TOUR MOMS

No More Dream

Sometime around Magic Shop

Melissa's pov

Melissa was sat on a sofa in one of the practice rooms while a few of the boys practiced last minute for Magic Shop. A binder was open in her lap, detailing the events and procedures for Muster and the Olympic Gymnastics Arena. She'd sat in on the briefing earlier that week, but it never hurt to read through things on her own as well. She split her time sitting there equally between reading, munching on her snack, and watching the dance practice.

The song came to an end, meaning it was the perfect time for Melissa to get back to memorizing the safety procedures. Jungkook plopped to the floor, reaching for one of the water bottles lined against the mirror. Jimin made his way closer to the side, nearer where Melissa was situated. She kept her eyes on the paper, no longer taking in words but hyper focused on not looking at Jimin. The way she'd been feeling recently... She would rather d*e than have Jimin notice anything different in her, so Melissa did her best to avoid direct interactions with him. Yet she always found herself close to him anyway.

Jimin was panting, she noticed from the corner of her eye. He stretched his back under his hoodie, she saw from her peripheral. Then, in painfully slow movements, Jimin started taking his hoodie off. The motion caused his t-shirt to ride up his stomach, exposing his bare... um...

It took Melissa much too long to realize she'd been looking directly at him. Had been watching him, openly. She snapped to when his shirt felt back into place, a magic veil removing the wonderful sight from the world. She was suddenly very cold. She tried to play it off like she'd been staring unfocused in his direction, hoping that he hadn't noticed her gaze either way. She slowly, naturally, brought her eyes back down to the binder in her hands. She resisted the urge to shiver.

A hoodie landed on the sofa next to her, its sudden presence making her jump. Her eyes flew to Jimin's. The eye contact lasted only a split second and Melissa wasn't able to read anything. Had he seen her staring? Did he throw his hoodie over here on purpose, or was this just a coincidence? Would it be absolutely wrong to wear the hoodie, considering how cold she felt?

Jimin was already walking back to the center of the dance floor and Melissa was trying to bring some sense back into her brain. She accidently caught Jungkook's eyes in the mirror, and his single raised eyebrow sent her stomach plummeting three floors. So Jungkook caught onto something. Did that mean Jimin did? Oh gosh.

Melissa mumbled an excuse to herself and left the room before the next song started up. The binder was clutched to her chest as she walked aimlessly through the hallways of BigHit headquarters. She didn't know what to do, what to think.

She found herself in the lounge room. Melissa plopped onto the sofa without looking around much. A sound of surprise and delight escaped her mouth when a certain kitten jumped into her lap uninvited.

"Hello, Mister Ak Chwi, I didn't know you were here today!" Melissa gave the cat a good scratch and let him settle on her legs. His purr helped settle her still-churning stomach and he provided her with some much-needed warmth.

Melissa smiled to herself, idlily imagining Jimin coaxing the cat into his bag that morning and then having to coax him back out when he got to the company. Laney liked to say that Ak Chwi was Newton's Cat: he stayed at rest until acted upon by an outside force. She would also always say something about dead physics cats in boxes, but Melissa didn't like to think about dead cats. Her innocent thoughts of sweet Jimin quickly reminded her of the crisis she was having. The one about Jimin, and her feelings, and the elephant in her heart that she was oh-so trying to ignore.