Chapter Text
Tired was not the word he would use for how he felt about the events happening currently. Now, frustrated with a smidge of anxiety hidden in there was the exact combination he was looking for. He’s not even sure how he got into this situation, honestly. The only thing he’s sure of is that Kim Seokjin, does not belong in the plush cushion in a somewhat stuffy basement.
His body jerks a bit at the feeling of people styling his usually somewhat messy hair, and the feeling of makeup brushes on his face gently applying some kind of unknown substance that most likely cost more than his current apartment, and his belongings included.
If he thinks back, he would place all the blame on his phone charger, for not doing the one thing it’s designed for; charging his phone. In fact everything seemed to go sour as soon as he woke up, what a perfect way to start the morning might he add, cue the sarcasm.
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“We present you the winner of the grand prize for finishing, not only ten or twenty, but fifty plates, and finally emptying the restaurant of all its sushi ingredients and supplies; Kim Seokjin!” announced the overly bright MC for the food event he was currently at.
Seokjin continues to present a big smile regardless, knowing that his big appetite finally did some good for once and just as he reached for his grand prize, a huge, beautiful, magnificent check---
Was that a herd of Jjangu?
Oh no.
The herd that seemed like multiple Jjangus ripped through the huge check like football players at a high school would do to a banner, completely wrecking it. He immediately wakes up from his nightmare, in cold sweat. “Jeez, even in the dream realm money seems to be nonexistent.”
He glances at his clock and stares for approximately 5 seconds, or maybe even more before his eyes comically bulge out.
“Please don’t tell me that says 10 AM,” He rubs furiously at his eyes before realizing, yes Seokjin you’re late for your job again. Seokjin’s back immediately straightens and if the nightmare didn’t wake him up, this definitely snapped him out of the sleep induced trance he was going through three seconds ago. He quickly glances at his phone which usually has several alarms, in the names of ‘Wake up’, ‘Wake up Seokjin’ and finally the last alarm, ‘KIM SEOKJIN YOU PUNK GET UP’.
He pressed the on button of his phone multiple times, only to find it completely dead and out of battery, and his eyes follow the chord down, and what used to be a perfectly fine charger was now a mangled mess of wires with chew marks; he narrowed his eyes since he already knew the culprit.
“Jjangu, I swear to god!”
Seokjin groans into his balms, it’s partly his fault, he should’ve known not to lay any charger, or anything in fact on the floor, after all his dog decided to play detective by chewing anything in sight, he thought he learned this lesson last time when he left his slippers unattended by Seokjin has proved himself wrong as he looks at the state of his charger and his phone which was completely dead. In fact one Christmas he brought home a small plastic tree, because he couldn’t afford a medium sized one at the time with his given salary, only to find Jjangu in pain on the floor after swallowing the tinsel he wrestled off, completely convinced that it was a threat. He spent his next three paychecks paying off the vet bills.
He sighs, great another expense that wasn’t counted for, but now wasn’t the time to wallow in self pity, especially since the bus that departs to his workplace was about to leave in fifteen minutes, and it took him around ten minutes to get ready and five minutes to walk to the stop, well actually run to the stop, then it took five. He quickly got up, but of course his foot had to get tangled up in his blankets from last night’s comfortable rest, because why not and he granted the floor with a kiss, earning himself a red nose from the impact. Excusing the throbbing pain he ran to the bathroom to check the mirror—
“Well, that’s great; I look just like a descendent of Rudolph.”
He shakes off those thoughts; maybe he’ll share them later with Jjangu when he’s not upset at the dog, and soon he puts on a white button-up shirt hurriedly and then his work pants, which were a bland color of black. He peeked out into the small hallway while still brushing his teeth and hair at the same time and nearly spits out the toothpaste on the wooden floors when he sees that he needs to get out immediately in order to catch his bus, and by soon, he meant now. Seokjin rushes to feed Jjangu, who was currently sleeping peacefully, ignoring his owner’s panicked noises, after all he can’t be late again this week.” He puts on his shoes not minding the untied laces and runs out of the house and of course locking his door hastily, dropping his keys in the process and scrambles to pick them up and continue to run.
It was sad to say but in his twenty-five years of being alive, this was the most excitement he’s ever felt recently. Well not counting the bawl fest when he watches dramas with Jjangu, well by watching he means death gripping on his grumpy dog, so yeah watching dramas with his dog. He’s out of breath so he tries to walk a little but that stops as soon as he sees a white bus speeding away and he’s running once again, seriously are buses always this fast? Much to his demise, the bus is out of his view soon enough, and he sits down on a nearby broken down bench, panting for his life while strangers walk by looking confused, after all his shirt was barely tucked in, he was sweating, and his hair was barely combed to what you would consider neat.
He’s never really had to resort to this choice, but desperate times call for desperate measures. He gains his breath eventually; he stands up and walks begrudgingly but fast to a nearby train station, since this was the desperate time. This has probably been the most he’s sighed since his college days, but as he sits down on the train seat he observes his surroundings. It’s not that he hates trains, well actually yeah he despises trains, the smell, the sleaziness, and of course the disgusting, gross, unsanitary sea—great, speak of the devil; he sat on a somewhat fresh piece of gum. He reaches to pick out an annoyingly bright wad of gum off his dark black pants. Oh well, he’ll probably cover it with his jacket when he arrives, but it’s still a pain in the ass, literally.
The train finally halts to a stop and he quickly looks at the sign before gathering his things and runs out of the station, and he sees his destination, an office that’s not really big but definitely not small. It’s not the best job he could have offered to him but it still gets the bills paid, sure he skips some meals but he’ll get by. Now, his job was more of what a intern would do, an assistant who buys and brings coffee to the bigwigs at this insurance place, thinking about it now, most of his paycheck goes to buying their coffee. Like usual when he gets there late he expects a good scolding, what he didn’t expect was being laid off—
“I’m sorry Seokjin, you’re fired.” His boss directed quite harshly at him while Seokjin just stared in disbelief.
“I’m sorry what?” He barely manages to get that out.
“You heard me, honestly Seokjin you’ve been very loyal, staying with the company for many years, but we can’t overlook all the times you’ve been late to work, and how you fall asleep on the job. That, and the budget we’ve been provided is decreasing more and more, so we’ve just decided to cut off some unnecessary things and people, one of them being you of course.”
Seokjin simply stared, an unnecessary thing? All those years of working hard to appease the boss, only to have it ended like this because the company is slowly losing business? He just continues watching his boss’s movement but before he can get out anything his boss continues to speak, “Here’s your pay for the month, and thanks for your services.”
He hands Seokjin an envelope and strides away, leaving a still shocked Seokjin. After recollecting his mindset after all he didn’t have any belongings at the workplace, he slowly walks out and enters some café and chooses a booth in the back. The envelope with his last paycheck stares back at him, mocking him for his state and if he’s honest, he’s heartbroken. He’s been somewhat financially stable but just barely above the poverty line, and it’s mostly because he sacrifices a few minor needs to take care of Jjangu and now he’s without a job. It was never the best paying career he’s had but it got the job done. It was worth all the sneers and disrespect, as long as he could take care of Jjangu and himself but now what? He puts his head on the table dejected and tries to let his mind drift off, he wasn’t as depressed about the situation as he thought but that’s probably because he’s still getting through the stages of grief currently.
Well, hence the word tried; as soon as he tried to drift off into a mindset of self pity he heard a sudden noise, well more of a distressed statement.
“What?! What do you mean he got sick and canceled at the last minute? Are you sur-“
The man yelled into the phone, but only to have his sentence cut off when he tripped on the leg of a chair and collided into another one, which triggered the downfall of the empire of stacked chairs, which was now a pile of a big mess of chair legs sticking up. It looked like a torture device with spears sticking up, one wrong move and game over, you’re impaled buddy. The whole situation reminded Seokjin of those domino videos except less organized. He released a little chuckle only to realize, it must’ve hurt like hell because he’s taken a tumble just this morning.
“Are you going to be okay?” He asked the stranger cautiously, the man seemed to be in a daze of some sort and once he finally got a hold of his head he replied shakily, “Y-yeah I’m going to be fine.” He gets up like a newborn deer and Seokjin immediately helps him up and stabilizes him otherwise he would’ve fallen onto the death trap of chairs. The guy looked sheepishly towards a employee who was shaking her head in annoyance at the big mess, and he nodded his head once as if to say sorry through the mind and eye.
“Thank you for helping me up, I’m not even sure how I tripped,” The guy started collecting his stuff that fell across the floor, including his phone which had a big crack down the side, no doubt cutting off his previous call.
“I think you tripped over that chair leg, but no problem! My name is Seokjin, what happened earlier? You seemed to be in a distressed state?” He squats down carefully, with his jacket wrapped around his waist because he definitely did not need the neon blue gum stain showed to the world, which consisted of an old lady, and the café’s employee.
“Oh, where are my manners! My name is Namjoon, and you see I’m directing a commercial film but my friend who’s a actor has supposedly come down with a sickness,” He states rather annoyed.
“Well that sounds like a pretty crappy friend.”
“You have no idea,” After they finish gathering the mess of papers and stuff from Namjoon’s bag, they finally stand up and it’s the first time their eyes met, and Namjoon widened his eye in surprise. Dang it, he must’ve seen the wad of gum.
“S-Seokjin, have you ever acted before??” He questions quite seriously, and the mentioned male stares back, completely oblivious to what he was hinting at, “Well, I did major in it somewhat back in my college days but those were hel—“ He wasn’t able to finish his sentence because once he mentioned what he majored in he was cut off by what seemed like a squeal?
“Please be the replacement in my film!”
His voice boomed through the café, causing the old lady and employee to raise their eyebrow towards the commotion, including Seokjin of course.
“What—no, I couldn’t, I don’t really have the qualifications, might I add, I kind of dropped out—“He retorts back, after all it’s been so many years since he’s attempted acting, in fact to show you how long. It was when he didn’t have a financial worry, also known as the golden days. Namjoon merely shakes his head, “No I could see it! Even though you look kind of, well no offense, you look like you ran a long marathon, only to find out you ran the wrong way, and plus the fact that you’re a bad pacer, but anyways the point is that with a few touch ups you will be perfect for this film! So please, I have no one else!” He looks back with expectant eyes.
Seokjin glances at him with uncertainty, “Well, I’m not sure. I don’t think—“
“I’ll pay you of course!”
Yeah okay it might be sad that the mention of money made Seokjin perk up, almost like a meerkat in a field but that’s not the point here. He looks to Namjoon skeptically but with a smidge of interest, “Pay?”
“Yes pay! It’ll be a decent amount, and you won’t have to do it again if you don’t want to!”
The younger of the two reaches out his hand as if a shake of hand was the contract and once he reciprocated the act, it was signed and there was no backing out. Seokjin looks towards his hands hesitantly, then again the rent was due today and he doesn’t want to be late for the seventh time this year. So one thing led to another and he shook his hand and signed up for a life he never expected.
Namjoon grins back excitedly and guides him out of the café, well not before apologizing profusely to the café for causing a huge ruckus. When they finally arrive at their destination, well Seokjin didn’t expect them to be filming at the BigHit Entertainment, one of the biggest corporations where everything he watched originated from. From the countless dramas, variety shows, the point is that they have a major influence in the way everything worked, and he’ll be filmed here. He gulped as he walked through the doors.
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“We’re done Seokjin! You can open your eyes now!” A overly cheerful stylist chirped out, and he would’ve cringed at her tone but he was too tired and relaxed for that, and soon he opens his eyes.
“Holy shit,” He says out of amazement at how the simplest touch up like Namjoon said, can change so many things, some of the stylist giggled at his reaction, before they scattered away to prepare for other things. He stiffened at the feeling of a hand on his shoulder until he was met with Namjoon’s bright face.
“Are you ready to film?”