Blood Sweat & Tears: A BTS Story ✅

Chapter 34: The Aftermath

The air in my apartment has grown so stale while I've been away. With no ventilation or purifier to filter it the dust has covered almost every surface like an ancient tomb that's been undisturbed for centuries. Opening the windows blows some fresh air into the room, and my lungs, in what feels like hours, days, a lifetime.

I've been back in Seoul for five days now but today is the first day back at my place. Once I got off the plane I immediately called Hyuna sobbing, begging her to come to pick me up from the airport, and basically didn't leave her couch until now.

I told her everything.

My contract is over but that doesn't mean I'm protected if the news gets out, the nondisclosure agreement still holds. I made her promise on the life of her and her girlfriend that she wouldn't tell anyone, she gave me a strange look but agreed.

"I was sort of in a secret relationship—"

"Which one?" was her first question and also the one I didn't want to answer the most.

"Well—" I could feel my face turning the color of an overripe tomato. "With Yoongi and Jin...kind of..."

Her eyes widened as big as saucers. "Both of them!?!" Her voice raised a couple of octaves and I pulled a blanket over my head to cover my embarrassment at the admission.

"But not at the same time!" I tried to explain, my eyes just barely peeking out of the blanket.

She put her shock aside and started thinking logically. "So you got fired."

It was a statement, not a question.

"Yeah..."

"For having a relationship with your employers."

"For breaking the contract I signed."

"The contract you signed saying you wouldn't have any sexual relations with your employers?"

"Yeah..."

At that she sat back on the couch, fingers running through her now shoulder-length pink hair, and blew out a breath.

"That's absolute shit you got fired," Her eyes were so kind when she said the next part. "But I think what hurts the most is that these people who have been a staple in your everyday life for months now are...gone."

I couldn't help it. The tears welled and they didn't stop falling. And when I cried and cried and cried until no more tears came out Hyuna had to make me drink a ton of water so I wouldn't fully dehydrate.

When she had to go to work, I slept on the couch and watched reruns of Friends just for some noise in the quiet apartment. At one point her girlfriend, May, came home after her twenty-four-hour shift at the hospital and I gave her a small wave. Hyuna told her I'd be here, and she gave me a quick hug before heading to bed to pass out.

The next time I woke up there was a bowl of rice porridge in front of me and another bottle of water with a note from May.

"I heard you're having a rough time, stay as long as you need. We love you <3"

The note and the food made me cry myself back to sleep.

The next time I woke after that Emilee was there.

"Hi, sweetie." She sat on the couch with me and was stroking my hair, something my father used to do for me when I was little. The tenderness in the gesture made me feel so safe and cared for.

"Hi," I squeaked out.

"I heard you got fired."

I wiped some of the snot that was running from my nose, nodding.