#seventeen imagines

☆: bounty hunter! you x thief! minghao au
tw: ment of violence/weapons|this was in my drafts so i decided to finish it

• “there’s no way in the world any of you are going to catch him, but if you do -”
• the head of the police, hong joshua, stands tall and straight behind the podium
• the gold of his medals shines harshly under the white light of the town courthouse 
• and your mind wanders off as you think about the pretty penny you could get if you were to just happen upon stealing one of those medals….not that a bounty hunter should ever steal 
• “but if you do, the police will wipe your own felonious records clean and even offer a good amount of monetary compensation.”
• that perks your interest, since you’re currently looking for some extra cash
• plus being a bounty hunter isn’t a so called ‘clean’ job - you have stains on your record you’d like to see get erased.
• and you know mr. hong doesn’t like you all that much so having him be the one clean up for you is sickly satisfying to some part of your psyche 
• you’ve been working in this shitty underground world for too long 
• someone’s voice comes from the back of the interrogation room and you don’t even have to look to know that it’s that newbie seokmin 
• all excited and bouncy and not-yet-dead-and-cold-inside like the rest of the people around you
• “who is the criminal we’re chasing?”
• the monitor on the rolled up caddy beside the policeman flickers on 
• “xu minghao. he’s a notorious thief in the city, responsible for the last string of high art robberies from the homes and personal collections of the elite.”
• you snort, the ‘elite’, being rich makes you some kind of level above human now doesn’t it?
• “his latest victims are the choi family, he stole not only paintings but some jewelry as well - possibly high end watches and the sort.”
• “choi family?”
• god this new kid knows nothing
• “choi seungcheol’s family” you say with a yawn “you know, the choi seungcheol - the mayor.”
• seokmin gasps and you finally look at him. 
• he’s got a build to him that probably helps with physical altercations but he gives off the vibe that he’d faint at the sight of blood
• “exactly.” 
• joshua shoots a pointed look at you and you kind of dance around in the disgust 
• “which is why we are going out on a limb and asking for the bounty hunters to help. the choi family desperately wants these pieces returned to them.”
• you look at minghao’s face on the screen, it’s obviously not a mugshot so you note that the police force has actually never caught him
• it’s a kind of photo that looks like it has been pulled off a social media account
• minghao is standing in some sort of white room, he’s tilting his head and looking at the camera - or maybe the person holding it - and one of his eyes has a piercing blue colored contact in it
• his features are angular, sharp, and long - but they fit together to make an unusually handsome kind of face
• you slide forward in your chair and take your own phone out to snap a picture of the monitor
• “how much for him?”
• another voice echoes somewhere from the corner
• joshua’s straight-faced expression twitches like he’s trying to believe the number that comes out of his mouth.
• “ten million”
• you keep counting the zeros in your head as you push your keys into your motorcycle and adjust yourself on the seat
• you could retire with that kind of money. you live a frugal existence as it is.
• you know that minghao is probably also somewhere in the city, still plotting for his next job. 
• he’s been hitting rich people’s houses for two months straight and the choi’s are a victory, for sure, but they’re still not the biggest shark in the ocean.
• the people who sponsor them, the people who made seungcheol mayor, minghao has to be going for them next
• you make a list of the three family names that come to mind, luckily enough you also know someone who works in the business of ‘technology’ or so who can help you track down the lead forming in your head
• you look one last time at the picture of minghao on your phone before you slip it into your jacket pocket and pull out of the parking lot
• “how much?”
• “stick-up-his-ass hong said ten million, the choi’s really want there watches and monet’s back.”
• jihoon turns to you with a deadpan expression
• “you know monet’s can go up to ten times that amount right?”
• you shrug and shove a half eaten bar of candy in your mouth that you stole from a bowl by his computer
• “i don’t know, i didn’t go to college for art history. anyway, can you help?”
• “how much of your cut will i get.”
• you lick your lips and think for a second
• “if i get him alive i’ll cut you in thirty percent. if he’s dead, ten.”
• jihoon taps his foot and adjusts the glasses on his nose, he told you once they’re for the blue light or whatever that come out of his six computers.
• “deal.”
• you come over and see him open up the page of one of the most expensive and professional art dealers in this city, jihoon mentions that this person is in charge of the buying accounts for all of the three families you mentioned
• he also happens to manage the choi’s, so looking into him could lead to possible other leads for the three targets you have in mind
• “if minghao is planning to rob them - he needs to know what pieces to take. he’s probably also tracking down what they’re currently thinking about buying.”
• “yeah, and im gonna assume - you know, bounty hunters intuition or whatever, that he’s going to hit whichever family recently bought the most expensive piece.”
• jihoon’s fingers type faster than your eyes can follow. he doesn’t even seem to move his face, just his pupils and then a bunch of screens are popping up everywhere
• you had befriended him on an assignment to catch a hacker - not jihoon, although he’s actually got a price on his head too - but another hacker who was clambering up jihoon’s business
• you watch as jihoon does his magic, and then in about ten or so minutes you have an answer
• “one of the family’s just bought and received a vase from this guy, it won its auction at around twenty five million. it’s from the ming dyn-”
• “which family?”
• you don’t care if they got a vase, a sofa, a painting, or a gold and diamond encased piece of potato - something in your stomach told you that whoever just spent the most was on minghao’s radar and minghao was on yours
• jihoon adjusts his glasses
• “that would be … oh, that would be the yoon family.”
• you taste something iron on the tip of your tongue, yoon jeonghan was on the cover of last month’s vogue if you remember correctly
• “got it. thanks.”
• you shrug your jacket back on and jihoon spins around in his chair when you get to the door of his dark apartment 
• “remember, thirty if he’s alive!”
• “and ten if he’s not!”
• you don’t like the fact that this new kid, seokmin, is standing outside the giant gates of the yoon family mansion 
• he’s wearing a cut off white t-shirt and new balances for christs sake
• “hey!” he looks like he’s seen the sun when he spots you sort of loitering nearby, you try to ignore him but he’s coming over
• “hi.”
• “staking out the yoon’s? my first impression was they’d be minghao’s next targets because they’re rich and like art too.”
• you wonder how he knows that so you ask, half expecting he might actually tell you - which would be a stupid thing to do.
• he does.
• “oh! i mean their son is a designer, they must be the best people to steal from.”
• that’s so fucking ridiculous but he’s actually right. going to tell jihoon im cutting his share in half since apparently his intel could have been free.
• “uhuh. well good luck.”
• the words are stale when you say them, but sparkling eyes seokmin takes them to heart with a gracious “you too!”
• you actually didn’t come to stake them out - you came to see if minghao might be staking them out
• no good thief actually just bursts into someone’s home, they need to know every nook and cranny of a place if they want to get out clean
• judging by minghao’s track record, you can tell he’s cautious and detailed
• you circle the house at a safe distance and then head back home, you read a bunch of articles on minghao’s past crimes and eat the only thing you have in your fridge which is mint ice cream - it was left there by a late night hook up who’d doordashed 7/11 even when you told them not to
• you do some other minor research on smaller bounties you could chase after minghao is caught, none are interesting or any where near the price of minghao’s
• you lay down and the stray you recently started letting crawl through the fire escape makes a little fuzzy circle at the base of your feet
• you look at your phone, look at the photo of minghao
• wonder if he’s as detailed orientated in other things aside from stealing. looks like he’d know what to do with his hands.
• you fall asleep with the phone on your chest.
• the next day, you’re texting jihoon about the seokmin thing - he tells you to piss off and not even think about downing his cut or he’ll leak your social security on the internet
• that’s so fucked up dude
• you’re a shit bounty hunter and im a hermit hacker we aren’t good people anyway
• fine, are the yoon’s buying any other vases or whatever
• actually, they won an auction a month ago for some ceramics. heard they’re coming tomorrow.
• oh, might be a good time to steal that vase and some extra trinkets too for our thief 
• look how ugly these things are tho
• jihoon sends you a photo pulled from the auctioning website, they are ugly, but they’re expensive
• you rub your temple and decide that’s enough for today, you don’t see seokmin around either
• seungcheol’s generic smiling im-a-good-mayor-and-i-kiss-babies face is grainy on your tv
• you eat the takeout you picked up on the way back and are only mildly surprised when you notice someone familiar in the crowd
• this is old footage, from a rally he did before the crime
• your eyes pan to the corner and pull out one person from the sea of faces, everyone looks so excited to see seungcheol, minghao stands staunch and unwavering in the moving bodies
• he’s not grinning - he’s kind of half smirking from what you can tell
• he really does his research, i kind of like him
• you put the chopsticks into your mouth, yeah. i think he’s going to be a fun one to catch.
• goddamn seokmin is here again - on the night the drop shipment of the ceramics is scheduled - you tell yourself you were a clown for believing all that ‘i just thought they’d be the right family!’ bullshit he was telling you about
• he probably has an informant of his own, definitely not jihoon though. seokmin is the type jihoon would rather drive a usb through his head than ever cooperate with
• you avoid him the second you see his strong shilloute and make your way to the otherside of the house, right on the outskirts of the back garden
• there’s one person in it - none of the immediate yoon family you can recognize, probably just a worker
• you know there’s three entrances from here - the garden doors, the side opening that leads to an underground washing room, and there’s also a way to get into the back of the kitchen
• you are betting that either one of them might be a good choice for minghao, but you put your bet on the washing room - it has stairs that lead up into a spare bedroom which is adjacent to a gallery type room inside of the huge mansion
• it’s where the family will probably put the items, rich people love to be all like “look at my room of expensive things you don’t get to touch”
• you stick your tongue out to yourself, morally you don’t care about thievery. especially when it’s stolen art stolen from people who just want it to feel superior to others
• but minghao is worth ten million, that’s why im taking the higher ground on this ‘crime’
• bounty hunters are allowed to carry guns, but you’ve never liked them - you like to use mace instead
• that being said, you’ve brought your gun along - unloaded - just to use a scare tactic if push comes to shove. it’s heavy and it reminds you constantly of the job you came to do.
• no getting distracted by newbie muscle heads or how hot you’re coming to think minghao is 
• you hear something - eyes darting to behind one of the columns of a large gazebo in the garden
• you swear you see something slink across as the only person in the garden gets up to head back inside
• keeping your movements and noise to a minimum, you position your body for a better view and after what seems like two heartbeats you see him dart from the enclosure and toward the mansion
• you don’t follow immediately, the only way you’re going to catch someone who is so elusive is if you one up him
• you have the element of surprise, but not really, he might be expecting personal guards of the yoon household or the police
• not a rogue bounty hunter with a can of mace
• but he’s still expecting - and someone whose entire job is to be like a shadow - you’ve got to be careful
• you wait the amount of time you deem appropriate and then do the same, you realize when you slip through the backdoor of the washroom that now you’re also committing a crime of breaking and entering
• you’re sure the yoon’s won’t mind though - you are about to make sure their ceramics and vases don’t get stolen
• plus, you checked up on all of them, the main family shouldn’t be home. the only people on premises are some cleaners and the gardener. you’re sure minghao knows that too.
• you map out the house in your mind from what you’ve learned in the past couple of days and find the gallery with ease
• you can see the large double doors are open just enough for a person to slip through
• so he’s already in ther-
• “HEY YOU! YOU BETTER STOP!”
• your eyes widen and you push inside to see what’s going on 
• seokmin, flashing something in his right hand and holding a light in the other is pointing at the long, lean figure of minghao
• he’s standing there in the circle of light holding the vase you and jihoon had been looking at before
• his eyes are unimpressed when they settle on seokmin
• “ok, ive stopped - now what are you going to do?”
• “im going to arrest you and bring you to the poli-”
• the vase that’s held professionally between both his arms then gets dropped and crashes to the floor
• the crescendo of noise startles seokmin because it’s the one thing all these new kids who want to try this kind of work get wrong
• the thief is never going to drop the valuable goods - except they are, getting caught is worse then anything else. 
• there will always be shit to steal - except you know if you’re in jail.
• minghao beelines for the doors and you’re there, big grin and mace in hands
• “hi!”
• his eyes widden and you tackle him with ease, one hand bent behind his back as you make sure to keep your weight off him
• “ugh, that big idiot had a partner?”
• “he’s not my partner, by the way that vase is worth more than what im getting for your head.”
• minghao shifts his cheek against the hard floor of the gallery and he’s smiling back up at you
• “how much for me?”
• “choi’s but ten million.”
• he makes a pfft sound as he releases air from between his lips
• “cheap as fuck.”
• seokmin tries to bound over to help once he comes to, but you bite at him to back off. this is your win.
• he says he can drive you and minghao to the station, but you tell him again that you’ve got this on your own
• you kind of feel bad about how flustered he is and you tell him he can still brag about how you two were the only people with sense to look at the yoon’s 
• for some reason, that actually brightens him up. he leaves to go downstairs and you don’t know if he sticks around or goes off on another job.
• you get the handcuffs on minghao’s wrists before the workers, who hear the noise come running up in terror
• you flash your bounty id and they scramble to get a hold of the local police office
• minghao sits up against the wall and you sit directly in front of him - you can see him better with the lights on
• his dark hair is long in the back and messy, his eyes are brown and long and twinkle when you look into them
• the bottom corners are highlighted by what you can’t tell if is sweat or glitter
• “you’re different”
• he starts and you put up a finger
• “im not different, im just experienced.”
• “you like money more than you like your morals.”
• you put the finger down and gleam at him
• “bingo”
• “so why are you sitting here waiting to hand me over for some chump change like ten million dollars when you and i are inches away from a collection that’s worth close to a hundred million?”
• you touch the holster on your hip and tilt your head
• “we - even the two of us - wouldn’t be able to steal everything in there. we’d need a whole team and-”
• you start as minghao open’s his mouth to counter. all his teeth are white and straight.
• “and if we could, you’d backstab me and take it all and run because you just said it yourself. money over morals.”
• “ive got morals when im dealing with the right people.”
• the snort you let out is louder than you expect and it makes minghao cock an eyebrow
• “don’t care, you’re a professional liar. plus hong said he’d clear our records and get us that money.”
• “joshua hong works for choi seungcheol who is a bigger liar than i am and you know it.”
• there’s real spite in the way he says it - you assume he’s probably had interactions with both. or he’s just grown up in this city like you have, all the trouble politics can cause - all the stupid, underhanded shit that goes on
• he leans a little forward
• “plus, you’re hot. usually anyone who manages to catch me is very gruff and very mean.”
• “i am gruff and mean, don’t test me.”
• you banter but then look around and the gardener who was supposed to stay up here with you and minghao has turned his attention elsewhere - normal people don’t like facing criminals and well…whatever category bounty hunters are in.
• “what’s the most expensive thing in that room.”
• you ask under your breath suddenly, the police won’t be here for another five minutes at least. 
• you text jihoon to tap into their comms and let you know the exact moment they’re at the door.
• minghao shines that grin, slender fingers lift up and toward the door
• “i broke it, but that place is jammed of other million dollar treasures. i saw an original signac that could score us close to 17 million.”
• “a signac? who is that?”
• minghao laughs with his hands still behind him
• “so you’re hot but not into art, i can still work with that. he’s an artist, paul signac. the yoon’s own ‘la corne d'or.’” 
• you shrug your shoulders again and pretend you don’t hear the first part but mutter that art doesn’t make sense to you and minghao lets out another quieter laugh
• “it’s a painting of boats but it looks psychedelic almost, super colorful. thirty six or so inches across.”
• you think to yourself - one painting and it’s 17 million, what if you get another painting with it
• “ok…anything else in there catch your eye?”
• minghao wiggles a little 
• “lots, i know art like people know starbucks orders. very well.”
• your phone pings and it’s jihoon’s warning. the police are going to be coming upstairs to take minghao off your hands in the next sixty to ninety seconds.
• “i can’t trust you.”
• he thins his lips and then taps your foot with his own, does a weird jostle of his body and then to your shock breaks out of his handcuffs with ease
• he rubs his wrists as you think you hear some noise downstairs and the gardener jumps out of his seat to go greet the police without noticing the thing that just happened only a feet away from him
• “i’ve had a bobby pin this whole time, i could have run away five whole minutes ago instead of giving you a history lesson on boat paintings worth more money than you’ve ever dreamt of.”
• you don’t miss a beat 
• “let’s get the fucking boats then.”
• you get up and minghao takes a hold of your hand in a way you haven’t experienced since maybe middle school
• like when a beloved childhood friend would take you and lead you toward the playground, giggle about school or your parents, pull you in to a fun moment under the basking sun
• you and him stand, hand in hand, in front of the painting he mentioned
• it’s pretty, it almost looks like it was drawn by crayons, you wonder why it’s so expensive 
• “let’s take it and the two sketches over there, one’s a lady with a piano the other is a couple under an umbrella
• “are they-”
• “at least two million each. plus - we can comeback for the ceramics later.”
• you don’t know why it makes you feel warm - but it does and you take the two framed sketches off the wall
• the painting is large, but minghao has done this enough times before that he knows how to handle it - you two are out the hall and down the stairs by the time you hear the police shuffling up them
• took their time thinking he’d just be sitting up there wrapped up like a present huh?
• you think to yourself, minghao is quick on his feet and leads you in the direction of a inconspicuous looking tiny car that could seat you, him and maybe that stray that hangs around your apartment 
• he opens the back and it is a perfect size for the painting
• “did you come here on your bike?”
• you realize the whole look of you must give away the fact that you ride one
• “never, i dont bring it on jobs because people know what it looks like.”
• he tips his fingers toward you in acknowledgement
• “good because this car isn’t mine either, so add auto theft to the list of crimes you’re committing with me on this first date.”
• you bite the inside of your cheek, can’t tell if he’s joking or not
• he hits the gas before there’s any movement on the street where it’s parked - the yoon mansion fades into the distance as he rushes into the evening traffic
• “is this the part where you kick me to the curb?”
• you ask
• minghao takes one hand off the wheel and puts it on your thigh
• “this is the part where you tell me where you live so we can go get your things and ride off into the sunset, bonnie.”
• you laugh
• “so you’re clyde?”
• he looks at you at a red light - looks at your lips and then your eyes
• “do you want me to be?”
• you can decide the answer to that yourself

*if you’re interested here isla corne d’oron the sothebys website. 

☆ hogwarts!au x minghao
minghao wants to draw a thestral, but he can’t see them.
[yes this is an hp au, but we ignore you know who <3]

• when you see a box of chocolate wands levitating toward you from the other side of the quad you shut your book and get up before they can reach you
• stubbornly, the sender of the chocolates follows you down into the castle
• “hoshi - tell minghao im not-”
• you turn around, ready to be faced with the big smile of the gryffindor troublemaker but instead, you see hufflepuff’s own xu minghao
• “oh - i thought the floating chocolate would be more of a hoshi thing than you.”
• turning on your heel, you nearly get away before minghao’s hand touches your shoulder
• “sorry for sending him after you before, but are you really so against it?”
• something softens when you hear the genuine question in his voice.
• you know out of all the students in your year, minghao is considered the most formidable artist of them all
• aside from magic - there’s a whole list of things he’s good at - and the muggle hobby of drawing is one of them
• although wizards have figured out ways to cast the likeness of something or someone onto parchment hundreds of years ago, minghao is traditional
• you can tell because he keeps a sketchbook (non-magical) under his arm at all times - you’re sure it’s more important to him than his own wand
• but still - his request is just a bit much this time
• “im sorry, i can’t. maybe someone else can help you.”
• with that you gently shrug his hold off of you and hurry toward the classrooms
• you don’t look back - but minghao watches you disappear in the flurry of students
• “i don’t understand why you keep saying no!”
• your friend lays themselves dramatically over your bed and puts a hand over their heart
• “it’s xu minghao - he’s the most eligible boy in hufflepuff!”
• you pet the top of your owls head as you sit in the window of your dorm and frown
• “you said that last week, but it was about seokmin.”
• they pretend they don’t hear you and continue
• “what is he even asking you to do? pose for him? model for him? be pretty in front of him?”
• you shake your head and get up, shrugging a light jacket over your shoulders and telling your friend you’re going to head out
• “meeting up with minghao?!”
• they call back and you shut the door with a flick of your wand
• the forest outside of hogwarts is usually quiet, students don’t like going there unless it’s for a class, but you’ve gotten comfortable enough to know your way around
• you especially know where to go to find thestrals - the small herd that hogwarts uses to pull the carriages all gather in a place off the path and you’ve been visiting it for almost all the years you’ve been attending
• you never get too close - thestrals can be rather sensitive, and plus, the benefit of being able to actually see them is something you don’t want to lose if they actively start trying to hide
• you find the familiar tree stump you climb ontop of and-
• “oh.”
• your head turns in the direction of someones voice and you see minghao standing a couple of feet away
• “what are you doing here?”
• you ask, bewildered - both by the fact that he’s in the woods by himself and that he somehow managed to find this place in particular
• “i thought this might be where the thestral herd is. i can’t see them, but this place has a certain feeling.”
• “well…i can’t say you’re wrong..”
• you look over his shoulder where some of the thestrals have lifted their heads to keep an eye on your conversation
• minghao follows your gaze and goes, “they’re behind me aren’t they?”
• “yes. don’t make any sudden movements - they don’t like that.”
• he nods, making his way down onto the grass.
• he opens his sketchbook and you can’t help but step closer to him
• “are you going to draw?”
• “yep, im going to draw them - or at least what i think they look like.”
• you shift from one foot to another
• this is what minghao has been trying to get you to do for weeks, describe a thestral to him
• apparently, he hasn’t gone through the events one has to go through in order to clearly see them
• you on the other hand have, and the only reason people know about it is because your trauma was a publically talked about event
• part of you wants to know if minghao has something similar but unlike you - hasn’t come to accept it yet
• you look at his side profile, all perfect sharp angles, his bone structure is striking and you understand the hype he gets around school
• his long fingers hold the pencil delicately, he draws a line and then looks up to meet your stare
• “they look like horses right?”
• you have to bring yourself out of his beauty and back into reality - embarrassing enough of a task that you just kind of nod
• “well, yes but they’re very different.”
• “how so?”
• you sink to your knees beside him, you look out at the creatures who have returned to their business after sensing neither you or minghao are a threat
• “they’re skeletal - people say they’re scary once you are able to see them for the first time but it’s not that, they’re just otherworldly - transparent almost.”
• you put your hands around your knees
• “their wings are big, like a dragon - but thinner, they kind of look like the skin between webbing……the bones are long and silver.”
• before you realize it, you’re going into more detail than you had wanted to
• “if i had to describe them as a color though, it’s like looking at moonlight as an animal.”
• you had been denying minghao’s request for you to tell him about them but now it just pours out
• at first, you had thought talking about them would push to surface memories you didn’t want to look back on
• but instead - it’s almost cathartic - to sit beside someone and share an experience like this with them
• when you turn to tell minghao one more thing, you see that he hasn’t picked up his pencil again
• instead his sketchbook is laying on the grass in front of you two and he’s looking at you
• “minghao?”
• “it’s hard to draw when you talk about them so beautifully.”
• you bite back your lip
• “well they are beautiful.”
• “that’s why i asked you by the way-”
• he clears his throat and his voice drops
• “i never meant it to be annoying, or to make you think about things you didn’t want to think about again. i just always thought that you would be the best person to describe them the way they really look.”
• you nod and something makes you reach out for his sketchbook
• “i wish i could draw them for you - but i really don’t have any talent.”
• you touch the paper and then feel something soft against your ear
• you look and minghao is reaching out to pick a stray leaf from your hair
• his touch is gentle and the woods are still all around you - just the softness of the moment
• he lets it blow off into the wind and you watch it make a path up and back toward the tree
• minghao doesn’t take his eyes off of you
• “i think you have other talents.”
• he finally starts and then his hand drops back to his side
• “and i think one of them is making me want to be around you.”
• you freeze because the words are unexpected and raw, you try to find a logical response to it but you can only muster a small
• “what do you mean?”
• he leans back and looks out in front of him - he sees an empty pasture of grass
• “i don’t really know, i just see you and something pulls me toward you. something i can’t see, just like a thestral. i know it sounds weird but if magic is real than i think love isn’t too farfetched of a concept either.”
• “l-love?”
• you suddenly feel hot in your jacket, minghao shifts slightly
• “i don’t know if that’s what it is but i just - i haven’t felt more at ease than right now. right now - sitting beside you.”
• you look out in front of you - you see the thestrals in the pasture of grass
• “i feel at ease too….”
• his hand slips closer and then his pinkie is ontop of yours
• the trees and the sky all hold their breaths
• “then maybe we can just stay here for a while?”
• his pinkie hooks with yours, and then his entire palm slides into yours
• you lay back against the grass and minghao lines up perfectly beside you - now you’re both looking up at the open blue sky
• something stirs inside you, something you haven’t felt before - if you could see it, it might be a glowing pinkness around your chest. minghao would have it too.
• but you enjoy the silence and then see something hover above you, the chocolate wands from earlier
• this time you smile, reaching out for them. minghao squeezes your hand.
• a thestral comes closer to sniff at your hair, minghao asks if one is nearby and you say yes but it’s ok
• they seem to like him and you

*this post was commissioned | based very lightly off seventeen - fallin’ flowers
tw: break up mention/general angst

“something in your gentleness entraps him
you make it look so easy, to love and provide for something
he knows a flower is one thing, a human is another - but
could you do that for him too?”

• you had thought jihoon was going to marry them
  
• so standing in the middle of his studio with the remnants of their relationship, a broken vase of lilies in the corner, his undone portrait of them dripping down with the streaks of paint he’d thrown at the canvas in a fit of confusion and pain
• feels ………. wrong
• as if you were the one who was broken up with, and not jihoon who is on his knees a couple of feet away
• hands stained in watercolors, eyes blank and burrowing
• you reach for the wilting lilies first, you’ve known jihoon long enough to be aware of the fact that trying to use words to comfort him right now won’t work
• so you silently begin to clean up, plucking items that belong to his ex and placing them out of sight
• you take the ruined canvas with half their face sketched out and turn it over
• jihoon doesn’t move from his spot as you work - doesn’t say anything - doesn’t even look at you
• when you’re done you finally kneel down beside him, bring the hot wet towel to his hands and start to scrub the dry paint from his palms
• you try to be gently but jihoon finally speaks
• “harder, you have to scrub harder if you want to get rid of them.”
  
• you can’t tell if he’s talking about the paint or of the memories that must be flooding into him
• you had remembered how happy he had looked, being in love, being with someone who seemed to understand him 
• now he was empty and you were scared of what could happen if he was left like this alone
• you don’t argue, you scrub harder and finally you get some of the colors off his skin
• there’s still smudges thought, the same way there will still be those pieces of his ex scarred across him 
• time heals everything - you want to say that, but its too early to start preaching 
• instead you tell jihoon he should go to bed now, you’ll take care of the rest of the cleaning up and put his art supplies away
• he gives a vague sort of look toward the bedroom and then back at you
• “i broke the vase, the one with the lilies.”
  
• “it’s ok, ive already cleaned-”
  
• “i should go buy fresh ones.”
  
• his eyes glaze over, he gets up and you scramble to your feet in the process
• you put a hand on his chest to stop him and jihoon stares at you, but you can tell he isnt focused 
• “ill buy them, please jihoon. go to bed.”
  
• somehow you manage to get him to turn around
• and you are standing now in the doorway to his apartment, with a trash bag full of his exes things and the pathetic looking lilies 
• you had bought them as a gift when you’d come over to celebrate jihoon’s successful art show
• his ex had put them into a vase and gushed over how pretty they looked - jihoon had never been one to be so romantic, but he had said that they looked almost as pretty as his ex did
• you had watched them be so loving toward each other just days ago
• but now it was all gone and part of you is angry at both of them
• at jihoon’s ex for leaving him, out of the blue and with no real reason but the excuse of having “outgrown” him
• and at jihoon for calling you after it had happened
• but that anger toward him is really just a cover for something else
• the hollowing pit in your stomach that has always been there since you met jihoon in college. 
• the pit you’ve covered with years of support for him and his relationships and his art
• the pit, in which sits the actual emotion you’ve been hiding from the world
• if you had picked me, i would have never hurt you like this
• the thought is cruel and you tell yourself never to think such a thing like that again
• but its there, it will always be there, because you love jihoon
• not that you ever plan to let that truth come to the surface…… 
• the next morning, you stop by the florist to pick up the lilies you promised you’d buy
• you look at them, watching as one of the petals sags to the side, threatening to fall 
• you dont know what it is about lilies in particular - they bloom so big and beautiful that they often steal the attention in a garden
• they’re quite the opposite of you
• who has always found yourself more of a queen anne’s lace, playing a side role in the main stories of all your friends
•  but you adore them above all other flowers, touching the petal made of velvet and suddenly remembering that you had seen lilies when you first met jihoon
• you had taken art in college as an extra credit class
• you weren’t at all any good, but it was enjoyable to take a course that didnt demand much from you but creativity
• one of the first assignments had been still life: drawing baskets of fruit, books on tables, flowers in vases
• you had ended up with a vase with one purple lily in it. 
• the only other person who had also chose it was jihoon
• you didn’t know his name back then
• just that he was so beautiful, like he had been drawn himself and came to life off the page
• his eyes like umber, russet sunsets - his mouth slightly parted in concentration as he let his pencil flow across his canvas
• you had trouble focusing on the flower, which is probably half the reason it came out terribly
• but it had also allowed jihoon to look over and offer with a quiet tone, that you maybe work on shading here - and dimension here
• you had told him you weren’t in the art major and he had given you the kind of look that read, i could tell
• before smiling to himself in the way you caved your head in a bit of embarrassment
• it wasn’t like you ever thought the meaningless, sometimes only minute long conversation you’d have with him in the art room would turn into a friendship which harbored its way into one-sided love
• somehow you had just ended up being invited warmly into his small knit circle
• jihoon extending his hand to you after getting a text about dinner with seokmin and jeonghan
• jihoon allowing only his and your eyes to fall upon his works in progress, you taking the free time you had to spend at his studio mixing paints and organizing his drawing materials
• he never ask you to do those things - but he also never chided you for it
• jeonghan had mentioned it once, when you were all walking in the summer evening after a movie outing 
• that you being able to earn jihoon’s trust was a higher honor than one might think
• you had looked from jeonghan to jihoon - who had been walking a bit in front with the rest of your friends
• head turned, his profile against the setting sun
• “ah - are you buying another bouquet for your artist boyfriend?”
  
• you jump at the sudden question and shake your head
• “he’s not my boyfriend.”
  
• you swallow and find that your throats gone dry
• “he actually just got broken up with so……”
  
• the florist frowns, taking you gently by the hand and leading you away from the lilies
• “then those are not the flowers you should be getting him, you need to get him something that will say cheer up! there’s someone better out there for you - could i suggest tulips?”
  
• you give a polite smile
• “no, i think i have to take the lilies.”
  
• when you arrive at jihoon’s apartment, the door is unlocked and jihoon is still in bed
• from the way the kitchen is untouched and he’s wearing the same shirt he was yesterday you assume he hasn’t moved in all this time
• “jihoon”
  
• you softly speak
• “it’s already well past lunch, have you eaten?”
  
• he pulls his feet up so they disappear under the covers again. you look around the room and find a vase full of old paintbrushes
• you take it and tell jihoon you’re going to go make him something to eat and that you’ve brought the lilies
• he doesn’t reply, not until you turn in the doorway and his voice is smaller than you’ve ever heard before
• “can you put the lilies in here?”
  
• “you don’t want them in the studio?”
  
• “no, please put them here.”
  
• you quickly fry up an egg and make some coffee, which you set down on the night table beside jihoon’s bed
• you move his sketchbook away and realize that it’s open to an empty page
• your eyes briefly glance to see if jihoon has reacted at all, but he’s still
• you go back to wash out the waves and put the lilies in
• you wrap a rubberband around his paintbrushes and set them by the others which are stock piled in the studio room
• a small ping of relief floods through you when you enter the bedroom and jihoon is up, holding the cup of coffee in his hands
• usually people would suggest you make conversation to help ease jihoon’s mind out of whatever dark place it has wondered into it
• but you just put the lilies down and tend to cleaning up whatever other paper and things you can see on the floor
• even though jihoon only finishes the coffee and maybe a quarter of the egg, it’s still a start
• the pain he’s feeling is fresh and you don’t want to push anything
• but as you tell him you’re off to leave again - you remind him that he does have another exhibition planned in two weeks
• on the way back home you hope his love for painting can cradle him through this all
• whenever you think of the sadness that comes with being unloved, you throw yourself into your hobbies, scribbling down poems or re-reading novels from your time in school
• you’d done it all to stop thinking about jihoon - you hope he does the same too
• about a week passes when you return to jihoon’s again, and it’s only because this time jeonghan calls you with a serious worry about jihoon’s exhibition
• “he isn’t painting, that’s the problem.”
  
• “what do you mean he isn’t painting?”
  
• “when i came over, he was sitting in front of the canvas with his hand pressed against it - but …….. he wasn’t drawing or painting or doing anything.”
  
• you show up to the apartment after the call and take a deep breath before you let yourself in
• today might be the first time you mention the breakup to jihoon, and you don’t know if its too early yet
• to make the dread bubble even harder in your stomach is the fact that sitting outside of his apartment is that undone portrait of his ex
• its half shrouded with other trash bags left to be collected
• you look at the familiar face and clench your fist a bit tighter
• if you hadnt done this to him, if you hadnt made this mess - i wouldnt be stuck cleaning it up.
• you chide and immediately fall into regret
• its not a mess, taking care of your friends is not a mess.
• you knock on the door and wait for a moment till you hear jihoon turn the lock
• you’re relived to see that his hair is wet from a fresh shower, but the bags under his eyes like crows wings cancels it out
• as well as the fact that he looks as if he’s seen the devil himself
• “what’s wrong?”
  
• jihoon’s shoulders shrink
• “do i really have to answer that?”
  
• you step inside and the door closes behind you two
• “jeonghan said you’re having trouble painting”
  
• jihoon’s head drops and the darkness of the hallway makes everything feel closer and more intense
• he turns and starts to walk toward the studio and you follow, gasping a little at the sight of it
• canvases broken in halves, paint spilled on the floor  - but not a single new painting, not a single completed project
• jihoon sits down in the middle of it all and puts his head in his hands
• he looks like he’s in agony, silent and torturous
• is this what happens when an artist loses their muse?
• you don’t know how to help and that makes it all the more worse
• you just sit down beside jihoon 
• he lets you take his hands in your own
• in the corner of the room those fresh lilies youve bought have wilted again
• on one of the broken canvases, the only thing jihoon has been able to paint is those scattered and browning petals
• you start to come by everyday after that because as much as you share jeonghan’s worry about the art
• you are more so worried about jihoon shutting down
• now he has nothing to focus on, just the fact that he’s lost the love of his life
• so you try and entertain and keep him alive to the best of your ability
• with groceries and company, bringing over his other friends - trying to coax him into going outside
• jihoon reacts on some level, but you can tell that he just wants to paint again
• all he’s done is brush strokes on the white paper, the shape vaguely like that of a flower but you cant ever tell what kind
• he also keeps asking you if you can bring him lilies again
• you do, and this time they live longer because you tend to them - and when you do you fail to realize that jihoon starts to watch you
• he takes note of the way you move the vase with both hands
• the way you keep the steams between the same two fingers every time
• you arent burdened by the little chore because its takes at most five or so minutes out of the day
• but jihoon unfolds each step you take like a storybook page
• something in your gentleness entraps him
• you make it look so easy, to love and provide for something
• he knows a flower is one thing, a human is another - but 
• could you do that for him too?
• he looks into his hands and the cup of coffee you made for him is sitting on the table to the left
• have you already been doing it, all this time? 
• which is why on the day before the exhibition
• when you ask him if he wants you to help him cancel it 
• he says no, he thinks he can fish something in time
• you light up and ask if he’s finally found a new muse, but jihoon blinks slowly
• “a new muse?”
  
• “yes, i mean i thought - well i thoughtthey were your muse and losing them meant you couldnt paint but if youre saying you can now then-
  
• jihoon’s eyes turn to ice at the mention but then he shakes his head
• “they …… i never saw them as a muse.”
  
• he stops to think on it, he isn’t lying
• “but you loved them, i mean -”
  
• he keeps his eyes down and you fidget, “sorry, let’s not talk about that.”
• “i did, you’re right i did love them but that doesn’t mean they inspired me.”
  
• he taps a finger and then looks at you
• sitting across from him, how you’ve done a million times before
• suddenly jihoon thinks if he can look at you like that for a little while longer
• he can create again
• he can paint something
• so when he asks you to stay still, you do - and jihoon brings his pencil down to paper
• only to get up half an hour later and take you with him
• he sits you down again and sets up a bigger canvas this time, brings his paintbrushes
• and then he moves the vase with the lily from behind him to sit at your feet
• “jihoon, are you going to paint me?”
  
• “yes”
  
• “why?”
  
• he looks from the lily to you
• “because i want to, and it’s the first time in a while that i think ill be able to.”
• you don’t realize it yourself not until you’ve fallen asleep in your position and jihoon is deep into his painting
• that the muse you were talking about and thinking he’d lost
• had been you all along
• jihoon knew it, even when he was in a relationship, that there was no one else in this world that could make him paint
• he’d felt it the first time you met in that art class, he’d watched you fumble through your drawing
• and usually he wasn’t inspired to draw the mundane, the everyday
• until he started seeing just how much it could mean to him
• he had been painting that portrait of his ex out of obligation, they had asked him to do it 
• and so it had been taking a while - it had been unfinished not even because of the breakup but because jihoon didn’t want to do it
• and yet here he was, the brush strokes pouring out of him in an attempt to capture every little detail there is to you
• he had been wallowing in his pain and hadn’t bothered to look at you again
• until you started to be there, everyday, like those lilies 
• and those lilies, beautiful and sweet 
• they were yours, you were theirs. to jihoon something about the silk of the petal and the sway of your hair made sense 
• he doesn’t wake you up, he’s been your friend long enough to know the parts of you he wants in the painting
• he only stops when he’s done and his hair is stuck to him with sweat and the sun is rising outside his window
• you’ve slumped over completely onto the couch and jihoon comes closer to move you into a more comfortable position
• this is the first time in these weeks that he is taking care of you instead of the other way around
• when his fingers touch your skin he suddenly feels the kind of sparking urge he has only felt with others who hes been intimate with
• your small stir in his arms causes him alarm and excitement all at once, when your eyes open slightly he jumps back before he fears he’ll do something you wont like
• in the morning, jihoon is passed out cold in his bed and you get up and rub your eyes 
• finally you let yourself move toward the canvas to see what jihoon has painted
• its you………its you in every way……….you stare at that face of yours like a mirrored reflection
• seeing it like this something ties a knot in your heart
• “is this what its like to be a muse?”
  
• jihoon’s voice floats through the room
• “you’ve always been mine.”
  
• you turn - because you don’t think you’ve really heard it - maybe its just your drowsy imagination speaking
• but jihoon is there and the phone is ringing, jeonghan about the exhibition
• neither you or jihoon reach for the phone
• instead you ask him,
•  “what do you mean?”
• he doesn’t know how to explain it
• instead he looks at you and then over his shoulder into his room
• the exhibition doesnt start until the afternoon, and you are in his studio and you are whats brought him back from a point of emptiness
• you are more than a muse
• somehow you end up with his hand on yours again and this time that spark is searing up through both of you
• jihoon’s paint stained fingers splay on the small of your back
• you are still a little scared that its too early for this, if its just the wounds on his heart speaking
• but jihoons lips only centimetres from yours promise that its more than that
• its all that time wasted, his attention was yours that day in the art classroom 
• and he was an idiot for ever trying to put it on someone else
• but like all good things - they come with time and if you want him how he wants you then hes here 
• and he’s ready to let this between you bloom into something more
• you giggle when his breath tickles you before you finally kiss 
  
• you wonder if everyone will be surprised by that painting jihoon has done of you when its up in the wall of the gallery
• when the lily petals fall from the flower in that vase and land at your entangled feet. 

Hello! How are y'all doing?

I wanted to ask for your opinion!

I have another smau about ateez already written and I’ll be posting it prob in these days but I also have a new idea that I want to try but I’d like to know which group would u like it to be about!

It’s an idol au where Y/N is a staff member and it’d be fluff :)

The options are:

Bts

Ateez

Stray Kids

TXT

Seventeen

Please also suggest me who’d u like to be the romantic interest ☺