“Eehhhh, how come there’s two dogs now?” Chorim squatted down beside Taehyung and reached out to pat the new white and brown dog with hair over its eyes. It was a slow sunny afternoon and Taehyung had been outside playing with the dogs in the courtyard. For someone who didn’t really enjoy the company of people, he had a soft spot for cute small animals.
“Not sure, it only started coming here a few days ago.” Taehyung let the usual neighbourhood dog playfully bite his finger whilst the new one started running around Chorim. She rubbed its chin and felt something around the neck.
“This new one has a collar though. It must belong to someone.”
“Does it?”
“Yeah, a thin one underneath all this fur.” Chorim combed the fur on its neck back to reveal a bright green collar to Taehyung, “I wonder if the owner is looking for it.”
“Maybe it’s just roaming around and will go home soon. Dogs are weird like that.”
“Yeah, maybe.”
Chorim quietly watched Taehyung play with the dog, holding up its paws and rubbing its belly with a kind and doting smile. It wasn’t the first time that she had ever seen him smile but she was amused by how something as simple as playing with a dog brought him so much joy when he had a frown on his face almost every other time. She returned her attention to the new dog which was now her palm.
“Actually, this puppy looks like you.” Chorim giggled to herself, holding the dog’s small head in her hands.
“What?” Taehyung said, not sure if he should be offended or not yet.
“Look, it has long hair that covers its eyes and underneath…” Chorim lifted up the hair to reveal the dog’s big wet puzzled eyes, “is a grumpy face!”



The dog’s expression did make it look displeased or bored and Taehyung couldn’t help but chuckle with Chorim.
“Stop looking so grumpy, Taetae!” And just like that, Chorim had named the new dog after Taehyung on a whim. As if they were taking turns, Taehyung ended up watching Chorim play with the Taetae’s ears and puckering up her lips at it. Disrupting his unusual fixation on Chorim was someone calling out her name from behind them. Taehyung turned his head to see Sungjae flashing his usual bright smile with the blinding sun right behind him.
“Oh Sungjae, you’re here already.” Chorim stood up and dusted herself off whilst Sungjae ruffled Taehyung’s hair from behind.
“Sungjae…what are you doing here?” It had only been a few days since Sungjae came over for the first time for dinner and Taehyung didn’t expect to see him so soon.
“Grabbing lunch with the Miss Chorim here. Did you want to join us?” Sungjae did ask him verbally but was shaking his head and mouthing ‘no’ to Taehyung behind Chorim so she wouldn’t see.
“No, it’s alright.” Taehyung said, a bit bitter. Sungjae grinned widely and gave him a discreet thumbs up.
Taehyung absentmindedly watched Sungjae and Chorim leave. The only thing that averted his attention away from them was the neighbourhood dog gnawing on his finger.

When she returned from the lunch, Chorim didn’t even stop by her place first and immediately went over to Taehyung’s. She excitedly opened the door and was immediately disappointed by the lackluster response from the others. Taehyung moved his head up from his book briefly and then went back to reading whilst Jimin was too busy stuffing his face with food at the dining table to even greet her.
“I brought back some cake!” Chorim happily announced as she got out the slices from the bag and neatly placed them onto the table.
“Where’d you get them from?” Jimin was still chewing when he leaned in to examine the incredibly detailed slices of cake in awe.
“The cafe Sungjae brought me to for lunch just now. Aren’t they cute?” Chorim her lips, carefully thinking about which one she would eat first.
“With Sungjae? Since when were you two so close?” Jimin drew his head back, highly curious. Although he was silent, Taehyung was also wondering the same thing.
“I should be asking you that, Park Jimin. You went and befriended that b*stard Yoongi because he had a PS4.” Chorim snarled back, clearly still wounded by Jimin's apparent betrayal. She was, of course, ignoring the fact she did end up playing games for a few hours at Yoongi's place herself.
“Hey!” Jimin yelled out with grains of rice flying out of his full mouth, “The PS4 is a great piece of machinery. Also Yoongi is actually not as bad as you make him out to be.”
“Well to me he is exactly as bad as I make him out to be.” Chorim retorted stubbornly. Her phone suddenly vibrated loudly against the table and she promptly checked it. Her eyes wavered as she read the new message.
“What’s up?” Jimin asked, noticing her change in expression.
“My friend...she wants to stay over for a week.”
“And what’s wrong with that?” Jimin raised his brow. Chorim gulped at his perfectly reasonable question. He had never seen the inside of her place before and she planned to keep it that way to prevent her image from deteriorating even further. It wasn’t really an issue of hiding her place from her friend because this particular friend already knew of Chorim’s true self. Chorim was more worried about whether there would be room or not in her suffocating rubbish-filled apartment for her friend.
“Nothing. It’s just a bit sudden.”
“So, is your friend normal or is she like you?” Taehyung sniggered at Jimin’s question. Chorim punched Jimin’s arm and he rolled onto his side on the ground, laughing hysterically.

~

Ever since he found about Hyojin might already have a boyfriend, Namjoon stayed quiet about it and didn’t drag Jin into his antics. Of course, he had other people report to him but they found nothing conclusive. Mind you, the weird part is actually Namjoon seemingly giving up, not that he had underlings tailing Hyojin like she was a criminal. The two of them were in the food court on-campus and Namjoon was busy talking whilst scrolling through his phone when Jin spotted Hyojin exiting a building near them.
“Oh, it’s Hyojin.” Jin said, expecting Namjoon to make a big scene and hide again. Instead, Namjoon didn’t even bat an eyelid and continued looking at his phone. Jin narrowed his eyes at him, “I said it's Hyo - “
“I heard you, I heard you.” Namjoon made eye contact with Jin, “I’ve moved on, keep up Jin.” Jin took a deep breath. That was how long? A month? But Namjoon wasn’t the type to just give up just because a girl had a boyfriend and Jin knew that. Namjoon had played with taken and even married women before so this should not have been a problem. Jin tried to not concern himself with the love matters of Namjoon too much because of its exhaustive nature but this particular incident did seem out of the ordinary.
“Like I was saying, there’s a fashion show this weekend. Dasom keeps annoying me about it and she wants you to come.” Namjoon said.
“You hate fashion shows.”
“Yes but I like the people in them.” Namjoon showed Jin a picture of a tall slim model on his phone, “which means…” Namjoon went on to explain the importance of friendship, brotherhood and supporting one another which Jin knew was just Namjoon trying to guilt-trip him into going to this stupid fashion show. Jin blocked out most of what Namjoon was saying and saw Chorim hugging a laptop, walking in the area.
“Ah, Chorim, you’re finally here!” Jin abruptly exclaimed and went over to her despite her looking completely clueless. Jin turned Chorim around and held her shoulders to navigate her towards a different direction.
“Hey you two!” Namjoon angrily yelled after them.
“Just keep walking, don't look back.” Jin whispered into her ear and she nodded obediently. Only when they were well away from the food court and Namjoon did Jin let go of her.
“Sorry about that, I needed an escape route.” Jin rubbed his neck whilst looking at her. He took a liking to the redness of the tip of her nose from the cold and her round confused eyes. Cute…
“Ah, it’s alright. Is Namjoon up to something again?” Chorim tilted her head with a concerned smile on her face.
“Yeah, don’t worry about it. You weren’t heading anywhere important, were you?”
“No, just the library.”
“Would you like to go grab some food off-campus then?” He asked her. Food… As happy as she was knowing that is was the dreamy Jin inviting her, Chorim was starting to think he was treating her like a foodie buddy and nothing more. We haven’t done anything else with each other apart from eating… Despite her concern, Chorim immediately nodded to Jin’s suggestion with enthusiasm, determined to take any opportunity for her to get closer to him.

Mid-conversation, Chorim stopped and took a few steps backwards to look at a lost dog poster that was stuck on a tree. I’m pretty sure that’s.... She ripped the poster off and took a final look before folding it up and putting it into her bag.
“Do you like dogs too?” Jin curiously asked.
“I...I love dogs.” Chorim exclaimed. I’m more of a cat person but you know, that doesn’t matter, I don’t mind dogs.
“Really? Let me show you my dog then.” Jin keenly took out his phone and then showed her a photo.


“This is Jjangu.” The way Jin said it revealed his overflowing affection for his dog which made Chorim smile.
“Aw, she’s so cute.” Chorim exclaimed, leaning in to take a closer look. He swiped through a few more photos.



He quickly retracted his phone and cleared his throat, clearly embarrassed to have shown Chorim a selca of him and Jjangu. Gah, not as cute as you though. Chorim’s brief moment of adoration was shattered when she saw the time on her phone.
“SH*T!” Cursing came too naturally for Chorim for her to restrain herself, even if she was around Jin. She looked up at him and sheepishly smiled, hoping he wouldn’t mind it. I forgot I was supposed to meet Seulgi at my place!
“Is everything alright?”
“I just remembered I have to meet up with another friend.” I don’t want to leave though! Chorim was agonising over the thought of ruining this chance to spend time with him. Gah, and it's such a bad reason as well. It sounds like an excuse.
“Oh, that’s fine. We can go eat another time. It was my fault for dragging you away so suddenly anyway.” His reassuring smile actually made it harder for Chorim to leave. She bid him farewell against her will and then impatiently walked to the corner. She did so in a calm and collected manner, scared that Jin might still be watching her, and then madly bolted down the street once she turned the corner.

~

Chorim checked her messages as she was running and panicked. Sh*t, she’s already there. She sprinted down the last block and climbed the stairs as fast as she could. She could hear the sound of Seulgi giggling loudly. Huh? Who's she with? It was the most active Chorim had been all week (or maybe even month) and she was sweating and panting heavily as soon as she reached the top. Seulgi was busy talking away to Yoongi who was leanng against the wall with his hands in his pockets, his eyes completely fixated on her as she spoke. His eyes moved upwards to see Chorim supporting herself against the wall and smirked as if it was a reflex.

“Seulgi!” Chorim called out and stealthily pulled Seulgi away from Yoongi, trying to hide her shortness of breath.
“Chorim!!!” Seulgi squeezed her whilst jumping up and down.
“Sorry I’m late!”
“Oh, it’s alright. Yoongi here was nice enough to keep me company.” Seulgi glanced up at him and flirtatiously bit her bottom lip.
“Pleasure was all mine.” Yoongi flashed a charismatic grin back at her.
“Yes so very nice of him.” Chorim curtly interrupted, warning him with a glare. She grabbed onto Seulgi's hand, “Anyway, come inside, you must be tired.”
“Tell me if you need a place to stay. You might not have a place to sit in there, let alone sleep.” Yoongi said to Seulgi. It was a rather successful attempt to irritate Chorim. How would he know…? Chorim was certain there would not have been a chance for him to see what her place looked like and found his statement alarming. She could tell Seulgi didn’t want to leave yet so she started dragging her luggage in first.
“Alright, I’ll see you later!” Seulgi made a final effort to wave to Yoongi before Chorim desperately pulled her inside.
 

A/N: Hehehe. (￣︶￣ )