Cora stretched out, yawning loudly.

Yoongi's head popped up from the next lay-flat seat. He laughed. "I thought you weren't going to wake up until we got to Seoul, G!"

"I'm awake, I'm awake!" she replied, sticking out her tongue at him and ruffling up the back of her hair. "Where are we, D?"

He glanced at the small screen attached to his seat's arm. "Over an Aleutian island, apparently. About six more hours to Incheon."

She nodded and unbuckled her seat belt. "Budge up, loverman!" she said, wedging her rear end into his seat with him.

He laughed and then whined, "You have your own seat. Why are you here, squishing me?" He wrapped his left arm around her waist and pulled her close to him.

She leaned in and kissed his earlobe. "Your mouth is saying one thing and your arm is saying the opposite!" She giggled. "I choose to believe your arm. So there."

He squeezed her again, then extracted his arm so he could rummage through his bag for his laptop.

'She's so cute. Good thing she's slim, though. There's not that much room in this seat!' Yoongi thought, smiling.

Cora turned and put her legs over his lap. He laughed and set his computer on her legs. "Thanks, G. This is more ergonomic."

She giggled and blew him a kiss, then put her earbud in to listen to a YouTube video on her phone. After just a few minutes, she lifted his laptop off her legs and stood up.

He smiled up at her as she set his computer aside. "What are you doing, pretty girl?"

She leaned over and whispered, "I want you to come to the back of the plane with me!"

He could feel his cheeks flushing. He started to ask why, but she unclipped his seatbelt and grabbed his hand. He gave her a gummy smile. "OK, OK, what are you planning?" he grumbled, pretending to be grumpy.

She pulled him to the open space in the rear cabin, which was empty. 

"G, I'm getting nervous. What are we doing here?" he asked, his pulse speeding up.

She licked her lower lip and leaned in close to his ear. "D, I want you... ...to teach me the 'That That' choreo!" she stage-whispered.

He threw his head back and laughed. "Ohmygod, you scared me! I thought you were... never mind. But are you a good dancer? I've never seen you dance."

"No, I suck at dancing. Well, I can do ballet. But not hiphop or whatever. But hey, we have six hours. You can teach me!"

Yoongi looked at her and shook his head fondly. 'She does ballet? What else do I not know about her?' he thought as she cued up the song on her phone.

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

Cora glared around the hotel room and sighed. She caught her own reflection in the mirror, and pouted at it. "This sucks." She dramatically kicked off her shoes. "I want to be with Yoongi!"

The small, reasonable voice in her head reminded her that he hadn't seen his family or most of his BTS brothers for a month, while she had been with him every day. "Shut up!" she told it. "I can't believe I have to sleep by myself for three whole nights..." 

She walked over to stare out the window at the Seoul skyline. "Well, hopefully his mom can feed him soup or something and help him get rid of the last of that pesky cough. Poor D! He needs to be healthy for the Asian leg of the tour." She sighed, then perked up. "Hmm, I've never been to Indonesia or Thailand before. This is going to be fun!" She did a funky little dance.

Someone rapped lightly on the door, making her heart skip a beat. 'It's not Yoongi, dumb-dumb. He's on his way to Daegu!' she scolded herself. 

Shinwon grinned as she opened the door. "Hey, do you want to get dinner with me, since those other assholes ditched us to go hang out with their families?" 

Cora laughed. "Yeah. Jerks. Let's get something really delicious to make them jealous!"

"We guitarists have to stick together, you know," Sammy said, nodding solemnly. "Of course, Yoongi is a guitarist too, but you know what I mean!"

Cora smiled at him. "I guess we can count him, since you're teaching him everything you know, but he's really more of a rapper/producer/keyboardist." She pulled her shoes back on.

"He's an all-rounder. Where should we go to be fancy? Outback Steakhouse?" he laughed as he checked to make sure her door had closed properly. 

Cora wrinkled her nose in disgust. "Ugh! Samuel! No!!" she snarled.

"Hmmm, Subway? McDonalds? Starbucks?" 

She turned and tapped her key card to let herself back into her room. 

Shinwon laughed. "OK, OK! No American chains. What should we get for real? Ah, I know, do you like dak-galbi? I have been craving it!" 

"I can't remember if I've ever had that. Chicken galbi?"

"Yeah, I love the old-fashioned kind with cabbage and sweet potatoes. It's so good. Let me see if there's a restaurant nearby." He pulled his phone out of his pocket to search. "Oh, here's one within walking distance! Okkeunnae Dakgalbi... Yum, this looks so good!" He held his phone out so she could see the customer photos.

"Ooh, that does look yummy! OK, let's do this!"

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

Cora and Shinwon were just scraping the last of the fried rice from the dak galbi pan, fighting with their spoons to get the little bits of chicken and laughing, when Cora's text notification sounded.

G, I'm being held hostage! Save me! 😂 Yoongi wrote.

I'll rescue you! Where are you, D?

I'm at home. My mom thinks I have corona because of my cough, so she banished me to my room. She sent my dad to the pharmacy for one of those home test kits.

😂 I'm sorry, loverman, but you're on your own, then! I'm afraid of your mom!

😫 Nooooo, don't leave me trapped here! kekeke. What are you doing right now?

Cora had Shinwon lean in for a selfie, featuring the nearly empty frying pan. He toasted to Yoongi with his beer, while she did a peace sign against her cheek just for giggles. 

We're having a guitar section dinner meeting. Dak galbi. It was so tasty!!

I'm jealous. My mom is threatening to feed me nothing but abalone porridge for the rest of my visit.

Well, that's what you get for having corona again, D. Tsk! 

I don't have corona. It's just a cough!

Sure, sure. We'll see... 🙄

Oh, I hear my dad's voice. Maybe I can get out of prison soon. I'll call you later tonight, G!

OK, D, good luck! I hope you're not infected! Love you lots!

Love you too! 

Cora looked up at Sammy and laughed. "Yoongi's mom has him trapped in his bedroom. She thinks he has covid-19 because of his cough. His dad just came back with a home test."

He grinned. "Even if he did have covid, he won't test positive now. He has been coughing for a few weeks!"

She nodded. 

As they walked back to the hotel, Cora noticed a guy in a dark suit and sunglasses who seemed to be following them. She quickly studied his face in the reflection from a convenience store window, just in case.

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

Yoongi pulled up in front of the Nine Tree Hotel and grinned when he saw Cora sitting on the edge of a large planter, kicking her feet as she waited like a little girl. She looked over and recognized him, and the smile that lit up her face made his heart jitter in his chest. She ran pell-mell toward him, yelling an apology in passing after she nearly collided with an elderly lady on the sidewalk.

Cora hopped into the passenger seat and slammed the door, then said "YOON-gehh!" in a passable imitation of Jungkook's voice, cracking him up.

He leaned over and kissed her cheek through his mask, and she giggled and gave him a quick hug.

"It's so good to see you, loverman!"

"You, too," he said, checking his mirrors and pulling out into traffic. "How has it been?"

"Boring. Lonely."

"Lonely? But you had Shinwon to keep you company!"

"Yeah. He's OK. But he's not fun like you."

"I don't know, he's a little bit crazier than me. You should get along well!"

Cora laughed and nodded. "He's aight." She reached over and put her hand on his thigh. "So. Where are we going, D?"

"Well, I thought maybe you would like to see my house?" he said, eye-smiling at her over his mask.

"Ooh, yes!" she said, doing a shoulder-shimmy dance.

"It's not as charming as your little house in Nana's yard. It's more... modern and industrial? And please don't judge the furniture, OK? My father picked most of it."

Cora giggled. "If it's not pretty, I'm breaking up with you AND your dad!" she threatened, and then cackled like a hyena.

"You can't break up with him, G. You haven't even met him!"

"I can too. That just makes it easier! In fact, as of this moment, I am breaking up with ALL THE PEOPLE I've never met!"

Yoongi shook his head and laughed. "If I knew you were cheating on me with eight billion people, I might have thought again about dating you." They both giggled.

Cora looked at him and ran her hand through the long hair at the nape of his neck. "I missed you, even though it was just a few days, Yoongi."

He looked at her softly. "I missed you, too, Cora."

She scoffed. "Geez, you're so mushy!!" 

Yoongi rolled his eyes and said, "Aish, this girl!"

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

Cora got quiet as they moved out of the city's traffic congestion and rolled up the hill, past quaint little neighborhood parks and large homes guarded by beautiful contemporary wrought iron and wood gates. Yoongi tapped the brakes as one gate automatically eased open to allow a silver Rolls Royce to pull out in front of them. He glanced over as she shook her head. 

"Your neighborhood is just a bit different than mine, D," she observed.

He looked at her searchingly. "Well, it's more secure, for sure," he said, suddenly feeling worried. 'I hope she doesn't feel out of place or uncomfortable!' he thought. He bit his lip.

She looked at him. "It's very calm and nice. Do people talk together behind these big walls, or do you just stay in your separate homes?"

Yoongi shrugged. "I am not really close with many neighbors, but that's partly because I'm away from home often. I think others are friends, though."

"Hmm," Cora said, nodding. "You are a busy guy!" She stared out the window for a long moment. "I guess I'm not friends with any of Nana's neighbors, either."

He nodded and hit the turn signal. The gate in front of a large, angular white building silently slid open. Yoongi saluted the guard and eased his Hyundai into its parking spot.

"D, I like that you drive a normal car, not some show-off car," Cora said, smiling at him.

He raised his eyebrows and took off his mask as he gave her a gummy smile. "You don't want me to drive you around in Ferrari with the top down?"

Cora grinned. "I mean, maybe one time would be fun! But not every day, no!"

He nodded, placing his hand on her waist to guide her to the elevator.

As they rode up to the fifth floor, Cora suddenly laughed. "Man, I wish I hadn't given you that ultimatum about the furniture! What if I actually hate it, and then I have to break up with you and your dad?!" 

"And here I was, thinking that you are so wonderful and don't care about material things, G. But you're going to end our relationship for that..." He hung his head and sighed heavily, then gave her mournful puppy dog eyes.

She giggled and wrapped her arms around him. "Do you remember Nana's big-ass, super old lady furniture? Her parents got that stuff back in the 1950s, when they bought the house, and she has barely changed so much as a lace doily since then. Yours can't be that bad. And that's what I'm used to. So I don't think you need to worry, loverman!"

Yoongi grinned as he punched in the security code on his keypad and opened the door.

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

"Dang, D, this is so good! I think this is the best bulgogi I've ever had. I knew you could cook, but this is amazing!"

He ducked his head shyly and said, "It's nothing, it's nothing. Eat up!"

Cora looked around. "Like I said before, this furniture really does seem fine to me, but maybe nothing special. What would you do differently?"

He glanced over at the overstuffed sofa and the slightly country-style coffee table. "One thing I liked about this condo when I was looking for a house to buy was the retro vibe. I would like to put in more interesting furniture, maybe vintage mid-century modern? But I think my dad will be offended if I redo the décor." He made a resigned frowny face and grabbed some green onion kimchi with his chopsticks.

She nodded. "That would look good in here. Maybe you could just tell your dad that you love what is here, but feel like you want a change? I mean, it is your house, after all."

Yoongi shrugged. "Yeah, some day I'll do that, if I don't move to another house first!" 

Cora chewed thoughtfully for a moment. "I saw a fanmade video about something called Bangtan Village, where you guys were talking about making your own neighborhood together and living there when you all get married and start families. Is that something you're really planning to do?"

He smiled and shrugged again. "I would like that. It was such a relief to move out of the dorm and have my own space, but sometimes I do feel like we're too far apart now. It would be nice to have our own homes, but to be able to just go next door to see Namjoon-ie, walk over there to see Jungkook-ie, over there to see Jin-hyung, like that."

She grinned. "You guys should put a swimming pool and a picnic area with a fire pit in the middle of the neighborhood, so you can all congregate."

"Hmm, yeah, maybe even an indoor pool so we can swim any time of year. And Taehyung-ie wants horses..."

She raised her eyebrows and laughed. "Even though we're sitting here in your millions of dollars condo, I forget that you guys have MONEY money." She shook her head. "Indoor pools and horse stables aren't the kind of things I think about, when I'm designing a dream house in my head."

Yoongi eye-smiled at her. "What does your dream house look like?"

"Well, I love craftsman style houses, so one of those, but on a bluff overlooking the sea. Not too close to the edge, though, I don't want it to fall off the cliff! And with a beach access path nearby. Something cozy, with three or four bedrooms in case I ever have kids or friends to visit... Nice big shade trees around it. A porch swing. Flower pots lining the stairs." 

"That sounds really nice, too." He nodded thoughtfully. "We could build that in the village, if we buy a piece of land near the coast."

Cora felt her cheeks flushing. "Oh, I'm invited to live in the village? Whoa!"

Yoongi turned pink, too. "I mean, someday, if you like, and uh..." his voice trailed off.

She giggled. "Don't worry, D, I won't make you write that down and sign it! It does sound wonderful, though. Although I haven't met most of the members yet. Namjoon and Jimin are so nice, but what if the rest of them just pretend to be fun and sweet when the cameras are rolling, but they're actually terrible people?"

He cleared his throat. "Ah, that reminds me. We are having a team dinner tomorrow night, obviously except Jin-hyung and Hobi, and the other maknaes are demanding to meet you. Do you want to join?"

"Ooh, really?! Daebak!!" Cora said, and then screamed quietly in excitement.