<OST: Sleepless Night - Crush ft. Punch>
"JK, you know about that idea you had-"
"SHH!" Jieun hissed, turning around and pressing a finger to her lips as she glanced at Seokjin who stood frozen at the door. She gestured towards Jungkook who was fast asleep, like a little baby. "He's sleeping."
"Damn, Lee Jieun, you're really something-" Seokjin whispered as he handed Jieun the blanket in his hands. "He hasn't had much sleep over the past few days, since you weren't around."
"I know," Jieun said with a small sigh as she draped the blanket over Jungkook and tucked him in. She brushed his hair out of the way and stared down at his pale face with a sad expression. "He had such a long day hanging around, helping me out too. Ah... how I wish I could help him more too, but he wants to recover on his own. I really want to respect his decision, but at the same time, seeing him in such a state everyday makes my heart ache..."
Seokjin shrugged as he hopped onto the driver's seat. "Well... that's between you both. I have no say in this."
"Yeah-" Jieun sighed loudly as she glanced at Seokjin. "But do me a favour, will you? Help me try to convince him to let me move back in and help - don't forget that it's to your advantage as well."
Seokjin glanced furtively at Jieun through the mirror. "Ya, it's not like I haven't tried. I'm not even doing it for myself, I want him to get better too - but no matter how many times I've tried convincing him, he seems to have his mind pretty made up."
Jieun let out a deep sigh as she glanced at Jungkook who lay fast asleep right next to her. "He's really stubborn sometimes, isn't he?"
"Not just sometimes."
Click.
The front door opened at that moment and Byulyi peeked into the car. Seokjin was clearly the most surprised one of all.
"Oh-" Seokjin swallowed hard, his eyes shifting nervously like he had done something wrong. "Byulyi-ya."
"There's space for me, isn't there?" Byulyi asked while hopping into the passenger seat next to Seokjin. "You're dropping Jieun-ie off... so do you mind giving me a lift too?"
"Huh? Um-" Seokjin was slightly fidgety, knowing that the topic of how he seemed to know so much about her stories was definitely going to come up in their conversation. "Well, yeah, there's space but... um... you mean you're done? Aren't you the scriptwriter? Don't you have to stay to discuss the details for the next shoot or something?"
"No, I'm done-" Byulyi shook her head as she buckled her seatbelt and glanced at Seokjin. "You can give me a lift, can't you? Or do you have a problem, or something you're trying to hide...?"
Jieun shifted uncomfortably in her seat behind and squeezed her eyes shut at once, wanting to give the pair some time alone to sort things out.
"Huh? What?" Seokjin spluttered, letting out an awkward chuckle as he hurriedly reached for the handbrake. "Of course not. I was just confirming, you know? Let's go, it's getting late."
The car ride proceeded mostly in silence.
"You know-" Byulyi finally spoke up. "About just now..."
"Ah, just now?" Seokjin let out a nervous laugh as he glanced at Byulyi. "Well, I already said I knew all that not because I read your books but because I-"
"Actually-" Byulyi pursed her lips. "I was just going to thank you for helping me out with the curtains earlier."
Now the atmosphere had become awkward because of Seokjin. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat as he struggled to keep his eyes on the road. "Ah."
Silence fell over them once more, and for the rest of the car ride home as well. Byulyi had felt like something was weird this morning but seeing Seokjin have such a huge reaction made Byulyi realise one thing - something was definitely fishy.
Byulyi glanced at Seokjin, who happened to make eye contact with her and turned away almost immediately.
Very fishy.
-•-•-
"You should home first-" Yoongi told Jennie as he meddled with his camera, transferring the footage taken today onto his computer. "I still have a lot of things to do. You worked really hard today, you should go home and have a good rest."
"I don't want to-" Jennie folded her arms as she lay back against Yoongi's couch. "I'm gonna stay here and keep you company until you're done, Min Yoongi."
"Don't be like that and just go home-" Yoongi turned around and glanced at Jennie, who sat on his couch, meddling with her phone. "You being here is only going to distract me. If you go home right now, it'd be better for the both of us."
Jennie pouted. "It's my own body, I can choose wherever I wanna be."
"Yeah, but this is my house."
"Min Yoongi-" Jennie frowned as she glanced up from her phone at Yoongi. "Are you chasing me out of your house right now?"
"I-" Yoongi finally gave up, as he let out a loud sigh. "Since when have I ever not given in to you. Fine - stay if you want. Just promise me... you won't distract me too much, okay?"
"I promise!" Jennie pretended to zip her mouth. "Not a single word from me, from now onwards."
Yoongi let out a small chuckle as he turned back around to face his computer. It was silent for a while after that... but unfortunately, Jennie's promise only lasted for barely two minutes.
"Ya! Oppa! Wait-" Jennie exclaimed after exactly two minutes had passed. "Look at this! You know, KNJ News uploaded the video interview today? The response is pretty good! Most comments say that you're good-looking and you sound really cool, they're looking forward to your drama, and they're really excited!"
"Oh, is that so?" Yoongi asked nonchalantly as he clicked at his mouse. "That's good."
"Ya-" Jennie frowned. "They're saying good things about you... can't you show a bit more reaction?"
"I would but I'm busy-" Yoongi glanced briefly at Jennie. "The higher the expectations, the greater the pressure on me to deliver and meet those expectations. I don't have time to celebrate now, Jennie-ya. I'm sorry."
"You don't need to stress yourself, you've always done well-" Jennie said, trying to encourage Yoongi. "Just be yourself... and you'll do as well as you usually do."
"Thanks, Jennie," Yoongi said half-heartedly as he turned back to his computer. "But really - I need to focus on this. This really means a lot to me... and you."
"Okay, okay-" Jennie zipped her mouth shut once more. "I'll keep quiet for real this time, I promise."
This time Jennie held out a little longer - by just a small margin of three more minutes.
"You know..." Jennie spoke up again after five minutes, clearly forgetting about what she had just said a while ago. "Since the day we met, I always thought you were pretty cool. Every time you saved me in my worst moments and all that... you always looked like some sort of superhero to me. But Min Yoongi, you know what? Today were the coolest you had ever been... you were literally shining."
Yoongi glanced back at Jennie and gave her an awkward smile, as if to remind her about her promise.
"Oh-!" Jennie exclaimed as she gently hit her head multiple times with her fist. "Sorry, sorry, I forgot. Shh- I'm gonna be quiet from now. If I say anymore, I allow you to physically kick me out of your house."
"You said it yourself, not me-" Yoongi said with a little grin as he turned back around to face his computer once more. "You may have said it in the spur of the moment... but I'll really do that if you speak again."
But Yoongi sat in front of his computer, grinning from ear to ear like an utter idiot, unable to hide his joy from what Jennie had just said. She was sitting here, distracting him from doing what he needed to do... but why did everything she said have to make him feel so warm and fuzzy inside?
Jennie really kept her promise this time, as for the next few hours that Yoongi sat at his computer, finally being productive for the first time that night, she didn't make a single sound. It was late into the night when Yoongi finally sat back from his computer, closing his eyes and stretching his arms.
"I'm done now," Yoongi said as he massaged his neck. "Time to go home, Kim Jennie."
Jennie didn't respond.
"Ya, don't say you don't wanna go home, okay?" Yoongi said as he turned around. "I already let you stay till close to 12am-"
Jennie was lying on his couch, fast asleep, with her phone still in her hands.
Yoongi couldn't help but let out a little scoff as he saw Jennie's little frame laying on his couch, completely sound asleep. "This girl... really has no fear."
Tiptoeing so that he didn't wake her up, Yoongi grabbed a blanket from a nearby shelf before creeping slowly towards her. Then, he pried her phone out of her hands and placed it on the coffee table, before gently draping the blanket over her. For a few moments after that, he crouched by the sofa next to her, watching her sleep with a fond smile on his face.
"Sorry for taking pictures of you without your permission today-" Yoongi whispered as he gently blew a strand of hair away from Jennie's face. "You looked cute earlier, that's why I took photos of you. Not because I needed them for the behind-the-scenes cut... but simply because I wanted to."
-•-•-
Byulyi lay in Jieun's bed that night, staring at the ceiling and thinking about her conversation with Seokjin earlier that day.
"Ya, unnie-" Jieun returned to her room after washing up. "What are you still doing here? It's getting late, we should go get some rest."
"I know..." Byulyi sighed loudly as she abruptly sat up straight on Jieun's bed. "It's just that... I can't stop thinking about something."
"What?" Jieun asked nonchalantly as she dried her hair with a towel.
"Jieun-ah, tell me-" Byulyi furrowed her eyebrows. "Is it just me... or has Kim Seokjin been acting weird today?"
"Seokjin-oppa...?" Jieun let out a small snigger. "Isn't he weird everyday, not just today?"
"Tsk, I'm being serious here-" Byulyi frowned. "Tell me - am I being overly sensitive, or did he say a lot of weird things to me throughout today."
Jieun shrugged as she took a seat on her bed next to Byulyi. "Well, I don't know. I didn't really hear much of what he told you today... so I can't really comment. Why not... you tell me what so weird about him, and I'll tell you if it's weird or not."
"Well, firstly-" Byulyi thought for a while. "He seemed so knowledgeable about the script and storyline and all that earlier... it's like he read the book. And it's completely fine if he read my book, because it has been rather popular lately. But the weird thing is that he denied it so firmly. Well, I could have let that go... but later on in the car, when I was about to talk to him about something else, he acted all defensive again. I'm sure you heard that part since you were fake-sleeping the whole ride."
"I wasn't!"
"Look-" Byulyi rolled her eyes. "Come on, Lee Jieun. I've known you for two whole decades."
"Fine-" Jieun sighed. "Well, you can't blame me for eavesdropping though. I just wanted to give you both some space to talk, but I ended up unable to sleep because the atmosphere between you guys was pretty... awkward."
"It was, wasn't it!" Byulyi exclaimed. "It was so, so suffocating."
Jieun nodded in agreement.
"So, what do you think?" Byulyi asked again. "Was he acting weird or am I just being sensitive?"
Jieun thought for a while. "I think... I think he was acting weird."
"Right?" Byulyi jumped up from Jieun's bed, her eyes widened. "See? I knew I wasn't being sensitive. He does have kind of a unique character, usually - but today... he was acting out of character, for sure."
"But why would he not want you to find out about him reading your books though?" Jieun shook her head with a frown. "That's what I don't understand. If we say he's acting out of character... then he definitely must have a motive for what he did. But I can't seem to find any reason why he'd not want you to find out that he's a reader of your books."
"Yeah, you're right-" Byulyi furrowed her eyebrows as she glanced at her phone. "Unless he was acting weird simply because he was tired or something? It can't be though... he behaved completely normally other than that..."
"Maybe we're both overthinking it..." Jieun suggested. "There's no reason why he'd not want you to find out he read your books... unless... he's like a huge fan of yours or something..."
"Wait-" Byulyi's eyes widened, as she suddenly thought of something. "Don't tell me-"
Jieun's eyes widened. "What?"
Byulyi scrambled to pick up her phone and opened her writing app, scrolling through desperately to find the message she was looking for.
"What are you doing, unnie?" Jieun frowned. "What are you looking for? And why are you suddenly scrolling through your writing app?"
Then Byulyi stopped scrolling abruptly, and clicked into a chat. She stared blankly at the messages for a while, as if trying to consider the possibility that her suspicions were true. But eventually, she burst into laughter.
"Nah, it can't be-" Byulyi laughed out loud as she shoved her phone into Jieun's hands. "Wow, I must be going crazy. How could I even think of such a possibility? Nah, it's not him. It's not. It can't be."
"Who is not who?" Jieun furrowed her eyebrows as she glanced down into Byulyi's phone. "Kay... Es... Jay... 1992... Wait, who's this again?"
"Nah-" Byulyi was still trying to laugh it off and convince herself. "Nah, it's not him. It doesn't add up at all - this guy began talking to me even before I got to know Kim Seokjin. There's no reason why they'd be the same person."
"Can you talk in coherent sentences?" Jieun said agitatedly. "I'm trying my very best to understand what's going on... but all I hear is 'Kim Seokjin blah-', 'no, it can't be-' and 'it doesn't make sense'. So slow down, and tell me what's going on, unnie. Firstly, who on earth is this guy?"
"Kayesjay1992... this guy-" Byulyi bit her lower lip. "I've been online friends with him since earlier this year. He criticised my writing before, but after a few events occurred between us, he apologised for what he said and I also apologised for causing him to get flames by my fans. We eventually cleared the misunderstanding and became friends. We have been talking on-and-off for the past few months, and some of our conversations have gotten rather... heart-to-heart."
"As I can tell-" Jieun pointed out as she read through the messages exchanged between Byulyi and kayesjay1992. "Some stuff you both talk about... are pretty personal."
"I do enjoy talking to him quite a bit-" Byulyi admitted. "He's easy to talk to, kind, understanding, and good at listening too. We haven't spoken in a while, but I just suddenly thought of him earlier when I thought Kim Seokjin was suspicious. But now that I think of it, I don't even know why I thought of this guy earlier. It's ridiculous, isn't it? There's no way this guy can be Kim Seokjin."
But Jieun seemed to have other thoughts as she clicked on the profile, before glancing up at Byulyi.
"Unnie-" Jieun asked, her eyes wide open. "1992... Seokjin-oppa is the same age as you, isn't he? So he should be a '92 liner as well."
"Yeah, but-" Byulyi was starting to get tense. "But that doesn't mean anything, does it? Many people can be born in the same year. I can be a '92 liner, so can Kim Seokjin... so can kayesjay1992."
"Yeah, but..." Jieun's suspicions were confirmed immediately. "He's called kay-es-jay-1992, unnie."
"Yeah, I know-" Byulyi laughed nervously. "Kayesjay1992, of course. I know that, no need to tell me."
"No, unnie, listen-" Jieun put down Byulyi's phone and shook her head. "Kay-es-jay."
Byulyi froze up at once.
"Kay-es-jay, unnie-" Jieun carried on, like some detective. "In terms of alphabets, that's K-S-J. And you know what Seokjin-oppa's initials are? K-S-J. Kay-es-jay. 1992, that's his birth year. Unnie, this guy... it's him."
Byulyi didn't know how to respond.