Hana:

I have been staring at Namjoon for too long. I know that, he knows that, everyone knows that. They all watch me, glancing at me every so often to see if I'm still staring. My arms are folded, and my uneaten lunch is sitting in front of me.

My hair is down today, falling in natural curls down my shoulders. I am wearing my favourite baggy hoodie, my favourite kpop merchandise shirt, and loose baggy jeans. My dark eyes watch him as I begin feeling more and more annoyed.

Yesterday, he was cold and distant from everyone. Even Hoseok and Seokjin had no idea why he was acting that way. I asked him yesterday afternoon if he was okay, and he seemed really stressed. I am pretty certain he did not answer me honestly.

At lunch, he pulled Yoongi aside to fight with him over something. Yoongi refused to tell anyone. The only reason I know is because Minho told me what he had walked in on as soon as we sat down in class together.

Then, Namjoon had some sort of fight with Jimin because they started ignoring each other too, according to Taehyung.

He was either fighting or ignoring everyone yesterday. Today I planned to confront him about it, and what do I find instead?

Both Namjoon and Yoongi happily greeting me out the front of my house.

Yoongi doesn't live in our area, yet there he was. He told me that he stayed at Namjoon's house the night before. Apparently, they hung out for so long that Namjoon didn't feel comfortable sending him home, so he slept on his sofa.

So, I guess they're not fighting anymore.

But Jimin? He has been cold towards Namjoon all morning. Namjoon, however, has been nothing but kind and polite, even when Jimin told him to shut up.

What is happening within my friend group and why don't I know?

So I am very obviously super pissed.

"Uh... Hana?" Hoseok mutters, leaning towards me so the others can't hear, "Are you okay?"

I shake my head, my eyes still on Namjoon. Hoseok sighs and moves away. From the corner of my eye, I see Hoseok shrug, his head turned towards the others. Namjoon sits across from me, eating and smiling, intentionally ignoring me. He is listening to Yoongi talk about something, but I am not really listening.

He is a very smart man; he knows I'm annoyed at him. He is the centre of all this mess, all this confusion. And I intend to know why.

"Hana," I look to my other side. Jimin is watching me, concern and frustration in his eyes.

"Yeah?" I give him a small smile.

"Why are you staring at him?" Jimin mutters, sending Namjoon a quick glare.

"Because of yesterday," I respond, turning my eyes back to Namjoon, "Something happened, and I want to know what,"

"Huh? Why?" Jimin asks quickly.

"I think I deserve to know what's happening with my friends," I snap.

All of a sudden, Jimin grabs my hand and gently pulls me from my seat, leading me away from the friend group. A temporary silence falls over them, but I don't know how long it lasts.

He leads me into the main building and down an empty hallway. After a moment, he stops and lets go of my hand, turning towards me.

"What the hell?" I ask. I notice he has a slight flush across his cheeks as he watches me warily.

"Sorry... but can you not talk to Namjoon about yesterday?" Jimin asks.

"What? Why?" I frown, folding my arms. Jimin takes a step towards me.

"It's just... our conversation was private," He explains, chuckling awkwardly, "Don't worry about it,"

"How can I not worry about it when you are angry at him like this?" I snap.

"It's okay..." Jimin mumbles, tilting his head slightly and beaming at me, his adorable eyes soothing my anger.

I smile back and hit his arm. He winces, staring at me.

"W-What was that for?" Jimin asks, pouting.

"For making me worry," I giggle at his reaction, "But seriously, what did you guys talk about?"

"Nothing, I-it's okay," He replies.

"No, I'm serious. Tell me," I push, not taking no for an answer. I am going to find out what is going on.

"Stop asking!" Jimin yells. I flinch, taking a step away from him.

He sighs, looking down at the floor.

"What the fuck Jimin?" I mumble.

I mean, we have fought before. Many times. Especially when it came to my choice of friends over the years. We even fought over the last piece of pizza once. But there was always a reason, and Jimin never hid anything from me.

At least, I'm pretty sure he never hid anything from me.

"Just leave it, okay?" He looks up, his eyes pleading with me. I stare at him for a moment, trying to think of all the possibilities for him to be acting like this.

"Fine," I respond coldly, turning and leaving him standing in the hallway.

For now.

A few days later, Saturday:

I follow Namjoon up to his apartment, ready to finally finish this assessment. We have another week to complete it, but we have been working on the assessment in class as well. Today, we are going to read through our writing and ensure it is as fluent as possible. Well, Namjoon is going to make sure it is.

As soon as I enter the apartment, I spot Jimin and Yoongi sitting at the kitchen bench, chatting with each other. They are both wearing casual sports attire, with long basketball shorts and loose sport brand shirts. Nice comfortable weekend clothing. Namjoon is wearing similar clothing, but with sweatpants.

"Are you ready to start?" Namjoon asks me quietly. I glance towards him and nod. I'm still very frustrated about everything, as this is the first friendship fight that I have not been told about.

Namjoon stares at me for a moment, as if he wants to say something. He decides against it, moving over to our other group members.

"Come on, let's read these introductions,"

We spend the next few hours reading our work and editing it. Namjoon is, of course, the most fluent one in the room so he continuously asks us to change various aspects of our speeches.

Yoongi, for some strange reason, finds all this to be hilarious, teasing Namjoon when he makes a recommendation.

"Oh? That's not fluent enough? Are you sure?" He asks, a glint in his eye. Every time he does this, Namjoon blushes and glares at him.

At first, I thought it might be because Yoongi is more fluent than he lets on. He is also quite smart, so he must be the other 'High level' speaker in this group. However, Namjoon's suggestions seem to be very accurate. When he is making suggestions for my work, I remember the lessons he's mentioning. Namjoon also makes suggestions to Yoongi's work, and he still has this playful aura.

But now, I am starting to suspect it is some sort of inside joke that Jimin and I are not privy to. It doesn't help that Namjoon pauses occasionally before providing feedback.

I have never been in such a smart, yet bizarre, group assessment before.

"Alright, I think that's enough," Namjoon nods after listening to my speech for the umpteenth time, "Let's run through it all together so we can ensure it runs smoothly,"

Namjoon reads through his speech, sounding like he was born and raised in America. Yoongi reads next, his accent still prominent with American undertones. Jimin follows, sounding more confident and fluent after Namjoon's pronunciation suggestions. Lastly, I read my work. I know it's not perfect, but I am feeling much more self-assured after Namjoon's recommendations.

If he was my teacher, I'd become so fluent people would question my nationality.

I'd also focus more.

Hana! Don't think things like that!

"Well, I think it's perfect," Namjoon grins, looking around at us, "What do you guys think?"

"Yeah, it sounds really good. We should get high grades with this," Jimin agrees.

That's another thing that I have found confusing in all this. Jimin has started warming up to Namjoon this week. After their argument Monday, he was bitter and rude. But each day he started to relax. Now that it's Saturday again, he's really nice to Namjoon, as if it never happened.

I am too curious to let this one go. I seriously need to know what happened.

"Yeah, I loved your own personal suggestions, Namjoon," Yoongi smirks, teasing Namjoon again. He glances at Yoongi but doesn't respond. His eyes clearly say, 'Shut up'.

"Alright," I say, firmly planting my hands on the table as I stand up, looking around at them all, "What is going on?"

They all look at each other nervously. They both look at Namjoon, Jimin giving him a terrified look and Yoongi giving him a knowing look. All these silent conversations aren't helping.

"What's going on with what?" Namjoon asks, innocently leaning back in his chair with his arms folded, his head tilted with curiosity. But he doesn't fool me.

"You three," I point at each of them in turn, "Are being weird and when I ask, you say 'don't worry about it,' 'everything is fine!' but I don't like this,"

"Why do you need to know?" Yoongi asks, leaning forward, his brows knitted, "We could be arguing about porn subscriptions for all you know. Do you really want to be involved in all of our discussions?"

I stare at him, completely dumbfounded. I can feel my face heating up as a blush spreads steadily across my cheeks. Jimin glances at Yoongi, before placing his hand over his mouth, stifling a giggle. Namjoon's expression has gone blank, his eyes closed as if he is trying to maintain a mature appearance.

"You... you're not arguing about... porn... are you?" I mutter, folding my arms.

Jimin bursts out laughing, unable to contain it anymore. Yoongi snickers, waving his hands to say no. Namjoon smirks, lowering his head as he tries to control his laughter.

"No, we aren't," Yoongi says, still giggling, "But we could be. Hell, we might one day,"

"Do you actually subscribe to porn?" Namjoon asks, biting the inside of his lips as he tries to stay serious, looking at Yoongi with humour in his eyes.

"You don't?" Jimin asks, giggling with tears in his eyes as he clutches his stomach.

They are making fun of me, aren't they?

"Having a preference is one thing," Yoongi gestures as if this is a very serious discussion about a very serious topic, "But a subscription is just desperation,"

"What? How is that desperate?" Jimin asks shrilly.

"Have you never read the comments on a porn video?" Namjoon asks, "It is very clearly desperate,"

"But if you have a creator you like, why not subscribe?" Jimin reasons.

"OKAY, I GET IT!" I shout, making them all look at me, still grinning.

"Do you?" Yoongi asks, "Because I'm curious about Jimin's porn subscriptions now,"

"NO, NO, NO!" I step away from the table, shaking my hands and my head. My face would have to be beet red by now. I didn't need to know Jimin subscribes to that stuff, and I don't need to know what those subscriptions are specifically. This conversation is going to end with me picturing visuals I didn't need and knowledge I don't want.

Well, the visual of Namjoon is a bit...

HANA STOP IT! What is wrong with you today?

I shake my head at the thoughts.

I don't think there is anything wrong with that stuff, I just don't want to personally know, especially not about my friends.

Namjoon is a friend, I need to remember that.

"I get it, okay?" I laugh weakly, "There are some things I don't need to know, and I am now completely okay with that!"

"Good," Yoongi nods, "I hope this is a learning experience for you,"

I glare daggers at Yoongi as they proceed to fall into fits of giggles again. Namjoon's 'mature' demeanour has finally broken as he laughs loudly at my expression.

I want to take it all back.

I roll my eyes and head to the kitchen, needing a cool refreshing drink to recover from my embarrassment.

Namjoon:

After the 'porn' incident, the conversation turns to Anime and Korean Dramas. Yoongi and Jimin seem to be very enthusiastic about certain TV shows, an enthusiasm Namjoon doesn't have. Hana is barely engaged in the conversation; laughing and agreeing here and there. Her cheeks are still red from earlier.

Namjoon has never felt more grateful to anyone before, especially not someone like Yoongi. He saved the conversation so swiftly that Namjoon had a hard time keeping up. Even Z was amazed by his wit. He didn't mean to make Hana so embarrassed, but she can't know what happened between them. The argument with Jimin is not something Namjoon wants to intrude on. However, he can't help but feel a sense of comfort knowing Jimin hasn't confessed to her yet.

But Namjoon is more grateful to Yoongi because he is not ready to talk to Hana about Z, the cult, or anything to do with all that.

How do you even start a conversation like that?

"Alright, I'm ready to head home," Hana sighs, standing up from the table.

"Let me walk you home," Namjoon says, standing up as well.

"NO!" Jimin says sharply. Hana raises her eyebrow at him, folding her arms and staring at him with an attitude.

"I mean..." Jimin clears his throat, standing up from his seat, "I'll walk her home... I'm leaving anyway,"

Namjoon gives Yoongi a look, but he just shrugs.

Be insistent.

No... it'll be weird. She'll be fine with Jimin.

Jimin doesn't have experience in fighting, Z snaps, I trained you, Namjoon. Be. Insistent.

No.

"Okay," Namjoon smiles, sitting back down in his seat, "We'll see you guys at school on Monday. Make sure you practice,"

Hana and Jimin nod, smiling and bowing slightly as they make their way to the door. Jimin looks back, winking at Namjoon, an encouraging smirk playing on his lips. Namjoon doesn't reciprocate it.

They close the door, leaving Yoongi and Namjoon alone in his apartment.

"Well, I hate to point out the obvious," Yoongi looks at Namjoon, smirking secretively, "But you very obviously like her,"

"I don't care what you think," Namjoon grumbles, "You know better than anyone that I'm just doing what Z told me to do,"

No, you're not, Z grumbles.

"I'm sure you are," Yoongi shrugs, "But a good friend would be encouraging him to ask her out,"

"Why would I do that? I've never done that," Namjoon frowns.

"No, but I bet you have never become angry at your friends for liking a girl," Yoongi hints, giving Namjoon a very sarcastic look. Namjoon ignores him, contemplating his words.

Stop that, Z chastises, You can't like her, and you won't be with her. Understood?

"Z has already told me I appear to have feelings for her," Namjoon explains, not bothering to acknowledge Z's words, "But I can't be with her anyway,"

"Why not?" Yoongi frowns, "What better way to protect her than if you had an actual excuse for being around her all the time?"

"I don't know," Namjoon groans with frustration, leaning forward and cradling his head, "He just says that there is a possible future where I am with her and that he's going to make sure that it doesn't happen,"

"Well, Z..." Yoongi grins mischievously as Namjoon looks at him, "Is anyone allowed to ask her out?"

Tell that sleazy, perverted, disgusting...

"Ok, ok, ok, ok!" Namjoon talks over Z's voice, preventing him from continuing, "Based on his very... aggressive response, I think that's a no,"

"Aggressive?" Yoongi tilts his head in confusion, "Why does he care so much?"

Namjoon sighs, trying to ignore the pain of jealousy he gets at the thought of Yoongi asking Hana out.

"Your guess is as good as mine,"

(A/N) 🫰🫰🫰