"How do you think it went?"
"Pff, you saw her. Anna crushed it!"
BTS were in the lounge attached to their dance studio waiting for Anna to finish for the day. For once her schedule finished later than theirs. This was sure to become more of a regular thing now that she was a trainee, but today was special. All seven of them were waiting to hear what feedback Anna had been given by her teachers on her first assignment.
"Well, yeah, but we might be the slightest bit biased..."
"Do you think they'll be harder on her because she's our soulmate?"
"If they are it will only because they know how much potential she has."
"Good or bad, she will always be treated differently because of her connection to us. Better she learns how to deal with that from the beginning."
Yoongi's statement made them all think. Some hoped only good things would happen to Anna because of them, while others tried not to think of what negative impact they could have on their soulmate's future career.
"She's going to be okay, right?"
"Okay? Anna's going to be amazing! Taking the world by storm!
"It's only her week of being a trainee, calm down a little."
"Did you see her performance yesterday?! Imagine what she'll be like after she's finished her training."
"Wow..."
Everyone turned to look at Taehyung who was staring off into space.
"What?"
"Anna's going to be sensational!"
As they chuckled at the singer's exclamation, the door opened and the one they had all been waiting for entered.
"Anna! How did it go?"
Instead of answering, their soulmate walked over to Jin who was sitting closest to the door and sat on his lap. They were all a little confused as Anna began to stare at the oldest's ones face. When she didn't stop, Jin's ears began to turn red.
"Umm..."
He glanced over at the others, asking them for help with his eyes.
"Anna? Sweetie, are you okay?"
Jin was relieved when she finally looked away from him and turned towards Hoseok who was sitting next to them. Anna stared at Hoseok for a moment before speaking up.
"I just spent hours staring at myself in the mirror. I need to look at someone else instead."
Anna rolled off of Jin's lap and sat between him and Hoseok.
"What were you doing?"
"They had us practising our facial expressions. It was awful."
"I don't understand. I often spend time staring at myself in the mirror. I don't mean to, but once you catch a glimpse of this face it's hard to look away."
While the boys didn't often laugh at Jin's jokes anymore, Anna loved his humour. Even though she tried not to, she couldn't help but burst out laughing, and as that was his aim, it made Jin smile.
"Not everyone has your level of self-esteem, Jin-Hyung."
"I'm with Anna. Although I don't dislike the way I look, staring at myself in the mirror for a long period of time doesn't sound like fun."
"You study yourself in the mirror during dance practice though?"
"That was hard for me at first. I've gotten used to it now, but I -"
"You what?"
"Nevermind."
"Noona doesn't like looking at herself in the mirror."
"Is that true, Anna?"
"Do you still not..."
love yourself. That's what Namjoon was going to say.
"I may avoid reflective surfaces sometimes."
She tried to make a joke, but her soulmates didn't react other than a few sad smiles.
"I'm better than I was, but I have good days and bad days. I knew being an Idol would mean other people would see my face a lot, I just didn't think about how much I would have to as well. This isn't something you can help me with."
"Perhaps, but we can help you practice facial expressions."
"Taetae, you're up!"
"Me?"
"Don't even pretend that you don't know you're the king of facial expressions, Hyung."
"Well, the king might be exaggerating a little... but I'll take it."
While Anna giggled at her soulmate's dramatics, the others either sighed, shook their heads, or laughed, which only made her laugh harder.
"Back to what's really important. Anna?"
"Yes?"
"Tell us what they said, Noona!"
"Who? What?"
"Your teachers! Your assignment! The big performance you rehearsed no stop for the last few days!"
"Oh! Right, well..."
She watched as they all leaned in waiting to hear what she said next.
"It was okay."
"Okay?!"
"The feedback, or your performance?"
"We need details!"
"Okay, okay. They said my performance was good, almost impressive considering I'm a new trainee with no experience and only a few days to prepare."
"Yes!"
"I told you!"
"Well done!"
"Wow, they really said that?"
"They also said that I have a lot I need to work on, especially to catch up with the other trainees, and for the next assignment I won't have a safety net, so I could get kicked out."
"That won't happen."
"You don't know that."
"So, I'm guessing something you need to work on is your facial expressions?"
"Yep, but I think I'm not the only one since the whole class had to practice them today."
"Can we go home now?"
Realising that they had all finished for the day, Anna wondered why they were still hanging out there.
"Wait, were you waiting for me?"
"Of course!"
"You didn't have to. I know how tired you all are recently."
"How many times have you waited for us to finish so we could go home together?"
"Once or twice?"
Hoseok shook his head at her answer.
"Almost every night for weeks. Now it's our turn."
"We also didn't want you to be travelling alone so late at night."
Anna felt shy at Namjoon's show of protectiveness.
"Thank you."
When they all stood up to leave, Anna walked toward Namjoon and wrapped her arms around him. The leader wasn't one for much physical affection. While the others, especially the youngest, were always wrapping her up in hugs, Namjoon was more of a pat on the head, or maybe even an arm around the shoulder, type of guy.
That didn't mean that he wouldn't return a hug though. As Anna felt his strong arms wrap around her, she relaxed against him. She always felt safe and taken care of around Namjoon.
Suddenly, Anna yawned and she realised how tired she was. Feeling his chest vibrate as he chuckled, she looked up at her soulmate. Namjoon leant down and kissed her forehead before smiling down at her.
"Come on. Let's get you to bed."
Namjoon joined Anna and Jungkook in their bed that night. While the Maknae had fallen asleep straight away, the other two weren't so lucky. The leader had a lot on his mind, and Anna always found it difficult to fall asleep no matter how tired she was.
She was laying in the middle of her two soulmates, facing Namjoon who was sitting up with the light from his phone showing his face. Anna stared up at him.
"You're staring again."
"Am I not allowed to stare at my handsome soulmate?"
"Turn around then."
Anna was puzzled for a moment until she remembered that Jungkook was behind her.
"Why would I do that when I've got you in front of me?"
Anna moved closer to Namjoon, raising herself up on one arm. She placed her other hand on his toned chest while placing kisses up his muscular arm with each word.
"My smart, beautiful, cute, sexy, leader soulmate."
"Did you have to add in cute?"
"Would you prefer adorable?"
"I changed my mind, I'm fine with cute."
Anna leaned up and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
"See? Cute."
"I think you're the cute one."
She moved so that they were face to face, her lips only an inch away from his.
"Am I just cute?"
Namjoon wondered where she was going with this when he felt a hand ghosting across his thighs. He raised an eyebrow, interested to see how far this would go.
"No. You're smart too, and beautiful."
When he didn't continue, Anna's hand stopped moving too. She looked at him with wide innocent eyes and pouty lips.
"Is that all?"
"And naive if you think you can tease me."
Her hand crept further up his thigh.
"Don't start something if you're not going to follow through."
"Who said I wouldn't follow through?"
Anna tried to act confidently, but Namjoon saw her hesitation as her eyes flickered to the sleeping Maknae on the other side of the bed.
"We won't disturb him. Jungkook sleeps like the dead."
"You won't mind celebrating passing my first assignment with me then?"
"It feels like I'm the one who's going to be rewarded though, not you?"
"Depends on your point of view."
Namjoon almost gasped in surprise when she cupped him.
"I would like to celebrate by adding something else to my list of achievements. Will you help?"
Anna's lips twitched at the small amount of power she felt at that moment at having her soulmate, quite literally, by the balls. However, that all but disappeared as she watched Namjoon's eyes darken and he practically growled his next words.
"I'd be happy to."