"Even if you're in danger on the boundary. Let's cut through the wind while laughing and chatting. Sometimes run like a fool with mistakes and in tears, we just go."

0:00 |───────── 4:42

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The members were allowed to leave at 1 PM, as the singers didn't have to sing and the dancers didn't have to dance. Namjoon and Rein volunteered to stay behind with Yoongi to listen to his unfinished tracks of "Soar" and "Love Me", the title of the second song.

She wanted "Soar" to partner this song like two halves of a whole. She envisioned the ending instrumentals for "Love Me" serving as a segway for the beginning of the other song, clean and continuous, and when Rein brought up her sentiments of a continuous track to Yoongi, he liked it enough to test it out.

The intro to "Love Me" was short, one bar until it switched gears into the first verse. It had a faster pace to it than what Rein imagined in her head, but she admired the immediately catchy beat. Namjoon pat Yoongi on the back afterward.

"It won't be completely finished until a week from now probably, but what do you think?" he asked the both of them, turning around in his chair with a hint of a smile. Rein looked at Namjoon, and they seemed to think the same thing. Namjoon patted Yoongi on the back with a grin.

"You're on the right track. Just keep working at it," he said. Yoongi mumbled, stood up from his chair and stretched. After announcing that he was tired, he left the studio with a quick "see you tomorrow" and the bang of the door. Rein cringed at the sound.

How tactful.

When the footsteps faded away, she turned to Namjoon with a beam but hesitated when she saw his posture. He seemed to tense up with just them in the room together, while the predicament had the opposite effect on her. Though she was slightly on edge, she still felt herself ease up without Yoongi there. As much as she appreciated him, he could be strangely standoffish at times. Like a cat.

She was more of a dog person, anyway.

"What are your plans for tonight?" Namjoon said. Rein reflected on her answer. She would undoubtedly trap herself in her room, order room service, and learn some more Korean vocabulary from the books she packed. A relaxing evening, to be sure.

"I'm probably gonna just stay in for today. Maybe pick up a book for once."

"I might do that too," Namjoon said. "I take it you like reading?"

"When a book's good, it's good," she said with a shrug. Namjoon laughed.

"Uh, well, I'm thinking of staying overtime," he said, then added, "Overtime for an early off-day, I mean."

Shit. Rein was hoping to do that, as well. The resources here were much better than what she had in her hotel room, and she had to get out of there. The room was slowly suffocating her, the walls closing in every day she was trapped in that hell-hole. A change in the atmosphere would do wonders for her mental health.

But as she looked at Namjoon, she realized she didn't know him at all. There was no way she would be comfortable working for three more hours side by side with an utter stranger.

"Oh, cool. I'm just about to head out, anyways. Do you need any of my lyrics with you?"

"I should be fine," he said with a smile. She nodded, feeling uncomfortable all of a sudden. They were the only ones in the studio, and maybe even the whole floor, save for staff.

So, you wanted social interaction, but as soon as somebody is here to give it to you, you run away from it? She found the logic inadequate, but had logic always been her strong point? Of course not. She knew herself to be an emotional creature, and her emotions were telling her that being alone with Namjoon would be bad for her.

Bad in what way? She had no idea. Hell, she had no idea why she felt this way at all. Something about the whole situation...

She stood up and stepped backward, unaware of exactly where her position was in the room. Rein meant to move to the door but instead bumped into the corner of the table, earning a smarting pain on her outer thigh.

"Fuck," she whispered, gripping her leg. Her behavior was perhaps disconcerting to the regular observer.

"Are you okay?" Namjoon asked, bewildered worry in his voice. He stood up and walked a few steps in her direction, then stopped, not getting less than a few meters away.

"Totally great," she said through clenched teeth. She grabbed her file and looked around the room for anything she needed, then looked up at Namjoon. "I'm gonna head out now." He nodded, hands in his pockets. This was by far the most awkward situation she had ever been in.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Ms. Jones," he said. Without responding, she opened the door and took care to shut it without noise. Namjoon was probably back to work already, the diligent person he was.

Rein leaned against the wall outside of the studio and closed her eyes. Day one was officially over now. There were only a few more weeks left. She felt the muscles in her stomach that she didn't know she was clenching the whole time relax and ease as she breathed. Her body had been this stressed and tense before, maybe even more so, but she wasn't sure why this time.

Rein opened her eyes. The lights were brighter outside of the studio. She could hear shuffling from inside and decided to call her driver to pick her up.

Everything would be fresh tomorrow. There would be nothing to overthink. Just her, her voice, and the twenty-six letters of the alphabet.

She pushed herself off the wall and left the building.

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

When she arrived at the studio the next morning, Yoongi and Namjoon were there, talking in what seemed like a deliberately low tone.

"Hey g-" She stopped. They whipped their heads around. Yoongi gave her a lazy wave and motioned her to come over.

"I'm close to finishing the track," he said.
She gasped. There was no way. No fucking way. A track usually took about a week (just like Yoongi had originally predicted) to fully polish and finish. To say that he was almost done with it overnight was preposterous. Though, when she took a closer look at him, he looked absolutely exhausted.

"That's incredible. Did you spend all night doing this?"

"Just because the day ends early doesn't mean work ends early," he said with a shrug.

Maybe that's why he left so soon. He wanted to be left completely alone to do his thing. She grinned and was about to ask if she could hear it when Namjoon cleared his throat.

"I told him not to work so hard, but you can't stop Agust D from being a legend," he said as he ruffled Yoongi's hair. Yoongi smiled, embarrassed, then took Namjoon's hand off of his head. He put his headphones on, and that was the end of that.

"So, what's on the agenda for today?" she asked, instinctively bringing out her planner and the file full of lyrics.

"How about you take a look at the rap lyrics, see if they flow with your original words?" She nodded and came over to his side. He handed her some notes, and she sat down on the couch to review. The sheet on top was for "Love Me", so that was what she looked at first.

You were a demon in disguise

Laughter became tears

And tears became agony

You killed me slowly

I hate you, you know that?

You never let me breathe

Suffocated me with the pretense of love

But your love was fake and your happiness was real

I played your game for too long

So leave me alone

'Cause I'm bulletproof

And i don't need you anymore.

Rein looked up at Yoongi, who wasn't looking at her but at his computer. She smiled; he had a talent for writing sappy stuff, especially when his solo album was nothing like this. She looked at Namjoon's line next.

All I wanna do is close my eyes

You left me scarred, deformed

Drowned me in my own tears

Everything that was gold faded

Just like you

Erasing you from my mind would leave me

With no pain at all

But your face won't leave my head

Even in my dreams, you haunt me

But I can break free

And you won't stop me.

Maybe this is the song I was really meant to sing. The idea rushed into her head like a balloon, filling and rising in the back of her head until the hot air popped it forward to conscious thought. However, it made sense. This was the song she felt a connection with, and so that's the song she wanted to sing.

"This is it," she whispered. Namjoon turned in his chair.

"What was that?" he said. She crossed the room and gave the sheet with the "Love Me" lyrics on them.

"This is the one we should do," she said, locking eyes with him. He held her gaze.

    "I agree." She broke eye contact first and sat in her chair.

"So... What do we do from here?" Namjoon thought.

"Well, Hoseok is going to come in after lunch today and work on his lyrics. Then... We wait until Yoongi is done with the track. Meanwhile, we'll work on more lyrics, I guess."

"Sounds good to me."

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A/N: Tell me what you guys thought about this chapter! Thank you for reading this far! <3