#positivity:

[jcmarchi]

Anchor Positioning Quirks

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/anchor-positioning-quirks/

Anchor Positioning Quirks

I am thrilled to say, that from this week onwards, the CSS-tricks Almanac has an entry for each property, function, and at-rule related to the new Anchor Positioning API! For the last month, I have tried to fully understand this new module and explain it to the best of my ability. However, anchor positioning is still a new feature that brings even newer dynamics on how to position absolute elements, so it’s bound to have some weird quirks and maybe even a few bugs lurking around.

To celebrate the coverage, I wanted to discuss those head-scratchers I found while diving into this stuff and break them down so that hopefully, you won’t have to bang your head against the wall like I did at first.

The inset-modified containing block

A static element containing block is a fairly straightforward concept: it’s that element’s parent element’s content area. But things get tricky when talking about absolutely positioned elements. By default, an absolutely positioned element’s containing block is the viewport or the element’s closest ancestor with a position other than static, or certain values in properties like contain or filter.

All in all, the rules around an absolute element’s containing block aren’t so hard to remember. While anchor positioning and the containing block have their quirks (for example, the anchor element must be painted before the positioned element), I wanted to focus on the inset-modified containing block (which I’ll abbreviate as IMCB from here on out).

There isn’t a lot of information regarding the inset-modified containing block, and what information exists comes directly from the anchor positioning specification module. This tells me that, while it isn’t something new in CSS, it’s definitely something that has gained relevance thanks to anchor positioning.

The best explanation I could find comes directly from the spec:

For an absolutely positioned box, the inset properties effectively reduce the containing block into which it is sized and positioned by the specified amounts. The resulting rectangle is called the inset-modified containing block.

So if we inset an absolutely positioned element’s (with top, left, bottom, right, etc.), its containing block shrinks by the values on each property.

.absolute position: absolute; top: 80px; right: 120px; bottom: 180px; left: 90px;

For this example, the element’s containing block is the full viewport, while its inset modified containing block is 80px away from the top, 120px away from the right, 180px away from the bottom, and 90px away from the left.

Knowing how the IMCB works isn’t a top priority for learning CSS, but if you want to understand anchor positioning to its fullest, it’s a must-know concept. For instance, the position-area and position-try-order heavily rely on this concept.

In the case of the position-area property, a target containing block can be broken down into a grid divided by four imaginary lines:

The start of the target’s containing block.

The start of the anchor element or anchor(start).

The end of the anchor element or anchor(end).

The end of the target’s containing block.

The position-area property uses this 3×3 imaginary grid surrounding the target to position itself inside the grid. So, if we have two elements…

<div class="anchor">Anchor</div> <div class="target">Target</div>

…attached with anchor positioning:

.anchor anchor-name: --my-anchor; height: 50px; width: 50px; .target position: absolute; position-anchor: --my-anchor; height: 50px; width: 50px;

…we can position the .target element using the position-area property:

.target position: absolute; position-anchor: --my-anchor; position-area: top left; height: 50px; width: 50px;

The IMCB is shrunk to fit inside the region of the grid we selected, in this case, the top-left region.

You can see it by setting both target’s dimensions to 100%:

The position-try-order also uses the IMCB dimensions to decide how to order the fallbacks declared in the position-try-fallbacks property. It checks which one of the fallbacks provides the IMCB with the largest available height or width, depending on whether you set the property with either the most-height or most-width values.

I had a hard time understanding this concept, but I think it’s perfectly shown in a visual tool by Una Kravets on https://chrome.dev/anchor-tool/.

Specification vs. implementation

The spec was my best friend while I researched anchor positioning. However, theory can only take you so far, and playing with a new feature is the fun part of understanding how it works. In the case of anchor positioning, some things were written in the spec but didn’t actually work in browsers (Chromium-based browsers at the time). After staring mindlessly at my screen, I found the issue was due to something so simple I didn’t even consider it: the browser and the spec didn’t match.

Anchor positioning is different from a lot of other features in how fast it shipped to browsers. The first draft was published on June 2023 and, just a year later, it was released on Chrome 125. To put itinto perspective, the first draft for custom properties was published in 2012 and we waited four years to see it in implemented in browsers (although, Firefox shipped it years before other browsers).

I am excited to see browsers shipping new CSS features at a fast pace. While it’s awesome to get new stuff faster, it leaves less space between browsers and the CSSWG to remake features and polish existing drafts. Remember, once something is available in browsers, it’s hard to change or remove it. In the case of anchor positioning, browsers shipped certain properties and functions early on that were ultimately changed before the spec had fully settled into a Candidate Recommendation.

It’s a bit confusing, but as of Chrome 129+, this is the stuff that Chrome shipped that required changes:

position-area

The inset-area property was renamed to position-area (#10209), but it will be supported until Chrome 131.

.target /* from */ inset-area: top right; /* to */ position-area: top right;

position-try-fallbacks

The position-try-options was renamed to position-try-fallbacks (#10395).

.target /* from */ position-try-options: flip-block, --smaller-target; /* to */ position-try-fallbacks: flip-block, --smaller-target;

inset-area()

The inset-area() wrapper function doesn’t exist anymore for the position-try-fallbacks (#10320), you can just write the values without the wrapper

.target /* from */ position-try-options: inset-area(top left); /* to */ position-try-fallbacks: top left;

anchor(center)

In the beginning, if we wanted to center a target from the center, we would have to write this convoluted syntax

.target --center: anchor(--x 50%); --half-distance: min(abs(0% - var(--center)), abs(100% - var(--center))); left: calc(var(--center) - var(--half-distance)); right: calc(var(--center) - var(--half-distance));

The CWSSG working group resolved (#8979) to add the anchor(center) argument for much-needed brevity.

.target left: anchor(center);

Bugs!

Some bugs snuck into browser implementations of qnchor positioning. For example, the spec says that if an element doesn’t have a default anchor element, then the position-area property does nothing. This is a known issue (#10500) but it’s still possible to replicate, so please, just don’t do it.

The following code…

.container position: relative; .element position: absolute; position-area: center; margin: auto;

…centers the .element inside its container as we can see in this demo from Temani Afif:

Another example comes from the position-visibility property. If your anchor element is off-screen, you typically want its target to be hidden as well. The spec says the default is anchors-visible, but browsers go with always instead.

Chrome currently isn’t reflecting the spec. It indeed is using always as the initial value. But the spec’s text is intentional — if your anchor is off-screen or otherwise scrolled off, you usually want it to hide (#10425).

Anchor positioning accessibility

While anchor positioning’s most straightforward use case is for stuff like tooltips, infoboxes, and popovers, it can be used for a lot of other stuff as well. Check this example by Silvestar Bistrović, for example, where he connects elements with lines. He’s tethered elements together for decorative purposes, so anchor positioning doesn’t mean there is a semantic relationship between the elements. As a consequence, non-visual agents, like screen readers, are left in the dark about how to interpret two seemingly unrelated elements.

If we’re aiming to link a tooltip to another element, we need to set up a relationship in the DOM and let anchor positioning handle the visuals. Happily, there are APIs (like the Popover API) that do this for us, even establishing an anchor relationship that we can take advantage of to create more compelling visuals.

In a general way, the spec describes an approach to create this relationship using ARIA attributes such as the aria-details or aria-describedby, along the role attribute on the target element.

So, while we could attach the following two elements…

<div class="anchor">anchor</div> <div class="toolip">toolip</div>

…using anchor positioning:

.anchor anchor-name: --my-anchor; .toolip position: absolute; position-anchor: --my-anchor; position-area: top;

…but screen readers only see two elements next to one another without any remarked relationship. That’s a bummer for accessibility, but we can easily fix it using the corresponding ARIA attribute:

<div class="anchor" aria-describedby="tooltipInfo">anchor</div> <div class="toolip" role="tooltip" id="tooltipInfo">toolip</div>

And now they are both visually and semantically linked together! It would just be better if could pull it off without ARIA.

Conclusion

Being confused by a new feature just to finally understand it is one of the most satisfying experiences anyone in programming can feel. While there are still some things about anchor positioning that can be (and are) confusing, I’m pleased to say the CSS-Tricks Almanac now has a deluge of information to help clarify things.

The most exciting thing is that anchor positioning is still in an early stage. That means there are many more confusing things coming for us to discover and learn!

[nevver]

Korn, Uli Westphal (because)

[389]

PORTO ROCHA

[nanaluvbug]

🧀🥪🌶️🥭 The Ravening War portraits  🧀🥪🌶️🥭

patreon * twitch * shop  

[ID: a series of digitally illustrated portraits showing - top left to bottom right - Bishop Raphaniel Charlock (an old radish man with a big red head and large white eyebrows & a scraggly beard. he wears green and gold robes with symbols of the bulb and he smirks at the viewer) Karna Solara (a skinny young chili pepper woman with wavy green hair, freckled light green skin with red blooms on her cheeks. she wears a chili pepper hood lined with small pepper seeds and stares cagily ahead) Thane Delissandro Katzon (a muscular young beef man with bright pinkish skin with small skin variations to resemble pastrami and dark burgundy hair. he wears a bread headress with a swirl of rye covering his ears and he looks ahead, optimistic and determined) Queen Amangeaux Epicée du Peche (a bright mango woman with orange skin, big red hair adorned with a green laurel, and sparkling green/gold makeup. she wears large gold hoop earrings and a high leafy collar) and Colin Provolone (a scraggly cheese man with waxy yellow skin and dark slicked back hair and patchy dark facial hair. he wears a muted, ratty blue bandana around his neck and raises a scarred brow at the viewer with a smirk) End ID.)

[70sscifiart]

One of my favorites by Paul Lehr, used as a 1971 cover to "Earth Abides," by George R. Stewart. It's also in my upcoming art book!

[layla-keating]

#thistension

XO, KITTY — 1.09 “SNAFU”

[foodffs]

Noodles with Lamb Sauce (Laghman, 新疆拌面) Xinjiang laghman features chewy noodles served with a bold and rich lamb and tomato sauce that is bursting with flavor.

Recipe: https://omnivorescookbook.com/recipes/uyghur-style-noodles-with-lamb-sauce

[taizooo]

もともとは10年ほど前にTumblrにすごくハマっていて。いろんな人をフォローしたらかっこいい写真や色が洪水のように出てきて、もう自分で絵を描かなくて良いじゃん、ってなったんです。それで何年も画像を集めていって、そこで集まった色のイメージやモチーフ、レンズの距離感など画面構成を抽象化して、いまの感覚にアウトプットしています。画像の持つ情報量というものが作品の影響になっていますね。

映画『きみの色』山田尚子監督×はくいきしろい対談。嫉妬し合うふたりが語る、色と光の表現｜Tokyo Art Beat

[lesserknownbots]

CJ from Hello World (MSPFA) by phasedsun?

[kithtaehyung]

AGUST D : DAECHWITA (大吹打) & HAEGEUM (解禁)  ⤷ movie posters | ig ; twt (click for hi-res)

[jcmarchi]

Pop(over) the Balloons

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/popover-the-balloons/

Pop(over) the Balloons

I’ve always been fascinated with how much we can do with just HTML and CSS. The new interactive features of the Popover API are yet another example of just how far we can get with those two languages alone.

You may have seen other tutorials out there showing off what the Popover API can do, but this is more of a beating-it-mercilessly-into-submission kind of article. We’ll add a little more pop music to the mix, like with balloons… some literal “pop” if you will.

What I’ve done is make a game — using only HTML and CSS, of course — leaning on the Popover API. You’re tasked with popping as many balloons as possible in under a minute. But be careful! Some balloons are (as Gollum would say) “tricksy” and trigger more balloons.

I have cleverly called it Pop(over) the Balloons and we’re going to make it together, step by step. When we’re done it’ll look something like (OK, exactly like) this:

Handling the popover attribute

Any element can be a popover as long as we fashion it with the popover attribute:

<div popover>...</div>

We don’t even have to supply popover with a value. By default, popover‘s initial value is auto and uses what the spec calls “light dismiss.” That means the popover can be closed by clicking anywhere outside of it. And when the popover opens, unless they are nested, any other popovers on the page close. Auto popovers are interdependent like that.

The other option is to set popover to a manual value:

<div popover=“manual”>...</div>

…which means that the element is manually opened and closed — we literally have to click a specific button to open and close it. In other words, manual creates an ornery popup that only closes when you hit the correct button and is completely independent of other popovers on the page.

Using the <details> element as a starter

One of the challenges of building a game with the Popover API is that you can’t load a page with a popover already open… and there’s no getting around that with JavaScript if our goal is to build the game with only HTML and CSS.

Enter the <details> element. Unlike a popover, the <details> element can be open by default:

<details open> <!-- rest of the game --> </details>

If we pursue this route, we’re able to show a bunch of buttons (balloons) and “pop” all of them down to the very last balloon by closing the <details>. In other words, we can plop our starting balloons in an open <details> element so they are displayed on the page on load.

This is the basic structure I’m talking about:

<details open> <summary>🎈</summary> <button>🎈</button> <button>🎈</button> <button>🎈</button> </details>

In this way, we can click on the balloon in <summary> to close the <details> and “pop” all of the button balloons, leaving us with one balloon (the <summary> at the end (which we’ll solve how to remove a little later).

You might think that <dialog> would be a more semantic direction for our game, and you’d be right. But there are two downsides with <dialog> that won’t let us use it here:

The only way to close a <dialog> that’s open on page load is with JavaScript. As far as I know, there isn’t a close <button> we can drop in the game that will close a <dialog> that’s open on load.

<dialog>s are modal and prevent clicking on other things while they’re open. We need to allow gamers to pop balloons outside of the <dialog> in order to beat the timer.

Thus we will be using a <details open> element as the game’s top-level container and using a plain ol’ <div> for the popups themselves, i.e. <div popover>.

All we need to do for the time being is make sure all of these popovers and buttons are wired together so that clicking a button opens a popover. You’ve probably learned this already from other tutorials, but we need to tell the popover element that there is a button it needs to respond to, and then tell the button that there is a popup it needs to open. For that, we give the popover element a unique ID (as all IDs should be) and then reference it on the <button> with a popovertarget attribute:

<!-- Level 0 is open by default --> <details open> <summary>🎈</summary> <button popovertarget="lvl1">🎈</button> </details> <!-- Level 1 --> <div id="lvl1" popover="manual"> <h2>Level 1 Popup</h2> </div>

This is the idea when everything is wired together:

Opening and closing popovers

There’s a little more work to do in that last demo. One of the downsides to the game thus far is that clicking the <button> of a popup opens more popups; click that same <button> again and they disappear. This makes the game too easy.

We can separate the opening and closing behavior by setting the popovertargetaction attribute (no, the HTML spec authors were not concerned with brevity) on the <button>. If we set the attribute value to either show or hide, the <button> will only perform that one action for that specific popover.

<!-- Level 0 is open by default --> <details open> <summary>🎈</summary> <!-- Show Level 1 Popup --> <button popovertarget="lvl1" popovertargetaction="show">🎈</button> <!-- Hide Level 1 Popup --> <button popovertarget="lvl1" popovertargetaction="hide">🎈</button> </details> <!-- Level 1 --> <div id="lvl1" popover="manual"> <h2>Level 1 Popup</h2> <!-- Open/Close Level 2 Poppup --> <button popovertarget="lvl2">🎈</button> </div> <!-- etc. -->

Note, that I’ve added a new <button> inside the <div> that is set to target another <div> to pop open or close by intentionally not setting the popovertargetaction attribute on it. See how challenging (in a good way) it is to “pop” the elements:

Styling balloons

Now we need to style the <summary> and <button> elements the same so that a player cannot tell which is which. Note that I said <summary> and not <details>. That’s because <summary> is the actual element we click to open and close the <details> container.

Most of this is pretty standard CSS work: setting backgrounds, padding, margin, sizing, borders, etc. But there are a couple of important, not necessarily intuitive, things to include.

First, there’s setting the list-style-type property to none on the <summary> element to get rid of the triangular marker that indicates whether the <details> is open or closed. That marker is really useful and great to have by default, but for a game like this, it would be better to remove that hint for a better challenge.

Safari doesn’t like that same approach. To remove the <details> marker here, we need to set a special vendor-prefixed pseudo-element, summary::-webkit-details-marker to display: none.

It’d be good if the mouse cursor indicated that the balloons are clickable, so we can set cursor: pointer on the <summary> elements as well.

One last detail is setting the user-select property to none on the <summary>s to prevent the balloons — which are simply emoji text — from being selected. This makes them more like objects on the page.

And yes, it’s 2024 and we still need that prefixed -webkit-user-select property to account for Safari support. Thanks, Apple.

Putting all of that in code on a .balloon class we’ll use for the <button> and <summary> elements:

.balloon background-color: transparent; border: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; font-size: 4em; height: 1em; list-style-type: none; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center; -webkit-user-select: none; /* Safari fallback */ user-select: none; width: 1em;

One problem with the balloons is that some of them are intentionally doing nothing at all. That’s because the popovers they close are not open. The player might think they didn’t click/tap that particular balloon or that the game is broken, so let’s add a little scaling while the balloon is in its :active state of clicking:

.balloon:active scale: 0.7; transition: 0.5s;

Bonus: Because the cursor is a hand pointing its index finger, clicking a balloon sort of looks like the hand is poking the balloon with the finger. 👉🎈💥

The way we distribute the balloons around the screen is another important thing to consider. We’re unable to position them randomly without JavaScript so that’s out. I tried a bunch of things, like making up my own “random” numbers defined as custom properties that can be used as multipliers, but I couldn’t get the overall result to feel all that “random” without overlapping balloons or establishing some sort of visual pattern.

I ultimately landed on a method that uses a class to position the balloons in different rows and columns — not like CSS Grid or Multicolumns, but imaginary rows and columns based on physical insets. It’ll look a bit Grid-like and is less “randomness” than I want, but as long as none of the balloons have the same two classes, they won’t overlap each other.

I decided on an 8×8 grid but left the first “row” and “column” empty so the balloons are clear of the browser’s left and top edges.

/* Rows */ .r1 --row: 1; .r2 --row: 2; /* all the way up to .r7 */ /* Columns */ .c1 --col: 1; .c2 --col: 2; /* all the way up to .c7 */ .balloon /* This is how they're placed using the rows and columns */ top: calc(12.5vh * (var(--row) + 1) - 12.5vh); left: calc(12.5vw * (var(--col) + 1) - 12.5vw);

Congratulating The Player (Or Not)

We have most of the game pieces in place, but it’d be great to have some sort of victory dance popover to congratulate players when they successfully pop all of the balloons in time.

Everything goes back to a <details open> element. Once that element is not open, the game should be over with the last step being to pop that final balloon. So, if we give that element an ID of, say, #root, we could create a condition to hide it with display: none when it is :not() in an open state:

#root:not([open]) display: none;

This is where it’s great that we have the :has() pseudo-selector because we can use it to select the #root element’s parent element so that when #root is closed we can select a child of that parent — a new element with an ID of #congrats — to display a faux popover displaying the congratulatory message to the player. (Yes, I’m aware of the irony.)

#game:has(#root:not([open])) #congrats display: flex;

If we were to play the game at this point, we could receive the victory message without popping all the balloons. Again, manual popovers won’t close unless the correct button is clicked — even if we close its ancestral <details> element.

Is there a way within CSS to know that a popover is still open? Yes, enter the :popover-open pseudo-class.

The :popover-open pseudo-class selects an open popover. We can use it in combination with :has() from earlier to prevent the message from showing up if a popover is still open on the page. Here’s what it looks like to chain these things together to work like an and conditional statement.

/* If #game does *not* have an open #root * but has an element with an open popover * (i.e. the game isn't over), * then select the #congrats element... */ #game:has(#root:not([open])):has(:popover-open) #congrats /* ...and hide it */ display: none;

Now, the player is only congratulated when they actually, you know, win.

Conversely, if a player is unable to pop all of the balloons before a timer expires, we ought to inform the player that the game is over. Since we don’t have an if() conditional statement in CSS (not yet, at least) we’ll run an animation for one minute so that this message fades in to end the game.

#fail animation: fadein 0.5s forwards 60s; display: flex; opacity: 0; z-index: -1; @keyframes fadein 0% opacity: 0; z-index: -1; 100% opacity: 1; z-index: 10;

But we don’t want the fail message to trigger if the victory screen is showing, so we can write a selector that prevents the #fail message from displaying at the same time as #congrats message.

#game:has(#root:not([open])) #fail display: none;

We need a game timer

A player should know how much time they have to pop all of the balloons. We can create a rather “simple” timer with an element that takes up the screen’s full width (100vw), scaling it in the horizontal direction, then matching it up with the animation above that allows the #fail message to fade in.

#timer width: 100vw; height: 1em; #bar animation: 60s timebar forwards; background-color: #e60b0b; width: 100vw; height: 1em; transform-origin: right; @keyframes timebar 0% scale: 1 1; 100% scale: 0 1;

Having just one point of failure can make the game a little too easy, so let’s try adding a second <details> element with a second “root” ID, #root2. Once more, we can use :has to check that neither the #root nor #root2 elements are open before displaying the #congrats message.

#game:has(#root:not([open])):has(#root2:not([open])) #congrats display: flex;

Wrapping up

The only thing left to do is play the game!

Fun, right? I’m sure we could have built something more robust without the self-imposed limitation of a JavaScript-free approach, and it’s not like we gave this a good-faith accessibility pass, but pushing an API to the limit is both fun and educational, right?

I’m interested: What other wacky ideas can you think up for using popovers? Maybe you have another game in mind, some slick UI effect, or some clever way of combining popovers with other emerging CSS features, like anchor positioning. Whatever it is, please share!

[nevver]

Arts & Architecture, Sander Patelski

[theroyalweekly]

The video released by @KensingtonRoyal is like nothing we have seen from them before. It includes William and Kate hugging on the beach, the 3 children talking down the lens of the camera, and the family playing games with Grandma and Grandad Middleton. --

[389]

PORTO ROCHA

[agustdakasuga]

The Way Of A Criminal: Chapter 4

Genre: Mafia!AU, Criminal!AU, Angst, Romance

Pairing: OT7 x Reader

Characters: Normal!Reader, Gangster!Namjoon, Gangster!Seokjin, Gangster!Yoongi, Gangster!Hoseok, Gangster!Jimin, Gangster!Taehyung, Gangster!Jungkook

Summary: Your father was a stranger, you never knew who he was and what he did. But one day, someone knocks on your door, informing you of his passing. Now, you learn more about him, his life and the legacy you are expected to continue with the help of his 7 executives.

Story warning(s): This story will contain depictions of violence, blood shed/gore, death, mentions of abuse, smoking, alcohol drinking and gambling. This story is fictional and has nothing to do with real life events or the actual members of BTS. Please read at your own discretion.

Instead of dealing with all this head on, you avoided it. You put everything aside and went on with life, spending all your time doing work, studying and doing your university projects.

Wonwoo noticed this and decided to invite you for a night out. Just a chill night with some drinks. Usually, you would decline, which is why Wonwoo has never invited you out. But you could use the distraction. Maybe being out of the house was good.

DING DONG

“Coming!” You ran down, fixing your earring. You didn’t really know how to dress for a night out like this so you picked a random dress. It was a dark blue, crushed velvet cocktail dress.

“Come on in.” You opened the door for him. Wonwoo smiled, bowing before removing his shoes to come in.

“This dress isn’t really motorcycle friendly, is it?” You let out an awkward laugh, going into the kitchen to get your phone that you left there to charge.

“I didn’t ride my bike since we might drink. I’ll call a cab.” Wonwoo said. He just stood in the doorway, unsure of what to do since it was the first time he was in your house.

“(y/n)?” Wonwoo suddenly called your name, stopping you in your tracks.

“You look great.” He smiled softly.

“Oh... Thank you.” You felt your cheeks heat up at his sudden compliment. He held out a hand to support you as you wore your shoes. After locking up the house, he escorted you to the cab that was waiting for you. And of course, Wonwoo opened the door for you to get in first, being the gentleman that he is. The car ride was silent.

“C-Can I ask you something?” Wonwoo threaded lightly. You hummed, nodding your head.

“I know you like your privacy and I shouldn’t pry but there were this rumours and pictures floating around about some expensive sports car and handsome guy picking you up. Is he one of them?” He asked nervously.

“If by ‘one of them’, you mean my father’s... employees. Yes, he is... or was. There are 7 of them.” You rubbed the back of your neck.

“Are they bothering you?”

“Can we not talk about this anymore? I just don’t want to have to think about it for a few minutes.” That came out a lot harsher and colder than you expected. But Wonwoo didn’t react.

“Sorry. I’m...” You sighed, not really knowing how to piece your words together anymore.

“I understand. Don’t worry about it. I didn’t mean to pry.” Wonwoo smiled comfortingly. Thankfully for you, the cab stopped outside the club. You looked at the long line outside that didn’t seem to be moving,

“Don’t look so worried. My friend put our name on the list so we can just walk in.” Wonwoo laughed. You both got out and he grasped your hand, giving your names to the bouncer. You were so stunned by his action that you just followed him without a word, letting him lead you.

“There’s a table there.” Wonwoo said in your ear on top of the loud music. You were still shocked that he was holding your hand that you just followed him.

“Phew, it’s crowded.” You said, casually pulling your hand away to check if you dropped anything from your bag.

“Yeah, that’s what you get for being here on a Friday night.” He chuckled. You stood at the table while Wonwoo went to get drinks at the bar. The standing table was thankfully at the side of the bar, which meant less people.

“Relax, you’re here to have fun.” You told yourself.

“Here.” Wonwoo got himself a beer and got you a cocktail. It was a nice refreshing drink with flavoured soju as the alcohol.

“Let me know how much everything is tonight and we’ll split the cost.” You told him as you took a sip.

“It’s okay, (y/n). It’s my treat, just enjoy yourself.” Wonwoo smiled. He clinked his glass with yours. Although this wasn’t your exact idea of relaxing, you were glad that the noise and the crowd made the place too loud that you didn’t need to start sharing your feelings. Wonwoo was a good friend but you just weren’t used to sharing so much about yourself with others.

After some drinks, you excused yourself to go to the toilet. But of course, there was a line. About 15 minutes went by without the line moving. You were about to give up when someone grabbed your wrist.

“(y/n) sshi?” You looked at the familiar face.

“Oh... Uh...”

“Yoongi.” He said, letting you go. You nodded your head. Other people in the line now had their attention on you and Yoongi.

“Come.” He nodded over to follow him. You didn’t know why you just went along, not even asking why he wanted you to go with him. You came before a staircase with two guards. But they parted ways upon seeing Yoongi.

“Sir.” They bowed respectfully as Yoongi cooly walked up, hands tucked into his pockets. You quickly bowed your heads back to the guards and caught up to Yoongi.

“You can use this bathroom instead. It’s cleaner and safer.” Yoongi stopped before a door.

“A-Are you sure?”

“If I wasn’t sure, I wouldn’t have went down to fish you out of the crowd. Take all the time you need. This is our own private bathroom so no one else is allowed to use it.” He explained. You nodded, bowing gratefully to him before entering the restroom.

The bathroom was a lot more opulent and grand, with black granite and gold trims. Like Yoongi said, it was very clean, unlike a usual club bathroom. It was definitely a boys bathroom with urinals but you just used one of the stalls.

“Hyung, why can’t I use the bathroom? I really need to go!” You heard voices outside as you were washing your hands.

“Only the 7 of us use it anyway. Unless... Do you have a secret guest in there?!” The person talking to Yoongi gasped as if he just uncovered something scandalous.

“Watch your mouth.” You heard Yoongi threaten.

“Sorry, I’m done.” You opened the door. But you didn’t expect Yoongi to be standing so close that you ended up bumping into his back.

“Oh, no wonder hyung was guarding the bathroom.” The male said. He didn’t mind you and just brushed past to use the bathroom. Yoongi moved you away from the bathroom door, not wanting you to accidentally get hit.

“Thank you. Is it okay if I just stay here for a few more minutes? You can go back to what you were doing before.” You asked timidly. Yoongi took one look at you and nodded. You didn’t need to tell him anything for him to know what you were thinking. The club was getting overwhelming. Yoongi never really liked coming too unless his brothers make him.

“Why did you come if you don’t like it?”

“A friend brought me here as a distraction. Plus, I’ve never really come to a club before.” You replied. Yoongi nodded his head.

“You don’t need to stay and accompany me. I’ll go back down in a bit.” You said.

“It’s okay.” He leaned against the opposite wall. You took your phone out to send Wonwoo a text, assuring him that you were safe and that he could go home first. But you didn’t tell him where you were and who you were with.

“Actually... I wanted to apologise. My brothers told me I shouldn’t have offered you a smoke the other time. I just thought it would help.” Yoongi looked at you.

“It’s fine. I honestly didn’t think too much about it. There were other things to think about.” You shook your head.

“Understandable. I’m sure you have your fair share of confusion and questions that come along with it. This is just the start.” Yoongi said. You didn’t let his straightforward tone faze you, nodding your head glumly.

“Well, I should go. Thanks for letting me hang here.” You straightened up.

“No worries. I’ll walk you down.” Yoongi followed suit. You walked behind him, not sure of the way to the exit. With your insistence, Wonwoo had gone home on his own. You did feel bad for abandoning him when he was the one that invited you out but you also didn’t want him to wait.

“Do you have a ride home?” Yoongi asked.

“I told my friend to go home first so I guess I can get a cab home.” You waved him off, getting your phone out. But Yoongi stopped you, his hand grasping your phone and covering the screen.

“It’s not safe and cheap to get a cab from here at this time. I drank a little so I shouldn’t drive. Hang on.” Yoongi waved over one of the bouncers.

“Use the company car and send her home then report back.” Yoongi ordered.

“Yoongi sshi, it’s really okay.”

“Get the address from her and make sure you see her entering the house before coming back.” Yoongi ignored you. The bouncer nodded and bowed, running off the get the car.

“(y/n) sshi, hyung.” You both turned to see Taehyung jogging over. He had a big, square-ish grin as he waved.

“Jimin said you were here and that Yoongi hyung was with you. Are you driving her home, hyung?” Taehyung tilted his head.

“I drank. So was gonna get one of the workers to drive her back.” Yoongi explained, standing back as he lit a cigarette to smoke. Taehyung nodded his head.

“I’ll drive you home. I didn’t drink since I am the designated driver tonight. Bring my car instead.” Taehyung called out. The worker bowed and ran back into the club. Yoongi decided to go in first after his cigarette was done, not liking being out in the cold. He shot you a nod while you bowed gratefully to him. While waiting, Taehyung put his jacket over your shoulders.

“Did you come alone?” Taehyung asked.

“No... I came with a friend but I abandoned him. Yoongi sshi was kind enough to let me hang out in the quiet area. So I told my friend to go home first.” You said. You didn’t know why you were explaining so much to him.

“This isn’t you scene, is it?” He teased. You pursed your lips and shook your head. The noise and the crowd just wasn’t comfortable.

“Sir.” The car stopped right in front of you. The worker came out, bowing and passing Taehyung’s keys to him.

“Here you go. Watch your head.” Taehyung opened the car door for you to enter. You sat inside, keeping the sides of his jacket close to you so it wouldn’t get caught in the door.

Taehyung confirmed your address before starting to drive. One hand held his head, elbow resting on the door next to him while the other hand was on the steering wheel. During the quiet ride, you fiddled with the hem of the dress, pulling it down every now and then.

“Are you cold?” He asked.

“No, I’m good. Thank you.” You replied softly. With your head leaning against the headrest, you looked out the window. The only reason you would be out this late usually was because you were working.

“Thanks for dropping me off again.” You said as Taehyung pulled up outside of your house.

“Any time.” Taehyung smiled. You unbluckled your seatbelt and got out of the car. But before you could walk further, Taehyung rolled down the window.

“Goodnight, (y/n)!”

“G-Goodnight, Taehyung sshi.” A small smile formed on your lips as you bowed your head and entered the house. Like the other day, Taehyung only drove off after he was sure you had entered the house.

Only after you entered the house and you heard Taehyung drive off, that you realised you had forgotten the return him his jacket. You removed it carefully, as if any movement would cause it to tear like tissue. You inspected it, trying to figure out if you should wash it on your own, and risk ruining the expensive material, or just send it for dry cleaning.

“Hi, Wonwoo. Did you make it home safe?”

“Oh, (y/n). Yes, I am home. I went home after you sent me that text. Are you alright? You scared me.”

“Yes, I am alright. I just found a quiet space to chill for a while so I didn’t want you to wait for me. I just got home. Sorry for ruining the night. I’ll make it up to you, I promise.” You said, putting your shoes away.

“Don’t say that, (y/n). I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy yourself.”

“I did enjoy myself, Wonwoo. Thank you for bringing me out to feel better.” You laughed. After wishing each other good night, you hung up.

You took a shower and was feeling peckish so you made yourself some ramyeon. There was always ramyeon in the kitchen for when you or your mother needed a late night snack after working.

“I’ll have to drop the jacket off at the dry cleaners tomorrow.” You groaned tiredly, looking at the blazer that rested over the back of the chair.

-

Hoseok was one of the first ones to wake up. After a day of working and a night of drinking, the boys all usually slept in during the weekends. The moment his foot touched the bottom of the stairs, a maid ran over to him, bowing her head in fear.

“What is it?” He raised an eyebrow.

“Your workers are here, sir. They said that it is important for you to see them immediately.” She relayed timidly, afraid of making him angry.

“Send them in. And get my breakfast.” Hoseok shooed her away before shuffling to the dining room. Like any other normal person, he didn’t like having to work on the weekends.

“Good morning, Boss.” The 3 men put the crate that they were carrying down and bowed to Hoseok.

“This better be important for you to be here on a Saturday morning.” Hoseok said, not even looking up at them. He was more focused on the tray of food that the butler had placed down in front of him.

“The shipment is here early. We thought you would want to check it right away.” One of the men informed. Hoseok put his napkin on the table and stood up.

“Show me.” He commanded as he walked over. The men opened the box, revealing the contents inside.

“Very nice...” He picked up one of the items.

“Business on a Saturday morning, Hobah?” Yoongi came in. Hoseok’s workers bowed upon seeing the pale man enter the dining room. But of course, he didn’t even spare them a glance. He sat down in his allocated seat, waiting for the staff to serve him his breakfast. His breakfast was usually an iced coffee then his food 20 minutes later.

“Can’t help it, hyung. You want the best, you’ve got to work when others aren’t.” Hoseok laughed while Yoongi snorted at his comment. He placed the items back into the crate.

“Leave this here. I’ll show the others to see what they think. Good work. We’ll discuss the rest on Monday.” Hoseok said.

“Of course, boss. Have a nice weekend.” The 3 bowed, moving the crate to the side of the room before leaving the mansion. Hoseok took his seat across Yoongi.

“So hyung, I heard you had a little moment with the girl.” Hoseok asked.

“What moment?” Yoongi asked back, no emotion on his face as he sipped the last bit of his coffee.

“Jimin said you loyally guarded the door for her as she used our toilet. Even stayed with her in the hallway after to comfort her.” He explained. Yoongi rolled his eyes, his brothers really needed better things to talk about.

“I saw her the moment she entered, I’m surprised you guys didn’t considering how high our booth is. She needed to use a toilet and the queue was insane so I offered her to use ours. And I wasn’t comforting her, she needed a quiet place and I stayed with her. That’s all.” Yoongi explained.

“Well, that’s a lot more interaction than what the rest have got. Looks like she’ll warm up to you first.” Hoseok said.

“No, she’ll warm up to Taehyung first. He was the one that sent her home.” Yoongi dug into his food on the tray that the butler brought him. Hoseok hummed but couldn’t help the giggle that escaped him.

“What’s Hobi laughing about?” Namjoon came in. He had been awake for a while, opting to sit in his room to read the newspaper rather than come downstairs right away.

“No idea.” Yoongi replied, putting a chopstick of rice into his mouth.

“Ah, seriously, Hobi. I thought we established that we are not going to bring work into the dining room?” Namjoon tsked at the crate in the room.

“It’s fine, Namjoon ah. I’ll move it after breakfast. The boys needed me to inspect the goods, that’s all. Even risked bothering me on a Saturday to do it.” Hoseok waved the leader off. Namjoon shook his head with a sigh.

“Bring my breakfast.” He ordered as he took his seat at the head of the table. The butler bowed and left.

“I’m done. Going back to sleep.” Yoongi stood up and shuffled out of the room. The weekend was for Yoongi to catch up on sleep, it was normal to not see him for the entirety of the two days because he was just sleeping or resting in bed. Jin and Taehyung were the last ones that had breakfast. Jungkook and Jimin would sleep in until dinner time.

“Here. Take what is yours and leave the rest. I told you I would get things done.” Jin dropped the stack of files on the table. Namjoon, Hoseok and Taehyung shrugged, going through the pile to retrieve their things.

“So, hyung, did you find out anymore information about (y/n) when you did your stalking?” Taehyung asked.

“Yah, Taehyung! That was supposed to be confidential.” Jin hissed at the younger exposing him to the rest. However, the younger just shrugged.

“You’re running a check on her?” Namjoon raised an eyebrow.

“I’m not running a check on her... Well, at least not the background checks I usually do. I just wanted to find out about her to maybe try to connect with her in some way. She is a closed book.” Jin explained.

“So what if she is a closed book, I’m sure you can still find whatever you need on her.” Hosoek laughed.

“That’s the thing... She does not have much of a record except for her birth certificate and basic school details. Everything else either doesn’t exist or has been wiped.” Jin informed.

“Wait, you’re telling me there is actually information that you can’t find?”

“How do you know information has been wiped? She could have just not had that much of an eventful life so far. I doubt she can wipe her own records and she doesn’t seem to have a reason to do that.” Namjoon said. He didn’t know you but you didn’t seem like a skillful hacker that could wipe records.

“I know information has been wiped because I am the one who wiped them...” Jin admitted with his head slightly hung.

“What?”

“Boss wanted me to wipe them. He was paranoid, especially when it came to her. So my task was to regularly wipe her records that were 'not relevant’. Hospital visits, stuff like that...” Jin gulped.

~~

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