girls of effulgence | bts

epilogue

"I am apprehensive," Jungkook slurred out before he could stop himself.

The older singer who had a large smile on his face that made his eyes crinkle moments earlier faded at what Jungkook said. "What do you mean, Jungkook?" Jimin asked, his high voice now quiet and deeply concerned, his enthusiasm gone. His arm around Jungkook tightened.

"I'm just a bit nervous," Jungkook said quickly, suddenly aware of what Jimin could now do with this information. "Really, I'll be-"

"Jungkook, you're never nervous," Jimin said, cutting him off sharply, his regular kind and sweet voice gone. "In fact, you're the most confident one on stage lots of times. Something is not right." The blonde man took Jungkook's wrist in his small hands and turned to face the rest of the BTS members who now had mics and were all talking amongst each other.

"Except when you were in the phase of taking off your shirt on stage," Jungkook reminded him with a mocking smirk to throw the attention off himself, and the blonde man burned bright red.

"We do not need to think about that," Jimin said briskly and squeezed Jungkook's wrist tighter. "We are focusing on you, not me, that was a long time ago." Without letting Jungkook say anything else, Jimin tugged the maknae over to the others.

"Ah, you have finally stopped being anti-social, Jimin," Yoongi said smoothly and kicked his legs over one another while he sat in his chair when the duo reached the other five members.

"Jungkook is nervous for this concert," Jimin said with authority as if he was announcing a highly respected leader, ignoring Yoongi's address to him. He pushed the young singer into the middle of the circle of BTS members, making Jungkook think he was their object of something paranormal and they were trying to summon something out of him.

"And in case you didn't realize," Jimin whispered lowly to the rapper while Hoseok inhaled dramatically at Jungkook, "aren't you usually the one that does not want to associate yourself with anybody?"

"Jungkook! Why are you so nervous?" Hoseok asked, his eyes huge and filled with concern while the two continued to bicker quietly nearby. "If it is your dancing that you are worried about," Hoseok continued, going with a quieter voice now that he realized he was being loud, "it shouldn't be because I am proud of how you are doing."

The compliment from the main dancer made Jungkook feel warm and fuzzy inside, but that did not stop his heart from beating over the speed limit. Though happiness did help to its extent, so Jungkook smiled. Hoseok always cheered him up, regardless of how he felt.

"And it is not that our song is lacking," Taehyung said joyfully, hopping onto the armrest of the couch. "We've been breaking records and been asked to do tons of interviews and performances."

A warm hand fell on his shoulder and he realized he must not have been very inconspicuous with his more negative emotions, and had not even responded to Hoseok or Taehyung in any way. Judging by the size of the hand he thought it was Taehyung, but turned around and saw it was the leader of BTS.

"I'm fine hyung, really," Jungkook protested at Namjoon, ready to protect his feelings because he felt a long and wise speech from him concerning nerves. But instead, Namjoon did not move his lips to speak. He smiled at the maknae and patted his shoulder with his hand that was already on him.

"I think I know why you are in a dither," Namjoon said simply in his deep voice and turned to the others who looked like they wanted to protest. Taehyung, one of Jungkook's closest bandmates, opened his mouth but Namjoon shook his head to stop him from speaking. "Please sit, Jungkook."

Now Jungkook, whether he wanted to or not, was sitting on the couch next to Yoongi, who took up most of the couch with his body. Jungkook tried not to show his uneasiness with the older rapper. Yoongi was actually really kind and empathetic, he only had an issue with promoting that through his gestures, making him seem very callous.