Yo not gonna lie but since I've been a Veteran Army and watched BTS grow up, I feel so close to them idk, like they're friends that I watched grow into adults and I'm just so happy. 
Also, I feel like Jungkook would be like one of my friends who like annoying me and playing pranks on me you know what I mean? We're the same age and I just -- every time I see him I'm like 'yo bro, you grew up so well' but also 'yo bro, so who's the next hot lady on your hit list?' but ALSO 'yo bro, STOP STEALING MY FOOD'. 

ANYWAY. Ignore me and please proceed to the chapter. 

Yennie was late. 

She couldn’t believe it. This was her date -- her one and only -- that she’d managed to score ever since she’d come to the realization that she was into the female gender, and she was going to screw this up big time. 

And she had no one to blame but herself.

All of her big plans about dressing up and looking pretty were thrown right out of the window the moment her eyes popped open when she was suddenly torn away from sleep. She had rolled over with a groan, adamant on going back to the land of dreams, when her eyes suddenly fell over the calendar that had a huge red heart circled over today’s date. 

She barely had enough time to throw on a pair of jeans and one of her many dark sweaters, gathering her hair into a high ponytail, slinging on her bag and practically falling out of her apartment door as she dashed to where Risako would be waiting for her. Her heart hammered inside her chest, practically bursting at the seams as she drove her body forward, even when her chest was tightening with lack of oxygen, even when it felt like her legs were dying. 

Needless to say, Yennie was a sweaty mess as soon as she stumbled through the noodle shop itself, only to come face to face with a confused Risako. 

The two blinked at each other for a moment, before an amused grin spread over the Japanese girl’s face. Yennie smiled back apologetically, inwardly hoping that she looked decent enough, while sliding into the seat opposite the said pale-skinned girl.

“Hey,” Yennie struggled to catch her breath, her side still burning from a previous stitch due to her run, “sorry I’m late.” 

“No it’s okay, I just came too,” Risako shook her head before eyeing the menu, “I actually never came here before but it smells absolutely delightful.” 

Yennie had to grin as she took in the girl’s neat, pristine appearance: a pale pink sweater falling off one of Risako’s cream shoulders and with the slightest tinge of a blush, there was just something that screamed of purity and innocence about her. 

“Is your friend coming too?” 

Risako’s words caused Yennie’s eyes to snap back up to hers, hoping that she didn’t notice her wandering gaze, “who? Jungkook?” 

“Yeah, the one who’s in physio right?” 

“Oh, uh--” Yennie felt like frowning at the mention of her best friend, before Jungkook’s words flashed through her mind. So Risako had, indeed, only taken this as a token of her friendship, which meant that Yennie would just have to prove her otherwise, “no, he’s pretty busy finishing up an assignment.”

Her mind flashed back to yesterday, to the feeling of the heat of Jungkook’s palm radiating off her own at the contact, his touch leaving a sizzle of goosebumps that she could still feel even now. Yennie shuddered and brushed it off. This was not the time to be thinking of Jungkook and his crazy antics, nor ponder over how warm he made her feel. Jungkook had always been so warm to her and that was just a normal reaction from being so close and intimate. There was simply nothing more to it.

“Oh, I see. That’s quite alright,” Risako winked at her then, “more time to gossip between girls, am I right?” 

Yennie’s stomach fluttered with butterflies at the girl’s smile, only for her thoughts to dampen when she processed her words. She didn’t want to be just a friend to Risako but somehow, she wasn’t really sure what kind of terrain she was treading on at the moment. 

They both ordered a bowl of the signature noodles and soon found themselves talking about everything and anything that went through their minds. Yennie found that, despite her slight initial intimidation of the said girl sitting before her, Risako shared so much in common with her that talking to her felt as comfortable as sliding into a bubble bath at the end of a tiring day. As they slurped their noodles, they bonded over their shared love of romance novels and got to discuss the greatest authors in their opinion. 

“Really? I kind of liked The Fault In Our Stars, as mainstream as that sounds,” Risako stated when Yennie profoundly stated how much she loathed the author.

Instantly, Yennie flushed deep red. It hadn’t been her intention to insult the pale-skinned girl and yet here she was, all guns ablaze as though she was ready to fight.

“Shoot, sorry. Shouldn’t have said anything, I--”

Risako let out a giggle, “it’s fine, Yen-yen. I can call you that, right?” 

Yen-yen. That sounded so much cuter falling from Risako’s lips. The said girl dipped her head down into a single nod.

“As I was saying, I don’t blame you for not having enjoyed the book,” Risako continued without having noticed how flustered Yennie was, which was probably a good thing considering that her stomach was a mess of knots at this point, “a lot of people didn’t. You’re not the only one.”

“What about…” Yennie bit the inside of her cheek as she considered what she was about to say next. Sparing a glance at the look of interest etched on Risako’s face, she quickly blurted out, “what about Aristotle and Dante discover the Secrets of the Universe?” 

“Oh. Oh,” Risako’s hands lifted to cup , eyes wide, “Oh, my.” 

Yennie’s heart dropped. She scrambled for an answer, “Nevermind, forget--” 

“I. Loved. It!” Risako interrupted her with a squeal, dark orbs shining with excitement that caused Yennie’s lips to echo a sigh of relief, “Oh my gosh, it was the cutest thing ever! Right?! I totally shipped them and really, I just--ugh! My heart. It was so beautiful. One of the most beautiful pieces of work I ever read.” 

The burst of joy glowing through Yennie’s chest was enough to light up a whole christmas tree. 

“I--I know,” Yennie murmured, hand curling a strand of hair behind her ears that she knew were glowing red without proof of a mirror, “I--I think what I loved the most about it was that I could--I could relate to them, somehow.” 

“Right?!” Risako exclaimed and banged her fist on the table, so pumped about the subject and causing heads to turn. The two girls looked at each other before exploding into a fit of giggles. 

“I mean, homouality is just another label. I’m sure that if we grew up to know that we could love both girls and boys equally then there’d be so much more homouals in society,” Risako said with a shrug of her shoulders.

Yennie tried hard not to stare at the pale roundness of her shoulder, fingers itching to reach out and brush her chestnut hair off if only to get her hands on its creamy dewiness. She impulsively gripped onto her chopsticks a little tighter, “yeah,” she answered softly, “you’re right. Homouality is just a label. I wish people understood that. Being queer is still hard, even now. People still look at you funny when you tell them you’re gay or lesbian, and they shouldn’t be.” 

There was something that shifted in Risako’s honey-brown eyes then, some kind of glimmer that Yennie just couldn’t quite place and yet, made her skin suddenly light with fire that tingled all the way down her spine. 

She still wasn’t so sure where to place Risako on a scale of one to ten to how gay she was. One might have jumped at the opportunity to state that the latter was indeed, gay, considering that she was advocating so vocally about such rights. But then again, Yennie had never really been in such a situation. It wasn’t helping that Risako was staring her down as though she knew there was something -- something more that was going on with her, except that neither of them wanted to say it out loud. 

“So?” was the first thing that dropped out of Jungkook’s mouth the moment Yennie let herself into her flat. The said man had decided to camp out until she returned, stating that he was going to watch guard when in fact, it was plain as day that the reason he was so keen on doing so was all due to her box of lucky charms hidden in her pantry drawer. 

Yennie didn’t mind that he ate like a pig nor did she mind him using her as a food provider. What she did mind, though, was the most annoying, obnoxious smirk painted across his lips the moment their eyes met from across the front door. 

“Well, the good news is that she seems to be a great advocate for gay rights,” Yennie said while draping her scarf over a rail and clumsily shuffling her feet out of her boots. After she shrugged off her coat and went to plop herself where the young man was sitting, her eyes took note of the dirty bowl on the coffee table.

She shot him an unimpressed look, “you’re going to clean that?” 

“Yes ma’am,” he didn’t have to be told twice before quickly swiping it off the table and striding over to the kitchen sink, voice carrying over from the other side, “and the bad news?” 

“The bad news,” Yennie allowed one of her hands to tangle up through her dark locks, “I still don’t know which team she’s on.” 

“What?” she felt him whip around to gape at her in surprise, “what do you mean, you don’t know?” 

“If you haven’t noticed, it’s a tricky question to ask,” she replied snarkily.

A loud, obnoxious sigh left her raven-haired friend, “you are so bad at this.” 

“Do not remind me, Jungkook. Unless you want me to kick you where the sun shines.” 

“Jheeze, you don’t have to be so aggressive about it.” 

Before she knew it, she felt the weight of the couch dip down from Jungkook’s weight as he leaped over from the other side and settled beside her. He cocked his head to the side and while Yennie wasn’t fond of how he could read her expressions so well, she couldn’t be bothered to shove his face away.

So she settled for a scowl instead, one that hopefully would scare him off with his tail hidden between his legs. 

It didn’t. On the contrary, his smirk only broadened into a full out grin before he reached over to pinch her cheek with a fondness she found irritating, “Ah look at my little Yennie, growing up so nicely,” he cooed as though he was speaking to a baby.

The girl proceeded to swat him away as a sheet of red dusted over her cheeks, “oh piss off, Jungkook.” 

“So what now?” he asked, hiding a snigger behind his hand. 

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