<OST: Sleepless Night - Crush ft. Punch>
"So...?" Jungkook walked with Jieun hand-in-hand back to his car later that night. "How was I today!"
Jieun glanced uneasily at Jungkook, who was looking at her with those puppy eyes of his. "Um... if you don't look at me like that, perhaps I'll be able to give you a more objective opinion."
"Ah-" Jungkook laughed as he looked away and kept walking. "So, how was I today...?"
"Do you want me to be honest... or nice?"
"What kind of question is that-" Jungkook laughed. "Obviously I want you to be honest."
Jieun pursed her lips. "Oh, I see."
"What...?" Jungkook stopped in his tracks as he turned to look at Jieun. "If you put it this way, it makes it sound like your honest opinion of me is... bad."
Jieun let out an awkward laugh. "Well..."
A look of realisation spread across Jungkook's face as he looked away. "Ah, right - I was really bad at it, wasn't I? I don't even know how to wash brushes well, tell lipstick apart from lipgloss... and I don't even know what a bronzer looked like. Come to think of it... you don't even need to tell me for me to know that I was just plain bad."
"Quite frankly, yeah-" Jieun agreed. "But you don't have to take it too hard on yourself, Jungkook-ah - you're simply not cut out for this job, that's all."
"Ah."
"Hey, don't react that way-" Jieun reached out a hand to turn Jungkook to face her. "You're not trained to be a makeup assistant, Jungkook-ah - you can't just... expect to be good at it. Look at me - can you imagine me dancing on stage?"
Jungkook let out a small chuckle. "But I'm supposed to be good at everything, Jieun-ah."
"Well-" Jieun shrugged. "I guess now you know better - no one's perfect. Though... I think you would have been great if you had been professionally trained."
"So, where can I get professionally trained?"
"It doesn't matter because that's not what you're gonna do, Jungkook-ah," Jieun said quietly. "You're born a singer - and that's what you should be sticking to."
"I-" Jungkook frowned. "But being a singer comes with all those things I don't like, like my privacy being invaded and all that... I really don't enjoy that part of being a celebrity."
Jieun hesitated. "Um... Jungkook-ah."
Jungkook raised his eyebrows unsuspectingly. "Hm?"
"I don't know if I should be telling you this."
Jungkook frowned. "What is it? Tell me."
"Jennie told me not to tell you... but I feel like I should."
"Oh-" Jungkook pursed his lips. "Is this what I saw you guys whispering about when I arrived earlier?"
Jieun nodded. "Mm."
Jungkook nodded slowly. "Tell me, Jieun-ah. I wanna know."
"Actually-" Jieun paused. "Min PD-nim has been working hard, trying to get another opportunity for Jennie to start over. And... she asked him to put in a good word for you in the process."
Jungkook raised his eyebrows, but he didn't say anything.
"She sees how much you still want to do music, JK." Jieun looked up into Jungkook's eyes. "And so do I."
"And so does Seokjin-hyung, apparently," Jungkook said with a small sigh. "He's not here today because he went to talk to some friend of his to take me into their company."
"See? Seokjin-oppa knows it too." Jieun nodded slowly. "I know you already made the decision to go ahead and quit the industry... but I'm sure you yourself can see that other stuff... they don't suit you the way music does. Just like how you encouraged me to pursue my makeup career when I was clearly not cut out for reporting... I just wanna encourage you right now to reconsider your decision to leave the music industry. We can find other options, Jungkook-ah - you can leave the k-pop industry... but don't ever give up on your passion of pursuing music. Everyone can see that you're made for music, and I'm sure you can too."
Jungkook nodded slowly. "You're right. And quite frankly, today has really provided me with a great opportunity to reflect on my decision. Thank you for telling me about what Jennie Kim and Min PD-nim are doing for me, Jieun-ah. I'll see how that and Seokjin-hyung's gig goes... and make a decision from there."
"Mm-" Jieun beamed. "That's a good idea."
"Finally, you're smiling," Jungkook said with a bright smile as he prodded Jieun's nose gently. "But unfortunately, I might need to ruin your mood a little by turning your attention to your best friend and housemate."
"Hm-?" Jieun raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Byulyi-unnie...? What about her?"
Jungkook cleared his throat. "Well, you see..."
•-•-
"Jennie-ya."
"Hm?"
"Thank you."
Jennie stopped in front of the apartment building and looked up at Yoongi. The scarf was still wrapped around both of them, so they stood close together in the cold.
"Why are you thanking me all of a sudden?"
"I don't know-" Yoongi shrugged. "I just wanted to say it."
Jennie raised her eyebrows. "Hm."
"Maybe it's because we're almost halfway through filming now," Yoongi explained. "So I'm finally starting to feel it - that like, all this is real... and all this is actually happening."
Jennie chuckled softly. "But you only have yourself to thank for all this, not me. All I've been supposed to do is act... but I still keep getting into trouble again and again."
"That's not your fault either," Yoongi retorted. "People just want to see you in trouble so bad, that's why they're constantly looking for ways to bring you down. How many of those rumours about you are actually true? Practically none of them."
"Ah..." Jennie smiled shyly as she glanced at the ground. "Well... if you put it that way, that's true, I guess..."
"Earlier I was thinking..." Yoongi pursed his lips. "We can probably completely filming in the next two to three weeks or so... After that, editing will take place for maybe a month and the drama will be uploaded by late December to early January. The moment this drama is released, I wonder how different our lives would be."
"It'll be really different, of course." Jennie laughed as she walked towards a nearby bench, dragging Yoongi along with her. "I mean... at least, I hope so."
Yoongi nodded in agreement as he took a seat next to her. "Well, me too."
"I know it's not good to set our expectations too high," Jennie said slowly before turning to Yoongi. "But... just out of curiosity - what are your goals for your debut drama? I'm sure you must have thought of it before."
"I would be lying if I said I didn't." Yoongi let out a small chuckle. "But... my goals aren't that high, to be honest."
"Why?" Jennie frowned. "Isn't it good to set your goals higher? That way, maybe you'll achieve higher results as well."
"Well, you know me-" Yoongi laughed. "I'm not exactly the most optimistic person, so I'd very much rather set my expectations lower so that I have a higher chance of being pleasantly surprised when things go better than I imagine."
"Oh..." Jennie let out a small laugh. "Well, come to think of it... that makes sense as well. And you don't have to suffer so much from the disappointment."
"Exactly."
"So... exactly how low are your goals?" Jennie smiled. "No matter how small they are, I'm really curious to find out."
"Ah-" Yoongi sniffed a little as he leaned back against the bench. "Well..."
Jennie listened to him attentively.
"Actually, there are many things I would like to achieve," Yoongi admitted. "But I thought hard about it and ultimately... I think I have just one thing that I would really like to achieve with my drama."
Jennie raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Oh...?"
"Of course views are a good thing," Yoongi said with a small shrug. "Who wouldn't want their first ever drama to go viral so that their career would be kickstarted on a great note. I would love that too, but things like these... I could go on about. Same goes for viewership ratings, international recognition, et cetera... but these are all things that other people can achieve with their dramas as well."
Jennie nodded in agreement.
"But I want people to recognise the drama for the way certain themes are portrayed-" Yoongi explained. "Maybe the drama may not get hundreds of thousands of views... maybe it won't be popular enough to make its rounds in the online community and bring up a conversation about the issues addressed. But amongst the small pool of people who actually watch it, I want them to feel like the drama made a change to their life. I want them to feel like, 'Wow, they did not only do the novel justice... they also managed to highlight certain portions of the story that we didn't previously see as an issue.' Something like that? That's my goal."
"You see, that's what makes you different from others-" Jennie said with a look of complete adoration on her face. "Other people would just say they want 100k views for each episode. Or maybe... 8.0 star ratings and above on drama review websites. Something like that. But you genuinely care about how your drama can benefit the community at large, and I think that's part of what makes you so amazing, Min Yoongi-ssi."
"Ah-" Yoongi laughed awkwardly as he rubbed the back of his neck. "If you put it like that..."
Jennie chuckled softly.
"What about you?" Yoongi turned the focus onto Jennie. "What are your goals, Jennie-ya?"
"My goals...?" Jennie laughed. "Why would I have any goals? It's not even my first drama."
"Huh?" Yoongi frowned. "This may be my debut drama... but it's also your debut lead role too, did you forget?"
"Oh-!" Jennie burst into laughter. "Right, right... it slipped my mind. Maybe because these few months have been so hectic... I'd have thought the Cinderella movie would be my debut lead role, but that went down the hill... Right, so this is my actual debut lead role..."
"What do you mean?" Yoongi laughed. "You were the one who was so excited that I would be the one directing the drama with your first ever lead role."
"Well, I guess things changed," Jennie said with a small shrug. "The more I acted, the more I realised that popularity really didn't matter to me - what mattered was that I was having fun doing what I enjoyed."
"And that should be the way," Yoongi said with a grin as he reached out and patted Jennie on the head fondly. "Our Jennie really matured a lot too, huh."
"I told you before-" Jennie backed away a little as she looked up at Yoongi. "Not to do things like that."
"And I told you too, didn't I?" Yoongi looked down at Jennie and held out a hand. "I'm gonna do things however I like."
Jennie looked down at Yoongi's hand, wondering what she was supposed to do. Yoongi stared at her for a while, before reaching out and holding her hand in his. Jennie looked up at him in utter surprise.
"It's cold," Yoongi said as he put Jennie's hand in his pocket and rose to his feet. "Let's go home like this."
Jennie, still completely stunned, willed her legs to follow. Her cheeks burned hot in that cold early winter night as she trudged behind Yoongi, trying to keep up with his footsteps.
Yoongi... felt like home.
-•-•-
"Oh, unnie-" Jieun opened Byulyi's door the next morning and peeked in. "You going somewhere?"
"Mm-" Byulyi nodded as she looked into the mirror while applying some lipstick. "We don't have filming today, do we?"
"Mm, apparently Jennie and Jungkook are going to meet their sajang-nim today... again." Jieun walked into the room and took a seat on Byulyi's bed, completely aware of what was going on, thanks to Jungkook who had told her last night. Even then, for now, she decided to pretend like she had no clue. "But... where are you going, unnie?"
"Ah... um-" Byulyi froze for two seconds. "I have some stuff going on today."
"Some stuff...?" Jieun raised her eyebrows. "Stuff that I don't know about?"
"Just-" Byulyi tried to brush her off by giving her a vague answer. "You know... stuff."
"Like...?"
Byulyi pursed her lips. "I'm meeting someone."
"Who?"
Byulyi hesitated. "Online friend."
Jieun looked at Byulyi through the mirror. "Seokjin-oppa."
Byulyi turned around to look at Jieun. "You already knew...?"
"I-" Jieun sighed loudly as she grabbed a pillow from Byulyi's bed and hugged it tightly to her chest, trying to recall what Jungkook had told her last night. "I only guessed. But... I think that maybe you shouldn't go today...?"
Byulyi put down her lipstick onto the dressing table with a loud clack. "What do you mean?"
"I don't know, I just-" Jieun bit her lower lip, seriously reconsidering her life decisions. "I just thought that maybe Seokjin-oppa has been rather busy lately... so..."
"He'll show up, Jieun-ah," Byulyi said as she turned back towards the mirror. "He said he will."
"Yeah, but-" Jieun pursed her lips, shifting uncomfortably in her seat. "That was before all this stuff happened, unnie. You know how much he has been doing for JK's sake recently... it's not that he would purposely forget to come, but it's possible that he might have too much on his plate-"
"Well-" Byulyi shook her head firmly. "I have been thinking that he has not really been himself lately, either. But... that's Kim Seokjin. The person I made the appointment with is kayesjay, Jieun-ah. And kayesjay told me he'd come meet me, so he will."
"Unnie, kayesjay is literally Kim Seok-"
"He didn't tell me that he wouldn't be coming, so he will-" Byulyi insisted as she picked up her eyeshadow palette. "I promised him that I'll be there too, and that I won't leave until I see him - so that's exactly what I'm going to do."
"I just don't want to see you get hurt."
"I know, Jieun-ah," Byulyi said with a grateful smile. "We're both the same - we always try to do what we think is best for the other person... but fail to consider that we're already both adults, and can make decisions on what's best for ourselves. So don't worry, and just support me from behind, alright? Will you do that for me?"
Jieun hesitated. She really wasn't sure if Seokjin was going to appear today, considering that Jungkook had told her he'd be there at the other company again, trying to persuade the CEO into taking Jungkook in. But if Byulyi was so sure of him, maybe he had already made arrangements to meet her in between... Hopefully he hadn't completely forgotten about it at all...
"Alright then," Jieun said with a little shrug as she got to her feet and took the palette and brush from Byulyi's hands. "Let me do this for you then, unnie. I hardly see you do your own makeup at all... so today must be a very special occasion. Let me do your makeup for you today."
"Wah..." Byulyi smiled as she glanced up at Jieun. "Come to think of it, this is the first time you're doing my makeup ever since you became a professional makeup artist, Jieun-ah. Thank you."
"What professional?" Jieun burst into laughter. "And what's there to thank between the two of us? I just want your meeting with Seokjin-oppa to go well, that's all."
"Ah..." Byulyi's expression darkened a little, and for once Jieun could tell how nervous and unsure she was of the whole situation as well. "Well, me too."
"It will, I'm sure of that-" Jieun assured her with a bright smile. All she could do now, like what Byulyi said, was to support her from behind. "He's a guy of his words, unnie - I'm sure he'll show up."
Byulyi managed a smile and nodded slowly. "I sure hope so."