━━━༻ ˚✩‧₊ september 2020₊‧✩˚༺━━━
Narae was doing this on purpose, Jungkook was sure.
When she had offered to tie his hair up for him, he had agreed not thinking much of it, but he was regretting it at this point.
Rather than going behind him to help like any normal person would assume, she had instead positioned herself in between his legs, close enough that Jungkook could hold her by her waist and pull her onto his lap. But he couldn't.
They were soon about to start their live to celebrate the release of Butter, the other members and staff were around him, and it was driving him crazy to have her close enough to touch but being unable to.
She was running her fingers through his hair whilst humming a tune as she gathered the silky locks in her hands. She paused her humming to speak, "It's so soft."
It was like she wasn't even trying to actually tie it up and was just content playing with the fluffy strands. Jungkook was beginning to understand why she loved having her hair played with so much. Her touch was light and soothing, the unhurried motions were enough to send him to sleep, but he found that he'd rather stare at her face whilst she continued.
Jungkook eventually gave into the temptation and placed his hands on the back of her thighs and pulled her closer, spreading his legs further to accommodate her new position. Narae barely noticed, more focused on finally attending to her task and giving him two pigtails on either side of his head.
She stepped back to survey her work and laughed at the innocent way he looked up at her and slightly pouted, upset at their loss of their contact. She bopped him on the nose as she spoke, "Too cute."
Suddenly inspired, she turned to the other members. Her eyes searched them all before they locked on her next target. She skipped over happily to him, a wide grin on her face, "Jinnie!"
"Yes?" He answered wearily.
"Let me do your hair!" She implored him. At his hesitance, she turned on the charm, widening her eyes as she dragged out her words, "Please?"
"Fine." Jin sighed, powerless against her as usual. He gestured to where Jungkook was watching the exchange with an amused smile, " Make mine cuter than his though."
"Of course!"
Once she was done, she turned expectantly to her next target Yoongi who had a deadpan unimpressed expression. Before she could even open her mouth to speak, he shot her down, "Not happening."
Narae huffed, "You're no fun. Why do you hate joy?"
Yoongi only rolled his eyes and turned to talk to Namjoon.
"Do mine instead!" Taehyung called out and she moved over to him happily after giving Yoongi's back the middle finger.
She had just finished Taehyung's when the staff informed them all that it was time to start. Narae moved away from where they were sitting so she was out of the view of the camera. She watched as they waited for the live to fill up before introducing themselves to the viewers.
"Aside from the release of Butter today, we've got a very special guest joining us today!" Namjoon said with a smile, his dimples poking out.
That was Narae's cue to walk forward, sitting in between Jungkook and Yoongi like it had been planned prior.
"Hey ARMY! It's good to see you all." She beamed and waved to the camera. "For those of you that don't know me, my name is RÆ and I was the female vocalist on Butter!"
The comments were going absolutely crazy. This was the first time another idol had ever been featured on one of BTS' lives. The brief phone conversation that Narae had whilst on her own live was barely enough and fans had been dying for more interactions. It seemed like their prayers had finally been answered.
As she didn't have access to their account, she read the comments over Yoongi's shoulder, pleased when she saw they were overwhelmingly positive. As with most fandoms, ARMY were protective over their faves – Narae was glad that they seemed to be accepting over her presence rather than seeing her negatively.
Her own fans were the same and despite their similarly protective nature, they were delighted by the collaboration and had been begging her for more ever since the news broke out. Narae wondered how they'd react when news of the album would be released the following week.
"Welcome Narae!" Namjoon said, "Actually guys, it's been hard keeping this one under wraps for so long. We started recording this ages ago, when was it – February?"
"January actually." Jin interjected.
"Ah so long ago! It was January when we recorded it and I think March when we shot the video, so that's like what, eight and six months ago." Namjoon said as he did the quick maths in his head.
"I'm surprised you didn't spoil it." Jimin said to Namjoon.
"Me too!" He responded whilst laughing, "It's so catchy as well, I always had to stop myself from singing it. Narae what about you, was it hard keeping things quiet?"
Narae thought for a second, "Nah, it wasn't too hard for me at least. I like to annoy my fans and post spoilers that they don't realise are spoilers till after it's released. I'm pretty sure I posted a picture from the day we were filming with lyrics from Butter ages ago and it still hasn't dawned on them yet."
"Ah really?" Hobi hid a smile, before reading the comments on his phone and turning in his seat to show her, "It's true! Look, ARMY are saying that you're mean for doing that to your fans. They want to know if any of your other posts are spoilers as well."
Narae raised her hands and shrugged. "I don't know, you tell me."
The other members laughed whilst Narae busied herself with getting food from the table in front of Hobi, Taehyung, Namjoon and Jimin. Once she was satisfied with her pick, she settled back into her seat, handing Jungkook one of the snacks before opening her own packet and eating from it.
"All of the comments and questions seem to be directed to you Narae, stop stealing our fans!" Jungkook jokingly said as he bumped her shoulder with his.
"Really? What are they saying?" Narae paused her eating to look at Jungkook's device instead.
"They want to know what your favourite part of the video was." Jungkook said, ignoring the many comments that were asking her to name her favourite and best-looking member, or the ones that asked her if she had a crush on any one of them. He didn't need to ask, he knew she'd pick him anyway.
Narae tapped her chin, "From what I remember, the scene in the room with colours."
"How specific." Yoongi said drily.
Narae hit his shoulder lightly with the back of her hand, "You know what I mean!"
"The pink and orange room that we filmed the hotter video in right?" Jungkook asked. He was beginning to be able to decipher Narae's way of describing things.
'Room with colours' meant that the colours were the most notable thing about it. That cancelled out sets with any objects or designs, and obviously any sets where they weren't in a room. By a quick process of elimination, that left only one.
"See, he understands me." Narae said and smiled at Jungkook appreciatively.
From his position on the floor in front of Narae, Taehyung spoke up, "A lot of people are asking what's up with our hairstyles." Taehyung pointed up at Narae, "She was the one that did it. She only managed to do mine, Jin's and Jungkook's before it was time to film though. Don't you think we look cute?" He said and tilted his head to smile, Jungkook and Jin copying his pose from their various positions.
"Wow, speaking of cute, look at this game I found that we can play!" Jimin not-so-subtly changed the subject when he noticed the staff prompting them to pick up the Butter designed Jenga game from the table. "Let's go!"
✩ ✩ ✩
Just under an hour later, they were done with the live after playing the game of Jenga and doing the tasks and penalties, Taehyung and Namjoon being the ultimate losers of the night. As they each prepared to either head back to the dorms, stay in the building or go elsewhere, Yoongi walked over to where Narae, Jungkook and Jimin were talking, stopping in front of the trio.
"Come with me to my studio." He stated plainly. The three of them moved at once, but Yoongi shook his head, "Not all of you, just Narae."
Narae pulled her eyelid and stuck her tongue out at Jimin and Jungkook who were grumbling about their lack of invite, before following Yoongi out of the room to his studio.
After she keyed in the code and walked inside, she flopped onto the couch as if she owned the place. "What's up Sugaboo? Why did you call me in here?"
He sat in the chair by the desk, arranging himself before shrugging nonchalantly, "Nothing really. Just feel like I haven't seen you around that much lately."
Narae's mouth dropped open in exaggerated shock as she gasped, reading between the lines of what he didn't vocalise, "You missed me, didn't you?"
"Shut up." Yoongi muttered, but a flush had worked up his neck.
It was true. Back when Narae had first joined them, she would spend all of her free time in his studio, either chilling, or working on songs together. He had been indifferent at first, but had slowly begun to appreciate and look forward to her coming to disturb him.
Outside of scheduling or coincidental encounters in the dorms, they barely had chances to hang out like they used to. Most of his free time was spent with Asa, whilst hers was spent with Jungkook. He hadn't wanted to admit it, but he did miss their studio sessions and late night conversations.
Narae was going to tease him more, but thinking about it, she realized she actually missed him too. He was the first person that she felt comfortable around in the dorm, the first one she had opened up to and he had become sort of like an older brother to her. "I missed you too. Sorry I've been spending so much time with Jungkook lately, I shouldn't forget my friends just because I'm in a new relationship."
Yoongi brushed off her apology, "Nah it's fine, I've been spending just as much time with Asa so it's not only on you."
"Fair enough, how is that going by the way?" She'd heard enough from Asa to know that it was going well, but she wanted to hear what Yoongi had to say.
At the question, Yoongi visibly brightened, moving back and forth in his swivel chair as a large smile overtook his face, "It's actually going really well. God, it might sound sappy as fuck, but I really didn't know it was possible to feel this much for one person. The feelings I have for her easily surpass anything I've ever felt for anyone else before... I'm so in love with her it's crazy."
Narae could cry from happiness at Yoongi's words. This is what her best friend deserved, not some toxic relationship that left her doubting her worth. "Have you told her yet?"
"Yeah, some time back. It was kind of early, but when you know, you just know right? She's it for me."
Narae nodded. She knew exactly what he was talking about, she felt the same way about Jungkook. Without realizing, she had begun humming a tune again.
"You know you've been humming that same melody for the past few weeks now?"
"Really?"
"Yeah, it made me think of something I have half unfinished. Let me work on it for a few minutes and I'll play it for you. Write some lyrics down or something whilst you wait."
"Okay."
A few minutes ended up being a few hours, but Narae was comfortable in Yoongi's studio, curled up in her usual spot on the couch with a blanket, notebook and pen he had retrieved for her and her usual pack of Peppero. Despite the less frequent visits, he had still kept them stocked in case she ever decided to drop by.
When Yoongi was done, he played it for her and she grinned excitedly, the lyrics she had written down as she waited matched the vibe exactly. So far, aside from Asa, Yoongi was the only producer who seemed to understand exactly what she liked. No wonder they worked so well together.
"Do you want to record now?"
"Might as well yeah, just a rough demo then we can work on it more another day."
Narae took the recording equipment from Yoongi and put on the headphones, nodding her head slightly as the opening instrumentals came in. As she prepared herself to sing, the jazzy beat lulled her into a space where she was no longer in the Genius Lab, rather, she was in a room, snuggled up against a warm body as the person sifted their fingers through her curls.
Unlike before where she hadn't realised she was writing the song about him till she was halfway through with it, he was clear in her mind as she had written the lyrics. This song was straight from her heart to him. It was about opening up fully and being vulnerable in a way that she could only do with someone that she trusted, someone that she was comfortable with, someone she was completely and irrevocably in love with. She began to sing the song that had the lyrics written long before she had put her pen to paper (a/n: song at the top).
Said I'ma give you some instructions
That you can't be scared to try
I want you to touch it softly
Like the way you do my mind
It got body and it's smooth to touch
The same way as my skin
But don't you be scared
To run your hands through my hair
Baby, 'cause that's why it's there
Come run your hands through my hair
Ooh, baby, so don't you be scared
So come run your hands through my hair
This song was for Jungkook.
━━━━༻˚✩‧₊☽₊‧✩˚༺━━━━
a/n: this was just a filler sorry :(
i rewatched the butter live for inspo for this chapter and pls why is taehyung so fine????
also, four years with ly:tear aka the best album in bts' discography! me + my paradise tattoo will be celebrating all night! 🤞🏾
~zookie <3