June 2017

It's been a month since they've been working on their new song. They spent many restless nights together, with Moon sneaking out of her apartment and label studio to write lyrics and melodies. Officially, however, they only met twice more to go over and finalize the song. Although it was one of the busiest months, it was also one of the best. Moon got to do what she really loves, which is composing and producing. Losing sleep and lying to management and her boyfriend was a small price to pay in comparison.

On many nights she snuck out the back exit of her apartment building to Jin's car, who helped her make an escape. They would keep each other awake all night at the dorm in order to focus on writing. They drank gallons of coffee, while Taehyung of course had his trusty coca cola. From time to time they took breaks to relax and have deep conversations.

"I've always wondered...", Jin contemplated, sprawled on one of the couches, "How did you end up as a solo artist?"

"That shit is not easy to do...", Jungkook whistled.

"Are you saying you tried?", Namjoon glared at the maknae, who shrugged provokingly.

"Yeah, I don't really know...", Moon tapped her chin as she lay on the floor, her head propped up by a pillow, "When I was a trainee no one really liked me. I mean I had no friends cause I couldn't get along with anyone..."

"You ended up solo, because no one wanted to be in a group with you?", Jin looked confused, but laughed his little windshield-wiper laugh.

"No...! You know it doesn't work like that", Moon sighed, "I guess they saw how I interacted and worked with the others and didn't like it. My personality, whatever that is, didn't fit in anywhere."

"You were too special to fit in!", Jimin teased her in a baby voice and grinned brightly, before she threw a pillow at him.

"Ugh, no. Honestly, it sucks to be a solo artist", Moon complained, taking a sip of her coffee to wipe away the exhaustion, "All the attention is just on you and everyone hates you."

"All my attention is on you and I'm far from hating you", Jimin flirted shamelessly.

She wanted to throw another pillow at him, but opted for an unamused stare instead.

"For someone who doesn't get along with other idols, you sure have done many collabs", Namjoon interjects, "And now you're here with us."

"Yeah... It's funny how things work out."

None of them wanted things to change from then on, but the deadline for their song had come and they finalized it. It did feel good to have finished a project they put so much heart into. After a few adjustments and final edits, the song was approved and works on the music video were soon underway.

The morning of the day of filming they're all put into costume, hair and makeup. The aesthetic being more dark than usual, more like Moon's music videos or BTS's old videos, they're wearing fabrics such as silk and leather. Something that's surprised all of them is that Moon changed her hair. She's always had the same long, wavy black hair and she really didn't change it much: A few light brown strands now accompany her usual raven locks. For her the change is a pretty big deal.

"Hello there...", Moon greets the boys as they walk onto set, "You know, I thought I took a long time getting ready."

"Blame Jimin", Jin tells her.

"No! No, today we're all late because of someone else and that is not me", Jimin states almost proudly.

"It was Kookie", Yoongi says blankly.

"WhAt? No, no, no, no, no", Jungkook shakes his head adamantly.

"Seriously? Of course, it was you and Taehyung. You thought it would be funny to glue everyone's fingers together", Namjoon clears it up.

Moon looks at the two troublemakers, raising her eyebrows.

"It wasn't like that! Jungkookie found the glue and started doing it to Yoongi and I... thought it was funny so I helped him a little bit...", Taehyung murmurs the last part of the sentence very quickly and quietly.

"I thought it would look cool", Jungkook tries to come up with a new defense.

"You thought us having our fingers glued together would look cool?", Jin looks at the maknae questioningly.

"You know, maybe it would have looked cool...", Hoseok starts contemplating.

"Ok, anyway", Namjoon quickly breaks this ridiculous train of thought, "Long story short: We spent some time washing glue off of our hands."

"Wow", Moon grins at them, "I've worked with a lot of people, but this has never happened to any of them."

"At least we're the masters of our own problems", Jungkook says.

"I really don't want you being the master of my problems", Jin complains.

"Alright, alright, everyone! I need your attention!", the director calls out to them, "We're doing the scene where you're all sitting at café tables on the pavement."

The director lines them up and gives them exact directions. Once they're all sitting, he repeats his instructions for Taehyung, "Now,  you get up and walk over to Moon's table. Lean over, mouth your lines as you're swishing the olive in her martini and that's when Jin comes in, yes?"

They nod understandingly and the director calls out "Action!".

The music starts to play and Moon takes a sip from the martini prop and then rests her chin in the palm of her hand. Taehyung takes slow steps towards her, looking her up and down. He rests himself on her table and leans his head in closely to her's, softly mouthing his lyrics. Moon's narrowed eyes travel down to his lips and for a moment it's almost too real for the boy, but he quickly snaps out of it when Jin makes his entrance. He shoves Taehyung away from the table and starts mouthing his own lyrics, holding his hand out for Moon, who takes it to raise herself up from the table. Jin walks backwards as Moon keeps walking towards him, finally leaning in, their lips almost touching before she places a finger on his mouth, saying "Shh...". She pushes him away and dashes off into the distance, leaving Jin acting surprised and alone.

"Cut!", the director finally calls out.

The other BTS members raise their eyebrows at how heated the scene is. They never make music videos like this, especially not with fellow k-pop idols. The closest they've ever done were probably the War of Hormone or the Boy In Luv music videos and those were harmless.

"That was all great", the director gives them feedback, "But Taehyung, you forgot to stir the olive in the martini."

The members start laughing and Taehyung looks embarrassed.

"Did you get lost in her eyes?", Jimin teases him in a romantic voice, batting his eyelashes.

"No... I'll do it again", Taehyung says quietly.

"Aw, you're too cute", Moon giggles at him.

They do the scene from the top and continue with the rest of the shooting. As the day goes on, they get more and more unfocused between scenes. The director eventually calls for a break and everyone sighs thankfully.

"Since she called Tae cute, my goal is for her to call me cool or hot or something like that today", Jungkook whispers to Jimin.

Moon, who happens to be standing fairly close by, turns around and looks Jungkook straight in the eyes with a sly smile.

"She heard that?", Jungkook panics.

"Jungkook, you're also very cute", she winks at him.

He looks defeated. Of all the things, he did not want to be called cute.

"At least she didn't call you Kookie this time", Jimin clasps his friend on the back.

"I'm going to take a nap", Yoongi announces, "Wake me when we start filming again."

"Oh, that's a great idea. I want to nap, too", Moon follows him to the dressing room.

They both sit on one of the couches and lean back in exhaustion.

"Do you mind if I lean my head on your shoulder?", Moon asks, looking up into Yoongi's cat eyes.

"No..."

Moon snuggles up and is out like a light in a few minutes. Yoongi is frozen for a moment, wondering if he'll be able to rest. Moon's head is on his shoulder and he's never been more awake yet so tired at the same time. Then he starts thinking about how inappropriate this is, since she has a boyfriend. But then again, you can also lean on a friend's shoulder. Yoongi thinks about waking her up, but then notices how pointless his internal discussion is and how it's taking away from precious nap time. With that in mind, he soon drifts off into sleep. Surprisingly, a very peaceful and restoring sleep.

The next thing they know, Hoseok's voice wakes them up.

"Hey, you two! Wake up! What are you doing? You look like you're cuddling", he shakes them both by their shoulders and flicks Yoongi's nose once more for good measure.

Yoongi groans and swats Hoseok's hand away.

"We're napping buddies", Moon says drowsily as she nuzzles her nose into Yoongi's shoulder.

She then lifts her head and rubs her left eye tiredly, before noticing she still has makeup on.

"Shit", she swears as she's smeared her eyeshadow under her eye.

"Wait, here, I'm a stylist", Hoseok grins, licks his finger and dabs away some smears under her eye.

"Did you just remove my makeup with your spit?", she looks at him, unamused, but he just nods happily.

Moon pushes herself off the couch to get her makeup re-touched before they need to continue filming. Yoongi slowly stretches before he makes any effort to stand up.

"We're napping buddies", Yoongi recalls what Moon said with a small smile.

"You're in deep shit is what you are", Hoseok says it seriously, but continues smiling.

"You are, too. We all are", Yoongi crosses his arms.

The shooting continues shortly after and they work late into the night. Delirious and silly, they finally wrap up at around three in the morning.

"Final cut! Great job everyone!", the director dismisses them, "Thank you all for your hard work and I hope you have a good nights sleep when you get home. It looks like you all need it."

The production team cheers loudly for everyone. The BTS members exchange relieved yet sad glances after thanking the staff for their efforts, as they know they've wrapped up another huge project. Working with Moon on top of their usual schedule was probably the most crazy busy they've been, but also the most passionate and excited.

"I can't believe we've done it", Jin sighs, letting himself lean on Namjoon exhaustedly.

"That was fucking amazing, but also... I need to fucking sleep", Moon's filter had fallen out about five hours into being over-worked, but no one seems to mind.

"Guys, come here", Jimin spreads his arms open for them to envelope him into a big hug, but everyone just groans.

"Oh, come on!", he starts whining like a child and they give in tiredly.

The eight of them form a huge cluster of a group hug, each person leaning on the next. Moon doesn't know exactly where she is in the middle of this hug, but she's slowly getting squished.

"You guys are the best", Taehyung's deep voice sounds out near her left ear.

"Let's stay like this forever", Jungkook smiles next to her.

"Let's fucking not", Yoongi is the first one to break out of the hug, "I want to go to bed."

"Yeah, I'm kind of getting squished here...", Moon complains as she notices one of Jungkook's arms is squished up against her boob.

Jungkook quickly notices as well and his cheeks redden. She can't help but giggle a little when he meets her eyes and his lips slightly part. They're finally released from the group hug, but the seven of them continue joking around as they stretch their tired muscles.

"Moonhae?", one of the assistants calls out to her, "Jaewon is here to pick you up..."

"At this hour?", Moon stares at the assistant, a puzzled look on her face, but she merely shrugs in return.

That's when he walks into the room, hands in the pockets of his long jacket and the atmosphere seems to shift. A couple of his brunette strands fall into his face as he raises his eyebrows at her standing next to the boys on set.

"You ready to go?", he eyes her. He doesn't look upset, but he also doesn't look very happy.

"Oh, yeah...", Moon pauses, the situation seeming a bit awkward, "These are the Bangtan boys by the way. I don't think you've met them."

The boys bow their heads politely and greet Jae, but he merely smirks at them.

"Cute", he says almost mockingly.

Moon doesn't really want to start another argument, but she also doesn't want Jae talking down to her friends.

"I'll get my things and we can go, ok?", she tells him before leaving to get her bag from the dressing room.

The Bangtan boys stand across from Jae on set awkwardly, not knowing what to say to him. They want to be polite, but he obviously doesn't share the same goal.

"So you're the ones she's been hanging out with?", Jae glances between the seven members.

"We've become good friends", Jin speaks up, feeling confident enough, as he's the same age as Jaewon.

"Is that so?", that same mocking smile appears on his face again.

"Yeah, that is so", Namjoon steps forward, looking into Jae's fierce eyes like he's something he scraped off the bottom of his shoe, "And we're here to support her. Unlike some other people in her life."

Jae's expression instantly changes, his face slowly contorting in anger, but before he can respond, Moon bursts into the room and steps in between the two, as if she could feel the tension from the next room over.

"I'll see you guys around. It was fun working with you", she politely says goodbye, before pulling Jae out of the studio by his sleeve, "Let's go..."

The Bangtan boys are left stunned on the now empty set. They immediately look at Namjoon, who runs his hands through his hair. Of all people, he was the one to stand up for Moon, although they seemed so distant when they hung out and worked together. The members don't say a thing, but they still stare at Namjoon for an explanation.

"She doesn't deserve any more of that in her life."