Yue

written addition after orange color bars.

tag list 🪼 @liliansun @tddyhyck @chimiwimi @toroufriteh @asteriaskingdom @sundamariis @funkygoose @jenoleeaesthetic @ifyoudareto-believe @n0hyuck @haychhans @bbh-kji @gyulfriend @matchahyuck @xtrataerrestrial @brownsugarbaybee @babyjenono (it’s open ! just ask 😊)

warnings: more of yn and audi’s bizarre relationship; developments in yn and H’s relationship; flirting; skin ship (?! low key omg); H’s love lang feels like quality time at this time right???; his job is revealed hehehe (sort of???); hopefully this doesn’t get too messy if it does pls lmk 🥺; the last written scene mentions murder/guns/threats in a very casual way; 15 images; 2 written additions wc5565

THE MEETING, 1 apr 1:34pm. wc2855

second person limited

.

baby girl 

You glance at your watch, resisting the urge to smile as the two simple words catch your eye. But, now isn’t the time or place to respond to H, so you ignore it in favor of looking back at the big ass fish tank you’re standing in front of.

“Oh my gosh, look at that one,” you laugh, pointing at a silly looking fish within the tank. “It’s Flats the Flounder.”

Your boyfriend squeezes your hand, an amused smile on his lips as he looks down at you. He looks pretty in the blue light, but you know he hates it when you tell him he looks pretty, so instead you lean closer and brush a kiss to his bicep.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he admits, lifting your joined hands and kissing the back of yours.

“That’s ok,” you say, a teasing smile playing on your lips. “But only because you’re so handsome.”

He laughs, letting go of your hand in favor of pulling you into his side. You feel your face going hot as he brushes a kiss to your forehead before pulling you along. “I’ll take it,” he decides, still smiling. “C’mon, let’s find the dolphins.”

are you at the aquarium rn?

Your eyes widen as you read the next message, fingers immediately swiping what across your screen. The thread disappears, your watch blacking out, and you try to play it cool until you just can’t anymore.

“Everything ok, love?”

“Uh- yeah? It’s just…a friend. Sending some really weird messages.”

“Should you call them? You wouldn’t want anything to happen…”

You half laugh at the suggestion as you all make it to the exhibit. “No, I…yes? Yes, I’ll just- if you give me a minute-”

He brushes another kiss to your forehead. “I’ll go in and get our seats. You can give me a call if we need to leave. Take your time.”

“Siwon- are you sure? I mean,” you swallow thickly, fishing your phone out of your bag.

“Of course. I know you don’t like the dolphins anyway,” he teases, holding a hand out to take your purse. “I’ll hold it for you. You take care, ok? Call me if you need me.”

“Ok,” you smile as he brushes another kiss to your forehead, squeezing your hand once before turning to make his way into the show exhibit.

It’s only then that you unlock your phone, reading H’s reply and feeling your heart beating embarrassingly fast in your chest as you make your way over to the underwater side of the exhibit. You’d never, not for a moment, felt funny about interacting with him. You’d even planned to call him last night despite being on a mini-vacation with your boyfriend. (The only reason you hadn’t was because Siwon decided you all would take an evening stroll for ice cream after returning to the hotel.) But something about this question…it’s…there is no way he could know.

are you at the aquarium right now?

how do you know that / i don’t remember telling you

i recognized you

yeah right / you don’t know what i look like

i know you, tho / don’t laugh

are you WATCHING me????

i was curious

i’m having a hard time believing you

You watch his chat bubble show and disappear, attempting to remember if you’d mentioned your plans for today at any point. But, as you wreck your brain, you come to realize that someone is standing right behind you.

“Don’t turn around.”

Your voice catches in the back of your throat. “H.”

His fingers ghost the back of your hip as his other hand finds yours. It’s too intimate, but it doesn’t feel wrong, and the thought alone leaves you feeling light headed. “Funny,” he murmurs, voice soft and warm. “I pictured you being shorter.”

You laugh and he does, too.

“I thought they were exaggerating,” he distractedly tells you, “when they talked about you…” His fingertips ghost yours, tracing the shape of your hand. “I should have known better, huh?”

“About what?”

He ignores your question in favor of saying, “You look good next to him. Actually…Choi looks good next to you.”

Despite yourself, you twist your fingers through his as your mind catches up to the moment. “How do you know who he is?”

His other hand finally settles on your waist. “I never imagined you’d be caught up in all of this.”

“H. What are you talking about?”

“Audi isn’t a good man,” he tells you, as plainly as he’d tell you what he had for lunch. “Neither am I, for that matter.”

You blink a few times, attempting to process everything. It’s difficult. Somehow, you’re alone with him in the darkened underside of the dolphin exhibit, and it doesn't help the fact that your every thought somehow seems to center on H and the fact that he’s standing behind you. That you can feel his warmth and his breath and his skin on yours. It makes all rational things trivial, leaving you feeling suspended in a space that doesn’t really exist. Because…because it isn’t supposed to.

“What?” You hear yourself ask. “What are you-”

“Break up with him.”

“What?”

He stops you from turning around, pressing a little closer to you despite the fact that the length of his body never meets yours. “He won’t be able to keep you out of it for much longer. And then he won’t be able to keep you safe.”

“Are you- are you threatening me?”

He rests his forehead on the back of your shoulder. It’s perfectly timed. Perfectly grounding. “No. I’m stating a fact. Warning you…I’d never threaten you, baby girl.”

You just barely resist the urge to swoon over hearing his nickname for you in person. Instead, you focus on the way dolphins circle underwater, curious as they pass the two of you. Silence lingers long enough for you to at least understand that H knows Audi. That there really is a secret your boyfriend and his friends are in on without you.

He slowly begins to rub your hip, his thumb stroking circles to your lower back, and the feeling is more comforting than you care to admit. Just as the show starts above water, you ask, “What are you talking about?”

“I work for 127,” he admits. “It’s…a part of an organization in N City. Your boyfriend is in Suju- their name is the same as the city. We’re…rivals.”

“Are you- are you talking about crime syndicates? He owns grocery stores-”

“Makes it easier to trade in the black market. You all are meeting with someone named Baekhyun today, aren’t you? For drinks after this? We’ve spent years working on this moment, baby girl. I can’t stop it…and even if I could, I hate Choi. For more than before now.”

He lifts his head, resting his chin on your shoulder as he lifts your hands up. His fingers spread beneath yours before he turns his wrist and presses his palm against yours as your head spins at his words. 

“He said Baekhyun was an old friend. I…I understood it as a potential business deal.”

H sighs. You feel it, the sensation nearly knocking the breath out of you. “How much do you know?”

“Um…nothing really. They’re from One, which I thought was bizarre when he said it. I didn’t know people could really be from there. I thought it was just, like, business.

“I don’t know anything else, though. I usually just get roped into these things as a pretty face.”

“Your N City friends…do they know who he is?”

The gravity of it all hits you. Siwon’s reluctance to come to N City for anything…and your friend’s unwillingness to come and visit you in Suju. The night at Johnny’s old apartment just before you moved to Suju. The reason why H is so concerned about what you’ve always joked about as your criminal past. Moment after moment and question after question fills your mind, but they all die on your tongue.

“A couple weeks ago, when I was in Miracle. You told me not to go out…did they do something?”

His silence is almost deafening.

“Auds picked me up. I was going to take the train home but he was at the station because he was worried about what was going on. It’s the first time I ever saw him in N City…the second was when I stopped by Horizon.”

“Yes…they stole something.” H’s voice is clipped, suspicious despite how close he is to you. “We…didn’t know that he was around for that.”

“None of my friends know who he is. We all just refer to him as Audi. One is supposed to meet him sometime next week-”

“If I asked who…”

“He’s who I always stay with…Ten.”

He grips your hip, a quiet groan escaping him. “How do you know him?”

“Through the one who’s like a brother to me. He introduced us in college.”

“Who?”

“Johnny.”

H laughs, disbelief evident in his tone. “He’s going to kill me.”

“You know them, then?”

“It’s incredible…how have you been so close this entire time? How have they kept you out of everything? And Choi- he’s about to ruin it. Introducing you…you can’t stay, baby girl.”

“I’m so fucking confused. What do you mean I can’t stay? If I’ve been fine this whole time why can’t I still be fine?”

“Are you lying to me?”

You scoff. “Lying? Why would you ask that? What would I gain from it? No. I’m not lying.

“He’s…he’s normal. Boring. We go to bible study once a week, for fucks sake. Why would he be involved with, with- with what exactly?”

“He’s one of the younger ones in the group, and he keeps a squeaky clean image, so he isn’t quite as well known. He’s fucked up, though. He isn’t good. He isn’t good for you. 

“He mentioned to Baek-hyung that he’d bring his girl for drinks because you all would be on a date. Baekhyun is really personable, and they know each other from….well. They know each other.

“I am one of the younger members of NCT. He wouldn’t know my face. Which is why I’m here. I was supposed to be getting pictures of you…fuck, baby girl. I can’t…I don’t fail.”

It takes you a second to understand what he’s saying. “I can get out of going for drinks…and I have a mask in my bag. I’ll slip it on for the rest of the time we’re here. You can take your pictures.”

He laughs, still laden with disbelief, shifting to rest his forehead on your shoulder again. “Are you sure you can get out of it?”

“Yes.”

He’s quiet for almost too long before he finally sighs. “You’re really beautiful” -you exhale a breath you hadn’t realized you were holding- “I wasn’t expecting that.”

“Ouch,” you pout. “How did you picture me? Ugly?”

There’s a smile in his voice as he says, “Honestly? Like that little lamb in Obey Me.”

“You’re incredible, you know? I want to block you in real life, too. Who says that?”

“How do you picture me?”

“I don’t…You’re just you. A vibe, a feeling.”

“A good feeling?”

You laugh, fingers gripping his. “…yeah,” you softly admit. “A really good one.” 

H chuckles. “You’re weird and really sexy. Really smart. Figured you’d have bad teeth at the very least.”

You laugh. “I hate brushing my teeth.”

He smiles against your shoulder. “Why would you admit to that?”

“And I have near crippling anxiety.”

“Sorry to add to it,” he squeezes your waist and hand for emphasis. “But those are things people can learn to live with….Audi’s lucky.”

“H-”

“I’ll keep you safe on my side, baby girl. Keep yourself safe on yours. Choi won’t be able to. He’s already botched it by agreeing to introduce you. Baekhyun wont stop when he finds out I didn’t get your picture.”

“….ok,” you agree, checking your watch when a text from Siwon comes through.

H chuckles and you assume he’s reading over your shoulder as you scroll the mini picture of dolphins before seeing his actual text: everything ok love?

good, you swipe out. I’ll be with you in a sec

can’t wait 🥰

“How cute,” H comments.

“I don’t know if I like the way you said that…do you not want me to see you? Is that why you don’t want me to turn around?”

“Yeah. We can pretend like this never happened this way.” He takes a step away from you, giving your waist one more squeeze before walking his fingers up your back. “Although getting to know how you feel and smell…the real sound of your voice, too…you’re better than I imagined.”

“I don’t understand how you recognized me,” you admit, shivering when he traces the curve of your neck and shoulder before slowly moving down your arm.

“It was something in the way you moved. I just…knew. From your pictures. I don’t know how.”

“Ah- I get it,” you tease. “You’re obsessed.”

He laughs. “You should go.”

“Yeah,” you agree. “Will you text me later?”

“I’m not sure if I should, baby girl.”

“If we’re pretending this never happened…” You suggest, but you already know that if you do continue talking to him, there’s a lot you need to discuss.

He hums. “Can I give you something? If you wear it, it should keep you safe enough. If you run into any of my brothers who haven’t already met you, they’ll hesitate when they see it. And you can tell them you know H. We don’t involve women. Not typically. Suju is just…..a special case.”

“As long as it isn’t god awful.”

He laughs, the sound bright and warm. It fills your chest almost mockingly, digging into the vacant corners and rooting itself there. “It isn’t. I promise.”

He lets you go, pulling away for a moment before cupping your hand and dropping a necklace into your palm. “Audi won’t recognize it. It’s something only people in the family will understand.”

You look down to see that it’s a thin gold charm on a chain, displaying a dragon wrapped around a yellow stone. It causes you to smile, laughing softly through your nose. “Is that a sun?”

“Ha, yeah.”

“You wear this everyday? That’s pretty sexy of you. It’s so…delicate,” you say as you close your fist around it. “I’ll put it on tomorrow. He’ll notice if I suddenly put it on now.”

“Ok.”

“Would Ten recognize it?”

“For sure. He designed it…I’ll tell him I know someone he knows from Suju. He won’t question it when he sees it.”

“Can I hug you?”

You can hear the smile in H’s voice as he says, “Yes. Keep your eyes closed.”

“I will.”

You close your eyes as you turn toward him, huffing out a laugh when he almost immediately pulls you into a hug. His body feels familiar against yours, arms strong and safe, and as you tuck your face into his shoulder you realize he’s comforting in a way you’ve never experienced.

“This is…strange.”

“I agree.” He rubs his hand down your back. “You’re so soft. Especially your boobs.”

You laugh at that, taking a deep breath of him. “And you’re a good hugger. I figured you would be,” you admit before starting to pull away.

His lips brush your neck, warm and familiar. “Stay safe, baby girl. I’ll see you around.”

You catch a glimpse of him as he turns the corner, a head of fluffy dark hair and an all black outfit that you swear burns itself into your brain. Before you can think too much longer about whatever the fuck just happened, you turn and hurry toward the right side of the exhibit, finding Siwon in the crowd and joining him in faux annoyance.

“Some freak sneezed right as I walked past them, babe,” the lie rolls off your tongue easily as you motion for your bag. “If I get sick I’ll be so upset.”

You pop a vitamin C pill before finding and slipping your mask on your face.

“I’m sorry, my love,” he says once you settle down, rubbing your back soothingly. “You were checking in with your friend, though. God won’t let you get sick.”

You sneeze right as he says it, causing him to laugh as you groan dramatically. “God hates me.”

Siwon draws an arm over your shoulders, pulling you in to brush a kiss to your temple. “Perhaps he is teaching you a lesson. Don’t worry, I will take responsibility.”

It takes you a second to realize he’s poking fun at you, your eyes widening as you turn to look at him. He smiles down at you, mirth in his gaze as you say, “Who are you and what have you done with my Siwon?”

“I like it when you say that. That I’m yours.”

“It’s the truth, isn’t it?”

“Mmm, yes, Yn. All yours. Are you mine, too?”

“Sometimes.”

He laughs, free hand brushing through his hair as he refocuses on the show. “You’re hilarious, my love.”

.

THE PHONE CALL. 1 apr, 8:05pm wc2271

third person omniscient

.

“Hey.”

“Hi, H,” Yn smiles into her phone, grabbing her wallet and room key before slipping on a mask and heading out. “I just wanted to hear your voice again.”

“I- Baby girl,” he huffs out a laugh. “What are you doing? It sounds like you’re busy?”

“I’m going to get some ice cream.”

“Should I get some, too?”

“As long as you don’t go to the same one I am.”

“Where are you going?”

“Baskin-Robbins.”

“Ok. I won’t go there.” She listens as he gets up, amused by the sound of him getting ready. “He’s already sent a text about how you didn’t go for drinks. He’s pissed.”

“Should I show up?”

“No.”

“I’m wearing your chain.”

“You’ll cause yourself a world of trouble, baby girl. Don’t do it….you should really just leave right now.”

“And go where?” She asks, genuinely curious. “I have a life in Suju. A career and friends. I’ve worked really hard for it.”

“Then at least- at least leave him.”

“This is depressing. You’re supposed to be my carefree escape.”

“I’d rather you be depressed than dead.”

She stops short on the street, swallowing thickly. “What- what does that mean?”

“It’s better if you don’t know.”

“Better for who? Because right now I know but I don’t know. It’d be so fucking obvious if I were to get into something. If I know- if I know then I know what I’m protecting.”

“Protect yourself- and don’t boo hiss at me.”

Yn laughs, scuffing her sneaker on the ground. “I really was about to.”

“I know,” he says, the sounds of the city finally behind him. “I know you.”

“How can you say that? I don’t feel like I know you.”

“That makes me sad, baby girl. I’m nothing but honest with you.”

“Yeah? Which is why I’m only just finding out you’re some, what? N City bad boy? Oh my gosh- I hang out with you guys while I’m there.”

Haechan frowns, the weight of her words hitting him as he walks down the street. The thought of her having been even closer than arms reach for years has his heart pounding irrationally in his chest. It’s sheer luck that Johnny hadn’t run into her at Horizon, or anyone from WayV for that matter. He can’t imagine what her boyfriend might do when he finds out…would he trust her? Trust that she knows nothing?

If Haechan is honest, he isn’t sure. Choi Siwon has never struck him as the type of man who believes in chance or coincidence. There isn’t a world where he can imagine the Suju man believing her when she tells him she’s clueless. Which is funny, because he’d believed her as soon as she said it. (Call it bias -or whatever.) And she isn’t even his. 

“You should stop going back and forth.”

She flat out ignores him. “It really isn’t fair, you know? I’ve been subjected to boring sex with my supposedly criminal boyfriend, and my supposedly criminal not-boyfriend has never made me feel like the lead in a mafia romance-”

He resists the urge to laugh. “Your- what? What, baby girl?”

“I should ditch the both of you. I don’t think Jungwoo would do this to me-”

“Baby girl…sometimes I want to block you.”

Yn grins, tongue curling over her teeth for a moment. “You couldn’t stand it, babe.”

“Unfortunately-”

“Hold on- You went to Japan with Ten?”

“Yes.”

“He saw all those Miffy’s and didn’t buy me one?”

Haechan begins to laugh, slipping into a nearby convenience store and walking toward the freezer. “He wasn’t with me.”

“I’ll bet you’re just covering for him. You’re friends, after all.”

“Didn’t he get you Badtz Maru stuff?”

“Um…” He had, but that certainly isn’t the point. “I’ll ask the questions here.”

Haechan hasn’t stopped smiling. His cheeks are starting to hurt a bit, so as he stands in front of the ice cream he massages his face in an attempt to distract himself from everything that is you- “Wait a sec.”

“Ok.”

“No that isn’t- I’ll let you ask the questions. But I have one more…Siwon said his girlfriend's name is Lee Yoon-Suh.”

“Yeah. That’s my Korean name. I didn’t tell him my birth name for like a year after we met so he just stuck to introducing me with the Korean one…It’s kind of fun. Everyone is always expecting some cute Korean girl and instead they get a crazy foreigner.” She hesitates a moment, hand coming up to play with the charm on her new necklace before saying, “I love dragons. And my Korean name means sunlight. So it’s funny that this is yours specifically...your necklace, I mean.”

He wonders, for the briefest of moments, about soulmates. He’s never considered it before your jokes, but there are too many similarities in your lives for it to all be coincidence. The thought vanishes quickly, though.

“It’s yours now,” he reminds her. Ours, he thinks to himself, purely self-indulgently, as he considers the fact that he’ll just ask for another once they’re all back home. 

“Isn’t it funny? How close we’ve been?”

“Funny isn’t exactly the word I’d use,” he sighs solemnly.

“Should we talk about it?”

“There isn’t anything to talk about.” Haechan wants to leave it at that, but it’s harder than he expects it to be. “For years Ten and Johnny have kept you separate from something their lives quite literally revolve around. I…can’t be the one who changes that.”

“Audi’s doing that.”

He stares blindly at the freezer. “Unknowingly.”

“Whose side are you on here? Jeez.”

“Whose side are you on, hmm?”

“I feel like Marie Antoinette,” she pouts. “Have you seen that movie?”

“No.”

“Oh. I forgot H is only old enough to watch Disney.”

He laughs. “You’re such a dick sometimes, you know that?”

She laughs, obviously pleased with herself. “She has this dilemma, in the movie. She isn’t sure if she’s supposed to be French, because she married the heir to the French throne, or Austrian, where she came from…her mom told her she had to be both.”

“Well I’m not your mom. I’m telling you to be neither.”

“Just like someone’s dad to be out of touch while offering advice. Hold on a sec.” Yn orders and pays for her ice cream before deciding to sit in the parlor. As she slips into a table for two, she goes on to say, “I can’t be neither.”

Haechan grabs an ice cream bar and a few other snacks before paying and leaving the store. “I know…you’re there. Keep yourself safe.”

“Are you really not going to tell me anything?”

“They used to be our seniors…but they left. The breakup was messy. It was more of a betrayal than anything else.”

“So you’re getting even.”

“Sure. That’s all I can say.”

“Why would they want pictures of me?”

Haechan sighs into his ice cream. “It isn’t fair to be sad while eating ice cream.”

“At least we’re alive.”

He laughs, not expecting to hear his sentiments returned. “We do not typically involve women. Nothing harmful would have been done to you…especially not when people realized who you are to NCT members.”

“You just told me my being depressed was better than being dead,” she reminds him. Before he can respond, she goes on to say, “Well, I guess Johnny’s gonna kill me.” She takes a bite of her vibe. “All he does is police my N City friends.”

He resists the urge to tell her it’s more likely for her side to kill her. Despite what she thinks, it’s truly better she doesn’t know anything. “Well I understand why…Do you want me to tell them?

She laughs softly. “Ah, gosh. H fighting my battles for me? That’s too much. I’ll um…I’ll tell Ten first. And let him decide what he wants to do about John…he’ll want me to come home.”

“You think of N City as home?”

“Um…it’s a feeling, you know? I guess it says a lot, my heart still being there an all. But…well, I didn’t move to Suju because I loved it. I moved for the opportunity. So, anyway…yeah. N City is home.”

“We have a hospital here, you know?”

“Do you?” She asks, playfully surprised. “You know, I think I remember Ten mentioning something about that.”

“He may have mentioned it because he actually works there.” H explains, matching your tone.

“Incredible.” Yn smiles to herself, all too aware of where he’s taking this conversation.

“I’m telling you for selfish reasons. But also because what’s important to my brothers is important to me.” He smirks when he hears her huff out a laugh. “I think you understand that.”

“We can’t have the same brother, that's weird.”

Haechan laughs. “I don’t mind if you don’t.”

“Yeah, yeah…H?”

“Yeah?”

“I can’t leave. Not just…like that.”

“What would it take then? Real danger, baby girl? Because it’s coming.”

“Yeah.” She gets up from her seat, tossing the rest of her cone before leaving the parlor. It’s colder now, and she starts toward a nearby convenience store to grab a hot beverage before heading back to her hotel. “Not to be dramatic, but, it’ll take a gun to my head. Can that be arranged?”

“To a woman?”

“Well, don’t be chauvinistic.”

“That is not the same thing. And, anyway: It would be your side that does something like that. We have very specific goals, babe. And I imagine once Johnny finds out you’re with him, you’ll become one of those goals.”

“I’m a person.”

“You know what I mean.”

Yn slips into the store, barely acknowledging the person sitting nearby, and H chuckles into the phone just before she says, “Unfortunately, I do…You promise not to say anything to him, right?”

“I won’t say anything, baby girl. You need to keep yourself safe on your end, though. Promise me you will.”

“I promise.”

“I’ll do my best here, but I think you should tell Ten quickly. I’m not directly involved in this mission, so I don’t know the timeline or specifics.”

She sighs, pouring sugar into her drink. “I’m supposed to see him during the week, I think. He’ll find out soon enough…and Auds just texted to tell me he’s on his way back.”

Haechan looks up at the sky, biting his tongue against asking her to bail. To leave with him, back to N City. Not even because he wants her by his side -because he does; he wants her more than anything-, but because it means she’ll be safe. Because he won’t have to worry about her boyfriend finding out something she can’t fight against.

“Will you walk me back?”

He smiles, glancing over as the store doors open and watching as someone leaves. He’s pretty sure it’s the girl he’s talking to, a thought that’s verified as he watches her slip her mask from an ear and attempt to drink whatever beverage she’d gotten. It’s too hot, and she swears quietly before just barely sparing him a glance and flashing a smile he swears he’ll never forget as she hurries across the street.

“Hellooo? Earth to H?” She teases, totally unaware that he’s watching her leave. “You’re going to cause me to ask a stranger to walk me home. And you know I don’t know boundaries.”

He laughs softly, watching as she slips further and further away from him. “Yeah. I’ll walk you home, baby girl. You owe me one, anyway.”

“I owe you one? So I need to walk you home, baby boy.”

Haechan makes a funny sound, butterflies suddenly filling his stomach at your teasing. “No fair. Don’t call me that.”

“Why? Does it make you feel all funny inside?”

“And you claim you don’t know me, huh?”

She laughs. “When I heard you say baby girl for real today I felt like I was 12.”

“So uncool of you to admit that.”

“I never claimed to be cool. I don’t know where you’re getting your information.”

“My head,” he teases, sounding very pleased with himself, and Yn realizes she must have said that to him before.

“Well, if Mr. Hermes thinks I’m cool, I must be.”

He smiles to himself, grabbing his bag of snacks before getting up from the bench to head back to his hotel. “Did it really make you feel that way?”

“Yeah,” she softly admits. “And when you traced my fingers? I felt my brain short circuit.”

“You’re driving me crazy, you know that?”

“It’s a tug of war,” she counters. “You’re winning.”

His heart doesn’t skip a beat. Not even a small one. (If he can convince himself of it, it’s the truth.) “Not even by a long shot. I need you to understand that.”

Yn feels her face going hot, an amused shyness flickering through her. “Such a smooth talker. Consider me woo’d, H.”

“Yeah? Then my job is nearly done.”

“What the rest? Gonna kidnap me?”

“Solid idea, but no. I’m gonna walk you home. Kiss your cheek. And then the next time we do any of this it’ll be when you tell me you’re blinking and wanna come home.”

“Ok. I’ll accept the terms.”

“That easily?”

“You and I are as effortless as it gets, babe. Now we just need a topic for the walk home.”

“Wanna know what book I’m reading right now?”

“So sexy that H reads. Lay it on me, baby.”