NONE OF THEM KNEW HOW long it had been since it became completely silent, or at least quiet for that matter. It felt as if the shouting match had been going on forever. Back and forth, and back and forth.
Jimin wasn't quite sure on how they both had so many points to make.
Sure, Sejin was prepared because he knew all about this beforehand but he had no clue on how Namjoon had managed to come up with about thirty cons in the span of ten minutes.
He was certain that Namjoon wasn't getting any help from Taehyung because he had long ago given up on the conversation to look on his phone. Yoongi sat very similarly to Jimin himself so he was pretty sure that they were both to observe in peace. Hoseok had yet to return with the instant ramen noodles they were going to have for dinner and Jin had been scribbling on a piece of paper so Namjoon was clearly getting no insight from them.
Maybe he's absorbing all of JK's thoughts, he wondered while stealing a glance at the youngest member, who looked pensive as ever.
In Jimin's humble opinion, he thought that the group's leader was making an unnecessary fuss and as time went on, he began to lean more towards his manager's argument. By the end of Namjoon's thirtieth point, he was no longer making any sense, since he was left grasping at straws.
"Sejin! Please!" Namjoon's sudden change in tone immediately stole all of their attention's, not matter what they were doing. They hadn't expected him to be so affected by something like this; something that they had done before.
"You're giving me problem after problem without listening to the positives. If you were, Namjoon, you'd learn that they outweigh all of your argument." Sejin leant against the table behind him and crossed his arms lightly over his chest.
"But you're not listening to the problems."
"I can assure you, I'm listening."
"Sejin," Namjoon gave him a look and it was the kind that made Taehyung swiftly put his phone down. "We're all tired. We can't do another release. Not yet. Give us a few months and we'll be ready but now? No. We won't be able to give it our all."
Jungkook's face softened, almost in realisation.
"You know, he can't do that." He told him, making Namjoon turn around to look at him while the youngest continued to look ahead at their manager. "Give us as much time as you can get us and we'll be ready. At least a week."
"Jungkook—"
"We know." Yoongi answered for him. "I know...but there's nothing we can do."
He ran his fingers through his hair, feeling suffocated by the atmosphere that had been created. It didn't take long before he made individual eye contact with everyone in the room: his eyes seemed to linger on Jungkook for the longest.
"I don't really see why you're creating such a big thing. You haven't even met her yet." Before he could even think of a way to respond, the first sound that came out of him was a sigh. "Ay! None of that. You've created this image of her in your head when you don't properly know her. I'll see what I can do about giving you a break but..."
Sejin left the room and the rest of his sentence for interpretation at the same time that Hoseok entered with a plastic bag full of instant ramen and a confused look on his face. He turned his head slightly to watch him leave before placing his shopping down on an empty chair.
"What did we do?"
"What will we do, Hoseok. It's what we will do that matters." Jin answered which only kept Hoseok addled.
Noticing his reaction remaining the same, Jimin ran a finger softly over the desk in front him and expanded on what his fellow band member had meant. "We're going to do another collaboration."
Hoseok nodded. It was clear that Jimin hadn't expanded far enough. "Okay... so what's the problem?" Gazes met and departed in the span of two seconds to decide on who would give a slightly clearer explanation.
"It's with Kick."
His eyebrows raised in surprise. "The singer? Her?" He smiled which made the situation, somehow, even more unsettling. "That's great! What's the problem with her? I heard her song on the radio driving to get dinner. She's great!"
Namjoon didn't respond. Hoseok suddenly registered what it all meant.
Slowly nodding as he absorbed all of the information he had been given. "How long do we have until we start?"
Yoongi nodded towards the door that their manager had just left using. "That's what Sejin left to do. He's trying to get us a week."
Hoseok nodded a bit more before offering his thoughts: "I think if we tell her then she'll understand." In response, he got silence and what could have been seen as a glare from their leader.
"I don't think she will, Hoseok."
A new voice suddenly entered the conversation when Taehyung interrupted with, "You don't know her so you can't say." Leaving a second for them to truly understand his words, he stood up from his seat and slipped his phone into the left pocket of his black slacks. "None of us do. We'll take our break and see what she has planned. If we don't like it, we'll stay away from it."
Jungkook nodded in agreement while the majority of rest of them remained emotionless. "When is she coming here? Or are we going to her?" The amount of questions Hoseok had made Namjoon question whether they should have waited for him to return before Sejin told them about the collab.
"Her flight's on Wednesday."
"But do we have to greet her right away?" Jungkook asked politely, despite how harsh his words had sounded in his head.
"Depends on how much time Sejin gets us." Namjoon responded swiftly.
"I don't think I recognise her name. Kick, did you say?" The way that Jimin said it reminded Taehyung to never say her name aloud because it would (in his opinion) sound too odd with his accent.
"Someone play a radio channel." Namjoon slouched down onto a seat as he gave his solution. Hoseok was quick to reach for his phone, but Taehyung happened to be quicker. He pulled up the first and most recent recording he could find then turned his phone's volume up until it filled the room.
"Now, we are going to play the song which has been South Korea's Number 1 for the past two weeks," the radio presenter began and Namjoon stared straight to the wall opposite him with a blank face. "Kick's 'Ride'."
"I think I'm going to try and aim for a Fake Love vibe." She jotted down as many of the thoughts running through her head as she could, while rambling incomprehensibly to the woman stood behind the bar in front of her.
Where they were was a small restaurant that Acacia owned, mainly due to her only having two other workers besides herself. The 'Weeping Wattle' was a ten-seat Indian restaurant, all of the seat facing the bar counter and the kitchen that hid behind the wall of beverages.
Due to it being with such little sitting and show-stopping food, it was constantly booked to the minute during its open hours. There were at least fifteen websites that had it as one of the best restaurants to visit while one stayed in London. It was a 'must-go'.
"I still can't wrap my head around this." The woman responded, putting her head in her hands for a few seconds before resting her chin on them so she would be able to see her friend.
"What?" Kick mumbled with the end of her pencil on her lips. For some reason, no matter what Acacia had said to her, she was unable to lift her eyes from her illegible writing that covered a lined piece of paper.
"You," Acacia put on hand in the air, "BTS," she then put her other hand in the air. "Together." She slammed her hands to make a clap. "You are doing a collab with BTS."
She nodded with a small smile, still examining her paper. "Yes, I am."
"I'm freaking out and I'm not even doing it! Kitkat!" She squealed, hoping that at some point, her shocked reaction would cause her friend to make the eye contact that she was desperately longing for.
A sudden bang came from the door: that got her attention. "Sorry, we're closed! Please wait ten minutes and we'll be able to take your order." Acacia told the noise, hoping that there was a person to respond to it. It took about five more random thumps before any voice made a sound instead of it.
"Is Kick there?!"
"Yep." Said girl shouted back vacantly. Despite this it got her many shouts in return. Her mumbled curses went unheard by her friend, despite her being close enough to hear, while she packed up all of her things into her leather rucksack. "Right, I'll be out of your hair. For the drink," she put down a five pound note and began to walk towards the door: the blinds, even then at five o'clock, pulled down.
"Thank you! Give me a call tonight."
Wordlessly, she turned back and smiled at her. It was a nice smile, the kind that you would see a small kind give to one of their parents. Sweet, cute and, heartwarming. However, it wasn't the kind of smile that people expected from her and she refused to be anything less than people's expectations. So, with that on her mind, she opened the door to try and meet up to their expectations.
"I'm really sorry but right now, I'm busy. I can answer a few things but then I really have to go." She shouted calmly to the large crowd of paparazzi that stood outside the Weeping Wattle.
She answered six questions before they started getting too personal so she said that she had to leave. It was hard for her to walk away from them so bluntly but she remembered that she soon wouldn't even be in the UK. Then it wouldn't matter.
Two days. It was Monday and her flight was on Wednesday. She only had to wait 48 hours until she was in Seoul, where she would live until she decided she didn't want to anymore.
Willow was feeling extremely grateful.
That was the reason as to why she was in such high hopes up to her boyfriend's call. It was also another reason why her joy was so short-lasting, some may even say too short-lasting.
"What do you mean you're going to Korea?" He sounded tired and, although it was rather late so it would have made sense, Kyle was the kind of person who would stay up until two a.m. and say that he wouldn't even need coffee the next day. Even if he only slept for a few hours.
"I have work there so I'm going to Korea and staying there for a bit." She answered calmly as she swirled her wine glass in circular motions while her other hand held her phone to her ear.
His gasp was clearer over the phone than anything else he had murmured so far. "Jesus, I can't believe this is my first time hearing about this! Does Acacia know too? Or is she in the dark about everything in your life, like me?"
"I told you weeks ago—"
"Bullshit!" Kyle suddenly interrupted her by shouting at the phone receiver, her left ear ringing in response.
Lowering her forehead down onto her table, the coolness of the wood aided in slowing her pulse. She fluttered her eyes shut when his breathing became audible and let the loud sirens outside her house fill her free ear.
"Who do you think you are, Kathleen? Seriously. Who the fuck do you think you are?" Her eyes widened involuntarily but she kept her head down. A part of her prayed she'd sink into the wood, although she knew it wasn't going to happen. "I'm asking you a goddamn question! Kathleen!"
Despite feeling tempted to let him get his anger out by screaming her response, before she did, she decided against her desires. "I dunno who I am, but does anyone? Do you?" Kick imagined him rolling his eyes at her ambiguity and smiled to herself.
"I'm the one who's going to destroy your fancy little life."
She chuckled at his dramatics. "Why? 'Cause I'm moving to Korea for a job?"
"You're breaking up with me because of it." He kept his reply short. Most likely to emphasise his point. It reminded her of the nights he'd spent commentating a politcial speech from a few years ago: identifying all the techniques they used to convinced people to vote for them.
"I am? I'm pretty sure that you're the one who made that assumption." She took a sip of her wine and tried not to hum when the sweet bitterness of it first hit her tongue.
"Wa-wait, really? You're not?"
"Oh no, I am. You're right about that." She left a little break of silence for any interruptions that he wanted to make, yet got nothing. After a little sniffle, she stood up from her table to get her computer as she talked. "But you're wrong about thinking you're going to be able to destroy me. Are you going to do it with the five thousand pounds that was deposited from my account this morning? 'Cause if so, I'd take back all of your threats now and ask — no, beg for my forgiveness because I saw that happening from a mile away."
"Kath, I—"
Kick stopped on her stairs, the computer she had just collected in hand. "Put it through my front door before Wednesday or I'll get the authorities involved."
He chuckled repulsively. "I don't think you have it in you."
"Well, luckily I don't really give a shit about what you think." She traipsed back to her fancy wine on her fancy wooden table with her fancy computer in hand. "Give me my money back or I'll take it back with even more than you stole."
"I didn't steal anything—"
Kick hung up on her, now, ex-boyfriend, slamming her forehead on her table, again.