Chapter 6: Blue haired Youngjae.

"Hyung I have two questions. One is: who is this Max person? And the second is: how pretty is she?"Jackson asked Jaebum in their dressing room while they were getting ready for a fan signing event.

"What do you mean?” Jaebum looked horrified. How did Jackson know about Max? How could he possibly find out about his Max? Jaebum shoot a glare at Youngjae, who was innocently sitting in front of the mirror, chatting with his hair stylist.

“Betrayer” Jaebum cursed under his breath. Jaebum proceeded to act as if he was clueless and completely innocent.

"Come on, Jaebum hyung, we all know you're dating that Max person" Jinyoung casually said, playing with his phone.

Although everyone in the room seemed to be doing something on their own, and were trying their best not to eavesdrop on their leader’s personal life, it was obvious everyone was interested to know who Max was.

"How do you know her name?" Jaebum demanded, giving s a death glare.

"Oh, look at him getting all defensive and mad” Jackson laughed.

“I guess they are dating after all. Jackson you were right” Jinyoung said, handing Jackson ten dollars for being right.

“Did you make a bet?” Jaebum was amused. s definitely were something else.

"Anyway, I asked you how did you know her name. More importantly how do even know her?” Jaebum sounded seriously pissed. He would be, as he was the type to like keeping his personal stuff from others, even from his friends of 5 or more years.

"It wasn't exactly hard, as you were always on your phone texting someone named Max with a heart next to it” Jackson explained.

“So, using our brains, we figured that you two were possibly dating” Jackson continued.

Jaebum mentally kicked the out of himself. What the had he been thinking texting in front of them? Of course they would find out about Max. They were his band mates after all. His sneaky, disgustingly annoying band mates who were like some type of FBI agents.

Jaebum had been acting strange these past two weeks. He'd been smiling a lot more often and he'd been literally attached to his phone to the point where s were considering pitching in to pay for Jaebum’s surgery to actually attach the phone to his eyes, so that he could at least have free hands.

Jaebum really hasn’t been paying enough attention to his six immature and childish members, thus letting Jackson draw whatever he wanted on the two maknaes’ faces while they were asleep. But he's been doing his best though. Having a career in bloom, six man children to take care of and a girlfriend to keep and please weren’t easy jobs to manage. In fact, for sake of those three, Jaebum had given up his sleep two weeks ago. So Jaebum hasn't been getting enough sleep these days, which was why he was easily irritable. Plus there was an issue of the general public, more importantly s, finding out about his relationship with Max, which just added to Jaebum’s already high stress level.

But it was over now; the members have already figured everything out. There was no way to turn this situation around and get out of it clean.

"It's nothing. Just drop it” Jaebum stated, getting to go to the bathroom so that he could escape the Q&A session that was going to happen between him and s any second now.

"Hyung, don’t be so greedy. I know you have her picture. Just show it to us” Yugyeom begged the leader.

"Is she that girl we saw at the store?” Youngjae squished in. Jaebum was surprised that Youngjae had asked him that since he had assumed that it was Youngjae who told Jackson and everyone about Max. He was kind of glad he was wrong about Youngjae being a culprit.

“Come one, Jaebum hyung, just show her” Jackson pleaded, holding Jaebum’s arm.

"Why are you guys being so curious and annoying all of a sudden?” Jaebum declined their requests to show off his new girlfriend and got up to get his hair fixed.

“Come on guys, stop. He has a right to want to hide his girlfriend from his lifelong friends” Mark spoke sassily, trying to guilt trip Jaebum.

“Oh, burn” Bambam could be heard from the other end of the room, where he was resting comfortably on the provided sofa before the event.

“Bambam, I’ll see you later” Jaebum warned his donsaeng shooting an angry glaze over at Bambam, who seemed to be unbothered by the leader’s scary warning.

"Okay, but one day or another, you’re going to have to show us that Max, anyway” Jackson said and got up to find another victim of a terrifying verbal abuse that Got7 members were surprisingly good at.

It was after the fan signing event, as everyone was distracted, when Youngjae quietly came up to Jaebum, who was surprisingly without his phone in his hands for once.

"Jaebum hyung, I know this really irritates you, but can't you show me her picture? I swear, I won't tell anything to any of the members” Youngjae begged. Youngjae, frankly, only wanted to see Jaebum’s new girlfriend’s picture just so that he could compare the girl to himself and hate himself even more.

"You already saw her once” Jaebum quickly answered, getting into the van and taking the seat in the back near the door. Youngjae followed him and sat next to him.

"So my speculation was right, wasn’t it? She's the blue haired girl" Youngjae cheered. Truth be told, Youngjae was even more disappointed now that he knew who Jaebum was dating. Not only was the girl pretty as an angel, Jaebum seemed to be really into her back when the two of them saw her at the shopping center.

"Yeah, you were right, so now just keep your mouth shut, okay?" Jaebum ordered, getting his phone out to find out that Max had texted him thrice. Youngjae of course nodded. To be honest, with or without Jaebum’s order to keep his mouth shut he wouldn’t have spoken. If the other members see the girl they’re just going to see how much better she actually is than Youngjae.

Jaebum smiled to himself as he read Max’s texts, which caused Youngjae to frown.

"Jaebum hyung, it feels like you’re on outsider when you sit alone like that and isolate yourself from our conversation” Jackson complained, seeing how obsessed and crazy his hyung looked while texting his mysterious girlfriend.

“Plus it’s kind of making me jealous” Jinyoung added to the complaint. Jaebum rolled his eyes and put down his phone just to meet the glares of s.

“Okay, I put down my phone. Now what?” Jaebum inquired. But just as he was going to say something else, his phone vibrated: another text from Max.

“Okay, hyung, you can text Max all you want and ignore us” Jackson started. Jaebum already hated how Jackson’s sentence started.

“If you just show us her picture” Jackson proposed.

Jaebum squinted as if to say “Promise?” After receiving an enthusiastic nod from everyone, Jaebum went through his phone to pick the prettiest picture of Max.

"Here, look. This is Max” Jaebum showed the picture to his curious members.

The first one to witness Max's unearthly beauty was Jackson. Jackson’s exited smile turned into a confused frown as soon as he saw the picture. Same thing happened with Jinyoung and Mark.

"She is really pretty” Jinyoung said, obviously forcing a smile.

"What is wrong? You guys look like you just smelled something gross” Jaebum was also confused. Was Max not pretty? Why were they frowning?

“No, no it’s just that she’s so pretty but she’s already taken” Jinyoung made up an excuse for their group frown, trying not to offend their lovesick leader.

“Taken by me” Jaebum commented, obviously super proud of his cheesy and cliché self, making s frown even more. Although Youngjae knew his hyungs were frowning for a bad reason, he couldn’t help but smile to himself. Maybe she was pretty, but the members didn’t seem to like her at least. That was enough for him.

"Okay, guys. I'm going to bed. Good night” Jaebum announced as soon as they arrived home, heading straight to his room.

"Night hyung” Youngjae said back and smiled, although he knew Jaebum wasn’t going to sleep but talk to his Max instead. The other members seemed to be doing something else, as they all ignored Jaebum. They were all in the living room, discussing something with hushed voices and would occasionally shush one another with one started to talk louder. Youngjae could’ve joined them but at the moment he couldn’t care less.

Youngjae was in the kitchen, eating his feelings while listening to his favorite ballads. It was really hard for him since his favorite person in the whole world found someone better to hang out with and talk to, someone obviously better than Youngjae. Youngjae didn't except Jaebum to be alone and by his side forever or anything, but he didn't expect him to find a girlfriend so soon either. Plus there always was a small glimmer of hope, a small possibility that Jaebum might like Youngjae a little. But now that he had a girlfriend the hope was gone, it was destroyed. Ever since Jaebum got himself a lady, Youngjae felt lucky if Jaebum remembered his name.

But, of course, Youngjae acted as if it didn't affect him a bit. He put on a bright smile even though all he wanted to do was ignore Jaebum and cuss out his ‘gorgeous Max’, and pretended to be happy for Jaebum. Because Jaebum seemed really happy now that he was with Max, Youngjae couldn’t make himself pop his tiny bubble of pure joy. After all, Youngjae saw Jaebum’s smile that Max managed to put on his face as much as five times a year, if he was lucky that is.

What made the situation ever worse was the fact that Max was outrageously stunning. How was Youngjae supposed to compete with a girl who was also incredibly beautiful? Truth be told, Youngjae would've developed a crush on her too if his heart wasn't already captivated by Im Jae Bum. Youngjae closed his eyes in pain as he realized he'd never be able to capture Jaebum's heart as long as Max was in the picture, and it seemed like Max would be in the picture for a really long time. Frankly, it wouldn't surprise Youngjae if Jaebum came up to him one day and announced that Max and he were engaged and were planning to get married at some small town church in Kansas. That's how good they were getting along.

Youngjae hated himself. He was the one to start the romance, after all. If he hadn’t brought Jaebum to that goddamned mall, he wouldn't have been sitting here right now stuffing his mouth with various foods. Youngjae should've just dragged Yugyeom and Bambam along with him. Yeah, Bambam's annoying when it comes to shopping for clothes, as he judges every single thing Youngjae even dares to look at. But it's way better to be judged for picking ‘distasteful and stupid’ clothes than Jaebum dating a good-looking girl. He could handle Bambam's annoying two hour rant about combining clothes that should never even be near each other, but Jaebum talking to his girlfriend every night for a decade before going to bed - he couldn’t handle.

"Why did I do that?" Youngjae asked himself, still stuffing his mouth with random food and hitting his forehead with the spoon he used to fill his mouth with strawberry ice cream.

"Hyung, are you okay?" Bambam asked, sounding really concerned.

"It's really bad for your figure and health overall if you keep eating weird stuff this late” Bambam advised looking over at his hyung who looked like he’s been dumped twice in one day.

"I'm fine, Bambam, thank you” Youngjae brushed the unofficial maknae off and went to his room to sleep, as he was tired from stress eating. Who knew eating required this much energy.

But, as expected, Jaebum was still on the phone with his girlfriend. Not even wanting to hear a single word from Jaebum about how adorable Max sounded when she was sleepy, Youngjae took his pillow with him, deciding to sleep on the living room couch, just like he’s been doing almost every night for two weeks.

"Screw you, Max" Youngjae mumbled under his breath that night for the billionth time, trying to find a position to sleep in on the very uncomfortable leather couch. He was going to be cranky tomorrow just like his ninety year old grandpa whom satisfied nothing, that was for sure. And without doubt his crankiness would be thirty percent because of his lack of sleep and seventy would be caused by the angelic girlfriend of Jaebum’s, that blue haired witch – Max.

"Screw you, Max” Youngjae said one last time, still trying to find a way to fall asleep on the couch that was for sure from hell, where Max probably was from as well.

Deep down, Youngjae felt really bad for disliking Max (which was probably why he had a nightmare about a giant Max trying to crush him with her huge foot), as he wasn't exactly the hateful type. Plus Max didn't do anything wrong to be hated by Youngjae. It wasn't her fault that Jaebum liked her; it wasn't Jaebum's fault that he liked Max either. So Youngjae didn't even have a solid reason to despise Max’s existence. As he mentioned before, Max was a really attractive human being. The type that made you want to immediately get to know them, the type that made you want to protect them from all the bad and negative things in the world, the type to make fall in love with them at a small glimpse at them.

Youngjae couldn't blame Jaebum for falling for Max. Max really was worth falling over.

The next morning was weird, as Youngjae was pissed out about waking up early and Jaebum was satisfied with everything and everyone. And the other members were just confused all morning, kind of like Jinyoung, Mark and Jackson were in the van last night after seeing Jaebum's girlfriend. Basically, the house was quiet but everyone was shouting and screaming inside; some out of happiness, some of stress, some out of pure perplexity.

"Do we have to go?" Youngjae whined, half asleep on the kitchen counter.

"Yes, if we don't, we'll be failures" Mark answered the younger boy, desperate to convince him to get up and get dressed so they could finally get going to their morning schedule.

"I really don't want to” Youngjae whined once more from the kitchen.

"Let me handle it” Jaebum stepped into the kitchen and started to violently shake Youngjae, while shouting gibberish. Youngjae meanwhile covered his ears with his hands, shut his eyes tighter and tried to resist the violence.

Mark felt bad for Youngjae and his ears, as Jaebum was one of the loudest members in the group. But if this sadistic act meant Youngjae finally giving in and getting up then Mark was okay with it. As long as they were getting to their destination on time, everything was okay, no matter how physically and mentally painful it was.

"Fine, I’m up, I’ll get dressed, wait" Youngjae pushed Jaebum away and finally got up from the table.

"Please, just don't let Jaebum hyung do that ever again. Please" Youngjae begged, walking like a drunk forty year old to get to his room. Jaebum stayed in the kitchen smiling as wide as the great white wall of China, happy that he still had the ability to wake Youngjae up. Plus he saw that Youngjae hadn’t touched his bacon, so while Youngjae was getting dressed Jaebum decided to munch on them.

"Let's just get this day over with" Youngjae muttered, getting into the van and then falling asleep in the car right away. The other members, either didn't notice his depressed and drowsy state as they were busy falling asleep themselves, or they didn't mind it, as they understood the struggle of being an idol and having to go to sleep at dawn and then waking up at dawn.

It was especially hard for Got7 to get some decent sleep these few months, as they were releasing mini albums after mini albums and promoting them non-stop. In fact, Got7 probably had the best promotions in their agency, which they were grateful for of course. But still, since they were all human, going to music shows, attending different interviews with the same questions, meeting same old vibrant and excited fans at the same old fan signing events eventually lost the spark and the effect it had on the boys, and it all got tiring and somewhat annoying. Youngjae, of course, expected all of this when he was signing the papers and becoming the fifth official member, but this kind of exhaustion was beyond his expectations. But what can you do, duty calls. They choose their own paths.

"Kids, wake up. We're here" Got7 manager woke the sleeping members up. Youngjae was annoyed. He wanted to just drop everything and sleep for a century. But he couldn't, because he had a family he wanted to take care of someday and he had his fans that would be greatly disappointed if he did so.

"Choi Young Jae you can do this” Youngjae cheered himself on climbing the wearing stairs that lead to a familiar building.

The night before, Got7’s dorm, the living room (as Youngjae was stress-eating).

As soon as Jaebum was in his room, everyone, excluding Youngjae, gathered in the living room.

"So did you see her?" Yugyeom asked, curious to know what the leader's girlfriend looked like. Jaebum was the first one to obtain a living breathing real girlfriend after all, so the members were very interested to know about her appearance.

"Yeah” Jackson said, still shocked at what he had seen in the van.

"So... How does she look?" Bambam asked growing impatient by the second. He was dying to hear his hyungs’ comments and thoughts about the leader’s girlfriend.

"She looked exactly like him" Jinyoung said and pointed towards Youngjae, who was at the moment in the kitchen going through the stuff in their fridge, trying to find something to eat.

"What?" Yugyeom and Bambam asked in unison, as both were clearly confused.

"Yeah, she looked like Youngjae expect with bright blue hair” Jackson answered.

The five stood there with the same idiotic, baffled expressions on their faces watching Youngjae.

"But how's that possible?" Bambam was sure the hyungs were just joking, trying to fool him and Yugyeom, just like they do every day.

"I don't know but she did. Do you guys think, maybe, Jaebum hyung likes her because she resembles Youngjae?" Jinyoung asked suddenly, still looking at the main vocalist.

"But how is that even possible?" Yugyeom couldn’t wrap his head about the fact that someone could be exactly identical to another person.

"I bet you, she probably even has the same personality and habits as that weirdo in the kitchen, which is probably why hyung likes her so much” Jackson stated.

"But that's impossible” Yugyeom repeated, still in disbelief.