The next day, which was a Sunday, a very hungover and zombie-like Jung Hoseok came knocking on my front door.

"Oh, hyung," I sighed, holding the door open for him as he filed into my living room. I could only be glad that Umma was grocery shopping and wouldn't see Hoseok in such a state. "How do you feel?"

"Like absolute ," Hoseok replied in a deep, gravelly voice, but a gentle smile accompanied his words. Dark circles shadowed his face and his hair stuck out in a thousand directions. Somehow, the stench of alcohol still lingered on him, despite the shower bedhead and his recently scrubbed skin.

"Did you have fun last night?" I asked him, sitting in the armchair so that I faced his seated position on the couch.

"At first," he said with enthusiasm that was probably forced, a familiar smile showing enormous teeth. "It went sort of downhill from there."

Only then, when his tone became serious, did I remember Yoongi's phone confession from the day before. Uh-oh. I squirmed uncomfortably, trying to mentally prepare myself for something unidentified.

"I don't like you like that, Jungkookie," he said finally.

I blinked, shocked yet relieved by the honesty of his words. "Then why did Yoongi say that?"

Hoseok sighed and rubbed his eyes with the backs of his fingers. He looked so pitiful, hungover and exhausted, and I felt horrible for the guy. An unhappy Hoseok was hardly Hoseok at all. "I thought I might have a little crush on you. I told Yoongi and Taehyung, and I didn't know that Yoongi...that he likes me." He looked up at me with shimmering puppy dog eyes. "I'm really sorry, maknae. It was a phase and after last night I kind of realized...I just have paternal instincts towards you and that's all."

I just nodded, still bewildered by how he came across this realization, and waited for him to continue explaining.

He groaned softly, mashing his face back into his palms. "I don't know, Kookie, he just looked so good last night...but then I ended up throwing up in front of him while he was getting off by a college girl..."

I almost choked on nothing. "What?"

Hoseok grinned at me, shaking his head. "Nevermind. Point is, I think I have a crush on Yoongi, but I don't know how to go about telling him."

Oh. "Oh." Oh.

He waited.

"That was not what I expected you to say," I chuckled, scratching my head with my fingernails. "Yoongi is probably pretty pissed at you. He was pissed at me, and I didn't really do much."

Hoseok cringed and nodded, taking the blame like a man. "I should talk to him."

"Good luck with that," I chortled, suddenly rushing over and throwing my arms around Hoseok's shoulders.

"Yah," he grunted, returning the hug hesitantly. "What's this for?"

I pulled back and shimmied backwards into the couch cushions, shrugging. It was difficult to keep the smile off my face. "Things are starting to work out."

Hoseok laughed out loud, reaching out to fluff my hair. "What, did Jimin penetrate your v-card last night?"

I rolled my head in a wide circle, blinked passionately at the ceiling, and replayed his sentence a good twelve times in my head. "What?"

He shrieked with laughter, clapping like a demented seal and actually lifting his off my couch with gleee. "Oh my god."

"No," I groaned, burying my face into the nearest pillow and aiming punches hopelessly at Hoseok's face. "No, he did not, he was drunk and tried to, though."

Hoseok grew very serious all of the sudden, and we made intense eye contact for a heartbeat or two. "Did he, now?"

"We made out a little bit," I admitted, cringing at the memory of his head crashing to the floor. "But I don't think he'll even remember. He was drunk."

 "Uhgggghhhh," Hoseok yowled, leaning his head back on my couch and squeezing his eyes shut. "Why is Jimin such a ?"

Suddenly feeling defensive over my boy, I leapt to his protection. "He isn't dumb; he's just a little naïve sometimes."

Hoseok craned his neck to smirk at me, shaking his head. "Why are you so in love with the kid?"

I felt myself flush and quickly averted my eyes. "Because he's perfect."

"Speaking of perfect," Hoseok began. "Yoongi looked positively flawless last night."

I grinned, wishing I had gotten those words on video for hyung. "Yoongi is pretty handsome."

Hoseok seemed in a daze, nodding at absolutely nothing while staring at a spot just to the left of my head. 

"Hoseok?"

"Right," he snapped out of his trance and focused in on me. "I'll take you to my house. Everyone is coming over. Have any food to bring?"

"Not really, Umma is grocery shopping now."

"Okay, let's go."

...

By "everyone", Hoseok had been referring to "everyone including a few college girls and excluding Yoongi", which was both relieving and concerning. None of us wanted to witness massive drama or tears between our second eldest hyungs, but we were all worried about the state of Yoongi.

The college girls had giant s and wore too much eyeliner and giggled a lot, but none of them left much of an impression on me.

Jimin was half asleep when Hoseok and I arrived in the basement. He snoozed with his cheek resting on Taehyung's shoulder, his eyes fluttering as he struggled to stay awake. Random emotions flooded me at the sight of him: concern, confusion, excitement, admiration, desperation, and yearning. Unfortunately, confusion and desperation were starting to take the cake.

Everyone else seemed to be in relatively high spirits. The girls clung to Namjoon and giggled and talked a lot, leaving me to spend a lot of time hanging out with Taehyung, Hoseok, and Seokjin as Jimin continued to snooze.

"How do you feel, Tae?" I asked.

"Surprisingly okay," he replied with a grin. He looked tired but not as zombified as Hoseok or Jimin. "I actually didn't drink that much."

"Yeah? Who was the guy you were with last night?" I challenged.

Taehyung ducked his head to conceal a giddy smile. "His name is Bae Jungyeol. We're dating now."

"It was an eventful party," Hoseok said dryly, grinning.

"Guys," Namjoon called from his flock of women, beckoning us over. "Jaejin has an idea for something we can all do together."

We all filed over like obedient little lemmings and sat on the couch, waiting for Jaejin to explain herself. "Okay," she said with a cute smile, raising an eyebrow suggestively. "How does seven minutes in heaven sound?"

"Yah," Hoseok groaned with appreciation, grinning. "I like it."

"But with a twist," Jaejin continued, smirking at one of her buddies. "The rest of the group picks a special twist that you are required to complete in your seven minutes."

I gulped and anxiously scanned all of the faces in the room. I was comfortable doing things with approximately zero of these people, with the possible, possible exception of Jimin, Hoseok, or Taehyung. Possible. Reassuring conversation would have to occur first.

Somewhat scared, I watched as my friends enthusiastically agreed to Jaejin's suggestion. Taehyung looked wildly excited, Hoseok had his lips parted and his eyes widened like he always did when he was intrigued, and Jimin was sleepily rubbing his eyes with his fingers and not looking at anybody.

I was glad to have Seokjin, who looked almost as freaked out as I was. He was just better at concealing it.

Hoseok ran and got paper when Jaejin instructed him to, and everyone wrote down their name and dropped them into the designated "hat", which happened to be Jimin's forcibly removed snapback.

I had no idea why I was so nervous, but my stomach was getting the clenchy, jumpy feeling it got whenever I was about to do something publicly risk