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YOONGI's POV

A strong, uncontrollable need to sneeze woke me up the next morning, making something stir beside me. I glanced down to see Anna nestled against me, her hair tickling my nose having stimulated the feeling. I gently brushed the strands away and out of my face.

As I stared up at the ceiling with her sleeping soundly in bed with me, I could’ve thought that nothing was wrong. But our fight from yesterday was all too real, as well as the circumstances behind it. The stings of betrayal, regret and devastation were all still there.

Still, a night’s sleep really did wonders for one’s mind, mine included. I knew Anna’s decision was unchangeable and mostly likely for the best. That didn’t mean I’d ever be completely okay with it, it just meant that I had to learn to support it anyway. It was no secret how much pain she was in, nor was it a secret that Korea probably wasn’t the right place for her anymore, professionally and personally.

She was making the right choice for herself. And more often than not, the right choice seemed to be the hardest one.

I heard muffled whines from beside me as the lump in my arms squirmed awake. I casted my eyes down to her face as she softly mumbled my name. They met her puffy ones as she slowly opened them.

“Hey,” I muttered, my thumb her skin. She returned the greeting, a content smile etched upon her face.

That was before I saw the events of yesterday hit her all at once. Her peaceful expression dropped in an instant and her eyes immediately welled with tears. I slid my body down to lay face to face with her, my hands coming up to catch her first teardrops before they could slide down her face.

“Do you ever stop crying?” I teased lightly. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to ease any of her sadness.

“I’m so sorry, Yoongi. I shouldn’t have told you like that.”

“How else would you have told me?” I asked rhetorically, still trying to keep my tone light for her. She shrugged sadly.

“I don’t know. I just… didn’t want to hurt you the way I did.”

“I know you didn’t,” I assured her, wiping away a few more tears. She nodded, closing her eyes and reveling in the feeling of my touch.

“I’m sorry,” she repeated weakly, her voice cracking. “If I could stay, I would.”

I nodded as well. “I know you would, baby. I just wish I could just come with you or something.”

“I do, too, honestly. But you belong here,” she pointed out sadly, her lip quivering. “And you deserve better than to give any of this up for someone like me.”

“Someone like you,” I echoed with a small, incredulous laugh. “You have no idea how special someone like you is. How special you are to me.”

Glancing between each of her eyes, I honestly thought she was going to cry again.

“But you’re right. I deserve the opportunity to continue a career I’ve worked so hard on and you deserve to do the same in a place where you’ll be properly rewarded,” I continued, heaving a heavy sigh. “I know that transferring over to the American headquarters is the best decision for you. It'll be better for your career and it'll be better for your health. You'll be the closest you could ever be to your family and your fans and I know that's exactly what you need. The last thing I want is for you to move almost 7,000 miles away from me and and I don’t know what I’m going to do without you here, but I can’t put myself before you in your own life.”

“You don’t think we can stay together after I go?”

She asked what I had been asking myself all night after she had ran off. And just like the night before, I thought about it honestly. And even more like the night before, I shook my head regretfully. “Honestly, no. I don’t think so. Not with a time difference like that and schedules like ours.”

“But what about Family Concerts? There are going to be plenty of times when we’re both performing in the same one. Or even individual events. Just because I’m leaving this base doesn’t mean that I’m never going to do work over here ever again. And you’ve done lots of different activities in the States,” she tried to reason with so much desperation. It only made the whole thing that much more difficult.

“You know none of that will be enough.”

It was clear that she did in fact know that when the waterworks came out in full swing, just as I’d hoped they wouldn’t. Her face contorted in despair and in seconds, my hands were drenched with her tears.

“But I don’t want to lose you.”

“You won’t lose me,” I urged solemnly, doing my best to hold back tears myself. “We may not be together the way either of us wants but you’ll never lose me.”

My voice wavered as I spoke, betraying my every hope to remain a strong rock for her. My heart ached for her and quite frankly, for myself, too. I brought our lips together for a simple yet desperate kiss, one that was hard to part from. I locked my soft gaze on her.

“I love you, Anna. No distance or relationship will ever change that,” I told her under the duress of an overwhelming flood of emotions, feeling a million different ways for finally admitting it out loud. “Korea or America, girlfriend or not, there will always be a part of me that loves you, if not all of me.”

She sniffled as I added, “Though I really would’ve loved to have been able to call you my girlfriend sooner rather than later.”

She stifled a small laugh over her cries, shaking her head in bittersweet amusement. She then looked at me with sincerity.

“I promised you that you would one day. Don’t give up on me so easily.”

I smiled at her in adoration, giving her a small nod in submission. I then leaned away from her dramatically as she unleashed a major yawn right in my face. I chuckled. “I’m sorry, am I boring you?”

“Yes,” she teased, her eyes deciding to remain shut following the yawn. “Can we take a nap? Emotions are exhausting.”

“We literally just woke up.”

“But emotions are exhausting,” she reiterated. She peered through her eyelids to share a stare-off with me before I shrugged, pulling her body closer to mine.

“Alright, fair enough. Do you have the morning off?”

She stopped to think about it. Leave it to me to be the only one keeping our responsibilities in mind. She eventually nodded and I hummed in approval.

“Then, I think I could definitely use a nap,” I concluded, pulling her with me to rest on my chest as I flipped onto my back.

We laid there in a calming silence for a while before I felt her head shift to look up at me.

“I thought you wanted to nap.”

“I do,  but I haven't told you everything that I need to yet,” she admitted.

“Oh boy,” I muttered. That hadn’t introduced good things recently. But she merely smiled, reaching up to press a kiss against my jaw.

“I love you, too,” she voiced before nestling her head underneath my own. Her echoing of my earlier sentiment sent my heart into a boyish frenzy. Especially in these new circumstances, I had longed for her to share such a beautiful aspect of human nature with me. To hear the undeniable and passionate truth of it in her voice. And I did.

I wrapped both of my arms around her body, holding onto her tightly and keeping her flush against me. I craned my neck downward to kiss the top of her head before both of us drifted back to sleep.

I was woken maybe an hour or so later by Anna literally prying herself out of my hold, complaining that she “just wanted a freaking shower”. I had admittedly always been most stubborn when I was sleepy.

Since Hoseok, Jimin and I all shared one shower, Anna typically went home to shower and change, as much as she hated it. But with the two of them out at work and a few sets of spare clothes she had stored away here to mull through, she decided it safe to just do it here. She was heading out of the room to the bathroom when I called out to her from my bed. She swiveled her head around to look at me expectantly.

“Hm?”

I gave her a smile. “I love you.”

Although my words were completely sincere and warmhearted, a part of me totally said it to get a reaction out of her. I knew I was successful when she bit back a smile of her own and her cheeks singed pink. But she also saw right through to that mischievous part of me, making her drop the clothes in her hands and rush over to me. She leapt onto the bed and crawled on top of me, smothering me with her own supply of “love”.

“Awwwwww, Yoongi!” She cooed obnoxiously, choosing to be a pest in revenge. “Aren’t you just the cutest?!”

“Get off of me,” I complained despite my laughter, making half-hearted attempts to push her away. But she had the advantage being on top of me. She continued to poke and kiss at my face like I was an infant, making me forget the future that loomed over us like the darkest of grey clouds. Or even moreso, it made me want to enjoy the rest of the time we had together like this. And I was okay with that.

“I’m so proud of you for being able to voice your feelings like that!”

“When did you get so annoying?” I groaned, making her giggle as I tossed her slightly off balance. She returned back firmly in place over me, leaning down to give me a real kiss.

“I love you,” she finally echoed sincerely before victoriously climbing off of me and sauntering out of the room.