This last chapter has me feeling so raw and weepy 😭😭 the stargazing with the diaspora buddies felt sooo needed and I loved Chan being there as the head alpha and natural buffer to kind of smooth out the bristly feelings I’m sure both Lixie and Mc felt like ughhh
Also I loved the detail of the pack vacating the nest when Mc wasn’t there. It’s YOUR space!!!! Please!! See it!!!! Gah, my heart!💔
Also purely from a planning standpoint as a reader i actually really like that Uhyeok seems to have waited up to a point for the boys to integrate mc into their lives before steamrolling in and trying to take over the planning around the omega aspect. I could even see how, from a manager point of view, mc is just another Thing to manage/piece to move on the chessboard like she’s a makeup artist or PA or something. Him bulldozing through their whole conversations completely gave me the ick and made me instantly dislike him which(!!!!) is perfect.
I almost feel like that last conversation with Hanna’s and Mc like getting ready to take on internships and planning her graduation and stuff was the end of the first Big Villain era(Danny) and now we’re onto the next Big Villain (Uhyeok and the Contract Conundrum) with the Final Boss as yet unseen. Idk maybe I’ve been watching too much anime but I just really like the way these last few chapters have felt like a soft transition ✨
For my question, with Channie’s recent bubble messages gushing over Stays in hanboks, it got me thinking. 🤔 what would the pack’s reactions be to Mc in Hanbok/traditional clothes? 💕
Hi hi hiiiiii 🥰🥰🥰 I’m glad you liked it!!! Chan is really dreamy this chapter…. 💛
I really wanted to establish in Uhyeok’s pre-chapter 59 interactions with MC how little he really respects her or even considers her as a fellow human being, and I’m glad that disrespect comes through! I totally agree with you re: MC being just another thing to manage in his mind
Hahahaha this story doesn’t really have villains per se but I know what you mean! 😆 I’m curious to see how you’ll categorize the last part of our story 🫶
And omg Channie’s messages were soooo cute — and I'm excited for Lunar New Year anyway, so I wrote this? 😊💛
(about 2k words, either post or future-canon!)
“It won’t be a big deal,” Yuri had sworn to you the night before Seollal. “Just a cute outfit for the new year. We can get our makeup done, and our hair, and— Hey, where are you going? You know Soohyunnie won’t do this with me. C’mon, please? I’ll buy you a coffee!”
Really, it isn’t that it doesn’t sound fun; it does sound fun. You love a makeover. It’s only that you’d promised to go over to the house that night to see your boys, and an early morning of being inspected and prodded by strangers is going to sap an ungodly amount of energy better reserved for socializing.
But then Yuri had put her little sister on the phone, all her newfound teenage stubbornness melted away by the possibility of getting her makeup done: “C’mon, unnie— Please?”
And so here you are: primped and polished, hair curled and adorned, shiny things on your nails. Your makeup is girly and sparkly in a different way, your face painted ethereally soft by someone else’s hand.
And then, of course, there’s the hanbok.
It’s not like you’ve never worn it before. When you first got here, Soohyun practically bullied you into renting some while the two of you took in the sights, even as she stayed in her normal clothes. Yuri had similarly bullied you into one that she’d rented for herself for a cousin’s wedding, taking photos and cooing at you. And your mom had an old one you used to try on when you were younger: nearly fluorescent blue, in that hyper-short-jeogori, hyper-shiny-polyester style that had been so popular when she was young.
It is, though, the first time you’ve worn it in a while. Perched awkwardly on Yuri’s parents’ couch, you smooth your hands over your silk skirts, fluffy and gauzy and butter-soft.
You didn’t expect to see your boys on Seollal, just like you never expect to see them on any holiday, regardless of relationship status. But they have some kind of work obligation keeping them busy even on a national holiday, so they’re not leaving to see their families until tomorrow morning — and by the time they’re home, it will probably be time for you to leave Yuri’s family’s house anyway. You and Soohyun arrived awkwardly early after all, kneeling a polite distance away while the family did ancestor rites, resisting the urge to make stupid faces at or elbow each other.
At the time, it had seemed serendipitous — an opportunity to see your boys, before you spent more time apart. But now, fiddling with the sleeves of your jeogori, the dangling charm in your hair clinking next to your ear, something about it is kind of—
“Are you blushing?” Yuri’s little brother asks — Yoobin, the mole under his eye and his higher, louder voice distinguishing him from his twin even in the first second that he flops down next to you. “Noona, why are you blushing?”
He has all the tact you could expect from a nine year old. You wince, checking for a nearby Soohyun lying in wait to make fun of you as you grab a square of yaksik from the tray on your other side. “Here,” you say, handing it to him: a blatant bribe for a child who was just told ‘no more sweets before dinner.’ “Eat this.”
Soohyun did not, it seems, hear it — but she has plenty of opportunities to tease you anyway, because every time you think about seeing your boys like this, you do blush. You find yourself thinking, I could go home and change; this was last-minute anyway; they don’t even know. They’ve been too busy to get a hold of all day, after all; you’d even missed them during their brief lunch break, when you’d been just settling in to eat with Yuri’s family.
You smooth your hands over your skirts again as you say goodbye, bowing politely to Yuri’s parents and grandparents. The toes of your gomusin point up at you under the hem, embroidered with dainty little flowers.
Really, you think as you get into a cab, practically vibrating with nerves, fiddling with your hair and norigae and the ties of your jeogori, it’s not that you don’t want your boys to see you like this. It’s just— Something about it is just—
You’re still vibrating when you punch the key code into their front door. Chan is opening it before you can even touch the handle, his smile wide and bright. “Hey, welcome—”
He freezes, mid-sentence. His eyes widen as they glance over your outfit. His face colors, blood flooding his skin between one breath and the next. His lips pop open.
It’s such an immediately satisfying reaction that your nerves leave you, just like that. The urge to laugh strikes you, but you wrestle it down, tilting your head to the side, cocking a brow.
“Well?” you ask, not pulling off bratty as well as usual, a smile tugging at the corners of your mouth. “Aren’t you going to let me in?”
Chan blinks at you. Stares another second. Nods about three times in quick succession, and wordlessly pulls the door open.
Seungmin is sitting on the couch, eyes already trained on you by the time you cross the threshold. “You’re late,” he complains — then chokes.
A fascinating pattern is building. Chan is one thing, but you don’t think you’ve ever seen Seungmin color so much, so quickly.
It is, you find, not limited to the two of them. Changbin freezes in place and points at you when he sees you, lips forming words that just won’t come out; Jisung stumbles over his feet and knocks into a wall. Jeongin won’t even go near you, flinching like a scared animal when you even glance at him; by contrast, Felix won’t leave you alone, fiddling with any loose dangly part of your outfit, fingers carding through your hair. You find Hyunjin in the yard on the phone with his parents, and he goes completely silent when he sees you, swaying in place like a strong breeze could knock him over. You find Minho in the kitchen, checking his messages and drinking a glass of water while a pot boils behind him; when he sees you, he drops the glass, uncharacteristically clumsy, his big bunny eyes blinking at you over and over even as you laugh and start reaching for the broom.
Your entourage intercepts before you can go anywhere near the glass, though. “I’ll get it,” Chan assures, finally touching you long enough to physically move you, his grip firm around your waist. “Go sit down, okay?”
He still can’t quite look at you. Maybe that’s why there’s a laugh in your voice when you say, “Hey, I can help.”
“Not looking like that you can’t,” Changbin mumbles, not quite looking at you either even as he takes your hand. “C’mon, hyung’s got it. Let’s leave him to it.”
You hadn’t realized how much they were looming over and trailing after you until you’re being pulled somewhere else, six bodies closing in like guards. Face warm, you glance over your shoulder to find Minho still frozen in place, his hand still posed like he’s holding his glass.
“Be careful, oppa,” you tell him. “Don’t move, okay?”
Instead of arguing or complaining, he just nods, dazed and obedient. You stifle another laugh before letting yourself be led away.
Hyunjin’s hair is still damp at the roots from the shower he’d taken before you got here. Still, when you perch on the couch, he doesn’t hesitate to set his chin sweetly on your leg, kneeling on the floor in front of you.
“Do you have to give it back?” he asks miserably, rubbing the top layer of your skirt between his fingers.
“It’s a rental,” you laugh, tucking a lock of hair behind his ear. “Of course I have to give it back.”
Felix plops down beside you, brushing your hair over your shoulder. “Can I just buy you some?”
You laugh again. “No!”
Jisung’s pout is audible. “Why not?”
They’re expensive, you start to say — but that one never works, not with this group. You pause, thinking, your dangly hair pieces clinking against each other some more as you tilt your head to the side.
“It’s supposed to be special,” you finally decide on.
“It would still be special,” Jeongin says, rebuttal bold even as he still can’t hold your gaze. “You wouldn’t be wearing it every day.”
“Unless you wanted to,” Hyunjin adds, dreamy.
Pretty as you feel at the moment, the thought makes you shudder. “God, no. It takes forever to get on.”
“You’d get used to it,” Seungmin says, impressively deadpan, his voice a little raspy.
“I could help,” Jeongin adds.
You stick your tongue out at him. Alarmingly, he just stares back at you, finally meeting your eye, deathly serious.
Sensing danger, you pivot, seeking out the current weakest link. “Bin-oppa,” you say, smiling when he jumps, “you’re so quiet. What are you thinking about?”
He’s seated on your other side, but unlike Felix, he isn’t pressing himself close to you, or even pulling you in like he usually might. There’s a small, nearly-polite distance between his thigh and yours, and when you cross it, bumping his leg with your knee, he squeaks. Squeaks.
Changbin stares at you, wide-eyed and pretty-pink. He glances at his packmates. He leans in.
“I know I call you this all the time,” he mumbles, almost too quiet to hear, his breath on your ear making you shiver, “but you really… You really do look like a princess.”
It’s sweet. You ignore Hyunjin’s snicker at his packmate’s expense, leaning in to kiss Changbin’s cheek.
It leaves some glitter and gloss behind. You thumb at it guiltily, worried for his skin. Changbin just blinks at you, flushed and speechless, leaning his face instinctively into your palm.
Chan and Minho choose that moment to appear from around the corner. “There you are,” Chan says, seemingly having found his composure enough to meet your eye without exploding, so long as he keeps a safe five feet between you. Still, his smile is shy, skin pink, eyes darting away between every other word. “The glass didn’t get you, did it?”
You open your mouth to tell him no, it didn’t, and then maybe tease him some more. But before you have the opportunity, Minho is stepping boldly over and around Hyunjin, taking your face in his hands, and kissing you.
It’s a sweet, chaste, short kiss, shocking only for its suddenness. You haven’t heard Minho say a word all night but his mouth seems to work just fine now — and you gasp into it, smearing what’s left of your gloss onto him in the process.
It’s strawberry-flavored. Maybe that’s why Minho licks his lips right away when he pulls away, taking your hand, tugging you gently to your feet.
“I made tteokguk,” he says, voice hushed, ears red, eyes trained on you. “Let’s get older.”
You just blink at him, almost stepping on Hyunjin as you clamber to your feet. Minho grins, quiet and shy, and leads you away, his fingers laced with yours.
Seungmin takes the opportunity immediately to tease Chan about the big three-oh. Minho makes a joke you only half-hear about the mandu in the soup, elbowing Hyunjin. Felix ties your hair back with care, knuckles brushing the back of your neck.
The broth is hot in your mouth, with that super-savory marrow-sweetness to it; the tteok is just the right amount of soft and chew. The mandu wrappers dissolve at the edges, paper-thin, and you’re still studying them when you glance up to find that midnight has passed — the year changed, and all of you older, just like that.
“Happy New Year,” Jeongin says, holding your hands entreatingly. “We played yutnori for hours today on set. Channie-hyung panic-bought it just in case you wanted to play, but please say you don’t.”
You played for about ten minutes with Yuri’s siblings today, and that was more than enough. You open your mouth to say so, only to be interrupted by Seungmin, leaning his head lightly on yours.
“Please come see my family tomorrow,” he mumbles, soft and shy. “My house isn’t far.”
Before you’re forced to come up with a reply to that, Jisung steals one of your hands from Jeongin, lowering his head to stare up at you with big, shiny eyes.
“Please don’t return the hanbok,” he says.
You kick him. He yelps. You blame everyone else at the table, and he either buys it or plays along, squeezing your fingers every now and then just to feel you squeeze back.
hihi darlinso! 🐧its been awhile, i hope youve missed me and my jibber jabbers lol. i dont think i ever had a chance to comment on the hyunsung scenes! their desperatesness and eagerness is always so oddly endearing, odd because of the circumstances lol. i dont think i have a strong preference between 2min and hyunsung, but i admit 2min does have a special place in my heart just because leeknow can be so hard to conceptualise.
i hear we're entering the angst mines? safety helmets on and light batteries checked everyone!! is this the famous shrug emoji debaccle???? i remember when you were writing this! scary... but if i was her id crash out too tbh, but i hope the crash out isnt too long! you wouldnt leave us in the angst cave for weeks would you? we'll be out before the break right?? right 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺??
also! chan's "haha, kidding... unless??? 🤨🤨🤨" is so funny to me! hes a loverboy!! whos too afraid to be too much of a loverboy!!! also sometimes i feel evil bc i love how much torture felix endures, like yes make him think shes going to slip outta his fingertips!! make him think hes not the favourite!!! *rubs hands evilly*
Hi hi, welcome back! 🥰 Desperateness, eagerness, and being oddly endearing are all good descriptions for hyunsung I think hahaha 💛
We are indeed entering the angst mines!!!! Keep all hands inside the vehicle and all eyes fixed on the light at the end of the tunnel, please 😊 The shrug emoji is indeed coming!!! Not next chapter though!!!!
“we'll be out before the break right?? right 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺??” ……………🧍
Channie is suuuuuch a loverboy!!!! It’s really fun once he gets to express that a little more 💛💛💛 In the meantime though the “…unless?” convos are still getting laughs out of me
And no no anon I totally understand, I am the president of the “torturing Felix emotionally” club…! We have open enrollment, please go ahead and sign your name, we are only a little bit evil here 😇
So fun to hear your thoughts; thanks for the ask! 🫶💛
I'm glad Chan took initiative to give Felix and MC out for some fresh air, especially since both of them were not okay. The conversation they had gave me such a wistful/bittersweet feel, three transplants talking about home 🥺 The tea conversation was really cute.
I love anytime the boys show their possessiveness/how serious they're taking the relationship and the internal panic/deny/refuse to acknowledge journey MC takes herself on. Them talking about commitment again… marriage…marking…🫣
“Are you volunteering?” I love Chan's "joking but I'm down if you're down" questions 🤭
"…are the stars still there at all?" 😭 That whole monologue felt like a metaphor, our hidden star MC 🥺
😱 The Manager is back!! 1000% creepy he knew she was there…Ugh he's so rude. I knewww Chan missed his moment to talk to her about all of this!!! Aghhhkkk I hope this pushes her to talk to the boys about it now 🫣
…am I hoping for too much to think that she'll rationalize the contract and how it came to be with the same positive energy that pushed her to talk to the manager in the first place?? 😖
It's here!!! I knew the contract was going to happen at some point…but I wonder if this manager went rogue…since didn't she receive a separate job offer/interview as a translator? 🤔
Excited and scared to see how this all plays out!!
🖐️💙
Helloooo! 😊🌃💫
I really love all the diaspora chats… In general I like a lot of dialogue-heavy scenes 🥰 “Chan's "joking but I'm down if you're down" questions” EXACTLY THIS, yes!!!!
I’ve mentioned before that I kind of love when MC gets mopey because it lets me ramble, and the stars mini-monologue is totally part of that… Moping and dancing around what she’s thinking about, not wanting to put a name on it because it’s too scary, metaphors and metaphors and metaphors…
“I knewww Chan missed his moment to talk to her about all of this” And you were right!!! With a lot of the hard conversations in this fic I feel like there’s never a best time but there’s always a worst time, and choosing when to pull out that worst time is so fun as the writer 🫶
She definitely rationalizes the contract, in a sense…? 😆 I’m curious to see what you think about the conclusions she comes to though hahahahaha
But I’ll do my best to leave you unspoiled other than that!!!! Next chapter was an experience to write, so I hope you look forward to it 🥰 Thank you for reading!!! 💛💛💛
ahhhhhh i’m rereading RON cuz i love it, and having fun getting to know the characters again, and i read this from chapter two:
“There’s a cultural idea of romance around packs with one omega and a lot of alphas — but as an omega yourself, you find it hard to picture yourself coming into a preexisting pack during a time of strife like this without feeling like you’re being used for your hormones or body.”
and- !!!!!! that’s literally what’s happening in the current chapter, and nonononono poor mc is gonna be having a hard time next week 😭😭😭
like, i know that she knows that the guys aren’t just using her for her body, but the voice in her head doesn’t!!!
Help
Reading this ask with this look on my face:
Yes, good catch!!!! This upcoming conflict has been the plan from the start, so there are a lot of barbs set up to hit where it hurts 🥰
I love hearing about rereads, thank you for your ask! 🫶💛
I just finished reading the new chapter (and the teaser for next week) and SHE IS NOT ACTUALLY CONSIDERING THE CONTRACT IS SHE?!? o.O
It’s like she likes the boys so much that she willingly looks away from all the blinking red flags surrounding their manager, but at the same time too scared to acknowledge the very obvious green flags of them beeing totally wiped for her… I love it. Maybe that’s just the (small) masochistic side of me but I love this kind of self-inflicted angst and you do it so beautifully!
And Felix and Chan are just soo gooooood in this chapter. I totally forgot that in the end of the last chapter Felix basically confesses that he loves her and she just deflects/ignores it…. Like Felix are you okay, baby? Do you need help?
And during the movie he doesn’t see her face at all probably, just clinging to her (not comfortable enough to even massage her), not sure about how she feels about it, and the moment he doesn’t hold on anymore (falls asleep) she bolts (goes to the bathroom), no wonder he looks „just raw, reaching, a concerned flick to his otherwise careful expression, eyes just a little too wide and had just a little too lowered“ 🥺 poor lixie needed that comfort stargazing as much as our girl.
Enough rambling about this weeks masterpiece, I actually do also have a question. ^^
I can’t remember if this has already been answered, if so just ignore me pls 🙃 but are the boys soulmates with each other as well?
Much love and health to you, Inso, pls never stop writing ♥️♥️♥️
Hi hi! 😊
There’s something really fun about writing MC experiencing a lot of discomfort around Uhyeok while simultaneously trying to talk herself out of that discomfort… And watching her rationalize and minimize! I won’t spoil it, but her thought process in the next chapter is the bulk of the word count, and it was a really interesting write
She didn’t answer him!!! 😭 Yes to your whole analysis of the beginning of 58. MC pushes what he said in 57 out of her mind as much as possible but Felix lingers on it a lot, and I encourage you to keep that in mind while reading the coming chapters 🫶
They’re not soulmates with each other, no! In the RON universe, only omegas can have multiple soulmates. You can read more info about the boys’ relationships here if you’re curious!
Thanks so much for reading!! I’ve been cursed to write and can never stop!!!! 💛💛💛
clawing at the door waiting for nxt chapter 😭😭😭 i NEED someone to interrupt like pls pls pls we’re gonna lose so much progress here…… i would love if it was hammie tbh bc i miss him + i miss the way he comforts mc, need that for real. give him his ham dues dear author pls, im starving for m boy…. anyways random but does he ever call mc rockstar in bed? 🫣 i read i all the time and wanted your take xoxoxo
I think there’s a really interesting kind of meta self-fulfilling prophecy in that within RON MC insists repeatedly that she likes all of the boys equally and is doing her best to give them equal attention but she is only one person; and then here on my humble little blog I am essentially doing the same, but from the perspective of a writer and not a lover 😆 I guess what I am trying to say is — I hear you, that you feel that way! I get asks like this all the time, though, and many disagree with you. I have gotten complaints about every single boy either being favored or disfavored by me or the narrative
It will actually be a bit before Hannie gets another solo chapter! In the meantime, can I direct you to some other Han-centric chapters — so 41, or 52, or really a lot of 51-54? 😊 If you want comfort specifically then probably 5, 11, or 19-20 would be good. Hannie is also pretty popular among followers of this blog I think, so he shows up here a lot. And of course you can always make requests or ask questions 🫶
Anyway though — rockstar!! Is this a thing in the fandom?? I didn’t know this was a thing… There’s actually a future scene where MC calls him that, but not the other way around! So that, like… half-counts? hahahaha. I continue to have not read enough SKZ fic yet 😆😆
