Faltering Steps • J-Hope

ix.

Hobi woke up the next morning and did something he rarely ever did.

He unlocked his phone and searched for comments about their performance last night.

He rarely looked BTS up on the internet because there was an astonishing amount of scary fan fiction shipping the members with each other. But he did like looking at the memes and savage posts featuring BTS and other kpop groups.

What he found today, though, wasn't funny. There was a live-updating chat on their fan page, and he made the mistake of opening it.

bangtanbanged did you see the performance last night?
looking4koreanbf yeah! im a lucky child
iwannakookie it was awesome! But what up w J-Hope tho?
bangtanbanged i know right?? w the chair? like why tho??
btsbebest maybe its a weird promo for their next album. I saw something online that suggested it meant one of them was leaving bc the chair was empty when the show began & ended
btyes nooooo dang their high key symbolism
iwannakookie someone is leaving? but whyyy? is it J-Hope? bc he was in the chair sometimes
btsbebest not sure. the site I was on said maybe he was tease dancing as a teaser for who's going to leave, meaning it might be someone else but we were too distracted by J-Hope to notice a diff clue. ppl are analyzing footage of the show right now
bulletproofeaglescout *praying its not rap mon or suga*
iwannakookie not my jungkookie!! golden maknae can't leave!!
alienhugger not V smh
parkitherejimin BTyes w/o jimin would be BTno
pinkprincess not jin!!!
bangtanbanged i guess i wouldn't mind too much if it were j-hope
parkittherejimin id be broken up for a while...but id be broken up more if jimin or one of the others left
btsbebest okey is it just me or was j-hope disappointing last night? hes supposed to be the best dancer and all he did was stand there and play with his chair
bangtanbanged okay yes i was high key disappointed like what???? this is the kid in boy meets evil? like i could have subbed for him if all he was gonna do was stand there?
iwannakookie maybe its his time of the month
bangtanbanged or maybe he's sore from something 😏 or someone 😏
kpopit&lockit ^^^
btsbebest lol is that why hes leaving? groupcest? rap mon and oemma jin found out that their kids be doing the dirty and theyre booting j-hope
suga&spice min yooooooongi you naughty boy
btsbebest lol SOPE duet busy w other kinds of duets >_>
bangtanbanged lets be honest, it was inevitable
parkitherejimin nooooooo yoonmin is going to happen no matter what you doubters say
bulletproofeaglescout lol this got sidetracked. so it's confirmed? j-hope is out?
iwannakookie well while my kookie was working hard, he was literally standing there. makes sense that it would be him. just don't take my kookie!
suga&spice your sugakookie? ...ignore me ^_^
newARMY honestly this was my first BTS concert I got to go to and it was hugely disappointing bc I was looking forward to j-hope and j-hope was basically a no-show
bangtanbanged ^^^ (although ive been to a lot but i agree w you about j-hope)
j-hoppity y'all being too hard on him. he's a ray of sunshine. every now and then, a cloud is going to hide the sun. it's inevitable
btsbebest but does the sun sit in the sky and not move while occasionally playing with a chair?
bulletproofeaglescout ^^^
iwannakookie ^^^
bangtanbanged so shook

Hobi stared down at the chat before shutting his phone rather forcefully.

"Hobi?" Tae asked, rolling over and staring at him. "What's up? Or wrong? Or whatever?"

"Nothing..." Hobi said, but his frown failed to lift.

"Hey hey, whatever it is, I can fix it," Taehyung said, crawling over into Hobi's bed. "A hug? Do you need a hug? A high five? A joke? Whatever it is, I got you covered."

Hobi still couldn't smile. "Start with the joke," he said quietly.

"Okay. Ready?! Why did I cross the road?"

"You can't tell a joke about yourself-"

"Because my mothership was on the other side!"

Hobi just shook his head.

"Okay, let's go to the high five then," Tae said, holding his hand up, but they missed.

Instead, Tae just hugged Hobi, who tensed before hugging back.

"Thanks," Hobi said, his voice thick.

"Seriously though, who did this to you?" Tae asked, leaning back. "Was it Yoongi? I'll beat him up!"

"No, it wasn't Yoongi," Hobi said quickly, as Yoongi was the one person really helping him. "I just...I..." He looked down. "I looked online," he mumbled before looking up. "Just a peek. But-"

Taehyung already had his phone out and was reading the messages. "Oh! Somebody is my fan!" But then he scowled. "These jerks! I'm going to-" He cut off as he started typing angrily.

"What are you doing?" Hobi asked before opening his phone and going to the site.

angryalien YOU ALL NEED TO START APOLOGIZING! J-HOPE SAW THIS AND HE'S A MESS! HOBI IS A PRECIOUS PART OF BTS! NOBODY IS LEAVING! AND IF ONE OF US DID, IT DOESNT MAKE IT OK JUST BECAUSE IT ISNT YOUR BIAS! J-HOPE IS THE LITERAL SUNSHINE IN EVERYONE'S LIVES SO YALL BEST START PRAYING FOR HIS FORGIVENESS RN!!! 😡 #therealtaehyungtalking

"Tae!" Hobi cried out as he saw the message. "You can't do that!"

"Why not?" Tae asked, pouting. "They upset you, and you being upset upsets me, and me being upset upsets people who-"

"Because! The producer doesn't like us putting out negative posts! You might hurt the ARMYs feelings!" Hobi said, grabbing Tae's arm.

Tae frowned. "First, you shouldn't read that stuff. There's always gonna be haters. Second, even when the AMRYs are trashing you, you still stick up for them because you're amazing and the best person ever and they totally don't deserve you." Tae pouted. "So it's worth it to me to get busy scolding people, even if Namjoon yells at me later."

Hobi paused and hung his head. "Then...thanks."

"No problem," Tae said, grinning. "That's what your dongsaengs are for."