#nct writings

jungwoo: you weren’t really much of a shopaholic, but your boyfriend insisted on going to mall for a shopping spree on a random saturday morning. hand in hand, you walked up and down, in and out of the dozens of stores in the mall. jungwoo kept picking out outfits and shoes for you to try on and buying every single one of the ones you (and he) liked. you guys stopped in the food court for a little break, and you couldn’t help but feel a warm feeling in your chest seeing just how happy he looked getting to spend time with you doing normal couple things.

“are you having a good time?” you ask, taking a fry from the basket you guys were sharing.

he nods, biting into his sandwich, “of course. i love getting to spend time with you.”

you laugh, “you know we could’ve spent time at home together.”

“yeah but, i wanted to spoil you for a change.” he shrugged.

and spoiling you he was. you guys finished your food, heading toward the exit of the mall with all your shopping bags before he stops you.

“let’s go in here really quick.” he points toward a small, but luxury looking jewelry store. you follow him in as you guys browse around the shop. it was then that you saw the prettiest ring you’d ever seen in your life. he noticed you stopped, following your gaze to where it stopped.

he smiled to himself, “that’s really pretty. do you like it?”

you nodded, looking up at him “it’s so gorgeous. i love it.”

“me too.” he laughed. “come on, let’s go home.”

he tugged on your hand, getting you away from the ring and any thoughts that were circling in your head. little did you know he was only days away from giving you that same ring and making you the happiest person alive. 

mark: you set down the picnic basket as mark laid the blanket out on the grassy area you picked. you lowered your toddler down as you settled onto the blanket while your husband unpacked the goodies from the basket. it was family day and mark just happened to have the day off from his otherwise overpacked schedule, so you guys decided to spend it like a “normal” family. the sun peeked through the leaves of the trees, highlighting the matching brown hues of your husband and toddler’s hair. you smiled as he attempted to feed the young child who was too preoccupied playing with the toy mark got them for their third birthday a couple of months ago. he sighs, putting down the carrots on the plate and looking up at you.

“i should’ve never bought them that toy.” he shakes his head, making you laugh.

“now you know how i feel.”

he moves the child from his lap to the middle of the blanket, so he can get up and reposition himself so that he’s sitting behind you now. he wraps his arms around your waist, setting his chin on your shoulder as you both watch your child playing with his favorite toy. their nose crinkles up every time he laughs, and their eyes widen as their mouth makes an “o” shape any time they’re surprised, just like your husband’s. you were lost in thought until mark broke the silence.

“this is nice.” he whispers lowly.

you hum in agreement, “these are my favorite days. when we get to just spend time together like a family.”

he giggles, moving his arms so he can interlace your fingers together. “mine too.”

haechan: it was already late when you came over to haechan’s after he got back from dance practice. you had been there for over two hours now and the most attention he had given you was a quick kiss when he let you in. you were kind of annoyed that he invited you over just to ignore you to play games with his friends so you finally decided to leave and see him another time. somehow he heard you get up though.

“where are you going?” he questions, hearing you get up from his bed.

“home. you’re not even paying attention to me.”

he tells his teammates to hold on, taking off his headphones and swiveling around in his chair so he’s facing you.

“C’mere.” he opens his arms, calling for you.

you roll your eyes, making your way over and sitting in his lap. he wraps one arm around your back, as his other comes up to move a loose hair that was falling over your eye.

“i promise after this round, i’m all yours. so please don’t go, when i’m done, we can do whatever you want.”

you raise your brow suggestively, “anything i want?”

his eyes lower to your lips before coming back up to meet yours, “anything.”

“okay fine.” you smiled, attempting to get up from his lap, but he pulls you back down with both hands.

“I’m just saying, you don’t have to be clingy here when some people are trying to watch TV in peace.”

Y/n sighed, turning her head to face Mark. “You wanna go to your room?” she asked him quietly. “You can be as clingy as you want there.”

Mark whined, tucking himself further into her, but a few pokes and prods later, he was groaning and pulling back. “Don’t wanna move,” he mumbled. “I’m too tired.”

“Too tired?” she asked him with a weird tone in her voice. “Today, of all days, you’re too tired?”

It took him a second to process what she meant, but when he did, his eyes widened to the size of golf balls. “Today is Saturday,” he muttered, ignoring the way she giggled at his realization. “Okay, okay, let’s go,” he finally said, clambering off of her and tugging her to her feet. She laughed at his sudden energy, avoiding Baekhyun’s curious gaze as Mark took her hand and started to drag her to the stairs.

“Have fun, kids!” Baekhyun called after them, chuckling as they disappeared up the stairs before looking back at Ten, who was sending him a smirk.

“They’re going up there to fuck.”

“Oh, of course they are.”

Y/n giggled when Mark fumbled to close the door behind her, stammering wildly as he stared at the lock he’d just turned. “Um, I… fuck, uh… how… how do we start?”

“Start?” she repeated.

“Yeah, like… start.” He finally turned his head to her, his heart sinking when he found her expression cold and serious. “Sorry, am I… am I jumping the gun a little?”

“No—”

“If you changed your mind, we don’t have to do anything, seriously, I just thought—”

“Mark, wait,” she said, stepping a little closer to him and staring pointedly at his hand while she fought with herself on whether to reach out and grab it or not. Eventually, she settled on clutching onto the edge of his sleeve, and Mark’s hand almost instantly curled up to hold her forearm comfortingly. “I never changed my mind. I still… really want to do this. I just don’t want you to jump into it too quickly.” He was quiet for a moment, not really knowing what to say. “You know, it’s… your virginity. I figure it means a lot to you.”

“It does.”

“Then…”

Mark inched himself closer to her when she struggled to find her words. “Then what?”

She shook her head, still refusing to meet his eyes. “Just… I want you to be sure that this is what you want. And I know you’ll stand here for however long it takes to convince me that it is, but… but no matter how much you want me because of the imprint, I don’t want this to be you getting it over with before your rut. I want you to enjoy it. You deserve to enjoy it.”

Mark took a long breath, squeezing Y/n’s arm before pulling his hand back down to thread his fingers through hers. “I’d be lying to you if I said it wasn’t… partly because of next week.”

“Mark—”

“But I do want this. And I’m ready. And I want it to be you that takes it, more than anything else in the world, okay? I trust you, you know? To… take care of me. I’m not going to regret it or wish I’d waited. I want you… so bad. And that’s literally never going to change.”

She was quiet for another few moments. “You’re… sure.”

And he smiled at her. “Positive.”

“Then… yeah,” she said, finally looking up at him and grinning. “We can start.”

“Okay.” And they stood there, neither of them daring to move an inch until Mark broke the silence again with a chuckle. “How?”

“I don’t know!” she laughed, squeezing his hand as her smile widened. “I don’t usually… plan sex like this. Maybe we… I don’t know, Mark, you could, like…”

He huffed out a heavy breath, tugging her a little closer. “Can we just kiss?”

“Yeah,” she replied with a nod, shivering under his touch as his hand left hers and dragged up the side of her sweater-covered arm to the side of her face. “Yeah, I think that works.”

He nodded. “Okay.” And then his lips were on hers, soft and tender just to test the waters. She sighed against him, her arms coiling around his neck the moment their lips touched. It was slow—Mark never moved too quickly when he initiated things—but that was exactly how they liked it, at some leisurely pace that let both of them sink into each other’s arms.

Mark chuckled breathily when he pulled away, keeping his eyes shut as he rested his head against hers. “I’m really glad I wore sweats today,” he muttered.

“Why?”

He smiled sheepishly, reaching down to hold her hips in his hands and tug their bodies together. He sighed shakily when their hips met, a chill running up his spine at the little whimper that fell from Y/n’s lips. “That’s why.”

“You’re hard just from kissing me?” she giggled.

“I’m hard from thinking about what’s gonna happen tonight,” he scoffed, fingers digging into her hips. “But it… wouldn’t be the first time kissing you riled me up like this.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Shut up about it,” he whined, laughing and kissing her again. “You just… do things to me.”

She didn’t reply, instead pulling back to look at him as her right hand drew forward to caress his jaw. Mark’s eyes were already glazed over, practically sparkling as the moon peeked in from his bedroom window and gave them a little light. “Things?”

He snorted. “Do you feel my dick right now?”

“I feel it,” she replied with a laugh, wiggling her hips against his and watching the way his eyes fell shut at the pressure.

“S-Stop,” he breathed, but he instantly regretted it when her eyes widened and she teasingly stepped back from him. “Wait, no, I didn’t mean…” She was laughing before he could finish, scurrying back into his arms and tilting her head up to press a soft little kiss against the side of his neck. Mark hummed, holding her closer as his arms curled around her body.

“You’re so cute,” she giggled, smiling even harder when he groaned again. “You are!”

“I’m not.”

“You’re adorable.” Mark was close to stomping his feet and pouting at the way she cooed at him, his head tucked into her shoulder in embarrassment as she laughed brightly at him. “If you don’t like it,” she murmured into his ear, her voice low and sultry, “then do something about it.”

“Dude, I—” Mark cut himself off, squirming out of Y/n’s arms and pacing in a circle before pointing his finger at her. “I’m too awkward to do anything about it and you know it.”

She hummed in amusement, smirking at the crisis he seemed to be going through. “I’ll give you a pass since it’s your first time.”

Mark scoffed dramatically, trudging to his bed and flopping down on it. “That’s supposed to make me feel better?” he asked, crawling around until his face was buried in his pillows. “Forget the sex if you’re gonna make fun of me the whole time—”

“Mark, that’s not what I was trying to do,” she said, making her way over to him and perching her knee on the side of his bed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think you’d take the cute thing this seriously. If it really bothers you… I can stop. I won’t do it anymore.” He rolled over onto his back, pouting at her.

“It’s not that, not exactly,” he grumbled, staring up at the ceiling. “I’m just trying to build up my confidence, and all of the cute stuff just makes me feel like… like I won’t be good enough for you. Is that weird?”

“Weird that you’re thinking it? No,” she answered, lowering herself down to his side and squeezing in next to him as his eyes lazily followed her. “But I think it’s a bit odd that you believe it.” Mark was about to open his mouth and retort, but she cut him off before he could. “You have nothing to be afraid of, okay? Nothing to be worried about. Not with me. You… trust me, right?”

“I’m just nervous—”

“And that’s fine,” she told him, cracking a smile. “I’m really nervous, too. But you can stop me whenever you want, alright? If it gets too much… we don’t have to do anything. Okay, sexy?”

Mark was about to sigh an “okay” of his own, but he realized halfway through what she’d just called him, and his eyes blew wide, his body sitting up straight in bed to meet her face. “What did you just say?”

“I called you sexy,” she answered with a snicker.

“Well, don’t force it!” Mark groaned, starting to laugh along with her. “Sexy is just weird! I’m not sexy!”

“You’re not cute, you’re not sexy,” Y/n said in exasperation, crossing her arms over her chest as Mark kicked his legs over the side of the bed. “What are you, then?”

“I dunno,” he replied, still laughing hard. “I’m just Mark.”

She snorted, moving to straddle his hips as her fingers began to thread through his hair. “Okay, just Mark. Your pet names are brilliantly creative.”

“Shut up,” he chuckled, hands finding their home on the sides of her waist and squeezing.

And she giggled, leaning in close and kissing him softly. “Weirdo.” For some reason, Mark didn’t find himself arguing with that one, instead rolling his eyes with a growing grin on his face. “Am I forgiven?”

He exhaled slowly, pretending to think about his answer. “I guess so,” he eventually said, “but I still think you have to make it up to me.”

“Oh?” Y/n replied with a chuckle. “How can I make it up to you?” She felt her heart jump as Mark leaned into her, his lips closing in on her neck and trailing softly up to her ear, his hands tightening their grip on her sides as his fingers slipped under the hem of her sweater.

“Let me eat you out this time,” he mumbled, sending chills up her spine. “Wanna taste you.”

She felt herself nodding before the words could even fall from her lips. “Okay,” she breathed, heart leaping in her chest. “Yeah, I’d like that.”

Mark sunk against the bend of her neck and shoulder, cringing at himself. “That was so painful to say without cracking,” he laughed, yanking his head up and looking her in the eye as he drew one of his hands to the side of her face. “Sexy enough for you?”

“I’m sure you can feel how hot my face is,” she replied, leaning into his palm. Mark chuckled, running his thumb over her cheekbone. “But to be honest, you could’ve asked to fuck me with your tongue in the most awkward and embarrassing way possible, and it still would’ve caused this reaction.”

“Don’t overexaggerate.”

“I wasn’t kidding when I said it’s better than sex. It’s literally the best feeling in the world. The fact that you’re even offering is making me… I don’t even know.”

“Wet?” he finished for her meekly. She burst into a fit of giggles, nodding and rolling her eyes.

“Yes, Mark. Wet.”

“But what if I’m bad at it?” he asked, chewing on his bottom lip. “You seem to have… really high expectations.”

Y/n cocked an eyebrow at him. “Do you produce saliva?”

“…Yes.”

“Is the inside of your mouth warmer than the air in here?”

“…Probably.”

“Then you’ll do fine,” she assured, ghosting her lips against his. “It’s more about the feeling than the technique. You can’t be bad at it. Besides,” she said with a finger lifting to smudge across his bottom lip, “it’s sort of all I’ve been thinking about all week… having these lips down there.”

Mark gulped. “Seriously?” he muttered, eyes wide as she nodded.

Y/n hummed at him. “It’s kind of ridiculous how much it’s been going through my head, actually. I’ve been beating myself up for telling you no last week.”

“Well, I… guess I’ll make up for it tonight, then.” He could feel himself stiffen against her, made all the more obvious by the surprised shift of her hips when she felt him twitch beneath her. He was entranced by the soft gasp she let out at the feeling, at the way her lips hovered just out of his reach, begging to be kissed. And all Mark could think of was how lucky he’d gotten, how incredibly fortunate he was to be able to call her his.

“I wanna touch you,” he admitted quietly, hands sliding down her sides and resting on her thighs. “Can I touch you?” She nodded, breathing out slowly. “Where?”

And she smiled, resting her own hands on top of his. “Anywhere,” she replied, smiling softly. “Everywhere.”

“That’s vague,” he grumbled, uncomfortably running his fingers over her thighs as his eyes slowly raked over her. “I don’t— You… you gotta help me—”

But it was like she was a few steps ahead of him, smiling gently and taking his hands in hers to give them a squeeze. “You can start here,” she whispered, guiding his fingers to rest faintly across her collarbone. “Just work your way down whenever you’re comfortable with it.”

His fingers were soft against her clavicle, practically trembling from anxiety and anticipation. “And just… hands? Or…”

“Hands,” she affirmed. “Lips, tongue, teeth, anything.” And then she brushed a few hairs away from his face, giving him a look that bordered a dangerous line between sultry and innocent as her voice dropped down to a whisper. “I’m all yours tonight, okay? Just… experiment. Get a feel for it. I’ll be right there with you.”

He nodded, finally dragging his fingers slowly across the cotton fabric of her sweater, trailing up to her neck. “How do you feel about marking?”

She felt a shiver run up her spine at the thought. “I’m not… gonna tell you no,” she said, “but I still think for full satisfaction points that you should wait for your rut.”

Mark chuckled. “Yeah, that’s fair,” he mumbled softly, ghosting his thumb over the deep fuchsia bruise that was still peeking out from the collar of her baby blue sweater. “Think I should cover his or make my own?”

She giggled. “Jealous much?”

“Yes,” he said, brow tugging into a frown. “I have to stare at his stupid handiwork every time I look at you.”

“Oh, that’s no fun,” Y/n teased, pinching at his cheek.

“He’s lucky your scent is stronger than his,” Mark muttered, leaning into her neck and tugging her collar down to get a better look. “He’d be dead if I had to smell him on you for the rest of my life.”

She smiled, fiddling with his hair. “You’re kind of hot when you’re possessive.”

Mark smirked as he pulled his head back. “Am I?”

She hummed, dragging her thumb down the center of his forehead and pressing it against the crease between his brows. “Don’t get so bent up over it,” she said with a gentle smile as she massaged the crease out. “If this thing on my neck meant anything, I wouldn’t be here right now. But I’m with you, right? That’s all that matters.”

Mark relaxed, letting his head tip back toward the ceiling as she fanned her palm over his cheek again. “You’re right,” he whispered, tugging his gaze back to her and letting his hands wander until they’d settled at the sides of her chest, clutching gently at her ribs. “This okay?” he asked, eyes flickering between her face and his hands.

She smiled. “Mhm.”

“And…” Mark found his thumbs drawing little patterns beneath the crease of her chest, sweeping them upwards as softly as he could manage until he heard her exhale shakily as the pads of his fingers ghosted across her clothed nipples. “And this?”

She giggled, rubbing at his forearms as they shook beneath her touch. “Mark, you’re fine,” she assured him. “I want this. I want you to touch me.”

“Okay,” he murmured, shaking his head in disapproval at himself. “Yeah, I’m dumb. You did say anywhere, didn’t you?”

“I did.”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry,” she chuckled, squeezing his arm to soothe it. “No more fear tonight. No more apologies. I promised I would stop you if I ever needed you to, right?” He nodded. “Right. So until that happens… I’m yours. And I want you to touch me like I am.”

“Shit,” he breathed, heart pounding at the sudden control she was giving him. And then he moved his hands, brushing by her nipples once more as he trailed down the front of her body.

His thumbs slipped slowly under the hem of her sweater, lifting it just high enough that he could stare at the supple skin that peeked out from beneath it. He wanted to pull it higher, to pull it off, but he was hesitating. “Hey,” Y/n said softly, getting his attention. “You know… you’re not signing your life away for taking my shirt off.”

Mark sighed. “I just want to make sure I’m, like, ready to take mine off… before…”

“That’s what I mean, though,” she said reassuringly. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to, whether I’m fully clothed or completely nude, okay? If you’re still too nervous—”

“No,” Mark interjected quickly, shaking his head. “No, I’m gonna do it. I have to do it.”

“Mark—”

“For myself,” he finished, sensing the way she was going to tell him not to strip for her sake. “I have to prove to myself that I can.” And his hands traveled further into her shirt, sliding up her bare stomach until they were prodding at the base of her bra. “Please,” he murmured, fingers hot on her skin, “let me prove it.”

She nodded, smiling warmly at him. “Whatever you’re comfortable with.”

His voice dropped to a whisper as he lifted his elbows, tugging the hem of her sweater with them. “Arms up.” And she obeyed, unable to conceal the smile on her face as he tugged her sweater off of her and tossed it off the foot of his bed.

Mark’s eyes twinkled when they started to flit over her newly-exposed body. She was… something else, really. Otherworldly. Mark couldn’t describe it. He mumbled out something incoherent as his hands found her again, dragging over her sides and squeezing at her waist so he could watch the skin move under his touch. And then his fingers slid upwards, slipping just underneath the band of her bra and curling around her body until he was perfectly in position to slip it off. He was losing himself, slowly but surely, and he knew he’d be gone the moment it was.

She leaned in to kiss him, sealing his fate as his nails curled ever so slightly into the skin at her ribs. Y/n sighed at the feeling, sucking Mark’s bottom lip between her teeth and tugging on it. “Off,” she breathed with a smile when she let it go, and Mark found himself swimming in the depths of her gaze as he obeyed as if in some sort of trance. She only leaned away from him for a split second as her bra slipped over her head, but she went right back to kissing him as the chilly air pricked at her newly-exposed sensitive skin.

Mark couldn’t even look at her. He was too entranced by her lips, his eyes shut in bliss as his arms looped around her sides, caging her arms to her body. With little mobility, Y/n’s hands perched at Mark’s hips to try to keep herself upright as shivers tingled down her spine from the thrill of the kiss and the wind from Kai’s shitty, too-cold air conditioner.

But Mark was warm. He always was, even when it was just his hand she was holding, or when it was late at night and she could feel his heat through his clothes as she drifted off to sleep. So she stuck close to him, perfectly content to be squeezed against his chest as he kissed her senseless.

“Touch me,” she muttered against his lips as soon as the cold air had taken its toll once more. And Mark was all too quick to oblige, his right hand slinging back around to the front of her body and sliding between their chests to carefully palm at her breast.

He was groaning in satisfaction before she was. “So fucking soft,” he thought out loud, finding himself squeezing just a little harder. “How are they so…”

She pulled back to watch his face when his eyes finally dipped down to look at her, and something about the sight of his jaw clenching and going slack in quick succession had her breathing going haywire. She watched him gulp, felt the hand on the small of her back press her just a little closer to him, heard the way he was quietly stuttering expletives as a furious blush crept up on his cheeks.

And apparently Mark felt it, too, because he was laughing awkwardly as soon as he noticed her sly little grin. “I know my face is red,” he told her. “Don’t call me cute.”

Admittedly, she had wanted to. Because he was cute—outrageously so. But she wouldn’t, for his sake, not when he had explicitly asked her not to. “I wasn’t going to,” she lied, taking her free left hand and sliding it through his hair. If Mark could tell she was lying, he didn’t mention it, his focus instead honed in on what was resting in his palm. He toyed with it slowly, carefully, watching intently the way her skin molded to his every touch like it was made of clay.

Something instinctual overcame him in that moment, some primal urge to just… be closer. So when his head dipped down to pepper kisses up the swell of her other breast, he was surprised when the hand that had smoothed his hair down threaded its fingers into his locks, squeezing the roots ever so gently as if silently asking him not to pull away.

And the fucking smell of it all… Mark was lost in some hazy cacophony made up entirely of her scent, tingles fluttering through every nerve in his body as he inhaled deeply. Her breasts caved in under the pressure of his lips, and Mark shoved down the urge to nip at them. She’d told him last week to go easy on her.

He kissed up her collarbone, up her neck, back to her face, his hands finally taking her by the jaw and holding her in place as his lips moved against hers. “Wow,” he murmured, all too aware of the feeling of her chest prodding against his as she tried desperately to hold herself closer to him. “I think I’m going crazy.” And he felt his stomach churn in delight when she smiled brightly at him, her eyes squinting in a breathy little laugh. “You okay?”

She nodded, her smile not faltering for a second. “Yeah. It’s just cold in here.”

Mark sighed, running his hands up and down her arms in an attempt to warm them up. “Sorry,” he replied. “I don’t control the temperature.”

“It’s fine,” she told him, shaking her head. “Just get me under the covers before I turn to ice.”

Just as she was about to pick herself up off of him, Mark stopped her, tugging her by the thigh to keep sitting as she sent him a confused look. “Wait, I… before you do that, let me… I…”

Y/n could sense it in him, could see the way his hands closed into fists and opened again in a slow, nervous cycle. “Hey,” she said, getting his attention. “You sure?”

He nodded. “I-I’m ready.” He went to grab the back of his neckline, just about to pull his shirt off, but he stopped himself. “Can you… actually, I, uh… I-I want you to do it,” he stuttered, slowly reaching forward to grab her hands.

“Me?” she asked him hesitantly, nearly shaking as he looped her fingers around the hem of his shirt.

He nodded. “I’m ready… but I think I might chicken out if I do it. So… please, Y/n.”

“Okay,” she whispered, watching him carefully as his eyes shut, arms moving upwards just high enough to prepare for when she started to take it off. “I’m… gonna do it now, alright?”

“Mhm.”

She found herself closing her eyes, too, when she began to lift his shirt. It was terrifying, being given this much control over something Mark was so afraid to show her. But it meant that he trusted her, and that was something that calmed her just enough to follow through with it.

Her eyes peeked open when she had Mark’s shirt bundled in her hands, but as she was about to toss it on the ground, her eyes landed on the scar on his ribcage, and she froze.

It would’ve been modest to call the thing a scar, really. It looked like an open wound, black and purple and red, cutting deep into his skin in places, tugging at his untainted skin almost to the point of giving him stretch marks. This was what he considered healed? It looked like the attack had just happened yesterday.

Mark felt her silence. It weighed heavy on him, filled the room with a tension he had tried desperately to prepare himself for but knew he’d never be ready to face. “Say something,” he mumbled, his heart pounding just a bit harder as the air grew thicker.

But she didn’t. Her voice was gone, all the air in her lungs wiped from her body at the sight of the remains of whatever horrible accident had befallen him. And she had a strong stomach—it wasn’t the gore of it that had her at a loss for words—but the sudden reality of it all had hit her like a truck.

Mark finally cracked his eyes open to gauge her reaction, and some strange mixture of horror, relief, and fear began to swirl within him when his gaze landed on her. He breathed her name, barely getting her attention. “Are you… are you crying?” he asked her softly.

She sniffed hard, averting her eyes from the scar. “Am I?” She dabbed at her cheeks to make sure.

“Don’t cry, Y/n, please don’t,” he begged, clutching at her face with his palms and smudging her tears away as she began to crumble in his arms. “Hey…”

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered pathetically, lunging forward until she was hiding in his shoulder. “I don’t… I-I don’t know what I was expecting, b-but…”

He shushed her quietly, lifting her head back up to meet her puffy eyes. “Is it that bad?”

She shook her head, hiccuping again as Mark tried to calm her down. “No, no, it’s just… I don’t think I ever realized j-just how much you went through.”

And Mark felt his heart skip a beat at her words. “Wh… What?”

Y/n inhaled sharply, crossing her arms over her bare chest to keep out the cold as she tried to explain. “I mean, I… I knew you’d been attacked, I guess? But the… the trauma you must’ve gone through, just the healing process alone, it… I never really thought about why you… why you were always so scared.”

Mark breathed out an “oh,” surprised at the outburst and still very cautious of where it would lead. “You don’t… have to cry,” he told her gently, reaching up to her face and scooping her tears with a feather-light touch of his knuckle. “I’m okay now.”

She shook her head slowly, tossing her head back to the ceiling to try to blink back her tears. “I’m sorry,” she said again, “for being so dismissive about it.”

“What?” Mark asked, confused. “You weren’t dismissive. The fact that you never treated it like something to be scared of is the only reason I had the courage to do this in the first place.”

“But…” She sniffled again, looking back down at him as he took her face in his hands, bringing her a soothing warmth. “Doesn’t it hurt you?”

Mark smiled softly at her, thumbs grazing over her cheeks rhythmically. “Not anymore,” he answered. “It did for a while, since I couldn’t really go to the hospital for it—”

“What?” she exclaimed, eyes wide. “You… you never got this looked at by a doctor?”

He shrugged. “Jess is pre-med,” he said casually. “The stuff they make for wolves is… pretty powerful. Morphine on steroids, basically. And she patched me up as best she could. But no, I couldn’t have really… explained any of this to a doctor.”

“Mark, it could get infected—”

“Look,” he said, leaning forward and silencing her with a single, gentle kiss that left her breathless. “I really appreciate how concerned you are. I’d take concern over fear or resentment or disgust any fucking day of the week, Y/n, but I’m okay. I know how it looks, but it’s healed. It’s just a scar. You don’t have to worry yourself sick over me. I mean that.”

She nodded, feeling her chest flutter when Mark kissed her one more time for good measure. “You have no idea how much it means to me… that you did this.”

He smiled, fingers gliding down her arms until he took her hands in his. “You deserved to know. And I’m… relieved that you’re not, like, running away.”

She squeezed his hands, lifting them until they were resting by his shoulders. “I promised you that nothing would change, didn’t I? I swore to you that I’d stay. I’m not taking that back. Why would I?”

“Because it’s fucking horrifying to look at?”

“Don’t say things like that, Mark,” she scolded, leaning back just a little to rake her eyes down his body again. “You’re… actually so gorgeous, it’s kind of intimidating.”

Mark made a strangled noise of confusion, his face flushing hard at her comment. “I’m not…”

“You are,” she nodded, taking her hands out of his and running them down the front of his chest, swirling to the sides and brushing over his scar as he trembled under her touch. “Every fucking inch of you.”

His voice was frail, unsure. “You… mean that?”

And she smiled. “Every word.”

And it was like weights had been thrown off of Mark’s shoulders, his heart drumming in his chest at the genuine smile on her face, that crinkle by her eyes when he smiled back at her. And then he was kissing her like his life depended on it, shivering beneath her timid fingers as they drew little patterns into his scar. “You can get under the covers now,” he told her with a heavy breath, and she laughed, like a little bell, crawling off of his lap and dropping onto her back, her head hitting his pillow with a quiet thud. “Fuck,” Mark sighed when he looked at her, at the way her hair fanned around her face, at the way her breasts sank to the sides from their weight. “You’re incredible.”

She welcomed him into her arms, unable to hide the flush on her cheeks as he slotted himself between her legs and draped himself over her, supporting himself by his elbows as he continued to kiss her senseless. The inhibitions were gone now, the fear melted away and replaced only with comfort and trust. Mark shifted his body onto one arm and used the other to trail down her body, kneading her breast and drawing soft exhales from her between kisses as her own hands squeezed at his sides.

“What do I do now?” he asked quietly, moving his hand down to her waist almost as if to test the waters, to see if she’d be okay with him traveling lower. But her response knocked the air from his lungs, his spine tingling as her hips jutted up against his in an almost involuntary show of need.

“Just touch me, Mark,” she breathed, clutching onto his left arm as it rested beside her head. “Please.”

His body was moving with a mind of its own now, his hand falling to the bottom of her thigh and starting to work its way back up. He really didn’t mean to tease, but it seemed, at least judging by the desperate face she pulled as his fingers dragged up the inside of her leg, that it was all she felt he was doing. He dipped his head down to her neck, kissing over the bruise that painted her skin; he’d be damned if he let the scent of that thing stay on her forever. And, just like it’d done the first time he’d touched her there, her whole body seemed to seize at the feeling, a broken moan tumbling from her lips. Mark hummed at the sound, his hand gripping just a little tighter at her thigh as it trailed even higher.

His fingers were edging the crux of her hip, and it was all too noticeable for Y/n, who was dragging her body in any direction she could manage to try to get his hands where she wanted them. But Mark was patient, his palm still on her inner thigh as he mindlessly suckled on her neck.

And then his fingers moved, daring to brush over the warm spot between her legs, and Mark wished he could’ve saved the sound she made. It was high-pitched and helpless, a far cry from the teasing tone she’d been giving him day in and day out for the past week. And it tossed him onto cloud nine when her hand shot to the back of his head, twisting his hair between her fingers and squeezing at the roots. “More,” she whispered, hips chasing his hand as he moved it slowly.

Mark could only nod against her, desperate to give her exactly what she wanted. So he pressed a little harder and started to rub, trying to draw from whatever shitty porn he’d watched at some point in the past. “I have a stupid question,” he murmured.

“You’re a virgin,” she told him. “There are no stupid questions when you’re a virgin.”

He chuckled softly, picking his head up to meet her glazed-over eyes. “Where… Where’s your clit?”

She smiled, nudging his shoulder a little until he was sitting back on his heels. “Help me take these off,” she said, tugging at the waistband of her sweats, and Mark was quick to grab them and slide them down her legs, feeling his mouth water at the sight of her in nothing but her little blue underwear. “So… get back where you were.” He did, his hand finding its spot on her again through the thin fabric as his eyes screwed shut from the heightened intensity of the warmth and dampness. “Okay, so… so what you’re gonna do is stay right in the middle… and just move your fingers up towards my belly button.”

“It’s that high up?”

“No,” she answered with a laugh. “I’ll tell you when to stop. You’ll know when to stop.” Mark nodded cautiously, leaning back over her body and intently watching her reaction as he dragged his fingers up.

And she was right when she said he’d know. There was a moment—brief, but one that he caught—where her entire body stiffened, thighs tightening around his hips and back arching just the slightest bit off the bed. She gnawed on her bottom lip, reaching her hands up to take Mark’s face in her palms. “Right there,” she whispered.

Mark pushed a little harder. “Here?”

And Y/n nodded. “Yeah, just… fuck, just little circles, nice and easy… just like that, fuck.”

“Okay,” he breathed, rolling his fingers over the new little spot he’d found. It was laughable how hard he was now, straining even through the comfortable stretch of his sweats. And the way she was moaning, softly and lightly, hands smoothly traveling over his body as he timidly worked hers to its limit… Mark could only have dreamt of what she’d sound like under him. But here she was, slowly crumbling to pieces… and it had him desperate for more. He groaned a little, trying to shift his weight to take some of the pressure off. “It hurts.”

“It hurts?” she repeated, snapping out of her little trance with immediate concern. “What hurts?”

Mark almost laughed at the sudden distress. “My, uh, my dick.” She glanced down, catching sight of the almost offensive tent in his pants, and her gaze softened.

“Oh,” she said, her tone mellow and soothing as her hand left his face to trickle down the side of his body. “Poor baby.” And Mark barely had another second to breathe before the air was knocked out of him as her knuckle delicately slid over the underside of his clothed cock, making him clench his jaw to muffle what would have otherwise been an embarrassing moan. “So busy making me feel good that you forgot you need to be taken care of, too?”

He could only strain out a “please,” hips trembling under her touch. She cooed at him, tugging him closer and starting to massage him through the fabric as he tried to keep his movements on her clit going. But it was hard, and things were becoming overwhelmingly hazy for Mark, who couldn’t even tell anymore what he was moaning for. “I don’t wanna cum yet,” he panted, eyes clenched tight. “Please, I don’t wanna…”

She listened to him, drawing her hand back and kissing him softly. “We can take a break if it’s too much.” But he shook his head in response. “No?” she asked. “You wanna keep going?”

He inhaled deeply, nodding. “Can I taste you?” he asked in a single breath, cupping her and almost passing out at how warm she felt.

She giggled, kissing him once more. “I thought you’d never ask.”

He smiled, shimmying his body out of her arms and making his way down to the foot of the bed. “You’re not gonna stop me this time, right?” he asked, palms slowly trailing up her bare, sensitive thighs. Y/n shook her head, exhaling shakily from anticipation. “On or off?” he asked once his fingers reached her underwear, and he played with the hem while he waited for her answer.

“You can take them off if you want,” she told him quietly. “Gets kind of a pain having to keep them tugged to the side.” And he nodded, hooking his fingers under the waistband and waiting for her to lift her hips.

Mark’s ears went red when he finished taking them off of her. Her, all of her… laid bare in front of him, dripping with need, ready and waiting… it had his cock twitching in its confines and his heart drumming in his chest. He crawled back up to her face, dropping to his elbow on top of her and kissing her deeply as his free hand splayed over her body. “You’re so beautiful,” he breathed against her, squeezing at her hip. “I can’t… I can’t believe you look like this.”

She was stunned into silence at the heartfelt compliment, eyes widening at him as her cheeks burned beneath his. “Mark…”

“I mean it. I’m really fucking lucky.”

She wanted to scold him for being so sweet. Who was he to make her feel the way she did? But she couldn’t get any words out, her throat tight and dry as she watched Mark’s eyes twinkle while they raked over her body. This… this, finally, was what it meant to feel wanted. So she dragged him into another kiss, showing her appreciation that way until she found her voice. “Thank you,” she whispered when she pulled away. “Really.”

And Mark smiled softly, pressing his lips to hers in a silent response before working his way back down to her core. And he stared at her for a moment, hands grazing over her inner thighs as he all too gently held them apart, until he cracked. “Help,” he said with a chuckle, looking up at her face. “I have no clue how to do this.”

“But you seemed so confident last week!”

He laughed when she did, throwing his head back at the ceiling. “I was running on instincts then, I don’t know! I’m… I’m nervous now!”

She smiled, reaching down to grab one of his hands. “Just take it easy, okay? Get comfortable, get in close, and just… do what feels right. I can guide you if you need me, but there’s really no, like… textbook way to do this.”

“Okay,” he agreed, shifting down to his stomach and scooting closer to her body so that his head was between her legs. The smell was too much to bear now, clogging his sinuses, so strong it felt like it was wrapping around his brain. He glanced up at her, and she nodded as if to give him the green light. And then, with all the courage he could muster, he stuck his tongue out.

It was a timid lick at first, barely enough for Y/n to even feel it, but it brought back the familiar feeling that Mark had felt last week when he had first tasted her. So he tried again, probing her hole with his tongue until she sighed. He watched her carefully, desperate for the validation. And he smiled to himself when he saw her eyes shut gently, a content little smile curling at the corners of her mouth.

He licked harder this time, and his heart throbbed in his chest at the sudden feeling of her hand clasping at the back of his head. “More,” she pleaded softly, glancing down at him and almost melting at the sight of his pupils blown wide from the taste of her. Mark wasted no time in giving it to her, his tongue starting to lap between her labia.

He could’ve died on the spot when he heard her moaning, sighing in an almost otherworldly state of bliss as her thighs clamped around the sides of his head. But he didn’t like how they were covering his ears, blocking the sound of her sweet, sweet noises from him, so he took his hands and splayed his palms over her inner thighs, nudging them further apart so he could hear her better.

“Mark,” she breathed, barely able to look down at him without her eyes rolling back in their sockets from the dedication he was putting into it. But he stopped at the sound of his name, hands massaging her thighs until she placed hers on top of his. “You can get closer. Go faster. I don’t bite, you can… you can pull me closer.”

He nodded, sort of sensing what she meant by the way her hands tugged at his fingers, and he finally wrapped his arms under her thighs, tugging her so close that his nose was tapping her skin with every breath. “Am I doing okay?” he asked her.

“Mhm,” she hummed, combing through his hair, her voice breaking out into a soft little whine when his nose nuzzled right up against her clit. She didn’t know if it was even intentional, but she loved it. “Please, Mark,” she whispered, bucking her hips against his face.

Mark moaned embarrassingly when her cunt shoved itself against his lips, his cock throbbing in its confines as he opened his mouth and went back in for more. Her hands were threaded through his hair now, grasping onto the roots for dear life as quiet little whines sputtered from the back of her throat whenever his lips, chapped from the late November air, would slide across her skin.

He pulled back to take a single breath, eyes locking on his next target. And then he dove back in, lips closing around her clit as his tongue played with the nub. And Y/n whined a little louder, trying to push his face harder against her until his entire sense of being was clouded by her scent. He was smelling her and tasting her and hearing her sweet little moans and feeling her thighs tremble under his fingers, and it was growing too much for him.

“I… I’m gonna cum,” she panted, toes curling as his tongue slathered over her messily. He didn’t have the best form, but there was something about how unexpected and erratic his movements were that had her stomach twisting, the cord inside of her spiraling tighter until it was about to burst. “Mark, I…”

He hummed against her clit, gripping her tighter before opening his mouth to run the flat of his tongue straight up her slit, collecting every last drop of what she had to offer him as her back curled backwards. “You taste so good,” he breathed, eyes flickering between her dripping cunt and her tightly-screwed face. “Fuck, I can’t get enough of it.”

“Mark,” she huffed, trying to get him back on her before the feeling dissipated. “Make me cum. Please.” And her voice was no louder than a whisper, her forehead glistening with a little line of sweat. “Please, I’m so close.”

And it threw him into overdrive, the way she was begging for him. “What can I do?” he asked quickly, sliding his tongue through her folds as he waited for an answer.

“My… my clit,” she breathed. “I don’t care what, just—” He was two steps ahead of her, his mouth already back on the little nub before she could finish her sentence. “Yes, there,” she moaned, her back arching even harder as she held his head down against her. “Fuck, fuck, I’m cumming…” Her voice trailed off into a quiet, high pitched whine, legs trembling around his head and knuckles going white in his hair. Mark sank back down, licking long stripes up her slit and savoring the sudden increase in sweetness that thinly seeped out of her. “Mark…”

“Holy shit,” he murmured against her.

“Mark—”

And then he was whining back when her hands tugged on his hair, pulling him off of her. “I didn’t want to stop,” he pouted.

“And I didn’t want you to,” she replied back breathlessly, words falling out quickly so she could say them before she had to breathe again. “I just get… really sensitive when I cum, and sometimes it can be a bit too much.”

Mark smiled wildly as he crawled back up her body, his hair tousled and lips shiny from the aftermath of what he’d just done. “Too much?” he repeated softly, cradling her face with one hand and watching intently the way she sucked in a hiss as the outline of his cock skimmed her clit. He felt himself shiver at her reaction, all too desperate to do more, do everything with her. “Did I tell you how fucking incredible you taste?”

Y/n burst into a fit of giggles, hands settling on Mark’s cheeks as her legs instinctively curled around his waist. “Probably more than once, but my brain is a little fuzzy,” she slurred, thumbs rolling across his cheekbones as she lazily admired his features. “God, you’re pretty.”

Mark hummed in amusement. “Your eyesight is as fuzzy as your brain, apparently.”

“Stop, I’m trying to compliment you!”

“Says the girl who can’t take a compliment to save her life,” he quipped back, and she playfully rolled her eyes, falling back on the bed defeated but smiling instantly when he swept back down to kiss her swiftly. “Holy shit,” he murmured against her as he pulled back.

“What?”

“We’re… actually gonna do this, aren’t we?”

She let out a quiet chortle at his sudden change in demeanor. “If you still want to.”

“Fuck, of course I still want to.”

“Then… let’s do it.”

“Great,” Mark said, exhaling heavily. “Awesome.” And then he looked around, his face contorting into something akin to distress before he glanced down at his pants. “I should, uh…”

“Probably.”

“Yeah,” he agreed, rolling off of Y/n for a moment to shimmy his sweats down his legs and dragging his boxers with them. He caught the air in the room shift, and he looked down at Y/n to see her jaw slacked, lips parted subtly, eyes wide. “You okay?” he asked her as he climbed back onto the bed, brushing her hair to the side and waiting for her to snap out of her trance.

She blinked a few times as she came to. “Yeah, just… I forgot how big you were,” she replied sheepishly, trying to force herself to look at his face without her gaze falling downwards. “I’m having a bit of a crisis.”

Mark’s face fell. “Is it not gonna fit?”

“No, no!” she exclaimed, chuckling. “It’ll fit fine. But… it’ll be… really tight.” Mark nodded in understanding. “Just go slow, yeah?”

“I, uh… yeah, yeah, of course,” he stammered in response, a bit embarrassed from the conversation. But his thoughts were elsewhere, eyes flitting anywhere but at Y/n’s face until she couldn’t help but notice.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” she asked him gently, resting a hand on his shoulder and massaging the skin softly. “If you don’t want to, we don’t have to.”

He shook his head. “No, I want to,” he replied. “Just… what if I screw it up? What if I’m really bad or I cum in five seconds or if I can’t make you—”

“Hey, hey,” she soothed, running her hand up to his face and caressing his jaw. “You’ll be fine. I know this, the whole virginity thing, it means a lot to you, but…”

“It’s not… just my virginity,” he muttered, unable to meet her eyes. “It’s like… for months now my entire world has revolved around you whether I wanted it to or not, and if you hate this, if you never want to do it again… I don’t know what I’m going to do with myself. Like, I have to have you, and that’s… that’s not a choice for me like it is for you, and I probably sound like I’m guilt-tripping you by saying all of this but—”

“Mark,” she said, catching his attention just as he was about to clench his eyes shut. “It’s your first time. I know that. No expectations, remember? This is about you, and it’s about getting you comfortable with this so that what’s happening right now doesn’t happen next week. You don’t have to blow my back out. You don’t have to fuck me stupid, okay? Just calm down… deep breath…” He reluctantly did as she said, feeling himself inhale more shakily than he wanted. “You can do this. I’m not going to hate it. How in the world could I hate it when it’s you?”

He nodded. “Okay.”

“Would it help if we flipped over?” she asked. “You want me to ride you for a bit? Just so you can get used to the feeling without any pressure to, like… actually move.”

Mark paused for a moment before meeting her eyes timidly. “Actually, yeah, that might, uh… yeah, can we try that?”

“Mhm, of course,” she said, leaning up to kiss him once before gently nudging his body until he was flipping onto his back, sinking as comfortably as he could into the pillows, his cock standing free against his stomach. And Y/n crawled over him, slick cunt sliding over his cock as she took a seat on his torso and leaned over him. He hissed out a few expletives at the warmth of it, his hands almost instinctively reaching out for her hips.

“You’re so perfect,” he said absentmindedly, fingers ghosting down her thighs as she settled into position. “Fuck, I want you so bad.”

She smirked a little, lips dotting down the side of his neck while her hand busied itself nudging between their bodies. Mark’s pulse picked up when she took hold of his cock, stroking it softly just like she’d done a week before, spreading the little bead of precum that had leaked out of his tip down the rest of him to lube him up a bit. And when he shuddered out a broken moan, she shushed him gently, lifting her head to pepper kisses up to his lips. “Ready?” she asked him, grinning mischievously as her thumb swiped around his frenulum and tugged another breathless sigh from the back of his throat.

Mark nodded quickly, eyes clenched shut as he tried to focus on not cumming at the mere thought of being inside of her. But he was right there, her hips lifted, the tip of his cock prodding at her entrance… it was too much, so much that he could hardly breathe through the anticipation. “Please,” he choked out, and it was the only word he could manage before his mind went blank.

Y/n sank down on his cock slowly, almost torturously so, but she was worried if she went any faster that she’d tear something from the stretch. Mark was huge—felt even bigger than he looked, especially in this position, and she was trembling with every inch she put inside of her. Her breathing became labored, little huffs following every movement as she stabilized herself on his chest, her face twisting in discomfort.

After a long and surely much too loud moan, Mark finally opened his eyes, hands wandering up her sides to help her ease her way down. “Does it hurt too much?” he asked her quietly, not trusting his voice after whatever animalistic noise had just come out of his mouth.

But she shook her head. “No, no, I’m okay,” she assured him, finally reaching the base of his cock, relaxing in his lap and trying to regulate her breathing. “You’re… holy shit, you’re big.”

Mark chuckled, eyes roaming over her body. “I’ve never felt more guilty for having my ego stroked,” he said with a bit of a wince, tucking her hair behind her ear when it fell over her eyes.

“Feels okay?”

“Feels… fucking incredible,” he admitted, shutting his eyes again. “It’s warm. Tight.”

“You want me to move?”

He smiled. “Do I? This is nice.”

“Mark!”

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding!” he exclaimed, taking her face in his hands for a moment before running them down her arms and locking his fingers with hers. “Yeah, I’m ready if you are.”

She smiled softly at the intimate gesture, squeezing his hands in a sort of confirmation before pulling hers away and setting them back on his chest. “Okay.” And then she was picking herself back up, rocking forward onto her hands to support her body as she slid his cock halfway out of her and shallowly sank back down. Mark bit his lip hard, trying to keep quiet at the slick, soft feeling that had coiled suffocatingly around his cock, at the way he could feel every little groove inside of her. Y/n grinned, leaning her body down over his and kissing gently at his temple as her words came out so close to his ear that it had Mark shivering. “You can let it out.”

He shook his head. “No, the other guys would never let me live it down,” he said shakily, his hands finding purchase on her thighs, feeling the way her quads contracted under his fingers with every movement of her hips. “Jesus, fuck,” he groaned under his breath, tossing his head back into the pillows and staring at the ceiling with glazed-over eyes. “Baby, I’m not gonna last very long.”

Y/n felt her heart go fuzzy at the little pet name, at how natural it sounded coming from him. “It’s okay,” she replied, grimacing at the burn in her thighs as she kept her slow rhythm going. “Just cum when you need to, alright?”

But Mark shook his head, humming out a little huff of disagreement. “No, I wanna make you cum, too, I… shit.” He sucked in a breath, hands wandering up her sides until his thumbs could swipe absentmindedly at her nipples. “You’re so… God, fuck, you’re so hot, I…”

“Hm?” She leaned down over him again, kissing him slowly and drawing a desperate groan from his lips as she pulled away. “What is it?”

“I want…”

Her hips slowed against his, and in an effort to ease the strain in her quads she started rolling her hips sideways, grinding down into him and letting a soft little moan tumble from her lips as they rested close enough to his for him to feel her breath. “What do you want, Mark?”

He squeezed his eyes shut for a second, fighting the need to buck his hips into hers as the words formed at the back of his throat. “Wanna fuck you. God, I… I need to fuck you,” he murmured, his voice slurred as his mind went hazy.

“On top?” she asked, only to be met with a slow but needy nod as his hands almost started tugging her to flip over. “Well, go ahead, then.” She giggled at the desperation, picking herself up off of him and rolling onto her back, sighing at the relief in her legs as Mark followed her blindly, one hand resting near her head for support and the other one beginning to lazily stroke his cock. He nearly whimpered at how warm and wet it was, at how good it felt as he tugged at it, his hips lowering to rest right against hers.

“Tell me if it hurts,” he said quietly, leaning into her and pressing his lips to hers, only just having enough energy to pucker them. And she nodded, her palms splaying out on his chest and roaming up to his neck where she held him close. They gave each other one last final look, and then Mark pushed himself inside.

She winced as he did, the stretch still burning almost more than she could bear. Mark watched her in concern, on high alert at the frail squeak of his name as her hands held him a little tighter. He shushed her gently, bending forward and kissing up her jawline to soothe her. She whined softly as he bottomed out, tugging his head up to hers so she could look at him, eyes glossy and lidded.

“You okay?” he asked her gently, cupping her jaw in his palm and angling her eyes to meet his. “Does it hurt?”

She shook her head, letting out a shaky breath. “Just really tight,” she muttered in response. “You’re so deep.”

“Can I move?”

She winced again as he twitched inside her. “Give… give me a second,” she breathed, and he hummed in acknowledgement, brushing his fingers through her messy hair to occupy himself in an attempt to get his mind off of all the sensations around his cock. “It feels really good, Markie,” she said, her voice no louder than a whisper.

He felt himself shiver at the nickname, if only for the way she said it; he didn’t even think she realized she’d called him that, considering how glazed-over and hazy her eyes were. But he smiled nonetheless, unable to wipe the stupid grin off his face as he looked down at her. To see her so vulnerable, to know that it was him causing it… it had his heart soaring. “Just tell me when.”

“Can you kiss me?” she asked quietly, eyes flickering up to his as her hands laid themselves on his cheeks. “Wanna kiss you a little.”

“Anything,” he replied, letting her hands drag him closer until their lips were moving rhythmically against each other, only the faintest bits of tongue peeking out. It was a decent distraction for a while, but his attention was honed back in on his cock when he felt her tighten around him for a moment. “Holy… fuck,” he hissed, forcing himself to stay still after a completely involuntary twitch of his hips that had Y/n’s eyes squeezing closed. “Sorry, sorry,” he grimaced.

“No, it’s… you’re fine,” she breathed, fingers delicately trailing down his body again. “Sorry I clenched without warning.”

“Don’t ever fucking apologize for that ever again,” he countered quickly, causing her to laugh, staring up at him with a bright smile.

“You can move now,” she said, slipping her hands under his arms and around the back of his shoulders. “I’m okay.” And he smiled at that, leaning down over her as he timidly pulled his hips back and pushed them forward again, careful not to go too rough with her. She let out a shaky moan in response, gripping onto him tighter and giving him a nod of encouragement. So he did it again… and again, and again, and by the time Mark had finally figured out exactly how to move his hips, her eyes were screwed shut in something between pain and bliss.

It was taking every ounce of self-control inside of him to keep Mark from cumming on the spot. The way she was clenching around him, so warm and so tight, almost as if her cunt was trying to suck him back inside every time he pulled out… it was like he was going insane. He was fucking delusional at this point, so far gone that he could barely focus on anything except his growing orgasm and the quiet, needy sounds he was drawing from her.

A loud whine, one way more animalistic than either of them were expecting, snapped him back to full attention, and his eyes opened wide with fear as his movements halted. “Did I hurt you? Everything okay?”

Y/n practically whimpered at the sudden loss of friction, moving one of her hands to his ass to get him going again. She didn’t trust her voice, not after what she’d just seen—it had her barreling closer and closer to her high every time her eyes glanced down at it.

And he reluctantly started thrusting again, watching her worriedly. “What’s wrong?” he asked softly, leaning down to press little kisses along her jaw.

But she shook her head in his hold, fingers tightening on his shoulder for a moment before leaving him to stroke down the front of her body. And she moaned hard when she felt it, her back almost folding in half at the sensation. “I can see you,” she breathed, “inside me. Holy shit.”

“Hm?” Mark asked curiously. “What do you mean?” And then her hand was on his cheek, tugging him away from her jaw and tilting his head down until he was staring at her stomach. “O-Oh,” he stuttered lowly, hips slowing down at the realization. “Oh, fuck. Fuck.”

Every time he pushed inside of her, his eyes would land on a little protrusion on her abdomen, just above her pubic bone. And it would sink back down when he pulled out, only to bulge back out when he slid back in.

He held himself deep inside her, tracing his thumb around the faint outline. He was so focused on it, he probably could’ve been drooling and he wouldn’t have noticed. “I think I’m gonna cum,” he said lowly, blinking a few times to ground himself as he leaned back down over her. “Like, soon. I… Jesus Christ, Y/n.”

She nodded, latching back onto him as his chest nearly rested against hers. “Me, too,” she said faintly, legs curling around his waist.

Mark panted as he stared down at her. “What can I do to get you there faster?” he asked, his tone almost nervous. “I don’t wanna leave you hanging if I cum too soon.”

And she smiled at the question, at how he had repeated his exact words from earlier. “The answer is always the clit, baby.” He smiled back, thankful that she was doing her best to ease the tension, and brought his thumb to her swollen nub, rubbing smooth circles into it and feeling himself twitch when she clenched hard around him, her quiet little whimpers growing more desperate.

He groaned out her name, dropping his head into her neck and muffling his noises into her skin. “I’m gonna fucking explode.”

She nodded, shaky hands coming to rest at the sides of his ribs, her left palm ghosting over his scar as her thumb darted out to touch his nipple with just as much care and tenderness as he’d had when he touched hers. He doubled over at the feeling, moaning loudly, no longer caring about who was going to hear him. “Cum with me, Markie,” she whined, her back arching up into him at the sound of his helpless little moans right in her ear and the feeling of his cock spearing her open. She was dangerously close to the edge, practically teetering off of it, and then Mark pinched at her clit as his teeth sank gently against the cushion of her neck, and she fell.

Her left palm splayed itself over his chest as she came, the fingers on her other hand working their way down to his waist to pull his hips even tighter against hers. And he was right after her, her orgasm forcing her to practically suffocate his cock, sucking it in and milking it for all it was worth. He shoved himself inside of her as deep as he could, holding himself there and letting go with a tender, high-pitched moan. And he was babbling words he couldn’t even comprehend, only half-sure that he’d even said her name as he tucked himself further into her neck and savored the way her back craned, taking the opportunity to slip his arm under her body and hold her tightly against him.

She was whimpering afterward, cunt still reflexively squeezing him every few seconds. “Mark, baby,” she whispered, looking down at him as he still laid panting against her neck, little whines escaping his lips every once in a while.

“I don’t think I can move,” he muttered back, his arm tightening around her waist. “Fuck, I don’t want to move.”

“You wanna just lay here for a little?” she asked, smoothing down a few misplaced hairs on his head as he nodded, lips pressing gentle kisses into the hollow of her jaw. She shoved down the way it made her shiver. “Okay,” she agreed softly, fingers still combing through his hair. “Take a few minutes.”

And she did as well, relaxing into the sheets as Mark carefully set his body weight down on top of her, making sure to support his weight enough on one side so that he didn’t crush her. And Y/n sighed, smiling blissfully. She felt so full, so warm, far more so than usual now that she could feel Mark’s cum soaking up her insides as he stayed put, keeping it all plugged up.

She welcomed the rush of emotions that hit her like a truck as Mark clung to her, his breathing finally steadying over the course of a couple of minutes until it was so slow and gentle that she almost thought he was asleep. But he wasn’t; the ghostly sensation of his lips on her neck would still tickle her skin every once in a while, reminding her that he was only resting, relaxing much in the same way she was.

She twisted her head to the side and kissed his hair, finally letting her hand fall to the back of his neck and down his back. “I do need to pee at some point,” she said quietly, making him giggle. “You can’t fuck me if I have a UTI.”

He sighed, picking up his body and putting his attention on where his cock sat inside of her. “That’s a good enough reason for me,” he said, moving his hips and pulling his half-softened cock out of her, eyes gleaming at the way his cum followed, oozing out of her in weak little spurts as her cunt throbbed from the sudden emptiness.

“Close your mouth or you’ll start drooling,” Y/n joked, reaching two fingers down between her legs and scooping up his cum as she shifted her body out from under him. And as she stood from the bed, she glanced over her shoulder at him, sticking her fingers in her mouth and sucking them clean with a little wink. She laughed loudly at the sight of Mark’s eyes rolling backwards, grabbing her sweater from the floor and slipping it over her head, just for a bit of protection so she could sneak across the hall to the bathroom unnoticed.

And when she was gone, Mark flopped down onto his bed, turning onto his back and grabbing a few tissues from his nightstand so he could wipe himself dry. He bit his lip at the sensation, not expecting it to be so overstimulating. And he almost expected himself to go hard again just from the feeling, but he managed to keep it down, too exhausted to manage another erection.

Y/n pattered back in after a few minutes, smiling gently at Mark, who had slipped under his covers and was probably already dozing off. He was still naked, considering his sweats were still strewn across the floor, and he had his left arm extended, almost as if reaching out for her. The sight had her heart skipping beats, had her mind racing. “Hey,” she greeted softly as she approached the side of the bed.

Mark’s eyes barely opened, and he frowned. “Take this off,” he mumbled, grabbing and tugging at the hem of her sweater. She giggled, slipping it over her head again and almost instantly moving to hug her body to keep the heat in. “Quit shivering, c’mere.”

And she smiled wider, sliding in beside him and snuggling as close as she could, their legs stacked on top of each other in a tangled mess and her head slotted into the crook of his neck. His fingers ghosted along the outside of her thigh, soothing her into the same, almost hypnotic state of relaxation that he’d found himself in.

“Was I okay?” he asked.

She hummed in response. “Better than okay,” she said. “Really, really good.”

And he nodded. “That’s… a relief.”

Y/n angled her head up to face him, dancing her fingers across his chest. “How was it?”

“That’s a loaded question,” he replied, and she chuckled before he gave her a better answer. “I feel like I’m floating right now. Like I could die happy.”

“Good,” she said, grinning at his lidded eyes and lopsided smile. “I’m glad I could help.”

“I feel really lucky,” he continued, his hand trailing back up her thigh before holding onto her waist gently. “Of all people I could’ve imprinted on… I pick the actual best person in the whole world.”

She shushed him jokingly, rolling her eyes. “Shut up, I’m not the best.”

“You’re perfect,” he said sincerely, grip tightening on her waist as his eyes finally opened fully. “You’re actually perfect.”

“Stop!” Y/n cried, tucking her head back into Mark’s neck and trying to shove down the way her heart was pounding in her chest. She was so close to him that she was worried he could feel the effect he had on her. “You’re gonna make me go crazy.”

“Crazy for me?” he asked, a little lilt in his voice that had Y/n laughing harder. She tossed her arm around his torso, hugging herself tighter against him and shaking her head in his neck.

“When did you get so flirty?”

He shrugged. “I’m a new Mark. I’m Not-A-Virgin Mark.”

“Shut up, weirdo,” she scoffed, playfully hitting his chest and rolling onto her back away from him. He was testing her, edging her closer to a reality she was way too afraid to step into. She was scared, terrified, even, of making it real.

Mark smirked, taking the opportunity to flip himself on top of her, making her squeal in surprise. “Make me, sunshine.”

Her jaw went slack, ears ringing, any snarky comeback she’d had on her lips lost in the suddenness of his actions and words. “You… sunshine?”

And Mark flushed, his mouth opening and closing a few times. “H-Hey, you were supposed to kiss me, not question what I called you.”

So she rolled her eyes, lifting her head to briefly meet his lips. “Now I’m curious.”

“It’s nothing,” he murmured, averting his gaze and picking at his sheets. “It’s kind of… I don’t know, sappy and pathetic? Poetic but in a bad way?”

“You seem oddly nervous, Not-A-Virgin Mark.” And he collapsed into her, banging his head against her shoulder a few times as she laughed.

“Don’t use my words against me,” he whined, picking his head up and pouting at her. “Don’t make me say it.”

“Say it.”

“No!”

She frowned. “Come on, for me?”

And he sighed, unable to resist her when she placed her hands on his face and gave him puppy eyes. “It’s like… you know how I’m a wolf?”

She snickered. “I had no idea.”

“Y/n—”

“Sorry,” she said with a little giggle, pecking his lips softly. “Go on.”

He rolled his eyes, exhaling shakily. “So… wolves, right?” She nodded. “Like, the whole thing with wolves is… the moon. Our world kind of revolves around the lunar cycle.”

“Mhm.”

“And you’re, like… the sun.”

Her body went rigid with chills, a little glow of warmth building in her chest. “The sun?” she repeated quietly.

Mark nodded, scoffing at how stupid he sounded. But he’d already gone way too far to turn back now. “Yeah, it’s… it’s weird. I always thought I was, like… cursed, or something, but you… sort of remind me that there’s more to life than just what the wolf in me demands. When my whole world is dark, you’re like… a little glimmer of sunlight.”

Her voice was frail, timid. “Mark, that’s… that’s so thoughtful, but… I’m literally the physical embodiment of everything that the wolf in you demands.”

But he smiled anyway despite her less than comforting response. “I guess so? But I don’t really see it that way. Not anymore, at least. You’re… a lot more than that now. Like… I still need you, but I… sometimes I feel like you’re the only thing keeping me sane.”

And just like that, the dam overflowed. She felt her eyes watering, felt her throat closing up, and she reached up to tug him into a hug, nudity be damned. “I like you, Mark,” Y/n finally admitted, holding him close as his arms wound around her. “I really, really like you. A lot.”

He chuckled. “I like you, too, if that wasn’t obvious.”

“I was just…” She pulled back from him and rested her palms on his jaw, watching the way his dark eyes seemed to sparkle as he looked at her. “I was always scared it was only… like, surface-level for you. That you only cared about me because you had to. And I didn’t want to get invested when you couldn’t…”

She couldn’t even finish, too lost in her own thoughts to form words. But Mark smiled, cutting her off with a slow, meaningful kiss that had her gasping for air when he pulled away. “Look who’s rambling now.”

“Mark—”

“I mean it,” he said, taking one of her hands off of his face and holding it in his. “I’m a little surprised myself, if I’m honest, but… I don’t want you doubting for a second how I feel about you. You mean the world to me. Way more than any instinct could force me to.”

He thumbed at the one little tear that was threatening to slip down her cheek, and she smiled. “Do you wanna go on a date tomorrow?” she asked quietly. “A real one, just the two of us. We can go after the hunt, take your mind off of it.”

He nodded, lips upturning in a soft but genuine smile. “Of course I do.”

And she hugged him again, pulling him down to the bed beside her and snuggling in close. “Wait, one condition.”

“Condition?” Mark repeated. “You have a condition?”

Y/n nodded into his chest, not daring to look up at him. “Can we drop the stupid imprint thing?”

“…What?”

“I just… want to be normal. I want to go on dates with you and hold you and kiss you and not have to think about why we’re even able to be like this. And I want to go out with you at night and meet your friends and I don’t want the introduction to be awkward because you can’t tell them what I am to you. I just want to be a normal couple.”

Mark breathed deeply, the implication of her request making his heart throb. “So… you wanna be my girlfriend?”

She finally craned her head up to look at him with a nervous expression. “Can I?”

“Fuck, of course you can,” he said too quickly, dragging her lips to his and kissing her hard. “I’ve wanted to be your boyfriend for months now.” And she giggled at his fast response, sniffling the last of her tears back and hugging him tight. “I seriously got so lucky finding you.”

“That makes two of us,” she agreed. “But don’t think you can start saying cheesy shit now just because you have a title.”

“Oh, you’re never gonna hear the end of it.”

“Mark!” she whined, laughing.

“Why would I not talk all the time about how pretty you are?” he asked, laughing when Y/n started kicking her legs around like a kid throwing a tantrum. “Or how you’re smart and funny and generous and forgiving and so accepting of all the really shitty parts of me, you’re just… I swear you’re perfect.”

She shook her head, groaning at his sincerity to try to calm the flutters in her stomach. “You’ve reached your compliment quota for the month.”

Mark chuckled, tugging her closer and dipping his head down to press his lips into her hair. “A quota is not a limit.”

“This one is!”

And he laughed harder, lifting her head to kiss her properly this time. “Perfect,” he said into her lips, grinning at how the word made her sigh against him. “You know you like it when I call you that.”

“I like it when you kiss me, idiot,” she said, chuckling. “Calling me perfect is just… the metaphorical cherry on top.” And a brief moment of silence passed before she backpedaled, lightly hitting his shoulder. “But quit doing it!”

“Okay, okay,” he conceded, taking her face in his palm, “you’re free of my harassment for the rest of the day.” And he kissed her again. “But you’ll never be free of those.”

“That, I’m okay with,” she told him, giving him a few more gentle kisses before snuggling back down into his side and mumbling into his chest. “You make me really happy, Mark.”

He scoffed. “That’s my line!”

And she hummed, giggling and holding him tighter. “Too bad.” He groaned, reaching down and patting her ass as punishment. Y/n yelped, laughing harder and grabbing his hand to keep it away from her.

Feifei laughed, her jaw dropping in disbelief. “You have gangs over here?”

“What borough doesn’t?”

“I mean, I only figured. This is such a nice area, and the people seem so friendly.”

Eric shrugged. “It isn’t without its troubles, though. Money, and the greed for it, will do crazy things to people’s minds. Shit’s dangerous. You’ve got guys living on mountains of cash they don’t know what to do with. And even the rich ones out there would do anything to get their hands on more of it. Yoonoh pisses a lot of those guys off.”

Y/n felt a twinge of fear in her chest, something akin to panic. “Seems like his parties are a bit… public, if that’s the case.”

“Yeah, that’s why they can’t stand him. He’s flashy. Never wastes an opportunity to gloat about how rich he is, and yet not a soul knows where the money came from. They can’t hurt him because he’s basically a no-name. No famous relative, no connection to a big company, nothing. The money is his, always has been, and that gives him more power than any of those goons can handle.”

“Must’ve come through investments, then,” Y/n said. “If he has so much dough without lifting a finger, he’s got to be pretty well-made on Wall Street.”

“Maybe,” Eric replied. “I wouldn’t doubt that’s where it came from, but it’s impressive he was able to work his way up just through private stocks, if that’s the case.”

Feifei’s brow furrowed. “There’s no record of him?”

“Not a single one.”

“How’s he not been caught for tax fraud? The money has to come from somewhere, doesn’t it?”

“Hey, don’t ask me how the man files his taxes. I’m in the know, but that’s his deal.” The car fell quiet for a moment, the whirring motor finally louder than the chatter for the first time in a while. Y/n felt the air thicken; it’d been growing more eerie as the conversation went on, but now things were just strange.

Yoonoh had always seemed pretty sketchy. Even after performing at his place once, she’d never come to know how he’d even found out about their little performance duo, nor how he found Feifei’s contact to reach out in the first place. It was like he was a walking mystery, every piece of him just shrouded in the unknown.

And then there was everything that had happened last month. Y/n had no idea what his end goal was of lying to both of them about one another’s whereabouts, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to find out. Had he truly wanted to get her alone? If so… why? He seemed so fervently against what the other two men at the party had been up to, and until he’d begun pestering her about the bruises lining her arms, he seemed like someone who truly wanted her to stay out of trouble in her slightly drunken state. And she appreciated that, but he needed to learn a thing or two about boundaries.

“Anyways,” Eric said, breaking the silence as he turned into the little gated area just outside the mansion, “we’re almost here. I’ll stay right outside and make sure you’re together before I head back tonight, alright? Not sure what that act was he pulled a while ago, but it won’t happen again.”

“Better not,” Feifei scoffed under her breath, leaning her head against the window of the Locomobile and watching the lines of tall trees fly by as Eric drove them down the driveway. “We agreed we wouldn’t let it happen again.” And Y/n nodded with a little hum of affirmation, taking a deep breath and hoping she was right.

A few minutes later, Y/n and Feifei were back inside the stunning foyer of the mansion, and Y/n was feeling particularly nervous about the night’s concert. She wanted desperately to believe that there was nothing fishy going on, but as she stumbled through what felt like hordes of wealthy, extravagant couples mingling amongst themselves, she couldn’t help but feel like something was wrong, that she didn’t really belong in this sort of environment. And she’d felt that the first time, too, to a certain extent, but now that the temperature outside was dropping and everyone in the crowd seemed to be dressed in the most lavish, expensive coats doused in fur collars and cuffs while theirs had been cheaply store-bought… it felt more obvious.

But they bundled in closer, tugging the wool closer to their bodies and preparing to head back into the sprawling yard where they’d last performed, an oddly familiar sight that brought back at least a bit of the confidence that they’d lost, and confidence that was instantly drained of all life once again when a smooth voice called out for them from across the small patio-like room. “Pardon me.”

A fierce chill set in before Y/n had even opened the door. She spun around to face him, just out of politeness, but her stomach dropped at the sight of him, nudging through a few other party-goers before approaching them.

“I wanted to apologize for the confusion last month,” he said, stuffing his hands in the pockets of his burgundy slacks and bowing his head a little. “I know I talk big, but—

“Oh, it’s no problem,” Feifei replied, putting on her best façade of a smile that Y/n found incapable of replicating. “I know it’s hard to keep up with everybody here when you have so many guests. We were all a little drunk at the time, and no one got hurt. No harm done.” Yoonoh chuckled quietly, flashing his teeth and shaking his head.

“I think you’re misunderstanding,” he said, straightening out his back. “I wasn’t calling it an accident.” Y/n’s face hardened. She’d been right; he’d meant to do it the whole time, had lied right to their faces, and now he was trying to apologize? “Well, don’t give me that look,” he said, frowning at Y/n. “I only mean to say that my intentions in doing what I did might have gotten a little twisted, so I wanted to clarify that I never meant harm to either of you, and I’m glad to have you both back to perform.”

“How could we refuse, with the pay bump?” Y/n asked, and Feifei snorted.

Yoonoh’s mouth opened and closed, as if he was trying to search for words. “I… actually, could I speak to you in private for a minute?”

“What? No.”

“Sorry, that came out wrong,” he said, licking at his lips and bringing a hand to adjust the navy skinny scarf he had loosely tied around his neck. “We can talk here, if you’d prefer that, but it’s concerning some things I feel like you’d rather keep private. I know you don’t trust me after last time, so… think about it, alright? I’ll be at the bar.” He turned on his heel, sending the two women a polite smile, and then he disappeared behind the wall leading to the lounge where the drinks would be.

Y/n felt her blood pressure drop back down to a healthy level at his departure, letting out a long breath. “He’s seriously creepy.”

“I don’t know, Y/n,” Feifei mused, tossing an arm over her shoulder and spinning her back around to head outside. “He almost seemed… flirty?”

“Well, obviously,” she replied. “Look at him. He was crafted by some holy being to charm people, I’ll bet.”

She cringed at the idea. “Okay, sure, he’s too pretty to not be suspicious. I’ll give you that. But… we swore we wouldn’t drink tonight. What’s the worst that could happen?”

Y/n scoffed, shivering under the sudden wind of the November air when Feifei slung the door open and crossing her arms over her chest. “I don’t know, he could kill me. And we also swore we’d stay together.”

Feifei frowned. “Listen, I’m with you that the guy gives off weird signals, but I don’t think a huge party with hundreds of people is quite the place to murder someone. Plus, he sounded nervous to talk to you at all.”

“Why are you encouraging this, Fei?” Y/n finally asked with a huff, stopping in her tracks and turning to her roommate. “I thought you were the one that wanted me to be cautious here.”

Feifei blinked a few times, seemingly unable to come up with an answer. “I…”

“Was it the drive here? Did Eric convince you that he could be trusted?”

“Y/n, calm down,” she pleaded. “Just… talk to him. If things turn sour, you know where to find me—”

“No, I don’t!” Y/n exclaimed. “People disappear in this crowd, Fei. I’d lose you, just like last time.”

“Then I’ll stay by the stage,” she suggested. “I’ll set everything up with the band. You go talk to him now, make it quick, and I’ll still be out here when you get back.”

Y/n’s hands clenched into fists against her chest, partly staving off the cold and partly because she knew Feifei would keep her promise. A nasty worm of curiosity had dug deep into her mind, a little itch at the back of her mind that made her far too interested in finding out why Yoonoh wanted to talk to her.

It was like an invisible pull, one that drew her back inside and made her want to leave Feifei stranded. She knew the bar opened up to the yard, and for a second she wondered if Yoonoh had been watching her through the window, waiting for her to make a decision. Her head started to stir again, pounding to an almost unbearable extent as she glanced back to the mansion, looking for him. But she couldn’t find him through the bodies that swarmed the room, especially considering she was so far away now that her vision had to be failing her.

She finally relented, hoping that giving herself some other issue to worry about would take her mind off of the sudden migraine. “Fine,” she sighed, reaching a hand out for Feifei’s bag, “but I need some Antifebrin first.”

“That bad?”

“Just started,” she muttered, clicking the purse open and digging around for the bottle. “I’ll head inside and take it with some water. If I’m not back in twenty minutes, assume I’m dead.”

“You got it.” And with a deep huff of a breath, Y/n turned on her heel with a single pill in her hand, scurrying back inside before the cold could nip at her ears even more.

She found the bar just as easily as she had the last time. It was only a couple of turns through the halls away, the little patio and the lounge connected to the same hall that stuck off of the foyer. But as her eyes darted around for the man she was looking for, she came up short, seeing nothing but a crowd of strangers who were paying no attention to her. She snuck up to the side of the bar, scanning the stools that lined it but only finding people sitting in all of them, and she quietly stared at the bartender until he noticed her standing there.

He grinned when he did, scrubbing down a glass before walking over to her. “Bee’s Knees for the singer, right?”

She shook her head. “Just water tonight, actually. Have a bit of a headache.” He nodded, quickly filling a glass and sliding it a short distance on the wood before shooting her another smile and turning back to attend to the other guests. Y/n quickly downed the pill in her hand, grimacing at the tightness in her throat as she shoved it down. But she barely got another sip of her water down before she nearly choked on it. “I hope that’s not vodka.”

Y/n held herself together, her heart racing at Yoonoh’s sudden intrusion, and turned her head to her right to see him leaning on the bar, resting his weight on his elbow and staring at the glass in her hand. She gave him a deadpan look, taking another swig of it. “It is. I’m getting drunk before the performance.”

Yoonoh definitely didn’t believe her, judging by the grin that tugged at the side of his mouth, but he played along. “Yeah? Do you usually get drunk before you have to sing?”

“Calms the nerves,” she replied smoothly, staring down into her glass as his eyes dug needles into the side of her face, almost wishing there had been alcohol in it, if only to avoid the nerves she was feeling right now.

“Sorry, I didn’t expect you to show up so quickly,” Yoonoh said, squeezing into the bar stool at the end of the bar just as one of his guests stood up and left. “I had a little business meeting to finish up. Thought you’d take more than a few minutes.” He waited for a response, but nothing came. “Do you want to sit down?”

Y/n shrugged. “It’s full. Don’t mind me.”

But he only smirked, glancing at the seat beside him until the man sitting there had also gotten up to head elsewhere. “Not full anymore. Sit.” She stared at him pointedly for a moment, almost as if to see if he’d been bluffing, but after a few moments of persistence, she stepped around the back of him and slid into the stool to his right. “I’m sorry,” he said again, sucking in air between his teeth as if the words hurt to get out.

She stared down into her glass of water, jaw clenched. “Why did you do that? What did you want from me?”

“The same thing I want from you tonight,” he said smoothly, “but I figured at least being truthful about it might work out better this time.”

Y/n scoffed, rolling her eyes. “If you were trying to drag me into a room alone to—”

“Who said that was my intention?” he asked. “I could sleep with any woman at this party if I wanted. I wouldn’t waste my time chasing anyone in particular.” And her jaw dropped, her head snapping to gawk at Yoonoh, who was staring forward with a little smirk on his face. He turned his head to her, raising an eyebrow in amusement. “I didn’t take you as someone to be offended over a comment like that.”

“No, just—” She gulped, scoffing again. “The gall you must have to just say that so brazenly…”

He shrugged. “I told you I’d prefer to be truthful tonight.”

“That isn’t what I wanted the truth about,” she replied with an overdramatic gag as she sipped on her water a little more.

Yoonoh chuckled. “Well, if you wouldn’t make assumptions, I wouldn’t have to disprove them.”

“I wasn’t—”

“You did,” he interjected, running a hand through his messy hair before setting his chin on the heel of his palm. “I assume you would like to know the real reason, though. Am I correct?”

“Of course I would.”

Yoonoh was quiet for a moment, his gaze lingering on the bartender for a second before he sent a short nod over his way. And then he folded his hands in front of him, twiddling his thumbs together. “I’ve heard you sing before, you know,” he said slowly, not meeting her eyes. “This past summer. In the Back Room—”

“Hey!” Y/n exclaimed, fighting the urge to reach out and slap a hand over his mouth. “You can’t talk about that in public!”

“Didn’t I say earlier that I’d rather have had this conversation in private?” he sighed, leaning back on his stool and sending her an expectant look. “That offer’s still open if you’d rather not bring up the blind tigers here.”

There it was again: that menacing chill of curiosity that crept up the back of her spine and made her already pounding head cloud with desire. It really didn’t matter how badly she didn’t want to be alone with him; Yoonoh was right. Even mentioning the Back Room by name in the presence of someone who knew about it could land anyone in serious trouble, and she couldn’t risk that, not when she was already barely scraping by as it was.

So she agreed. “Fine,” she said, chugging the rest of her water and standing up. “But if you try to pull anything…”

“I won’t,” he assured, giving her what was, for all intents and purposes, a convincing smile. And he grabbed his own glass, gesturing for her to follow him through the house yet again. It was almost a laughable parallel, especially after she’d convinced herself that she wouldn’t let it happen again. But Yoonoh was persistent, talked pretty and polite, and there was no way to say no to him without feeling like you were coming off as the one in the wrong. It was so backwards, so irritating, and she hated that she’d gone along with it a second time without even understanding why or how she’d given in so quickly.

But she twisted through the winding halls of his mansion all the same, heading up flights and flights of stairs until he’d led her to another hall not dissimilar to the one they’d found themselves in a month ago—but this hall had a single door at the end of it, one that seemed larger and grander than the rest that lined the walls. Yoonoh led her right to it, tugging a small key from his coat pocket and twisting it in the lock of the ornate golden handle.

Y/n tried to hold in her gasp when he opened the door, instantly revealing a small, black statue of an angel in a sunken-in archway, painted to look like a lilac-filled flower garden. He held the door open for her, ushering her to the right, where a little staircase led down to another little alcove with a single armchair beneath a metal-plated skylight next to another hallway. “Watch your step,” he murmured as she stepped in front of him, shutting the door as she passed and following carefully behind her as she explored. She glanced back at him. “I promise it’s not a dead end,” he assured her with a chuckle, ushering her forward and taking a little sip of his gin.

And he was right; only a few steps down the hall and Y/n found another archway that opened up to reveal a sprawling living quarters, complete with a fireplace burning on the side wall, bookshelves stacked to the ceiling, plush sofas and velvet-lined chairs, and a grand nook in the corner with its own glass dining table that opened up to a balcony overlooking part of the mansion’s atrium.

“This is my bedroom,” Yoonoh announced from behind her, leaning on the frame of the archway as she looked back at him with a gaped jaw.

“Bedroom?” she repeated, the sight before her completely unbelievable. “Where do you sleep?”

Yoonoh lifted his glass and gestured to a door on the other side of the room. “Down the hall.”

“There’s another hall.”

“Two more, technically.”

“This… this one room is the size of my apartment,” she breathed, stepping just a bit further inside.

“That surprises you?”

Y/n sighed, feeling small under his gaze. “Guess not.”

Yoonoh walked to the dining table in the corner, setting his glass on it and shrugging his coat off of his shoulders, draping it over the back of one of the chairs. “You can take yours off, too, if you want. With the fire going, it’ll get hot as hell in here pretty soon.”

She hesitated, remembering what she’d told Feifei before leaving to find him. “Actually, I promised my roommate I’d make it quick. I don’t want to get too comfortable here.”

Yoonoh inhaled sharply, adjusting the cuffs of his thick gray sweater and stepping over to the back of one of the sofas, leaning on it. “You might want to pencil in a bit more time.”

Feifei sighed, looking over worriedly to the mansion. It’d certainly been longer than twenty minutes now, enough time that she was setting up for a solo performance at this point. She adjusted her microphone, stepping back from it and scurrying off the stage as quickly as she could. “Hey!” one of the trumpet players called after her, and she spun on her heel to face him. “Where are you headed? We start in five minutes!”

“Gotta powder my nose!” she called back, spinning back around and nearly running to the back door, her legs taking her as fast as they could manage without making her look insane.

She basked in the sudden warmth of the indoors for only a moment, nudging through swarms of people mingling and drinking and dancing until she found the spot she was looking for: the bar.

And she looked all over the place, made sure to check every last head in the room, but Y/n was nowhere to be found, nor was Yoonoh. They were gone. He had mentioned the bar, hadn’t he? Surely she wasn’t forgetting.

And that meant that they’d both left… probably together.

Feifei felt a twinge of panic and a weight of shame. She’d been the one to suggest to Y/n that they talk, and now she was eating her words, all of her roommate’s reservations becoming real to her. There was no telling where Yoonoh had taken her, what he could be doing to her right now.

She had half a mind to go searching, but the mansion was far too big to check every room. There was no way she’d be able to find them, at least not in time.

And as the band called her back outside to start her set for the night—alone—she let the guilt of signing her roommate’s life away eat away at her.

“You… you’ve seen them?”

“They weren’t hard to notice that night,” Yoonoh explained, leaning back against the cushion behind him. “You weren’t trying to hide them then.”

“I didn’t think I needed to. The Back Room is filled with… you know.”

Yoonoh chortled. “People who would’ve hurt you if you weren’t already,” he answered for her, and Y/n found herself nodding along.

“Why were you even there?” she asked, cocking an eyebrow at him. “Sorry, but you… don’t seem like the type to frequent the tigers.”

“I find myself in the East Side from time to time,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest. “For business, usually. I probably wouldn’t stop by when I’m in town, but the owner makes good cocktails.”

“They are good cocktails,” she agreed, grinning just a little bit. “Anyways…”

“Anyways,” Yoonoh repeated, getting back on track, “I might’ve… overheard some talk about you in the audience. I knew the guys. They’re not… the sort of people you want to be getting into any sort of mess with.” Y/n was quiet, the news stunning her into silence. So Yoonoh continued. “I usually wouldn’t mind the buzz. Everyone talks, but I think they knew you. Like… knew you.”

“What do you mean, they knew me?”

“They were going on about how they’ve seen you going to and from work a couple times, how they’d seen you in pictures with their buddies, how you were an easy target.”

She shook her head, scoffing. “Don’t screw with me.”

“I just want to make sure you’re safe.”

“I’m fine,” she stressed. “Besides, that was months ago. If they had anything seriously against me, I’d be in way worse shape right now.”

Yoonoh bit his tongue at her stubbornness, choosing his words carefully. “I guess so.”

“Who even were they?” she asked after a moment, trying to draw more information out of him. “You said you knew them.”

“I recognized them,” he said, “but I don’t know them by name. They’re part of an underground ring of gangsters that we see every once in a while. There are rumors they’re associated with the mafia, but I don’t get myself involved in matters like that.”

“The mafia?” Y/n repeated, her eyes wide. It seemed he’d finally gotten her attention with that word, its presence in the room like some sort of land mine that he’d stepped on. “You’re saying the mafia is after me?”

“They’re only rumors,” Yoonoh said, leaning forward and grabbing his gin from the coffee table between them. “I just didn’t want to take any chances.” She looked at him suspiciously, picking at her nails and glancing between him and the glass.

“But why go out of your way for me?”

He grinned. “I like your voice,” he answered casually behind the rim of his glass before setting it back down. “Wouldn’t want it to be silenced. That’s why I invited you here in the first place.”

“I told you, I’m fine,” she said again, shoving down the swell of pride in her chest at his attempt to flatter her.

“Maybe you are now,” he began, “but I’m worried that those mob grunts might have more connections to you than you realize. And if I know anything about their line of work, it’s that they can choose to act on those connections in a split second. A few degrees of separation later, and you’re going to be fighting for your life.”

Y/n’s jaw clenched. “And how does that concern you?”

“It doesn’t,” he replied with a shrug. “I just said I like your voice. Consider it payment for what I’m about to offer you.” He watched her lips part, watched her brow furrow, watched as she tried to come up with all of the possibilities in her head before he could say anything more. And it was amusing, the way she fought to understand what she was getting herself into. It was even more amusing to know that she’d already gone in way too deep with little hope of digging herself back out, and she didn’t even realize it.

But he waited until she popped the question anyways. “…What are you offering me?”

His answer came instantaneously. “I want you to live here.”

She was quiet for a moment, taking a few seconds to process his words before she began to laugh. “You’re playing some kind of joke, aren’t you?”

“No, I’m serious,” he said, chuckling along with her. He supposed the sudden offer was a bit unbelievable. “You stay here for as long as you need, and I’ll offer you as much protection as I can in exchange for your voice at my parties.”

Y/n was already shaking her head. “You have an ulterior motive.”

“Maybe I do, but I’ll let my actions speak for themselves when I tell you they’re not anything bad.”

“But I’m fine on my own,” she countered. “It’s not the most comfortable life, but Fei and I are managing.”

“That’s not what I mean,” Yoonoh said, sighing heavily. “You sing at the Back Room covered in bruises. You come to my house trying to cover them up. And it’s only been a month and I still see fresh spots popping up on you. Your wrist has a ring of purple that wasn’t there the last time I saw you. I’m saying that whatever, whoever is causing that… you need to get away from that environment. It’s not safe. It’s damaging you.”

“Yoonoh, I cannot just quit my job. It’s been my bread and butter for years now. I don’t have the resume to get in anywhere else.”

He took a minute to respond, quirking an eyebrow in curiosity. “It’s in your workplace, then?”

“It’s nothing that concerns you,” she said, repeating her words from earlier. “Good intentions or not, it’s awfully strange that you recognized some men thought to be mobsters. If they’re as dangerous as you say, I can’t be too cautious, and you could be one of them. Working for them.”

“I could be,” Yoonoh said. “I’m not, but you’re not wrong to be cautious. It’s your choice either way.”

Y/n was quiet, watching him intently and trying to find any sort of insincerity on his face. But she found none, his gaze as unwavering as ever, certain of himself and certain of his intentions, whatever they may have been. So she narrowed her eyes at him. “What’s in it for me, then?”

Yoonoh smirked. “What, besides the hundred-something-room manor that’s yours to roam, or the swanky cars or bottomless bottles of alcohol? Getting some sort of peace and quiet at night instead of whatever madness happens on the streets of Brooklyn these days chiming in through the window?”

“I don’t need your lifestyle,” she deadpanned. “It’s… lavish, sure, but I’m not gaining anything by leaving my apartment behind.”

“Then tell me what you need,” Yoonoh told her, an odd, prideful air of nonchalance to his tone that had Y/n’s skin suddenly littered with goosebumps. “Anything you want. I’ll make it happen.”

She shook her head. “You… you couldn’t offer me what I want,” she said. “No one could.”

His voice was low, challenging, a venom coursing through it that almost sounded inhuman. “Try me.”

“It’s complicated,” she said, trying to reason with him. “Sometimes I don’t even know how to put it into words.”

Yoonoh didn’t reply, his hard stare softening for a moment in a way that could’ve picked apart her brain and found the answer without her needing to say anything at all. And then he threw back the rest of his gin, standing from the sofa and walking back over to grab his coat. “Sit on it, yeah? I don’t need an answer now.”

“But…”

He hummed, glancing over to her as he shrugged the coat back on. “Just let me know when you think of something. Money’s no issue. I’ll get your roommate a ride home. Do you want to break the news, or should I?”

“Yoonoh, I—”

“Temptation is the damnedest thing, isn’t it?” he mused, pacing back over to the exit hallway of his bedroom. “Come on. Hundred-something rooms in the house to sit and think. Don’t make this the one.”

She scurried to grab her own coat, following after him hastily. “But I’m not…”

“Aren’t you?”

“I never said yes.”

Yoonoh’s hand paused on the handle of the door, and he turned back to offer her a sickeningly sweet smile. “You never said no, either.”

“You didn’t give me the chance to!”

He chuckled. “My apologies for assuming you wouldn’t be so blind as to turn down the offer of a lifetime.”

Her jaw dropped. “I’m not blind!”

But Yoonoh only shrugged, opening the door and waiting for her to step out. “Well,” he said when the door was shut, tucking his key back in his coat pocket and giving her a polite nod. “You do seem to be missing the opportunity sitting right under your nose.”

“You talk big.”

But Yoonoh only smirked, nodding slowly as he turned on his heel and sent his final words over his shoulder before stuffing his hands back into his pockets and heading away. “I left my humility behind years ago.”