Deadlines.

Something Namjoon absolutely hated.

As the leader of BTS, whenever it came to deadlines, management put Namjoon fully in charge of making sure the band reached those deadlines. And when they didn't, the scolding always fell on Namjoon. It was always "Tell your group to get their shit together," or "If you don't have it on time you're a failure." Those were the nicer scoldings. Sometimes they were more intense, with media outlets calling up Namjoon and telling him he should just have the band break up if they can't deliver.

And unfortunately, the band was given a huge task of creating an OST for a movie. Something they had to write, compose, produce all on their own.

It was due in 5 days in order to meet the deadline of when they needed it for the movie. The pressure was on. The members were constantly gathered in a little studio within the Hybe building so they could get this project in on time.

Jungkook was the last member of the group who had to record his part, and by now they only had two days left to do it. He was working hard in the recording booth but was getting frustrated with not being able to hit some of the high notes .

"Aish..this isn't it...let me try again," Jungkook said with disappointment in his voice.

"It's good enough, Jungkook! Can't we just finish this up?" Namjoon asked annoyed.

Everyone else was sitting on a little couch while Yoongi sat at the producers desk and worked with Jungkook. They could tell Namjoon was frustrated and being impatient. He had been like that the whole time they'd been working on this project.

Jungkook spoke up from inside the booth, "Hyung, good enough isn't going to work! It has to be perfect!"

"You know him, Joonie, he's a perfectionist," Hobi replied.

"This is due in two days!" Namjoon's voice was sounding more irritated.

"Will you calm down? We have time," Jimin said reassuringly. Everyone watched Namjoon's face turn red as he clenched his jaw and kept his mouth shut.

Yoongi had Jungkook get back to work, and the maknae was still struggling. He didn't normally struggle so much but with this being such a huge project he was feeling a lot of the pressure and wanted to do his best job. For him, when stressed out like this, it always helped him and calmed him down to joke around and act a little silly to ease his mind. He started singing random things into the microphone, making the others laugh. Except for Namjoon. He wasn't laughing.

Jungkook kept going and going with his random silly adlibs, and then added inerpretative dance to his little routine.

"Jungkook!" Namjoon shot up from the couch, face full of anger. He walked over to the glass that separated them. "Work! Now!"

"Sorry hyung!" Jungkook quickly picked up the lyrical packet and continued to work hard, but when he found himself stumbling he started doing random dance moves again to try and ease his mind. The other members thought he was being super cute, they weren't entirely concerned, but Namjoon had enough.

The leader stomped over to the recording booth door and flung it open, almost breaking it as it smashed into the wall.

"Hey, Joonie, what are you.."Taehyung started, but Namjoon got in Jungkook's face and started screaming before he could finish the sentence.

"How many times do I have to tell you to get to work?!" Namjoon screamed in Jungkook's face.The youngest backed away from his leader. Namjoon ripped the lyrical packet out of Jungkook's hand, which the maknae had rolled up, and whipped him across the face with it multiple times as he screamed.

Jungkook froze with fear seeing his leader this angry. This wasn't like Namjoon at all. He stared at him, speechless and wide eyed, his mouth open in utter disbelief. He couldn't even bring his hand to hold his stinging cheek because he was too in shock to move.

"Kim Namjoon!" Jimin screamed as he stood up, "What the hell are you doing?!"

Namjoon ignored Jimin and continued to scream in Jungkook's face. He then grabbed the maknae's wrist and dragged him back right in front of the microphone. "Is it so hard?! Is it so damn hard for you to sing?! You're being nothing but a failure right now! Since when are you a damn failure, huh?!"

"H-hyung....you're hurting me.." Jungkook's tears fell fast as he tried to pry himself free from his hyungs painful grip. His heart was broken.

"Namjoon!" Now Yoongi stood up, "Leave him the hell alone!"

Namjoon shot back at Yoongi, "No! He's been doing nothing but fooling around all damn day and we have work to do!" He turned back to Jungkook, "If you don't want to do your damn job then maybe we should take you off the damn song! How does that sound?! This shit is due in two days and you've gotten nowhere! You've gotten us nowhere!" Namjoon still didn't let go of Jungkook's wrist, he held it and flung the maknae's arm around angrily as he screamed, hurting Jungkook's shoulder.

"Let me go!" Jungkook screamed.

"No!" Namjoon screamed back, "Not until you do what you need to do! Let's go, sing, now! I'm waiting!" Namjoon grabbed Jungkook's shoulder, making him wince from the pain he'd already caused, and held him firmly in front of that microphone.

"Sing, damnit!" Namjoon screamed in Jungkook's ear. The maknae couldn't do it. He had burst into tears, sobbing loudly as he stood there.

Jin finally came out of his own shock from the ordeal and went into the recording booth. He pushed Namjoon away. "What the hell is wrong with you?! Look what you've done to him! You asshole! Get away from him!"

Jungkook stood there, drenched in sorrow, not knowing what to do. He was visibly shaking. Hobi and Taehyung ran in and gently grabbed Jungkook, escorting him out of the booth and helping him sit on the couch. The others were in a screaming match with Namjoon.

"Hey, shh, shh it's okay," Hobi cooed as he wiped Jungkook's face. He could already see the red marks left from where Namjoon whipped him with the rolled up papers. Jungkook was a hyperventilating mess.

"I-I-I just want to go home. I want to g-go home," Jungkook begged.

"That's it, we're done with this," Jimin yelled. "We're leaving!"

"We can't go home! He has to work!" Namjoon screamed as he made his way back towards Jungkook. Taehyung jumped in front of Namjoon, "You stay the hell away from him! He can't work like this now! He was just doing his thing! He was doing fine! You had no right or reason for hurting him!"

"I didn't hurt him!" Namjoon was so blinded by rage and frustration at this point that he was blinded to the damage he'd caused.

"Are you kidding me?!" Jin screamed, "Look at him! You hurt him!"

Yoongi grabbed the car keys, "Let's go. We're leaving. Day over."

Everyone followed Yoongi to the car, even Namjoon. He realized he couldn't stay at the studio if the others weren't going to stay. Everyone was so angry that the car ride home was awkwardly silent. When they got back to the dorm Jungkook rushed out of the car and darted to his room.

"Real fucking nice," Jin scoffed at Namjoon as the rest of them made their way inside. Namjoon said he didn't want to hear it and ran off to his own room.

Jimin found Jungkook in his room curled up under the blankets, sobbing into his pillow. He walked over and sat next to him on the bed, removing the sweaty hair that had fallen in the maknae's eyes. It also revealed the red mark painted across the maknae's cheek. He sighed,"I'm not going to make excuses for him. He shouldn't have done that to you and I'm so angry he did it. But you know hyung isn't usually like that."

Jungkook didn't reply as he kept crying into his pillow. It was evident that he didn't feel like talking. Jimin rubbed his back, "I love you. Let us know if you need anything." He got up and left his maknae to have some space.

Jungkook had no idea what to do or think. He felt like his entire relationship with Namjoon had come crashing down. Does he hate me? What does that mean for us? What does that mean for me? What does that mean for the band? Why did he do that? He couldn't make sense of it. Namjoon had never been physical before, even when pressured or angry. He knew this project was a huge weight on his hyungs shoulders and now he felt his own guilt for screwing around. He started crying even harder at the thought of Namjoon being done loving him like a little brother, and his sobs made his shoulder hurt again. He winced in pain and then also noticed the fingerprints his hyung had left behind on his wrist. Ugh.

When Jimin had walked out he saw Jin, Yoongi, and Hobi barging into Namjoon's room. He could tell they were about to go off on him. He looked to Taehyung and the two started to follow, but the hyungs told them to stay out of this. So they stood on the outside of the door and eavesdropped.

"Can you all get out? I really don't feel like having this conversation right now." Namjoon rolled his eyes at his hyungs.

Hobi was already so fired up that he completely let loose. "I don't give a shit what you don't want! I'm sure Jungkook didn't want you hurting him either and you did it to him anyway, and for what, huh?! Please, enlighten me on why the hell you did that to him! I'd really love to know!"

"Since when did I hurt him?!" Namjoon screamed. "All I did was direct him back to the microphone!" Namjoon had been so angry at the time that he simply could not remember actually being too physical with Jungkook. "I barely touched him."

"Barely touched him!?" Jin screamed, "You whipped him across the face, multiple times, with those papers and now his cheek is all red! He stood there screaming at you that you were hurting him and you didn't listen to him at all! What the hell has gotten into you?!"

Yoongi chimed in, "When we started this band the first thing we discussed when it came to disciplining eachother was that we would never, ever, make it physical!"

"Why is everyone over exaggerating so damn much!? So I grabbed him a little bit, it's not like I beat the kid!" Namjoon screamed. His own face red with anger. His hyungs were doing nothing but annoying him more. "And we have deadlines! This is a huge project and he wasn't taking it seriously! Someone had to do something! We needed this work done! And now look, the whole project is basically off the shelf. And you know who has to take the fall for that? Me! Even when I call them and tell them it's Jungkook's fault we don't have it, I'm the one who will get the shit end of the stick."

Hobi put his hand up to stop Namjoon from talking, "So you're telling me that this project, this work, is more important than the safety of Jungkook?"

"That's not what I'm saying. And stop acting like I put him in danger," Namjoon argued.

"You did put him in danger! Plus you scared the hell out of him! You scared the hell out of all of us! Oh and by the way, Namjoon, don't you dare tell the company that this is Jungkook's fault, because the reality is that it's your fault," Yoongi said, "That boy would have had this thing done by now if you had just left him alone. When has he ever let you down? Huh? Never."

Namjoon didn't know what else to say at this point. There was no reasoning with his hyungs.

"You need to go apologize to him!" Jin screamed. Namjoon refused to do it, claiming he still thought everyone was blowing this way out of proportion. The hyungs couldn't understand why Namjoon couldn't remember how mean he'd actually been.

They were interrupted by a knock on the door. Yoongi opened it to find Taehyung and Jimin standing there in tears. He sighed, "We told you two to stay out of this."

Taehyung held up his phone, "I thought I'd just like to remind everyone that my phone has access to our CCTV cameras in our studio. Joonie hyung...if you can't remember the wrong you've done...then you need to watch it.."

With a shaky hand, Taehyung held his phone up to Namjoon's face, forcing him to watch the footage from earlier.

And when Namjoon saw what he did, that's when he realized how badly he'd messed up.

"Oh my God.." Namjoon whispered as his tears fell quickly, "There's ..no way...I did that to him? How could I..."

"Because like I said, you were more concerned about work than you were about Kook," Hobi said sadly.

Namjoon was completely speechless at his own actions. He understood now why everyone was so angry. He was angry too.

"Namjoon?" Jimin's voice was quiet, he was being choked up by tears, "If you ever do that to him again, or to any one of us, I don't...I wouldn't want to be in a band with you anymore. Ever again. Once was one time too many to hurt someone but if it were to happen twice.."

"I'm so sorry." Namjoon was a complete mess. "I got so overwhelmed..but it's no excuse. I never should have even touched him. I'm so sorry.."

"We aren't the ones you need to be apologizing to," Jin scolded, "So get your ass into our maknae's room and fix what you did to him! Now!"

Namjoon ran into Jungkook's room to find him asleep. He saw the maknae was cuddling with a piece of paper, something that looked like a letter. He slowly grabbed it out of Jungkook's hands to see what it was, and Namjoon's heart had broken even more. It was a letter Namjoon had written to Jungkook when they were younger. He was telling his maknae how much he loved and appreciated him, and how nothing could ever ruin their bond or separate them in this lifetime or the next. He wrote about how important Jungkook was to the band and how they couldn't do it without him. He couldn't believe Jungkook still even had this letter. When he looked at the bottom of the letter he saw it stained with fresh tears.

Oh, Jungkook-ah....all of this is still true.

He didn't know whether to wake his dongsaeng up or not, so he decided to curl up in his bed and hold him gently in a back hug. While doing this he saw the marks on Jungkook's cheek and the bruises on his wrist and Namjoon realized he could say sorry all he wanted but after something like this he didn't deserve forgiveness anyway. He cried into Jungkook's back, which stirred him awake.

Namjoon felt Jungkook's body tense up with anxiety. "Hey, it's okay. I..Jungkookie..I..." Namjoon was a mess of tears. The maknae turned so they were laying facing eachother and Namjoon took his thumb and caressed Jungkook's hurt cheek. "I have no excuse for this. Whether I was mad, anxious, whatever it was...I have absolutely no excuse for this. I'm so sorry. I'm so so sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you. I didn't realize what I was doing."

Jungkook stared at his hyung with wide, teary eyes. "I was going to finish the song."

"I know. I know you were. I never meant to scold you or belittle you and please know I never, ever meant to call you a failure. You're not a failure. You never could be."

Jungkook started crying harder and covered his face with his hands. Namjoon pulled him into his chest, hearing the small whimper the youngest let out when his shoulder moved. "Does it hurt?"

Jungkook nodded. "It's sore," the maknae admitted. Namjoon asked if he'd like some pain killers or to go to the doctor but the youngest declined. "It will be fine."

Namjoon continued to lay there holding Jungkook, the two of them crying together. Namjoon mentioned the letter he found Jungkook holding.

"I thought hyung hated me now. I thought everything we had was over and the letter was all I had left."

"Kook...everything I wrote in that letter is still true. I still love you and care about you more than anything."

"Not more than the song we have to make," Jungkook whispered.

"That's not true. We can cancel the song, we can do whatever with it, but please believe me when I say you're more important than any of that. I got caught up in the moment and said and did things out of anger I should have never done."

"And what happens when you do it again?" Jungkook asked. He looked his leader in the eyes, awaiting his response.

"It won't. I can promise you that. Jimin already made it pretty clear what happens if I step out of line again."

Jungkook couldn't help but chuckle at the thought of Jimin scolding Namjoon. The two continued to have a really deep heart to heart and express their feelings, with Namjoon continuously apologizing for what he'd done and how Jungkook could do whatever he wanted in retaliaton, but the youngest said he had no desire to retaliate.

"But hyung? Don't cancel the project."

"I have to. We don't have anymore time."

"I can do it tomorrow."

"Even after what I did, you'd still work on it?"

"Yes. It's the entire groups songs. Not just yours."

Yoongi's voice echoed in the back of Namjoon's head. When has he ever let you down? Huh? Never.

"Okay," Namjoon agreed, "We can try." The two cuddled up and fell asleep together. Jungkook wasn't entirely forgiving just yet, but his heart had lightened up a lot after having such a deep conversation with his hyung. The others came to check on them and found them passed out cuddling. They were still mad about the situation, but glad that Namjoon was finally trying to make amends.

The next day, thankfully, the maknae's shoulder was feeling a lot better. He had no problem getting to the studio with the others and getting right to work. He planned to try as hard as he could, knowing this was the last chance at getting this song done, but a slight anxiety about Namjoon was still bubbling under the surface.

However, the recording ended up going great. The hyungs had already given Namjoon fair warning about his behaviour, he promised not to get angry. And he didn't. He kept praising Jungkook and telling him how well he was doing, and eventually the maknae eased up enough to be a little silly again when he needed to calm himself.

To everyone's relief, Namjoon was laughing it off. He wasn't letting the pressure get to him this time.

A hard, hard lesson he needed to learn.

Jungkook got the song completed and everyone celebrated. Namjoon and Jungkook held eachother for a long time, Namjoon still constantly apologizing for what he'd done the day before.

"All we can do with our past is learn from it," Jungkook told his hyung. The others were huddled around listening to the two speak. They felt like they were also taking in Jungkook's advice.

Taehyung smiled, "Who even raised you to be so lighthearted and forgiving?" he asked. Jungkook started laughing, "Believe it or not  it was Namjoonie-hyung."

Namjoon didn't remember that, but he felt his heart warm.

The others realized that if Jungkook was willing to move on and forgive, then they should too.

Namjoon definetely learned a lot about himself through this whole ordeal, and he learned what parts of him he still needed to work on or get help with in order to be the best leader and best brother he could be.

Even though Jungkook had said that it was something Namjoon had taught him, Namjoon felt like it was him being taught a whole new lesson.

All we can do with our past is learn from it.

[The End]