3rd Person POV
[KaiLee]
[KaiLee is online]
Wish the birthday boy a happy birthday for me :)
And tell him I'll be a bit late for our lesson later on
[Seen at 9.13 am]
Will do ;)
What time is your lesson?
[Seen at 9.27 am]
Lesson's at 11
I'm meeting my coach at the gym at 10.30 to discuss some things
Knowing him it'll probably take more than the 15 minutes he promised :p
And our gym is around 20 minutes away from your HQ
Will take some time to get there
[Seen at 9.31 am]
Ohh okay
I'll tell him
*nod* *sparkle*
[Seen at 9.33 am]
[KaiLee is offline]
Slipping his phone into the pocket of his sweatpants, Namjoon got up from the warm confinements of his bed and went out to greet the others who appeared to be up. They were making quite a racket in the kitchen so he really wouldn't be surprised if they accidentally woke up some of the other people in the dorms who decided to sleep in.
Everyone was hyped up about that night, because that day was October the 13th. And that night was one of those special nights they each got to celebrate together.
Jin was at the stove making Jimin a special birthday breakfast, while Jungkook just peeked over his shoulder at the pancakes browning in the pan. There were ingredients littering the countertops while some already finished dishes were placed safely beneath food covers. Mouth-watering aromas flooded the kitchen, making his taste buds tingle.
"Happy Birthday, Park Jimin!" he'd hollered as he approached the kitchen, seeing Jimin seated in a chair, his phone out, probably taking pictures of Jin and Jungkook or checking out his over-flowing birthday wishes from fans online.
"Hyung!" he exclaimed with a grin. "Thanks!"
"Kai Lee wished you a Happy Birthday, too, by the way," he slowly drawled, slipping his phone out of his pocket and waving it in the air, praying and praying that the Kai Lee incident had been forgotten. "That and she asked me to tell you she'll be slightly late to you guy's 11 o'clock lesson."
"That means Jimin gets to eat more!" Hoseok cheered from the small living room right outside the kitchen. Jimin cheered along with him, pumping his fists in the air. Namjoon breathed a mental sigh of relief. This definitely meant that he was safe to mention Kai Lee around his group without their teasing, he thought to himself.
"Anything I can do to help?" he cheerfully asked, leaning against a wall as he, too, looked at the ever-growing stack of pancakes on the plate beside Jin. He'd like to try learning how to make them one day. Maybe Jin will teach him?
"How about staying still and not catch anything on fire?" Yoongi mumbled as he entered the kitchen, scrolling through his phone as he went to get something from the fridge.
Or...maybe not. Unless there was a fire extinguisher around.
Poor Namjoon sighed as laughter erupted from the others. Now they sounded like a pack of hyenas.
"Don't worry. I'm sure that Kai Lee's Instagram account you found a few weeks ago will keep you occupied," Jimin assured me with a sly grin. "Have you seen her workout tutorials? They're actually pretty hot."
More laughter.
Okay. Maybe not completely forgotten, Namjoon thought.
. . .
The party had been a blast. Everyone had enjoyed themselves thoroughly. And this time, even Kai Lee had been able to make it. So Namjoon was happy and content that he'd been able to catch up with her that night. They talked practically all night about Kai Lee's new schedule and pre-match diet. And they definitely had lots of fun spraying silly string at Jimin.
"What do you have there?" Namjoon asked as they all finally got back to the dorms, and Yoongi made a beeline for his bed. He'd gone to Jimin's bed and saw him flipping through this new book, looking to be fully engrossed in it. The leader of the group eyed the little unwrapped book curiously, and what's left of the colourful wrapping paper sitting in a neat pile on his nightstand. It looked like it had already been left there for quite a while, being buried beneath a few other things he'd gotten as gifts for his birthday.
"Something Kai Lee gave me earlier during out lesson," Jimin replied. "A birthday gift."
"Is it a good book?" he asked, sitting down beside Jimin as he peeked at the words printed onto the paper. Upon seeing the all-too familiar handwriting scrawled across the pages, Namjoon did a double take.
"Yeah. Yeah, it is," Jimin breathed softly. "Kai Lee said that she was sure that this would help me become more fluent and fluid with English, since she saw improvement in me when she first handed out those printouts Jungkook gave us."
"So you like it?" he asked.
Nodding, Jimin answered softly.
"I love it."
"Why?" Namjoon continued to ask curiously.
"Because these are all Mei Hwa's lyrics. This is her journal. See those dates at the end of every song?" the younger male asked as he pointed to every date scribbled in the book. And true to his word, there really were dates written at the end of each and every song. Almost all of them dating back to around the 1980's and 1990's, around Soong Mei Hwa's golden years.
"And look at how old the paper looks. Even in photocopy, it still looks old and frayed," Jimin breathed, running a finger down a side of a page at the old lines that were photocopied from the original.
"And the reason why I really love this book, is because of Mei Hwa's voice," he continued, flipping through dozens and dozens of songs before he finally flipped to one final page.
"Her voice. Her words. They're like the things I should've listened to when I was growing up, instead of hearing all the bad things others had to say about me," Jimin said softly as he ran his fingers across the page wistfully. "She's the voice that I want to be for the people like me."
-Songbird-
Songbird, songbird did they tie up your wings?
Pluck out your feathers and broken all of your limbs?
Take the sunshine away, cursed you for your sins?
Threw your talent and your pride into the loony bin?
Songbird, songbird do you long to kiss the skies?
As you stay on the ground and watch as others fly by?
Envy and tears flowing out of your eyes
Even though you know that they're lies, when they tell you, you can't fly
'Songbird' was one songs in the printouts Jungkook had given to all of the other members Kai Lee was tutoring, thought Namjoon. Was this...was this where she got it from?
Songbird, songbird did they rip out your tongue?
Don't be naive, songbird, you are way too young
To be brainwashed from your soul to your lungs
Told you weren't meant to speak because you don't belong
Songbird, songbird where are your feathers?
Did you hide them because they say theirs are better?
Richer and stronger, filled with more power
Songbird, you have potential, so you're no stranger
Namjoon glanced over at Jimin, and saw how relaxed he look as he kept reading. And his mind immediately drifted back to Kai Lee. He'll have to remember to thank Kai Lee for the gift she had given Jimin. Because even though he knew that Jimin was more stable than before, he also knew that everyone has their own setbacks.
But now that he had an entire book of support, he was sure that Jimin was going to be fine. And that put his heart and mind at ease.
The songs you used to sing. don't you miss them?
You were so happy, but now you're so solemn
A life without melody, isn't it lonesome?
Do you not see the stranger you've become?
-24.06.'87-
"Wait," Namjoon suddenly cut in as he noticed the blank space after that last verse. "What happened to the rest?" he asked, confused. "In the printouts, there were more."
"This is how much that was officially released. So technically, there really isn't any more," Jimin said. "But what we saw in the printout, all that is written right...here."
Flipping all the way to the end of the book, Jimin was again,true to his word. Written in a raw, messy scrawl that differed from the beautiful, swirly script in the rest of the journal, was a page behind about a dozen or so empty pages that came after the supposed last verse of 'Songbird'. If Jimin never flipped through each and every page in the book, and just put it down the minute he ran into those blank pages, he never would've seen the remaining verses of that last song.
He never would've seen those remaining verses of the song that were exact copies to the ones from the printout.
Songbird, songbird are your wings okay?
Songbird, songbird what do you have to say?
Don't be silent, songbird, don't be afraird
A little ruffle in your feathers don't mean you can't fly away
Free from your restraints, they never existed
Nothing holding you back, nothing keeping you restricted
Songbird, songbird who says you aren't gifted?
Their poison and their venom, you shouldn't have listened
Open your mouth and sing like you've never sung
Say it like it is, before your time has run
One life, don't end it, it's just begun
Pierce the skies and tell 'em you aren't done
"But this look like a kid's handwriting," exclaimed Namjoon, surprise lacing his tone. "What the hell?"
"Now, that, is another reason I love this book," laughed Jimin. "This, was most probably written by her kid or something. It could be, it could not. And I would never know."
Furrowing his eyebrows, Namjoon tried his best to recall any mention of Soong Mei Hwa having a kid. And sure enough, he recalled just enough from the tabloids that his aunt had often enough gotten every once in a while. He did in fact, remember every one of them saying something about Mei Hwa having a kid. And he also remembered an interview he'd seen his mother watching about the well-known Soong Mei Hwa confirming the existence of her child.
Jimin's theory wasn't very far-off. It was very plausible.
"Do you think Kai Lee knew about this?" asked Namjoon
"I don't know. She did tell me to never lose this book. And never to let anyone else but you guys see it. But I don't know whether she knows about this last entry," admitted Jimin. "I plan on asking her about it, though. I find all this a rather interesting way to learn English," he added with a grin.
Namjoon eyed the little, messy signature at the bottom of the page, unable to make out the exact characters in the childish signature. But he was able to make out the date that accompanied it.
-16.03.01-
16th of March, 2001.
How was it possible for Kai Lee to have access to such things? Even if she had a close family friend, had they really been that willing to give us copies of the journal of one of Korea's most legendary solo idols? Just to help members of BTS learn English?
Now that sounded extremely far-fetched, thought Kim Namjoon.
He found it rather interesting.