“I don’t think it’ll work,” he said, sulking, about it to Moon Young during one of their calls. The deadline was closing in and the target was unlikely to be met. “We can’t delay it any longer, otherwise we’ll lose the other booking and we’ll have nowhere to stay.”
“Yes. No,” she said, mumbling. “We don’t want that.”
•
for m!babies, simping and ghosting, in the summer, click here
this is not an update chapter, but for ao3 link, click here
say that one day I'll be back, don't hold your breath
just know I own a place for you always
cause that’s how love goes
and it goes, and it goes, and it goes, and it goes
LOOK. YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW HOW HAPPY I AM!!
excuse me. this moment is huge for me. h-u-g-e, okay? i initially only did a drawing but somehow i got greedy and tried my luck making it into a panel. i think it turned out pretty alrite and neat! (i could tweak a few more things but this is enough for now) so i hope you like it, because i do!!
PS. m!babies didn’t know what would hit them, did they? and God i wasn’t kidding when i said i loved Sam Smith. his voice and those lyrics he wrote omg.
😭🤧🫠🪦🤍
if you have more time and want to check other accompanying pieces i made for MM series:
• gallery here
• M!babies are the Worst Couple in the World here
Reblogs are always welcome but please no repost, especially without credit. Much appreciated!
He found the one hour drive from his professor house to be somewhat boring, if not tiring. The scenery seemed to be unable to uplift his mood, not entirely low but also on as high as he had previously hoped.
He would not want to face her in a bad mood, knowing she would probably give him a hard time about it anyway. If she had forgiven him for forgetting, she might still be sulky about last night’s conversation.
He knew it was his fault.
When he had been offered the chance to join his professor’s team for a national competition, he had not thought twice and agreed on the spot, forgetting that he had been giving his own words to help her doing an assignment she had been struggling on completing.
It was a rare occurrence for her to struggle in anything. Let alone admitting it.
Not wanting to bring his mood to a darker place, he turned on the radio, immersing himself into the slow jazz tunes from a channel she once told him when they had driven back to his house in another town to visit his mother just short of last month.
He recalled how happy he had been when those two had finally met. It had been a long overdue, even though she had been struggling at first.
Moon Young and struggling were two things that rarely came together in a sentence. So to see that happened had been something he would probably remember for a long time.
Furthermore when she had admitted that it had been her first time meeting a boyfriend’s parents.
Unlike him, she turned out to be a sceptic in a relationship, even though her parents were very much an exemplary choice of a successful one. If he had learned something out of it, he learned that nothing was ever guaranteed. She might have her own reasons, no matter how much others might perceive her and or her background.
Yet he had accepted her just from how she had been carrying herself, even before he had known who she had been. So for him, he had no prenotion, no judgment clouded his mind when he had caught her in his arms, when he had fallen for her.
That was probably why when his mother said Moon Young was a good fit for him, that was all the reassurance he ever needed.
He arrived in front of her apartment and had just decided to park nearby when he saw her coming out of the building, holding the large assignment with both of her hands. His car was practically near enough for her to notice straight away.
If he had noticed a subtle smile broke on her face, it was gone the moment he blinked away.
He noticed her bare faced and her messy bun. If other girls probably should choose between being comfortable and fashionable, she was blessed with looking too damn good in whatever she was wearing. Even just in his oversize hoodie and those leggings.
It was not exactly her intention, she was rarely this underdressed. But she was in a foul mood since last night so she did not bother to change into a more appropriate attire.
Knowing him, she had expected some kind of retaliation coming her way since he had broken his promise himself. Yet she had not expected him to arrive this early. She hoped she could mask her excitement pretty well. She wanted to get back to him just a little longer.
“You look awful.”
He did not disappoint to cheer her up, smiling as he complimented her.
“Thanks, you look beautiful as always.”
She was secretly relaxed upon finding him being calm. That would make her have a bigger chance of being sulky and leech on him.
“Moon Young, get in, let me drive you. You can’t carry that to campus by walking.”
“Actually I can. A lot of people do it, so you don’t have to do this.”
His smile grew tired, like his eyes.
“I know but you shouldn’t. Let me help you.”
She noticed he must have been tired from both his own deadline and long driving. She could not stop herself from worrying already.
“Well, why don’t you wait here and get some sleep upstairs? I can take your car, if that’s where your concern is.”
“No, I don’t want you to drive when you haven’t been sleeping.”
“Pot’s calling on the kettle, I’d say.”
“Moon Young, just get in here, please. You don’t want to make a scene, do you?”
Even though they had been going out for more than half a year and most of the people in their major had probably guessed it, somehow she was still avoiding to be seen in public with him. If he had suspected that had something to do with her last public catfight with Ju Ri, he decided not to do anything about it.
“I never asked you to do this for me.”
“I never said you did. You know that, don’t you?” He already knew her prideful stubbornness. And he always had a way to crack her. “I’m here already, so just, accept it. Help me out, will you? Please get in. I don’t want you to be late.”
She rolled her eyes at his pouting. Dejectedly, she walked around to get into the car, putting the assignment on the back seat.
She was just putting on the seatbelt when she noticed him staring at her patiently yet incredulously. She scoffed at his silent question at first, but gave in and leaned over to kiss him chastely. He did not budge, frowning even.
“What?”
To her question, he said nothing. She huffed in both amusement and annoyance as she took off the seatbelt before leaning over once more to kiss him again, a longer and deeper one.
He brushed her hair and smiled appreciatively before finally starting the car. He pointed out a tumbler in a cup holder between their seats.
“I got you something.”
She opened the lid and smelled the freshly brewed coffee.
“Oh,” she smiled, “did you steal this?”
He smiled, not answering.
“Professor said we could brew it ourselves anyway. So I did just that.”
“He surely knew about his coffee, like Dad said.”
“Are you mocking me?”
“Oh I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to do that,” she said while sipping on the debatable stolen goods. “It’s not my fault if you can’t appreciate good coffee. It’s an acquired taste.”
“It’s not my fault if I can enjoy almost any coffee. It’s called being flexible.”
She waved her hand dismissively.
“Please, there should be a limit to everything.”
“Yeah, like pain or parking tickets.”
This would be a never ending argument they had both done before so she relented. His peace offering with the coffee was working anyway.
“How was the deadline?”
“Fine, we actually finished it sometime before the closing hour.”
“Everyone got home already?”
He shrugged.
“Not yet I guess. I excused myself first.”
“And left them all there?”
“They’re all adults. I’m sure they could find their way back just fine. That professor house is in the middle of nowhere but it’s not that unreachable. So don’t worry really, it’s no big deal.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m pretty sure,” he answered, confused. “Do you want me to call them right now, checking up on them?”
“Well, no, that’s fine, if you say so.”
“I can’t believe you are worried about them more than...”
She waited but he did not continue.
“Than what?”
“Than having me being here.”
“I didn’t say I wasn’t grateful for you being here.”
“No? You practically rejected my offer straight away earlier.”
“Well—”
“Well?”
She did not mean to rile him up but she took the chance anyway, putting her hand on his thigh.
“I’m sorry?”
He looked down at her hand before returning to her eyes, scoffing at her attempt to apologize.
“We shall see later.”
She took it as a good sign when he did not move her hand away.
Arriving at the campus, he drove inside the campus ground until they arrived at the front of their building but she asked to drive away to the parking lot, not dropping her right there.
“People can see. I don’t want them to talk about it.”
He wondered who she was kidding with the false charade she had persistently tried to maintain when she was wearing one of his hoodies—the one he was sure even his oblivious friends could recognize only by seeing.
And if they could, who knew who else would?
He relished inwardly on having that possibility into reality. Knowing she had probably not noticed that fact just yet, he kept his mouth shut and played her game for a while longer just to appease her.
At the parking lot, he further asked a rhetorical question just to try her.
“Do you need my help carrying it?”
True to his prediction, she shook her pretty head.
“No, thanks, I can do it by myself. It’s fine.”
He nodded as she got out of the car and opened the back door to get her assignment. He reclined his seat, fully planning on having a nap while waiting on her to drop her assignment and do the other necessary errands around it.
As for him, he had no other classes today anyway. He could make up for what he had done wrong last night all day today, knowing she had given him her permission to do so with her gesture earlier.
An untimely thought to have right now, he reprimanded himself.
There was a moment of silence and since he could not hear the door being closed, he took a glance back, seeing her watching him incessantly.
“I’ll try to be quick,” she admitted, “if you’re planning on waiting.”
It had not even crossed his mind to leave her now, after he had gone enough lengths just to help her crossing a few short miles.
“Of course,” he replied, “I’m not going anywhere okay?”
With a nod and a smile, she went by on her own while he waited on his end.
That it would take a little longer than what she had promised or what he had expected, neither of them had imagined.
She walked into the room quietly, blending seamlessly between crowd of the young, rich, and wild. It was almost a blessing how she didn’t drink amongst this hard drinking people. She got to keep her sharp tongue, sort out any possibilities of being misunderstood thus reduced any heartbreaks made a day after.
Yet there was always one or two who latched themselves on her way, despite her effort to stay on their blindsides. Perhaps there was something on her voice of greeting. The kind of low and sensous tone to every syllables. Consciously graceful, like her reputation.
Her face was lovely with a tinge of detachment on her bright eyes and a tight smile on her full lips, curved ever so slightly to meet the demand of any chatty opponents, before she excused herself, making her way out of the ballroom.
She walked through the high ceiling hallway with tall French windows on one side where moonlight shyly bled throughout the sheer drapes, highlighting the wooden floor. Her tiny heels echoed along the long yet comforting narrow space. A breeze blew into the room from a slightly ajar pair of windows.
Not one for a disturbed balance, in anything including the length of her white lace knee length dress but with the exception of her intricately curled one sided bangs, she stopped by the windows. Hands clutching on the handle, eyes looking outside to the garden where a fountain was located at the centre. Its water sparkled with the pale moon reflections and its rounded rim held a frail woman who was sitting and talking to a man, standing with his back facing the house.
She recognized his silhouette anywhere.
Betraying her need to get away from such sight, from fear of finding some secrets she shoudn’t have known, she stayed still, watching how he put his hand on his pocket and shook his head briefly. They seemed to be arguing because the man started to look around aimlessly while brushing his hand around his neck. His turning face abruptly made its way into her sightline, ultimately meeting her gaze.
She recognized his eyes even from a far.
This time, she followed her mind’s suggestion to find a better place for sight seeing. Keeping the last of his expression in memory, she returned to her previous destination. This house was a labyrinth but she had remembered some safe ways to let herself in and out. Upon reaching, the entertainment room on the end of the hallway was already opened. Just like what he promised her. She went in to the room, planted herself by the window across the door.
It would be a lost cause finding the exact time he came. It could be in a short or long time. Yet from her experiences, both equally rewarding.
“I’ve been thinking about you all day.”
Announcing his arrival with a declaration of longing as usual, he was a graceful demon, black against the glowing curtains. A clear glass with deep golden coloured liquid gleamed on his hand. Completing his whole dangerous look, a set of deep dark eyes that usually gave away his intention. An open invitation for her.
She recognized his gestures better every time.
“Do you miss me?”
She looked at him sideways, increduously. Said nothing more but a glare that she reserved only for him.
His chuckled upon her question was low and temptuous, clean and sleek like his hair. As if suited perfectly to meet her standard.
Stealthily, he came to her in no time, managed to put his glass on the desk before pushing her onto the window. The opening on her back hit her with coldness, yet her body burnt from his palm on her waist and his words in her ear.
“You’ll see. How much time do we have tonight, Munyeong?”
She recognized his touch the best. Her indulgence. Her creature of comfort.
He recognized everything about her. Nothing ever escaped him. Never.
Together, they had learned and adapted, stealing moments inside the shadows, on the abandoned corners.
Apart, because he was somebody else’s. The one who kept her near, a mere liaison for months, never once hers.
“It’s a good sign but rare instance when, in a relationship, you find that the more you learn about the other person, the more you continue to desire them. A sturdy bond delights in that degree of youthful intrigue. Love loves its youth.”
