Min Yoongi got back to his house a little after ten. He didn't turn on the television or open the fridge. He sat on the couch with his phone in his hand for five minutes, then sent the same message to all six members.
Come to my house tonight. I have something to tell you. It's important.
They arrived one by one. Jungkook came first, still in his pajama pants and a hoodie, and went straight to the kitchen. V and RM arrived together, arguing about whose fault it was that they had taken a wrong turn. Jimin walked in eating a bag of chips and dropped onto the couch. J-Hope came in quietly and gave Yoongi a long look.
Jin was the last to arrive, still in his work clothes. He looked at Yoongi once and said nothing, which was how Jin showed he was worried.
Yoongi was sitting at the edge of the couch with his elbows on his knees. His jaw was tight and his hands were clasped together. He didn't say hello.
"Wait," Jungkook called from the kitchen, with his head in the fridge. "What are we eating? Hyung, do you have any meat?"
"There's only one pack of ramen," RM said, holding it up. Then he knocked a glass off the counter with his elbow, and it shattered on the floor.
"Namjoon!" V said. "You always break everything."
"It's not my fault, the counter is too narrow."
"It's always the counter," V said.
Jimin, who had been crunching chips on the couch, stopped chewing. He had finally looked at Yoongi, and he frowned.
"Hyung," he said, with his mouth still half full. "Why is your face so tense?"
The room went quiet. Jungkook took his head out of the fridge. One by one they turned and looked at Yoongi, and for the first time that evening, they saw his face properly.
"Hyung?" Jungkook said, in a smaller voice. "Are you okay?"
"Sit down," Yoongi said. "All of you. I have something to tell you."
They sat. V and RM took the floor. Jungkook squeezed onto the couch next to Jimin. Jin stayed standing with his arms crossed, and J-Hope sat on the arm of the chair, a little apart from the others.
Yoongi took a breath.
"A while ago, I went to Diamond Bar alone. You remember the manager complaining about it."
"We remember," Jin said. "You didn't answer your phone for two days."
"I met a girl there. She was drunk, and she crashed into me. She told me her boyfriend had cheated on her with her best friend. We talked for hours." He rubbed his face. "Then she asked me to spend the night with her. I said no. She asked again. And I said yes."
Nobody said anything. Jimin's mouth hung open. A piece of chip fell out of it.
"I left before she woke up. I didn't leave a note or a number. The next day I regretted it. I went back to the bar for days and I couldn't find her." He looked at Jimin. "Jimin knows part of this."
Jimin nodded.
"Later we went to the event planning company for the concert meeting," Yoongi said. "They were talking about someone who had just resigned. I heard her name. It was her. They showed me her file. I ran out of the building, and she was already gone. I missed her by ten minutes."
"Hyung," V said slowly. "That is... very bad luck."
"I know. After that I had no way to find her. I looked everywhere and couldn't find anything. It felt like she had disappeared."
"So where is she now?" Jin asked.
"That's what I'm getting to." Yoongi sat up straighter. "Today I went to my parents' house. I didn't tell them I was coming. When I walked in, she was sitting at the dinner table."
Jungkook's eyes went wide. "What?"
"My mom met her today. She almost got hit by a car near the bookstore, and my mom pulled her back. My mom saw she was upset and took her out for tea, then invited her to dinner. She didn't know who she was." He laughed once, without much humor. "I walked into the dining room and we both nearly fainted."
"Your mom saved her?" Jimin said. "That's like a drama."
"Jimin," Jin warned.
"I'm just saying."
"We argued after dinner," Yoongi said. "My parents went out for a walk and left us alone. I was angry. Then she told me why she disappeared, and I stopped being angry." He paused. "I kissed her."
RM let out a low whistle. V clapped a hand over his mouth.
"My parents walked in and saw us."
"Oh no," Jungkook whispered.
"My mom was so excited she almost cried. Then she told us..." He stopped and looked at the floor. Nobody moved. "She told us that Seo-yeon is pregnant."
The room was very quiet.
"It's mine," Yoongi said. "She's having my baby. And it's not one baby. It's twins. A boy and a girl."
Nobody said anything for a long moment.
Then RM stood up so fast he knocked over the coffee table, and the glasses on it slid off and shattered.
"Namjoon!" V shouted.
"TWINS?" RM yelled.
"You broke another one!"
"I don't care about the glass! Hyung is going to be a father! Twice!"
"Congraduations!" V said, jumping up. "I mean congratulations! No, congradu... why is that word so hard!"
"You still can't say it?" Jimin said, laughing so hard that his chips spilled all over the couch. "Hyung, you're going to be somebody's dad. You still sleep with your stuffed cat!"
"It's a pillow."
"It has ears!"
Jungkook had not said a word. He was staring at Yoongi with his hands pressed against his cheeks, and slowly, he started to scream. It was a happy scream, loud and high, and he threw himself across the couch and wrapped both arms around Yoongi's neck.
"I'm going to be an uncle! I'm going to be an uncle to TWO!"
"Jungkook, you're choking me."
"I'll buy them everything! I'll teach them to dance! I'll make them call me Uncle Jungkook the Great!"
"They won't call you that."
"They will!"
J-Hope was smiling quietly. He caught Yoongi's eye across the room and said, "I told you."
"Told him what?" Jimin asked.
"That he was in love."
"I'm not..." Yoongi started, then stopped. "I don't know. Maybe."
"You kissed her," J-Hope said. "Maybe is enough."
Jin hadn't moved. He stood with his arms still crossed and his face serious, and when the noise died down, he was the only one who hadn't said a word.
"Hyung?" Yoongi said carefully.
"Sit," Jin told the others, and they sat. He walked over and stopped in front of Yoongi.
"Does the company know?"
"No. Nobody knows. You're the first."
"Does she want to go public?"
"We haven't talked about that."
"Does she want money? Is she asking for anything?"
"No. She didn't even tell me for months. She was trying to protect my career." Yoongi's voice firmed. "She's not like that, Hyung. She's a fan who's been with us since 2013. She was so afraid of hurting us that she hid it from me."
Jin studied his face for a long moment. Then his expression softened, and he sat down heavily next to him.
"You know this will be difficult."
"I know."
"The company will have a lot to say. The fans will too."
"I know."
"And you're not going to run again?"
"No." Yoongi met his eyes. "I'm not running anymore. I've done that once already."
Jin let out a long breath and put a hand on his shoulder. "Then I'm with you. We all are."
"We are," Jungkook said at once, bouncing on the couch.
"We are," V said. "Even if I cannot say the words right."
"We're all with you," RM agreed, picking up a piece of broken glass. "Ow."
"Namjoon, put it down."
"I'm fine."
"You're bleeding."
"It's a small cut."
Jimin, still holding his bag of chips, raised his hand. "So, can I be the godfather?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because you're immature," Jin said.
"You're all immature," J-Hope said. "We just show it differently."
Yoongi laughed, a real laugh this time. He looked around the room at six faces that had known him for more than ten years, and some of the tightness in his chest let go.
"Thank you," he said. "For coming. I didn't know how to say it, and I wanted you to hear it from me first."
"Hyung," Jungkook said, resting his chin on his shoulder. "When can we meet them?"
"The babies aren't born yet."
"Then when can we meet her?"
Yoongi hesitated. "Soon. When she's ready."
"Is she pretty?"
"Jungkook."
"I'm just asking."
"Yes," Yoongi said. "She's pretty."
"Ooooh," said all Six of them at once.
He covered his face with both hands.