Cora had the odd sensation that time was flowing by slow and thick, like a river of molasses, yet at the same time six o'clock and soundcheck arrived in the blink of an eye. Yoongi looked almost as nervous as she felt, but he walked over and gently ran his hand across her back, then gave her waist a little squeeze. "Let's do this!" he said, grinning at her. She swallowed her fear, gave him a determined nod, and planted a little kiss on his cheek for good luck. The guys in the band studiously pretended not to notice.

Cora was glad that the band was standing back behind the elaborate stage set, out of the audience's direct view, so nobody would see her shaking like a leaf. Yoongi strode out onto the stage, his swag factor suddenly ratcheted up to 1,000. He was met with excited screams from the crowd of several hundred assembled at the edges of the stage. Yoongi seemed perfectly comfortable, discussing levels with the techs and going "ah-ah-ah" into his mic. They struck up the first song, People, Pt. 2, and Cora was amazed that even this tiny portion of the crowd was singing all the lyrics with him. 'How does everyone know it? It just came out!' she thought, shaking her head as the little segment of that song ended.

Yoongi grinned. "Do you remember this one?" he challenged the audience, as Cora and the guys started to play a short section of the original People next. Sure enough, they did. Many sang even the Korean verses loudly, as Yoongi fiddled with his mic relay and then tucked it back into his pocket.

"Last song!" he told them as SDL began. "Somebody does love," he sang, turning to look at Cora. "And I'm thinking about you." She met his gaze and winked at him. He smiled, pivoting to face the crowd again. "I'm thinking about you, you, you, yooo-ooouu!" He pointed into the audience, and the screaming increased in volume and pitch.

Cora felt a tiny stab of jealousy. 'Chill, heart, he said it to me first!' she thought, shaking her head. 'Good thing I'm not really a jealous sort of person!' she lied to herself. They played about two-thirds of the song and then soundcheck was over.

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

The guys argued loudly backstage about how to apply the sauce to the tangsuyuk; Yoongi didn't really care, since they were going to eat it all immediately anyway. Shinwon was adamant that the pork should be dipped into the sauce, but Changhyun grabbed the little cups and dumped it over everything instead.

Yoongi offered Cora a set of chopsticks, but she shook her head no. 'Her face looks a bit grey,' he thought, raising his eyebrows. "Are you feeling OK?" he asked.

"I'm... I'm a little nervous. I'm definitely going to throw up if I eat anything." She grimaced.

"OK, we can have something after the concert. Don't worry!" he said. He popped one more piece of sweet and sour pork into his mouth, and then set his chopsticks down.

"You should eat! Don't starve yourself just because I'm nervous, D!" she said.

He smiled at her. "I don't want to eat too much this soon before. I will get a cramp in my side when I dance." He stood up. "Here, come with me!"

She followed him into his dressing room, and he locked the door, then turned to her with a smile. "We have a little time before they come to do my hair and everything." Yoongi wrapped his arms loosely around her waist. "It's natural to be nervous before your first big show, Cora, but I have complete faith in you. You are the best bass player I've ever heard. We are going to rock this show together, us and the guys." He smiled into her eyes.

She nodded. "I know you're right. I still feel like I'm going to be sick, though."

He leaned in and gave her a soft kiss. "You're a pro, Cora Hertshorn. You won't be sick. You'll be awesome."

"Mmm," she replied, smiling. "If I keep threatening to be sick, will you keep kissing me?" They both laughed.

He looked at his watch, then looked off in the distance as if calculating something. "I will keep kissing you for twelve minutes, if you like, and then I have to get changed and have my hair done."

Cora giggled and leaned in. "OK, we'd better get started then!" She draped her arms around his neck and gently pressed her lips to his.

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

Yoongi tried to think unsexy thoughts. 'Piles of homework. Little puppies. Adorable old grandparents.' He grimaced and remained seated when the stylist knocked on the door. "Come in!"

"OK, let's get you dressed!" the stylist said brightly.

"Uh, just leave the clothes there. I'll dress myself tonight, and then you can check me, OK?"

The stylist cocked his head to the side quizzically, but nodded and pointed to the first couple of items on the roller rack. "These pants, this shirt. This jacket. The belt, socks and shoes are here."

"Got it, thanks, hyung."

The stylist bowed slightly and left the room.

'The college entrance exam. An elevator full of kimchi breath. Haters who can't even rap properly.' After a few more minutes, he was able to stand up and get dressed. 'Damn, I'm going to have to avoid kissing Cora like that right before it's time to go on stage. This is really embarrassing!'

As he started to put on the clothes, his mind drifted back to her sweet face and the way her soft lips felt against his. 'Stop it, Yunki! You have to focus now. ARMY is waiting for you.'

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

Cora lifted her glass as Yoongi did the whiskey toast for their first show. She could hear an excited roaring buzz from out in the arena - the crowd was watching music videos and getting revved up. The burning booze did little to settle her stomach, but she clutched the neck of her bass for comfort and gave Yoongi a quick, private smile. He smiled back and then said, "Kapshida!" to everyone. "Let's go!"

She moved the chair out of the way and plugged her bass in, checking the charts on her stand to make sure they were still in the correct order. She checked her stash of extra strings, just in case. 'Phew. Deep breath. You can do this!' she thought, studiously not looking at the arena full of people in front of her.

The trigger warning went up on the big screen over her head, and the crowd noise intensified. Sounds of a car crash shook the floor, followed by shrieks from the audience, and then the prerecorded intro to Haegeum signaled Yoongi's entrance.  Four backup dancers carried his apparently lifeless body and laid him gently on the stage as the crowd screamed in fear and excitement. "Yeah," he said into his mic. "Okay, okay," and he stood up.

Cora's fingers automatically began to play her part in the song, but her eyes were riveted on her boyfriend. She felt complete shock and disbelief at his stage presence - the swagger, the charisma, and the tides of energy that washed out of him into the crowd, and back again from them. She was so overwhelmed that she felt like her mind had shut down. 

Impossibly, the crowd grew even louder when the first chord of Daechwita sounded.

"Are you ready?!" Yoongi yelled.

'NO!' Cora thought, shaking her head, but thankfully her fingers knew what to do. She made eye-contact quickly with Changhyun when Yoongi let the crowd rap the line about 'Flexing nan eobsji, pil-yoga eobsji,' her eyes wide. 'So much trust!' she thought. 'He knows that they will do those lines for him...'

The arena felt like it might shake off of its foundation when ARMY started roaring "A to the G to the U to the STD" during Agust D. Shinwon grinned at Cora and winked, obviously reveling in the crowd's intensity. Cora laughed helplessly and shook her head at him.

Cora wasn't sure if she was in a flow state or just in shock. She snapped out of it a bit when Yoongi sat down with his acoustic guitar to warm up before playing Seesaw. The scene reminded her suddenly of their first date in LA, and she did a jazzy little descending line to let him know that she was there. The crowd went crazy as he started the song and then it got quieter, singing along with him instead of screaming. Tears started to prickle the corners of Cora's eyes, but she didn't have time or mental space to analyze why.

She was amazed all over again when Yoongi let the crowd cover the "Why so serious? I'm so serious" lines in People, pt. 1, and the feeling grew when he basically assigned them IU's entire part in People, pt. 2, along with the backing track. 'This is nuts!' she thought. 'There's just so much faith there. Has any music group besides BTS ever had this kind of trusting two-way relationship with their fans?'

Cora abandoned conscious thought again and just played from muscle memory, but her reverie was broken each time Yoongi stopped to give comments or change costumes. She was still unable to fully process what was happening, and had the sudden overwhelming desire to call Nana. 'Maybe after the show. It won't be too late, west coast time,' she thought, exhaling hard.

Cora glanced up during Burn It just as the pyrotechnics went off, and was horrified to see Yoongi looking like a pillar of flame, apparently fully engulfed. She shrieked involuntarily, but then realized that it was just her angle and he was actually fine. Embarrassed, she hoped that none of the other band members had noticed her scream.

She kept it together for a while then - until he started Amygdala. After all the times she had heard it and rehearsed it, she assumed that she was over the emotional punch of the song. But tears streamed helplessly down her face as she played, mourning in real time over all of his trauma and her own as well. 'Shit, good thing this mascara is waterproof,' she thought, scoffing at herself.

Then she saw Yoongi stop singing and bury his face in his hand, before collapsing onto the stage. Although she knew that it was part of the performance, she bit down hard on her lips and sobbed quietly, still playing, aware that the camera was on the band.

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

After the show, Yoongi grinned as the band followed the dancers backstage. His voice hoarse from exertion, he said, "Thanks for your hard work! Great job tonight, everyone! Thank you!" to every member as they passed. They whooped and clapped for him, everyone riding incredible adrenaline highs.

Everyone except Cora, he saw with concern. She made eye-contact with him, but didn't smile or return his congratulations. 'Is she OK?' Yoongi wondered. He waited until the room had cleared a bit, then walked over to where Cora was stowing her bass in the case. As she stood up, he put his hand on her waist. "Cora? 괜찮아?"

She nodded slowly. "Yeah, I'm OK." Her voice seemed to echo to him from the depths of the sea. "I'm... I'm shell-shocked, Yoongi. So much noise and energy and, and fire... How do you do this night after night?"

He smiled gently at her. "You will get used to it. Then it becomes... addicting. I love it so much! I think you will too, before the tour is done."

She smiled incredulously at him, but seemed to be coming back from wherever she had gone. "Well, it's certainly an experience like no other I've ever had," she said. She laughed helplessly. "You're amazing. Are you even human? I'm not sure you're human."

"Yeah, I'm just a man. A man who loves to sing on stage, and a man who loves a woman named Cora." He gazed into her eyes, and then rubbed his thumb across her left cheek. "Were you crying, G?"

"Shit, you can tell?" she asked, scrubbing at her skin with the heel of her hand.

He chuckled softly. "Let's go back to the hotel. Do you need some dinner? You didn't eat before the show."

She shook her head. "Nah, I don't think I can eat yet. I just need to lie down somewhere quiet and process what the fuck just happened!" She laughed and tucked a lock of his sweaty hair behind his ear.

Yoongi looked at her bashfully. "OK, I'll change into my street clothes and we'll go." He turned away. "Hey, great job tonight, Jinhun! You guys sounded amazing!" He clapped the drummer on the back and grinned at him.

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

Cora pulled on her sleep t and shorts, and thought about blow-drying her hair but decided that she didn't have energy for that. 'At least it smells all fresh now,' she thought. 'It will probably be a rat's nest in the morning, if I sleep on it wet, but I don't care.'

She heard a quiet double-knock on the door, a pause, and then the mechanical clunk of the lock unlocking. "Can I come in?" Yoongi rasped.

She grinned at him. "Sure, loverman. Come on in!" He gave her a gummy grin, then kicked off his slippers and collapsed onto the bed.

"Can I sleep here?" he asked.

"Of course!" she said, then yawned so hard that her eyes teared up. "I think I'm going to be asleep any minute though."

Yoongi sighed deeply and Cora laid down beside him. She turned on her side, facing him, and ran her fingers through his damp hair.

"Your shampoo smells like peaches," she said. "It smells delicious."

He grinned at her. "Yours smells like flowers. Lavender."

She nodded with a smile, and closed her eyes.

"Cora?" he rasped.

"Um-hm?" she responded, opening her eyes again.

"I love you. And I want to protect you from bad guys. But I think you're on your own tonight. My body is so tired, it feels like stone."

She laughed and pushed his good shoulder softly. "I love you, too, Min Yoongi. But you're not supposed to be a stone until your next life. If security can't stop the bad guys tonight, then they can just do what they're going to do. I'm too exhausted to punch anyone." 

He chuckled, his eyelids closing again. He gently took her arm and draped it across his stomach, sighed deeply once more, and fell asleep.