You open your eyes and you're back in the living room, sitting on the floor. Its dark and grey, and the floor is cold against your hands as you press against it to stand up. The plush fabric of the throw pillows has crystals of frost stuck in to the tips of the shag. Your breath plumes out in white fog in front of your face, you follow the cloud up seeing the stairs frosting over.
A shout of struggle echos down from the top floor, you run to the stairs, racing up to the first landing. The last flight of stairs is completely iced over, you slip with every step, scraping your shins on the hard wooden steps. You reach the third step and the slick ice forces you onto all fours, using your hands to gain extra traction, as the shouts continue to get more violent and frequent. The voices are muffled and unintelligible, like they are speaking through pillows.
The ice burns against your palms, and your nose and fingertips are starting to go numb. The air gets colder as you climb higher into the house, and the fabric of your jeans and the skin of your palms start to stick to the steps making the ascent that much more painful.
Finally you reach the top of the house, your body aches with cold, and your constant shivering impedes your movement. Step. By. Step. Slowly, as you move closer to the bedroom door, your legs become heavier, like your shoes are filled with lead and your knees unable to bend.
You reach out to grasp the door knob, the cold metal stings your hand and it brings a tear that freezes instantly on your cheek. You push against the door but it doesn't budge, trying once again you throw all of your weight into the door and you crash through landing in the middle of an ice sculpture.
The bedroom is the coldest by far, its a heavy cold that makes it difficult to breath and your eyes hurt from how fast any moisture is freezing. Forcing your eyes open you look up above you to see glassy statues of Hoseok, and Yoongi with their arms wrapped around you, or rather the statue version of you. Wretching your head around to the other side you see Jungkook on top of Jimin reeling back for another punch, while Jin and Namjoon try to separate them.
You look back to yourself, you had just stood there, watching. Your statues eyes are glued open into the most clueless, emotionless expression. How could you just stand and watch?
Your fingers had been so numb you hadn't realized they were starting to freeze over like the rest of the statues, now up to your elbows was clear and glassy and frozen in place. Now up to your shoulders, and your legs up to your waist, it doesn't hurt until it hits your lungs, and your heart, and you black out from the pain.
All that surrounds you is black, your eyes are open and its black. To your left there is nothing, and to your right there is nothing, not that you can feel at least. You are completely alone,or so it seems. You try to take a step forward, but, the muffled voices start again, they are quiet but agitated and menacing.
"(word fuzz)"
"What the fuck did you say to me?"
"You heard me"
The words slowly become more clear until you recognize them as leading up to the fight.
You try to yell for them to stop but when you open your mouth nothing comes out, no matter how hard you strain your vocal cords. Clasping your hands around your ears you desperately try to block out their shouting, shaking your head furiously, tears streaming down your cheeks.
You just want it to stop.
"Please." you whisper defeated by the swallowing darkness.
Everything is quiet.
Your fingertips graze against a soft fabric, and there is an inviting warmth on your skin. A thin beam of sunlight glints in your eyes and you blink against it, shifting to sit up.
Youre back in bed, Hoseok by your side drooling in his sleep, Jimin and Yoongi in the bed next to you spooning.
You pinch some skin on your forearm. Yup, youre awake, Ow.
"Man those were some fucking crazy nightmares." you mumble softly to yourself, relieved that they truly were just dreams.
Getting up quietly you change into a bathing suit and tip-toe downstairs, putting on a pot of coffee for yourself and for the boys when they wake up.
Once you get outside you stand on the patio barefoot and let the sun soak into your skin, before you dive into the pool.
Here you're finally able to think, your mind feels clear like the water.
"Jimin was drunk, and he did a very stupid thing. But I forgive him. Jungkook was drunk last night, and he said things he shouldn't have. But if I hadn't been there to hear him, I would never have known or needed to know. Right? That issue is between Jungkook and Jimin, not me." You realise there is no reason for you to be upset with Jungkook, he didn't do anything to you. Perhaps you're disappointed, but hurt? No.
You come up for air after sitting at the bottom of the pool thinking everything over.
"Oh good, I was afraid I'd have to dive in after you," You turn around to see Hoseok standing at the edge of the pool, still in just his boxers, smiling down at you, like the sun, "Why are you up so early angel?"
"Well, I had a nightmare, but I really needed to clear my head so I came out here? Did I wake you up?"
"A little, but I could smell the coffee, and needed to pee, so I figured it was time to get up."
You swim to the stairs and get out of the pool wrapping up in a towel so that you can sit and talk with Hoseok more.
He asks about your dreams and what you needed the pool to clear your mind of; you explain all of your doubts and questions you had talked about with Jin, along with all of your new found realizations.
"I admire how able you are to forgive, I've lived with these guys almost 8 years now and I still find it hard to forgive them sometimes." Hoseok praises you.
"Well," You breathe, shrugging. "It is what it is i suppose..."
Namjoon and Jin are the next to join you by the pool, cups of coffee in hand, hair tosseled messily. They give you good morning kisses on your cheeks and sit at the ends of the sun chairs you and Hoseok were already inhabiting.
"What is the plan for you guys today?" you ask the men who are still half asleep.
Namjoon rubs his eyes and pulls out his phone, squinting at the screen like the words are written in an ancient language.
"Only thing scheduled today is we are doing dinner later, and exchanging the secret gifts we bought for each other at the market the other day, besides that it a free day"
"Have you guys been to the beach yet? If you have we don't have to go back." You ask unsure of how much the boys have explored.
"We have, but I'd love to go back," Hoseok lights up at the idea, "and I think Jungkook and Jimin wanted to stay longer when we were there the first time."
"It's a plan then, anyone who wants to go back to the beach can, I expect Yoongi will probably pass though."
Out of courtesy you wait until 9:30 to wake up the rest of the members.
From the clothes strewn about the room and the hickeys peaking out from under the bed sheets, Tae and Kook appear to have more than made up for the misunderstanding.
"guys, "You speak softly opening the curtains to let the sun expose all of the apparent lovemaking, "good morning."
"Good morning y/n, did you sleep okay?" Jungkook asks sitting up running fingers through his long messy hair.
"It was not great, but it's okay, I take it you guys had fun?" You cock an eyebrow at them, looking at the marks that scatter over Jungkook's chest.
"To say the least," He winks, but becomes solemn quickly, swinging his legs over the side of the bed, an puling you between them. "Y/n I am so sorry for everything that happened last night."
"I'm just glad no one got seriously hurt."
"Not physically, Maybe. But I know what I said hurt you," His fingers fiddle nervously with your hands. "I saw your face at the table last night and that was ultimately what made me realize what id done. I should never have brought that up again. Especially not with you there. I wasn't thinking. Can you forgive me?"
"Of course," You kiss his forehead.
"Thank you," He takes you chin gently between his thumb and forefinger kissing you sweetly, "It will never happen again."
Pulling back he cracks his neck to either side before shaking Taehyung rather violently to wake him.
Taehyung groans, turning onto his side, stretching up showing some reddened scratches along his back.
'Damn, these guys were rough last night,' you think, it's a wonder you didn't hear them at all.
"Well if you horny monkeys aren't planning on fucking anymore today, we were gonna go to the beach."
They look at each other, Jungkook pouts his bottom lip slightly, which seems to convince Taehyung.
"Okay," Tae sighs, "We'll come with. What time are we leaving?"
"Probably in like an hour, but there's nothing scheduled until 7 tonight so we've got plenty of time"
"Okay good, cus we definitely need to shower." Jungkook jokes smelling his own armpit.
You leave to wake the others, and you cant help but let a small smile spread across your lips, and feel a bit warmer inside.
Like Namjoon expected, Yoongi opted to stay at home to sleep more.
Around 10:45 you all pile into one of the vans, and Jin drives you to the beach.
Once there you find a picnic table to set up at, luckily the beach was fairly devoid of people.
You take off the loose cover up off, showing of the cute black bikini you had brought, Tae gives a low whistle as you reveal your body.
"Shut up," You giggle.
"No, I will not, you have a beautiful body and you most of all, should hear about it." Tae says in earnest, squaring your shoulders to him, making you look him in the eye.
"He's right we don't tell you that enough." Namjoon agrees.
"Come on Noona!" Jungkook shouts running towards the water.
After several hours of splashing in the water, building sand castles and burying Hobi up to his neck in sand, you are all very tired and very ready to go home.
Back at the house Yoongi had already started prepping dinner, garlic ramen and chicken, the roasting garlic scent fills the entire house and your stomachs give a collective growl as soon as you walk through the doors.
"Yoongi, we're home," Jin calls out setting the bag of sandy towels next to the couch.
"I thought I heard you pull up, dinner is just about ready if you guys wanna get cleaned real quick, that way we can eat before filming."
"I'm gonna need a full shower before I do anything at all," Hoseok says moving his body uncomfortably, "I have sand, where sand should never be."
You change out of your suit and put on a sweet light blue t-shirt dress, and head down to dinner.
Slowly the rest of the boys filter in and sit down with their own bowls of the delicious noodles.
"Did you get enough rest while we were gone?" You ask Yoongi.
"Yea, it would have been nice to cuddle with someone, but I still slept really well. Was it fun at the beach?"
"It was! It's been awhile since I've been to the beach, it was a nice change of pace from the pool,"
"The water was a little chilly today though, at least compared to the other day." Jin says.
You look over to Jimin next to you, who had been quiet most of the day, he had hardly said anything to you today.
Sluggishly he picks up a few noodles and shovels them into his mouth, staring into the bowl trying to avoid being noticed.
You gently nudge his elbow with yours, and he looks at you.
You share a wordless conversation, furrowing your eyebrows to ask 'are you okay?'
His lips form a taut smile, and his shoulders shrug imperceptibly.
You turn back to your noodle reluctantly, clearly something is bothering him, but you don't want to pry.
Could it be what happened last night?
You finish dinner as the staff is arriving, they set up to film around the pool and you go to hide in the top room, until they are done.
The car doors shut signaling the end of the filming and you make your way down to the living room.
All of the boys are in a much better mood. Some of them with misty eyes from getting sentimental.
"So it went well, I take it?"
"Yeah, it's really hard for any of us to stay mad at each other," Jungkook says slinging his arm around Jimin.
"Especially when we are forced to write nice things about each other," Hoseok jokes.
Jin brings his arm around your waist and pulls you into a hug with the rest of the guys.
It really is hard to stay mad at them.
After you break away from the hug, Joon catches your eye, throwing a nod to the kitchen.
You follow after him to the kitchen, but he continues out to the back steps, finally stopping next to the pool.
"What is it Joonie?" you ask searching his face.
"y/n when we first saw you, I was so afraid you wouldn't want to come live with us. We all thought you were so cute and attractive, but we didn't count on you being so sweet and understanding." His voice is soft and barely audible over the hum of the pool.
He takes your hands in his, holding on to them tightly closing his eyes.
You step closer to him and a familiar scent washes over you.
The kiss from lazer tag.
So it had been him??
You had gotten caught up in your realization you hadn't noticed Namjoon was back to looking up at you.
"What's wrong?" he asks tilting his head to be inline with your view.
"Oh! Nothing, sorry, I was just.... I thought I saw an animal or something...." You lie, not wanting to admit that you only just now made the connection.
"Oh okay. Well y/n," He stares into your eyes and you don't dare break the contact. "Yannow how I said I wanted it to be special when I said I love you.?"
"Yes..."
"Well,"
Out of his pocket he pulls a small wad of paper, holding it hesitantly, before pushing into your hand.
"It's for you, I hope you like it," He grins sheepishly.
The thin paper unfolds revealing a small heart shaped necklace. The chain is so delicate and the pendant, smaller than your thumbs fingernail.
Etched into the rosy gold, are the words "I Love You"
"Oh Namjoon, it's beautiful! You shouldn't have!"
"It wasn't just me, we all wanted to get it for you. We saw it the day we went to the market, and then Yoongi went to pick it up today." He takes the necklace and you turn around so he can latch it properly.
"Gotta say I really didn't see this coming." You're rather impressed by their smooth operation
"Jin was really the one who made the final call that we should," He continues, "He told us how upset you were last night. And then I asked to be the one to give it to you, so that I could say-"
You turn around to face him, your heart beating faster and faster.
"I love you y/n"
You smile, letting your worries from the past nights fade away.
"I love you too Namjoon."
"And we love you too!"
You whirl around to see all of the boys standing behind you.
In the middle of the group, is Jimin, holding a note.
"Jagiya, the 7 of us wrote this for you, to go along with the necklace, like how we wrote letters for each other"
"You guys.." you can already feel the tears welling up in your eyes.
Each of the boys takes turns reading what they wrote.
The letter is overflowing with appreciation and a few apologies for being difficult to live with.
By the end of the recitation your makeup is streaked down your face, but your cheeks hurt from how much you're smiling.
Rushing around you give them all hugs and kisses, trying to force back the happy tears that still threaten to ruin whats left of your makeup.
The rest of the night you talk and laugh and enjoy yourself, feeling much closer to them than when you arrived in Croatia.
When yawns started to out number words its decidedly time for bed, and Namjoon takes your hand gently, kissing each fingertip, his eyes never leaving yours, heating your cheeks with his stare.
You hum contently, running the fingers of your free hand through his hair and down to his collar. Your fingers wrap around the fabric and pull him into a kiss. His hands go straight to your waist holding you there, deepening the kiss.
A tell tale bulge forms, prodding your stomach.
"Shall we kitten?"
"Mm after you," You giggle as he hurries off in front of you, still holding your hand, not trying in the slightest to hide his eagerness.
He leads you to his room locking the door behind you.