Chapter Text
“Jimin! Look this way!”
“Smile for the camera!”
“Jimin, you look amazing today!”
“What a cute smile!”
“Jimin!”
“Park Jimin!”
The couple dozen flashes from the paparazzis surrounding him leave him breathless every time.
It has been more than two years since Park Jimin, the son of an average family, rose to fame and became one of the most popular and influential people in the world, all thanks to his videos posted on YouTube about make-up and his exquisite technique when applying it, as well as his wide knowledge about it. His good looks were also no joke since the very beginning, but what made people all over the world fall for him was none other than his charm. He is one of those people who fight for what they want and they work as hard as they can to accomplish it, yet when they have it all they never fail to stay humble and not once they forget where they came from. Jimin was an ordinary boy from Busan when he first started his career as a beauty guru on YouTube, and now he is a worldwide star with millions of followers, with paparazzis following him everywhere and with a brand under his name, yet he is still the same ambitious boy as before all of it came his way. This is why people like him. This is Park Jimin.
He bows politely to the reporters before going inside the venue where the annual beauty convention in Seoul is held. He sighs when he finally leaves the flashes behind and he can finally take off his glasses. He doesn’t understand how there’s people who stand right there without sunglasses and end up looking good in the pictures. He knows that if he ever does that, he will end up appearing in all of the pictures with his eyes closed— which, now that he thinks about it, wouldn’t be that much of a big deal because everyone could see his smokey eyeshadow better. But that’s another thing. He gleefully walks past the entrance door, which has white and pink roses adorning the frame. It’s like entering another world made of candy floss and pink sweets when he steps inside the room where the event is hosted. This year’s theme was ‘sweet things’, so that’s why him and most of the gurus there decided to dress with pastel colours to attend this event. Jimin feels really good when he’s in his element, inside these places where he seems to have control over everything. He has always been an outgoing person, but he still feels slightly uncomfortable going to places where he knows nothing nor anyone there. Yet in here, he might not know everyone but all the faces around him are familiar and the place is cozy and welcoming. He is bound to have a good time today.
“Oh my god, Park Jimin?” A sweet and gentle voice calls his name, so naturally, Jimin turns around to greet them. A girl way smaller than him is smiling at him, with a perfect purple cut crease that matches her skirt that looks out of a fairytale.
“Oh, hi!” Jimin greets with a smile that reaches his eyes as well.
“I’m such a fan of you! I think I’ve watched every single one of your videos!” She says, excitedly.
“Aw! That makes me so happy to hear.” Jimin replies, making himself smaller because even now he still gets embarrassed when people compliment him.
“Can we take a picture together? My name is Sori, by the way.” She says, already with her phone out in her hand. Jimin nods and gets closer to her, and in less than a second she is snapping at least ten pictures. He talks to her for a while longer and then she disappears to find someone else, mumbling to herself that she can’t believe she talked to the Park Jimin.
“Mr. Park?” Another voice calls him and he now turns around to the other side. It looks like the man is a staff member in charge of the event. “Follow me, please, I will lead you to your seat for the opening presentation.” He says, gesturing with his hands to step forward. Jimin nods and follows the man, nicely dressed with a black suit and a pastel pink tie.
The presentation isn’t as long and boring as Jimin thought it would be, and before he even knew it there was a singer on stage performing as a closing act of the presentation. Jimin was having a good day so far and he felt like nothing could ruin his mood today. He had wanted to come here with Taehyung but the man had to take his driver’s license test for the tenth time today and he didn’t want to risk it and be late. Jimin had told him to just take a taxi everywhere like he does, or that he could hire a driver for him if he wanted, but Taehyung refused. Nothing seemed to go wrong, and Jimin definitely was not going to let anything ruin his good mood today.
Suddenly, everyone’s phones start to go off with notifications, some later than others, some at the exact same second. Jimin pays it no mind because he’s surrounded by influencers after all, but he does find it a little weird that suddenly everyone’s phones went off. And then, he feels his own vibrate in his pocket. He frowns and takes it out, unlocking it and seeing the non-stop messages from Taehyung.
My soulmate <3
JIMIN
JIMIN
JIMIN
CHECK YOUR PHONE
THE NEWS
OH MY FUCKING FGOD JIMINREPLY TO ME
Jimin
Are you okay?
What’s going on?
My soulmate <3
CHECK YOUR TWITTER NOW
YOU ARE UNDER FIRE !!!!!!!
Jimin
I’m wHAT?!?!
Jimin looks up and that’s when he notices that everyone around him is stealing glances at him, looking at him with judgemental eyes and even whispering things to one another without taking their eyes off of him. His heartbeat quickens but he tries to remain calm because it’s probably just a misunderstanding and it’s all in his head. There is no way he’s having backlash when he has never made a wrong move in his whole career. He has always been extremely careful with he does and says on his social media. Jimin breathes out and puts his attention back to his phone screen as he taps the Twitter app on his phone and his account opens a few seconds later. He goes straight to his notifications and sees the usual amount of comments and mentions, which are a lot, but this time the comments are way longer and they keep coming nonstop. He checks his mentions and scrolls down, reading some words that make his head hurt because he doesn’t understand what’s happening yet those sound really, really harsh. He then stops when he scrolls past a tweet linking an article that reads:
“Park Jimin, the beauty guru and owner of his brand Park Cosmetics, under fire after claims of his new eyeshadow palette being cruelty-free end up being lies”
Jimin clicks on the article and reads it through quickly, heart feeling like it is about to come out of his chest. He has to fight back the whine when he reads “it has been proven by experts that some of the eyeshadows indeed contain carmine, which is a pigment of a bright red colour obtained from the aluminium salt of carmine acid found in scale insects.”
What the fuck.
Okay, this right here definitely ruined his day.
He gets up from his seat and rushes out of the venue whilst he dials Taehyung’s number and everyone else in the room is giving him the side eye. “Jimin?! Are you okay?” It’s the first thing Taehyung says when he picks up the phone.
“What the hell is all of this, Taehyung?!” Jimin sounds alarmed.
“The minute I saw it I texted you. I don’t understand, did you lie about the palette being cruelty free?” He asks.
“No! Of course I didn’t lie! The lab I worked with explicitly told me they weren’t using carmine on my eyeshadows! I made sure of that!” Jimin sighs, frustrated.
“Then what the hell happened? Because they tested the eyeshadows and they indeed have carmine in them…” Taehyung says.
“How?! I don’t understand.” Jimin screams to the phone, stomping his foot on the floor harshly. “It can’t be! The lab told me they didn’t use it!”
“What if they lied? So you would work with them anyway?” Taehyung suddenly says. “We all know you want all your products to be vegan… so what if they lied to you so you would still pick them to work with you?”
“But then what about the hundreds of tests we did on every single eyeshadow?” Jimin asks, whiny. He thinks about everything that’s coming on top of him and he wants to cry. He has never fucked up, not even once, and this had to happen right now?
“They could have easily altered the results.” Taehyung replies. After that, Jimin tries to recall every time they did a test on the products and stays silent for a couple of instants.
“Fuck.” Jimin breathes out, eyes widening. “Fuck, Taehyung. Fuck, fuck, fuck.” He keeps speaking more to himself than to anyone else. “The NDA. They made me sign an NDA.”
“What? Why would a laboratory make you sign a contract like that?”
“I don’t know. Fuck, they said some bullshit that I don't even remember and had me sign it. I’ll go home right now and look over it again.”
“I’ll be waiting for you at home, I just finished my test.” Jimin hears Taehyung say when he starts running to the door and bracing himself for the hoard of paparazzis that will be on his way to his car in a few seconds.
“How did it go?” He asks, looking straight forward and stopping his tracks for a second, seeing all the people around the entrance of the venue looking distressed and with their cameras ready to shoot the very first images of him after the scandal that just broke out around him.
“I failed again.” Taehyung says, and that’s the last thing Jimin hears from him before he steps outside of the venue and everyone is rushing to him, asking him a million questions that fall deaf because all the voices together merge into something incomprehensible.
♥
“Dude, kill him already!” Yoongi screams over the loud music playing in the background, some tune with a trap beat that he has been obsessed with lately.
“I’m fucking trying!”
“Hey! Don’t fucking swear or they’ll ban my account!” Jeongguk says, nudging his Hyung with his elbow, eyes glued to the screen in front of them.
“You just swore, dumbass!” Yoongi laughs, smirk in display. His fans in the comments must be screaming right now.
“You’re so bad at this, oh my god!” Seokjin’s voice is heard from the other room, making the three of them laugh.
“Oh, I’m sorry for not being in the top five gamers of the year.” Namjoon rolls his eyes, dropping the controller and giving up on the game. A few minutes later, the game finishes and Jeongguk and Yoongi win against the bots.
“Next time let’s play against some real people.” Jeongguk says excitedly. He gets up from the floor and walks to where his phone is to read some of the comments of his viewers.
“We could’ve done it if Joonie wasn’t so bad at it.” Yoongi rolls his eyes, plopping down on the couch and leaning on Namjoon’s shoulder, teasing him.
“What game should we play next, guys?” Jeongguk asks the camera and almost instantly there are dozens of comments with different names of games that are really popular and other that aren’t at all.
“Animal crossing.” Namjoon says.
“Yes, please!” Jin says from the kitchen.
“Are you done with the popcorn yet?” Yoongi asks Jin, but he has no response. Jeongguk is still checking the comments, face on full display on the screen. Since today they had been playing a game on his PS4, he had to stream with his phone instead of his usual setup he has on his gaming desk.
“What if we play some retro games next time?” Jeongguk asks, turning around to ask his friends as well.
“That would be a great idea.” Seokjin says, walking into frame past Jeongguk and sitting on the couch, handing a giant bowl of popcorn to Yoongi whilst he takes the other one. “Don’t eat them all.” He tells the younger, which earns him a glare from Yoongi’s cat-like eyes.
“Are you gonna attend this year’s gaming convention in Seoul?” Jeongguk reads one of the comments out loud. Yoongi and Namjoon scream a ‘fuck yeah!’ And Jeongguk simply smiles and nods his head shyly.
“Ew, you guys are gross.” Yoongi says, talking to Namjoon and Seokjin, who just started cuddling on one side of the couch. “Let me read some of the comments.” He adds, getting up from the couch and sitting on the floor next to Jeongguk to have a better look at the screen, handing him the bowl of popcorn. The viewers see an up close of their faces whilst they eat popcorn, completely blocking the view of Namjoon and Seokjin being a gross couple on screen.
Jeongguk makes a disgusted face and looks down at the popcorn. “Do these have butter in them?” He mumbles to himself.
“What games are you most excited to play?” Yoongi reads out loud, enthusiastically. “Personally, I am so excited to play this one called Cyberpunk. And you, Jeonggukkie?”
“Ah, I want to play the new Avengers one. For the PC.” He simply says.
“Here goes the Avengers nerd.” Yoongi jokes, wrapping one arm around the younger’s shoulder.
“Ah, the sun is starting to go down…” Jeongguk says, looking out the window behind the screen of his cell phone.
“Should we say bye for today, then?” Yoongi asks, Jeongguk nods.
“Well guys, this has been me and my friends today! I know you like it more when I don’t have Yoongi-hyung annoying me—”
“Hey!” Yoongi says, flicking his finger on his head not too hard, making him laugh.
“I’ll come back tomorrow and maybe play with some of you! Thank you as always for watching me and supporting me!” He says with his usual bunny smile, and then they both say goodbye and turn the livestream off.
“Ah! I definitely kicked your asses today.” Yoongi says, getting up from the floor and stretching his limbs.
“It’s all luck.” Namjoon says, finally detaching himself from Seokjin.
“Sure it is.” Yoongi plops down on the couch between the couple on purpose.
“I’m gonna kick your ass someday.” Seokjin tells Yoongi with a deathly stare.
“Please, I’d like to see you try.”
“Guys, oh my god.” Jeongguk gasps. He turns around and his friends look at him with confusion in their eyes. “I just realised that VidCon is in a week.” He breathes out. “Oh shit—”
“Haven’t you been attending it for like… two or three years already?” Seokjin asks.
“Yeah, but he still gets really anxious about it.” Namjoon says.
“There’s a lot of people in there, and a lot of them are like— my literal idols. I always have a mental breakdown or a fanboy moment before entering, there is no in between.” Jeongguk says, gesturing with his arms, hands hidden by the sleeves of his oversized black hoodie that makes him look extremely soft.
“You always talk as if you weren’t the most famous and skilled gamer of the century.” Yoongi says, almost cooing.
“It’s so cute.” Seokjin agrees.
“You don’t have to worry, Jeonggukkie, you’ll be with us.” Namjoon reassures him. “We’ll probably disappear for a while but you’ll have us one call away, remember?”
“Yeah… yeah you’re right.” Jeongguk nods. “Okay! Now all of you, finish these popcorn and leave! I have things to prepare for tomorrow’s stream.”
“Geez, you only want us to game with you.” Yoongi says, pressing his hand on his chest and acting like it hurts.
“You’ll forget about us when you find someone that’s better at gaming than us.” Namjoon adds.
“That’s not true, Hyung!” Jeongguk says, almost with puppy eyes. God knows how much Jeongguk adores Namjoon, he would literally do everything for him.
After half an hour more or less, Jeongguk’s friends leave his apartment and he is left alone with nothing but silence and a messy living room. He sighs at the sight of his living room and shakes his head, but doesn’t waste one more second and starts cleaning it all. Anyone would say it’s not that dirty, but Jeongguk being the clean freak that he is can’t stand the sight of his pillows and being all over the place and some pieces of popcorn to be on the floor and under the couch. How did they even get under there? He spends fifteen minutes to put everything back in his place and then starts humming a song that Yoongi had been playing before as he walks to the bathroom, taking off his clothes on his way there. He takes a hot shower, so hot that the steam of the water fogs up the tall mirror in the room. Once he’s done, he wraps one towel around his waist and uses another one to dry his brown hair as he walks upstairs to his bedroom. Before purchasing this apartment, he had thought that it was too much for him. At the end of the day, it’s just him living here and he doesn’t need that much, but now he thinks he made a good decision because the views he has from his room are exceptional. He wakes up and the first thing he sees in the morning is the skyline of Seoul, and that also is the last thing he sees before falling asleep. He sits down on his mattress, still drying his hair, when his phone goes off. He looks at it and sees he got a notification from Ubisoft asking him to be one of the beta testers for the new game that they will be releasing in 2021. He jumps of excitement and replies right away, saying that he will do it —of course he will, what the hell?
He still can’t believe he achieved so much by dedicating his life to his hobby. He had seen a video of a YouTuber around three years ago and he thought that he could do the same thing, and soon after he decided to switch platforms and start his career as a streamer and gamer on Twitch. Right away, people started to recognise him for his amazing skills and the tricks no one else knew how to do, and Jeongguk was the happiest. He had just finished high school and never wanted to follow the path his parents had wanted for him, and this was the perfect opportunity for him, so he took it. And it went amazing for him. In less than a year, he had already been to the most important conferences in the world, won prizes and was recognised as a star globally. The fame, however, scared him a lot in the beginning. It still does, if he’s completely honest, but there’s always a negative side to every job in the world, isn’t it?
“Mom? Hi!” Jeongguk says, laying on top of the mattress.
“Hello, Jeongguk. How are you?” She replies when she picks up the phone.
“I’m actually so happy right now!” He says. “Ubisoft just contacted me and I am officially one of their beta testers for the new game they’re developing.” He explains.
“That’s good, I guess?”
“So good!” Jeongguk laughs.
“Jeongguk, I know you like this a lot but… don’t you think at some point all of this is going to stop? What will you do then?” Jeongguk rolls his eyes at those words, he already knows where this conversation is going.
“You know I am focusing on the present right now, mom. And you should do it too! I’m just 21, my life just started.” He says, trying to sound as cheerful as possible, but he knows it won’t be easy.
“It’s not too late to go to medical school, son. Your grades have always been incredibly good, I’m sure you could still apply to go next year and you'd slay all your exams!” She says. Jeongguk notices the slight annoyance in her voice from having had this conversation at least ten times but he decides not to dwell on it.
“Sure mom, I will have something planned if something goes wrong with what I’m doing right now.” Jeongguk rolls his eyes. “I’ll call you another time again, bye.” He hangs up as quickly as he can. He was so happy just a moment ago, why did he have to call her in the first place? Maybe he still seeks their approval even after being obvious they just want him to become a doctor regardless of what his wishes are. He might be an adult yet in his heart still lives the five year old that wants to impress his parents and to make them proud. He sighs, tossing his phone on the other side of the bed and he falls asleep just like that.
♥
“I want to cry!” Jimin whines, throwing the papers of his signed contract with the laboratory on the table.
“Jimin, don’t lose it just yet, okay? Maybe there’s something in here we can use against them—”
“There is literally nothing I can do, Tae! Here—” He grabs one of the papers hurriedly, wrinkling it by gripping it too tight. “—says that I can’t say anything about what happened inside the lab, tests or formulas until the contract is over, which is next year. Next year!” He exclaims with an exasperated sigh.
“Here also says that they are not obliged to disclose every single product they used to create the eyeshadow formulas…” Taehyung says with a thin voice when he reads over another page.
Jimin grunts. “God! Why would they do this to me? This is so shady, what the fuck! They lied to my face over the products being absolutely cruelty-free and even faked the tests? And I can’t say any single thing and basically take the blame for them for an entire year?” Jimin gets up from the chair and walks over to the couch, laying there with a loud thud and hiding his face with the pillows.
Taehyung sighs, leaning back on the chair and rolling the sleeves of his shirt up. “I’ll talk to my attorney and ask him if there’s something else we can do to fix this mess.” He says.
Jimin perks up at that, looking up from the pillows with a frown. “Since when do you have an attorney?”
“Since I have failed the driver’s license test ten times and I was basically convinced the examiners had plotted something against me so I could never pass.” Taehyung says, nonchalantly.
“Some of us are just not made for the road.” Jimin shrugs, smiling a little bit.
Taehyung’s smile fades away when he sees Jimin try to stay positive in a moment like that. He had taken Jimin’s phone and laptop away so he couldn’t check his social media nor his YouTube channel. They both know how toxic it can get and Jimin is one to stay hours on end reading comments that only make him feel even worse. Both of them decided to just go back home and find a solution instead of giving attention to unnecessary hate. The thing is that it is a very big thing when your brand has claimed they are cruelty-free and then it comes out that they are not. It not only makes the brand look bad, the CEO is the one who is at fault for basically lying, and hundreds of people that trusted you now have lost all their respect towards you and the brand. For Jimin it’s even more frustrating, because the ones that lied were the people working at the lab, which lead to him making claims thinking they were 100% true when they were not, and now he can’t say anything about it to defend himself until the NDA is over. He really feels like his life is falling apart.
“Let’s watch some TV, okay?” Taehyung gets up from the chair and walks over to the TV to turn it on and try to cheer his best friend up a little. When he turns it on, the first thing that appears is a news channel with a giant picture of Jimin walking out of the convention venue after the scandal broke out and a sensationalist headline that gives him an immediate headache. Taehyung panics and looks back at Jimin, who grunts and covers his face back with one of the pillows. “For fuck’s sake.” He mumbles, grabbing the remote and turning the TV off as fast as he can. The apartment is then silent around them with only the faint sound of some cars driving by from time to time. Taehyung walks over to the couch and sits next to Jimin’s feet, looking at him with sad eyes. “VidCon is in a week.” He speaks up, knowing it’s probably not the best time to talk about it but he still feels like he has to.
“I know.” Jimin whines, turning around to lay on his back and look at Taehyung.
“Will you attend?”
“I have to.” Jimin says, determined. “My career might be over for now but I can’t let this bring me down, especially when it’s not my fault. Well, I mean— I was dumb enough to believe what everyone in that lab told me, so part of me is at fault—”
“Don’t say that—” Taehyung starts, but Jimin gestures him to brush it off.
“I’ll go to VidCon. it’s the least I can do. Maybe we find a solution by then and I can talk about this publicly there. I really don’t want to hide like some others do, that just makes it worse.” He shrugs. “Will you come with me, though?” He asks, eyes suddenly turning into puppy ones.
“Of course! You forget that I’m a daily vlogger and I talk about my bad luck with cars and my photoshoots.” Taehyung turns his head to Jimin and smiles cockily.
“I should go to bed. My head feels like it’s about to explode.” Jimin says, getting up from the couch slowly.
“Do you want me to stay over?” Tae asks. He always does that whenever Jimin is having a hard time, sleeping on the guest room —that’s more of a ‘Tae’s room’, at the end of the day— just to keep him company.
“No. It’s fine. I’ll be okay.” Jimin smiles weakly at him and Taehyung nods. He hugs him goodbye and he takes a little too long to actually leave, just to make sure his best friend is okay. He is determined to do anything to fix this mess.
On the next morning, the sun shining directly at him wakes Jeongguk up. He stretches his limbs and sighs tiredly as he does so, not actually wanting to get up from the bed. He tosses and turns for a couple of minutes until he feels a shiver run all over his body. He opens his eyes and waits until they adjust to the light, only to then look down at his body and realise that he’s naked. Oh, yeah, he fell asleep right after hanging up the phone call with his mother and he didn’t even bother to put a pair of boxers on. The towel wrapped around his waist is now laying on the floor and he has slept without the blankets covering him in the middle of winter. It’s starting to be not as cold as before but it isn’t time to be sleeping naked without a blanket just yet. He sits up and feels another shiver, this time making the hair on his arms prickle. He gets up quickly and goes straight back into the shower to get under the hot water and take this cold feeling out of his body. When he’s inside the bathroom, though, he sneezes a couple of times and feels his nose is now runny. Great, he has a cold now.
Today is Wednesday so that means he has to stream in the morning. He gets out of the hot shower and puts a pair of grey sweatpants and a baggy, black hoodie with orange strings and calls it a day. He looks in the mirror and sees how his eyes are puffy and his nose is red but he can’t really do anything about it, so he only grabs a pack of tissues and walks to his gaming room. It’s decorated with purple and blue lights, and his computer with three screens is at the end of the room. His black chair, the most comfortable thing in the world, is waiting for him like every other day, yet he never gets tired of it. He sits down on it and turns the computer on, immediately going to check his twitch and seeing the new subscribers and donations. He smiles when he sees he’s gained 200 subscribers overnight and then goes on to prepare the camera and microphone for today’s stream. Today he wants to play something relaxing, so he decides to go with ‘Gris’. When the clock strikes 10am, he turns the stream on and the light of the camera on his right side turns green. It only takes two seconds for all his viewers to start entering the stream and in no time the comment section is flooded with comments and emojis for him to read. Jeongguk stays silent for a couple of seconds, with only the music in the background playing.
“Hello, everyone.” He says after a short while. On the screen right in front of him he sees the main screen of the game, which is what everyone will see in a minute. Right now, his face occupies the screen of everyone watching his stream. On the screen on his right, he can see the comment section and the sub count, and on the one on the left he sees the music he’s playing. He pauses and reads some of the comments to himself. Some of them make him chuckle softly and that makes some more comments saying how cute he is appear on the screen almost right on cue. “Today I am playing a game that’s more relaxing than usual. I hope you all like it and are not too bored～” He says with a slurred, teasing manner. He doesn’t have to look at the comments to know what people are saying this time. “I did something really stupid yesterday.” He chuckles, staring right at the camera. The sub count increases every minute, the views do every second. “I was so tired that I fell asleep right after I took a shower, didn’t even have time to put clothes on or get under the covers, and now I’m sick.” He says, showing the pack of tissues and sniffing. He looks to the comments and one of them stands out to him. “I still wonder how your body must be. You always hide under baggy sweatshirts and sweatpants.” He reads out loud. Jeongguk looks back at the camera and smiles cheekily. “And that’s how you’re always going to see me.” He winks at the camera and the hearts on the bottom of the screen increase right away. Jeongguk only wants to game and have fun streaming, that’s why he never gives in to such requests from girls and boys whom have a crush on him and watch his streams in hopes they’ll see a little bit of skin. “Anyway, shall we start, then?” He says. “The game I’m going to play today is called ‘Gris’. I’ve heard a lot of good reviews about it and it has been sitting on the bottom of my drawer for months now, so let’s give it a go.” He explains as he touches some buttons and now the main screen of the stream shows the game and his face is on the left upper corner. “Since it’s more of a relaxing game I’ll be reading your comments and answering some questions if you want me to.” He says after he presses play, and right on cue the comment section is flooded with questions again. He lowers the music on his headphones and focuses on the comments as the game loads. It seems like it might take a while so he starts answering. “How old are you?” He reads. “This year I turned 21.” He says, smiling. “I always get this question.” He mumbles to himself. “What’s your favourite game? Well, call me basic if you want, but some of you already know that I love Overwatch.” He chuckles. “Do you have a girlfriend? The probability of that is none.” He laughs out loud this time, throwing his head back. However, when he does that, he ends up sneezing two times because of his cold and he has to wipe his nose with a tissue. “Can you notice my cold in my voice? I think you can. My voice always sounds different when I get sick.” He leans a little forward and the game starts. He turns his attention to the screen in the middle and he plays for a while, throwing some comments here and there about the visuals and the storyline itself. “What game should I play tomorrow? I’m waiting for some new releases for the switch and my PS4 to get to my house.” He thinks out loud when he streams and everyone finds it endearing. He plays at least for two hours and every single one of his viewers is as invested as he is in the game. Even if it’s relaxing they’re all hooked on the way Jeongguk plays so skilfully even if he’s never done it before. “Okay, pause.” Jeongguk says after a long time, saving the game and getting up from the chair, leaving the gaming room for a few minutes. He comes back with a bottle of banana milk and a straw, and he sits back down on his chair with what looks like the most uncomfortable position ever. “I’m going to read you some more and then dip because I have some things to attend to today.” He says, looking straight into the camera lens. He sees more donations popping up and a comment that stands out the most from the rest because it has nothing to do with gaming at all. “Have you seen the scandal with this beauty guru named Park Jimin?” He reads, then takes a sip from his banana milk and frowns. “Who’s that?” He asks, tilting his head. He sees the comments switching the conversation and everyone seems to know about what’s going on. “He claimed his brand was cruelty-free but it came out that he was lying and he still hasn’t addressed the situation.” He reads out loud from one of the comments. “Damn.” He breathes out, raising his eyebrows. “That’s kinda messed up.” He leans back on the chair. “Why does everyone seem to know who this guy is? Is he really popular?” He chuckles, spinning his chair around. “What do you mean, JK? He is the most famous influencer right now! He was even invited to model for brands like Prada and Yves Saint Laurent.” He reads. “He is so hot and cute at the same time.” Another comment says. “Well, I guess I’ll have to check him out.” He perks up, sitting straight on the chair. “Although I don’t like liars…” He trails. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding. Maybe all of this is a big misunderstanding, who knows.” He ends his little chit-chat about beauty gurus and the conversation switches back to gaming for a little while longer before he has to turn the stream off.
“Hello, my beauty loves! Today—”
“Jimin, it’s baby loves, not beauty loves.” Hoseok interrupts him from behind the camera. Jimin grunts in frustration and throws himself back on his bed. He shakes his body as if he were a toddler throwing a tantrum for a full minute and then sits back up.
“I can’t even do my own intro right.” He sighs. “That’s it. I’m doomed. My career is over.” Jimin exclaims.
“Don’t be so dramatic, come on.” Taehyung says, rolling his eyes.
“Just tell me how am I supposed to film a video without acknowledging what’s going on?” Jimin says, looking up at his two best friends with a pout on his lips. “It’s eating me alive.”
“But you can’t disappear just like that either.” Taehyung replies.
“Ugh, I know.” Jimin looks down and feels like a lost puppy. “What am I supposed to do if I can’t talk about it? Everyone’s expecting me to say something…” He trails. Then, all of a sudden Hoseok, who has been eyeing his phone for a while, lets out a quiet gasp and his eyes widen like plates. “What?”
“What is it?” Taehyung asks as well, turning his attention to him.
“Ah, this is not good.” Hoseok mumbles.
“What? Why? What’s up now?” Jimin shoots questions one after another.
“Your scandal even reached out other communities like the family channels on YouTube or the twitch streamers.” He says, looking up from his phone to lock eyes with Jimin.
“Twitch streamers?” Jimin asks and Hoseok nods.
“I follow this one gamer that’s like… extremely popular in his field, maybe probably the best gamer ever, and he’s talked about you in his today’s stream.” Hoseok explains, coming from behind the camera and sitting down next to him on the bed. “Someone commented on his stream about you and then he talked about you with his viewers for a while, take a look.” He hands Jimin his phone and the younger presses play on the video paused on the screen. Taehyung rushes to Jimin’s side and they both watch it attentively.
The boy on the top left of the screen gets closer to the camera and reads out loud: “Have you seen the scandal with this beauty guru named Park Jimin?”. Then, he takes a sip from his banana milk and frowns. “Who’s that?” He asks, tilting his head. He waits for a few seconds and he looks like he’s reading the comments he’s getting. “He claimed his brand was cruelty-free but it came out that he was lying and he still hasn’t addressed the situation.” He reads out loud from one of the comments. “Damn.” He breathes out, raising his eyebrows, leaving the container of his banana milk on top of his desk. “That’s kinda messed up.” He leans back on the chair.
Jimin rolls his eyes. He seems kind of cocky.
“Why does everyone seem to know who this guy is? Is he really popular?” He chuckles, spinning his chair around.
Taehyung looks at Jimin right there, and Jimin shakes his head. “I’m not offended that a random gamer doesn’t know who I am.”
“He is not just a random gamer, Jimin.” Hoseok intervenes.
“Sure, sure.” He looks at his Hyung with a smile and a roll of his eyes. “I won’t insult your idol, don’t worry.” He teases.
“He’s not— I’m not saying it because of that!” Hoseok whines, trying to explain himself, but Taehyung and Jimin just brush it off.
“What do you mean, JK? He is the most famous influencer right now! He was even invited to model for brands like Prada and Yves Saint Laurent.” He reads.
“Exactly.” Jimin says out loud.
“He is so hot and cute at the same time.” Another comment says.
Jeongguk seems unfazed by it and Jimin is kind of offended that he isn’t curious in the slightest to know how he looks like after having read that out loud.
“Well, I guess I’ll have to check him out.” He perks up, sitting straight on the chair.
That satisfies Jimin a little bit.
“Although I don’t like liars…” He trails.
Jimin pauses the video right there. “I don’t like him.” He says pettily.
“Why did it sound hot when he said that.” Taehyung says out loud, making Jimin throw him a dirty look. “I thought all gamers were extreme nerds with pimples and bowl-cut hair!” He says.
“You have such a stereotyped conception of gamers, I’m ashamed.” Hoseok says, pressing his hands to his heart as if it hurt. “Jeongguk is like— extremely attractive even if he doesn’t try to. Like right now.”
“I’m not attracted to him in the slightest. Maybe if he didn’t call me a liar in front of all his followers… how does he not know who I am?” Jimin exclaims, getting up from the bed and pacing back and forth in his room.
“It’s just a comment from someone who doesn’t know you at all, baby. Don’t let it get to you.” Taehyung says, getting up and caressing his arm gently.
“I need to do something. I can’t just sit myself here and post a dumb make-up haul when my image has been stained this way!!” Jimin exclaims. “Look at what this kid said about me, and he probably doesn’t even know how bad it is to claim something is cruelty-free when it’s not. Guys, this is the end of my career. I am doomed forever.”
“Stop saying that, will you?!” Taehyung scolds him.
“What if we say something?” Hoseok suddenly says. “We didn’t sign any contract.” He shrugs. Both friends look at Hoseok, completely still.
“Will people believe you guys? It might look very biased.” Jimin says.
“It’s better than to stay silent and act like nothing happened.” Hoseok replies.
“You’re right. At least people will have something to have a little faith in you until the NDA is over.” Taehyung nods. “But we can’t really say much, though… just in case.”
“I know, I know.” Jimin replies. “I really don’t want you to receive any backlash because of me.” Jimin says, sitting back down on the bed between his two friends.
“We’re your best friends and we know you didn’t do anything wrong.” Hoseok says. “We’ll be fine. This will die down in a few days and you will be able to go to VidCon with a clear mind.” He smiles, and it is all it takes to reassure Jimin. Around lunchtime, his friends left his apartment and Jimin tried to film the stupid haul he had planned for today, but he ended up taking much more time to do it than what he had planned and the sun was already hiding behind the skyscrapers. He had a few missed calls from his manager when he checked his phone and they both talked for a while about the scandal, the manager assured him he’d be getting in contact with a lawyer and doing whatever they could to fix this mess. Around nighttime, he logged inside Instagram for the first time since the scandal broke out and the first thing he saw was Taehyung’s and Hoseok’s stories.
@kimvtae 2hrs ago
My best friend Park Jimin is aware of everything that is going on since yesterday morning and he is deeply saddened by this situation. Although he cannot legally speak up about it until some time passes, I hope you all have a little faith and wait for his explanation because there are a lot of things that happened behind closed doors and that, again, he is not legally allowed to speak up about yet. — Kim Taehyung
@junghobi 2hrs ago
Jimin is aware of the situation at the moment. He would like to come out and explain everything in detail since there is a lot of things the public doesn’t know about, but because of legal reasons he cannot talk about it. I am asking you to please be patient and not attack him until he comes out with a statement, even if the situation might look awful right now. With love, Jung Hoseok.
Jimin looks at his phone and, for the first time since everything seemed to crumble down, he cries. Because even between all this mess, he still has his two best friends who care about him dearly.
Throughout the course of the week, news articles dragged Jimin and his brand to filth, some of them were more respectful whilst other were like a long hate comment. Drama channels on YouTube had mixed opinions but all of them gave him the benefit of the doubt thanks to what Taehyung and Hoseok had posted, and Jimin ended up posting his make-up haul finally. The comments weren’t the nicest but a lot of them were constructive criticism as well. He received private messages telling him to cheer up and encouraging him to stay positive even through a situation like this and he had a lot of supporters waiting for his explanation. He lost a few thousand subscribers but he thought it would be way worse.
“Park Jimin has never been in a scandal before and he has always stood up for vegan products. He is constantly spreading awareness and reposting posts of abandoned animals that need home as soon as possible. I find it very confusing that he’d be doing something like this and I think there is more to this story that we don’t know about.” Is the comment that stuck out to him the most. It really summarised his exact thoughts and what he would like everyone to think. He lost a few brand deals but he was fine with it because the most important ones are still untouched.
And that is why he is actually excited to attend VidCon today. He woke up earlier than usual and has already taken a shower. He is in the middle of styling his hair when someone gets inside his apartment. Taehyung and Hoseok are the only ones who have the keys so it’s one of them. By the way the steps are small and hurried, Jimin knows it’s Taehyung.
“Okay, so I have a problem.” He yells from the living room.
“What is it?” Jimin asks, careful not to burn himself with the curling iron.
“Look.” He says, right before stepping inside Jimin’s bathroom. When he’s inside, Jimin’s jaw drops to the floor when he sees his best friend’s reflection in the mirror.
“Your hair is bright red.” Jimin says, almost dropping the curling iron on the floor. He gets up from his chair and walks to Taehyung to take a better look at his hair.
“It is! I got bored yesterday and I decided to paint it red with a har dye that I had from a month ago. And now it’s fried.” Taehyung says. “Touch it.” Jimin obeys.
“Ah, it really is.” Jimin whispers.
“Help me!! There’s a lot of cute youtubers I want to meet today and I don’t want them to see my fried noodle hair!” He exclaims.
“Okay, slow down— it’s not that bad! If we style it it’ll look good. You just need to apply some heat to it.”
“Doesn’t that damage it more?” Taehyung frowns.
Jimin stops rummaging around his cabinets to find the straightener and looks back at him with a blank expression “Do you want it to look good or not?”
“Yes, yes. Okay.” Taehyung waits until Jimin finishes doing his hair and then proceeds to style Taehyung’s, and just like he had said, it looks far from fried. “Are you nervous?” He says when Jimin is straightening the last pieces of his hair.
He stays silent for a few moments until he is done with Taehyung’s hair. “A little.” He admits.
“I’ll be with you all the time, don’t worry.”
“Wait let me—”
“Ah, can you get off me already—”
“Your tie is not right—”
“Yoongi if you dare slap my boyfriend’s hand away…”
“Please, someone take me out of this car.” Jeongguk mumbles, looking out the window as his friends keep bickering next to him. Seokjin wants to fix Yoongi’s tie but Yoongi says he wants to wear it this way because that’s his style and Jin keeps pushing. Namjoon, as always, is trying to put peace between them two, and Jeongguk is just keeping quiet until they finally stop. They are five minutes away from VidCon and Jeongguk already feels his palms become sweaty. There are a lot of cool youtubers and streamers he wants to meet, but he is lowkey intimidated by them and he worries that he will make a fool out of himself. His friends tell him that it’s probably the other way around and that those people will feel intimidated by him, but Jeongguk doesn’t believe that. Out in public, when he is not behind a screen and without a controller in his hands, he is nothing more than an awkward, barely-legal adult.
“Are you not presenting anything this year?” Namjoon asks Jeongguk.
“No. They asked me, though, to MC the opening event. But I said no.” Jeongguk shrugs.
“You don’t know how cool that would’ve been.” Yoongi rolls his eyes, still wishing he would have done it.
“Having an underrated youtuber or streamer do it is much better. These kind of things give a lot of exposure. And I’m just— awkward up on a stage.” Jeongguk smiles.
“You’re a baby.” Seokjin coos at him. “So cute.” He giggles.
“We’re here.” The driver announces. The friends step out of the car and make their way to the big venue, surrounded by bodyguards protecting them from the cameras and the first fans that have spotted them. Jeongguk likes VidCon because he can get to see and talk to a lot of his fans, but that doesn’t make it less overwhelming for him. It’s like in the two years he’s been doing this he still hasn’t processed that has millions of followers looking up to him.
“I’m having a fan meeting starting at 2pm.” Jeongguk says.
“Come by to my stand later and let’s play some games.” Yoongi says, wrapping one arm around his shoulders.
“Cool.” Jeongguk says. They finally enter the venue and they see all the people in there, waiting to try new products from their favourite youtubers, some of them are waiting in line to meet them, to talk to them… some of them wait for them to appear and watch how they put on make-up and others explain how they edit their pictures and videos. Some people recognise him and his friends right away and Jeongguk already feels curious eyes on him. He handles it much better now and he even smiles at people whom he locks eyes with politely. The security guides them to where the opening event is being hosted and points to their seats. They are in a separate place where all the content creators are gathered to prevent them from being mobbed while the event lasts. They arrived just in time because not even five minutes later, the lights go down and everyone’s attention is on the girl up on the stage, wishing them all to have fun.
“There’s an afterparty for all content creators later.” Seokjin says, looking down at his phone.
“Really?” Yoongi perks up at that.
“Yeah, apparently it’s in the hotel that’s next to this venue.” He replies.
“I saw it on our way here.” Namjoon remarks.
“Should we go?” Yoongi asks, looking at every single one of his friends. “Jeonggukkie?”
Jeongguk keeps silent for a few seconds. “If I’m not too tired I’ll go.” He says, which makes his hyungs smile widely. “If not you can go without me, I’ll just go back home.”
“You’re not going home without us!” Yoongi says, smirking like always.
“You will be able to talk to everyone you want if you go. You could ask Gray to game with you.” He says, wiggling his eyebrows.
“He’s never gonna approach his gamer crush, Jin, I don’t know how you haven’t figured it out yet.” Namjoon teases him, which makes Jeongguk turn even smaller.
“Stop calling it a ‘gamer crush’, it sounds like I’m in love with him. I just like his streams.” He says, shrugging.
“Sure, sure.” Yoongi brushes it off.
“It’s true!” Jeongguk whines.
When the opening act finishes, all the content creators get back to their respective stands and small stages, so that means the four friends have to part their ways for a while.
Jimin had just finished his everyday make-up routine demonstration when Taehyung appeared at his stand. The crowd had started to disappear so now there were just a few people around there and Jimin was waving at them. “You won’t believe this.” He says, with wide eyes and his large palms finding their way to Jimin’s shoulders.
“What’s up? Did someone notice your hair is fried?” Jimin laughs.
“No. Actually, a lot of people complimented it.” Taehyung replies.
“I told you.” Jimin smirks and feels proud of himself.
“There’s a content creator party afterwards. We have to go.” Taehyung says, gripping Jimin’s shoulders tightly and shaking him a little.
“I don’t know…” Jimin trails.
“You do know! We get free drinks, I say hi to some people and then we leave.” Taehyung says, excitedly. “Please.” He pouts.
“I feel like everyone is giving me the side-eyes because of the scandal.” He says, looking around and lowering his voice.
“Oh, come on. No one remembers that already!” Taehyung rolls his eyes.
“Yeah? Then tell me why my follower count is dropping and my social blade is in the red.” Jimin sighs. “I feel like every beauty guru here is judging me harder than what they did to Laura Lee when she posted that apology video. I don’t know if I’ll stand it much longer to go to an afterparty.”
“Well… I have another suggestion for you, then.” Taehyung smirks. Jimin raises one of his eyebrows at him and frowns. “Remember that gamer that talked about you?” He starts.
“The cocky one? How to forget him.” Jimin snorts.
“Well I’ve been… kind of obsessed with his streams since Hoseok showed us that clip of him. And he isn’t cocky in the slightest.” Taehyung admits, talking so fast that Jimin barely has time to process what he’s saying.
“You’re a traitor.” Jimin gasps.
“I just want to say hi to him! And then we can go! He is like— so nice!! And you have to see how he plays, oh my god. Now I understand Hoseok’s endless rantings about him.”
“I can’t believe this.” Jimin shakes his head as he looks at his best friend with disbelief.
“You won’t have to be around any beauty guru! We can stay with the gamers and leave as soon as possible.” He says, pulling the cute puppy eyes on Jimin— because he knows they always work and Jimin can never say no to him.
Jimin sighs, rolling his eyes, wanting to scream but fighting it back. “Fine. We’ll go.” Taehyung starts jumping around excitedly. “But you just say hi and we leave, okay? I don’t want more eyes on me.”
“Sigh, and to think you once were in love with the attention.” Taehyung says, gaining his composure again.
“I still am, but I won’t like it until people stop thinking I’m a liar.” Jimin replies.
It wasn’t just “say hi and leave” like Taehyung had promised Jimin. Right now, after the convention was over and all the guests had left, the content creators had moved to the room in the basement of the hotel right next to the venue, and everyone was partying and celebrating with their friends. The ones at the tables at the back were either talking business or scheduling some future collaborations. Taehyung was wandering around the place with one glass of champagne of his hand, greeting every single person he had seen on his YouTube or Twitter feed and starting a conversation with them. Jimin would have been acting like him as well if the image of his career sinking wasn’t bothering him all the hours of the day, every day. So that is why he is currently sitting on one of the white seats, with a glass of red wine on his hand, completely untouched. He keeps playing with the liquid but none a single time have his lips touched it. The lights around him are a combination of pink and purple and they combine with his eyeshadow and the shade of his hair. The only thing that consoles him a little is the fact that the beauty gurus are all the way back to the other side of the room, so they cannot see him at all unless they approach the bar to ask for a drink. Every time they do, however, they all shamelessly stare at Jimin and some of them even scoff at them. If he were to be drunk, he would’ve cussed some of them out and he wouldn’t be feeling any kind of remorse.
He takes out his phone to text Hoseok for a while and some other friends and he doesn’t notice when someone else sits beside him, on the white seat glued to his.
“Don’t you like wine?” A voice says, deep but extremely sweet at the same time. It’s unexpectedly close to Jimin so he startles a little, almost dropping his phone before he catches it with his free hand. Jimin turns to where the voice came from and is encountered with the same man he saw a week ago through Hoseok’s phone screen, leaving him speechless and frozen. “It looks like you didn’t take a single sip of it.” He adds, nodding to the glass cup between his fingers.
“I’m not really in the mood for wine.” Jimin replies, baffled at the situation. Never in a million years he would have thought a twitch streamer and gamer would approach him to… to do what? To talk to him? He tries to hide his amusement and act as natural as possible.
“Ah, that’s a shame. It’s a really good one.” Jeongguk says, leaning back on the wall behind him.
Jimin stays silent for a couple of seconds before he looks down at the cup of wine. “Do you want it?” He offers.
“Are you sure?” Jeongguk replies with a raised eyebrow.
“Yeah. It’s all yours.” Jimin replies with an awkward smile. The gamer reciprocates it and chugs a considerable amount of it in one go.
“I’m Jeon Jeongguk.” He says, this time with a smirk and a quick raise of both of his eyebrows. Jimin stays silent, still not believing that this dude that called him a liar in front of his millions of viewers just approached him and is acting nice and welcoming. “Ah— right, you probably don’t know who I am. I’m a ga—”
“I know who you are.” Jimin says, this time with a smile that looks more fake. Jeongguk stops talking and Jimin continues. “You’re the one who doesn’t like liars and you like to talk about them on your streams.” Jimin says, calm and with that fake smile, passive aggressively.
“So you saw that, hm?” Jeongguk chuckles.
“Yeah.” Jimin crosses one leg over the other, with his front turned to Jeongguk. “And that’s why I don’t understand why you’re approaching me like this.” He says, truthfully.
Jeongguk locks his black eyes with Jimin’s and they disappear when he smiles. “I might have something to offer to you.” He says.
Jimin frowns. “What do you think you have that I want?” He snorts.
“A career that’s not falling apart?” Jeongguk wonders out loud.
“Very funny.” Jimin snaps. How can his friends say he’s not cocky? “You know, people say you’re shy and not cocky at all, but right now I can’t see any of that.” He says, truthfully. From the way that he moves to the way he talks Jimin only can describe the man in front of him as a flirt and an arrogant man.
Jeongguk only chuckles but he doesn’t agree nor deny what Jimin just said. “I saw your social medias and the numbers on your social blade after that stream.” He starts.
“Oh, so you just want to make fun of me? Is that why you’re here?” Jimin says with a grin.
“No. I looked into it a little bit and there’s something more to it than just you lying to the millions of people that bought your products, right?” He says, and Jimin is left speechless once again. “So I wanted to make a deal with you.”
“What kind of deal?” Jimin raises one of his eyebrows, suddenly interested. Jeongguk smiles sideways and his eyes turn more cat-like for some reason.
“My account grows a lot every single day and I have new subscribers all the time. Now everyone in your community is focused on your scandal, so why don’t we give them a new scandal to talk about?” He shrugs.
“Like what?” Jimin is really interested by now. Is it the way he talks that hooks everyone to him?
“Like you and I dating.” Jeongguk says, and Jimin’s eyes go wide like plates. He backs away, suddenly aware that he had been getting closer and closer to the gamer.
“Woah, hold up.” Jimin chuckles awkwardly.
“If people see you with me, regardless of what you’ve done, a vast majority will follow you and be on your side only because you’re associated with me.” Jeongguk continues explaining.
“Wait—what? But what if it’s the other way around? As in— what if it’s you who will be viewed badly because you’re associated with me?” Jimin stutters. Why is he stuttering?!
“My followers couldn’t give less of a shit about make-up. They just want to see me play games and try to hold my swear words in front of a camera.” Jeongguk chuckles. “People right now only see you as this rich beauty guru that does his make-up flawlessly. They don’t know more besides that. If they see you gaming and having fun while being yourself maybe they think differently.” He shrugs again.
Jimin can’t help but think that he’s in the right. “How do you know this will turn out good?” Jimin asks.
“I’ve weighed the pros and cons and I think it’ll turn out flawlessly, if I do say so myself.” He nods.
“Okay— but that sounds way too good to be true.” Jimin shakes his head. “What do you want in return, then?” He squints his eyes. The half-lidded eyes and the smirk on Jeongguk’s face are replaced by a pair of puppy eyes and a wide grin.
“I want you to pay for all the games I have to buy for my streams.” Jeongguk says, with an aura completely different to the one he had before.
“…That’s it?”
“Yep.” Jeongguk nods.
“Don’t game developers give you their games for free?” Jimin wonders out loud.
“Not all of them.” Jeongguk replies.
“Ah.” Jimin nods slowly.
“I have to go. I’ll let you think about it.” Jeongguk says then, getting up from his seat and handing him a piece of paper with a number scribbled on it. “Text me when you’ve made up your mind.” He says, smirk back on his lips. He walks away just like that, and Jimin is left with that piece of paper on his hand. He opens it and what he reads makes him roll his eyes.
“Here is my number. Faking a relationship when you’re famous is so easy. — JK. ”