before you love me | jjk

chapter twenty-five

━━━༻ ˚✩‧₊ april 2020₊‧✩˚༺━━━

The more time Narae spent with BTS, the more she realized just how touchy they all were. At first it was mainly her observing the way they comfortably interacted with each other, but now it had extended to include her. She didn't particularly mind though, she was also quite a physically affectionate person, so it wasn't like she was uncomfortable.

Out of the seven, Jimin and Taehyung were the most tactile. They often cuddled with her on the couch, with Jimin playing with her hair whenever Jungkook wasn't around. Hobi wasn't particularly cuddly with her, but whenever he saw her he would wrap her up in a big hug, whether it had been two days since they'd last seen each other, or two hours.

Namjoon and Jin were among the more reserved ones, but would often pat her head or squeeze her shoulder in passing. They had also taken to affectionately calling her "little moon" in reference to her surname and their own solo songs.

Yoongi was definitely the least physically affectionate out of all of them, but he didn't protest as much anymore when Narae would put her feet in his lap and she was also the only person aside from Jungkook who had the password to his Genius Lab.

And Jungkook... well he was Jungkook. He was neither overtly affectionate like Jimin and Taehyung, but he also wasn't as reserved as Yoongi. Narae would classify how he interacted with her as more... intimate.

Though they'd immediately gone back to normal after their little gym moment, there was a subtle shift to how he interacted with her. He would sometimes absentmindedly brush away a stray curl from her forehead and tuck it behind her ear, or hold her hand whilst they watched TV together, his thumb as usual brushing back and forth over the back of her hand.

Even when he hugged her, it was always for a beat too long, as if he was reluctant to let go. When he did eventually let go, he never fully separated from her, hands still resting on her waist, their chests only inches apart as they continued talking.

It was as if when they were together, they had to be touching or connected in some way.

Narae wasn't sure what to make of his actions, but based on her observations from how the members all interacted with each other, it wasn't too out of the ordinary and she wouldn't dwell on it too much. He was just a tactile person. That's all.

Meanwhile, Jungkook was justifying his actions to himself by also comparing it to how he interacted with his hyungs. He was just as touchy, if not ten times more with them than he was with Narae. As far as he was concerned, he was still operating nicely within Just Friends territory. Yeah he didn't have a little (read: massive) crush on his other members that would change the intention behind his actions but he decided to ignore that fact for the time being.

This explained why he was currently watching TV and sifting his fingers through Narae's hair whilst she lay her head in his lap and played games on her phone.

As Narae continued with her game, Hobi joined the duo on the adjacent couch, settling in with a deep sigh and spreading his legs as he sank into the furniture. Narae barely even registered the addition to the room, too engrossed in her game to notice.

"Hey hyung, what's up?"

"Not much, just bored."

"Same."

In a rare occurrence, they had all managed to finish early for once and were lost with what to do with their time. Jin and Yoongi had left the dorms at some point which meant that Jungkook, Narae, Hobi, Taehyung, Jimin and Namjoon were left to their own devices. The first trio had of course congregated in the living room, whilst the remaining three had gone back to their rooms.