Cora nodded her thanks to Kang Dae as she stepped out of the black SUV. Instinctively she scanned the underground parking area, which was empty except for four other identical vehicles. Yoongi climbed out after her, and placed his hand on the small of her back to usher her into the restaurant. Jiwo strode ahead and opened the door, while Kang Dae covered them from behind.

Cora studied her reflection in the shiny mirrored tiles at the entrance. 'I don't even look like myself in this get-up!' she thought, staring.

Earlier in the day, Yoongi had mentioned that the members were going to meet at a high-end BBQ place.

She glanced down at his oversized t-shirt that she had borrowed for pajamas. "Uh, how high-end? I don't really have anything to wear to a fancy restaurant, D," she had said.

He made a noncommittal face at her. "Not super fancy, but it's Michelin rated. You could just wear a dress or something." He set his notebook down on the breakfast table and smiled at her.

She made a 'yikes' face at him. "I don't have anything like that, even back at the hotel."

"We can go get you an outfit for tonight, if you like."

"My suitcase is already stuffed to the gills."

"Well, you can buy another luggage. Or you can just leave the clothes here for now. You don't have to take everything to Jakarta." He gave her his special gummy smile.

She stopped, feeling stunned for a moment. "Leave... leave them at your house?"

He nodded. "Yeah. We'll be coming back to Seoul for a few weeks before the final three shows. Why, does that feel strange, G?"

"I... yes, I guess I hadn't thought that far ahead..." she said, with a wide-eyed smile.

He studied her face quietly. "Well, it's not a big deal anyway. You could also mail the clothes to LA later, if you need to. Why don't we go get something as soon as you're done with your meal?"

She nodded and crammed the last corner of her toast into her mouth, washing it down with a final mouthful of coffee. "Alright, D, let me throw on some clothes and I'm ready. But first, let's ask your stylist noona Kyoung Eun what a grunge revival dress looks like. Do you have her number? Can you text her?"

He gummy-smiled at her. "We could do that, yes. Or we could not torture Kyoung Eun noona early in the morning, and just go see what they have at the store."

She shot him a skeptical look. "Well, I hope you know women's fashion trends, because I don't!"

"Everything at the store will be trendy. We just have to find the one that's as pretty as you," he said, tucking a lock of her hair behind her ear.

"Oof, you're such a cheeseball, D," she replied, leaning in to kiss him.

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

Now, she gazed at herself in the short red babydoll dress with the fluffy chiffon skirt, the wasp-waisted black leather bomber jacket that he had insisted on buying for her, and the strappy black heels. Yoongi was wearing a long leather coat and had slicked his hair back for the evening. 'He looks like the cop persona in the Haegeum video, and I look like the cop's girlfriend!' Cora thought, shaking her head slightly.

He met her eyes in the reflection and grinned. "What do you think, G?"

"I look weird. I look like a K-pop idol in this fit." She pouted slightly.

"I think you look gorgeous, as usual. We should get a photo to send to Nana!" he said, pulling his phone out of his pocket.

As they stepped out into the dining area, she heard Jimin's voice saying, "Oh, the mafia is here!" and she blushed.

Yoongi shot him a quelling look, and then grinned.

"Here are my dongsaengs! How are you? Are you healthy?"

The guys all exchanged greetings, and then Yoongi turned to her.

"Cora-shi, you already know Park Jimin and Kim Namjoon." She smiled and waved to each of them. "This is Kim Taehyung, and over here is Jeon Jungkook, our maknae."

She nodded respectfully to each of them and said hi. 'They both have such big round eyes!' she thought. 'I feel like a deer in the headlights!'

The two men stood and gave her slight bows. "Nice to meet you! Nice to meet you!" they murmured, politely shaking her hand. She was surprised that they both seemed shy.

Cora slipped off her jacket, and Kang Dae stepped forward to take it before sitting down at the next table with the other members of the security team. Yoongi pulled a chair out for her next to Namjoon, and took a seat on her other side. The maknae line sat across from them. 'It's so weird to hang out with all these ultra-polite guys,' Cora thought. 'Before I started dating Yoongi, I'd never experienced something like this before!' She glanced around the table.

"Goodness, this place is nice!" she said, looking at the homey wood accents and the quietly purring vent hoods. She saw that the picture windows overlooked the Han River and its sparkling bridges. "Such a pretty view!"

Taehyung looked at her earnestly. "And the food is very good. It's famous."

Cora gave him a wide-eyed look, and he smiled the boxy smile that she had seen so often in videos. Jungkook and Jimin smiled at her too, and she started to feel overwhelmed by their collective star power.

"Cora-shi, how are you enjoying the tour now? I heard that it was a bit of an adjustment at first," Namjoon said gently.

"Ah, it was a shock, Namjoon-shi, but I've adjusted. Just as Yoongi predicted, I'm really loving it now. I don't want to think about it ending!"

Namjoon smiled and nodded, then looked down at the menu. He smirked at the younger members and said, "Well, rich guys, should we just get two orders of Set 3 for the table? Since you're paying?"

Jungkook grinned and said, "Yeah! It's a party! But I'm not paying, it's the 95s' turn." Jimin and Taehyung laughed.

Yoongi reached out to take Cora's hand under the table, and eye-smiled at her.

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

Cora swirled the beer around in her glass, watching the bubbles rise up to the top. It looked pretty, but she didn't particularly want to drink it. The guys laughed and chatted together in Korean. She could understand about 20% of what they said, but the effort was pretty tiring, so she was beginning to tune out.

Yoongi glanced over at her and raised his eyebrows. "Are you bored, G? Are we speaking Korean too much?" She shook her head and smiled at him as the conversation ground to a halt around her.

"No, please everybody! Feel free! I'm happy just to be here and listen to your voices!"

Namjoon looked at her apologetically. "Ah, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I should translate!"

"Nah, no worries, Namjoon-shi. I don't know what you make per hour, but I definitely don't have enough money to hire you as an interpreter!" She laughed.

"We're reminiscing about the Yet to Come concert in Busan," he said, showing his dimples.

Jimin twinkled his eyes at her, and said in his slow, careful English, "Yeah. I really want to do a concert like that again. With all, with everybody!" He made a circular motion around the table. "Cora-shi, you will play bass, OK?"

She grinned at him. "I would love to, thanks!" She stretched and tried to grab a pickled perilla leaf off of the stack, but couldn't get it to separate from the others. Taehyung started to reach forward with his chopsticks to help her, but Yoongi instantly parried him away and picked up the leaf, depositing it on her rice for her. The entire table erupted in laughter and jeers.

"Oooh, Suga-shi, what was that?!" Namjoon teased him. "I thought it didn't matter at all!"

Yoongi pouted, his cheeks flushed pink. "It doesn't!" he grumbled. His brothers roared with laughter.

JK nodded knowingly. "See, everyone says they're fine, but when it really happens, they don't like it!"

Cora grinned at Taehyung. "That was a close call! If I remember right, once you peel a leaf for someone you have to hold hands and get married! You had a narrow escape!"

He laughed, and then asked Namjoon to translate. Namjoon told him what Cora had said. "He says he's willing to help any time!" Namjoon explained to her, cackling.

Yoongi gave him a death glare, but the younger man just stared at him straight-faced, then maintained eye contact as he picked up his cola and took a big swig. As Yoongi continued to glare, Taehyung began to giggle. "OK, OK, I will never separate a leaf again, I promise!" he said, laughing with his mouth wide open.

"Tae-Tae's living dangerously tonight!" Namjoon chuckled, then changed the subject.

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

Yoongi smiled softly over at Cora as she ran her fingers down his chest and belly.

"I had a really good time tonight with your brothers, D," she said, smiling.

"Yes, it was so fun to see them," he nodded, sighing and setting his book on the bedside table. He took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger, then set the glasses on top of the book. He turned on his side to face her. "Let's get you checked out of the hotel tomorrow morning, G. There's no sense in spending the company's money on a room when you can just stay here instead."

Cora grinned at him. "I think Hybe can afford it, D. And what if I want a massage and some time in the sauna?"

He laughed. "I can give you a massage whenever you like. And we're going to the tropics soon, so every time we go outside will be a sauna!"

She giggled. "I love that you're so frugal." She leaned over and kissed him on his collar bone. "We have three more days before we hit the road again. What are we going to do with all of our time?"

"Well, of course we have run-throughs every afternoon. We can't get rusty." He tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear. "But we can do whatever you want in the mornings and at night!"

She put on a sultry voice and said, "Ooh, well I know what I want to do all night!" She caressed his chest, then spoiled the sexy effect by snort-laughing at herself.

Yoongi laughed so hard that his eyes disappeared. "You're so crazy, G." He cupped her head in his hand and leaned in for a kiss. Pulling back, he continued, "So nights are decided. But what will we do in the mornings? Maybe that's when you could have your spa time at the hotel."

"What?! Are you nuts?! I want to spend that time with you, D!"

Yoongi sighed heavily. "First she wants a sauna, then she doesn't want a sauna. Aigo, this girl!" He rubbed his thumb softly across her cheekbone, gazing into her eyes.

"I know, let's learn a new hobby together!" Cora said brightly. "How about macrame? Or rock climbing? Or wood-carving?"

"Wood-carving hajima!" he yelled right on cue, and they both laughed.

"Or we could make another song," she suggested.

He raised his eyebrows and nodded. "Ah, yes. I do miss being in the studio! Let's do that."

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

A shrill rendition of Für Elise shattered the morning calm, signaling a visitor. Cora looked down in alarm and was relieved to see that she had both her pajama top and pants on correctly. She set her spoon down in her oatmeal and watched cautiously as Yoongi grumbled, stood up, and walked over to see who was ringing the doorbell at 9 am.

"Oh, shit, it's my mom!" he said, making a 'yikes' face at her.

"Does she know...?" she asked, panicking slightly.

"No, I haven't said yet!" he replied. Cora started to stand up so she could hide in the back of the house. "But you know what, G? It's OK. We're adults. She can just deal with it."

He hit the buzzer to let his mother in as Cora perched nervously on her seat.

"Oh, son, good morning, I am just in the city to go t... Omo. You have a guest. A young woman."

Cora stood and bowed politely.

"She's foreign, and she looks like an elf from those movies," Yoongi's mom observed. Yoongi choked back a laugh. "Does she speak Korean?"

"Some," he replied.

"Annyeong hasimnikka. Nae ileum-eun Cora." She bowed politely again.

Yoongi's mother just stared at her for a long moment, then turned back to him and observed, "Well, at least your children will be more attractive than mine are. Speaking of which, I'm here with my hiking club to try the new tasting menu at your brother's restaurant. I was going to invite you, but it looks like you are busy." She glanced disdainfully in Cora's direction.

'Jeez, now I know where Yoongi gets his death-stare,' Cora thought. 'This lady is a real piece of work!'

In a slightly quieter but still very audible voice, the older woman asked, "Is she from a good family, Yoongi? You can't bring them to your house if they might rob you."

"No, she's from a terrible family," he said, straight-faced. "But she'll inherit a lot of money one day, and Hybe is paying her well for playing on my tour, so I doubt that she will rob me." They stone cold stared at each other for a moment. Yoongi broke first, smiling and saying, "Well, we have macrame to make, and you should be with your hiking friends. Thanks for stopping by, mom! See you later!" He bowed and gestured toward the door.