I stayed at Rina's house that night, like Yoongi had asked me to. We didn't talk much, just sitting on the couch and watching some action movie, while I made myself a cup of my Mum's style spiced tea and poured Rina a glass of milk. 

She poked fun at me for switching over to tea, but even that sounded cautious and halfhearted, as if she was worried that even teasing me could cause me to break down. I felt quite over what had happened, suddenly, detached from it as if it had happened to someone else and not me, like I had seen it in a movie.

I sipped the hot tea slowly, letting the spices fill up my body, warming me to my toes. It was late enough here to call my parents, but I put my phone away after texting them that I was planning to call them the next morning, night for them. 

I snuggled into the thick blanket on the couch next to Rina, watching the hot lead actor dodge bullets and run, and do these flawless air flips and weird gymnastic shit. 

I snorted at how unrealistic it was, and thought about how funny it would have been to watch all my friends' reactions to it, and suddenly my mind turned to Taehyung... Taehyung! What had happened to him? What did he say to Daehyun? Where was he staying? 

Overflowing with questions, I reached out and grabbed my phone. On the lock screen I had three messages from Daehyun. Without bothering to open our chat, I blocked him, and then opened my chat with Taehyung.

We hadn't texted for a long while; the last texts there from a month ago, when he had wished me for my birthday, and then two more months before that, when I had wished him. I started to write a message at least four or five times, but ended up deleting everything and starting over. What should I even say?

Hey, thanks for sending Rina over to the restroom to check on me. Hope you're okay? Nope, definitely not.

Thank you for potentially stopping Daehyun from coming after me and maybe stopping me from actually getting assaulted? No.

I took a deep breath and was about to type something in again, when the screen turned grey. At the top was Taehyung's name. He was calling me?

I clicked on the green icon multiple times.

"Hello?"

"Hey, y/n."

"Uh...hi." You said that already, stupid, I told myself.

"Just wanted to check up on you. Make sure you're okay," he said softly.

"Oh...yeah, I'm fine Taehyung, thank you"

"That's good." He said quietly.

There was some silence and I figured he was about to end the call, so I asked quickly, "Taehyung?"

"Yeah?"

"When you went to get Daehyun... what happened? Are you...okay?"

"I'm fine, y/n, don't worry about me, and he's fine too, its not like I hit him or anything. He was coming after you, and I held him back, that's all."

That's all? He stopped him from coming into the restroom after me. I didn't even think of that then, that he might follow me. 

I had locked the door, but in a closed room, alone with a dude...oh god, the things that could've happened... I squeezed my eyes shut, refusing to continue that train of thought.

The words were out of my mouth. "Thank you, Taehyung. If you hadn't done that, if you hadn't told Rina, I don't know what would've happened. It could've been horrible. Thank you."

"It's no problem, y/n. Just try and forget about it for now, okay? Try and get some sleep. Tomorrow's a different day, so just try and forget about anything that happened today. I'll see you tomorrow, good night." He cut the call without even letting me reply.

"Goodnight," I said, even though the call was ended.

Rina looked at me quizzically. "What was that?"

"Nothing. Taehyung just called to check on me, make sure I was okay. I was worried about what happened to him with Daehyun, but he insisted that it was nothing."

Rina switched off the tv and I got up to help her drag a mattress onto the floor, where I would sleep. 

We got the mattress in place, and she passed me Snowy, her white stuffed seal toy. He was at least three feet long, and fluffy as hell. I slept with him every time I stayed at her house as a replacement for my cat and pig stuffed animals, which I had trouble falling asleep without. Yes, I sleep with two stuffed animals because it's more comfy, sue me.

I crawled into the covers, and Rina sat next to me, stroking my head like my mum used to when I was small. I pretended to fall asleep quickly so that she would go and get some sleep herself, but after she went away I lay awake for another half hour or so, staring at the ceiling and forcing myself to think about all the positive memories I had made that morning, laughing and playing games with all my friends. 

Yoongi was actually happy with the hoodie I had got him, and his vinyl was delivered at my apartment earlier that evening while we were at the bar- I'd give it to him tomorrow after work.

His sister and parents were coming tomorrow too, so he had plenty to be excited about. Eventually I drifted off to sleep, dreaming pleasant and calming dreams.

As soon as I woke up the next morning, I knew I was in trouble. The sun was up, way higher than it was at my usual sunrise-time. I looked over at the clock on the wall, and read a bit past eight thirty.

Eight thirty. Shit. I was going to be late for work.

Without bothering to wake Rina up, or even take another picture of her sleeping, I ran to the bathroom to get ready. I brushed my teeth in such a rush, then took a quick shower. Once that was done, I began hurriedly combing out the knots in my hair, while looking for some clothes I could wear to work. 

I took the same jeans I wore last night and pulled them on, since all Rina's pants were either way too long for me, or way too tight. I grabbed a plain white blouse from the back of her closet and put it on. Thankfully it wasn't too wrinkled, so I took my beige full-length jacket and wore it over. 

Walking into the kitchen, I took a few fruits and was looking in the fridge for something even mildly edible that wasn't sweet when Rina came out, still in her nightshirt and shorts. She was holding my black top from yesterday, which I had left in the bathroom.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm late for work," I snatched the top out of her hands and stuffed it into my bag hastily.

"Shit. I forgot you had to go to work. I'll get you breakfast during your break, go ahead you'll be late otherwise."

"But I'm hungry now," I whined. This was the problem caused by being used having a large, healthy breakfast early every morning.

"I know, but you'll be late. Eat the fruits on your way, and then you can have more food later."

I pulled away the peel of the tangerine I was holding and stuffed a piece in my mouth.

Eight forty five.

I flew out the door and down the stairs, onto the sidewalk, running in the direction of a public transport stop. Somehow I managed to get to work only five minutes late, and not even that hungry.

The day went by like normal, except that I actually had something to look forward to afterwards.

 Yoongi and I were going to pick his parents and sister up from the airport. I had told him that it was my brother we were picking up, when in reality it was his family. 

I couldn't wait to see his reaction, since he had told me a while back that it had been a really long time since he had seen his family, and he really missed them.

After work I went to a cafe a block away, and called Yoongi. After sharing my location with him, I texted his sister to let her know that we were going to leave soon (which I later realised was completely pointless because she was on a plane and wouldn't see the message until she landed). 

A few minutes later, Yoongi's car pulled up in front of the cafe, and I rushed out to get into the car. Unfortunately, my usual shotgun seat was taken by someone else. Taehyung.

"Hi, y/n!" He said cheerfully. The boy looked so happy that I couldn't bring myself to kick him out of the front seat.

"Hi, Taehyung," I grumbled, climbing into the middle row seat. Yoongi laughed at my annoyance at the front seat being taken, and I was confused when Taehyung got out of the front seat and opened the door to the back, where I was sitting.

"Yoongi told me that you liked sitting in the front, you wanna sit there? I don't mind sitting in the backseat."

"That's okay, Taehyung. It's fine."

Instead of going back to the front like I expected him to, he slid into the seat next to me. "Might as well keep you company, then," he whisper-shouted. "Yoongi is hella boring when he drives."

I smiled and leaned back against the car seat.

"So how come you're coming to the airport, Tae?" What I was really asking was if he knew from the other boys that we were picking up Yoongi's family.

"Oh, you know, I'm just dying to meet your brother," he said sarcastically, making me laugh. Over the next hour we chatted nonstop, and I felt so good, like this new version of Taehyung, so different from the one I knew before, actually understood me.

On pulling up at the airport, I dragged Yoongi to the waiting area for arrivals. Taehyung went to buy some food from one of the places nearby. Finally, after about ten minutes of tiptoeing to get a clear view of the people arriving, they came. 

His sister's and his face lit up at the same time when they made eye contact, and she started running towards us, grinning. 

I squeezed Yoongi's hand, and then went looking for Taehyung to give the family some time alone for their reunion. I found Tae outside a little stall, stuffing onions into his jacket pocket.

"They're my secret stash," he explained at my mock patronising look, but gave me a bit before we began heading to the car.

We helped the family load their stuff into the car, and then Tae and I crawled into the very back, so Yoongi's parents could sit in the middle, and his sister in the front seat, next to him. The two of us stayed silent through most of the ride, occasionally answering some questions from his parents. 

It warmed my heart to see the family so happy to be together, and I found myself missing mine even more than usual. After going back home, I called my brother, and later we added our parents to the call as well. We talked for almost two hours, after which I went to bed, excited for the next day as I had plans with friends.

***

After work the next day, Jungkook picked me up, and we went to get Rina as well. We walked the whole way, so we had plenty of time to talk.

"So, kookie," I nudged him, smirking. "What do you think about Rina?"

"Huh?" The blush in his cheeks was faint, and could be put down to the slight chill in the early evening air, but I knew better.

"Oh yes yes yes!" I squealed, excited. Call me immature, but this was amazing. I am that one friend, sue me, that loves setting others up. My matchmaking skills are incredible.

"How do you know? Even I didn't know for sure, until like yesterday."

"Ohohohoho this is going to be awesome," I said, rubbing my palms together. "Wait... what happened yesterday?"

"Rina, Jimin, and I bought ice cream, and then Jimin met this other person and so started talking to her, and so we just spoke for a couple of minutes. You know how the boys and I aren't really so close to her like we are to you, so we hadn't spent much time together yet, and I thought yesterday was really fun. I think I like her."

I bit my lip to stop myself smiling, but failed. 

"I mean it's not like huge, or anything," he disclaimed, watching my grin grow even more, "but I'm quite sure I do. I just need to spend some more time with her, I guess, to be sure."

My whole body was tingling with the excitement of setting them up. But did she like him back? She'd never said anything to me about him, and I'd never really picked anything up, even though we could practically read each other's minds. I mulled over ways to ask her about how she felt about Jungkook without making it obvious that he liked her.

Jungkook put his arm across my shoulders. "So, turns out you were right about the whole Yoongi thing. He doesn't like you in that way. Turns out he's as much your brother as I am. More, probably."

"Told you so," I said.

"Well, it wasn't my idea in the first place. It was Jin hyung's, and then I became really sure of it."

"Hm."

Jungkook's phone began ringing obnoxiously loudly, startling an elderly couple walking in front of us. They glared at me while he fumbled with his phone to pick up the call. The caller id said 'v'.

"Hyung?"

I heard some unintelligible mumbles over the line.

"Oh, yeah, sure. I was just going to the park with Rina and y/n, you can join us there?" He looked over at me as if he was confirming that I was fine with that. 

Of course, I mouthed. "Great, that's perfect, we will probably be there in another ten minutes, so we can meet you there. Uh-Huh, yep. Sure, hyung. See you."

We reached Rina's building, and I called her from downstairs. She rushed down a minute later, clutching her bag, her hair in a bit of a mess after she had quite obviously pulled her hoodie on extremely hastily. 

Her skinny legs were sheathed in skinny jeans, which still did not outline her legs properly. They were about an inch too short, and I could see her fluffy socks sticking out between her shoes and the bottom of her jeans to help her with the cold. 

To me, it was simply a very amusing image to see my best friend all messy and adorable, but when I glanced over at Jungkook, expecting to be looking at her in an endeared way, he looked more analytical, like he was trying to figure her out. Hm. I could work with that.

The three of us walked to the park together, except unlike usual, where I walked in the middle, I stayed to Rina's right side, and Jungkook was on her left.

 We made normal conversation as we walked, and reached the park less than ten minutes later. Once we got there, we sat down on a little bench and Rina began to pull out an array of snacks from her bag and passed them to both of us, and then opened a little bag up for herself.

We were munching contentedly when Tae ran upto us, his breath making little puffs in the cool air.

"Hyung! Hi"

"Hi"

"Hey, Tae."

"Hello y/n"

"Good to see you, Taehyung"

"Yep, likewise," he said to Rina, panting.

I suddenly had an idea. I just need to spend some more time with her, I guess, to be sure, kookie had said. "Hey, Tae, you said you wanted to talk to me that time, right?"

"Huh? No," he looked at me, confused.

"Tae, don't you remember?" I got up and walked over to him, trying to communicate with my eyes what I was trying to say.

"No, what do you- OH!" His eyes went big and round as he understood me finally.

"Yeah, you remember now?"

"Uh-Huh, yeah I needed to talk to you about something. Right. I did. I told you that." I rolled my eyes and dragged him away by the arm. We began walking away quickly, and then slowed down our pace once we were a little bit away.

"So...Jungkook and Rina, huh?"

"Well, yeah. Jungkook is still figuring out if he really likes her, so I figured we'd let them talk for a bit so he can figure out his feelings, you know?"

"You're a great friend, y/n."

His complement took me by surprise.

I blushed. "Thanks," I didn't know what to say to that. We walked in silence for a little bit, close to one another. It was getting steadily colder, and I could see Taehyung's breath coming in little puffs in the air. 

We took a walk on the longest path all around the park, which was easily the prettiest. Spring wasn't fully here here, so the flowers weren't completely bloomed, but the view was beautiful nonetheless. 

I brushed my fingers along some of the bushes as we walked past them, and made a point to observe and appreciate each plant we passed, just like my mum would tell me to, back when we would go on those early morning walks through Central Park, at her place. 

As the time passed with us walking, the silence became more and more obvious, but somewhere along the line Taehyung picked up on that, and asked me about my weird habit of stopping at random points along the path. 

I explained to him about how my mum would tell me about different plants back when I was a little kid, and that I was stopping every once in a while to see if I could remember a particular one, and especially when I didn't- I liked to observe the unfamiliar ones.

"It's weird, I know," I said. That was actually the first time I'd said anything about it. I mean, Rina had seen me stop at random places on the sidewalk to look at butterflies or plants or seeds or just any random thing, but she just considered that the usual and never mentioned it. 

Nobody had ever asked where that habit came from. I guess I never found the need to tell, either.

"Nah, I get what you mean, that's totally...like, I get it. So, like, do you know everything about plants?"

"No, definitely not."

"What's that plant over there?" He asked, pointing.

It was a rose bush. I stared at him.

"Are you serious? Those are roses"

He grinned. "See? You do know everything about plants."

"You're such a dork."

He giggled quietly, a light airy sound, and continued walking. I ran a bit to keep up with his quick pace, but he slowed down as soon as he noticed that I was struggling to match his strides.

Five minutes later, we had completed a full round of the park, and returned to find Rina and Jungkook engrossed in conversation. 

They barely acknowledged Tae and I, only followed us as we walked out of the park and down the street, but they kept a few feet of distance from the two of us, and spoke in hushed tones, so I could not understand what they were saying. 

Finally, at the intersection, Rina came to me. She was staying at my place, even though it was a weeknight.

"See you, y/n, Rina," Taehyung called out. "Yall wanna meet tomorrow?"

"Hyung, you're not here tomorrow," Jungkook said irritably. "You have to go to your meeting thing."

"Oh, right," Tae groaned dramatically. "The stupid sale thing, ugh. I don't know if I can close it, that guy is way too stubborn about the discount. Honestly, I'd love to give it to him, but then I would probably lose my job."

I had completely forgotten about the fact that Taehyung was only here on work, and not to stay. The sudden realisation made me feel a bit empty in my stomach, sad about the fact that he would only be here for another few days.

"Tae, when are you leaving?" I asked. The question seemed to startle him.

"Um...four days from now, Saturday afternoon." he replied.

I didn't really know what to say, and it was seriously getting cold. "Okay, um, see you guys soon, then."

"Bye Jungkook, bye Taehyung," Rina called out to them as we set off back to my apartment.

***

Once we got home, I shrugged out of my jacket, pulled off my socks and shoes, and went straight to the bathroom. I washed up and came back out to get my clothes for a shower, and found Rina laying on my bed on her phone, looking at some art inspo things on Pinterest.

"Dude! Get off my bed!"

"Whyyy?" She whined. I pushed her with all my strength and she almost rolled off my bed.

"You haven't showered yet, and we were just out. Now you're dirty and you're on my bed." I pushed her again and she rolled off the bed and thumped on the ground. She continued just scrolling through her phone, laying on the floor as if nothing had happened. 

 I sighed, and walked over to my closet to get my pyjamas. I pulled out my gray pajama pants and an old black t-shirt of my brother's, and another T-shirt and pair of sweats for Rina. Taking my clothes, I went into the bathroom for a shower. I came out feeling refreshed and relaxed, and Rina went for her shower.

I was in the kitchen making Rina and I cup of green tea when my phone buzzed. It was all the way in my bedroom, so I just let it be, and continued making the tea. Then it buzzed again. And again. And again. 

I let out an annoyed sigh and went to pick it up. There were sixteen messages from Taehyung. I opened our chat, and saw to my intense annoyance, that each text was only a few words long. I mean, I texted like that, but when someone else did it it was just annoying.

Today, 6:57pm

Tae: hey y/n

I was thinking

I'm trying to close this huge sale on friday

There's a dinner party with the client

Yk how my dad is like the dude in charge of the company now

He told me to bring a guest to look more formal

I wanted to bring Yoongi bc hes formal but he's busy

Jungkook won't look formal smh

Jin and namjoon are attached to each other I can't take both

Jimin is out on work

Hoseok hyung is checking if he can make it

In case he can't I'm asking yuo

*you

Can you come?

Pls let me know.

I will send details of venue in a sec.

I walked back to the kitchen, where the water for my tea was boiling, and switched it off. I was supposed to go for an extra long run on friday evening, but it's not like I couldn't do that the next day, or any other day for that matter. 

 I was about to go knock on the bathroom door to see how much longer Rina was going to take when my phone started ringing loudly. 

I jumped, almost dropping it and smacked the screen to make it stop. The ringing stopped and I left my phone on the counter, walking towards the bathroom.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" I was so startled by the voice that I tripped over nothing and stumbled before running to pick up my phone. On the screen I could see Taehyung on the other end of the guest room in Jungkook's apartment. He was wearing a light blue T-shirt and a pair of black shorts, and was rifling through the clothes in a big black suitcase on the floor.

"Tae! I'm so sorry I thought I had declined the call!" Hearing my voice, he got up and walked towards his phone, picking it up.

"Oh...you're not coming?"

"Huh?"

"For the dinner thing."

"Oh! Um- I can come, if you like, but-"

"Yessss!" He shouted, pumping his fist in the air and moving his phone around like crazy, blurring his image. "Hear that Jungkook- ah? I told you she'd say yes! Now won't have to go alone! Now it won't be boringgg." He looked back at the camera, smiling. "Thank you y/n! I'll send you the details after this ok?"

"Tae, what exactly is it? Like how important is this sale? How big is the party? How high class will the people there be? How formal?" What I was really asking was how formally I would have to dress.

He smiled and said that he would check everything about the event and let me know.

"It's a sale that I plan to close completely on Saturday morning, formal but not like a tux event or something. More like a nice button down shirt and pants and you can just wear like a nice top and pants. I'm so excited now that I won't have to go alone for like three hours. Thank you y/n!"

I smiled at his sweet and genuine excitement at such a small thing. "No problem, Tae." I heard the bathroom door unlock, and I told him, "ok I gotta go, see you!"

"Bye!"

He ended the call just as Rina walked out of the bathroom, her hair all ruffled up. "Who were you talking to?" She asked curiously.

"Tae," I said, trying to sound nonchalant.

"Hm," she said, going to sit on my bed. "What's up with you guys? Last I checked, you guys could hardly stand each other."

"What? We weren't close before, true, but we never hated each other!" I was surprised that she thought that. Taehyung wasn't really a close friend, but I'd never really disliked him that much...

"Suit yourself," she said. "Oh, by the way, can I stay here friday night? My neighbour's cousin is coming over to her house, so" she made a poof gesture with her hands. 

I laughed lightly- Rina's neighbor's little cousin would come to visit once every few weeks, and, I know, it's not nice to judge people, but she was a nightmare. 

Spoiled sick, and assumed that the world revolved around her. She's what- nine years old? But she acted like one of those sixteen- year- old high school cliché bitches. 

She visited Rina every time as well, coming into her apartment to critique her artwork, even though she clearly wasn't welcome. 

The last time she visited, I had been at Rina's apartment for the night, and she literally commented, shaming my both Rina and my body in the process, on the fact that Rina was skinnier than I was! The audacity- like, excuse me, child, but I know at least twenty different ways that I can whup your ass, so you can just-

"Y/n? Can I? Ooh we can do movie night, it'll be fun"

"Uh...you can stay here, sure, but I'm not gonna be home," I said in the most normal tone as possible. "I'll be back a bit late."

"How late are we talking? I don't think you should go anywhere alone at night, friday you can't even ask Yoongi to be with you, he's busy."

"I won't be alone," I blurted out before I could come up with anything. "I'll be with Tae."

She raised her eyebrows. "Tae? And where might the two of you be going?" She made it sound scandalous, which I'm sure made me blush.

"He has a..." I was about to say a thing, but that would just sound weird, so I continued, saying "a sale closing. He asked me to go to the dinner with him to look formal."

Rina didn't look convinced. "Ah. He asked you to go to dinner with him... for a sale closing. Right."

"Shut up," I said, smacking a her face with a pillow and running away before she could hit me back. I jumped into my couch and turned on the tv, and by the time that she sat next to me a minute later, the could- have- been pillow fight was already forgotten.