Cypher 6 - Signing

The next day after the chasing incident, BTS were busy signing albums in the living room. As to what happened to their roommate selection, being childish as they were, it all went down to rock paper and scissors. The roommates are: Jin and Yoongi, Namjoon and Taehyung, Jimin and J-Hope, then Jungkook and their newly scouted member, Jaeyeol. Although a few hours have passed since they met, Jungkook and Jaeyeol got friendly and amicably, the two were ‘abnormal’ in similar ways because at the end of their game, Jungkook and Jaeyeol were tied. Fortunately, their room had a large space than the rest which Jungkook, the one who was excited to have a room of himself don’t mind having a roommate at all. When the original members took their clothes in their new dorm, Jaeyeol went home but he came back the next day because one of the BTS managers were one his doorsteps.

It was just 6 in the morning and Jaeyeol who was not supposed to be absent from class is sitting next to Namjoon and Jungkook. Although he was nervous at first, the moment he appeared inside the dorm along with a huge bag, the boys greeted him with huge grins in their faces. It seems that he is welcome after they realised that he was a huge fanboy. The existence of his BTS CDs from his bags incite them even more and so, after a few minutes of eating their breakfast, they all went to the living room and sat in cross legged.

“Is this okay?”

Namjoon exhaled after putting signatures on BTS albums.

“Deh, thank you Namjoon-hyung.”

Jaeyeol took the albums from his hands. His eyes scrutinised every inch and nooks of the albums that made the others chuckle. It was as if they knew that Namjoon’s mysterious power of breaking things has visited the albums.

“Yah, I didn’t break anything. Ahh—“

“Ahh, Namjoon-ah. There’s a crack! A crack! Lol.”

Seokjin’s laughter catalysed the room and even the crewmen were laughing.

“Ahh, mianhe Jaeyeol-ah...” Namjoon said lowly.

“Gah! These are endless! It’s as if we had a fansigning event.”

Jungkook says while signing another album.

“How many albums do you have, Jaeyeol-ah? Have you collected everything?”

Taehyung who asked of this made a small drawing of Tata on the corner of his signature.

“I have all of the 15 physical albums, from 2 Kol 4 Skul to MIC Drop/DNA/Crystal Snow Album.”

“15?!” Hoseok’s eyes widened at this and almost let go of the album in his hand.

“Woah... I didn’t know we had released a lot of albums since 2013.” Yoongi nodded proudly albeit the frown in his face was showing as he continued to sign each albums.

“Yah, at least remember the number of albums we had.” Namjoon rebuked them.

“Are there really 15 albums? Really?” Jimin who is a bit doubtful, turned to the crewmen and to the managers. While they all turned to their phone, Jaeyeol answered.

“I’m sure there’s 15 albums. Since there were 4 Studio albums: Dark&Wild, Wings, Wake Up and Youth;* 4 EP* albums: O!RUL8,2?, Skool Luv Affair, The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, Part 1, and The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, Part 2; 1 Single album: 2 Cool 4 Skul; 2 Reissued Albums: Skool Luv Affair Special Addition and You Never Walk Alone; 4 Compilation Albums: 2Cool 4Skool / O!RUL8,2?, The Best of Bodan Shonendan -Japan Edition, The Most Beautiful Moment in Life:Young Forever, The Best of Bangtan Sonyeondan -Korea Edition.” Jaeyeol answered the question without pausing with his hands counting down.

“That’s too much! How much of a fan are you?!” Jimin said, “I’m getting scared here...”

“Jaeyeol-ssi is correct. BTS has 15 physical albums.” One of the crewmen says.

“Woah! He even named what kind of albums they are! Don’t tell me you know the years too?”
Hoseok shouted even louder.

“Ah Seokjin-hyung, that’s nearly impossible—“ When Taehyung says that, Jaeyeol started enumerating.

“The 1st single album 2 Kool 4 Skul was released in June 12, 2013 as your debut album, followed by a comeback EP album O!RUL8,2? in September 11, 2013. February 12, 2014, you released your 2nd EP Album the Skool Luv Affair which marked the 1st time BTS album charted on the Billboard World Albums chart, and Japan's Oricon Albums Chart. Then a repackaged version of the album, Skool Luv Affair Special Addition was released in May 14, 2014. The 1st studio album, Dark & Wild was released in August 19, 2014, the 1st album to break into the US Top Heatseekers chart. Then you had your Japanese debut in December 24, 2014 with your 1st Japanese studio album Wake Up with all of the Japanese singles—"No More Dream", released on June 4; "Boy in Luv", released on July 16; and "Danger", released on November 19—made it into the top 10 of the Oricon Albums Chart as well as the Japan Hot 100. In April 15—“

“STOBH IT! STOBH IT!” Seokjin shouts.

“Did I got it wrong?” Jaeyeol who was in trance remembering what he reads about BTS in the internet. Just when he thought of the internets credibility, Namjoon butts in.

“Your memory is really good. Maybe we should change Jungkook-ah’s Golden Maknae to Twin Golden Maknaes.” Namjoon’s suggestion sparked another hot discussion.

“No! No! We should put Mimicking Maknae!” Jungkook suggestion shouts how he feels that his unique epithet is being changed.

“Mimicking Maknae sounds negative, I think we should call him Fanboy Maknae.” Taehyung voiced out albeit not thinking about the epithet’s meaning.

“Yah, Kim Taehyung! That’s even worse than Jungkook’s suggestion.”

“Platinum Maknae?” Hobi suggested.

“Or Eidetic Maknae? All-rounder Maknae? Do you even know your IQ?” Namjoon asked Jaeyeol who answered him that he forgot what is his IQ.

“Emo Maknae.” Yoongi who is laying on the floor, tired of signing eventually joined the fray.

“Yoongi should just lay there quietly.” Seokjin says the added, “Chaotic Maknae! I remember that on our music video Blood, Sweats and Tears on a scene above the mirror there’s the quote of Friedrich Nietzsche “You must have chaos around you to be born as a star.”

“Ah... that’s really meaningful but the word chaos still says a negative about the maknae.”

“Then how about BTS Walking Encyclopaedia Maknae?”

“...”

“Wae?! It’s good!”

Jimin’s proposal was ignored as they felt that finishing the task in their hands are the main priorities as of now. Afterwards, they ate some snacks until some of their managers appeared to inform them. One of the managers handed them a letter and them all sighed knowing it would be a quest. Just then, when Namjoon opened it up, his eyes lit up.

“Oh! It’s time!” Namjoon’s eyes was turned from the paper to Jaeyeol. “The main quest is here!”

“What main quest?” While asking Namjoon, Jaeyeol felt goosebumps all over him. He did not know that things will start to get rough from now on.

The letter says, ‘Starting Monday, Neo-BTS will train their new member, Jaeyeol-ssi like how they were trained before. The subjects are listed below.
1. Rapping
2. Singing
3. Dancing
4. Public relations 
5. Acting
6. Others (You can add more)

“Ahh!!!”

Everyone was in festive mode as they realised they will train the boy himself. Although there were no hidden objective (like revenge and taking out their hidden anger of the unfair way of adding a new member to their group) BTS will surely make him (Ku Jaeyeol) the best new maknae in 2018. Meanwhile, Ku Jaeyeol, the maknae of the hour was happy to know that he will personally be trained by the idols he has been looking up to. Then he realised something, how will they do that?

“How will hyungs train me when you all are busy with some schedules?” Jaeyeol who asked about it innocently, met the (evil) faces of the seven hungry (angry) wolves.

“Oh that? It’s pretty simple. We can train you when we have free time but when we are busy, we will give you the training course and the agency will provide a substitute for us.” Yoongi’s answer was a brief summary of the whole thing and Jaeyeol later understood exactly what is the difference between ‘practicing’ and ‘training.’

Jaeyeol went to school 2 days after the quest was explained to him. Today he was sure that every time he goes to the next class, he was sure that his memories have seen them although only once, he was already familiar with them. And even though he was absent for 2 days, no one asked him except for his professors who were gearing to know about his secret contract with Big Hit Entertainment. It was as if he was thrown to the Hyenas, Jaeyeol just gets some shivers whenever he imagines how would the avid fans of BTS react if they would know about this.

(As a fan I would be sure to feel bad that someone new came but knowing how the hyungs are really friendly (he didn’t know) and fun to be with, I know I can get through this.)

“I can do this—“

“Oh! Jaeyeol-ah is fired up!”

While going to the open field for PE, his classmates came to greet Jaeyeol. Today they all have to play basketball. Jaeyeol was but an ignorant boy when it comes to sports but there goes his insane abilities of memorising and copying whatever he sees or hears. That too isn’t limited to his singing careers but also to sports. That was something that Jaeyeol cannot helped but to feel bad. If he was a bit of a bad guy, he can even go and brag about it but Jaeyeol is a coward. He doesn’t like being in the spotlight but somehow, the short amount of time he had with the BTS gave him a bit of courage.

(If it’s them, I feel like I can be ‘me’.)

Meanwhile, while Jaeyeol was in the school, the rest of the BTS are (plotting) their (evil schemes and) training plans for him. There were variety of things that it could be seen as the perfect recipe for a disaster.

From the vocals of the group, Seokjin, Jimin, Taehyung and Jungkook created trainings. Breathing support, vocal development, etc., were their first subjects but it was changed later after hearing that there will be professionals to teach Jaeyeol. So they decided a different kind of subject: song covers of BTS songs, cooking (was a ‘must’ in case they are too lazy to cook by Seokjin), dance covers, language training (by RM yours truly), fashion skills (by Jimin and Taehyung), are just a few listed in the hellish training.

Are they serious about this? Even the crewmen were doubtful of this but not until Bang PD-nim arrived. A few minutes later and even Jaeyeol who was from school arrived earlier than he had told them. Jaeyeol, after being called to the Principal’s office, was instructed to go home.

“I was scared I that I thought I did something wrong...” Jaeyeol muttered lowly. “I had to quickly change clothes in the car before arriving to on the dorm.”

“Don’t worry. Soon, you’ll get used to that.” Seokjin says as he greeted him in the doorstep.

“Bang PD-nim came earlier. He told us about something really disturbing.” Taehyung’s voice was heavy and serious when he two appeared in the living room.

“Did I do something bad?”

Jaeyeol’s face was over shadowed by anxiety. The atmosphere was bad but not until he saw Hoseok’s face. Jaeyeol then remembered, of all the members, Jung Hoseok is the pure hearted—innocent to a fault that he can’t seem to lie. Seeing his face which is twitching, as if he’s itching to laugh. Jaeyeol sighed, everyone’s is already pranking him.

“Ah... I was scared for a moment. This is a prank right? Hoseok-hyung is easy to read.”

“Ahh! Hoseok is too weak in this kind of thing.”

Everyone turned to Hoseok with a look of disappointment. Sitting on the floor with his bag, Jaeyeol laughed nervously. If he wasn’t too keen on observation, he would be fretting so bad right now.

“So, what did Bang PD-nim mentioned about me?”

“Ah, he said something about your health.” Namjoon said ambiguity about his health. “Bang PD-nim said that you were...”

“Oh, I was comatose for 3 days? That was already in the past and I’m pretty healthy now.” Jaeyeol bluntly added.

His quick answer showed that despite what happened to him, Jaeyeol as ‘Jaeyeol’ wanted to continue living for his family that care for him and to his friends. Albeit surprised at how he answered openly, everyone was nodding. They thought that he would be a spoiled brat but seeing as how Jaeyeol shows it as a trivial thing made the seven hyungs a bit careful since they don’t want their diamond to break. Although they thought of Jaeyeol as a diamond in a rough.

“We have 3 months to train you. As you know, we are planning to release a new album. Bang PD-nim says that we have all the months to prepare before April. In January 2018, you are scheduled to debut as BTS but your first song will be Japanese. Seeing as how you are quick in learning things, I guess it’s not a bad idea.”

“Ah!”

“What is it?” Everyone was surprised when Jaeyeol suddenly shouted. His face paled as he answered.

“I preordered that already!”

They decided later on to help Jaeyeol cancel the order. For the rest of the day, Jaeyeol helped his hyungs organise their things as a few of the members personal belongings are still inside boxes. The devices such as laptops, speakers and some heavy equipments were carried by some helpers that the agency employed. Seokjin who finished the task first made his way to their new kitchen and made some food and later shared with the members. Jaeyeol who was busy helping throughout the day lazily dropped down the bed afterwards they had refections. Because his training starts the next morning, Jaeyeol decided that he will finally moved in the dorm. His clothes were taken to the dorm by his sister who was actually one of the stylists of BTS. When he saw her off, the two talked about his sudden circumstances.

“Don’t you look happy now? I’m glad that forcing you this time didn’t kill you.” His sister joked and opened the door to her car. “SOPA isn’t the smartest move Mom made yet it seems that the two of you are having the time of your life.”

Their Mom was a photographer who goes around the world and winning great prizes for her eccentric and eye catching skills in photography. Their father who died when Jaeyeol was just 3 years old was the reason why their Mom doesn’t like being tied to Seoul however, lately she was seeing a man. Although Jaeyeol doesn’t know him, he feels that it would be better if he doesn’t meet that man yet as he doesn’t know how to act. His eyes turned to the stomach of his sister and sighed, will she be okay too?

“Don’t stress yourself and go on leave already.”

“Oh, will do that soon. Bye~”

When the silhouette of the car disappeared into his view, a sigh escaped from his mouth. He came back to the dorm and entered his room where his eyes was blinded by the image of his hyung. Why? Even as a previous woman, Jaeyeol who turned into a man still have lingering womanly feelings and preferences that is why although he had foreseen that things like seeing his roommate walling around will be a common occurrence from now on, he still felt the blood rushing to his face.

“Oh, Yeollie is back!” Jungkook who just came out of the bathroom barely realised the change in Jaeyeol’s expression.

(Am I gonna be alright?)

He asked himself as he skip by the greetings and buried his face on his bed. For the first time since he woke up from his comatose, Jaeyeol slept.