✵ lounge | 'aries'

Sighing as she made her way into the lounge with her trusted digital sketchpad in hand, Merigold slowly scanned the mostly empty space with a tired look on her usually stoic face. It was an early morning and Merigold wanted to get some sort of work done but doing at home would have been troublesome with all the distractions there and as it was cold outside, she just couldn't spend it at the park like she normal would have done. Inspiration for the stylist was lacking at the moment and deep in thought, she felt like being at a place like this would help spark something in her.

@✵ fukuzawa ai ᵖᵃⁿᵈᵒʳᵃ "...h there's someone inside but they've been t-" Rio's conversation was cut short as he saw the looming figure of woman hovering over him from behind the stall. His heart dropped. Oh , this stall was haunted and the dude who shat on this toilet got murked by this gh- Wait, no, he recognized her voice, then her doe eyed visage, and immediately notified the person on the other line, "Call you back when I'm done," and looked up at the woman in absolute disbelief.

"Noona, what are you doing? You can't be in here!" He yelled in a hushed whisper as he swept his gaze over both shoulders before tiptoeing over the stall to take a good gander at what she could possibly be doing in the men's bathroom when- oh, oh god, his face scrunched from the pungent scent of her spicy s. Rio pinched his nose and covered his mouth in attempt to hide his disgust, but that alone had so much already.

Rio sighed deeply as he slumped over the stall door, leaning close to have a hushed conversation with Ai so any passerbys wouldn't be taken aback by the sound of her sweet voice from the men's bathroom. "Noona, what happened?" He asked as if he were cross-examining a child, "How did you get here? Do you need help?" He tried really hard not to read too deep into this situation by not letting his eyes wander, keeping his ears perked behind him in case anybody decided to waltz in here while they were talking, his dark gaze illuminated by the flickering fluorescent lights as he looked up at her as if she were descending from the heavens.

@✵ yeo gangbin〘ʀɪᴏ〙ˣ.ᶜʰᵃᵒˢ And her worst nightmare came true. The individual on the phone wasn't leaving anytime soon to allow her to make a run for it and put this all behind her, no, it was in fact worse; much worse. He needed to use the stall instead. She was in deep . Wait, no. That voice, there was something familiar about it, Ai just couldn't quite put her finger on it. That was it! He was a member of X.MPIRE, of course!

'Now what was his name uh....uh. Shoot.' As she pondered she cleared as roughly as she could, trying to pass off for an older male, but to no avail.

'How can you remember the names and faces to every single character on One Piece, but you can't remember one of your senior's face?' She could already hear the stern voices of her manager and group leader.

'Ah Bellachin, forgive me!'

So she did what she could do, she stood on top of the toilet seat, and attempted to peek over the stall. A head full of ivory hair and doe eyes staring right at the younger man in front of the stall, finally putting a name to a face.

"Psst! Rio-ssi! Rio-ssi, up here, hey hey!" She whispered as quietly as she could to call his attention.

[post deleted by owner]

@✵ fukuzawa ai ᵖᵃⁿᵈᵒʳᵃ Yeah, he needed to , but the ter was taken and goddamm they've been in there forever. Rio ended up taking a call as he waited and as the conversation began to close, he decided to tap on the door, still on the call. "Hey, is anyone in there?" He called out, then could be heard talking on the phone, "Yeah, dude, I'm trying to use the lounge bathroom but the stall is locked, " and he knocked on the door harder this time, "Come on, man, you've been in there forever, aren't you done?"

⟡ ⸻ open starter!
　 ┆set in the bathrooms by the lounge

If there was one thing one could surely say about Pandora’s Ai, it was that the girl may have been misplaced with her vice. Perhaps ‘gluttony’ would have been more fitting, for she loved to cook, and more importantly loved to eat. In her time off, she could often be found going out to find different restaurants, cafes, or food trucks that she could later on share with her fellow members and managers. She was going about her day, when a loud grumble erupted from the pits of her stomach. A sharp pain followed after, and she knew then the spicy buldak noodles and spicy rice cakes from last night’s late dinner would soon take their sweet revenge. “Oh no. Oh no, oh God please not right now–”, and as she made a beeline towards the nearest bathroom and the stall inside she finally prayed for mercy as she sat upon her porcelain seat. All was good (well as good as it could be all things considered)…until she happened to hear a male voice conversing right outside her stall. Terror struck and all color drained from her visage as she nervously fiddled with the lock, making sure the door was indeed locked and not a single particle of air could even escape through.

‘Oh Ai, you’ve done it now dummy! How did I end up in the men’s bathroom…’