j_dope: no (powerade)
사라있네 ([personal profile] j_dope) wrote2014-03-08 05:12 pm

Escape

Escape
RapMon/Jungkook
1841 words ; pg
Namjoon meets a lonely ghost.



Even after Namjoon moves into the BigHit dorms, he still crashes at the company building. Sometimes it's too much of a pain to go home late in the night so Namjoon just sleeps in his chair, faceplanting into the keyboard. School's closer to the company building anyway.

One day, he falls asleep at the piano bench in the third practice room while figuring out a melody for his new track. It was supposed to be a quick nap, but it's pitch black dark when Namjoon awakens, to the sound of...crying?

He freezes, senses quickly waking up when he realizes he's not alone. The crying noises had stopped, but the way his heart races in fear convinces him he didn't make it up. He starts to breathe again, quiet breaths as he tries to listen for his companion.

His eyes start to adjust to the dark and he sees the vase of fake flowers normally on the piano knocked to the ground. His shallow breath catches and he lets it out slowly before breathing out a tentative, "Hello?"

Silence.

Namjoon sighs, his tense shoulders relaxing. He turns back to rest his head on the piano and go back to sleep. He turns his face to rest his cheek on his forearms and nearly falls off the bench. Not two inches from his face is a pair of round, glowing eyes fixated on him.

"^(%&*$#@%!??" Namjoon yelps.

"You can see me?" the silhouette says. The round eyes blink, giving off a feeling of curiousity.

"%&#^$*@!!"

"Sorry," the glowing silver figure says, eyes dimming. The ghost(?)'s edges start to blur and fade away. "I'll leave you alone."

Namjoon tries to regain control over his tongue (not easy after a near heart attack). "No, wait, come back–"

The ghost reappears. It's quiet but it's eyes are wide open again, hope shimmering in them and well, it's surprisingly adorable.

"Hi," Namjoon ventures. "I'm Namjoon."

"Namjoon...hyung." The ghost boy smiles. It's a quiet, cute, rabbit-toothed smile that makes his eyes droop just a little. "I'm Jeongguk."

"Nice to meet you, Jeongguk." The boy's eyes are a bit puffy and Namjoon remembers the crying sounds he woke up to. "Are you okay?"

Jeongguk the ghost looks down, avoiding Namjoon's eyes. "I am now."

"What was wrong?"

Jeongguk worries at his lip, eyes flicking between Namjoon and the ground before answering. "I just moved, and it's kinda hard making friends at my new school," he says.

Ghost school, huh. If it's anything like human school, Namjoon understands.

"Being new is rough, making friends is hard," Namjoon says. "But now you have me."

Jeongguk glows whiter. "Really? Can I call you hyung?"

Namjoon smiles; he's the youngest out of the trainees and it's been a long time since he's been called hyung. "Of course."

"Hyung!" Jeongguk tries out. "Hyung, what are you doing?"

"You wanna see?" Namjoon perks up, sloughing off his sleepiness at the thought of showing off his project.

Jeongguk nods eagerly, and Namjoon scoots over on the piano bench to give Jeongguk space to sit. If ghosts sit. Jeongguk's feet probably didn't get tired, but he sits down so Namjoon feels like he did the right thing. Jeongguk takes the place, and it's kind of weird that Namjoon doesn't feel anything by his side.

"Can you touch things?" Namjoon asks, curious.

"If I try very hard," Jeongguk says. A look of furrowed-brow concentration passes over Jeongguk's face and Namjoon feels a cool breeze brush his arm, raising goosebumps.

"Are you the one who knocked this over?" Namjoon points at the flower vase.

"Yeah," Jeongguk says, looking sheepish.

"Why?"

Jeongguk's cheeks get brighter, and Namjoon notes that it must be the ghost way of blushing. "To wake you up? I don't know actually."

It's unexpected, but Namjoon smiles at the thought of the lonely boy seeking company. He turns to the sheet of paper he'd been scribbling on before he fell asleep. "Here, let me show you what I was doing."




Jeongguk only appears late at night, when Namjoon should really be sleeping. When he appears, they end up talking late into the night, until Namjoon passes out sitting up.

A lot of times, it's Namjoon showing Jeongguk what he worked on all day, and Jeongguk drinks everything in with wide curious eyes. He doesn't talk a lot when he's just watching Namjoon explain his craft. But sometimes it's Jeongguk opening up and telling him about the pressures of school.

"I know I should be a good student, but it feels like there should be more to life than that," Jeongguk says. He's sitting on his hands. "Sometimes all I want to do is hide on the rooftop and read manhwa."

"I'll tell you a secret." Jeongguk looks up at him curiously. "I used to be the top student in my school," Namjoon says, and Jeongguk looks surprised. Technically, he's still very close to the top, but since then he's figured out the more important things. "It's not as great as it sounds, it was only because I was doing what everybody told me I should do."

Namjoon looks at Jeongguk, who's staring back expectantly.

"Well, I guess I figured I didn't have any real dreams, so I figured out what I wanted and now I'm here."

Jeongguk nods slowly, taking it in. "Maybe that's why I came here at first. I felt your happy aura."

"Do you know what you want?" Namjoon asks.

There's a bit of quiet as Jeongguk contemplates.

"Well, what do you like?" Namjoon tries to give Jeongguk a place to start.

"Oh, G-Dragon," Jeongguk says. It's the first time he responded so quickly.

Namjoon didn't know there was a G-Dragon in ghost world, but okay. "So you want to be like G-Dragon?"

"I guess being a performer would be cool, but..."

It's impractical? There's barely a chance he'd make it? Namjoon's been through those doubts so many times and even then he still has them. "But you like it right? Performing."

"Definitely," Jeongguk says, lighting up and glowing white with excitement. "Dancing, rapping, singing. Everything."

Namjoon laughs. "That's great, I'd die if I had to dance or sing. If you ever want to audition you can practice with me."

"Yeah, that'd be nice," Jeongguk says, quiet and looking down at his knees.

Sensing his reservation, Namjoon reaches up to pat Jeongguk's shoulder and his hand passes through the glow, but Jeongguk turns to look at him. "I mean it, I've been through the same thing, believe it when I say I know what I'm talking about."

Jeongguk smiles at him, the unassuming one that radiates a quiet joy. "I will."




One day Jeongguk finally asks if he can show Namjoon something he'd been working on.

"I'm practicing for an audition," he says, causing Namjoon to grin widely.

"You're going to audition?"

Jeongguk ducks his head and scratches at the back of it. "Yeah, I decided it's my dream to become a singer."

"Show me what you got."

Jeongguk's song of choice was Butterfly off of G-Dragon's latest album. His voice is just starting to hit puberty, but it fits the slow R&B feel of the song surprisingly well. It could use more training, but Namjoon's surprised by the raw quality of Jeongguk's voice, as a middle schooler.

He then shows Namjoon a cover of one of Taeyang's dances. It's clean, precise, and Namjoon thinks it's a good thing he doesn't have to dance himself because he'd never even come close.

"That was good," Namjoon says. He's usually very sparing in his praise. "With some more practice, I think you could make it."

Jeongguk keeps practicing while Namjoon gives him advice. Jeongguk adapts quickly to his changes while Namjoon looks on, until he once again falls asleep on the practice room floor.




Their next meetings consist of practicing, talking, and more practicing. Jeongguk offers to teach Namjoon some steps, but Namjoon declines, saying he'd much rather just watch. Jeongguk's vocals improve and Namjoon teaches him a bit of rap, just to round him out even more.

"My audition's tomorrow," Jeongguk says one day. He's got a bit more restless energy, knee bouncing up and down as he sits cross-legged on the floor.

Jeongguk's improved a lot, and Namjoon knows he's got it in him. "You'll be great."

"Should I run it through one more time?" Jeongguk's knee shakes faster.

Namjoon shakes his head. "You've got this. Honestly, you've improved a lot. Take a rest."

Jeongguk looks like he wants to practice one more time anyway, but he beams up at Namjoon. "Thanks, hyung, I feel a lot more at ease now," he says.

He stands up and gives Namjoon a half-transparent hug. Namjoon thinks he can feel something squeezing his chest as the air cools around him. "It's no problem," Namjoon says, and for the very first time since they met, Jeongguk's the one that leaves first, dissolving into the air.

Namjoon blinks. "Jeongguk?" he asks, but there's no reply.




Jeongguk doesn't show up the next day, or the day after that, or the day after the day after that. Even though Namjoon's taken to sleeping in practice room 3 more often, Jeongguk doesn't come.

It's kind of sad, but in a way Namjoon feels proud. Jeongguk always talked to him about worries, and maybe he just didn't have anymore of them.

Wherever Jeongguk was, Namjoon hoped he was at peace.




6 months later.

It's a trying time for Namjoon as Ikje, Donghyuk, and Hunchul all leave, one after the other. He's still got Yoongi and Hoseok and Hyosang though, but the news of the shift of Bangtan's concept to become idols is kind of devastating. Namjoon can't dance, the company said he didn't have to.

The reality of the decision is made clearer when management assigns a new kid to the Bangtan dorm. Supposedly a vocalist, which is weird seeing as Namjoon's only known rappers. "You can be sure this trainee's top caliber," Manager Song tells him. "He was wanted by 8 different companies for his skills."

"Okay," Namjoon says, but in his head he's turning around the idea of following the hyungs to wherever they headed off to.

He's not anticipating the new kid at all, so he nearly falls off the sofa he's lounging on when Manager Song comes in the door, a very familiar boy in his tow.

"This is Jeon Jeongguk," Manager Song says, pulling Jeongguk out from behind him.

Namjoon opens his mouth a few times and nothing comes out.

"Nice to meet you, Namjoon-hyung," Jeongguk says with a bow. He doesn't avert his eyes even as he bows, and they squeeze into little crescents, like they're sharing an inside joke. Maybe they are. "Please take care of me."

Oh well, Namjoon thinks and he decides now is not the time to worry about it. "It's nice to meet you too, Jeongguk."




"When I fall asleep worrying, my spirit kind of...escapes," Jeongguk explains to Namjoon later.

"Huh," is all Namjoon says, but he's still glad things turned out this way.

[identity profile] mannaselda.livejournal.com 2014-03-09 04:51 pm (UTC)(link)
aaah, its 3am and when I read the word ghost, I was prepared to be all sad and frightened

but this is actually very sweet TAT

lmao at namjoon for simply accepting everything about jungkook
kinimseok: (Default)

[personal profile] kinimseok 2014-03-10 03:49 am (UTC)(link)
this is so cute omgg

[personal profile] thalia001 2014-03-27 12:18 am (UTC)(link)
"It's a trying time for Namjoon as Ikje, Donghyun, and Hunchul all leave" - aww, you forgot about Kidoh (Hyosang)... and it's Donghyuk ^_^

[personal profile] thalia001 2014-03-27 02:00 am (UTC)(link)
Yeah, the timeline is really confusing...

Since Kidoh and Jin are best friends in real life, Jin had to join Bangtan when Kidoh was still there (I mean, getting to know each other to the point of being such close friends), I assume ^_^

It was kind of hard to keep up with their members' changes back then. First it was just RapMon and Iron set to debut as a hiphop duo then before I knew it BTS was made into a hh group with i11evn, Supreme Boi, Iron, Kidoh and RapMon and AGAIN before I knew it, only RapMon left and the current line up was announced >.>
Edited 2014-03-28 01:33 (UTC)
acatwhowrites: (L.Joe♡salute)

[personal profile] acatwhowrites 2014-12-20 08:32 pm (UTC)(link)
This had the potential to be so sad. I'm delighted it turned out to be some weird out-of-body experience, instead. I would've cried, otherwise.

It was a good twist; I liked it.

=^..^=~