Work Text:
‘And next up: Bangtan Sonyeondan!’
The room went dark except for the blood red lights, highlighting the stage. Hoseok took a deep breath, the cheers sending adrenaline pumping through his veins. The music started and he felt back in his element.
They poured everything into the performance, feeling invincible with the voices of their fans ringing in their ears. Panting as they struck the ending pose of the song the stage went dark and the platform, they were on went down, backstage.
‘Yah that was great!’ Jin yelled high fiving Jimin as they walked back to the dressing rooms. Hoseok giggled as he watched Jin overexaggerate the performance, making Jimin and Taehyung crack up.
Everyone was in a good mood. The performance had been perfect. They hadn’t had any mic or stage problems and thank god the lights actually worked unlike during their rehearsal.
He quickly got out of his stage clothes and put on a more comfortable suit, getting on his phone while he waited for the others. He raised his phone up and took a couple of selcas and posted one on twitter. He was about to close the app but he was a bit curious of what people thought about their performance.
He saw it was trending and the urge to see what everyone was saying was even greater. They usually never looked themselves up because quite frankly it was weird and they didn’t want to see the hate they got from people who had nothing better to do in life. He shrugged to himself. First time for everything.
Instantly he was flooded with screenshots of the performance coupled with a lot of purple hearts and crying emojis. He got a wide grin on his face as he scrolled through all the tweets complimenting them and their stage presence. He noticed a few people saying that the performance was complete garbage but he easily brushed it off because it was becoming easier to just not care about the mindless hate.
As he scrolled down, he saw a person who had written a long thread about the whole thing and it was really sweet at first but then he saw one of the tweets talking about Seokjin.
His dancing is fine ig but seriously I think it was better in I need u.
He also saw a few other people agree that they were better at their older dances. He frowned because he honestly thought that they had nailed this one but these people seemed like fans, if their profile pictures and usernames were any indication. He sat back and stared at his phone. Sure, he was coming from a biased perspective but he was always professional about performances. Maybe he was more biased than he thought. As he replayed the performance in his head he cringed, remembering how Yoongi was out of position at the start and how his own movements had been a bit quick.
He opened his phone and watched the performance back. And he started seeing mistakes that he hadn’t noticed before. Seokjin’s facial expressions weren’t perfect, Jimin had messed up on the footwork for a second and on and on.
If Hoseok had gone to the other members and told them about his worries then he would have realised that those people, while they seemed to fans were being nit picky with members they didn’t like and that all the “mistakes” he was seeing was something he would see only if he was looking for something to criticise.
Instead, he spent the rest of the night worrying and beating himself up even when they won one of the awards they were nominated for.
‘We need to work harder.’ He thought to himself.
They needed to work harder if nothing but for their fans. The next day was a holiday for them but after that they were back on schedule and he would make sure that they were ready for their next comeback.
-
‘Again!’
‘Fix that!’
‘Keep up!’
That’s all the members had been hearing all day, every day. Hoseok had been taking there practices extremely seriously, not letting them fall behind for even a second. He had kept them up well into the night yesterday. Jin, Jimin and Jungkook taking it one step further and staying up till three in the morning, practicing. But even after that and the four hours of practice they had done today, it seemed like they could still do nothing right in the dancer’s eyes.
To make matters even worse the AC had broken down halfway through practice and even though they were wearing the thinnest possible clothes, they were all still sweating buckets.
‘Come on guys, it’s not that hard.’ Hoseok groaned, restarting the music.
‘Hyung maybe we should take a fifteen-minute break?’ Jimin suggested softly and all the members nodded in agreement.
Hoseok looked around and sighed. ‘Ten minutes. We’re behind schedule.’
They really weren’t but no one had the energy to argue with him. All of them grabbed water bottles and collapsed on the floor. Jungkook just lay back and closed his eyes, trying to catch up on the lost sleep.
‘If I don’t sleep in the next hour I will die on the spot.’ Namjoon groaned, rolling his head.
Jin nodded in agreement and then looked over to Jimin who was looking paler than a vampire. ‘Are you fine?’
Jimin smiled and nodded. ‘Yes hyung.’
Jin sent the dancer a concerned look then he turned to Namjoon. ‘Unfortunately for you Namjoonie I don’t think our dear drill sergeant will be letting us go for a couple more hours.’
The youngest rapper groaned, pouting adorably. ‘Just wait. We’ll see who’s the drill sergeant when he needs help with lyrics.’
‘Guys! Let’s start!’ Hoseok called out and got into position. He had spent the break looking back on the practice and where the members were messing up.
They made it through a couple of runs with minimal mistakes but that all went downhill when Jungkook during his jump tripped and was unable to get back in sync with the song even though he tried.
‘Jungkook-ah take this seriously.’ Hoseok scolded and he rolled his eyes when the maknae apologised.
Yoongi frowned at the dancer and looked over to Jungkook, concerned. It seemed like he was fine but then Yoongi’s eyes landed on Jin and he winced. His hyung had taken on a green tint. Before he could ask his him if he was fine the music started up. He was now a bit worried. Jin was a stubborn person and would no doubt push himself too much and from the looks of things Jimin was doing the same thing.
Again and again, they ran through the dance but Hoseok was still unhappy with how it was going and had no qualms sharing that with the others.
‘Jimin-ah fix your expressions!’
‘Namjoon, you need to actually move your arms.’
‘Taehyung do you even know the steps?’
Hoseok was normally a strict dance teacher but this was just plain rude and Yoongi was getting quite sick of it. He was going to suggest they stop for lunch after the song finished but then Jimin slipped and fell with a loud thud. He let out a quite curse but then his eyes widened when Hoseok looked at him, eyes burning.
‘Yah! Park Jimin is this your first-time dancing? Your footwork is abysmal and I don’t know if your facial expressions could get any worse. Even Namjoon is doing better than you which isn’t really saying much.’ The dancer sent their leader a pointed glare.
‘Hyung-’
‘If you don’t want to take this seriously then fricking sit it out. And you're already tired? Seriously toughen up. We used to do way more than this before debut. And if you think you can perform in front of army like that you have another thing coming to you. They would be so disappointed and I wouldn’t blame them.’
Jimin opened his mouth to say something but Hoseok was on a roll.
‘And you.’ He said turning to Jin, throwing all honorifics out the window. ‘Just because your WWH doesn’t mean that your facial expressions don’t need some serious work. I don’t know if you could unlearn that footwork because it is terrible.’
Yoongi let out something akin to a growl but before he could go and punch the dancer, he was distracted by Jimin letting out a small whimper and rushing out of the room with Taehyung following.
Jin looked like he was ready to throw up and Namjoon and Jungkook were gasping, trying to catch their breaths. Yoongi himself was feeling slightly lightheaded from the heat. He had to stop this before someone got seriously hurt.
‘Hoseok enough.’ He said sternly, grabbing the rappers arm.
‘Do not get me started on y-’
Yoongi didn’t let him finish his sentence, tightening his grip on the younger boy and dragging him to a plastic fold up chair on the other side of the room, sitting down and yanking him over his lap.
‘Get off me!’ Hoseok fumed
‘Hush.’
Hoseok squawked but his retort was cut off by a yelp as Yoongi brought his hand down sharply on his thigh.
Only then did he realise that the other members were still in the room. There was no way they were going to watch this play out.
‘This is not happening.’ He growled.
‘It is.’ Yoongi told him. ‘Now Hobi, are you going to calm down and talk?’
Hoseok took a deep breath and nodded. However, he was actually in no mood to talk to the older rapper. When he felt his hyung’s grip on his waist loosen he swung his weight to the side and neatly rolled of the rapper’s lap. He was instantly back on his feet. Not even sparing a glance at his hyung, he stormed out of the room, with Yoongi hot on his heels.
‘Hoseok get back here!’ Yoongi called threateningly but Hobi ignored him
He power walked down the floor and towards the elevators running headfirst into Taehyung and Jimin. He was about to brush past the younger boy but when he saw his face, he faltered. Jimin had clearly tried to erase the evidence that he’d been crying but his eyes were still red rimmed and puffy.
His pause let Yoongi catch up to him and grab him by his collar.
‘You are in a world of trouble.’ His hyung whispered to him and then pulled him towards a few empty recording studios, ignoring Jimin and Taehyung’s shocked faces.
He led the squirming dongsaeng down the hall and pushed him into one of the empty rooms, locking the door for good measure.
‘Listen-’
Yoongi just shook his head, pushing Hoseok over the table. It seemed like the dancer had come back to his senses but Yoongi wasn’t going to wait and see if he was ready to talk again.
‘You should shut up.’ He told the dancer. ‘You’ve done more than enough talking for today.’
He just stood there while Hoseok squirmed around, pressing down on the dancer’s back. It took longer than he expected but eventually the rapper wore himself out and just lay on the desk, panting.
‘Let me up.’
Yoongi didn’t answer him. He grabbed the singer’s sweat pants and pulled it down with a tug along with his underwear. Hoseok tried to reach down and pull them back up but his hand was slapped away.
‘What if someone sees?!’ He whisper-yelled. ‘Hyung!’
‘Oh, now it’s hyung?’
The dancer rolled his eyes and huffed. ‘Will you just get off my back? Literally.’
‘Do you really think you should be arguing in this position?’
Hoseok groaned and squirmed. ‘I didn’t ask to be here.’
‘Oh, but you did. You’ve been asking for this all day. Or are you going to argue that you totally didn’t cross several lines today?’
Yoongi waited a beat and then
Smack
‘AH! Hyung!’
‘Answer me.’
Hoseok whined. ‘Fine maybe I went a bit overboard. Happy now?’
‘No. A “bit overboard” is the understatement of the fucking century.’ Yoongi scolded. ‘So, tell me how you fucked up.’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Really?’ Yoongi raised an eyebrow. ‘Ok then let’s refresh your memory hm?’
Smack
‘First, you’ve been pushing everyone to their limit non stop these past few days.’
Smack
‘Second, you made Jimin cry because you were such an asshole.’
Smack
‘Third, you disregarded the discomfort of your members today and risked causing serious injuries just because you were dissatisfied with how practice was going.’
Smack
‘Not to mention how rude you were to all of us.’
‘Ow ow! Ok hyung I get it!’
‘Do you?’ Yoongi asked.
‘Yes! I was an asshole.’
Yoongi hummed in agreement. The dancer was already trembling but he clearly wasn’t fully ready to accept his mistakes just yet. Yoongi knew he had to push his dongsaeng a bit more.
‘You know more than anyone how hard Jimin is on himself.’ Yoongi said as he brought his hand repeatedly down on the dancer’s ass. ‘And all of us look to you to be a good teacher but today you took advantage of that.’
‘I d-didn’t mean to.’ Hoseok hissed and let out a yelp as the next smack caught him off guard.
‘Regardless of whether or not you meant to, the fact of the matter is that you did.’
‘I’m sorry!’
Yoongi nodded. ‘Good.’
He had to really hold Hoseok down because of how much the younger rapper was squirming around. Yoongi honestly had some sympathy for him because he knew that Hoseok getting trouble was a very rare thing. But he didn’t let that sympathy stop him from turning the boy’s backside a bright red.
‘Hyung p-please.’
‘We are nowhere near done Hoseok.’
‘Fuck please hyung. I'm so sorry.’
Smack smack smack smack
‘Are you sure about that Hoseok?’
‘Yes!’ The younger rapper sobbed. ‘I was so fucking caught up in the dance that I was an absolute asshole.’
He shuddered and slumped onto the table, all the fight leaving him.
‘Jiminie could have gotten hurt and it-it’s my fault. ‘
It broke Yoongi’s heart to see their ray of sunshine like this. He was also relieved that the dancer had finally realised exactly what he’d done.
‘Listen. I'm going to give you a choice, ok? I was going to give you another thirty but if you want you can get ten with my belt instead.’
Hoseok whimpered. He had never gotten the belt. Hell, he’d only gotten smacked by Jin’s hairbrush once and that was the go to implement. But there was no way he would survive Yoongi’s hand.
‘Hoseok?’ Yoongi prompted patting the boy’s thigh in a warning.
‘Um…the belt.’ Hobi squeaked softly.
‘You sure?’
The dancer nodded, not trusting himself to speak. Then he heard the belt buckle as Yoongi took it off and shuddered. Clenching his eyes shut he waited.
‘Count them.’
Smack
Fuck
That was way worse than anything he could have anticipated. The burning was so bad and he had no doubt he’d be feeling it for a while.
‘Hoseok did you forget what you're supposed to do already?’ Yoongi asked sighing.
‘Oh one. Sorry’
Smack
‘T-two.’
Smack smack
‘Three four.’
Smack
‘Argh! Five!’
Yoongi landed remaining smacks on the dancer’s upper thighs quickly and the second Hoseok weakly muttered ‘ten’ he threw the belt aside and rubbed the younger boy’s back. Hoseok was completely boneless and didn’t even try to get up, instead just quietly crying into his arms. His ass was burning sure but fucking hell his chest felt so tight. He was feeling so guilty and he just wanted to curl up and disappear.
‘It’s ok Hoseokie.’ Yoongi told him almost as if reading his mind.
And he knew that once he apologised and showed the members, he was genuinely sorry that everything would be fine. But he didn’t think he could face them. Fuck they were all probably so pissed.
Yoongi patted his back and then grabbed a bottled of water from a nearby cupboard, handing it to him. Hobi took it gratefully and chugged the whole thing. He pushed himself off the table and rightened his clothes.
‘You ready to go back?’
Hoseok nodded and then looked away. ‘I’m so sorry hyung.’
Wordlessly Yoongi opened his arms and Hoseok hugged him back so hard he lifted the shorter boy off the ground.
‘I love you too but put me down.’
Once he was back on the ground, he led them back to the practice room and found all the members dozing on the floor. It was a sad sight honestly and Hoseok felt his heart clench.
‘Should I wake them?’ he asked but Yoongi was already walking over and poking them with a bottle. He shook Jimin until the dancer woke up and whispered something to him. The younger dancer looked over to Hoseok and sat up straighter. Hesitantly Hobi walked over and bowed deeply.
‘Jimin I would like to um apologise. I was extremely rude to you and I said some things that I did not mean and hurt you. I’m so sorry.’
The younger dancer regarded him for a few seconds.
‘Hyung you really hurt me.’
Hoseok felt his heart break. ‘I know.’
‘And I'm not sure if I can forget everything right now but I do forgive you.’
Hobi smiled but then said ‘You know you don’t have to.’
‘Yes, but holding a grudge won’t help anyone. Besides,’ Jimin flushed a bit. ‘We’ve had worse fights and said worse things. I know you didn’t mean it hyung.’
‘Thank you Jimin.’
‘Why were you being such an asshole though?’ A voice from behind him said and Hoseok jumped.
‘Hyung!’ He immediately bowed again and started rambling apologises.
‘Hyung I am so sorry! I was so rude and I didn’t mean anything I said! And I-‘
‘Hm, we will be having a lengthy conversation about how to talk to your hyungs later.’ Jin said raising his eyebrows. ‘But you didn’t answer my question.’
‘Oh. I-I guess I was just panicking and worrying over everything not being you know perfect. And I just took that out on you guys. I'm sorry.’
‘No one is perfect Hoseok.’
‘I know.’
Jin gestured the young rapper towards him, pulling the younger boy to sit next to him – ignoring the small yelp Hoseok let out- and put an arm around his shoulder.
‘Hoseok I am aware my dancing ability is lacking but-’
‘Hyung no!’ The dancer immediately protested. ‘I didn’t mean any of those things. Your great, amazing. You too Jiminie. Both of you have improved so much and I've seen it with my own eyes. I was just putting unrealistic expectations on you and everyone.’
Jin had an amused smile playing on his lips. ‘Ok yes I am amazing. But we all have things we can work on when it comes to the choreography. And when we have to perform, we will do our best.’
‘Some people don’t think it’s our best.’ Hobi sighed.
Jin scoffed. ‘Yes, and some people think that mint chocolate is a good flavour. People have stupid opinions sometimes and we should not care. If we are truly putting in our all then we don’t have to worry about what people think. Even if they are our fans. Remember Hoseok, no one but us knows how much effort we put in.’
‘I know. Sorry again.’
Jimin slapped his shoulder. ‘You sound like a broken record. Wait till everyone else is up before apologising again.’
Hoseok nodded, embarrassed.
‘You know.’ Yoongi said, flopping down as well after unsuccessfully trying to rouse the maknae. ‘You're going to have to make it up to us.’
‘Anything.’ Hoseok said immediately.
The three members looked at each other and yelled ‘ICE CREAM!’
‘Yeah ice cream.’ Jungkook murmured, still half asleep.
Hoseok laughed and pulled out his phone. Everything was going back to normal.