TW: SA Trauma response 

Luna walks into the kitchen, humming to herself. Jimin and Hoseok's eyebrows disappear into their hairline, confusion and curiosity written into every inch of their faces.

"Good morning, Cinderella," Hoseok grins, "What's got you so cheerful this morning?"

"Nothing," She replies in a sing-song voice, heating some leftovers for breakfast.

Jimin sits on the stool in front of the kitchen bench, leaning forward with a huge grin on his face.

"You're not even trying to hide it," Jimin mutters.

"Hide what?" Hoseok asks.

"Well, let's just say the question isn't what... it's who has her so cheerful," Jimin snickers.

"Wait, did he finally...?" Hoseok gasps, turning to beam at Luna, "Did he finally ask you out?"

"What do you mean finally?" Luna frowns.

"Dude, it was so obvious," Jimin smirks, "Anyway, I assume you're no longer single, Miss Luna?"

Luna blushes, a little annoyed that they have been gossiping about them amongst themselves. She nods, and all hell breaks loose. Hoseok does these little jumps in one spot, shaking his hands as he squeals. Jimin slides off the stool, falling out of sight as his laughter and cheers echo throughout the area.

"CONGRATULATIONS!" Hoseok cheers, hugging Luna as he continues to hop with joy, shaking her.

"Wow, dear Luna, you have only been here a month and you've already bagged a hotty?" Jimin wiggles his eyebrows, grinning wickedly as he climbs back onto his stool.

"Calm down," Luna mutters, pushing at Hoseok. But he doesn't let go, just tightens his grip on her.

"We should celebrate!" Hoseok cheers, "Let's drink tonight! Whiskey? Soju? Wine?"

"Yes! Let's drink!" Jimin grins.

"No, I have an exam tomorrow," Luna mutters, finally pulling free from Hoseok's clutches.

"Urgh, fine," Hoseok rolls his eyes, "Students are so boring,"

"Hey!" Jimin pouts.

Luna and Jimin finish their breakfast and start heading out to the university.

"Have fun you two! I want details later Jimin!" Hoseok calls out as they make their way out of the apartment.

"Why is Hoseok asking you for gossip?" Luna mutters, playfully glaring at Jimin as he opens the apartment door.

"I have no idea what you are talking about," Jimin grins, gleefully exiting the apartment. She follows him out, starting to feel a little apprehensive.

Is Jimin going to be like this all day?

As soon as they close the door, they spot Taehyung walking over to them, a huge grin on his face.

"There he is!" Jimin calls out happily, "Good morning lover boy!"

Oh no.

Luna mentally facepalms herself, grimacing as she looks at Jimin. He really is going to be like this all day.

Embarrassing... he's acting like I've never dated anyone before.

Strangely enough, Taehyung is not embarrassed by Jimin's excitement. Instead, he rushes forward, pulling Jimin into a hug.

"Good morning," He chirps, smirking cutely.

"Wow, I'm so proud of you," Jimin simpers, "My favourite ship, I'm so happy,"

"Okay, let's go," Luna mutters, spinning around and heading to the elevator.

Once they are inside the elevator, Taehyung begins tapping her hand. Luna looks down, opening her closed hand. Once she does, he slides his hand into hers, entwining their fingers together.

"Aww, you guys are so cute," Jimin smiles, looking down at their hands as if it is the cutest thing he has ever seen. Luna rolls her eyes, but Taehyung chuckles. He seems to be enjoying Jimin's enthusiasm.

They quickly head to school, Taehyung keeping a firm grip on her hand. They head to class and begin their day.

Throughout the entire day, Luna learns about Taehyung's dating style. Considering how he has been acting leading up to them finally starting a relationship, she has developed a perception of him. She thought that he might be the sort of boyfriend that would be considered a bad boy. Similar to how Jungkook was with her, minus the violence and blood. She thought there would be subtle romantic gestures and limited physical affection, a cold and distant type of love. Essentially, she was expecting subtlety. She made an assumption. Oh, how wrong she was.

She was definitely not expecting a lot of handholding, cute nicknames, or snuggling. She definitely wasn't expecting him to act so proudly cute in front of others.

The first class was spent with him holding her hand. Whenever she wanted to pull away so she could type better, he would pout. In their second class, he would randomly nudge her, swaying as he grins happily at her.

The strangest thing she noticed, however, isn't Taehyung's behaviour. It's the one irritating figure missing from beside her; Jungkook.

Of course, she's not surprised that he's not here today. Back when they were young, he was terrible at studying. She is honestly surprised that he hadn't had a day off yet, so it is very on-brand for him. He has only been attending since last Wednesday, so it hasn't even been a week and he's already skipping school.

But his absence has made this entire day easier. It would be difficult to prevent a fight between him and Taehyung, especially after the last conversation she had with Jungkook.

Now it is lunchtime. Luna and Taehyung head to the food court area holding hands, looking around for Jimin.

"Boo," Jimin grins, popping up beside Taehyung with two bags of food. He holds them up, gesturing to a small table nearby, "Ready to eat love birds?"

Taehyung nods, eyeing the bags with longing. Luna, however, just rolls her eyes and follows them.

They sit at the table and begin eating. She leaves the talking to Jimin, letting him lead the conversation. However, his enjoyment of their relationship seems to have fizzled away as he watches them hold hands, Taehyung cutely offering her food.

"I'm starting to feel like the third wheel," Jimin tsks, watching as Taehyung plops a piece of pastry in Luna's mouth.

"Don't worry," Luna chuckles, "It won't be like this for too long,"

"Why?" Taehyung pouts.

"Because if we keep being this sweet, I am going to develop diabetes," Luna smirks, "I'm getting nauseous,"

Jimin laughs at Taehyung's hurt expression, which doesn't hang around for long. Soon, he smiles, grabbing her hand and bringing it to his lips, giving her a small kiss.

"Sorry," He chuckles, "I'm just too excited. Am I still allowed to hold your hand?"

"Of course," Luna laughs, "But if you keep up with the pouting and the cute voice, my teeth are going to fall out,"

"Too sweet?" Taehyung grins.

"Exactly," Luna smirks.

"Fine," He concedes, lifting her hand to kiss it again, "But if you ask me to stop kissing you, we are going to have a problem,"

Luna laughs this time, feeling a little love drunk. Realistically, even though she has never been a fan of cutesy, loving behaviour, she wouldn't mind if he insisted on continuing like that. Sure, she'd eventually become overwhelmed by it, but right now she's just so in love. The way he looks at her drives her insane. She is barely controlling the urge to kiss him every time they make eye contact.

How did I become like this?

"Anyway, we should head to class," Jimin sighs, rolling his eyes as he looks between them.

"Sure," Taehyung smiles, not looking away from Luna.

"Let's go," Luna grins.

They stand up from the table and make their way towards the building for their next class.

Luna looks away from Taehyung long enough to make eye contact with Jaemi as she passes them. Her eyes are narrowed, and her lip is quivering, looking down at their interlocked hands with such intense jealousy.

In response, Luna just smirks, lifting her eyebrow subtly as she passes. It has been a long time since Luna has seen someone glare at her with such hatred over something so simple. But she can't help but feel accomplished in this moment.

First, Jungkook takes the day off, and now Jaemi is angry?

On top of having Taehyung by her side, his beautiful eyes watching her lovingly, nothing is better than this.

Can this day get any better?

. . . . . 

Luna follows Jimin into the apartment before heading down to her room to get changed and put her bag away. This afternoon, she is going to hang out with Taehyung, much to Jimin's disgust.

When she comes back out, Jimin is sitting at the kitchen bench beside Hoseok. Hoseok looks like he's about to burst, trying to maintain a sympathetic appearance for Jimin, who must have been complaining about the sickly-sweet day he's had.

"So," Hoseok pinches his lips together, barely holding himself together, "I heard you had a great day?"

"Yep!" Luna beams. She leans on the counter, tilting her head and widening her eyes a little as she heightens the pitch of her voice, "Why? Did you not have a good day, Jimin?"

"Oh my god, if you don't stop, I might kill you in your sleep," Jimin groans, grimacing as he looks away from her. Hoseok and Luna burst out laughing, ignoring Jimin's disapproving look.

"It couldn't have been that bad," Hoseok teases.

"It really was," Jimin whines, "At first it was super adorable, but even when they stopped acting cute it was still too much!"

"Aww, poor baby," Luna sticks out her bottom lip, mocking him, "It must have been so hard for your single heart,"

"I will seriously kill you," Jimin says seriously, mirth dancing in his eyes.

"Sure you will, short ass," Luna smirks, patting him on the shoulder as she passes him, heading for the door.

"Yah! I'm like 3 inches taller than you!" Jimin says ludicrously, jumping off the stool.

Peeking around the wall that leads to the front door, Luna grins cheekily, quickly sliding on her shoes before she speaks.

"3 inches?" she pretends to look shocked, "Is that a lot for you?"

Jimin lunges towards her, a look of playful determination in his eyes. But she doesn't see it. She is already sprinting out the door and down the hallway as soon as she finished her question.

She swings open Taehyung's door, locking it behind her. She giggles as Jimin slams into it, banging on the hard wood.

"Yah! Luna!" Jimin calls out.

"Go away!" Luna laughs.

"What happened?" Taehyung asks, appearing in the little hallway.

"You better not come home tonight; I'll be waiting for you!" Jimin yells before walking away. Once she hears the sound of their apartment door closing behind him, she finally turns around. Taehyung is standing behind her, a look of complete bewilderment on his expression.

"Should I be worried?" He asks, his expression flicking between humour and horror.

"Nah," Luna replies, "Anyway, what should we do?"

She follows him into his lounge room, flopping unceremoniously onto the soft sofa.

"I was thinking we could finish watching that drama we started," Taehyung suggests, "We only have two episodes left,"

"Sounds good," Luna beams.

He leaves to collect some snacks and make them a drink each. While he does that, Luna begins contemplating the overwhelming pressure in her chest. She feels like her ribcage is seconds from bursting wide open. Each time it does, she just wiggles and giggles, grinning joyfully, and the feeling goes away.

Is this what genuine elation feels like?

"Ready?" Taehyung asks, placing the two glasses on the little table beside the snacks. Luna nods rapidly, still grinning like a lunatic.

"Good," He mutters, sliding in beside her. He leans against a corner of the sofa, spreading his leg out behind her, his other leg bent as it hangs off the sofa. She frowns at him, wondering what he could possibly be doing. Once he appears to be comfortable, he pats his chest and opens his arms up, as if gesturing for her to cuddle into him. She sits there, frozen for a moment. He pouts, wiggling cutely.

"Come here," He whines, smirking a little.

She crawls towards him, turning her body so she is leaning against him. He grabs a blanket from beside the couch, throwing it over them easily. Once he is done ensuring Luna is completely covered, he slides his arms under the blanket and wraps them around her. One sits across the top of her chest, along her collar bones, and the other across her middle. The hand across her middle grips her waist. The hand across her collarbones has the remote. He sets up the drama and presses play before pulling her closer to him, resting his head against hers.

She is happy that he is comfortable and happy, but she can't relax. She slowly begins loosening her muscles, starting to allow herself to lean into him. She doesn't completely relax until the end of the episode.

"Are you okay?" He asks, pausing at the beginning of the last episode.

"Yeah, I'm fine," She breathes.

He, of course, doesn't seem to believe her. She wouldn't either. It is very obvious when someone's muscles are tense, especially when they are this close. He starts the drama, giving her a brief squeeze of reassurance.

In her happiness and excitement, she completely forgot about her intimacy issues. It took her 6 months to become comfortable with Jungkook cuddling her. He, of course, had wandering hands. After everything that happened with The Eye, she couldn't bring herself to be comfortable with any physical affection. That would have been heightened by the fact that her family has never really been affectionate, never mind physical affection.

She only tried going further than cuddling once. It was the biggest panic attack of her life. She had almost killed Jungkook that night. Being unable to do anything like that was part of the reason he sought comfort in someone else – the reason he cheated on her.

In an attempt to comfort her, Taehyung gently slides his fingers under her shirt, placing his thumb on the skin of her hip. Here, he begins to rhythmically glide his thumb up and down. She can sense the reassurance in this action, the support and safety in his arms. But her brain doesn't know that. The sparks of electricity that erupt from his touch instantly travel to her brain. From there, her fight-or-flight response is triggered. For the first time in her life, she freezes. Usually, she would react physically, roughly pushing the offending hand away. But she is held in place by one simple emotion: uncertainty.

What if he wants to go further? What if her reaction makes him lose feelings for her?

What if he does what Jungkook did? What if he cheats?

Luna gulps involuntarily, her brain working overtime to come up with a solution to the tiny action it has deemed a threat.

She decides to try and focus on the drama, hoping her brain will follow her lead and ignore his hand. Soon, a kissing scene starts in the drama. One of those scenes where they shoot it from all angles, the dramatic music playing in the background.

Once this scene starts, Taehyung turns his head and places a kiss on her neck. He leaves his face there, his warm breath wafting over her sensitive skin. She tenses again, unsure what to do. Her brain has come to one conclusion: Either she reacts, and he leaves or cheats on her, or she doesn't do anything.

She decides to not do anything.

He kisses her neck again, his lips staying there for a little longer than the first time. She can feel him smiling against her skin, thoroughly enjoying himself.

See? I can't react. It'll hurt him. He'll cheat on me.

"You have very soft skin," He murmurs, the vibrations of his vocal cords travelling over her shoulder.

Suddenly, he squeezes her a little. One hand grips her arm gently. The other hand grips her side as if he is clinging to her. This sudden motion causes her shirt to lift a little further, so his entire hand is on her skin.

Her heart rate increases, reminding her that she is still panicking, whether she reacts or not. Her entire body tenses up even more, which is what ends up alerting Taehyung to her discomfort. He shuffles back, sitting up properly and turning so he can see her face. He removes his hands, placing them on his legs.

"Are you okay?" He asks softly.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Luna chuckles. He wraps his arms around her middle, pulling her closer to him. Instantly, she tenses again, one of his hands on the exposed skin on her side.

"Really?" He asks, "Because every time I touch you; you tense. What's wrong?"

Don't tell him, don't tell him, don't tell him, don't tell him, don't tell him.

"It's nothing," She smiles, "Stressful day, that's all,"

"I don't believe you," He replies, "You can tell me,"

Don't tell him, don't tell him, don't tell him, don't tell him, don't tell him.

As she becomes firmer with this resolve, so do her reactions. Instead of cowering, she decides to try and prove a point to her brain. She turns around, moving his legs so she can sit astride him. His eyes widen as his hands move with her, resting on her hips. She places her hands around his neck, ignoring her laboured breathing.

"I'm fine, see?" She breathes shakily, clasping her hands around his neck so they stop shaking. He frowns, looking her up and down. This simple reaction makes her shake even more. She grits her teeth, trying to force her body to stop. His fingers move slightly, gliding under her shirt a little. At this, she closes her eyes, concentrating on her breathing.

Before she can even register his reaction, she is lifted and placed back onto the sofa. She leans against the arm of the sofa, folding her legs and placing her trembling hands in her lap. She looks down at her hands nervously, unable to look him in the eyes.

"Luna," Taehyung says firmly. He shuffles so he is kneeling in front of her, one of his hands lifting her chin to look at him. Once she sees his big, beautiful eyes full of concern, she breaks. She lets out a loud sob, pulling her face away from his grip. She drops her head, letting out all the panic and fear that she has been bottling for the past 2 hours. Taehyung guides her head, so she is leaning against his shoulder, gently patting her back while trying to keep his distance.

"Luna, please," Taehyung murmurs sadly, "Please tell me what's wrong,"

Don't tell him.

Don't tell him.

Don't tell him.

Don't tell him.

Don't tell him.

I have to tell him. 

(A/N) Thank you for reading this chapter! Upvote or swing me a comment if you like it, tell me what you think? 🥺

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