(Request from anon)

You must admit to yourself that you are good at your job.  After Taehyung left, you got the other 4 members done in record time and got them all to set with time to spare.  You now stand off to the side watching the endless posing for their new photo shoot.  Wow, they all look really good, you think in a totally non-romantic way.  You merely mean you are very good at your job and everything goes together well.  The outfits, the makeup, the hairstyles and the set.

You clutch the extra makeup bag you brought along in case anyone needed any touch ups.  You were so tired, but you still had a while until you could get any sleep.  After the shoot, which could easily go on for another couple hours, you have to accompany the members to a variety show recording and remove their photo shoot makeup, changing it to a different style of makeup that’s more casual yet still alluring.  Not that you minded all the demanding hours this job requires, but you do wish you could get a little bit of a break now and then.

You close your eyes, keeping your body at attention, but your head slightly tilted to the side.  You take a deep breath and feel your body starting to relax.  You heave a sigh as your mind starts to wander.  Your whole day is replaying itself in your head.  You think about everything you did, making sure that what you had accomplished was your best work and you couldn’t have done anything to made it better.  You’re good up until you remember the incident with Taehyung.

What was that all about? you think.  Why the sudden clinginess?  He always was a little hard to deal with, but lately he’s been acting weirder and weirder around you.  When you all are in the same room now, he’s always either by your side or stealing glances at you.  When he’s in your chair he teases you a lot, being loud and annoying making his transformation twice as long.  But when you work on other members he is silent and looks almost annoyed or mad. 

You’ve been dismissing the behavior because, well, you do have a job to do.  However, for the past few days, his antics are becoming harder and harder to ignore.  And today, he actually said something about wanting you to be his makeup artist alone.  That was very unlike him.

You’re pulled back to Earth with the sudden call of your name.  You open your eyes and see the manager calling you on the set for some touch ups.  You run onto set, pushing the thoughts out of your head.

You fix a couple of the members makeups before heading to the sidelines again.  Luckily, Taehyung was having his hair fixed so you didn’t have to deal with him.  After another hour of flashes and poses, you all head out to the cars to drive to the next location.  You grab your stuff and start walking out the door when the manager comes up to you.

“We are running a little bit late, so I want you to ride with the members and start redoing their makeup on the way.  Their hair is fine for the recording, but I want them to have a more casual look than they have now.”  He doesn’t wait for an answer and walks away, typing a number into his phone.  You roll your eyes.  You’ve done this before, but doing makeup in the car is not the easiest thing to do.  In fact, it was extremely hard.  Doing makeup in a car on yourself is hard, but doing makeup on other people…that’s a nightmare.

Stupid photoshoot, you think before heading over to the members van.  You open the door and see them already sitting in their chairs.  They look up at you and each gives you a little greeting. 

“Manager Sumbae said that I need to start doing your makeups on the way because we are running late.”  There are no real seats left, so you need to crouch on the ground, but it’s better like that anyway.

A couple of the members nod their heads and Jungkook, who is sitting in the seat right next to the door, pulls his legs in so you can get in.  You climb in and kneel down behind the driver’s seat.  You start handing out napkins with makeup remover to each member so they can be clean face by the time you get to them. 

The car starts to move and you take a deep breath, preparing yourself for the coming feat.  The car is silent as the members look at their phones or wipe off their faces.  You could tell that they were tired too.  You turn and tell the driver to warn you of any bumps or anything like that so you can be sure not to hurt the members by accident.

You are kneeling right in front of Jungkook, so it only makes since to start with him.  As soon as all his makeup is wiped away, you start to reapply foundation.  It is quiet and kind of awkward.  That is until you hear humming from the back.  You look away for just a second and see Taehyung with his headphones in, staring out the window, humming and bopping his head to the music.

Trying to concentrate again, you realize what song it is.

“Bump.”

You pull your brush away from Jungkook’s face and wait until it passes to start again.  The song that Taehyung’s humming is now playing in your head too.

“So, Noona, how did we do at the photo shoot today?”  It was Jungkook.  You tear your gaze from his cheek and look at his eyes.  He’s smiling expectantly.  A couple of the other members look at you too.

“You guys did great.  Everything fit really well together.  I know they’re going to turn out amazing.”  You smile and put the foundation brush away, moving on to a powder.  Good thing this is a casual look.  Not much more to do.  

A couple of the members thank you and start talking amongst themselves.  Not long later Jungkook is done and looking pretty good for an on the road, literally, job.

“Okay who’s next?” you say out loud.  In order to make things easier, instead of you moving from member to member, the members change seats to be in front of you.  Jungkook slides out of his seat and changes places with Jimin who is the next closest.  You glance at Taehyung during the change.  He is still staring out the window humming the same song again.  He hasn’t looked at you since you got in the car.  Is he seriously bipolar?  He is never like this

No time to think about that.  You go back to the job at hand.

“Bump.”

6 down, 1 to go.  You are about 10 minutes from the studio and you only have Taehyung left.  He is still acting strange.  He hasn’t spoken a word during the whole trip, just sat in the back listening to music the whole time.

“Taehyung?”  You try calling back to him to get his attention.  He doesn’t hear you.  Well, either that or he’s ignoring you.  You kind of hoped it was that first.  “Seokjin Oppa?  Can you please tell Taehyung it’s his turn?”  Seokjin looks up at you and nods before tapping Taehyung on the shoulder. 

You get yourself organized as Taehyung sits in front of you.  You look up to see that he still has his previous makeup on.  Cue frustrations to start now.

“Taehyung?  I asked you to take your makeup off before you came to me.  Why do you insist upon making my life harder?”  You grab a napkin and pour makeup remover on it.  Taehyung still has not looked at you or given an acknowledgment to your presence.  You try to hand him the napkin to wipe his face off.  He doesn’t look at it.

Oh for Heaven’s sake.  You grab his chin and jerk his face to look at you as you, not to gently, wipe his makeup off.  He looks at you with surprise before squeezing his eyes shut.  You remove the makeup quickly before starting on the reapplying.

In your rush, you accidently pull one of his headphones out.  For a split second, you can hear what he’s listening to and it’s the same song he was humming earlier.  Is he just listening to it on repeat?  Again the words of the song play over in your mind.  Taehyung puts the bud back in his ear quickly.

You look around at the other members they are all absorbed in their own conversation about the show.  You look back at Taehyung, who is staring out the window again.

You pull the headphone out again and start reapplying the foundation.  “Taehyung, can I ask you something?”

Taehyung looks at you, then pushes something on his phone and takes out the other earbud.  “Yeah?  What’s up?”  His voice was flat, not at all the cute voice he normally used when he talked to you.

“Are you felling okay?  You seem really tired today.”  You don’t look at his eyes, keeping your attention on his face.

“Yeah.  I’m fine.  Just all the running around and stuff is starting to get to me.”  He looks back out the window, pulling out of your grip to keep him still. 

You roll your eyes and turn his face to meet your eyes.  “Taehyung, it’s hard enough to put makeup on you when you’re sitting in my chair.  Please don’t make it any harder now that we are in a moving vehicle.”  You continue with the foundation, making sure everything was even.  “So, why have you been listening to ‘Saranghamnida’ the whole time?”

You see Taehyung’s eyes widen a bit.  “You know that song?”

“Yeah, of course.  It’s one of my favorite ballads.”  You switch to the powder, finally getting the liquid foundation done.  “Why do you keep listening to it?”

Taehyung is silent for a couple minutes.  You move on to the little bit of makeup around his eyes.

“Bump.”

You pull the pencil away and wait until your body is done jumping around.

“Noona, do you like me?”

Due to the combination of the bumps and the comment, you drop the pencil.  You search for it, aware that your heart is slamming in your chest.  What?

“Of course, Taehyung.  You’re my favorite member, remember?”  You try to tame your frantic breathing.  You grab the pencil and make sure you can still use it.

“You know that’s not what I mean.  I’m serious.”  You go to work on his eye, but he grabs your hand in both of his.  He holds your hand gently and squeezes it slightly.

“Taehyung, I’m trying to…”

“Please?  I need to know.”

He is looking at you now, and not just looking at you; imploring you.  His dark eyes are looking right through you, as if trying to find the answer within the deepest chambers of your soul.

“Bump.”

You keep still and go over the bump, Taehyung still holding onto your hand and looking into your eyes.  “Taehyung, I…” you start.  You can’t seem to find the right words to say, all articulation vanishing from your reach.

“I like you, Noona.  A lot.  And sometimes I feel like the man in the song I’ve been listening to.”

The lyrics of the song runs through you head.  So bad…a person like you.  Why did you take my heart without permission?  I’m living with so much difficulty, but you don’t even know.  You suddenly realize why he’s been so different lately.  All the glances and the teasing.  He likes you.

“I…need to finish, Taehyung.”  That’s not really what you meant to say, but nothing is exactly aligned in your head at the moment.  Taehyung looks at you for another minute, before releasing your hand.  You go back to doing his makeup and he is actually holding still.

“Big bump.”

Big?

You pull the pencil away and brace yourself for the contact.  The whole car rocks and you get forced off your knees.  You close your eyes waiting for a crash or something.  That was a little bigger than you expected. 

You open your eyes and find yourself practically lying in Taehyung’s lap.  Well, sort of.  He’s holding onto your shoulders, pulling you close to his chest.  You pull away quickly and reposition yourself on the floor.  You feel yourself flush a little.  Well, that was kind of humiliating.

You try to get yourself composed again, but you are finding that hard to do.  There is the strange impulse to laugh hiding in your subconscious, but you push it away, feeling that would be inappropriate. 

You glance up at Taehyung, holding your pencil at the ready.  When you see his face, you can’t help but let out the fit of giggles that you were trying to hide.

Taehyung was looking at you trying very hard to suppress his laughter.  He looked funny with one eye half done and his eyes squinted, holding his bottom lip between his teeth.

Sharing a good laugh, you forget all about the previous events and take a moment to just enjoy the closeness between you two.