Jimin giggled as she read the text on her phone. Sometimes, she couldn’t understand how someone as mature as Taekwoon could be so childish at times. And at this very moment, she was witnessing how her on-screen husband was being silly and immature. How did it begin? Well, let’s go back in time.

A few hours ago

Her phone vibrated violently on her table, causing her to nearly fall out of her seat from shock. Jimin was in her studio, preparing for her upcoming album when the handheld device lit up with a notification. She placed her hand over her pounding heart and took the phone while glaring at it childishly. Swiping the screen and entering her passcode, she looked at what she was being notified about. The small camera icon in her notifications bar told her that someone had uploaded something onto Instagram, and it didn’t take her long before she figured how who it was. After all, she didn’t have the notification on for a lot of people.

Smiling to herself, she tapped the button and her smile grew wider at the sight of food in her screen. She looked at the caption and then double-tapped the picture. For a second or so, she wondered if she should leave a comment, but the last incident she had with the app (or rather what she uploaded onto the app) made her discard the thought. Her smile faltered but when a new idea came, she grinned. Exiting the photo-sharing app, she found the messenger app in another folder of her organised menu. Quickly, she found the desired chatroom and entered it, sending a sticker to announce her presence.

“Oppa, did you eat well?” she typed, followed by a smiling emoji. She knew she didn’t need to elaborate further for the recipient to know what she was talking about. She saw how the message was read within the new few seconds.

“You’re quick,” the message came shortly after. “Are you busy?”

“I’m taking a break!” she found the sticker with a V-sign and decided to send it along with the text. “Well, I’m actually using you as an excuse, hehe.” She could almost see him rolling his eyes at her.

“… You better work hard,” and not even a second later, the next message popped up. “I’m expecting an all-kill.”

She gasped at his expectation, biting her lips in slight anxiety. She hoped he knew about her worries regarding this album. It had been months since her last comeback and during those months, so many new artists debuted as well as so many well-known singers made their comeback and sweeping the charts with their new songs.

“Relax, you can do it,” he typed, somehow able to sense her unease through the messenger app even though he was miles away. “I was only joking.”

“Oppa, it’s hard… like, I don’t know what I can do right now… there are so many good songs out there it’s difficult to make something that will be as popular as the others.”

“Keep your own style, you’ll be fine.”

“What if my style is already out of date?”

“It’s not. Trust me.”

“It’s not that I don’t trust you, oppa. But I’m not confident…”

“You’re amazing, Jimin. You really are. Don’t be put down by what other people can do, because you’re always trying your best and doing everything with your heart.”

Jimin’s heart warmed at the words he sent. Even though he wasn’t saying them in person, just by reading his messages gave her the energy she didn’t have before. And somehow, her worries were slowly being washed away and a newfound confidence was welling inside her.

“Oppa, thank you, really,” she typed quickly. She meant every word she said, and she even struggled a little since it was hard to find the exact words to express her feelings at the moment.

“No problem,” he sent, which was followed by a Ravi sticker which had the words ‘cheer up’ on it. Though he would never admit it, he didn’t like sending a sticker of his bandmate to the girl, but he could only curse that the stickers with his face on them weren’t appropriate at the moment.

Giggling at the sticker he sent, she could imagine his brows knitting as he frowned at the idea of sending her a sticker of the rapper. In response, she found the same sticker pack and sent a sticker that had Hongbin doing the OK sign. Jimin bellowed in laughter when he replied with a Hakyeon sticker, the one where the leader had horns and tail, clearly displaying his displeasure at receiving stickers that were neither his or her face. And that was when the war of stickers began, and the first time Jimin experiencing a very child-like Taekwoon.

She wrapped her jacket around her tightly, embracing herself from the chilly wind. Even though it wasn’t completely cold, the wind felt like a slap in face when it hit her. Jimin was standing outside her apartment building, waiting. He was late and yet there was no message from him – but then again, she couldn’t blame him, since he was driving.

After the kidlike sticker battle with Taekwoon, they moved onto the topic of food, since it was the original thing she wanted to talk about after seeing his post on Instagram. She expressed how she was jealous of him because he was eating well, whereas she was trying very hard to control her figure and weight for her upcoming comeback. He was concerned at the amount of nutrients she was taking in, despite her insistence of eating healthily. In the end, they had agreed to meet up for a food day, in which she would let go of her diet just for the day so she could eat to her heart’s content. Of course, her manager was a little disappointed to hear her plan of eating loads, but when he thought about how hard she had been working for the past few weeks (and her drastic weight loss), he approved it on the condition that she would eat with her health as the number one priority.

Arranging the outing was hard, since both of them were busy with work. There were plenty of days when they didn’t have the filming but there were other schedules that were in the way, and since both of them wanted a whole day off, they had to wait two weeks after their conversation.

So, when the day finally came, Jimin was as giddy as she could be. She was excited for day – being cooped up in the studio almost twenty hours a day was driving her crazy. Sure, she had some good progress with her album (thanks to Taekwoon’s encouraging messages that he managed to send almost every day) but she wanted to be out and about. She could only see how Taekwoon must have felt the same because his schedules was piling up so much to the point she would always see him on TV whenever she had the time to turn it on.

A white Kia came into her peripheral sight but she didn’t pay attention to it until it came to stop right before her. The tinted window on the driver’s side rolled down, revealing an apologetic Taekwoon. She leaned down to his eyelevel and offered him a small, but playful glare.

“You’re late!” she whined, taking her hand out from her jacket’s pocket to poke the male on the forehead, letting him feel the coldness of her hand.

“Sorry,” he said as he grabbed hold of her hand before she retracted it. He took her hand into his own and transferred some of his body heat over to her by enclosing both of his palms on her. “The traffic was really bad.”

Thank goodness for the redness of her cheeks because of the chilly air, or else Jimin would have had a very difficult time hiding her blush. Taekwoon was holding her hand with both of his, making her feel his warmth. Knowing that her heart was beating faster and faster, Jimin quickly withdrew her hand and ran to the other side of the car while. As soon as she was in the car, she held her freezing hands in front of the heater, letting them warm up quickly.

“I can’t believe you were stopping me from getting in!” she turned and accused the male while giving a small pout.

Taekwoon spent the first few milliseconds staring at the girl before he placed his hand on her head and giving her a light pat. When she suddenly pulled her hand away from him, he had thought she was mad because he was late on their first date, even though neither would admit that openly – they had non-verbally agreed with each other that this was just an outing, not a date.

Feeling his hand on her head, Jimin narrowed her eyes at him, but he didn’t seem to be bothered at least one bit, so she just sank in her seat and strapped herself in obediently. She saw how he had a light smile on his face while he got into gear and pulled out of her apartment area. It was at that moment when she realised that she had never seen this car before.

Magically, the driver started speaking. “It’s my sister’s car,” he said, answering her question before she asked it. “I thought it’d be better than the company car.”

Nodding, Jimin allowed her eyes to wander around the interior of the vehicle. It was clean and free of decorations and the flowery smell inside confirmed that the car belonged to a woman.

“It’s nice,” she replied but paused for a moment or two. “Hmm, I should get my licence soon, I want to drive!”

Taekwoon chuckled when he remembered the time when they got their car in the show. Back then, she had mentioned how she wanted to get a driver’s licence, and that was months ago. It all suddenly occurred to him how long they’ve been on the show together. It brought a smile to his face when he thought about the time when they first met and their first mission together, them moving into their house, them decorating the house, them welcoming Choeun into their little family, them getting closer, them getting more and more natural, and just them in general.

The short trip down memory lane made Taekwoon realise so many things at once. They have progressed so much from being acquaintances to close friends, and at some point during those months, Jimin had become someone important to him. The thought of her being someone he couldn’t stand being without was pleasant, but the more he thought about it, the more he was afraid, afraid of rejection. What if she didn’t see him in the same way he saw her? Despite Hakyeon convincing him that there was definitely something between the two of them, no one knew what the girl felt for him. His brows met as his mind made up the scenario of Jimin rejecting him with the reason of only seeing him as a close friend, or worse, a brother. Oh good lord, what if she only saw him as a brother? That would be the worst case ever. There was no way in heaven or hell that a brother could turn into a lover, no way.

“Oppa?”

Jimin’s voice brought him back to reality and he found that he had somehow stopped at a red light. He hoped he wasn’t driving dangerously while being lost in his thoughts. He quickly turned and looked at the girl next to him, finding her to be looking at him with wide, curious eyes. Confusion was evident in her clear orbs as she wondered what he was thinking about that made him display so many expressions in a short time.

“Are you okay?” she asked carefully.

He blinked. Once. Twice. “Y-yeah,” he replied. “Sorry, I was just thinking.”

Jimin wasn’t sure if she was allowed to ask more, so she chose to remain quiet while nodding at his response. As much as she was curious, she understood the concept of privacy. Well, at least he was driving normally while he zoned out.

“I’m alright, don’t worry, okay?” he offered her a reassuring look, knowing that she wasn’t completely convinced by his previous answer.

“If you say so,” she gave him a small shrug and she decided it was time to change the subject. “So, where are we heading now?”

The man let out a small laugh at her question. Sometimes, this girl was just too innocent for her own good. How could she agree to go out with a man without knowing their destination? That was way too dangerous!

“You have no sense of security, don’t you?”

Jimin tilted her head in confusion. “Huh?”

“You can't agree to leave with a man without knowing where you’re going,” he told her as the lights turned green. Quickly putting the car into gear, he drove off again.

“But it’s you,” she said, still not understanding his point. “You’re trying to say I can’t trust you?”

Taekwoon shook his head and poked with his free hand. “No, what I mean is that you shouldn’t be so defenceless. You’re a girl so you need to be more aware of things happening around you?” His lips met in a thin line as he realised that he was going off the tangent, though it wasn’t a bad idea at all to let her hear these words.

“Oppa, I’m not defenceless,” Jimin said sternly. “I can protect myself, but since I’m with you, there’s nothing to worry about, right?”

He let out a helpless sigh but nonetheless laughed. “I really can't win against you.”

The girl grinned victoriously and hummed happily. “Glad you know!”

Yep, you all have the permission to kill me.

NOTE: In case it's unclear, everything that happened in this chapter is NOT in the show - this happened OUTSIDE of the show!