Stigma Love's Algorithm [ A BTS x Reader Poly ]

Chapter 128: A Glass House

Too familiar.

I glance down the stairs.

Tae is sitting halfway down, elbows on his knees, hands dangling. He's staring at nothing. But he feels it too-I can see it in the way he doesn't blink.

Our eyes meet.
He lifts one brow.
Just enough to say: You feel that?

I nod.
Just enough to say: Yeah. I see it too.

Gabriel unrolls the final blueprints across the studio table. The scratch of paper on wood is the only sound for a beat.

Yoongi hyung appears in the doorway behind me, mug in one hand, laptop under his arm.

He doesn't step inside.
He doesn't need to.
He just watches.

Quiet. Calculating.

Kook's somewhere behind him, sitting on the floor with Bam, maybe, or pacing like he does when he's thinking too hard and trying not to punch furniture.

Gab flips one page, then another.

His fingers are calloused from drafting, and his voice is light as he says,

"Remember when you tripped into the school choir? Sang for the entire mass with a scraped knee and half a sock missing?"

Noona laughs. Loud.
The real kind.

"I was bleeding and still had to sing You Raise Me Up," she says between giggles.

"I should've been raised up to the infirmary."

Everyone chuckles-politely.
Except Jungkook.

I glance past Yoongi hyung.

Kook's leaning against the doorframe now, arms folded, jaw set. Not glaring. But definitely not laughing.

And that-more than anything-tells me this isn't over.

It's not that we don't like Gabriel.

He's fine.
Capable. Talented.
Earned his place in the design process.

And he's been part of Noona's life since before any of us showed up.

But there's something in the way he fits too easily. Talks too easily. Touches too easily.

Like he didn't get the memo that this space?

This life?
Isn't just hers anymore.
It's ours.

Hobi hyung stands, stretches, gently lifting Tannie with both hands like he's made of bubbles.

He walks into the room with that signature grace-softening everything just by being in it-and leans casually against the table, eyes flitting from blueprint to body language.

"You two have a lot of stories," he says lightly. "You've been like that ever since?"

Gab nods. "Met in the third grade. Made it her goal to beat me at chess and stole my peanut butter sandwich, bet she only did that to annoy me"

Noona grins.

"Can't deny that, 'til to this day, I still hate peanut butter."

Hobi hyung's smile widens, but it doesn't quite reach his eyes.

"Wild. You'd think those stories would come up more often."

Yoongi hyung doesn't speak. But I can feel the tension roll off him like static.

Tae finally stands, dusts off his sweats, and walks in with deliberate slowness, like every step has a purpose.

He wanders over to the table, stares down at the blueprints, and then glances up at Noona.