AUTUMN ; September

Sunday -- Evening

“Last one through the gates has to buy bubble drinks after school!” Jungkook screams, his voice echoing through the neighborhood.

Jiyoo curses her luck. She has no idea why Jungkook has been so set on competing recently, though she can make a guess it was because of his loss against Suga during their mini basketball competition. The only way she’d be able to win was if one of the others gave her a chance to.

And seeing that they were all far ahead of her, she was probably going to have to buy everyone drinks today.

Letting out a sigh, she tightens the straps on her backpack and trudges towards the school. She didn’t feel like getting sweaty on a Monday morning, so she opted to walk. Eventually she’d caught sight of the school and sighed again, this time being relieved that she didn’t have to walk alone now.

Jiyoo observed her surroundings on the way, staring at her fellow classmates and the environment around her. There was a big green van parked about 20 feet away from the front gates. The color stood out a lot, mostly because you never really see an eight person seater just casually parked outside the school like that, let alone in that color scheme. Passing the side of the van, she curiously looks at her reflection through the dark tinted windows.

What she got in return were more than a pair of eyes staring back at her though.

The door to the van whips open, revealing a man in a brightly colored floral shirt. The man gives off a familiar vibe, as if she’s seen his face before. Of course, she doesn’t actually know who the man is. Jiyoo would’ve remembered someone dressed this way. The collar of his shirt was embroidered with electric pink flowers, further adding to his plaid pants that fell just above his ankles. “Hello dear!” He chirped, much too happily for a person that she didn’t know. “Well don’t just stand around, hop in sweetie!”

Jiyoo opens to argue, but is pulled into the van by force by some of the other men. They pluck her from the sidewalk easily, though too roughly for her to be swept right into the van. Her ankle got caught on the edge of the doorway, causing her eyes to water when something felt as if it were pulling her foot off. Before she could yell in pain and panic, the door to the van had slid shut and the van itself drove off, far away from the school.

--

“First place!” Jimin yells, muting his voice so that it sounded like a crowd was cheering for him when in reality, he was just emitting a weird sort of scream.

“Damn it..”

Jungkook places his hands behind his head, forcing his body to take in as much oxygen as it could hold. He could’ve maintained first place himself if he hadn’t kept turning around to check if Jiyoo was still behind him. Eventually Jungkook had given up turning around altogether because Jimin was catching up to him, plus Jiyoo was ways away from him, making it physically impossible for him to see her so far away.

“Congrats!” Hoseok says in a cheered up voice. He, along with the others had continued to sprint just up until they started feeling tired.

“Guess Jiyoo’s paying for drinks today.” Suga says with a content sigh.

They all knew they’d outrun her anyways, so it was almost destined from the start.

They all met up and waited inside the gates for Jiyoo. Five minutes passed and only Jungkook was curiously peering towards the gate. Another five minutes went by and Jungkook was standing between the gates now. After a total of fifteen minutes had gone by, Jungkook was ready to start a search party.

“Will you relax?” Seokjin grumbles, “You’re making me feel nervous.”

“But Jiyoo isn’t here yet.” Jungkook mutters, his eyes locked on the groups of students filling in through the gates of the school. “It shouldn’t have taken her that long, even if she were to walk..”

“She has short legs. Just give her five more minutes.” Jimin says with a huff. He’s already recovered from his run, earning small sarcastic glances.

“You have small legs too.” Namjoon says with a frown.

“Yes, but I came in first place.” Jimin puts the emphasis on the fact that he was the one that won, successfully shutting Namjoon up completely.

When Jungkook doesn’t stop giving the rest of the boys secondhand anxiety just by looking at him, they too eventually stand a bit closer to the fate, all eager to see Jiyoo.

“Who are you guys waiting for?”

Jungkook turns around first, half expecting to see Jiyoo. His expectations are shattered though, once Yugyeom came into sight instead. He takes a quick look at the group and looks a bit disappointed. “Where’s Jiyoo?”

“We’re waiting for her.” Jungkook says without bothering to look at Yugyeom again.

Yugyeom hummed before pulling out his phone to check the time. There was only a few minutes left before the first warning bell would ring to signal students to hurry to class. “Didn’t your dad pick her up though?”

That got Jungkook’s attention. He stares at the latter, baffled by Yugyeom’s words of choice. Jungkook wasn’t informed by his father that he was going to be taking Jiyoo anywhere today.

“He looked a little weird though. Like, all dressed in bright green and stuff.” Yugyeom recalls, his nose scrunching up as he remembers the unique attire.

This confused Jungkook. He knows his father almost inside and out, especially the stuff that he liked to wear. When he wasn’t wearing comfortable clothes at home, he was wearing plain colored business attire. The brightest thing in his father’s closet was a baby blue collared shirt, which was still nothing close to Yugyeom’s description.

He makes the move to call his father first. The rest of the boys gather around, nervously awaiting for some sort of answer to the question of where Jiyoo’s whereabouts were.

They all hoped that she was already in school and that they were overreacting.

The phone rang for a mere fraction of a second before someone answered. “I’m picking you up from school. We’re paying a visit to your uncle.”

“What?” Jungkook doesn’t understand why a sudden family reunion was suddenly so important. They haven’t visited his father’s brother since he’d gotten divorced to his wife. “Do you know where-”

“Jiyoo is there with him. That’s why we need to go.”

Jungkook resists the urge to cuss, giving his father a prompt goodbye before hanging up the phone. He does his best to answer as many questions as he could to the rest of the guys about his uncle. Jungkook tells them that his uncle was the one that had taken Jiyoo, but he doesn’t understand why he’d want Jiyoo now out of all times. It wasn’t as if he had a son that needed a mate. The rest of the guys calmed down a bit after hearing that, but still were on edge knowing that Jiyoo was in a place where she was alone.

Jungkook on the other hand, was still just as worried. His uncle had gotten a divorce to his wife around the time that his mother had passed away. He wouldn’t know Jiyoo because he’d gone on some sort of “soul searching” trip and had been gone since then.

He just hoped Jiyoo wasn’t in a state of distress, anxiously awaiting for his father to come so that he could confirm it for his own eyes.

--

“So you’re Jungkook’s uncle?”

The so said man nods his head, bringing out an extensive photobook to prove it. Jiyoo was convinced after seeing a familiar little boy, though she still skimmed through the book and snapped a few pictures when she deemed necessary. It wasn’t everyday that she’d seen a cute baby version of Jungkook crying or smiling.

“And how do you know me?” Jiyoo asks suspiciously, watching as Jungkook’s uncle tenses up a tiny bit.

“Oh, well.. That’s because you’re so close to Jungkook! I keep tabs on my family even if I’m not around, you silly goose.” Jungkook’s uncle chuckles, though he turns around to hide the nervous expression on his face.

As Jungkook’s uncle continues to gush about his nephew, Jiyoo tries her best to absorb the new information around her. Apparently his uncle wanted to surprise Jungkook and his father by giving Jiyoo a makeover, which explains why she was currently soaking in a tub while two ladies proceeded to shampoo and deep condition her hair whether she liked it or not.

They scrubbed Jiyoo down from top to bottom, getting rid of clumps of dead skin along with what they deemed was unwanted body hair. Jiyoo always thought that waxing would be painful, and she was right. It was. The good thing about it though was that they had this sort of cooling cream that they’d put on her skin after ripping the wax strips off. It felt like a refreshing mint on her skin, tickling and cooling all at the same time while they’d massaged her body.

When Jungkook’s uncle said that he wanted to give Jiyoo a makeover, he really meant it. The ladies gave Jiyoo a lip scrub, body scrub, scalp massage and even an extra hair treatment after her hair had been deep conditioned and blow dried. It was extremely smooth and silky, along with the rest of her body after all that scrubbing. While they ran around to try and find clothes that would fit Jiyoo’s small stature, another pair of women came in and began to give Jiyoo a manicure and a pedicure.

She’d almost forgotten about going to school completely before remembering that Jungkook probably didn’t know where she was. Jiyoo told the lady trying to give her a manicure to wait and pulled out her phone, only to have it snatched by Jungkook’s uncle.

“Can’t have you ruining the surprise!” He said cheerfully, placing Jiyoo’s phone on one of the side tables out of her reach.

Jiyoo sighs, but doesn’t try to disobey. Instead she focuses on trying not to yelp every time the lady giving her a pedicure tugs too hard on her foot. It was beginning to swell after being yanked into the car, ultimately preventing her from wearing the heels that the women had picked out for her.

After putting on a fair amount of makeup (which was still going overboard in Jiyoo’s book) and putting a white dress over her body, Jiyoo was shocked to see the end result. Her black hair flowed gracefully at her sides and she couldn’t help but admire the person in the mirror that was copying her every move. Had she always looked like this?

“I’m glad you like what we’ve done!” Jungkook’s uncle says with glee. “Jungah! Come down here and look at the girl!”

Jiyoo was too stuck in a trance by her own appearance to pay any attention to the arrival of a new person. Jungkook’s uncle eventually had to tap her shoulder to pull her out of it.

“This is my daughter Jungah,” He grins, “And this is the friend of Jungkook’s that I was talking to you about sweetie.”

Jungah looks at Jiyoo and smiles, though Jiyoo could do nothing but utter a small hello as she shamelessly stares at Jungah. The girl was much taller than she was, hovering about a head above her with short brown hair that sat ever so lightly on her proportionate shoulders. Jungah was also wearing a pair of shorts and a black pullover, which accentuated her long legs yet still made her look devilishly cute in a way.

To put it bluntly, Jiyoo was almost intimidated by her. And what Jungkook’s uncle said next didn’t make it any better.

“So Jiyoo, do you think you’re prettier than my daughter?” He asks, his eyes sparkling with a childlike joy though there was a hint of seriousness in them.

Since he was asking with such strong anticipation, Jiyoo couldn’t help but try to answer as quickly as she could. Did she think she was prettier than Jungah? She might’ve just gotten a giant makeover, but even then Jiyoo still felt small under Jungah’s presence. Jiyoo could only slowly shake her head, causing Jungkook’s uncle to clasp his hands together and sigh.

“I think she’s one of the prettiest flowers in the garden myself.” Jungkook’s uncle swoons, practically cooing at his daughter who just chuckled off to the side.

Seeing such a wholesome interaction between the two, Jiyoo couldn’t help but feel a small smile appear on her face as well.

“That’s why I need to you back off a tiny little bit from my nephew so that they can be mates, okay?”

Confusion was written all over Jiyoo’s face. She had no idea what was going on after Jungkook’s uncle had suddenly dropped the bomb on her. Trying to speak, the only thing she could do was barely stutter out a few words. “A-Aren’t Jungkook and Jungah-”

“Cousins?” Jungkook’s uncle answers quickly, “Yes, but not by blood silly! Jungah is my step child. I recently got remarried, you see.”

He shows off the golden ring around his finger, letting out a loud giggle the more he continued to ogle at how it glimmered in the light.

The sight might’ve been a bit cute to see, but Jiyoo was still trying to fend off the tight feeling in the pit of her stomach. She then realized that the only reason why she was brought here was not to surprise Jungkook and his father, but to drop the bomb on her in the nicest, yet most degrading way possible.

Jungkook’s uncle wanted her to know that even with a whole new makeover, Jungah was a more suitable mate than she was.

“Oh dear, but don’t hold this to heart, alright?” He tries to cheer Jiyoo up, “I mean they’re both Alphas so it works out much better. And you admitted it yourself that Jungah was very pretty, right?”

“W-Well, yes, but-”

“Then you consent as well!” The man lets out another sigh, his face content as if everything were going to plan. His phone buzzes and he removes it from his own pocket, making Jiyoo realize that she doesn’t have her own phone. While she walks over to the side table to pick it up, she can hear Jungkook’s uncle suddenly begin to clap. “They’re here! Everyone get ready!”

Only Jiyoo doesn’t bother to move. Her eyes were locked on the last message that she’d seen on her phone from Jungkook.

From: Jungkookie

We’re coming Jiyoo. Don’t worry.

It was reassuring and yet, something didn’t sit right in Jiyoo’s stomach. Taking another peek at Jungah, Jiyoo felt even smaller; Jungah emitted an air of class, yet there was something that drew her in. Why would she be so intrigued by a person she never met before? The weird interest in a cool beauty like Jungah made Jiyoo feel even sicker and she just hoped that the feeling went away once the others had come to rescue her.

A/N: Do I even write for this story anymore? Not really lmao, but I figured I might as well upload whatever I have left that's written.

Honestly I still love BTS reverse harems, but I don't have the time nor inspiration to keep writing about them anymore lol. I'm still bummed that there aren't a lot of reverse harem stories too because they're all the good 'ol fics, but I guess it's fine //sighh

Maybe I'll try to rewrite the entire story again, maybe I'll continue where I left off. Or I'll just quit (which is the most likely option), so I apologize for anyone that got their hopes up because I'm such a lazy ! Goodnight to all and maybe you'll see me online, who knows!