ACT VIII | SCENE XL

❝WINE❞

A BREATH SLIPPED past rian's lips as she smiled in acquiescence, knowing seokjin had no intentions of letting this go. and though quiet, even yoongi showed signs of piqued curiosity. she picked up her cutlery distractedly as her gaze jumped between the two men. "i learnt from my mother. and then perfected it when i spent half a year with my grandparents." she finally said.

it was quiet for a moment. too quiet. especially since she hadn't dropped some spectacular bomb on them. just a simple statement with nothing much to it. she could see the gears in their heads working. the slight frown that marred seokjin's beautiful features. the subtle furrow of yoongi's brows.

"correct me if i'm wrong here. does that mean your mum is italian?" seokjin was the first to snap out of his thoughts. smiling small, she bobbed her head in a nod of affirmation. yoongi shot her a sidelong glance but still said nothing. she thought he looked surprised and not, all at once. "is it weird that i suspected something like this but am still floored by the revelation?" seokjin dragged an index finger over his temple.

yoongi tilted in his head slightly in a quick shrug of agreement that almost went unnoticed. but too quickly, he was focusing his attention on haneul, helping her to cut up her meal into child friendly sizes. if rian didn't know any better, she would have thought he hadn't been paying them any mind the entire time.

fixing her attention back on seokjin, she sent him a smile. "not really, no." she answered earnestly, recalling both taehyung and chanmi's reactions. even though taehyung's jaw had practically clattered to the floor when he'd found out, he wouldn't stop yelling about how he 'knew it'. chanmi was more surprised that she was not part north american but european than by the fact that only one of her parents was a south korean national. she assumed it was because though she looked east asian for the most part, she still had some typically western features.

"i like this. we're all learning something more about each other." seokjin commented with a slow nod of his head. he delved into his food, pausing to look at haneul. "is there anything big you have to tell us, haneulie?" he asked with mock suspicion. the child looked up at him with wide blinking eyes and stuffed cheeks before shaking her head.

"are you sure?" he narrowed his eyes, leaning closer. she nodded her head, cheeks still plump with food. "you're not secretly a fairy or something, right?" he questioned, his eyes still screwed in faux suspicion. her eyes creased into crescents of amusement and though her mouth remained closed, the corners of her lips pulled up and her nose crinkled as she shook her head. "hm, if you say so."

it was comfortably silent between them again, the only sounds filling the air were the clinks of cutlery against fine china as everyone was preoccupied with their food. yoongi would occasionally pause to wordlessly help haneul whenever she seemed to be struggling – placing a carefully cut piece of meat on her spoon, handing her a glass of water when she needed one, pushing the vegetables closer. though neither seokjin nor rian made comments about it, his little acts didn't go unnoticed.

"would you like a glass of wine?" seokjin offered rian with a smile. "yes, please. thank you." she replied graciously. she watched as he filled her glass and then his before placing the bottle back on the table. her gaze travelled to yoongi who was sipping on nothing but cold water. "mr min? would you like some?" she gestured to the bottle.

"oh—" yoongi began to shake his head but seokjin beat him to the punch. "no wine for him." he said. "why not?" she asked curiously. "i don't drink." yoongi offered with the ghost of a smile. "more like he can't." seokjin interjected. rian's curiosity was more evident at that, brows going up in question.

she'd noticed that seokjin and yoongi hadn't directly spoken to each other since she arrived. and a part of her had been itching to ask why that was. but at the moment, she found that she was far more interested in knowing why min yoongi 'couldn't' drink.

"how's your alcohol tolerance, rian?" the model suddenly queried. rian thought back to many nights she stayed up drinking and building up her tolerance, be it at parties in her wilder days or chill saturday nights with either hoseok, taehyung or chanmi or sometimes all three of them. she could have several bottles of beer or soju and still feel very clearheaded when they called it a night. "very high." she answered easily.

"zero." seokjin pointed to yoongi with a playful smile. surprised, she glanced yoongi's way. picking at his food, he remained stoic but the soft shade of pink that tinged the tips of his ears and his cheeks gave away his embarrassment.

"he's drunk only once. and i'm pretty sure he got completely wasted after only one can of beer but he kept going like an idiot. he could barely even remember his name that night, much less walk straight." seokjin chuckled lightly. yoongi let out a sigh of mortification. "hyung, please." he muttered, not looking up. "anyway, he hasn't tasted a drop of alcohol ever since." the older man continued, ignoring his friend's pleas.

"daddy, what's wasted?" haneul whispered, eyes glimmering with inquisitiveness. "something you should never be." yoongi replied just as quietly. sensing it was likely payback for ignoring him for so long, he decided to focus on the little girl rather than seokjin's embarrassing tales. she nodded in understanding. "promise me you'll never be wasted?" he asked. again she bobbed her head. "i promise." she beamed. he held out his pinky and she looped her tiny one around his. "you promised." he reminded her and she grinned in reply.

when he looked up again, rian's eyes were on him, but she looked away just as quickly, her half empty plate suddenly seeming interesting. he stared at his own plate, suddenly self-conscious now that she was aware of one of his few embarrassing moments.

thankfully, after that, they stayed on lighter, non-mortifying stories. like how rian had stayed in verona with her grandparents for half a year after she graduated from university. and how seokjin had been present for the birth of the orbit app. and how yoongi was the one to encourage seokjin to pursue a career in modelling after he was scouted, and giving his confidence a boost when he needed one. and seokjin's first modelling gig abroad.

he might not have contributed much to the conversation, but yoongi listened to every bit, smiling quietly to himself as he learned and relearned things about rian and seokjin respectively. and even haneul who kept a steady stream of whispered conversation going with him.

it was nice.

🌻🌻🌻

uwu