"Oh, you're finally back!"
"I thought you guys would never come back!"
"How did everything go?"
The moment you, Yoongi, and Jimin step out into the clearing, you're bombarded by questions flying at you left and right.
"I thought Y/N had brought you two to the nice house she was talking about and ditched us all here by ourselves," Taehyung continues with his dramatic antics as he runs up to his fellow '95 line partner in crime and links their arms together cutely.
"You didn't really think I would do that, right?" you chuckle, knowing very well the tiger hybrid is only joking around.
"No, because we all know that I'm your favorite so you would never leave me here with the rest of them," the older male retorts with a wink.
"Oh, please," Yoongi scoffs with an eye roll.
"By the way, Chim," Taehyung changes the subject, paying no attention to the grumbling snow leopard hybrid. "Why do you smell sweet?"
"I do?" the fox hybrid asks unsurely as his tongue quickly darts out to swipe at his bottom lip subconsciously.
"Yeah," the younger male nods eagerly while leaning in closer to his packmate to sniff at the corner of his lips carefully. "You smell vaguely of sugar and cinnamon."
"That's because Y/N treated us to some delicious desserts on the way back from the meeting," Yoongi answers Taehyung's interrogative questions.
"Desserts? What kind of desserts?" Hoseok joins in on the conversation from where he's currently braiding delicate flower crowns for the two panther hybrids to wear. Your heart nearly melts at the adoring sight of Jungkook lounging on the grass against the pack leader - both of whom are in their animal forms.
"I stopped to buy some churros when I found out that you guys have never had any," you say, making your way closer to where the rest of the pack is gathered at the center. "In fact, I bought you all some churros too."
"Kookie! I'm not done with your crown yet! It's going to fall apart if you go running around like that," Hoseok suddenly yelps. When you crane your neck to look at the commotion, you turn just in time to see Jungkook, in his human form, barreling towards you at full speed with a dainty flower crown placed lopsidedly on the top of his head.
"I heard you bought us some dessert," the pack's youngest smiles at you cutely while slinging an arm around your shoulders when he finally reaches you.
"Gosh, Kook," Seokjin clicks his tongue disapprovingly as he approaches the two of you, only to reach a hand out to pinch at the black panther hybrid's ear. Jungkook immediately whines in discomfort at the sudden pressure and tries to use his other hand to swat at the eldest's hand. "You could at least greet her before you talk about the dessert she bought you."
"Hi, Y/N," Jungkook smiles sheepishly. "What's a churro?"
"It's deep-fried dough coated with sugar and cinnamon. It's very delicious," you explain as you begin to unpack the takeout bag with said desserts. "You can either eat them in their original flavor, or you can also dip them in this chocolate sauce they gave us."
You watch in anticipation as everyone in the pack approaches the desserts and grabs a churro to try. Just as you recommended, some of them nibble on their desserts to taste the original flavor first. Others jump straight into dipping their dessert into the chocolate sauce. You can't help but feel a wave of warmth spread throughout your body when their eyes light up in delight and they continue to eat their churros with happy smiles on their faces.
"Oh, this is delicious!" Seokjin beams as he takes another bite.
"Thank you for the treat, Y/N!" Hoseok giggles as he bends his churro into the shape of a heart for you.
"I'm so glad you all love them so much," you chuckle. "Do you like it with chocolate?"
"Makes it even sweeter," Jungkook nods enthusiastically.
"You know, ours came with ice cream," Yoongi states smugly.
"Ice cream?" Taehyung gapes, mid bite.
"Oh, it was very good with ice cream," Jimin nods along. "Cool one bite and warm the next."
"Sorry guys, if I had ordered ice cream to bring back, it would have melted by the time we arrived and your churros would have gotten soggy," you apologize sheepishly. "I promise I'll bring you guys with me next time so you can try the churros with ice cream too."
"I'm holding this promise against you," Seokjin teases with a soft smile.
"So, how did the meeting go?" Namjoon asks after a beat of silence. "It went on longer than I expected it to."
As soon as the pack leader makes his point, you suddenly realize how true his statement is. You yourself had only anticipated for the meeting to last around an hour - given that Soobin was using his lunch break to meet up with you guys. Yet, by the time you, Yoongi, and Jimin walked back to your car parked down in the basement lot, it had already been three hours since you first met with the lawyer.
"I honestly didn't realize how long the meeting lasted until now," you chuckle. "I guess Soobin didn't have any clients to meet with after his lunch break."
"What if he left them waiting?" Yoongi points out.
"I don't think Soobin would do that. He might be extremely friendly and easy-going, but he's still very professional when it comes to his job," you refute with a gentle shake of your head. "And to answer your second question, Namjoon, the meeting went well. We covered a lot."
"What if he just extended the meeting to stay with you longer. It seems like the two of you are pretty close," Jimin ponders with a slight quirk of his eyebrow. Your eyebrows raise in surprise at the fox hybrid's statement and the rest of the pack shares confused glances with each other.
"I highly doubt it," you shake your head. "Plus, Soobin and I aren't even that close. We have only known each other for a little over a month."
"Are you jealous, Jiminie?" Hoseok teases with a slight smirk.
"Me? No," the fox hybrid shoots the older male down quickly.
"I would be jealous too if I were too busy growling at Y/N like a pup for a month instead of building a nice friendship with her," Taehyung shrugs smugly. Jimin lets out a loud gasp before he's jumping to tackle the tiger hybrid in a playful, yet reprimanding, fight.
"Should we be stopping them?" you ask in alarm when you notice Jimin leaning down to nip at Taehyung's neck.
"No, let them be," Seokjin waves you off. "They know not to actually hurt each other."
"Kook, don't you even think about going to cause extra trouble," Namjoon states sternly without even glancing at the youngest pack member. When you search around for the black panther, you're surprised to see him halfway between you and the wrestling duo with a mischievous glint in his eyes.
"I was just going to watch," he responds innocently.
"You can watch from here," Namjoon shakes his head.
"Come here, Kookie. I want to finish your flower crown," Hoseok proposes as he scoots over to make space for the youngest.
"But I don't even want to wear it," Jungkook whines. "It's too dainty."
"I think you look cute in it, though," you add with a small smile.
"You do?" the panther perks up.
"A hundred percent," you nod firmly.
"Okay, Hobi. You can finish your crown," Jungkook proclaims happily as he plops himself down next to the red panda hybrid.
"What did you guys talk about during the meeting?" Seokjin asks curiously.
"We mainly worked on drafting a rough timeline for what's going to happen and when. Soobin brought all of the information we needed to get into contact with the contracting team and he also showed Yoongi and Jimin the potential properties you guys will be staying in for the duration of the project," you summarize.
"What do they look like?" Jungkook asks curiously, his head now in Hoseok's lap as the older male works on finishing the crown. "Are they big? Will we each get our own rooms?"
"Well, it depends on which specific house we're talking about. But some of them are large enough for each of you to room alone," you ponder with pursed lips.
"You don't want to share a room with me, Kookie?" Hoseok teases with a chuckle.
"Here, I'll show you what they look like," Yoongi says as he pulls out your iPad and finds the pictures of the different houses.
"Y/N bought you an iPad?" Taehyung pants as he and Jimin make their way back towards the group. "I knew I should have gone."
"No, dummy," Jimin scoffs. "That's Y/N's. She just let us use it to look at the pictures of the houses."
"Oh, I wanna see too!" the tiger hybrid exclaims excitedly as he dashes over towards where Yoongi is showing the rest of the pack.
You watch their reactions with a tiny smile pulling on your lips. With each new picture, someone has something new to comment on. Some pictures elicit greater reactions than others, but you can tell they're all amazed by the different options.
"Do you have a favorite house?" you ask Jimin as he takes a seat a couple of feet away from you.
"Me?" he asks with a slight hint of shock in his tone, turning to look at you with wide eyes.
"Yeah," you nod. "You and Yoongi spent a rather long time whispering to each other in the back of my car while looking at the houses on our drive back."
"I liked the rectangle one," he answers timidly. You rack your brain for the images of each property before you finally realize he's referring to the modern house located just on the outskirts of downtown.
"Oh? Why not the other ones?" you decide to tease softly.
"Well the other ones are also pretty," Jimin quickly refutes quickly as if he's scared he had just offended you. "And very big too. But-"
"It's okay, Jimin," you giggle. "I'm just teasing. I also personally prefer the aesthetic of modern designs. The lines are very clean cut and make the property look luxurious."
"Oh, yes," the fox hybrid nods enthusiastically in agreement.
"Do you want to incorporate any of those designs into your future house?" you ask as a follow-up question. Jimin looks off to the side to ponder for a moment and you take this moment to appreciate his beauty up close. Previously, you've never been close enough to him to notice the two moles dotting the smooth skin on his collarbone.
"Y/N, we like this one!" Taehyung calls out to you excitedly as he snatches the iPad out of Yoongi's grasp and turns it to show you which property he's referring to. Coincidentally, it happens to be the same house Jimin likes best.
"Tae, don't just snatch that away from Yoongi. What if you drop it and break it?" Seokjin scolds the younger male.
"Sorry," the tiger hybrid mumbles before handing it back to the snow leopard.
"Jimin told me he likes that one best too," you smile. "Have you guys decided that you want to stay there?"
"Yes, if that's okay with you," Namjoon nods.
"Of course! In fact, that property is closest to my apartment so I'll probably be able to visit you guys more frequently," you nod quickly.
"Great, let's go right now!" Taehyung yelps excitedly while getting up from his spot.
"Not so fast, tiger," you chuckle. "We still have other things to discuss and other tasks to complete first. For example, you still need to pack all of your things to clear this area before the contracting team can start building."
"When exactly are they starting?" Seokjin asks.
"That's actually completely up to you guys."
"We called the contracting team during our meeting today," Yoongi says to fill the rest of the pack in. "We let them know that we're going to be proceeding with Mr. Han's project and asked for their availability."
"Oh, so they're busy?" Namjoon questions in confusion.
"When Mr. Han passed and when the team was informed, they put our project on hold but they still had a team on stand-by. So they said that they'll be ready to start whenever we're ready," Jimin explains.
"I can bring boxes tomorrow for you guys to pack your things in. That way, you can start whenever you're ready," you propose.
"That would be lovely. Thanks, Y/N," the eldest hybrid smiles at you appreciatively.
"Is there anything else we need to do?" Hoseok asks.
When you glance over at him, he's already finished with Jungkook's flower crown and the youngest packmate is now resting on his lap with his eyes closed and a lazy smile on his lips. The only sign that tells you that Jungkook is still awake is the lazy movement of his tail waving back and forth every now and then.
"There's nothing else that is too urgent," you shake your head. "However, once you're all packed and maybe after you guys settle into your temporary house, I'll need to bring some, if not all of you, with me to pick out the details of your house."
"Details? What details?"
"Details such as cabinetry, countertops, paint colors, wallpaper if you choose to have some fun patterns, flooring, and all that fun stuff," you name a few. "I'll especially need the artistic bunches of the pack with me then."
"Oh, I want to go!" Jungkook and Taehyung exclaim simultaneously as they instantly perk up just as you had expected them to.
"Great," you chuckle softly. "I'll need all seven of you with me at some point because you also have your individual rooms to decorate - not to mention we'll also need to go furniture shopping and maybe plant shopping if you guys decide you want a small garden in the front or backyard."
"A garden? We're in the middle of a forest, though," Yoongi hums in confusion.
"Well, maybe we can grow our own vegetables and fruits," Seokjin muses.
"Do you think we can buy some small indoor plants too?" Namjoon asks hopefully.
"Of course," you nod. "But until then, you guys should start packing and I'll call the team to let them know we can start this project by the end of next week."
♡ ♡ ♡
Happy Monday, my lovely Dalgis! How'd you guys like this week's chapter? I honestly didn't think I would be able to post this in time because I literally only had the first paragraph drafted on Saturday. But I ended up sitting down in front of my laptop and typing this entire chapter out within an hour later that night, haha. So my apologies if it sounds rushed or a little boring.
Also, I completely forgot to mention in my author's note last week that the interior design of Soobin's office was inspired by the new Hybe building. I'm literally in love with that building. The color palette is a bit dark for my taste but it's breathtaking nonetheless!
Question of the Week: Would you rather spend five days visiting any of the Disney parks, or five days exploring New York City?
I've personally been to three major Disney parks (Shanghai Disney in China, Disneyland in California, and Disney World in Florida) - seven different parks in total (Shanghai Disney, Disneyland, California Adventure Park, Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom, and Epcot). And up until the pandemic hit, I used to visit the California parks frequently because my school performed there every year. I've also traveled to New York City when I was younger. But If I have to choose between the two, I'd definitely go back to explore NYC for five days. Don't get me wrong, I love Disney and although the food is extremely overpriced, spending time at their theme parks is still really fun. However, I think now that I'm older, I have places that I want to visit in NYC and not just places my parents make me go. I also have a deeper appreciation for traveling. When I was younger, most of my vacations just consisted of me counting down the days until I got to go home, lmao.
Quick side note, I swear Hybe is trying to kill me (figuratively!). I just ordered the Butter CD this weekend, then Enhypen released BORDER : Hanakai today and I'm so tempted to purchase that too! (Can we please talk about the new Given-Taken MV? There's so much to unpack!!) I've also been itching to purchase The Chaos Chapter: FREEZE because this comeback just really hit different for me. But I've also been dying to purchase The Dream Chapter: ETERNITY and minisode1: Blue Hour ever since they came out but never found the strength in me to spend even more money. Honestly, at this point, I've already sold my soul to Hybe so a little more money can't hurt, right? Someone, please stop me from spending money :")
Anyways, if you've read up to here, thank you so much! I know my author's notes tend to be on the longer side but I just get really excited to share details about my life with you guys. As always, I love you all so much and I hope you have a great week!
Until next Monday,
Dalgi Jungoo 🍓