Chapter Text
“-- so basically, I think this album deserves a solid nine out of ten,” Yoongi says, still turning the album around in his hands. “Seal of approval,” he says, showing a thumbs up to the camera and then he leans over to switch it off.
The idea to start a YouTube channel with album reviews came to him out of the blue.
At first he wanted to start a blog, but there was something about writing about music that didn't sit well with him. So he decided to record himself, just because talking seemed more natural, and uploaded the video because… well. He's still not exactly sure why he decided to do that. It wasn't like he was craving an audience, but what else was he supposed to do? Uploading the video seemed like a reasonable thing to do, so he had figured out that he could just as well go with it and see what happens. He always makes sure to keep his face out of the frame when he’s recording, mostly because he doesn’t want to distract himself by worrying how he’s going to look, but there’s also the matter of privacy. Yoongi is a very private person and the idea of having his face plastered all over the internet makes him shudder.
He doesn't have a crowd of followers, but it doesn't matter to him, he doesn't do it to get famous. There are a few people who regularly watch his reviews and comment on them, and that's enough. He can talk with them about music and that's all that matters, that was his goal, to learn more about music and be able to voice his opinions. Doing this online agrees with him, somehow it's easier than talking to people in real life.
He has a few more minutes before he has to leave the house, so he opens YouTube and when he sees the glowing red notification button, his heart skips a beat. Twelve new comments.
What the fuck?
He quickly presses the button, his mind already jumping to the worst possible conclusions. Did he somehow manage to offend someone? Did he say something stupid? Is he getting sued? With his heart lodged somewhere in his throat, he opens the last video he had uploaded, bracing himself for whatever was going to happen.
“What the hell,” he mutters to himself as he scrolls down the comments. They're written in English and even though Yoongi isn't one hundred percent fluent, he can understand all of them. One thing’s for sure; he’s not getting sued. Most of the comments are about his hands, which is a little surprising, to say the least. Some of the people wrote about how nice his voice sounds and that they would like to see his face, and there’s a line or two about the music Yoongi recommended. Huh.
He frowns, his hand hovering over the keyboard. Maybe those are people who want to become YouTube famous and are looking for someone who could promote them. In that case they’re barking up the wrong tree, because Yoongi isn’t famous by any standards. He shrugs, deciding to deal with this later, and closes the tab before shutting his laptop off.
He gathers his phone and wallet and stuffs them into his backpack. He puts on his jacket and shoes and walks out of his apartment, the thoughts about the comments pushed to the back of his mind.
Once a week he meets up with his best friend, Namjoon, for ramen. He and Namjoon theoretically know each other from college; they had a few classes together but never really talked until they realized they had a mutual friend, Hoseok. One day Hoseok invited both of them to a party and after introducing them to each other, he disappeared somewhere (which was one of his more annoying habits, if anyone asks Yoongi), leaving them alone. Yoongi had ever been much of a soul and a heart of parties and apparently Namjoon wasn't either, because they ended up on the roof of the dorm building, getting high and talking about music. With both of them being slightly awkward when it came to striking up a conversation, there was a chance their rapport would end up as a one time thing, but the second Hoseok heard that they had snuck out together, he decided to make it his life goal to keep them in touch with each other. And that's how it all started. Now Yoongi was taking a year off, so he didn't see Namjoon and Hoseok as often as he used to, but he still made sure to take care of both of those relationships.
He walks into the small ramen bar he and Hoseok had once stumbled across after classes, which now became their favorite place to grab some lunch and hang out. Namjoon is already sitting at their usual spot with a bowl in front of him.
Yoongi waves at him and strolls over to the counter to order his food, before carefully carrying his bowl over to the booth.
“Hi, dude.” He slides into the seat on the other side of the table and takes off his backpack.
“Hi, how are you?” Namjoon smiles at him, his dimples making him look five years younger.
“Fine, thanks,” Yoongi says, pulling some of the noodles with his chopsticks out of the bowl. He didn't realize it until now, but his stomach was growling from hunger. Getting really into his reviews often meant forgetting about his meals; a bad habit he was trying to get rid of.
“So a weird thing happened today,” he announces after a few moments.
Namjoon looks at him over his bowl. His mouth is full of broth, so he raises his eyebrows, signaling for Yoongi to continue.
“I got twelve new comments on that video about Frank Ocean’s new album. They just appeared, like, out of nowhere? It’s kinda weird, right?”
“Were they telling you the album is superior to Channel Orange?”
“You wish. No, they were mostly…” Yoongi pauses, searching for the right words. “Well, about my hands?”
“Huh.” Namjoon stares into the distance, chewing slowly. Then he shrugs and sends Yoongi a wide grin. “Well, your hands are nice, can’t argue there.”
Yoongi snorts. “Keep your kinks away from me.”
“Are you kinkshaming me in my own house?” Namjoon gasps, placing his hand over his heart.
Yoongi rolls his eyes, ignoring his fake outrage.
“Anyway, I worked a bit on those lyrics you sent me.” he puts down the chopsticks and digs through his backpack, searching for his notebook. At heart he’s still very old fashioned when it comes to his writing. He likes to sit down with a pen and the notebook in a cafe or on a park bench and spill his heart out. He carries his notebook everywhere with him, and now some of the pages are stained with coffee rings, the cover torn at the edges. His friends often offered to get him a new one, but he always refused.
He pulls out the notebook, opens it on the page with Namjoon’s lyrics and slides it to him over the table. He taps his fingers on the wood as Namjoon leans over the notebook, reading silently.
“This is good,” he says finally, absentmindedly flipping through the pages. “This is really good, Yoongi. Are you sure you don't want to, like, save this for yourself? You know, for the future?”
“Nams, you know I'm more of a backstage kinda guy. Don't mind the man behind the curtain,” Yoongi says, shaking his hands, his fingers splayed in a half-assed jazz hands impression.
“Still, I think you should give it a shot. You'd be an amazing rapper,” Namjoon announces and whips out his phone to take a photo of the lyrics.
“Ah, maybe one day,” Yoongi mumbles, watching him. “We'll see.”
Namjoon knows not to press the subject, he and Yoongi had a thousand conversations about it, so he just nods and changes the topic to the album Yoongi was reviewing before their meeting.
They spend the evening talking about the week they had, gossiping about the people they both know, and eating. It's easy and simple, and that'll the main reason Yoongi loves to hang out with Namjoon. There's no such thing as uncomfortable silence between them, they're happy to talk and just as happy to sit next to each other without exchanging a word and work on their own things. Finally, Namjoon says he has to go and they exchange their goodbyes, each of them going their way.
Yoongi decides not to wait for a bus and make his way back home on foot. The weather is still nice, the afterglow of the sunshine still lingering over the horizon, the wind gently stroking his hair. His mind wanders back to the time he would barely leave his apartment and some part of him sneers at him, reminding him of his weakness. He speeds up, trying to leave those thoughts behind, and starts humming under his breath. He's not going to allow those stupid doubts to ruin his day.
The thoughts about the comments he had received stayed in the back of his mind until he got back home, turned on his laptop, and opened his YouTube page.
Ten new comments.
What the fuck is going on?
He carefully reads through every comment, searching for a clue that could help him solve this puzzle. Finally he sees something that might help him with this task.
Omg tae was right, this guy's voice is beautiful!
He rereads the comment a few times, just to let it sink in, and decides to look for the mysterious Tae, typing the name into the search bar.
A bunch of videos come up on his screen and he clicks on the newest one, titled Q and A pt. 2! The thumbnail shows nothing but a bowl full of pieces of paper and Yoongi really hopes he found the right person.
He starts the video and the prettiest guy Yoongi had ever seen appears on the screen. He has full lips, big, shiny eyes, and a smile that could probably cure world hunger.
The plot thickens.
Yoongi watches as a cute logo with hand drawn watermelons flashes through the screen and then the boy appears again.
“Hi, guys!” he waves at the camera with the widest, sunniest grin Yoongi had ever seen. “Tae here! Today's video is not going to be very long, I hope you can forgive me for that, but I'm going on a trip with Jiminie, so expect a longer video once we get back! So, today we're going to do q and a, you sent me a lot of questions, thank you for that by the way, and I chose a few of them, which I'm going to answer right now.”
He reaches for something out of the camera's view and takes out a small piece of paper.
“Okay, user xxxyyyzzz asked me about my insomnia and how I deal with it.” Tae looks up into the camera again, tapping his chin with his finger. “Well, it’s much better now, but whenever I can’t sleep, I watch YouTube videos. Hearing people talk calms me down, and there’s this one user who has the nicest voice ever, he does albums reviews and he actually has a great taste in music, but other than that his voice is really soothing. And he has really pretty hands, but you didn't hear it from me.” Tae winks at the camera. “He does the reviews in Korean, though, so if you don't speak it you won't understand what he's saying, but you could still give his videos a shot? Or look for someone else, but personally I'd recommend him, I'll link his channel in the description.”
Yoongi pauses the video, scrolls down, and sure enough, the link to his channel is right there, in the description box. So that's what, or rather who, brought all those people to his channel.
It feels slightly strange that someone likes to fall asleep listening to him talk. It's weird, but also kind of flattering. Plus that Tae guy said he had good taste, right? So feeling flattered is probably the right reaction.
Yoongi drums his fingers on his thighs and then looks around, as if he was expecting to see someone staring at him. He slowly puts his hand over the mouse and moves the cursor to the next recommended video. He might just as well watch it, maybe there's going to be more about music in this one.
It's three in the morning when he finally snaps out of it. He leans back in his chair, stretching his arms above his head as his spine straightens with a crack.
His research was carried out very thoroughly, and by now he knows a few things about his admirer. Tae, or Taehyung, is a student, currently living in Tokyo with his best friend, Jimin, and his dog, Soonshim. He's doing the first year of film studies and the YouTube channel is his way of working on his skills. He likes strawberries, comic books, and cutting up his clothes to make them more unique. He travels a lot and has an entire collection of postcards and magnets from all over the world which he brings back from every trip. Apparently he also has a voice of an angel; a few of the videos were simply of Taehyung playing guitar and singing covers of some songs Yoongi had never heard of. At first he couldn't help himself and judged them on Taehyung's technique and skills, but he quickly forgot all about that and immersed himself into Taehyung's deep voice that was at the same time velvety and rough at the edges. He was talented, no doubt about it. His voice probably wasn't everyone's cup of tea, but it definitely was Yoongi's. Something in Taehyung's voice made him think of tiny forgotten cafes, listening to jazz on vinyl, and walking through empty streets at night. It was calming but in some way also haunting.
It's three in the morning and Yoongi is enchanted.
He shifts in his chair, nervously chewing on his bottom lip. He's tempted to send Taehyung a message and he knows that making decisions this late at night is never a good idea, but on the other hand… why not? Why shouldn't he send a few words? Taehyung talked about him first, plus even if he doesn't answer it's no big deal, one message won't cost Yoongi his dignity.
With his mind made up, he fumbles for a few moments with the interface of the website, trying to locate his inbox (it really should not be that difficult, what the hell) and when he finally finds it, it takes him another few minutes to write a message that sounded reasonably polite but chill at the same time.
Hi, I'm the album reviews guy, found your video by accident, but I'm really glad you're enjoying listening to me I guess? Anyway, I just wanted to tell you that you have an amazing voice and thanks for promoting me.
Yoongi
P.S. You should think about doing a cover of something by Nick Cave, I think his songs would suit your voice really well
He sends the message before he has a chance to change his mind. He doesn't know if Taehyung is going to reply or even read it, so he decides to go to sleep and try not to think about it. He brushes his teeth, washes his face, and when he's already tucked into his bed, he opens the YouTube app on his phone, just because.
His heart leaps into his mouth when he sees that Taehyung had already sent him a reply. He quickly opens the message and scans the page.
Omggg hiii!! I'm SO SORRY if my recommendation pissed you off, i hope you didn't get weird messages, i know it happens sometimes :( thank you so much for your kind words ❤ i never heard of nick cave before, but ill check him out! Idk if you want to talk some more, but if you do, my kkt id is taethebae (pls don't laugh at me) so feel free to hit me up!! And thanks once again, it means a lot coming from someone like you!
Yoongi smiles to himself and places his phone on his nightstand, close to his pillow. He's going to reply to Taehyung first thing in the morning, he decides, pulling the covers up to his shoulders.
And if he rereads the message until he knows it by heart, that's just because he wants to make sure what to write back.