THE MANAGER NIM

53. DONGSAENG? DONGSAENG!

"Arasso eomma!" your voice wavers with overwhelming emotion as you try to mock him with an exasperated face.

"Have a safe trip!" he says and turns around to leave the spot, but worse-luck, his sharp eyes catch Jungkook's honed gaze. He halts in his path and his razor-sharp stare stays at Jungkook's face. Adding up to the existing bad blood, his eyes possessed the freshly accumulated hatred whipped up by the recent incident. Unlike Namjoon, Jungkook stares back acutely in defiance, summoning his inner demon. Everyone starts to feel the tension permeating the air and you quickly step up to ease off the situation.

"Joe, it's getting late for your shift, you gotta leave now!" you steer away Joe and drag him towards the office building with a sheepish grin.

"So, that's how his voice sounds!" Jimin says in a hypnotic state.

"And he knows to smile too!" Taehyung chips in.

_

You try to keep yourself occupied with the newspaper in your hand, but you couldn't ignore the fact that the whole squad seated inside the luxurious limousine is waiting for you to break the ice.

"Uhm... that's a Korean newspaper y/n-shi" Jimin hesitantly states.

"Yeah, I'm just looking at the pictures haha!" your nervous laugh threatens to unveil the anxiety simmering inside.

"But you're holding it upside down" Jin tries to swallow a chuckle.

"Oh!" internally cursing yourself in four different languages, you fold the paper and keep it aside, stalling your fool play.

Like a musician sitting in a concert without her instrument, with a vague stare you sit there without any object for distraction, just inhaling the fused fragrance of Jungkook's Gucci flora and Namjoon's Chanel body lotion which smells like a bunch of sweet roses.

Jungkook deliberately seated you between himself and Namjoon. It was a given that you have to sit beside Jungkook as his manager to discuss call sheets and other stuff, but on purpose, he nudged you to get inside the car first and made you sit beside Namjoon with no other options left, and then he climbed in to sit next to you.

If it was a few days ago, your heart would be wildly thumping with excitement at this moment, but the transposed emotions swapped the old muses of your excitement with new ones, even Namjoon.

Jungkook gulps down a bottle of water and swallows a pill.

"What's that for?" Jin asks while opening another bottle of water for Jungkook.

"I consumed alcohol exceeding my tolerance level and ended up with this balloon belly! It has been bloated for the past two days."

"Really?! But you generally have a high tolerance level right? how many shots?" Namjoon asks from your side.

"A whole crate of beer!" He says and tiredly slumps back in his seat.

Shit! That day he had the whole crate when you refused to have any with him considering your poor tolerance level and left him alone in the hall. And that explains his melodramatic behaviour after watching the movie and what prompted him to weep on your lap over Devdas' demise.

"Y/n-shi!" Taehyung yells abruptly tugging your attention back, "I can't curb it anymore, it's killing me! Tell me more about that robot guy!"

"Joe? Well, he is a good friend of mine, more like a bully brother. No one can take care of me more than him and no one can annoy me more than him, oh wait! forget the latter point, there exists someone whose favourite hobby is annoying me, even Joe is no match for him." Your head turns to your right where Jungkook is sucking the life light outta a banana milk container.

Jungkook leisurely pulls out the straw from his mouth and brings it near your mouth gesturing you to drink it, you push his hands away with a disgusted face and slap his arm quite grimly. A smile of triumphant creeps over his lips at the sight of your grossed-out face.

"I have this surging urge to hire a caretaker to take care of both these preschoolers." Yoongi states in a ridiculing tone.

"Coming to think of that, I noticed something very odd. Jungkook is someone who always blends with the crowd, he never caused any ruckus as a kid and got along with everyone at once. Y/n is the first person to have a beef with him in literally everything, they both seem to fight almost every day. And y/n on the other hand, she even befriended the great Joe, which I thought will happen only when hell freezes over but throws hands at Jungkook at even the slightest annoyance. The contrast is too vivid to brush aside!" Jhope offhandedly points out the prime polarity of your bond.

Everyone including you and Jungkook starts to ponder over Jhope's words, you turn towards Jungkook and catch him already staring at you, you peer into his glossed eyes trying to find the reason for his indifference towards you. After a couple of minutes, his slender finger flicks over your forehead leaving a scarlet patch.

Seizing the newspaper which you dropped a while ago and you strike the top of his head roughly.

"Should we really hire a nanny?" Jin asks sarcastically and the entire squad bursts into laughter.

Car halts at the Incheon international airport and the places are already swarming with thousands of fans and paparazzi.

All the members including Sejin cover their faces with a mask and gear up to step out.

"Yaa Goma!" Jungkook calls from your side and hauls your attention from the cheering audience. When you turn back in reflex, he smothers your features with a mask similar to his and climbs out of the car with his backpack. At the sight of thousands of fans cheering with banners and flashlights, an acute tinge of Deja-vu surges through your mind. A few months back, you would've even sold your soul to the devil to be in that crowd, cheering for your favourite boys. But fate is a bizarre one, it positioned you to walk right behind your beloved bias, along with your favourite squad.

The circling sharks of the paparazzi start to plunge towards you people and their cameras ceaselessly flicker to acquire the perfect shots for their tabloids. Humongous bodyguards form an unbreakable chain of protection with their burly hands on either side and you walk along with Sejin who is cautiously keeping an eye on both BTS and you.

Like foamy waves of a vast sea, the fans incessantly shove themselves through the mob to get a better glimpse of their favourite idols and the crowd exists in a long queue to a level where your eyes give upon measuring the length.

One person tugs Sejin's blazer and another one pulls your hair from the crowd. Sejin quickly enshrouds your shoulders with his arms and drags you apart from the crowd. Using the space caused by your sudden absence a wild fangirl evades the barrier created by bodyguards and throws herself in your place. Before anyone could realize what's happening, she walks behind Jimin and tugs his arm from behind, he quickly cognizes the situation and pulls his hand from her hold as politely as possible. Since you guys are walking as fast as possible, Jimin quickly tries to walk past her towards the front, Sejin leaves you in a safe position and moves beside Jimin to escort him safely.

Sejin pushes the stranger quite harshly towards the rest of the crowd and walks past enshrouding Jimin in his hold. But the fangirl pounces even more vigorously and by this time Jungkook is walking near her. You grasp the situation and swiftly start to walk towards them,

"Hajima! Hajima!" you shout at the top of your lungs; she notices you and runs towards Jungkook at double speed. Before you could reach the spot, she roughly clasps the collar of his shirt and pulls him behind, causing him to stumble and fall on his knees. Even in that distressed state he prudently maintains his courteous image as an idol and politely gestures her to leave, few fans from the crowd start to yell at her asking her to stay away from him. But she utterly disregards everyone's words and approaches him like a wild beast with her camera.

Out of the blue, a hand grabs her arm which is holding the camera and twists it sternly, another hand yanks a bunch of her hair from behind and arches her neck backward, causing her to wail in agony and to stop dead in the spot.

"Haji-fucking-ma!" you spat at her flushed face and twists her arm with more vigour to make her drop the camera.