FAME GAME || J.JK [On Hold]

10| 9999

A month later

Jungkook's POV

10 PM

"Is she coming tomorrow?" Jimin takes the cup of coffee offered by hada, glancing behind at taehyung as we're all headed back to our hotel, the jet lag hitting taehyung and jimin equally, long hours of flight from Seoul to Berlin making us sick to the bone.

"Yes, I gave her a call to be here sharp by seven a.m. and told what she needs to bring." My voice cracks by the end of my sentence, getting hada and baram to turn their heads to me.

"Is everything all right? You seemed unwell during the concert too, jungkook." Hada notices this easily, but I smile and try to cover up my exhaustion which is breaking my bones, that's the feeling, "I'm fine. I just lost focus at the end by the flashlights." Finding the right excuse to bring, I avert his eyes and focus on my tab, working on the song which I have to perform four months later at our concert in Tokyo.

"Can we have a drink at your room, tonight? I wanna talk about something." As soon as both our managers look away from me, jimin whispers into my ears very lightly, tickling my skin. "Gosh, okay!"

I scratch my earlobe, having a feeling that he probably even touched his lips against it, but I don't care. He's done worse.

"If it's gonna be about that again, I'm not staying up and bunking my gym for you and your bullshit." I fear if he's going to come into my room and say he found a fan of ours really pretty and starts his sobs of feeling lonely, I'm really not interested in drinking with him again because of this reason. Jimin smiles bitterly, shaking his head to assure me with his best, "no damn way, I am not so weak like an year old me. I've changed."

He protests against what is true. I scoff and look out the window at this city which never fails to amaze me, no matter how many times I come here. "Let's see."

1 AM

"Life's a mess, dude." I press my hand against my chest, taking this last gulp of soju to end it, having skipped my precious exercises and gym time just to sympathise with this idiot. "I can't fucking seem to be happy, no matter what I do, where I go, anywhere." His tear slips down his pink swollen eye, I squint both of mine and lean back on the sofa, holding the laptop close to me so I don't drop it down accidentally.

"Last year, you remember when we were in a fan meeting and that girl cried because she was lonely and suffering from PTSD and said she only admires us and we're her happiness?" He asks a new question I've never heard him ask before, I frown at him, nodding.

"She didn't make it." He reveals. My heartbeat raising at this, I feel my chest sinking inside my chest and I find him sobbing even harder. "Jimin...." I cannot understand what he's implying or meaning, but I don't want to guess, and it is breaking my heart because I have already failed and guessed it. "She was the sweetest person I met, better than so many other girls who jump on us, or stalk us. How can people like them be so cruel to themselves when they're so kind and generous to everyone else around them?"

I wish I hadn't heard this anytime sooner. This is going to stick to my soul, always.

"It sucks because I couldn't even do anything to provide some comfort to her, it was me who she opened up to, cried to, but all I did is see the news on TV about her death some days before. I swear, I would've done better things to save her if I had the opportunity once more..."

He covers his red face with both his hands, blaming himself for everything wrong, again. I don't even realise how a teardrop goes down my cheek. I close my laptop and put it away, hating the one I don't believe in, God, for being so mean to the people who need the best from life. "I could help her not die." His sob muffled under the shield his hands are providing to his teary face, I go to him and take him in my embrace, bad at soothing people but trying anyways.

All I can do is wish for her soul to rest in peace, the one she didn't get while she was living. And I hold jimin close to me, letting him shed this what he had been keeping to himself since so long.

"Stop blaming yourself, jimin." I rub my hand over his back, lightly, "she's somewhere better now. And remember what she said, we were her safe place, so you don't have to feel bad, please." Not sure if I say the right thing, I manage to calm him a little. He stops crying, but tightly hugs me, his warm heart beating against my waist, I let this kid take his own time to feel better and recover from this incident which I won't ever forget. This is painfully stuck with us, forever now, and I wish I can forget it easily without any painstaking effort.

Next day

6 AM

End of Jungkook's POV

"Please come with me," she takes my ID number into her iPad and leads me into the hotel in which I'm going to be meeting the three people I have always admired the most, even more than I've thought about my parents or seen them.

They mean the world to me, in a good way, and I will not disappoint them ever. I'll try everything to make sure they trust me.

The new city's air feeling stronger than my hometown's, I finally take off the mask I had worn to greet one of the many managers who live with them, mister hada. He smiles kindly, bowing to me after I had did it. "Good morning, I'm glad you're earlier than we said. Jungkook's still asleep, and will wake up in half an hour. But your work's cut out for you, it seems."

He looks at the girl who brought me inside; she bows to him and leaves so I walk behind mister hada as he is going somewhere, gazing at the interiors of a luxury hotel, being into one for the first time.

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