26
The couple.

"How was your workshop?" Ara asked through the phone. "I mean it was good- I really hope that what worked on the lab rats works on a human too or else we're in store for some weird type of carcinoma." Daehye waited for the green light to go off.

"Did you see oppa's vlive? He looked so fine." Ara replied back, starting an entirely new topic. "He is so fine that I just wanna get him pregnant." Daehye could swear that she heard Ara almost gasp.

"What's the matter?" She asked suddenly concerned. "I'm in the car and the Bluetooth is on." A pause. "and there are other people with me." Daehye stopped in the middle of the footpath, a man almost collided with her before she walked off to the side and processed what Ara said.

Her parents were there with Ara, in the car and she could bet that whenever she secured a rank lower than the third place then her father would go screaming in the house 'jagiya, she was too busy getting a man pregnant.' when her mother asked what went wrong with her studies. Her life flashed before her eyes. They were gonna think that she is just a blasphemous whore.

"Kim Ara I'm gonna kill-" and then Ara interrupted. "Jimin oppa and Taehyung are here." Relief washed over Daehye like a tide. "Thank goodness."

"What's the plan for getting me pregnant then?" Jimin's voice kind of sounded huskier than usual. "Hyatt, room number 1013 at 9pm today." She shot back on the phone. "I'll be there."

"And don't forget to bring Taehyung oppa. We never know when our test subject can fall unconscious, a buffer test subject is always a pre requisite." Jimin looked over his shoulder, raising his eyebrow at Ara a bit.

"Dr. Eklavya is at your service." She whispered. 

"Where are you just tell me that." Daehye said while rubbing her eyes with the heel of her hand, adjusting the spectacles and her mask with the other hand. "Oh yeah, just come to this showroom. Mercedes."

"Y'all so rich, it physically hurts." She blurted before declining the call. Luckily enough the showroom was at a walking distance. While walking she realised how bold and how easily she brushed off where the her recent conversation with Jimin was heading, before she changed the topic completely. And now she was embarrassed and her heart was thumping just at his thought.

She was dating, she was dating the Park Jimin, millions swooned over him, spent money on his merch and it all seemed so ginormous, perhaps Jimin was a normal human, down to earth. But that didn't mean that his fame won't impact the relationship they were in. 

Before going inside she briefly stopped at the florist shop, to of course get a rose for none other than Jimin, great idea since it would distract him just fine and she wouldn't have to say anything. That's it. Upon entering the showroom she spotted Taehyung with his arm around Jimin's neck as his head was leaned in towards the papers he was currently filling.

Ara beside them waved her as she walked towards them, Jimin probably didn't realise her presence or at least they must've exchanged a smile with each other. Carefully Daehye bent a little and kept the single rose folded in clear plastic sheet beside his hand. "Bon après midi." She say on the chair, "bon après midi, comment ca va?"

"Ca va bein merci." Strange how Daehye never knew that Jimin could speak French, strange how his accent was just straight up sexy.

"Did you get an eargasm?" Ara whispered, "I did." Daehye whispered back as her cousin's eyebrows roze a little.

"And he still complains me that you don't get flustered." Daehye's eyes squinted just a little, "well hun, you have a resting bitch face, and you're not conveying your emotions much."

"Maybe complain to my parents and why would he complain that to you, we're like best of friends- he can say that on my face." Ara blinked repeatedly for a second, stopped and then started again.

"I asked him, forcefully." Daehye nodded, habitual with her behaviour because she was like that too, when Ara dated Taehyung in full secrecy and ranted about him to her then she couldn't help but just wonder, or even worry at times because she didn't get to meet him. But it was out her own hands, Taehyung and Ara kept a promise of hiding their relationship from anyone until they weren't sure that it was in store for a long way, it also included Jimin and Daehye. 

Daehye leaned away from Ara and peeped to what Jimin was filling out. "S class? Aren't you the maybach cabriolet guy?"

"It's for my parents." He said while handing the papers to the salesperson. "Ara just imagine if Jimin actually gets his heart on maybach- the shortest guy in the band having the longest car." A light chuckle escaped his lips, a sarcastic undertone was in the main light.

Jimin looked up at him, and then Daehye's focus was already on his face. Despite the presence of the mask he could feel her screaming 'I'm gonna fucking murder you if you say anything to him' "pardon?" Daehye asked, she heard Kim Taehyung of course but she gave him another chance at changing his words.

"I'm saying that if Jimin gets his heart on maybach then it's gonna be amazing because he is classy and he deserves the utmost elegance."

"Better." A light pat came on Daehye's inner thigh. After a full half an hour of doing absolutely nothing except going through her Instagram feed because the Tara couple decided to leave early and Jimin still had to finalise the process, it really seemed like a waste of time except maybe that she was getting to see Jimin, him staring at her whenever her focus was on the phone screen and how she could feel him smile when she caught him. Meanwhile her, she looked away when they locked a glance, the woman was proficient when it came to being hopelessly romantic.

"Long day?" Jimin asked her while taking her hand in his, "double majoring in biology and biotechnology is really not stable for my mental health." She rubbed her eyes and she hid her face in the crook of his neck.

"I would've kissed you if we weren't in public right now." He looked around, not many but still few people were roaming here and there, university students brisk walking in almost a hurry.

"Kissing is not related to tiredness, maybe sleeping is. And before I run into a batchmate and explain to them who you are, what we are are and shit like that- can we please just go to my house?"

"Of course love." He kept giving her new names, she kept cringing on them. It was a beautiful virtuous cycle after a hell lot of vicious ones. "I want some supplies." Jimin took a brief pause. "There's a grocery shop down the corner." She added and took out a black coloured cap with a small BTS logo on it and handed it to him.

"This was a necessity." Jimin brushed off his hair from his forehead and after getting done he grabbed Daehye's hand. "Yaaah take it easy." She followed his lead, taking small steps as he took long strides slowing down only when they entered the gate to supermarket.

It wasn't much, a few people including the staff and who Daehye thought were students from Kaist. But they weren't, she stared long enough- to comprehend, to confirm. Long enough that Jimin started to walk down the aisle but turned around to see why she wasn't following him.

Jake was here. But that wasn't a problem, the problem was Jeongsong. He was here. She saw him but she was in a state of confusion. She thought that her heart would skip a beat, that all the emotions would rush back to her like a tidal wave, like she would go though a reverse metamorphosis on the progress of her moving on. But she was still, because none of that happened. At this second the only thoughts that rushed to her mind was that they were history. And her present was staring at her with slight crinkled eyes.

"Coming." She lowly said. "Bro I just saw my ex." Daehye spoke into the shell of his ear after grabbing him by his collar. His eyes got so much bigger than they were, he turned his head a little in the direction where two members from the male species stood.

"You have a special relation to the  Park clan, and those Parks whose names start with J's." Jimin teased her just as he came to the realisation of who really was standing just these shelves away from them. "I know right, I thought of this- it's fucked up actually." She agreed on his point because she did initially think about this- when she started having feelings for Jimin.

"Oh well- oh just look at these cookies-" and before Jimin could even finish what he was saying, Daehye proceeded to snatch them only to slam it on the shelf, loud enough that the few people actually turned their heads. "It has raisins in it."

"What the fuck." Jimin moved her away from the shelf, as if it would cause their cells to deteriorate, as if they were extremely hazardous. Well they were, and for the first time his dramatic actions he intentionally did for her attention, didn't seem dramatic but action precise.

"It happens. We all have mistook raisins for choco chips. But they are shit disguised as chocolate." He couldn't agree more, he had gotten enough of relating with her.

"Stop being so agreeable , or else I'm gonna think you were made just for me." Her eyes squinted, her poker face was back. "What pretty words."

Beneath all this, the slam of the cookies distracted Jake and Jeongsong and currently Jake was in problem. He knew it was Daehye beneath that mask, he knew it was Jimin who keeping his eyes low under the cap as if they were in an illicit affair. Jeongsong thought the same, Jake had to force him to believe they were not because he knew that Daehye wouldn't like to be interrupted and he very well knew that she would never want anyone to know that her and Jimin were more than just close friends and office mates now.

"That girl looks a lot like Daehye." Jay said, as a matter of fact she was but confusion still lingered on- he saw her after so long, most probably after two years which felt like an eternity. "She's not." Jake said, as he poured in some soft drink cans into the basket.

"You're not even looking at her dude." The moment Jay got over with his sentence, Jake's peripheral vision eyes her, screaming 'look at me.' But to no appeal her back was still turned on him. "Daehye is not the person to go on grocery shopping with someone else."

"She may have changed." Jay said as if he knew her to her mental core. With that Jake grew frustrated, remembering how he broke up with her, how he made him get over with their friendship, he remembered all those bitter words Daehye spat on his face, all of them held truth.

"Oh please. Don't act like Mr. Know it all, she may be Daehye, she may not- none of your fucking business." Jake's sudden shift in tone took Jeongsong by surprise, the two stared at each other for a second before Jake grabbed his basket from the floor. "Forget it." And the sudden shift in the atmosphere, was just enough to tell Jay what was going on. Jake had perhaps rebuilt what he shattered with Daehye two years back, and he was still mad at him for what he did.

__

"This is awkward." Daehye broke the lumber-some atmosphere after two long minutes of utter deafening silence in the car cabin. "I thought you liked silence." Jimin said while turning the music volume up.

"I do but still, I mean- leave it." She was now familiar with his hand on her thigh, and he was just comfortable. It had been so long since he found someone who knew him maybe just right. Maybe just a little too perfect for him that it seemed faux.

Stargazing by the neighbourhood was playing and so was Daehye lip-syncing to every word. "Not gonna sing because you're the better singer in here and I don't want an oblivious inferiority complex by my namja chingu." He lightly chuckled at her light words.

"Your accent is so Seoul."

"You're the Seoul citizen who tries all the time to get a Busan dialect." She said while looking at her nails. "Oh cmon miss yeoja chingu don't expose me like that." He rubbed her nape and after himself started singing.

"Oh my god a live concert." Daehye added a sprinkle of dramatic fangirling as the sun set and as the car stood in-front of her studio house's gate. "What are we wearing tomorrow though?"

"Uhm- black I guess."

"Oh I have the perfect outfit. And I gotta go, I have a bajillion assignments due." She leaned in to kiss his cheek and opened the car gate. He just smiled and waved her a little, a little dismayed on her leaving but soon thankful enough that she spent whatever free she had with him.

——

Despite being Sunday, surprisingly enough the Seoul roads weren't as crowded as they were expected to be. It didn't take more than half an hour to reach Lee Hyun's bungalow. Daehye had to wait for five minutes in the car, to gather herself, to re evaluate and practise of how she had to behave and maybe smile the entire time she was going to be here.

"I have never ever been on time before." Jake looked at his wrist watch, she didn't pay much attention to his words. Her one leg was shaking, her foxy eye truffle shaded make up was on point, her corset was hidden beneath her suit jacket and her bottoms were boot cut, her block heels shimmery.

Who the fuck needed a vivid description on what she wore- well the whole point was that she was nervous, about feeling alienated with everyone. Jimin and Namjoon were easy to work with, they knew her well so they could maybe handle her but what if the people who didn't interact with her thought that she was being mean.

"Don't fret bestie. Your best friend is here, cherry on top- Jimin hyung who has the fattest crush on you is here." Daehye was way due to tell him about her status.

"Jake what if- what if aish fucking hell." She stopped midway to spew a few curses, her hand itching her head. "It's fine- I'll be there. With you all the time I won't look at or talk to anyone else I promise." He assured her.

"It's not about that- Jimin- okay here's the thing, don't faint okay?" She warned him and continued "we're dating."

"Oh can you repeat, didn't catch ya there." Jake stopped smiling. "Me and Jimin." Daehye stared at him before he hugged her so hard that she thought that her spine broke, she could assure that she heard her neck crack.

"Let's go I wanna see that look on his face." Jake got out of the car and dragged her out after opening her gate. "What look."

"That look, he's gonna drool over you ma'am you look like that hot girlboss CEO." Well I am one, she thought. They were already standing close to the gates so it wasn't long before they rang the bell. "Oh look the new lyricist is in the town." Lee hyun had a smile spread on his face. One which assured that she wouldn't feel alienated. As expected, half of the invited crowd was already here.

"Hello." She did a little bow, as did Jake. They exchanged a few greetings and as soon as Lee Hyun went the other way her eyes searched for someone with a raven mullet. "Jimin hyung got a hairdo."

"Where?" Jake pointed him for her. He did well. He had an undercut, he was dressed in black top to toe and held a wine glass in his hand. "Noona?" A familiar voice dragged her attention, it was Ni-ki standing alongside Jay. She looked over at him, at Park Jeongsong- it seemed make believe, how she made eye contact with the person she never wanted to cross paths with again.  

"Hey Niki." Daehye turned her gaze away from Jay, a hug welcomed her. A tight one which screamed 'I missed you.' She patted him in his back, he was practically so tall than her that she had adjust her standing position a little. "It's been long huh?"

"What are you doing here though? Jake hyung asked to tag along?" Besides who Jimin, Joon, Jake and Soobin no one was really aware that she was the new comer Daze, the one who swept a position at top billboard lyricists the previous week. She was happy about it but while working with Namjoon and Jimin she learned that success is in modesty.

"Aniya, I was invited."

"I'm so glad." Niki threw a smile at her. Despite Niki blocking her view, she could still feel Jay's eyes linger on her. "Seonbae." Jake did a full ninety degree bow, she tilted her neck to greet.

"Evening." Jimin wore an inch high heeled shoes. Maybe to at least get closer to the height frequency of his juniors, at that thought she almost choked on a laugh. "Hyung meet Daehye." Unlike Jake who got a little panicky, Niki was upfront cool with his seniors.

Jimin extended his hand to her, playing along to the role that he was least oblivious to who she was. He acted like she was a complete stranger and this was the first time they were meeting each other. She gave her hand to his in attempt to handshake but he softly bent and placed a kiss at the back of her hand.

"It's a pleasure meeting you Daehye." She was thankful to her open hair. Thankful that they were hiding the shade of radioactive red and the goosebumps with were rising from her back, all the way till her nape.

The room was crowded but at this moment Jimin and Daehye felt like they were the only ones in the room. And in spite of being surrounded Jay felt lonely for the first time in a very long time.

Author
This is the calm before the storm. Okay maybe the storm won't come now, but enjoy ps. Love ya guys. Thanks to everyone who is reading this.

Edit- I never ever had so many typos in a chap. I'm sorry for publishing the unedited version. If some mistakes are still prevalent then I'll make sure to correct em. And if still some of them are here then please feel free to tell me to correct them: thanks