July 2022

It must be around three in the morning when Moonhae wakes from her light sleep with an upset stomach. Eyes fluttering open, she feels dizzy and nauseous. Not thinking much of it, she sits up and reaches for a glass of water on the night stand. Her hand almost there, a huge wave of nausea hits her out of nowhere, forcing her to clasp her hand over her mouth and run to the bathroom. She makes it to the toilet just in time, heaving into it as her stomach empties itself from whatever she ate the night before.

"Moonhae...?", a tired and raspy voice calls to her from inside the bedroom.

She's not able to answer as the next wave of nausea hits her and she's throwing up again. That's when there's rustling and footsteps all the way to the bathroom entrance, where a puffy-faced Taehyung pokes his head in. His barely opened eyes need a moment to take in the scene and when they do, they widen a bit. He immediately crouches down next to her, gently rubbing her back and pulling her hair out of her face.

"Moonhae, what happened?", he asks her softly.

"I think that seafood we ate last night wasn't good...", she speaks exhaustedly between breaths.

"Oh shit... Yeah, you weren't too keen on eating it anyway... We should've had something else", he mumbles as his eyes keep threatening to close.

Despite his sleep deprivation, he sits by her side for the next hour as her gag reflexes kick in every once in a while. His head bobs slowly every time he drifts off and he quickly snaps awake again, trying to be the supportive boyfriend she needs right now.

"Tae, you should go to bed, I'll be fine... Eventually", she prods him. She looks so exhausted and pale and he knows he can't leave her alone.

"I have a better idea", he tells her before disappearing into the bedroom for a few minutes.

Back he comes with a huge pile of blankets and pillows in his arms, which he then places around the bathroom floor for their comfort. He makes sure she has a pillow to sit on and a cover to wrap herself in before arranging a little bed of blankets around her.

Softly whispering words of encouragement to her as her waves of sickness hit her less and less, he eventually nods off while lying on the makeshift bed.

The next morning comes in a haze, both of them still exhausted having not gotten much sleep. However, both have busy schedules for the day, so Moonhae slowly shakes the boy lying next to her on the bathroom floor awake.

"Hey, we gotta get to work", she croaks and his eyes barely open.

"You can't go to work", he says when seeing how sick and pale she still looks.

"It's fine, I just need to shower off", she insists, getting up and moving towards the shower.

"I'll get you something to eat", he stands up as well with a tired stretch.

"No... I can't eat anything, it'll come right back out", she whines.

"But you need something in your stomach", he says moving towards the door, "At least some plain white rice."

"...Fine", she pouts, knowing he's right.

Once he's gotten her some food and they've gotten ready, she somehow manages to keep the rice down. With her still insisting to go to work today, there's not much he can do but tell her to take it easy.

As the boys wait for practice to start that morning, Namjoon finds himself glued to his phone. He has been for the past month. It's been the only way to keep in touch with the girl he's taken a strong liking to and their communication seems a lot less awkward over text and phone calls.

"I see you're texting Grace", Jin suddenly appears, gazing nosily over his shoulder.

"Yeah...", Namjoon replies absent-mindedly as he chuckles at a message she's just sent.

"So you slept with her at my wedding and now you're gonna date her?", he moves to stand in front of the younger with his eyebrows raised.

"I - No!", he looks up at his hyung all flustered, "I mean... We're going out to dinner after work today, but that's the first time I'm seeing her since your wedding."

"...Where you slept with her", Jin emphasizes after a pause.

"Ugh, shut up", he waves him off.

"Hey, that's one of Hyunae's closest friends, so you better be nice to her alright?", the elder warns him.

"When have I ever not been a gentlemen?", he scoffs in defense.

"When you had a one-night stand with my wife's maid-of-honor", he shoots back unfazed.

"Okay, okay", he gives in, "Point taken. That was not very gentlemen-like of me."

"Uh huh", Jin tuts, turning to the choreographer that wants to get their practice started.

"But...", Namjoon continues, suddenly a little flushed, "I think I really, like really like Grace, hyung."

"Congrats, but I don't actually care that much", Jin doesn't spare a glance, but pats him on the back, "I can kinda tell anyway."

The boy in love wants to open his mouth to tell Jin to be more appreciative of his feelings, but knows it's no use at the moment as they're starting rehearsal anyway. 

The last person to arrive at practice comes in at that moment and this time it's not Jimin. Taehyung joins his hyungs a little late, looking exhausted and disheveled.

"What happened to you?", Hoseok studies the boy with dark circles under his eyes.

"Moonhae was sick the whole night. We ended up sleeping on the bathroom floor...", he yawns in response.

"What'd she eat?", Namjoon scrunches up his forehead.

"Seafood", he answers.

"Her dish must've been bad...", his hyung suggests.

"Yeah, probably... But she insisted on going to work", Taehyung sighs.

"And now we're going to get to work, alright?", their choreographer interrupts them to finally get started.

After a long day of hard work, the Bangtan boys wrap it up in the evening in the conference room.

"Yoongi-ssi, Myeong is waiting outside for you", a staff member notifies them as he pokes his head into the room.

"Ok, thanks, I'll be right there", he responds and stands up to get his things together.

"So... Are you guys together or what?", Hoseok hesitates to ask, but is just as curious as every other member getting ready to leave for the day.

"I mean...", Yoongi scratches behind his ear, "Yeah."

"He means: Is she your girlfriend?", Jin cuts in and makes it clear, "All the stuff that happened over the past month was very confusing."

"Well... We both like each other a lot and spend most of our time together... Doesn't that make her my girlfriend?", he wonders aloud.

"Not if you don't ask her", Namjoon tells him.

"Yeah, what could you possibly be waiting for?", Hoseok chuckles.

"I don't know", the elder scoffs in response, "We're both happy with how we rebuilt our relationship, so we didn't feel the need to label everything right away."

"Alright, well we're happy for you either way", Hoseok gives an encouraging smile and the others agree.

Yoongi lets out a little grunt and grabs his bag to leave, "See you tomorrow."

"Yo, Taehyung, wake up. It's time to go.", Jungkook then shakes the boy that's fallen asleep at the table for the tenth time today. He really must've had a rough night.

"Huh? Oh yeah, okay", Taehyung snaps his head up with his eyes barely open.

"Well, I'm off as well", Namjoon then announces, "I've got a date!"

When he goes to open the door of the conference room though, he finds his date standing right there, surprising him and everyone else. He figured she'd be waiting in the building's lobby and yet, here she is.

"Hi", she smiles shyly, brushing some soft dirty blonde hair behind her ear.

"Hi, Grace", Jin waves to her from inside the room.

"Oh, hey, Jin!", her eyes widen a little in recognition and surprise, "You're all here!"

"Have fun on your date", the eldest then tells her when Namjoon starts idling uncomfortably.

"Thanks", she blushes.

"Alright, shall we?", Namjoon then gestures towards the elevator and she nods.

Once they're out of what they think is earshot, you can hear Jimin gushing, "Wow, she's like really pretty. How did Namjoon score her?"

With Namjoon pushing the elevator buttons more harshly now, Grace just laughs it off nervously to herself. As soon as they enter the elevator though and can catch a quick breath to themselves, that awkwardness is momentarily replaced with something else when they look at each other.

Grace's wide hazel eyes and beautiful foreign features stare back at Namjoon's perfectly carved face and dark eyes. The awkwardness that always surrounds them wears thin as the butterflies of excitement of that one drunken night suddenly return. There's a tension in the air that cannot be ignored.

"So... We'll go to dinner if that's okay?", he momentarily breaks the mood.

"Yeah, perfect", she nods sweetly.

Let's just say it doesn't take long into the night until the sexual tension between them takes over.

Yoongi enters Myeong's apartment along with her. It's a new one she's rented over the past year, because her previous roommate was Minjun. It's been a while since they've spoken.

The two sit back on the couch exhaustedly, Yoongi sort of leaning against her shoulder as he yawns.

"Are you hungry?", she asks him as she puts an arm around his form and he merely shakes his head at that. "Do you want to watch a movie?"

"No...", he replies quietly.

"Do you just want to sleep?", she smiles a little, knowing that's probably exactly what he wants to do and she doesn't mind one bit.

"Yeah... But I want to ask you something first", he then leans back so he's no longer resting against her, now staring down at his own hands.

"What's wrong?", she eyes him with a pout.

"You know I like you a lot, right?", he starts slowly.

"Yeah...?", she gets a little worried with where this might be going.

"I think that...", he mulls over his words, "Despite everything that happened, those feelings were always in the back of my mind."

"What do you mean?", she looks at him confused, but no longer worried.

"I mean when I first met you, Minjun introduced me to you and quite frankly I was a little irritated", he starts to explain, "It was like here was this girl that I had to share my boyfriend with. And yet... After all those times we spent together, the three of us, I grew to love having you around. It was like it wasn't complete without you, although I loved Minjun so much. You completed what our relationship lacked and I didn't realize until afterwards that I must've had feelings for you too in a way. But any of those thoughts just irritated me, so I pushed them away. And when you told me about Minjun cheating I was broken and looking for solace when I kissed you, but at the same time I was kissing you and I could feel that. And it felt amazing. And that's what made me upset. It's when I realized it was really over between me and Minjun, because I too, wasn't faithful with my feelings for him. I had feelings for someone else as well."

"Yoongi...", Myeong whispers out in admiration. She had no idea he had thought this way the entire time. She had always assumed her love for him was one-sided.

"But after the breakup I wanted to cut ties with both of you", he then continues, "It hurt too much to look at you. Yet I'd find myself thinking about you and that's why I agreed to meet with you a few times. But I was an ass, because I was still hurting and I just hurt you even more. Both of us needed to heal though. So all this time... I actually wanted you and was too stupid to realize it myself. Out of all that frustration I drank a lot at Jin's wedding and behaved even worse with you... But I still wanted you. And I'm so happy that you're here with me now."

"Of course, Yoongs", she gives him a weary smile as her eyes tear up at his words, "You know how much you mean to me."

"A-and that's why...", he stutters as his cheeks flush under the dim light, "I wanted to ask you if... Would you be my girlfriend?"

Her expression lights up at first response, but before she can answer it falls again. A desolate demeanor replaces the previous one on her face.

"I don't know, Yoongi...", she lowers her head.

"W-what do you mean?", he knits his eyebrows together.

"I don't know if I could make you happy...", she admits quietly.

"But you make me the happiest", he reminds her of the words he said just a few minutes ago.

"I just don't feel like I'm...", she looks up to search his eyes with her pained ones, "...Enough."

"Not enough?", his heart breaks hearing that, but he quickly goes from sorrowful to determined, "Did you not just hear everything I said about you? Myeong, you're everything to me!"

"But, Yoongi-"

"No, please don't talk down about yourself", he cuts her off, taking her hands into his, "How can I make you understand how much you mean to me?"

"D-do you...", she bites her bottom lip, "Do you love me as much as I love you?"

"More", he answers without missing a beat.

Her eyes grow round at that, wanting to fall into this boy's arms forever. Is it really possible?

"Do you really?", she whispers, a single tear rolling down her cheek.

"Yes", he murmurs back hoarsely, pulling her hand towards him and kissing it.

His lips slowly move up along her wrist, pulling her sweater back as he goes, leaving soft kisses on every part of skin he touches. She flinches a little as he inches up higher along her forearm, but he holds her gently.

"I love every part of you no matter what", he tells her lowly, as he carefully comes to the scarred part of her arm.

Although it breaks him to see the scars along her beautiful skin, he's glad there aren't any fresh wounds. He understands her pain better than anyone else and wants her to know that he's going to be there for her no matter what. No one will let her down like that ever again.

"You are loved. You are beautiful", he whispers between kisses, "I'm here for you."

"Yoongi", she whispers back, finally moving her hands to cup his cheeks in front of her face. Her tears are falling, but she's smiling. They're happy tears. The boy she loves gazes at her in admiration for her strength, in a way no one's ever looked at her before. Both of them have been hurt, but now they're finally together.

"Thank you."