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"Darn you, Jungkook. You scared me."

"You're really close to the edge, there."

I looked below me, taking my eyes off my brother who'd walked up in a pair of ripped jeans and a black hoodie. His footsteps stopped about five feet away from me.

"I'm on the edge. Does that make me edgy?"

He let a laugh escape his nose. "I'd hate for you to lose your balance while you move away from there a bit. And also, I don't think I want you to be edgy."

I looked back at him, confused, just to find his outstretched hand towards me as he crouched down.

My heart softened.

I placed my palm in his and held it as I pulled my legs onto the rough cement of the roof. I scooted back a few inches, bringing my drink with me. "You know, a news story about me falling off a building might forgive my Daehyun-Suho situation."

"Hey," he said sharply before giving me a serious scowl as he took a seat criss-crossed to the right of me.

"I'm sorry, I promised no more of that. It just slipped." I twiddled my thumbs, thinking about the promise I'd made. I hadn't intended the somewhat self-inflicting joke.

He nodded, getting settled. "I was on Twitter earlier."

"Don't talk to me about it." The bottoms of my DM's were wearing. I picked at the loose rubber. And then I looked up. "I- I'm sorry. I didn't mean for it to come out that way. I'd rather not talk about that."

He looked back at me for a moment before nodding. "Alright. What were you singing earlier, then?"

"It was just something in English," I said, watching the brothers who were playing in the pool below. "To practice."

"You want to practice your English so you don't make the mistake of calling your friend who's in a boy band 'cute' and 'adorable' again?"

I sighed, "I told you to not talk to me about that."

"No, no- don't get me wrong. I was just thinking about it earlier. I haven't always been hysterical about Suho."

"Suho?"

"Yeah, sis. He knows, next to me, how much that Jiho situation hurt you. And I heard what the hyungs think about it. You know that I care about your mental health so much... it's always been the thing I've been concerned about with you. Not just Jiho, but if you wanted to date, you would have chosen someone yourself. Doesn't it sound greedy? Suho doesn't want it to sound like you're dating his brother. He doesn't want it to sound like you chose Daehyun over himself. He didn't ask you, he just went for it. Look at the fans, ARMY. They're waiting for your response. Who's the biggest public figure here?"

"Kookie," I said back, "Suho has like more than ten-thousand followers on Instagram or Twitter or something."

"You have more than that."

"I do," I shrugged, "but it doesn't matter."

"It does matter, not that either of your worths are determined by that. We all know you're at a higher place than him right now. It's like a fan suddenly saying they spent a night with me. Is anyone going to believe that until I confirm it? Or my company?"

Jungkook was right.

My eyes widened. "Yeah, that must be why they keep asking for my acknowledgement."

"But he started this, didn't he?" Jungkook asked, his doe eyes sparking lightly as our heads turned towards each other. The water glinted off the shine of his eyes. "And now he wants you to finish it." His voice lowered. "He's forcing you to finish it."

I bit the bottom of my lip. "I know, I know I need to finish it." The soda glass was collecting the perspiration in large droplets on the side. They fell onto my jeans, still cold as I raised the glass to my lips. "And I will finish it."

I was at my desk with my computer and producing equipment set up in front of me. My elbows rested on the wood of the hotel furniture and my phone lay cradled inside my palms. I had a Tweet written, nice and shiny and new. I was so close, so close to hitting send. But something told me to wait half a second, so I did.

And within that half a second, Namjoon was calling me.

I picked up, letting the Tweet wait a second.

"I'm outside your door, Sujin. You didn't answer. Are you in there? Where are you?"

"Chill," I said, pulling my earbuds out and wincing at my mistake. My over-appropriate-volume on music had always been a nuisance to Aecha when she wanted my attention. I was sure the boys were finding out the same thing about me. "I'm in here, just... busy."

"You might want to put that down. Sejin has all seven of us up here in a meeting and it's time for you to join us."

I thought that over for a second. "What?"

"I'll take you there, just come. And bring your phone. And hurry."

"I'm hurrying," I sighed, getting up and pulling on my shoes. "One sec." I ended the call and then opened my door, seeing Namjoon standing in grey jeans, a black hoodie, and a blue flannel. He gave me a short smile and then nodded towards the hall for me to follow him.

I caught up to his long strides as we walked. "A meeting? What do they need me for?"

"You'll see."

I frowned for a moment, watching the carpet's patterns swirl by as we walked on it. We took an elevator down two stories and then walked through a few more halls before slowing down near an open door. It was easily a conference room, and I quickly recognized one of the voices speaking from inside. I stopped in my tracks well before anyone inside would have been able to see me.

"Look at it this way," Taehyung offered, "how would you feel if the trending tag right now was about her supposedly dating Daehyun instead? Then what would she do? Would it be easier to bash that immediately and let the Daehyun situation run on as a rumor, or agree to her dating Suho and let it be part of her decision when it ends?"

"Oh no, not this again," I whispered pleadingly, turning to Namjoon. "Seriously?"

He gave me a stern look. When I heard Jungkook speak, I tuned back in to the conversation beyond the walls.

"Maybe if it'd stayed that way, she wouldn't have one problem after another. Aren't people still going to worry about what she said about Daehyun?" my youngest brother countered.

"Well has she responded to anything that's been said yet?"

"Intentionally, no, I haven't," I said, popping into the doorframe.

"Then you have the chance to remove a lot of the backlash from what you said," Taehyung said, this time directly to me. He took a drink of water from a plastic bottle that was sitting on the long rectangle table sitting in front of him. There were five of them, arranged in a hexagon with my uncle Sejin at the far end of the room and the boys in sets of two at each table. "Suho's done what he can to start fixing it, but his word alone won't convince the fans. If you come out and say that you were speaking in a language you were unfamiliar with and that you didn't completely know what you were saying, it will likely minimize further outrage with the fans and media."

"So does that mean I... shouldn't publicly agree with what Suho said?"

Namjoon guided me to an empty seat next to him, closest to the door we'd just entered. I sat, glancing at my uncle.

"He said that you two were dating, and you said nothing so far, right?" Jin asked me to get his facts straight. I nodded. "Okay, so, without a response from you it will probably look like you either don't agree with what was said or he, or someone else, has told you not to comment on the situation. Fans aren't really that aware of what happens behind the scenes when stuff like this happens so they'll likely think that you don't agree with what he said."

"In this situation Suho will probably be taken for a liar or an older guy taking advantage of you and your situation," Jimin summed up.

"I know..." I thought about that for a moment.

"Sujin, that's the bottom line," Sejin said. "We want you to do something about it before we have to. And you know that wouldn't look very good either. Suho isn't under any agency, that's why it's best for you and him to be the mediators here. Be the pilots."

"That's the thing," Jungkook said, "He's too much in charge here. The fans have already picked up on that, and it's worrying them."

"That's why Sujin just needs to say something about it. They'll stop worrying," Jimin argued.

"But what she wants to say isn't going to make them stop worrying."

"What do you want to say?" Sejin asked me.

A shiver went down my spine as I thought about the Tweet I'd drafted. "I was actually about to say something about it. To make them 'stop worrying'," I mimicked Jimin.

"And what was that?" Jimin asked, folding his arms across his chest.

I frowned slightly. "Just that I wasn't really considering anyone at the moment-"

"Right, that's what Sujin wants. Because she believes her feelings have to be involved in every part of her words to ARMY," Yoongi snapped. "What would that do to Suho, do you think? His efforts? Wasted. His title? A liar. He'd be named someone taking advantage of you and one who's jealous of his idol brother."

Yoongi was right. If no one was going to believe him until I said something, then I could be the one wrecking both of us.

"Okay, I see how this could ruin Suho. I don't want that. It's just," I mulled the words over in my mouth first. "Well, okay. Back to the beginning, now that I very wonderfully have all of you here plus my uncle. Why did Suho have to just jump in like that? Without my consultation? Now, if I say what I want to, it's not going to work out for him. He was selfish." And what I didn't say was that I had an opportunity to be selfish too by telling the fans whatever I wanted whether it hurt Suho or not. But I was realizing that wasn't what I waned.

"Because that's what the companies told him to do," Yoongi answered. "While we're just now learning about this, it's been going on for hours in Korea. We're in different time zones. The articles probably just started coming out as we went to sleep."

"And it's not like any of us, besides you and Yoongi, actually have his number and were able to pick up a call or answer a text," Jin added. "We can't be on our phones all the time, even Sejin has to sleep at some point."

"So what do you want me to do? Be the liar myself? Oh, yes, that'll come across very nicely for BigHit Entertainment," I said, eyeing my uncle, "because it'd be a lie if we- I told them I was willingly dating Suho."

"And it's a lie that he told, a lie that no one will know about!" Yoongi said, raising his voice slightly. "Unless someone trustworthy outright says that we're lying, no one can know that we are. Sometimes the best thing you can do for things like this is to lie. This isn't the time to suddenly get morals, Sujin."

I put my fingers to my chin. That was an interesting one from Yoongi.

He continued, "The fans tell me to put my exact feelings and emotions into music. Sure, there's a lot of emotions that I have to include because everyone here knows that emotions fuel the best kind of art. But we also know, for a very real fact, that if we were to put everything in there, it'd deter them. They don't want to hear us ramble about being depressed for hours on a CD. We can't depress them, we are supposed to bring them up. As a public figure, that's our job."

"I understand that," I nodded, speaking softly.

"So let me get this straight," Namjoon said, speaking for the first time since we'd entered the room. "You've all seen the first problem, Daehyun and Sujin supposedly dating, which isn't true, and that's a problem because he has a company and is an idol. Suho, working with that label as a smaller figure, decided it'd be best to distract from that and claim he was the one Sujin was dating. The fans don't believe him, but are worried because of her silence. Every problem that is created adds to the last, so while she's upset about what's already happened, you want her to be able to end it where it is. Kill the monster at its source."

"Exactly, Namjoon," Sejin said. "What's happened can't be changed. The fans catching you talking about Daehyun fondly, a simple mistake that accompanied you speaking another language, can't be. Suho worked with his company to distract from that and your silence. But guess which of those can be quickly changed?" He paused, but answered his own question. "Your silence will be changed when you say something about it. Your silence can change how people see what Suho's already done to fix the problem, because right now, they don't see the best."

"And Sujin, it sounds like you don't have to keep up with this for longer than you can handle," Hoseok added. "I know you're strong, and you're close to Suho-"

"So she's supposed to clean his mess?" Jungkook asked.

"It started with me," I admitted.

Hoseok continued, "But if you just agree to this, just for a little while. Come on, the odds are in the favor of what he's already done. What he's already done, what you've already done, dongsaeng."

If I agreed, Suho would be clean. He would be loved. He'd be the person Kim Sujin chose to date. A compliment, really, to him in front of the fans.

People would forget about the dating rumors with Daehyun, which would help keep his idol identity safe. They'd most likely forget about what I said about him, too. If I was dating his brother, maybe the fans would be able to see that it was because of my closeness to the two brothers. Or would it sound like I was dating Suho and I was talking cozyly about his brother wrongfully?

But dating Suho, my best friend? I was on tour, so it wouldn't matter.

We'd hung out enough times before, no one would question it.

And we were close enough, we could put an end to it without actually hurting each other's feelings.

If Suho had made the right decision, one which my brothers and mutual PR teams agreed with, then it was up to me to finish it. Just as I'd promised Jungkook earlier.

I glanced at him, then Sejin. My seven other brothers who were there came next, and then I nodded, bringing my phone and placing it to the table.

"So how does one confirm they're dating their best friend over Twitter?"

How ya'll doing after Permission to Dance?? I love it!

Hope you're all staying healthy, safe, and happy!

-Rose