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⟡ warnings ; profanity, mentions of blood (this is a vampire au), some NON DETAILED mentions of violence, food mentioned, death.
⟡ pairings ; yang jungwon x fem. reader
⟡ genre ; vampire au, fake dating and attempted slowburn, slight royalty? PLOT TWIST BUT NOT THAT WELL WRITTEN
⟡ wordcount ; 12652 words
⟡ summary ; You are the most wanted half-blood. Your mother, however against her will, was smitten by a mere mortal, condemning herself and your future. And she conveniently forgot to mention that she is a vampire. Yang Jungwon, son of one of the most famous vampire royals, has to date you in order to see a brighter future. An unexpected journey full of twists and turns.
⟡ note ; hi guys. i have not uploaded a single work of mine because motivation is going 📉📉 rn 💀 so uh yeah this will probably be my last work. i may upload, but of my own will ^^ also I had to rush this really bad so im sorry if it doesn’t seem too good. I may release a sequel!! Not right now though. SONG MADE BY ME. DON'T STEAL.
THIS IS A PART OF THE RED MOON COLLAB WITH @liliansun AND @twilightau ‼️
“It’s a beautiful day, nonetheless,” your best friend, Danielle Marsh, comments.
“Doesn’t mean I have to be all shimmy-shimmy-aah, Dani.” You reply, laughing. Danielle giggles, punching you playfully.
You and Danielle have been the best of friends since even before you could speak. At that age, of course, it was mainly slapping each other and pulling one another’s hair, but you still considered it a holy friendship at the time. Your mum, Aurelia, and Danielle’s mother, Mrs. Marsh, were the best of friends. They had their own secrets, some of them they did not (and still don’t) trust the two of you with, and those secrets brought them together.
Today is the day before your birthday, and the day after Danielle’s. It’s currently the 30th of March, 11 AM, and the two of you are attempting to pass the time.
“Should we just have a picnic?” You ask Dani, to which she nods enthusiastically. “Totally! Let’s go make some food.”
“Dibs on making lemon crinkle cookies!” You shout, running into the kitchen. You accidentally bump into your cat, Mitch. She’s the most beautiful calico cat you’ve ever seen, and you’ve always found it extremely hard to believe that someone would let Mitch out of their sight and allow her to be lost. You adopted her off the street.
She purrs, rubbing her neck against your leg. You smile and kiss her head, exactly the place where she hates being kissed, and run off into the kitchen, Danielle following suit. She stopped on her way to lift your cat and give her a hug, and grabbed her car keys. “I’m gonna go get stuff for the cookies, and let’s make some nachos. I’ll buy stuff for pink lemonade too. Text me if you need anything, get started with the nachos. Home baked, right?”
“Yeah, always. You’re getting the salsa ingredients too, right? We don’t have ketchup.”
“Yep. I’ll send you a list of what I’m buying before I check out. Reply fast or I will not give a flying shit, I tell you.”
You roll your eyes, laughing. “Yeah, mom, bye!”
“I’M A DAY OLDER THAN YOU!” Dani yelled, slamming the door behind her.
You and Dani live together, just down the lane from both your family homes. Dani is 19 as of yesterday, and you turn 19 in a few hours. Funny how Mum thought I’d barely be old enough to drive, but now I have my driver’s license too, you think to yourself.
Your mother isn’t one for the history books in your opinion. She’s your average mother. She always tells you that she’s from Canada, and your father’s from South Korea. You’ve never met your father. He died when your mother was 7 months along. She does have a picture of him though.
You’re constantly surprised by how similar you and your father look. Same eyes, but not eye color, same nose, same smile. Same figure, and same accent, allegedly. Your mother is an extremely kind person, and was heartbroken when your father passed away.
Your grandmother, who you’ve not been able to meet, always writes to you on a monthly basis. She’s the sweetest person you’ve ever known, aside from your mother. Dani is on very good terms with your family too, so it’s all one huge party. She’s not really close to your younger sister, Lily, who's adopted, but they do talk often.
After Danielle returns, you and Danielle get started on making a mess. The doorbell rings, and you run to answer it, a water-stained apron arming you from whoever is on the other side of the door.
“Hello, are you Y/N?” A masculine voice asks, and you find a face to the voice when you look up from the ground.
“…who are you?”
“Oh, I should probably introduce myself. I’m Park Sunghoon, ambassador to the Maledictus ruler.”
“I’m sorry, what?” You snicker, trying to cover it up, taking off the apron and dumping it on the couch nearby, “Is this some elaborate scheme? Because you’re failing miserably at trying to convince me.”
“Um, lady, no. Are you Y/N?”
“And if I am?”
The Sunghoon in question sighs and presses a finger to his temple, as if this conversation is giving him a headache. “Y/N, who is it?” Danielle shouts, and you facepalm.
You just HAD to shout my name, didn’t you?
“Alright then. Please come with me with no resistance, unless you particularly wish to be unconscious.”
“Danielle!” You yell, but your voice is muffled by your cat jumping on you, smacking you right in the mouth. “Oh, for fuck's sake.” Sunghoon sighs, dragging you and Mitch into a limousine.
Limousine? Okay, rich.
“DANIELLE!” You yell. Deciding self-defense is your only resort, you bite him on the wrist, Mitch just purring in approval.
“JEEZ, LADY, I CAN'T RESIST EVERYTHING?” Sunghoon half-yells, half-asks, groaning in pain but still reluctant to let go.
Mom, I'm sorry but I may go to prison for this.
Anyone watching would think you're showing a sudden display of affection to your alleged kidnapper. You aggressively hug him, his face turning red.
“WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?” Sunghoon manages, extremely confused and amused.
Danielle runs, a bowl of salsa in one hand. Seeing you strangle (or attempt to) him, she lets out a war cry, the neighbor staring.
“AYYY!” She yells, the bowl rising in her hand.
You immediately know what she's going to do, and you both are so going to regret it.
She whacks him face-on with the salsa!
Mitch shrieks happily and jumps in the limousine.
“I don't fucking get paid enough for this. Get. In. Please.” Sunghoon positively begs at this point, looking close to tears.
Out of the kindness of your hearts, you both take a seat.
Only when Sunghoon climbs in and mumbles, “Salsa was very good, if I do say so myself,” do you realize that you have a terrible sense of danger and security.
“Aww! Why, thank you!” Danielle smiles, and Mitch purrs.
“Danielle, sweetie, no big deal, but we're probably going to get killed.”
“As long as it's with you. We lived a long life.”
“You guys talk too much.” Sunghoon says, as the car gets darker and darker by the second. You look down to see a syringe in your arm.
“Oh, nooooooo…” a distorted voice says.
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
“Y/N, you snore. Did you know that? And so does your friend here. Even your cat snores.”
You wake up to Sunghoon looking exhausted, his hand massaging his temple. Does he always do that?
“Sorry.” You say, just as Danielle and Mitch snore and purr. You offer a smile that comes out more like a grimace, and Sunghoon, if possible, looks wearier.
“No worries.” He offers a smile. “Could you wake them up, if you don't mind? We're almost here.”
You nod, not-so-eagerly, because you know Danielle is going to be pissed. She's the sort of person that hates being woken up by someone else.
You poke her warily. She responds with a snore, louder than ever, and turns over to her side. Oh, great.
You slap Danielle lightly on her cheek, to which she wakes up, gasping. “Y/N! Have you not learnt–” she begins, but stops when she realizes who she's with.
“Wait. Wait. Why are we HERE?” You yell, everything coming back to you.
Crap, crap, crap, the lemon crinkle cookies are probably burning NOOOOO…
Priorities, man.
You come back to the limo, seeing Danielle holding Mitch out in front of her. “I'm a good girl please don't kill me I'm too young–”
“Half an hour ago, you were telling us how you and Y/N have lived a long life. Here you are, telling me you're too young to die. Make up your mind, lady.”
“Ooh, lady. Damn. I'm Danielle!” Danielle says, reaching Mitch out for a handshake.
“DANIELLE, HE'S A STRANGER. DID NO ONE TEACH YOU ABOUT STRANGER DANGER?”
“Y/N makes a valid point, Ms. Danielle. Did no one teach you anything?” Sunghoon laughs.
“Y/N, can we beat him up?”
You smile. “Thought you'd never ask.”
She grabs a rolling pan from her apron and starts whacking him. You pinch him wherever possible.
“This– Is– For– My– Fucking– Lemon– Fucking– Crinkle– Fucking– Cookies!” you say with each pinch.
“NO! THE TRAUMA! PLEASE STOP!” Sunghoon screams, and the driver from ahead says, “Please don't kill him. I have a family to feed, and I depend on him. Please.”
Both of you stop. “He pays you?”
“Yeah, he's pretty rich.”
You and Dani smirk at each other.
“You thinking what I'm thinking?”
“Definitely.” You reply.
“Maybe if you give us money–”
“Maybe if you give us info–”
“DANI NO–”
“Y/N NO–”
A pause.
“Give us a minute to reconvene and get back to you!” Danielle says.
Sunghoon nods in agreement, a tear falling from his eye.
“Danielle, what are you going to reconvene over? WE DON'T NEED MONEY, WE NEED INFORMATION?”
“But when you can get money, why not take it?”
Pause.
“Valid point. We'll ask for both.”
“Okay,” Danielle nods, and says loudly, “Sunghoon, we've reached a compromise.”
“I didn't know you were on first-name basis with your victim but okay! What do you want? Anything to make you guys shut up. Please.”
“Money,” Danielle says, “and info.” you add.
“How much? Of both?” He asks, pulling out his wallet.
“100$ for each of us. And all the info we want.”
“Good deal. Here you go. Ask away.”
“Thanks! Why are we here?”
“You'll see. Don't worry, you'll see at least two familiar faces, if not three.”
“Oh. Will we be safe?”
“You're in a limousine, I paid you to stop abusing me, and I didn't even hit your cat, not that I would, of course. What do you think?”
“Oh. Sorry,” Danielle apologizes.
“It's alright! By the way, we've reached Maledictus. Please have a look-over of your appearance.” Sunghoon announces, clambering out of the limousine.
Danielle looks down to see a flour-covered apron, which she bashfully pulls off. You give yourself a brush-off, and deem yourself neat. You ruffle Mitch, at which she shrieks and scampers over to Danielle. Dani winks at you and gathers her apron and Mitch.
“Lead the way, Sunghoon.” You say, as Dani gets out of the car.
A winding path leads to a gate, putting you in mind of Draco Malfoy's mansion from Harry Potter. The black gate does not cool your senses, and when Sunghoon identifies himself using his biometrics, a deep voice booms.
“Identify the visitors you have with you, Mr. Park.”
“Uhm, a cat, a friend, and her.”
There's an empty silence, after which the voice booms, “Biometric identity of 'her', please.”
Sunghoon gestures to you, and you walk awkwardly. He takes your hand and presses the thumb to the identifier.
“Approved. You may enter.”
Sunghoon grins lightly. “Ladies first. And cats.”
Danielle walks ahead, dropping Mitch down to follow. You walk with Sunghoon, curious to know why you are here.
“Sunghoon, am I in trouble? Will Mitch and Danielle be alright?”
“Don't worry. They're fine. Nothing's going to happen to you as long as you don't 'resist', per se.”
You nod, not entirely convinced. “No matter what you do, Ms. Danielle and your cat will be safe. I'll give you my word.”
You nod slightly, feeling better about this whole mess. “Thanks, Sunghoon.”
Sunghoon smiles, the first real smile you've seen. “I'm sorry for the hostility you encountered when you first met us by the way. And the salsa. We were trying to protect ourselves.”
“It's cool, you don't need to worry. I understand. Besides, the salsa was delicious, although it could've taken away my eyesight forever.” He laughs at that, and you take it as a sign that it really is fine. You join in.
“Ah, welcome back, Mr. Sunghoon. I see you brought her. But who is the person with her? And what is–”
An old, balding woman sees her worst nightmare rubbing her foot and purring. “IS THIS–” she begins, but stops to sneeze noisily.
“I'm sorry, miss. Didn't know you were allergic.” Danielle scoops Mitch up and walks a small distance away.
“It's alright,” the woman sniffles haughtily, “but I thought you might know, Sunghoon.”
“My bad, Mrs. Ahn, I wasn't aware you would be here to welcome us. I thought it'd be Mr. Ahn.”
To give you slight context, Sunghoon whispers, “Mr. Ahn loves animals, but his wife is allergic to almost all of them. That's why he's been unable to have a pet, and jumps at the opportunity to take care of one.”
“Yes, I am only alright with bats. Good reason for that, too. However, my husband has been working a lot and is having his midday snack, so I thought to cover up for him. He'll meet you in the Hub.” Mrs. Ahn says, smiling tenderly.
It has always amazed you how people change with just a smile. But no one shares that amazement, so you can't really say anything about it, for fear of being laughed at and, or, killed!
“Thank you, Mrs. Ahn. If you'll excuse us, I'll take them to meet him now.”
Mrs. Ahn nods, moving out of the way, waving as you pass, sneezing as Mitch scampers forward to meet you. Picking her up, you peck her and squish her.
“You really love your cat, huh?” Sunghoon laughs, poking Mitch playfully. You swear you see Mitch roll her eyes, and you nod eagerly.
“I mean, who wouldn't? Want to know the story behind how she became my pet?”
“Totally, after this meeting though. Sort of important. For me and you. So. Yeah.”
Oh, right.
“No worries.”
You hum, as Danielle catches up with you guys. “This is why I hate quick paced walkers.” She mumbles, out of breath. You and Sunghoon laugh.
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
After what seems like eternal walking, and around five flights of stairs, Sunghoon finally says, “We're here!”
“How are you still so loud?” You and Danielle groan, and Mitch purrs. “You too, Mitch. You literally rode my back.” Danielle sighs.
“Y/N, you are one untrained half-blood.” Sunghoon mumbles, just enough for you to catch it.
“One untrained WHAT?” You shout, the breath returning to your lungs and voice regifted to your throat.
“Fuck. You'll see!” Sunghoon runs, gesturing to the two of you to follow.
“Danielle, DID YOU FUCKING HEAR THAT?”
Danielle nods. “Unfortunately, if we're being realistic, we can't exactly find out. But because I'm your best friend, I'll panic with you. AN UNTRAINED WHAT? IS THIS HARRY POTTER?”
“You know, my mother never talks about her family. Kind of suspicious if you ask me. I haven't even seen my grandmother. I know that they're from Canada, but I don't know any more.”
“Well, I guess we're about to find out.” Danielle says, looking at the magnificent doors swinging open.
“MRAWW!” Mitch shrieks through the utter silence as she spots a familiar face. She scurries across the room to where a woman is standing, looking extremely anxious. A crown rests on her face solemnly, sparkling in the golden light exuded by the chandelier.
“MOM?”
This is when everything keeping you sane shrivels up and dies.
“MS. CAMPBELL??” Danielle yells, and the two of you run to meet her, not realizing that there's a throne next to where she's standing. “Mother dearest, would you care to explain?” You confront her, extremely concerned.
“Hi, darling. I'm sorry it had to be this way. But it did. So. Hi. Uhm. Your grandmother's here! And so is –”
Before you can hear who else you were supposed to know, your grandmother squeezes you into a tight hug. “My darling Y/N!”
“Gran! I've never met you, have I?”
Wow, what a greeting. Way to go. So proud. Such etiquette.
“Now, that's no way to greet your grandmother, is it? But yes, you've only seen me when you were an itty-bitty baby. How adorable you were and still are.”
“Thanks, Gran. Would you at least be so kind as to tell me what's going on?”
“You'll see soon enough. Take a place. Dani! I've heard a lot about you. Stand next to Y/N. Grab Mitch too.”
You two obey, and Mitch settles in Danielle's arms.
“The accused may step forward.” A deep voice booms, not unlike the one you heard at the gate earlier.
HUH? ACCUSED?????
Your mother and grandmother step forward.
“You have been summoned to The Court of Maledictus to present your defense as to why the vampire world has not been made aware of the presence of one of the most powerful and popular half-blood in existence,” an extremely bald man began (why is everyone bald?), pausing to hear Sunghoon whisper in his ear. “I am also made to learn that there's a mortal present amongst us?”
“Yes, Slav, but she can be trusted.” Your mother insists, and Slav sighs.
“So be it. May the half-blood be made to stand in front of the Court?”
You walk after receiving a nudge from your Gran. Sunghoon inclines his head to where you are supposed to stand, and you walk, your head looking straight ahead.
“Ms. Y/N Jae-hyun Campbell, daughter of the late Mr. Lee Jae-hyun and Mrs. Adrina Cassius, are you aware that Adrina Cassius, known in the mortal world as Amber Cassius, is a vampire?”
One beat.
Two beats.
“You are absolutely, positively, most DEFINITELY joking.”
Adrina grimly smiles at Slav, who rolls his eyes.
“Adrina, you are telling the Court that you're own child, the most powerful half-blood in all of history, doesn't know her own family?” A man, looking no older than 50, looks down at you scrutinizingly. He wears a magnificent crown worthy of a king atop his head, where locks of grayish-brown hair flow down till where his shoulders meet his neck. Dressed in robes of elegant black, he looks ready to perform wizarding nonsense.
“Unfortunately, Yang Jae-hwan, she doesn't. You don't hold any rights over that decision either.” Your mother says, evidently annoyed.
“Anyways,” Slav clears his throat, “Adrina Cassius married a mortal, Lee Jae-hyun, for the reasons she prefers to call love. She gave birth to Y/N Jae-hyun Campbell, whose real name is Y/N Jae-hyun Cassius.
“We are here for the 'grand reveal' of Ms. Y/N, and His Majesty Yang Jae-hwan's verdict on how best to train the half-blood, and how to protect her. We are also here to listen to the defense of the Cassius family.”
“Hello all, I am Wilhelmina Cassius, wife of Athan Cassius,” – a collective gasp rings throughout the Court – “and I will present the defense.
“We have none. Why do we defend our choices? Yes, the choices in question may threaten the very existence of mortality, but they didn't! She's of age in a few hours, and we were going to present a diary written by all the reigning royalty of our family, including how to adjust to being a half-blood by our ancestor, Lilith Cassius.
“However, due to… present circumstances, we are unable to. I find this to be a valid enough defense. I am the reigning queen due to my daughter stepping down, which I fully support, by the way, and I have been handling things just fine. I don't seem to find a valid reason for this whole fiasco.”
“The Queen of Colonia, present day Canada, has made the defense. What does the King reply to this?”
“You're right, Wilhelmina, you do make a valid point. But what if her powers got out before she came of age? What then? What if mortals were harmed? This is the first half-blood I've seen that's not out of control. Precautions have to be taken, Wilhelmina.”
“Jae-hwan, you wanted Y/N's power for yourself and under control, didn't you? We can be honest, this is a safe space!”
“Wilhelmina, let's stay civil. I do care about power, but I would not take Y/N's power. Ever. My son is equally powerful. In fact, I'm surprised Y/N didn't–”
“Enough. Can we get the verdict?”
“Yes, Slav, if you please.”
“By the Court's discretion, the verdict remains not against, but with the Cassius family. However, a few conditions will be discussed, and now that Yang Jung-won, son of Yang Jae-hwan, succeeded in getting Ms. Cassius here, he has succeeded in placing his claim to the throne and will be the next emperor.”
Yang Jungwon? Didn't Sunghoon drag us here?
“The Court is dismissed. The Cassius family and their acquanitance have been requested to stay back for a meal. Thank you.”
How was that a proper court verdict? This is the weirdest day of my life. Couldn't get weirder.
“Y/N, WHAT THE FU- HECK WAS THAT?” Danielle screams in your ears, Mitch shrieking as usual with equal passion.
“Danielle, I wish I knew. I'm as confused as you are, honey.”
“Kids, we need to go to the official dining hall. Follow me.” Your mother says, flying away as a bat.
Wait, flying? The day got weirder.
Danielle gapes, but follows. You follow suit. What is happening?
All around, life seems to be going on as usual in the Palace of Maledictus. You feel like you're the only ones out of order. Mitch bounds after your bat-mom and Dani and you walk slowly behind.
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
After what seems like a lot of walking and exercise again, you and Danielle finally reach the hall.
It's not a hall. It's a huge ballroom. A very long dining table stretches from one end of the room to the other, a regal tablecloth spread out on it. The chairs look like thrones themselves, and there are at least 32 chairs in total. Approximately. The hall has a lot of chandeliers looking down at the people vainly.
“Please, ma'am, have a seat,” a waiter gestures to a chair next to your mother, while another waiter takes charge of Danielle's seating. The two of you sit together, your mother to your left and your Gran on Danielle's right.
A delicious-looking feast has been set out, and you see your mother wolfing down chicken. Taking 'inspiration', the whole table begins digging in happily.
“I propose our kids to date, Adrina.”
The table goes crazy. Wilhelmina chokes on wine, Danielle spits chicken on her plate, Adrina has a coughing fit, and your jaw drops. The king's heir, Yang Jung-won, blinks rapidly, and Sunghoon falls out of his seat.
“I – (cough) – beg your – (cough) – pardon?” Adrina says, trying to pull herself together. “They can fake date. Beneifical for both families, and we can have an alliance if all goes well. If it doesn't, we'll see. If they don't – what is the term? – fall in love with each other, then there's no alliance and we go back to our lives. If there's no alliance, maybe Jungwon can take over your territory once the inevitable happens.”
Inevitable being your grandmother dying, you know. The horrible tradition in your family states that the ruler who marries a mortal will be removed from the line of ruling, and only their child – a half-blood – after they come of age will be allowed to rule. So, after your Gran, only you can rule.
“Is that a threat, Jaehwan?”
“No, merely a caution, my dear Adrina.”
“Mom,” you whisper. “Mom, it's fine. We can try it. Don't worry. Ask him if we can think and discuss about this for five minutes.”
“Jaehwan, we'll discuss this for five minutes. We can't take such a rash decision instantly. Give us time and we'll tell you after discussing it after the meal.”
Jaehwan agrees, and so the meal goes on, and afterwards, the hall goes silent.
Gran and your mother whisper quietly, you and Danielle not the only ones trying to catch snippets of their conversation. Jaehwan and Sunghoon crane their necks to eavesdrop, while Jungwon seems to be the only calm one.
“Y/N, are you really alright with this?” Adrina asks, and Wilhelmina whisper-shouts, “How is that even an option? Adrina!” “Mother, I'm trying to secure my daughter's future, and her sister's. Her sister is a mortal and isn't of age yet. She can't be told. I'm sorry, mother.”
“Gran, I'll be fine. He won't torture me. Mom, I'm prepared.”
Wilhelmina and Danielle, although very silent, don't look too happy. “Jaehwan, let it be written that Jungwon and Y/N have begun dating on the 31st of March. On the 30th of June, we will see how the relationship is going and decide whether to form an alliance or not.”
Jaehwan beams, clapping. “Jungwon, you'll be moving to Y/N's city, and your friends may move too, if you like. I hope to see a good alliance.”
Jungwon makes eye contact with you, smiles ever-so-slightly. “Alright, father.”
It isn’t possible to fall in love in just three months. This is not going to be really good.
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
Your grandmother is positively pissed about the arrangement, but she doesn't exactly have a say due to the fact that it will be beneficial to her rule. And her future generations. So she
has no option but to go with it.
Danielle has been forcing you to tell her everything he does for the past hour. The two of you are staying awake till midnight to celebrate your birthday.
“Y/N, if I find a single red flag, I will make you dump that son of a vampire.”
“Hey, don't call him that. I'm the daughter of a vampire.”
“Still can't get over that, but sure. He's a terrible person.”
“Breathe, Dan. Let's not judge a book by its cover.”
“Yeah.”
The two of you are staying at the palace, and all you can think about is:
My poor lemon crinkle cookies. They have done nothing to deserve this.
“Anyways, fifteen minutes left!” Danielle says, sensing the annoyance practically radiating from you. She rolls up a lettuce to make a makeshift mic, its edges tearing up slightly.
“What do you think, Ms. Cassius, the soon-to-be 19 year old?”
“Comment denied!” You smile, pushing the lettuce-mic away. Danielle pouts jokingly, eating the mic.
You guys have brought up a mini-picnic from the kitchen to enjoy by yourselves in your room. Your mother is sleeping in the room across, and your Gran is asleep in the next room, on your right.
Taking a bite of the lemon tart the two of you stole, you think about the day's events. Damn, that was a weird day. But the ending seems good!
The two of you pass your time, talking about the university you go to, Zephyr University. Gossiping about the most recent breakups in your friend group, you don't realize how fast the time flew until Danielle checks her phone.
“SHIT, IT'S 11:56!” Danielle shouts, making you jump. “Bro, breathe, we have four minutes,” you say, laughing at Dan's expression.
“How are you so calm? Dude. You're – what did they say? – ah, coming of age in the next… three minutes!”
“I wasn't born exactly at 12 AM on the 31st of March, you know?”
“THANK YOU DANIELLE!” You yell with equal energy, jumping up and down with Danielle.
The door creaks.
A hiss is heard.
You and Danielle stop celebrating.
The creaking stops.
“Danielle?”
“Y/N?”
The two of you look at each other, and scream.
And then, someone places what looks like blood next to you. What seems like a sinister voice says, “Happy birthday, Y/N. Hope you get along with good blood.”
That doesn't even make sense.
You shriek anyway. Getting up, both you and Danielle punch, kick and pinch whatever part of the person you two can.
“ARGH! WAIT! HEAR ME OUT! SWITCH ON THE FUCKING LIGHT!”
You continue without a care, but Danielle does so. The two of you have been sitting in the light of a single candle, so it is sort of understandable why you can't see who the creep is.
The light flicks on to reveal Yang Jungwon.
Oh, fuck.
“Dude, you have good self-defense, but like, why?”
“But why would you come here?” Danielle asks, in shock. “You see, Ms. Danielle, I believed that as her fake boyfriend, I should probably wish her a happy birthday. Did not expect this to happen, although Sunghoon told me what you guys did to him. He is apparently very scarred.”
You smirk at the memory, catching Danielle's eye. Jungwon narrows his eyes, still very curious and concerned, but shakes it off.
“Thanks for the thought of it, Jungwon. What flavor is the cake? It looks a lot like blood.”
“That's because it is!”
One beat. Two beats.
Danielle gags, getting as far away as possible from the cake. “Jungwon, what the fuck?”
You don't even know him but you're already worried.
“I'm joking… Ms. Danielle, don't worry. It's just red velvet with some extremely bright red frosting.”
“Oh,” Danielle murmurs, walking slowly. “Want me to test it out or something?”
“Nope, I'll do it myself, Jungwon.” You say, grabbing a wine glass and scooping the cake in it. Taking a spoon, you gingerly take a small bite, ready to vomit if necessary. To your surprise, it tastes delicious.
“... Maybe it isn't all that bad. It doesn't taste like blood, approved by me.”
Jungwon lets out a breath he didn't even know he was holding, and Danielle promptly eats the cake from your wine glass. “Ifs akshooli weawy goof,” she says, nodding in approval.
“It's actually really good,” you translate for Jungwon. “Thanks, I baked it myself!”
“WOAH, REALLY?” Danielle exclaims, eyes as wide as plates. Quietly, she whispers to you, “Y/N, maybe he isn't as bad as I thought,” and you smile.
“Anyways, I'll let you guys sleep. We're going to Zephyr Uni in the morning, around 10. I'm transferring universities, so I'll be taking finals at your university. Continuing classes there, too. See you at breakfast,” Jungwon salutes a goodbye and shuts the door behind him.
“Well, that was… interesting. He's nice though. He thought of you!”
“Yeah, more like he wants the alliance.” You say quietly, confused. Is what I'm saying true?
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
At breakfast, you, Dani, Sunghoon, Jungwon and his friends sit together. The five of Jungwon's friends know about the arrangement, so nothing's extremely awkward.
“Guys, this is Y/N Cassius, and her friend, Danielle Marsh, a mortal. And Mitch, their cat.” Sunghoon introduces while Jungwon goes to fetch juice for the table.
“Hey!” You and Dani chorus, taking a seat in between Sunghoon and Jungwon. “I'm Lee Heeseung, the oldest here. I'll let the others introduce themselves. It's nice to meet you!”
“I'm Park Jeongseong, but you can call me Jay!”
“I'm Sim Jaeyun, but you can call me Jake!”
“I'm Kim Sunoo!”
“And I'm Riki, Nishimura Riki.”
You and Dani nod to each of them respectfully, and smile. “We hope we all get along well, hopefully.” Dani says, grinning and lifting her fork.
Once Jungwon is back, he takes a seat next to you, smiling. He offers juice to everyone, taking care to not spill even a bit. He's sort of cute. Maybe he's nice after all.
Your thoughts are immediately proven wrong.
“Oops!”
Jungwon smirks evilly as a stain of orange juice spreads on your white shirt, and you gasp as you feel the chill of the juice.
“JUNGWON!” Heeseung scolds, running to get baking soda from the kitchen. Sunghoon presses his temple, sighing with fury. You just sit there, mouth ajar. “Y/N, just stay here, I'll get you another shirt. Heeseung can remove the stain when you change shirts.” Danielle says, and runs off to your mother, who hopefully has a change of clothes.
Sunghoon turns to Jungwon. “Jungwon. Apologize. You're supposed to be mature, especially to your fake girlfriend. Why did you do this?”
“It was an accident. Sorry, Y/N!” He apologizes happily, as if no one knows that he did it on purpose. “Totally, Jungwon! It's completely alright!” You say sarcastically, seeing Danielle return with a white button-up crop top.
Luckily your mother had packed up whatever clothes you and Dani left behind at her home, because you two had zero time to pack.
Mom, thanks.
Heeseung returns too, so you go to the ladies' room to change your shirt. You exit the restroom to see Jungwon standing outside, holding the baking soda. “You forgot this,” he says, picking his nails.
“Oh, thanks.” You say, taking it from him and re-entering the room to use the sink. From outside, he says as loud as possible, “I really am very sorry, I didn't mean to cause a change in the mood. Like, really. I'm not mean, I promise. I'll be thoughtful from now on when I think of jokes.”
You listen silently, scrubbing the shirt. Seeing the stain disappear, you exit, stopping in front of Jungwon. “Don't worry. I was just really upset because it's my birthday, you know. Wanted the day to go perfect.”
“Oh, I'm sorry.” “You don't need to apologize, it's fine! Let's forget it and look ahead!” You smile, and Jungwon returns it, his face cheering up.
The two of you walk back to the table, and on the way, you ask a member of staff for a bag to keep the wet shirt in. The lights suddenly dim, and your eyesight takes a bit to adjust. “Need help?” Jungwon offers, taking your hand gently. He leads you back to the table as you try to spot your mother, who was supposed to be here.
Your senses haven't fully developed due to the lack of training as a young child, and so you can't really make out much. “I'll help you train, by the way, whenever we're free. We'll discuss a set time later.” Jungwon says, reading your mind.
You thank him, and finally reach the table. Ignoring the slight tingles in your fingers, you let go of his hand, and the table brightens up.
“HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY..”
You gasp as nineteen candles light up and the whole table sings for you. The staff clap as well, and you smile, the brightest in the room.
“Thank you all so much!” You exclaim in joy after the song is over. “Make a wish, Y/N,” Dani says, and you do so, blowing the candles.
“What'd you wish for?” Jungwon asks you curiously, as you cut the cake to give everyone.
“If I tell you, it would not come true. So no thanks.” You say, busy cutting the cake proportionately. He pouts, and cringes immediately after. “Shit, remind me to never do that again.” You laugh and nod.
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
On the journey back home, the University students sit in one vehicle, and your mother sits in another. Gran left for Canada immediately after breakfast, and Jungwon's father and the rest's parents stayed back in Maledictus.
You sit next to Dani and Sunghoon, and you tell Hoon the story of how Mitch became your pet as he listens attentively, with Dani adding her own comments in between.
“So yeah, Mitch decided to stay with us! We officially adopted her, like, 10 months ago.”
Sunghoon smiles, ruffling Mitch's fur, while she claws at his hand, irritated. The journey worth 90 minutes passes by quickly, and the driver pulls up to the driveway of your home. Your mother's car follows, and the drivers stop for a meal.
You quickly whip up some spaghetti and sandwiches, and Danielle attempts to repair the damage in your kitchen. Sunghoon makes some lemonade, and gives the drivers their meal. They wave and drive off to Maledictus.
“Shit, the kitchen is such a mess.” Danielle says, opening the oven door to find burnt cookies and an extremely nauseating smell.
“What happened here?” Your mother asks, entering the kitchen.
“Mother, we were trying to enjoy our last few days of break before school, but dear Sunghoon over here decided to drag us to Maledictus!”
Sunghoon winces, wiping the inside of the oven clean. The rest are sorting through the bags in the living room. Dani is currently sifting through the food in the fridge, trying to throw out the rotten food. Surprisingly, even after just one day of absence, at least a quarter of the food (healthy stuff) had gone bad.
You hate wasting food and Danielle knows it. So she does it herself. She dumps the food in the separate trash can, cringing.
After about half an hour of cleaning, the three of you manage to clean up the mess in the kitchen. The rest of Jungwon's friends successfully sort through their bags and make sure the right stuff is in the right bag. Your mother has already returned home, but you see a notification from your mother.
Mom ♡ : If you need anything, message me or call.
You : thanks mother!!
After sending a reply, you settle down on the rug in the living room, while Danielle gets chairs for the rest. “We're leaving for the dorms tomorrow, do you guys have everything set?” You ask the boys, who nod. “Only Riki is your age. He's majoring in dance. I'm majoring in journalism.” Sunghoon says, and Riki grins, saluting.
“What do you major in, guys?” Dani asks, sitting next to you. “I major in humanities, finishing my degree this year,” Heeseung says.
“I major in the visual arts,” Jay says. “I major in astrophysics.” Jake smiles.
“I major in the visual arts, like Jay.” Sunoo says, smiling brightly. “And I major in music, focusing on composition and therapy.” Jungwon says, and you gasp. “Same!”
“Oh, damn, nice. We'll see each other in class then!” Jungwon replies.
“What do you mean?” “You seem like the type to be really happy in the studies of media. Just the, uh, vibe with a capital V.”
Everyone agrees, and Danielle flushes. “Aw, thanks guys. Means a lot.”
You pat her on the back and Danielle holds your hand. I would never trade this for anything.
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
SHIT WE'RE LATE.
The first thought you have when you wake up. Delightful.
Why is everything shaking?
The second thought. How very wonderful. You then realize that your bed is shaking. “Y/N, WAKE UP.”
Jungwon's voice yells, and water splashes on your face. “Sorry, Y/N,” Sunghoon says. You blink rapidly and see Danielle assembling an outfit for you.
Only then does everything process.
SHIT I'M WEARING SHORTS AND A SHIRT?? I LOOK LIKE CRAP.
You jump into the shower, practically flying. Jungwon and Sunghoon catch each other's eyes and try not to laugh.
“Welcome to our household,” Danielle says, holding a pile of clothes and dumping them on your bed. Sunghoon offers to take Y/N's suitcases down, and Danielle gladly accepts.
“Jungwon, she'll ask for her clothes. Just hand that whole pile over, but DO NOT. I REPEAT. DO NOT. LOOK AT HER. YOU'LL FIND YOURSELF SIX FEET UNDER. YOU UNDERSTAND ME?” Dani says, shaking him aggressively by the shoulders. You sigh in the shower.
Dearest Danielle.
“BREATHE, DANIELLE, I THINK HE KNOWS,” you yell as loud as you can.
Immediately after the shower switches off, you bang the bathroom door and stretch a hand out for your clothes. Jungwon obediently hands them over.
Getting dressed in a hurry, you tie your hair up in a bun. “Let's go!” You exclaim, dragging Jungwon by the hand downstairs.
“Everyone finished their breakfasts, by the way.” He says casually, and you facepalm.
“Shit, I'm so sorry.” “It's okay, breathe. You can have it on the way there.”
“We're going on public transport, I'll just pack it and take it there. Are the groceries packed?”
He nods, and Danielle stops you on the landing. “Here's your breakfast. Eat it in the dorm. Let's go.”
The nine of you rush to the bus stop, just in time for the bus to arrive. “Zephyr Stop, please. Nine of us.” The conductor nods, and you pay.
Online payment for the win!
Upon reaching the bus stop, all of you get down, and you and Dani wave to the conductor. She waves and smiles.
“We'll show you to your dorms. All genders in one huge building, but different wings. Females on the left, males on the right, and non-binary people depends on their preferences or identification. Not really sure.” Danielle says.
The seven boys nod, lugging their bags with them. “The dormitories have a mini-kitchen, explaining the groceries we have. Depending on how many people you have in your room, you have bunk beds and one extra bed. One attached bathroom for everyone, and a study table for each person. There's a couch and a TV, and the Wi-Fi password will be shared to you by a residential counselor,” you explain, walking slowly.
“Since today's a Sunday, we can meet up freely. When actual classes begin, we'll have to stay in our own block. But we can meet at the shops on campus.
“We have a café, restaurant, medical store, a few medical staff, grocery stores, and thrift stores run by the marketing and fashion students. We have a few sports fields, a garden, recording studios, a huge library, swimming pools, and just an open field. We have an amphitheater and auditorium too. ”
The boys listen attentively, and Danielle sees the check-in machine. “Hand me your IDs, I'll check you guys in.” She offers, and everyone dumps their IDs in her hand.
Checking in everyone, she hands the IDs back to everyone.
“We'll meet at the café. Can we have a group chat? I'll share the location there.” You offer, and Sunghoon nods. “I'll take your numbers and make one. Guys, go ahead.”
The rest meet with the resident counselor as you give your number to Hoon. Grabbing as many bags as you can, you take yours and Danielle's belongings and unlock your room.
I'll unpack later.
Opening your phone, you see a message.
Park Sunghoon has added you to a group chat.
Park Sunghoon has renamed the group chat to Vampires and a Mortal
Sunghoon :
hey guys. y/n will share the location here. we'll meet up there. btw, here's the room numbers and roommates.
– me and jungwon, room 112
– heeseung, jay, sunoo in room 116
– riki and jake in room 115
You :
here's the location : xtxtxtxttxxttxxt
me and danielle are in room 67
You close the chat, and help Danielle unpack her things.
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
“I'm too lazy to remember everyone's orders, so go order your food yourself guys. Please.” You say, and they roll their eyes. Zephyr Café is a really calm place, the classic romanticized café.
It has a beige color palette, and the smell of baking and happiness. Students come here on casual hangouts, study dates, solo dates, dates in general. Since not all students arrived on campus, and you all were here for lunch, the café was not very crowded.
“Hey Jaemin!” You wave to the boy behind the counter, Na Jaemin. “Hey Y/N! I see you have people with you. You seem to be making friends!” He laughs, and you punch him playfully.
“Shut up. Me and Danielle have the usual, the guys will order personally.”
“Alright. Enjoy, friendless bitch.”
“SHUT UP, JAE.”
You and Jaemin have known each other since your first year at Zephyr, the both of you in the same course. You're close with his friend group too.
You did nurse a small crush on him, and sometimes still do. But it's just a crush.
After everyone receives their orders, all of you talk about everything possible. Breaking the ice is really useful, because you and Jungwon will have to pull off a fake relationship and you need to make it realistic.
“Also, Y/N, we need to talk in private. Could you guys give us a minute or a few?”
Without waiting for an answer, he pulls you over to a corner of the café. “Can we use the field for training?” He asks, and you nod. “Yeah, just let me know the times. We probably have the same schedules so yeah.” He nods, and you return to your seats.
All nine of you chatter away like old friends, talking about Spider-Man to Angelina Jolie.
After the café lunch, you guys return to your rooms, and you take a small nap. In the evening, you and Danielle meet up with a few friends.
“Yunjin! Minji! Hi!” The two of you greet your two other friends. They're roommates and are in the room opposite to you.
“Hey guys!” Minji says, hugging the two of you. Behind her, Yunjin is dragging a sack full of snacks. “Here's food. Eat whenever. You're welcome.” She says, and you hug her. Yunjin is the oldest, the same age as Heeseung, and is finishing her degree in botany this year. Minji is majoring in literature.
You’re the youngest in the four of you guys, but you hate when they baby you, so they always baby you. Just for fun.
“And how’s our baby doing?” Yunjin says, pulling your cheeks. “Stop it!” You say, pulling out of her reach. Minji laughs, and Danielle opens your fridge to keep the groceries away. “I heard you made new friends? Around, like, seven boys?”
“Yeah, don’t make it weird, please.” You tell Minji, who already looks like she’s scheming. “Mhm, sure, I would never!” You sigh. Your friends are annoying, and also annoyingly sweet, so it’s a win-win.
“Aww, does my baby have a boyfwend?” Yunjin asks, putting on a pair of glasses and smirking at you knowingly. “Maybe, but you’ll never find out who!”
“So you confirmed that you have one. We’ll find him. And when we do, he will regret it.”
“Please don’t guys, she finally got a boyfriend. Let’s not scare him away.” Danielle says, coming to the couch with packed bottles of cold coffee for Yunjin and Minji. “Did you guys have lunch yet?” She asks, and they nod. “Did you guys?” Minji asks, accepting the coffee. You nod and plop on the sofa.
Small talk continues, and they leave to unpack. “Bye guys! We need to unpack too,” you say to Danielle, shutting the door after they leave. “Yeah, let’s do it. Anyways, how did you like the questions about your ‘boyfwend’, Y/N?” Danielle giggles.
“My vampire boyfriend?” You ask, grinning. “I don’t think I would describe him in that way, but sure. He’s fake anyway. As in, our relationship is fake.”
Danielle nods, putting her clothes on hangers and placing them in her side of the wardrobe. “Danielle, you don’t want to drink, do you?” You ask, the thought suddenly occurring to you.
“Never.”
“Oh, thank god.”
You have never found the alleged temptation of drugs, alcohol and cigarettes tempting, and you hope never to. The farthest you’ll ever go, you decide, is wine or champagne, and medicinal drugs.
Hopefully you avoid the latter too.
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
“Wake up, Y/N, it’s seven AM.” Danielle shouts in your ears, and you jump. “Okay, okay, breathe.” You say, gathering yourself and rubbing your eyes aggressively. “Need water?” Danielle asks, and you nod. She hands you a glass, and you dump it over your head.
“Better?”
“Yep. Are you ready?”
“As usual. We’ll leave by 7:45, so we have a lot of time for breakfast.”
You rush to get ready, and wrap a towel around your head after your shower. Pulling on a decent outfit, you stare in the mirror, satisfied. Deciding to go with a minimal makeup look, you finish it off with a brush of your brows. You’re wearing a black oversized shirt with graphics, and faded blue baggy jeans with blue Converse. Pinning your hair back, you use hair gel to make your hair less frizzy. Dabbing on some lip balm, you walk out of the door, grabbing your bags.
“Let’s go?” Danielle asks, and you nod.
Arriving at the main building, you look up to where your class is. The theory classes are in the first half of the day, and the second half goes to completing your assignments, and practical classes, if any.
You and Danielle usually drop off your bags, but you see Jungwon, Sunghoon, and the rest at the entrance, looking confused. “Oh, hey, I nearly forgot about you guys,” you say, rushing to help them out. “Media and sciences are at one place, so I’ll take Sunghoon and Jake. The arts are in another section of the building, so Y/N can take you guys there. We’re going to drop our bags off, have breakfast first, then go to class, so come with us.”
They nod, and you all run off to your classes. You drop off Riki at the dance studio in the basement, and tell him he can ask the professor if he needs anything. Waiting patiently for him to keep his bag, you check your phone. “Back, whose room are we going to next?” He pops out of the studio, and you say, “Visual arts.”
Going to the first floor after the ground floor, you take a right and go to the second classroom you see. “Here. It’s more of an art studio, not sure where they take their practicals. The professor is in, you can ask them.”
They walk out after ten minutes, and say, “They asked us to leave our bags right here, they’ll show us around later.”
You nod, and go to the next floor, allowing them to follow you. “Music composition, music therapy is the classroom on our left.” You drop your bag in the front, and Jungwon drops his bag beside you.
“Let’s go to the restaurant.”
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
The day has been exhausting. You still have training to look forward to. You open the texts between you and Jungwon again.
Jungwon : we’ll meet up on the ground, i’ll be waiting at 11.
You : pm????????????
Jungwon : yeah, what else? 🙄 we’ll do sensory training today. darkness. think about it, let ur brain process.
You : 🙄 im rolling my eyes but make it in bold, italic red underline.
Jungwon : nice reference. i see you’re a woman of culture as well.
You : obviously
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
“Training’s going to be interesting,” Jungwon says.
It is 11:15 PM, and you are extremely sleepy. You are in the field, near the forests that surround it. The trees block out the little light from the night sky. You grimace and say, “Sure. Can we get it over with, please?”
He shrugs, and begins. “Make out my movements. Stop me when you think you can.”
You see a blur of hands around you. Shit, he’s fast.
Finally, when you see him hesitate, you smack his hand. “Got you.”
“Good. Can be faster. Next, I want you to hold my hand with exactly my little finger. Doesn’t matter how. But little finger.”
Another blur of movements. Your eyes are adjusting, however slowly it may seem. Finally, when you think you can see his ring finger, you grab a finger.
“Good.” He says, turning on a torch. “You’re getting better. Stop me when I cross my fingers.”
And so it goes on, and on, and on, until around 11:55. “Stop me when I get too close,” he says.
Now, what is TOO CLOSE?
You stop him as soon as you feel his breath on your cheek. “This time, it seems you got me by my breath, not your eyes. Good strategy, but doesn’t work in all battles. We’ll stop here. I’ll walk you to your dorm. Is Danielle still up?”
“Nope, I asked her to sleep, not wait for me. She said she’d try, but I highly doubt she can. She falls asleep on a fixed schedule.”
Jungwon shakes his head, and you can barely make it out. The walk back is silent, only filled with the sounds of insects and animals making sounds, and the sound of your footsteps and breaths coordinating.
“See you Friday, Y/N.”
See you Friday.
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
Every Monday and Friday, the same time every time, he trains you. By the third Monday, you are successfully able to identify different movements.
It’s a Wednesday, and you enter class and sit next to Jungwon, who’s passed out. It’s 8:32 AM, and the class begins at 9 AM. All around you, you hear whispers. You turn to Jaemin, who sits behind you, and ask, “What’s happening?”
“Y/N, you haven’t heard? Rumor is that you and Jungwon sneak out at midnight.” Jaemin says, cutting straight to the point.
“What? There’s more, isn’t there?”
“Yeah…” he begins. “They think you do stuff in the woods. You know, inappropriate shit. I don’t believe them, but there you go.”
You stare. “You’re kidding. They can’t possibly be that immature.”
“Actually, they are. Plus, Jungwon’s asleep, so that makes things worse. You may want to talk to him.”
“Thanks, Jaemin.”
“Also, Y/N, do you want to hang out with me after school?”
“Definitely!”
“Alright, see you at the café at 5:30?”
“See you there.”
You turn to the front, and poke Jungwon. “Jungwon, we need to talk, dude.”
“Mmf. Let me sleep, Y/N.”
“It’s serious, you dickwad.”
“Chill with the language, Y/N.” He says, sitting up straight. “What is it?” “Uhm, basically, there are rumors that we do inappropriate stuff in the woods.”
“Isn’t that technically good? Because we’re supposed to be fake dating…”
“Oh. Right. I forgot about that.”
“Speaking of which, we should probably show off right now.”
“What do you mean?”
“I can kiss you on the cheek, you know.”
“Oh…” you flush, shrugging. “Sure,”
Before you even get out the word, Jungwon pecks your cheek softly, smiling ear-to-ear. You go positively pink at the kiss, although very childish. The whispers seem to grow even louder, and Jungwon says, “Ignore them. They’re going to manipulate anything we do, so why not give them a show?”
You nod, and the professor enters, signaling an end to the whole fiasco.
You subtly open your notebook and doodle hearts everywhere.
What is happening to me?
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
At lunch, when all of you meet up, Jungwon fills everyone in on what happened in class. They laugh, and Danielle and Sunghoon smirk at you. Surprisingly, you and Sunghoon are becoming fast friends, and you conveniently forget the fact that he was your attempted kidnapper.
“Anyways, how were your classes, guys?”
The chatter goes on till 2 PM, when the practicals begin. Today, you have a free class till 3 PM, after which you have a practical session in the studio to try and begin working on your final presentation. Finals begin from April 22nd, and end on May 2nd. University begins again on July 1st. It’s the 10th of April, and the frenzy is finally getting to a lot of students.
Each of you leave for your respective schedules. You hurry to the library to get started on your music therapy homework. “Hi, Y/N! Over here!” You hear Yunjin say, and the librarian aggressively shushes her. You wave excitedly and head over there, swinging your bag on the floor. “Hi Yunjin!”
“Hey kid. What’s up?”
And so you and Yunjin chat whilst doing your homework, a paper on how music is interpreted amongst teens as makeshift therapy. Yunjin is doing her botany work, a case study on different structures in various plants worth 25% of her grade. She frustratedly shakes her head, looking at her computer. “Google is so unreliable, man,” she sighs. “Need help? I probably can’t, but worth asking,” you offer. “Nope, it’s fine, thanks!” She replies, waving it off.
You narrow your eyes at her, and she grins widely. “It’s okay, don’t worry kiddo.”
You nod, still suspicious, and continue your work. Finally, at 2:50, you decide you’re satisfied with your work. You proofread it, and format it. “Yunjin, need any prints?” She shakes her head as a ‘no’, and you nod, heading over to the printer.
“Hi!” A familiar voice exclaims, and you look up from your paper to see Jaemin’s best friend, Lee Jeno. “Hi Jeno!” You reply cheerfully. He’s extremely similar to a Samoyed, with a really cute eye smile. You realize with a sudden jolt that Jungwon and Sunoo also have eye smiles.
“How’s life treating you?” He asks, stapling his papers. “Oh, interesting. What about you?”
“Fun. But since finals are near, I doubt the same spirit will last.” “Valid point.” You comment, as your prints get ready. Stapling them, you wave a goodbye. “Are you working at the café today?” You ask him, walking back to your table. “Yeah! My shift’s till 6 something.”
“I’ll see you at the café!” You smile and wave. “Bye Y/N!” “Bye Jeno!”
“Yunjin, I’ll go to the recording studio. Good luck with your assignment, okay?”
“Okay, child. Bye!”
“DON’T CALL ME THAT!”
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
At the recording studio, you greet the assistant professor, the teacher who helps with practicals. “Hello, Ms. Kent! Did you have your lunch?”
“Yep! Thanks for asking, Ms. Campbell.” You internally shudder, remembering the exposed feeling going through you at the Court when they revealed your last name to be Cassius.
“I feel like this time I want to go for a backing track before I try writing the words,” you say, placing your bag next to your chair. “New method? Whatever for?”
“I don’t know, I just feel like I don’t have inspiration for lyrics. Maybe by next week.”
“You mean the seventeenth? That’s a dangerously close date, but okay. Whatever’s fine by you. We have time till 5 today, so you will definitely be able to achieve a lot.”
You smile, looking at your melody list. It’s a sheet you prepared that lists your favorite backing tracks.
“What if I—“
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
After the recording studio session, you feel energized, music coursing through your veins. Ready to meet Jaemin, you go directly to the café, fifteen minutes away from the studio. Checking the time, you realize it’s 5:20 PM, ten minutes earlier than planned.
It’s fine, maybe I can get started on the lyrics. I need a melody though.
You begin pointlessly humming, trying to come up with a melody for your lyrics. “Hmm, HMM, HMMMM!”
“I’m sorry, but are you okay?” Jaemin asks, walking up to you. “The practical seems to be messing with your head, Y/N.”
“Yeah, yeah, shut up. Are you ready for it though?”
“If it’s me, you can’t really have expectations, Y/N.”
“You’re right. Point taken. How’s it going?”
“I have, like, the chorus all set, but not the backing track, the verses or the melody.”
“So basically you have nothing except some repetitive lines, or a refrain.”
“Pretty much, yeah.” He grins, ordering a coffee. “Hey Jeno.”
“Hey, Jae. Hi Y/N! I didn’t know this was what you meant by ‘see you there’. I don’t want it to be awkward or anything, but are you two on a date?”
“No!” You both chorus, panicking, and Jeno giggles. “Whatever you say.”
The two of you discuss everything about summer, waiting for your orders. “How was your birthday?” Jaemin asks, and you grin. “Oh, lovely!” You reply, recalling the weirdest day before.”
“I have a gift for you, but it’ll wait until after this hangout.”
“You LITERALLY DID NOT have to tell me, Jae. Why are you so mean?” You whine, your head in your hands. “I love annoying you, Y/N.”
“Sure you do. You are a bitch. An evil, mean, bitch.”
“Yeah, yeah, sure, kid.”
“SHUT UP!”
Conversations have always been easy with Jaemin, so you find it no surprise that you don’t get bored with him. At the end of it all, around 6:30, when you both get up to pay, he doesn’t allow you to pay. “My treat. If you pay, you won’t get your gift, and I’ll tease you till the end that you never got to see it.”
“You are manipulating me. But okay. Next time, I’m paying.”
“Sure, sure.”
After paying, the two of you leave, and he says,”Here’s your gift.”
Opening a blue velvet box, he takes out a locket. “Holy shit, Jaemin, it’s beautiful.”
“Open the locket.”
In it is a picture of you, Danielle, him, and Mitch. I miss Mitch. I wish she could stay at the dorms.
Your eyes tear up. “Y/N! Don’t cry, is it that bad?”
“No. It’s beautiful.”
“Here, I’ll put it on for you.”
That’s when you realize that this is what love, platonic, feels like. He unclasps the hook of it and puts it around your neck gently, smiling. “It looks lovely on you.”
“Thank you so much, Jaemin.”
“You’re always welcome.”
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
Jungwon : why were you out with jaemin?
You : uh.. he’s my friend?
Jungwon : but IM UR FAKE BOYFRIEND?? 😭😭
You : THEN ASK ME OUT??
Ignore that. 😀😀
Jungwon : No. Meet me outside ur dorm RN
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
“Y/N. Will you go out with me on a date?”
The first thing you hear when you open your door is Jungwon’s voice, and he’s holding a bouquet of flowers.
“Where did you get the flowers from? We literally texted three minutes ago.”
“ANSWER THE QUESTION!” He cries, looking exhausted.
“I mean, obviously, I thought that was a given!”
“I could kiss you right now.”
You shrug. “Do you want me to?”
“To what?”
“Kiss you right now.”
“Yeah, that would be cool,” you say (not so) casually. “Don’t act so carefree.” He replies, kissing you on the lips.
It doesn’t seem right. There should be more of a PLOT before we kiss, man.
I’m looking into this too much. Chill, Y/N.
You kiss him back, and Danielle shrieks behind you. Crap, Dani.
The two of you break apart, the bouquet in your hand. “DID I MISS SOMETHING?”
“NO, BUT YOU RUINED IT, NINCOMPOOP.”
“SHIT. WHY ARE WE TALKING IN CAPS AGAIN?”
“BECAUSE I’M PISSED?”
“Guys, breathe,” Jungwon breaks in. “Y/N, it’s alright. Danielle, you didn’t miss anything. I just asked her out on a date.”
“Oh. Continue, pretend I’m not here.”
“Danielle, that’s just weird, dude.” You both say to her.
She raises her hands, as if accused. “Don’t blame me, love made me crazy.”
You throw a pillow at her face.
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
Jungwon : for the date, meet me at the restaurant, friday, at seven pm. no training, we’ll compensate for the training on saturday.
You : okayy ^_^ thank u 💗💗
Jungwon : ideally i should be thanking u but okay
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
You giggle as the two of you continue texting. “Y/N, it’s ten. Sleep. Please. Or let me. Or go over to his dorm. I would much rather sleep in the same room as Sunghoon than listen to you giggling annoyingly. Do vampires never sleep or something? That guy looks tired but doesn’t sleep.”
You shake off her rant. “Okay, okay, mom, I’ll sleep.”
You wish him a good night. You can’t help but feel like high school sweethearts, but make it older and more mature.
Mature? Says the girl giggling at texts. Bro. You’re not okay.
I know.
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
You wait for Friday night to arrive. When classes end, you rush to your dorm to get dressed. Two hours early. Danielle rushes after her classes too, to make sure you look perfect (you already do) for the date.
“Okay, what do you want to wear?” She asks, shutting the door behind her.
“Uh, maybe the black dress? Not yours, not the tight fitting one. The more airy, loose one.”
“Yeah, sounds good. Yours, right?”
“Yeah, but I don’t have good shoes to match.”
“I have black heels, I think. I’ll search. Clean makeup?”
“Yeah, obviously.”
You rush to get ready, and by 6:30, you look in the mirror. The black dress has pleats that reach your knees, and off the shoulder sleeves that extend to your elbow. You wear Danielle’s strapped heels, wedged, not pencil, and your hair is left loose, a scrunchie in your purse, in case you need it. Your makeup consists of concealer, some counter, tinted lip balm, highlighter and eyeshadow eyeliner.
“You look so pretty, I need a Polaroid.”
You pose for one, and take one with your best friend. “Man, if I were Jungwon, I would rather die than let you go. Juliet to your Romeo.”
“HOW I HEARD YOU SAY!” You and Danielle sing along, while you pack your purse.
“Bye! Have fun, Y/N,” she says, kissing your cheek. “Bye!”
You arrive at the restaurant, and you see Jungwon standing there with a bouquet of daisies, your favorite. “How’d you know?”
“Danielle.” He replies, hugging you. “Shit, Y/N, you look so gorgeous.” He compliments you, and you flush bright pink. “Thank you.” “Always.”
“I want to get to know you more, Y/N.” He announces grandly, kissing the back of your hand. “Aww, hopeless romantic,” you tease, and ask, “What are we going to do?”
“Oh, I don’t know, dance?” He jokes, smiling. You giggle — STOP WITH THE CREEPY GIGGLING, Y/N — and grin. “We’re going out of campus. I took permission, plus it’s the weekend, so they told me it’s allowed.”
“Ah, alright. Where though?”
“You’ll see.”
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
The drive there is not that long. After around twenty minutes of driving, he says, “We’re here, Y/N.”
You look around. Stars sparkle in the night, and the moon looks bright and happy. “I found this place last week, after training. It’s really beautiful, but I’ve never seen it during the day. Here’s the treehouse I built.”
“You built a TREEHOUSE?”
“Yeah, out of wood that had fallen. The walls are made with rotten wood. #Recycling!”
“Wow. You built a treehouse.”
“Not a big deal!”
“Totally.”
He leads you up the ladder, and grabs a chair for you. “I made dinner, it’s in the car.”
Jungwon runs to bring the food. He’s so cute, man. He returns with a picnic basket, and asks you to turn around. The room is brightened up. Is he lighting a candle?
“You can look now.”
You gasp, seeing candles lit, and wine glasses. “Jungwon, I don’t drink…”
“Who says we’re drinking wine?” He smirks, pulling out apple cider, your favorite. “Danielle?”
“Nope, me. I saw you drink it during class.”
You blush furiously, the thought of him looking at your preferences overwhelming you. “Thank you.”
The two of you spend all your time there, getting to know one another, drinking apple cider sophisticatedly, eating a vegetarian filet mignon (that’s what he called it), and laughing.
You admit that it’s been really fun with him. Is it a crush?
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
Finals. Crap.
It’s the sixteenth of March, and you have not prepared lyrics. You have a general melody, but you need lyrics. After class, you run to the library and grab a dictionary.
You frantically start scribbling down lyrics.
It began before my birthday
You and I, so forced,
Didn’t have words to say
The ice trying to defrost
Itself so fast
You wished me at midnight
Scared me out of my wits
You and I, against no light
Your goodbye felt like secret chits
Passed in class
And maybe I read into things too much
But we seem like too good of an opportunity to pass
Up, so I’ll try and take this and trust
That we both would last
So please don’t leave, don’t say goodbye
You know I’ll miss you, so don’t even try
No matter how fake we are, hope you feel the same
Way as I do, please just stay
And I could be romanticizing you a lot
You and I, as pretty as a forget-me-not
Following its name, I can’t ever forget you
I’ll be as blue as the flower if I do
And maybe I read into things too much
But we seem like too good of an opportunity to pass
Up, so I’ll try and take this and trust
That we both would last
So please don’t leave, don’t say goodbye
You know I’ll miss you, so don’t even try
No matter how fake we are, hope you feel the same
Way as I do, please just stay
I haven’t known you for long, a few weeks isn’t much
Time doesn’t matter, ‘cause you feel like a crutch
To my sanity, if I don’t have you near
So please just stay, dear
So please don’t leave, don’t say goodbye
You know I’ll miss you, so don’t even try
No matter how fake we are, hope you feel the same
Way as I do, please just stay
So please don’t leave, don’t say goodbye
You know I’ll miss you, so don’t even try
No matter how fake we are, hope you feel the same
Way as I do, i hope you stay
“Good enough.” You murmur, and fall asleep.
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
After homework class the next day, you rush to the recording studio. “Ms. Kent, I’m ready.”
“Jeez, Ms. Campbell, you scared me. But I’m happy. Let's begin.”
At the end of the session, Ms. Kent smiles with pride. “I am very proud of you. I hope it works out for whoever you have dedicated this song to.”
“Thank you, Ms. Kent.”
You exit, feeling very happy. This is guaranteed to get you a good grade.
You hear your phone ring, and you take a glance. It’s Sunghoon. “Hello?”
“Y/N, Jungwon is dead.”
Pause.
One beat.
Two beats.
“You’re joking. I’m coming to your dorm right now.”
“I’m not here, Y/N, please believe me.” You hear the pain in his voice. “Y/N, I’m at the campus hospital. I’ve called the King. Please come now. Everyone’s here.”
You run, tears falling, but you don’t realize it. Your only priority is getting to Jungwon.
“What happened?” You cry, seeing Danielle waiting outside.
“Y/N, he left a letter for you.”
“No, Danielle, this is a joke. Danielle, please. This is a joke.”
“I’m sorry, Y/N, it’s not. It really isn’t.”
She encloses an envelope in your palm. “None of us opened it. He died in the bathroom, Y/N. Allegedly because of a stab, possibly silver.”
“It’s a murder.” You declare between sobs. “We know, Y/N, please come see him. His father will be here in fifteen minutes.”
“When did this.. when was he found?”
She doesn’t say anything.
“DANIELLE, WHEN WAS HE FOUND?”
The one person I thought was like me. Would understand. Who helped me reach my potential and unlocked it in the first place. Lit a candlelight dinner for me. He’s my fucking muse. This is a joke.
“DANIELLE, HE’S GONE.”
Sunghoon screams, and on seeing you, hugs you immediately. The rest are sitting, tears soaking their shirts. When they see you, they run for a group hug. “Y/N…”
“He was found when I was in the recording session, right?”
“We tried calling you. None of us could come get you, we were too busy. It was 5 minutes before you picked up Sunghoon’s call.” Danielle murmurs, choking up with tears.
“And now he’s missing.” Heeseung says, staring blankly. The doctor arrives on the scene. “Hello, the patient has gone missing and I’m aware. For your information, I’m a vampire, too. There is a high possibility he turned to ashes, and we can’t rule it out. I'm not sure what happened, and the security cameras aren’t explaining anything either. We’re sorry for your loss. We are trying our best to figure it out. I am aware he is the young Prince of Maledictus, and the King is on his way. I assure you, this is not a mistake. It’s supernatural.
“A red moon incident is what we call it. When a vampire, a very powerful one at that, just disappears with no warning after his alleged death, it’s either they’re in ashes… or they’re alive.”
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
Dear Diary,
The king is furious. His only heir, gone into thin air? Impossible. He doesn’t blame me, though, surprisingly. I honestly don’t think he believes me to have the capacity to be able to scheme this well.
I don’t mind.
I know exactly what happened. His letter explained everything.
Here’s a word-to-word copy of it.
—————————————————————————————————————
Dear Y/N.
Do not show this to anyone else. Not even Danielle, not even Mitch. Mitch is a human, by the way. She’s been made a cat because of an age-old curse that runs in her family.
I am alive. For security purposes, I won’t tell you where. My father is planning something. He’s a terrible, cunning man. He wants to kill you, and make me do it. I’m sorry, but I love you.
You hear me?
I love you.
I’m alive. I asked Jaemin to place the silver next to a body I was working on. Jaemin’s really nice, by the way. He knows. But he’s with me. He’s applied for leave from the university under pretences of his grandmother being ill.
Lies.
He’s with me, and wants me to tell you that he’s safe. “Y/N, remember me in that locket of yours.”
Remember me too. I’ll come get you one day. When it’s safe. I promise.
By the way, love the song. I know for a fact it’s about us. Jaemin overheard everything before he came to the bathroom.
Don’t hate us,
Love, Jungwon.
P.S. : we both love you. Stay safe, and don’t worry. Don’t forget us, otherwise you’ll be as blue as a forget-me-not. ;)
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
THREE YEARS LATER.
“Y/N!” Danielle greets you.
The two of you don’t live together anymore. She moved away to LA for her career after graduation. You still stay in the same place, in hope of Jungwon being able to find you.
Right now, Danielle is with you, at your good old home. Your mother is in Canada, helping your Gran.
“Hi! How are you?”
Danielle and you still talk, and have video calls weekly twice. The boys are still in touch through the group chat.
“I’m fine, as I said yesterday,” you laugh. “Same!” She giggles.
The two of you spend hours together until it’s time for her flight. “I’ll see you next month. Call you when I reach!”
You hug her tightly. “I miss you a lot.”
“I miss you too, Y/N. I love you, okay? Take care!”
She kisses you on your cheek. “Love you too. Have a safe flight!”
After shutting the door, you plop down on your couch. Life’s been good.
“Y/N. How have you been?”
You turn around to see Jungwon and Jaemin, looking extremely weary.
𝟏𝟏𝟏 ; warnings – angst ( death and mentions of it, mentions of blood ), slight fluff ( the entire fic is sort of like flashbacks or rewinds into the reader’s life ), cursing (a lot I think), quite serious problems like cardiac arrest (illness? unsure) and stroke mentions (i don’t mention them in depth)
𝟏𝟏𝟏 ; pairings – gwisin park sunghoon x y/n, ending includes a different ship that I wanna keep a surprise :)
𝟏𝟏𝟏 ; genre – angst!! the entire fic is sort of supernatural, a bit of fluff, supernatural au, gwisin au (ghost, basically)
𝟏𝟏𝟏 ; wordcount – 14364
𝟏𝟏𝟏 ; synopsis – “in my dreams, you’re here with me.” in which sunghoon left you long ago, but you still seem to feel him around you, in everything you do.
𝟏𝟏𝟏 ; author's note – DO READ THIS. IN MY DREAMS is a fan-fiction written as a part of the ‘So Ends The Myth’ collab hosted by @svngcore . This fiction in no way represents the myth Gwisin (or spirit) accurately. It is my interpretation of the myth, and I’d advise you to research about it separately. On a lighter note, I’ve been trying to get over my writer’s block so here I am! Also, my new school starts May 22 (it’s 23 January 2022 right now) and I won’t be active from then (not like I am anyway 🤡👍).
FIC BELOW THE CUT.
——— PRESENT DAY
“Y/N, you’re zoning out again.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”
You bow in apology to your secretary at work, who shakes her head and strides off. “You say this every time, but it doesn’t seem to change. Take a break.”
You hate to admit it, but ever since he left, nothing’s been the same. The effects of the loss on you hadn’t worn off, although it had been over a year since that extremely traumatic night.
The night Sunghoon died.
The night you lost the love of your life.
29 May.
——— 29 MAY, 20XX
“Oh my God, Y/N, you look beautiful.” Sunghoon said, hugging you from behind as you struggled to spray perfume on yourself. “You’re not too bad yourself, Sunghoon,” you grinned, returning his hug as comfortably as you could.
Looking back, that was the last hug you two would share, as you later found out.
“Thanks, sweetheart. Need any help?” He suppressed a laugh as you shook the perfume bottle aggressively, trying to figure out what was wrong with it. Shaking your head in reply, you finally fixed it and sprayed it where it was necessary. Sunghoon chuckled lightly, twirling you around.
“What’s this all for?” You asked him, laughing in return as he spun you around your bedroom. “Ah, why not, eh?” He replied, placing a kiss on your forehead. You blushed, and he smiled. “When do you want to leave? We can leave right now, we’ll reach in quite enough time.”
“Sure, let’s go.”
That would be one of the last times you would see him without blood scarring his beautiful face.
He opened the door for you to make sure you were able to sit comfortably in your dress, being the gentleman he was. As he sat in the driver’s seat, he said, “Happy anniversary, Y/N.” You smiled and replied, “And a very happy anniversary to you too, Park Sunghoon.”
As he accelerated on the nearly empty road, you wondered how you got so lucky. How did you get such a wonderful boyfriend?
That was one thing you had never figured out, and it scared you.
All that happiness dissipated within ten seconds. How was it so easy for that emotion to fly away? Or, rather, get shredded so spectacularly? And to be replaced by fear and anxiety so quickly?
You barely registered when the drunk truck driver swerved into your car. Sunghoon hit the brakes as fast as he could, but he was too late.
Within a snap of fate’s cruel fingers, you lost the one lover you had ever laughed and lived your life with. Even loved.
Sunghoon had made sure the impact of the crash would be felt on his side of the car, and the only major injuries you had suffered were mental. Other than that, you had been bruised and scratched.
Sunghoon, on the other hand? Not so much. Or, so less, rather. The glass that had reluctantly broken had pierced into his head, and he had broken a major part of the right side of his body. You were in a daze as approaching vehicles stopped, and some of them helped you and Sunghoon out of the car. The drunk driver had sped away in fear, and you really hadn’t cared at the time.
The only thought in your head was that you lost Park Sunghoon.
The love of your life.
And everything would never, ever be the same.
You didn’t feel the tears that streamed down your face, or the pain you felt thanks to the minor cuts on your arm. You were numb. The ambulance arrived and carried the two of you away, but it had barely reached the hospital that the doctors in the vehicle pronounced him dead.
The one thing they (very wrongly) didn’t pronounce dead was your heart, and all your emotions with it.
——— PRESENT DAY
“Earth to Y/N?”
“Yeah, yeah, Yunjin, I’m here,” you tell Huh Yunjin, your closest friend and current roommate. She shakes her head and sighs, sitting next to you on the sofa.
After work, you had taken the bus back home, as you usually did after the accident. You never set foot in a car, and it had been so long. Yunjin kept trying to get you to move on, that is, sit in a car, but she failed miserably every time.
“Y/N, you need to go to therapy. Please understand what I’m saying. It must have been so traumatizing, which I know, so you need to try and heal. You’re letting it disrupt your life. I understand that he was the love of your life. I’m not trying to be insensitive. But please, he wouldn’t have wanted you to live your life out like this.”
“Well, he hopefully didn’t want to die either, but here we are, Yunjin.”
Yunjin bites her lip, and you realize you may have been just a bit too harsh on her. She’s only trying to help you, after all.
“I’m sorry for acting this way, Yunjin, but I’m trying. Please let me try my way. It’s probably difficult to see me like this, wasting away, but really. Sunghoon was all I wanted to be with, apart from you. You have the love of your life, Yunjin. I don’t, and it hurts so much. I’m not saying I’m jealous of you, but don’t you think I don’t know what I’m missing out on? Nothing will be the same even if I try dating someone else. As for the therapist, Yunjin, do you think the newspapers will stay silent if they see me off to the therapist? My mom will say, ‘Ah, Y/N, our failure of a daughter, now off to the shrink? Good. Waste of time.’ And the newspapers will reflect the same.
“Look, I’m trying. If I could have arranged to see a therapist in private, I would’ve. But with my dad ill, I’m all the business has left. Mom has to take care of Dad. She doesn’t have a choice. Once I get a break from work, I’ll definitely work on myself. I swear.
“Thanks for caring, Yunjin.”
“Y/N!” Yunjin cries out, seeing your nose bleed. “Argh, not again…” you sigh, as Yunjin runs for a tissue. The nosebleed problem isn’t quite major, but it is rather annoying. Especially in such situations. Extremely inconvenient.
“Anyways,” you begin, waiting for Yunjin to continue. “Ah, Y/N, why can’t you just try to ask someone for help, just for once! It’s not going to harm you, or your work. Trust me. Please.”
“Yunjin, we have the same conversation daily, but what good comes out of it? Breathe. I’m working on it. Try meditating. It really helps!”
“Y/N, you use humor to cope. It’s not healthy. Please.”
“Let’s end this right now. I’m too tired to fight. Yunjin, let’s have a meal and sleep. Believe me, I’ll just let the bad times pass by at the company and then get in touch with a therapist.”
You both know that might never happen, but Yunjin decides it’s an okay-ish excuse to begin eating, knowing that nothing ever good comes out of fighting.
—————— 🦢
The nightmares stopped two months ago, but of course, sleep is a tiring process for you. Sunghoon’s comforting arms usually helped you sleep, but that is out of the question now. All you can do is silently fade into the darkness, allowing it to swallow you whole, no matter what you may dream of. To avoid the nightmares, you never think about the accident at night, and always convince yourself, like a fool, that Sunghoon is out on a business trip of some sort, and he will return tomorrow, of course he will. He loves you, so why won’t he?
He loves you, but he’s dead.
You continue deluding yourself, disapproving of all the unhappy thoughts at night, embracing them during the day. During the day, nightmares can’t haunt you. At night, they attack you from every direction, every angle, battering and bruising you until you are exhausted. But on the bright side, it’s been a while since you’ve had a nightmare.
And God, are you thankful.
As your mind runs through all of this, you twist and turn in your bed, willing yourself to fall asleep for once. The room is dark, just the way you like it, and there’s nothing that you can mistake for an entity of any sort. No chairs with clothes on them that make you wonder if it really is a chair (is it though?) or lights that successfully fail to be stable (your mental health is stabler, which is making a statement).
So why do you feel something on your cheek?
A lover’s caress? The devil’s touch? You’re unsure, but you don’t know how to speak.
Then you see him.
Park Sunghoon.
Definitely the devil’s touch, you think to yourself.
Park Sunghoon, the love of your life, floating leglessly. The same ethereal beauty in all of his features, but more… frightening, yes, that’s the word. Frighteningly handsome. But something’s off.
He’s dead.
If he’s dead…
Who is this?
You want to shriek, scream, call for help, but an invisible object muffles your voice, disallowing you from speaking a single word.
“Y/N…”
Sunghoon, Sunghoon, you’re dead, but if not, give me a sign that this is you, you desperately think.
“Y/N, it’s me. I can speak. But I’m not alive. I can’t stay in the real world for too long in a visible form, so I will leave you now. Wait for me to communicate with you. Please don’t do anything fatal to yourself. I have seen your every thought, and I know what you are capable of doing to yourself just to be united with me. Stop. I need to go now. Stay… a… live…”
You watch as he fades away with his mystical voice, unable to believe anything.
The one thing you’re sure of is that you definitely need to sleep.
And you definitely should take Yunjin up on her offer of a therapist.
—————— 🦢
“Yunjin, recommend some therapists for me, please,” you mumble as Yunjin prepares breakfast for the two of you.
“I’m sorry?”
“You heard what I said.”
“Yeah, but I think I can hear it again!” Yunjin turns and smiles at you, and you sigh. “Therapists. Please.”
“Finally. May I ask what convinced you to make this decision?” Yunjin asks sweetly, squeezing some lime into what you assume is a salad.
The previous night’s chaos runs through your head, and you think to yourself. If I even suggest that such a thing happened, she’ll practically kick me out of here to visit a psychiatrist immediately. Maybe I can cut down on the incidents.
“Oh, I thought through our conversation and came to this conclusion, because I realized you were right.”
“We’ve had the same conversation, like, every day. What changed this time?”
“I.. erm.. I opened my mind to your words..?”
You know Yunjin can’t be so easily swayed, but she accepts it with an inclination of her head. “Sure, I’ll accept that for now, until you decide to tell me what really happened. Anyways, I think I’ll leave for work now, have your breakfast, and drink some water. I’ve packed your lunch, you don’t need to cook, but dinner’s on you. Bye! Have a nice day, Y/N.”
“You too, Yunjin. What’re you doing at work today?”
Yunjin works as an influencer, a job so flexible it suits Yunjin perfectly. She usually vlogs, but she produces music occasionally, too. You’ve heard her voice so often, but it’s very, very difficult to find it dull. Her voice has a soothing aura about it, and when she hits each note, you’ll think to yourself, yes, this is how music should be sung.
So it’s not very surprising when you check her YouTube to see that she has over ten million subscribers. Her channel, Jenaissante, is popular for the down-to-earth vlogs she creates, and you occasionally feature on it, too.
As heir to one of the biggest record labels in the industry, ZEN Entertainment, you have a public image to maintain, and God, does it get stressful. You’re an only child, and your father is in a critical condition. Your mother is quite harsh, but you know it’s all for your own good. She is the only reason you have such a strong image in public, and the reason your father is still alive.
——— JANUARY 20XX
A few months before Sunghoon’s death, the two of you were on your way to your family home. But before you were even home, your mother called.
One call that changed how your life was.
“Y/N! It’s your father, he had a cardiac arrest, we’re at the hospital, meet us there. You know the one. The doctors aren’t sure he’ll make it. Please come as soon as you can.”
Your eyes went wide, and you turned to Sunghoon, who was extremely confused.
“Y/N, what is it?”
You remained silent, still trying to process everything. “Y/N! Answer me, please!”
“Sunghoon, it’s my father. He’s had a heart attack. I’ll drive, switch places.”
“No, Y/N, I’ll drive. You’re in shock. Just send me the location. What did your mother say? Will he be fine?”
“The doctors aren’t sure if he’ll make it, Sunghoon. I sent you the location. Please, let’s get there as fast as possible.”
By some miracle, he made it. Your mother was in tears. That was one of the days you saw her completely broken.
——— FEBRUARY, THE SAME YEAR
That happiness didn’t last for long. The next month, your father had a stroke. He was left unable to remember a major part of his life, and almost paralyzed. His communication was limited in terms of spoken language, but he communicated just fine through other means. He remembered you, your family, Yunjin, but couldn’t recollect Sunghoon’s presence in his life. He remembered his company, but was unable to run it, leaving its burden on you.
You weren’t angry about it. It wasn’t his fault. Your mother didn’t want you to do his work, because the industry was incredibly toxic, and words were flung around carelessly at each and every setting. But did you have a choice?
After your father had a stroke, your mother had to look after him, but she did attend board meetings whenever she could online. Sunghoon helped you as much as possible, but he had his own work to do, too.
Yunjin assisted in your work wherever she could. The marketing aspect of your work was done by Yunjin on behalf of you, because she had a better idea of it.
When Sunghoon died, however, Yunjin took over your work with your secretary, putting a hold on her own life for you. Your mother attended board meetings and you looked after your father. He was rapidly healing, but he did have the occasional loss in memory. His paralysis would always be present, but he was regaining use of his speech, making life easier for you and your mother.
He was trying his best to make it easy for you, because your mother explained whom you had lost. At the funeral, you and your family met with Sunghoon’s parents, who were heartbroken.
“We don’t have any reason at all to blame you. I just hope you heal, honey, because that’s what our son would’ve wanted.” Mr Park was extremely understanding, and so was his wife. After that statement, you apologized profusely and bowed, and Mrs Park, unable to speak, hugged you tightly.
That was another day your own mother was completely broken, seeing her daughter grieving.
—————— 🦢
Your brain swimming with thoughts, too many thoughts, you leave your house, heading into work. After a few months, you took over from Yunjin again, allowing Yunjin to go back to her work. Your secretary was like a sister to you at the time, and continues to be one.
“Welcome, Y/N, what would you like to drink?”
“Relax, Kazuha, I’ll prepare something for you instead. What do you want?”
Kazuha grins, “A coffee would be good. You know my type, right?”
“Yeah, no sugar, black coffee, whipped cream on the side. Quite weird, but okay, I guess.”
Kazuha thumps your back in indignation, walking off to pick up your mail. You laugh and go to the kitchen, bumping into one of your artists, Nishimura Riki.
“Oh, hi, Riki, how come you’re at the company today?”
“Ah, Ms Y/N, hello,” he bows, and smiles. “My vocal trainer asked me to meet here, he wants to try recording a demo.”
“Interesting! What time? I’ll see if I can make it, my schedule isn’t that busy today.”
“In an hour or so. Hope to see you there, ma’am.”
You smile and bow, and leave the kitchen with the coffees in hand. “Hey, Kazuha, what’s this I hear about Ni-ki recording a demo? Didn’t he release a whole album, like, last month?”
Kazuha nods, sipping her coffee. “Yeah, he did, but if I’m not wrong, he’s taking a break from work for two months on behalf of his exams. He’s about to finish an early bachelor’s degree in Japanese and also in Economics.”
“Oh, wow! That’s great. How come I wasn’t aware of this?”
“Oh.. this was approved when Yunjin was working with me. I gave you a file on it, remember?”
“Ah. Must’ve slipped my mind. Sorry. What’s on our schedules today?”
“You’ll be meeting with the rival company’s CEO for lunch in three hours. I’ll be
meeting with an artist from another company whose contract is going to end soon to see if she’ll join us. You asked me to check when her contract ends, remember? Hanni Pham?”
“Ah, yes. Isn’t she in a group, though?”
“They might join us. I’ll check. If she and her group joins us, we’re in for a good time at the company.”
“I soundly agree, Kazuha. Good luck getting them to join us, though. When exactly do they get to renew their contracts?”
“Around four more months. May, I think.”
Ah. Shit.
“You okay, Y/N?”
“Yeah, definitely. You’re leaving right now?”
“I have to, it’s far away. Hopefully this meeting goes well. Take care!” Kazuha crosses her fingers and leaves the room, and you wave after her.
Get it together, Y/N. This is an important part of your time as CEO of ZEN Entertainment. If NewJeans joins you, you’re set for life.
It will be two years then. Will you be able to manage to stay under control?
—————— 🦢
“Hello, Ms Y/N.” The producer hops to his feet and bows, and so does Ni-ki. “Hello. I was curious about the production, which Ni-ki told me about. So I’m here to just watch. I’ll be doing my work, but I’ll be paying attention. Go about your work and pretend I’m not there!”
The producer nods, and goes back into discussion with Ni-ki. “I’m thinking we do something from your usual concept. What we’ve seen from you is a… dark theme, but we can try something brighter this time. Who’s to say that you can’t do a cute concept?”
“I actually agree. Let’s go for it. So do we go with the lyrics I provided, or the one the lyricist did?”
“I think we can go with a mix. Let’s work on that for the next hour or so. We also have a backing track ready, but I might have to get that modified. We won’t be doing a ballad, right?”
“No, I don’t feel like that’s going to suit me very much.”
“Okay then. Let’s get to work on the lyrics. ma’am, would you like to oversee this? Since Ni-ki wrote a lot of potential lyrics.”
“Sure.” You get up, walking over to where there are multiple sheets of words written in messy handwriting.
“Ignore the mess, please. I work better when I’m in a rush.” Ni-ki smiles, sorting the whole mess out. “It’s fine, don’t worry. You’re a very young artist. I’m honestly glad to see you comfortable with creating your own music. It goes a long way, believe me.”
“Thank you, I’m honored,” Ni-ki bows, and pins some sheets together. “Uhm, ma’am, I need to take this call, will it be fine if you’re here? It’s a personal emergency.”
“Don’t worry, take the call. I’ll be here.”
The producer rushes out, speaking in his native language incredibly quickly. “Anyway, I like the look of these lyrics. I think you’ve had a… messed up, partying teen vibe with some vampires in the mix?”
“Yeah, indeed. I honestly didn’t know where the concept would go. So I came up with these. A sudden change in the concept will shoo some of my fans away. But I think I’ll gain some fans too. That’s beneficial to both me and the company, so.. yeah.”
“Valid point. So you’re going for a teen love concept now?”
“Yep. I’m not boasting, but I am very young. So I should go with such concepts, because as a teenager myself, it’s easy for me to represent such topics.”
“Right. You are very smart, Ni-ki. I like it. You have a mind made for such work.”
“Thank you.”
As you both settle in comfortable silence, you read the lyrics carefully. The album Ni-ki is working on revolves around the theme of young love, right from the meeting to the goodbyes. You can’t help but think of your goodbye to your first love, but you shake away the thoughts.
«It was a pretty sunset,
We didn’t want the moment to end
Right from the hello, you caught my eye
And now I just can’t say goodbye
To you, the one I like
If this is young love, I don’t want it
To you I can’t bear to bid a farewell
If it’s you I’ll love, please don’t be my first
I know how first loves end, all too well
Is this what young love is?
After that day, we met often
We both knew we had fallen
The first handshake, you caught my eye
And now I just can’t say goodbye
To you, the one I like
If this is young love, I don’t want it
To you I can’t bear to bid a farewell
If it’s you I’ll love, please don’t be my first
I know how first loves end, all too well
Is this what young love is?
Just stay a while, stay right there
Maybe then we’ll last forever
Just don’t fall for me, let’s not be our firsts
We both know how this is going to end
If this is young love, I can’t have it
To you, one day, I’ll say goodbye
I can’t have you, if you’ll be my first
Can’t bear to see you cry
Is this what young love is?
This is what young love is»
“Ni-ki, this is amazing. Seriously.”
“Thank you. I’m going to combine it with the lyricist’s bridge, though. I don’t like the one I wrote.”
“You can do what you want, but this is really good. I like the ending. If you play it right, this can be a masterpiece. You need to conclude it well, so that the listener bursts into tears.”
“I don’t exactly want my fans to cry—“
“But that’s the sign of a good song —“
“So I’ll have to make them cry.” Ni-ki finished, pursing his lips together.
“Yeah, pretty much.” You grin, lounging in the chair.
“Okay then. The goal is now to make people cry. Good.” Ni-ki says, a hint of sarcasm in his voice. “Are you being sarcastic to your boss?” You ask teasingly, and he aggressively shakes his head.
“Oh, no, of course not.” Ni-ki hastily retracts his words, and you laugh.
Suddenly, something catches your eye. “Ni-ki, is this yours?”
“How can it be? It has a name engraved on it. Could be the producer’s.”
He takes the briefcase that you’re holding to check the name.
“Uhm.. ma’am, it says Park Sung-hoon on it..”
You blink. “What?” “Yes. And I know for a fact the producer is not Park Sung-hoon. Oh, you know what? Could be the choreographer’s. Park Ji-sung. Maybe we’re reading it wrong—“
“Give it to me. Let’s see if we’re really wrong.”
You snatch the briefcase and see the name engraved in it. “It’s Park Sung-hoon, alright. And I’m also sure that I don’t have a single employee with that name who visited here today. I’ll announce this.”
“But maybe you should open it? Just in case they have documents of themselves. It would make it easier for you.”
“Right. Smart idea.” You say, unzipping the case.
And immediately you drop it.
“It’s my dead boyfriend’s.”
—————— 🦢
You had a panic attack after that little incident, and Ni-ki had to take you to the on-hand nurse, meant for the artists.
“You fine, ma’am?” The nurse asks, concerned at the expression your face holds. “Yeah, I am. Thank you. Where’s Ni-ki?”
“He’s outside.”
You get up to meet him, and he immediately gets up from the chair he was sitting on, seeing you exit consciously. “Are you alright?”
“Yes. But I am so confused,” you mumble, lost in thought.
Am I going crazy? Are these signs?
“You aren’t crazy,” Ni-ki assures you, as if he read your mind. “It’s a normal reaction that an average human would show. Don’t worry. You worry too much, and this was just a small side effect of that worry. Go home, and get some rest. Believe me. You need it.”
You nod absentmindedly and wave at Ni-ki, who waves back with a look of concern, knowing nothing in what he said went into your head.
You walk on, in your own train of thoughts, and you don’t even notice when you walk into another employee. “Argh—“
“Oh, God, I’m so sorry, are you fine?” You ask, helping the unknown person up. “Yes, I am, thank you, ma’am,” he mumbles in a deep voice, gathering his papers. “This may seem rude, but who are you?”
“I’m actually a choreographer, my name’s Park Ji-sung. And I know who you are, obviously. Nice to meet you.” He answers, smiling and offering his free hand for you to shake. You do so, and help him organize his papers. “What are these for, if I may ask?”
“These are actually my personal documents, I always carry a set of them with me just in case.”
“Documents, as in?”
“Passports, medical records, etc.”
“I see. And these?”
“One of my artist's songs. In fact, here he comes. Ni-ki, hey.”
“Oh, hi, Jisung, I see you met Ms. Y/N. ma’am, he choreographed my hit song, Sweet Season.”
You remember vaguely that the song went viral for its unique choreography, and the footwork being incredibly detailed. People were also talking about the up-and-coming choreographer, but you didn't know at the time who he was at all.
“Oh! That’s great. It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Park. I’m so glad you’re in charge of Ni-ki’s new song. It’s going to be great.”
“You’ve seen the lyrics?”
“Yes, and approved. We were in the studio not too long ago.” You smile, and Ni-ki nods. “Yeah, then she had an emergency to attend to, so I walked her off.” He adds, and Jisung nods his head slowly.
“I see. It’s been really nice talking to you, ma’am, but I really have to get started on Ni-ki’s choreography. If you’ve approved the song, I’ll assume that it’s going to be released. Ni-ki, let’s go. Goodbye, Ms. Y/N.”
“Bye ma’am!” Ni-ki waves, and you call after them, “You guys can call me by my name!”
“Bye, Y/N!” Jisung turns and bows, then rushes to the practice room. You smile, getting back to your office.
Ni-ki and Jisung seem fun.
—————— 🦢
“Kazuha! Hi! How was the meeting?”
“WE HAVE THEM ON BOARD!”
Kazuha runs up to you and hugs you tightly, and you pat her back. “Let’s celebrate. Are you free after work? Dinner’s on me back home with Yunjin, so I would much rather take you guys out. You’ve seen my cooking, haven’t you?”
Kazuha shudders jokingly, and smiles. “Definitely free. Will it be just the three of us?”
“I might invite Ni-ki and his choreographer. I feel like we’ll all get along really well.”
“Okay. That’s fine.”
“Come with me after work, you can come over to my house and get ready with me and Yunjin. You’re done with all your meetings, right? Go home, and pack some clothes.”
“Okay, then I’ll come back to the office, and leave with you?”
“Yep.”
“Alright.”
“Pack clothes to stay over, just in case we get back late.”
“Alright. Also, have you met with the CEO already?”
Shit.
“Y/N!”
“I’M LEAVING! GOING RIGHT NOW!” You hurriedly grab your coat and purse and rush out of your office, going to the nearest bus stop and sitting in a corner.
“Ma’am, I’m on my way. My apologies, I didn’t mean to be this late, but an emergency popped up.”
“No worries, ma’am. I’m waiting. When you reach, ask for Yoo Ji-min.”
“Sure, I will. See you there.”
You disconnect the phone, sighing in relief. Yoo Ji-min is the CEO of MY Entertainment.
Jimin has a nice personality, and the two of you aren’t really on bad terms. However, you do sometimes have friendly arguments over who gets to scout whom. You still haven’t reached a conclusion on that argument, but for the sake of being civil, the two of you agreed to push it under the rug for now.
As you reach the stop, you exit the bus, looking around for the restaurant that Jimin has reserved for the meeting. “Hi, table for two under the name Yoo Ji-min?” You ask the receptionist, slightly out of breath, who nods, leading you to a table in the back.
“Jimin!”
“Y/N!”
She gets up from her seat, looking as pretty as ever in a formal black dress. “Nice to see you. So glad you could make it. How’ve you been?”
“I’m okay, Jimin. It’s great to see you, too. How are you doing lately? I hear that you’ve been busy, based on the amount of work your company has been doing.”
“Yeah, I’m good. But busy indeed. Honestly, the amount of time I’ve been spending at the company is more than the time I spend at home. Super hectic, but that's fine. As a CEO, that’s bound to happen.”
“Indeed. You should probably take a break, though.”
“And let you steal the show?” Jimin laughs teasingly. “I don’t think so.”
“Come on, Jimin. Thought we were over this by now.”
“Yeah, yeah. Anyways, I didn’t call you here on business. I just called you to meet, as acquaintances.”
“Really? And you don’t want anything from me?”
“Nope. I owe you many favors, but I just can’t seem to get the opportunity to repay them. I should be asking you if you need anything.”
“I don’t. Maybe a break would be nice though.”
Jimin laughs with you, nodding her head. “Maybe we can take a break together.”
“Someday, when everything is back to normal at our companies. But I think we would have to be friends for that.”
“You made a good point there, Y/N. Well, I do want to be friends with you, but it might get odd at times. Do you know, I barely have any friends?”
“I do, actually. This industry gets so lonely, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah. Minjeong, Ning and Aeri are the only people helping my sanity at the moment, to be quite frank with you.”
“Yunjin and Kazuha too, although Kazuha isn’t so much a friend as a sister to me. And Yunjin is practically family to even my parents now.”
“I could say the same about Ning. Although I’m getting to know the other two better now, thankfully.”
The waiter comes over to take your orders, and the two of you order non-alcoholic drinks. The waiter nods and walks away, leaving you two alone again.
“I just had a great idea. How about we girls get together? Just us? You, me, my three friends, Yunjin and Kazuha?”
“Sounds good, but I’ll get back to you on that. I have some stuff going on with some of my artists, but that should be over in a month or two. What about then?”
“I agree, my work should have died down by then. Let’s do it. Should we swear on it?” Jimin asks jokingly, and you nod, mock seriously. “Let’s.”
The two of you laugh lightly, and enjoy the rest of the meeting with small talk.
—————— 🦢
That was awkward at the start, but Jimin really is nice. One day, when we both quit our jobs, I hope we stay friends. You think to yourself, entering your office with your head down.
“Hi, Ms. Y/N! Ms. Nakamura informed us that you invited us to dinner?”
You nod, seeing Kazuha, Ni-ki, and Park Jisung in your office, and answer Ni-ki. “Yeah, I did. We just signed an important contract, and I felt like inviting you guys for fun. Don’t think of this as a conflict of interest, but I would like to get to know you guys better.”
“I wouldn’t think of it as anything else, but we know you’re friends with Ms. Kazuha over here.” Jisung says in his signature deep voice. “Right!” Ni-ki agrees, and you smile. “Anyway, you guys can meet us there, it’s the trending new restaurant everyone’s obsessed about. I got us a reservation there.”
“Wait, really?” Kazuha asks, slightly surprised. “Yeah, I just never asked you to book a table,” you laugh at Kazuha’s expression.
After a bit of discussion of the plans, the boys leave and you and Kazuha head back to your place, where Yunjin is waiting to pounce on you.
“Y/N! How was the lunch I packed for you?” She asks sweetly, and your heart drops. “Oh.. eh.. it was nice, but since I couldn’t eat all of it, I gave it to the choreographer, Park Jisung.” Kazuha, to her credit, says nothing and smiles furtively at you from behind Yunjin.
“Ah, isn’t he coming with us? I’ll definitely check with him.”
As soon as Yunjin leaves, you stuff the rice she had packed for you in the morning into a different box and hide it away in the refrigerator. Kazuha giggles and walks away, zipping her lips as a sign of secrecy.
The three of you get dressed, and help each other with your hair, makeup and what-not. You leave just in time in order to reach the restaurant to claim your reservation, and when you reach, you see the guys already seated at the table.
“We assumed that the table would be under your name,” Jisung shrugs. “You assumed well, I suppose, because otherwise you wouldn’t be here,” Yunjin says, sitting down. “I’d assume you’re Park Jisung. So, tell me, how did you like the rice I prepared? Y/N gave it to you, right?”
“Yes, she did. I loved it. The spice, however, was not up to my level,” Jisung smirks. “Oh. So she did give it to you. Fine, Y/N, I believe you.” Yunjin accepts defeat and moves on to talk to Ni-ki about his exams.
Kazuha also gets involved in the conversation, leaving you and Jisung to talk. “I owe you one,” You say to Jisung, who smiles. “Yeah, you do. You’d gone out for a meal with Yoo Ji-min, right? It’s all over the news.” He says casually, and you frown.
“Is it? Strange. What are they saying?” “You don't need to know, but they basically say you’re out.. having fun, and they can’t help but wonder about some things. Forget it, you really don’t have to know.”
“No, tell me. What do they wonder about?”
“Ms. Y/N—“
“Go ahead.”
“They’re wondering if you already moved on from..”
“Oh.”
Jisung scrutinizes your micro expressions, and he pats your hand. “Ma’am, you don’t have to worry about what they say. I just believe it’s in your best interest if you know.”
“I see. Thank you for informing me. I won’t comment on them, of course. Best to let the fire die down by itself. Besides, she’s a rival CEO. Even if I become friends with her, no one would believe us, quite frankly.”
“You’re right! See, this is why you shouldn’t bother with this. They just believe what they want to.”
“I genuinely hate the press sometimes.” “Everyone in the industry does, ma’am.” He replies. “You don’t have to call me ma’am, Mr. Park.”
“In that case, you don’t have to call me Mr. Park, Y/N.”
“Right you are, Jisung.”
And so the evening goes on, and everyone gets along surprisingly well. “Cheers to this wonderful evening. Ni-ki, I really hope that’s not alcohol.”
“It isn’t, mom. It’s just apple juice, I swear.” You nod sarcastically and toast.
The evening ends after dinner, and everyone parts their ways. Kazuha goes home, since it isn’t really late. You and Yunjin head home and go to your own rooms.
“Y/N.”
You start in shock, and turn around slowly. “Y/N, don’t be scared. I swear, I’m safe. You’re safe.”
“Sunghoon, I’m going crazy. You’re dead, and my mind just doesn’t want to accept it.”
“I am dead, but this is my spirit. I’ve come back as a Gwisin, Y/N. The reason I’m here is so you move on from me. And I’m here right now to convince you. Like I said last time, I can’t be here for too long. So listen to me. You need to move on. If I don’t come to the real world for some time, I can save up on energy and I can stay for longer. The briefcase? It was me. Look, I’ll come back in two days. Or a week. Keep a watch for me. I’ll try to stay with you forever, but it’s not gonna happen, for sure. You aren’t going crazy, just remember that.
“Even if I’m gone, it doesn’t mean you can’t be happy. Stay alive, Y/N.”
“Sunghoon!” You call out softly, but he’s gone already.
He’s gone, like he always is.
—————— 🦢
“Y/N, have you seen the headlines? The news outlets are having a field day with last night’s dinner.” Yunjin wakes you up in the morning with incredible news.
“What is it?” You yawn. Thanks to Sunghoon’s speech, you had not gotten even a wink of sleep the previous night.
“People think you’re dating Park Jisung. Some are saying that you’re showing favoritism toward Ni-ki. And there are now rumors of me and Ni-ki, which is SO wrong.”
“Ugh, I’ll talk to Kazuha about this crap. I guess I’ll release a press release. And you should ignore the Ni-ki rumors, I’ll get our agency to release some announcement about it. And don’t worry, you can post, but I think I can use this to some advantage, so please wait, would you?”
“Y/N, I trust you, so I’ll wait. But please don’t let this blow up badly.”
“I won’t, I promise.” You cross a finger over your heart, doing the iconic promise thing. Yunjin smiles, sipping her tea. “Right, it’s my turn for breakfast. What do you want?”
“You know, I have been craving a Greek yogurt bowl..”
“The yogurt you made? And adding açaí in it with that vanilla essence?”
“Yes! You know me so well. And maybe that matcha coffee latte I love.”
“On it. Anything else?”
“Nope! Thank you.”
You smile and turn away to prepare your breakfast and Yunjin’s bowl and latte. Yunjin usually makes her own latte, so her entrusting you with it must mean something, definitely. She makes the matcha part and coffee part, mixes them both in milk and ice, and then adds honey as a sweetener. It tastes heavenly, but it takes too much thinking for you to actually make it daily.
“Here’s your breakfast. Let’s have a good meal!”
The two of you eat, gossiping about the goings-on in Yunjin’s industry, you gasping when you hear shocking stuff. After the meal, the two of you rush off to get ready, and wish each other luck on your respective days.
You groan as you enter your office, not looking forward to talking to Kazuha about the rumors flying left, right and center. “Morning, Y/N. I take it you’ve seen the news.”
Kazuha’s grim face greets you at the door, and you nod, rubbing your forehead to try and relieve yourself. “Well then, what do we do?” Kazuha asks you, and you think about it.
“I think we should do two press releases. One for the dating rumors of me and Jisung, and the one of Yunjin and Ni-ki, which is TERRIBLE, by the way. The second one should be handled carefully. The other press release will be about the alleged favoritism. Can you make it so we’re promoting his new album and denying the partiality? Something like, ‘Ms. Y/N congratulates their young and successful artist, Ni-ki, on his new self-produced album by treating him and his choreographer to dinner with her assistant Ms. Kazuha and best friend and popular influencer Huh Yunjin.’ I’m sure it’s not a crime.”
“That’s genius. I’ll get the PR team to do something. Is it fine if the favoritism article comes in a newspaper instead of the agency? It’ll sound better that way.”
“Yes, but consult the PR. And ask the two to meet me here. I’ll get to work on the NewJeans contract draft.”
“Yes, you do that. You don’t really have anything else, I think. If you can talk to the creative and talents team about the new auditions, it would be great. And you should probably meet the group personally. I’ll plan something for you later.”
“Thanks, Kazuha. Good luck with the PR.”
“Good luck with your work too.”
Kazuha leaves the room, shutting the door behind her, and you sigh to yourself, thinking about what to begin working on first. The wind is howling, unexpectedly, since the sun is shining bright outside the window. You look around, the whooshing and howling sounding bizarre looking at the weather.
Suddenly, a paper flies in the room, from God knows where. You hesitate, knowing hate letters are common. But your instincts are telling you to read the paper, and who are you to ignore them?
You’re protected, Y/N.
Lots of love, P.SH.
“ARGH!” You shriek, wondering what was wrong with whoever sent this. Then you notice a little P.S. written at the bottom of the note.
Turn the page over.
You obey, curiosity getting the better of you.
I know you’re thinking this is a joke, or a prank, but it isn’t.
Want me to prove it?
Still saving up energy, but I’ll see you in three days.
I used up some of it to get this note to you.
Being a Gwisin isn’t easy work, dearest Y/N.
But I remember the dinner we had with your parents, before your father had that terrible stroke. We’d gone for sushi, because that was the most convenient for all of us, but we ended up staying back because you and your father wanted to watch football. It was incredibly funny.
What the fuck? You think to yourself, as the door bangs open to reveal Park Jisung.
“Y/N! I heard your shout, are you fine?” He looks at the paper in your hand, and stalks toward you, snatching the paper.
“JISUNG, DON’T—“
“Y/N, with all due respect, what the fuck is this?” Jisung breathes, looking up at you. “Is this some sort of joke? Because we — I mean, you — can sue, you know—“
“No, Jisung. You’ll definitely find me crazy, insane or psychotic based off of what I’m about to tell you, but.. remember Park Sunghoon? Uhm, he’s come back as a ghost, known as —“
“Gwisin?”
“…Yeah, how did you -?”
“Oh, don’t worry, I’m not one and neither have I personally had an experience with one. But it’s a popular myth, and now I’m starting to reconsider the myth part of it. Besides, it was on the note, Y/N. And, just so you know, I’m also reconsidering what I know about you, because either you’ve officially lost it, or ghosts are real, and Ghostbusters wasn’t fiction. I’m doubting myself at the moment.”
“Um. You don’t have to ever talk to me again, if you’re uncomfortable with me, but please don’t tell this to anyone. If you’re not believing me, I doubt anyone will. And Yunjin and Kazuha will definitely not leave me alone ever again.”
“Relax, I won’t. Believe me or don’t, but my friend Haechan enjoys scaring me this way. At this point, he might as well convince me to join a cult. I won’t,” Jisung added hastily, as if he thought you might find him dangerous and fire him, and continued, “But I’ll get back to you on the whole how-I-feel-about-this situation.
You nod, incredibly glad he hasn’t reported you or yelled for help yet, and say, “You don’t need to remember this. Just please don’t say anything to anyone else.”
“You got it. And maybe keep your shrieking on the low, people will definitely think something’s up. Believe me, I genuinely nearly screamed myself when I heard your shout. It was.. what’s the word? Bloodcurdling. Fancy word, but really. Be thankful it’s me who came here and not Niki or Kazuha. Those two would’ve freaked, for sure.”
You nod slowly, realizing that luck is on your side today. In a way.
Woah, that rhymed.
Not the time, Y/N.
“Ah, I got it. Thanks, Jisung. Off topic, but did you have any work right now?”
“No, but given the current situation, I would be glad to leave you alone to think. No offense or anything, but you need time to yourself. Like, if you were going to invite me for coffee in the cafeteria or something. Not that you would or should or anything, don’t be morally obligated or whatever, but—“
“Relax, I get it. And for moral obligation reasons, I won’t say if I was going to invite you or not. Anyway, you’re right, I should spend time alone. I have work, anyway. Go, enjoy your break. Thanks again, Jisung. I owe you one.”
Jisung smiles and leaves, and you realize that you were going to invite him for a coffee, but good thing he had his priorities straight. And he really did make a good point, you had to think. It was a creepy note, yes, but what was creepy anymore? Did anything even count as supernatural? What next, would Spider-Man appear outside her office’s door and give her a cupcake?
“Knock knock!”
The door swung open to reveal Spider-Man himself.
Yes, that’s it. I’ve lost it.
Spider-Man took off his mask to reveal none other than Nishimura Riki, who had assumed it was the right day to dress up for work. “Here’s a box of cupcakes, to thank you for the dinner and to also thank you for helping me out with the scandal. It created publicity, but thanks for helping shutting it down. Kazuha Ma’am told me that it was your idea.”
“The scandal?!”
“No, the usage of it. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade!” Riki smiled, placing the box of cupcakes on your table. “Or, rather, when life gives you money, buy Spider-Man outfits and give people cake!”
You laugh at the joke, and say, “You’re really starting to sound like Spider-Man with those sad little jokes and puns, Riki. You’re on break right now?”
“Nope, I’m actually wrapping things up for today. I came to work early and worked overtime last week, so that I could spend time with my family today.”
“You really don’t have to sacrifice your time for your work—“ “No, it’s for my fans. Before I go on hiatus.”
“Nice to see you so dedicated, Niki, but take my advice seriously. This industry can take a lot out of someone.”
“And I’m sure you’re right, but really, I got this. Don’t worry. Anyway, I should probably get changed before I leave the building, or the fans in question will never let me live this down. I can already picture the headlines — “Nishimura Riki, youngest idol / ace of Zen Entertainment, spoils latest comeback in a Spider-Man outfit, rocking it!” “Nishimura Riki to star in the newest Spider-Man outfit, proof here!” It would be so embarrassing…”
“Well, to be fair, and honest, you look good! It’s a good quality costume too, so there are very few memes that can be made. Unless you were holding coffee, or alcohol. I can picture everything then.” You say, struggling to hold back your laughter after imagining the memes.
“Yeah, yeah. Bye, CEO. Have a nice day. And get some lunch.” Riki waves as he leaves to find the nearest restroom to change.
You smile, biting into a cupcake, only to find it full of spicy chilies.
“NISHIMURA RIKI!” You shout, very angry. The door slams open yet again, this time revealing a Spider-Man with no socks on and Jisung, looking very worried. “Oh. My. God.” Riki mouths, as realization dawns on him.
“I gave you the wrong cupcakes. Those were meant for my sister. I am so sorry. Here, try biting into this one, it should be red velvet and cream cheese.” He points to another cupcake in the box, and you obey.
“… NIKI!”
“SHOOT, WAS THAT FILLED WITH CHILLIES TOO?”
“No. It was tomato this time. And the white part, you may be wondering? Radish purée.”
“Um.. I’ll just get you the other box of cupcakes.. you can ask Mr Park to taste-test them for you?” Niki slips out the door, and you sigh.
“I would taste them for you, but I’d rather not take the risk, sorry, Y/N.” Jisung says, and you smile understandingly, unable to talk over the disgusting mix of flavors that are floating around in your mouth. “Thanks for understanding. Anyway, I’m going to assume you didn’t get an opportunity to think about whatever went on with that note. But I gave it a thought, and you should be alone. Finish off whatever work’s a priority right now, and go home. Really. That note would be enough to send me a one-way ticket to a therapist’s office. You can inform Kazuha about your absence, and I’m sure she’ll understand. I’ll take my leave, and enjoy the cupcakes Niki will get you. I helped him pick out both the prank box and sweet box.”
Jisung salutes you and leaves, leaving you staring after him in wonder. Swallowing a bit of water to rinse out the taste of the disgusting cupcake, you think about the events as the door bangs open yet again.
“Ma’am, I’m here with your cupcakes. I sincerely apologize, and I would understand if you fire —“
“Niki, you need to relax. I enjoy jokes too, you know. Depending on the context. And I’m sure your sister’s reaction would’ve been priceless. Anyway, help yourself to a cupcake. I’ll be leaving the building now, too. And please, please be scared of Jisung. He told me he helped you pick out the boxes of cupcakes? He could’ve picked out something really special for you, too.”
Niki’s eyes go wide, processing your words, and yelps. “Oh no, oh no, I asked him to help me pick my lunch! Um, I’ll leave, Ma’am. Thanks for the word of advice, I really appreciate it. Uh, bye!”
Niki runs away, still in his Spider-Man outfit, as you sigh. Ah, I seriously think my employees really would excel at standup comedy sometimes.
Laughing to yourself, you meet a representative from the talents team, asking them to organize a meeting with you and someone from the creative team after lunch. Then, you attempt to find Kazuha, who is sitting in the PR room, shouting at someone on a call. The people in the room look up and bow, seeing you enter. An employee pokes Kazuha and points at you, who hastily turns, ending the call. “Yes, Ms. Y/N?” She asks you, gesturing the rest of the room to get back to work.
“Oh, I’m leaving, I’m done for the day. Something personal came up. I’m taking the meeting with the talent team and creative team online, and I’ve arranged it all myself. You can take a break too, and so can the PR once the releases are all done. And feel free to treat yourselves to lunch on the company card. Just don’t go all out at a 5-star restaurant or something, I genuinely can’t finance that yet. Maybe some other time. Alright?”
Kazuha nods, smiling at the room, who look ready to cheer. “Thank you, Ma’am.” The room bows, as you leave, and Kazuha follows you, shutting the door behind her. “Are you fine, Y/N?” She asks you, scrutinizing your body language and facial expressions.
“Yes, Kazuha. Just a bit tired. Don’t worry, I’m fine, and if anything comes up, I think Yunjin will be at home. Ah, that reminds me. She’s supposed to make a post about the dating rumors, which are still so wrong, can you update her on our PR team’s work? She’ll talk to her management, I think.”
“Sure, I’ll give her a call and see if I can meet her for lunch. She did tell me she would be at home today at the dinner yesterday.”
“Alright then, that’s settled. Ah, and Niki and Jisung met me, although we didn’t get around to discussing much. Niki thanked me for the handling of the situation, by the way. But I’ll talk to Jisung tomorrow.”
“Okay, that should be fine. Bye, Ma’am.” Kazuha opens the door and slips back in, and you wave her off, leaving the building with a little sign of a headache building up.
—————— 🦢
You get back home, exhausted by the events of the day and grab your lunch. You sit for the meeting, discussing the new trainees that are to be accepted soon, and idols that they wished to sign a contract with. The meeting lasts for about an hour, and you stretch yourself after the meeting, trudging up to your room to try and take a nap. Unfortunately, your brain refuses to fall asleep after the note, and you end up laying in bed and wondering about the whole incident.
You suddenly recall that Jisung was there to witness the note, and you wonder if he’ll stay true to his word forever. As you delve deeper into your thoughts, you jump when you hear a phone ringing.
Your phone, in fact.
“Hello? Who is this?”
“Hi, this is Huh Yunjin speaking. Is Ms. Y/N free at the moment?” You hear your best friend’s sarcastic voice, and smile. “Of course I am. Anything for you.”
“Woah, woah, lay off on the lines, Y/N. I might just end up dating you.” You could hear the wink that Yunjin would’ve produced if she was right next to you.
“Ha, ha, ah yes, what a joke, I laughed. Anyway, what’s up? Did you eat?”
“I did, but I called to check on you. I hope you ate too?”
“Yeah, I did, mom. Is that why you called?”
“That, and Kazuha called. Thanks for helping me sort it out. Ugh. That is illegal and so wrong. What is wrong with people?”
“I’d have to agree. Anyway, when are you getting home?”
“Um, should be around six. Anything up?”
“Nope. Just checking. Get back safe.”
“Will do, Ma’am. Bye!”
“Bye!” You disconnect the call, smiling lightly as you feel grateful for having such a lovely friend by your side.
You and I both know that wouldn’t last for long if she knew you think ghosts spoke to you.
Oh, shut up, you. You tell yourself, plopping back down on your bed. You just know that this whole dilemma will reach a head soon, but till then you’ll have to wait it out. But why does life make it so difficult to tolerate this?
Thankfully, Sunghoon isn’t due for another two days at least. Whether it’s him, or any of his notes or signs or whatever it was he could think of, you’re determined to not let it get to you and not to lose it. But in all honesty, that’s the most you can do. Because it’s not in your control to get in touch with a freaking ghost.
And no, you’re never going to visit any of those ghost-whisperers. Even if ghosts do exist, which, seemingly, they do, the ghost-whisperers could always scam you, of course. All they need is a good business opportunity. The problem with such stuff is that one will never know if they’re being truthful or not. So people prefer picking the negative side, thinking they’re being deceitful.
Of course, in a lot of media, ghosts are portrayed as evil beings, which is why believing in them is frowned upon and considered to be a sign of the personality of the person, assuming they’re evil and believe in or practice black magic. You find it so funny, but also interesting. Who started all this psychology stuff anyway? Why couldn’t we have stayed sane and been the same? But then, that would be a sign of communism. Ugh, what even is this? Maybe humans are better off brainless.
Damn, I got all deep there. This might as well start another dumb controversy. But then again, I’m sure all this exists but not where I am. You think to yourself, stopping any more weird thoughts, thinking you’d better leave such thoughts to people who earn for these theories.
You go about preparing dinner, knowing that you will probably not be able to do anything but sit and wait for Sunghoon’s communications. And to wait until Jisung finally confesses that he thinks you’re insane and that you should definitely visit either a therapist or an asylum.
“Honey, I’m bored!” is the quote that marks Yunjin’s entry. “You’re bored?” You ask, used to Yunjin’s use of affectionate nicknames. “Yeah. I’m bored of all the drama. I wanna go away on a deserted island and never return.” Yunjin sighs, plopping on the couch. “Oui, I agree. You should go, and never return. Go, live your life.”
“Ouch. But you’re right. I’ll probably go on hiatus from all my social media and visit Hawaii.”
“Hawaii is so generic. But you do you. Anyway, dinner’s served.” You say, placing a plate in front of her. “You know what? I’m going to do this. I’m going to live by myself. Unless you wanna join. But I doubt you can.”
“Yeah, I can’t. Book your flights and send me your itinerary.”
“Ugh, never mind. I can’t randomly do this!” Yunjin cries, between mouthfuls of her food. “Why not? You deserve it. You’ve been working so hard but you’ve never had a solo trip.”
“You’re right.. but I can’t. You’re too fragile to be left alone.”
“You treat me like a patient sometimes.”
“Because you are, Y/N. You don’t know how bad we hurt inside when we saw you. You were a shell of the real Y/N. Now that you’re recovering, in a way, I can’t bear to go and see something happen to you.”
“You’re being too serious. Just go away for a week. Kazuha is here, and so are my friends. You have nothing to worry about.”
“Ugh.” Yunjin gets up to place her dish in the dishwasher, as do you. “You need to relax. Believe me.”
Yunjin stays silent, trying to think about it. “Kazuha is here, Yunjin.”
“Fine. I’ll go. But I’ll hear about anything that happens to you. Believe me. And yeah, I’ll send you my itinerary.”
“Yes!” You hug her, glad she’s getting a break, and glad that you’ll be alone when Sunghoon’s real visit will occur.
—————— 🦢
The next day, you walk into the office in a better mood, glad that you’d figured out what to do the previous night.
“Good morning, Y/N.” You hear a deep male voice, and jump to see Jisung. “Hey, Jisung. Where’s Kazuha?”
“Getting coffee for you.” He says, moving aside to let you sit down. “Ah, I see. Did Niki meet with the producer? I’d arranged a meeting for him with that artist from Karina’s company.” You ask Kazuha, who enters with your coffee. “Yeah, he left. He told me to thank you around a thousand times before he entered the meeting room.” Kazuha grins, offering Jisung a biscuit.
“Thanks, Ms Nakamura. Um, Y/N, I need to talk to you.” Jisung winces lightly, and you immediately understand what he wants to talk to you about.
“Sure, we can walk a bit.” You offer, finishing off your coffee. Kazuha stares after the two of you, and you shrug, not knowing what to tell her.
“So.. I thought about it, and maybe you’re not so insane. And I want to help you. But I don’t know what to do.” Jisung says as soon as you are out of earshot of anyone. “You can’t really help me, Jisung. Just don’t say anything to anyone, and if you don’t mind, offer me some advice if I ever need it.” You tell him, and he nods slowly, walking silently.
“Doesn’t it seem weird to you? Like, I don’t even say anything, just accept that you talk to certain people? And offer you help with them, too?” Jisung asks you thoughtfully, and you smile softly. “I guess it does, yeah.”
Jisung stays quiet, a trait of his you find nice. The two of you walk in peace, reaching back to your office just in time for Kazuha to open the door. “Oh, haha, I was about to come after you guys. Y/N, I need to leave, there’s some problem at my friend’s place. I’ll be back in an hour, tops.”
“Okay, no worries. Take your time. And if you need anything, my line’s open. You only need to call.”
“Thanks, Y/N. Um, I prepared a schedule for you, check it out. It’s on your table. You don’t have much, really.” Kazuha smiles and leaves, thanking you profusely before she exits.
“Woah, I forget you’re the CEO sometimes.” Jisung says jokingly, and you laugh. “Yeah, yeah. This CEO has to get to work, so, yeah.”
“I get it, I need to go. Bye! I have work, anyway. I only came to the building to speak to you.” Jisung shrugs, waving behind him as he leaves. You grin to yourself, preparing for your meeting with NewJeans.
“Hello, Ms. L/N!” Hanni, who is the main correspondent for the contract signing, enters, a bright smile on her face. The rest of NewJeans follows her, smiling and bowing at you. “Hello. I’m glad you are going ahead with the signing, NewJeans. How are you guys feeling? Can I get you anything to drink, or eat?”
“Nope, all of us ate our breakfast and got here.” Hyein said, and Minji nodded. “Yeah, but water would be good.” You nod and buzz someone to get five glasses of water. The glasses arrive as asked for, and the girls drink up.
“So, let’s get this meeting started. Firstly..”
After the meeting, NewJeans take a picture with you to post once the news of the contract signing gets out. NewJeans has been an amazing group, you think, as you walk them out the building. “Thank you, NewJeans. Let’s have a great year ahead of us! See you in May.” You wave, watching as they leave.
You enter the building again, glad to be back in the business rush again. You feel the need to be productive at times, and this definitely satiated that desire. “Y/N! I’m back. How was the meeting?” Kazuha greets you in your office, looking up from her laptop.
“Great. They’re nice people. Can’t wait to work with them.” You smile, and ask about the incident at her friend’s home. “Oh, no, it wasn’t that serious. My friend’s ill, and the person taking care of her had to go out for some urgent work. So I took over for a bit.”
“Is your friend okay?” You ask, worry filling you. “Yeah, she’s having a pneumonia attack. Not that serious, but she is supposed to be under bed rest, so I went and got her breakfast.”
“Okay, let me know if you need anything delivered to her place, I’ll get it done.” You offer, knowing that’s the most you can really do for Kazuha. “Thank you, Y/N. Anyway, you’re free until after lunch. I've arranged a meeting with NewJeans’ manager and CEO to discuss further contract details.”
“Great. Thanks, Kazuha. But I’m not looking forward to it.” The CEO of NewJeans’ company is known to be nice, but is sometimes too nice. It gets a bit creepy for you, personally, but Mr Song is generally a welcoming person.
“I know. But their manager is a nice person, so hey, that’s a plus point!” Kazuha points out, shutting her laptop and stretching her back. Kazuha enjoys ballet, and so is always stretching something or the other. But all your employees can’t help but to ask her about her posture, because it, quite frankly, is perfect. In fact, Kazuha is asked for posture classes almost every day.
“Yeah, I guess.. anyway, you can take a break. Want something to eat?” You offer, and Kazuha shakes her head. “No, I think I’ll take a walk. Also, what’s this I hear about Yunjin going on hiatus?”
“Yeah, she’s going to—“
“Yeah, some island, I know. But is she fine?” Kazuha asks, and you shrug. “She says that, but I don’t know, I just guess she’s getting tired of the influence lifestyle. To be fair, I wouldn’t blame her either. But I’m sure she’ll be fine. You should talk to her.”
Kazuha nods, zoning out, as she exits your office with a pen in hand. You smile offhandedly, jotting down some information about the NewJeans contract so you can prepare for the meeting.
“Ms Y/N?” You hear Niki’s voice from outside your door, and you yell for him to enter. “Thank you for setting up that meeting. My fans will be excited for this collaboration. Anyway, a week until my album releases and I leave. I’m honestly scared. What if my fans don’t like me?” Niki afflicts himself with unnecessary thoughts, and you sigh, settling behind your desk comfortably.
“You have nothing to worry about. Niki, you’re such an accomplished artist. And so young at that! This album is something your fans will never forget, seeing as it’s written by you. Besides , this collaboration has never been seen before. The artist never collaborated with anyone. Ever. Don’t hurt yourself with such thoughts. We at the company will make sure no one ever forgets the name Niki.”
“Thank you, ma’am. But it’s really not easy stopping those thoughts. I guess we learn, eventually. Anyway, enough about me. I don’t wanna spend my last week all emo. What’s going on with you, ma’am?”
“See, you call me ma’am, then get all casual. And what’s an emo?” You ask him, genuinely confused. “I’m sorry, ma’am, but you’re really old, aren’t you? It’s a meme, I guess, but it means emotional. Like, a depressed type of thing, but it’s used ironically or sarcastically most of the time.” Niki shakes his head, disappointed, while you scowl. “I may be old, but I’m not that old, Nishimura Riki.”
“Oh. Full name. It is my time to leave. Au revoir, mademoiselle!” Niki rushes out the door, leaving you laughing.
—————— 🦢
Just another day left until Sunghoon said he would visit, and you’re feeling a bit jittery. Yunjin is leaving today, and you’re currently at the airport to say goodbye.
“Y/N, don’t forget to call me if you need anything, okay?—“
“Flight 777 boarding. I repeat, Flight 777 boarding. Passengers need to get aboard now.”
“Yeah, yeah, Yunjin, you don’t wanna miss your flight, okay? Go away now. Bye!” You wave and walk away as Yunjin keeps saying something. She ends up rolling her eyes and turning, waving without looking at you.
Kazuha couldn’t come with you as she had to go look after her friend, who was healing, luckily. But she did video call you to say goodbye to Yunjin, who has switched off her main phone and bought a flip phone so you and Kazuha can contact her.
You get back home, exhausted. You spend the rest of the day by yourself, treating yourself to takeout and binge watching a series on the TV. You’d taken a leave of absence from the office today, which, in retrospect, seems like a good decision.
The next day, you walk into the office, incredibly jittery, anticipating the visit at any minute. You hate this feeling so much, but what could you possibly do, anyway? You sit in the office, looking at the proposed building renovations to include more practice rooms and recording studios and reducing the break rooms. You do not like the renovations any better than the jitters you’re getting, but since the board had suggested it, you don’t have a choice but to go through them.
“Y/N!” You jump immediately, papers scattering everywhere. “I won’t tell you to chill, but relax. It’s Jisung.” You sigh in relief, as Jisung helps you sort the papers.
“It’s not my business, I know, but did Sunghoon visit you?” He asks, and you shake your head in reply. “No. Can’t you tell? I’m so nervous. I don’t know what he even has to say. What can a dead lover say?”
“Well, in my experience, nothing, because I’ve never had a dead lover.” Jisung shrugs, sitting on the windowsill. You sigh. “Yeah, I wish I knew someone — on second thought, I don’t wish. I wouldn’t wish that on anybody.”
“Good, cause if you’d said what you’d wanted to, I’d have walked out a minute ago.” Jisung says, pretending to exhale in relief, placing a hand on his chest.
“Hey, I’m not a sadist.” You point out, narrowing your eyes at him. He raises his hands, saying, “Hey, I wouldn’t know, you know.” “Yeah, well, how would I know if you wouldn’t know?”
Jisung laughs, and you smile.
“Y/N?”
Jisung’s jaw drops, as you turn to look Park Sunghoon square in the eye. “Is this.. your boyfriend?” He asks, and your eyes go wide, looking at Jisung.
“No, of course not. If you’re jealous, you don’t really have a reason to be.” Jisung says, matter-of-factly, but you know that’s not a great reassurance for Sunghoon. “Okay. Anyway, can you get out?”
“No. You’re being kind of selfish, don’t you think? Y/N needs support. I know you’re a Gwisin, and all that. I was there when you delivered that note. Y/N has been so nervous as of late. You’re being so rude. Think about her, too. It’s not like I’ll blabber anything to the media. What the heck would I say?”
“Sunghoon..” you say, and Sunghoon sighs. “Ugh, I don’t have the time for this. Y/N, I’m here as a Gwisin because I can’t move on for a while. Um. I don’t really know why I saved up energy for this, but I just wanna tell you that you should move on. And you should leave the room, I have something to say to this clown.” Sunghoon nods at Jisung, who scowls. You quietly leave, not having anything to say. You’ve never seen Sunghoon this way, which scares you just a bit. You did your own research on Gwisin the other day, and found that they can be harmful sometimes. As much as you don’t wanna leave Jisung unarmed, you trust Sunghoon enough to use his senses as much as possible. Besides, you do have to guard the door, so that no one (read: Kazuha) enters and freaks out and possibly sends you and Jisung to the hospital to get psychologically evaluated.
You hear nothing, which is reassuring, unless Sunghoon— never mind, you won’t think about it, you decide. You pace in front of the door for a while, until you hear the lock open slowly.
“Y/N?” Jisung asks, and you nod. “Yeah, Jisung. Are you fine?”
“Yeah, I am. He didn’t do anything to me, relax. He just wanted to check on you, because he knew you would lie.”
“But—“
“I don’t even know you that well? Think again. I’m friends with Niki, who’s now friends with Yunjin, who’s your roommate and is also close to Kazuha.” Jisung says, as if he explained everything with that statement.
“Okay.. and that helps you how, exactly?”
“Well, to put it simply, we gossip about you occasionally.”
“It’s barely been a week since you know Yunjin and Kazuha.”
“What can I say? Niki and I are incredibly social.” Jisung shrugs, and you sigh. “Is that all he told you?”
“Yeah, pretty much.” Jisung says, looking at you. “He left just like that?” You ask, and Jisung shrugs. “Yeah. Why?”
“Oh, I’m expecting a note from him right about… now.” You say, and immediately a note flies in from the window. “You should really start shutting your window, Y/N.” Jisung says, massaging his nose bridge in annoyance.
You look at the note, prepared for anything at this point.
Y/N,
I want you to be happy. Are you happy? Don’t lie, which I know you will, so don’t even bother answering. You need to move on. I don’t wanna be selfish, but I don’t want you to. But you need to. It’s for your own good. I.. I think Jisung is nice. He’s nice to you. I don’t like him, but he’s good for you. As a friend, or whatever. But you can’t stay hung up on me. I know you have important work in May. And you need to get a hang of yourself. You’re a mess, quite frankly.
I’m sorry for disrupting your life the way I did. Thing is, as a Gwisin, I need to accomplish what I want to until I can move on from this world. This world is the underworld, in simple terms, and where all Gwisin exist, whether good or bad. I’m the good kind, I promise.
I’m so sorry. I really am. But please, please move on. It may seem difficult now, but enjoy life. Fall in love again.
Yours,
Sunghoon.
You look up from the note, trying to not cry and sigh at the same time. “Y/N? Are you fine?” Jisung asks you, concerned at the obvious tears in your eyes.
“I’m. Fine. I swear.” You tell him, blinking back tears rapidly. “Yeah, you are. Sure!” Jisung says, letting you deny your tears and watching your face, making sure you don’t harm yourself in any way.
“I really am.” You insist, aggressively wiping your tears away. “Yeah.” Jisung nods slowly, and you give in to your tears. “I can’t believe he expects me to move on so easily. First my dad falls ill, then I lose Sunghoon. Why does life wanna kick my ass at any given opportunity? I don’t get it. I do want to fall in love. But it’s not easy. I just want to move on from this too. I wanna start a new life. But I can’t. Because I’m tied to all of this. Why’d Sunghoon have to die? If he had to, why couldn’t I have gone with him?” You cry, and Jisung walks to be next to you.
“Y/N, Sunghoon is going to expect you to move on. He knows it’s not easy. I’m sure he does. And I’m also sure life doesn’t wanna kick your ass. This is all just a test. Life isn’t easy for anyone. What happens, happens for a reason, okay? Once that gets through your head, life is much more tolerable. You didn’t die for a reason. You’re so strong. You help out whoever you can, whenever you can. You’re nice to everyone. You work hard. You try to lessen the burden on other people. You took over your dad’s business without a single second’s hesitation. That takes a lot of courage. You’re strong. You just need to understand that. You have the ability to do anything, Y/N. Do you know how good that feels? You don’t. If you did, you wouldn’t be crying. You’d be figuring out if you can move on right now. And if not right now, you’d be estimating when you would. Y/N, you might not wanna hear this, but get a grip.” Jisung says, and you breathe in, jaw agape.
“Sorry. Did I overstep? Please tell me if I did, I don’t wanna cross any—“ you interrupt Jisung’s blind blabbering with a bear hug, causing him to choke on air.
“Thank you.” You tell Jisung. Jisung pats your back a little awkwardly, letting you hold him.
—————— 🦢
The next day, you meet with Kazuha at the office, and ask her if she wants to stay overnight at your place.
“I would, Y/N, but I promised my friend I’d stay over at her place. She’s finally recovered, by the way!” Kazuha exclaims, and you smile. “Of course, you should go to her place. I’m so glad she recovered. Listen, send me her address, I’ll send her a gift. And tell me what she’s allergic to.” You say, and Kazuha sighs. “You are so extravagant sometimes.”
“You guys love me for it.”
“Oh well. Can’t argue with facts, can we?” You and Kazuha laugh and continue with work.
You and Jisung haven’t spoken about anything except work related matters, and, to be honest, you are kind of offended. It’s not everyday you get to see your boss, or whatever you are to Jisung, getting haunted by her dead lover’s ghost. And, deep down, you thought that the two of you were friends. Thought, in past tense.
I don’t think friends let their friends forget that they’re there for them after a haunting. You think, rolling your eyes as you swivel around in your chair.
“Y/N, Jisung’s here to see you.” Kazuha says, raising an eyebrow at you, asking the security guard to let him in.
“What are you raising your eyebrow at?” You ask, and Kazuha shrugs, raising her other eyebrow too. “Nothing, just.. he’s been visiting you a lot lately..”
“What are you getting at?” You ask, a slight cleft forming in your forehead. “Nothing, it’s just.. are you dating him? Or do you like each other? Not judging. Not judging, for sure. Just wanna know.” Kazuha assures you, and you look her dead in the eye.
“No.”
“Hey, Y/N. Um, is this a bad time?” Jisung enters and pauses, seeing the glare on your face. “No, this is the perfect time. I’m leaving.” Kazuha says, walking out without a single word, winking at you as she leaves.
“So, Jisung. Why’ve you been radio silent?”
“Uh? I’m sorry? It’s been a day.” Jisung grins offhandedly, and you frown. “I thought you were nice.” You say, and wince immediately. “Sorry.”
“It’s fine. Um, I was busy with something, so I couldn’t call. But you could have called. I would’ve spoken to you for at least a minute.” Jisung says, and you sigh. You’ve gotten attached, you fool. Just because someone wants to be friends doesn’t mean you go and do this.
“Ha ha. Yeah. I could’ve. Sorry. My bad. Anyway. How are you?” You ask awkwardly, and Jisung shrugs. “Good, I guess. You?”
The wind whooshes aggressively and you shudder. “What’s up with the wind, all of a sudden?” Jisung asks, shutting the windows.
“I think it’s Sunghoon.” You say, shivering lightly.
“You guessed right.” Sunghoon appears, and Jisung sighs. “Y/N, I’m really hopeless at the deep speech thing, so I’m gonna talk to Jisung. If you don’t tell her, I will.”
“Tell her what?” Jisung asks, and you look at the two carefully, trying to look for any signs of a secret. Obviously, there is one, but you do want to try out your observation skills. “What we discussed yesterday.”
“Oh. No. You won’t tell her, that’ll make it weird. Don’t do it. It won’t benefit either of us.”
“But it will benefit me!” You exclaim, and the two ignore you. “I might.”
“You’re selfish.”
“You can’t say that for everything, Park Jisung. Y/N—“
“Shut up!” Jisung yells, covering your ears, or trying to. “What is it?” Annoyed, you prise Jisung’s hands away from your ears, and glare at him.
“Oh, Jisung has a crush on you.” Sunghoon says, and Jisung goes red.
“Sunghoon, are you playing matchmaker with your ex-girlfriend who’s only your ex because she’s alive and you’re not?” You ask, pissed off.
“Jeez, just admit it, you’re growing a crush on him too.” Sunghoon says, annoyed too. “Am not!” “Are too!”
“You two really were meant for each other.” Jisung says, still bright red. “We get it.” You and Sunghoon chorus, and stare at each other, angry.
“Oh, my God. Y/N, you are growing a crush on Jisung.” Sunghoon says, and you roll your eyes. “You’re a fucking idiot.”
“I’m right, I know. Anyway, I guess it’s time to explain why I’m being so unconventional. Jisung knows already, and he’s a huge part of the reason.
“Apparently, my last dying wish was for you to be happy, and I guess it’s the truth. Well, the point of it is for you to fall in love. And until you do, I’m going to be a Gwisin. And my powers are fading away, so I think you do like him, just a little bit. But that little bit helps me move on. I don’t want your feelings to be fake, because that won’t work. But my powers really are going away. I’m glad, Y/N. Jisung really likes you. I can tell. I feel like the new Cupid. But anyway, if you like him, good for you. I’m happy as long as you are.”
You watch as the shimmery Sunghoon becomes a bit more transparent, and suddenly understand a lot about him as a Gwisin. “Shit. Sunghoon. Don’t go. Just stay, but don’t be a Gwisin.”
“I am always with you. You just won’t get to be able to confirm it any more. Don’t worry, I can be in touch until you start falling in love. And you can’t deny your feelings, nor can you fake them. But I just can’t appear anymore.”
Jisung watches as you attempt to hug the faded Sunghoon, and watches you break down, and helps you up.
—————— 🦢 A YEAR LATER, JUNE 1.
“Ms L/N!” NewJeans greets you, and you smile. “Congratulations. I hear your relationship press release went well?” Minji congratulates you, and you smile brightly. “Yeah, it did. I’m so happy. And I’m happy you guys are so successful. And the collaboration with Niki went so well.” You compliment them, and they smile.
“Speak of the devil.” Niki enters the room, and shakes your hand. “Really? My choreographer?”
“I’m sorry, okay? He’s so nice. And sweet. And—“
“Please, don’t. He’s my choreographer.”
“I—“
“Goodbye.” NewJeans and Niki leave, leaving you confused.
“Hey, Y/N.” Jisung smiles as he enters, hugging you. “The press release went so well.” He says, and you laugh. “As it should have. Everything’s getting better. My father is recovering well, Mum got a break when I took over Dad’s healthcare, Yunjin quit the full time influencer gig and works part time now, Kazuha is chairman, and I’m still CEO with a boyfriend and a lot of friends. A year ago, I was a mess.”
“Well, you were a mess, yeah. Cheers to the mess-free Y/N of 20XX!” Jisung brings out a water bottle, and you reach under your desk to take yours.
“Cheers!”
—————— 🦢
After work, you go back to your home, which you bought for yourself, so Yunjin could leave alone.
You sit in your study, and bring out a blank letter and start writing.
From, Y/N.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I’m grateful. Thanks to you, I’m happy. Or happier. I’m able to get up and not think of you, some days. When I do, I don’t cry anymore. I know you want me to be happy, so I smile and think of us. I think I’ll always love you. I hope you will too, even if you’re still dead and I won’t ever get a message from you. But I love Jisung, too. And I’m glad you can finally rest in peace. I’m happy if you are happy, too. I just wish we wouldn’t have to end the way we did sometimes, but I guess it can’t be helped. Some character development, right?!
I write these letters so that I can get my feelings out and direct them somewhere. But I think I’m going to stop soon. My relationship press release went incredibly well. Of course, there were the odd questions here and there about you, but they really can’t be helped.
I miss you. But I miss you as a best friend, for sure. I don’t miss you as a lover anymore. And frankly? I don’t ever want to, again. I love you, but I am letting go.
We didn’t deserve what happened to us. We really didn’t. And I wish it never happened. But I am moving on. I need to. So, Park Sunghoon, goodbye.
I love you.
Then, now, and always.
To: Park Sunghoon.
P.S. I Hope You’re Happy.
P.S.S. I used to listen to this song called In My Dreams. Back when I was way too hung up on you. And I love that song. If you ever get to listen to music whenever you are, please listen to it. I want that song tattooed. I might do it soon. Love you a lot.
judge me based on my: lockscreen, homescreen, pinterest board, and the last song i listened to!
tagging: @hwanghyunjinenthusiast @cheolhub @cheolism @duhnova @multi-kpop-fanfics @angelwoozi @junkissed @playmetheclassics @soonigiri @gyukult but absolutely no pressure if you don't wanna do it !! + omfg @toruro i cant believe i forgot to tag you AHJDJSJAKAKQ
goddamn i hate all of you why are you all so AESTHETIC 😔 im literally abt to go beg my sister to get widget smith so i can get it too cause i need to make my life more aesthetic-
tagging: @blue-jisungs,, @fairyhaos,, @rubywonu,, @bobariki,, @ddeonudepressions,, + anyone who wants to join <3
⟡ warnings ; profanity, mentions of blood (this is a vampire au), some NON DETAILED mentions of violence, food mentioned, death.
⟡ pairings ; yang jungwon x fem. reader
⟡ genre ; vampire au, fake dating and attempted slowburn, slight royalty? PLOT TWIST BUT NOT THAT WELL WRITTEN
⟡ wordcount ; 12652 words
⟡ summary ; You are the most wanted half-blood. Your mother, however against her will, was smitten by a mere mortal, condemning herself and your future. And she conveniently forgot to mention that she is a vampire. Yang Jungwon, son of one of the most famous vampire royals, has to date you in order to see a brighter future. An unexpected journey full of twists and turns.
⟡ note ; hi guys. i have not uploaded a single work of mine because motivation is going 📉📉 rn 💀 so uh yeah this will probably be my last work. i may upload, but of my own will ^^ also I had to rush this really bad so im sorry if it doesn’t seem too good. I may release a sequel!! Not right now though. SONG MADE BY ME. DON'T STEAL.
THIS IS A PART OF THE RED MOON COLLAB WITH @liliansun AND @twilightau ‼️
“It’s a beautiful day, nonetheless,” your best friend, Danielle Marsh, comments.
“Doesn’t mean I have to be all shimmy-shimmy-aah, Dani.” You reply, laughing. Danielle giggles, punching you playfully.
You and Danielle have been the best of friends since even before you could speak. At that age, of course, it was mainly slapping each other and pulling one another’s hair, but you still considered it a holy friendship at the time. Your mum, Aurelia, and Danielle’s mother, Mrs. Marsh, were the best of friends. They had their own secrets, some of them they did not (and still don’t) trust the two of you with, and those secrets brought them together.
Today is the day before your birthday, and the day after Danielle’s. It’s currently the 30th of March, 11 AM, and the two of you are attempting to pass the time.
“Should we just have a picnic?” You ask Dani, to which she nods enthusiastically. “Totally! Let’s go make some food.”
“Dibs on making lemon crinkle cookies!” You shout, running into the kitchen. You accidentally bump into your cat, Mitch. She’s the most beautiful calico cat you’ve ever seen, and you’ve always found it extremely hard to believe that someone would let Mitch out of their sight and allow her to be lost. You adopted her off the street.
She purrs, rubbing her neck against your leg. You smile and kiss her head, exactly the place where she hates being kissed, and run off into the kitchen, Danielle following suit. She stopped on her way to lift your cat and give her a hug, and grabbed her car keys. “I’m gonna go get stuff for the cookies, and let’s make some nachos. I’ll buy stuff for pink lemonade too. Text me if you need anything, get started with the nachos. Home baked, right?”
“Yeah, always. You’re getting the salsa ingredients too, right? We don’t have ketchup.”
“Yep. I’ll send you a list of what I’m buying before I check out. Reply fast or I will not give a flying shit, I tell you.”
You roll your eyes, laughing. “Yeah, mom, bye!”
“I’M A DAY OLDER THAN YOU!” Dani yelled, slamming the door behind her.
You and Dani live together, just down the lane from both your family homes. Dani is 19 as of yesterday, and you turn 19 in a few hours. Funny how Mum thought I’d barely be old enough to drive, but now I have my driver’s license too, you think to yourself.
Your mother isn’t one for the history books in your opinion. She’s your average mother. She always tells you that she’s from Canada, and your father’s from South Korea. You’ve never met your father. He died when your mother was 7 months along. She does have a picture of him though.
You’re constantly surprised by how similar you and your father look. Same eyes, but not eye color, same nose, same smile. Same figure, and same accent, allegedly. Your mother is an extremely kind person, and was heartbroken when your father passed away.
Your grandmother, who you’ve not been able to meet, always writes to you on a monthly basis. She’s the sweetest person you’ve ever known, aside from your mother. Dani is on very good terms with your family too, so it’s all one huge party. She’s not really close to your younger sister, Lily, who's adopted, but they do talk often.
After Danielle returns, you and Danielle get started on making a mess. The doorbell rings, and you run to answer it, a water-stained apron arming you from whoever is on the other side of the door.
“Hello, are you Y/N?” A masculine voice asks, and you find a face to the voice when you look up from the ground.
“…who are you?”
“Oh, I should probably introduce myself. I’m Park Sunghoon, ambassador to the Maledictus ruler.”
“I’m sorry, what?” You snicker, trying to cover it up, taking off the apron and dumping it on the couch nearby, “Is this some elaborate scheme? Because you’re failing miserably at trying to convince me.”
“Um, lady, no. Are you Y/N?”
“And if I am?”
The Sunghoon in question sighs and presses a finger to his temple, as if this conversation is giving him a headache. “Y/N, who is it?” Danielle shouts, and you facepalm.
You just HAD to shout my name, didn’t you?
“Alright then. Please come with me with no resistance, unless you particularly wish to be unconscious.”
“Danielle!” You yell, but your voice is muffled by your cat jumping on you, smacking you right in the mouth. “Oh, for fuck's sake.” Sunghoon sighs, dragging you and Mitch into a limousine.
Limousine? Okay, rich.
“DANIELLE!” You yell. Deciding self-defense is your only resort, you bite him on the wrist, Mitch just purring in approval.
“JEEZ, LADY, I CAN'T RESIST EVERYTHING?” Sunghoon half-yells, half-asks, groaning in pain but still reluctant to let go.
Mom, I'm sorry but I may go to prison for this.
Anyone watching would think you're showing a sudden display of affection to your alleged kidnapper. You aggressively hug him, his face turning red.
“WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?” Sunghoon manages, extremely confused and amused.
Danielle runs, a bowl of salsa in one hand. Seeing you strangle (or attempt to) him, she lets out a war cry, the neighbor staring.
“AYYY!” She yells, the bowl rising in her hand.
You immediately know what she's going to do, and you both are so going to regret it.
She whacks him face-on with the salsa!
Mitch shrieks happily and jumps in the limousine.
“I don't fucking get paid enough for this. Get. In. Please.” Sunghoon positively begs at this point, looking close to tears.
Out of the kindness of your hearts, you both take a seat.
Only when Sunghoon climbs in and mumbles, “Salsa was very good, if I do say so myself,” do you realize that you have a terrible sense of danger and security.
“Aww! Why, thank you!” Danielle smiles, and Mitch purrs.
“Danielle, sweetie, no big deal, but we're probably going to get killed.”
“As long as it's with you. We lived a long life.”
“You guys talk too much.” Sunghoon says, as the car gets darker and darker by the second. You look down to see a syringe in your arm.
“Oh, nooooooo…” a distorted voice says.
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
“Y/N, you snore. Did you know that? And so does your friend here. Even your cat snores.”
You wake up to Sunghoon looking exhausted, his hand massaging his temple. Does he always do that?
“Sorry.” You say, just as Danielle and Mitch snore and purr. You offer a smile that comes out more like a grimace, and Sunghoon, if possible, looks wearier.
“No worries.” He offers a smile. “Could you wake them up, if you don't mind? We're almost here.”
You nod, not-so-eagerly, because you know Danielle is going to be pissed. She's the sort of person that hates being woken up by someone else.
You poke her warily. She responds with a snore, louder than ever, and turns over to her side. Oh, great.
You slap Danielle lightly on her cheek, to which she wakes up, gasping. “Y/N! Have you not learnt–” she begins, but stops when she realizes who she's with.
“Wait. Wait. Why are we HERE?” You yell, everything coming back to you.
Crap, crap, crap, the lemon crinkle cookies are probably burning NOOOOO…
Priorities, man.
You come back to the limo, seeing Danielle holding Mitch out in front of her. “I'm a good girl please don't kill me I'm too young–”
“Half an hour ago, you were telling us how you and Y/N have lived a long life. Here you are, telling me you're too young to die. Make up your mind, lady.”
“Ooh, lady. Damn. I'm Danielle!” Danielle says, reaching Mitch out for a handshake.
“DANIELLE, HE'S A STRANGER. DID NO ONE TEACH YOU ABOUT STRANGER DANGER?”
“Y/N makes a valid point, Ms. Danielle. Did no one teach you anything?” Sunghoon laughs.
“Y/N, can we beat him up?”
You smile. “Thought you'd never ask.”
She grabs a rolling pan from her apron and starts whacking him. You pinch him wherever possible.
“This– Is– For– My– Fucking– Lemon– Fucking– Crinkle– Fucking– Cookies!” you say with each pinch.
“NO! THE TRAUMA! PLEASE STOP!” Sunghoon screams, and the driver from ahead says, “Please don't kill him. I have a family to feed, and I depend on him. Please.”
Both of you stop. “He pays you?”
“Yeah, he's pretty rich.”
You and Dani smirk at each other.
“You thinking what I'm thinking?”
“Definitely.” You reply.
“Maybe if you give us money–”
“Maybe if you give us info–”
“DANI NO–”
“Y/N NO–”
A pause.
“Give us a minute to reconvene and get back to you!” Danielle says.
Sunghoon nods in agreement, a tear falling from his eye.
“Danielle, what are you going to reconvene over? WE DON'T NEED MONEY, WE NEED INFORMATION?”
“But when you can get money, why not take it?”
Pause.
“Valid point. We'll ask for both.”
“Okay,” Danielle nods, and says loudly, “Sunghoon, we've reached a compromise.”
“I didn't know you were on first-name basis with your victim but okay! What do you want? Anything to make you guys shut up. Please.”
“Money,” Danielle says, “and info.” you add.
“How much? Of both?” He asks, pulling out his wallet.
“100$ for each of us. And all the info we want.”
“Good deal. Here you go. Ask away.”
“Thanks! Why are we here?”
“You'll see. Don't worry, you'll see at least two familiar faces, if not three.”
“Oh. Will we be safe?”
“You're in a limousine, I paid you to stop abusing me, and I didn't even hit your cat, not that I would, of course. What do you think?”
“Oh. Sorry,” Danielle apologizes.
“It's alright! By the way, we've reached Maledictus. Please have a look-over of your appearance.” Sunghoon announces, clambering out of the limousine.
Danielle looks down to see a flour-covered apron, which she bashfully pulls off. You give yourself a brush-off, and deem yourself neat. You ruffle Mitch, at which she shrieks and scampers over to Danielle. Dani winks at you and gathers her apron and Mitch.
“Lead the way, Sunghoon.” You say, as Dani gets out of the car.
A winding path leads to a gate, putting you in mind of Draco Malfoy's mansion from Harry Potter. The black gate does not cool your senses, and when Sunghoon identifies himself using his biometrics, a deep voice booms.
“Identify the visitors you have with you, Mr. Park.”
“Uhm, a cat, a friend, and her.”
There's an empty silence, after which the voice booms, “Biometric identity of 'her', please.”
Sunghoon gestures to you, and you walk awkwardly. He takes your hand and presses the thumb to the identifier.
“Approved. You may enter.”
Sunghoon grins lightly. “Ladies first. And cats.”
Danielle walks ahead, dropping Mitch down to follow. You walk with Sunghoon, curious to know why you are here.
“Sunghoon, am I in trouble? Will Mitch and Danielle be alright?”
“Don't worry. They're fine. Nothing's going to happen to you as long as you don't 'resist', per se.”
You nod, not entirely convinced. “No matter what you do, Ms. Danielle and your cat will be safe. I'll give you my word.”
You nod slightly, feeling better about this whole mess. “Thanks, Sunghoon.”
Sunghoon smiles, the first real smile you've seen. “I'm sorry for the hostility you encountered when you first met us by the way. And the salsa. We were trying to protect ourselves.”
“It's cool, you don't need to worry. I understand. Besides, the salsa was delicious, although it could've taken away my eyesight forever.” He laughs at that, and you take it as a sign that it really is fine. You join in.
“Ah, welcome back, Mr. Sunghoon. I see you brought her. But who is the person with her? And what is–”
An old, balding woman sees her worst nightmare rubbing her foot and purring. “IS THIS–” she begins, but stops to sneeze noisily.
“I'm sorry, miss. Didn't know you were allergic.” Danielle scoops Mitch up and walks a small distance away.
“It's alright,” the woman sniffles haughtily, “but I thought you might know, Sunghoon.”
“My bad, Mrs. Ahn, I wasn't aware you would be here to welcome us. I thought it'd be Mr. Ahn.”
To give you slight context, Sunghoon whispers, “Mr. Ahn loves animals, but his wife is allergic to almost all of them. That's why he's been unable to have a pet, and jumps at the opportunity to take care of one.”
“Yes, I am only alright with bats. Good reason for that, too. However, my husband has been working a lot and is having his midday snack, so I thought to cover up for him. He'll meet you in the Hub.” Mrs. Ahn says, smiling tenderly.
It has always amazed you how people change with just a smile. But no one shares that amazement, so you can't really say anything about it, for fear of being laughed at and, or, killed!
“Thank you, Mrs. Ahn. If you'll excuse us, I'll take them to meet him now.”
Mrs. Ahn nods, moving out of the way, waving as you pass, sneezing as Mitch scampers forward to meet you. Picking her up, you peck her and squish her.
“You really love your cat, huh?” Sunghoon laughs, poking Mitch playfully. You swear you see Mitch roll her eyes, and you nod eagerly.
“I mean, who wouldn't? Want to know the story behind how she became my pet?”
“Totally, after this meeting though. Sort of important. For me and you. So. Yeah.”
Oh, right.
“No worries.”
You hum, as Danielle catches up with you guys. “This is why I hate quick paced walkers.” She mumbles, out of breath. You and Sunghoon laugh.
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
After what seems like eternal walking, and around five flights of stairs, Sunghoon finally says, “We're here!”
“How are you still so loud?” You and Danielle groan, and Mitch purrs. “You too, Mitch. You literally rode my back.” Danielle sighs.
“Y/N, you are one untrained half-blood.” Sunghoon mumbles, just enough for you to catch it.
“One untrained WHAT?” You shout, the breath returning to your lungs and voice regifted to your throat.
“Fuck. You'll see!” Sunghoon runs, gesturing to the two of you to follow.
“Danielle, DID YOU FUCKING HEAR THAT?”
Danielle nods. “Unfortunately, if we're being realistic, we can't exactly find out. But because I'm your best friend, I'll panic with you. AN UNTRAINED WHAT? IS THIS HARRY POTTER?”
“You know, my mother never talks about her family. Kind of suspicious if you ask me. I haven't even seen my grandmother. I know that they're from Canada, but I don't know any more.”
“Well, I guess we're about to find out.” Danielle says, looking at the magnificent doors swinging open.
“MRAWW!” Mitch shrieks through the utter silence as she spots a familiar face. She scurries across the room to where a woman is standing, looking extremely anxious. A crown rests on her face solemnly, sparkling in the golden light exuded by the chandelier.
“MOM?”
This is when everything keeping you sane shrivels up and dies.
“MS. CAMPBELL??” Danielle yells, and the two of you run to meet her, not realizing that there's a throne next to where she's standing. “Mother dearest, would you care to explain?” You confront her, extremely concerned.
“Hi, darling. I'm sorry it had to be this way. But it did. So. Hi. Uhm. Your grandmother's here! And so is –”
Before you can hear who else you were supposed to know, your grandmother squeezes you into a tight hug. “My darling Y/N!”
“Gran! I've never met you, have I?”
Wow, what a greeting. Way to go. So proud. Such etiquette.
“Now, that's no way to greet your grandmother, is it? But yes, you've only seen me when you were an itty-bitty baby. How adorable you were and still are.”
“Thanks, Gran. Would you at least be so kind as to tell me what's going on?”
“You'll see soon enough. Take a place. Dani! I've heard a lot about you. Stand next to Y/N. Grab Mitch too.”
You two obey, and Mitch settles in Danielle's arms.
“The accused may step forward.” A deep voice booms, not unlike the one you heard at the gate earlier.
HUH? ACCUSED?????
Your mother and grandmother step forward.
“You have been summoned to The Court of Maledictus to present your defense as to why the vampire world has not been made aware of the presence of one of the most powerful and popular half-blood in existence,” an extremely bald man began (why is everyone bald?), pausing to hear Sunghoon whisper in his ear. “I am also made to learn that there's a mortal present amongst us?”
“Yes, Slav, but she can be trusted.” Your mother insists, and Slav sighs.
“So be it. May the half-blood be made to stand in front of the Court?”
You walk after receiving a nudge from your Gran. Sunghoon inclines his head to where you are supposed to stand, and you walk, your head looking straight ahead.
“Ms. Y/N Jae-hyun Campbell, daughter of the late Mr. Lee Jae-hyun and Mrs. Adrina Cassius, are you aware that Adrina Cassius, known in the mortal world as Amber Cassius, is a vampire?”
One beat.
Two beats.
“You are absolutely, positively, most DEFINITELY joking.”
Adrina grimly smiles at Slav, who rolls his eyes.
“Adrina, you are telling the Court that you're own child, the most powerful half-blood in all of history, doesn't know her own family?” A man, looking no older than 50, looks down at you scrutinizingly. He wears a magnificent crown worthy of a king atop his head, where locks of grayish-brown hair flow down till where his shoulders meet his neck. Dressed in robes of elegant black, he looks ready to perform wizarding nonsense.
“Unfortunately, Yang Jae-hwan, she doesn't. You don't hold any rights over that decision either.” Your mother says, evidently annoyed.
“Anyways,” Slav clears his throat, “Adrina Cassius married a mortal, Lee Jae-hyun, for the reasons she prefers to call love. She gave birth to Y/N Jae-hyun Campbell, whose real name is Y/N Jae-hyun Cassius.
“We are here for the 'grand reveal' of Ms. Y/N, and His Majesty Yang Jae-hwan's verdict on how best to train the half-blood, and how to protect her. We are also here to listen to the defense of the Cassius family.”
“Hello all, I am Wilhelmina Cassius, wife of Athan Cassius,” – a collective gasp rings throughout the Court – “and I will present the defense.
“We have none. Why do we defend our choices? Yes, the choices in question may threaten the very existence of mortality, but they didn't! She's of age in a few hours, and we were going to present a diary written by all the reigning royalty of our family, including how to adjust to being a half-blood by our ancestor, Lilith Cassius.
“However, due to… present circumstances, we are unable to. I find this to be a valid enough defense. I am the reigning queen due to my daughter stepping down, which I fully support, by the way, and I have been handling things just fine. I don't seem to find a valid reason for this whole fiasco.”
“The Queen of Colonia, present day Canada, has made the defense. What does the King reply to this?”
“You're right, Wilhelmina, you do make a valid point. But what if her powers got out before she came of age? What then? What if mortals were harmed? This is the first half-blood I've seen that's not out of control. Precautions have to be taken, Wilhelmina.”
“Jae-hwan, you wanted Y/N's power for yourself and under control, didn't you? We can be honest, this is a safe space!”
“Wilhelmina, let's stay civil. I do care about power, but I would not take Y/N's power. Ever. My son is equally powerful. In fact, I'm surprised Y/N didn't–”
“Enough. Can we get the verdict?”
“Yes, Slav, if you please.”
“By the Court's discretion, the verdict remains not against, but with the Cassius family. However, a few conditions will be discussed, and now that Yang Jung-won, son of Yang Jae-hwan, succeeded in getting Ms. Cassius here, he has succeeded in placing his claim to the throne and will be the next emperor.”
Yang Jungwon? Didn't Sunghoon drag us here?
“The Court is dismissed. The Cassius family and their acquanitance have been requested to stay back for a meal. Thank you.”
How was that a proper court verdict? This is the weirdest day of my life. Couldn't get weirder.
“Y/N, WHAT THE FU- HECK WAS THAT?” Danielle screams in your ears, Mitch shrieking as usual with equal passion.
“Danielle, I wish I knew. I'm as confused as you are, honey.”
“Kids, we need to go to the official dining hall. Follow me.” Your mother says, flying away as a bat.
Wait, flying? The day got weirder.
Danielle gapes, but follows. You follow suit. What is happening?
All around, life seems to be going on as usual in the Palace of Maledictus. You feel like you're the only ones out of order. Mitch bounds after your bat-mom and Dani and you walk slowly behind.
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
After what seems like a lot of walking and exercise again, you and Danielle finally reach the hall.
It's not a hall. It's a huge ballroom. A very long dining table stretches from one end of the room to the other, a regal tablecloth spread out on it. The chairs look like thrones themselves, and there are at least 32 chairs in total. Approximately. The hall has a lot of chandeliers looking down at the people vainly.
“Please, ma'am, have a seat,” a waiter gestures to a chair next to your mother, while another waiter takes charge of Danielle's seating. The two of you sit together, your mother to your left and your Gran on Danielle's right.
A delicious-looking feast has been set out, and you see your mother wolfing down chicken. Taking 'inspiration', the whole table begins digging in happily.
“I propose our kids to date, Adrina.”
The table goes crazy. Wilhelmina chokes on wine, Danielle spits chicken on her plate, Adrina has a coughing fit, and your jaw drops. The king's heir, Yang Jung-won, blinks rapidly, and Sunghoon falls out of his seat.
“I – (cough) – beg your – (cough) – pardon?” Adrina says, trying to pull herself together. “They can fake date. Beneifical for both families, and we can have an alliance if all goes well. If it doesn't, we'll see. If they don't – what is the term? – fall in love with each other, then there's no alliance and we go back to our lives. If there's no alliance, maybe Jungwon can take over your territory once the inevitable happens.”
Inevitable being your grandmother dying, you know. The horrible tradition in your family states that the ruler who marries a mortal will be removed from the line of ruling, and only their child – a half-blood – after they come of age will be allowed to rule. So, after your Gran, only you can rule.
“Is that a threat, Jaehwan?”
“No, merely a caution, my dear Adrina.”
“Mom,” you whisper. “Mom, it's fine. We can try it. Don't worry. Ask him if we can think and discuss about this for five minutes.”
“Jaehwan, we'll discuss this for five minutes. We can't take such a rash decision instantly. Give us time and we'll tell you after discussing it after the meal.”
Jaehwan agrees, and so the meal goes on, and afterwards, the hall goes silent.
Gran and your mother whisper quietly, you and Danielle not the only ones trying to catch snippets of their conversation. Jaehwan and Sunghoon crane their necks to eavesdrop, while Jungwon seems to be the only calm one.
“Y/N, are you really alright with this?” Adrina asks, and Wilhelmina whisper-shouts, “How is that even an option? Adrina!” “Mother, I'm trying to secure my daughter's future, and her sister's. Her sister is a mortal and isn't of age yet. She can't be told. I'm sorry, mother.”
“Gran, I'll be fine. He won't torture me. Mom, I'm prepared.”
Wilhelmina and Danielle, although very silent, don't look too happy. “Jaehwan, let it be written that Jungwon and Y/N have begun dating on the 31st of March. On the 30th of June, we will see how the relationship is going and decide whether to form an alliance or not.”
Jaehwan beams, clapping. “Jungwon, you'll be moving to Y/N's city, and your friends may move too, if you like. I hope to see a good alliance.”
Jungwon makes eye contact with you, smiles ever-so-slightly. “Alright, father.”
It isn’t possible to fall in love in just three months. This is not going to be really good.
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
Your grandmother is positively pissed about the arrangement, but she doesn't exactly have a say due to the fact that it will be beneficial to her rule. And her future generations. So she
has no option but to go with it.
Danielle has been forcing you to tell her everything he does for the past hour. The two of you are staying awake till midnight to celebrate your birthday.
“Y/N, if I find a single red flag, I will make you dump that son of a vampire.”
“Hey, don't call him that. I'm the daughter of a vampire.”
“Still can't get over that, but sure. He's a terrible person.”
“Breathe, Dan. Let's not judge a book by its cover.”
“Yeah.”
The two of you are staying at the palace, and all you can think about is:
My poor lemon crinkle cookies. They have done nothing to deserve this.
“Anyways, fifteen minutes left!” Danielle says, sensing the annoyance practically radiating from you. She rolls up a lettuce to make a makeshift mic, its edges tearing up slightly.
“What do you think, Ms. Cassius, the soon-to-be 19 year old?”
“Comment denied!” You smile, pushing the lettuce-mic away. Danielle pouts jokingly, eating the mic.
You guys have brought up a mini-picnic from the kitchen to enjoy by yourselves in your room. Your mother is sleeping in the room across, and your Gran is asleep in the next room, on your right.
Taking a bite of the lemon tart the two of you stole, you think about the day's events. Damn, that was a weird day. But the ending seems good!
The two of you pass your time, talking about the university you go to, Zephyr University. Gossiping about the most recent breakups in your friend group, you don't realize how fast the time flew until Danielle checks her phone.
“SHIT, IT'S 11:56!” Danielle shouts, making you jump. “Bro, breathe, we have four minutes,” you say, laughing at Dan's expression.
“How are you so calm? Dude. You're – what did they say? – ah, coming of age in the next… three minutes!”
“I wasn't born exactly at 12 AM on the 31st of March, you know?”
“THANK YOU DANIELLE!” You yell with equal energy, jumping up and down with Danielle.
The door creaks.
A hiss is heard.
You and Danielle stop celebrating.
The creaking stops.
“Danielle?”
“Y/N?”
The two of you look at each other, and scream.
And then, someone places what looks like blood next to you. What seems like a sinister voice says, “Happy birthday, Y/N. Hope you get along with good blood.”
That doesn't even make sense.
You shriek anyway. Getting up, both you and Danielle punch, kick and pinch whatever part of the person you two can.
“ARGH! WAIT! HEAR ME OUT! SWITCH ON THE FUCKING LIGHT!”
You continue without a care, but Danielle does so. The two of you have been sitting in the light of a single candle, so it is sort of understandable why you can't see who the creep is.
The light flicks on to reveal Yang Jungwon.
Oh, fuck.
“Dude, you have good self-defense, but like, why?”
“But why would you come here?” Danielle asks, in shock. “You see, Ms. Danielle, I believed that as her fake boyfriend, I should probably wish her a happy birthday. Did not expect this to happen, although Sunghoon told me what you guys did to him. He is apparently very scarred.”
You smirk at the memory, catching Danielle's eye. Jungwon narrows his eyes, still very curious and concerned, but shakes it off.
“Thanks for the thought of it, Jungwon. What flavor is the cake? It looks a lot like blood.”
“That's because it is!”
One beat. Two beats.
Danielle gags, getting as far away as possible from the cake. “Jungwon, what the fuck?”
You don't even know him but you're already worried.
“I'm joking… Ms. Danielle, don't worry. It's just red velvet with some extremely bright red frosting.”
“Oh,” Danielle murmurs, walking slowly. “Want me to test it out or something?”
“Nope, I'll do it myself, Jungwon.” You say, grabbing a wine glass and scooping the cake in it. Taking a spoon, you gingerly take a small bite, ready to vomit if necessary. To your surprise, it tastes delicious.
“... Maybe it isn't all that bad. It doesn't taste like blood, approved by me.”
Jungwon lets out a breath he didn't even know he was holding, and Danielle promptly eats the cake from your wine glass. “Ifs akshooli weawy goof,” she says, nodding in approval.
“It's actually really good,” you translate for Jungwon. “Thanks, I baked it myself!”
“WOAH, REALLY?” Danielle exclaims, eyes as wide as plates. Quietly, she whispers to you, “Y/N, maybe he isn't as bad as I thought,” and you smile.
“Anyways, I'll let you guys sleep. We're going to Zephyr Uni in the morning, around 10. I'm transferring universities, so I'll be taking finals at your university. Continuing classes there, too. See you at breakfast,” Jungwon salutes a goodbye and shuts the door behind him.
“Well, that was… interesting. He's nice though. He thought of you!”
“Yeah, more like he wants the alliance.” You say quietly, confused. Is what I'm saying true?
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
At breakfast, you, Dani, Sunghoon, Jungwon and his friends sit together. The five of Jungwon's friends know about the arrangement, so nothing's extremely awkward.
“Guys, this is Y/N Cassius, and her friend, Danielle Marsh, a mortal. And Mitch, their cat.” Sunghoon introduces while Jungwon goes to fetch juice for the table.
“Hey!” You and Dani chorus, taking a seat in between Sunghoon and Jungwon. “I'm Lee Heeseung, the oldest here. I'll let the others introduce themselves. It's nice to meet you!”
“I'm Park Jeongseong, but you can call me Jay!”
“I'm Sim Jaeyun, but you can call me Jake!”
“I'm Kim Sunoo!”
“And I'm Riki, Nishimura Riki.”
You and Dani nod to each of them respectfully, and smile. “We hope we all get along well, hopefully.” Dani says, grinning and lifting her fork.
Once Jungwon is back, he takes a seat next to you, smiling. He offers juice to everyone, taking care to not spill even a bit. He's sort of cute. Maybe he's nice after all.
Your thoughts are immediately proven wrong.
“Oops!”
Jungwon smirks evilly as a stain of orange juice spreads on your white shirt, and you gasp as you feel the chill of the juice.
“JUNGWON!” Heeseung scolds, running to get baking soda from the kitchen. Sunghoon presses his temple, sighing with fury. You just sit there, mouth ajar. “Y/N, just stay here, I'll get you another shirt. Heeseung can remove the stain when you change shirts.” Danielle says, and runs off to your mother, who hopefully has a change of clothes.
Sunghoon turns to Jungwon. “Jungwon. Apologize. You're supposed to be mature, especially to your fake girlfriend. Why did you do this?”
“It was an accident. Sorry, Y/N!” He apologizes happily, as if no one knows that he did it on purpose. “Totally, Jungwon! It's completely alright!” You say sarcastically, seeing Danielle return with a white button-up crop top.
Luckily your mother had packed up whatever clothes you and Dani left behind at her home, because you two had zero time to pack.
Mom, thanks.
Heeseung returns too, so you go to the ladies' room to change your shirt. You exit the restroom to see Jungwon standing outside, holding the baking soda. “You forgot this,” he says, picking his nails.
“Oh, thanks.” You say, taking it from him and re-entering the room to use the sink. From outside, he says as loud as possible, “I really am very sorry, I didn't mean to cause a change in the mood. Like, really. I'm not mean, I promise. I'll be thoughtful from now on when I think of jokes.”
You listen silently, scrubbing the shirt. Seeing the stain disappear, you exit, stopping in front of Jungwon. “Don't worry. I was just really upset because it's my birthday, you know. Wanted the day to go perfect.”
“Oh, I'm sorry.” “You don't need to apologize, it's fine! Let's forget it and look ahead!” You smile, and Jungwon returns it, his face cheering up.
The two of you walk back to the table, and on the way, you ask a member of staff for a bag to keep the wet shirt in. The lights suddenly dim, and your eyesight takes a bit to adjust. “Need help?” Jungwon offers, taking your hand gently. He leads you back to the table as you try to spot your mother, who was supposed to be here.
Your senses haven't fully developed due to the lack of training as a young child, and so you can't really make out much. “I'll help you train, by the way, whenever we're free. We'll discuss a set time later.” Jungwon says, reading your mind.
You thank him, and finally reach the table. Ignoring the slight tingles in your fingers, you let go of his hand, and the table brightens up.
“HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY..”
You gasp as nineteen candles light up and the whole table sings for you. The staff clap as well, and you smile, the brightest in the room.
“Thank you all so much!” You exclaim in joy after the song is over. “Make a wish, Y/N,” Dani says, and you do so, blowing the candles.
“What'd you wish for?” Jungwon asks you curiously, as you cut the cake to give everyone.
“If I tell you, it would not come true. So no thanks.” You say, busy cutting the cake proportionately. He pouts, and cringes immediately after. “Shit, remind me to never do that again.” You laugh and nod.
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
On the journey back home, the University students sit in one vehicle, and your mother sits in another. Gran left for Canada immediately after breakfast, and Jungwon's father and the rest's parents stayed back in Maledictus.
You sit next to Dani and Sunghoon, and you tell Hoon the story of how Mitch became your pet as he listens attentively, with Dani adding her own comments in between.
“So yeah, Mitch decided to stay with us! We officially adopted her, like, 10 months ago.”
Sunghoon smiles, ruffling Mitch's fur, while she claws at his hand, irritated. The journey worth 90 minutes passes by quickly, and the driver pulls up to the driveway of your home. Your mother's car follows, and the drivers stop for a meal.
You quickly whip up some spaghetti and sandwiches, and Danielle attempts to repair the damage in your kitchen. Sunghoon makes some lemonade, and gives the drivers their meal. They wave and drive off to Maledictus.
“Shit, the kitchen is such a mess.” Danielle says, opening the oven door to find burnt cookies and an extremely nauseating smell.
“What happened here?” Your mother asks, entering the kitchen.
“Mother, we were trying to enjoy our last few days of break before school, but dear Sunghoon over here decided to drag us to Maledictus!”
Sunghoon winces, wiping the inside of the oven clean. The rest are sorting through the bags in the living room. Dani is currently sifting through the food in the fridge, trying to throw out the rotten food. Surprisingly, even after just one day of absence, at least a quarter of the food (healthy stuff) had gone bad.
You hate wasting food and Danielle knows it. So she does it herself. She dumps the food in the separate trash can, cringing.
After about half an hour of cleaning, the three of you manage to clean up the mess in the kitchen. The rest of Jungwon's friends successfully sort through their bags and make sure the right stuff is in the right bag. Your mother has already returned home, but you see a notification from your mother.
Mom ♡ : If you need anything, message me or call.
You : thanks mother!!
After sending a reply, you settle down on the rug in the living room, while Danielle gets chairs for the rest. “We're leaving for the dorms tomorrow, do you guys have everything set?” You ask the boys, who nod. “Only Riki is your age. He's majoring in dance. I'm majoring in journalism.” Sunghoon says, and Riki grins, saluting.
“What do you major in, guys?” Dani asks, sitting next to you. “I major in humanities, finishing my degree this year,” Heeseung says.
“I major in the visual arts,” Jay says. “I major in astrophysics.” Jake smiles.
“I major in the visual arts, like Jay.” Sunoo says, smiling brightly. “And I major in music, focusing on composition and therapy.” Jungwon says, and you gasp. “Same!”
“Oh, damn, nice. We'll see each other in class then!” Jungwon replies.
“What do you mean?” “You seem like the type to be really happy in the studies of media. Just the, uh, vibe with a capital V.”
Everyone agrees, and Danielle flushes. “Aw, thanks guys. Means a lot.”
You pat her on the back and Danielle holds your hand. I would never trade this for anything.
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
SHIT WE'RE LATE.
The first thought you have when you wake up. Delightful.
Why is everything shaking?
The second thought. How very wonderful. You then realize that your bed is shaking. “Y/N, WAKE UP.”
Jungwon's voice yells, and water splashes on your face. “Sorry, Y/N,” Sunghoon says. You blink rapidly and see Danielle assembling an outfit for you.
Only then does everything process.
SHIT I'M WEARING SHORTS AND A SHIRT?? I LOOK LIKE CRAP.
You jump into the shower, practically flying. Jungwon and Sunghoon catch each other's eyes and try not to laugh.
“Welcome to our household,” Danielle says, holding a pile of clothes and dumping them on your bed. Sunghoon offers to take Y/N's suitcases down, and Danielle gladly accepts.
“Jungwon, she'll ask for her clothes. Just hand that whole pile over, but DO NOT. I REPEAT. DO NOT. LOOK AT HER. YOU'LL FIND YOURSELF SIX FEET UNDER. YOU UNDERSTAND ME?” Dani says, shaking him aggressively by the shoulders. You sigh in the shower.
Dearest Danielle.
“BREATHE, DANIELLE, I THINK HE KNOWS,” you yell as loud as you can.
Immediately after the shower switches off, you bang the bathroom door and stretch a hand out for your clothes. Jungwon obediently hands them over.
Getting dressed in a hurry, you tie your hair up in a bun. “Let's go!” You exclaim, dragging Jungwon by the hand downstairs.
“Everyone finished their breakfasts, by the way.” He says casually, and you facepalm.
“Shit, I'm so sorry.” “It's okay, breathe. You can have it on the way there.”
“We're going on public transport, I'll just pack it and take it there. Are the groceries packed?”
He nods, and Danielle stops you on the landing. “Here's your breakfast. Eat it in the dorm. Let's go.”
The nine of you rush to the bus stop, just in time for the bus to arrive. “Zephyr Stop, please. Nine of us.” The conductor nods, and you pay.
Online payment for the win!
Upon reaching the bus stop, all of you get down, and you and Dani wave to the conductor. She waves and smiles.
“We'll show you to your dorms. All genders in one huge building, but different wings. Females on the left, males on the right, and non-binary people depends on their preferences or identification. Not really sure.” Danielle says.
The seven boys nod, lugging their bags with them. “The dormitories have a mini-kitchen, explaining the groceries we have. Depending on how many people you have in your room, you have bunk beds and one extra bed. One attached bathroom for everyone, and a study table for each person. There's a couch and a TV, and the Wi-Fi password will be shared to you by a residential counselor,” you explain, walking slowly.
“Since today's a Sunday, we can meet up freely. When actual classes begin, we'll have to stay in our own block. But we can meet at the shops on campus.
“We have a café, restaurant, medical store, a few medical staff, grocery stores, and thrift stores run by the marketing and fashion students. We have a few sports fields, a garden, recording studios, a huge library, swimming pools, and just an open field. We have an amphitheater and auditorium too. ”
The boys listen attentively, and Danielle sees the check-in machine. “Hand me your IDs, I'll check you guys in.” She offers, and everyone dumps their IDs in her hand.
Checking in everyone, she hands the IDs back to everyone.
“We'll meet at the café. Can we have a group chat? I'll share the location there.” You offer, and Sunghoon nods. “I'll take your numbers and make one. Guys, go ahead.”
The rest meet with the resident counselor as you give your number to Hoon. Grabbing as many bags as you can, you take yours and Danielle's belongings and unlock your room.
I'll unpack later.
Opening your phone, you see a message.
Park Sunghoon has added you to a group chat.
Park Sunghoon has renamed the group chat to Vampires and a Mortal
Sunghoon :
hey guys. y/n will share the location here. we'll meet up there. btw, here's the room numbers and roommates.
– me and jungwon, room 112
– heeseung, jay, sunoo in room 116
– riki and jake in room 115
You :
here's the location : xtxtxtxttxxttxxt
me and danielle are in room 67
You close the chat, and help Danielle unpack her things.
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
“I'm too lazy to remember everyone's orders, so go order your food yourself guys. Please.” You say, and they roll their eyes. Zephyr Café is a really calm place, the classic romanticized café.
It has a beige color palette, and the smell of baking and happiness. Students come here on casual hangouts, study dates, solo dates, dates in general. Since not all students arrived on campus, and you all were here for lunch, the café was not very crowded.
“Hey Jaemin!” You wave to the boy behind the counter, Na Jaemin. “Hey Y/N! I see you have people with you. You seem to be making friends!” He laughs, and you punch him playfully.
“Shut up. Me and Danielle have the usual, the guys will order personally.”
“Alright. Enjoy, friendless bitch.”
“SHUT UP, JAE.”
You and Jaemin have known each other since your first year at Zephyr, the both of you in the same course. You're close with his friend group too.
You did nurse a small crush on him, and sometimes still do. But it's just a crush.
After everyone receives their orders, all of you talk about everything possible. Breaking the ice is really useful, because you and Jungwon will have to pull off a fake relationship and you need to make it realistic.
“Also, Y/N, we need to talk in private. Could you guys give us a minute or a few?”
Without waiting for an answer, he pulls you over to a corner of the café. “Can we use the field for training?” He asks, and you nod. “Yeah, just let me know the times. We probably have the same schedules so yeah.” He nods, and you return to your seats.
All nine of you chatter away like old friends, talking about Spider-Man to Angelina Jolie.
After the café lunch, you guys return to your rooms, and you take a small nap. In the evening, you and Danielle meet up with a few friends.
“Yunjin! Minji! Hi!” The two of you greet your two other friends. They're roommates and are in the room opposite to you.
“Hey guys!” Minji says, hugging the two of you. Behind her, Yunjin is dragging a sack full of snacks. “Here's food. Eat whenever. You're welcome.” She says, and you hug her. Yunjin is the oldest, the same age as Heeseung, and is finishing her degree in botany this year. Minji is majoring in literature.
You’re the youngest in the four of you guys, but you hate when they baby you, so they always baby you. Just for fun.
“And how’s our baby doing?” Yunjin says, pulling your cheeks. “Stop it!” You say, pulling out of her reach. Minji laughs, and Danielle opens your fridge to keep the groceries away. “I heard you made new friends? Around, like, seven boys?”
“Yeah, don’t make it weird, please.” You tell Minji, who already looks like she’s scheming. “Mhm, sure, I would never!” You sigh. Your friends are annoying, and also annoyingly sweet, so it’s a win-win.
“Aww, does my baby have a boyfwend?” Yunjin asks, putting on a pair of glasses and smirking at you knowingly. “Maybe, but you’ll never find out who!”
“So you confirmed that you have one. We’ll find him. And when we do, he will regret it.”
“Please don’t guys, she finally got a boyfriend. Let’s not scare him away.” Danielle says, coming to the couch with packed bottles of cold coffee for Yunjin and Minji. “Did you guys have lunch yet?” She asks, and they nod. “Did you guys?” Minji asks, accepting the coffee. You nod and plop on the sofa.
Small talk continues, and they leave to unpack. “Bye guys! We need to unpack too,” you say to Danielle, shutting the door after they leave. “Yeah, let’s do it. Anyways, how did you like the questions about your ‘boyfwend’, Y/N?” Danielle giggles.
“My vampire boyfriend?” You ask, grinning. “I don’t think I would describe him in that way, but sure. He’s fake anyway. As in, our relationship is fake.”
Danielle nods, putting her clothes on hangers and placing them in her side of the wardrobe. “Danielle, you don’t want to drink, do you?” You ask, the thought suddenly occurring to you.
“Never.”
“Oh, thank god.”
You have never found the alleged temptation of drugs, alcohol and cigarettes tempting, and you hope never to. The farthest you’ll ever go, you decide, is wine or champagne, and medicinal drugs.
Hopefully you avoid the latter too.
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
“Wake up, Y/N, it’s seven AM.” Danielle shouts in your ears, and you jump. “Okay, okay, breathe.” You say, gathering yourself and rubbing your eyes aggressively. “Need water?” Danielle asks, and you nod. She hands you a glass, and you dump it over your head.
“Better?”
“Yep. Are you ready?”
“As usual. We’ll leave by 7:45, so we have a lot of time for breakfast.”
You rush to get ready, and wrap a towel around your head after your shower. Pulling on a decent outfit, you stare in the mirror, satisfied. Deciding to go with a minimal makeup look, you finish it off with a brush of your brows. You’re wearing a black oversized shirt with graphics, and faded blue baggy jeans with blue Converse. Pinning your hair back, you use hair gel to make your hair less frizzy. Dabbing on some lip balm, you walk out of the door, grabbing your bags.
“Let’s go?” Danielle asks, and you nod.
Arriving at the main building, you look up to where your class is. The theory classes are in the first half of the day, and the second half goes to completing your assignments, and practical classes, if any.
You and Danielle usually drop off your bags, but you see Jungwon, Sunghoon, and the rest at the entrance, looking confused. “Oh, hey, I nearly forgot about you guys,” you say, rushing to help them out. “Media and sciences are at one place, so I’ll take Sunghoon and Jake. The arts are in another section of the building, so Y/N can take you guys there. We’re going to drop our bags off, have breakfast first, then go to class, so come with us.”
They nod, and you all run off to your classes. You drop off Riki at the dance studio in the basement, and tell him he can ask the professor if he needs anything. Waiting patiently for him to keep his bag, you check your phone. “Back, whose room are we going to next?” He pops out of the studio, and you say, “Visual arts.”
Going to the first floor after the ground floor, you take a right and go to the second classroom you see. “Here. It’s more of an art studio, not sure where they take their practicals. The professor is in, you can ask them.”
They walk out after ten minutes, and say, “They asked us to leave our bags right here, they’ll show us around later.”
You nod, and go to the next floor, allowing them to follow you. “Music composition, music therapy is the classroom on our left.” You drop your bag in the front, and Jungwon drops his bag beside you.
“Let’s go to the restaurant.”
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
The day has been exhausting. You still have training to look forward to. You open the texts between you and Jungwon again.
Jungwon : we’ll meet up on the ground, i’ll be waiting at 11.
You : pm????????????
Jungwon : yeah, what else? 🙄 we’ll do sensory training today. darkness. think about it, let ur brain process.
You : 🙄 im rolling my eyes but make it in bold, italic red underline.
Jungwon : nice reference. i see you’re a woman of culture as well.
You : obviously
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
“Training’s going to be interesting,” Jungwon says.
It is 11:15 PM, and you are extremely sleepy. You are in the field, near the forests that surround it. The trees block out the little light from the night sky. You grimace and say, “Sure. Can we get it over with, please?”
He shrugs, and begins. “Make out my movements. Stop me when you think you can.”
You see a blur of hands around you. Shit, he’s fast.
Finally, when you see him hesitate, you smack his hand. “Got you.”
“Good. Can be faster. Next, I want you to hold my hand with exactly my little finger. Doesn’t matter how. But little finger.”
Another blur of movements. Your eyes are adjusting, however slowly it may seem. Finally, when you think you can see his ring finger, you grab a finger.
“Good.” He says, turning on a torch. “You’re getting better. Stop me when I cross my fingers.”
And so it goes on, and on, and on, until around 11:55. “Stop me when I get too close,” he says.
Now, what is TOO CLOSE?
You stop him as soon as you feel his breath on your cheek. “This time, it seems you got me by my breath, not your eyes. Good strategy, but doesn’t work in all battles. We’ll stop here. I’ll walk you to your dorm. Is Danielle still up?”
“Nope, I asked her to sleep, not wait for me. She said she’d try, but I highly doubt she can. She falls asleep on a fixed schedule.”
Jungwon shakes his head, and you can barely make it out. The walk back is silent, only filled with the sounds of insects and animals making sounds, and the sound of your footsteps and breaths coordinating.
“See you Friday, Y/N.”
See you Friday.
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
Every Monday and Friday, the same time every time, he trains you. By the third Monday, you are successfully able to identify different movements.
It’s a Wednesday, and you enter class and sit next to Jungwon, who’s passed out. It’s 8:32 AM, and the class begins at 9 AM. All around you, you hear whispers. You turn to Jaemin, who sits behind you, and ask, “What’s happening?”
“Y/N, you haven’t heard? Rumor is that you and Jungwon sneak out at midnight.” Jaemin says, cutting straight to the point.
“What? There’s more, isn’t there?”
“Yeah…” he begins. “They think you do stuff in the woods. You know, inappropriate shit. I don’t believe them, but there you go.”
You stare. “You’re kidding. They can’t possibly be that immature.”
“Actually, they are. Plus, Jungwon’s asleep, so that makes things worse. You may want to talk to him.”
“Thanks, Jaemin.”
“Also, Y/N, do you want to hang out with me after school?”
“Definitely!”
“Alright, see you at the café at 5:30?”
“See you there.”
You turn to the front, and poke Jungwon. “Jungwon, we need to talk, dude.”
“Mmf. Let me sleep, Y/N.”
“It’s serious, you dickwad.”
“Chill with the language, Y/N.” He says, sitting up straight. “What is it?” “Uhm, basically, there are rumors that we do inappropriate stuff in the woods.”
“Isn’t that technically good? Because we’re supposed to be fake dating…”
“Oh. Right. I forgot about that.”
“Speaking of which, we should probably show off right now.”
“What do you mean?”
“I can kiss you on the cheek, you know.”
“Oh…” you flush, shrugging. “Sure,”
Before you even get out the word, Jungwon pecks your cheek softly, smiling ear-to-ear. You go positively pink at the kiss, although very childish. The whispers seem to grow even louder, and Jungwon says, “Ignore them. They’re going to manipulate anything we do, so why not give them a show?”
You nod, and the professor enters, signaling an end to the whole fiasco.
You subtly open your notebook and doodle hearts everywhere.
What is happening to me?
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
At lunch, when all of you meet up, Jungwon fills everyone in on what happened in class. They laugh, and Danielle and Sunghoon smirk at you. Surprisingly, you and Sunghoon are becoming fast friends, and you conveniently forget the fact that he was your attempted kidnapper.
“Anyways, how were your classes, guys?”
The chatter goes on till 2 PM, when the practicals begin. Today, you have a free class till 3 PM, after which you have a practical session in the studio to try and begin working on your final presentation. Finals begin from April 22nd, and end on May 2nd. University begins again on July 1st. It’s the 10th of April, and the frenzy is finally getting to a lot of students.
Each of you leave for your respective schedules. You hurry to the library to get started on your music therapy homework. “Hi, Y/N! Over here!” You hear Yunjin say, and the librarian aggressively shushes her. You wave excitedly and head over there, swinging your bag on the floor. “Hi Yunjin!”
“Hey kid. What’s up?”
And so you and Yunjin chat whilst doing your homework, a paper on how music is interpreted amongst teens as makeshift therapy. Yunjin is doing her botany work, a case study on different structures in various plants worth 25% of her grade. She frustratedly shakes her head, looking at her computer. “Google is so unreliable, man,” she sighs. “Need help? I probably can’t, but worth asking,” you offer. “Nope, it’s fine, thanks!” She replies, waving it off.
You narrow your eyes at her, and she grins widely. “It’s okay, don’t worry kiddo.”
You nod, still suspicious, and continue your work. Finally, at 2:50, you decide you’re satisfied with your work. You proofread it, and format it. “Yunjin, need any prints?” She shakes her head as a ‘no’, and you nod, heading over to the printer.
“Hi!” A familiar voice exclaims, and you look up from your paper to see Jaemin’s best friend, Lee Jeno. “Hi Jeno!” You reply cheerfully. He’s extremely similar to a Samoyed, with a really cute eye smile. You realize with a sudden jolt that Jungwon and Sunoo also have eye smiles.
“How’s life treating you?” He asks, stapling his papers. “Oh, interesting. What about you?”
“Fun. But since finals are near, I doubt the same spirit will last.” “Valid point.” You comment, as your prints get ready. Stapling them, you wave a goodbye. “Are you working at the café today?” You ask him, walking back to your table. “Yeah! My shift’s till 6 something.”
“I’ll see you at the café!” You smile and wave. “Bye Y/N!” “Bye Jeno!”
“Yunjin, I’ll go to the recording studio. Good luck with your assignment, okay?”
“Okay, child. Bye!”
“DON’T CALL ME THAT!”
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
At the recording studio, you greet the assistant professor, the teacher who helps with practicals. “Hello, Ms. Kent! Did you have your lunch?”
“Yep! Thanks for asking, Ms. Campbell.” You internally shudder, remembering the exposed feeling going through you at the Court when they revealed your last name to be Cassius.
“I feel like this time I want to go for a backing track before I try writing the words,” you say, placing your bag next to your chair. “New method? Whatever for?”
“I don’t know, I just feel like I don’t have inspiration for lyrics. Maybe by next week.”
“You mean the seventeenth? That’s a dangerously close date, but okay. Whatever’s fine by you. We have time till 5 today, so you will definitely be able to achieve a lot.”
You smile, looking at your melody list. It’s a sheet you prepared that lists your favorite backing tracks.
“What if I—“
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
After the recording studio session, you feel energized, music coursing through your veins. Ready to meet Jaemin, you go directly to the café, fifteen minutes away from the studio. Checking the time, you realize it’s 5:20 PM, ten minutes earlier than planned.
It’s fine, maybe I can get started on the lyrics. I need a melody though.
You begin pointlessly humming, trying to come up with a melody for your lyrics. “Hmm, HMM, HMMMM!”
“I’m sorry, but are you okay?” Jaemin asks, walking up to you. “The practical seems to be messing with your head, Y/N.”
“Yeah, yeah, shut up. Are you ready for it though?”
“If it’s me, you can’t really have expectations, Y/N.”
“You’re right. Point taken. How’s it going?”
“I have, like, the chorus all set, but not the backing track, the verses or the melody.”
“So basically you have nothing except some repetitive lines, or a refrain.”
“Pretty much, yeah.” He grins, ordering a coffee. “Hey Jeno.”
“Hey, Jae. Hi Y/N! I didn’t know this was what you meant by ‘see you there’. I don’t want it to be awkward or anything, but are you two on a date?”
“No!” You both chorus, panicking, and Jeno giggles. “Whatever you say.”
The two of you discuss everything about summer, waiting for your orders. “How was your birthday?” Jaemin asks, and you grin. “Oh, lovely!” You reply, recalling the weirdest day before.”
“I have a gift for you, but it’ll wait until after this hangout.”
“You LITERALLY DID NOT have to tell me, Jae. Why are you so mean?” You whine, your head in your hands. “I love annoying you, Y/N.”
“Sure you do. You are a bitch. An evil, mean, bitch.”
“Yeah, yeah, sure, kid.”
“SHUT UP!”
Conversations have always been easy with Jaemin, so you find it no surprise that you don’t get bored with him. At the end of it all, around 6:30, when you both get up to pay, he doesn’t allow you to pay. “My treat. If you pay, you won’t get your gift, and I’ll tease you till the end that you never got to see it.”
“You are manipulating me. But okay. Next time, I’m paying.”
“Sure, sure.”
After paying, the two of you leave, and he says,”Here’s your gift.”
Opening a blue velvet box, he takes out a locket. “Holy shit, Jaemin, it’s beautiful.”
“Open the locket.”
In it is a picture of you, Danielle, him, and Mitch. I miss Mitch. I wish she could stay at the dorms.
Your eyes tear up. “Y/N! Don’t cry, is it that bad?”
“No. It’s beautiful.”
“Here, I’ll put it on for you.”
That’s when you realize that this is what love, platonic, feels like. He unclasps the hook of it and puts it around your neck gently, smiling. “It looks lovely on you.”
“Thank you so much, Jaemin.”
“You’re always welcome.”
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
Jungwon : why were you out with jaemin?
You : uh.. he’s my friend?
Jungwon : but IM UR FAKE BOYFRIEND?? 😭😭
You : THEN ASK ME OUT??
Ignore that. 😀😀
Jungwon : No. Meet me outside ur dorm RN
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
“Y/N. Will you go out with me on a date?”
The first thing you hear when you open your door is Jungwon’s voice, and he’s holding a bouquet of flowers.
“Where did you get the flowers from? We literally texted three minutes ago.”
“ANSWER THE QUESTION!” He cries, looking exhausted.
“I mean, obviously, I thought that was a given!”
“I could kiss you right now.”
You shrug. “Do you want me to?”
“To what?”
“Kiss you right now.”
“Yeah, that would be cool,” you say (not so) casually. “Don’t act so carefree.” He replies, kissing you on the lips.
It doesn’t seem right. There should be more of a PLOT before we kiss, man.
I’m looking into this too much. Chill, Y/N.
You kiss him back, and Danielle shrieks behind you. Crap, Dani.
The two of you break apart, the bouquet in your hand. “DID I MISS SOMETHING?”
“NO, BUT YOU RUINED IT, NINCOMPOOP.”
“SHIT. WHY ARE WE TALKING IN CAPS AGAIN?”
“BECAUSE I’M PISSED?”
“Guys, breathe,” Jungwon breaks in. “Y/N, it’s alright. Danielle, you didn’t miss anything. I just asked her out on a date.”
“Oh. Continue, pretend I’m not here.”
“Danielle, that’s just weird, dude.” You both say to her.
She raises her hands, as if accused. “Don’t blame me, love made me crazy.”
You throw a pillow at her face.
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
Jungwon : for the date, meet me at the restaurant, friday, at seven pm. no training, we’ll compensate for the training on saturday.
You : okayy ^_^ thank u 💗💗
Jungwon : ideally i should be thanking u but okay
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
You giggle as the two of you continue texting. “Y/N, it’s ten. Sleep. Please. Or let me. Or go over to his dorm. I would much rather sleep in the same room as Sunghoon than listen to you giggling annoyingly. Do vampires never sleep or something? That guy looks tired but doesn’t sleep.”
You shake off her rant. “Okay, okay, mom, I’ll sleep.”
You wish him a good night. You can’t help but feel like high school sweethearts, but make it older and more mature.
Mature? Says the girl giggling at texts. Bro. You’re not okay.
I know.
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
You wait for Friday night to arrive. When classes end, you rush to your dorm to get dressed. Two hours early. Danielle rushes after her classes too, to make sure you look perfect (you already do) for the date.
“Okay, what do you want to wear?” She asks, shutting the door behind her.
“Uh, maybe the black dress? Not yours, not the tight fitting one. The more airy, loose one.”
“Yeah, sounds good. Yours, right?”
“Yeah, but I don’t have good shoes to match.”
“I have black heels, I think. I’ll search. Clean makeup?”
“Yeah, obviously.”
You rush to get ready, and by 6:30, you look in the mirror. The black dress has pleats that reach your knees, and off the shoulder sleeves that extend to your elbow. You wear Danielle’s strapped heels, wedged, not pencil, and your hair is left loose, a scrunchie in your purse, in case you need it. Your makeup consists of concealer, some counter, tinted lip balm, highlighter and eyeshadow eyeliner.
“You look so pretty, I need a Polaroid.”
You pose for one, and take one with your best friend. “Man, if I were Jungwon, I would rather die than let you go. Juliet to your Romeo.”
“HOW I HEARD YOU SAY!” You and Danielle sing along, while you pack your purse.
“Bye! Have fun, Y/N,” she says, kissing your cheek. “Bye!”
You arrive at the restaurant, and you see Jungwon standing there with a bouquet of daisies, your favorite. “How’d you know?”
“Danielle.” He replies, hugging you. “Shit, Y/N, you look so gorgeous.” He compliments you, and you flush bright pink. “Thank you.” “Always.”
“I want to get to know you more, Y/N.” He announces grandly, kissing the back of your hand. “Aww, hopeless romantic,” you tease, and ask, “What are we going to do?”
“Oh, I don’t know, dance?” He jokes, smiling. You giggle — STOP WITH THE CREEPY GIGGLING, Y/N — and grin. “We’re going out of campus. I took permission, plus it’s the weekend, so they told me it’s allowed.”
“Ah, alright. Where though?”
“You’ll see.”
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
The drive there is not that long. After around twenty minutes of driving, he says, “We’re here, Y/N.”
You look around. Stars sparkle in the night, and the moon looks bright and happy. “I found this place last week, after training. It’s really beautiful, but I’ve never seen it during the day. Here’s the treehouse I built.”
“You built a TREEHOUSE?”
“Yeah, out of wood that had fallen. The walls are made with rotten wood. #Recycling!”
“Wow. You built a treehouse.”
“Not a big deal!”
“Totally.”
He leads you up the ladder, and grabs a chair for you. “I made dinner, it’s in the car.”
Jungwon runs to bring the food. He’s so cute, man. He returns with a picnic basket, and asks you to turn around. The room is brightened up. Is he lighting a candle?
“You can look now.”
You gasp, seeing candles lit, and wine glasses. “Jungwon, I don’t drink…”
“Who says we’re drinking wine?” He smirks, pulling out apple cider, your favorite. “Danielle?”
“Nope, me. I saw you drink it during class.”
You blush furiously, the thought of him looking at your preferences overwhelming you. “Thank you.”
The two of you spend all your time there, getting to know one another, drinking apple cider sophisticatedly, eating a vegetarian filet mignon (that’s what he called it), and laughing.
You admit that it’s been really fun with him. Is it a crush?
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
Finals. Crap.
It’s the sixteenth of March, and you have not prepared lyrics. You have a general melody, but you need lyrics. After class, you run to the library and grab a dictionary.
You frantically start scribbling down lyrics.
It began before my birthday
You and I, so forced,
Didn’t have words to say
The ice trying to defrost
Itself so fast
You wished me at midnight
Scared me out of my wits
You and I, against no light
Your goodbye felt like secret chits
Passed in class
And maybe I read into things too much
But we seem like too good of an opportunity to pass
Up, so I’ll try and take this and trust
That we both would last
So please don’t leave, don’t say goodbye
You know I’ll miss you, so don’t even try
No matter how fake we are, hope you feel the same
Way as I do, please just stay
And I could be romanticizing you a lot
You and I, as pretty as a forget-me-not
Following its name, I can’t ever forget you
I’ll be as blue as the flower if I do
And maybe I read into things too much
But we seem like too good of an opportunity to pass
Up, so I’ll try and take this and trust
That we both would last
So please don’t leave, don’t say goodbye
You know I’ll miss you, so don’t even try
No matter how fake we are, hope you feel the same
Way as I do, please just stay
I haven’t known you for long, a few weeks isn’t much
Time doesn’t matter, ‘cause you feel like a crutch
To my sanity, if I don’t have you near
So please just stay, dear
So please don’t leave, don’t say goodbye
You know I’ll miss you, so don’t even try
No matter how fake we are, hope you feel the same
Way as I do, please just stay
So please don’t leave, don’t say goodbye
You know I’ll miss you, so don’t even try
No matter how fake we are, hope you feel the same
Way as I do, i hope you stay
“Good enough.” You murmur, and fall asleep.
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
After homework class the next day, you rush to the recording studio. “Ms. Kent, I’m ready.”
“Jeez, Ms. Campbell, you scared me. But I’m happy. Let's begin.”
At the end of the session, Ms. Kent smiles with pride. “I am very proud of you. I hope it works out for whoever you have dedicated this song to.”
“Thank you, Ms. Kent.”
You exit, feeling very happy. This is guaranteed to get you a good grade.
You hear your phone ring, and you take a glance. It’s Sunghoon. “Hello?”
“Y/N, Jungwon is dead.”
Pause.
One beat.
Two beats.
“You’re joking. I’m coming to your dorm right now.”
“I’m not here, Y/N, please believe me.” You hear the pain in his voice. “Y/N, I’m at the campus hospital. I’ve called the King. Please come now. Everyone’s here.”
You run, tears falling, but you don’t realize it. Your only priority is getting to Jungwon.
“What happened?” You cry, seeing Danielle waiting outside.
“Y/N, he left a letter for you.”
“No, Danielle, this is a joke. Danielle, please. This is a joke.”
“I’m sorry, Y/N, it’s not. It really isn’t.”
She encloses an envelope in your palm. “None of us opened it. He died in the bathroom, Y/N. Allegedly because of a stab, possibly silver.”
“It’s a murder.” You declare between sobs. “We know, Y/N, please come see him. His father will be here in fifteen minutes.”
“When did this.. when was he found?”
She doesn’t say anything.
“DANIELLE, WHEN WAS HE FOUND?”
The one person I thought was like me. Would understand. Who helped me reach my potential and unlocked it in the first place. Lit a candlelight dinner for me. He’s my fucking muse. This is a joke.
“DANIELLE, HE’S GONE.”
Sunghoon screams, and on seeing you, hugs you immediately. The rest are sitting, tears soaking their shirts. When they see you, they run for a group hug. “Y/N…”
“He was found when I was in the recording session, right?”
“We tried calling you. None of us could come get you, we were too busy. It was 5 minutes before you picked up Sunghoon’s call.” Danielle murmurs, choking up with tears.
“And now he’s missing.” Heeseung says, staring blankly. The doctor arrives on the scene. “Hello, the patient has gone missing and I’m aware. For your information, I’m a vampire, too. There is a high possibility he turned to ashes, and we can’t rule it out. I'm not sure what happened, and the security cameras aren’t explaining anything either. We’re sorry for your loss. We are trying our best to figure it out. I am aware he is the young Prince of Maledictus, and the King is on his way. I assure you, this is not a mistake. It’s supernatural.
“A red moon incident is what we call it. When a vampire, a very powerful one at that, just disappears with no warning after his alleged death, it’s either they’re in ashes… or they’re alive.”
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
Dear Diary,
The king is furious. His only heir, gone into thin air? Impossible. He doesn’t blame me, though, surprisingly. I honestly don’t think he believes me to have the capacity to be able to scheme this well.
I don’t mind.
I know exactly what happened. His letter explained everything.
Here’s a word-to-word copy of it.
—————————————————————————————————————
Dear Y/N.
Do not show this to anyone else. Not even Danielle, not even Mitch. Mitch is a human, by the way. She’s been made a cat because of an age-old curse that runs in her family.
I am alive. For security purposes, I won’t tell you where. My father is planning something. He’s a terrible, cunning man. He wants to kill you, and make me do it. I’m sorry, but I love you.
You hear me?
I love you.
I’m alive. I asked Jaemin to place the silver next to a body I was working on. Jaemin’s really nice, by the way. He knows. But he’s with me. He’s applied for leave from the university under pretences of his grandmother being ill.
Lies.
He’s with me, and wants me to tell you that he’s safe. “Y/N, remember me in that locket of yours.”
Remember me too. I’ll come get you one day. When it’s safe. I promise.
By the way, love the song. I know for a fact it’s about us. Jaemin overheard everything before he came to the bathroom.
Don’t hate us,
Love, Jungwon.
P.S. : we both love you. Stay safe, and don’t worry. Don’t forget us, otherwise you’ll be as blue as a forget-me-not. ;)
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
THREE YEARS LATER.
“Y/N!” Danielle greets you.
The two of you don’t live together anymore. She moved away to LA for her career after graduation. You still stay in the same place, in hope of Jungwon being able to find you.
Right now, Danielle is with you, at your good old home. Your mother is in Canada, helping your Gran.
“Hi! How are you?”
Danielle and you still talk, and have video calls weekly twice. The boys are still in touch through the group chat.
“I’m fine, as I said yesterday,” you laugh. “Same!” She giggles.
The two of you spend hours together until it’s time for her flight. “I’ll see you next month. Call you when I reach!”
You hug her tightly. “I miss you a lot.”
“I miss you too, Y/N. I love you, okay? Take care!”
She kisses you on your cheek. “Love you too. Have a safe flight!”
After shutting the door, you plop down on your couch. Life’s been good.
“Y/N. How have you been?”
You turn around to see Jungwon and Jaemin, looking extremely weary.
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➢ Warnings. Light Cursing. A lot of mentions of Mingyu. I promise he’s just the annoying friend ( we’ve all had one of those, lol).
♢ [Playlist.]
ꕤ A/N: This fic is for the @kflixnet exchange event for the lovely @vanillelace. Hello Aanya, I’m your secret Santa! I know we didn’t talk much during the event, but I truly enjoyed getting to know more about you through the few asks I did send. I know you said you were getting into SVT, and as an SVT writer, I thought, what better thing to gift than a fic on your potential future bias. I hope you enjoy and love the fic and the accompanying playlist I made for you. I haven’t written a high school AU (I think?), so I had to use many of my experiences as a high school student from nearly four years ago, and I used some of my endeavors in Physics class to shape the plot. I still hope you enjoy it >.< And to everyone else enjoying this fic, thank you for the support. Don’t forget to like, comment, reblog, and send in an ask or two, lol
Everyone assumed the two of you were dating. They’d bet money on it if they could, and many did. All they’d be left with, however, would be empty pockets and dismay because you weren’t dating. You hadn’t dated, and you probably never would if you kept your crush on DK a secret. ‘This is so stupid,” you sigh, taking in your appearance in the mirror and giving yourself a look over before exiting the restroom. You’d never gone out of your way to look so proper at a school event, but it was the end-of-year dance. The last chance you had to entice your crush, and you were determined to go through with it.
‘Hey! Crazy seeing you here!’ ‘You look nice, not that you don’t always…look nice,’ you rack possible dialogues through your brain.
‘God, you’re hopeless.’ you roll your eyes, bumping into a prominent figure. You feel two large hands hold you up by your shoulders. “Are you okay?”
You look up, eyebrows furrowed at the annoyance of having the person you bumped into touching you. However, you relax when your eyes meet a pair of familiar brown orbs. “Hello? Did you give yourself a concussion?” the lisp in his voice was unmistakable.
“Sorry, Mingyu,” you sheepishly respond, “I didn’t see you there.”
“Oh, thank god,” he exasperates. “I thought you hit your head too hard you forgot how to talk.”
You giggle. “I’m fine. I promise.” You stare down at your feet in embarrassment as Mingyu moves you aside as not to block the entrance of the dance from incoming traffic. You could feel the crowd's stares as they walked by the two of you. You and Mingyu were friends by association; you’d had multiple classes together, he was a friendly giant by nature, but no one expected the school’s soccer captain to be lightly grazing your arm so casually at the dance.
“Have you seen DK?” you break through the silence, lightly surveying the reception, hoping to get a glace of the aforementioned boy.
“Hm?” Mingyu gets broken out of his thoughts at your question. A small amount of red tint floods his face before he laughs slightly. “DK? He should already be here, according to his Instagram story.” You nod at the sudden information, your heart thrumming faster in your chest as your nerves grow more significant by the second. “Hey,” Mingyu’s voice rumbles next to your ear, causing you to flinch at his proximity. “Jesus,” you glower through gritted teeth. “What?”
Mingyu pulls away and points at the center of the dance floor. “I think I found your prince charming,” he grinned.
“Fuck off, Mingyu,” you speak in a hushed tone. You feel blood pooling in your ears at how Mingyu called DK your prince charming.
“What kind of friend would I be if I don’t help my friend out while they’re crushing on my best friend? Now, pull yourself together and be prepared to move. I’m getting you on that dance floor.”
You blink furiously, trying to take in what Mingyu just told you. “You’re insane” is the last thing you can say as the tall boy drags you into the giant pit of people. You can’t help but grab onto his arm as he parts through the crowd swiftly. You laughed at how his body bobbed with the rhythm of the music playing, and not long after, you nodded your head along while being mindful of your steps as you made your way through the thick crowd of dancing teenagers.
In a matter of minutes, you found yourselves at the center of the dance floor, and you laughed, looking over your shoulder at the entrance where you were standing a mere second ago. ‘Fucking Mingyu, only you could drag me into the middle of a dance floor like it was nothing.’
You were distracted by yelling nearby, and you turned slightly, laughing at a lively group of three aggressively dancing and fist-bumping to the music. And that's when you realize one-third of the boys is none other than Seokmin himself.
He was dancing maniacally, totally immersed in the music. His entire face shone madly- from his eyes to his smile to his skin. Always the carefree, charismatic piece of sunshine he encapsulated. No, he was the sun. So vibrant and warm with anyone; it was hard not to like him as a person. It’s what you liked about him.
“Hey, DK!” Mingyu shouted before you as you stood slightly behind him. DK turned to face his best friend, breaking away from the two other people he was dancing with, smiling with his eyes as wide as can be at the sight of the immense giant Mingyu. “I have a surprise for you.”
‘I have a surprise for you’ was the last thing you caught before Mingyu casually yanked you in front of him. The sudden movement caught you off guard, causing you to trip over your feet, but instead of falling, your fall was broken by two firm arms holding you up.
Your gaze falls upon a pair of worrisome eyes that soon get encapsulated by the most beautiful eye smile you’d ever seen on a human being. Your bodies were only mere inches apart. Nothing but thin air held you apart, and the beating of your heart only grew as DK chuckled, the roar of it transcending his rib cage and traversing through your being as you felt the blood rush up your face pooling in your cheekbones as you smiled at one another.
He helped you up, holding you in place by your elbows, holding your gaze fondly before a mischievous grin took over his face. “ Hi, I’m Seokmin, but you can call me DK,” he states, trying to keep a straight face. You laugh, lightly wiping your tear duct. You didn't know why you produced a tear; if it was because of the embarrassment of almost falling, the anxiety of being so close to your crush, or just the pure joy of it all. “Nice to meet you, DK. I’m Y/N.”
ꕤꕥꕤꕥꕤꕥꕤꕥ
It was the last class of the day, a class you were grateful for because it meant you could go home after the dismissal bell rang. The first day of school was uneventful, to say the least - the only worthwhile thing was the assembly before lunch, designated only for the graduating class. ‘At least I'll be graduating soon,’ you thought. You quickly hurried over to an empty table halfway through the lab with a window seat. You took out your books and a pen, preparing for your first Physics lesson of the year. You sat patiently as the other students filed into the lab, taking their seats and making acquaintances. You casually looked to your right and gave a small smile to the boy who was scooting over to sit in front of you, and he gave you a small smile back.
You were happy with the interaction. At least you knew you had a possible friend in the class. However, a sudden blur in your peripheral vision caught you off guard. “Hi, Y/N!” a cheeky face appears next to yours as they plop down on the seat next to you. “Hi, Mingyu,” you smile back begrudgingly. He was pleased with your response and secretly passed you chocolate before standing up and leaving like he didn’t intrude on your peace. Typical, you sigh. You wondered how your friend even made it to senior year, considering how much he wasn’t present in his classes, let alone how he managed to pass exams you know he didn’t study for. You didn’t have time to save his ass for the rest of the school year by having him mooch off of you, and the thought of him doing so irked your soul.
The sudden sound of the chair behind you scraping against the floor snapped you out of your thoughts as you turned in your seat, facing the body next to you, ready to berate your idiotic friend. “Listen, Mingyu-” the sentence you were about to start finished abruptly as you felt your ears burn in embarrassment.
The boy sitting next to you turned slightly, visibly taken aback by the tone in your voice as he silently took out his notebooks, giving you a slight nod accompanied by a shy smile. You do the same before turning away and facing the window while resting your head on your arm in embarrassment, hoping the world split open and ate you. Way to go, dumbass. So much for first impressions, you scold yourself. There was no way you could face this kid after that, no way in hell.
Oh, but did the universe have other plans because as fate would have it, you felt a light tap on your shoulder. You begrudgingly lift your head and turn to face the boy. “Oh, um, I’m sorry, but could I borrow a pen? I seem to have misplaced mine.” He gave you a sheepish smile, not meeting your gaze. “Sure,” you reply curtly, picking up your book bag and placing it on your lap to fetch a pen. After a few seconds, you produce a pen and lightly tap his shoulder, “here you go.”
You would be lying if you didn’t admit the pure sight of his whole face didn’t make you breathless, as cliche as it was. He was nicely tanned, he had beautiful brown eyes, and the tiny mole on his cheek was everso artistically placed on his face by whom you’d assume did the work of god. You snap out of these unruly thoughts and extend your arm handing over the pen to your new labmate. You weren’t fully aware of the reaction he had caused within you with his visuals, but one thing was sure you felt your heart skip a beat. He gladly took the pen, thanking you repeatedly while giving you the most whole-hearted smile you’d ever seen. It was warm and inviting enough to make you smile in response. “Hi, I’m Seokmin,” he grinned, extending a hand out for you to take, “but you can call me DK.” You gladly take his hand, shaking it lightly “Nice to meet you, DK. I’m Y/N.”
ꕤꕥꕤꕥꕤꕥꕤꕥ
Your school year with DK was far from dull; there wasn’t a day you wouldn’t laugh or smile.
You found yourself eagerly awaiting the day's last class, only to spend it with him. You’d unbeknownst created a little schedule between the two of you: You would collect the worksheets for the day, place DK’s papers on his side of the table, pull out his chair, begin working on the warm-up questions the teacher left on the board for the class to complete, DK would walk through the classroom’s threshold by the time you were answering the third problem, and he would take his seat, pen already in hand as he started working on the warm-ups. “Hi.” he always smiled at you as he powered through the problems. “Hi,” you would smile back, and every time you did, you could feel your heart swell slightly.
You lived to share your time with him in Physics. Whether it be through the proximity between the two of you when you leaned in to help him with an equation he was having trouble with, to playfully taking each other's papers to go over your answers, or the simple days when the teacher didn’t plan much and you simply basked in each other’s company. Those days especially, they were your favorites. Like the Friday you’d finished your word problems on your Kinematics review early, there were 40 minutes until dismissal, and you were bored. DK had fallen asleep using his arms as a cushion. He had a rough tennis practice the day before and needed some rest. You knew you should’ve let him rest, but seeing his vulnerable and exposed hand, you quietly grabbed your marker bag and uncapped a green marker.
Nice and gentle, you told yourself as you carefully pulled his hand closer to you. He’s not going to notice. You egged yourself on as you gently started painting his nails with the marker. You carefully grabbed his digits not to wake him, and a soft smile grew on your face at the thought of being halfway done with your artwork. When you gently lifted his middle finger, you felt your heart give out when he moved. DK lifted his head gently, his eyes struggling to open as he fought off his sleep. But what caught you most off guard was that he chuckled at you. It was the most profound noise you’ve heard come out of his body. It’s just because he’s groggy calm down. You could only stare as he stretched his arms before doing the same with his fingers. “Who told you to stop?” he asked, returning to placing his head on his bicep and closing his eyes while leaving the hand you were painting on for you. You felt your ears buzz slightly before taking a deep breath, picking up the marker, and placing its tip on his nailbed. Shit, you smirked. So much for that.
You also enjoyed working on labs and experiments with him. There was the time you had to work on paper airplanes together, and he ended up poking your eye. You had shrieked so shrilly before bursting into a fit of laughter. You held your eye as you laughed; DK had rushed over to you and held your face as he laughed off his concern. It took the two of you a minute to calm down. He ultimately held your face in his hands. “I’m so sorry,” his voice quivered as he hugged you. You felt a smile find a place on your face as you held onto him, lightly rubbing the side of his torso and being engulfed by his scent.
It was addictive. He was addictive. Addictive in the way that you wished you could be close to him every single day, hug him, feel the way the care and nurture radiated off his very being. Lee Seokmin was intoxicating in the purest form imaginable, and it was moments like these where you thought you wouldn’t mind being like this- with him, forever. It was times like these when you realized you liked him.
It’s just a stupid crush, it’ll go away soon.
But it didn’t. Over the last few months, he’d found a way to nestle in your heart. He’d begun to plague your thoughts outside Physics class. Your interactions were no exception. As of late, you’d find yourself engulfed in numerous back hugs during lunch, you didn’t mind them, and you couldn’t help but notice how right it felt to have his arms around you. Everyone saw how happy you both looked with each other, and they’d always comment on how you looked like a couple. You couldn’t help but shyly lower your gaze whenever someone commented on the topic. “Nah,” he simply replied while soothingly running his thumb across your arm as he held you.
But what if we were a couple?
The thought of actually confessing plagued your mind once the spring semester started. Half the school year had gone by, and you only had a few months to take advantage of before you went your separate ways. With the start of February, Valentine’s Day was slowly approaching. While you never actually looked forward to the holiday, you did make cute cookie bags for your friends. But this time, it was different. You weren’t just making a cookie bag for your friend DK, he was also your crush, and you were determined to confess to him.
You had handed out your bags to your friends, saving the last bag from Mingyu’s clutches and appetite, eagerly waiting to hand them to your lab partner. You had rushed to the lab for no reason but to pep yourself up to the occasion. You couldn’t fathom that you were crushing so hard you would do the most cliche thing in history and confess on Valentine's Day. The most nerve-wracking part was that you chose the easy way out and wrote your confession on a simple note.
I like you. I’ve liked you for a while now. I’m just too shy to tell you.
Like every other day, you picked up your worksheets and sat down. You kept opening and closing the note you wrote to ensure you had written your confession. Then the sudden sound of a chair scraping against the floor made you jump in your seat and drop the note. “Jesus,” you exclaim. “No, just me,” DK playfully points at himself, giving you his warm smile. “I hate you sometimes, you know?” you roll your eyes.
He pursed his lips rolling his eyes at you before leaning down to get something out of his book bag. With his back to you, you quickly searched around your seat for the note to no avail. Great, how convenient, you berated yourself. It’s okay; it’s out of your control. Just give him the cookies. It’s not the end of the world.
“What’s that?” he inquired, pointing at your lap with his pen.
“Oh, I made this for you,” you muttered, handing him the bag of cookies. “Because…we’re friends, and it’s Valentine’s Day.” He stared at the bag, and you could’ve sworn you saw some tears in his eyes. However, whatever traces of tears he had were hidden away by his eye smiles as he smiled at you. “Happy Valentine’s Day.”
ꕤꕥꕤꕥꕤꕥꕤꕥ
You didn’t know why you suddenly thought about your many memories with him. But you would be lying if you didn’t admit you often thought about them whenever you met his gaze. The same gaze that currently cascaded over you like a meteor shower as he held you in the middle of the dance floor.
“Are you okay?” he asked, wiping a stray tear from your face. “Better than ever,” you simper, giving him a genuine smile. He cleared his throat, taking in your evening appearance, and smiled. It made your heart skip a beat. “You look great, not that you never have. I’ve just never seen you look like,” he gestured at your outfit. A slight blush adorned the top of his ears and nose. “You look great, too,” you compliment him. He briefly let go of your shoulders and ran his hand over his nape. “Do you want to dance?”
Of course, you dummy, you quipped mentally, extending your arm to him and taking the lead for once.
You had danced with DK for hours, yet the night seemed timeless. You had let yourself go, relishing in the chaos of your end-of-year dance, and couldn’t have asked for a better dance partner. Your lab partner.
It was a quarter till midnight when you two got off the dance floor. You sat at a table, rolling your neck, when a glass of lemonade invaded your line of sight. “Lemonade,” DK sang as he pulled his chair closer to yours. “Thanks.” You casually sipped the drink, staring at him from your peripheral vision. You smirked louder than you thought you would, given that the object of your attention was now staring at you in curiosity. “What’s so funny? Is it the way I drank my lemonade?” he feigned offense. “No, it has nothing to do with that. But it was a sight no less,” you pester to his dismay. “It’s just funny how a few months ago, I was about to kick you out of your seat before knowing who you were, and now I’m sitting next to you at prom.”
“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” he asked, playing with the rim of his cup.
“It’s a good thing.” You sat up in your chair a bit, scooting over to the edge of your chair. Your thighs grazed each other as you placed your hand on his knee. “There’s a reason I came to the dance tonight. DK I-”
“I like you too.”
Huh? You blink, processing what you just heard. “I’m sorry, what did you say? Like right now, what did you say?” Your heart rattled violently like a caged bird. The heat radiating from your heart as it spread through your body consumed you; it only got worse when you felt DK place his hand over yours as he gently snickered.
“I said I like you too. I’ve liked you for a while.”
Oh god. He liked you. He actually liked you. You felt like you were going to combust. Your heart couldn’t handle the intensity of its movements and how it swelled with DK’s sudden confession. “How did- How do you know I like you? I didn’t even get to tell you,” you muttered.
He dug into the pocket of his pants and handed you a note. Your note. The note you thought you’d lost to fate. “I found this note by my book bag on Valentine’s Day. I thought, no, I knew it was yours. All those months of sharing notes and papers with you paid off” He lightly squeezed your hand under his with a light chuckle. “I started liking you a while after that. But I didn’t know how to approach you about my crush without making you feel weird. So, I just decided to shoot my shot for once if I saw you today.”
You gulped, staring at him as his eyes shone madly…for you. You flipped the note over, and in worn-out penmanship was the confession you’d written all those months ago.
I like you. I’ve liked you for a while now. I’m just too shy to tell you.
However, written under it in a different penmanship- one you knew all too well.
I like you too. ♡
“That’s kind of funny. I decided today would be the last time I’d try to confess my feelings for you after thinking I messed up the first time.”
“But you didn’t.”
“But you didn’t.” you felt your heartbeat start to skip normally as it usually did when you were DK. You hadn’t blown your confession, and he liked you back. You desperately tried to bite back the smile that was forming on your face as happy tears threatened to poke out of your tear ducts.
DK leaned in closer, diminishing the little space between each other, and he placed a light peck on your cheek. You held your cheek as you felt tingles adorning your face. He playfully bit his lip before giving you his signature smile—the smile you loved.
“Boyfriend and girlfriend right now?” he prodded, wiggling his eyebrows. “No,” you laugh. “Boyfriend and girlfriend after prom?” he asked, hoping you’d entertain the idea. “Mmm, how about no,” you laugh as he stands up, taking both your hands in his. “Can you at least give me the honor of dancing the last slow dance with you?” he begged. “Now that, I’ll agree to.”
“Oh, thank goodness,” he sighs, pulling you up as you run towards the dance floor.
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𝟏𝟏𝟏 ; warnings: a bit of heartbreak here n there but it’s mainly fluff, slight cursing but I will avoid using profanities, and basically a lot of teasing (offensive), use of word dead / die and other ways of using the word
𝟏𝟏𝟏 ; pairing(s): nishimura riki x fem. reader
𝟏𝟏𝟏 ; genre: Japanese major Ni-ki and Japanese + Chinese major reader, university au, slice of life? fluff, slight angst, academic rivals to lovers
𝟏𝟏𝟏 ; word count: 11760
𝟏𝟏𝟏 ; synopsis: Nishimura Riki hates Y/N’s guts. Unfortunately for him, the two have almost the same classes and friend groups. He swears he hates her, and she swears she hates him. But why do they keep catching themselves staring at each other for a bit too long? It isn’t love, not really.
𝟏𝟏𝟏 ; author’s note: HIII im back and with a new fic! this one’s for @kflixnet ‘s secret Santa and this is completely dedicated to @bobariki (IM YOUR SECRET SANTA 😻🫶) please enjoy this! We don’t really have conversations but I hope to get to know you :) I’m not really an engene so please excuse me 😭 I really hope you like this 🥹🫶 I’m also not a huge fan of academic rivals 2 lovers so 😭😭
SONG BY ME. DON'T. PLAGIARISE.
————————
“I hate Nishimura Riki.”
“I hate Y/N L/N.”
The two dialogues were spoken at the same time in different places, by none other than Y/N L/N and Nishimura Riki themselves, respectively.
For context, it was results day, but the two hadn’t seen their results yet. To manifest one being better than the other, they uttered that negative affirmation over and over to make sure they would top the class (and the other).
Y/N took a deep breath and walked over to campus, which was near her home, to find the results sheet, which had been pinned about four minutes ago. Please, please let the topper be me. Y/N silently prayed to whoever would listen, making sure to add the ‘please’ twice.
Around this time, Nishimura Riki also walked over there with a deep breath, his hands in his pockets, silently praying.
The two caught each other’s eyes and rolled their eyes. “Ugh, it’s you.” Y/N sighed, and Riki shrugged. “Scared?”
“Not. At. All.”
The two stared at the results sheet, scanning briefly.
“HOW ARE WE IN THE SAME POSITION?” Riki yelled angrily, rubbing his eyes to make sure he hadn’t read the results sheet wrong. “How in the world am I supposed to know, you dimwit?”
“Screw you.”
“No thank you. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll find the teacher to ask why this happened.” Y/N flipped her hair and walked away, and Riki groaned. “Wait for me!”
Riki caught up to Y/N. Still confused, he followed her into the teacher’s office, where Y/N requested for the teacher.
“Hello, Ms. L/N, and Mr. Nishimura. I think you've seen the results?” Without giving either of the two angry students enough time to interrupt, the teacher continued. “The two of you have gotten the same grade. Believe me, all the teachers tried to remove points wherever we could find them, but we gave up. This is generally impossible. But we then thought alphabetical ranking would be.. sad, and unfair, so we gave the two of you a tie.”
“But—“ the two began, but the teacher raised a single finger to silence them. “No. I don’t want a single argument against this. I want to know if the two of you have thought about your university selections? I know for a fact that the two of you have gotten entry to incredibly prestigious universities.”
“Yeah, I have,” Riki began. “I might just join Zephyr University.” Y/N interrupted him, and Riki scowled at her. “No. You can’t. I’m joining Zephyr, and so are the rest of my friends.”
“Oh really? Even the Dreamies are joining Zephyr, so there’s no way I’m backing out.”
“Guess we’ll have to come to a logical agreement then.” Riki said, and grabbed two pencils, quickly sharpening one of them slightly. “I’m sorry, but will you please ask us to choose pencils?”
The teacher sighed, frustrated. “Why are you two like this? Just attend the same university. You can’t seriously be thinking of denying the other a great opportunity. How selfish can the two of you be? I hope you sort things out at Zephyr, because you failed to do so here. And I will definitely stay in touch with the director there, so I will hear about every single thing. And if anything happens, your parents will hear about it.”
The two students gulped, and nodded. “Yes, sir.”
The teacher saw them off, and as soon as Y/N and Riki were out of his sight, they glared at each other. “How dare you, you.. you.. CREATURE?” Y/N shrieked, and Riki flinched. “Your voice doesn’t sound good if it’s high-pitched, Y/N,” Riki rolled his eyes, and Y/N gave him a dirty look.
“Look, Y/N, let’s listen to the teacher, but let’s stay out of each other's ways. Is that a good deal?”
Y/N considered it for a minute, but relented in the end when she realized that it was, in fact, a great deal. “Ugh, fine. But if I ever see your face again..”
Y/N dragged a finger across her own neck horizontally, and Riki fake-shivered. “Ooh, I’m scared! Mommy, come save me!” Riki yelped sarcastically, and Y/N glared at him. Again.
“I feel like that’s your signature look, Y/N.”
Y/N glowered at him yet again.
“So.. is this how you communicate now..?”
Another glare.
“Okay then. Buh-bye.”
—————— /ᐠ - ˕ -マ
“And then, Renjun, listen! No, wait, listen! Don’t walk away! HUANG RENJUN! RIKI LITERALLY LEFT ME IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE! HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THE WAY HOME?”
“..Y/N, you have Google Maps for a reason… you know?”
“..Oh.”
Y/N cringed, as she realized that wasn’t one of her smartest moments. “Anyway, Y/N, you talk about Riki so much. It’s like you’re in love with him.”
Y/N spit out her snack. “Pfft! Me? Love Riki? Yeah, it’s the same as you being in love with me. Never gonna happen. Ever.”
Renjun nodded. “Yeah, totally, definitely.” He scratched the back of his neck and sat down next to Y/N. “The rest of the Dreamies are coming over in another five minutes, apparently Mark’s old car broke down.”
“I don’t get how he got a learner’s permit in the first place. It’s Mark, for crying out loud.”
“Right? I was surprised when I heard that too.” Renjun replied, getting up to search for snacks in his kitchen.
“When is everyone taking the test?” Y/N asked Renjun, who was in his kitchen, loudly, so he could hear her. “Before university starts, I think.”
“Ah. I’ll take it during university.” Y/N said thoughtfully. “Good for you. Meanwhile, I found ingredients for food.”
“Food!” Y/N jumped into the kitchen and saw Renjun cooking some hot pot. Y/N loved stew made by her parents, and this hot pot was the closest thing Renjun could cook, so he made it whenever Y/N came over. If he had the ingredients, he also made suet dumplings, which were also Y/N’s favorite.
As Y/N helped Renjun cook, the rest of their friend group traipsed into the house, walking straight to the kitchen when they smelt the delicious food.
“I smell hot pot!” Zhong Chenle announced his entry, leaning against the entry to the kitchen.
“Yeah, you do, cause we’re cooking it.” Y/N informed him. “Who’s we? The only cooking you’ve done is tasting the broth. I’m the one cooking.” Renjun told her, and Y/N stuck out her tongue at him.
“Hey guys!” Lee Minhyung, better known as Mark, dropped on the couch, and the rest of the guys divided themselves between the kitchen and living room. “How do you feel about your results?” Park Jisung asked the house, and everyone collectively sighed. “As usual, we all did great, but did you see Y/N’s results?” Lee Jeno asked, and Jisung shook his head.
“Well, Y/N? Care to elaborate?” Na Jaemin, who was in the kitchen, raised his eyebrows at Y/N. “No, not really.”
“She’s just pissed off that she tied with Riki for first place,” Lee Haechan laughed from the living room, causing Y/N to march into the living room and punch Haechan. “Ow! That hurts, Y/N!”
“No shit, Sherlock. It was meant to hurt.” Y/N said, and Mark laughed. “Hot pot is ready! Do you guys want to eat in the kitchen or the living room?”
“Living room, it’s more comfortable.” Jaemin said, helping Renjun bring the food and dishes with Chenle. “Anyway, we’re all getting into Zephyr, right?” Jisung asked, and everyone nodded.
“Which reminds me. Can’t believe I forgot to tell you guys, but Riki and his friends are also joining Zephyr.” Y/N told the group, who collectively grinned. “I’m sure everyone’s glad Enha will be with us, but you will definitely not be happy about Riki joining them.”
“Screw you, Haechan. Why are you so annoying?” Y/N asked, and Haechan shrugged. “That’s actually such a good question. But I think it began from home, you know? Like—“
“Haechan, it was a rhetorical question,” Y/N cried, rushing to shut him up. One of the — very occasionally — good things about him was that he could talk about anything, even if he didn’t know the topic that well, for a good five minutes at least. So if you got Haechan talking, it would be quite difficult for you to get him to stop.
But then again, that quality had gotten the group out of a lot of pickles, so it was an advantage at times.
The group chit-chatted and ate the hot pot peacefully, relishing the fact that summer break was about to start. “I am honestly going to get so bored..” Jisung said, and Y/N nodded in agreement.
“Are you guys planning on going anywhere?” Jeno asked everyone. “My mother is asking me to go with her to Shanghai for a vacation. I’m still not sure if I should, but I think it’s worth it.” Chenle mentioned, and Renjun smiled. “I want to visit China too, but I should go with my parents, so I’m not sure how I feel about going alone. My parents are going on a vacation by themselves, as I’m sure I’d have mentioned a million times.”
“You can join me and my mother!” Chenle offered, and Renjun shook his hands and refused. “No, you two should enjoy it. Seriously, go ahead. I’d much rather stay here anyway. With the rest of these fools.”
The rest of the friends watched as the two spoke, eating quietly. “I’m staying here, because my parents are busy at work,” Jaemin said afterwards, and Jeno nodded. “Yeah, same here.”
“I’m staying, I don’t want to go anywhere, quite frankly.” Y/N said, and Haechan and Jisung agreed. “Yeah, I’m just going to rest at home,” Haechan told his friends. “I’m going to Canada for a bit to visit my family.” Mark, who lived alone, told the group.
“Oh, Canada..” Haechan said nostalgically, and Mark laughed and slapped Haechan playfully. “Ah, why?” Haechan yelped, rubbing his shoulder. “Come on, I didn’t hit you THAT hard..” Mark replied, a little concerned. “Uh huh, sure, screw you too.” Haechan answered, and Mark sighed.
The eight hung out for a bit then left to their own houses. Mark dropped off Jaemin, Jeno and Haechan, who lived near each other, then came back to drop off Jisung, Chenle and Y/N, who lived close by each other.
“Bye, Renjun!” The three waved Renjun a goodbye as they got in Mark’s car. Mark dropped off Jisung first, then Chenle. “So, Y/N, how do you feel about the Riki incident?”
“I’m honestly not sure. I don’t like it, that’s all I’m certain of.” She answered, and Mark smiled lightly. “I sincerely wish you luck at university. But we’ll be there to support and help you, so I’m sure you’ll be fine.” He assured Y/N, dragging out the word ‘fine’.
“Thanks, Mark. It means a lot. Off topic, but we’re here. Thanks for the ride, too. Bye!”
Mark waved her off and drove away.
—————— /ᐠ - ˕ -マ
“Hey, Renjun, I’m back.” Mark had decided to stop by Renjun’s place for a bit, albeit impulsively. “Oh, hi. What brings you here?”
“I was just wondering, and mind you, this is just a theory. Should we plan something with Enha? Like, a getaway?”
“That’s.. not a bad idea, Mark. But how? Where? When?”
“We can discuss that with the rest after finalizing the basics of the plan. And also after discussing if we can all afford to travel. Because I was thinking something along the lines of a trip to Europe…”
“WHAT? You have quite high hopes on our money, Mark. Of course we can afford it, but at what cost?”
“Good point. But it’s also a good trip idea. Maybe a bit overrated, but it would definitely be fun.”
“Well, we’ll see. Chenle is going away, and so are you. We’ll discuss it tomorrow. Is that the only reason you visited me?”
“No… I was wondering how you felt about Y/N ranting about Niki. Cause you get quite jealous when that happens, and it happens TOO often.”
“Yeah, well, I can’t exactly do anything about it, so I always deal with it, Mark.” Renjun replied, slightly annoyed. Mark, sensing his boundaries, ended the discussion there and left after a short while.
Argh, I really can’t believe that little shit will be Y/N’s rival at university, too. Renjun thought to himself, shutting the door behind Mark.
—————— /ᐠ - ˕ -マ
“Good morning!”
“Who the hell are you?” Y/N yelled to the unknown voice, grouchy because she was woken up by some fool at… 8 in the morning.
“Ouch, I can’t believe you don’t recognize your best friend’s voice. It’s me, Huang Renjun, you dimwit.”
Y/N hesitated, then jumped out of bed, staring down her window to see her father and Renjun staring back up at her. “Good morning, my lovely daughter. Renjun here wanted to discuss a trip that you had apparently planned and not informed me about, but I approve.”
“Wha—“
“Ah, well, don’t mention it, Y/N. You’re welcome for convincing your father and mother. She left early for work, by the way. Anyway, you coming? We’re meeting at Mark’s place. I’m here to pick you up, too. Such a helpful friend, right?”
“Yeah.. helpful..” Y/N muttered, walking away to have a shower and get dressed, as her father let Renjun in the house to have some breakfast.
“So, Renjun, this trip to Europe, will it be with Y/N as the only girl?”
“Well.. we don’t really have any other girls in our group.. I could ask if Haechan’s younger sister or Jeno’s elder sister would want to join, but I don’t think they will.”
“Ah, I see. I think I’ll feel better if there’s another female in the group, so see what you can do.”
Shit. Renjun cursed mentally, but nodded. “I’ll try my best, sir. Anyways, what’s for breakfast?”
As Renjun wolfed down waffles, Y/N walked downstairs, attempting to brush her hair. “Waffles? Great. Thanks, Dad.”
“You’re welcome, but you should thank your mother. She cooked them and went off, but I’m reheating them for you.”
Y/N grinned and sat next to Renjun, grabbing a plate piled with waffles. As her father walked upstairs to get dressed to leave, she immediately interrogated Renjun.
“What’s this I hear about a trip?” She asked him, looking very angry. “Yeah, uhm, just go with it, okay? We’re going to Europe, but we’re not sure when. But I don’t know if you’re going to come because your dad wants another ‘female’ in the group.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake.”
“I’M SORRY! I know I should’ve spoken to you about the whole thing but I thought it would make a nice surprise.”
“Uh huh..” Y/N trailed off, finding her waffles more important than the conversation that was running.
—————— /ᐠ - ˕ -マ
At Mark’s place, there was chaos.
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN, EUROPE?” Five boys yelled, and Mark covered his ears hastily. “Shut up. This is for your own good. Believe me. We need it. University is actually going to whoop our asses.”
“Yeah, right. More like you want to watch us try and fail miserably at trying to speak French. Oui, oui. I know.”
“Haechan, it’s not always about you and your — quite honestly — unhealthy obsession with French, okay? Let Renjun and Y/N get here, and THEN we’ll talk. Until then, shut up. Thanks.”
Haechan frowned and stormed off to the backyard, in an attempt to cool off — which, by the way, failed miserably as it was summer, so all that did was heat him up even more and force him to get back in the house — as the rest waited for the two to enter.
“I actually like the plan. Even if we all don’t go, I’ll go by myself.” Chenle, the richest, mumbled to himself, and Jisung stared at him repugnantly. “You’re such a traitor..”
“Hey, you guys!” Y/N rushed in, sensing the hostile environment and deciding to act as the diplomat for the day. “Y/N! Thank you!” Mark exhaled, running to thump Renjun on the back. “Hey, Mark. You didn’t have to.” Mark smiled in response, settling down.
“So, Y/N, we’re going to assume you know about the plans of the trip. Wait right here and think about what you’re going to say on the topic while I go get Haechan.” Jeno spoke before he left the room.
“Uhm, okay..” Y/N agreed, slightly confused, and did exactly what Jeno asked her to do.
“Mark, I do NOT have an unhealthy obsession with French.” That dialogue was the way the group realized Haechan was back and still mad. “Yeah, Mark, apologize.” Jeno said, rolling his eyes behind Haechan. “Ugh, fine, Haechan, I offer my sincerest apologies for saying you have an unhealthy obsession with the language of France, known as French or Français. Please accept this apology and forgive me.”
“I don’t think I will.”
“Fuck you. Anyway, Y/N, Renjun convinced your parents, right? What’d they say?”
“They said fine, actually—“ Y/N began, only to be interrupted by Renjun, who had forgotten to tell Y/N what her father had told him. “Oh, Y/N, they said fine, but they want another girl to guarantee your safety.. and other girl stuff.”
The group fell silent. “Oh.” Y/N said.
“So.. I was going to ask if either Jeno’s sister or Haechan’s sister would join..”
“Yeah, no.” The two answered in unison, and Renjun sighed.
“I just had an idea. Why don’t we invite Jungwon and his friends?” Jisung piped up, and everyone looked at him. “Yeah, almost all of them have sisters. And I know Y/N gets along with Konon.” Chenle added.
“What confuses me is how she gets along with Riki’s older sister but can’t stand Riki himself.” Jisung said, and Y/N rolled her eyes. “She’s fun, and she doesn’t want to compete with me. She isn’t competitive, not at all.” Y/N reminisced about her friend, whom she hadn’t met in a while.
“But if we invite them, you do realize Niki will be coming too, right?” Chenle asked her, and Y/N paused. “Oh. My. God.
“Guys, you can go ahead. I not. I can’t. I no go.”
—————— /ᐠ - ˕ -マ
In the end, the group did not go ahead with the plan because someone couldn’t stand going to a beautiful place and seeing Nishimura Riki’s face there.
“You are such a party-pooper, Y/N.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, Haechan, you try hanging out with your nemesis in The City of Love, Paris.” Y/N was mad, and she made sure Haechan understood that. “Oh, please, Y/N. You didn’t even consider it!”
It had been a week since the discussion had been opened — and closed almost instantaneously — and the boys were constantly annoying Y/N about the way she shut down the Europe plan single-handedly with a snap of her fingers.
“I did consider it, and I’m considering it now. I changed my mind! Instead of no, it’s a definite no.”
Haechan grunted and got up, irritated. “Well, I’m sorry, I told you guys to go by yourselves, right? Go.” Y/N called after him. The rest of the guys were involved in the football game they were watching, which explained the ignorance to something they considered deeply important to them — the trip to Europe.
“I think I’ll leave, you guys.” Y/N got up. They were at Chenle’s house, which was a walkable distance away from her place as long as it wasn’t summer. A person could melt in that heat.
“Ah, why?” They paused their game to look at Y/N, complaining all at once about how she didn’t spend time with them because she was always at home alone. “Shut up, you guys. I’m not going away permanently. I’ll walk myself out. Shut the door behind you!”
She walked as fast as she could to get home, and let herself in her house. There were less than 15 days left until university started, and she was concerned about her major. She had chosen economics at first, but then realized her heart wasn’t in it. And also because she hadn’t taken the subject at school either, she had to change her mind, fast.
She was considering Japanese as a major, but wanted to pick another major so she could show off and also keep herself busy. The only other majors she could pick and manage to handle would be English, Chinese, Accounting or Visual Arts. She was not confident of her arts, so she scratched it out. And English as a major would not be fun, which would put her off. Of course, she would easily grab herself an A* grade, but what was the fun in that? No, she needed to struggle.
Chinese it would be, then.
—————— /ᐠ - ˕ -マ
A week until university began, and the Dreamies were hanging out. “Guys, what are you going to major in?” Renjun asked the friends, and Y/N replied immediately. “Chinese and Japanese.”
“Woah, double major! Nice. I’m picking Dance.” Jisung said, and the group wasn’t surprised at all. Jisung was well known for his dance abilities, especially his popping skills. “I’m picking Music.” Haechan said, and Renjun nodded. “I’m also taking Music.” “I’m taking up Fashion Design.” Chenle spoke up. “I’m taking Journalism,” Mark announced, grinning. “You? Journalism? Woah. I’m taking Visual Arts.” Jaemin informed the group, who smiled and turned to Jeno, waiting for his answer.
“Guys, this might come as a surprise to you.. but I picked Veterinary Sciences.”
“Not really a big surprise.” Haechan immediately said, and the group murmured their agreement. “Yeah, sweetie, it was expected, but you’ll be taking the studies of sciences, and we’ll be all students of the arts.” Jaemin said, and Jeno sighed. “Yeah, I know. I’ll be busy most of the time, and I feel so sad about it. But we’ll meet, right?”
“Yeah, duh, you goof!” Mark said. “Who even uses goof anymore?” Chenle asked Mark, who shrugged. “Oh, shut up, Chenle.”
—————— /ᐠ - ˕ -マ
The day before university began, the group met up with their other group of friends, who called themselves Enha. Enha consisted of seven friends — Lee Heeseung, Park Jongseong (better known as Jay), Sim Jaeyun (better known as Jake), Park Sunghoon, Kim Sunoo, Yang Jungwon, and (the Dreamies liked calling him Y/N’s favorite person) Nishimura Riki.
“Hi, you guys! What’s up?” Jake greeted everyone, who were busy grabbing seats at the friend groups’ favorite café. “Nothing, really.” Jay replied on behalf of everyone, who nodded.
“You guys are boring. Why do I even hang out with you?”
“Because you don’t have friends.” Haechan answered, and Jake sighed. “Fair enough. I really hope you guys picked your majors.”
“Course we did. I’m doing Music with Renjun, Chenle is taking Fashion Design, Jaemin is taking Visual Arts, Jeno is taking Veterinary Sciences, Mark is taking Journalism, and Y/N is going to be a double major in Chinese and Japanese.” Haechan answered
“What.” Niki looked up and stared Y/N in the eye. “Wha-?” Y/N asked, too tired to argue. “I’m majoring in Japanese. How could you major in it too?”
That was when things went nuclear.
“Not everything revolves around you, you fool. I took Japanese because I wanted to master it and show it off to people, because I will put in effort. Did you expect me to read your mind? Huh? Like, ‘Oh! Riki is taking Japanese! I will sacrifice my passion for him!’ Why did you take Japanese, anyway? You speak it incredibly fluently. I would say you speak it a bit too fluently.”
“Hey! I didn’t expect you to read my mind. I thought it’d be obvious. Yes, it’s my native tongue, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to learn its culture and history. I love history, and you should know that. Because that’s the one subject I manage to keep defeating you in. And don’t you ever call me a fool. I never asked you to forfeit your passion. I wouldn’t have taken Japanese if I knew that’s your passion. As far as I’m aware, you never mentioned Japanese even once.”
The group, meanwhile, was watching the conversation play out like table tennis, their heads whipping from one side to another.
“Ah, culture and history. You? Learning culture? I would never believe that, even if the Presidents themselves declared it to the world. And, for your information, I don’t share all the information I have about me with people I consider my rivals. That’s literally rule number one in Not Being Foolish. Of course, you wouldn’t understand, because you are a huge fool. Did you hear me? F. O. O. L.”
“That’s it. I’m leaving. Do you not realize that learning your culture is a thing? You know what? I’m breaking Clause 1 of our rule book. Fuck. You.”
“How dare you? I’m breaking it too. Fuck you.”
The two stormed out of the café, only to realize they were headed in the same direction. Neither party wanted to concede, so they ended up staring in opposite directions while standing outside. The group of friends, meanwhile, were happily sipping their drinks and eating, being used to such arguments. In their experience, they’d either never make up or make up after ages. Till then, they would enjoy their time and keep them away from each other.
After their café outing, the two enemies were still standing outside the café, much to the annoyance of the owner of the place, who was constantly seen trying to be the diplomat for the two and failing miserably each time. The rest of their friends walked out, and they rejoined their respective friend groups, waving goodbye to the others and glaring at each other angrily. They then proceeded to storm off as fast as possible into the cars of the drivers of the friend groups.
“I can’t believe I have to see his face in almost all my classes.”
“I can’t believe I have to see her face in almost all my classes.”
—————— /ᐠ - ˕ -マ
“Good morning, class! We’ll be starting our Japanese Studies class tomorrow. For now, I want to test your level of Japanese. People who don’t speak it fluently but want to learn only the history, this class is not for you. The Japanese Culture and History class begins at 12 noon. Those who speak Japanese at a beginner or intermediate level, yes, this class might be the one you’ve taken, but I hope you’ve also opted to get Japanese tutoring with me after school. For those of you who have, the tutoring is on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, between 6-7 PM. You may stay back or leave and return, but please make sure to attend. For those of you who speak at an advanced level, I’m glad! You don’t have extra classes to attend.
“Welcome, all my students! I hope you are ready to learn more about Japanese, a beautiful language and culture. I will be your teacher for Japanese Studies and Japanese Culture and History. Japanese Studies is the literature and language part of Japanese offered at Zephyr University, and if you speak Japanese fluently, and want to master it almost completely, you’re in the right place. I’m your professor, and we will have a quick quiz to try and figure out your level of Japanese understanding. This will be a written test that involves listening, reading and writing skills. I don’t want to test your speaking skills at the moment, since even the most confident Japanese writers have trouble with speaking the language. If you’re ready, I’ll give out the test papers.”
It was a vaguely sunny Monday morning, and the day had barely begun. But it was already going bad for two people, called Y/N L/N and Nishimura Riki, who considered each other their enemies, but had ended up sitting next to each other. When the two realized that they would have to spend the rest of their degree next to each other, they bowed politely and shuffled as far to the edge of the shared seat as they could. They shook hands and agreed not to bother each other unless it was for coursework, and clamped their mouths shut.
The two wrote and passed the test with flying colors, and were pronounced ‘Japanese speakers whom I need to befriend’ by the professor, who looked too proud to be real. The students thanked the professor and smiled at each other as fakely as possible to pass as a smile to the professor’s keen eyes, and sat yet again on the edge of the shared seat.
After class, the professor stopped the two at the door. “I hope to see you two interact more often, and I hope to interact with you two too. I’m glad to have such students in my class. The other advanced learners will not be paired with you two for group projects. I’ll probably have the intermediate learners be with you, so that they learn something. I hope you enjoyed my class!”
The two enemies attempted to formulate a response that would be appropriate, half-succeeded, and ran away from each other like their lives depended on it.
—————— /ᐠ - ˕ -マ
“Bro, I swear, Renjun, I might just slap Niki if I get compared to him in class.”
“But Y/N, the professor is the one comparing you.”
“Yeah, well, the professor is sweet. Niki? Not so much. After seeing our performance in his Culture and History class, the professor decided he would ask both of us to dinner with some of his senior students.”
Renjun winced. “Sheesh, getting invited to dinner really takes a lot out of you, right? Especially if it’s an opportunity to create contacts with people who might be useful to you later.”
“Huh. You’re right. When did I become like this? I would’ve jumped at an opportunity to get contacts. Is this what enemies do to you?”
“Maybe. Now, can I please go pee?”
“I’m so sorry. Please go.”
It was lunchtime, and Renjun had gone to Y/N’s class to pick her up and drop her off at the cafeteria, then go to the bathroom. But Y/N had other plans, so he had ended up listening to her rant about Nishimura Riki for about six minutes until he could actually go pee. ‘The things I do for someone I like..’ he thought to himself, running away from Y/N.
Meanwhile, the Dreamies were waiting for the two best friends in the cafeteria, having reserved a table next to none other than Enha, unfortunately for Y/N.
“Where the heck are they?” Mark asked, getting impatient. Renjun had forced the Dreamies to sit and not grab their lunch till the two of them got there. Y/N was taking her own sweet time to walk, deep in thought, while Renjun had run to the other side of campus because all bathrooms in their side were undergoing maintenance checks.
After five minutes of impatient foot-tapping, Renjun arrived, and much to his shock, Y/N hadn’t arrived. “Did Y/N really not show up?”
“Yeah, she did! She’s right here, sitting next to Karen, my daughter.” Haechan said sarcastically, not forgetting to add a bunch of curse words under his breath. “If you’ll excuse me, Renjun, I will go eat.” Jaemin said, who was pissed off because of how his classes went. The table followed, leaving Renjun to call Y/N repeatedly, who had just made it outside the cafeteria door.
“Where were you?” Renjun asked her when she finally sat, and she sighed. “Sorry, I was daydreaming.” “Which is an acceptable excuse any other time, but after making me wait to pee and making the table wait to eat, it isn’t even remotely okay.”
“I’m sorry, I swear. I’ll go get my food.” Y/N got up to join the long queue, leaving Renjun to save the table for themselves and go hungry.
‘The things I do for someone I like..’
—————— /ᐠ - ˕ -マ
Before they knew it, a week had flown by, and it had been a hectic week indeed. The first years had clubs to join, parties to throw, exams and quizzes and tests to pass, assignments to hand in, sleep to get, food to eat, fun to have, friends to make, but no time. The first ever party had already been thrown, but being the academic overachievers they were, Y/N and Niki had stayed back, leaving their friends to tell them each and every detail of the party.
“I don’t drink alcohol, ever.” Niki shrugged when his friends came back, and they sighed, “This wasn’t an alcohol party. We don’t do underage drinking. It’s not cool.”
“Oh. Well. Um. I had to study, we have a test coming up—“
“Save the lies, we had a bunch of Japanese majors in the party. And before you mention Sociology, we had Sociology takers too. You don’t take any other classes, so you find yourself in a sticky position right about.. now.” Jungwon told Niki, settling down on Niki’s bed. “Ugh, I hate you guys sometimes.”
“The feeling’s mutual, sometimes.” Sunghoon assured him, taking a seat next to Jungwon, on the bed.
“How was the party?” Niki asked, choosing to ignore the statement. “It was fun, but I saw the Dreamies without Y/N. I think you both are perfect for each other.” Sunoo commented casually, attempting to make his hair sit flat. “Yeah, no, don’t ever say that again.” Niki replied, a bit annoyed.
“Okay then. Anyway, I’m going to go, I need my sleep.” Sunoo said, leaving after waving everyone goodbye. One by one, everyone left Niki’s room, leaving him alone.
He scrunched his eyebrows, running a hand through his hair.
“Shit, are we perfect for each other?”
—————— /ᐠ - ˕ -マ
A similar showdown went on in Y/N’s room, where the boys had gone after the party. After assuring Y/N that they had never consumed alcohol, ever, they proceeded to tell Y/N that Niki hadn’t been at the party either. Haechan made the grave mistake of stating that Y/N and Niki were perfect for each other.
“Bye, Haechan. I hope you lose your way home and step on a Lego.”
“I’m just pointing out what’s obvious.” Haechan shrugged, leaving the room without another word after seeing the look on Y/N’s face. Eventually everyone left, and Y/N sighed.
“We can’t be perfect for each other, right? Shit, are we?”
—————— /ᐠ - ˕ -マ
After that conversation with their friends, the two enemies went from enemies to just plain awkward. Their friends’ words repeated in their heads like a mantra, and took up a fair amount of space in their minds.
Another person who was haunted by the sentence was Renjun, who couldn’t shake the feeling that something would happen that would cause him to be forced to not like Y/N anymore.
In almost no time, midterms season began, and the two friend groups, Enha and the Dreamies immediately dispersed to study on their own. They had tried the method of group study, but declared it useless when they got their eleventh grade midterm results. The groups had decided to never speak of that day ever again.
Exams were hectic, but what was more stressful for Y/N and Niki was that one sentence said by two people but with the exact same words. Coincidence? They thought NOT.
The only time they properly spoke was when the midterms results came out. “Congratulations, Y/N.” Niki said, attempting to shake her hand but changing his mind halfway, using his stretched hand to rub his head instead. “Thank you, Riki.” Y/N replied, equally awkward. Their friends watched the little exchange, incredibly confused. Where were the backhanded insults?
They decided to investigate by themselves. Enha recounted their conversations with Niki, and the Dreamies recalled conversations with Y/N, trying to find anything weird. Eventually, the conversation came to the night of the party. They spoke about the sentence, and realized they had messed up big time.
“Woah, Sunoo, we’re a match made in heaven!” Haechan exclaimed, and Sunoo shuddered. “No offense, but I really don’t —“
“Oh, let me have my moment.”
They discussed the problem and concluded that they’d just have to wait it out.
—————— /ᐠ - ˕ -マ
How long would they remain waiting, though? It was really getting rather boring. How could one sentence affect two enemies so deeply? Unless..
No, they couldn’t possibly be developing feelings for each other.
No.
Those were the thoughts in Renjun’s head, as he walked to pick up Y/N from class as usual. “Y/N, are you sure you still hate Niki? I haven’t heard you rant about him in months..”
“Of course I don’t like him. Anyway, what’s for lunch?”
Renjun didn’t miss the not-so-subtle conversation change, but didn’t comment for his own mental stability. If his long-time crush was crushing on her long-time enemy, he would rather die than know. “Ah, I think they have hotpot. But you know we shouldn’t risk it. What if it’s bad?”
“What if it’s good? I think taking risks is good. We didn’t have it last time but everyone loved it. Besides, it’s made by the Chinese Culture students, and I’m one of them. Don’t worry. And yeah, yeah, I haven’t tasted it.”
“Ah, fine. Just for you.” Renjun offhandedly commented, but didn’t realize the full extent of what he’d said until a few seconds later. But Y/N had already moved on, and his heart broke, just a little bit.
—————— /ᐠ - ˕ -マ
It was the time of the year when the students would be assigned groups for their group projects that counted toward 40 percent of their grades, and Y/N had two groups to balance out. Unfortunately, as she had anticipated but hoped against, the person she was most awkward around, Nishimura Riki, was in her group for her Japanese project.
“So, what do you guys think we should do for the project? The professor has given us full freedom as long as we have a presentation.” Y/N gulped her personal life and put on her professional behavior. She never mixed work with personal stuff.
Their group consisted of Y/N, Riki, and two intermediate students: Kim Chaewon and Han Jisung.
“I feel like we can do a presentation on the fashion industry through the years!” Chaewon offered, and Han shrugged. “I’m fine with that topic, but I’ll have you know that I can’t speak on it. So I’m not going to present the topic, but I’m open to do the rest of the work.”
“That’s fine, Han. Riki, do you think the topic is fine?”
“Yes, I think it is.” Riki replied shortly, and the group sighed, relieved. “Well, we have the difficult part out of the way. So we’ll meet tomorrow and discuss the workload. We have a month, right? We can do this.” Y/N, the natural leader, said, and Han saluted her. “Okay. We have dance practice at our club, so we’ll take our leave, thank you!” Chaewon indicated herself and Han, and the two rushed out, as they were running late.
Which left the awkward pair together.
“So.. Y/N, do you have any ideas for the presentation? I’m bad at fashion, but I can try researching.”
“Actually.. I’m crap at fashion, too. But Chaewon is well known for her designs. She’s a fashion design major! But she minors in Japanese. Chenle was telling me she’s their professor’s favorite. So we’ll count on her for the design part. We can figure out the theme of the PowerPoint, and the history part. We can give the PowerPoint making part to Han, because he’s a tech whiz. We can research the history and pop-culture behind trends, and the backstory of the designs!”
Niki smiled at Y/N’s enthusiasm, causing Y/N to ask him what was up. “Nothing, seeing you enthusiastic makes me laugh.” Niki shrugged, opening up his laptop to start researching. What he saw out of the corner of his eyes was Y/N reddening slightly, and that made Niki grin to himself.
The start of things.
—————— /ᐠ - ˕ -マ
“How did you find the group for your group project? Ours is incredible!” Renjun said, happy that he and Haechan were in the same group with other intellectual students.
“Yeah, I’m happy. Me, Niki, Chaewon and Han Jisung are in a group together!” Y/N said, smiling at Renjun.
“Wait. Hold on. Happy and Niki in one sentence? Did something happen?” “No, but Niki isn’t half bad when he isn’t being mean, you know?”
Renjun’s heart broke a bit yet again, but he didn’t say anything.
—————— /ᐠ - ˕ -マ
“So, hi guys. Han, we sent you a bit of research. Were you able to format it and add it to the presentation?”
“Yeah. I shared you guys the link, just check your mail. And I also added Chaewon’s sketches, so look over it. And who’s presenting?”
“Mostly Chaewon.”
“I’m happy.” The fashion major smiled, and got back to her sketches. “Anyway, this is a bit of a modern take on a kimono that a popular fashion designer created. I've texted you the designer’s details, Han. Just scan this sketch and add the details to the PPT, would you?”
“Yeah, sure, Chaewon. Y/N?”
Y/N, realizing she was caught, blinked herself back to reality. She had been staring at Niki, wondering why something had changed. She couldn’t put a finger on what had changed exactly, but she knew something was up with herself.
“What’s up, Han?”
“Could you just look up this guy’s Wikipedia page? Chaewon says they’re really popular, so I think we should add a slide for the person.”
“Okay, done. You got it.”
“Niki?”
Niki, also realizing he was caught, looked at Han. He had also been wondering what had changed between him and Y/N’s enmity “Yeah, Han?”
“Could you please help out Y/N? I need to finish this slide and get to class.”
“Right, okay.” Niki walked over to Y/N, grabbing a chair and sitting next to Y/N. “What do you need help with?” “Nothing, really. Just help me cut out unwanted information.”
And the group sat to work with each other, proving to be an excellent team. They knew who the professor’s favorites would be, starting next year.
Chaewon and Han ran off to their classes, leaving Niki and Y/N to continue their research. Since their schedules differed, Chaewon and Han worked whenever they could, and Y/N and Niki worked together whenever they could.
“Niki, I don’t mean to make things awkward, but don’t you get the feeling we’ve changed?” “Yeah, well, people change, Y/N—“
“You know as well as I do that that’s not what I meant.”
“Right.” Niki paused for a bit, and Y/N spun to look at him.
“Do you think it’s more awkward than it used to be between us?” Niki asked, and Y/N sighed. “Yeah, and we aren’t even enemies anymore. I would go as far as to say we’re.. friends?”
“Huh. Strange. I agree that it’s awkward, by the way. It’s just, Sunoo said something that spooked me.” “Funny. Haechan said something that creeped me out too.”
“Wait..”
“Sunoo said that we’re meant for each other, didn’t he.”
“Holy shit.” Niki’s eyes widened, and he immediately turned back to his laptop, leaving Y/N to contemplate her life, yet again.
—————— /ᐠ - ˕ -マ
“Sunoo, why would you say that?”
Y/N had decided to personally pay a visit to Sunoo, who was extremely lost. “Ah, Y/N, unfortunately I say a lot of things, so unless you get specific..”
“About me and Niki being perfect for each other.”
“Ah.”
Sunoo quietly walked away, making Y/N run after him indignantly. “Oi! Just answer!”
“Obviously because you are perfect for each other. In fact, I’d be willing to bet you that Haechan is being harassed by Niki for the same reason that you’re harassing me about.”
“… I’ll call Haechan and ask him.”
Y/N obediently dialed Haechan, who picked up after some time. “Y/N, save me! Niki is running after me for God knows what!”
Y/N sighed and disconnected the call. “Fine, you win. But I don’t like him.”
“Yeah, you don’t.” Sunoo agreed, walking away. “Yet.”
Meanwhile, Haechan was hazardously running around campus while Niki chased him, shouting, “Get back here, Haechan! We need to talk!”
Eventually, the two boys were exhausted and so they stopped by a tree.
“Haechan, why’d you..” Niki half-heartedly laid on the grass, catching his breath.
“Why’d.. what..” Haechan asked, equally exhausted. “Why’d you tell Y/N..”
“What..?”
“That we’re perfect,”
“Ah.” Haechan sighed, sitting down next to Niki. “Look, you both have similar personalities and behavior. The two of you are smart, share the same friend groups and even majors, although Y/N is a double major. I’m sure teachers ship you privately, too. Not that it’s their business, but then again, most teachers make it their business to pair people who are beneficial to each other.” Haechan took a deep breath, tired.
“I see. But I wish you hadn’t. We’re awkward now. In fact, the only reason I confronted you is because we brought this up yesterday. It’s sort of a good thing, since we aren’t exactly enemies anymore, but we don’t exactly feel too comfortable around each other. But we see each other as friends, for the moment.”
“.. did you say for the moment? NIKI, DO YOU HAVE A CRUSH ON—“
“SHUT UP, HAECHAN!”
Things are in motion.
—————— /ᐠ - ˕ -マ
“Renjun, and Haechan, how’s your group project?” Y/N asked Renjun at the cafeteria table with the Dreamies. Haechan chose not to speak, instead stuffing his mouth full of rice cakes, leaving Renjun to answer. “Yes, it’s going great. I’m happy with our progress.”
“That’s great! Chenle, I heard from Chaewon that your group is doing amazing so far because that person dropped out. Do you find it fun?”
“Yes! Very much so. That person was annoying us. Thank God the professor realized it and kicked them off our group. Which reminds me. Jaemin, are you glad you’re working solo?”
“Yeah. Listening to my friends’ stories, I can’t help thinking my team projects can wait till second year. But Jeno is the luckiest. They don’t even have a group project in Year 1!”
“Yeah, we don’t. But then again, our major is difficult so.. we need balance.” Jeno said, pretending to levitate. The group laughed at him.
“Mark, how’s Journalism?”
“Eh.. I don’t know. I think I’ll switch majors. You guys remember when I used to compose songs, right?”
“OH, MY GOD! YES! PLEASE JOIN US!” Haechan swallowed his food instantly and clapped his hands together. Renjun nodded aggressively, and Mark grinned. “It’s decided then. I’m switching majors!”
The table cheered, making the cafeteria turn their heads. When they saw that it was the Dreamies, they went back to their food.
—————— /ᐠ - ˕ -マ
“Niki, Chaewon and Han won’t be joining us today. They have dance practice for two hours, so I asked them to give themselves a rest. We’re almost done, anyway.”
“Ah, that’s fine. I honestly wish we didn’t have to end this project. Working with you guys is so fun.” Niki replied to Y/N. The two were sitting together and researching for their concluding slide and speech, because ‘Two minds are better than one!’.
“Aww. I had fun working with you too.” Y/N replied, smiling at him. Riki hastily looked away, so that Y/N didn’t see him blush. ‘When did I start getting this way?’ He wondered silently. “Thanks!” He said out loud.
“You’re welcome!” Y/N grinned again, and looked back at her computer screen. ‘Jeez, he looks good today.’
“Um, Y/N, can I tell you something then leave? You don’t have to comment. You can just forget it.”
“Sure, go ahead. But now I’m scared. Do you have a grim secret that no one knows about?”
“Grim, yes, no one knows, no. Um. I… kind of like you?”
Niki got up robotically and walked out of the room.
“I like you too!” Y/N called after him, not realizing that he hadn’t meant it in a platonic way.
—————— /ᐠ - ˕ -マ LET’S REWIND!
. . . . . 🛁 [6th Grade]
“First place, Y/N L/N!” The host yelled into the mic, as Y/N walked up to the stage to collect her award. ‘Woah, she looks so pretty!’ Nishimura Riki thought to himself, watching his crush walk on stage. “Second place, Nishimura Riki!” The host called, and Riki walked on stage too, taking a place next to Y/N. “Ugh, did you cheat?” He asked her, rolling his eyes dramatically.
“No, I could ask you the same, though. Second place? Really?” She rolled her eyes back at him.
“Okay, hush now, kids.” The host smiled kindly at the two nemeses, remembering her own time at school.
. . . . . 🛁 [9th Grade]
“Did you really kiss that idiot?” Niki confronted Y/N after school. “Come on, it was just a dare. Why do you care anyway?”
“I don’t.” Niki said out loud, but his heart screamed at him to tell her everything. ‘Yeah, I do care, because I’ve crushed on you for the past three years of my life!’
“This is a waste of my time.” Y/N walked away, leaving Niki alone with his feelings.
. . . . . 🛁 [10th Grade]
The snow was falling, and it was the first snow of the year. Niki was with his enemy by day, crush by night, Y/N.
“Y/N, I have something to tell you.”
“What is it?”
“I.. like you. A lot.”
“Aww! Niki, I like you too! In fact, let’s get married right now.”
Niki woke up, and smiled to himself. ‘You fool, if you don’t watch out, you’ll be in love with her and you won’t differentiate dreams versus reality.’
. . . . . 🛁 [11th Grade]
“Y/N, will you please keep quiet? You have done nothing but annoy me the whole class. You are an insufferable know-it-all.”
The teacher was one who was hated by the whole school, including the teachers. But the principal had no choice but to keep him in school, since he was on contract.
Y/N was being unfairly yelled at, but no one had the courage to help her out. Y/N had tears in her eyes that she was trying to desperately blink to eternal hell, but she was still being scolded.
“Sir, how can you yell at her for your mistakes? She isn’t your assistant. It was your duty to correct and grade our papers. Just because you forgot to do it doesn’t mean you take your anger out on innocent students.” Niki stood up, really annoyed.
Thanks to Niki, the whole class rose against the teacher, and he was put on unpaid leave.
“Thanks, Nishimura. I owe you one.” Y/N said after the issue.
They went back to being enemies.
She still owed him one.
—————— /ᐠ - ˕ -マ BACK 2 THE PRESENT!
“NIKI! Wait up!” Y/N had realized quite quickly that the statement was not platonic. However, Sir Nishimura The Bashful had made a run for it, and Y/N was on scouting mode.
“Niki! Wait.” After a bit of running, she found Niki about to run into the male toilets.
“What? You said I could make a run for it.”
“Look.. I don’t like you in that way. I’m not sure if I will. But things are changing between us. And.. I think I like the change. We’re friends, right? Right now, that’s all we’re going to be. I don’t want to give you even an inkling of hope. Because anything could happen. I’m sorry, Niki. If it’s too awkward, we’ll not hang out anymore. Let’s just finish the project.”
Niki smiled softly. “Y/N, relax. I will like you. My feelings will probably not change. And I’m sorry for being so mean all these years. It wasn’t good. It was toxic. I was trying to mask my feelings and ended up being mean. There’s absolutely no pressure on you. And why would there be? You don’t like me, it’s the end of the story. If you ever do, just know I’m right here. And I’m fine being friends. But I know you’ll find it awkward. So if you ever do, talk about it. Now, I will hide away in the bathrooms. Please do not find me. Thank you.”
Y/N watched as her sworn enemy-turned-liked melted away into the bathrooms, and sighed as she walked away, heart heavy, feeling dejected.
What she didn’t know was that Renjun had seen it all happen. And what she didn’t know was that Renjun’s heart was chipping away bit by bit.
—————— /ᐠ - ˕ -マ
“Ugh, I just wanna travel somewhere.” Y/N told Renjun, who had been uncharacteristically silent the whole day. It had been two days since the confession, and Niki and Y/N were just projectmates at the moment. “I want to too, but you know we’re busy. Just two more days, then we leave for break, and then we immediately have our exams. Time’s flying.”
“Right, I forgot about the break and exams. Is this the effect of university? Don’t answer that. How’s your project presentation? Is it done?”
“Yeah, it is. Knowing you and Riki, yours should be done too.”
“Yeah! Chaewon is presenting, so I don’t have to worry much. I’m helping Han present, and Nishimura will be helping Chaewon. So I’m just going to relax for now, and the Chinese project is super easy. I picked food culture, which is incredibly easy. My team is presenting tomorrow for Chinese, and Japanese is on the last day.”
“Great.” Renjun replied shortly. Y/N was left confused.
“Renjun, are you fine?”
“Great.” Renjun attempted a smile, which wobbled slightly.
“If you don’t wanna talk, fine. I’ll go.”
‘Don’t go.. I’m sorry.’
Was what Renjun wanted to say. Instead, he said, “Fine, I guess.”
—————— /ᐠ - ˕ -マ
Renjun was just a bit broken. But he would be fine, as always. He was used to the complete cold behavior that Y/N showed sometimes. She wasn’t often sentimental with him, and it seemed like she lacked emotions sometimes.
Renjun liked following his routine. He would wake up, brush his teeth, take a shower, get dressed, go downstairs, read the newspaper while he ate, remind himself not to think about Y/N, think about Y/N, shake his head and revise the previous day’s lessons, then leave. University wasn’t a clear-cut routine, so he went with the flow. The one thing that was routine was him picking Y/N up for lunch.
It was obvious that Nishimura Riki hated him, because Riki had already picked Y/N up for lunch.
‘He’s competition, alright.’
Renjun had to resort to walking with Haechan, who could be chatty sometimes (read: always). “How are things with Y/N?”
Renjun gasped as if he’d been electrocuted, clutching his heart. “How do you know? Only Mark knew!”
“What? I meant your friendship. Wait, what the fuck?”
“Haechan, do me a favor. Drop me in the ground. I’ll dig a hole for you. Please. All you have to do is watch me crawl then bury me.”
—————— /ᐠ - ˕ -マ
While Renjun was confessing to Haechan about his true feelings for Y/N, Niki was having fun with Y/N, annoying her so she would tell him her bias in Weak Boy Scouts, the world’s most popular boy band.
“Why are you asking?”
“Because I want to get to know you better. I’m kidding, I need blackmail material.”
“Ugh, screw you. My bias is T.”
“Woah. Mine’s G-sad. He’s an amazing dancer.”
“Yeah, that reminds me. Why didn’t you major in dance? You have a talent, and you’re passionate about it.”
“Well.. Japanese is my mother tongue, and I wanted to respect it. Besides, you were taking it too, so..”
“Wait, you gave up your passion so you could be in the same class as me?”
“No! That was just a bonus. Besides, I do dance. In classes. I work a part-time job at a dance studio, you know.”
“I did not know.”
“… The more you know?”
Y/N enjoyed getting to know Niki, because she was curious. After all these years of being enemies, she hadn’t realized that she and Niki really were eerily similar. Niki loved hotpot too, and Y/N promised to take him to the best hotpot restaurant in their town.
“Well, that was fun. But we have class now, so I’ll leave. You have Chinese next, right? Enjoy.” Niki smiled and waved, picking up his bag and leaving.
Y/N stared after him, wondering why and how everything had changed so drastically.
—————— /ᐠ - ˕ -マ
“Renjun, you’ve been avoiding me all these days.”
The Dreamies were having dinner together, since it was break and they hadn’t hung out in three days. The others took the dialogue as a cue to leave, and Renjun looked at Haechan and Mark pleadingly. They shrugged as if to say ‘You’re on your own, buddy,’ and left with the boys, crossing their fingers behind their backs.
“Nah, not really. You have been busy. With your new best friend, Riki.”
“Well, I’m allowed to have other friends. He’s not my best friend. You are, and you always will be.”
‘Ouch,’ Renjun thought. “Friend? He has a crush on you. Or maybe he’s in love with you. Friend? I think not.”
“Well, guess what? You’re wrong, Renjun. Friend. He’s a friend. I don’t know how you know about his crush on me, but we agreed to stay friends.”
“Ah, yeah right. You can’t be friends with your crush. Believe me, I’d know.”
And know he did. Even now, he had the urge to apologize over and over for instigating the argument. He never could stand when he argued with Y/N. But he had to stand his ground this time. He didn’t want to let go of what could possibly be his first love.
“You know what? I don’t want to have this conversation with you. I’m leaving. Don’t talk to me.”
“Y/N..” Renjun called after her, but she’d already left.
She’d left with a big chunk of his heart. What else could she possibly take?
—————— /ᐠ - ˕ -マ
Over time, Y/N and Renjun grew more distant, much to their dismay. They tried meeting, but it had become too awkward. And also over time, Niki and Y/N had grown closer, much to Renjun’s discomfort. He knew he was almost totally to blame, but a small part of him pined for Y/N and the fun they used to have.
‘No, Renjun. It’s time to move on,’ he shook himself, looking in the mirror, attempting to smolder.
‘Yeah, no, you’re in deep shit.’
On the other hand, Y/N did think about Renjun. But in a pissed off way, not in an emotional way. She discussed her problem with Niki, who suggested reaching out to him to discuss the problem.
‘How the hell did it come to this? Me, asking Nishimura Riki, for help?’ She mentally slapped herself, looking at Niki as he explained to her.
“So, you should ask him to talk and discuss your little argument. How is he jealous of you spending time with Chaewon?”
Y/N hadn’t been completely honest, but what option did she have?
“Anyway, my point is that you should reach out to him first. He’s probably trying to do the same but doesn’t have the guts. So show him who’s more courageous. It’s a power move, for sure.”
Y/N sighed at the prospect of confronting Renjun. She wished it was easy, but it wasn’t. “Thanks, Niki. I appreciate it.”
She immediately shot a text to Renjun, who was debating whether to reply immediately or save his ego.
“Yeah, he said he’ll meet me after his classes.”
—————— /ᐠ - ˕ -マ
“Y/N, look. I’m sorry. I’m an idiot. Of course you can hang out with Niki. It’s your life. I'm nobody. Enjoy. And this isn’t sarcastic or bitter or anything negative. I’m being honest. I didn’t take the first step this time, but I’m sorry for that.”
“I’m sorry too, Renjun. I know that you meant the best for me. But I trust that Niki will respect me and my boundaries if he likes me that much. So don’t worry, and we’ll hang out more often. I could never forget you at all. You’re my best friend, and have been since the fifth grade.”
And so they made up, no matter how bad the apologies were or how bad the argument had been.
Things will never be the same.
—————— /ᐠ - ˕ -マ
Time flew, and it was finals season. Students everywhere were falling ill due to the stress, and the university’s nurse’s office was overwhelmed by the number of students complaining of a variety of illnesses. “Jeez, you would think we’re the only doctors in the city.” The nurse complained to Y/N, who had accompanied Niki to the nurse because he was feeling feverish.
“Yeah, you’re running a fever, kid. A high one, at that. A whopping 103 degrees. What have you been doing?”
“Studying..” Niki replied hoarsely, and the doctor sighed. “Stay in the office, I’ll get the nurse to arrange a bed for you. I’ll give you medicines in a few minutes, there are students I have to treat. I swear, kids these days..”
The doctor trailed off, wiping her forehead as she greeted a horde of students.
“Ah, Niki, why do you do this to yourself?” Y/N sighed, staring at Niki.
“Your phone’s ringing,” Niki ignored her, looking at her phone. “Yeah, I’ll pick it up.”
“Hello?”
“Hey, it’s Renjun. You busy?”
“Kind of. What’s up?”
“I needed a favor, I’m feeling slightly cold, do you mind dropping in? My parents aren’t in town, and I needed someone’s opinion.”
“I’m sorry, I can’t.. Can you get someone else to come?”
“… You were my first contact, but sure. Thanks a lot, Y/N.”
Y/N sighed, shutting her phone off. “Who was it?”
“No one, Niki, just rest.”
—————— /ᐠ - ˕ -マ
“This kid has a fever of 104 degrees, what’s happening to kids? I swear.”
Y/N looked up from her phone to see Renjun being rushed into the doctor’s office by Mark and Jisung. “He’d collapsed, but he said something about calling you before he fell?” Mark asked, bewildered.
‘What the fuck?’ Y/N was in shock, but she masked it. “He had called me, but I was with Niki.. so..”
“Where are his friends? I thought you and Renjun were best friends—“
“Hey, just because we’re best friends doesn’t mean there are other people that I can just ditch.”
“Sounds like you’re prioritizing a bit weirdly. Do you have a crush on Niki or something? Because that’s definitely an unacceptable excuse for ditching your best friend of more than 8 years.”
“Shut up, Mark. I’ll apologize later.”
‘Argh, Y/N, how many more apologies can you offer someone with a broken heart?’ Mark groaned to himself, staring at Renjun’s feverish face.
—————— /ᐠ - ˕ -マ
Many students had to postpone their final paper, but it had all been done and dusted. The teacher from Y/N’s old school had called her to talk about the improvement in her relationship with Niki, which she found strange.
“Anyway, the teacher was happy. Did the teacher call you too?”
“Yeah, pretty much the same thing.” Niki answered, grinning.
The students of Zephyr University were on break, and boy, did they plan on having fun.
Much to Y/N’s disappointment, Renjun had not accepted her shabby apology, but had sighed and conceded after a week of not speaking to her. Now, he was in China like he’d wanted to go the previous year, and her only hope was Niki.
“Niki, if I told you I liked you right now, what would you do?”
It had been a light question, but the look on Niki’s face told Y/N that he had taken it much more seriously than she had assumed he would.
“Why, do you?”
“Well.. I do enjoy being with you, and I think I’ve prioritized you over a lot of stuff, and you are quite attractive, but.. actually, I don’t know. Maybe I do like you.”
“Woah. If you do, I’d say that I’m happy and say that I’d ask you out after we finish our second year.”
“And I’d say okay.”
“Woah.”
“Woah, indeed.”
Y/N smiled. She wasn’t sure if she liked him the way he did, but she did know that she was falling for him day by day. And she told him that, wanting to have a clean slate from the very beginning.
That was where it all started. And ended.
—————— /ᐠ - ˕ -マ
What started, you may ask? Chaos. Like turning to love. The enemies dating, and rumors flying.
What ended? Ha, what a great question. Y/N’s friendship with Renjun? Nope.
Quite far off. Everyone noticed it happening slowly. But they didn’t want to jinx it. Their academic rivalry was gone, and so was Renjun’s sanity!
“Mark! How the hell did they end up falling for each other? I’m dying to know here!” Renjun fanned himself aggressively with a hand fan he had to buy for the summer heat in China. He was currently with Mark, trying to figure out what he did wrong.
“Oh, I don’t know. The two of them are attractive, smart, quite well off, fun, likable, friendly, funny. What’s not to like?”
Renjun groaned, slumping in his seat. “It’s too late, Renjun. You’re not ever going to confess, are you?” Mark asked him.
No, Renjun decided not to. He would get over it all by himself. He had no choice but to. If Y/N was happy, so was he. And if it meant that she had to be happy without him, so be it. He would do whatever it took to get over her. And if he never found happiness without her, he would have to be satisfied with being friends.
—————— /ᐠ - ˕ -マ
Y/N and Niki started dating after their second year of university, as Niki had promised they would. They graduated two years later, with their friends by their side. They stopped at a bachelor’s degree, and now the two of them work as translators.
Mark and Haechan completed their bachelor’s degree, and went on to become a singer-songwriter duo that reached the stars with every song they released. People worldwide loved the Lee duo, and no supporter matched the energy of their friends.
Jeno went on to study for his master’s in veterinary sciences, and became a popular veterinarian. Animals loved him, and his favorite animals to treat were Samoyeds.
Jaemin became an artist, and had a museum dedicated to him and his artwork. He was well known for being the 21st century’s Pablo Picasso. His art was known for having a bunny drawn in the art as some part of it.
Chenle became a fashion designer for his own label, which held the ranks that companies like Prada, Dior, Chanel, were known for. His designs were known for being fresh, light and themed, with something new and key in each of his designs.
Jisung became one of the world’s most famous choreographers and dancers, and also taught dance to students who were willing to learn from him. He traveled all over the world to spread his joy for dancing, but always made sure to keep time aside for his friends.
Renjun became a singer, who composed his songs by himself. The Lee Duo and Renjun collaborated often, and the lyrics of their first song together became viral for the relatability and sadness, while the beat went viral for giving a club-like, fresh energy.
—————— /ᐠ - ˕ -マ
[DAISY.] Released by Huang Renjun ft. The Lee Duo
Prod. MARK
Performed by Huang Renjun and HAECHAN
Written by Huang Renjun
My first love, you were like a daisy
Soft and tender, so why’d you drive me so crazy?
You were my one-sided love that hurt forever
We used to be best friends, but you probably don't call me that anymore
If you’d call me now, I’d run to you whenever
For you and I, for you and I
You never loved me but I’ll always wonder what could’ve been in store
I’d run to you in the blink of an eye
For you and I, for you and I
I’ve loved you so much, no, I can’t lie
For you and I, you and I
Our time was a fresh breeze in July
For you and I, you and I,
My first love, you were like a daisy
A daisy like you I’ll never find
Are your memories of me now hazy?
My love that never worked out in the end
We used to be best friends, but you probably won't call me that anymore
I swore to maintain our friendship instead
For you and I, for you and I
You never loved me but I’ll always wonder what could’ve been in store
Oh?! Dk and Joshua are good picks lol I’m like stuck on Wonwoo and Jeonghan but then again Wonwoo’s kinda like my ult. I hope you’ve been well :) - 👻 anon
i am also unsure if i may bias junhui because HIM !!!!!!!!!!!
bro i still remember jeonghan blonde era that was so 😍🤭
I love a good f2l slowburn but my work is always borderline angsty HELP IT ISNT EVEN ON PURPOSE BUT IVE NOTICED IT THROUGHOUT THE YESRS 😭
There’s no way of determining how good of a job one is doing when becoming a carst it’s just a ride and it’s all about enjoying it don’t worry ☺️ trust me I wasn’t in the kpop scene officially until 2019 and seventeen shook my world up with Hit. Before that I was like the biggest emo/ rock music girly (probably why I write lowkey angsty stuff lol) - 👻 anon
I LIKE ANGST, but I was thinking of general population because the fic should also gain you some rep!! Or at least I feel so
emo music 😭😭 AND HELP idk but my goal rn is to figure out their full names and ages. but my bias is prob gonna be dk Or joshua lol
Hi Aanya I know I said I’d get to know you lol (these past weeks have been really hard for me - dealing with my grandmother’s dementia, my anxiety and mental breakdowns, and recently Moonbins passing) but better late than never I guess lol
I briefly read and went over your carrd <3 aside from the groups you like are there others you occasionally dabble into or consume media from? Also do you have a favorite trope/ genre or such when reading fanfiction? (Totally not gonna use this as research for planning my fic) - 👻anon
hi there!! Please take care of yourself, it's fine if you don't get to know me and write whatever you want 😭
I actually only properly "stan" NCT so 😭 I do try and keep up w le sserafim though! I occasionally watch SEVENTEEN content though I don't really know them yet </3
I don't have a favorite genre as such, but I'm a total sucker for friends to lovers or soulmates maybe?
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my deepest condolences to moonbin’s family, friends and fans. may his soul rest in peace 🤍
please check on your loved ones no matter how happy and okay they may seem. my dms are always open if anyone needs someone to talk to. everyone deserves to have someone. please take care of yourselves. you are loved. you're never alone, no matter how much it seems. you are so important and you're here for a reason. be kind and gentle to yourself, today, tomorrow, and everyday after that. 🤍
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