Park Soomi

"I think you should go," Yoongi spoke sternly. A nerve-wracking amount of tension filled the atmosphere as Taehyung hesitantly exited the room, eyes flickering between Yoongi and me. But that tension intensified tenfold when it was just the two of us. Though I felt the anger in his eyes digging into me, I could only concentrate on the realizations I had made mere seconds before he walked in. And even now, even with the less than ideal circumstances, seeing him here before me only reinforced these revelations.

I'm starting to have feelings for him. And it wasn't just the superficial attraction I had labeled it before. These were some real feelings.

"What the hell was that, Soomi?" Yoongi scolded. "Do I have to remind you of all the messed up shit he did to you? Have you already forgotten how hurt you were? I can't let you make this mistake again. I won't."

And there he goes again. It felt like he was always lecturing me about something these days, but it wasn't until this moment that it finally made sense why his recent behavior had frustrated me so much. I thought I was angry that he was stepping out of line, saying and doing certain things he wasn't in any rightful position to.

But truthfully, I was scared. Because the emotions and seemingly genuine concern in his words were messing with my head. Because his actions—the way he's been looking at me, the gentleness in his touches—was messing with my heart. I was scared of how all of this made me fall faster and harder for him.

And what if I'm just feeding false hope? What if I fall so deep it's too late to pull myself back out?

"I wasn't going to kiss him...whether you walked in or not," I quietly explained. I didn't mean for there to be uncertainty in my voice, but somehow, it found its way there. "And either way, you don't have to concern yourself with my business, you know? If I let him break my heart again, that's on me."

The anger in his eyes seemed to dissolve away at these words as his saddened stare lingered on me. There was only one word to describe how I felt in this moment: conflicted.

"You're right. It shouldn't be any of my business. But...that doesn't mean I'm just gonna sit here and let the world hurt you. It doesn't mean I'm not gonna worry, okay?"

"But why?" The question came out without a single thought and quickly took him by surprise.

Am I crazy for thinking there might be more to why he doesn't want me to be with Taehyung?

A flicker of hope sparked from the possibility of him feeling the same way, but the flame burned weakly, practically dying as soon as it ignited. Because if there was anyone I would easily misread, it was Yoongi. Still...there's no way I'm wrong about this one. Right?

"So, is it the right time now?" I continued persisting. He remained obliviously silent. "You said you couldn't tell me why you were acting different before. So when will it be the right time?"

"I-I don't know..." He struggled to string words together.

"You can't just wait forever, Yoongi." I found myself throwing caution to the wind, boldly stepping closer to him. My heart pounded in anticipation, and my imagination roamed wild, formulating scenarios of where the conversation could be heading. I ignored all the alarms in my head, warning me of my habitual wishful thinking, cautioning me about leaving my feelings unprotected and out in the open.

"I know. I, well, umm..."

As he tripped over his words, all I could do was hold my breath, anxiously waiting for him to say—

"I think I have feelings for you."

Oh. With all the possible scenarios in my head, none of them ended quite like this.

"You think?" I asked while raising my eyebrow. He quickly turned into a sputtering mess, attempting to backtrack on his words, and I surprisingly had to hold myself back from cracking a smile. I thought I'd be disappointed by this "confession," or that I'd be upset with how everything seemed to build up and then just fall flat. But instead, I was almost amused by how ridiculous the whole situation actually was.

Because what was I expecting? Some magical confession you would only find in books? Some extravagant moment straight out of a movie with rose petals lining the floor and fireworks bursting in the sky? We're in the middle of a goddamn hospital, wondering when my brother will wake up. There might still be someone out there hellbent on destroying our family. Just a few minutes ago, my cheating ex told me he wanted to get back together. My whole world was falling apart at the seams, and nothing about these circumstances screamed "perfect."

But maybe, it didn't need to be. Even just seeing Yoongi all flustered when he was usually so composed and stoic already felt pretty close to perfect.

Because this was real, and this was him.

"Well..." I finally spoke up, saving him the extra few minutes of awkward stammering, "I know I have feelings for you. So maybe you can let me know when you have yours figured out."

As if perfectly timed, the door behind us opened up, leaving no space for Yoongi to say anything or for me to regret my sudden surge of confidence. I turned around to see everyone entering the room as Yoongi fell into a coughing fit.

"Woah, you dying or something?" Hoseok joked as he walked in. Yoongi glared at him, clearly annoyed by his more frequent presence lately.

"Good thing we're in a hospital. I could call a doctor over," Misa said, obviously joining in with Hoseok's antics.

"No, I'm fine," he responded, a breathy rasp in his voice. I didn't want to admit it, but a part of me enjoyed this, witnessing the effect I had on him for once.

"Wait, shouldn't you be at the studio by now? You said you'd be gone by the time I got here," Misa said, quickly moving past Yoongi's coughing fit. My eyes widened. With everything going on, I had completely lost track of time.

"Shoot, you're right. But I was hoping I'd see Jimin wake up before leaving," I mumbled, turning towards his still motionless body.

"You should go. We'll call you first thing he wakes up. Promise," Jungkook reassured with a soft smile.

"Yeah, and besides," Misa started while taking a seat by Jimin, "now that I'm here, he'll most definitely be waking up soon." An awkward pause fell upon the room as no one seemed to have the right words to respond. "Because I'm gonna talk his ears off to the point of peak annoyance," she clarified with a cheerful grin. "Trust me. He'll wake up just to tell me to be quiet."

"Can I tell her to be quiet..." Yoongi mumbled under his breath, only loud enough for me to hear. I nudged him in the side, the forced smile never leaving my face. Because all I could think about was wanting to keep her away from Jimin, even when unconscious. But there was just no good way of saying that.

"Yeah, well, I'll hold you up on that then," I said to Misa before pulling out my phone, about to call Seokjin to explain my tardiness. But as I did so, I saw a missed call from him that had gone completely unnoticed. "Oh, hold on one sec." I excused myself from the room before calling him back.

"Hello?" he answered after a few rings.

"Seokjin, hi! I'm really sorry I'm late. I'm at the hospital right now and—"

"You're at the hospital? Why? Are you okay?" A barrage of questions suddenly came through the line.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. I'm here 'cause of my brother."

"Jimin? Is he alright? What happened?"

"Oh, umm, you don't need to worry. It was a...stab wound, but he should recover just fine," I explained while trying to simplify the situation.

"I'm sorry, umm, I-I hope he gets well soon."

"Thanks, Seokjin, but you know, you have nothing to be sorry about."

"I-I'm just, I'm sorry to hear it, that's all. Y-you know, you should probably stay with him. We can reschedule," he offered.

"Are you sure? Today was supposed to be your last day of recording."

"It's fine. Something came up anyway. I'll talk to you later." He soon hung up, and I slowly removed the phone from my ear, staring at it in confusion.

"Soomi," Yoongi called to me as I got off the phone. "So, a-are we heading out?"

"No, umm, I think we're staying. Seokjin said something came up."

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Third Person

Feeling a mixture of anxiousness and anger, Seokjin sat down to face the man in front of him, only a thin, glass screen separating them. His hand trembled as he reached towards the phone, eyes darting towards the prison guards behind the man. But he put all his effort into keeping a straight face, masking the fear eating away at him.

"You said it was over," Seokjin spoke as calmly as he could.

"What, no hello?" The man chuckled lightly at him.

"I'm being serious," Seokjin lightly warned, awaiting the man's answer as he kept close watch of the guards.

"Well, if I recall, those were your words, not mine. I let you play pop star for a while, but the time for that is up now, don't you think?"

"I..."

"Or do I have to remind you about what he did to us?" 

Seokjin quickly felt the courage that he built up to come here vanish into thin air. The man smiled at Seokjin's silence.

"That's what I thought. I think we're done," he said. Seokjin opened his mouth to protest, but the words wouldn't escape. There was so much more he wanted to say, yet the fear quickly shut him up. The man was about to put down the phone when he suddenly decided against it, bringing it back to his ears. "Oh, and Seokjin?

"Don't come here again."

——
{a/n}
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