Jongin belted out Seulgi’s high note in one of Red Velvet’s songs, fully feeling and passionately singing the single line right until the song came to a complete halt again and he caught sight of Seulgi changing the song—again. “Seul, come on. I liked that song!” He said, reaching towards the buttons and trying to replay it.

“You sound like a bird that was run over.” Seulgi pointed out, carefully choosing the next song as Jongin’s hand continually fought with hers.

“Ow! That hurts, okay!” Jongin whined for the nth time, as Seulgi whacked his hand away from the radio buttons.

“You’ve been listening to your songs for the past hour, my turn.” Seulgi argued, continuously clicking the next button until she was satisfied; which she evidently never was.

“Actually, they’re your songs. And that’s cause you’ve been asleep.” Jongin retorted, turning the car towards the rest area. “What’s the point of having a road trip with my girlfriend, if my girlfriend’s off in dreamland seventy percent of the time-- have you been sleeping at all while I was gone?”

Jongin parked right upfront conveniently, the place seemed rather empty considering it was barely time for vacations in South Korea—perfect. “I’m just tired.” Seulgi sighed, unbuckling her seatbelt as soon as the car came to a complete stop and Jongin was by her side in no time. “Idol, comebacks, you know.”

 “President, handling comebacks, you know it too. And I have been completely awake.” Jongin retorted with a snort, holding the door open.

Seulgi stepped out, cringing at him. “Guess we’re even then.”

Jongin let her off with an eye roll, locking the car behind him and Seulgi’s arms locking themselves around his.

---

Seulgi was hungry. Very, very hungry.

Jongin figured from the large amount of food, and multiple containers set on the tray before his girlfriend as he chewed on a single corn dog.

Due to the absence of all forms of media as compared to the city, Seulgi had no shame in digging into her food—spicy rice cakes, black noodles, and a big bowl of beef soup. She was halfway through slurping a noodle when she caught a glimpse of her boyfriend, directly staring at her. She quickly slurped the last of the noodle and asked, “What?”

The corner of his mouth tilted up. “Nothing, I was just thinking that you don’t really look like a bear after all.” He pondered out loud, reaching towards Seulgi’s lips slightly coated in black sauce with a napkin in hand.

“Really now?” Seulgi inquired, taking the napkin and wiping the rest of the sauce off. “Thanks—“

“Cause you’re really more of a pig.” Jongin ridiculed, eyeing the now half empty containers only after a few minutes of Seulgi eating.

Seulgi raised her chopsticks in the air as a threat but settled on immaturely sticking her tongue out at her equally immature boyfriend and turned her attention back to rest of her meal.

“So, no sleep,” Jongin enumerated, swallowing the last of his corn dog. “And no food. What else have you been deprived of while I was gone?”

“I wasn’t deprived of anything.” Seulgi claimed, picking up a piece of rice cake. “Can’t I just be particularly hungry and sleepy today?”

“No you can’t,” Jongin replied. “Cause that isn’t the way my Seulgi is.”

“Well, apparently not.”

Jongin raised an eyebrow. “Seul.”

“What?”

“Tell me what really happened earlier.”

Seulgi stared down at the table, slowly raising her gaze towards Jongin’s, concern now set in his eyes. “I already told you, it’s just the stress getting to me and—“

“And I know you too well to know that that’s only one part of the story.” Jongin disputed, crossing his arms over the table. “What did the doctor really say?”

Seulgi’s jaw dropped, her hand dropping back on the table as well. “How did you kno—“

“Your manager’s caller ID’s location was coming from the hospital when he called me, of course I knew.” He muttered as if it was the most obvious fact on earth. “Now, what did the doctor say?”

Seulgi stayed for a moment, startled by Jongin’s sudden change of tone. “Jongin.”

“Is it bad? Why won’t you tell me right away? What are you hiding from me? Oh god, it is bad—just tell me and get it over wit—“

“Jongin.” She echoed, placing a hand over Jongin’s on the table.

“Seulgi.”

“I already told you everything, and I’m not hiding anything.” She calmly mumbled. “It’s just the stress. Okay, I haven’t slept and eaten as much as I should have—but that’s only because I’ve been busy and you know how I am with work. All of that comes second to my work—“

“Seulgi, your health should be your main priority at all times.” Jongin contended, shaking his head. “You already have a severely injured shin, do you want the rest of you to be damaged little by little as well—“

“Jongin, I’m fine.” She reasoned, trying to smile and prove her point. “It was just one attack, I passed out just once—it happens all the time to people, most especially ones who work as hard as me. Look at me, I’m fine—I’m still your Seulgi.”

“I know that, but what happens when you’re not fine anymore?” Jongin frowned. “When you’re not even fine enough to lie about being fine?”

 “That’s not going to happen.”

“What makes you so sure?”

“Because I have you.”

Jongin’s head shot up.

“As gross as it sounds,” Seulgi snorted, lacing her fingers with Jongin's. “It’s a fact. I have you. And I sincerely believe you won’t ever let anything happen to me that will even just remotely come close to sabotaging my career.”

Jongin continually stared at her, making sure he wasn’t dreaming. “That’s true.” He slightly stuttered out, tightening his grip on her hand. “You do have me. And damn right, I won’t ever let anything happen to you.”

Seulgi smiled softly. “Good.” She concluded, letting go of him and picking up her chopsticks with the rice cake between it from earlier, directly stuffing it right in Jongin’s mouth. “Now, help me finish this so you can go meet the insanity known as my lovely family already.”

Author’s Note

Please, please be patient with me. I am genuinely sorry that I’ve been updating as slow as a toad, I really wanted to write but god, I’m in my second year of uni and the workload has tripled and that’s no fun pft. I’ve been spending my free time mostly resting and/or studying in advance cause yeah. So I hope you understand, but I do hope you liked this chapter. I laid out another bunch of clues, continue leaving your clever guesses in the comments down there, I’m really enjoying them just so you know hihi. I read all your comments, and I hope you're aware of how much I appreciate them all despite not being able to reply all the time. But okaaaay. See you all soon with another update, I hope! Anticipate it cause Jongin's gonna officially meet the Kangs as the actual boyfriend now, and I have a lot planned for Seulgi's history and stuff.

PS. Kai and Asher. Finally. Bless us all.