BEHIND THE SCENES

chapter 136: mature thoughts

<OST: Sleepless Night - Crush ft. Punch>

"So...?" Jungkook walked with Jieun hand-in-hand back to his car later that night. "How was I today!"

Jieun glanced uneasily at Jungkook, who was looking at her with those puppy eyes of his. "Um... if you don't look at me like that, perhaps I'll be able to give you a more objective opinion."

"Ah-" Jungkook laughed as he looked away and kept walking. "So, how was I today...?"

"Do you want me to be honest... or nice?"

"What kind of question is that-" Jungkook laughed. "Obviously I want you to be honest."

Jieun pursed her lips. "Oh, I see."

"What...?" Jungkook stopped in his tracks as he turned to look at Jieun. "If you put it this way, it makes it sound like your honest opinion of me is... bad."

Jieun let out an awkward laugh. "Well..."

A look of realisation spread across Jungkook's face as he looked away. "Ah, right - I was really bad at it, wasn't I? I don't even know how to wash brushes well, tell lipstick apart from lipgloss... and I don't even know what a bronzer looked like. Come to think of it... you don't even need to tell me for me to know that I was just plain bad."

"Quite frankly, yeah-" Jieun agreed. "But you don't have to take it too hard on yourself, Jungkook-ah - you're simply not cut out for this job, that's all."

"Ah."

"Hey, don't react that way-" Jieun reached out a hand to turn Jungkook to face her. "You're not trained to be a makeup assistant, Jungkook-ah - you can't just... expect to be good at it. Look at me - can you imagine me dancing on stage?"

Jungkook let out a small chuckle. "But I'm supposed to be good at everything, Jieun-ah."

"Well-" Jieun shrugged. "I guess now you know better - no one's perfect. Though... I think you would have been great if you had been professionally trained."

"So, where can I get professionally trained?"

"It doesn't matter because that's not what you're gonna do, Jungkook-ah," Jieun said quietly. "You're born a singer - and that's what you should be sticking to."

"I-" Jungkook frowned. "But being a singer comes with all those things I don't like, like my privacy being invaded and all that... I really don't enjoy that part of being a celebrity."

Jieun hesitated. "Um... Jungkook-ah."

Jungkook raised his eyebrows unsuspectingly. "Hm?"

"I don't know if I should be telling you this."

Jungkook frowned. "What is it? Tell me."

"Jennie told me not to tell you... but I feel like I should."

"Oh-" Jungkook pursed his lips. "Is this what I saw you guys whispering about when I arrived earlier?"

Jieun nodded. "Mm."

Jungkook nodded slowly. "Tell me, Jieun-ah. I wanna know."

"Actually-" Jieun paused. "Min PD-nim has been working hard, trying to get another opportunity for Jennie to start over. And... she asked him to put in a good word for you in the process."

Jungkook raised his eyebrows, but he didn't say anything.

"She sees how much you still want to do music, JK." Jieun looked up into Jungkook's eyes. "And so do I."

"And so does Seokjin-hyung, apparently," Jungkook said with a small sigh. "He's not here today because he went to talk to some friend of his to take me into their company."