Work Text:
It all started in September, right after his birthday, though it had nothing to do with his birthday. He just remembered that he was wearing the super soft flannel pajamas his mother had sent as a gift. He remembered, because he was really pissed when he pissed on them.
It wasn’t as bad as it sounded. But it was still bad. And embarrassing. Though, honestly it wasn’t the piss all over the bathroom that was the most mortifying thing. It was Kim Taehyung bursting out from behind the shower curtain wearing only lime green rubber gloves and boxers, wielding a giant scrub brush like a weapon. Well, or more accurately, it was the high-pitched scream that Namjoon let out while flailing backwards. So it’s not that he peed on himself on purpose or even out of fear. It was merely a horrible coincidence that he’d just dropped trou and started taking a leak when he’d been so startled, sending pee splashing in places that it ought not to go -- namely not in the toilet.
Listen. He’d always thought of himself as a very rational and logical person, but everyone had fears. Namjoon’s were pretty common, as fears went. He didn’t like entering dark rooms without the ability to turn the light on quickly (who did?). He didn’t like the sensation of his limbs dangling over the edge of the mattress (despite how lanky he was, it was always more comfortable to curl up in the safety of the middle of the bed than to risk that niggling feeling that something could grab him while he was sleeping, which was actually entirely likely when he lived with six other mischievous boys). And he liked to leave the shower curtain open, so that he never had to wonder what was lurking on the other side when he got up to pee in the middle of the night (because that could totally happen, probably).
Hoseok nagged at him about mold and mildew whenever he “forgot” to close the curtain after a shower. Namjoon would just duck his head and promise to try to remember. But he never did try. Never even contemplated trying. Because there was just enough space between the curtain and the tile walls, in the basin of the bathtub, for some ghoulish creature to hide before bursting out and murdering him where he stood. Or, in this case, just enough room for Kim Taehyung to scrub the grout in suspicious silence and to make Namjoon ruin his favorite birthday present that year (don’t tell the fans -- they sent in a lot of nice stuff, but this was a contest Namjoon’s mother would always win).
But apparently, the others thought he’d overreacted. They stood outside the bathroom door and mocked him mercilessly while he crouched, in sodden pajama pants, on the tile floor and sopped up his own mess. And then teased him some more as he scrubbed every surface with Lysol (none of them would listen to him when he told them urine was sterile and didn’t need disinfecting, because they were too busy groaning gross, man and asking do we need to get you piddle-pads for future incidents? ).
“Something could be in there!” he said plaintively. “An ax murder or a werewolf or something else terrible could be lying in wait--”
“Joon-ah, no one is going to lurk in the shower.” Seokjin said calmly.
“HE was!” Namjoon pointed emphatically at Taehyung.
“Yeah, well, Taehyung is many things, but scary isn’t one of them,” Yoongi said.
“Unless you count his morning breath,” Jungkook added.
“Hey!” Taehyung huffed indignantly. “I can be scary!”
“Sure you can, buddy.” Jimin patted him on the back. Taehyung looked mildly placated. “But hyung, you have to admit it’s… kind of silly.”
“Says the kid so afraid of bumps in the night that he sleeps in someone else’s bed 85% of the time…” Namjoon mumbled bitterly.
“First of all, those actually could be a threat to my life or to my members.” Jimin glared at Namjoon for long enough that the others turned toward him.
“Is there a second of all there, Jiminie?” Hoseok teased.
“Yes, there is. Second of all, I just really like snuggles.” Jimin continued scowling at Namjoon (how someone could say the word snuggles so grumpily was beyond Namjoon, but if anyone could, it would be Jimin) “But hell if I’m going to come snuggle with you after this. Jerk.” Taehyung returned the favor of a sympathetic pat on Jimin’s shoulder.
“Besides, Jimin’s fear doesn’t make him whiz all over our communal bathroom,” Taehyung said. Jimin very maturely stuck his tongue out at Namjoon in agreement with his best friend.
“At least I’m afraid of something that could actually hurt me, unlike you,” Namjoon shot back, scooting over to wipe off the side of the tub and idly marvelling at the coverage he’d gotten. If they were going to mock him, he wasn’t above airing all of their dirty laundry. “Gerbils are adorable.”
“They are disease carrying rodents and a scourge on the earth,” Taehyung whispered fiercely. “We’ve been over this, hyung. I’m not afraid of them. I just have a very deep and profound preference… that they all be shot into space and annihilated with nuclear fire.” He shrank into himself just a little, pouting. “And it totally hurts if they bite you.”
“I’m not defending… this,” Namjoon motioned vaguely to the entire bathroom. “But we all have stupid fears. You hate gerbils. Seokjin freaks out about spiders and insects. Jungkook is afraid of styrofoam packing peanuts, women, and failure. Hoseok, I love you man, but you scream about just about everything. And Yoongi--” Namjoon stopped. Tilted his head in thought. “...is also afraid of stuff. Doesn’t matter. We’ve all got them, so get off my back and let me take a shower.”
“Wait, you don’t leave the curtain open while you’re showering,” Jungkook needled, obviously affronted by having his shit laid bare. “But I mean, when you’re inside the shower, something could be on the outside. So logically--”
“It’s not about logic,” Namjoon said, standing and shooing everyone away with his hands. “Get out, now.”
“Or what? You’ll pee on us?” Yoongi walked backward with a shit-eating grin. Namjoon sighed wearily and slammed the door in their faces. And he didn’t, not for one single second while he showered, think about what could be on the other side of the curtain. Not at all.
But several days later, it was still bugging him. He knew all their fears, except Yoongi’s. He had no idea what Yoongi was afraid of, had never seen him particularly jumpy about anything. The guy practically lived his life in slow motion, unless he was on stage.
He ran through the other members’ phobias again. There were more than he’d listed out loud. Taehyung could get kind of high-strung on airplanes, if things were even a little turbulent. Seokjin, lover of all food, was pathologically freaked out by an American dish they came across while they were filming AHL that Namjoon was pretty sure was called cottage cheese or something. It had been pretty gross, but it made Jin’s skin crawl on a whole other level. Jungkook washed his hands more frequently than was strictly necessary and made the others do the germier chores.
Namjoon felt a little weird that his brain had filed and catalogued all his members fears, but he told himself he was just being a good friend and leader. He couldn’t always help them, like the time he knew about Hoseok’s issues with snakes, but they’d still had to do that photoshoot. But sometimes, he was able to warn the staff and get modifications made so that the others didn’t have to be uncomfortable or embarrassed (they apparently didn’t feel he deserved the same treatment, if the sticky note with a drawing of a fanged smiley face that was stuck to his shampoo bottle the other morning was any indication).
But Yoongi was another story. Namjoon couldn’t remember when Yoongi had ever been truly scared. He’d been as uncomfortable as the rest of them while bungee jumping (except Jungkook, the thrill-seeking maniac), but it wasn’t pathological. It was a healthy and reasonable response to a risky activity. As was his habit of jumping away when the stage fireworks went off -- it was just simple self-preservation. And he never reacted to bugs or spiders or other creepy-crawlies. In fact, he was typically the one saving the others from things like that in the dorm.
Yoongi never seemed to get ruffled about much of anything other than music, and that was passion, not panic talking. Even his shaking before a concert could be explained away by an adrenaline rush and a reasonable response to thousands of people screaming your name.
So that’s how it started, this odd and informal research project.
Namjoon felt kind of like a stalker in his own band, watching Yoongi carefully whenever a potential fear presented itself. But now that his curiosity had been piqued, his over-active and too-large-for-his-own-good brain wouldn’t let it go. (Just like the others didn’t really let go of what they all now referred to as The Potty Accident. Namjoon was thrilled to have the same reputation as a toddler. It was fantastic. Totally. Fine.) Namjoon couldn’t help that he was a learner, an observer of humanity, and someone who was not at all insecure about the fact that Yoongi was apparently more badass than he was.
So, the next week, when the manager had to slam on his brakes to avoid a collision and Hoseok had turned white as a sheet and even Namjoon had felt a little lurch in his gut, it was natural that his eyes automatically swung to Yoongi to see if he had a reaction. He didn’t. Namjoon’s brain checked a box on a long list of potential fears, filtering out many others he knew were also not problems (airplanes, heights, snakes, the dentist, crowds, etc).
A few days later, they were walking across the back parking lot of the company building on their way to the van. There were always these little black and brown birds hanging out, looking for food left behind by careless travelers, and today was no different. Namjoon may or may not have intentionally gotten just a little too close and coughed loudly, just to make them startle and fly all around them. Yoongi took a slight step back and Namjoon bit his lip, watching closely. Hoseok, of course, screamed and headed toward the van at a breakneck speed. But as soon as the birds cleared, Yoongi kept walking, calling after Hoseok to reassure him. Namjoon sighed (feeling kind of like an asshole) and followed behind him with an apology ready on his lips. He checked off birds, too.
Lucky for Namjoon, it was almost October. The television was about to be full of horror movies and creepy tales. Bangtan would go on a few talk shows, where the hosts might ask them Halloween themed questions. They’d do something spooky-ish for their fans, maybe a Bangtan Bomb or a fanmeeting. There would be plenty of opportunities for Namjoon to observe and research and collect data. God, he was such a nerd. But he was too interested to care all that much.
One afternoon, the dance line stayed behind for extra practice. Namjoon saw it for the chance it was (the two most skittish members wouldn’t get caught in the crossfire of his plan) and grabbed it. He told the others they’d been working really hard lately and suggested they all watch a movie. In the spirit of October, he recommended something pretty gory. He was actually surprised that it worked, that Yoongi didn’t find an excuse to go work in the studio or catch a nap. Instead, he just shrugged and flopped on the couch next to Seokjin, flipping through something on his phone while Namjoon put in the movie and Taehyung went in search of snacks.
Unfortunately, the movie he chose turned out to be a lot more campy and stupid than it was scary. Seokjin covered his eyes at one point, shying away from the screen as blood spurted out of the neck of a dumbass who thought it was wise to go into a basement alone to check out strange noises (seriously, that was like Rule One). But then he lowered his hands and mumbled about poor film-making skills and how his friends back in university could make something better than this with a tenth of the budget.
So Namjoon honestly wasn’t sure if Yoongi’s lack of reaction was conclusive data. He mentally put a question mark next to that item on the list and added a note to come back to it. Still, he found that he’d really enjoyed the break from work and promotions and he’d laughed quite a bit, so it wasn’t a total loss.
When the dancers came home, though, Namjoon actually did cross off blood & gore, since Jungkook had somehow managed to cut his hand again (and everyone called Namjoon the God of Destruction) and Yoongi had been the one to clean it out and patch it up without any trouble. Namjoon tried not to be disappointed, since everything he eliminated just helped narrow down the list and bring him closer to the knowledge he wanted. But he was starting to wonder if Yoongi really had no fears and was, in fact, much more badass than Namjoon was. That was a world he didn’t entirely like the sound of.
Eventually, he resorted to Naver, searching terms like most common fears and rare phobias . He hated that he identified with so many of them. And he didn’t like the growing realization of how frequently throughout a day they encountered something that people were afraid of. The world was a frightening place. It was making him strangely jumpy.
But he persevered. While digging through the Bangtan closet for something to wear during a Bomb, he came across a really creepy mask of a decaying corpse (fans gave them some really weird shit at signings, sometimes). After he’d stopped shuddering, he waited for the perfect time to jump out at Yoongi. Yoongi simply rolled his eyes (although Namjoon almost got a friend in the realm of bladder control jokes, judging by the way Seokjin screamed and fell down with his eyes bulging out of his face).
A severe thunderstorm that week ruled out another fear, as did a later run-in with a bumblebee at the last outdoor festival on their schedule for the year. Namjoon wearily checked things off the list (which was now physical because even his high IQ couldn’t hold onto this many variables). They got closer and closer to Halloween, but no amount of vampires or werewolves or bloodthirsty serial killers could budge Yoongi. In fact, if anything, he seemed to be getting more and more relaxed and lazy as their schedule slowed down for a week or two.
Namjoon resorted to things he’d never thought he’d do before, like convincing Taehyung and Jungkook to lay in wait in Yoongi’s studio to scare him dressed like clowns. He honestly didn’t know how he managed to do it, since they both had their own healthy fear of Death By Yoongi, but he’d been crafty with the way he’d phrased it and had somehow made it seem like it was their idea and he was against it (he may have congratulated himself on being so clever). So they didn’t even blame him when they got yelled at for interrupting Yoongi when he was so busy producing a new track.
Namjoon played to his strengths, too, starting philosophical conversations about rejection, intimacy, and commitment. He wasn’t sure Yoongi was listening to him that closely, though. He’d noticed that his members had a strange tendency to go glassy-eyed and practically catatonic when he talked about the things his brain had been spinning on. It was pretty annoying, actually.
Finally, the night before Halloween (which they surprisingly weren’t celebrating with the fans in any way this year), Namjoon reviewed his list sadly. He was still surprised by the check marks next to alektorophobia (the fear of chickens), globophobia (the fear of balloons), and galeophobia (the fear of sharks), less because of the fears themselves, but because there had been situations recently that had automatically eliminated them as possibilities (the thing with the chicken had been super weird and Namjoon wouldn’t be over it for a little while yet).
There were nearly one hundred fears that he was able to remove from the list simply by having known Yoongi for so many years (he was mildly undecided over the Fear of Beards, but he was pretty sure that one was a no as well). He scanned the list and then froze. How had he not checked off the one about ghosts? He thought over all the movies they’d watched recently (and tried not to think about the uncomfortable dreams they’d been giving him), but none of them had had ghosts. It was a relatively common thing in dramas, but Namjoon couldn’t think of a single instance where Yoongi had been in the same room as a ghost story. That was weird.
Namjoon pondered as he got ready for bed. Tomorrow was the spookiest day of the year. If there were ever a time to find out Yoongi’s fear, it was Halloween. And ghosts were a staple of the celebrations. He was sure he’d be able to check it off then.
But the next day was surprisingly busy. Management had decided on the title track and concept for their next album, so they spent the morning in the practice room learning the first pieces of choreo. Namjoon hated this part. Despite what the fans thought and his own pre-debut complaining, he actually enjoyed dancing. He just hated learning the dances. Especially at this stage, when Sungdeuk was still figuring all of the pieces out and weighing their current skill levels and changing things around. Namjoon always felt like he learned the same move with about twelve variations and could never remember which one was the current version.
Then, Hoseok had asked for his help on a track for his mixtape (it was coming along nicely). Then Taehyung wanted to talk fashion for an event he was going to with his acting friends that night (Namjoon was both honored to be asked and annoyed that Taehyung seemed to ignore most of his advice). After that, he’d had a meeting with management about various leadery things (he was asked, for about the sixth time since their last album, to help them keep Jungkook out of the gym and he responded, for about the fifth time since their last album, that they were fighting a losing battle).
By the time he got back to the dorms, it was early evening, the shadows growing long with the sun not quite past the horizon. Taehyung had already left for his event. Seokjin had taken advantage of a night off to go see Ken and Sandeul. The dancers were back in the practice room, trying to get some of the moves more solidly established before they pulled the others in (Namjoon was particularly grateful for that). It looked like he was going to have the dorm all to himself for the first time in months, if Yoongi’s habit of squirreling himself away in his studio every night held true today, too.
So he was surprised to see the light on in Yoongi and Seokjin’s bedroom. He poked his head in and found Yoongi sitting on the bed with his laptop next to him, wide eyed and tense. He must ahve been sitting there for a while because the room was rapidly growing dimmer, but he hadn’t bothered to turn on a light. Namjoon knocked his shoulder into the door frame and Yoongi jumped, swiveling toward the sound.
“Oh, it’s just you,” Yoongi said, relaxing a little. He cleared his throat and his eyes flickered around the room. Namjoon peered at him. He’d never seen him like this.
“You okay?”
“What?” Yoongi’s eyes flashed back to him distractedly. “Oh, yeah, I’m fine. Everything’s fine. It’s all cool. Great, actually, really, how are you?”
“I’m good…” Namjoon watched him for another minute, noting the way his hands twisted in his lap and the way his knee jiggled. “You sure you’re okay? You look… well, to be honest, it looks like that time you had all that coffee in the middle of the night.”
“Nah, I’m fine. No caffeine. I’m just… Well, it doesn’t matter.”
Namjoon narrowed his eyes. Yoongi was clearly not fine, but he wasn’t sure how to get him to admit it. For as fearless as he seemed to be, he was pretty skittish when it came to emotions. If Namjoon came at him too directly, he’d either growl some insult and brush him off or start cracking jokes to diffuse the tension. But he (unfortunately for Namjoon’s study) was not actually afraid of emotions. It just took him a bit of time to warm up to talking about them.
“Got any big Halloween plans?” Namjoon asked as casually as he could. Yoongi shuddered delicately, almost imperceptibly. But Namjoon had become very good at watching him over the last weeks, so he caught the movement right away. “You planning a horror movie marathon? Maybe a good, solid haunted house theme?”
Yoongi turned wide eyes on him for a second. He schooled his expression quickly and shrugged as if he couldn’t be bothered to use words. Namjoon suddenly wondered if he could speak, the way he swallowed hard and fidgeted. His behavior was making Namjoon strangely nervous himself.
“You know…” Namjoon said, pressing his advantage and ignoring the prickling sensation of all the hairs on his neck standing up. “There’s this one American film, about a family that moves into an old house on the outskirts of a small town, but no one tells them about the horrific murders that happened there fifty years ago or the ghosts that kill every new owner. It’s supposed to be really good! I bet we could find it on Netflix.”
“Um, no, I…” Yoongi’s voice cracked. They stared at each other -- Namjoon had never heard his voice do that. Yoongi cleared his throat roughly and pitched his voice super low as he continued, “There’s the new James Bond. I’ve been wanting to see that.”
“That’s not very Halloweeny of you, hyung.” Namjoon grinned. “Ooooh, how about White: Melody of Death? That’s got our names written all over it.” (Namjoon was terrified of that movie, but he wasn’t about to miss the chance to find out Yoongi’s fear.)
“Actually, I don’t-- Let’s watch something else. I don’t mind zombies or vampires. Or even a good serial killer? That’s nice, too. Really, awesome, yeah. But ghosts are not-- OH! There’s that one where these avenging angels come down to, you know, avenge and shit. That might be good. I mean, we can watch anything, but just, no ghosts or like, spirits. Undead is okay. Still dead, not so much.” Yoongi shut his mouth quickly and looked away. “Or, um, whatever…”
“Hyung…” Namjoon paused. This was the moment. It felt so… momentous. “Are you afraid of ghosts?”
“What?” Yoongi’s head snapped around. He frowned. “I mean, I’m not… Well, that is-- Afraid is a big word…”
“It’s okay if you are,” Namjoon said. “I mean, everyone has stupid fears.”
“Like shower curtains?” Yoongi looked nearly innocent, but Namjoon knew he was being mocked.
“I. Am. Not. Afraid. Of. Shower. Curtains.” Namjoon glared at him and growled under his breath. “It’s completely different. You know what, whatever, be afraid of ghosts or not.” He turned to leave.
“No, I’m sorry. Don’t go. I don’t want to be alone...” Yoongi beckoned him back. Namjoon sighed and followed the gesture, coming further into the room and perching on the end of the bed. “I mean, sure, I don’t like ghosts. But that’s just plain good sense. It’s a healthy fear.”
Namjoon blinked at him. “I didn’t even know you believed in them…” He furrowed his brow. “You think ghosts are real?”
“You don’t?” Yoongi looked shocked. Namjoon looked shocked right back. “Joonie… I’ve… No. I won’t. We shouldn’t. Listen, I’m sorry I brought it up.”
“You didn’t. I did.” Namjoon unconsciously leaned forward. “What were you going to say?” Yoongi sat for a long moment, opening his mouth and closing it again, clearly torn.
“Ghosts are real…” he whispered. Namjoon couldn’t believe his hyung, Min Suga, the most practical and unrufflable man he knew, was seriously sitting here, worried about ghosts. Namjoon’s doubt must have shown on his face, because Yoongi clenched his jaw and said fiercely, “I’ve seen them.”
“What?” Namjoon shook his head. “I mean… What?”
“When I was a kid… back in Daegu. At my grandmother’s old house. It was… Man, you have no idea.”
Namjoon couldn’t speak. This was so much more than he’d hoped for. So much more than he needed. He was ready to throw out the lists and be done with this forever. As troubling as it was to consider a world where Yoongi was more badass than he was, he’d actually basically accepted that fate. He was uncomfortable with this shift, with Yoongi being wrecked over a figment of his imagination. Plus, it was hella creepy.
“Listen, I know it sounds crazy. I hear it, okay? But you know me. Would I make this up?” Yoongi’s eyes, usually so hooded and sleepy, were wide and pleading. Namjoon found himself nodding without thinking. This was one of his best friends in the universe. “I don’t like to talk about it, you know? But Halloween, every year… It’s just… It’s the day I can’t really hide from it. From her.”
“Her?” Unbidden, a slight chill ran down Namjoon’s spine.
“Lee Sookja…” Yoongi’s eyes darted around the room again, like he maybe thought the ghost would be summoned by him whispering its name. “She died in 1957. Inside my grandmother’s house.” Yoongi cleared his throat and picked at his jeans, seemingly unaware of Namjoon’s rapt attention. Namjoon hadn’t realized how dark it had gotten in the room. He pulled his legs up on the bed and tried not to think about what might be under it. “Well, she was murdered. On the night before her wedding. She was… I think she was 17. The records were unclear, and she never… she never mentioned.”
“She… mentioned… things?” Namjoon asked faintly.
“Well, yeah… We talked about other stuff, but her age never came up. And I wasn’t going to ask. I was a kid, Namjoon.”
“You… actually talked to her? Like. You two had conversations?” Namjoon shook his head. He shouldn’t be buying this. Except. Yoongi was shaking. He’d slowly curled in a small ball on top of his covers, laptop shoved to the side, and he was rocking ever so slightly.
“When a vengeful spirit wants to talk to you, you can’t exactly say no,” Yoongi whispered roughly.
“What… kinds of things did you talk about?”
“Well, like I said, she was a vengeful spirit. They weren’t exactly happy talks, Namjoon.” Yoongi bit his lip and stared into his open closet for a long moment, before he shook himself and turned back. “I shouldn’t be telling you any of this. You probably don’t believe me anyway. Just… Don’t tell the others, okay? I can’t-- Losing your respect is bad enough.”
“No!” Namjoon leaned forward and stretched out his hand to comfort his friend. Yoongi shrank back instantly, so Namjoon just set his hand on the bedspread. He was so out of his depth. “You haven’t lost my respect. I’m listening. I’m here. Tell me.”
“The first few times, she was just raving about her murder. She was so angry. Scared the shit out of me. I begged my grandmother to send me home to my parents’ house -- I was staying with her for the term break -- but she thought I was just being rebellious.” Yoongi sighed regretfully. “Anyway, after a bit, she calmed down and almost… treated me like a friend. Well, for a little while. Until…”
Namjoon waited, but Yoongi didn’t continue. He swallowed hard. “Until…?” Namjoon’s shoulders were so tense, he could feel his old injuries acting up, but he wasn’t about to leave this in the middle Yoongi looked so vulnerable. So terrified.
“Until she started… asking me to do stuff,” Yoongi mumbled, unable to meet Namjoon’s eyes.
“What kind of stuff?” Fear churned in his stomach. He wasn’t sure he wanted the answer to that question. To know if Yoongi capitulated. To know what kind of errands Yoongi seemed so guilty for having carried out on behalf of an angry ghost.
“At first, it was just… little stuff. She needed information. She needed to know if the men who… came that night… if any of them were still alive. And I was too curious to say no, so she sent me to the town records and the library. It was like a research project.” There was strange glint in Yoongi’s eyes now. Namjoon’s chest ached strangely. “But then… she kept asking for more and I was in so deep. She had this hold on me. I don’t know. I just. I did some things I’m not proud of.” Yoongi hung his head. Namjoon stared at him open mouthed.
“Like… what?” Namjoon startled himself by speaking. He hadn’t intended to.
“Well, like… She told me I had to… to avenge her. I needed to help her get justice.” Yoongi looked at him with damp, sad eyes. “She said I had to punk my friends on Halloween.”
For a moment, Namjoon sat, leaned precariously forward, open mouthed, stiff spined, completely enraptured by this story. Until the meaning of Yoongi’s statement sunk in.
“Wait, what?”
“Oh my god , Namjoon, you giant nerd.” Yoongi shook his head and slowly unfurled his body, stretching arms and legs with relief. “I’ve been watching you watch me for six weeks. For a genius, you’re incredibly slow sometimes.”
“What is happening right now?” Namjoon asked, sitting back and crossing his arms, feeling exposed and stupid and off kilter by the sudden change in his friend.
“If you wanted to know my biggest fear, you could have just asked.” Yoongi barked out a laugh. “God, you are not subtle. The thing with the birds? And I knew you sent the maknaes into my studio. Messing with my music crosses a line, man. I was going to let it go before that, but then you had to be a dick about it.”
Namjoon gaped at him. Yoongi scoffed and shrugged. It was like he was sloughing of the character he’d been playing for nearly an hour now.
“Joonie, my biggest fear is needles. Don’t you remember how mad I made the nurses in the hospital when I had my surgery?” Yoongi smiled sardonically. “You gave me this whole big lecture. I can’t believe you didn’t remember that.”
“Oh my god.” Namjoon clenched his fists. “You asshole. I was trying to be a good friend.”
“You were being nosy and performing social experiments on me,” Yoongi shot back, standing up and stretching. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I actually do want to go watch White. You coming?” Yoongi didn’t even bother to wait, sauntering down the hall to the living room.
It all started in September, near Namjoon’s birthday, but it ended on Halloween night, with Namjoon sitting alone on Yoongi’s bed, with his feet pulled up and his eyes peeled wide in a dark room, terrified of a fake ghost named Lee Sookja. But at least he had conclusive results from his study: Min Yoongi was 100% more badass than him.