I didn’t know how many of those pink drinks I had emptied, but I felt my awkwardness slip away. Or, at least, to myself I didn’t seem awkward right now; I couldn’t know what other people were thinking.

When I returned to the group, Seulgi had left, but Namjoon and the pale guy were still chatting.

I walked up to them, remembering that I shouldn’t just randomly pop up in front of people. They both smiled at me, making me feel less uncomfortable. At least it looked like they didn’t mind me butting into their conversation.

“So… What was your name again?” I asked, directed at the pale guy.

“Min Yoongi” he replied. Min Yoongi. Finally I had a name to put on that face.

“Rap monster” Namjoon suddenly said, wondering, “I’m guessing that’s not your real name, but I’m not entirely sure”.

Oh right. I had completely forgotten about introducing myself, but I hadn’t really gotten the opportunity. It had just been rap battles everything.

“The name’s Ahn Mali” I said, a bit too loud, making myself laugh.

Yoongi looked up at me, looking a bit weirded out.

“Mali” Namjoon repeated, smiling at me with his dimple-smile.

I just nodded, and looked down trying to hide the slight blush I could feel appear on my face. I didn’t know whether it was because of the alcohol or embarrassment, but I think it was the latter.

I took a small sip of the drink I had brought with me.

Namjoon and Yoongi had begun talking with each other again and I couldn’t help but notice the topic of their conversation.

“You guys are singers?” I asked, looking at both of them. They had been discussing some lyrics. Them being singers would explain their unusual haircolors.

Yoongi just snorted and Namjoon looked at me with a face that told me I was not entirely wrong, but not right either.

“No no no, we’re rappers” Namjoon explained, holding his hands up in front of him.

Oh. Well, now I was just that much more embarrassed about my rap earlier.

“That explains why you wanted a rap battle so badly” I said, mostly to myself.

“I wanted to know if this Rap Monster would be better at rapping than me” Namjoon smiled.

“Well, I am, aren’t I?” I said teasingly, knowing I was most likely completely wrong.

Namjoon didn’t answer at first. He grinned and looked back and forth between me and Yoongi. Of course Yoongi hadn’t heard my rap, or at least I didn’t think so, so he wasn’t able to determine who was actually better.

“Can I hear you guys rap?” I decided to ask, since it didn’t seem like I was going to get an answer to the first question.

Both of the guys’ faces lit up. I was surprised to see that kind of look on Yoongi’s face. From the few minutes I had talked to him, he didn’t seem like the type to be able to look so happy.

“Of course!” Namjoon exclaimed, his smile reaching both of his eyes.

The smile didn’t last long though, as both of the guys changed their expressions. From looking like your typical friendly neighbourhood type of guys, they now looked like real rappers with serious expressions.

As they began rapping their attitude completely changed too. Words were coming out of their mouths fast and my alcohol-affected brain tried to keep up with their pace.

Their lyrics were beautiful. Wait a minute. Could you even call rap-lyrics beautiful? Of course, I ended up deciding. Of course you could.

As I watched the two guys rap I could see the passion burning in their eyes.

When they were done I just stood there staring. Wow. They were really something else. Now they were both staring at me, obviously waiting for my opinion.

“I’m so sorry” I finally blurted out, looking down at my feet.

Both of the guys raised their eyebrows, not really knowing what I meant.

“For what?” they both almost asked at once.

“… my rap was kinda fail wasn’t it? Sorry you had to listen to that” I answered, still looking down at my feet. My face was completely red now, and the alcohol definitely didn’t help.

“Don’t worry, it was cute” Namjoon said, making Yoongi send him a weird look, a I-can’t-believe-you-just-said-that kind of look.

“Thank you, I think” I said, my voice sounding very drunk. I began walking towards the couch, not really caring whether the two guys were following me or not. Suddenly I felt the floor underneath my hands. I had fallen.

“Are you alright?” Namjoon took me by the shoulders and tried to get me up on my feet. My legs weren’t cooperating though.

“I don’t know” I answered. I really didn’t know. My brain didn’t feel right and my sight was swimming.

“I think you should go to sleep” Namjoon said.

“Noooooo” The thought of going to sleep before the party was over, made me sad. I always liked being the last one to go to sleep or at least not falling asleep at the party, but in my own bed.

Namjoon put my arm behind his neck and lifted me up from the floor. He took me out into the hallway which was connected to all the bedrooms in the apartment.

He opened a door, which led to what I in my drunken state of mind recognized as Taeyoon’s room.

Namjoon let go of me and I just stood there, making sure I could keep my balance.

I suddenly felt very hot, as if someone had placed me in front of a burning hot fireplace. Namjoon was leaning against the door frame, looking at me and most likely waiting for me to go to sleep in Taeyoon’s bed. As I looked at him, I suddenly felt like I was beginning to sober up and an idea popped up in my head. I began pulling of my hoodie.

“Ouch” Great. The hoodie got stuck in my earring or something. I tried pulling the hoodie down again, but it had decided to not let go of my earring.

“I’m stuck” I mumbled from the inside of my hoodie. I could suddenly hear Namjoon laughing.

“How?” Namjoon could hardly say anything else – he was laughing too much.

“My earring… Can you help me out, please?” A hand moved down the neckhole of the hoodie, feeling its way to my ear. It was cold against my hot skin and I couldn’t help but shudder.

“Is it this one?” Namjoon asked, still sounding very amused.

“Yeah…” The hand untangled my hoodie and earring. I was about to continue to take off the hoodie myself, but two hands grabbed the bottom of the hoodie pulling it off. As the fabric, which had completely obscured my view, disappeared, I found myself looking directly into Namjoon’s dark eyes, his face only a few centimeters from mine. I didn’t know why, but something about those eyes, made me want to just continue staring into them for hours.

How much time passed by, I don’t know, but I noticed pink color begin to pop up on Namjoon’s cheeks, just below his eyes. Wait. Was he blushing?

“Sorry.. and thank you” I said, taking a step back and lightly bowing at the same time.

“No, it’s alright. I’m sorry. Really.” He answered, not looking directly at me anymore. While hiding his face with one hand, he threw my hoodie at me with the other. Why did he apologize?

I looked down at the hoodie in my hands. Strange, I didn’t remember the inside of my hoodie being blue. I was actually almost a hundred percent sure, that blue was definitely not the color my hoodie had on the inside. I realized, a little late maybe, that the blue was in fact the t-shirt I had been wearing underneath my hoodie. I could feel my head grow light and my face felt like it was melting.

“Please don’t look” You could just hear the embarrassment in my voice. Namjoon mumbled something, but I didn’t hear what it was. I fumbled with my hoodie and t-shirt, trying to separate them as fast as I could, looking up at Namjoon from time to time, to make sure he kept his face hid. Finally, with my t-shirt on, I told Namjoon he didn’t have to hide his face anymore.

He gave me an apologetic look and was about to turn around and leave the room.

“Wait” Why was I asking him to wait? “Can’t you stay here for a bit? Just until I fall asleep?” Who had taking control of my brain? Why was I saying this? Oh my god, the alcohol. Never touch alcohol again, Mali! He had turned around and now looked at me with a surprised expression.

“Also…” I mumbled, “I wanted to give you this”. I handed him my hoodie.

“Wait, I ca-“ he began, but I stopped him.

“I think it fits you much better. It’s too big for me anyways”

“Are you sure? You’re not just giving it to me because you’re drunk?” he said, sounding very skeptical.

“I’m sure, but I honestly don’t know if it’s because I’m drunk. But there’s no doubt that you are way better at rapping than me. You’re the real rap monster” I said while looking directly into his eyes. I wanted to give him this and I wanted him to accept. And he did.

“Well… I’m going to sleep now” I grinned. I sat down on Taeyoon’s bed, put my feet up and pulled the duvet up to my chin. Placing my head on the pillow, my body suddenly felt very heavy compared to just before when I had been drinking. My brain on the other hand was telling me not to fall asleep. I turned my body, ending up lying on my stomach.

 “Is it alright if I sleep next to you? I promise I won’t do anything, I’m just very tired” Namjoon sat down on the bedside.

“Uh-huh” I mumbled into the pillow. My body was having a fight against my brain. I turned my body around once more, trying to find the most comfortable position to sleep in. My eyelids began growing heavy and my head began emptying itself for thoughts.

The last thing I remembered before falling asleep was being held in a warm embrace, thinking about how nice it felt.

When I woke up, the first thing I noticed was an arm sticking out from my neck. The hand was big with long, slender fingers. I turned around and I had to do a double take. Namjoon was sleeping next to me. I was lying on his arm. His other arm lay across my waist. I got out of bed as quietly as I could, lifting his arm off my waist and carefully placing it on the bed. He was still sleeping. On the other end of the bed, Taeyoon was sleeping with a blanket covering most of her body. How did she end up there? Oh right. We had slept in her bed…

I walked out of the room. Originally I had planned to go directly into the kitchen, but my stomach quickly told me that that was not the best idea right now. Instead I went to the bathroom, where I emptied the contents of my stomach into the toilet bowl. Ugh.

I stayed by the toilet for some time, expecting more to come up, but none did.

My head was filled with thoughts. Why had I ended up in Taeyoon’s bed with Namjoon? Had anything happened? Just the thought made me blush. It wasn’t like my mind was completely innocent, but I had just never really woken up in a guy’s embrace. Especially not the embrace of a guy I had just met.

I got up on my feet, my legs shaking lightly. Suddenly I heard someone groan, the sound coming from behind me. I turned around and saw a guy lying in the bathtub. He was one of the guys who had gone crazy last night. What was his name again? Jimin? He lifted his head, looking at me with a surprised expression.

“Are you throwing up?” He suddenly asked. I don’t know whether he sounded excited or disgusted.

“Uh… I was, yes” I ended up answering, still surprised I hadn’t noticed him lying in the bathtub before. Why was he sleeping there anyway?

“Oh” he just said and laid down his head again. I took that as sign that our conversation was over and left the bathroom.

As I entered the kitchen I noticed three guys sitting at the dinner table. It was Taehyung, the other crazy guy (his name was Hoseok right?) and the young one, Jungkook. In the sofa group on the other side of the kitchen I could see another guy sleeping. I hadn’t seen him before though. Was he also a friend of Taehyung’s? It seemed like it was only his friends who were left.

The three of them looked up at me, but quickly turned their gazes towards something else.

I looked to my right. Seulgi was sitting on the kitchen counter, holding a mug with what looked like coffee in one hand and a book in the other. She looked up at me as I walked towards her. My head was still filled with questions about last night and I ended up placing my head on Seulgi’s shoulder, hoping she could answer them for me or just hold me or something. Seulgi had always been like an older sister to me. She had been with me since I was little. We were family, actually. She was my cousin, but I felt like she was so much closer to me than that.

“Why did I wake up in that guy's embrace?” I whispered, making sure only Seulgi heard my stupid question.

“What's wrong with Namjoon?” Seulgi asked in a low voice and took a sip from her mug. What was wrong with Namjoon? Well, nothing really. But… I just… My mind wasn’t making sense. I didn’t know what to answer Seulgi.

“Nothing... It's just.... he's just not....” I didn’t know how to say it. What was I even trying to say? I sighed. I could then feel a hand patting the back of my head. It was really soothing and all my worried thoughts seemed to disappear. This was why I liked Seulgi so much. She made feel so safe and comfortable just like that.

When the other four guys had woken up, including Namjoon, it didn’t take long before they left Taeyoon’s apartment. I tried my best to avoid Namjoon’s gaze. I didn’t know why. Embarrassment probably. I just didn’t know what to say to him.

When the guys had left, Seulgi and I helped Taeyoon clean up her apartment. When we were done, Seulgi and I decided to go home. It was already 7 pm. How did time pass by so fast?

After leaving the apartment, we walked in silence for a while, both thinking our own thoughts.

“Do you mind if I go inside and buy some lollipops?” Seulgi then asked, pointing towards a convenience store. I shaked my head as an answer and Seulgi went inside.

“It will take just a minute or two~” She said with her back turned to me.

“Yes~ Buy one for me too!” I replied and placed my back against a pole. It had gotten dark outside, but no stars were appearing on the night sky because of the citylights. That might be one of the things I missed the most from when I didn’t live in Seoul.

Even though my mom and I had usually lived in big cities due to her work, she did sometime take me for trips to the countryside of various countries, especially in Europe.  

“Balalalala”. A sound came from my pocket, signaling a new text message.

Yo Mali-ah! (or should I call you Rap Monster still? Kkkk)

I promise you I’m not a creep, but I just wanted to let you know, that I saved my number on your phone while you were sleeping. I’m sorry about last night. Are you feeling better now? Jimin told me you threw up.

I hope you don’t mind having my number. If you do, you can always delete it again~

The text came from a sender I had never seen before; ‘Da cool guy Namjoon’.

I couldn’t resist laughing. What was up with this guy? He was really random. Who would even call themselves that?

As I stood there laughing, three men approached me. They were all wearing black t-shirts. One of them had a cleanly shaven head and the two others both had black hair. All of them were sporting big tattoos on both arms.

“You have to help, someone has been hurt!” one of the black-haired men said. What?

“W-who? What happened?” I asked, not really knowing what to do.

“Come! You have to help!” the hairless man said and took me by the wrist.

He began dragging me along towards an alleyway, and one of the other men began pushing my back.

“Wait! Where are we going?” I asked, almost yelling. Where were they taking me?

The men didn’t say anything, just kept dragging me along.

I couldn’t free my wrist. Help?