After Jungkook had left, taking her old computer with him like he promised Yoongi, she had stayed up way too late messing around on it. All of her things had moved over exactly as planned and Yoongi even had them pre-install a few other things onto it. Rae had quite literally fallen asleep with her computer still open in front of her. Since it was a Saturday, she had no alarm set and woke up at around 10:00 in the morning - not remembering when she had fallen asleep. As well as the group chat, most of the messages there between members trying to figure out plans for the day, she had several messages from one member in particular that put a smile on her face.
Rae's heart skipped a beat. Shopping with Hobi sounded like an absolute dream - but meeting his sister spiked her anxiety. That was the first family member of any of theirs she would be meeting. It was nerve-wracking for her to think of it.
Baby, it's okay! Hobi's sister is the best! You'll love her! Jungkook said to her happily. Jin was next to echo that statement.
Jagi, if there is anyone you should meet first in our families it is her. She's like Hobi in female form.
Okay, if you guys say so....
Rae remembered that she hadn't texted Hobi back and frantically typed a response.
Rae cursed as she jumped out of bed and scrambled to get ready. She hopped in the shower and quickly dried her hair, then ran to her closet to pick something out. Deciding to give up, she FaceTimed Jade.
"Good morning my beautiful best friend! What's up?" Jade looked like she had been up for hours as she walked around her and Han's apartment.
"I need help. Brunch with Hobi and his sister in 20 minutes." Rae said quickly, knowing Jade would understand.
"I will be there in two minutes." The phone promptly hung up and two minutes later, Jade was at the door. Perks of living in the same building. "Alright, let's see what we got."
"Not much." Rae mumbled. She didn't do a whole lot of dressing up, since she was always either in class or at home.
"It's okay, he's gonna change that - is that a new computer?! Holy - "
"Yoongi bought it - but Jade focus! He's gonna be here at 11!" Rae rushed, constantly checking the time.
"Shit, shit okay. Are you okay with anything?" Jade asked, feeling the urgency.
"Yes!"
"Perfect." With that, Jade tore through Rae's closet quickly, starting with a black pleated skirt and throwing it on her bed. Then she quickly worked once more through all her shirts and found something that she liked - a three-quarter sleeve blush pink blouse. Jade yelled at her to put those on while she decided on the shoes she would wear. While she did that, Rae put on some makeup and before she knew it, it was 10:55. "Okay, wear this pair of flats!"
"You're a lifesaver." Rae said, slipping on the shoes and fixing her hair quickly.
"I know. I'm gonna go before he gets here, good luck!" she said, running out of the door. Rae swears Jade had been gone for not even thirty seconds before there was a knock at the door and her heart was racing. Her bag wasn't even ready and he was here. Taking a deep breath, she went to the door and there was Hobi, smiling wide.
"Hi cutie!" he said happily.
"Hi! I just need to get my bag together, but come in!" she said to him. She lead him inside her apartment as she walked to her room, throwing her things in a purse. Hobi had followed her, hand in his pocket.
"I got you something, wanna see?" he asked with a smile. Rae turned to look at him, putting her purse around herself as he pulled a bright red box out of his pocket - is that fucking Cartier?!
Damn it, he's outdoing us! Jungkook said angrily.
Aish, what to do now... Jin said back to him.
I thought I had him, that asshole. Yoongi's bitter comment was next.
Guys. Leave them alone. Namjoon spoke up, quieting the peanut gallery.
"Hobi... that's way too nice for me..." Rae said shyly. She wasn't used to getting, well, anything. A new laptop from Yoongi for school, and then this from Hobi? She almost feared what the rest would do.
"Quite the opposite, it isn't nice enough." he said to her, taking it out of the box. It was a solid gold bangle with eight diamonds around the bangle. It was absolutely beautiful and she certainly didn't deserve it. "Stop that head of yours, cutie. Can I give you a kiss and then put it on?" he asked.
"Yes." Rae said bashfully. He smiled at her a smile to light up the moon and leaned down, giving her a kiss. A happy, joyful feeling spread through her as their lips connected. His arm that didn't have the box in it wrapped around her waist gently as they both reveled in the feeling of being complete. It was just as magical as Yoongi and Jungkook - that same feeling of her heart being filled in. Hobi knew himself what the others had talked about, feeling this amount of joy. He was complete and he was so happy.
Hobi cut the kiss short though, breaking away to instantly lean his lips down and kiss his mark on her - the small burning going away. She had noticed it but it wasn't that bad yet, but Hobi knew he had to kiss it before it got worse.
"There, now let's put this on and go meet my sister! Before she burns Seoul down." Hobi joked. Rae let out a giggle as he put it on her right arm, the arm that had her marks. Hobi's flower was a bright, neon pink. Nice and happy, perfect for him she thought. "Perfect! Let's go." he said to her, pressing another kiss to her lips. Rae felt her stomach do flips as they kissed and held hands down to where his car was. "My sister is excited to meet you! She won't shut up about finally having a girl to hang around with."
"Really?" Rae asked. As an ARMY, she remembered reading about Hobi's sister opening up a clothing company and doing some Youtube videos. Rae had followed her on Instagram and admired her looks and fashion sense.
"Oh yeah. She loves the guys, but when she found out our last soulmate was a girl, she went off the rails. In a good way!" Hobi said to her. Hobi held her hand the entire drive, asking her about school and then about the laptop Yoongi got her. He laughed at her when she said she had fallen asleep on it the previous night. He reiterated that he wanted to hear some of her projects, making her blush. "We should do something together for my mixtape!"
"Wait, what?" Rae asked. Were these guys all nuts? Why did they want to hear what she made in class so bad? She only did those things to pass her classes and graduate.
"As long as it doesn't overwhelm your schoolwork." he added, probably to save his ass from Jin and Namjoon.
"Back up a second, you want me to make something with you for your mixtape?" she asked him once more. He let out a laugh as he made a turn into a part of Seoul that she wasn't overly familiar with - the richer part.
"Yeah! Why not? We could spend a ton of time together - hey maybe if we contacted your school it could count towards an Internship or something! That way it counts for something school-related." he proposed. She had to admit, he had her there. School would stop her from seeing them a lot, especially as the semester carried forward. The class that she made the track for that Yoongi helped on was technically an independent study, since she hadn't found an internship in time. "See? We can probably get it switched! Since Bang PD wants to hear your things anyways we can ask him to be the advisor, and if not him we can figure something out." he argued back, reading her mind. Literally.
"I'll email my professor to see if I can meet with him Monday about it after class. Wait - why am I agreeing to this?!" she asked in a rush as Hobi parked at this outdoor restaurant.
"Because it's going to count towards your grades and be an amazing professional experience!" he said to her. Rae let out a laugh as he turned the car off and turned to her. "We're here! Let's go meet my sister!" She let out a nervous nod as she got out and followed Hobi, holding hands the entire walk in. Wasn't he worried about people seeing them? "This is private property. Idols and Celebrities only. We're safe here." he said to her.
"Gotcha." she said.
"Don't worry about my sister, cutie. Let's just have fun and then we'll go shopping after." Hobi said to her. Rae was about to respond when she heard a female voice calling his name.
"Hosek - you're late! Don't you know how to drive properly to be on time?!" Jung Jiwoo had her arms crossed at her brother playfully and holy shit she was Hobi in female form - Jin was not kidding.
"Excuse you, I was picking up this lovely lady. Are you going to blame her?" Hobi said as they approached her. It was playful sibling banter, Rae could tell. The kind of banter that she had with Jade and Han.
"Of course not, it's always your fault! My brother... you are so pretty!" she said to her. Rae couldn't believe that she was hearing those words out of someone like Jiwoo, an actual model and fashion designer.
"Oh - thank you. So are you!" Rae said, trying to fake it till she made it.
"Hosek, we need to work on her confidence. She's worse than Yoongi." Jiwoo said to her brother, linking arms with his soulmate after seeing right through her.
"I know, but don't worry. We will fix it."
"Yes, we will. After brunch. I am starving and you are paying." With that, Jiwoo lead Rae and Hobi into the building. They spent their time chatting, the two siblings catching up but not forgetting to include Rae in their conversations. Jiwoo was going to be like Rae's big sister, she could already feel it. Her personality was almost exactly like Hobi's and she was easy to get along with. "Eomma is going to love her, Hosek." she said at the end while Hobi waited for the bill.
"Oh yeah she will. She is already upset that you beat her to it."
"You told your family about me?" Rae asked. Her family was few and far between and in all honesty, the one person she did talk to the most was her older brother and she hadn't told him yet. It was a crazy couple of days, in her defense. Explaining her older brother to them was going to be a lot of fun - shit Christopher is going to lose his mind when I tell him.
"Of course I did! We all did almost as soon as we found you. Speaking of that, and don't answer if you don't want to, but I don't think you've ever talked about your family." he said to her.
"Hosek, some people don't like to talk about that sort of thing!" Jiwoo scolded her brother.
"It's okay, Jiwoo. It's just not a happy story in places. But I was born here, and then I moved to Australia when I was a kid. I have an older brother who's 2 years older than me and he's one of my best friends. Anyway, our father - who I really just refer to as my sperm donor, left when I was a baby. So it was my mom, Christopher and I from the beginning basically." Rae took a breath before she continued, but Jiwoo made a comment first. Hobi held Rae's hand tightly under the table in comfort. She was feeling comforted in more ways than that and had a feeling the other guys were listening.
"What a piece of trash!" Jiwoo said.
"Seriously. It gets worse much later on. But before that, I need to tell you about how we moved back to Seoul. And the circumstances... well now I'd say its ironic." Rae turned to Hobi and tried to give a smile, continuing. "In 2010, my brother passed an audition in Australia for JYP Entertainment. All three of us moved to Seoul then while he began as a trainee and it was great for a while, really. But then in 2014 Mom started to get really sick and a few months later we found out it was cancer. Christopher had to put a pause on his training to help take care of me when he was 17 and help try to take care of Mom too since her family was all in Australia. But unfortunately, she passed in 2015, just a week after Christopher turned 18." Hobi wiped a small tear off Rae's face.
"I'm sorry, cutie. That must have been so hard." Hobi said to her, really feeling her pain. He could tell she had been close to her mother and it was sad for him to see that she still hurt over it.
"It was. And my trash father tried to get everything from her afterward! She had left Christopher and I everything, but he still tried to get it and get me. He almost won everything too, but my Aunt from my mom's side stepped up and helped pay for the lawyers since we really didn't have much money to go off of. After that, we were rewarded everything that was in the will, which included Christopher having me under his care. I used the money to pay for school and to help my mom's family, pay all the hospital bills, and pay my aunt back." Rae took a breath to take a sip of her water.
"You said your brother was a trainee? Did he ever debut?" Hobi asked. Rae nodded.
"He debuted in 2018 with 8 other people, though now they're a group of 8 in total. He goes by Bang Chan now in the public." Rae finally spilled, seeing Hobi's eyes go wide. Jungkook's voice boomed in her head quickly as well, dipping out as quickly as he dipped in.
Bang Chan is your brother?!?! Oh man, I have so much explaining to do in the 97 Liners group chat...
"No way - Bang Chan is your brother?! He's got a lot of talent, that kid!" Hobi boasted about her brother. Honestly, she knew it could have gone one of two ways finding out that her brother is the leader of what is considered to be a 'rival' group, and she was happy that Hobi took it well. Plus, Christopher loves BTS as much as she does - it would have broken his heart.
"Yeah, he's pretty great. Don't tell him I said that though. Need to keep his head on straight." she said too Hobi with a giggle.
"Don't worry, your secret is safe with me. I hope we can meet him one day when our schedules line up." her soulmate said back to her. "Okay! Now it's time to work on that confidence in some retail therapy!"
"Oh yes! Let's go!" Jiwoo almost jumped up, grabbing Rae's arm and walking out the door with her. Rae was nervous to go shopping with the Jung siblings but excited. She didn't know what she was in for.
——
Hosek dropped Rae off at home at 5:30 with a million bags of clothes - luxury brands. Gucci, Prada, Louis Vitton... all things she'd never dream of affording herself. She had an absolute blast shopping with the Jung's though - Jiwoo now demanded they see each other as often as possible to do girl things and even said Jade could tag along. And Hobi - well he almost didn't want to leave her after they brought up the bags, but he remembered that all seven of the boys were having dinner with Bang PD.
"I'm going to bring up the internship idea to him. Remember to email your professor!" Rae couldn't believe still that the idea of interning at HYBE for music was actually a thing they were going to try to swing still. It was unreal to her still and she didn't know if she should do it. Like with her brother, she didn't ever want to seem like she was taking advantage of their fame. It's why Rae doesn't let Christopher send her his money for bills when she needs it and she budgets carefully with everything that was left from her mother - she wants everything she does to be for herself. That doesn't stop him though from doing other things and she assumed with her soulmates this would be the same. Speaking of her brother, Rae's phone was ringing with his name.
"Hello?" she asked him.
"I'm coming up with fried chicken for dinner!" Christopher's voice boomed through the phone and she swore she heard it echo in the hallway already.
"Nice to hear from you too - where was the warning?! What if I wasn't home?!" she fought him.
"Then I'd come in with my key and wait for you to get home! Open the door!" The phone promptly hung up and she sighed, going over to the door to let her older brother in. The second the door closed, he was onto her. "Wow, look at you all fancy - wait a minute - " her brother's eyes went wide as they darted to her exposed arm, six flowers neatly filled in their various shades, before looking back up at her.
"Christopher - "
"Is that - "
"Please do not freak out - "
"Rae Lee Bang - who is he?! When did this happen?!" Rae had to roll her eyes as she saw her brother starting to go into defensive mode.
"Unpuff your chest, pabo, and I will tell you over fried chicken!" she said to him, storming back into her place and sitting down. She stole the food from her brother and began to dig in, while he stared at her unamused.
"No no, I need to know right now! And his age, where he lives, his birthday, what he does for a living - "
"If you don't shut the hell up I won't be able to say anything!" she said to him. Christopher sighed in defeat as he began to eat. When Rae finished her bite, she went on. "Okay. Now I need you to stay calm - shut up and listen to me! I don't want to hear a word or I'm shoving my foot up your ass!" her brother laughed at her aggression while her soulmates found it amusing.
Damn, that's hot. Yoongi's voice came through the bond in Rae's head, making her roll her eyes.
Yoongi, she's trying to have a conversation. Namjoon tried to rationalize with him.
Still hot.
Do you two mind?! He isn't listening to me to begin with!
"Anyways, you need to stay calm and to listen to me, because what I'm going to say might sound ridiculous, but it's the truth. I have seven soulmates, and they're all members of BTS. I quite literally ran into them after their show the other night, and then Jin and Namjoon bonded with me and we found out. Then I bonded with Yoongi on Thursday, Jungkook on Friday, and today with Hobi." she said to him.
"Holy shit... you don't look like your lying. At first maybe, but then you running straight into them is a complete you thing to happen." he said as he ate.
"Why the hell would I lie about this?! Look at my mark! Eight flowers, eight in the group!" she said, frantically pointing at her arm.
"You have two missing color." he pointed out.
"I haven't bonded with Taehyung and Jimin yet. They only fill in once we bond. They wanted to do it one at a time because after Namjoon and Jin did it at the same time I had passed out."
"You what?!" he freaked. Yeah, she had forgotten about that fact. Well, she hadn't, but she had forgotten that he would freak out about it.
"I'm better now!" she said back to him.
"Jesus Rae... seven soulmates..." the two siblings were silent for a few minutes as they ate, Christopher processing what his sister had just told him. She knew the number of them wasn't freaking him out - after all, he was in a group of eight. It was just the news of it period. And that everything for his little sister was going to change quickly - and she had enough change to last a lifetime. He needed to meet them - to make sure they understood what she meant to him. "I want to meet them. After you bond with all of them, I want to meet them."
"Of course. I'll be done bonding with them on Monday, probably." Rae said to her brother.
"So Tuesday. I have a free day all day, see what they are up to." he said with a sense of finality to his voice. What was going on with him?
"Are you okay? They're good guys..." Rae said to him. Her brother realized quickly how he was coming off and backtracked.
"I know they are, but you're my baby sister. They're the biggest band in the world. This is different than meeting BTS because they're BTS - it's meeting my baby sister's seven soulmates. I just... I worry about you all the time anyway. Hell, even the guys worry about you too! At the end of the day, I just want you to be happy and loved." he said to her, leaning over to hug his sister.
"And I am, Chris. From them, and you. I know it sounds weird... but I think mom sent them. Like, she told the universe I needed them too. So she's still looking out for me, even now." Rae said to her brother, leaning back into him like she used to do.
"Yeah, I guess she is." he said back to her. His little sister was growing up and had found her soulmates, and sure, there were seven of them, but he had a gut feeling she was going to be okay.
3778 words
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guess who's made his first appearance? big bro bang chan is in the house! also, i've decided to make the groupchats text messages since aligning the text is a pain in the ass and almost never works on wattpad. ao3 however, it works wonderful. go figure.
anyway, let me know if the images don't work and thank you for all the support!