Cora woke up Friday morning with the memory of the previous night's accidental peck on the lips seared into her brain, and felt hot, prickling embarrassment crawling up her neck to paint her whole face red. 'What if he thought I did that on purpose? Ohmygod, this is just mortifying! What if he decides that I'm some sort of desperate weirdo fangirl, and he deletes and blocks my number? Shit!' She groaned aloud in shame and frustration.

She let Satch out for his morning piddle break, still fretting. 'Dear gods, I'm not asking for a second date, if that even was a date. I just want to play on his tour! Please, please, let me not have messed everything up! Even just a few shows, I would settle for just any West Coast shows!' She groaned again and punched herself lightly in the forehead a few times.

Cora was in the studio when she felt her phone vibrate in her back pocket. She hoped that it was Yoongi texting her from the plane, but she was in the middle of a song and couldn't check. For the next hour it felt like Steve was deliberately torturing her by refusing to call a break. She was so distracted that she messed up two takes, which had almost never happened before. Steve looked both surprised and concerned, but he finally called for ten minutes.

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Yoongi smiled and pulled out his phone as soon as the captain announced that they had reached their cruising altitude. He hesitated for a long moment, trying to find the right casual and friendly tone in English.

Good morning, Cora, I wish that you are well today. Here is the raw file of the final, final take from last night. I listened again now, and it's good so I will also produce it when I arrive to Seoul, then send second version.

He attached a file named 'Cora's Song' and hit send.

She didn't reply right away. He stared at his phone for a few minutes, waiting, and then remembered that she had a recording session today. He set his phone down on the side tray table, trying not to check it more than once every few minutes.

'Maybe I freaked her out by accidentally kissing her on the lips, and she isn't going to answer. Or maybe last night was no big deal for her. Maybe she frequently has such dates with men.' That thought burned a bit, and he checked his message again, nodding to himself. 'My message is calm and professional, so it's OK if she didn't feel the same way I do. I don't have to be embarrassed.'

He knew that it wasn't logical, but he couldn't help feeling a bit peeved by the time he saw her name come up on the screen nearly an hour later.

Yoongi, thank you so much! I can't wait to listen to it! Steve is holding us hostage in the studio without any breaks this morning. 😂 I felt my phone vibrate, but he made us keep doing take after take.

Before he could even reply, she had sent another message, as well. I hope you're well today. How's the flight? I had so much fun last night! Thank you for a wonderful night out.

He grinned, every trace of irritation instantly erased. The flight is comfortable and fine. I'm sorry that Steve is cruel today! I really enjoyed, also. What are you playing today?

Oh, sorry, we have to start again. I will fill you in on all the details after we're done. Happy flying! Talk to you later!

Yoongi sent back a thumbs up emoji.

'Hmm, is that emoji OK?' he thought. 'I hope it doesn't seem cold. Should I send a smile, too? No, don't worry. What is wrong with me? I am overanalyzing everything today.' He puckered his forehead and his lips, then resolutely set the phone down and reclined his lie-flat seat all the way so that he could take a nap.

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Cora forced herself to wait until she was home for the evening before texting Yoongi again. She checked the world clock feature on her phone, and found that it was 12 pm the following day in Seoul. "Perfect, noon's a perfectly normal time to text someone!" she said to Satchmo. He raised his eyebrows at her, and sighed heavily. "Oh, you're right, he's probably jetlagged and tired from traveling. I might be disturbing him..."

She frowned down at the phone in her hand, still tempted.

"You know what? I'm going to do it anyway. If he's sleeping, he just won't answer, right?"

Hi, Yoongi-shi. I'm not sure how long your flight is or was, so maybe you're home now, but maybe you're still in the air. I hope it has been a pleasant trip. I listened to the song, and it really is good, isn't it? I can't wait to hear your fully produced version!

She bit her lower lip, and looked at the dog. "I don't know what else to say. Do I need to say something else? Ugh!" She jabbed the 'send' button and immediately wished that she could recall the message and add something else.

Hi Cora-shi. Just touched down at Incheon. The flight was uneventful. I have to walk through all the media now, but I will text you again when I have a time. Sleep well!

OK, good luck and I'll talk to you later!

Cora looked around the guest house and growled. She was restless, but the only thing she wanted to do was talk with Yoongi. 'I don't even want to watch videos of him and his bros. It's just too frustrating!' She paced around the room like a caged lioness. Satchmo didn't even lift his head, just followed her with his eyes.

Suddenly she decided that she should talk to Nana about the situation. She flung the door open to go to the main house, but then saw that all the lights were already off. "Dammit, she's in bed?" She exhaled noisily in frustration.

"Alright then, calling Carmen... Carmen, what are you doing right now? OK, pause your Netflix, I need relationship advice!"

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Yoongi had grown to depend on his text conversations with Cora each morning. She always had some funny anecdotes or quirky images from her day to share with him. One morning she sent a video of a whirling dust devil that she had seen in her neighborhood; the next, a series of close-up selfies of one of her eyes; and then a photo of an abandoned, half-eaten hotdog and a poem called Elegy for a Snack that she had written about it.

He got in the habit of staying in bed until he received her messages. 'I can't start my day without Cora!' he thought, grinning. 'She's better than a triple shot iced Americano.'

As much as he looked forward to their chats, though, he had to admit that she was pretty distracting. He wasn't making a lot of progress on writing the last few songs for his solo album, and the deadlines were drawing near. It was hard to put himself into the sad, traumatized mindset that he needed to be able to access, when she kept making him laugh and smile so much.

Finally, he made the painful decision that he was going to have to sequester himself until he got the lyrics done.

Cora-shi, I need to write my songs, so I am going to the mountains alone and force myself to write. I won't have my phone on for maybe few days or a week. I hope you will still send me a message everyday, and then I will see when I get back. I will miss you!

Hey, Yoongi-shi, OK, I understand. I hope that inspiration comes quickly - I will miss our conversations too! But the world needs to hear your solo album. Best of luck, and I will definitely write something to you every day!

He stared at her answer for a long moment, then squared his shoulders and started to pack up some recording equipment to bring with him.

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The knowledge that Yoongi really valued her random messages and wanted to hear from her even while he was in self-imposed exile inspired Cora to record a bunch of sounds, photos, and ideas the first day, and then put them together into a rather fantastic audio-visual collage that she titled A Day in the Life of a Weird American.

That evening she showed the collage to Nana, who looked at her with an expression of mingled pride and concern. "You're going to send this to that overseas boyfriend of yours?" she asked.

"Yup!" Cora replied, bouncing on the balls of her feet and grinning.

"Well... at least he'll know what he's getting into, if he ever decides to date you up close and personal someday!" Nana laughed and shook her head.

"HEY! What do you mean, Nana? I'm a delight!" Cora yelled, cackling.

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Yoongi crashed out the first evening at his mountain retreat, falling asleep almost as soon as he was done with dinner. When he woke in the morning, he automatically reached for his phone to see what Cora was up to, but then set it back down without powering it on.

'I have to stay strong. I have a job to do!' he thought, and fixed a quick breakfast before getting down to song-writing.

Inspired in part by the fact that he really wanted to talk to her, he finished all of one song and most of a second the first day. He had been planning to stay for several days, at least, but decided that he wanted to get back to the Genius Lab and record what he had just created.

The following morning, after less than two days away, he drove back to Seoul. It took considerable willpower to go to the studio first and finish recording Haegeum before he checked his messages. He had most of D Day written, but was still hung up on one verse. 'It will probably come to me tomorrow,' he thought. 'Now that the creative spirit is flowing, it should be OK. If not, I can go back to the mountains!'

When Yoongi got home late that evening, he opened his messages, starting with the older one first. It was titled "A Day in the Life of a Weird American," and featured Cora essentially narrating a video collage of her impressions and experiences for a day. He smiled fondly as she tried to climb a slippery palm tree, tsk-ed with concern when she accidentally inhaled a boba from her boba tea straw, and laughed until he cried as she and Carmen filmed a satirical, low-budget, aegyo version of the Fake Love music video. "This is something BTS would do," he said aloud, chuckling. "Cora and her friend also aren't right in the head!"

He opened the second, untitled message and was horrified to find a video of Cora devastated and crying. "Yoongi-shi, I'm so sad! Satchmo died last night! I woke up and he was at the bottom of the bed, all cold and stiff!" She buried her face in her hands and wept for a few minutes. "I... I don't know what else to say. Sorry, this isn't a fun message at all. I, uh, I hope your songs are going well. Bye." The video ended with a close up of her red-rimmed eyes and her nose swollen from crying.

He blinked his own tears away and tapped on his phone for a minute. Then he checked the time in California. It was 7 am, kind of early to be calling a working musician, but he decided to do it anyway.

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Cora was dangling listlessly in the hammock chair after a sleepless night. Nana had enlisted the help of her home care aide and the three of them had managed to dig a grave for Satchmo beneath the sycamore tree that shaded the backyard. She had sat vigil all night near his grave, and cried so much that she was dehydrated. 'I feel like a strip of smoked salmon, all shriveled and dry and salty,' she thought.

She sighed in irritation when her phone rang. "Hello?"

"Hi, Cora? It's Yoongi. I just saw your news of Satchmo. Are you OK?"

She thought she was all cried out, but the care and concern in his deep, gruff voice made her start all over again.

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Yoongi listened intently, making sympathetic noises from time to time, as Cora described getting tiny puppy Satchmo from a pet shop in Daegu. She told him about her decision to move to Los Angeles to live with Nana instead of moving with her parents to the base in Germany, and how lonely and isolated she felt trying to readjust to life in the US.

"You know, Satch was my only friend for the first year here, Yoongi," she said, and broke down again. "He was just the sweetest boy!"

Yoongi had to fight the strong impulse to drive to Incheon Airport and get on the next available flight to LA. "Cora, I wish I was there. I want to hug you and let you cry on my shoulder. Should I come to California now?"

She cried even harder. "No, no, you can't do that. You're very busy finishing your album. I will be OK, now that I can talk to you!"

"I wish I was vocal line. I want to sing Fix You for you," he said softly.

She sniffed hard. Before she could respond, Nana came hobbling to the back door of the main house and said, "Cora, you need to come in here!"

She mopped her tears away as best she could with the heel of her hand, and told Yoongi, "Nana's calling for me. Let's go see what she wants."

"Cora, look at this!" Nana said, pointing to an enormous floral arrangement that took up a quarter of the dining table. Cora looked at her quizzically. "A courier just brought them!" she explained with a shrug.

She walked over and looked at the card. It said, With love and sympathy, MYG. "Did you do this?!" she said into the phone. "Are these from you?"

"Oh, good, the flowers came?" he asked.

"It's not just flowers, it's a whole garden! This must have been crazy expensive! What the..."

"It's the least I could do, Cora-shi. I want to be there right now!" he said.

"Oh, they're so beautiful, Yoongi-shi. Lime green and purple gladiolus, white gardenias that smell like heaven, pink calla lilies, and ferns and eucalyptus leaves..." She sighed shakily. "Thank you so much. I actually do feel better, looking at them."

"Ah, that's good. That's good," he replied. "It's so hard when our pets go on before us."

She exhaled hard, her eyes drifting back to the note. 'With love?' she thought, and her half-broken heart skipped a beat.