank it knowing what it was. 

“Why are you so lost in your own head love?” I heard and smiled. “Just tired, Won,” I said and he chuckled. “Too tired even for me?” he teased and I smiled at him. He really was the best. “No, never for any of you,” I said and he smiled while kissing my forehead. 

“Jay is busy today, so he wanted me to tell you to eat at the cafeteria today,” he said and I nodded. “Are you gonna join me?” I asked and he chuckled. “I would, but I need to get my dinner at the cafeteria so I’d rather not let you wait,” he said and I nodded. 

It's been a while since I've eaten dinner by myself. Eunchae and Wonyoung are busy with after-school activities today. “Don’t miss me too much,” he said while speeding away. 

I packed up my stuff and decided to go to the cafeteria. 

While we could make our own food and eat at the cafeteria, we couldn’t get other foods made for different species. That's a concrete rule… humans have a specific process of checking food, it's quite similar to witches but our food has more nutrients for our energy in magic. Whilst werewolves consisted of a lot of meat… sometimes rare. Of course, vampires have blood bags and blood-infused food. 

Wait… if Jay was busy today, what was Jake gonna eat?

“I need help” I heard and I immediately got scared of the man behind me… speaking of the devil. “I know it's not your ideal way to spend the end of the day, but if I can't stomach a blood bag I won't be able to eat any of the cafeteria food,” he said and I nodded. 

“Why don’t you go into the city?” I asked and he shook his head. “The humans know I'm a vampire… It's on my uniform. They'll refuse to serve me. Why would a vampire go to a human-owned restaurant alone?” he asked and he proved a point. There was a lot of fear when it came to humans… some trusted witches and werewolves but when it came to other supernatural creatures like vampires… not so much. 

“Well… I could go with you? We could go to the witch area, there's food you can eat as a human '' I said and his eyes lit up and he grabbed my shoulders making me freeze. “Thank you! You’re a lifesaver!” he said as he let me go… I tried to calm down my over beating heart, but it wasn’t like he could hear it with the effects of the potion. 

“Do you need time to get ready?” I asked and he shook his head. “No… I just want food” he said and I understood he must be feeling an overwhelming amount of saturation. 

“Lets go wait  for the bus then”

jake’s perspective

I was happy she was true to her word and was willing to help me. 

We finally got out of the bus that took us to the nearest city. It had a lot of different species-owned shops and restaurants. While shops were okay, restaurants were hard since vampires primarily drink blood scaring humans when they go in saying they're hungry. 

“This is a human and witch-infused place. I hope you can find something you can eat” she said and I nod hoping it was true. “Jake?” I heard and I saw a she-devil. I hid behind y/n who looked at me confused. 

“Jake, you should not be hiding behind the poor girl” she scolded and she smiled at the y/n who put her hand out. “Hello, if you know Jake you must know my brother Heeseung '' she said and I could see the shocked expression on her face. “I’m sorry for those idiots, they’ve always been that way,” she said and I scoffed.

“But you’re a witch and Heeseung–” “Is a vampire? The only vampires born from them are Sunghoon, Jake, and Niki the rest were turned. Heeseung was actually a witch” she explained. 

“That's a long story though!” she said and I scoffed… 

“Oh, it's nice to meet you,” she said, causing the she-devil to smile. “Be careful, Jake. Being human is a lot harder than you think” she said, seeing right through me. “How’d you know?” I asked as I stopped hiding. “I’m a witch… of course, I'd know, '' she said. “Besides any idiot could feel the magic radiating off of you” I heard as I now saw Vernon-hyung. “Oh, uhm she’s actually in HYBE Academy '' I explained and her eyes lit up. “I want to go into HYBE Academy when I graduate!” she said with an excitement I hadn't seen before. 

“Oh? Maybe you’ll be my junior!” she said and y/n smiled. “We should get going now, your mates are waiting for you” I heard as I saw Jeonghan also. 

“Mates? I didn’t know you found your mates yet?!” I said and she chuckled. “Neither do they,” she said and I should've guessed. From what Heeseung explained she knew who her mates were before even meeting them. 

“Bye! I would love to see you again y/n!” she said as she left. “I didn’t know he had a sister, '' she said and I nodded. “She’s evil,” I said and she laughed. “She seems nice…” she said and I nodded. “Nicer than Heeseung at least but those two are the worst. Now can we order?” I asked and her eyes widened. 

“Oh! You’re right, uhm here” she said while showing me the menu. “Oh, Rabokki sounds good!” I said and she smiled. “Let's go order then,” she said and I put down the menu as we got in line. “Are you not gonna get anything?” I asked and she hummed. “I was thinking of getting the same thing actually,” she said and I chuckled. “We could just order a big one and share?” I suggested. “Are you sure?” she asked and I nodded. 

“I’ll pay by the way… as a thank you for doing this for me”

y/n’s perspective

My time with Jake was… nice. 

He was actually really funny and sweet so I felt comfortable around him. Even meeting Heeseung’s sister was shocking, but the evening was good despite my other soulmates being busy. 

“I’m so full!” he said as he yawned. “Why am I so sleepy?” he asked and I chuckled. “Because human food fills you so much that it just makes you tired. Unlike other species they don’t use anything to give extra energy to their food” I explained and he nodded. 

“Being a human… it's weird” he said and I was curious. “How does being a witch feel?” he asked, making me laugh. “I know it sounds weird,” he mutters softly with a smile. He was...

No, he likes Sooha, not me.

“Well, I almost have excessive energy that I need to release. Witches need to do magic to not only be healthy but practice” I explained and he nodded. 

“Vampires just have an excessive thirst,” he said and I nodded. “Does it make you uncomfortable with… you know eating with your mates?” he asked and I shook my head. 

“It's a natural thing, none of it bothers me,” I said and he nodded. “Being around you… is overwhelming” he said and it confused me. “Not right now! Just… as a vampire. I’m not the best with control so you constantly smell like blood” he said and I felt my eyes widen in shock. 

“I need to work on my control… control plus heavy emotions lead me to do horrible things. I’m sorry for that” he explained and I now knew it wasn’t really his fault. 

He probably was defending Sooha… but he didn’t mean to hurt me. “I still don’t know how it feels to be hurt. But I wanted to explain that” he said and I nodded. “Sorry for not hearing you out,” I said and he shook his head. 

“I don’t blame you” 

jake’s perspective

I dropped her off at her dorm when I left the school again. I went to the plains to test it out. 

I took a deep breath and summoned my fire. It was warm… then it turned hot and then turned unbearable. I couldn’t even control the scream that I let out. 

“That pain you feel right now… remember it. It was only a fraction of what you did to her” I heard as I saw Heeseung? “Asking her for a potion to make yourself human? What were you thinking?” he asked as I could only feel my vision get blurry. 

The burns hurt… the smell of burning flesh even made me gag. 

“You’ve hurt countless people, you're under a rehabilitation program Jake. You're supposed to learn not to be a monster and yet you do monstrous things” he said and it was true. 

There were vampires like him… who were made and are taught how to control whilst there's one like me who has killed and needed to be taught morals. 

“I get it… I’m still a monster”

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this mini-series was too dang cute not to fully-reblog~

Come read how two friends fall further for one-another through mundanely-fun fake-dating scenarios~ 💞 (PART 1 - CAKE TIME)

JUST FRIENDS, a timestamp mini-series (1/5)

[14:35] → [11:13] → [15:37] → [18:00] → [01:21]

you and your best friend jaehyun pretend to date each other because you are a broke university student who likes to take advantage of some deals that require you to be, well, not single.

[14:35] “This is a terrible idea,” Jaehyun muttered to you as you two stood in front of a cake shop near your university campus.

You couldn’t help but elbow him in the ribs, causing him to hiss at you. You only stuck out your tongue in response before saying, “Don’t you dare back out! I’ve already rescheduled this twice because you kept chickening out at the last minute. Do you know how embarrassing is that?”

He scoffed. “You know what’s embarrassing? Asking your best friend to pretend to be engaged to you, just so you can try free wedding cake samples. I believe that’s fraud.”

You gasped dramatically. “Fraud? You take that back!” You puffed out your cheeks. “And this is not fraud! When I get married, I will choose this cake shop for my wedding cake!”

“Married?” he retorted with a small snort. “Married to whom?”

You narrowed your eyes at him. “Don’t test me. I am currently very stressed and I have an empty stomach.

Jaehyun stuck his tongue right back at you and you rolled your eyes. You felt bad that you were lying to the cake shop’s owner about the nature of your relationship. But you were a broke university student and you were stressed and you needed cake in your stomach. Desperate times called for desperate measures. You had no shame in asking your best friend to be your fake fiancé if it meant that you could fulfill your cravings.

He always went along with your antics for as long as you knew him. And eventually, you began to develop feelings for your best friend that were definitely not platonic. It wouldn’t hurt anyone to indulge yourself a little bit, right?

“Hi!” the owner of the shop greeted you both as you entered. The sweet smell of cakes and fruits lingered in the air and you smiled in excitement. “You must be the 2:30 couple, right? Here for the wedding cake samples?”

“Yes,” you answered as you looked around. “Sorry for rescheduling so many times.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it,” she replied. “Wedding planning is so hectic, so I completely understand. May I ask when is the wedding going to be held?”

Your eyes widened the slightest in panic, not expecting her to ask you anything even though it was a scenario you should have expected. But you thought the bored part-timer would be the one serving you two as he just seemed completely uninterested and bored of his job.

“Uh-”

Luckily, Jaehyun came to your rescue and smoothly said, “We don’t have a set date yet, but we were thinking of having a late spring wedding, around the end of May.”

“Sounds like a wonderful time to hold a wedding,” the older woman replied.

“Yeah, well, my fiancée’s favourite season is spring,” Jaehyun continued with a smile and wrapped an arm around your waist, pulling you closer slightly.

“Is it?” the owner asked you, her eyes sparkling.

“O-oh, y-yes,” you replied shakily, your mind still processing the fact that your best friend’s arm was around your waist. Oh, this was so bad for your heart.

“Well, just take a seat. I’ll bring out the samples.”

“Thank you,” Jaehyun said and led you to the counter.

As soon as the owner went in the back, you quickly slapped his arm away and he quickly retracted himself with an ‘ouch!’ and a wounded expression.

“What was that for?” he asked with a pout.

“I should be asking you the same question!” you replied as you sat down, Jaehyun joining you on your right.

“I mean, shouldn’t we act the part properly?” your friend reasoned. “You were about to blow our cover.”

It was your turn to pout – he had a point. But with your budding feelings for your best friend, you were simply not comfortable with him actually acting as your significant other.

“Whatever,” you mumbled.

A few minutes later, the owner had laid in front of you a whole assortment of cakes. Chocolate. Double-chocolate. Vanilla. Red velvet. Oreo. Matcha. And so many more. Oh, how you trembled on the inside — this was heaven.

The owner then left you to be and told you to call her if you two made up your mind. You barely registered her words when you pulled the small plate of strawberry shortcake towards you and immediately took a bite before letting out a small groan of satisfaction.

Jaehyun rested his chin on his palm, looking at you with a hidden dimpled smile. You noticed that he hadn’t touched any of the cakes yet.

“What are you doing?” you asked with a small frown. “Eat! Eat!”

He chuckled and swiped a thumb near your lip, removing the little bit of cream stuck there, before sucking it, leaving you speechless and almost mortified.

“I am,” he replied nonchalantly before taking a bite from the black forest cake.

You quickly turned your attention back to the rows of cakes in front of you, hoping that your hair was long enough to hide your reddening cheeks.

Jaehyun was right.

This was a terrible idea.

Just two-fake dating besties in-love~ (PART 2 - Couple Rings)

JUST FRIENDS, a timestamp mini-series (2/5)

[14:35] → [11:13] → [15:37] → [18:00] → [01:21]

you and your best friend jaehyun pretend to date each other because you are a broke university student who likes to take advantage of some deals that require you to be, well, not single.

[11:13] You stared at the flyer in your hands as you and Jaehyun stood in front of the room designated on the piece of paper.

Some PhD students from the department of Psychology of your university were doing a study on romantic couples — a study that paid the participants that would be eventually included in the study.

After asking Jaehyun to be your fake fiancé that one time you felt like eating cakes (and the only way was to pretend to be an engaged couple to eat wedding cake samples), you told yourself that you weren’t going to ask him anymore because it wasn’t good for your heart.

You resorted to asking other guys in your group of friends such as:

Johnny, who lied to the staff at the restaurant that he was going to propose to you just to get some free champagne and cake;

Jungwoo, who didn’t mind pretending to be your boyfriend just so you could take advantage of the discount given to couples at the amusement park, and

Doyoung, who willingly went along your fake birthday dinner date plan to get free dessert.

Jaehyun made it known to you that he missed you and that he missed hanging out with you. You felt bad that you avoided him just a bit because you didn’t know how to deal with your feelings. But you did miss hanging out with your best friend. So, you told him that he could pick the activity the next time you guys hang out together, though not forgetting to mention thar your budget was a little bit tight for the month.

And he thought that pretending to be a couple for a study that could pay the two of you was a good idea. You honestly didn’t know whether you should be ecstatic about the idea or completely horrified. You chose both.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” you asked him, your eyes trailed on the list of requirements printed on the paper.

He raised an amused brow at you and crossed his arms. “Too much of a chicken?”

You slapped his arm. “I’m being serious! This study is for their PhD dissertation! We can’t mess this up for them just because I need the money.”

Jaehyun rolled his eyes. “We’re not messing anything up. We tick off all the requirements, anyway.”

“Which ones, exactly?” you deadpanned. The first requirement was that you two needed to be a couple. Last time you checked, you and Jaehyun were definitely not a couple.

“Well, first, it says that we need to be in a committed, monogamous romantic relationship,” Jaehyun reads out and bobbed his shoulders. “We’re best friends, it’s the same thing.”

“No, it’s really not,” you said bitterly, the words hurting you a bit more than you’d like to admit.

“Well, we’ve done pretty much everything together except stuff related to sex,” Jaehyun replied nonchalantly. Your jaw dropped at how blunt he was. “What? Did you forget that we made out with each other at Johnny’s party?”

Your eyes widened and this time, you landed a punch on his shoulder. “What is wrong with you? We both promised that we were never going to bring that up, again!”

He snickered in response before reading the next requirement, “–have been dating for at least six months.” Jaehyun nodded to himself. “That sounds about right.”

“Sorry, I think I have a memory problem because what happened to those six months, exactly?” you spluttered out. “I can’t seem to recall.”

You were all for doing whatever you can to survive. And it wasn’t really your moral compass telling you that acting as a couple with Jaehyun for a study was a bad idea, but rather it was your heart because you knew you couldn’t possibly handle Jaehyun acting so lovingly and sweetly to you like an actual boyfriend. It hurt you even more to think that he could act this way with a girl that was not you.

Jaehyun effectively ignored you. “–are currently living together. Well, we always sleep over at each other’s places so that’s fine. And, we’re both over the age of 18.”

You gave up at this point. For some odd reason, Jaehyun was really fired up for this activity and you wondered why exactly, but forced yourself to not think too much about it.

Just like how you forced yourself not to freak out when Jaehyun pulled out these couple rings for you two to wear, so that it’d be more “legit”.

Just like how you forced yourself to calm your heart rate down when he slid the ring onto your left hand’s ring finger and grinned at you childishly, before giving your hand a reassuring tight squeeze as you two entered the conference room for the study.