Park Soomi

A comforting warmth brushed against the side of my cheek as I woke up to a squinted view of blurred shapes and the hazy glare of sunlight. But as the room came into focus, all I could see was Yoongi's face and the way the streaks of light accentuated his milky skin. I feverishly rubbed my eyes in silent disbelief, but the memories soon flooded back into my reality.

I slowly moved my hand, stealing another glance at Yoongi. I found myself smiling at the peacefulness on his face. It was a rare expression on him, considering everything on his plate.

I wanted to forget about the world, even for a brief moment, and do nothing but admire Yoongi, admire this rare stillness. But reality wouldn't let that happen. Time eventually caught up to me, and this passing time only cleansed my mind of distractions.

Was last night a mistake?

The question crossed my mind as Yoongi's eyes gradually opened, his gaze immediately meeting mine.

I quickly looked away, my ears turning red after being caught staring. But the fear of embarrassment was still not enough to make me forget about the sudden doubts and worries clawing at my conscience.

"Good morning." His raspy morning voice vibrated in my ears from the close proximity.

"Morning..." Now didn't feel like the right time to voice any of those concerns, but it seemed my efforts to conceal them fell short.

"Soomi? Is something wrong?"

"It's just..." I heavily sighed, trying to collect my thoughts. "What if you get in trouble? Could it be really bad?" Although I struggled at first to express my thoughts, once I started, it felt neverending. "And about what you said last night, too. I-I just never realized how important it was to you, how hard it must have been. I was selfish, expecting more than you could even give."

"Hey, no, that's not true. I was the one being difficult when I should've just talked to you. And you don't have to worry about anything. There's nothing to feel bad about." Even without saying a word about it, Yoongi still managed to sense my guilt, but his words made me feel a bit more at ease.  "And I don't regret last night at all."

I didn't realize that was what I needed to hear, the remedy to lift all this weight off my chest.

Maybe it was because my head was still stuck in the past, constantly haunted by the reminder of our first kiss, how it seemed like one giant mistake to him.

A mistake.

But maybe now was the time to stop living in the past, to let go of useless memories. I bit my lip, trying to suppress a smile as I thought about how things had changed. But as I recounted the previous night, I couldn't help cracking a smile.

Things felt so serious and intense at the time, but now, I couldn't help but find the argument amusing.

"You admitted you were jealous."

"What?" Yoongi seemed taken back by the sudden shift in topic. "Did not."

"Yeah, you did. You said, and I quote, 'I was so blinded by jealousy, I thought it'd be a good idea to look through your phone,'" I said with a teasing smile.

"Okay, I definitely did not use those exact words."

"Hmm, pretty accurate summary, though." I felt my smile grow wider as he grinned at me with a challenging gleam in his eyes.

"Fine. At least I wasn't caught staring at someone sleeping."

"Hey! You didn't say anything before. You don't get to bring it up now." I faked a pout, trying to look upset as he chuckled at me. As we laid here, staring at each other, it only took a second before I broke and laughed lightly with him.

I shook my head at him jokingly before turning onto my back. My hand instinctively reached out to the nightstand for my phone, but I ended up grasping at air.

"Oh, right, you threw away my phone. You know, you could've broken it."

"It's clearly fine, considering that thing was still buzzing even after I silenced it," Yoongi defended as I sat up on the bed. I could feel Yoongi's stare on my bare back as I grabbed some clothes and got dressed.

"Well, if it was buzzing that much, maybe I should've checked it. It could've been important." I circled the bed, scanning the floor for the device. It didn't take long before I found it in the corner of the room. My grip on the phone tightened in surprise as I read the message on the screen.

"It was Seokjin," I announced, and Yoongi quickly shot up, fully alert. "Hi Soomi, sorry I missed your calls. Things have been a bit hectic. I left a voicemail since you didn't pick up my calls, but in case you didn't get to it, I just wanted to tell you that I no longer plan to finish the album. Thanks for all your hard work. It was fun while it lasted, but I need to start focusing on other things again." I finished reading the message, and the two of us looked at each other in confusion.

"Why would he quit on the album so close to completion?" Yoongi asked. "He seemed really excited about it."

"I don't know. Guess he had other things to attend to," I muttered, a bit disappointed by the news, "but at least he's safe right? Guess I really was worried about nothing," I mumbled, feeling reassured. Everything really does seem to be falling back into place. Not a perfect fit, but at least back into place.

"Yeah, I guess I should let the other agent know he could stop watching Seokjin's apartment," Yoongi said as he looked around for his phone. As I picked it up from my desk and handed it to him, his expression grew serious. "I missed a message from my boss last night."

My lips parted slightly after hearing this, feeling that gnawing guilt resurfacing. What if it was important?

It seemed as though, while we gave in to a quick escape from reality, the rest of the world kept spinning, maybe even faster than before.

"Apparently, he wanted to talk to me about closing the case and the...personal request I made."

"What req—" I paused mid-question as realization struck.

Jimin's brother?

Before I had the chance to ask, a loud knocking interrupted us.

"Hey Soomi, you awake? I'm coming in!" Misa shouted from the other side of the door.

Yoongi and I stared at each other with wide eyes, and a split second later, Yoongi was hanging off the bed, hands groping around the floor for his clothes.

"Uh, wait one second, Misa! The door's locked!" I rushed towards the door, locking it just in time for Misa to start wiggling the doorknob.

"When do you ever lock your door?"

"Oh, you know, every now and then," I shouted towards her, but my eyes were urging Yoongi to hurry up.

"I can't find my shirt," Yoongi whispered.

"It doesn't matter. She can't see you here anyways." I frantically looked around, formulating a plan in my head. "Just get in here." I pushed Yoongi towards the closet, still trying to be as quiet as possible through all the chaos.

As I gently shut the closet, I felt like I could finally breathe again. I tried to take this opportunity to compose myself, but Misa's growing impatience wouldn't allow it.

"Girl, what the hell are you doing that's taking so—" Misa stopped mid-sentence as I swung the door open, and she greeted me with an uncomfortably large smile.

"Sorry, I needed to, umm, clean up."

"Why would you be cleaning up for me?" She questioned with a laugh.

"Uhh, the room was really a mess..." My voice trailed off, knowing my excuses made no sense. Misa started strolling around the room as if inspecting my "clean up" work. "So was there a reason you wanted to see me, or...?"

"Yeah, there was something I wanted to talk to you about, but that could wait— Oh look, seems like you missed something when you were cleaning." I finally noticed something hanging off the inside of my bedside lamp, and Misa pulled it out of the lampshade. My eyes widened after realizing it was Yoongi's missing shirt.

"Huh, why do you have a guy's shirt in your room?" Misa asked, holding up the piece of clothing.

"That, that is, umm, Taehyung's." In my state of panic, it was the first excuse that came to mind, and she shot me a questioning look. "He left it here when we were dating. It's just really comfortable to sleep in, so I didn't want to throw it out." Yeah, okay, that's pretty believable.

"So what's it doing in your lamp?"

Shit. That is kinda weird, huh?

"Oh, you know me. I'm just really...messy."

"Right." There was a little hop in Misa's voice, sounding unconvinced. I quickly changed the subject, hoping to distract her.

"But anyway, what did you want to talk to me about?"

"Let's talk later. I can see now's not a good time." Alarms quickly went off in my head, wondering if she figured out what I was hiding. But instead, she simply smiled. "Obviously you need to do some cleaning."

I internally sighed, but my heart rate skyrocketed once more as she reached for the closet.

"W-what are you doing?" I stuttered.

"What? I was just gonna put the shirt away for you."

"Thanks, but I-I can do that myself."

Her eyes darted between me and the closet briefly. "Yeah, gotcha," she replied with a wink, before approaching the door.

Shit, she totally knows. She totally knows.

Or maybe I'm just overreacting, right? Maybe she's thinking something else—

"Oh, and Soomi?" She turned back to shoot me a teasing smile. "Say good morning to Yoongi for me."

——
{a/n}
Hope you all enjoyed the lighter chapter. It was fun to write! But just remember, it's only the calm before the storm 😉

There was actually supposed to be more content, but it was getting a bit long so I've split it up to the next chapter. Will try to get it out within the next 2 weeks! Thanks for reading 💜