Your Eyes Tell [A Jikook Fanfiction ©️ Book 1]

Five: Tiredness

Was the world supposed to be spinning? Jungkook groaned as he desperately clawed the air for breath. He was currently flat on his back on the cool studio floor, his arms and legs spread out widely, his face and neck dripping with sweat. He needed a break. They had been rehearsing for the last four hours with little rest. Both Hoseok and Sungdeuk had been insistent that they did not break until they had seen at least a fairly strong, synchronisation of the choreography.

"Let's go again!" Hobi muttered, gritting his teeth as he hauled himself to his feet, "Once more and we'll stop there-"
"-Hoseok give us five minutes please!" Yoongi called out desperately. He too was lying on his back, breathing heavily, his face flushed from over exertion. Beside him, Seokjin weakly held up a hand in agreement, unable to even pass a simple smile across his face between gulping for air.

But Hobi shook his head, anxiously pacing back to the speaker system, "But we need to get this right!" he insisted, "Just once more and we'll be-"
"-Hobi stop!"

The dance leader looked over sheepishly at Namjoon, who had managed to haul himself into a seated position in order to confront the anxious young adult, "We're all exhausted - so are you! Just, just give us five minutes to breathe. I know you're stressed about this, but we're more likely to get it right five minutes from now, than in our current state."

It wasn't the only reason why he was insisting so fiercely.
Jimin hadn't moved since they had all collasped. Not once. In their own energy drained states, no one had noticed a difference between themselves and the contemporary dancer. Namjoon himself had only noticed because he was right behind Jimin...  the young singer had passed out before he had even hit the floor.

This wasn't uncommon on occasion for one of the Bangtan boys to pass out during practice. Usually it was one of the maknae line but, Yoongi, Seokjin and himself had had their fair share of exhausted moments - even Hoseok had once collasped. (This caused a mild panic, since he had appeared the least drained out of all of them and they hadn't been sure if an ambulance needed to be called.)

But this time felt different. They had all noticed how much more effort Jimin was putting into his performance in recent days. And given he already put in so much, that was saying something.
Whether demanding Hobi go through a dance routine he'd already perfected, or watching YouTube videos by vocal coaches, or inquiring as to whether BigHit would cover the costs of a personal trainer for BTS... The extent of his work was endless. He'd spend whole days out in the studio and come back in the dead of night, exhausted, only to wake up early the next morning to hit the gym or perhaps warm his voice up before a performance.

Namjoon sighed with relief as Jimin shifted. The younger singer shook his head, looking up, delirious. He then slumped back down, seeming irritated with himself as he realised what had happened.

The BTS leader knew the upcoming release of The Most Beautiful Time in Life Pt. 2 was causing a lot more stress than usual. Since hearing about their international audience and impact, the media in Korea had begun turning a brighter eye on their band. There was still negativity - Namjoon knew there would always be in this line of work - but it had increased the pressure on them, increased the feeling that more faces would be watching them with quizzical, judgemental eyes with each public performance they did.

Hoseok was being driven insane. His insistence on having each routine perfect was almost as demanding as their performance director. Evem Sungdeuk himself once had to convince their dance leader that one more run through would only do damage, after Hobi was so insistent more work had to be done.

It wasn't just Hoseok and Jimin. Yoongi cooped himself up in his make-shift studio almost 24/7, sometimes spending nights there as he frantically pooled over music samples and compilations. Seokjin was frantically going through steps of various dance routines on the lead up to their performances, whilst also ensuring the group kept their health up. Taehyung and Jungkook were perhaps the least stressed out of them all, but Namjoon could still see the anxiety surrounding them. They had become more critical of their selves, yet also insistent on spending double the amount of time interacting with fans. So much so, RM knew 'Taekook' had begun seriously trending among Armys. It was quite cute.