At first, Nia had no idea how to take in the following days.

Jin, her favorite idol, had begun to spend time with her, sitting in front of her bed while reading or sometimes doing some work on an old laptop he brought with him. His sleeping face, his face while eating, even his face when mad or tired, she got to witness all of it first hand.

He said little, only looking up to ask if she needed anything or to help her when her bandages were being changed. Nia found him even more handsome up close, but there was a cold wall she could feel between them. He was distant and often asked yes or no questions. His smile was both caring but wicked. She felt a tinge of judgment coming from him, but she ignored it.

Nia spoke little, doing her best to avoid spilling out everything she knew about him or to mention his music.

She didn't want him to feel uneasy around her, she didn't want him to think she was like them.

She didn't want to seem delusional.

But then there was another person who she also got to see, and who she approached differently.

While Jin's smiles felt like pitty, this other man would look her in the eyes and genuinely smile at her. His eyes were soft and his words were playful yet kind.

Namjoon would drop by ever so often, leaving food for them or changing shifts for Jin to shower. During these times, Nia couldn't help but notice the small remarks he made under his breath when arguing with Jin, or the times he attempted to make conversation with her.

He was different from Jin. 

The more time she got to see them interact, the more Jin reminded her of her past and the more Namjoon reminded her of someone she knew but couldn't quite figure out who.

It was odd, however, since some days Nia would go almost the entire day without seeing him, and yet whenever he returned, he still seemed that same warm entity in the room. 

Little did she knew what was going on behind the scenes.

~

 "Tell me, why am I here?" a voice echoed into the mall's halls, a gust of wind blowing doors shut.

"You're helping me work while my coworker is in the hospital," Namjoon groaned through the thick Snowman suit. It had begun to snow, both Mark and Namjoon shivering every time they walked out of the mall to leave a box. They were heavy, but Namjoon's mind was everywhere else but there.

He wondered if she had eaten, he wondered if her face hurt, he wondered if she was gushing over being near Jin, his fellow bandmate.

All of these questions made it almost impossible to focus.

"Speaking of, why care about what happens with her? I'm sure someone else could have covered, why was I dragged into this?" Mark questions, interrupting Namjoon's internal monologue.

Namjoon had been working hard at the charity while also holding down Nia's place with the help of his cousin Mark, both of them pulling each other's weight throughout the two weeks that Nia needed to stay in the hospital.

It wasn't hard work, and Namjoon was more than happy to help, but Mark was reluctant and a bit annoyed. 

"I'll pay good money for you to help," Namjoon remembered saying to convince him to help.

He worried about her, oddly enough, worried that because of her attachment to the charity she would feel rushed to recovery and overexert herself to go back quickly.

"How long does she have left?" 

"Four days. And don't say it like that. It sound's like you're expecting her to die or something. Jin told me this morning that her nose seems to be healing perfectly so it won't be much longer until she's discharged. Now hurry we have to drop these boxes off-"

"So let me get this straight, Kim Namjoon, Nia is some coworker you have fallen in love with and so you have your poor cousin doing heavy work all for her to not know what you even look like?" Mark huffed out.

"Love? What the heck are you going on about? I just want to be nice," Namjoon blushed.

He wasn't in love with her.

No, it wasn't that.

Nia was a good person and he was simply returning the favor.

She had helped him out, showed him the ropes of the job, and without her noticing, she had opened his heart up to giving obsessed fans the benefit of the doubt.

"Also, what happened with that girl's friend, did she ever come back?"

Speak of the devil.

Namjoon paused in the middle of placing one of the canned food boxes he had to take to the orphanage, on the back of the van. The cold weather was nothing in comparison to the chill that had run down his spine at the mention of that girl.

The girl that wanted so desperately to be seen as a woman.

"She did come back...a couple of days after."

Namjoon remembered it like it was yesterday, a sigh escaping his lips.

May had arrived all dolled up, mini skirt in the middle of winter, and with converse on her feet, an expensive bag hanging loosely from her arm. He groaned, remembering how he had bumped into her on his way out of Nia's room, his hands full with Jin's stuff that he was to leave at his house. There was little way for him to avoid her, knowing well that day was to come sooner or later. He had hoped that she'd go whenever he wasn't there, but it was as if fate itself was testing him. She was pretty looking girl, no denying the obvious, but he couldn't get over the way she had acted in front of him previously.

Shaking his head, he pushed past her and didn't look back, hoping she would go in to finally see her friend and hopefully worry about her, but no.

"Oppa!! Saranghe!!" she shouted after him.

Namjoon didn't say anything, not until he felt her hand grab onto his hip, wrapping her arms around his waist before pushing her boobs into his back.

He had seen things like that happen before to other idols, had bared witness to the thirsty comments flooding pictures of him in fan accounts on social media, and had heard the grossest of voice memos sent to him through his manager's phones or even his families home phone. That, all of that, had culminated into intense frustration.

"I am asking you politely, to let me go," Namjoon mumbled, the bodyguards that had been standing at the door beginning to approach them cautiously.

"But Oppa, you were meant for me," she cried.

"I am not an object you can just choose to own, I'm a person too, and have my own beliefs, I don't belong to anyone."

"But Oppa!"

The word that came out of her mouth was annoying, the tone she used making him feel pure disgust.

"Never. I have and will never be, your Oppa," he pushed out, pulling her hands off of him as the bodyguards pulled her away.

"YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME!! AFTER ALL, I DID FOR YOU!! I KNOW WHERE YOUR FAMILY LIVES OPPA, I KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT YOU!! I SWEAR WE WILL BE TOGETHER OPPA!! MY FAMILY HAS MONEY, I WILL BUY YOUR AGENCY IF I HAVE TO!"

Namjoon couldn't bear it any longer, beginning to speed up his pace and walk out of the hospital.

He had been scared to return the next day, telling Mark and the other boys about the whole situation.

"Crazy. I'm telling you, those people are insane. Who's to say that woman in the hospital isn't like that?" he remembered Yoongi snapping.

He was somewhat right.

Though Namjoon and the rest of the guys did the rest to defend their fans in public, there was always a bittersweet taste left in their mouths whenever incidents like the ones Namjoon and the other members went through.

How could one defend people when their image continued to become more and more tainted with every passing incident. 

"She isn't like that," Namjoon whispered to himself.

"She isn't."

~

Four days had gone by, Nia getting off the BTS company van with Jin next to her.

She was glad that most of her neighbors were older, they knew little of the group BTS, and that they would most likely go unnoticed since it was still pretty dark outside. The snow had stopped, but the wind persisted all throughout the morning, Jin and Nia shaking with each blow of it.

Nia walked through the snow, her body shivering at the cold wetness seeping into her shoes. Jin smirked, taking off his coat and placing it on her shoulders before turning to grab her things from inside the van.

"Going into the cold after being in a warm van will get you sick," he smiled.

Nia blushed, her arms sinking into the scent left behind by him while looking down at her feet.

He reminded her of her brother, the way he was silent and only spoke when needed, his worried face making her heart sink. He had a way to make her feel like a child, the feeling both painful and pleasant. It was a reminder of her past, a painful yet sweet reminder of the happiness she could never go back to.

"Thank you."

Climbing up the stairs to her apartment, Jin followed close by, his hands out in a catching position, in case she was to fall.

Even though she knew so little about him, and even though she wanted to spend more time next to him, she knew better than to keep him there, her hands going for her keys within her pocket.

Just as she slipped her hand out, her keys fell, Jin grabbing it mid-air before handing it over to her.

"I...I want to thank you again for helping me," Nia bowed, Jin shaking his hand while embarrassingly hiding his face. 

"It's okay. Anyone else would have done the same," he urged, Nia simply looking at the rest of her things that Jin held in a bag.

"Oh, and here, would you be kind enough to give me your number. I would love to cook you a couple of meals while you recover and if you need any help I'd love to be of assistance," Jin chuckled, handing her his phone, Nia thinking she was going to be handed her belongings.

"I couldn't possibly ask you to-"

"Just take the offer. Plus, I have some time off for the holidays and wouldn't mind doing this as thanks for saving us. It's the least I could do."

Nia nodded slowly, taking his phone and putting her number in before handing it back and waiting for him to give her the bag.

"Well, I'm off. Don't want to keep them waiting," Jin added, motioning towards the black van that was parked in front of her apartment, the bag falling into Nia's empty palm.

Walking away, Nia stood still and waited, only after he had left remembering the coat Jin had placed on her shoulders.

"I guess I'll have to give it back to him when he comes over..."

Smiling to herself, Nia walked into her apartment, threw her shoes on the side of the entrance, and waddled into her room.

Her face still ached, but she felt far more comfort recovering in her own place than in a hospital. 

Hospitals were simply a cruel reminder of her brother, memories that daunted her and made fun of her pitiful state.

She looked around the room, the posters of Jin surrounding her.

"Posters really don't do him justice," she whispered to herself.

Taking out her phone, she clicked on a cartoon snowman icon in her contacts and began typing.

"...And so because of that I will be off for another week until my face isn't bruised," she finished, pressing send and waiting for a reply.

She had missed him.

He was all fun and games, no stress, judgmental, but caring nonetheless.

"Jungi: All under control Old Man."

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🐨Hopefully, you guys are excited... About 3 more chapters before we start the ending...

I know this chapter must feel rushed but bear with me. I hope that it is still a good read regardless.

Thank you for the comments and votes, these help me know which book I should be attempting to work on and which I should leave for later.

Let me know what you think in the comments below!!

Marili Cruz

~♡~