My Joonie looked so tired.

                He always did these days. He was constantly rushing around to some sort of class or lecture or who knows what. And when he wasn’t, he was working on his computer, with his headphones secluding him from the rest of the world around him, no matter what happened or who tried to talk to him.

                There were visible bags under his eyes, and he was sighing and running his hands through his hair as he stared at his computer.

                I walked over to him, sitting on the corner of his bed and wrapping my arms around him, whining and cuddling up to Namjoon. “Joonie, stop working, I need hugs!”

                He took off his headphones dejectedly, nodding as he set his work aside and fell into my embrace. He smiled slightly, taking one of my hands and pressing a light kiss onto my knuckles. “Five minutes, okay?”

                I nodded. “Sure, Joonie.”

                He pressed his head into my chest, closing his eyes as he relaxed. “Aish, I needed a rest.” I smiled and pressed kisses all over his face. He smiled strainedly and exhaled softly.

                “Joonie?”

                “Yeah, Hoseok?” He opened his eyes again, trying to hide a twinge of his annoyance.

                “C- Can you tell me what made you so stressed?” I played with his hair, frowning as I saw exactly how dark the circles under his eyes were. “Joonie, you’re scaring me… You need to sleep more!”

                He sighed, smiling and shaking his head. “Hobi, it’s fine! It’s really nothing, okay? Just a bit of stress about buying the property in America. The seller isn’t communicating very well, and now they want me to deposit 50% now and give the other 50% over a span of five years, and it’s not working out, and I just…” He sighed again, wrapping his arms around me and placing his forehead on my shoulder. “I just want it to all work out. I don’t want to go because I don’t want to leave you, but I want to go so that I will be able to expand Bangtan…”

                “Oh,” I whispered. I didn’t know how to help him, and I felt like a crappy boyfriend because of it. Instead, I pulled Namjoon closer towards me. “Take a break for today, Joonie. Please. It’s the weekend, let’s go do something fun!”

                He hesitated, but nodded. “Sure.”

                I grinned and pressed a kiss onto his nose affectionately. He deserved a break from all of his work, from his stress and problems. He worked so much, it would be good to see him relaxing on a date with me. “Good. And then after today, we can focus on the next round of the competition, right? It’s just interviews with the staff, so it should be easy, right?”

                He nodded again, breaking out into a small smile. “Yeah, that’s right.”

                I stood up, tugging at Namjoon’s shirt. “Come on, change into something nice. I’m taking you out.”

                He groaned, flopping down on the bed. “Can’t we just stay here? I’d much rather just kiss you for the rest of the day than go somewhere.”

                I blushed, smiling and laying down next to him. I intertwined our fingers slowly, continuing to tug on his shirt impatiently. “Fine. Let’s compromise. We go out for ice cream instead of something fancy, then come back and you can kiss me. Okay?”

                He nodded, content with the deal as he stood up, dragging me up with him. He walked out of our room quickly, pulling me along by the hand. “I know a good place to go, can I take you somewhere?”

                I pouted, hoping to receive some sort of reaction from Namjoon. “But Joonie, then I don’t get to do anything for you!”

                He laughed, just as I hoped he would. He was so cute when he laughed; his dimples came out when he did.

                “Ah, you’re so cute when you’re not always stressing, Joonie!”

-+-

                IOI Ice Cream was practically empty, except for another couple in the corner. As Joonie and I sat down with our respective cones, his chocolate and my vanilla, we smiled and held hands. I couldn’t help but notice the sign on the counter of the ice cream parlor that said that we would also be competing against them to win the title of best restaurant in Korea.

                “Namjoon?”

                “Yes?”

                “D- Do you really think we can do it? Win the contest, I mean?”

                He nodded, sticking his spoon into his ice cream and looking up at me. “Of course we can win. We’re bulletproof, duh!” He laughed softly.