waiting for you, anpanman |b•t•s|

twenty first century girls

Hope POV

We seven girls flew to Ireland that day, and Euphoria was not in good shape. She managed to put on leggings under the sweater Jungkook gave her, and boots, but she didn't want to brush her hair or wash her face. Valeria had to brush her hair and braid it, and I had to convince her to wash her face. Despite how she was feeling, we had to make her do at least a few things every day to take care of herself.

Rose and Lilac were very helpful by packing up Euphoria's stuff, and they stuck to her sides like glue as we went through airport security. We girls made sure she wasn't ever alone, letting her sit by the window with Rose and Honey sitting on the side of her, and the flight pretty much went smoothly. Whenever guys passed her, though, she hid behind me, Valeria and Melody, because we always walked in a three piece formation at the front of our group, and if they were loud, she clung to Valeria's back, mostly because she was tallest of us and hid her the best.

We had managed to buy a house some weeks before the incident, and it was far, far out in the country, as well as being already furnished. So, when we landed, we rented a car and drove out. I drove, Melody sat next to me in the passenger seat, then Valeria and Rose sat on either side of Euphoria, with Lilac and Honey sitting in the back, sleeping.

Gentle piano music was playing in the background but other than that was silence, until Melody and I heard Rose muttering,

"Bad squishy, bad squishy! So disrespectful." Melody looked back at her, tilting her head questioningly at the speaker. I heard Rose moving around, then she sat on the island between us, showing Melody her phone.

"ARMY calls Taehyung Squishy sometimes when he's cute, as a reference to Finding Nemo. See look, he's squishy, cute, squishy then bad squishy! Bad!" She explained quietly, and I could see that the 'squishy' pictures were Taehyung acting cute, and the 'bad squishy' pictures were him biting his lip and being very into his dance at the moment. I just sighed good humoredly and shook my head, but Melody asked,

"Does he know you like him?" Rose shrugged.

"Probably, I mean I'm not exactly subtle whenever I like someone. Even if I wanted to be."

"You seem pretty calm about it." Melody mentioned.

"Well if everyone knows I like him, no one who knows me will go after him." Rose explained.

"Possessive much?" Euphoria's quiet voice spoke. I heard Honey chuckle then move around, reaching over Rose's shoulder and scrolling through the explore page some more.

"That's a good picture of Min Yoongi." Honey commented, then I heard her take in a sharp breath.

"Okay guys if you're gonna fangirl over your boyfriends, get in the back so you aren't distracting me." I scolded, and Rose and Honey went back, and Melody joined them. Before they left me alone though, Rose put the phone up next to my face with a picture of Hoseok on it. I slapped the phone away, exclaiming in Irish,

"That's the worst distraction you could give me!" They all burst into laughter, and it relieved me to hear Euphoria's laugh as well.

The rest of the drive was spent listening to music on my part, the girls looking through ARMY's tweets and hashtags to see how ARMY saw BTS. From what I heard, ARMY was very funny and witty, as well as loyal and concerned as to Bangtan's health and happiness.

When we got to the house, the maknae line went ahead, including Euphoria, to explore. Myself, Honey, Melody and Valeria unloaded the car, taking the luggage to the living room. I took my backpack and went to take a shower, in hopes of relieving my now stiff spine of some tension, while the others occupied themselves.

Honey POV

For some reason, I felt like cooking. And baking. At the same time. So, I told Melody I was going to get groceries, and took the car to the small town that was twenty minutes' drive away. I got plenty of groceries there, enough to last us at least two or three weeks, and drove back to the house. When I got there, Melody, Lilac and Euphoria were curled up together on the couch, watching Sword in the Stone, which made me smile with reminiscense.

I put my earbuds in, shuffling suggested songs on Spotify as I set about making macarons. Songs by TWICE started playing, and I found them very agreeable. I made strawberry and raspberry macarons, making beef ramen from scratch while they set and baked, and by the time I was done, it was six thirty in the evening. I served the ramen into bowls and took the bowls into the living room, where all of my sisters were now, sitting down on the armchair by myself.

"Hey Honey, why are you sitting by yourself?" Rose asked.

"Because I don't want you girls kicking me and making me spill my food." I answered plainly, stirring my soup to cool it.

"So cruel." Rose pretended to whine, which made me roll my eyes. Melody and Valeria laughed at us, then silence mostly fell as we ate and watched the new movie that was playing: Sleeping Beauty.

Once it finished, Euphoria spoke quietly.

"I wish I could just fall asleep and wake up with everything wrong with me fixed." I didn't like that she said that, and felt it necessary to speak.

"I can understand that sentiment, but you shouldn't say it or let it become any stronger. What is life but a journey where you learn to fight your own battles, and don't let anything kill you, even something like this?" Rose said timidly,

"Honey, are you sure you know what she's going through?" I sat up straight, setting my bowl on the table next to my chair, turned and looked my younger sister in the eye.

"Yes." I stood up and turned off the TV, standing in front of all my sisters with my hands in my pockets.

"I didn't tell any of you this before except Melody, because I didn't want you to think the world was that cruel, but I was abused the same way Euphoria was." All of my sisters' jaws dropped, except Melody, who knew already.

"Wh-when?" Valeria stuttered.

"About three years ago. In the streets when I was walking alone, to relieve stress. I didn't take any time off because the best way I could deal with something like that was to throw myself into work heart and soul, and exhausted myself to the point where I didn't dream. The way we're dealing with this is better, don't get me wrong, you'll need a lot of time to recover mental strength and physical, but don't even think about giving up and just pitying yourself." There was complete silence after I stopped talking, until Euphoria slowly got up, came over to me and hugged me.

"I'm sorry, sister. I thought no one could understand what I was going through. I'll try to be as strong as you were." She said, and I gently stroked her hair as a reassurance.

"Don't worry. We'll help you." I told her, then gestured for everyone else to join in the hug.

"Nothing can beat a sisterly bond." Rose whispered, and I smiled at her.

"And nothing is truer than that."