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#jinx

Alright more scholomance posts. One of my favorite things about these books is how they set up the choice to do the good, heroic things. Every time that someone is faced with the choice to do something heroic or selfless, it’s put up against something easier that everyone else is doing.

When you get stabbed in the gut, you can use malia to fight off your attacker no problem, and no one would blame you for “cheating a little”.

When everything you’ve been waiting for is right in front of you and a terrible monster is behind you, no one would blame you for simply not fighting the monster.

Helping someone with magic means using the mana you’ve been producing and setting yourself back. Walking with someone to the shop means putting yourself at risk from mals so they have someone to cover for them. And in every case, no one would blame you for choosing not to.

I just appreciate that a big theme of this book is to simply be kind, but they never make it look easy. No one would blame you for choosing what’s easier, and that makes the moments where people choose to be kind or selfless that much more impactful.

JACK!!!!!!

hsksbsiwheihsisns i loved him so much in this episode-

the favorited gremlin attacks again :]

Have some drawings of Jack from today! Messed around with some shading tonight as well! I think it turned out pretty good!

Anyways good night guys!

I guess I'm still a kid.

Me right nao

SIMON SIMON SMON FAIRCHILLDDDDD

My Beloved.

I’m sorry Martin, the silly old man is too good! I do in fact think Simon Fairchild was completely reasonable for everything he did because he is funny and nice and charming :))

Make old men silly again

Oop i forgot to post this here BAHAHAAHAHHA yes this is a product of my simon fairchild brainrot im sorry

I LOVE that Angela and Nyla were just waiting for them to open the elevator door. They knew they were in there. And for half a second it was almost like two teenagers getting caught making out by their parents.

H.HJ. — DESCENT TO HELL.

pairing. hwang hyunjin x gn reader, former bang chan x gn reader

genre. fallen angel au, angst, fluff, strangers to lovers au

warnings. blood, injuries, cheating, food, slight themes of jealousy, mild swearing

summary. someone like minho would have told you to keep your distance from hyunjin; that he is something inhumane— dangerous and flammable. but you are already waist-deep in those dark pools of liquid glass that he has for eyes.

length. oneshot

word count. 13.7k+

When you find him, he is sprawled across the sand, unconscious. There is salt crusted over his bare collarbones and a thin stream of blood trickling down the pale column of his throat.

Even so, his beauty takes your breath away.

It takes you the rest of the morning to drag him to the lighthouse. The rest of the evening to coax his body onto the lumpy pull-out couch bed in the living room and dress the two gaping wounds slit along the length of his back.

His wounds heal as you work over them, the skin stitching back together in front of your very eyes, bloody tissue fading into smooth muscle.

You let out a small exhale of awe, wondering what this creature is, if not human. And yet, even then, despite his apparent supernatural properties, something about him leaves you unwilling to push him away.

Instead, you tend to his cuts and bruises— although there isn't much need to, seeing that his body is already healing on its own. You rinse the dried salt out of his black locks of hair and pull a thick blanket over him in attempt to warm him up.

It is already late at night by the time you've finished with him. You leave him on the couch and stumble into your own bedroom to collapse onto your bed, exhausted.

The stranger is already up by the time you've rolled out of bed the next morning, preparing to make breakfast. You jump at the sight of him sitting on your coach, blanket spread over his lap, but quickly recover to give him a small nod in greeting.

He stares at you, eyes hostile and untamed. "Who are you?"

His voice is hoarse and slightly scratchy with disuse.

You feel a small smile tugging at your lips. How ironic.

"Shouldn't I be asking you that question?" you ask.

He hesitates for a moment, unsure of what to say. You take a step forward, assessing him carefully. He is even more handsome when he's awake.

"What's your name?"

The stranger balks, swallowing hard, as if trying to remember. Finally, after a long pause—

"Hyunjin," he says. "It's Hyunjin."

"Hyunjin," you repeat, rolling the word off the tip of your tongue. You smile. It suits him.

"Where are you from?"

Hyunjin pauses again, biting his lip, before shaking his head. "I don't remember."

You frown. "Don't you remember what happened to you?"

He shakes his head again in denial.

"You don't remember anything?" you press, "nothing at all?"

His eyes turn defensive, narrowing to gaze at you defiantly. "Nothing at all."

You frown but don't push him— something about him suggests that it would be dangerous to pry. Instead, you come forward to lay a bundle of clothes by his side. When you had found him, his only attire had been a threadbare pair of skinny jeans.

"Put them on," you say, "I can't have you walking around the house half-naked."

Hyunjin takes the clothes in his hands, examining them with interest. You turn and stride out of the living room to give him some privacy. "Come to the dining room when you're dressed to have some breakfast."

On your way to the kitchen, your phone vibrates from the pocket of your hoodie.

[7:39 am] minho: having fun at the lighthouse ? or have you already started regretting not taking me up on my offer to visit itaewon ?

Grinning, you quickly type out a response.

[7:40 am] i'm having a GREAT time thank u very much

Most people would describe your residence as unique. After all, a lighthouse is not a typical type of home. But if you're being completely honest, having such a tiny home can be restrictive at times. Everything comes in a miniature size. Small kitchen, compact bedroom, miniscule living room. When your parents had asked that you spend your summer vacation at the lighthouse, you had begged to not go, protesting that there were better ways to spend the two luxurious months you got off from college. But they had insisted, saying that visiting the lighthouse was a family tradition, passed on for countless generations.

So you were stuck here. Contrary to common belief, it wasn't an entirely lonesome affair to live in a lighthouse. There was a ferry that traveled between the island and the mainland, which you regularly boarded whenever you craved social interaction and you occasionally hosted tours of the lighthouse as well for curious outsiders. Admittedly, the lighthouse wasn't necessarily a bad vacation destination, it was simply just not your first choice.

You trudge into the kitchen to make some avocado toast, sticking four slices of whole wheat bread into the toaster and spreading mashed avocado over the golden-brown slices of toast. Stacking up the bread onto a tray, you carry it out into the kitchen. Hyunjin is still sitting on the couch, dressed in a pair of gray sweatpants and an white oversized t-shirt. Your breath catches at the sight of him.

In those sweatpants, he resembles Chan a little too much.

The moment you think of Chan, you instantly regret it. Shaking your head, you forcibly push any Chan-related memories to the back of your mind and set down the tray onto the dining room table with a loud clatter, pulling out two chairs for you and Hyunjin.

He approaches the table cautiously, sitting down hesitantly in the chair. You push a plate of toast closer to him and gesture towards the food. "Go ahead."

You dig into your own toast, giving an approving nod at the familiar taste, and watch as Hyunjin carefully picks up the toast and takes a bite. He chews slowly, eyes thoughtful.

You grin. "What, you've never had avocado toast before?"

Hyunjin shakes his head. You raise your eyebrows in dismay— avocado toast is one of the three main staples of your diet along with rice and ramen, and you quite literally cannot imagine life without it. Hyunjin finishes his toast in silence, his bangs falling into his eyes. You are tempted to offer him a hairband, just to have the visual of Hyunjin with his hair tied back in a purple scrunchie, but decide that the action would be too forward.

Instead, you gather up the dirty dishes and dump them into the sink. Hyunjin watches you from the kitchen table, eyes following you wordlessly. He really is too handsome to be true— perfectly-shaped eyebrows and full lips, striking eyes that hold the weight of worlds.

You quickly sponge off the dishes and come back to stand in front of Hyunjin almost hesitantly. He stares at you, dark eyes boring into yours.

"Is it okay if I check on your cuts?"

"What?"

"The cuts on your back," you say, "I want to check if they're doing okay."

Hyunjin's eyes darken with recognition and you pause, intimidated by his gaze. "It's fine if you're uncomfortable I can just—"

But Hyunjin is already turning around, allowing you to lift up his shirt to check up on his wounds. You hesitantly lift up the hem of his t-shirt, eyes sliding over the muscled expanse of his back to where the two long wounds are located.

The sight that greets you makes you gasp. The cuts have closed, but are colored an angry red, the skin tight and swollen.

You run a light fingertip down one wound and Hyunjin lets out a hiss of pain. Mumbling an apology, you quickly pull down his t-shirt again and trod into the bathroom to gather ointment from your first aid bag.

Rummaging through the kit, you grab some antibiotic cream and carefully uncap the lid of the bottle, preparing to rub it over Hyunjin's wounds. He watches you quietly, eyes wary, but allows you to lift up the hem of his t-shirt again to apply the cream.

"It's infected," you explain, in case he wants an explanation. Hyunjin nods and allows you to adjust his position for better access.

When you finish spreading a thin layer of cream over his wounds, you wrap his torso with a thick layer of bandages to close off the wound completely and stand up again, letting the t-shirt fall back down. "Hopefully it'll do better after this."

Hyunjin doesn't say anything. For a moment, you hover over him, hesitant, before opting to set to work doing your usual duties. To be honest, you aren't really sure what to do with him. He is so beautiful and strange that it unnerves you more than you'd like to admit. So you leave him to his own devices and make your way to the top of the lighthouse, where you tend to the light beacon.

Technically, it's unnecessary due to modern technology, but you still keep the light on just for the sake of old traditions. Glancing outside, you take a weather reading and record it into the log book — it is damp and humid today, the sky filled with dark menacing clouds.

"What are you doing?"

Hyunjin's voice startles you out of your thoughts. You give a small start and turn around to see him leaning against the door frame of the room, curiosity lighting on his features.

"You shouldn't sneak up on me like that," you breath, "you scared the living shit out of me. And to answer your question, I'm recording the weather in the log book."

Hyunjin frowns, obviously perplexed but doesn't say anything else. You clear your throat. "Do you want anything? Why'd you come and see me?"

"I didn't have anything to do," Hyunjin shrugs. "Can I help? I'd like to repay you for your kindness."

"How thoughtful of you," you smile. "You can help me sweep out the walkway... I rarely have visitors but my parents still insist that I keep the walkway clean."

Hyunjin nods and you lead him outside to the pathway, handing him a broom. "Just sweep the pathway to clear it of any dust. I'll work on weeding it."

Although he is strange and intimidating, Hyunjin proves to be a good worker. He clears out the walkway with a clean efficiency— you watch him out of your peripheral vision while simultaneously weeding the pathway of any stray clumps of grass, marveling over his ethereal looks. In fact, you grow so overly distracted in your attempt to keep an eye on him that you almost end up pulling up a bunch of flowers. Thankfully, you snap awake just before you're about to uproot one of your mother's prize tulip beds.

By the time you've finished weeding, Hyunjin has swept the entire walkway as well as cleared the pathway of any stray pebbles. You stand up to see Hyunjin watching you with expectant eyes. "Is there anything else I can do?"

You shake your head.

"That's it," you say, "unless.."

Hyunjin gazes at you questioningly.

"Have you ever gone fishing before?"

You grin when Hyunjin slowly shakes his head in denial, gesturing for him to follow you as you trot down to the shore of the beach and come to sit down by the rocks. The sun has already begun to set by the time you arrive at the shore, painting the horizon a vivid ochre.

You hand Hyunjin a fishing rod and instruct him on how to fish properly, watching him carefully as he deftly tosses the fishing line into the sea. He moves so adeptly that it’s hard to believe that he’s never done this before.

For a long period of time, the two of you sit by the shore, waiting.

Hyunjin sits next to you with his eyes fixated to the fishing rod clutched in his hands. You hum, leaning back onto your forearms, admiring the ivory reflection of the moon on the sea. Hyunjin glances sideways at you for a moment before turning back to stare at his fishing rod.

"I remember something."

You sit up, suddenly intrigued, and turn to stare at him. "You do?”

Hyunjin nods. "Not much. Just feathers and pain. So much pain.”

He speaks in an oddly detached way, eyes blank as he gazes into the dark seawater. You wonder what kind of past he must have had, for him to speak of his memories in such an indifferent fashion.

"That's it? I was expecting something more dramatic."

Hyunjin shrugs and adjusts his position, leaning back a bit to press his back against the rock, turning his attention back to his fishing rod.

You've been sitting on the rocks with him for one or two hours by now, watching the tide roll in. You had suggested returning to the lighthouse after the sunset, but Hyunjin had insisted on staying until he caught a fish. He looks so earnest as he gazes into the sea that you feel inclined to lower his hopes a bit.

"Sometimes I don't catch any fish at all, you know," you say, "so don't be upset if you—"

Your words are interrupted by a sudden jerk on Hyunjin's line. His eyes glint with excitement as he reels in the rod, lips tugging into a slight smile. Elation looks good on him, you decide. His eyes are dark and alive, almost glowing in the gentle moonlight.

He continues to roll in the line until a skipjack tuna flops onto the shore. You both stare at the fish for a moment until Hyunjin turns to you, grinning. "You were saying?"

You roll your eyes but laugh anyway— it's good to know that he at least has a sense of humor. Hopping off the rocks, you step forward to carefully pick up the tuna, examining it carefully.

The tuna’s scales glint a dark blue in the moonlight, sleek and healthy. Running a hand along the length of the fish, you smile complacently. It’s been quite a while since you’ve last caught a fish as nice as this one.

You end up frying the tuna in soy sauce, topping it off with chopped scallions. Hyunjin watches you like he always does, curled up in the corner of the couch. You serve the fish with rice and kimchi, setting the table for two and gesturing for Hyunjin to come over.

He proves to have a good appetite, devouring the food hungrily. You devote half your time to actually eating, and the other half to admiring Hyunjin. He somehow manages to look attractive even while eating, and you're beginning to think it a little unfair.

The next day, you take Hyunjin out to the beach to dig for mussels. He trots beside you, barefoot in a pair of jeans and a loose fitting white dress shirt. Normally, you hate going mussel hunting, but Hyunjin seemed to want to see more of the island and you thought it would be a good opportunity for him to do so.

Humming, you skip along the length of the beach. It is sunny today— the sky is clear and cloudless, a crystalline blue. You laugh as you run back to walk alongside Hyunjin.

"You kind of look like Howl in that outfit, you know?"

Hyunjin's eyebrows furrow as he peers at you, uncomprehending. "Who?"

You stare at him, eyes widening. "You mean, you've never watched Howl's Moving Castle before?"

Hyunjin shakes his head. You let out a small gasp of despair. "Princess Mononoke?"

He shakes his head again.

"Spirited Away? Ponyo? My Neighbor Totoro?"

Hyunjin's face remains blank and impassive. You shake your head in disbelief. "God, you really are sheltered. I thought everyone knew about Studio Ghibli films."

The atmosphere grows quiet again as you approach the rocks. You demonstrate to Hyunjin the correct way to forage mussels, twisting and pulling them off from the rocks and dropping them into buckets full of cold seawater. Hyunjin proves yet again to be remarkably adept, gathering mussels at a rapid pace. You end up filling the buckets in two hours, and spend the rest of the morning wading through the shallow waters of the tidepools with Hyunjin, gathering exotic looking shells.

You find a pale pink conch shell resting just under the crevice of a barnacle-infested rock and let out a short laugh of surprise. It is tinged gold on the edges, smooth and creamy on the inside. It isn’t everyday that you find a shell so intact and flawless.

"Here," you say, holding out the conch shell to Hyunjin. He stares at you blankly.

"If you hold it to your ear, you can hear the sea."

He takes the conch shell from your hand, slim fingers grazing against yours, and slowly reaches up to hold the shell to his ear. You grin as his eyes light with recognition. "Pretty cool, right?"

Hyunjin's lips twist into a full-fledged grin. His entire face shifts when he smiles — eyes crinkling at the corners warmly. He looks a little less distant as he smiles, a little less alien.

You turn to go back home at around noon, walking at a considerably slower place. The mussel buckets are heavy, laden with dark gleaming mussels. You boil them in vegetable broth and season them with garlic and ginger.

Hyunjin sits next to you by the dining table and the two of you eat until you feel like bursting. Hyunjin is still cautious around you, but a little less so— his eyes are a bit warmer, less reserved. You watch as he deftly cracks open the mussels to reach the pale yellow meat inside, and realize that it is the longest time you've ever gone without thinking about Chan since The Incident.

You still do not know what to think about Hyunjin, but you suppose that he must be good for you as long as his presence allows you to forget about Chan.

You tend to Hyunjin's wounds after lunch, carefully unraveling the bandages wrapped around his torso and examining the cuts. They are still infected, but considerably less so. You apply more antibiotic cream and wrap up the wounds again.

Hyunjin spends the rest of the afternoon dozing on the couch as you study in your bedroom. You can tell that he's exhausted, even if he's trying his best to conceal it and he looks enormously relieved when you suggest for him to take a nap. By the time he wakes up again, the moon has already risen and hangs low in the inky sky.

You make ramen for dinner and end up forcing Hyunjin to watch Howl's Moving Castle with you. He looks mildly confused as his eyes flit over the screen, quietly observing Turnip-head leading Sophie to the castle and Calcifer complaining as he cooks eggs and bacon. You point out the shocking resemblance between Hyunjin and Howl during one scene, and Hyunjin shakes his head, denying it.

But he wears a small smile throughout the rest of the movie, so you count it as a win.

Hyunjin melds himself into your life until you feel as if he must have always been here with you. He grows stronger as he stays with you, the wounds in his back closing up nicely. But they don't go away, and he says that it still hurts like hell to touch them. Even so, he is healing.

You wonder if he will leave once he is strong enough to.

The memories come back to Hyunjin in fragments, too.

One night, he tells you that he remembers a girl. He doesn't specify any further, but there is a weight in his eyes as he speaks of her.

"A lover?" you ask, peering at him.

Hyunjin shakes his head. "I don't remember."

Another day, as the two of you are sitting by the rocky shore, watching the sunset, Hyunjin tells you that he remembers a large city. A tiny apartment. Cartons of Gamja hotdogs drizzled with ketchup.

Hyunjin's story is absurd when you think of it. Washed ashore onto your island, with no remembrance of his past, and little knowledge about the outside world. Someone whose flesh stitches itself together even as he rips it open.

(You remember Hyunjin accidentally cutting his index finger as he was chopping up tomatoes one afternoon. He had let out an exclamation of pain, dropping the knife. By the time you had rushed over with a bandaid, his skin was already closing on its own, the deep cut fading into smooth skin.)

Someone like Minho would have warned you over the insanity of the entire situation, telling you to tread carefully with Hyunjin, to keep your distance. But something about Hyunjin is so addictive that you find yourself naturally gravitating towards him, even as you attempt to hold him at an arm's length.

His dark eyes, those silky black strands of hair. Those mornings when he stumbles into the kitchen, a vision of eyes swollen with sleep and crimson lips, oversized t-shirt slipping off one shoulder.

You want him. You have long since ceased to deny this fact, because that's what it is. A fact. A statement.

One morning, you wake up to Hyunjin's panicked yelping. You stumble into the living room, still half asleep, to see him pressed into the very corner of the pull-out couch, arms pulled around himself protectively. A large orange tabby cat sits by the foot of the couch, observing him serenely.

"Hyunjin," you gasp, "what's wrong?"

Hyunjin gestures vaguely towards the cat, aghast. "What's that?"

You suppress a peal of laughter. "You mean Kkochi? She's a cat."

Hyunjin stares at you. "You mean it has a name?"

"Sure she does," you say, "she's my pet. She's usually outdoors but she comes into the lighthouse occasionally when she wants company."

You come forward to rub Kkochi's chin as she purrs, closing her eyes in bliss. Hyunjin stares at you in amazement. "You can touch it?"

"Yep," you grin, "she loves it."

Hyunjin slowly inches forward to pat Kkochi's soft fur, running his fingers over her head. His eyes are wide with awe. You think it's adorable. Kkochi purrs and nudges her head further into Hyunjin's hand, eyes closed half shut.

"Oh, she must like you a lot," you say. "She doesn't usually warm up to strangers so quickly."

Hyunjin smiles a little, scratching over her head. "She's very soft."

That’s how you bond with Hyunjin. Through half-domesticated cats and Studio Ghibli films. By the end of his first three days at the lighthouse, you've already watched four other Ghibli films already, including Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away.

Hyunjin learns of cream puffs and bubble baths and Spotify during his stay at the lighthouse. He picks up a hobby of drawing, filling a notebook you bought him with flawless sketches. You watch as he blooms under your very eyes, and wonder if you are holding him back by keeping here in this lighthouse. Even so, you feel reluctant to let him go.

After all, he is the only good thing that has ever happened to you since The Incident.

Twelve days after Hyunjin arrives at the lighthouse, you open up the fridge and find it devoid of any avocados.

Normally, you only have to visit the mainland every other week or so for groceries, but with Hyunjin here with you, the food has disappeared much faster. You sigh and grab your bag, slipping on your sneakers and donning a hoodie. Hyunjin appears before you, gazing at you curiously. "Where are you going?"

"Town," you say, "I have to pick up some groceries there."

Hyunjin nods, opens his mouth to say something before closing it again. You watch him carefully. "Want to come with me?"

He gives a small nod in affirmation. You hesitate, doubtful, but consent anyway. After all, it’s beneficial for Hyunjin to have more exposure to the outside world. So you take him along with you on the ferry, keeping him close to you.

The ferryman gives Hyunjin one or two dubious glances, but he doesn't comment on it. By the time you reach the mainland, it is already noon. Hyunjin keeps beside you, gazing around him with mild interest.

You turn to glance at him. "What do you think?"

"There's a lot more people than I expected," he says, "but it's nice. I like it."

It's hardly been a minute since Hyunjin stepped off the ferry, and already he's attracting stares. A pair of girls gaze at him from their table at the local café, eyes sliding over his bold eyes and sculpted cheekbones. If Hyunjin notices their gazes, he doesn't show it.

"Want to stop by the local restaurant for lunch? It's already noon."

Hyunjin’s stomach growls in response.

Laughing, you lead him over to a small restaurant and order two servings of bibimbap. He sits on a chair adjacent to you, curious eyes wandering through the restaurant with interest. The restaurant has gone silent since he walked in, the customers abruptly pausing their conversations to stare at this beautiful stranger in awe. A man sitting next to your table almost makes a move to talk to Hyunjin but decides against it.

You cover your mouth with the sleeve of your hoodie to conceal your smile. They really are too fucking obvious.

Hyunjin frowns at you. "What?"

"It's nothing," you say, still grinning.

A waitress comes and sets two bowls of bibimbap in front of you. Hyunjin thanks her for the food, a shy smile curling at the corners of his mouth.

Blushing furiously, the waitress quickly departs, pressing her hands to her cheeks to cool them down. You stifle yet another smile and dig into your food, gesturing for Hyunjin to do the same.

He takes a bite and gives a small groan of delight.

"What do you think?" you ask, "it's good, right?"

Hyunjin nods, chewing. “It’s good. I like your avocado toast more, though."

You take a moment to absorb the impact of his words, heart skipping a beat in your chest as you gaze at him from across the table, cheeks burning. There is a brief moment where you stare awkwardly at each other, unsure of what to say, before you quickly laugh it off and push his bowl of bibimbap closer to him. "Just eat."

After lunch, you take Hyunjin to the local café and introduce him to iced americanos, which he adores immediately. You grin as he lets the aromatic flavor of caffeine sit on his tongue, nodding approvingly at the taste.

"Why didn't you introduce me to this drink earlier?" Hyunjin asks, examining his plastic cup of americano. "It tastes wonderful."

You smile. "It does?"

He nods. "It also tastes.." he trails off, searching for the appropriate word, "familiar. It tastes familiar."

"Like you've had it before?"

Hyunjin nods again. You consider this piece of information before sighing— it's been twelve days and you still feel no closer to figuring out what exactly happened to Hyunjin before he washed ashore onto your island. What little Hyunjin remembers is so arbitrary and insignificant that it's practically impossible to piece his memories together. Handing a ₩10000 banknote to the cashier, you step back outside, walking in the direction of the grocery store. Hyunjin follows behind you quietly.

"I just have to go grocery shopping and then we can go home," you tell him, hoisting your bag higher up onto your shoulder. "We're out of avocados and I can't function properly without avocados."

Hyunjin nods, before reaching out an arm to absentmindedly guide you to the inner side of the sidewalk as a car streaks noisily past you on the street.

You swallow heavily and pretend that you don't find the protective gesture to be stupidly wholesome. Hyunjin walks close to you, hand brushing against your own with every step, and makes no move to take his hand away. You grit your teeth and mentally attempt to pull yourself together— you should most definitely not be going lightheaded over such a simple action.

By the time you come to a stop in front of the grocery store, the sun has already begun to set. Hyunjin lets out a gasp of amazement as you guide him into the store, pushing along a grocery cart.

He gazes around him in awe, taking in the huge shelves full of food. "Can you just take whatever you want?"

"Pretty much," you smile, "as long as you can pay for it."

He skips through the aisles, stopping occasionally to examine a random product and point it out to you delightedly. You smile as you push the grocery cart and observe him, a sharp pang of fondness resonating deep within your stomach.

Hyunjin draws your attention towards a snowglobe that swirls with glitter whenever you shake it, eyes sparkling with excitement.

"It's like you suddenly became ten years younger," you laugh.

Hyunjin flushes indignantly.

"But I like it!" you quickly say, to appease his temper. "It's cute."

He smiles at that.

By the end of your grocery trip, there are at least nine items in your grocery cart that you have absolutely no use for including the snowglobe that Hyunjin had found so fascinating, a new sketching notebook (your gift for Hyunjin), and a case of handmade soap (because Hyunjin thought they were too pretty to not buy). It's already late in the evening and the day's events have taken their toll on Hyunjin. He looks exhausted, winces in pain at even the slightest pressure applied to his back.

"We just have to checkout," you promise, glancing at Hyunjin worriedly, "then we can board the ferry and go back home."

So you wait in line at the checkout area and Hyunjin stands beside you, eyes tired and dull. By the time you've checked out, it's already dark outside.

You walk together on the side of the street, thoroughly exhausted. Hyunjin seems to be even worse off than you, letting out small exhales of discomfort every time he takes a step. "Just a few more minutes," you say, touching his arm gently, "hold on for a little longer."

He turns to give you a small smile, eyes crinkling at the corners, and you immediately forget whatever you were about to say. In fact, you are so captivated by his ethereal looks that you don't even hear the steady whirring of bicycle wheels from behind you until Hyunjin's eyes focus on something just to the right of your left shoulder. His eyes widen in alarm, and you turn around to see a bike cruising towards you at full speed, the rider waving their hands in the air, desperately gesturing for you to get out of the way.

It all happens so fast that you have no time to react. Instead, you brace yourself for the worst, squeezing your eyes tightly shut.

But it never comes.

Instead, everything goes deathly silent.

After about five seconds or so, you open your eyes again. The people surrounding you are motionless and frozen. Their faces are still animated with emotion, as if still in the middle of conversation.

You slowly turn to stare at the bicycle, which most definitely should have collided with you by now. Instead, it is frozen, although caught in the motion of streaking down the street. The rider too is completely stagnant, mouth opened in a silent scream of horror.

Time is, quite literally, frozen.

Everything stands still, motionless and paralyzed. That is, until you hear the scuffle of shoes against pavement from behind you and see Hyunjin, very much alive and moving, looking equally as shocked.

It doesn't take much to put the two and two together.

"You did this?"

Hyunjin shakes his head helplessly. "I don't know."

But he must have, you think. Because who else could have possibly done so if not him? You stare out into the frozen landscape, incredulous.

"Hyunjin," you breathe, wide-eyed and awed, "what exactly are you?"

Hyunjin presses his lips into a firm line. "I don't know, okay?"

He genuinely sounds so horrified that you resist the urge to gather him up in your arms and smooth a hand over his ruffled hair. He looks down at his feet, voice small and vulnerable. "I don't fucking know."

You gently wrap your fingers around his wrist, guiding him to the side of the street. Hyunjin lets himself be tugged along, eyes still trained to the ground.

Eventually, the world unfreezes. The people continue their conversations the moment they spring back to life as if nothing ever happened, and the bicycle continues its destructive course down the street. You marvel at the fact that for a good ten minutes, you and Hyunjin were the only human beings alive in the entire town.

Well, you were the only human being alive. You still don't know what Hyunjin is.

You silently guide Hyunjin to the harbor and board the ferry.

The ride back home is excruciatingly silent.

When you reach the lighthouse, you tend to Hyunjin's wounds and leave him to sleep on the couch. He falls asleep immediately, curling in on himself almost protectively. You brush his bangs out of his eyes and envelope him in a blanket.

You never knew you could have learned to care so intimately for someone in such a short period of time.

Before you leave, you place a plateful of avocado toast by Hyunjin's side for when he wakes up.

Then, you step outside to sit by the shore for a very long time.

Inside your house, asleep on your threadbare pull-out couch, there is someone who can freeze time itself. Whose body can heal itself before your very eyes.

The worst part is, it doesn't make you want him any less.

You tear him apart in your mind, telling yourself that he is a monster— something inhumane. You should keep your distance from him, you think. Push him away from you. You can't allow him to stay. You can't keep him here with you and make him warm plates of avocado toast in the mornings and take him to the shore to go fishing for tuna.

But you are already waist-deep in those dark pools of liquid glass that he has for eyes.

You crouch down to drag a finger through the seafoam that gathers on the wet sand and allow yourself, for the first time in months, to think of Chan.

He was so similar, and yet so different from Hyunjin. He loved so obviously— held your hand in public and sent you boxes of chocolates on Valentine's Day. A vivid contrast to Hyunjin's quiet thoughtfulness. You had believed, wholly and naively, that you loved him, and that he loved you back.

And then came The Incident. The morning when you visited his apartment unannounced to pick up a sweater you had accidentally left there and found Chan on the sofa, all messy hair and puffy lips.

Against Chan's collarbone was the necklace you had gifted to him for your third anniversary, and in Chan's arms was Jo Miyeon.

Chan had nothing to say to you when you found out. You didn't really have anything to say, either. You just turned and left, crying all the way back to your apartment. You didn't even end up retrieving the sweater.

You hug your knees to your chest and dig your fingers into the soft sand. Chan had tried to contact you countless times after The Incident, sending you text after text begging you to hear him out. You told him to fuck off and blocked his number.

You feel a light weight against your back and turn to see Hyunjin bending to drape his coat over your shoulders before coming to sit beside you. You blink away any possible traces of tears from your eyes and turn to smile at him. "Feeling better?"

Hyunjin nods, before reaching up to gently graze a fingertip against your cheekbone. Your breath hitches in your throat. "What's with the face?"

His fingers remain against your cheeks.

"What do you mean?"

"You always have this look on your face whenever you've been feeling bad over something," he says, eyes still searching your own carefully.

You shake your head. "It's nothing."

Hyunjin sighs but doesn't push. Instead, he leans back a bit and gazes into the dark water of the sea. His bare forearm presses against your own, warm and reassuring. You pull his coat closer around your shoulders, hugging your knees tighter to your chest.

If Hyunjin senses your discomfort, he doesn't say anything. But he allows you to shift closer to him, allows you to relish the warmth he radiates as he sits next to you. You sit in silence, watching as the tide rolls in, crashing gently against the rocks and spraying the sand in frothy flecks of seafoam.

Hyunjin clears his throat gently from beside you. "Do you want to rewatch Howl's Moving Castle with me?"

So you walk with Hyunjin back to the house and watch Howl's Moving Castle together and momentarily, everything is okay.

Momentarily.

The next morning, you wake up and cook omelettes for breakfast. Hyunjin sits by you, chewing thoughtfully as you elucidate to him the purpose of laundry detergent. You've gotten used to Hyunjin's limited knowledge of society, and to be completely honest, it's quite enjoyable to explain to him the significance behind turning away when drinking with elders or why kimchi is such a staple food in Korean culture. Something about his innocence is terribly endearing.

Hyunjin spends the rest of the forenoon sitting by the shore, painting the sea in its misty gray morning glory. After mastering sketching, he's decided to pick up oil painting as well. Unsurprisingly, he excels in it.

You study for a bit but find it impossible to focus when you can just catch a glimpse of Hyunjin painting from the corner of your window in your bedroom. Instead, you decide to sweep out the walkway. It's an excellent excuse to spend more time in Hyunjin's presence.

After sweeping, you clear the path of any stray pebbles. As you near the end of the pathway, you find a dead dove lying limp against the gray stone of the walkway. Hyunjin comes running at your exclamation of shock, eyes flashing with worry. When his eyes fall onto the dove, something lights onto his features.

You are not sure what to call it.

Recognition? Horror?

He stares at the lifeless bird in silence, eyes sliding glassily over the white feathers scattered in a halo around the dove, the stain of blood against its slender neck. The awkward angle of the wings as it lies splayed out across the pathway.

You frown.

"Hyunjin," you say, eyebrows knitting together in confusion, "what's wrong?"

Hyunjin slowly turns to look at you. There is nothing but pain in his dark eyes.

The first thing Hyunjin knew when he first opened his eyes was pain. A bottomless, aching pain from deep within his shoulder blades.

At first, it was all that he knew.

And then came a sense of loss. Hyunjin didn't know what he had lost, or how he could ever find it again. All he knew was that he had lost something, and it had been very, very important to him.

But then you walked into the living room. Fed him the strange bread with the mushy layer of pulpy green spread on top with a scattering of salt and pepper. Tended to his wounds, with forbearing hands and lithe fingers. Took him fishing and taught him to laugh again.

The pain was still there, but with you, the aching subsided into a dull throb.

Hyunjin still didn't remember what he lost.

But bits and pieces of his past slowly came back to him, so tiny and seemingly negligible that he had given up on making any sense of them. He remembered laughter on a city rooftop. Borrowed hoodies and iced americanos. He remembered a girl. He didn’t quite remember her name, or even what she looked like.

But he recollected the scent of rain and jasmine she carried with her. The silvery quality of her laughter.

Street hotdogs, drizzled in thick strands of ketchup.

Torn feathers and excruciating pain.

The slivers of memories came back to him at a sluggish rate, so slowly that he couldn't help but feel frustrated. But as he stares at the dead dove, with its blood-soaked feathers and broken wings, it all comes crashing back onto him like a wave, a tsunami of memories.

And here is what he remembers.

He remembers nights spent laughing under the sheets of a twin bed. He remembers gliding through the night air on starlit wings.

He remembers laced fingers and tight embraces. Shared iced americanos in the comfort of a cramped apartment.

Most of all, he remembered the girl. Her name is still lost to him, but he can remember her voice now. Husky and clear, slightly brittle. He can't recall her face, but he remembers that the color of her eyes perfectly matched the hue of ground coffee beans.

He remembers being apprehended and brought to Him. Kneeling before Him and begging for forgiveness— and receiving only contempt instead. Having his wings torn from him, bloodstained feathers scattered across the ground. Feeling the slick warm sense of blood rushing from his back in crimson waves. Falling into the sea, blood still trickling from the deep gashes in his back.

He gazes at you, the memories still bearing down on him in a torrent. You're still staring at him, eyes flashing with concern.

"I think," Hyunjin says, "that I was an angel."

To your everlasting credit, you manage to keep any incredulity off your face. "Was?"

Hyunjin nods. "I had my wings torn from me."

You frown. "For what?"

Hyunjin smiles, although it ends up twisting into a grimace.

"I fell in love."

You try, in vain, to ignore the stab of jealousy that shoots through you at his words. You swallow down the envy that tears at your throat, fighting to slip out of your mouth.

"Was it with the girl?" you ask, "the girl you mentioned you remembered?"

Hyunjin nods.

“Does she still remember you, too?”

He gives a tense scoff, pain flashing across his face. “She’s dead now. They killed her. As a punishment for falling in love with me.”

You don’t quite know what to say. The pain in Hyunjin’s voice is so audible that it tears through your chest. Hyunjin shakes his head, kicking at a stray pebble, before looking back up to you. "Shouldn't you be more shocked about the fact that I was an angel?"

You pause. If you're being completely honest, there is a part of you that cannot wrap your mind around the entire situation. But a bigger part of you has always known that Hyunjin wasn't human, although an angel never really crossed your mind.

"I am shocked," you admit, "but it makes sense."

Hyunjin frowns again, but seems to be grateful for your minimal reaction.

"Are your scars from where your wings were?"

Hyunjin nods. "They were ripped from me when I fell."

"So is it, like, illegal to fall in love for an angel?"

"You make it sound so casual," Hyunjin smiles, "but yeah, it pretty much is. God always insisted that our only purpose would be to deliver his messages and worship him infinitely. It was always forbidden to fall in love."

You raise your eyebrows in alarm. "So you've actually seen God?"

"I was an angel," Hyunjin snorts, "I pretty much spent half of my time flying around in the human world and the other half kneeling before him worshiping or something."

"You could fly?"

You know the questions coming out of your mouth sound insanely dumb, but you also can't stop them from slipping out.

Hyunjin sighs. "That's one of the main attributes of being an angel."

You take a moment to survey the entire situation a little more thoroughly. Knowing and acknowledging that Hyunjin is a fallen angel is infinitely more difficult than just knowing and acknowledging that he isn't human. Hyunjin seems much more confident now that his memories have been restored. A little less lost, although he looks a bit dazed.

"Are all angels this good-looking?"

The question slips off your tongue, and you mentally slap yourself for not shutting up when you clearly should have. A smug grin makes its way on Hyunjin's face as he stares at you.

"You think I'm good-looking?"

"Just pretend I didn't say anything."

Hyunjin laughs, a grin stretching across his face. "Actually, I don't think I will."

You flush red, cheeks burning. Hyunjin gazes at you with something like endearment in his eyes. "And to answer your question, pretty much. We're all meant to look ethereal or whatever."

"Now that you know what you are," you say, swallowing hesitantly, "what are you going to do now?"

Hyunjin hesitates, ruminating quietly. "I'm not sure," he admits. "Usually, fallen angels descend to Hell to serve Lucifer instead. But.."

He trails off, almost bashfully. You tilt your head. "But what?"

"I'd rather stay here with you."

Oh.

Your heart expands in your chest. You can't help the flush of delight that makes its way to your cheeks. "Didn't know you enjoyed my company that much."

"I'm only staying for the avocado toast."

"I liked you better when you were suffering from an identity crisis," you scoff. "Less cocky."

But you smile anyways, and take him fishing.

Just like that, your life with Hyunjin fades into a comfortable rhythm. Hyunjin grows into his own skin as the days progress, and you marvel at the transformation in his character ever since he retrieved his memories.

There isn't much of a shift in your relationship. Hyunjin still carries himself with a quiet thoughtfulness in his eyes, and you still wake him up every morning to make avocado toast for him.

Admittedly, there is a lot more mindless touching between the two of you. Gentle hand squeezes while walking along the length of the shore, sleepy backhugs while binging a k-drama that neither of you could give two fucks about. Hyunjin is so casual about it that you don't bother mentioning it to him.

Besides, you rather like it when he touches you.

You hardly ever think of Chan anymore. Not when you have Hyunjin here, with his shy laughter and dark eyes. The days pass by in a blur— a melty haze of sunkissed mornings and evenings spent sitting by the shore. You think you could get used to this. This kind of life, with this boy who fell from Heaven by your side.

Next to you, Hyunjin shifts slightly, shoulder pressing into yours. You're sitting on the lumpy couch, a blanket pulled over your lap. Hyunjin stares at the screen of the television, eyes fixated onto the k-drama.

"Hyun," you say.

Hyunjin turns to glance at you expectantly. You don't know when exactly you had started to use the nickname— you suppose it just absentmindedly tumbled off your tongue one day. But Hyunjin seems to receive it well, and you're a sucker for the sheer domesticity of calling him by a nickname.

"Tomorrow, they'll be holding a huge festival celebration on the mainland for Chilseok," you say, "do you want to go?"

Hyunjin pauses. His back has been hurting more frequently recently, even though the infection has long since left his scars. You've been worrying over it, even though Hyunjin has been insisting that he's fine.

"They hold the festival every year," you explain, "to celebrate the one day Jiknyeo and Gyeonwu meet on a bridge made of magpies and crows. You haven't heard of it?"

Hyunjin shakes his head.

You sigh. "Well, anyway. They always make the best grilled wheat flour noodles at the festival, so I always go. Plus, they also make steamed rice cakes, which is a bonus."

Hyunjin's eyes light up at the mention of food as he nods eagerly.

The next morning, you board the ferry, taking Hyunjin along with you. He winces as he walks, and you feel a stab of worry pierce through your heart. "Maybe we should go see a doctor or something," you say, glancing at him in concern.

Hyunjin smiles. "And then what? They'll find out about my supernatural properties and then I'll be used as a test subject for all their fucked up experiments. I'd rather not."

"But still, it's obviously getting worse. And I don't know how to fix it, either."

You frown, eyebrows furrowing uneasily. Hyunjin gazes at you for a moment, before reaching out to pull you into a backhug, pressing your back to his chest and resting his chin against the top of your head. "Don't worry about it. It'll be fine."

You allow yourself to lean into his touch, running a hand along the sleeve of his gray hoodie but continue to worry.

The mainland is already in chaos by the time you arrive. Normally, Chilseok isn't a huge festival in Korea, but here, it is easily one of the most celebrated ones. There are streamers decorating the roofs of the buildings, and the smell of wheat flour noodle soup boiling in the air. Hyunjin keeps you close to him as he presses through the crowds, reaching out a hand to grip your waist.

"Hyun, look," you say, gesturing towards a rice cake stand.

Normally, you dislike rice cake. But the ones they make at Chilseok are nothing short of heavenly, warm and sticky, topped with azuki beans. You lead Hyunjin over to the stand and quickly get in line.

Hyunjin stays by your side for a moment, before catching sight of a wheat pancake stall, pupils dilating in hunger. Wordlessly, you hand him two crisp ₩10000 banknotes and gesture for him to go ahead. Normally, you would be worried about leaving Hyunjin on his own. But you know he needs more social exposure, and you think this would be a good opportunity to do so.

Hyunjin hesitates briefly, almost apprehensively. You laugh and give him a small shove. "Go on, it'll only be a moment."

Hyunjin trots off towards the stall, tightly clutching the banknotes in his hands, and you turn to retrieve a ₩10000 banknote from your wallet, humming to yourself.

And then a voice says your name from behind you.

You pause, your body stiffening instinctively, banknote clutched tightly in your hand.

You would recognize that voice anywhere, anytime.

Slowly, you turn around. Your stomach dips at the sight of him standing in front of you, eyes inquisitive and bright, skin glowing in the beam of sunlight that washes over him. Your chest seizes up at the sight of him.

"Chan."

He's dressed in a pair of black ripped skinny jeans and a white t-shirt. He looks good. Chan always looks good. Maybe he’d be a little easier to erase if he didn’t look so damn good all the fucking time.

Your voice turns hostile as you take a step back, eyes narrowing. "What are you doing here?"

"What, I can't come to celebrate Chilseok too?" he laughs, taking a step forward. "Wasn't expecting to see you here, though."

You take another step back, almost bumping into the person in front of you in line. They shoot you a dirty look, which you ignore.

"Leave," you spit. "Now."

Chan rolls his eyes. "It's been months since we last saw each other, and this is how you greet me? I just came to say hi."

"Chan, go. I don't want to talk. I've got nothing to say to you, anyways."

Chan sighs and takes another step forward, making a move to grab your hand. But before he can do so, a warm hand comes to grasp your shoulder lightly.

Hyunjin stands next to you, staring at Chan almost belligerently.

"Hyunjin," you breathe. The relief in your voice is so apparent that even Chan seems to notice it.

Hyunjin doesn't take his eyes off Chan. "Who's he?"

Chan frowns. "I should be asking the same question."

Hyunjin's grip on your shoulder tightens. "Maybe you should mind your own fucking business."

You feel as if you might just explode with embarrassment. Chan barks out a short, bitter laugh. "Got yourself a new boyfriend already? You moved on real fucking fast."

"Don't you think you're being a little hypocritical? If I recall correctly, wasn't it you who cheated on me?"

Hyunjin watches the exchange between you and Chan, realization slowly dawning on his face. You sigh, running a tired hand through your hair. "Just go, Chan. I don't have the energy to deal with you."

Chan opens his mouth to retort, but before he can do so, Hyunjin steps in between the two of you, forcing him to take a step back. "You heard them. Leave."

You watch as Chan's face hardens into stone.

"Fine," he says, slowly. His eyes refuse to leave yours as he pulls at the hem of his t-shirt. "Have it your way."

He turns and leaves, hands clenched so tightly by his sides that his knuckles turn white. Hyunjin turns to you the moment he leaves, worry etched into his face.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," you say, grinning up at him. "You didn't have to come save me, you know? I was perfectly capable of handling the situation by myself."

Hyunjin's face softens into a smile as he reaches up to brush off a strand of grass from your hair. "You would have done the same thing if it had been me."

You roll your eyes but don't try to oppose him. He's right, anyways. "Did you get the wheat pancakes?"

Hyunjin holds up a white paper bag victoriously. "The woman operating the stall even offered to give me another 2 pancakes for free! The people are so nice here."

"They're not nice," you laugh, "they just think you're handsome."

Hyunjin flushes, ears going red. You laugh again, something like adoration pulsing through you as you gaze at him. From behind you, someone clears their throat. You turn to see the rice cake stand operator staring at you expectantly. Hurriedly, you hold out a ₩10000 banknote to him, cheeks burning and accept the rice cakes he gives you apologetically. Hyunjin stifles a laugh as you trod off, still red with embarrassment.

You sit down by a bench to eat the rice cakes, Hyunjin coming to sit beside you. You groan in ecstasy the moment you bite into a cake, eyes closing in delight. Hyunjin smiles. "Is it good?"

You nod earnestly, reaching into the bag to hold out another skewer of rice cakes for Hyunjin. "You should try some, they taste heavenly."

Hyunjin takes a bite, chewing silently. "It's good. Still not as good as the food from Heaven, though."

You stare at him. "You ate food in Heaven?"

He nods, examining the skewer of rice cake in his hand. "We usually ate manna, although we had ambrosia too sometimes."

You smile. "It sounds good."

"It was," Hyunjin nods emphatically, "ambrosia always tasted different every time you had it."

He speaks with something almost akin to longing in his voice. You are silent for a moment, contemplating.

"Do you miss being an angel?"

Hyunjin pauses, before shrugging. "It was fun. But it was full of restraints and limitations. There were always so many rules— I always knew I'd end up getting my wings taken away anyways. I was too impulsive to be a good angel."

He turns to smile at you shyly, eyes crinkling into crescent moons. "Besides, I like it here with you."

You exhale slowly. Hyunjin stares at you with such open adoration in his eyes, such pure trust. You throb with want, with the need to love this fallen angel with the scars carved deep into his back and dark eyes that glow with stardust with everything that you are— everything that you ever will be.

Before you can think it through, you lean forward and capture his lips with your own.

You feel Hyunjin tense up momentarily, stiffening in shock, before immediately reciprocating the kiss. He tastes like sticky rice cake and sea salt, thick and sweet against your lips. You allow him to lean further into you, a hand slowly coming up to cup your cheek and the other coming to grip your waist lightly.

You break apart after a few moments to breathe, lips puffy and swollen. Hyunjin hums lowly from the back of his throat, hand still pressed against your cheek. You allow him to nose along your jaw, pressing chaste kisses against your jawline.

"Hyun," you mumble, running a hand through his hair. Hyunjin gives a hum in response, grazing his lips against your cheekbone. You sit back a bit, gently pushing him away. He gives an disgruntled huff but leans back to stare at you expectantly.

Biting your lip, you glance around you. There are several people staring at you already. "We shouldn't do it here."

"Let's go back home, then," he says, immediately standing up and holding out a hand to you.

His eagerness is endearing. You laugh as you take his hand, allowing him to pull you up. Hyunjin doesn't let go of your hand as he pulls you along into the direction of the ferry, dark locks of hair flying in the wind. He wraps you in a tight embrace the entire ride home, pressing you against the railing of the ferry and leaving butterfly kisses across your cheeks, oblivious to the dirty looks the ferryman keeps on sending your way as he operates the boat.

You almost consider apologizing to the man for all the troubles he's gone through with the two of you, but then Hyunjin brushes a kiss to the juncture between your neck and your shoulder and your mind goes blank as you pull Hyunjin closer, wrapping your arms tight around his torso.

The two of you end up spending the rest of the evening kissing and talking, lying in a tangled mess on the couch. You binge watch a k-drama, although you don't end up remembering a single thing the next morning except for the way Hyunjin cupped your cheeks warmly as he kissed you, the way he leaned into you when you pulled him into a backhug, wrapping your arms around his waist and pulling his back into your chest.

You think that this must be the happiest you've ever been. Wrapped tightly in Hyunjin's arms, lips molded against his on the mangy couch of your living room.

You remember how your mother had once told you to be careful with the way you lived your life— that the gods hated to see humans too happy. But you are too intoxicated in the drug that is Hyunjin to care much about what gods think.

You don't bother defining the relationship.

You think that it's unnecessary. Partly because Hyunjin has grown up without knowledge of human norms and seems to see no need in defining whatever it is he has with you, and partly because there is no need to. In the haven that is the lighthouse by the sea, it feels almost irrelevant to live life by rigid definitions and ideologies— it seems much more fitting to live in between the lines, uncharted and hazy.

But you know that you love Hyunjin. This you know better than anything. And you think, at least, that Hyunjin loves you.

It is only during the first week of August that you know for sure that Hyunjin loves you back.

July goes by so quickly that it almost seems as if it never happened in the first place. You lose yourself in Hyunjin's charms, in his raspy morning voice as he stumbles into the kitchen to wrap you into a sleepy backhug as you fry eggs for the two of you or his habit of leaving trails of butterfly kisses against your fingertips as he sits next to you.

Living with Hyunjin seems to be Heaven on earth— a very accurate metaphor considering the fact that Hyunjin was quite literally an angel. But as wonderful as it all is, it is also painfully obvious that there is something wrong with him.

Although the wounds on his back seem to heal at first, they quickly worsen during the period of July. The pain starts off only as a dull throbbing, but soon expands into a sharp and agonizing ache. Hyunjin insists that he is fine, brushing it off with a dismissive smile, but you find it impossible to believe.

Not when he tosses and turns on the couch at night in pain, unable to find a comfortable position to sleep without hurting his back.

You continue to tend to his wounds daily and press him to see a doctor. Hyunjin, again, refuses, saying that he'd rather stay here— that he couldn't risk being discovered to be an angel.

You never realized angels could be so stubborn.

By the first week of August, Hyunjin can hardly get out of bed without wincing in pain. Dark corded veins run along the lengths of his scars, so dark that they almost look black. You can do nothing but keep by his side, pressing poultices to his wounds and running a cool towel across his sweaty forehead. Neither of you can understand why it is that his wounds only seem to worsen, even though they show no sign of infection or contamination.

It isn't until Felix comes a few days later that everything makes much more sense.

Felix comes in all his angelic glory, dressed in dark jeans and a white t-shirt, halcyon ivory wings sprouting from his back. He walks almost hesitantly up the pathway and comes to knock at the door of the lighthouse. When you open the door a few seconds later, you both end up screaming in surprise at the sight of each other.

Hyunjin quickly comes over to the doorway after hearing your scream and halts the commotion by hurriedly explaining to you that Felix used to be one of his angel companions. You quickly compose yourself and let Felix into the house, blushing furiously.

Admittedly, you probably should have seen that coming. But when a real live angel is standing right in front of you, it's difficult to do anything but scream and stare. Felix comes to sit by the couch, wings folded up awkwardly behind him. He introduces himself shortly, his seraphic face a stark contrast to his deep voice.

Hyunjin sits by him rigidly, hands held stiffly in his lap. He keeps on casting side glances at you, as if checking if you were alright. It would be a cute gesture, you think, if the atmosphere wasn't so tense.

The moment Felix finishes his introductions, he jumps straight to the point. Turning to face Hyunjin, he studies him worriedly. "Has it started yet?"

"Has what started?" Hyunjin asks, frowning.

"The pain. Have the scars started to hurt yet?"

Hyunjin swallows, and turns to look at you. You stare at him mutely from across the couch, eyes wide. Slowly, Hyunjin turns to face Felix again and gives a short nod.

Felix groans, pinching the bridge of his nose with his fingers. There is a dusting of freckles across his cheeks and his nose, you notice. His skin practically glows in the dimly lit space of your living room.

Hyunjin leans in closer to Felix, staring at him expectantly. "Do you know why it's happening? How we can stop it?"

"I'm surprised you haven't figured it out yourself," Felix says, "an angel like you isn't supposed to exist in the human world in the first place, even if you have fallen. You have to descend to Hell so you can fully metamorphose into a demon."

Hyunjin's frown deepens as he considers Felix.

"I can only stay for half an hour at the most. I had Changbin cover for me so that I wouldn't be caught, but he can only conceal my absence for so long. If they find out that I visited you, they'll expel me too." Felix cautions. "I just came to warn you. Even if you've fallen, you're still one of my closest friends."

You feel overwhelmed by the sudden torrent of information. Swallowing hard, you tuck your hands underneath your thighs and look down into your lap. You can feel Hyunjin's gaze boring into you, but you don't look up.

"Is there any way I can stay here?" Hyunjin asks. "Without having to leave for Hell?"

Felix shakes his head. "You were never made to exist as something in between, Hyunjin. It was always to be either a demon or an angel. There is no gray area. If you stay here, you'll die."

You don't dare look up, afraid that your eyes will betray you.

Felix lets out a frustrated sigh, running a hand through his blonde locks of hair. "Hyunjin, this is a life or death scenario. Why the fuck are you hesitating?"

Hyunjin stares hard at your trembling frame, willing you to look at him. You keep your eyes trained to your lap. Felix slowly follows his gaze until his eyes set onto you and glances between you and Hyunjin, eyes narrowed.

"Don't tell me you're—"

"Yeah. Yeah, we are."

Hyunjin has never spoken in such a hard tone since that day with Chan. You almost don't recognize his voice.

"Again?" Felix groans, sighing. "Was the first time not enough?"

Hyunjin shrugs wordlessly, sitting back into the couch. You sit in silence, contemplating, although there really is nothing to contemplate about. The answer is obvious, although painfully hard to admit.

"Hyun," you say, looking up. Hyunjin glances up to look at you, something like hope glinting in his dark eyes. "You should go. It's wrong of me to keep you here."

His face falls at your words, the light in his eyes flickering out. You tell yourself that this is what was to be expected. After all, the past few months with him really were too good to be true.

Standing up abruptly, you turn to trudge into your bedroom. "You can leave first thing in the morning."

"But what if I want to stay?" Hyunjin challenges, glaring at you defiantly. "What if I would rather stay here? You can't force me out."

"Actually, I can. It's my house," you say, and hate yourself for the way Hyunjin flinches at your words, the hurt that flashes across his face. "Leave by tomorrow morning."

Hyunjin catches your wrist as you brush past him, gazing at you with pleading eyes. You press your lips into a firm line and shake your head.

"You have to go, Hyunjin," you say, softly. "There's no other way." You tug your wrist from his grip and walk stiffly away from him, hands held tightly to your sides.

Felix watches your exchange silently, bottom lip caught between his teeth. You stumble into your bedroom and collapse onto the bed, burrowing under the sheets.

Your mother did not lie.

The gods truly did hate to see humans too happy— hated it enough that they would dare to take Hyunjin away from you.

You lie in bed, staring at the white plaster of your ceiling, and wonder if Hyunjin will miss you just as much as you miss him.

A few hours later, Hyunjin slips into your bedroom and comes to sit by your bedside. You don't ever dare to look at him.

He reaches out to place a plate of avocado toast by your bedside, pausing for a long moment to stare at you. The look in his eyes is so full of longing that it takes a considerable amount of self-control to refrain from pulling him into your arms and kissing him.

You turn away from him, and hug your arms around yourself.

"When you leave tomorrow, just go. Don't bother saying goodbye."

Hyunjin makes a soft noise of protest from the back of his throat.

"It'll be easier for both of us that way."

You can hear Hyunjin swallow hard as he gazes at you from the doorway of your bedroom. But his voice is hard and steely as he speaks. "Fine. Have it your way."

You end up telling yourself repeatedly throughout the course of the night that Hyunjin's departure will be easier without farewells.

When you hear Hyunjin rouse from the couch at 5 am the next morning, it takes an enormous amount of restraint to keep from tearing out of the bedroom and pulling him into a tight embrace. You sit in bed, teeth gritted, and tell yourself that it'll be for the greater good.

You eventually give in by the time you hear Hyunjin slip out of the lighthouse. Slipping on a fuzzy pair of bunny slippers and a thin hoodie, you run out after him. Hyunjin is standing by the shore when you reach him, dark hair blowing in the wind. He turns in surprise when you call out his name, although the shock immediately morphs into relief.

You come to stand a few feet away from him, panting.

Hyunjin's eyes sweep over your frame, taking in the fluffy bunny slippers and the striped pajamas. You are too anxious to feel embarrassed.

"Sorry," you breathe, "I couldn't stand it."

Hyunjin looks tempted to tease you for a moment, before deciding against it. Instead, he smiles and brushes a stray strand of hair from your face. "I'm glad you came."

You feel unsure of what to do. For the first time in weeks, there is an awkward tension between the two of you. Eventually, Hyunjin steps forward and pulls you into a hug. You wrap your arms around his waist and press your cheek against his chest. The two of you stay like that for a moment before breaking apart.

"Take care of yourself in Hell, okay?"

Hyunjin nods.

"I don't think I'll ever see you again," you swallow, looking up to gaze at him with glassy eyes. "But thank you for everything."

Hyunjin stares at you mutely, eyes wide. Something flickers in his eyes that you can’t quite pinpoint.

Perhaps it is love.

"The days I spent with you were the happiest moments of my life. I'm glad I met you, Hyunjin."

You let his name sit heavy on your tongue, relishing the sweet aftertaste it leaves in your mouth. Hyunjin reaches out a hand to cup your cheek. "I'll come back to you one day," he says, almost fiercely. "I will."

"Don't make promises you can't keep," you grin, pushing his hand away from your cheek.

"I plan to keep this one."

Hyunjin genuinely looks so determined that you don't bother arguing back. Instead, you smile and nod. "Okay. Come back to me, then. Someday."

Dawn breaks out across the sky, a soft orange sun peaking out from behind the gray clouds. You take a step back, wrapping your arms around yourself. "You probably should get going."

Hyunjin doesn't say anything, so you turn, almost awkwardly, and prepare to walk away. Hyunjin catches your wrist right before you leave and tugs you to him, capturing your lips in a bruising kiss.

You give a small gasp in surprise but allow him to press his lips against yours, hard. The kiss only lasts for a few moments before Hyunjin pulls back, breathing heavily.

You press a gentle kiss to his cheek before quickly turning to walk away. You don't think you'll be able to bring yourself to leave if you don't go now. Hyunjin watches you go, silently, eyes following your retreating figure.

By the time you've reached the lighthouse, he's disappeared.

Without Hyunjin, the months pass by in dreary monotone.

You move back to Seoul by the time autumn comes around to enroll into college, renting a tiny apartment in Pyeongchang. Although there have been a few who have expressed interest in you, your love life remains static and passive.

How can you have anyone else, you think, when you've had Hyunjin?

Instead, you throw yourself into your studies and try to forget about the boy from the summer, with the dark locks of hair and striking eyes. Admittedly, you only end up thinking of him more in your attempt to forget him, but it doesn't keep you from trying.

It is during a stormy winter night that Hyunjin first comes back to you.

You are sitting by your desk, finishing up a couple of college assignments when you hear a soft knock by your balcony door.

You are unsuspecting as you pull open the door, expecting it to be a pigeon collision or something similar— over the short expanse of time you've spent living in Seoul, you have learned of the shocking amount of moronic pigeons that subside on the streets of Seoul.

So your shock is plausible when you yank open the door to find Hyunjin standing on the balcony.

You let out a yelp of surprise, falling backwards. Hyunjin stifles a laugh as he observes you, amusement dancing in his eyes. Standing up quickly, you brush off your pants and before you can stop yourself—

"What are you doing here?"

Hyunjin looks slightly taken aback. "Why, don't you want to see me?"

"I mean, yes, but.." you falter, "I wasn't expecting it to be so soon."

"Have you missed me?"

You shrug. "Not really. I've been really busy lately."

(That was a lie. There hasn't been a day where you haven't thought of Hyunjin and missed him profusely.)

Hyunjin grins. "You're a terrible liar."

You splutter in protest and Hyunjin laughs, flicking his bangs out of his eyes. "If it makes you feel any better, you're always on my mind too."

Flushing, you allow yourself a moment to admire him, taking in his feline eyes and lean frame. He looks so much healthier than how you left him, skin taking on a gentle glow. Dark wings sprout from his back, sleek and glossy. You let out a small gasp the moment you lay your eyes on them. "You have wings?"

Hyunjin smiles. "That's kind of the point of being a demon, you know."

You approach him to run a hand along the black feathers. They are as soft as you imagined them to be, rippling like water underneath your touch.

"They suit you."

"Yeah?" Hyunjin smiles. "I've gotten pretty used to them."

Eventually, after a bit of jostling and adjusting, you manage to fit Hyunjin into the apartment. He keeps his wings folded neatly behind him, careful to keep from knocking anything to the ground. The moment you close the balcony door and turn to him, he steps forward to mold his lips against yours.

You wrap your arms around his neck and revel in the taste of Hyunjin against your lips. It's been a very, very long time since you've had him like this, pressed against you, lips moving against your own.

After a few moments, you break apart.

"How did you even get here in the first place?" you ask, breathless.

Hyunjin shrugs. "I pulled a few strings here and there. It took a lot of planning, but it all worked out, eventually."

You lean forward eagerly. "What's Hell like?"

"Way better than what they make it out as," Hyunjin laughs. "I can take you there, one day. Just to see what it's like. And to meet all my friends."

You end up spending the rest of the night sprawled on the couch, talking. You come to realize the magnitude of your yearning as you sit by Hyunjin, listening to him ramble about the breakfast buffet they have in Hell that happens to serve 279 different types of food. He runs a finger along the length of your forearm as he talks, eyes animated and alive.

You've spent so long pining for him that it feels surreal to have him beside you.

When Hyunjin runs out of things to ramble about, he turns to you expectantly. "What about you?"

"Nothing's really been happening with me," you smile ruefully, running a fingertip across the sleek expanse of his dark wings, "my life's really fucking boring compared to yours. Or at least, it's been extremely dull without you."

Hyunjin absorbs your words quietly.

When he turns to stare at you, there is nothing but raw emotion written across his face. His voice is low as he speaks up. "It's not just you, you know. I miss you more than anything, too."

You bite your lip, looking down into your lap. "When are you leaving?"

"I'll have to leave by the morning," he says, gently.

"Will you ever come back again?"

"I'll have to," he smiles. "I can't go more than half a year without seeing your face at least once."

And then you shove his shoulder and ask him when the fuck did he get so cheesy and he laughs and insists that it's just his love for you and you indulge in the sense of normalcy— the sense of conventionality you feel as he sits next to you, head rested against your shoulder.

That's how you end up falling asleep. In a tangled mess of limbs on the couch, under a thick cocoon of blankets. Hyunjin's wings wrap around you as he presses you to his chest, sighing contentedly. You settle into his embrace and try your best to not think of what is to come by the time dawn breaks.

By the time you awaken, Hyunjin is already up. He is sitting by the couch, watching your sleeping form with something fierce and aching in his eyes.

You let out a sleepy groan, rubbing your eyes blearily. “Leaving already?”

Hyunjin nods wordlessly.

For some reason, it is much, much harder to let him go the second time.

This time, it is you who initiates the kiss. You draw him to you by the doorway of the apartment and press your lips against his, letting out a soft exhale of relief as your lips connect. Hyunjin kisses you back for a moment, before gently detangling your arms from him, stepping back. You watch him go silently.

You are already missing him by the time you close the door to your apartment.

Hyunjin comes back to you for the second time the next summer.

You decide to return to the island after your college semester ends, choosing to relive the nostalgia of last year. Your friends complain loudly when you announce your decision to them, but don't object. You spend the first month or so tending to the lighthouse, occasionally going on fishing trips or collecting shells.

It is not the same without Hyunjin.

You choose to stay at home during Chilseok— you enjoy nostalgia, but not to an extent that you would travel to the same place you and Hyunjin kissed for the first time exactly one year ago. So instead of traveling to town to eat azuki bean rice cakes and grilled wheat flour noodles, you go fishing.

You are walking along the shore, clutching a pail full of fishing gear, when you spot Hyunjin's body, washed up on the shore. Your breath catches in your throat as you run to him, heart beating wildly in your chest.

There is dried salt caked over his collarbones and sand pressed to the pale column of his throat. Nevertheless, he is breathing. You let out a deep sigh of relief.

It only takes you the rest of the evening to drag him back to the lighthouse. There is a sense of regularity in your actions, although the entire situation is exceedingly absurd.

After all, what are the chances of Hyunjin washing up on your island not once, but two times?

You are rinsing out the salt from his hair when you realize that his wings are gone.

Very slowly, and very carefully, you roll him over and find that his back is free of any blemishes or scars. There is only a smooth expanse of skin where black wings should be. Your breath hitches in your throat.

You don't allow yourself to hope.

Instead, you drape a blanket over his unconscious form and wait until he regains consciousness.

In a few hours, his eyelids flutter open. Slowly, he sits up. You watch him carefully, sitting next to him by the couch.

His eyes flicker to you. For a long and terrible moment, you are afraid that he will not recognize you. That his memory will be completely erased, just like last time.

But then he utters your name, voice hoarse and hesitant. And you are throwing yourself onto him, laughing and hugging and sobbing all at once. Hyunjin groans as you pull him into a crushing embrace but smiles anyway, rubbing away the tears that spill from your eyes with his fingertips.

"How did you come back?" you gasp. "And where are your wings?"

Hyunjin grins sheepishly. "It took me forever to convince Lucifer," he says, "but he gave in, eventually."

"Convince him of what?"

Hyunjin rolls his eyes.

"What do you think? To turn me human, of course."

You stare at him, speechless. After a long moment of silence, you finally speak up. "So you can, like, stay here now? With me? Forever?"

Hyunjin grins.

The euphoria that floods your veins at Hyunjin's smile is indescribable in its magnitude.

"How did you do it?" you breathe. "Hyunjin, how the fuck did you manage it?"

"It's not like Lucifer hasn't fallen in love before either," he shrugs, "he sympathized with me. Besides, I was constantly slacking off on my duties as a devil. Couldn't stop thinking about you."

He's hardly finished talking before you're tripping forward to kiss him, almost feverishly. You recall the past year you've spent, longing and waiting, and feel that it is indefinitely worth it now that he's here with you, in your cramped living room on the lumpy couch, salty-sweet against your lips.

Hyunjin wraps an arm around you, and you fall into his embrace.

You think that you will love him like this for infinity, in this lifetime, and in the thousands of other lifetimes you will chase him across.

"But love is impossible, and it goes on despite the impossible." — Ada Limón, In a Mexican Restaurant I Recall How Much You Upset Me.

HOLY SHIT REN.

i loved Chan's so much right? thought nothing could top it at all, but like this one did it. this one did it's fucking job.. but want to comment on the line “The way I would diminish you into a pile of pure heroin and smoke you till I overdose, my fucking god.”

cause holy shit, holy fucking shit Ren. i genuinely loved all of it but this is my favorite part of this whole fic. the whole addiction aspect of that line and how he is essentially admitting that about the mc. Ren you are fucking brilliant.

-

The plot twists? holy shit. i was not expecting the plot twists? i was not expecting the mc to be a little bit of a manic herself. i wish i could have recorded my reaction. REN AGAIN YOU FUCKING GENIUS. i just, this one is my favorite. i can't express that enough, everything you write it amazing. perfect. absolutely well fucking done but this one? this one is my favorite. this one just hits different. also top tier mentioning Taste. 👀

also not sure if you watch the show You, but get so many vibes from this one for it. minus the stalking part.

MANIAC #4: Hwang Hyunjin (Full Story)

«S(INISTER)KZ: MANIACS COLLECTION MASTERLIST»

LEGEND 📓Release status/Rating · 🖤Pairing · 🪐Universe · 🏷️Genre/Trope · 🚨 Warnings

BESPOKE STENDHAL

📜13.3K words | Approx. 55-minute read 📓One-shot, Explicit 🖤Hyunjin x (afab) Reader 🪐Voyeur/Tortured Artist!Hyunjin (feat. Writing the book on Seduction & Yandereism) 🏷️Angst, Smut, Dark/Unsettling, Psychological, Thriller 🚨Please see the series masterlist for general warnings: Sensul af sex with The Prince™ crafted to obliterate the entire Hyunjin trash community (deserves a separate warning), voyeurism, murder, gaslighting & manipulation, stalking, severe violation of privacy, very brief mentioned toxic views regarding virginity & female sexuality by third parties, brief mention of previous unpleasant sexual experiences, mutual delusional & aggrandizing behavior, yandere tendencies, exhibitionistic tendencies/agrexophilia, hints of narratophilia, non-degrading graphoerotica, narcissistic tendencies/lowkey praise kink, corruption kink, lowkey body worship, virginity loss, cumplay/cum eating, masturbation, oral sex, unprotected sex, creampie, fully charged vibrators are recommended per usual. 📻Accompanying soundtrack 💭Reblogs & comments are always appreciated and please keep in mind they are the ultimate motivation fuel. 🍮Like my content? Consider supporting my work with a pudding!

Jack of all arts, master of one: a wordsmith. Too sensitive over his privacy to the extent that he publishes under a pseudonym. Even his die-hard fans don't know what he looks like. Author Hwang Hyunjin.

You can’t force a muse.

That was what Hwang Hyunjin had always firmly believed in along with the sanctity of his privacy. 

He liked living his life in a bubble of serenity, spending his days writing, painting, taking care of the little garden on his balcony, which looked like a giant terrarium he created for himself, and chilling on the swing with some jasmine tea at sunset. He would sometimes indulge in a little stargazing through the telescope he set up next to his canvas in front of the gigantic living room window because you’d never know what could induce inspiration. Gotta be ready at all times - that was the life of an artist. Peaceful. Moved. Stimulated.

That being said, he was having a really hard time wrapping his head around why his publisher was insisting on giving him deadlines. Hyunjin had proved time and time again that whatever he eventually had ready for them ended up topping the bestseller charts – he was literally the reason why they got so rich so fast, then why the rush? Why corner him against a wall to create? Why the incessant knocking on the door of his muse when she clearly didn’t like being disturbed? Obviously, she would have enough of the shenanigans and eventually skip town, leaving Hyunjin tossing and turning in his bed in utter restlessness. 

Now you’ve done it, fucking christ!

During the brief periods of REM sleep he was able to get, he kept having the same dream. The vision of a smell. It looked like smoke but definitely had a bright pastel color to it. The smell was sweet, but for the life of him, he couldn’t remember what it belonged to. During one of those nights, while feeling particularly antsy, Hyunjin just kicked his blanket off of him and headed to his telescope to stargaze into the windows of other people, hoping to encounter something that would bring his mojo back.

Two men making love to each other was the first thing he saw at that godforsaken hour. The undistilled passion of a pair of bodies devouring each other. It was very close to what he was looking for, but not quite it. This tasted like the dense flavor of dark chocolate pressed against his palate. Very intense, very savory. Very burgundy accompanying a glass of bourbon, but not the pastel palette he was looking for although he made a mental note of the fascinating scene at the back of his head in case he ever needed notes of wine for his work.

When he looked a little to the left, he saw someone crying, probably very loudly judging from the way they were violently sobbing. His heart was heavy at the sight, but this wasn’t it either. All the sorrow making a delectable gradient starting from the faint shades of baby blue all the way down to the darkest shade of indigo. Not the specific pastel he was looking for. He turned his lens downwards. 

Two people yelling at each other. A little to the right, someone sleeping all by themselves. A little to the left someone masturbating. Not it, not it, not it, not it. This was the umpteenth night he was begging to find something to finally have it click in his head because he was about to go crazy.

Right when he was about to lose all hope all over again…

He saw a woman in the apartment right across his, in Block A of his own apartment complex, very clearly in the middle of moving in considering half of the living room was still filled with unopened boxes. She was biting into a slice of peach, juices dripping from her chin as she made her way towards the kitchen with long steps.

“It's… It’s you.”

Hyunjin almost burst into tears upon finally being able to decipher what the exact shade he had been trying to figure out belonged to. Due to sheer relief of being able to remove a splinter at long last, which had been aggravating his unrest into mental torture for weeks now.

A fucking peach.

“It’s you! You’re my muse, beautiful. I will manifest you on my canvas time and time again so that you never leave me. I will dedicate volumes of stories after your beauty. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for all eternity.”

Routine. Everyone had a routine for sanity’s sake; that was what kept us grounded. The expectation of the known. Habits. There wasn’t a rule carved in a stone somewhere commanding those habits needed to be wholesome ones, though.

Hyunjin had a routine, too. He woke up every morning at the crack of dawn, washed up, made his coffee with a drop of vanilla, and sat by his telescope like turning on the fucking TV, canvas placed diagonally to his right as if he was about to examine the intricacies of a bowl of fruit to indulge in some still life study. He checked the time on his phone and began his morning patrol.

“Let’s see what you have for me today. I got some time to kill.”

Hyunjin’s view would typically consist of the remains of the night before: people dozed off in front of their TVs, on the verge of waking up in their beds, or just descended into delta waves after a long night, busy getting lost in the untranslatable tales of their subconscious. A lucky few were members of his 5 AM club, as well, preparing their morning coffees, having breakfast while scrolling through their phones, or getting ready for work in their dressing rooms.

“Oh, hello there. This is new at this hour.”

Hyunjin spotted a couple ravishing each other in utter pleasure, but he wasn’t even turned on by that sight since it wasn’t up to par with his standards of what sex should have looked like.

“Tsch, how banal. You should learn to fuck with grace, not like fucking cavemen. If you’re into exhibitionism, at least inject some aesthetic into it for your audience, fucking christ.”

His alarm went off informing him of the time and where he needed to channel his attention to. Hyunjin turned it off and directed his lens at the apartment right across from his.

“It's 6 AM. Time to wake up now.”

He observed a woman reaching for her phone on her nightstand and turning the alarm off, rubbing her eyes to get rid of the sleep clinging to her eyelids.

You.

Hyunjin broke into a smile radiating admiration in an amount that could be observed from outer space.

“Good morning, beautiful. Did you sleep well last night?”

Routine. Everyone had a routine, and so did you. For sanity’s sake. And Hyunjin knew your schedule like the back of his hand after numerous cramming sessions.

“Making that coffee again. You bought a fresh batch, I see. Oh, is that vanilla?”

Vanilla? You liked the taste of vanilla? 

You had always had your coffee black, but today you mixed it with vanilla? The alignment between your tastes was getting so uncanny that it felt like somebody was writing you for him.

“Now you're gonna go take your shower. I’ll wait for you, don’t worry.”

It wouldn’t take more than fifteen minutes for you to come back to your bedroom and start getting ready for work. At least that was what Hyunjin assumed. From the looks of your usual choice of fits, it didn’t look like you were spending the rest of your day somewhere formal. You could be working for a casual office. Or even for yourself. Or not be working at all, who knew. 

He’d like to know, though. He’d like to know everything about you.

“Look how pretty that color of the robe is. Suits you perfectly. What are you going to wear for work today?”

You always woke up at 6 AM, prepared your coffee, took a shower, got dressed, and went back to the kitchen. Then you would leave your apartment around 7. That day, however, something was off with your routine.

“Why aren't you dressing up, beautiful?”

Hyunjin watched you remove the excess moisture on your hair with a towel in a color that matched your robe, but still leaving it damp. You slowly made your way to your bed again and laid down.

“Oh.”

This was definitely a first. So out of the ordinary.

He observed the way you reached out to your drawer and bring out a wand in slow motion, his lips parted, thickly gulping as you loosened the belt of your robe.

“Oh, she wants a little release now, doesn't she? Are you as frustrated as I am, beautiful?”

Every time Hyunjin caught a flash of your skin no matter from how far away, it invited undistilled thoughts of lust to his mind. On the goddamn regular.

“Oh god, just look at that skin. Looks so supple. Nothing but a canvas made for me.”

You were indulging in a little foreplay with yourself, the soft-looking robe still on you, but exposing your body like you were a present delicately opened. Your eyes were closed, one hand on your breast gently fondling it and pinching your nipple, the other softly caressing your pussy. Hyunjin felt his hand slither to his own length getting hard, strokes matching the rhythm of your own hand.

“It's everything about you, beautiful. Everything about you, I love.”

Your hand slowly made its way down to your inner thigh, simulating a touch that didn’t belong to you. Maybe you were craving a kiss there. Maybe you liked being teased.

“I'd love to touch you. Feel your skin against mine, flush against my body. Make you feel good. So good.”

Hyunjin dropped his pants to get more comfortable on his seat, spreading his own legs to the sides to allow himself more access. His strokes were still languid, relishing the pleasure he was inducing in himself with massive assistance from you. Credit where credit was due.

“But I respect you. And I respect myself. It's not the right time yet.”

You brushed your fingers on your lips first. Then you stuck your tongue out, swirling it on your digits, eventually leading them inside your mouth to suck on. Delicately. A sight so arousing but still framed with grace. Just the way Hyunjin liked.

“You should know, though, women love the way I kiss.”

He swiped his palm on his tongue to collect his saliva to provide lubrication for himself, imagining it was your luscious lips all the while. 

“I can make you cum just by kissing you, beautiful.”

As if you heard him, you sprawled on your bed more and led your wet fingers on your clit, finally rubbing yourself to whatever it was you were imagining behind your eyes. 

“Finally giving in to me, huh? That’s what it took?” Hyunjin chuckled softly, “That’s it. Spread those legs for me.”

Your movements weren’t rushed at all, just exploring yourself like you were about to do this for the next hour. You sucked on the fingers on your other hand and started rubbing your nipple to accompany your pleasure.

“The way I would diminish you into a pile of pure heroin and smoke you till I overdose, my fucking god.”

It was obvious that the escalation of your pleasure kicked in. You were getting riled up, turning yourself on to your fantasies lurking behind shadows, your hands moving on your body a little faster now.

“All I wanna do is love you. Fuck, I wanna love you so bad.”

At long last, you reached for your vibrator, a clear indication that your fingers weren’t doing a proper job in stimulating your clit. You needed something more. Something more intense.

“Oh beautiful, don’t you think my tongue would feel way better on that silk skin? Why are you wasting this?”

Hyunjin could feel the tremors approaching your body from the way your lips parted at the sensation over that sensitive bundle of nerves. From the looks of it, a part of you was especially sensitive since you kept jolting on your bed every time you pressed on that spot.

“Look at that pretty arch. Is that how you arch for your man when you cum?”

Your chest was rising and falling at more frequent intervals by now, signaling Hyunjin that your breathing got labored. It wasn’t going to take long for you to snap.

“Show me how you curl your toes, beautiful. Show me.”

You were about to cum. Your lips parted more, undoubtedly to allow the moans you couldn’t control to break free. They were getting louder for sure, but they should have turned into screams. For Hyunjin. Because of Hyunjin.

“It's me, don't be shy. It's just us here. Come on, show me.”

Your orgasm finally hit you, making you frantically convulse on your bed until you got way too sensitive to the vibrations on your clit.

“Oh fuck, yes. Yes, just a little bit more. More. Soak me. Drown me. Ascend me.”

Hyunjin did his utmost best to hold himself back until your spasms stopped and you were just contently smiling on your bed, slowly receding into a state of the most beautiful afterglow Hyunjin had ever seen in his life. 

“Ah, fuck, fuck, fuck, YES!”

The second he was convinced you weren’t going to engage in anything else he had to witness, Hyunjin dragged himself away from his lens and shot his load directly on his canvas with loud moans, panting heavily, his toes curling more at the make-believe image of you between his legs. It took a while for him to catch his breath again, but when his sanity started seeping through his body, he looked at the canvas that harbored a nude of you, his cum now dripping off of it.

“We have to meet. I have to exist in your world as much as you’re invading mine, beautiful.”

Routine. Habits. Much like any person who could afford it, part of your routine included going grocery shopping every now and then. You kept a list of the items you were going to buy on your fridge, and of course Hyunjin was aware of it. 

“Peaches for jam. You like peaches that much, huh beautiful?”

Now, this needed some calculation. He couldn’t just randomly pass by the greengrocers in the neighborhood to check whether you were there or not. The day you were going to complete this purchase, you were most certainly going to do one thing, and Hyunjin decided to wait for that instead.

It took two long weeks that dragged on like a piece of chewing gum, but you finally ripped the list to take it with you. That was Hyunjin’s cue to orbit you for an entire day.

Routine. Your routine that day involved the usual albeit this was going to be Hyunjin’s first time seeing it in action. When you left home, you would go to this bookstore that also harbored a little café inside where the staff welcomed you with smiles every time you walked in. That was your choice of office since working remotely from home was getting on your goddamn nerves - it just had to be an area different from your private space. You had even made some friends there, with whom you shared a lunch break with sometimes, talking about books, current events, or random nonsense. Especially with Jay. Charming funny dudes possessing excessive amounts of trivia to keep a conversation interesting? Hell yeah.

“I’ll make sure to bring you a jar, Jay. I’m actually about to go get the peaches right now.”

Your conversation with the person behind the coffee machine alerted Hyunjin that it was finally time to go do some peachblocking. He snuck out from the side door to head to the greengrocers, hoping that was the place you had in mind.

“Excuse me, I’m looking for peaches?”

“We apologize, ma'am, this gentleman just bought our entire stock.”

Thank goodness and whatever stars aligned for him, it was. The shocked expression mixed with a small pout on your face was totally worth monopolizing the entire stall, though.

“Oh, sorry. You wanted to buy some too?”

“I mean… Yeah.”

“You can have however much you need. I don't mind.”

The way you lit up like a Christmas tree upon his words… Your smile… It was everything to Hyunjin.

“Oh, thank you. THANK YOU SO MUCH!”

He reciprocated the smile and placed the bags back on the stall for you to have your pick. You couldn’t help but snort at the ridiculous sight.

“Like damn, though, are you feeding an army by any chance?”

“I love peaches in general, but I was thinking of making some jam tonight. Really bad hankering.”

You looked away from the peaches with an expression of utter shock on your face.

“I was going to make peach jam tonight!”

“You’re kidding, right?” Hyunjin feigned surprise, “What are the odds?”

You stood there motionless for some time, awestruck over the sheer beauty of this man. That was when Hyunjin decided to properly introduce himself into your life. One word only. Anything else was redundant at that point.

“Hyunjin,” he extended his hand to you.

“Y/N.”

That’s so pretty. That’s the prettiest thing I’ve ever heard.

“Do you live around here by any chance?”

“Yeah, just around the corner actually.”

Hyunjin wore the most convincing pseudo-shock on his face this time.

“Don’t tell me you’re at Ocean Avenue Apartments?”

You looked at him in slight surprise, “You… know that place?”

“I live in Block B!”

“Shut up, I’m in Block A!”

“So we do share a lobby.”

“What are the odds indeed?”

You kept giggling at each other for some time until Hyunjin made an offer you couldn’t refuse because who the fuck was going to carry all these bags back home?

“Um- You wanna walk home together?”

So you did while exchanging little facts about one another on the way back. You were a freelance translator looking for a change of scenery while Hyunjin was an author who specifically picked this place because of the magnificent sea view as it always had a calming effect on him. Not that he was a person with anger management issues.

“I just love the smell of iodine,” he declared while you were walking into the building lobby.

“Thank you very much for the peaches, Hyunjin. I’ll see you around,” you smiled and couldn’t help but add at the last second before taking off, “I hope.”

Oh, beautiful.

When Hyunjin went home that day, he wrote the most inspired story of his entire career in one sitting just because of a peach-colored smile that was in the exact shade of a soft bathrobe.

What is normal and who set the criteria for its diffusion?

You were a curious person by nature to an extent that if you couldn't scratch that itch for whatever reason, it could and did keep you up at night, which was why coming from a wealthy family was a blessing and a curse at the same time: you were able to satisfy your inquisitive urges in a relatively short time span, yes, but being exposed to so many things an average person may not have had the opportunity to, you were almost constantly riddled with curiosity spreading throughout your entire existence like a rash. 

You didn’t have that many people in your life, but you didn’t consider yourself ‘lonely’. Too much of something would eventually end up being a recipe for disaster so why bother? Not to mention books and reference sources were much more interesting than the people in your circle trying to warm up to you because you possessed the same last name as your father. You could find all the solace in pages and you would know for a fact that they didn’t have a hidden agenda.

So why bother?

During one of your visits to your usual bookstore, you were just casually walking between the aisles to see whether something would catch your attention. No, not because of the cover. You had a habit of judging a book by its title instead.

TASTE

Huh.

No, this particular title didn’t catch your attention; it put a fucking firm grip on your throat and forced you to finish it in one night accompanying multiple self-relief sessions because holy fucking shit if this wasn’t the sexiest thing you had ever read, period. The way the author described things was nothing short of sublime. In your head, this was legitimately the biggest orgy in the world the way they vicariously fucked people through words, eliciting nothing but cries to a deity in all the languages alive and extinct. You were simply bewitched.

“Nobody writes sex like this, my fucking god! Who even are you?”

And just like that, you were back on your Mata Hari bullshit again. You looked up the name online searching for hours, but there was absolutely no information about this person. All you knew was the name of the publishing house.

But I have to know who you are.

If there was one person that could help you soothe your massive curiosity issues, it was your, for the lack of a better word, hack-savvy friend Abigail whose day job was a software engineer. Obviously, a phonecall to them was gonna be inevitable.

“Hey Abby, whatchu dooooi-?”

“Bitch, get straight to the point. I'm at work.”

“Yeesh, that was a little harsh,” you tsked into the receiver, “Fine, I won't waste too much of your time. I’m in dire need of your information whiz shenanigans.”

“What for this time?”

“It’s actually for something interesting,” you grabbed the book, “There’s this author, Sam Beauséjour. They write for-”

“Neon Seductions, yeah I know.”

“YOU DO?” you uncontrollably yelled at the top of your lungs.

“Of course. Every erotica enthusiast alive knows that name unless they live under a rock,” Abigail proceeded to annoyingly cackle, “I’m actually surprised you know.”

“Cut the sass, will you?” you countered them, “I need to know who this person is.”

“That’s literally the most normal thing you've asked of me to date,” they responded slightly surprised, “Tell you what, I’ll cut you a deal. Instead of sponsoring my annual gear renewal, I’ll just settle with a massage chair this once. My back’s killing me slouching in front of this damn computer all day.”

You were basically appalled at their request, “You got it, but that’s it? Just a massage chair and not the motherboards with specifications I can’t pronounce?”

“Priorities, bitch. I’ll call you when I’m done. Take it easy, yeah?”

It must have indeed been a normal request by Abigail’s standards because it only took two days for you to receive a call asking to meet them for ‘coffee’.

“Here’s your precious information file,” they handed you a Manila envelope.

“Ooh, gimme!”

The envelope contained a bunch of documents that you were most certainly going to go through line by line to explore who that fascinating mind belonged to. Abigail took the liberty of arranging them in an order that they thought you’d want, so it started with some coordinates.

Hwang Hyunjin Ocean Avenue Apartments Block B, Floor 20, #2023

However, sleeping among the heaps of papers was something of even bigger importance.

A picture.

That belonged to a man clad in black basically sprawling on a velvet armchair, luscious blonde curls reaching his nape, slender fingers pressed against his temple, looking right into the lens with a gaze nothing short of tantalizing predation. Poise for days.

“Oh my fucking god!”

“I know, right? I’d so hit that if I was straight,” Abigail grinned and took a huge gulp from their coffee.

“Goddamn, Abby, where'd you even get these?”

“Employment records along with my personal sources. The dude is off the grid for some reason. Not only he writes under a pseudonym, he doesn’t do press like at all.”

“Then this?” you pointed at the picture.

“Told ya, personal sources,” Abigail shrugged, “That was apparently for a private photo exhibition. He modeled for some photographer named Blaise Lavigne.”

“What’s up with the fascination with French?” you asked while looking into the envelope and Abigail made a fair point.

“They invented kissing, bitch. The dude writes erotica for a living,” they finished the rest of their coffee and got up, “Knock yourself out with the folder. I gotta head back now.”

“Thanks, Abby. Do send me the model of the chair you want,” you smiled and headed back home yourself where you ended up looking at his picture for quite some time. 

While masturbating, that is.

You’re a fucking prince.

You’d love to fuck yourself thinking it was him, but you had some… logistical obstacles along the way.

You weren’t totally clueless, but you were a virgin on a technicality—the ‘I have an idea where everything goes but my hymen is intact’ kind. Not that you didn’t have any opportunity to do anything before. It was just that the discourse around the topic initiated by the men around you—a.k.a sleazy human beings whose opinions didn’t worth a dime because they didn’t possess the reproductive parts to offer their precious insights on—annoyed the crap out of you. Therefore, you developed this habit of leading people on just to leave them high and dry. The exact same reason why you harbored so many repressed urges for quite a while because they had no way of manifesting themselves into reality. It just had to be with someone you deemed worthy. Non-negotiable. 

And from the looks of it, it had to be this diabolical prince charming. It was simply impossible that a man who depicted sex like that was in the same lowlife category as your dear dear friends.

“I’ll save myself for you no matter how long it takes,” you kissed his picture while heaving a deep sigh, “You’re the only one who should break me in.”

What followed was scouting real estate agents corrupt enough to help you in your endeavors. It cost some mind games here and there, but once you found the agent, you outright declared your request to them.

“The second there’s an apartment available in either of these blocks, you let me know, yeah?” you placed an envelope on their desk that contained a bouquet of a thousand dollars, “If it’s on Block A, it has to face the other building, not the backside. I’m cool with whatever in Block B.”

You thought you’d get that call maybe in a couple of weeks, but it took much longer than you’d anticipated. But the rush you get when a long-awaited call eventually arrives?

“There’s a one bedroom available in the Block A of Ocean Av-”

“I’ll take it!”

You didn’t even need to see it. You just knew that was your designated apartment. You put your affairs in order at lightspeed, and moved into your new home on the other side of the country for the foreseeable future with a singular thought invading your mind: Him.

For some reason, you were convinced he tasted like peaches. The more you couldn’t put together a coherent plan to seep through his life, the more you started craving the fruit like it was fucking heroin or something. It just couldn’t have been anything less than destiny when you finally ran into him while you were out to buy peaches to make jam. Just so that you could actually taste him every morning. 

Such a kind soul, so beautiful, plain dreamy. Fucking soulmate material. And it turned out that he was going to make jam, too? The alignment between your tastes was getting so uncanny that it felt like somebody was writing him for you.

The worst was over; he knew you existed. Now was the time to remind him of your existence every once in a while so that he didn’t forget you. Nothing that would paint you as coming on too strong.

Nevertheless, every time you witnessed him from afar, either somewhere around the neighborhood, in the lobby, or wherever the fuck it was, no matter how much you were dying to walk up to him and say hi, you kept stopping yourself because you felt like you just weren’t going to be able to contain yourself around this man.

I shouldn't do something stupid and play my cards right.

That being said, fate seemed to have other plans for you. While you were going through your mail in the lobby one day, mind completely blank due to Hyunjin deprivation, an instant butterfly riot broke out in the pit of your stomach.

“Hey, beautiful.”

You were simply stunned upon hearing that velvety voice again. Hyunjin wasn’t even doing anything, but you could still feel your reasoning dissipate.

What a man. What a god that puts every living thing to shame. Why do you fucking malfunction me so?

However, all that left your lips was a mere “Hey”, by which Hyunjin didn’t seem content one bit.

“Is there a reason you're avoiding me?” he point-blank asked you while leaning on the wall.

Oh, shit!

“I'm- I'm not?”

“But why are you lying to me? It doesn't suit you,” his thumb brushed your cheek, “It doesn't suit how perfect you are.”

You felt like combusting from that barely-a-touch contact, but this wasn’t the time to be tongue-tied. 

“You know you're perfect, right?” Hyunjin looked down to meet your gaze. You held it.

And when you did, you felt a lightning strike at the exact spot you were standing on. Come to think of it, you had always worked best under pressure. You giggled and asked him with confidence that didn’t even belong to you.

“Do you wanna come over for drinks tomorrow night?”

That was your plan to be subtle going out the window with a huge crash, but contrary to your expectations, Hyunjin flashed the biggest smile you had ever seen in your life. Maybe he actually liked a direct approach.

“I’d love to, beautiful!”

You had almost imploded when Hyunjin agreed to have drinks with you, naturally, it was time to start overthinking. What did he like? What did he not like? You should have totally asked him that. God dammit why wouldn't such information exist in employment records? Then again, who could go wrong with some wine?

You took a deep breath when your bell went off, counting on the impending alcohol buzz to calm your nerves.

Just be normal. Be normal. Be normal.

Nobody could be normal when a god manifested on their doorstep, okay?

“HI!”

Hyunjin burst out laughing at your very loud greeting, “Someone’s glad to see me I guess?”

Glad? I'm pumping the breaks so hard they're about to break, you have no idea.

“I forgot to ask you what you like, so I brought wine. Hope it’s okay,” he handed you a bottle of rosé. Your lips slightly parted.

“Actually…” you turned to your kitchen island to show him the exact bottle you prepared. He chuckled.

“What are the odds, right?”

Excitement was crawling in your body as you poured the wine. You had never looked this much forward to getting tipsy before. Considering Hyunjin felt compelled to ask you about it, the nervousness must have broken through your skin.

“Is everything okay?”

You responded with an almost-neurotic awkward tone, “Yeah, why? Why? Why would you ask that?”

Hyunjin raised a brow and placed his glass on the coffee table so that he could scoot closer to you.

“Talk to me beautiful. What's bothering you?”

“It's nothing. It's uh- it's stupid.”

“Nothing you say is stupid,” he touched your cheek and insisted, “Tell me.”

Okay, let’s take the hypothetical route without getting him too suspicious.

You heaved a deep sigh and downed your entire glass in one go so that it hit you as quickly as possible.

“There's uh- there's this guy.”

Hyunjin thought you would break into a story about work or something, but he most certainly did not expect that. He felt his stomach churn causing his face to slightly drop. 

What guy? There shouldn’t be any other guy, beautiful, what are you even saying?

That was so out of the blue that he almost lost his composure.

“Uh huh?”

“I uh- I seem to have… developed a liking… of his existence, but um… I’m not… not sure if he would… reciprocate, you know?”

Girl, get it together. What the fuck are you rambling about?

So much for being hypothetical. You were way too focused on not alerting Hyunjin at any capacity that you forgot how to form coherent sentences apparently.

“Do you see this person on a regular basis?” Hyunjin asked you in a cold demeanor.

“I mean… sorta.”

“Then he’s not willing to make a move. Take the hint and drop it.”

That answer was so demoralizing that you had no other choice than to throw a Hail Mary pass. No matter how much someone removed themselves from the grid, there were some things that they just couldn’t hide. Like being vulnerable to emotional exploitation. If your calculations were correct, a guy of Hyunjin’s nature fitting that exact description wasn’t that far-fetched. As you had observed time and time again, sympathy could very well morph into something magnificent.

You flashed a broken smile.

“Why would he anyway, right? I can't even pass as a five when he's a ten,” you poured yourself another glass, “I don't know what I was thinking. Never mind.”

“Hey, hey, hey! Look at me,” Hyunjin touched your arm in panic mixed with anger like you just dissed the entire set of values he held most dear, “I don't wanna hear you say things like that. Not now, not ever.”

Bingo.

“Are you even aware of how beautiful you are? Do you know why I call you beautiful?”

Wait a second…

“You're just saying that to make me feel better, Hyunjin.”

“I'M NOT!”

Unless you were making shit up in your head, that came out a little too enthusiastic. Like he just realized that himself, Hyunjin’s gaze softened.

“You're a perfect ten, beautiful. You're a fucking twelve.”

“Yeah, out of fifty maybe.”

“No, out of zero. You make nothing into something. Something glorious,” Hyunjin scooted even closer to you, “Though I'm glad he doesn't see it. He shouldn't see it.”

Wait, who doesn’t see it?

“Hyunjin…”

Now he was even closer.

“If he does, you'll forget about me.”

Forget you? Like that’s a matter of free will?

“Can't you see? I'm-”

Hyunjin couldn’t contain the urge to touch you anymore and held your face in his hands.

“I'm head over heels for you, beautiful. I'm awestruck every time I witness your presence.”

You froze. If that wasn’t some plot twist on your part…

“You make smells come alive for me. Your scent sings to me. I would kill to feel you under my touch.”

So all this time you were playing chess with yourself, that was actually the most futile endeavor in the universe? You could have just walked up to his door and gatecrash his life however the fuck you pleased?

“Let me. Please.”

Peaches. Hyunjin’s lips tasted like wine at that moment but the texture was indeed the same as peeled peaches. Very soft. Ignited an urge to bite into them. So juicy. You almost lost yourself in the daze of the kiss, but you had to pump the breaks to break some news to him because it definitely felt like he’d want more.

“Stop.”

Utter disappointment. It was spelled all over Hyunjin’s face.

“What's wrong?”

You took a deep breath to muster as much of your courage as possible, but the copious amount of wine you downed in a very short time span, not to mention that intoxicating kiss fully disabled the coherence area of your brain.

“I uh- I'm- I haven't- Before…”

Hyunjin couldn’t make sense of it at first, but when the realization finally hit him, he squinted his eyes.

“Wait, are you…”

You averted your eyes, a little scared of the reaction you were about to elicit from him, but he grabbed your chin to look you in the eye when he completed that sentence.

“Are you a virgin, beautiful?”

When you nodded, Hyunjin furrowed his brows, seemingly in disbelief.

“Are you serious?”

Uh oh.

You had to play this right as it could very well go south in the blink of an eye. You decided to test the waters first before saying or doing anything that could ruin the moment and ended up just softly nodding again. Hyunjin gasped. 

…but apparently not because of the terror you thought he would feel.

“You can't possibly get any more perfect than this.”

Perfect? A piece of skin still intact somewhere in your body was what defined perfect for him? Considering the scenes, the urges and desires he painted with words, a guy of his nature and imagination must have seen, if not firsthand experienced, more things than you could ever have, but he still thought the fact that nothing passed the threshold of your hymen was perfect? It didn’t quite add up at first, but then it was your turn to be hit with a realization about him. 

Did Hyunjin have a blaring corruption kink by any chance? Because if so, talk about a match made in hell.

“Have you um… have you experienced other things by any chance?”

“I know what an orgasm is if that's what you're asking,” you chuckled with a tinge of sass induced by the massive relief, “I own a vibrator.”

“I mean with other people.”

“I did give head to a guy once, but it felt too rough. Maybe it wasn’t the right person.”

“Did he touch you?”

“If you mean whether he did things to please me, then no.”

“But why?” Hyunjin started playing with your hair, “How could anyone be extremely idiotic to pass on the opportunity to serve a goddess like you?”

You almost couldn’t help the urge to ask Hyunjin whether his catalog also included writing the book on seduction because who the fuck talked like that? Nevertheless, you answered as candidly as you could.

“Because it’s a double-edged sword. In my experience, people either think you're gonna attach too much meaning to losing your virginity, or see you as something to be conquered only. And I didn't wanna try anal as my first time.”

Hyunjin listened to you intently while nodding, and kept playing with your hair.

“Didn't he at least go down on you?”

“Nope. Said he doesn’t like that because it's too wet, whatever the fuck that means.”

Hyunjin broke into a knowing smile, “Oh, if only you knew, beautiful. When someone with an oral fixation goes down on you, it forces you to reevaluate the entire meaning of life.” 

That velvety voice sent a tingle down your clit and caused your throat to experience a severe drought.

If you had any idea how hard I’m fighting the urge to push you down and sit on your face right now… 

“But maybe it's better you don't know what it feels like.”

Hyunjin dragged his fingers down your arm, eyes fixated on the trail he was drawing. The more you wanted him to lose control, the more he looked like he was trying to keep it. His eyes suddenly met yours and he spoke in a tone dripping with that thing you were anticipating all along as he came closer to your face again.

“For now.”

Peaches. You could somehow taste it on his lips this time. Maybe Hyunjin only tasted like peaches when he deepened his kisses, when he was turned on beyond control, when he was about to unleash the sex god that was residing in his soul.

“Would you let me be your first, beautiful?” he spoke into your mouth.

Fucking finally. While one part of you was immediately alerted to accept his proposal, the other and much more twisted part of you wanted to watch him beg for you, to wait and see that one thing that was going to say to sweep you off your feet so hard that you would have absolutely no choice but to say yes to him. You just allowed yourself to get lost in his kisses for some more until Hyunjin obviously couldn’t take it anymore and attempted to persuade you further.

“I swear on my life I'll make it worth it. Would you give me this honor of liberating you?”

Honor.

This was the sign you were waiting for. This was the confirmation that you needed all along. You regarded it a privilege for Hyunjin whereas he considered it a fucking honor. Like a coronation was about to take place. Could there be any more obvious proof than this?

“Yes.”

You gently grabbed his hand to lead him to your bedroom, which Hyunjin was actually pretty much familiar with by now. Your peach robe was hanging behind your door. Your silk gown was on laying on your bed. The orange lights were on right above your bed where he watched you pleasure yourself once, twice, three times, four times, completely unaware of the fact that you were fantasizing about this very moment behind your eyelids.

“If anything feels uncomfortable you tell me, okay? Immediately.”

The prelude to two people surrendering to each other… Hyunjin had always thought that was the best part. Even though your words insinuated that you weren’t that experienced, he didn’t take you for completely clueless and opted for trusting your instincts instead. It was the most basic one after all. You would end up guiding him even if you didn’t mean to, but there was one more reason he was incredibly ecstatic about what was about to unfold, and it wasn’t exactly what you assumed about him.

Hyunjin had never been anyone’s first before. In anything. He knew for a fact that you were his muse, inspiring him to ejaculate pages of ink at one go just by your mere existence, but you allowing him to experience something so rare? Giving him the gift of a new horizon unprovoked? An untapped vein of mojo? With you?

How was he ever going to be able to repay you? He would die if he didn’t make this the experience of a lifetime for you. Maybe you already knew what you liked, maybe you were going to explore it with him, but in any case there was a fine line between taking his time with you and treating you like this fragile glass that would break if he so much as blew air on it 

Because you weren’t.

You let the dim lights in your room suppress some of your self-consciousness and invited Hyunjin to your bed. To your luck, he was more than a courteous guest bearing all kinds of gifts for you. 

“Look at me.”

You tried. You really did, but for some reason, that wildfire in Hyunjin’s eyes was way too blinding to directly observe. He insisted on locking your gaze in his and gently cupped your face to make you face him.

“Just look at me, beautiful. Don’t avert your eyes.”

Kisses. Brushes of his tongue. Slow. Wet. Exploratory yet expository. Translating your body into his own language. Deconstructing it like a concise poem that required an entire hour of lecture to analyze. Maybe you already knew the meaning, but he didn’t care because he didn’t. All you had to do was confirm or deny whether his interpretation was correct.

Touches. Electric. Charring but soothing at the same time. Everywhere. Even in the most secluded corners of you. Corners that you didn’t even know existed. Smooth glides. Just the right amount of pressure wherever it was needed. Drawing a precise map of you in his mind. Under his eyelids. On his tastebuds.

Whispers. In your ears. On your lips. Your neck. Against your skin. Hushed odes to your beauty. Little confessions. Declarations of love. Declarations of war. Anything and everything to get you to moan for him.

The amount of sensuality within the tight confines of your sheets was already extremely overwhelming. Both of you were still partially clothed on your bed, yet there you were panting because of fucking foreplay that was going on for the past hour or so. Hyunjin wasn’t even expecting you to sink your fingertips into his skin like that when he placed a mere kiss on your pussy over your lingerie.

“Are you… Are you cumming?”

“Fucking YES!”

Hyunjin intertwined his fingers with yours as he let you fly without him, and kept talking against your skin the whole time.

“Every inch of you. Has to be paid attention to. I'm gonna love you so hard it's gonna ruin everybody else for you. You were made for me, beautiful.”

He waited for you to touch the ground again to alleviate an unwelcome motion sickness. Once your breathing returned to normal, Hyunjin slowly discarded everything that was hiding your body from him so that he could properly appreciate you. As he was supposed to. Like he wanted his reward for waiting his entire life for you.

When he brought his face over his new target, all your insecurities came crashing down and you flinched before he even did anything. Hyunjin squeezed your hands like he was trying to reassure you.

“Let me. Let me taste you. I really want to.”

If you could maybe relax a little, you would genuinely cum again from that first stripe on your pussy alone, which condensed into precise licks. A whole makeout session on your clit. Sloppy but not disgraceful. Hyunjin’s salivary glands working at full capacity to drench you as if your own arousal was not enough.

“Isn't it… Isn't it too wet for you?”

“Too wet? It will never be wet enough, beautiful,” he slurped on your clit again, “I can't get enough of this. I wanna wear it as a fucking perfume.”

Wet. Just wet. Soaked. It was all you could feel with his tongue gliding against your folds, teasing your entrance just a little to give you a taste, most of his attention still on your clit, promising a vista of pleasure you had never basked in before but simultaneously threatening to rip your soul apart.

“Hyunjin…”

You finally let out something besides your quiet moans from your lips, which ended up being his name. The ultimate cause of the impending satisfaction fast approaching, the epitome of beauty trapped between your legs, moving like his sole purpose in this life was to gratify you. His excitement over hearing your voice calling his name made him moan against your pussy louder with each suck, tongue lapping at your clit faster to induce the most violent orgasm of your life. The only kind that you deserved.

“Ah, Hyunjin!”

Nothing could be this pleasurable. Nothing could make your toes curl this hard. Nothing could make you jolt in your bed, arching frantically like you just got electrocuted. Nothing but him. You were sure of it.

“I can feel you running through my veins, beautiful,” Hyunjin hummed against your pussy as you came down, still slurping on the arousal he just elicited out of you, “Dripping. So wet.”

He watched your contractions, extremely content he was the cause of them. You were way too fucked out to be able to think straight, let alone utter a word.

“But it’s so pretty,” he kissed your throbbing pussy again, “Can I go one more time?”

“Don’t… Yet… No… Fuck…”

Hyunjin chuckled at how faded you were and climbed on top of you again to trap you under his frame. He kept caressing your hair until you came down.

“Do you wanna stop, or can we go another round?”

Without having a clue what prompted that, you threw your arms around his neck and pulled him in for a hug. Hyunjin pressed his bare torso against yours and listened to your heartbeat for a while until you softly spoke in his ear and almost caused him to lose his shit.

“Fuck me, Hyunjin.”

He stood on his knees over you as you watched him unbuckle his jeans, erection very much prominent under the tight fabric. Even that sight alone was so erotic in itself that it made no sense. When he finally released his flushed cock begging to be touched by you, you were salivating so intensely that you almost choked on your own drool.

“Legs on my shoulder, beautiful.”

Hyunjin settled between your thighs and kept stroking you to relax you as much as he could. He could still see you slightly throbbing and perfectly glistening under him. He rubbed his cock up and down your pussy to stain himself with you before moving to your entrance. You had heard the pleas of ‘just the tip’ before but never in a million years did you think you would instantly want more upon feeling it.

“A little more. Please.”

“Shh, not now, beautiful. Patience.”

Hyunjin was moving maybe a quarter of an inch at a time if not less, careful not to do anything sudden and making sure you were comfortable. You were so slippery inside that it took iron-clad willpower to fight the urge to slide right in because your pleasure was the priority here. Once Hyunjin was halfway in, he placed a kiss on your ankle and reached for your hands.

“Become one with me.”

His thrusts were still gentle because he did meet resistance, but he wasn’t shying away from moving more now. 

One. Two. Three. Four. Five.

“Fuck.”

You felt it. You felt the moment he broke your chains. Like you popped a bubble wrap. It wasn’t remotely like the catastrophic pain everyone told you it was going to be. It just felt like finally unlocking a door that was stuck.

“There it is,” Hyunjin ecstatically smiled, “It’s mine now.”

And he went off.

“Oh, god, yes!”

“You're mine now, beautiful. Kiss me.”

Now that there was nothing between your deepest corners and Hyunjin, he took shelter at the furthest end of your cul-de-sac, and dove into your lips headfirst as he kept pounding into you.

“How do you feel, beautiful? Tell me.”

“I can’t- can’t think straight.”

“In a good way?”

“In the best way. Fuck!”

Happy. Hyunjin was simply happy. Deliriously.

“Hold onto me now,” he flashed a smile that showcased all his beautiful features, “I’ll take you on a ride with me.”

As he quickened his pace, it felt like a dam broke. You were feeling the electricity gushing out of you, making you shudder all over the place every time Hyunjin rubbed against your walls.

“Yes. Please, yes!”

“Oh, fuck! Feels so damn good, doesn’t it?”

“A little harder. Please!”

Hyunjin changed his angle to aim his curvature at somewhere he thought you would like if he could manage to spot it fast enough.

One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Ni-

“Ah, FUCK!”

His cock grazed somewhere. It felt like a delicious jolt between your legs.

“Found it,” he euphorically smiled at you, “I'll hit that so good, beautiful. I can go as hard as you want now. Control me.”

”Harder. Hyunjin, please, harder.”

The way he hit that spot felt like he was getting licked at the tip, and the way you were uncontrollably clenching around him was the best kind of blowjob he could ever ask for. 

“Shit! What an absolute fucking goddess. Even more perfect now. You're destroying me.”

“Hyunjin, please!”

“I don't want this to end. I never want this to end, god please.”

You breathing was way too labored by then, a clear sign for him to know that you were about to snap.

“I need your release, beautiful.”

Hyunjin sucked on his thumb to coat his finger and slithered his hand down below.

“Close your eyes now. I want you to imagine there's two of me and that I'm latched right…”

You felt a gentle pressure on your clit.

“Here.”

“FUCK!”

He kept fervently rubbing you while keeping a steady pace, resolute to make you scream for him if that was what it took to get you to cream.

“Yeah, there it is. That's my girl. Don't hold back. Let go.”

Your moans getting louder forced his thrusts to go more erratic.

“That's it. That's exactly it. Cum for me again. Let me have you.”

“Hyunjin!”

“Be mine. Be mine, beautiful. Only mine.”

“AH, HYUNJIN!!!”

His first. You were his first. You were the only one to entrust yourself with him. With every drop that was flooding him, Hyunjin felt himself fall deeper in love.

“Ain't no way I can quench my thirst for you. I just wanna stop living and make you feel like this all the fucking time.”

He stayed inside while both of you were trying to catch your breaths, you being even more faded than he was for obvious reasons. Hyunjin was incredibly endeared at the sight of you, eyes closed, lips parted, chest heaving while one of your hands was still around his neck.

“You feel so good, don't you beautiful? You're dazed a little,” he chuckled against your ear, “That's what I wanna make you feel like all the damn time. Just let me.”

Nothing but kisses and sharp inhales. Nothing but his velvety touch. Nothing but him. Him. Him. Him. Just him. The prince.

Your prince.

“You make me go absolutely insatiable, you know? I'm yours now. All yours.” 

Hyunjin took your lips between his again as if to seal your souls away within each other.

“And you’re mine, beautiful.”

‘There's uh- there's this guy.’

Hyunjin took a couple of discreet field trips to see who that guy was. Granted, there was seemingly no reason to be worried since you both had already declared yourselves to each other, but you could never be too careful. It didn’t take long before he noticed a pattern. It was the same guy who kept spending his lunch breaks with you whenever he could, attempting to make you laugh, and very clearly flirting with you rather than engaging in friendly banter. Hyunjin would know since he fucking wrote the book on seduction. Several volumes for that matter.

That's the aforementioned ten? Please. A subpar two at best.

The weekend you were out of town to visit back home, Hyunjin took the liberty of visiting the bookstore all by himself to get acquainted with this guy named Jay. The levels of his disdain lowered the tiniest bit when he saw his person of interest in front of a shelf containing his books.

At least you got taste.

He wore his amiable personality on his sleeve and leisurely approached the guy.

“Hey there! Do you mind giving recommendations from this author? I’ve heard they’re not very good, but I wanna try my chances. See if it lives up to the hype.”

Jay turned to him slowly, shooting death glares upon the veiled diss, and roughly shoved the books he was rearranging into one of the random shelves.

“First of all, do not besmirch the good name of Sam Beauséjour in front of me, sir. Second of all, it’s quite literally impossible to go wrong with any of their work.”

“Die-hard fan?”

“Damn straight.”

As he turned his back to channel his attention to the books again, Hyunjin squinted his eyes and a smile tainted his lips.

“Would she even know how I was ready to dedicate my entire youth to her? Would she even care if she knew I made the very bullet that I was going to take for her? Was she even aware if yearning was rain, hers was a drizzle and mine was a hurricane?”

The guy looked at him with eyes widened in shock and Hyunjin continued.

“From Taste. Page 230.”

“No way.”

“Yes way, my friend.”

“No fucking way, it's you!!! Can I please have an autograph?” Jay's face lit up, “Actually two; a friend of mine and I are both really big fans of your work. She would be ecstatic!”

A friend of yours, huh?

“If you don't mind the unorthodoxy, I'd rather not do that in public. Having people see me sign a book, you know.”

His euphoric bubble was instantly deflated since Jay couldn’t calculate that far, “Of course. Of course, your privacy.”

“I appreciate the enthusiasm very much, though,” Hyunjin’s gaze softened, “I don't get to indulge in this very often for obvious reasons, so how about I make you a deal?”

“What kind of a deal?”

“You bring your books to my place and I'll sign them for you. You can ask me questions about my work if you have any.”

Jay was quite literally on the brink of losing his shit the way his jaw hit the floor at record speed.

“Are you legit offering me a personal fansign right now?”

“Shh…” Hyunjin shushed him as if they were sharing a little secret between them, smile still perfectly intact, “Only on the condition that you sign an NDA for me. Surely you would understand I can’t have people going around talking about me.”

“Of- of course!”

“Glad you're happy about this,” he charmingly smiled, “If I can have an address, please. I'll send a car to pick you up. Does next week sound good?”

It was Hyunjin’s turn to play the hospitable ‘neighbor’, so he offered to have dinner at his place, extensively bragging about his pesto in the meantime. You picked up the same bottle of rosé you had when he first came over, and headed to his place. The layout of the apartment was almost identical to yours; he just had one extra room where he used as a ‘creative studio’ as he called it. There was even a telescope inside facing the back of the building, nothing in sight to block the view of the pretty sky. He set the dinner table on his balcony adorned with all kinds of plants and tealight candles. It felt like you were having an intimate dinner date in a miniature greenhouse.

“You said you were an author, right?”

You were… paying attention to what I said two forevers ago?

Hyunjin looked at you in almost disbelief, “Uh- yeah. Yes, I am.”

“Is there a particular genre you write?”

Usually, this was a line of pride for Hyunjin and he had no problem declaring it with his whole chest, but for some reason when you asked him point-blank like that, he felt… 

Was ‘flustered’ the right word because he couldn’t even look you in the eye as he responded.

“I uh- I write intimate stories.”

“You mean like slice of life?”

“Not exactly.”

“Read me one.”

Nobody, and he couldn’t stress this enough, nobody had asked Hyunjin to read one of his stories for them before.

“You um- you might not like it, though.”

“Why would you say that?” you looked at him while feigning the most credible innocence in your eyes as if you hadn’t masturbated to one of his books multiple times in a single night, “Do you write non-fiction?”

“No.”

“Do you write macabre?”

“No.”

“Do you write erotica?”

His instant silence indicated that he indeed fell for your trap. You knowingly smiled at him as you got up to soak your plate in the sink, and whispered in his ear before walking away.

“Just so you know, I fucking love erotica.”

Hyunjin bit his lips with a smile as you made your way inside and followed suit behind you to clear the table. He refreshed your wine glasses and made his way to the couch to sit down right next to you.

“So? You will read for me, right?”

Well, there was one little thing he could read for you among the heaps of stuff he wrote thinking of you. That would just be feeding the finished product back to the source, thus completing the circle of muse. He grabbed his notebook from his studio and sat back down.

“This is not exactly a story per se, but it’s unpublished work and not beta-read, so go easy on me okay?”

Hyunjin was expecting that you would just sit there and listen, but you surprised him for the infinitieth time, and made yourself comfortable on his lap by laying down on his thighs. 

“Does it have a title?”

Hyunjin smiled at your question, “Yes. It’s called Peach.”

It tickled you inside. It was important that Hyunjin didn’t feel like he was being pestered, so you closed your eyes as he began reading to you.

“She is the rarest delicacy anyone could ever indulge in, I could swear my soul on it. The way she walks forms tornadoes after her, destroying anything and everything that’s not worthy. I don’t mind it if she destroys me. I don’t mind it if she tortures me for all eternity as long as she bestows her lips upon me. The only rightful heir to her throne. The only oasis to my deprived soul. The one opiate for my depraved mind. My crown jewel. My muse. My everything.”

There was absolutely nothing obscene about any of the words he just uttered, yet as if it had a mind of its own, your felt your hand reaching down your core almost unbeknownst to you.

“Keep going.”

“Her scent manifests her taste before me. Her smile makes me wanna burn myself. I want to burn myself alive on her skin and die a forever death in her most uninhabited curves, beg for my life back every time she denies me. I know I’m not worthy, but I want to burn this world down to a pile of debris every time she denies me. I long for her taste on my palate. I yearn for her colors on my palette. I need her to drown me in her touch, force me to beg for mercy. I need to feel her all around me.”

“Hyunjin…”

His name spilled like a whisper from your lips, immediately sending a jolt down Hyunjin’s spine, not to mention the movement in his peripheral vision alerting him of what you were actually doing to yourself. He continued with a newfound courage.

“I’m losing sleep over her. I’m losing my mind over her. Every one of my cells ache to touch her, just feel her once to satisfy a lifetime of craving. I want her. I need her. I need her to save me from myself for I’m about to burn myself alive over how terribly I’m pining for her. She’s invading every one of my waking thoughts. She’s penetrating every one of my beautiful nightmares. I don’t know how to live for myself anymore; I’m in so much pain. I have to ravish her soul before I go certifiably insane.”

“Oh, fuck!”

You stopped yourself and snapped your eyes open. You suddenly sat up and let yourself loose on his lips, kissing him so hungrily to shut him to fuck up for you were about to burn yourself alive if he continued. Hyunjin had never been this pleasantly surprised over something before.

“Write one on me.”

“What are you saying, beautiful?”

“Write one on me with your words. Ravish my soul.”

This was the first time Hyunjin witnessed what you looked like when you were overly enthused, sheer desire dripping from your eyes. He gently pushed your chest to signal you to lay back on the couch.

“Let me serve you again.”

Hyunjin was right. He loved you so hard for one night that there was no way you weren’t going to crave him forever. He indeed ruined everybody else for you. For good. All you could think about was how he tasted, how he tasted you, how he asked you to become one with him. He was invading energy single one of your waking thoughts.

The way his tongue moved on your folds was different that night. It wasn’t the slow linear lines he drew not too long ago, but rather all over the place with no address in sight. Vertical stripes, horizontal glides, diagonal slurps with obscene sounds. As if he was spelling something on your pussy.

His name.

“Hyunjin, I’m-”

“Again. Cum for me again.”

Absolutely nothing was as much of a turn on as him. If sex was person, it would be Hyunjin. If lust materialized, it would be Hyunjin. If desire shapeshifted, it would be Hyunjin. Hyunjin, Hyunjin, Hyunjin, the only thing that was enabling you to fuck passion itself.

“God, so fucking wet. So much mess. You liked it that much?” Hyunjin chuckled while kissing your thighs.

While your tremors were receding, Hyunjin collected as much of your juices as you can on his slender fingers to write ‘Mine’ in cursive on your crotch, and then licked it clean with sheer gusto.

“I’m addicted to you, beautiful.”

Then what does that make me? I’m handcuffed to your soul forever.

“I want you to tell me the one thing you want to experience with me,” you told Hyunjin as you caressed his hair, “Just with me. Tell me what you like, Hyunjin.”

“I uh-”

You sat up to kiss him just to mute whatever running commentary was going on in his mind, to give him some encouragement. You had spent only one night together before this, but that one night harbored so many kisses that you had already memorized the way he moaned into your mouth whenever you hugged his lips with yours.

“Whatever it is, it’s not gonna freak me out. Tell me.”

Hyunjin’s soul-piercing gaze was filled with something you had never seen before. It smelled like unadulterated carnality.

“I wanna show you off, beautiful.”

“As in… You want someone to watch us?”

“No, no, not like a direct audience,” Hyunjin shook his head, “I just want people to know how good I’m making you feel. Hear how only I can make you feel that way.”

Your mind was working at overcapacity trying to manifest a way to turn his fantasy into reality because you were overcome with this intense urge to serve him for once. So, he wanted people to know, he wanted people to hear you, but he didn’t want to perform to someone other than you.

“Say, you wanna pay a visit to the hot tub on the rooftop?”

You saw that maniacal glint in Hyunjin’s eyes as his lips parted and consumed yours on cue like you just told him he would die if he didn’t give you the wettest kiss possible on the spot.

“You're a fucking demon. I love it.”

And I love you, my prince. Anything for you.

That kiss didn’t stop within the walls of Hyunjin’s warm beige living room. While waiting for the elevator, while riding to the top, even as you were walking to the rooftop, his lips never left yours like you both were trying to hold onto something to stay afloat.

There was nobody in the rooftop since it was past the lounge hours, which meant a little trespassing needed to take place, but you didn’t mind. It was actually a little thrilling to break some rules with Hyunjin. He grabbed your hand and walked towards the hot tub with neon purple lights inside. You stripped each other bare as the kissing still continued, almost hurting your lips over how swollen they were. He still tasted like you.

“Like what you see?”

“Oh, I love what I see, beautiful. Get in.” 

The summer breeze was not cold per se, but the warm water provided an incredibly delightful sensation nevertheless. You pushed Hyunjin against the edge and signaled him to get up.

“Sit on the edge. Spread your legs for me.”

You kinda understood why Hyunjin kept fixating on your thighs every time he went down on you. The sensitive skin just felt too good against your lips no matter how hard he was clenching them. Judging from the way how you absolutely loved watching him get hard for you like that, he must have felt equally turned on as he watched how wet he was getting you with mere kisses.

“I can’t believe how beautiful you are. Can’t believe you actually want me.”

“How can I not when you’re literally the most erotic thing that ever walked this earth, beautiful?” he tangled his fingers in your hair, “You’re my m—Oh my FUCKING GOD!”

When you wrapped your lips around him at long last, Hyunjin didn’t even bother to keep it quiet. Each time you took him in the warmth of your mouth, he moaned loudly like you were in the privacy of his bedroom. Not to put on a show, but because he genuinely couldn’t suppress it.

“Ah, yes. YES!”

“Tell me how it feels.”

“So good. So fucking good.”

“How about now?”

You encased his girth with your fingers to provide languid strokes as you kept blowing him. Hyunjin was so overwhelmed with pleasure that he threw his head back while yanking at his own hair with one hand.

“Oh, GOD, you’re gonna fucking kill me..”

“Don't lie to me,” you echoed his exact words for you with a smirk, “It doesn’t suit how perfect you are.”

“I’m not! Can't you see how hard I am for you?”

You kept peppering countless kisses around his crotch as you kept stroking him.

“You're so beautiful. You’re like a prince. You’re my prince.”

“Don't say that.”

“But you are. It hurts to look at you.”

“God, I will fucking combust.”

“You wanna do that on my face, don't you?”

You could feel Hyunjin twitch hard in your palm upon those words. You couldn’t possibly real.

“If- if I can?”

“Tell me how much you want it.”

He pulled your head closer to himself as he leaned down to kiss you. He could kiss you for hours if you let him.

“There’s nothing I want more than signing your skin in my name, beautiful. Please let me.”

You looked dead into his eyes as you jerked him off faster and with a tighter grip so that he watch you become the canvas that he always wanted. 

“Oh, fuck, yes. Yes. YES!”

Hyunjin remembered the morning he came really hard on the nude he painted of you. No matter how hyperrealistic his brush strokes were, it could never ever ever compare to the real thing of your strokes squeezing the white paint out of him. He immediately sank down in the warm water while pulling you towards himself, smearing his cum all over your face like it was some goddamn serum to make your skin glow in the dark.

“Again. Let me have you again. Turn around for me.”

You held onto the edge of the tub as Hyunjin got behind you and placed kisses all over your back.

“Arch that perfect ass, beautiful. All the way up for me. There you go.”

He kept admiring you for some time, but it was when he spread your cheeks and saw how wet he was getting you by mere grazes of his teeth on your cheeks, Hyunjin lost complete perspective.

“God, just look at that gloss you put on for me,” he licked a stripe over your entrance, immediately eliciting a moan out of you, “I know. I know, and I'm gonna bury myself to the hilt within you in a second. Just…” he sucked on your folds again, “let me quench my thirst a little.”

You couldn’t help the involuntary chuckle, “You weren't joking about the oral fixation, huh?”

“Not even a little bit,” you could feel him smile into your pussy, “Cum again. Cum for me again.”

As much as you had memorized him, Hyunjin had also learned which route to take around your pussy to get you to cream for him. Gentle sucks. Obscene slurps. Glides on your clit. The louder you moaned, the better. The best at the exact moment you contracted around his tongue. Your loudest. He loved sliding right into you the second you came, so readily letting him in, still throbbing a little and squeezing him within your walls.

“Fuck… me… No one should be allowed to be this sexy. What are you doing to me, beautiful?”

“Fucking jesus- Go hard. Oh god, please go hard! Pass through me.”

You didn’t need to say that twice. As Hyunjin kept ramming into you, he leaned in to suck on your neck.

“You’re gonna be the fucking death of me. Let me see you.”

He turned you around to have you sit on the age and wrapped your legs around him.

“I gotta see your face when I make you feel this good. Hold onto me.”

Hyunjin looked his sexiest whenever he contorted his face due to the utter pleasure you were inducing in him, overloading all his synapses with the thoughts of you only. His moans were everything. His groans were everything. The way he kept cursing under his breath because of you was fucking everything. You couldn’t hold it in any longer and the words just forced themselves out of you.

“Oh GOD, I FUCKING LOVE YOU!”

Hyunjin was momentarily incredulous at what spilled from your lips, eyes widened in thinly veiled shock. The exact words he was longing to hear all this time beyond the realm of his dreams. He quickened his pace and started fucking into you with rougher thrusts as if a whipped cracked on his back.

“Fuck, I love you, beautiful. I’ve been in love with your soul for the longest time.”

You almost died because of his mere words. This couldn’t be real. He couldn’t be real but there you were, the warm night sky being the only blanket covering you, chained to each other’s skin, wrapped up in this voluntary confinement, and all you could feel was excessive passion. When you started clenching around his cock more frequently, Hyunjin realized you were only one nudge away from completely soaking him and slithered his thumb on your clit.

“Ascend me with you. Let’s fly into the night.”

“Kiss me,” you grabbed his criminally beautiful face and pressed your forehead on his, “Kiss me when you make me cum.”

“Who else can make you soar like that?”

“No one.”

“Say it loud and clear for everyone to hear.”

“It’s you, Hyunjin.”

“Say my name again. Louder this time.”

“Hyunjin!”

“Again, beautiful. Who do you belong to?”

“HYUNJIN!”

“Clench harder. Oh, FUCK!”

Hyunjin unleashed himself on your lips as you sank your fingertips into his back, pressing him closer to you to invade some of the cells that made you you. Becoming one with him while he unloaded himself into you was not enough - you needed to become him. He needed to become you. You needed to constantly declare war on each other’s existence, and battle over occupying the exact same space. It wasn’t a want; it was an absolute necessity that laid at the bottom of your most basic cravings. Hyunjin let you ride the waves of your orgasm to the shore of the solace of his embrace and get some rest in his arms as you caught your breath.

“I love you. I love you, beautiful,” he kept kissing your hair, ”I’ll keep loving you even after I die, I swear.”

There was only one matter that Hyunjin needed to take care of, and then you could finally be happy together for however long forever was.

“Welcome! Jay, was it?”

Hyunjin’s personal fansign for his alleged die-hard fan at his place. His place that even you didn’t know about. His cabin in the woods that he would most certainly like to bring you some day. During winter maybe. To make love to you in front of his fireplace until the morning while the moonlight bouncing off the sea functioned as the perfect blanket.

But that was neither here nor there at that moment.

“I apologize for living so far away from the city. The inspiration fairies only seem to visit me in this place. Here, let me,” Hyunjin flashed a warm smile and grabbed the bag containing his books from his guest’s hands.

“Oh, please, it’s more than fine!” Jay walked towards the brown leather couches, “It’s not like I walked here.”

Hyunjin sat down in front of the sofa across him and opened the cover of the first book to sign it.

“Who do I make this out to? Is there an inscription you’d like?”

Jay thought to himself for a brief moment and couldn’t help the bashful smile adorning his lips.

“To Y/N. Don’t be afraid to go outside in hurricanes.”

Oh, you fucking did not.

Hyunjin chuckled over the subtle message, “I remember you saying this was for a friend of yours, but seems like you're harboring a little more than friendly feelings, my friend,” he inscribed the book as requested, “Are we crushing maybe?”

“I uh- I wouldn't want to bother you with my mundane life.”

“Oh, please! I love listening to people's stories. Free muse, you know?” he got up to his feet, “It does require some drinks, though. You're cool with scotch?”

“Sure!”

“Tell me all about it,” he came back from his bar, handed the glass to Jay, and listened to him ramble on and on about you patiently until he started spewing his lungs out on the varnished floor.

There were a lot of different ways people enjoyed a glass of scotch. Some liked it neat, some liked it on the rocks, some liked it with a twist. Hyunjin, on the other hand, loved serving it with the sublest notes of arsenic to the people who didn’t know their place.

It has a zest to it that lemon just does not have.

Pity. He indeed seemed like a nice guy who just happened to be after the wrong things. Decent looking, too. Could have made someone really happy some day.

But not you, beautiful.

Hyunjin walked out to his favorite spot right in front of the house overlooking the sea. He inhaled as much iodine as he could fill his lungs with and proceeded to prepare the fire pit that he just loved listening to the crackles of during deep summer nights. Once everything was in its place, he began the cremation ceremony because everybody was deserving of respect when it came to matters of life and death. As the body kept burning in the pit, Hyunjin calmly watched the sea stretching below the cliff from the porch swing for a long time with a smile on his face and a drink in his hand. Arsenic-free. He had always liked his scotch neat.

“Nothing like a bonfire in this weather,” he heaved a content sigh. He felt like waking up from a dream when his phone rang.

“Hey beautiful!”

“Hey, baby! I was just wondering if you'd like to have dinner together tonight?”

Hyunjin broke into an even bigger smile.

“I'd love to!”

“Oh, good! Anything you're in the mood of?”

“You,” he mischievously chuckled into the receiver and you reciprocated the snicker.

“You know what I mean, Hyunjin.”

“I have this sudden craving for teppenyaki,” Hyunjin looked at the fire on the brink of dying out, “Can I take you out tonight?”

“Of course, but you're not paying for anything. I'm the one who proposed this dinner after, all.”

“As long as dessert is included.”

You cackled on the other end of the line, “You know it does. Could you bring a jacket if you’re home? It’s a little chilly tonight. I’ll go straight to the restaurant from here.”

Hyunjin dreamily sighed over how much he missed you already.

“Anything for you, beautiful. I’ll see you soon.”

AUTHOR'S NOTE

🍮Like my content? Consider supporting my work with a pudding!

Welcome to the second installment of the insanity marathon! As always, I really appreciate you being here (✿◠‿◠) I think by now we've firmly established I am unable to write a Hyunjin that's not the smooth-talking suave motherfucker prince. If you enjoyed this story, please feel free to yell at me in reblogs, tags, or in my inbox. I tremendously enjoy it! (●'◡'●)

Regarding updates: I had initially announced that I was going to post a story every Monday until Halloween, but considering the current obligations of my life and the volume of the stories, it doesn't seem very likely. There will still be eight stories posted (hopefully) by Halloween, but let's not expect military precision on the updates ^^' Once again, thank you so much for tagging along!

-R. (CB97%)

«GENERAL MASTERLIST» · «ABOUT/FAQ» · «ASK/REQUEST» · «TREAT ME TO PUDDING?🍮»

🔖Story taglist: @j-0ne25 ; @seospicybin ; @ballelino ; @bitethejeekies ; @whatudowhennooneseesyou ; @some-stray-marvel ; @fixation-dump ; @heartsarecompatible ; @woooooya ; @streetlight-s ; @staaa96 ; @rainydayrecs ; @rachagen ; @3no-racha ; @honeyedtalisman ; @javachipchan ; @changbinheart ; @luhvrchxn ; @she-wintersoldat ; @elizalabs3 ; @qnjayn ; @feuille-et-pain ; @yutaalove ; @chvnnie

📌Permanent taglist: @sai-kida134 ; @ughbehavior ; @bearseungmin ; @skywarriorkirby ; @sunnyville36 ; @hh0320 (@hwan-g) ; @svintsandghosts ; @jl-micasea-fics ; @skz317cb97 ; @abiaswreck ; @skyminniesworld ; @clearlyissleeping ; @changbinluvr ; @lotus-dly ; @gibbysupremeacyisreal ; @lomllino ; @emogril ; @imsuchasimp00 ; @idunnomanmynamewastaken ; @seosalad ; @downforseochangbin ; @nabis-dreamscape-world ; @bangchanbabygirlx ; @janvibutbetter ; @danyxthirstae01 , @sunshinyminho , @gold-dragon-slayer ; @oiphoebe

↬you accidentally send a nude to another member.

pairing: ot8 x reader

genre: humor (if you find me funny lol)

a/n: helloo, it's been a while and i missed writing these silly lil reactions. i used this prompt for another fandom years ago and while i was looking for something to write i was like YOU KNOW WHAT it'd be so much fun to write skz's reaction to this lol. i hope you guys enjoy and if you do please let me know! (also i want you all to picture han's scream in get lit for his slide bye)

𝐝𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐥'𝐬 𝐤𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬' 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐲 | 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝟔.𝟑

SYNOPSIS: Just when you think that everything has fallen back into place as it was before, a twist of fate leads you to be thrown into a shocking revelation, one that results in the breach of trust once more, and this time, the damage is completely irreversible. Being broken beyond repair, you agreed to embark on a new journey for the sake of your sanity, burying the bittersweet yet painful memories in the wreckage of your mind. But perhaps there is another twist from fate that you won't be expecting in the midst of your new blissful journey.

PAIRING: non!idols enha hyung line x fem!reader

GENRE: 18+ (mdni), semi-college au, adulthood, reverse harem, dark themes.

WARNINGS: mild smuts, implied threesomes, explicit themes, profanities, heavy angst, violence, blood, manipulation, corruption, toxicity, mentions of sex tapes, lots of crying, slut-shaming, cyber bullying, depression, mentions of suicide, mentions of death.

WORD COUNT: 23.5k

FEATURING: enha maknae line, txt, stray kids, le sserafim, ive, aespa.

DISCLAIMER: this fic is inspired by devil's night series written by penelope douglas! also, i am not a Christian, and i didn't bother to do thorough research on the religion, so pardon any false facts or errors.

PLAYLIST: supernatural - Ariana Grande, breathin - Ariana Grande, Close To You - Gracie Abrams, I Hate It Here - Taylor Swift, Lose You To Love Me - Selena Gomez, Softcore - The Neighbourhood, 3 Strikes - Terror Jr, You Broke Me First - Tate McRae, Beautiful Mistakes - Maroon 5 ft. Megan Thee Stallion, Lovesick Girls - BLACKPINK

RUBY'S NOTE: yall are most prob gonna hate me after this....

PART 1, PART 2, PART 3.1, PART 3.2, PART 4, PART 5, PART 6.1, PART 6.2, PART 7 ✘ SERIES MASTERLIST ✘

The faint sound of water running and the coldness from the air conditioner kissing your foot rouses you from the deep slumber, sending shivers through your body as it aches tremendously with every single movement you make, and just like that, the event that transpired before you lost consciousness instantly replays itself in your mind.

You force your heavy eyelids to pry open, only to squint at the luminance casting a gentle glow that allows you to see the unfamiliar suite you have been sleeping in. The bedding beneath your nude body doesn’t feel as drenched as you recall, to which your cheeks warm with the shade of faint pink at the uncountable times you’ve squirted, but it does seem that they’ve moved you to a different suite for you to sleep comfortably.

Even if their thoughtful consideration does make your heart flutter, it doesn’t expunge your disappointment at having awakened without any of them in bed with you. Determined to search for them, you move your aching limb slowly as you lift the fleecy duvet from your body, only for you to gasp softly upon seeing fresh hickeys across the expanse of your chest.

You barely manage to wrap this sight around your head when the door suddenly swings open, eliciting a squeal from you as you quickly shield your nudity with the duvet, your widened eyes staring at Jake, whose charming countenance has amusement written all over.

“Don’t act all shy on me now, sweetheart.” Jake muses, a simper smile spreading across his face as he strides towards you. Your eyes roam around him with the butterflies in their wake, admiring how gorgeous he looks in a man bun again while donning a simple tank top that displays his prominent muscles. “It’s nothing I haven’t seen before. Besides, you weren’t this shy last night.”

“It’s different.” You retort, still clinging to the duvet as you slowly force your body to rise, but you cave in to your exhaustion once more as you fall back on the mattress, while the sight of you pouting and giving him your doe eyes greatly amuses him. “I’m sore, Jaeyun, and it’s all of your faults.”

“I know. That’s why I’m here.” Jake says with a mirthful chuckle, bending down to slide his arms underneath your body after you hesitantly expose your nudity to him before he carries you with ease and brings you to the bathroom, where the door has been left open ever since.

“Where are the others?” Just as you ask him, your eyes trail over to a shirtless Jay, who has been filling the massive bathtub. Your eyes manage to feast upon his glory as he faces you before noticing the look in your eyes that brings a smirk to his lips.

“Slept well, baby?” You nod your head meekly, shying away as Jay’s eyes feel invasive in the way they roam around your nudity, with Jake stopping in front of him. Goosebumps arise on your skin as Jay caresses your calf. “Damn, baby. You look good with our marks on your body.” He says huskily, leaning down to press a sensual kiss on your leg.

“She does, doesn’t she?” Jake looks down at you with a suggestive smirk, sending your heart to leap as you recognise the familiar desire glinting in his eyes. “You don’t mind us joining you in the bathtub, sweetheart?”

“No.” Even if you did mind, it isn’t like you have a choice, considering his tone indicates no room for objections as he carefully settles you in the water-filled bathtub. As your body fully dips, the perfect temperature of the water draws out a pleasurable sigh from you as the warmness seems to alleviate the soreness in every part of your body.

“Just no funny business. I can’t handle another round.” You tell them and look away as they get rid of their shorts, your cheeks flushing pink. You attempt to scoot further just as they dip themselves into the bathtub, but Jay grabs a hold of your legs and pulls you to him while the abrupt movement causes the water to ripple violently as it splashes.

“Yeah, you can, because you’re just that perfect for us.” Jay coos as you feel his hands spreading your legs wide and positioning them over his thighs, while your breath hitches at the thick sensation of Jake’s girth pressing against your lower back as he settles behind you, his hands seizing your hips to press himself into you.

“I thought we were just going to take a bath.” You gasp at the intrusion of Jay’s fingers wiggling their way into your sopping cunt while Jake’s fingers stimulate your clit, arousing the bundle of nerves to go aflame.

“We are, but you look so fucking good, angel.” Jay murmurs as he leans down to capture your nipple with his ravenous mouth, eliciting a moan from you at the sensitivity and causing you to arch your back with your lidded eyes swirling with a haze of lust.

“Feels good, love?” Jake asks lowly, his husky voice only seems to amplify your raging arousal in your core, while his gentle ministration on your clit is a skillful precision that has your eyes rolling to the back, working in an addictive tandem with Jay’s fingers into your cunt.

“So good.” You moan out softly, your head going dizzy at how gentle they are with you as they take their time in pleasuring you, causing you to grip Jake’s thigh next to you while your other hand goes winding in Jay’s slightly dampened hair as he continues to give equal attention to your nipples and kiss around your mounts.

“M-More, please.” Just as you plead, Jake seizes your jaw to turn your head sideways and captures your lips in a passionate kiss that has your toes curling, while Jay traces his tongue across your skin and finds its way to dominate his licks and kisses on your neck.

Jake greedily swallows your moan and holds down your twitching body as soon as you feel Jay’s fingers curling and hitting the familiar g-spot. “That’s your spot, yeah?” Jay rasps against your moist skin, his fingers relentlessly thrusting into you while you struggle to rock your hips, wanting to feel him deeply.

“Come on, sweet angel.” Jake is just as relentless as Jay, his fingers rubbing your clit with a sense of urgency while the overall stimulation hurls you at the precipice of your impending climax.

Switching roles, Jay turns your head to smash his lips into yours, silencing your moans and kissing you sloppily, while Jake reaches up to roll and pinch your perky nipple with his fingers. The water around you ripples violently as it splashes onto the tiles from their hands with their biceps muscles flexing.

With one precise yet hard thrust from Jay’s fingers alongside Jake pinching your clit, you break the kiss as you lean your head back on to Jake’s broad shoulder with a loud moan leaving your lips, feeling your pulsating cunt release the familiar fluid as you squirt.

“Damn, baby, you squirt so easily. I fucking love that.” Jay groans, pumping his fingers into your gushing cunt while his lips ghost your panting lips. “Think you can handle our cocks like last night?”

“No, please, no.” You whimper, shaking your head languidly in protest, but you can’t deny the persisting arousal in your core as Jake rubs your sensitive clit again.

“Yes, sweetheart. You can handle us.” Jake nips at the shell of your earlobe, his voice lacing with unmistakable affection. “Because that’s how perfect you are for us.”

As soon as you feel the swollen head of Jay’s cock gliding across your slits, there is no doubt that you will be in here with them for an hour or so.

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Embarrassment floods across your cheeks while you avoid having to make eye contact with the bustling professional crew members in your vicinity as you slowly make your way to the top, recalling Jay’s words earlier to meet them there, but your sore legs impede you from walking as normally as you can. Thankfully, these crew members seem to disregard you, as they are immersive in their jobs.

“Princess.” Sunghoon’s deep voice next to your ear startles you, nearly sending you to tumble forward if it weren’t for his hands steadying your body. Butterflies swarm around at the sensation of his lips kissing your bare shoulder as you are adorned in your previous short sundress. “Is my pretty princess having a hard time walking?”

“Sunghoon.” You murmur, your rosy cheeks feel warmer, and you feel conscious of your eyes looking at the two of you being blatantly intimate out in the open with his arms caging your waist and his lips peppering kisses on your exposed skin. “Not here, please.”

Obliging, Sunghoon takes you by surprise as he manoeuvres you in a bridal style, prompting you to latch your arms around his neck instinctively and flushing red at the eyes of the crew members on you as Sunghoon, with the most nonchalant demeanour, proceeds to make his way towards the flight of stairs with you in his arms.

“Where are the other guests? Or is it just us?” You inquire after the realisation of your prior observation and even notice that the other three yachts are not anywhere in sight as soon as you reach the top, where Jay, Heeseung, and Jake are lounging on the couches.

“They’ve gone back to the marina while you were still asleep earlier. So it’s only us, princess.” Sunghoon says, casting you a smirk as he heads over to his best friends. “Don’t worry about your friends. They were more than fine when I told them about you staying here a little longer with us.”

Reaching them, diffidence washes over you at their full attention, causing you to look away from them with your rosy cheeks warming as you remain shy away from them, and it is even flabbergasting when Sunghoon decides to settle you down on Heeseung’s lap.

Before you can even move, Heeseung’s arms cage around your waist, preventing you from any form of escape. Your heart pounds harder against your chest as Heeseung plants a sensual kiss on your exposed nape, while his bulge beneath your buttocks feels prominent with each passing moment. Your eyes follow Sunghoon’s figure as he walks over to Jake and settles across from him, just next to the couch that you are on.

“Pretty girl.” Heeseung lulls captivate your attention on him, his lips ghosting your skin across your shoulder while you remain transfixed, your eyes meeting Jay’s from across you, whose lips curve into a smirk as he is completely laid-back on the couch, watching you with a burning cigarette stick in between his fingers.

“Seungie.” You whisper, your pulse drumming in your ear as you feel his fingers tracing circles on your inner thigh, dangerously close to your core, and his lips planting a wet kiss on your shoulder. 

Heeseung hums against your shoulder, sending vibrations through you. “Hungry, my beloved? We have plenty of food to feed you.” With one arm remaining locked around your waist, he uses the other to reach out for a fork and stab it into a grilled sausage before giving it to you. “Eat as much as you want, pretty.”

“What about you?” You direct your question to all of them, feeling self-conscious of their eyes staring at you before you try your utmost to ignore them and proceed to indulge your grumbling hunger.

“We’ve eaten while you were busy getting ready.” Jay says after puffing out the grey as it wafts in the air. “If you want more, we can ask the kitchen crew to cook some more.”

“It’s fine. I don’t want to be greedy.” You reassure him with a small smile, your eyes darting down on the table at the nearly full platters of a variety of food that have your mouth salivating. After the energy that was lost last night, this is very much needed for you.

The next few minutes or so, the four of them engage in a collective conversation about something that you don’t bother to be curious about, especially since you are too preoccupied stuffing yourself with the delectable food, and almost half of the platters are now empty.

Throughout the whole time, Heeseung occasionally gives you affectionate kisses on your shoulder in the middle of their occurring conversation with his fingers caressing your inner thigh, which feels oddly comforting. Eventually, you lax and allow yourself to lean back into him, earning yourself a kiss on the cheek from him.

For a moment, you silently bask in this newfound sense of tranquilly of being surrounded by these four dangerous men with distinctive dark allures, unfurling a discreet yet soft smile on your lips and feeling the love you have for them in your beating yet fluttery heart.

But then, a certain recollection shatters the tranquilly, bringing a frown to your lips. Though you no longer feel resentful towards them, a part of you nudges you to exercise prudence, wanting to know if they still keep them.

“Can I ask you something?” You speak up, your tone drawing their attention to you as they desist from their conversation. You bite down your lip unintentionally, causing their eyes to darken at the sight, but they abstain themselves upon seeing your face conveying a certain sombre.

“What’s wrong, princess?” Sunghoon decides to put an end to your resounding silence, prompting you to look up to see the encouragement on their faces as well as Heeseung’s comforting caress on your thigh.

“Tell us.” Heeseung’s breath tickles you as he whispers in your ear. “What is bothering our sweet angel? Hmm?”

“It’s about the pictures and videos you took of me at the church.” You blurt out before you can even stop yourself to reevaluate your decision. Your eyes remain fixated on the table, uncertain of what expressions they display in their demeanour, but you can feel Heeseung’s arms around you tighten. “Please, I want you to delete them─”

“They’ve been deleted.” Heeseung interjects, his mellow voice a soothing balm to your frayed nerves, and yet you can discern something so guileful that belies his benign disposition, but Heeseung allays your qualm as he presses a deep, affectionate kiss on your cheek. “You don’t have to worry about them anymore, pretty girl.”

“Yeah, they’ve already been deleted since you left the palace that night.” Jake adds, wanting to ease your perturbing state of mind upon seeing your expression, before he quickly shoots knowing glares at Jay and Sunghoon. “Isn’t that right, guys?”

“Oh, totally.” Jay places his empty glass on the table, his emphatic eyes meeting yours that convey such assurance amidst the palpable adoration he always has for you. “We didn’t want you to be mad at us any longer, so we did what you wanted.”

“Sunghoon?” Heeseung clears his throat, drawing all of your attention to the silent male who seems to be brooding. Your eyes follow the taut movement of his chiselled jaw clenching while his eyes remain fixated on the breathtaking horizon.

“Dude.” Jake calls for his best friend in a low murmur as he raises his eyebrow at the latter, and you notice that there seems to be unspoken conversation exchanging between them by the look in their eyes.

Sunghoon draws in a sharp inhalation before turning to the side to direct his attention to you, but seeing your expectant eyes that hold such innocence causes his tainted heart to clench while his jaw tightens for another measure.

Still, Sunghoon musters the most sincere smile he can, hoping that he’s not grimacing in the slightest to give away suspicion. “Yes, princess. You can rest assured that they’ve been deleted. Now you don’t have to worry about your pretty head, yeah?”

“Thank you.” You breathe out the remnants of tension, giving them a soft smile that oddly gives them a sense of guilt while their demeanour remains neutral. You turn your head to press a soft kiss at the corner of Heeseung’s lips, to which he smirks lightly at your rare display of affection in front of the guys.

“So did you manage to find your phone that went, apparently, mysteriously missing last night?” Jake shifts the air of conversation to another topic, his question directed at Sunghoon as the latter downs his glass of tequila.

“Yeah, I did. It was placed back where it was originally.” Sunghoon fishes out his phone from his pocket, scoffing in disbelief as he recalls. “It was more than obvious that it went missing on purpose. Whoever took it must’ve thought that I wouldn’t notice or something. Fucking stupid.”

“Probably it was Kang, who obviously had his other rebellion to fuck things further.” Jay’s eyes go ablaze with an unmistakable anger, sending shivers down your spine. But confusion swirls in your head, because the only Kangs on campus you know are you and Kang Taehyun.

“Right. Speaking of, pretty love?” Jake’s tone shifts into a familiar affection as he calls out to you, causing your heart to swell as you meet his adoring eyes. “Thanks to Sunoo and Riki’s assistance, we’ve finally discovered the identity of your anonymous texter.”

“We were right about putting him as our first suspect after the remark he made.” Sunghoon’s tone is dripping with venom, causing you to feel the instinctive need to recoil, but as if sensing your disquietude, Heeseung presses his lips on the back of your shoulder with a familiar reverence. “There is no doubt that he was one of the responsible ones behind the incident.”

“Who is he?” You ask, your heart thrumming in anticipation with dread crawling on your skin. Somehow,  you fear hearing their answer.

They exchange meaningful glances before Jay decides to reveal, “Kang Taehyun.”

It is as though needles are piercing into your bleeding heart while you remain frigid, your eyes widening in the slight fractions. You refuse to believe that the guy who had been nothing but amiable to you based on your past encounter with him is your anonymous texter, but the sombre casting shadows across their countenance counter otherwise.

“But why?” You begin to voice out your muddling thoughts, a frown tugging at your lips. “Why would he want to squander his time to pull off something like that? And what are his motives? I thought he was nice.”

“Yes, we’ve been wondering the same, but unfortunately, he didn’t attend the party last night, so we found another alternative.” Sunghoon says before looking at Jay with a smirk that denotes purpose, which strikes a curiosity in you. “Bring him up here.”

“Him? Who?” You ask with your eyes, following Jay until he descends the stairs, your eagerness eliciting endearing chuckles from them. You huff lightly, your eyes narrowing at them. “It isn’t funny. I genuinely want to find out why Taehyun did what he did and if he really was the one behind the incident.”

“We do too, but we couldn’t get him, so we got his best friend instead.” Jake wears a mirthful grin, yet his eyes gleam with depravity that sends an unpleasant shiver through you. But wait, his best friend?

On cue, the sound of steps ascending to the rooftop shifts your attention towards the source, and alas, Jay returns with a certain someone that has your heart nearly falling to the pit of your stomach while your eyes widen in bewilderment. 

Surely, he can’t be Taehyun’s accomplice, even if they are best friends. Just like Taehyun, he has been nothing but nice and kind towards you, with an air of amiability that often radiates from him.

As you examine the state he is in, a grimace etches on your face, feeling bad for him. He looks like he has been through hell ─ there is a cut on his bottom lip, a faint bruise at the corner of his right eye, and his lidded eyes keep fluttering, almost as though he is half asleep. You shudder at the thought of their violence, and you have an inkling that they decided to show mercy on him instead.

Without any ounce of mercy, Jay forces him down to his knees before standing behind him, and that is when you finally notice the metal baseball bat that Jay has been clutching from the moment they arrived.

“Sorry for the damage on your face.” Jake does not sound the slightest remorseful, cruelty shines through his smirk as his dark eyes penetrate into him. “But you do realise that it is natural for us to assume that you’re Taehyun’s accomplice.”

“No hard feelings, Choi.” Sunghoon says, leaning back leisurely as he brings his half-filled glass of Bourbon to his smirking lips. “I’m sure you’ll understand why we’re doing this. Besides, things have always been similarly done this way.”

“Let’s get straight to the point.” Heeseung’s flinty voice cuts through the crisp air, nearly causing you to cower, but you can barely move when his arms tighten around your waist like steel. “What are Kang Taehyun’s motives, Choi Beomgyu?

Beomgyu spits the blood out of his mouth, breathing raggedly while his eyes flicker at you, but you look away from him, unable to see the state he is in, even if he is Taehyun’s accomplice. “I fucking told you that I didn’t know anything.”

“You’re lying.” Jake tuts, his head tilting to one side while his smirk widens. “Choose your next words carefully, or your own house leader will show you no mercy.”

“Come on, Choi. We don’t have all day.” Sunghoon heaves a sigh as he rises from the couch to make his way to you, only to caress your cheek lovingly. “Don’t keep us waiting. We still have the remaining time to spend on our girl.”

“Your girl?” Beomgyu nearly growls out, earning inquisitive eyebrow raises from the four leaders.

Sunghoon taunts him with a smirk on his lips before seizing your chin to force you to look at Beomgyu in the eyes. Your breath hitches at the predatory glint in his eyes fleetingly before something entirely different, almost like a face, casts over his features.

“Yes. Our girl.” Sunghoon finds great delight in flaunting you to Beomgyu. “Your best friend should’ve known better than to fuck around with our sweet angel, and now you will be the one to face the consequence instead since your best friend didn’t show up.”

“It was almost as if he knew that we were already onto him.” Jay swings the baseball bat mindlessly, and yet you can see how he seems to be handling it in a professional way. “So what’s it going to be, Choi? Are you going to tell us the truth, or do I have to beat the truth out of you?”

“I’m telling you guys the truth! I don’t know what his motives are or why he did it!” Beomgyu finally snaps, veins protruding in his neck, while there is a genuine plea of desperation in his conveyance to prove his innocence. “I didn’t even know that he had been texting Y/N through anonymity! It isn’t my fault for not having the slightest clue that he had been a freak!”

“Are you guys buying any of this?” Sunghoon inquires, looking at his best friends. “No? I’m the only one, then?”

“Yeah, I don’t believe him either. Well, there goes your chance, Choi.” Jay smirks as he raises his metal baseball bat with the intention of swinging it to his back, but you can’t stand for such violence, even if they are in the wrong.

And so, against your better judgement, you stop Jay. “Don’t!” Your preventative exclamation earns you disbelieving stares from the four of them, whereas Beomgyu looks at you as though you are his guardian angel, but you ignore his gaze. “Just please, don’t hurt him.”

“Oh, but we do, pretty.” Heeseung whispers darkly in your ear, his arms tightening around you with each passing second. “I know you don’t like seeing violence, so either you’re going to look away or I’ll close your eyes for you.”

“There is no need for violence because I believe him.” You assert yourself strongly, despite your unwavering resolve. As you return your gaze to Beomgyu, you can see the stark sincerity in the way his eyes glisten. “He’s telling the truth. He doesn’t know anything about Taehyun’s doing.”

Heeseung refrains from displaying his frustration towards you. “Beloved─”

“You trust me, right?” You turn your head to meet Heeseung’s steely eyes, and he softens at the firm resolution hardening in your eyes. “Then trust me on this. Beomgyu is innocent. Besides, when we get back, you guys can confront Taehyun instead. He’s the bad guy, not Beomgyu.”

“Thank you, Y/N.” Beomgyu speaks to you softly, but Heeseung only seems to get angrier in the way his hold on you feels dangerously possessive. Beomgyu offers you a faint smile, but you quickly look away from him, uncertain why your turmoil persists even after your declaration of his innocence. “You were always the nicer one.”

Jay clenches his jaw, as does his clutch on the baseball bat. “That’s it. We’ll throw him out into the ocean and feed him to the sharks.”

“Jay!” You exclaim in disbelief, but Jay simply ignores you as he looks at his best friends for expectant agreement.

“Heeseung, I thought you were my close friend.” Beomgyu begins to speak up, his tone is filled with bitterness, while his glaring eyes glisten with betrayal that you know too well. “Out of all people, you should’ve been the one to believe in my innocence. You know that I would never do anything to betray you.”

Heeseung tightens his jaw, feeling a foreign emotion hitting him in the gut. Although Beomgyu is not exactly his best friend, Heeseung regards the male as his only close friend whom he trusts other than the three of his best friends. Heeseung has always felt a profound sense of camaraderie since the day when Beomgyu was a new student enrolled in the second semester and the latter needed help in understanding one of the modules, which he was more than glad to provide him.

A tinge of guilt in his chest ─ that’s what has been churning unpleasantly in him, and fuck, he has never felt such sentiment. Heeseung heaves a sigh, caving into the sentiment, which throws the others off guard with his change of heart. “Like what Y/N said. Beomgyu’s innocent. We can confront Taehyun once we head back.”

Knowing that neither of them can do anything to persuade Heeseung whenever he has made up his mind, they acquiesce, but that doesn’t mean that they completely trust Beomgyu. No, they’re doing this because of you. Their faith and devotion to you are parallel to the newfound trust they have in you.

“Get one of the crew members to attend to him.” Heeseung orders, to which Jay grabs Beomgyu’s arm to assist him in getting back on his feet while Jake makes his way towards them.

“Consider yourself lucky that Y/N is able to see through you, or else you would’ve met your demise along with your best friend.” Jake speaks venomously to Beomgyu, who has his head lowered as both Jake and Jay assist him, leaving you alone with Sunghoon and Heeseung.

Just like that, the sizzling tension dissipates, replaced by something that feels rather titillating, especially in the way Heeseung begins to trail wet kisses across your shoulder while Sunghoon cradles the back of your head to tilt it up for him to kiss you squarely on the lips.

With Heeseung’s fingers tracing dangerously close to your core, your stomach feels taut in anticipation, causing you to mewl into the messy yet heated kiss against Sunghoon’s lips.

“We can’t, not here.” You gasp as soon as Sunghoon pulls away from your lips, feeling Heeseung’s fingers slithering underneath your underwear to rub your clit tantalisingly. “Someone might come up and see us.”

“Then we’ll be giving them a show as we reenact last night’s event.” Sunghoon smirks down at you, seeing as you struggle to refrain moans from escaping as you arch in Heeseung’s magic touch. “I know you love the idea of someone else watching you get fucked by us. Nasty girl, aren’t you?”

“N-No!” You cover your mouth with your palm after an accidental moan manages to escape you at the sensation of the padding of his fingers rubbing your clit with skilful precision, but Sunghoon grabs your wrist to prevent you from covering the sweet sound, rendering you helpless between these two men.

“Pretty girl is so fucking wet.” Heeseung scoffs out a smirk, his fingers moving at an unrelenting pace, before he abruptly comes to a stop, eliciting a whine from you. He seizes your jaw, turns your head for access, and captures your lips in a searing kiss.

“You’re going to take our cocks again, pretty girl.” Heeseung rasps against your lips, smirking as you whine softly into the kiss. “Damn right, we’re going to fuck you right here and now.”

“Scream all you want. We’re not done with you until you satisfy us.” Sunghoon stands in front of you as he slowly unzips his pants, smirking down at you. “Now be a good girl and open that sweet mouth of yours, princess.”

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The once-bleak atmosphere that permeated every part of the palace has been enlivened by your arrival three days ago upon your agreement to return to the palace that you have missed roaming around uninhibitedly, but it seems that it has missed you too, because your mere yet jaunty presence often brings life to this magnificent yet lonely palace.

Eventually, the five of you have returned to a familiar normalcy, falling into the normal routine of either of them barging into your room to wake you up and taking turns to sleep with you despite having their own rooms to seek slumber, amongst other routines of which involved getting immensely physical, but other than that, everything else is normal.

Though your best friends remain sceptical of the leaders, they seem to be slowly accepting that the leaders have now become a major part of your life. The guys, on the other hand, are not exactly fond of your best friends either, but they refuse to restrain you even when their possessiveness adamantly desires to keep you all to themselves. Well, what matters most to them is that, as long as there are no guys in your vicinity unnecessarily,.

They can’t imagine how many pairs of eyes they would need to gauge out for daring to look your way, especially when you are dolled up all gorgeously in a simple purple crop top and a white pleated skirt that reaches way above your thighs, displaying your legs they find extremely alluring while you are busily applying mascara in the vanity mirror.

Apparently, there is a massive funfair that is organised by your own university, and it is not only open to its students but to the public as well. Initially, you had no plans on going and would like to spend the night with the guys, but upon the relentless persuasion from your best friend through calls and texts, you eventually acquiesced.

“So? What do you think?” You ask chirpily, redirecting your focus on them as you do a little twirl, allowing your skirt to flare while the sight of you in your own little world amuses them. You look over at each of them for their responses.

Heeseung is standing by the doorway, leaning sideways against the frame with his arms folded across his chest. Jay, who has been a pleasant help in choosing your outfit, is seated by the window sill with a cigarette stick rolled between his fingers. Sunghoon and Jake are lounging on your bed, their hands mindlessly playing with your plushies in their lap.

Warmth weaves across your cheeks as their eyes are filled with unmistakable adoration yet arousing lust. Right, it feels odd to you that they seem more than comfortable being openly and blatantly intimate with you in front of each other, despite the occasional passing jealousy that doesn’t go unnoticed by you. Nevertheless, you can’t deny the fact that you love having their undivided attention.

“Our girl looks beautiful, just as she always does.” Jake shoots you a boyish grin, putting aside your plushie to clasp his hands together and lean his head on the back of his palm.

“Jake’s right. I’m glad I chose the outfit for you.” Jay says, his dark eyes raking all over you while a smirk plays on his lips. “But you’d look even better without them, baby.”

“You’ve read my mind.” Sunghoon exchanges chuckles and smirks with Jay, causing you to roll your eyes at them before tying a mini side braid on your hair to enhance your overall look. “Roll your eyes again, and I’ll give them something else to roll from, princess.” You huff lightly in response.

“Pretty girl, are you sure you want to go?” Heeseung inquires for another time, and his worry is evident in the mellowness in his voice. “We won’t be coming to the fair, you know?”

“What? Why?” You jut your lips into a pout and look over to him. “But I dressed up prettily for you.”

“You are always pretty, my beloved.” Heeseung ambles towards you, his lips unfurling a small smile before it falters. “But we have some unfinished business to settle with Taehyun.”

“Apparently, he went back to his hometown, but Jungwon told us that he’s back. So it’ll make our job easier since we know where his apartment is.” Sunghoon informs, his eyes softening at your crestfallen countenance. “You’ll be okay, princess.”

“Yeah, and if we finish our business with spare time left, we’ll come to the fun fair and be sure to find you.” Jake reassures you with his boyish grin again, sending flutters to your heart. 

“Okay.” You reciprocate with a soft smile before it turns sheepish, your eyes fleetingly dart at the four familiar yet distinct masks laid out on your vanity table. “Now, can we please take a picture before I go?”

You have been meaning to snap an individual picture with them and post them on Instagram story as it has been more than awhile since you last posted something. Plus, you are not ashamed to admit that you have developed something that is borderline obsession or perhaps even kink whenever you fantasise about them wearing their mask as they send you into a state of ecstasy.

“Princess, must we do this?” Sunghoon groans, obviously reluctant but nevertheless, he complies with your wish, making his way towards the vanity table to grab his designated mask. He looks at it for a good minute before casting you a suggestive smirk. “You know, we should definitely try fucking with our masks on.” He drawls attractively, moving closer to you with a seductive purpose while butterflies swarm in your tummy.

But you refuse to ruin your makeup and clothes, and so you shoot him a scowl before pushing him in the chest gently away from you. “Not a chance.”

It isn’t long before Heeseung, who insists on going first, adorns the white mask as he sits on the chair before pulling you down on his lap, eliciting a startled squeal from you as you instinctively hook your arm around his neck, enjoying the closeness a little more than you intended. His arm slithers its way around your waist while he faces the vanity mirror, watching as you proceed to snap a picture of the two of you with a dimpled smile.

Giggling as something so delightful bubbles in your chest, you slowly get off his lap before looking away from your phone to meet their eyes. “My next mask, man, please.”

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The luminescences deriving from the resplendent fairground lightings, which encompass the stupendous funfair, illumine towards the starless empyrean above the multitude of people that are bustling across the various forms of entertainment while their ebulliences in the glow of their demeanour enliven the atmosphere, including yours.

Your eyes sparkle with merriment while your laughter is accompanied by squeals as soon as your bumper car collides into Wonyoung and Yunjin’s, causing your body to jolt forward due to the impact, whereas the other girls are too preoccupied to either chase or elude from each other in your background. Music reverberates throughout the bumper section, intensifying the adrenaline rush in your body as you attempt to make a drift.

It isn’t long before you and your friends avidly rove across the throng of people in a harmonious hilarity with not a single scowl in sight. You recognise some faces from the same university you are at, and whenever you pass by, you offer them a small friendly smile, but in return, they reciprocate with a distinct yet patent odium in the way they stare at you, which genuinely confuses you.

Nevertheless, you refuse to allow anything or anyone to ruin this night of jollity, or maybe even your mind, which has been in a state of disquietude ever since you stepped foot into this festivity, but throughout the remainder of your time here, your golden demeanour doesn’t betray your inner turmoil.

A part of you fears the possibility that the guys’ impersonators might orchestrate another of their attacks on you at any moment of time, but you find it absurd that they would dare to bestow terror in the eyes of the public. 

A nudge to your shoulder from your best friend pulls you out of your perturbation, prompting you to look at Wonyoung as she grabs your hand to eagerly advance forward as it is now your turn to ride the famous astroglide slide.

The other girls have apparently gone their separate ways, some headed for the restroom while others decided to take a snack break, leaving you with Wonyoung to entertain yourselves, but all of you have collectively agreed to meet at the ferris wheel later.

Exchanging nods with Cheshire smiles plastered on your faces, both you and Wonyoung finally cascade down the bumpy slides while the mats below you provide smooth friction for easy gliding. Just like that, whatever causes your state of mind to worry is incessantly dispelled by the adrenaline that rushes through you once more. Shrill laughter and squeals emanate from the two of you as the speed increases, causing the chilly wind to smack you in the face.

Eventually, you reach the bottom, nearly tumbling forward if you hadn’t controlled your stability. Wonyoung’s delightful giggles mingle with yours, even after the two of you have departed from the astroglide.

“I would ride the slide again if the queue wasn’t long.” You tell her as soon as the two of you have simmered down from the adrenaline. Your eyes follow the queue of people with a pout on your lips.

“Well, we could try other rides! We haven’t tried the pirate ship yet!” Wonyoung voices out her suggestions, her bubbly tone bringing a smile to your lips.

“It’s fine. I’m feeling a little beat.” You politely decline as the fluctuation of your vitality beckons you to find some place to rest and dehydrate yourself. “Besides, we agreed to meet the others at the Ferris wheel.”

Not too long later, you stumble upon Karina and Yunjin, who apparently went on the slingshot ride before heading to buy some water, to which Yunjin generously offers you a bottle. The four of you decide to settle at the wooden bench adjacent to the photo booth sections, where there are long lines of people queueing.

Mentally disassociating yourself from your best friends, your eyes trail across the couples entering and exiting the photobooths, and you swear something painful tugs at the strings of your heart. Although they have yet to ask you to become their girlfriend despite their obvious adoration and affection for you, you yearn to do normal fun couple stuff like the others.

You still feel a tad sullen that they probably won’t be coming to the funfair due to their pursuit of hunting down your anonymous texter, who turned out to be the one you didn’t expect most, since neither of them has yet to reply to your texts a few hours ago. Odd.

“We should get going.” Yunjin announces as she checks her phone, a frown slowly tugging at her pink lips. “Chaewon just texted me that they’re on their way to find us? And they have something urgent to tell us.”

The four of you stand in the middle of the bustling crowd, exchanging confused yet curious glances. Before any of you can speak up, a bunch of guys whom you vaguely recognise from your university in the senior batch brazenly push their way into your group, earning eyebrow raises from you and your friends.

“There she is! Our favourite Catholic girl! The new star!” The four of them break into a collective intimidation of howls, drawing attention from the other guys in your vicinity, whom you also recognise as your fellow Crescents, and encouraging them to join in the derision that is obviously directed to you, as evident in the vice of lechery they gaze at you with.

“More like a Catholic slut!” The one in a snapback cap sneers at you, causing you to flinch at his hostile degradation. “Yeah, you are one, aren’t you? Dirty, naughty angel, that’s what you are.”

“Don’t insult her, or else she’ll get turned on.” His friend smacks him in the shoulder playfully, chortling with the others around you as though his remark is extremely hilarious.

This time, you feel as though something hard smacks you in the face as you stagger back while your heart is pumping harder with each passing second. Your skin is crawling with dread due to the predatory yet derogatory eyes that latch on your figure, while your ears are burning at the sound of their piercing laughter.

Please don’t tell me what I think it is…..

“Excuse me?” Wonyoung is spurred into taking action by her instinct to protect you, stepping forward with an air of icy intimidation. “I don’t know who you think you are, but if you cherish your sacks enough, you better get down on your knees and apologise to my best friend.”

“Why should we apologise when we only stated the truth?” The one in blond highlights retorts, his lips curling into a condescending sneer.

“What truth?” Yunjin’s figure is imposing as she glowers at the guys, her eyes going ablaze with the same simmering anger as Wonyoung and Karina’s.

“Oh, come on! Don’t tell us that you girls haven’t watched your best friend’s amazing performance? No?” His tone drips with mockery that feels as though acid is thrown at you. “We’re lucky enough to be able to stream those videos online for free.”

“Hey, Y/N? Do you think that if I fuck you good, will you call me your God too?” The shortest member of the group asks with a gleeful grin. “Awww, come on, pretty girl. You love cocks, don’t you?”

“You fucking asshole!” Karina nearly lunges forward, her sharp, acrylic nails extending to claw him, but Wonyoung and Yunjin immediately hold her back from each side. “Release me! Let me at him!”

Amidst the rapid rise of chaos, you remain deadly silent, unable to hear anything other than the sound of your loud, pumping heart in your ear while your figure goes transfixed. It feels like the jeering crowd is closing on you, suffocating you as your breathing gets progressively uneven while your chest painfully tightens, and you want nothing more than to hide yourself from the world.

“What do you say, Y/N? Wanna get baptised again?” They continue to taunt you despite your best friends’ oozing ire dominating your vicinity. “I’m sure your pussy has room for more after getting fucked loose by the leaders.”

“Flash us those tits, slut!” You hear the crowd in your vicinity, mainly the ones from your university, begin to throw crude remarks at you, shooting like bullets with wanton howls and indecorous whistles.

It is as if something inside you snaps, and before you know it, you pivot on your heels and dash forward, pushing your way through the crowd haphazardly without any regard of their glare at your discourtesy while your best friends promptly chase after you right after they shoot withering glares at the crowd.

“Y/N! Wait up!” Karina’s voice fades into oblivion as you can only focus on the sound of your ragged breathing and your thrumming pulse in your ear, and maybe the sound of your heart that is slowly shattering into pieces too.

A part of you adamantly refuses to believe that the ones you hold dearly in your heart would pull such deplorable stunts. Maybe those four guys that taunted you back there were bluffing. Maybe they purposefully decided to humiliate you in public for reasons beyond your comprehension. 

No, Heeseung, Jay, Jake, and Sunghoon would never─

“Y/N! We’ve been looking everywhere for you!” Winter, Chaewon, and the other girls immediately obstruct your path. The look on their faces only seems to intensify your inner turmoil, while there is a suspension in the air. “Oh, thank God all of you are here.” Their comment is also directed at your best friends from behind you.

“What’s going on?” You ask, and your voice surprisingly manages to come out strong while your tenacity for maintaining equanimity is teetering.

“It’s not good, Y/N.” Winter is carefully treading with her words, her eyes flashing with prudence. “Even if you had consented for those pictures and videos to be posted online─”

“Oh my god.” Karina’s loud gasp interjects the suspension that only seems to transition into a foreboding tension, drawing your attention to her and seeing the horrifying contortion on her countenance as she looks down at her phone screen.

“Wait, Y/N, you shouldn’t─” Just before Chaewon can stop you, you move towards Yunjin and snatch the phone from her hand.

As soon as your eyes latch onto the phone screen with such obscenity being displayed starkly, your surroundings fade into insignificance while time seems to be holding still, and only the sound of your heart shattering into pieces is all you can hear.

“Y/N!” You hear muffled shouts from your friends as soon as your buckling legs have finally given up on you, causing you to fall to the asphalt ground on your knees while Yunjin’s phone slips from your weak grasp.

“I need you to breathe, Y/N!” Wonyoung cups your cheeks as she kneels down in front of you, but your blurry eyes deprive you of focus while only the constricting pain in your chest is palpable, causing you to feel unbearably suffocated.

“I want─” Your hyperventilation affects your ability to articulate your feelings. You clutch onto Wonyoung’s shirt as you finally manage to breathe out, meeting her concerned eyes with shaky pupils. “I want to go back, please.” You whisper brokenly.

As you recall seeing the awfully familiar username, you were gravely mistaken for thinking that they wouldn’t, because they did. You thought that they wouldn’t ever hurt you in a way that sent you into physical affliction, but it turns out there was another way for them to hurt you after all.

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In the quiet confines of your room ─ your old, homey room, which has now become a sanctuary ─ the soft glow of the moonlight filtering through your window casts a dim illumination on you amidst the darkness as you lie in bed with the fleecy duvet enveloping your dejected figure. 

Countless crumpled tissues are scattered across your bed, which you used to clear and wipe your mucus after bawling your eyes out, and the worst part is that you don’t know how many times you have broken down for the past two days ever since the appalling revelation that still renders you revolted.

“Y/N, please, open the door. We’re worried about you.” You hear Yunjin’s voice pleading out to you as she knocks on your door, which you have locked as you refuse to see any of them, only wanting to wallow in despair in your sanctuary, where no one can hurt you nor hidden cameras can film you.

You merely ignore your best friend, your hollow eyes staring into oblivion, while your mind begins to drift to the late victim who went through the same betrayal as you. Jinae. You recall when anonymous, or rather, Taehyun, divulged to you the details of her death and before that.

Similar to what Jinae had gone through, the four of them posted explicit pictures and clips of you when you were at the church on their Instagram stories, and they even inserted their captions on their stories, such as ‘our good obedient whore ‘worshipping cocks like the hungry Catholic slut she is’.

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, they uploaded individual sex tapes, which they apparently had cameras hidden in their rooms, on their Devil’s Knights social media accounts across Twitter as well as their official website, allowing users from across the campus and beyond to have access to free porn.

A muscle pulses in your jaw, hating yourself for not being prudent enough to see this coming when you should have known better and realised it sooner when Heeseung first knew of your intrusion into his office ─ because he had implemented a hidden camera somewhere inside.

Your eyes begin to sting. No, you are the one who is now going through the same betrayal as the girl whose only sin was loving the four leaders, which led her to her death by their very hands. Now you are left wondering if they do have plans to kill you next.

The incessant buzzing from the nightstand draws your attention to your phone, to which your stomach churns again while your heart goes into palpitation as you hesitantly reach out for your phone and grab it with a trembling hand before forcing your reluctant body to rise from the bed.

Your mind is beseeching you to put your phone away for the sake of your sanity, or whatever is left, which is teetering dangerously at the precipice, but against your better judgement, you decide to indulge your niggling curiosity.

Just as you expected, your phone is bombarded with notifications from Instagram, Twitter, and even messages. It has been this way ever since the funfair night. Your DMs are always flooded with different users, many of whom you recognise from your fellow Crescents, sending you either revolting insults or crude messages that feel vulgarly invasive. 

The perpetual cyber harassment has been causing such mental distress on you that even in your staggering sleep, you can hear their voices in your head haunting you with their dehumanising words, even as you are reading them now. Each word embeds in your disoriented mind, and somehow, each of them manages to stab you in the gut with the knife twisting deeper and deeper. But what stands out amongst them are the recurrent messages that most seem to share a correlative sentiment.

‘Kill yourself, you greedy slut.’

Alas, rivulets begin to descend on you, your body racking with the onslaught of devastation. A loud sob comes from your throat as you throw your phone elsewhere, unable to read the remaining messages any longer that only seem to carve the wound deeper in your bleeding heart.

And the worst of it all? Neither of the four of them has ever bothered to reach out to you after what they have done. Not even a single call. 

The betrayal and heartbreak are palpable as they manifest in the uneven rise and fall on your heaving chest, while the volume of your cries seems to have reached outside, as evident in the hurried knocks on your door from your best friends as they call for you, but you are too consumed by the pain ─ pain that feels profound and unlike any other.

“Y/N! Please! Let us in!” The desperate plea of Wonyoung’s voice only makes you bawl your eyes out as you clutch your pounding head with your hands, tears dripping and dampening the bedding for another time.

You don’t even know how to show your face to the world, especially to your parents, if news has already reached them. There is no doubt that those intimate videos and your stark display of vulnerability have reached the public from beyond the university, spreading like wildfire.

The damage they did is beyond repair ─ it’s completely irreversible. It is crystal clear to you that they had intended to destroy you from the inside out since the moment they began to approach you, but you were blissfully ignorant as you allowed yourself to fall deeper for their dark allures, desperate for even the scraps of their affection.

The worst of it all is that you were more than ready to spend a lifetime with them, even if people were against you. You even bare your heart and soul to them, for them to take and consume you, even if it means that you might lose yourself in the process.

You sob harder, clutching your aching heart with your fingers fisting the material of your top. You hate them for not reaching out to you despite the damage they have done. You hate those cruel users who have ruined your mental state.

Most of all, you hate yourself while a part of you vehemently agrees to the dehumanising insults that have been engraved in you. Perhaps they were right ─ you are nothing but a greedy slut who has no dignity left and is utterly worthless unless you spread your legs for more.

Maybe you should kill yourself.

Before you know it, you barge into the bathroom, your teary eyes blazing with resentment as they search for anything solid enough to break the mirror. You are stuck in a stupor ─ your mind is in a tempestuous streak of their words tormenting you, and your heart is bleeding from the unabating heartbreak, but you are conscious enough to desire for your misery to end.

“Y/N! Don’t do anything stupid!” Wonyoung’s voice can still be heard from the outside, but her words don’t deter you, not when you finally find the solution to break the mirror with a ceramic cup that you often use to gargle your mouth after brushing your teeth.

With a strangled cry, the ceramic cup hurls towards the mirror before it shatters completely from the impact while the sound reaches the ears of your best friends, causing more panic for them.

“Hurry!” Karina says, watching with impatient eyes as Yunjin fumbles with the keys to your door before the latter finally unlocks it and pushes the door open, wasting no time to follow the source of your cries that lead them to the bathroom.

The three of them gasp in horror at the sight of you on your knees as you grip a shard of glass from the pieces of the broken mirror that lay scattered across the toilet tiles while blood begins to seep out of your palm due to the pressure you apply.

You can barely feel the pain in your bleeding palm, let alone the arrival of your best friends, as you are set to end your misery with a single slit, and so you raise the sharp-edged glass to your neck, your eyes completely hollow.

“Y/N!” With full force, Yunjin grabs you by the arm just before the glass can even touch your skin. Having been pulled out of your stupor, you begin to thrash and struggle in their grasp, screaming and wailing in incoherency while Wonyoung tries her utmost to get the mirror away from your bleeding hand, holding back a sob of her own. They all do.

“Let go of me! You don’t understand anything!” You sob out, finally relenting as your body feels the exertion from everything. With your loosened grasp, Wonyoung snatches the blood-stained glass away from your hand and tosses it aside. “You don’t even know how I feel! All of them were right! I should just kill myself─”

“Stop it! You’re not going to kill yourself!” Wonyoung snaps, her teary eyes match yours as they trickle down her cheeks. “You think that killing yourself will solve your problems?!”

You remain unmoving, falling weak against Yunjin as she supports you from behind with Karina. You sob out, fluttering your eyes closed. “At least it’ll free me from my misery.”

“What about us? We’re your best friends, Y/N.” The tone in Karina’s voice makes your heart clench, because you have never heard her so heartbroken except when she broke up with her ex three years ago. “What about your parents? If you can’t think of us, then think of them.”

“They don’t care. Why would they, after knowing how their Catholic daughter turned out to be a huge disappointment and a greedy slut?” Your sobs begin to quieten while your body slowly starts to feel the throbbing pain in your seeping, wounded palm.

“Please, Y/N, we can’t lose you.” Yunjin cries softly behind you, joining the other two as they collectively break into tears, wanting you to share your pain with them so it’ll burden you less. “Your life is precious, Y/N. You still have a lot more to explore. You promised that you would travel abroad with me one day.”

“Your life is precious to me, beloved.” Heeseung’s words serve as a haunting playback in your mind, eliciting more forlorn sobs from you while the tears on your cheeks are unrelenting.

“I’m tired, but I’m scared to go to sleep.” You sound languid, sleep is beckoning you as your eyelids feel heavier. “Because they’ll haunt me again…” Alas, you have fallen into the realm of sleep. The three exchange glances with an unspoken understanding.

Within the same night when they nearly lost you, Wonyoung and Karina are wrapped in cold silence, the latter driving them to their destination, whereas Yunjin is overseeing you back at the dorm, taking such prudence as they don’t want to risk anything.

It isn’t long before they are being greeted at the familiar sight of the grand palace, the golden gate slowly opening for their further pursuit, but frankly, out of the two of them, Wonyoung’s ire is overpowering, even in the way she storms over to the familiar seven faces in the opened garage while Karina quickly trails behind her.

Jungwon, who has shared an intimate history with her, immediately hinders her from aggravating the sombre situation further as he blocks her way, his lips adorning a nervous yet crooked smile. “Hey, babe─”

But Wonyoung, having been possessed by the feminine rage, easily pushes Jungwon aside, her icy glaring eyes set on the four figures whose demeanours are infuriatingly cryptic, before storming towards them with the intention to give a good punch or two.

“Wonyoung, wait─” Just as Karina is about to stop her, she watches in complete shock when the latter delivers a punch to Sunghoon’s cheek, while the male doesn’t seem to be affected despite his head being turned sideways from the impact.

“Do you have any idea what you’ve just done?!” Wonyoung is about to lunge for Jake next, but Riki and Sunoo immediately restrain her by the arms. “Preying on my best friend for the sake of your twisted tradition is one thing, but to post your sickening sex tapes that you filmed without her consent at all?!” She is stark raving mad, thrashing and struggling valiantly in their captivity. “Haven’t you had enough after destroying Jinae the same way you do now to Y/N?!”

“Calm down.” Sunoo’s remark earns him a withering glare from the raging woman.

“Don’t tell me to calm down when my best friend almost tried to kill herself because of the constant cyberbullying, and whose fault was that?” Wonyoung’s tone is dripping with venom, and her eyes are maintaining icy contact with the four leaders. “Yours! I fucking knew that the moment all of you suddenly approached Y/N, you had ulterior motives!”

Although their demeanour remains cryptic, Karina can see it in the way they flinch lightly when Wonyoung mentions you, and for a fleeting moment, equal worry flares in their irises.

“I don’t know what your endgame is or if you’re planning to haunt her even till the end, just like you did to Jinae, but thanks a lot.” Karina speaks up, her tone mirrors Wonyoung’s with a tinge of sarcasm. “You guys got what you wanted, and that is to break Y/N, right? Then congratufuckinglations! You guys are officially the fucking worse.”

“Y/N wouldn’t come out to eat for days.” Wonyoung says so spitefully before finally breaking herself free from Riki and Sunoo’s grasp. “Whatever your next moves are, we’re not going to let you go near Y/N. You’ll have to kill me to get to her.”

“That’s fine with us.” Jay shrugs his shoulders; the nonchalance on his display doesn’t betray the feelings that lie beneath the facade. “You ladies have always loved to underestimate us, so maybe it’s time we showed you no mercy, yeah?”

“Jay, don’t.” Jungwon steps forward, feeling a natural protective instinct to shield Wonyoung from Jay’s path of destruction. “Just tell them the truth.”

“What truth is there to tell us?” Wonyoung eyes Jungwon with exasperation, while the latter looks at her with softened eyes. “We’ve already seen enough─ Y/N have seen and known enough to realise that your amazing leaders uploaded those unconsented pictures and videos by their own hands!”

“Yeah, we’ve known enough.” Karina grabs Wonyoung by the hand, her eyes glaring at each of them for another time. “We’re here only to tell you to stay away from Y/N. She doesn’t need any of you to break her even more.”

With that, Karina and Wonyoung depart from the garage as they make their way back to the car, while Jungwon stares at them from afar before heaving a sigh as he turns to look at the four leaders. “You should’ve told them the truth.”

“What difference would it make?” Jake scoffs, his jaw tightening. “You’ve already seen the look in their eyes. Besides, no one ever believes us, just like three years ago.”

“Well, we believe you.” Riki offers them some form of support, and a rare smile plays on his lips. “You have us.”

“Seven against the world?” Sunghoon chuckles as he shakes his head while rubbing his sore cheek. “We’re so fucked.”

“Heeseung?” Sunoo, who has been observant enough to notice Heeseung’s eerie silence, “What do you want to do now?”

Despite the nonchalantness of his demeanour, storms are raging silently in Heeseung’s dark eyes. “Do what we do best at; continue the hunt.”

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Never have you ever felt utterly defeated to wake up to the next sunrise, as it only means another day of misery, and you were right, because your phone is once again bombarded with notifications from those who wish to see you in unending agony.

At first, you wallow in utter despair, still refusing to get out of your room and to eat something despite being coaxed by your best friends, but soon, it is coupled with fury that courses through your vein, spurring you into taking action, which has your best friends beseeching you to reevaluate your resolution.

Hence, you are presently in the car with them, waiting for the familiar, opulent gates to open for you. The temperature in the car doesn’t bother you in the slightest, despite the coldness increasing tenfold due to the torrential rain pouring down. You sit in silence while the suspension hangs in the air.

“Maybe we should head back.” Karina breaks the ice; hesitancy flows in her tone. “Plus, I don’t think they’re at the palace.”

Before any of you can say anything, your eyes capture blinding lights in the rearview mirror while the sound of motorcycles revving stridently startles the girls except you, because the moment their vehicles are nearing from behind, you take your girls by surprise when you exit from the car in haste, ignoring their calling.

Not even a minute passes by when you have become wholly drenched from head to toe, but your resolution remains unwavering as you storm with purpose towards the four bikers, whose body languages you are unable to construe while the dark visors completely obscure their countenance, but you can feel their gazes burning straight into you.

Your mind is in a perpetual tumult with a cacophony of thoughts and emotions, each vying for dominance, that overwhelms you. Your eyes are blurring with each blink, uncertain whether it’s the effect of the unrelenting downpour that wets your lashes or the tears that are accumulating in your waterline.

They dismount their bikes just as you close the distance, and you follow the path of your ire to the first person near you — the one who is wearing a necklace with your purity ring resting on his chest.

“Y/N─” Heeseung is cut off by the impact of the shove of your hands into his chest, but he swiftly regains stability.

“Is this really your endgame?! To humiliate me and expose my vulnerability to everyone?!” Like a thunderstorm, you erupt into a torrent of outbursts, pushing Heeseung in the chest again, but he is unaffected by your strength as he remains rooted to the ground. “Because of what you all did, I couldn’t sleep at night without their words haunting me! I couldn’t even look at my phone without receiving another message telling me to kill myself. Why? Because I’m a greedy fucking slut for the four of you!”

The other three attempt to step forward to stop you, but Heeseung subtly makes a hand gesture at them, prompting them to stay where they are and allowing you to continue as you throw weak punches to his solid chest while uncontrollable sobs leave your lips.

“That day, I told you to delete them, and you lied to me! You all lied to me!” You nearly go hysterical as you don’t relent from hitting him. “I even told you in the first place! But you refused, all because I broke your rule! You shouldn’t have even thought of filming and snapping pictures of me back at the church just because you were pissed off at me!” You cry out in defeat, your body heaving with sobs. “You should’ve just killed me instead.”

“Don’t fucking say that!” Sunghoon nearly growls out, catching you off guard when he steps forward to hold you by the shoulders. His voice sounds deeper due to the helmet. “We know we fucked up, but you shouldn’t even think that we would do anything to hurt you like that!”

Seething with anger, you shove his hands away from your shoulders as you push him. “But you did! You did hurt me in the most agonising way, which I never would have thought you would do to me! Just like you did to Jinae!”

You clench your fist with your injured hand, applying pressure to the wound that is slowly reopening. “Like a fool I was, I chose to ignore the fact that all of you weren’t sincere with me when you first approached me. I chose to ignore the fact that you were only preying on me as part of your tradition and allowed you to fuck me up all over.” A palpable heartbreak punctuates your declaration as you continue to cry out. “And like a fool I was, I bared my soul to you and gave you my heart, only for you to break me when I'd fallen hopelessly in love with you.”

“You’re in love with us?” You can hear Jake’s muffled voice, but you ignore him and remain focused on pouring out your pent-up emotions.

“For you, I was willing to do anything you asked me to, and I’d give up everything if it meant to be close to you and stay by your side, but your intentions are now clear to me that I meant nothing to you because I was only meant to satisfy you as your slut and for you to break me apart if I ever crossed you!” With your clenched fist, you deliver one last hit to Heeseung, now torn apart from the inside as you break into hysterical sobs. “How could you do this to me?! I did nothing but love you and want to be loved by you.”

“Y/N, stop.” Heeseung grabs you firmly by the wrist, holding you closer to his chest and looking down at your bandaged hand. “You’re injured. You’ll reopen your wound if you don’t stop.”

“Don’t touch me!” You quickly yank your hand away from him, his touch feels familiarly scorching on your skin. “Don’t hold me like that! Don’t─” A sharp sob leaves your lips, your eyes glistening with unmistakable heartbreak that punches them in the gut. “Don’t act like you care when you don’t give a damn about me! Not after what you did! And for that, I hate you!”

“You don’t mean that.” Jay’s voice cuts through the air stridently, followed by a rumble of thunder in the dreary skies.

“I do. I hate you.” You say spitefully, glaring at them with a teary gaze as you latch your arms around your now-shivering form. “Consider this the last time you’ll ever see my face, and consider my love for you dead, not that you cared in the first place.”

“Don’t leave─ Fuck, baby─” Jay sounds torn, almost as if he is the one hurting instead of you. “We’ll make things right, just don’t leave us.”

“Y/N!” You hear Wonyoung calling out for you from behind, but your attention remains fixed on them.

For a moment, the desperation emanating from him as well as the other three stirs something in the sensible part of you. Even if you can’t see the clear contortion of their countenances, you can feel their gaze burning into you with a passion for longing. But what they did is beyond justifiable ─ their stark betrayal is unforgivable, no matter the love that still beats for them in your bleeding heart right now.

“You can’t make things right. The damage is irreversible, and for that, I won’t forgive you.” Your voice trembles, slowly getting overwhelmed by the tumult of emotions whirling in you. “Congratulations, though. You’ve succeeded in your twisted tradition of preying on an innocent girl once again.”

By the time you have delivered the last of your words that pierce into their hearts, Wonyoung appears next to you, holding an umbrella that shelters you from downpour any longer, her comforting arm around your shoulder before you finally turn around and head back into the car, leaving the four of them under the pouring rain with your words embedded in their minds.

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They did not upload those pictures and videos. Apparently, they have been hacked and even tried to log into their social media accounts, but it seems that their credentials have been unauthorizedly changed by their foes, who clearly possess the abilities and competencies in the cyber field.

But it doesn’t mean that they are free of guilt, especially when they acknowledge that they lied to you about having them deleted, and they had every intention to do so until Sunghoon’s phone went missing on that yacht party, after which they concluded that it must’ve been one of those fuckers who managed to transfer those pictures and videos of you into their possession.

Still, they know well enough that they are partially responsible for this. Your words are a haunting playback in their minds since you left them in the cold yesterday, causing their inner turmoil to increase tenfold while a foreign emotion sends an unpleasant sensation through them. Guilt.

For as long as they can remember, they don’t feel guilt, and they have never either. Even after the passing of their first prey, Jinae, they didn’t feel the slightest remorse and instead felt resentment towards those who didn’t believe in them and the truth only they held in their grasp.

Guilt is not something that they feel naturally on instinct, but then you came. You managed to ignite something in them despite the unyielding darkness, and now they have been hit with immense guilt while their corrupted mind is in a dangerous tumult.

Thus, they have collectively agreed to put a permanent end to this prolonged hunt and eradicate their foes, who were responsible for orchestrating the destruction that has already been wide-spread beyond their radar.

Hence, Sunoo and Riki, who are quite literally the cyberpunks, have been working tirelessly for them and leaving no stone unturned as they demolish every firewall and destroy data after data, including deleting those uploads. Jungwon, whose specialty is obviously not in the hacking field, can only offer his presence as his two best friends’ moral support while he hangs around in the background with either snacks or drinks in his hands.

“Are you guys sure that they’re in there?” Jake inquires to Sunoo and Riki as he has them on speaker mode, allowing his best friends to hear their conversation as well. Presently, they remain seated in Jay’s Maserati that is pulled over by the curb, awaiting their next move on Jake’s command.

“Are you doubting our skills now? After everything we’ve done for you?” Jake simply rolls his eyes at Sunoo’s melodramatic antics before he briefly casts a glance at the window to examine the establishment for another time. “Anyway, hacking into their security system was a piece of cake.”

“They’re in there, but better be quick.” Riki interjects, his voice sounding gravelly deep. “It looks like they’re about to leave soon. Oh, an advice; enter from the backdoor instead.”

Once the call ends, the four leaders waste no time exiting the car, recalling Riki’s advice as they make their way around the establishment, where the backdoor is. Each of them wields different weapons yet bears the same amount of lethality ─ brass knuckles, metal baseball bats, and a melee knife. Tonight, their foes won’t be able to leave unscathed.

Just as they nearly arrive, the backdoor swings open, followed by chatter and laughter before they are greeted by the sight of familiar faces who turn out to be their foes. But the thing is, neither of their foes look entirely surprised. Taehyun, Soobin, and Hyunjin.

“So, you’ve finally caught me, huh?” Taehyun taunts them with a pleasant smile, his hands sliding inside his pockets. “I must say, I felt satisfied for outsmarting you, which was why you couldn’t find me anywhere. As our leaders who should be better than us, you’ve disappointed me.”

Jay steps forward, a smirk playing on his lips while his menacing aura is infused with the foreboding atmosphere. “As your house leader, I have a gift for you, and that is meeting your demise tonight.”

“But before we get down to business, we want to know why.” Sunghoon demands, struggling to maintain his composure and gripping the brass knuckle adorning his fingers. “You guys took the knight’s oath on the day you were accepted into the fraternity. You knew what would happen if you went against the rules, and we don't take betrayal lightly.”

“Oath means nothing to us for as long as you reign supreme in our fraternity.” No one is as staggered as Heeseung upon hearing a familiar voice approaching from behind Taehyun, his eyes trailing to his once-close friend, whose demeanour is uncharacteristically callous.

“I fucking knew it.” Jake grits his teeth, seething with anger as his eyes harden. “Fuck. I knew you were on it, but our girl’s good heart chose to believe that you weren’t─”

“Your girl?” He intervenes, releasing a cold, derisive chuckle as he leisurely advances forward while keeping a safe distance between them. “It’s quite bold of you when you know that you’ve already lost your girl after what you’ve done.”

“You mean, after what you and your little rebellion did!” Jake retaliates, clutching his brass knuckle. “We didn’t do shit! You had your loyal dogs do your dirty work!”

“But that doesn’t change the fact that you guys took those pictures and videos at the holy church. I only contributed to implementing those hidden cameras in your rooms and the places you guys fucked her.”

“You? So you were the true mastermind instead of Taehyun, isn’t that, right?” Heeseung’s tone sounds lethally soft, his lips unfurling a smirk while his eyes remain in unwavering eye contact with him. “Choi Beomgyu.”

Beomgyu breaks into a cold smile, his eyes holding an unmistakable hatred for him. “I would’ve applauded you for solving the pieces, but you solved them too late. Just like how it’s too late for you to reverse everything with Y/N. Oh, and by the way, I’ve got to give credits to y’all for giving free porn content.”

The tension in the foreboding air is thickening with each passing second as they await each other’s next move. Beomgyu continues to smile, taunting Heeseung with each step forward while his eyes gleam with wicked delight. “But I would’ve fucked her better than you did.”

The trigger in Heeseung’s head is pulled, spurring him into retaliation, deftly aiming his melee knife towards Beomgyu, possessing such an almost-inhuman agility that even takes his best friends by surprise before they manoeuvre towards their foes expeditiously. Alas, violence is set ablaze under the starry night, the once-comradeship amongst them has effaced, but they share the same resolve ─ no one shall leave unscathed.

The four leaders move with harmonious precision in countering attacks from their opponents, wielding their weapons and putting them to good use as they manage to spill their blood, but their opponents are filled with equal ferocity as well, refusing to relent.

“I trusted you.” Heeseung tightens his jaw, breathing harshly while he clutches the melee knife handle that stains with Beomgyu’s blood as he manages to cut him in the arm with one swift slice. “I thought you were my close friend. All those years we’ve spent, and it took just one girl for you to pull a dick move?”

Beomgyu spits the blood out of his mouth as he slowly rises from the ground, his eyes flaring with such intense hatred that Heeseung swears the latter looks awfully similar to a certain dead- person in this light. “I’ve never regarded you as my friend, not after you’ve killed my sister!” 

Heeseung feels his stomach starting to churn unpleasantly as he slowly puts the pieces together in his mind, filled with a cacophony of thoughts and theories, his hand lowering the knife. “Your sister?”

Beomgyu scoffs in disbelief, wiping the blood that trails down from his nostril. “Oh, come on, now. You can’t be that stupid and slow to realise it by now. I’ve already given you the clue.”

For the first time, Heeseung feels staggered, his eyes widening in disbelief as he scrutinises Beomgyu’s features. It is no wonder why he looks familiar from when Beomgyu first approached him after his late enrollment in the university, especially in the way he smiles.

“No, you can’t be….” Heeseung's transfixed figure captures Jake’s attention, spurring the latter to quickly knock Taehyun out cold as he lands on the hard ground with a loud thud while Jay and Sunghoon exchange meaningful nods before they render their opponents wholly unconscious, uncaring whether they’re breathing or not.

“What the fuck is going on, and why is he not dead yet?” Sunghoon asks annoyedly, stepping forward with his bloodied knuckles preparing to strike, but Heeseung holds him back, earning Heeseung a bewildered look from Sunghoon. “Heeseung, what the fuck?”

Beomgyu chuckles, drawing their attention to him. “Oh, you wouldn’t want to kill me, especially when I’ve waited long enough to reveal who I really am.”

“All I know and care about is that you are going to be a dead man tonight.” Jay nearly growls out as he swings the baseball bat expertly. “I'm going to enjoy crushing your bones.”

“Wait, I want to hear what he has to say before we end him.” Jake tells Jay before shifting his attention to Beomgyu, sighing impatiently. “Well? Who are you, then, oh mysterious one?”

Something dark cast a shadow over Beomgyu’s countenance, his eyes blazing with a patent ire, triggered by Jake’s mere derision. “Everything is a joke to you guys, right? Just like how you enjoyed killing my sister, her death was a joke to you.”

Jay shoots him a scornful glare, his patience running thin. “Who the fuck is your sister?” 

“Jinae.” The name leaving from Heeseung’s lips hits the three of them like whiplash, and when they look at him, his eyes are burning through Beomgyu’s glaring ones. “His sister. Choi Jinae.”

“Ah, crazy pants.” Sunghoon smirks, not a single trace of sympathy on his face, despite feeling a tinge of surprise at the revelation. “Your sister was a real pain in the ass, by the way. Thank fuck, she’s dead.”

“Take that back, you fucker!” Seeing absolute red, Beomgyu charges towards Sunghoon with malice coursing through his vein, but like a bolt of lightning, Jake embodies a shield and promptly seizes Beomgyu by the collar shirt before bringing down his brass-knuckled fist into the side of his face, the impact sending him plummeting to the ground with blood spluttering from his mouth and nostril.

“What difference would it make if I took back my words?” Sunghoon asks with a sardonic smile, revelling in the brutality displayed by his best friend as the latter delivers another punch to Beomgyu’s face. “Because it definitely won’t bring back your sister from the dead.”

Seeing how evidently weakened and languid Beomgyu is with his head flinging forward, the corner of Jake’s lips curves into a smirk as he scoffs out a chuckle before grabbing Beomgyu by the hair and pulling it to the back roughly to force him to look at them despite struggling to keep his eyes open. “Quick question: why did you choose to reveal that you’re her brother now?”

“It’s all part of the plan. The plan that you’ve ruined.” Beomgyu’s voice sounds hoarse, and his breathing is ragged. “I had intended to reveal myself after delivering your precious Y/N’s pretty head in a box. Oh, what a shame that you’ve all rescued her that night before I could have a taste of her─”

Filled by an immense rage coursing through his veins, Jay swings the bat and aims it at Beomgyu’s stomach, resulting in the latter coughing out more blood with his body hunched over, but with Jake’s tight grip on his hair, he is being forced to look back up.

“Keep Y/N out of this!” Jay roars out, intending to swing again, but Heeseung stops him as the latter desires to get the truth and answers from Beomgyu.

“We’re giving you two options. The first option is that you tell us the truth and basically everything we want, and the second option is, well,” A smirk touches Heeseung’s lips, his imposing figure towering over Beomgyu’s, bending down slightly only to cut his cheek in a swift slice with his knife, eliciting a pained growl from the latter. “You know what will happen. But we might reconsider letting you live if you choose to comply with us.”

“Don’t be dumb and choose your option wisely, Choi.” Sunghoon crosses his arms over his chest, mirroring Heeseung’s devilish smirk as he stands next to him. “Let’s start off with Y/N. Why did you target her? And for what purpose did you have with your diabolic plan, which you’ve failed at?”

“Isn’t it obvious? I had to find each of your weaknesses, and Y/N turned out to be your ultimate weakness, even if she meant to be your prey just as my sister once was.” Beomgyu says spitefully, blood spitting from his mouth while seething anger glares in his eyes. “Oh, but Y/N has everything to do with this. Unlike my poor sister, Y/N has had the privilege to earn your affection without having to try hard to gain your attention, which I didn’t understand because why were you treating Y/N better than you treated my sister?”

“Let’s just say, Y/N is not crazy pants like Jinae.” Sunghoon says, still taunting Beomgyu with his smirk, before the latter continues.

“Then I realised that you guys are disgustingly obsessed with Y/N, which also explains why you didn’t kill her off like you did to my sister. So I decided to take matters into my own hands and executed the plan to kill Y/N, since after all, she’s your sweet angel.” Beomgyu sneers at him, like a dog baring its canine teeth. “If I can’t kill you, then I’ll kill the girl you seem to care about most.”

“Disgustingly obsessed, you say? Maybe we are, but I’d say that the description fits your sister perfectly just the same.” Jake lets out a sardonic chuckle as he tightens his grip on Beomgyu’s hair to yank his head to the back and lean down with a menacing glare while his lips curl into a disdainful sneer. “I hated your sister. Bitch was always there wherever I went, and I couldn’t get the fucking hint that I wasn’t into her.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Beomgyu asks roughly, his voice completely hoarse after coughing out blood another time. “Before you guys killed her, she sent me a message, telling me about how all of you were obsessed with her but then tossed her aside after you were done fucking around with her, and because of what you did, my sister was devastated. She did nothing but only wanted to be loved. You sick, heartless fucks.”

“So I was right. Your sister was indeed batshit crazy, which is why we call her crazy pants.” Sunghoon scoffs out a chuckle. “I really gotta commend your freak of a sister, though. She managed to fool everyone, including you, into thinking that she died because we killed her.”

“That’s because you guys did!” Beomgyu growls out in sheer anger, regaining a moment of vitality. “The evidence was there! Your handprints were the evidence!”

“It seems that you don’t know the truth about what really happened three years ago and who your sister really was.” Heeseung says, his voice sounds gravelly deep, which matches the shadow cast on his countenance. “We didn’t kill her. She killed herself.”

The fury in Beomgyu’s eyes slowly diminishes, confusion blends in with the fire. “You’re lying. She wouldn’t do that to herself, and she most definitely wouldn’t kill herself on our birthday.”

“Our birthday?” Jay raises his eyebrow inquisitively.

Beomgyu clenches his jaw. “We’re fraternal twins.”

“Believe what you want, but the truth is, your psychotic sister was a cunning bitch who had a diabolical plan that obviously involved her planned death, and her plan succeeded when everyone believed that we were the ones who killed her, considering that she was found dead in the palace.” Sunghoon divulges, his tone indicating the gravity of the recollection, to which Beomgyu begins to feel conflicted.

“We don’t have anything concrete to prove our innocence, but we do have a certain group of people who can attest to our innocence since we were with them on the day Jinae decided to kill herself.” Heeseung unfurls a cynical smirk at the corner of his lips.

“Even if you didn’t kill her, what you did is still a contributing factor, which made sense why she killed herself.” Beomgyu says with conviction, his tone dripping with venom. “Because you fuckers uploaded those sex tapes you recorded of her.”

“If she hadn’t pissed us off in the first place, then we wouldn’t have done what we did.” Jay shrugs his shoulders, appearing nonchalant. “Besides, it was her idea in the first place to be recorded, and she even consented herself.” 

“Oh, she pissed us off, alright.” Jake chuckles lightly, without any mirth. “She was obsessed with me, mostly, and she couldn’t get the fucking clue that I wasn’t into her, but I thought to myself, why not fuck around with her and let my best friends have their fun with her as well?”

“You really are a bunch of sick fucks!” Beomgyu attempts to lunge forward while remaining on his knees, but tumbles forward instead. Unbeknownst to them, tears begin to fill his waterline. “My sister told me about how much she loved all of you. She often called me to tell me about her day with you all excitedly before you decided to toss her aside.” Beomgyu clenches his fist. “All she ever wanted was to be loved by you.”

“Yes, she indeed pissed us off by beating the shit out of any girl who got close to us and threatening to kill us, even held Jake at a knife point, forcing us to love her the same.” Heeseung bends down to tilt Beomgyu’s chin up with the edge of his knife, penetrating his eyes into the latter’s. “Love can never be forced upon you, but unfortunately, your sister couldn’t understand that.”

“You could’ve tried to learn to love her.” Beomgyu spits out, his body trembling with tumultuous emotions that threaten to consume him. “What does Y/N have that my sister didn’t? What made you love Y/N when you couldn’t love Jinae?”

“It’s simple, really, because Choi Jinae was not and never will be Y/N Kang.” Heeseung answers neutrally, but his eyes flicker with palpable sadness and yearning for you before they are eclipsed by the familiar callousness. “Great news. We’ll be sparing your life.”

“Wait, we won’t?” Jay blurts out in disbelief. “But he betrayed─”

“I know what he did.” Heeseung cuts him off calmly, trailing his eyes back to Beomgyu. “Instead, I want you to confess the entire truth to Y/N without leaving out any details. Tell her that you were the mastermind all along. If you fail to comply, you and your little rebellion will be facing a sequence of agonising pain that leads you to your death.”

“Even if I did confess the truth to her, it doesn’t change the fact that guys did record those contents without her consent, which is why she’s hating you right now, am I right?” Beomgyu adorns a lopsided grin, displaying his glee despite the patent wrath emanating from them. “At least my plan B of ruining your relationship with her worked. She’s far from your reach now─”

Having had enough, Heeseung socks Beomgyu in the face with his knee, rendering him unconscious as his limp body falls to the ground with a thud.

“Did you record everything?” Heeseung turns to look at Sunghoon, who fishes out his phone from his pocket with the screen displaying the ongoing voice recording before he presses the stop button. “Good. Send it to Riki.”

“What about them?” Jake asks, his eyes scanning the mess with four unconscious bodies scattered around and definitely not unscathed. “After what they did to our girl, I still feel that they deserve to die.”

“Leave them to rot or whatever, I don’t care.” Heeseung mutters under his breath, running his fingers through his tousled locks. All the while, he has been battling an internal battle that wages between his mind and heart. One yearns to return to you, while the other refuses, as it knows you need space. 

“Agreed.” Jay heaves a sigh, his hand sliding into his pocket to retrieve the e-cigarette before inhaling the flavour aerosol and puffing it out, watching the grey wafts in the air. “Tonight has been a long one.”

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Days passed by like a blur since your confrontation, but the weight on your shoulders remains a burden that, coupled with the unabating turmoil in you, deprives you of the much-needed solace you have been seeking.

You genuinely thought that after your confrontation, you would feel a little lighter and perhaps the cyberbullying that centred around you would wane, but you were gravely mistaken when your phone would sporadically buzz with incessant notifications that mostly contained demeaning words.

As a result, your mental health is deteriorating with each passing minute, as it also affects your appetite. Even when one of your best friends tries to feed you, you can’t help but puke up after two spoons. Sleep is no different either, as whenever you try to close your eyes, all you can see are those words with different malign voices speaking to you as though to haunt you.

Heck, you don’t even feel safe in your once-sanctuary that used to be filled with comfort and security, because in every space in your room, you feel as though someone ought to get you, completely paranoid. Of course, you are. Some of those words included them desiring to eradicate you, simply because you have earned a newfound reputation as the Catholic worthless slut of Crestview Meadows.

Your best friends have offered consolation and advice, including to deactivate or delete your socials permanently, but you don’t have the heart to do that, especially when those socials contain memories. Although you rarely post your own pictures, you often capture precious moments with your friends, family, and even yourself and post those moments on social media. You wish to look back at those moments if there is ever a time you miss them, giving you nostalgia. After all, you are a sentimental person.

“Y/N! Are you done packing the last of your boxes?" You hear Karina calling for you from the living room, pulling you out of your thoughts once more. “We actually should get going if we don't want to get stuck in a traffic jam at peak hours.”

“In a minute!” You reply to her, surprising yourself with the volume of your voice since you barely make any sound unless your best friends ask you questions or attempt to strike up a conversation while you remain holed up in your room.

You look down at your bandaged hand, curling and uncurling your fingers to test out the tolerance of your pain now before you bend down to grab the brown box by the handles with ease. As you look around your room, which is now bare of any ornaments and familiar embellishments that used to offer you a minuscule sense of comfort, you feel the strings in your heart tugging painfully.

It is indeed a bittersweet feeling to permanently leave your room that is filled with memories, be they the bad or the good ones, and you don’t take any of them for granted, knowing that each memory, in some way, has moulded you into the person you are now who is never ready to face the outside world just yet.

It turns out that all seniors residing in the dormitory have to comply with the mandatory clearing and moving out of their allotted dorms by tomorrow, since, after all, all of you seniors are the graduating batch, and your graduation will commence in just a few days. 

All of the other seniors, including your best friends, are evidently excited for graduation day to arrive after gruelling years of academic torment, and some have already planned a celebratory party, but you feel entirely numb despite knowing that you survived and did exceptionally well throughout your years here. Mainly, you are not ready to receive your degree once you enter the stage with judgmental eyes on you.

“Y/N, what is taking you so long─” Karina enters your room and stops mid-sentence upon seeing a tear trickling down your cheek. “Are you okay?” She asks gently.

“I’m just going to miss this room.” You tell her in a splintered whisper before sighing softly. “I know, I’m being dramatic about this.”

“No, babe, your feelings are completely valid.” Karina places her hand on your shoulder to give it a comforting squeeze. She offers you a gentle smile, her eyes mirroring the reminiscing sentiment in yours. “I’m gonna miss my room too. I’m going to miss our dorm. We really did make a lot of great memories, well, minus the bad ones, of course.”

You take another glance around before drawing in a sharp breath, your firm eyes meeting hers as you give her a head nod. “Let’s go. The longer I’m here, the more I have the urge to burst into tears. I’m tired of crying.”

“And I’m tired of carrying the boxes down into my car.” Karina shoots you a playful scowl as you find yourself lifting a small smile. “You’re lucky that you’re my passenger princess.”

Princess.

It’s a mere endearment that is common everywhere, especially in books and televisions, but it is enough to send you a wave of emotions, and it is an endearment you wish to hear again from him. You swallow down the emotional lump in your throat thickly that is threatening to implode.

“Wonyoung and Yunjin?” You inquire to Karina, now standing outside of the apartment door while the latter is busily adjusting to covering your head with the hoodie that you are adorned in, as you requested her assistance since you refuse for anyone to catch a glimpse of your face.

“Their chauffeur arrived earlier. Don’t be too sad. You’ll be seeing them again soon, you know that, right?” Karina gives you a knowing look as you proceed to advance forward in the direction of the elevator.

You reciprocate with a small smile that doesn’t reach your eyes, recalling your conversation with, particularly, Yunjin two days ago. “I know.”

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Sleep didn’t beckon you throughout the two-hour journey, or perhaps it did, but you were too preoccupied by the incessant unpleasant churn in your tummy. Your nerves have been in an unabating jitter ever since Karina drove through your hometown, even as you now arrive outside of the place you grew up in.

Your breath hitches as you spot your father descending the porch steps, ambling in the direction of where Karina pulled over directly in front of your humble abode. His face shows no signs of exhaustion or tensity, but still, the wariness in you remains niggling in the back of your mind.

You haven’t been contacting your father or even replying to his messages ever since the day you bumped into him after confronting your mother about her infidelity and moral compass. It isn’t that you hate him, no, you have always been known as Daddy’s girl since you were an infant, but rather that you don’t know how to face him without bearing the guilt on behalf of your mother.

As for your mother, neither of you bothered to reach out and make some sort of amendment or even forgiveness.You are sensible enough to realise that you should not have said those words that hurt your mother, but you were too caught up in your retaliation, wanting to hurt her just as she hurt you after condemning you. 

“Come on, I’ll help you out with your father.” Karina pulls you out of your thoughts with a shake on the shoulder before the two of you exit the car.

Mustering courage, you turn to face your approaching father with a half-crooked smile, your eyes searching for his. “Hi, Dad.” You greet him softly, feeling the gravitational pull towards him just as he invitingly opens his arms before you crash into him. Your arms latch around him as you seek the familiar comfort in your father’s warm embrace.

“My one and only baby girl is finally back.” Your father attempts to lighten the sombre mood with his mirth, his chuckles sounding rich in your ears while you remain in his embrace, not wanting to pull away or else tears will burst out.

“I’ve missed you so much, Dad.” You mumble, your throat hurting from the inhibiting emotions. “I’m sorry for not calling or texting you.”

A soft smile unfurls on his lips before he plants a kiss on your crown. “It’s okay. I’ve missed you too, sweetheart.” He pulls away from the hug with his hands on your shoulders and examines you, noticing your disheartened spirit even when your demeanour is neutral. “Come. Let’s not make your friend wait anymore. Karina, right? I remember you.”

“It’s good to see you again, Mister Kang.” Karina, who has been watching the endearing moment between you and your father silently, greets him with the same pleasantry as they exchange for more short, polite talks before the three of you proceed to carry out the boxes from the trunk and bring the boxes inside.

It isn’t long until Karina finally departs from your home, leaving you to deal with your quandary, as not moments ago, you stumbled upon your mother in the kitchen, but of course you fled from her before she could even say anything. You have no idea whether or not your father knows about your mother’s infidelity, but if he does, then he is doing a great job at putting up a front.

Deciding to distract yourself, you open one of the boxes, only to be met with familiar plushies, which Jake and Sunghoon won for you at the palace’s arcade. Your heart aches as you slowly reach out for one, tears filling your waterline before you can even control your emotions, and alas, you break, hugging the plushie close to your chest while the memories torment you in an agonising playback in your mind.

Despite the resentment burning in your heart, you can’t deny the palpable longing for them, throwing you into a whirlpool of conflicting emotions that threaten to drown you. You choke back a sob as soon as you hear someone knocking on your ajar door.

“Y/N, honey? Are you okay?” Your mother’s voice causes you to halt your emotional breakdown as you quickly wipe away your tears when the door slowly pushes open. You remain seated by the edge of the bed, looking away from her and becoming mute. “Honey, talk to me─”

“I don’t want to talk to you, let alone look at your face. So please, get out of my room.” You cut her off weakly, your voice a silent plea. “I’m tired, and I can’t deal with arguing with you again.”

“Your mother means well, Y/N.” This time, your father manages to draw your attention to him as he ambles towards you and stands next to your mother. The look on his face tells you everything you need to know that your father already knows about your mother. “Do forgive your mother.”

“And you have?” You blurt out disbelief. “I don’t understand. How are you okay with this after knowing what she did?” You can see it in your mother’s eyes; the way you convey your resentment hurts her.

“Because I allowed her to meet them.” He tells you calmly, the stark honesty in his eyes only seems to stagger you further, to which he sees and releases a soft sigh before settling down next to you. “I know it’s hard for you to understand why, but they loved your mother the same way I do. I couldn’t refuse them when they reached out to me and asked me for my permission to meet her, because after all, they had been my good friends since university.”

“But they’re not good people.” You retort vehemently. “If you knew what they did and how they treated their sons─”

“I know, honey, but I couldn’t forget their good deeds, no matter how much they’ve changed since they entered fatherhood. One of them even helped me secure my employment in law enforcement.” Your father sighs. “No matter what, forgiveness and letting go are easier than holding such resentment.”

His words hit you so hard that you can even feel them deep in your heart because of how fitting they are to your current predicament. Forgiveness is one thing, but letting go of them? And just like that, you return to the reeling of your torrential emotions as you look down, not bothered in the slightest, even when your mother sits next to you.

Your parents exchange worried glances upon noticing your deadly silence before your mother musters the courage to speak, hesitantly placing her hand on your back. “I know what I did is still morally wrong, and I’m so sorry for condemning you─”

A forlorn sob leaves your lips, startling them with your sudden outburst as tears cascade down your cheeks. You slowly lift your head to look at your mother through the tears, wanting her comfort despite feeling resentment towards her.

“Baby girl, what’s wrong?” Your father’s gentleness, which reminds you of Heeseung, only seems to hurl you to the edge as sobs rack through your body.

Your mother can’t stand to see the sight of you bawling out tears, especially when she recognises the agony of heartbreak written across your features. “Oh, honey, come here.” Following her motherly instinct, she pulls you into her embrace, which you can’t refuse, not when you have dearly missed being comforted by your mother.

“I loved them, Mom.” You manage to utter in between sobs as you cling desperately onto her, her arms enveloping your trembling body. “I really did, but after what they’ve done─ I can't forgive them.”

Instead of prying and demanding an elaboration from you, your parents choose to offer you more comfort, with your father now enveloping you and your mother nestling closely with each other. They allow you to release the uncontrollable, prolonging waterworks, and their presence provides you with some form of moral support.

You have lost track of time since the moment you decided to break down in front of your parents, but maybe long enough for the rays of the sunset now filtering through your window. Your sobs have finally quietened as you bask in the oddly comforting silence, remaining in their embrace.

Sniffling, you lift your head to look at them with swollen eyes and streaks of tears staining your cheeks. “Mom, Dad, there is something I have to tell you, and it is something that requires your blessing, which I hope you’ll allow me.” And so, you begin to reveal what you and Yunjin have discussed to your parents as they listen with an open mind.

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You can feel judgmental eyes latching onto your figure, unnerving you as most of the seniors occupying the seats across the wide-stretch field are highly responsible for tearing you down through the cyberharassment, which thankfully has dwindled, but there are still a few bad apples that are relentless.

Still, you can’t allow any of them to prevent you from feeling the same triumphant joy of successfully surviving four years of university as you now receive your degree on stage alongside a special reward for making it onto the director’s list due to your outstanding performance. Plus, your moral support is here ─ your parents, Wonyoung, Karina, Yunjin, the other girls, and just the few ones whose loyalty lies with you and still sticks by your side till the end.

The air is teeming with jubilation, with your peers around you rejoicing with their loved ones as the graduation ceremony is officially over. You can’t help the chuckle leaving your lips as your friends’ enthusiasm is infectious. You're now huddling with them in a group hug. You even join in with your friends and peers to throw your graduation hat in the air at the same time.

“Girls! Look at the camera here!” Your father waves to the bunch of you for attention, with your mother standing next to him, both adorning proud smiles on their faces. Erupting into fits of giggles as you all huddle, you begin to pose for the camera before your father snaps a picture of you and your friends.

“I’m so going to miss you.” Winter engulfs you in a tight hug before you eventually engage in a hugging session with the rest of your friends, all teary-eyed as you exchange words of farewell and well wishes.

Yet, in the midst of it all, your eyes sweep across the seniors in your line of sight, searching for specific individuals. You saw them earlier, and God did they look sinfully handsome even in their graduation gowns while their hair was styled impeccably, which accentuated their features.

Of course, you immediately looked away from them and used your father’s figure to shield yourself from them despite his genuine confusion at your behaviour, and thankfully, they seemed to be too occupied with the other knights to even notice you.

Your heart begins to ache, recalling their faces in your mind as you know that this will be the last time you’ll ever see them, before getting pulled away from your pensive thoughts as your father calls for you, wanting you to pose for the camera with the small bouquet of flowers and your degree in your grasp.

Minutes have stretched into hours, and instead of heading back home with your parents, you find yourself in the passenger seat while Karina drives you to the unknown destination with Wonyoung and Yunjin settled in the backseat, uncertain of where they decide to bring you, but nevertheless, the duration of the ride doesn’t last for an hour.

“Why are they not coming with us?” You inquire to Wonyoung with a frown before casting a look over your shoulder at Karina and Yunjin as they remain in the car before the two of you proceed to enter the café establishment.

“Because they’ve already heard the truth, just as I have.” Wonyoung shoots you a small smile upon seeing the confusion in your eyes. “There are two people who wanted to meet you.”

Just as Wonyoung says, you have reached the table with two vaguely familiar faces. The two of them greet you with smiles of recognition, and like a switch in your brain, you finally recognise them. Julie and Belle, who were close friends of Jinae back then.

“It’s been a long time, Y/N. You look beautiful since the last time we saw you.” Belle offers you a dashing smile as soon as you and Wonyoung take your seats across from them.

Your cheeks flush pink. “You remember me?”

“Of course. Besides, your face is hard to forget.” Julie tells you, mirroring Belle’s smile, but a peculiar emotion flickers in her gaze before her smile falters. “The real reason we wanted to meet you is to give you some form of clarity, because we’ve heard of what happened to you.”

Your eyes go crestfallen while a sad chuckle leaves your lips. “You probably saw those videos, and for that, I’m sorry, just as I’m sorry for the loss of your friend. Jinae.”

“Don’t apologise. You’re a victim just as Jinae once was.” Julie says firmly. “But to tell you the truth, Jinae wasn’t exactly innocent either.”

“What do you mean?” You frown at this, and soon anger simmers within you as you feel compelled to defend the Jinae. “She very much was, especially after getting those sex tapes of her uploaded on social media. So I know how she felt, and what’s worse is the fact that they killed her after humiliating her.” 

“That’s the thing, Y/N, they didn’t kill her.” Belle says quietly, her eyes turning crestfallen. “Yes, the leaders did upload those sex tapes back then, but they didn’t kill her. She committed suicide.”

“Wait, what?” Your eyes widen in sheer disbelief before they dart at Wonyoung, who, in return, nods her head sullenly. You redirect your attention to Julie and Belle, confusion swirling in your eyes. “I don’t understand. I thought they killed her. Someone also told me that there was evidence that they were the ones responsible for her death.”

“We have no reason to lie, Y/N. I don’t know who told you about the evidence, but the same evidence was part of Jinae’s twisted plan.” Julie heaves a sigh as she runs her fingers through her hair. “Listen, Jinae was really a good friend to us, but she got progressively worse after the whole obsession with the leaders. She would go batshit crazy whenever any girl approached the leaders, because that's how obsessive she was. We tried stopping her from assaulting those poor girls, but she adamantly refused. She wanted the leaders all to herself.”

“Maybe I’m being a heartless bitch, but I’m glad Jinae isn’t here to witness you being intimately close to the leaders, who know what would’ve happened to you, knowing Jinae’s nature.” Belle shudders at the thought. Her kind eyes meet yours, seeing apparent bafflement in your contortion, to which she offers you a small smile. “I know it’s hard to believe, especially when what you’ve gone through is similar to Jinae in some way, having your vulnerability uploaded on social platforms for the world to see, and because of that, Jinae committed suicide.”

“Jinae told us all of her plans, including her planned death, which was in retaliation against the leaders. Hence, she managed to make everyone believe that the leaders killed her.” Julie adds, and a small, wistful smile appears on her lips. “We tried stopping her, but she didn’t want to live any longer due to the humiliation, not before seeking revenge against the leaders for what they did.”

“We even reached out to the leaders themselves on the day Jinae committed, despite the fact that we felt resentment towards them. We wanted to warn them about Jinae’s plans, and if there were even some humanity left in them, we hoped that they would work with us in stopping Jinae, but it was too late by then.” Belle continues to divulge, reminiscing about the past, which only daunts her further, as evident in the shadow cast over her delicate features. “Hence, me, Julie, and our other two best friends were the concrete evidence that can attest to the leaders’ innocence.”

“Did you two ever inform the law enforcement officers about the truth?” Wonyoung decides to ask as she sees how stunned you are, her hand reaching out to rub your back soothingly.

“Oh, yes, we did, but we didn’t have concrete evidence on our hands because Jinae only verbally told us about her plan, so it was futile.” Julie rubs her face, visible lines of exhaustion are evident. “Besides, they found the leaders’ handprints all over the knives, of which Jinae was the one to use them on herself.”

“Despite how diabolical she was, she crafted her plans well. I guess her revenge worked, seeing that everyone believed that the leaders were her murderers.” Belle pauses herself, her eyes carefully studying the expression on your face. “It’s a lot to take in, I know. But I hope that you won’t pursue the path Jinae did. You should firmly trust that there are better days ahead, and all of this will pass soon.”

“Thank you.” You can only utter your gratitude while soaking their words into your brain, unable to articulate your feelings that are influenced by the tumultuous emotions within you.

Julie and Belle decide to dispel the gloomy atmosphere with another topic, to which Wonyoung goes with the flow, whereas your mind drifts off elsewhere as you try your utmost to keep up with the conversation.

Sure, a part of you feels relieved to hear that the leaders didn’t kill her, but that doesn’t mean they were entirely innocent and change the fact that your vulnerability has been exposed to the world, which was the same tactic that they pulled with Jinae. 

And so, with a heavy heart and a resolute mind, you expunge any lingering hesitation as you await the day for your departure to arrive.

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A familiar normalcy returns to your humble abode, or perhaps just a semblance of it since you still feel awkward around your mother despite the fact that you have forgiven her for the sake of your sanity. Other than that, your father has been spending more time with you as he was granted annual leaves for the past few days, but even you know that the reason behind this is because you’ll be leaving tomorrow.

Just last night, you had a talk with your parents and cried in their arms, apologising profusely to them for the firm decision you made, but as saddened as they were, your parents understood and wanted you to be happy, even if you decided to seek happiness elsewhere beyond their reach.

“Y/N, honey!” You can hear your mother calling for you from the living room, her voice manages to reach your room, where you left the door wide open.

“I’m still packing, Mom!” You tell her exasperatedly, expecting that she is going to nag at you again for packing your clothes and other necessities into your luggage the day before.

Placing your hands at your hips, you look around at the mess you have made, your lips pursing. Clothes, shoes, and other necessities are strewn across the floor while your luggage is positioned in the middle of the room, having been opened with only two medium zip-lock bags, which you stuffed your clothes inside so your luggage will have more space for you to put other things.

Honestly, you don’t have to pack a lot of things, especially clothes, since, according to Yunjin, you’ll be going shopping with her for famous designer clothes by using her card. You were appalled by this, because no matter how immensely wealthy she is, you hate for her to spend her money on you. Of course, Yunjin simply dismissed your refusal and adamantly wanted to shower you with her wealth.

“Hey, kiddo.” You shift your attention to your father, who is standing by the doorway with his arms crossed over his chest and leaning against the frame. His eyes are dancing with amusement, yet there is a glinting curiosity. “Your mother called for you.”

“Tell her I’ll be quick.” You wave your father off, bending down to pick up your sweaters with the intention of stuffing them into a zip-lock bag.

“I doubt that you’ll be able to pack that quickly, baby girl.” Your father muses, his eyes following you, as you prance around with your hands full. “Besides, you have visitors.”

You halt your steps, slowly turning around to look at him with genuine confusion. “Who? Are they people I recognise?”

“I don’t know, but those boys look around your age.” Your father informs you, causing you to go frigid at the possibility of them being the ones that you don’t wish to see. “The blond one got along well with your mother, though. But honey, is there something you’re not telling me?”

“I don’t have a boyfriend, Dad, nor am I interested.” You huff, ambling towards him. “But I think I know who they are.”

With your father trailing behind you as you descend the stairs, you are greeted by the sight of three familiar faces in the living room with your mother, conversing amiably politely with her, and they even managed to make her laugh. But pure confusion is on your face.

“Y/N!” Sunoo beams with a smile as soon as you enter the living room, prompting Riki and Jungwon to shift their attention to you.

“Y/N, you didn’t tell me about these friends of yours before.” Your mother says, smiling lightly and completely oblivious to the way you tense up. “They’re here for you.”

“Your lovely mother is correct.” Sunoo tells you, a knowing glint in his eyes as he examines you while the smile on his lips persists. “How have you been doing?”

“Just peachy.” You clip with a tight smile while your icy glare burns into them. “Let’s talk outside. Mom, Dad, I’ll be back.”

You don’t wait for any of their responses as you walk briskly past them, reaching the main door and pushing it open. You hear their footsteps approaching from behind you as you guide them to the front porch.

“You know, your house is actually pretty cool. It feels homeier than mine.” Sunoo, as always the chatty one out of the trio, invites himself to take a seat on the creamed wooden swinging bench, whereas Riki takes a seat on the porch step and Jungwon is next to you. “You look a lot like your mother, but your father is quite intimidating.”

“Just cut to the chase. What do you want?” You lean your lower back against the balustrades in a self-defensive stance with your arms folded below your chest, while the scowl on your face shows a distinct hostility towards them being closely associated with the leaders. “Are you here to torment me with your goading just like the others? At least you have the audacity to do it in my face.”

“Woah, relax. Don’t get your pants twisted.” Sunoo puts his hands up in a mocking surrender, earning a head shake from Riki at his usual antics. “I thought we were friends, darling. So why the hostility towards us?”

“What Sunoo meant to say instead is that there is something important you should know.” Jungwon intervenes as he casts a brief glare at his best friend before looking at you, his eyes hold such solemnity that it compels you to listen. “They didn’t upload those pictures and videos.”

A scoff leaves your lips before you can stop it. “Do you really expect me to believe that? When they themselves uploaded those contents to their own social accounts?”

“Yes, because it wasn’t their fault. Their accounts were hacked.” Jungwon bites back, his feline-like eyes glaring intimidatingly into your icy ones. “They’ve been framed and backstabbed by their trusted knights. They would never have hurt you in any way.”

“He’s right, Y/N.” Any traces of whimsicality are erased from Sunoo’s countenance; his tone sounds as sombre as Jungwon’s. “Hell, I don’t know anything about love, or maybe they’re just obsessed with you, but I know for a fact that you mean a lot to them.”

You unfold your arms and allow them to fall to the sides, your fist clenching as you try your utmost to control the tumultuous emotions that have roused from the bay while tears prickle in your glaring eyes. “I don’t believe you. Even if they weren’t the ones who uploaded them, it doesn’t change the fact that they lied to me when I already told them that I wanted those to be deleted in the first place. So whatever you have to say to me, I’m not listening anymore.”

You pivot on your heels and brush coldly past Jungwon with the intention to head inside your house, but Riki’s tall, imposing figure startles you as he blocks your way, his callous eyes penetrating into yours while he takes intimidating steps towards you, causing you to back away from him.

Before you can make your next move, Riki halts his steps to retrieve his phone from his pocket and swipes on the screen busily with a monotonous countenance before looking back at you. “Listen.” He commands lowly, giving you his phone, which you hesitantly grab from him.

You swallow harshly, feeling defeated as you make your way to the bench, while Sunoo pats on the empty seat next to him delightfully, causing you to roll your eyes at him. As soon as you are seated, you look at Riki’s phone with a curious frown before pressing on the play button and listening to whatever has been recorded.

Let’s just say it takes you longer than intended to listen to the entire recording, especially when you need some interval for their words to absorb into your pounding head before continuing to listen with the strings in your heart tugging in such a way.

But the revelation that shocks you the most as it sends you a jarring sensation is the true mastermind for the mayhem since the night you were captured by the ones you never would have expected.

Another slash on your wounded heart while tears prickle in your eyes, hearing his voice that is filled with such profound hatred. Pushing his betrayal aside, you begin to put the right pieces together as soon as the recording ends, prompting you to return the phone to Riki.

“I can’t believe that Beomgyu would do this.” You speak up after a couple beats of silence, blinking away the tears in your eyes and releasing a shaky breath.

“We couldn’t believe it either after we discovered that he also turned out to be your anonymous texter, but he used another of Taehyun’s devices, which was why we initially thought that Taehyun was the one instead of Beomgyu.” Sunoo says, and a scornful scowl etches on his face.

As you recall the past interaction you had with anonymous, who is Beomgyu, it finally makes sense why he seemingly appeared as the good guy with the pure intention of wanting to lead you astray from the leaders when, in actuality, it was all part of his plan to influence and poison you with ill-thoughts so you would develop such mistrust towards them while he was waiting for the perfect time to strike.

What’s even more revolting is the fact that he and his rebellion had hidden cameras implemented perfectly in their rooms and other parts of the palace, which was why he had the upper hand because he was always watching your every move.

But then, as another thought comes to your mind, your eyes turn crestfallen. “Why didn’t they come and reveal the truth to me instead?” You ask while the tremor in your voice is palpable pain.

“Because they knew that you needed space, even if the distance was killing them.” Jungwon answers sombrely, standing from across you as he leans back against the balustrade. “Besides, if they had come to you instead, would you have even listened to what they had to say?”

You look away from Jungwon’s knowing gaze, only to meet Riki’s sharp ones. “After what happened to you, your feelings are valid, and I agree that they shouldn’t have lied to you.” Riki, once again, takes you by surprise as he finally speaks more than one word to you. His eyes soften just slightly upon seeing the heartache shine in yours. “But please don’t hate them any longer.”

You look down at your curled fists on your lap, silence engulfing you while your mind is once again in a tumult with a cacophony of thoughts, and your beating heart has a palpable yearning despite the wounds it bears. But you have long since made up your mind.

Mustering courage, you return your gaze to their attentive ones. “Tonight’s my last night in Seoul.” As soon as those words leave your mouth, the three of them look equally bewildered, their eyes widening at the slightest fraction.

“What do you mean?” Sunoo scoffs out in disbelief. “Listen, I know that they’ve hurt you, but you don’t have to─”

“It’s not just about them, Sunoo.” You cut him off sternly, distracting yourself from the palpable heartache in your chest as you try your utmost to be strong-willed. “Being back with my parents is great, and I love them, but I can’t stay here any longer. I need a new change of scenery and to find new happiness somewhere else that doesn’t require me to depend on anyone. I want this. This is for me.”

“Y/N…” Jungwon sighs, but you intervene, your now-teary eyes conveying a silent plea that has his eyes softened.

“I’m begging you. Please don’t tell them.” You look at each of them while they exchange wary glances. “I know I don’t mean anything to you, but please don’t ruin this for me by telling them.”

“Just tell us one thing.” Sunoo’s stern eyes capture yours in unwavering contact. “Are you moving far from here? Or will you be anywhere in Sokor?”

“Yes and no.” You answer steadily. “I won’t tell you where exactly I’m going, but it is where I’ve always dreamed of travelling to.”

“Alright. We won’t tell them. You have my word.” Riki reassures you, giving you a small smile before his eyes trail to his best friends, hardening with resolve. “We won’t tell them, right?”

“Yes, yes. Don’t need to look at us like that.” Sunoo rolls his eyes at him, whereas Jungwon gives a reluctant nod. “By the way, before we go, we have a surprise gift for you.”

“And since you’re leaving, call it our farewell gift.” Jungwon casts you a grin, causing you to feel wary as you see a gleam of devilry in his eyes.

Soon enough, the three of them guide you to Jungwon’s car as you trail behind them like a clueless duck, wondering what sort of gift, or maybe a prank, since they are also known for being pranksters.

“Wait here.” Riki murmurs to you just as you stop behind the car.

You watch with curious eyes as the three of them head over to the right side of the car before Sunoo opens the door wide, only for Jungwon and Riki to work in tandem as they reach out for something, or rather, someone.

Your stomach begins to churn unpleasantly while your heart rate is going rapid at the sight of a familiar face as he is being held captive by Jungwon and Riki at each side. Your eyes widen at how his once-charming face is ruined by the ugly bruises and even scars. His eyes, which once held such warmth and kindness, are now filled with malevolence as he struggles in their hold, despite how evidently weak he is.

“I’ll fucking punch you if you don’t stop struggling.” Jungwon coldly snarls at him, his demeanour is so callous that it sends you shivers.

“On your knees.” Riki uses his foot to push the back of his knee, resulting in the latter falling to his knees from the impact, while Jungwon moves over to your side in case he decides to attack you unexpectedly. “Now apologise to her.” Riki says in a low rumble.

“You guys really are just a bunch of loyal dogs to your leaders, aren’t you?” He retaliates with a nasty snarl, his glaring eyes burning into theirs, and yet he doesn’t seem to be able to meet yours. “You follow your leaders blindly, even if they tell you to kill yourself.”

“And here I thought I yap too much.” Sunoo groans loudly, closing in the gap as he stands next to him, now being surrounded by the four of you. Sunoo’s fox-like eyes are glaring icily into his, with no traces of mirth on his face. “Look at her and fucking apologise. You owe her that much.”

“That’s okay if he doesn’t want to apologise. I don’t expect much from someone like him anyway.” Your voice draws his attention, and as his eyes finally meet yours, a muscle pulses in your jaw as you see no remorse in his eyes. “But I just want to know one thing. Do you feel satisfied now that you’ve ruined my reputation and my dignity, Choi Beomgyu?”

You feel your skin crawling with dread as you notice the way his eyes darken with a palpable desire, completely enamoured by you, while a sickening smile of delight smears across his bruised lips.

“You’re still beautiful as ever, Y/N.” Beomgyu says softly, his deceptive tone only intensifies the unpleasantness churning in your tummy. But then something so dark and sinister cast a shadow across his face. “But you would’ve looked even more beautiful bathed in your own blood.”

“Why this bastard─” You prevent Jungwon from delivering any punches to Beomgyu as you raise your hand, while your eyes hold no sympathy for the latter.

“You know, I would’ve felt sympathetic for your loss if it weren’t for the fact that you’re just as detrimental as your sister.” You say coldly, and you can see it in his blazing eyes that your remark provokes him. ”Even if you had apologised to me, I wouldn’t forgive you. You aren’t worthy of my forgiveness.”

Beomgyu scoffs, his lips curving into a devilish smirk, and it is as though he is wearing an entirely different mask as he leers at you. “I don’t need forgiveness, especially from someone like you.” His tone drips with venom, conveying his contempt for you. “You’re nothing but a worthless Catholic slut who spreads her legs for anyone who gives you the slightest bit of affection. It’s really pathetic how desperate you are─”

The three of them never see this coming, because one moment you are staring down at Beomgyu with an air of eerie calmness, and the next, you land a hard punch to his face, sending his head flung to the side from the impact while the rest go flinching.

You remain composed despite your knuckles aching. “You might want to say that to your dead sister too. But the only difference between me and her is that I didn’t get batshit crazy if they didn’t give me attention.” A smirk touches your lips while your eyes glint with an unfamiliar cruelty. “So, who really is the desperate one now?”

“You fucking bitch!” Like a rabid dog, Beomgyu lets out a loud snarl, nearly lunging for you if it weren’t for Sunoo and Riki holding him down from each side. “Just wait, Y/N Kang! I’ll finish where I left off, and I will succeed in killing you!”

“Not on our watch, you won’t.” Jungwon smirks before landing a punch to Beomgyu’s face, and this time, knocking him out cold as he falls to the ground with a thud.

“Don’t worry. He won’t be able to touch you, let alone find you.” Riki reassures you after seeing a flicker of concern in your eyes. The small smile on his lips alleviates your perturbation as he pats your shoulder. “Wherever you go, we wish you the best in your future endeavours.”

“Thank you, Riki.” You take him by surprise when you give him a friendly side hug, to which he briefly reciprocates before you shift your attention to a pouty Sunoo and Jungwon.

“So, this really is a goodbye, huh?” Sunoo says, his tone sounding foreignly sincere, as does his softened gaze. “It was nice knowing you, Y/N.”

“It won’t hurt for you to come back to Seoul for next year’s Devil’s Night hosted by us since we’re going to be the official leaders soon.” Jungwon smirks, his dimple becoming prominent on his cheek.

“No thanks. This year’s Devil Night was already traumatising enough.” You politely decline, earning you whines from them, even Riki. “Guys, I’m sure by then you’re going to forget about me, just as they’re going to.” You say shakily, swallowing a painful lump in your throat at the thought.

“Are you kidding? No way. You’re unforgettable, darling.” Sunoo sends you a flirtatious wink with a boyish grin on his lips, causing you to roll your eyes at him. “But seriously, Y/N, I don’t think they would ever forget about you.”

You don’t respond, uncertain of what to say. After giving each of them friendly hugs, including Riki, who bashfully claims that your hug feels comforting as he looks away from your eyes, you watch as they enter the car with an unconscious Beomgyu in the trunk before they speed off from your neighbourhood street.

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The day you have been waiting for has finally dawned, and a new adventure awaits you in just a few hours. The entirety of Incheon International Airport is bustling with both citizens and foreigners as soon as you arrive alongside Yunjin, your parents, Wonyoung, Karina, and a few of your inner circle. Despite how early it is for them, they wish to send you and Yunjin off and bid their last farewells.

Families and friends in your vicinity are bidding heartfelt farewell to their loved ones, including yours. Although no tears are shed this time, an air of melancholy that accompanies the bittersweet feeling is palpable as it brings heartaches, or perhaps the wisdom behind this is not only because you are leaving your family and friends, but because you will be leaving the four men who have ever made you feel special and loved in this lifetime, even if it’s the intoxicating kind of love.

Once again, your heart and mind are in dissonance, causing you to feel a weight on your shoulders as your steps begin to slow down before you look over your shoulder to see your parents and friends waving at both you and Yunjin with big smiles on their faces, but you can’t seem to lift a smile of your own.

Naturally, your eyes begin to sweep across the bustling crowd for specific individuals, to which your rationality is berating you for hopelessly searching for the ones who turned your life upside down and led you astray from the path you had already created for yourself at the start of university, the ones who have changed you, and as a result, you have willingly allowed a transformative change in you for the worst.

But you can’t deny the fact that they added colour to your life, and in a way, the change in you is a blessing as well. Perhaps it was the consequences of allowing them to influence you with their intoxicating ways, but you feel as though there are two contrasting sides to you: light and darkness. The light is a beacon to guide you to the right path and inspire you to act virtuously, while the darkness is an abyss where ignorance, depravity, and other qualities that often tempt you to become the worst version of yourself lie. It is a perfect balance.

“Y/N?” Yunjin’s voice draws your attention as you force yourself to tear your gaze off the surroundings while disappointment seeps through you before you silently berate yourself for it, because after all, they had no idea that you would be leaving for good.

“Are you okay? Do you have second thoughts about it?” Yunjin asks gently, her kind eyes balming your frayed nerves, but it can’t be said the same for the tremendous ache in your heart that still bears the wound caused by them, yet it yearns for them.

Your eyes harden with resolution as you shake your head, clutching the telescopic handle before you pull your luggage to advance forward, now falling in the same steps as her. “No, I don’t. I was just looking at my parents and our friends for the last time.” You answer in a neutral tone, reassuring Yunjin with a small smile.

What are you doing? And more importantly, why are you even thinking of them to the point where it almost has you in a moment of reconsideration? You wanted this, and you were adamant about it. You didn’t want to be in this environment any longer, knowing that they could easily reach out to you again. 

So for the sake of your sanity, you gladly embark on a new journey as you and Yunjin now enter the departure hall to get to the right terminal, anticipating what future awaits you in your new life at the place you have dreamed of living ever since. 

As you finally settle in your allotted seat, which is next to the window, your eyes follow the movements of the raindrops cascading down in droplets on the window. You lean your back comfortably in your seat while the commotion from the other passengers alighting and settling in their seats fades out in the background as you mentally dissociate yourself from reality for some inner peace.

But soon enough, the semblance of tranquillity immediately shatters when their faces appear in your mind once more, and this time, your eyes spring up with uninhibited tears before they trickle down your cheeks as you grieve in complete silence.

Perhaps it’s a positive grievance that you are no longer tethered to them and have no reason to look back now. You are finally free ─ free from heartbreak, free from your past, free from them.

Tears continue their descent on you as you bury the bittersweet painful memories in the depths of your mind, or at best, erase them from your memory after you have the mental capacity to do so.

As the plane finally takes off, you bid a silent goodbye to them. A wistful smile touches your lips faintly as you shed the last of your tears in silence.

Goodbye. All of you were the most wonderful experiences I’ve ever had in this lifetime. 

However, little do you know that fate has something twisted in store for you once more.

TAGLIST: @aishigrey @kgneptun @b3tt7boop @smg-valeria @lhspeachie @enhaverse713586 @strxwbloody @firstclassjaylee @jwnghyuns @deobitifull @loumin908 @sousydive @pinkkami @skzenhalove @caravm @shinrjj @loljaeyunz @star4rin @yorukoshii @nshmrarki @lol6sposts @lilyuwon @enha-crumbs @slut4hee @capri-cuntz @kaykay11sworld @firesunflames @notevenheretbh1 @parksunghoonsgf @luvkpopp @superbbananananana @eastleighsblog @in-somnias-world @nyxtwixx @theresawtf @fuxktaekook @readbyjjk @yunhoswrldddd @fuxktaekook @bobaikeu @minjaexvz @heelariously @hoonsdrnkdzd @iveivory @pinkielina @criminaluvr @punchbug9-blog

Reblog and put your bisexual awakening(s) in the tags. Can be fictional, real life, or both. It’s your choice!

"If you keep putting water in a bathtub, it's going to overflow. That's all it can take"

-Namjoon

Fuckboi!hoseok that nobody asked for

What it’s like to be a BokuAka shipper

Comenting every screenshot with Akaashi and Bokuto and picking out even the smallest details because a manga pannel is very much analysed before being released

“We are the protragonists of the world”

Akaashi is gay and Bokuto is bisexual/pansexual

Saying 40 times a day “They’re canon”

Bokuto and Akaashi went on a romantic date after the MSBY-Adlers match

You always win, because there is so much content with them in the manga that will be animated, not to mention the official art, the fanart and the fanfics, damn good food

Almost nonexistent angst (in the canon), pure shared feelings

Being happy when the anime makes some scenes look even softer

Akaashi is looking?at?Bokuto?all?the?time? in the official art, like mf chill you’re too obvious and I’m jealous I can’t be this openly gay too

They’re so cute, how can you not pick the hints?

This is what's going on inside my head.

1. Yes they have to fight, 2. Tell me who’s fighting who in the tags! (I’ll add the most ridiculous combos in a reblog)

my hopes are so high that your kiss might kill me, so wont you kill me? so i die happy. /lyr

Game Over || jjk

⇢ pairing: jungkook x reader  ⇢ genre: smut, fluff ⇢ word count: 5k ⇢ theme: domestic couple au, tattooed+pierced!jk, gamer!jk, bf!jk the whole shabang ⇢ warnings: rough sex, choking, slight degradation, a pinch of size kink, there’s like one spank thrown in there ⇢ summary: You try your hand at a certain TikTok trend using your boyfriend. 

@gukkism​ this is still your fault it’s literally 5:45am and @strawbxxymilk​ i hope you cry while reading this (in a good way tho) p.s. this is unedited bc it’s 5:45am okayspareme

You honestly never were too into TikTok. It wasn’t like you hated it, no; you spent too many nights watching TikTok compilations on YouTube to say that you didn’t. You never bothered to download the application though, you would rather just stick to looking up the funny compilations for now and stay away from some of the cringe worthy content that could potentially be thrown in your face.

However, everything that happened on there would get so viral to the point that it reached everywhere and you would keep getting recommended these short videos through Instagram and at some points it started annoying you. You didn’t understand these trends, how or why they started, why people enjoyed making them or why others enjoyed watching them, but to each their own you guessed, and you left it at that for a long time. Until one particular trend had caught your attention.

It wasn’t a dance thing, you were too clumsy and uncoordinated to manage to do that no matter how simple they seemed. It wasn’t a lip-syncing thing because you never understood the hype about that. It wasn’t lip-syncing to acting scenes either because your mother would surely shake her head in disappointment at you if she ever found out you were lip-syncing to a movie scene. No. it was something far simpler and more fun and required a skill that you had on lock-down with months of practice.

Said skill: getting naked for your boyfriend.

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