thief.

the arena.

A few weeks ago, right around settling in at her office in BTS' headquarters, Jennie had received a personal tour from Jisoo, along with getting introductions from many of Taehyung's friends.

She had taken particular interest in the one called Suga, also known as Min Yoongi. He was strangely interesting, kind of quiet, but also sardonically goofy at the same time.

He had taken a quick liking to Jennie, and she classified them as fairly good acquaintances.

He had joined Jisoo and Jennie on the tour, and the two had personally shown Jennie the combat arena—which would probably a favorite for her.

This had everything Jennie had missed. It reminded her a lot of her taekwondo instructor's room...like it looked very similar, except for the fact that it was a lot bigger.

Then she realized that was all Taehyung's doing. Of course he would recreate the place into the one of his similar liking.

They had taken martial arts together, straight from little kids all the way to graduation of high school.

Rather than doing dance or Girl Scouts like many of Jennie's other classmates, she was found doing a lot of the boyish things that Taehyung did.

She hadn't been a copycat, it was just her propensity to lean towards those kind of activities.

Dance wasn't her thing, and neither was selling cookies with a fake smile on her face.

She was currently in the arena, trying out something on a dummy. Sweat perspired lightly on the edges of her face, some trickled o the back of her neck. Jennie tied her hair back, then pushing it into a ponytail.

After interrupting a potential fist fight between Taeyong and Hanbin at the hospital, Jennie couldn't help but ponder over the news Seulgi had to bring her.

She was just curious as to why Taehyung had been there as well. It seemed like he had plenty of other important business to deal with.

She had been corrected; it seemed he had merely been bored and wanted to tag along with Seulgi. Apparently the two were friends.

Jennie also couldn't help but frown over the way Seulgi had glanced over Taeyong. Jennie—if you couldn't already tell—paid attention to many small details, and she certainly hadn't missed that.

She wasn't acting like a jealous friend, or maybe she was, Jennie didn't really know. She just felt obligated to keep Taeyong away from Seulgi, though she was sure the two didn't know each other.

Seulgi was also with a bad crowd, she had been in the business longer than Jennie. She didn't want Taeyong to get involved in that.

Not to mention, he was like a giant man-child. He acted like one, so Jennie felt the need to protect him. Just like how she had at the hospital. He was like a brother to her, even though he was older, age didn't matter.

Jennie took a step back, unclenching her fists, relaxing them. Staring at the martial dummy in deep thought, she jumped forward in surprise when someone cleared their throat.

She turned instantly, and like a reflex, swung out.

Taehyung ducked, catching her wrist deftly.

"Is this how you respond when someone scares you?"

Caught in his gaze, Jennie let out a small exhale through her nose. "You would know, wouldn't you?"

He was teasing her. There was absolutely no doubt about it. She could tell, despite his stone-cold poker face he wore, though if other people were listening in, it might sound like he was even scolding her for almost punching his jaw, Jennie knew better.

She knew him better.

She saw the familiar glint in his eye, when he turned his chin to look at her. He might've even been hiding a smirk, but she was sure there was no way this man could do a 360 personality change within a few years.

It wasn't possible. Jennie knew that he just kept that all to himself.

"You haven't changed." She finally had the balls to utter. He arched an eyebrow, finally letting go of her wrist.

"Really? I would say there's a drastic change."

He was right to an extent. "Maybe..." Jennie trailed off, taking a comfortable step back.

"I hope I haven't changed that much. Seven years really does a wonder, doesn't it?"

Jennie couldn't help but smile. She liked this, she really liked talking to him again. She never realized how much she missed his voice, all the good memories and fun times had been nothing but faded daydreams to her.

Jennie needed this. A new breath of fresh air.

"Seven years is a long time. Anyone can change within then." He stepped closer to her ear.

"Even you." He turned now, stepping to walk away. However, he paused at the door, turning around to look at Jennie once again.

"By the way, you should take it easy on Dahyun. She's not experienced."

Jennie raised a hand to her chest when he left, then ran a hand through her ponytail. What the hell just happened?