In a Split Second || BTS

Chapter 12

Translations:

"mes chers" is French for "my dears"

"-nim" is a Korean honorific used for those who are older than you and in high power

~ ~ ~

"Cherisse! Cherisse! Wake up, Cherisse – you must see this!"

I groan and turn over, lifting my forearm over my eyes to block the sudden intrusion of sunlight. When I am awake enough to lift my eyelids one at a time, slowly and painstakingly, my blue orbs focus on the smiling young face above me. The silky black ringlets Cherisa inherited from her father are bouncing gleefully as she shakes me awake.

"Are you up, Cherisse?" she asks enthusiastically.

"Up, no. Awake, yes," I mumble, my words slurred with the aftereffects of sleep. "Is everything all right?"

"Everything is wonderful! Cherisse-unnie, look outside – it is snowing!"

My eyes pop open, and I scramble to unentangle my legs from the blankets over Cherisa's bed before rushing to the white-trimmed window. Sure enough, glistening snowflakes are floating down from the sky and dropping to the heavy sheets of snow below. A slow smile spreads to my face. I can't remember the last time we had a white Christmas in Lyon.

"Come on, Cherisse! We have to go outside and play!" Cherisa exclaims excitedly, pulling the door open and running down the hall to wake her parents so they can share in the joy of a wintery morning.

"What's going on?" Hoseok yawns, scratching at his head as he emerges from his room. When his eyes fall on the white mass outside, they widen, and he stumbles into Cherisa's room to gaze out at the beauty beside me. "It snowed!"

"I know – can you believe it?"

He turns to me with a sly grin, and I notice that even though he just woke up, he seems to have an endless flow of energy. "You know what this means, don't you?"

I raise an eyebrow playfully. "I think I do. Is it a–"

"–snowball fight?" we finish together, grinning.

"Mommy said we can play outside!" Cherisa announces, running back into the room.

"We need to wake everyone up," Hoseok insists. "Cherisa, I have a job for you."

She jumps up and down, unable to contain her pure ecstasy. "Yeah?"

"I need you to jump up and down on Taehyung and Jungkook's bed until they wake up."

"I'll be right back!" She darts down the hallway and pounds down the stairs, giggling the whole way.

"Be careful not to trip," I call after her.

"I have to wake up Yoongi-hyung and Namjoon," Hoseok tells me. Before we part ways, I look back at the glistening snow dazzling the rooftops and streets of Lyon. Hoseok's fingers entangle in mine, and I smile back at him. Whatever feelings I have for him are nothing compared to the confliction my soul faces when I do so much as look at Taehyung, but they are feelings all the same.

"Merry Christmas, Cherisse-ah," he says quietly, touching his forehead to mine.

"Merry Christmas, Hobi oppa," I reply.

He grins even wider at my use of the foreign honorific and the nickname that unknowingly slipped from my lips. "Hobi?"

My cheeks flush. "S-sorry – Hoseok oppa."

He chuckles. "I wasn't aware you had given me a nickname."

"I-it's just something I started calling you in my mind."