In the dark

20

Peri's eyes were darting between the three men. Namjoon, Jin, then Yoongi. Jin, Yoongi, Namjoon. Jin, Namjoon, Jin again, Yoongi, ack to Namjoon. Her eyes settled on Namjoon and focused on his face and body. She was dissecting him, trying to figure out what was going on. She was flicking her fingers and biting her lower lip. She wasn't coming up with anything.

She leaned over to where Yoongi sat. "On a scale of one to ten, how mad is he?" she asked him.

Yoongi raised his hand and made a back-and-forth motion. Namjoon's brow flicked up again. Yoongi stopped. "Seven."

"Fuck me twice over on a Sunday," she huffed. Her words caught all of their attention, raising all of their eyebrows. Yoongi had to hide a smile. His mind skipped the gutter and headed straight for the ditch. He wasn't a saint. None of them were. Yoongi looked over at the other two, trying to hide their smiles. 'Noted' was his thought. 

Peri pinched the bridge of her nose. She opened her mouth and took a deep breath. She was about to say something when Yoongi cut her off. "Don't be upset with her. She was going to tell you. That's why she asked you over. We were going to tell you together." Yoongi reasoned. He was trying to protect her. Yoongi was the older of the two, but Namjoon was the leader. It was a battle no one in the room wanted to have.

Namjoon took a breath. "Start from the beginning," he instructed. 

Yoongi told Namjoon about seeing her in the conference room for the first time. Peri told him about officially meeting in the elevators. Yoongi went on with their story and talked about Han River, coming to see Namjoon in the studio, and then did he believe her. 

Jin started his story with Peri. He met her at the apartment. Her telling him about being invisible, then him not believing her. Jin told Namjoon the truth about Peri being in the apartment when they had all stayed over. Both had admitted some of their discoveries about Peri. However, they kept some details vague. Both decided that Peri should tell Namjoon on her terms.

"To recap everything I just heard," Namjoon began. "Peri is invisible. We, three, can see her, but the others can not. That was made evidenced by me watching Jungkookie and Jiminie walking right past her, not even seeing her. Yoongi knew she was invisible because she was screaming fire in my studio, and I didn't see her or hear her in there. Jin believed she was invisible when we all spent the night in the apartment, she was there, but again no one else saw her except you two. Why can I see you now and not before?"

"I don't know," she said softly.

"You didn't know who any of us were until you met Yoongi?" he asked her

"After I met him. I saw all of you in the dance studio and figured it out after I scanned the computer library," she answered.

"And you have been staying here because you don't have any place to go?" There was a hint of skepticism in his voice. Peri nodded only to confirm his question. "Anything else I need to know about?"

"Don't touch her," Jin answered. "She doesn't know what will happen, so be careful around her."

"And I think dogs can see her," Yoongi finished. That response warranted a look of confusion from the other two. "I brought Holly over here, and Peri and he were interacting. Peri doesn't know if he can see or sense her, but something happened."

Peri went back to analyzing Namjoon. He was still putting the pieces together in his mind. He didn't look as upset as before, but he still wasn't giving any of them a response. Peri's face was flushed with worry. She wanted a reaction from him- good or bad. Something that could tell her where she stood. 

Yoongi was close enough to her to watch her movement. Her hands were in her lap, flicking her fingers with the others. He noticed that was her tell. Her body's way of showing everyone her vulnerability. She hissed in pain, stopping her flicking, and looked down at her hand. In her fiddling, she had hit her finger and irritated her cut. Her bandage has turned red from the blood filling up the absorbent pad.