The Missing Piece

Chapter 37

"So I'm free?" Narae checked, brightening considerably after the long and somewhat bleak lecture they'd all just sat through from her lead doctor.

"I think I mentioned some other stuff too." The doctor replied, looking sternly past Narae to her full complement of soulmates.

"We heard you, we promise." Seokjin answered soberly.

"Yes, we promise she won't find her way back in. We'll make sure of it." Hoseok agreed, holding Narae's shoulders from his poll position behind her on the bed.

"Well, as long as some of you were listening." The doctor sighed.

"But I can go?" Narae repeated, gleeful.

The doctor swung her eyes around the room one last time, trying to make sure they all felt the gravity of the situation.

"Yes, you can go home now." She said finally with a smile. All around her the eight members of the soul group relaxed and grinned and sprang up to begin the necessary planning of getting Narae and the rest of them back to the apartment.

"We were going to send most of us ahead, but Seokjin or any of us really can go home in a car with you after." Namjoon told her, perching at a safe distance from the end of the bed. He'd been as reticent as the rest of them when the doctor had spoken about Narae's continued fragile health and the risks if any of them slipped. But now his eyes shone with what the rest of the day would bring them.

"Actually, I wasn't going to go straight back to the apartment." Narae told him, and by default the rest of the room, who stopped their rushing around and packing up to look at her.

"What?" Namjoon asked, a little panicked. "I thought we'd agreed you wouldn't go back to your flat. Is there somewhere else you want to go?"

"You don't want to come back home with us?" Jungkook asked, sitting down heavily at her side by Hoseok and throwing her big, worried eyes.

"No, no, it's not that." She told them all hurriedly.

Now they were all on more even footing, and after Jungkook's admission that he'd been further along with the symptoms of Hanahaki than she'd known, she'd been sensitive to not say anything which might worry them about the validity of her bond, just like they were all doing for her. She lifted a hand to Jungkook's face and called up all the love she had for him and the rest so he could feel it radiating out. His eyes fluttered closed at her touch and her glowing feelings.

"It's just that, I don't know. It's just... you said you wanted to have dinner tonight?" She stammered, a little embarrassed.

"Okay?" a few of them answered together.

"Well, I was just thinking, just hoping, that maybe I could have another go, at making a first impression." She finished, sinking down lower against Hoseok.

They all looked around, somewhere between amused and confused by her.

"So you want to... what? Get ready somewhere else?" Namjoon asked carefully. She shrugged. He was holding Yoongi's hand at his shoulder and he looked up at all the others, making sure he'd got this right. They were only planning on a relaxed meal, their first all together in a long time. Yoongi tilted his head and shrugged. Maybe they could take this opportunity, move up the plans he had for them anyway. They both looked over to Seokjin and saw a little glint of agreement in his eyes too.

"I was only going to go to Jin's." She told them innocently.

"You can't go by yourself." Taehyung reminded her anxiously.

"I wasn't going to cutie." She answered cheekily, grinning at him. "I was going to ask Yoongi if he'd go with me."

"Why me?" Yoongi looked up, obviously pleased at being singled out, although a little surprised.