I Got Youniverse (BTS x Manager!Reader)

Don't Let Go Of This Hand: One

You woke up earlier than the alarm you set on the day Bangtan Sonyeondan is scheduled to debut on M Countdown. It's why you arrive at the dormitories a full thirty minutes sooner than you said you would. Somehow, you had gotten ready in a trance, like all of the nerves and anxieties buzzing in your veins meant that there was nothing left to remember.

You contemplate waiting in the car for the rest of the time, but you're still a little sleepy. There's a pot of coffee inside the dorms that Yoongi's most likely made. The man has a taste for coffee that's beyond his means.

You exit the car and walk up to the third floor. To your surprise, instead of the sporadic sleepy morning noises you'd expected, it seemed like all seven of them were in the living room chaotically talking and laughing over one another.

You knock on the door but it seems like no one hears. You sigh, reaching into your bag to fish around for the dorms' house keys and twist the key into the front door's keyhole.

Immediately, you can hear a series of cries on the other side. Despite how early in the morning it is, you can't help but let out a wordless yell of surprise when someone pushes the door against you. Before you know it, the door shuts closed, a scant half centimeter away from your face.

"What? Hello, it's me?" you say. As if there was someone else who had the eighth key to the apartment.

"M-manager-nuna?" came from the other side. Jeongguk. He sounds a little nervous, taking on that pitchy tone he gets whenever he messes up his lines in front of Namjoon.

You're surprised it's Jeongguk, considering how hard he is to wake up. In fairness, you never expected the boys to sleep well last night. They were all too excitable, and they made each other excitable. Puppies you needed to force to settle down.

"Yeah, who else could it be?" you ask rhetorically. "I know I'm a little earlier than the time we agreed on, but traffic was good and I figured I could beg for some coffee from Yoongi."

Jeongguk hesitates. "Uh, none of the members are around yet," he lies blatantly.

"... You know I can hear all the commotion from the other side of the door right?" you ask wryly. "It's not like you were all being particularly subtle about it."

There's a long pause. "Naked?!" Jeongguk yelps. It's almost like a question he's addressing someone. "I- I mean, some of us are naked. So you shouldn't come in right now Manager-ya."

You look at the door dubiously, seeing as how you can't look any of them in the eye. You suppose it's not out of the realm of possibility that they'd all still be underdressed. Besides, it's their debut day. It must be pretty special for them. You're just their manager, an intruder to the starting line of all of their hopes and dreams.

Unconsciously, you take half a step back. You didn't expect it to hurt, this divide between you and the boys you grew to make your whole world. Sejin-sunbaenim never mentioned this part of the job description.

"Ah, okay," you say awkwardly, a hand rubbing your forearm. "I get it. You guys should... get ready. Do whatever you need to. I'll just stop by the Family Mart down the street and grab a coffee. Text me when you're all ready, okay, Jeongguk-ah?"

There's a heated whispered conversation that you can barely make out, a sound like someone sucked in air very quickly. It's fine, you'll leave them to whatever shenanigans they feel like they need to get up to before their big day. It's the least you can do.

"That—that sounds good, nuna," Jeongguk says, a little strangled. "I'll do that."

You pause at the door, debating whether to say something or not. "And Jeongguk-ah? Tell the boys congratulations for me okay?"

You end up nursing some crappy 1000 won coffee at the Family Mart and checking emails on your phone on one of the foldable plastic chairs outside of the store. The day is foggy this early in the morning, and it's cooler this early in the morning than it usually was in Seoul during the summer.

From the updates you're receiving from the Big Hit team members, they're all en route to the CJ E&M Center Studio and they'll be there early to set up. You're thankful for such a reliable team. You'll need to be able to trust them for the rest of this promotional cycle as you try to get Korea to love this group of seven ridiculous boys you manage.

You're in the middle of your fifth mental run-through of the schedule this week when you receive a text in the group chat. It's Jeongguk, and he lets you know that everyone's ready.

It seems like Bangtan was hesitant for you to enter earlier, so you just text him to meet you out front. At least you didn't have to spend half an hour trying to wake them all up again.

You head back to your van and bring the car around to the front of the dormitories. All seven of them are at the entrance and wave to you when you pull up. Jin slides open the back door to let them all in.

The van has two rows that fit three people each. They're all growing boys and it's a little too tight, elbows and knees getting into each other's way more often than not. Jimin and Taehyung wave in greeting and race each other to the back to try to get the window seat. It's a close call, but Jimin secures the seat.

Taehyung gasps dramatically, the picture of betrayal. "Hobi-hyung is my best friend now," he insists, scooting away from Jimin to press his entire right side against Hoseok. Hoseok just accepts the skinship cheerfully and slings an arm around Taehyung's shoulders.

"Morning, nuna," Jeongguk says, slipping into the middle seat of the first row. He looks no more awake than he did earlier this morning. If anything, he seems even sleepier, his hair mussed. Yoongi is on his left side, with Jin settling at the furthest end.

"Namjoon-ah should be right behind us," Jin explains, pulling the back door shut. "I think he almost left his wallet behind."

"Here's hoping Namjoon-hyung doesn't destroy everything in the 5 minutes we left him alone," Jimin pipes up from the back.

"That's okay," you say distractedly, taking the spare moment to look at your phone and re-confirming everything is in place. "We're 30 minutes early anyway."

Not even a minute later, the whirlwind that is Kim Namjoon wrenches open the door. "So sorry, Manager-nuna!" he says, and he's carrying a backpack on a shoulder and what looks like a laptop in his hand. His perm is a little flat on the right side, likely where he'd slept on it.

"It's okay, Namjoon," you say. But you've been through the wake of the God of Destruction before, so you quickly grab the coffee from the cup holder beside you before he knocks it over in his haste.

Half a second later, you realize it's different from the convenience store cup you'd deposited not five minutes earlier. It's a reusable yellow coffee tumbler that you've seen before in the dorm kitchens, a mismatched black straw from a different tumbler poking through.

There's a tell-tale slurp as Yoongi continues to nurse the other iced coffee directly behind you. You look into the mirror to catch his eyes, but he looks out the window.

Instead, you turn to your right. "All set, Namjoon?"

He gives you a smile in return. "Let's get it, nuna."

You start the car. You're not familiar with the neighborhood that the CJ E&M Center Studio is at, but GPS has never let you down, except for that one time that you refuse to remember.

"Did you all manage to get some sleep at least?" you ask, once you've pulled out into the main street.

"You said to try to get some sleep, Manager-nuna," Jimin says cheekily. "We tried."

"Well, it's an hour to Mapo-gu, so actually get some rest in the meantime."

Looking into the mirror 10 minutes later, you see that they take your advice this time. All the members of Bangtan are softly snoring, faces slack in sleep.