RIEUL

"Taehyung?"

I raise my eyebrow. We're not at the room I'd gone to before— we weren't even at the same building.

"Isn't this the wrong place?"

When I look around a bit nervously, he laughs quiet. We've stopped in front of a sleek metal door now— the ones usually in the front of a penthouse.

"Did you really think that the room you found me last time was where I actually lived?" He murmurs, tapping in numbers into a digital keypad.

"This is my real house. Look at the password."

I blink, my gaze shifting down to follow the sequence of his fingertips.

"12669819?"

He nods. The door clicks open, and I follow him inside with an excited expression on my face. It's such a spacious place that it makes me feel a bit self-conscious about mine.

Just the living room looked like it could fit six of my houses.

"Wait." He tells me, and I look up to see his back disappear just around the corner.

And I wait.

For exactly one second.

My eyes catch on a slightly open door, tucked away into the white walls. I can see something behind the little slit, and I quickly look for Taehyung.

Not here.

Blinking, I walk towards the door and press my hand carefully against the cold wood. Then I push it open, head poking between the widened crack.

His studio.

My mouth drops open at the inside of the small, diamond shaped room. Paintings hang on the walls, the spaces between them filled with shelves piled high with books.

There are pieces of crumpled paper scattered on the ground.

I'm about to look closer at the unfinished canvas on the painting easel when Taehyung's darkened voice echoes behind me.

"You really don't listen."

"T-Taehyung!" I jump, nearly crashing the side of my feet into a shelf. But then I pull back just in time, and give him an awkward smile.

He raises an eyebrow at my question.

"Where'd you go?"

"That's what I wanted to ask you, Rieul." He sighs, and I blush when he runs his fingers through his hair. "Come on. You do have a room, but you're sleeping with me."

Oh....right.

My cheeks turn even redder.

_________________________

JIMIN

"Hey— Kook?"

Jungkook looks up at me from the couch, playing with his cars on the table. I point to the kitchen.

"I'm going to make dinner, so don't come in the kitchen, okay? I'm going to be cooking."

He nods. Making sure that he was going to stay, I turn on the fire to the stove. The red-blue flames flicker to life, and I quickly put a pan on top to heat it up.

While waiting, I take my phone out of my pocket.

There's a notification on the screen, and I tap at it to see a text from Rieul. She'd sent me a complete list titled "How to take care of Jungkook" over two thousand words long, along with a bunch of heart and thank-you emojis.

I laugh.

I'm about to type something back when I hear a loud clatter.

"Hyung..."

"Jungk—" My eyes go wide. I instantly leap towards the stove, my back slamming against the counter to cover the flickering fire. "Jungkook! Why are you here?"

But he'd already seen.

I curse when he turns and runs back out to the living room.

"Wait!"

He's at the table, piling the toys into his arms. There's a frantic expression on his face, and I quickly grip his hands when it reaches for another.

He flinches away, looking terrified.

"H-Hyung, we need to get out of here now." He stutters, cheeks flushing. "The lights. And it-it's the same color too. It's going to kill us all. It killed my parents, almost took Noona from me. It's—"

"Jungkook."

He blinks at me when I pull him to my chest, patting comfortingly at his back. "It's not going to do anything. You don't need to worry, I promise."

"B-But even if it's small now, it's going to grow. It's going to get really big, and hot—"

"No, no— I'll show you." I say, and he whimpers when I tug him gently back to the kitchen. "I promise. It's really safe."

But at the entrance, he digs his feet into the ground.

His eyes avoid mine.

"Hyung, don't go." He says softly, shaking his head to himself. His fingers are tightened so hard on my wrist I can't feel my fingers. "It's going to b-be bad. You're going to die."

I pat his hair.

"Jungkook, watch me."

He lets me go with a sharp breath, and I walk towards the burning stovetop. He's glancing at me worriedly, eyes never looking at the flames.

"Look!" I say, pointing at the switch dial. "If I turn to this to the left—"

The fire turns off.

Jungkook's eyes go wide, and I smile at him. "I can always turn it off so it'll never hurt me. I just use this to cook— you know, hot food tastes better than cold, right?"

He comes over. And then he starts turning the dials up and down, blinking his stunned eyes when the fire disappears and appears over and over again.

I put a hand on his shoulder.

"See, Kook?"

"The lights aren't such a scary thing after all."

___________________________

RIEUL

"Taehyung!"

I nearly crash into him. His hands wrap around my shoulders, and my feet skid to a stop as I slam my forehead into his chest.

He sighs when I look sheepishly up at him.

"Do I really have to tell you this, Rieul? No running in the house."

"I'm just excited for lesson one!" I say, and his eyes instantly widen when I pull him out of the studio. "Come on! We can do it at the living room."

"What?"

I sit him down on the couch, smiling. And then I'm about to take a place on the opposite side when he grips my wrist.

"Miss Jeon, what are you talking about.
What lesson?"

"It's because I'm trying to help you get better. You know, with the world and stuff." I say, shaking out my hair. "This is first lesson."

He still looks stunned when I smile at him.

"Alright, what's my emotion right now?"

He gives me a flat, disinterested stare. I pull him back just in time when he gets up from the couch, sitting him down again.

"I'm serious, Taehyung!"

He growls, his eyes dark. "I don't need anything like that. I've been doing fine without having to know."

But I just tighten my grip. He looks down frustratedly at my hand, before shifting his eyes back up to me.

"Let go. I have things to do."

I shake my head. I'd dealt with plenty of people back in the hospital that didn't agree with their own recovery plans. Taehyung wasn't even the worst.

"I'll let go if you just do five expressions."

He hisses.

"Three, then." I sigh, crossing my arms together. "Just three. Come on."

Finally I get him to sit himself back down. After making sure he wouldn't try to escape again, I hide a smile and put a deep frown on my face.

"What's this?"

"You're sad." He says in complete monotone, and I shake my head. His brows scrunch together when I tell him to try again.

"What?"

"I'm not sad." I say, deepening the frown even more. "This is one of the easiest ones. You can do it."

He growls, but looks closer at my features.

"Mad?"

"I guess that counts." I say, loosening my expression. "A bit harder one now. That's one down— you got this."

Taehyung leans back, voice cold at my encouragement. "Don't talk to me like I'm one of your patients in that hospital, Miss Jeon. I hate it."

I click my tongue. "Fine. Second one."

My body tenses. I bite my bottom lip, starting to chew on it as I make my eyes flicker— first his face, to the ground, and then over his shoulder.

He raises his brow.

"Are you afraid?"

"Close." I mouth, and then clasp my hands together. Then I start shaking my leg wildly, making him blink. "Try again."

"I don't know." He tugs on his lip with his teeth, eyes focusing down on each of my features. "You're not afraid? Terrified?"

Then he tilts his head. "Anxious."

I nod, a smile appearing on my face. But then I quickly erase that, and start fixing my face again as best as I can.

"Last one."

I press my lips together in a flat line, pulling the right corner slightly downward. My eyes narrow, all emotion leaving except a dark, cold black.

All the other features relax in complete disinterest.

Taehyung's expression.

When I look up at him icily, he seems slightly taken aback. Of course— this had been my original. I'd just gotten used to always having a smile on my face.

"Rieul."

His lips has curved into a dark smirk.

"You look gorgeous."