Tales of the Unspoken

123

Late mornings continued to be annoying in the BTS dorm. A source of annoyance were: the sun's rays, any loud noise, any alarm clock, any manager, any voices. Anything could have triggered a fight because the house was rarely quiet. Grumpiness always found a way to mingle with the casual conversations they were trying to have. BTS and staff knew these periods well. They came and went but managed to break pieces of them in the process.

It was unclear if Namjoon's frequent absence from the kitchen helped or not. He spent more and more time in his studio and at the BigHit offices. Yoongi, on the other hand, started being home more but he was as present as the wallpaper when it came to conversations. Jin did his best and failed spectacularly to have Yoongi leave the room and join any common space. He gave up quite quickly, nonetheless.

One morning, Hobi and Jimin kept exchanging videos of interesting choreographies and moves that they wanted to try. On normal days they would have watched together over breakfast, laughed and discussed but now Hobi was eating on the couch and talking to Jimin through short texts. The energy levels were down within the entire dorm and whoever walked in sensed the tension in the air.

Jimin played with his spoon in the bowl of cereal he was pretending to eat. He moved the fruity cereal in the milk absentmindedly, separating them by color without even realizing it. He stopped counting the nights he hadn't slept properly. He heard Namjoon talking about a possible collaboration between the vocal line and Steve Aoki. From what he understood, the song was a ballad but not knowing details was pure torture for him and he kept adding more vocal practices to his already packed schedule. He knew that ballads for the vocal line had the tendency to be very demanding from a technical standpoint. He couldn't think about disappointing their friend and, now, producer.

At some point, he started ignoring his "link conversation" with Hoseok and not long afterward he heard somebody else enter the room. A black silhouette moved by him, going to the fridge. It was Jungkook, Jimin didn't have to look up to figure it out. He probably said "Good morning" but the elder did not answer because during the last weeks they barely spoke. He felt like both Tae and Jungkook were avoiding him which triggered a justifiable wave of coldness from his part. In all truthfulness, Taehyung did try to talk to him one evening but it was the worst timing in the world and Jimin couldn't, for the life of him, pretend he was interested. He was extremely sleepy and naturally, he seemed so apathetic that his best friend abruptly left the room obviously hurt.

"Good morning!"

Jimin heard Sejin's voice behind him and replied with his eyes still fixed on the bowl of cereal. He hoped that Jungkook understood his irony of replying to the manager but not to him. Jk seemed oblivious.

"Morning, Sejin hyung!" said Tae who entered the kitchen as well and pushed Jungkook out of the way of the fridge door, gently.

"Jungkook, are you ready? Did you get to finish the draft and arrangement?" Sejin asked with interest.

Jimin's eyes widened but he kept his head down. He couldn't help but wonder what type of song Jungkook might have been working on. The problem with unsatisfied curiosity was that it left him thinking about unimportant subjects for hours without end. The maknae didn't tell him anything about a new song and he felt isolated, out of the loop. He wondered if Taehyung knew what the melody was about.

"Probably not, as they aren't speaking to each other..." Jimin thought and as petty as it sounded that made him a little bit better.

"I have everything, hyung. I hope it's good..." Jungkook said shyly.

"I bet it's good and together we can make it perfect!" Sejin said with confidence. "Tae, we'll be coming back for you around 6 o'clock, got it? Sorry for not being able to keep my word regarding that day off but I did as much as I could," he added and started walking to the door.