Unpuzzle my Lego

Part 1

When I think about what you're doing

right now, I can't sleep

(Boy) maybe

(Oh) you feel the same?

I wish that were true...

- Stay By My Side (Twice)

✨

"Seokjin-ah?" Nayeon asks, pausing the TV. "You there?"

She only gets a weak hum in response.

"Do you want me to come over?" she asks and gets up too. She has the day off today; it's late in the evening so she can easily slip into his apartment.

But Seokjin stops her.

He says, "Ahh. No. I want to be alone."

"I can come over and you can sulk in the corner," Nayeon insists, turning the TV off. It's unlike of Seokjin to call her and then not talk. He's been off the grid for quite a few days and it bothers her.

Seokjin harrumphs and she sighs. "Seokjin-ah, you are a child. You know that?"

"Taehyung-ie will come over later at night," he says, his pout somehow audible in the tone.

Nayeon jumps back onto the couch and squeals, "That's good, isn't it? Jin, you will talk to him?"

She waits, her heart thumping loudly. Her secret, behind-the-curtains best friend has one trouble that has been gnawing at him for the past two years.

He's been hopelessly in love with his team member, Kim Taehyung. He'd turn peach pink and then tomato red every time his name comes up. He'd stammer and stutter. He'd forget the topic at hand and go on a long tirade about his likes and dislikes, about his this and that's before she has to stop him.

He treasures him a little too much, overlooks any hurt he received, and clings desperately to every word of praise and adoration he gets from Taehyung.

Multiple times, he'd planned extravagantly to confess. He'd spend nights awake explaining to Nayeon what he wants for him, and how amazing it would be. Every time, he'd add a little more fervor to the initial plan. Sometimes, he'd turn it down, thinking if the confession should be simpler. Sometimes, he'd make it so grand, it scared Nayeon.

Seokjin was great at planning. His only roadblock (and a major one at that) is the execution.

He wouldn't do it.

What if I creep him out? We are in the band, no? We will have to work together. What if he detests me, Nayeon? I will confess to him if I have an inkling of a feeling that he likes me too. He likes me, doesn't he? He said I am his favorite.

However, anytime there was a hint that Taehyung is perhaps interested in him, Seokjin would brush it off.

He does that with Jungkook-ie too.

He said he likes Jimin-ie the most. Not me, Nayeon.

He said he wants to go on trips with Bogum every year. He probably asked me to go with him because I was next to him on camera. He never brought it up again. It doesn't mean anything.

He acts that way with Jungkook-ie in BWL, with Jimin-ie in Mikrokosmos, I got So What. It's just his way of doing things on stage. I am not special.

He likes someone. I know.

That was the last update she got from him. Seokjin's 3 AM call, 3 weeks ago, drunken, broken and tired.