CHAPTER 7

As ice ran around the rim at the bottom of the cup, it hummed and clinked. I drew the plastic straw up and down inside the lid, making it squeak as Taehyung and I walked side by side. The cameraman was behind us, going through the footage he took of us doing the scavenger hunt activities. We were on our way back to the school to total and collect our points, and I was almost done with the drink the barista had given me.

Taehyung sighed and watched my drink as the ice and straw sang with each other. "I'll give you one more minute to play your cup 'instrument' and then I want silence."

I laughed, "Sorry, sorry. I'll stop." I took off the lid and poured the rest of the ice into my mouth, crunching it with my teeth. (BTW, this is really bad for your teeth, so please don't take this example and please don't do it :D) As I looked into the now bare bottom of the cup, I squinted as I realized there were words and numbers written at the bottom.

Text me if you wanna be friends.

"Huh?" I mumbled, looking at the written numbers after the message. It was handwritten.

"What?" Tae asked, and I handed him the cup. He inspected it and then stopped walking. "Darn. Sujin, I don't like that. Please don't text him."

"Awe," I whined. "Really? You're gonna do that to me?" I put out my lower lip in a pout.

"Yes, because I'm your brother and one, I can tell you what to do, and two, I care about your safety and I don't trust that guy. He may be cute to you, but he's nothing but a weirdo to me."

"That's no fun."

Tae grabbed my hand and we kept walking, handing me back the cup.

"Throw it away."

"Why?"

"Please."

I looked at the numbers again, reading them over until I was pretty sure they were in my head. After a minute of staring at them, Taehyung grabbed the plastic cup from my hand and threw it into the next trash we passed. "Don't go fishing for it either."

"Okay, I won't." I wouldn't need to, anyways. I had the number memorized.

I walked a few steps to the side, away from Taehyung so he couldn't see me as I turned on my phone and opened my contacts to add a new person. I typed in the number before thinking. I wasn't necessarily going to text him, I just wanted to make sure I had his number saved in case. I agreed with myself on that and let the number stay on my phone before shutting it off.

It was a short walk to find the group, who were gathered around at the front of the school with the camera and filming crew. Taehyung and I thanked our cameraman, and he went to turn in the clips he recorded of us to the director. We sat and enjoyed doughnuts that Jin had collected along the way of his journey while the camera crew worked on adding up points. We were all pretty quiet as we ate, as the tension from the early part of the morning was still around us. As soon as Namjoon's phone started ringing, all ears were on him as he stood and took a call.

"Manager?" he asked, pacing between his two feet slightly. He listened for a minute before his face turned into confusion.

Jin groaned, "Here we go again. Manager Sejin can't ever seem to call without there being something wrong."

"I know," I agreed.

Namjoon ended the call quickly and then turned to us. "Sejin said a neighbor spotted someone walking around the house again. It was pretty suspicious so they called the police. I think we should head back and meet Sejin there. The police are doing an investigation."

I sighed, "Jin was right."

"Hopefully this isn't going to end too seriously. I mean, maybe we can get a better lead on whoever we saw stalking us earlier," Yoongi suggested.

"Yeah, but it's all still just dramatic," I said.

"How many times do we have to tell you? It's the idol life."

I sighed at myself for making Yoongi recite that again. "Fine, let's go live the idol life then, shall we?"

"We shall." He said it like we were supposed to be happy about it.

We all climbed into the van and wordlessly drove the few minutes to the house. We had decided to let the staff take their time in sorting out the winners of the day and we'd film the last part for the video later at the company building. As soon as we neared our home, alarm started to set in as I noticed a few police cars lined up along the street.

I jumped out of the van as soon as it was parked in the driveway and headed to the cars, as I'd spotted uncle Sejin. He gave me a hug, and introduced me to the two cops who were talking with him, going over the camera footage our neighbor had sent them.

"Good thing I bought the house next to my old high school friend's apartment, it's proved useful," he said, nodding towards the screen.

"I didn't know you knew the people living around here. It makes sense, though."

One of the cops looked at me. Her hair was in a high pony and it had bright highlights near the bottom. She had a load of dark makeup on, as if she were trying to scare anyone she needed to talk to about breaking the law that day or such. "You live here?"

"I do."

"And how much do you know in background about this particular situation?" Her hand hovered over her yellow legal pad with a pen.

"Not much, I just heard of it the other day-"

"You know?" Sejin said.

"Oops-"

"Did the boys tell you?"

I sighed. "I'm sorry, uncle, it's a long story. I'd be more than happy to tell you," I said with a hint of sarcasm, "but not right now, preferably."

"Oh, I see," he nodded, though I could tell he was thinking about it.

"So." I put my hands behind my back. The cop with the long hair was about to continue when another voice came from behind me.

"Oh, it's you again."

I spun around, and my heart seemed to take a leap as a handsome face looked back at me.

"Oh?" I said in surprise, before I realized who it was.

"It's funny to bump into you again. How was the drink?"

I could feel my cheeks start to warm as he walked up to us. A few of the boys decided to join us, probably wanting to see who I was talking to.

"It was really good, thank you."

"And the 'special' one?"

I laughed, "It was actually decent, I just couldn't drink too much of it because of the other one, and my brother wasn't a fan. But I think it wasn't all that bad."

"Seriously?" He laughed, his mouth going into a box-like shape, just as Taehyung's did sometimes. With him right in front of me, the same light brown eyes seemed to pierce into my heart. Up close, I realized he was probably not that much older than me. "Well, I was walking home from work, and I noticed there was a bit of commotion here." He nodded towards the police. "Is everything alright?"

I shook my head, "Yeah, it's not a big problem."

"You sure?"

"Yep, I know it looks dramatic, but I think it'll all be okay."

"Does it have to do with... who your brother, is it, is?"

"My brothers, yeah."

"Then I know you can't tell me much about it," he said, putting his hands in his jean pockets before pulling them out again quickly and holding out a hand for me to take. I shook it. "I'm Jiho."

"Jiho. I'm Sujin."

"Nice to officially meet you."

"Likewise."

"Well, if there's anything I can do to help-"

"We've got it," Taehyung mumbled from behind me. I jumped when I realized he'd been behind us the whole time.

"Ah," Jiho said, nodding as he glanced at Tae. "Alright, well, you have my number if you need anything."

"No she doesn't-" Tae tried to interject.

"Yes, I do," I corrected Taehyung, turning around and giving him a hard glare. "I'll see you around."

"See ya," Jiho bid with a nod, before continuing on his way down the street. Once he was out of earshot, I turned to Taehyung again. I had to lie again.

"Just let him believe I still have it," I said, while tucking away the thought that I really did had his number in my phone. "You saw that I threw the cup away." Taehyung shrugged and left to talk to Sejin.

A few hours later, after deciding the situation wasn't an immediate threat, the police left after telling Sejin about the extra precautions they'd make to ensure our safety while they worked on the case. Sejin left the boys and I to go back inside and chill for the rest of the night.

As I sat down on the couch, ready to wind down for the night, Namjoon came and sat next to me. The rest of the members were upstairs, so I wasn't going to mind some company.

"Sujin?" he said as soon as commercials interrupted my show.

"Joon?"

"Tomorrow we've got a fanmeeting. You okay with that?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"There's been a lot going on lately-"

"I know, but I don't mind."

"The thing is," Namjoon sighed, shifting his gaze off of me as he talked, " I know the summer is almost over, so I was thinking about it earlier, and I felt bad about the fact that you have to follow us around all the time and we don't ever get to go do anything fun, or anything you want to."

"Well," I shifted my body to face him, resting my arm above the cushion of the couch, "I have a lot of fun spending time with you guys at the house, and even when we go places for your work. Plus, since school is starting, I'll be busy myself and we'll be compromising over time anyways. It's alright, really, especially since I don't mind fan meetings. But I think I'll step out of them for a little. I'd rather become someone in the back making sure the idols get their stage. I don't think front and center is the place for me."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I 've thought about it, and no one goes to a fanmeeting to see me. They're there to see you, BTS, Bangtan Sonyeondan. I'm not a part of that."

"You're part of what makes us, well, us, though."

"I understand, but if I went to another group's fanmeeting, I really wouldn't care about their little sister. Maybe I'd meet her once, but she's not why I'm there. She doesn't need to be included as a member, she doesn't need to be a part of the show. Because she's not. And that's okay if people feel that way about me."

"Wow. I can tell you've really thought this through."

"I have. I'll stay back with Sejin."

Namjoon laughed, "Yeah, alright." He was silent for a second as a voice ranted on TV about cleaning wipes. "Have you thought about going to live with Sejin? Even for a little? I mean, after such a long time, wouldn't you want a part of your real family?"

"Sejin keeps asking me that, actually," I said. I sat up from my slouched position on the couch. "I think that would be good for me sometime. I'm just worried it would feel too 'at home' than I could handle. I haven't had a flashback in a few months, though I think it'd be a real starter for them."

"Why's that?"

"Well, here, this is home. It's where I feel safe, and it's where I have fun. It's where I have my family. But there, it's all of that and above, because Sejin is a literal part of my family. I haven't been with someone blood related to me for a long time and that's just way too..."

"Home?"

"I guess. But that kind of home, home where I belong initially, that's never been a good memory for me. So it would be hard for me, even though I think I should. I love and trust Sejin."

"We'll have to set something up for you to go over sometime, if you're comfortable."

"Yeah, I am by now."

"Great, I'll talk to him sometime-"

"No, I can, it's no problem. But thanks."

"Of course. It's always nice knowing that if anything happened and we couldn't be there for you, he would."

"Yeah, but he usually goes on tour with you."

"I know," Namjoon sighed. "That's something I don't like so much. I don't know where you'll go when we tour, you shouldn't be missing school, but you can't stay home alone for so long."

"Can't I come sometimes?"

"When it's a short, maybe week long tour, probably. But when we go overseas for months, unless it's summer, I wouldn't think so. You need to actually focus on your education right now."

"But I'm already ahead."

"It's what's best for you, and before long you'll be way behind if you come with us all the time."

"I get that."

"Anyways," Namjoom shook his shoulders, "We have the fan meeting tomorrow, it's in the afternoon. Maybe we can go to dinner sometime after."

"Okay, sounds nice. I'll head to bed, then," I said before getting up.

Namjoon smiled, "Goodnight." He gave me a quick hug and shut off the TV before going to turn off the lights in the kitchen while I made my way upstairs. Once I was in my room, I grabbed my phone and found Jiho's number.

Me: Hi, it's Sujin. Sorry about earlier, I managed to save your number, though.

It wasn't long before I got a reply: No problem, I understand your brother's concern. Is everything alright now?

I smiled, slightly comforted that he had answered so quickly. Yes, nothing we couldn't handle. I took a second after I replied to save his name in my phone.

Jiho: And the police are gone?

Me: They're working on it. But it's really not new news.

Jiho: I see.

Jiho: So about earlier...

Jiho: You wanna be friends?

Me: Why not? :D

Jiho: Great!

Jiho: I was just thinking because we live so close... What school do you go to?

Me: SOPA.

Me: You?

Jiho: Same! Not surprised because we both seem to be in the industry

Me: Yeah.

Me: What year you in?

Jiho: Second year. You?

Me: First, actually

Jiho: Cool

Jiho: Well, I'll see you around, then

Jiho: We should walk home together

Me; Sounds nice! Just don't tell my brothers

Jiho: Oh?

Me: they're a bit... protective

Jiho: I see

Jiho: That's alright

Me: Thanks

Me: Well I need to get to sleep

Jiho: Alright

Jiho: Sleep well

Me: Ty

Me: See you around

Jiho: *Thumbs up*

I shut off my phone with a large smile on my face. He seemed like he'd be a good friend, another person there to watch out for me, especially in school. I was hoping the members would be more accepting of him later, and he'd get along with Suho. I needed a new friend. 

A/N: Hello, everyone! Sorry for the late update. 

Due to the Coronavirus, my school is out for 6 weeks! It's absolutely crazy, so of course I have to do lots of studying at home so we don't fall behind the year too much. BUT, it's still pretty cool, because I have SO MUCH more free time and I'm excited to have more writing time! But, this will not affect my updating schedule. I'll still update every Monday as normal. 

I hope everyone is staying safe and happy!

See you next week,

Rose