III— BREAKTHROUGHS
SEOKJIN HAS BEEN doing some research on BTS for the past few days, which basically consists of looking them up on Naver and being very impressed by the amount of time they seem to put in to create content for and interact with their fans. He's been able to gather a lot of information about the members through Bangtan Bombs and see their thoughts and worries about their work in their logs, and it's frankly very refreshing to see a group so down to earth when so many companies make their artists out to be flawless gods and goddesses.
He's also found out, through various online fan forums, some completely useless facts, such as that one of Taehyung's eyes is a monolid while the other is a double eyelid, and that Taehyung has a mole on the underside of his nose. Idols always have the most committed fans; Seokjin is honestly a little jealous.
The next time Seokjin sees Taehyung on set, he waltzes up to him and greets him with a very bright good morning. It occurs to him that maybe his cheerfulness seems odd when the younger boy looks at him sleepily, slowly blinking his eyes. (How cute.)
"You seem wide awake for seven in the morning, sunbaenim."
Seokjin, greeting the stylist noonas, slides into the chair next to Taehyung as one of them clips back the boy's fringe. "Yeah, I'm kind of excited for today. I've never done a fight scene before."
Taehyung glances over for a second before the woman instructs him to face forward. "Didn't you do one— do a fight scene in Killing Love?"
"Oh," Seokjin says, the vague memory coming back to him, "oh right, yeah, I did that. Wow, that was, like, four years ago." He stares at the boy as a stylist begins applying makeup to his face. "You watched that and knew that was me? I was just— Bully Number Two or something."
Taehyung very determinedly stares at his reflection. "Yeah, I—" He clears his throat. "I mean, I watched it after you started getting bigger roles in dramas so— so I recognized you."
"Ah, I see." Seokjin watches Taehyung's eyes instinctively slide shut as the makeup artist pats concealer under his eyes. "We're gonna be doing a fight scene together in a few weeks; you excited for that?"
Taehyung's eyes flutter open, and it strikes Seokjin how pretty the kid really is. (And frankly, he's a little jealous of that, too.) "That soon?"
"Yeah, I think so," Seokjin replies, waving to Sooyeon as walks in their direction. "That's what Hoseok told me, anyway."
Taehyung follows Seokjin's gaze and spots Sooyeon, who smiles at them both, sunglasses resting low on her nose. "You boys just as tired as I am?" she asks, her voice still raspy with sleep. "I feel like my legs are gonna pass out underneath me."
Seokjin laughs. "Your legs can't pass out, Sooyeon."
The young woman rests her arms on the back of Taehyung's chair and lays her head on her arms, yawning. "Whatever, I don't... I'm tired."
"Did you just wake up, noona?" Taehyung asks, looking up at her, an amused grin splaying across his lips.
Noona?
It occurs to Seokjin, right then and there, how close Taehyung has gotten to Sooyeon to not only drop the sunbaenim title, but the entire sunbae title as well and go straight to calling her noona. And he must be similarly close to the rest of the cast and crew as well; Seokjin now remembers Howon mentioning "Taehyungie" a few times in passing, but he hadn't thought much of it since they were about the same age.
The fact that he's calling Sooyeon "noona" and still calling Seokjin "sunbaenim" worries him. Jiwon and Joonhee, Taehyung and Seokjin's characters respectively, are meant to be good friends, with even a little more on Jiwon's side. If Seokjin isn't close to Taehyung, their chemistry while acting together in scenes might seem forced and awkward, and viewers won't like it, possibly causing ratings to suffer. And it'll look strange if Taehyung is still calling Seokjin "sunbaenim" after filming ends.
"Yeah, I was sleeping in the car ride here," Sooyeon says, moving out of the way of the makeup artist. "I'm not really a morning person."
"Well, get used to it," Seokjin chuckles, "'cause we have to be here early this whole week."
Sooyeon groans, rubbing at her eyes. "Don't remind me."
Seokjin sits at the table, thick marker in his hand and book of Sudoku lying open in front of him. Sunlight pours in from the large display window of what is now a pretend-bookstore, effectively keeping him awake.
Taehyung's current best friend, Jungkook, is a few feet away, adjusting some of the settings on the camera. Hoseok is standing right next to Jungkook, watching him as he talks to the producer. Taehyung is waiting right outside the pretend-bookstore, ready to make his entrance once filming actually commences.
And after some fiddling and a little more talking, Hoseok says, "Action!"
Seokjin assumes the role of the currently irritated Joonhee and has to remind himself several times throughout filming the scene that Taehyung is just acting when he cowers in on himself or flinches and that he doesn't actually have to apologize to Taehyung afterwards. (He does anyway, in a very awkward fashion that makes even him wonder who the sunbae is.)
At one part of the scene, Taehyung asks him in a very enthusiastic tone if he's doing Sudoku, which to Seokjin has to reply with a curt affirmation and shoo him off, only to call him over just a few seconds later and ask him for help.
Seokjin, however, is having difficulty with it, because every time Taehyung asks him, "That's Sudoku, right?" in his excited voice, he can't help but smile.
"Sorry," he says to Taehyung after about the fourth time he messes up, "when you just say that, and it's completely silent in here, it's just so— so unexpected." (And adorable, but he decides not to say that out loud.)
They finally get it right seven takes later, and then they film a bit more with Sooyeon, and then they get a break.
Seokjin, Sooyeon, and Taehyung each grab a snack and sit at a table among a few other fellow actors. Sooyeon, after grabbing some snacks, gets up to talk to some of her other friends, leaving the two males alone with each other.
Seokjin stuffs his mouth with some rice crackers to avoid conversation. Taehyung bites into some food of his own, and the two sit there in silence until the younger hesitantly breaks it about a minute later. "Sunbaenim," he says, "I have a random question: which one of your dramas was your favorite to film?"
Seokjin chews thoughtfully. "That's a good question," he says after swallowing. "Maybe... Well, this isn't a drama, but The Furniture Store? A lot of my lines in that were veiled sex jokes; it was fun."
Taehyung laughs at that, his eyes crinkling into cute crescents. "Yeah, that was a funny movie."
"Ah, you've watched that?" Seokjin asks. "Do you like Seo In Guk?"
"Huh?"
"He was the main character," Seokjin explains. "Did you forget?"
"Oh," Taehyung says, "right, yeah. I forgot for a second. And— yes, I'm a fan." He sounds a little uncertain.
Seokjin nods in acknowledgement. "Yeah, he's a great actor. He was in Reply 1997, too. Have you watched that?"
"Yeah, of course," Taehyung says, beaming. "It was great. I—" He hesitates for a second, and then shakes his head and continues. "I really liked how they handled the topic of homosexuality; they weren't too in-your-face about it, but at the same time, I think they really accurately portrayed how a gay teenager would feel, being in love for the first time."
Seokjin can't help but smile at that. Reply 1997 had been (and still is) one of his favorite dramas for exactly the same reason Taehyung had just described. It was something he could relate to since homosexuality was rarely talked about in the media. That drama was the reason he'd told his parents and his closest friends that he wasn't exactly straight, and thankfully, his parents and most of his friends, although slightly unsure of how to act at first, had come around to easily accept it.
(It also occurs to Seokjin that maybe Taehyung might not be straight, but then he quickly dismisses that thought. He shouldn't be assuming others' sexual preferences.)
"Yeah, I think the same," Seokjin says, suddenly aware of the huge smile on his face. "I really like that drama."
Taehyung nibbles on his snack. "Yeah, Eunji sunbaenim's acting in it was phenomenal."
"Speaking of sunbaenims," Seokjin says, "I feel like— well, we've been working together for a couple weeks now, I think you can drop the nim suffix. Calling me sunbae will suffice."
Taehyung's brows shoot up in surprise. "Wait, really?"
"Yeah," Seokjin says with a shrug, "why not?"
The younger beams. "Okay," he says, his voice a little breathy, as if trying to hold back an excited laugh, "sunbae."
If Seokjin is this happy to have Taehyung call him sunbae, he wonders how elated he'll be when the boy starts calling him hyung. (He almost breaks out into a grin just thinking about it.)
Taehyung giggles shyly, his shoulders hunching a little and his mouth forming a rectangle and his eyes shrinking into small crescents and his nose scrunching, and Seokjin melts, actually melts in his seat because Kim Taehyung is adorable and he finally realizes why everyone likes him so much.
✧
Wow I'm so sorry about not updating for over a month?? I don't even have any excuses except that I was hit with a severe amount of writer's block :/ I'll try to get the next chapter out much faster than this one, I promise. Feel free to comment your thoughts on this update, I'd love to know what you guys think :)