hi!! do you take requests? cause i cant stop thinking abt jeonghan being rlly rlly flirty with reader (she never responds to it) but when reader flirts back he gets so shy :( and he tries to pretend not to be but his cheeks get red and he gives that shy cute little laugh yk :(( just pure fluff and maybe reader teasing him abt it until he kisses her :(
ahh i love this concept sm!! shy jeonghan:( tysm for the request!<3
such a flirt !
synopsis ; it’s simple: jeonghan knows he’s a flirt, but didn’t realize you flirting back was the key to breaking him.
pairing ; yoon jeonghan + gn!reader
notes ; pure fluff. jeonghan is down horrendous bad. not proofread. i need me a flirty jeonghan tbh
word count ; 0.6k
“My hand is kinda heavy, can you hold it y/n?”
As he asks, Jeonghan is staring at you like you’re the only thing that exists in this world. His pinkie finger brushes every so slightly against yours with the tiniest sliver of hope behind the action.
Not to his surprise, you keep on walking along the park trail, eyes watching the stars in the midnight sky, the only reaction to his question being a sarcastic roll of your eyes and the faintest show of pink painting the tips of your ears. Your hand doesn’t move any nearer to his, continuing to walk in step with Jeonghan but not saying anything to his comment.
Which is normal. Jeonghan expects no reaction further than that pink on your cheeks whenever he flirts—he has been for the past two years. But its okay; just being with you is enough. He likes the look of your smile and the sound of your laugh to his sarcastic jokes too much. A future with someone else walking beside him like you are right now is impossible for him to think about, so he settles for this. And it’s enough. He wouldn’t be selfish.
“Let’s sit down here, I want to look at the stars for a bit,” you venture towards an empty grass field on the side of the trail. Jeonghan places the small blanket you insisted on bringing on the ground for you both to sit on.
“The sky is especially clear tonight,” Jeonghan isn’t sure if your thinking aloud or to him, but he’s happy to listen no matter what. “You can see every star.”
Jeonghan hums in agreement and places his chin on your shoulder, trying to see what stars had caught your eye. You take turns tracing constellations with your fingers on the sky’s pitch black and white freckled map.
“It’s crazy to think that out there with all those stars is an infinite amount of universes,” he says thoughtfully. “And in one of those universes, you could be my girlfriend.”
You look him in the eye. “Or it could be this one.”
Fuck. He was not expecting that.
Jeonghan had no idea six words would come to be the decline of his flirty facade. But the moment they can out of your mouth, the air had increased temperature and he felt just as red as a tomato. He seriously couldn’t recall the last time his entire face had been as red as this. He suddenly was fighting his own hands to not cover his face of its flustered state.
“Are you okay?” You tilt your head, concerned for your best friend’s suddenly quiet aura.
“I’m fine,” he replies in the most normal voice he could muster. “Got kinda hot out here, huh?”
“Not really…?” Realizing what was going on, your worried frown turns into the biggest smile he’d ever seen. “Wait. Yoon Jeonghan? Blushing?”
He lets out a frantic laugh that shakes out of nervousness, somehow turning even more red when you continue staring at him with that smile. “What are you talking about?”
“Aww, was it because of what I said?” An uncontrollable laugh bubbles from your chest and can’t stop. “I’ll admit, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this red, Hannie. It should happen more, it’s cute.”
“Since when were you such a flirt?” He mutters under his breath.
Laughing, you cup his cheeks in your hands. “Since now. I like this.” You drift the tip of your pointer finger over his reddened cheeks in a way that make him wonder: what are we?
“Well, you know what I like more?” Jeonghan gently grabs your wrist and averts you away from his red cheeks.
“What?”
“This,” he says, right before pressing his lips against yours.
warnings: none, really. catching feelings and all that.
a/n: fluff nonsense? fluff nonsense. just writing this to escape real life for a bit (not that things have been bad, just a little intense today). not proofread, never expect me to proofread.
you chuckle at seungcheol’s retort, the giddy sound matching your boyfriend’s giggle. a few months ago, you wouldn’t have believed that you’d be playing the disgustingly cheesy you-hang-up-game with someone, but things change when you have someone you love.
love. the realization that you were in love with your boyfriend hit you a few days ago, when you found yourself smiling at the memory of your first date with seungcheol. a few trips down memory lane and some much-needed introspection later, you had reached to the rather unsurprising conclusion: you’re in love with your choi seungcheol.
that left with you with two conflicting options: to tell him that very moment, or to wait and find an appropriate time, hoping that he’ll reciprocate your feelings.
you’re pretty sure he’s atleast a little in love with you, with the way he calls you every night he’s away, and the way he steals your jackets because he feels “yours” while wearing them, or how he tries to make it to your flat every night so he can hold you while you sleep - yeah, he’s probably a little in love with you.
you just hope it’s more than just a little, because you’re certain you’re totally, devastatingly in love with him.
you decided to wait until he came back from tour next week to confess your feelings, since that’ll give you the time to plan the evening out and give you the opportunity to see his face when you utter the words. long live telephonic communication and all, but some things have to be done face-to-face.
“babe?”, he stretches out the word ever-so-gently, “still there?”
“yeah, still here”, you respond, blinking your thoughts away, “drifted away for a second, sorry”.
“it’s okay”, he chuckles, “been a long day, mm?”
“yeah, kinda. but probably doesn’t compare to giving a sold-out concert”.
“hey, that’s not fair. work is work, and -”, a yawn cuts off his statement, and you can’t help but snicker.
“and you were saying?”, you prompt, a grin audible in your voice.
“that we’re both tired”, he sulks, “and we should both sleep”.
“alright”, you agree, “talk to you tomorrow?”
“mm. i’ll call you when i wake up”, his voice softens a to a murmur, “goodnight, i miss you”.
“miss you too, cheol”, you whisper, “love you, bye”.
then you hang up.
there’s a second of silence before it hits you, and you let out an involuntary curse while you realize.
“love you”? love you?
weren’t you going to wait until he was back to tell him? whatever happened to that very sound plan?
maybe he didn’t hear it. maybe he didn’t perceive it. that’s possible, isn’t it? the phrase is so common and seungcheol has so many people who love him so it’s possible that he didn’t make anything of it, so -
the phone buzzes. it’s seungcheol.
you’re unable to move for a few seconds, stuck in the dilemma of whether or not to pick up the phone. if you do, what do you say? say it slipped out? pretend you didn’t say it? say -
you take a look at your phone and are greeted by seungcheol holding a chestnut plushy, snuggled into your bed, wearing your jacket. the contact picture makes the decision for you, and you pick up the the call before you can overthink yourself into inaction.
“hey”, he greets softly, “so”.
“so?”, you respond tentatively.
“did you mean it?”
there’s a vulnerability in his voice that you don’t get to hear often.
did you mean it? yes, you did. maybe if you weren’t so in love with him, you would make him spell out the full question, to try to get out of answering it. but you wouldn’t do it to him, not to seungcheol.
“yeah”, your voice isn’t as steady as you’d like, “yeah, i did”.
it’s silent for a moment. you wonder if the mic of your phone is sensitive enough to catch your racing heartbeat.
“you didn’t give me a chance to answer”, he says finally, voice tender but sure, “i love you too”.
genres/themes: friends with benefits, college au, smut (minors do not interact!), fluff, angst, romance, it’s got a little bit of everything
warnings: typical college parties (alcohol), explicit sexual content (choking, oral sex, unprotected sex, mentions of light bondage, mentions of woozi as a hard dom, most of the sex is pretty vague though)
In which there’s two things you knew when you were entering this arrangement. One: Jihoon doesn’t like relationships. Two: You’re a damn fucking fool for Lee Jihoon.
The two of you are in a 24-hour diner. It’s long after midnight, but you’re always a little hungry after getting your guts rearranged, and Jihoon is deceptively kinky, so you’re really craving the comfort of salt and carbs tonight.
“I mean, if it’s an agreement that we sign, isn’t it a contract?” You pop another fry into your mouth.
Jihoon sighs. “Calling it a contract feels too serious. I want this to stay casual. That way, everything is easy and nobody gets hurt.”
He slides the napkin across the table to you and sets the ballpoint pen down next to it. Glancing down, you read the words written on the thin brown paper as you chew.
1. kissing okay - but can’t be soft or excessive
2. no staying the night
3. no pillow talk or cuddling
4. don’t acknowledge the arrangement in public
5. either party can end things at any time
And then there’s the last unspoken one, obvious enough that it doesn’t even need to be discussed. Don’t fall in love.
tags: college au, fraternities, fake dating, misunderstandings, childhood friends to lovers, this all could have been resolved with some proper communication, lots of pining specifically for em, fluff, rom com, best friend minghao, y/n is oblivious!!!
warnings: alcohol, weed mention, frats, american college setting
words: 9.3k
synopsis:
it starts, as it always does with this particular collection of friends, with shenanigans and cahoots.
well, more specifically, for wonwoo it starts with shenanigans, when soonyoung and junhui somehow manage to collide brain cells and write in to the school newspaper's love advice columnist about his crush on his childhood best friend.
and for you, the aforementioned childhood best friend and, in secret, also the aforementioned love advice columnist, it starts with cahoots when kim mingyu manages to convince you to fake date him so he can win some popularity contest for his frat.
for @notesof-mh
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It starts, as it always does with this particular collection of friends, with shenanigans and cahoots.
Well, more specifically, for Wonwoo it starts with shenanigans, when Soonyoung and Junhui somehow manage to collide brain cells.
He had barely been awake for 15 seconds when they had barged into his room, laptop in hands, just to show him the text in a pink-colored submission box surrounded by heart emojis. Wonwoo squints, the blurry words coming into just enough focus for him to make out what they say. “Dear Cherry, I’m a third year computer science student and I’m in love with my best friend, except I’m— what the hell is this?”
He glares at Soonyoung who grins cheerfully and points again at the screen. “Read the rest, Wonwoo!”
Wonwoo sighs and continues reading. “Except I’m a huge awkward loser and she’s so cool and pretty, and I don’t know how to tell her I like her. What should I do?”
“Alright, hit send,” Junhui instructs, tilting the laptop away and laughing maniacally.
Wonwoo pushes his hand across his face, trying his best to wipe away the last vestiges of sleep-addled confusion, and then he realizes what’s happening.
“Wait, you can’t do that,” he tries to protest, but Soonyoung giggles and clicks a button.
“No, this will be good,” Junhui says, plopping down on the edge of Wonwoo’s bed. “Minghao told me that whoever runs the advice column in the school paper is, like, a love guru, and she has four thousand followers on instagram. And she’s never shown her face, but she’s probably also really pretty.”
Wonwoo groans. “I don’t see what that has to do with anything.”
“Just trust us,” Soonyoung pats Wonwoo’s knee through the blanket, “this is a good idea.”
And for you, it starts with kahoots, when your chemistry lab partner, Mingyu, pulls your stool closer to his side and whispers a proposition to you.
“Do you want to be my fake girlfriend?”
You narrow your eyes at him through your fogged up department-issued safety goggles. “Are you insane? What kind of fumes are you on?”
“None,” Mingyu replies. “I’m Sigma’s nominee for the Greek God award at the inter-fraternity tournament this year and I’m the only nominee who’s single.”
“And so I’m your pick,” you respond flatly.
Mingyu nods eagerly. His safety glasses slide down his nose, and he has to push them back up. “Yeah, you’re so pretty and cool, I think it’d be really impressive if I somehow managed to pull you.”
“Huh.”
“And,” he adds on, lowering his voice even more, “Jeonghan thinks my only real competition this year is going to be Jung Jaehyun from Nu Kappa Tau, and rumor has it you rejected him in high school. Twice. So I think it’d be pretty funny if we ended up together.”
You scoff and turn back toward the titration in front of you. “You can’t go up to people and ask for things like this.”
“C’mon, you know the winner gets free parking for an entire semester,” he whines. “Ok, how’s this? If you’ll pretend to be my girlfriend for the Greek God award, I’ll write our lab reports for the rest of the semester.”
His offer makes you pause, and he jumps on that pause, wedging his way in there.
“I’ll give you executive editing power, but I’ll do all the work,” he wheedles, “and I’ll give you a perfect peer eval at the end of the semester. I promise,” he puts a big meaty hand on your lab notebook and smears the ink under his fingers. “Kim Mingyu isn’t a liar.”
“I’ll conveniently ignore the fact that you’re lying about having a girlfriend to win this award, then,” you roll your eyes.
“That’s different, though,” he protests, “the award is dumb and meaningless and I really want it. But a promise made between buddies is important.”
He looks earnest, so you decide to lay off on him just a little. “When we’re fake-dating,” you sigh, “you can’t call us buddies anymore.”
“So that’s a…”
You groan, hating yourself for being so indulgent. “Yes. That’s a yes.”
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“Hold on Y/N, have you seen this?”
“Seen what?” You look over the top of your laptop screen, where you’re halfway through a paper on the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Minghao, your co-admin of the school newspaper’s (infamous) advice column turns his screen towards you. “Someone wrote in calling themselves a huge awkward loser.”
“Huh,” you grin to yourself as you read over the message quickly. “That’s kind of cute, actually.”
“Of course you think it’s cute,” Minghao rolls his eyes. “I’m going to assign this one over to you.”
“Yeah, sure, but please,” you mutter, “can you be a bit more discreet about it?”
Minghao looks at you over the top of his glasses. “What, about us being Ask Cherry? It’s not as embarrassing as you make it out to be.”
“Be quiet,” you hiss, looking around, “someone could overhear!” You frown, and then quietly, you add on, “and it is embarrassing. I’m supposed to be a journalism major, and I’m here making up horoscopes and giving fake relationship advice three days a week.”
This is an overstatement, and Minghao rolls his eyes. You only make up horoscopes and give fake relationship advice one day a week (Mondays are for Matters Of The Heart, your schedule says). There’s also Am I The Asshole Wednesdays, a campus favorite, and Friday Free-for-alls, when you field confessions of all types. Dear Cherry, I need to get this off my chest. I’ve been using my roommate’s shampoo this whole semester, and today I found out that our two other roommates have also been using this roommate’s shampoo. He doesn’t suspect a thing.
You hadn’t meant to end up in this position. You write serious pieces for the school newspaper too, reporting on the Student Government’s legislative sessions and the university’s semesterly budget for grants to culturally-centered student organizations. Those articles, you have your name attached to. But at the end of last year, the new editor-in-chief Jeonghan had approached you and convinced (strong-armed) you into becoming the new writer for the infamous advice column, Ask Cherry, since Cherry himself was quitting to make more time for other priorities.
(“And the kicker is,” you had complained to Minghao, “nobody will ever believe me.” Choi Seungcheol, fraternity president, football player, gym rat, jock, fuckboy extraordinaire— relationship advice columnist? No, it’s simply not realistic.
“I’m sitting on the juiciest piece of gossip to cross my path in my entire life, and I can’t do anything about it,” you say dejectedly.
“Hmm.” Minghao doesn’t even pretend to be interested.)
But, despite your disastrous real-world love life, your clumsily dispensed life advice, and the completely made up horoscopes, Ask Cherry readership skyrocketed under your intrepid watch. Once, you told a reader that the albino squirrel that lives in the tree next to the physics building was a good omen, and the next day, rumor spread that an albino squirrel sighting would grant you an A on your next exam. For weeks after, people would scatter peanuts and pieces of toast by the base of the tree next to the physics building, until campus facilities had to fence the area off because raccoons were starting to show up instead.
Minghao finding out had been a complete accident, after you had lent him your laptop to print out a paper that was due the next hour, but you had forgotten to minimize the window with your Ask Chrery submissions. Minghao, being someone who loves giving advice, both solicited and unsolicited, naturally joined in on this scheme of yours.
“Anyways,” you shrug. You look up as Junhui steps into the public study area of the library and scans the tables twice before making eye contact with you, and then waving. “Minghao, did you invite the others over to study with us?”
“Yeah,” Minghao responds, raising an eyebrow at you. “You got a problem with that?”
“No, it’s just—“ you’re about to complain about never being able to focus on your work with the rest of them around, but the words die on your lips when you spot Wonwoo trailing behind Junhui with a bemused expression on his face and a cardboard tray holding bubble teas in his hands. You can’t help the grin that spreads across your face. “Hey guys,” you wave over to them, clearing off the table space next to you to make room for them.
“I brought you a taro milk tea,” Junhui announces, gesturing behind him, “and a Wonwoo to boot.”
“He made me walk with him because he didn’t know your favorite drink,” Wonwoo explains quietly as he slides the drinks onto the table and takes his seat next to you. “Are you working on that international relations paper?”
“Yeah.” You take your taro milk tea. No ice, 50% sweet, tapioca pearls and grass jelly, just the way you like it.
“Do you think you’ll be done by Friday?”
“I will be free by then,” you promise him, punctuating your statement by stabbing your boba straw through the film covering the cup. You’d rather suffer through an all nighter on Sunday than miss your regular Friday night gaming sessions with Wonwoo, a tradition the two of you have kept up since both of you were in middle school and still playing Starcraft.
“Anyway,” Junhui leans over the table, resting his chin on top of his interlaced fingers. “I have a funny story.”
You tear your gaze away from Wonwoo. “Hm?”
“So, you know that advice columnist for the school paper? Wonwoo submitted a question the other day. Well, Soonyoung and I did, but for Wonwoo.”
You feel your blood run cold. It’s not that you’re ashamed of running a love advice column, but it’s more that you’re… embarrassed. And you’ve been running it in secret for so long that at this point, you can’t even fathom anyone outside of Minghao knowing. Maybe when you graduate, you’ll do an identity reveal, but you’re not quite there now.
“Can we talk about literally anything else,” Wonwoo grouses, somewhat to your relief. he glares at Junhui, but the effect is somewhat dampened when he lifts his bubble tea to his mouth and loudly slurps up some tapioca pearls.
“Yeah,” you quickly agree, not eager to have your secret identity exposed.
Junhui steamrolls on ahead, however. “So. If you’re reading the column and there’s a question from someone who has a big stupid crush, you know who it’s from.”
Your breath catches in your throat. Wonwoo? A crush?
“Junhui,” Wonwoo groans, digging his fingers into the bridge of his nose, brows furrowed in an expression of exquisite pain.
Minghao, however, leans forward and lets his glasses slide down his nose. He laces his fingers together. “A crush? On who?”
Junhui and Minghao both turn to stare at Wonwoo, who flushes beet red.
“Oh, hey guys!”
You feel a heavy arm around your shoulder and turn to see, to your abject horror, Mingyu, who scoots his way onto the bench to squeeze in next to you. “What are you doing here,” you hiss at your oversized interloper, but Mingyu just glances pointedly at the spot two tables down where a bunch of upperclassmen are sitting and chatting. You recognize Choi Seungcheol, the president of Mingyu’s frat, and you sigh and deflate. Fine. A promise is a promise.
You smile weakly at the other three guys sitting at your table. “Surprise,” you say flatly,” Mingyu is my boyfriend now.”
You’re momentarily distracted by a loud honking noise as Junhui narrowly avoids choking on his bubble tea and spraying the table through his nose.
“Mingyu?!” Minghao sounds simultaneously dismayed and slightly judgemental.
“C’mon, dude,” Mingyu whines, slumping like a kicked puppy. You pat his bicep soothingly. “You don’t have to make it sound that bad.”
Minghao and Junhui share a conspicuous glance. Mingyu isn’t the type of guy you’d usually go for, but you think this reaction is a bit uncalled for. “He’s not that bad,” you find yourself defending your fake boyfriend. “Mingyu is nice, and he’s really tall.”
You blink. Mingyu turns his pout on you now. “Nice and really tall? Are you for real?”
“It’s true,” you scowl at him. “Are you here to study, or did you just come by to get on my nerves?”
“Okay, well,” Junhui interjects sharply, “Wonwoo and I should get going.”
“Wait, but you two just got here,” you attempt to protest, but Wonwoo, who had been quiet this whole time, stands up and slings his backpack over his shoulder.
“I’ll see you later, Y/N,” he says to you, before leaving along with Junhui.
(It’s not until later, when you’re lounging with Minghao in the living room of your shared apartment, that it hits you, again, but this time with its full weight.
“Wonwoo likes someone,” you say out loud. It’s not a question.
Minghao glances up form his book at you with a frown plastered across his face, his brows creased with irritation. He evaluates you carefully over the silver rims of his glasses, which you know aren’t prescription but are mainly there to make him look elegant and intellectual.
“...yes,” he finally acknowledges.
You frown despite yourself. “I wonder who it is.”
“What does it matter to you,” Minghao scoffs, “you’re dating Mingyu, remember?”
“You can pretend to hate Gyu, but I know you like him better than any of the rest of us.” You really hadn’t been expecting to defend Mingyu twice in a day, but you suppose that’s life as Kim Mingyu’s girlfriend. “And anyways, Wonwoo and I have been friends since we were kids. I can’t believe he didn’t tell me earlier.”
“Yeah, he probably can’t believe it either,” Minghao mutters under his breath so quietly, you almost miss it. Then, in a louder voice, he chides, “don’t think too much about it, yeah? You still have to reply professionally to his advice request. His anonymous advice request.”
“Right,” you sigh dejectedly, frowning at your laptop balanced across your knees. “How do I tell him that he’s not a nerd and a loser without giving away that I know who he is?”
Minghao shrugs. “Maybe tell him to be patient. Or maybe tell him to try to start getting over his crush.”
You consider his suggestion for a moment. It’s appealing, but then the thought of Wonwoo wasting away in his dark bedroom, sighing as he pines over his unrequited love, flashes across your mind. “I just don’t want him to be sad.”)
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“C’mon, he was right on top of you,” Wonwoo complains. You can hear the creaking of his gaming chair in the background, undoubtedly as he rises from his reclined position to gulp down more of whatever energy drink he has in his mini fridge this week. You groan and dig your fingers into the junction between your neck and shoulder, trying with little success to work out the knot that’s developed over this last round of PUBG.
“Wonwoo, that’s the problem, I suck at close range,” you huff in response, “you know I get panicky and forget to turn off auto-fire.”
It’s game night, and you and Wonwoo have been at it for the past two hours. Your paper isn’t done yet, but it can wait. It’s been over a decade since the years when the two of you would spend your summers together playing video games and walking aimlessly around the neighborhood with half-melted popsicles, talking for hours. But even as your social circles diverted from his, it’s always been something of an unspoken agreement that for this, you’d always make time for Wonwoo, and he’d always make time for you.
“Another round?” You and Wonwoo both ask the question at the same time. There’s a pause, and then you’re both laughing. Even over the headset mic, Wonwoo’s laugh is loud and unrestrained. It feels like a secret, a side of Wonwoo that he saves just for you and for Friday nights spent on opposite sides of the monitor.
“So.” You’re still waiting for the next match to start when Wonwoo breaks the comfortable silence. “Mingyu?”
You fidget at the ties of your hoodie. It’s stolen from Wonwoo, and you’ve had it since middle school at least. “Yeah?”
“Interesting choice.”
“What does that mean?”
He makes a casual, noncommittal noise. “I’m just surprised. I didn’t see it coming, and you didn’t tell me about it.”
You open your mouth to tell him that it’s actually all a ruse, to explain the whole situation, but the hard, petulant edge to his voice makes you pause. Wonwoo sounds… upset. But not quite upset. Jealous?
“Wonwoo,” you laugh. Onscreen, the timer counting down to the start of the match appears, and you jam on the space bar to make your character jump over his character’s prone body. “Wonwoo, are you jealous?”
Over your headphones, you hear the sound of his gaming chair squeaking. “I’m not jealous,” he says, in a tone of voice that sounds exactly like Wonwoo when he’s jealous.
“You are. Where are we landing?” You toggle to the map in the game and zoom in on the path that the plane is taking. The player count in the bottom starts dropping as other players jump out.
“Blue marker, does that look good to you? There’s a few houses we can loot, and it’s not close to the flight path. If we get bad circle placement, you can shoot me in the foot, if you want. As a treat.”
“Yeah, fine. Lead the way, boss. Anyways, why are you jealous?” You suppress the flutter in your chest. There’s no reason for you to get your hopes up.
“You’re my friend,” Wonwoo says simply. It feels like a heavy towel being thrown over you. “You used to tell me everything. Mingyu is… fine,” he admits reluctantly. “He’s a good guy. I’m happy for you.”
Your heart clenches. You want to say something soft and sincere, but instead, you return with a jab. “You can’t be upset at me for keeping secrets, Wonwoo. What was Junhui saying about you liking someone?”
“Junhui just says stuff sometimes,” he replies curtly.
You frown. “Junhui isn’t a liar, though. Who is it?” You ask, despite everything in you telling yourself that you don’t want to know the answer. “Who are they? Maybe I can talk to them for you.”
He laughs humorlessly. “It doesn’t matter. She’s in a relationship with someone else.”
You almost sigh in relief, but you stop yourself just in time. Why are you relieved? “Oh, Wonwoo. That sucks. She doesn’t know what she’s missing out on.”
Wonwoo makes a noise that tells you he’s shrugging. “She deserves better than me.”
“Hey!” You sit up, straightening your spine in indignation. “Don’t say that. You’re great, Wonwoo. You’re criminally underappreciated. You’re smart and you’re so sincere and kind, and maybe other people don’t acknowledge it, but you’re really funny and interesting.”
He’s quiet for a moment, and the only thing you hear is the game audio as your character collects supplies and clears the building the two of you are in. “Let me know if you find any gun that’s not a pistol, by the way. I have a 2x scope on me.”
“Thank you,” Wonwoo replies. You know he’s not talking about the scope.
Even though the two of you are gaming individually in your own rooms, you want nothing more than to tug off your headphones and go down the two flights of stairs to Wonwoo’s apartment and give him a hug.
“I have an AKM and a bunch of healing items on me,” Wonwoo says, “come to me and you can have whatever you want.”
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It would have been much less embarrassing if you had realized it last week when you were walking to class and Wonwoo had stopped you in the middle of the sidewalk to pluck a fallen leaf from your hair with that stupidly fond expression plastered on his face; or maybe when you accidentally fell asleep in his bed during an afternoon study session and woke up later with your head on his shoulder, legs tangled together, the sound of his soft snoring puffing in your ear, his hand held loosely in yours. Maybe in another life, it would have been one of those soft, romantic moments, like something out of a coming of age anime. But no, because you’re you and your life is the way it is, the moment you realize you’re in love with Wonwoo goes like this:
It’s Sunday, noon already, and you’re in Wonwoo’s shared apartment. Junhui had let you in earlier when you had knocked at their door until your knuckles were sore. When you burst unceremoniously into Wonwoo’s bedroom, he’s still asleep with his glasses on, smudged and crooked, and his phone on his chest. You frown. “Wake up, Wonwoo. Did you fall asleep while watching dramas again?”
Wonwoo jumps slightly and lifts his head, brows furrowing. “Huh?”
“You said you’d go to lunch with me.” You extend your arms and spin to show off your cute, perfectly coordinated outfit, picked out specifically to match the instagram trap you’re going to. You even broke out the eyeliner and glitter eyeshadow to match the cute knit cardigan and wool miniskirt you put on. “What hat should I wear? The fuzzy bucket hat,” you hold up option one, “or the beret,” you hold up option two, looking down at Wonwoo expectantly.
Your best friend groans and collapses back onto the bed, eyes sliding shut. “Um. The beret.”
“Okay great, now get out of bed. Our reservation is soon and you still need to wash your face and get dressed.” You poke at his cheek, which is greasy from sleep and still bears the imprint of his pillow.
“Can you get Minghao to go with you instead?” He doesn’t bother opening his eyes.
“Nope,” you respond, popping the ‘p’, “he has dance practice.”
“Mingyu?”
“He said he had a textile arts club meeting?” You frown. “I’m not sure what it is, but he’s been crocheting like crazy for it this week.”
“Um,” Wonwoo smacks his hand over his face, clearly trying to think of other options. He forgets, however, that he fell asleep with his glasses on, and ends up jamming the frames against this cheek. “Ow. Ok, what about, uh, Seokmin?”
You pout at him even though he can’t see it. “Wonu,” you whine, sitting down on his bed, “I want to go to lunch with you, though.”
At that, he finally cracks his eyes open. “Why?”
Because, you want to say, I don’t want to do this with anybody other than you. You briefly try to imagine doing this whole thing– dressing up, making a reservation, taking pictures and walking around town, huddling together in a cafe in the afternoon to watch the latest Nintendo Direct together– with anybody else, but you just quite settle on it comfortably. No. It has to be Wonwoo. Because Wonwoo is your best friend, because Wonwoo has always been there for you, because Wonwoo just gets you, better than anybody ever has, and every moment you spend with Wonwoo, you feel your mood lifting and relaxing. Because you trust Wonwoo and he trusts you, and because you know him, and you love him–
You love him.
Oh.
Oh.
You’ll have to process that later. “Because you have a car and you can drive me,” you tell Wonwoo instead, shoving the revelation down to the back of your mind and putting it in a box labeled problems for future me.
“Fine,” Wonwoo acquiesces, sitting up with enormous effort. His hair is still sticking up in all directions, making him look like a big dark dandelion. A part of you expects to see him in a different light, now that you think you love him, like there’s supposed to be cherubs singing and starlight in his eyes or something, but instead, you just see regular old Wonwoo. Your best friend. He doesn’t suddenly look like a vision sent from heaven, he just looks sleepy and crusty and a little greasy.
“Hurry up and brush your teeth,” you tell him, slapping him lightly on his belly and laughing at the resulting ouuff that jerks out of him, “you have morning breath and I can smell it from here.”
Dear Cherry, my friend is in love with his childhood friend but she doesn’t love him back :( how do we make her fall in love with him? from anonymous
“Hm,” you sigh out loud, “I wonder if Soonyoung knows that the anonymous signoff is made moot by the fact that he emailed this one in instead of using the anonymous submission box.” You’re draped on the couch with your legs propped all the way up and your laptop on your chest as you scroll through this week’s Am I The Asshole Wednesday submissions.
“You can ignore him,” Minghao says, passing by with a full bottle of wine in each hand on his way to put them away in the kitchen. “I don’t think you should be giving any love advice when your own love life is a mess,” he sniffs.
“You’re the asshole,” you announce, not looking up from your screen. “That was for you, Minghao.” Clearly, he’s still mad at you after you had revealed the whole Mingyu situation to him a few nights ago. You still remember the blistering look that Minghao had thrown at you, like you’re the dumbest human he’s ever had the supreme displeasure of knowing.
“I guess you don’t want to go to the dance team party with me, then,” your roommate responds smoothly, returning from the kitchen. It’s only 6pm, but Minghao is already dressed in a silk pajama set with a matching robe, lenseless glasses frames perched on the tip of his nose, smelling of strawberry-scented lotion as he pours himself a glass of wine.
You scowl at him. “Fine. I don’t care.” Turning back to your laptop, you scroll past a few more boring submissions on your hunt for the truly salacious stuff your classmates get up to. “I wonder what Soonyoung is even talking about, though,” you mumble, half to yourself, as you click on the next interesting subject line.
.
.
.
In retrospect, Mingyu was definitely going to win that Greek God competition, even if Jaehyun from Nu Kapp put up a good fight.
Mingyu’s physique is certainly impressive, and the audience erupted when he won the (shirtless and oiled-up, for some reason) pushup contest, but his clumsiness eventually led him to lose at every other physical challenge. It was his overwhelming victory in the popularity vote and personality contest that got him to first place. It’s probably all because of his unwavering friendliness and his constant need for affirmation manifesting into an overwhelming desire to be helpful, but you like to think that maybe you helped too.
That’s why you’re here, in the kitchen of the Sigma house, absolutely wasted at the celebration party the frat is throwing in honor of Mingyu being crowned the best frat star on campus. Between the blunt that you, Mingyu, Minghao, and Seokmin, another friend in your year, had passed around upstairs, and all the shots that Mingyu had plied you with, you’re feeling weirdly bouncy and giggly and not entirely sure if you’ll remember this the next morning.
“Okay, so,” Mingyu mumbles, pulling you closer as the two of you nestle in a corner, away from whatever is going on at the beer pong table, “we should stage a breakup, right?”
You giggle against the hollow of his throat, arms looped over his shoulders. “Can we make it your fault?”
He whines like a kicked puppy. “Why can’t we make it mutual? Jeonghan would kick my ass.”
“Fine, fine,” you huff, not at all reluctant. “We should give it some time so it’s not suspicious, right?”
“Yeah.” Mingyu nods, accidentally knocking his chin against your forehead. “You’re so smart.”
“Which means I’m still on girlfriend duty tonight,” you conclude.
“Oh, come on.” Mingyu’s hands come down to rest at your waist, his fingertips skimming along the waistband of your skirt, eliciting a shiver from you when you feel his rough, warm skin against yours. “You make it sound like a chore.”
You sigh. Oh well, you could do much worse than Mingyu.
You’re not sure if it’s the weed or the alcohol, or maybe just jealousy at this fake version of yourself that’s happy with a boyfriend and not moping over an unrequited crush on your childhood best friend, but you find it strangely easy to lean up and attach your lips to Mingyu’s, feel the wet heat of his tongue in your mouth. and Mingyu, pliant under your grip as always, kisses you back, going along with it without a second thought.
“No offense,” he pants as he parts from you, “but I don’t think I want to hook up with you.”
You blink at him. “Do you want me to leave?”
“No, no,” he clarifies quickly, “you’re a good kisser, I just don’t want things to be weird between us, which I think might happen if we hook up.”
“If fake dating didn’t make things weird, I’m not sure that hooking up would,” you laugh, more of a giggle than anything. You attach your lips to his jaw, pulling him down towards you so you don’t have to crane your neck.
“And also,” he nudges at the hair behind your ear with his nose, “you’re like, totally wasted right now.”
“You’re not sober either,” you shoot back, accusatory.
“More sober than you,” he shoots back. He’s right, though. His large stature means that he can hold his liquor much better than you. “It wouldn’t be fair,” he pouts, stubborn, “and I’m not a creep.”
“Fine.” You tug lightly at the short hairs on the back of his head.
“Are… are you okay?”
Mingyu’s question makes you hesitate for a moment. You lean your flushed cheek against the jut of his collarbone. “I’m drunk,” you respond flatly.
“No, not that, you’re just usually not this…” you feel Mingyu gulp, “clingy.”
You wonder if you should tell him about Wonwoo and your stupid pointless crush that’s starting to feel less like a crush every time you’re with him and more like… something deeper. Something frightening, like a yawning chasm, just waiting for you to fall in.
You’re saved the effort of further deliberation, however, when Mingyu suddenly raises his head and interrupts your thoughts. “Hey, isn’t that Wonwoo?”
You lift yourself off of Mingyu’s chest and look behind you. True to his word, it really is Wonwoo, standing by the door, jacket on, looking at you like a deer caught in the headlights.
“Huh, he doesn’t usually come to these,” Mingyu observes, tugging idly at the bottom of your shirt. “I wonder why he’s here.”
You think you know why he’s here, though. Earlier, back upstairs, you had excused yourself to the bathroom to take a quick breather. Through an alcohol and weed induced haze, you had belatedly realized that it’s Friday night, and you’re late.
you: cn you come pick me u
you: at sigma
wonu: are you ok? i’ll be there in a few
you: sry im drunk
you: wanna go home w u
Now, staring Wonwoo dead in the eyes, you realize with a jolt that you had never told him why you asked him to pick you up. You peel yourself off your fake boyfriend and stumble, clumsily, towards Wonwoo, trying your best to ignore the way the room spins around you.
“Wonu,” you whine reaching out to him.
He frowns. “Are you okay? What’s happening?”
“I’m drunk,” you tell him.
“I know.” He extends his arm and lets you cling on to him as you stumble into his torso.
“And it’s Friday night,” you look up at him.
“Yes.”
“We’re supposed to be playing Overwatch together.” You give him the best puppy eyes you can muster, and he blinks at you, looking flustered.
“Huh?”
“Overwatch,” you insist, tugging him towards the door. “Friday night. It’s Wonwoo and Y/N night.”
“Is… is this what you called me over here for?”
You nod and begin dragging Wonwoo out by the wrist.
The cool air outside hits your flushed skin like a wave, like you’re jumping into a pool. Wonwoo is silent and lets you continue to cling onto him as he walks you to where he had parked on the side of the street, directly under a streetlight.
You slide into the passenger seat. Wonwoo hands you a bottle of water, cap already removed for you. “Hydrate,” he orders.
“Sorry,” you whimper, somewhat pathetically.
He frowns. “Why are you apologizing?”
“I must be so annoying,” you mumble, feeling tears welling up in your eyes.
“No,” Wonwoo reaches out and takes your hand over the center console. “You’re not annoying.”
You watch him as he drives. He’s so handsome, your alcohol-addled mind supplies.
“You don’t think I’m annoying?”
“Never.”
Wonwoo says it like a promise.
Silence falls over the two of you as he drives through campus, all the way back to the student housing unit that both of you live in. He turns off the engine, leaving a silence that feels even more all-encompassing. He looks over at you, face half hidden in the shadows and half illuminated by the orange lamplight outside. “Is Minghao home?”
“N…no, he’s back at the party.”
“Okay, we’re going back to my apartment, then,” he decides.
You blink. “Huh?” But you’re already stumbling out of his car and spilling onto the sidewalk, all wobbly legs and loose limbs.
“I’m taking you back to my place,” Wonwoo repeats. “You need someone to watch you and make sure you don’t wander off and get lost in the city,” he explains drily.
“‘M okay,” you whine futilely. It’s especially unconvincing, since you’re still stumbling over your own feet and leaning against him.
Wonwoo lets you rest your cheek on his shoulder and cling onto him as he lets you into his apartment, gets you a glass of water, and digs up a pack of makeup wipes from out of nowhere and sits you on his bed and starts to get to work.
A small (very drunk) part of you bristles at the appearance of the makeup wipes, and you try to scowl, even as Wonwoo gently wipes at your smudged eyeliner. “Whose are these? Do you have a lot of girls over here or something?”
“They’re Junhui’s, he uses them,” Wonwoo explains. He dabs at one last spot in the corner of your right eye, then announces, “there, you’re all done.”
You open your eyes to see Wonwoo grinning dopily at you. “You’re cute,” you poke at his cheek, and he laughs quietly. Seokmin used to be afraid of him, he had confessed to you, and you wonder why, because the Wonwoo you know is so soft, so loveable, so goofy and cute.
The Wonwoo you know is shy and awkward and doesn’t quite know how to fit himself into social situations. He’s clumsy and absentminded and needs someone to take care of him, to dote on him and give him attention.
The Wonwoo that you know, you’ve known since you were in second grade, standing over the boy you had knocked over with a rubber kickball, staring at him as he sniffled on the woodchips and glared at you through big watery eyes. That day, you decided right then and there that this boy would be yours, and now…
“Wonwoo,” you blurt out without thinking, “I’m in love with you.”
His breath catches. Wonwoo pauses, digesting your clumsily delivered confession, and then he makes the most awful expression you have ever seen on him.
It’s raw hurt, sharp, painful. His mouth twists and his brows furrow and he looks at you like you’re something to be afraid of. You hate it. You hate that you’re the cause of it, that he’s feeling this, whatever it is, because of you, even though you’re not sure why.
“Really,” you insist. You reach out to grab his hand, but he pulls away from you. “It’s true. I’m in love with you.”
You hear a sharp intake of breath. “You’re not,” he says. “You’re in love with Mingyu. You’re happy with him.”
“I’m not… I’m not in love with him,” you try to explain, but your liquor-numbed lips are clumsy and you trip over your words. You lean towards him, slanting your face up, because you want to kiss him so badly it’s all you can think of. Wonwoo shoves you back, hard.
“Don’t,” he bites, voice sharp and tense.
“I’m in love with you,” you repeat, reaching out to him, but he pushes your hand back and steps away. Like he’s afraid of you.
“Don’t do it. You’re drunk.” His voice wavers slightly. “Don’t do something you’ll regret tomorrow.”
You shake your head, but Wonwoo looks at you with so much hurt and confusion in his eyes, you can’t bring yourself to argue. “Wonu,” you whisper, reaching out to rest your fingertips on his wrist, “please don’t cry.”
He takes a long, shuddering breath, eyes closed, and then when he exhales and opens his eyes again, his expression is impassive. Unreadable.
“Go to sleep,” he says flatly. “Tomorrow you’ll wake up and go back to your boyfriend, and you’ll be happy that nothing happened tonight.”
He closes the door to his bedroom, leaving you in the darkness.
(Wonwoo is cold.
He’s always a little cold, but in his haste to escape earlier, he hadn’t gotten a blanket or even changed into sweats before closing the door behind him, and now Wonwoo lays on the couch, his feet hanging over the armrest, staring at the ceiling.
I’m in love with you, your voice rings in his head. Wonwoo’s cheek still burns where you had gently rested your hand earlier. If he hadn’t known any better, Wonwoo might have believed you and given in to his most guilty, far-off fantasy, the one where you love him back.
But Wonwoo does know better. He saw the way you were draped all over Mingyu at the party, the way you giggled into his neck when Mingyu slipped his fingertips under the him of your shirt. Mingyu is good for you, Wonwoo decides. Like you, Mingyu is bright and out-going, popular, well-liked, good at receiving love and gives it readily in return.
Wonwoo closes his eyes, tries to push away the memory of your body curled into his, and wills his mind into silence so that maybe he can get some sleep tonight.)
You wake up, nauseous and hung over and feeling not at all rested, in Wonwoo’s bed.
Groaning, you swipe at your face, expecting to see a gloopy mess on your fingers, but your makeup has already been removed. You squint at the dim sunlight streaming in through the closed blinds, and you reach around blindly until your fingers close around your phone.
There’s a smattering of random social media notifications and updates from group chats, but one notification in particular catches your eye.
wonu: i’m outside
wonu: where are you? are you ok?
wonu: i’m gonna head inside to look for you
You feel your cheeks flush as the memories come trickling back– your drunk texts, insisting that your best friend picks you up, kissing Mingyu, leaving the party with Wonwoo, clinging on to him like a koala…
Gathering your courage and steeling your woozy stomach, you stumble out of bed and throw open the door, poking your head out. Wonwoo is sprawled across the couch, undoubtedly playing some kind of mobile game, when he looks up at you. His hair is sticking up in every possible direction and his shirt is crumpled. “Hi,” he says, expression impossibly neutral.
“Hi,” you grin, waving lamely. “I feel like shit. I didn’t say anything weird or embarrassing last night, did I?”
He raises an eyebrow at you. “You don’t remember?”
You shake your head. “I remember you picking me up from the frat, I think.”
For a split second, he looks relieved. Then, he puts his phone down and laughs at you. “You didn’t do anything embarrassing,” he grins, “except for abandoning your boyfriend at the party because you wanted to play Overwatch with me. C’mon, do you want to get brunch?”
You press your palms against your throbbing forehead. Your brain hurts, and you’re almost sure you half-remember telling Wonwoo that you’re in love with him, but Wonwoo is looking at you expectantly and you’d like nothing more than some french toast and a hot coffee right now, so you shrug. “Sure, lemme wash up and get changed in my apartment first.”
.
.
.
“Dear Cherry, my friend is hopelessly in love with his childhood best friend, who is currently dating a hot frat dude. Should he just give up? The moping is starting to bum me out and I’m worried my hair is going to fall out. Love, Wen Junhui.”
You wrinkle your nose at the message. “And has anybody ever told Junhui that the whole point of anonymous submissions is defeated when he signs his messages with his full name?”
Minghao looks up from the canvas he’s busy splattering paint on. It’s his semester final project, and you had promised to accompany him in the basement of the fine arts building as he works.
Instead of answering, he looks at you like you’re the densest human he’s ever had the misfortune of meeting. “Maybe he’s not trying to be anonymous. Maybe he’s trying to complain about someone we know.”
You squint at your laptop screen. “Who is this supposed to be about, anyways?”
This time, Minghao actually rolls his eyes at you. “Whatever. Have you broken up with Mingyu yet?”
“Yeah, we broke up two days ago. It was mutual, because Mingyu was genuinely afraid that Jeonghan would kick his ass if we said we broke up with me.”
The two of you had made a whole show of deleting all your carefully staged couple photos off your social media accounts, and then unfollowing and refollowing each other within the span of two days, because as the story goes, you and Mingyu had talked it over and are better as friends than as a couple.
“That’s nice,” Minghao says. He unscrews a jar of turpentine and starts to clean off his brushes. “Maybe you should respond to Junhui’s advice submission.”
You groan. “I’ll just tell him to tell his friend to get over it,” you scowl.
“By the way, what’s wrong with Wonwoo?”
“What do you mean?” You look up. Minghao is now attacking the canvas with a palette knife, carving some dramatic impasto into the paint.
“The last two times all of us hung out together, he’s been all…weird.” Minghao wrinkles his nose. “It’s like he’s some kind of guilty dog. He stares at you when you’re not looking, and then he looks away when you are.”
You chew on your lip, work now long forgotten on your idle laptop. Minghao is right. Wonwoo has been different, but not… different. He’s as unwaveringly weird as always, and he’s been texting you links to youtube cat videos and starting arguments on video game theories as always, but it feels like Wonwoo has been aggressively normal. Like how best friends are supposed to be. Light and easy.
“I don’t know. I feel like he’s been acting weird these days too, but I can’t figure out how.”
“You should talk to him,” Minghao says, like talking to Wonwoo about his feelings is easy or something. Or like talking about your own feelings is easy.
“Or maybe I shouldn’t,” you sigh. Whatever is going on with Wonwoo, you’re just glad he still wants to hang out with you. You’re not entirely sure what you even did wrong, but you’d be willing to beg on your hands and knees for him to forgive you and to stick by your side. “Whatever. We’re gaming together this Friday, I’ll think about it then, I guess.”
.
.
.
“Wonu, I’m scared,” you whine into the mic. It’s another Friday night and the two of you are playing PUBG again. You’re in the endgame now– the original 100 has been whittled down to just 5 players remaining, including you but not including Wonwoo, who had been killed earlier and is now spectating you in-game like some sort of ghost.
“Just sit tight,” he instructs. In your mind’s eye, he’s leaning back in his gaming chair, arms crossed as he observes your gameplay.
“There’s gunshots,” you complain, “North? I think they’re hiding by those rocks. It sounds like they’ve got a good sniper rifle, too.”
“They don’t know you’re there. Just let the other teams fight it out. You have enough ammo?”
You huff. “I have like, twelve shotgun shells.”
“And you have the location advantage. Just sit and wait for now.”
You sigh, aimlessly panning the camera back and forth in your anxiety. “Fine,” you agree, because despite it all, Wonwoo is still better at this game than you are, and because you trust him.
Seconds pass. The audio of distant gunfire in crisp surround sound keeps you on edge and tense, so that when you hear Soonyoung, one of Wonwoo’s roommates, you nearly jump out of your skin.
“Hey, are you busy?”
“Yeah,” Wonwoo replies. His voice is tinny and quiet, but still clear, like he’s slipped his headset off and mic is pushed away. “I’m gaming with Y/N. I’m muted, don’t worry.”
You’re about to shout and let him know that he’s not actually muted, but your curiosity gets the better of you when you hear Soonyoung’s next words:
“Right, speaking of Y/N, that reminds me. Did you hear that Y/N and Mingyu broke up?”
“Oh.” There’s a pause, and then you hear Wonwoo ask, “why?”
“Dunno. Mingyu wouldn’t give me any details. He said something lame, like that they’re better off as friends, or something.”
“Oh. When did this happen?”
“I think on Wednesday? At least that’s what Seungkwan told me.”
“Hm.”
“Anyways, isn’t that great? You can finally shoot your shot!”
“Are you insane, Soonyoung? It’s been less than a week!”
“Well, okay, fair. But next week? She didn’t seem too sad about it in class today.”
“That’s because she was in class. And anyways, this doesn’t change anything between us, so I’m not going to do anything either.”
“Are you kidding me? So you’re just going to keep it a secret forever?”
“Yeah. I’ll die before I tell Y/N that I’m in love with her.”
Oh.
You sit at your desk, staring at your monitor but not seeing anything. Very quietly, you press your fingers against your lips, as hard as you can, and feel the blood rushing past your ears.
“I’m not going to ruin our friendship over nothing,” Wonwoo continues.
“It’s not nothing,” Soonyoung replies with a pout in his voice. “You’ve been in love with her for years. Since high school, at least.”
“She just sees me as a friend, that’s all,” Wonwoo sighs.
Since high school. He’s loved you since high school.
You remember the way he looked at you after prom when he was dropping you back off at home. You had gone with him because the boy you wanted to ask you, some boring soccer player, had asked your friend instead, and Jaehyun had already asked (and been rejected by you) twice, and nobody else had asked you to be their prom date. And Wonwoo, awkward and quiet as he was, had fully expected to skip prom completely, but three days before you had shown up at his locker after school, desperate because you already had a dress and a group to go with and tickets but no date, practically begging him to go to prom with you. And without even thinking, Wonwoo had agreed.
That night, when he drive you home, you leaned your head against the car door with the windows rolled down and felt the wind on your face. At the end, when he parked his car on the side of the street in front of your childhood home, you looked over at him and told him. “I’m so glad we’re going to college together, Wonwoo. I want to be with you forever.”
And he had watched you as you said it, quiet, like he was breathless. Like you had said something terrible and incredible at the same time.
It’s always been Wonwoo beside you, lazy summers spent playing video games, late night phone calls where you’d talk and he’d listen, after class in his car listening to the radio and eating junk food. Had he loved you then? With ketchup on your shirt and acne across your face and poorly box-dyed hair? And had you loved him then too? Before you even knew what love is?
The weight of it is heavy, settling in your stomach like a hot stone. It almost hurts, how much you feel.
You’re interrupted by a very loud spate of gunfire piercing your eardrums and making you jump, shrieking loudly as you’re killed in-game. Onscreen, your bloodied character rolls limply down the hill as “Better luck next time! #2/48” flashes on top of your game stats.
“Aw, second place, so close,” you hear Wonwoo say. Then he pauses. “Wait. Was I not muted just now?”
“Wonwoo, I’m going downstairs,” you tell him.
“Wait–” his voice is tight and panicked, but you’re already tugging your headset off and grabbing your keys.
You nearly avoid tripping over your feet as you run to the stairwell at the end of the hall and fly down the two flights of stairs, to where Wonwoo is. By the time you’re banging at their door, you’re out of breath and flushed. You’re not sure if the pounding of your heart is from the exertion or if it’s from something else. Anxiety, maybe. Fear. Exhilaration.
Wonwoo answers the door. He looks exactly like you’d expect, with his rumpled tee shirt and sweatpants and bare feet, his glasses on and his bangs pushed back with the bunny shower headband you bought for him last year.
“Hi,” you grin breathlessly at him.
“Hi,” he replies.
“Can I come in?”
He takes a deep breath, like he’s steeling his nerves. “Yeah.” He opens the door wider and steps aside to let you in, and you follow Wonwoo to his room.
It’s dimly lit with the rainbow glow of his gaming setup and the ready screen for PUBG still up on one of his monitors. Wonwoo flicks on the overhead light, which throws the room into sharp relief. The sudden brightness makes everything feel more real, somehow.
You sit on the edge of Wonwoo’s bed and pat the spot net to you, which he takes. “Wonwoo,” you say.
Wonwoo purses his lips. “How much of that did you hear earlier?”
“All of it,” you chew the inside of your cheek, drumming your fingers against the bedspread.
“I’m sorry,” he blurts out. “You can pretend I didn’t say any of that.”
“Did you mean it?”
“Huh?” He stares at you with wide eyes.
“What you said earlier.” You pick at a loose thread poking from the hem of your shirt. “Did you mean it when you said you’re in love with me?”
He hesitates, frowning as a conflicted expression briefly flashes across his face, eyebrows drawing together.
“Wonwoo?” You call his name gently to get his attention. “I’m in love with you too, Wonwoo.”
“I–what?” Wonwoo looks at you like you’ve brown another head. “But, you... Mingyu?”
You furrow your brows at him. “Mingyu? Didn’t I tell you? We were just faking so he could win that Greek God competition and get free parking next semester.”
“Wait,” he sputters, “so all of that was fake? You were just pretending to be in a relationship?”
“Yeah. I don’t care about Mingyu, I have feelings for you, Wonwoo.”
“You.” Wonwoo takes a deep breath. “You didn’t tell me.”
“I did!” You widen your eyes, adamant. “At karaoke back in October. You, me, Minghao, and Junhui?” It had been after a particularly grueling set of midterms, and the four of you had gone out for some korean barbeque, followed by boba and an extended noraebang session. While Junhui was crooning to an old Cantonese ballad, you were squished on a couch with Minghao and Wonwoo, and the three of you were talking idly about Junhui’s most recent date.
It’s funny, you remember turning and mumbling to Wonwoo, did I ever tell you that Mingyu and I are faking our whole relationship for clout? But Wonwoo hadn’t responded, so you assumed that he didn’t care. Now, it’s looking more like he didn’t even hear you.
“I was asleep,” Wonwoo states in flat disbelief.
“You were asleep,” you repeat slowly.
“It was dark and I was tired. You didn’t notice that I passed out as soon as we dimmed the lights?” He raises his eyebrows as he defends himself, and you bury your face in your hands.
Click. The pieces are all falling in place.
“Wonwoo. I’m so dumb,” you moan. “I run the Ask Cherry column. All those messages from Junhui and Soonyoung. They were about you, weren’t they?”
“Messages? There were more after the first one?!”
“And they were about you being in love with me,” you recall. “This whole time, I thought you liked someone else. Someone who isn’t me.”
There’s a pause. You can hear the sound of Wonwoo’s PC whirring in the background. And then, Wonwoo starts laughing, choked and quiet at first, and then loud, incredulous, almost.
“God,” he gasps between laughs, “we’re both so, so stupid.” And then you’re laughing too.
In retrospect, it’s all ridiculous, this entire situation. You collapse back onto Wonwoo’s bed and laugh until your ribs hurt, and when you turn your head to the side, there’s Wonwoo laying beside you, glasses askew, grinning.
You giggle and reach out to straighten his glasses. “Hi,” you say to him.
“Hi,” he says back, getting up to lean on one elbow. “I’m in love with you, Y/N.”
You feel your smile widen so much, your cheeks hurt. “I’m in love with you, Jeon Wonwoo.”
He looks at you with so much fondness, it takes your breath away. It’s the way he’s always looked at you, you realize, since the two of you weren’t much more than a pair of kids.
“So, now what?”
“Hmm.” You pretend to think. “Can you kiss me about it, then?”
Wonwoo nods, and his hair flops over the bunny headband as he moves his head. “Yeah,” he says, “I think I can do that.”
.
.
.
(Afterwards, a lot less changes with your relationship with Wonwoo than you thought. After all, he was your best friend for much, much longer than he’s been your boyfriend. He still sends you cat videos at strange hours of the night, and he still sticks sullenly by your side during social outings. Friday nights are still game nights, of course, but now it’s mostly spent on your shared Stardew Valley co-op or cuddling in bed while playing Pokemon together.
But one thing that changes is the kisses. You kiss Wonwoo whenever you can, because you have so much love to give him and not enough time in the day to tell him all the ways you love him. You try, though, to tell him every moment you can that he’s the cutest, smartest, sweetest, kindest, funniest boy in the world, and that he’s the best friend and boyfriend you could ever ask for.
Wonwoo has a harder time with his feelings, but you know, even without saying. It’s in the way that his fingers linger over your hand when he drops you off in front of your classroom, and the way he gives you first pick on all the best loot when you’re gaming together. And when it’s really late at night and the two of you are huddled under the blankets together, listening to the way your heartbeats collide, he whispers it too. “I love you.”
And, Minghao finally admits it. “Fine,” he grumbles reluctantly while the two of you are preparing the upcoming edition of Ask Cherry, “maybe you’re qualified to give love advice after all.”)
synopsis: you and soonyoung have been best friends forever, and on the day of your graduation you promise to start dating if you’re still single in four to seven years time.
pairing: soonyoung x gn!reader
warnings: anxiety mention, depression mention, bad ex is discussed, one part could be considered very slightly suggestive
word count: 2415
genre: mostly fluff, a little angst, best friends-to-lovers
notes: heavily inspired by my best friend and i saying we would get married to each other for tax breaks. the school experience mentioned here is very Americanized (I definitely walked to school every day until I got a car.) this is my first longer piece so enjoy! :)
✦pairing: fwb!Seungcheol x afab reader
✦genre: smut (minors DNI), a lil bit of fluff and angst ig
✦warnings: teasing, a lil bit of jealousy, emotional constipation, grinding on the thigh, fingering, unprotected sex (pls wear protection), edging, calls the reader a slut, a lil degradation then, rough sex woohoo, kissing on the neck, anyways minors pls do not interact with this thank you.
✦wc: ~3.6K
AN: Hi all, this is my first smut/fic post on this Tumblr. I haven't been on this platform in a while, so I apologize as I'm still getting used to it and trying to get more interactive. Otherwise, I just wanted to bite the bullet and get my first writing out on here, it probably could use a little bit more proofreading, but I'm pretty happy with it otherwise. I was heavily inspired by that Enhypen Foreshadow and Taylor Swift Style remix (IYKYK), and played a good bit off of Style for fun. Let me know what you think, and I hope you enjoy (;
Seungcheol pulled up to your place tonight with no headlights, sending you a text that he arrived and that he was waiting outside in his car. You snuck down the staircase, praying your roommates wouldn’t hear you as you trekked quietly to the front door.
They’d absolutely kill you if they knew you were meeting up with him after you had just spent the last week spiraling over a recent post you saw of him. He was out and about in a club with a group of girls in the class below you. All night, his group of friends and him had been posting belligerent stories of them dancing and drinking with the girls. In the background of one story specifically, he had his arm wrapped around a pretty girl, a gummy smile adorning his face as she leaned over to whisper something in his ear. This had sent you into a week-long spiral, locking yourself in your room only to leave for lectures as necessary and the occasional meal.
However, you had no right to be jealous, and you knew damn well that you didn’t. Seungcheol and you had been best friends for years now, recently becoming friends with benefits the past couple of months after a night of drunken neediness and passion. Both of you had decided to continue the shenanigans since it felt good to let off the steam together, and it just felt so right. Your frequent hangouts becoming much more than the study sessions and casual movie nights. You found yourself becoming addicted to his touch, his scent, his lips; you could go on and on about how he drove you wild in such a different way than before.
You knew you were headed towards rock bottom one night. Your heart fluttered a little faster than normal when he looked softly into your eyes, kissing you with passion as always, hands roaming, and whispering sweet nothings. You thought maybe he felt it too, maybe you should express how you felt, that this was becoming much more than friends with benefits to you. But you were too emotionally constipated to ever say anything and feared the worst. You pushed him away that night, cutting things off abruptly, and escorting him out of your house.
Resultingly, you hadn’t spoken for a month up until now due to how things had ended. It had been a while since either of you had heard from each other, giving you both the space that you needed. However, tonight he had texted you out of the blue, asking what you were doing and if he could come pick you up. You almost jumped out of your bed in giddiness, only for it to die down realizing exactly what he was seeking. Of course, you obliged still, agreeing to meet with him but only on the terms that it had to be on the down low. He knew that your roommates weren’t the biggest fan of him, as they had been his friends too, always encouraging him to speak to you about how he truly felt. He knew he had disappointed them the day after you had kicked him out, your closest roommate eyeing him down as she crossed paths with him on campus.
You shook your head staring at the brief text chain between you and Seungcheol, ashamed of what you two have become. You never thought you’d lose a friend like this, nor that you would ever agree to a midnight booty call in advance. Of course, you were still excited to be reunited with Seungcheol, excitement bubbling in your stomach at the thought of seeing him again. You couldn’t deny that you yearned for his touch, but even more so yearned to hear his laugh again or to be the one to make him smile. You had to hold yourself back from skipping towards the passenger side of his car, trying to remain as indifferent as possible as you opened the door only to see his annoyingly handsome face again.
Seungcheol pulled out of your driveway, turning on his headlights as he drove out of the neighborhood. The air in the car was thick with tension, quiet music playing in the background as you both avoided being the first person to initiate conversation. You kept your attention ahead of you, only focusing on the cars passing by and noting the similar landmarks that you usually passed along the way to Seungcheol’s place. In comparison, Seungcheol couldn’t keep his eyes off you, you felt his gaze shifting towards you every so often, which made you suppress your blush just in case he could see it. If you weren’t being so stubborn, you would have giggled and scolded him to keep his eyes on the road. However, you couldn’t acknowledge the way you felt his eyes burning into you tonight, too scared to spark the conversation first.
Upon arriving at Seungcheol’s place, he quickly turned off the engine and jogged around to open the passenger door for you. You gave him a shy smile to say thank you. His hand gently brushed your lower back as he guided you towards the front door in silence, sending shivers down your spine feeling electrified by his touch. He only took his hand off your back to shuffle in front of you to unlock his front door.
You took advantage of his back facing you, allowing yourself to analyze his figure for the first time tonight. You so badly wanted to run your hands over his broad shoulders or through his thick black hair. It had been slicked back after he kept running a nervous hand through it during the drive, which was something you noticed in addition to his burning eyes. His bright, thick lips were in a pout as he scrambled with his keys.
Seungcheol finally unlocks his front door, holding it open for you and beckoning you to enter before him. The entryway was pitch black; the only light being provided by the moonlight shining through the windows. You both shuffled around in silence, removing your coats and shoes, his hand once again brushing you gently as he reaches for you.
This is when you lost it, shying away from him as your voice betrayed you, letting out what sounded like a whimper, “Don’t you have some other girl to fuck around with now, Seungcheol?”
You can hear him scoff, his hands now grabbing both your arms and slowly leading you back against the wall. “Why do you think that, Y/N?” He’s got you right where he wants you, the soft lighting from the moon illuminating your face so that he can see his effect on you. The light bounces off the wall behind you, allowing you to better see his features as he stares incredulously back at you.
“I s-saw it on Jeonghan’s story, you’ve been hanging out with all those girls lately,” you stutter out and it looks like a lightbulb goes off in his head. You refrain from banging your head back into the wall, feeling incredibly exposed and silly for ever saying anything to your friend. “J-Just thought… thought that maybe you were talking to one of them.”
He lets out a soft laugh, one of the hands that had caged you against the wall wanders up to your cheek to cup it. You try not to lean into his touch, but you can’t help it. His rough thumb caresses your skin so softly that the gentle touch sends heat right down to your core.
“Well, that may be true,” he sighs, and you feel your heart sink a bit. You begin to realize that this is a mistake, squirming to push him away once again. Instead, he shocks you by dipping down to your neck, scattering hot kisses from your ear to your jaw. Hot breath once again tickles your ear, his hands roaming all over your body as you try not to buck your hips into him. “They don’t drive me crazy like you do, I can’t get you out of my mind, Y/N.”
You let out another whimper at his statement, allowing him to continue caressing your body and finally giving in to him. You can feel his smirk pressing into your neck. It’s almost as if he’s trying to feel your pulse through the way he presses his lips against you, relishing in how your heartbeat quickens at his confession as he starts to pepper more kisses along your sensitive spots. You can’t hold back anymore, hands desperately gripping at his shirt as he begins to nip and suck on your neck with new fervor.
Breathing out heavily, you confess, “fuck, Seungcheol, I can’t get you out of my mind either. I missed this, I missed you,” you moan as his teeth graze your jaw, “I missed us.” A confession you hadn’t meant to make, but so be it.
“Same here, baby,” Seungcheol almost growled, this time attaching your lips to his in a heated kiss. You both kissed like you had been starving for one another, his mouth capturing your soft moans and whines with his as you battled for dominance. Your hands made your way to his hair, pulling at the strands as he lets out a groan that has your knees going weak.
Seungcheol notices this, slotting a thigh between your legs as you become needier for his touch. He has you fully pressed up against the wall now, his tongue battling with yours as he lets out soft curses between hot kisses. Your heated core is now pressed up against his thigh, his hands running down your waist to latch onto your hips to help guide you as you grind against him. You moan in relief, his thigh feels so good against your center that you’re almost certain you’ll come undone right then and there.
Your movements get more and more desperate, making Seungcheol’s grasp on your hips a lot firmer than before to forcefully stop your motions. “Why’d you do that, Cheol,” you almost cry out as the high that you’d been chasing slowly ebbed away from your core.
“You don’t get to cum unless I say so,” he spits out as he forcefully grasps your face in one hand. The other hand traveled down to press against your folds through the thin layer of underwear beneath your skirt. The pressure of his hand sent a shock wave of pleasure through you even though you had just been denied an orgasm. “You know what, actually, you don’t get to cum unless you're cumming around my cock.”
Seungcheol lifts you up, throwing you over his shoulder as he carries you to the bedroom. Unceremoniously, he throws you down onto the bed and begins pulling all garments off your body. He litters kisses all over your exposed skin, wasting no time whatsoever as he yanks your bra off and immediately attaches his lips to your nipple. You attempt to fumble with his belt as he pushes you down onto his bed, and he pulls away from you to only pull his shirt off his body. Taking this time as he hovers above you on his knees, he tsks staring down at you in awe, and runs two fingers across your folds, “so beautiful for me, baby. Always so needy for me, look how fucking wet you are just from grinding against my thigh.”
You let out a moan as he sinks both fingers into your seeping core, covering your mouth to absorb your screams into his own. He’s not taking it easy on you as he begins fucking his fingers into you slowly, teasingly, and eventually increases to a brutal pace. He rips your hand away from your mouth, holding it above your head as he continues fingering you, his fingers curling into you and hitting the exact spot that he knows makes you crumble. “Don’t hold back, let me hear you cry out for me.”
You’re breathing heavily as he continues his ministrations, his thumb coming up to rub your clit which earns a scream in between your bated breaths. He feels your walls tightening around his fingers, and he knows your body too well. He can tell by the way your legs threaten to snap shut, using his shoulder to keep them open as he pushes you as close as he can towards the edge. You can feel the pleasure building up again, the pit of arousal in your stomach feeling as if it’s ready to explode as your hips chase the high caused by his fingers.
To your dismay, he pulls out from between your folds, and you’re quick to start begging, “Cheol, pl-please, you were making me feel so good.” He’s quick to shut you up, shoving his fingers right into your mouth.
“Remember what I said, pretty girl?” He hums, keeping his fingers in your mouth as you suck pathetically on them, you nod knowing the exact instructions he gave you earlier. “I said you only get to cum around my cock.”
He pulls his fingers away, messily leaving traces of wetness around your lips, and he can’t help but pull you back in for another heated kiss. He tastes yourself on your lips, and it drives him crazy, grinding his hips right into yours. He finally gives in as you successfully unbuckle his belt this time, helping him shuffle out of his jeans and boxers whilst never letting his lips leave yours. Once his pants are finally off, you reach for his cock, and it already feels hot and heavy in your hand. His size still excited you to this day, his length feeling so big in your tiny hand as you begin to jerk him off using the bit of precum from his tip.
Breathlessly, Seungcheol breaks away from the kiss, lips wandering down your neck to your chest and back to your nipples. He’s groaning against your chest as he sucks on one mound, the other hand coming up to play with the other.
“So big, Cheol, can’t wait for you to fill me up,” you cry out as he sucks extra hard at your nipple, pinching the other one harshly. “It’s all I think about, is you filling me up so good.” Your hand continues to work at his hard length, but he doesn’t allow you to do so for much longer, muttering something about how he won’t last long if you continue touching him like that.
He pulls away to line up with you, his tip teasing your entrance as he looks at you with the softest eyes of the night, “still clean for you, baby, wouldn’t ever think of fucking anyone else but you. Am I crossing a line saying that? All I can think about is fucking you.”
Moaning out, you wrap your legs around him encouraging him, “please, please just do it already.” He slides into you, your warm walls immediately taking him in as if he was made specifically for you. He groans at how tight you feel around him, swearing that he’ll never get sick of how you clench around him every time. You’re both a moaning mess, your nails digging crescent moons into his back as he fills you up completely.
He starts thrusting into you, your legs tightening around him to keep him from teasing you as he pulls his length slowly in and out of you. “So warm and tight, baby. I won’t go anywhere, don’t worry.” His body is now pressed down against yours, your legs pulling him as close as you can as he grinds into you, and his arms next to your head are the only thing holding his full weight from you.
Your legs are already shaking by the time he begins to pick up his pace, the friction of his movement against your clit sending you into madness as he thrusts in and out of you. His lips work at your neck, leaving love bites all along the skin as he whispers curses and dirty words into them.
“Please, fuck me harder,” you begin to cry out, the intense pleasure building up in your core for the final time tonight as your hips start to chase his to pick up the speed, “I can’t take it anymore, Cheol, please just fuck me harder, I need it.”
He’s encouraged by your begging, grabbing your legs and pulling them over his shoulders to get a better angle on you. He doesn’t wait, immediately fucking you harder and faster than before. “Does my little Y/N like that?” He antagonizes between heavy breaths, his pace not faltering as he brings a thumb to your clit. “Who would have thought my best friend was so dirty, such a fucking slut for me, baby.”
“I’m your slut, Cheol, all yours.” You cry out as he keeps up his pace, his cock pounding into you relentlessly as his thumb works at your most sensitive spot. You’re moaning out, tears almost falling from your eyes at the brutal way his hips slam into yours, the pleasure only getting more intense with each thrust.
He knows you’re ready to cum, feeling the way your walls get impossibly tighter around him and at the way your legs begin to shake on his shoulders. You’re crying out at each thrust, only egging him on as he’s starting to reach his end himself.
“Please, let me cum,” you’re screaming, reaching out for his hand that’s working at your clit, the pleasure almost feeling too intense as you try to refrain from cumming without his permission.
Seungcheol continues fucking into you as you beg, keeping the relentless pace until he no longer can hold back himself. “Cum with me, baby,” he’s groaning, as he snaps his hips into yours in such a pleasurable way, you’re immediately milking his cock for all it’s worth. His release follows yours, painting your walls with the white, hot liquid. Yours spasming around him, and he can’t help but give you a few extra leisurely thrusts to work you through your entire orgasm, even if it overstimulates him.
Pulling out of you, he watches as his cum drips from between your folds. It’s a beautiful sight, but not as beautiful as the smile you give him when he finally makes eye contact with you. He curses himself for ever letting you two get this way, curses himself for not fighting you the day you pushed him out of your house, and curses himself for never saying how he truly felt.
Before Seungcheol can utter a word, you’re popping up from the bed and sauntering over to the bathroom to clean up. He takes this time to clean himself up and compose his thoughts. This wasn’t just a booty call for him, he truly did want to reconcile your friendship, or propose even more than that. You truly were all he thought about.
Little does he know, you’re in the bathroom in the same predicament. This night only makes you realize you can’t go much longer without Seungcheol back in your life, even if that means that tonight was the last time you two would ever hook up. You needed to tell him that he can’t play with your heart anymore, that you should either go back to just being friends or figure out what your relationship is.
When you walk out of the bathroom back into his room, you’re both ready to speak your minds as Seungcheol and you begin your sentences.
He lets out a laugh, “go ahead, you first, Y/N.”
You shake your head, signaling that he should go first, “no, no, I’d like to hear what you have to say.” He smiles as you make your way over to him on the bed. He’s laying back on the headboard, his hair messy as he follows your figure with endearing eyes. He’s so cuddly yet fucked out at the same time, that you can’t believe he can look so cute and hot all at once. The temptation to curl up next to him is extremely dangerous, so you keep your distance as you sit down next to him on the bed.
Sighing, Seungcheol finally begins to spill out how hard the past month had been without you in his everyday routine. He rambles on and on as you listen to your best friend turned lover confess his feelings about you. “I truly do think of you, every second of every day, Y/N. I don’t know how it happened, and I don’t know why it took so long for me to realize it. I can’t believe the fact that you kicked me out of your place that one night actually sent me into a downward spiral. I’m sick of us not talking, not going to each other for comfort, and not being friends anymore. However, I’ve realized you are so much more to me than just a friend, and especially more than a friend with benefits. Please, just let me know if I’m making you uncomfortable by confessing all this, I just am going crazy thinking about you all the time-“
You cut him off, rushing across the bed to press your lips to his in a hard kiss. He looks up at you with shock as you pull away, beginning to mutter out another word but you hush him. “Shut up, Cheol. I feel the same way, can’t ever stop thinking about you. I only kicked you out that day since I was so freaked out by my feelings. Clearly, I feel the same way since I almost lost it when seeing you with that girl on Jeonghan’s story last week.”
You both let out a laugh as he pulls you in for another kiss, pulling you into his arms and never letting you go for the night. “Stay with me tonight, Y/N. Stay with me for as long as you'd like.”
“Of course,” you smile up at him, and for the first time, you’re not frightened by the soft look in his eyes. “As long as you take me out on a real date tomorrow.”
There’s the gummy smile that you yearned to see, Seungcheol smiles down at you and promises you all the dates and more for as long as he can. “Believe me, it’s all I can think about, baby.”
✦wc: ~6.4 and some change (most likely, still pending a deep proofread)
✦summary: Seokmin is the best neighbor you've ever had, making it impossible not to fall for his charms.
NSFW warnings under the cut, minors do not read, 18+ only
✦warnings: no specific pronouns used, but reader has female anatomy & wears a skirt; pet names (sweetheart); switch!Seokmin; switch!reader; mention of masturbation; unprotected sex (pls be safe and wrap it before u tap it friends); fingering; oral (male receiving); creampie; some choking? some degradation? some humiliation? some orgasm denial? some overstim? hello? am i ok?
✦a/n: hi this was created from this lovely ask here. thank you thank you thank you for sending that in kind anon. tbh, this was originally a fic for jun, but when i got this ask I felt inspired to rewrite this about DK. (i'm really hoping to get more fics out about more members, but my mind went haywire from this request)
If such an award existed, you’d grant Lee Seokmin the Best Neighbor of All Time Award. Living next to Seokmin proved to be one of your most symbiotic relationships, even if he was just a trustworthy neighbor before becoming a good friend of yours.
You had first met him when a package of yours was delivered to his apartment rather than yours, signing for the delivery without even checking the addressee and tearing into the box without hesitation. Only then did he realize the package was filled with clothing he couldn’t quite remember ordering, reevaluating the packing slip, and panicking when he realized the delivery was addressed to the person next door.
Flustered, Seokmin appeared at your doorstep, ears tinted an endearing shade of red as he knocked at your front door and nervously held the opened package to his chest. When you cracked the door open with a soft, polite smile adorning your very pretty features, Seokmin could have sworn he felt the blush spread from his ears like rapid fire throughout his chest and face, as he hadn’t expected someone around his age (and notably attractive) to live right next door to him. He felt even more like a fool with your package in his hand, which he had so blatantly ripped into, and felt like he had invaded your privacy before ever meeting you.
However, Seokmin felt more at ease when you greeted him without hesitation, the door opening wider as your smile broadened, “oh, I recognize you. You live right next door, right? I’m Y/N, sorry I haven’t had the chance to introduce myself yet, I just moved in about a week or so ago.”
Admittedly, Seokmin felt a bit silly that he hadn’t recognized you when you had clearly recognized him, but he didn’t bask in it as he introduced himself, “I’m Seokmin, but my friends call me DK,” you watched as he nervously ruffled his hair, eyes flickering to the package held tightly in his other hand, “and I am so sorry, but I was delivered your package and opened it myself.”
You let out the most saccharine laugh he’s sworn he’s ever heard, graciously accepting the package, and further easing Seokmin’s nerves from how pleasant you seemed. “No worries,” your expression jokingly shifted to one that was skeptical, “you didn’t see anything incriminating or suggestive in here, did you?”
You found it charming how the tall, handsome man seemed to stutter at your question, noting how easy it was to make him flustered. With a giggle, you let him off the hook as he struggled to find his words, “Just kidding, thank you for dropping this off. I’ll see you around then, DK?”
Seokmin let out a little laugh alongside you, cursing himself for acting so out of character around you, but he blames it on the unfortunate circumstances of how he had to meet his new neighbor. “Yeah, see you around,” he gives you a little wave as you tuck behind your door, closing it gently as you wave back, “nice to meet you, Y/N.”
He can hear a little “you too!” escape from the crack of your door as you shut it, finally allowing him to breathe out in relief as he heads back to his apartment. Little did he know, you were pressed up against your door, a hand gently slapping your cheek in embarrassment that you asked him if he came across anything incriminating or suggestive, unbelieving that you had asked him such a thing upon first meeting him.
Your neighborly friendship with Seokmin only blossomed from there, the next interaction you had with him being in the elevator a few days later. You had both made small talk and exchanged numbers, Seokmin letting you know that you shouldn’t ever hesitate to give him a call if you ever need anything.
Seokmin didn’t expect you to take him up so quickly on the offer though, phone buzzing later that same night with your name appearing on his screen. He couldn’t help the smile that creeped onto his face at seeing your name, quickly picking up your call and ready to tease you for calling him so soon. However, he especially wasn’t expecting to hear your frantic tone, barely able to make out your words as you spoke quickly into the phone.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Seokmin interrupted you finally, “you need to slow down, Y/N. I’m walking over now.” He was already out the front door of his apartment, about to knock at your door as you finally let out a coherent sentence.
“The door is unlocked,” you cried out, “just let yourself in.”
With that, Seokmin burst into your apartment without further hesitation, hanging up the phone to find you standing atop your counters with a broom in hand. He began to approach you, further confused by the situation, but only wanting to offer consolation.
“Stop!” You squealed, halting his movements mid-step, and pointing down at the ground directly in front of you. Seokmin’s gaze followed in the direction you were pointing; your quiet whimpers were suddenly drowned out by his own shouts as he realizes what you were afraid of. An extremely large spider stood in the middle of your kitchen, eerily standing still as you both panicked.
Seokmin embarrassingly enough found himself crouched up on one of your barstools, reaching for the broom in your hand as he continued to let out shouts of terror himself. He frantically batted at the spider, attempting to crush the damned arachnid with your weapon of choice, only for you to interrupt him mid-swat.
“No,” you wailed out in despair, “don’t kill it.”
“What do you want me to do,” Seokmin was unbelieving, saucer-like eyes staring into yours as he watched the spider scurry across the floor towards him.
You handed him the dustpan, panic clear in your tone, “I don’t know, sweep it up into this and throw him out the window.”
Seokmin obliged, trying not to make himself look like any more of a coward in front of you as he hopped down from the stool and swiftly swept the spider up into the dustpan, hauling across the kitchen to shake the spider out of your open window. Of course, all of this was done with consistent hoots and hollers on his end.
After all was said and done, Seokmin found himself breathlessly leaning against your window, absolutely taxed from the whole event. Seokmin only came back to reality upon hearing your melodious laugh, turning around to see you still on your countertops, curled into a little ball as you uncontrollably laughed.
“Hey,” Seokmin shouted, approaching you with his finger pointed in your direction, and he couldn’t help the laugh that escaped his lips as well. In false seriousness, gently poking at you as you held onto your side to contain your laughter, “are you laughing at my demise? Who’s the one who called me in sheer panic?”
“I’m sorry,” you managed to squeak out in between laughs, “but this whole thing was just too funny in hindsight.” Your cheeks hurt from laughing so hard, only laughing more as Seokmin joins you, but still seeming a bit embarrassed as he shoves your broom into a corner of your apartment.
You feel bad for laughing, so you slide off your countertop and walk towards him with your arms out, a cheesy smile on your face. “C’mon, bring it in, big guy.”
Hesitantly, Seokmin accepts your hug, an awkward hand patting your shoulder as you embrace his much larger frame. He’s stiff and he’s not sure why; eyes still wide when you pull away and lift his hand up to high-five your own. Honestly, you’re not sure why you went in for a hug, only trying to offer some consolation, but your already pounding heart seemed to only get worse.
“Thanks for coming over and helping,” you suddenly feel a bit sheepish, but still try to make ease of it all, “even though you seem a bit scared of bugs as well. I appreciate it, I owe you one, neighbor.”
Seokmin relaxes a bit, noticing you’re a bit embarrassed yourself, “no problem, Y/N. I told you to give me a call anytime.” He’s ready to dismiss himself, ready to head back to his own apartment. Why must every interaction with you be slightly embarrassing for him?
“You better watch what you offer out,” you joke, earning a chuckle from Seokmin as he exits your apartment.
“Goodnight, Y/N. Good luck getting sleep tonight after knowing that was in your house.”
You giggle a bit, bidding Seokmin a goodnight as well as you watch him shut your door, heart still pounding erratically in your chest. You were done for; you absolutely knew it. How could you get so lucky, having an extremely handsome neighbor who is just the right amount sweet and chaotic? You refused to fantasize about any relationship with him though, knowing it was extremely premature of you and you didn’t want to get carried away with a crush on someone right next door.
You did everything to suppress your excitement when you’d see Seokmin within the halls of your apartment complex, when he’d send you texts informing you of local events, or when you could slightly hear him singing to himself through the thin wall that divided your apartments.
Once you had made yourself a bit too large of a batch of brownies, deciding to bring a tray over to Seokmin’s as a treat for being so welcoming and helpful to you. You won’t ever forget how his eyes lit up upon opening the door to you, excitedly exclaiming what a delightful surprise it was to see you and inviting you inside with your tray of brownies. You especially won’t forget the way his smile extended to his eyes when he took a bite of the treat, letting you know that these were the best brownies he’s ever had in his life.
He made you feel like a high schooler all over again, feeling giddy from his praise as he continued to snack on the chocolate treat. You took this time to look around his apartment, the space being just as comforting and warm as he was. Seokmin offered you a glass of wine that night, asking if you’d like to try some of the new bottle of red wine that he had started sipping on. You obliged when he claimed that it was the least he could do after you brought over the brownies, but you would have agreed regardless to spend more time with him.
You weren’t sure if it was the wine or Seokmin that made you feel tingly that night, mirroring Seokmin’s smile when he asked if you liked the wine, “I like it a lot,” you claimed. I like you a lot, you thought.
After that, Seokmin had gifted you wine occasionally, handing it to you with that signature smile of his, and always including a handwritten note tied around the neck of the bottle. Sometimes he’d come over with a six-pack of beer. Sometimes you’d invite him in to join you on you couch; you both would end up drinking the entire six-pack, bent over in laughter after making fun of whatever stupid rom com you had been watching. Sometimes you’d find yourself getting a little too drunk, tears spilling out over nothing as Seokmin held you to his chest, hushing and consoling you even though he’s not sure why you are crying in the first place. Sometimes you’d both end up dancing to the credit scene music, laughing and talking the night away. Nothing ever came of these nights though, other than your budding friendship, and your burgeoning one-sided crush on him.
One morning you had seen Seokmin in passing, the usually lively man looking sickly and bundled up, still sending a smile your way to greet you. You had asked him what was wrong, and he claimed he just had a simple cold. You couldn’t help but feel guilty every time you heard his cough from the other side of the wall.
Later that evening, you were sure to bring over some homemade chicken noodle soup, herbal tea, and medicine for him. You had texted him prior to bringing the remedy over, making sure he wasn’t sleeping, and he let you know just to let yourself in. You found yourself keeping him company all night, even if it meant you risked getting sick yourself, claiming that these were part of your neighborly duties and that he’d do the same for you. Seokmin was a bit skeptical, but he sure did enjoy having you around (and he would do the same for you).
All these events and more have led to an undeniable friendship, both of you living symbiotically and constantly being there for one another. It was hard to suppress any emotions you felt for him at this point, and you found yourself reading into his actions a bit too much. You were even guilty of inviting dates over purely in hopes that he would overhear you conversing with them through the walls and become jealous. You’d always end up unsuccessful, booting them from your apartment before they ever had the chance with you.
You’d become shameless when you’d find yourself in bed later at night, touching yourself to the thoughts of Seokmin, crying out his name upon your release. This was the only time you ever wished Seokmin couldn’t hear you, cheeks heating up in embarrassment after realizing how loud you may have been from just a little fantasy and feeling a bit dishonorable.
It had now been months into your friendship, consistently being good neighbors to one another, and you were excited to say you were learning all the small things about Seokmin, as he was about you. He had become your movie and tv-series watching partner, wine and beer-drinking partner, shoulder to cry on, and overall hype man.
You were the same for him, being sure to cheer him on even when it hurt deep down. Even when he showed up at your door with a bouquet of roses, nervously chewing at his bottom lip, you did everything to contain your excitement. Which quickly died down when he asked if he looked okay, letting you know he had a date tonight and wasn’t sure if he was overdressed.
Trying not to sound dejected, you put on your best smile and gave him a thumbs up. “You look absolutely handsome, Seokmin, they are extremely lucky whoever they are.”
“Thank you, Y/N,” he’d smile the widest you’d ever seen him smile, hand slipping behind your head to pull you in for a quick forehead kiss. “Don’t forget I’m having some people over tomorrow for a party, you’re invited, I want you to meet all my friends.”
All of this made your stomach erupt in butterflies, the spot on your forehead where his lips had pressed against tingled uncomfortably and the thought of being introduced to his friends made your cheeks heat up even more. You were sure they’d all be just like him, and you weren’t sure you could handle it. “I’ll be there, don’t you worry. Have fun tonight, Seok!”
You’d watch him disappear into the elevator after he bid you goodnight, jokingly scolding you for not having something fun planned for a Friday night, but you weren’t sure you’d be able to enjoy it anyways knowing he was out on a date. It’s not something you're proud of, but that night you prayed that the date went horribly, attempting to stay up to hear if he had brought his date home, but your heavy eyelids betrayed you before you could ever find out.
The next day, you found yourself preparing in advance for Seokmin’s party, taking your time in the shower, and performing a whole self-care routine. You were someone who always thought to hell with the male gaze, so why did you care so much about what you looked like tonight, you only ever dressed or got ready for yourself. Seokmin has also seen you at your worst; bedhead, matted Hello-Kitty robe, wine-stained teeth, and all.
Maybe you were a bit overdressed for a simple apartment party. Maybe the leather skirt, tights, and boots were a bit of an overkill if you were being honest, but you could argue that Seokmin’s outfit for his date last night was a bit of an overkill, especially with those roses. Maybe you were being a bit petty, and you should reconsider your outfit for your own self-preservation. However, the skirt and tights were already on, and it was an achievement in itself to not rip the nylon fabric.
The music next door for Seokmin’s party had already begun, hearing the celebratory cheers in the hall as his friends seemingly began to arrive. It all made you extremely nervous, even though you consider yourself friendly and sociable you were still shy in nature. The loud chatter through the walls only made you anxious, taking a shot of the untouched vodka that had been in the back of your freezer in hope that you’d gain some confidence. Grabbing the rack of beers that you had purchased in advance for the party, you had finally mustered up enough courage to march over to Seokmin’s apartment, not wanting to arrive too fashionably late.
To your surprise, an incredibly handsome man that was not Seokmin opened the door. He was tall, with sharp canines that made his pretty smile even more charming. The man quickly noticed the rack of beers in your hand, the heavy case making you a bit unbalanced as you anxiously stand at the front door.
“Y/N?” The man asks, his soft voice surprising you, and you feverishly nod as he reaches to grab the case of beers from your hand, noticing your struggle. “I’m Mingyu, come on in. DK can’t stop talking about how he can’t wait for us to meet you.”
You shuffle in behind him, muttering a thank you as he turns to the rest of the crew in the apartment, holding the rack of beers up victoriously as he announces your presence. Seokmin is quick to dash over to you upon noticing your arrival, excusing himself from the group that he was in the corner of his kitchen and making his way over to you.
An arm of his snakes around your waist prior to introducing you to all his friends. “All, this is Y/N, my neighbor who I seriously don’t know what I’d do without,” he chuckles, and you feel extremely self-conscious under the gaze of his unexpectedly large group of friends. Still, you can’t hold back the smile as he tugs you a bit closer to him, seeming to notice your discomfort.
“Nice to meet you all,” you smile, feeling more at ease as the group welcomes you in, introducing themselves one at a time as Mingyu slips a chilled beer into your hands.
You quickly feel comfortable, the group of friends being delightful as you had suspected, all of them being as funny and charming as Seokmin is. You’re also quick to pick up on some of their dynamics, especially after the one named Soonyoung, who made it clear that he really goes by Hoshi, seems to spill a bit too much information about the group to you.
“That’s Jeonghan,” he slurs as you follow his gaze, remembering him as the overtly sweet boy with a cute chuckle, “he seems all innocent, but be sure to keep an eye on him when you play any games tonight. Then, that is Seungcheol and his girlfriend. He acts all tough, but he’s an absolute simp.”
Hoshi continues dishing all the gossip as you sip down your first beer. It’s quite enjoyable, laughing at all his jokes as he shares all their little nuances. Seokmin finds himself watching you most of the night, unable to hold back his smile as he watches you bond with his friends.
As if Mingyu could sense you had finished your first drink, he appears at your side and hands you a fresh beer, sitting closely next to you. The feeling of his thigh on yours is enough to make your body heat up feverishly. Not that you notice, but Seokmin is sure to take note of how close his friend has gotten to you, as well as the painstakingly pretty blush on your cheeks.
“Ah,” Hoshi unexpectedly raises his voice, making both you and Mingyu jump a bit in shock. “That’s Mingyu, he’s fun to pick on. Anyways, what do you want to know about DK, Y/N?”
Both you and Mingyu chuckle at Hoshi’s antics, and you hum in thought, “hmm, what is something you think I don’t know about him?”
Hoshi chuckles evilly, “well, you should know that –,” and as if Mingyu knows what he is going to say before the tipsy boy can even utter another word, he reaches across your body to cover his mouth and pull him away from you.
Finally noticing Seokmin’s attention on you from across the room as Mingyu pulls Hoshi away, you make your way over to him as he watches you intently, sipping on the beer in hand.
“What was that about?” Seokmin chuckles, feeling slightly nervous about the interaction and still a bit unsettled by Mingyu’s not-so-sly advances.
You laugh, leaning against the counter with Seokmin, head subconsciously resting on his shoulder as you watch his friends mingle amongst each other. “Your friend Hoshi is a hoot; you should hear all the tea he was spilling about you guys. He may be my favorite other than you.”
Seokmin’s heart warms at your last statement, but he can’t hide the little green-eyed monster that burns inside of him. “What about Mingyu?”
You seem confused by his question, head turning from his shoulder to look up at him with starry eyes and pouty lips. “What do you mean?”
Seokmin feels the fire within him burn a bit hotter, feeling lost for words when you look up at him like that. “Nothing,” he mutters, realizing there is nothing for him to worry about at this moment. He takes this chance to dip his lips down towards your ear, brushing your hair back gently as he whispers to you, “you look very pretty tonight, Y/N.”
His fingers burn into the back of your neck, goosebumps littering your skin from his touch and the way his hot breath feels as he whispers in your ear. You’re suddenly shy again, muttering out a bleak "thank you" as your freehand grips his forearm, arousal pooling at your core from the way his dark eyes bore into yours. Something has finally shifted, and you both can feel it.
When he pulls away, you’re taunted by that smile of his, and you know he feels accomplished by his effect on you. This ignites something in you, scanning the room to see what state of mind his friends are in, and taking note that they are all irreparably drunk and in their own world.
It’s your turn to whisper in his ear now, standing on your tippy toes as you ask him a simple question, “I’ve never seen your bedroom before, Seokmin. Care to show me it?”
No time is wasted as Seokmin wraps his fingers through yours, guiding you hastily to his room at the end of the hall, exactly like the layout of your apartment. You feel a bit embarrassed, realizing that his bedroom is indeed opposite of yours, remembering all the nights you’ve coaxed yourself to orgasm just from thoughts of him.
Your disappearance seems to go unnoticed, the music and lively conversations continuing in Seokmin’s living room. Not that it even matters, the sound dying out the second Seokmin slams his lips against yours. Your ears are ringing from the contact, the absolute bliss of feeling his soft lips on yours wracking your entire body with delight, hungrily kissing him back as you wrap your hands around his neck and press your torso closer to his.
His kisses are so rough, yet careful, long, and desperate as his hands begin to roam your body, playfully squeezing at your hips and ass. You keen into him, nose nudging his as your tongue begs for entry, teeth biting at his bottom lip. Seokmin lets you lead, drinking you in for the first time, loving how sweet you still tasted after drinking beer all night with his friends.
Seokmin’s surprised when your lips move down his neck, letting out a gasp as you nibble at his skin. He’s holding onto your waist as if you’d disappear on him, hands pulling out the shirt tucked into your skirt, and slipping the top off you as you suckle on his neck. He’s thankful for the brief loss of contact, the feeling of you on his skin becoming all too intoxicating for him. You’re swift to reattach to him though, plush lips roaming his jaw and neck before reattaching to his lips.
Seokmin is desperate to keep kissing you, needy hands roaming your back before unclasping your bra expertly and enjoying the way you moan into the kiss as he pulls the garment off your chest. You don’t hesitate to guide his hands towards your breasts, encouraging him to touch you, and he takes your cue. He massages at the soft mounds, the kiss between you two becoming hotter as your lower half grinds against his, his fingers tweaking your nipples and making you cry out pathetically.
You can’t wait any longer, detaching your lips from Seokmin’s to drop down to your knees, shaky hands working at his belt as you watch him from under your eyelids. Seokmin swears he could cum right then and there, loving the darkness in your typically bright eyes, and losing it over how swollen your lips are already from just kissing you. It’s sinful how you look beneath him, with no top or bra on, just in your skirt and tights as you desperately pull his pants down. He’s a whiny mess, hand finding itself in your hair as he waits in anticipation.
“Is this okay, Seok?” You ask, voice like honey as you palm at his erection through his boxers. Oh, you can already tell he’s big, his cock feeling hot through the thin fabric, and holding back the temptation to lick the bit of precum that has leaked through.
“Fuck,” he’s groaning out lowly, “this is more than okay, sweetheart.”
Your heart flutters at the endearing pet name, never usually liking that sort of stuff, but when it’s him, it works for you. You pull his boxers down finally, his length hot and heavy exactly like you expected it to be, precum leaking out of the tip and making you hyper-aware of how wet you are yourself.
You take your time licking up his shaft, the man above you shuttering in bliss as you slowly wrap your lips around his tip. You’re completely in control, loving the way he shakes at your touch as he pleads for you to take him in completely. Your eyes flicker back up to his, a darkness in them that you’ve never seen before, and Seokmin’s hips buck into your mouth uncontrollably.
He’s quick to pull you off him, shocked by his own reflexes, and muttering out apologies. However, this only turned you on more, taking him back into your mouth and wasting no time to start messily sucking his cock. He’s groaning out, hand tangling itself even more in your hair as he refrains from bucking into your mouth.
Your hands are clawing at his hips, trying to keep him from fucking your mouth too roughly, but you love it. You didn’t think Seokmin had it in him honestly. Moaning around his length, your tongue works at the veins of his shaft as you hollow your cheeks out. He’s painfully hard, you can tell, and if you could, you’d mutter out praises as he does a good job at not thrusting into your mouth.
You can feel the saliva spilling from the sides of your mouth, Seokmin loves how much of a mess you look below him, tears forming in your eyes at the way the tip of his cock the back of your throat occasionally. He loves how you continue to moan around his cock, watching as your hips desperately grind against nothing as your fingertips dig crescent moons into his hips. He groans as your moans get more and more wonton, loving the way the vibrations feel as you needily suck and lick at his length.
You finally find yourself wrapping a hand around him, the lubrication from your spit providing more than enough glide as you work at his shaft. You can feel him pulsing in your mouth and hand, his groans and whimpers becoming more frequent as he uncontrollably thrusts into your mouth. “Shit,” he’s groaning out, heavily breathing as you continue to jerk and suck him off, “so fucking messy, sweetheart.”
“Be a good boy, Seok,” you finally pull away, noticing how his length is throbbing and how his thrusts are getting more desperate. He’s trying his best to refrain and listen, but your mouth just feels too fucking good and you look so fucking sexy.
He’s crying out softly, nodding as you take him back in, spitting on his cock lewdly as you continue your ministrations. Humming against in cock in praise does not help him one bit, immediately disobeying you, and you pull away to remind him who is in control.
“I’ll be good,” he’s groaning, his erection feeling almost painful at this point from how overstimulated he felt. “Fuck, I promise.”
You tsk out, feeling confident from your effect on Seokmin, and you continue to work at his shaft with your hands, lips shiny and swollen, driving Seokmin deeper into oblivion. He feels so close to his orgasm, hoping you’ll let him finish just this once, swearing internally that he’ll make it up to you.
“You’re not being so good, Seok, you keep fucking my hands and mouth. Are you that needy?” You’re pouting out, hand tightening at the base of his cock and making something in him snap.
Much to your surprise, Seokmin is lifting you from where you’re kneeling on the ground and throwing you face down onto the bed. He’s quick to unzip your boots, roughly tugging your skirt and tights down before running a finger over your sopping cunt.
You’re pushing back into him, the feeling of his fingers over your heat making you chase his hand as he teasingly gathers your essence before rubbing your clit briefly. His fingers gently slap your folds, making you moan out in shock.
“Ah, ah, ah,” Seokmin is bent over you, cock heavy against your ass as he whispers in your ear. “Be a good sweetheart for me now.”
Gasping out, you’re nearly crying when he dips two fingers in between your folds, and your walls immediately take them in. He’s chuckling lowly, fingers scissoring in and out of you as you squirm against his sheets, unable to take back control when his other hand is quick to hold your hips down. He’s much stronger than you ever expected, shocked, and further turned on by how quickly he switched roles on you.
“Who would have thought the sweetheart next door would be creaming all over my fingers,” he coos out, loving the squelching sound of your pussy as he continues to curl his fingers inside of you, denying you of your orgasm when you inevitably clamp even tighter around his fingers. You can feel his smile against your back, teeth and lips working against your skin as he leans over you, no longer applying enough pressure to your clit and making you feel empty again upon removing his fingers. “See how that feels, Y/N? Doesn’t feel so good when you’re on the other side, hm?”
“Seok,” you’re whining out, grinding your hips back into his, and you feel a bit of satisfaction when you feel him keen into you, hot breath running down your spine. “Please, no more games. Just fuck me already. I’m tested and on the pill.”
He no longer has any self-control, but he makes sure he keeps his dominance as his tip prods at your center, fighting the way your tight walls try to suck him in. It proves to be difficult as Seokmin shallowly thrusts inside of you, hot, slick walls clamping around his cock as he bottoms out.
It all feels so dirty, Seokmin thrusting into you, loving the way your walls flutter around his cock as he teasingly pulls in and out. The distant sound of music and his friends in the background, only remembering their presence when he hears a celebratory cheer from the group, assumingly from the intense drinking game taking place in the living room.
You’re a whimpering mess beneath him, crying out about how good he feels inside of you, how big he is, and how full you feel. This only makes him fuck you harder, loving how vulgar and lewd you are in his grasp, pulling out to only slam his hips into your ass, his tip hitting deep inside you exactly where you need him most.
Seokmin shamelessly watched the way your ass bounced against him, hands finding purchase in your hair as he pulls you back up against his chest. He whispers in your ear like he did earlier, mercilessly fucking into you as he says, “you look so fucking pretty tonight, Y/N. All dressed up for me, weren’t you?”
Your head lolls back onto his shoulder, his hand loosening its grip on your hair as they make its way around your throat. He’s still gentle, long fingers wrapping around your neck to hold you in place as he nips at your ear, waiting for your response. “Yes,” you gasp out, feeling him repeatedly hit the spongey spot inside of you, the pleasure becoming almost unbearable as the coil inside of you tightens. “All for you, Seok.”
You’re holding onto his forearms, bouncing against him as you feel his pace start to become a bit sloppy, and you’re only tightening around him even more, loving how carnal he is when his grip tightens around your neck, pulling your lips against him. You feel so breathless, so consumed by him in all ways possible.
“Are you close, sweetheart?” He’s mumbling against your lips, and you can tell he’s close himself, feeling him throbbing inside of you as you rock back into him to meet his thrusts. You’re nodding desperately, enjoying how his fingernails dig into the delicate skin of your neck, teeth pulling at your bottom lip as you moan into his own. One hand makes its way down to your clit, thumb working circles at the bud and almost making you collapse. “I want to hear you cry out my name then, sweetheart, just like I hear you do through those walls.”
Just like that, you’re spasming around him, pleasure taking you over like pure ecstasy as you cry out his name, slightly humiliated but beyond sated as you feel yourself gush around him. “Seokmin,” you still cry out, feeling overstimulated, but needing him to fill you. “Inside me, Seok, please.”
“Fuck, anything since you’ve been so good for me, sweetheart,” and with that he is painting your walls, hot cum spilling deep inside of you as he pulls you in for one more harsh kiss. You continue to slowly grind back on him, getting off on how he shakes behind you and groans into the kiss. “So, so good,” he is mumbling against your lips, slowly pushing you off him and you cry out a bit from the loss of warmth and fullness.
Seokmin begins to take care of you but allows himself to watch as his cum drips from your folds, down your thigh. He comes to when you giggle a bit, shaking your hips at him to remind him that he’s supposed to be cleaning up. Seokmin lets out a puff of laughter, helping to clean you up before assisting you in getting dressed. Slowly, Seokmin pulls your tights back up your legs, leaving a trail of kisses as he gently pulls the fabric up, ensuring not to ruin the integrity of the delicate nylon.
You feel love drunk, soaking in the way he treats you so well after fucking you so roughly. You giggle uncontrollably when he nuzzles his nose into your neck, blowing affectionate raspberries into the skin before kissing your cheek.
He can see all the stars in your eyes like this, staring into them between each peppered kiss as he praises you for being so good for him, whispering sweet nothings of how lucky he is to have met you.
You’re overwhelmed by it all, pulling him into a deep kiss again, but Seokmin, unfortunately, pulls away. “Y/N, please don’t get me worked up again, all my friends are out there. We have so much time to do this again.”
“You’re right,” your lips betray you, pulling him in for another kiss. You feel giddy at him mentioning doing this all again. He gives you a serious look that molds into one of endearment. “Okay, okay. No, you’re right.”
Finally, sitting up, you both compose and fully dress yourselves, sneaking kisses every so often.
“Your friends are going to hate me, Seok,” you chuckle when he pulls you in for one last embrace, pulling you close to him after spinning you around, taking in how beautiful you look.
“Nope,” he smiles, knowing that you’ve already bonded enough with his friends, and he’s sure they all have had an inkling he was obsessed with you from how much he’s spoken about you, “you’ve absolutely won them over just like you’ve won me over.”
Seokmin was right, the group soon would become some of your closest friends. Other than cringing at how sickeningly you and Seokmin were in love, his group of friends was thankful he’d found you. Similarly, you were thankful you found Seokmin. You’ve never felt so at home and loved, all thanks to moving in next to Seokmin.
Really, if such a thing existed, you’d grant Lee Seokmin the Best Neighbor of All Time Award. Never mind that title, instead, you’d now grant Lee Seokmin the Best Boyfriend of All Time Award.
❆ pairing; singledad! kim mingyu x singlemom! reader
❆ genre; fluff, angst, romance, crack, parent au
❆ warnings; singledad!mingyu, singlemom!reader, kids, food, alcohol, sickeningly sweet moments of cuteness and romance, some cursing, kissing, light touchy moments
❆ svthub snowventeen collab master list - snowventeen tag list
❆ w/c; 19k and some change
❆ a/n; this is all fluff and I really do hope you enjoy it. I thought I might step out of my smut comfort zone a little bit and write a bit of fluffy stuff for the holiday season. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season! a huge thank you to @housewifehui for reading along the way and then proofreading this beast and also thank you to my dear @onlyseokmins & @wonwussy for also reading and giving me confidence. fluff is not my strong point by any means.
“Let’s go, honey. Say goodbye to Amy so we can get out of Mr. Kim’s hair.”
Mingyu smiles at you, shaking his head while you both watch the girls start to complain about having to end their play date. You were always grateful for him picking them up after school so that you could take your time leaving work, but that didn’t change the guilt you felt. No matter if you enjoyed seeing him and Amy every weekday just as much as Mina did.
“Neither of you are in my hair. Besides, we really do wish you two would stay for dinner. I made enough spaghetti to feed a small army. Are you sure you won’t take us up on the offer Y/N?”
Mina whines, turning towards you to tug at the ends of your dress looking up at you. “Mommy please? Mr. Kim’s spaghetti is so much better than yours. I mean all of his cooking is better than yours, no fence mommy but it’s true.” You sigh into a laugh reaching down to tug at your daughter’s loose hair that had fallen from her ponytail. She had such a way with words and candor, something she had learned from you.
“Offense, not fence baby, and none taken. I know Mingy–Mr. Kim is a great cook.” Mingyu grins as you start to use his first name in front of the kids. He didn’t mind; he actually would prefer it, but he knew how much you wanted to teach Mina respect so he didn’t push the subject. When you sigh again and nod, Mina giggles moving back towards Amy to take her hand allowing the other small girl to pull her towards the dining room where dinner was already waiting.
You watch with adoration, trailing slowly behind them until Mingyu takes the spot beside you just inside of the dining room. Your eyes move over the freshly decorated Christmas tree just on the other side of the arch into the living room. Mingyu’s eyes can’t help but to mirror your eyes on the tree, but only, his stay on your face and your smile as it spreads across your face.
“It’s so pretty Mingyu. You put it up today?” Meeting his eyes, you feel your cheeks go warm at his attention already so focused on you causing you to look away when he laughs nodding towards the girls. “Yeah, they helped me. I just need to put the star on the top. Maybe after dinner you can help me with that?”
Nodding, you wrap your arms around yourself, making Mingyu’s eyes move over you once again with a smile. “Mm, perfect. Here, go ahead and join the girls, I’ll turn up the fireplace. You all get started with dinner.” You can’t help the shiver that runs through your body when his hand brushes over the small of your back causing you to smile, a smile that doesn’t go unnoticed by Mina or Amy who giggle in hushed tones.
“I know, I saw!”
“Tomorrow we will hang it up!”
Your brows furrow as you catch bits and pieces of this secret conversation, sitting down across from your daughter who had made sure to place you as close to Mr. Kim’s seat as possible. Her smile only fades slightly when you sigh and shift your plate and seat down a bit in order to give him more space. “You guys know how to set a table. You have to give people room to eat. What are you two whispering about?”
“Nothing mommy, and your seat was perfect. I don’t know why you had to move it…” You watch your daughter pout as you lean to begin putting spaghetti on Amy’s plate then her’s. “Okay, Mina. Napkin in your lap and eat slowly, both of you.” Amy smiles at you adoringly when you meet her eyes, making your chest feel warmer. You find yourself wanting to push her hair behind her ear and make sure she is well taken care of though, you know for a fact that Mingyu does a fantastic job of that even on his own.
“Yes, Miss Y/L/N. Thank you for staying for dinner. I really like when Mina is here for dinner and you too. I want you to do it more, please?” Your heart beats a little faster, your brain trying to come up with the right words, not wanting to hurt her feelings or give her any false hope. You simply smile, starting to speak when you feel warm wool around your shoulders.
“Amy, I’m sure Y/N and Mina will eat with us when they can and want to. Now eat up before all this hard work gets cold.” Your hands go to the shawl around your shoulders that Mingyu had placed there, your eyes meeting his to find him smiling. “You seemed cold, I hope you don’t mind.”
Mingyu’s hand slides over yours to take the pasta server out of your hand, gesturing for you to sit down. “And please, you are a guest, let me serve you since you served the kids.” You glance quickly at the girls as they giggle, spaghetti sauce covering their cheeks while Mingyu places a serving of spaghetti onto your plate.
“Girls, use your napkins. They aren’t just lap weights.” Mina sighs faux annoyed while Amy laughs, picking up her napkin wiping at her face. Mingyu grins as he watches you with the kids, enjoying the help with Amy and just watching you interact with them both. You were a good mom, attentive but still loving. It was clear that Mina loved you very much and that Amy had a special place for you in her life already.
Dipping out enough spaghetti that could feed two people onto his plate, Mingyu laughs when he finds you looking at him, his fork already twisting the pasta around it eagerly ready to bring it to his waiting mouth. He only stops at your look as you hold a much smaller bite an inch from your own mouth, a small amused smile slightly hidden by the spaghetti. “What?”
Shaking your head, you laugh before taking your bite, picking up your napkin to cover your lips and wipe them clean of any sauce at the same time. Mingyu takes his bite, filling his mouth with audible sounds of appreciation, making your heart once again feel full in your chest. Amy giggles drawing both yours and Mingyu’s attention while she watches her father eat with a shrug before pointing her fork at him.
“He always eats like this. Worse if you weren’t here Miss Y/L/N. Seriously, you could ask Mina. One time I think he inhaled an entire chicken off his plate. The whole thing!” Mingyu’s cheeks warm, he is quick to reach for his water taking a long sip looking at his daughter over the glass as she grins at him with one to match his.
“I think–” You can’t help but to laugh along with the girls when Mingyu has to clear his throat between talking before continuing, “Excuse me, I think that Amy is a bit dramatic. It wasn’t an entire chicken. I am just a person who enjoys a good meal.”
You nod along with his words, your smile as bright as the lights on the Christmas tree in Mingyu’s eyes while he watches you working to get another bite of food. “I like knowing you eat so well. It’s good, you are a very healthy man.” When you look up to find him watching you once again, your fork slips in your hand, causing you to drop what little spaghetti you had managed to gather on it, making the girls giggle at your clumsy nature.
“Thank you Y/N. Girls, eat your food. Stop giggling so much and actually put food in your mouths.” Amy and Mina mutter their okay to Mingyu’s words before going back to their meals, leaving you to regain your composure. A shared glance between the two of you and slight smiles hardly unnoticed by the two girls who kick at each other’s legs under the table before quickly laying down their forks, asking to be excused to go play.
A sigh falls from Mingyu’s lips before he smiles and looks to you for your opinion. “I–okay, but only for a little while longer. Mina, we can’t stay too late. You have school and I have work. I’m sure Mr. Kim would also like to have a peaceful evening before putting Amy to bed.”
The girls laugh nodding the entire time they run away from the table and towards Amy’s bedroom to play, leaving you and Mingyu alone to finish your meal. Mingyu smiles into his water once again before daring to let his eyes grace yours again. “You really aren’t bothering me by being here Y/N. I love having you and Mina in the house. It’s really nice. Amy loves having Mina here to play and I think, no I know, that she loves having you here too. She talks about it all the time.”
You shake your head, feeling your cheeks burning under his attention while you reach for your own glass of water, wishing it was something stronger. “Well we both really love her as well, and you. I mean we love spending time…with you. Mina hasn’t had a good male figure in her life in a long time. It’s really nice for her to have someone to look up to like you.”
‘...and you’ Those words take Mingyu’s breath away, causing him to sit back in his chair with a small grin, his eyes watching your fingers play with the glass of water. “Amy feels the same way about having a woman in her life. When you took her and Mina to that little nail salon a few weeks back? She couldn’t stop talking about it for days. She called my mom and talked about it for hours, about how Miss Y/L/N took her out for a girls' day. Y/N?”
Your eyes find Mingyu’s though you are smiling at his story about Amy and his mother when he says your name in a question. “Hm?” Mingyu’s grin widens at how your eyes widen slightly in a question to him as he stands to go to a small cabinet in the corner of the room. “Red or white wine?”
“Oh…I couldn’t. I have to drive home, and I told Mina we couldn’t stay for long.” Mingyu laughs softly, glancing back at you still taking out two wine glasses while you watch, a smile on your lips before you sigh. “Red, please? Just one glass.” With a nod, you watch the attractive man hold the wine glasses between his fingers and the bottle of wine in the other while he makes his way back towards the table and you.
Mina kicks her feet when she runs back to Amy’s bed falling down on it out of excitement. “Your daddy got out one of those big bottles we aren’t allowed to touch and mommy looked really happy. I seriously think Santa got the letters.” Amy smiles just as brightly as her father had while looking at you before falling back on the bed to lay beside her best friend, both girls letting out an almost dreamy sigh at the thought.
The two girls had spent many of their evenings after homework watching the Hallmark channel since they were playing Christmas movies. It all seemed so easy for people to fall in love and for families to have their happily ever after so why couldn’t they have that too? Why couldn’t their mommy and daddy have the same thing?
They had both watched you work so hard to support them even when you didn’t realize they were watching. They had seen you sad, crying when you thought no one else was watching, they might be young but they knew what loneliness felt like. Yes, you had lost a husband and Mingyu had lost a wife, but they had lost a mom and a dad.
Then something magical happened, they were put into the same class and quickly became best friends. You worked later than Mingyu, so it just worked out that he could keep Mina, making it easier for you to pick her up on your way home. The fact that you two seemed to get along so well was just another seemingly magical moment for the girls, a Christmas miracle. Just like one of the Hallmark movies.
Turning on her side, Mina reaches for the sprig of mistletoe that she had painstakingly tied the red ribbon around, her small fingers smoothing it while Amy watches her lost in thought. “Like you said, we can hang it up tomorrow. They have to walk under that archway like 100 times a day when your mommy comes by to get you. We will make sure it’s really visible so they won’t have any other choice but to go by the Christmas rules.”
Amy smiles as Mina does, her friend putting the mistletoe back down for safekeeping before sitting up on bed to reach for a small notebook that the girls now shared. “Okay so, we did plan one. Dinner as a family, check. Mistletoe tomorrow…oh the star tonight. Maybe we can get your daddy to help mommy to put it on the tree like in that one movie. Oh my gosh, Amy, did you see him put that pretty blanket on her shoulders?”
Mina watches the smile fade on her friend's face only slightly but she still nods. “Yeah, it was my mommy’s. At least that’s what daddy told me once when I asked. I mean I don’t mind your mom wearing it. She looked really pretty in it. I liked it, seeing her wearing that, instead of it just laying in my daddy’s room.” Mina leans to hug her friend making her smile once again, both girls laughing when the mood cheers back up.
“She did look really pretty, I think your daddy thought so too. I wish he’d just tell her. The girls in the movies seem to like it when the boys tell them how pretty they are. Maybe we can figure out how to get him to do that?” Nodding, Amy takes the notebook from Mina’s lap in order to write down the new idea on their list, knowing she was better at spelling out of the two.
“Daddy is a gennleman, he tells me that I’m pretty all the time. I’m sure he will be happy to tell your mommy.” A smile creeps along Mina’s lips at Amy’s words and her mispronunciation of gentleman while she watches the girl write slowly on the thick lines of the notebook. “Gentleman, like gentle. Mommy taught me that once. You know like when you touch a kitten, you have to be gentle?”
“Oh…that makes sense I guess? Daddy is gentle with me and you. He would be gentle with Miss Y/L/N and he’s a boy or a man.” Mina nods along with Amy’s words as if she made all the sense in the world, her smile just as bright as yours while you sipped at the last of your wine and leaned against the kitchen counter, taking a break only to dry plates as Mingyu washed them.
“Mina told me that you all don’t put up a Christmas tree?” Mingyu watches your face shift like a deer caught in headlights while you reach out to take the last plate from him, drying it slowly. “Okay, I’m not a Grinch if that’s what you are thinking, Mingyu. I just…I literally do not have time to put up decorations knowing that in a couple weeks I would need to take them all back down. You know how much I work.”
Putting his hands up defensively, Mingyu laughs, taking the towel from you along with the plate so he can put them away. “No, seriously I get it. I’m lucky to work from home most of the time. Mina can enjoy the tree here, I told her the same. She didn’t seem that upset about it honestly. Though she was more than happy to help decorate ours. I hope you don’t mind that she did.”
Shaking your head you pick up your wine, nursing the last new sips and watching Mingyu move around his kitchen as he puts away the last few dishes. Your eyes linger over his back and his face until he turns around to meet your eyes when you speak. “No, I don’t mind at all. It’s good she gets that piece of Christmas somewhere. She usually only gets it with my parents so it's nice to have it here too.”
Mingyu smiles once again with a nod, picking up his own glass of wine to take a sip. His eyes linger over your fingers and lips as you drink the last sip from your glass before setting it to the side. “It’s my pleasure Y/N. Are you sure you don’t want another glass of wine?” He watches a smile spread across your features while you consider his question.
“As much as I’d love to say yes, I have to say no. You understand, I’m sure.” Mingyu nods, taking your glass from your fingers, letting his fingertips trail from yours seemingly on accident when he turns to take it to the sink. “I do. Another time, a rain check? When you don’t have to work the next day. Maybe on a Friday? The girls are always asking for a sleepover.”
You watch his hands move over the fragile glass with such care that you can’t help but to tilt your head in wonder. How this large man could look like he was going to break something without even meaning to and yet hold something or someone like they were a cloud he wanted to keep forever. “They sure are. I keep telling Mina sometime later in the school year.”
Mingyu laughs, nodding into his wine, finishing it so he can wash his glass before setting it to the side to let it dry. “I wouldn’t mind it earlier, but of course it’s up to you.” You watch him take a deep breath, his hips leaned back against the counter mirroring you against the island causing him to smile. “Should we get the girls and put the star on the tree?”
Amy is mid laughter when Mingyu knocks on her open door, drawing both of the girls' attention towards him. “Hi daddy, what’s up? Are you and pretty Miss Y/L/N having good juice?” Mingyu laughs scratching the back of his neck realizing that the girls had been spying on the two of you. “Mmhm. We did have…good juice. Did you two have fun playing or did you spend your entire time spying on me and Miss Y/L/N?”
Mina sits up from the bed with a giggle while Amy tries to play innocent by picking up her doll running a brush through its overly tangled hair. “That’s what I thought. Come on, it’s time to put the star on the tree before you head home with your mom, Mina.” With a whine from both girls, Mingyu mimics them ushering out of the bedroom back down the hall towards the living room where you were already waiting.
Your eyes were on the tree, flicking from the different ornaments that had dates, some that were picture frames holding pictures of Mingyu and Amy. Your fingers pull the shawl tighter around your shoulders as you step closer to the fireplace, enjoying the warmth against your body and letting out a content sigh when Mingyu comes around the corner. Though neither of the girls seem to notice he stops in the tracks and has to take in a sharp breath at the sight of you like this.
Mina moves to pull on your dress moving to hold at the shawl also enjoying the warmth causing you to laugh. “Where is your sweater?” Amy laughs, moving towards you as well letting you hold her just as close as she speaks looking up at you. “She forgot it at school. I told her she would when she took it off. She can wear one of mine home tonight, I don’t want her to get too cold.”
Mingyu’s chest tightens when your fingers brush over Amy’s cheek. Your voice soft as you whisper your thank you to her, shrugging off the shawl to put it around both of the girls who curl up under it, enjoying the warmth and smell of your perfume you had left behind on it. Swallowing hard, Mingyu moves further into the room, his hand shaking slightly when he reaches for the box holding the golden star so he can take it out.
“Oh…it’s beautiful, Mingyu.” He grins into a laugh that is cut short when he has to swallow hard once again as you step closer to him and the tree. Your gentle fingers run over the star before you look up at him as if asking for permission which he gives with a nod of his head, allowing you to take the delicate tree topper from the box to show the girls who ooo and ahh.
“I love it daddy! It’s better than that stuffed elf we had last year. Did grandma give us this one?” Mingyu shakes his head no, a soft smile on his lips watching you move back towards him and the tree. Your eyes looking up at the top of the tree, you were clearly thinking there was no way you’d reach the top of it like this. “No baby, I bought it a few days ago from a shop in town. Y/N…wait, let me get a step stool.”
When you start to speak, Mingyu puts up his hand moving back to a hall closet to bring out a small stool unfolding it near the tree before offering you his hand stepping closer to you. “Carefully, I have you though, okay?” You laugh as you step up on the small ladder with a nod, your fingers delicately clinging to his while his other hand grazes your lower back.
Mingyu watches you carefully until you reach the top of the stool, his hands holding onto you gently but firmly enough that you could tell he would never let you fall. Never on his watch. Mina and Amy’s hands link under the warm shawl, happy smiles reaching their eyes while they watch you place the star on top of the tree making sure it is perfect. “How does it look, girls? Do you like this?”
Did they like this? Seeing the potential of a family in front of their eyes? “I love it mommy.” Amy squeezes Mina’s hand tighter, sensing the tears in her eyes helping her to hold them back. “Miss. Y/L/N, it’s almost as pretty as you. Don’t you think so daddy?” Mingyu looked at his daughter with a laugh playing on his lips but she was right.
“Mmm, almost but not quite.” Your cheeks warm, almost as if you were sitting right next to the fire, when you look down at Mingyu. His smile broadens into a grin before he takes a step back, helping you to carefully descend the step ladder. “Thank you for helping us put that up Y/N, it completed it. I could have never made it look that perfect.”
You watch Mingyu carry the step ladder away, your fingers nervously moving along your arms you now have wrapped around you with no shawl to hide under. “I’m sure you would have. The girls did a great job with the rest of the decorating. I’m sure they could have done the star just as well, but I am happy to help. It was nice to have a little taste of Christmas.”
Mingyu watches your hands move along your arms and he wonders if you are cold again, his eyes moving to the shawl around the girls but he knew he would never get you to stay for much longer. He found himself wanting to wrap you in his arms and hold you by the fire while the girls curled up next to each other under the shawl warm and happy by the tree.
Shaking his head, Mingyu pushes the thought away and smiles at you. “It’s my pleasure, just like I told Mina, you can always have Christmas with Amy and me. We do Christmas with my parents on Christmas Eve then spend Christmas here…I don’t know what your plans are…so I…don’t feel obligated.”
Mina sits up a bit looking at you longingly which makes your heart beat faster, an actual Christmas tree on Christmas for her. That would be nice…the thought plays through your head. “Uh we actually go to my parents on Christmas Eve as well so maybe. We will just have to see. Let’s not make any plans just yet.”
You watch Mingyu’s smile tighten every so slightly but he nods even as the girls start to complain. “Amy, stop it. Don’t whine like that. It’s almost time for bed anyway.” You nod agreeing with Mingyu taking a step towards the girls to collect the shawl folding it carefully. “It is, we’ve stayed far too late tonight Mina. Time to say goodnight.”
Amy and Mingyu watch you and Mina leave, a bit of sadness in both their eyes when your car pulls out of the driveway. Mingyu isn’t surprised when his daughter leans against him, a soft sad whine slipping off her lips. “You will see her in the morning. Time to brush your teeth, and I mean all of them, even the back ones.” Amy groans looking up at her dad with faux annoyance before smiling at him with his matching grin when he runs his finger over her nose only to tap the end of it.
You watch Mina in the rearview mirror any chance you get on the drive home. She looked sadder than normal and you weren’t sure why. Though you felt sadder than normal after leaving Mingyu’s house and once again, you weren’t sure why. Shrugging off the feeling you make it home with your daughter making sure to take extra care with the borrowed sweater she had worn home. “I’m going to put this in your bag, make sure you give it back to Amy tomorrow okay?”
Mina nods at you, her feet dragging while she walks past you towards the hallway making you lift your head and follow her. “Are you okay baby? Talk to me…are you that sad to leave Amy tonight? I know you want a sleepover but that just can’t happen on a school night. I really hope you will try to understand why?”
A sigh leaves your daughter’s lips, her small body plopping down on her bed before she looks up at you shaking her head. “I’m okay mommy. Can I say something and you won't be mad at me?” Your own sigh matches hers when you squat down in front of Mina to reach up, running your fingers over her soft cheek to offer her some comfort.
“Why would I ever be mad at you for saying something you feel like you need to say? Of course you can tell me something.” Mina swallows hard, leaning into your touch, her almost doll-like eyes avoiding yours, you know she is trying to keep her courage to speak. “I really like being at Mr. Kim’s house with Amy, almost more than here.”
Your stomach tightens, your brows knitting together at her confession but you nod starting to speak but Mina does first. “With you though Mommy. I like when we are all there together. When you get home from work, that feels like home. Coming here after leaving there feels like leaving home again.” Some of her words made you feel some better but others made it worse, but you’d never let that show not in front of her.
“Oh, I see. Is it our house? You don’t like your room maybe?” Mina shakes her head and finally meets your eyes letting you see a trace of wetness covering them, your heart feeling like it is going to shatter at her apparent sadness. “Oh baby…what’s wrong?” Shaking her head again the tears spill over Mina’s cheeks and she is unable to find the words only allowing her body to fold into yours.
Your own tears burn at your eyes but you keep them pushed back refusing to show weakness in front of your child. Fingers brushing through her hair, you hum rocking her softly until she calms down and soft snores take the place of her tiny sobs. Still you keep your own feelings at bay while you get her changed and tucked into bed making sure she is safe and sound, her door cracked when your back hits the back of your own door and the tears finally slip down your own cheeks.
Mingyu raises his brows looking up from his laptop to the sounds of hushed children’s voices. Taking off his glasses, he pinches the bridge of his nose with a sigh trying to make out what the girls are saying just a room away but instead he hears the sound of wood scraping along wood. “What in the world are they doing now?”
A small pained grunt falls from Mingyu’s lips causing him to put his hand on his lower back signaling he had been sitting at his desk for far too long anyway when he stands and moves towards the sounds of giggles. He stops short only to watch as Amy balances on the dining room chair, Mina trying hard to keep her held tall but still safe while she attempts to place something as high on the doorframe as possible.
“I need to get up higher. I’m gonna go on my tippy toes. Don’t let me fall, ‘kay?” Mina makes an unsure sound of approval going to hold Amy’s legs. Mingyu takes a step in closer only to stop again when he realizes that his daughter is holding a sprig of mistletoe in her little hand. “They have to see it here right Mina?”
“Oh…” The word slips from his lips just as a breath unheard by the girls when Mingyu understands what they are trying to do. A smile spreads across his lips only to be covered when he wipes his hand over his lips still concerned with the scene in front of him. He waits until Amy has placed the mistletoe on the side of the doorframe pointing outwards, as far up as she can get it before he clears his throat looking down at them instead of what they were hanging.
“Girls, you know better than to play on furniture. What if you fell down?” Amy panics, afraid her daddy will see the mistletoe before he should but when he doesn’t seem to notice she lets him lift her off the chair placing her safely on the ground next to Mina. “Sorry daddy, we were just…we were…”
Mingyu waits for an explanation but he knows it will be a lie and his daughter had been taught not to lie from an even younger age. “Playing on the furniture, I know. Now run on and finish your homework. I know you two can’t be done yet. We’ve been home less than an hour. I’m going to start dinner soon.” Amy lets out a breath of relief at not having to lie, making Mingyu smile, lifting the chair to take it back to the dining room when he feels a hand tug at his shirt.
A glance down makes his smile grow wider seeing Mina looking up at him, his heart warmer with her close to him. “What’s up Mina?” Her laugh is so similar to yours it makes him miss you being here. “Can you maybe text my mommy and see if we can stay for dinner again? Amy said tonight is soup night? I really like soup.”
God, how could he say no to that little face and that sort of request. Hell, if you said no he’d send home a bucket of the soup with you so that Mina could eat it for the next few days if he had to. “Of course sweetie.” His hand brushes over her head before he gestures with a nod towards the living room where Amy already was. “Now, go. Homework is waiting.”
Your phone vibrating on your desk was a welcomed distraction from your work computer letting you lean back and take a breath. You only had a couple of hours left but it felt like you had 8 more to go. When you see Mingyu’s name as the person who sent you the text you find yourself unable to hide your smile even when you know you are in your office alone.
Kim Mingyu: Hey, hope work isn’t too rough today. Mina wanted me to see if you two could stay for dinner again tonight. We are having homemade soup, a house special.
You swallow hard reading over the words a few times ready to decline him. You already had the words plotted out in your mind, ‘So sorry but I already kept Mina out too late last night. We’d love to do it another time.’ but another text comes in making you let out a soft sigh.
Kim Mingyu: I really hope you will stay for dinner. I enjoyed the adult company if I can be honest with you. I know you stayed out a bit later than normal so I will keep a better watch on the time tonight, scouts honor. What do you say?
“I doubt you were a boy scout Mingyu…” You whisper to yourself and the phone, your thumbs running over the sides of the device in thought. Another steadying breath taken you let your thumbs move to the keyboard so you can answer him not wanting to leave him on read knowing for a fact he would be waiting for a response.
Y/N: If you keep that promise cub scout. Soup sounds really nice, Mina really likes soup…but she probably told you that. Thank you for being so kind to us. You really don’t have to but I really appreciate it. I don’t tell you that enough.
Mingyu grins at his phone, raising a brow to your wording. Were you flirting with him? Shaking his head he chooses not to linger on that as much as your thoughtful appreciation. Which to him wasn’t even something you needed when it came to him. This was as easy as breathing for him. He wanted to do it, ever since he had met you and Mina it had always been on his mind. You had no one to help take care of you, not that you needed a man to “take care of you” but maybe you wouldn’t mind it once in a while to even have a friend lend a hand.
Kim Mingyu: You don’t even have to say it. You are a joy to have in my life.
The text comes through followed quickly by a second as your heart beats quickly into your throat. The correction calms you down but only slightly as you wonder if he had meant the first or second reply.
Kim Mingyu: *Our life. You and Mina are a joy to have in our lives. Haha…autocorrect.
Mingyu swallows hard, cursing himself for his quick wording and then his chickening out. His eyes watch the three bubbles pop up then fade several times before finally your response comes through.
Y/N: You and Amy are a joy in our lives too. See you later this evening.
You set your phone to the side, hands trembling slightly from how many times you had re-wrote that response. It had gone from, ‘But was it autocorrect Mingyu?’ to ‘You are a joy in my life too.’ before you finally landed on making you and Mingyu feel more comfortable with a safe response.
Mina and Amy giggle between spoonfuls of the soup while you and Mingyu share the occasional glance. Not much had been said between the two of you out of the ordinary. He had asked about your day, you had told him about it. You had asked about the kid’s evening and their homework and as usual it had gone pretty much the same as always except for a little mishap with climbing on furniture.
Now you felt warm and content in your chair, the same shawl from yesterday back around your shoulders while you sipped at probably the best homemade soup you had ever tasted. You had made Mina promise to not tell her grandmother that Mr. Kim’s soup was better than hers, causing a smile to grow on Mingyu’s lips before he met your eyes. Your heart racing ever so slightly under his gaze making you wonder how quickly you would be able to run away because you weren’t supposed to be feeling like this, not for him or anyone.
“Mommy, tomorrow is Friday.” Your attention brought back to the table you laugh nodding at your daughter's observation gesturing for her to continue. “And that means what to me Mina?” Her slightly annoyed sigh causes Mingyu to snicker into his water, getting a playful side eye from you before you give all of your attention back to the small girl sitting across from you.
“Well I was wonderin’ if maybe I could have a sleepover with Amy? If Mr. Kim says it's okay too?” Mingyu watches your lips tighten into a thinner line as you consider your daughter's question carefully. Your fingertips brushing together, a habit he had noticed you had when you were lost in thought. “I really wanted you to wait until near the end of the school year Mina…” You watch her face begin to fall and remember the night before, how you had held her in your arms while she cried herself to sleep. Your heart is tightening to the point of pain when you lift your hand to stop her from complaining or getting upset.
“If it is okay with Mr. Kim, then yes but only for one night.” Mina’s eyes glisten anyway when you say yes, her head turning towards Mingyu who was looking at you in almost disbelief. “Mr. Kim, can I?” Mingyu laughs quietly tilting his head, his hand moving to scratch the side of his neck. “Yeah, it is okay with me.”
Amy squeals in delight, putting her spoon down near her empty bowl before tugging Mina into a hug. The girls quickly begin to talk about their sleepover plans while you and Mingyu share glances then fond smiles. “Girls?” Your voice draws their attention causing them to stop for a moment with their rambles of excitement to look at you in question. “Yeah mommy?”
Clearing your throat, you wipe your lips with your napkin gesturing at their empty bowls speaking quietly but with authority. “Put your bowls in the sink and go play. Mina we are leaving in an hour. We aren’t staying as late as we did last night, especially if you are wanting your sleepover.”
Both girls smile at you quickly following your request before you and Mingyu listen to the sounds of their feet heading towards Amy’s bedroom leaving you two seemingly alone. “You know, I’m surprised you said yes.” You smile at Mingyu’s words leaning towards the table beginning to help clean up dinner, his chair lightly scraping along the floor so he can help you do the same.
“I’ve gone soft cub scout.” You listen to Mingyu laugh, it’s unlike his normal laugh, not as robust but instead it's almost warm and makes your skin tingle like a good sip of wine. “I’m glad, you deserve a little break once in a while Y/N. What will you do tomorrow evening?” Mingyu watches your brows furrow in thought, your back straightening while you hold bowls in both hands moving towards the kitchen and the sink.
“Huh…you know? I hadn’t even considered that. I have literally no idea. I haven’t had a day really alone in 6 years. I mean there have been afternoons but never really a night. Mina never wants to stay with my parents overnight, this is the first time she has wanted to stay overnight somewhere.” Mingyu follows behind you to the kitchen, the rest of the soup in his hand. He nods, only stopping to grab a few pieces of tupperware from the cabinet before turning towards you listening.
“Which, by the way, if she is a problem or has any problems obviously do not hesitate to call me. Literally it could be 2 in the morning. I will drive over here.” Grinning as he separates the rest of the soup into the leftovers containers, Mingyu nods then meets your eyes. “Don’t worry, you know I will keep in touch. I’m sure she will do fine but if we need you I will call you right away. I will always keep her safe Y/N. You are both very important to me, I–to Amy and I both. You know that.”
If he were any closer he would feel the heat coming off your cheeks. You were surprised it wasn’t boiling the water while you washed the dishes. “Oh…I, yeah. I, we know that. You are both very important to us too and I trust you completely Mingyu. She can just be a little sensitive, or you know, even dramatic sometimes. I was just wanting to warn you.”
Mingyu bites at his bottom lip pressing down on the lids of the containers glancing up at you to watch you rub the tips of your fingers together, soap dripping from your hands. “It’s okay. They are young, they’ve both already been through a lot. We can let them just be kids, can’t we? For one night?”
Your gentle smile and nod causes Mingyu to mirror it moving to the fridge to put one of the containers away, placing the other next to your purse on the counter. “This one's for you to take home. You don’t need to cook tomorrow. You said you don’t know what to do with yourself alone? Put on your most comfortable pajamas, heat up the soup, get a glass of wine, turn on the tv, and turn off the world for the night.”
It sounded like a dream. Something you never had time to do. Most nights after you got Mina home you barely took time to wash your makeup off completely before you fell into bed exhausted only to wake up the next morning, rise, and repeat. Mingyu grins, lifting his hand to cautiously push a piece of your hair from your eyes. “Then take a bath, not a shower. Take more than ten minutes to take care of yourself. Relax for once…”
When you laugh and don’t pull away from his hand, Mingyu takes a subtle breath in gaining some courage. “I mean…I could try those things. It will be easier said than done.” You watch him laugh, a nod of understanding, his body leaned up against the counter next to you, closer than he had ever dared to stand before.
“I get that but if you want to text me or call me to see how she is doing I won’t judge you. I will understand it completely. I will expect it actually, you are a great mother.” Your brain was running a million miles an hour. Has he always smelled this nice? When had his hand wrapped around your wrist? Why did it feel so nice to be touched by someone again?
“Thank you, Mingyu. Really, like I said, I don’t say it enough. You literally make it possible for me to have the job I do so that I can take care of Mina.” Mingyu smiles so bright even as his brows furrow, his hands moving the towel along yours to dry them off. “I already told you that you never have to thank me for that.”
“I know what you said but…” You walk with him, his gentle hand on your wrist leading you towards the living room only to stop short when he glances up to the doorframe then down the hall towards Amy’s room. Your eyes follow his making your words fall short into a small laugh when you see the poorly placed mistletoe that makes your chest and stomach feel warm and full.
“Climbing on the furniture?” Mingyu nods, his fingers very softly tapping against your pulse point keeping you close but never making you stay. “I think they are trying to tell us something.” You chew at your bottom lip considering that and how Mina had acted the night before when you hear the sound of whispers from behind you and Mingyu.
Neither girl was as quiet as she thought she was but both you and Mingyu could pretend for them to help them keep their little Hallmark moment. Tilting your head, your eyes narrow very slightly at Mingyu when you take a step backwards towards the living room bringing him with you under the doorframe and the mistletoe.
Mingyu chuckles quietly under his breath, his glance over your shoulder barely finding the girls as they peek over the sofa waiting with baited breath for you both to follow the Christmas rules. When Mingyu looks up at the mistletoe showing faux surprise you can’t help but to laugh quickly covering it up by pressing your lips together. “Well, Miss. Y/L/N we seem to have found ourselves under the mistletoe. There are rules about that aren’t there?”
Amy squeals only for Mina to elbow her side, muttering for her to be quiet while they watch. You roll your eyes at the perfectly charming and silly gentleman in front of you. His hand moves from your wrist to your cheek so he can push your hair over your ear waiting for you to speak but he almost renders you speechless with one simple act. “I–oh. Mistletoe?”
Mingyu watches your eyes move to glance at the mistletoe before they meet him again taking his breath away. The Christmas light plays off the color of your eyes making them sparkle. “There are rules, I believe you owe me a kiss Mr. Kim.” You watch a smile spread wider across his lips when you all but ask for him to kiss you. He had been waiting for that moment for months.
“You’re right, I’m such a fool. I knew that, may I?” His thumb on your cheek, his fingers splayed along the side of your face next to your ear Mingyu leans towards you when you nod and whisper yes and a small please. Mina is the one who lets out a small squeal this time when Mingyu’s lips brush over yours.
“It worked Amy…” Her little eyes threatening tears once again, she clings to her best friend while you two share your first simple kiss. It wasn’t anything they hadn’t seen in their movies but it felt more important even when you two stepped away from each other and laughed. You both seemed to glow in your daughter’s eyes. To them it was like seeing you both really happy for the first time in possibly forever.
Mingyu rubs his lips together, having to fight the urge to want to kiss you again and more fully. His eyes meet yours as you laugh, the warmth of your cheek under his thumb making him laugh when you reach up to move his hand down. Clearing your throat you carefully step away fixing your hair back from around your ear turning around pretending to be surprised when you see the girls behind the couch. “Girls! Were you spying?”
Both girls giggle loudly and duck back down making your and Mingyu’s hearts feel impossibly warmer and larger that night. His fingers brush over yours again causing you to look up at him meeting his gaze when he winks at you. He was entirely unfair. You look away like a shy school girl hearing him laugh moving his hand away walking into the living room to look for the girls as he leaned over the couch.
“Now how did that mistletoe get there hmm?” Amy looks up at her dad with a grin and a laugh only to be picked up and pulled over the couch in a fit of giggles. You watch as Mina moves around the couch trying to playfully help her friend, Mingyu letting the two girls quickly over take him beating him in “fair” combat before he surrenders only to pin them both, tickling them into another giggle fit.
You rest your hand against your chest over your heart leaning against the door frame still under the mistletoe while you watch. Tears threatening your eyes much like they had for Mina as you listen to her giggle louder than you had in months or maybe even years. If anyone had asked you what you wanted for Christmas at that exact moment you’d tell them nothing because you had just been given it.
“Mistletoe, add a big check. In fact, I think we can use the red colored pencil.” Amy laughs at Mina’s enthusiasm, the notebook on her lap, colored pencils laying on her bed next to her. “Got it. So, the teacher today was talking about how at holidays we get presents, right?”
Mina nods along with Amy’s words, her eyes following the other small hand as Amy makes the check mark next to the word mistletoe. “But she said that mommy’s and daddy’s don’t always want toys or games like we do.” Mina furrows her brows because this had been something she understood even though she did very much want a new doll from her list she also knew she wanted her family plans with Amy more.
“Yeah, she said to write them a letter telling them how much you love them.” Amy smiles, her brows wiggling much like Mina had seen Mr. Kim’s before after he had told them he had a surprise only for it to be dessert. “What Amy? Do you have an idea?” Nodding, the other girl moves to her knees on her bed, tearing out two sheets of paper from the notebook and handing one to Mina.
“We write letters to them and tell them why we think they should get married. I think they are already there. If this were on Hallmark we’d be only like two commercials from the end of the movie and the wedding. Your mommy needs time to pick out the best dress and my daddy probably already has a ring. He’s super smart like that.” Mina looked at her piece of paper before picking up a purple pencil considering her best friend’s words. She did have a point, if they were living by their movie logic this was all very much to plan but their parents could use a little push in the right direction.
“So a list of props and coms?” Amy nods excited, already scribbling on her page with a green pencil. “Yeah if you want to do it that way. Like they should get married because then your mommy wouldn’t have to worry about driving as far to work anymore.” Mina makes a sound of appreciation before nodding. Her pencil moves across her own page as she starts her list.
“Seriously, Amy…this is why you have all the stickers on your grade sheet. You really are one of the smartest people I know. Like mommy is the smartest then your daddy but you are right up there with them.” Amy beams at the compliment only looking up from her letter to her dad to watch Mina work for a moment. This was already the best sleepover either of them had ever had ever had, even if it was the first.
Mingyu had fed the girls dinner over an hour ago, leftover soup, before letting them go off to play. He had already told them they could stay up for a little while longer than usual but that he wouldn’t be tricked into letting them pull an all-nighter. Deep down he knew that neither of them would be able to do that no matter how hard they’d want to try.
Now he found himself stretched out on his favorite spot on the couch, his phone on his chest while he flipped aimlessly through channels on tv. Nothing had really caught his attention yet but mostly because he couldn’t get you off his mind. He had sent you a text just letting you know that everything was going well, you had responded happily to know it.
His lips pursed, Mingyu had told himself not to bother you beyond that. He himself had given you the advice to turn the world off. How could you do that if you had him texting you the entire night? It didn’t stop him from kinda wishing you would, even if it wasn’t about Mina. He had started to wonder if you hadn’t felt the same way about the innocent kiss as he had.
You were staring at your phone ignoring the tv completely. It would be so easy to just pick up the phone and text him, or even call him. You could even use the excuse of wanting to check on Mina. God that felt cheap, using your daughter as an excuse. Picking up your wine you all but pout into the glass taking a long sip of the alcohol lost in thought.
Why were you being such a wimp about this? He was just a guy, but was he? Of course he wasn’t. It was Mingyu. Mr. PTA, Mr. drooled over by every single other mother even the ones who weren’t single. This was Amy’s dad and at the end of the day that’s what really mattered.
Your wine sat down next to your phone, you swipe up the empty soup bowl taking it to the kitchen to wash only to glance back over your shoulder to the phone. “Fine…fine! Jesus, maybe he won’t think I’m completely pathetic.” Plopping back down on the couch you pick up the phone, pulling your legs under you before beginning to plot out what you’d try to text first.
Y/N: Hi, please don’t think I am a helicopter mom. How are things with Mina? How is your evening going?
God, had you sounded desperate? Was there an unsend button? There really was no way to put in an “autocorrect” mistake with how you had typed this. It was pretty clear and to the point that this was how you had meant to type the message. Picking up your wine you take a larger sip and wait, your knee bouncing lightly against the material of the couch from nerves.
Mingyu felt his phone vibrate on his chest causing him to jump slightly glancing around as if someone was going to point and laugh at him for being startled by it. When he saw no one else, he cleared his throat and grinned seeing your name. Of course you had asked about Mina, he had expected nothing else but you had also asked about his evening.
Kim Mingyu: Hey! Please, I’ve told you that you are a great mom. That will never change. Things are great, the girls were playing in Amy’s room. Quiet, perhaps too quiet but they are good kids. I don’t think I have much to worry about. Do you want me to tell her you said hi? I’m doing pretty good, just watching some tv. How about you? Are you trying to relax? Did you follow my advice?
Y/N: Yes, please, and tell her that I love her. Your evening sounds a bit like mine but yes I am trying to follow your advice. (picture attached)
Smiling Mingyu looks at the picture of the wine in your hand, the base resting against your leg that was covered in fuzzy Christmas themed pajama pants decorated with candy canes. His stomach felt tighter knowing you were comfortable and he hoped that you had little to no worries. It made him feel good to know that maybe he had helped you feel that way at least for a little while.
Kim Mingyu: Of course I will tell her. Very cute. I think I have a matching pair. Oh I think that there is some cheesy Hallmark Christmas movie on. If you are into that sort of thing. It looked pretty sweet. Just another recommendation.
‘Very cute’ This was fine. You were fine. Your cheeks were simply burning from your face from your wine not his text. Sure, and you hadn’t thought about kissing him again all day long. Sighing out a long slow breath you take a sip of your wine shaking your head to try to clear it.
Y/N: Oh? I will have to take a look. Is that what you are watching? A cheesy romantic movie alone on a Friday night?
Again, why was there not an unsend button on phones? You would think that the creators of such technology would know that people could not be trusted with their own words and needed at least a minute between each text being seen to consider what they had done. Instead you watch the message go to read and the three little bubbles pop up signaling that Mingyu was typing back to you.
Mingyu laughs, reaching behind his head to scratch at his neck. Was that a burn mixed in with a flirt? Is that what is happening right now? He didn’t want to presume but at the same time he was so tired of being afraid to do or say anything around you. He had shown that last night, granted a lot of it had been to not disappoint the girls but also to not disappoint himself for the 100th night in a row.
Kim Mingyu: Sometimes, all I’m missing is a glass of wine and someone to watch it with. I’d invite you to join me but I already gave you the night off. Should we do a rain check?
Was that a date invitation? Has the world begun to spin in the other direction? You were incredibly off kilter staring at your phone and his text in thought. Your fingers rubbing together, you chew on your lips trying to weigh out the pros and cons of accepting and rejecting him. If you accepted the rain check, pros would be; a lovely evening with a movie, a nice glass of wine, perhaps another kiss, who knows what else. Which then led you to the cons; who knew what would happen. It could end miserably and ruin your friendship with Mingyu while also ruining a friendship for your daughter.
Y/N: As much as I’d like to say yes to that, perhaps we need to remember who we are and who is around us.
His hands felt like weights but Mingyu understood what you were saying even if he didn’t want to. Leaning his head back on the couch, he sighed heavily when he heard a soft whimpering sound from behind him. Laying the phone down Mingyu shifted to look seeing Mina standing in the hall rubbing her eyes, tears running towards her lips.
“Mina, honey, what’s wrong? Come here.” The small girl wasted no time moving towards the couch curling her smaller body up to his making Mingyu take in a deep breath, his hand pushing her hair back so he could check her over for injuries or any signs of what was making her upset. “Talk to me, why are you crying? Did something happen with Amy?”
Shaking her head Mina whimpers looking up only resulting in making Mingyu coo in concern. His large thumbs wiping away her tears that seemed far too large for her small eyes. “Amy’s asleep. I was too but I had a bad dream and woke up. Mommy’s not here.”
Mingyu frowned but nodded, holding the little girl closer trying to comfort her like he had with Amy many times before. “You want me to call your mommy? She already told me to tell you hi and that she loves you but I know she’d be over here in just a little while to get you if you want her to. No one is making you stay the entire night Mina.”
Mina whines, shaking her head fervently, her hand gripping at Mingyu’s sweater. “I don’t wanna go home yet. I miss mommy but I don’t wanna leave. I wanna do the sleepover.” Mingyu nods, leaning to pick up his phone, pressing your picture on the screen to call you, making your brows furrow when you see his face pop up on your screen, having only expected a text message back.
“Hello?” You clear your throat answering the phone, the screen pressed to your ear, nerves eating at your stomach making you wonder even more why he was calling. It isn’t until you hear Mina’s tiny sobs that you sit up more in concern. Your voice quickly changes pitch, “Is she okay? I’m getting my shoes.”
“Y/N, no no, she’s okay. She just had a bad dream. She said she’s missing you. I thought if she could talk to you on the phone it might help. She was adamant she didn’t want to leave the sleepover.” Your whine reminds Mingyu of Mina’s causing him to close his eyes before he hands the phone to Mina who holds it with two hands to her wet cheek to meet her ear.
“Mommy?” Her shaky voice almost breaks your heart but also warms it at the same time causing you to sink back down on the couch. “Baby, are you okay? Talk to me. Min-Mr. Kim said you had a bad dream?”
You listen as the little girl recounts what she can remember of her dream. Something about a dark room at school and no one remembering to pick her up. Something that had never and would never happen, she knew that even as you promised and explained it. “Baby I will be there first thing in the morning to pick you up, I swear. Are you sure you don’t want me to come get you tonight? You know it doesn’t ruin the sleepover right?”
Mina whines causing you to smile, “Mommy no, please and if you come too early that isn’t good either. I wanna eat breakfast here. I’ve never had Mr. Kim’s breakfast. Wait Mommy you come eat breakfast too, like a family? Please?”
Mingyu watches Mina curiously, his brow raising at the word family. He was surprised how much it made his heart tighten and how much he wanted you to agree to the invitation. You chew on your lip with a sigh bringing your fingers up to pinch at the bridge of your nose considering everything that had happened, including turning Mingyu’s date invitation down.
“Mina…” The sound of your voice makes Mina start to tear up because she’s heard you say her name that way so many times, that is your ‘I’m about to say something disappointing’ tone. “Mommy, please!” The panic in her voice causes your heart rate to speed up when you realize how important this is to her, you weren’t stupid you had heard her call it a family.
“I–okay. I’ll be there for breakfast.” Mingyu watches the smile form on Mina’s lips making it impossible for him not to smile. “She said she’ll come to breakfast. I’ll even set the table Mr. Kim, I promise I’ll sleep the rest of the night. I love you Mommy. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Mingyu takes the phone back, able to hear you tell Mina that you love her too, so much, just before the girl slides off the couch running back towards Amy’s room and bed. “She’s back to bed I guess.” You let out a tired laugh feeling a bit caught by your daughter, leaning back on to your couch with a small groan.
“I told you she’s dramatic. I’m sorry Mingyu, I’m sure I can just take her out for breakfast once I get there. You don’t have to cook all that food for us.” Mingyu frowns when you start to talk your way out of breakfast, his disappointment clear in his voice. “I won’t make you stay for breakfast but I would very much like for you to be there too. It really did seem important to Mina…and now I’ll be honest it’s starting to feel important to me as well.”
The silence on the phone is almost deafening to Mingyu, he can hear your soft breath but he has no idea what you are doing or thinking. Had he crossed a line? “Y/N? I’m sorry if I–” You shake your head and speak up to cut him off when he starts to apologize. “No, I’m sorry. I’m really guarded for myself and for Mina. It’s been hard Mingyu, but I’m sure you have your own understanding of that. It’s easier to push away than it is to let anyone close.”
If there was anything he understood it was that. There had been other opportunities in the past for relationships but he had never even truly considered them, not until you. He was terrified to hurt Amy and in honesty he was afraid to get hurt. Now he was afraid to hurt you and Mina though he knew he’d never do it on purpose.
“Yeah, no I get that completely. But if I can tell you something without you maybe thinking that I am a complete idiot or hell, that I’m going too fast…” You feel yourself start to panic at his words but you stay silent wanting to hear what he has to say. “Don’t we deserve a chance? Don’t the girls deserve it maybe? I don’t mean to use the girls like that, because that isn’t what I’m trying to do so please don’t think I am, but it’s very clear to me that they are trying to say something.”
You know he isn’t wrong so you nod but then remember it’s a phone call. “You are right. They have been…trying. Dinners, mistletoe, “family”. Mingyu, what if things don’t work out for us? That’s all I can think about. I’m truly the worst when it comes to this. I make a list of pros and cons and even if my pros list is 100 times longer than my cons list those cons weigh 1000 times more. “
Mingyu sighs into a laugh and you can picture him nodding, his hand rubbing the back of his neck. “I’ve thought about that too, but I’ve also wanted to give this a try for months. Kissing you yesterday was more than just because of some mistletoe and because the girls wanted us to. I should have asked to kiss you long before that. There is so much I want to give you in your life and in Mina’s…because you have given Amy and I so much already.”
“Mingyu, please.” He smiles when you almost cut him off, your voice pleading in such a soft way it makes him wish you were beside him so he could touch you. “I’m serious Y/N. One step at a time maybe? We don’t have to say anything to the girls yet, we can just see how we feel and we can also remember that no matter how it goes for us we aren’t the important ones at the end of the day. What do you think?”
More of that deafening silence, god you were good with suspense. Mingyu chewed at his cheek looking over the lights of the Christmas tree, the gentle flickering almost memorizing him until you finally spoke. “Okay, I’d like to try, as long as we really do promise to remember to keep the girls first and not ruin their relationship.”
“I promise, with my entire heart I will not let that happen. I also will do my best to never hurt you, I think you’ve had enough of that in your life.” You close your eyes and mutter under your breath making Mingyu’s brows furrow while he leans forward looking down at his hand between his knees. “What did you say? You were really quiet.”
Your laugh makes him smile once again even as you sigh. “I was mainly talking to myself but I was just saying, please don’t say that to me Mingyu.” He shakes his head letting his teeth pull at his bottom lip not willing to give up that easily. “Sorry, no take backs. I mean what I say.”
Mingyu couldn’t help how many times he looked at you during breakfast. He hadn’t had the chance to see you early in the morning on too many occasions and if he had to admit it to himself he would love this opportunity more often. If it were possible you were even more beautiful in the early light, the sunlight in your hair, that soft smile on your lips any time you caught him staring at you.
Your cheeks had not stopped burning from the moment you had stepped inside the Kim residence an hour or so ago. Mingyu’s handsome smile kept catching your eye and you kept finding him unabashedly watching you. There was no way his attention was going unnoticed by the girls so you just did your best to keep yourself calm and not give off the wrong impression.
“So, did you enjoy the sleepover girls? What did you do?” Mina smiles at you, glancing between you and Mingyu before stabbing at her pancake while Amy answers your question. “We painted our nails, oh and daddy’s. Show Miss. Y/L/N how pretty we did daddy.” Mingyu sighs before extending his fingers out to you to show the pink nail polish covering some of his nails.
You laugh reaching to take his fingers into your hand running your thumb over his index fingernail appraising their work with a nod. “Mmm yes, this is good work. You will have to keep helping him out. There is no way he can look this pretty all on his own.”
Mingyu’s thumb grazes your palm causing you to look up into his eyes, your hand slowly moving from his. A smile growing larger on his lips when you clear your throat looking back at the kids. “What else did you do?” The girls go on to explain how they colored, played dolls, and made you both a present drawing Mingyu’s attention with those final words.
Even with his mouth full of pancake he makes a questioning sound tilting his head. “What sort of present?” Mina laughs at his muffled words shaking her head, “Mr. Kim! Don’t talk with your mouth full, bad manners.” When you laugh putting your fingers over your lips, Mingyu smiles looking over at you nodding before looking back to Mina after swallowing his bite of food.
“Mmm you are right, I apologize. My manners have returned, I promise. Now explain these presents.” You can’t seem to take your eyes off of Mingyu until Amy starts to speak, talking about how you two will have to wait until after breakfast. “They are like early Christmas presents but you have to get them before Christmas, you understand?”
Neither of you really understood but yet you both nodded to keep the girls happy telling them to finish their breakfast. Shared looks of some concern, you and Mingyu sip at your coffees when he nods and gets up to start clearing the table. “Well I can tell you this, no matter if we are getting early gifts or not, that does not mean anyone else is getting early Christmas gifts. I will not be bribed.”
Watching the girls finish their pancakes, you smile at Mingyu’s playful words before you stand to start helping him clean up. Each girl handing over their plate giggling when turned with a small surprised gasp to find Mingyu right behind you. “Sorry, I was going to…” Mingyu takes a step back so he isn’t breathing on to your cheek, his gaze unconsciously lingering over your lips.
“It’s okay, I’ve got the dishes this time. Why don’t you and the girls just enjoy the Christmas tree for a little bit while I finish up? Then we can figure out this present ordeal…” Mingyu smiles when you nod, taking a step away from him. Your eyes glancing back over your shoulder even as the girls pull on either of your hands to drag you towards the living room excited to turn on a movie with you.
By the time Mingyu finishes and makes his way to the living room he stops short in order to just take in the scene. Mina curled up against your right side and Amy on your left, both of the girls watching some Christmas movie on the tv while your fingers brush over their hair. This was what Mingyu wanted for Christmas, no one had asked him of course but they never needed to. He didn’t want physical possessions, he wanted this with you.
You smile when you look up realizing Mingyu is leaning against the wall watching you. Gesturing with your head you signal for him to join you with the kids. Amy is the first of the kids to notice her dad smiling brightly when he moves to sit beside her putting his arm behind you all on the couch. Her eyes meet Mina’s across your lap where they share an enthusiastic smile. Neither one wanted to move just yet, this was the closest thing they had to a “complete” family for their entire life.
Logically both of them knew that not every family had a mommy and a daddy. All families were built differently but it hadn’t stopped them from wanting that dream and when they had become friends it all had started to fit together like a puzzle that somehow no one had lost any of the pieces. Mina nuzzles against your stomach making you smile, your fingers threading through her soft hair while Amy drags your hand from her head down to her side where Mingyu’s free hand is, your hands brushing lightly.
Mingyu takes in a deep breath meeting your eyes, a gentle smile on his lips as the small girl’s hand tries to hold both of you closely. Neither of you had the heart to move them now. Not while they watched their movie, not while they seemed so content and happy. You wanted more happy days for Mina. Mingyu wanted them for Amy.
When you lean your head back and to the side, finding Mingyu’s arm behind you, the corner of his lips turn up. “I can move if you want.” He smiles a bit brighter when you shake your head no but you also don’t move your head. Instead he watches you lean your head against his arm while you watch the movie. Mingyu isn’t sure what the movie is even about, he isn’t sure he’d even care now. He can’t take his eyes off you or his mind off the feeling of you against him.
If it wasn’t for the cheerful music signaling the end of the movie not even the kids would have really realized the movie was over. They too had started to enjoy the warmth of the four of you curled up on the couch, the fire crackling nearby. Amy stretches, finally letting go of your and Mingyu’s hands leaning up to stretch, Mina quickly mimicking her. You both watch as smiles spread across their faces before the girls slide off the couch. “Both of you just…stay here.”
Mingyu laughs though he glances at you a bit sad when you sit up and slightly away from him but he knows why. “We won’t move Mina.” Amy grabs her hand dragging her towards her bedroom to presumingly grab the ‘early Christmas presents.’ You take a breath stretching a bit on the couch before feeling his eyes on you causing you to look over at Mingyu.
“Hi…” Just a simple word from his lips makes your skin prickle and a shy smile to creep along your lips. When you glance down at your hands Mingyu laughs, glancing back towards the hall to check on the girls before sliding closer to you. His fingers gently tilting your head back up to look at him. “I’m really glad you are here Y/N. I’m glad you came to breakfast and that you haven’t left yet…this is really nice seeing you for longer. Not feeling like you are always rushing out the door needing to get something done.”
His fingers push your hair along your neck causing your eyes to move along his face, from his lips to his eyes while you listen to him talk. “And I hope you don’t find me to be too forward and possibly an ass but if I don’t just say what I’m thinking with you I’ll chicken out and never say anything.” You laugh finding yourself just barely leaning into his delicate touch. “I think…I’d rather you just say it Mingyu. I can’t play games. Like you said I’m always rushing and there is a reason for that usually.”
Mingyu’s thumb glides along your cheekbone while his eyes seem to trace over your face like he wants to commit it to memory. “But we also have to be careful around the girls and not forget our promises. Remember?” He nods but doesn’t move, he simply points to his ear and smiles at you. “I’m listening for them and you can see over my shoulder. I just wanted a moment and I’ll move back, but I have to tell you that you are so beautiful. You always are but this morning you have taken my breath away every single time I have looked at you.”
Mingyu laughs when you try to look away, his thumb catching your chin turning your head back up to him. Your shy eyes meet his once again while he speaks. “And I know you know I have been looking at you quite a bit today. I apologize for that, I know it’s forward of me, but again like you said, no more games.”
You start to speak but Mingyu drops his hand and slides back a couple of inches, clearly hearing something you hadn’t but then you see the girls move around the hall. He smiles at you giving you a quick wink when you sit up a bit more trying to make it appear as if nothing was going on. You both quickly find out that neither of the kids would have noticed anyway, both of them holding a decorated piece of folded paper in their hands, their eyes on the paper.
“What ya got girls?” You smile at Mingyu's voice that seems to bring the kids out of their concentration and back to reality. Mina looks to Amy for her to take the lead knowing she had the most courage of the two of them. You feel your heart tighten slightly leaning forward reaching for Mina who takes a step towards you but doesn’t offer you the paper just yet.
“So we were learning about how not everybody wants toys and games for Christmas in school.” Mingyu nods along with Amy’s words reaching up to push her hair behind her ear, a smile on his lips. “Mm, that's very true.” She smiles finally meeting her dad’s eyes, most of her courage returning when she shows him the piece of paper. “Mina and I don’t just want those either. So we’ve made these for you.”
When Mina hands you the letter, you tilt her head up with your free hand smiling at her gaining one in return. “Did you decorate this too?” She nods, chewing at her lip causing you to laugh. “It’s so pretty, so many colors. Do you want us to read them now?” Mina nods, clearing her throat in an attempt to gain her own courage.
“Yes, please. They are very portant. I mean important.” Mingyu reaches over to brush his hand over her head when she corrects her word, a smile on his lips as Amy lays her letting in his hand. You watch the girls link their hands taking a few steps back choosing to sit on the floor, their eyes on you both in anticipation. Mingyu sighs a bit nervously, his glance meeting yours while his fingers unfold the letter carefully. You follow his lead doing the same with Mina’s, your eyes beginning to move over the page and her obviously carefully written words.
‘Dear Mommy,
First of tall, I love you very much. You are the best mommy in the whold wide world. Thank you for being my mommy. I do want dolls for Cristmas but I want something else too so I know how you make lists. I thoght I could do that too.
Props and Coms to you and Mr. Kim getting married: ‘
You look up at your daughter, your cheeks burning warm even though she smiles at you. Her spelling has gotten much better, that was your first observation. You were very proud of her but the context of the letter while not surprising was still a shock. Mingyu glances over at your letter, unable to stop the smile that crosses his lips before he returns to his own.
‘Dear Daddy,
I love you mostest. Even more than chocolate ice cream. I know you are the smartost person in the world so this won’t be a surprise. I don’t think I want anything for Cristmas. I mean if you ready got me presents that’s ok, I know Santa will bring more. I have been real good. But I want you to marry Miss. Y/L/N. I want her to be my mommy. I know she makes you smile like when I tell you a joke even though she is not funny. She’s really pretty. I know you tink so too. So I figure you ready have a ring like the boys in the Hallmark movie so maybe you can give it to her on Cristmas. Be a gennleman daddy.
Love, Amy’
Mingyu takes a deep breath finishing his letter while you are still going over the list of pros and cons or as Mina had put them props and coms for why you and Mingyu should be married. Less time on the road for you, she could have a daddy, you could have a husband. You sink into the couch continuing to read, realizing there were no “coms”.
Mina chews on her cheek watching you carefully finally moving to her feet to come to your side looking over your arm. Her little finger pointing to the last “prop” on her list. “That one is my most important reason. I like to see you smile and Mr. Kim does that the most.”
You swallow hard, attempting to keep yourself composed while you nod at her explanation. All eyes following your hands when you fold your letter back up and put it in your lap. “Um…girls.” That tone in your voice, the disappointing one that Mina knew. Amy watches Mina’s bottom lip start to tremble, the girl sliding from your grip but you aren’t quick enough to catch her before Mina is down the hall.
Mingyu frowns a bit folding his own letter, he wasn’t sure how to react to it all either. He hated to disappoint the girls but it wasn’t as easy as they wanted it to be. He watches you run your fingers through your hair before you stand and follow Mina down the hall, the soft click of a door opening and shutting then silence.
Amy doesn’t look up at her dad, the disappointment hanging in the air like a heavy fog. “Amy?” Hearing her name, she still doesn’t look up, instead Amy makes a sound to acknowledge that she had heard her dad causing him to slide off the couch into the floor with her. “It was a very nice letter, from both of you. A wonderful gift, thank you baby.”
She was strong, rarely cried so when tears slipped down her cheeks Mingyu had to hold his own back. “Oh, no honey. Listen, Y/N and I…adults are complicated. It’s not like the movies. Baby no one is trying to hurt you or Mina. I would give anything to give you the family you obviously want so badly…but things don’t happen for anyone in two hours like you see on tv. I know what you and Mina are trying to do and it’s so sweet of you both but can you do me a favor and try to let me and Y/N worry about the heavy stuff?”
Amy lets her dad hold her close, his fingers brushing away her tears while she nods. His heart still beating quickly listening to her soft sobs. “You are so young, don’t worry about playing matchmaker right now. Just worry about having fun with your best friend, about school, and about how much you are going to enjoy Christmas.”
Mingyu watches his daughter shrug her shoulders, his cheek meeting her forehead while he listens to her talk between soft whimpers. “I will try, but daddy I just wanted us to be…” He nods as her voice trails off because he knows what she wanted and honestly what he was wanting too. “All I can ask is that you try.”
Mina clings to you, both of you sitting on Amy’s bed surrounded by stuffed animals and dolls. Her little hands hold tightly into your sweater even though you knew she was upset at you. You hadn’t pressured her to talk, you had only told her how much you loved her and how sorry you were to disappoint her. It felt like you were always disappointing her.
“Did I not write it good enough?” Your own eyes close tightly, fighting back the urge to let tears slip from your eyes. “You wrote the letter so well. It was beautiful, Mina. I just need for you to try to understand that life doesn’t work that way. No matter if we want it to or not.”
She didn’t understand that, not when you looked so happy around Mr. Kim and then when you were at home you seemed sad. This was just logical to Mina. “I have so much to think about when it comes to who I would be with. My own pros and cons list would be much different, baby. You didn’t list a single con but I’m afraid there are always going to be cons.”
Mina shakes her head glancing up at you like you are speaking gibberish. “Like what? He’s so nice. You are nice. He cooks good and he has Amy. He’s a good daddy.” Your fingers work to untangle her hair while you sigh nodding. “You are right, I don’t disagree with those baby, but what about if Mr. Kim and I don’t end up getting along? I have to put you first always. Everyday I wake up with you in my mind and how I can make your life better.”
You watch her eyes blink out large tears that trail over her cheeks only to be wiped away by you. “My life, our life would be better with them.” You didn’t disagree with her but you couldn’t give her false hope when you were so uncertain of everything. The relationship with Mingyu had barely even begun. “Maybe, yes, but how about we just take this all one day at a time? Can you do that for me?”
You get a skeptical look from Mina who only when she meets your sad eyes does she nod. “Thank you. I love you so much, Mina and I would never hurt you. Not if I can help it, it is my job to keep you safe and healthy. That’s why I have to make decisions you might not like or go slowly with things even if it’s not how you want it to be right now. I know that’s a lot, maybe for you to understand but let’s just get through Christmas okay?”
Mina sighs, reaching up to wipe her nose with the back of her hand making you sigh. “Okay but only if you promise we will come here for Christmas.” She was so good at trapping you when you were weak, truly your child. “Okay, we will come here for Christmas, but only if you put this behind you and work hard at school.”
Sitting up Mina offers you her pinky drawing another sigh out of your mouth. “It’s serious business mommy.” You laugh, nodding when you link your pinky with hers, both of you leaning to kiss the top of your fingers sealing your promise. “No take backs.”
There were a few days when you were able to sleep in. Very few holidays that were deemed important enough that your work actually allowed you to have them off but Christmas was one of them. So you hadn’t set an alarm, instead you had planned foolishly to allow yourself time to sleep thinking you would get to sleep in to maybe even 8 in the morning.
When Mina’s body lands on top of yours, her excited voice in your ear all you can manage is a whine. Your hand pulling at her to tug her under the covers trying to make her realize it was far too early for this. “Mommy, Merry Christmas! We have to get up, what? No! No, under the covers silly. It’s already 5 in the morning. We are going to be late!”
“Late?!” You whine out the word and tug your daughter back to you hugging her tightly making her laugh. “I promise you Mina that Mingyu and Amy are not getting up right now, and if Amy has, Mingyu has done this exact thing to her. Now shh, sleep more.” Mine smiles curling her body into yours nuzzling under your chin listening to you talk.
“Mommy?” Her voice makes you let out a tired questioning sound, her fingers playing with the fabric of your night shirt. “You said Mr. Kim’s first name. You’ve been doing that a lot more.” Shaking your head, you pull her closer turning on your back. Mina watches you throw your arm over your face in the low light, a laugh on her lips. “Go back to sleep Mina. Give me at least another hour. Your mom is tired, and all she wants for Christmas is sleep.”
Mina smiles at your words nudging up against you with a small yawn, she had been wide awake but why was your bed always more comfortable than hers? It was so warm and you were so warm and felt so safe. She only nods a couple times before Mina is back asleep on your chest in a few minutes.
You hadn’t been wrong that Amy had attempted to wake Mingyu up just as early only to be wrapped in a blanket now squished up next to him softly snoring. Mingyu had managed to get around an hour more of sleep but as the sun began to rise he couldn’t help but open his eyes along with it. It seemed unusually bright, Mingyu had to squint sliding out of bed carefully not to wake Amy making his way over to the window to peek out. He can’t help but to smile a bit seeing a fresh layer of snow on the ground. “She’s getting everything she wants for Christmas it seems…”
Amy whines making Mingyu turn around seeing his daughter waking back up. She was struggling with his blanket that he had wrapped around her in attempts to in his own way swaddle his 6 year old daughter. A laugh falling from his lips he moves to help her untangle the fabric letting her sit up and stretch, her hair pointing in all different directions while she squints from the same light that had woken him up. “It’s bright…”
Mingyu runs his hand over her hair trying to tame some of the hair but he knows only a brush will really do the trick. “Mmhm, you should go into the living room and see why.” Amy grins, beginning to catch on to her dad’s meaning. Mingyu chuckles following behind his daughter, her feet hitting the hardwood floors quickly in excitement, a happy gasp leaving her mouth when she finally crawls up on the couch to look out of the window seeing the snow.
“Christmas miracles! Daddy, I asked Santa for snow!” Mingyu pretends to not know everything that Amy had asked for, simply letting his eyes widen in surprise. “And it seems like he probably left a bunch of the other stuff under the tree.” Amy giggles when Mingyu sits down next to her before she glances towards the tree in awe at all the different gifts.
“Woah! Why are there so many?” Mingyu can’t help but to cover his amused smile with his hand shrugging a bit when Amy crawls off into the floor to look at the gifts. “Oh my gosh, daddy! Santa brought Mina’s gifts here! How did he know? That’s so cool! You should call Miss. Y/L/N and tell her right now.”
Amy keeps carefully digging through the gifts, almost beginning to sort them while Mingyu shakes his head suppressing his laughter. “Should I? I will send her a text. How does that sound? Then I will start breakfast and you will keep your little paws off the presents. You will instead go take a brush to your hair and try to make it look like you didn’t get electrocuted.”
Pursing her lips in confusion, Amy turns to sit on her knees looking up at her dad as he pulls his phone from his sweatpants. She watches him send you a quick text, her head titling before he meets her eyes and laughs at her expression. “What’s that look for?”
“What’s lectrocuted?” Mingyu sighs and shakes his head trying to think how he could explain it, reading a text back from you, a grin spreading over his face. “It’s uh…you know what electricity is. The lights, when you get shocked. Your hair goes all over like that. Now go brush your hair Einstein. Mina will be here soon.”
“My name is Amy, you know my name Daddy. Just because you were reading your phone…gosh boys are so weird.” Laughing Mingyu simply puts his phone on the counter getting to work on Christmas breakfast hoping he will have at least most of it done before you arrive.
When you and Mina finally make it inside you are pulling her back to get her out of her jacket and shoes before letting her run off to find Amy. The smell of food hitting your nose makes you take in a deep breath, your mouth watering almost instantly. Walking through the house you find Mingyu in the kitchen, a smile on his face when you are finally close enough. “You finally just let yourself in for once.”
He laughs watching you roll your eyes, his own eyes surveying behind you only to step closer his hand running along your hip to pull you in a bit closer. “Morning…” Your cheeks warm instantly at his touch and attention. You still weren’t used to it and having to hide it from the girls made it even harder, but you still can’t help the smile on your lips. “Good morning.”
Mingyu’s lips press to yours gently and briefly before he lets you turn your head to see what he is working on at the stove. “It’s almost done. I thought I’d go a little traditional and a little not. I made some waffles, bacon, eggs, kimchi fried rice, and pajeon.” You shake your head reaching to pick up a piece of the bacon, biting off a piece then putting it to his mouth letting him take the rest from your fingers.
“You cooked enough for 10 people, Gyu.” He laughs swallowing the bacon, his neck heating up when you shorten his name. He still wasn’t used to it but he loved hearing it but he thought to himself there would be other names for him from you he might like even more. “Maybe but we can eat what we have leftover for lunch and then some of this like the rice will heat up really well for snacks.”
Always thinking ahead. One of the many things you found out that you loved about him. No, that you liked about him. You have to correct yourself even in your head clearing your throat nodding to his words. Taking one of the serving dishes you watch him carry three balancing one plate on his arm making you shake your head while you follow him into the dining room. Your eyes follow him but do seem to travel over his body until he makes a sound having caught you.
“Hmm, remind me later that I need to give you a Christmas present when we can be alone.” You start to complain but the girls running into the room at the smell of food cuts you off. “Oh my gosh! Mr. Kim, this looks so good!” Mingyu grins at Mina’s complement reaching over to ruffle her hair while the two girls take their seats. You start to move back to help him get the rest of the food but find him standing behind you.
“I’ve got the rest. Let me get your chair.” Amy makes an ooo sound causing Mina to giggle when Mingyu pulls out your chair for you, letting you sit down. “Daddy, so gentleman like.” Mingyu shoots finger guns at his daughter with a wink playfully making you laugh. “You said it right, I’m proud of you baby.”
Amy laughs rolling her eyes at her dad’s antics, her gaze finding you while you run your fingers over your hair trying to regain your composure. “Miss. Y/L/N, did daddy tell you about Santa bringing all the gifts here?” You smile at her and nod, leaning to start dishing out some food to the girls while Mingyu brings in the rest taking his seat.
“He did, that’s very exciting and convenient.” Mina laughs at how you choose to answer Amy picking up her fork stabbing at some of her food. “Amy said there are presents under the tree for you too Mommy and some not from Santa.” You furrow your brows glancing at Mingyu who tries to act innocent shrugging only to hand over the syrup to you.
“Is that so? Well we will have to take a look after breakfast is all done and cleaned up.” Amy nods in agreement while you raise a brow at Mingyu who simply smiles at you taking a big bite of pajeon. You shake your head amused with him deciding to pay more attention to the girls when you feel his free hand on yours under the table resting on your knee. His thumb gently glides along the back of your hand causing you to pause what you are doing.
Mingyu smiles at your reaction but he keeps the girls entertained talking to them both about the snow and the possibility of playing in it once all the presents are opened. When you turn your hand over letting his fingers lace with yours it’s his turn to be surprised. Mingyu’s breath catches, his eyes lowering to the table and both of you are pleased to hear the girls continue talking between themselves about their plans.
With your eyes on his, Mingyu doesn’t even hear when Amy speaks to him until you tap at the back of his hand and gesture with your head towards his daughter. “Mm what did you say sweetie?” Amy laughs, raising a brow at his reaction, some egg on the corner of her lips making him smile. She doesn’t budge even as her dad leans over to wipe them away, her mouth still moving to speak, “You two always take longer than us to eat but today can we maybe just go all together to the living room?”
Mingyu smirks into a sigh at her question, his hand falling from yours so that he can use both of his hands with his food for a few moments. “Yes, if we make a deal. When you two are finished, go start on dishes. We can work on them together then go open presents. You two always get out of dish duty. Give back since it’s Christmas, help me and your mom.”
You breath catches at how he says that last sentence and you notice that he seems to pick up on it too. “Mina’s…mom. You know what I mean.” Amy raises her brow even higher if possible glancing at Mina, both girls nodding but not before sharing a look of interest once again. You take a large sip of coffee meeting Mingyu’s eyes over the cup while he shoves food into his mouth only to glance away silently cursing at himself for a slip of his tongue.
Amy was right in knowing she and Mina would finish first. You and Mingyu watch the two girls gather their plates heading towards the kitchen only to hear the sound of water and their chatter when they leave the two of you alone in the dining room. “Sorry…” Your eyes lift to find Mingyu looking from you to his plate while he pushes around the last bit of food, concern written on his features.
“For? Why are you apologizing?” Mingyu sighs and almost whines making you laugh, it never ceases to amaze how a man so large could be so small sometimes. “Gyu, it’s fine. Nothing you said was…wrong really. I am a mom and they are now helping out. So where was the reason for you to say sorry?”
He picks up his coffee finishing off the last bit before sitting the mug back down, a soft breathy sigh slipping from his lips. “I’m trying so hard to keep my promise and keep everything from them but I also just want to be with you. I’m tired of having to pretend like I’m not falling in l..like I’m not in a relationship with you.” You watch him quickly backtrack on his words, your heart racing in your chest.
“I know, I don’t like it either but we said we wouldn’t tell them anything until we were sure about everything. We can’t risk hurting them. At the end of the day how we feel about each other is the least important thing.” That stung a bit, Mingyu’s face shows that just as much as it felt for you to say it. “Do you mean that Y/N? Or are you just trying to make it make sense?”
Mingyu watches you swallow hard, your head shaking while you try to come up with words only to fall short. His hand moves along yours on the table to hold it, his thumb sliding gently along your skin. “I won’t make you answer that right now. Let’s just have a good day with the girls and go from there, huh?” You nod in response, leaning your cheek into his lips when he leans to kiss it quickly.
The table slowly clears leaving you to grab just your own plate and a couple of leftovers so you can join the others in the kitchen. You find Mingyu at the sink having taken over the main washing duty letting the girls dry the dishes. A soft smile forms on your lips even though your stomach was in knots from your earlier words to him. Did you mean it?
You shake your head answering yourself in your head, no you hadn’t. He was important to you. The way you felt about him and how he felt about you was important, incredibly so. Over the past few weeks he had quickly become someone you looked forward to seeing as often as possible. You never thought that your relationship with him could make him an even better friend to you but you proved yourself wrong once again.
With the dishes washed and put away, leftovers safely secured for later, you and Mingyu follow the girls into the living room where they are given the go ahead to start going through the gifts. You join Mingyu on the couch sitting a few inches away from him watching Mina and Amy placing gifts into piles. “Are you going to take turns or just open them?”
Amy considers your question and picks up a gift with a grin that always reminded you of her dad, her eyes finding yours. “Take turns. This one is yours.” You furrow your brows reaching out to take the small long box from her hands to read the tag with a sigh looking at Mingyu who glances away towards the fireplace to avoid you. “Open it mommy.” Your fingers work over the wrapping paper slower than the girls would like but you find Mingyu’s eyes back on you when you finally reach the box under the paper and are able to open it, finding a thin gold bracelet inside. Small delicate gems hanging from the chain in different colors that shimmered in the light from the window making you take a deep breath.
“Do you recognize all of them?” You nod but quickly shake your head. You knew some of them but there were two you didn’t. Two stones were your and Amy’s birthstones, the others were different but it quickly made you realize who they belonged to. “You and Amy…” Mingyu smiles, reaching to take the bracelet out of the box, setting that to the side so he can put it around your wrist while the girls watch.
“So you can have everyone with you no matter where you are.” Mingyu isn’t aware of the tears in your eyes but Mina is. Her face falls in concern when she starts to move to her feet only to stop when you surprise everyone in the room by turning Mingyu’s face to yours pressing your lips to his. “Mommy…”
Mingyu smiles against your lips as the girls gasp and begin to talk excitedly until you pull back realizing what you have just done. “Oh my gosh! Santa got the letters for real. I mean it’s not a wedding on Christmas but…” Your cheek is warm under Mingyu’s thumb, his laughter helping to keep you grounded while you listen to the girls beginning to pick up other gifts.
“Seriously if he got that letter that means that I got a laptop Mina. Also we have like an entire wedding to plan. Daddy can’t do that and your mommy, oh my gosh she might be my mommy soon too!” You lean your head back and Mingyu lets you rest your head on his shoulder while he looks at the kids. “Hey what did I tell you before? Let us be adults and you two be kids. Open your presents.”
Amy gives him a sly look nodding while pulling one of her presents into her lap. “Whatever you say daddy.” Mina laughs almost matching her friend’s look before finding a gift with her name on it ripping at the paper. “Yeah whatever you say. You two just let us know when you need help. Cause we have an entire notebook ready. We’ve watched a lot of Hallmark movies.”
You sigh into a laugh finally looking up to see your daughter's eyes smiling when you see how happy she is. “I bet you have.” The rest of the morning goes almost as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Only a few glances from the girls and the occasional squeal of joy when they noticed that you and Mingyu were holding hands. It didn’t take long before they were both begging to go into the backyard to play in the snow.
Mingyu was more than happy to let you rest on the couch while he wrapped too many scarves around each of the girls. Both of them complained about needing to be able to move to play but he simply mocked them playfully tugging their hoods over their heads. “Stay where we can see you. If I look out that window and you are out of sight I will come find you and then melt all the snow.”
Getting a sour look from Amy, Mingyu smirked, pinching her nose before opening the door to usher both of the girls out into the cold. You watched from the couch, smiling when you saw them both come into view Mina instantly falling down to make a snow angel quickly followed by Amy. You don’t notice Mingyu joining you until his hand slides over your leg to your knee drawing your attention back to him.
“We will keep an eye on them, but they know the rules.” You smile with a nod watching him carefully and curiously when he leans up to reach behind a pillow to bring out another small wrapped gift. “You didn’t remind me but I remembered anyway.” When you laugh Mingyu’s smile grows exponentially, his eyes following your hands take the gift from him to set it on your lap.
“First of all you didn’t give me time to remind you and secondly I literally didn’t get you anything Mingyu. We said no gifts and you lied right through your perfect teeth.” Mingyu grins shrugging, reaching up to push a piece of your hair behind your ear while he glances out of the window to watch the girls playing. “I already got everything I wanted so maybe I did lie, but I think I like spoiling you a little bit. It seems like you’ve never been treated like this and I kind of like the look on your face when it happens.”
Your cheeks warm causing Mingyu to smirk when he feels it under his touch. “You are blushing again.” The sound of his laughter is music to your ears even as you elbow him playfully causing him to jokingly double over only to place a kiss to your cheek. “Open your present.” When you sigh, Mingyu taps at your nose while biting at his bottom lip watching you.
“Stop looking at me like that.” Another laugh slips between his lips at your words, Mingyu’s hand moving from your face to the back of your neck while he watches you opening the present. “How am I looking at you?” You shrug moving the wrapping paper to the side first before opening the top of the box avoiding his eyes. “Like a school boy in love or something.”
Mingyu raises a brow and shrugs his lips considering your words. “Interesting way to put it, but not far off.” You start to say something back to him but when you move the tissue paper in the box you find yourself speechless. Plane tickets along with another small unopened jewelry box sit on more tissue paper waiting for you to touch. “Gyu?”
“Hmm?” He watches you lift the box first, putting it to the side, then your fingers pick up the plane tickets where you read the dates of the flight, seeing two round trip tickets to New York City for a long weekend during New Years Eve. “Oh…how could we even do that? We both have kids and that’s just a few days…like literally…”
Mingyu hears you start to spiral so he takes his eyes from the window where he had been watching the kids playing to look at you. His hand moving to gently grasp your chin turning your head towards him. “Promise not to get too mad at me but I already took care of that. I spoke with my mom and yours. They want to split the time between them and take care of the girls. I believe your mom’s exact words were to “whisk you off your feet” so I’m here to whisk you off your feet Miss Y/L/N.”
Your hands were shaking so Mingyu took the tickets out of your hands reaching to pick up the jewelry box putting that into your hand instead. “It’s not an engagement ring. I’m not that crazy, yet, but please open it.” You look at the box using your thumb to push open the box only to have your breath taken away once more when you do find a necklace inside. “The girls found this one the other day and kept saying how it would look so pretty on you. I have to admit they have really great taste.”
You watch Mingyu’s fingers take the necklace from the box, he only makes a small questioning sound and you already know what he wants. He smiles when you lift your hair and turn your back to him so he can put the necklace around your neck clasping it only to let his fingers trace the delicate gold chain. Your fingers run over the small teardrop diamond pendant now resting on your chest, surprised when you feel Mingyu’s lips gently press to the side of your neck only once before he pulls away and lets you drop your hair.
“So are you mad at me for planning behind your back?” Mingyu watches you shake your head, not making him smile a bit brighter. He finds himself leaning his cheek against your palm when you reach up to run your thumb along his cheekbone. “No, I’m not mad. I’m just honestly really happy. You asked me something earlier and I avoided it. I didn’t mean what I said. You are so important, this is important. I’m sorry.”
Mingyu’s brows knit together, his face turning to press his lips to your palm causing your stomach to tighten to the feeling. “It’s okay. I know why you said it, but I’m so happy to hear you say this now. You are important to me too Y/N. Amy, Mina, and you are the most important people in my life and when I said I got everything I wanted for Christmas I wasn’t lying. This is what I wanted.”
You turn your head towards the window in order to stop yourself from letting tears fall from your eyes at Mingyu’s words only to find yourself watching as Mina and Amy throw snowballs at one another. Mingyu moves your hand into his, holding it at his chest, his eyes following yours to watch the girls playing until they notice you both watching and wave. “This is what I wanted too, Gyu. Merry Christmas.”
Mingyu smiles, meeting your eyes once again when you speak, your words going straight to his heart and stomach. When you lean towards him brushing your lips against his gently, he can’t help but to smile against your lips. Mingyu’s free hand moves to hold the side of your face gently while the snow starts to lightly fall on the happy girls playing outside making them laugh joyfully.
please note that I am doing my best to tag all of you who have filled out the tag list form but tumblr won’t let me tag some of you. I think that is because either you have tags turned off or possibly a blank tumblr page. consider reblogging some of the fics you like from me or other writers. ♥
pairing: seungcheol x reader
wordcount: 15.6k
summary: you & cheol go back, like way back. growing up together, you never felt anything more for him than a proximity based fondness, but things are a little different since you moved back to town.
genre/themes: tattoo artist!coups, childhood acquaintances to lovers. brother’s best friend (but it’s not so much a theme as it is just a statement of fact). S L O W B U R N. idk that this is even fluff but more like just romance? mention of alcohol, tattoos, needles…cat?
a/n: truly idk what this is and why. it’s so long & self indulgent, but i’m in my soft era i guess, hah!
“Hi, I’m here for my tattoo with Seungcheol?” you checked in with the unfairly stylish receptionist at the front desk of the tattoo and piercing studio. “I booked for 3pm.”
“Okay, yes, here you are!” they smiled up at you, “If you want to just take a seat, I’ll see how he’s doing with prepping the room.”
“Perfect!” you smiled before moving towards the waiting area.
Your foot bounced excitedly as you waited. In addition to being excited to get your first tattoo, you were doubly excited because you had history with Seungcheol. He’d been one of your brother’s closest friends growing up and despite not keeping in touch since they’d left for college, you’d really enjoyed following his artistic evolution on social media. You weren’t sure if he’d recognize you anymore, to be honest. It would be funnier if he didn’t.
WARNINGS. i think there’s one (1) expletive, wonwoo is not good at speaking on the phone
A/N. happy holidays and long time (loooong long time) no see! i can’t believe how quickly time has passed and i don’t know how long i’ll be back (though as always i have multiple works-in-progress rn) but for now enjoy this spur-of-the-moment piece i wrote while avoiding studying for my final that’s today. this is unedited! there could be typos and grammatical errors >.<
LISTEN TO. “hit me up” by omar apollo, dominic fike, & kenny beats.
Wonwoo knew it wasn’t a good idea to mention you to his roommate. Because now all Soonyoung wants to do is force Wonwoo to make the first move, something that A) wouldn’t end well and B) will never happen in the first place. Wonwoo would rather suffer an untimely death than be the one to initiate anything. And that’s saying something considering this final paper he was working on right now felt pretty much like death.
“Just call her. Hit her up and go, ‘I’m in love with you, please go out with me or else I’ll throw myself out the window.’” Soonyoung purposely pitches his voice up an octave.
“One,” Wonwoo types away on his laptop, paying no attention to his meddling roommate, “My voice sounds nothing like that. And two, throwing myself out the window isn’t as grave of a repercussion when you remember we live on the first floor.”
Soonyoung sighs. “Okay, how about starting small? Ask her out to dinner or something. Something simple and easy.”
Wonwoo fakes a laugh. “Bold of you to assume that’s easy. There’s nothing easy about calling the girl you like and asking her on a date.”
“You don’t even have to do the first part. I can call her, and all you have to do is ask her out.”
Soonyoung’s offer gets ignored as Wonwoo continues to stare at the half-empty word document on his laptop screen. Knowing his roommate won’t let up until he acquiesces in some way, Wonwoo absentmindedly agrees, saying something like, “Sure. Do whatever you want.”
“Okay.”
“Okay.” Wonwoo echoes his roommate and the room descends into silence. Ah, peace and quiet. Something that almost never happens with Soonyoung in the room-
It’s too quiet.
The gravity of the situation doesn’t sink in until he spots Soonyoung a few steps away, Wonwoo’s phone in hand, your contact name pulled up. And Soonyoung’s ring-adorned finger hovering over the “Call” button.
Wonwoo fumbles for the phone, but Soonyoung yanks it out of reach. Wonwoo can only stand in frozen terror as his roommate presses the button for speakerphone and the ringing drones on.
He’s further cemented to his spot when you actually pick up.
“Hello? Wonwoo?” The line crackles as your voice fills the room. Your voice sounds different on the phone - a little deeper, a little more hushed as though this was a private conversation. It was supposed to be a private conversation.
Wonwoo’s stunned silence would have continued if it were not for Soonyoung swatting at his shoulder. Talk to her, his roommate mouths. “Uhm, yeah, hi.” His voice threatens to crack at the end of his sentence, and he clears his throat.
“Hey.” There’s a hint of bemusement in your voice. “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, yeah, everything’s fine. Sorry for the call, I usually don’t do that, -“
“-Yeah, I got a little confused,” you confess with a breathy laugh. “I wasn’t sure if something was wrong, and even if so I would’ve expected a cryptic text first.”
God, he loves your sense of humor. Wonwoo forces a chuckle. “Yeah, yeah, sorry. So, uh. What’s up?”
There’s a beat of silence from you. He can hear your amusement when you echo back his question. “‘What’s up?’”
Soonyoung facepalms. But he’s at least brought Wonwoo’s phone down to an attainable level now, so Wonwoo takes the opportunity to retrieve it.
He immediately presses the button to remove you from the speakerphone and brings the phone to his ear. “Sorry, sorry, I got sidetracked. This is why I send my cryptic texts.” Your laugh on the other end affirms Wonwoo in his defusing of the situation, and so he continues. “When did you say you were heading back home again?”
“Saturday afternoon. Why, what’s up?”
Fuck it, here goes nothing. Wonwoo takes a deep breath. “The reason why I was calling you is because I was wondering if you wanted to go grab something to eat before you leave to celebrate the end of finals but if you aren’t able to that’s okay.”
Wonwoo ignores the way Soonyoung is staring him down with an incredulous look on his face. Wonwoo is pretty sure he’s red in the face right now.
Once again, more silence on your end. Wonwoo thinks maybe the call has disconnected (or maybe you were so offended by his proposal that you hung up), and he’s about to bring the phone away from his face to check his screen when you finally respond.
“That’s the most I’ve heard you say in one go.” Once again, you’re laughing, and Wonwoo’s worries dissipate. He’s still nervous, of course, especially considering you haven’t actually answered to his offering yet, but something about your laidback nature really puts him at ease. It almost makes him think that even if you said no, he’d be okay-
“I’d love to grab food with you. Did you want to do Friday night or Saturday morning?”
What.
Wonwoo’s roommate has since crept closer to him, head leaning in on the other side of the phone to listen in on the conversation. Soonyoung is just as shell-shocked as Wonwoo is when you say yes.
“Mm, uh,” Wonwoo clears his throat, “Friday night works for me. I’ll be free from my last final by then.”
“Sick! Me too. I can’t wait to be free from the grips of biochem after Friday afternoon.” There’s rustling on your end, likely you getting up and moving around. “I have to head back to studying right now, but we can text as it gets closer to figure out specifics?”
“Sure. Sounds good.” Wonwoo’s throat has gone dry.
Soonyoung has decided at this point that his job is done, and he walks away from Wonwoo with a fist pumping in the air as though his favorite soccer team just won the World Cup.
Wonwoo returns his full attention to you. He can hear your grin when you say, “Great. Oh, and Wonwoo?”
He expects there to be a caveat, a “but” at the end of your acceptance. “Hm?”
Warnings: mildly suggestive content. drinking/alcohol mentions. (mentions of having children.)
[Series: Serenity Street 17] Your boyfriend’s been trying to propose to you all week, but he’s starting to wonder if he should wait until you’ve settled into your new apartment.
[DAY 1, FRIDAY]
Tucked in the deepest crevices of his pocket, the ring weighted heavy. It was hidden in a small green velvet box, waiting for its time to shine on your finger, just like he was waiting for the right moment to present it to you.
The ring seemed to get heavier the more in love he fell – or so he had found. But the timing was never right. But maybe this week he could finally break out of this circle and propose like he’d been daydreaming for so long.
“Wonwoo!” your voice called his attention away from the ring. He hummed and feigned a smile that would soon become genuine. You let out a helpless laugh and pointed to the pile of cardboard boxes waiting in the back of your car. “Aren’t you going to help? What? Am I the only one moving?”
warnings: food mentions. reader throws wrapped mini-candy canes at jeonghan for being jeonghan. joshua stirring up a little bit of shit. two dorks in love having their little competition and getting (jokingly) heated over it.
daisy’s notes: me writing this: man i hope my jeonghan moots love this one.
“You’re just mad that my house already looks better than yours.”
❝ Everything falls apart in your life at the exact same time leaving you a shell of a person as you spiral further and further into despair. You had grown comfortable in the silence until you gain a new loud as fuck neighbor that wants nothing more than to see what you look like when you smile. ❞
or the one where soonyoung moves into the right apartment at the right time despite your denial.
ao3 | m.list | minors dni !! | if you read it, reblog it.
preview wordcount― 2k
est. total wordcount: less than 50k (hopefully but probably not)
pairing― soonyoung x afab reader
content― EXTREME SLOW BURN, soft top soonyoung who dyes his hair blonde, heartbroken reader, you have a cat, fall and winter timeframe, comfort, alcohol consumption, halloween party and christmas party, strangers to friends to best friends to idiots to lovers. smut, fluff.
side characters ― vernon as the shitty ex boyfriend, seungkwan as the bitchy best friend, seokmin as the endearing aloof baby of a man, minghao as the center of attention, jihoon as the miserable, seungcheol as the guy who hits on you at a party
warnings― reader was cheated on and loses her job, intense descriptions of depression but no mentions of self-inflicted harm, there’s a lot of angst the reader goes through before it gets better.
note― hello this is my debut into svt fics, so if any of yall don’t know me im just gonna let you know now that i don’t proof read my works so pls don’t come at me. but but but!! liking this post will show the interest readers may have in it and drive me to write it more quickly.
**disclaimer** this is a preview post that may turn into a master post if this fic ends up being too long to read in one sitting for some people. please note that there will be smut, despite possibly not being for a while considering this is what one could call a true slow burn. minors should not interact with me ever,
Your best friend of several years says that he can share a bed without being weird. Well, he’s a fucking liar.
or the one where neither of you sees any harm in fucking just to see what it’s like.
ao3 | minors dni! | kindly leave feedback and reblog, i will kiss your forehead so fucking fast if you do.
WORDCOUNT― 3.7k
PAIRING― seokmin x afab reader
CONTENT― first time with big boy bestie, crackish, fluffish, mostly just smut
NOTE― im just in love with him bro. i know that i’m typically more known for writing plot and/or really detailed smut scenes with a bigger word count but i’m having fun relaxing and writing these little fics in my free time (ㅅ´ ˘ `) , which means this is not proof read.