Fate's Little Bell

Chapter 9

 I sat on the couch in the living room half-watching the Today Show. The sheet mask on my face was starting to dry out as I waited impatiently for BTS to come on. The TV was muted and I had my headphones in my ears, as I watched the ON: Kinetic Manifesto Film for the fifth time this morning. I'd managed to listen to all the songs without completely breaking down into sobs, though I definitely had done more than my fair share of fangirling and shouting "OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD" at the top of my lungs.

As I waited, my fingers danced nervously on my thigh, and if there'd been piano keys there instead, I probably would've been playing scales. The full blatant nerve wracking reality that I was going to hang out with Jeongguk hadn't quite hit me until last night, when I'd been getting ready for bed and realized that I needed to look decent the next day. My mother had been kind enough to braid my hair last night, so now I was sporting a pair of decently even, slightly-messy-but-in-a-cute-way, long brown braids. The cosmetic sheet mask was also playing a major role in my attempt to look decent, especially since to convince Jeongguk to take his makeup off before coming to see me, I'd had to agree to not wear any myself. Which wasn't exactly fair, seeing as he's already a million times more attractive than me, but oh well.

Keeping one eye on the TV, I tapped on a notification from Instagram, and was brought to my group chat with Prudence and Helena, who were both doing their very best to help me find a decent outfit that would work with the weather on such short notice.

"What coat are u gonna wear?" Prudence asked.

I unmuted the TV and got up from the couch, dashing over to the coat closet and pulling out my blue duffel coat and a cute slightly cropped grey one. Carrying the coats, I ran back to the living room, scared I'd miss something. I did not.

"One of these, depending on my outfit," I said, sending them a picture of both coats.

"Oooooooo," Helena said. "I like the grey one!!!!!!!"

I liked her message.

"Me too," Prudence said.

"Okay, I'll wear that one then, but what should I wear under it? I don't think anything with a skirt would work, so I was thinking either blue or black jeans...."

"I think blue," Prudence said. "They're more u."

I laughed. "You know me so well," I responded.

"The shirt can't be long cuz it won't look good with the jacket," she continued.

I nodded. That made sense. "Honestly," I typed, "I kinda just want to wear this old white t-shirt from when I graduated elementary school... is that bad?" After adding a sweating, nervous face, I sent it.

"Hmmm," Prudence said. "Maybe if u tied it?"

"Lol that's so you," Helena said. I grinned.

On the TV, there was a commercial break, so I went into my room to change and try stuff on. I pulled on my comfy medium blue jeans and the white shirt. It was probably the comfiest shirt I owned and it had once been covered in sharpie signatures, but years of washings had rendered them unintelligible. I tied it at my spine with a hair tie and left the room. Seeing that it was still a commercial, I grabbed the grey jacket and went over to the full mirror on the inside of the coat closet door and took a couple pictures of myself, both with and without the jacket. Before I walked back to the living room, I threw out my dry face mask and sent them the photos. They thought the outfit was decently cute, and very me.

Back in the living room, I could see on the TV that the members of BTS were assembling on stage in some teaser footage.

"Ahhhhh," I typed frantically. "It's happening!!!!!! Gksjksdjksjfksj."