Chapter Text
Near the end of the event, Jungkook’s hand was beginning to cramp from all the signatures he had written, his cheeks sore from all the smiling. He loved ARMY, but he was exhausted. These promotions were physically punishing, and he had the added burden of trying to finish high school at the same time.
He wouldn’t give this up in a million years, but he deeply missed sleeping for longer than three hours at a time. Just then, a fan distributed seven small gifts along the table. Despite the literal hundreds of gifts they received on a daily basis, each member tore into the packaging like it was Christmas morning, delight stretching across their faces. She had somehow managed to turn the drawings of their Hip Hop Monsters into sticky notes. Each of them received a set of their own monster. As the line lagged, Taehyung leaned over and eyed Jungkook’s set.
“These are SO cool,” Taehyung said in his ear.
“Yeah, but what exactly are we supposed to do with them?” he replied, unimpressed.
“I don’t know,” Taehyung said, ignoring his surliness. “Make notes? Keep track of things?”
“When do we ever need to do that? It’s not exactly like we work desk jobs.”
“Imagine if we did,” Taehyung said, his nose wrinkled in thought. “That would probably be my life if I hadn’t gotten into Bangtan.” Jungkook silently shuddered. He was so grateful to be doing what he loved, especially in light of how many of his schoolmates were heading down that boring path toward paper pushing and picking up coffee for the sunbaes.
“No, thanks,” Jungkook muttered to himself. Taehyung gave him a funny look. Jungkook shoved his stack into Taehyung’s hands. “You can have mine. I won’t need them.”
The next morning, Jungkook blearily glared at his alarm clock. Three hours on the dot. He tried to rub the sleep from his face but encountered something strange. He looked down. Every square inch of his bed was covered in tiny Kookie Hip Hop Monsters. Including his own face.
“What the hell?” he groaned, pulling a few from his hair. He heard the unmistakable sounds of Taehyung cackling outside his bedroom door. “TAE!”
A few days later, he had all but forgotten about the sticky note prank, though it had taken him nearly ten minutes to remove them all and throw them away. They were filming a television show and Jungkook was getting frustrated. So much of the show was in English. Most of the other boys had picked up enough English to get by or at least fake it. But other than a simple greeting and to ask where the bathroom was, Jungkook had…nothing. Every time he tried to learn, the words slid off his brain like water. By the end of the broadcast, he was annoyed and embarrassed. And trying desperately not to show it. Taehyung caught up with him in the van on the way to the next event.
“What’s eating you, maknae?” he asked.
“Nothing,” Jungkook snapped. Taehyung pursed his lips skeptically and waited. Jungkook sighed. “I just hate it when we do stuff in English. I’m too stupid to follow along.”Taehyung’s response was cut off by their arrival.
The next morning, Jungkook woke to another monster sticky note on his face. As he tried to get his eyes to focus, he noticed that there were sticky notes on every object in his bedroom. He peered closer. On each was written the name of the object in Hangul and then in English. He looked closer at the label from his forehead. Kookie: Not Stupid.
It was a full week before he stopped finding the English labels around his room. By then he was deep into studying for his final exams. He was so busy, he could barely see straight. He knew he was getting crankier and crankier by the day, but the other members never said a word. And he was grateful for that. He just needed to push through it. He tried not to think about the hectic schedule of a world tour that waited for him on the other side.
He got to school one morning and opened his backpack to find monster sticky notes on each of his books and notebooks.
Jungkookie, hwaiting!
I hated Literature, too. Don’t worry about it.
Our Kookie is so smart. He will do great!
Take care of yourself today.
All of them were in Taehyung’s handwriting. Jungkook didn’t say a word to Taehyung when he got home but only because he didn’t really know how to say thanks.
Over the next several weeks, it became customary to find a note or two a day. Sometimes on his bathroom mirror. Look how handsome our maknae is! Sometimes on a snack thoughtfully tucked into his bag. Don’t worry about the calories. Your health is more important. Sometimes on his favorite shirt in the closet. Don’t wear this one anymore. It makes you look stupid and also like your muscles are bigger than mine. Sometimes on his phone. Call your mother. I’m sure she misses you.
And Jungkook never said a word. Not about how much they brightened his day or how loved they made him feel. And Taehyung allowed him, never bringing it up, never acting like anything out of the ordinary was happening. But Jungkook could tell he was enjoying himself, because the sticky notes started appearing in the most obscure places, like in the toes of his shoe or wrapped around the handle of his toothbrush. He even found on inside his wallet one day, which confused him to no end.
Some of them were encouraging. Some were a brand of weirdly funny that only Taehyung could achieve. Some were mildly insulting but somehow in a loving way. Some were simply Taehyung’s “improvements” to the drawing of whichever member’s Hip Hop Monster he used that day. Because Jungkook had noticed that Tae had managed to snag all seven sets of notes.
Finally, Jungkook finished high school. He didn’t really have time to celebrate it much–the members had gotten him a cake–because they were leaving the next morning for the tour. But that night, as he got into bed, he found three notes.
I knew you could do it.
You’re really a grown up now. Weird.
Sleep well, Kookie. You deserve it.
At the end of their tour, they got a much needed break. Well, a break of sorts. They had returned to Korea to work on the next album. But at least they weren’t on the road and were mostly out of the spotlight for a few weeks.
One morning, he dropped a pair of socks, which rolled under his bed. When he pulled them out, they were a little dustier than before and had a Kookie Hip Hop Monster note stuck to them. He smiled a little at the reminder. Sometime during the tour, the sticky notes had stopped appearing as regularly. Jungkook realized he hadn’t seen one in a week or two.
“Hey, Kookie,” Taehyung said from the doorway. “Jiminie and I are going to the practice room. Want to come?”
“Sure,” he replied, pulling the note from the socks and shaking the dust off of them.
“What’s that?” Taehyung asked, taking the paper from his hand. Tae’s face split into a grin.
“Why’d you stop leaving me those?” Jungkook asked, as if this was something they hadn’t been silent about for months. Taehyung shrugged.
“You cheered up,” Tae said simply. “And I ran out of notes.” His face lit up with glee and he grabbed a pen off Jungkook’s nightstand. He scribbled on the note quickly. “Here, have an elephant!” He stuck the note squarely on Jungkook’s thigh, almost exactly where his two moles lived under the fabric. Jungkook rolled his eyes but smiled. “Now hurry up. Jiminie’s waiting.”
As soon as Taehyung was out of the room, Jungkook went to his closet and pulled a small box from the highest shelf. Opening the lid, he peered inside with a smile and added the tiny elephant drawing to the pile of Taehyung’s notes.