Oh??? A lot of angst you say??? đđđđđ€Șđ€Ș
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hereâs a question for those of you whoâve seen my wip post âŠ
for my next wip, the fic will take place in 2023 (dark blood era), in an au where the boys and mila never got together in 2021. now trying not to spoil anything, but letâs say, that mila meets a potential suitor, whether it be another idol (i will take suggestions for this) or a previous crush from the past⊠the question for you guys is this:
the tummyâŠi just woke upâŠim gonna go into hibernation atp
pairing / non-idol!jay x fem!reader
genre / angst, a bit of fluff at the very start, lovers to strangers, forced marriage au :(
warnings / like, one cuss word..., usage of y/n, i think that's it^^
synopsis / jay always said he'd marry you one day, until suddenly he breaks it off claiming he 'found someone else'. months later, on the day of his wedding, you find a letter slipped under the door of your apartment from none other than the groom to be himself.
author's note / dedicated to my jay obsessed best friend!
âIâm going to marry you one day,â your boyfriend, Jay, said softly with a smile on his face as he shifted in his position lying down together with you on his bed to tuck a strand of hair behind your ear.
You and Jay have been together for almost two years, and itâs been nothing short of pure bliss. Sure, like any other couple, you two would have the occasional arguments â but rest assured Jay would come knocking on your door with a bouquet and stuffed toy in hand while he asks for your forgiveness.
You let out a light laugh before pressing your lips into a tight smile. âAs if your parents would allow that,â you told him as-a-matter-of-factly.
Jay was rich, to put it short. His parents were CEOs of different companies that their parents before them passed down for multiple generations. You, on the other hand, lived a normal and comfortable life. But apparently, it didnât seem to be enough.
After you met his parents, Jay assured you that they just put up a cold front. Both of you knew he was lying through his teeth.
Jay shook his head. âI donât care about them. I only want you,â he said before pressing a kiss to your forehead.
A tear rolled down your face as you recalled this memory. Itâs only been a year since that sweet exchange of words that you thought secured your relationship for good. You hate how you were wrong.
You let out a dry laugh. âIâ I donât get what youâre talking about. Was it something I did? Come on, Jay. We can talk this out,â you sounded desperate as you shook your head, tears threatening to fall down.
Jay shook his head silently. You thought you almost saw tears pooling around his eyes as well. But to even think that seemed delusional. He seemed so deadset.
âI told you, we just canât be together anymore,â he still wouldnât look up to meet your eyes.
âI know, you told me that. But why?â
âItâs not you, itâs me,â
âDonât give me that bullshit, Jay,â
âWe just canât,â
âA reason. You owe me that muchââ
âI found someone else,â he said with a tone so final, though the crack in his voice almost made him sound hesitant.
A silence filled the air.
You knew nothing lasted forever. A part of you knew that what you and Jay had going might have shattered one day.Â
But he always sounded so sure that you two were something permanent. Something written in the stars. So you pushed that part of pessimism in you to the back of your mind.
Now here he was, taking everything he said, the promises he made, the sweet nothings you shared, and twisting it all around. The part of you, the ugly voice that didnât believe in the timelessness of the love you and Jay shared mocked you as it boomed with laughter and insults.
âOh,â you breathed out.
A man in a black suit approached your table in the privately booked restaurant and tapped Jayâs shoulder.
âSir, itâs time to go. Youâre going to be late for your meeting with your parents,â the man hesitated as his stoic face held a hint of sympathy when he glanced at you.
âIâll be right there,â Jay replied as he picked up the coat from behind his chair.
For the first time in this meeting you two had, he managed to look you in the eye before turning his gaze back downwards.
As he turned around and walked away, you mucked up the courage to ask him a question.
âDo you love her?â You asked, suddenly standing up.
Jay turned around and met your hurt gaze. His stone-cold expression melted slightly at this. He paused for a while taking in your presence with a look that almost seemed pained.
He nodded once his eyes traveled back to meet yours once more. âYeah,â he breathed. âMore than I can say,â he paused before turning back around and leaving.
Itâs been five months since you and Jay broke up, and youâve managed to stop breaking into tears at every reminder of him after the first three.
There was no contact between you two. And it was easier to keep him out of your thoughts that way. But that didnât mean you stopped thinking about him. It was hard to do so.
You were scrolling through social media on your phone as you rode the elevator going up to your apartment. You exited the lift and got your keys ready with one hand while you kept your phone in the other.
You stopped in your tracks after seeing a headline on twitter.
âHeir of Park Enterprises, Park Jongseong and daughter of the CEO of Hwang & Yoon Law Firm, Yoon Jiwon: Everyoneâs Favorite Newlyweds!â
You took in a sharp breath. Youâve managed to steer clear of any news and media about the couple for a while until today. You pressed the power on your phone to turn it off before making your way to open your apartment door.
As you shut the door behind you, you noticed a cream colored envelope facing downwards with your name and address written on it.
You placed your work bag down before picking up what seemed to be a letter, sitting down on your couch and opening it.
As you unfolded the crisp paper, your eyes landed on the first few words. And you immediately knew who wrote it. The handwriting was one that you could recognize as easily as your own.
Y/n,
Iâm writing this the night before my wedding. And youâre all that my thoughts consume. The day we fell in love, a part of me knew that you were the girl of my dreams. The girl I wanted to see once I walked up the stairs to an altar. And tomorrow, that girl isnât you. Iâve thought about how we broke up, how I left you, every day since it happened five months and fourteen days ago. I never wanted to leave you. But when my parents first gave me the instruction to do so for them to be able to set me up with someone else, I showed apparent impertinence by not following their words, and they were angry with me. They told me that you were a bad influence. That the reason I kept disobeying them was you. So they told me that if I refused their instructions once more, they wouldâve done something terrible to you and your family. I couldnât risk it. I couldnât hurt you like that, yet I still ended up causing you pain. I thought that if I said I found someone else and treated it like a normal falling out of love instead of saying the contents of the previous paragraphs, the hurt would last shorter. I proved myself wrong with that. It pained me either way. I hope you move on from me. You deserve better. You deserve someone who would protect you and your loved ones instead of giving up. Iâm sorry I couldnât be just that, and I shouldâve. I question myself everyday why I wasnât. As for me, I know I will never find someone as good as you. Everyone else will always fall short. A part of me has loved you since I first met you, and since then Iâve only fallen in deeper. Youâve consumed my heart and my soul. I love you, Y/n L/n. And I donât think Iâll ever stop. By the time you read this, the ring meant to be yours settles on the hand of another. But it will never be truly hers. One day, I hope you can find it in you to forgive me for the hurt Iâve caused. Maybe in some other universe, I never wouldâve had to leave.
Yours, Jay
You finished the letter with a hand clasped to your mouth in a failed attempt at stopping yourself from crying.
You thought the wound was just starting to scab only for it to turn raw once more.
Jay was right. Maybe in another universe.
author's note / lowkey got emotional writing this ermmm.....
Hi đ Iâve seen that you take asks and that you do texts and I was wondering if you could do an Enhypen hyung line member (maybe Jay or Sunghoon but it up to you which member) prank where they text y/n and she responds with ,,bro who is it?â Like pretending to be a guy and the member is confused and gets jealous only to find out it was a prank. I hope I didnât confuse you and if I did Iâm really sorry đ also if itâs too much you can just ignore it đ«¶
- đ (the tangerine anon comeback đ)
enhypen texts masterlist
this was actually so funny lol tysm for this request I enjoyed it!
synopsis â you and sunghoon have known each other your whole lives and although you've both dealt with jokes from classmates since elementary school on how you two would end up together, that never ended up happening; you two would brush it off and then move on. you never really thought about pursuing something with him romantically, especially since you like things with a more casual approach. but once sunghoon's girlfriend becomes a part of the picture, you can't help but feel these feelings consume you. being the way you are, however, you managed to push them down and you at least thought you got over them until you realize maybe they never left at all. or even worse: they were always there.
feat. â yujin (ive) & sungchan (riize)
genre â college au, friends to somewhat enemies to lovers, romance, smut, angst (eh, ig), slowburn (ig? srry lmao)
pairing â nonidol!sunghoon x fem!reader
warnings â MDNI, smoking !! (reader and sunghoon both smoke), drinking, cursing, mention(s?) of death, mention of hookups, reader is called and referred to (sometimes self referred to) as a: slut/whore; slutshaming, !! potential sh reference (pinching/hitting self; dk if that counts, but it's not mentioned after) !!, mentions of sex (obvi)
w.c. â 22.7k
a/n â long time no see lol. lmk if u would be interested in seeing some pics i took at the enha concert i went to :)) (i won't do vids because i was screaming like a baboon lmao) p.s. bear w me bc ik this is a long one, but i feel like i owe you all since i've been gone for practically a century, but pls give it a chance, i'm on my knees begging bc this took 3 days
disclaimer !! â i donât ship any idols i portray as dating in this story irl nor do i have the intent to portray anyone in this story in a negative light, this is just for creative purposes, babes <3; this is all just fiction, take it lightly pls and thx
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Today has been a long day. You groan as you take a seat on a bench somewhere near the lecture hall you just left and you close your eyes as you lean back against it. You had originally thought your senior year of high school was torturous, but being a senior in college was far worse. Your eyebrows furrow a bit when you feel the weight of the bench shift a bit, meaning someone has taken a seat beside you. Your eyes open a bit and you turn your head to see Sunghoon next to you. A sigh escapes your lips and you turn your head away, closing your eyes again.Â
Sunghoon sits there for a moment, looking at you. Lately, you two havenât hung out as much and although he admittedly forgot to text you for the past week and half, you were still his best friend. He could argue, though, that âthe phone works both waysâ, so youâre not exactly innocent either. Heâs seen you around campus, hanging out with some members of the basketball team, mainly the captain: Sungchan. You didnât seem bothered by the lack of contact between the two of you, either, so it didnât bother him or make him feel guilty that you havenât hung out in just a few days. NoâŠnot at all.
âNice to see you, too.â he mumbles. You stay quiet, honestly close to falling asleep on the bench, especially with the warm breeze that is gently blowing. He narrows his eyes a bit and leans back against the bench. He does the same as you, closing his eyes as he relaxes, but he frowns to himself. âYou and Sungchan seem to be close.â he says, not really even understanding why he brought it up in the first place.Â
This piques your interest. âWhat about him.â you say rather than ask, still keeping your eyes closed.
Sunghoon shrugs, still not really sure why he cares who you hang out with or how often or who they are orâŠanything like that. Maybe it upsets him to think about the fact that you might replace him with someone cooler as your best friend; maybe he was too lame for you. How juvenile, he thought to himself. But thatâs what it felt like, to him, at least. âNothing. Iâve just seen you guys hanging out a lot, thatâs all.â Sunghoon replies.
âHow would you know that; we havenât really hung out or talked lately.â you reply, not meaning to sound snarky, but it most likely came across that way.
Sunghoon scoffs softly. âI have eyes; I can still see who you talk to.â
You open your eyes a bit and turn your head to look at him. âStalker.â you tease.Â
Sunghoon opens his eyes, almost as if he can feel you looking at him and he rolls them, not amused. âAm notâŠIâm just trying to start a conversation or whatever.â
âAbout the people I talk to?â
Sunghoon shrugs. âAbout anythingâŠâ It stays quiet for a moment. âItâs just been a while since weâve talked.â
âAnd whose fault is that?â You ask, rhetorically.
Sunghoon frowns. âWell, Iâve just been busy-â
You scoff, âYeah. I know.â You reply dryly.
âWhat is that supposed to mean?â
âNothing. Just that thatâs what you always say whenever we donât talk to each other for a while. Like, I get it, youâre dating Yujin, big whoop.â
Youâve considered the possibility that he has just been busy with schoolwork, but no matter how many times you would give him the benefit of the doubt, it always ended up being because he was hanging out with Yujin. You werenât really mad, per say, just annoyed. Severely annoyed. But what could you do? Ever since they started dating freshman year, youâve felt like you were on the backburner. Which, again, you canât really be upset about that. Afterall, sheâs his girlfriend, whether you liked it or not. There is nothing wrong with her, you two got along fine, even if you donât really talk or are even friends. You donât hate her, not for any valid reasons, anyway. Still, despite how many people you know, Sunghoon is your only real friend and always has been. But itâs times like these when it feels like he means more to you than you mean to him.
âSheâs my girlfriend.â He says, matter-of-factly.
You roll your eyes at his statement. âI know that,â you retort with annoyance, âyou only ever bring it up every chance you get.â
âYou seriously canât be annoyed that I spend time with my own girlfriend.â He responds with the same tone.
Sometimes, Sunghoon gets caught up in things. Like being with Yujin, for example. Heâll be with her and then it just slips his mind to respond to a text of yours or to ask if you want to do something, he canât help it. He knows that heâs your best friend and heâs certain that youâre his, too. Sure, Yujin means a lot to him, but you mean more, whether he would admit that or not. He just wants to make everything balanced, for everything to work out. But a part of him feels like something has been off since he started dating Yujin. Sure, heâs had other girlfriends, but never one for longer than a few months. This relationship is important to him. What if Yujin is the one? He canât screw it up and heâs afraid to, so he makes sure to spend as much time with her as he can. He thought you would understand, but apparently not.
Youâve met Sunghoonâs other girlfriends, none of which bothered you as much as Yujin. Maybe because this one seems more serious. Maybe because she seems more important to him. The thought makes your stomach curdle. This whole situation makes your stomach curdle. You shouldnât care so much, but you do. You hate that. âWhatever.â you reply, honestly not having thought of anything better to respond with. What were you supposed to say to that? Of course you understood, but that doesnât mean it doesnât suck.
âBesides, like I said, you and Sungchan have been hanging out a lot recently. Donât act like youâve never blown me off to hang out with him.â Sunghoon says.
âBarely.â
âNot barely. A lot. âOh, Sungchan invited me to his basketball game to watchâ, âOh, Sungchan invited me to a party,â âOh, Sungchan wants to hook upâ, âOh, Sungchan this and Sungchan thatâ.â Sunghoon mocks, annoyed.
You frown. âWhy do you care? Youâve got a girlfriend, so just hang out with her instead.â
Sunghoon frowns as well. âThatâs not the point. The point is that you ditch me just the same to hang out with a guy who youâre not even dating. You donât talk to me sometimes when youâre with him or another guy, so why are you so upset that I do the same with Yujin, who Iâm actually dating?â
âStop rubbing in the fact that youâre dating someone. Good for you, who gives a shit? So what if I do the same? Itâs only because you do it first!â you argue back. You grab your backpack and stand up as you put it on. You start walking away from him and he watches you as you leave.
âGreat talk!â he calls out to you in a sarcastic manner.
He didnât mean to make you upset or try to ârub his relationshipâ in your face, he would never try to intentionally make you upset. So, why did he care? He doesnât, itâs as simple as that. Maybe you doing the same thing to him with Sungchan bothered him a little. Maybe you wanting to spend your time instead with someone else youâre not even dating bothered him a little. But itâs not like he actually cared or anything. He knows he canât tell you what to do or who to see, so why does he care? He knows he blew you off, so why didnât he just apologize? Why did he bring up Sungchan in the first place? Sunghoon sits on the bench for a moment, rethinking things. Why was he acting like you were ignoring him when it was kind of the other way around? He sighs and closes his eyes again. Heâll figure it out later.
-
You let out a long yawn as the dim glow from your computer screen shines on your face. Itâs three in the morning, and sure, you have a class tomorrow, but you canât sleep and figure you can just skip your lecture anyway. Even if your brightness was all the way down, it still hurt your eyes every so often, so you would close them to make them feel better while you listened to the show you were watching. You hear your phone ding and your eyes open, your hand reaching for your phone to see the text.
âare you awake?â Sunghoon texts.
He knows you are. You almost always are, which is why he knew you would see the message. Although, he did anticipate the idea of you ignoring him. You were good at things like that, things that required a stubborn attitude. He didnât mind your stubbornness, though. He didnât mind anything when it came to you. He waited a bit, sitting in the darkness with just the light of his phone screen, his thumb gently tapping it so it doesnât automatically turn off as he waits for you to text back.Â
âyeah.â you text back.
It took you a few minutes and in all honesty, you almost didnât respond. But you missed him, which even if he asks directly, you would deny. You wonder if he missed you too, but you shake that thought away.
âstill pissy?â
This makes you laugh a little. Yes, you were, but you still found it a little funny.
âshut up.â you text back.
âwanna hang out?â
You sigh. Now he wants to? It takes you a while to reply with anything as you just stare at his message.
âcan u bring the usual?â you reply.
He smiles at your text. âduhâ he texts back.
You smile a bit, looking forward to actually hanging out with him. The whole argument was dumb anyway and you just wanted your best friend back. And after a while of waiting, you hear a knock on your dorm room door. You get up from your bed and unlock it, opening it as you step outside. He smiles softly when he sees you and you smile a bit back. You both quietly leave your dorm building before going outside and sitting on the curb. He sets the plastic bag he was carrying between you two and opens a bottle of beer before handing it to you. You take it and he opens his own, both of you taking a sip as a cool breeze blows softly.Â
âSorry about earlier,â he says quietly, âand for not talking to you for a week. I just got caught up with Yujin, you know?â
You take another drink, not really interested in discussing this anymore. âItâs fine.â
âI also wasnât trying to rub her and I into your face and make you feel bad or anything, itâs justâŠâ he trails off. Itâs silent for a moment as you both drink. âThis week has been shitty.â he mumbles.
âAmen to that.â you reply. He chuckles softly and you both clink your bottles before smiling and taking another drink.
âHowâs your love life going, anyway?â he asks, genuinely curious.
Sure, there were other things he wanted to talk about, could talk about, but this is what slipped out of his mouth first. He was actually curious, he truly wants to know. He just wants to see you happy.Â
You shrug, âThe same; just hook ups.â
He looks at you for a moment. Thatâs it? Youâve been hooking up with people since the beginning of high school. Sure, youâve dated some guys before, but they were all assholes; Sunghoon never liked them. He couldnât stand them, to put it plainly. You deserve better, and he knows that. But he also knows youâre not into relationships. You like things to be simple and direct. But when it comes to how you feel, he knew you werenât very expressive with that. Only when it comes to getting what you want. He kind of admires that about you.
âSoâŠno one in particular? You just kind ofâŠgo after who you think is the hottest?â
You grin, âSomething like that.â you take a sip, âSoâŠhow are things going with Yujin?â
You honestly hate that you asked. Why would you? Why would you want to hear about that? Surely, things must be going wonderfully if heâs so wrapped up in all that is her. But youâre still friends. Itâs normal to ask these kinds of questions, right? Maybe he wonât really say much anyway and youâll be a good friend for even asking. Thatâs what youâre hoping for, at least.
"Well... things have been kind of weird. She's been acting kinda distant recently; I don't know how else to explain it. She just seems really bored all the time. Like, the sex is good but it just seems like she's not into me anymore or something." he replies.
You give him a weird look as he brings up the topic of sex with Yujin. Gross. Just...Gross.
âDescribing sex with your âgirlfriendâ as good is never a good thing.â you say as you laugh a bit, taking a sip.Â
Sunghoon scoffs a bit. Why did it seem like you were happy to hear that? It irritated him a bit, but he brushed it off. âWell, I didnât mean it like that. Itâs more likeâŠitâs become something thatâs routine.â
âYeah, thatâs probably not a good sign.â
Sunghoon sighs. "I know... it's just so weird though. I mean, we've been together for so long, and she's never been the type to get bored like this. It just sucks. I'm worried if something happened between us that's making her not want to be with me anymore."
You look at him for a moment as he drinks. You hate seeing him upset and you know that Yujin means a lot to him, especially since this is his first big relationship. You frown a bit as you drink. âHave you asked her?â you take another sip, âArenât people in relationships supposed to communicate and shit?â
"Yeah, I asked her and she said everything was fine, but like... I don't know. I just have a feeling that she's not telling me something, and I've tried asking her multiple times, but every time, she always says everything's fine." he takes another drink. âThatâs pretty much what Iâve been spending last week doing, justâŠtrying to fix what may not even be broken.â he mumbles.
You feel bad now for getting upset at him for blowing you off. It makes sense and you just got defensive again, not really knowing what he was doing. You sit there for a moment, not really sure what to say. Sunghoon didnât mind the silence, though. He was trying to focus on Yujin and figure out why things feel this way when maybe, they arenât even that way at all. Maybe itâs him. He isnât sure, but he is sure that he already feels a million times better being with you, even if it is just sitting next to each other on a curb in silence.
âDo you cum?â you ask.
Sunghoon chokes on his beer a little, hitting his chest a bit as he coughs. He looks at you, not expecting your question at all, and as for you, well, you werenât really expecting to ask it. It kind of justâŠcame out. Your initial thought process was to ask more about his feelings on things in the relationship, seeming more like a routine, but it kind of led to you wondering if he even cums. In your defense, you thought that if he doesnât, then maybe the relationship is going downhill. You look at him, as if what you asked was totally normal, taking another sip of your beer. He looks back at you, seeming to have processed what you asked.
â...yeah, pretty much every time.â
âDoes she?â
Again, not something you really want to know, but you do want to help him.
â...sometimes, but most of the time she doesnât.â
You suck air through your teeth, âUh-oh.â
âItâs not a big deal, you know, so what if sometimes we donât? Itâs not about that, itâs just aboutâŠconnecting or whatever.â he mumbles as he takes a sip.
âSo, then what? Do you guys just likeâŠdo it yourself?â
âYeah, so?â
You laugh. You canât help it, itâs just too funny. Not his obvious pain with his relationship kind of going south, but the fact that he finds this to be normal. You at least found that funny.
âWhatâs so funny?â he asks, pissed off, but also slightly embarrassed.
âDude, I'm not a relationship expert, but like...shouldn't people who have sex, I don't know, finish every time? I mean, I have never really had that happen often with any of the guys I hook up with, but hey, what do I know.âÂ
"Well... I guess, but it's not a big deal to me. As long as she enjoys it, that's what's important. And, it's not like it happens all the time. Sometimes she does finish, but it's just... well, not as often as I would hope..." he takes another sip.
You roll your eyes to yourself. Kind of out of instinct. If youâre going to be frank, you donât give a damn about her.
You shrug, âI donât know,â you take another sip, âyou say you donât cum sometimes, how come?â
âI donât knowâŠit just happens?â
You shake your head, âNah, thereâs a reason.â
âBut the reason is dumb and I donât want to talk about this anymore.â he takes another sip.
âDo you think sheâs hot?â
What a stupid question. You wish you didnât ask it. Why would you want to hear him talk about yet again how hot he thinks she is. It makes your blood boil and you would rather bash yourself over the head with your beer bottle than hear him talk about how perfect she is. But, there is a small, small part of you hoping for a certain answer. Only a small part.
âOf course I do.â he replies, simply.
âSo, then, whatâs the problem?â
âSometimes I have a hard time finishing, happy? JesusâŠâ he mumbles as he drinks some more.
You roll your eyes. Youâve known each other your whole lives, you know when heâs lying.
âMmm,â you take another sip, âno, you see, sometimes when I hook up with guys, I suddenly don't feel attracted to them, so then sometimes I don't finish. So do you just like sometimes not like her or something?â
He shakes his head, "No, I'm always attracted to her. But... sometimes I have a hard time finishing, and I don't know why that is."
âWhat do you think about?â you ask, kind of quietly.
A part of you didnât want to ask that, besides, this conversation was becoming weird. But that small, small part of you was so desperately hoping for a certain answer. Fucked up? Yeah, most definitely, but that didnât seem to stop you.
âAbout what?â he asks, actually clueless.
âWhen youâre having sex, what do you think about?â you ask again, taking a sip of your beer.
â...about her, thatâs what youâre supposed to do, so,â he trails off, âSometimes IâŠthink about other things...â he answers, blushing a bit.
âLike what?â
âJustâŠrandom stuff. Why do you want to know anyway?â he asks, getting slightly defensive.
âMaybe that's what's distracting you. I don't know, spice things up with her or something. Or have an actual conversation with her about how you feel or whatever.â you mutter as you finish your beer.
He takes another sip of his beer. âWhy are you acting like some sort of relationship counselor? Youâve never even really been in a relationship yourself.â
Maybe he wanted to piss you off with what he said, but only so you could back off. âSpice things upâ? Yujin and him are fine, heâs deciding that right here, right now. He doesnât want your help with this or to even discuss it anymore with you. It feels weird. Besides, he doesnât want you to think that heâsâŠnot good at sex. Not for any other reasons, just thatâŠhe doesnât want you to think that about him.
You set your bottle down and look at him. âBecause youâre my friend? I donât know. Why do you care?â You hold your hand out, wanting him to hand the cigarettes he brought while your other hand digs into your sweatpants pocket for your lighter.
He reaches into the bag and hands them to you, knowing full well you could have grabbed them yourself, yet he still obliged. âSo, in all of your hooking up, have you ever had feelings for anyone you hooked up with? And not those bullshit feelings for your douchebag exes, like actual feelings. Or have they all just been hookups?â he asks, hoping to change the subject.
You open the pack, âHookups.â
âEvery single one?â
âMhm.â you answer, taking one out and putting it into your mouth, lighting it as you take a drag.
âSo youâve never fallen in love with anyone youâve hooked up with?â
You laugh, âFallen in love? How stupid.â you say as you take another drag.
âOkay, love might be a strong word, but like, have you never developed feelings for any of the people youâve hooked up with?â he asks, finishing his beer.
âNah.â
"Right, right. So, you're just all about hookups then, and that's cool, no shame or anything; I get it. But you've never felt even just a little bit of loneliness from it?" he asks as he sets his bottle down. You ignore his question, taking another drag. He knows by your reaction that heâs said something that bothers you. Whenever anything is mentioned that may reveal how you truly feel, you just block it off and move on. He sighs, not too sure why he bothered asking since you always ignore these types of topics. Sometimes, he wished you wouldnât. He wished you would be more open with him. It feels like he can talk to you about anything and everything, even if sometimes he doesnât want to, but he does anyway because youâŠwell, youâre you. "I mean, it's gotta get kinda boring... always hooking up, never really connecting with anyone. Unless you don't care about that kind of thing."
âLove is stupid.â you reply flatly.
What a groundbreaking opinion. Truly, nobody has ever felt or thought the same thing. Great stuff. Sunghoon sighs at your answer, not really getting why you wonât just tell him. He wants you to. He canât really explain why. It doesnât have to do with wanting to get some satisfaction out of helping you or changing you, but rather, sometimes he feels like he knows nothing about you. Youâre important to him, more than you could possibly understand, but still, sometimes, you seem so distant; like a stranger. He just wants to know that you trust him.
âSo, just because love hasnât exactly worked out in your life, you think love is stupid? I donât really think thatâs fairâŠjust because your ex boyfriends were assholes doesnât mean that true love doesnât exist.â
For some reason, him talking about true love pisses you off. It pisses you off greatly. You can feel your skin crawl and anger boiling up inside you, so you take a drag from your cigarette, blowing out the smoke, wishing it was something else you were getting rid of.
âItâs not about them.â you take another drag, âDo you love Yujin?â
You think you know the answer already. No, you know the answer indefinitely. There is only one answer. Why would he have spent the past threeâalmost four yearsâdating her if he didnât? You think about all the times he talked about her when they first started dating. You try not to, but your mind recalls all the details, how he said them, what he said, how he looked while he was talking. It made you sick.
His heart sinks a little when you ask the question. He stares at you for a moment, not responding to your question right away. He takes a long deep breath before he answers, âYes.â You sit silent. You heard his answer, but you donât want to acknowledge it. You take another drag from your cigarette, a longer one this time, blowing out the smoke slowly as you tap some of the tobacco from the butt of it off. âDo youâŠnot believe me?â he asks, watching you. He can tell something is on your mind, youâre just having trouble saying it. Heâs not asking to be snarky or anything, he asks in more of a gentle tone, just wanting you to open up or at least just say something remotely close to how you feel.
âNo, I do.â you answer quietly. For some reason, it hurts to say that. Itâs true, though; you do believe himâŠunfortunately.
Silence consumes the both of you, just sitting on the curb as time passes. Crickets chip softly in the distance and the subtle burn of the tobacco from your cigarette fills it a bit, but not enough. He stares at you, both annoyed and concerned.Â
âThen what is it? Are you trying to say thereâs something wrong with my relationship?â he asks, suddenly defensive. Even he, himself, doesnât know why heâs suddenly so defensive about it, especially since he brought up the issue earlier, but he doesnât like thinking that you think there is something wrong.
âJesus, itâs not like that.â you respond, knowing full and well it is like that.
âThen spit it out; what are you trying to say?â
âShut up.â
You take another drag and he rolls his eyes, annoyed. âYou know, youâre so annoying sometimes.â
âSo are you.â
âYeah, I know, but youâre worse.â
You take another drag, genuinely wanting him to shut up, or for things to be normal. Or better yet, for things not to be complicated. âGo cry about it to your girlfriend.â
âScrew you.â
âDitto.â
âWhatever.â he says, pissed off.
âYeah, whatever.â you mumble as you take another drag.
He continues to look at you, pissed off at how you donât seem to care about anything. He used to like that a lot about you, how you never cared about what people thought and are able to brush anything off. Maybe âused toâ is a bit strong, he still likes that about you, but for right now, itâs incredibly infuriating.Â
âYou know, Iâve noticed that you always avoid giving direct answers to questions. Maybe thatâs why youâre so scared of commitment; Not willing to really speak your mind out of fear of hurting someoneâs feelings or your own.â he says, hoping this would piss you off enough to just say how you feel.
You roll your eyes, âShut up.â you say as you continue smoking your cigarette.
âNo, I won't shut up. In fact, I'm gonna keep talking because this is one of the rare occasions where weâre actually having a serious conversation and not just talking about petty stuff.â
You roll your eyes again. âI donât want to.â you reply, simply.
âToo bad. because I am really curious about it. So, Iâm just gonna keep asking questions. Like, have you ever experienced real heartbreak before? Because you seem like the type that just throws people away and moves on with no remorse.â You become quiet. Sure, you werenât answering before, well, barely, anyway. But this time, you feel like youâre shrinking. That type of quiet. The type of quiet you become when you feel like you got caught and you donât want to admit to what you did. You just smoke your cigarette. âAnd you donât just avoid answering questions about your romantic life, either. You do the same thing when it comes to family, friends, and anyone else. You just push people away and never actually let anyone get to know the real you.âÂ
âYou know the real me.â you say, looking at him. In all honesty, you were insulted. He was seriously telling you that he âdoesnât know the real youâ after you guys have been friends since you were two years old? What does that say about your friendship?
âNo, I really donât. All I know about you is the surface layer stuff that youâre willing to share, but I don't actually know you. No one does. Because you never let anyone get close enough.â he says as he looks you directly in the eyes, meaning every word he says. Well, maybe not every word, but it is how he feels. He doesnât want you to get frustrated, but if thatâs what it takes for you to finally say how you feel, then so be it. You do feel yourself getting frustrated and you look away, taking another drag. âAnd donât deny it, âcause you know itâs true. You just push people away and never let yourself be vulnerable, âcause if you did, then they could use that vulnerability against you. And god forbid anybody ever find out about your deepest insecurities-âÂ
âShut the fuck up.â you say, feeling anger seethe out of you. He sits there, somewhat stunned by your response. Not exactly that you became angry, but more so that he actually got a reaction out of you. He watches you as you put your cigarette out and stand up. âIâm going back to my room.â you mutter.Â
He stands up. âSeriously?â he says as he sees you start to walk away. He scoffs. âYouâre just going to leave? Like that? Whatever.â he mumbles as he grabs the pack of cigarettes you put back into the bag (the pack he specifically bought for you and always buys whenever you guys hang out like this). He opens it and grabs one, lighting it as he sees you turn around. You walk back over to him and snatch the pack of cigarettes from his hand. âThe hell?â he asks, annoyed, as he tries to grab it back.
You hold it out of his reach. âYou donât even like red Marlboros.â you say, almost tempted to take the one out of his mouth, too just to spite him.
âGive it back.â he says sternly as he takes a small drag from the one in his mouth, holding it between his fingers as he glares at you.
âNo.â
âItâs my pack of cigarettes.â
âThat you bought for me.â
âAnd I want it back.â
âWell, tough shit, Iâm not giving it back.â
âGive it.â he says as he holds out his hand. You ignore him and turn around, starting to walk away. He takes another drag, grimacing because youâre right, he doesnât like this brand, but heâs only doing this to spite you. He gets even more pissed off just seeing you walk away. âWhy are you always such a pain in the ass?â
âCould ask you the same thing.â you yell back.
He quickly puts out the cigarette and puts the bottles into the bag before catching up to you. âI'm not the one whoâs always being super mean and acting all mysterious about everything. Like, whatâs with all the attitude and snarky comments? Youâve been extra shitty lately.â
âFuck you.â
He scoffs, âYeah, thatâs what I thought. You know, youâre being shitty, you just donât wanna admit it.â
You stop walking and turn to look at him, throwing the pack at him. âThen go away.â
He grits his teeth and grabs the pack from the ground. He looks at you, âWhatever. I'm leaving. But just know, one of these days, youâre going to actually push someone away for good.â
âHopefully itâs you.â you say as you cross your arms.
âYeah, me too. Because I am so fed up with your bullshit.â
âGreat. Go away.â
He rolls his eyes and walks past you, his arm bumping into yours purposefully as he heads back to his dorm.
-
As Sunghoon makes his way to his lecture, he sees Yujin in the distance talking to some of her friends. He thinks about your conversation last night. He had hopes of confiding in you a bit more about how he felt, but of course thatâs not the way things panned out. He had no time to focus on that, even if he was feeling even worse now that he possibly lost his best friend for good. ShitâŠdid he really lose you for good? He feels his blood run cold, but heâs trying to forget it and focus on her. Sheâs his girlfriend, he has to remember that. He walks up to her, smiling a bit. She looks at him.
âOhâŠhey.â she says softly.
âHeyâŠcan we talk for a minute?â She nods her head and stands still. Sunghoon glances at her friends and then looks back at her. â...in private?â Yujin glances at her friends before following Sunghoon over into the library, taking a seat at a table near one of the back bookshelves, a little bit of space between the two of them. âIs there a reason youâve been acting like this lately? Do you notâŠwant to be with me anymore?â Sunghoon asks, just getting straight to the point.
Yujin is quiet for a moment. âEverything is fine.â she says.
He crosses his arms, feeling himself getting frustrated. Why canât people just be direct like you? Yeah, youâre not really direct with your feelings, but you are when it comes to anything else. âAre you sure? Because you've been really distant. We haven't been talking as often, you barely want to spend time with me... and it feels like you're avoiding being intimate with me, too. I had to almost beg you to spend time with me last week. Is there really nothing? Are you sure everything is fine?â Yujin listens and stays quiet. Sunghoon sighs. "You know, couples are supposed to communicate and shit, right? If something is bothering you, just come out and say it." Sure, he took a page from your book with what you said last night and perhaps some of what you said rang true after all, but heâs not really looking to give you a âyou were rightâ moment at this time.
âYou being friends with her bothers me.â Yujin says as she crosses her arms.
Sunghoon freezes for a moment, taken aback by her response. â...are you being serious?â he asks, not totally sure if sheâs just messing with him.
âYou hang out with her more than me to the point that I had to ask you to stop texting her whenever we would hang out and you always say youâre âjust best friendsâ, but I donât believe you. Do you have feelings for her?â
âDo YOU think I have feelings for her?â Sunghoon asks, becoming defensive while also avoiding answering her question directly.Â
âYes.â she answers, simply.
âWhat, do you think Iâll dump you for her or something?â
"She's a slut. You know it, I know it, everybody knows it. I don't care if you guys are close, I'm worried she is going to make a move on you and then you break up with me just for her to use you once and then ruin you; She's bad news." Yujin says.
He feels his jaw drop a bit at what she says. Did she seriously just say that? And so boldly? He feels himself become upset about the way she talks about you. He wants to defend you, he always has, but he frowns. What if this leads to Yujin breaking up with him? You did say last night that you two were done with each other, so why does it matter? He doesnât agree with Yujin, but he wants to save this relationshipâŠ
âYou really think I'm that naive? That I'd fall for a girl like her? Just because weâre close friends doesnât mean I automatically get feelings for her and forget about you. You know I'm smart enough to not get mixed up with someone like her.â he says, feeling like his heart is breaking as he says it. He wants Yujin to feel reassured, but after saying thisâŠit doesnât feel worth it.
âSo you agree.â Yujin says.
Sunghoon sits there, feeling like heâs about to throw up. Why is this so hard? Why canât he just say âyesâ and move on? Why canât he be happy with Yujin? He just nods his head. âI wouldnât fall for someone like her.â he says extremely quietly, almost as if he never wanted those words to leave his mouth. But they did and it was too late.
Yujin smiles, satisfied by his answer. She leans in and kisses his lips quickly, âI believe you.â she says softly.
Sunghoon hesitates, not glad that she believes him. Not glad that she said those things about you. Not glad that he said those things about you. Heâs just not happy. He gives her a small smile and kisses her cheek quickly. âIâm glad.â
-
You are sitting on a bench, scrolling through your phone as you wait for your next lecture to start soon. Sunghoon sees you as he exits his lecture hall and his gaze lingers on you for a moment. He sighs to himself a bit, feeling like he was being pulled in two different directions. The more he thinks about it, he feels as though Yujin was giving him an ultimatum to choose you or her. If she said it outright, there isnât a cell in his body that would hesitate to choose you. He thinks back to his conversation with Yujin in the library and he feels sick; he knows he did something wrong.Â
He walks over to you and takes a seat next to you, just wanting to make up and move on. To his surprise, however, you get up immediately and take your bag before walking away. He sits there, confused, but figures youâre still upset about the argument last night. He gets up and he follows you before catching up and gently grabbing your arm, but you end up taking it away and start walking again. He bites the inside of his cheek before stepping in front of you, âWhy are you walking away from me?â
âGet away from me.â
âNo.â he said as quickly as the words left your mouth.
You look at him, feeling your eyes sting, hot tears wanting to form, but you blink them away. âYou should probably go find your girlfriend, you wouldnât want to be seen hanging out with a slut like me, right?â you ask rhetorically.
âHey-,â he cuts you off, frowning instantly when you call yourself that. âStop itâŠyou know I donât see you that way.â
âThatâs a fucking lie; I heard you talking to Yujin. Or are you surprised about that too since you were in the library and someone like me couldnât possibly be in a place like that.â you say as you cross your arms, swallowing as if that will help mask your clear frustration.
â...what?â he asks quietly, freezing as he realizes what youâre saying.
âI heard you. I heard you agree with her when she called me a slut. I heard you say you "would never be stupid to fall for someone like me". Well, fuck you. Go be with your perfect girlfriend, asshole.â you say before you push past him, swallowing again, but this time to stop yourself from crying.
âWait-â he tries to grab your arm again, but you pull it away and keep walking. He feels his heart sink as he watches you walk away. The world felt as if it just collapsed. He feels like heâs sinking and as he watches you become further from him, he feels like heâs lost everything. Heâs holding his breath, not necessarily realizing he is, almost as if he exhales, heâs not sure he has the strength to take another breath knowing heâs hurt you; he doesnât deserve to.
-
Everything moves in slow motion, all voices muffled, as Sunghoon feels himself being dragged inside of a party by Yujin. He can hear and see her laughing and talking with her friends as they walk inside the loud and crowded atmosphere, but he feels as if heâs hollow. He stands there like a zombie as Yujin talks and greets some of her friends. Heâs not sure how it happened, especially since it was almost midnight and he honestly just wanted to go to sleep, but he somehow ended up here. His eyes felt heavy as they looked around the room, but he subconsciously stood up straighter when his eyes landed on you. It was like he had been resuscitated, his heart beating rapidly as he sees you and then he sees him.
Sunghoon rolls his eyes, noticing how Sungchan was standing closely to you, how his eyes scanned every inch of your body with some stupid, smug smirk on his face. Sunghoon rolled his eyes again and grimaced at the sight. He sees how you whisper something into his ear, Sungchan grinning as he places his hand on your hip. Suddenly, Sunghoonâs heart stopped again as his gaze fixates on his hand. His hand grips Yujinâs tightly as he clenches his jaw and his other hand curls into a fist, his fingernails digging into the palm of his hand. His breathing becomes heavy as he sees you smile, smile in a way heâs never had you smile at him before as your hand caresses Sungchanâs cheek while you clearly flirt back with him. Sunghoon was livid. He feels like an extra in his own life as he watches you fall for someone like that.
âBabyâŠ?â Yujin asks, loosening her hand and taking it away from him since he was practically cutting off her circulation.
âIâm fine.â he mumbles, hints of anger and annoyance clear in his tone. He doesnât look at her as he answers and she catches on.
She looks to where his gaze is and then she looks back at him, upset. âWhy are you looking at her?â she asks as she crosses her arms. âYou told me you donât have feelings for her. Iâm your girlfriend, not her.â
âStop, Yujin, itâs not like thatâŠâ he mumbles, annoyed as he keeps looking at you and Sungchan. He watches as Sungchan puts his arm around your waist and he feels like the air has just been knocked out of him. His tongue pokes the inside of his cheek as he glares at the two of you, wanting nothing more than to shove him off of you.
Yujin scoffs, âI donât even see how you could have feelings for a slut like her.â she mumbles, taking a sip of a drink her friend brought for her. Sunghoon keeps his attention on you. How Sungchan keeps you close, whispers in your ear to make you giggle and you indulge in it, how he touches you, and how he looks at you as if heâs some sick animal that wants to devour you. âDid you even hear me?â Yujin asks, pissed off.
âYeah, I heard you.â Sunghoon mumbles as he continues watching the two of you.
Yujin glares at him and then grabs his hand, dragging him away from her friends. Sunghoon just goes along with it and as Yujin starts dragging him upstairs, Sungchan leas in and kisses you. Sunghoonâs eyes widen as he continues going upstairs with Yujin, her dragging him into an empty bedroom and closes the door behind them. Sunghoon feels like all thoughts had escaped him when he saw that and he stands there with only one thing on his mind: you.
âLetâs have sex.â Yujin says as she looks at him.
Sunghoon snaps out of it and looks at her, feeling like this is his first time seeing her tonight. He looks at her in confusion, not wanting to since he only has you on his mind, but he doesnât want to upset her any further, so he nods his head. Yujin pulls him towards her and kisses him. He hesitates, feeling himself grimace, but he tries to ignore it and kiss her back. He doesnât want to be up here with her, he wants to be down there with you. As they continue to kiss, Yujin begins to undress herself and Sunghoon feels himself tense up. He tries to forget about you and focus on her, thinking maybe helping her undress would help, but it doesnât. Not even a little bit.Â
Yujin moves them over to the bed as she keeps kissing him and he sits there, partially kissing her back and also sitting stiff as a board. He knows this is supposed to be hot for him, having a practically naked girl on him, but he only finds himself wishing it was you. Yujin kisses down his neck as she takes off his shirt and he feels like heâs zoning out, not moving a muscle. Yujin moves her hands along his chest and down his body and then stops kissing him as she looks at him.
âYouâre not even hard.â she says as she frowns. Sunghoon just stares at her, not necessarily surprised, but he still feels bad. "What the hell do you even like about her? She's a fucking whore who opens her legs for any and every guy. She has nothing else to offer besides her fucking pussy, which probably is already stretched beyond repair." Yujin says, angry. "She's nothing! She's not even special and yet she always gets any guy she wants. Well, why does she get you too?" Yujin tears up. "I'M your girlfriend, not her! Do you even love me?" Yujin asks, frustrated.
Sunghoon knows her anger is justified and he feels awful for feeling like he wants her to be you instead. As he watches and hears her say all of these things, he feels bad for treating her like this, but he also becomes angry at listening to what sheâs saying about you. He feels bad for saying it feels like he doesnât know you, because he does, and he knows youâre nothing like who she says you are.
âAnswer me!â Yujin yells.
âI do love you.â Sunghoon says quickly.
â...do you love her?â
He stays quiet. Does he love you? He doesnât know how to answer that. He knows he cares about you more than anyone else, he knows that even when you two fight, he would never want anyone else but you to be by his side, he knows that youâre the only one who gets him, he knows he likes making you smile and laugh and sometimes when you look at him, he feels like he can just look back at you forever. But is that love? Then, what is it he feels for Yujin? Does he love you and not her? How come he never realized it before? Did he always feel this way?
"Why the hell did you even ask me out? Why did you even ask me to be your girlfriend if all this time, you've wanted her? If all this time you've been in love with her?" Yujin asks, furious.
What is he supposed to say? Has he always been in love with you? He thinks for a moment. He thinks about why he asked her out in the first place, about a week after you hooked up with some guy after you two just started college. Was that the reason? Was it because he just wanted something and he knows deep down, you donât want the same, so he found it somewhere else? YouâŠeverything has always been about you, his whole world has always revolved around you.
Yujin gets up and gets dressed. "If you want to be with her so badly, fine. But just know, she's still a whore. She'll just use you and then toss you aside." Yujin says as she finishes getting dressed. "But by all means, go sleep with that slut. We're done." Yujin says as she leaves the room.
Sunghoon sits on the bed in silence. Just great. Now, he doesnât have a girlfriend and worst of all, he still canât have you. He sits there for a moment longer before getting up and putting back on his shirt. Screw this party, he shouldnât have come anyway. He walks out of the bedroom and goes downstairs, feeling like his mind is in a different place as he walks outside. He stops and notices you sitting on the curb, smoking a cigarette. He feels relieved, not seeing you in Sungchanâs arms, and for a split second, he wishes he could just walk over and take you into his, but he pushes that thought away and just decides to take a seat beside you on the curb instead. You scoot away a bit from him, silence looming over the two of you and he feels even worse.Â
âYou shouldnât be sitting here, you know. Your girlfriend might get pissy.â you mumble as you exhale some smoke.
âIâm not with Yujin anymore.â
You pause for a moment, â...I saw you two go upstairs.â
âShe justâŠgot upset that I couldnât get hard. I just had so many thoughts running through my mindâŠâ he trails off, not wanting to ramble on about it.
âWhatever.â you say as you take another drag.
âI wish I never asked her out.â he says before taking a deep breath, feeling like he said something he didnât even realize he was keeping a secret, not even from himself.
âWhy are you telling me this? In case you forgot, I am not your friend anymore. Not after what you and her said about me this morning.â You take another drag, âIt's one thing for her to call me a slut, I don't care about her, but you? You agreed with her. You made fun of me. You're supposed to be my best friend and you say I'm a slut and then that you aren't "stupid" enough to date "someone like me"? Fuck you, honestly. I was so pissed when I heard that. I know we fought the other night, but I never thought you would say that shit about me.â You take another drag. âSo stop talking to me about your problems like we're still friends. You want nothing to do with "someone like me"? Well, then, you got it.â
Sunghoon stays silent, feeling as if everything around him is crumbling. Youâre sitting maybe a foot away from him, but he feels like youâre on the other side of the planet. âIâm sorry.â he says softly, feeling ashamed to have talked about you like that.
You shake your head and continue smoking. âWhatever.â
âI miss you.â he says suddenly. âAnd, I shouldnât have said any of that this morning. I was trying to reassure Yujin at your expense andâŠthat was a big fuck up by me. None of what I said was worth any pain Iâve caused you.â
âWell, I donât miss you. I donât even care.â
Sunghoon stays quiet for a moment. âI have to fix this. Not because I feel like it will make me feel better to know I said sorry, because that doesnât fix anything; that doesnât make you feel better. I want to fix this because, even if you donât believe me, I value our friendship more than anything in the world.â
You scoff and donât reply, blinking away your tears as you continue smoking. âI donât need you. Think what you want about me, I donât give a fuck.â
âHeyâŠâ he says tentatively as he notices you blinking away tears. He feels like he got punched in the gut and hates himself for knowing heâs the one that caused you to feel this way. âI know I hurt youâŠa lot.â he admits. He doesnât know if you would want to listen to anything else he has to say, but he wants nothing more than for everything to go back to normal. To have you back. To just have you look at him. Anything.
You scoff, âYou? As if.â you say as you put out your cigarette. âDonât flatter yourself. Like I care about your opinion.â you say as you stand up. âI donât need your pity and I donât need your friendship. I donât need you.â you say as you walk away and back into the party.
He doesnât hesitate to follow you, not wanting to let you go. He canât. He canât bear the thought of you actually not being a part of his life, not for one goddamn second. He tries to catch up to you, but he stops in his tracks when he sees you go back over to Sungchan. It feels as though time has stopped and he was cursed with having to watch you be with him for the rest of his life. You whisper something to Sungchan, prompting him to grin and put his hands on your waist. Sunghoon feels like heâs about to collapse as he watches Sungchan whisper something back to you before taking your hand and leading you upstairs. He wants to do something, take you away from him, tell you that you mean so much more and are so much more than whatever Sungchan thinks about you. How you mean everything to him and watching you walk upstairs with some other guy feels as though you are taking away every piece of Sunghoon, breaking him apart. But he doesnât and an hour passes before you walk back downstairs with Sungchan, his arm around your waist.
Sungchan whispers something in your ear before letting you go and walking over to his friends, all of them laughing and teasing him. You just walk back out of the party, feeling sick to your stomach; as if you just made the biggest mistake of your life; shame. As you walk down the sidewalk, the night suddenly feels much colder than before. You take out your cigarettes and start smoking another one. Sunghoon follows and catches up, âCan I have one?â he asks, not knowing what else to say, but wanting to say something. You stay quiet, but eventually extend the one you were smoking to him. You stop walking as he takes it, taking a drag as he stands beside you.Â
You hold out your hand, wanting it back and after he takes another inhale from it, he exchanges it back. You take another drag, staying quiet, as you extend it back to him. He takes it as you two share the cigarette and he hands it back to you, almost wanting to just hold your hand instead. You take a long drag, holding the smoke for a while before slowly exhaling. â...you were right.â you say quietly as you hold the cigarette out for him. âIt is lonely.â
He takes the cigarette, feeling hopeful that this is the beginning of an honest conversation, and relieved that youâre opening up. He hands it back to you, âAre you lonely? Do you miss having a relationship?â he asks, softly, wanting to make sure heâs being cautious so he doesnât hurt you again.
âNot the ones I used to be in, no. Those guys wereâŠwell, you know.â
âYeahâŠâ he mumbles. You sigh and take a seat on the curb. He follows suit, seeing if youâll say something else, but deciding to break the silence. âSoâŠwhat kind of guy do you want?â he asks, deep down hoping for a certain answer.Â
You donât answer him and instead, ignore his question. In all honesty, you donât know. Well, you do, but youâre too scared to admit it. âYou were also right about me being a slut.â
âI-I didnât mean it-â
âYou know it, everybody else knows itâŠand I always knew it.â You take your cigarette back and take a drag. âHearing you say it sucked, though, but I know itâs the truth.â
âI shouldnât have said it. I was so caught up in trying to make Yujin feel better and fix things between us when it wasnât worth it. Not when it came at your expense.â
âI know.â
âI shouldâve still stuck up for you. It didnât matter if she was my girlfriend, you donât deserve to be talked about like that.â
You shrug and hand him the cigarette, lighting a new one for yourself to smoke. âI donât care anymore. Hooking up with Sungchan just now made me realize it. Seeing and hearing his friends tease him for itâŠâ you take a long drag, âI knew thatâs what I am.â
He does the same and looks at you. âDid you want to hook up with him?â
âNo.â
âThen, why did you do it?â You ignore his question and keep smoking. âHeyâŠâ he says softly. He knows youâre avoiding his question, but he wants to hear what you have to say.
âWhat happened with you and Yujin tonight?â you ask, wanting to change the subject.
âJustâŠan argument.â
âAboutâŠ?â
âThatâs not important.â
âYou wanted to tell me all about it earlier. You said something about you not getting hard and regretting asking her out. What the hell happened? I thought you loved her or whatever.â you mumble as you inhale more smoke, a part of you hoping it chokes you.
âI do love her. But I guessâŠit meant something different to her. She wanted things from me I couldnât do.â
âLike what.â
âLikeâŠher not wanting us to be friends anymore.â
You scoff before continuing to smoke. âYou shouldâve chosen her.â
Sunghoon raises an eyebrow as he takes a drag. âYou think I shouldn't have chosen my friend who's been with me through thick and thin over someone who was basically controlling who I talked to?â
âShe was just controlling that you don't talk to me. Can't blame her, she probably thought I would try to sleep with you or something. Besides, since when did us being friends for so long suddenly matter? It didn't when you agreed with her about me being a slut.â
âIt matters to me.â He says, feeling his heart sink a little at your words. It seemed like you didnât think your friendship meant anything. He takes another drag and sighs quietly before continuing. âYouâre my best friend. I care about you more than anyone else.â You stay silent as you continue to smoke. âDo you really think I donât care about you?â he asks, softly. You just keep smoking, not really sure how to answer. He sighs to himself as he does the same and his mind wanders to thinking about you and Sungchan again. He rolls his eyes to himself as he tries to push those thoughts out of his head.
âYou asked me if I ever felt heartbreak when we fought that night, talking about if thatâs why I have commitment issues or whatever.â you say as you take another drag. âYeahâŠI have.â
âWas the heartbreak fromâŠâ he letâs the question linger in the air for a moment, âa relationship?â You shake your head. âSoâŠwhat was it from then? Who broke your heart?â
You stay silent for a moment, just smoking â...i didn't realize I fell in love with him until he got a girlfriend, well, his first serious girlfriend. At first, I didn't really care, but thenâŠâ you go quiet for a moment as you keep looking ahead, not at him. âThe way he talked about her, would smile a certain way when he was with her, like he's never smiled at me before...laughing at jokes they shared...seeing him kiss her, hold her handâŠâ you take another drag, âholding her hand..â you repeat, like youâre lost in thought. âIt's something so stupid and simple, but I've never had a guy hold my hand romantically...but he held hers and I remember feeling like I couldn't breathe. I couldn't do a damn thing but suddenly wish I was his girlfriend instead. And then I realized. I loved him.â you take another drag, âI loved him and he was in love with someone else.â
He stayed quiet the whole time you talked. He took in every single word. He took in how you said every single word, how you looked as you spoke. He felt his heart break for you. The way you talked about it was nothing like heâs ever heard you talk about; soâŠinnocent. âDid you ever try to tell him how you felt?â
You stay quiet for a moment as you swallow. âI almost did. One time. I just felt so tired from pretending and I didn't want to just hookup with anyone anymore. I wanted to be his more than anything in the world. I almost told him and thenâŠâ you take another drag from your cigarette. âHe started telling me about how he finally had sex with his girlfriend. How hot she is. How he had never seen anyone so beautiful. How he couldn't believe he was so lucky to be dating her. Fuck-â you pinch your thigh to stop yourself from crying as you take another drag. âI felt so...gross. I had never had a guy say that about me, never had a guy be proud to be with me, but the way he talked about her and everything he was saying...I knew he would laugh in my face if I, just some slut, was in love with him; he would feel grossed out or whatever. No matter how close I thought we were, I knew right then and there I would never be like her. Never like the girl he wanted.â you take another drag, âSo I didn't say anything.â
Sunghoon stayed quiet again, feeling awful. He hated that you thought about yourself that way. He hated that other people had made you feel thatâŠhim included. He hated this guy, especially, for making you feel this way. What a piece of shit. You deserve nothing but the best and this guy pulls this bullshit with you? He was about ready to punch him in the face. âAnd youâre still friends with him? After he did all of this to you?â
âHeâs all Iâve ever had.â
âHeâs not all you have, though. What about me?â he asks, intending to make something positive out of this all. He just wants you to know how precious you are to him because he cares about you so much.Â
This, doesnât help whatsoever, and you feel like youâre about to burst into tears. You canât tell if heâs the idiot or if you are; maybe the latter. But when he says that, you just feel like sobbing, curling up into a ball, and dying right then and there. You pinch your thigh again, to prevent yourself from crying because you absolutely loathe it.
He notices and immediately puts his hand on yours to stop you. He hates seeing you like this and he looks at you, not wanting you to suppress this anymore.
His hand on yours, however, makes you feel even worse. Worse because it makes your stomach do flips and you can feel your heart beat faster. Worse because you know it only carries the connotation of a friend comforting a friendâŠnothing more. You pull your hand away and continue smoking.
He doesnât say anything and he doesnât try to take your hand back. It hurts him to see you pull yourself away. He just wants to make you feel better, feel safe, feel loved. Feel nothing but happiness because thatâs all you deserve. But you donât. He wants to give you everything, and so, he tries again to comfort you. He reaches for your hand, gently taking it into his, it enveloping yours as he holds it as if it is the most delicate thing on earth.
âDonât.â you whisper, taking your hand away.
You didnât want to. God, you didnât want to. His hand felt like silk against yours, but you felt like you didnât deserve it. Compared to his, your hand was like felt, worth far less than his. You didnât want him to hold your hand, not like this. You wanted it to mean something, have some sort of value. Not for comfort. Not because heâs your best friend. Not because he felt bad. But because he loved you. Because he wanted to hold your hand and be proud as he held it. Because he wanted to claim you as is. Because you wanted to be his.
He lets go of your hand and stays silent for a moment. It was as if a part of him died inside as you pulled away your hand. All the thoughts that he was having a few seconds ago were replaced by sadness. His hands tightened into fists from the frustration of being unable to comfort you or take away your sadness. He wanted so desperately to try again, but he knew that there was nothing he could do right now. Slowly, he takes another drag of his cigarette, and you do the same with yours.
âDid you cry whenever he would talk about his girlfriend like that? Did you cry anytime he complimented her?â
You donât answer for a while. âYeah. When he told me he loved her, I cried later. After that, I pretended like I didn't care. And for a while, it worked. I would just hook up with guys and I would still talk and hang out with him because he didn't treat me like what everyone else saw me as. He never did. And that's one of the reasons I fell in love with him, I guess, but then sometimes...he would start talking about her and then I just...felt worse. At some point, I just kind of felt numb about it, especially after he told me about the first time they had sex. He talked about it like it was so special...like she was so special...and I just decided then and there I couldn't love him. So, I just pretended and after a while, I thought I didn't love him anymore, but one night, he started talking about how he couldn't lose his girlfriend, how he wanted to make things with her work and I felt that same feeling again, like I was going to be sick. Then, I heard him say what he really thought about me and that was the last time I cried about him.â
âWhat did he say about you? Did he insult you?â he asks as he feels himself becoming angry, wondering what this jerk couldâve possibly said about you to make you feel this way. But, you donât answer, you just remain quiet and that made him want to punch this guy even more. âDo you miss him?â he asks, quietly.
â...i miss being oblivious to the fact that I love him.â
He feels his heart drop when you say that. You still love him? He swallows, feeling like heâs choking and as if all of the oxygen has been sucked out of the atmosphere. âSoâŠyou do love him. Youâre still in love with him?â Once you ignore him again, the answer is clear. âYou do still love himâŠâ he mumbles. Anger courses through his veins because youâre in love with someone so fucking awful. How could you give all of yourself to someone who is too blind to see how much youâre worth? How much you mean and value you provide to meaning of life itâs goddamn self? He watches as you continue smoking. âSo, you mean to tell me, after everything heâs done to you, you still love him?â
âHe doesnât know.â
âHe doesnât know youâre in love with him?â
âI told you, I never told him.â
This doesnât help him feel any less bad for you. Some douche was out and about being happy and in love while you suffer on the sidelines? âAre you ever going to tell him?â
You shake your head as you look down. How could you? Especially since youâre delivering this whole pathetic monologue and he still isnât taking any goddamn hint.Â
âIs it because heâs still with his girlfriend?â
âI donât want to talk about this.â you say as you finish your cigarette.
He becomes frustrated, âIs he?â
âNo.â
âSo, they broke up.â You ignore his question once more. He waits a few seconds before speaking up again, âIâm taking that as a âyesâ then.â
âWhy does it matter? Why do you care?â
âWhy do I care?â he asks as if this question has the most obvious answer. He scoffs and takes another drag out of frustration. âBecause Iâm your best friend, dumbass.â
This only makes you frown as you pinch your thigh again to stop the tears threatening to fall. He frowns as well when he sees this and reaches his hand over again. âStop.â he says as he grabs your hand. You look down at your hands and you take yours away again. He feels a lump form in his throat when you pull your hand away as a pit of sadness just keeps growing and growing in his stomach. âWhy are you doing that? âŠdo you honestly think I donât care about you?â You just keep staring ahead of you, not looking at him once. He takes another drag and sighs. âHave I ever given you a reason for you to think that I donât care? Have I hurt you like that guy did?â
His questions make you stay silent for a long time. You wish that you could just disappear. Or that you could go back in time and stop yourself from having these stupid feelings. OrâŠthat you never met him in the first place. Maybe then things would be easier. Better.
âJustâŠanswer me.â he says, pleading, almost. He wants you to understand that he is here for you, he always will be and nothing is going to get in the way of that anymore. He wants this to be clear, so he tries to hold your hand again to show his support, but you take it away once he does.
âAre you pretending or are you actually this clueless?â you ask, becoming frustrated, your voice having a hint of pain in it.
His stomach tightened when you rejected him once more. He doesnât look at you, suddenly afraid to see your expression. He doesnât know what to do, how to make you feel better. He stays silent for a moment and continues smoking. âPretending about what?â he asks. You become increasingly frustrated and pinch your thigh again. He notices and grabs your hand again, âStop.â he says sternly, but you pull your hand away.Â
âJesus, youâre the guy.â
He feels himself freeze. âWhat the hell do you mean âIâm the guyâ?â
âAre you dense?â you raise an eyebrow. âYouâre the guy Iâve been talking about this whole damn time!â
â...iâm the guy?â he asks, completely stunned. You let out a huff of frustration and stand up, walking away. He doesnât hesitate to stand up and go after you. He grabs your arm to stop you. âWait, you canât just leaveâŠâ
You keep pinching your thigh, a part of you believing it will wake you up from this nightmare as you avoid his gaze. You take your arm away from his grip. âJust forget it.â
âNo. You just said Iâm the guy, right? The one youâre in love with?â He asks, all of his focus on you. You ignore his question and turn around, walking away. He groans and he moves in front of you, stopping you. âYou love me?â But you just avoid his gaze and donât answer his question. He sighs, âIâm not letting you leave until you tell me.â
âNo.â
He frowns. âLook at me.â he whispers. âPleaseâŠâ he moves closer to you. âDo you love me?â
âWhy does it matter?â
âYou tell me. Why doesnât it matter?â
You punch your thigh harshly a few times as you finally look at him. Your breath hitches as tears well in your eyes, despite you trying to ignore them. âBecause Iâm just a slut.â
He grabs your hand and stops you. He feels panicked, not knowing what to do or say. He doesnât want you to cry or punish yourself. âStop it. Stop with that bullshit. Youâre not a slut, donât you dare ever call yourself that.â
âYou said it yourself. You agree with everyone else. I know you don't feel the same. I know you'll never talk about me the way you talk about Yujin or see me the way you see her. I know you said you guys broke up, but so what? I know what I am and I know that's all I'll ever be.â
He feels tears prick his own eyes as he listens to you. He shakes his head, âStop that. Stop saying that Iâll never feel the same. Stop saying that youâre just a slut.â
âIt doesnât matter.â
âIt does matter! It matters to me. Youâre not just âsome slutâ. Youâre my best friend.â
You frown as you feel the urge to cry become stronger. You take your hand away and you pinch your thigh again, just wanting the tears to go away. What he said made you feel awful. Itâs not what you wanted to hear. You didnât want to be just thatâŠand he just kept reminding you that thatâs all you are. â...do you honestly think that makes me feel better?â
He frowns, âFine. Maybe it doesnât make you feel better. But it should. Because itâs the fucking truth.â
âAre you even thinking about what I told you? Are you even thinking about how you're the guy I've been talking about? How every time you talked about Yujin, every time I saw you hold her hand, how you talked about her when you told me about the first time you guys had sex, that I just wanted to curl up and die? You don't get it. You calling me your best friend doesn't make me feel any fucking better. It makes me feel worse than when people call me a slut. But I don't want you to stand here and try to make me feel better, because if you think telling me you care about me because I'm your 'best friend' is going to make me feel better, then you haven't listened to a damn thing I've said.â
He stares at you sympathetically. He stares at you as he realizes just how badly heâs broken your heart. As he realizes he broke your heart.Â
âI don't want to be your best friend. I don't want you to tell me I'm your best friend.â You keep pinching your thigh harder, but tears roll down your cheeks anyway. âI wanted it to be me.â you say as you cry even though you keep pinching harder. âI wanted to hold your hand romantically. I wanted you to smile at me the way you did with her. I wanted you to talk about me the way you talked about her.â Your breath hitches as you cry and pinch your thigh harder, your nails digging into your skin. âI wanted to be special to you. I wanted you to tell me you love me. I wanted to be your girlfriend...more than anything in the world.â You cry harder even though you try not to and you dig your nails more into your thigh.
Heâs never seen you cry. Not when you broke your arm, not when your pet goldfish died, not when your first boyfriend broke up with you, not even when you get incredibly frustrated. He has never seen you cry. But he hates it. He doesnât want to see you so sad, so hurt, in so much painâŠand he hated it even more because heâthe one person you loved more than anything elseâwas the one who was making you feel this way. He pulls you into him, hugging you tightly, just wanting to take your pain away, just wanting you toâŠfeel loved. But you push him away and wipe your tears, and he notices the imprints from your nails on your thighs. He doesnât even realize it, but he reaches his hand out and gently touches the marks as he looks at them. He touches the ridges softly and your skin feels so smooth to him, so precious, but you push his hand away. His eyes travel up to meet yours and he sees youâve stopped crying.
âWhy wouldnât you just have told me how you felt?â he asks, quietly.
âFor starters, you had a girlfriend. The other reason: it doesnât matter.â
âWhat if I never got with Yujin? What if I was single the whole time?â
âI didnât realize I loved you until you started dating herâŠâ
âWhy her? Iâve dated other girls before, so why her?â
You shrug, âSheâs the only one you really seemed to be serious aboutâŠthe only one you told you loved. BesidesâŠIâm not some sort of homewrecker.â
âI wish you told me.â he whispers. âYou were never going to tell me?â
âNo.â
âSo, you were just hoping I would never find out?â
âYes.â
âSo, you were just going to keep that secret for the rest of your life?â
âYeah.â
âSo, you were just going to live with that pain forever?â
âAre you going to keep asking the same question?â
âI just want to knowâŠâ he says as if heâs desperate. âWhyâŠwhy would you not tell me?â
âBecause you were with Yujin! Because you kept telling me how much you loved her! How pretty you thought she was, how happy you were to be with her, how smart and kind and funny and fucking perfect you thought she was! You were happy. You were happy with someone who wasn't me and although that killed me, you were happy. I couldn't do that to you.â you say as your voice breaks.
âSo that justified you suffering in silence? Why would you rather see me happy while you were in pain?â
You look at him like the answer was obvious. How does he not get it? You stare at him as you remain quiet, looking at him as if itâs your last time. âBecause I love you.â you say, softly.
He feels like youâre looking at him as if he is the most special person to walk on earth. He swallows out of nervousness as he realizes you gave him your heart completely. âYou love me so much that you were willing to put yourself through hell just to see me be happy?â He doesnât feel worthy of thatâŠbut you seem to think he is. You love him.
âWouldnât you have done the same for Yujin?â
You donât want to hear him answer this. You donât want to know, but you feel like he doesnât understand. You feel like you keep repeating yourself and heâs relishing in it.Â
He doesnât know how to answer. Would he? Hearing how you describe your love for him, he realizes what he felt for Yujin maybe wasnât love. Maybe it was comfort. Or security. Or the fact that someone wanted to be with him so seriously. Maybe he did love her, butâŠnot the way you love him. This sounds like love. This sounds like what he was supposed to feel. âYesâŠâ he says, not really sure if thatâs true. He wants to believe he loves her. He wants to believe he didnât waste almost four years on something that ends up meaning absolutely nothing. He has to love her.
âThen you get it.â
âDid you just hope we would break up one day so you and I would get together?â
You sigh, âYou still don't get it. I know you don't feel the same way. I know I am not the type of girl you want to be with. I'm not the type of girl any guy wants to be with seriously.â
How could you say that about yourself? Sunghoon doesnât believe any of that, not for a single fucking second. âThat isnât true. Youâre smart, kind, funny, and pretty.â
âStop.â
âNo. Itâs true. Everything I just said is true. You think no guy would be able to fall in love with you, but they would. You would make an awesome girlfriend.â he tries to reassure you.
You donât want any guy.
âYouâre not making me feel better.â
âWhat am I supposed to do, then? Agree with the bullshit youâre saying about yourself? Because thatâs not fucking happening.â
âWhat I want you to sayâŠyou canât.â
âTry me. Tell me.â
You just look at him. He doesnât get it. He isnât saying it because he doesnât feel the same. This realization makes you feel like youâre crumpling. You look at him, defeated. If you have to tell him, you know he would only say it to make you feel better, not because he actually wants to. That. Thatâs what hurts the most. He would say it because youâre his best friendâŠbut you donât want to be.
â...are you going to try and get back together with Yujin?â
He pauses. He thinks about it for a second. âRight nowâŠI donât know. I guess a part of me wants to try still. Does that make me shitty?â Heâs not sure why he does. Yujin is the first girl heâs ever told he lovedâŠand he doesnât say it often. Maybe heâs like you, in a way. He doesnât really like saying stuff like that. It felt weird when he said it. But he thinks thatâs just because heâs never said it before.Â
âWhy would I?â
âI feel like an asshole for even considering it after everything youâve told me-â
âSheâs the one you love.â
âIâm not so sure about that.â he says, truthfully. He just needs to think. He just needs one damn second to think.
âThen let me make it clear: be with her. From my perspective, she's the one you want. What I told you, how I so stupidly cried in front of you, that doesn't matter. I told you this earlier: you should've chosen her. So just, make up with her tomorrow or whatever and be with her.â you swallow. â...but I can't be your friend.â
He sees you giving up. He hears it. He hates it. His mind is running a thousand miles per minute, he canât fucking think and itâs pissing him off. âItâs not that easy. I canât just âchooseâ between the two of you. Iâm confused, I justâŠI want to be with whoever makes me happy.â
Heâs always been happy with you. Sure, you two fought, but you always got over it. You make him happy. So goddamn happy. But heâs scared. He just gave nearly four years of his life to YujinâŠwhat if itâs because he does love her?Â
âThatâs her.â
âHow are you so sure itâs not you?â
âI know.â
He groans in frustration. âSo, I have to choose between the two of you?â
You. He chooses you. Heâs not sure about the rest of it, but all he knows is that he chooses you. Four years with Yujin doesnât compare to the years you and him have had together. Nothing else matters. You. Just you.
âJust be with her.â
âWhat if I want to be with you?â
He hasnât thought about it. Maybe he chooses you only as a best friend. What if he doesnât choose you for love? âŠdoes he love you? He recalls the teasing from classmates when you guys were younger, but he's never really given any thought to it possibly becoming real. Does he love you the same way he loves Yujin? Does he even love Yujin? He doesnât knowâŠhe just doesnât know.
âYou donât.â
âAnd what makes you so sure that I choose Yujin over you? What makes you so sure youâre ânot enoughâ for me?â
â...because you wouldâve chosen me first.â
âI can still choose you.â
You sigh, âYou're making this complicated. You know she's the one you love, stop feeling bad for me like I'm some lost puppy and just admit it. I don't want your pity and I certainly don't want you to say you âchoose meâ because you're confusing your pity for feelings. Stop saying I'm this great girl and stop saying any guy would be lucky to have me, that makes me feel worse. So just make up with Yujin and get back with her. Reassure her that you love her because you do and tell her I won't be a problem anymore because you and I aren't anything anymore. Problem solved.â
Is this really what you believed? Is this really what you thought? He just needed some time, he canât think. He doesnât know what to think anymore. You were speaking as if it was impossible for him to love you, but what if he does? How is he supposed to know? How did he know with Yujin? Heâs questioning whether he even loved her since he canât even compare how he feels about you with whatever he felt with her. He just knows itâs stronger. But stronger in what way? He sees how youâre looking at him and he realizes the only way for him to succeed in making you feel betterâwhich is what he truly wantsâis to just listen to you. He doesnât want to. But he wants to see you be happy, even if it means he isnât.
âAre you really sure this is what you want me to do?â he barely asks, the words leaving his mouth without any fever, as if he never wanted to utter them in the first place. As if he doesnât want to hear your answer; see you walk out of his life.
You donât answer him. You just look at him before walking past him. You hold your breath, knowing that once you exhale, youâre going to start sobbing. You felt so lonely. So lonely. Youâve always had himâŠand then you lost him to YujinâŠand now, youâve lost him for good.
He doesnât turn around to look at you as you walk away, because he knows if he does, he will run after you and that clearly isnât what you want. You want to let him go, at least thatâs how he understands it. He doesnât want that. He wants you. He knows that much, he knows he needs you. Heâs not sure how things will look without you now. He never thought it would be like this, but here he is. âŠwhy does this feel so much worse than when Yujin walked away from him? Why does this hurt more than his actual breakup? The reason is one he doesnât want to admit. He realizes the answer and he refuses to let it grow to fruition. He doesnât know why it took him until now to figure it out, but heâll realize that later. He wanted timeâŠnow, heâs got it.
-
Deja vu. Thatâs what this all feels like. Here Sunghoon was, again, at another stupid frat party around midnight. Here he was, again, with Yujin. He took your advice, he decided to apologize and get back together with her, and these past few months without you have felt like torture. Even using torture to describe it seems too dull. He has thought about nothing but you. Heâs heard around campus about people youâve hooked up with, but he doesnât feed into it. As he stands here with Yujin at this godforsaken party, all he can feel is regret. He leans against a wall as Yujin talks with her friends and he practically chugs his drink. He doesnât even want to leave the party because he doesn't think it's worth to waste any of his wants on anything but you. You make up all of his desires and he wants nothing more than for you to be back into his life. He finishes the rest of his drink and to his surprise, he does see you. He stands up straighter as he looks at you, but feels like his insides are on fire when he realizes youâre making out with Sungchan. On the couch. On the couch, you are making out with Sungchan. On the couch, Sungchan is running his hands along your hips and waist. On the couch, you let him.Â
You would be lying if you said you didnât miss Sunghoon. A part of you went missing the night you walked away from him. Youâve seen him around campus with Yujin and eventually, it finally felt like you were over it all. Over him. You wouldnât say youâve been getting around quite frequently, but you wonât lie when you say that you did get with some guys to help get over him. It didnât work. But you wonât admit to that. To you, at least, youâre over it. Over him. Sungchan helped a bit with some of the lonely nights, but you two arenât anything serious. Heâs not into that sort of thing and, hey, neither are youâŠso this is fine. He doesnât lie to you about how he feels or what he wants and for that, youâre grateful. Although, you do have to admit, making out with him feels boring. Being with him feels boring. Itâs not fun like it used to beâŠand even then, you arenât completely sure it was even fun in the first place. Whatever, youâll get into it at some point.
Sunghoon watches, now it really feels like deja vu. Is he dreaming? OrâŠis this him getting a second chance? Is this when he can finally pull you away from Sungchan and be there for you? Finally tell you how he feels? How he felt the whole timeâŠ? Suddenly, his spirits are slightly lifted, that is, until Yujin crosses her arms and scoffs before shoving him. Sunghoon is surprised and turns his attention towards her. Some people look at them, but Yujin doesnât care, she just looks at Sunghoon, furious.
âDo you even want me to be your girlfriend?â
Maybe honesty wouldnât be best right now. âI doâŠâ
âThen stop looking at her.â
âLetâsâŠnot make a scene.â he says, trying to calm her down.
âJust be honest for once: do you love me or her?â
He doesnât know how to answer. He knows his answer, heâs had months to figure it out. ButâŠyou made yourself clear. You were done with each other. He sighs. âCan I get a moment to figure it out?â he asks, honestly a bit surprised he didnât just cave and reassure her.
Yujin frowns and scoffs. âLet me ask you this, then. Do you wish that you were making out with her?â
He looks back at you and Sungchan, seeing him whisper something to you and you giggling before he kisses you again. He looks back at Yujin. âYeah.â he swallows, gathering all of his courage. âBut, that soundsâŠawful. Itâs like you want me to admit I regret getting back together with you or something-â
âDo you?â
âYes.â he answers without hesitation. He feels all of his muscles tense up. Did he really just say that? WellâŠitâs the truth, but he never thought he would say it. He feelsâŠbetter.
Yujin quickly squashes that by slapping him, âWeâre done.â she says before storming out, her friends following. Sure, the slap hurt, but as Sunghoon looks back at you and SungchanâŠthe pain from the slap seems so insignificant in comparison.
You decide to tell Sungchan youâre getting a drink, so you get up from the couch and go into the kitchen. You pour yourself a drink and once you do, you walk to the backyard and take a seat on the patio.Â
Sunghoon figures you want to be aloneâŠbut finds himself following you outside anyway. He walks over to you cautiously. You and him have spoken consistently for practically your whole lives, but he finds himself struggling to even say a simple sentence or ask a question. The time youâve spent apart was multiple daysâŠtoo many fucking days in his opinion. He canât stand it. âCan I sit here?â he asks, referencing the spot beside you. You shrug as you take a sip of your drink. He feels relieved, baby steps, right? He takes a seat beside you and thinks for a moment on how to keep the conversation going. âSoâŠwhat were you telling Sungchan?â âŠhas he lost the ability to socialize or something because why was this the question he asks? He bites his bottom lip a bit in frustration at himself.
âSpying on me?â you tease as you extend your cup, offering him some.
Sunghoon chuckles softly and shakes his head. Hearing your voice for the first time in months makes him remember just how much heâs missed you. He feels like everything in his life is restored and he smiles a bit. âYou guys were all over each other on the couch, is it really weird for me to wonder?â
You shrug, âI mean, just typical flirting and dirty talk or whatever. Why?â
He feels his breath catch in his throat. âDirty talkâ?...what the fuck? âUmâŠno reasonâŠI guess I was justâŠcurious or something.â he mumbles.
âAre you here with Yujin?â you ask as you take another sip of your drink.
He shakes his head. âWell, not anymore. She broke up with me soâŠIâm alone now.â he realizes how that mightâve come off. âAlone here nowâŠnotâŠme alone altogetherâŠor anything.â he cringes and looks away from you, feeling completely stupid.Â
âWhat? Why did she break up with you?â
âSheâŠsaw meâŠlooking at you and SungchanâŠso she broke up with me.â he says, not really wanting to say the other stuff from the argument. You laugh in response and he frowns. âDonât laugh.â
You nudge his shoulder, âItâs okay. If she broke up with you for that dumb of a reason, her loss.â You say as you take another sip.
He smiles slightly. It feels like old times. It feels like he has you back. It feels like you want him back. âYeah, youâre probably right. Itâs probably best I donât have her constantly being suspicious about me and you.â
âEspecially since we havenât talked in months.â
He feels caught off guard by your blunt statement. Sure, itâs trueâŠbut it sounds like you didnât miss him. âYeahâŠwe havenât talked in a while.â You just take another sip of your drink and he looks back at you. âIâve missed you.â He waited for you to say something back, but you didnât. âIâve umâŠmissed talking to you like before. Like, beforeâŠeverything got complicated and stuff-â
âI know what you meant.â
He nods his head a bit, everything now feeling awkward. âSoâŠwhat have you been up to? Anything interesting happen?â
âNope.â
âReally? Nothing? Nothing at all?â
âYupâ you say as you take another drink.
âSoâŠfor the past few months, youâve done absolutely nothing interesting?â he asks, his tone being more lighthearted and joking to try and diffuse the tension.
âNo offense, but Iâm not really looking to âcatch upâ with you.â
Sunghoon feels his heart stop for a moment, but he tries to play it off. âOkay, ouch.â he laughs nervously, âSo youâre not even remotely interested in talking with me?â
You shrug, âI dunno. These past few months without you, Iâve kinda just been doing my own thing, I guess.â
Your response left him feeling worthless. Like, he didnât even mean a single thing to you before. Which, he knows isnât trueâŠbut you sound like you mean it. âSo, you havenât missed me at all? Not even talking to me?â
âAt first, yeah. But donât worry, Iâm not in love with you anymore.â
â...youâre notâŠin love with me anymoreâŠ?â he asks as he feels his blood run cold. You just shake your head and continue drinking from your cup. His heart sinks immediately. He feels small; insignificant. His mind jumps back to Sungchan and he frowns. âAre you in love with him now?â
âHim?â
âSungchan.â
âEh,â you shrug, âweâre not dating, just casual, I guess.â
âSo, youâre not exclusive with him?â
âNo.â
âAnd youâre okay with that?â
âYeah.â
He feels himself growing jealous and frustrated. How could you give yourself to someone who doesnât love you? Sunghoon feels upset, realizing he unintentionally did the same thing, but still, not to this extent. He knows you. He knows you donât want thisâŠhopefully. But he sure as hell knows that you donât deserve this.Â
âThatâs ridiculous. How can you be committed to this?â
âIâm not committed.â
He groans, âThatâsâŠnot what I meant. What do you two even get out of this?â
You shrug, âWhy do you care? I get youâre a relationship guy even though youâve only been serious with one girl, but donât shit on me and what I choose to do.â
The way you spoke got under his skin. âI care because I happen to care about the people around me. In case you havenât noticed, I care about you.â But you just roll your eyes. âDonât roll your eyes. Iâm being serious. Why do you feel like this isnât worth talking about?â
âBecause we arenât friends. We arenât anything. I donât need your input.â
It feels like youâve slapped him in the face, and this time, it fucking stings. âWhat do you mean we arenât friends? We grew up together, how the hell are we not friends?â
âAre you stupid?â
âAm I stupid?â he asks, offended and frustrated. He was starting to lose his patience. âNo. Iâm not. I still consider you as my friend. We grew up together, went to the same schools, hung out every damn day, how is none of that relevant?â
âWe havenât spoken in months.â
âSo what?â he asks, feeling as though your friendship suddenly means less than nothing to you, somehow.
âI told you that night that I wasnât going to be your friend anymore.â
He freezes. He knows. He also knows you donât just say shit without it meaning anything. He knows you arenât friends anymore, but he doesnât want that. He doesnât want you to be nothing to each other. He thought that if, maybe, he admitted he still sees you as his friend, you would admit the same. But you donât. And now he feels that same empty feeling. âSoâŠyouâre just fine with letting us go without a second thought?â
You look at him, âDo you not remember anything from that night? Of course if fucking hurt; I was in love with you.â
âSo it does matter.â
You sigh, âIt doesnât matter anymore; that was a long time ago.â you say as you take another sip.
He looks at you for a moment, feeling like his heart has become a punching bag and you were just taking any hit you could. Was this really the same person he grew up with? That he⊠âHow could it not matter anymore? We used to mean the world to each otherâŠhow can that justâŠbeâŠover?â
You look at him, âBecause I had to get over you.â
âItâs not that easy. I spent everyday thinking about you. Everyday.â
âWhy?â
âBecause I love you!â He thought your question was so redundant, he honestly didnât even realize what he said at first.Â
âButâŠâ you sit there, stunned. He finally said what you wanted him to say for so long, even if it was with a frustrated tone, stillâŠit counted. âWhat about Yujin?â
âSheâŠshe doesnât matter. You do. She always suspected I was in love with you-â
âWell, this is news to me.â
He deadpans. âAre you being fucking serious? I get I never said it before, butâŠâ he pauses; he sees what you mean. âOkayâŠbutâŠyou never once thought it was possible that I love you?â
âNo. Because that night when I told you that night that I was in love with you, you just kept saying I was your best friend. Youâre so full of it.â
âIâm not full of it! I justâŠfor fucks sake, I just didnât know. I thoughtâŠI donât know, I thought maybe for you it was just passing, or something, I donât know what I thought I justâŠI donât know.â
âRight. So as I stood there, crying my eyes out as I told you how much I loved you, you thought it was one sided.â you say as you roll your eyes.
âIâŠâ he feels like he did that night, like he canât think. âI just didnât know, maybe something was holding me back, I donât know.â
âI know why.â
He looks at you, relieved, thankful that you understand what he means. âYou do?â
âOf course you didnât want to admit to that. How embarrassing for you to have a crush on one of the schoolâs biggest sluts.â
He frowns. âThatâs not what I mean. You honestly think itâs embarrassing for me to like you?â
âExactly. And you knew that. I donât blame you, no guy wants their girlfriend to be a whore.â You take another sip of your drink and you look at him. âLook, Iâm not mad. I got over it and I honestly donât care anymore. I know what I am and I know that until we graduate, thatâs all Iâll probably be. But it doesnât matter. Yujin breaking up with you not too long ago was dumb, youâre a really great guy, but youâll find someone else.â You take another sip, âI should probably head back in and find Sungchan.â
He felt anger wash over him. Not because you donât believe him about being in love with you. Not because you were going to Sungchan. But because of the fact that you believe the things you say about yourself. Youâre so special, so goddamn special, and Sunghoon is so scared as he realizes he may be too late.
âAnd what if I donât want to find someone else? What if I donât want anyone else but you?â
You look at him for a moment. âDo you remember how you would talk about Yujin with me? You may not remember everything you said, but I remember it all and I remember how you looked as you said it. You talked about her like she was the most special and most beautiful girl in the world. You had this smile that you only had with herâŠâ you pause for a moment, âYou may say you have feelings for meâŠbut they're not like the ones you had for her, and thatâs okay. I donât want you to feel bad because you deserve to be happy, but you also deserve to find another girl that makes you talk and feel that same wayâŠand I know thatâs not me.â
Youâre so wrong. Youâre so fucking wrong and it was pissing him off. He wishes he just figured this out earlier. He wishes that he asked you out instead. He wishes that he told you he loves you that night. He wishes he kissed you. He wishes he held you and didnât let go. He swallows, âYou remember everything I said?â he asks, slightly surprised to hear that. Honestly, he doesnât even remember what he said. Not anymore.
âOf course I doâŠI wanted nothing more than for it to be me.â you say quietly as you take a sip and sigh. âBut like I said, water under the bridge.â
He feels tears begin to form. âWhy did we have to grow apart? Why didnât you just talk to me? Just one damn word. Something. I didnât want to lose you.â
âI canât be your friend.â
âWhy not?â
You look at him for a long moment, just staying quiet. â...Iâm only going to say this onceâŠbut if I stayed your friend, I would just keep hurting myselfâŠI would still love you.â
He stays quiet for a while. Even the loud music and chatter from the people inside seemed to drown out as he looked at you; youâre all that matters; youâre all that deserves his attention. â...did it hurt when we would talk everyday?â
You sigh softly and shake your head. âNot until you started dating Yujin. Before that, everything was fine. But once she happenedâŠit hurt like hell.â
âWhy didnât you tell me?â
âI told you. I couldnât do that to you, you were happy.â
âI would have wanted to know. I would have wanted to be there for youâŠâ
You laugh a little, âNo, thatâs weird.â You shake your head and still laugh a little, âItâs fine, Iâm over it.âÂ
âItâs not weird. Itâs not okay for you to act like everything is fine.â he says, softly.
âWhy are you trying to rehash this? Thereâs no point. Or do you like to hear about how I used to love you and it gives you some sort of ego boost or something?â you ask, not wanting to dive back into thisâŠnot again. He shakes his head, but he sighs. What is the point? You arenât believing him and youâve said it yourselfâŠyouâre over him. You stand up and his eyes follow you, âIâm gonna go find Sungchan. Later.â you say, not really meaning the âlaterâ part, but nonetheless, you walk away and all he can do is watch you leaveâŠagain.
He heads back into the party, wanting to find solace in getting batshit drunk or something, but he continues to torture himself by watching you dance with Sungchan. His eyes only focus on you, sure, heâs jealous and pissed off that youâre with Sungchan, but he only sees you. Sees how you move and he finds himself wishing you were dancing with him.Â
Sungchan pulls you closer, just whispering sweet nothings in your ear and you feel his hands grab your ass. You giggle a little and try to enjoy your time with him as he starts kissing your neck. You laugh softly as you dance with him and, unfortunately for Sunghoon, heâs bearing witness to it all. His hand practically crushes his red solo cup as fury ignites within him when he watches what Sungchan is doing. That should be him. Not that he would be soâŠvulgar with his actions, but it should still be him instead. He sees Sungchan whisper something to you as he takes your hand and starts taking you upstairs.Â
As he watched the two of you making your way upstairs, his whole body shook and trembled in rage. Every step that the two of you took together enraged him. He hated the way you casually held his hand and how he casually walked you up the stairs. He hated how he acted as if he had every right to touch you like that. He hated the fact that you were both so comfortable with one another at this point. He hated the fact that he was leading you away to his roomâŠ
You were so focused on following Sungchan, you were surprised to feel a tug on your other hand once you reached the top of the stairs. Both Sungchan and you stop and you turn to see Sunghoon holding your other hand.Â
Sunghoon felt at ease, like he was grounded when he felt your hand in his. This made him more confident as he tugged you towards him, wanting you away from Sungchan. This pisses Sungchan off and he scoffs as he looks at Sunghoon.Â
âThe hell?â Sungchan says, not in the mood for any games. He tugs the hand he was holding, pulling you back towards him, but you find yourself only focused on Sunghoon as your heart starts to beat faster.
Sunghoon pulls you back towards him, his grip on your hand tightening. âBack off.â he says as he glares at Sungchan.Â
âYou back off.â Sungchan says as he tugs you back towards him.
Sunghoon realized that you were just being tugged around, so he stopped, but he kept holding your hand. âLet go of her.â
âYou let go of her.â He looks at you, âWho the hell is this guy?â Sungchan asks, annoyed.
âSomeone who actually loves her instead of using her.â
You look at Sunghoon, surprised to hear him say that. Sure, he said he loved you earlierâŠbut this time when he said it, he said it like it was what he meant to say; what he wanted to say.
Sungchan laughs. âYou love her?â
Sunghoon glares at him. âYes. I love her. Now back off.â
Sungchan scoffs and puts his arm around me. âTell you what, bud, you can have her when Iâm done.â Sungchan winks as he pulls me towards him.
Sunghoon feels enraged. This asshole was acting so entitled, acting like he won this argument when Sunghoon knew damn well he wasnât giving up. The fact that he had the nerve to call him âbudâ too made Sunghoon want to throw him down the flight of fucking stairs. How he treated you was disgusting, talking about you like that in front of you. Sunghoon tugged you towards him one last time and Sungchan rolled his eyes.Â
âWhatever.â Sungchan looks at you, âYou know where my room is.â he says as he winks at you before walking away.
Sunghoon grimaces as Sungchan leaves, but feels better once heâs gone. The whole time, you were just looking at Sunghoon and you feel as though your heart is beating out of your chest as he holds your hand. After what he said. After all of this. He meets your gaze and he looks at you in a much more gentle manner.Â
âYou deserve so much moreâŠâ he whispers, his breath lightly brushing along your face since youâre so close together. âIâm sorry. Iâm so fucking sorry-â
âStop.â
âNo.â he says as he lets go of your hand and uses it instead to gently cup your face. âI wasnât lying. You are all Iâve thought about for these past few months and youâre all I can ever think about. Iâve missed you every single damn second of the day and Iâm sorry I was too scared to say it all before. I love you. And all this time, Iâve just thought about what you mean to me and the answer is everything; you mean everything to me. ...that seems like such a vague thing to say now that I say it out loud.â he chuckles softly, âBut everything means nothing if youâre not with me. Eating, sleeping, breathing, blinking, are all pointless if I canât spend one goddamn second with you. Iâm not embarrassed of you and I only realized that night when you left that Iâve always been in love with you. Always. What I felt with Yujin is all meaningless when I compare it to how I feel about you. I love you. It was never her. Not for even a millisecond. You asked me if I would put myself through pain just to see her happy and I told you yes. I lied. I thought that was what I would do, but I realized I actually did that with you. I let you walk away because thatâs what you wanted. I didnât want that, god-â he takes a sharp inhale as he rests his forehead on yours, âItâs always been youâŠand Iâm so sorry I never said it until now. Iâm so sorry I put you through all of that shit. Iâm so sorry, but pleaseâŠâ he whispers as he looks into your eyes, all of his focus only on you. âI love you.â
You feel your breath hitch slightly and you feel so tempted just to kiss him, but you hold yourself back. You smile a little bit and pull away slightly, feeling relieved. â...I need to smoke. You want one?â you ask as you take his hand, going into an empty bedroom.Â
He closes the door behind the two of you as you walk over and sit on the bed, opening the window beside it. He sits beside you as you take out your pack and he smiles a bit. âYeah, I do.â he says as you hand him one. He watches as you light yours and then you light his for him. You both sit silently for a moment as you smoke, it being a comfortable silence until he speaks. âThank you.â he says, mainly for lighting his cigarette, but he does want it to apply to you not leaving him again.
âI forgive you.â you say after a moment.
âYou do?â he asks as he takes a drag and looks at you.
âYeah.â you say as you take another drag yourself. âBut youâve got to get better at saying how you feel.â you tease.
He scoffs playfully and nudges your arm. âSays you.â he mumbles as he continues to smoke.
You laugh softly and shrug. âWeâll work on it.â you say before exhaling your smoke and he nods his head a bit as you both look out of the window for a moment. You glance at him and inhale from your cigarette before gently pulling him towards you. He turns his head to look at you and you kiss him gently, shotgunning the smoke slowly into his mouth.
His eyes widen a bit as his heart beats rapidly. He closes his eyes as he inhales, letting the smoke slowly fill his lungs while he leans forward to kiss you back, indulging in the feeling of your lips on his even if it wasnât an actual kiss. After blowing out the smoke, you break the kiss and watch as he exhales the smoke. He does it slowly, feeling as though his lips are tingling, begging to meet yours again. He smirks a bit after he exhales all of the smoke and looks at you. âDamnâŠthat was good.â he whispers as he blushes a bit.
You grin, taking another drag, âIâve missed you.â
He takes a drag as well as smiles softly. âIâve missed you, too.â It goes quiet, but this time, a comfortable silence as you two smoke. He blows some smoke out of the window and looks back at you. âDo you thinkâŠwe could give this another shot?â
You follow suit and blow some smoke out of the window before looking at him. âOur friendship orâŠsomething more this time?â
âSomething more. Both, hopefully.â he smirks a bit as he says this, taking another drag.
You smirk a little back and chuckle softly, âI really want that.â
âSo do I.â he whispers as his eyes lock onto yours. He smiles softly, âWeâre going to be official.â
He reaches for your hand and carefully interlaces his fingers with yours. You take another drag as you smile shyly. âGoodâŠâ you say, softly.
Your fingers seem to fit with his perfectly; everything about you is perfect and it was things like this that make him realize it all the more. You hold hands as you smoke silently, both feeling a fluttering excitement in your stomachs as your relationship dynamic shifts to one that you both have been longing for before you even realized it yourselves. He glances at you as he exhales some smoke.
âGood? WowâŠI was expecting some more passion out of that.â he teases, gently squeezing your hand.
You laugh before finishing your cigarette and putting it out. You turn your body a bit to face him, âWhat aboutâŠfucking incredible?â
He laughs loudly at your new choice of phrasing. He calms down after a moment, âThatâs more like it.â he says with a grin before smoking his cigarette again. His gaze lingers on you as he watches you smile at his reaction. Stunning. He leans in, letting go of your hand, placing his left hand beside you on the bed as his lips meet yours, kissing you.Â
You donât waste a single second, kissing him back immediately as your hand makes its way to the back of his head, your fingers threading with his hair as you push yourself slightly forward, pressing your lips against his more. He inhales sharply as he moves his left arm around your waist, pulling you closer, desperately. He puts out his cigarette and discards it, using his other arm to wrap around you as well as he pulls you onto his lap. You part your legs, straddling his lap as you grin a bit into the kiss, both of your hands using their fingers to gently tug on the ends of his soft hair. You feel yourself fill with excitement, the fact that this is really happening after every inch of your body has desired this exact moment makes you feel restless.Â
Sunghoon runs his hands up and down your thighs, squeezing them gently, before moving them up to your hips, and then your waist. His hands suddenly felt so big against your skin, his fingers sending shivers throughout your whole body anywhere they touch. He opens his mouth slightly more and you take this as a sign to slip your tongue into it. He grins, this time, and he pulls you closer to him by gripping your waist; your bodies now pressed tightly against each other. He moves his hands to cup your face and you move yours to rest against his chest, your fingers tightly gripping his shirt in an attempt to somehow kiss him deeper. His tongue glides across yours as he kisses you with increasing desperation. The need for you grows every second that passes, he has to kiss every inch of you, he has to make you his, he has to make you feel loved; the only thoughts devouring his mind at this very moment consisted of nothing but you and his need to ensure you only ever want him.Â
The kiss becomes sloppy, both of your lips becoming covered in one another, and you feel yourself craving more. So much more. You bite his bottom lip a little, testing to see if this will make him decide to take initiative, resulting in him gasping softly and releasing a low moan. He liked it. He liked it a lot. He moves his hands back to your waist, pushing you down against his lap and his jaw loosens a bit as he loses his breath, feeling you finally press against his erection. You moan softly, enjoying the feeling of some sort of contact where you desperately needed it the most and it felt so good knowing he wanted you just as much as you wanted him. He couldnât take it anymore, he had to have you.Â
One of his hands grips your thigh and his other arm goes back to wrapping around your waist as he picks you up a bit and lays you back against the bed, not once breaking the kiss; at this point, kissing you has become his oxygen supply. Feeling your hands on him is the only thing keeping him alive. His lips part from yours only to kiss along your jaw, just below your ear, and down to your neck. You gasp softly and your eyelids flutter closed as you relish in the feeling of his soft lips kissing your skin. He takes one of his hands and uses it to move some of your hair out of the way, placing it on the back of your head, pulling your hair softly to move your head back so he has more room to work with on your neck. You let out a soft moan, feeling him leave open mouthed kisses on every single inch of your skin, him making sure he doesnât miss a single spot.Â
He opens his eyes a bit and looks at you, to see how heâs making you feel. He watches as your lips part slightly as you take in small gasps of air, as if he leaves you utterly breathless; youâve never looked more beautiful. He watches to see what spot of your neck when he kisses it that you seem to like the most. Once he gets to a certain spot and watches you bite your bottom lip a bit, he smirks slightly against your skin and sucks gently on the area. His tongue laps the spot a bit as he sucks and nibbles on it; this was his spot now. You moan softly and you feel your breath slightly catch in your throat as he leaves a hickey. He leaves a few soft pecks on the spot a little after heâs left his mark and he smiles a bit to himself.Â
You feel the warmth of his body pull away from yours and your eyes open as you look at him. The moon shined a bit through the window, the light falling beautifully on him as he looked at you with a slightly flushed face. He looked back at you, seeing you laying on this bed, all for him, he felt like he was going crazy. He sits on his knees between his legs as his hands run along your thighs; he just keeps looking at you, admiring all of you. You lay there, looking at him, feeling your body become hot as he looks at you through hooded eyes, as if you leave him in a trance. Your breathing picks up in speed as he runs his hands painfully slow along your thighs and as much as you want to pull him back towards you, you feel as though youâre frozen.Â
He takes a slow, deep breath, as his left hand travels up to gently take your right hand. He holds it up softly, separating your fingers with his as he loosely holds your hand, his gaze now focusing on your hands. He raises your hand up and leans in, raising it to his mouth. He softly plants his lips on your fingertips, kissing them softly, up to your knuckles, trailing his lips to the back of your hand, then gently turning it to kiss along the palm of your hand. He closes his eyes as he kisses down your arm--slowly--and gently lays your arm back at your side as he kisses up to your shoulder. His hands move to the hem of your short dress, slowly sliding it up, you raising your hips to help him, and he stops, leaving it bunched around your waist as he goes back to kissing along your shoulder. He gently pushes the strap of your dress down your shoulder as he focuses on kissing your body, moving along your collarbone. He breathes deeply, pushing the other strap out of the way as he leaves open mouthed kisses on your left shoulder, down your arm, his hands gently holding it up as he kisses up to your wrist. You watch him, feeling as if your body is constantly shivering, still dressed (albeit, your dress is pushed up), yet feeling completely exposed. His hand envelopes over your left hand as he kisses your palm like he cherishes your entire being, the way he looks is as if heâs wanted to do this his whole life.Â
He kisses your fingers, knuckles, and fingertips, opening his eyes slowly as he lets go of your arm gently. He moves his hands back to your waist, pulling your dress up more and you sit up, realizing your body is shaking, and he kisses your forehead before pulling your dress off carefully, like heâs afraid if he does it too fast, youâll break. He lets the dress fall to the ground, the fabric hitting the hard wood floor just as softly as he lets it go. Itâs as if the room is silent, no muffled music from downstairs, no rolling of tires from the occasional cars passing on the streets, no soft wind hitting the curtains, nothing except the quiet breaths escaping from his and your lips. He feels his erection become even more painfully hard as he looks at you, and he swallows, honestly trying not to let out a moan just at the sight of you. His breath stifles a little as he places his hand on the small of your back, steadying you as he leans back in, kissing the top of your chest. He feels himself growing more desperate, desperate to feel every inch of your skin on his lips, on his fingertips.Â
He breathes in sharply as he presses his face more into your chest, his lips sloppily kissing along your chest as his need for you grows. His tongue trails along your skin and he shudders, his hands becoming shaky as he holds your waist, all his focus practically on making out with your chest. A low moan elicits from him and from the way he was kissing your chest with such desperation made you moan softly in response, one of your bra straps falling a little off your shoulder from his movements. Itâs as if he senses it and just decides to unclasp your bra, still trying to let it slide off of you slowly and hold himself back, but once he sees you take it off, your bare chest exposed, he feels himself get so close to cumming in his pants. He gently lays you back on the bed, wasting no time, however, to wrap his lips around one of your nipples. Your breath hitches and you moan as he releases his desperation. Kissing, sucking, and fondling your breasts, small whimpers coming from him as he feels elated to finally be doing this. Spit covers your chest almost instantly as he licks and sucks, kneading your breasts, moaning as the soft flesh squeezes and molds beneath his hands. And itâs only until he feels his breathing becoming quick, his dick aching in his pants, is when he stops. He pulls away slightly, his hair slightly covering his eyes as he stares at them, his trembling fingers squeezing and spreading his spit along them, his thumbs pressing and circling your nipples, and you feel as if ripples just went throughout your entire body.
You gently push his hair away from his face and he goes back to kissing along your stomach, down to your panties. You can feel momentarily the thin layer of sweat covering his forehead when you push his hair away, running your fingers through his locks and he whines softly against your skin, his hands gripping your sides and finally moving to the edge of your panties. You wait in anticipation, expecting him to take them off, so you raise your hips slightly, but he pulls away. You poutâonly slightlyâas you look at him with a confused expression. He smiles sweetly, as if heâs not the one that caused you to quite literally soak through your panties. Heâs noticed, god, heâs noticed, but it takes everything in him not to behave like some animal. So, with that, he moves his hands down to your feet, slowly taking off your shoes for you before setting them on the ground. He moves back a little, leaning down to kiss along your leg, stopping at your knee, before moving to do the same thing to the other leg, but this time, he kisses up your thigh, leaving open mouthed kisses on the inner part of your thigh, gently nipping at your skin, and up to your hip. He gazes at you through his eyelashes as he moves to kiss along the other thigh, closing his eyes as he moans deeply against your skin, his tongue running along your skin.
He takes in a shaky, deep breath, and you feel your whole body become stiff once you feel his warm breath scatter so deliciously on your core. He gently places his hand over your sopping panties and your breath hitches, your whole body feeling grateful for some sort of contact. His brows furrowed as he slowly rubs his middle finger along your clothed slit, a low groan escaping his lips as he feels even more of your wetness seep through the fabric as he pushes into it. His mind feels hazy; he has to taste you. He takes his hand away, licking his middle finger and he feels as if his whole body exploded. He moans quietly to himself, before gripping your thighs and sticking his tongue out, licking a slow, long stripe between your clothed folds to your clit. Your eyes roll back as you gasp and moan. His fingers dig into the skin of your thighs as he feels himself lose all sense of sanity. He wanted nothing more than to take his time, but fuck, he canât do it anymore.Â
His lips instantly latch around your clothed clit, sucking and lapping his tongue as he starts to subconsciously rut his hips against the mattress. His saliva soaks your panties entirely as he presses his tongue more firmly, causing you to moan louder, gasping, as your hand makes its way to his hair, your fingers tangling in it. He moans and pulls away only a little before diving back in, pushing your panties to the side with his face as he makes out between your folds. His jaw is working overtime, his tongue lapping and picking up as much of you as you can give, His nose bumps against your clit as he loses himself in your taste, eating you out like a madman. He groans and moans into you, his hip movements stuttering as he licks all the way back up to your clit, moving his right hand off of your thigh before pushing his middle and ring finger into you, making sure to rub them between your folds before he does. He sucks and licks your clit, moaning and whimpering as he pushes his fingers in and out of you, not stopping until his knuckles prevent him.Â
You moan his name, gripping his hair, pushing his face against your clit more as your legs shake and you cum, moaning his name. He whimpers and the way you taste sends him over the edge as he feels himself cum in his pants, his jaw falling slack a bit, and he pulls his fingers out, desperate to lick them clean. You let go of his hair, trying to catch your breath and he sits up, his face slick and covered in you, and he tugs your panties off. You look at him, watching as he undresses himself and you feel your body become light as he reveals more and more of himself to you. His bare chest, his abs, god, his biceps, you were about ready to start touching yourself at the sight, desperate for him, but you managed to stay put.Â
He feels his ego boost a little bit, watching how you look at him, examining his body as if he is some work of art. Heâs going to give you everything he knows you deserve and that thought alone makes him smirk. You notice as he takes off his underwear the wet patch from his prior release, making you grin a bit. He finally lets his cock out, it still being painfully hard despite him having cummed already, and you gaze at it. You feel yourself clench around nothing, wanting him so desperately to fill you up and he sees it. He smiles innocently, as if you both arenât completely naked and horny before he grabs a cigarette and lights it. He takes a drag as he spreads the precum spilling from his tip all along his length and you watch his every movement, honestly feeling your mouth water at the sight. You sit up and he motions his head to the window as the cigarette sits between his lips.Â
You turn and face the window, propping your forearms against the windowsill as you look outside, the cool breeze honestly feeling nice against your flushed, hot skin. You feel his presence shift behind you as he takes another drag. He sighs softly, looking at yourself propped like this, he places his free hand on your hip, lining himself up with you. He moves that hand and gently brushes your hair softly to the side, exposing your back entirely, and you turn your head a bit to look back at him. He exhales some smoke and meets your gaze, gently brushing his fingers along your cheek.Â
âRelaxâŠâ he says before leaning to whisper in your ear, âand donât be afraid to let the neighborhood know my name.â he says before kissing your cheek.Â
You feel your body shudder at his words and he holds the cigarette between his lips as he uses one hand to hold your hip, the other gripping his cock before he slides it up and down, teasingly, between your folds. You gasp softly and he smirks, pushing his tip against your clit and he hisses a little, more precum leaking from his tip. He guides his cock into you, needing to quickly grab his cigarette from his mouth due to his jaw falling slack as he bottoms out into you. Your fingers grip the edge of the windowsill, your jaw dropping as you feel him finally giving you what you want. You moan and become breathless. He takes another drag from his cigarette before moving his hand from your hip to your shoulder as he pulls his hips away and then thrusts himself back into you entirely.
He filled you up perfectly, and he was damn ready to cum just from the way it felt like you perfectly felt around him. So warm and so fucking wet. He thrusts in and out of you a few times, groaning as you moan, sounds of you coating his cock more and more each time he goes in and out of you. He takes a shaky inhale from his cigarette, his eyes rolling back a bit as he thrusts a bit faster, before taking the cigarette out of his mouth, gripping the back of your head, a handful of your hair between his fingers, as he pulls you up and turns your head towards him. You moan and whine looking at him as he kisses you, shotgunning you this time as he keeps a steady pace of thrusting into you. You felt like you were going to choke, but you inhale what he exhales and as he pulls away, you turn back and lean your forearms against the windowsill as you blow out the smoke, gasping afterwards and moaning his name.
âGood girl,â he groans and puts the cigarette out, putting both of his hands on your hips, thrusting faster. âSuch a good girl.âÂ
You moan at his praise and breathe quickly as all you can do is let out strings of long moans as you feel his cock press into you over and over, him somehow hitting every area that makes your knees weak and mind hazy. His fingers dig into your skin as his hips rapidly pound and slap against your ass, the sound of skin slapping becoming louder and louder. You moan his name loudly, and as a reward, he pushes further, you feeling his tip brush against your cervix and you gasp, moaning his name lewdly. He grunts, the way you just moaned his name almost made him cum automatically.Â
âLouder, sweetheart, come on.â
You gasp for air as he fucks you so goddamn good, and you try to arch your lower back a bit so he can go deeper. You moan his name as many times as he wants, whatever it takes for him to rut in and out of you faster, to which he obliged. His breathing becomes heavy and your legs shake as you throw your head back a bit, your jaw dropping as you let out a long moan, cum spreading all over his cock. He grunts and whimpers, wrapping his arms around your waist as his brows knit together, him leaning down and kissing your shoulder as he pumps you full of cum, a low moan coming from him and onto your shoulder. He moans your name softly as he lets out a few more shallow thrusts, making sure he gives you every last drop. You feel yourself shiver as the warm liquid pushes into you and you whine a little.Â
After a moment of him holding you close and staying inside of you, he kisses your shoulder softly again before pulling out and pulling away. He lays back onto the bed and you shudder as you feel his and your cum spilling out of you and trailing slowly down your inner thigh. He opens his arms a bit and you go to him, letting out a sigh as you rest your head on his chest and feeling content when his arms wrap around you. His hand slowly moves up and down your back before he kisses the top of your head. Itâs silent for a while as you both lay there.
âSoâŠweâre a thing now?â you ask, partly joking, but part of you was seriously asking.
He looks down at you and scoffs playfully. âAfter all of this, you still donât get it?â he chuckles softly. âI want nobody but you.â
âȘ â đđ„đ đȘđ đŠđ§đđđ đđ„đđđĄđđŠ? lando norris x best friend! reader ( angst ) fic summary . . . like others before you, like it's a curse, if you start out as friends, you don't finish off as friends (5k words)
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2013
The three of you sat perched on a wooden platform overlooking the track, swinging your legs as the older kids raced below. The sky was a deep orange, the sun slowly dipping behind the trees, casting long shadows across the asphalt.
It smelled like fuel, burnt rubber, and the sweet vanilla ice cream sandwiches melting in your hands.
Lando, as usual, was the one talking the most. âOne day, weâre gonna be better than all of them.â He gestured to the racers speeding past. âLike, properly better. F1 better.â
You chuckled, raising an eyebrow at him as you took another bite of your ice cream sandwich. âBold of you to assume youâll even fit in an F1 car,â you teased. âThey already have you Velcroed to your kart seat because you used to fly out. Whatâs the plan? Glue?â
Lando scoffed, turning to you with an exaggerated look of offense. âExcuse you, I was small and aerodynamic.â
âYou were a human paperclip.â
âAt least I didnât spin every time the wind hit me wrong.â
Before you could fire back, Max, who had been sitting in between you both, sighed dramatically and shoved his half-eaten ice cream sandwich straight into both your faces.
Cold, sticky vanilla smeared across your cheek. You gasped, jerking back as Lando let out a high-pitched noise of protest.
Max, completely unfazed, continued eating what was left of his ice cream. âShut up, both of you,â he said, as if he hadnât just committed an act of war.
You and Lando turned to each other, ice cream dripping from your faces, then back to Max.
âOh, youâre dead,â Lando declared.
Max barely had time to react before the two of you launched at him, sticky hands smearing the rest of your desserts across his hair, his cheeks, anywhere you could reach.
The three of you tumbled onto the platform in a mess of laughter, shoving, and half-hearted kicks.
It was one of those moments you never thought youâd lose.
2018
Landoâs house felt warm, filled with the kind of easy comfort that only years of friendship could build. You were sprawled on his couch, Max sitting cross-legged on the floor, a half-finished bag of crisps between you. It felt just like old timesâno pressures, no media, no cutthroat competition. Just the three of you.
And then Lando dropped the bombshell.
âI got the seat.â
You blinked. âHuh?â
Lando grinned, bouncing slightly where he sat. âMcLaren. Next year. Iâm gonna be a Formula 1 driver.â
For a second, there was silence. Thenâchaos.
âNO. WAY!â Max shot up, grabbing Lando in a chokehold-hug, shaking him back and forth. âYOUâRE LYING.â
âMate, I literally just said it, why would Iââ
You barely let Lando finish before launching yourself at him too, arms wrapping tightly around both of them. âHOLY SHIT! LANDO, YOUâRE IN FORMULA 1!â
Lando laughed, his voice almost breathless from the force of your excitement. âI KNOW!â
The three of you clung to each other, giddy and weightless, like kids in a candy store.
When you finally let go, you turned to Max, determination flashing in your eyes. âWe have to catch up, Max. We canât let Lando enjoy the dream alone.â
Max smirked, nudging you. âYeah, heâll get a big head otherwise.â
Lando groaned, already regretting letting you two in his house. âOh, great. Here we go.â
And just like that, the celebration turned into a roast session.
âDo you think theyâre giving you a booster seat for the car?â you mused, tapping your chin.
Max snapped his fingers. âWhat about pedal extenders? Are those FIA-approved?â
âOh, shut up,â Lando whined, throwing a pillow at both of you.
The night ended with all three of you curled up in sleeping bags on Landoâs living room floor, talking about what the future would look like. You laughed until your stomachs hurt, teasing and reminiscing, the weight of reality kept at bay for just a little longer.
By the time you got home the next morning, the high of the night before had faded into something colder, heavierâanxiety creeping up your back like the Other Mother from Coraline, whispering in your ear that time was ticking.
The metals of your dream clawed at your spine, a warning, a reminderâitâs now or never.
Lando had his McLaren seat. George had Williams. Alex had Red Bull.
And you?
You refused to let it end here. You refused to be left behind.
So you wasted no time. You spent the next few months fighting tooth and nailâgetting on every call, talking to every team, pushing harder in every F2 race until your body ached from the effort. You couldnât let up, couldnât breathe, not until you had something.
And in the end, it paid off.
Sauber.
A vacant seat after Charles moved up to Ferrari. A chance. A shot.
The first thing you did? You invited Lando and Max to your dinerâthe same childhood spot where the three of you had spent countless nights in sticky vinyl booths, inhaling burgers and fries, talking about the future like it was already written for you.
They were messy eaters, as always. Lando had ketchup smeared at the corner of his mouth, and Max had a fry halfway to his lips when you slid a piece of paper across the table.
Your contract.
For a second, there was silence. The paper sat between them, your name printed at the bottom in ink that had barely dried.
Thenâ
âNO. FUCKING. WAY.â
Lando let out a yell so loud the entire diner turned to stare. Max, mouth still full of fries, made a sound between a choke and a cheer.
Then they both launched at you, pulling you into a hug across the table, fries and drinks nearly toppling over as they shouted over each other.
âI KNEW IT! I KNEW ITââ
âOH MY GOD, YOU LEGENDââ
âI CANâT BELIEVE THISââ
âWeâre actually doing it,â you gasped between laughter, arms still tangled around them. âWeâre actually going to be in F1 together.â
And thatâs how you got kicked out of the diner.
Well, technically, Lando stood on top of a chair and yelled something about "generational talent," which got you all thrown out, but still. Worth it.
As the three of you walked out into the night air, still giggling and breathless, you and Lando turned to Max.
âYour turn,â you said in unison.
Max hesitated. He looked at the ground, rubbing the back of his neck. âI donât know, guys⊠Iâm still in Formula Renault. Itâs gonna take much longer for me.â
You and Lando deflated.
âButâŠâ you started, searching for the words.
Lando took over. âThat doesnât mean you wonât get there.â He clapped a hand on Maxâs shoulder. âYou canât give up. You belong with us.â
Max forced a smile, but it didnât quite reach his eyes. âYeah. Yeah, I know.â
And maybe, at the time, you really thought it was true.
2019
The three of you stood at the edge of the paddock, the sun hanging low in the morning sky, painting the track in golden light. You and Lando were already in your race suits, helmets tucked under your arms, while Maxâstill very much retiredârocked a team-neutral hoodie and his signature smirk.
âI have an idea,â Lando said, rubbing his hands together. âRock, paper, scissors. Best of one. Winner gets Max in their garage for Sunday. Loser has him for quali.â
You snorted. âLike heâs some prize?â
âI am a prize, actually,â Max deadpanned, crossing his arms.
You ignored him and held out your fist. âAlright, Norris. Letâs do this.â
Lando did the same, and Max counted you down. âThree⊠two⊠oneâŠâ
You threw out scissors.
Lando threw paper.
A slow grin spread across your face. âOh, this is so satisfying.â
Lando groaned dramatically, shoving his helmet onto his head. âI hate you.â
âYou love me,â you sang, already stepping backward toward your garage, wiggling your fingers in a smug wave. âSee you on Sunday, boys.â
Max clapped Lando on the back. âCanât believe you choked that, mate.â
Lando grumbled something under his breath, dragging his feet toward McLaren.
On race day, Max stood in your garage, arms crossed as he watched the screens, tracking your every move on the circuit. Every lap, every turn, every scrap for position. You werenât in the points yet, but you were fighting.
And thenâP11. Just one spot away.
Lando finished P12, right behind you.
It wasnât a podium. It wasnât even points.
But it didnât matter.
When you parked your car in parc fermĂ©, your hands were still shaking from adrenaline. Landoâs McLaren pulled in right beside yours, and the moment he climbed out, he made a beeline for you, shoving your shoulder.
âYou beat me.â
You smirked, shoving him back. âI did beat you.â
Lando gasped, feigning betrayal. âYouâre not supposed to rub it in!â
âYouâd rub it in!â
âWell, yeah, butââ
You both dissolved into laughter, playfully pushing at each other until your arms were tangled together, until it turned into a hugâone filled with giddy relief and the sheer overwhelming feeling of we did it.
Max watched from the sidelines, shaking his head with a small smile. âBunch of idiots,â he muttered under his breath. But there was pride in his eyes.
The three of you had dreamed about this since you were kids.
And now?
Now it was real.
By the time Abu Dhabi rolled around, you and Lando had both finished your rookie seasons with points under your belts.
Sure, Lando ended up 11th in the standings while you finished just behind in 12th, but neither of you cared. If anything, it made things more funâan unspoken rivalry that never turned bitter, just fueled your banter.
âYou only finished ahead of me âcause McLarenâs faster,â you teased as you kicked your feet up on the restaurant booth, stealing a fry from Landoâs plate.
He scoffed, snatching it back before you could pop it in your mouth. âAnd you only finished one place behind me because I let you.â
Max let out a laugh from across the table, nearly choking on his drink. âYeah, right,â he said, nudging Lando. âYou were sweating every time she was in your mirrors.â
âI was not sweatingââ
âMate, I was in your garage for half the season. You were definitely sweating.â
Lando rolled his eyes but didnât argue, knowing he was outnumbered. Instead, he grabbed a handful of his fries and chucked them at Max.
That was enough to start an all-out war.
Max launched a piece of his burger at Landoâs face. You flicked a spoonful of ketchup at Maxâs hoodie. Lando retaliated by shoving a napkin full of salt in your lap, making you yelp and nearly knock over your drink. The three of you were loud and messy and probably two seconds away from getting kicked out.
It felt exactly like karting daysâwhere there were no points, no contracts, no expectations. Just the three of you, laughing until your stomachs hurt.
Sure, Lando had bonded with Carlos that year, and you had somehow managed to crack Kimi RĂ€ikkönenâs icy exterior enough to make him chuckle a few timesâa massive badge of honor, in your opinion. But no matter how many new friends you made in the paddock, at the end of the day, the three of you always ended up here.
Together.
2020
You sat at the dinner table, arms crossed on the surface, head resting against them. You hadnât moved in a while. The glow from the kitchen light made the tear tracks on your face glisten, but you werenât crying anymore.
Lando sat a few meters away on the couch, silent. He was never silent. But now, he was staring blankly at the floor, elbows on his knees, fingers interlocked, like if he loosened his grip, he might break too.
Max had quit racing. Dropped out of F3.
He had said it so easily, like it wasnât a big deal. Like he hadnât spent over a decade chasing this dream with you and Lando, pushing through the grind of karting, junior formulas, training, race weekends, victories, and heartbreaksâall of it.
And now he was walking away. Just like that.
âI think I just need a break,â Max had said, voice steady, unreadable. âFor my own sake.â
You understood. Of course, you did. You and Lando both did. Racing wasnât just about driving fast. It was politics and pressure and expectations. It was eating, breathing, living the sport and leaving no room for anything else. And sometimes, it broke you before you even got to where you wanted to be.
Max had burned out before he could even get the chance.
And the worst part was, you felt like it was your fault.
You had been the one pushing him. Encouraging him to move up, hurry up, because you and Lando had made it, and he had to, too. It was supposed to be the three of you, like always. And in trying to keep him from being left behind, you had unknowingly pushed him over the edge.
But you didnât say that.
Instead, you had hugged him. Tight. Like you could somehow hold everything together just by keeping him close.
âI respect your decision,â you had whispered against his shoulder, voice thick, tears in your eyes.
The crash was hard. Not in the physical senseâsure, the impact rattled you, and climbing out of the car with gravel stuck in every crevice of your suit was a pain, but it wasnât that bad. You had worse in junior formulas.
What was bad was watching your best-ever result slip through your fingers.
P5. It was right there.
But Carlos had oversteered, lost control, and taken you with him into the gravel trap. The second you felt the hit, you knew it was over.
You had swallowed down the frustration when the engineer came on the radio. Your voice had been clipped, measured. âYeah. Iâm okay.â And then you climbed out, gave a wave to the crowd, and started the long walk back.
But the sting didnât really settle in until you got back to your driver room. Until you sat on the little couch, helmet off, hands on your knees, staring at the ground as the DNF fully registered.
And it burned even worse when you heard that Lando had gone straight to Carlos.
Comforting him.
Landoâyour Landoâwas in the McLaren garage, talking to his teammate, making sure he was alright. And you?
You were here. Alone.
Waiting.
For a second, you thought, Maybe he just hasnât gotten the chance yet. Maybe heâd text. Maybe heâd pop into your garage later, like he always did. Maybeâ
Your phone vibrated. You snatched it up, pulse kicking up in anticipation.
It wasnât Lando.
It was Max. "Shitty luck today. You okay?"
And then your mom. "I saw the crash, sweetheart. Call me when you can."
And thenâLandoâs mom.
Your throat tightened.
You responded to Max first. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just pissed."
Three dots. He was typing. "Understandable. Want me to insult Carlos for you?"
A wet laugh bubbled up in your throat, but it didnât quite make it out. You swallowed hard. "Please."
Max sent back a voice note that was mostly just an annoyed rant about Carlos, and karma coming back to bite him in the ass. It helped a little.
You sat there for a long time, staring at your phone, waiting for a message from Lando. But it never came.
2021
The leaves are starting to rust at the edges. The paddock smells like oil, fresh tire rubber, and something a little sweetâlike nostalgia fermenting in the heat.
The announcement had dropped that morning. Yn Ln to Ferrari, 2022. Your face, glowing in red, on every screen. Headlines scream legacy, potential, fire-in-her-veins. Youâre still driving for Sauber, for now. But the future is coming in scarlet.
You walk the paddock with practiced calm. Smile. Wave. Say thank you. Cameras flash. People nod. But youâre searching. Just one face.
You find Max first.
Heâs leaning on the fence by the media pens, sunglasses too big for his face, grin even bigger. âFerrari, huh?â he says, pulling you into a hug. âAbout time, you fast little shit.â
You laugh into his shoulder. âThought youâd be sick of me by now.â
âNever. Iâm retiring, not dead.â He pulls back, his eyes soft behind the joke. âSeriously. Iâm proud of you.â
You donât realize how much you needed that until it lands.
You talk for a bitâhe asks about the simulator work, if your uncle cried yet, what kind of pasta Ferrari serves in hospitality. You ask how he is, really. He shrugs like itâs nothing, but you see the tightness in his jaw. Max has always been good at hiding the cracks. Youâve always been better at spotting them.
Eventually, he nods over his shoulder. âHave you seen him?â
Your smile falters.
âNo,â you say. âNot yet.â
He just hums. Doesnât push. Thatâs Max. He always knows when not to.
Itâs later, past sunset, when you find Lando. Heâs sitting on the steps behind the McLaren garage, fiddling with a wristband, head low. The air smells like spilled rubber and something burnt. Maybe itâs just your nerves.
You stop a few paces away, sipping slowly from a mug. Steam curls upwardâthick with chocolate and memory.
âHey,â you say softly.
He doesnât look up. âHey.â
âI thought youâd come find me.â
âIâm busy,â he mutters. âMedia. Strategy meetings. Debrief.â
You nod, even though you walked past McLaren hospitality earlier. It was quiet as a tombâuntouched catering trays, muted highlights looping endlessly on big screens.
âYou saw the news?â
âWhole world saw the news.â
You take another sip. Your fingers curl tighter around the ceramic. Red light from the garages catches on the rim, lighting up the faded black scrawl like a bruise.
Eventually, Lando glances up.
His eyes find the mug. Something shifts in him.
âYou still have that?â he asks, voice low, barely above the hum of the lights.
You blink. Look down at it like it hasnât been cradled between your palms for the last three years.
âOf course I do,â you say. Soft. Like it shouldâve been obvious.
He looks away again, jaw tightening. âCongrats,â he says, flat. Like a press release. Like a stranger.
âThanks.â
Silence blooms between youâslow, heavy, awful. The kind that sinks teeth into soft places.
You shift on your feet, suddenly too aware of all the hairline fractures running through this moment. âAre we okay?â
He doesnât answer.
Just lets the question hang in the air, trembling between you like a fraying rope. Too many missed calls. Too many left-on-reads. Too many almosts.
A gust of wind tugs at your jacket. The paddock hums behind you, oblivious.
âGuess Iâll see you tomorrow,â you say eventually. Your voice doesnât shake. Not out loud.
You turn before he can say anything else. You donât finish your drink.
The mug in your hand feels heavier than ever.
And he doesnât stop you.
 Doesnât even say goodbye.
Round five. Miami. Tight corners. Bad timing. Worse luck. And then the world tilts sideways.
You donât even know who clipped who first. Maybe it was you. Maybe it was him. Maybe the track just didnât want to play nice that day. But the second it happensâcarbon shards, dust clouds, radio staticâyou know.
You know itâs Lando.
And heâs livid.
Heâs out of the car before you even fully process the impact. Helmet half-off, fury full-throttle. You see him stomping across the run-off, shouting over the marshals like you murdered his race on purpose.
âYou canât even follow a damn line!â âFucking rookie move!â âWhat were you even looking at?!â
Youâre still strapped in. Still staring ahead. Still trying to breathe past the adrenaline choking your throat. Your hands are trembling on the steering wheel. Your visorâs fogged from the heat and the sudden shock and the way his words hit like gravel through glass.
He doesnât look at you. Doesnât check if you're okay. Not even a glance. Just pure, unfiltered anger, flung like shrapnel in your direction as they start pulling him back, tugging at his fireproofs like maybe he's the one in danger here.
You're not crying. Not yet. Not really. But something inside you feels loose. Wobbly. Like a tooth that's been knocked but not pulled. You're still in the damn car.
Still hearing the crunch on loop.
 Still feeling the snap of the impact reverberating through your bones.
Still wondering if maybe it was your fault. If you ruined everything. If Ferrariâs going to rethink the whole thing now. If this is what everyone means when they whisper âtoo young, too fast, not ready.â
Eventually someone helps you out. Gentle hands. Calm voice. A blur. You donât catch their name.
You donât even realize your legâs scraped until you see the blood on your suit.
Landoâs already gone.
2024
It starts in papaya.
Bright, blinding. The colour of summer and stupid hope. Of grins cracked too wide and champagne caught in lashes. Of him. Landoâs first win. Confetti cannons, arms raised, the world roaring his name like they always knew he could do it. Maybe they did.
You watch from the shadows of your garage. Your race suit still half-zipped, sweat cooling sticky on your back, hands curled in your lap like you forgot how to unclench. You watch the replays loop, over and overâLando crossing the line, Lando screaming on the radio, Lando collapsing into his engineerâs arms like a boy who finally got his dream back after all the nightmares.
Your heart does that stupid thing again. That lurch. That slow roll in your chest like itâs reacting late to something it shouldn't care about.
You tell yourself itâs hunger. Low blood sugar. The kind of headache you get when you havenât drunk enough water and your teammateâs spraying champagne three podium steps above your finish.
But itâs not that.
Itâs the echo. This track. The one where you both crashed two years ago, where everything spilled out in smoke and sharp words and silence that never healed right. You remember the screech, the impact, the things he saidâstill crusted into the back of your mind like dried blood. Now heâs got a trophy, and youâve got a lonely P5 and the ghost of something that used to be important.
Charles got P3. Your garage is down in parc fermĂ©, hands in the air, hugging Charles like theyâve waited their whole lives for a glimpse of this kind of red victory. But youâre not there.
You stay back. Sit alone on a garage stool thatâs slightly too cold, unzipping your suit just enough to breathe. Your gloves are still on. You havenât even taken your helmet off yet.
Itâs your day.
Ferrari in full blaze. Glory in red, engines singing. You did it.
First win. First star. First everything.
The moment swells, huge and holy. You donât even feel the weight of it until you're in the cooldown room, back pressed to the wall, legs out, laughing into the still-hot air, Max's voice in your ear, full blast.
âI TOLD YOU! I BLOODY TOLD YOU!â You laugh so hard you drop the cap they gave you, joy curling up your spine like steam from the pavement. You're sticky with triumph, breathless with it.
Then the door swings open.
Lando. P2 hat in his hand, face unreadable.
He sees you, the phone still in your hand. âIs that Max?â
You nod. Smile. Hold it out without thinking, thinking maybe he wants to say join in, maybe the past can stay in the past today. You think heâll grin and shout something stupid like he used to. That he'll be proud. That heâll be proud of you.
He takes the phone.
And his voice stays flat.
He talks about his own race. The setup. The tyre deg. The strategy error on lap thirty-nine. Max says something back, cheerful and half-mocking, and Lando hands the phone back without another word. Doesnât even look you in the eye.
The fizz in your blood dulls. Something inside flickers out. You sit there holding the phone to your chest like itâs a shield. Like it can still protect you from the fact that he didnât careânot really. That your victory didnât matter if it wasnât his.
You stand on the podium together, the three of you. The air is heavy with bubbles and praise and burnt rubber.
He doesnât spray you with champagne.
Doesnât even turn your way.
You look up. Try to find the taste of triumph on your tongue. Try to taste what youâve been chasing your whole damn life.
But all you get is the sharp sting of carbonated bitterness.
And the ache of something that used to be a friendship, now fizzed flat in your throat.
Itâs the final race
Landoâs on pole. Youâre right beside him. Red to his orange. Ferrari to his McLaren. Fire to his flame. The cameras catch it like itâs poetryâthe two of you lined up, side by side, history written in every glare off your visors. You donât look at him, not before lights out. Not even during the anthem. But your heart is beating like it knows something your brain wonât admit: that this is the one. The big one. The decider. Title fight. Winner takes it all.
The race is war. Brutal. A symphony of tire squeals and tight corners and elbows that donât ask permission. You fight like hell, like the whole yearâs been leading to this exact lap, this exact second, wheel to wheel with the boy who once swore he'd never fight you like this. The same boy who told you you deserved the world, now slicing across your front wing like heâd rather take you out than let you through. Every overtake is a punch to the ribs. Every radio call is static. Itâs rage and glory and god, you think you might be crying under the helmet but there's no time to tell.
And in the end, it's him.
McLaren wins. He wins.
You lose.
The moment he crosses the line, the world explodes. Orange smoke, fists in the air, the kind of euphoria you used to dream about when you were kids racing on sims. Zach hoists him like a trophy himself, arms wrapped around Lando like heâs just watched his son conquer the gods. Thereâs champagne, thereâs screaming, thereâs the way the cameras chase him as if he is the sun.
You stand behind the barrier. Alone. Helmet still on. Your radio crackles in your ear but you donât hear it. Your hands are still gripping the wheel in your mind, still tight, still aching. Your whole body is shaking and you donât know if itâs adrenaline or heartbreak, but your eyes are burning. Everything inside you is burning.
You want to be happy for him. You do. You know what this means to him. You know how long heâs waited for this moment. You know every sacrifice he's made, every time he came second, every time he bit his tongue while others were crowned. You want to scream with him. You want to run and jump into that pile of mechanics, be lifted like youâre weightless. You want to feel like this mattered, even if it wasnât your win.
But all you feel is the silence that comes after the music stops. All you feel is how no one is looking for you. All you feel is the absence of his eyes finding yours. The way he doesnât search for you through the chaos. The way he doesnât even check if youâre okay.
All you feel is alone.
Youâre holding a half-finished bottle of water, and the ache in your throat is so real it makes you want to choke on it. It's not the kind of thirst you can quench, no matter how much you drink. Itâs heavier than that. Youâre still trying to swallow it all down when you hear someone shout from the hallway, âHold the door!â So you do.
Itâs him.
Lando.
He slows when he sees you standing there, frozen, the soft hiss of the elevatorâs hum cutting through the silence. He stops short, eyes narrowing, like he wasnât expecting you, like he thought he could just breeze past without noticing how broken the air is between you two.
âIf Iâd known it was youâŠâ he murmurs to himself, almost too quiet, stepping in anyway, ââŠIâd have waited.â
But the words hang like smoke. You donât breathe them in. You donât move. Thereâs a moment of nothingness. No one speaks. The numbers above blink slowly, too slow, their yellow light slicing the quiet.
You canât take it anymore. Your fingers clutch the water bottle like it might disappear if you donât hold it tight enough. You donât look at him. Not right away. But you feel the weight of his gaze pulling on you. Tugging at the jagged edges inside your chest.
"Are we still friends?" you ask, your voice so soft it almost doesnât sound like it belongs to you. Itâs like youâre praying, begging for something you know you canât have.
Lando doesnât answer right away. The hum of the elevator becomes too loud. Too big. It rattles your nerves.
Then, quiet as the night. "No."
The word lands between you two, heavy and final. You donât move. You canât. You donât know what hurts moreâthe way his voice cracked the truth or the way it stung like acid.
You stare at the numbers above. They flicker. The 9th floor. Your floorâs the 13th. You press the button anyway, stopping the elevator dead in its tracks.
The doors slide open. Itâs not your floor. But you donât care. You step out without hesitation, without another word, like the weight of the world was too much for the small, cramped space of the elevator. Youâd rather walk twenty flights, climb each one, than let him see you break. Than let him watch as your heart splinters into pieces you canât put back together.
You donât look back. Not once. Even though you know heâs standing there, frozen in the open doors.
Itâs better this way.
sim jaeyun â brighter days inc.
â âyouâll wait for my love? âi waited for your love.â
pairing. fem!reader x sim jaeyun.
warnings. angst, my heaviest angst post yet tbh, fluff moments here & there, layla !!, lots of miscommunication, lots of crying and panicking moments, no happy ending :(
word count. 12.3k
synopsis. just how bad was the punishment of falling in love with sim jaeyun?
â a, note. i apologise in advance for this, i would like to point out that this was completely and fully inspired by the we canât be friends music video along with the entire eternal sunshine album by ariana !! i only added minor details & scenes here and there but hope u enjoy ! <3 p.s !! this whole post is viewed better in dark mode !!
ă just wanna let this story die, and iâll be alright. ă
The soft fabric of your shirt soothed your trembling fingers, gentle wind breezing past you once the bell of the door jingled ahead of you, indicating the arrival of another patient wretched with agony and their own pain.
Your vision danced between the walls, the countless photos that hung on the brick pillars claiming a guaranteed peace of mind with the eye catching and loud titles of âbrighter days ahead!â, different posters inked with the participantsâ positive reviews towards the operation that haunted the patients whom were anxiously sat next to you, some wiping their tears while others gazed hopelessly into the wooden floors, their legs shaking up and down the longer the nurse took to call their names.
You pulled your jacket closer to your chest, in hopes of it protecting you from the words printed onto the paper in front of you, you had read the sentences over a hundred times by now yet you still couldnât bring yourself to fully accept them.
You have given extensive thought behind your decision and give âBrighter Days Inc.â the exclusive permission to remove this person completely from your memory:
â â yes | â no
Closing your eyes multiple times while chanting âplease let me wake upâ was deemed futile, you couldnât bring yourself to face the reality of the situation you had put yourself in. Though you had your reasons, countless of them. You had every right to sit in the waiting room for this clinic, yet you still couldnât gather up the courage to fully accept the weight of the truth.
The great weight of the truth that weighed heavily on your shoulders, you knew this was the correct decision. You knew you werenât physically affecting anyone by doing this, you practically werenât going to hurt after this, yet your actions still hurt the present you, the one who was able to sense a thin veil of tears forming along her waterline for the nth time since you stepped foot into this clinic.
And you were doing this to save her from the pain, from the heartbreak you had been suffering through. The harsh wood of the board felt hurtful against your skin, the piece of wood agonisingly heavy atop your fingertips, your hand placed the pen in your lap before it instinctively moved towards your neck, caressing the special pine cone necklace that adorned your chest.
The feeling of the pendant beneath your touch felt gut wrenching, your whole being freezing as the sudden sharp edges grazed your skin, the pendant that held so many great memories to you that you hoped would comfort you for the last time felt like the thorns of a rose splitting your fingertips.
It was the sudden sharp dig of the edge of the pine that reminded you of a precious memory, one of the most special days in your life when your two favourite people walked into it.
Your foot sunk deeply into the snow beneath you, the wind a cold breeze blowing against your blushed face, your nose a distinct red shade as you sniffed due to the cold weather, hands digging further into your warm pockets to allow the blood to rush back to your frozen fingertips.
The breath turned into a glowing mist ahead of your eyes as it tumbled past your lips, you smiled softly at the sound of your best friend announcing her departure to collect more wood for the fireplace the two of you had wanted to create, you turned your head to the side to locate her small figure slowly disappearing into the slight fog that started to form a few minutes before the two of you had arrived to the small forest.
You took notice of how heavy the snow was, the ground a vast white that glittered with the sunrays, the sudden urge to lay on the floor that appeared as faux clouds and cotton overcame your senses and before you could rethink your decisions, you were already surrounded by the comforting cold of the snow hugging your every limb and every inch of your body.
Memories of your childhood flashed through your eyes, the happy moments that were filled with laughter exchanged between you and your friend as the two of you made snow angels, joyful giggles flew in the air around you once you both stood up to compare the shapes to one another and chuckle at the ridiculous outcomes.
Before you could fully indulge yourself in the memory, you felt a foreign object pressing against your foot, your eyes shot downwards to the sight of a dark circular itemâ a pine cone?
Your heartbeat unexpectedly picked up its pace, was there someone around? You werenât in an area that had pine trees around them, they were atleast a few miles away from you.
Loud rustling reached your ears from ahead, what sounded like a person quickly walkingâ in an abnormally fast way that made you prepare yourself for the appearance of any random person, your senses heightening at the possible danger awaiting, the shadow slowly appeared in front of the fog, a really short one that confused you.
Once the mist finally had dispersed, revealing the last outcome you had been expectingâ an adorable puppy that jumped its way through the snow, you stared at the shimmering fur that had gotten covered with small bits of the sparkling snow, the puppy barked at you in excitement, their tail swaying behind them in the snow while their shining eyes studied your face.
Your hands held onto the pine cone, a smile stretching out on your face once you noticed that the puppy was waiting for you to return the item, sitting in front of you patiently in a well behaved manner, a clear indication of how attentive and careful their owner is.
âIs this yours, hm?â You questioned, voice playful and low in fear of possibly disturbing the overly excited puppy who only barked in delight at your question, and as your hand was reaching forward to return the beloved pine cone, you and the sweet puppyâs ears picked up the distressed yells a large distance away.
The puppy turned its body towards the direction it came from, breathing the cold air in before barking countless times as if to signal their location and on cue the rushed footsteps that dug into the snow approached your figures closer.
âThere you are, Layla.â A young boy appeared from between the twinkling mist, his features sharp and eye catching the closer he walked towards both of you, a charming smile etching its way onto his chiseled face at the sight of his beloved dog, âI was getting worried, pretty girl.â He breathed out in relief before finally noticing your presence.
His back suddenly straightened, shoulders pulling back while his eyes widened before the prettiest pink youâve ever seen dusted his ears and cheeks, âoh hi.â He breathed out shyly, he could feel his heartbeat drumming in his ears as the last thing he was expecting to find Layla next to was a gorgeous girl.
You couldnât help the quickened thump of your own heart either, the appearance of this young guy that was clad in a large dark coat, black pants along with a matching hat that revealed small peaks of his dark brown hair had your mind reeling, he was undeniably handsome.
âhello.â You whispered back, instinctively holding the pine cone towards your chest as holding eye contact with the beautiful man only made your body buzz further with excitement and nervousness, the guy also losing his internal battle with the possibility of facing you as his eyes had only been following his dogâs moving tail in hopes of calming his own nerves down.
The said puppyâs gaze danced between her owner and the new friend, unfamiliar with her ownerâs sudden shy side appearing in front of a potential friend making her suspicions arise, and the moment she was about to bark in the direction of her owner once again, the guy spoke out.
âDid she tackle you onto the floor?â He asked, tone laced with concern at the realisation of your position on the snow while you held the pine cone in your hand, âno!â You quickly denied once you lifted your head and saw his worried expression, thousands of apologies disappeared from his tongue at your words and he couldnât help but breathe another sigh of relief, âIâm actually making⊠snow angels.â Your voice had dropped a few octaves towards the end.
Quieting your own words to hide them from the handsome guy that you prayed wouldnât make fun of you for your childish behaviour from your first ever encounter, you were preparing yourself for the worst reaction to slap you across the face and for his laughter to reach your ears yetâ âoh I love snow angels!â His excited voice pulled you out of your thoughts.
You turned to face him again, to see the genuine excitement and fondness lacing his face before patting the snow next to you, a warm smile gracing your features that made the unknown boyâs heart to leap in his chest, âcome join me!â
The loud ring of the bell harshly pulled you out of the sweet memory into the reality you had been dreading, all of your senses returning to the present made a sinking feeling take over your heart, by the time you leave this place you wonât be able to remember this precious memory.
Your hand instinctively wrapped around the pine cone, in attempt to protect and shield it from the possibility of disappearing, the idea of one of the most precious days of your life dissipating from your memory lane made your shoulders sink further, the anxious feeling of pure unease settled deeply into your bones, and before you were able to prepare yourself further, you felt your throat closing up.
And as if your own body had turned its back towards you, your gaze had shifted beneath the cursed words to the bottom of the paper, where a clear and bold line awaited your pen to grace upon it.
signature: ________
Your vision then travelled towards the boxes, the finality of your decision settling into your limbs when your hand finally moved from your necklace to hold onto the pen again, and with a heavy heart along with a new veil of tears aligning your eyes, you finally allowed the first drop of ink to land on the paper.
â yes | â no
The wind around you turned colder, it felt as if the breeze was scolding you for such decisions, the guilt by now had started to eat you up alive, tainting your brain and choking you up on your own unshed tears, you tried to breathe in deeply, attempting to calm your heaving chest down as with each passing second you felt your lungs constricting further.
âMiss, are you ready?â The nurse had suddenly appeared next to you, caring and worried eyes scanning your shaky figure on the seat, knuckles white around the wooden board that held your signature and confirmation for the procedure, your head lowered in shame of the sight of your tears being revealed, though all the hurt was evident in your body language.
âThis way, miss.â She quickly guided you towards the office, your hand reached out to carry the box next to you, the cardboard that contained all of your memories that were stuffed into items, her hand reached out to hold the trembling board from your weak one while the other hovered around your lower back, bringing an odd sense of comfort for you as your feet walked you towards your own heartbreak.
The walls of the office appeared cold to the touch, the solid floor beneath you brought the aura of seriousness for you, almost as if awakening you from your hurtful thoughts to the reality of the situation, there was no turning back now. Then with each step that you took towards the chair, memories of this morning took over your mind.
Layla, your precious puppy sat ahead of your crouched figure in front of the bed, you sat atop the mattress that felt so unwelcoming, so foreign to you, as if you hadnât slept multiple times between the same sheets with your love before.
Your puppy was cautious, big shining eyes studying every tear drop that ascended down the curve of your cheekbone, her own body slouching with each sob that wrecked through your body, âIâm sorry.â The yellow light from your bedside table casted a soft glow on both of your small figures, Layla reached towards you, one of her paws landing besides you on the bed as she lifted herself up while the other was placed gently against your leg.
âI canât continue staying here, baby.â You explained to her, with each break in your voice her ears dropped lower, the sadness and confusion evident all over her adorable face, long gone was the look of excitement and pure love that painted her face whenever she saw you, as if she was able to understand your words she pushed her fluffy body towards you more.
âI canât be with you, or jaeyun anymore.â You whispered, sweaty and cold palms reached out towards her small face, her golden fur comforting you as it brushed against your skin, you allowed her loving presence to curtain over the overwhelming sense of fright that your stomach was unable to digest, her familiar scent coating your senses bringing a feeling of ease into your panicked state.
âI love you so much.â You whispered to your little cupid, the one who had brought you together with your first true love. The one who had unknowingly brought so much happiness and joy to your dull life with her and her fatherâs presence.
âAre you ready, miss?â The doctor called out, dragging you out from the reality that only existed in your head now, a cloud of doom now hovered above your head as there was no space to return back to, this was it. That was your last time with Layla, ever.
The pill of the reminder suddenly seemed to large to swallow, the thought of an eternal separation from your beloved little cupid felt agonising to you, the tightening in your chest worsened, your fingers dug into your own palm to cause the tiniest bit of satisfaction when the pain travelled throughout your nerves, you deserved this.
You had known this was the correct decision a long time ago, this was the only way you had been able to save yourself but god how could you be so selfish at the same time? How could you leave two very important people behind you and live in eternal bliss? You heart began to thunder against your ribs, each thump begging you to return, to turn back on your footsteps and go back home.
To return to your love, to your small family, to endure the pain and the sting of the knowledge that jaeyun would never view you the way you had done.
To return to your angel, the one who sat by the door with her tail swaying behind her excitedly at the sight of the door opening, in hopes of a possible walk with her best friend, then her tail suddenly paused atop the wooden floor while her pointy and excited ears dropped, breaking your heart when you crouched down to kiss her head for the final time, in hopes of your feelings conveying to her through the loving contact, atleast for the last time.
You knew the love you held for him had to be dissipated. Though the pure, innocent adoration and devotion your heart carried for him didnât deserve to be gone. Yet it wasnât worth putting Jaeyun through possible pain and suffering.
If only you had known from the start that this was the consequence of your actions of inviting Jaeyun to create snow angels with you on that morning would lead you to the punishment of falling in love with Jaeyun, you wouldâve never stepped foot into the snow that day.
The doctor held your hand gently, his eyes held nothing but sympathy and pity for you, your fingers pale and shaky in his hold as he placed the small device on your index finger, the pulse reader instantly showing your quickened heartbeat on the screen, âthe procedure is going to be a quick and painless oneâŠâ the doctorâs words echoed throughout your eardrums, each word drifting off from one ear to the other as your vision was stuck on the numbers constantly picking up.
As if a chain had been tightened around your neck, your throat closed up further, you suppressed every sob that threatened to escape from you, your feet had gotten numb on the chair at some point while you shut your eyes with reassuring words replaying in your head in attempts to soothe yourself, yet each one was being repeated atop of an image of a smiling jaeyun behind your closed eyes.
The nurse behind you had brought the two iron pieces closer to your temples, each one glowing with a red light, indicating the disconnection while they approached your skin, and once both pieces were attached to you as if they were pieces of magnets, your heart only sunk further in your body.
The doctor exchanged incoherent words with the nurse that your ears werenât able to comprehend, your senses only picking up the constant beeping of the monitor, each beat picked up its speed, symbolising how your heart was beating rapidly at the thought of your one and only love, at the thought of losing him entirely in less than a few minutes.
Your eyes then landed on the screen besides you, blue lights blinding your sight as you took in the multiple tabs open on the screen with âgenerating linkâ as the largest one, the percentage increased quickly, each number made your breath turn shorter as the gravity was finally settling in, the small sting that you felt on the sides of your head was incomparable to the ache of your heart, still filled with so much useless hope after all these months.
âAre you ready?â The doctor asked, a consoling smile etched onto his features, you nodded quickly, eager to get the procedure done with now before your weak heart convinced you to run outside of this clinic and into the arms of the man you fell in love with.
âAlright then.. we should be startingâŠâ the doctorâs voice slowly disappeared, his words gradually faded away from you as your eyes remained shut while the machine forced you to a trip down your beloved memory lane, your memory path that was dedicated for sim jaeyun only.
The first memory you had shared with him after your first encounter played in front of your closed eyes, you remembered this one in a crystal clear way, the sight of you and Jaeyun walking hand in hand was imprinted onto the back of your eyelids, the familiar sight making your heart jump into your throat.
âIâm gonna win you the teddy bear!â Jaeyun shouted excitedly as he walked, his grip on your hand firm yet gentle while he made his way through the crowd in the carnival, rushing towards the claw machine quickly, bumping into random people every few seconds making you laugh at his enthusiasm, unaware of jaeyunâs heart thundering in his chest at the sound of your laughter.
âYou really donât have to, Jake.â You rushed besides him and the second the baby blue and pink lights of the machine landed on your smiling face he felt his breath hitching in his throat, your shining eyes presenting as windows to your excitement and pure joy you felt besides him made his heart leap in his chest, âbut i want to.â he breathed out gently, mesmerised besides your distracted frame.
your eyes studied the glass window curiously, jaeyun was confused as to why he could tell exactly when your eyes landed on the teddy bear he mentioned, confused as to why he was able to study all of your expressions so well so soon, to why they mattered and intrigued him so much, surely the fleeing thought of cradling your face gently into his arms was an intrusive one, and totally not because of his own feelings and urge to do so, right?
his hands reached out to push his coin into the slot before reaching towards the small handle, his fingers buzzed with excitement and anxiety, the need to win this teddy bear for you chanting throughout his mind as he lowered the claw onto the fluffy toy, and once the iron claws wrapped around the bear, your hand sneaked its way between both of your figures to lace with his fingers, a soft squeeze of encouragement that made the boyâs heart thump needily.
âYou got it, jake!â you beamed from besides him, you quickly held the fluffy toy in your arms, hugging the precious teddy close to you, the sight making jakeâs world slow down its rotation, his heart jumping into his throat as he took in the sight of your happy expression, your sweet and thankful words falling onto his ear before they travelled out the other, he was hypnotised, your happiness casting a spell on him effortlessly.
âJaeyun..â he suddenly breathed out, snapping back into reality with a soft, loving smiling permanently etching its way onto his face, âhmm?â You questioned, moving your sparkling eyes from the toy to his handsome face, his sweet grin made rose dust along your cheeks, he reached out to hold your hand before he spoke out again, âcall me jaeyun.â
âOkay, jaeyun.â You chuckled affectionately at him, one hand intertwined with his slender fingers while the other held the teddy close to your heart, âwhat are you going to name it?â His eyes dropped back onto the teddy, quickly switching the topic as his heart felt like it was on the verge of exploding the longer he drowned in the ocean of your eyes.
âJakey.â You smiled at the sight of his eyes widening, eyebrows lifting as he audibly laughed, the sound ringing like melodies in your ears. The view of him blushing and laughing under the stars becoming your favourite in that instant as everything else around you blurred and your sole focus was on him and only him.
âLetâs take you and Jakey to the ferris wheel then.â He joked before walking towards the said ride, fingers still laced with yours as he pulled your shy figure gently to follow him throughout the crowd.
And suddenly with a mere blink you were stuck in the middle of moving bodies, one hand unbearably cold while the other held onto a teddy, confusion laced your expression as the lights of the ferris wheel glowed ahead of you, why were you here in the first place?
Just like that, Jaeyun disappeared from a precious memory that belonged to you.
Your surroundings in front of the ferris wheel darkened, a small circle of light engulfing you before your dissociated out from the memory, you had your eyes closed shut, not daring to open them when all you could hear was the murmurs of the doctor and the nurse confirming the removal in the first memory.
All you could detect was the consistent sinking and pain aching in your heart, the dizziness in your head as you altered your memories and forcefully removed the only person who you ever truly loved in your life, the agony from the thought so great that it allowed new streaks of tears to decorate your skin.
And as you let out another shaky breath, you were pushed into another memory.
The harsh breeze of the wind grazed jaeyunâs skin while his teeth chattered slightly at the icy stabs along his arms, he quickly moved from the sidewalk to the empty road that accompanied the ray of sunlight courtesy to the shorter buildings next to it.
His shoulders relaxed at the warmth that travelled his system, his fingers didnât feel like they were about to fall off anymore the longer he kept them pushed into his pockets under the sun, he relished in the vast difference between the cold breeze and the warm sunlight, a weird sense of soothe scurrying into his mind.
The comparison was awfully familiar, yet he couldnât quite put his finger on what it reminded him of.
Nonetheless he continued walking, making the final turn that allowed the sight of his house to enter his line of vision, his insides buzzed with worry and excitement at seeing you again, your appearance always brought him solace especially when he walked into the view of you playing with Layla happily in the living room.
Yet whenever he remembered the position both of you were stuck in regarding your importance in his life, his mind got jumbled with negativity and worry again.
But he was determined that tonight was going to make a difference.
Especially with the apology he had spent days memorising, his finger brushed against the small box in his pocket that brought an unexpected but welcomed wave of positivity for him, it was the first time that he felt so confident in himself with something that involved both of you.
The slight graze of the velvet against his skin reminded him of the way your skin felt against his, the sunlight that glowed atop his honey skin beautifully reminded him of the warmth your love provided for him, oh how he adored you.
And there was jaeyun, finally walking towards his door with a pep in his step, his chest feeling ridiculously lighter while the blood rushed to his face at the thought of you in front of his eyes.
His shaky fingers wrapped around the handle before pushing the large piece of wood, layla instantly greeting him at the door with a welcoming woof of her own, making him smile widely.
âHello my princess,â he spoke with a soft voice, kneeling down to pet her after closing the door behind him, all worrisome thoughts disappearing from his brain the second her soft fur nuzzled against his palms, he chuckled at all of her licks against his cheeks, turning his head as he giggled and unknowingly seeing your missing shoes on the floor.
Confusion wrapped around his head as a weird, unnerving emotion settled into his stomach, he quickly looked around the living room for any sight of you only to be left further confused since you hadnât told him about leaving the house today.
âIs she not home?â He questioned layla, his glossy eyes returning to the puppy who visibly lost all of her enthusiasm, quieting down and only licking at his palm in hopes of bringing some sort of comfort to her owner the longer he desperately searched for any sign of you.
âItâs alright,â he walked towards the living room, a sudden wave of dizziness crawling its way to his conscious, he involuntarily closed his eyes at the unexpected pain while his feet quickly led him towards the couch with a worried layla trailing behind him, âsheâll come back.â He whispered, comforting himself while his hands reached to hold onto his head.
And before he could realise, he laid onto the soft fabric of his couch as a wave of sleep took over him while his consciousness drifted. Unbeknownst to him, that wouldâve been the last time he would remember you.
ă i donât wanna tip toe but i donât wanna hide. ă
The doctorâs hands paced around his instruments panically, your soft sniffles ringing in both his and the nurseâs ears as their heart broke for the nth time that day at the sight of the memory on the screen of their computer, the memory that held an immense amount of pain as the only thing you could focus on in that moment was the view of jaeyun sitting down next to a random girl, his arm wrapped around her shoulders while she turned her head to the side to quickly peck his jaw.
âIs that not.. jake?â Your friend asked from besides you, her eyes widening at the sight of the guy who captured your heart huddled next to an unknown girl by a cafeâs window, the view inevitably catching your gaze too as your brain almost shut down at that moment.
âIt is.â You whispered in confirmation, the cobbled stone beneath your feet glued you atop of it while your world slowed down, just like your first encounterâ you felt everything around you slowly dissolve till your sole focus was on jaeyun with a random woman.
You friend thankfully picked up your irregular breathing, and she was sure if she had listened close enough she wouldâve also been able to hear the sound of your heart shattering into countless pieces while your face was an open window to your emotions.
The feeling of your stomach sinking completely brought you back into reality, the situation was laughable really, just a few weeks ago he seemed too shy to even hold your hand yet here he was now with his arm around another woman.
He mightâve not been able to hold eye contact with you just a few weeks ago, but right now he was able to laugh at the top of his lungs at what looked like a joke the woman said.
âLetâs go.â Your friend sternly announced, holding your hand the second she noticed your eyes swelling up with tears and quickly pulled you to walk into a different alleyway while jaeyun slowly disappeared in the background, leaving the random woman to sit alone in your memory before you quickly tumbled into another one.
Your vision began to slowly clear, another memory opening up ahead of you as you felt yourself getting lost in your emotions regarding this whole procedure.
The aroma of the coffee was pungent in the living room, wafting through the air accompanied by the sweet scent of cinnamon, Laylaâs sweet coos and quiet noises of approval and support kept you company and sane after witnessing the man your heart thrummed for wrapped up in the arms of another woman.
Due to the unending conflict and doubts eating away at your mind, resulting in a very upset you and a worried Layla to walk around the house to distract yourself, and the perfect distraction did you find when your feet dragged you into the kitchen.
âI guess itâs just me and you.â Expressing yourself to Layla had always been something that came very easily to you, she was your closest friend at the moment after all. Always by your side to comfort you whether it was by cuddling you with your tears landing like rain drops on her soft fur till you fell asleep or by urging you to play with her and get your mind off her dad.
And right as you were about to move the few pastries from the tray onto the plate on the counter, you and Laylaâs ears picked up the familiar and dreadful sound of the door being opened, announcing Jakeâs arrival with the loud creak of the wood once he pushed it forward.
As expected, the air that carried the dizzying scent of your pastry was suddenly filled with tension. As if each golden particle of the sweets that travelled through the air while carrying your love transformed into a harsh droplet of ice, the atmosphere further thickening uncomfortably when the boy walked inside of the kitchen to the sight of you in front of the counter with your puppy nuzzling to your leg.
âThat smells amazing..â he muttered, feeling shy and small when faced with your stiff back, and he knew he deserved the treatment that you had for him, he knew that you had seen him with someone else. Yet he didnât have the heart to even think about bringing up that conversation, deciding by his own that stuffing the confrontation into a small box and pushing it far away to a corner in his mind was for the best now.
âThank you.â Your response was curt, almost monotone with the way you tried your best to not have whatever conversation between you two last longer, his presence alone was suffocating enough for you, you didnât have the heart to face him.
And jaeyun of course noticed all of this, he noticed the way your back was still faced towards him. A clear and painfully obvious contrast from the way you used to greet him with a loving hug and sometimes even a sweet, shy kiss to his cheek if you were really in the mood for it. The memories of those adoring welcomes will always eat away at his conscience, a constant reminder of what he lost.
But was jaeyun going to ask you to talk with him so both of you could finally address the invisible tornado of unspoken emotions in the room? Of course no.
âI was wondering if youâŠâ he trailed off, voice quiet and almost hesitant in approaching you, and his doubts began to gnaw at his heart when your shoulders tensed further, his anxiety made his tone even more jittery when he continued âwant to spend some time with me..?â The final syllable was a mere whisper.
Jaeyun felt the distance between you both panicking, heâs never felt you so far away and unreachable for him even though he knew the reason but his fear of rejection and possible failure was overpowering his logical idea of actually hearing your side and confessing his own thoughts, deciding alone for both of you that the best approach to this situation was not acknowledging it in the first place.
âIt snowed yesterday, you know.â He pushed his coldly sweaty hands into the pocket of his sweatpants, he could unwillingly hear his heartbeat pounding in his ears, his frame was apprehensive as he kept switching his weight from one foot to another while awaiting for your answer, fearful from you declining his offer before he even finished off, âso.. wanna make snow angels?â
He let himself loose, letting go from all of his previous uncertainty and revealing a sweet smile when you finally turned around to face him, a ghost of a grin on your features that never failed to set his chest on fire and make his mind reel, a simple âokay.â had jaeyun was over the moon.
Even if Jaeyun was undeserving of your acceptance to his offer, even if this whole action will have a returning moment that will bite you both deeply but in that specific second the need to be wrapped in each otherâs warmth surpassed any other feeling you both could have thought of.
And after minutes of being avoidant, hours of steering away from the unavowed storm of words that needed to be exchanged between your two souls to hopefully ignite some sort of hope for your love, after a day full of your eternal bliss in ignorance where you two played into the parts of loving partners that you had formed in your head that was far, way too far from your reality.
You found yourself tangled beneath the satin sheets, clad in your loveâs shirt while he laid on his side to face you, every element surrounding you in this current atmosphere was a very clear display of love, of intimacy and devotion that circled the two of you.
With every intrusive thought of just how many times heâs been in this exact position with another woman that you pushed into the back of your head, your grip on his fingers tightened, it was almost driving you insane. The uncertainty and insecurity in your placement in his life was so evident for jaeyun in your actions, and it made his heart ache.
Further proving that heâs not the one for you, because of his undying need to comfort you and whisper his love for you in your ears to wash away all the bad voices in your head that were pushing you to believe that you were the complete opposite of what he saw.
Someone who deserved the utmost love the entire universe could be able to forge and give.
And out of nowhere, the forbidden three words craved their way onto his tongue, jaeyunâs heart leaped into his throat with the suddenly controlling urge to declare his love for you, his love that bursted inside of every vein of his and made his heart thunder between his ribs.
âI..â he unconsciously started, his tone a mere whisper that made your eyes widen, your fingers froze around him making him realise his own words, breath knocked out from his lungs at his own voice that was wavering. So full of emotion, carrying each and every ounce of combined fear and love that he held for you, there was no going back now, he thought.
âI lovââ and his words were lost in the air, jaeyun was abruptly pulled away once again, vanishing from the other side of the bed and leaving no trace behind him, you sat up in shock at his unexpected disappearance, your chest rising and falling rapidly when he evanesced wholly.
The confusion only settled in a few moments later, why were you sitting on bed and searching for someone? And what was with the sinking and dreadful feeling in your stomach?
Before you could dwell in your turmoil further, a different scene of your memories started to play ahead, it was the day after.
ă and no matter how easy things could be if i did. ă
The scent of the blooming flowers of spring around the cafe distracted you from your friendâs disappointed gaze, her movements with the spoon that mixed the coffee with the cream halted before she cleared her throat, successfully garnering your attention and allowing you to see her dissatisfaction with your situation in only her eyes.
âHow mucââ âlisten.â You cut her off, aware of the way that she was about to give you advice for the umpteenth time, to convince and coax you to leave, you felt used to it at this point. Her meaningful words failed to penetrate the wall you had built around yourself regarding anything that was related to jaeyun.
Her hope diminished further when she saw your tired eyes still overflowing with love, the neglect and exhaustion evident in your features, the lack of attention and reciprocation of love from jaeyun was crystal clear to your friend, she absolutely hated seeing you like this.
But she knew that Jaeyun had you wrapped around his finger, your heart drummed for him in a symphony created for only him. She knew that if your love was an ocean then you had drowned a long time ago.
The similarities between you two was almost frustrating for her, as if you both were created from the same soul blown into two different bodies, the love you held for each other heavy, intense and impactful yet you both cowered when faced with the mere possibilities of confession and rejection, far too afraid to lose one another and unaware of the fact that you both were slipping from between the otherâs fingers.
âI know.â You whispered, voice barely audible beneath the chatter of everyone around you in the cafe, your heavy lidded eyes stayed on the cheesecake your friend convinced you to order as you felt no appetite, your stomach finding more comfort with the feeling of ache and longing than anything else.
âBut I canât do anything.â Your words broke towards the end, lowering your head in desperate attempt to hide away your glossy eyes from your friend that felt her heart shatter at your frail and weak frame, âI canât force myself to not love him.â And before you broke down further, your friendâs arms wrapped around you and pulled you into her comfort.
And the feeling of her love and whispers calming you down and engulfing you settled a short moment of peace into your chest before your sight shifted into another memory.
The reminder of why you were here in the first place rang in your head when you finally entered the most dreaded one.
You didnât want all of your happy memories to fill your being with sorrow, you didnât want to grieve over a person who you saw everyday, he lived his life before your very own eyes, his every breath that called out to another girl, confessed his love to another woman whom you wished and hoped would become you one day matched with your every breath that called out to him.
Every day and every night your lips refused to not hold hope for his response, till the syllables of his own name tasted foreign on your tongue. they tasted bitter to you, not the familiar sweetness you felt when you had called out to him in the first few months of his delightful presence in your life.
The lightness you felt in you had turned into the constriction of your chest on you, the heavy weight atop your ribs felt as if they were pushing against your heart, punishing it for being so reckless and careless to fall in love with the only man you werenât meant to be with.
Now each beat of your heart that you were convinced thundered for him, felt like hell breaking loose in between your veins, the burst of ecstasy and excitement had all dulled down to aches of anguish and despair.
And before you knew it, the rush of joy that ascended throughout your body had transformed to absolute misery.
Here you were again, in another painful memory. The mattress sank softly at your weight when you gathered the courage to face your love and your fear, though you werenât quite sure when those two interlinked.
You knew love was never supposed to be fearful, the unblemished love your heart had held for the boy who had his back turned towards you on the bed was not supposed to frighten your mind with dread of the outcome of tonight.
Jaeyun was on the other side of the bed, huddled beneath the blanket as if using the fabric to protect himself from his surroundings, hiding away from the reality and the truth that awaited him with impatience, âjake..â you whispered, voice low as you tested the waters and longed for any sort of reaction from him.
Yet he remained stoic atop the sheets.
From your perspective, jaeyun appeared so close yet so far away and out of your reach, as the days passed by he pulled further from your grasp, backing away from the same hold that once brought comfort to his distraught conscience, as if the graze of your fingertips burned him.
And before you were able to realise it jaeyun was too far away, standing a large distance far from the circle that contained your warmth, where you stayed. Both of your beings were suddenly standing in a parallel line with no signs of interlacing in a messy circle once again.
You werenât exactly sure when both of your hearts had gotten intertwined so awfully to one another, a tangled web forming between your ribs. Yet it seemed that whatever force connected the two appeared defenceless and weak when faced against the same force that was rapidly pushing your bodies and minds away from each other.
It appeared like the love that poured in every web and vein wasnât enough to pull your soul against his own.
âWe should talk.. we need to.â you breathed out, tone heavy as if you knew he was going to be quick to shut you out once again, but you werenât sure if you were going to walk away for a safe amount of time before returning to him again this time.
Just how many times have you lived through this exact scenario? And how many times were you willing to do so?
âThereâs nothing to talk about.â he replied through gritted teeth, closing his eyes once he felt the familiar burn around his iris, and there it was. the same answer you had memorised yet so desperately tried to forget, it left a bittersweet feeling to your moment, you were expecting it and the melancholy of hearing it again settled into your emotions.
Instinctively, you turned your head towards him. Your eyes tracing every tense muscle beneath his shirt, the rigidness of his shoulders as he appeared uncomfortable in his own room and god was the thought a punch to your gut when the possibility of your presence making him uneasy crawled its way into your brain.
And the guilt returned to your system immediately, âiâm sorry.â you spoke, words dragged from your strained and tightened throat as you desperately wanted to sprint into the bathroom before a sob fell from your lips. You felt pathetic, really. His coldness and curt replies never affected you as much as this one, maybe it was because you knew this was going to be your last attempt.
With your eyes unfocused on your surroundings, your feet pushed the door of the bathroom behind you before you leaned onto the wall for strength. And unbeknownst to you, jaeyun finally let out a shaky breath fall from between his bruised and bitten lips, allowing all the tears to spill past his skin, the same skin you so lovingly kissed just a few months ago, and now the mere thought of your lips against him was shredding his own emotions apart.
Jaeyun knew that with every harsh word he spoke, he was also single-handedly ripping apart every web between your hearts.
The pale blue moonlight illuminated the room, landing directly on the empty spot in the middle of the bed, as if asking for one of your tense bodies to move towards one another, yet both of you remained with your backs against eachother. Jaeyun was slowly counting the seconds, he knew the exact amount of minutes it took you to fall asleep by now as he had repeated the same routine every night, except this time your breathing was taking longer to deepen than it was supposed to.
That was until he heard a quiet sniffle ring in his ears.
He froze atop the cold sheets, the sound echoing in his mind as if it was tormenting him, the blame and guilt instantly rooting themselves deep in his stomach and extending their branches far in his body, planting themselves fully in his lungs till the point he couldnât breathe, his breaths turning shallow the more sniffles and quiet cries of heartbreak reached his ears.
The sweat around his palms turned icy, his own body betraying him as he remained paralysed beneath the blanket, his heart screamed at him to go, to move for good for once, fingers itching to turn around and wrap your shaky figure in his hold, to protect you from the demons that were tormenting you both endlessly, yet he couldnât move.
The louder his heart drummed in his chest to move, the sterner his mind reminded him of how much he deserved this, after all those months of neglect who did he think he was to suddenly switch and turn back towards you? After all those steps he took away from you, how dare he even think of walking back on the same footsteps?
And so he stayed. His body stoic in fear of moving an inch.
He breathed out his first deep breath when he realised that you stopped, when you finally fell asleep and he was able to move and breathe again. Jaeyun wasted no time in getting up from his side of the bed, his feet felt cold against the floor, each step he took towards your side felt heavy on his heart, countless pangs of guilt arrowing themselves directly across his chest at the sight of your sleeping frame hugging the blanket close to you.
The closer the walked towards you, the more he felt the torturous sting in his eyes, he gulped the moment his rigid frame made contact with your blanket, sitting down right next to your small frame. And as he took in the features of your face that he so dearly loved he felt his soul hurting further.
He noticed all the glimmering streaks of tears that aligned your skin, your wet eyelashes that carried and held onto smaller droplets of your pain, the soft redness tainting the tip of your nose matching your cheeks, the longer he stared at you the worse his hands ached to hold you against him.
The comfort of your aura around him had stayed the same, your mere existence around him felt tenderly welcoming to him. The presence that felt like the manifestation of a hug from the whole universe, the warmth that was carefully picked from every star in the galaxy was all provided to him by the heavens in the form of you.
Yet his presence had changed. It had matched yours in the beginning, the presence that was a combination of all galactic bodies, the mere light of his aura challenged the light of the sun and all the stars combined, a glow so bright that rivalled the brilliance of every heavenly titan, he was otherworldly. he was your sunshine.
And now the warmth of the sun had dulled, dissolved into the shell of what he used to be, you thought that maybe each light had its own darkness since even the moon had its own dark side that it was ashamed of turning to show.
His fingertips landed against your soft skin, the disappearance of the coldness from his body the moment it made contact with yours made him melt in front of your sleeping form, and he allowed himself for once to sob all of his pain out.
âIâm sorry..â he whispered, voice breaking as he attempted to convey his emotions once they intensified by the seconds, his misery streaming down his face, âIâm so sorry..â he repeated, the heaviness in his heart worsening at the sight of his tears dripping down onto your blanket, his pain surrounding you once again.
âI wishââ he gasped for breath, his insides shattering apart the longer he spent next to your frame, âI wish you hated me, so much.â He finally breathed out, his heart stinging with each word, sight blurring further as more tears fell past his cheeks.
âYou donât deserve me, my love.â Jaeyun smiled sadly at your sleeping form, the thought of you receiving the same kind and brave love that you felt for him brought a short-lived happiness to him, he knew he was incapable of reciprocating the adoration that filled you whole because of him.
Jaeyun was scared the second he realised that you had handed your heart over to his hands, he knew his bravery wouldnât hold enough power to clench his fingertips around your fragile heart, resulting in the delicate and weak item to slip out of his fingers and shatter like countless pieces of glass on the floor.
How he wished he had the courage to love you the same way you loved him, to adore you the same way you adored him, to run back into your warm circle and keep you hidden and protected in his embrace till the end of times, yet he was incapable. His fears and doubts eating away at all the potentials that existed in your heart.
âBut I donât want you to not love me either.â He cried quietly, the thought of you receiving the same love you deserved from someone else destroyed him completely, the visualisation of you smiling the same way you do with him to another man had his hands springing upwards from your skin to grip onto his hair, paining himself in hopes of the torturous image dissipating from his mind.
âIâm sorry,â he repeated once again, his eyes stinging at the continuous hurt his body had bottled up and just got the courage to spill, Jaeyun knew he wasnât brave enough to show and confess his love to you the way you had done for him, and that fact tugged further on his heartstrings.
The rational part of him hoped aimlessly for a day to arrive where you would realise your worth, realise that jaeyun was still being eaten alive with his fear and doubts and guilt all at the same time, his love for you was overflowing yet he hid each and every bit of it so well.
He knew you deserved better, his rational part always tormenting him with his unworthiness and pushing him further away from you, yet his heartâ god his heart couldnât possibly handle the simple thought of you being away from him.
It was his weak side that still clutched you against him so tightly, the side that was fully and wholly controlled by his emotions that were feral for you, the part of him that desperately ignored all warnings and reminders of his logical side.
Deep down, you knew you and jaeyun were never meant to be. The difference between you and him was vast, similar to the difference of the sand and the ocean, the land and the sky, the moon and the sun. Both parts completing each other while repelling one another at the same time.
You two were never meant to intertwine in the first place.
And even if Jaeyun was finally ready to push every pearl and grain of sand into the ocean, to make the sky fall atop the land and to alter the moon and the sunâs planesâ into a permanent eclipse, it was way too late.
For by the time he wakes up, he wonât even be able to remember you.
The metal pieces on your temples glowed green, indicating another opening for a memory for you, a few days after your despair with jaeyun, where he finally collected all the dispersed courage from his head and went out of his way to make it up to you, inevitably wrapping you both further into his unhealthy cycle of messing up and redeeming himself.
Disregarding the fact that both of your hearts can only take so much. After so much heartbreak and neglect to the core of your soul that only held passion and love towards him, it was bound to give up on trying one day. But you were still loving him. And jaeyun ignored all the voices in his head when they began to claim that your unreciprocated love canât last that long. Because Jaeyun believed in you.
And maybe it was blinded belief, blurred with his own hope that contained to bloom in his chest, his hope to fix and repair himself as soon as possible so he can present himself to you wholly, even if his time was running thin, even if he didnât believe in himself, he still found comfort in the small amount of optimism that maybe he can bring the version of him that you adored in your to life.
You both knew that you fell in love with a side of him that he was too afraid to share, too doubtful to uncover and give himself and his most vulnerable parts to, and he knew that he had imprinted himself onto your mind, tattooed his presence onto your heart and he could say that the same implied to himself, it was only a matter of time.
But Jaeyun didnât know that the longer he was taking to mend himself, he was breaking you further. Just how much longer were you supposed to wait for him to walk back and finally engulf you in his arms again? How much longer was he expecting you to wait while he cured himself? How much longer were you supposed to wait for his love? Unmindful of the way that you, yourself needed to heal as well.
Yet here you were, hand laced with jaeyunâs as he pulled you towards the dining room in the house, his excited giggles rang throughout the walls before the sound got trapped in your head and repeated continuously, your legs moved you in front of the table where a small chocolate cake was placed with three candles atop the icing.
âI made tââ he started off before he felt your puppyâs fur graze his leg and cut his words, âme and layla made this for you.â He corrected himself, you were still facing the glowing cake with your oh so gentle gaze that never failed to make jaeyun sigh lovingly besides you, âhappy birthday, my love.â He whispered, each word knitted with his undying devotion for you, and you felt it. Which made you love him further.
âThank you, Jaeyun.â You replied, the room suddenly blurred from around you as your only focus was back to him again, to jaeyunâs charming smile and twinkling eyes when you finally faced him, the soft golden burn from the candles made him glow beautifully for you, with his closeness to your body and his fingers still intertwined with yours, you felt yourself falling in love with him all over again.
And jaeyun felt the same, your grateful grin as all of your features softened when your gaze met his made his heart melt into a puddle in his chest, the familiar electricity buzzed between both of your frames, the small glimmer of hope became a fired storm that lit and roared more when the two of you only seemed to get further lost in each otherâs presence.
With jaeyunâs face inches away from yours, his arms reached to wrap around your waist, swiftly lifting and placing you on the wooden table next to the cake, the surprised gasp that fell past your lips made him chuckle, his hands then lowered to rest on your thighs, âmake a wish, sweetheart.â He spoke, you could feel each flutter of his eyelashes against your skin as he held you close to him.
His slow breath that brushed against your collarbones when he pressed his forehead against yours, both of you closing your eyes to drown completely in this moment, dedicating your mind, body and heart in the close and comfortable warmth of one another that your souls craved for so deeply and desperately, the need clawing away at your heart and finally settling once your hand moved onto his chest, settling above his ribs. You almost melted against him when you felt the rapid thumping of his heart beneath your fingertips.
He moved his head into the crook of your neck, a sudden drowsiness creeping through him as he felt so safe and shielded with you so close to him, you didnât feel as far and cold from him like you usually do, and that thought brought so much peace to his mind for the first time in months.
And so you breathed his scent deeply, surrounding yourself further in him as you made a wish where you werenât asking for too much, just for jaeyunâs love.
âBlow them out.â He lifted himself away from you, his fingers ghosting against your legs while he smiled encouragingly at you, both of your eyes seemed glossier with the light of the candles casting down on them.
âDo it with me.â You requested with your tone fragile and careful. jaeyunâs widened, his eyes turning into crescents as he looked at you tenderly. He nodded making you turn your head towards the candles, the slight warmth provided by the small fire lead shivers to run down your spine before you both leaned down and blew on the candles together.
And right when you turned back to face jaeyun with a grin, you were left alone next to the chocolate cake, the cold air jabbing at your skin while your eyes uncontrollably sought for the sight of anyone, you couldâve sworn you felt warm hands on your thighs, but there was no one else in the room other than you and layla.
Where did this cake come from? And why were you not able to remember who made this cake?
ă i waited for your love. ă
All at once, the machine glitched. Losing its track on the map of your mind when the lights around your temples glowed scarlet, indicating the loss of the connection, the interlink pausing for a brief second when a sob wrecked through your body when you remembered the memory you were about to erase.
The nurseâs rushed movements to carefully pat your cheeks that were dampened with your tears were useless against your gut wrenching cries, a rush of emotions that raged in your chest before they fell through your eyes, like a dam shattering apart as the waterfalls streamed down your face and separated from your chin to land on your lap, gradually dampening the fabric.
âPlease keep t-this one.â You whimpered, each word falling apart as your voice quietened slowly, your hands reaching to clasp around the necklace that graced your chest, the small piece of pine almost penetrating your skin with its sharp edges the tighter you held it when you opened your blurry eyes to the sight of the doctor and the nurse gazing at you warily, the sorrow was shared in the room as their sympathy towards you was clear in the windows of their eyes.
The womanâs warm hands gently held onto your shaking shoulder while you begged and sobbed with the machine glitching to please keep this upcoming memory, you felt helpless. More parts of your love, of your heart being ripped away from you were finally catching up to you and god was the pain absolutely unbearable.
Was this the punishment one had to pay for the innocent act of falling in love with sim jaeyun?
Words and voices became blurred and intangible from around you, the apologies from the nurse and the doctor never fully processing in your mind as the sorrowful memory had started to play ahead of your eyes with no help from the machine.
Your last whispers were to keep this memory, to leave the memory so you can hold onto the final and most precious piece of sim jaeyun that you got to see and experience first hand, the moment where your adoration and devotion towards the boy was solidified, before the pieces returned to glow in thier emerald hue and the device relinked.
Your head ached with the continuous tears flowing down your face when the memory of you and jaeyun sitting next to each other on the couch unfolded, his fingertips ghosted on your skin, dancing around and drawing shapes and words only he knew the meaning behind while he held you close to him, the inexplicable need and desire to hold you near took a hold of him, and you understood it.
You and jaeyun understood one another beyond the boundaries others deemed possible, you understood his soul so well, his soul that was crafted from a language so intricate and delicate and you were fluent in it. And when faced with the opposite situation of him knowing your soul, he flowed in every crack and crevice of your being easily.
his presence had seeped its way throughout all of your walls that you spent day and night building, growing rapidly all over your walls like vines before breaking them all one by one, till he rooted himself in a great spot, deep in your heart.
If possible, he knew your soul better than he knew his own. But the disagreement of your minds overpowered the link between your hearts and unraveled your tangled souls from one another.
And maybe your mastery in his language was the dawn for the demise of your sweet, innocent love. Because you hated that you could tell how fidgety and anxious jaeyun was around you in this current moment.
âIs something wrong?â You finally had the bravery to voice out, worry worsening when you felt his movements freeze. He cleared his throat before sighing, pulling himself slightly away from you to stare into your eyes.
You felt time slowing around you when you saw his glossy gaze, sim Jaeyun looked breathtaking with the amount of emotions that swirled in his eyes, an amount you couldnât even begin to fathom or comprehend, you felt yourself gradually losing yourself the longer both of you drowned on the otherâs presence, the atmosphere then carried a great sense of doom that both of you decided to ignore.
Too scared to face the results of your avoidance.
âI have a gift for you.â Jaeyun breathed out, the weight that he dragged on his shoulders became heavier when he continued his typical routine of ignorance, of running away from the problem in every possible direction even if they led him to the most tragic path.
Nodding to encourage him, you pursed your lips in anticipation, excitement sparking slowly when you finally pushed away every anxious thought of what could be possibly bothering jaeyun, his hands reached towards his pocket where he pulled a box, your eyes widening whenâ âIâm not proposing!â He quickly blurted out once he caught your shocked expression, âitâs justâ a special gift.â He blushed making you tilt your head in confusion, unknowingly deepening the blush on his face.
âHere.â He handed you the white velvety box, your fingers brushed against the fabric one final time before opening the lid and god youâve never felt so many conflicted emotions all at once.
The intense vehemence and hurricane of feelings swirling around your heart and chest uncoordinatedly lead the device unable to keep up with the contrast between your happiness in the memory and the sheer ache that you were facing in the current time.
Like the tides of an ocean, your regret washed down on you. Intensifying as if the waves were battling with a storm, escalating the worse the strikes of the thunder became with the time. How were you supposed to forget about him?
âWhy are you crying?â His voice was weak, lips quivering in panic of you repelling his gift, hating the small pine cone necklace that adorned the box in your hands, âwhat?â You asked, confusion laced in your voice, you were over the moon why would you be crying?
You fingertips left the soft pine cone pendant to touch your face, flinching when feeling the small tear drop on the pad of your finger, you never cried in this memory.
âPlease calm her down, her emotions are disrupting the memory.â You heard the muffled voice of the doctor followed by the panicked and comforting whispers of the nurse in your ear, whispered promises of living in peace and finding happiness barely reached your mind when you were wiping away your happiness yourself right now.
âLet me help you put it on.â Jaeyun proposed, smiling softly when you nodded and turned around after handing him the necklace, Jaeyun chanted words of reassurance in his head in hopes of calming his shaking fingers that burned when they brushed against your skin, clasping the necklace for the first and final time around your chest, he felt happiness and pride blooming in his heart at the satisfaction of having a piece of himself around you at all times.
âTurn around so I can see you, pretty.â He leaned in and whispered into your ear, his smile widening when you chuckled at his words and turned around.
But why was there no one behind when you turned?
Gasping through your tears with the pieces glowing crimson around your temples, you searched through the blurry figures of white coats and stethoscopes for a different one, though unknown to you who exactly you were searching for, your eyes still raced through every corner of the room.
âPlease calm down, miss.â The nurse reassured, pushing the device back onto your temples when you still weakly looked around, too exhausted to respond or fight for your belief that someone is supposed to be here for you, âweâre one final memory away.â You heard the doctor talk before breathing a shaky breath in and taking your final trip to your memory lane.
âIâll return before night, love.â Jaeyun shouted from the door, hoping that you werenât able to hear his wavering voice when he left you on the only day you asked for him to stay, but after all of your attempts and requests to get him to stay were unsuccessful, you stayed in the room with your puppy as you waited for her father.
And what was supposed to be two hours became three, what became three turned into the evening, and here you were with your back leaning against the door Jaeyun walked out from when itâs past midnight, Laylaâs figure quickly found your own crouched one, arms wrapped around your knees to allow the sleeves of your shirt to catch your tears when the thunder struck for the nth time that night, the night that Jaeyun didnât return.
Your chest felt empty, as if your heart had been ripped and now the cold air passing through the void of where you used to hold a blinding love made goosebumps align like constellations along your skin, you felt hollow.
âI donât know how much longer I can do this, baby.â You cried to layla whoâs ears only lowered, if it wasnât for the poor lighting in the hallway you wouldâve been able to also see her own glossy and hurt filled eyes at the sight of you, âIâm sorry, I couldnât make him love me.â You turned your head from her silhouette. Shame, humiliation and heartache overflowing you entirely as you sobbed behind the same door jaeyun was leaning against.
He stood there with his frame freezing from the cold, another night of him not being able to tell the difference between the rain droplets falling from his hair and his own salty tears as he allowed the guilt to eat him up from the inside out, not having the heart to possibly open the door and greet the view of a heartbroken you.
He had seen the sight of your tired eyes too many times, and knowing that he himself was the root of the pain made the heartache devour him whole, so he slid down onto the wet floor beneath him with his back towards the door, chuckling tearfully at his own patheticness.
If only he had the bravery to free fall into the sweet and accepting love that bloomed between the two of you like you had, maybe he wouldâve been on the other side of the door to engulf you in his arms and console you.
But who was he kidding, heâs the same guy that couldnât handle the responsibility of your pure heart and distracted himself with other women, surrounding himself with different fragrances and lipstick prints all when the lady of his heart was always within armâs reach.
He wished he had moulded himself back into the version of him that you met, the loving and easygoing Jake that gazed at you with stars in his eyes, but the damage had already been done. There was no turning back now.
Especially not when you finally opened your eyes fully to the blinding light in the room, the soft blue light being sighted in your peripheral vision, indicating the completion and the success of the operation.
Elation sparked in your body, gradually burning into a small fire when you couldnât remember anything.
âHow are you feeling, miss?â The nurse asked, a hopeful smile gracing her features while she gazed at a confused you taking in your surroundings as if it was your first time, âweirdly.. light?â The doctor chuckled at your words, âthe operation was a success.â He spoke before grinning pridefully at his triumph.
âYou did amazing, miss.â The nurse praised as she helped you to stand on your own feet with no heavy weight on your shoulders for the first time in months, discarding the metal pieces before shaking your hands, words of gratitude and wishes for a healthy and happy life were exchanged before you finally walked out of the door belonging to the office, taking your first strives with no burden or guilt surrounding you as if you were floating.
Oblivious of the knowledge that Jaeyun woke up with a headache on the other side of the city, the back of his head pounding with him barely able to register Laylaâs worried coos, unable to fully open his eyes and lifting his hand to rub the sleep away beforeâ wait was he crying?
The young boy stared at his hand that shined with his tears in confusion, why was he crying? He tried to remember if he had seen a nightmare, a dream, anythingâ only to reach no answer.
âHey pretty, donât worry about me it was probably a dream.â He decided on comforting his puppy that only cooed sadly, his hand reaching forward to pet her fur while the other reached into his pocket to retrieve his phone when it brushed against a foreign object.
Jaeyunâs eyebrows furrowed when he pulled out a small box from his pocket, the item resembling a weirdly intimate small box, he opened it to reveal a beautiful ringâ a promise ring. embroidered with a bunch of small diamonds around the silver lining, his confusion deepening when he had absolutely no clue of who this ring could possibly belong to.
He searched the inside for any sort of engraving to no avail, âwho was this for..?â He whispered to layla who deflated further into the floor, sadness overflowing from her eyes at the defeat and loss of her friend.
And at the end, you and jaeyunâs tragic love story became encapsulated into a small forgotten star in the vast, wide and endless sky.
Already opening new opportunities and doors for different stories to be woven into your lives, you finally met up with the guy your friend had set you up with, and you knew the decision of trusting her taste was successful when a tall, doe eyed guy showed up to your table.
âHello, my name is heeseung.â He smiled sweetly, his warm aura welcoming and pulling you in completely, unknown to you that this was just the beginning of your story with the love of your life, both of you getting lost in tangled conversations filled with questions and your interests, unaware of the different couple passing outside of the window.
âWait so jungwon scored right?â Jake laughed, engrossed in the story of how his best friend almost ended up in the hospital, âafter making riki trip, yes.â The girl besides him chuckled when Jake threw his head back in laughter, without noticing how his puppy stood outside of a cafe window, layla was no longer following him and instead she seemed to gaze intensely into the window.
Her tail swishing in excitement and joy when she spotted your figure sitting on one of the chairs, accompanied by a man that wasnât afraid to wrap his arm around your shoulder while you laughed at his words.
Both you and Jake blind to the sight of the conflicted puppy whoâs head only swished on both of your distant figures with two different people around you now before walking away with a heavy heart in jaeyunâs direction.
Maybe you and Jaeyun were never meant to successfully intertwine.
â fin
a,note. this feels so weird to share now because this is my first ever heavy angst filled work thatâs also very emotionally connected to me in a way, first of all thank you ariana for releasing album of the year and inspiring me to write this, if you havenât listened to eternal sunshine please so as soon as possible.
second iâd like to share how somewhat uncomfortable it is for me to share this as i had to take a lot of breaks throughout writing it (iâm an emotional b word pls) and also there were alot of moments that were inspired by my closest friendships / emotional experiences so i really feel like im sharing some sort of part of myself with this as well, but either way i hope u enjoyed reading this !! i love u layla and iâm sorry :(
Desperate | P.SH
pairing: bf!hoon x fem!reader
genre: established relationship au, explicit content (mdni)
warnings: lots of fluff in the beginning, making out, smut, dubcon/noncon, unprotected sex (a big no), pulling out (please just use protection instead), nicknames (baby, doll, slut, etc.), bondage (handcuffs), oral (f!rec), clit biting, fingering, oversensitiveness, multiple orgasms, cum eating, creampie, clit pinching, pussy slapping, backshots, doggy (yes backshots and doggy aren't the same), reverse cowgirl, mating press, breeding kink, mentions of pregnancy, breeding kink, passing out, basic aftercare, mentions of further aftercare, let me know if i missed any!
word count: 4.3k
The benefits of having Sunghoon as a bf were many, the most prominent one being that he wasnât very demanding.
Most of your previous boyfriends always wanted something or the other. Whether it be sex or simply your attention, they needed it. All the time.
Sunghoon on the other hand? He didnât pester you for either. At least not often.
The two of you first met at a party that had been hosted by a mutual friend of you both. Both of you had been drinking in a random corner by yourselves, before he struck up conversation. Under the influence of alcohol, the simple conversation had escalated to something more, a passionate night filled with the interlocking of hands and lips, sweat and saliva mixing together, your bodies intertwining with each otherâs. He had asked for your number the next day, asking you to hang out sometime. You agreed.
The hangout soon turned into a date, one date turning to two, and so on. Soon both of you were out of college, looking for jobs. The plus point of being excellent at academics was that it didnât take both of you much time to land one.
Your jobs required you both to work nine to five, which neither of you minded since it was something both of you enjoyed doing.
The only problem? Both of you barely had time for each other.
Fights werenât uncommon during the first month of both of your jobs, leading you both to sleep in separate rooms way too often. It was only after your boyfriend randomly surprised you with a date night on a weekend, both of you stopped fighting. Needless to say, that night was once again filled with the raw passion that was present when you guys first met. So yea, a big âfuck youâ to whoever said make up sex wasnât good.
Sunghoon was a good boyfriend, really. He hardly ever bothered you, except for the occasional sex. Which, by the way, was valid, given that neither of you got to spend much time with each other, other than the times when you both got intimate. What is the problem then?
Well, there isnât much of a problem exactlyâ other than the fact that you feel extremely fucking guilty.
It wasnât exactly your fault that you couldnât give your boyfriend enough of your time and attention. Your job required you to work overtime now-a-days, sometimes even having you work on weekends. You barely got time for yourself, always coming home late, too tired to even walk properly. It wasnât your fault that you barely had any energy left in you, your simple ânoâs always coming out breathy, thatâs how tired you usually were.
Initially, he accepted it. He was super sweet about it too, massaging your shoulders and the expanse of your back, rubbing softly to loosen the knots in it. He would prepare a warm bath for you, filled to the brim with bubbles. He would cuddle you to sleep, pressing gentle kisses all over your face. He would even prepare breakfast for you, serving it in bed.Â
Now? Now the situation is extremely different.
You see, despite being understanding of your tiredness, a man also has his needs. One can only hold out for so long. Any man is bound to get tired of the constant rejection of intimacy with their lover. And Sunghoon is also a man at the end of the day.
If the same thing continued, he would have no choice but to seek intimacy elsewhere.
But Sunghoon loved you too much for that.
It was around 12:51 am on a Wednesday, you had just arrived home. The house wasâ extremely quiet. Thatâs strange. Sunghoon usually came to greet you when you came home, taking your bag out of your hand and slipping the coat off your shoulder. Where was he?
As if hearing your thoughts, your boyfriend came out of the direction of your shared bedroom. He smiled at you, quickly walking over and grabbing the bag out of your hand. He kissed the top of your head, slipping the coat off your shoulders and helping you take off your shoes. He held your waist, guiding you towards the bathroom. âIâm sorry for not greeting you immediately baby, I was preparing something for you.â
You looked at him with surprise, your tiredness momentarily forgotten. âA surprise?â
Sunghoon smiled at you. âYes doll, a surprise. Go take a shower, then Iâll show it to you.â
You gave a small smile to him, nodding, entering the bathroom, having failed to notice the subtle smirk on his face.
You took your sweet time showering, making sure to feel as relaxed as possible, before going to bed. Once you were done, you wrapped a bathrobe around yourself, using a towel to dry your hair as much as possible, before walking out of the bathroom.
Surprisingly, Sunghoon was waiting for you outside. He smiled at you, before extending his arm towards you. Although you were a little confused by his actions, you extended your arm towards him as well, holding his hand. He pulled you towards him, wrapping his arms around your waist, before kissing your forehead. He then kissed your nose, your cheeks, and finally your lips. You smiled into the kiss, wrapping your arms around his neck, before breaking the kiss gently. You stared at his eyes, smiling softly. âWhatâs with the sudden affection?â
Your boyfriend nudged your nose with his own. âNothing, I just missed you.â
You laughed softly. âMissed me? But you saw me this morning itself.â
He pouted slightly. âThat isnât enough. I need you by my side 24/7 darling.â
You smiled, pecking his lips. âWell, you have me now, all to yourself, donât you?â
He nodded, smiling. âThat I do. Come to our bedroom baby, let me show you the surprise I told you about.â
Your breath caught in your throat, once Sunghoon took his hands off your eyes. You had never seen your bedroom look anything likeâ like this.
There were rose petals randomly strewn all across the floor, the lights turned off. The only source of light being the innumerous scented candles all around the room. Your shared bed had a large heart of rose petals in the middle of it, with petals of white roses spelling out âI love youâ inside the heart. It was the most romantic gesture your boyfriend had ever done.
He wrapped his arms around your waist, bringing his lips next to your ear. âDo you like it baby?â
You turned your face to the side, quickly pecking him on the lips. âI love it. So very much.â
He smiled, nuzzling his face into your neck, before planting soft kisses all over it. âLet me take care of you baby.â
You bit your lip. It's not that you don't appreciate his efforts to have an intimate time with you, it's just that you didn't have the energy for that. You could already feel your eyelids starting to droop from the tiredness, your legs were sore from walking. All you wanted right now was to cuddle in your loverâs arms and fall asleep. âI'm sorry baby, I'm really tired right now. Can we just cuddle instead?â
For the second time this night, Sunghoon surprised you. Usually, when you denied him, he would immediately relent and take you to bed, spooning you and cuddling with you, making sure that you get a good night's sleep. Today however, he simply wrapped his arms around your waist tighter, his soft kisses on your neck becoming wetter and hotter, open mouthed kisses, ones that had you stifling a moan. âYou say that everyday baby.â
You gulped, trying hard to swallow down the moans that were induced by his unrelenting assault on your neck, barely able to utter a word. âIâ I know babeâ but I'm just râ really tiredââ
He ignored your words, biting down on your neck and sucking it harshly, trying to leave as many hickies as possible. You were unbelievably tired, but that didn't mean his actions weren't making you feel good. But you couldnât let him know that, or he would take it as a sign to continue.
âHâ Hoonie please, Iâm so tiredââ
With one swift motion, your boyfriend undid your bathrobe, quickly spinning you around and smashing his lips on yours, muffling your gasp. He ignored the way you tried to hit his shoulders to push him off, holding the back of your head in one hand to push your face towards him, trying to deepen the kiss. He held your waist tightly in the other, his thumb kneading the flesh there.
Sunghoon brought both of his hands down to your hips, lifting you, forcing you to wrap both your arms and legs around him. He quickly carried you to the bed, setting you down on it. Without breaking the kiss, he leaned your body back slightly, using one hand to roughly shove the beautiful heart that he had spent hours making, using a bunch of red and white roses, away, out of the way. He pushed you down onto the bed, quickly using his hands to tightly pin your own protesting ones above your head. He used his knees to shove your legs apart, settling down in between them.
You continued to protest weakly, your body too tired to handle him. It was starting to frustrate him with how much you were struggling against his hold. He briefly broke the kiss to glare down at you. âWhy wonât you keep still? I told you I would take care of you, didnât I? Why are you making this difficult for the both of us?â
Your eyes were glazed with unshed tears, your entire body sore from how hard you had been working the entire day, and how much you had been struggling against him for the past few minutes. âIâm too tired for this babyâ canât we please do it some other time?â
He rolled his eyes, before snapping at you. âToo tired? Isnât that what you have been saying for the past two months? I have waited a long time for you, havenât I? How long do you plan on leaving me like this? Do I not have needs? If you wonât satisfy them, who else will?â
Your lower lip trembled from his harsh tone, trying your hardest to not break down. You replied in a shaky voice. âBaby, you have to understand that my job has been extremely demanding for the past two monthsâ itâs hard for me to not be tired, my loveââ
Your boyfriend had enough of your excuses, quickly leaning towards the nightstand, fumbling about in the drawer. He produced a pair of handcuffs from it, causing your eyes to widen, your struggle against him increasing.
But tonight there was no escape for you. Sunghoon was desperate to be close with you today, causing him to quickly cuff your hands to the bed posts. Your tears had broken free, as you desperately tried to break free from the cuffs, pleading with him desperately to spare you for the night.
Your boyfriend held your hips down tightly, preventing you from moving too much. He once again smashed his lips on yours, silencing your pleas.
His kisses traveled south, leaving hickeys all over your jaw, neck, shouldersâ trailing down to your chest and stomach. His lips ghosted over your pussy, blowing air on it, causing you to whimper and clench around nothing.
Your struggle against him increased two-fold, causing him to hold your hips down with both hands. He kissed your inner thighs, before biting them, harshly sucking the bitten area to leave more hickeys, before finally deciding to give attention to your pussy. Even if he desperately wanted to fuck you into the next week, he still loved and cared about you, and wanted to make you feel better, despite his actions suggesting otherwise.
He kissed your folds, before licking a stripe upwards, causing a whine to escape you. He smirked, before repeating his actions. âI thought you didn't want this, princess? Why are you so wet?â
More slick gushed out of your exposed hole at his words, your pussy clenching around nothing. You gave up on fighting back, realizing it was of no use right now. Sunghoon chuckled, realizing your resignation, the sound vibrating through your cunt. He circled your clit with his tongue, causing you to whine, trying to close your legs. He held your legs down tightly with both hands, preventing you from moving too much.
Without warning, he harshly bit your clit, causing a choked scream to escape you. The scream turned into whimpers and moans, as he flattened his tongue over your clit, before sucking it. He gave your clit a kiss, before sucking over your slit, slurping down the slick like his favorite drink. You whined at the loud, wet, lewd slurping noises that were filling up the room, your boyfriend paying no attention to your sounds.
Abruptly, he thrust his tongue inside, causing you to cry out. He kept thrusting his tongue as deep inside as he could reach, causing loud moans to escape you, filling up the entire room.
He kept alternating between sucking your clit and thrusting his tongue inside your hole, as if unable to decide which one to give more attention to. His dilemma however, was quickly solved, once he shoved two digits inside your cunt, his long and slender fingers dragging across your walls, giving attention to every nook and cranny of your pussy. Your moans increased, spurring him on greatly.
You could feel the band in your stomach tighten, signaling your impending orgasm. Sunghoon could tell you were close, judging by the change of pitch of your voice. The speed of his movements increased two-fold, his fingers curling up every time to hit your spot, causing you to see stars.
With one final cry of his name, you came undone, cumming all over his fingers and the lower half of his face. He came up, giving you the perfect view of his drenched face, causing heat to creep up your neck. He leaned upwards to engage you in a messy lip lock, exchanging saliva with you, the taste of your slick prominent in his mouth. He broke the kiss. âFeel any better, doll?â
You exhaled, your chest rising up and down as you took slow and steady breaths. Even if you were tired beyond comprehension, you couldn't deny that he made you extremely good, way better than how you usually felt at night. âI do. Thanks to you.â
Now, don't get him wrong, your boyfriend was extremely happy he could make you feel slightly better. But clearly, he could do way better, since you were still able to form a comprehensive sentence. Which is why, he immediately got to work to make you feel even better.
Sunghoon went down again, once again attaching his lips on your pussy. You cried out, whimpering and thrashing around from the oversensitiveness. Once again, he held you down by your legs to prevent you from moving too much. He harshly sucked on your clit, quickly thrusting three fingers deep inside your pussy. He slowly, deliberately dragged his fingers across your walls, making you whimper and thrash in his hold, the sensations starting to completely fog your brain.
He flicked your clit with his tongue, before swirling it around the bundle of nerves. He curled his fingers, hitting your spot, causing you to cry out. He increased his pace, thrusting his fingers in and out quickly, curling them every time to hit your g-spot. The band in your stomach tightened once again, your vision starting to blur. The band finally snapped, causing you to arch your back, your head thrown back, mouth open in a silent scream. Your orgasm crashed over you, your boyfriend quickly slurping up everything, not letting a single drop go to waste.
He leaned up, looking at your face. Your pupils were blown out, eyes hooded, your chest heaving slightly, as you tried to catch your breath. The sight of you lying there in that state was his last straw, as he quickly leaned down to engage you in a messy lip lock. Without breaking the kiss, he made quick work of his shirt, unbuttoning it and throwing it somewhere in the room. He did the same with his pants, before breaking the kiss.
Your boyfriend reached out above your head, uncuffing your hands. Sensing no struggle from your side, he placed a small peck on your lips, before manhandling you onto your stomach. You could barely balance yourself, your entire body, especially your legs feeling extremely sore. Sunghoon grabbed your hips, pulling your ass up. He spread your legs apart, holding your hips tightly. He aligned himself with your entrance, his cock standing tall and angry, his tip a violent red, leaking with precum. He slowly pushed his tip inside, both of you moaning in unison, before he buried his entire length to the hilt, bottoming out.
Sunghoon swore that he was in heaven. A month without your pussy was pure torture, his hand was nothing compared to your beautiful cunt. The way your pussy was sucking him in right now? He was damn sure you missed him the same way he missed you, or at least your pussy did.
He pulled out almost completely, leaving only the tip inside, before slamming his entire length inside, his balls slapping against your clit. You whimpered at the sensation, your head buried into the pillows, the sound coming out muffled. He kept repeating the same process, making sure to drag his cock against your walls, the tip repeatedly hitting your cervix. Your whines turned into mewls, as you tried to fuck yourself back onto his length. Your boyfriend chuckled at the sight, giving your ass a nice slap, watching it jiggle. He repeatedly smacked your ass, watching it jiggle and turn red. His spanking turned you on even more if possible, your back arching, slick starting to seep around his cock and make a wet puddle underneath them, onto the sheets. He gave your ass one last spank, before leaning towards you, his chest almost pressed to your back. He whispered in your ear. âGetting wet from a few spanks, baby? Didn't know you were this much of a whore. Making such a big mess on the sheetsâŠâ
You whined, your sweet little cunt clenching around his length deliciously, causing a groan to escape him. He gritted his teeth, before leaning back up. He gripped your hips tightly, before pistoning his hips into yours without mercy, giving you barely anytime to adjust properly. Not that you needed it, he thought, with the amount of slick that was gushing around his length.
His heavy balls continued to smack against your clit with every thrust, stimulating it. You whined, pushing your ass towards him slightly, trying to get more pressure on your clit. He noticed what you were trying to do, bringing a hand down to your clit, harshly rubbing it. You let out a choked gasp at the sudden pleasure, your mind starting to cloud from the overwhelming sensation. The way his cock kept drilling into your pussy, hitting your cervix every time, along with the way he was rubbing your clit, your orgasm wasn't going to take very long.
For the third time that night, a familiar sensation built up in your stomach, causing you to clench around him tightly. Before you could warn him, you had already come all around his length, causing a white ring to form around his base. Your boyfriend groaned at the sight, fastening his pace. Once he felt his orgasm starting to near, he spoke hurriedly. âI'm near babyâ Where do you want it?â
Your mind was starting to go into overdrive, but you still heard him somehow. In a shaky voice, you answered. âI-Insideââ
He groaned, before quickly pulling out, causing you to cry out at the empty feeling. He ignored you, using his hand to jerk off, before spilling his load all over your ass cheeks. He put both hands on the side of your hips, using his thumbs to spread his cum over all your ass, admiring it. He landed a slap on it. âStupid slut, did you really think your pussy deserves my cum? After you made me wait for two whole months?â
You whimpered, the degradation going straight to your cunt, causing you to clench around nothing, a sight that did not go unnoticed by him. He landed another slap on your ass. âSuch a whore, of course you get turned on by this.â
You let out a muffled whine, clenching your thighs. He bit back a groan, his cock still very much hard and leaking. He grabbed your hips, pulling your ass up again, once again aligning himself with your entrance. He pushed inside, immediately bottoming out. He gave you no time to adjust, immediately slamming his hips into yours, cockhead repeatedly brushing against your cervix. His grip on your hips was so tight, it was surely going to leave bruises, but neither of you cared about that. Not when he felt so good inside you, repeatedly hitting that spongy part of your walls, bringing you closer and closer to the edge.
He suddenly wrapped a hand around your waist, pulling your body upright, your back flush against his chest. The new position gave him a better angle, cock almost bruising your cervix with the amount of force that he was using to drill into your pussy. His other hand reached down to your clit, pinching and rubbing it, rolling the hardened nub in his fingers. Your moans turned into pleasure filled screams, as he slapped your pussy multiple times. With one last slap, you spilled all over him once again, a white ring forming on the base of his cock.
Your orgasm triggered his own, as he sheathed himself deep inside you, shooting rope after rope of hot cum inside your awaiting pussy, making you moan at the sensation. He kept chanting curses, before he finally stopped cumming.
Your boyfriend slowly pulled out, watching the mixture of both of your cums dripping out of your pussy, into the sheets. He groaned at the sight. âLook at you baby, such a pretty little cum dump for me.â
Your face was shoved into the pillows, your brain not registering his words, as you tried to catch your breath. He slowly turned you around, looking at your fucked out face. He scooped the cum that was dripping out of your pussy, pushing it back in, causing a weak whine of protest coming from you, as you felt too sensitive.
He ignored you, focusing on trying to keep the cum inside. It was useless, the sticky amalgamation continuing to drip out. Frustrated, he grabbed your hips, pulling you closer to him. He once again aligned himself with your entrance, using his cock to try and fuck the cum back inside. Your legs twitched a bit in protest, but it soon died down because of how firmly he held your legs down.
He increased his pace, balls smacking against your ass with each thrust, his mind solely focused on pushing the cum back in. He picked up your leg, throwing it over his shoulder, before doing the same with the other. The new angle allowed him to hit deeper, his cock drilling deep inside your pussy, fucking the cum inside. He nearly folded your body in half, cockhead almost piercing through your cervix, pushing the cum impossibly inside, into your womb. You whimpered at the feeling, both your body and voice too sore to protest.
He groaned at your state, picking up his pace. He felt a little too good, no longer caring about your comfort anymore. He kept blabbering to you, his words ranging from sweet nothings to the most vulgar nonsense.
âLooking so cute like this, taking me like a good little slutââ
âMy personal cocksleeve, made to be mine and mine onlyââ
âGod you're so beautifulâ taking me so wellââ
âGonna knock this slutty pussy up, gonna make sure everyone knows you're mineââ
âWould look so pretty carrying my babiesâ gonna wife you up tooââ
His words caused your brain to short circuit. Your back arched, your mouth open in a silent moan. Your mind turned foggy, vision going white, ears ringing loudly, as a familiar, yet unfamiliar sensation built up in your stomach. Your orgasm crashed over you in tidal waves. You didn't stop cumming, your squirt splashing all over his thighs and abdomen.
He groaned at the sight, his own orgasm getting triggered by yours. He sheathed himself deep inside your pussy, head thrown back, jaw going lax. He kept on shooting load after load of cum inside you. He didn't think he ever came that much, your pussy milking him for all he was worth.
He kept coming till he was spent. He pulled out, his cock starting to physically hurt from how sensitive it was. He laid down beside you, chest heaving in exertion.
Your mind kept flickering between being conscious and then unconscious. In your hazy state, you felt Sunghoon wipe your pussy and the rest of your body with wet tissues, before you felt him whisper a faint âWe should take a bath.â
You felt him pick you up, bridal style, before your vision went completely black.
TRACKING THE WIP!
When you both were eight years old, Jay held his hand out and asked you to run away with him. None of you had the comprehension of the deeper meaning of these words back then. However, at the age of twenty-one, it was another story. You needed a way out.
GENRES: best friends to lovers & road trip; angst, fluff & smut
PAIRING: rich kid!Jongseong (Jay) x rich kid!reader
WARNINGS: mentions of alcohol; virginity loss; unprotected sex multiple times; not a fake dating au, but they pretend to date way too much; a bunch of scenes underneath the rain
CURRENT WORD COUNT: 7.3K
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TAGLIST OPEN! But please, be kindly aware that I am not the fastest or the most confident writer on this site. I donât know when I am going to post them, so if you want to be tagged feel free to leave a comment or send me an ask at @en-ternity! âĄ
pairing: husband!suguru x f!reader
synopsis: the love between you two died long ago. no, neither of you acknowledge it, you hardly acknowledge each other. in between the busy schedules and blinding lights of upscale events is an unspoken ruleâ to pretend.
genre/warnings: dying love, angst, smut, marriage, suguru and reader are in their 30s, emotional distance, mutual hurt, miscarriages/infertility, happy ending, ceo!suguru
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The ride home is even quieter than the one to the event. No jazz this time, just the sound of rain pattering against the car's exterior and occasional honks in the distance, it was the city after all.
You didnât need to say anything to your driver, Ringo, for him to know you and Suguru had gotten into a fight. And while itâs been a decent amount since you two have fought, heâs not surprised, not anymore at least. He was one of the very few in your life that witnessed the spark between you two fizzle out.Â
Suguruâs words weighed heavy in your heart as you pulled up to the estate.Â
âLetâs just go home.âÂ
It wasnât home, it was a shell. A six bedroom, seven bathroom, cold and empty shell that echoes if you so much as drop a penny in the hallway.Â
The house had been custom designed when you were two years into marriage, a home built with the love and dreams you and Suguru shared together as husband and wife. It shouldâve been filled by now. Every detail had been chosen with babies in mindâ wide hallways a toddler could run through, rounded corners so that they didn't trip when they turned the corner too fast when chasing each other.Â
You remember the excitement on Suguruâs face when you showed him the layout of the house after working with the architect for a bit.
âYou donât think six rooms is too much, right?â you asked, second guessing yourself despite all the hours spent with the architect.
âNo, never,â he chuckled. âWeâll be lucky if we even stay, Iâm thinking itâs not enough.â
âFive kids?â you acted like you were shocked, but you always knew he wanted a big family. So did you.
âMhm,â he smirked, snaking his arm around your waist. âDonât make that face honey, itâll be easy with how much you beg me to fill yââ
âOh my godâ okay, okay I get it!â You laugh in the man's arms as he continues to tease you, reminding you of how bad you wanted it too.Â
He ended up kissing you right after, deeply, as if it were the first time all over againâ you miss him like that, happy. You were only a few weeks pregnant during that time. The test on the counter was barely positive, yet the daydreams of raising children with the man you love had already started.Â
And for Suguru, the man who was always so calm and composed, had tears brimming in his eyes when you surprised him with a sonogram over a home cooked dinner. You made his favorite that night, kake soba.Â
âIâm going to be a dad,â he whispered to himself, as if he couldnât believe it. He carded a hand through his hair, continuing to stare at the photo. He chuckles, âHoly shit. Iâm gonna be a dad.â âThe most amazing one,â you said in response, reaching out to hold his hand.
Youâll never forget how tightly he held your hand that day.Â
Neither of you got sleep that night. He stayed up, adding one too many parenting books to his Barnes and Noble cartâ turning to kiss your cheek ever so often, checking up to see if you were feeling okay. Meanwhile you stayed up looking up baby names, the only thing you agreed on that night was that itâd be a girl. You both wanted a baby girl.
The next time he held your hand as tight as that day was 6 weeks later when you both slowly walked out of the hospital, after spending the entire night there.
You were hysterical, crying uncontrollably when you had called him the day before. He didnât need to understand what you were saying to know what was going on.
It was the first time he couldnât protect you, the first out of the many times youâd go through the only pain he couldnât take away from you. All he could do was sit in the cold waiting room, hoping and wishing that you were okay. That the nurses and doctors were treating you right, treating you with compassion. That you might be one of the hundreds of cases theyâve seen, but please remember you're someoneâs wifeâ youâre someone thatâs loved.Â
It was a selfish thought process, but he didnât care. Seventeen grueling hours. He was somewhere in between worrying for you and mourning over the future with the child that never came.Â
The heavy front door clicks shut behind you, locking you in what you now consider a prison. Alone, againâ words that constantly repeat in your head, even when heâs around. You carefully peel off your diamonds, your heels, and lastly, the dress that Suguru never bothered to compliment tonight.Â
And on to the bottle of wine that youâve been saving for the last couple of months.Â
Suguruâs body is filled with more alcohol than water when he comes home two hours later. He stumbles through the large empty halls, hitting some of those rounded corners as he makes his way to the kitchen first to grab a bottle of water, then up the stairs to get the goddamn suit off.Â
âWhere the fuckâŠâ he mumbles to himself, looking at the bed that shouldnât be empty right now. âWhereâd she go?â
He checks the bathroom, the study, then the kitchen again. You were nowhere to be found and he canât be bothered to hide his panic. He pulls his phone out and calls yours.Â
Straight to fucking voicemail.
And then he panics even more. Guess you could say that unexplained feeling he gets from seeing you in that bed was comfort this entire time. An odd sense of it at least. Now heâs stripped of it. Bare. All thatâs left is the fear that maybe tonight was the final straw.
Thatâs when he sees it.
The crack of light under one of the hallway doors, the one thatâs been closed for nearly two years.
He didnât know whether to feel relieved or if he should just let the ache in his chest continue to grow, allowing himself to feel that pain for once after spending all this time trying to push it down.Â
His footsteps are light as he walks towards it and slowly pushes the door open, taking a look at the half-done nursery. You two were so sure this one would make it.
Thereâs a small layer of dust on the wooden crib. A few stuffed animals sat in the corner of it. A handful of books still sit on the shelfâ untouched, never even flipped through once.Â
Neither of you brought yourselves to get rid of any of it.
And then thereâs you, curled up in the reclining chair meant for feedings and long nights that never came. Youâre passed out, the culprit of what brought you here in the first place was the bottle of red wine sitting on the little table next to you.Â
It was a reminder that you never stopped grieving.Â
He never stopped either, but he grieved over you the most, and the person you used to be before life decided to step in and rip you to shreds. It told you there was something wrong with you and proved it each and every time.
He also grieves over the parts of himself thatâve been chipped away through the years tooâ the person that he used to be before he learned that there will always be something youâd fail at, no matter how hard you worked for it.
Suguru stands in the doorway for what feels like hours, watching the last eight years go by before his eyes, leading up to this moment and what's become of you two. You used to be obsessed with each other, he couldnât stay away from you the moment he first set his eyes on you.Â
He wonders if being together is what ruined your lives.Â
Even if it were true, he doesnât want to leave. Yes, heâs suffering, but heâd rather suffer with you than be happy with someone else. He owes you that much.Â
He walks over to you carefully and crouches down, gently running the backs of his fingers down your cheek. Your eyes are closed but he could still tell they were puffy, heâs knows your eyes well enough to know you cried yourself to sleep.
He wants to apologize. He wants to go back in time and tell you his main goal in life was to be happy with you, not that he wanted to be a father and have a big family with you. Maybe things wouldâve been easier right now, maybe youâd be mourning together instead of separately. Maybe you wouldâve stopped trying the third timeâ or fourth, or fifth.
The sixth is what really did you in.
He lifts you up in his arms and carries you back to bed like he used to, back when you still fell asleep on his shoulder on movie nights. Back to when you still wanted to spend time with him.Â
He lays you down on your side of the bed and goes back to his side, leaving a reasonable amount of space between you two. A couple inches closer and he wouldâve felt uncomfortable, imposing on your space and all.Â
Though he stays up for a bit longer, staring at the ceiling. Itâs not until the mouldings start to blur when he realizes itâs not just you who will end their night in tears.Â
Confused doesnât even begin to describe how you felt when waking up the next morning. The last thing you remember was sitting on the balcony, drinking wine out of the bottle. The confusion was paired with a pounding headache, safe to say you finished that entire thing. You eventually gave up on recalling your night after realizing it just made the headache worse. All you wanted at this point was a freshly brewed cup of coffee and Advil, then back to bed once Suguru was gone and off to work.Â
Lucky for you, the smell of coffee hits you once you open the door and make your way to the kitchen. Maybe not, you can just tell Suguru made it by how the entire house smells like a cafe. He has this whole elaborate routine to making itâ down to grinding the beans himself. The manâs consistently made the best coffee youâve ever had, and as much as youâd like some, the last thing you want is to see him after last night's fiasco.Â
But⊠hangover, so you suck it up and walk into the large, open kitchen.
Just like you guessed, heâs here, back turned towards you and carefully pouring hot water over the coffee grinds. Heâs not in his usual suit, opting for a more laid back look in a pair of black slacks and a brown long sleeve, hair thrown up in his usual bun. Heâs not even done making it, leaving you to wonder if you should even stay to wait or if you should come back later when heâs gone.Â
Yet, before youâre able to make that decision, he turns around and your eyes lock. Suguru was always able to tell when you walked into a room, no matter how quiet you were. His gaze is a softer than usual this morning and yoursâ well, it grows sharper. You look like youâre going into defense mode without even realizing it.Â
âThought you had meetings,â you mutter, making your way to the fridge to grab a carton of half-and-half.Â
âCanceled them,â he mutters back in response, before turning his attention back to the coffee. âThought itâd be nice to take the day off for once.â
How convenient.Â
Any response to that wouldâve come out more snarky than heâd like, so you just shut it and sit on the other side of the island, waiting for him to finish. Neither of you try filling that silence while he does so, or even after handing you your cup. Itâs not until â of your cup is empty when one of you finally speaks up.Â
âI was thinking,â he starts, while topping your drink off, âitâs been a while since weâve gone on vacation. I think it'd be nice if you and I went away for a week or two this summer.â
The first thing that comes to mind is no. If anything, youâd rather him go on his own so you could have a vacation away from him. But still, you hesitate to answer.Â
âIâm not sure, I have a lot of events to attend this summer, itâll be busier than last year,â you lie, trying to sound as convincing as possible.Â
He doesnât believe it one bit, but tries to stay optimistic.Â
âHow about take a look at your calendar when you have a chance and send me some dates youâd be free,â he suggests. âI donât mind moving some meetings around to make it work, itâs still a couple months away.â
âIâll think about it,â you say in response, voice filled with indifference. You sound like you want him to shut up already and it cuts deeper than most days.Â
âJesus fucking christ,â he lets out a low laugh. âIâm trying hereâ you donât want to be around me that bad?â
You set the cup down a little harder than expected, looking him dead in the eye. âWhy is that you finally decide to try after I catch you flirting with one of your fucking interns?â
âI wasnât flirting with her and youâd know that if you actually gave me the chance to explain, instead of leaving me all alone at the event,â he bites back.Â
âOh, okay,â you laugh. âSo Iâm the bad guy now for leaving, not you, who entertained another woman who was clearly interested in you.â
He sighs, âmy fucking godââ
âAnd I bet you enjoyed it too,â you continue, âyou probably missed getting that kind of attention since you donât get it at home.âÂ
âAnd what if I do?!â he snaps, âwhat if I fucking do? Is it a crime now that I miss receiving that kind of affection from you? You canât even look at me anymore without looking disgusted!â
âSo you did enjoy last night.â
âNO!â his yells echo throughout the kitchen and into the halls, âI didnât enjoy any fucking part about her, the whole time I kept trying to find a way out of that conversation so I could find you. I miss YOU!â
The silence that followed the outburst and the hollow look you gave him for it was deafening. You didnât move or flinch, not even once, showing just how little you thought of him. At least thatâs what he felt in this moment as he tried to recollect himself, steadying his breathing.Â
âI fucking miss you,â his voice slightly cracks as he repeats himself, then quickly clears away the lump that formed in his throat from admitting it. âJust let me spend some time with you, please.â
âIâll look at my calendar when I get a chance,â you respond, thereâs a glimmer of remorse in your voice as you say it. But your expression remains the same as you finish whatâs left of your coffeeâ cold and distant. âI have a pilates class in an hour and lunch right after. Enjoy your day off.â
notes: yes, reader lied in the last sentence lol. ***also, the tag list is limited to 100 tags and is now closed! thanks for understanding â€ïž
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This!!!
if anyone here is trying to defend taeil, please feel free to unfollow and block me right now. itâs true that i never would have thought he could do something so disgusting and vile. itâs true that he hasnât been trialled and found guilty by the court as of yet. but thereâs a difference between rumours spread by netizens and an official statement released by the company.
we donât know these people. we donât know what goes on behind the cameras when no one is looking. there is absolutely no reason for us to believe everything that they tell us, and i am not going to blindly follow someone just because they were my comfort person, or my fave, or whatever. remember that people like taeil are meant to make us love them. theyâre meant to put on a mask. theyâre meant to make us follow them, to worship the ground they walk onâthatâs why theyâre called idols. but we canât afford to let our own bias cloud our ability to see the truth.
think of me as an older sister for a second, giving you advice from the bottom of my heart. i really hope that any young followers of mine who may be seeing this, and especially any young girls, would please remember this: as someone who has seen for themselves just how easy it is for people we trust wholeheartedly to betray usâthink for yourself, do not follow people without thought. not every person is going to hurt you, but not every person is as kind as you think. so never trust the image that people show youâespecially if theyâre entertainers, and especially if theyâre men.