Namjoon held Yoongi's bag in his free hand, his phone in the other and stood facing their apartment door, waiting for Min Yoongi.
"You done putting on lip gloss, maybe? We're late." Namjoon called out to Yoongi who was still in the room.
"Shut up and pack my sandwich." Yoongi called back.
Namjoon turned back to face the direction of the rooms but did not produce a retort when his phone call to Jimin cut to the generic voice mail message. The uneasy feeling in Namjoon grew thicker. He dialed Jimin's number again.
"I still feel the high," said Namjoon to Yoongi, who was still in the room. "How about you?"
"I feel like your dead grandpa." Yoongi's voice replied.
"You're only the dead part," said Namjoon.
"No." Yoongi replied. "Only the grandpa part."
Jimin really wasn't picking up the phone.
"I can still feel the high too." Yoongi's voice was low, from inside the room. "And the alcohol. We're not gonna get through practice like this." He laughed a little. "Are you sure you want to go?"
"We have to." Namjoon said.
Practice hadn't been easy. Especially lately. Namjoon felt the guilt as soon as he thought of his team members. They all seemed distant lately. He couldn't remember the last time all of them were at practice together—there were always people missing.
It was easy to tell that each of them had something going on, it wasn't easy figuring out all the stories. No one was talking about their problems. No one wanted to, and no one asked. Namjoon felt guilty as the leader. He, as the leader, should have at least attempted to hold the team together. But the fact was this team had been falling apart. And no one in it had been trying to save it.
"Park Jimin isn't answering his phone. We need to go." Namjoon's tone was getting harsher now. "Are you done?"
The lock to the apartment door sounded, disengaged, and the door opened. Namjoon lowered his phone as Jimin walked in, his countenance murderous, with Taehyung, Jungkook, and Hoseok in tow.
Jimin looked around for Yoongi as Taehyung walked over to the couch and plopped down, throwing an arm over his eyes.
"Let's go." Yoongi's voice said from where the rooms were.
Jimin stopped his search when he heard Yoongi's voice. He glared at the dark hallway in silence, waiting. Jungkook bit his lip and walked over to sit down next to Taehyung.
"Were you guys sleeping?" Hoseok asked Namjoon.
"With each other?" Taehyung added.
But that didn't ease the tension.
"I'm sorry." Namjoon said.
"For what?" Jimin finally spoke up, and his tone was as hostile as anticipated.
Taehyung watched Yoongi walk into the living room at last. He had a bad feeling about this. Jimin was furious and he had a right to be, but with the way their team had been slowly dying, Taehyung was afraid this argument would turn out too disastrous. Too ultimate.
"We should eat first. Fight later. Jungkook told me he wants to cook for us all." Taehyung addressed the room.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Jungkook gave Taehyung a chilling look but nodded, nonetheless.
"Yes." Jungkook said. "As a bonus Taehyung is gonna clean the bathroom while I cook."
"Yup I am!" Taehyung said. "As a super bonus Yoongi is gonna—"
"He isn't going to do anything until he explains where the fuck he was when we were supposed to be at our debut assessment performing as a team of nine," said Jimin.
"Nine you say. It's not just me and Namjoon missing." Yoongi's voice was cold. "I count six of us here—"
"Four. Don't count yourself and Kim Namjoon. There are four of us here and there were four of us at the debut evaluation that you and Kim Namjoon obviously don't give a shit about. Do you even know it's today? The investors were there, all the executives were there, everyone that could let us debut was there to see the nine of us perform and here you are hungover, high, a fucking joke of human existence." Jimin spat.
"Do you have any idea what you've just done? They won't let us debut now. They expected to see us ready to debut and the four of us couldn't do anything but stand there and get berated because half of us did not bother to show up. Do you know how much you've set us back? Me, Taehyung, Jungkook, Hoseok," Jimin pointed at each person he mentioned, "We actually want to debut. While we are giving everything we have to reach our dream you are rolling around in cannabis doing nothing but holding us back—"
"I apologize. Sorry," said Yoongi with no sincerity.
Jimin took a few strides to grab the front of Yoongi's shirt.
