Jin-hyung ❤️
kookie~
[12:41 PM]
have you started planning for your next video yet~?
[12:41 PM] [Read 1:15 PM]

no?
[1:16 PM]
why what do u want
[1:17 PM] [Read 1:19 PM]

how rude. :(
[1:19 PM]
i didn't raise you to be this way young man. :(((
[1:20 PM] [Read 1:25 PM]

omg stop hyung
[1:26 PM]
u didnt even raise me the heck
[1:26 PM] [Read 1:26 PM]

i did too, don't even lie.
[1:27 PM] [Read 1:28 PM]

whatever what did u want
[1:29 PM] [Read 1:29 PM]

i wanted to make a suggestion for your next video!! ƪ(˘⌣˘)ʃ
[1:29 PM] [Read 1:34 PM]

absolutely not
[1:35 PM] [Read 1:35 PM]

jeon jungkook istfg
[1:36 PM] [Read 1:36 PM]

um
[1:36 PM] [Read 1:38 PM]

just hear me out it's a good idea!!!
[1:38 PM] [Read 1:39 PM]

um
[1:39 PM] [Read 1:39 PM]

jeon. jungkook.
[1:40 PM] [Read 1:40 PM]

okay
[1:40 PM] [Read 1:42 PM]

oh good! i know you're gonna like it!! i saw some of my subscribers recommending me to try out the challenge so i tried it out and the video was uploaded yesterday so i thought you should check it out! ٩( ᐛ )و
[1:44 PM] [Read 1:47 PM]

um
[1:49 PM]
sure
[1:49 PM] [Read 1:50 PM]

awesome!! because i kind of already tagged you to do the challenge in the video~ ^^
[1:50 PM] [Read 1:51 PM]

wait
[1:52 PM]
what
[1:52 PM] [Read 1:52 PM]

2:35 PM

...hyung? ;;
[Read 2:38 PM]

---

Jeon Jungkook stared at his phone for roughly two minutes after the reading receipt popped up and deftly sighed, sipping from his cup of coffee and resigned to his imminent fate. It's not that he thought Jin was setting him up for something that would torture him necessarily, it was just that the content of their channels was pretty different from each other.

jungKOOKIE had been gaining thousands more subscribers over the past few weeks and Jungkook had been surprised by the rapid number of people willing to listen to his content. He didn't upload all too often, with a few covers here and there and a couple dance covers with his friend Jimin, but other than that, he'd been relatively on the low scale of YouTube, a couple thousand subscribers under his name and satisfaction at the positive feedback that went his way.

On the other hand, his friend Jin had been running his channel EatJin for much longer than Jungkook and had a massive following. Jin had earned the count of 2,471,857 subscribers by posting two videos weekly of him working in his kitchen, giving out tips and tutorials on how to make easy dishes, on-the-go lunches for those in school and college, and the weekly video on Thursdays labeled "Jin's Jokes" featuring a number of people witnessing Jin spewing off anything from dad jokes to senseless rambling. Jungkook would never admit it out loud, but Jin was pretty funny, considering he never had a script for those videos and always made his guests laugh naturally with his mindless humor.

(And if anyone questioned why he'd watched all of Jin's videos, he'd mask his admiration with, "He never stops texting me if I don't watch his latest upload."

Lies. All of it: lies. But no one needed to know it but Jungkook himself. So.)

He'd failed to notice Jin's newest video that morning though because he'd stayed up late the night before studying for an exam that morning, had woken up late and on a fit of flurry, rushed to the class in a sprint across the campus.

His next video should really be: "The Woes of a College Freshman Without Coffee" by the weekly mad-dashes he suffers from with not enough sleep and certainly never enough caffeine in his system.

But that would have to wait, apparently, since his lovely friend had so kindly decided to mix up his schedule with a bit of...whatever he had decided to conjure up for Jungkook to try out. (And if it was something ridiculous that he'd have to cook or bake, he'd fling himself off the tallest building on campus because he was never going to follow Jin's difficult recipes ever again even if it were a life or death situation.)

What he hadn't been expecting however, was a challenge video to be the first thing to pop up in his subscriptions box.

It was unlike Jin to follow the challenge trend of YouTube and participate willingly in them since he had a difficult schedule to work around, finishing his degree in culinary school and preparing plans to open up his own restaurant and whatnot.

Clicking on the video, he's surprised even further to find out that Jin's vlogging for this challenge and whoa, had the world ended or something? The only time Jin ever pulled out a camera in public was when he was at a restaurant snapping pictures of the interior design of the place or trying to find "the perfect angle" so his food would look perfect in his reviews or his Instagram photos. But there he was, shaky camera and all walking down a sidewalk with Namjoon in the frame beside him, staring down at his phone.

"Namjoon, do you hypothesize that I will survive this challenge?"

Namjoon looked up from his phone, glanced between Jin and the camera, before finally focusing on Jin with a seemingly concerned look on his face, even as Jin kept smiling for the camera.

"You barely survived a day when you forgot to eat breakfast one day because you woke up too late, Seokjin."

Jin's intro paneled in after the short scene and Jungkook silently wonders what he's gotten himself into briefly before Jin's face is smiling at him again through his screen.

He's settled in his living room rather than walking down a sidewalk and it appears that Jin filmed it on the weekend because morning light filtered in subtly from the window into the room and Jin wasn't in any hurry to quickly film before a class.

(Somewhere in the back of Jungkook's brain, he distantly wonders how bad it is that he has his older friend's schedule pretty thoroughly memorized by this point. He knows his friend too well and they'd only known each other two years. The amount of detail they knew about each other, now that Jungkook thought about it, was scarily in depth.)

"Hello lovelies!" Jin's voice broke from the recording. His lips were pulled softly into a smile and his eyes formed crescent arcs. The man literally looked like sunshine but Jungkook knows that Jin can be one of the scariest people on Earth with that same smile.

He shudders.

"Today is an exciting day because I'm participating in the Live Below the Line challenge! As some of you may know, the world struggles today with poverty, with somewhat 50% of the population struggling to keep up while simultaneously trying to compile enough money to pay bills, put a roof over their head, clothes on their back, and put food on the table. Not enough people talk about poverty, but it's one of the biggest if not already the most problematic situation we have in the world today. This not only includes people who are unemployed, but people who are homeless, people who have served their country, and children."

Jin's face has a stern look on it as if it was last spring again and Namjoon had tripped over a crack in the sidewalk and nearly busted his nose in on the ground. That day, Jin had quickly scooped Namjoon off the ground and taken him to the hospital to get checked, while also hovering worriedly in the lobby in case Namjoon had actually gotten a severe injury. Jin, also on the same day, slapped Namjoon so hard on the arm that even Jungkook winced and Jin told Namjoon off in the most stern voice anyone had ever heard to "watch where you walk for 's sake! How many times have you disregarded your own senses to watch where you're going! You could have been seriously injured!"

It was one of those times that Jin had that stern look on his face, with hard but soft eyes with that same worried look in the back of his eyes that you'd only be able to see if you knew him well enough.

Yet Jungkook was surprised. Though he and Jin had grown rather close in the short time allotted between them, it didn't occur to him that Jin acted on such things for awareness. They'd had short conversations about things they'd felt strongly about, but it never occurred to Jungkook that Jin would take those opinions to his cooking channel of all places.

It made him wonder just how much he paid attention to his closest friends and their interests. He was most certainly paying attention now.

Now that he thought on it, Jin’s life revolves around his cooking channel. He wanted to make his own restaurant and become the main chef, recommend people his special of the day and teach other people the happiness that came to the love of food.

Of course he would express his deepest opinions on his channel. Anything he felt strongly enough about would go on his channel, much like his love for cooking and friends.

A pang shot through Jungkook. He couldn't quite identify what he felt, but he knew he had to keep watching. He continued following the movements of his dearest friend and paid attention to the words flooding his ears with new—actually quite old—information.

“To raise awareness to this growing and ever-present situation across the world, I will be participating in the Live Below the Line Challenge, where I will spend no more than ₩2,400 a day for food, which is ₩12,000 for five days: a week.” Jungkook thought for a moment. ₩12,000 was what he usually spent for lunch every day. A coffee and a sandwich or two. Maybe a snack. ₩12,000—there was no way fifteen meals would amount to such a low amount of money.

“This is a relatively small amount to spend for a week’s meal, but we’ll make it work. In most cases, water would factor into this as well, but in this case, we will only be including food into this factoring.

“As a matter of fact, I will only be drinking water for this challenge—” what “—because any other drinks wouldn't be as hydrating or worth it as water would be. Food will be the only thing we're going to spend money on this week, and I have also decided to isolate myself from my friends and other strenuous activities as I've already calculated the low energy I'll have throughout the week.

“Without further ado, let’s go grocery shopping!”

The video panned out with Jin holding a fist in the air to him walking down the street in a sweater and scarf, a hat and his camera in his right hand.

“After doing some thorough research the last week, I decided the cheapest place to find organic food at a low price would be at a local farmer’s market only a few blocks away, so we'll be walking there today.

“I looked through their selection of foods the other day and decided to bring my own glass jars and reusable bags to carry the foods in, since it's a market that sells in bulk. I also made a list on my phone yesterday with the correct amounts of food to get under ₩12,000 and I think I calculated everything just enough to scrape by!”

The video once again panned away from Jin’s blinding smile to a montage of clips of him at the farmer’s market, which was actually much more crowded than Jungkook had anticipated. Jin videoed the different types of food and their prices, sometimes adding in snippets of “these lentils are ten cents cheaper than the store” or “by using jars and reusable bags, you're able to limit the amount of waste in your home, which is good for the environment and better on your paycheck for trash bags”.

Jungkook had never been more surprised than he was now, watching Jin shop for fresh produce and discuss the little things Jungkook had never even thought of in all his years on the planet.

Did he really produce five pounds of waste each day?

“Alright guys! We've got some lentils, a jar of homemade peanut butter, rice, green beans, carrots, corn, oats, a few bananas, and some fresh tomatoes! Let's check out!”

A little shot of Jin standing in line and checking his food out came to the screen, showing the total it came up to be: ₩11,550.

Jungkook had never balked more in all his life than in this singular moment of living.

Before he even had time to ponder more over the grocery bag clacking away from the register, Jin’s video transitioned back to his home. Specifically, he was sitting at his dining table, the previously bought fresh produce surrounding him in a special aesthetic that only screamed “Jin’s cooking channel!” It both set Jungkook in fondness for the familiar state of Jin’s kitchen and set him out-of-place for he didn't know anything about the food around his close friend.

“Alrighty then! We've got all of our food and we're ready to start the day tomorrow with some oatmeal and half of a banana. Since I bought three bananas, I plan to have half a banana each morning, and hopefully with the last half of a banana, I'll be able to make some banana-oatmeal cookies or balls to snack on or eat for lunch!”

Jin put a lot of thought into this, Jungkook silently inquired, unable to take his eyes off the screen.

The video rambled on with Jin’s explanations with how the days would be planned out. Jin was a busy man, so he would pre-prepare the rice and vegetables in bento boxes for lunches and quick snacks.

The older man was a graduate in culinary school and was on his way to be a world class chef by this point, what with his glorifying skills and amazing ideas, and Jungkook knew this was out of Jin’s comfort zone as well.

Surprisingly, Jin was well-off for a college student, and it was mostly because of his YouTube channel’s revenue and his stable job as a cook in the fancy restaurant Taste Exists. It was much more high-class than the usual café Jungkook usually rounded for his daily meals and coffee, and Jin was all too happy to be working there, even if he would have liked to own his own restaurant in the future.

Even though Jin would have liked to cook something more adventurous, Jungkook was also aware that Jin picked his food carefully within this challenge, because as he went on to explain, “The beans and vegetables will help out immensely with the protein we’ll need for the energy I need throughout the week as I'm running around so much.” However, Jin also pointed out that “its most probable that most people on this certain budget of food is more likely to be severely nutrient deficient or overexerted because they're not eating enough to fully sustain them through strenuous activities.”

The information took a minute to fully sink into Jungkook’s head, and when it did, Jungkook vaguely remembered FaceTiming his friend a couple weeks ago and seeing Jin’s eyes with bags under them, tired as if he hadn't gotten much sleep.

And Jin values his beauty sleep with much vigor.

Now, he thinks, it makes sense that he would have been extremely tired without enough food in his body; not enough nutrients to help him function.

He quietly reminds himself that he eats more junk food than is necessary and that he is much more unhealthy than his friend, but he never looks like he's about to pass out from utter exhaustion like that of his friend during that FaceTime all that while ago.

It sends red flags through his mind but he ignores them in favor of the video, which moves on through a transition.

“Day One”, it highlights, showing the process of Jin making himself a full glass of water and putting some water and oats in a pot for his breakfast.

Water and sugarless oatmeal with only a sliced half of a banana in it.

Jungkook hated oatmeal with a burning passion and wondered how Jin could sit through seven mornings having to eat the mushy, flavorless food.

But Jin powered through it, downing his water and eating his oatmeal happily while relenting more facts to the viewer.

“Any kind of fruit will work to heighten the taste of oatmeal and helps if you don't put sugar or butter in it. And always remember to drink a full glass of water in the morning, no matter how much you want to have a cup of coffee and or soda in the morning. Remember guys, water is your best friend!”

Oh, I definitely don't do that.

Jin continued on throughout the day, quickly pre-preparing rice for the next two days and packing them tightly into bento boxes. He sliced up carrots as well and stuck them into the bento box, as well as some pre-cooked lentils that Jin explains he cooked while eating breakfast.

The lentils themselves looked like something Jungkook wouldn't care about, or have eaten in his life. He'd probably pass by a bag of them on the store and think it'd be a hassle to cook in the dorms.

Jin made it look easy though, packing together his lunches and then returning to his home hours later to eat a small dinner of lentils and vegetables cooked with tomatoes for taste. And later, he'd eat some peanut butter with some sliced carrots and Jungkook slightly regrets the triple topping pizza he had the night before.

And the days continued like that, with Jin describing in the video that he'd felt more tired as the days went on and that it was harder to walk up and down stairs on campus. The water was something he'd maintained healthily, drinking at least six cups of it everyday and that it immensely helped him through the hunger of a proper meal.

“Because the water is so filling, it was able to help me avoid some hunger, but I did have those awkward moments in my last couple lectures of the day when my stomach literally growled when the professor was silent for a few seconds. It was pretty embarrassing.”

And from what Jin described, it wasn't even just the hunger or the exhaustion, but the effects that it had on his body.

“When I began this challenge, I was at a pretty healthy weight for my height and size, but by the end of the week, I went back on the scale and realized I'd lost four-to-five pounds. Of course, by going back to my normal diet, I was able to gain back those pounds almost immediately.

“However, I want you all to realize that with people with two or more jobs who are standing for most of the day on this budget for meals, their bodies receive more lasting effects. It's probably harder for them to maintain a healthy weight. Some people don't even have sustainable jobs to provide them a proper roof over their head and then they're perceptible to the outside environment, which can make a person more likely to catch sickness and can really have a toll on the body.”

It was this passing information that had Jungkook thinking about his fridge and cabinets, filled with all of his favorite foods.

Some people in the world could have any food they want, stuff themselves fat until they're obese. They never had to worry about another meal, and yet there were many people that Jin described, who didn't even know when their next meal was.

Jungkook’s stomach churned in sadness, and slight sickness at the thought of it all.

Jin’s video didn't last long after that, but it ended with a speech Jin probably took hours to write, since it was so elaborate and serious, yet encouraging and persuading. He talked of the wealth gap in the world and how politicians were too corrupt and satisfied with their own lives to do anything about it. He talked about veterans and ex-soldiers who were living on the streets even after fighting for their countries. He talked of mountains and the holes that were at the bottoms of them all, and only the mansions at the very peak of those mountains were there without effort while others continually clawed their way upwards, some falling into the dark abyss at the bottom of the mountain, some who couldn't crawl their way out afterwards. The efforts of many were unrecognized while the rich and arrogant inherited money they had never worked for in their lives. Jin never said it, but it was the unfair advantage of many, and the point was not only to bring awareness to the unfortunate, but to the unfairly privileged.

“Alright, the video’s almost over but before we end this video, I want you all to click on this link right here—” he pointed to the attachment box on the screen “—and check out this page. I'm so glad I was able to collaborate with this organization and basically, this page describes statistics of extreme poverty and what you can do to help out the people around you locally. Even the smallest of change can help others globally, so don't be afraid to become aware and help others become aware of this situation as well!

“In fact, I want my friends to be aware of extreme poverty awareness as well, so I'm going to tag some to do this video! I challenge my dearest friends TaeyeonStarlight, ColdLadyCL, amberswave, jungKOOKIE, and the EXObois to become aware.

“As always, I hope you have a great day and do what you love. Bye!”

And with that, Jin’s cutesy intro music took over the audio and several links to other videos and channels loaded the screen. A tiny “Thanks for watching!” was in the middle of the screen against the pastel pink background, and Jungkook stared at the bright color for a very long time. The video had ended a while ago but his sight remained blankly on the frozen screen.

Picking up his phone near the keyboard, he quickly texted his friend, still in a daze.

Jin-Hyung ❤️

wtaf hyung
[3:02 PM] [Read 3:03 PM]