ᎢᏔᎬᎬᎢ ( pjm ♡ jjk )

xxi

"fuck, i'm worried," hoseok muttered, checking in the mirror to make sure he looked good for their performance. yoongi raised an eyebrow.

"why? it's not like we haven't performed in front of thousands of armys before. this isn't much different."

"not about this. about jimin. if i had just-"

"hoseokie," namjoon cut in, "we'll be fine. focus on the present. the past is in the past for reason. you can't change what happened. but you can learn from it to become better. take a minute to calm down, okay? shinee's performing sherlock, red velvet's doing dumb dumb, then we're up."

"it's kind of weird," seokjin added, mumbling under his breath. "nobody's performing their recent songs. i thought they'd want us to sing idol." taehyung poked his head in.

"nostalgia, maybe? shinee just finished, four minutes left."

while the other members were trying to distract themselves by discussing their performance, jeongguk was pacing in the corner, singing jimin's lines quietly and practicing the choreography. his voice kept cracking ever so slightly on the highest note, and he winced at the sound every time.

"jeongguk?"

it was seokjin. the eldest had come to check on his youngest dongsaeng. he bit his lip, concerned.

"are you... are you going to be okay? it's not too late to back out, we could make the rap line perform one of the cyphers or outros instead."

the younger shook his head.

"i appreciate the concern, hyung, but i'm the one who got us into this mess with jimin. this is the least i can do to make up for my mistakes." jeongguk smiled weakly at seokjin. before he could respond, taehyung had taken them both by the arm and was dragging them towards the stage.

"neither of you heard me calling," he whined. "we have to go on. now."

jeongguk grimaced as he headed to his position, recognizing chinsun's worried face in the front row. he didn't blame her. it had barely been thirty minutes since he was ushered backstage, and he already looked and felt like shit. the maknae was so zoned out, he almost missed his cue as the familiar notes began to play.

"fall," he sang, voice almost refusing to come out due to his relentless practicing a few minutes before. jeongguk was vaguely aware of namjoon echoing him with 'everything.' they repeated that twice more before he moved on to his next line.

"scattering apart."

he stumbled and almost tripped as he sang that line but managed to recover smoothly. hoseok let out a barely audible sigh of relief. somehow, he got through the next verses. he hit the right notes and danced the moves correctly.

at this point, he didn't care that he wasn't putting any feeling into his movements or his facial expressions. he just wanted to leave this stupid party and find jimin. he needed to find jimin, apologize, and hug him. he needed to fix his mistake.

jeongguk felt dread build up in his stomach as his last line before the chorus, the one directly before jimin's, left his mouth. he breathed in and out in the second he had before he was expected to hit high notes he'd barely had any time to practice singing.

"i need you girl, why-"

he knew it would sound bad before he even started singing. normally, he'd be able to manage jimin's lines, but the past few days had stressed jeongguk out immensely to the point where he could barely remember to get dressed in the morning, much less sing lines that weren't his own. he opened his mouth for the rest of the line, but another voice cut him off.

"-do i love you alone and say farewell alone?"

jeongguk knew that voice. that sweet, high-pitched voice that never failed to make him feel happy and safe. that angelic, mellifluous voice that was always in his dreams. that gorgeous, delicate voice that was currently laced with anxiety and stress. that lovely, steady voice that belonged to the most important person to him.

jimin forced a smile as the crowd started cheering at his sudden appearance, body immediately moving along to the music.

he was here.

his jimin was really here.

and jeongguk wasn't going to let him get away this time.

—

a / n

crappy chapter but oh well :p

i'm really tired but i wanted to publish this for you guys so there may be a lot of mistakes. if you saw any, please let me know!

i hope you liked this chapter!