“So how long have you been in love with Jennie?”

Jisoo was by no means a nosy person, but for some inexplicable reason she couldn’t stop herself from confronting Yoongi. They had spent the last hour roaming through Daegu’s unkempt forest, searching for the healing plant with little success, as wolves howled around them from alarmingly close proximities. The question had been swirling in her mind since the moment she met Jennie, but she was never planning on asking it. That would imply that she cared. Which she obviously didn’t.

He was almost as caught off guard by the question as she was.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he muttered, pushing past her with his horse and avoiding eye contact.

If he was trying to appear convincing, he was failing miserably.

Jisoo rolled her eyes, having to snap her horse’s reins to keep up with his new speed, “you know exactly what I’m talking about.”

He managed to throw her a glare, “well maybe you should mind your own business.”

“Is that why you hate Taehyung so much?” Jisoo mused, seemingly ignoring Yoongi’s response, “because Jennie loves him, and not you?”

He rolled his eyes and sighed deeply, realizing that she wasn’t going to let this go. She was surprised when he actually offered her an honest response to her question.

“I wouldn’t say I’m in love with her,” he clarified, “but I did love her once upon a time. I might still. I don’t know. It’s complicated.”

Jisoo observed him for a long while. The way all the bitterness seeped out of his voice, in its place only pain and confusion. It was the first time she had seen the real Yoongi peek out from underneath the masks of arrogance and shrouds of selfishness he often equipped himself with. It surprised her that within the bitter Yoongi she knew, there was a real, hurting human.

And as much as she hated herself for it, Jisoo had always had a soft spot for the weak and vulnerable.

“Well, if it makes you feel better,” she finally averted her gaze, “Taehyung doesn’t love her back.”

With the way he looked at Chaeyoung, it was pretty obvious that she had stolen his whole heart a long time ago. Unfortunately, the only one oblivious to that unmistakable fact was Chaeyoung herself.

“It doesn’t,” he responded flatly and then turned towards her sharply, his eyes narrowed into thin slits, “wait, how the did you even pick up on all this information? You only saw us together for a few minutes.”

Jisoo smirked proudly and tapped her temple twice, “woman’s intuition.”

Yoongi scoffed, “bull, Lisa and Chaeyoung saw as much as you did, but I doubt any of them picked up on all that.”

“That’s because neither of them really give a about you.”

“But you do?”

It was at that moment that Jisoo realized she had ed up.

“No!” she exclaimed a little too loudly, causing Yoongi’s smirk to widen, “if anything, I give the least amount of about you. We both know it.”

“Mmkay,” Yoongi mumbled, obviously not convinced.

“The whole world practically knows it,” Jisoo strongly reiterated, “it’s pretty much a universal law - “

His low chuckle interrupted her train of thought, “who are you trying to convince? Me or yourself?”

Jisoo gaped at him, completely at a loss. She attempted to find the words to express how she was feeling but each time she tried to speak, it came out as a garbled mess, so she eventually gave up, groaning in frustration and making her horse stomp away. Far far away from Yoongi and his annoying arrogance.

She thought they could finally have an honest, intriguing conversation but he had ruined it like he always did. Spouting nonsense and implying she cared about him. Who did he think he was? Just because she had saved his life and he had helped her overcome her fear of heights didn’t mean they had some sort of a bond. The fact that he had seen her definitely didn’t mean they were close. And just because she felt a sliver of empathy for his heartbreak didn’t mean she suddenly cared.

Or did it?

A sudden roar of thunder snapped her out of it. With a vigorous shake of her raven-haired head, she tried to clear her mind of such thoughts. What she wasn’t about to do was spend all her time thinking about Yoongi. That would be a complete and utter waste.

Thus, with another firm snap of the reins, she forged ahead of him, her focus set completely on the task at hand: finding the plant.

~{❀}~

“I think I found it!” Chaeyoung leaped off her horse enthusiastically and bent down to pick a handful of the emerald-green plant partially hidden behind the aged roots of an oak tree.

They had been searching along this crooked path for about an hour, watching the streaks of coral and burgundy in the sky gradually transition into a blend of deep purple and navy as the luminous moon replaced the sun.

As she expected, Chaeyoung did most of the searching while Taehyung told her nonstop stories and facts about the town. After seeing the possessive way Jennie clung onto him, she tried her best to remain indifferent towards him, but it was quite a struggle. All it took was one look into his genuine eyes to melt her cold heart. Before long, she found herself smiling and listening attentively to him. She couldn’t help it. He just looked so excited and spoke so passionately that his enthusiasm eventually became contagious.

The realization that this was the first time she had seen him so carefree and genuinely happy brought her an equal amount of joy as it did sadness. She wondered if he would ever be this happy anywhere else. And as much as her heart tried to deny it, she already knew the answer to that question.

“Wow,” Taehyung mused as he jumped off his horse and sauntered towards her with that characteristically teasing glint in his eyes, “I guess you really did choose my path because it was the right one.”

Chaeyoung scoffed, “why else would I choose your path?”

He reached for the stem of the plant, where Chaeyoung held it loosely, his large hand wrapping completely around hers. With a brisk tug on her hand, he pulled her closer so that their hands rested on his hard chest and the only thing separating their faces was the thin-leafed plant.

“I think we both know why,” he murmured in his deep, sultry voice.

She looked up at him slightly stunned, just like she always did when he was this close. Before she knew it, her eyes wandered to his full, heart-shaped lips and, suddenly, all she could think about was their kiss. The memory had been floating in the back of her mind from the moment it happened, but she had been trying to shut it out. However, it was now blatantly clear that the kiss, along with the surge of emotions that came with it, was forever forged in her mind like an elaborate imprint on the toughest of steels.

“Taehyung,” she sighed, eventually pulling herself together while simultaneously pushing him away, “you really need to stop flirting with every woman you see.”

He scoffed in astonishment as Chaeyoung lifted her skirt and bent down to pick more of the healing plant.

“I do not flirt with every woman I see.” A ghost of a smile coloured his features, like he was trying his very best not to laugh, “just the feisty ones.”

She stood up again, shoving the bundle of the dirt-covered plant she had plucked into his hands, and then shooting him a disapproving glare.

“Oh, Mrs. Lee,” Chaeyoung deepened her voice, mocking the way he spoke to the elderly woman earlier in the day, “you’re so beautiful, Mr. Lee is one lucky man.”

He laughed in bewilderment at that, the deep sound resonating through the dark, quiet forest.

Chaeyoung brushed past him, towards her horse, “and don’t even get me started on Jennie.”

“Is the little princess jealous?” he asked in a sing-song voice as he followed closely behind her.

“No,” she replied adamantly over her shoulder, “I just think you ought to stop toying with women’s hearts.”

She had barely finished her sentence when she felt his long fingers wrap around her wrist. Suddenly, he turned her around, so she was facing him again and she was surprised to see all the humour had vanished from his face. Only an intense seriousness remained in those midnight eyes.

“I’m not toying with you, Chaeyoung.” He spoke the words softly but the impact of them seemed to shake the very ground beneath their feet.

A crack of thunder rippled through the air, followed immediately by a bolt of lightning that struck down on a patch of soil only a few short feet away from them.

“We should go,” Chaeyoung wriggled out of his hold and reached to untie Midnight’s reins, “before it starts to -”

Before she could get the words out, heavy drops of clear water showered down on them at an alarmingly rapid rate.

“Rain?” Taehyung finished her sentence, holding a hand out to feel the cold drops roll off his golden skin, “too late.”

Within seconds, they were completely drenched, their clothes clinging heavily to their bodies and their hair hanging in loose tendrils around their faces. Even the horses began shaking their head vigorously to avoid the continuous assault of the rain.

“We need to find Jisoo and Yoongi!” Chaeyoung had to raise her voice to be heard over the medley of pouring rain and thunder.

“T