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A Jungkook x Jimin story…
“Bang- TAN! 안녕하세요! 우리 방탄소년단 입니다! (We are BTS!)” the seven enthusiastic boys shouted as they greet all the staff members. It has been one week since they debut and performing at Inkigayo was their last scheduled debut stage.
Everyone put in doubled the effort as they got into position. ‘No more dream’ began to play in the background as the crowd started to cheer. As always, BTS performed their debut song flawlessly – Jungkook and Jimin went to the back before presenting a shocking stunt few seconds after. The maknae carried his Jimin and they made their way across the members, Jimin ‘kicking’ all of them down before going for his high note. Everything were perfect that day.
Getting down the stage, Jimin immediately spotted his favourite dongsaeng, who appeared to be alone. The other members were chatting on how nervous they was on stage, while poor Jungkook did not seem to be able to join in the conversation. They have been together for three years, while Jungkook just joined the team for three months.
Flashback – three months ago
“Namjoon hyung, take a step to your right.”
“Taehyung, you should lift your hands slightly higher.”
“And for Suga hyung…you…you are doing fine, just have some more energy,” Jimin tried to put in the nicest way possible to not anger his don’t-give-a-shit hyung.
Jimin was in charge of teaching the members the dance routine for today, and he was determined to show the others that he, too, is a valuable member in Bangtan and should debut.
At this moment, the studio door opened, followed by Bang PD nim walking in with a serious expression. All the trainees immediately form a straight line, with Namjoon signalling them to greet their CEO at one go.
“Nice,” Bang PD nim smiled, “seems like you guys are working hard.”
“Ne PD nim,” Namjoon, who’s most likely to be the leader of BTS, replied, “we have been practicing diligently.”
“Great! Don’t worry, I’m not here to spot check or anything, I’m here to introduce someone to all of you.”
Naturally, everyone’s eyes widened as they exchange glances. PD nim would never ‘introduce someone’ for no reason, and when he does, a new trainee will be walking in. And he really did.
Entering the room was a pretty tall guy, who had half of his face covered by his fringe. He kept his head down as he overlapped his hands in front of him. With the cue of Bang PD nim, the new guy bowed and greeted, “Annyeonghaseyo, I’m Jeon Jungkook.”
The other six trainees looked at each other again, each with a confused look. With just that short sentence, all of them can sense that this new guy here wasn’t proficient in Korean. His voice was sweet, but has an English accent in it, which makes them even more curious about his identity.
“So,” PD nim continued, “He’s our new trainee, and the seventh member of Bangtan. He recently came back from the states and is not very fluent in Korean. I hope that you guys will get along and practice for your debut together which is happening pretty soon.”
-End of flashback-
Jimin knew that Jungkook would have difficulty adapting to their group, especially when the maknae has such a shy personality, is the youngest among them…and his biggest obstacle – unable to speak Korean. And being the only two from Busan, Jimin reminded himself constantly to look after this only dongsaeng of his…Jungkook had somewhat earned a special place in his heart ever since the first day…
Rushing to Jungkook’s side, Jimin hung his arms around the maknae’s before exclaiming, “How was it Kookie? Did you have fun just now?”
Jungkook was obviously shocked by that action, before replying a timid, “Ne.”
“Did you had a had time carrying me up just now?”
“Aniyo hyung.”
“Haha, I was trying not to place all my weight on you. But you seem pretty buff when I touched your arms just now.”
Jungkook simply blushed and gave a slight nod. He kept his answers short and simple, mainly because he still wasn’t good in Korean. He’s actually not quiet at all, but the language barrier was just shutting him off from everybody.
He was thankful that at least Jimin made the effort to talk to him, and always keep the conversation going despite his short and awkward answers since the first day they met…
Jungkook recalled how he was introduced to six looking absolutely charming trainees the moment he reached Korea. Despite being a pure Korean, this 16 year-old boy had been living in America since he was 13, mainly to brush up his dancing skills before he get to debut.
Finally, the time has come and PD nim actually personally called him to for him to return to Korea. And after showing off some of his dance moves as a self-intro, he remembered how Jimin was the first one to clap and cheer.
Jimin even went up and gave him a tight hug. “Good job Kookie,” he cheered before patting Jungkook’s back, “oh wait, can I call you Kookie? It sounds nice.”
“Huh?” Jungkook blushed a little before giving a slight nod, “Ne hyung.”
He turned to look at the hyung who was (slightly) shorter than him. Jimin, it was the first time Jungkook remembered. Jimin had that smile on his face ever since Jungkook walked in, and that eye smile, together with his toned biceps, it was a pretty good impression for Jungkook.
The maknae heaved a sigh of relief, the Korean phrases that he memorized on the airplane has finally put to good use. He hoped that his pronunciation sounded okay, after all, he hadn’t been speaking in Korean for almost 5 years. And but the problem now is…his Korean is that limited, and he had used almost all up, what now?
~~
Finally, arriving back home, Namjoon immediately sat on the sofa and unlocked his phone, followed by the other members gathering around him. All of them were stinky as hell, their make-ups were smudged thanks to their sweat and their shoes were not even removed.
Standing at a corner, confused, Jungkook tapped on Jin’s shoulders softly before asking, “Hyung, what happened?”
Jin immediately turned around and gave a motherly smile. “Ahhh, our debut stage on MCountdown has been uploaded, let’s go take a look!” he said before guiding Jungkook to the sofa.
Still unable to grasp the situation, Jungkook simply followed his hyung and managed to take a glimpse on the screen. He didn’t totally understood what Jin said, the Korean words just came to fast and he could only understand the words ‘debut’ and ‘let’s go’.
“Oh damn~” V exclaimed, “Yoongi hyung look so swag with that outfit!”
“And check out Rap Monster smashing that stage with his fluffy hair!!”
“Don’t forget uri Jungkookie who carried Jimin up with all his might!” Jin pointed out before patting on the blushing maknae’s back.
Their debut video which had already garnered 100,000 likes was a great accomplishment and everyone’s fatigue vanished, and replaced with cheers and laughter.
“Check out the comments, hyung,” V suggested before scrolling up.
In the comment section, they read every single sentence written by the fans – from Jimin looking so adorably badass to J-hope slaying the perform with his black hair, revealing his forehead.
Jungkook could read some of the simple Koreans, he saw how smiles started to form on his hyungs’ faces as they spot comments about them. However, after scrolling through near 50 of them, Jungkook…don’t seem to be able to find a comment about him.
Finally, he spotted his name being bold with exclamation marks beside followed by a chuck of words. “It must be a good one,” he thought before drawing his hyungs attention. “Hyung, read this,” he pointed.
It was a whole lot of paragraph but Namjoon was still willing to do some translation after seeing how Jungkook reacted after spotting his name. However, after a good few seconds, everyone became silent. The six of them exchanged glances, not even one of them dared to look at the curious maknae.
Namjoon nervously pressed the ‘more’ button to reveal even more replies to the comment. Surprisingly, that one comment had actually more than ten replies, most of which were ‘I agree!’.
“Wae yo hyung?” Jungkook uttered nervously. He did not enjoy that sudden change in atmosphere at all, especially when it’s because of him. The air became so stiff, nobody dared to utter a sound or even move.
He analysed the expressions of every of his hyungs – all were shocked-froze. Nobody made eye contact with Jungkook despite the maknae asking repeatedly, “Wae yo?”
Jin quickly nudged Namjoon using his elbow to urge him to hide the comments but Jungkook was one step faster. He had snatched the phone from the leader’s hand and had a clearer look at the comments.
Thanks to Suga, who had taught him enough curse words in the three months, Jungkook actually recognizes some of them. His mind went blank for quite some time, while his trembling fingers continued to scroll up. “All these words directed to me? But…why?” he said in his mind, “are they…c-criticizing me? About…about my Korean?”
He recalled how during the interview just now when the MCs directed a question to Jungkook and he didn’t even catch the gist of the question. He just looked stunned at the camera, and then using his eyes to seek help from his hyungs. Obviously, the atmosphere became awkward especially when there’s a mic being shoved in front of him. Although in the end Rap Monster managed to answer it for him, Jungkook still felt embarrassed by the incident.
“Yes…the fans must be saying something bad about me,” he thought.
Tears were already forming in the corner of his eyes, he don’t know why though, he hadn’t even know what is exactly happening. Those words in chucks and in bold looked totally unfamiliar to Jungkook, yet, they felt like needles, pricking his heart one by one.
Jungkook stopped. He saw a picture that was attached to the comment and was tempted to click it. Despite being overwhelmed by an ominous feeling, Jungkook trusted his gut feeling and touched the screen.
And that was the last straw.
He froze there for a second. His body became weak and his fingers no longer had strength to support the phone. The phone dropped onto the floor, so did Jungkook’s heart. Tears were already rolling down his cheeks and he doesn’t want his hyungs to see this side of him.
He took a few steps back, his eyes darted on his ground as he shook his head. “I’m gonna go and rest,” he mumbled before dashing back into his room.
“Jungkook!” Jimin shouted, “Jungkook ah!”
No, that did not help. The only reply he got was the sound of the door locking. “Ettokae?” he sighed before looking at the poor phone on the floor.
On it was a group photo they took on the day they debut. Everyone had smiles on their faces except for Jungkook…who had a red cross drawn on it…
~~~
Jimin paced front and back outside Jungkook’s room. He had been standing there for an hour, constantly knocking on the maknae’s room door but to no avail. Jimin did not hear a single sound coming out from there and that made the older boy very worried.
And there stood Namjoon, being locked out of his own room, sipping his cup of tea.
“Hyung, why don’t you look worried at all?” Jimin asked his hyung who was leaning against the wall, looking sadly at his phone.
“I am. My dear phone has a little crack on it…thanks to Jungkookie.”
“He is probably crying inside right now hyung.”
“I know. But then…aren’t we supposed to prepare ourselves for such situation? As an idol, we have to learn to deal with such hate comments…”
“But Jungkookie is only 16…he don’t deserve this.”
“Oh well, let’s just pray hard that he don’t understand the comment fully and not be too affected by that.”
“Such optimism hyung.”
“Thanks, and I’ll sleep on your bed then chim chim, look after our dear maknae.”
Unable to take that uneasiness anymore, Jimin took out the spare key from his pocket. Jin had passed it to him long ago, but he knew that Jungkook would feel even more embarrass if he just unlock the door and rush in.
However, locking himself inside the room for so long without giving a reply is plain torture for Jimin. He couldn’t help but imagine his dongsaeng inside crying his heart out and yet there’s not a single shit he could do.
He turned the door knob softly, pushing the door open just to peek inside. Surprisingly, the room was dead silent, no weeping or sniffing like 30 minutes ago. And he found the reason why.
Lying on the bed was Jungkook, with a blanket over his head. There were tissues all around him. “He must have been too tired from all these crying…” Jimin sighed before taking a step closer.
Meanwhile, Jungkook also noticed someone in the room, as he slowly peeked through the blanket before uttering a soft “hyung”.
“Were you crying?” Jimin asked in his sweetest tone as he sat on the bed.
“Aniyo.”
“Then let me see your face,” he requested before tucking the blanket.
“Andwae! I…I…I was about to go to sleep.” Jungkook’s voice definitely sounded weird, probably for crying too long, but Jimin knew that the stubborn maknae wasn’t gonna admit it.
“You sure? Is everything really okay?”
“…ne.”
“That’s good,” Jimin smiled as he patted the maknae’s head, “Good night, hyung will babysit you for tonight.”
“But hyung~”
“I just wanna make sure that everything’s really alright.”
Jungkook nodded beneath his blanket before letting out a deep sigh. “Gumawol hyung,” he said in his heart, “but I really don’t know if I can carry this on. I’m so tired right now, tired of everything…tired of living.” With that, he prayed to god one last time for a sweet dream, before hiding the penknife under his pillow.
Finally, after waiting for fifteen minutes, Jimin slowly lift up the blanket to find Jungkook sleeping soundly underneath. “Maybe sleeping will help you to forget all these problems,” he hoped.
At this moment, he spotted Jungkook’s iron man iPhone in his hands, and took it carefully from him. And with a touch, the screen lighted up and the image before him just scarred him for life.
“W-why did Kookie do this?” he stuttered. He gazed at the poor maknae who stubbornly used his phone to continue read the hate comments after running into his room just now. He even translated some to English.
“OMG Why is Jungkook even in the group? His Korean sucks!”
“Ikr!! His looks is average, his singing sucks and J-hope oppa can dance wayy better than him.”
“I feel so disgusted after hearing him speaking Korean.”
Jimin could hear his heart breaking into pieces. Although those weren’t targeting at him, he just can’t bear to see his dongsaeng suffering all this alone. Why did Jungkook choose to torture himself with all these hate?
While grabbing the maknae’s hand, Jimin spotted red marks on his wrist. Those were indented by his finger nails…but why did Jungkook do that? It seemed so serious that if he rub that part even further, blood might just ooze out.
“Was he…aniyo, Kookie won’t do that to himself, he won’t, he must be too affected by the comments…” Jimin mumbled as he caressed Jungkook’s face, quickly forgetting that one possibility that the maknae would do to himself.
There were still dried tears on Jungkook’s face and even when he’s sleeping, he still had a frown on.
The older boy swept some hair away from Jungkook’s face before giving him a peck on his forehead. “No matter what happened…hyung will protect you, I promise,” he swear.
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