Bittersweet Stories

⊱ ━━━━.⋅ εïз ⋅.━━━━ ⊰ "What's that?" she reached up for him, his face in her palm as she examined whatever was there. She pressed on it, and it kind of stung. "Did that hurt?" "Not really," he muttered. "Are you sure?" and he nodded. "It looks a bit swollen. It might've come from when you hit the ground or, something... I don't even know. It's just a small bruise, though, so I guess it's okay?" "Thanks, Doctor," he teased, and she pouted, the warmth of her skin leaving as she settled back into her seat. "How is it my fault you like to fight?" She crossed her arms in front of her chest, and he fully leaned in. His hand was no longer on the edge of the back cushions; rather, it had moved to her thigh. "How is it my fault you look good tonight?" he whispered in her ear. "Girls like you make me love to fight." ⋆𐙚₊˚⊹♡ After leaving his short-term relationship with his next-door neighbour, Grey scrambles to find the remaining pieces of the largest puzzle that he was born into: his life- only to trample over a tiny, tiny thing. It was a misstep, really... he'd never meant to stumble into her that day. Now he did, he could never let her go. After moving to a new place in her new town of Hazelwood Heights, July came to find new connections and new beginnings... She didn't intend to make the school's bad boy her friend, or her boyfriend, God forbid. But the tides were quickly changing in their newfound friendship, and through good or for worse, through thick and thin, they'd go through it together, right? ⊱ ━━━━.⋅ εïз ⋅.━━━━ ⊰ BEST RANKS! (So far) #1 in #newauthor #77 in #fiction #233 in #mysterious

Set in the late 1990s, this is a story about friendship, growing up, and the quiet moments that stay with you long after they've passed. When Misaki arrives late on the first day of school, she doesn't expect much from the year ahead. until she's seated next to Kai, a quiet, distant boy who keeps to himself. Alongside her best friend Lina and Kai's childhood friend Haru, the four of them slowly form an unlikely bond that turns ordinary days into something unforgettable. From after-school snack runs and late-night study sessions to summer beach trips and festivals under the fireworks, their world becomes filled with laughter, chaos, and moments that feel like they'll last forever. But as time moves forward and their final year approaches, feelings that were never meant to be complicated begin to surface. Between unspoken words, fleeting glances, and memories captured in silence, Misaki and Kai are forced to confront what they mean to each other-before the moments they share become nothing more than memories. A slow-burn story about the people who change us, the time we can't hold onto, and the quiet kind of love that's felt in everything left unsaid.

You attracted the attention of some strange individuals... Good luck. (MOST CHAPTERS WILL BE ONESHOTS, SOME MAY GET SEQUELS. FEEL FREE TO REQUEST.) Cover is Kisara from Engage Kiss.

She loved him loudly. He loved her quietly-only when it was convenient. Leah believed two years of love meant security, a future, a place she could finally call hers. Yet, every time it mattered, he chose someone else. A best friend. A familiar comfort. A silence that hurts more than betrayal. This is a story about emotional neglect, unspoken loyalties, and the slow realization that love without priority is a form of loss. It asks a difficult question: How long can you stay where you are never fully chosen?

At Evergreen Academy, perfection is expected and power is inherited. A'noria arrives on a full scholarship, determined to prove that she belongs. Ezran has always ruled the top. Admired, untouchable, certain that no one could rival him. Until her. What starts as a competition turns into something sharper...older. Because their rivalry happened once before. It feels like history is repeating itself...

Elion has spent years denying his nature, refusing to be defined by instinct, who doesn't want to be omega. But when fate ties him to someone within the isolated world of Bua-ray - a doctor sworn to save lives - he is forced to face the truth he fears the most. Because some bonds are not meant to be broken... even when they are destined to end in goodbye.

Before everything fell apart, it was just a shade darker than love. Joshua Hong never meant to become the kind of person who survives instead of lives. He is still gentle, still composed, still standing exactly where people expect him to be. From the outside, nothing seems broken. From the inside, everything feels muted-like a song played too softly to recognize. Choi Y/N exists now only in absence, yet her presence lingers in ways that refuse to be named. In habits that don't make sense anymore. In rooms that feel unfamiliar. In the quiet moments where memory is louder than reality. This is not a story about how they fell in love. This is what comes after love- when the world keeps moving but something inside you doesn't. When healing is suggested, but remembering feels safer. When silence becomes a companion instead of a void. Joshua is not unraveling. He is holding himself together too carefully. This is him navigating days that feel heavier than they should, surrounded by people who sense something unspoken, carrying a past that hasn't learned how to stay in the past. In the Time of Grey is a quiet, introspective continuation of In the Time of Us- a story about aftermath rather than endings, about the spaces love leaves behind, and the dangerous comfort of not letting go. Not every love story ends loudly. Some fade. Some linger. And some remain- right here, in the time of grey.

"Ten years of silence. A lifetime of lies." One brother walked into the light. The other was left in the dark. "He was the protector. Now, he is the prisoner." The price of the past is finally due, but in the Jeon family, the truth doesn't set you free-it destroys everything you've built. When the line between loyalty and vengeance blurs, can the brother who was left behind choose mercy over the blood he is owed? "Some debts are written in blood. Others are paid in souls." (This is a work of fiction. The characters in this story are used as face-claims only. Their personalities, actions, and histories within these pages are entirely fabricated for the purpose of this story and do not reflect the real-life members of BTS.) For all images used, the credit goes to the rightful owners.

Keiram "Kei" Gonzales is a quiet, disciplined college student and the owner of a small café tucked away from the city's chaos. Behind his calm exterior lies a boy burdened by responsibilities, exhaustion, and unspoken emotions. Life has taught him that strength means carrying everything alone-and he does, day after day. Feona "Feo" Rogers has been Kei's childhood friend, confidante, and silent protector. Born into wealth, she supports Kei's café and his dreams in every way she can, yet her presence is both a comfort and a reminder of the walls he's built around himself. Feo loves him fiercely, patiently, and without expectation-until the arrival of someone new begins to shift everything. Angel Alexa "Lexi" Zhao is a brilliant scholar, driven by ambition and scholarship pressures that leave her exhausted and isolated. When she stumbles into Kei's café one fateful morning, she finds warmth in the unlikeliest of places-a sanctuary run by a man whose calmness both intrigues and unsettles her. As Lexi's chaotic energy collides with Kei's quiet intensity, the two begin to carve a fragile, delicate bond. Slowly, a love blooms-quiet, honest, and consuming. But life is unkind to the hearts who love with restraint. Lexi wants to feel pursued; Kei respects her words. Feo watches silently, torn between loyalty and love, knowing her presence can never truly compete with the girl who makes Kei's world lighter. As the pressures of school, work, and unspoken emotions mount, choices must be made. Love, trust, and loyalty are tested, and the one thing none of them can control is fate. In a story that is both tender and heartbreaking, they discover that some loves are never meant to last-but their echoes linger, shaping hearts forever. "When the Coffee Turns Cold" is a tragic romance of quiet intensity, of stolen glances, unspoken confessions, and the love that arrives beautifully only to end too soon

"Two Souls. One Fate. A Love Written in Blood." They weren't born lucky. They were made by pain. Some lose their parents. Some lose their childhood. But they? They lost everything. And yet... they didn't break. The world tried to crush them, twist them, turn them into something unrecognizable- but somewhere in the chaos, they found each other. Not as lovers. Not at first. But as home. In a life that gave them nothing but scars, they became each other's shelter. Each other's strength. Each other's only family. And for the first time... they felt like maybe-just maybe- God has taken everything... only to give them each other. And that was enough. They didn't crave wealth. They didn't crave power. They didn't even crave peace. They just wanted... each other. But fate isn't kind to broken souls. Because the same darkness that brought them together- ripped them apart. No goodbye. No promises. Just silence... and survival. Still, they didn't stop. Through blood, betrayal, and endless nights, they kept walking... holding onto one fragile hope- Someday... they will meet again. And they did. But not the way they dreamed. Not as family. Not as lovers. But as enemies. Eyes filled with fire. Hands ready to kill. Hearts... pretending not to remember. They stood face to face- not with longing... but with a thirst for each other's blood. Yet something was wrong. Because with every fight... every clash... every moment their eyes met- That hatred started to change. Into something deeper. Something dangerous. Something... forbidden. A feeling they had never allowed themselves to feel before. Was it love? Or just another cruel game fate was playing? Because this time... it wasn't just the world against them. It was God himself. And He wasn't ready to let them be together. So tell me... Will they surrender to fate and let their story end in blood? Or will they burn the world down to complete a love that was never meant to survive?

Framed for murder he didn't commit, abandoned by the one he trusted the most, Liam finds himself locked away with a killer feared by all. However, behind those cold eyes, lies a desperate soul who rewrites time itself, sacrificing everything, just to save the one person destined to die.

He is the weight of metal, the trace of oil, and the time that demands patience. She is the vertigo of light, the gleam of glass, and the urgency of now. In the silence of a workshop forgotten by progress, two rhythms collide. He mends what the world casts aside; she seeks the angle the world longs to see. Between the shutter that clicks and the screen that accelerates, an interference is born - one that no algorithm could have foreseen. But the light that reveals is the same light that consumes. In a city that demands total exposure, what remains for those who choose the shadows? An elegy for that which cannot be edited. The final encounter between the grain that resists and the pixel that devours.

The orchard has witnessed everything. First kisses and last goodbyes. Marriages born from necessity and love grown from patience. Children who left and grandchildren who returned. Harvests that saved them and winters that broke them. Ellie Whitaker never wanted to stay. She had poems in her pockets and cities in her dreams. But debt has a way of making decisions for you - and so does a quiet man named Caleb Thorne. What began as a bargain between two struggling families became something no one planned for. Not a grand romance. Not fireworks. Something slower. Something that lasted. The Orchard Remembers is a multigenerational story of love, loss, and the stubborn persistence of family - told across decades, through the eyes of the women and men who tended the land and each other. Some loves don't burn bright. They endure. And the orchard remembers every single one.

Wherein Niki and Thessa, both bestfriends are each other's 11:11, would the power of 11:11 change their fate? (GL) No copyright infringement

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Being kind doesn't mean you'll be treated kindly. Shafiq learned that early in life. Branded by a past he can never escape, every good deed he does is questioned, twisted, and turned against him. The world sees him as a criminal long before it sees him as human.

On the edge of a quiet town, where the road curves and the night settles in, an old man sits on a porch and tells stories. He doesn't tell them to crowds. He doesn't tell them for answers. He tells them to the night-and to anyone who happens to wander by. Each story carries something different: something lost, something carried too long, something mistaken for truth, something that refuses to leave. They are not stories meant to fix you. They are stories that sit beside you... until you're ready to hear them. Welcome to the porch. The night is already listening.

Orphaned and shaped by loss, Tsukiko was raised in the cold embrace of the Shie Hassaikai--a world where loyalty costs your soul and mercy is a death sentence. Under the iron rule of Kai Chisaki, she learned that people are merely tools for a "perfectly clean" future. But when she is tasked with guarding Eri--a child whose blood is the key to his darkest schemes, the clinical walls of her world begin to crumble. Caught between the empire that raised her and the girl she has come to love, Tsukiko must make a choice: remain a silent shadow, or risk everything to become the light Eri needs to find her way home. In a city of heroes and villains, the riskiest thing you can hold onto is hope. started: 3.23.26 ended: n/a cover is drawn by me ! :D a/n: this whole book was made out of boredom during the summer and is currently under-going minor revisions🥀

"The Way You Are was born from the quiet tension between what we show and what we truly are. It's a story about fragile souls trying to exist in a world that often misunderstands them. Behind the school walls, the novel explores emotional abuse, the weight of expectation, and the silent beauty of resilience. This is not a story of perfect love-it's a reflection of how broken hearts still find ways to shine. I wanted to capture the raw, unfiltered emotion of being human, of loving despite the fear, and of learning that being yourself is the most daring act of all."

Regulus Black has always been the perfect son of a notorious family, a model Slytherin, loyal to blood and tradition. But inside, he is quietly rebelling. Haunted by the absence of those he admires -Sirius, Andromeda, and James - he struggles to reconcile the boy he is with the man his family demands him to be. Caught between duty and conscience, loyalty and desire, Regulus must navigate a world of cruelty and expectation while secretly yearning to be brave, to love, and to belong. Every choice he makes echoes the things left unsaid, the friendships abandoned, and the life he might have had. Open Novella Contest 2026 | Main Prompt 85