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I followed Jungkook into his hotel room, unprepared for the mess I was about to discover.  These boys didn’t need girlfriends.  They needed a mother.  I smiled to myself as I looked around the room. Towels lined the floor around the chair Jimin was occupying.  There were splotches of various colors on each one.  How on earth had they made this big of a mess in five minutes?  Seven bowls had been set out on the table in front of Jimin.  Each bowl held a different color of hair dye and a tiny paintbrush.  Apparently, this was going to be a very laborious process.

Jimin was sitting in the chair, his hair divided into seven sections.  Someone had inserted clips into each section of hair to prevent it from touching its neighboring sections.  But I noticed that the top section next to the one Tae was currently dyeing was behaving very badly.  It kept flopping over towards his paintbrush.  Tae was in the process of smearing indigo hair dye into Jimin’s already bleached locks.  Tae looked like he was wearing more hair dye than he was applying to Jimin’s hair.  Thankfully, Tae was wearing just a white T-shirt over a pair of dark gray, knit pants.  The T-shirt looked like a rainbow had thrown up all over it.

Jimin, on the other hand, was completely naked from the waist up.  I wasn’t quite prepared for that.  All you Jimin biases will appreciate it, though.  What greeted me when I walked into the room was his bare back.

As we entered the room, Tae looked up at Jungkook.  “Oh, good!  Come here!  I need you to hold his hair away, so I don’t blend the indigo into the purple area.”  Then he glanced at me before continuing, “Oh!  You brought reinforcements!  Good idea.”  His mouth parted in a boxy smile as he welcomed me, “Hi!  I’m Tae.  Are you any good at dyeing hair?”

I grinned at the good boy and wannabe hairstylist and shook my head.  “Nope.  This is my first time.”

He looked a little shocked.  “Really?  You’ve never dyed your hair?”  Then he began to laugh.  “Even Jungkookie here has dyed his hair!”

Jungkook grinned at me.  “And why would she dye her honey hair?  It’s already perfect.”  His eyes were smiling at me too.

His words washed over me with sweetness, and I beamed at him.  He had just called my hair beautiful.  Perfect, in fact.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jimin turn around and meet Tae’s eyes in a speaking glance.  What were they thinking?  Then they both pointedly looked first at Jungkook and then at me.

I decided maybe they’d gotten the wrong idea.  Did they…Could they possibly think Jungkook liked me?  I shook my head.  That was an impossibility.  I mean, he’d said he liked me.  But he just meant that he liked my personality, like we could be friends.  He didn’t actually have feelings for me…Did he?

I glanced over at him out of the corner of my eye to discover him looking at me with a very sweet expression on his face.  I found myself returning his gaze with a smile.  He grinned in response, and my heart began to do another little dance in my chest.

“Hey, lovebirds!  Snap out of it!  I need some help here!” Tae rebuked us.

In that moment, I knew I was turning bright red.  What had he just called us?  An annoyed look passed over Jungkook’s face as his attention left me to fly to Tae in an irate glance.  Then Jungkook glanced at me again and smiled apologetically.  “Don’t mind, Tae.  He can be a bit rude when he wants something.”  He glared at Tae again.

Tae glanced at my cherry red cheeks and sighed, “Sorry!  I’m just making a mess here, and I need some help!”

I got over myself and asked, “What do you need me to do?”

“Tae, are there any extra gloves?” Jungkook asked as he picked up a towel and put it over Jimin’s bare shoulders.  Probably to prevent Jimin’s back from looking like a rainbow by the time this was all said and done.

“Uh…we had a box somewhere.”  Tae looked around the room.  

I saw an oddly shaped towel on the floor, so I bent down to retrieve the box of gloves from underneath it.  “These?” I questioned.

“Yes!” Tae responded.

I pulled two gloves out before handing the box to Jungkook.  After I’d slid the gloves onto my hands, I asked Tae, “What do you need me to do?”

He smiled at me as he replied, “Can you hold this hair down?” He gestured towards the last strip of hair on Jimin’s head.  The strip that he’d already dyed purple.  “Maybe figure out a better way to clip it down, so it doesn’t come in contact with the indigo hair?”

“Sure.” I placed my hands over Jimin’s hair, forcing it to lie completely flat while Tae stood to my right and painted indigo hair dye into Jimin’s blond hair.  I looked around for some more hairclips.  Having found some on the table in front of me, I began to fix Jimin’s purple hair.  I shook my head.  Was I dreaming?  How on earth had I ended up in a hotel room with the maknae line of BTS, my hands on Jimin’s head, his bare torso a scant half-foot from me, as I stood next to Tae, while Jungkook’s eyes never seemed to leave my face?

I glanced up at Jungkook, who was standing to my left, still gazing down at me, a faraway expression in his eyes.  He blinked, and his eyes moved over to Tae.  “What do you need me to do?”

“Can you come clip his hair down?  It keeps flopping over into this area.  If his blue hair turns indigo, the rainbow won’t look right.”

I sighed in disappointment as Jungkook moved away from me to Tae’s other side.  He gave me a forlorn glance as he walked by me.  It warmed my heart.  He didn’t seem to be indifferent to me.  Which was absurd!  We had just met fifteen minutes ago!

“So, Jungkook-ssi, who is your friend?” Jimin asked.

Jungkook glanced at me as we both realized I had never told him my name.  I smiled at him.  “I’m Grace.”

“Grace?” Jungkook rolled my name around on his tongue.  “Grace.  I like it.”  He smiled that sweet smile again.

“Hi, Grace,” Jimin raised his left hand and waved it since he couldn’t move.

“Hi, Jimin,” I responded softly.

Tae turned towards me.  “I guess you know who we are?”

“You mean, ‘Do you know BTS?’” I did my best Jin impression, and they all laughed.

“Guess that answers my question,” Tae mumbled as he painted Jimin’s hair with the indigo dye.

Jungkook caught my eye again, and I just knew he was thinking of the moment I had recklessly declared my love for him.  An awkward silence descended momentarily upon all four of us, and I thought about how strange it was that I was standing in a hotel room with the entire maknae line of BTS while helping them to dye Jimin’s hair into a rainbow.  I grinned.  I love rainbows.

Jungkook saw that grin and quirked a questioning eyebrow at me.

“I love rainbows,” I answered his unspoken question.  “Jimin, what inspired you to dye your hair in a rainbow?”

“BTS.  One color for each member.”

“Ah.  I thought so.”

“Are you coming to our concert tomorrow night?” Jungkook’s eyes had grown wide.

I nodded my head, but then I realized Jimin couldn’t see my response.  “Yes.  It’s why I’m in Chicago.  My friend Sanduni flew all the way from Sri Lanka to come see you.”

“So you just came to support her?” Tae’s face was blank as he looked at me, but I didn’t miss the quirk of his lips.  Now he was teasing me too.  So I decided to tease him back.

I nodded my head.  “Yes.  I will endure three hours of your music for Sanduni’s sake,” I intoned dramatically.  Then I sighed loudly as I stared at the floor and shook my head.  “The things I do for my friends.”  On the last word I caught Jungkook’s eye again.

He grinned widely at me.  “Don’t like my music, huh?”

“It’s not that.  I’m just disappointed you won’t be flying this time while you sing Euphoria to me.”

“Ahhhhhhh,” he smiled.  “You like Euphoria?”

I shook my head, and his smile dipped a little.  “No,” I paused once again for dramatic effect before continuing, “I LOVE Euphoria!  It is absolutely my favorite song.”

“Alas!” Tae interposed.  “You must be a Jungkook bias.”

I grinned.  I bumped my hip against his like we were old friends.  What had gotten into me today?  “I am, but…I love you all,” I responded, and this time it was Jungkook who quirked an eyebrow at me as if to say, “I’m not so special after all, huh?”

I tried to speak to him with my eyes.  They were shouting, “You are very special to me!”

“Ah, but you still prefer Jungkook.  I can see it in your eyes.”  Tae was teasing me again as he stared at me gazing at Jungkook.

Was Jungkook…blushing?  His eyes dipped down to the floor, and he cleared his throat.  He was so sweet.  Meeting him hadn’t changed my perception of him one iota.  He was everything I had always thought he would be.  Getting to know him only confirmed my excellent suspicions.  I sighed.  As lovely as this moment was, it was fleeting.  He would be moving on in a couple of days.  As would I.

He glanced up at just that moment and immediately noticed the shift in my mood.  How was he so sensitive to my feelings?  

“What’s wrong, Grace?”

Having started the day being painfully honest, I saw no way forward but to continue being transparent.  “I was just thinking that no matter how lovely it is getting to know you, in a couple of days we will be parting ways for good.”

His face sobered too, and he nodded. “I know,” he whispered.

“That’s the rub in our line of work,” Tae responded.  “We’re married to the job for years.”  Then he grinned.  “But we like to think of it like this: we’re married to ARMY.”

I wish Jungkook could marry this ARMY.  

I smiled at Tae.  I knew many, many girls had said they were forsaking all other boys to follow these seven.  I could understand their sentiments.  These seven were adorable, quirky, fun-loving men, who clearly loved their ARMY.  Still, someday each of these lovely lads must want to find a wife and have some children.  It was inevitable.  

Ah, but I was unlikely to be one of the seven blessed girls chosen.  Honestly, I wasn’t sure I was cut out for the pressure involved anyway.  But Jungkook sure was easy on the eyes.  And ears.  And I would always remember his smile and the way he looked at me that day.