----Chapter Eighteen----

Her nightmares return with a vengeance following the increased number of sessions she has, with all the talks about the kidnapping she has to do, and all the staring at his face she has to endure. 

Chaeyoung tries hard to take the control of her mind back in order to make them stop by furiously writing down whatever lyrics come in mind after waking up from them, sacrificing precious sleeping time without a second thought to fill blank pages of paper with her gibberish thoughts and feelings. She doubts it's even helpful, but instead of doing nothing, she keeps following her therapist's suggestion, and now has a notebook filled with half-written songs, uncoordinated sentences, and hurriedly scribbled ideas that have been abandoned for now.

She has no idea how to complete any of them but stubbornly refuses to throw any of them away.

Whether because of the writing or time, her nightmares do subside after a few days, but Chaeyoung feels completely drained, like a soldier who just returned from a never-ending war.

She gives what little left-over energy she has into their remaining promotions, then subsequently turning into a lifeless shell once back in the shelter of their dorm.

Jisoo has started calling her Zombsé, chuckling at her clever nickname every time she uses it, but because she's Jisoo, she also gifted her an expensive set of various bubble bath products of various aroma to help her relax.   

Chaeyoung doesn't entirely mind her new nickname since it's pretty accurate, but Jennie glares every time the weird name comes out of Jisoo's mouth and chastises her for her lack of empathy while Jisoo defends that she's only trying to make Chaeyoung smiles -and it works, really.

It's also impossible for Chaeyoung to get mad at Jisoo, ever.

She still doubles her efforts to appear livelier, feeling bad for worrying her members, but she hates pretending.

But most of all, she wants to see Jimin so bad, it's making her want to cry. She tried turning those feelings into lyrics too, but after taking a look at all she's written these past few days, the feelings poured into the songs reflect such depressing and dark emotions she doubts people would want to listen to these.

She desperately needs some light.

Ever since she left The Philippines, she's been going crazy for all sort of different reasons. She needs to see him.

So she takes matters into her own hands and gathers the courage to text him, asking if they can see each other. Her text doesn't reflect how needy she feels; thankfully, she succeeds in appearing like a sane and normal girlfriend.

His fast and positive answer puts some life back in her, and with surprisingly little struggle, they finally manage to find some time to meet.

But she'll have to go to him.

It usually would be the perfect opportunity for the girls to , but they simply agree to cover for her, no fuzz, no dirty suggestions, not even a trace of a smirk.

It takes a lot of craft to leave their building without being seen, and without Lisa creating quite a huge distraction with the help of Kuma and Dalgom, Chaeyoung might have never sneak off past security successfully.

Thus she is now standing in front of BTS's dorm, feeling all sorts of nervousness. A little from seeing him again after what feels like forever even though it hasn't been that long, really. Most of it though from visiting his dorm for the first time.

Scoffing silently at the ridiculousness of her worries, Chaeyoung knocks on the door and it opens almost a second later as if the person on the other side stood waiting for her all along.

But instead of Jimin's face, it's Taehyung's that greets her.

"Finally! We've been waiting forever!"

We? She wants to voice her question, but he tugs her inside impatiently and leads her in the living room before she can recover from her shock. There she finds six grown men sitting on the couch or on the ground, all eyes on her, and she immediately feels like Kim Taehyung is Santa who just brought them the gift they've all been waiting for all year long. 

It really doesn't help her nerves.

Jimin gives her a sheepish smile before throwing an annoyed look around the room at everyone else, but they're all too busy staring at her to notice. 

Beside him, Jungkook and Hoseok both have their arms around him locking him in place, preventing him from rising from his seat to greet her. Hoseok even has one of his leg trapped between his own.

He's caged and irked, and Chaeyoung holds back the urge to laugh at him.

Taehyung swings an arm around her shoulder, his eyes on Jimin. "This guy actually thought he could sneak you in without us knowing. Pff!"

"Yah, Kim Taehyung, move your arm!"

Instead, Taehyung leans his head against hers, giving a deadpan stare at Jimin while the beginning of a smirk is forming at the corner of his mouth. "Of course, since it's your first time here, we have to welcome you!"

"You should've told us, Jimin, really. I could've made something for her to eat. Now she'll think we're rude," Kim Seokjin scolds.

"You should go cook now, I'm hungry," Jeon Jungkook teases from next to Jimin, tightening his hold when the annoyed boy tries once more to get up.

"Oh, good idea, we could all eat together!" Taehyung approves, then leans closer. "What kind of food do you  like?" He winks as he asks his question, deliberately sneaking a glance at Jimin and giving him a grin when he catches him staring.

Chaeyoung watches with amusement Jimin's annoyance toward Taehyung increasing by the second with every move done by his groupmate. She decides to take pity on him and gently pries Taehyung's arm away and starts bowing at each of , embarrassed by her sudden presence among them. To think that they all witnessed the messy scene that happened in their dressing room back in the Philippines too...

"Sorry for intruding," she says as she finishes her last bow to the leader, Kim Namjoon.

"No, no problem! We're happy to have you. Well, Jimin more than the rest of us," he adds, snicke