Chapter Text
“Yah, byeong-shin,” a voice cuts through the studio, “go get me a water.” There’s some laughing, and Namjoon sighs to himself while going over some of the notes one of the instructors had given to him. While living and working with a bunch of trainees could be fun sometimes, he’d quickly grown wary of the unprofessional language tossed between some of them when the trainers weren’t around. Even though they’re all still kids who normally would be in high school, calling their friends these names, they’d all chosen to be here instead. Here, in a professional environment, hoping to debut soon. This kind of language has no place here, adults around or not, and Namjoon shuddered to imagine these habits following the trainees into their idol careers. All it would take was one name-calling picked up by a fancam or a gossip outlet and the group would be wrapped up in a scandal that might end their careers.
Namjoon refused to participate in that kind of behavior, desperately hoping that Bang-PD would find other trainees for Bangtan Sonyeondan who happened to share the same values of professionalism as he did. The trainees that Bang-PD were currently considering fortunately did not seem to go around using crass language, but Bang-PD was set on finding at least a couple of more members before giving them the green light to debut.
“He just listens to you?” someone asks, and the response is a scoff. Namjoon makes sure to keep his head down as he continues packing up for the evening, but he subtly casts a look over to the group of guys he’s come to avoid interacting with more than necessary. Some of them have already been assigned to idol groups, thus acting as though they are better than those who have not. The others gathered around are probably hoping to get on the good side of the leader, Shin Daewon, who seems to be the one who demanded a water.
“Yeah, he’s desperate for anyone to like him,” Daewon says with a smirk. “Joke’s on him, I’d sooner quit than let Bang-PD assign him to 184TA0. It’s not like he’s talented enough for us anyways.” The other two boys in 184TA0 laugh along with him while the others chuckle slightly. Namjoon frowns. He’s not sure who exactly they’re talking about, but he highly doubts that’s true. All of the trainees here have proven they’re talented in some way or another and are all working to become more proficient in the areas they don’t excel at yet.
“What’s that about?” Hoseok asks, walking over with his own bag slung over his shoulder. Like Namjoon, he doesn’t make it obvious that he’s looking over at the group. Daewon has been known to call out anyone over anything, and both of them have agreed they want no part of it if it can be avoided.
“I don’t even know,” Namjoon shrugs, zipping up his bag. “You ready to go? I think Yoongi-hyung already left.” If Namjoon thought he lost patience listening to the other trainees from time to time, then Yoongi had no patience for them ever. It was amusing sometimes, except when Namjoon and Hoseok had to pull him away from a situation in which Yoongi was going to open his mouth and go off on someone. While Yoongi generally did not engage in name-calling, he could speak very sharply and Namjoon felt it was maybe best not to be making any enemies with the trainees who could later become their groupmates. Hoseok nods, and the two of them set off for the front door of the studio.
As soon as they step into the hall, a small boy collides with them, dropping the waters he’d been holding to his chest. “Ah, sorry, sorry sunbaes,” the boy gasps, bowing to both of them in turn and scrambling to pick up the bottles. This must be the trainee Daewon was talking about, but Namjoon certainly didn’t expect him to be so… small. He almost feels like he should maybe say something, but that would go against his live and let live philosophy when it came to the others.
“You should be more careful,” Hoseok advises seriously, but there’s a hint of amusement in his voice that Namjoon isn’t sure the boy picks up on as he bows to them again. He doesn’t think he’s seen this boy around before, big doe eyes and more skittish than anyone Namjoon has ever seen in the company before.
“I’m sorry, Hoseok-sunbae-nim,” the boy almost whispers, and then dashes back into the studio with the water bottles.
“You know him?” Namjoon asks as they continue down the hall. He shouldn’t be too surprised, with Hoseok’s friendly personality, he knows just about every trainee and trainer in the company and seems to be on good terms with them all. Hoseok is probably the most liked person around.
“Jungkook? He’s a good kid,” Hoseok nods.
“He looks young,” Namjoon notes, thinking again about the rude way Daewon was talking to him. That’s no way for a sunbae to talk to a hoobae, especially one as young and impressionable as that Jungkook kid.
“Yeah, I don’t know that he’s going to last a while,” Hoseok sighs almost disappointedly. “He’s yet to come out of his shell and I heard some of the managers talking about letting him go.” Namjoon winces on behalf of the kid. He’s had to overhear some past trainees get cut, and it usually ends with tears and heartbreak. BigHit isn’t a big company yet, so if they’re going to get cut from it, they’re probably not going to be able to become trainees elsewhere. But maybe that would be a better option for Jungkook than continuing to be used by Daewon. Even so, Namjoon’s stomach twists uncomfortably for the small boy, and he stops suddenly.
“Hey, I left something back in the studio. I’ll meet you outside?” He offers, and Hoseok nods unsuspectingly. Namjoon doubles back to the studio, peeking in to see the group packing up while the boy -- Jungkook -- stands there in the background. As the group goes to depart, Jungkook takes a step to follow them, when Daewon turns around to face him. Jungkook immediately bows to the senior, missing the smirk Daewon throws at the other boys still gathered.
“Get lost, byeong-shin,” he sneers. “You know you’re not good enough to hang out with us yet.” He laughs with the rest of the boys, and Namjoon presses himself against the wall and pretends to be engrossed in something on his phone. Once they’ve disappeared from sight, Namjoon lets himself back into the studio where Jungkook seems to be trying not to cry (and failing).
“Hey, Jungkook,” Namjoon approaches him cautiously. The boy’s head snaps up from where he’d been staring at the ground, and he quickly wipes at his face and bows to Namjoon.
“Ah, Rap Monster-sunbae-nim,” Jungkook greets him shyly. Namjoon feels a little bad for not having known the kid when he clearly knows Namjoon. “What do you need me to do?” Namjoon feels even worse when he hears Jungkook say that, as if the only reason any senior would approach him would be for that. Then he realizes that, save for Hoseok, that probably is the only reason most of the seniors have approached him.
“You can hear me out,” Namjoon suggests, and then blanches. He’d come in here with no plan of what to say, and now the kid was peering up at him with his wide, curious doe eyes and waiting for Namjoon to say something intelligent. “Uh. You know Hoseok-hyung, right?” Jungkook brightens up a bit at the name, nodding but not saying anything else. “Okay. Well, has Hoseok-hyung ever asked you to do anything for him?” A shake of the head. “Right. Hoseok’s nice. Daewon, he’s not so nice. Do you see what I mean?” Jungkook shrugs, but he tilts his head to the side a little. Like a puppy. It’s kind of cute. Focus, Namjoon. “Jungkook, your sunbaes should be like Hoseok. Nice. Daewon’s taking advantage of you, and that’s not very nice.”
“I just want people to like me.” Namjoon almost doesn’t hear Jungkook’s admission since Jungkook basically says it to the floor, but it when his brain registers the boy’s words, he has never hated Daewon more. Jungkook is a kid. A kid who was talented to join BigHit, and Daewon has the gall to exploit Jungkook’s desire to make friends? Namjoon briefly considers chasing Daewon down the hall and giving him a piece of his mind, but that wouldn’t accomplish anything. So he focuses on what he can change.
“People do like you, Jungkook-ah,” Namjoon promises. Jungkook’s wide eyes look up from the floor, questioningly. “Hoseok-hyung likes you a lot, you know. And I do, too.” Namjoon would have sworn it wasn’t possible, but Jungkook’s eyes widen even more at Namjoon’s words, and a bit of pink dusts his cheeks. “Come on, me and Hoseok are going to get dinner. You wanna come?” Jungkook looks back down, and Namjoon swears he can see the gears shifting in his head. Aish, this kid. “Okay, scratch that. You’re definitely coming. Let’s go.” He leans down to pick up Jungkook’s bag that’s laying at his feet, and turns around to head out the door.
“Thank you sunbae-nim,” Jungkook says once they’re in the hall. He’s still almost too quiet, but Namjoon thinks they can work on that another time.
“You can call me hyung, Jungkook-ah,” he offers, and doesn’t miss the way Jungkook smiles to himself.