Take Me to the Sky | BTS+

"Well Done, Joonie."

Ava felt a bit better after a long soak in a luxury bubble bath, wine glass in hand and plenty of time for her thoughts to settle in solitary silence.

She was now cozied up into a chair in the living room area of the young women's suite, pen and notebook in her hands, processing an avalanche of experiences and emotions she needed to sort through. Ava scratched thoughts into a notebook Tae had so graciously provided her.

Ava sipped her white dessert wine and nibbled on the tarts that Chim had personally delivered to her while Tae had been asking her delicately and tactfully about the day's events. His occasional encouragements that "It's going to be alright, Miss Ava," were still warming her heart even after Chimin and Taehyung had left her alone to her thoughts.

She was in the middle of writing the following:

...I mean, I've been into my fair share of bad boys with delicious smiles, but I think this mysterious Min Yoongi takes the cake. And I'm like, damn, why does he have to be some sworn enemy or something? We could be magic. Sexy, studded earring, all-black-wearing magic. Except that Lilith comment he made was SO uncalled for, like....

Then the door to the suite clicked opened.

It was Shae. Shae and Joon.

Ava's eyebrows arched high and she held her wine glass up to her lips, not taking a drink as she watched on.

Joon was holding Shae's hand.

Ava muttered, "Uh huh."

Joon lifted Shae's hand up to his dopey grin, kissed it, then took his sweet, shy time to lean towards her and kiss her softly on the forehead.

"Goodnight," he said in an unusually endearing voice.

"Goodnight," Shae cooed back.

The letting go of the hands was the slow, lingering skinship that Ava didn't know she had been waiting for. She watched, fully living for the way that he and Shae gave their final farewells.

As soon as Shae had shut the door behind her she turned around and braced herself against it.

Meanwhile, Ava set her wine glass down with a satisfying CLINK and smirked.

"So."

All Shae could answer with was a giggle.

Ava blinked twice, quickly. "Um. What." Her voice had a mock uncertainty in it when she asked, "What's goin' on, Shae?"

Shae covered her face in her hands completely now, still smiling and leaning back against the door.

Then Ava's voice was ironically magnanimous, "Come, my friend. Come drink some of this ridiculously good wine, eat some of these fruity desserts, and spare me no detail."

Spare no detail, Shae did.

Once Shae got to the part about the kiss, Ava was thrown into all the reveries of a best friend attaching every excited and charged emotion into the retelling, as she exclaimed, "Um, someone fetch me a knight, because I need to swoon and I need someone to catch me."

Shae put her hands over her cheeks, as if to see if her cheeks could even possibly stop smiling. Not at the moment, no.

"Well done, Joonie. Well played." Ava was shaking her head, pleased.

Shae couldn't stop giggling. Eventually her brain spiraled out of her own euphoria to say, "Ok but I have to ask. I mean, I know that things went weird today, but let's just set that aside for a second. That Yoongi guy."

"Oh my gosh, have you ever seen anyone who was more my type in the history of our entire lives?"

Shae chuckled. "I don't know, Tae might be putting in a good run at this point."

Ava sighed. "Tae is a gem who is too pure for this world. I live to swoon for his gorgeous face and excellent manners. So encouraging and kind...."

"I'm sensing a but."

"BUT. I can't deny that Yoongi is just...different."

Shae shoved a corner of a tart in her mouth, grinning. "Here we go."

"But like, we can't talk about that, because he's also an asshole who was gonna try and murder my best friend. And that's unacceptable." Ava cleared her throat. "Anyway. It is what it is. I'm not too worried about boys and feelings at this point. I'm more..." the tone shifted in the room a bit, and Shae pulled the throw blanket around her a little tighter, "...more worried about what happened with you today."

"Yeah. That."

"It's just," the humor had shifted to annoyance in Ava's voice, "that you've never really been one to keep secrets from me. That's what best friends are there for, after all. Except this. It just happened out of nowhere, and suddenly it was this feeling like I don't even know you. And I hated that feeling. I hated it so much."

"Yeah. Me too. I could tell you weren't taking it well. Whatever...it was."

"So you don't know? You're not hiding some deep, dark secrets about your past life as an alien or whatever?"

"Ava!"

"What? Now's the time to come clean."

"Well, you know that I was adopted when I was really young."

Ava nodded.

"So, all I can think is that...maybe my real parents were somehow connected to this time and place? Joon and the others were talking about the mark on my arm like they knew what it was, but I didn't really get to ask them much about it...."

"Yes, you were busy. Obviously," Ava said through a grin.

Shae threw a pillow in response, but she grinning while she did it.

Ava deflected it with her hand, wine and glass intact, giggling. Then she asked, "So they do know, though? What it is, what it means?"

"I think so," Shae answered. "I plan to ask Joon more later. I just...wanted to enjoy the moment I guess."

"Girl, I get it." Ava fanned herself a moment. "I really do."

"So are you thinking that Tae's a no-go?"

"I wouldn't say that. He's just... how do I put it?"

"All you need is a sparing mat, a sweaty Kim Taehyung for a sparring partner, and who knows? Maybe he'll look just as tasty as Yoongi did."

"This. This is why we're friends."