before you love me | jjk

chapter twelve

━━━༻ ˚✩‧₊ february 2020₊‧✩˚༺━━━

Narae woke up in a familiar bed to sunlight streaming through the windows, slightly sore from the previous night, but feeling refreshed after the deep, yet short, sleep she had. She rolled back and forth in the bed, stretching out her limbs as she did so and working out the kinks in her back.

Groaning, she finally slid out of bed and padded over to Jinhyeong's closet, grabbing yet another t-shirt to add to her collection and sliding on a pair of boxers she had gotten from an unopened pack. She saw that he'd left a pair of slippers for her at the foot of the bed, sliding them on before going to the connected bathroom to brush her teeth using the toothbrush she left at his place.

Once she was done, she made her way to the kitchen where she could smell something cooking, the scent making her ravenous. She was one of the lucky few that didn't often get hangovers, so she was more than able to eat whatever was being whipped up without feeling queasy.

Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, she spotted Jinhyeong at the stove, shirtless back facing her, the muscles flexing as he put the last pancake on a plate that already had bacon, sausages and eggs.

"Morning princess," He said without turning around, having heard her shuffling, "Sleep well?"

"Morning angel. Yeah I did." Narae made her way around the island, hugging him from behind as he took hold of the plates of food to bring to the coffee table in the sitting room.

"I need you to let go of me so I can put these down."

"No." Narae stated before obliging anyway and letting go. She watched him place the plates on the coffee table and sit down on the couch before she settled down beside him and curled into his side, making an acute observation, "You made me breakfast."

"Happy Valentine's Day I guess." He shrugged, watching as she took a bite of her eggs. "How is it?"

"Amazing. I love you. Marry me now or I'm dying."

"Don't die on me just yet – you still need to tell me where you've hidden all my clothes! I always see you wearing my shit, yet when I search your wardrobe they're miraculously nowhere to be found." Jinhyeong brushed off her joke with a lighthearted quip, knowing she wasn't being serious, but still feeling his heart skip a beat at her words. He continued, "Besides, I thought you planned on marrying Shownu. I'm not sure I'm cut out to be a sister wife."

"First of all, that's never going to happen and second of all, you're right – Shownu gets first husband privileges."

They sat in a content silence for a short while, enjoying their food and each other's company till Narae let out a deep sigh, placing her plate on the coffee table in front of her.

"What's up? Why the long face?"

"I don't know. I just miss this. I miss you. Working with BTS has been great honestly, but I see how close they are and I just want that. Like obviously I know they're never going to be as close with me, it's almost 10 years of them being together, compared to not even two months with me, but I can't help but feel left out sometimes and a bit sad. I didn't realise how hard it would be going back to being in a group-like setting again, but without my girls."

Narae fell silent, but Jinhyeong didn't speak up, knowing she was just gathering her thoughts and she had more she needed to get off her chest.

She took a deep breath, fiddling with her hands, before continuing, "I get on really well with Suga and now Asa and Tianna are finally here so I can also spend time with them, but I don't know... I just feel like friendly colleagues at most with the rest of them. I guess I'm also kind of close with Jimin and maybe Jungkook too, but it's still not the same level as someone I would consider a close friend. I'm just worried it's going to be like this for the rest of the months that we're together, and I'll feel isolated the whole time – it's not like Asa and Tianna can always be there. It's just— what on Earth was I thinking signing up for this project?"