Bella Vu and Kohl Shinomiya have a whirlwind romance - right before the string of holidays that begins in October. They met at a mutual friend's party, then spent Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's together.
But when the new year arrives, they miss the fireworks. Indeed, when midnight arrives, Bella is thrown back to a night before Halloween, one that she remembers only vaguely. Somehow, the time has reversed.
Ah. This must be the cosmic consequence of her shirking family responsibilities for a man she just met.
This time, she tries to ward Kohl away entirely. She spends her time nursing her dying grandmother, taking on family responsibilities to lessen the burden for everyone else. She denounces her own happiness as atonement for her greed the last time she was here.
Then, the new year arrives, and Bella misses the fireworks. She is thrown back to a night before Halloween, one that she remembers better than last time.
What now? What now, when she tells Kohl what she's sure is happening, and he admits that he experienced the time loop too?
author's note: in the same way that Touch of Light (a very old wip of mine that maybe no one here remembers anymore) was written as a mirror to my first few years of college, this wip feels to me like a mirror to my recent experiences with grief and loss... it's also a frankenwip of several ideas i've had for wips in the past, so we'll see how it goes!
hoping to make it my nano wip but first i have to play around with the characters and things a bit :)
since i posted smth about justin the other day, here's some more stuff about him that chronologically comes before the last snippet
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Justin has never been one to be invested in the dramas of his sister’s life. She’s had many, of course, as any young woman has. Any number of men has captured her attention for some amount of time, and by virtue of his relationship to her, Justin has been blessed to hear all about it. He’s been there for every major event in her life, whether directly or indirectly. Through Bella, he learned from a young age that women usually prefer a listening ear to a solution – unless they’ve expressly asked for a solution.
For the thousandth time in his life, Justin moves one earpiece of his headphones away. He continues to game while listening to his lamenting sister behind him. She sits on the bed, a pillow squished tight to her stomach. Her chin rests on it when she isn’t talking (she’s talking an awful lot). Only half of the discussion actually makes it into his ears.
She’s talking about a man this time. This is different; in recent months, it’s usually something about their family. He’s never heard of this Kohl character she’s talking about. Justin isn’t even sure if he’s supposed to like Kohl.
“He was so sweet, I wanted to die at times. Have you ever experienced that? Someone so kind that you realize how awful you are?”
Justin has not. That is not something he has ever thought about in his life.
“Can you believe that? He talks like he can’t imagine this ever going wrong. He’s insane for that. I feel like that’s a red flag. Is it?”
Justin shrugs, then swears at his game as he narrowly avoids a mistake that would ruin all the progress he’s made toward his high score.
“He got me flowers.”
He’s so happy for his sister. This sounds amazing. Truly and without a hint of sarcasm.
“Do you think he attends book clubs? All those books he’s reading are highly popular among, well, women. I’m not saying that men can’t read them, but… Would you read books about vampires that will inevitably devolve into incredibly inappropriate fantasies?”
Okay. No thank you. This is not a conversation Justin is interested in having with his older sister of all people. What is she even thinking, bringing this up?
“Are you listening to me?”
Justin pulls his headphone back over his ear. Faintly, he can hear Bella’s exasperated screaming through the tinny music of the game.
Well. He’s sure he’ll hear about this guy again if he’s that big of a deal.
-
idk i think he's just a silly and sweet little bean but like he's also just a guy
Note: Chi Hai = eldest sister. Justin is Bella's little brother, a silly teenager who plays a singular sport but also many video games
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“Chi Hai, this delinquent-looking man is here for you!”
“He’s not a delinquent,” Bella yells back from her room. “He works at the bank!” Finally disentangling a worthy pair of earrings with very fitting golden leaves cascading down, Bella smooths down the skirt of her dress and scurries down the stairs. Remembering that she also needs a bag, she goes back to her room to get one. Then she remembers that her purse is in the living room anyway, since that’s where all her most commonly used items have ended up.
What she finds in the living room makes her laugh. Justin and Kohl size each other up from opposite sides of the small space. They’re the same height – not incredibly tall by most standards, but tall for Asian standards. Justin is standing in a peculiar way she’s never seen from him before, like a red panda trying to look large in front of a perceived threat. Besides the fact that there is nothing threatening about Kohl, it’s just funny to see Justin this way.
“This is your type?” Justin asks, gesturing at Kohl.
The latter reaches for her. He’s wearing the most basic fall outfit, a white t-shirt under an oversized flannel, paired with jeans and high-top white sneakers. His hair is tied out of his face today, highlighting a pair of silver skeleton hand earrings (Part of Bella wants to check them for anatomic accuracy).
Bella walks over to him, greeting him with a quick hug before pushing him away. Kohl’s hands reach for her again, but don’t fight their fate when Bella continues to step away. They end up in his pockets. “Don’t be mean to him,” she chastises Justin without any bite. “That’s my job.”
“I would prefer if neither of you were mean to me,” Kohl says.
“Liar,” both siblings respond.
He blinks. “Okay, anyway. My name is Kohl.” He steps forward and holds his hand out for Justin to shake, but Justin merely tips his head at the gesture while crossing his arms. Pausing just long enough to make it awkward, Kohl stares straight at her brother. “Not a handshake kind of guy, I get it.” Another awkward pause. “I’m going to borrow your sister for the day.”
Justin makes a strange face that Bella has never seen him make before. “You can keep her.”
“Oh my god, I knew you hated me,” Bella complains.
“Just for today,” Justin adds quietly before making his escape. He trails away to the basement, back to his little hideout of particular interests. Before he makes it very far, he already has his phone out, scrolling through it to look occupied, Bella suspects. She’s seen him do it on occasion, opening and closing apps and tabs to distract from the fact that he’s slightly nervous or agitated. If he had a drink, he would be sipping from it.
Kohl watches him go with an equally strange expression, although this one strikes a little more familiar with her. It’s like he’s trying to look through Justin’s brain, trying to see what makes him click. To see what the most effective way to communicate with him might be.
She pats his chest and rests her hand there. “Never mind him. Let’s go.”
Kohl is still staring at the door Justin just left through. Absently, he touches her fingertips. “You look adorable today,” he says, although the feeling behind the sentiment is muted.
okay this is kind of a crazy long excerpt for someone who hasn't written in ages but have a first date scene:
She meets Kohl at the park nearby. Unexplainably, he has a picnic blanket laid out, his long legs stretched out in the most relaxed pose she’s ever seen. He squints into the sky, surely missing the sunglasses nestled in her bag. Next to him is a bouquet of flowers and a kite. The books he’d bought from her earlier are nowhere in sight.
Sighing, Bella walks up to him. Her shadow falls across his face and he glances up at her with an easy smile. “Hi,” he says, stretching out a hand to pull her down. With a squeak, Bella acquiesces and falls to her knees next to him. Her bag falls to the ground with a soft thump. “How was work?”
“Fine. Who are those for?” She nods at the flowers.
He raises his eyebrows. “Those?”
“Some girl gave them to you while you were staring at the sky and looking like a spacey dreamboat?” she guesses.
Kohl grins. “You think I’m a dreamboat?”
"Don’t flatter yourself.”
“Apparently, I don’t need to. You’re doing it just fine on my behalf.”
Bella snorts. Digging through her bag, she pulls out his sunglasses. “Here. Put these on before you go blind from staring at the sun.”
“Worried?”
"About you? No.” About literally everything else? Yes.
Kohl takes them from her, his fingers brushing hers. He slides them on like a headband, then reaches beside him for the flowers. “A trade. I would’ve bought food for a picnic, but I wasn’t sure what you liked. Didn’t want to be more of a nuisance while you were working than I already was.”
She takes the flowers from him, unfolding her legs to get more comfortable. “So can I go home now? Mission accomplished, yes?”
The look he leverages at her makes her giggle. The sound startles her. Bella Vu does not giggle.
For a moment, Kohl’s eyes widen in something like shock. Then the expression smooths over. “Darling,” he says, the endearment forming with such ease that Bella freezes momentarily. “Indulge me.”
“You don’t even know me.”
“I am trying, you dingbat.”
“Hey!”
In a startling motion, Kohl turns and plops his head in her lap, folding his hands neatly on his chest. Her hands hover in the air, not sure what to do with themselves. The audacity of - “I’m trapping you here with me.” When Bella doesn’t respond, he starts to get up. “Sorry, was that-“
Bella pushes him back down. “It’s fine.” Her hands come to rest next to her on the picnic blanket.
“Not to be That Guy, but you say a lot of things are fine for someone who looks like nothing is ever fine.” He closes his eyes.
“You’re insulting me an awful lot for someone who insisted on seeing me again.”
“I didn’t say it was a bad thing.”
“So you think it’s good that I always look distressed?”
“I didn’t say that either.”
“We were off to such a good start too.”
“You’re being difficult.”
“There you go again.”
“Maybe I should stop talking.”
“Maybe.”
“But I won’t.”
“Suit yourself.”
He does stop talking anyway. Somewhere in the background, some children shriek as they chase each other around. Bella feels some nostalgia for times like that, although she never really had a time like that. She was a quiet child, as was Justin. For a moment, the only thing between them is the late summer breeze. It’s too gentle to be of any use for that kite, but it’s enough to gently ruffle Kohl’s hair. Bella pulls some strands out of his face. As she does, his eyes shoot open, startling her. Flinching, Bella drops her hand back to the ground.
Kohl reaches up to tug at the strands of her that had slipped out of her ponytail, framing her face. “Was everything okay yesterday? When you got home?”
A pause. “I just fell asleep before you texted.”
He considers that for a moment. “You sounded so… against the idea of going home. I was wondering why that was. Not,” he adds quickly, “that I’m necessarily entitled to know that.”
“That’s third date material,” she says. “You’re skipping some steps.”
Kohls sits up, crossing his legs and staring at her. “Third date?”
“Yeah?”
“You’re not going to disappear on me again?”
“I hardly disappeared on you. We just met yesterday.”
“But you didn’t answer my text.”
“Because I woke up late and immediately went to work?”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, oh.”
Kohl looks down at his hands, then back at her, then back at his hands. He opens his mouth, then closes it. Looks into the distance, then back at her.
