7

“Taehyung is terrible.”

“How so?”

“He’s loud, clumsy, and smiles too much.”

“His smile is nice though.”

“His smile reminds me of a shipping package. Makes me even more annoyed because my packages never arrive on time anyway."

"What about Jungkook then?"

"What about him?"

"Well, you've said that Seokjin is too nice, Yoongi is too passive, Hoseok is too happy, Namjoon is too clumsy, Jimin is too bubbly, and Taehyung is too loud. Jungkook is the only one left."

"Oh, well he's an angel compared to the rest of them."

"Are you sure about that?"

"Yeah why?"

"Nothing. Nevermind, continue."

Sung Deuk was ranting about the boys as we stood side by side, piling equipment and cleaning out all the junk the boys managed to collect in the practice room.

"Where is their new practice room again?" I asked, grimacing when I found a pair of underwear shoved in a corner behind some boxes.

"In the basement. Bang PD-nim decided to pamper them a little bit since they're getting so popular. The new practice room is a lot bigger than this one and it won't be long before that gets filled with junk too," Sung Deuk scowled as he tossed a half-eaten granola bar with spiderwebs on it into the trashcan.

"Are they really that hard to work with?" I asked, apprehension growing as I surreptitiously stared at Sung Deuk's dark circles.

"It's not that they're hard to work with, it's just that they're really hard to calm down on a daily basis and a lot of them get distracted very easily," he said, dumping the last of the items into a crate and motioning for me to follow him with the other boxes.

"So, when do I start then?" I asked, pushing the cart full of boxes as I followed Sung Deuk into the elevator and down into the basement. "Bang PD-nim didn't exactly tell me what a job as an assistant entails."

"Nothing too hard. Just help the ones who are struggling with the choreography and make sure they don't goof off too much. They have practice in a few hours so you can start then. In the meantime, I can teach you their choreographies," Sung Deuk shrugged. "Trust me, it's harder than you think."

"Am I going to be sleep deprived and wanting to tear my hair out?" I asked, a growing feeling of dread crawling up my throat.

"Most definitely," Sung Deuk deadpanned and I groaned.

After compressing the boys' numerous belongings into a storage shed, Sung Deuk led me over to the new practice room and my eyes widened at how big it was compared to the old one. The floor and walls were all white and fluorescent white lights hung from the ceiling. A speaker was mounted in one corner and the entire room closely resembled an underground parking structure.

"I can't imagine the boys keeping this clean, seeing the state of their old practice room," I muttered, looking at the mirrors that covered one wall of the room.

"I'll make sure that they do this time because I usually end up being their housekeeper," Sung Deuk grumbled, contradicting to the affectionate glint in his eyes. "Okay, in the meantime, let's teach you the choreographies so you have something to do during the practice. We'll start with the most recent ones and their new one for the next comeback. I'll teach you the older choreographies some other time. I hope you're a fast learner."

"I think I can pick it up within the next few hours," I shrugged, stretching a few times and warming up. "It definitely won't be perfect though."

"You'll still be ahead of them because I haven't taught them any of it yet," Sung Deuk grinned. “We can do this until you master all of the choreographies.Just arrive an hour or two earlier and I’ll teach you the ways of Bangtan.”

I returned his grin and the studio filled with the sound of music and the squeaking of shoes.

***

I heard the boys clomping down the stairs before I saw them. It was really hard to miss Taehyung’s loud voice and Jimin’s high pitched laughter, along with Seokjin’s attempts at trying to calm everyone down.

“Here we go again,” Sung Deuk sighed exaggeratedly and shook his head tiredly right before the door was wrenched open by an enthusiastic Taehyung with Jimin and Jungkook trailing close behind.

“Hyung!” Jimin cheered, flouncing over to Sung Deuk with a bright smile. “Oh, Michelle’s here too.”

Taehyung waved at us and Jungkook grunted a noncommittal greeting.

“Hey kids,” Sung Deuk said, plastering a smile on his face, a complete change from when he was complaining about them a few moments ago.

Is he one of those Tsundere types?

“What are we doing today hyung?” Namjoon asked as the boys broke up into groups or two or three to warm up.

“I’m going to start teaching you guys the choreography of ‘Fire’ for your comeback in May. The choreographer is the same one who choreographed ‘Dope’ so expect a similar style. I also made some changes to the original video he sent me. It’s March right now so you’ll have roughly two months to learn it. You guys learn fast so it shouldn’t be a problem,” Sung Deuk listed, ticking off the points on his hand. “Michelle has already learned the general outline of the movements and where the positions of each member will be so afterward if you need help, find her.”

Sung Deuk dug his laptop out of his bag and plugged a USB in, pulling up the file of the video that the choreographer sent him. When the video ended, a myriad of expressions flickered across the boys’ faces. Apprehension on Namjoon and Seokjin’s, a grimace on Yoongi’s, excitement on Jimin, Jungkook, and Hoseok’s, and a blank expression on Taehyung’s.

“Hyung, that was so fast,” Namjoon said, face pale, already imagining the countless inevitable injuries he would get while trying to learn the monstrosity.

Sung Deuk already filled me in on Namjoon and Seokjin’s dancing capabilities. They were improving steadily but fast sharp movements were still a hassle for them. I wholeheartedly sympathized with him and the younger members giggled at their leader’s plight.

“You’ll be fine Namjoon,” Sung Deuk waved and Namjoon grunted, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.

What’s with all the grunting today?

“Hey Michelle,” Jimin whispered. “Do you know where Hannah is today?”

“I see how it is, Jimin. Already getting cozy with her?” I giggled, wiggling my eyebrows and watching his face turn a brilliant red.

“I was just curious,” he mumbled, ducking his head to look at the ground.

“Relax, I’m just joking. She has school today since the weekend is over,” I laughed. “You’re stuck with me today.”

“It’s not a bad thing,” Jimin countered, laughing when my own blush broke out. “Only joking.”

Our little exchange went unnoticed and Jimin returned to the group. As soon as Sung Deuk finished talking, dance practiced started, Sung Deuk directing the boys left and right into their positions. I danced along with the boys, reviewing what Sung Deuk taught me a few hours before, and rolled onto the floor with my eyes closed and limbs splayed out like a starfish when he gave us a break. It wasn’t long until I felt someone poking my side gently and I cracked an eye open.

“You okay?” Jungkook asked, handing me a bottle of water.

“Yeah, I’m good,” I gulped, looking away from Jungkook’s sheer white shirt, drenched in sweat and sticking to his chest and stomach. That boy’s got himself some abs. I was suddenly very thankful that I was wearing black so there were no sweat stains on my underarms.

“How long until practice is over?” I asked, taking deep breaths to calm my heartbeat.

“There’s only one more hour, but we usually stay longer after hyung leaves to practice on our own. Basically, we don’t know when we’re going to leave,” he said, lying down next to me. “You can leave if you want though.”

I felt him stare at me out of the corner of his eye, asking me a silent question. “I’ll stick around,” I said. “I have nothing else to do and Hannah is busy today.” I saw him smile and I grinned too, wiping the sweat off my forehead and flicking it at him.

“Michelle,” Jungkook whined, immediately standing up and moving away from me. “That’s disgusting.” I just shrugged and he sighed, reaching a hand out to help me up. I took it and leaned all my weight back, hoping that he wouldn’t be able to pull me up. Unfortunately, he still pulled me up with ease.

“Okay guys, let’s start from the top again,” Sung Deuk announced, clapping his hands together.

The next hour passed by in a blur of heavy breaths and sweat. When Sung Deuk finally let us off, promising more work tomorrow, the boys immediately collapsed into a pile on the floor.

“Is it always this hard?” I asked, sitting cross-legged next to them.

“Not normally, but we’re a little bit out of shape from our hiatus,” Namjoon said, patting Seokjin’s head on his leg.

“I’m about to die,” Yoongi gasped, draping an arm over his eyes.

“Stop being such a drama queen hyung,” Hoseok, said, still smiling with energy stemming from him in waves.

“You’re just energetic Hoseokie,” Seokjin said with his eyes closed.

“Let’s practice some more, then we can get some food,” Jimin suggested, and a chorus of protests rang out in the air, mostly from Namjoon, Seokjin, and Yoongi.

“Come on hyungs,” Taehyung and Jungkook said, climbing onto their feet. “Let’s just review the dance steps a few more times.”

Reluctantly, all the boys got to their feet, grumbling and groaning, rubbing their backs in Yoongi’s case.

“You’re such a grandpa,” Jimin teased, dancing just out of Yoongi’s reach so that no bodily harm would come to him.

“You brat,” Yoongi grumbled, but let it go with a wave of his hand.

“Okay, you guys get in position, I’ll start the music,” I said, grabbing the remote for the speakers, “I’ll join you guys on the side.”

The now familiar intro of ‘Fire’ blasted through the speakers and once again, all of my coherent thoughts were drowned out by the music.

***

“What do you guys want to eat?” Seokjin said as we all gathered in a circle, hair plastered to our foreheads and shirts soaked through. Discarded sweatshirts and jackets were piled against the wall. “It’s my turn to pay.”

“Chicken!”

“Ddeokbokki!”

“Jjajangmyeon!”

"Pizza!"

“How about we let Michelle choose to celebrate her first day on the job?” Yoongi suggested, ignoring the dirty look I shot him.

Seven pairs of eyes all swung to me at the same time.

It's like they rehearse this.

"How about pizza then?" I said, eliciting a cheer from Jungkook. "It's less messy and I'm pretty sure even you guys aren’t savage enough to  risk staining this white floor with jjajangmyeon sauce."

"That's true. Sung Deuk and the janitors would kill us if that happened," Seokjin laughed, reaching for his phone to call the pizza restaurant.

"Let's play a game while we wait," Hoseok said.

Taehyung immediately brightened at the notion and enthusiastically agreed, roping everyone along with him.

"What should we play then?" Yoongi drawled, leaning his chin onto his hands. "No, we're not playing 'Truth or Dare' after what happened last time."

Hoseok closed his mouth with an abrupt snap and a pout.

"What happened last time?" I asked curiously, leaning forward when I saw Jungkook's cheeks flush in embarrassment.

"Jungkookie here, got drunk and kissed a stylist noona in front of our whole staff team," Jimin giggled, slapping Jungkook, who was hiding his face from the world, on the back.

"Okay then," I said, laughing at Jungkook's expression. His soul practically flew out of his mouth and all the blood in his body rushed to his face. "Let's not play 'Truth or Dare' then."

"What do you want to play, Michelle?" Seokjin asked, finally lifting his head from Namjoon's lap because the latter complained that his leg was turning numb.

"Do you know how to play ‘Where the Wind Blows?’" I asked, receiving a round of head-shaking and clueless expressions. "Well, it's kind of like 'Never Have I Ever' but it involves more movement. Basically, the person who is caught in the middle says something that they've done before and the people who have also done that get up and switch seats with someone else."

"Sounds like fun," Jimin grinned, flashing me a thumbs up.

"It's not fair though," Yoongi piped up, raising his hand like a student and making me laugh. "The heavier people like Jungkook and Namjoon will have an advantage. Plus, Jimin's all muscle too."

"Are you calling me fat hyung?" Namjoon huffed indignantly and crossed his arms.

"There, there, Joonie, we couldn't possibly hide it from you any longer," Hoseok said jokingly, patting Namjoon, who sulked with a pout on his lips.

"You'll just have to deal with it Yoongi. Plus, that puts me at a disadvantage too so we can both lose together," I laughed, making him crack a smile. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jungkook raise an eyebrow.

He's probably still miffed that Yoongi practically called him fat.

"Okay then, who's going to start?" Seokjin said after everyone was sitting properly in a circle.

"I'll start then," I said, standing up and walking to the middle of the large circle. "I’ll start off with something simple then. I've gone on a date before."

Everyone immediately scrambled up and exchanged seats, until only Yoongi was left in the middle after having lost a fight against Hoseok for the last seat.

"Did everyone get up?" Jimin asked, looking around in amazement.

"Nope, Jungkook didn't," I laughed, making Jungkook flush deep red again.

"Hey, that just proves I'm the only innocent one here," he protested, the tips of his ears turning scarlet.

"Jungkookie, it's just a date. That just proves you're the only one here that has absolutely no experience," Taehyung giggled. "But seriously? Not even one date?"

Jungkook didn't reply and we all took that as his silent 'yes.' Everyone burst out laughing again, much to the embarrassment of Jungkook, who just sulked.

"Okay, okay, let's just get on with it," Yoongi groaned. "I've slept twenty hours straight before."

No one got up.

"Come on guys, really?" Yoongi whined, stomping his foot like a child.

"I'm pretty sure most of us couldn't sleep that long even if we tried," Namjoon cut in helpfully.

"Fine, I'll do another one," Yoongi sighed. "I've worn insoles before."

Jimin was the only one who got up, much to his chagrin. Jungkook laughed the hardest.

"Hey, it's not my fault I'm short!" Jimin huffed. Right when Jimin was about to continue the game, there was a knock on the door.

"Bangtan, your pizza is here!" called the person on the other side of the door.

Seokjin immediately lept to his feet and wrenched open the door, practically drooling.

"Thanks," he said and nearly ripped the pizza boxes out of the poor man's hands.

"Hyung, what toppings did you order?" Namjoon asked as Seokjin walked over, balancing three boxes in his arms.

"Spinach, olives, and anchovies," he deadpanned, setting the boxes down in the middle of our circle. I felt the vomit rise a little in my throat.

"I think I'll pass on the pizza then. There's a noodle place nearby right?" I said, scooting queasily away from the pizza.

"Me too," Taehyung said, face a slight shade of green. The others also had varying levels of disgust displayed on their faces.

"Oh relax, I was just kidding," Seokjin laughed, opening the boxes. Each pizza had pepperoni, sausage, and mushroom.

"Oh thank god," I cried, rejoining the circle. "If you actually ordered those horrid toppings I would have shunned you for the next three months, one for every pizza you ordered."

"Even I wouldn't eat that and I eat practically everything," Seokin agreed, a slice of pizza already halfway down his throat. The next few minutes were silent except for the sounds of chewing and satisfied noises. By the time all of us were full, all three boxes were empty, with only a sad little piece of sausage left in one.

"Almost makes practice worth it," I said, in a much better mood now that there was food in my stomach.

"We don't do this every practice though," Jungkook said, bursting my bubble. "If we did, we'd all gain a lot of weight and be bloated from eating after our late night practices."

"Must be tough," I replied, the image of practicing at one o'clock in the morning making me grimace. The boys just shrugged and I allowed myself to admire their perseverance and endurance. "By the way, what do you guys do when you're on hiatus and not promoting?"

"We mostly start writing new songs and preparing for the next album, do individual projects such as dramas and solo albums, or catch up on other things such as school in the maknaes' cases," Namjoon said.

"Do you guys get to travel or do things with your family?" I asked, fiddling with the wax paper at the bottom of the pizza boxes.

"When we travel, it's mostly to film a reality show or something, but we're free to visit our families when we're not promoting," Namjoon replied.

"Why the sudden interest?" Hoseok asked.

"I'm going to be sticking with you guys for the rest of the year so I might as well take the chance to learn something interesting," I shrugged.

"Let's head back to the dorms to clean and wash up," Seokjin said, gathering all the trash and tossing it in the bin outside. "Michelle, do you have a change of clothes?"

"I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure I have some in my bag," I said, ping my bag and rummaging around inside.

"I can lend you some of mine if you don't have any because I'm the shortest," Jimin offered helpfully, almost spitting the last part out.

"It's fine, I have some," I said, finding a pile of clothes under the random items I shoved into my bag yesterday. There was even a half-eaten package of cookies.

"You can use the shower back at our dorm then," Sokejin said. "It's nicer than the company showers, plus the hot water comes out a lot faster."

"Thanks," I smiled, climbing onto my feet and holding back a groan when I felt the soreness of my muscles. The boys didn't have any problems, but it was probably because they did this on a daily basis.

The eight of use trooped out of the company and struggled back up the stairs to the boys' dorm. They decided to let me shower first since they figured that I would take the longest. They were wrong because Jungkook took twice as long as I did, which bumped him up to a grand total of twenty minutes.

Is he shaving his legs in there?

"Michelle, we have a recording session soon so we're going to have to split," Namjoon said once everyone was showered and changed.

"Oh, that's convenient," I laughed. "PD-nim just arranged a training session with the stylists for me so we'll both be busy."

"Hey, Michelle, you're starting your first year of college next February right?" Jimin asked. "Jungkookie is starting too and he has to take his entrance exams soon."

As soon as the topic was brought up, Jungkook groaned and the hyungs laughed at the maknae's distress.

"Why is everyone bent on humiliating me today?" Jungkook groaned.

"You're the maknae, get used to it," Hoseok laughed, ruffling Jungkook's hair.

"Where's your university?" Namjoon asked.

"I'm going to Columbia University in New York," I said, feeling a rush of pride.

"Wow Michelle, you're so smart," Seokjin said. "You're like Namjoon."

"Namjoon?" I asked, cocking my head in confusion. Everyone immediately sat up straighter and began to talk in a pretentious way.

"Our Namjoon-hyung was in the top one percent of the country," Jimin said pompously, like he was stating his own achievements instead of someone else's.

"His IQ is 148," Taehyung added on.

"He learned English all by himself," Hoseok giggled.

"And on the brain show Problematic Men, he had one of the fastest problems solving times," Yoongi finished.

"Yeah, well I definitely can't do that," I laughed. To be in the top one percent of a country like South Korea, where the competition is nearly unbearable, is very impressive.

Soft chatter went uninterrupted among the boys, the flow of conversation smooth and relaxed. A soft knock on the door caught my attention and I stood up to open it. No one else seemed to have heard it so I went to go open the door, only to find Hannah there, hands trembling as she held on to her purse.

"Michelle," She whispered, voice shaking. "You have to go back to the Lees."

~

Sorry this chapter is late again. I got side-tracked because of Halloween and school is already killing me. My dark circles are beginning to look like Tao's, but they aren't even half as y. Please forgive me and I'll try my best to finish the chapter on time next time. Enjoy.