Rogue Hearts | PJM ✅

Chp. 38: Morse Code Messages

Dallia's POV 🌼

It's been a few weeks. At first, I spent most of my nights, sleepless, and crying until I made myself so sick that I wasn't sure how I was going to get through my days pretending the world was perfect in front of my students.

Nabi and Hyeon have made it a habit to check on me occasionally with excuses of having lunch together or having me give an opinion about a track one of them is working on, but I know they are just trying to find little ways of trying to lift me out of this deep depression I've been drowning in.

In fact, I've had visits from almost everyone. Poor Tae is absolutely beside himself with guilt. Jin asked Hana if a stuffed RJ may help my blues, and when I declined, I came home to find a package in front of my door. When I opened it, I found a pair of branded Jin angel pajamas and a note from him insisting they would help make me feel better. JK tried to get me to come to a boxing lesson with him, Jae, and Ari. Namjoon left a book about the evolution of Korean music at Ari's desk for me that he thought I might enjoy. Yoongi has shared kind words but has spent the majority of his time trying to calm Lily down because she's pissed at Jimin, and Hobi stops by now and then on his way to see Lily just to check and make sure I don't need anything.

Everyone has spoken with me except Jimin himself, which feels like a slap in the face, but I can't even think about it right now. It's almost the weekend, and my chorus class has left for the evening, so I spend some time cleaning up the chairs and making sure all the windows are shut tight and locked correctly even though I didn't even open a window today -I'm just super paranoid since the break in.

I hear footsteps approaching as I lock up each room, and I look up to see Lily with an acoustic guitar strapped around her and a bottle of wine in each hand, and I burst out laughing. It feels good to laugh hard like this after the last few weeks of hell.

"What in the world..." I choke out between the laughs.

"I come bearing wine! Let us get drunk and play music! Yoongi is working late into the night, and I am ready to cut loose!" she smiles wickedly.

"Okay, I'm in! This way!" I chuckle and lead Lily into my office.

It hurts a little to see the painting Jimin had made for me still featured on my office wall, but because Ari painted it, I don't have the heart to take it down. "Make yourself at home. I have glasses," I offer as I go over to a small glass and rose gold bar cart I found in a thrift shop and fell in love with. "I don't have wine glasses, but I have some crystal lowball glasses that will do the trick," I explain.

"That works for me. Honestly, I would have started drinking straight out of the bottle if I had to," Lily laughs. She's in rare form this evening, and it feels just like what I need."

Lily hands over a cobalt blue wine bottle, and I see a picture of a rising sun on it. "Riesling," I read aloud, "Sounds good to me," I say as I look at the bottle. I pour us full glasses and take a long sip. The fruity notes leave a sweet taste on my palate, and I already can tell we are going to plow through these bottles like they were candy.

"I was in a mood," Lily laughs. "It's been continuous work, and I just finished up working on an album with an artist who was super difficult to work with -but I made it to the end without slapping him!" she giggles. "So tonight we celebrate. Grab your guitar!" she says excitedly.

I remove my favorite acoustic guitar from the stand I have it sitting on near my desk and sit down on the opposite side of the couch from Lily, and we begin to play and mess around with chords. We play a couple of cover toons and let the wine flow until we are both tipsy. I am having so much fun, and it feels like the first time in ages I feel like my old self again. The best part of this evening is that Lily hasn't asked me about Jimin, and I'm so relieved to have a break from thinking about him 24/7.