That night, after dinner, Yisun was trying to study but she kept checking and rechecking her phone every 3 seconds. It was almost midnight and Yoongi hadn’t contacted her at all today. She sighed and started thinking about just going to bed. But then the phone rang. She held her breath.

“Hello?” she answered.

The person on the other end was quiet, though of course she knew it was Yoongi.

 “Hey,” he said, “sorry to call you so late.” His voice was strange.

“Oh that’s ok…” replied Yisun, trying to sound relaxed. But then she didn’t know what else to say.

“I’m near your house. Can you come out?”

Heartbeats.

Yisun wasn’t sure she’d heard him right. She thought she did. She knew the meaning of the words, and understood how those words worked together grammatically to form a sentence, but they made no sense in her head. He was asking her to come out? Now? To see him? NOW?

“Now?” all she could let out was a whisper.

“Now.”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“… ok.”

There was a short pause on the other end, and then Yoongi added, “I’m in Shin-Yen park. I’ll be waiting here,” before hanging up.

Yisun stood up suddenly and stared at her phone as if it was radioactive. Yoongi wanted to meet her. Now.  Crap. She looked down at herself; she was wearing an old pair of sweats and a long-sleeved t-shirt as pajamas. A glance in the mirror reflected a bare face, surrounded by unevenly wavy hair, still damp from the shower she had taken earlier. She made a face at herself, but then thinking that, though Yoongi had said he’d wait, he probably wouldn’t wait for her that long if she took ages to get ready. So finally, she just pulled her hair in a ponytail, threw her jacket on over her pajamas and ran out the door.

5 minutes later she was standing at the entrance of the park, panting slightly. She scanned the area and spotted him after an instant; he was sitting on the monkey bars, smoking. Her heart did somersaults in her chest and she suddenly thought about turning back, but her feet seemed to have a mind of their own and they kept walking in his direction. As she got closer and he heard her footsteps, he looked up, quickly butted his cigarette and jumped off. Then he leaned back against the contraption, his hands in his pockets.

“Hey,” She just stood there, not knowing what to say.

“Hey,” He rearranged the snapback cap on his head… a few times.

Heartbeats.

“What’s up?” she finally said, “It’s really late…” she added leaning against the bars next to him, though still at least a good meter away. It was freezing and they could see their breaths misting in the air.

“Ahh, I’m sorry, you were probably going to bed soon, right?” he said, noticing the pajama pants and suppressing a smile.

She nodded.

“I…” he started, “my friend was having a party nearby…”

“And it’s over?”

“No…”

“So…” she didn’t finish her sentence.

“I would rather talk to you than those idiot girls over there” he said quietly, not looking at her.

“Oh.” Yisun felt like if the pace of her heart got any faster, it would probably explode.

They were both staring fiercely at the sandy ground in front of them. The silence felt so heavy. They were both fighting so hard against their inner thoughts, and so completely unaware that they both wanted the same thing.

“So what did you tonight?” Yoongi asked after a while.

“You get one guess” she looked up at him and gave him a small smile.

“Study?”

She laughed and nodded.

“Don’t you have any other hobbies??”

“I do, but finals!!” she exclaimed.

He shook his head and she poked her tongue at him.

“Ooh, she’s feisty!” he chuckled back, trying to poke her.

They were laughing, and Yisun was squealing as he kept poking her and taking his arm back, so they didn’t hear the others creep up on them.

“RAAAHHH!!!” screamed V, jumping up from behind them with his arm above his head like a monster, scaring Yisun and making her jump up.

“Hey kids!!” he grinned at them goofily, holding a bottle of soju in one hand.

Yoongi had an inner panic attack, but reasoned that if it was just V there, he could probably explain himself.

But it wasn’t just V.

A moment later, Jimin, along with two girls (one of whom he was holding by the waist) made their appearance shortly after.

“Oh, there you are!” he called, seeing Yoongi. “Oh, are we interrupting anything?”

The girls laughed. Yisun looked at the dirt ground, embarrassed.

“Dude, WTF” whispered Yoongi through his teeth, sounding annoyed.

“Oh-my-god” exclaimed one of the girls, and as she got closer, Yoongi realized with a sinking feeling that it was Do Min-Jin. “Is that Han Yi Sun?!”

And then she burst out laughing.

“THIS” she pointedly looked at Yisun, gesturing up and down, “this is why you turned me down?!?”

Yoongi took a step in front of Yisun, though it wasn’t immediately clear if it was to protect her or distance himself from her. “Shut up, Min Ji. You don’t ing know what you’re talking about.”

She laughed “Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. I turned you down cuz I just don’t like going where everyone else’s already been.” he shot back, deadpan.

She fumed. “Jerk! Like you think I ing wanna see your tiny anyways…”

Yoongi made a shooing gesture like her words meant nothing to him, but she’d started walking towards them, and stopped right in front of Yisun.

 “But you, little Yisun…” she said, the younger girl’s hair, “what on Earth are you doing here??”

Yisun couldn’t look at her. She knew those girls of course. They went to her school and were fairly well known for being “bad-boy groupies” and hanging out with college boys. They wore a lot of makeup and most of the guys in school fantasized about being able to date one of them. Not that they did the dating thing much, really.

“Cat got your tongue?”

“Or maybe Yoongi did?” quipped someone else behind them and she shot them a look.

“Yisun, I think it’s probably best you go…” said Yoongi quietly, leaning in towards her a little.

“That’s right little bird, it must be past your bedtime” said the girl and Yoongi shot her a “Yah!” with an angry look.

“Standing up for your girlfriend, that’s cute” snickered Min-ji.

“She’s not my girlfriend!” he snapped, sounding offended, “Me and her are nothing, ok?! That is not the point!” Yoongi spat back,

Yisun took an audible intake of breath and stared at the ground. Then without a word, she turned and quickly scampered off.

“Woof!!!” yelled out Minji after her, and the others laughed.

“You’re a b!tch” spat Yoongi.

Min-ji flipped him off and walked away.

“You made her cry…” said V behind them, making a puppy face at Jimin, and whimpering dog sounds til the other started laughing.

Yoongi was not laughing though. He was furious. In fact, the boys couldn’t recall ever having seen him with such an angry expression on his face.

“Aww come on… What is it with you and that girl anyways?” asked Jimin, whose arm-candy was still standing next to him, nuzzling his neck.

“Nothing.” He said in a flat voice, “There’s nothing going on. I left the party cuz I had a freakin headache ok, and you idiots are not helping” and then he started walking off.

“Sheesh…” Jimin was a little miffed. But then he shrugged and grabbed his girl’s waist and pulled her even closer. “I still like you babe!”