Date: January 10th
Time: 9:51pm
Location: Outside the godforsaken florist shop
Mood: Furious
<><><>

That was her Baek Hyeon.

The scene playing out before her eyes wasn't real. It couldn't be.

Anger and heartbreak like she'd never experienced or even known was possible pressed down on her chest so hard that she forgot to breathe. That ringing sound was back and it was all she could hear. The world around them faded away until it was just she and them. Y/n on the outside looking in on something that was supposed to be hers but despite the physical distance, she would never be able to reach.

That fatherly affection on his face was so familiar and should have produced feelings of security and joy. But that look wasn't for her. It was for someone else. Her little buddy. Her Baek Hyeon.

Her brother. Now it clicked. The reason he felt familiar. It wasn't because he reminded her of himself. It was because he was a younger image of the man that had ruined her life. Those eyes of his that she had thought of as silver, were actually grey. Just like his. Grey eyes weren't common. She should have connected the dots sooner.

This was exceedingly cruel and unfair.

She had thought she knew pain. That assumption was so wrong it was almost comical. Baek Hyeon shouldn't be that happy. Not with him. He was a destroyer of happiness and would ruin his childhood. That man would only hurt him, father or not. He didn't deserve someone like that swine of a parent.

Watching them interact was hard enough. But it was the scarlet zinnia he offered to the little boy that sent her over the edge.

Next to her Hyuna was trying to catch her attention by tugging on her arm and saying something. But she didn't make sense. Nothing made sense anymore. All she was aware of was the hot flames of a temper rarely stoked burning away at her self control.

With little effort she broke free from Hyuna's hold on her arm and began to search the surrounding area for something to use. Something, anything to hurt him. By the time her eyes landed on a palm sized rock, she'd lost all control over the actions. The only thing she was able to consciously do was seek out Baek Hyeon once more to make sure he wasn't in the line of fire, but there was no need. He and everyone else was out of sight.

"Oh, shit!" Hyuna cursed as Y/n reared her arm back and threw the rock as hard as she could. The impact produced a fissure in the large window of the shop. It wasn't enough. Fueled by years of built up resentment, she reached for another and flung it harder. A series of cracks spread like spiderwebs across the window and the sound encouraged her for more violence.

Hyuna was way ahead of her. Suddenly she found herself upside down over her friend's shoulder as she carried her off as quickly as she could, all the while muttering a constant, "shit shit shit shit shit shit!"

The smaller woman yelped and fought against her hold. "Let me down! Put me down RIGHT NOW!"

"Fuck that! You wanna go to jail, Velma?"

"I don't care!" She argued. The image of Baek Hyeon's innocent face contorted with grief caused by him sprung into her mind. Wrath blinded her common sense. "I'll kill him! I'LL KILL HIM!"

"Alright, calm down, John Wick." Her breath came out in heavy pants and Y/n would have felt bad if she had been able to realize that fact. She twisted her head to try and catch a glimpse of them once more but Hyuna had gotten them out of the area so quickly that they were almost back at the car.

"Let go of me!!"

"No."

Although her reply had been in the negative, a moment later she did just that. Y/n stumbled when the world righted itself and she was once more on her feet. But Hyuna didn't let her go. A strong hand wrapped around her wrist while the other was set on her own knee as she bent double, coughing and gasping for air at the sudden burst of exercise.

"Why-" she wheezed and her shoulders shook as she fell into a coughing fit.

Seeing her friend in physical distress didn't completely snap her out of her rage, but it did give her pause. "Unnie-?"

"WHY," she repeated and looked up from her bent position, "are you so dense??"

"Huh?"

"WHY ARE YOU THAT HEAVY? YOU'RE HALF THE SIZE OF AN M&M!!" Her voice cut off to begin coughing once more.

And her temper was back with the perceived insult. "ARE YOU CALLING ME FAT?"

"No, you stupid bitch! I'm saying you're heavy as fuck!!"

"Don't call me stupid! Not with those eyebrows!"

"YAH! What's wrong with my eyebrows?!? Never mind, just get in the fucking car."

"Unnie-" her mouth snapped shut as everything ran through her mind once more.

Baek Hyeon was her brother. The father that only brought tremendous pain, was his father as well. That scarlet zinnia he offered to his son was the same flower he used to bring home for Y/n, Seo-Joon, and their mother. It was the perfect gift for family because of it's meaning. Lasting love and affection. Instead she had learned that nothing in this world lasted. Not even the love of a parent.

He would hurt Baek Hyeon. He would hurt his current wife. That was something she was absolutely sure of. All because of that scarlet zinnia. There was no way he could look at that flower and not remember his two other children. No way.

"Hey." Although she was still trying to catch her breath, Hyuna tended to her friend and embraced her tightly. "We can cry and scream our hearts out, but first let's get outta here, k? Unless ya wanna get arrested for destruction of property."

"Murder."

"Eh?"

"I want to kill him. Not hurt his things."

"Yeah?" Hyuna asked worriedly. "You're kinda scaring me right now."

She was scaring herself. Later she wouldn't remember half of what she she had done. That was usually the way it went when her temper got the best of her.

"Let's get in the car before the police get here." Hyuna opened the passenger door and pushed her inside. It wasn't a shove but she was firm about it, going so far as to wait for her to buckle her seatbelt before she dashed around the car to the opposite door.

Was this the right thing to do? It wasn't like he didn't deserve it, but her conscience began to prod through the haze of red in her mind. She shouldn't have done that. And she definitely shouldn't be running away from taking responsibility.

"Wait." Before her hand could reach the door handle, Hyuna was interrupting her as she pulled from the parking space.

"No. I've been to jail and they make you pay a fine. Ya wanna make yer family pay for this?"

She had a point there. And a good one that Y/n realized that she couldn't argue with. The Yoon family was one that had to be careful with their money. They had two kids in university, a toddler and five mouths to feed. They couldn't afford to take on more strain and she didn't want to disappoint them.

Disappointed. That was the perfect word to describe what she felt now. It summed up everything, from the indescribable pain to the way she felt utterly victimized.

Why did he keep hurting her? And why did she keep forgiving him? But not anymore. Not this time.

For years she had told her self that it was her fault that he left. But that scarlet zinnia said different. That flower seemed simple but said so much. He was doing this again. The exact same thing. His game hadn't changed at all. He was still using flowers as a weapon and a shield. 'I might not give you the adequate attention a father should, but here's this flower. Do you know what it means? It means all the things that I don't actually say to you.'

And the depressing thing was, she couldn't remember him saying I love you. Had he, but it slipped her mind? She'd only been six years old when he had left them behind. All of her memories felt stark and clear, but it wasn't perfect.

"I'm calling Jimin." Whatever Hyuna had been saying to her before that hadn't registered in her brain, but at the sound of Jimin's name, she was brought back to earth.

"No! I don't want to bother him."

"He'll be mad if we don't."

"No." Her pulse raced at the thought of bringing him into this and suddenly she was in panic mode. "He said he was busy! I don't want to bother him! He'll get mad and he'll leave me. Please, don't—I can't lose him too, I can't! I really can't-"

"Velma..."

"You don't get it! I'll die if he leaves. That's—that's dramatic but it's true! I won't be able to handle it. No one loves me—that's ok, b-but not Jimin—I can't do it—don't call him, please don't call him!"

"Y/n." The hard, yet calm set to her tone got her to stop and look to her friend. It wouldn't be until later that she realized that this was one of the only times she could recollect Hyuna calling her by her given name. "I have a plan. First step: Stop. Talking."

"I...okay."

<><><>

Y/n ended up sleeping over at Hyuna's that night.

It was a whole experience.

Upon walking into the house, her jaw had nearly hit the floor. Apparently, Hyuna's family was rich. Really rich.

Seeing the outside had been a shock. Even though her mind was elsewhere and it was dark out, she was able to register the larger size of it. The inside was beyond expectations. The floor was inlaid with marble white tiles and golden patterns while the paneled walls were also a blinding white that almost hurt to look at. Hyuna stood giggling at her side as Y/n gaped up at the crystal chandelier hanging from the tall ceiling in the center of the room. Beyond that was an absurdly exorbitant curved staircase adorned with the same white and gold marble as the floors and a plush runner.

The second reality shock hit her when she realized that the entranceway to Hyuna's house could probably fit her family's entire apartment into it. Maybe not the whole building, but certainly the portion of it that they called home.

Hyuna guided her up the stairs and through the house as if this were commonplace and there wasn't anything to look at. They passed by few other people on the way, all in comfortable clothes and on their way to bed. Were they her family? They didn't look anything alike but everyone seemed familiar with one another.

The hall they walked down was wide enough that a car could drive through it, the ceiling five meters tall and decorative pantings hung in ornate, silver frames to bring color to the place. It was a lot to take in but Y/n could say one thing for certain. This was a weird house. Her next shock was walking into Hyuna's room. It was half the size of a freaking movie theater. At least.

It was very Hyuna. Eclectic was the word she would use to describe it. The bed cover, floor and walls were white. All else was every color and style under the sun. Seeing it for the first time was somewhat off putting but at second glance you could see that it all strangely went together, like a backwards rainbow of sorts.

From there Hyuna made quick work of finding something for Y/n to wear to sleep and then shoved her into the bed once she had changed. The food they had picked up on the way home was placed into her lap and she quietly forced herself to nibble at it.

Numbly she allowed for it all to happen. She hurt, and she hurt bad. Going on autopilot for a while might be her way of avoiding to cope, but that was the only option that kept her from completely falling apart at the moment.

"Feeling better?" From where she sat adjacent to her on the bed, Hyuna peered at her expectantly.

On the way here she had urged her to take one of the medicines for anxiety she had received from the doctor. Y/n honestly hadn't expected the little pill to do anything, but had also hoped that it might erase all feeling she ever had. It didn't really fall into either of those categories. She was still upset. But now tired and the pain in her chest was a thing of the past. It had helped. But the change was subtle and she halfway wondered if it was even working at all.

Also she wasn't crying anymore, so that was something. In answer to Hyuna's question she shrugged, not entirely sure on how to answer her question.

"Kay...I mean, you don't have to tell me if ya don't want, but what happened? Why was Baek Hyeon there? Why'd ya lose yer shit?"

At the reminder, Y/n had thought she would begin crying anew. But that didn't happen. After the initial shock, she felt numb to the fact that her deadbeat dad had started a new family without her. She had always hoped that his previous family still lived in the back of his mind and that he thought of them, maybe even missed them. But after all this time she was keenly aware of the fact that he hadn't missed her at all. He had done what she had been struggling to do for years. Moved on.

Without further adieu, she relayed the entire story to Hyuna. No tears accompanied the tale. No hesitation or even anger. All she felt was tired and desensitized from the situation. And done. So done.

By the end of it she had given up on eating, putting everything back into the take out bag and had laid back into the pillows. She supposed Hyuna's bed was made in a fluffy paradise and shipped here under the care of a thousand men. That was the only logical explanation as to why it was so comfortable.

Heaving a sigh and gentle curse under her breath, Hyuna left the room to wash up. When she came back Y/n blinked in surprise as her friend slid into bed next to her and rolled over so that they were facing one another.

"What happened?" She questioned carefully as she inspected Hyuna's face. From her upper cheeks and across her nose, her skin was red and irritated. It dawned on her then that she had never seen her without makeup on. "Is that sunburn?"

"It's a rash." Her answer was simple and the words felt flat. "Velma?"

"Yeah?"

"I love you. I don't say that often, but that don't mean I don't love you. Ya get me?"

Although she nodded, Hyuna frowned.

"When ya say things like no one loves you, I feel disrespected."

"...ok. I'm sorry."

"Ya don't gotta apologize cause I get that you can't help it. But try to remember next time that your depression doesn't get to dictate how others feel about ya. You've always reminded me of my little sis and I've got a soft spot for you because of that. But since I've gotten to know you, I like the person you are. You're nice and you always think about other people. You're funny without meaning to be. And most importantly, you aren't annoying."

Finally a tiny smile lifted one corner of her lips. "I love you too." she said sincerely. "Thank you for always being there for me."

Hyuna reached a hand out and Y/n met her halfway to intertwine their fingers together. With Jimin, moments like these were romantic and made her feel loved. With Hyuna, she felt loved in a sisterly type of way. Also as if she could say anything and there would be no repercussions. It was a different kind of connection. And one that she would do anything to protect.

"Unnie...I want to ask you something."

"I have an autoimmune disease." Hyuna blurted suddenly, answering her incoming question.

"Huh?"

"That's what I was gonna tell ya, before everything happened. That's...watcha wanted to ask, right?"

"Oh. Yes." Was it improper to ask the name of the disease? Awkwardly she retracted her hand and shifted around to get comfortable.

"Lupus. It's lupus."

Hesitantly she asked, "What's that?"

It wasn't her business, even though she was extremely curious and had a ton of questions. The blonde woman avoided eye contact, one finger idly tracing the edge of the rash on her face.

"Ya know how white blood cells are what fight off infections? Basically with lupus, it creates these other little fuckers that decide instead of healing your body, they're gonna attack it instead, and it slowly disintegrates your health. Kind of a bitch move if ya ask me."

Y/n's mind moved slowly as she tried to comprehend the words. Hyuna was unbothered in the way she spoke of it and she tried to play it off with silly words, but that sounded serious.

"I've had it since it was fifteen." she went on. "Supposedly it runs in families but I'm the only one in mine that has it...did, uh, did Jimin say anything to you...about me?"

"No." Y/n blinked in confusion. Jimin rarely talked about Hyuna. "Was he supposed to?" She inspected her friend's face and noticed that she seemed nervous, which in turn made her nervous as well. Until she decided that it didn't. Maybe that medicine was working better than she thought. Or maybe she just trusted Jimin.

"Nah. Lights."

As she was about to question that strange sentence, the lights cut off and encased them in darkness. The only illumination filtering in was through the large window at the head of the bed where the nearly full moon hung in the sky.

Although a large part of her wanted to ask more about this disease Hyuna had, she sensed that maybe more questions right now might be pushing it. There was something else missing here that she wasn't saying and there must have been a reason for it. Mentally she put it away to be looked at more in depth later.

"You're rich." She pointed out instead and Hyuna laughed.

"Not really. This is the pack house."

"I don't know what that means..."

"Ah, right. I forget. See, ya know how werewolves stick together in packs?" Y/n hummed so she went on. "Sometimes we live in separate houses on a piece land and sometimes we live in one big house. Everyone pools their money together and my pack is kinda big so this is where we live. Which...I guess that does mean we're rich? I dunno. It's my normal so I dunno any other way to live."

"Unnie. You're rich."

"Shut up."

Both giggled and kicked at each other.

"Tell me how it's going with Jimin." Hyuna asked after the silly moment. They kept their feet twisted together for warmth and Y/n wiggled a little closer to get more comfortable. "I can tell you love him a lot. You smile a lot more nowadays."

"I do." Her lips curled upward at the thought of him, her mind drifting as she wondered what he was doing at the moment. Probably studying, as he'd only texted her once to say goodnight. "He's really good to me. We're going to spend full moon together."

"Yeah? That's great." Though her words were positive there was a flash of worry in her eyes. "His alpha will be there, right?"

"If course." At her confirmation, Hyuna relaxed. Y/n knew what she was worried about, but she didn't really get it. Neither Jimin or Wolfy would ever mark her against her will, or do anything to hurt her. Besides, it wouldn't be against her will anyway since she already wanted him to mark her. He was the one that wanted to hold off and it saddened her a bit.

"What're ya gonna do?"

Without asking for clarity, Y/n knew she was speaking on the situation with her 'father'. Not that anyone could call him that. She attempted to give it some thought, but her current feeling was in a 'meh' area and she couldn't find it in her to care either way. These drugs sure were great.

"I'm not sure...what do you think I should do?"

A short burst of air rushed from Hyuna's mouth. "I have no idea. I grew up sheltered and with a good father so I don't think my opinion should matter here." After a moment of silence she added, "but I say do whatever ya want. Just make sure Baek Hyeon doesn't get hurt. If I were you, I wouldn't let yer old man know that he's a student at our nursery. Say and do whatever ya want to, but leave the kid out of it."

Although she claimed not to have any idea what to say, this was a solid piece of advice that Y/n filed away for later use. There was a somber moment of quiet that went uninterrupted until Hyuna decided to break it.

"So have ya seen Jimin naked yet?" She suddenly asked and they both dissolved into giggles once more.

"Yes." She managed to get out and Hyuna shrieked.

"Whaaat?!?"

"It was an accident," she responded through laughter. It was another moment before they were able to calm down enough for Hyuna to ask.

"How big was it?"

"It?"

"Ya know." Her brows wiggled. "It. How big was it?"

That was enough to completely sober Y/n up. She halted all movement as the memory became a crystal clear picture in her mind.

"It was...big."

"WAIT." Hyuna's mouth and opened and closed a few times. "How big?"

Pulling the covers back, Y/n demonstrated with her hands and her friend's mouth dropped open.

"What?!?"

"And, and-" next she tried to show her the circumference. When the blonde's eyes widened she asked concernedly, "what if it doesn't fit??"

"It'll...fit." She replied unconvincingly. "Speaking of dicks, I've been talking to Jackson."

Y/n snorted.

"He's really sweet, ya know? Almost too sweet. I kinda wanna punch him in the face just to see if he'll hit me back."

"Don't do that." She chuckled. It was curious to her how little she cared to hear of Jackson talking to other girls. Once that would have made her cry her eyes out. "He's a good person."

"Yeah but who's better, me or him?"

"Of course it's you, unnie. You're the queen of charity."

"Call me by my name." She said suddenly. "You don't have to be formal with me."

"But-"

"No buts. Unless we're gonna talk about Jimin's. That man's got a whole dump truck back there."

"He does."

"Have ya touched it yet?"

"No." She was too intimidated by the thought of touching something that powerful. Hyuna appeared to understand without her having to say the words out loud and simply nodded.

"A'ight. Time for sleep." Hyuna yawned, stretching lightly before scooting closer until they shared body heat. Y/n cuddled under the covers, feeling comfy and safe. "Night, Velma."

"Goodnight...Hyuna."

The room fell silent as both women closed their eyes and let themselves relax. It was a few moments of quiet before Hyuna called her name once more.

Tiredly she whispered a soft, "what?"

"What's wrong with my eyebrows?"

Bonus scene

<>Late Night Conversations (p2)<>

Jimin's baby❤️: What about vampires?

Your Jimin💛: ????

Jimin's baby❤️: are they real

Your Jimin💛: supposedly
Your Jimin💛: I've never met one but I've heard they exist

Jimin's baby❤️: what about witches?

Your Jimin💛: yeh

Jimin's baby❤️: ghosts?
Jimin's baby❤️: fairies?
Jimin's baby❤️: demons?

Your Jimin💛: all yes

Jimin's baby❤️: 😶
Jimin's baby❤️: that's scary

Your Jimin💛: don't worry baby I'll protect you
Your Jimin💛: especially don't worry about fairies. They're total simps and love humans

Jimin's baby❤️: like you?

Your Jimin💛: hey now you tryin to pick a fight?
Your Jimin💛: shorty

Jimin's baby❤️: I know you are but what am I?

Your Jimin💛: ..............
Your Jimin💛: you win this round

—
Edited 9/25/22