Yoongi got to the building about an hour before rehearsal was supposed to start, and wandered down the studio hall. He heard a roar of frustration from Namjoon, and went to knock on his door.

"Namjoon-ah, how's it coming?" he asked.

"I want to throw something against the wall, but I don't want to break my stuff," he laughed. "These lyrics just won't come to me!"

Yoongi nodded.

"How are you doing today, hyung?" Namjoon asked with a little smile.

Yoongi shrugged and sat down on the sofa, trying not to smile back. "I'm good."

Namjoon studied his face for a moment, then decided to address the elephant in the room. "I enjoyed meeting Cora-shi yesterday. She seems like a strong but kind person."

Yoongi made eye contact. "She is that, yes." He looked away. "I asked her to date me yesterday, and she said yes, but I have qualms."

"What qualms?" Namjoon leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees, all attention.

"She's seven years younger than me."

"We were only sevennnnn..." Namjoon sang, laughing.

"I'm going to military service soon. And... I've never even considered dating an American before." Yoongi looked at Namjoon again. "To be honest, I've always felt disdainful of Korean celebrities who date or marry foreigners. Where is your patriotism? Where is your pride? But here I am."

Namjoon nodded, and waited for Yoongi to go on.

"She is such a free spirit, Namjoon-ah. She doesn't care at all about the age thing. We haven't really talked about military service, but she doesn't seem fazed about that, either. If she was someone else, I would be suspicious that she just wanted to date with Suga of BTS at any cost, but I don't think she's like that... She seems really genuine. What did you think?"

"Well, I only spoke with her for a couple of minutes, but she struck me as someone who probably doesn't care about popularity or money. I can't imagine her being a gold-digger. I think she's... I think she's a true artist, hyung."

Yoongi couldn't help breaking into a gummy smile. "Yes. But she's still not Korean."

Namjoon laughed. "That's true. And there's nothing she can do about that!" He paused and smiled at his older brother. "If you feel like your spirits are reaching out to each other, even across that divide, then why would you deny it? It's so hard to find love these days, for anyone really, and even more so for us." Yoongi nodded. "If you want my advice, hyung, I would say don't lower all your guard right away, if you can help it, but give it a chance. Give her a chance. She might be exactly who you need."

"I'm trying to keep a level head, but she's... How can I describe her? She's enchanting." Namjoon broke into a full dimpled smile upon hearing this, and got a smile back from Yoongi in return. "I'm just afraid I will lose my head."

Namjoon nodded and said softly, "Maybe it's OK to let yourself fall. We have lived such constrained lives up to now. What's the worst that could happen? I mean, you could get hurt, but you'll just turn that into music." He gave Yoongi a look from under his eyebrows.

Yoongi inhaled. "The worst that could happen is that I could hurt her."

Namjoon reached over to clap a hand on Yoongi's shoulder. "That's always a possibility, when we love someone. Now, what did I just say? 'Spirits reaching across that divide...'" He spun around and rolled closer to his computer, starting to type furiously.

Yoongi shook his head. "Thanks, Namjoon-ah. Good talk."

"Mmm-hm," he replied, still typing, as Yoongi let himself out.

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

Cora followed Yoongi to his studio again after the last rehearsal. They had planned to listen to more music, but without discussion both sat down on the sofa instead. She leaned against him and smiled, and he wrapped his arm around her to give her a light squeeze.

"I can't believe that I have to leave tomorrow," Cora said, sighing.

Yoongi gave her a pouty face, and she giggled. "Yes, it's too bad. But I will come to New York and meet you in two weeks."

She nodded and laid her head on his shoulder. "Two weeks seems like a really long time! I'm tempted to just miss my flight, but I know you have a million things to do before the tour."

Yoongi sighed and kissed the top of her head. "I'm sure your Nana misses you, too," he said.

Cora laughed. "I don't know, I think she's pretty jealous. She has been a Suga bias since 2017 or something, you know. I might go home and find all of my things thrown out on the sidewalk!" They both chuckled at the idea.

"Well, tell her that I'm a Nana bias, too," Yoongi said, grinning.

"WHAT?!" Cora said, sitting up straight in outrage. "You can't be a Nana bias! You're my guy!"

He laughed heartily. "OK, double bias, then."

Cora huffed in exasperation and glared at him in side-eye. Yoongi picked up her hand and kissed it gently, eye-smiling at her. She pulled it away and punched him softly on his right shoulder. Suddenly she scoffed. "This is so ridiculous. I'm pretending to be jealous of my Nana, when my boyfriend literally has a Guinness Book of World Records entry for getting more than a million marriage proposals in one day." She rolled her eyes and laughed.

"It doesn't mean anything, though, you know. Those people don't know me."

Cora studied his face. "You are pretty damn incredible, Yoongi-shi. I bet most of them would still want to marry you, if they knew you." She grinned, but he just shook his head and stroked her honey-colored hair.

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

Yoongi woke with a start, his shoulder aching slightly, and looked around confused. Cora sighed in her sleep and shifted against his side, her arm thrown across his chest. 'We fell asleep here?' he thought. He looked over at Cora's face. 'Her eyelashes are very long. She looks so innocent when she sleeps...' He felt a catch in his throat. 'How did she not fall off the edge of the sofa? It's quite narrow.' He gently laid his hand over her arm, to catch her if she started to fall, and listened to her slow, even breathing.

Suddenly he remembered that Cora had a flight to catch at 12:15 pm. 'Shit, what time is it?!' he thought, feeling around for his phone. '8:40 am. But she needs to pack her things and get to the airport.'

"Cora." He gently rubbed her arm. "Cora, you need to wake up. You have to go to the airport."

Cora grumbled something and buried her face in his shoulder. He laughed softly.

"You will miss the airplane. Wake up!"

Cora suddenly sat bolt upright. "Shit, what time is it?!" she said, fully awake and panicking. "I have to go!" She swung her feet to the floor.

"It's 8:43," he told her. "You can still make it. I'll call Jiwon-hyung to give you a ride." He sat up and dialed his manager's number.

Cora was ruffling her hair and blinking her eyes, dazed. Yoongi started to laugh again.

"How are you so cute when you wake up suddenly?" he asked her.

She made grumpy duck lips at him, and then leaned over to kiss his cheek just as Jiwon answered the phone.

"Ten minutes? OK. Yes, hotel first, then Incheon. Thank you, hyung."

Cora walked over to the door to pull her boots on and grab her bass. Yoongi followed her. Cora smiled and draped her arms around his neck. "We're the same height, when you're barefoot and I have my boots on!" she said.

"Very convenient," he smiled, leaning in to kiss her. "Mmm, I'm going to miss you."

"I'm going to miss you, too." She kissed him again as his phone began to buzz in his pocket.

"I think your ride is here sooner," he told her, pouting and wrapping his arms tighter around her waist.

"No, I changed my mind, I'm not going," she said, smiling at him.

"Your Nana will be sad. You have to go. But I'll be there before you know."

She nodded, gazing into his eyes. "Before I leave, I have to tell you something."

Yoongi went really still. "What is it?" he asked, worried.

"I love you, Min Yoongi," she replied.

His entire face and neck flushed bright red and he started to stutter. "I, uh, ah..."

Cora put her finger across his lips. "Don't say it back, it's just in case my plane crashes and I never have another chance to tell you."

"CORA! Don't say this! I need to get you an amulet charm paper before your flight now, and there's no time!'

She laughed. "Nah, just kiss me once more for good luck, and I'll see you in New York!" she said.

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

Yoongi really did have around a million things to do before the tour, but it was early in the day. He flopped down on the sofa again and stared up at the ceiling. The butterflies swirling in his stomach didn't all seem to be tour-related...

He pulled his phone out of his pocket.

Text me as soon as you land safely, please.

Will do. 😘

Cora?

Yeah?

I love you too.

She sent him back a selfie from the SUV, sticking her tongue out like the guy from KISS and doing a rocker devil-horns hand sign. Yoongi laughed hard and shook his head.

"My girlfriend is a little bit crazy," he said, and then got goosebumps from calling her that.

He closed his eyes, and drifted back to sleep.

When Jungkook stopped by later that afternoon to see how tour prep was going, he found Yoongi monitoring tape of himself and some woman laughing and chatting while recording a song in an unfamiliar studio.

Yoongi closed the video hastily. "What's up, Jungkook-shi?"

"Hi, hyung. Who's the girl?!"

"That's the bass player for my tour," Yoongi said with a don't-ask-questions look.

JK grinned. "So, everything is almost ready?"

Yoongi groaned and rubbed his face with his hands. "No, not really. Nothing is ready! I have so much to do, I don't know what to do first!"

"OK, then come have some hwae dup bap with me, hyung!"

Yoongi stood up and stretched. "That sounds good. I haven't eaten anything yet today."

JK studied the new illustrations on the studio wall. "These are really good. Who made them?"

"Ah, an American girl I know."

JK opened his mouth to ask a follow-up, but closed it again when Yoongi-hyung gave him scary side-eye.