Drop all the fan fics right now 😡😤
Buttons series by Daosdooldes [WooSan, Rated E, 194k]
Wooyoung has been working as San’s assistant for years, preparing documents and helping his boss with the company. When San starts to make advances, subtly, Wooyoung isn’t sure if he’s allowed to open the floodgates to something he’s forcibly held dormant.
And San?
San is absolutely captivated by his pretty little assistant.
I devoured this series over the course of a week. It starts as a typical office romance AU between CEO San and his assistant Wooyoung, but what I found really compelling was their gradual and largely-unspoken progression into an intense BDSM relationship (of the brat/brat-tamer variety). What I appreciated about Buttons is how much the author told us without *telling* us about their dynamic. In some ways what they develop is under-negotiated but they both know exactly what kind of relationship they want with each other. There are moments where the fact that they cannot actually read each other's minds comes back to bite them. San is fallible and Wooyoung emotionally withholding, yet the author made legible all the reasons they are drawn to each other and compatible with each other. There is also so much gentle and soft and romantic domesticity throughout, which put me into a good headspace while reading.
Electric Touch by Daosdooldes [WooSan, JongSang, Rated E, 261k]
"It's just for one night," Yeosang says with a shrug, his voice light and teasing. "Besides, it's for charity. Are you really going to deprive at-risk youth of money just because you don't want to spend one evening with a stranger?"
Wooyoung narrows his eyes.
"Don't twist this on me."
Or
Wooyoung meets San at a charity event and he’s not exactly sure what it is, but there’s something interesting about the stranger who wins a night with him.
The most recent fic by the same author as the Buttons series, and this one scratched every itch I had for romance, intimacy, smut, friendship, and WOOSAN-ness. In this fic, San and Jongho are boxers who meet idols Wooyoung and Yeosang. Like the Buttons series, WooSan have an instant connection and they remain mutually obsessed (and slightly codependent) in a way that really satisfied the lizard part of my brain that loves this kind of stuff in romance fic:
“Jongho said that boxers have certain personalities,” Yeosang cuts in before they can answer, voice steady, thoughtful. “For fun. Because they’re angry. Because they have something to prove. Or because they want to protect.”
There’s a moment of quiet. That word—protect—hangs in the air.
If the power imbalance of the Buttons series squicks you (or you're not a huge fan of BDSM), then this fic will give you what you need. It transposes the "danger" of the workplace relationship with the "danger" of Wooyoung being a celebrity and the risk to their careers, adding a some thrill to the story which helps to temper how sweet and sugary they are with each other (not that I'm complaining! I love them being mushy and gooey and calling each other puppy and darlin').
Closing Velocity by hungerbound (fullcredit) [Yungi, Rated M, 113k]
For a guy who drives one of the fastest cars in the world, Yunho isn't exactly the quickest on the uptake.
He learns, though. He learns.
This is a fantastic F1 racing AU written by someone who obviously knows what they're talking about. I had to text my F1-obsessed friend multiple times to ask about some of the more technical jargon, just because I became so interested in the world of racing. The power of a good writer!
Yunho and Mingi start the story as childhood-friends-to-lovers-to-exes: Yunho is defending his champion title but feels like an imposter; meanwhile, Mingi has gone on to become a famous musician. Yunho's fears and insecurities drove them apart and now he must prove to Mingi and himself that he can have both racing and love. I love the way this author writes Yunho and describes his world and emotions through the prism of racing:
When Mingi drew back, he was smiling so wide it almost hurt to look at. Yunho held on to him and kept him close. This part, at least, was familiar to him. Yunho’s a racecar driver. Racing is in his blood. That means he’ll always, without fail, do whatever it takes to close the gap.
This was also written in such cinematic language that I could see the story as I was reading it. Treat yourself to an excellent story!
warm blood feels good, i can't control it anymore by Syster [Yungi, OT8, Rated M, 6k]
The thing is... Mingi was always cute. Yunho’s been very open about it, whenever someone’s asked (that someone is mostly Mingi, honestly). Mingi was cute before he presented, and he was even cuter when he walked out of the scent-sealed season-chamber fiddling with his orange-red hair. Yunho can deal with cute. He knows what to do with Mingi being cute.
Yunho does not know what to do about Mingi who has broad shoulders and a tiny waist, who has thick thighs and an ass that honest to God jiggles when he moves with the force of his dancing, and Yunho especially doesn’t know what to do with a Mingi that’s so fucking aware of how hot he is.
or: yunho is pushed into a mortifying flash heat by stupid, sexy mingi. it's probably just lust (it's not just lust).
I loved this sexy, strange, non-traditional A/B/O story written by the same author of the iconic "Yunho has a talking dick named Stefano" fic that takes a crack premise and gives it unexpected heft. I was delighted by the unexpectedly clever world-building in this verse, which assigns alphas and omegas the traits of paradise birds "which means that the omegas are plain and unimpressed and the alphas are ridiculous and dumb." Have fun kids!
Fresh Sheets by starryaurora99 [WooSan, Rated M, 5k]
A dreamy and sexy interlude between established relationship WooSan during the recent tour, with lots of love and a little bit of angst.
little ponyboy by sugamins [Yungi, Rated E, 181k]
Mingi has been working on the Jeong estate for several years. They breed some of the best racehorses in Switzerland; the demand for their stock is prized all over Europe. He couldn’t have asked for a better job. He spends his day tending to beautiful horses and doesn’t need to talk to other humans much.
One summer, the Master is sent to the estate in preparation for his studies at a prestigious university. Yunho is a strange young man, and he quickly grows attached to Mingi.
Unhealthily so.
By the author of Honda Baby (my beloved) comes another fic to rewire my brain. Sometimes you read a fic so precise, so accomplished, so next-level *good,* that even the parts that make you viscerally uncomfortable become beautiful because of how persuasively the author writes those scenes and those interactions. How special it is when you find an author who you trust to guide you through tropes and tags that you normally wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole. Amazing that these fics come out of the Ateez fandom!!
This was fantastic, terrifying, thrilling, erotic, haunting, beautiful, romantic, tragic, hopeful... I can't wait for the sequel!
bedridden by mundaneyura [Yungi, Rated M, 41k]
Mingi hasn't had a good night's sleep in ages, but there isn't much he can do - except take some pills or go to the doctor, both of which he avoids like the plague. When Yunho - his best friend and roommate and favorite person in the world - suggests they share a bed, Mingi jumps at the opportunity, unaware that it might just change everything, and not only where his sleep is concerned.
or; The obliviousness-avoidance-fear trifecta, and how Mingi's friends (and their couches) help him overcome it.
A sweet friends-to-lovers fic where roommates Yunho and Mingi start sleeping in the same bed for platonic reasons while secretly pining for the other. Sweet and lovely with a nice helping of smut and an unexpectedly poignant ending.
flip it & reverse it by illie [JongSang, Rated M, 6k]
Yeosang is buff now. Jongho goes through an adjustment period.
and fvck this town for ruining us by pixiegold [Yunho/Mingi, Wooyoung/Mingi, Rated M, 66k]
Aware of how he feels. Aware of what he cannot have. Aware of how greedy he is. The greed that Yunho speaks of when he talks about the Bible, all sins and repentance and confessional booths that make Mingi’s skin crawl.
“Psalm 51:3,” he can almost hear it in his head in Yunho’s voice, “for I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.”
This one was a doozy. If you're looking for angst, religious guilt, toxic relationships, and small town homophobia/oppression, look no further! This one breaks my heart but pixiegold is so good that you gladly take that journey to see how it ends.
WIPS, but worth starting!
LAMBORGHINI ANGELby sugamins [JongSang, Rated M, 39k]
Jongho doesn’t understand what it is about Yeosang that keeps pulling him in. He’s never felt anything like this before.
This yearning, this desperate need to stay beside him.
The sequel/spinoff to Honda Baby focusing on Yeosang and Jongho's growing relationship. I love watching office worker Jongho fall in love with Chaebol kid Yeosang.
She bad, so maybe she won't, but shit then again, maybe she will by Yeonni [Yungi, minor Yunho/Seongha and Yunho/OMC, Rated E, 11k]
Yunho got fucked for the first time, in that alley with the brick wall in Barcelona. Mingi thinks it should have been by him, but it wasn't.
Remember during the EU tour when Yunho did that dance challenge up against the wall and we all lost our minds? This fic takes the premise that Yunho also went alone to that alley to discover his sexuality, aided by an encouraging Seonghwa. Mingi is spiraling. This fic has me by the throat!!
Mingi hadn't seen it. He's known Yunho since they were kids, but Yunho had made it look so effortless. At some point Seonghwa saw. He took Yunho out to look at fashion under the pretense of shopping for himself, showed him the right selca angles, and made what could have been traumatic into fun. He told the group about his own journey just so that Yunho would know that Seonghwa was there to hear him, if he wanted to open up, no pressure.
And now they're here. Babygirl. Yunho doesn't want to be a woman but he wants to be this; he doesn't want to change his body but wants to be small and petite. Mingi has tried and failed to wrap his head around it, and that bothers him, because he wants to give Yunho whatever makes him happy.
low frequencies by idrilka [Matz, Rated M, 57k]
It’s the nights that are the worst.
At night, with the creeping silence of the dead hour the only thing keeping him company at three in the morning, Hongjoong can do nothing but feel it. The sensation crawls under his skin like a million tiny ants. The noise in his ears is unbearable.
Hongjoong is a popular artist and successful producer suffering from insomnia. Seonghwa hosts a late night radio show. They've been orbiting each other for a long time.
My fave Matz writer has returned with a new story!! I am patiently waiting for this to complete (it updates weekly) but idrilka has never disappointed me.
Do you have any recs? Drop them in the replies!
