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정국 - GREASE | oneshot
the one where you bring your bike in for a noise that keeps returning, and discover the only thing getting properly tuned is you.
pairing: mechanic!jungkook x fem!reader
genre: no strings sex au, 2000s socal erotica, porn with plot, angst, smut (mdni!)
word count: 10,011
warnings/tags: 18+, explicit smut, protected sex, orgasms denied, dirty talk, dom!jungkook, sub!reader, bratty sub reader acts tough, mechanic/client power imbalance, pining, oral sex (f. receiving), nipple play, clit stimulation, fingering, grinding, hair pulling, hickies/marking, missionary, doggy style, cum on body, spitting, early 2000s aesthetic, socal setting, reader rides a motorcycle!, jungkook is left handed bc why not, surfer!jungkook, phone book meet-cute, mirror play, grease kink
정국 - What Happens In Vegas | oneshot
the one where you visit your best friend jungkook on tour in vegas, finally give in to three years of wanting, and learn the hard way that what happens in vegas definitely does not stay in vegas.
pairing: idol!jungkook x fem!reader
genre: friends to lovers au, porn with plot, angst, smut (mdni!)
word count: 10,145
warnings/tags: 18+, explicit smut, unprotected sex, creampie, multiple orgasms, dirty talk, praise kink, degradation, best friends to lovers, pining for three years, oral sex (f. and m. receiving), ball sucking, nipple play, clit stimulation, fingering, grinding and dry humping, cum play (he eats his own cum from her, spits it in her mouth), hair pulling, hickies/marking, fingering, missionary, cowgirl, doggy style, jungkook and reader get into a fight, vegas hotel aesthetic, backstage access, the morning after, viral vlog gone wrong, reader is from los angeles, reader is nicknamed la and sunshine
정국 - RAW | oneshot
the one where you convince your boyfriend to try that stupid tiktok trend - eating sushi off his bicep - only for the sushi not to be the rawest thing caught on camera that night.
pairing: jungkook x fem!reader
genre: established relationship au, porn with plot, smut, fluff (mdni!)
word count: 8,089
warnings/tags: 18+, explicit smut, unprotected sex, creampie!, multiple orgasms (like... three), dirty talk, praise kink, degradation, recording/filming (the phone is basically a third character), food play (sushi on nipples, sushi on biceps, sushi everywhere), oral sex (f. and m. receiving), breast play (he fucks her tits and it's messy), clit stimulation (so much blowing on it, rubbing, tonguing), fingering, grinding and dry humping, squirting (she literally gushes everywhere), cum play (eating sushi mixed with cum, sucking her own fluids off him), hair pulling/fisting, lip biting, hickies/marking, second person pov, rich miami aesthetic, tiktok trends gone wrong (or right), that lip ring doing damage, "i fucking love you" ending, soft aftercare
정국 - PURPLE TEARS I CRY | #02, Brooklyn
the world always blurs around the edges whenever jeongguk sees her, like his heart remembers something his mind no longer can.
pairing: college!jeongguk x college fem!reader
genre: college au, romance, angst, smut, fluff, psychological drama, dual pov
word count: 3,222
themes/warnings: new york city in the 2010s, jeongguk and y/n are seniors at nyu (fall into spring semester), gguk is a photography major, y/n is a psychology major, y/n has a purple strand of hair, gguk suffers from dissociative amnesia due to a tragic accident, gguk and y/n are childhood best friends but gguk doesn't remember ᴖ̈, switching between gguk's and y/n's pov, gguk is kind of obsessed with y/n in a non-stalker typa way, y/n pretends to not know gguk for her own wellbeing, y/n feels guilty although nothing is her fault, jeongguk and namjoon are roommates and besties, y/n and yoongi are besties, friends to strangers - strangers to friends - friends to lovers (and strangers again ??)
↤ chapter 1 | chapter 3 ↦ (coming soon)
﹒ ◠ ✩ ⊹ ﹒
[dissociative amnesia is a trauma-related memory disorder in which the mind locks away pieces of a person's life, identity, or emotional history to protect itself. even after the memories disappear, the emotions often remain - the body remembering what the mind no longer can.]
[jeongguk's pov]
The thing about going back home was that it always made me feel younger than I was. Not in a bad way. Just in the way Brooklyn always did. Like the second I stepped through my parents’ front door, NYU, finals, calculus, and every stupid thing I was pretending to have figured out suddenly stopped mattering.
My mom opened the door before I could even get my key out.
“Jeongguk-ah.”
And just like that, I was seventeen again.
Warmth hit me first. Then the smell of rice, sesame oil, and whatever soup she had decided could cure every possible problem I had ever experienced. My mom pulled me inside by the sleeve of my coat like I hadn’t just seen her two weeks ago over in Boston.
“You’re too skinny,” she said immediately.
“I’m literally bulking right now.”
“No, you’re not.”
“Namjoon and I have been eating like crazy.”
“Clearly not enough.”
“I ate before I came.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Lying is bad.”
From somewhere behind her, my dad laughed.
I dropped my bag near the door and kicked off my shoes, letting the heat from the apartment settle into my skin. Outside, Brooklyn was all gray sidewalks, bare trees, and cold air sharp enough to make your teeth hurt. Inside, everything was soft. The hallway light was too yellow. The radiator hissed like it had personal problems. My mom had slippers lined up near the entrance like she was running a hotel only family members were allowed to enter.
Home. It was almost annoying how much I needed it.
“Is hyung coming back for break?” I asked, shrugging off my coat.
My mom’s face shifted just slightly. Not sad, just disappointed in the way mothers got when they already knew the answer but still hated saying it.
“No,” she said. “He has exams. California is too far for only a few days.”
“Right.”
Of course. My brother had escaped first, med school and all. Prestigious enough that my parents pretended not to brag about it while absolutely bragging about it to anyone who breathed in their direction. He called sometimes with dark circles under his eyes and a voice that sounded like it had been surviving off vending machine coffee.
Still, I missed him. Even if he was annoying. Especially because he was annoying.
My dad appeared from the kitchen, wiping his hands on a dish towel. “You’ll see him soon, maybe.”
“Maybe?”
“He said winter break. If hospital schedule lets him.”
That meant no one knew. I nodded anyway.
My mom had already picked up my bag like she didn’t trust me to carry my own belongings ten feet. “Go put your things in your room. Food soon.”
“I’m not hungry.”
She turned slowly.
I corrected myself immediately. “I’m starving.”
“Good.”
Ი︵𐑼 ⋆.𐙚 ̊
My room was at the end of the hallway, same floor, same small dent near the handle from when my brother and I threw a basketball indoors and immediately learned why that was a bad idea. My mom still pretended she didn’t know it was us.
The room looked almost exactly the way I left it. Half-finished canvases leaned against the wall near the window, some from high school, some from breaks where I told myself I’d paint something meaningful and ended up painting shapes until three in the morning instead. Film photographs were taped above my desk in uneven rows: streetlights, blurry subway platforms, my dad’s hands fixing a loose cabinet, my mom laughing with her face turned away, Brooklyn in the rain, Manhattan through dirty glass.
Moments I could keep, or at least try to.
My camera sat on the desk beside three rolls of film, two dead batteries, and a calculus textbook I had opened exactly once at home and immediately closed out of self-respect. I was a photography major. Calculus felt like a personal attack disguised as a graduation requirement - Joon always said that was dramatic, but Joon was wrong.
My closet door hung halfway open, exposing the most depressing color palette known to man: black hoodies, white shirts, gray sweaters, more black, more white. A pair of jeans I wore until they looked emotionally exhausted. My mom always said I dressed like someone who had given up on joy. My brother once said I dressed like a divorced architect with commitment issues.
Honestly, neither of them were completely wrong.
Color never looked right on me - or maybe I just never knew what to do with it.
I dropped my bag onto the bed and unzipped it halfway, pulling out my camera first before anything else. Priorities.
As I set it on the desk, my eyes caught on a photograph tucked halfway behind an old painting. I didn’t remember putting it there.
It was small. Slightly bent at one corner. The colors had faded in that soft, uneven way old prints did when sunlight got to them for too long.
I pulled it free.
The photo was blurry. Not badly taken, exactly. Just unfocused enough that the subject looked more like a feeling than a person. A girl standing under streetlights, faced turned away from the camera, one hand lifted near her hair like she’d been caught mid-laugh or mid-complaint.
There was color near her shoulder - a small streak of purple.
I stared at it.
For a second, the room felt too quiet. The radiator hissed behind me. A car horn sounded somewhere outside. My mom moved around in the kitchen, cabinet doors opening and closing like a familiar rhythm.
I should’ve been able to place the photo. I knew my own work. Knew every picture I took, every single angle I obsessed over, every accidental shot I kept because something about it felt alive. But this one sat in my hand like a word on the tip of my tongue - close, too close.
“Jeongguk!” my mom called. “Come eat!”
I blinked and the feeling spilled.
I looked at the photo again, but it was just a blurry girl under streetlights. Nothing more. Probably some old project from high school.
Probably.
I slid it back behind the painting instead of throwing it away.
Ი︵𐑼 ⋆.𐙚 ̊
Dinner at home always sounded the same.
Bowls clinking softly against the table. My mom complaining that nobody ate enough while actively serving enough food to feed half of Brooklyn. My dad pretending not to notice when she kept piling more rice onto his plate anyway.
I missed it more than I liked admitting.
“How’s school?” my dad asked.
“Good.”
My mom looked at me suspiciously. “Good or ‘good’?”
“Good enough.”
“Meaning not good.”
“It’s finals season,” I defended. “Nobody’s doing good.”
“That calculus class still bothering you?” my brother asked through FaceTime propped awkwardly against the saltshaker.
“There he is,” I said immediately. “Alive.”
Barely. My brother looked exhausted. Dark circles under his eyes. Messy hair. California sunlight still bright through the tiny dorm window behind him while New York had already disappeared into evening.
“You look terrible,” I informed him.
“So do you.”
“Love this family,” my dad muttered.
My brother grinned tiredly. “Still failing math?”
“I’m not failing.”
“Yet.”
“Can’t wait until your student loans humble you.”
“Can’t wait until you stop dressing like a divorced architect.”
My mom sighed dramatically. “Why are my children like this?”
“His fault,” we said at the same time. That earned a laugh from my dad.
For a second, everything felt easy again. Normal.
Maybe that was why the thought of her showing up in my mind felt so strange. Because somehow, even sitting here at my parents’ kitchen table with my mom arguing over side dishes and my brother freezing mid-sentence over bad California Wi-Fi, I still thought about purple. Weird.
After dinner, my mom stopped me before I could disappear back into my room.
“Jeongguk-ah.”
“Hm?”
“Can you go to the market for me tomorrow morning?”
I leaned against the counter. “Depends.”
“Depends?”
“What’s the item?”
She pointed a wooden spoon at me threateningly. “Do not start.”
I laughed. “Okay, okay. What do you need?”
“I forgot to buy sesame oil,” she admitted reluctantly. “And the good brand was sold out earlier.”
“Tragic.”
“You joke now, but tomorrow you’ll complain when the food tastes wrong.”
She had a point.
“I’ll go,” I said.
My mom’s expression softened immediately. “Thank you.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“And wear a jacket.”
“I always wear a jacket.”
“You wore a hoodie in thirty-degree weather last year.”
“That was one time.”
“It was snowing.”
“That’s subjective.”
My dad snorted into his tea.
Ი︵𐑼 ⋆.𐙚 ̊
The next morning, Brooklyn looked half-asleep.
The sky was pale gray, making the entire neighborhood feel softer somehow. Christmas lights had already started appearing in apartment windows and tiny storefronts even though it wasn’t even December yet. Somebody across the street was dragging groceries inside while an old Frank Sinatra song drifted faintly from a parked car.
I shoved my hands deeper into the pockets of my coat as I walked toward the market. Cold air burned my nose slightly.
I liked Brooklyn mornings. Manhattan always felt like it was trying too hard to be awake. Brooklyn didn’t care.
The market near my parents’ apartment was crowded already by the time I stepped inside, fluorescent lights buzzing softly overhead. Shopping carts squeaked against tile floors while exhausted parents negotiated with screaming children in aisle five.
It was all normal, warm, and quite forgettable, until I saw her.
Well, not her exactly. Just someone struggling to reach a bottle from the top shelf with their hood pulled over their head. I almost walked past before instinct kicked in.
“Here,” I said casually, reaching up beside her. My fingers wrapped around the bottle easily. She turned at the same moment her hood slipped backward slightly.
Purple.
Not bright, not loud, just enough. A single strand slipping against her hair like color had accidentally found its way into a black-and-white photograph.
And there she was again. Not under fluorescent classroom lights this time. Not standing at the front of a lecture hall surrounded by equations I didn’t understand. Just standing in the cooking oil isle of a Brooklyn market holding a shopping basket in one hand - this was real, a little too real.
For a second, my brain did that strange thing again, that awful, quiet pulling sensation somewhere deep in my chest, like recognition clawing at the inside of me without explanation.
Her eyes widened slightly the moment she saw me. There and gone so quickly I almost convinced myself I imagined it.
“Oh,” she said softly. “Thank you.”
Her voice hit me harder than it should’ve. It felt dangerously familiar.
I handed her the bottle carefully, trying very hard to act like my entire nervous system hadn’t just short-circuited in aisle seven.
“Yeah. No problem.”
Smooth, Jeon. Real fucking smooth.
She glanced down at the bottle in her hands before looking back at me again, and suddenly I realized something horrifying: I had absolutely no fucking idea how to act normal around this girl. Which was insane considering we’d technically spoken maybe three sentences total.
“You’re in my calculus class,” I blurted before I could stop myself.
Her lips parted slightly, almost surprised.
Then something gentler crossed her face.
“Yeah,” she said. “You are too.”
I stared at her.
Great. Brilliant response, Jeongguk.
Somewhere in the background, a cashier yelled for price assistance while a cart rattled loudly across the floor. Holiday music played faintly through old ceiling speakers. The entire market continued moving around us completely unaware that my brain was currently imploding beside the sesame oil.
And she still looked at me like she was waiting. Like she already knew me well enough to be patient. Weird.
“I’m Jeongguk, by the way.”
There was the smallest pause. Tiny. Almost invisible. Like hearing my name still did something to her. Then she smiled politely and adjusted the basket against her hip.
“I know.”
The words landed strangely.
Not flirtatious nor creepy, just honest.
Of course she knew, we’d share a class all semester. Still, something about hearing it from her made my chest tighten.
“Right,” I laughed softly. “Right. Sorry.”
“It’s okay.”
Silenced settled between us again, but not an uncomfortable one exactly, just careful. Like both of us were standing too close to something fragile without understanding what it was.
I glanced toward the items in her basket absentmindedly.
Instant noodles. Hibiscus tea. Bread. Purple potatoes.
For some reason, that almost made me laugh.
“What?” She asked immediately.
“Nothing.”
“You smiled.”
“I did not.”
I looked at the potatoes again. “You accidentally committed to a color theme.”
She blinked once before following my gaze downward. Then finally, she laughed, and something inside me shifted violently at the sound. Jesus. It felt like hearing a song I used to know by heart.
My stomach tightened suddenly with the terrifying feeling that if she laughed again, I might actually remember something - which made absolutely no sense.
Her smile faded softer this time, eyes lingering on me carefully like she was studying my reaction too.
“You’re weird,” she said quietly.
I grinned before I could help it. “That’s a little judgmental considering we’ve barely spoken.”
Another pause, and then:
“I’m Y/N.”
And there It was.
Her name.
Of course that was her name. I don’t know why the thought hit me so hard, only that it did.
“Y/N,” I repeated slowly.
Something flickered across her expression again. Not fear, not sadness, but something worse - like hearing me say her name hurt her a little.
“You’re from Brooklyn?” I asked after a second, motioning vaguely around us.
“Born and raised.”
“Seriously?”
She nodded once.
“Bay Ridge.”
I stared at her.
“No way.”
“What?”
“I grew up in Bay Ridge.”
For the first time since this conversation started, she looked genuinely caught off guard.
“Oh,” she said quietly.
And again, that feeling took over me. That awful, aching familiarity. Like we’d had this conversation before. Like I already knew she was from Brooklyn. Like some part of me had always known.
She adjusted the sleeves of her hoodie over her hands slightly, and for a second neither of us said anything. The fluorescent lights buzzed softly overhead while someone nearby argued over cranberry sauce prices loud enough for half the store to hear.
“You went to school there?” I asked.
She nodded. “Yeah.”
“Which one?”
The second the question left my mouth, something unreadable crossed her face again. Tiny. Almost invisible. But there.
“Mulberry High,” she answered.
My stomach dropped slightly.
“No way.”
Her eyes lifted toward mine carefully. “What?”
“I went there too.”
And there it was again. That feeling, but sharper this time. It wasn't exactly pain, but not exactly panic either. Just pressure somewhere behind my ribs, like my body had reached an answer before my brain did.
Because I would’ve remembered her. I had to have. Someone like her didn’t feel forgettable.
“That’s weird,” I muttered mostly to myself.
A soft laugh escaped her. “You say everything like you’re solving a conspiracy.”
“Maybe I am.”
“That dramatic, huh?”
“You have no idea.”
She smiled again, smaller this time, and I swore the entire aisle looked warmer because of it - which was ridiculous.
I grabbed the sesame oil my mom sent me for and tossed it into my basket before glancing back toward her.
“So what year are you?”
“At NYU?”
“Unless you secretly attend another university for fun.”
That earned another laugh from her.
God.
“Senior,” she answered.
“Photography major?” I guessed.
This time she blinked in actual surprise. “No?”
I grinned slightly. “Damn. Thought I finally developed intuition.”
“What made you think photography?”
“You look like you’d judge people artistically.”
She stared at me for a second before laughing under her breath. “That doesn’t even mean anything.”
“It absolutely does.”
“And what do you major in then, Jeongguk?”
The way she said my name so naturally did something strange to me. Like hearing it from her specifically mattered.
“Photography,” I admitted.
Her expression softened immediately. Not dramatically, but just enough that I noticed.
“That makes sense,” she said quietly.
“Yeah?”
“You notice things too much.”
The words hit harder than they should have. I looked at her for a second longer than necessary. “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
“No,” she said softly. “Just dangerous.”
Ი︵𐑼 ⋆.𐙚 ̊
We ended up walking through the market together after without really deciding to. It just happened. Every time I turned into another aisle, she was there too, basket hanging from her arm while soft music played through old ceiling speakers overhead.
Outside, the sky had darkened into that blue-gray color that usually meant snow was coming early. Thanksgiving decorations blinked faintly through the windows facing the street, glowing softly against the storm gathering over Brooklyn.
“You always come here?” I asked while she compared two different chamomile tea boxes like the decision would permanently alter her future.
“My dad does,” she said. “Which means I do.”
“Tragic.”
“You’re literally here too.”
“Yeah, but I was forced.”
“Sure.”
I smiled despite myself. It felt easy talking to her. Too easy. Like we’d skipped introductions somehow.
By the time we reached checkout, snow had just barely started outside. Not enough to stick. Just small flakes disappearing against the sidewalk the second they landed.
“Shit,” I muttered, looking outside,
Her eyes followed mine toward the windows. “You hate snow?”
“No. Wet shoes.”
“That’s fair.”
The cashier handed her the receipt first before calling for the next customer. She adjusted her tote bag onto her shoulder, preparing to leave. And suddenly I didn’t want the conversation to end.
“You walking?” I asked.
She looked back at me. “Yeah.”
“Me too.”
Then she nodded once. So we stepped back out into Brooklyn together, cold air immediately curling around us while snow drifted slowly through the morning lights.
And for the first time all semester, she didn’t walk away from me first.
Ი︵𐑼 ⋆.𐙚 ̊
For a few seconds, we walked quietly beside each other. I noticed she kept her hands tucked inside the sleeves of her hoodie before the wind picked up. I noticed she walked a little closer to the buildings whenever loud traffic passed by. I noticed she kept glancing up at the snow like she was making sure it was still there.
I noticed too much around her.
"You're staring again," she said suddenly.
I blinked. "Was I?"
"Yes."
"Sorry."
She looked over at me then, purple strand catching softly beneath the streetlights.
And there it was again - that ache. Sharp enough now that it genuinely frustrated me. Because I knew her. I had to.
There was no possible way someone could feel this familiar and still be a stranger.
"You know what's weird?" I asked.
"What?"
"I feel like I'm trying to remember you."
The words slipped out quietly.
And the second they did, she stopped walking. Completely.
Snow drifted slowly between us while cars passed somewhere down the block.
Her expression changed so quickly it almost hurt to look at - like I had accidentally reached inside her chest and touched something bruised.
"Y/N?"
She blinked immediately, composure snapping right back into place I almost questioned what I saw.
Then she smiled.
"You don't even know me, Jeongguk," she said softly.
But for some reason, that didn't feel true at all.
author's note: hi everyone! I had so much fun writing chapter 2 ‹𝟹! now that y/n and gguk "remet," the story can finally take a turn for the better. I have so many ideas for future chapters - I can't wait to write!!!! thank you for reading and don't forget to reblog! 💌 𐙚⋆°。⋆♡
정국 - PURPLE TEARS I CRY | #01, Undefined at X = 0
the world always blurs around the edges whenever jeongguk sees her, like his heart remembers something his mind no longer can.
pairing: college!jeongguk x fem!reader
genre: college au, romance, angst, smut, fluff, psychological drama, dual pov
word count: 2,413
themes/warnings: new york city in the 2010s, jeongguk and y/n are seniors at nyu (fall into spring semester), gguk is a photography major, y/n is a psychology major, y/n has a purple strand of hair, gguk suffers from dissociative amnesia due to a tragic accident, gguk and y/n are childhood best friends but gguk doesn't remember ᴖ̈, switching between gguk's and y/n's pov, gguk is kind of obsessed with y/n in a non-stalker typa way, y/n pretends to not know gguk for her own wellbeing, y/n feels guilty although nothing is her fault, jeongguk and namjoon are roommates and besties, y/n and yoongi are besties, friends to strangers - strangers to friends - friends to lovers (and strangers again ??)
masterlist (coming soon) | chapter 2 ↦
[jeongguk's point of view]
I didn’t know who she was, but her eyes met mine and everything went quiet. The walls around me started bleeding, colors melting into each other like careless watercolor; but she stood untouched, perfectly painted in acrylic over the blur of everything else.
And her hair… her hair had a strand of purple. I don’t know why, but it looked so seamlessly woven into her persona that you couldn’t help but be enticed by it. Hell I was enticed by it, alright, and I damn well knew it.
Everything blurred, and I didn’t know if it was because I forgot my glasses or if my mind was playing tricks on me again. She looked like a daydream.
Who was she?
Why did I recognize her sweet eyes?
“Jeon, is this what you got?” The voice cracked through it.
Everything collapsed at once. The colors drained. The blur clicked into focus the same way my camera did after adjusting the lens one too many times.
Lights too fluorescent for eight in the morning. Chairs scraping the floor. The hum of the classroom rushing back like it had never left. I blinked, and the board came into focus. Numbers. Steps. An answer I should’ve had but didn’t.
“...uh,” My voice came out slower than I expected it to. Fuck. I forced myself to look at the board, trying to make sense of it, like if I stared long enough it would just… come to me. But it didn’t.
“Yeah,” I said anyway. “That’s what I got.”
A pause.
Too long.
Way too long.
The professor exhaled through his nose. “It’s not.”
A few quiet laughs slipped through the room, low, under their breaths. One of them right next to me. Joon. I didn’t even have to look to know it was him. I felt it anyway.
I didn’t look away, didn’t fix my problem. Because for some reason, my mind was still stuck on her. At the front of the room, chalk in hand, she had been standing like she belonged there more than anyone else. Numbers had covered the board, half-finished, half-erased, but she had moved through them like it all made sense, like it was second nature. Her handwriting had been clean. Precise. Each number placed like it mattered. Like it couldn’t be anything else.
And that strand of purple; it had caught the light when she tilted her head, just slightly, like she was thinking two steps ahead of everyone else in the room.
I hadn’t understood a single thing she was writing. But I understood her.
Or at least, I felt like I did. Which made no sense. Because I’d never seen her before.
…right?
The lecture hall emptied fast after that.
Backpacks zipped shut. Chairs scraped against the floor. Half-awake students pushed past each other toward the exit like getting out of calculus ten seconds earlier would somehow save their grades.
Outside the tall windows, New York looked cold in that late-November kind of way. Gray skies stretched over the city like a sheet of dirty paper, and the trees lining Washington Square had already started giving up their leaves. Thanksgiving break was only a few days away, and everyone on campus carried that exhausted, barely-holding-it-together energy finals season always brought out.
I stayed seated longer than I should’ve.
My eyes drifted toward the front again instinctively, but she was already gone.
Of course she was.
“Jesus,” a voice muttered beside me. “You looked like you were witnessing divine intervention back there.”
I glanced over at Joon as we finally stood from our seats. He smiled, small, and his dimples immediately betrayed him.
Honestly, I got it.
I understood why girls practically threw themselves at him. He had everything. The looks, the smile, the brain. Annoyingly tall, too. Like life had sat down and handcrafted the perfect man just to humble the rest of us.
“You’re staring again,” he said.
“I’m literally looking at you.”
“Yeah, and you still look traumatized.”
I scoffed, slinging my bag over my shoulder as we stepped into the crowded hallway. “Maybe calculus just brings out the worst in me.”
“No,” Joon replied immediately. “That girl does.”
The hallway buzzed with conversation around us as students flooded toward the elevators and stairwells. Someone nearly shoulder-checked me sprinting toward another class, probably trying to survive attendance before break officially started.
Cold air slipped through the building every time the entrance doors downstairs opened.
November in New York always felt strangely cinematic to me. Everyone was exhausted this time of year. Coffee cups permanently attached to hands. Scarves thrown on half-asleep. The sun disappearing before people even finished afternoon classes.
The city felt softer in winter.
Like something worth photographing.
Joon walked beside me with his hands shoved into the pockets of his wool coat, completely unbothered by the chaos around him.
We’d met freshman year after NYU housing screwed both of us over and shoved us into the same tiny dorm room. Three years later, somehow, we were still roommates. Honestly, I couldn’t imagine not living with him anymore.
Namjoon had grown up on the Upper East Side. His parents were rich-rich. The kind of rich where their apartment probably cost more than my entire future. But he never acted like it. Never flaunted it either. If anything, he hated that world.
Once, at two in the morning while helping me finish a photography project, he told me growing up there felt like living inside a Gossip Girl episode on loop:
Too many parties.
Too many names.
Too many people pretending.
So he left the Upper East the first chance he got and traded it for cramped apartments in The Village instead.
He never looked back.
There was always something artistic about him. Maybe it was the way he noticed details everyone else skipped over. Maybe it was the fact he could somehow make a shitty apartment with flickering lights feel warm just by existing in it.
Either way, I admired him for it.
“Seriously, though,” Joon said, pulling me out of my thoughts. “What the hell was that?”
“What was what?”
“That entire thing you had going on in there.” He gestured vaguely behind us toward the lecture hall. “You were staring at her like she personally invented derivatives.”
I huffed out a laugh. “Shut up.”
“I’m serious.”
We pushed through the front doors of the building, immediately getting hit with freezing wind.
“Fuck,” I muttered, pulling my scarf higher.
Joon only rolled his eyes. “It’s forty degrees.”
“That’s freezing.”
“You were literally born here.”
“And I’ve hated winter every single year.”
A smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth. “No you don’t.”
Unfortunately, he was right.
There was something about New York in winter that always got to me. Steam rising from subway grates. Yellow cabs against gray streets. Tiny diners glowing warm through fogged windows while everyone outside looked one inconvenience away from losing their minds. The city looked beautiful cold.
Joon nudged my shoulder lightly as we crossed Mercer Street.
“You should really concentrate in that class,” he said. “We’re seniors, J. It’s lock-in season.”
“I am concentrating.”
“You answered a derivative question wrong after staring at the board for five straight minutes.”
“In my defense,” I said carefully, “the board was distracting.”
Joon stared at me blankly.
“You’re unbelievable.”
I grinned.
He sighed dramatically. “No offense, by the way, but if it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t even be passing calc.”
“No offense taken.”
“Good. Because it’s true.”
Another gust of wind rushed down the street, carrying dead leaves along the sidewalk. Students passed us bundled in oversized coats and knit scarves, headphones in, coffee cups clutched between cold hands.
For a second, everything felt normal again.
Until I saw purple.
Not her.
Just a flash of purple reflected in a storefront window from some neon sign across the street.
But something in my chest tightened anyway. Weird.
Joon noticed me zoning out immediately. He always did.
“You’re doing it again.”
I blinked. “Doing what?”
“That thing where you disappear into your own head.”
I shoved my hands into my pockets. “Sorry.”
He studied me for a second longer than necessary.
Then, quieter this time he asked:
“So what’s her name?”
And that…
That stopped me.
Because I didn’t know. I knew the strand of purple in her hair. I knew the way she tilted her head while thinking. I knew her eyes felt familiar enough to haunt me. But her name? Nothing. And somehow that bothered me more than it should’ve
“I don’t know,” I admitted finally.
Joon’s expression shifted slightly, almost unreadable. Then he looked away too quickly.
“Hm,” he said softly. Like that mean something. And for some reason, I couldn’t stop thinking that maybe it did.
The walk back to our apartment took around fifteen minutes if Mercer wasn’t overcrowded and nobody decided to stop in the middle of the sidewalk like they’d personally forgotten other people existed.
Today, unfortunately, people seemed especially stupid.
By the time we reached our building, my hands were numb from the cold.
Joon unlocked the front door first, warmth immediately hitting us as we stepped into the lobby. The elevator was broken, again, so we dragged ourselves up four flights of stairs in exhausted silence before finally reaching apartment 4B.
The second the door opened, Joon sighed.
“Jeongguk.”
“What?”
He pointed toward the hallway dramatically.
“Are you ever gonna pick up that suitcase?”
I glanced toward the black carry-on sprawled across the floor exactly where I’d left it two weeks ago.
“…Eventually.”
“Eventually?” Joon repeated. “You went to Boston, not war.”
I snorted, kicking the suitcase lightly out of the walkway as I stepped inside.
The apartment wasn’t terrible. Surprisingly decent for two college students living in Manhattan, honestly. Two bedrooms, one bathroom, and somehow a living room window that gave us a stupidly nice view of lower Manhattan if you leaned at the right angle. At night, the city lights reflected against the glass so clearly it almost looked fake.
The apartment itself, though, was very obviously occupied by two men in their early twenties.
It wasn’t dirty exactly. Just… lived in.
Film rolls sat scattered across the coffee table beside half-finished assignments. Joon’s sketchbooks were stacked neatly near the couch while my camera batteries and hoodies permanently occupied the dining chairs. A record player sat near the window collecting dust because Joon swore listening to music digitally “ruined the experience,” yet somehow never remembered to actually use the thing.
There were dishes in the sink. Not a concerning amount, but enough.
Joon shrugged his coat off immediately. “One day you’re gonna trip over that suitcase and crack your skull open.”
“I survived calculus today. I think I’ll survive the suitcase.”
“Barely survived calculus.”
I ignored him, toeing my shoes off near the door.
The apartment smelled faintly like coffee and laundry detergent. Joon disappeared into the kitchen for water while I finally crouched down beside the already-open suitcase lying abandoned near the hallway.
Clothes spilled halfway out of it like the thing had given up on me days ago.
“I was looking for my favorite sleeping shirt,” I defended automatically.
Joon glanced over from the kitchen. “J, you own, like, forty white shirts.”
“Yeah, but this one is different.”
“They are literally all the same shirt.”
I dug through the suitcase anyway. “You wouldn’t get it.”
“You know,” he called from the other room, “most people unpack after trips.”
“It was two days.”
“It’s been two weeks.”
I pulled a hoodie lazily. “I’m going back to Brooklyn for break anyway. What’s the point?”
Joon leaned against the kitchen counter, bottle of water in hand. “Your room not looking like a crime scene?”
I looked toward my bedroom door.
“…It’s organized chaos.”
“Your floor literally disappeared yesterday.”
“That’s dramatic.”
“You lost your wallet for six hours.”
“I found it.”
“In the fridge.”
I paused.
“In my defense,” I started carefully, “I was tired.”
Joon laughed under his breath, dimples appearing again. Annoying.
I tossed the hoodie onto the couch and ran a hand through my hair tiredly.
Brooklyn.
The thought of going home felt strange this year. Not bad. Just strange.
I grew up in Bay Ridge with my parents and older brother in an apartment too small for four people but somehow always warm anyway. My mom still treated me like I was seventeen every time I came home, and my dad still called me every Sunday morning asking if I’d eaten properly that week.
My brother had escaped first. California. Med school. Overachiever syndrome.
Honestly, the guy barely slept.
Meanwhile I moved twenty minutes away and somehow acted like I’d crossed the country.
“You heading home right after your last final?” Joon asked.
“Probably.”
“Your mom still making enough food to feed an entire borough?”
“Yes.”
“Tell her I miss her dumplings.”
“You only miss free food.”
“That too.”
I smiled despite myself. Then annoyingly, I thought about her again.
The purple strand.
The way she looked at the board like numbers made sense to her naturally.
The way my chest tightened every time I saw that color. Weird. It wasn’t even attraction anymore. Attraction I understood. This felt different. Like trying to remember something through fogged glass.
I’d spent almost the entire semester catching glimpses of her around campus. Outside Bobst. Crossing Washington Square. Sitting near the windows in the dining hall once with headphones on and a coffee cup between her hands.
Always purple somewhere. Always gone too quickly. And every time, the same feeling settled in my chest.
Familiar.
Painfully familiar.
Like my brain knew something I didn’t.
“You’re thinking about her again,” Joon said suddenly.
I blinked. “Am I that obvious?”
“Yes.”
I leaned back against the couch with a sigh.
“I don’t even know why it’s bothering me this much,” I admitted. “I swear I’ve never met her before.”
The words felt wrong the second they left my mouth. Not wrong enough to correct. Just wrong enough to linger.
Joon noticed. He always noticed. For a second, he looked like he wanted to say something important. But instead he just twisted the cap back onto his water bottle and said quietly,
“Maybe you just think she’s pretty.”
Maybe.
But pretty didn’t explain why purple made my chest ache.
And pretty definitely didn’t explain why, some nights, I dreamed of blurry lights and someone calling my name like they were terrified of losing me.
“my tea’s gone cold, I’m wondering why I got out of bed at all”
🌧️🌫️🎧📷🖤🚬