Tales of the Unspoken

Secular

The conference room was crowded with voices and opinions. Some were pertinent, some lacked in argumentation but they still disrupted whatever Paradise once was. It felt as if even gods were restless.

PD Bang checked paperwork together with two lawyers which nodded from time to time. Namjoon was under the impression that they stood in there for ages but it had only been about 2 hours. Too much and not enough was said. For example, Jimin's manager spoke for him as the boy sat quietly in his chair, an indefinable expression on his face. It oscillated from concern to disinterest and back. He barely uttered 3 words by himself and which didn't seem fake or rehearsed. He also coughed a couple of times, uncomfortably.

As expected, Jin was vocal. He spoke to Sejin and PD Bang mostly, ignoring whoever had a different opinion than him. He was stoic in his stubbornness and almost dropped honorifics in front of Sejin before he caught himself and mended his error.

When asked about his opinion, Yoongi became Suga, which slowly became Agust D and he fixed all his answers to touch the subject of his music. His personality completely faded between graphics of sound waves and it was hard to believe he truly lived outside his music. He had another lawyer with him, although the guy didn't do much but underline whichever lines of documents he and Yoongi agreed won't fly. They accepted no compromise, no deviation. It was all music and money.

Taehyung was the quietest and barely raised his eyes. He had a personal manager in the room as well which interfered only here and there to protect Tae's interests, nothing too farfetched or unreasonable. Tae looked like he felt guilty each time his manager spoke, he looked at his hands constantly. Namjoon wondered if he was even paying attention or hearing the discussion over the veil of gloom which enveloped him. During the entire meeting, Namjoon once caught Tae's eyes and his heart almost stopped when he realized how red they were. "That's why he doesn't want to look up," Namjoon said to himself and he cursed the fact that he could deliver no comfort. He was about to stop being the leader, he was just Namjoon hyung now and not even the closest of friends to Taetae. There were so many things Namjoon realized that he wanted to ask Tae, so many things that he didn't know about the other boy, so many things which made Tae unique, so many recent developments in his personality that he, as the leader of a successful band like BTS, didn't have time to uncover.

"We don't have time. We make time." He reprimanded himself. "What will we have now?" His eyes moved to Jungkook together with his silent question. A lawyer and a manager were with him as Namjoon noticed. They spoke up each time opinions were asked of them and when they weren't. They both even shushed Jungkook on several occasions when the boy tried to say something. Jk stopped trying to solve the situation or bring calmness. He ended up following everybody with his eyes. It was killing him that he couldn't get to Taehyung. He glanced and stared at him for minutes but Tae didn't glance back.

A voice which could often be heard was that of Hoseok's manager, although Namjoon knew Hobi long enough to observe how the boy struggled with the situation. He was nervous and he appeared to be even more tired than he was back when they had their argument at the dorm, a week ago.

"We walked towards the same dream, but it was only that... a dream" Namjoon heard Hoseok add to the conversation and he commanded himself to pay more attention to the numbers being shouted and to the contracts but also to pick up whatever was said in between. He got stuck in that pattern until the meeting was over and everybody got up to leave the room.

"We will see to all the claims and please allow yourselves time to think. A month is a realistic amount of time and then we will see each other again for a second meeting. Agreed?" Bang PD concluded. "Until then, you are contractually obliged to follow your schedules, might I remind you."