Yoongi flashed a smile to the nurse even though he knew she wouldn't be able to see it with his mask on but he was often told his eyes crinkled to form crescents when he smiled.

The nurse noticed his eyes and smiled back before exiting the ward and Yoongi was alone. He picked up his phone and asked Siri to call his mother.

While the call connected, he adjusted his pillow and laid back and pulled his mask off after one whole day of wearing it. The upper and backside of his earlobes ached from the elastic material but not so much from the oxygen cannula that went across his face, enabling its prongs to stay intact in his nostrils.

The mask was a precaution he had to take outside his ward but now that he was secure and comfortable in his new room, it didn't make a difference if he kept it on or took it off.

He took a deep breath and stared at the ceiling while his phone tried to connect his call across the globe.

"Hello? Yoongi?" His mom answered and he exhaled.

"Hey mom," he replied, "I miss you already. No one speaks Korean here."

His mom laughed but there was no joy in her laughter. There never was.

"I will be there with you in a few days at most, Yoongi. I thought your father arranged for Korean staff just for you so that you don't feel like an outsider. Are they not there yet?"

"I met only one today. She was nice, I mean I don't think the nurses have any options other than being nice to dying people, but-"

"What did I tell you about that joke, Yoongi?" His mother chastised and Yoongi smiled. He knew she hated it when he joked about his shortening life span but he had gotten used to it so much that the joke became a natural way to express his reality.

"It's not a joke. I am not smart enough to make funny jokes because my brain lacks oxygen for it." He filled the empty room with his laughter but when his mom didn't react, he cleared his throat.

"Uh- sorry. So guess what?" He asked grabbing his cross necklace between his fingers and staring at it, "I gave away the phone dad brought this morning. I have two phones already and since carrying around a third was too much responsibility for my oxygen-less brain, so I gave it to a girl."

"You're all alone in a foreign country and you're going around showing off your wealth to girls already?"

"Isn't that the point of being in a foreign country?" He laughed again but it was clear his mom was not in a mood for lame jokes.

"You're not there on a vacation, Yoongi. I-"

"I broke hers, mom. I know I am not on a vacation, you and dad made it clear why someone like me would never be fit for a vacation but I was being nice to her. Isn't that what you always ask me to be?"

His mom sighed and when she didn't respond for a long time, Yoongi spoke again.

"She was pretty," he murmured, "And later I saw her walking out of my ward with a blotched face. I guess we all have bad days, but at least I was nice to her."

Yoongi had grown up in and out of hospitals all through his teen years and ever since his mom made him realize he couldn't save everyone, seeing people cry in hospitals had become a normal thing for him.

"Thank you," his mom whispered, "Thank you for being who you are, Yoongi."

The remark hit Yoongi hard because another thing he grew up cementing into his head was the thought that he would never be grateful for he was. Being wealthy and nice didn't even come close to replacing what he lacked most and he never let himself be grateful for anything else.

Jimin held his elbow out for Kazimir and she hooked her hand around it without a word. Nerves started to jitter their way through her body at the sight of the crowd and the flashing cameras and her earlier confidence dissipated away leaving room for anxious thoughts.

Something in her head pressed down on her and she instinctively looked up at the cloudless sky but she knew her migraine couldn't be wrong. It was going to rain soon and she knew it.

"Why is there so much?" She asked as they neared the palace.

"So much of what?" Jimin asked looking sideways at her. He had thought she would give him the silent treatment throughout the whole night just like she did through the car ride.

"Everything. I didn't realize book releases get all this attention." Her hand tightened around his arm and Jimin thought his blood flow would be cut off if she didn't loosen the grip anytime soon.

"This is a movie event more than a book release event. The cast of the movie is going to be here to celebrate the success of the first two movies based on the books and the official release of the third book."

He walked her through a crowd of shouting journalists and fans gathered around to get autographs of the actors and Jimin shook off her hand from his elbow and stretched his arm around her waist to guide her away from the heart of the crowd.

Kazimir was too mesmerized by the number of people and the grand towering height of the building they were approaching to notice Jimin's discomfort at having to hold her close to him to avoid the prying hands of the screaming crowd.

She had first heard about the palace from her dad when she was in elementary school and needed to draw a castle but as she grew up, she realized the little snippets of magical walls and intricate interior design she had thought were part of her dad's imagination was actually a real thing.

Seeing the Fleur Palace from the inside had always been a dream of hers but when she moved to Prague and decided to visit it finally, it turned out that it had been closed for tourists and only ever opened for booked events.

Now approaching the stark blue walls of the castle, she was hit by a strong wave of nostalgia and her dad's fluent Czech words from long ago echoed in her head.

'The walls from the outside are seven shades of blue, the dark and the light and turquoise, all mixed well to make it look like a sea on an early winter morning. And once you enter the gates, you enter the depths of the ocean itself. It's all so dark, only illuminated with golden rays from rows and rows of the hanging chandeliers, making everything glow like a gold jewel dipped in water.'

Once at the gate, Jimin approached the men standing at the podium with the list of the guest names and told them his name. One of the guards looked down and ran his finger along the list of the names on the paper until he reached Jimin's name. He looked up at the other men and gestured for them to let Jimin and Kazimir in.

The massive doors were heavy with ceramic designs of what looked like random shapes but as Kazimir got closer, she noticed they were thousands upon thousands of tiny flowers sculpted with utmost care. But once they passed the doors, they found themselves in a dark tunnel, the only source of light was little dots suspended in the air and swinging back and forth at the slowest pace.

Though it all looked like a dream it didn't take much for the magic to disappear when they walked further and as soon as Kazimir was right under one of the lit dots, she looked up to see it was a tiny spherical bulb hanging from the ceiling with transparent wires.

The wires varied in length, some were short while others longer in comparison and all in all created a dreamlike illusion of fireflies under a dark night sky. Kazimir couldn't decipher how the wires were rhythmically swinging so effortlessly but she decided maybe she should leave something for the Magic and enjoy her view.

Jimin too was awed by the surroundings as much as Kazimir was and he finally let go of her waist with his eyes glued to the ceiling.

"Wow." He breathed when they reached the end of the tunnel and walked into the biggest room of the palace, the ballroom.

The inside was a grandeur, to say the least. The walls and the marble floor were a ferocious black, their dark hue calmed down by the golden lighting from the chandeliers. The walls and the ceiling both had patches of rectangular spaces made of reflecting black stones which sparkled like gems everywhere the light hit them as if the black walls were a silk fabric studded with gemstones at certain strategic locations.

Light soft piano music was played in the background as white noise and the air held a musky essence. People were strewn here and there and Kazimir was disappointed to see that there were tall tables everywhere but no chairs. Each table had a few cocktails and a group of no more than three people gathered around it.

Jimin walked her to the nearest table and they stood there looking around. It seemed like every time their eyes turned a corner, they found something new to be awed by.

Until Kazimir's eyes landed on a familiar face.

"Oh, I know that girl," she said, "I've seen her around campus."

"You're still in college?" Jimin asked picking up a cocktail drink.

Kazimir nodded and picked a drink too but as soon as she brought the glass to her lips, she made a face.

"What?" Jimin asked taking a sip himself and much to his despair, he made a grimaced too.

The drinks had alcohol in them and Jimin put his drink down and waited for Kazimir to do the same but she didn't.

"Where have I seen her?" Kazimir wondered training her eyes on the girl in the maroon dress. The calm lighting made everyone look like flawless oil paintings and Kazimir couldn't be sure how to recognize the girl.

Jimin's eyed her hand holding the cocktail and though at the back of his mind he knew he didn't have any right to tell her what to drink and what not to drink but owing to their drunk history, his tongue itched to ask her to put the drink down and keep away from alcohol for the night.

"Maybe we shouldn't drink tonight," he suggested looking away to try to look nonchalant.

Kazimir hummed in response but she didn't put the glass flute down. Her eyes were attached to the golden-haired girl across the room while her mind tried to recall why her curls looked so familiar.

Jimin's eyes wandered around too trying to seek out familiar faces. He was not big in either the film or the publishing industry but he had connections here and there owing to his two self-published poetry books and his small role as a delivery boy in one of the big movies.

Acting was never his thing but when a casting director wanted a fresh Asian face for a role and Jimin found his pockets in dire need of cash, he decided to give it a shot, and much to his surprise and shock, he got the role. Even though the final edit of the movie ended up only giving Jimin one minute and thirty-six seconds total of screen time, he was satisfied with the money he got in return.

His eyes traveled back to the girl standing in front of him, her flute glass and her eyes both half empty and hanging unto half-hearted promises of intoxication.

Kazimir cut her gaze from the girl towards Jimin and found him staring at her.

"What do you see?" She asked startling him, "Am I a sunset tonight or a bonfire whose flames lick up their way through your will to keep your hands to yourself?"

Jimin's eyes went wide and then instantly down to look at her glass to see if she was slurring drunk non-coherent words or if they were her own rational thoughts.

"You're joking right?"

"Either way, I bet you don't see a person when you look at me. I see the way your eyes space out as if you see the first word of your next story and then you're off in Neverland chasing after synonyms and rhymes."

"That... that is very observant of you," Jimin noted smiling widely. He thought she was saying this in good nature but he didn't know him seeing her in that way was just fueling her anger further.

Kazimir didn't want to be looked at like she was the missing rhyme in a poem because that way, her pain was supposed to end when the last drop of ink dried. But she was a living breathing human being with fears and feelings and it didn't make any sense to her that people would rather write about pain than to give themselves the chance to actually observe it.

She looked Jimin in the eye while he kept smiling and waited for him to look beyond her sugar-coated words and pretentious similes because if she really was a bonfire, her flames would have at least been visible.

Her eyes moved from his smiling face back to the girl but now she had her partner beside her and Kazimir had to do a double-take because he looked like no one other than Taehyung.

Her back straightened up and sensing the change in her demeanor, Jimin turned his head around to see what she saw.

"Oh, isn't that Taehyung?" He questioned turning back to look at Kazimir.

Kazimir nodded but started wondering how was Taehyung present at an event like this with no other than with a girl. Kazimir had already figured out that she had seen the blonde girl around campus but it still came as a shock to her to see her with Taehyung and the dating vibes both of them seemed to be radiating from across the room.

"I didn't know he was coming here as well," Kazimir said eyeing the laughing pair, "Maybe we should go say hi."

"Maybe we shouldn't." Jimin objected tilting his head sideways to look Kazimir in the eye and blocking her view of Taehyung.

"I thought we are here to socialize." Kazimir arched a brow challenging him.

"I don't think Taehyung would do us any good in the making of our book."

"But he sure as hell can do a lot in the making of the author," Kazimir said walking past Jimin with determination.

Jimin exhaled a breath of exhaustion and held himself back from grabbing her arm and holding her back. He had started to rethink everything about the little deal he got himself into and already the minor glimpse into the messed up lives of the people he met was giving him red flags to flee the scene before he got too caught up in the thorny vines of a toxic family tree.

Kazimir tapped Taehyung on the shoulder when she reached him and he turned mid laughter and his face froze.

"Mir?" He asked with wide eyes and his soul almost left his body.

"Hey." Kazimir smiled and then looked towards the girl and repeated her greeting.

"Hey." Eleanor smiled too but there was hesitancy behind it. She looked at the way Taehyung's face went from soft to concrete and realized something was off.

Kazimir waited for Taehyung to answer her greeting but when all she got in return was a cold stare, she turned her attention back towards the girl in the maroon dress.

"I believe we've met before though not directly. I am Kazimir, Taehyung's fian-"

"Friend." Taehyung interrupted through gritted teeth, locking eyes with Kazimir.

"Is that what we're going around telling people now?" Kazimir mused, "Funny though. I didn't know friends go around and fu-"

"Mir!" Taehyung hissed causing Eleanor to flinch back but Kazimir didn't even stir.

"Are you drunk or something? Are you hearing what you're saying right now?" He asked in Korean so that Eleanor wouldn't understand. It was a rude act but a much-needed one.

"As far as I know, all I said right now is the truth."

"Is it really? So you think by going around and telling people things like that would hurt me? Is that how you're going to get back at me for not following along with your madness?"

"I am not trying to get back at you for anything. It's just if you don't follow along to whatever this is that you're calling madness, someone else would. And I would rather it's you than just anybody."

Taehyung closed his eyes and hung his head low. He exhaled once, and then twice and opened eyes to look at Kazimir's pleading ones. He looked back at Eleanor's confused face and his heart couldn't help but break a little at the evident insecurity in her stare as she eyed Kazimir.

"I'll be back." He informed Eleanor and grabbed Kazimir's hand and started leading her away from his table.

A few steps later, however, his way was blocked by Jimin who extended his hand to grab Kazimir's other hand but he couldn't because she was still holding the flute glass.

"There is someone I want you to meet," Jimin said to Kazimir, ignoring Taehyung's presence. "Maybe by meeting them you'll be reminded why we are here right now."

"I just need to talk to her for a minute," Taehyung said to Jimin in Kazimir's stead with a tone weighed down by evident tiredness.

"They're waiting." Jimin said to Kazimir still not acknowledging Taehyung, "And if you don't come with me right now, then consider the deal canceled." He warned this time locking eyes with Taehyung.

Taehyung couldn't care less about the deal right then so he gently put his hand on Jimin's chest and pushed him back a step and walked past him dragging Kazimir with the hand.