February 1st, 2017. The sound of synchronized footsteps filled the practice room as all of the BTS members were practicing hard for their upcoming comeback just short of two weeks from today. They had set aside all schedules for the past month to work even harder than last year with newfound motivation and were nearing the home stretch soon. However, today was a very special day for all of the members. It was Red Velvet’s comeback.

“Thank you for your hard work!” All the members bowed gratefully at all the staff as everyone prepared to leave. While today was a long day, with 12 hours of practice, none of the members seemed to be feeling tired at all. Their minds were elsewhere and itching to get home. Especially a certain member.

“Hyung, please hurry, I can’t hold in my excitement anymore,” Jungkook complained as he stood next to Jimin, who apparently misplaced his phone charger.

“Aish, where did it go? Did someone take it by accident?!”

“I have extras in my room! Hyung please I’ll just give you one!”

“Ahh..okay fine I’m looking forward to the new music video as well. Let’s go home!” Jimin couldn’t help but laugh as he watched Jungkook hop to the other members preparing to leave as well in response to his statement. “This kid…”

The car ride home had never been louder after a long day of dancing and singing, as all the members got more hyped up the closer they were to the dorms. For years now, most of the BTS members had been big Red Velvet fans. While Namjoon and Yoongi didn’t originally listen to their songs avidly, after constant exposure from the rest of the group, not even the two rappers could resist their charms, artistic talent, work ethic and eventually became big fans as well. However, due to their circumstances in the past, they would never have the time to enjoy one of their comebacks, and never had any money to spend on albums. But BTS were doing very well nowadays, and they finally set aside time to watch their new music video close to release, as well as buy the new album.

Soon enough, they finally arrived back at the dorms, and after freshening up, the members gathered around their TV to watch the new music video. Jungkook seized control of the laptop and typed ‘Rookie Red Velvet’ in the search bar furiously.

“Yah, Jungkook, you’re really worked up. You were the first one down here too weren’t you? I’ve never seen you take a shower that fast.” Taehyung observed. The other members including Jungkook chuckled as they all knew it was true.

“Whenever I pass by the bathroom Jungkook is always singing and blasting music through those bluetooth speakers of his. You can hear it so clearly even in my room as well.” Yoongi said. The other members playfully slapped Jungkook, the atmosphere always playful.

“Oh yeah, then what was I listening to yesterday?” Jungkook challenged.

“Even if I happened to not hear it on certain days it’s always IU and Red Velvet!” The other members burst into laughter clutching their stomachs as Jungkook just looked down while blushing. While everyone knew that Jungkook held a deep admiration and respect for their senior IU, nobody really knew that Jungkook liked Red Velvet just as much, maybe even more due to a certain someone…

The truth was, Jungkook had developed a serious liking to Red Velvet’s very own maknae Kim Yerim. And the members loved to about it whenever they had the chance. The group had developed a little inside joke where if Jungkook was given the opportunity to choose between IU and Yeri to go on a date with, which he would choose. Jungkook would normally just ignore the teasing and laugh it off. But of course, the opportunity presented itself, and the members gladly tackled it to the ground.

“Pick one already Jungkook! It’s bad to leave them both hanging like this you know. ” Hoseok teased.

“Aish, again, for starters, you know I can’t talk to girls normally, I would never be able to have a conversation with either. And second, I only love and respect IU as a loyal fan.” Jungkook calmly stated with no hesitation.

“And how do you see Yeri then?” Namjoon asked.

“.....”

“Wah, daebak he’s completely silent!”

“Our maknae Jungkook is in love? They grow up so fast…”

“Yah, why are you like this, what’s with the hesitation?”

Jungkook’s face turned redder than a tomato as he was bombarded with playful comments. Thankfully though, he was saved by Jin carrying a tray of seven bowls of ramen.

“Yah, you guys could’ve helped me you know.” Jin said handing a bowl to each member.

“Ah, mianhae hyung, we were just teasing Jungkook again. He’s always the one teasing us, things like this are rare.” Taehyung responded.

“Alright alright that’s enough! We’ve put this off for long enough I just wanna watch already!” Jungkook stated. The other members quickly agreed and pressed play on the video.

“Yah it’s starting!”

And we’re live! Produced by The Colleagues! Take one!

“Woah woah daebak, aren’t they pretty famous producers?” Namjoon asked

“Shhhh” Jin waved his hand at Namjoon without turning away.

As the video went on, the members made countless comments on how pretty the girls were, the choreography, and how they surprised them yet again with more diverse and catchy music. The video ended and all the members clapped.

“Daebak, seriously. I want to watch it again but we have to open the albums.” Jimin said.

“Ah~ why am I getting so nervous!” Hoseok exclaimed shaking.

“I wonder what photo card I’ll get...we all bought one album, we have a decent chance of getting one from each member. I hope we won’t be missing anybody.” Taehyung said.

BTS all opened their individual albums and paused before revealing what photo card they got and decided to show each other all at once.

“Yah, Jungkook, love all members equally, don’t be upset if you don’t get Yeri’s.” Jimin teased.

“Why do you keep teasing me, same for you guys!” Jungkook pointed at Hoseok and Jimin. “Don’t be sad if you don’t get Wendy or Seulgi either!”

“Ah we know~ I’m grateful for anything. Honestly speaking I feel so happy that we can afford things like this now and enjoy ourselves together like this.” Jimin stated. The other members smiled at each other and nodded in agreement. They really did come a long way.

“Okay!” Namjoon clapped and got everyone’s attention. “Let’s all reveal on the count of three! One...two...three!”

“YAH! What even is this!?”

“Did this seriously happen?”

“This is unreal...are you sure the managers didn’t know which ones were in which when they went out to pick these up for us!?”

It was a near-perfect scenario. Namjoon and Jin both got Joy, Taehyung and Yoongi both got Irene, with Hoseok getting one of Wendy’s, Jimin getting one of Seulgi’s and Jungkook getting one of Yeri’s. Saying the dorm was loud and rowdy that night was an understatement. Jungkook, Jimin, and Hoseok even started skipping around the living room holding the photo cards in their hands.

Things eventually settled down as they flipped through all the photos on their own, occasionally showing one of the other members a picture they personally liked.

“Wah...you seriously are in love. How long are you gonna stare at that picture?” Taehyung asked

“Aish leave me alone” Jungkook responded blushing again for who knows how many times that night.

“Mianhae. By the way,” Taehyung prompted turning his attention to the rest of the members, “We’re going to be promoting at the same time soon, do you think we could possibly befriend them? Maybe at least get an autograph for these albums?”

Namjoon thought carefully before expressing his feelings in a short speech to the members.

“Ah...it’s hard to say. It’s risky. I do want to get to know them but even a small glance will cause unnecessary hate towards them, it’s not fair. We would have to be careful. As much as I like them and their music, we have to focus on our comeback first and foremost. That’s our top priority. This was really fun though seriously. Let’s work even harder this year. I can tell, this year will be a big turning point in our lives. If we ever feel lazy or exhausted, just remember the fun times we had today. We were able to do this because we worked hard, just as Red Velvet did. Let’s be successful so we can make more memories like this.”

“Our leader is wise and poetic as always,”  Hoseok said as he gave two thumbs up.

After talking a bit more, the other members slowly migrated to their rooms to rest for the night, as they had another busy day tomorrow. However, laying in his bed, even though it was late and Jungkook was tired, he couldn’t get Taehyung’s words out of his mind. After their comeback, this could be a chance to befriend the girls, specifically Yeri... maybe even talk a little bit and become friends. Would he be able to do it though? He still hasn’t overcome his shyness towards girls, especially cute and talented ones like Yeri. What would he say? Would she think he was weird? He would probably make a fool of himself… How do you even casually ask one of the most popular girl groups for an autograph anyway? Jungkook eventually got tired and decided to get some sleep. He has to focus. Their comeback was soon and there were even higher expectations for this one after how successful WINGS was. But he couldn’t help but think he would like to make more friends and talk instead of just stealing shy glances at end of year shows...

A/N: Hello! This is the first time I'm talking to you directly! Feel free to skip this if you don't really care. But if you're still here welcome to my first story if you're new, and if you read the first chapter welcome back!I think the last I updated was two weeks ago? Man that was a while ago. First of I apologize for the big gap between this chapter and the last. There are two reasons for that. One, was that I was just very busy with life, but secondly, to be honest, I'm not very confident in my writing as of right now. I'm very insecure and this story was really a big step for me in putting myself out there to be judged, or viewed in a certain way. I just really fell in love with Jungri, and BangtanVelvet ships in general recently. But I'm fairly new to shipping and I honestly didn't think that many people would enjoy this story so I didn't have much motivation to write. But here I am again! For the few people that commented thank you! I really appreciate it knowing that you read well! It really means a lot to me. For comments I'll try to respond to you guys individually at the end of chapters in these A/N! After all we're all BangtanVelvet shippers here aren't we? ^_- I hope you don't mind but I feel like this is important to me. As for the story itself I hope you enjoyed the slightly longer chapter to make up for the fact that I didn't update in a while. Next chapter will be music bank and their first meeting! I wonder how things shall unfold....

RESPONSES: 

ReaderByHeart1521:  My very first comment! Thank you for taking the time to read my story! >.< I'm glad that you were able to see what I was going for there! I personally think that Jungkook and Yeri are some of the strongest people I know. They are the maknaes, they are goofy, evil, funny, full of energy but when push comes to shove they have shown time and time again that they are very caring, hardworking, resilient and mature. They never wanna burden the other members with their problems and hate to make them worry. They have pushed through all the hate and hardship that comes with being an idol and have blossomed into beautiful adults from debut, and it's amazing to see their growth <3 Thanks again!

ggexotica: Thank you for the kind words! Hope you enjoyed ^_^

DarLa12316: I'm so sorry to make you worry! I'm doing fine now, I hope you're doing well too~ Thanks for the kind words, I honestly think my writing is not that good but if you enjoy it then I'm happy! ^o^ Sorry for making you wait as well! If possible, I would like to come up with a schedule for updates but as of right now there is none. Next chapter will hopefully be up in a week at the latest, so hopefully you're as excited as I am for their first meeting! Thanks again for reading well! <3

CHANGE LOG

02/22/18: Fixed some typos and added italics for organization.