Cora heard Yoongi's voice coming down the hotel corridor, thanking Jiwon and the camera directors. "Shit!" she muttered. "That was fast!" She looked around for a hiding place and quickly shoved her project under her side of the bed.

Yoongi tapped his keycard on the lock to Cora's room. He could hear water running in the bathroom, so he called out, "I'm home!" and flopped down on the bed. Cora came out with a strange, furtive look on her face. She walked awkwardly over to her suitcase, as if she was trying to hide something in her left hand. Then she unzipped the bag just a bit and slipped something inside. Yoongi made the suspicious version of his silly frown face at her. "G, what are you doing?" he asked.

Cora pursed her lips and gave him side-eye. "Nothing. Why?"

"You're acting weird and hiding something."

"Oh, yes. Don't worry, D, it's just evidence of my love affair with the concierge."

"Yeah? Well, I will never give him tips again, then."

Cora looked straight at him for the first time, and laughed. "That's what he gets for sleeping with your girlfriend! Serves him right." She nodded and grinned.

"OK, seriously, what are you up to?"

"Nothing. I don't know why you keep asking that." She came over and laid down beside him.

He turned his head and chuckled at her, holding his hand out. She placed her hand in his and he interlaced their fingers. Then he peeled their hands apart and looked at her palm. "Ah-HA! I caught you with a red hand!" he said, laughing and showing her the small spots of red paint on both of their palms.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Really? Fine then. I'm not interested."

"Good."

"I don't care what you were painting or why."

"Good."

They both stared at each other for about ten seconds. Then Cora started laughing, and Yoongi couldn't help joining in.

"How did your vlog go, loverman?" She rolled over on her side and beamed at him.

"Everything was fine. I had a coffee, went to Gordon Ramsey's for a burger, and then sat and enjoyed the nature in Millenium Park. There was a big crowd around the Bean, so we didn't go. And I got too impatient to wait for the sun to go down so I could see the stars. I missed you, G!"

"Aww, you're so sweet, D! You did come back sooner than I expected." She smirked at him. "What did you see in the park?"

"It was a nice sunny day, and many people were walking around. The sky was very blue, the grass smelled clean, and so many birds were singing. The simple pleasures."

Cora sighed blissfully. "That sounds lovely. You know, I actually really do like Chicago a lot more than I thought I would. Other than the fountain incident, it has been a great stop, hasn't it?"

Yoongi looked over at her and grinned. "Yes. I will never forget this part of the tour!"

Cora blushed and laughed, gently shoving his side.

"Did you have a dinner, G?"

"No, not yet. I think I'll just get a salad or something. We had a big lunch." She ran her fingers through his hair, and he rolled over to face her. "I can't believe tomorrow is already the last concert here!"

He nodded, studying her face. "It went fast. Are you excited to go home for a little while?"

"Yeah, it will be good to see Nana and Carmen. And Nana's veal parmigiana is to die for, you'll probably really like it. If you don't like it, don't tell her, though - her mother brought the recipe from Italy." She grinned at him. "She might get stabby, even though she loves you best out of all the humans!"

"I'm sure it will be delicious. I usually like Italian food," he smiled. "Oh, you have to sit in front of me on the way to the arena tomorrow, G. We need to film a little bit more for the vlog, since I missed a couple of things today." He rubbed his thumb across her chin.

"OK. I'm going to turn around and make faces at you, though. It's going to be a try not to laugh challenge!"

He gave her a wtf look and laughed. "You know I'm good at those, right?"

"We'll see..."

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

The plane landed with a soft thump and taxied down the runway at LAX toward the VIP gate. Cora looked out at the palm trees nodding in the hazy air and smiled. "Ah, home sweet home," she said to Yoongi, and he smiled at her.

"We have three days before the first concert. Our only schedules, besides the run-through, are the party tomorrow night and dinner sometime with Nana. When do you want to do that?"

"Anytime is fine with me. Should I call her and ask?"

"Mm-hm," he nodded, and gave her a gummy smile.

She rolled her eyes as she pulled out her phone. "I'm afraid to see what you two are going to be like when you meet in person," she laughed. "Nana? Yeah, of course it's me. Just landed, we're still on the plane. Tonight? OK. We'll have security with us too, I hope that's OK. Not sure, let me check." She put her hand over the phone. "D? How many of Jiwo's goons are we bringing?"

"I think we can have just four."

"Four, Nana, if we're lucky. Maybe eight, if I piss off Jiwo again. Um-hm. What?" She started laughing. "No, they're ugly and awful people, but you'll just have to put up with it for one meal. What the hell?" She gave Yoongi a wtf look. "Nana, you are so weird." She looked at Yoongi again, and he raised his eyebrows at her. "She wants to know if they are nice and handsome boys." She rolled her eyes as Yoongi chuckled. "What? Yeah, he's here, but I don't know if he wants to talk to someone so weird. Oh, he's holding his hand out. OK, OK, bye, jeez!"

"Nana halmeoni?" Yoongi grinned. "What time should we come for dinner? Six o'clock? OK." He winked at Cora. "Ah, anything is fine. Yes, I like wine. Beer is fine too. Yes, whiskey is good. I'm just happy to meet you, anything is fine. OK. Yeah, yeah, here she is."

"Nana. You're not going to be all weird tonight, right? Why don't you learn meditation real quick today, before we get there, or something. What, I'm trying to be helpful! OK, OK! See you soon. Love you too. Bye!"

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

Jiwo sent the advance team to sweep the property, then gave the OK for Cora and Yoongi to head into the house. Yoongi held a giant bouquet of ranunculus, spray roses, peonies, and palm fronds, while Cora and Kang Dae carried half a dozen bottles of 2012 Biondi Santi Brunello di Montalcino Riserva.

Nana ran out onto the porch when she heard their voices. "You're here! You're here! Welcome, everyone! Oh, look at you beautiful people! Only six security men? Ah, but it's OK. Come in, come in, come in!" She ushered everyone into the house and closed the door, then turned to Cora and said, "Come here, my beautiful granddaughter! Aw, look at you!" She gave her a big hug and kisses on each cheek.

"And oh my god, here he is! Is it actually you? Min Yoongi himself?!" Yoongi set the flowers down on the bench next to the front door and then bowed. He held his hands out to shake Nana's, but she grabbed him and gave him cheek kisses as well, flustering him terribly. Jiwo stepped forward instinctively but stopped himself just in time from body-blocking her.

"And who is this gorgeous man? You're not the security man that Cora has been giving so much hell to, are you? Oh, it's so nice to meet you, too!" Jiwo cracked a rare smile as he shook her hand. The rest of the team took turns bowing and introducing themselves, weathering a barrage of hyper-speed English from Nana, and then two of them went back outside to patrol.

"Nana, Nana, breathe, woman!" Cora laughed.

Nana ignored her. "These flowers are just glorious, just glorious, I don't have a vase big enough, we'll have to put them in the washtub or something, oh my goodness, I can't even imagine how much this cost, shocking, shocking. What?! 2012 Brunello Riserva?! Oh, Madonna santa, this is too much, Min Yoongi, this is too much!"

"Nothing is too much for my bias, Nana halmeoni!" he replied.

Cora suddenly hurried into the kitchen. "Nana, your sauce is scorching!" she called. Nana hobbled in at top speed, gesticulating wildly and cursing in Italian.

"No, no, it's OK, it will be OK," Nana said. "The veal should be baked, so I'll just assemble them and bake for a bit longer and then we'll be ready. Cora, can you set the table please? The good china and crystal, of course. And Yoongi, I know that you are handy in the kitchen, you beautiful man. Would you slice the loaves of bread for me, they're there on the cutting board, and I made Korean side-dishes to go with the parmigiana, maybe get one of those other handsome men to put them out on the table? I would ask but I don't speak Korean. Oh, but Cora's man seems to speak good English, doesn't he?"

Yoongi shot her a wary look. "Cora's man? Oh, you mean Kang Dae." He laughed. "Choi Kang Dae-shi!" he yelled. "Come help Nana halmeoni!"

"Yes, coming!"

"Oh, my goodness, so many lovely men here, and so kind and helpful. I don't know what I'll do. Wow, Madonna, you slice that so evenly, Yoongi. You're actually here, in my kitchen, I can't believe it!"

Cora came back in to grab wine glasses from the cupboard. "Nana, it smells amazing in here. You've really outdone yourself this time!"

Kang Dae was pulling multiple plates of each different type of panchon out of Nana's fridge one after the other, exclaiming all the time. "Omo, sukju namul! And sigeumchi namul! Hobak bokkeum! And oi bokkeum, too. And doenjang muchim. Oh, here's mu namul!" He tried to balance about half of the plates on his hands and arms, but gave up. "Seong-Min hyung! Min Gyu-shi! Come here please!" he called in Korean, and the other bodyguards hustled in to help him. In a wink, they had the dining table covered with side-dishes of seasoned bean sprouts, stir-fried spinach, braised zucchini, stir-fried cucumbers, Napa cabbage, and stir-fried radish, all served on salad dishes from Nana's wedding china.

Yoongi found space for the bread boards on opposite corners of the table, while Nana and Cora carried out the baking dishes of veal parmigiana and set them on strategically placed trivets. The security team took their seats, and Nana raced to sit next to Yoongi, who ended up at the head of the table. Cora was left to sit as far from him as possible, at the opposite end. He met her eyes and smirked, and she shot angry side-eye at Nana, who didn't notice. Cora rolled her eyes at Yoongi, and he laughed before standing up to pour everyone some wine. Jiwo jumped up to assist, but paused in the middle to listen to something in his earpiece. He barked a quick order, glancing at Yoongi, whose face suddenly looked serious. Cora met his eyes, trying to read the situation, but was too far away to ask what was going on.

"Eat, everybody! Eat! There's more veal in the warming drawer, so have your fill!" Nana gesticulated like an orchestra conductor. "Have bread! Have some side dishes! Don't be shy!"

Min Gyu took a big bite of the veal and then leaned over to Kang Dae to say in Korean, "Nice! It's a pizza pork cutlet!"

Yoongi heard him from the other end of the table and scoffed, "Not pork, veal! Where is your palate, Min Gyu-shi?"

Nana looked at Yoongi, who told her, "He's really enjoying the food, halmeoni, but he thought it was pork instead of veal."

Nana grinned down the table at Min Gyu. "Have another piece, have another piece! Big strong men like you need to eat well!"

Cora face-palmed, dying of embarrassment. She was surprised to hear Jiwo chuckling and frowned jokingly at him. He told her in careful Konglish, "Halmeoni is cute." Cora scoffed and shook her head at him. "Halmeoni michyeosseo!" she said. "She's a crazy woman!" Jiwo looked shocked at her rudeness, but she just winked at him.

As the leads, Jiwo and Kang Dae stayed with Yoongi and Cora, but after about half an hour Seong Min and Min Gyu went out to relieve the other two security men so that they could have dinner. Cora was surprised to see that they were wearing holstered guns on their hips when they came into the house, something she had never noticed before.

Yoongi leaned back in his seat, waving his hand and chuckling as he denied Nana's demands that he have a second piece of veal. "No, no, thank you, halmeoni. It was very delicious! I am going to just relax and digest everything now." He sipped his wine and looked around the house. "I really like your home. Is it 1950s Spanish revival?"

"Yes, that's right! My parents built it when they came here, and then they gave it to Frank and me for our wedding gift, when they moved out to the valley." She waved her hand. "We were hoping to have a large family, so it seemed like a perfect house with the five bedrooms and two bathrooms, plus the guest house. But it wasn't God's will, you know?" She shook her head sorrowfully.

Yoongi reached over and squeezed her hand, and she smiled at him through misty eyes. "You are a wonderful family for Cora, though. I am always grateful to you."

Nana dabbed at her eyes with her linen napkin. "Yes, it has been such a joy to have someone else in the house for this last while. Frank passed in 1989, and the place was so empty for a long time. But today, it's full of life!" She beamed at everyone sitting around the table. "It cost my parents $12,000 to build this home, can you imagine? Now Cora will be a millionaire when I die, if she sells it."

"Oh, Nana halmeoni, don't talk about that! That's a long time from now!" Yoongi said, giving her a pouty face.

"Min Yoongi, you are just the sweetest man on Earth!" she said. "I keep telling Cora that I don't know how she got so lucky!"

He blushed. "No, I'm the lucky one. It's hard for us, the members, I mean, to find a sincere friend or a sincere lover. But I believe in Cora. She's so wonderful and lovely!"

Nana looked down the table just as Cora threw her head back to laugh at something that Kang Dae said. "Yes. And you are so good for her, too. She is just glowing these days. Look at her rosy cheeks! I've never seen her so happy. Thank you, Yoongi-shi. I knew I had good taste in biases!"

Cora met Yoongi's eyes across the table and blew him a kiss. He gave her his most special gummy smile and surprised her by blowing a kiss back to her.