XV. HOPE ON THE STREET

"Hello, everyone, we should wait for a few more viewers to join. This live is going to be a little different." Hoseok moved closer to the screen and read the comments. "We have a guest for today, but she's running a bit late because she had to attend to some things at work."

Now mid-September, Hoseok decided to take a break from all the work and posted on Weverse that he was going to do a Hope on the Street live later that night, something he didn't usually announce so the fans immediately speculated that he had something different planned. It sent Twitter into a large debate.

"'Who is it?'" Hoseok read. He smiled, "Can you guess? I'll give you a hint: she can pass as Jungkookie's sister and almost reminds you of a penguin." Just in time, someone peeked inside the studio, wide eyes staring back at the idol. "And there she is!" he announced, gesturing for her to come closer.

Gyeoul smiled awkwardly, walking into the studio with meek steps.

She was wearing a black mask and a black cap, a black graphic shirt, and black pants. A stark contrast to Hoseok's colorful get-up. Both the viewers and Hoseok can barely see her face. After placing her bag on one of the chairs at the back, she went to the middle of the studio and bowed respectfully to the viewers.

Before that day, Hoseok spent around a week trying to convince the management to allow Gyeoul to teach an online dance class with him on a live. Initially, they turned him down, saying that it was risky to bring a female with him as it will only spark rumors. Having no other choice, Hoseok turned to Seokjin who he knew would get the management to agree. All it took was one phone call to the boss himself and they got the green light.

They agreed with the condition that they will show no more than a business relationship to the viewers. That meant no excessive jokes and no informal speech. Just teaching. But the boss also said that if it feels right, she can act like herself.

Other than that, Hoseok had an even harder time convincing Gyeoul to do the live with him. Exactly as she earlier predicted, the media wasn't as kind to her as before, but the backlash wasn't as bad as they expected it to be. Though there were still negative comments, the majority saw her words in a mature light. But still, she didn't want to appear before the targeted audience just yet. But he managed to convince her by telling her that he would buy her the highest number of coins in Webtoon until the end of the year.

"Good evening," she greeted, smiling with her eyes. 

"Okay, everybody, this is Ahn Gyeoul, you might know her better as Gia," Hoseok introduced, stepping away from the camera so she was visible. The dancer waved her hand. "Gyeoul-ssi, what are we going to do today?"

"I will be teaching choreography."

"To what song?"

"Perfect by Logic."

Hoseok clapped his hands and turned back to the camera, "Okay, did you hear that, everybody?" He gave them a thumbs-up, allowing his bright eyes to do the talking.

Gyeoul could almost laugh at how awkward their interaction was. To diffuse the tension, she cleared her throat. "Shall we play some music and start warming up?" When Hoseok nodded, she quickly jogged to her back to get her laptop before going to the speakers to set the music up.

"While she's doing that, let's check on ARMY. How do you guys feel about learning choreo today? I told her to make it a bit advanced. Her style is a bit different from what we usually do here and the song is pretty fast, so we're in for a bit of a struggle."

After setting up the music, she walked towards the water dispenser and picked up a cup, pushing the faucet, but nothing but a mere few drops graced her awaiting cup. Gyeoul sighed, placing the cup on the table and going back to the middle of the dance floor beside Hoseok who was still standing before the tablet and reading the comments.

"A comment here said, 'I'm supposed to be studying for my online classes right now but Gyeoul-eonnie's dance classes are more important.' What do you have to say about that?"

An embarrassed smile spread across her face, "I can't really tell you what to do, but I do know that this live will be saved so you can come back to it later in full and it will be easier to navigate the speed of the teaching or something like that. But if you decide to stay, then thank you...?"

"I'm here to save you, I'm here to ruin you," Hoseok sang, his voice octaves higher to tease that ARMY.

All of the sudden, Kim Taehyung stepped into the room with five water bottles in his hands. The pair of dancers froze with what they were doing that the viewers would have thought the connection was lagging if not for Taehyung appearing in the frame. He placed four of the water bottles at the back of the studio, opening the fifth for Gyeoul and handing it to her.

Gyeoul blinked and hesitantly accepted the water bottle. "Thank you." She turned her back on the camera and drank the water.

"I'm watching the live in the reception room," he declared proudly, reaching for the bottle again once she was done with it and placing it beside the other water bottles.

Leave it to Kim Taehyung to be the first to get to the ends of the earth just to get Ahn Gyeoul what she wants and needs, Hoseok thought, smiling fondly at the interaction. If there weren't millions of people watching them behind a screen, he would've teased his younger member relentlessly.

"Are you going to stay?" Hoseok asked.

"No," Taehyung was quick to refuse. "I'll be in the reception room if you need me." He waved at them and the tablet, already on his way out of the studio. "Bye-bye!"

Once he exited the studio, Gyeoul cleared her throat, nodding her head at Hoseok. "Please lead the warm-up, J-Hope-ssi."

Her formality made him laugh. "Okay, okay, everybody, please follow my movements."

Gyeoul followed his stretches and a few loud cracking sounds were made. Hoseok couldn't hold in his laughter, him looking at her in both concern and amusement.

"Just a moment," she blurted out as she jumped sideways out of the frame, her insides churning at the embarrassment she was feeling. She situated herself by the wall and twisted her sides as she stretched her legs.

"You should do a duet with Jimin." Hoseok was still laughing, "Okay, everybody, let's continue. She can catch up."

The performance director walked back inside the frame nonchalantly and continued to follow along with the dance leader's movements as if she didn't embarrass herself just a few moments earlier, although, under her mask, she was wearing the ugliest grimace ever known to man. She came into that dance studio with every intent to appear as cool and professional as possible to make a good impression on their fans and on those who probably knew her.

"Gyeoul-ssi, can you tell us something about your piece today?" Hoseok asked once they finished warming up.

She straightened up, "I think it's better if I show you instead."

Walking off from the frame once more, she walked back to her laptop and changed the song. A few seconds later, the song changed into something with a more intense tune.

'Bitch, I did it, I made it, I'm loved and I'm hated. I started from the bottom now my neighborhood is gated.'

She started to dance, making sure to isolate the movements she made with her body so both Hoseok and the viewers could clearly read the choreography.

When she finished, Hoseok laughed nervously, "Am I starting to regret this?"

"I prepared another one if you want to cha—"

"I was joking," Hoseok quickly asserted before she could continue, now moving to stand beside her. "Let's start!"

"The key is to be relaxed and focused at the same time..."

The rest of the session went by for a little more than an hour. For a regular class, it's considered a bit short, but considering the advantage of the viewers to rewind the video whenever they wished, an hour felt like more than enough. Hoseok managed to catch on quickly to the choreography with ease. What made the time stretch was Gyeoul who kept asking the viewers of the live whether or not they were following.

For the nth time in the past hour, Gyeoul walked up to the tablet and checked the status of the viewers. "Are we good to try the entire thing with music or shall we run it again with counting?"

username1: please don't come so close to the camera or my heart will burst.

Gyeoul quickly pulled away from the tablet, startled by the flirtatious comment she had just read.

"What is it?" Hoseok asked upon seeing her bewildered expression.

"Someone commented that their heart would burst if I got any closer," she explained, laughing slightly. Hoseok let out an amused snort and continued to review the steps without music. Gyeoul lowered herself to the tablet again with a polite smile, "My apologies, but I need to read the comments. Is your heart okay? I'll try to stay out of the frame for your sake."

She crouched down into a slightly uncomfortable position so her hairline is the only part of her body visible as she was looking up at the comments, Hoseok's figure dancing diligently in the background.

There were almost no comments answering her question. Many of them were either 'kekeke' or purple hearts. A lot of them were also hateful comments that she tried to ignore. She tuned more of her attention to the ones who responded to her question.

Suddenly, someone came into the studio again.

Taehyung walked inside the studio and immediately jogged his way straight to her. "Assistant Kim, at your service." He crouched beside her and got closer to the tablet. "I'll read the comments for you."

Nodding, she gently squeezed his ankle — away from the camera's view — before going back beside Hoseok to recall the steps with him.

"Gyeoul, one of the comments said that they didn't expect you to be this tall," Taehyung announced. "Another said that your eyes were pretty. Another one also said that your voice is pretty too."

She sighed, bowing her head as she laughed slightly to herself. For the entirety of the live, she was trying to remain professional and there Taehyung was, treating her as he usually did. Not that she expected anything else, he wasn't the type to listen to what the agency says. The vice-chairman of JinHit, some would say.

He shifted his position, his head almost covering the whole tablet. He probably thought she wouldn't notice him wordlessly reporting some of the comments, but she did. And she was grateful.

"They want you to try it again slowly without music."

"Okay, thank you, Taehyung-ssi."

He smiled at the camera one last time before settling himself on the floor and watching the two dancers intently. Laughs echoed throughout the studio as Gyeoul and Hoseok's combined 'dance language' made a sensical melody that he wasn't sure he'd be able to listen to the music itself the same way again.

"Are we ready to try it with music?"

Taehyung knelt up again and read the comments. "Did you hear that everybody? Instructor Ahn was asking if we're ready to run it again with music."

Hoseok grinned, "This guy is taking his job very seriously."

"As I should," Taehyung replied, reading the comments. "The majority are saying 'yes.'" He turned back to his friend, "Should I play the song?" Gyeoul smiled, nodding her head. Taehyung stood up and went to her laptop.

Soon, the song started to play and they fell into their element. As much as he tried to focus on them both, his eyes always trained back on her. The way she moved her body was something different. The relaxed and playful look in her eyes added more to the attitude of the piece. Without even noticing it, his eyes were wide in awe. It was like for that short fifty-something seconds, she molded into the music.

They finished with a pose, Hoseok noticed the awed look on his younger member's face and almost collapsed while laughing. Gyeoul turned to him, looking at him like he lost his mind. It only made Hoseok laugh harder because the way she turned to him was meme-worthy.

Gyeoul was still confused as to why he was laughing and turned back to the camera. She cleared her throat, "I guess that's the end of our class today. I hope you enjoyed today. The live will be saved if you want to go back to it."

"Should we end the live here?" Hoseok asked when he calmed down.

"I think we should sit and talk with ARMY for a while," Taehyung suggested, already going back to Gyeoul's laptop to change the music.

Hoseok agreed and joined him in front of the tablet. The performance director didn't know where to place herself and simply sat down in the middle of the dance floor, facing away from the camera and stretching her legs in front of her. Taehyung watched her through the mirror with a small smile on his face.

"Taehyung," Hoseok hissed, nudging his elbow. The younger tore his gaze away from Gyeoul and looked at him expectantly. Hoseok laughed, "I have to go to the bathroom." Without waiting, he stood up and gestured his eyebrows in Gyeoul's direction, "Don't leave her alone here, alright?"

Gyeoul pursed her lips when Hoseok walked out of the studio. Now, that she was alone with Taehyung, it was going to be harder to act professionally. Acting so was especially important, mostly because he was one of the two that she had bigger dating rumors with.

He moved in front of her and also stretched his legs. The dancer laughed as he tried to reach his toes as easily as she did. She aligned their feet and took hold of both his hands, gently pulling him towards her. His hold on her hands tightened as he tried to bend more. An exasperated sigh fell from his lips and he gave up, bending his knees and sliding closer to her.

The dancer raised her eyebrows, clearly amused by his actions, "What are you doing?"

Shaking their interlocked hands and raising his eyebrows back at her, he managed to get his intentions through as if they communicated telepathically.

Gyeoul also bent her knees and their faces were dangerously close.

Nodding their heads to the beat of the music playing, they waited before the climax came before pulling themselves closer to each other and pushing each other back by their feet.

A bunch of senseless giggles echoed throughout the studio as they sild farther away from each other than they expected.

Hoseok came back and Taehyung joined him back in front of the tablet to read through the comments the ARMYs left. The dancer behind them started to get a little more comfortable thanks to her friend and danced freely along to the music, though she wasn't that visible in the frame.

"Gyeoul-ssi!" Hoseok called, catching the woman's attention. "A comment says, 'Via, do 100 push-ups if you see this comment.'"

The woman blinked confusedly back at the man. What did that have to do with her?

Taehyung noticed her confusion, "It's our ship name. V and Gia. I've seen it trend on Twitter once." He made his way beside her in the middle of the dance floor and positioned himself down, his arms and right knee holding him up.

She scrunched her nose, "I just worked out. One of the trainers saw me giving up on my pull-ups and made me do a full 15 reps. 100 push-ups. Don't mind me if my arms start to fall off."

"What if you split it 40-60? Play a game and whoever loses gets to do sixty reps," Hoseok suggested, pausing to mull over some options.

"But I only agreed to this live to teach," she responded, a pout on her face. But with one look at Taehyung's eager expression, she sighed and positioned herself on the floor, "What game?"

Just as those very words escaped her lips, Taehyung raised his fist, earning an instant reaction from Gyeoul. At the same time, they showed scissors. They laughed and tried again, this time showing paper. Hoseok laughed as they showed the same for the second time. They tried again and both of them showed scissors. Becoming more competitive, their rounds became faster but they still kept showing the same.

"Are you reading each other's minds?" Hoseok asked, amazed and genuinely curious about what was happening between the two of them.

Truth be told, Gyeoul noticed a pattern in the idol's plays after five tries. She wanted to see how long he would go for until he lost his patience. Her eyes flickered up, reading the expression on his face. Knowing that he hated working out, she messed up on purpose and let out a sound of disappointment. Taehyung grinned and patted her head before positioning himself properly on the floor.

"Fighting, GoGo," he whispered, making her smile.

They started to do their push-ups, Gyeoul's executions were significantly slower than his.

Once he finished his portions, Taehyung crouched in front of her facing the camera, "I actually don't like Via."

Gyeoul showed no reaction and kept on slowly going through her push-ups. She did them full and slow because she didn't want to do half-assed reps just to feel relief. Doing them without effort would only add to criticisms toward her, but this time coming from gym enthusiasts.

"All of a sudden?" Hoseok giggled somewhat nervously, eyes shifting back to back from the pair.

"I hate it, that's why I came up with two better names. Via is too generic."

A snort came from the performance director, her arms shaking as she tried to bring herself up. Gyeoul tried to keep herself from laughing because it makes her arms weaker and now she was struggling in a low position with her arms ready to give out.

"The first ship name that I thought of is VGOVGO. It's cute and easy to remember."

"Why 'Go?'" Hoseok asked, entertaining him.

"I call her 'GoGo' a lot."

"And what's the next one?"

Gyeoul finished her push-ups by then. She sighed in relief, sitting down on the floor with her chest heaving slightly. Her eyes were glued on Taehyung who looked to be excited to tell everybody about the ship names.

"It's my favorite one."

"Oh, really?"

The other half of the 'VGOVGO' unit laughed slightly, shaking her head.

"Since her name literally means 'winter' in English, and my representative emoji interchanges between the tiger and bear a lot, our name should be Winter Bear."

Hoseok let out an elongated 'oh' to express his approval. She sighed, looking at Taehyung with an amused expression, pointing her finger at him, "This is how you start rumors." That made Hoseok burst into laughter and Taehyung lower his head in realization. "I swear, if you keep this up, we'll both be in trouble."

He tried not to laugh, "I'm sorry."

Her eyes softened, "It's okay." She checked her watch, "But it's getting late, I should be getting home."

"Then let's do a closing song," Hoseok suggested, making his way to Gyeoul's laptop.

"What should we play? It should be a little upbeat so that Gyeoul wouldn't be sleepy while driving home." Taehyung stood up and outstretched his hand to help her up. She only showed him scissors and stood up on her own. "What do you think we should play?"

Hoseok looked at them expectantly. She grinned, discreetly wiggling her fingers at her sides. Taehyung gasped, bringing his finger to his temple.

"I received the telepathy! Hyung, you're going to like this."

"What is it?"

Taehyung wordlessly took Hoseok's place and started to type the song Gyeoul had in mind. "Gyeoul! Forget the formality for a moment. Let's have fun."

'Everyone, thank you for waiting! Sope-me desu!'

The two 95-liners started to dance and jump along while Hoseok was dying of laughter on the floor. Although, the woman would have continued on doing the dance with less enthusiasm if not for Taehyung jumping closer to her and encouraging her to appear more lively. 

The boss did say that she could act like herself if the need arises.

"Otsukare samadeshita. Hey! Hey!" Taehyung sang theatrically, synchronizing his movements to the choreography with Gyeoul. The dancer couldn't help herself whenever this song came on. "Otsukare samadeshita. Hey! Hey! Otsukare samadeshita, otsukare samadeshita!"

"Today too, you've given it your best," the idol sang as he took the water bottles and distributed them as makeshift microphones.

Gyeoul lined the water bottles to her mouth but not actually singing along. 'Working and studying, it's not easy, huh?'

But surely tomorrow there will be good things.

"Papa!" Taehyung stepped his right foot forward, pointing his fist at Gyeoul for a fist bump.

"Mama!" Gyeoul did the same.

"Let's do our best!" Gyeoul high-fived Taehyung's fist. "Thank you!"

They were having the time of their lives. When Hoseok finally calmed down, he joined the small party and balanced the choreography. Their happiness radiated through the screen and touched every viewer from different parts of the world.

As the last lyrics of the song rolled out, the trio bid their goodbyes. Taehyung and Hoseok hounded the tablet with overexcited goodbyes, while Gyeoul bowed at the viewers in the background.

"Thank you for having me," she said in Japanese with a smile that made her eyes turn into crescents, waving at the tablet.

Once the two idols ended the live, Gyeoul let out a happy sigh and slumped down on one of the chairs. Until reality set in and the weight of her actions finally became clear. Her happy sigh turned into a slightly horrified one. Taehyung turned to her in concern.

"I'm going to be fired."

Hoseok chuckled, "No you won't, PD-nim said that you could be yourself."

"And he's probably ready to like, adopt you or something," Taehyung comforted, disconnecting her laptop from the system and handing it to her. He sat beside her, "You won't get fired. We'll make sure of it."

Gyeoul pinched the bridge of her nose, leaning her side against his for a moment as she laughed. She sighed, standing up from the chair and slinging her bag on her shoulder. She opened her bag and secured her laptop safely inside, not noticing the stuff that fell out.

"What's done is done, I guess there's no use dwelling on something that can't be reversed. " She waved at them, already making her way out of the door. "I had a ton of fun today. I'll see you guys tomorrow if I'm not fired."

Taehyung picked something up from the chair and walked up to her, "ID."

Her mouth formed an 'o,' "Thank you." The woman took her ID from him and punched his shoulder playfully before taking off. "I'll see you tomorrow."

He followed her out of the door and called out, "Be safe!"

She turned back and made a heart over her head, accidentally hitting her head with her ID.

Taehyung laughed, shaking his head and going back inside. His eyes suddenly spotted a bracelet from where her bag used to be. They turned wide as saucers as he realized that it looked very familiar. Picking the bracelet up, he realized that it was his old friendship bracelet that doubled as his lucky charm. It was odd. He certainly didn't remember taking the bracelet out of his jewelry box that day. Clicking his tongue, he put it inside the pocket of his hoodie and walked back to the mirror beside his older member.

"Gyeoul is really talented, isn't she?"

"You just noticed now?" Hoseok teased. He fixed the set-up of the tablet, taking it out of the stand, "You should have seen the look on your face earlier. You looked so starstruck."

"She's otherworldly, I'm sure everyone who was watching can agree."

In the parking lot, the subject of their conversation was sitting in her car, reading through the text messages that she missed. She saw Yongsik's name in one of them and decided to leave that one for last, replying to the more important messages first. When she was done doing so, she clicked on his message.

YONGSIK
i'm planning on watching the replay of you and j-hope's live

YONGSIK
looks like i'm giving your dancing another chance

She smiled, replying with a simple 'thanks!' before putting her phone away. Then she started the car, leaving the building.

Not even realizing that she left her lucky bracelet behind.

username1: now winter bear is a friendship i can get behind with
     |
     username2: i'm going in front of this friendship and protect them with my life
     |
     username1: media better not ruin them or ill riot

username3: i just love how gyeoul said that her relationship w bts was purely business and a few weeks later tae walks in the studio and basically became the captain of their ship
     |
     username4: loving their relationship sm
     |
     username4: everybody thought that it'd be jimin but TAE SAYS NO

username4: idc if they're friends or more i just want them to never stop smiling like that

username5: can we get some appreciation for ghope? hobi treated her so much like a little sister
     |
     username1: "don't leave her alone here alright?" IM SOFT
     |
     username3: halsey, becky g, and gia sit at the same table. i'm sorry i don't make the rules

username6: i swear im not jealous (jk i am jealous that bitch is living my dream)

username7: HI IM THE ONE THAT COMMENTED THE COMMENT SHE NOTICED AND NO MY HEART IS NOT OKAY
     |
     username8: SHE WAS LOWKEY FLIRTING BACK U LUCKYYYY

username9: I CAN PASS PEACEFULLY KNOWING OTSUKARE IS STILL ALIVE IN THEIR HEARTS

username10: are we just going to ignore the fact that vgovgo is like freakishly connected? cause i'm still not over it
     |
     username8: AND THE FACT THAT GIA BARELY DID ANYTHING AND TAE IMMEDIATELY KNEW THAT IT WAS OTSUKARE

❆

"I think black and white looks better."

"Green and black would look better."

"Then it would look like wasabi and soy sauce."

The boy's mother stepped in, "What about black and yellow?"

Gyeoul scrunched her nose, "I'm sorry, eomoni, but that would look too much like a bee."

Taehyung nodded his head in agreement. "It'd be too much."

"Okay then," the mother muttered. Her husband patted her shoulder in mock comfort.

"Maybe dark and light green?" Gyeoul suggested, scanning the many beads again.

Taehyung's father came up with the amazing idea for them to make friendship bracelets a few weeks before Gyeoul would leave. The only problem was that the two friends couldn't decide on a color scheme. Their bickering stretched on for hours and hours and the parents started to wish that they suggested buying bracelets at some random store.

"Dark and light green might look great, actually," Taehyung hummed, already picking out the beads.

Gyeoul did the same and set the strings for them, "Let's make the bracelets bigger so we can wear them when we grow bigger." She tested the length of the string on his wrist.

After she did so, Taehyung picked up her string and tested the length of it on her wrist, and then he nodded to himself, finally satisfied.

The bracelets were exact replicas of each other that they could easily get switched.

"What if we added another thing? Like one bead that's different?"

"Okay, I'll add black to mine," Gyeoul said, taking a black bead out of the bowl and putting it on the string with her other beads.

"And I'll add brown to mine."

Taehyung's father tilted his head, "But their appearances aren't that different?"

"But it's still different," the two friends chimed in unison.

The man's lips parted like that of a fish. "You can barely see the difference."

"But it's still different."

NOTE

i'm so excited for bts' las vegas takeover!!!!

song(s) mentioned in this chapter: perfect by logic | it'll be ok by yoandri | pied piper by bts | otsukare by bts

if you're curious about the choreography, it's sean lew's choreography:

https://youtu.be/7YDsiH0jlbE