Strawberries & Cigarettes ~ h.hj
song-based drabble series ♪ Strawberries & Cigarettes - Troye Sivan
warnings: slight violence, mentions of smoke and light smut.
Everyone has a story to tell whether it has a good or a bad ending, and you weren’t the exception.
You always thought you had a pretty boring life. Your parents always seemed to expect more from you than you actually thought you’d be able to give them. Maybe it was because you were only nineteen, but you felt like no one really understood you. You felt and were different from the rest of the people, and the pressure of not meeting their expectations unevitably made you a bit rebelious and reckless. You were tired of following rules all the damn time and forcing yourself to be what others wanted you to be, and that’s what led you to the path where you experienced the best and worst time of your life.
There you were once again, up past midnight puffing on a cigarette in front of your window, looking at the dark sky covered in stars and some clouds, wondering if he ever thought about you whenever he saw the moonlight. There were times where you seemed to be fine, and there were others where memories came back in waves… That night, precisely, you were drowning.
The story was simple, probably similar to what others had heard before. Tired of the routine, one saturday night you had escaped from your house to meet with friends at a bar. You weren’t much for that kind of ambient, but you always thought anything was better than spending a boring night with your siblings crying and screaming around you.
Your friends were sharing a couple of drinks, gossiping like there was no tomorrow. You had a laugh and even had a few drinks of your own, but the loud music echoing in your ears was starting to give you anxiety, so you stood up and excused yourself to go outside for a brief moment.
You didn’t know it back then, but life and destiny work in mysterious ways. While you thought you’d only go for a cigarette, truth was that you were going to find something else. Something that’d bring you peace, but also pain.
You tucked your hand in your pocket and pulled the pack of cigarettes out, tapping it at the bottom so you could put the chosen one between your lips. You repeated the process after placing the pack again in the pocket of your pants, this time pulling out a lighter that after a couple of moves from your thumb on the sparkwheel, lit your guilty pleasure.
While you were busy doing that, you didn’t notice the strong aura that suddenly approached you until it was close enough for you to feel his presence. You looked up and there he was. The most beautiful man you had ever seen in your entire life.
Dirty blonde, silky long hair. Plump pink lips holding a cigarette in between. Small eyes and thick brows, with a powerful, piercing gaze that almost immediately took control of your entire soul. A mole under his left eye that made him look even more exotic, piercings on his ears and a pair of black jeans and a white tee under a black leather jacket.
You felt shivers down your spine when your eyes locked and your brain stopped working. He just raised a brow and one of the corners of his mouth subtly curled up in a smirk.
“Light my cigarette, please.”
It took you a couple of seconds, but you finally reacted and did as he said. You lit his cigarette and after a long puff, you got hypnotized by the way the dark smoke escaped from his tempting lips.
He lightly bowed his head and then moved to stand beside you, leaning his back against the wall and flexing one of his legs to press the heel of his boots against it. His presence was strong enough to make you nervous and even more anxious than you were before, so you started puffing on your cigarette like your life depended on it. A part of you wanted to just finish and go back inside, but the other one wanted to stay next to him as long as you could, and you didn’t know why.
But unbeknownst to you, he had similar plans.
“Seems like you’re not enjoying being inside.” He suddenly spoke, making you turn your head to look at him, but he kept looking ahead. He ran his fingers through his hair, pushing it away from his face. You never thought an action so simple could make you weak in the knees, but that stranger was holding a power on you that you had never seen before. Every movement, every expression he made was so attractive you swore you were in front of someone who was handmade by God himself.
“Well… I’m not a fan of the loud music.” You confessed, not knowing what else to say.
“Then why’d you come to a place like this?”
You gave another puff to your cigarette, sighing after releasing the smoke.
“Rather be here than at home.”
He let out a breathy chuckle that made your stomach flip.
“I see. You’re just a rebelious little girl.”
You arched a brow at his statement, feeling even a bit offended that a total stranger dared to say something like that, although you knew he was right.
“First of all, I’m not a girl. And second, what do you know about me anyways?”
He gave one last puff to his cigarette and threw the remainigs on the floor, stepping on it with his boot. He then turned his head and finally looked back at you, freezing you on the spot with his piercing, dark orbs.
“What are you then, a boy?” He teased, now standing in front of you, close enough to feel intimidated, yet excited. A cheeky smile was plastered on his face.
You huffed and threw your cigarette on the pavement, stepping on it as well. When you gathered the courage, you finally looked back at him with a smirk.
“Probably more of a woman than the ones you’ve ever met before.”
You didn’t know why these words left your mouth that night, but something about getting attention from someone like him made you feel powerful and confident. You knew you had to play it cool, and he liked what he heard. You knew it by the way his expression changed from a defiant one, to an intrigued, amused one.
His tongue darted out to run over his plush lower lip. His teeth sank on the soft flesh as he tried to surpress his smirk the moment he extended his hand for you.
“Gotta know your name then.” He said. “I’m Hyunjin.”
You looked at his hand adorned with rings waiting for your touch and smiled, holding it and feeling a wave of electricity running through your veins at the warmth of his skin.
