LOVEGAME OVER

20 - Continue countdown

Taehyung is sound asleep in his bed, next to the mattress onto which Yoongi is lying awake. He is listening to his friend's deep breathing, trying to get rocked into sleep by the repetitive sound. But he just cannot.

Taehyung has not once asked why Yoongi had not come for a week to his place, or why he had only come the day before, and why his face was in a bad shape. Does he even care? Does he actually care for anything else than himself?

Truth is, Mrs Kim is the only one caring. She has always been the only one.

Yoongi sits up to glance at Taehyung, whose phone, resting against his head, is still unlocked and opened on an Instragram conversation. The older boy sighs and gets up, leaving the bedroom to go drink water.

As he is about to enter the kitchen, he sees light under the door of the Kims, and stops, his hand on the knob of the kitchen door. He tries to fight it, he really does, but he ends up knocking on Seokjin's door all the same.

It is roughly two in the morning, but a lively "Yes" invites him to come in. "What's up, baby?" Mrs Kim asks upon Yoongi's entrance. "Oh," she adds with a gasp when she notices it is not Taehyung. "It's you."

Yoongi shrugs as he is detailing Seokjin's outfit. She is wearing a silk gown of a pastel kind of pink, which does not cover her broad shoulders, nor the upper part of her long thighs. To anyone, it might feel out of place, but Yoongi actually finds himself unbothered by the view – worse, he even feels quite turned on.

"Did you need something?" Mrs Kim asks, looking concerned, although she has not made a move to get out of her bed.

"I, hum, was just going to the kitchen. I thought you'd be asleep."

"I like night reading. And I never go to bed before Tae's asleep. I guess that's what people call maternal instinct."

She offers him a genuine smile. Yoongi gulps. Can she be even more tempting than this? He bites his lips in shame for thinking this, but does not try to leave the bedroom.

"You weren't sleeping?" Taehyung's mother tries to fill in the awkward blanks.

Yoongi looks up at her and loses all control. He mumbles, almost angrily, "You don't realise that you're driving me crazy, ma'am."

"What's that, Yoongi?" She is now frowning, she does not seem to understand.

"Don't pretend you don't now what I'm talking about."

Mrs Kim slightly blushes and looks down. "I told you to forget about–"

"I can't!" Yoongi has spoken up, startling his friend's mother. He finally makes a move, walking up to her, and sitting by her side on the bed. "Please, we need to do something. Or at least, talk about it."

"There's nothing to say," she firmly answers. "You're my son's friend and I'm married. This is going nowhere."

Yoongi takes possession of her free hand – the one which is not clutching her book – and presses it lightly. "And yet you kissed me."

"I was wrong. Do you actually realise how wrong this is?" She takes her hand back and hisses, a bit more bluntly, "For God's sake, Yoongi, you're not even eighteen."

"I don't care. I don't care about anything you've said. About Taehyung, about Mr Kim, about my age. These are just excuses you made up to convince yourself. Ain't they?"

Seokjin takes her head between her hands and sighs, exasperated. "You're the one driving me crazy," she mutters.

"I wouldn't, if you just let me–"

"How?" she explodes, cutting him off. "How am I supposed to do this? I can't make you happy."

Yoongi faintly smiles, "You're already making me happy. But this is not about me. I just want to make you happy. Because you deserve it."

He frowns as he notices that Mrs Kim is starting to cry. "I'm sorry," he says, "I didn't want to make you upset."

Yoongi raises his hand to dry her tears, and his friend's mother replies in a stifled sob, "You didn't. It's just been a long time since anybody said something this sweet to me."

"And I could say, and do, so much more, you just have one word to say, Seokjin." Mrs Kim blinks at the use of her first name.

She throws a sideways look at Yoongi's hand, still on her cheek, and smiles. She slowly leans forward, staring at the boy's bruised face, and says in a painful tone, "You're irresistible, do you know this?"

Yoongi only closes the gap between their two faces and captures Seokjin's lips into his own, grabbing her short, dark hair to pull her against his chest. Mrs Kim seems to relax and wraps her arms around the boy's neck, letting his tongue caress her mouth before darting her own out.

Namjoon had never kissed her like this – at least, not in the past five years. But at this moment, she does not even think about Namjoon, although she knows he would probably kill them both for this. She just lets Yoongi into her world, she allows herself to accept happiness in her life.

"Thank you," Mrs Kim whispers against his mouth when they finally part.