A/N note: I changed the character into an OC: Jung Aeri! Hehe. Enjoy~

Prologue

“People say that love is funny.

You see someone and fall for them.

They’re not your type, but they suddenly become your everything.

You won’t let them know, but you won’t let them be in others’ arms.

You choose to fall for them,

but that doesn’t make them choose you.”

Wait, what?

Well, that sh*t.

I’ve marked you as mine the moment I saw you.

__________

Aeri’s POV

“Annyeonghaseyo, my name is Seokjin,” a new fine-looking boy introduced himself to me. He came together with Namjoon, Yoongi, Hoseok, Jungkook, Taehyung, and Jimin to the cafe today. Ah, he must be the new addition to the group, I thought to myself. I didn’t really know how many more trainees Big Hit would add to the group, but I thought seven would actually make a good number.

“Annyeonghaseyo, Seokjin-ssi. Are you going to join the boys?” I asked him while glancing at the boys who were sitting at one of the tables near the windows. Surprisingly, Yoongi was looking at our direction.

“Ah, ne. Nice to meet you, uhm . . .” Seokjin-ssi’s hesitation made me realized that I hadn’t mentioned my name yet.

“Ah, my name is Aeri. You must have lost the rock paper scissor game, right?” I asked him while letting out a little laugh.

“Oh? How did you know?” the handsome boy looked surprised.

“That’s what they do. They do games in order to boss somebody around. Make sure you won’t lose, again, Seokjin-ssi. Haha . . .” I tried to joke around, earning a cute chuckle from him.

“Ah, by the way, may I know what year you were born?” He asked out of the blue while I was preparing the coffee for him and the boys.

“Ah, yes, I’m a 92-liner.” I said.

“Ah, jinjja? We’re chingu, then!” Seokjin-ssi’s smile got widened.

“Really? Woah, let’s be good friends!” I replied in the same enthusiastic manner.

“Jin-hyung, what took you so long?” Suddenly Yoongi came and interrupted us.

“Ah, I almost forgot. Aeri-ssi, uhm, I mean, Aeri . . . Can I call you Aeri only?” Seokjin-ssi still focused on me, completely ignoring Yoongi who was displaying his ‘hurry-up-don’t-piss-me-off’ expression.

“Of course, it means I can call you Jin too, right?” I answered as I handed the coffee tray to him.

“Yes, of course. Uhm, can I have your number?” He asked me rather straightforwardly.

“Hyung! Let’s go, everyone is waiting for their coffee, I can give you her number later!” Yoongi grabbed Jin’s arm by force, which almost made that new friend of mine drop the coffee tray. However, the flower boy managed to throw a little smile at me before he turned to the boys. Seeing Yoongi’s pissed-off state of mood, I could only smile while shaking my head.

__________

The ringtone for my SNS notification startled me. I was about to drift away to dreamland, but I half-heartedly extended my arms to my bedside table to check my phone. It was Jin. He liked a selca of me that I posted earlier in the afternoon. Actually, Jin had been quite diligent in liking and commenting on my pics. Most of the times, there were no important comments; merely likes, some corny jokes, and very few compliments every once in a while.

Another ringtone came in, this time it was from my Kakao Talk.

“Aeri-ssi, are you awake?” It was from Yoongi. We have been chatting on and off on Kakao Talk for a few months, thanks to the boys who had forced him to do the rock-scissors-paper game. He lost and ended up having to ask for my number. I was in need of customers, so I thought it was fine to add more networks, just in case.

Honestly, I was quite thrilled by the fact that he finally texted me again, but I was already used to containing myself. It’s been a few days . . . or weeks? Well, I’ve actually lost count. I kind of enjoyed talking to him, but he was such an unpredictable person. He was fun at times, but often cranky too. I was still questioning why he has never even once called me noona, even though he knew exactly that I am a year older than him. He always texted me at unpredictable times to talk about random things – which he said were related to the lyrics he was working on – then disappeared. Well, not in a literal meaning, but he just stopped responding to my texts. This happened repeatedly, so I didn’t quite expect for anything new.

“What’s up, Yoongi-ah? It’s been a while since the last time you contacted me, kekeke . . .” I replied him, followed by a funny emoticon.

“Aniya, Aeri-ssi. Go to sleep. Good night.” Yoongi replied. I knitted my eyebrows and snorted, growing frustrated because it turned out that I had secretly expected a longer conversation before I even realized it. Why would I even send the emoticon? I shouldn’t have! I threw my phone back on the table rather harshly and went to bed.

__________

Yoongi’s POV

“Hyung, what are you doing?” I asked Jin-hyung who was busy with his phone during the break. It was almost midnight and we were about to wrap up our dance practice. It was just a normal day for us. We didn’t sleep the way people generally sleep. We were used to practice at 2 a.m., and we slept only for three to four hours a day; sometimes five if we were very lucky. We got ourselves caffeine in order to be productive for the rest of the day. We were used to it. Actually, we needed to get used to it because things would only get tougher once we debut.

“Nothing, geunyang . . .” Jin-hyung answered me as he hurrily sneaked his phone into his pocket. I didn’t say anything, but I knew exactly what he was doing. I took out my phone and checked Aeri-ssi’s SNS. Jin-hyung liked her picture again. I didn’t quite understand why, but I didn’t really like it. No, not the picture. I didn’t really like the fact that Jin-hyung has been trying a tad too hard to get closer with Aeri-ssi. I mean, what was he trying to do when all of us should actually be focusing on our practice?

__________

“Hyung, why did you do that?” I asked Jin-hyung out of frustration. I honestly thought that he had crossed the line. He uploaded a pic of him and Aeri-ssi with ‘hanging out with a chingu~’ as the caption. It turned out that he went to the cafe by himself that afternoon. Of course, it was nothing. However, it would be something big once we debut and once the fans find out about the photo.

“Yoongi-hyung, waegeurae?” Namjoon, who happened to be around, questioned my action.

“Ani, Jin-hyung uploaded his photo with Aeri-ssi on the SNS,” I explained.

“And then?” Namjoon uttered another question. What? I really couldn’t believe that nobody realized how serious the situation was.

“I mean, what would our fans do when we finally debut and they find out about the pic?” I explained, trying to keep my tone as calm as possible.

“Yoongi-ah, do you like her?” Jin-hyung asked me a question that was completely out of context. Unlike him who displayed a rather teasing expression, I got shocked and speechless momentarily while staring at him in disbelief.

“Ne? No! I mean, that’s not my point. Hyung, you see . . .” I tried to explain myself while a strange heat swarming on my face. I haven’t finished explaining myself when suddenly Jin-hyung cut me off.

“Okay, arasseo. I won’t do it again, Yoongi-ah. Thank you for worrying about me,” he answered while maintaining a cool expression and left me puzzled.

“Are you sure you don’t like her, hyung?” Namjoon repeated the question while smirking at me. I just realized that he was still there, observing my face.

“Ya! I told you it’s not the point right now,” I answered, trying to convince him.

“Arasseo, arasseo.”

__________

I erased some lines that I had been writing on my notebook. I have been sitting for almost half an hour while trying to occupy myself by writing some lyrics. I didn’t quite remember how I started, but I ended up writing a lyric about an ex-boyfriend who was stalking his ex-girlfriend’s SNS and found pictures of her with her new boyfriend.

After I wrote the last line, I realized that I had actually been thinking about Jin-hyung and Aeri-ssi. My thoughts then flew back to the first time I met her. I had been feeling quite familiar with her for a while, but only a few days ago did I realize that I had met her somewhere else before I met her at the cafe.

Before I got auditioned to BigHit, I I had a part time job in a CD store. There was this girl who often came alone to the CD store, still dressed in her school uniform. She would actually spend hours just to listen to CDs and rarely bought anything. I got pissed off at first, but I developed an interest for her choices of music. We even had some small talks about music every once in a while, not that important for me to keep a record of, but we definitely did. I didn’t quite remember when, but she stopped coming to the store and I forgot about her. I forgot about her until a few days ago, until I realized that the girl was Aeri-ssi. 

I shook my head as I tried to convince myself to focus back on my work.

__________

“Aeri-ssi, can we talk for a minute?” I came to the cafe the following morning. It was still 6.40 a.m. and the cafe was still empty as usual. I didn’t come to actually order anything. I just thought that I needed to do something about Jin-hyung and Aeri-ssi’s relationship before it developed to be something out of control.

“Okay, what’s up, Yoongi-ah?” she answered me while managing her blank expression. However, I could see there was a slight sign of curiousity shown on her face.

“Okay, I will try to get to the point. I know that Jin-hyung has been trying to get close to you and it’s fine because you two are friends . . .” I vocalized my mind without looking straight to her eyes.

“But I think it’s better for you to keep a safe distance because we would debut sooner or later and it won’t be nice if fans create stories after they find out about the pic of both of you that Jin-hyung uploaded yesterday. I mean, I have told Jin-hyung about this but I think you should cooperate as well,” I finished my words and checked her reaction once again. She squinted her eyes while observing my expression. Her curious expression earlier has changed into . . . I couldn’t quite infer. Probably, an upset expression? 

“Sorry?” She said.

“Wow, I mean . . . Well, I’m sorry, then. I was just trying to casually make friends and I forgot the fact that you guys are going to be big one day. Okay, I understand. I completely do. Thank you for drawing the line for me, Yoongi-ssi, I sure will keep the distance from you guys, I promise.” I was quite taken aback by her response. She was talking in a rather cynical tone and it seemed like she got offended when I didn’t actually intend to make her feel so in the first place.

“Well . . . Okay, we’re good then,” before I realized, I had uttered that short sentence and left the cafe. I managed to curse at myself once I exited the door.

__________

It's been days since the last time I saw her. I didn’t know why, but I have been feeling uneasy everytime I remember the way I talked to her that day. I didn’t see it as a mistake, but I did regret the fact that I could actually talk it out in a better way.

I was trying to keep myself busy in the studio by rearranging some pieces of music for the lyrics I wrote a few days before. I opened my notebook and reread it again. “I Like It” I wrote down the title and closed my notebook. I let out a sigh and realized that I should try to settle things down with Aeri-ssi.

__________

That night, I went to Home cafe without any further thoughts. I was standing a few metres away from the cafe. There was quite a good distance between the place I was standing and the cafe, but the windows allowed me to see inside clearly. 

It was 9 p.m. It was near the closing time, but Jin-hyung was there. We had finished our schedule for that day and he decided to use his rest time to help Aeri-ssi mopping the cafe tables. There were only two of them in the cafe, and they were laughing at each other. I realized that she had never laughed at me like that. The familiar strange heat swarming all over my face again. My upper teeth were planted on my lower lip. I got quite pissed-off almost all of a sudden. I didn’t know whether I was more pissed off by the fact that both of them ignored my advice or by the way she was laughing at Jin-hyung.

Before I even realized, I had been clenching my fingers to my palms. I snorted as I looked away and decided to go back to the studio.

__________

It was almost 12 a.m. I didn’t realize that I have been messing around with knobs and buttons around me for almost two hours. However, my so-called arranging experiments wasn’t quite fruitful. I did arrange some music for the song “I Like It” but I didn’t get the feeling I craved for. Was it because I was just uninspired? Or was it because . . .

I took my phone out of my jumper’s pocket and tried to type something.

“Aeri-ssi . . .” I typed her name, but I ended up erasing it.

“What are you doing? Are you busy?” I typed another sentence. I almost hit the send button, but I restrained myself because I didn’t feel right about it. I erased it again.

“Aeri-ssi, are you awake?” I closed my eyes and pressed the send button.

A minute has passed.

Five minutes has passed.

There was still no response. I grew impatient and I didn’t know why but I immediately went to the cafe, once again.

__________

I didn’t expect anything since it was already midnight by the time I arrived at the cafe, so I was quite surprised that Aeri-ssi hadn’t left yet. The ‘close’ sign was hanging in front of the door, but I was relieved that the door wasn’t locked.

I barged into the cafe as soon as I saw her. She was sitting in the corner of the room while having her headphones on. Her back was facing me, so she didn’t realize that I was walking towards her.

I grabbed her by the wrist, making her yelp out of shock.

“Come with me,” I said shortly as I dragged her with me.

__________

Aeri’s POV

“Uh, so why are we here?” I asked Yoongi as soon as he made me sit on one of the chairs in his studio.

“I need your opinion,” he answered shortly, maintaining a cool expression. I was really startled when he suddenly barged into the cafe, grabbed my wrist and dragged me with him to the studio.

What was he trying to do, I thought to myself. He pressed the play button and a nice music filled the studio. It had some RnB feeling to it, which I liked. I was secretly observing his face as I listened to the music he made. He looked kind of serious. It seemed like he was thinking hard about something.

“Aren’t you supposed to consult with your group about this?” I asked as I tried to maintain a cold tone. 

“Well, just listen to it and give me your opinion,” he answered shortly. He gave me no room to infer anything from the way he acted. I got kind of annoyed and snorted.

“As far as I recalled, I was supposed to keep a safe distance with you guys, no?” I asked cynically.

He didn’t say anything. He sat still for a while as he stared blankly on the buttons next to him. I became nervous all of a sudden. The music has finally ended, but he continued to shut his mouth.

“It’s good,” I finally said, growing impatience by the silence. He still didn’t say anything. He was trying to open his mouth but he seemed to hesitate.

“I don’t really understand music, but I like it,” I continued.

“Now, if that’s all you need, would you excuse me?” I was about to stand up and left, but he grabbed my wrist once again and made me sit. Without having to stand up, he dragged the wheeled chair I was sitting on to his direction, making me face him. Felling startled, I didn’t say or do anything. I just stared at him while blinking my eyes out of confusion.

“We’ve met before . . .” he said while piercing his gaze right into my eyes.

“What?” I could only utter that single word. 

“Ah, this is not it . . .” He looked away while harshly brushing his fingers through his hair. He somehow looked frustrated.

“Listen, I . . . Well, actually, we’ve met before. I used to work in a CD store that you regularly visited. Well, I’m not sure if you remember . . . I myself just remembered it a few days ago, but anyway, that’s not my point now . . .” Yoongi breathed out dramatically as he tried to rearrange his words. I got quite surprised when I finally understood what he was talking about. I finally remembered that he was the cashier at the CD store I used to visit.

“I mean . . . How do you actually feel towards Jin-hyung? Or . . . well, what do you think about me?” Yoongi asked the questions that he seemed to regret right after they left his mouth. However, he managed to look into my eyes once again. This time, his eyes looked kind of nervous. He was craving for answers. He observed my eyes as if he could find some clues from them.

“What do you mean?” I asked back, feeling clueless. 

“Aeri-ssi . . . Argh, how should I break it down for you,” he looked away once again. He turned his gaze back on me once again and quickly uttered, “ah, screw it!”

Before I realized, he quickly pulled my chair closer to him and landed his soft, cold lips on mine. My eyes were wide opened because of his sudden movement. He released his hands from the chair and cupped them on my cheeks. Shivering under his cold palms, I unconsciously let my eyes shut. 

I was completely frozen, but my face was extremely hot. I thanked God that I was sitting because my knees grew weak and I felt this strange feeling all over my body that I couldn’t quite comprehend. I couldn’t react because my soul seemed to have given up on me right at that instant.

He took his lips off from mine after a moment that felt like eternity and looked at me once again. I opened my eyes slowly. My lashes fluttered as I tried to gain my senses back.

“Do you understand now, Aeri-ssi?”

__________

First meeting, first text, first phone call

First date, first kiss in our own space,

I want everything to be a first with you.

I have an eating disorder,

whatever I eat, I'm still hungry for you.

The word 'addiction' can't express all of this.