Hoseok tapped his foot anxiously, stuffing cereal in his mouth.

Today was the big day. The gathering will be occurring in exactly five hours and twenty-three minutes. After his and Jisoo’s little meet up two nights ago, Hoseok felt more confident in the plan. He finally was getting comfortable with Jisoo and just the lie in general. To him, the simple touch of the cheek was fine practice for what’s to come.

And oh boy, he just realized that it was not nearly enough. The crunchy cereal now mush in his mouth, Hoseok swallowed slowly, imagining how poorly tonight is going to go. Of course that wasn’t enough practice! How could he be so stupid to say that it was enough? So now tonight for the first time ever Hoseok has to be touchy with Jisoo. And this first time will be for everyone to see and stare at. And he knows all eyes will be on them.

Shoveling the next round into his mouth, Hoseok stared deep into the bowl of cereal and milk, trying to remember if there are any new couples that could take away some attention from the two of them. During his deep ponder, he received a hearty pat on the back from Taehyung, who said, “Tonight’s the night, big boy! The newest couple finally makes their debut!”

Nope, they’re still the “newest”. Hoseok’s heard about how bombarded new couples get with questions. Yoongi told Hoseok a while back that when he and Minjung made their debut. At some point he and Minjung straight up ignored people because the questions were so redundant and annoying. Hoseok’s too nice to turn away from people, so he’s going to have to put up with it all night. Maybe Jisoo is good at getting out of stuff like that… he would know if he actually knew more about her.

“You don’t look too excited,” Taehyung noticed, “…And didn’t you start eating that cereal over an hour ago?”

Hoseok looked down, to finally realize that his cereal was just a bunch of goop floating in milk. Yeah, this was supposed to be Hoseok’s “brunch”, but clearly he took too long freaking out about tonight. “I guess so… But I’m fine. I’m excited.”

“You look like you’re going to walk into a battlefield.”

The older member rolled his eyes, “It’s just weird, okay? Uh… you know, everyone knowing we’re a thing.”

Taehyung shrugged, looking through the cabinets for party snacks, “I get that… , we’re really not prepared for this party.”

“Well it was a pretty last minute decision.”

“Not my idea.” Taehyung then looked in the fridge, “Ah, there we go! Looks like Seokjin stayed up late preparing some party foods… Explains why he’s still asleep.”

While it’s rare, BTS is pretty good at facilitating parties. Seokjin handles the food, Jimin has the decorating, Jungkook makes the playlist, Yoongi handles the technology, Taehyung keeps the party going, and Namjoon keeps it from getting too out of hand. Meanwhile Hoseok tends to float around, catching up with everyone. But that’s just for a regular party. This is the first time they’re taking over an ISAC Planning Committee gathering.

There isn’t much of a difference between a regular party and the Planning Committees. The only main difference is that these parties are designed for couples. While typical parties are a free for all, these gatherings are made for idol couples to flaunt their happy relationships, make new connections, and have a normal time with their significant other. Usually the big gatherings have couple games and areas to get spicy, but the smaller ones, especially ones changed due to emergency, resemble regular parties. So… I guess there isn’t a difference.

As Taehyung continued to admire the food, Hoseok’s phone buzzed.

Jisoo: [Are you ready for tonight?]

Hoseok: [Ready as I’ll ever be. Do you want to get here a little early so we can make a game plan?]

Right after Hoseok sent that text, he instantly regretted it. Sure it seems reasonable and smart to do that, but all of BTS and their girlfriends will be here!

Jisoo: [Sure! Lisa said she’s going to head over early too, so it won’t be that awkward!]

At least Jisoo knows it’s going to be weird. Oh, wait! Yeah! Lisa is coming early because of her and Taehyung’s agreement! Thank God. Hopefully that will make Jisoo more comfortable and it’ll take attention away from them. Maybe Lisa will even help make it better since she’s in on the lie?

Wait, does Jisoo know why Lisa is heading over earlier? It’s seemed like Jisoo doesn’t really know about Lisa and Taehyung’s antics.

Hoseok: [Great. Maybe she’ll minimize Taehyung’s teasing! She’s been putting up with him for this long, anyways]

Jisoo stared at Hoseok’s text, eyebrows furrowed. What? Lisa said she’s heading over early because she’s friends with Jimin, who needed help setting up. What does Taehyung have to do with it?

“What’s wrong?” Jennie asked, noticing her pal’s confused expression.

“Lisa is just friends with Jimin in BTS, right?”

Jennie scoffed, “You’re kidding me, right unnie?” Watching Jisoo’s unchanging look, Jennie then said seriously, “You don’t know?”

“About what?” Jisoo responded, feeling out of the loop.

“Lisa and Taehyung pretend that they hook up in order to have all-access to the parties.”

Wait, what? Jisoo always thought Lisa casually dates, so she goes there in order to meet people. Or is that not allowed? Jisoo knows you need someone to get in, but she thought Jimin just allowed her to go?

“I mean, it makes sense that you didn’t know,” Jennie shrugged, popping a grape into , “Lisa surprisingly keeps it on the down-low because she’s paranoid that she’s breaking the rules.”

Jisoo sat there for a few moments, thinking about it. It does explain a lot. Eh, it’s not a big deal. I guess this won’t be a major conflict then. Too bad… I’ll have to come up with something else.

Shrugging it off, Jisoo replied, “Whatever it takes to get her some action, I guess.” Jisoo looked at the time, wondering when she should get ready, “When are you heading out?”

“Jongin’s picking me up an hour before so we can get a bite to eat.”

“First of all, you’re back on? Second of all, you’re going out in public?”

Jennie shook her head, “He’s bringing take out and we’re eating it in his car in the apartment building parking lot. And yes.”

Literally two days ago they were off but okay. Honestly, Jisoo doesn’t think they’re ever off. It’s just them getting busy and not talking for a few days. Jennie says it’s off and on, but they’re just living the idol life, making it impossible to catch up every single moment of the day like typical couples can do.

“Lisa said she’s going an hour early, so you’d probably want to get ready within the next two hours or so.” Jennie stated.

Jisoo has no idea what to expect at this party. Sure she knows she’ll get a lot of questions and they’ll have to act coupley, but it’s all just acting, so it’ll be easy! She’s acted before! She was even the head of the drama club in school. Not only that, but she had to hold hands with a guy in one of her plays that had insanely sweaty hands and she still was able to act like she didn’t care about the nasty hand holding! So she’s got this!

When she finally got ready and stood in front of the mirror, she realized that she indeed does not got this.

Giving her hair some final curls from the curling iron, Jisoo continued to beat herself up, upset that she didn’t push herself more when she and Hoseok met up a couple of nights ago. She only touched his cheek for like… ten seconds! And she thought that was enough? And Hoseok didn’t say how stupid it was, either! Sure he was probably being nice, but Jisoo feels stupid that she didn’t realize how little practice they did during the emergency meeting.

“It’s a good thing I look so good,” Jisoo mumbled, brushing off her dress nervously. Like Hoseok told her on their first meeting, it isn’t going to be that formal. It’s more of a fun formal-type gathering… if that’s even a thing. Half her wavy hair was pulled back, and she was stunning in her high-low, strapless red dress (here’s the visual because even I needed it). This was actually a dress Hoseok picked out during their icebreaker game, and Jisoo admits that she wouldn’t have seen it if she was just looking herself. So thanks, Hoseok!

Earlier that day, Hoseok texted the address to the BTS dorm, but Jisoo soon realized that Lisa pro