It’s been about two hours since Red Velvet left. Yoongi has spent his time comforting a sobbing Jennie. Namjoon has taken initiative on creating a plan. He’s sitting at the dining table, furiously scribbling words onto a notepad while Hoseok throws ideas at him and Jimin peers over his shoulder while cradling Chanhyun.

Jin left the apartment immediately after the news. When Jimin stopped him at the doorway to ask where he was headed, all Jin said was a gruff, “Out. Clear my head.”

He has yet to return. Jisoo sits on her bed, wordlessly staring out the window in thought and worry. She contemplates calling Jin, but recalls his reaction to her declaration when she’d announced they would break up if the show is over. Jin had crumbled in exasperation and asked, “Have I not shown you that I’d go through anything to be with you? Am I not enough?”

“Jin, please,” Jisoo pleaded almost desperately, “I just don’t know what to do. I’m not supposed to be in a relationship to begin with. But I love you! You know how much I love you! But this can’t work, it won’t work. Can’t you see that?”

Jin pursed his lips and couldn’t even look at her. She’d taken his face in her hands and tried to force him to face her but Jin shook his head and pulled away from her grasp, surprising her. Without another word he’d gotten up and left. In another minute she heard the apartment door open and shut–not quite a slam but enough to scare her of what it could mean.

Now she sinks into her bed and strums her fingernails on the back of her phone case, her screen open to her messages. Jin’s contact name is the top one, but she can’t bring herself to send him a text. Is it pride holding her back?

“Come on Kim Jisoo,” Jisoo says to herself, feeling ridiculous, “You love this man. Tell him to come back and talk it out better.

She presses on Jin’s contact name and hesitates before starting to write a message.

Jichuuu: Oppa–

Jisoo deletes it and restarts,

Jichuuu: Can you please come back? I’m worried.

Jisoo chews her thumbnail and contemplates sending it, but again she shakes her head and erases the words.

Jichuuu: I love you.

This time Jisoo screams into her pillow and exits the app completely. In a fit, she throws the phone. She hadn’t meant to throw it hard, but it hits the wall and shatters the screen. She couldn’t care less. Jisoo just rolls onto her stomach and continues to scream into her pillow to keep herself from sobbing into it.

“Did you hear that?” Taehyung asks, alert. He’s laying in his bed with Lisa nuzzled onto him. They’d stayed in this position for two hours, afraid of moving.

“I don’t care,” Lisa responds. She squeezes Taehyung around his torso with her arms and nuzzles her face into the crook of his neck. “Can we stay like this forever?”

“We’re certainly trying to,” Taehyung points out. His left arm is wrapped around Lisa’s shoulders and he uses it to give her a light squeeze back.

After a moment of peaceful silence, Lisa breaks it again to ask, “Oppa, have you ever been in love?”

Taehyung teases, “Right now, dummy.”

Lisa rolls her eyes and slaps his stomach, “You know what I mean. Have there been others?”

Taehyung sighs, considering the question. Then he answers, “Yes. There were two others before you. But they’re in the past for a reason.”

Lisa’s lips quiver and her eyes sting, “In the future will you refer to me as something of the past as well?”

Taehyung’s jaw hardens and his voice sounds stern as he responds, “Don’t say that. Please. We’re together now.”

Lisa pushes off Taehyung’s chest so she can look at him, her hair cascading around her head and around Taehyung’s face. “But it’s true, right? You’ll find someone else. You’ll fall in love again. Then I’ll be a thing of the past.”

Taehyung doesn’t know how to respond. He knows he loves Lisa and that he doesn’t want to lose her, but he also can’t guarantee that she’s wrong.

Reading this off his expression, Lisa nods knowingly before saying defeatedly, “That’s what I thought. But I’ve never been in love before, Oppa. I’ll only ever think of you when I’m with anyone else. When I think of love I think of you. I consider you my present and future, not my past. I don’t want to make you feel bad about this, but…” Lisa trails off and fights back tears. She doesn’t know how she can tell him that she just wants him to love her? Enough that someone like him who can fall in love with anyone will never fall in love again?

Taehyung cups her cheeks in his big hands and says warmly, “If it makes you feel any better, I’ve never loved anyone as much as I love you.”

Lisa scoffs and her tears spill out, to which Taehyung rubs with his thumbs. Taehyung continues, “I’m serious. Just… Trust me. I promise not to let you down.”

“I don’t believe you,” Lisa jokes, feeling her chest lighten with his words.

Taehyung chuckles then says, “You don’t give me enough credit.”

Lisa laughs and Taehyung takes a second to appreciate it. Lisa leans down and kisses him gently before going ba