<OST: eight - IU PROD. & ft. SUGA>
"Ah!"
"What?"
"Ah!" Jennie squealed, as she hit Yoongi multiple times on the shoulder. "I'm so happy, oppa! Don't you think it went so well?"
Yoongi let out a small chuckle as he nodded. "Yeah, it did. But you really seem over the moon."
"Aren't you?" Jennie beamed from ear to ear as she looked down at the notebook containing all the information they had discussed with Byulyi that afternoon. "Her pay isn't that high, she's such a cooperative person who seems like we'll have no problem working with, and everything is on track! Aren't you excited? Everything is going so smoothly! Why do I seem more excited than you?"
"I'm happy too, it's just that-" Yoongi shrugged a little, trying to organise his own thoughts. "Along with the happiness also comes burden and worry."
Jennie frowned. "Worry? About...?"
"Like... since everything is going so smoothly, we'll probably start filming in no time..." Yoongi confided in Jennie with a small frown. "And there's just way too much going on in my mind when I think of what's to come."
"Ah..." Jennie pouted. "Is it the problem of worrying whether you're good enough again? Because if it's that, I'm telling you, you really have nothing to worry about at all, trust me-"
"There's that-" Yoongi admitted. "But that's just one part of it. I wonder whether I'm good enough, I wonder whether we'll succeed or not, I wonder whether we're being too impulsive, starting this whole idea so abruptly... Like, I think we only thought of this idea like... what? Three days ago? I'm just thinking... do you really think that this will work out?"
"Well, we won't know until we try, am I right?" Jennie smiled. "Quite frankly, this whole idea is out of my comfort zone as well... and it is pretty daunting, to say the least. But there's no way we'll know whether it'll succeed until we get to the finishing line... so in the meantime, the best thing we can do is to not worry about it and trust the process. Put in our best effort, learn as much as we can along the way, enjoy the whole process, and hope for the best."
"You really think so?"
"Yeah!" Jennie giggled. "Do I seem like some professional to you? I'm new to this too. But I'm willing to take on this whole challenge with you, because I trust you, Min Yoongi-ssi, Min Yoongi PD-nim. I have had faith in you since day 1. So can you have a little faith in me too?"
Yoongi stared at Jennie, a small smile playing at his lips.
"I know I may not look that strong on the outside-" Jennie smiled. "And perhaps, on the inside, I'm not that strong either. But I'll do all I can to help you with this, oppa. Others usually put in their 90%..: I'll put in my 110% for you. I'll help you to the very end. If it turns out well, perfect. If it doesn't, I'll still continue to help you... until the very day you succeed. We'll work through everything together, so you have nothing to worry about, alright?"
Yoongi couldn't help but smile at Jennie's confidence - a confidence he had never seen her have in any other aspect of life before. This situation felt rather... déjà vu-esque. It seemed like just a few months ago, Jennie was always the one who needed to be peptalked by Yoongi and assured that everything will be alright. Since when did that meek and timid young lady evolve into such a confident and inspiring young woman...?
"You've changed," Yoongi noted with a small smile.
"Huh?" Jennie raised her eyebrows, pointing at herself in surprise. "Me? Have I...?"
"Mmhmm-" Yoongi nodded his head a little, leaning back in his seat before glancing at Jennie once more. "And the new you... is pretty damn cool."
-•-•-
"JK!"
Jungkook, who was crouched on the floor in the stairwell, looked up and spotted Seokjin bursting through the doors. In absolute panic, Seokjin let out a sigh of relief as his eyes landed on Jungkook and confirming that he was alright.
"Ah, you're here..." Seokjin huffed and puffed, trying to catch his breath. "I looked all over for you. The CF is starting in 30 minutes, what are you doing here?"
Jungkook held up the script in his hands, acting like nothing had just happened at all when in actual fact, his head was in a complete mess and he could barely even read the script properly. "I needed to find somewhere that was quiet."
"Why didn't you answer my phone calls?"
Jungkook pursed his lips together tightly, feeling slightly guilty that he had declined every single one of Seokjin's 13 phone calls. "Um... reception wasn't good in here. What's up, hyung?"
"They said they needed to touch up your makeup-" Seokjin squatted down next to Jungkook and examined his face. "Just look at you - your makeup is all smudged."
"Okay-" Jungkook rose to his feet and dusted off the dirt from his pants. "I'll head over now, hyung - don't worry."
Seokjin watched on in silence as Jungkook headed towards the door.
"Jungkook-ah...?"
Jungkook turned around and glanced at Seokjin. "Hm?"
"Everything is alright..." Seokjin questioned, looking slightly concerned. "Right...?"
Jungkook forced a smile. "Yeah, of course, hyung."
Seokjin scanned Jungkook from head to toe, feeling strongly like something was off. Just Jungkook's vibe... it felt unusual. He bit his lower lip, as if hesitating to continue.
"Did... Did anything happen...?"
"What?" Jungkook laughed, pointing at Seokjin like he was sounding absolutely ridiculous. "No, what could possibly have happened?"
Seokjin did see Jieun leave the stairwell in tears right before he came in. Plenty of things could possibly have happened. And Seokjin also saw the reaction on Jungkook's face when Jieun burst into the office earlier that day. A whole bunch of things could have happened to Jungkook, when it came to Jieun. But of course, Seokjin couldn't say that.
"Oh, um-" Seokjin smiled as he shook his head. "Nothing. I must be overly sensitive, then. Go on, Jungkook-ah."
Jungkook nodded at Seokjin, giving him one last meaningful look before turning to leave.
"Oh, wait, JK-" Seokjin frowned as he reached down after spotting a brown book on the floor, picking it up and holding out towards Jungkook. "You forgot something."
Jungkook's eyes shifted uncomfortably from Seokjin, onto the book, then back onto Seokjin once more.
"That's... not mine."
"It's not yours...?" Seokjin scratched his head as he examined the book carefully. "It looks really familiar though, like I've seen it somewhere before..."
That's when Seokjin's eyes landed on the small writing on the front cover that said 'Lee Jieun'... and he finally knew. Jungkook saw the look of realisation on Seokjin's face, and figured that there was no point hiding anything anymore.
"Help me throw it away, hyung-" Jungkook said coldly. "I don't need it."
"How can I possibly throw it out...?" Seokjin frowned as he looked down at the small book in his hands. "It's not even yours to begin with..."
"She gave it to me, asking me to read it-" Jungkook mumbled under his breath. "But I don't ever intend to read it, so help me toss it out."
"And have you read it?"
Jungkook hesitated. "Yeah."
Seokjin raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Like... from cover to cover?"
"No."
"If she gave it to you to read it, how can you possibly toss it?" Seokjin furrowed his eyebrows. "At least give it a proper read before throwing it away."
"I don't want to."
Seokjin hesitated for a while, before choosing to go against Jungkook. "I think you should."
"I said, I don't want to."
Seokjin pushed the book towards Jungkook. "And I said, you should."
"Why are you forcing me?" Jungkook frowned. "Are you really on my side or what?"
"I'm on your side, that's why I'm giving you advice, right?" Seokjin was insistent. "And the advice is for you to read it."
Jungkook folded his arms and looked away. "And I'm not going to heed your advice."
"JK-"
"I'm not gonna read it at all, hyung-" Jungkook made himself extremely clear. "So either toss it out or return it to her, for all I care. Just don't let me see it ever again, okay? It triggers me."
Click. Bang!
And with that, Jungkook stormed out, leaving Seokjin all alone in the stairwell with only the brown leather notebook in his hands and a complete loss of what to do.
-•-•-
"Sometimes, I really can't stand bujang."
"Me too."
"Like, I completely don't get it-" Hoseok groaned as he scribbled at a piece of paper on the table in front of him. "What on earth are we doing...?"
Chungha groaned loudly right next to him, doing the exact same thing that Hoseok was doing. "I know..."
"Aren't you gonna do it properly?" Namjoon slammed his hands down on the table, watching the pair closely. "If you don't write the words in legible writing, it's not counted!"
"Bujang!"
"Especially you, Hoseok-ssi-" Namjoon pointed at Hoseok's piece of paper. "What's this word? I can't even make it out at all! This one isn't counted. 20 down, 30 more to go!"
Chungha looked up with a pained expression on her face. "Bujang, may I know the whole point of this?"
"You're asking me?" Namjoon scoffed. "Are you guys even aware what you both have just done?"
"We're aware-" Hoseok sighed. "We realised our faults and apologised, bujang. Shouldn't we be taking action to reverse our actions now? Why are we sitting here instead, writing 'Kim Namjoon is so handsome' on a piece of paper 50 times?"
"Why?" Namjoon cocked his head to a side. "Is it not true? Is that what you're saying? Shall I make it 100 each instead...?"
"No, no, no, no, no-" Chungha waved her hands desperately. "It's true, bujang. We're just asking you about the purpose. You know? The purpose. Why are we wasting time sitting here and doing this?"
"Time spent reflecting is not time wasted," Namjoon said calmly. "But... have you both reflected...? Based on what I saw, you both were just talking and whining the whole time."
Hoseok and Chungha lowered their heads, not knowing what to say in return.
"Okay, that's enough-" Namjoon finally said. "You guys can stop writing now."
Hoseok and Chungha finally put down their pens.
Namjoon's eyes shifted between the both of them. "Are you both even aware about what exactly you did wrong?"
"We were too impulsive," Hoseok said softly.
"What else?"
"We also acted on our own decision without consulting you, bujang," Chungha added quietly.
"What else?"
"My idea was really crappy," Hoseok admitted.
"And...?"
"And stupid," Hoseok said with a sigh.
"And what else?"
"You told us to think about it and share our thoughts with you, but we went ahead without your permission..." Chungha added. "We failed to listen properly to your instructions."
"Mmhmm. What else?"
The room went silent.
"Up till now, you both have raised relevant points-" Namjoon nodded slowly. "But neither of you have actually mentioned what I wanted to hear the most. This same point is also the main reason why I was the most disappointed with what you both did."
Hoseok and Chungha exchanged confused looks.
"As reporters, there's a skill that we all must have-" Namjoon carried on, after seeing how clueless they were. "It's a skill that is useful for most normal people too, in actual fact. That is, the ability to learn from other people's mistakes and to not make the same mistakes again."
A look of realisation spread across both Hoseok and Chungha's faces.
"You both had already seen how JK-ssi had already been tricked by Jieun-ssi and knew how upset he got," Namjoon continued. "I know you both thought that the chance of Jieun-ssi not being at home was so slim... almost unlikely. But as seasoned reporters already in your second and fourth year respectively, I'm sure it must have crossed your minds. Yet you both still chose to risk and ended up making me the very same mistake Jieun-ssi did. You both tried to use a white lie to cover up for another lie, and ended up digging a grave for Jieun-ssi. It's an extremely rookie mistake, which I didn't expect from the both of you."
"We were way too impulsive, bujang-" Hoseok lowered his head. "And as the person who formulated the plan, I'm extremely sorry."
"As the person who wasn't able to point that out and went on to carry it out..." Chungha lowered her head as well. "I'm sorry, bujang."
"I hope you both understand what I'm talking about," Namjoon concluded. "I've thought about this matter for days and days, and have actually come to a conclusion."
"What is it?"
"There's pretty much nothing more we can do for Jieun-ssi at this point," Namjoon said with a small sigh. "The ball is in her court to regain Jungkook-ssi's trust again, if that's what she wants. And when that happens, all we should do is to provide her with the support she needs. I think that's the best thing we can do right now."
Hoseok and Chungha nodded in silence.
Namjoon scratched his chin, deep in thought. "In the meantime, I sincerely hope she's doing okay."
"Me too-" Hoseok sighed as he hung his head low. "I hope that what we did didn't make her situation even worse than it already was before."
-•-•-
Click.
Byulyi turned around excitedly at the sound of the door opening, her face all lit up with enthusiasm. "Jieun-ah, you won't believe-"
Jieun trudged into the house, looking fatigued and extremely sad as she took off her shoes and dragged herself into the living room, barely even making eye contact with Byulyi.
Byulyi's face fell. "What's wrong now?"
Jieun shook her head, trying to head to her room without even saying a word, but Byulyi grabbed hold of her hand before she could leave.
"Hey," Byulyi said in her most gentle tone. "What's wrong...?"
Jieun stood there for two solid minutes, facing the hallway, trying to hold back her tears. Byulyi sensed that, and immediately hopped off the sofa, got in front of Jieun and embraced her in a warm tight hug. The amount of love and tenderness Byulyi had jut given Jieun was just enough to push her over the edge and cause the floodgates of her eyes to open and tears to overflow.
"It's okay..." Byulyi coaxed Jieun softly, as she showered her back with small gentle pats. "Shh... Shh... It's okay, everything will be fine..."
"I saw him today..." Jieun managed to utter between wails. "I saw him... and at first, he completely ignored me... The look on his face when he laid his eyes on me... it made me feel like some sort of criminal..."
Byulyi just kept on stroking her on the back.
"But after I finished with my resignation... we talked... I tried to explain... but he wouldn't listen... so I tried to give him my diary... He just swiped it off my hands and said that he will never read it... I acted all strong and like I was completely fine, but how can I possibly be fine? It hurts... It hurts so much... Every time I see him... I get hurt... and I seem to hurt him as much as he hurts me... Unnie, we're a lost case... we really are... I've lost all joy I thought I had gained in the past few months... I've hurt him and lost him in the process... it's all my fault..."
Ding! Dong!
Byulyi groaned. What great timing.
"Jieun-ah, take a seat here first-" Byulyi led Jieun over to the couch and helped her take a seat. "I'll go answer the door, so you stay here alright?"
Jieun managed a nod.
Byulyi leapt up from the couch and headed towards the door. "Hold on! I'm coming-"
Click.
Byulyi opened the door and peered outside.
"Hey," Seokjin said with one hand in a pocket and one hand lifted up awkwardly, his eyes hovering around the top of Byulyi's head. "It's me again."