<OST: Orbit - Hwasa>
Yoongi was getting more and anxious and worried as time passed. Before he knew it, 15 minutes had already passed, yet Jennie still wasn't back yet.
"PD-nim!"
Yoongi tried his best to filter out his thoughts and focus on filming as Jimin, whom Yoongi knew as Jennie's manager slid past him to speak to Kim PD, not forgetting to give Yoongi a dirty look before doing so... because why not. But that was alright, because Yoongi was used to people giving him dirty looks all his life.
"Kim PD-nim, where's our Jennie?"
"Hm?" Kim PD spoke nonchalantly, keeping his eyes glued onto the trio who were busy preparing dinner. "I don't know."
"You don't know?" Jimin raised his voice, his face getting more and more worried by the second. "How can you not know? Didn't she go catch fish with V-ssi earlier? Why is he back while she isn't?"
"Ah, um..." Kim PD shook his head. "Hey, I don't know. V-ssi mentioned something about her going back to retrieve a bucket or something? Just wait it out, she'll be back in a couple of minutes or so."
"No, what on earth are you talking about?!" Jimin was freaking out at this point. "You're telling me you let a young woman like her, go through the dark forest all alone, and you're expecting me sit back and relax? Kim PD-nim, what are you even saying?!"
"Tsk-" Kim PD finally ripped off his headphones and glanced at Jimin irritatedly. "I'm trying to film here, Jimin-ssi. I know you're worried about her, but she hasn't even been gone for that long."
"How long has she been gone for?"
16 minutes and 38 seconds.
Yoongi knew exactly how long she had been gone for because he was worried too. But he couldn't simply dump everything and look for her without Kim PD's permission - that would blow everything Jennie herself had fought to get for him. Also, maybe she was just taking a little longer for some reason.
"Huh?" Kim PD glanced down at his watch. "Well, not too long ago... maybe about 5 to 6 minutes...?"
"5 to 6 minutes is long enough-"
"Calm down, Jimin-ssi," Kim PD said nonchalantly as he put on his headphones. "I'll send someone to look for her in about 5 minutes. She'll be fine. She has her phone with her so she would have called if she had gotten into any trouble. Besides, this area is safe, so you really have nothing to worry about..."
"Our Jennie..." Jimin's eyebrows were furrowed in worry as he dialled Jennie's number into his phone and held it up to his ear. "Our Jennie is bad at directions... She has always been bad at finding her way around places... Please pick up... Jennie-ya... Please..."
Yoongi glanced back at Jimin.
Jimin chewed on his fingernails nervously as he redialled again and again. "She's not picking up..."
"She's not picking up?" Yoongi asked, his face filled with concern.
Jimin eyed Yoongi suspiciously.
"She's not picking up?" Yoongi repeated, his tone even more concerned this time. "Tell me!"
"Yeah, she isn't but-"
Without another word, Yoongi yanked off his headphones, threw it down and grabbed a flashlight instead. And then, with no turning back, Yoongi bolted towards the forest - the direction in which Jennie had left with no return, more than an hour ago.
-•-•-
"For... For me?" Namjoon raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Why are you doing this for me? I don't even-"
Hyejin stared hard at Namjoon for a few seconds before looking away, shifting her attention to the menu once more. "Shall we get some food first? Bujang-nim, I'm starving."
"Huh? Oh-" Namjoon pursed his lips, as if stopping himself from saying something. "Oh, okay."
The two placed their orders for some food, before Hyejin finally continued with her explanation.
"I overheard you talking to Chungha-ssi about dinner plans a few days ago," Hyejin said as she nodded slowly. "Wasn't intentional, but yeah. Accidentally heard the location too."
"Oh."
"Yeah." Hyejin paused. "Actually... bujang-"
"Hm?"
"I've spoken to Chungha-ssi before, about this."
Namjoon pursed his lips. "She told you?"
"I observed," Hyejin said softly. "For the past six- no, seven- months that I've been here, I've observed you two quietly from the back of the office. From the way you found every single excuse to deliver all kinds of food and drinks to her every morning... do you really think no one would notice?"
"Ah..." Namjoon lowered his head. "So that's what it looked like to the rest of you, huh. I feel sorry-"
"Don't feel sorry - there's nothing to feel sorry about," Hyejin said with a small shrug. "You're nice to the person you want to be nice to - I don't see anything wrong with that. You may be our bujang-nim, but above it all - you're still human, just like us."
"Thanks, Hyejin-ssi," Namjoon said with a small smile. "But you still haven't told me why you're here. You said you're here for me... for what?"
Hyejin hesitated a little, not answering Namjoon's question immediately. "Bujang-nim, let me ask you something - you don't have friends, do you?"
Namjoon was stunned for a few seconds by such an unexpected question from Hyejin. "W-What?"
"You work overtime most days of the week," Hyejin explained. "You're always on your work phone and you hardly even look at your own private phone. You've never have any lunch appointments that weren't with clients or business partners. Your social media is just filled with inspirational quotes and you have less than 100 followers - most of which are our company's employees. It's fair for me to make that educated guess, isn't it?"
"Okay, that's some next level observation skills right there-" Namjoon laughed. "You have the makings of a great reporter indeed, Hyejin-ssi. Mm... Indeed, I don't have many friends I stay in contact with. I'm alone most of the time. But why?"
"Let's be friends from now then, bujang."
Namjoon blinked a few times. "What?"
"You're my boss at work but outside, we can be friends, can't we?" Hyejin proposed. "I think it's reasonable - I can listen to your problems, and you can listen to mine. Isn't it a win-win situation for both of us?"
"Hyejin-ssi, you always somehow manage to catch me off-guard-" Namjoon laughed as he took a sip of water. "You want to be friends with me? Do you have a shortage of friends too, Hyejin-ssi?"
"No, but you do."
"And? What good would it do you?"
"I don't need benefit from anything in particular, bujang-nim," Hyejin said with a small shrug. "Isn't a friendship in itself already the most precious gift someone could ever receive?"
"That's true, yeah, but- But-" Namjoon shook his head in confusion. "Why all this out of the blue? I thought you were explaining why you were here."
"Okay, this might be just what I think - but if we weren't friends, my presence here would mean nothing today." Hyejin pursed her lips as she glanced up at Namjoon. "But if we were friends, that's a whole different story. The companionship of a friend at the lowest points in your life... is more precious than gold."
And now, Namjoon finally understood.
-•-•-
"Jennie-ya! Jennie Kim!" Yoongi yelled as he pushed through the trees. "Jennie Kim! Where are you? Kim Jennie!"
Yoongi was getting more and more frantic as time passed. Doubt and worry began to flood his mind as he thought about the people he cared about the most who had left him in the past. This was what he feared the most, when Jennie had wanted to draw close to him.
"Ya! Jennie Kim!"
Tears were running down Yoongi's cheeks and beads of sweat soaked his shirt as he ran around aimlessly, looking out for any sign of his newly-made friend. He had barely just opened his heart to her... Was this another case of him unintentionally hurting the people closest to him?
"Jennie Kim-ssi!"
Come to think of it, if he didn't get the role, perhaps she wouldn't have joined the programme... Wasn't she planning to back out anyway? So it was his fault - it was his fault she was here, it was his fault if anything happened to her at all. Yoongi wiped away the mixture of tears and sweat from his face as he looked around frantically. If anything happened to her, he'd never forgive himself...
"Oppa?"
Yoongi froze in his tracks, doubting his ears for a second. Was that really Jennie's voice, like what it sounded like, or-
"Yoongi-oppa, I'm here! Behind you-"
Yoongi swirled around, turning the flashlight towards the direction of the voice and-
Yoongi first heaved a sigh of relief as he spotted Jennie on the ground at the foot of a tree a few metres away, but the next moment, he felt his heart drop again as he spotted her injured foot and tears streaming down her face as he drew closer.
"Ya-" Yoongi looked more frantic than Jennie had ever seen him - even more frantic than the time when he had broken down after saving her from the speeding car. Tears were still rolling down his cheeks as he scanned Jennie from head-to-toe, and choked out the next few words. "W-What... What happened?"
Jennie was panting heavily - clearly having difficulty breathing because she was freaking out as well. Panic had overwhelmed her just a few minutes ago when she had slipped on a rock and fell, twisting her ankle in the process - but hearing Yoongi's voice brought her back to reality really quickly, and seeing him looking even more distraught than she was... Jennie tried her best to compose herself as she saw him approaching.
"Nothing, I-" Jennie swallowed hard, trying to keep her voice stable. "I just slipped on a rock and fell."
"Where's your torchlight?"
"Well..." Jennie let out a nervous chuckle. "I accidentally dropped it into the river."
"Why didn't you call?"
"My phone ran out of battery."
"You-" Yoongi ruffled his hair in a weird mixture of agitation and relief. "How can you possibly-"
"Sorry, I made everyone worry, didn't I?" Jennie laughed awkwardly, as she picked at the grass she was sitting on. "My ankle is kind of twisted, so I had no way of going back... Besides, it's all dark so I'd probably get lost, anyway. All I could do was just sit here and call for help, hoping that someone would come and look for me. And just as I was about to give up... you came for me."
Yoongi pursed his lips, as if trying not to cry as he glanced down at Jennie's foot. "Does it hurt?"
Jennie tried to laugh it off. "Just a little."
Yoongi didn't say a word.
"I think I'm okay, but are you?" Jennie asked, sounding concerned as she craned her neck, trying to get a good look of Yoongi's face. "You look kind of..."
Yoongi looked away, shaking his head a little. "I'm fine. I just thought-"
"You thought...?"
Yoongi shook his head again, more firmly this time. "Nothing."
"You thought something really bad might have happened to me, didn't you?"
"Yeah."
"And you're putting all the blame on yourself right now, aren't you?"
Yoongi was silent.
"I know what you're like," Jennie said softly as she patted Yoongi on the arm. "But this is not your fault. I don't know what exactly happened in the past, but whatever happened to me today, oppa - it's not your fault."
Yoongi got up abruptly, not wanting to go deep into the details. "Can you stand?"
Jennie tried and failed, chuckling a little as she landed back down on the ground with a thud. "Well... I guess not."
"Come, let me help you."
Yoongi reached down and pulled her to her feet slowly. Jennie winced as she rested a little weight on her right foot.
"Can you walk?"
Jennie pursed her lips tightly together as she took a careful step forward, and almost fell flat onto her face if not for Yoongi who had caught her in the nick of time and steadied her immediately.
"Well-" Jennie let out a nervous chuckle. "I guess not either."
Yoongi stared at her for a few seconds. Then he slowly rested transferred her hands from his arms onto the tree trunk, as he took off his jacket. "Hold the torchlight."
Jennie did as she was told, but frowned in confusion as she watched him remove his jacket and tie it around her waist. "Wait, what are you doing-"
Jennie's question was immediately answered the next moment as in one swift motion, Yoongi scooped her from the floor, into his arms - bridal style.
Jennie, clearly taken by surprise, looked away shyly. "You-"
"Hold the flashlight tightly this time. Let's go."
Yoongi was stronger than Jennie had imagined him to be, as he trudged along with no problem while carrying her in his arms. Jennie slowly loosened up a little as time passed, and eventually settled with wrapping her arms around his neck and staring at him directly as he walked past trees after trees.
Just like Jimin had said, Jennie was not good at directions. She didn't even know precisely where Yoongi was taking her - whether or not this was the route back to the campsite - but one thing she knew in that moment was that with him, she was now safe.
"You know, I think the two of us must have some special connection or something," Jennie said out of the blue, breaking the silence apart from the sound of snapping twigs and crunching dried leaves under Yoongi's boots. "When I was back there panicking, for some reason, I just kept calling your name, without stopping. Because every time I do that, you always seem to appear."
Yoongi trudged on, not uttering a single word.
"It's fascinating, really-" Jennie continued, oblivious to Yoongi's silence. "Like, every single time I'm in distress, without fail - you always show up and save me. This time, I thought it was different because I called and called for a long time, yet no one was in sight. I thought that maybe this time, no one was going to find me. Maybe I was just gonna stay out here for the rest of the night until some wild boar found me and devoured me to the bones."
Yoongi finally let out a small giggle.
Jennie grinned. "Did you just laugh?"
"No."
"I'm pretty sure I heard it."
"Well, I didn't."
"I don't believe you-" Jennie scoffed. "But anyway, just when I was about to give up, you appeared out of nowhere, calling my name... 'Jennie-ya, Kim Jennie!' The moment I heard your voice, I knew. And just like magic, you found me and rescued me again. Don't you think we must have some connection or telepathy of some sort? Hm?"
Yoongi walked on, not answering Jennie immediately.
"Ya, are you even listening?"
"I don't think that can be called telepathy."
Jennie frowned. "If it isn't telepathy, what is it, then?"
Yoongi thought back to earlier, when everyone around him seemed to be all caught up with their own activities, while he was the only one who seemed to be thinking of her, every single moment of his time there - even as he operated the cameras, making sure they were filming just fine, his mind was just thinking about her - if she was okay, if she was safe, if he should go look for her.
That wasn't telepathy.
It was concern, care, always putting the other person's safety and interest first.
It was making sure he was available at all times to make sure she was kept out of harm's way.
It was being attentive to her needs, thinking in her shoes, trying his best so that her already vulnerable soul would never get hurt.
It wasn't by telepathy, some magic connection, or coincidence that he always showed up where she was - he made sure he was there for her when she needed him.
It wasn't telepathy, but a manifestation of how he had learnt to lean on her - and allow her to lean on him just the same.
It wasn't something Yoongi was used to doing.
It was fondness, affection... and liking.
"I don't know," Yoongi said coolly, unlike what was going through his head. "Just not what you said."
"Hmph." Jennie threw a fit. "You're always like that."
Yoongi marched on with Jennie in his arms.
"But I'm still happy," Jennie said with a small smile, cheering up almost immediately as she wrapped her arms even tighter around his neck. Her eyes gleamed in the dark as she admired Yoongi's side profile. "Because it's you who found me."