+ a day later
---
"We need a new model, the dress doesn't suit her," Taehyung said to his assistant as he watched the woman walk back to end of the room. They were in one of the rehearsal studios in his building with six female models. The one who just practised her walk in the dress that was part of his newest collection that has yet to launch.
"Who fitted her?" Taehyung asked as he looked down at the sheet that had all his models' names on it. "I want Lee Hannah to trade with her."
Saejun nodded before looking at the two models. "You heard him, go change."
They nodded quickly and bowed before rushing out of the room. Taehyung motioned at another woman to start her walk. She was wearing a lovely black short-pant set: on her left leg was the shorts that stopped a little above mid-thigh and on her left leg was the pant part that swayed with each step. They were high waisted and hugged the model's waist very well, showing off the gold buttons with the engraved 'T' for Taehyung on all three. Wrapped around her waist and falling just a bit lower on her hip were two a gold and silver chains with Taehyung's name on both of. The top was a simple black bandeau, the top had two flaps connected to the inside hanging out and overlapping the top of the bandeau and falling past the bottom of the bandeau just a bit.
Taehyung nodded and frowned when his eyes landed on the shoes. There weren't many shoes that could go well with this outfit, Taehyung realized this during the sketch and even after making tweaks, most of the shoes still didn't go well. He had thought this outfit to be a performance outfit but the shoes were just designer sandals that Taehyung didn't like.
"Try putting her in ankle boots," Taehyung said and his assistant nodded, writing his request on a notepad.
The day went on like this and about an hour or two later, he gave his models a break. He left his assistant to tend to the ladies while he went to use to the bathroom. As he exited the bathroom, waving his right hand around to dry it better, he pulled his phone out as it's been buzzing nonstop and annoying him. He rolled his eyes when he saw Seokjin's name pop up on his notification bar telling him to check out his new models and boasting that they probably look better than Taehyung's models.
With another eye roll, Taehyung turned his phone off and made his way towards the rehearsal room. The models were all rested and ready to continue practising, the makeup artist had touched up their makeup and they were already in new clothes to start the last part of their rehearsal. Taehyung occasionally made Saejun write down more notes on where they should fix the fitting or add to the outfit but besides that, he was quiet, nodding every so often.
Two hours later, Taehyung decided it was time to dismiss the women. He turned his phone on and noticed that it was already seven in the evening, close to eight. Jungkook usually left at seven but Taehyung knew the younger boy wouldn't leave until he got home unlike his past nannies who once left his kids home alone because he had to work overtime without notifying her.
"Need a new house help yet?" Saejun asked as she followed Taehyung towards the parking garage. She was referring to how his nannies would have quit already for reasons Taehyung thought were dumb.
"Nope, he's still hanging in there," Taehyung responded, "surprisingly."
He thought back to when Taeji got in trouble for saying a rude comment about Jungkook's son's speech. Jungkook had said she's been making unnecessary comments towards his son and Taehyung had thought his follow-up statement would be 'so I quit' but he was pleasantly surprised when Jungkook hadn't said that.
"He's a good help," Taehyung said to his assistant who hummed.
"Well, he needs the money," she said, "he'll quit when he earns enough."
Taehyung marvelled at how well the house looked when he came home. He wasn't too surprised to sometimes see Taeji not working on her homework since she tended to not listen to anyone. With his past maids and nannies, they would always use Taeji's obstinance as an excuse for why the house wasn't completely clean or why dinner wasn't ready or even started. However, with Jungkook the house would be completely clean and dinner was always ready before he left to go home and Taehyung would even have a plate ready — something most of his maids never did or did in hopes over earning more money, like a raise or a tip. They were rather greedy. When Taehyung gave Jungkook his first paycheck, he almost laughed at the younger man's expression: shocked at the amount as if Taehyung had lied. Jungkook acted as though he's never seen such money in his entire life until then. It was cute, his reaction.
All of his past housekeepers were all female. Some of them were delightful and Taehyung wished they never quit, but the majority did questionable things. Some of which were stealing from him or demanding he pay them more and/or trying to seduce him. Of course, sometimes he gave in to the seduction, considering he had no one else to fool around with. Jungkook hasn't tried any of that, if anything, he seems to more uncomfortable around Taehyung. Taehyung compared the way he talked to his friend on the phone to the way talked to him and noticed that with people Jungkook was comfortable with, his speech was smooth with a tinge of irritation but with Taehyung, his speech was sharp and nervous. He wouldn't hold eye contact with the older male either and if he did, it would only last a few minutes.
"I'll see you tomorrow, eight in the morning," Saejun said, pulling the blonde out of his thoughts.
"Yeah, good night, Sage," he said, dismissing her with a wave and making his way towards his car.
He flopped down onto his seat before pulling his phone back out and reading yet another text message from Seokjin. The older male was asking if Taehyung looked at the Instagram posts yet. Taehyung sighed and shook his head as he went to Instagram and wasted no time scrolling but instead, typed 'KSJ Entertainment' into the search engine. He tapped on the right profile before scrolling down.
"What the hell..." Taehyung muttered as he tapped on a post, his eyes narrowing.
"He lied to me..." Taehyung scoffed as he tapped on the comments. Most of them were talking about how handsome he looked, acknowledging that he was a new model and stating how they've never seen him in magazines or company photos before. He tapped out of the comments and stared at the picture again.
"They dyed his hair?" He observed, seeing how the younger male's hair was now black instead of brown unless that was just editing. He did look much better with black hair and the makeup made his face look smaller, taking away his cheeks they were always puffed out.
He was still mad.
He quickly exited Instagram and went to his messages before tapping on the call icon beside Seokjin's contact.
"I've been waiting!" Seokjin exclaimed from the other side, "so what do you think? I think Jaesook did such a good job, people were beyond happy seeing him—"
"Why did you take Jungkook?" Taehyung asked.
"Take? Oh, Tae you make it seem like he's property, I just requested him to come along and test out his abilities," Seokjin defended before adding, "he's very handsome and you weren't trying to hire him. You hired him as the help."
Taehyung rolled his eyes. "Because I needed someone to—"
"Yeah, it doesn't even matter. Look at the pictures! He did such a good job for a person who doesn't even post his own pictures! I might just make him a permanent member of the KSJ household, the fans loved him."
Taehyung tsked before hanging up and starting his car. He told Jungkook if he lied, that's one strike and if he was working with Seokjin, that's another and that's how it's going to stay. Taehyung could only imagine Jungkook's shocked face as the older male delivered the news: his eyes would widen to saucers and he'd stare at Taehyung dumbly before becoming a stuttering mess and then looking anywhere but Taehyung's face before apologizing. Taehyung laughed bitterly, this man was funnier than his past workers.
Why was he even mad, though? Jungkook would still be working for him. Maybe Taehyung should offer him a job under his company— he shook his head, definitely not, his models are all trained professionals. Plus, Jungkook didn't seem like a guy who wanted a modelling career, maybe it was just a one-time thing.
---
"I-It was just a-a one t-time thing!" Jungkook stammered, his eyes wide, "m-my friend, Jimin...he-he convinced me to do it! I didn't w-want to, I swear! It was just a uh...it was just a...a thing."
"A thing?" Taehyung asked, clasping his hands and placing them on the surface of his desk.
Jungkook'a face reddened and Taehyung almost laughed. His face remained neutral.
"Y-Yeah...like when you d-don't want to do something, but then you realize i-it can be kind of cool? I never liked modelling!" He gestured to himself, "look at me I'm not a model!"
Taehyung gave him a once over. He seemed to have a good build, possibly muscular under the big clothes he wore. He had wide hips and thick thighs and seemingly a thin waist. His hair was indeed dyed black which made his face look even better. Not that he didn't look good with brown hair. What did he mean he wasn't a model?
"S-Sir...did you actually...just look at me?" Jungkook's eyes were still wide as he dropped his arms to his side.
"You told me to," Taehyung said with a shrug, "back to business...you have two strikes now."
Jungkook stayed silent so Taehyung continued.
"You know how the saying goes?"
"Three strikes...you're out," Jungkook mumbled and Taehyung nodded.
"Look, you know the saying. I think you'd do good to keep that in mind — the modelling business isn't always promising, you can find yourself stuck without a paycheck for a while unless you resort to Instagram but you don't seem very confident in yourself so posting pictures of yourself is a no, isn't it, Jungkook? Doing what you're doing now can make you a millionaire just be mopping floors and feeding children, would you rather be wandering around, looking for a modelling agency that will take you or continue working for me where your paycheck is promised?"
"I—"
"Exactly, good talking to you, I'll see you on your way out, the food smells nice."
---
Word Count: 1852
I don't really like this chapter lol I feel like things are a little too cliche...
Here are the other posts if you're curious:
Also here is a very terrible, 5-minute sketch as to what the outfit I described looks like because I can't describe outfits to save my life....don't judge harshly 😂 I can draw much better:
Ignore the "draw AJ Mitchell", that was just a note for me to...uh...draw AJ Mitchell lol