Chapter Text
His mind is blank. His heart thumps loudly inside his chest. The music he had composed and which lyrics he wrote is blasting through the speakers in the spacious practice room. He doesn’t know how long they have been at this. All he knows was that the group has to get their set-list perfected.
Every single one of them is completely dedicated to that. The room is a blur of various pairs of feet heavily stomping against the smooth surface of the wooden floors; accompanied with a melody of grunts and pants. As much as he loves his job, he wonders when they will be done. Soon, hopefully. He prays that he won’t collapse if another minute passes by — he is so, so exhausted.
Soon enough, his prayers are answered. Hallelujah!
"Alright! That's it for today!" Their choreographer calls as Spring Day comes to an end.
The seven members don’t even have the energy to cheer. Taehyung is already sprawled on the floor, his usually tanned face flushing with exertion. Yoongi is bent over, clutching his abdomen. Hoseok is breathing heavily, but he seems to be fine. He isn’t the main dancer for nothing. Jimin is slumping onto the floor carefully. Seokjin is trying to cool himself with a battery operated fan but it looks like it is giving little to no help. Jeongguk is holding onto the back of a chair near to steady himself.
Everyone is still trying to catch their breaths. Slowly, he looks at his reflection. He knows what he may look like, but even so, he doesn’t even have the energy to cringe when a sweaty, flushed face drooping with exhaustion blinks wearily back at him.
Meanwhile, the staff hollers. "Good job, boys! You worked hard today. Now shower before having something delicious for dinner and rest well. Let's get moving!" Their choreographer claps as he smiles warmly at every of the members.
Immediately, the staff splits. An assistant hurries over to pass out small towels while their managers give them chilled bottles of water. He gulps it down thirstily, sighing through his nose at the feeling of the cool liquid replenishing his dry throat. Rubbing the back of his hand against his mouth, he smiles brightly (as he can) at his best friends, feeling proud that they have done well.
"Good practice, brothers. It was tough, but we got through it again." He says. He hates how the two short sentences are broken up with slight pants. God, he needs a rest.
Hoseok gives him a bright grin. "Of course, Joon. Bangtan always puts in their all."
Yoongi merely grunts in acknowledgment. Jeongguk looks like he is about to doze off from his spot by the chair. Taehyung just continues staring blankly at the ceiling with his tongue slightly sticking out of his mouth. Seokjin is looking for something — his phone, probably — and, Jimin, as usual, is looking intently at a staff member's phone. He requests for every practice and rehearsal to be recorded so he is able to review everything and see if there is anything to improve on. With Jimin, that means there is always something to work on. No matter how insignificant, he always pays attention to the slightest mistake and makes sure that he corrects it.
"Get in the shower, lazy boy." Manager Sejin nudges at Taehyung's foot with his shoe. "You've been talking all day about the game live stream that's coming up in two hours. Don't you want to get home and watch it? If you complain tomorrow that you missed it, don’t go telling people that I didn’t remind you."
At the mention of the livestream that he and Jeongguk have been anticipating for days now, like a puppet brought to life, Taehyung sits up abruptly and hobbles off to his belongings. Then he disappears to the bathroom. Jeongguk mumbles a jumbled "wait for me!", but the former is long gone.
Jeongguk grumbles, but he, too, grabs his things without not wasting any seconds. Namjoon sighs. Returning his attention to the rest, he registered mildly at the back of his head that Yoongi is talking to a couple of staff members. Seokjin chats animatedly on the phone — his daily phone call with his mother, maybe — and Hoseok frowns at his phone. He doesn’t need to see where Jimin is. The group is familiar with his routine. Once he finishes watching the video (at least twice), he discusses his observations with their choreographer. Namjoon realizes that Manager Sejin left the room, off to complete more managing duties. His stomach grumbles. The vibration shakes his body.
"Hope-ah," He calls when he diverts his attention back to him.
"Yeah?" Hoseok responds, now looking at Namjoon in question.
"Want to grab dinner together?"
"Sure. What do you have in mind?"
Images of seasoned meat, vegetables and seafood sizzling on a hot charcoal grill instantly comes to his mind. "Ah, what about barbecue?"
"BBQ? Sure," Hoseok says agreeably.
"Okay, I know just the place. A friend recommended this restaurant and it's nearby, too."
"Sure. Let's go get refreshed first. I feel disgusting."
Hoseok laughs and leads both of them to the showers.
Forty minutes later, Namjoon curls up on a couch in the corner of the BigHit office. Hoseok had been called to do something for their upcoming schedules so Namjoon waits for him. He isn’t clear on where the other three have gone after they had parted ways at the practice room. He’ll see them back in the apartment, anyway.
The two youngest members had hurriedly left for home once they were done, rushing to make it for their beloved Overwatch live-stream. Both of them had been bickering and pushing for each other to pick up their paces.
Namjoon snorts softly at the thought of Overwatch.
He just doesn’t get the game, nor does he understand what has Taehyung and Jeongguk so obsessed with it. As Taehyung's hyung and roommate, he feels a responsibility to take care of him. Yet, no matter how many times he tries to tell Taehyung to stop playing and go to bed, he is either ignored or cleverly distracted. The lad is a mischievous one.
"Namjoon, I think I'll need another ten minutes. I'll try to be quick. They need my help to tie this up." Hoseok says apologetically as he passes by with a staff member.
Namjoon smiles lightly. "It's okay, Hoseok. I'll be here."
Pulling out his phone, he taps on the Twitter app.
Other idols may think that it’s weird to check on what is happening with their fans, but Namjoon doesn't. Perhaps, it’s the fact that he has a back-up account. He doesn’t have to fear that he may have accidentally tapped the heart icon on someone else’s tweet — that may start a riot. He can comfortably keep himself up-to-date with affairs within the fandom and interact freely with ARMYs with his pseudonym account.
ARMYs has done so much for Bangtan. That thought never leaves his mind; he is eternally grateful for helping them get to where they are now.
The seven members themselves, including the BigHit staff and industry players, had never seen a future for Bangtan to be as rich as it was currently. Namjoon had thought that there was a possibility that he would need to go back to school and get a normal job. He was ever thankful that the seven of them were together, living their dreams. Hence, he likes to drop in and see what is of interest with the fans.
Yesterday, they were chattering about the upcoming release of their Japanese album. He can’t control the smile that tips his lips up. He’s ecstatic for ARMYs to hear the songs. But today, it seems, they are talking about something else. With the end of their WINGS Tour approaching, many are anticipating about it. He learnt that some are flying in especially for the shows, and already he notices that some are queuing outside the venue in the bitter-cold weather. He fervently hopes that they would be warm; he feels guilty that the fans had to endure the harsh temperature for them. The dedication never fails to overwhelm his heart.
So far, nothing particularly major has been going on Twitter at the moment. All he can make out is that everyone is anticipating for the very last day of the WINGS tour and how emotional the fans — their fans (he smiles fondly at the thought) — are that another era is coming to an end, even if the WINGS tour won’t be their last. Still, he can’t help but to miss the crowd when it will end momentarily.
Namjoon chuckles.
ARMY can really be dramatic at times but it is honestly adorable to witness their feelings through the numerous tweets coming in every second. There are some... questionable ones, definitely, but he doesn't mind seeing them every once in awhile. He's been on the app for several years now so nothing fazes him anymore. He’s even gotten used to the countless memes he always sees in the replies on their main account and admittedly, it was hilarious to see.
He had already checked in earlier in the day before their schedule started. Will there be anything new? Stifling a chuckle at his pseudonym account (he had fun choosing the most ridiculous handle he could possibly think of), he flicks through his timeline curiously. He likes a few tweets here and there, and retweeting some too.
It’s something he does whenever he is bored out of his mind (lately they’ve been so busy that he’s only able to drop in once every few days) but hey, he has a good laugh from time to time. The fans are really creative and witty — especially the humorous side of of the fandom. Seokjin should take a few lessons from the minority, Namjoon thinks with a thoughtful hum. He can almost picture the eldest member getting red in the face as he prepares to yell at him in offense when he does suggest that. Then again —
None of his members know he even does that in his spare time.
Having a Twitter account, to be exact. All of them has access to the Bangtan account, obviously. Jeongguk probably deleted his app, but all he needs to do is borrow another member’s phone if he ever wants to use it. Though, to his knowledge, he is the only one with another Twitter account, let alone an ARMY/Bangtan account.
It's not like it’s an embarrassing thing. It isn’t a big deal to have an account like that, really. He can tell them anytime, to say the least. He just doesn’t deem it necessary to share about the information. Also, it has never crossed his mind to tell the rest of Bangtan that he figuratively "stalks" the fans. He does that to get a few ideas and whatnot — where did they think he got his inspiration for Pied Piper from? Plus, knowing his friends, they’d bugger the hell out of him to borrow his fan account so they can talk to ARMYs and play around. He can tell them to create their own, but he knows the answer he’ll get, mostly from the maknae-line — “But you already have one, Hyung! It’s so much work to make my own. I will have no followers! That will look so sad.” And he knows he’ll give in. Sigh.
He blinks.
Several of the members had expressed concerns if the fans might not be amused by Pied Piper . He had hoped that it didn't offend any of the fans with that. To his relief, they found it quite comical and were even grateful to be written about. Some even joked it was a diss track for ARMYs, which it kinda is if you think about it.
Hoseok’s ten minutes are almost up, Namjoon thought. Yet still no sight of him, though he can hear his loud-mouthed friend laughing from a corner of the deserted office. So Namjoon continues swipes his thumb against the phone’s screen, looking for something funny to catch his attention.
It doesn’t take long for a chuckle to slip from his mouth. This time, he notices with a jerk, it is a tweet whose owner has a username with his name in it. Wow, a username with his name. He peers closely at the Twitter handle. Though It isn't that rare to look for someone who biased him, nor is it common either. Has he seen this account before? He frowns. The people he follows are mostly maknae-line supporters, with a few hyung-line fans here and there. He has no idea why maknae-line, when he’s part of the hyung-line, so don’t ask. Mostly he just follows the people who follows him back so it is less likely for fans to guess that it was possibly a Bangtan member behind the account.
Obviously, that means he doesn’t have an impressive ratio, to say the least. When Namjoon had first joined stan Twitter, it had taken him a while to get used to internet slang and Twitter lingo. Ratios were one of the first thing he mastered, though his account doesn’t reflect what he’s learnt is “right”. Isn't it just enough that you follow people and they follow you back, solely because you share similar interests? Apparently not in this decade. The more followers, the more popular people will assume you are.
Namjoon refocuses on the tweet.
@jooniepersnaps: Namjoon is the best leader anyone can ask for, especially my ult kpop group. He always remains humble, always encouraging the members to try new things, comforting them if they’re down, writes and produces bops, and is so inspiring! I love him so much, I only ever want the best for him as always ♥
Blinking owlishly, he reads the words out loud to himself softly, flushing almost instantly because this person really knows how to flatter someone. It had surprised him when he first saw the tweet, so he had laughed incredulously. It’s just a simple tweet of appreciation, really. Though, Namjoon beams, pointing mostly to how the humble leader never fails to be himself while being as inspiring the user claims he is. He feels the flush crawl up his neck. He always takes pride when someone claims him to be an inspiring individual. It makes his heart swell whenever he learns that the reason why someone is pushing themselves to be the best is because of his influence.
He honestly is at loss for words, even if the tweet is as simple as solving a 1+1= 2 math question. Yet, it had affected him so much — in a good way of course.
Namjoon scans the basic information on the tweet. There is a name on the user’s display-name, but he can’t be sure if it’s real because it can be their nickname or just a random one. In fact, the display name is “Glass”. Is that a name? Nickname? Or maybe the user likes glass? His lips tips into another smile when he rereads the username...That has his name! In the username! But the user’s icon is an old photo of him from YNWA’s album jacket. Oh. So I don’t know how they look like. Well, nothing weird. His own icon was an ugly selfie Taehyung had texted him in response to Namjoon begging him to stop playing a game and go to bed. No one has asked where he got the photo from, though. Which is good, because he sucks at lying.
Next thing he knows, he's scrolling through their profile with the brightest of blushes powdering his round cheeks, all the way to the tip of his small button nose. Oh, my God. There’s so many tweets. And they’re mostly about me! Namjoon tries to bite back the smile that is threatening to split his face, in fear that someone may see him smiling like a fool at his phone. Then the next day will have everyone teasing him on who was making him so happy.
He realizes Hoseok is late. But he doesn’t care. From all the "stalking" he has done a few minutes prior to this current situation — he’ll call it “surveillance”, thank you, not “stalking” — he gathers several important details of the user. The user is a female, judging by replies people have sent to her. Also, Namjoon grins, she has a kitten! A kitten called Minmin, who is the color of milk tea and has what looks like the softest fur, and is terribly mischievous despite only being 6 months old. Ah, Glass is going to be in for a treat as Minmin grows older , Namjoon muses. Rapmon sure did, though at age three now, he is much more subdued. Wait! There’s a name! He pats himself on the back mentally for catching the tweet where a close friend responds to Glass.
[Name]. That’s a beautiful name.
[Name] is also clearly a 101% Namjoon stan, said man thinks to himself. Definitely, she has way too many tweets about me. He did see a few of Jimin and Seokjin a while back but Namjoon is obviously the main focal point of this peculiar girl. Stop there, Namjoon. You barely know her. Maybe she just likes talking about you.
He realizes he tapped the “follow” button earlier when a notification flashes.
@jooniepersnaps followed you back!
Oh. Oops.
Wait, we’re mutuals now. Heh.
Should he tweet her? She seems like an interesting person; someone he will get along with and be close to. That’d be nice, right? A new friend? They’d never meet in real life anyway, really. He’s too busy, too. Or not. They can turn out to be enemies. What if she hates Ryan? He has to defend his favorite fictional character. But it’d be nice to meet someone new...
Man up, Namjoon. Okay, let’s tweet her. Namjoon taps on the little feather quill icon, thumbs poised over his keyboard. Let’s just say “hello! Thanks for following me back! Let’s be friends :)” — no, no. No way. That is so lame. Maybe “Hey, Glass, nice to meet you!”. Wait, what? Meet what? We’ve never even spoke before. God, what am I doing?
@jooniepersnaps sent you a Direct Message!
She sent what? A direct message? Namjoon taps on the envelope icon puzzledly, abandoning his blank tweet. Her DM is right of the top of his list of DMs. He doesn’t interact with many of his followers, so there’s only a few in his inbox.
[6:51 PM] Glass: HELLO! I’m [Name] :) thought i’d say hi because we just became mutuals. I love making new friends, so i hope you don’t mind this lol
[6:51 PM] Snow Lover : Oh hello! My name is
Wait, what name will he use? He’s been telling people on his account that he is “Nathan James” so he can use “NJ” in case he forgets his name. Okay, NJ it is, then.
[6: 52 PM] Snow Lover : Oops, sent that too fast! I’m NJ, it stands for Nathan James, but that’s too long so just call me NJ! I hope we can become friends, too :^)
“You’re smiling like an idiot at your phone again,” Someone says cheerily.
Namjoon nearly drops his phone. Well, he did drop it. But Hoseok catches it smoothly, raising a brow at Namjoon for an answer. Namjoon desperately pushes down the blush that threatens to creep up again. Think of something, Namjoon, quick!
“I was not!” He panics. Close call! He congratulates himself.
Hoseok merely tilts his head forwards as if he’s saying he doesn’t buy whatever nonsense Namjoon is spewing.
“You’re probably imagining things.” He says, stuffing his phone back into his jean pocket, rising from the couch for a stretch. Stop asking, bro. I don’t know what to say. He grimaces when he hears a crack or two from his back and wrist. Hoseok watches with a wry grin.
“Uh-huh. Well, enough dilly-dallying, let’s eat! I’m starving!” The cheer dancer bounces in his place and grabs Namjoon’s sleeve. “Also, Jeonggukie told me to bring him and Tae some food. You know how the two are with their video games and what children enjoy.” He rolls his eyes. An iPhone X is shoved into his face, showing the leader the said message of distress from the maknae. He even manages to send a rather, unattractive selfie of him fake crying with Taehyung doing a more exaggerated one in the background, clutching his stomach with the caption reading “will do anything for food!”
Namjoon barks out a laugh that collectively earns questioning looks from the staff passing by from where they stand, though he ignores the stares and peers fondly at the selca. “Tell him to do our chores for two whole weeks with Taehyung and we’ll even throw in a few lamb skewers.”
Hoseok nods and hums softly, his fingers flying over the phone screen. “He says one week. Our new place is way bigger and claims it’ll put a strain on his body if he goes more than that.”
“No lamb skewers then.” Namjoon sing-songs, knowing the maknae will most likely agree in hopes of getting what he loves the most — well, one of the things he loves. “Besides, Jeonggukie’s stamina is perfect for that, unlike us oldies.”
Needless to say, Jeongguk agrees this time with no hesitation. Though Taehyung thinks otherwise and expresses his resentment against the deal by blowing up their leader’s phone with nonsensical texts. Namjoon once again laughs as he receives a blurry selfie of Taehyung with his mouth open in a way to yell at his hyung through the sleek screen of his phone.
“The Kakao notification sound is gonna be stuck in my head for a few days.” Namjoon muses.
Hoseok laughs as they walk in sync out of the office to finally get some delicious, barbecued meat into their growling stomachs. They both deserve it from all they efforts they put in today. Namjoon sucks in the drool that actually slips from his mouth, dreaming of the sizzling grill awaiting them.
Dinner went well as expected. Both were still enthusiastic to talk about anything as they continuously stuffed their mouths with countless, deliciously juicy meat. They mostly had talked about upcoming projects and events — especially their plans for songs Namjoon and Hoseok had thought of, even if they had released their mini-album not to long ago. Their creative juices doesn’t seem to stop churning out ideas, not to mention they were inspired by ARMYs so they had no idea if this was a curse or a blessing.
Too bad Yoongi wasn’t there to join in the conversation, he surely would’ve had fun expressing his thoughts. Though the eldest rapper looked as if he was about to pass out when they had asked him to go with them. So Yoongi declined politely and said he would just eat whatever Seokjin was able to whip up in their (much larger) kitchen. Namjoon doesn’t remember if they have anything decent in their refrigerator. All they seem to have inside their refrigerator are banana milk, snacks, juice, frozen food, instant food and kimchi.
“We’re home!” Hoseok announces once he throws the door open. Namjoon winces at the volume of the bubbly dancer’s voice being echoed through the open-space concept of their dorm. He follows after him, closing the door behind him in a manner that greatly contrasts Hoseok’s previous actions. He can faintly make out the conversation the latter is having with who he can assume are Jeongguk and Taehyung.
A hungry pair of noisy maknaes isn’t exactly to look forward to, especially when one of them had clearly showed their displeasure with the conditions Namjoon put up when negotiating for food earlier.
“Hyung!”
He jumps at the excited yell coming from their annoyingly-lovable maknae when he steps foot into the living room. His eyes flicker to meet the grateful and relieved grin Jeongguk sports when he swiftly approaches Namjoon with what he can assume are grabby hands.
“Did you get the good stuff? What else did you get?” Jeongguk asks with anticipation. Wow, okay, where’s the ‘thank you, hyung, thanks for going out of the way to get food for us”? Hmph. Already he’s rummaging through the take-out bag.
“Please tell me it isn’t drugs, Joon-ah.”
Namjoon reels back in mock offense. “What do you take me as? I just bought the two knuckleheads some food. They said were hungry, hyung.”
A loud, exaggerated gasp. Seokjin twirls around and points an accusing finger at Jeongguk and Taehyung, who both suspiciously look elsewhere when the eldest starts to speak — “YAH! You both told me you weren’t hungry! I can’t believe you denied my cooking for the third time this night —“ at this point, Namjoon tunes out the raging man gesturing wildly as he spits out how offended he is.
Once Seokjin pauses to breathe, Jeongguk bounces breathlessly on the heels of his feet. He waves the bag at Taehyung, who rushes over immediately. Namjoon sighs.
“Yes, we got the lamb skewers, don’t worry —“ Jeongguk cheers with an excited yes! “— but! You have to clean the place for two whole weeks with Taehyungie.” A unison of groans rises in despair. However, Namjoon isn’t having any of it. “Yah. A deal is a deal. If you want, you can ask Jiminie to help but only three times. I’ll be keeping tabs.” Namjoon peeks quickly at the unsuspecting blonde who is a little too focused on his phone screen.
Taehyung coughs. “Favoritism.”
“What was that?”
“Nothing, hyung! Thank you for the food!”
Namjoon only sighs and waves them off. He decides to finally retreat to his shared room with Jimin (he picked him this time since the boy wasn’t that big on video games — god, he’s learnt his lesson, no more yelling when his roommate loses a match or loud cheering when he wins) to change into his pajamas.
Once Namjoon makes himself comfortable on the plush surface of his covers, his phone suddenly chimes. Oh, a direct message to his other Twitter-account. He grabs his phone and almost instantly, his face brightens at the notification flashing on his lockscreen.
[9:45 PM] Glass : AAAAHH sorry I replied so late! I was finishing work I hadn’t noticed hhhh
His phone dings once more.
[9:45 PM] Glass : but hey! It’s nice to meet you, Nathan! Or NJ lmao Nathan James sounds like a mouthful tbh
Namjoon laughs because it is indeed true. It was a last minute thought when he decided to introduce himself since most of his followers were begging for him to give a name. It was mostly because he had mentioned previously that he was male — fanboys were a very rare species to come across especially on stan Twitter. Some have even told him that he sounded attractive with the way he tweets. He doesn’t understand how someone can be attractive like that, because he’s just trying to blend in and be a part of the fans.
[9:46 PM] Snow Lover : it’s alright hahaha i went out to dinner with a friend anyway so I kinda forgot we had a convo oops?
[9:48 PM] Glass : [gasps] how dare u forget me?! Nah, just kiddin i kinda got busy anyway too. Work is a pain in the ass my deadline is tomorrow so im pretty much dead inside
Namjoon pauses mid-typing. Huh, she’s even cuter in convo.
[9:49 PM] Snow Lover : ah same. Work for me is exhausting too so dont take it personal if I forget to reply thats just me falling asleep
[9:49 PM] Glass : no offense taken cuz I was about to warn you about it too :^) glad we’re on the same page NJ
A throat clears. “Hyung, why are you creepily smiling at your phone?”