7 Years Earlier
15-Years-Old

Yoongi stared at himself in the mirror. 'How does she always get me to do crap like this?' he thought.

"Is there anything I can help you with, sir?" The salesman asked. "Does everything fit to your satisfaction?"

"Yes, it does," Yoongi admitted. "I guess I'll take this one."

"Wonderful! If you'd like to get changed, you can bring the suit to the counter and we'll get you checked out!"

Yoongi entered the fitting room and sighed. 'It's making her happy,' he kept reminding himself as he changed. 'It's worth it because she's happy.'

Yoongi neatly folded the suit he was about to purchase with the money his parents had given him. They were incredibly excited that Yoongi was going to be getting ready for a dance, despite the fact that he wasn't actually going. Yoongi figured that, in the end, they just wanted to see him all dressed up. This was not something he'd considered when he'd explained Aera's plan to his parents. He figured they'd be against spending what Yoongi believed was a ridiculous amount of money on a suit that wasn't even going to technically be used.

After paying, Yoongi went looking for Aera. They'd parted ways in the mall at the suit store, and Aera had said she'd be going to a few stores looking for dresses. He pulled out his phone to text her, but found she already had. She was at the biggest department store in the makeup section.

"Makeup?" Yoongi mused. "She's terrible at doing makeup."

But still he trudged that way, wondering if Aera had found her dress yet.

When he found her, he was relieved to see a large bag next to her. But then he furrowed his brow at what was currently taking place. A woman at the makeup counter was doing Aera's makeup.

"You found a suit!" Aera exclaimed with glee, seeing the bag Yoongi was holding. "I was worried you'd be picky and take forever."

"Why would you think that?" Yoongi asked.

Aera shrugged. "You're weird about clothes sometimes."

Yoongi rolled his eyes, having no idea what she was talking about.

"Are you going to be ready to go after this?" Yoongi asked hopefully.

Aera narrowed her eyes at him as the makeup artist applied her blush. "Can you just humor me and at least pretend like you're having a good time?"

Yoongi's heart dropped. She was right. This all meant a lot to her, and he was bringing her down.

"I'm sorry," he offered. "This really was a good idea. I'm just getting anxious being around all these people. You know I hate the mall for that reason."

Aera sighed. "I know. I'm sorry, too. Yes, I'll be ready to go after this."

Soon enough, Aera's makeup was done, and she paid the artist. She then turned to Yoongi. "How do I look?"

"Not like yourself, but it's very pretty."

Aera rolled her eyes. "Nice backhanded compliment, Yoongs."

"I didn't mean it like that!"

Aera chuckled. "I'm just giving you a hard time. Okay, let's get going. We can go by your place first so you can get away from the crowds."

"And let you ride the bus back to your place by yourself? Are you joking?"

"It's not even that far. And I can take care of myself," Aera said, though she smiled at his chivalry.

"We'll drop you off first," Yoongi insisted.

"It's close enough for me to walk – "

"Walk?! Absolutely not!"

Aera rolled her eyes. "I'll be walking tonight – "

"Yeah, with me!"

"Okay, okay," Aera finally conceded. "Thanks, Yoongs."

Yoongi shook his head. "Crazy woman," he muttered under his breath.

Aera narrowed her eyes. "What was that?"

"Nothing," Yoongi said quickly. "C'mon, let's go."

-

Five hours later, Yoongi was standing in front of Aera's door, pulling at his collar as he waited for someone to answer the door. He still wasn't completely comfortable in his suit.

A few moments later, the door opened, and Yoongi's breath caught in his throat.

There stood Aera, in an emerald green dress. It was poofy enough to be considered a ballgown, but not so poofy that it was impractical. The sweetheart neckline was modest and gave way to cap sleeves. Every part of the dress hugged Aera's body perfectly.

Yoongi could see now that her makeup complimented the dress's color, and it suddenly seemed to suit her more than he thought it had in the store. Aera had curled her chestnut brown hair and it lay sweetly on her shoulders and cascaded down her arms.

Aera gasped. "Yoongs! You look so debonair!"

Yoongi didn't reply. All he could do was stare.

"Yoongs?" Aera asked, realizing he wasn't moving. "You okay?"

"Y-You look..."

Aera waited for a moment, but he didn't continue. "I look...?"

"Beautiful."

Aera's cheeks turned pink. "Thank you."

Yoongi said nothing further until he realized he'd been standing there like an idiot. "Uh...are you ready...to go?"

"Yep!" Aera said. She exited the house, turned around and shouted goodbye to her parents, then closed the door.

"So," she said as she hooked her hand around Yoongi's arm as they began walking. "What're we gonna do tonight? Just watch a movie or something?"

"That's what I had in mind," Yoongi said. "Unless there's something else you'd like to do."

"We could play Mario Kart," Aera said excitedly. "Let me kick your ass a few times before we start the movie!"

"Psh," Yoongi scoffed. "You don't win every time."

"Um, yes I do," Aera argued. "But I'll stop talking about it so your pride won't get hurt."

Yoongi rolled his eyes and Aera smirked.

"My parents are going out," Yoongi told her. "So, we can hang out in the living room. We'll probably need to give my mom some time to gush. And I'm sure she'll want to take pictures," Yoongi said with exasperation.

"Your mom is so cute!" Aera replied. "Let's humor her, okay?"

"Okay," Yoongi agreed, somewhat reluctantly.

Just as Yoongi's house came into sight, the door flew open.

"Oh my god!" his mother shrieked. "Look at you two!"

Aera grinned and Yoongi forced a small smile.

"Oh, Aera! You look beautiful! Doesn't she look beautiful, Yoongi?!"

"Yes," Yoongi said.

"And that suit looks so good on you! Come on, come on, let's get some pictures!"

Yoongi internally groaned, but did as he was told. As soon as his mother was finished, he grabbed Aera's hand and pulled her into the house.

"It wasn't that bad, Yoongs," Aera said quietly. "It made her happy."

And Yoongi had to remind himself, much as he had at the mall, that this was worth it for his loved ones that this whole fiasco made happy. The most important of which was Aera tonight. And so he calmed down and finally began trying to have a good time.

Once Yoongi's parents had left, Aera went directly for the Nintendo. "Alright," she said. "Let's play!" She thrust a controller into Yoongi's hands and began setting up the game.

By the time Yoongi had lost the seventh game, he was dangerously close to no longer having a good time. Aera seemed to sense this, and turned off the game with a smirk.

"Movie time?"

"Yes, please. You pick it out, I'll make popcorn."

And the night continued on. The movie was almost over and Yoongi could tell Aera was getting tired. She was leaning against his side, but slowly moved until her head was in his lap, and her body curled beside him.

"Hey, Yoongs?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you for tonight. It really means a lot to me."

Yoongi slowly began running his fingers through her hair. "You're welcome. I'm sorry I acted so grumpy some of the time."

Aera chuckled. "It's okay. I know this isn't exactly your cup of tea. But you did it for me, and I'm grateful."

Yoongi smiled. "I'd do anything for you, A."

She didn't reply and a few moments later, Yoongi heard a couple of soft snores. He smiled again before he himself drifted off to sleep.