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.

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

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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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the way i giggled at the perfectly timed “DIY” pun 😂

Stitches | l.sm

Summary: Seokmin is nothing if not the perfect boyfriend, so he decided to manscape a little to spice things up. Unfortunately, he wasn’t paying enough attention, and he’s been stitched up for a week. He’s determined not to let you in on why he’s rejecting your advances, but all it’s doing is making you think he’s not interested. Seokmin sees that you’re upset, but he just doesn’t know how to tell his girlfriend that he accidentally cut his penis and now has stitches in it. 

☆ 18+ minors dni |☀︎fluff | ♕ implied smut |  ☁︎ mild angst | ♥ completed works 

Word Count: 1486 words 

Pairings: Lee Seokmin x Female Reader

Genre/Trope(s)/AUs: fluff, mild angst (but it's me so idk how long it’ll stay mild), new relationship au!

Content Warnings: mentions of razors, stitches and blood (nothing graphic). Mentions of food.  

Smut Warnings: none, but just implied smut

Authors Note 1: thank you to my lovely seoksluts @the-boy-meets-evil @wooahaeproductions @highvern and @kwanisms for encouraging this <3  Taglist: @aaniag and @dkluvrsclub and @thegirlwhoimagined @ressonancee and @tomodachiii @bitchlessdino @onlyseokmins @gyuminusone because why not <3

“So, you’re telling me you have a cut on your dick?” Mingyu repeated as he wiped away the tears from his eyes. He had been laughing at Seokmin ever since he confided in Mingyu. 

“Shut up, I was right. I should have gone to Jeonghan hyung,” Seokmin whined, and Mingyu laughed more at his comment. 

“No, he’d probably upload your bleeding penis to the group chat,” Mingyu teased, making Seokmin throw a towel at Mingyu’s head. 

“Can you help?” Seokmin pleaded. 

“I think that Y/N would prefer to help you when it concerns your penis,” Mingyu joked, making Seokmin reach for the hairbrush on the bathroom counter to throw at Mingyu’s head. 

“Okay, calm down. I’ll take you to the doctor, and after that, we’re going to discuss why you think throwing things in an argument is a solution,” Mingyu offered, earning a glare from Seokmin. 

“Stop whining, it could be worse. You could, I don’t know, have severed your entire dick off. All you did was let a tiny little cut, which after a week will be fine,” Mingyu scolded as Seokmin went on his third meltdown of the day. 

“What do I tell Y/N?” Seokmin wailed; he had been a mess after the doctor told him that he’d stitch up his cut, but he’d have to abstain from any activities that would exacerbate his cut–which included sex. 

“Just tell her the truth?” Mingyu offered, confused, wondering why Seokmin couldn’t be honest with you, his girlfriend. 

“No, she’s going to think I’m an idiot,” Seokmin mumbled. 

“I think she already thinks that, ow!” Mingyu yelped as Seokmin smacked his head. 

“Dude, it’s not that serious. Tell her you wanted to make your penis pretty and accidentally sliced a bit of it,” Mingyu suggested earning a glare from Seokmin. 

“Or you could say that you wanted to attempt an “at-home” circumcision,” Mingyu joked, his suggestion earning another smack from Seokmin. 

“No, I know what I’ll do. I’ll ignore her advances; it’s just for a week, and I’ll make it up with the best sex ever,” Seokmin said determinedly.

“Okay, first ew, second, don’t because you’ll ignore her, and she’ll think something’s wrong with her,” Mingyu warned. 

“No, she won’t. She knows I think she’s perfect,” Seokmin argued. 

“Okay, genius, you do what you think is best. Just try not to slice up your dick again. Besides, you could go to a salon, and they’ll manscape you nicely,” Mingyu teased, making Seokmin whine again and lie back down on the hospital bed. 

“Baby! You’re home!” You exclaimed, running to greet your boyfriend, who held out a hand, stopping you from hugging him. 

“Sorry, I'm sore. I fell during practice,” Seokmin lied, hoping you didn’t catch his tone. He was a terrible liar. 

“Oh baby, should I get you something? Ice? Or maybe I can draw you up a warm bath to soothe your muscles?” You offered, and Seokmin shook his head furiously. 

“No!” Seokmin yelped, confusing you. 

“I’ll be fine. You don’t need to worry,” Seokmin said, calmer, and you just shrugged. 

“Well, I hope you’re not too sore for me to kiss you,” you asked, hopeful. 

“Uh, no, I’m not,” Seokmin grinned. 

You walked towards your boyfriend, and you were about to kiss him when he moved his face away. Your lips landed on his cheek. 

“Seok?” 

“You wanted a kiss, right?” Seokmin asked, grinning, and hoped you wouldn’t question him further. 

“Yeah. I guess,” you mumbled. 

“I’ll go change, and we can cuddle and watch a movie?” Seokmin offered, making you smile. That sounded more like your boyfriend. 

“Sounds good.” 

You both weren’t cuddling as you watched the movie. Seokmin had his hand on your thigh but still kept at least a couple of inches of space between you. You were confused, but you did want to cuddle him, so you reached out your arm. Before you could place it on Seokmin’s thigh, he inched away from you, yelping. 

“What the hell?” You asked. 

“Why are you touching me?” Seokmin asked, exasperated, hating how the words sounded and hating how your face fell after hearing his words. 

“I just wanted to get a bit closer to you,” you mumbled, embarrassed. 

“Well, I’m not always in the mood,” Seokmin said defensively. 

“Well, you’re the one who suggested a movie and cuddles?” You argued. 

“That doesn’t mean we need to be stuck together like glue; sometimes I don’t want you cuddling me,” Seokmin spoke quickly, the words spilling out of his mouth before he could even think. 

“Oh,” you said quietly, looking at your hands. 

“Baby, that's not what I meant,” Seokmin said, trying to backtrack. You looked up at him, shaking your head. 

“No, it’s fine, um. I have some work to finish, so uh, I’ll catch you in a bit?” You said as you got up from the couch and walked off to the bedroom, not giving Seokmin a chance to speak and stop you. 

Later that night, you decided you’d get ready for bed without Seokmin, even though you two liked doing your night routine together. You figured he needed space, so you gave him just that. 

“Baby?” Seokmin called out, and you pretended to be asleep. You felt the bed dip as he lay down next to you. 

“I’m sorry,” Seokmin mumbled as he wrapped his arm around your waist. You placed your hand over his. 

“It’s fine,” you mumbled, turning to face him. This made Seokmin gasp and inch away. 

“What the hell, Seok?” You asked, now annoyed. 

“Baby, it’s just that I need to keep my distance from you right now,” Seokmin admitted, and you glared at him. 

“Fine, keep your distance,” you huffed, grabbing your pillow and heading to the door. 

“Wait, where are you going?” Seokmin asked. 

“The guest room. I don’t know what is wrong with you right now, but you’re not making me feel very wanted, and since you want space, I’ll give you space,” you ranted, walking out of the bedroom and slamming the door behind you. 

Seokmin knew better than to follow you, but he knew he needed to fix this. He grabbed his phone and started texting Mingyu. 

The following morning, you decided to ignore Seokmin until he told you why he was behaving so funny, and while it was incredibly petty of you to do so, you were hurt. 

You emerged from the guest room after you took a shower, and the only thing you could find to wear was one of Seokmin’s shirts since you were determined not to go into your bedroom. You pouted, put his shirt on, stepped outside and made your way to the kitchen. 

“Baby!” Seokmin greeted, and you saw a lavish breakfast spread on the kitchen island. 

“What’s all this?” You asked, gesturing to the food. 

“This is my attempt at apologising for my atrocious behaviour last night,” Seokmin mumbled, looking like a sad puppy. You let out a giggle, sat on one of the high chairs next to the island, and took a strawberry and bit into it. 

“Why are you laughing?” Seokmin asked. 

“I wouldn’t call your behaviour ‘atrocious’ just odd,” you said with a grin and patted the seat next to you. 

“So why were you so skittish?” 

“Don’t laugh, okay?” Seokmin pleaded, and you nodded, allowing him to continue. 

“I wanted to, uh, I guess, groom myself a bit. I think the term is manscaping, and I got distracted and accidentally nicked my penis, and I had to get stitches, and I can’t do anything for a week,” Seokmin explained quickly, and you pressed your lips together to try and not laugh. 

“Hey, you said you wouldn’t laugh,” Seokmin whined, and you giggled and placed your arms around his neck. 

“Oh, my sweet baby, why did you think you needed trimming?” You asked, placing a kiss on his cheek and making him smile. 

“I don’t know to make my penis more appealing.” 

You let out a laugh pulled away, and placed your hands on Seokmin’s pouty face. 

“Baby, I think you have the prettiest dick in the entire world. I’ll yell it from the rooftops if I need to,” you comforted him, making him smile at you. 

“You’d yell it?” Seokmin asked. 

“Yes, baby, I understand, and I respect that. You can always be honest with me. I’ll never judge that,” you explained further, and Seokmin pouted as he nodded. 

“I’m sorry about last night,” Seokmin apologised. 

“It’s okay. Can you at least give me a proper kiss?” You asked, and Seokmin nodded. He leaned forward and captured your lips in the softest kiss ever. 

“Mm, 100 more of those today, and you’re forgiven,” you offered. 

“Done!” 

“Uh, babe, what would you yell about my dick?” Seokmin asked as he walked away to fix you a plate. 

“Oh, simple, I'd say that Seokmin has a very nice DK.” 

Café Date - Sunoo

picture is by @dollywons

The sun was setting over the bustling city, casting a warm glow over the streets as people rushed home from work. Among the crowd, stood Sunoo, a handsome young man with a charming smile and kind eyes. He was nervously fidgeting with his tie, awaiting his date with YN at their favorite cafe.

Sunoo and YN had been friends since high school, but it wasn't until recently that Sunoo realized his true feelings for her. He spent countless nights rehearsing what he wanted to say, but every time he saw her, his words seemed to disappear. Tonight was different, he couldn't let his fear hold him back any longer. He took a deep breath and walked into the cafe.

As he made his way to their usual table, YN's face lit up with a smile. She was stunning, with long dark hair and an infectious laugh. Sunoo's heart skipped a beat as he sat down across from her.

'Hey Sunoo,' YN said, her eyes sparkling with excitement.

'Hey YN,' Sunoo replied, trying to sound confident.

They ordered their drinks and made small talk, but Sunoo's mind was racing with nerves. He couldn't take his eyes off her, how could he tell her that he wanted to be more than friends?

Just as he was about to take a deep breath and pour out his heart, YN's phone rang. She excused herself to take the call, leaving Sunoo alone at the table. He couldn't help but overhear her conversation.

'Hey, it's me. I just wanted to let you know that the doctor said I'm all clear,' YN said, her voice filled with relief.

Sunoo's heart dropped. He realized that YN had been going through a tough time, and he had been too caught up in his own feelings to notice. He felt guilty for wanting to confess his love at this moment.

But then a thought struck him. Maybe this was the right time, maybe she needed someone to lean on. Sunoo took a deep breath and mustered up the courage to talk to her.

'YN, I've been wanting to tell you something for a long time now,' he said, his voice shaking.

YN sat down next to him, concerned and curious.

'Listen, I know you've been going through a lot, and I want to be there for you. I care about you more than just a friend,' Sunoo poured his heart out.

YN's eyes widened in surprise, but then she smiled. 'Sunoo, I never knew you felt that way. I care about you too, more than you know,' she replied.

Sunoo couldn't believe it. He had spent so much time being afraid of rejection that he never realized that YN may have been feeling the same way all along.

The rest of the evening was spent in a blissful daze, as they talked and laughed like old times. The cafe had become a place of magical memories for the two of them.

@yeonzzzn @alvojake @dollywons

my first fic on tumblr please reblog and like to support

“Blind sided by a feeling he’s never known” trope 🤭 (Part 2)

♡ Reblogging from my shadow-reader days ♡

ii. a teenager in love

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words: 4.8k

warnings: swearing, underage drinking

——————————

“You look nice.”

That’s how Kai always greeted you now, regardless of what you were wearing — even if you were just in your school uniform. He was already by the entrance of your apartment block waiting for you, despite you being five minutes early.

Yeonjun was hosting a party that night to celebrate his one-month breakup anniversary (weird), and it was coincidentally also the fifteenth day since Kai had first posted you on his Instagram. He said the party would be the perfect opportunity to step it up a notch.

You’d been sticking to the plan you drew up when he came over to your house two weeks ago. You ate lunch together now; sometimes you joined him and his friends, sometimes he joined you and your friends. But sometimes you and Kai would go off to the running tracks by yourselves to talk.

There, you’d work through the questions most real partners would know the answers to — your favourite music, which shows you watched, what your parents did. You had expected your conversations to be mechanical, rigidly going through the motions, but he was surprisingly easy to talk to. And despite all his flirting, he did actually pay attention to you.

“I can meet you at the train station, you know,” you said. “You don’t have to walk all the way into my street just to pick me up.”

He took your hand and laced his fingers with yours. “But I want to.”

It was things like that which were going to be your downfall. You’d only just crossed the two-week mark of your fake relationship and you already knew it. Yizhuo was right: your crush on him had never fully faded.

When he held your hand or wrapped an arm around your waist or gave you his jacket in public, you didn’t really feel anything. You knew he was performing for your friends or his, the showmanship of his craft clear in his rehearsed smirks and clichéd, sugary words.

But when you were alone, as you were now, you couldn’t tell if he was acting. Your racing heartbeat was, however, unfakeable. Regret seeped into every pore of your skin each time he smiled genuinely or offered to carry your bag or walked you home when there was no one around to witness it.

So, here you were: Kai had picked you up from your house and you went to Yeonjun’s breakup party (still weird) together, your fingers intertwined the entire journey there. You hadn’t arrived particularly late, but Yeonjun was already wasted by the time you turned up.

“He’ll be fine,” Kai reassured you, placing a hand in between your shoulder blades to direct you towards the living room. You kept glancing back at the older boy.

“Are you sure?” you asked, still worried. His hand was warm against your skin as he traced circles lightly on your upper back.

“Soobin will keep an eye on him. He usually does,” he said. The music was too loud for you to hear each other normally, so Kai’s solution was to whisper directly into your ear, his lips brushing over the shell of your ear as he spoke. It gave you goosebumps.

He told you to sit down on the sofa and dipped into the kitchen to get you both drinks. While you waited, his good friend Beomgyu joined you.

“Hey, Y/N,” he said loudly, holding up his drink, already tipsy. “Congrats on making it this far! I didn’t think you guys would be able to do it.”

People had been saying that to you the entire day. You laughed politely. “Thank you! I’m hoping this won’t be our last milestone together, though.”

Before he could respond, Kai returned and pushed his shoulder.

“What are you doing sitting so close to Y/N?” Kai chided, annoyed. Well, he was pretending to be annoyed. It didn’t bother you, or so you kept telling yourself.

“Sorry, man,” Beomgyu said, standing up and holding his hands up in retreat. “I didn’t take you for the possessive type.”

Kai took his seat and handed you a drink, wrapping his arm around your waist and pulling you into his side so you were half-leaning on his chest. He looked at you and winked. “I am now. Just for them.”

He would be the death of you someday.

You weren’t even paying attention while Beomgyu teased Kai back and walked over to the dance floor to join the rest of his friends, giggling drunkenly to himself the whole time.

“What is this?” you asked, peering into your cup of mystery liquid and trying to ignore the feeling of his leg fully pressed against your own. He had a metal chain attached to his black jeans.

“I don’t know. The label was in German,” he said with a shrug, before tapping the rim of his cup to yours. “Cheers.”

You furrowed your brow in scepticism but took a sip anyway. It was sweet, not too strong, and surprisingly smooth on your tongue.

“Good, right?” he asked proudly, tucking his head down to look at you. You nodded in concession, leaning against him even more. You had an audience, after all: both of your friends were watching you from across the living room. Aeri caught your eye and mouthed ‘fifteen days!’ to you.

Yeonjun’s sofa was lumpy and mildly sticky and not the most pleasant thing you’d sat on. It was hot, even with the air conditioning on full blast, an inevitable side effect of the sheer number of people packed into his house.

Your discomfort barely registered in your head, though. All you could focus on was that you were leaning on Kai’s chest, broad and firm against your back. His arm was around your shoulder, and his chin was resting on the top of your head.

“Let’s go out for lunch tomorrow,” Kai suggested, “it’ll be my treat.”

“Why?” you mumbled, tired. Lying on him was making you sleepy; he was just so warm and comfortable.

He laughed quietly. “Because I want to take you out?”

You could already feel your heart starting to race at his words and hoped he wouldn’t notice. “Said the hitman,” you joked.

“You’re such a tease,” he whispered, nuzzling his face into your neck. You shuddered at the sensation, at his messy hair pushing up against your skin, at his lips brushing your collarbones. You could feel him smirking, satisfied by your reaction. He always was, so smug and cool and confident.

“And you’re lucky I laugh when I’m nervous, so to our friends I just look like some smitten giggling fool instead of a sim dying of embarrassment,” you replied.

He pulled away, and you almost deflated at the loss of contact. “Why are you nervous?” he asked, confused.

Oh. Whoops.

“Y/N, what’s wrong?” he pressed, sounding somewhat concerned, his grip on your shoulder tightening ever-so-slightly.

See, these were the things that made you think this was all a huge mistake. Because when he looked at you like that — like how he did on the balcony at Aeri’s party or in your room when you were talking about your brothers — his eyes were just soft enough and his voice was just quiet enough that you could trick yourself into thinking he was being genuine.

“Don’t look so serious,” you changed the subject, nodding towards where your friends were. Some of them were still (still!) watching you, as if they were waiting for you to break up right then and there in front of everyone. Fifteen days. “We aren’t being believable at all.”

He looked over, thought for a bit, and then slid his hands under your knees, lifting up your legs and putting them across his. You let out a small squeak of surprise at the sudden motion and held onto his shoulders. He smirked when you came face-to-face with him.

“Is that better?” he murmured, the tip of his nose just millimetres from yours.

“I can’t tell, honestly,” you answered, feeling like you probably looked exceptionally posed and rehearsed in the position you were in. It was likely evident to everyone that neither of you were used to being in each other’s space like this.

“I think you’re right. Taehyun does not look convinced,” he reported to you, looking over your shoulder. “Well, I don’t know what else to do.”

You knew what the issue was: Kai was big into public displays of affection, and he hadn’t kissed you yet. He was constantly making out with whichever new person he was ‘dating’ in the school halls, empty classrooms, or at parties. In comparison, he had been as chaste as a nun with you.

“Fine. Kiss me, then,” you said, biting your tongue so hard you wouldn’t be surprised if it just fell off.

He didn’t even flinch at your directness; in fact, he seemed to enjoy it. He tilted your chin up gently with two fingers and leaned in. “I’d thought you’d never ask.”

What did that mean?

You didn’t even have time to address the fluttering in your heart at his words before his mouth was on yours. He still had one hand on your knee, holding you in place. You were in his lap, with your arms wrapped around his neck so you wouldn’t fall off the sofa.

He kissed so lazily, slow and languid, like he had all the time in the world. Like you weren’t in the middle of a circus-level house party and surrounded by countless loud drunk peers. He tasted like the mystery German alcohol you’d both been sipping, his mouth hot against yours.

You were getting dizzy, high on him, temporarily forgetting where you were too.

When he ran his tongue over your bottom lip, though, you jolted back to the present and broke the kiss.

“Sorry,” he mumbled, looking slightly dazed himself. His lips were red and wet, and you wondered if he could feel just how hard your heart was hammering against your ribcage as you leaned on him. “Got carried away.”

What? Did? That? Mean?

“See? I told you we had to make out in front of them,” he joked, clearly less affected by the kiss than you were. You turned around to glance at your friends and found that most of them had finally stopped watching you.

Kai kept his hand on your chin. If he had noticed your silence he didn’t make any indication of it, although Aeri was still squinting at you suspiciously. He pressed a quick kiss to your cheek, unflappable as ever.

——————————

——————————

Kai was on top of the world: he’d broken the fifteen-day curse. Of course, his sense of achievement would have been even greater if it was real, but his friends were convinced and that was all he cared about.

Everyone had thought he was going to dump you on Friday at Yeonjun’s party, the fifteenth day. But he hadn’t, and on Tuesday you came to visit him during his soccer practice.

It was common for whoever he was with at the time to do that, although you hadn’t yet. He supposed you had no reason to since you weren’t actually interested in him, but you and him had agreed on it the night before. Of all the people he’d invited to watch him practise, you were the only one who had stuck around beyond day fifteen. And his friends obviously had a lot to say about that.

“So you two are, like, really a thing,” Soobin marvelled, checking his watch for the date. He waved to you where you were sitting in the bleachers. You waved back.

“Didn’t you see him tonguing them on Yeonjun’s sofa on Friday?” Taehyun said.

“What? You sinned on my sofa?” Yeonjun asked, clearly having been too drunk to remember anything from that night.

Kai pushed Taehyun and put his water bottle away. Their break was over, he decided. “I was not tonguing them. Jesus,” he cursed, running back out onto the field and blowing you a kiss as he did so.

Yeonjun rolled his eyes. “Sickening.”

“You’re just bitter you got dumped,” Beomgyu shouted, running away before he’d even finished talking, anticipating to be smacked.

Unfortunately for Yeonjun, you continued coming to their soccer practices, and Kai continued blowing kisses at you whenever he got the chance.

By the one month mark, Kai was spending just as much time with you as he was with his friends, much of that alone when you didn’t have to pretend.

It was funny how he could so easily flirt with you in the past, before you’d started this whole thing, and now that you were ‘dating’ he felt weirdly embarrassed whenever he did so. He was fine in public, perfectly able to act in front of others, but the second you two were in private he turned into an altar boy, apparently.

Especially when he was in your room like he was now, after school one afternoon, sitting cross-legged on your bed next to you.

“Are you free Saturday morning?” you asked, staring at your calendar. “We could hang out for a bit and then head over there together,” you suggested. If he didn’t know any better he might have thought he heard nervousness in your voice, like you were hoping he’d say yes and scared he’d say no.

All of your friends were meeting up for lunch that day at a newly launched pancake restaurant called Stackies you’d been telling him about for ages. Kai was actually the one to suggest it to the group because he knew how badly you wanted to try it — but you weren’t aware of that.

He smiled to himself when he saw the square inch of space that made up Saturday’s box adorned with a halo of exclamation marks and messy pancake doodles, fairly sure you were the only person under the age of forty who still used a physical calendar.

“Yeah, I’m free. What do you want to do?” he asked, knowing subconsciously in the back of his mind that he would have agreed to anything you requested.

Your eyes lit up. “Can we go to the botanical gardens? I heard the leaves are starting to turn.”

You both used to refer to your outings as “hanging out”, sessions for you to get to know each other and get your stories straight, couching the intimacy of it all in deliberate language like a shield. Against what, he wasn’t sure. But somewhere along the line, and he wasn’t quite sure when, interrogative questions gave way to long conversations about music and TV shows and your friends.

Dates. You were going on dates.

Something pulled at his heart when he saw your expression, your eyes shining with excitement, your pen clipped behind your ear. He never knew that was a thing people did in real life, sticking writing implements behind their ears. He’d always thought only cartoon characters did that.

“Really? Let’s go, then. I want to see them too,” he smiled.

You hadn’t kissed since Yeonjun’s party more than a month ago. Well, not properly, anyway. He kissed you on the forehead a lot in front of others, and you kissed him on the cheek from time to time, but those didn’t count. Not to him.

He wanted to kiss you whenever you two were alone, an impulse which always set alarm bells ringing in his head that maybe he should pull the brakes on this whole thing.

It was foreign to him, all of it — recommending pancake restaurants and going on trips to the botanical gardens. Two-week flings driven by physical attraction and teenage infatuation, ending either in the mutual understanding that it hadn’t been serious or a broken heart for the other party, were more his speed.

This was not that, he realised, whatever it was. He reached that conclusion after your trip to the gardens, when you both arrived at Stackies. You took his hand and smiled at him as you walked through the door to the table where your friends were waiting for you, although it was your performing smile. He used to think it was pretty (he still did), but now whenever he saw it he yearned for your real one.

The one you’d given him one fateful Wednesday, the day he came over to your house so you could study each other’s favourite foods, hobbies, and usual hangout spots. When it was time for him to leave, he had asked on a whim if he could stay and help you with dinner. You’d beamed when he did, and he still found himself picturing it from time to time.

“I’m happy you chose this place,” you told Soobin, who was sitting on your other side, while the waiter was taking Aeri’s order. “I’ve actually always wanted to come here.”

Soobin looked at you, confused. “Yeah, that’s why I picked it. Kai asked me to.”

Kai placed his hand on your knee, a message. “Right, that’s what I meant,” you backtracked smoothly. The second everyone was distracted by the waiter turning on the table’s hotplate, you leaned over to him and whispered a soft ‘thank you’ into his ear. You gave him another one of your smiles, a real one, and he found himself unable to focus on anything else for the rest of the lunch.

A few days later, you were sitting in the bleachers together after his soccer practice. His teammates had all gone home, leaving you two alone on the field. This wasn’t something you normally did; you usually had to leave an hour before his practice ended to get home in time to do your chores.

“Should I make a one month anniversary post on Instagram?” he asked, snacking on the cookies you had bought for him as he flicked through the photos you’d taken together at the botanical gardens on his phone.

“I don’t think so. I feel like it’s more believable if we keep it low-key,” you said, leaning over his shoulder to look at the photos. “I like that one,” you commented, stopping him when he landed one you took of him. He was staring straight into the camera and holding a red leaf in front of his face, covering his left eye.

You were wearing his sports jacket, the one only student athletes were allowed to wear. It was black with gold trim, read ‘athlete’ on the back in big bold letters, and had his name embroidered on the front.

That was one of the first things he learnt about you, that you had always wanted to be a student athlete but lost the chance to after you broke your knee eight years ago and it never fully recovered. He’d always wondered why someone as popular and seemingly active as you wasn’t on a sports team. But now he let you wear his jacket whenever you wanted, which seemed to make you happy.

“Can I ask you something?” you said after a short silence, playing with the hem of his jacket. He nodded, prompting you to continue. “Why do you care if you’re the last of your friends to be in a relationship?”

Yeah. Why did he care?

This was far from the first time you had asked him that question, but he was always unable to give you a straight answer. He knew it bothered him, but he couldn’t fully articulate why. And not for a lack of trying, either. His explanation was constantly changing.

“It’s not really about the relationship,” was what Kai settled on this time around. “It’s just a sense of being left behind while everyone else around me is growing up and moving on.”

The autumn wind howled. “I get it,” you nodded. This had been the first question you asked him all those weeks back on Aeri’s balcony, and you’d never once pointed out the number of times his answer to that question changed.

“Why do you keep asking me that?” he said with a small smile, a question of his own, standing up and offering you his hand. The lights had switched themselves off. It was probably time to head home. You accepted, and he pulled you to your feet with ease.

“I don’t know. I thought if I asked enough times, eventually you’d figure out your answer,” you replied, stumbling slightly when he pulled you a little too hard. He laughed, not being able to tell if you were serious. You smiled. “Have you?”

He hadn’t, but he was starting to wonder if he was looking right at it.

——————————

——————————

“What do you plan on doing after we graduate?” Kai asked you once when you were walking home from school together. “Taehyun asked me that just now, and I realised I didn’t know.”

That was how a lot of your conversations with Kai went. It was hard to figure out what normal people talked to their significant others about.

“I don’t want to think about that now,” you laughed. Kai wasn’t the only one who hated the thought of growing up. “I’ll probably go into data analytics or something.”

It’d been two months since you started ‘dating’, and there were still occasional gaps in your knowledge that hadn’t yet been plugged. The other day, Aeri asked you what Kai’s parents did and you had just barely managed to avoid a catastrophe.

You didn’t really know what the goal was anymore, if you were being honest. From time to time you felt the urge to ask him when this whole thing would end, but you always found yourself unable to go through with it. You didn’t want it to end, that much had become clear. You were living a lie you so desperately wanted to believe in.

He walked you home after school on the days he didn’t have soccer practice, sometimes staying over for dinner. You’d go to the shops together to buy ingredients before your brothers came home, and he’d help you cook.

He didn’t need to, there was no one around to witness it, but he did. Your kitchen was far too small for two people to be crammed in there at the same time, but somehow, neither of you had been injured yet. He never complained about how cramped your house was or how loud and boisterous your brothers were.

When he could tell you needed a break from them, though, he would suggest taking your dinner up to the rooftop of your building and leaving them to their adventures. The two of you sat on the rooftop, eating dinner and talking until nine or ten at night.

It was why you’d had a crush on him in the first place (yes, you were finally admitting you had a crush on him). He was a flirt, that much was true, but no one could ever accuse him of being unkind. He didn’t go around breaking hearts on purpose, which you couldn’t really say for some of the other popular boys.

At one of Yizhuo’s parties, you were all sitting in her backyard on the grass, even though it was way too cold to be outdoors. As always, Kai gave you his jacket without you needing to ask. It wasn’t his student athlete one this time, but a light denim jacket that was more fashionable than functional.

“You guys are so cute!” Yizhuo squealed, when Kai reached for your hands and clasped them in between his larger ones to warm them up. He leant forward and pressed a quick kiss to your temple with a pleased smile.

“Isn’t today your two month anniversary? Congratulations,” Aeri said.

“Uh-”

“No, it’s not. That was two weeks ago,” Soobin cut you off, confused.

You turned to Kai. You had sixty whole days to iron out your origin story and you still hadn’t. In retrospect, that was a pretty glaring oversight.

“It’s a long story, actually,” Kai laughed, thinking on his feet. He was so good at that, always calm and collected whenever things like this happened. You, however, panicked like a spooked young fawn at the slightest hint of your scheme being exposed.

“Oh, is it?” Taehyun said, squinting at you with inquisitive eyes, trying to decipher your facial expression. “I love long stories.”

You squeezed Kai’s hand. Please help. Taehyun was too observant for his own good.

“Sorry. I’m sworn to secrecy,” Kai lied smoothly, poking your cheek with his index finger and a playful smile. “This one says it’s embarrassing, so I can’t tell you.”

Grateful for the out he’d provided you, you went along with it, swatting his finger away with a giggle and pretending to hide your face in his sweater at his teasing. Your friends rolled their eyes at your sickening sweetness.

It seemed to work, at least for now. But the second it was no longer overtly suspicious to do so, you two escaped back into Yizhuo’s house, scouring the place for a quiet space where you could talk. You settled on the area in the back near the rear staircase — yes, her house was that big that it had two staircases.

“What did you tell your friends?” Kai asked, evidently on edge. He was trying to hide it and doing a pretty good job, but you’d also gotten much better at reading him now.

“I said we got together at Aeri’s party! Isn’t that what you said?” you replied, not ever thinking this would need to be clarified. That story made the most sense, didn’t it?

“I said we got together two weeks before,” he groaned, pushing his hands through his hair.

You sputtered. “Why on earth would you do that?”

“I wanted to make the relationship longer so I could beat Beomgyu.”

Really? Really? And he didn’t think to explain this to you in advance? You took a deep breath to compose yourself.

“Okay, okay, it’s fine. We can do damage control,” you said, trying to talk yourself out of the panic you were inching closer and closer towards.

“Except that all our friends are now out there without us and they’re definitely discussing what just happened,” Kai pointed out casually.

This fact dawned on you both at the exact same time.

“Shit.”

“Shit.”

“Shit!”

You turned to look at the source of the third voice. It was Sunghoon, visibly drunk with a table tennis paddle in his hand for some reason.

“Sorry, just wanted to feel like I was a part of something,” he giggled, waving the paddle nonchalantly as he walked past you. It was a nice break of bewilderment from your stress, which returned almost as soon as the other boy was gone.

You didn’t have any time to react, though, because here was Yizhuo coming to look for you, calling out your names. Before you could even process what was happening, Kai grabbed you by the wrist and yanked you into the empty closet under the staircase to hide.

The closet was tiny, just barely large enough for two people. You were pressed almost fully against him with no room to move away, face-to-face, your hands flat against his chest and his braced against the door behind you.

Now you were stuck there. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Getting your Goddamn Stories Straight. You could hear his rapid breathing and your blood pumping in your ears.

“Nice weather we’re having,” he joked, looking down at you.

His pupils were blown in the darkness, and you were sure yours were too as they struggled to adjust to the lack of light. You could just barely make out his facial features, even though he was so close to you his hair was brushing your cheek.

You laughed nervously. “Maybe we can tell them we made it official at Aeri’s party but first started talking two weeks before,” you suggested, looking anywhere but at him. You were fairly sure you wouldn’t be able to speak if you looked into his eyes or at his lips or at his arms on either side of you. Yizhuo was still outside, asking an unknown person if they’d seen you or Kai.

“Mm, that works,” Kai agreed, his breath warm on your face as he giggled quietly. “I can hear your heartbeat.”

He was so mind-numbingly oblivious to the fact that your heart was beating that fast for him, and not for the fear of getting caught by your friends.

“Can you really?” you whispered. Yizhuo walked away; you knew it was her by the sound of her footsteps.

Kai reached for the doorknob behind you. “I can. It’s loud,” he teased, before opening the door.

The space was so tight that you nearly tumbled out as soon as he did, but he caught you easily by the waist to prop you back up onto your feet. Your mind was still scrambled from the memory of his eyes being so close to you that you could count his eyelashes. What had you gotten yourself into?

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thanks for reading!

-minastras <3