BEHIND THE SCENES

chapter 14: the fright of her life

Jennie opened her eyes slowly, and there the girl stood in front of her, smiling widely with her mask off. She held out the box towards Jennie - a box full of cute animal mugs.

"I've followed you on Instagram for a long time, Jennie Kim!" The girl said chirpily as she held out one mug towards Jennie. "I just moved here yesterday. I was so nervous earlier I didn't even sare to talk to you, I'm so sorry. Oh no, you look a little pale. Are you alright? Did I scare you-"

Ding!

Jennie was overwhelm with relief when the doors finally slid open. She shook her head vigorously as she dragged herself out of the lift, leaving the girl staring at her with a confused and hurt frown on her face. The lift doors slowly slid shut, as Jennie crawled her way towards Jungkook door, as if it was an oasis of water in the blistering hot Sahara desert.

She felt a panic attack coming. Her heart was palpitating at a million times per second, droplets of cold sweat had formed on her forehead as well as all over her hands, Jennie felt her body shaking vigorously and her legs gave way. She slid to the ground, her lungs closing up. Tears were running down her cheeks like a waterfall. She couldn't breathe, she couldn't breathe-

Jennie blacked out.

-•-•-

"Wah!" Doni hyped himself up as Jungkook finally finished performed his latest comeback song. He clapped his hands, walking to the centre of the screen once more with Coni and Taehyung by his side. "Wasn't that amazing? That's 'Still With You', performed by JK, everyone!"

Taehyung, Doni and Coni burst into a round of applause as Jungkook managed a smile.

"While we're filming right now, it's still 30 May..." Coni carried on, reading off the screen behind the cameras. "But by the time it is aired two weeks later on 10 June, JK's latest comeback album will be out! JK-ssi, when is the exact date your album is dropping?"

"1 June," Jungkook said quietly, forcing a smile. "In two days time."

"Wah... you must be so excited," Doni exclaimed enthusiastically as he glanced down at his cue cards. "I heard this is the very first album you produced single-handedly by yourself, am I right? Would you like to talk a bit more about that?"

"This album talks a lot about my inner struggles so it's actually very sensitive to me," Jungkook said with a small shrug. "I just hope that everyone can listen to it without any prior prejudice of me. I hope that my fans will also enjoy the title track 'Still With You', which was actually written with them in mind. Thank you."

Jieun watched Jungkook quietly from behind the cameras, realising at once why a script was needed for a variety show. Before today, she thought that variety shows were all unscripted as they claimed, but she only just realised that scripts were required in order for them to maintain some form of order on set. Especially for Jungkook with his scandal, he would receive all kinds of questions regarding his dating life if he were to be interviewed by the media. But on variety shows, artists were allowed to vet through the scripts before filming. And that was exactly what Seokjin was doing when he disappeared earlier on.

Jieun furtively pulled out her brown notebook, jotting down the things she had noticed from earlier.

Kim Taehyung
Scapegoat?