I find myself beaming as the emcees of the show announce that we've beaten Twice and won the showcase. I look out at the crowd, read some of the signs fans made for us, and bow, tugging on the sleeves of my gray t-shirt. We're all dressed in the same clothes from the music video— undoubtedly the most comfortable performance outfits we have for this comeback, but I'm excited to change out of them nonetheless. Namjoon takes the mic and says his thanks to the producers and staff members at Big Hit, and then Seokjin spends a minute or so thanking all the ARMYs out there. I don't speak, but my head is buzzing the whole time. After we finished up our actual performance, Manager-nim told us that we were free until noon the next day. Immediately, my head went to spending some time with Rin, as I haven't seen her outside of the recording booth in a few weeks. As I clap and smile, my mind wanders to ways I can convince my manager to let me hang out at Rin's place or to let her come to the dorm.

Jimin punches me in the shoulder and I realize it's time for the encore. Behind me, members of other idol groups are giving us congratulatory remarks. I say my thanks to a couple members of Seventeen and Momo from Twice before I make my way to the front of the stage to perform the encore with everyone. We have fun up there— as we always do— but I say my thanks quickly and almost forget to bow before I book it offstage, my members close behind me.

"You alright, hyung?" Tae asks, giving me a concerned glance.

"He's just— hang on, the mic's off, right?" Jimin asks, fumbling around for his mic box. After turning off the power and pulling the mic from the side of his face, he tries the statement again. "He's just excited that we've got the day off tomorrow, for Rin reasons."

I punch him in the arm in an irritated but playful way, nudging him from my side. "So what if I am? I'm trying to make as much time for my friend as possible. Is that such a crime?"

"Friend," Namjoon scoffs. "Totally."

"Here, go get changed," Jungkook says, taking my mic from me. "That way you can hurry up and ask Manager-nim."

"See? This is why Jungkook is great and the rest of you are pigs. Except you, Hoseok— you're alright." I give my brothers a quick salute before heading back to the dressing room, changing into black joggers and a baseball t-shirt. I also wipe most of the makeup off my face before I head back out into the main hallway to find my manager. As I leave the dressing room, I see the rest of the boys entering.

"Manager-nim is out back by the van," Jimin says. "And he's in a good mood because we won." He shoots me a wink and I roll my eyes but follow his instructions to the back of the building. Sure enough, my manager is there, leaning against a wall on his phone with a smile on his face.

"Hi, Manager-nim! How are you?" I ask, shooting him a grin.

"How are you, Yoongi? Actually, let me rephrase that a little. What do you want?"

"Damn, got me red-handed," I say, snapping my fingers in mock defeat. "I was wondering if you could drop me at Rin's place? Since we're free tomorrow I thought it would be good if we could work on our track a little bit more."

"Yeah, I had a feeling that's where it was going. Sure, we can drop you off. Don't do anything stupid, though, okay? Promise?"

"Swear on my life."

"Good."

From there I shoot Rin a text to see if she'll be cool with me coming over, only to find out that she's with Juyoung. I gnaw at my lip a little at this information, but when she lets me know she'll be leaving soon and tells me to let myself in I don't feel half as bad. Hey, at least we're getting to hang out, right?

It doesn't take long for the rest of the boys to be ready to go. I jump in the passenger's seat of the van, tugging on a snapback and a face mask so no one sees me entering Rin's home. The drive there takes about ten minutes, as we're closer to her house here at the MNet building. When Manager-nim lets me out, Namjoon winks at me and tells me not to have "too much fun." I consider smacking him but decide against it. Instead, I exit the vehicle with a word of thanks to my manager before heading up to the front of the house to get Rin's spare key. Finding it behind the front shutter where she told me it would be, I unlock the front door and let myself in the house, and only then does my company van pull out of the driveway.

I take off my shoes, placing my hat and mask next to them, and turn on the lights, finding them to be rather dim. Not just that, but Rin's whole flat is kind of cold, and the lack of good lighting is only accentuating that problem. The cause of the light situation, I soon realize, is that two of the five lightbulbs in the ceiling fixtures have burnt out. I chuckle a bit at this, picturing Rin telling herself over and over that she's going to change them soon, even though she never does. Then I can't help but wonder if she'll notice if I change them. It'll certainly lighten up the room, right? How could she not notice?

With that, I embark on a quest for lightbulbs, unsure as to where they might be located. Rin's whole flat is a little bit on the messy side— not that my dorm's any worse, but things could use some organization. I don't want to touch much of her stuff, though, so I just wander around looking in cabinets and such in the hopes of finding what I need. After searching the whole first floor, I move up the small flight of stairs to the loft. Yep, despite being advertised as a flat, it seems Rin's house has two floors. Truly, real estate is a twisted business.

The second floor itself consists of three rooms and a small closet at the end of a hallway. The walls are a robin's egg shade of blue and the carpeting is white, but a little dingy with age. The first door I open is on the right wall, and it leads to a bathroom, but I don't find anything in there. The next room is across from it on the left wall, and opening it reveals what must be Rin's bedroom.

The room has maroon walls and dark wooden molding like the rest of the house. A double bed with a black bedspread is against the wall opposite the door, and beside it are a couple of dark wooden nightstands. On the wall with the door is her dresser, and the left wall houses her closet. The right wall has a set of windows with white sheer curtains and cheap blinds that have been pulled up to let more light stream in. The room is cluttered, with various items strewn about haphazardly on the floor and atop the dressers. The only place I can think for Rin to have lightbulbs in here is in her closet, so I cross the room carefully to open it. Apparently, though, I don't tread carefully enough, because I step on something that inflicts a sharp pain into my foot and I yelp, reaching out to the dresser beside me to steady myself. My hand lands on a picture frame that's facedown on her dresser, and once the pain in my foot (which was seemingly caused by an action figure of some sort) subsides, I move to prop the frame back up the way it was.

Examining the picture, I see it's one of Rin and Juyoung. It looks like they're in the park at Seoul Forest, in front of one of the huge metal sculptures. The photo looks to be a couple years old, but both people seem to be the picture of happiness, no pun intended. Studying the photo more closely reveals something else, though. Behind that photo is the corner of another one peeking out, and it seems familiar to me. Feeling bad about it but wanting to know for sure, I take out the back of the picture frame and look at the photo behind the one that's displayed. Sure enough, it's an old photo of me and Rin from our underground days. We both look younger, but we're as happy as we could be. We took this photo after the first show we got to do together to commemorate the date. On the back of the picture is the date it was taken— February 2010— and a small message that I wrote. Silver & Gloss, soon-to-be stars. I heave a sigh looking at the picture, astounded that she decided to keep it even after our big fight. I have a picture just like hers, down to the same stupid message on the back. In spite of myself, I almost tear up just looking at the damn thing, and decide I've done enough snooping through Rin's things. I quickly put the photo back and get back to my actual goal, checking the closet for lightbulbs. I end up finding them in the hall closet and change the two burnt out bulbs quickly before flopping down on the upholstered couch downstairs and turning on the TV.

A rerun of this week's Weekly Idol had just started when I hear the front door open.

"Hey, you made it! You haven't been here alone long, have you? I tried to get out of there pretty quickly," Rin says as she takes off her shoes. The smile on her face spreads from ear to ear and it'd be a sin not to return it.

"Nah, I haven't been long. You look nice, by the way," I reply. Rin's wearing black skinny jeans and a faux-denim button-down with black converse, and she looks lovely as usual.

"Thanks, you too. And congrats on winning! They were playing the broadcast in the bar and I got to watch you guys accept the award and all that."

"Ah, thank you. You were out at a bar?"

"Yeah, some place Juyoung was raving about. Didn't stay long, though. Hey, is it bright in here?"

"I may or may not have changed a couple lightbulbs," I say, patting the spot next to me on the couch. Rin takes a seat next to me and I keep talking. "Why weren't you there long, though?"

"Oh, Juyoung and I had a little argument and I went to the bathroom to clear my head, but he was gone when I came back. So, I left. We were there together for like, fifteen minutes."

"Damn, dick move. Is it okay if I ask what you were fighting about?"

"Oh, you'll get a kick out of it."

"Well?"

"Y'know, since the MCountdown broadcast was on, we were talking about your comeback, and Juyoung may or may not have been talking shit about you, and I may or may not have told him to get the hell off his high horse."

"Aw, you defended me?"

Rin blushes, something uncharacteristic of her. "Maybe a little."

"Well, thank you. God knows I need all the help I can get."

"Anytime," she laughs. "And thanks for changing the lightbulbs, too. I feel like I can finally see."

"Anytime," I repeat.

"So, do you wanna work on the track, or...?"

"I mean, sure, we could work on the track. But— hear me out— what if we don't do that, and just relax instead? We've both had pretty busy days, after all."

"Yeah, I'm alright with that. Wanna watch a movie?" She suggests. I nod, handing her the remote. Rin flips through the channels until she comes across the new Amazing Spiderman movie.

"Have you seen this yet?" She asks, giving me a hopeful look.

"No, I have not."

"Cool! This it is, then." She sets the remote down and stands, crossing the room to get a blanket and wrapping herself in it before returning to the couch.

"Wow, way to leave a guy out," I joke.

Again, Rin's face flushes. "Sorry, do you want it?"

"I'm a little chilly, yeah."

"Hah, okay. Here." She shifts and spreads the blanket out over the two of us, and I immediately start to warm up. We just relax and watch the first ten or so minutes of the film in silence before I feel Rin shifting again. I look over at her and find that she's closer to me than she was, but I don't jump to any conclusions. Not that I'm against the idea, though.

A few more minutes pass before Rin shifts again, and this time I look over at her. Again, she's closer to me than she was before, and I just roll my eyes before I put my arm around her, holding her close to me. Rin rests her head against my chest and tangles her legs up in mine, making sure both of us are covered with the blanket. It doesn't take long for me to lean my head on top of hers, and I take a deep breath. Rin's wearing some kind of flowery perfume, and it smells really nice.

"Your heart's beating really fast," Rin says, looking up at me.

"Is it? I didn't even notice." I play it off as a joke, but I am a little bit shook up. I definitely did not expect tonight to turn out like this. I think back to kissing Rin at the library, and now to this. I wanted to kiss her, and although this whole thing is making me nervous, I'm in no way against it. When did things start changing?

We keep watching the movie in silence for another half hour or so until I chuckle at the film's obligatory Stan Lee cameo. I expect Rin to laugh too, but instead, all I hear from her is a groan. Looking down, I find that the Hyun to my Han has fallen asleep on me. Her breathing is light and her face looks completely peaceful with her blue-tipped hair in front of her eyes. I turn the volume on the movie down, smiling softly and finding the courage to kiss her forehead.

"Goodnight, Ah Rin."

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hey!

things went to plan! two updates in two days! hope y'all are doing well.

as usual, if you liked this, please leave feedback— votes and comments are always appreciated. constructive criticism is great, too, it makes me a better writer.

thanks, and just keep on keeping on,

sam

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