BTS-que

Love or lust?

Aria wakes up in Hoseok's bed, alone. He is already off, as every morning. They almost never have dinner or breakfast together. They never go shopping together or spend time together. Aria basically only sees him at work or in bed. Then he has his attention on her. Aria sits up and looks at the late-afternoon sun setting in the window. She pulls up her legs and leans her head on them. Somewhere inside is a gnawing feeling. 

In the dressing room, she is alone with Jimin. Suddenly Jimin gets up and blocks her in his arms after turning the chair so she faces him. His slit eyes look intimidating to her and he has no fairy like smile on his face. He is wearing a full finger ring, with a claw, and he scrapes is past her face, soft but threatening. "I could almost scratch your pretty little face, you little thing. with your feminine looks and boobs and what not. No one steals my spotlight and gets away with it. Mark my words. Also if you don't stop performing soon, I would suggest you to look out. An accident is more likely than not to happen on the stage." Right at that time, the others come in and are surprised at this unfamiliar setting. "Hey Jimin, don't start hitting on Hoseok's girl! You know how possessive he can get. If you want some attention, I am more than welcome to give you it, baby." JK laughingly says, and Jimin's eyes and face change back to his angelic self. "I really could use a ride on your delightful dick, my Kookie..." And he pouts and all cutely skips to his spot again. Aria isn't all to sure about what just happened this past minute but she sure as hell is upset. Hoseok enters the room and his eyes fall immediately on her. He holds a new outfit for her.

She seems to get back to reality and gets up. He puts the dress on the chair and snuggles in her hair, placing soft kisses on her neck and behind her ear. "Not now, honey..." She moans. His hands are already feeling her body freely and JK is cooing with V. Jimin is softly stroking the brush over his face, absentminded. "Yeah, get a room, you two!" V says and focuses back on his make up. "Hobi? Can I talk to you?" Aria turns around and looks serious at him. Jimin's eyes follow the 2 of them when they make their way to a corner in the room. She isn't going to snitch on me, is she? He wonders. 

She pulls him closer. "Hobi, I would like to go out with you on a restaurant date. And to an amusement park. I want to spend more time with you." He grabs her close and pushes her body towards him. "But we are already spending every night and evening together." She softly pushes him off. " I know, but either it's just having sex or always around others. Never alone time, just you and me and talking; I don't even know your favorite food." She exclaims in a desperate tone of voice. "Is that important to you?" "Well, it would be nice to actually date you, not just be with you." "I just don't get it, what more do you want?" She looks at him in dismay. "Are you for real now?" She asks him. His face tells her the answer to that. "Intimacy, closeness, togetherness..." She says but those words don't seem to spark any light, judging from his face. She rolls her eyes. "Aren't we intimate and close already? And together?" "Not in that way, Hobi. I want more than just sex. I want to have someone to talk to, someone who is loving to be around me without any other motives. Someone who just wants to love me for me, who I am, inside and out." Jimin pops up. "Don't mind me, but just so you know, the show must go on. Are you guys done talking?" And he throws daggers with his eyes at Aria, because truth is, he was worried she was snitching on him. "We'll talk about it later, Aria." He says and leaves her just like that. "When? You almost never take time to talk..." She says sadly before getting also ready for the show.

She is performing on stage and the 5 of them are doing their routine as they practiced. When they are in the intermezzo, Aria returns with the 3 others to the dressing room only to find her stash of make up trashed. The bag was on the ground. The compacted powders are broken up,  pencils their points are broken and her sharpener is gone. She looks in shock at the others, and Jimin doesn't even look up from his mirror. He just keeps doing his make up. "OMG what happened?" JK asks but Aria can't answer from the shock. Jimin only responds to JK apparently because he turned around. "I don't know, it was like that when I came in. Must have fallen off I guess. You should take better care of things." And with that last sentence he makes eyecontact with Aria, who is the only one who apparently seems to notice the  smirk on his lips for a brief second. She knows very well it wasn't an accident. An accident is more likely than not to happen Are the words that resound in her head, and she looks at Jimin, who just unbothered continues with what he was doing. "That's very unfortunate. Aria, these were your only make up utensils, right? It was quite costly... Will you be okay?" Aria starts to collect her stuff and puts everything in her bag. Oh, how she wants to call Jimin out on his b***sh*t but can't without turning the whole team against her. Because she was the latest addition and they are a very, close, intimate group.

But she hasn't got a lot of time to mull over the thoughts, because Hobi urges them to get back to the stage. A bit weary she returns too, only to have changed clothes but still wearing the same make up which didn't fit her outfit. She looked like  clown. Ridiculous. The door opens and she looks up. It's Jimin. "Come on! Hurry up. Don't leave us waiting. Don't leave them waiting." And his face turns serious. "Don't leave me waiting; make up your mind instead of your face." And he smirks and closes the door again. It is pretty clear now that Jimin obviously did it. Aria sighs. She goes out on the stage. The show must go on.

Jin is behind the bar when he hears some noise in the audience just as the opening tunes of the new song sound through the hall. He looks around and see them point at the stage. When he looks at the stage, he can see Aria looking slightly miserable, wearing the same make up in black and white as in the last song, but wearing colorful feather-y clothes. It's a total mismatch and he can see why the audience is laughing. The longer they laugh, the more Aria turns pale and seems to be slightly out of it. She misses steps and when she passes past Jimin she seemed to suddenly trip. The routine comes to an end and the others are all huddling around her. The audience gasped and is making some murmuring noises. Hoseok gets up and gestures the stage boy for the curtains and apologizes to the audience for another short intermezzo.

When the curtain is completely down, he turns around and Aria is having her arm around V and JK. "What is wrong with you? You've been acting weird lately. First the talk you had with me that made no sense, and now you are messing up your routine and dragging us all down with you. This isn't what this stage is supposed to be. Aria. I'm sorry. But this is unacceptable. Go home." And he nervously turns back to the curtain and looks. He can see audience leaving. He gestures JK and V and Jimin. "Guys we got to do something. They are leaving. Let's revert back to our old routines." JK and V look at Aria in concern and then at Hobi. Aria shakes her head and gestures they should go listen to Hobi. She doesn't want to be an even more obstruction than she already is. Jimin smiles at her. They both knew she didn't fell as an accident. Aria stumbles back, away from the stage. Her ankle looks black and blue and swollen, but no one cared. They only care about the show.

The curtains rise again and the music is back on. Some of the audience returned to their seats and the show went on, they only did half a revenue today but at least it's better than nothing. Jin looks up and sees no Aria on the stage. He is too swamped still from when the hall was full to go check on her, but he is very worried if she is okay. That was a nasty fall. No way anyone could be okay after that kind of fall.

Aria is in the dressing room, when the door opens. RM enters but she doesn't even look up. She is just sitting there, sobbing while hiding her face in her knees. "Can I take you home?" She is startled by his sudden voice. She felt betrayed by Hobi and to be honest, dating him wasn't all what she wanted. She looks up and shakes her head. RM kneels and looks at her foot. The moment he touches her ankle, she yelps and bites her lip. "That looks pretty serious. Lets put some ice on that, shall we?" And before she could reply, he already lifted her up and carries her to his office. He leaves the office after placing her in the couch and disappears again. He returns with ice wrapped in a towel, probably from behind the bar. He places it on her ankle and again she yelps loudly. "A-aren't you angry at me?" She asks, hesitantly. He looks up with a smirk.

"I am. Very." And even though he smiles, Aria can feel there is truth in his words. "I trusted you that you could handle yourself, and this is what I get after giving you that trust?" She is taken aback by his mean words. She has gotten nothing but betrayal since she joined their crew. The way Jimin treated her, Yoongi that lied to her, RM that didn't seem at all interested in her and so she feels very used by him. Hobi that just had shallow relations with her. Nothing that she thought was good turned out to be actually good. "Sorry." She says but knows that probably isn't enough. RM is a stonecold businessman underneath his friendly appearance. She knows that much. She has seen him scold Jin before when the revenue wasn't as he expected it to be. He has a side of perfectionism on him. Control. "I'm sorry, but if you can't handle it anymore, I have no choice but to take you off the show." Aria can see how Jimin would love it and would have won this way, and just now that she found out that she has talent, she wanted to stay. She reaches out for RM, who just got up and cupped his neck, pulling him onto her. "Please, I'll audition again if I need to, to convince you of my passion." And she hastily places her lips on his, forcing a kiss on him.

Jin opens the door and sees this scene. Inside is a turmoil. He hates to see how she ends up with everyone, except him. He remembers RM's words. About not waiting until it's too late. He can see how RM takes advantage of the situation and is devouring Aria's mouth and cupping her head. Jin closes his eyes and sighs.