Chapter 3.

"What the hell do you mean?" I squinted my eyes, showing that I'm dead serious and that I'm confused.

"You know...just SAW THE FRIGGIN HOT GUYS EVERYONE'S TALKING ABOUT!" it's probably impossible to be louder than Solar at that point. Luckily no one was in sight to see these mad screams.

"You--what?" Aeri choked on air, suddenly interested in what Solar has to say about the guys. She still wasn't interested in the guys but she wanted to stick her nose into this boy drama.

"Yeah, one of them is in my class. When he walked into the class, girls were squealing in hysteria and after seeing his face, I wasn't surprised. He looked like a freaking prince," Solar spilled as she began dragging Aeri by the arm out of the locker area and into the main hall of the front building.

"Where are we going?" Aeri asked, slightly panicking. She twitched her head side to side and pulled her weight to her heels as she walked.

"To get a better look at them, duh," Solar's tone made it seem as if Aeri's question was the stupidest thing she has ever heard, "I heard people say that a few of them will be coming through the halls soon, it's kind of a tradition that the girls will come stare at them model across the hall,"

"I'm so not bothered to be here," Aeri rolled her eyes, surveying the hall as it was crammed and packed with girls wanting to see the Bangtan boys. How pathetically desperate are they?

"What's his name? The guy in your class," Aeri said, trying to kill time since she was becoming impatient. She wanted to grab breakfast, food is way more important than boys. She tapped her foot on the floor repeatedly, her arms intersecting on her chest.

"Oh, his name is Park---," just as Solar was about to say his name, the door burst open revealing 3 boys, seemingly uninterested in the situation they were in.

Aeri was facing Solar so she didn't notice the boys until she heard the crashing of the door to the wall. She turned around the same moment one of them faced her direction.

He had jet-black hair plastered carelessly to the sides of his forehead. His lips plump and pink, luscious and smooth, almost seems too kissable. The guy to his right was slightly taller, he had curly raven-colored hair. His eyes sharp and intimidating but his boxy smile could say otherwise. To his left was a guy roughly the same height as the one to his right but is much more muscular. His brunette hair somewhat brushed to a side, his eyes were round and doe-like cohering perfectly with his bunny smile which revealed both the top and bottom rows of his teeth.

Before Aeri could notice, the 3 guys were walking towards her, baffling everyone around her. She returned from her subconscious state realizing who the guys in front of her were.

"Jimin?" Aeri whispered, still not believing what she's seeing.

"Aeri?" the guy questioned in return.

"Wait...you two know each other?" Moonbyul asked, interrupting to sudden silence.

We looked at each other in the eye, ignoring the questions we were bombarded with.

"It's been so long…" was all I could muster out of my throat.

Her brother, her best friend…he was here, right in front of her. She could feel tears welling up to the brim of her eyes.

Jimin didn't hesitate to pull her into his tight embrace, resting his chin on her head. His eyes fluttered close, warm tears cascaded down his cheeks and onto her scalp. Aeri wrapped her arms around his torso, burying her face in her chest like a traumatized child grabbing onto the last string of hope.

It took them a few minutes until they pulled apart. They both wiped their fresh tears with the palm of their hand, a smile never leaving either of their faces.

"I can't believe it's you," Jimin laughed.

"I can't believe it's you, too," Aeri smiled, resisting the tears attempting to fall.

"Ahem," Taehyung coughed, drawing Aeri's attention to him. He cocked his eyebrow and opened his arms wide, expecting a hug.

Aeri promptly thrust all her weight into his arms clinging onto his like a monkey.

"I missed you, too, Tae," she mumbled into his shirt.

"I missed you more," Taehyung chuckled at her childishness.

"I missed you most," both of them turned their heads to the owner of the voice. Jungkook stood there showing off his bunny smile, but this time wider than before.

"Jungkookie," Aeri squealed before jumping onto him. He enveloped her with a hug.

The little reunion ended quite shortly. Aeri turned around to face the girls, all mustering the expression that spoke "care to explain?".

"Oh, right. Girls, this is Taehyung, Jungkook, and Solar has already met Jimin," Aeri introduced pointing at each boy according to their name. "And this is Hwasa, Wheein, Solar and Moonbyul,"

They all greeted each other with a warm smile.

"Girls, remember when I talked about my brothers?" Aeri asked, they all nodded.

"Yeah, these are 3 of them," they continued nodding, still filtering in the new information.

"How long has it been?" Jimin asked.

"8 years," Aeri replied, she always counted the years even the months that have gone since she last saw her brothers.

"It was so different without you, Anko-ah," Jimin smiled, remembering the nickname he yearned to call for 8 whole years.

"Aish, Chim, not in public please," Aeri smacked Jimin's shoulder because she hasn't heard that name in what seemed like forever and it was kind of embarrassing to be called that in front of everyone.

Jimin laughed and slung his arm over her shoulder.

"We were going to meet the hyungs out front for breakfast, wanna come?" Jimin asked, Aeri nodded like an obedient dog. She couldn't help that her stomach was always longing for food.

Aeri turned to the girls and asked, "you guys wanna come?"

"No, it's fine. You should go catch up with them," Wheein grinned, the rest of the girls nodded in agreement.

"Okay, if you say so. I'll text you when I'm done," Aeri reassured, waving them off and walking away with Jimin, Taehyung and Jungkook.

Almost every girl was in awe, shocked that the Bangtan boys touched or even talked to a girl. Their expressions varied from joyous to grotesque. But the four of them couldn't care less.

"Jin-hyung said for everyone to meet here at 10.15, that's 5 more minutes. When they come you'll go sit on the stairs and pretend like your reading. We'll tell them that we have a surprise for them and we'll walk to you and make sure the book covers your face. When we are standing around you, slowly pull the book down, okay?" Taehyung said excitedly.

"Aish, you're still the same Taetae from 8 years ago," Aeri shook her head in disbelief.

"Always was and always will be," his rectangular smile leaving her with a chuckle.

��Noona," Jungkook said.

"Yes, Jungkookie?" Aeri beamed.

"How was living in the states? Was it fun? Did you make a lot of friends? Were you popular? Did you get a boyfriend?" he cooed on the last question.

"Ahh, Kookie...of course it was hell living away from you guys. But I made a few good friends, the girls I was with were my best friends there, ever since the first day. I don't know if I'm popular, I guess I was? Many guys asked me out but no, I don't have a boyfriend because I rejected every single one of them,"

"I'm glad, noona. Not because of the whole hell part but because I don't have to stalk and do a full history search on your boyfriend," the younger snickered.

"I still can't believe you've gotten this big, all three of you," Aeri changed the subject.

"And I still can't believe you've gotten this beautiful," Jimin complimented, making her heart warm at the kind words of her best friend.

"Yet, you are the ones those girls are drooling over," Aeri scoffed, "By the way, what's the deal with you guys and being girl-proof?"

"Oh, yeah, you see, you're the only girl that matters in our lives, so we have no interest in others," Taehyung said proudly.

"Plus all of them are so easy and girly. They can't do anything other than whine, cry or flirt," Jimin remarked with a disgusted face.

"I bet all of them are plotting how to kill me right now," Aeri laughed awkwardly, partly joking and partly serious.

"We won't let anything happen to you, noona," Jungkook locked his arm with hers.

"Oh, I almost forgot. My dad told me you guys lived in Busan, why are you here in Seoul?"

"Correction: our parents live in Busan, we live in Seoul. We moved here when I was in middle school and the hyungs were in high school. Our parents contributed money to buy us a house here. More like a modern style mansion, actually. It's pretty big, you should come by some time,��� Jungkook said.

"Oh I have an idea," Aeri proposed, "what if I ask my parents if I could live with you guys since we go to the same university,"

The three boys were ecstatic, completely agreeing with the idea. Knowing her parents, they would probably let her stay with them, if not thrilled because she'd have her brothers to take care of her.

"I think the hyungs are coming soon," Jimin looked at his watch then pointing to the stairs.

Aeri grabbed a large book from Jimin's backpack and ran to the stairs in front of the campus.

A few minutes passed when Jin, Namjoon, Yoongi and Hoseok joined the three younger ones in front of the main building.

Jungkook was smiling like an idiot, gaining suspicion from Jin while Taehyung and Jimin were engulfed by their amazing acting skills.

"Jeon Jungkook, what is wrong with you?" the elder eyed the younger suspiciously.

"Nothing hyung, we just have a surprise for you all," Jungkook hummed.

"Yeah? Well, it better not be a large gold-framed picture of Jimin smiling while resting his hands on his hips," Yoongi gawked.

"No, it's not," Jimin said in a low tone, irritated by his hyung.

"It better not be a snakeu, because I swear in the name of Sprite---" Hoseok's panicked rant was cut off by Taehyung.

"No, hyung, it's not. Just follow us," he gestured for the four hyungs to follow. The four elders stared at each other slightly bewildered because the maknae line's surprises were never good.

When they reached the stairs where Aeri was sitting, Namjoon spoke, "Don't tell me she's the surprise. What are you three blockheads thinking surprising us with a girl? You know we're not interested,"

"Hyung, you might wanna take that back because I'm sure you're all going to be interested," Taehyung smiled.

Namjoon rolled his eyes, not believing what the younger ones did.

Aeri slowly lowered the book since all the boys were surrounding her. She was waiting to see the expressions on their faces.

When the book was fully lowered and her face was visible, all four of the elders' mouths dropped, eyes wide open.

"Don't tell me….."