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I set down my phone when the door opened and Jungkook’s head popped in. In my head, I frantically tried to figure out if I’d heard him downstairs or not, and whether he was here to scold me or not. 

“Jungkook-”

“Hi.” He entered the room and quickly shut the door. “Turn on a light.”

I turned on the lamp sitting on my table and watched Jungkook as he came to sit on my bed. He sighed as he did so, before giving me a half smile. 

“Jungkook, I’m sorry, I know it’s all-”

“Don’t say it, Sujin. Don’t say it.”

“Uh, okay…” I stopped. Did he not want me to apologize?

“It’s not your-”

“Okay, okay,” I rolled my eyes. “I see. Don’t say your thing either. Let’s just agree it’s no one’s fault.” I paused. “Except sneaking into a company official’s office claiming I was someone important was my fault, but you know…”

“Sujin!” Jungkook scolded me, giving me a small glare. “I came here to escape the hyung’s quarreling, I don’t want to hear about it anymore.”

“Well you made a lousy decision on whose room to come into for that.”

Jungkook gave me a look that told me he was serious, and I bit my lip, deciding to be quiet for a minute. 

“I was only down there to listen, I didn’t say anything. But they aren’t mad at you, they’re kind of just frustrated with the situation.”

“Oh.”

“So, anyways, it will be fine in the end. I’ve seen them argue many times before. I’m surprised this is the first time you’ve been here to witness it.” He gave a small chuckle, but when he glanced at my worried-ridden eyes, his expression changed. “We-we’re not… scaring you, or anything, are we?”

I stared at Jungkook. I wasn’t exactly sure what to say. I didn’t like them arguing, but I didn’t want to admit that. 

“O-Oh, Sujin, I’m sorry,” he said, scooting closer to me. “They really don’t mean to… get all mad. But I mean, who can blame them?”

“Yeah, I know,” I said, my words coming out softer than I intended.

“Please don’t worry, I don’t want to scare you.”

“It’s okay. I just kind of feel like it’s my responsibility to be down there, not to mention I’m starting to feel really bad about what I did.” My fingers fiddled with the inside lining of my blanket and Jungkook glanced around my room. 

“Hey, let’s forget about that for now. I came in to tell you that I’m on your side, whatever that is. If you need backup, I’m here.”

I gave him a real smile. “That’s comforting to hear.”

Jungkook shrugged. “Enough with the cheese. I also wanted to tell you I think I know what to do to end the summer in a nice way.”

“Ooh, really?”

“Well, I mean, it wasn’t completely my idea, the production team had a few listed and I thought I’d look through it for you.”

“Is that where you went earlier?”

Jungkook nodded. “I felt I owed it to you to find something, since I freaked out about the last one.” His cheeks lightly colored.

“Oh, it’s fine, but thanks. So what’s the idea?”

“Well, I thought it’d be perfect since you need to get used to the area in the case you’ll be walking home alone some days, so there’s a scavenger hunt we can do around town, and you take pictures at a certain destination or talking to someone and asking them to pose with you or likewise. Do you like that idea?”

I grinned, “That sounds really fun! And like you said, it’d be good for me to get to know the area. I don’t usually like talking to strangers, but if it’s for a game, sure. I should get to know the people on  this side of town more. That’s perfect.”

“Ah, well I’m glad you agree, then.”

For a second I had forgotten about the arguing downstairs, and as soon as Jungkook and I were silent, I realized I didn’t hear the voices anymore. 

“Uh,” Jungkook said, running a hand through his hair, “I think I better go downstairs and check if things ended well. You going to sleep soon?”

“I was planning on it,” I laughed. 

“Alright, then I’ll leave you to that. I’ll see you in the morning. If they pass the idea, we can do the scavenger hunt tomorrow. I think the production team will want to film it for a video for the fans, if that’s alright.”

“Yeah, that sounds fun. I’ve seen some of your cams, they’re interesting.”

“Good, well you’ll get to be a part of it now.”

“Great.”

“Well, then, goodnight,” Jungkook bid before standing and heading to my door. “Sleep well.”

“Yeah, you too.”

The next morning, we all got up at separate times. By the time I had headed downstairs to get something to eat, Jin, Jimin, Jungkook, Namjoon, and Yoongi were there, already at the table. Nobody was talking to each other, but I got a nod from Yoongi and a small ‘hello’ from Jin as I sat. I wasn’t sure if they’d mention anything from the day before or not, but I was actually more happy that there was silence rather than awkward conversation. 

Jin brought me a plate of pancakes and as I began to eat, Namjoon looked up from his phone. “Sujin, Kook mentioned the scavenger hunt and it was approved. We’re going to do that this evening if you’re up for that.”

“Yeah, it sounds fun.”

“We’ll have cameras following you around, too, since we’re filming this for fans. Are you okay with that?”

“Yeah,” I replied again, keeping my eyes on my food. “I think it adds interest if we have someone else running along with us. The staff are nice,” I told Namjoon, and then rethought what I had just said. “Most of them.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Namjoon shrugged, “Suhee wasn’t the nicest.”

I made a half-chuckle half-snort noise. “She was the worst.”

Namjoon sighed. “Yes, but I promise, Sejin has made more secure precautions since then. Do you trust them?”

“Kind of, I don’t know.” I twirled my fork around the center of a pancake, tearing a spongy hole. 

Namjoon paused as if not sure what to say. “Okay.”

And that was the end of the conversation. 

I spent the rest of the day in my room, not in the mood to talk to anyone. I was still slightly paranoid that they’d mention what I’d done, even though, frankly, I deserved it. 

A knock on my door from Jimin around five took me out of my lazy daze telling me to prepare for the activity.  I decided on a short-cut graphic tee and a pair of brighter colored blue jeans with my pair of Timberlands for the evening. 

Each of the seven members were once again silent as we headed to the car and set out my school where we were starting. After all, this activity was based off of getting me comfortable and familiar with the area around the school when I needed to walk home alone. 

I was putting my earbuds in and I was about to tune everything except my music out when Hoseok sighed loudly. 

“Sujin, I can’t stand it anymore. I’m sorry- no, we’re sorry for not telling you everything, you know? We’re not mad that you found out, we just should have taken responsibility for telling you earlier. We can all forget about it, but we promise, no more secrets.”

I looked at Hoseok, who was two seats away from me, shocked. “O-oh. No, it’s fine, but thanks. I’m sorry too.”

“Don’t be. Jungkook told us what you told him last night.”

“Well I don’t care that much, it’s okay,” I said, ready for the conversation to be done. 

“Okay, I hope so.” Hoseok rubbed the back of his neck. Jimin, who was sitting in between the two of us, gave me a shy smile. 

“Yeah, no problem.” I saw a few of the other boys glancing our way but no one said anything. Once again, there was silence until we reached the school. 

We piled out in the parking lot and met the production crew there. Once the cameras were ready which took almost a whole hour, we finally prepared to start. 

“The rules go as follows,” the head staff began, “You have one hour to do as many of these tasks as you can. Planning carefully where you go is important because you need to know how long it’s going to take you to walk to each destination to take a picture of you completing the task. Some tasks, harder ones, specifically, are worth more points. Pre-planning is important so you know which destinations will bring you the best opportunities for points. 

“Your proof of completion of a task will be the picture you take posing with whatever you did. Don’t panic if you miss one, or you need video instead, as you’ll have the camera staff following you. Sound pretty clear?” The members and I nodded. “Alright, then we’ll split off into groups and start. The teams will be as follows: Jin and Hoseok, Namjoon and Yoongi, Jimin and Jungkook, and Tae and Sujin. Taehyung, you’ll be awarded extra points if you take Sujin off to the areas she’lls be walking home from school by, as you all requested, so she can get practice for the school year. Is everyone ready?” Seeing that we were all grouped with our partner, the director nodded, and then started a countdown. 

“Hana, dul, set!”

Taehyung grabbed my hand, and with the sheet of tasks to complete in the other, we set off. The other members seemed to go to the other side of town, but Taehyung and I started the way home, as suggested. 

Taehyung’s first idea was to head to a Coffee shop that was along the sidesie of the street on a road heading home, where we could do a few tasks by interacting with the baristas or a customer or two.

I opened the heavy door and entered the cozy shop. Coffee’s aroma immediately entered my nose and I took in a deep breath. Taehyung grabbed the wrinkled list of activities to do as we walked near the counter with our cameraman following close behind. 

“We have a few left that we could do here. One is to ask the barista to create a drink that’s not on the menu and make it as unique as possible- whether it tastes good or not.”

“Oooh,” I said, looking around to see if it looked like someone would have fun taking our challenge. “Sure.”

“Alrighty, then,” Tae laughed, walking up to the counter. No one attended to us at first, so we waited for someone to come up once they were busy serving another customer, but we didn’t get someone until the doors to the back room opened and out walked a tall, handsome boy . I felt blood rush to my cheeks and warm, and my smile became shy. 

“Hello, sorry about that,” he spoke in a deep, but tender voice as he approached the register, “what can I get you?”

Taehyung looked to me, expecting me to explain our request, but I was so distracted by the fluffy layers of dark brown hair falling into his crystal eyes that seemed to sparkle as they surveyed me, followed by his soft lips and sharp, strong jawline that cut into my heart. He was so handsome. 

“Do you want me to explain?” Tae asked, whipping me out of my daze. I became even more embarrassed and I could tell I was blushing harder. 

“Ah- Yeah, g-go ahead,” I stuttered. I averted my eyes to the floor as Tae explained what we were doing. 

“Ooh, I see. Would you happen to be part of an idol group?” he asked, glancing at the camera.

Taehyung laughed nervously, “Yep.”

“Cool. I’m a trainee at a company down the street a few blocks. I’m happy to serve you something for you hunt. I’ll be back, I’ll see what I can do.” He gave us a smile before turning to me and winking, which caught my breath. I made a small peep noise as he left to the back room, and Tae put a hand on my shoulder.

“Sujin, he’s not a bad person to be crushing on, but I don’t feel it. He doesn’t seem like your type.”

“But. He’s. So. Handsome,” I gasped, taking a breath in between each word. 

“He looks a lot older than you.”

“I never said I wanted to date him. He’s cute though.”

Tae looked to the photographer, and sighed, “Cut the camera for a minute, would you?” The man did as told and then Taehyung continued. “I know you never said it, but I think you’re thinking about it.”

“Am not!”

“Yeah, I think so,” he said, grabbing my hand and leading me to a table. 

“It’s just a boy, forget about it.”

“He winked at you! And you’re my sister, I’m not gonna just forget about a boy flirting with you.”

“He wasn’t flirting!”

“Aish,” Taehyung sighed, “Anyways, we should focus on the task at hand. And not get distracted by the ‘cute barista guy’.” Taehyung rolled his eyes, making me laugh. 

“Okay, okay.”

The cameraman fiddled with his camera as Taehyung’s shoes tapped the cafe floor to the Lo-Fi music that was quietly playing. I fiddled with my phone as I waited, but my head shot up as soon as I sensed a figure walking up to our table. The barista who had attended to us was showing his pearly whites as he put the drink he’d crafted on the table, plus another one. The first one, obviously the one we’d asked for, was a dirty brown and looked like a flat soda mixed with crushed ice. It wasn’t very appetizing. The second, however, was a bright pink drink in a tall glass cup with a lot of whipped cream in a neat swirl on top, along with a cherry and a slice of star fruit slit and placed on the edge of the cup. 

“W-we didn’t ask for another drink,” Taehyung said, looking up at the boy with an eyebrow raised. “We were just going to pay for the special one.”

“Oh, I know, but you I figured I’d add on a pink lemonade shake. Since you’re in the music industry. And the young woman here is lovely, must I say.”

I turned my head towards Taehyung, widening my eyes slightly. I hadn’t been expecting a compliment. My cheeks turned the color of the shiny cherry on top of the drink. 

“Ah, that’s thoughtful of you, you’re sure about this?” Tae asked once more, seeming to examine the drink.

“Of course. Please enjoy. And don’t spend too much time with the one you requested, I won’t charge you for it, not to mention I can't guarantee how good it’s going to be.”

“Thanks,” Taehyung said as I tried to hide my smile behind my hair. The boy left and Taehyung stared at me for a moment. “Okay. Just.. okay.”

“Chill, Tae. I’ll forget about him if you want me to.”

“It’s fine, just don’t be getting any ideas. Now to the drink.”