Fateful (book 1 of the OT7 series) ✔️

Chapter 5

Things had been a little awkward for Aerin and Yoongi since Namjoon made his cheeky comment. Aerin had retreated back to the couch and Yoongi sat at a chair by Jungkook's bed. She had found a book inside the duffel bag that Yoongi had brought over and was now reading it. He stole glances at Aerin frequently, unable to stop himself from being drawn to her.

Damn Joonie and his stupid comment about the kiss. Yoongi cursed Namjoon again for the hundredth time since the boys left. He looked over again at Aerin and noticed her head was starting to droop over the book she was holding. Yoongi remembered what the nurse said and walked over to sit next to her.

"Aerin, are you ok? Are you feeling sick?" Yoongi asked as he softly tapped her shoulder.

Aerin jerked awake and in her disoriented state, fell forward, almost spilling out of the sofa.

"Woah, easy there." Yoongi said as he wrapped his arms around her to stop her from falling. He leaned her back towards the back of the sofa, as she turned to look at him. Their faces were only inches away and Yoongi noticed her hazelnut eyes had flecks of gold in it. His eyes shifted towards her her pink, plump lips. Her tongue darted out to lick her lower lip and Yoongi felt a sudden urge to run his thumb along the same path her tongue had taken.

That would be crazy of course, so instead he cleared his throat and quickly dropped his arms from around Aerin. "The doctor said that you can't fall asleep for a few hours yet. Are you feeling ok?"

Aerin blinked a few times before answering, "umm ... Just feeling a bit sleepy. What time is it?"

"2 in the morning."

"No wonder I can't keep my eyes open. How are you not sleepy?"

"I have insomnia so I'm usually awake at this time of the night. Do you want me to get you some food to keep you awake?"

"I don't think I can eat anything, my stomach is still in knots over the drama today. Let's just chat. That will hopefully keep me awake." As Aerin turned to fully face Yoongi, she noticed the notebook in his hands. "What's that you got there?"

"When I can't sleep, I like to write music and I jot my ideas down in this book."

Aerin's eyebrows came together in confusion, "I thought you guys were detectives or something. Don't tell me that's your band name or something?" She said in disbelief.

Yoongi chuckled at her expression. "No, it's just a hobby. It's a stress reliever for me. When I'm playing around with melodies, I don't think about work."

"Makes sense. Sing me a little something you've written!"

"You want me to serenade you?" Yoongi asked with raised eyebrows.

Aerin giggled. "Don't make it weird! Come on, I need something to keep me awake. And Namjoon did say that you guys owe me one. I'm cashing in my chip."

Yoongi had a little embarrassed smile as he said, "Fine, but don't laugh. Men have fragile egos." He then hummed a little happy melody. It was a catchy tune and Aerin broke out into a big smile.

"Hey! I said no laughing!"

"I wasn't laughing! I swear. It's a sweet tune. I'm going to have that stuck in my head all night for sure."

Yoongi gave her a shy smile and nodded. "JK and I wrote that together at our last jam session."

Aerin noticed his eyes softened as he looked over to Jungkook's sleeping form. That's sweet. "So how do you all know each other? He seems much younger than you."

"Joonie, Jin-hyung and I know each other from our law enforcement days. I was a cop, Joonie was a prosecutor and Jin-hyung was a consulting psychiatrist. We all left together to start our own agency. Hoseok and Joonie met in college. Joonie has a soft spot for runaway kids and he basically fostered the other boys. JK was the last foster kid Joonie took in. I think he was 13 when he came to live with us."

"Us?"

"Yep we all live together in 1 big house. When Joonie started fostering, we moved in to help and it just kept growing."

"Wow, that's amazing. But I can't even imagine how chaotic your house must be with 7 boys."

"Yea it's basically like living in a zoo. There's weird smells, weird noises and at any given time, there's at least 2 of us fighting over food."

Aerin let out a loud laugh at the description. Yoongi grinned, noticing Aerin's eyes sparkled when she laughed. It felt absurdly good to be the one to make her laugh like that.

"So why did you 3 leave the force then?"

"It's a long story but we got disillusioned over time. It became clear that politics drove the place, not justice. And we 3 worked on a case where we basically had to let a guy get away with murder and that was the final straw for us." Yoongi's eyes turned sad as he was telling the story and Aerin was sorry she brought it up. On impulse, she reached over and squeezed Yoongi's hand.

As Yoongi felt Aerin's soft little hand slip into his, he looked at her face. He could see she was genuinely sad, her expression concerned and her eyes cloudy. He'd never met anyone who wore their emotions so clearly and he found it refreshing. He squeezed her hand back in gratitude and held firm so she couldn't let go.

He need not have worried, as Aerin was happy to leave her hand where it was. She was naturally an affectionate person and anyway this felt right. She did change the subject though, hoping to draw him away from his melancholy, "So all the boys chose to stay with you guys even after they've grown?"

Yoongi nodded, "JK's always had a special bond with Joonie. I think this kid is going to follow Joonie around til they're both old and grey. We all work in the agency together, so it makes sense for us to stick together. All the boys have their own skills and to be honest, we're each other's family. We'll probably be around each other forever."

At this point Yoongi realized he'd told her more about his life than he had to anyone in a long, long time and he suddenly felt self conscious. "What about you and Miki? You guys are roommates?"

"Yes, though we met as college roommates years ago. We were both raised by our grandparents so we were always a little bit more old fashioned than the other kids our age. We old ladies stuck together when the other people got wasted at college parties."

"So you've know each other for a while then?"

"Yes, similar to you guys, we're each other's family too. Both our grandparents passed on a few years ago and since then it's just been the 2 of us. I don't know what I would have done if she hadn't made it tonight. As it is, I'm pretty sure she took 20 years off my life."

"I'm glad she'll be fine." Yoongi said softly. "And I'm glad nothing worse happened to you earlier." He said as he rubbed his thumb reassuringly across Aerin's palm.

She didn't think he even noticed what he was doing but she felt comforted all the same. They continued to share stories for the next 4 hours, talking about their different lives, what they did for fun and just random anecdotes and funny things that have happened to them.

At about 6am, a nurse came in to check on Aerin and declared her to be concussion free and gave her permission to sleep.

Aerin was relieved. When she got the all clear, she stood up to stretch and realized she ha been holding on to Yoongi's hand this whole time. She unfurled her hand and let out a sheepish "sorry" to Yoongi. He smiled but looked ... disappointed? Before she could examine what that meant, she saw Jungkook's hand move from the corner of her eye.

She quickly moved to his bedside, as she waved Yoongi over. Jungkook's eyes were glazed over and confused as he woke up. She tried to be reassuring and said softly, "Good morning JK." His eyes focused on hers, before he smiled and slurred out, "Well hello there, pretty lady." As soon as he finished his greeting, he closed his eyes and went back to sleep.

Aerin swallowed back her laughter to look up at Yoongi. She could see the mirth in his eyes, mixed with immense relief as he said, "This damn rascal. I think he's going to be ok."