Established Relationship, PWP, slice of life, fluff, smut
Warnings: explicit content, unprotected sex, anal (m receiving while being a drama queen about it), sex toys (picture fluffy tail butt plugs)
Word Count: ~3.6k
Summary: Baekhyun realizes that betting his ass for a petty argument with his partner was moronic. He is a man of his word though. He will follow through.
Author’s note: Yay, it’s time to celebrate another milestone!! Thank you guys for joining me on this wild ride haha I hope you enjoy this little somethin’ bbhorny times detected lmao This would be a little different rip Baek's ass but I just wrote that on a whim in a couple of days and thought it’s great for the occasion. Let me know if you enjoyed it!
Baekhyun’s eyes were rounder than the moon when he realized that he was wrong.
You were having a very out of the blue argument just the other day, and the fatal words had escaped his mouth.
‘Can you bet your ass that you’re right?’
It wasn’t even a real issue to fight about. The reason you got so fired up over nothing was alcohol, of all things. Neither one of you was willing to let it go and leave the other one having the last word, so...
Baekhyun fucked up.
‘When we confirm that I’m right, I’ll shove the fluffiest puppy dog tail butt plug up your ass and have you call me master.’
Baekhyun royally fucked up.
‘Might clamp your cute little nipples too.’
Baekhyun dug his own grave.
‘Or I will shove it up yours and have you eat your words.’ You simply rolled your eyes at him then, and to a clueless spectator it could seem like you’d forget about this petty argument by tomorrow.
But there you were the next day, standing right in front of your bed and drilling Baekhyun’s bloodless face with your eyes.
‘I told you it wasn't Bugatti. It’s number two on the list.’
Baekhyun was almost glad that you enunciated that, because he couldn’t see the screen in front of him. He stayed still for a bit, as if his soul had fled from his body, leaving him behind as a lifeless shell. His head was a vacuum, and his usually quick-witted mind was failing him at this crucial point of his existence. A few more moments passed before he slowly looked up at you, like a bashful child.
‘Heh,’ he laughed awkwardly, and you only offered him a perfunctory smile. ‘Rolls-Royce Boat Tail is more expensive? It seems like I’ve- made a mistake?’
‘You were totally wrong.’ You responded mercilessly, making him shudder.
‘Babe-’
‘Oh no. Forget it.’ You raised your palm, cutting him off. ‘I had to listen a-a-all night how ‘fun’ it’s gonna be for you to see me all fluffy-tailed and roughed up.’
‘I said no such thing!’ Baekhyun shrieked, quickly catching himself as you gave him a look. ‘Babe…’
‘Did you not?’ You huffed, crossing your arms on your chest. ‘I assume you also do not recall running your mouth about my nipples?’
Baekhyun licked his lips nervously and swallowed.
He remembered. He remembered how he initiated his own demise. Was he for real? And for such a nonsensical argument too…
Baekhyun dropped on his knees right in front of you, and you almost jumped from the sound of him crashing on the floor so dramatically.
‘Y/N-ie, I was in the wrong.’ He said, hugging your legs. ‘I’m sorry.’
When your ass is on the line, nothing would be beneath you, not even begging, right?
However, this did not faze you at all. You were so used to his antics that it only made you even more determined not to let him off the hook.
‘Oh, but Baekhyunie… What should we do? You’ve already purchased the device for the execution.’
This was the reason why Baekhyun avoided drinking as best he could. He didn’t just get himself into the most ridiculous entanglements, he also acted whimsically on his urges. Say, going to a specialized shop to buy the fluffiest looking tail butt plug and a pair of fluffy ears to match. He went as far as to tell the poor cashier that he was going to put it to very good use.
Well, he didn’t specify on whom.
‘Worry not, my love. I got some nipple clamps and a collar to complete your-’
‘Ba-abe-’ He muttered desperately into your thigh, hugging your hips even tighter. ‘Please, I can’t do it…’
‘Why is that?’ You huffed, although unable to resist the temptation to ruffle his soft blonde hair with your right hand.
‘I just can’t,’ he whined childishly, offering no reasoning.
‘It’s funny how you assumed that I was gonna do it the second we ‘confirm’ that you’re right. And now you’re a groveling mess at a mere thought, and I’m supposed to be the better man?’
Baekhyun knew you were right.
He also knew that if he whined for a bit longer, you would probably leave him be. But your words left a bitter taste in his mouth. He was pretty obnoxious about this when you made the damn bet, and he was the one who initially suggested the punishment. And he was so sure he was right that he didn’t even try for a second to step into the loser’s shoes. He didn’t think it through, and now he had to stand by his word and meet his fate like a man. This was only fair to you. Maybe a little less fair to his butt.
You craned your neck forward to peek when Baekhyun became silent for too long. He did make you kinda angry earlier, you weren’t gonna lie, and you were almost determined to make him suffer for it. But he was still your partner, and you loved him. So, when you noticed that he was getting way too stressed about it, your hand moved smoothly to pet his hair calmingly.
‘Baekhyun-ah…’
‘I’ll do it.’ He said curtly.
His voice sounded small and dispirited, and it took you another second to catch his meaning.
‘Huh?’
This time, he made an effort to sound more confident.
‘I said, I’ll do it.’
~
That exchange took place last week. And he still couldn’t do it.
He made an unenthused attempt on that very day, actually. Made a huge mess on the bed, trying to utilize massage oil to get himself ready. Instead, he simply oiled up all of the sheets, and his entire body, and didn’t manage to get the butt plug anywhere near his ass. He was screeching and wailing and groaning – all that without getting it even 0.1 inch in.
You felt like watching it was worse than just doing it yourself.
‘Babe, just give up. I don’t want you to suffer like this.’
‘No. I said I’ll do it, so I will, I just need to prepare. Shall we reschedule for Saturday?’
He had probably hoped that Saturday would never arrive, but it did. And even then, he had yet to muster the courage to take on his punishment with dignity.
But it’d been an hour, and you were getting tired of watching him huffing and puffing, crying about the injustices of life and his poor asshole. He was buck naked the entire time too.
‘I’m also cold… Why is it so cold in our house? Can’t we afford heating? I should try and earn more money…’
You sighed.
‘Baekhyun, it’s not gonna work.’ You stretched your arms and legs before sitting down next to him. ‘Either quit it or let me do it for you.’
‘You? Do it for me?’ He shook his head. ‘Impossible. I’d like to preserve at least some dig-’
‘Lie flat on your belly. Right now.’ You ordered strictly.
‘Yes, ma’am.’
You smiled at his sudden obedience. He obviously trusted you to help him get it over with, but preferred to be strongarmed into doing this. To preserve some ‘dignity’.
‘Just relax, baby. You’re way too tense.’
Climbing on top of him, you poured some of that massage oil onto his bare back. You ran your palms up along his spine smoothly, and Baekhyun grunted like an old man.
‘God, you are just one giant knot.’ You muttered, putting a little more force into it.
Another muffled grunt escaped his mouth, this time sounding a bit more like a moan.
‘Here, here, grandpa. You can entrust yourself to me. Both your back and your butt.’
He grumbled into the pillow, and you could not make out his words. Instead, you went up his shoulders to knead the back of his neck. This spot was always sore, and he did not surprise you by suddenly going tense and groaning loudly before deflating into a lax mess.
‘You know what, Y/N…’ He mumbled between sighs of contentment. ‘You can fuck me in my ass right now and I won’t object.’
‘That’s the plan,’ you giggled, satisfaction washing over you just from seeing his reaction to your touch.
Of course, you knew all of his spots, both physical and emotional. It did not take you long to turn him into a whimpering puppy. The only thing missing was the tail.
You tugged your shirt off and leaned onto his back, allowing him to feel your half-naked body.
‘Good for you,’ you purred into his ear, chuckling as he squirmed.
Hand snaking under his abdomen, you found yourself squeezing his length.
‘You’re not ‘getting hard’, baby. You are hard,’ you hummed, giving him a couple abrupt pumps before running your oily fingers over his lower stomach. ‘Let’s get you ready.’
Baekhyun whined and hugged his pillow, while you crawled towards the edge of your bed to get the discarded lube. When you shuffled closer to him again, you couldn’t resist slapping his cute round butt.
‘Ouch!’ He yelped just for the sake of it.
‘Don’t be so sensitive, sweetie,’ you mocked him lovingly.
‘You mean!’ He answered sulkily.
‘I am very nice! And I wouldn’t start a quarrel with me if I were you. My finger’s about to be shoved up your ass quite literally.’
He was whinging again, but quickly recollected himself, throwing a blue glove at your face.
‘At least use this.’
‘Are we playing doctor?’ You teased him lightheartedly.
‘Y/N, I’m gonna die. I’m literally dying.’
‘Okay, okay.’ You capitulated, putting the glove on. ‘Drama queen.’
It wasn’t like you were a pro in this either. He was the one who had put you in this position, not that you’d asked to do this. However, you did use the time in between his last attempt to pop his anal cherry and today to gather some helpful information. So, you were intending on using it to your benefit tonight.
‘You will like it more than me, that you can count on,’ you reassured him.
‘I seriously doubt it,’ he grumbled before jumping up. ‘Ah-ah-ah, what are you doing, I’m not ready!’
‘Sorry, I poured too much lube by accident,’ you smiled sheepishly. ‘Lie back down before it gets smeared all over the sheets.’
He kept complaining under his breath but obeyed.
‘Can you like… perk up your butt a little?’ You asked, trying to find a comfortable position to start.
‘No.’ He shot back unapologetically. ‘I’ll die.’
‘Why do you keep dying before anything happens?’ You reproached him. ‘You are such a pussy.’
Baekhyun turned his head around dramatically to glare at you.
‘What?’ You stared back. ‘Did I lie? Am I wrong?’
He turned back to his pillow and slightly repositioned himself, bending his right knee.
‘Good. Arch your back a little too.’ You pressed on his lower back, and he grumbled again.
‘You hate my guts, don’t you?’
‘I love you a million, baby.’ You replied with a smile, barely containing a schoolgirl giggle from locating his asshole. ‘Wow, I didn’t expect you to prepare. How neat.’
‘Shut the fuck up,’ he replied, also laughing despite his embarrassment and frustration.
You traced his butt cheek with your index finger before rubbing his anus lightly.
‘Oh shit-’ He tensed up under the pad of your finger, and cursed again.
Giving him some time to adjust to the light strokes, you kept spreading lube over his sphincter.
‘Are you still dying, hon?’ You inquired. ‘Try to relax.’
‘I can’t believe I’m doing this,’ he gurgled into the pillow he kept holding onto.
‘We can stop if you-’
‘Just get it over with! And then I can proceed and finalize my death.’
‘What an honorable man,’ you noted sarcastically. ‘If you squeeze your butt like that, I won’t be able to do anything.’
He huffed like an intimidating hedgehog, and then sighed, giving up the last of his pride.
‘Okay. Just please don’t rip my ass.’
‘Have you seen the size of this plug? You’ll live.’
As soon as he relaxed enough for you to try something, you probed at his ring of muscles again. Praising him for keeping it more or less slack, you were able to insert one digit.
He was now only communicating in breathy curses, so you added more lubrication before slipping your finger out and inserting it back in just as carefully. It took a while for Baekhyun to get used to it and stop resisting the intrusion, and you were beginning to feel more and more like a doctor performing a procedure on him.
‘You’re doing great, baby. Two fingers in.’
‘Y/N… I can’t do this…’ He muttered feverishly, and you knew he didn’t mean it.
Frankly, he looked like he was simply in denial about enjoying this. But he had no idea that you would not rest until you found the most intriguing spot. It was the only reason you had agreed to the whole thing. You were curious about what would happen if you located it and stroked over it gently.
Like so.
‘A-a-ah!’ He jolted, and squeezed your fingers almost painfully.
‘What?’ You asked, unsure about his reaction.
‘That- what was that?’ He muttered, gripping the pillow case with his fist.
‘Did it hurt?’
‘It hurts now… But not before.’
‘It wouldn’t hurt if you relax! And I think it was your prostate. Didn’t know it’s that sensitive though.’
‘My wha-’
‘Can I stroke it again?’ You asked, enthusiasm reignited in you, despite getting rather stiff from the position you had to be in.
‘No! Leave my prostate alone,’ he barked, yet perked his ass up higher.
‘Getting mixed signals here. Should I read your ‘no’ as a ‘yes please’?’
‘Y/N…’ He whined, and you circled his spot again. ‘If you do, I think- I think I’m going to-’
‘Die?’
‘Come…’
You oh-ed in surprise. Not that you didn’t do your research, but the pace of this was unexpected.
‘Not yet. There’s one little thing left.’
You slowly slipped your fingers out of him, making him groan.
Finally, the intricate sex toy was in your hand, ready to be deployed. In several modes too, but your wrought-up partner didn’t need to know just yet. Thus, you had placed an important appliance under one of the pillows earlier.
After holding it for a few moments to make it comfortably warm – Baekhyun was a whiny little bitch, after all – you spread a sufficient amount of lube on it to make sure it’d fit easily.
Baekhyun could be heard cursing again.
‘Okay, come to momma.’
He emitted a growl, which thinned out into a whine.
You sat next to him and stroked his butt cheeks. Now that you were thinking of it, he would look pretty good with a fluffy tail. You didn’t know you had it in you, but now you certainly felt aroused at the thought of pulling at it as he fucked you. Wouldn’t that be just perfect?
‘Shit, it’s cold!’ He complained as soon as you pressed the metal body of the plug to his hole.
‘You are very high-maintenance, did you know that?’ You complained right back. ‘Take it if you wanna finish tonight.’
‘Why do you hate me so mu- a-ah-’
The plug slipped into him with much less resistance than you’d anticipated, and all that was visible now was the tail.
‘How is it?’ You asked, genuinely curious. ‘Baekhyunie? How does it feel?’
He kept breathing through it for another minute, and then managed to retort.
‘Like it doesn’t belong there…’ He tried to glance at his poor ass, but gave up halfway. ‘My life is a joke…’
‘I bet it is.’
He made an effort to glare at you.
‘Get over here.’ His angelic blond hair made him appear much less menacing than he wanted to.
You stretched out next to him, but not before removing the rest of your clothes to become equally as naked.
‘Fuck.’ Baekhyun cursed, burying his face in your breasts. ‘Remind me to never argue with you again, ever…’
‘I thought you were having fun,’ you ruffled his hair a bit, while he was letting you.
‘Yah. The pain in my butt hole isn’t really aligning with my idea of fun.’
You shoved him back slightly to get him off your chest, and groped his ass. The disturbance made him flinch, although not entirely displeased.
‘How would you react if I told you that this cute fluffy thing actually has a pretty handy remote?’
The blond looked confused, but only for a second – before you gripped at the base of his ‘tail’ and angled it.
‘Ah! Fuck this shit!’ Baekhyun moan-yelled, confirming that the toy was damn near his spot.
Chuckling at this, you leaned in to kiss his bare shoulder and reached under the pillow in the search of the said appliance.
‘There it is.’ You showed Baekhyun the remote. ‘I bet this will be nice.’
You clicked once, not giving your partner a chance to say anything.
‘Oh shit-’ He jolted in your arms, and clenched his jaw. ‘Y/N…’
‘I know, baby. I won’t ramp it up much.’ You promised, pressing your index finger to one of his nipples.
The tiny bud was firm, and you could see Baekhyun shiver from the touch.
‘Should’ve clamped them in the beginning…’ You mused, gradually increasing the vibration of the toy. ‘Does this feel alright?’
Baekhyun moaned in response.
‘I’ll take that as a yes,’ you snickered.
He didn’t let you laugh for much longer though, grabbing your waist and pushing you back down. Opening your legs roughly, he got between them and instantly pressed his hard cock against your labia.
‘Fucking hell-’ He gritted out, as soon as his hips snapped forward, disturbing the plug inside him.
‘This is kinda hot, I’m not gonna lie,’ you sighed, stroking his lower back. ‘Move or I will level your ass massage up again.’
‘Fuck no, I already feel like I could come…’ Baekhyun replied quickly, slowly retracting his pelvis before swaying it into you. ‘Shit, Y/N, it just feels so weird-’
‘Weird but nice, right?’ You lowered your hand to tug on his ‘tail’ again.
‘Oh god please-’ He sighed, dropping his head on your shoulder.
You could feel him shake every time you adjusted the toy. It was definitely affecting his prostate, and the sobbing he tried to muffle by your skin only confirmed it.
‘Babe,’ he moaned, renewing his slow thrusts into you. ‘You want my death or what?’
Snickering at his words, you playfully scratched his upper back with both hands.
‘Faster.’ You replied simply, grasping the remote again.
Baekhyun focused on delivering upon your request, and you physically shuddered with him. The vibration was quite literally driving him mad, so he was soon groaning in both pain and pleasure. His speech was incoherent, and you weren’t sure how many times you had clicked the button, but you could hear – almost feel – the vibration ripping through his tight muscles and abusing his prostate.
You knew his hips were moving on their own, more out of instinct rather than intent, but it was all fine. At this point, you just wanted him to finish. The buildup left both of you a complete mess, and the craving you had in you now was more of his euphoria, not yours.
‘I’m c- babe I’m-’ He tried to speak, but the intense sensation overwhelmed him to the point of squealing.
Readily clutching the remote, you pressed the button several times to avoid overstimulating him instead of prolonging his pleasure, and he still allowed a high-pitched whine to escape. He was trembling and writhing on top of you, and you could feel the hot creamy wetness pooling at your own entrance. The visual stimulation sent you into overdrive.
‘Fuck, Baekhyun-’ You moaned, eyes closing shut as you joined your partner in the oblivion.
~
It was at least half an hour later that you were finally able to untangle yourselves from each other, and free Baekhyun’s abused asshole. Not without him grunting and grumbling the entire time, of course.
‘Shit. I won’t be fucking sitting down for a fucking week.’ Your partner complained in a tired voice, flinching as his sphincter constricted again after the plug was removed.
‘Lying down is better anyways,’ you hummed, planting an impish kiss onto his butt cheek.
Baekhyun muttered something incoherent, and you were sure there was more diffident cursing in there.
You scooted closer to him and stroked his hair lovingly. Suddenly you realized that you did not employ all the inventory you had prepared.
‘Damn, we forgot about the ears and the collar too!’ You gasped. ‘Well, you can always wear them next time…’
You shrugged, trailing off, and turned to him, anticipating his reaction.
Baekhyun’s face assumed the most scandalized expression.
‘Next time?!’
Masterlist
A/N: Thank you for reading! Please comment and reblog, it is important to me and I appreciate your feedback💜 As usual, my asks are open~
Pairing: Yuta Nakamoto (NCT) x Fem!Reader; Genre: strangers to lovers?, enemies to lovers?, SMUT; Rating: nsfw, MDNI, 18+; Warnings: mentions of cigarettes, bars/clubs, alcohol, SMUT -> fingering (f receiving), orgasm denial, oral (m receiving), dacryphilia, mentions of safety precautions, rough oral, hints of actual sex, hints of hate sex; Wordcount: 1.750
Summary: You had worked your butt off to get somewhere as a reporter. So when you got offered to interview the famous rockstar Yuta, you immediately agreed, excited to meet someone like him and dig up some dirt.
Event: February Filth Fest - Track 6: Dacryphilia held by @thelargefrye and @sanjoongie
A/N: Had this idea sitting on the back burner for a long time. So I am very glad it has now a time to shine with this fest! Also loosely inspired by Rock of Ages (I wanna know what love is).
You scrunched your nose from the heavy smell of smoke lingering in the air. It actually surprised you that you didn't see grey clouds of it wafting through the bar.
Your gaze wandered over the room, seeing tons of girls, boys, women and men alike standing in the middle of it, screaming their lungs out for one person only.
Yuta Nakamoto.
Renowned Rockstar with a voice of a siren. A voice that captivated everyone who listened to him.
It didn’t surprise you to see him having so many fans, nor did it surprise you to see such a wide range of fans. What actually surprised you was the fact of his clean vest. No rockstar could be that pure and you were there to prove that.
Yuta performed on stage, singing his heart out, flirting with the crowd - simply being effortlessly talented.
As the show neared its end a manager pulled you backstage, guiding you to one of the occupied rooms.
While this establishment usually was a bar with several rooms for pool, dart or any other kind of gaming, those rooms turned into improvised backstage dressing rooms for the star.
The manager asked you to wait in one of these rooms, shortly after leaving you alone again. You turned around your own axis, noticing strewn around clothes, a tray with glasses and a bottle of alcohol, cigarettes and a variety of accessories.
You jumped slightly and clutched the camera you held in one hand tighter when the door behind you opened all of a sudden and the cheers became louder again.
Yuta walked into the room, brushing through his hair with one of his hands. He held a small towel in his other hand, wiping around his neck to get rid of some of the sweat. His skin felt sticky and glistened in the dim lighting of the room. “You must be the reporter”, he grinned and closed the door behind him.
“That I am.”
“I assume you’re here to dig some dirt up. Some dark secrets or a gruesome past I might hide.” Yuta walked around the room, somewhat ignoring your presence as he poured himself some alcohol. He even took of his top and threw it on the ground, rubbing the towel loosely over his upper body.
“Well, is there something you might be hiding?” You questioned him, raising an eyebrow as if to challenge him. You even crossed your arms in front of your chest, disliking the fact he had you figured out so easily.
Yuta chuckled and turned around to look at you. He leaned against a pool table and tilted his head, holding the glass of alcohol in one hand while the other rested besides his body on the table. “Getting straight to the point. I like that.”
Without giving you even a chance to respond he retold his whole life up to the point he was right now - standing in front of you and telling you every detail you would ask for.
You stared at him, feeling somewhat dumbfounded. This was not what you had expected when you were told to interview a rockstar.
“I do not have any secrets, sweetpea.” Yuta chuckled, his eyes sparkling with mirth as he raised the glass to his lips and took a sip of the liquid. “And you must have quite the memory since you’re not taking any notes.”
You opened your mouth about to retort something but closed it again, unable to find anything you could actually say. Like a fish out of water you stood in front of him, stammering nonsense and fiddling with the camera and the little notebook you had pulled out of your pocket.
“Cat got your tongue?”
“More like a butterfly was taking my breath away.” Your eyes momentarily dropped to his hip bone before you quickly composed yourself again, pretending you didn’t just oggle his body.
Yuta smirked and placed the glass down on the table. He tilted his head to the side as his eyes slowly raked over your form.
You wanted to squirm under his intense gaze, feeling as if his stare alone undressed you. “Since you claim to be an open book”, you started, wanting to distract him somehow.
To your dismay though, Yuta only pushed himself away from the pool table. He circled you like a predator circled its prey. He licked over his lips until he finally stopped right behind you, his breath fanning over the expanse of your neck. “Ask right away, sweetpea.”
Your heart hammered inside your ribcage and you could feel the heat radiating off of his body. The temptation to lean into him nearly took over your body. With the last ounce of self control you kept yourself from following your urges - no matter how strong they were and how desperate your body craved for some touches.
Yuta reached around you, grabbing the notebook and the camera out of your hands. His fingertips purposefully brushed over your skin, making you shiver. He placed the items on a small table next to you, before stepping even closer to your body.
“I could show you a secret of mine”, he whispered into your ear, his lips brushing over your earlobe. “If you let me.”
A violent tremble ran through your whole body. For a moment you even feared your knees would give out underneath you, just from his voice and the sensual thoughts your brain cooked up. “Please.”
In an instant Yuta had his hands on your hips and pulled you back against his chest, pressing your ass against his hardening dick. He rolled his body, pushing his length between your cheeks with the movement.
Your head dropped back on his shoulder while his hand slid down to your front. His long fingers glided into your pants, quickly cupping your heat. “I can’t wait to ruin that little pussy of yours.” He rubbed circles around your clit, making you whimper and squirm until he pressed two fingers past your folds. Yuta fucked his fingers into you, switching with his pace several times.
You only grew wetter by the second - more and more desperate for his touch and for your own release. The knot inside your lower body tightened while your mouth dried up. The tingles sparked throughout your whole system and you only needed one last push from him so that you could cum.
Yet, Yuta pulled his hand out of your pants and almost removed himself completely from you. He stepped back and plopped down on a plush chair behind him, spreading his legs and smirking up to your pouting form.
The sudden change in his tactic made you frustrated and you could feel your eyes welling up by it.
Yuta licked over his lips again, his breath hitching as he silently observed your reactions. Before you could calm yourself though, he beckoned you to come closer.
You didn’t really want to give him the satisfaction of rushing over to him. You wanted to tease him as well, wanted to make him somehow suffer for leaving you all high and dry. Sadly, your own body betrayed you and you found yourself between his legs faster than you could fathom.
“Don’t they say reporters are good with their mouths?” Yuta teased and tapped his thigh, bringing your attention down to his pants.
You pursed your lips, desperately wanting to be defiant but you already dropped down to your knees. Your fingers swiftly opened his pants and pushed them aside, revealing his dick.
To your surprise he wasn’t as hard as you thought he’d be after playing with you already. You didn’t think much of it though, instead wrapping your fingers around his shaft and pumping him leisurely.
“So you’re someone who lets the partner do all the work?” You tried taunting him, looking up at Yuta through half-lidded eyes.
He chuckled softly, his shoulders slightly moving from the amusement. “Not at all, sweetpea. It’s just missing something for me to go all out.”
You raised an eyebrow questioningly. You didn’t ask him the question burning on your tongue. Instead you opened your mouth and wrapped your lips around the tip of his dick.
“We’re agreeing to having a good time right now, right?” Yuta grinned when you hummed around his dick, before he continued: “If at whatever point it turns to a bad time, you will immediately tell me to stop. If for a specific reason you’re unable to speak, tap on the butterfly. Are we clear?”
You only hummed again but Yuta grabbed the back of your head, his fingers carding through your hair as he pulled you forcefully away from him. “Are we clear?”
“Yes-yes. We’re clear.” Tears pricked at the corner of your eyes from the stinging and you noticed how Yuta’s dick twitched in your hands as he stared at your face.
A suspicion formed in your mind but you couldn’t voice it as Yuta slammed you back on his cock, forcing a rough pace on you with his tight grip. You could only hold onto his thighs, struggling to slacken your jaw and control the gagging while Yuta continued moving your head.
As the first tears streamed down your cheeks and messed up with your makeup, Yuta groaned almost animalistically. His cock hardened even more, growing bigger inside of your mouth.
Yuta pulled you off of his length with a loud pop. He leaned forward and cupped your face, cooing as his thumbs rubbed over your wet cheeks. “You’re so beautiful, sweetpea.”
“Tears”, you rasped out, chest still heaving from wanting more air. “You get off on tears.”
Yuta grinned at you, bobbing the tip of your nose with a finger. “There you have it. Revealed my oh so dark secret. Aren’t you a good reporter, sweetpea.”
You frowned, knowing full well he only mocked you right now. He didn’t make it a secret - not technically. He also knew you couldn’t report about it unless you wanted to reveal having done some sinful things with him, which would compromise your position at your job in the long run. You narrowed your eyes, blinking away the tears of frustration and anger. Yuta had you right where he wanted you to be. “Fuck you.”
“I’d rather fuck you”, he murmured, wiping over your cheeks ever so gently, “if you let me.”
“I definitely won’t leave here without cumming at least once.”
Yuta snickered, the amusement evident in his features. “Feels like a challenge I oh so gladly take on.”
Maybe not all good girls are good, and not all bad boys are bad. It’s all about perspective and experience, for not everything in life is a clear black or white. Sometimes you will find gray, brown, or silver… Possibilities are endless. And Byun Baekhyun is too god damn fine to resist.
◤“Stop smoking, it isn’t attractive.”
“Stop swearing, it isn’t either.”
“Fuck you.”
“When.”◢
Main Masterlist | Bookclub zone | Chapter 1✓
networks — @/superm-net @/bbh-net
pairing — Baekhyun x Monica (OC)
word count — 3.8k
genre — biker! baekhyun, bad boy! baekhyun, enemies to lovers! romance, slight angst, fluff, smut (one chap - eventually)
[ This chapter contains: an introduction 🚲 ]
A/N: Hello! I'm introducing one of my AFF-exclusive, BBH stories to Tumblr! I'm posting this chapter to see if readers on here want to read it 🥰 This story doesn't have a tag list, so let me know if you wanna be tagged for future chapters either in my ask box or the comment section! 🌸 I'll continue writing this when I finish my other story: Only Forever 🌊
Chapter 1
Look around, lovely
I’ve been through many things in my life. From my ex leaving me for a “slim thick” girl who lived three blocks away to my best friend, making it their goal to break my spirit from the inside out. I had to cut ties with my treacherous family. I had to change my name, eye color, and wear a purple wig to flee from another crazy ex to Hawaii. I almost had to file for bankruptcy when my twin sister bought three foreign sports cars in my name.
—I’ve been through a lot, but I never expected to find myself in the middle of this shitstorm.
“Yo, Chen, move your ass!”
“I’m almost there!” This so-called Chen hisses into his phone, tugging me behind him by my arm. He glares back at me when I stumble over a recycling bin. “Shut it.” His grip turns painful when I slow down my pace. He stomps hurriedly down shaded alleyways and dimly lit streets. I'd scoff at his audacity if I wasn’t so busy trying to form a plan to escape and not fall flat on my face in the process.
“Yo bitch.” He throws another nasty look over his shoulder, “keep up, will ya?”
My eyes narrow as I purposely stomp on the back of his foot. “Oops,” I chirp when he yelps, hiding my smirk while he curses and hobbles on one leg. “Guess that’s too close, eh?”
He bares his teeth at me. The smirk quickly falls off my lips when the ground is suddenly approaching my face at an alarming rate.
I brace my hands against the pavement at the last second, but my right arm buckles under my weight, sliding my frantic hands across the rugged surface, scraping against the sidewalk with a painful burn. I groan at the fire hot pain shooting up my forearm.
“Oops,” he mocks, his leather boots stepping into view. He bends down in front of me with a tilt of his head. “Guess that was too soon, huh?” His victory smirk on his curled lips would have been sexy if I didn’t have the urge to punch him in his pretty face.
I keep my eyes on him, slowly bringing myself back to my feet. It takes everything in me to ignore the pulsing pain in my knees and the warm liquid running down my elbow as he stands back to his full height. His unimpressive 5’8 stature seems intimidating while I’m poorly hiding my injured arm behind my back. It doesn't help that he has a tattoo of a snake on his bicep, the green ink peeking out from under the sleeve of his black t-shirt. He’s not tall, but he is buff, and that is enough for me to keep my mouth shut... for now.
He runs his eyes over my quiet defensive stance, his smirk turning even more cruel before he yanks me forward by my injured arm. “If we’re late, that’s your ass.”
I roll my eyes to distract myself from the tears threatening to fall, biting my tongue. My hands and arm throb painfully in sync. That hurt like a bitch and he’s two seconds away from being smacked like one.
After walking a few more empty blocks, the rev of an engine reaches my ears—and it’s not from a car. My heart plummets when the realization sets in and the beaming headlights of shiny black vehicles come into view. Two motorcycles stop a few feet away from us in a deserted parking lot. The riders are wearing black helmets with matching clothes, blending in with the night. Their faces are shaded under the dim light of the moon when they take their helmets off.
Dusk is on the rise, concealing the moon behind thick clouds as the world waits for the sun to peek over the horizon. The darkest hour of the night… Looking around at the buff asshole and two newcomers, I can only hope that I’ll make it to see the sunrise. I swallow my nerves while Chen impatiently drags me over to the others.
The guy on the left is the first one to notice us. He shakes his hair, the brunette strands catching light before he switches off the headlights. He’s tall with beautifully toned skin, whistling when we step off of the sidewalk. “Damn hyung, took you long enough.”
Chen shrugs. “Catching the prize was a bit of a struggle.” He rattles my arm for emphasis, his smirk visible under a flickering streetlight.
“Oh?” The brunette’s eyes trail over me, focusing on my pulsing arm before shifting back to the prick next to me. “Looks a bit like damaged goods, hyung.”
“That wouldn’t be the case if it had acted accordingly.” He shrugs, nonchalantly looking me over.
My eyes and mouth twitch. It is really taking everything in me not to say something.
“Hopefully hyung doesn’t mind,” The other tall guy speaks up, eyeing me warily while I stare at his unnaturally orange hair.
“Byun won’t do shit,” Chen waves him off, pulling me closer to a parked bike three parking spaces away. “He hasn’t before and he won’t start now.”
The orange-top guy starts to reply until a loudly revved engine fills the air, announcing the arrival of more motorcycles entering the deserted parking lot. I glare at the biker driving in front, from his laid back posture alone he must be the leader.
“Baekhyun!” Chen yells into the still night with a cocky grin, laughing gleefully. “So happy for you to finally join us. I feared we’d start without you.”
The leader calmly parks his bike a couple of feet away, pulling off his helmet while the other five bikers join him. I bite my cheek to hold back my gasp when his face is revealed. What I expected was some forty-year-old gang member with a huge tattoo, crooked beard, and salt/pepper hair. Not a twenty-something-year-old with one of the most attractive faces I’ve ever seen in my life.
His light brown hair ruffles in the wind, the salty scent of the sea rolling in. He shakes his bangs out of his eyes, looking at the man next to me with a blank expression on his face. Baekhyun’s eyes slowly follow Chen’s arm down to my own in his tight grasp. His eyes linger on my injured arm, the clench of his jaw and flare of his nostrils has my eyes shooting down to look at it myself.
The sight of blood steadily dripping from my ripped sleeve has me wincing. I bite my lip hard to hold back a pain-filled whimper.
Baekhyun cuts his eyes back to Chen with a murderous glare, “Jongdae.” He hisses venomously.
Chen stiffens, his grip loosening on my arm, “Byun?” He’s caught off guard, the confusion rings loudly in his uncertain voice.
“What the fuck is this?” Baekhyun looks at my arm then at him again, his voice growing louder by the minute. “Why the hell is she bleeding?”
“She wasn’t…” Willing to come? Willing to follow a stranger? Willing to get pulled out of a store for nothing? “Very compliant.”
“And you brought her here anyway?” Baekhyun gives him an incredulous look, his eyes narrowed at the latter’s silence. “What. The. Fuck. Did. You. Do.”
I shift on my feet, highly uncomfortable just witnessing this exchange. The other bikers watching them quietly doesn’t calm my nerves in the slightest. I know one thing for certain—the tension can be cut with a knife, and I’m not about to be in the middle of this hell much longer.
“I was walking with her down the street, and she fell.” Chen chooses to say.
I crack my neck when I whip it around to face him. “Really?” I snap. “You purposely yanked me forward and let go, yet dare say I fucking fell?!”
Chen scowls at me. “Well if you weren’t being such a bi‒” He pales when I sense a dark aura behind me.
I turn around to a furious Baekhyun. His brown eyes blaze brightly in anger amongst the pitch darkness of the night, the wind tousling his hair across his forehead. The urge to take a step back is high until I remember who is right behind me. Baekhyun takes one look at me then turns his fire-filled gaze to the fearful man behind me. “I’ll deal with you later.”
I look down at the sudden hand gently grabbing my uninjured arm, meeting Baekhyun’s eyes before he takes a step back. And for some reason; I follow. He keeps his eyes steady on mine before turning to address the others. “I’m calling it off.” His gaze meets every individual one of theirs. “Any objections?”
No one even so much as moves.
Baekhyun firmly nods, peering down at me with a raised brow. “Come with me?” Even while he asks, I’m already being led over to his bike. He grabs his helmet and pauses, turning to me, the dim street lights reflecting the mysterious glint in his brown eyes. “Have you ridden a motorcycle before?”
I look at the bike then back at him, narrowing my eyes. “Are you planning to kill me with it?”
The corner of his lips twitch up, “that’s a no then. May I?”
Eyeing the helmet in his hands, I nod, quickly muttering, “if I die, I’m suing you,” when he starts to place it on my head.
Baekhyun chuckles. “Don’t worry.” He adjusts the helmet with a teasing little grin, his voice low enough for only me to hear. “You’re in good hands.”
“Uh huh—oof!” I yelp when he suddenly lifts me up and sets me on the back of his vehicle—that seems one hundred times more intimidating now that I’m sitting on it. “I swear, Byun, if I fall‒”
“You won’t.” Baekhyun affirms. He throws his leg over the motorcycle and climbs onto it with grace, throwing one last look back at me before starting the engine. It purrs in a way I’ve never heard before. The low, crispy sound vibrates through my entire body when his deep voice reaches my ears. “Hold on tight.”
When he revs the engine, I wrap my arms tightly around his waist. The fear of death is greater than the pulsing of my bleeding arm. We speed out into the street, the others becoming mere specks of shadowy figures in the distance as we go further down the dirt road.
My eyes stay partially closed until I remember that I’m wearing a helmet, and if anyone has to do that its Baekhyun. Which is fucking scary considering the fact that he is the one driving! Steering this two-wheeled vehicle that tilts side to side depending on the gravitational pull of the earth and the wind.
I flinch when we roll over a bump in the road, gripping the front of Baekhyun’s shirt. I can’t tell if it’s the motorcycle or his chuckles causing the vibrations in his chest when I rest my head on his back. The sun is slowly rising, pale light peeking over the horizon. It bounces off of the calm ocean water in the distance. It’s fascinating, how the ocean and the cloudy sky meet, like a snowglobe full of cascading sparkles.
The blur of buildings comes into focus when we slow down, Baekhyun resting his feet on the ground when we reach a red light. Recognizing the slightly run-down buildings, my heart rate picks up. “Baekhyun? Where are we going?” I ask warily. Instead of replying, he pats my clenched fist in a pacifying manner and takes off once the light switches to green.
Gulping down my nerves, I make sure to take note of every street we go down in case I have to hightail my ass out of wherever we are headed. The sight of small brick houses and wide front porches brings a wave of nostalgia over me—and not in a good way. All I can do is hold onto him and hope I stay in one piece until we reach our destination. The weight of my knife concealed in my left boot gives me little reassurance.
We start to slow down on a street that welcomes us with the largest maple tree that I’ve ever seen, followed by small but surprisingly well-kept homes. It’s pretty for the infamous neighborhood that we are in, and the house we stop in front of in particular is the nicest one.
Baekhyun drives up the driveway and parks, getting off the motorcycle with grace before helping me down as well. I flinch when I try to straighten my injured arm. It hurts worse than it did earlier, burning every time my denim jacket sways in the wind and brushes against it. I keep my arm bent at the elbow while clutching it to my chest.
Baekhyun notices but doesn’t say anything. He walks up to the house while I linger behind, taking in the flower-filled yard. Pretty pink roses and beautifully bloomed dandelions take up most of the land. Growing steadily alongside the driveway and sidewalk, their healthy petals awaiting the sunlight.
“Hey.”
Turning back to Baekhyun, he crosses his arms and leans against the doorframe of the open door. The sun shines down on his caramel-colored coat, black graphic tee shirt, and leather pants. The more I look at him, the more confused I get. How on earth is he in a bike gang? He has no visible tattoos, no piercings. The only things “gangsta” about him are his sharp brown eyes, confident stance, and authoritative aura.
Baekhyun clears his throat, jolting me from my thoughts. He raises a brow with a tilt of his head, the corner of his lips twitching. “Come in.” He disappears into the house before I can give any sort of reply.
Pulling my phone out of my bra, I snap a picture of the street sign and send it to my friend so they know my whereabouts—just in case. I tuck it back under my shirt and take one last look at the quiet neighborhood before entering the house.
The only way I can describe the interior is warm. With light brown walls and darker carpeted floors. The living room alone is full of worn-in couches with pretty throw blankets. When I start to take off my shoes, Baekhyun pops up, shaking his head, “there’s more dirt on this floor than out in the yard.”
He walks off into another part of the house with his heeled boots and loud footsteps. I spot a bright orange crumpled leaf and a patch of dried grass in the center of the room. Heeding his advice, I take a wary glance at the unlocked door before going to look for him. Walking to the other side of the living room, I’m met with a doorway to the kitchen on my left and a hallway to my right. Finding no sign of Baekhyun in the tidy room, I venture down the hall.
“In here,” he calls out just as I pass the first door on the left.
Backtracking a few steps, I look inside the bathroom while he rummages in the cabinet under the sink. My eyes move back to him when he swears.
“I know I left it somewhere,” he mumbles just as his eyes caught sight of something. With a tug, he pulls back to close the doors, standing up with a familiar red box in his hands. “Have a seat,” he beckons me over, gesturing to the closed toilet lid with his chin.
I settle myself on the cold surface, the white porcelain chilling my skin through my jeans. Watching him carefully while he sets the first-aid kit beside the sink and takes out antibacterial wipes. When he reaches for my arm I flinch back.
Baekhyun gives me a look. “May I?”
Sighing deeply and gritting my teeth, I nod with a roll of my eyes, slowly taking off my ripped jacket and dropping it in the bathtub. I look away when he draws nearer with the wipe, clenching my hand into a fist. The sting brings tears to my eyes.
After what feels like hours, Baekhyun gets to work on the gauze, gently wrapping it around my arm and taping it together. I take a few deep breaths as he moves over to the sink, focusing on the sound of running water instead of the irritated skin of my scratched palms.
“You won’t need stitches,” Baekhyun murmurs thoughtfully, his voice breaking the silence, echoing across the tiled walls of the room. He dries his hands on an indigo blue towel hanging from a high bathroom rack attached to the wall. “...Are you okay?”
The hint of concern in his voice is surprising, it prompts my eyes shift over to him. “Yea—Fuck!” I hiss loudly, quickly bending my elbow back to its position. The tender wound throbs painfully in sync with my racing heartbeat.
His brows raise. He crosses his arms, leaning his hip against the counter and giving me another knowing look. I only glare back at him.
Baekhyun sighs tiredly. “I’ll get you an Advil.” He shakes his head, making his way out of the room and venturing further down the hallway. I clutch my arm to my chest, sending a quick text to my friend to come pick me up. Thankfully she’s right around the block, passing through the neighborhood on her way back home from work.
A smile curls on my lips when she sends a picture of the great maple tree at the nearest red light. The bandages crinkle when I stand up, grabbing my jacket and tentatively closing the first-aid kit before heading back towards the front of the house. Heavy footsteps have my head whipping back around to find Baekhyun in the hallway with a box of Advil in his hands. “Hey,” he cracks an awkward smile, his hair slightly disheveled.
I narrow my eyes at him.
The smile slowly falls off his face. He clears his throat, gesturing to the box in his hand. “I got you the Advil.”
“I see.” I don’t take my eyes off of him for a minute, shifting my weight so I can retrieve my knife if the need arises. His body language is off and his intentions are not clear. I make sure to keep distance between us; I’ve been in this situation a million times before. Whatever he is trying to achieve with this small talk, I am not up for sticking around to find out.
“Do you, uh‒” he runs a hand through his hair. “Do you need a ride?”
“No, I called a friend,” I smile tightly.
“Oh.” His hand falls down to his side. He shoves it into his pocket and outstretches the box in his hand towards me. “Here, half the box is left. You probably need them more than‒” his eyes catch mine and he clears his throat again, “me.”
I look him up and down and carefully take the box from his hand, avoiding making any contact. My lips twitch in a mixture of amusement and annoyance. “Thanks.”
Baekhyun nods, shoving both hands in his pockets, the velvet green underside of his coat showing when he parts his lips again. “About what happened earli‒”
The rev of a sports car engine cuts him off. “Hop in, bitch!” my best friend yells, breaking the tranquil atmosphere of this shady neighborhood in the early hours of the morning. “We’re going home!”
I glance at the open door then shoot him a forced, polite smile. “Thanks um… Baekhyun, was it? But there’s my ride. I got to go.”
Baekhyun nods while I make sure I have everything, tucking the box of medicine under my good arm. “See you around,” he speaks up when I’m halfway through the door.
Darting my eyes back to him with my hand on the screen door, I smile my fakest smile, letting it slam shut behind me. “Bye!” With a roll of my eyes, I match down the driveway to my friend’s car and hop in with a passive-aggressive smile.
“What the hell happened to your arm?” she raises a perfectly arched brow.
“A situation you never want to be in while shopping for hairspray, Alison. Now drive.”
Part 1✓ | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 |
A/N: If you would like me to continue posting this story on Tumblr, reblog or comment to let me know! (^-^)
Pairing(s) - Volleyball!Johnny x Female Reader, featuring Ten as Johnny’s roommate and teammate
Genre(s) - Fluff, University!AU, friends to lovers
Warning(s) - descriptions of an injury (Johnny gets injured during a game)
Summary - As a first year student majoring in English, you would have never thought that you’d end up working for the sports news network at your university. Even more so, flirting with one of your coworkers who happens to be on the men’s volleyball team.
Word Count - 8.6k
Author’s Note - I’ve had this in my drafts for nearly 2 years now and I’m so happy to finally release it! It’s been a while since I’ve competitively played volleyball so I’m sorry if my descriptions of actions aren’t the best but feedback is always appreciated!
Written for the NCT Sports Collab previously hosted by @leesmrk (deactivated) and currently hosted by @yuta-nakamots (me).
Leaving home for college in your second semester was definitely scary and to make it worse, you did not know anyone at your school. There were a few other students who graduated from your high school but they were not close enough to call them friends. What’s more, you had promised your parents that you would get a part-time job to help pay for tuition without a single clue of how to go about doing so.
It seemed like some higher being was on your side when you received an email with information on the fall semester job fair. As you were going through the long list of departments hiring, none of them really caught your eye except for one, sports news.
Sports News Network: Flexible hours, no grade level standing necessary, open to all students. Experience in sports is preferred. Must be comfortable doing tasks such as running the scoreboard/live stream, taking pictures/videos, and managing player statistics during athletic events. Spring sports include but are not limited to; Volleyball, Baseball, and Softball. If you are interested, please leave your name and university email address. Thank you!
At the job fair, it was almost as if you had tunnel vision while making a beeline toward the booth, barely sparing the others a second glance. It didn’t seem like a boring desk job you would regret taking up so you eagerly jotted down your information on the paper, only slightly worried about the large number of students who applied before you.
You were not clueless with cameras and shooting content. Ever since childhood, you had experience with a wide variety of sports or at least prior knowledge of the ones mentioned in the job description. Leaving the job fair, you felt as dreadfully excited as one could possibly be when entering their first semester at a new school.
About a week later, an email came in from the director of the Sports News Network congratulating you on being hired and asking for your general availability. You responded almost immediately and sent a detailed list of your schedule. Apparently, your schedule was a near-perfect match for the job since athletic games were mostly on weekends, or occasionally weekday evenings while your classes were exclusively on weekdays with most evenings free.
Apparently, it was not common to take so much initiative because you were one of the first new hires brought in to start training at a women’s volleyball game. Most of the other people working at this particular game had at least a year of experience. They had little to no difficulty going between fulfilling their duties and also instructing you on how to do yours or fixing it when you made a mistake.
Though you were given mostly menial tasks like running the scoreboard and monitoring the live stream, it was most enjoyable when you were handed a camera and told to go down on the court and take action shots. It seemed a bit scary with all the balls flying around, looking like they were coming directly at you through the lens of the camera.
“Careful, sometimes it feels like dodgeball over here,” one of your coworkers joked. “Here, take my spot in the corner, I’ll get the ones behind the court line. I’m Johnny, by the way. You’re one of the new hires right?”
“Yeah, it’s my first day actually,” you informed him while switching spots with him. “How long have you been working here?”
“Three years now. I started when I was a second-year and never left,” he shared as he caught a ball that had been hit out of bounds.
You took a few pictures of both teams celebrating their hard work as the set concluded. “Interesting. What’s been keeping you here so long?”
“First off, I love photography and it’s been a hobby of mine since maybe the end of middle school,” he ushered you off to the side of the court where it was not as crowded, “second, I’m on the men’s volleyball team so it helps to have a hand in what gets posted about us and make sure all the information is correct. It motivates me even more if anything since I want to make sure my teammates look good.”
“Wow, this is practically the perfect job for you then,” you remarked while going over your shots from throughout the game.
Johnny chuckled a bit. “Yeah, I guess one could say that.”
He became an immense help as you started learning all the different roles and tasks for the Sports News Network. He showed you the best spots for pictures in each sport and how to take ones that are more likely to get chosen for the school newspapers. He was also the one to teach you how to run the sound system of the gym though he could not help himself from acting like an upscale DJ in the process.
He even made sure to introduce you to some of your other coworkers who were more experienced, similar to himself. Since men’s volleyball was coming up, he would be on the court as an athlete instead of working so he wanted to make sure you were comfortable asking other employees for help too. The thought of seeing Johnny in action was exciting and you could only imagine how he would look in his volleyball uniform and not his normal hoodie and jeans ensemble.
It felt intimidating to be taking photos without Johnny beside you to ask for advice. Though it was reassuring to be able to see him through the lens of the camera knowing he was still right in front of you. Really, it was even possible to just run over during a timeout or while he sat on the bench if you seriously needed his help.
Despite this, it seemed like he was intent on making it obvious he was still paying attention to you even when on the court. When he and his team came out to warm up, they were met with the enthusiastic cheering of their fans and you took pictures of them waving and hyping up the crowd. Johnny was quick to find you and make a funny face, eliciting odd looks from his teammates toward him.
During warm-ups, he did not hesitate to strike a pose while running through your line of sight and stopping so you could get a better shot of him. “How do I look?” he asked, after mimicking The Discobolus after shagging a ball.
“Amazing,” you joked, “wanna take a look?”
“Hmm, that’s good but it would look better once I’m uniform.” He rolled up the sleeves of his warm-up shirt and recreated the pose. “Something more like this, you know? To get the boys in there.”
“Right, got it.” You laughed while he got called back into the drill by one of his coaches. There were a few of his teammates giving you second glances but you figured it was because Johnny kept interacting with you.
Once the starting lineups were being announced for both teams, you tried to do as Johnny instructed, situating yourself at a forty-five-degree angle from the team. Fortunately, the opposing team, the Warriors, was called out first so there was time to practice on them before taking pictures of your own men’s team.
You wanted to make sure Johnny’s photos look good they would show him you were listening to his advice and taking the job seriously. It felt like your nervousness only heightened when the crowd erupted in cheers as the Spartan name was mentioned, signaling the start of the home team’s lineup.
Taeyong, the team captain and outside hitter was introduced first, wearing the number 1 on his jersey. He stepped forward and addressed both sides of the gymnasium, giving you more than enough time to get a few pictures of him in. Yuta, the Allstar right-side hitter was next as number 7 followed by Ten, the team’s libero wearing, well, the number 10. Those three were known the be the favorites and the volume of the crowd definitely reflected that.
Sicheng was called upon, with some visible hints of confusion from the audience as the starting setter position, which was already announced online to be Hendery as number 44, was now replaced with number 28. It occurred to you that Hendery had been missing during warmups though you simply assumed he must be sick or missing for some other reason like an exam or interview. But you were interested in seeing Sicheng play since he hardly ever participated in games due to having just transferred to the school and team.
When the Spartan’s middle blocker wearing the number 29 was introduced, you got butterflies in your stomach but it was hard to tell if they were from your slowly developing attraction toward him or not. Johnny proudly came forward and waved to both sides of the gymnasium, lingering just a second longer on the side you were crouched on. Last, but not least, was another first-year student on the team. Jaehyun, adorning the number 77, was introduced and showed off his endearing dimples while acknowledging the crowd.
The two teams met at the net to exchange greetings before the start of the match and you continued to take shots of the home team, wanting to be able to have gotten a photo for every member of the team. Kun, as number 11 led the rest of the team in following their starting lineup. On the roster, he was listed as the team’s second defensive specialist due to his skill all around the court. Following him was Doyoung, another right-side hitter who wore the number 26 and was often substituted in for Yuta when the older got too heated about bad calls by the officials.
The match started just the same as any other volleyball game, the constant back and forth of the ball making you feel somewhat dizzy at times. The male athletes kept up a faster rally than what was typical in the women’s matches, which left you struggling to keep up with the plays.
You remained on the same side of the court your team was on, which allowed you to hear the news of Hendery’s arrival about fifteen minutes after Taeyong had delivered the first serve of the game. The coaches and staff were anxiously whispering to each other as Hendery slipped into the line of other players standing next to the seats of the bench. “Should we put him in now?” The assistant coach asked.
“No, let’s wait for the boys to get a lead, I don’t want to disrupt the rhythm they have going right now,” the head coach responded. Sicheng started off a bit rocky with some of his sets going a little too low or a bit off target but within a play or two, he had settled down and been able to give his teammates nice passes for their kills.
Once the Spartans had pulled ahead by eight points, Hendery was called on from the lineup and substituted in for Sicheng. The other substitutes congratulated Sicheng as he took a seat on the bench while you got pictures of the other five members on the court welcoming Hendery in.
He had a worried expression on his face while he fell into position, ready for his teammates to receive the incoming serve. Yuta neatly bumped the ball to Hendery at the net, who then set it a little too short for Jaehyun on the outside. He quickly changed his direction to still get it over the net but his attack lacked its normal amount of sheer force.
This allowed the Warriors, to have an easier time organizing themselves to have a strong offensive play, sending Ten diving for the ball when it came beaming over. He had his arm stretched out for the pancaking technique in a desperate attempt to save the play, barely giving Hendery enough time to situate himself under the ball for the second touch. Again, he was unable to successfully hand off the momentum to his chosen hitter, this time being Yuta who had to stop his prep before jumping and spiking from the ground.
The opposing team had yet another opportunity to deliver an attack on the scattered team whose only composed defense was Johnny and Jaehyun shifting around at the net, getting ready to block the other team’s hitter. The ball got sent straight into Johnny’s extended arms causing it to fall slowly towards the ground, interrupted only by Hendery’s effort to get it back in the air.
It was a good attempt but instead of going straight up, it shot out to the back end of the court, none of the boys able to reach it in time. “Get your head in the game, Hendery,” the head coach shouted before shaking his head in disappointment at the senior. “Sicheng, get ready to go back in during the next set.”
The lead the Spartans had previously held became a neck and neck race to the end of the first set. Yuta closed off the last three points with a string of service aces, much to the dismay of the opposing team and the relief of the team next to you. As the court switched sides during the timeout, you reviewed some of the stills and adjusted your settings to have a faster shutter speed after noticing a motion blur in a few of them.
It felt like hardly any time went by when the twelve players were already returning to the court and the Warriors delivered their first serve of the second set. Ten received the ball, effectively stabilizing it for Sicheng who was able to set up a beautiful attack for Taeyong and earn the first point in the set. Now that you were on the opposite side of the court from the team, you could get photos of them from the front and capture their faces instead of just their numbers on the back of their jerseys.
Johnny was up to serve next. Excitement built itself up at the rare sight of a middle blocker serving. With so much distance in the second set remaining, it made sense to allow him to flaunt his court-dominating power. Though he wasn’t often trained to have such a heavy serve, his ball flew into the court with even more intensity than that of Taeyong or Yuta, the team’s strongest hitters.
There was a sequence of chaos as the Warriors struggled to return Johnny’s service, resulting in his first service ace of the game. The audience reacted enthusiastically, showing their support to see the middle blocker being given another go at starting off the play. Johnny ended up claiming his second service ace while the third was cut short by a well-placed attack from the opposing right-side hitter.
The second set continued on similar to the beginning half of the first set and the Spartans quickly racked up their points. By the time the score had reached the 20s, it was getting close to Johnny’s turn to serve once more and you fully expected him to be substituted but it seemed like their coaches wanted to see if they could steal the set with more aces.
You peered through the lens of the camera as Johnny stood at the other end of the court, waiting for the referee to signal for him to serve as he shifted the ball in his hands. This could possibly be the end of another set and the gymnasium was silent aside from the shrill sound of the whistle followed by Johnny’s footsteps as he tossed the ball into the air.
He took only two steps before jumping and pulling his arm behind him, his hand perfectly framing his face. You pressed the button on the camera, hoping the shutter speed would be able to catch these next moments as his hand came down on the ball, launching it across the court, easily clearing the net and falling into play as the opposing team received his strong serve.
There was no time to rest, already finding Johnny’s large frame again and tracking his movements as he fell into position behind Jaehyun, crouching with his hands out, ready for the incoming attack. When you noticed the opposing team’s outside hitter prep for the kill, you took rapid-fire shots again as Jaehyun jumped from the other side of the net, arms extended in hopes of a block.
Both the teams and the crowd burst into chaos as the ball was hit right into Jaehyun’s arms and came falling down against him, sending Ten scrambling to recover it. He managed to pop it up to the back where Johnny prepared to spike it over and again you set your camera off. His hand made contact with the ball, sending it into an empty space on the other side of the court, the opposing team failing to reach it in time.
“And that wraps it up for set two of the game, folks. The Spartans lead the Warriors, two sets to none.” You continued following Johnny as he turned around to celebrate the win of the second set with his teammates and were pleasantly surprised when he parted from their huddle to send a playful look with a pose, drawing laughs from the rest of the team as they either joined him or left for the locker room.
Entertaining him, you took a few photos of him and his teammates until someone came and dragged them away, allowing you to finally head back to the sideline. Since it was halftime, there was a fair amount of time to sit down with your laptop and upload the pictures to see how they came out.
Already, once the first few loaded, you were quite happy with the quality of the stills from today after switching the exposure settings as per Johnny’s suggestion. You were even able to get a few of Kun and Doyoung throughout the few minutes of the set they played before they were substituted out.
The way their skin glistened under the light of the gymnasium was truly something to be adored and you couldn’t help but stare in awe at the way they looked while clicking through the photos. It took a bit of time to get through them all, especially with how many were taken with the rapid shutter speed, but when you finally reached the action shots of Johnny, you could’ve sworn your heart did a little dance in your chest.
His hair fell in front of his eyes as he held the ball in his hands, the veins and athletic tape he wore made them all the more eye-catching. You went through the next few in which the ball floated in the air as he prepped for his service with his lips slightly parted, tracking the ball above him.
You didn’t get to finish looking at them all because the ones where he finally made contact with the ball were particularly eye-catching. Johnny’s arm was extended above his head, his toned muscles flexing as he followed through with the motion. Your eyes trailed down from his arm to his face, where you became lost in the details of his curved lips pulled thin as he clenched his jaw or the small beads of sweat covering his skin.
Going down even further, you took in the broad expanse of his chest and shoulders, the sleeveless uniform granting the privilege of seeing the warm shades of his skin and the definition of his muscles underneath it. You thanked the lightweight uniform once again when there was a glimpse of his abs peeking out from where his shirt drifted upwards, revealing a substantial portion of his torso.
It was almost mesmerizing, looking at Johnny’s physique like this. You were so engrossed in admiring the photo that you didn’t even notice the team coming back out to the court and Johnny’s presence behind you. “You’ve been looking at that picture for nearly a whole minute now. Are you okay?”
Your soul leaped out of your body for a second. “Good lord, don’t scare people like that, Johnny.”
“I was just standing here,” he stated, “you’re the one who found me to be scary.”
“What- wh-” you stuttered in confoundment, “who in their right mind just stands behind people and expects to not be considered scary?”
“Depends,” Johnny shrugged, “who in their right mind stares at a photo of their coworker for a minute straight?”
“I- you know what?” you were fumbling for a witty response, “I could have been checking for motion blur and thinking about which settings to adjust.”
Johnny raised an eyebrow and nodded as if thinking about that situation. “You could have been,” he agreed, “but you weren’t.”
“How would you know that?” you asked mockingly.
“Oh, I just know,” he taunted, “I have my ways.” He glanced over at the scoreboard and saw the time continuing to count down. “Also, I guess this is a better time than ever, but I heard some of the flowers at a botanical garden are gonna bloom this weekend. Would you like to come with me to take some pictures?”
“Yeah sure, just let me know when and we can set something up,” you agreed, “but I think you should get out there, some of your teammates are looking at us.” Ten was standing with his hands on his hips, waiting for his volleying partner to join him.
“Right, I’ll get your number later,” he assured while heading back onto the court, “take shots of my teammates, not just me!” You exhaled heavily, unamused.
Some of the best photos of the match came from the third set since you were now acclimated to the speed of the plays and the movements of the guys on the team. Taeyong had a constant lead-up to his attack compared to Yuta who was more spontaneous. Jaehyun was slower than his teammates but it was obvious why he became a starter despite being only a freshman along with Sicheng, whose setting form was ever so elegant.
The team’s freshman setter was not as easy to track, though. Hendery jerked around quite a bit as if he got lost in his thoughts and yanked back out once he processed the ball in the air above him. His strained expression showed something was troubling him and keeping him uneasy throughout the game. He didn’t seem as shaken as before, but the way he quickly rushed out of the gymnasium after the game ended said otherwise.
You were helping your boss clean up the equipment on the sidelines and load the pictures onto the school laptop when Johnny came jogging over before heading to the locker room. “What’s up with Hendery?” you inquired as Johnny grabbed an extra copy of the roster and a pen.
“He didn’t really tell us much but I think it’s got to do with his girlfriend,” he shared. “She’s in my cinematography class and she was acting kinda weird this past week too.” He handed you the paper and pen, “here, write your number on this and I’ll text you later tonight.”
Right, your garden photoshoot ‘date’. You quickly jotted down your number and handed the paper back to him. “Congrats on the win, you guys did good tonight! Go join the rest of them before they start getting suspicious.”
“Oh, they already are, don’t worry about that,” he teased with a wink. You felt yourself heat up at what he could be possibly hinting at but forced yourself to concentrate on the tasks in front of you. It was definitely not a good idea to be imagining a strong, sweaty Johnny holding you and kissing you and-
“Can you bring the laptop back to my office?” your boss requested.
“Yes! Of course!” you replied, possibly with a little too much enthusiasm.
Johnny had sent a message, as he promised, which led to an hour of cheeky bantering before both of you decided to head to sleep since it was getting late. He continued texting you throughout the week and it only increased your excitement to see him again. Sometimes his messages got a little more suggestive but he was probably just being friendly. It’s not like you would know how he treated other girls.
But if he treated all girls in any manner similar to how he treated you, he would be a man of much chivalry and far more pleasant to be around than other guys his age. He gave you a ride to the garden and made sure to hold open any door standing within your path. On top of that, he hardly was on his phone and devoted most of his attention to you throughout the day.
He wore a pale pastel orange button-down shirt with white and yellow flowers on them, the coral color of the shirt bringing out the warmth of his skin tone even more in the late afternoon sunlight. “Oh my gosh! Where did Johnny go? I think I lost him in all these sunflowers!” you dramatically exclaimed when walking past an area filled with the tall yellow flowers just around his height.
He picked up on your skit and stopped in his tracks, clasping his hands together and calling out your name like a damsel in distress. “I seem to have lost track of my dear friend! How will I ever get out of this garden without a brave soul to escort me through it!”
You burst out into laughter at his histrionics. “Why are you so good at that?”
Johnny shrugged nonchalantly, “just watched a lot of movies and studied the actors.”
“Are you interested in becoming an actor someday?” you asked, easily picturing him in a classic romance film or maybe even a blockbuster action movie.
He tilted his head with a thoughtful expression. “Not really acting per se but maybe directing or filming. I enjoy being behind the camera more than I do being in front of it but if an opportunity comes my way to try acting, I wouldn’t turn it down.”
His major in creative media made a lot more sense knowing this information. You had noticed it on the team roster because it seemed a bit out of place compared to the rest of his teammates who were going into things related to health. “I think you’d do so good as an actor,” you admitted, “I would watch all the stuff you’re in.”
Johnny looking at you questioningly. “Anything? Even if it had a nude scene?”
“Sure.” You were flustered by the question but knew you would watch things he starred in. Especially if he had a nude scene.
“Hmm…interesting,” he eyed you with suspicion but continued walking through the garden without further explanation.
It was clear Johnny was awfully confident with his camera in hand and giving advice on how to pose in front of the various flowers. He didn’t hesitate to shower you with compliments and call you a range of things like ‘pretty, hot, sexy, cute, beautiful, amazing’ and nearly anything else you could possibly think of.
While looking at the stills on his display, you definitely had some favorites already but it seemed like Johnny had a few of his own. “Look, a flower among the other flowers,” he said cheesily, presenting a photo where you sat on a bench surrounded by smaller flowers in full bloom.
“Thank you.” Your cheeks heated up from his remark of admiration, causing you to quickly scroll through more photos to calm yourself down. “Hey, how about I get some of you? You’ve only taken pictures of me today. Let me repay you somehow.”
Johnny shook his head, “no that’s okay, I like taking photos of other people.”
“Come on,” you insisted, “you’re so attractive. How do you not want to show that off?”
“Me? Attractive? No way.” He couldn’t possibly be joking when he was this handsome, right?
“Please, Johnny? What about just as a way to remember this date?” you prodded, though quickly regretting your choice of words. “I mean this day itself, not like a ‘date’ date but just a day that we hung out together you know?”
He chuckled at your scramble for words. “I think I’d consider this a date. Wouldn’t you?”
“Uh, yeah, sure, I would too but like-”
“Here, take the camera before you embarrass yourself more.” He handed it over while going to find a spot that suited him. He ended up choosing the wall of sunflowers the two of you had passed by earlier. “Just me and my crew,” he joked when posing in front of them.
You tried to remember the way he had taken your pictures and how he coached you to position yourself during work. Quite honestly, the shots of him came out quite good but you weren’t sure if it was your doing or simply due to Johnny’s photogenic features. “If you were a flower, I’d pick you,” you proclaimed while giving his camera back.
“Not bad, not bad,” he mused, “pretty good, actually.”
“What? My photos of you or my pickup line?” you clarified.
“Both.”
By the time you and Johnny were back in his car, golden hour began to set in and both of you had exchanged more than a sensible amount of pickup lines, even disputing how well some of them would work in certain situations. It was surprising how many casual ones he knew since most of yours took a turn to a more intimate side.
“Duuuuude, are you flirting with me?” he contended after you delivered quite a risky line.
“Maybe, I don’t know,” you teased, wanting to egg him on to see if he knew any.
Johnny hummed in thought before turning in his seat to face you. “Fuck me if I’m wrong but you want to kiss me, right?”
Your eyebrows furrowed as you processed what he just said. “...Gosh, that’s so forward holy shit.”
“But am I right?”
“Should I show you if you are?”
“Go ahead.”
You reached over and cupped Johnny’s face, bringing him closer while leaning in and planting a quick kiss on his lips before releasing him and sitting back into your seat. You wished it was possible to sink further into it and have it swallow you whole once the reality of your actions hit.
“Wow…I can’t believe you just went straight for the lips,” Johnny mused.
You immediately blurted out an apology. “Sorry, I should have asked first, I just thought-”
Johnny cut you off by placing his lips on yours and pulled away with a smile when he felt you reciprocate his kiss. “It’s okay, I liked it. I wouldn’t have said such a suggestive line if I didn’t think you were down for it.”
“You think I’d be down to fuck you? Like right here? Right now?” you gasped.
“No, not really but I wouldn’t be opposed to it,” he teased. “I definitely thought that you wanted to kiss me though, and I was right anyway.”
“Yes, yes you are,” you sighed exasperatedly. His flirty personality kept you constantly on your toes.
A brief silence fell upon the car until Johnny spoke again. “Do you want to try that again but for real this time?”
“Johnny Suh, you’re such a flirt aren’t you?”
“You know you want me.” With that, you met him over the center console as your lips felt his for the third time. This kiss felt warmer than the ones before it and the sincerity behind it was evident. His lips were soft and hot against yours though they never tried to take control. They danced with yours and followed your movements, allowing you to lead.
The kiss lasted only a few seconds but felt much longer because of how intoxicating it was. Purely because of your need for air, you broke away, though you didn’t go very far. Johnny noticed this and waited for you to catch your breath before diving back in and placing a hand around your thigh. He began pushing for more control, his teeth grazing the soft flesh of your bottom lip as if asking to go further. You gave way ever so slightly, waiting to see if he would take the bait but before he could-
Ring ring. His phone rang from inside his pocket.
“Shoot, sorry,” he hurriedly apologized while fishing his phone out using his free hand. He paused when he read the name of the person calling him, “it’s my roommate, sorry, I think I should take this.”
“It’s okay, go ahead,” you reassured him. A friend had once said if a guy felt comfortable enough to answer a call around you, it was a good sign in the relationship. But you weren’t technically with Johnny. He wasn’t yours and you weren’t his. It still must be a good sign though…right?
“Hey, where are you?” You recognized the voice on the other end of the line.
“I’m out at the botanical garden right now. Why? What’s up?”
“Oh, nothing. I just wanted to know where you were because normally you’re at home and I didn’t remember saying anything about going out.” His roommate was Ten from the volleyball team.
You thought it was cute how Ten cared enough about Johnny to call him like this. “Sorry, I thought I mentioned it to you.”
“Wait, are you with that girl you were telling us about? The one that was working during the game last week?” It was both shocking and admirable that Johnny had mentioned you to his roommate and possibly some other guys as well.
“Yeah, I am. She’s with me in the car right now,” he informed Ten.
“Oops, sorry dude,” Ten giggled, “did I interrupt something?”
“Kinda, yeah,” Johnny finally removed his hand from your thigh and you immediately missed the warmth from it. “You did.”
“Damn, Johnny! You get some! And hi, future bestie! You really managed to catch Johnny’s eye so I hope I get to meet you someday.” You looked to Johnny for permission to respond to Ten.
He held the phone out to you, giving you the chance to respond. “Hello! I swear I didn’t mean to steal him away from you.”
“Nah, it’s okay. You can keep him, he’s kinda weird anyway,” Ten bantered.
“That’s enough of that,” Johnny interrupted, pulling his phone back. “I’ll be back in a bit after I drop her off. Thanks for checking on me. See you at the apartment.” He promptly ended the call and tossed his phone into one of the cup holders in the center console. “He can be a handful at times.”
“Yeah, I know. I’ve seen you guys on the court together.” You remembered Ten’s exaggerated gestures when Johnny failed to return one of his volleys as they were warming up.
“Yeah,” Johnny echoed. “Well, I guess it’s time to drop you off.”
You pulled the seat belt over your shoulder while Johnny started the car. “Right.”
Despite the air conditioner blowing, the air felt still and stuffy with awkwardness. You couldn’t pinpoint where it came from, nor did you know how to get rid of it. So you simply sat in it and soaked in it, hoping it wouldn’t be a major setback in your relationship with Johnny even on a platonic level. It wasn’t until you had shut the door of his car and watched him drive off, that it felt as if you could breathe freely once more.
Johnny and the rest of the team left for an away game the following week, leaving you slightly bored without his constant texts. It left you slightly anxious not fully knowing where you and Johnny stood after having kissed each other within just a month of meeting each other. Regardless, you decided to watch the live stream of Johnny’s game to support him and the rest of the boys.
Due to the time difference, when you had finally ended class and tuned into the stream, the game was already in its second set with the Spartans up once more against the opposing team. The match was maddeningly close, neither time falling more than five points behind the other and you felt so proud of your schoolmates.
As much as you wanted to watch the game, you still had chores to do around your apartment and went around doing them while treating the live stream as a podcast. You checked back in every few points to monitor the score, the cheers of the audience informing you of how long each play went.
You were heating up a late afternoon snack when the audience began talking amongst themselves, making you think it was a timeout. There wasn’t any music playing as there normally would be during the short break, so you took a quick glimpse at the stream only to find the Spartans huddled around one of their players who was lying on the floor.
It was frustrating that there was no way to enlarge the video and zoom in on the boys. The numbers on their jersey were not big enough to be transmitted clearly and it left you anxiously waiting to hear what happened. As the team helped the injured athlete up and brought him over to the seats at the sideline of the court, your heart sunk when you realized who it was.
There was a replay being shown in slow motion on the large screen in the gymnasium and you watched the ill-fated play. The opposite team’s outside hitter was preparing to attack, both Johnny and Jaehyun jumping to block. Johnny had come over from his centered position, the other team’s defensive specialist mirroring him in case the block was successful and the ball needed to be saved. The defensive specialist had taken large steps in their hurry to get into position and accidentally crossed the centerline.
Following a successful block from Jaehyun, their foot remained over the line just underneath where Johnny was coming down. Your middle blocker landed unsteadily, falling to the left since that was the side interrupted by the opposing player’s foot. He crumpled to the floor, grabbing onto his ankle in pain while the play was kindly stopped by the opposing right-side hitter who caught the ball before their attack upon seeing a player down.
“Foot foul by the Huskies. Point given to the Spartans,” the PA announced, interpreting the motions from the referees. “Player substitution for the Spartans, number 5, Jungwoo Kim coming in for number 29, Johnny Suh, and number 28, Sicheng Dong coming in for number 44, Hendery Wong…timeout called by the Huskies.”
There was so much going on all at once, you could only imagine how shaken the team felt seeing one of their core members become injured. Jungwoo was a fair bit younger than Johnny and was only a second-year player on the team, though he was hardly put in because he was not nearly as skilled as Johnny. You weren’t very familiar with Jungwoo but you knew the two were close since they often fooled around together during practice. But again, Sicheng was being substituted for Hendery and you wondered if this was still due to his recurring lack of focus.
It was an odd mix of players on the court for the Spartans and the team was split into two groups along the sideline. The active players received hurried instruction from their coaches given their new combination while Johnny was surrounded by the athletic trainers and a few of his other teammates offering help where they could.
The game resumed after the short intermission and the Spartans lost the lead they previously held over the opposing team. There was a lot more noise coming from the team as they tried to find a rhythm amongst themselves and communicate who would be doing which touch. You couldn’t help but stare at the bottom corner of the screen where Johnny sat, getting his ankle wrapped. When the set concluded in favor of the Huskies, you saw him being helped off his chair and presumably to the locker room where he could rest out of view.
You struggled to pay attention to the rest of the game, your thoughts constantly wandering over to Johnny. Even though you knew he was not seriously injured since he had managed to hobble off with help from Kun and Doyoung, your worries got the best of you and were driving you insane. What if he couldn’t play for the rest of the season? They still have a few games left but Jungwoo could probably cover for him. What if he ended up not being able to play for the remainder of his college career? No one else was given the middle blocker position though it was always possible to train another player or recruit someone to the team.
Before you knew it, the match concluded with the Spartans winning a long battle of three sets to two. You turned off the stream and focused your attention on completing assignments but your mind refused to stay put. It was getting late in the afternoon, almost nearing evening, but you still had time until things were due at midnight. Putting on your favorite comfort videos, you spent a while watching those to calm down. At some point, you finally felt peaceful enough to resume your work.
You went to sleep uneasily that night with Johnny remaining in your consciousness. Even when you woke the next morning, he was quick to return. You sent him a message letting him know you watched the live stream and hoped he recovered soon. He responded almost immediately, thanking you for watching his game and saying that he wasn’t in too much pain though he did have to use crutches even past when the team gets home in a few days. You pledged to help him when he came back which he responded to with a simple ‘haha thank you’.
This simple interaction was enough for you to get your fill of him and you didn’t want to disturb him any further so you went about your day as best as you could. There was a basketball game that you were scheduled for and it seemed like all your coworkers had heard the news about Johnny’s incident. Luckily, they did not linger on the topic for too long but there was something inside you both nervous and excited for his return.
You had nearly jokingly offered your help to Johnny, not expecting him to actually take you up on your offer by the second day he was back. He had called you during lunch when he knew you had a break in the middle of your classes and asked if you could come over to his apartment at the end of the day.
He claimed he was pretty much bedridden and without the help of Ten, he had a hard time even moving around his room. Plus with there being practice later, he knew Ten would not be around until later in the evening and he was not ready to struggle on his own for that long. You stayed true to your promise and told him that you’d be there after your classes finished with food and a few of his favorite snacks.
It was your first time going over to his apartment though you did have a few friends who lived within the same building so it was not hard to find your way to his unit. Johnny said Ten had left the door unlocked, both a smart yet dangerous decision since it’s not like Johnny could really defend himself if an intruder came in though it saved both of you the trouble of figuring out how to let you inside.
“Johnny, I’m here,” you loudly announced, not wanting to startle him.
“I’m in my room,” he called out. You followed the sound of his voice to the third door down the hallway, the only one open, which made sense. Johnny was dressed comfortably in a grey hoodie sporting the university’s name and logo along with matching black sweatpants that were hiked up on his left side to leave room for the brace he wore. Upon seeing you in his doorway, his face lit up despite immediately greeting you with an apology. “Sorry for making you come to help me, I know you probably have better things to be doing right now.”
“No, don’t be sorry. I offered my help and I’m happy to be of assistance,” you reassured him while leaning on his doorframe. “What would you like to do first, now that we can get you out of bed.”
“Uhhh, I have to pee,” Johnny sheepishly admitted.
You laughed as you took a seat next to him on his bed and helped him to stand up, supporting a portion of his weight through his arm placed around your shoulders. “Alright, let’s get you to the bathroom.”
It was really a team effort with him guiding you over to his crutches leaning against the wall and then you functioning as his hands once he was properly situated with them. Fortunately, once the two of you made it to the bathroom next to his room, he did not require assistance actually using it. You already skipped a few checkpoints in your relationship with him but you weren’t sure if you wanted to jump that far ahead.
Getting him to and from the bathroom was the hardest task that you completed for him. Everything else he had you do was comparably simple, like filling up his water bottle or grabbing something from the living room or Ten’s room. About an hour and a half went by where you sat next to him, both of you with your laptops out and working on school assignments.
The quietness was strangely comfortable and oddly enough, it felt like you were able to focus better than when you chose to work in the library. Maybe it was because there weren’t people bustling around or maybe it was just because Johnny was with you. If anything, you would have expected his presence to have the opposite effect, but that was not the case.
At a certain point, the two of you lost interest in working and decided to call it quits for now and opted to watch a drama on Johnny’s TV instead. “It’s called Dear.M,” he informed you when you asked for the title. “Jaehyun kinda looks like one of the actors in it.” While the first episode played out, you saw what he meant. The lead male, named Minho, really did remind you of the endearing outside hitter, even down to the way the character was being portrayed.
“Aww, that’s so cute,” you cooed when Minho gave his hoodie to the female lead and she got absorbed in the scent of it. “I would so do that too, not gonna lie.”
“Here, you can have mine,” Johnny suggested, though he didn’t give you much of a choice, already taking off the hoodie he was wearing and revealing a plain black shirt underneath. You used it more so as a blanket or a pillow, clutching it against your chest for comfort. “Cute,” he quietly commented.
You watched the next few episodes with him, enraptured by the plot of Jaehyun’s look-alike pining after the female lead with his efforts going unnoticed. “Man, I would love to have a guy like that as my boyfriend,” you mused, “literally what is she doing? She’s missing out!”
“You could have me, I’m pretty much just as good, right?” Johnny put forth. “I think we’d look nice together.”
Because of his naturally playful and flirty nature, you couldn’t tell if he was serious or not. You squinted ever so slightly at him, “are you offering to be my boyfriend right now?”
“Well, when you put it that way…yeah, I guess I am,” he confirmed.
You were still hesitant to believe him. “For real?”
He nodded. “Yes, for real. I’d love to take you on more dates and be your dorky boyfriend if you allow me.”
You inwardly thanked the universe for somehow making Johnny interested in you. “I would love that, too.”
“So, uhh…will you be my girlfriend?” he asked, holding his hand out.
“It would be an honor.” You placed your hand in his and he gently brought it up to his lips before leaving a kiss on the back of it, making you smile giddily.
Johnny chuckled at your expression. “Sorry that we already had our first kiss a while back, but how about we try it again.”
“Oh my gosh, you’re so cheesy,” you teased though you followed his gestures to seat yourself in his lap.
His large hands held you securely at your hips while your arms found their way around his broad shoulders. “I’ll make you so happy, I promise,” Johnny murmured while placing a kiss on your cheek before capturing your lips. They felt familiar and warm against yours, the tenderness of his lips making you feel ever so safe and allowing you to get lost in the moment.
Both you and Johnny were so taken up by each other that neither of you heard the sound of the front door opening until there was a complaining voice coming from the doorway. “I know I said I wanted to meet her, but I didn’t mean like this, Johnny. At least tell me when you’re gonna have people over so I can clean up or something.”
Johnny was breathing heavily when the two of you quickly broke apart. “Dude, why do you have to be so nosy? You could have just minded your own business and gone to your room.”
“I was going to ask if you wanted pasta for dinner but I guess I won’t order for you,” Ten scoffed. “Do you like red sauce or white sauce?” he asked, nodding over to you.
“No, sorry, I want pasta too,” Johnny interjected.
“Has he asked you out yet?” Ten inquired, clearly not wanting to talk to his roommate. “I’ll only get him food if he confessed to you because that’s all he’s been talking about for the past week.”
“He did,” you confirmed. “But really? The entire week?” You looked between the two volleyball players.
Ten enthusiastically nodded, “absolutely would not shut up about how happy he was that you watched the game.”
You looked over at Johnny who was playing with the strings of his sweatpants, “aw, that’s so cute!” You leaned over to kiss his cheek.
“Okay, no, ew. Stop,” Ten warned, shielding his eyes. “Both of you stop or else I won’t be ordering food for either of you.”
“Man, she’s my girlfriend, not yours,” Johnny spoke up, “we’ll do what we want.” He reached over your shoulders and turned you to face him, hastily kissing you in the most obscene way possible.
You heard Ten let out a yell of disgust and slam Johnny’s door shut. When Johnny released you from his hold, the two of you shared a laugh about the situation. “So I’m guessing we have to order our own dinner.”
Johnny flicked his hand, showing his apprehension to the issue. “Dinner can wait. We should finish what we were doing earlier,” he insinuated with a sly smirk.
“Right, of course,” you agreed, “how could I have forgotten?” You fell back into his embrace, his touch, as if it were the only thing you needed.
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♡ Pairing -- Kim Jongin x Reader
♡ Genre -- Supernatural, Fluff, Angst
♡ AUs -- Guardian Angel!AU, Heaven!AU
♡ Description -- (concept) ‘Storge’ is the Greek word for the natural affection people feel for those closest to them. Storge is a love that exists between parents and their children but can go beyond this, storge can also be displayed in companions, and exceptionally close friends. It is said that storge is a casual form of love usually based in memories; storge is an underlying love driven by the desire to compassionately care for another.
(summary) ...Your Guardian Angel Jongin, who has been guiding you from afar all this while, hopes with everything in him that he’s done a good job with that, vowing to continue doing so as you take upon yourself a very new challenge, working alongside him in the realms of aether.
♡ Wordcount -- 11,414 words.
♡ Warnings -- Non-descriptive mentions of dying, descriptions of grief, blood/injuries.
♡ A/N -- Feedback is very welcome and very appreciated. ♡
Main Masterlist || Series Of Love Masterlist ||
🏹 also in the series... Storge (familial love; natural affection). Philautia (self love). Philia (platonic love; the love of friendship). Ludus (playful love; uncommitted love). Pragma (enduring love; practical love). Eros (passionate, sensual love). Agape (unconditional love). Mania (obsessive love).
When Jongin first lay his eyes on you, they had brimmed with tears yet to spill, a warmth coursing through him that threatened to engulf each atom of his being. The most gentle smile graced his lips as he watched you grip your mother's finger with your tiny hand, placing his own, much larger hand against his chest. He proceeded to exhale one deep, heavy breath, the tenderness of the moment having been too much for him to take in that the thoughtlessly effortless and wholly necessary function of being -- breath -- felt like it were suddenly a world away, entirely out of reach.
Like you. Though separated by several dimensions, realms and perceptions, in that moment Jongin had wanted nothing more than to whisk you up into his own arms and cradle you gently to his chest, rock you back and forth until the confusion and unrivalled chaos of coming into existence settled.
He'd heard numerous tales of the intensity of the moment, every Guardian Angel had. Of the honor of being assigned one's very own human to watch over, protect and guide to the best of their ability. But nothing could have prepared him for the sheer gush of love and amazement he'd felt as it truly dawned on him, that finally, after all the years of preparation and intensive training, he had you.
As much as he'd assisted and offered humanity a helping hand in guidance over the course of his own existence, he was finally taking his very first step into fulfilling the sole purpose he had as a Guardian Angel.
True as it were that he didn't know all there was to know about you and had, still, a long journey ahead with you, it was as if the previous woes of separation that had been dragging him into a deep pit of anxiety and despair whenever he'd overhear a fellow Guardian Angel gush about their Human -- as if the awful, nagging question of when hadn't already been creeping into his own thoughts during the nondescript, menial tasks of his day as it were -- when would he be allocated his own human to watch over, when would he be allowed onto the most defining chapter and journey of his existence, all but washed away.
The timing must've been divine, because it led him to being assigned you.
And truly, even though he had much to learn about you, much to learn through you, still, he already knew he wouldn't exchange you for the world.
With the intensity of the feeling coming onto him this strongly, already, the joy and pride burning through him, singeing itself into his very bones, he wondered if this first encounter with you would be the peak emotionality of the experience, if from this moment forward, his emotions would settle into a feeling much more contained, calm, like the lapping waves of the deepest, wisest ocean against its much cherished shorelines; perhaps in a manner of knowing similar to the way his wings would flutter against his shoulder blades with such natural ease, the internal process having ingrained itself into his very essence after a lifetime of being directed on how to do so by Jongin himself.
Until the next day hit. Then the next month. And endlessly he'd find himself bathing in a feeling of such pride, of the most gentle affection and adoration, an unfathomable joy every time you so much as blinked, or made a movement that showcased your awareness of your existence to your parents -- who, as he'd observed -- were quite the turbulent pair within the vicinity of each other, which all but seemed to dissolve when their eyes fell onto you, the apple of their eyes, the highlight of their day.
He was a sobbing mess when you said your first word, when you took your first step. He'd never had the best control over his emotions, which was something his fellow angels would chuckle at and tease him about from time to time, telling him he'd been cut from a much more sensitive end of the cloth than they had, but he surely hadn't cried as much in all his years as he did the first few years of your life. ...And this was only from the joys of the experience.
He daren't even contemplate the fabled sadness that humanity had also been blessed, or perhaps cursed with. Time was vastly different for the two of you, the distance between your realms wasn't quantifiable in human terms and an absolute impossibility for you to breach on your end, one with a catch on his own. Though he could visit you, he'd never be able to be visible to you, unless you well and truly believed in him and could sense his presence. Guardian Angels were told to not get their expectations and hopes up about that because humans mostly called upon their Guardian Angels in times of desperation and grief.
In the vast majority of cases it was a feeble and half-hearted call at that, and as humanity had never been taught that there exist definite connections such as this -- that of a human and their Guardian Angel -- they never viewed it as a possibility for themselves, besides being a last resort in reference of what they believed to be a religious fable or fairy tale that evidently had no true basis in reality.
Guardian Angels were fiercely warned about the repercussions of causing such stress in humans, just so they could interact face to face with their human or humans in general, and it could result in them losing both their connection to their human and their status as a Guardian Angel.
Jongin was coming to you from a place of utmost care, protection and devotion, he felt, so he would never do anything to place you in harms way, jeopardize your bond, nor did he ever want to see you sad. He'd been told to prepare himself for it, because the human sphere of emotion was truly volatile at the best of times and the vast majority of humans would go on to face many ups and downs during their time on the earthly plane, but even so, he knew he would find ways to comfort you from afar and lend a helping hand in any form he, as your Guardian Angel, had been allocated and allowed.
The earliest months of your youth passed smoothly and to Jongin, you were a blissful assignment, so full of joy and wonderment about the world around you, that the thoughts of any sad times you may have been on the path to encounter slipped to the very backs of his mind.
Until that changed in one swift moment at eight months old, as your mother stormed into your room in a haphazard disarray, mascara lining her cheeks, screaming obscenities at your father in the living room, as she pulled you from your crib, disturbing you into a startled cry in an instant, and marched back to face your father head on. Knowing all he could do to protect you in this moment in time was to wrap you in a sheen of protective, healing light and energy, Jongin watched with bated breath as your own cries eventually lessened, however, he had no way of telling you how your world was about to change, and neither did your parents, you were in no way able to understand the severity of the situation. Frankly, neither was Jongin.
It was a bitingly cold, bitter blue morning when your mother pulled up at the airport, and an even colder night, clouds heavy with rain, when you arrived in Paris, completely unaware this journey had been a one-way trip, for the both of you. Your mother had met someone months prior, a Parisian man of much renown, and before they even realized what was hitting them, sparks flew, and in their lovestruck daze, your mother accepted this man's advances behind your father's back, delighting in the excitement he brought to her difficult circumstances, her failing marriage.
Through his rage and hatred, which Jongin felt viscerally and had to carefully view as to not singe himself, your father demanded you be left with him if your mother preferred to ‘gallivant around Paris with her new lover’, mouth poisoned with the most vicious of insults, telling her she'd destroyed the sanctity of marriage. To which she replied, bitterly, "wherever had it ever been, with you?". Neither cried, as behind the rage and resentment, they felt a wave of relief and ease wash over them, realizing they had freed themselves from the shackles of unhappiness they were currently causing themselves, even if the method of doing so held the many immoral tenets it did.
But you were a different topic to them, entirely. A bitter, relentless battle. They would go on to spend years vying for sole custody of you, years vying to tie you solely to either Korea or France, your father losing sleep over it, nearly falling into debt because of it. Though you'd flitted between both countries like a homeless butterfly during this, the court eventually ruled in your mother's favor, perhaps because of her lover's influence and seemingly ever increasing bank balance, but that didn't mean you never got to see your biological father again. Some summer and winter breaks were spent in Korea. There was also this fascinating invention called a smartphone that allowed you two to videocall as often as you could.
Eventually, your father moved on, as well, with a kind-hearted, gentle lady who would treat you with nothing but respect, though still wearied of overstepping any boundaries. Unlike on your mother's end, no half-siblings were added into the equation through your father's newfound love.
Settling in took a bit of getting used to, at first. You worked hard at your French, practising most often through your stepfather; a lean, well put together man, who offered you day trips and homemade bread dipped in the finest of olive oils, and would eventually go on to buy you a grand piano, which had been your first love, prior to meeting your soul mate in the violin.
He was insanely musically inclined himself, and picked up on your talents early, something you feel eternally grateful for. And as initially awkward as the relationship had been, you began to find a solace in your stepfather, in his ability to stop arguments before they stewed and simmered and boiled over into something much greater than they were destined. He treated you as equally he did the children he'd go on to parent with your mother, considering you one of them. That wasn't as easy for you, considering you loved your biological father as much as you loved your mother, and you would only get to see him a few times a year in person, but eventually you grew fond of having two fathers, so to speak. It was especially fun having siblings, and not being the only child, any longer.
The first seed of confusion was planted within you, when your mother crouched beside your bed on the evening of a stormy Thursday night in June, sobbing, as she proceeded to tell you just how much she wished she had've met your stepfather first. You pretended to be asleep, your back towards her. She didn't see how your brows furrowed softly, as she'd then go on to tell you how you were her only saving grace but the shame ate her within, how your grandmother wanted nothing to do with her after the divorce. The fact she had children with two men. But she made it clear that night that if she had the choice between the two, your father and your stepfather, she'd have chosen your stepfather. It confused you because where would that place you on this spectrum? She didn't specify besides letting you know she loved you and she'd never regret you. But if she could, would she want you to be borne to your stepfather too? You tried not to think too hard about it. Tried not to wonder if your father felt the same, but with his new partner.
The reason behind your first time crying yourself to sleep was because of school. The even more confusing, terrifying realization that now, in this entirely new country, nobody looked like you, nobody sounded like you, nobody ate the same foods you did, a situation you initially thought was a point of celebration, how within you existed a vast piece of knowing of another part of the world, the unification of cultures and experiences, but not everyone seemed to agree with that. And though you did as much as you could to avoid these people's harsh, pointed gazes, it seemed like they'd find a new difference to point out everyday, until you hid the depth of your heritage behind their own, and didn't bring it up in conversation unless it was brought up first, which tore into your spirit and cracked your heart greatly.
Be it only a select few who acted this way with you, Jongin would still watch on everyday, painstakingly wishing he could just intervene, show you that you didn't have to take this treatment from anyone, ever. He knew some experiences and findings were your own to discover, but that didn't stop him from intervening as slyly and delicately as he could, such as blowing the main perpetrator's completed homework sheet out of his binder and ensuring it fell far away and that it happened gently enough to not alert him. He saw your own eyes flit to it for a second, and usually you'd react, likely hand it back to the person regardless of how they'd been treating you, but this time you blinked, a moment's movement, and decided not to.
Which was good enough for Jongin. Minor instances like this would persist any time the main perpetrator acted up and though he would still sneer at you from time to time, his acts of violence stopped flat when the mother of a fellow student told his mother about the way her son had been terrorizing his classes, how he'd been terrorizing fellow students, her own child included. Seemingly, his mother's grounding of him paired with her taking away his prized possessions and making him write a hand written apology to each and every student he'd tormented as well as having to read it in front of the class to them, seemed to do the trick.
You'd long since lost interest in any of that, however, having found yourself in the music room in your spare time, drinking up each and every note, learning everything you could. By this point, your French had improved to the point you were finally contemplating calling yourself bilingual, but music was a language within itself, and you were starting to realize your fluency in it came before any spoken tongue, as much love as you had for both Korean and French at this stage. Music... felt freeing. Like an adventure and home all in one. A safe sanctuary and a push outside of your comfort zone all the same.
Jongin watched every moment, every fear, frustration, woe and setback on your path to becoming the renowned and famed violinist you now are, experiencing all these emotions alongside you, crying with you, worrying with you. He watched every triumph, celebration and gleeful cause of enjoyment also, celebrating alongside you, even though you couldn't see him. Sometimes he felt sure you could at least feel him.
And how proud of you he was. How proud of you he'd always be.
Jongin's fingers thread through his hair as he lets out one, long exhale. The outward breath releasing all the stresses of his day, however minor they may have been in the grand scheme of things. He straightens his posture as he gently rolls up his daily task scroll, watching the enchanted piece of parchment glisten as he does so, the neat, cursive lettering slowly disappearing within itself as he ties a bow over it and brushes it off to his side. His days are jam-packed from the moment he awakens from his 'rest', though not at all necessary for his kind, it certainly helps to quicken any necessary healing process, prevent fatigue and reinforce routine.
Today had been a much lighter workload than usual, and he wonders if he's been allocated some semblance of free time to simply enjoy this defining moment of your life. Your first broadcasted concert, nationwide. In a venue you'd thought you'd only ever dream of performing in.
Strangely, despite how huge today is for you, he feels peaceful, oddly serene. You'll do well, he feels so within every fibre of his being.
Truthfully, as much as he'd convinced himself he'd been prepared for this, for everything it would entail to take on his duty as a Guardian Angel, he had, for a long time, dismayed of this -- of watching over someone who would never know of him or his existence, never feel his presence, never engage in conversation with him, but over the years, the feeling simply simmered into something else, shifted into a much gentler, warmer understanding, unconditional in its marker.
As much as he would still love to be able to openly converse with you, give you a warm helping -- corporeal -- hand whenever you needed it and remind you that within you existed all you needed to achieve all you had ever wanted, the truth was, you didn't have to know him, openly call to him and rely on him for your bond to legitimately feel as real, corporeal, precious and necessary as it was.
Sure, the bittersweet element would always exist, but everyday, his heart swells with joy and pride from simply knowing you, from having been entrusted with the honor of being your Guardian Angel. He hears of it often, hears fellow Guardian Angels sing the praises of their humans from the highest corners of the heavens, witnesses the jovial steps a Guardian Angel will take when they've finished their daily contact with their human, hears it in lulling wisp of their words, however soft, it's hard to miss the protective layer these words will be wrapped in; the innate knowledge that if a Guardian Angel had a life to give, there lay no doubt that they would give it to ensure the safety of their human in a mere heartbeat.
Truly, through all of this, Jongin feels he's lucked out with you.
Jongin leaves his work desk and decides to dress for the day ahead, slipping into a sheer, glittering pink ensemble, a lot freer than his usual attire, though still as outwardly ethereal. By the time he's ready, considering the intricacy of angelic clothing, with all of its buttons and laces, you will be thirty minutes away from pulling up at your destination. Though extensively separated, the nerves and excitement bubbling within you are also washing off on him, though he feels that the excitement outweighs the nervousness in this case. You'll do so well, he knows it. Today will be unlike any other, it will be a night to remember. The day, the evening, the night everything you've worked so hard for becomes yours.
He'll watch every second of it, he's vowed to. But just as he's about to finish buttoning his much too intricate shirt, a flash of light catches his attention, which makes him look away for a split second. Thinking nothing of it, he turns back to his table, glancing down at his most frequented corner of the only world he's ever known.
Before a silence washes over the room. Though everything looks as it should, there's been a stark change in the atmosphere. There's nothing to be heard, except for the even sound of his breath, nothing to feel but the suddenly deafening thunder of his own heartbeat. When it hits him hard and all at once how unusual this silence is, he only just picks up on how dark his surroundings are becoming, how they're beginning to blur into each other like they were never separated to begin with, before it all fades to black.
"What--?" He starts, upon reawakening, before a harrowing realization hits. This wasn't normal.
"No," Jongin chokes out. "No, no, no. That can't be." But he can't hear you, can't sense you and certainly can't see you right now. It's a mere ten minutes until your performance if his calculations are correct, and yet here he is, still not ready, presently having no idea what it is that is happening in his realm. Power outages were extremely infrequent, infrequent enough that a guardian angel could be taken aback by the unusualness of them, but why now? Why today, on the most important, defining moment of your life?
Jongin's thoughts are running wild, a frenzied energy overwhelms him as he contemplates what's happening. Why can't he move? Why is this ever deepening darkness swallowing him whole, why is the world he knows blurring within itself and most importantly... where are you?
Finally, realization hits.
In a wave that threatens to engulf the entirety of his being whole. The entirety of heaven's being, he feels.
He hears the sound before he truly understands what is happening, hears the glass shattering like it's right there in front of him digging into his own features and clawing away at his own flesh, hears the cheers of the fans you've accumulated over the years silencing, before they become shrill gasps and pained cries and screams, hears the sound of hundreds if not thousands of cameras clicking before they also fizzle out into the stark understanding and realization that something isn't right.
...Then it's chaos.
The sound of you being rushed to the hospital, of your mother's, stepfather and half-siblings' sobs and screams. Doctors and nurses pleading with them, telling them that they'd do all they could, just to, please, please let them work.
"A drunk driver," the nurse eventually whispers, though Jongin swore he hadn't missed a moment, the nurse's words are what break through the debilitating wave of agony that's drowned him, seemingly muted everything around him. Though her tone is stable, trained, she knows of you, she knew what day this was for you, it's a blatantly harrowing statement for her to make, but that knowledge doesn't comfort Jongin. "I'm sorry."
No one. No one, between land nor sea, no one was expecting this. And especially not Jongin. The room of imprisonment is in a disarray, his arms are thick, wet with the blood he's somehow managed to etch and tear out of his supposedly unbreakable vessel in the hopes of identifying and locating the exit of this blatant room of imprisonment he's been forced into. And it'll continue; he'll force and tear his way out of any forceful holding that his higher ups try and keep him in if it continues to mean no news of what's happening with and to you, where, how and what will come next of it.
Caring little that his arms are lined with self inflicted etchings, dismissing a pain that begins to seep its way through him that he can't remember feeling for at least several millennia, knowing it can't even begin to compare to what you just went through. How you didn't even arrive to the biggest show of your life, the turning point of your career, the day that defined the rest of your life -- your entire future.
Gone, in an instant. Head on in a collision no one saw coming. Not even your Guardian Angel, who prided himself on his knowing of all things you.
He catches his frazzled reflection in the long, windy mirror in front of him and screams, a fraction of a second passing before the mirror itself shatters into a thousand pieces before him. He contemplates picking up one of the shards and carving his way out of the room of holding, but before he even has chance the glass morphs and moulds into a fine, sand-like substance, disappearing in between the space of his toes.
Finally, comes a knock. Minutes, hours, days, had they passed? He doesn't know. The silence outside of his inner and outer turmoil has persisted, his thundering heartbeat and deafening sobs serving as the only indicator of the time between.
"Jongin?"
"Leave me," he chokes. Simply sitting. Blatantly the room of holding had different laws than both heaven and earth, it seemed to be a room of his own making, a room he could change the dimensions of just by the depth of his feeling, his agony. So something as simple as sitting should be fine, should it not?
Not that he'd cared if the ground swallowed him whole either, at the present moment in time. Maybe any moment from here on out.
When he can taper into the connection you share -- fuzzy, muted and agonizing as it currently is, he watches the world mourn, but he feels it pales in comparison to his own grief, the unfamiliar feeling of sentience, self hatred, anger. An anger that burrows deep and cements itself inside him, demands to be felt. He screams, cries and kicks for all his might, but it won't change what happened to you. It won't allow him to live the day over and do everything in and outside of his power to bring you back. Here he was, as your Guardian Angel, and yet even he couldn't protect you, stop this atrocious crash from taking place?
The room shifts again, but Jongin doesn't bother to take any note of its changes until lights are pushing through his self inflicted darkness and blinding him. He curls into a ball, but refuses to close his eyes, not caring about the damage these lights may cause him, preferring the blindness to be his, if it comes to that, than yours. If there were a way to exchange his eyes for yours, his internal processes for your own, his own beating heart for yours, there wouldn't even be a question.
You'd be here right now. Alive.
What would heaven expect of him now? How dare they?
Moments, hours, days, it's one of the three, he knows that much, but he's done with pretending he cares to differentiate right now or ever again. There's a creasing, crinkling sound, akin to the sound of movement, albeit angelic.
The being places itself beside Jongin, who refuses to look up, caring not about the consequences right now. If ever again. What did any of it mean, anymore? What did any of it matter, without you, his sole purpose for existing, the one being above all else he had to keep safe and protect... gone in a instant. How could anyone look him in the eye again, if he were so useless as to not be able to predict this when he had the encyclopedia of all things you tucked away in his shirt's pocket, embedded into his own, horribly, selfishly beating heart.
Yours wouldn't beat again, would it?
Finally, after what must feel like an eternity to the being, but can't possibly compete with the eternity of agony Jongin's going through, he forces his head upwards meeting eyes with a messenger-in-training, a small, fluttery being, clad in blue-white robes. Their expression indiscernible, yet seemingly prepared for an outburst.
He hoped they wouldn't get one and he'd apologize in advance, but he had no notebook of heavenly principles and elements to follow in a situation like this, no guidebook on how to react when his sole reason for being had been taken from him with no warning.
Instead, a millennia's knowledge on how to be a good soldier, how to have emotion but not too much, an innate agonizing realization of how he'll more than likely be expected to report back to his desk and record everything after the period of grief heaven's so 'graciously' granting him ends. Somehow be expected to continue existing without you.
How?
"It was not just her," the messenger-in-training cuts straight to the point, their body language telling him they're not here for a fight, and are genuinely hoping not to have to go on the defensive, and simply here to deliver the message. "That is why you could not interfere."
And blatantly why he'd been so at ease, having had his senses numbed so he couldn't pick up on any change in the atmosphere, sense this collision prior to it taking place.
Jongin says nothing. Jongin doesn't move. He's not sure where he is or even how this place exists, but suspended space or not, he's managed to convince himself it's a room, that there's a floor, objects, glaring overhead lights, that currently he's sitting, and the patch of ground his eyes are honed in on is truly, somehow there. The mirror's gone, but that had been there, too. So had you, once.
"Understandably you wish for me to leave you be, but--" The messenger-in-training won't meet Jongin's gaze directly. "I must inform you."
Five minutes pass. Jongin says nothing.
"Will you speak?" The messenger-in-training asks. "Is there anything you wish to ask?"
It's at this moment the messenger-in-training notices the trail of blood that surrounds their own higher up, which results in a wince. They say nothing, but the miniscule moment doesn't go amiss to Jongin. How he wished for the messenger's naivety at this moment, their lack of understanding of a bond like this. Just bright hope for their future journey and development. Their eternity. Turn back, the grief within him wants to scream. Ask for another journey, another placement within heaven. This is your future.
But he can't. He can't because he knows that he'd exchange everything if it meant having you to watch over, again. How could he knock this naive present day messenger away from the most defining aspect of their existence, the one thing a Guardian Angel desires and hopes for above all else? Even if this present moment in time feels like a slow, torturous death of the most unspeakable kind, still, nothing in heaven compares to the bond you share, nothing in heaven can compete. Nothing in heaven could ever hope to compete. Perhaps that's why he stays silent.
"...And what happens now?"
"I though you would never ask." The messenger-in-training smiles here, a smile Jongin can't even begin to comprehend. His fellow Guardian Angels used to say he never stopped. Smiling, that is. Now he wonders if he'll ever smile again. "It is the most unusual happening, sire. Y/N..."
Jongin winces at the use of your name. Deeper than the messenger-in-training had prior. He wills himself not to fall apart, crumble into sand like the mirror had with him, however long ago that had been.
As if nothing is wrong, the messenger-in-training continues, "she will arrive in a day or two. Here, in heaven. Human time, of course."
As if the messenger is playing a cruel joke, Jongin stay quiet. He locks eyes with the messenger, the pain swirling in them so visceral, the messenger has to look away to compose them self.
"Here?" He finally chokes out.
"Here," they confirm. "To be trained under you. Your journey is not over. Not that any of us expected it to be."
The pained cry that threatens to swallow the room whole results in confusion on the expression of the messenger-in-training but they daren't press Jongin on the matter. So much so that when he requests, possibly in the smallest voice he's capable of mustering, "leave me," the request is met.
"But before I leave, you must be back in your quarters before she arrives, you are aware of that?"
Waves crash against a bleached white shore, the air cool against Jongin's skin, an unruly lock of his hair slapping against his forehead with every other gust of wind that comes his way, but he stay still as a rock, posture straighter than ever. Waiting.
Some angelic beings chose differently than Jongin. Some chose not to guide humanity, some chose to watch over earth itself, some chose to upkeep the heavens. It has been said that some heavenly souls chose to incarnate as human themselves, to then come back once their time was up on the earthly plane.
Surely, two of those three paths had their ups and downs also, but if Jongin's sure of anything, he's sure they're not expected to hold up and keep face in the position he currently is. He's sure they're not expected to stand strong and tidy when their whole world has been taken from them, the very ground they're used to standing on, pulled from underneath them. He hasn't measured the days... in days. Hasn't looked at a clock since, hasn't taken note of the changes in the daylight, the night sky.
Maybe you'll be the only one to understand what he's currently feeling, in the instance this was what you chose. But he knows within himself, even if he can't confide in anyone else about it, that you didn't choose this. And if you didn't choose this, Jongin finds no other alternative explanation than to blame himself for what happened to you. Blame himself for not being able to foresee what was about to take place when once again he'd been nothing but the encyclopedia of all things you, since you came into your earthly existence. Sees no other alternative for not being able to save you in time, even if it entailed losing everything he had forged for himself, even if it meant losing everything heaven had given him.
At this point, you'll arrive when you arrive and he'll try his utmost to act like heaven expects of him. Deliver your training, pretend like any of this was justified.
When it wasn't.
Isn't.
Never will be.
Some time has evidently passed. A rustle of leaves is heard in the previously deafening silence. Jongin's wide, white feathered wings flap once, an instinctual movement, one he has no control over. His breath is sharp, shallow, as he holds the blade he and every other Guardian Angel is in possession of to his chest. These weapons were mostly precautionary, in case of intruders of heaven, something heaven and its inhabitants hadn't need worry about in at least several millennia, but wars had existed in the past, and the inhabitants needed to be trained in case of one ever breaking out again, or in the extremely rare case of an intrusion into heaven's walls. These days, these weapons were mostly for decoration. Jongin's had never been used.
Right now, he has one purpose. Collect his underlings and guide them to their rooms, help them settle as much as he's been allocated to. Answer any of their questions as he does so, do everything he can to make this journey easier for his underlings, for the newer, younger angels in training. This time, a gnawing, visceral pain cuts through him, splintering him within. Even though he now knows beyond a doubt that your eternity was promised, the guilt still bubbles within, cuts into every joint, every blood cell. If illness could materialize in heaven like it can on earth, he's sure he'd be the very definition of decay, this moment in time.
He knows not if it's a blessing or a curse that it can't. At least this time. As he takes one step closer, he's not sure what he's expecting, how many underlings he'd been expecting, but in some sick twist of fate, it's you, alone. You don't look like you've just had your life taken from you in a metal death contraption, at least not physically. You're not bloodied, broken or bruised like you once had been. You're not strapped to a million and one wires that are doing overtime to ensure you're allocated one more year... month, week, hour, minute of life. The light in your eyes hasn't been drained and torn from you, like it was that fateful day.
He knows he wouldn't be able to keep his composure if any of that were to be presented before him, but is this worse? That it's now being painted like a rebirth, or even worse, like a surprise ending to a chapter of a book that abruptly ended. Like a beautiful eternity you've somehow unlocked from a premature death, a violent, bloody death. One no one saw coming.
As if that makes up for it. As if you could've ever contemplated such brutality for yourself on the most important day of your life? Like you would've ever chose that. Jongin knows you wouldn't. You know you wouldn't.
All for an eternity you didn't ask for, in a realm you'd re-enter with no memory of. A foreign, alien land so unlike that of the earth you'd known. It didn't sound like a good deal to Jongin.
Didn't feel like one when he had to watch you cry, scream and try your hardest to claw your way out of this seemingly new body and realm you'd found yourself in.
"I don't want this," you say. And he's speechless. All he can do is look at you, feel the crease between his eyebrows, feel the heart beating in his chest that's already been shattered into pieces innumerable, shatter all over again.
You're on your knees now, the sand around you caring not where it ends up. On your clothing, mixed into your hair, your eyelashes, wet with tears unending. If your emotion would materialize on your being at this very moment, you'd look like you did after the crash had taken place.
Jongin wants to fall to his knees too.
"Let me go back," you sob, and though you're a far distance away, you reach out your hand but he's not even sure if it's to him, or even if you've noticed him properly, it's like in this present state you're reaching out to anyone who'd listen. Who could grant you your desire.
Maybe instinctively you know Jongin can't.
He takes a deep breath as he edges closer, ever so gently taking hold of your arm, but it's still like you don't feel it. You're limp when he picks you up, guiding you onto your feet. Again, just like that god-awful day, your eyes have no light, your body has no fight. It comes on suddenly, so suddenly and it takes everything in him to not fall to his own knees and beg for your forgiveness, regardless of what anyone could or would say in protest.
This clearly had to have been his fault. He wanted to know you, too much. Wanted to converse with you, too much. Maybe he'd slyly intervened just a little too much? Who knew, but the reasons within his mind seemed numerous. He wouldn't accept that you would've chosen this.
"This too, will pass," he feels like a hypocrite to his own ears. Would it? Really? And maybe the words sound distant, floaty and stable to your own ears, but he hears the thickness of his words, tastes the way he chokes them out. He's not poised right now, even if he seems so to an untrained eye. If this were training, he'd have already failed. And he's thankful you're not coherent, because he'd give anything to cry the tears for you, than have to sob alongside you, for the life you've had cut short from you. The world you've been torn away from.
Counting the days comes a little easier now you're in front of him, existing in the same realm as him. But every hour stings still, every minute, even. Three long weeks take place, three weeks that you spend the most of in agony, he, the same, though he knows you can't tell. Before you arrived, he couldn't hide any of it, but now you're here, he feels that he must. He refuses to make your transition harder, refuses to make this any more harrowing and painful for you. You need some sense of stability. He has to try his hardest to be that for you.
Until you finally meet eyes with him, eyes dry of tears you thought you'd never run out of, an emptiness residing there instead. His own demeanor falters. Hope had always been something so tenderly threaded within your being, even at the worst of times, that it felt so agonizingly out of place to see it depleted, entering into a realm of hopelessness.
Maybe you don't notice how he gulps the lump down in his throat, the way he averts his gaze only slightly.
"What am I even supposed to do here?"
He explains everything. The seemingly endless possibilities. How you'll train and study and help upkeep the heavens, keep watch. From A-Z, he explains it all, sounding like a trained salesperson to his own ears. It's almost humorous. Just how long had he been here, really? On the manual of all things heaven, Jongin knows he wouldn't miss a punctuation mark. None of that is your focus right now, though, and he can see the burning question swirl within your irises.
"Do I get to go to earth?"
His lack of reply as he composes himself seems to be all the confirmation you need that... that's not currently on the cards and may never be again. His eyes follow your movements helplessly as you kick the ground beneath you, your eyes once again welling with tears, falling onto your knees, hands balled into fists, before they fan flat, your nail almost chipping from the pressure you're exerting as you dig it into the ground below you, as if you can claw your way back.
He understands.
Training is going as planned, as are the lessons. Whilst your spirit isn't in it, not even slightly, it's no lie that you grasp concepts well and excel in ways he once had, during his own days of training. It's almost a case of rinse, rest, repeat as you fall into this routine. Wake up, study extensively, rest, repeat. The light in your eyes still isn't back, and Jongin's trying to come to terms with the possibility that it might never be there again. But you're excelling, grasping everything the way you're expected to. Though he knows the hours that aren't allocated to studying, they're filled with your despair, endless tears you swore you'd seen the last of, the day before, the day before that. But now you hide them from your peers and Jongin feels that's even worse.
Even more difficult.
He doesn't expect that of you, but he feels he has no way of telling you so.
Today's lesson ends a little differently, however. You approach him, determination lining your features. "Teacher," you start, and he nods to encourage you, let you know he's listening, though his eyes don't fully meet your own, they stay trained to the piece of paper he's writing on. "Is there a... way to go back?"
He stills, glancing up at you, breath slightly hitching.
"To earth, I mean."
"I know what you mean," Jongin says gently. He's not sure how guarded his own expression is because he watches some semblance of understanding flitter behind your eyes. Jongin shakes his head and moves to get up from the desk he's sitting at. Now you know he has more insight on the topic, this is not something you're just going to drop, not with your inquisitive, determined nature.
"Please," you then plead, catching up to his long strides as you reach out to stop him from leaving the room. "Can we at least just discuss this? Even if briefly?"
Sitting you back down, you're not expecting the extensive reply you receive. How Jongin covers every basis. From every angle. The possible impossibility, the warnings if it were possible, the consequences, so far, so forth. None of his words are judgemental, you can't actually pinpoint the emotion behind them, if there is an emotion behind them. It's all just factual, as theoretically factual as it can be, considering no one in heaven has ever pulled this off, nor ever attempted to. You listen, intently. Trying not to zone out here and there, which you find yourself doing a lot of, since arriving in heaven. The frequency of heaven is so different than what you remember of earth, as faint as that's starting to feel.
This was a much rawer, confusing process than people made it out to be in the movies. There was no beautiful transition, no peaceful acceptance. Just agony, a lot of it. And even more confusion.
If you hadn't had your teacher Jongin with you, you know you'd be having an even worse time. So you're thankful for that, at least. But you know any which way, if there's a way to return to earth, you're going to find it. And attempt it. You just hope Jongin isn't given the blame for your own actions, if that fateful day ever does arrive, knowledge-giver or not.
His eyes haven't left your features since he started explaining, as if gauging your reaction. "If you did find a way to return to earth, though we have no idea what the consequences of that action would be for earth, time, your human life and your existence itself, I can guarantee that it wouldn't go unnoticed by heaven."
Somehow you already knew that to be the case. You nod and thank him for all he's told you today, excusing yourself as you make your way to the door to exit the room. But just as you're doing so, you murmur, mostly to yourself, the sadness in your voice penetrating your own eardrums, "I still had so much left to do."
"I know."
"I had so many more plans," you find yourself continuing, forlornly. It's been so difficult to get these words out, to voice how unfair all of this actually feels. If you're sure of anything, you're sure you intended to tough out the human mission. Live as long as you could naturally. That had there been the option to opt out of 'accidental deaths', you'd have done so. You have no way of retracing your steps, but if pre-human you had've agreed to that, you'd love to have a word with them, ask them what the - and pardon your usage of this term - hell was wrong with them...
...What was wrong with you.
Do the angelic beings just sit conceptualizing lives they could live if given the option like these very lives are an endless array of video games options, or an episode of some ongoing sitcom show? Signing up for horrific ends of lives just like that, as if they won't be the ones feeling that very death take place, with none of their prior memories in tact? Just what kind of meta-masochism is that? God, the questions you actually had, they were unending. You didn’t even know where to begin with verbalizing them all.
"I know," Jongin repeats, quieter. By this point he's caught up with you, and passes by gently. "E-excuse me," he says, as he reaches for the door handle.
But you stay still, eyebrows furrowed.
You'd been reading this wrong, hadn't you? Your prior encounters and conversations with your teacher seem to flit by in chronological order in your mind, highlighting all the things you seemed to miss, in the emotional sphere of things. No, none of it was lack of emotion. All of it was emotion, so much emotion, that it became that seeming lack of emotion. Like an emotional shutdown, a timed and practised one. Only here, in this proximity, do you notice it falter.
"Jongin?" You start. "...Teacher?"
His next breath is shaky, it falters. You don't even need words here, he's on your wavelength, he seemingly already knows what it is you're about to get at. "We have bonds too," the words don't exactly falter, but the way he fumbles with clasping and unclasping own hands as if he's trying to calm himself down, tell you his true emotional state. "You... remind me of someone, that's all."
You look at his dark brown hair, notice how he won't meet your gaze, how he swallows as if this will convince himself of the words he's saying.
"I think recognise you from somewhere," you push.
His exhale eludes him. His entire being seems to wash with dread, and somehow you know you've hit the nail on the head. "Maybe the artwork," he offers. The artwork of angels in the human realm, you suppose he's referencing here, however, short and sweet answers aren't like him, at least as you've come to know. And no, you haven't been here long, but when it feels like there's not a lot else to do, learning about others and trying to understand them apparently ranks high on your list of priorities.
"No, I mean. ...I've seen you somewhere," you insist. "You, teacher Jongin. As you are. I don't mean an artwork I witnessed in my human life. I recognize you." Gently you reach over and place your hand atop his and watch as he winces and snatches his hand back. But not before you feel the chorus of: 'I caused this, I'm to blame for what happened to you. I caused this, I'm to blame for what happened to you. I caused this, I'm to blame for what happened to you. I caused this, I caused this, I caused this' emanating off his very being.
Startled is an understatement, as you wince, also flinching to the same severity Jongin just hand.
His wince follows. His sole desire to encounter his human face to face, to wish for it so strongly, surely that caused this in its entirety. Rather than offer any explanation, which you're half heartedly expecting at this point, Jongin flits out of the room, leaving you bewildered and in even more confusion than prior.
Some days pass until your next encounter. You're swaying on a swing set located in the heavenly gardens, that seems like it overlooks earth and the cosmos itself, it's a fascinating sight, one you could stare at and try decode all day. You don't really have the time for that right now, your schedule is surprisingly packed and has been since you arrived here, but you do have a small amount of free time allocated during your days. Mostly you spend them exploring the mass that is heaven, the endless, ethereally beautiful mass. And today, you’re entirely taken by this.
Your eyes keep flitting a little to the left every time your swing reaches high up into the air, landing directly on an array of looking glasses, snow-like globes, that seem to contain the image of a different person's life, human after human, situation after situation, in real time, and you find yourself longing even harder to be back on the earthly plane, which surprises you, considering you're encountering a view like nothing you've ever seen before. Something so outside of the human scope of understanding, something so fascinating, that everything else on earth genuinely seems to pale in comparison.
Though what you're looking at is that, everything on earth. In real time. Seemingly every person that's ever been, is, or will be, reflected all at once, on their individual snow globes. Some are playing in the park with their dogs, others are trying their best not to flunk their upcoming exams, some are in the midst of a job interview they've lost sleep over, others are deep in meditation, but all, ultimately, even those that would argue within an inch of their life that they knew otherwise, are completely unaware of the sheer scope of transcendence and timelessness that exists outside the human lifespan. The human existence. All are equally unaware of just how deeply special and fascinating their little stretch of life and existence actually is. Most take for granted the beauty of the earth, too.
You're not trying to evade blame in any of those facets, because you were the exact same and now you'd do anything to return.
Oddly it's only when your eyes fall onto a young woman, much like you were, unzipping and picking up her violin do your hands shake and the enormity of emotion you're experiencing as you view all of this hit you, all at once.
You hadn't known he was there initially, he has a very quiet way of appearing alongside any of the inhabitants of heaven, but as soon as you notice his presence, Jongin is no longer looking at you. Things had been a little uncomfortably quiet between you two since the conversation in the classroom, but Jongin was nothing if not the perfect teacher, mentor, guider... and angelic being. He didn't hold grudges towards anyone he encountered, didn't push anyone to explain them self or force anyone to talk about things they weren't ready for.
He certainly didn't outwardly showcase how shaken that conversation likely left him, truly, he treated you as normally as he could. Taught you as normally as he could. Guided you as normally as he could.
But it had cast a shadow of something over your dynamic that neither of you were reaching to iron out and discuss, at least not yet. Still, you find yourself discussing anything and everything around him. Asking questions you probably shouldn't be asking, yet still find yourself asking.
Usually he had the perfect answer. But you had a knack for choosing the instances he didn't.
"Did I ask for that?" You start, as he places himself beside you. "Would I have really asked for that?"
Jongin says nothing, this time, which you're half expecting. He knows the answer to all these questions, you feel, there's just something else he's not telling you. Sometimes that's intentional, some things are your own to figure out, you're well aware of that. But this seems like it is something he can't seem to tell you. And by answering these questions you randomly throw his way, sometimes, it appears like that in itself would be the key to the exact piece of knowledge he can't diverge.
"I see it over and over," you continue. Both of you know what you're referencing. The change, the transition, as heaven would like for you to call it. The awful experience with death is all you can remember it as. "Then I see sand, then I choke on the sand, then I'm here. And it's blindingly white before it's beautifully iridescent, lukewarm and sterile, but the sterility has not left nor shifted into its true beauty and at this point I'm wondering if it ever will."
Sterile's a good descriptor, Jongin thinks, as he listens to you intently. Beautiful, monotonous living, gift wrapped in a scope of color the human eye couldn't even process, let alone keep up with. Jongin, he's never known any different, but you have. Of course you'd want to go back. Especially when you both knew you had unfinished business.
No, not business. An unfinished life. A life curt short.
"They're a lot more free than here, huh?"
"In all the ways you could and could not imagine. But we don't hurt in the same way, we have knowledge of the infinite. Our pain can't create worlds in the same way and our love, I'd argue it can't be measured in the same scale, at least as I've observed." If it could, wouldn't you be safe right now? Securely sleeping in your cozy, warm bed after the most meaningful night of your life?
"I don't believe that."
"Well, I couldn't help," Jongin finally chokes out, "I mean--"
Something akin to understanding clicks in your expression and Jongin regrets his words. There were languages without sound, truly, weren't there? "Jongin--" You reach out to grab him, but he's already on his way.
"Have a rejuvenating rest," he says curtly. "It's a busy day tomorrow. "
It's a day or two later, during your free time, as you travel down another unexplored corner of heaven, hoping to learn all you can about your new place of residence. You glance to the unending hall titled 'Music', and find yourself flitting towards it as fast as you can, eyes scanning and cascading down every section, barely withholding your gasp. For a minute, there's nowhere else, the individual souls you've known are but a second, passing thought as you drink in everything before you, the endless beauty of all things music. What it was, is and could be in every realm of possibility, in every realm of existence. Songs and scores that humanity hadn't even considered being possible, instruments that made the beauty of the violin - your most prized and beloved instrument - pale.
Today marks your first true smile, on this strange, heavenly plane, your first day of true happiness and contentment. And from today, you're sure it won't be your last.
You tiptoe back to the heavenly gardens you find yourself viewing in an entirely new color. The heavenly gardens whose beauty you haven't given yourself chance to truly witness. It strikes you that today is the first day you've been anchored in the present moment, noticing the happenings around you, instead of existing in your own heavenly little bubble. There's a line of newly turned - slash - recruited angels a few footfalls away from you, congregating together as they take a class you don't really remember taking yourself but surely must have, and there in all his glory, stands your mentor, in his flowing pink robes, with his truly unmistakable aura.
As floaty as it is - and it is, every angelic being seems to be - his presence is unlike any of the other angels you've met, it's more stable, somehow less floaty in comparison.
Jongin pats the space beside him as he instructs the new angels to sit beside him. They do so happily, all smiles and grace... and peace. Something tells you none of them were traumatic deaths, so likely no murders or accidents. Likely terminal patients who'd long since accepted the end of their lives, already lived out the grief and denial stages. Were actually looking forward to what came next.
Not one inch of you relates, and maybe that's for the best. Because you wouldn't have wanted to face the severity of their struggles on the earthly plane, either. There was no game of comparisons, at the heart of it. Those that ended up in heaven, ended up in heaven. That was the one truth. Regardless of how that came to be.
You were here now, and so were they. You actually wanted the best for them, and hoped they settled in as easily as they could have done, and as happily. You hoped that contentment and happiness followed them for all of their days.
"Guardian Angel, Jongin," is what breaks you out of your reverie, a statement that is intended as both an introduction and a greeting to the new angels.
But one that leaves you feeling cold, numb, and confused. Not mentor angel, Jongin or teacher angel, Jongin as he'd referred to himself with you on numerous occasions, but Guardian Angel, Jongin. For some reason the name rings loud and clear, it almost deafens you. A warmth floods through you, it's not necessarily anger, but it's not wholly understanding either.
You’ve waited a few days to approach your 'mentor' slash 'teacher'. Cutting straight to the chase, though it seems he’s half expecting you. Maybe this should stop you in your tracks to assess the situation, but it doesn’t. "When were you going to tell me?"
The ice water is colder than he anticipated, and Jongin had spent every moment since you arrived anticipating this exact encounter. How could he have been so stupid as to instruct a class during your break, knowing you frequented the heavenly gardens so?
"...That you knew me all this time?" You don't miss a beat. "That you were my Guardian Angel?"
He glances the other way, but you're closing in on him. He half fears an altercation, but heaven had never seen the likes of that between its own inhabitants. Slim chance as it was, you did not look happy. His heart pangs in pain, but also in understanding. Had he prolonged your confusion and anguish during your transition by not letting you know his truest position in heaven? Suddenly, his grief and anger at himself hits him tenfold, and he wants to re-imprison himself in his room of holding. Things weren't bad enough already, were they? Now he'd only gone and added to your pain and suffering when he could've been helping you adjust and heal properly through the bond you naturally shared.
He felt like the worst Guardian Angel that had ever existed. His next sentence seeming to only cement this fact in his own mind. "I slept through the car crash." He shakes his head. "...Rather was positioned somewhere where I couldn't correct this, but that is the same as sleeping through it considering my connection to you, and how close I have been to you all of your life, considering how well I know you. What I am to you. There is no justification of that, there is no logical way of explaining it, there is no redemption for that, Y/N. I failed you. At present, do I even deserve the title Guardian Angel? I should've been stripped of my position the second this took place."
It’s as if this opens the floodgates of all that is yet to be said, explained, or experienced. You can feel the tears cascading down your cheeks, you can feel yourself edge closer to the beautiful, angelic being before you and you can feel yourself wrap yourself in his embrace and sob until there are no tears left, and knowing you can't get a coherent word out here, you listen as well as you can. To all he has to say. The pain, and slight anger you'd been feeling dissipating, though he feels his words should evoke the exact opposite reaction. The guilt and suffering within him feels like it could tear apart worlds, and yet he sees himself as being unworthy of his position. It's easier to pinpoint all the ways he assisted you and helped you during your earthly life, especially in his embrace, adding in all the ways he's helped you here in heaven, and yet he dismays of himself so much, when he's the shining example of what heaven wants their angels to be, and especially their Guardian Angels, that’s as much as you can gather, if any of your classes are to go by.
"A foreboding sense like that can't be ignored, and there's no doubt that I would've fallen if it meant saving you, maybe someone knew that somewhere, and thus... I ended up in that room of imprisonment. You have every right to hate and despise me to your heart's content, but you think I wasn't mad too? At the feebleness of the human form, how easily that beautiful life can be taken away, like it never even existed in the first place? But that anger never settles on you, it is always directed at myself. I was chosen to guide you, to protect and defend you and I failed in the moment you needed me the most. I should've found my way out, I should've stopped that day's events taking place. You should be alive right now, and we should've met many, many, many years from now. I should've held onto patience, waited for you to come to heaven in your own time, yet I fear my unending desire to meet you face to face, to know you face to face, resulted in that day's events, somehow. Regardless of what anyone else can say on the contrary. I love you, Y/N, in all the ways a Guardian Angel should. I adore everything you are and everything that makes you, you. I have been so blessed to know you, to have been assigned to you. I have such endless love and pride for you and everyday it kills me in how much I failed my one true purpose, as a Guardian Angel. Truthfully I care not if I lose everything after today, but I haven't been doing nothing in the time since you arrived. I have been studying like crazy. Reading documents that even I am not allowed to chance upon. Or shouldn't. I may lose everything, and I know you won't remember any of this after a few weeks back on the ground but... at the end of your days, your natural days, I do hope we will meet again. And be face to face once more. Until then, it has been the loveliest thing in existence to know you, like this. The most prideful and honorable thing to be your Guardian Angel. Please remember me, somewhere within. And know I am always on your side. I am always with you. Though I know not will happen to me after today, for you, it's worth it. You will always be worth it."
"Guardian Angel Jongin...?"
"Our past few weeks have have barely counted down there, on earth. It’ll be hours, tops. Truthfully, regardless of what it takes from me, I will alter that day's events. Though I wanted to meet you face to face so, so, so much. I didn't mean like this. It shouldn't have happened like this. Not like this. Never like this."
Before you can blink, or even realize just how closed in you’re suddenly feeling, how the sense of your surroundings seems to have blurred since you entered this strange room you just, for some reason, seemed to assume was his classroom, but blatantly isn’t upon second glance, he places his hand atop yours as a shrill, ear splitting sound enters the room and elicits an even shriller gasp from you whilst a blinding off-white light envelopes you within and twirls and twirls, and keeps twirling, until all you knew of heaven and your Guardian Angel Jongin fades, and fades, and keeps fading...
Awaking with a start, the familiar Parisian trees come into your line of vision. You glance around you and notice your manager, and driver bopping along as normal to the radio, as the car pulls up to your destination, exactly on time, as safely as ever. You blink once, then several times more, wondering where your head-splitting headache came from and why you suddenly feel so nauseous and out of place. "I had the strangest dream," you finally settle on, directing this towards your manager who's hardly paying any attention to you at this moment in time. Still, you continue, "I think I met my guardian angel."
Your manager guffaws, rolling his eyes. "Guardian angel? Y/N, there's no such thing!"
As you glance back at the trunk of the car, the droplets of light rain trickling down the window, you wipe the lone tear that also trickles down your cheek away. "Thank you," you whisper, not knowing if this will be your only chance to tell him that, if these memories are to leave you soon and though you swear you must've been back on earth barely two minutes, it already feels like they are leaving you. But you know in your heart, that you will meet him again, someday. Thank him, someday. For all he did for you, today.
For a moment, you see Guardian Angel Jongin's outline in the empty seat to the right of you, along with his faint, but unmistakable pink glow. You feel the warm, comforting energy you've felt around you so often, during good and bad days, and anything in between, and finally understand that this being really has been watching out for you as long as you can remember, that he has been with you through everything, and hopefully will continue to be, regardless of the possible severity of his last actions.
Maybe it was nothing but a test for him, a screening for him to understand the worst possible scenario a human and their Guardian Angel can go through together, for him to truly cement and prove the fact that he truly was as devoted to you as his position expected him to be, and in doing so, you suppose he passed with flying colors, or he lost everything he was... but it was your life, and now you intend to live it. To the fullest you can.