They could hear a thousand people shuffle into the amphitheater. Occasionally fans would start to scream or chant their name, anxious for the show to start. The concert wasn’t set to begin for another 20 minutes, and the boys were backstage warming up their vocal chords.

Namjoon, Yoongi, and Jin went through some of the tougher dance moves together. The group was debuting a new song, and they wanted to make sure the choreography was flawless. Taehyung and Jungkook were warming up their voices. Neither could sit still, they were both so full of energy and ready for the stage. Hoseok reminded them not to use up all their energy before they even got out there, and they fussed but eventually sat down and ran through their stage performance once more.

Jimin was exercising. Hoseok never could understand this, the boy went to the gym enough as it was, and he went on stage already covered in sweat. But he decided to sit near his best friend and ask him if he was ready to go out there.

It was their first time performing outside of Korea, and Jimin thought his stomach was going to jump out of his throat. He always had a bit of stage fright. But tonight was so much worse.

“Hoseok, are you nervous at all?” the black-haired boy asked as he stopped exercising. He grabbed a nearby towel and rubbed his forehead, making sure that he hadn’t rubbed off any of the makeup the tech had put on before.

“Not really, we’ve done this a dozen times now. And I've got that new dance down without a problem.” Hoseok was surely one for such a public environment. Everywhere he went, he left smiles in his place. That was one of the reasons Jimin liked him so much.

“But you don’t feel like something could go wrong? Or we would disappoint our fans?” Jimin was starting to get very anxious, something he tried to control, but was unable to relieve all that much. He grabbed his hat that he had placed on a table and put it on. Hats were comfort to him, and he never went on stage or shot a video without one.

“Jimin, we do this for a living. If we disappointed our fans, we wouldn’t be here in the first place.” Hoseok ran a hand through his brown hair and smiled at the nervous wreck.

“I guess you’re right,” Jimin replied. He knew he was overreacting, but he couldn’t help it.

As Hoseok ran off to get some last-minute touch-ups, Jimin closed his eyes and tried his breathing exercises.

“7 seconds breathe in, 5 seconds breathe out. 7 in, 5 out. 7 in, 5 out.”

No matter how long he had been practicing his breathing, it never seemed to work on his own. His heart started racing a million pumps a minute. His breath was caught in his throat, and suddenly he was shaking all over.

He looked around at his friends.

Namjoon was standing with Jin, giving each other confidence before running out on stage.

Yoongi was trying to get Taehyung to focus as he and Jungkook were playing some sort of game involving a large curtain.

Then there was Hoseok. His lovely Hoseok. Jimin didn’t know if he could have done all that it took to be an idol if it weren’t for Hoseok. They had been best friends for years, and his hyung was always there for him. Every time he got anxious, Hoseok was the one to calm him down.

Jimin’s head started to fill with negative thoughts and fears. He felt like he was drowning, he knew he was sitting backstage before a show, but somehow he didn’t believe it. His arms crossed over his chest as the dizziness started to take hold. He couldn’t even stand in this condition, performing was out of the question.

Jimin tried to call Hoseok over without drawing too much attention from the other members. He hated for them to see him this way, since none of them seemed to have any problems with going on stage. Hoseok hear his friend’s plea and joined him toward the back of the work area.

“Jiminnie, are you nervous?”

“Yes” he choked out, breath still not stable.

“Look at me, look only at me. And listen to me. You’re going to be fine. We’re going on stage as a group and we’re going to have so much fun tonight.” Hoseok tried to appease his thoughts, and Jimin was thankful. But it wasn’t enough.

“I’m having a panic attack, I can’t do it, I can’t do it.” Jimin’s eyes were full of fear. He always worried that something would go wrong on stage. He worried that he would embarrass himself or the equipment wouldn’t work or the fans wouldn’t like him in particular.

“Jiminnie, just remember that we’re all out there with you, and you’re not alone. We do this because we love the stage, we love seeing our fans and hearing their reactions. Don’t you love hearing them chant your name during your solo dance?” Hoseok put his arm around his friend and lightly grasped his hand. The pair were okay with a bit of skinship, but Hoseok knew that Jimin was very fragile in his current state and he didn’t want to make the situation worse by being too physical.

“Just take out the dance and do the rest of the show without me, I can’t go out there.” Jimin was almost in tears at this point, but his breathing had fallen in line with Hoseok’s, so his heart rate started to decline to a normal pulse.

Hoseok repositioned himself so he could look into Jimin’s eyes. “I will not do this without you. I need you up there, Jimin, you help me get through these shows.” He truly meant that, if it weren’t for his best friend being there, he wasn’t sure if he would want to be on stage at all. “Let’s try your breathing exercises again. 7 seconds breathe in… 5 seconds breathe out… 7 seconds breathe in… 5 seconds breathe out…”

Jimin was still shaking, but he was able to do his breathing exercises with ease. As long as Hoseok was there, Jimin could do anything.

“Good, you’re getting there!” Hoseok had both Jimin’s hands in his as he continued to calm down his friend. “Do you think you’re ready?”

“Yeah, I think I can do it.” Jimin was still a bit hesitant, but he knew the worst was over and he was able to control his body again.

“That’s my Jiminnie!” Hoseok replied, and he wrapped his arms around Jimin in a tight embrace. They sat there like that for a while, arm-in-arm, until Jin walked over and reminded them that they had 5 minutes until the show started. After he had walked back to Namjoon, Jimin looked at the eyes of his best friend.

“Thank you, Hoseok. You mean so much to me.” Jimin meant that with every fiber of his being.

“I told you I need you, Jimin, so I can’t have you being anxious anymore.” Hoseok rose to stand next to Jimin, still holding onto one of his hands. Jimin rose as well, and they made their way to meet with the other members.

“Alright guys, are you ready?” Namjoon was getting his group fired up. Yoongi had a huge smile on his face, and Jungkook almost screamed out of excitement. The seven boys lined up and prepared to run through the curtain.

Hoseok stood right in front of Jimin, so he held onto his hand until the very last moment. As they pulled the curtain back, thousands of fans began screaming and the show began.