The Reluctant Manny

Episode Three

When someone is engrossed in whatever they're reading, it's best to not disturb them. At least that's what normal people would do - err on the side of non-disturbance.

Taehyung was not exactly aware of the niceties of human interaction sometimes, and nothing proved that point more than when he barged into Jin's darkened room, loudly proclaiming his amazement that Namjoon did indeed have a potential job for him.

Jin, being the easily startled person that he was, nearly cleared two feet off of his bed as his body lurched into the air. An ear-splitting screech was immediately followed by heavy, panicked breathing, as Jin slumped over to his side, clutching his chest, and angrily spouting threatenings towards his younger brother.

Taehyung, however, didn't even seem to notice he had just shortened his brother's life by approximately three to five years. No, he was much more fixated on his own excitement.

"Hyung! I might have something big!" Taehyung excitedly waved his phone in the air, skipping around the room and flicking on the bedside table lamps.

"You just scared the life out of me, Taehyung! Give me a moment to recover!" Jin rolled onto his back and quickly held up a hand in an attempt to silence any further statements from Taehyung.

"Give me just a moment. I'm almost to the end of this episode," he murmured, his eyes refocusing on the webcomic on his phone.

Taehyung sighed and folded his arms across his chest. "Hyung, you were the one who was hounding me to get-"

"WHAT?!" Jin bellowed and then groaned. "No! No, they can't leave me on a cliffhanger like that!"

Jin chucked his phone to the end of the bed, clearly frustrated with whatever disappointing news he just read.

"Look, while I care about your webtoon habit, just be a brother and listen to me for a second, please?" Taehyung flopped down onto the bed and shoved his arm towards his brother. "Read this."

Jin snarled his nose ever so slightly as he snatched the phone away from Taehyung's hand. The younger brother bobbled happily, his hands clasped together in his lap like a small child.

"Thanks for the message you sent. I am actually looking for an artist who can help one of my authors who's getting ready to go main. Anything new to add to your portfolio for me to take a look at? They'll want to see it too, I'm sure. You will need to be able to adapt to the artist's style. Let me know what you decide. Here's a sample of their artwork to give you an idea of what you would be up against."

Jin's eyes grew quite large as he looked up to his smiling brother. "Really? You might have an actual, steady job?"

Taehyung pretended to be a bit offended but then shrugged and swayed his body back and forth as he sat. His eyes held a sparkle of mischief, but it quickly flickered away into enthusiasm. "Hyung, I've looked at the artist's work. It's amazing. I'm pretty confident I could match it, but wow. Look."

Taehyung pulled up some of the panels from the comic and showed them to Jin. When he received no vocal response, he glanced between his brother and his phone, and finally words began pouring out of Jin's mouth.

"You would be working with the PM?" Jin's jaw was dropped almost as far as it could go and he looked rather comical to Taehyung.

"The PM? No, not the prime minister." Taehyung smirked, knowing exactly what his brother meant, but wanting to taunt him ever so slightly.

"No! PM is what the author calls themselves! This is the comic I've been reading for months now! It's so good! But just today they posted an update saying they were going on an indefinite hiatus due to a family emergency. Are you sure this is who Namjoon meant?" Jin would never admit that he hoped this was the exact reason Taehyung had been offered a job for fear of sounding a bit selfish for wanting to know what happened next in the comic.