Nara's POV
It was four am when RM's cell vibrated. He was sleeping with his head rested on the window and I was awake because what is sleep? It was super easy to reach inside his jacket pocket without waking him up. He didn't even stir. It was an unsaved number. I picked it up and put it to my ear.
"Joon-ah, how's it going? Is she alright? Where are you guys? You're staying the night, right?"
Woah
The words weren't rushed, though. There was a 2 second pause after every question. Like when a person says something then thinks it would be better if they said something else instead.
"Namjoon? You there?"
"Min Yoongi?"
There was a long pause.
"Are you okay, Nara? What's going on there?"
I rolled my eyes. "I missed you too and nothing's wrong. RM is sleeping and we are on the way back. Sejin hyung said we could reach in time for breakfast if we left right away"
"uhm....okay. I see, th-that's good"
"We already had dinner"
"...cool"
"We had grilled beef, rice and the kimchi was like none other. What did you have - cup ramen?"
"Right", I swear I could see his gummy smile as he chuckled over the line. "I had cup ramen. It was rib-eye flavour. Must have been some diseased rib-eye, that"
I chuckled too.
"Why did you call so late, though? Still working yourself to death?"
"You know how I am"
"Yeah...", I agreed. Glancing over at RM. "I do"
There was a long pause where none of us said anything. There were a lot of things to talk about but we didn't know where to start. The silence stretched on till I said, "Does he always sleep like that?"
"hm?"
"RM. Why is his mouth hanging open?"
"He's like that. The maknaes always tease him about it"
"Yeah", those little shits.
"So you'll be here tomorrow?"
"um-hm"
"Good"
Another pause.
"I should...."
"Go?", I ended for him.
".....Yeah"
"Okay"
"Okay"
"Goodbye"
"...."
"Yoongi?"
"Bye"
I waited ten seconds before cutting the line. Same old Yoongi. I looked at the sleeping figure beside me and an evil grin crept on my face as I fished my own cell out of my pocket. Never say no to leverage.
The sun was shining when I stepped out of the van. I stretched my arms above my head and let out a relaxed sigh.
"Over here, you little shit!"
Ah! Isn't it refreshing to hear the voice of your loved ones first thing after waking up?
"Why you despicable little..."
It's getting nearer.
"Aah! Lizzieeee!", I tried to pry her hands away from my ear but she only pulled harder. "Stop! stop stop stop.....I'm sorry!"
"This is what you get for not calling me. Do you know how worried I was? You didn't call me when you arrived and not even after the show! You Punk! Do you know how much Aoi cried thinking you were sad? Do you have any idea-"
Is it over? Am I dead? I carefully opened my eyes.
Someone cleared their throat and she released my ear like it burnt her. I whipped my head around to come face to face with RM. He looked at me in some amusement.
"If you'll excuse me...."
We stepped aside to let him pass and he gave me a smirk before entering the building.
....so embarrassing.
Lizzy turned to me with a no-shit expression on her face.
"The fuck, Nara?"
"Oh my god! You went with RM and you didn't even tell us!"
Aera closed in on me followed by the other girls. Aoi jumped on my back and Sunhee picked my phone.
"Did you two take photos?"
"I feel betrayed unnie~"
"Does this mean you and Lizzy are finally over?", Ayano gave me suggestive looks.
"Girls, let's take this inside, shall we?", that was Fengh.
I looked at her and mouthed a thank you. She just shrugged. Aoi slid off my back and everyone silently followed Fengh's orders. Can't blame them - she's hella scary. We were the last to get inside. She gave me a thumb's up.
"You rock, dude"
I beamed at her compliment feeling proud of myself. I was worried of what consequences I might have to face after yesterday's incident, but Fengh's approval redeemed my self-esteem. Bang pd gave me a lecture - of course he did. Honestly, I was expecting a punishment. But he only explained how I could have avoided that situation. RM was there too. Was he going to be punished in my place?
Nah.
Our pd-nim wasn't like that.
Anyways, he told RM to stay behind and I made my way to the practice room. We have this big upcoming concert in Gocheok dome. I can't believe it myself. Like how I didn't believe it when we won the best rookie award. Our debut was pretty dumb. And not like red velvet's dumb. It was just plain stupid and didn't make any sense. There were a lot voices coming from the practice room. The girls are pretty loud today...
I opened the door and was smacked in the face with a burst of confetti and a flying cardboard. It fell to the floor and I glared at the little gathering in the practice room, deciding who I would blame for the whipped cream on my face. On a smaller note, my heart was beating like a drum seeing how THEY were there. Back to the subject, my eyes narrowed on Sunhee.
"What is this?", I asked in a blank tone, wiping some of it off my cheek and staring at it for effect. Everyone stilled. I could almost taste the silence. I kicked the cardboard at my feet and it skidded to a stop at a pair of timberlands. I took slow steps forward, sizing them all up. They clearly weren't breathing. I hope there's a hidden camera filming all of this 'cause I deserve a big fat oscar.
Fengh was the only relaxed person, leaning against the wall with a fist on her mouth to hide the smirk. Seeing that she saw through my act made it hard for me not to smile but I managed to make it look menacing. Unfortunately for Tae, my eyes were on him when it happened.
"It was her!", he instantly pointed at Sunhee, stepping away from the group.
"Was it now?", I stepped closer to him and wiped my fingers on his chin (because I couldn't reach his forehead). He gulped audibly. I smirked and boop-ed the tip of his nose, stepping back and shoving my hands in my pockets.
"Yah!", Yoongi exclaimed in a high-pitched voice, "she's playing us!"
I threw my head back laughing, then doubled over, then rolled on the floor. Jin was yelling at me for being a brat before his windshield wiper laugh echoed in the practice room.
"Yah! Naraaaaa....", Tae whined, "I was so scared, jjinja!"
Jimin was rolling on the floor too. That guy laughs at anything. I didn't hear Jungkook, though, the girls were only chuckling nervously. Did I scare him too much?
Priceless. It was too priceless.
"Y'all!", I managed through fits of laughter, "You-haha- you should have seen your faces!"
"You're not mad at us?", Aoi innocently asked.
I stopped laughing. "Do I look like I'm mad at you?", I gave her an honest smile.
She relaxed at that and gave me a hand to help me up.
"The two of us should do a collab", jimin suddenly proposed. I raised my brows at him.
"The mochi squad to melt the world", he flashed his eye-smile.
"Oh, stop it, you...", I lightly punched his shoulder.
"Noona!"
I narrowed my eyes at Jungkook.
"I'll need to see some ID before I respond to that", he scrunched his bunny nose as everyone chuckled.
J-hope hugged me without warning. "I missed you so much"
"Dudes", I said, bumping his fist when we parted.
"Dudes", his mouth formed a heart when he smiled.
"Nara", Jin engulfed me in a bear hug, lifting me a few inches off the floor in the process. Man, how huge did he get? I literally feel like i'm hugging a bear. A bear that is crushing the life out of me.
"....J-jin", I croaked, rapidly hitting his back.
"oh! sorry", he set me down and I took some time catching my breath as the maknae line beat him up for being so inconsiderate.
My eyes met Yoongi's and he nodded. I nodded back.
"So.....", I started, "anyone mind telling me what's going on?"
I put up a palm when everyone started talking at once.
"Ayano", I stated.
"You're not mad, right?"
"No", I rolled my eyes.
"Well, sorry anyways for our behavior earlier. We had already planned all of this and we were only trying not to appear suspicious"
"I must say you succeeded. But seriously, what the hell? You can't just surprise me so violently like that! Be grateful I was depressed or I might've had a heart attack and died!"
Fengh patted my shoulder, "You're no peach either, pornista"
Lizzie gave me 'the look'.
Aoi had other issues.
"You were depressed?"
Don't give me those glassy eyes, just dont-
"No, princess. I'm just saying that", and of course no one was buying it. So I changed the topic.
"What's all this anyway?", I said, wiping off the rest of the cream from my face and shaking off the confetti in my hair.
"Well", Jin explained, "there's this new project coming up where both our groups work together and we actually wanted to surprise all of you at once but yesterday happened and-"
"Sunhee thought it would be cool to recreate the scene from spring day", Aera cut in, earning a dumbfounded look from Jin, which she completely ignored.
"Hey!"
"No need to deny it", I scolded Sunhee,"I knew it was you anyways. But where on earth is the cake? I open the door and there's this empty cardboard tray in my face. Where's the cake?"
"Here!", Tae exclaimed excitedly, holding it up in an actual tray for me to see. I swear it just materialized from thin air. J-hope and Jimin provided the bgm, singing something like, 'happy first diss'??
"Gimme!", I stretched my arms toward him and he willingly handed it over. I tossed the knife over my shoulder and-
"BITCH!", Lizzy yelled as I rubbed a fistful of cake into her hair. My next target was Sunhee and I had to chase her a distance before landing one on her favourite tee. I aimed at another member but she ducked and it hit Jungkook instead. Most of what happened next was a blur and it was great until someone decided to open the door right when I was leaning on it.
"Woah...", he exclaimed, catching me as I fell backwards. I must've been feeling giddy 'cause I gave him a big toothy grin while looking at him upside down.
"Hello~", I said cheekily
"Woah", he exhaled, looking around the destroyed practice room,
"What did I miss?"
Is it just me, or is his upside down profile way too hot?
That jawline....