(When we forgot that it's a ' slow burn romance but I am always here to remind you there's still so much dark to go through before we get that romance .-.)

"Why are you wearing my boyfriend's shirt?"

Jimin's eyes widened and he stood up, sending his chair flying back. Everyone on the table looked between him, the delivery girl, and Kazimir who had no idea what was going on but knew she was screwed.

"Taehoe left it at my place," Jimin explained hurriedly in Czech, forgetting that Taehyung had a proper name, "And she," he pointed at Kazimir, "needed a shirt. That's why..." he looked at Kazimir and up at Taehyung who entered the kitchen with a few bills in his hand and no idea what was going on, "That's why she's wearing your boyfriend's," he pointed at Taehyung, "shirt. Taehoe explain to your girlfriend why Kajeumir is wearing your shirt." He rounded his eyes to let Taehyung know what he needed to do.

Taehyung looked at Jimin, dumbfounded, like the rest of his family, their mouths hanging open in confusion.

Anaïs waved her hands around as if to dismiss Jimin's entire explanation, "No baby, I am asking her why she's wearing shirt," she asked, looking at Jimin.

Both Taehyung and Kazimir's hearts fell into an endless abyss at her words, the crack of their hearts audible enough to be heard around the table if it weren't for the loud clouds of confusion thundering over it.

"What is she saying?" Mrs. Kim asked, looking at Kazimir.

Kazimir knew she wouldn't be able to get away with a faux translation because the Kims weren't fluent in Czech but understood enough and Naomi was fluent.

There was no way around the truth now. A truth that neither Taehyung nor Kazimir counted but one that Jimin didn't think was worth mentioning in their writing and rental agreement.

"Because I left it at Jimin's, that's why. Meet my parents though," Taehyung said, changing the subject and stepping forward to put his arm around Anaïs's shoulders, "Mom, dad, Hyung, meet my girlfriend..." he paused because he realized he didn't know her name.

"Hi, Anaïs," Kazimir said and waved. Her voice sounded a few octaves higher with fake excitement.

"...Anaïs." Taehyung finished.

"We're not stupid, Tae," Minho said. He stood up and Kazimir closed her eyes, forcing the lids together with force and balling her fists under the table.

We're screwed, she thought.

"Jimin Park," Minho said, and even in her panicked state, Kazimir couldn't help but feel strange that Minho knew his full name, "Taehyung Kim, you," he pointed at Anaïs, "and Kazimir Lee, which one of you is going to explain?"

Anaïs shook Taehyung's arm away from her shoulders and stepped forward to stand next to Jimin, "Explain what?" She asked in English, but her Slovakian accent dominated the syllabuses.

"Explain why you're calling him your boyfriend when he's dating Kazimir," Naomi said and Kazimir opened her eyes to look at Taehyung, both their eyes begging each other for a solution.

"No, come on," Anaïs said, "Kazimir knows I am dating Jimin. That's why I asked her to teach me Korean. They're not dating. We are," she pointed between her and Jimin, "I didn't know you two know each other enough to swap wardrobes though." She looked at Kazimir with a piercing gaze.

Jimin looked at Kazimir, who in turn was staring at Taehyung. He looked back at Anaïs but he couldn't wrap his head around the fact that she was friends with Kazimir, even though he remembered Anaïs mentioning a Korean friend who was helping her with the language and it just had to be the one he was pretending to date. He wondered if luck abandoned him or if Kazimir was the unlucky one and her misfortunes followed him now.

"Get out," Minho hissed at Jimin, thrusting his hand in the direction of the door, the rims of his eyes brimming with anger.

Jimin flinched at the order, which was an indication enough of the weight it carried because this time Minho did not yell.

Jimin didn't know what to do, he looked at Taehyung first, and then at Kazimir with an apologetic look and walked slowly out of the kitchen. Anaïs looked around at everyone one last time and followed him out, leaving behind all the damage caused by her one untimely statement.

Kazimir stood up and left for her room before anyone could question anything, ignoring Naomi's calls who stood up to follow her.

"I'll get her," Taehyung said, gesturing for Naomi to stay seated. He left the kitchen too but not before noticing the way Minho's eyes cut through his existence. The older knew something was up and Taehyung's stomach flipped in on itself.

He made his way to Kazimir's room to find her sprawled on the bed, legs hanging over the side and staring up at the ceiling.

"I was this close to leaving this hellhole," she said, raising her hand and bringing her index and thumb close together, "This close, and you didn't bother to tell me he has a girlfriend."

"I swear I didn't know," Taehyung defended, his voice getting closer to her.

She pulled herself abruptly into a sitting position, his mere presence making her feel exposed even though she was fully dressed. He walked past her bed and stood by the window, moving the shades to the side to peek out.

Jimin and Anaïs stood beside a car parked out front, and Jimin was talking. One of Anaïs's hands was busy smoothing out her hair while the other held her cap.

A minute later, Anaïs turned and left to get in a car parked further down the road with the dessert shop's logo plastered to its side. Taehyung's eyes moved to look at Jimin again, who had his phone to his ear now.

A ringtone resonated in the room and Taehyung turned to see Kazimir's phone ringing on the table.

He was faster to grab it before Kazimir and put it to his ear.

"You have a freaking girlfriend," he exclaimed down the line.

"Uh- kind of?" Jimin said, "But—"

"What the hell you mean kind of, yes or no?"

The line went silent for a second before Jimin's voice filled the void, "Yes," he said finally.

Teahyung's phone vibrated in his pocket and he took it out to see Eleanor's name. Her face flashed before his eyes and his heart sunk knowing the two steps he took forward were now replaced with four steps backward, and she was pushed further away from him. He sighed and pressed the edge of his phone to his forehead and closed his eyes.

"Now what?" Jimin asked.

Taehyung had no answer to that. He threw Kazimir's phone on the bed with Jimin still on the line and left the room, slamming the door with force on his way out.

Kazimir fell back on her bed and her head landed beside her phone. She heard Jimin's voice calling Taehyung's name but she turned to the side and hung up. She pulled herself into a fetal position and hugged her knees. After scrolling through her playlists, she put on the loudest music she had, cranking the volume all the way up before closing her eyes and drowning everything out.

A week passed, then another, and Jimin was never mentioned in the Kim household again. Taehyung had disappeared and never showed up, or even if he did, Kazimir had no idea. She confined herself to her four walls, her laptop's screen, and the brief route from her room to the kitchen, avoiding gazes and conversations. To her family, she was heartbroken, but to her, she was only out of any type of luck.

So much for her thinking the collaboration would help her out of her misery, she couldn't even make it past the basic introductions with Jimin. How could he never mention his relationship status, and how could Kazimir not tell he was taken. Not that it mattered to her in any way but there was something about the way he carried himself and the way he treated her that made her believe it was a spark unique to them only.

And to top it all off, his 'kind of, but—' haunted her ever since. He kind of had a girlfriend and there was a 'but' involved.

But what Jimin? She wondered. Of course, she could have gotten the answer right away by picking up her phone and calling him but what was her position to ask the question.

'Hello yeah, can you explain why there is a 'but' in your relationship status? Not that I care about it but you told me I can live in your home and I freaking slept in your arms and bed and house and uh- I don't know if I am blind but you looked like you were okay with all that. Too okay even, what the hell is the 'but' for?' Because I don't know but you freaking confessed to me and asked me to marry you in the same minute but okay whatever.'

All matters considered, it shouldn't have mattered to her anyway. She was his pretend girlfriend and he only had to pretend in front of her family, not in his everyday life where he was obviously dating a cute Czech delivery girl and probably having a laugh about her miserable little life while sipping his pretentious little Pinterest inspired iced coffee.

She stared at his contact number, the way she had been doing for some days now, her finger dancing over the call button but she groaned and threw her phone away on the bed. It had become a kind of a routine for her now. She heard Minho's voice in the hallway and stood up to make sure her door was locked. She speculated he knew something odd was up with the way Jimin tried to dodge Anaïs by throwing her at Taehyung and the way Taehyung played along. But he had been doing his part to avoid her as best as he could so no questions were asked, though the main reason for that could have also been that she hadn't interacted face to face with him since that morning.

She hadn't admitted to anyone that she dropped out of college and that she was counting away the days with no foreseeable goal in her sight. But she managed to stay on the methotrexate, one of her very first accomplishments in her medical history and while it was only one step for her, it was proving rather hard because of nausea. There hadn't been a day when she didn't throw up her insides.

The ringing of her phone snatched her back from her thoughts and she extended her hand to grab it. She put it to her ear and fell back on her bed to ease the pain in her lower back which had taken up a daily position in her life recently, adding one more digit to her normal pain levels.

"Hello, is this Kazimir Lee?" The woman asked.

Kazimir hoped it was the woman from a writing part-time job she applied for online a few days back and took a breath to answer the incoming questions.

"Yes," she said in a confident and professional tone.

"This is the Central Hospital of Prague," the lady said and Kazimir's confidence deflated, "You made an appointment for a blood test?"

"Yes, about that," Kazimir said, "Can I postpone it? I was supposed to get the test done on my period but..." Kazimir left the sentence hanging hoping the woman would get the hint that her period was late but the woman remained silent so Kazimir finished with an air of exhaustion, "But my period is late."

"Ma'am, this is the third time you're postponing your appointment."

"I know I thought... never mind. Can I cancel the appointment instead of postponing it?"

"Yes, you can. I am canceling it. Anything else I can help you with?"

"No, thank you." Kazimir hung up and pulled herself into a sitting position. She looked down at her stomach and frowned. Her back pain, bloated belly, swollen and hurting breasts, and intense craving for sugar all told her she was about to get her period but nothing showed up so far.

"Can you not embarrass me any further and act like a decent body for once in our life?" She asked her body and as an answer, her right wrist shot a wave of sudden pain up her arm.

"Bitch," Kazimir hissed and fell back down with a thud, "Everything and everyone's a bitch."

A few days later Kazimir extended her hand and grabbed her phone from the table to check the time. It was well past ten in the night and she groaned and turned to the other side. The remnants of a nightmare lingered under her eyelids and she took labored breaths, trying to ease her rapid heartbeat. Her stomach rumbled for food and her mood begged for a change of scenery. It took her a few more minutes to realize she was sulking for a breakup that never happened. Maybe just because her family thought she was going through one made her think the same.

She pulled herself up and trudged to the bathroom to freshen up and maybe take a shower too. It wasn't like she had any plans for later and the idea of getting hit by post-shower fatigue threatened them. She brushed her teeth and started with her hair, brushing through two-week-old tangles and the mere act of straightening her hair made her feel like she was straightening her life. No wonder Pinterest always advised taking care of yourself as therapy but Kazimir had started to hate the site, courtesy of Jimin.

Soon her plans to take a shower disappeared because the more she stood with her arms raised in the bundle of her strands, the more her resolve faded to remain standing. She forced the brush through her hair, untangling the last few stands, and sat down on the floor with a tired sigh, letting her arms rest. Her body tried to pull her down to lie down on the tiles and she fought back the urge and remained sitting, but the more she forced herself against the current, the more her pain levels raised in her back and up her right arm.

Showers could wait, she told herself and stood up to leave and lie down on the bed, but before she exited, she turned and walked to the shampoo stand by her shower.

Her eyes ran over the products that lined the stand scanning over her pear-scented regular shampoo and strawberry-scented dry shampoo and before she knew it, the almost-full bottle of dry shampoo found itself in the trash can.

She trudged back to her room and threw herself on the bed but she couldn't stay there long and eventually had to pick herself up and go to the kitchen. The house was silent and she thanked God for that and proceeded to make a sandwich for herself. Halfway through the process, she realized there were no ingredients that she liked and hence, changed her mind and decided to stuff her toast with sweet cream and apricot slices instead. She made a cup of black bitter coffee to neutralize the sweetness and decided the meal was too uplifting to eat in the confines of her room so she made her way through the living room to the rooftop.

On her way though, she glimpsed a set of papers on the coffee table and went to take a look at them only to find that they were the alleged divorce papers. Her heart dropped in her stomach and she put her plate down to flip through the documents to make sure they weren't signed.

The signature spaces were blank but the idea that the papers were laying in plain sight gave Kazimir ominous feelings. She put them back face down and carried her plate up the stairs thinking about all the possibilities of why the papers were out in public. If she saw Minho, she was going to pour the steaming coffee through his ears and wait for it to come out of his nostrils, then collect it again in the cup and shove it down his throat.

But maybe she had planned too early because the moment she stepped out onto the rooftop, Minho was already there. Suddenly Kazimir didn't want to waste her precious coffee on him and took a step back. He didn't pay any attention to her presence because he was turned away from her, sprawled on a chair, his feet up on another chair and a beer bottle in his hand. The stool beside his chair held a few more bottles and Kazimir quietly turned away and went back to her room.

She finished eating and told herself she should at least start a load of laundry to prove to herself she was not depressed. But was she depressed? The question echoed through her mind but she dismissed it. She just ate and brushed her hair, she was as happy as she could be.

Her room was not messy but she found a surprising amount of clothes just strewn around in random places so she collected them into her hamper when she came across a dark navy jacket. She didn't remember who exactly gave it to her but she remembered that she was wearing it the day Minho drove her back from the hospital after the palace event. She threw it in the hamper beside the infamous Jimin shirt and pushed the hamper to the laundry room. She stuffed everything in the washer, not bothering to separate the whites and the colors, and dumped too much fabric softener on them. That way even if they got dirty, they would still give off a fresh waft and she wouldn't have to do laundry again for a long time.

She looked around the room and saw some of Taehyung's shirts neatly folded and stacked on top of each other. She looked down at her own shirt, the one she had been wearing for a week now, and decided to throw it in the wash too. She grabbed one of Taehyung's button-up shirts and pulled it over her head, the length fell a few inches above her knees so she decided to throw in her trousers as well. She took them off and added them to the rest of her clothes.

She made her way back to her room, the caffeine keeping her wide awake, and decided to redecorate it. There was absolutely no need for the change but she was tired of looking at the same setting.