“You were with her, weren’t you?”

YoungBae had just finished taking off his shoes and basking in the relief that everyone had left when JiYong’s voice startled him. It was dark, the only light source being the moonlight streaming down from the window behind the armchair JiYong was sitting in. He had a glass cup in his hand, brown liquid making YoungBae surprised. JiYong never drank brown spirits. For a moment, YoungBae’s mind went to the conversation him and Nina had before he left to go into the aquarium. 

The aquarium. 

The smile returned to this face. It told JiYong everything he needed to know. YoungBae looked around and asked, “Where’d everyone go?”

“When Nina came back, they had the good sense to get the out.” JiYong said. 

“And Nina?”

JiYong’s smile made YoungBae’s shoulders shag in relief as he realised that it was good. There was no fight so terrible that had resulted in Nina going missing and JiYong going to hard whiskey for relief. Instead, JiYong informed his best friend that Nina was asleep in their bed. YoungBae’s brows rose at the fact that JiYong had referred to it as their bed. He noticed. 

“Yeah. I know. Our bed. Who would’ve thought.” JiYong took a sip. “She came back and I could tell she was upset and…” JiYong swirled the drink in the glass cup, watching it swim around. Then he placed it down and leaned back in his seat. He put his hands behind his head and closed his eyes. This, YoungBae though, is contentment. Not happiness - contentment. 

“She finally told me.” 

YoungBae knew exactly what JiYong was referring to. He knew not because of the fact him and Nina had discussed it previously. He knew it from the countless times he and JiYong had discussed it. All the times JiYong would plop down in the seat next to him and groan about how much he liked Nina. All the times he’d gush about her and how pretty she was and that she was so nice and he’d never met any girl so talented yet so humble and she was just so very perfect and wonderful and he was going to marry her. 

YoungBae had been there. He’d been there in the car, waiting for Teddy and his best friend. He’d seen the fans and had sighed, knowing they were going to be held up. Then he saw that there was a language barrier and wanted to just yell in frustration. He’d sat in the car, feeling slightly guilty that one of the fans was a big Taeyang fan and he didn’t want to get out to greet them. To be honest, he would have gotten out of the car had not the entrance of another person interrupted his movements.

He saw the way JiYong looked at her. 

Then, after it all, he saw how dazed JiYong was as he got into the car. When YoungBae asked about her, JiYong shrugged and said he didn’t really know who she was… but he was going to marry her someday. YoungBae had immediately glanced at Teddy who hadn’t heard the comment. Sitting in the backseat of the car, being driven to another shoot, YoungBae had just witnessed his best friend fall. Sure, it might’ve been as Nina said - it was just infatuation. Still, the more JiYong got to know Nina, the more YoungBae would have to endure the gushing schoolboy who wouldn’t shut up about his crush. But what was more, the more YoungBae got to know Nina, the more he realised she was a perfect match to JiYong. She was everything he wasn’t and he was everything she wasn’t.

equilibrium /n/

a state in which opposing forces or influences are balanced

He wondered if he had that with Mariana. 

“Of course she loves you,” YoungBae finally said, “who else would put up with you?” JiYong opened his eyes and glared at YoungBae. He grinned at his friend and the smile broke out on JiYong’s face. YoungBae moved to sit on the couch. He spied a packet of chips, probably the maknae’s, and grabbed it.

“I need you to come with me shopping tomorrow.” JiYong said, holding out his hand. 

“You going to buy Nina something to thank her for finally saying it?” YoungBae teased, shaking the bag so the chips would fall into JiYong’s open palm. 

“Yeah.” JiYong surprisingly said. “A ring.”

YoungBae stopped shaking the bag. He looked at his friend, searching his face for any display or indication that he was kidding. YoungBae couldn’t find any. “Are you…”

“I always told myself the day she told me… if she ever loved me more than… it would be the day I would go out and start looking.” JiYong said. “Although it is three in the morning so all the shops are closed and we’re in a foreign country.” JiYong threw a chip into his mouth and reclined into his seat, smirking slightly at the look on YoungBae’s face. “Speaking of which, I don’t know if I should be buying it from here.” JiYong added as an afterthought. 

“Why,” YoungBae stopped and cleared his throat, adjusting the topic of conversation, “why not from Paris? City of love and she loves this place.” 

“I just… I want to get this right.” JiYong said, the previous smug smirk falling. “She’s Egyptian so I wasn’t sure if I should get one from there. Or maybe from home because that’s where we met. She’s just so multicultural.” JiYong said the last part as a groan, putting his head in his hands.

“And this is just the ring. I’m scared about what you’re going to do when it comes to proposing.” YoungBae said. He meant it as a joke but then he saw the horrified look on JiYong’s face from behind his fingers. YoungBae sat up and immediately tried to right his wrong, “Look, hey, this is Nina we’re talking about. She doesn’t want some big, grand gesture - “

“But she deserves it. She deserves - “ JiYong grabbed the cup of whiskey and downed the remnants. YoungBae was silent, waiting for JiYong to calm down. After a few moments, he spoke. “You know, this was to calm my nerves from the fact that she told me she loved me. Now, it’s because I’m stressed.”

“And you’re an idiot for being stressed.” YoungBae said, gaining a glare from JiYong. “No, don’t look at me like that. You don’t see the smile on her face when she talks about you. You don’t see how her whole face lights up. You don’t see how her body naturally angles itself towards you, as if it’s drawn to you or something.” YoungBae ran a hand through his hair. “You’ve told me you don’t deserve her and just tonight she told me the same.”

“She did?” JiYong asked, a choked, hopeful question which made him sound like a child whose parents had said they can have their Christmas present early if they behaved. 

“She did. So enjoy what you have and don’t stress about it.” YoungBae said, recalling the lesson he’d learnt tonight. Thoughts of Mariana swirled around his mind. They way the blue from the light shone through the waters looked against her dark skin. The way she felt in his arms. The hair that was in it’s natural curly state, the way he liked it the best. The way she just so he could get comfortable. The way she spoke about herself as a teen VIP in love with Taeyang. 

“You and Nina is what I wish I could be with Mariana.” YoungBae finally said it aloud. He finally admitted it to himself and in front of JiYong. Seeing his best friend fall in love with some - hell, seeing someone fall in love made him realise how badly he wanted that. Maybe that’s why he rushed it with the last girl. The last girl who said he was too affectionate but too far at the same time. He never understood that. When she had told him that, he had wanted to pull Nina and JiYong into the room and gesture to them as if to say, “THEY CAN DO IT! WHY CAN’T WE?!” 

Because it wasn’t meant to be. 

And dear God did he want to find the person where it was meant to be. 

More than that, he wanted it to be with Mariana.

“You really like her?” JiYong. “Don’t try and deny it, you have a stupid dazed look on your face.”

“It’s a look you’ve had on for how long?” YoungBae countered. “Since she translated for you and those two Arabic fans?” JiYong had nothing to say back to that. YoungBae laughed, basking in the fact that it was another rare moment where he’d won an argument with Kwon JiYong. 

“Text her.” JiYong said. “I could use her advice tomorrow.” JiYong added. 

“What’s Nina going to think?” Was all YoungBae said, trying to keep calm at the prospect of looking at engagement rings with her. 

“I told Seungri to distract Nina all day tomorrow.” JiYong said. “Something about translating an entire film into French.” YoungBae said nothing and made no indication with his face. Yet, he could tell that Nina finally telling JiYong I love you would ease his possessive tendencies. It was obvious right now: Nina spending an entire day with Seungri without anyone else, without JiYong there.

“I’ll text her tomorrow.” YoungBae said. “What? I will! I don’t her number and Nina’s asleep.”

“Wow, look at you being… forward.”

YoungBae thought back to what Mariana had been hinting at all night: she liked him but wasn’t going to chase him. He couldn’t help but make the comparison to Nina and JiYong’s dynamic in which Nina didn’t want to like him and tried to run away from him. But JiYong was more than happy to chase after her and show her that it was okay to fall. Him? He didn’t have the confidence of JiYong. The flirting from before was being caught up being alone and being baited. He would not be able to pull the same moves in, for example, a classroom with his four bandmates. 

Now, he was the quiet one and Mariana was the headstrong one. This was the opposite to JiYong who exuded confidence and Nina who would worry and hastily apologise even though you bumped into her. Yet, it was still expected that he would make the first move. Mariana made it clear that she wanted that. She it clear that she didn’t want him to fawn over her but try to woo her. YoungBae was still trying to not freak out about that. 

“She… I think she likes me.” YoungBae said. “And, I, like, I can’t even begin - “

“You wet your pants when you think of her, we get it.” JiYong said. 

“And it’s slightly worrying because I’m not great with girls and her? She’s out of my league.” 

“What the do you mean?” JiYong said, looking at YoungBae with the eyes he always gave when YoungBae’s insecurities came up. 

“What do I mean?” YoungBae snorted, sarcasm coming out. “Maybe that her net worth is more than Big Bang and each individual member’s combined? Or that men everywhere want her? Not just because she’s ing y. She’s made it here in France and she’s made in in the US. Oh, but the underground-only hipsters,” he said that term Nina explained in English, “don’t have her old mix-tapes on their playlist and to say you danced with Demmy D will get you a job anywhere!” YoungBae let out. “And who am I? Some kpop star who is only famous to some for ripping his shirt off?!”

YoungBae didn’t realise he was yelling until he was done. He could feel his chest rise and fall as he finally let it all out. To put it simply, she was an enigma in every art form in more than one culture, respected everywhere and by everyone. He wasn’t.

“Ji?”

YoungBae and JiYong both looked to the petite girl standing at the entrance of the living room. Nina was wearing one of JiYong’s oversized sweaters. On her, the sleeves came down well past her the tips of her fingers. The hem ended just above her knees. The remainder of her legs were covered in spotted, fluffy socks that were so Nina it made YoungBae want to laugh. 

“Yes baby?” JiYong asked from his spot. He stood up when Nina shuffled her half asleep form over to him. Without communication, YoungBae watched as JiYong sat down so Nina could curl up in his lap, her head buried in the crook of his neck and arms around his torso. JiYong pulled the jumper as down as it rode up from her bringing her legs up. JiYong’s lips turned up and YoungBae realised Nina had been whispering to him as her head rested on his shoulder. 

What was the term? 

Third-wheeling. 

“Nina, YoungBae and I were thinking of going shopping and I told him he should invite Mariana.” 

Nina pulled her head from its position resting on JiYong’s shoulder to look at YoungBae on the couch. She blinked and frowned, as if only just then recognising the fact that there was someone else here, on the couch.  “Oh, Bae, I didn’t know you were here.” She moved slightly, still in JiYong’s lap but leaning forward to grab his hand and give it a squeeze. “How are you? Are you feeling better?” As she asked the question, her eyes struggled to remain open. JiYong tugged at her waist and she moved back to rest her head on him again. JiYong began her hair and her eyes fluttered shut

“You named the fish after us.” YoungBae said. The soft smile on her face grew and and giggle slightly. 

“You know I want you and her to get together.” Nina said. Her eyes opened again. “Who do you think gave her the idea of watching kpop videos for that interview bit?”

“Okay but how come now? You named the fish when and now you’re pushing?”

“I was always pushing.” Nina said. “There was always off timing.” It was then that Nina told him the story. “She came to Seoul once, a few months ago. I tried to organise something but just before I brought her to the VIP room we were all seated, I found you with a girl in your lap.” YoungBae’s fists clenched, making the connection of that girl who had been in his lap to be the girl who would later crush his heart.

“Then there was the time you’d all be performing in Japan and she was supposed to be taking a holiday. Her flight got cancelled and she couldn’t make it in time. There was the Hong Kong incident in which she had a private show I got us all tickets for but this oppa here,” JiYong’s arms tightened around her waist as she patted his cheek, “made bad chicken and Seungri and I got food poisoning.” Nina sighed. “I’ve been trying to get you two together long than JiYong here has been trying to get me to be his girlfriend. Something always came up and I had to accept it wasn’t the right time.”

“But why?”

“I didn’t mean to eavesdrop but I caught the end part of your conversation. You think you’re out of your league. That video about her reacting to the videos was filmed weeks ago. It was only released now because I had finally managed to convince her it wasn’t embarrassing. To her, that video would allow everyone to see her falling for you. Not to mention, she was stressed that people would think it to be her trying to hit on a man out of her league-“

“She thinks I’m out of her league?”

“I think it’s ridiculous you both think you’re out of each other’s leagues.” Nina huffed. “You two are… I know you well and I’ve never met two more compatible people.”

“Except me and you.” JiYong added. Nina rolled her eyes and pinched his cheek. 

“So you want her number, you have my blessing. You want to marry her, you have my blessing.” Nina said. “Just please… I’m so tried of you two not being together. Like please - just go out.” 

“Okay! I will!”

“Good. Now I can finally go to sleep.” And then she dropped her head onto JiYong’s shoulder and promptly fell into oblivion.