My alarm beeps from the bedside table beside me and I reach to turn it off. The dull, monotonous beep drones in my head as I fumble for the off button. Upon finding it and stopping the incessant beeping, I bring myself to a sitting position on my bed. It's Wednesday morning, and today I'm going to grab lunch with Rin.

I stumble out of my room to an unusual amount of commotion in the dorm. Namjoon is sweeping the floor in the hallway, leading me to believe he's broken something. Hoseok is with Seokjin in the kitchen, putting things frantically into Tupperware containers. Most surprisingly, though, our manager is standing in the doorway looking very impatient.

See, when we first debuted, it was a requirement that our manager roomed with us in the dorm. Now, though, our CEO has become a bit more lenient on those types of things, and he allowed the manager to move out about four months ago. Usually, when he's here in the dorm, it's because we have a surprise schedule. That means that—

"Yoongi-yah! We have to leave in twenty minutes!" Our manager shouts.

"Okay!" I reply, bowing quickly and making my way to the bathroom. What am I going to do about Rin?

After taking an impossibly fast shower, running some shampoo through my mint green hair, and brushing my teeth, I hurry back outside in jean shorts and a black and white baseball t-shirt. I hurry back to my room to drop off my pajamas and get my phone. A pang of guilt hits me as I open my phone. Rin has sent me a text telling me she's excited about lunch today. What am I supposed to tell her?

I make the decision to not open the text and figure out a solution as the day goes by. I put my phone and my headphones into my pocket and am about to reach for the doorknob to my bedroom when the door opens and promptly whacks me in the head.

"Sorry!" It's Namjoon, as anyone could've guessed. An absolute bull in a china shop, that one. "I was just coming to get you; it's time to go."

"What is it we're doing today?" I question, rubbing my forehead and walking out of the room with Namjoon.

"Concept photo shoot. It was on the building schedule but it never got translated to our calendar."

"How long are we going to be there?"

"I don't know, ask Manager-nim."

So I must. I follow my seven companions out the door and into the company car, claiming shotgun for myself. With our manager driving, I'll need to be both close and nice to him to get the information I need.

"Sorry about getting up so late, Manager-nim," I say, doing my best to sound sincerely apologetic.

"It's no trouble at all," he replies. "I just thought Seokjin would've woken you."

"I should have," Jin chimes in from the back of the van. "I was just in a hurry to get ready and I forgot about it, I guess."

"We aren't late because of me, are we?" I ask.

"No, we'll make good time," Manager-nim replies

"How long is this shoot supposed to take?"

"How many questions do you have?" Jimin chides from behind me. He kicks the back of my seat. I clench my fist.

"Let him be, Jimin," Hoseok says. Jung Hoseok, my saving grace.

"Well, we'll probably be done around one or two," Manager-nim decides. "Why, got somewhere to be?"

"Yeah, actually. Since I thought today was a day off, I made plans with a friend at noon. I'm trying to come up with a good way to reschedule."

"We'll talk it out," Hoseok says to me. Then the van goes quiet, the only noise being that of the radio playing a new EXO song. So now they know we've been hiding something from them. Talk it out we must, it seems.

Conversation slowly picks back up by the time we make it to the location for the shoot. We're out in a field somewhere, and there are hair and makeup trailers all around. Right, it's a concept shoot. Guess Big Hit's dyeing my hair again. Lovely.

We file out of the van and into the hair styling trailer. Stylists are all over, sitting us down in chairs and soaking our scalps without any semblance of mercy. In a moment of calm amidst the storm of showerheads and small talk, our maknae raises his voice.

"So, who's the friend?" Jungkook asks me.

"Hm?" I question.

"You said you had plans with a friend. Who is it? Do we know him?"

"Oh, uh— no. No, you don't know her."

"Her?" Jimin inquires.

"Yeah, she's an old friend from when I was underground."

"Is that why you were back so late that night?" Taehyung grills me. "Hyung, you didn't—"

"Nope! No, you're right; I didn't," I cut him off. "She had a concert that I went to and we got some food after. It ran kind of late, is all. We're just friends."

"You sure?" Namjoon asks. Even though I can't see him what with my head in a sink, I can picture the look on his face with perfect clarity. God, I hate him sometimes.

"Leave him alone, Namjoon," Jin says with a laugh. Then, to me, he says, "do you still want to hang out with her today?"

"Well, yeah," I explain. "She has to work a lot, and we're only going to get busier for the next few months, so I want to spend time with her when I can. We haven't been talking as much as we used to."

"The shoot's supposed to be over around two, right?" Jin asks. One of the stylists affirms this and he seems to make up his mind. "Just invite her over after the shoot! We'll stay our of your way. I mean, I will, at least."

"Are you sure?" I ask. "I really don't want to inconvenience you guys. You know how tired we're going to be after the shoot, so it won't be a problem for us to go somewhere else."

"You'd better stay in the dorm," Namjoon says. "I don't trust her yet."

"You haven't met her," I say pointedly.

"Exactly."

"Speaking of which," Jimin begins, "what's she like?"

"What's her name?" Taehyung questions.

The stylist sits me up and starts putting bleach in my hair. As I do this, I notice Jungkook leaving the trailer to get his makeup done. Lucky bastard, always getting out of hair dyeing.

"Her name is Ah Rin. She's a year younger than me and she's working as an underground rapper like I used to. She also works at the library downtown. She likes making fun of horror movies."

"Yeah? That seems like something only a boyfriend would know," Jimin teases.

"You're terrified of horror movies. Does that make me your boyfriend?" I retort.

"Touché."

At that, Rin is dropped as a conversation topic and we finish the last touches on our hair. While my dye is setting, I decide to give Rin a call to reschedule. Namjoon and Tae are the only ones left in here with me at this point, so making a quick phone call shouldn't be too much of a problem.

I dial and put the phone to my ear. Rin picks up on the second ring.

"Hey, Yoongi, what's up?" She asks brightly.

"Hey, Rin. So, something came up and I'm at a photoshoot right now."

"Oh," she seems to deflate a little, so I quickly keep talking.

"Don't worry, we can still hang out today! Just a little later, if that's okay."

"Oh! Yeah, that's fine. When, and what?"

"I talked it over with the guys, and we thought it'd be nice if you came over to the dorm, maybe around two-thirty or three? They promised to not be too annoying."

She laughs. "Yeah, sure, I can do that. I'll see you then, okay?"

"Yep! I'll let you know if anything else comes up."

"Right. Goodnight, Min Yoongi."

"It's nine in the morning."

"Yeah, but whenever we said goodnight to each other at the concert we ended up talking sooner rather than later. I don't know, I thought it was funny."

"Hey, you're the boss. Goodnight it is."

"Hah, okay. Should I try again, then?"

"I'd say so."

"Goodnight, Min Yoongi."

"Goodnight, Ah Rin."

I hang up the phone with a smile on my face and my friends giving me very strange looks.

"Goodnight?" Taehyung questions.

"I don't really know, either," I admit.

From there, the actual shoot begins. After spending another half hour or so on makeup, I come out to the shooting location with gray hair and a well-put-together face. I'm actually liking the gray a lot. Sure, my hair might be absolutely wrecked by the damage of constant dyeing, but I like it this time. I go over and sit by Seokjin while Jungkook is having his individual shots done. It's around ten o'clock now, and I'm practically counting down the minutes until Rin comes over. I have no idea what we're going to do, but I'm sure we'll have a good time.

"So, do you want me to cook for you two?" Jin asks me.

"You'd do that?" I ask, definitely taken aback.

"Absolutely. I want to welcome her to the dorm, after all. Make sure she likes us and all that. I mean, we're all absolutely insane, but I think we should at least do something to make the good in us come out a bit, right?"

"Hey man, if you wanna cook, you go right ahead. I'd be super thankful, honestly. We were going to go out to lunch, so food seems like a pretty good idea."

"Late lunch it is. Anything in particular she likes?"

"If I remember correctly, she's quite the fan of Pajeon."

"I can do Pajeon."

"Seriously?"

"Sure. Anything for you, Yoongi." He ruffles my newly dyed hair like a dad would to his son. Although his gesture in cooking is appreciated, this particular gesture is not.

I remove his hand from my head with dignity. "Thank you, hyung," I say. "That'll do."

"Right," Jin laughs. "So, on the topic of hair, how're you liking mine?"

Jin's hair has recently been bleached to blonde and neatly styled. "I'm really liking it, actually," I say. "Fans are going to love it."

"You think?"

"Totally."

Jin's about to keep talking, but one of the coordi noonas comes up to me and pulls me off to do my individual shots. Apparently unhappy with Seokjin's ruffling of my hair, a stylist slaps a beret on my head and sends me off to a hot air balloon we'd commissioned for the shoot. I spend and hour or so changing in and out of various outfits and taking pictures as my members run around doing the same, and I enjoy it. I really like doing photo shoots, as a matter of fact. There's something inherently pleasant about the monotony of them, and I relish in the strange peace I can find in them. Well, most of the time. Today, though, I'm absolutely buzzing; constantly trying to catch a glimpse of any timepiece that might be nearby so I can see how close I am to seeing Rin. I don't know what's making me so antsy about it, but I really don't want to let her down again. That might make her lose faith in idols as a whole, or worse; it might make her lose the trust in me she's just starting to gain back.

When we finally finish up our group shots, it's two-fifteen. Manager-nim corrals us all back into the company van and we get ready to head back home. As I jump back into the passenger's seat, Jimin speaks up from behind me.

"So, wait. You said you went to your friend's concert that night you were out late, right?"

"Yeah," I respond.

"Play some of her stuff!"

"I don't know if I should," I say. "That's not really my place—"

"Just do it, Yoongi," says Hoseok. "You know they won't shut up about it if you don't. Besides, even I'm curious."

I sigh. "Yeah, you're probably right. I plug in my phone and play The Plight, the new song Rin performed at her last gig.

"This is her latest single," I explain.

The boys utter "oohs" and "ahs" as they listen to Rin's song. They talk about it once it's over. They don't stop talking until we get home.

Nervously, I wait for Rin to arrive.

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hello!

see who's back with an author's note? it's me!

sorry i haven't been updating as much, school's been keeping me busy.

that being said, please - as per usual - vote and comment if you liked this chapter! if you didn't like it, tell me why! i'm always down for constructive criticism, just be nice about it (that goes for all authors, not just me! {end my quick psa}).

anyway, thanks for reading, as usual,

sam

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