Cora cinched the hood of her raincoat tighter under her chin, and looked around at the joyous green of the park in spring. The light drizzle made a bronze sculpture of Robert Burns look a bit sweaty. 'I guess sitting on a plinth looking ardent is a good cardio workout!' she thought. She eye-smiled at Yoongi over her mask as they set off down the winding paved path toward the pond.

He reached over to take her hand, and her heart jumped. She gave his hand a little squeeze, and interlaced her fingers with his. Yoongi smiled fondly at her. "This is nice," he remarked. She nodded.

Despite the rain and the fact that it was a quarter to eleven in the morning on a weekday, quite a few people were walking, running, biking, and posing for selfies around them. Nobody seemed to particularly take notice of Cora and Yoongi, though. Jiwo and Kang-dae walked together about ten feet behind them, looking like a pair of particularly alert businessmen out for a stroll.

"It feels like we're really in the countryside, with the nice boulders and hills and trees, until you glance up and see Manhattan skyscrapers looming over everything," Cora said, laughing. She made a looming motion at Yoongi and he chuckled.

"The sky is so clean here, even though it's a big city," he noted.

Cora nodded. "I think the rain knocks the pollution out of the air. Everything smells so fresh!"

Suddenly they heard music up ahead, and glanced at each other in happy surprise. An alto saxophonist stood near the intersection of the paths playing a sweet, soulful jazz tune that Cora couldn't quite make out. Finally, it resolved into "Night in Tunisia," and she laughed in delight. The saxophonist had a cute mini-umbrella hat on her head, and a full-size umbrella propped up over her open case. Cora and Yoongi stood and grooved, applauding at the end of the song. The saxophonist grinned and held her hand up in the rain, then started to play "Misty." Cora snuggled against Yoongi and he wrapped his arm around her waist, hugging her to his side and eye-smiling at her.

As the last plaintive notes faded away, Yoongi walked over and dropped a bill in the case. Cora's eyes popped when she saw that it was a $100, and the busker quickly snatched it up and put it in her pocket, calling, "Thank you so much!" after them.

Yoongi tucked Cora's arm under his own and sighed. "That made me miss Taehyung-ie!" he said, chuckling.

She nodded. "It must be so strange to be without your bros, after all those years together..."

"I realize how much I love them and depend on them when they aren't here. It's going to be weird to be on stage without them tonight."

Cora turned her head and gave him a papery, mask-covered kiss on his cheek, which made him laugh. "You're going to do amazing, though. People have no idea how much amazingness you're about to unleash on them!"

He laughed. "Well, I couldn't do it without you and the guys and the staff, you know!" She hugged his arm closer, and they walked in companionable silence for a bit.

Suddenly Cora sighed heavily.

"Why? Why do you sigh?" Yoongi asked, scanning the top half of her face for clues.

She eye-smiled at him and then looked serious again. "I was just thinking about your People Pt 2 lyrics, about not being loved enough as a child, and how that made you cautious."

He blinked and then nodded several times.

"I wasn't loved enough, either, and I'm trying to figure out if it made me cautious."

Yoongi looked at her and gently squeezed her hand. "And?"

"I think you're right that it does that, I think I am careful. I mean, I'm not careful generally, but I think I am very cautious about trusting people and letting them into my life. And I have to do that to fall in love, I have to trust someone. So I think yes."

He puckered his brows and glanced at her again. "I wouldn't guess that about you. You have been very open and confident, as I see."

She stopped in the middle of the path and looked at him. "It's strange, but I felt at ease with you... almost from the start."

Yoongi laughed. "Not the very start. You really glared at me first!"

She giggled. "OK, OK, that's true! You walked in looking like a gangster, and I thought you were full of yourself, that first day!" She smiled over her mask. "But I had already watched some Run BTS and stuff before I went to look for my phone, so I knew that you were a good guy by the second time we met."

"And I thought first that you were amazing musician, but I also noticed that you were beautiful. But it seemed like you were not interested and didn't like me. I was so surprised when you invited me to the beach, so happy."

"I thought for sure you would say no. You are such a busy, important, famous guy, and it was your last night in LA... I was really surprised when you said yes! But thank goodness you did." She beamed at him.

"We both left our caution. We abandoned our caution. Isn't it strange? Maybe we were meant to meet. Like a fate." He scoffed at his own words, but gently caressed her hand with his thumb. Cora nodded.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yoongi felt his pulse speed up a bit at the idea of throwing his caution to the winds and just diving head-first into this relationship with Cora. 'There are all these doubts and worries, but I can't dwell on them because I could lose my chance for happiness,' he told himself. 'I need to just go for it, seize the day, like she does.' He smiled over at her again.

As if to prove his unspoken point, Cora suddenly let go of his hand and bent to scoop up a pebble, throwing it onto a chalk outline of a hopscotch game on the path in front of them. The edges of the course were blurry from the rain, but Cora confidently hopped on one foot forward and back again, laughing with delight. Yoongi stood with his hands in his pockets and chuckled, then laughed aloud when Choi Kang-dae ran up to take a turn.

"Who wants ice cream?" he asked, motioning with his head toward a food cart. "Two vanilla, one chocolate, one swirl please," he told the ice cream man, reaching for his wallet as Cora handed the cones to the security team and then grabbed her own and Yoongi's.

"Thanks for the ice cream, D!" she said, running her tongue around the seam where the swirl of ice cream met the cone.

He gulped and tried not to think dirty thoughts. "Just 'D'? Where is my 'T'?" he laughed, lifting his mask away from his mouth and delicately beheading the curl at the top of his vanilla cone.

"Nah, that nickname is too long. Two whole letters!" Cora cackled. "If you're just 'D,' then it can mean all kinds of things! Darling, dearest, Daegu guy, dragon. Daddy. No, not that, that creeps me out!!" She laughed even harder. "Or hey, if you make me mad, it can mean dumbass!"

"Why will I make you mad?" he asked, feeling slightly offended.

"Who knows? But at least I'm ready, if you do!" she giggled.

"Well, then your nickname can be just 'G,'" he retaliated, laughing.

Cora wrinkled her brow at him. "Hmm... what does it stand for?"

"Gorgeous. Girlfriend. Greatest."

"Goddess," she contributed. "Genius." She giggled. "But what does it stand for when I make you angry?"

"You won't make me angry," he said, eye-smiling at her. "I just choose not to be angry."

"That felt like a challenge!" she said, laughing.

He cracked up, too. "Maybe if you try to make me angry, it can mean 'goose,'" he said, nodding his head toward the Canada geese that paddled serenely around the pond.

Cora chuckled. "I feel like that's not as bad as 'dumbass,' although the meaning is similar..." she said, looking at him with her eyes open very wide.

He nodded and smiled. "These geese appear happy. And look at the tiny baby ones!"

Two adult geese carefully herded their nine tiny fluffy babies out of the reeds for a brief open water jaunt. Cora cooed at them. "They are so small! They must have just hatched." She watched them bobbing around, trying to coordinate the motion of their little feet so they could move forward. "I don't want to call you dumbass, even if I'm mad at you someday, Yoongi. So maybe you can be 'duck' and I will be 'goose.'"

He popped the end of the cone into his mouth, and then reached over to take her hand once more.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cora balanced the take-out container of bulgogi on one knee and set her bottle of water on the tiny table. She grinned over at Yoongi, who was expertly using his chopsticks to wrap pieces of samgyeopsal around bites of rice and pop them into his mouth.

He smiled at her. "This table is awkward, but the food tastes good! How is yours?"

"Very tasty!" she said, and held out a bite for him to sample. He nodded as he chewed, then offered her a bite of pork belly. "Mmm, that's good too!" she said. "I thought I might be too nervous to eat lunch today, but I was hungry!"

Yoongi made a grumpy cat face at her. "I'm a little nervous, but I'm trying to not think about it!"

After lunch, Yoongi announced that he was going to try to take a nap.

"That sounds like a good idea. We were up early," Cora said.

"You can join me," he replied with a little smile.

"OK, but will you be embarrassed if I remove my upper undergarment? I can't sleep in a bra!"

Yoongi blushed, but said, "No, be comfortable!"

They laid down on their sides facing each other, and Yoongi tucked one hand beneath his head. Cora reached out and took his other hand, smiling and closing her eyes. Yoongi sighed, and she was surprised to hear that soon his breathing slowed and deepened. 'He's actually sleeping? I don't know if I can. I think I'm too nervous!' she thought.

She looked down at her hand, which was clasped in his. His fingers were boxy and blunt compared with hers. 'His hands are so interesting. They're very... practical, I guess? He uses them to build equipment and chop giant sides of beef and such. But they're also elegant, especially when he's playing piano or guitar, and they're gentle. No big calluses, even on his fingertips.' She glanced over at his sleeping face. 'This man is so talented. Even his hands are all-rounders!' Cora smothered her laughter so she wouldn't wake him, then closed her eyes and tried to think sleepier thoughts.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Around 3:00, Jiwon tapped his keycard and opened Yoongi's door, saying, "Yoongi-shi, it's... Oh!" He turned away in shock at the sight of Cora drowsing on the bed, hand-in-hand with his client.

Yoongi groaned lightly and opened his eyes. Yawning, he asked "It's time to go? Already?"

Jiwon nodded, still not looking directly at them. "Yes, we should leave a little extra time in case traffic is bad between here and the arena.

Yoongi sat up. "OK, we'll meet you in the lobby in 12 or 15, hyung."

Jiwon turned and fled the room to the sound of light laughter from the other two.

Cora looked at Yoongi. "Oh my god, I feel like I'm going to throw up, all the sudden."

He nodded. "I feel like I need to poop. But it's just nerves. Once we start playing, we'll be fine!"

Cora gave him a "yikes" face, and then turned away to put her bra on again. 'This is it!' she thought. 'It's go time.'