can i make a suggestion? I love your writing (its so cute) but the small font/all capital letters on your theme make it a little hard to read :-/
thank you! ;; And yes I know ;;;; I can’t find the code in the HTML to change it so I’ve been trying to find another theme but I just don’t like most of them XD but it’s on the top of my to-do list! Thank you for the message! ^^
It was a busy time of the year. It wasn’t just all the rushing around doing Christmas shopping, either. But everything at work seemed to be busier for me, and my boyfriend was even busier. I had only seen him once in the past two weeks and although he had tried to hide it, it had been easy to see how tired he was. Jinwoo muttered apologies the entire time we had been together. He felt guilty for not seeing me much and got more upset when I was so understanding of him. Of course, I missed him, I reassured him of that, but I understood how busy he would be with work when I started dating him. I reminded him that after they got more popular this would be how it would be in the future. So for two weeks we sent voice messages to each other and video called when we could. Most nights we video called before we slept, even if it was just for a few minutes. He seemed a lot happier from what I could tell and he wasn’t exactly great at hiding his emotions, so I took it as a good sign.
The good thing about being so busy was not having much time to focus on the fact I missed him. The bad thing was that today was Christmas Eve, and I had nothing to do once the morning was gone. I wrapped all gifts I had with my morning coffee, took my dog for a walk after that, and came back to just flick through day time tv. Not only was I bored, but I really, really missed Jinwoo. The only jumper of his I had in my apartment had long lost his scent and the more I stayed in the harder I found it to place him here. It was highly ridiculous, I knew he made coffee a lot in the kitchen, I knew he played a lot with Peanut, my dog, on the living room floor if I was busy finishing something, or if I was cooking and there was nothing he could do to help. I knew those things, and yet having not seen him do them in a long time I started to wonder if I had gone crazy and just imagined it ever happening, which, of course, led to me thinking I was crazy for thinking that.
“Oh, I’m going insane,” I murmured. Peanut whined softly on the floor, her chin rested on her paws as her chocolate eyes stared up at me. “You miss him too, huh?” She let out another whine.
It was quite hard to explain, really, how much I missed him. We had only been dating for about four months, and yet it felt like I had known him for much longer than that. We naturally got on very well together. We agreed on a lot of things, we disagreed too of course but he made up for what I lacked, and vice versa. Peanut jumped up when my phone vibrated, almost falling off the kitchen worktop.
I followed her actions, grabbing it up and forgetting to remind myself it could have been anyone. The smile that spread across my lips as I read his name-- it was the smile I always had when it came to him. I tried to hide it usually, I felt like it was dumb and nonsensical but it just made me want to smile more-- especially when I thought about how Jinwoo said he liked that smile. He called it his smile, and he said he was glad he was able to give it to me even when he wasn’t around. If you could have found me a purer human, I would not have believed you.
Jinwoo’s message was short and I had to read it over and over to take note of it. Peanut whined, nudging my thigh with her snout, probably worried my reaction signalled something ill but instead I just bent down in front of her. “Guess who is going to come and visit us tonight?” I laughed softly as she licked my face. I would have been so lost without her. I buried my face into the top of her head for a few moments, before I returned to my upright position. I probably wouldn’t get to see him much tomorrow, and we had both thought we would only have an hour or so to exchange gifts and meet but he was coming over early that night… so he would be able to stay for a while. Even if we couldn’t be together on Christmas Day, perhaps we could make that evening our own Christmas or something of the sort. I wasn’t usually a lover of the holiday season, but it seemed so different this year. There was this… joy inside of me that I couldn’t remember ever feeling there before.
A few hours later and I had taken Peanut on another walk and also gotten more groceries in so we had enough food for the evening. I got some of his favourite snacks too. I had barely started unpacking the bags when I heard the door go-- I had entirely lost track of time. I felt a little guilty, my hair was messy and tied back and I still had my comfortable clothes on. I knew he wouldn’t mind but-- I sighed softly when he knocked again.
All those feelings left when I saw him though. He was stood there, snow in his hair and clinging to his scarf. His nose slightly red from the cold, his beautiful eyes creased into their usual smile… I must have seemed to dim to him, just standing there and staring at him.
“Are you okay?”
I shook my head and stepped aside to let him in. “Sorry, I’m not really with it.”
Jinwoo grinned at me, stepping inside and kicking his trainers off. He paused before he placed a very firm kiss on my lips. His lips were cold and I was a little surprised, but I had missed him too much to care. “I missed you.”
“I missed you too,” I said back to him.
Of course, not wanting to be left out, Peanut pushed herself between us and fussed at him. “I missed you too,” he laughed, kneeling down to give her the attention she obviously wanted. “I love coming here,” he laughed more when she started attacking his face with kisses. “Two women madly in love with me, who always greet me like this.”
I blushed softly and he grinned up at me. “She really missed you, you know,” I raised an eyebrow at him. “I’ve never seen her so… depressed.”
Jinwoo frowned, pausing for a moment, before giving her more attention. “Well,” he said to her. “If it’s okay with your mom I plan on staying over.”
“I thought you had work tomorrow?”
He had never stayed over before. I had stayed with him a few times, on nights when he had decided it was far too late for me to get home alone, or just nights when I had fallen asleep on him while at their dorm.
“We have nothing until the evening,” he said, standing up. Peanut licked his hand before going to her bed and lying down happily. “So I can stay until I need to go to my parent’s house. But I was there most of the day today so I won’t leave until the afternoon.”
“Really?”
He smiled. “Really.”
I was almost fully unable to help myself do anything but hug him. He seemed the same, though, we stepped towards each other at the same time and his strong arms drew me against him gently. Despite how cold it was outside, he was still mostly warm. “I missed you,” I repeated, closing my eyes as I nestled against his chest.
His laugh echoed in his throat and he rested his chin on the top of my head. “I really missed you,” he said with a sigh.
We spent most of the evening just talking on the sofa for the most part. We watched a movie that was on the television while snuggled under a blanket together. We ate dinner, and I could tell he was tired, but neither of us really wanted to sleep. I left him in the living room to find something else to watch as I made us both a warm drink. “Jinwoo?” I asked, coming back into the other room. I had only been out for about ten minutes, but I returned to see him fast asleep under the blanket on the sofa.
I didn’t have it in me to be disappointed, I didn’t have it in me to even want to wake him up either. It was dark outside, but the light that came in through the window lit up most of the living room along with a few candles on the coffee table. I could just about make his chest rising and falling. I watched him for a few moments. I was so thankful to have him in my life-- I couldn’t put it into words just how much he had changed it all. It was strange, he was perfect for me and everything I needed but had not my life thrust him upon me, I probably would never have picked a guy like him. I guess that sounds bad-- I wasn’t forced to be with him, it was more of a chance and accidental meeting through a mutual friend. I hadn’t really thought much of him then, but a few weeks after that our friend had set us up on a blind date and it just… worked. He seemed so immature and childish, but the more I knew him the more I knew he wasn’t really like that. He was childish, but in an innocent way and he could be immature, but it wasn’t even a negative trait. He was very kind, very warm, very loving, and very caring. I couldn’t think at all of a single person who would suit me better after him. I guess it proves that when we look for partners, we don’t always pick the right people because well, what we want isn’t always what we need, or what is right for us. That’s not to say we had it easy-- we had fights. He was an idol and so time together was limited to late night or early morning, and mostly staying inside. Most of our talking was done virtually… and as these two weeks had proven it was very difficult to be away from him for even a short period of time. But it was worth it. It wasn’t easy, but falling for him really had been.
I smiled softly, pulling the blanket over him some more so he didn’t get cold. I grabbed the remote, checking the time quickly before turning it off. It had already gone midnight. “Merry Christmas, Jinwoo,” I whispered, kissing his forehead softly. Of course, there was no reply from his sleeping figure, but the peaceful smile on his lips as he slept was all the reply I needed.
Namjoon held the eggs in his hands. He looked at them for a few moments, before looking up at me with worry. Somehow our relaxing day had turned into us wanting to bake cupcakes, which had ended up with us buying way too much junk food at the supermarket which Seokjin had scolded both of us for when we had returned. When he heard Namjoon was going to help me bake though, Seokjin had quickly excused himself to his room. No doubt he was worried about the chaos that was about to happen. Truthfully so was I, but I didn’t mind if it went wrong-- we were just having fun. Namjoon, apparently, was taking it seriously.
“Can you break them?”
I laughed at him. I guess hearing the ‘seperate the egg whites from the yolks’, had scared him and put more pressure on him. “I’ll show you,” I smiled at him, taking one of the eggs and moving in front of him. I was a lot shorter than him, so he happily rested his chin on my shoulder to watch what I was doing. I broke the egg, using both halves of the shell to move the yolk and drain the white into the bowl. “See, simple?”
“I don’t want to ruin it-” he sighed. Where had his confidence gone? I shook my head at him and finished breaking the eggs. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay I need your arms for the next part,” I laughed at him, trying hard not to make a joke about it. “Here,” I gave him the bowl of whites and the whisk. “Mix it really, really hard until they form peaks.”
“What?” He frowned. “How are they going to do that?”
“I don’t know?” I frowned. “I think the whites are mostly water, but the rest of it is something else that helps it form bubbles and get-” I sighed at him. “Just whisk it really hard and really quick.”
I could tell he was worried about this too, at least until he started. About ten minutes in I could hear him getting frustrated because he seemed to be getting nowhere. “How do you do this?” He frowned. “No wonder your arms are so strong….”
“Just keep going, stand by an open window it might help if they’re too hot.”
He did as he was told and moved to the window. There was something endearing about the innocent look of surprise that came over his face when they slowly started to form soft peaks in the bowl. For someone as intelligent as him, for someone who had such amazing views on the world, he was sure like a naive child a lot of the time. I hoped he never lost the childish innocence he had, it was one of my favourite things about him. How he got overly excited at seeing me every day, or how he got excited at any piece of good news, how genuinely happy he was for me whenever something good happened. He was this strange mix of world-weary traveller who had seen too much, who had a soul older than anything and a young child who had not even taken a step outside and was still curious about everything around him.
He smiled at me, looking very proud of his work. It was probably a job perfect for him-- he didn’t have to be gentle, and the only thing he could have screwed up was if he had dropped the bowl. He seemed to be making a conscious effort to be careful, though. “What’s next?”
I was glad he seemed to be less worried now, and I pointed to a bag of icing sugar. “Mix that with this butter,” I said, pushing a bowl of chopped butter towards him. I had known it before I had spoken but forgotten to warn him of the icing sugar. It wasn’t until I went to add it afterwards that he had already opened it and poured it out too quickly and was now covered in a dust of sugar. He coughed a lot, and when it settled his face was covered in a sheen of white.
I probably shouldn’t have laughed, but the surprised look on his face was the most adorable thing I had ever seen. I had to lean against the counter to keep myself from falling over from laughing.
“What the hell type of sugar is this?” he frowned.
“I’m not going to ask,” Yoongi mumbled, staring at us both somewhat in horror. “Is it safe to get a drink?”
Of course, this just made me laugh more. Yoongi just got annoyed, leaving without his drink while I ended up sitting on the floor laughing. “I’m sorry,” I said through laughter, looking up at Namjoon. “I should have warned you to be careful.”
It just got worse when he finally tried to mix it, icing sugar went almost everywhere until he just let me do it while he put the cupcake cases in the tin.
“It could have gone better,” he sighed, ten minutes later when they were in the oven. He was sat in front, watching the cakes carefully.
“It could have been a lot worse,” I corrected, cleaning up the kitchen before Seokjin came back and had a fit over what we had managed to do. “Here,” I said, giving him the mixing bowl. He stared curiously. “Eat it.”
“What?”
“If you don’t want to I wi-” I laughed when he shoved the spoon into his mouth. “Eating the leftover mixture is the best part,” I sighed, moving to sit beside him. “Are you really going to sit here and watch them cook?”
He nodded, eyes trained on the oven. I wanted to protest and move to do something productive while he sat there, but he ended up pulling me against him and making sure I couldn’t move. I wanted to protest but by the time I had rested my head on his shoulder I was far too relaxed to move. He was warm and smelt good, and it was comfortable to rest against him.
“Something smells really good,” Jimin mumbled, wandering into the room. “Why are you two sat at the oven?” he frowned, kneeling behind us. He rested on our shoulders to steady himself. “Oh, cupcakes!”
“Is my kitchen safe?” Seokjin mumbled, apparently also having smelt the cakes. Namjoon ignored him, more concentrated on watching the cakes rise. His childish fascination almost made my heart melt, and I ended up moving even closer to him. He sighed at us. “I guess everything is okay.”
Jimin stood up and put his hand on his shoulder. “There’s still time for it to go horribly wrong.”
The thing was, they weren’t just joking about Namjoon’s ability to break everything. I was pretty clumsy too. It was common for me to trip over at least three things a day. “I’m going to make sure it ends well,” Seokjin mumbled, probably more to himself. I heard Jimin’s laughter fade away as he headed into his room.
Finally, when they were ready Namjoon stood aside and let me get them out. So far, everything had gone right and well. Even Seokjin seemed to have lowered his guard, at least until I heard him yell my name.
I had apparently forgotten to use an oven glove to get them out, my hand had only just touched the tray before he had pulled it back and put it straight under the cold water. “Oh my god,” he said. “You need to be more careful!”
Namjoon was stood to the side, looking a little startled, before he pushed Seokjin aside to hold my hand under the water instead. Seokjin sighed, taking the cakes out himself. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, I barely touched it,” I smiled at him. “It’s just my fingers…” I frowned a little. “I’m so stupid….”
“No I should have done it,” Namjoon frowned, wrapping his free arm around my waist. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault,” I sighed. “I should have been careful…” I frowned, biting my lip.
Seokjin sighed, shaking his head as he took my hand and looked at it. “You’re so lucky.”
“Because you were so quick,” Namjoon murmured, probably beating himself up for not ‘saving’ me himself. He paused before he vanished into the freezer and grabbed an ice pack that had been stored in there for their numerous injuries. “Here,” he turned the tap off and applied it to my hand, looking guilty when I winced at the pain.
Seokjin sighed, ushering us both out and into the other room. It didn’t hurt that much-- I had burned myself worse than this before, I guess I was more shocked than anything and more upset that Namjoon was blaming himself. Even when he sat me down and kept his hand on the ice pack to keep it firm on my fingers. “Do you need to go to the hospital?”
“No, it’s really not that bad,” I smiled at him.
“Good,” he sighed, removing the ice pack to look. He frowned more, returning the pressure. “I guess we should have seen something like this happening.”
I laughed softly. “It’s better this happened than one of us breaks a leg.”
“Or burns down the kitchen,” Seokjin sighed, putting down two of the cupcakes in front of us. “They taste pretty good, though, I’m impressed.”
“She did most of the work.”
“You helped,” I smiled at Namjoon, kissing his cheek. “You helped a lot.”
Seokjin shook his head, yelling at the others that he was going to order dinner instead of cook. There was a lot of orders yelling left right and centre-- how he memorised everything they were all saying I had no idea.
“Here,” Namjoon sighed, making sure I was using my good hand to keep the ice pack on. He picked up one of the cupcakes and removed the wrapper, breaking a bit off and offering it to me. “Eat.”
I blushed a bit. He hadn’t actually fed me before, most of our PDA was just hugging or holding hands when anyone else was around. It felt kind of awkward, to begin with until both of us just laughed. “It’s good!” I said surprised.
“It is?” he took his own mouthful and nodded. “Maybe we should take over cooking from Seokjin.”
“Err, no,” the elder’s voice came as he stood in front of us. “I do not like that idea.” He sighed, looking at his phone. “What are you guys eating?” He noted down our orders before nodding. “How are your fingers?”
“They feel better,” I said, moving the ice pack off. The cold had mostly numbed them, but the air and sudden lack of cold made my fingers burn softly for another reason. “I’ll put some aloe vera on it later before I sleep.”
“We might have some around here, I’ll check after I order the food.”
As Seokjin went off to call through the large food order, Namjoon took my hand and brought it up. “Are you really okay? Don’t say you are because you don’t want a fuss.”
“I’m okay,” I smiled at him. “Namjoon, you’re intelligent enough to know I didn’t touch it enough for it to hurt too much.”
He sighed. “I seem to lose my mind when it comes to you,” he murmured. “I can’t think straight at all. I lose my rationality.” I blushed a little, he was so intense speaking to me. “I’m glad, though,” he added with a smile. Slowly, he brought my fingers to his lips and kissed them softly.
“N-Namjoon,” I blushed more. He probably would have carried on had Taehyung not rushed through, sliding on the wooden floor with his socks and yelling something. Both Namjoon and I paused, knowing that it would soon be followed by more noise-- and as if by magic, Jimin was the next one to run in, laughing as he slid right into Taehyung. Yoongi scolded the noise and walked in normally, slumping down on the sofa beside me.
He side eyed us and pulled a face. “Disgusting, don’t do that couple shit here.”
Namjoon murmured. “Don’t come here, then.”
I laughed softly, removing my hand from Namjoon’s as Seokjin returned with Jungkook and Hoseok, the latter of which was carrying a bandage. “Here,” he said, handing the aloe cream.
“Figures one of you got hurt,” Jimin frowned. “It would have been better if-”
“Don’t finish that sentence,” Namjoon muttered. I shook my head at them both, listening to their loud noises and Yoongi muttering about being hungry as I rubbed the cream in. Namjoon turned back to me to help me with the bandage. “He’s right, though, it would have been better if it was me.”
I shook my head at him. “If it were you it would have been twice as bad.”
“Why do you say that?”
Seokjin snorted. “Because I would have let you learn from your mistake rather than save you.”
I felt awful for laughing, but eventually, even Namjoon laughed. It was so rare to have a day like this with them. They had been so busy for over a year now, there had just been chaos everywhere and not a single moment to breathe. I had barely been able to keep track of whether I was coming or going, and yet they all seemed to take it in their strides. Even Namjoon, as busy and stressed as he got, always greeted me with his bright smile and looked after me well. While the others fussed over the food that arrived, I leant over and kissed his cheek. “Thank you.”
“For what?” he asked, looking at me.
“For being you,” I smiled. “Please don’t change yourself.”
He paused before he kissed my forehead firmly. “I love you.”
I wrote this for @wannabemyrstar on twitter, because she drew a cute Jinwoo from the Jinwoo halloween one ;u;... and so I decided to do halloween fics for all of the boys, if I can think of ideas! Welp, sorry this is kind of really bad ;;... I think I lost my ability to write ;;;
Halloween. It was not Dongmin’s favourite time of the year. Bad things always seemed to happen to him in October, and he hated anything gruesome or scary, that added to how much more hyperactive three certain other members became during the sugar rush of the passing weeks, meaning they played more pranks that he would often be the butt of, and he would often end the month in a foul mood with a headache. Usually, he tagged along with the others during whatever they would do, it was still preferable to being alone, but this year he had his own plans. And he planned to be in a good mood during those plans, so it seemed everyone was avoiding him so they didn’t incur his wrath if they tried to ruin it. He knew they didn’t mean to actually upset him or anything, but they had admitted more than once they enjoyed pranking him.
He was therefore happy when the other five had left without any incidents, though with the looks that Bin was giving Sanha he felt like there had been an attempt. Dongmin wasn’t sure if having a date on Halloween was such a good idea, but there wouldn’t be many other times he would have the dorm to himself, and what was the worst that could happen?
Half an hour later, just as his nerves were kicking in, he heard a knock at the door. He wiped his sweaty palms on his jeans and hurried to open it.He almost felt his heart melt as she stood there, a pair of cat ears on her head with a rather innocent smile as she stared up at him. “Hello.”
He breathed out. “Hello.”
There was a pause as he stared at her, before he cleared his throat and stepped aside to let her in. He wondered, well, more like worried about whether she would be okay with having a date that consisted mostly of being inside. But she seemed happy enough and had just said they could have a movie night full of junk food. Usually he was on a diet, but if he couldn’t break it just once, and for something like this, whe could he?
“I brought loads of movies,” she grinned. He felt somewhat uneasy at the grin, suddenly wondering if it had been a good idea to let her pick. They had been dating for about two months, but they had been friends for years. He smiled at the memory, watching as she pulled movies and some sacks out of her backpack. Maybe friends was the wrong choice-- they had gone to the same school and she had spent much of her time picking on him. It was n ever horrible and she never upset him-- he’d always found it amusing, especially when he would confront her and she would squeak and go beet red. Her crush on him had always been obvious, but whenever he tried telling her that he liked her too, she would walk off before he could ever finish. Later on he found out that she wanted to confess to him. He remembered that well too-- how could he forget how loud she had been, how red her face had gone, how her whole body had been shaky…. He smiled at her, bringing over the snacks he had gotten and putting them down on the floor in front of her. How could someone be so loud and yet so painfully shy all at once? He chuckled.
“What movies did you bring?”
“Oh,” she grinned, holding up a dvd. “It’s halloween, so…!”
Dongmin choked a little. Horror movies. She knew he was scared of them, she had done this on purpose, he knew it, but he wasn’t about to back down either. He hated them, but maybe he could turn it against her-- she was so confident they wouldn’t scare her- he grinned to himself.
They made their little spot on the floor with a few blankets and cushions and she sat right against him, his arm around her shoulder as they started the first movie. He tried very hard not to pull faces-- thankfully the first film she had picked was more gruesome than scary with barely any jump scares. She didn’t seem to flinch though.
By the end of the third movie he could tell she was feeling tired, and he was too-- and he was also worried that his plan wouldn’t work. He checked the time on his phone and sighed, the others could be back within the next hour…
“Dongmin…?” her voice came.
He looked down at her. He hadn’t noticed when she had curled into him, he hadn’t even noticed when she had started burying her face into his chest-- he must have been too focused on not getting scared himself.
“A-are you okay?” he held her close to him instantly, all thoughts of winning his imaginary competition gone.
“I don’t like this movie,” she mumbled, before clearing her throat. Her cheeks were tinged with pink and he smiled. “I-it’s boring.”
“Admit you’re scared.”
“I am n-not-!”
The front door opened, the first boy through pretty much being pushed forward and dropping his armful of… whatever it was they’d gotten. It should have been the loudest noise in the room mixed with the other boys laughter… had she not let out a loud scream and started clinging to Dongmin. He couldn’t help himself but to start laughing-- the entire movie she had not screamed, and yet Jinwoo falling on the floor and dropping his sweets had caused her to lose it. He made sure to hold her tight against him as he laughed and he could hear her muttering insults about how it wasn’t funny, until she started laughing too.
He wasn’t sure if he was upset or happy the others were back-- she was tired and he should take her home before it got too late, but when would he next get to be alone with her? He sighed, kissing her cheek as he helped her to her feet. “I’ll walk you home,” he smiled.
“It’s okay, I brought money for a taxi,” she nodded, staring up at him.
He wanted to insist he’d pay for it instead, or that walking her home wasn’t too much of an issue-- but he also knew she would just fight him on it. He really didn’t want her to leave-- and he was thankful the others seemed to be leaving them to have some time alone to say goodbye.
“Next time let’s go go the cinema,” he suggested.
“To see a horror movie?”
He laughed. “No, I’ll pick it.”
She eyed him warily, wondering what kind of movie he would pick but, then she smiled. He put up with horror movies for her, even if she had ended up the one scared. “Pick a time and a date.”
He stared at her in surprise, before he smiled and kissed her forehead. He was aware they didn’t have a normal relationship, and when he thought about her, he knew she was probably the furthest thing from his ideal type than he could imagine and yet… she made him so happy. He didn’t feel the need to keep up an image around her, it was easy to just… relax and be himself. It probably helped that she really had no filters. She said anything she thought of, whether it was good or bad.
“I think there’s some free time next week, but it’ll be really late at night,” he said, feeling guilty. He had never realised before how much the other person sacrificed by being in a relationship with an idol-- of course he had his own sacrifices, but if they ever got caught, she would be the one the hate comments were aimed at. The idea of that being aimed at her… he held her closer to his chest, determined to do anything to protect her from anything like that. “Oh,” he smiled down at her.
“Yes?” she looked up, resting her chin on his chest.
“You’re cute when you get scared.”
He had expected her to playfully hit him and protest, but instead she stood on her tip toes and kissed him softly. He was so surprised he almost lost his footing and had to put his hands on her shoulders to steady himself. They hadn’t kissed properly yet, he was waiting for the right time to do it-- but of course, she had to initiate it. Though she moved away before he could react.
“I should go,” she sighed.
“Huh?” he stared at her, dazed. “I-- yes, I mean I don’t want you to-”
She laughed. “You’re cute when you get so flustered.”
Halloween had always been my favourite time of the year. This years atmosphere at the party I usually went to at the club just down the road seemed to be extra electric. I couldn’t say what it was, there seemed more people than before-- not that I was surprised, word had probably gotten around at how large the party usually was and from there it grew. It was almost impossible to move without having to slide between two other humans, they were probably breaking a few fire codes but the thing about parties and clubs is everyone is usually too drunk to care about personal space.
I had been at the party for about two hours when I met him for the first time. I had a glass of some weird ass cocktail my friend had given me clutched in my hands, held up high as I squeezed through to head towards my other friends. One person moved and knocked me and I ended up in his arms, pressed against his chest. HIs arms were firm, I remember it clearly, and he put me back on my feet like nothing had happened. He said nothing, but then he put his arm around my shoulders and let me lead the way back to where my friends were. At first, I was alarmed, hoping so dearly for him to not be some random weirdo I had caught, but to my surprise, he was entirely sober. One of my friends was already passed out on a couch, her head in my other friends lap-- and she was talking animatedly with another friend.
“I’m Jinwoo, Park Jinwoo,” he introduced, sitting down next to me. I gave my own name in return and he smiled like he knew a secret no one else knew-- something about it made me want to tell him more, but I held back. The cramped space meant he was pushed against me but he seemed apologetic. Not a creep then. “My friend I came with,” he started as if hearing my thoughts requesting an explanation for his friendliness. “He abandoned me, I was going to leave but-”
“Then I fell on you.”
He grinned. His costume was not what I would have expected, less than scary it was more ‘cute’, a puppy of sorts. I didn’t know him well, but somehow it suited him. I couldn’t comment on his attire, though, as I had also dressed up as a puppy. I had intended more along the lines of a fox, but I was not the most organised of people and every year I always ended up putting something together last minute. ‘Next year I’ll be more organised,’ I would tell myself every time, but of course….
“It’s actually nice to see someone not, err-” he looked around at the masses of humans who were trying to have conversations but were yelling drunkenly.
“Yeah, it’s pretty bad this year….” Maybe I wouldn’t go next year-- parties were no fun when they were like this.
“Oh this is the first time I came here,” he rubbed his neck, looking awkward. “I was supposed to be going trick or treating with my friend instead, he wanted to come here since he heard about it and-”
“And he abandoned you and now you have nobody to go with.”
“Exactly.”
I paused and stared at the lime green liquid in the glass. It was bound to taste nasty, contain far more sugar than in any sweets I could consume, and it would give me a hangover. It wasn’t exactly a good party-- nobody was dancing anymore, there was no space to, and it was too hot and my friends were all too busy-- I don’t know why I even thought of it, but it seemed the most natural reaction. “I can go with you.”
Jinwoo stared at me quizzically. “You… can?” he lent around and looked at my friends.
“Oh, they won’t notice,” I laughed, looking at them. “Pass me my jacket-” my friend handed it to me before I could finish and I laughed. She was too absorbed in her conversation. I wasn’t insulted, we were too close to care that much. Before she let go of it, though, she made me promise to text her as soon as I got home. I promised her and made her promise in return as I stood up.
“I could be a murderer-”
“Dressed as a puppy?” I grinned at him, pulling at the top of one of his ears softly. He smirked softly, showing a single dimple on one side of his face. Puppy really did suit him.
“Come on,” Jinwoo said eagerly, grabbing my wrist in one hand, my jacket in the other, and pulling me through the people like some expert.
When we got outside I breathed in deeply. I hadn’t realised how warm it was in there, or how much the temperature had dropped outside. Jinwoo straight away gave me my jacket back and I pulled it on. It did little to help. “Are you too cold?”
“I’ll be fine when we walk,” I said simply. “We should find apartment blocks.”
Jinwoo laughed.
I couldn’t explain how easy it was. I barely noticed hours passing like minutes as we went from apartment to apartment, street to street… all the while talking like old friends who hadn’t seen each other in a very long time. We found that we were very different people, but we also had a lot of similarities. He was a positive person, and he had this aura that made it impossible to not smile around him. It was only in the moments that I waited for him outside a store he had gone into to get us drinks that I noticed how cold I really was and how much my feet hurt. Heels were not ideal walking shoes, and-- I realised I hadn’t even realised how far we had walked. I knew where we were, I just hadn’t realised it before. He seemed to be a dangerous person, someone who could make time pass like seconds. I pulled my phone from my bag to check the time. It was four in the morning and I had three texts from my friend. I responded quickly, letting her know I was okay but still out. What time had we left the club? Before midnight, surely.
“Here,” his deep voice came, as he offered me a bottle of water. He stared for a moment, eyes going wide-- I thought he was alarmed but then he looked down and smiled. Apparently, he did that when he was thinking. “You shrunk.”
“Oh,” I laughed. I had taken my shoes off for a bit to rest my feet.
Jinwoo paused for a moment before he bent down. I thought he was going to get my shoes for me, to which I tried to stop him, but, then to my surprise, he started untying his shoelaces.
“Jinwoo-”
“You’re already cold, you won’t take my jacket-”
“Then you’d be cold.”
He looked up at me and grinned. He was so selfless, how did someone so pure exist in a world like this? He was so kind, innocent, yet seemed so much older and more mature than the number that was his age. He was not untouched by the horrors of the world, the harshness of life, yet even so, he was still so bright. I shook my head-- the alcohol was starting to get to my head.
“Here,” he put his hand gently on my ankle to life my foot into his shoe. I used his shoulders to steady myself and then he did the same with the other one before tying them. “I should walk you home now,” he said, though it sounded more like he was telling himself than anyone else. He paused in his position knelt before me before he stood up and smiled. “Let’s share out what we got tonight!”
Jinwoo held up a bag of stuff we had gotten with an innocent smile on his face. I found myself mirroring the smile before I even realised, and he had picked up my shoes and started to head towards a nearby bench before I could even move. If there was something I learnt from him that night, it was that he was incredibly slow. I had started off feeling like he was the tortoise in our race, and that I was some sort of super hare. I was in front, always dragging him and waiting for him, but now he was ahead of me. Had he slowed me down? Or had his slowness just had an effect on the world so that it had all slowed down to keep up with him, and instead I was left at a standstill? I couldn’t think which one, the third idea, the one that told me maybe I was slowing down to be with him longer, was not one I wanted to think more on. It was strange-- I didn’t think anyone could slow me down. I was always fifteen minutes early to everything, always finished before everyone else… I had already come up with a reply to say before the other person finished speaking. Yet with Jinwoo, here I was, following him, at a loss for words because my brain was suddenly so sluggish.
I paused.
It was the alcohol, it had finally caught up with me.
“Are you okay?” he asked, concern washing over his face as I sat beside him.
“Y-yes,” I replied quickly. “Just the alcohol finally caught up with me, I think.”
“Make sure you drink that water,” he motioned to the bottle. “And more when you wake up-- you live with your friend, right?” He bit his lip. “She… will look after you?”
“After she laughs at me, I’m sure she will,” I smiled at him, putting my hand on his forearm. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“Well before a few hours ago you didn’t know me at all, and yet you’re showing so much concern and being so kind to me….” I smiled at him. I realised, or a part of me did anyway, that he may not have felt the same. That I was boring him, that it was just someone to hang out with. Maybe that was why he hadn’t asked for my phone number or anything like that.
“You were the one who came trick or treating with me,” he said, staring at me with a vacant look on his face. “I think I should thank you.”
There was an awkward pause.
Jinwoo looked away first, down at the bag of sweets and then motioned to my bag. It was only small, but he started to fill it with some of what we had got earlier. He was concentrating so much, I couldn’t quite explain it-- I felt the uncontrollable urge to look after him and protect him from all harm, and yet the entire night he had been the one looking after me. I wondered if there was any other man in the world that was like him but I shook it off quick. “You don’t have to give me too much,” I smiled. “My house mate will eat it anyway and she will get a sugar high and now that’s a headache waiting to happen.”
Jinwoo laughed. “Same with me and my housemates,” he sighed. He seemed sad suddenly, no, maybe not sad but-- like a child who had just been told the easter bunny wasn’t real. “We should really go home,” he frowned. “I mean, I should walk you home and-” he fumbled around, dropping a few of the wrapped sweets. He scrambled and picked them up, shoving them into my bag and then standing up. “Let’s go.”
He was so abrupt I wondered if I had done something wrong, especially when he just stood there, but then I realised he didn’t know where I lived and was, therefore, waiting for me to lead him in the right direction. We walked mostly in silence. I spent much of it just looking at the sky, or at his feet walking beside mine. When we came to my apartment I stood outside and just stared up at it for a long time. “I guess she waited up for me,” I pointed up at the light in a window a few floors up.
“You have a good friend,” he said, his voice quiet.
I looked back at him and nodded. “I do.”
It was probably the most awkward goodbye I had ever experienced. He just stood there for a while, before I went to take his shoes off. “You can give them to me another day.”
I paused. That meant he wanted to see me again-- my heart jumped and knocked me so hard in the head that a goofy smile appeared on my lips. “See you then.”
“Yeah.”
We paused again before I sighed and headed indoors. When I was half way up the first flight of stairs, I looked back and saw him still stood there. I waved and he waved back, and then I hurried as fast as I could, loosing my footing a few times until I was safely in my apartment.
I shut the door, probably too hard, and lent against it for a moment. I heard a yawn, then the soft padding of feet until my flatmate was stood in front of me. Apparently, she had fallen asleep on the sofa. “I waited up for you….”
“Sorry, I-”
“Who’s shoes are those?”
“Don’t ask.”
She grinned, her eyes keeping entirely trained on me as I slipped Jinwoo’s shoes off and put them down next to mine.
“Are you going to tell me-”
“In the morning.”
“It is morning.”
I avoided her gaze and pushed past her. Her eyes followed me until I got into my room and had the door firmly shut. I heard her outside of it, giggling softly before her bedroom door shut softly. There would be no avoiding her questions in the morning, but I would probably still be at a loss at how to answer them then, too.
Gently, I put my bag down on my bed, emptying out the contents. He had given me far too many- and yet, when I stared at the bottle of water, I noticed something I had not noticed before without the light. On the top side of the lid, rather messily written I might add, he had written his phone number.
He knew he should have been more organised, and in a way he was. He had been searching for a gift for her birthday for a few months now, but he’d never been able to find anything. There were plenty of nice things he had found, but to Myungjun none of them was perfect enough for her. Of course, now he was in trouble because today was her birthday. It wasn’t that she would be unhappy, he knew she would be happy with anything he gave her, but… he wanted her to smile. The smile she always gave him, his smile; the one with the wrinkles between her eyes at the top of her nose. He wanted something she would remember, even if she couldn’t keep it forever. And, so somehow, he found himself hauling the giant box up the stairs to her apartment.
He had panicked so much that morning and had decided to do the first thing he could think of and then get her an actual gift when he could find something. For now, he decided the best thing he could give her was some moments of happiness and laughter. He panted softly, for a box full of balloons it was sure heavy and tiring. Why did the elevator in her apartment block have to be out of order?
Myungjun brought the box out to the front of her apartment and paused for a time to see if he could hear her moving around. He heard a cough and he nodded to himself, happy that she was in. It was hard to keep himself from laughing at how ridiculous he suddenly felt the entire thing to be, but he didn’t feel like he could back off now, and anyway, he didn’t care if he felt he was silly… if it made her laugh and smile it was worth it.
When he was happily in the box and had closed the lid down so the balloons wouldn’t fly out he pulled out his phone and text her to open the door. He waited for a long time, crouched there, holding a cupcake in his hand. He wanted to put a candle in it, but a fire in a box was probably a bad idea. He waited for ages, it seemed like hours passed until he heard the door open. Then he heard her laugh and he smiled to himself.
He had to keep himself from yelling when she tried to move the box, but obviously, it was too heavy for her. “The hell did you put in here?” she sighed. He tried hard not to laugh and then froze when he heard her pulling at the box lid.
The sudden brightness made him freeze for a moment as the balloons flew at her, then he jumped up and held the cupcake out. “Happy birthday!”
She stared at him entirely startled. Her eyes were wide and her jaw was dropped slightly as she took in the situation. “A-are you okay?” he asked timidly.
“M-myungjun… how long have you been in there?”
“S-since I text you.”
“Oh,” she paused. “Thank god,” she smiled, relief coming over her face. “I was worried you had posted yourself.”
He laughed at her, handing her the cupcake so he could pull himself from the box. “I couldn’t find you a gift-”
“Myungjun, you don’t have to,” she smiled, staring down at the little purple cupcake. It didn’t look very neat, he must have made it and decorated it with little stars. She felt overwhelmed, suddenly not sure how to react to him.
“I know, and I couldn’t find anything anyway,” he carried on, oblivious to the fact she was tearing up. “So I decided to give you me-- I mean, my time, for the entire day, we can do whatever you want and we can go anywhere, the only condition is everyone wants to have dinner toge-” he paused, watching as she burst into tears. “W-what? Did I do something wrong?”
“N-no,” she sobbed, rubbing her eyes on the back of her arm. “I’m just-- I.. hap-” she choked. “I love you so much,” she gasped out.
Myungjun paused, not entirely sure what to do-- she wasn’t crying because she was sad so he didn’t have to cheer her up, but… He crouched in front of her, grinning hugely at her. “If you spend the entire day crying we won’t have much fun unless that’s what you want to do.”
She laughed softly, sniffing and trying to stop her tears. “I’m sorry… no one has made so much effort before,” she explained. “Even the cake….”
He blinked a few times, frowning. “Really?” He wondered if he should have been so upset that no one had done it before-- she deserved attention like this all the time. He concluded everyone else was stupid, and that he needed to make her feel more loved in the future. Even if in ten years they weren’t together, he never, ever wanted her to be so shocked in the future when someone showed her love.
Eventually, she smiled and wrapped her arms around him. He had to take a few steps back from the sudden force but he smiled and held her closer. “How is the cake?”
She laughed and he heard her pull the wrapper off and stick some in her mouth. “It’s good,” she murmured, breaking some more off and offering it to him. She smiled when he ate it and nodded. “Let’s go out today,” she sighed softly, resting her head on his shoulder. “No plans, let’s just see where the day takes us.”
He smiled more, squeezing her gently and kissing her cheek. She was so soft and so beautiful, so kind, and so accepting and understanding of him. He would never know what he had done to deserve her, but whatever it was, he was glad he had done it. He loved her, very much.
Girl I need a part 3 of the Wonho scenario. I just love the story and how the both parts ended with the same question. I want to see how their relationship is now when they are a couple. Kisses ~~~
Ahahaha I’ll have to think about it, I haven’t really thought about anything between them further than even part one ahahha. But I’ll see if I can think of something :) thank you!
Oh my God!!! The rate me part 2 was sooooo beautiful!!! I love Wonho's personality.💕 He is so asdfcvhxcbfyubk. Please do a part 3 of it!!!! You are amazing!!! ❤
Aha thank you!!! ^o^ I don’t know if I could do a part 3 I’ll have to think about it^^. Thank you again!!
Wonho’s eyes were following my every move. He was wearing sunglasses, but I could feel his intense gaze. I knew it was because of my clothing, but what other choice did I have? And it wasn’t as if he didn’t approve of my clothing, that wasn’t for the reason for his stares at all-- I had to admit, it was nice for him to be the one staring at me for a change. They had come to a waterpark to film a commercial and then they’d been given the rest of the day off to just relax. I’d come to join them after I had finished work, and I had to admit it was really nice to just relax with them for a bit. Thing’s had been so busy and stressful recently that any time I had spent with them was between them rushing through doors just as I entered them. About an hour ago Jooheon had decided he wasn’t content with letting me sit on the side of the pool and when I had refused, he had picked me up and dropped me in the water. I was now only in my bathing suit while my shorts and my top dried in the sun.
I’d never had much confidence in my body, but I wasn’t exactly ashamed of it either. I prefered not to show it at all if I could get away with it, so I didn’t exactly feel comfortable, especially not with Wonho staring at me the way he was. He knew I knew he was watching, he wasn’t exactly trying to hide it even with his sunglasses on. Ever since I had changed clothes he had moved closer to this side of the pool and had stood in a way so he would always be able to look at me. He didn’t really care what I wore, so that wasn’t it… And it wasn’t as if he never looked at me-- ever since that moment in the dance room a few months ago I had often found him staring at me. Honestly, I didn’t know if we were officially dating or not because nothing had been said about it, and he was always very careful when we were around the others. I wanted to say it didn’t bother me, that it didn’t hurt even a little when he did it, when he would drop my hand as soon as someone else appeared, but it did. I was trying to get the courage to ask him, to just ask him if we were even boyfriend and girlfriend, or maybe he was ashamed of having me or-- no. I knew it wasn’t that at all, he just wanted it to be just us two- right? I bit my lip.
There was something, though, about how he kept looking at me which made me feel less nervous and, to a point, less shy. Especially when Jooheon had to throw water at him to get his attention. I realised then I distracted him. For once, it was not me distracted by him. Since that situation before I had found it less…. Impossible to pull my eyes from him, and found it easier to not be as aware of him as I had been. I think he disliked how he was affecting me less and less-- but I was quite enjoying it. Suddenly, I wanted to get my ‘revenge’ on Wonho for what had happened. I sat there on the side of the pool for a moment, before I stood up. I knew he would follow me, he couldn’t take his eyes from me right now. I was probably going mad with power over this situation, but the adrenaline just egged me on more. I swallowed the lump in my throat and walked off towards where the showers were.
Of course, as expected, he followed me. It didn’t take long for him to catch up, and when he realised we were pretty much alone as I walked past the showers, he took my hand. “Where are we going?” he asked curiously.
“I’m trying to find something,” I replied, not looking at him.
“What are you looking for?” I could hear him smile. “I can help you look.”
I almost faltered, but, the adrenaline and my need for revenge for how flustered he had made me before urged me on more than my shyness. “Somewhere secluded.”
He didn’t reply instantly, but instead gripped my hand tighter and pulled me off in one direction until he had pulled me behind a building that sold drinks or something. It was shaded and secluded. He must have gotten the wrong idea though, because he pushed me back against the wall of the building before we had even stopped walking. One of hands rested on my waist and the other was on the wall by my head. “If you wanted to be alone with me you could have just said.”
“Wonho,” I murmured, looking up at him.
“Mm?”
I leaned up slightly so my lips could reach his ear. I heard his breath come out as a shudder as my breath hit his ear and I was trying so hard not to giggle from the power rush. “How would you rate me?”
“Wh-what?”
“You heard me,” I stood back normally so I could look in his eyes. I guess he hadn’t expected it because his cheeks changed to a light tone of pink. “You’ve been staring at me enough,” I echoed his words from a few months before. “What is it? A one?”
“No.”
“A two?”
“What are you doing?” he frowned, leaning down to try and kiss me.
I moved my head to the side so his lips just ended up on my jae and I could feel him frown more.
“A three?”
Wonho sighed in slight aggravation before he just chuckled and stood up straight. “Where did you get all this confidence from suddenly?” He pressed his forehead against mine. “Hmm? Usually you’re so shy.”
He was trying, very hard, and succeeding in trying to make me forget what was even going on. Like some crazy power struggle, only he was better at playing whatever game this was. I was anything but not stubborn though and I frowned at him, wrapping my arms around his neck. “A six?”
He chuckled, kissing my nose. “Higher.”
I flushed softly. He wasn’t even trying to play alone with my game, he’d turned it around; now I was playing his and he knew it. I gulped softly, trying not to pay attention to his lips as they moved to kiss my own lips. His whole presence was intoxicating. It was very hard to think straight when you could be drunk off just one piece of him, but when he was like this-- I was too far gone to sober up. It had been too long since I was alone with him I forgot how overpowering it was. With other people to ‘dilute’ him….
“Are you not going to ask me any more?” he chuckled.
I wanted to hit his chest and push him away and somehow gain control of the situation again but… all I could do was stare at him helplessly. “Wonho,” I said seriously. “How much do you like me?”
“What?”
“Like, I mean,” I bit my lip.
“You can ask,” he smiled softly, moving back a little so he was less distracting. “You can ask me anything.”
I didn’t know what to say to him-- how to ask him, how to tell him I wasn’t sure what was going on between us… was it an us? Or was it just him and I in two places at the same time and…. My head buzzed with suggestions of what to ask him, what to say to him. “I mean… do you like me enough to be my boyfriend?”
“Are you asking me?”
Was I? I bit my lip before I frowned in determination at him. “Yes. Yes I am asking you to be my boyfriend.”
Wonho laughed softly and moved closer again to push a kiss against my forehead. “Because I go around kissing girls and holding their hands if I don’t already consider them my girlfriend,” he replied.
I frowned at him.
He laughed again and shook his head. “Yes, I’ll be your boyfriend.”
He kissed me again, but when I didn’t kiss back he frowned and pulled away. “Is something else wrong?
“Yes,” I said. “You didn’t answer me. How do you rate me?”
Myungjun was tired of being stuck inside. It had rained now for at least three days straight and it was ruining the mood everywhere he went. He’d decided to visit his girlfriend in an attempt to escape the bad mood back home, but even here it was just dark and miserable. He stared outside, watching the raindrops hit the window of the apartment. Cars outside in the roads seemed to be all the life out there. It was grey and miserable, he’d never have thought it was midday.
She had barely said two words to him all day he’d been sat there. She was reading a book, apparently the rain was perfect weather to stay in doors and—
Myungjun stood up, walked over to her and took the book from her hands.
Old book smell must be the best smell in the world, she decided. She couldn’t quite remember how she’d found this place, it had been purely my accident, but it was a haven. In such an up-to-date and busy city, finding a second hand book store was almost unheard of. Especially one as filled as this one. Some shelves were bowed under the weight of their charges, some were only being held up by the books under them. She had to be careful where she stood for the piles of books waiting to trip her and bid her stay there longer than she intended.