Seeing Stars || BTS TaeGi

Lunches and Zebras

The next morning, we all had our separate things. I had to produce. Taehyung, Hoseok, and Seokjin had vocal lessons. Jungkook and Jimin had dance class. Namjoon had to deal with stuff for BigHit. We were all busy.

I spun around in my chair at the studio, still wearing Taehyung's hoodie from last night due to the fact that I was too lazy to take it off. Lyrics were hard. I had finished the beat this morning, yet I was at a total blank for lyrics. My original idea was something along the lines of friendship- how you didn't have to be blood relatives to be family, but I wasn't sure how to put that idea into lyrics.

I glanced at the time, 12:37 in the afternoon. I hadn't eaten lunch yet. There was a nice Thai place a few blocks away, but I didn't feel like walking. 20 minutes, I told myself, 20 minutes and I'll get something to eat.

About 10 minutes passed before someone knocked on my door. "Who?" I called out, not lifting my eyes from the lyrics I had brainstormed. I had a bad habit of not asking for things in full sentences.
"Me." Taehyung's voice called in return, "I brought food."
I used my feet to roll the chair over to the door and open it. Sure enough, Taehyung stood there with a bag with Thai written on it. "Why?" I asked, moving so he came in.

He shrugged, "Figured you hadn't eaten."
"No no no, like, why are you taking care of me?"

Taehyung set the bag down, taking out a take-out box of something. "Stir-fry noodles. Spicy." He handed me the container.

"Answer my question." You could smell the spiciness of the food. The food has hot and fresh, warming my hands as I held the container.

Taehyung responded with a lazy shrug, "I know you. You won't leave here until you finish the song." Stop being right. "You shouldn't do that. It'll just stress you out more than you already are."

"That didn't really answer my question but okay.", I rolled my eyes, "And thanks for the food, but don't you have somewhere to be?"

"Lunch break.", Taehyung leaned against a wall, taking another box of what looked like spring rolls and a salad of sorts from the bag, "Not like I had anywhere better to be."

We ate without talking. I tossed my empty box into the trash can. The spicy noodles had burned my tongue, but I absolutely loved them. Unlike Taehyung, I could eat spicy food for every meal. Taehyung couldn't handle anything that was more than mildly spicy.

"Thanks again for the food," I tossed my empty box into the trash can, "It was good."

"Mhm!" Taehyung said through a mouthful of food, "Mo promlem!"

"Don't talk with your mouth full. When's your lunch break over?"

Taehyung swallowed hard and glanced at the time on his phone, "Fuck! 10 minutes ago!"

"Seokjin-hyung wouldn't be happy to hear you say that." I stifled a laugh as Taehyung quickly scarfed down the rest of his food, getting a some on his shirt and face, and made a frantic rush back to his lessons. I smiled to myself as he left. Lyric ideas hit me. It still fit my original theme, but now I knew how to put it into words.

I came home around six o'clock. Seokjin was already home. "You're home early." He said- the first words he had spoken to me all day, "Usually when you have a lot of work to do you don't get back 'til 3am."

"I had a stroke of genius." I tossed my bag onto the couch and headed out to the balcony.

When I got out there, I glanced over at Taehyung's balcony. In the week we'd been here, neither Taehyung or Jungkook hadn't taken any initiative to personalize the space. But now the small area was decked out with chairs, a small table, pillows, stuffed animals, and christmas lights along the railing. I smiled, the stuff suited their balcony. All me and Seokjin's balcony had was two black chairs, and a mini fridge.

I dug through the mini fridge and grabbed a can of cola, cracking it open. It was warmer than yesterday, not a hint of rain in the air. I looked down at the hoodie I was wearing- I probably should give it back to Taehyung. I reached over the railing and hit the wall on their side. This is literally the least practical way to get his attention.

Jungkook slid open the door, "Stop banging! Why are you even banging anyways?"

"Get Taehyung for me."
Jungkook nodded and came back with Taehyung. "What'd you want, hyung?"

"To give you your hoodie back." I said, handing the jacket over the gap of the balcony.

Taehyung took it, "Oh! I forgot you had that. Hey, did you finish the song you were working on?"

I nodded, "Yeah, I have the lyrics written out, but I need to figure out the tune of how they're sung or rapped."

"Woah," Taehyung said in amazement, "Can I see?"

He was always so blown away by everything I did. Sometimes it's annoying, but other times, it's refreshing. It was nice to see someone thought what I did was cool. Everyone else in the group liked my music, but Taehyung was always so awestruck by it.

I went inside and grabbed my laptop. "Here," I headed back to Taehyung, handing him my laptop over the gap, "Don't touch anything else on that and don't drop it."

He read through the lyrics I had written. I couldn't read his face, leaving me unable to tell what his opinions were. "They're just a draft." I added, "I'll probably change some stuff. Some of the lyrics are sucky."

"No they're not!" Taehyung passed me back my laptop, "I like it. I can't wait to hear it with the full tune and all that!"

"Of course you'd think that." I sat down in one of the chairs, "Why are there so many toys on your balcony?"

Taehyung smiled, picking up a zebra plushie and throwing to me. "They're fun!"

"Isn't this Jungkook's"
"Ssshhh," Taehyung smiled, "It's yours now. Don't tell him."

I placed the toy on top of the mini fridge. "He can live here." I took a sip of coke, "His name can be..."

"Fenriz!" Taehyung blurted out.

"What kind of name is that?" I laughed.

"A zebra name!"

I googled 'Fenriz' on my laptop quickly. "Gylve Fenris Nagell - born 28 November 1971- ,better known as Fenriz, is a Norwegian musician and politician who is best known as being one half of the metal duo Darkthrone." I read off the screen.

"Maybe the zebra is a Norwegian musician...who also is a politician." Taehyung said, leaning on the railing closest to mine.

"Yes. This plushie is a musician." I paused, "He's like us, but Norwegian instead of Korean...and does metal instead of hip-hop."

Taehyung laughed, "And he's a zebra. We are not."

"Hey, don't be...speciesist."

"Is that, like, discriminating against species?"
I downed the rest of my can of coke, " 'zactly what it means."

There was a pleasant pause. "What if we were zebras, but still musicians? Like we rome fields and stuff singing and rapping. We see a predator and we're just like, this is cypher, imma write it, imma write it like a writer?" Taehyung asked with a dorky smile.

I laughed, "How do you even think of these things?"
"Dunno," Taehyung shrugged, "They just come to my head."

Then the glass door behind me slid open: Seokjin. He looked at me, then at Taehyung. "Why is there a toy zebra on our fridge?" He sighed.

"Ahem," I corrected Seokjin, "His name is Fenriz."

Taehyung turned around, dying with laughter. Seokjin gave us a look- that 'you people are insane look'. "Inside joke.", I said, sitting there smiling.