Recommended listening: Wake Up - EDEN

Once, when the group had been Osaka, Taehyung, Jeongguk, and Hoseok went to a maiko house, just out of curiosity. They spent several hours there, conversing with the heavily makeup-ed women who would speak quietly, sit in a folded position, and play instruments. Taehyung never thought he would see the male equivalent, but that night he did.

It wasn’t exactly the same, of course. The boys talked in their usual voices to the many guests there, but there were definitely similarities. For example, Taehyung realized why he had seen so many smiles from the boys that seemed odd - they weren’t real. He knew because they gave them to the women in short dresses and the men in suits that were there. They would smile those creepy smiles and laugh squeaky, high-pitched noises that weren’t their laughs.

The guests seemed to enjoy it. Taehyung’s skin crawled watching it.

They could play a lot of different instruments, he learned. Several times a few of them would play an old-sounding instrument that looked a bit like a guitar.  Yoongi occasionally played an instrument that appeared to be a small, unsophisticated wooden piano. They also played pan flute and a sweet-sounding instrument that was played like a clarinet.

The air was stiflingly warm in the room. The guests were fanning themselves with traditional Japanese fans and Taehyung was sweating in the humidity. He had no idea how the other boys managed to look so composed and startlingly perfect in the heat, especially as they were wearing basically long robes. To distract himself, Taehyung listened to a few of the conversations that were going on.

A group of dark-haired men was surrounding Jeongguk, who knelt perfectly poised in the middle of the circle. The red tint staining his lips gave his mouth a permanent small smile.

“Sing for us?” one of the men asked the boy, his eyelids blinking slowly.

It was a perfectly honest request, as Jeongguk’s voice was beautiful, but the question made Taehyung’s face heat in anger. How dare he ask that of Jeongguk, with that false grin and predatory eyes?

Nevertheless, Jeongguk took in a deep breath and closed his eyes. The hot air was suddenly filled with the boy’s beautiful, enchanting voice. The entire room seemed to quiet down and a few people glanced over at Jeongguk, whose painted white skin shone under the lights like the moon. The boy’s eyes remained lightly closed as he sang. Taehyung had an idea as to why: Jeongguk was shy when he sang as well as being shy around strangers. When he closed his eyes and the room was quiet enough, he felt like he was alone and no one could hear him. It had been something they had spoken about before.

The song continued, Jeongguk singing words that made no sense to Taehyung. The song was much like the one that Taehyung had heard on the radio: unintelligible like humming, but yet clear like singing. The song continued for several minutes with no one else in the room making a sound. Jeongguk’s voice eventually faded into silence, and Taehyung had to resist the urge to applaud.  After all, no one else was, so there was probably some rule that he didn’t know about. Conversation slowly started up again, and Taehyung watched as the men began congratulating the boy’s singing.

But then everything went wrong when the man that had asked Jeongguk to sing leaned closer to the boy - then without hesitation pressed his lips onto Jeongguk’s.

Taehyung sprung up from his place on the floor and answered every protective instinct in him, running to the group. The other men didn’t seem to mind the fact that their friend was taking advantage of literally a child, he noted with disgust. The man seemed happy, if the smile etched on his face as he kissed Jeongguk was true. The poor boy himself seemed uncomfortable, but for some reason, made no move to push the