SPRING; March

Friday -- Evening

“J-Jungkook, it's getting really c-cold.”

Seeing Jiyoo recover had momentarily phased everyone to the point where they'd forgotten that Jiyoo and Taehyung had fallen in the pool altogether. Now that they'd remembered, it was time for them to dry off before they got sick.

Jungkook picks Jiyoo up bridal style, carries her past the guys and takes her back into the house. He was especially happy that Jiyoo hadn't appeared to have suffered too much in her comatose state. Jungkook had a smile on his face and grinned even more as Jiyoo whined for him to put her down.

“I can walk Jungkook.” She grumbles, her cheeks flushed pink as she tried to ignore the stares she got from the others.

“But I wanna carry you.” Jungkook grins.

He ignored Jiyoo’s plea all the way up the stairs until they were outside the bathroom. Gently letting her back down to the ground, Jungkook helped Jiyoo stabilize herself before heading to the closet to grab her a towel. When he'd returned, he found Taehyung about to walk into the bathroom as well.

“Hey! You can't go in there!” Jungkook shouts.

The sound of feet rushing around on tile was heard, and Jungkook knew that Jiyoo was probably frantically trying to either get dressed or hide herself. He hoped Taehyung hadn't seen anything, but instead was met with the slam of the bathroom door and Jiyoo’s small gasp.

“Yoongi hyung!” Taehyung cried out, “I need to shower too!”

For a moment, Jungkook didn't remember who Yoongi was. He pushed Taehyung away from the door and twisted the doorknob only to find it locked. Taking a look at the others, he counted only five people besides himself. It was Seokjin, Namjoon, Hoseok, Jimin, Taehyung-

And Suga was missing.

“Hey! Get out of there!” Jungkook roared, his fists banging against the door. “Jiyoo are you alright?”

Jiyoo wasn't hurt, but she couldn't exactly speak either. Seeing Suga in the bathroom made her feel embarrassed to the max, and the fact that he was staring directly at her was even more mortifying.

She had already taken off her clothes when she heard someone open the door.

What made matters worse was that Jungkook’s family always hangs their towels in their rooms, so there were no towels in the bathroom. The closest thing to a towel was the small cloth that Jungkook’s dad placed on a little stand for people to use after they'd washed their hands. The little thing wasn't as nearly as big as a towel, but Jiyoo was in a rush to cover herself.

The hand “towel” managed to cover her lower regions, but still left her upper regions for the world to see. In this case, it was only Suga that saw her, but it still felt just as embarrassing. She covered her s with her arm and shut her eyes, hoping that Suga would get the message and leave.

He didn't though.

“Stop doing that.” Suga orders, though Jiyoo is unsure what exactly he's talking about.

“D-Do what?” She barely let out.

With her eyes open now, she could see Suga’s own eyes wandering. They would look at Jiyoo, but quickly look towards his reflection in the mirror. Eventually his whole body shifted from the left towards the mirror, then to the right towards the wall, before eventually turning once more to the right so that his back faced her. He wasn’t exactly in a nice mood though; Even though he wasn’t facing towards her, Jiyoo could tell he was pissed.

“That thing with your pheromones.” He hissed. “It's really annoying.”

She waits for more clarification, but Suga says nothing else. Jiyoo could only squeak out a small “sorry” before she'd been interrupted by Jungkook’s loud shouts for Suga to get out of the bathroom. She could hear the door frame cracking as Jungkook yanked on the doorknob. Jiyoo was scared that Suga was upset at her (and for a reason she couldn’t control as well), but she was more afraid that more people would see the state she was in.

“Tch.” Suga’s tongue clicked before turning back around to face her.

Before she could feel uncomfortable again, she watched as Suga pulled his shirt over his head. Without warning, he tossed his white shirt right in her face. Jiyoo could only hold the shirt over her chest while Suga was turned back around and facing the bathroom door.

“W-What is this?” She tries to ask.

A grunt of irritation could be heard from Suga. “Put it on. Five-”

Jiyoo still sits on the floor, confused and unaware that Suga was counting down.

“Four-”

Jiyoo gasps, fumbling with the shirt. The shirt wasn’t cooperating with her and it was making her upset.

“Three-”

Jiyoo managed to get one arm in and just when she thinks she finally has the situation under control, she realizes that she put her arm through the shirt hole. Yanking it back out, she starts from square one with a panicked whine. By the time she got the shirt on, Suga was gone and the door was wide open, revealing the group of boys at the entrance.

Without looking back, Suga made his way outside and walked downstairs as if he hadn't just cornered Jiyoo in the bathroom just then. Namjoon and Seokjin followed, while the rest of the boys stayed upstairs, all being confused as to why Suga was shirtless. When Jungkook tried to rush into the bathroom to check on Jiyoo, her voice had finally returned.

“I'm fine Jungkook, but please close the door!” Jiyoo cried out.

Her legs had given way after the scary encounter with Suga, her hands covering her covered s in an attempt to prevent anything from poking out from under the shirt. Hoseok’s jaw was dropped and Jimin was doing his best to hold back Taehyung who was fighting to have his eyes unblocked.

Luckily Jungkook shut the door almost immediately after he’d come in. He did a quick check to make sure Jiyoo wasn’t hurt before he’d realized she only had a shirt on. Coughing a little to rid the lump in his throat, he scratches the back of his head and avoids Jiyoo’s eyes. He’d given her the towel finally, wrapping it around her waist without looking at her directly.

“He didn’t… Hurt you. Right?” Jungkook says warily, his eyes glued to the ground due to her slight indecency.

Jiyoo shakes her head and leans forward, putting one arm around Jungkook and pulling him in for a hug. “I’m safe thanks to you.”

Jungkook eventually left, though he remained posted outside the bathroom during the duration of Jiyoo’s shower. He'd only gone to grab her some of his extra clothes, but made sure Jiyoo kept the door locked while he was away.

The only reason why Jiyoo didn't feel as nervous around Jungkook was because they used to shower together as kids. It was still awkward, sure. But through their red cheeks was the trust that they'd built over the years of being friends. Jiyoo felt safer knowing that Jungkook was waiting right outside for her too.

Meanwhile downstairs, it sounded as though someone was repeatedly hitting a bass drum. The thumping noise echoed throughout the house as Suga slammed his head into the wall over and over again.

“Should we stop him?” Seokjin says nervously to Namjoon. He winced as Suga continued hitting his forehead against the wood.

“No.” Namjoon says firmly.

Seokjin looks at Namjoon worriedly, but can only see the latter with his arms crossed as he watched Suga continue to slam his head into the wall. Namjoon’s fingers are digging into his arms and his jaw is clenched. Seokjin is surprised, for Namjoon was never the one to lose his cool.

And yet he’s pretty sure that Namjoon’s so said ‘cool’ was lost multiple times within this day alone.

“Hyung, you should stop before you break a hole into Jungkook’s house.” Jimin sighs.

He made his way downstairs with Taehyung’s collar in his curled up fist. Jimin had a hard time pulling Taehyung away from the door and was lucky Hoseok didn’t behave the same way.

“Why did you keep trying to block my eyes?” Taehyung asks, his voice raised at Jimin who is taken aback.

“Because Jiyoo didn’t want you looking, ert.” Jimin rolls his eyes.

Hoseok opens his mouth to say something, but when nothing comes out, he shuts his lips. He knew that he behaved just as badly as Taehyung. His face turned red after he caught himself trying to remember what Jiyoo’s bare legs looked like. There wasn’t much time to remember though, especially since Seokjin saw his dazed eyes and decided to smack the back of his head.

“What you all did was inappropriate.” Seokjin sighs, “You made Jiyoo feel uncomfortable. And Jungkook isn’t happy by that either.”

Suga takes a moment to stop hitting his head against the wall to glare at Seokjin. “It’s not my fault she’s putting herself out there like some sort of snack.”

“So… You were looking at her then?”

Suga pauses before turning back around to face the wall. His silence confirmed Seokjin’s question and everyone was shocked that Suga admitted that he was looking at Jiyoo when she was . Even he himself was baffled by it. Continuing to slam his head into the wall, the rest of the guys were either arguing with one another or in a daydream thinking about things that shouldn’t be thought about.

For instance, about Jiyoo’s body. Which was inappropriate indeed.

“You guys didn’t see it though?” Taehyung says, louder this time so he could talk over the squabble.

Seokjin turns Taehyung and is about to smack him in the back of the head, but Taehyung waves his hands frantically. “No! I’m not being erted!”

“So you say.” Hoseok chortles, earning a small shove from Jimin.

Taehyung shakes his head. “Jiyoo had weird marks on her back.”

Suga’s loud thumping on the wall stopped and everyone’s eyes were on Taehyung. Nobody else recalled Jiyoo having marks on her back, mostly because their eyes were trying to look away from her as soon as they realized she was .

Taehyung looks at the others and lets out a small grunt. “Are you guys serious? Nobody else saw the-”

“Taehyung?”

Taehyung has only heard his name being called that way once in his entire life, and yet he knew who it was. Turning around, he was met with none other than Jiyoo herself.

Her long hair was wet and in her hands was a neatly folded blue towel that matched the color of her shirt. She was wearing a blue T-shirt that went down mid thigh, the big shirt making her appear much smaller than normal. Taehyung figured that it was Jungkook’s shirt since Jiyoo was wearing her school’s uniform before she’d taken a shower. That, and he was pretty sure that Jiyoo didn’t wear boy’s clothes. He thought she looked cute in casual clothes though.

And he wasn’t the only one who thought that.

Jungkook, who had already started seeing Taehyung’s eyes wander, immediately steps in front of Jiyoo and grabs Taehyung’s arm. “You need a shower right? Come with me, now.”

Before he could take Taehyung upstairs, Jungkook stops and bends down so that he’s eye level with Jiyoo.

“I’ll be back, okay?” Jungkook says, his forehead pressed against Jiyoo’s one as she nods. Turning to Taehyung, his usual stoic expression is back. “Let’s go.”

His voice was low and Taehyung already knew he was going to get lectured again. Letting out a dejected grumble, he followed Jungkook back towards the stairs, not missing the eye contact exchange Jungkook had with Jiyoo before he’d turned around. Taehyung was jealous of those two and wished he could do that without someone getting ready to try and kill him for it.

“Wait!”

Since they were halfway up the stairs, Jiyoo had to run a little to catch up with them. In her hands was the blue towel and she held it out to Taehyung.

“There’s no towels in the bathroom, so you need this.” Jiyoo pipes up.

Taehyung gives a small nod before taking the towel gratefully. It appears a lot smaller in his hands compared to Jiyoo’s hands, and he just chuckles. “You needed this more than me earlier though, no?”

Jiyoo’s face burns a scarlet hue as she turns around and dashes away from him. Taehyung thought it was cute that she was embarrassed, but hearing someone clear their throat, he wiped his smile off in an instant.

Jungkook pulled him away from Jiyoo and had walked with him to the bathroom. He didn’t go inside though, instead going to his room and returning with pair of clothes. The shirt looked identical to the one Jiyoo was wearing, only it was purple.

“They’re mine, so don’t ruin them.” He mutters, tossing it onto the counter in the bathroom for Taehyung. “And sorry… For kicking you into the pool. And some other stuff.”

Taehyung has yet to have gotten an apology from Jungkook, so this moment was truly satisfying. He didn’t rub it in Jungkook’s face though. Instead, he just nodded his head slowly before closing the door to the bathroom. Before he could fully close it though, a hand stopped the edge from fitting back into the door frame.

“Don’t mention Jiyoo’s scars. She doesn’t like to remember them.” Jungkook says lowly behind the door, before letting it close completely.

Jiyoo waited awkwardly by the foot of the stairs as the rest of the guys continued to just stare at her as if she’d grown a third eye. Since it was weird that she was just standing around, Jiyoo decided to head into the living room. She’d plopped down onto the couch and gave the guys a weak smile before turning on the TV.

A familiar song began to play through the speakers and Jiyoo’s eyes lit up.

“Jungkook!” She called, not letting her eyes off the TV. “BTS is on right now!”

The sound of quick thumps were heard before Jungkook came running down the stairs and into the living room. He jumps over the couch and sits down right next to Jiyoo before he too, was just as distracted by the TV. The others didn’t understand why the both of them were so transfixed on the TV, but none of them asked about it except for Namjoon.

“So… Who’s this BTS?” Namjoon asks curiously.

Taking advantage of their distracted state, Namjoon takes a seat on the other side of Jiyoo. Jungkook doesn’t appear to mind, though Namjoon can see Jungkook’s hand come out to hold Jiyoo’s hand.

“They’re the Bulletproof Boyscouts!” Jiyoo says excitedly.

Her happy demeanor was an interesting thing to see, especially since the other boys hadn’t seen it much after meeting her. Namjoon nods his head and listens to the music, getting lost in the lyrics and composition of the song.

“Wait a minute. There’s another group named BTS already?” Hoseok said bewildered by the group of boys singing on the TV. “Aw man.”

“Hmm, it’s okay hyung.” Jungkook gives him a thumbs up without taking his eyes off the TV. “You don’t need a name to be cool.”

Hoseok is a bit bashful, but nonetheless he still joins Jungkook, Jiyoo and Namjoon on the couch. Eventually they’d all managed to crowd around the TV. Taehyung joined them after he’d finished showering.

Jiyoo, Jungkook, Namjoon and Suga were on the couch, while Hoseok, Jimin and Taehyung were on the floor. Suga ended up kicking Hoseok off the couch and had taken his spot, while Seokjin was happy sitting to the side of the couch on a separate chair. While BTS began to sing their newest comeback song, Jiyoo and Jungkook were bobbing their heads and singing along the best they could to the newly released song.

“You know all of the words?” Jimin says amazed at Jiyoo’s fluency with the music.

“The rapping is kinda hard, but it’s rewarding when you can follow along with them.” Jiyoo sighs contently, “Especially during karaoke.”

Jungkook rolls his eyes, but still pretends to sing just like the boys on TV. He balls his hand into a fist and closes his eyes, pretending that he has a microphone in his hand.

“You know it all. You’re my best friend.” Jungkook sings dramatically, earning a giggle from Jiyoo.

“아침의 다시 올거야.” Jiyoo continues, finishing the song as if she and Jungkook were the lost lovers in the song.

They continued to sing and play around with one another until the song ended, to which they both hugged each other and fake cried about it being over. When the next group got on stage to perform, Jiyoo and Jungkook were already lost in their own little world about their favorite group that had just finished their comeback stage.

“So… Which one is your favorite?” Namjoon asks, earning a smug grin from Jiyoo.

Her catlike expression threw him off guard, but he still felt a small squeeze in his heart after seeing her so happy and excited. It was cute in his eyes.

“J-Hope!” She cheers, “That's why the live version of Spring Day is so much better than the music video version.”

Jiyoo watches another group performs on TV. She has a content smile on her face after remembering J-Hope’s performance. “He's usually a rapper, but they let him sing in Spring Day because he didn’t get any solo parts in the song.”

“BigHit is doing well at promoting Jin’s singing more too.” Jungkook nods his head, before turning to Jiyoo with a crooked smirk. “And Jiyoo is lying. She totally loves J-Hope’s abs more than anything.”

“I do not.” Jiyoo growls, “Though he has some pretty nice muscles. Unlike you.”

Jungkook lets out a gasp before grabbing Jiyoo and pulling her to the floor. He has her on his chest as he tickles Jiyoo from underneath her. Her giggles and laughter echoes in the living room.

The rest of the guys watched Jungkook and Jiyoo’s interactions with mixed feelings. Some of them smiled at how cute they looked while others, forced their own smiles as their eyes betrayed them with mean glares directed towards Jungkook. Seokjin was one of the guys that enjoyed seeing Jungkook and Jiyoo happy. He laughed when they laughed and cracked jokes too, being especially happy when Jiyoo laughed at his dad jokes although all Jungkook did was grimace at his humor.

Looking to his left, he saw Suga staring at Jiyoo in a way that looked almost dangerous. He tapped Namjoon’s leg and motioned towards Suga, who was oblivious to his stares. Namjoon rolled his eyes, but still stood up and clapped his hands.

“Okay! I think it’s time for us to go home.” Namjoon announces.

The guys left shortly after saying their goodbyes. Seokjin told Jungkook to mention to his dad that they wanted to come over sometime tomorrow and Jungkook nodded, more willing to listen compared to earlier that day. Seeing Jungkook behaving so well made Seokjin smile, and he ruffled his hair before heading out the door.

Jiyoo waved goodbye to the guys as they left, not missing the way that many of them had almost stopped to stare at her before they’d headed out the door. She felt her face flush once she’d seen Suga’s eyes on her though. Hiding behind Jungkook, the latter just rolled his eyes before shutting the front door after they’d all gone.

It was nearing around 11 PM, but Jiyoo and Jungkook were by no means tired. If anything their fun was just about to begin.

“Mario Kart and movies tonight?” Jungkook grins.

Jiyoo gives him a happy nod, “I’ll go make some popcorn!”

The two race each other to the kitchen, laughing as they playfully pushed each other around. Looking in the cupboard, Jungkook was rummaging through the spices while Jiyoo was making the popcorn in the microwave.

“Can I add garlic salt to the popcorn?” Jungkook asks as he squinted at the plastic bottle. He unscrews the lid and peers inside the bottle to check if it looked edible.

“As long as we brush our teeth it’s fine.” Jiyoo shrugs.

The both of them loved savory foods and were lucky that they had fast metabolisms or else they wouldn’t have the skinny physiques they currently had. As they were putting the garlic salt into the bag of popcorn, they realized in the worst way possible that Jungkook didn’t screw the cap back on tight enough. A giant cloud of garlic salt had puffed up into the air, to which Jiyoo and Jungkook both just screamed and laughed at their misfortune of their overly salted popcorn.

In the meantime, Seokjin was having a hard time driving home that night due to all of the ruckus occurring in the back of the car.

“Jungkook and Jiyoo are so close.” Taehyung grumbles for the nth time that car ride.

“And she smiles really prettily when she’s with Jungkook.” Hoseok adds.

Taehyung and Hoseok both sigh as they think about the relationship that Jungkook and Jiyoo had. There was no way they’d be able to get that close to Jiyoo within the time that they had together, especially with Jungkook getting in the way every time they tried.

“But really, I’ve never smelled someone that good before in my entire life!” Hoseok hums.

Everyone agreed with Hoseok’s statement, remembering the scent that Jiyoo emitted when she was sleeping in Jungkook’s room. It might’ve been different for all of them, but it still smelled really good nonetheless.

“Do you think she’s had nightmares like that all her life?” Jimin asks, to which the car had gotten quiet.

They didn’t want to believe it was true, especially since Jungkook had been with her for so long and yet he looked like an absolute wreck when it happened.

“It was good that Namjoon was able to calm her down.” Seokjin says to lighten the mood, though it appeared to have made things worse.

“Even CPR didn’t work on her…” Taehyung says sadly, remembering how close she looked like to death when he tried to save her.

Namjoon leans back in his seat with his eyes closed and can almost vividly remember the feeling of Jiyoo’s body pressed against his chest. He’s been around girls before, but the way that Jiyoo felt so close to him felt oddly comforting, even if she wasn’t awake. Her skin felt warm like a hot pack in the winter and the fact that she was so tiny made her feel like a teddy bear in his arms.

“She’s too small.” Suga mumbles.

Everyone in the car shuts up and zeros in on Suga, their bodies tensing up as they remembered that Suga was the one that had ultimately saw her .

“Don’t get mad at me.” Suga grunts, leaning back in his chair and looking out the window. “She was the one that let her pheromones out. None of us were acting like ourselves.”

As much as they wanted to prove Suga wrong, they couldn’t. Namjoon remembered how desperate he was to keep Jiyoo in his arms. His heart sank more when he realized that Jiyoo wasn’t his ‘pet’ just as Jungkook had helpfully pointed out earlier.

It would be easy for him to admit his feelings if Jiyoo were someone he could claim for himself.

Seokjin didn’t feel too bad since he’d been the one to keep Hoseok and Suga both away from Jiyoo when she was having her nightmare, though Hoseok didn’t feel the same. Instead, he wanted to just rewind time so that he could punch himself in the face for acting like some sort of monster. He was a bit of a ert, but it wasn’t his forte to be inappropriate like that towards girls.

“I didn’t even do anything wrong though.” Taehyung says offendedly.

As he continued to complain about Suga being unfair, Jimin sat quietly in the back of the car. He looked down at his lap disappointedly as he remembered his behavior when he’d chased Jungkook down the hallway. He’d never felt so adrenaline pumped before in his life, not during class competitions in gym class or even at his dance recitals.

Leaning his head on the window, Jimin knows that the reason behind his sudden energy rush was because of Jiyoo. The thought of Jiyoo made his insides all warm, and yet he couldn’t tell if it was a friendship he was longing for or something more. It bothered him, but he realized something more as he stared at the back of Suga’s head.

It was dark in the car, no doubt, but that was only in the absence of light. The dim lighting of the street lights outside illuminated the interior of the car every few seconds or so, allowing Jimin to see a faint red flush on Suga’s face through the reflection of the car window.

That’s when Jimin realized they all felt something for Jiyoo, even if some of them didn’t admit it.

A/N: I almost forgot to put out a chapter this week because I went to go visit my in laws HAHA

But I bet some of you already ship our main with another one of the BTS members, am I right? 

Unless you ship BTS within themselves, then I'm probably wrong LOL

Hope you guys like the new chapter!!

EDITTED FROM ORIGINAL <6/20/18>