ʟᴏᴠᴇSTAY ֶָ֢𖹭 ˢᵏᶻ ᵃᵘ

¹⁰ 𖹭 ᵇᵃᵇʸ ᵇⁱᵇⁱ

「 ʷᵒʳᵈ ᶜᵒᵘⁿᵗ 𖹭 ⁴,¹⁸⁶ 」
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⋅ POV⋅
⋅⊰ MEI ⊱⋅

A deafening silence fell over my bedroom aside the little patter of my new bunny's paws as he explored his new hutch. Both Asuka and I stared down at my phone screen with the new direct message from Bangchan on my Instagram, both of us unsure of how to react. At this point, it was still shocking and mind-boggling to me to receive a message from him, but not entirely like the first time. Asuka seemed more like the one still processing now that she saw the existing messages with her own two eyes.

"Dude–"

"I know."

Another stretch of silence settled as I attempted to construct a response in my brain before sending anything, my number one priority still being me avoiding any further embarrassment. I wasn't quite sure how long it would take me to fully grow used to an idol I've admired for years just messaging casually as if he's known me for those years, but I hoped it would be soon. Each time Chan had sent a message, I was shocked because I never expected more than the one initial reply– And the only time he even opened my first message to begin with was because of Hannah having mentioned me to him. Now that he's messaged me several times, I was internally panicking about the possibility of having to seem like a normal human whenever I interacted with him. It was different with Hannah because, for starters, she's a fellow woman whom I'm not harboring a crushing amount of love for in the same way as I do for Chan- but also, I've been a fan of Hannah's for much less time than Chan, and she immediately made me feel comfortable and didn't seem at all like a celebrity when we hung out.

"Why aren't you replying?"

Whipping my head to the side, I shot Asuka a wide-eyed stare filled with disbelief and slightly aggressive sarcasm. "Dude, why do you think?" I responded with dramatic hand gesturing as Asuka simply gave me a half-lidded stare of boredom in response.

Clearly whatever initial shock she had been harboring had now melted away like ice cream on the hottest day of the year. The actual expression of disinterest now resting over her face was incredible to me... And if I'm being honest, I was quite envious of her ability to immediately return to her typical state of 'I don't give a crap' so quickly after her brief moment of being starstruck.

"I mean, if this was a phone call or in-person or something I'd understand the panic, but you literally have the power to seem so cool when it's over messages like this," Asuka explained with a shrug, which to a certain extent, I understood and slightly relaxed. "Just say something witty. Don't overthink it."

Blowing out a puff of air, I flicked my eyes over to the little furball now munching on one of his new toys inside his hutch before gazing back down at my phone. I hadn't actually clicked on Bangchan's message yet, having just swiped down to see his response to the story sticker without him knowing I read it. So at least I had that going for me.

"What should I say? I'm only funny when I'm deeply anxious and depressed," I admitted, only partially joking.

"Isn't that all the time?"

"Please shut up, thank you."

Asuka chuckled with a shake of her head as she gently and slowly inched over to the bunny to hopefully gain his trust and be able to play with him. "This is gonna sound dumb, but just be yourself. You're funny and cute, don't worry about it so much," the young woman replied in a softer tone as she now sat less than a foot from the creature that had paused in his playing to cautiously stare at Asuka's closer position.

Chewing on the inside of my lip out of habit, I let my eyes drop down to my phone again and only clicked to fully open the message from Bangchan when I had thought of a response that wasn't overdoing anything.
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