Jungkook thinks she’s the prettiest girl he’s ever seen. When the camera stops to zoom in on her throughout her group’s performance, he cant help but admire her face. He finds himself taking a deep breath and wishing for the camera to zoom in on her face. When it doesn’t, he feels strangely disappointed and shakes off that feeling. The artists all start leaving the venue a few performances after. His group follows after hers and her members turn around and to greet them. He catches her eyes and she smiles as she greets him as well. He awkwardly bows his head in return and proceeds to talk to Jimin.

He thinks she’s just a pretty face so he lets his fascination with her go. But she appears on Happy Together and she demonstrates her skill in martial arts so he admires her again for a little bit. He finds that she talks well and laughs easily. It’s natural, it’s refreshing.

He starts seeking out her face in the crowd, during festivals and music shows. He sees her with girls from another idol group, Twice, and he wonders why they are close when she’s from another group. He decides to just look her up once and he finds out she’s appeared on a survival show before Produce 101 and it amazes him. He finds out she’s also the team’s maknae and is younger than him by four years. He starts to think she’s too young for him so he acts like her sunbae and bows stiffly when they pass by each other.

When he was using twitter one day while BTS is in the waiting room and he sees her name trending, so he clicks on it. He sees multiple photos, gifs and pictures of her, so he scrolls down. V gives him a teasing look so he turns his phone over and says he’s just clicking on it because he wants to be updated with the current events. He sees multiple articles about her, about her and her little sister, about how caring she is as the group maknae, how positive and bright she is, how courteous and considerate she is towards sunbaes, how talented she is, he cant help but wonder how someone can seem to have it all—but he knows she’s worked hard for it. He forgets that she’s only sixteen.

BTS was lounging at their waiting room when they hear a knock. When they open the door, seven girls bow and greet them. He studies their faces and he thinks they look strong for rookies but his eyes settle on her face and she looks at him again, with an even bigger smile than the last. “Sunbae nim, we made a comeback.” She says and he realizes she was talking to Rap Monster.

“Oh, didn’t you have more members?” V asks and they nodded.

“Yes! They’re promoting with their permanent groups now.” The smallest girl chimes and he sees sadness cross her features. He looks at the youngest of the girls again and she laughs as she repeats the word ‘Permanent’. She steps forward and bows as she hands over their new CD.

“Please listen to our album!” She smiles and when he goes to accept it, V intercepts and thanks her. So he just continues to stand there, smiling and looking at them.

“We’ll listen to it well.”

“Thank you! Congratulations on your win, too, sunbae!” The Chinese member cheers.

“We’re really big fans!” The tallest one comments, they all agree. They exchange small compliments before the seven girls leave. They win five times after that, proving them to be a strong force if they don’t disband, but he knows they will so he feels bad for them.

When her group goes on to perform at the MMA’s and doesn’t win the rookie award, he finds himself disappointed but he sees her smiling face and he thinks it doesn’t matter much to her—as long as she enjoys the stage and he understands. He understands because he feels like that as well.

When her group wins the Best New Female Artist Award at the 2016 MAMA, he feels happy for her. He knows that because her group is given a definite date to end, they will treasure this memory. He feels happy because he thinks they deserve it too, after working relentlessly. He laughs when he hears GOT7’s Jackson shout her name so loud that she hears him amid the roar of the crowd, and he thinks it would be nice if she laughs at him like that as well. He listens to their speech and he remembers her words, “Thank you for letting us finish beautifully.”

He feels his heart plummet when an article about her and her co-emcee comes out and it trends like crazy. He thinks it’s about them dating, but it turns out it was about a “harassment” issue. He knows the guy too, they’ve been introduced and he couldn’t understand why this had gone out of hand. He doesn’t know what to believe and so he doesn’t say anything—he doesn’t have any stake in it anyway. He just scrolls down his feed and hopes that it won’t affect her in anyway.

He sees her during the rehearsal for the KBS Music Festival. At first, he felt the need to go to her because she looked like the issue had hit her hard. He reasons to himself that he can give her advice as a sunbae, but she smiles brightly at her members and fans that he finds himself heaving a sigh of relief.

The Music Festival commences and out of 31 girls performing that night, he sees her figure so clearly as he watches with other male idols. She shines on stage and he finds himself watching out for her group performance. When they get ushered to the waiting room to watch other performances and be recorded at the same time, he sees her enter and get ushered to sit in front of him. Seventeen and red velvet come in too. They lock eyes for a moment before he looks away. V catches him and nudges at him.

They all get ushered to their waiting rooms after but V pulls him away and starts telling him how awkward he is. “Just approach her and say comforting words as a sunbae.” He says it like it’s so easy to do. “Pretend to bump into her.” He adds and Jungkook groans at the idea but thinks it’s a good chance as well.

He spots her walking out of the comfort room and turn down the hallway. He jogs quietly as he practices what he’ll say. As soon as he rounds the corner where he last saw her, he halts. She was talking to her co-MC. He steps back to hide himself from plain sight. He doesn’t know why he does it but he stays.

“I know, oppa. I’m sorry.” She says quietly but he was still able to hear her.

“I’m sorry too, if I caused you any discomfort, really.” He replies. “You know you’re a close dongsaeng to me.” She agrees with him. “Maybe it’s best to keep our distance until we resume our hosting duties.” He suggests.

“Y-You think so?” She asks hesitantly.

“Yeah.”

“Okay. I’m sorry, oppa.”

“Don’t be. You’re the one who got affected due to my carelessness.” Jungkook peeked to see the older male pat her shoulder before leaving. He watched as she sighed.

Jungkook took a deep breath and took a step out of the corner he was in to approach her, but he noticed her head snap to the left. His gaze followed hers and he watched as the handsome Seventeen member approached her. Jungkook recognized him. How could he not? The female trainees at their company always asked him to befriend the younger male so they could meet him. Even their female managers and stylists were crazy about his good looks. He could only watch as he cupped her chin and smiled at her. He said something to her that made her return the smile and it made him frown. Her smile made him happy, but the reason for her happiness confused him. She said something to him which made him shake his head. His larger hand grasped hers as he intertwined their fingers. Was he supposed to be seeing this? Weren’t they both new to the industry? Why were they already so close? Were they just friends? But he saw the way the taller boy looked at her and he saw the way she looked at him—that couldn’t possibly just be friendship.

Jungkook’s shoulders sagged as he watched the younger male lead her to the hallway. She looked happy, brighter, more beautiful.

He swallowed as he felt the regret building up inside him. If he had returned her smiles more sincerely, if he hadn’t taken that first step to distance himself from her, if he had approached her and talked to her, then maybe she would be his instead. She would be his beautiful girl.