girls of effulgence | bts

epilogue

It was just the way Yoongi was giving him a stare of pure apathy as if he was sleeping with his eyes open made Jungkook highly uncomfortable, though the eyes glistened as if small amounts of compassion were trying to break through. The couch was now completely full with the two of them, so the other members chose to stand on the couch, some behind it and some in front.

Regardless of how the members were placed, they all had one target they were staring at: and that was the poor maknae who was now truly feeling the life of a trophy case.

"When did you start feeling this way?" Namjoon asked quizzically, looking up at him because of how he was leaning on the couch. Eerily, Namjoon reminded Jungkook of a mad scientist in pursuit of a horrific goal, and Jungkook was his subject.

The maknae shifted awkwardly from his sitting position (trying not to touch Yoongi) while the other members gave signals of encouragement that agreed with Namjoon like they were also asking the same question.

"Today?" Jungkook asked himself, then instantly wished he hadn't contradicted his own thinking. Today had been a blur of events, some timelines going so fast while others were constantly being occupied by the other members. Jungkook had woken up this morning and had felt quite refreshed and ready for the group's first DNA performance and had gone through his usual routine, which wasn't really all that different from a normal person's. But now it seemed different, and Jungkook did not know why. And if he didn't know, he had no idea how Namjoon was supposed to.

Namjoon nodded, making Jungkook furrow his brows. What was that supposed to mean? From the way Namjoon was acting, he would have thought Namjoon had an answer to everything.

"Maybe a joke could cheer him up?" the eldest of BTS asked, standing in front of Jungkook with his arms crossed over his chest, and a glint in his eyes that only sparkled before making a pun.

Almost like a dance move, the members of BTS turned to the pun maker. "No, absolutely not Seokjin."

"I promise it won't be punintentional," Seokjin muttered with a grin of triumph on his face, holding back a spaz of windshield wiper laughs. The entire group sighed with disappointment while unsurprisingly, Jimin burst into a quiet giggly fit, making his eyes squeeze together like tiny macaroons.

"Thank you Jimin, for appreciating this art," Seokjin now said with a huff once he saw no one else laughed.

"I think I'm nervous because we're now performing DNA in front of people," Jungkook cut in hastily to keep Seokjin quiet, "but I do not understand why."

"Don't worry love, because all of these feelings that you have, Jungkook, are not a coincidence," Hoseok sang majestically with his hand over his heart with a passionate expression. A few of the other members laughed at that, and then began to sing along with Hoseok, using their own interpretations of the lyrics.

They banded together in hands and sang in low and throaty voices, trying not to shriek with laughter. Jungkook watched them longingly as if he could not join in himself. He knew very well he could, but it was a beautiful thing on its own to see them happy from an outside perspective. Just seeing his band mates made him have less anxiety and more confidence that he would not be doing this alone.

Jungkook wanted to chuckle as he saw one of the stage managers walk by to tell them they had ten minutes until stage until he saw the strange array of the so-called "swag" band. His facial expression quickly changed into the most bizarre expression at the band's antics.

Jungkook loved them all.

"Probably in our past life and in our next lives, we'll be together forever, DNA," the band members shouted in high voices, that line is the first line they all sang correctly. All of them were cackling even more since the dance line started dancing to the chorus of the song like they were robots. Jungkook would have most likely done the same, but in that lyric something hit him inside.