[a/n: The answering of the questions asked in the previous chapter will be asked directly (by the author) to the characters in groups as they enter the room. The writing format will be a little different from what you usually see from any of my books, and it's in present tense (which I usually don't write in), so I apologize for tense issues.]
The room is slightly off-white, a large window open letting in the afternoon light. There's a comfy leather couch that wraps geometrically around a little coffee table and a tall wooden stool that the author sits on patiently, legs hanging down and swaying back and forth slowly.
She shuffles through the few papers in her hands, all of which with little, short questions in different handwritings every other sentence. There's a small polite knock on the door.
"C'mon in," She smiles, already knowing who's behind the door. A girl many know well peeks in slowly, then opens the door some more and walks in.
With a wave she begins, "Winter, how've you been?" The girl on the stool gestures towards the the couch friendlily and the other quickly sits down.
"I've been fine," she smiled, shaking the papers in her hands. "Readers have some random questions for some characters."
"Sure, I can answer some of them." She nods, sitting up a little and leaning forwards.
"Cool. Well they wanted to have you in here to help out questions directed to other people too." She says, smiling apologetically for there weren't any questions on the small list for her written on the paper.
"Hah, I know I'm not interesting." The girl nods, shuffling as she adjusted a cushion on the seat. "Who's coming in first?"
As if on cue, the girl points at the door with her empty hand that is already slowly opening.
"Surprise!" Hoseok cheers as he pushes the door open, followed by Jimin and Suga. The three of them arrived in their own little group, while the other four of the band came in pairs, first the two maknaes pushing and shoving the others in front of themselves.
"Act professional, dorks." Suga laughed from in front of them, not seeming annoyed at them as they constantly bumped into his back. Taehyung and Jungkook were the first to "settle" on the couch, plopping down.
"So what are we doing, Rona?" Jimin asked as he sat down next to the three of them. J-Hope followed, but before sitting down offered the seat to his hyung with a little gesture. Suga made a small nod of appreciation, sitting down in the last spot.
"Ask Winter," she laughed, pointing towards the other girl. She made an awkward laugh, then holding up the paper.
"We hit 6K reads on the story, so I decided to take in questions from readers." she explains, running her finger across the paper before shaking it a few times. Jimin makes a little nod in understanding, then sitting up a little.
"But all they know is up to Hoseok-hyung's crying, right?" Jimin asks innocently, looking towards his standing hyung.
"Right, so that's mostly what people have been asking." she nods, looking towards J-Hope. All eyes seemed to go towards him and he made a small laugh.
"Shouldn't we wait for Jin-hyung and Namjoon?" Hoseok asks, looking towards the door. Just then Jin appeared outside in the hallway, waving and talking to someone who was down the hall.
"Yeah, alright." he says before walking in and closing the door behind him, only realizing the eyes of everyone looking at him after he takes a few steps forwards. "Sorry I'm late." he apologizes with a bow before walking towards the side of the couch, leaning on the armrest a bit.
"You're fine, we haven't started yet." Winter smiles, shaking the paper once before scanning her eyes over the first question. "Well, since, like Jimin said, the most common question people have is about the song J-Hope cried over..."
"Well thanks, make me seem like a baby." J-Hope laughs, rocking his weight back and forth.
"So, Rose4634 asked 'Why was J-Hope crying in the last chapter and the song Suga made. What song was it?'" Winter reads, looking up towards J-Hope and Suga, both of whom who happened to sit next to each other.
"Ah," J-Hope breathed out, looking towards the other. Suga ran his hand through his hair, sitting up from his slouched position that had put him into the couch a little.
"I was looking through my computer for some ideas and ran across this one document file." Suga began, tapping his hand on his leg as if clicking on the file. "It was Hoseok's old beat that I had helped make into a file about..."
"A year ago." J-Hope finished. "It was for an original dance I performed in competition." he seemed to fell uncomfortable with the subject, only looking at Suga and Winter when talking.
"Right, and I changed a few random things in the beat." Suga nodded.
"So why were you crying?" Winter asked, raising her eyes. J-Hope shook his head and looked down, laughing a little.
"You like to torture me, don't you? Have they not seen the explanation?" J-Hope asked, looking back up.
"Not yet, it's in Chapter 35. I guess they can wait then..." Winter laughed with a little sigh.
"I think it's well explained there." Suga commented, then continuing, "And as for what the name of the song is, maybe the media of Chapter 34 would explain that."
There was a shared nod between Suga and Winter, as if they both knew what song was attached in the beginning of Chapter 34.
"Alright, the next question is for Namsoon, is she here?" Winter asks.
"Soon and her brother are outside, they said they didn't want to crowd the room." Jin explained, pointing towards the door.
"Then let's get them in here, thanks for being here everyone, even if you just sat-" Winter smiled again, apologizing with a little head bow.
"It's all good, my visuals were provided." Taehyung said, smiling.
~~~
"Hey," Soon said quietly with a little wave. She and Namjoon were the only two sitting on the couch now, her brother now seeming taller than usual in comparison.
"Hope you had a good afternoon," Winter tried to say in a less off putting way, making Namjoon nod in response.
"I'll make this pretty quick, since you need to get somewhere," Winter began, followed by Soon's nod, "LoloTheCat asked 'Can Soon and Soonyoung meet plz!!! And they can argue over the "call me soon" thing.'"
Soon looked towards her brother in confusion but he seemed to understand. "I remember Soonyoung, you haven't met him. He goes to a different school on the other side of town, but he's a really well known teenage-choreographer."
"Oh?" Soon asked, raising her eyebrows and actually becoming interested. "I'd be interested in meeting him, sure. Does he do the 'soon' thing too?"
Winter gave a little nod, and Soon replied with a bigger smile. "That's cool. Will he be at FMF?"
Namjoon furrowed his eyebrows a bit in thought, but in the end both of them looked towards Winter.
"Well, if you want me to add it in..."
Soon's smile made a smile grow on both of their faces.
~~~
"Hey Jack, Dean, Joy," Rona smiled as the three of them walked in. She found herself back on the couch after Soon and Namjoon had left and now three of her math-buddies were here.
"Hey-o," Joy greeted, making a smile and sitting right next to Rona. Jack made a little silent nod in greeting, while Dean held out his hand in which Rona attempted to do a fancy handshake with.
"Nice meeting you." Dean said as he sat down, addressing his comment to Winter, who still sat uncomfortably on the stool.
"Nice meeting you too, it seems we haven't met yet." Joy also said, followed by Jack that gave a small wave, for he knew the author.
"One question for you guys - actually the question's addressed to Jack," Winter begins, causing everyone to look at Jack in interest for his answer.
"LoloTheCat asked, 'Why do Jack and Kookie want to murder each other?'"
"Ahah, funny one." Jack laughed, pointing towards the asker. When there was no response he raised his eyebrows.
"Not a joke? Well okay..." Jack pursed his lips, then turned towards the others on the couch. "Do you think I want to murder Jungkook?"
"Well of course not, but I've been meaning to ask, why do you dislike Jungkook so much?" Joy tried to probe.
"Dislike? He's a smart dude." Jack said, "If anything he's admirable."
Winter smiled a little as if understanding his thoughts. The others seemed not to understand as much.
"But you seem awfully salty about everything he does," Dean trailed off, titling his head a bit.
"So? Doesn't mean I don't respect him." Jack shrugs.
"Then why do you act so..." Rona whispered, trying to comprehend.
Winter's eyes lit up a little, a small smile growing as an idea did too. "Why don't we invite Jungkook back in here?"
Rona looked a little concerned, scratching her arm awkwardly. "Wouldn't that be a little..."
"I think that'd be a little useless," Jack commented, kinda of disappointed in the idea she was so excited about.
"Why's that?" Winter asked, raising her eyebrows with a knowing smile.
"You know what I'm gonna say, you smart-" Jack begins, but Winter interrupts.
"We keep it PG here in TMTD." Winter said, less sternly than one would think. Rona made a tiny chuckle, whispering, "Name isn't that PG is it?"
"It's because Jungkook and I have a past, a long and somewhat screwed up past." Jack explained vaguely, not particularly caring if anyone understood his excuse. "But you'll find out about that later on."
"Right," Winter nodded, "it'll be there somewhere."
~~~
"I can't believe Gleam got her own questions." is all that Rona could say, but she laughed as the dog nestled against her leg.
"I expected it," Winter said, flipping to the backside of the paper. "So, Gleam, LoloTheCat asks 'What kind of dog is Gleam?'"
With a little pet of Gleam's head Rona began, "She's a Border Collie, I believe it's mentioned when she appears?"
Winter simply shrugged, not remembering what she wrote months ago.
"Let's see, and aesthetic_prostetic says 'woof. What's up dog?'" Winter reads.
Gleam barked just as the question ended, standing up happily on the couch and with a wagging tail.
(Jackson voice: cute.)
~~~
"Why are we here again?" Cadence asked, leaning back into the sofa.
"I for one take this as a compliment - that we're important and are included in this question and answer." Ivy stated matter-a-factly, trying to sit in a proper position. Julie make a small, forced smile as they looked towards her.
"There's only one question for you three, well, MissElaineYes asked 'Why is Julie with Ivy and Cadence when she seems different from them?'" Winter asks, then quickly looking up to see the three's reactions. Cadence immediately responded with a scoff, nudging Ivy.
"Yeah, important enough to a get a question, huh?" Cadence snickered sarcastically, not offended the only question given was directed towards Julie. Ivy on the other hand, kept an expressionless face.
"What does that mean?" Julie asked, genuinely confused.
"It's asking why we hang out with you when you're so different from us." Ivy explained with a knowing nod, continuing but being interrupted.
"Well not quite, I think they're referring to how you often are portrayed bullying Rona." Winter corrects, ready to start a war.
"Often? Bullying? What makes you say that?" Ivy gasped, seeming sarcastically shocked. Cadence seemed to know what she was referring to, keeping her mouth shut and looking the other direction to avoid eye contact with anyone. Julie looked at her hands that rested in her lap.
"I'll have you know we genuinely CARE for Rona. It's safer if she's not so popular and cared for - it can lead to bad problems." Ivy said, nodding at her answer. Julie quietly muttered,
"Like you."
~~~
"Hey! Winter!" Jackson shouted as he barged in, giving the girl still seated on the tall wooden stool a high-five.
"How've you been?" She asks, talking to the energetic teen finding a seat while watched and greeting the other two people entering behind him with a simple nod of respect.
"Been great, been great." Jackson replies, patting the seat next to him to invite Mark and BamBam to sit. BamBam swerved in and bounced himself into the cushion while Mark glanced at the seat, then sitting down slowly.
"So, congrats, you guys are some of the most requested people," Winter smiles cheerfully, flashing the paper at them for a second. BamBam clapped his hands together once with a happy cheer, his legs moving back and forth as he leaned back into the seat.
"Let's see, MissElaineYes asked 'Will Rona ever hear BamBam rap? Cuz I'll still be waiting for that :P lol'" Winter reads, looking towards the excited maknae in the room.
"Rap? Oh God, I rather not but..." BamBam asks, then looking towards Winter in confirmation. She makes a little giggle, grinning through her silent laugh. "Well, looks like that'll happen sometime." He answers simply with a sigh. "Just don't make me look dumb." He says to the author, Winter quickly giving him a thumbs up as she quickly comments, "I'll try."
Jackson made a loud laugh, seeming ready to see his friend fail to rap in front of their friends. His expression changed quickly as Winter began, "Here's Jackson's question, she asked 'Will Jackson eventually reveal another secret he's supposed to keep?'"
This time both BamBam and Mark burst out laughing, causing Jackson to give - especially the younger - an annoyed glare. "I reveal ONE secret... okay," Jackson shuffles his feet, looking towards Winter. Her raised eyebrows make him sigh. "Yeah, I probably will."
"And last but not least, Mark, she said 'Mark... just be yourself, boo. XD'"
Mark quickly put his hands against his cheeks, making a big smile and scrunching up his eyes. Jackson raises his hands and makes a "hand-camera", taking a mental picture of the cute hyung.
"Perfect." Winter nods, earning a laugh from the three boys.
"I try." Mark replies, sticking his tongue out.
~~~
"Honey," Winter welcomes the new person as he peeks in slowly before entering with a smile on his face. "C'mon in."
"Hey Winter." He smiles in greeting, already knowing to sit down without being told. "So is this my official debut into the series?" he asks, tilting his head playfully.
"Not really, but it's your way to get readers interested in you." Winter replies, "You'll be in the book in a few chapters, but there's a few more things planned before you arrive."
"That's no fun," he pouts, then immediately going back into a smile. He pushes his black bangs to the side, scooting up a bit on the couch. "Then what questions did they have for me?"
"Well, MissElaineYes said 'But! New character! Are you a rapper, vocalist, or dancer of Got7?? Since it seems to be all Got7 guys here...'" Winter reads off, then immediately adding a little side note in before letting the boy answer. "Just to clear up confusion, the band of Got7 doesn't exist (YET) but your thoughts are correct."
"Right, so not spoiling the band related details, I'll just spoil everything about myself." He smiles. First he points at his black hair and brushes his hands along the bangs. "I don't always have bangs, but when I do I look great." He gives a quick wink, then moving onto the glasses that lay on the bridge of his nose. "I also have glasses, but I usually don't wear them."
"Let's see... if you go back in my past I rapped, but I'm more confident singing. I'd say I can choreograph, or at least co-choreograph..." he trails off, thinking to himself.
"How about Rona?" Winter asks, giving him a prompt.
"Oh! Sure, they'll find this interesting." he laughs, pointing at himself square in the chest. "I'm Rona's cousin."
Winter gives him a sincere nod as he continues, "And if you really want to find out who I am, my hint is..."
He separates each of the next words, exaggerating each syllable, "Rona's last name."
~~~
HeyO~ I hope there aren't many tense issues, I've never written in present tense before or in this italicized format.
I decided to make the Q&A more like a story, where Winter (me) interviews each of these characters as if they were outside of the book.
ALSO LETS SEE IF Y'ALL CAN FIND OUT WHO THE MYSTERY CHARACTER IS ;]]] I think y'all can do it, like MissElaineYes in particular, you're the most efficient detective ever.
And, since it was an author question, -sarcasticly asked "wheEN WILL SHIPS BE CANON" and the answer is probably never - until I say say so. ;D
She also asked "why are the teachers so shitty?" And my answer to you is that they're all inspired by my middle school teachers if that gives you any reference.