“Where’s Taehyung? I can’t see him.” Sungjae cried out loud, pretending to search for Taehyung even though he was clearly standing right in front of him. Sungjae knew he was treading on a thin line after pulling the gum act so he goofily chuckled and pinched Taehyung’s squishy cheek which was now fully visible. He then covered his mouth and pretended to burst into tears, “Such a handsome face...hidden for so long…”
“I did an amazing job, didn’t I?” Chorim vainly lifted her head up, awaiting the shower of compliments.
“Absolutely. The hands of a god.” Sungjae nodded enthusiastically as he clapped in the air and Chorim returned to reading the precious last volume of Naruto.
“This calls for a celebration. Anyone up for…samgyeopsal!? It’s on me.” The words ‘samgyeopsal’ and ‘on me’ definitely caught everyone’s attention, especially  Jimin who dramatically stood up from the couch and raised his hand in the air.
“Me.” Jimin said with a serious expression. He did not joke around when it came to the sizzling hot delicacy of pork belly meat. Chorim eyes shimmered with excitement and she held Sungjae’s hands whilst jumping up and down, “YEEESSSSSS!” She quickly ran to the door and put on her shoes, “Okay, gimme an hour.”
“An hour!? Miss, we don’t have that sort of time.” Sungjae complained. He clearly did not understand the intricacies of Chorim’s routines.
“Okay, okay, I’ll try for 50 minutes.” Chorim slammed the door behind her.
“Yeah, she’s definitely going to take more than an hour.” Taehyung commented and Jimin crashed back into the couch, devastated.

~

Seulgi was laying on the couch in a crop top and leggings as Chorim quickly got ready, trying her best not to drool over the thought of sizzling pork belly.
“We’re going to go eat samgyeopsal,” Chorim excitedly turned to Seulgi with glistening eyes, “wanna come?”
“Nah, I’m good. I’ve already got plans.” Seulgi waved her hand in the air. Chorim looked at her as if refusing to go eat pork belly was a crime.
“You don’t look like you’ve got plans…” Chorim commented, referring to Seulgi’s comfortable home wear and loose and messy hair bun. Seulgi’s plans usually involved dressing up and heading out.
“Well, my plans are next door soooo…” Seulgi smirked. It took Chorim a while to realise that next door did not mean Taehyung’s place.
“What!? With Yoongi? Plans at that b*stard’s place?” It seemed that Chorim’s fears were becoming true all too quickly. “What are you guys doing?”
“Oh, just, you know, Netflix and chill.” Seulgi joked, knowing it would greatly disturb Chorim. Seulgi knew Chorim wasn’t very fond of Yoongi but Seulgi couldn’t help herself when Yoongi was so flirty and irresistible when it was just the two of them. Chorim’s hand started to shake from anger and she even accidentally dropped her foundation brush into the sink.* Seulgi raised her head from the couch and cheekily giggled from afar as she watched Chorim mumble to herself about killing Yoongi.

~

Back at Taehyung’s place, it suddenly became a fashion show with Sungjae being the critical judge and Jimin being the one who only contributed when he was stuck on a loading screen for his game. Taehyung didn’t quite understand what the big deal was with what he wore all of a sudden because they were just heading out to eat after all. After being forced to dig through his closet, which seemed to be made up of exclusively baggy hoodies and daggy tracksuits, Taehyung was able to rediscover the only pair of black fitting jeans that he had.
“Okay here, take my jacket.” Sungjae took his Adidas jacket off and quickly forced Taehyung into it. As Sungjae was zipping it up for him, Jimin took off his snapback and pushed Taehyung’s hair back before placing it backwards on his head.

Taehyung cluelessly watched Jimin and Sungjae hi-five and hug each other in an emotional and celebratory fashion as if it was a joyous occasion all of a sudden. Without saying a word, Taehyung took the jacket and cap off and gave it back to Sungjae and Jimin. The two couldn’t get a word in and just looked at each other, thinking the same thing: Yeah, that was way too easy.
“Give it time, Sungjae, give it time.” Jimin said to the demoralised Sungjae. Coincidentally, Chorim stormed into the room just in time to witness Taehyung casually putting on a weird khaki-coloured hoodie and Jimin patting Sungjae’s shoulder in a comforting manner as Sungjae looked at the ceiling andwaved his fist in the air as if he was cursing the gods. Guys, I only took 40 minutes, geez.

~

    ‘Hey, hey, check out that table over there.’
        ‘The guy in the hoodie is soooo my type.’
    ‘I prefer the one with the snapback but the black-haired one next to him is cute too.’
        ‘Who’s that girl though? Is she a model?’

That was the conversation between the girls on the table behind them which Chorim was eavesdropping on with much amusement. They had gotten a similar reception when they first walked into the restaurant and Chorim had half-expected it because Sungjae was there, dressed stylishly, and Jimin, even though his head was stuck into his DS, was the cute type that some girls adored. The wild card was actually Taehyung who was probably outside with his new hair for the first time. Even though his style was way off, the attention was on his attractive face and height as if he had made a fresh debut.
“Anyway, guys...I have a girlfriend.” Sungjae suddenly announced. The pork belly pieces were still sizzling away on the cooking pan, giving off an enticing and mouth-watering smell.
“What?” Taehyung grinned and then pushed Sungjae’s shoulder, “No way.” He then looked over at Jimin who didn’t seem to have a reaction to the news and was busy eating. Sungjae hastily kicked Jimin’s shin underneath the table to get his attention and then tilted his head with his eyes bulging out to remind Jimin.
“You...You have a girlfriend!?!?” Jimin exaggeratedly exclaimed, quite convinced he was being super natural even though he was being the very opposite, “That is something I definitely did not know. You b*stard, how dare you keep this a secret from BOTH of us. Not one, but BOTH of us.” Jimin awkwardly slammed his chopsticks onto the table. Sungjae nervously laughed as he squeezed Jimin’s shoulder, warning him to completely stop before Taehyung caught on.
“It’s true! I’ll introduce Sooyoung to you guys soon.” Sungjae said as he placed a piece of meat into everyone’s bowl.
“Soon? Don’t you want to show off how cute she is? Call her now!” Chorim exclaimed, “Or I’ll do it!”
“You’ve met her?” Taehyung asked Chorim. He couldn’t help but be annoyed knowing that Chorim knew before him for some reason.
“They met because of me actually.” Sungjae said, “I didn’t want my girlfriend to be jealous that I was occasionally hanging out with Chorim so I got them to meet and now they’re inseparable.”
“What’s there to be jealous of? Her manly strength?” Taehyung scoffed. Chorim leaned over, stole his piece of meat and spitefully popped it into right in front of him. Sungjae chuckled and became the mediator between the two, giving another piece of meat to the aggravated Taehyung.

After dinner, they were roaming around the lively streets, wondering where they should head to next. Sungjae was the only one who was up for some clubbing but for the rest, it sounded like a torturous idea.
“Wait, where’s Jimin?” Sungjae stopped and they all looked behind them. Jimin was infatuated with a neon light sign that had an arrow pointing at stairs leading to somewhere underground. It was the entrance to a PC bang he used to frequent and Jimin physically looked like an addict facing a relapse.
“Seriously Jimin?” Chorim cried out.
“Guys, come on. It’s been a while. I need to see how my friends are at least.”
“You have friends down there?”
“Yeah, computer number 44 and 158.” Jimin answered quite seriously. Despite much protest from the others, he made his way down into the abyss and the others gave in. Even though his attention was never not on a screen, he had been quite good in terms of not staying over at PC bangs and overplaying.
“Well, where should we go? I’m not heading into a PC bang looking like this.” Chorim was referring to her well put together outfit and her flawless makeup. It seemed like a waste to hide her efforts in the darkness of PC Bangs. As they walked a bit more, Sungjae realised Taehyung and Chorim were walking side by side each other as he was leading and quickly formulated a poor plan.
“Aaaahhhh,” Sungjae awkwardly looked at his phone even though it was on lock screen, “It’s my girlfriend!”
“Your phone didn’t even ring…” Taehyung narrowed his eyes at Sungjae.
“Babe!” Sungjae shouted loudly into his phone, “Yeah, I’m just with a couple of friends right now.” He shiftily looked at Taehyung and Chorim, trying to make sure they didn’t realise that he was actually talking to no one, “Oh, right now? Yeah of course, I’ll be right over.” He then ‘hung up’ and then turned to the others with a sheepish smile.
“Hah! Women, am I right? Anyway, Sooyoung needs someone to pick her up so I’m going to…” Sungjae glanced around to find an escape route, “I’m going to go...pick her up.”
“Okay...you go do that…” Taehyung said, a bit suspicious. Sungjae bid them farewell, pretending he was in a rush even though he had thoughts about just joining Jimin and then bolted off. Chorim and Taehyung awkwardly stood around on the streets in silence for a while, avoiding eye contact.
“Wait here, I’m going to go buy a bottle of water.” Chorim left for a convenience store on the corner. As she was purchasing water over the counter, she looked outside through the window at Taehyung. He was just casually standing around when a pair of girls suddenly walked up to him. Taehyung began to look increasingly flustered or shy as they began chatting. Chorim waited by the door of the convenience store for the girls to leave and then made her way over.
“Who were they?”
“I don’t know.” Taehyung replied.
“What do you mean you don’t know?” Chorim glanced at the piece of paper in his hand and saw the phone number written down with a small heart next to it.
“OoOoOoohhh Taehyung! Lookatchu getting them digits!” Chorim obnoxiously nudged him on the side. “Can’t wait to tell Jimin and Sungjae about this.” She was wholeheartedly teasing him, amused by his annoyed reaction even though it really wasn’t a big deal. Wow, hair really makes a difference, huh? He ignored her and scrunched the piece of paper up before throwing it into a bin.
“What!? Why did you throw it away? She was pretty!” Chorim was astounded as she looked back and forth between the bin and Taehyung who was already walking away with his hands in the pockets of his hoodie.
“There’s no use for it if I’m not interested.” Taehyung bluntly said, causing Chorim to sigh out loud. “Where do you want to go?” He asked her.
“Hrmm…”Chorim gave it some thought and since it was just the two of them, she could only think of one place, “Well to be really honest, I kind of just want to…”
“You just want to go home to finish the last volume, don’t you?” Taehyung finished her sentence off. Chorim stared at him as if he had just read her mind and nodded slowly, a bit freaked out. She then let out a hearty laugh and pulled on his cheek. People just seemed to have an obsession with his cheeks now that they could see them and Taehyung realised that it was something that he would have to get used to.
“Ah, ya know me too well Taehyung.” She was glad that she didn’t need to pretend she wanted to stay out all night long for once.
“I know.”

~

The very next day, Chorim forced herself to go to the gym to rid herself of the guilt from eating so much the night before. Samgyeopsal had always been a dangerously delicious dish. She had partially adapted to the weird atmosphere of the first floor gym but occasionally she would see recognisable celebrities enter and would start questioning everything again. Chorim was on the treadmill, minding her own business, when she saw someone in her peripheral hop onto the treadmill right next to hers. BEEP. BEEP. BEBEEP. The person adjusted the settings and seemed to be starting off with a light jog. Out of this entire floor, out of all the empty treadmills that are available, you had to bloody choose the one riiiigghht next to me. Chorim wouldn’t have minded if the gym was crowded like it was on the ground floor but on the first floor, the busiest she had ever seen it was with 5 people. Even the staff outnumbered the patrons of the first floor which was absolutely bizarre. She purposely slowed down to a jogging pace to take a drink and then stealthily turned her head to take a spiteful look at the person. After seeing who it was, Chorim grossly spat out the water and clumsily tripped over her foot. In what could only be described as an amazing freak accident, she fell over and smashed face first into the treadmill and ended up in a bloody mess on the ground all within a matter of seconds. Forgetting where she was, she let out a brutish grunt as she tried to get on her knees and instinctively cursed out loud as she saw blood dripping onto the floor.
“CHORIM!” Jin called out to her. Her eyes widened with shock when she realised he was kneeling right beside her. SH*T, IT REALLY WAS JIN. I WASN’T IMAGINING THINGS. She immediately covered her nose with her hands, knowing that there was blood just gushing out. Sh*t, sh*t, sh*t, sh*t… Chorim’s mind was so occupied with thinking about how ed she was that she couldn’t respond to Jin’s questions. I have to get away from him. I probably stink of sweat right now… The gym was probably the worst place to meet someone you want to impress.
“Chorim, are you alright?” Jin frustratingly asked as Chorim continued to stare back at him with a stunned expression. She noticed he was wearing a loose black tank top which excellently showcased his long toned arms and sturdy shoulders. Do not look at his chest, I repeat, do not look at his chest. CHORIM, THIS IS AN EMERGENCY. DID YOU REALLY HAVE TO LOOK AT HIS CHEST? She briefly glanced at the treadmill she was on to distract herself and noticed a very obvious patch of foundation right where she had smashed her face. HHNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGG.
“Is something wrong?” Jin asked. Chorim could just tell he was about to look at the treadmill and to save herself from scarring embarrassment, she pretended to faint even if it meant letting him see her injured face. Jin quickly slipped one arm under the bend of her knee and the other one firmly around her shoulders and then effortlessly lifted her off the ground. Ah,  I’m in Jin’s warm embrace...except this isn't quite like my dreams... Jin carried her through the main gym area and whilst her eyes were shut, Chorim could clearly hear Hoseok, who was suddenly right beside them, yelling at people to get out of the way at the top of his lungs as if Chorim had been in a fatal car accident. This only embarrassed her even more because it drew so much attention to them and she could hear the murmurs of onlookers as Jin went past them. Chorim would have gotten up to whack some sense into Hoseok if wasn't for the fact that 1) Jin was the one carrying her and 2) she was supposed to be unconscious. HOSEOK, YOU HOE, STOP IT!
 

A/N: Guess what? I even have the next chapter pretty much done...which is a rarity! It's because it was meant to be this chapter but I thought we should gain insight into just exactly how attractive Taehyung had gotten since his haircut! Will be posting in the next 3 or 4 days once I'm done doing a final edit, hehehe. More shenanigans to come! :O

*That moment when you realise your best friend is hanging out with a boy.