He picks up on the second ring.
"Hey," Suga answers. You can hear the chaos of an outdoor shoot around him. But you suppress the urge to ask how it's going.
"What did you do?" you snap instead.
"It is over?" Suga is sitting snugly in a chair, a black winter overall wrapped around him and a pair of heating pads in his lap. You had called right around the break. Only one last shot was left for the day.
"Seriously, Yoongi. What did you do?"
"You needed someone to buy you time. I bought you time."
You give an exasperated sigh. Despite the annoyance you feel at his cryptic answers, you can't help but get all warmed up hearing his low voice, his softly accented d's and t's. It seems ages since you guys had a proper conversation. Even this morning, although you had noticed some stiffness in his tone when he answered your call, you had to jump straight to the point without addressing it. It was supposed to be a formal call. Update him on the situation because of the implications it could have. It was stupid of you to think it could be just that.
"I thought the mafia thing was a joke," you continue in a less aggressive tone.
"It was. Until you told me what that asshole did. And that you needed him to shut up and not do anything for some time. Couldn't miss that opportunity, could I?" he finishes in a murky tone.
"Opportunity to do what?" you ask.
"Are you worried about him - ?"
" - are you mad? I'm worried about you!" you snap. "You're - we're artists for fuck's sake! We have to toe the line - I've had to entertain requests to perform in front of these - these - businessmen - it's hard enough saying no to those - and you can't just go ask them for a favor for nothing!" you shudder. That too for me. But no, maybe you're giving yourself too much credit. He has to save his own brand - that would come first, wouldn't it?
Suga hadn't really thought twice before doing what he did this morning. The panic in your voice. The mention of that ass of a former manager. The sheer urge to skip his shoot to fly in and take care of everything - of you - himself. But you - you had been acting dodgy since a few days - calling less, texting differently. He was trying hard to keep the walls from crumbling around him again. To hear you go ballistic over his wellbeing despite the shitstorm you were in was making it hard for him to stay defensive. Still, there were other things.
"Ah, so that's what this is about," he replies slowly, "I can't do something for you? Does it make you that uncomfortable?"
It's buried under a load of irony but the hurt in his voice doesn't escape your notice. Outside, your car has entered the slow-moving traffic once again.
"Of course not. Discomfort is the last thing I -" you stop because you can't lie. You felt guilty involving him, you felt guilty about this whole thing. " - it's just something DK said," you clutch the folds of your dress, "that I use other people to get ahead and you - you did get dragged into this because of me - I shouldn't've asked you to - I was just panicking in the morning -" you hold back a sob.
" -Y/N, kumanhe," Yoongi's voice softens, "he is trying to get to you. You did the right thing telling me. And please understand - I did what I wanted to."
You let his words sink in. In the morning, you called him only because Monica told you to. It was him who'd asked you if you needed him to distract DK. And that you didn't need to worry about it at all. He could have shut you out then. Scolded you for not being careful. Blamed the whole thing on you.
Instead, he came through.
There's a pause. Finally, you let yourself open up.
"I saw it happening – you know when something's been happening to you but one day you're able to see it – DK kept saying stuff – like I can't do a thing by myself – and while it affected me, a part of me awoke to the fact that it was bullshit, he was manipulating me like he always had," you say bitterly. "It's scary how believable he sounded, even after all this time."
"You are better than him. You're doing better than him, all by yourself. He must hate that," he says.
"I am better than him," you wipe away a stray tear.
"Mmhmm, smarter, nicer, cooler, definitely better looking," he adds in an extremely serious voice.
You chuckle drily in response. "You still haven't told me the deal with those scary guys," you circle back.
Yoongi snorts, "you can hire people to do stuff. It's that simple. It is obviously not - on the right side of things - but there are no weird favors involved," he pauses a little before adding softly, "they'll make sure he never comes close to you again -"
" - never comes close how?" you ask quickly.
"There are ways,"
"Ways? What ways? See this is why I feel I made you do something bad -"
" - aish, he is going to sign a restraining order! That's it. That's what he does to people, doesn't he? Trap them in contracts. So this time, if he says anything about you to anyone, engages with any of your IP, tries to fucking breathe within a mile from you - we'll make him pay." He clutches the heating pad in his lap a little too tightly.
You breathe a couple of times to digest this. The question is on your tongue - why, why would you do that for me, Min Yoongi?
"Y/N? Are you there?" he asks.
He wonders if he's overstepped. He was waiting for quite some time for an opportunity to swat this pest of a person away from you. It was extremely satisfying to have done it. But your silence was making him doubt it now.
"I'm here," you finally answer. You're just realizing that between what Yoongi had done and what Monica was doing right now, DK was so fucked.
"So how'd you manage to get the police involved?" he tries to get you talking again.
You hadn't told him much in the morning. Just that DK had you stalked and was blackmailing you with a photo of the two of you.
"So, Monica, after our last - well - showdown - with DK, put a private investigator on him. She figured he might try to scare me into something if we went after him again."
You sniffle before continuing, "turns out the PI found tons of stuff. Embezzlement and I don't know what else. So she kept all of that to use as a bargaining chip. But he made sure we didn't have time for that and frankly, I didn't want to play this game anymore. So, she's gone and made a formal complaint. It'll be up to the police to prosecute him and since I know people, it'll happen faster. As for that photo, she had an agency trace it and delete it from everywhere. Unless of course DK has a printout somewhere but I guess you've taken care of that with the - the -"
" - mafia?" he suggests.
You let out a wail.
"Hey, it's over - it's all good now, isn't it? Please don't cry."
"Yeah, it is - we won the vote - though once he's formally arrested, he'll have to resign from the foundation anyway," you sniffle again. "I'm sorry I just had a stressful day and no matter what you say I'm still embarrassed that you got dragged into this drama -"
" - Yah. It wasn't your fault. Stop feeling sorry."
You become quiet. The car is back to moving by the inch.
You like this feeling of being indebted to him, but the part of you that's aware of how stupidly you've acted in the last few days refuses to let you accept it.
At first, you couldn't figure out what was off about the whole thing. But then it came to you. First, the guilt - he was vulnerable on the night of his birthday, and instead of taking care of him till he got sober, you got drunk too, and decided to do him. Partly. And then, there was the matter of the things he said. You didn't know what to believe and it was annoying. So, so, annoying.
Of course, the logical thing was to go and talk to him.
But, instead of facing it, you decided to act all dry, confusing him and yourself too. Do you even want this enough?
So, whatever gratitude you felt right now was laced with that sinking feeling that you were getting something you did not deserve at all.
Meanwhile, Suga can't figure out your silence. Do you mind him being there? You keep saying that you feel embarrassed about him being a part of this, but isn't that a part of just being in each other's lives? You would get caught up in each other's drama. You did get caught up in his back in Daegu. And he hated that you were in danger, but he didn't hate that you were there. And so he wants to ask you, do you mind him being there that much? But he doesn't know how to.
"Will you be okay?" he asks instead.
"Yeah," you respond in a slow way, "I'll go back to the hotel. Crash. Put this behind me. Go on tour," you conclude. You feel like he wants to say something else, but he's not doing it for some reason.
"Aren't you on a shoot?" you ask.
"I am,"
"What was it for again?"
"Sorry. Can't tell you."
You click your tongue in protest. Typical, typical Yoongi.
"They're calling me," the amusement's back in his voice.
"Fine, go," you chortle, "and stay in touch."
He sighs, "you'll be busy."
"Not more than you,"
"Mmhmm,"
There's a pause.
"Well, whatever it is, go now and do well," you add finally.
You say it with so much tenderness that Suga feels petty for not telling it to you. He was collaborating with Psy. Your words were still there in his head - the little hopeful beat you'd noticed - he wanted you to know that it was there all the more in this song.
"Take care, Y/N," he says.
"I will -"
" - you know you can call me if you need me?"
"I know. The same goes for you," And you wanted to call him even when you didn't need him.
"See you."
"Lo - see you." You fumble and disconnect the call, hands clasped over your own mouth.
What the actual fuck, Y/N.
Staring at his contact, you realize you forgot to say thank you as usual.
Meanwhile, Suga wonders if he's hearing things.
-unedited-