𝒅𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒈𝒐 𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒂𝒏𝒆

he watches the sigh part from her lips. "of course you did." nodding, "that bleeding heart of yours. not that i'm complaining; i got my free blueberries out of the deal. you're a professional at giving things away and working for free." he pushes his knee forward to bump into her leg in an off-handed manner (playful, though its understated). it's the same as her business; if she could give everything away for free she would, profit be damned. same with her time, the effort she makes for others as though the world deserved her kindness, even when they hadn't asked she delivers.

joon wonders if she would give away more things the same bit easily. his pessimistic nature insists upon wondering if there are men she had come to give pieces to herself to. would they take it greedily? how many people had taken advantage of her kindness, he glowers a bit at the thought— his expression had gone serious and far off for a moment, a breath of time before he blinked it away and schooled himself back to aloofness.

his gaze continued to feather over her in an attempt to ground himself; her eyes, lips, that tuft of her silky hair that had fallen over her cheek when she flopped down. (his fingers twitch but don't move). "i know. i don't seem like the type to say things like that." he shrugs, sliding down next to her (after she'd bumped him with her foot and he cut her a lighthearted mock glare), he folded his arm beneath his head and laid with her on his side. "i'm a multifaceted man, despite what people think of me." he's making a joke, but there might be some truth to it.

he folds his incredibly long legs up and his knees find a place to call home in whatever space her legs allow. laying down, their exceptional height gap closes a bit. they're eye to eye, his legs are drawn, they're occupying the same space in more ways than one.

yeonchella was a good example of that, when she had learned that there were more people in her life that cared for her and would offer her assistance without her requesting it first. maybe she's just gotten lucky with the people that she's chosen to surround herself with.

"you benefited, so i don't think you should be mad about it," she says with a laugh, nudging him and she turns a little onto her side, gazing up at him. from her spot, and how he's laid next to her, he doesn't feel as far away as usual.

not just mentioning their usual height difference, but also how he acts when they're at school. how he holds himself, and how others view him.

like this. right now. it feels different. like they're a bit more equal in footing than usual.

closer, somehow.

"you're doing the serious thing again," jiahn says, her voice a bit softer than her teasing words from before, reaching out to gently poke his cheek. because she can, and she knows he'll let her do it, despite it almost feeling like she's committing a crime somehow. she lets out a quiet sigh, stretching her legs and arms out, straight up in the air. it's a silly movement, and she feels silly immediately after but she just laughs quietly to herself.

she already knows that she'll probably be there with him, if he's in the b612 dorm common room, though she doubts she'll be studying. maybe finding something else to crochet, or some other craft to do and make a ton of to sell eventually. seeing the boyish expression on his lips makes her smile, and she resists the urge to reach out and cup his cheek with her hand. their faces are too close right now and she has to look away.

there's a hitch to her voice, light but present and pretty, and his gaze flicks all over her face to catch any nuances of why it happened. he turns up sadly nothing... as well as he's come to know jiahn, her why's allude him at times.

his expression is softer in the lowlight of the treehouse, a hazy warmth that hides in the dark of his eyes. "it is ok to nap; especially when i'm there to make sure no one bothers you." he admits it a bit easily, because he had been doing so (sitting as her bulwark at the table in the dorm room) for far longer than he had any semblance of feelings for her. even as a friend he watched over her (he doesn't take the time to wonder why he can so easily consider the delicate differences between friendship and whatever it is he feels now). "it's less about the act of the naps and more about the where of your naps." he teases a bit.

he props himself up on his elbow next to her and with their nearness doubled, so was the warmth, for now. but her comment about the temperature later is something to consider. he isn't one for winging things, not like that; problems for later aren't his preference. but he already has a plan in mind for what to do, he simply doesn't share it, and his expression says as much. instead he just shakes his head in a nonchalant manner (entirely performative, really).

for now.

"okay, okay, fair," jiahn has to agree with that, considering that the place she had mentioned she might sleep at was the common room of the dorm area. which, was easily accessible by everyone so she can't deny that he's right in this case. even though she does want to, just to be contrary. it's fun like that, with him.

she notices in his expression that it seems he's thought of something, nudging him a little even if he doesn't give any more away. she doesn't push, deciding she'll deal with it when it comes to it eventually. if worse comes to worse, they'll probably just have to sadly walk back to the dorm area. hopefully it won't be too cold though, and she vaguely regrets not grabbing a blanket like she had been thinking about doing a while before coming.

"i," she pauses, blinking up at him and she raises an eyebrow. she's had a bit of a suspicion that he has more influence at yeonhwa than just his parents' reputation but she doesn't really have anything concrete to go off of. even the bits he gives like this aren't enough for her to piece anything together and she decides she's not going to push. "i mean, if it doesn't get you in trouble or anything," she says, slow but careful. she doesn't want him to get in trouble because of her, after all. "fine, fine."

letting out a soft sound, she flops backwards a little and she sighs afterwards, comfortable as she always is in his presence. "i was in charge of food, so i wanted to make sure everyone was fed," she admits, though she's sure he was aware, with how she was sharing desserts around with different faculties. she had even delivered freshly-cut fruit to him twice, so there was no way he didn't notice.

but... she told herself it's always good to try new things! even if she doesn't want to do them! so, with a lot of courage, she decided to persuade jiahn into coming into the haunted house with her...

granted, maybe it's not a good idea considering the two of them were scaredy cats.

hopefully this doesn't make jiahn rip up her satosugu commission.

she tried her best to keep her calm, offering to go first into the house so that she could look brave and protect her lovely unnie. but she cannot lie. the moment she entered the house and began walking into the darkness with creepy music and a laughing soundtrack playing... she knew it was internally over for her.

"jiahn-unnie-ssi, i-it's okay! we're gonna be okay!" she says as a way to reassure the other with a forced, nervous laugh. "we're gonna go through this house! and i'll protect you— AH!" she yelps as soon as she turns the corner to see... a skeleton robot waving at her.

would that be too much? she's not quite sure, but she's also kinda tempted to do it.

at least that way, she wouldn't hear anyone approaching to scare them. or maybe, that's a bad idea. she can't tell if one would be better than the other, and her brain feels frazzled enough that she doesn't think she can trust herself to make any decisions either. which is terrible, honestly.

"okay," jiahn agrees, seeing no other way out of this situation now aside from to see it through to the end. (in reality, she probably could've just asked one of the scare actors to escort them out since they were both too scared to actually do anything. but, hindsight is twenty twenty, and she's clearly not thinking straight right now.)

sooah's yelp doesn't calm her nerves down, only causing her to jump as well, eyes wide as she peeks around the corner. even knowing something was there didn't stop her from jumping, hands reaching out to cling onto the other girl's arm.

"this might've been a terrible idea," she whisper-shouts to her friend, needing to be heard over the music but not wanting to alert the scare actors to their location if possible.

one thing you wouldn't expect from dj is that he has a secret sweet tooth. growing up in america, halloween used to be one of his most favorite holidays because he enjoyed going trick-or-treating for the candy. even now, he remembers going to the nearby farms that held their fall festivals to have both the sweet yet familiar taste of hot apple cider in a cup before taking a bite of a warm donut with the same flavor. he thinks about biting into a caramel apple covered in hazelnuts... the flakiness of a delicious apple pie...

so naturally, when he heard that there was going to be a bake sale (and an autumn market, but he didn't really care about that) on sunday, he knew he had to walk around and scope the scene. he didn't want to get caught walking around in his costume with a bucket for trick-or-treating. as much as he did enjoy doing that a lot back in america, he was a child then and he's most definitely not a child now. at least for this, there's no specific age restrictions that will get him judged for wanting to have some autumn treats, right? right!

he's definitely overthinking this a bit. it really wouldn't have been a big deal if he did go trick-or-treating on friday. but whatever.

as he's walking around, taking a look at the stalls with all their crafts, he wonders when he'll start seeing all the good stuff... and that's when he finds it! a stall run by a girl... someone who he thinks he's seen before. even if she's in costume (at least he assumes she is?), he thinks he's seen her before... jiahn? he's pretty sure he's heard her name before whenever he showed up to an art club meeting, but nothing more besides that....

either way, that didn't matter. what did matter, however, was the display of delicious pastries in front of him, each labeled and marked with a specific price. now even though dj himself was financially well off though he'd never admit that to everyone, he begins to stare at the pastries seriously. as though choosing them was the most important decision in his life at this very moment.

the pop-quizzes and midterms and assignments really took a toll on her want to craft or come up with market slash vending ideas. so the last time she had tabled was literally during yeonchella when she had been helping out at the anime club's booth. which felt like a lifetime ago. so she was itching to get her own table. it had been approved relatively quickly, and she wonders vaguely if agatha had been the one to see her application again.

she makes a mental note to ask her friend if she saw her during the event.

either way though, she threw herself into finishing all her required work early so she could focus on baking the rest of the weekend. aside from stopping to submit her pumpkin and trick-or-treating a little, she mostly spent the rest of the weekend baking. especially since her newest obsession, sogum bbang, took so much longer than expected to make.

BUT. SO WORTH IT. when she had bitten into one, fresh from the oven, she had almost died, truly. ascended to heaven, or whatever. she had saved a few for herself to snack on, and to give to joon, but the rest were being packaged up to be sold. and she had even made a season flavour, adding some pumpkin. so she was absolutely ready for this market. and she had tried her best to make her own apple cider, though that had also been a lot more work than she had expected.

when sunday rolls around though, she's up nice and early to set up her table, putting up her newest rendition of her prodbyzinnia sign and making sure she had all of her business cards before she enlisted the help of a few friends to bring everything out. (who she paid with pastries, of course.) her spread looks perfect, and it gets busy the moment the market starts.

she adjusts her bow when she has a moment to breathe, taking a sip from her water bottle to soothe her throat—who knew she could yap so much about pumpkin flavoured pastries? and stardew?—before she turns and sees someone else perusing her table.

it's someone in the art club, jiahn is pretty sure, though they've never talked before.

"hi!" she greets, adjusting her overalls and smiling pleasantly. she's trying not to overshare or intrude in his decision-making but it really does look like he's overthinking some pastries. "i made everything fresh, and taste-tested them all personally," she says, wanting to reassure him that everything on her table tasted good.

"all over? you need to laugh more then, get used to it." eunwoo says, reaching over to squeeze jiahn's shoulder. she feels the same tho, that faint ache all over, but it leaves her buzzing quietly under her skin. maybe she should also laugh more, when was the last time she laughed like this with someone so openly?

she giggles again, as if to prove her own point, the little squeeze to her shoulder making her grin. its a ridiculous situation, honestly, them having traded their art and now both of them fawning over it like it's their first born child's art or something.

but that's probably the reason why it feels so refreshing. also, the lake and the view in front of them only adds to it.

"i just really like roasted marshmallows," she says, thinking about how she had made a few the night before as well, and had eaten her entire heart's desires worth of gooey marshmallows. it's also just a fun activity, and she thinks she'll have to naver search and see if there are any cafes that do the whole marshmallow roasting on the table thing in seoul for her to check out when she gets back.

it's just a sad thought that she would have to go camping of some sort to get this experience again.

she manages to get to five while stella is chatting though, having roasted two marshmallows at once. there isn't really hope to get past it though, the layers all shifting and sliding about because of the melted marshmallows, though the bottom layers seem to be firming up.

roasting marshmallows in the company of a friend reminded her of her childhood memories back in the us. the sweet scent of roasted marshmallows enveloping the air, the heat of the flames gently warming the extremities of her fingers, the laughs of her brother with their friends in the background as they built up their towers, chocolate melting between layers — the whole thing made her nostalgic.

she actually disliked going camping and hadn't enjoyed the whole trip as much as she'd expected, but that moment, — a simple, banal moment — had warmed her heart in a certain way and she genuinely enjoyed it.

stella was about to start eating what was  left of her tower of s'mores when jianh held her plate up triumphantly in front of her, remarking that, in fact she had five layers and not three, as stella had previously claimed.

"oh well, i got six," what was left of those six layers, but still. "congrats on your fifth layer, i'm—" stella doesn’t even have time to finish her sentence before jianh's tower collapses as well.

the timing was hilarious, to say the least.

the brunette stares at the sliding mess now sitting on jianh's plate, struggling to hold back her laugh.