Her Astronaut

🚫 ✯18✯ 🚫

TW/CW: Toxic relationship, emotional manipulation, gaslighting, and mentions of dubious consent. There is 🚫 to indicate where the scene regarding the dubious consent begins and ends.

"You're joking," Nova said incredulously.

Part of her wanted to drop everything and run to Seokjin's side, or at least call him.

Unfortunately, the interaction during the group chat earlier in the day left a bad taste in her mouth. She didn't like how possessive his messages came off. Most of all, it didn't sit well with her how he appeared to not let the other members spend time with her.

Who the hell did he think he was?

They weren't exclusive. Fuck, they weren't really dating either. The two of them were just flirting shamelessly with one not-so-private date scheduled.

To make matters worse, he was returning home to South Korea in a little over a week with no plans to return to the States anytime soon.

The more Nova thought about the entire situation, the angrier she became.

For all she knew, he could just be putting on an act with the sole purpose of emotionally manipulating her. Bending her to his will through her sympathy.

Because that was the M.O. of any romantic interest of hers.

After the master manipulator she dated in college (the only relationship she ever had), Nova promised herself never again. The first sign of that toxic trait ... she was out of there.

From her own personal perspective, it had come off that Seokjin was potentially acting the same way as her ex. Romance her then show her your true self once she was in their clutches.

Nova refused to be that victim again.

"I'm sorry Roddy, but please tell Seokjin that he can build a bridge and get the fuck over it."

She hung up.

・✪・

Rodrigo was at a loss.

He knew exactly why Nova responded in that way. It was her trauma talking.

His conundrum was figuring out how to relay that to the angry group of Korean idols that heard every word of his conversation with her.

Because his dumbass had it on speakerphone.

If they knew her background, they would have understood. But that was Nova's story to tell, not his. Hence why he was in quite a predicament.

He sent a quick text to Elle to give her a heads up and then stepped away for a moment like he was getting a call just so he could figure out the next step in solving this issue.

Although he didn't know Nova at the time, Jenn had once told him about how much Nova's college boyfriend fucked with her mentally. Only a year and a half after her ADHD diagnosis did everything begin.

For the first time in a long while, Nova was in a positive headspace. Her therapy and meds were working. She felt confident enough in herself to start building a social life.

Wanting to adventure out, she finally joined Elle one Saturday night at a frat party just off campus.

There in the crowd was a close friend of the host. Dressed in his fatigues and on leave from his AIT training was Bryan. Nova was drawn to him from the start.

Needless to say, he and Nova hit it off from the start beginning a long-distance whirlwind romance.

He was stationed in Monterey Bay at the language school. At the time, he was in the last few weeks of his training before being immediately transferred right to Ft. Huachuca in Sierra Vista, AZ. Technically in the Army Reserves, he was training to be an interrogator with the understanding that he could be deployed at any time.