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It was like the sharp scrape of glass over his nerves.
Yoongi had to fight not to flinch when he shook the girl’s hand. He managed, not because the feelings were any less but because he was used to it. Experience with this sort of thing kept the smile on his face but he could already tell this was going to be a bad day.
The girl looked happy enough, smiling at him brightly but she really wasn’t. Maybe she’d thought it would make her happy, being there? And she did seem marginally more so once she moved onto Jungkook.
That set precedence.
It wasn’t always like that but it had been more and more the more people who showed up. The seesawing emotions were the real problem. The girl that replaced her was bubbling with such excitement that it almost made him feel high.
By the time they were standing to address the crowd, to talk, Yoongi felt so raw, felt like he might vibrate right out of his own skin, felt like he might want to.
He did the only thing he knew would help, and slipped in-between Namjoon and Taehyung. Taehyung took one look at his face and stepped away, moving closer to Jimin and making it seem like he had meant to whisper something in Jimin’s ear, not purposively give Yoongi space. Yoongi stepped as close to Namjoon as he would be reasonably allowed to do in such a public setting.
Namjoon didn’t even have to look at him. He simply slung an arm around Yoongi’s shoulders with the same sort of casualness that he took the microphone offered him and began to speak.
The tension in Yoongi loosened some. Namjoon was like the calm in the storm, the only steady presence in a sea of pain and excitement. It was so much easier to block it all out, and focus just on Namjoon with him so close.
He felt less like one big raw nerve ending with Namjoon there.