Taehyung surrendered his cot for my use so Jimin could get his back. There was a lot of bickering on the subject, but it was all overly-polite nonsense of who had the privilege of forfeiting his sleeping space. TaeTae had given the reasonable rationale that he slept in Hobie’s bed about half the time anyway, so switching the arrangement to full time wouldn’t be an issue. When Hobie quickly agreed, it was settled. “You know, we could always just have Zoey bunk up with Yoongi,” Jungkook piped up once the conversation was just about over. Sighing in defeat, I rolled my eyes to myself. I knew he was going to suggest it at some point. The jab was inevitable, and his cheesy little smirk didn’t help in the slightest. He gave me an exaggerated double thumbs up along with his quickly growing toothy grin as the rest of the room laughed while Yoongi and I scooted just a little bit farther apart on my cot in discomfort. It’s not that the idea didn’t cross my mind, but I was intent on not making our relationship any more stressful than it had to be. The last thing I needed was Yoongi to accidentally shove me off the bed in his sleep and have him feeling guilty about it for a day or two.

“What?” Jimin was the only one not laughing, and his face was skewed with confusion. “Jungkookie,” he whined slightly from his spot between Taehyung and Jungkook, looking over at his younger friend with a concerned frown. That’s right, I thought to myself, he thinks me and Jungkook are together. I cringed inwardly as I met Jungkook’s eye.

His smirk had faded entirely, and he stared at me for a long moment, his mouth just slightly open. “Ah,” he finally made a sound as he looked from me to Jimin, “Yoongi and Zoey are, um, together now.” I, for one, was rather pleased that Jungkook was suffering the consequences of his joke by awkwardly putting into words exactly why it was so funny to the rest of us. He was visibly suffering, and I was enjoying the tables being turned for once.

Jimin’s childlike face went through a series of phases from confusion, surprise, and finally settled on something akin to anger, his slightly puffy cheeks distorting. “Are you kidding?” he finally burst, as much as his airy, high voice could really burst. He stood up, swiveling his head between Jungkook, me and Yoongi. Finally, he settled on me, taking a step forward to close the distance, causing me to shrink back slightly. “You broke up with Jungkook for Yoongi?” He turned back to Jungkook, clearly at a loss for words, “I mean, look at him! How can you say no to that?”

“Gee, you really know how to make a guy feel special,” I heard Yoongi murmur next to me with a quiet little huff, and I tried hard to contain my chuckle. Also Jungkook’s face of slight embarrassment added to the humor. If it weren’t for Jimin’s sincerity in his objection, I would have surely laughed whole heartedly. But he was being entirely serious, and we remained quiet.

We all continued to look to Jungkook for answers. This was his hole he was digging. “No, no, Jimin, we never were together,” he explained wearily, leaning to look past Jimin at me, but I just responded with an innocent shrug. Jungkook groaned, “It was all just an act for The Chairman.”

“What?” Jimin seemed downright deflated, his voice quickly shifting from anger to disappointment, “But why? Why lie to everybody?” He spun on his heels, alternating between staring Jungkook down and looking distressingly sad at me. “I mean,” he began to speak again, as if this revelation was actually life-changing for him, “when I first heard, I was happy for Jungkookie, but sad that he would be hogged by a girl if I ever got to come home, but you should see the people out there!” I was struck by his words. It would make sense that at the MedLab he would have come into contact with plenty of people in the district. “They got to see all of the pictures and articles and think, ‘Well this place ing , but hey, at least we get to hear about that cute happy couple every once in a while,’ but now you’re telling me it was a lie? Why?” His volume and vocal pitch rose with every word.

I was astounded by his passionate speech. With no words to say, I looked helplessly to Yoongi, who seemed to be debating whether or to be angry or upset. Thankfully, a much calmer voice responded first. “Jimin,” Hobie was suddenly at Jimin’s side, “Zoey did all of this- Namjoon and Zoey planned all of this for you.” His voice was sweet and calm as he gently laid both of his hands on his short friend’s shoulders, keeping him still.

At the sound of his name, Namjoon stood up quickly, as if he had just truly started listening to the conversation. He looked quickly at me, meeting my admittedly panicked eyes before focusing back on Jimin, “Hobie’s right, Jimin. It took us about five months to get you back. It was really risky and Zoey,” he stopped, and the atmosphere turned cold and awkward. I didn’t know if Namjoon looked at me, because I was very intent on not meeting his gaze. I felt Yoongi’s hand fall to my knee, but I just looked down at the concrete between my feet. Namjoon cleared his throat uncomfortably, “She sacrificed a lot for you,” he finally finished.

There was another heavy reprieve and I finally looked back up. Jimin's shoulders were slumped and he was looking right at me, his already puffy lips pushed out into a childish sort of pout. "I feel bad now," he murmured quietly. "Sorry Seoyeon- Gah, sorry," he smacked his own forehead with the heel of his hand, "Zoey," he corrected. With Hobie patting his back comfortingly, he managed a little smile, his dark, narrow eyes brightening just slightly. "Thanks." He sounded as if he meant it, but there was still a hint of doubt in his voice. I couldn’t blame him. It was a lot to take in.

"You're welcome," I managed to reply, though my own voice sounded tired and down. "I'm glad you're back," I added, trying my best to lighten the mood. It seemed to work, as Yoongi's grip on my leg relaxed considerably and Jimin sat back down between Taehyung and Jungkook.

Managing to slip away, I left the boys to continue to catch up and reminisce about old memories together. I was sincerely grateful for his return, but I still had a lot to think about. I had already thought of an extension to our original plan for a potential ticket out of there, but it would take several more months, and would take a while to get going. As much as it was a horrible thing to think about, at least my miscarriage added at least a couple of months onto my minimum timeline with the boys. On a different note, I thought it was almost strange that I got to skip out on my nightly encounter with Jungkook, so I found myself at a loss of what to do. Thankfully, I was intercepted by Jin, who must have followed me without my knowledge. "Hey," his soft voice caught me off guard, and I turned rather quickly to face him.

"Oh, Jin, hi," I greeted hesitantly, doing my best to present a genuine smile, not wanting to give away my rather dark thoughts during what should be a happy, celebratory moment. Jin and I had a different sort of relationship than what I had with the rest of the boys. It was like he was my aloof guardian, generally keeping his distance until he saw that I needed him. Despite our limited interaction, I actually felt quite close to him. Perhaps it was because he had confided in my so long ago, or maybe it was just that I felt he, like Hobie, really knew when I needed cheering up.

He laughed quietly, no doubt at my surprise, and brought an arm out to guide me gently by my shoulders. "Come on, help me finish up dinner. We have one more mouth to feed." I had generally spent very little time in the kitchen. It was one of those things that felt like Jin's personal space, only to be entered when invited. Sure, Jungkook and Namjoon were in there all the time, but as the two closest to him, it made sense for them to come and go as they pleased. Even they got kicked out from time to time. Whenever there were more people present to 'help' with the meal preparations, it seemed to generally go poorly. In a way, it felt special to be ushered into his favorite place.

Once the door was closed behind us, we stayed quiet, mostly, with Jin giving me the occasional direction to put something away, or hand him something else. At some point, though, my mind began to wander, and only when it was too late did I notice that a pot was spilling over. Scrambling quickly, I moved it off of the burner and gave it a quick stir to calm the boil, "Oh g