---

You moved out on your own because you couldn’t stay at your aunt’s and uncle’s house anymore. You wanted to be alone and all the noises and meddlings, you just couldn’t deal with any of that. So you finally moved out with your brother. BUT you should’ve known better that it was pointless to move out if you were going to still live in the same area as your family. They continuously trickled in and out at all times of the day, because your brother thought it was best to give keys to the place to every single family member for emergencies. Better safe than sorry, he said.

You stayed locked up in your room, avoiding all contacts with all your family. It was annoying when different members came at different times, knocking on your door to see if you were alive. Then after they made sure you weren’t dead, they’d leave food or coffee for you. Of course, when they left, you would pull it into your dark hole and ate it. Your family went through all that trouble anyways.

You should have felt angry. You should have felt a violent black storm whirling within you seeking some sort of vengeance, but all you felt was stupidity and confusion. There was a hollow feeling inside you, it was like the heaviest weight of emptiness your body has ever felt. You replayed everything in your mind. You saw it coming. Did you choose to ignore the signs? His late nights. The way Chorong was still so much in his life. Everything pointed to the fact that she was never a past, but instead, you were just a part of a rough patch in their love story. You’ll just be a person he’ll want to forget and a name he doesn’t to hear or speak of. A regret. The tears wouldn’t stop and the sadness wouldn’t go away.

A soft knock came on the door before you heard Amber’s careful voice on the other side, “Nora?” 

You opened the door, and you knew you looked like a total in mess, but you just didn’t care. Your eyelids were still pulsing. Without looking in the mirror, you can feel its swollenness. You couldn’t have looked as bad as how you felt on the inside. It was like his face was super glued to the front of your mind and nothing could have ripped it off. But then again, you knew you’re the one protecting it from being touched.

“You need to come outside.” She said gently. 

You shook your head, “Sorry Ambs, I’m not ready.” You felt the tears already collecting as those words fell out because it reminded you again how much you were actually hurting. You felt ashamed and embarrassed. It was the first time you fell in love with someone, not just anyone, someone who your friends and family also loved. Someone who they trusted just like how you trusted him to be a genuinely nice guy, but so it seemed, even nice guys could break your heart. 

She pushed the door opened and grabbed your hand and dragged you out.

“Amber! I said I-”

She dragged you out into the living room where your cousins, Bams and Seunghyun all sat around the table that was covered with beers, pizza, and few boxes of fried chicken. Seunghyun looked the most awkward and out of place around everyone else. Not only because he was the tallest among all of them, but also he was wearing a wine red coat with a satin handkerchief in its pocket over a black turtleneck, while everyone else was wear tees and jeans. Everyone had their eyes on you. 

“Whoa... you look like…. ,” Yoongi said actually looking surprised. Leave it to Yoongi to be honest without filter. 

You squint your swollen eyes at him to send the message that you're not in the mood for his snarky comments.

Jackson hopped up, “Here.” He shoved a beer in your hand, “This is weird. You having feelings and stuff. We don’t know how to deal with this!” he overly exasperated.

“Seriously, where’s the off button on her?” Seokjin tried to whisper out of the side of his mouth to Bams. You switched your swollen death stare towards them. 

Amber pulled you down to sit and everyone raised their beers to you.

“Welcome back to the Single party! The fun party!” He looked around “It’s so fun, I’ve been doing it practically my whole life.” His smile fades and he pretends to cry on Bam’s shoulder and the younger boy comforts him by his hair.

“ it all! Drink your problems away.” Yoongi yelled into the air and lifted his beer. 

“Ok... she has enough problems... We don’t want her to develop a drinking problem too.” Naeun pointed out, “You want to go clubbing and find some hot dudes to make out with to get over Jinyoung?!”

“Ew gross! Please don’t or else I’d have to scare them off with my guns again!” You brother pulled up his sleeve and flexed for everyone to see. 

“What guns? Oh, you mean these gummy worms?” Jungkook laughed as he jiggled them, “Are you going to slap them in their eyes?”

That made you let out a laugh.

Seokjin jumped up and covered his mouth, “OMG she laughed! We gotta drink one to that!” 

“We should make that a game! Whoever makes her laugh, everyone else as to drink!” Amber got excited over an idea of a drinking game.

“OK!” Seokjin bent his knee to get to your eye level and pointed straight at you, “Nora Nora, Ok, what do you call a fake spaghetti?” 

“What?”

“An IMPASTA!!!” He shouted and pointed at you accusingly. 

“DUMBBB!” You were laughing so hard. 

“Dumb but you laughed! Everyone drink up! Muhahaha!” 

For that moment, the laughters and chatters filled up the emptiness that you had been feeling. Although the pain of Jinyoung was still there, it was at least being pushed down for that time being. You forced yourself to have fun and forced yourself to laugh and smile. They all were trying really hard for you and you needed to too, for them. As you continued to laugh with your loved ones, you decided that you were going try your hardest to feel better. You needed them to stay that happy as they normally would so that you could go back to being happy like you used to be. 

As the night went on with loads of beers in everyone, Seunghyun was still awkward and quiet compared to how he was when it was only you two. But that was before he kissed you in Paris. You can’t say you hadn’t forgotten about it, but you weren’t mad about it anymore. 

Right when you stood up, his eyes were glued to you. His eyes followed you up and over, all the way until you sat down right beside him.

“Stop being an awkward turtle,” You pushed your beer to his shoulders. He looked down at his beer before looking back up at each of your family. Th