Bulletproof girl scouts

Establishments

Double update because I can't have y'all running around like headless chickens. 

RM's POV

I turned from the waist and put my arm behind me on the cushion.

"Are you awake?"

Her eyelids opened and closed drowsily, a clouded look in her eyes. After she exhausted herself and passed out, I did not risk moving her to her own studio for activity had yet to cease in the building. Looking at the time now, it was well past midnight. Judging by the fatigued appearance of her body I had assumed she would sleep till morning. I myself had no intentions of sleeping. The coffee was hot and the pc was in my lap. As the preparation of the home party were trudging along at the pace of a snail, I had taken to reducing my stack of pending work gathering dust since the last few years.
Nara stretched her folded arms, hiding her face as she yawned. She hummed, stretching some more and then wiggled on the plush sofa, pressing her face into the cushions to snuggle up all cute and comfortable. She fell asleep like that, but not before mumbling something that would have me fuelled for a lifetime.

When I woke up at seven, I was surprised at having fallen asleep in the first place. My butt was sore from spending the night in a sitting position on the floor. My neck was saved from that fate by unconsciously using her shins for a pillow. The pc was drained of all charge and the coffee cups were empty. I stretched, got up, stretched some more and decided to take a quick shower. It was after taking said shower did I realise that I had no spare clothes with me. I pulled on the same pair of jeans and decided it wouldn't hurt Hope if I grabbed a shirt from his stash. None of Yoongi's would fit me anyways. When I returned with a towel around my neck, the door was open. Not wanting to add to the list of embarrassing episodes, I knocked and stood a safe distance away. There was no reply. Maybe she left.

I popped my head inside, only to be met with a done looking Hoseok surveying his fingernails like a villainous mother-in-law straight out of a drama.

"It's like every time I catch you two together, you lose one more article of clothing"

"Do you have a spare shirt?"

He directed his done look at me. "I don't remember if I ever told you to get a room, but please, leave this one out"

"Thanks", I said, picking out the first shirt from his clean pile. I pulled it on, using the towel to dry my my hair. Hoseok was still looking at me. "What?"

"Oh, nothing", he had yet to log out of the mother-in-law mode. "I came for the hard drive. I got the hard drive", he shook the black rectangle in his hand, then stuffed it in the duffel bag that wasn't there before. Then he suddenly broke into a chortle.
"Yah, Namjoon-ah.....don't look at me like that, eh?". He hiked the bag on his shoulder and flashed a genuine smile. He patted my shoulder. "Have a good day"

Nara woke up sometime later. She pushed off the surface with her arms and stayed in a hunched position, blinking away the sleep in her eyes. She slowly sat up, then slumped back onto the seat. Sitting in the office chair, I looked over the top of the laptop's screen. When was the last time she had a good night's rest?

Looking around the room, her eyes finally landed on me. I half expected her to stumble and run. She didn't move an inch. Simply kept on watching as if trying to make sense of the situation.

"Good morning", I said.

A small, tired smile reigned on her lips.

"Good mo-rning", her voice cracked.

With puffy cheeks and ruined hair, she giggled.

And just like that, the tension between us disappeared.

She did not run. In every sense of the word. Didn't turn in the other direction when we passed in the hallways. Didn't try to hide when I was nearby. There was still the occasional stutter, but I was glad she was being herself again. Her own flirty derpy self. But I was only half glad. The tension during group practices did not go unnoticed by me. The first indication was after our exchange of goodmornings when I had asked if she wanted to have something. Like coffee. I asked if I should seek for Ayano. My reasoning was plausible. After our every encounter, there would be Ayano and Ayano's coffee which I knew Nara just loved to devour. She looked a little alarmed at my suggestion, and shook her head in that drenched-puppy way she has of doing it.

"No!", she declared rather forcefully, then blushed in embarrassment. She blinked quick, tucking her hair behind her ear. "Ayano is....erm, busy", she nodded to herself. "Busy", she repeated.

I did not comment on it.

But Ayano was present. Every single day. In the same rooms during practice breaks. Nara in the corner with her phone, blowing spit bubbles. Fengh with her laptop and files, dead to the world. Sunhee seemingly ready to collapse from exhaustion because she wouldn't stop practising. Aera staring at her empty hands, Ayano stealing glances at a red-eyed Aoi who was in turn staring at her shoes.

No squabbles.

No one so much as talked without necessity. It was as if they had been brainwashed and only knew of each other as strangers. Though, with all that Nara had told me, they were loudest when they were strangers. Sometimes I would find Lizzy staring blankly at walls. As blank as Tae during his crisis, if not more. I had a working theory in my head, but refrained from talking to them. If they were having a difficult time, they would need to grow out of it by themselves. It was not my place to intervene.

We had a meeting as regards the home party and the girls did not leave the conference room after dismissal. Jungkook lingered to see what the matter was and I hushed him along. Jin held my gaze but did not say anything.

The cold picked up pace and within days it was snowing. Sometimes she would stay holed up in her studio and if ever she left, it would be for practicing the dance routines with Jimin. The choreography was complete and flawless, though I had yet to witness it. Joint practice for group performances were limited to once a week and our schedules differed by large. Solo practice hours, solo shooting for the teasers. I got wind that she was working on a second mixtape, which I treated with a rise of my brows.
I started to see less of Nara with each passing day. The drift did not bother me. I would give her all the space she needed. I sought out Ayano and taking Jackson's advice, gave her a book to be passed on to Nara. The next day, Ayano was gone. Gone, said Nara. Back to where she came from. She looked a little out of it, and a little more on the tipsy side. But she had not had a drop of alcohol. Fengh is leaving too, she said and sighed. A cold breath of resignation. There was nothing she could do about it and accepted the facts. She caught me looking at the painting on the wall. It was bared now, the newspaper used to cover it up nowhere in sight.

"Fengh", she supplied without my asking. The painting did not belong to Nara. "She was going to throw it away. I begged to let me keep it"

She was leaning against the desktop table, a half empty bottle of water in her hand. She screwed on the lid and put it away, perching on top of the table completely. She clasped her hands in her lap, fiddling with her fingers while swinging her feet back and forth. Sitting in the rotating office chair, I felt the thump of her socked feet repeatedly hitting my shins. Her feet looked cute in those striped socks – lavender and baby blue.
She giggled, and I looked up to find the same tired smile on her face from that time she said 'good morning'

I couldn't help but think that there is something with us and studios. Whenever something happens, it's always in a studio.

She fell asleep like that, but not before mumbling something that would have me fuelled for a lifetime.
"I like you too~"

A/N 

We need a ship name ASAP