Over the next month, Yoongi and Hyori managed to avoid any more embarrassing encounters. Hyori had tried several times to convince Yoongi to let her pay her share of the rent and bills, but he shot her down each time, saying their agreement for her to cook couldn’t be broken. (If pressured he would admit that a large part of that was because he enjoyed her cooking. What he’d never admit was that he enjoyed watching her cook almost as much as he enjoyed eating her cooking.)

One day, Yoongi had to unexpectedly work late. He quickly got out of a meeting so that he could tell Hyori not to wait for him to eat. He called her, checking how much time he had before he had to return to his meeting. She answered him, her voice soothing his frazzled nerves. “Hey Yoongi. What’s up? You don’t usually call me during the day.” He smiled at her voice, he had noticed a big change in her personality from when she had first moved in with him. She had become so much more confident and happy.

“My meetings are gonna run late tonight. I just wanted to tell you to eat without me tonight.” He said, his tone a little regretful. “Aww I hate eating alone.” She whined. He rolled his eyes at her, even though she couldn’t see him, a small smile making its way onto his face. “I’ll make it up to you.” He promised. She hummed as she thought it over. “Bring chocolate with you when you come home and we’re even.” He chuckled at her childish request. “Deal. I’ll call you when I’m done, ok?” he waited but there was no response. He pulled the phone away from his ear to check the call was still connected. “Hyori? Are you still there? Can you hear me?”

He could still hear background noise through the phone. “Hyori?” he called again, worry making itself heard in his voice. A loud beep indicated the call had ended. He looked at his phone with a frown. “What the hell?” he pressed the redial button, his foot impatiently tapping on the floor as he waited. When his call was forwarded to voicemail he hung up. “She doesn’t have class…” he mumbled to himself. He was about to call again when Namjoon called him back into the meeting room. He looked at his phone one last time before slipping it back into his pocket and heading back into his meeting.

Hyori was breathing hard as she stood in a deserted alleyway. She leaned forward, her hands resting on her knees as she tried to catch her breath. “I can’t believe he turned up at my university.” She said as she looked back out at the busy street to see if she had been followed. Once she was satisfied that she hadn’t been followed, she hesitantly made her way back into the crowd, looking over her shoulder every few seconds, half expecting a hand to grab her at any second.

She purposely got on the wrong bus, just in case he had managed to follow her without her realising it. She got off a few stops later and walked for a few blocks, constantly looking over her shoulder. Once she was one hundred percent sure that she hadn’t been followed, she jumped onto the correct bus. Sighing in relief. She clutched her backpack to her chest as she looked out of the window, her hands still shaking from the adrenaline and fear. “I can’t believe he turned up…” she mumbled to herself as she watched the scenery fly by the window.

When she finally arrived home, she felt exhausted. She headed straight to her room, too tired to deal with dinner. She thought about what had happened. She had been talking with Yoongi when she had spotted her dad waiting for her. She had almost dropped her phone out of surprise at seeing him standing there. He had spotted her and slowly made his way towards her. When he was only a few steps away from her, she ran. She had made it over a month without having to see him. She had blocked his number the day after she had picked up her stuff from the apartment, not wanting to have any contact with him at all. She had never imagined that he would turn up at her university.

“Was that the first time he went there? There’s no way he knows my schedule… has he been going there often, waiting for me?” she felt her stomach churn with worry. He now knew at least one part of her schedule. She could start using the other exit of the university, hoping that he wouldn’t catch her again. It would mean a longer walk to get home, but that was better than the alternative. She couldn’t bear to think what would happen if he got a hold of her. She subconsciously rubbed her recently injured arm which still bore the scars from the last time she had seen him.

She considered telling Yoongi about what had happened, part of her knew he would be worried about how abruptly their phone call had ended, but she knew that he was busy and she didn’t want to worry him. She buried her face into her pillow and let out a loud, frustrated scream.

Yoongi spent the rest of the night checking the time as often as he could, the meetings taking much longer than he would have liked. When he was finally free to leave, he noted with a frown that Hyori hadn’t contacted him. He noticed the late hour and decided against calling her, in case she was already asleep. He drove home, a little faster than he should have, hoping that Hyori would be in her normal spot in the living room, eating snacks and demanding her chocolate.

He pulled into his spot and made his way up to his apartment. He was disappointed when he opened the door to a pitch black apartment, no sounds of the TV from inside. He took off his shoes and saw her favourite boots in their rightful place. “Well at least she’s home. I hope she's ok.” He walked into the apartment and noticed that there was no light coming from her room. “She must have gone to bed early.” He stood outside her room, contemplating knocking on her door to make sure she was ok, but decided against it. Not wanting to disturb her if she was sleeping.

He grabbed a bottle of water from the kitchen before heading into his own room. He changed out of his suit and pulled on his sleeping clothes, the stress from the day taking its toll on him as he slipped into bed.

He opened his eyes and found himself at his old university. He frowned, wondering why he was here. He spotted Hyori walking towards him, her phone to her ear and a smile on her face. A matching smile broke out onto his face as she swept her hair away from her face as she whined about having to eat alone. He realised that he was seeing her memory from earlier that day. She stopped dead, her eyes widening in shock, her grip on her phone loosening slightly.

Yoongi followed her line of vision until he spotted what she was looking at. His hands balled into fists and anger filled him as he watched her father approach her. He longed to grab her and run but he knew that he couldn’t alter her memory. He could only stand by and watch as he approached her. He yelled at her to run, and as if she had heard him, she took off in the opposite direction. He ran after her, calling her name even though he knew that she couldn’t hear him.

He followed her out of the university and through the busy streets surrounding it. He lost sight of her in the crowd, swearing loudly as he sat bolt upright in bed.  He looked around as he tried to get his bearings, feeling disorientated from waking up so abruptly from his dream. He threw off his blankets and went to Hyori's room, knocking loudly on her door. “Hyori.” He called, not caring if he disturbed her. He heard her tired voice tell him to come in from inside.

He opened the door and entered her dark room. He walked right up to the side of her bed and looked down at her with an intense expression. She purposely left the light off, not wanting to let him see her red, puffy eyes. “Yoongi, what’s wrong?” she asked, confused by his sudden appearance in her room in the middle of the night. “Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked, his voice sharper than he had intended as he tried to keep his frustration in check. “Tell you what?” she asked, vainly hoping that he was talking about her eating the last yogurt.

He sighed loudly and ran his hand through his hair, messing it up further. “About your dad appearing in your university today?!” he said, his voice harsh. Her head dipped, her hair falling in front of her face. She cleared , not wanting to cry in front of him. “It’s fine. Nothing happened.” She said quietly as her fingers twisted the material of her blanket.

Yoongi looked down at her, his expression softening. He reached out slowly and brushed her hair back, his fingers lingering in her hair, happy that she hadn’t flinched away from his touch. “Why didn’t you tell me?” he repeated, his voice gentle, almost a whisper in the dark room. She sniffed, “I didn’t want you to worry.” She said quietly, looking up at him with glassy eyes. Yoongi dropped onto her bed and pulled her into a tight hug, one hand on the back of her head, gently threading through the silky strands, the other wrapped around her shoulders.

“Idiot.” He muttered, his breath moving her hair as he spoke. “How could I not be worried about you?” he said, his voice rough as he held her tighter, his head resting on top of hers. Hyori felt tears slide down her cheeks as she hesitantly raised her hands, them in the thin material of Yoongi’s sleeping shirt. “I was so scared.” She admitted, her voice shaky. “You should have called me right away. I would have gone and picked you up.” He said as he pulled away from her, using his thumb to wipe away her tears.

Her hands slipped down from his chest to rest on his lap. He still had one hand on her shoulder, the other wiping away her tears. “No matter what happens, I’ll be there for you, if you’d just let me.” He said as he looked at her with an expression that made her giddy and nervous at the same time. She smiled at him, her chest tightening at his words. “Thank you.” She whispered, hating how she couldn’t find the words to convey how much his words and actions meant to her.

Yoongi smiled at her, the hand that had been wiping her tears now resting on her other shoulder. He slowly inched forwards, his gaze locked with hers. She bit her bottom lip as they got closer, her breaths becoming faster. When they were only centimetres apart, Yoongi tilted her head slightly and placed a kiss on her forehead, his lips lingering there for several seconds. She felt like she had been burned by his touch as his lips moved to her temple. She closed her eyes, the visual and touch combined too much to handle.

He moved from her temple to press a kiss to the tip of her nose before gently pressing his lips against hers. Her hands fisted in his lap when their lips finally touched. His lips moved hesitantly against hers, as if he was afraid that she would pull away from him. She responded to the kiss, her arms hesitantly moving up and wrapping around his neck. He pulled her closer, one hand threading through her hair, the other wrapped around her shoulders as he held her against him as if she would disappear if he let her go for even a second.  

He eventually pulled back and smiled at her, his relief at her enthusiastic response to his advance clear on his face. Her eyes fluttered open and she looked at him with a warm expression. “I have to admit; I did not see that coming.” She said making them both chuckle. He cupped her cheek with one hand, “I have to admit that this was not my intention when I came in here. I wanted to yell at you at first, but I just couldn’t do it.”

She smiled, slightly nuzzling against his warm hand, “If given the choice between you yelling at me or kissing me, I know which one I prefer.” He chuckled and pressed another kiss against her forehead. “Me too.” He said warmly. “If anything like that happens again, you have to tell me, ok? I was so worried about you all day, I couldn’t concentrate.” He said with a small pout. “Sorry.” She said, unable to hide her smile because of his cute expression. He flicked her forehead making her cry out in shock, “Yah! What the hell?” she whined as she rubbed the sore point on her forehead.

He grinned at her, “That’s for making me worry.” He said before leaning in and kissing the red mark. “And that’s for being so cute.” He said making her laugh, not used to hearing such cheesy words from him. He stood up and smiled down at her, their hands linked. “Get some sleep, it’s Saturday tomorrow so you can sleep in.” he said with an affectionate tone in his voice. “What about you?” she asked. He shrugged, “Namjoon can deal without me for one day.” He said as he headed for the door, “I’ll see you in the morning, preferably after ten?” he said with a laugh. “Deal.” She agreed as he bid her good night and went back to his own room.

She flopped down on her bed with a smile on her face, her fingers touching her lips. She giggled as she rolled over, her bad thoughts from that day completely forgotten.

Yoongi shut his bedroom door, unable to wipe the grin off his face as he crawled back into bed, happy that his temporary lack of control hadn’t completely backfired.