Pop Star || Yoongi x Reader

56. Hangover Soup By the Sea

He glances at you. "What will you do?"

"Hmm. Let's see. I will get back to work. This has been affecting me too much. Seyeon is after my life - for all the right reasons. And you're right. I will not spoil my present work because of this. That's one thing. Second is Prakriti. That's harder, to be honest."

"What's the issue?"

"The issue - is that I think it's time. No matter how much it - it terrifies me to take this head on - to take DK head on - I've got to do it, haven't I?"

Yoongi smiles - almost proudly. "You're growing up."

You pout.

"You have a plan?" he asks.

"I do. I've been doing some thinking, you know. I think I can step in and drive this crazy man out of there. Once and for all."

"Whaa. I really am proud, Y/N." he gives you a thumbs up.

"I can't take you seriously, Yoongi, you're too sarcastic!"

"I mean it!" he scrunches his nose before letting out a chuckle. "You're a sensible woman, so go - do your thing. Come home victorious."

You glance at him sideways, blushing ever so slightly before asking, "Enough about me, how do you feel?"

"I'm - okay."

"Birthday blues?"

"Haah. Nobody owns me. Nobody can control me. Just because someone wished me happy birthday doesn't mean that I have to - to -"

You take advantage of his pause.

"- send them nudes?"

"Ye - excuse me?" he gazes at you with narrowed eyes.

"I just imagined a horny fan," you shrug.

He gives a tiny laugh.

"Armies wouldn't want you to be stressed, Yoongi - especially because of them. Don't let that one experience affect your feelings about the rest of them. Most of your fans - they want to love you, pamper you, want the best for you and they are satisfied with doing that from a good distance."

"I know. It is just - one thing to know that and another to watch someone hate you or hurt you just because of who you are. What did I ever do to Zach? I'm just a walking target. People I've never met, never done anything to - will hate me. And I don't mean online - I'm talking about literally walking into a room and realising that every single person has some opinion of me. They've never even met me. How do I live with that, Y/N? You don't think about those things when you're blindly chasing fame..."

You think for a minute before answering.

"You're not wrong, but like, when was your fame ever just about you, you know?" you pause, squinting at him before continuing in a softer tone, "yeah, we've made ourselves the posters, the faces of so, so much. But the way people react to you - they aren't even reacting to you, Yoongi. They're reacting to MVs, compilations, gossip - like you said - they haven't even met you. That's the reason we can never take this seriously - well I try not to -," you conclude sardonically, " - and I'm not even a quarter as famous as you. If I take everything I hear about me - to be about me - then I'm done for..."

He can feel the tension ebbing away as he continues to listen to you talk in a slow, thoughtful way.

"What people see when they see us is a carefully manufactured result of something fifty people worked on - you already know that. But they also see what they want to see."

He nods, watching a wave break onto the rocks. "Don't you get that feeling that we - manipulate it too much, sometimes?" There's a hint of sadness in his voice. He glances at you. This is something that bothers him immensely on a bad day. " It is like - so much of what we say, what we do, is branded - polished to the point that when it's finally out there, it doesn't feel my own anymore. And I still have to own it, be grateful and everything, as if it's all just my work. Sometimes I don't even know what I do anymore..."