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“And up next we’ll hear Tokyo from RM’s second mixtape Mono, because this guy is a genius and I’m jealous of his lyrical talent,” Yoongi hears himself slightly slur the last few words. “But before that, remember: you can call the station by the following phone number to talk about your horrible New Year’s Eve experiences,” Yoongi reminds his seemingly nonexistent audience and repeats his phone number for the fourth time that night before he plays the song.
It is no surprise to him that no one is calling or even listening to his small radio station on New Year’s Eve, merely hours before the countdown. People have better things to do, places to be, loved ones to celebrate and perform all of the made-up, cliché traditions with.
It’s also no surprise to Yoongi that he’s spending the last night of the year in a cramped studio, talking into the void about all the ways this holiday in particular sucks, playing one sad song after the other because he’s still bitter about his last break-up leaving him all alone in Seoul, far away from home.
Yoongi sips on his drink because he’s relying on it to 1) help him keep the broadcast on a nice level of Twitter-shit-posting-funny instead of depressing and 2) burn his throat to make his voice husky and sexy in case his ex somehow ends up tuning in.
The song plays on and as he drunkenly admitted earlier, he likes it a lot. It’s a very good song. Just the right amount of heartache mixed between the lines of a mixtape that might as well pass as a crossword puzzle with the number of word plays and metaphors in it.
He never woke up in Tokyo before, but he is very homesick and RM’s words hit him just the right way. That man is so damn clever. And Yoongi, begrudgingly, finds that super hot. Like, smoking.
Backtracking from his (expected) horny reaction to brilliant art, Yoongi puts his drink down and clears his throat before the song ends and he has to speak again.
When it’s time, he turns the volume off the music channel and switches his microphone on.
“That was Tokyo by RM,” he starts, failing to put on his enthusiastic radio host voice hours into a broadcast clearly no one listens to. Instead, he speaks in his low, tired and rambling tone. “Now, here’s another New Year’s Eve thing that drives me nuts — and this is no joke, I have blocked so many numbers because of this.” He sniffs, feeling annoyed already. “I’m talking about those obnoxious text messages that people sign at the end with their stupid initials and then send out to — and I’m not kidding — every single person in their contacts.”
He plays a miserable laugh track for shits and giggles.
“I get about at least ten to fifteen of those every year and it’s always the same shit. They never even get creative,” he says and takes a look at his phone screen. “Right this moment,” he says, “I have already received a few from my uncles and aunts; extra annoying because they’ve also attached terrible gifs or pictures with holiday-themed quotes on them.”
His eyes quickly find one of the quotes.
“No, auntie,” he huffs as he reads. “The new year is not the time to start a new chapter in life. It’s just another day, chill.”
If anyone from his family were to hear all the things he’s been saying, he’d be uninvited from all upcoming Seollal gatherings next month. But that’s not an issue, because, he thinks once again, no one’s listening anyway.
He takes a deep breath before announcing his phone number again and ending with, “Now another hit track from RM’s Mono, Forever Rain.”
Once the music takes over, Yoongi sits back with a sigh, satisfied now that he got all that off his chest. This whole rant about New Year’s Eve traditions has been sort of cathartic, he thinks. If he’s going to spend the night all alone, he might as well make himself feel better about it.
He checks the clock and finds out it’s past 11 pm already. Less than an hour to go and then it’ll be over and Yoongi will go back to his life where being alone doesn’t have to hurt so bad.
As he stares at the ceiling, he wonders if he should play another RM song right after this one and fully give in to the vibe. Because, hey, there are no rules when you’re the only one running the whole station and tonight’s broadcast has already broken every rule that he set for himself on every level anyway.
Towards the end of the song, he’s startled by his phone buzzing non-stop. He imagines it must be more incoming texts and goes to turn the vibration off, but when he looks at his screen he sees that there is an incoming call. From an unknown number.
Brain going very empty very fast, he answers the call with a hesitant “Hello?”
“Hello,” a guy replies from the other end. After a few seconds of silence from both ends, he asks, “uh, is this the station that’s been playing RM?”
“Yes,” Yoongi breathes out. “Yes, hello, are you calling to go live with me? Or do you want to request a song?”
He feels his face going from completely tense in shock to warm with embarrassment within seconds. The whole night flashing before his eyes, he comes to realize that this means he hasn’t been speaking into the void all this time. This means someone heard at least some of the absurd things he’s been spewing out.
“Oh, I’m going live,” the other guy confidently says. “I, too, bear familial holiday grudges I could get off my chest.”
Yoongi feels even more embarrassed, realizing how petty he must have sounded, but snorts at what the other says anyway. Now that he finally has a guest, his heart does weird, excited thumps in his chest. Yoongi fully ignores it.
He asks his guest the two most important questions he can manage before the song is over: his name and where he is from. And as soon as the music stops, he fiddles with the keys of his equipment, impressing himself with how smoothly he does so despite being beyond tipsy at this point. His hands feel like they are on autopilot as he quickly connects his mobile phone and turns on its previously assigned audio channel.
Then, he clears his throat.
“Alright,” Yoongi starts, “with a surprising turn of events, we finally have a guest on the line. It’s Seokjin, joining us tonight from Seoul. Hello again.”
“Hello!”
“So you were telling me you hate New Year’s Eve, too?”
“No,” Seokjin deadpans. “I hate my grandparents for playing favourites and giving my older cousin more money than me every year.”
“Oh,” Yoongi nods, even though no one can see him, “the favourite grandchild,” he spits. “I see.”
“Exactly,” Seokjin says, sounding exasperated, hearing Yoongi agree with him.
“Our family had one, too.” Yoongi adds, reminiscing. “I’m talking about you, Sunhee.”
“And you, Minchul,” Seokjin joins him in naming names.
“Screw that guy!” Yoongi half-yells.
“Screw them!” agrees Seokjin and Yoongi realizes that he is having a lot of fun already.
They keep that up for a while, jumping from one family drama cliché surrounding the holiday season to another. And they kind of get lost in the conversation without either of them ever realizing.
“Did anyone else have that one uncle that knew all the tricks to yut nori and beat the whole family’s collective ass every year?” Yoongi rambles on at some point, decidedly adding, “I learned everything I know about manipulation thanks to that game.”
“Abolish fireworks,” Seokjin yells further down the line. “They scare the crap out of me and they mess with the environment!”
As lost as Yoongi is in their rapid and enthusiastic exchange, he also definitely notices how well-articulated all of Seokjin’s responses are. With his smooth intonation and the way every word seems to be flowing out of his mouth almost flawlessly, he is a true delight to listen to and have as a guest on the radio.
He feels almost mad that out of all the possibilities, it is this night that Seokjin decided to call his station. He’s frustrated to think that, likely, Yoongi is the only one that gets to currently hear him live. Because it is a delight. And Yoongi is pretty sure Seokjin could steal his job any day.
“The food is always good, though,” Seokjin says later, serious all of a sudden.
“The food is maybe the best part,” Yoongi agrees just as seriously.
Before he can add anything else, he’s startled by the short jingle that he pre-scheduled to alert him and the listeners half a minute before midnight. Yoongi recovers quickly, surprised that the time has come already, but Seokjin’s screaming continues even after the jingle dies down. Past the chaos, Yoongi gets only seconds before the countdown to announce that they’re at the very last seconds of the year.
“So, uh,” Yoongi stutters, “you wanna count with me?”
“Yes!” Seokjin half-yells. “We’re already late, come on! Five—”
“Four,” Yoongi joins him.
They count three, two, one together and then another scheduled jingle takes over the station for a quick moment. Yoongi turns the phone channel down a little as there’s quite a bit of commotion in the background from Seokjin’s side.
He hears Seokjin briefly wish a happy new year to the people around him, voice getting muffled and distant from time to time, likely as he hugs whomever is accompanying him.
From inside the soundproof studio, Yoongi can’t hear anything other than the noise coming from the line and it feels like at that moment, Seokjin is the bridge between him and the outside world, like he’s the one thing that keeps him glued to reality.
In the studio, it’s quiet, warm, and dark with the blinds drawn.
But on the other side of the phone, it’s loud. The microphone picks up the sound of wind brushing against the phone. Seokjin is sighing and humming as he says, “The lights outside look pretty.”
Before he can change his mind, Yoongi puts the blinds up so he can enjoy it, too. “Yeah.”
“Happy New Year.”
“To you, too.”
Yoongi loses track of time yet again as they both silently appreciate the view outside that they may or may not share, considering they are both in the same city, broadcast mostly forgotten. All he can think about is that he’s glad he got to experience some type of normalcy thanks to Seokjin today instead of completely succumbing to wallowing in self-pity.
He is glad that he can, if only for a moment, feel festive. Feel like he’s part of something bigger.
Feel that he isn’t so lonely after all, because there are hundreds of people looking at the same view right then, having mixed-up thoughts and feeling a roller-coaster of emotions of their own going into the new year.
The spell is broken moments later when they have to end their call in a rush because Seokjin’s family tries to Facetime him and he’s suddenly apologizing, quickly explaining the situation to Yoongi before he says his goodbye and has to hang up.
Yoongi doesn’t get a chance to thank him.
Tired and sleepy, he ends the broadcast without another word.
When he wakes up the next morning, he finds a few text messages on his phone that stand out from the sea of ‘Happy New Year’s.
unknown number
hey, this is seokjin
(idk if i’m shooting my shot at the whole radio station right now - if yes please ignore)
but there’s one last gross new year’s tradition left: the resolutions
i’ve just decided mine is you
wanna call and tell me how stupid i am?
min yoongi
that sounds awfully stupid
i’m in