They drove to the storied NY Pizza Suprema restaurant, and all five of them piled out of the SUV. Cora said, "Awwww!" and started to turn away when she saw the sheet of notebook paper on the door with the handwritten message "Closed for Private Event."

Yoongi gently grabbed her elbow. "It's us. Private event is us!" he laughed.

"Ooh, OK!" she giggled. "I was so sad for a moment there!"

He beamed fondly at her as Jiwo held the door for them, scanning the street and sidewalks the entire time.

The restaurant smelled like the section of heaven reserved for only the best-behaved basil and oregano plants. They looked at the menu, and Cora was amused to see that there was absolutely nothing on it besides pizza. No wings, no salads, no pasta. Then she saw the prices. "Jesus Christ! $45 for a pizza?! This is crazy!" She whispered to the guys.

"It's supposed to be the best, so it should not be very cheap," Yoongi told her. "It can feed more than one person, so $45 is not so much, anyway!"

She studied his face for a moment, then nodded. "OK, reluctantly I have to admit that you are making sense right now. What kind of pizza does everyone like?"

They ordered one margarita pie and one creamy potato pie, and grabbed bottled sodas from the cooler.

When the food arrived, they all dug in eagerly. Cora took a big bite of the potato pizza and her eyes rolled back in her head. She let out a rapturous moan. "Oh my god, that's so good!" she groaned.

Yoongi choked on his bite of margarita pizza, and hid behind a paper napkin, coughing. The other three men bit back their laughter, then went stony-faced when Yoongi emerged from the napkin with a fierce Agust D look on his face. Kang-Dae went so far as to bow a quick apology.

Cora looked around the table. "OK, I don't know what just happened, but you're all being weird. Eat! This is food from the table of the gods! Roman gods, presumably. Pluto's pizza pie! Mars's margarita! Poseidon's potato!" She gesticulated dramatically with her slice, almost dropping it.

"G, if I didn't know better, I would think you were little bit drunk!" Yoongi said, chuckling.

"I'm drunk on deliciousness! What do the rest of you think?"

They all agreed that it was world-class pizza and then conversation lagged as they ate, the security guys and Jiwon avoiding eye contact with Cora and Yoongi.

Finally Cora couldn't take it anymore. She tossed her second slice down onto her paper plate and stood up, hands on her hips. "OK, seriously! What is wrong with you all? This is so uncomfortable!"

Jiwo and Kang-Dae looked at Jiwon. He cleared his throat. "It feels... it feels a bit awkward. Like we are intruding on a date."

Yoongi nodded his head and gave them all a look from under his brow ridge, but Cora made a "tsk!" sound at the four of them, and sat down dramatically. She picked up her pizza to use as a pointer, folding it in half for a better grip. "It's obviously not a date, because you guys are all here!" She pointed the slice at each of them in turn. "Now. Stop. Being. Weird!" She took a giant bite for emphasis.

They all laughed and began to eat again.

Feeling very full, Cora sighed and leaned back from the table, dropping the remaining half of her slice. "Yoongi-ah, do you want to kiss and make them all uncomfortable again, just for fun?"

He gave her his 'what the heck?' look and laughed. "I thought your rule for today was 'stop being weird.' This would be weird." He studied her face for a moment, then gently said "I know you're nervous, G, but you're going to do great tonight. It will get easier night by night. I promise."

Cora dropped the coquettish air and gazed at him straight-faced. "You're right again, D, dammit. I feel a little traumatized from last night, so I'm trying to distract myself with randomness."

He smiled and rubbed his thumb across her cheekbone, then pushed his chair back, ready to leave. The other three men looked very relieved to be done with lunch.

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

Yoongi turned on his side and tucked his hands between his knees, ready for his nap. A gentle waft of lavender scent from Cora's hair made his heart throb in his chest. 'Just try, she won't mind,' he told himself, feeling shy. He scooted a bit closer to spoon her, draping his right arm over her waist.

Cora made a soft half-hum, half-sigh sound and pressed back into him. Yoongi smiled and slipped into sleep.

They had only been napping for about twenty minutes when Cora's text notifications began to ping. Yoongi groaned and yawned. Cora was still breathing slowly, so he tried to get up without disturbing her. As soon as he rolled away from her and sat up on the edge of the bed, though, she twitched and woke herself up. She turned over and sighed, then reached out to caress his hip. Yoongi turned his head and smiled down at her.

"Oh, sorry to wake you," he said.

She smiled at him. "Is it time to go?"

"No, one more hour."

"Hmm..." she said, running her hand over his hip again. "Where are you going?"

"Bathroom, but I will come back," he said, turning and leaning down to kiss her cheek.

She grinned and pulled him down for a real kiss. He laughed, showing her his beautiful crescent-moon eye-smile.

"OK, I'll miss you!" she said, giggling.

"Oh, your text notification sounded," he said as he stood up. "Three or four times."

"Hmm..." she rolled over and grabbed her phone, yawning.

Yoongi stepped out of the bathroom to see Cora sitting up in bed, bent over her phone, face obscured by a curtain of her hair. He studied her for a moment, then asked, "What is it? Is it a bad news?"

Her eyes looked haunted as she raised her head, then held her phone up to him to show him several texts from Nana.

Cora, are you busy?

I will just send you a text instead of calling, since you aren't answering.

Your mother called this morning and Ray is missing. Nobody has seen or heard from him since you saw him there and he hasn't used his phone or bank cards.

She filed a missing person's report with the sheriff in Texas and also with the NYPD. Have you seen or heard from him again?

"Security hasn't seen him or anything, right? I definitely haven't," she said. Yoongi wanted to wrap his arms around her, she looked so small and lost.

Instead, he grabbed his phone. "They haven't said to me, but I will check." In Korean, he said, "Jiwo-hyung, any sign of that Raymond asshole who attacked Cora-shi? He's reported missing now. You guys didn't go after him, right?" He listened intently. "OK."

Cora raised her eyebrows at him.

"No contact." He shook his head, and studied her face.

"OK, thanks. I'll let Nana know." She quickly tapped out a message with her thumbs, then looked at Yoongi with an inscrutable look in her eye.

"Are you OK, Cora? How do you feel?" he asked.

She gave him a smile that was more like a snarl. "I hate that asshole. He made my childhood miserable. I never want to see him again. But a tiny part of me feels sorry for him, because he had a fucked up childhood too. If he got himself killed or jumped off a bridge or something... there's no redemption. That's just his whole life. Just wasted. That sucks, you know?"

He poked his lower lip out, and nodded his head thoughtfully. "Yes. Life can be cruel sometimes."

Cora reached over and took his hand. "Still..." she exhaled hard. "I don't think I'll cry if he's dead."

Yoongi sat down on the bed and stroked her fingers with his other hand.

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

Neither of them could fall asleep again after the interruption, so they sat up against the headboard, Yoongi working on his tablet, and Cora watching BTS content on her phone.

He nudged her with his elbow gently and she took one earbud out. "G, did I tell you that Park Jimin is in town? He's here for the Tiffany store reopener." He beamed at her.

"Really?! That's so cool. Are you going to get to see him?"

"Yeah, I think he's going to come to the Newark show. He's checking if we can meet for lunch, too."

Cora licked her lower lip hesitantly, and said "Do I get to meet him, D? It's OK if not, though!"

He looked at her in surprise. "Of course! I was going to invite you for the lunch. Do you want to come?"

"Yes!!" She beamed at him. "I would love to meet all of your bros eventually. So far I've only met Namjoon, but he was wonderful."

Yoongi gave her side-eye. "How wonderful?" he asked.

Cora cackled. "Ohmygod, so tall, so handsome, that deep voice... and he read me poetry as we walked. He's a dreamboat!!" She clasped her hands in front of her and sighed up at the heavens.

Yoongi pouted and angled his body away from her.

She laughed again, wrapping her arms around his waist and snuggling up to his back. "I confess, D, he's my second-favorite BTS member that I've met so far. Don't tell my boyfriend! I don't want him to get jealous."

He burst out laughing and turned back toward her. Cora inhaled sharply as he tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear, and then leaned in to kiss her. His lips and tongue felt so warm and soft against hers, she couldn't help sighing. Yoongi set his tablet down and cupped her face in his hands. He pulled away after a minute with a smile to say, "Well, maybe I don't want you to introduce to Jimin, then. He's very charming. He will steal your heart."

She chuckled and played with his earlobe. "He's cute. I don't think you need to worry, though, D. He's cute, but you're gorgeous!"

They pressed their smiling lips together, and she gently sucked on his lower lip. His eyes popped open, surprised, but then he relaxed into the kiss. Cora laughed. "Altho," she said, lisping because she was still kissing him, "Jimin doethn't have tongue technology!"

Yoongi pulled back again, laughing. Then he looked serious and nodded in tiny four or five times. "This is true," he said, and cupped the back of her head with his hand as he leaned in for more.

Just then, a loud, brisk knock on the door announced Jiwon's presence. Yoongi snarled and touched the end of his nose to Cora's, then went to answer the door. She fanned her flushed cheeks and casually leaned against the headboard, scrolling through BTS videos on YouTube. Jiwon bowed his way cautiously into the room, and she threw a heavy metal horns hand sign his way as a greeting, then continued to watch a video of Hobi playing nose flute for Yoongi.

Yoongi asked Jiwon if it would be possible to get Knicks playoff tickets for Cora and Kang-dae. "I'll check," he said, half-turning away to place the call. Yoongi's eyes strayed over to Cora who threw her head back to laugh just at that moment. Jiwon placed his hand over the phone. "Tickets in the eighth row, across the arena from your seats, is the best I can do. Is it OK?"

He smiled. "That's perfect, actually. I know we can't sit together, but we'll be able to see each other." He walked over and stroked Cora's hair, and she smiled up at him as she removed her earbud again. "G, do you want to go to the Knicks' playoff game on Sunday? We can't sit together, of course, so you would be sitting with Choi Kang-Dae."

"Oh, that sounds amazing! Will I at least be able to see you, D?"

He smiled over at Jiwon before he answered. "Yes, we'll be just across the arena from each other," he said to Cora in a very soft, aegyo tone.

She squeaked in excitement. "Yaaaasss! This is going to be daebak!!" she exclaimed.

Park Jiwon fought the urge to roll his eyes, and put his phone to his ear to confirm the order with the Madison Square Gardens box office.

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

Cora skipped the back-stage meal again, although she downed the whiskey when Shinwon did the pre-concert toast. The burning liquor made her throat clench, and she tried to stifle her cough. Yoongi eye-smiled at her and gave her a confident nod. She pursed her lips and exhaled, then nodded back.

She felt a tremor of panic as she plugged her bass in and scanned the audience. 'Holy hell, that's a lot of people! But the ARMY bombs are really pretty.'

As the first set progressed, the audience was just as loud or maybe louder than the previous night, but Cora felt more comfortable with it already... until ARMY started to bark like dogs at her boyfriend. 'OK, not cool, ARMY!' she thought, hitting her strings with extra force.'Back off, bitches!' She actually laughed out loud at her own pun.

Yoongi seemed puzzled by the barking, giving the fans some weird looks, but he took it in stride.

Cora also giggled when Yoongi was scanning for a fan's camera to take a selfie on, and started hollering "No Iphone! Only Galaxy!" She shook her head. 'My D is so funny. I wonder if he noticed that I have an Iphone? I'm sure he has noticed... When is he going to say something?' She chuckled. 'I'll know he's really relaxed about us when he starts giving me shit about stuff like that.'

She had the courage to look up at the crowd this time, but almost saw them as a giant screen, like the world's noisiest Imax theater. Her mind still couldn't quite grasp that so many actual people were seated in front of her, cheering, screaming, singing, vibing... It really didn't seem real.

'But I'm not even dissociating tonight!' she laughed. 'Maybe Yoongi is right, and I will actually start to enjoy this.' She was so proud of herself, until he sat down at the piano to play Life Goes On and suddenly she was crying uncontrollably again.