𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐑𝐈𝐕𝐀𝐋𝐑𝐘

THIRTEEN.

"YOU REALLY WENT ALL OUT ON HIM, [NAME]."

"Not really," you sighed, glancing at Arata. Jun was out, thankfully, you would have punched that smug bastard in the face—and Arata had dropped by.

You were cradling Terry in your hands, letting it slither around and flick its tongue out occasionally—letting it wrap around your fingers. Thankfully, it seemed to have rested and was now okay. "If I did go all out, I would have had to ship his body out."

Your display of open violence only made the rumors more rampant, but at that point of time after your anger had simmered, you found yourself to care very little. What were they going to do, expel you? Daichi had already made it clear they couldn't.

"Ooh. Surprised you didn't use the doll method..."

"I'm pretty rusty. I'll probably prick my own fingers, and that isn't the most ideal, considering I have..." you paused. "Well, I have to type the latest chapter out of the fanfic I'm working on. I've started to get 'come back with the milk soon' comments. Granted, it's been a year."

"What pairing?" Arata asked curiously. "Joongdok? Oh, maybe even Patroclus and Achilles? Wait, what about Chuuya and Dazai? How long is it even?"

"No, it's..." you furrowed your eyebrows. "It's technically a fanfic, but it's only marketed as such for clout. It's pretty much an original novel. It's at..." you pulled your phone out quickly, "at ten thousand words. For a chapter, it's a lot. For a year, its pittance. My Gakushuu/Karma fics had a lot more than that."

"Ah." Arata nodded his head in understanding. You two were sworn buddies when it came to matters of fanfiction. A03. Sometimes on horrific desperate occasions, Wattpad. "What's the issue?"

"There's a pairing," you said slowly, thinking and mulling it over slowly, "I mean, I'm not sure if it's relevant to the plot, or if I'm simply giving in to the fan service devils, but there's this two characters I've been contemplating on—"

"They're both men, right?" Arata butted in. His voice was clear and shameless.

You stared at him. And kept staring. "Do you have an issue with the plot you'd like to bring up? And how did you know?"

"No, go on."

"Okay, anyways," you gave a lengthy sigh, "yes, you are right. I could go the easy route and dump the main character with the generic female lead, or I could make things make sense because the two guys currently have a shitload of sexual tension. Homoerotic energy. Think of it in the joongdok context. I've been purposefully vague about their relationship, but with the comments...wait, why do you know so much?"

"I read fanfiction myself. It's easy to guess."

"—Oh, so you write fanfiction. Uh-huh. What's your account?"

"Don't put words in my mouth." Arata frowned. "I never said that."

You had seen him put a lot worse in his mouth in fanfiction before. Namely human body parts.

One of the sad things about being an idol. One thing you never recovered from was seeing the words BTS and member together, but in a different context. Ooh, wait. That was good. You would use it as a weapon against some poor person you would text in the future. You mentally stored it in your brain.

"Whatever. Are you going to help, or not?"

"I'll help," Arata went over to your side, frowning at the laptop you had open. You were only halfway through your writing.

[ "Deleris, I...| ]

"What kind of name is that?" Arata guffawed.

"Shut up," you narrowed your eyes.