#or james

“And that's why it's so interesting, because can we ever truly know what colors another person is seeing? Like if someone actually sees apples as blue, we would never know because they’ve been trained by society to think that color is red.” Your hands waved animatedly as you talked, gesturing to your eye and the apple you seemingly generated out of thin air. Was he crazy for noticing the cute way your lips moved around the word “blue”? 

“I think that might be why it takes some color blind people so long to realize they are color blind.” you continued. “They grow up thinking seeing red and green as the same thing, and don’t realize it until someone points out that a stop sign isn’t the same color as grass. Imagine that! I would be a worse driver than I already am!” A huge sigh left your chest as you finished, energy gone after the much needed rant. Seonghyeon realized that you are probably looking for a response. What should he say? Suddenly, his mind is empty, right when he needs its help the most.

Just say something!

“Right.”

Shit, I sound like I wasn’t listening at all! For the love of god, say something smart for once.

His face was an open book, and reading it was as easy to you as breathing. Laughing, you slid your fingers in between his, leaning on his shoulder. In your mind, this was the perfect act of reassurance. It accomplished completely the opposite.

While externally Seonghyeon thought he did a pretty good job at remaining cool and collected (He didn’t. His palms were quite sweaty), his mind jumpstarted the moment your hands connected. Like an electrical shock, one thought became two, two became four, infinitely replicating until the only thing accompanying the space in between was those lips. Smudged around the edges from some plum–candy–carmel-apple color that he couldn't quite place, they seemed so inviting. He’d lost count of the amount of times he had dreamt of leaning into space separating him from them. Closer, closer, inch by inch—until he woke up, flushed with disappointment. 

But when could that dream become reality? Now seems right, right? Is the way that you're clinging to his shoulder, head tilted just so, a sign? All the videos he’d watched— because he was curious, not because he didn’t know how to flirt (Ten signs she’s into you, How to know when to go in for the kiss, Classy pick-up lines to get the huzz) seemed to point to HELL YES! 

You applied chapstick, tongue flicking out to taste the citrusy flavor. The urge to just bite a chunk of the thing was real, but restraint was a virtue. Or so you told yourself. Your lips had been super chapped recently, and you hoped Seonghyeon didn’t notice. 

He did. Not in the way you thought. He was more preoccupied with how your tongue slipped over the surface, leaving them glossy and pink and breathtakingly beautiful.....

Girls only did that when they wanted to be kissed, he was sure of it. 100%. 

Tentatively, he angles his head towards you, everything playing out like in his imagination. One look towards your right eye, and then down to the mouth, and back up again. The classic triangle method. But none of the videos—not that it mattered—had said what to do after. Should he wait until you move first? Or was that stupid. Martins replayed in his head: Dude! Go for it. Girls like when the guy makes the first move. 

Closing his eyes, he leans forward, making contact. It feels different than he expected. Warm, smoother than he thought lips should be.

Weird.

“Seonghyeon. What are you doing?”

He opened his eyes, and the skin of your cheek greeted him, not lips. Shit. You idiot He practically threw himself away from you, the distance between you suddenly not large enough. A hole sounded really, really, good right now. Maybe a shovel too. 

“Did you just try to kiss me?” You knew the answer. The look of absolute mortification on his face said more than he ever could. 

“I swear I didn’t mean to– I just didn’t—-you were there and you looked so” He was cut off by you pressing your lips to his. Gently at first, with a slight smirk curving at the corners of your mouth. But suddenly restraint wasn’t a virtue you were too keen on practicing, and boy was Seonghyeon grateful. Your faces slotted together, like two puzzle pieces finally joined. It was perfect.

Until you realized he wasn’t breathing, eyes glazing over. 

With a gasp you pulled away, cheeks burning despite being the one that had initiated the kiss. Seonghyeon chased after you, his pulse stuttering like he had just gone through three dance practices without one break. 

“Dude, breathe” After a few hangered breaths that further proved your point, he gained enough composure to respond. 

“Don’t call me dude,” he complained, his eyebrows arching in pretend disgust. “That was my first kiss you know.”

“I can tell. You should see your face right now, by the way. It's soooo red”, You laughed, lazily circling the colored splotches on his cheeks.

“Or is it blue?” He mumbled, not moving your hands away.

Depending on what Ever plans to do, the order that they do it, the love interest could be there helping her or protecting her in any subtle way he can.

I'd like to think he would be, regardless of his standing within the organization position wise, like say he specifically joined because he knew eventually that Ever would get or would try to get their hands on mc, the love interest could be apart of Ever strictly to help mc, like hes gained trust in the organization, gotten inside knowledge, knows the ins and outs, who does what, etc, and he's been waiting for this moment when Ever would strike and get mc and he has plans to help her or he at least would know all this information and people and could use it to destroy Ever from the inside with her, but he was only waiting until he knew they would strike and try to get MC, or maybe he would need her power to destroy it or whatever major event Ever had planned, he knew MC would be able to destroy it and after all his years of being there, has the knowledge and power to help her achieve it

And love interests kinda parallel each other

Like Xavier and Sylus and with like Zayne and Caleb

This love interest would be paralleled with Rafayel

Perhaps similar looks, vibe, pretty face but vicious intentions

He and Rafayel might even know each other or seen one another, he may know of Lemuria but had nothing to do with the experiments so he wasn't on Rafayel's radar.