Untitled, 2018

Chapter 62: So Much in So Little Time

Taehyung
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Early the next morning after the party, I stumbled out of my room at the same time as Namjoon and Jungkook, and we all looked extremely crabby and hungover. To add insult to injury, last night we had to practically body-pile in the car so six of us could go home in the same car, and we'd figured drunk Jimin had taken the liberty to take one of the cars home alone. Jin walked out of his room dragging Yoongi along for breakfast, and the two of them were bickering about something stupid. Once we got to the kitchen, we saw some eggs and stuff already made and laid out for us, and Hobi groggily pouring himself some milk.

"Wow, Hoseok! You shouldn't have!" Namjoon laughed as we sat down for the meal.
Jin told Yoongi, "Dont slinker back to the room before you finish this either. You threw up precisely because you drank on an empty stomach."
"He threw up?" I chuckled.
Hoseok mumbled, "Jin, when did you have the time to make us breakfast?"
"What? I thought you made this?"
"No way. Not after you guys squished me into the back of a car for an hour last night. I think sitting in the trunk would've been better."
Jungkook yawned, "Well then, who made all this?"

"Good morning~!" A chirpy little voice greeted us from the door to the main bathroom.
"Morning, Jimin," Namjoon responded, before doing a double take to look at him. In fact, we all stopped what we were doing to see him prance in, casually dressed all up looking fresh and... above all, happy.

We all knew it'd been a hard few months, well, hard year for us, but we knew Jimin liked to get through it with a smile, even if it was forced. But the genuine delight on his face was something I hadn't seen in a while, something you only glimpse when he's onstage and in the moment.

"Jimin...? You made this?" I asked. He bounded up to me with a big hug and I obliged, confused.
"Of course. It's a good morning to have eggs. But they're going to get cold. So sit and eat quickly!"
We sat down, but Jimin just put his coat on by the hallway.

"Aren't you eating?" Hoseok asked.
"I ate already. Besides, I have to go buy some stuff for tomorrow."
"Do you... have a date?" Jin asked, figuring things out. Jimin just looked at him and smiled mischievously.
Oh.
All of us collectively went back to whatever we were doing, and Jungkook asked, "Where are you taking Baek Hee?" out of politeness.

"Baek Hee? I dumped her." Jimin said, casually fixing his hair in a hallway mirror. We all froze and slowly turned to look at him.

He fixed his coat and continued with a smirk, "Besides, no, it's not a date. We're just... hanging out."
He disappeared down the hallway to find his shoes and I wondered aloud, "Who..."

His head popped out from the hallway with a big grin on his face, "Who? Riti, who else?" and disappeared again as he put his boots on. Yoongi, who was standing closest to him, slowly walked over, looked at him, then silently patted his back. Jimin smiled, waved us a quick "I'll be back!" and left.

When we heard the door close, I turned to look at the boys, all of us slowly forming big sheepish smiles on our faces. I don't think any of us knew how to react, but I was the first to burst out into merry laughter that they all joined me in. I thought I saw Hobi tear up a little bit too. We laughed till the humor was all but drained out of the situation.

Then, only Jungkook had the guts to ask. "What now?"

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Riti

Even though I shouldn't have with the brace on my ankle, the next day I had a little spring in my step everywhere. It was the beginning of the weekend, so I just took a walk around the hotel, soaking in the sun and checking out the stores nearby. I got a message notification soon after, and checked my phone.

Blue Hair: How u doin this fine morning?
Me: Oh? You're 'Blue Hair' on my phone but not that blue haired anymore.
Blue Hair: I might just go blond.
Me: You might just go bald.
Blue Hair: Probably. But not anytime soon.
Me: You hope.

I could practically hear him sighing on the other end.

Blue Hair: Thank you for that. Are you free today?
Me: Sadly no, I have a lot of work to do. I am tomorrow, though. Why?
Blue Hair: Have you done anything actually cool in Seoul yet? There's much to see. I'll pick you up in the morning.
Me: Sounds good.

We chatted a little more about some silly things before I noticed the time and realized I had to leave for a meeting.

I just had to transfer some files to Mateo at the office, so we went there together to access the computer. Mateo asked me if anything had happened recently because I looked "smiley" but I just got embarrassed and ignored his statement, instead chatting about the project and his soon-to-be girlfriend.

Once we were in there, I noticed the main lab computer hadn't been turned off from the previous night, tsk. I opened the files to transfer to Mateo's hard drive, and in the process, saw that a browser had been left open, and inside that browser, Hanna's personal email. Oh?

I looked up to see if Mateo was watching me, but he was off on the other side of the room, rambling about his garage band back home.

I scrolled through and remembered that it was hard last time to find info on her personal email. But this time, I at least knew what her other email address was. I immediately typed in that email address to see if she'd sent herself any emails from her other account; hopefully some incriminating ones. It felt like it was taking forever to load, and I was getting increasingly nervous hoping Mateo didn't notice anything fishy. But results did load, and there was one email, several months back, untitled, and only one alphanumeric string as the body. I took a picture of it and logged out of her account, as Mateo was walking towards me.

"I'm going to be sad to leave, you know?"
"Huh?" I responded, not sure what he was talking about.
"South Korea! I'm sad to be leaving in a few weeks."
"A few weeks?!"
"You haven't been keeping track? I've kept a countdown going for a while now."
"You're kidding. Winter break is starting soon then? We're almost done with work?"
"Yes. Good god, which world have you been living in?"
It's not big news; it involved checking the goddamn calendar; but it shook me to the core. We were almost at the end, but it felt like there was so much to be done. Kang and Wang were planning on continuing the project to finish with different interns, and I was en route to back home to properly be a freshman in college. Reality right now was hay fever, a daydream.

I took in a deep breath and thought about Jimin. Huh. I never thought the end was so close. What would happen to us? Does he even like me or am I jumping the gun with that conclusion? Would it even be possible to be with him if he did? Would everything change?

It was so much to think about, but what I knew was that I didn't want to waste my time not meeting him when I could. As soon as Mateo and I got back to the hotel, I messaged him.

Me: Blue boy are you free?
Blue Hair: Ah I just stepped out with Jungkook and Namjoon. You want to join?
Me: Sure
*You changed his nickname to Baldy*
Baldy: I'll pick you up.
Baldy: Hey! I'm not balding! Half the industry envies my hair.
Me: Fine, that's true.
*You changed his nickname to Little Prince*
Little Prince: I like that more.
Me: Alright but why is my nickname 'CRAZY GIRL'?!!
Little Prince: Hah. I'll see you in thirty minutes.

I smiled at my phone, and got ready with my stuff, packing my laptop and hard drive so I could figure out what Hanna's cryptic email could mean. And of course, for the sentimentality of it, I put the Little Prince necklace on too, this time not forgetting my own present for him.