Scandal

7: Hidden Card

I glanced at our maknae for the third time in the past two hours with worry starting to gnaw at my insides. Jungkook was usually glued to the front of our bedroom TV, playing his loud games whenever we have off days—that, or stuffing himself in the kitchen with snacks.

But our youngest had been sitting on his bed for the longest time, ignoring everyone, headphones stuck to his ears. He was staring at his phone with so much concentration that I began to wonder if he was going to set it on fire with just his eyes. The worst part is the endless cycle of mumbling, shaking his head, frowning, closing his eyes, and more mumbling.

I actually turned off the air conditioning just so I could hear what he was saying—but none of it made sense.

"Ya, Kookie-ah," I called to him, waving my hands in the air to catch his attention. He didn't move or acknowledge my presence—he just kept mumbling and shuffling through his phone.

"Aish this kid." I reached across his bed to yank the wires of his earphones. "Jeon Jungkook, what the hell have you been doing?"

He merely rubbed his now-exposed earlobe, irritated. "Hobi-hyung! don't pull these, they might break," he complained, inspecting the earbud carefully. He sighed, tossing his phone on the bed and running tired hands over his face.

This couldn't be good. He wasn't even in the mood to hit me. "What's wrong?" I asked, nudging his knee with my fist. "You haven't even eaten lunch and it's 4:00 already. Did something happen? Tell hyung."

Jungkook smirked, then sighed, collapsing on the mattress. He let out a long exhale and stared at the ceiling. I crossed my arms and waited. At least he wasn't mumbling, doing whatever he was doing earlier. "I'm just working on something and it's difficult," he answered simply.

Well, that was vague. "What something?"

Our maknae flexed his neck with a groan and cracked his knuckles. "A song. Suga-hyung asked me to help with his first ballad."

I opened my mouth to reply, then promptly shut it. Wait. Did I hear that right? 'Suga' and 'ballad' in the same sentence?

Jungkook laughed at my stunned expression. "I know right? But hyung," he breathed out, grinning. "It. Is. So. Good." He grabbed his phone and pulled out the earphone jack. "Listen, listen, listen."

He pressed play on the screen, and the beginning sounds of a beat draft began filling our room. There were strings that followed, and some sound effects that I knew were Yoongi's.

I raised an eyebrow when the melody for the vocals came in. "This is pretty much finished," I remarked, amazed that the soft yet intense track came from Genius Lab. From stone-cold Daegu rapper Min Yoongi. I mean, the man's not a robot—but this was... whoa.

"Check this out," Jungkook excitedly stage-whispered, scrolling through the screen. His notes app popped up, with what I assume were the lyrics to the song I was listening to:

Why can't I hold you in the street?

Why can't I kiss you on the dance floor?

I wish that we could be like that

Why can't we be like that

'Cause I'm yours

I scanned through the rest of the words, eyebrows inching higher as I read the lines. Holy cow. This is—

"Yoongi-hyung said it's not about Suran-noona," Kookie interjected, answering my thoughts.