Hey you, what’s your dream?
Pairing: platonic!oc x ot7
Details: manager!oc, predebut/idolverse, partial BTS World!verse
Summary: Aviva struggles to keep up with all of her new responsibilities as a manager.
Warnings: This is a fictional story based on real events. The characters presented here are not the same as their real life counterparts.
[Masterlist]
Track 9: New Responsibilities
Responsibilities- Thane, Anderson .Paak, BJ the Chicago Kid
“I ain't stressin' bout the future, take it day to day
It's a marathon baby I'm just learnin' the pace”
Aviva stared around at the graffiti on the walls of the private space she had rented for their first dance practice. It wasn’t much, but…
“Siljangnim?” Hoseok called out.
“Hobi!” She called back. “Stop calling me that!”
“But, you are our manager,” he said simply.
She blinked.
“Ah. Right.” She grimaced. He laughed.
“Did you forget?”
“No, I just… you could at least use ‘maenijeo’...” She raised an eyebrow at him. “Or should I call you Jung Hoseok-ssi all the time?”
He rolled his eyes at her formal address.
“Now you’re just making it weird... Have you heard anything from Jungkookie or Jiminie? I texted them, but they haven’t responded.”
She chewed her lip. “They’re not responding to me. Jungkook-ah always showed up to practice on time when I was with him in LA, but I haven’t worked with Jimin-ah that closely yet.” She looked at Taehyung. “What’s his work ethic like?”
Taehyung hummed. “Jiminie works very hard… but he also has trouble sleeping sometimes.”
“That’s understandable,” Yoongi thought.
Jin clicked his tongue. “Kids these days.”
Everyone laughed, although Aviva’s laugh was a little restrained.
“We’re almost out of time for the practice space,” she said worriedly. “Should I book another slot…?”
“Do we have the budget for that?” Yoongi asked bluntly. Aviva sighed.
“I guess we should start the practice without them.” She turned to Namjoon. “Namjoon-ah, you said you had some music you wanted to share with everyone?”
“Yeah.” He popped a CD into the player on the floor.
Taehyung bobbed along to the music. Jin made an uncertain face. Yoongi started arguing about the merits of local artists over international ones.
“Look, we can listen to both,” Aviva said, trying to calm them down.
“Yes, but the order we listen to them is important,” Yoongi insisted. Aviva massaged her furrowed brow.
“Listen, Yoongi-oppa—”
“I’m sorry I’m late,” Jungkook said, looking exhausted as he and Jimin walked into the room. They looked more than exhausted, they looked about ready to cry.
“Hey, hey, what’s wrong?” Aviva asked worriedly. “Are you okay?”
“We weren’t trying to be late…” Jimin said.
“That’s all okay!” Taehyung said cheerfully. “Come in, my friends!”
“You could’ve let us know that you were going to be late,” Hoseok commented.
“We were too freaked out to think about that,” Jungkook said.
“Freaked out about what?” Aviva pressed.
“You should have called to be considerate,” Jin agreed with Hoseok. “There were a lot of people waiting on the two of you.”
“Hey, it’s only one tardy! Let’s just let this one slide!” Taehyung suggested, smiling brightly. Aviva nodded thoughtfully.
“Only one tardy?” Yoongi said, giving them a cold look. He crossed his arms over his chest. “We’re not here to play around. Whether you meant to be late or not, you have obligations to the group.”
“I agree with Yoongi-hyung,” Namjoon said, crossing his arms too. “You don’t succeed in this industry with just hard work alone.” He sighed. “I’m disappointed. I thought you both were more dedicated to this group. Do you really want to be here?”
“Hyung… how can you…” Jimin was now unmistakably teary eyed. “How can you doubt something like that?” Jungkook patted him on the back, leading him to sit down. Jimin took deep breaths. Aviva frowned, noting the bloody stain on the knee of Jimin’s pants.
“Jimin-ah…” She kneeled down in front of him. “Tell me what happened—how did you hurt your knee?” A few of the older boys made noises of surprise behind her.
“I waited so long for our first practice,” Jimin said. “I was so excited I ran here. But I was dumb and fell down a flight of stairs…”
“I had to convince Jimin-hyung to go to the hospital, that’s why I didn’t think to call,” Jungkook explained.
“Hey, I’ve been excited too,” Aviva told him. “It’s not your fault you fell over—Namjoon-ah does stuff like that all the time.”
“Yah!” Namjoon cleared his throat, his face pink. Jimin laughed a bit, his tears interrupted.
“But I’m glad Jungkookie convinced you to go to the hospital,” Aviva continued speaking to Jimin, ignoring Namjoon. “What did they say?”
“They said it’s fine. Just disinfected it, and gave me a Band-Aid, but it’s coming off already…” Jimin frowned at his knee.
“Oh, I’ve got Band-Aids!” Aviva said, popping up and running over to her bag.
Namjoon chuckled. “You’re just as clumsy as I am, Avi-yah.”
“I’m not,” she disagreed, handing Jimin the Band-Aid. “Does it hurt, Jimin-ah? Do you need anything else?”
“No.” He smiled at her. “The Band-Aid’s enough. Thanks for worrying about me, manager-nim.” He took her hands in his. “But you keep up your health too, okay? Don’t overwork yourself.”
Namjoon frowned slightly as he watched them.
A couple of days passed, and Aviva was still worried about the group dynamic. They kept arguing about small things, like who should change the water cooler. Such arguments were bound to happen, Aviva figured, but the boys seemed to be disproportionately angry in relation to the issue.
Jin and Jimin were refusing to speak to each other, sending Aviva back and forth with messages.
Taehyung interrupted, pointing out that their time slot was over.
Aviva glanced at her phone. “I’m sorry, I’m running late! I need to go, please get home safely, all of you.” She ran out of the room.
That night, the boys accidentally ran into each other in the practice room. The older boys were impressed when they realized the younger boys had been staying late to practice, sleeping over to be able to make the best use of the time.
“Well, that, and we couldn’t find anywhere else to sleep,” Taehyung finished.
Jimin nodded, grimacing.
“You hyungs are still sleeping in the supply closet at the offices?” He wondered.
The rap line trio nodded grimly.
“Usually Avi-yah would’ve realized by now,” Hoseok thought. “Especially when her new office isn’t too far away from the supply closet. Maybe she really is overworked…”
“Is that why Namjoon-hyung lied to her about having found a place to stay?” Taehyung wondered, blinking at him. Namjoon flushed slightly.
“It wasn’t, a lie, exactly.” He ran his hand over his face. “The renovation announcement was so last minute, and she’s got so much on her plate already, I didn’t want her to have to worry about this, so I said I’d take care of it, but I haven’t been able to find a place big enough for all of us, and when she asked, I couldn’t exactly tell her that…” He felt guilt heavy on his chest when he remember how relieved she’d looked when he told her it was all taken care of.
“Look, what’s this?” Taehyung picked something up off the ground.
“It’s Avi-yah’s notebook.” Namjoon took it from him, smiling as he recognized it as one of the many he’d bought for her over the years. He started flipping through it.
“Isn’t that an invasion of privacy, hyung?” Jimin commented.
Namjoon’s smile turned sheepish. “I don’t think she’d mind.”
“She’s always writing in there,” Yoongi said, leaning over to get a look. “What does she write?”
“Um, everything.” Namjoon skimmed over cartoon doodles in the margins and hand drawn marketing graphs. “Our schedules, research on hip hop groups…” He smiled, pointing. “Look, she looked up both the international artists I suggested, and the underground local artists you suggested.”
Yoongi smiled slightly, shaking his head. “She does work hard, that one.”
“Right?” Jin agreed. “She’s only been here for a few years, but she’s already basically fluent in Korean.”
“Still, I bet she misses home sometimes,” Hoseok thought. “Did she seem happier when she was there, Jungkookie?”
“What?” Jungkook flushed. “Um, well, she seemed pretty happy, but she didn’t actually grow up in LA, so, I don’t think that’s… I think she was just happy to be able to speak English so much again, and to see Jenny-ssi.”
Hoseok grinned. “If you and Avi-yah’s little sister get married, maybe she’ll come live here too, and Avi-yah will be happier, and your older sister!”
Jungkook tilted his head. “I wouldn’t mind…” He waved his hand. “Not that I’m saying I’d want to marry Jenny-ssi—we’re not even really dating at this point, more like pen pals?” They all laughed. He huffed. “Anyway, we’ve got off track, we were talking about Aviva-noona.”
“I wouldn’t want her to be my older sister,” Taehyung said quietly.
“I wonder if this is really what she wanted—to manage a group of trainees like us?” Jimin said more loudly as Namjoon gave Taehyung a funny look.
Namjoon flipped through the pages, frowning at the color-coded blocks.
“Hey, Jimin-ah, did you know about this? Is that why you told her not to overwork herself?” He held up the schedule.
“Oh yeah.” Jimin grimaced. “I saw something like that the other day, when I was borrowing a piece of paper.”
“Speak to groups about getting members as featured artists and backup dancers, listen to lectures, hire instructors… and this is all after supervising our practice. How is she doing all of this in one day?” Namjoon shook his head. “When does she have time for sleep?”
“She needs to take better care of herself,” Yoongi thought aloud. Namjoon snorted. Yoongi frowned at him. “What?”
“Are you really the one to be saying that?”
Aviva rushed into the practice room, having gotten the keys from the janitor, after explaining she forgot an important notebook inside.
She felt around the wall for the light switch, but couldn’t find it. She let out a huff of frustration and used her cellphone light instead. She squinted her eyes at an oddly placed plant. Then she heard movement and squeaked, nearly falling over.
“Yah, careful!” A familiar voice called out. Aviva froze up as she felt the warmth of someone’s arms around her, holding her up. “The floor is hard.”
She shivered at his breath in her ear. “…Yoongi?”
“Wow, nice catch!” Another voice said.
“Taehyung-ah?” Aviva recognized his voice as well. She blinked as the lights flickered on. Jungkook and Jimin popped out from behind the suspicious plant Aviva had noted earlier.
“What are you doing here?” Jungkook wondered.
“Are you alright?” Jimin asked concernedly. “Manager-nim, are you hurt?”
“I’m, I’m okay,” she said a little shakily. Namjoon, Hoseok, and Jin came over. Namjoon looked at Yoongi and Aviva and frowned. Hoseok looked back and forth between them and then smirked. “Thanks, Yoongi-oppa… you can let go of me now.”
“Yeah…” He let go slowly, frowning at Taehyung. “Why’d you scare her like that?”
“You shouldn’t sneak up on people like that!” Hoseok agreed. Taehyung pouted, stepping closer to her.
“I was actually trying not to scare you—I thought it would be scary if I was too loud, so I was trying to be sneaky—are you sure you’re okay?”
“I’m sure,” she told him. “It’s okay, Taehyung-ah, I just get a little jumpy sometimes.”
“Oh, so you don’t like horror movies?” Taehyung wondered, sounding disappointed.
“Sorry, not really.”
“You don’t have to apologize… I was just hoping we could watch one together.” He sighed, but then quickly recovered his usual charming smile. “What kind of movies do you like?”
“Action,” Hoseok said.
“Mystery,” Yoongi said.
“Fantasy,” Namjoon said. They looked at her.
“I like all of those,” she said.
Taehyung nodded. “We’ll watch one of those instead, okay?”
She blinked at him. “Okay, that sounds good.” She frowned. “Wait a minute, what are all of you doing here at this time of night anyway?” They looked around at each other nervously. “Huh…” She rested her hand on her hip. “It’s nice that you guys appear to be getting along again, but you still haven’t answered my question.”
“Um… I left something here,” Hoseok said slowly.
“Oh yeah?” Aviva said, doubtful. “What did you forget?” Hoseok rubbed his neck. Aviva frowned at the pain patch on his neck, spotting another one on his arm. “Seriously, guys, what’s up?” She looked around the room, spotting a few sleeping bags in the corner. Her eyes widened. “Don’t tell me you’ve been sleeping here?”
“…I mean, it’s the first night for here for some of us,” Hoseok said, cheerfully raising his hand. He chewed at the inside of his cheek. “Though, we were… kinda… sleeping in the storage room before that…”
“…Fuck,” Aviva said.
“Yah!” Jin covered Jungkook’s ears. Jungkook shook him off, grumbling.
Taehyung grinned. “Manager-noona, I’ve never heard you curse before.”
“Yeah, I taught her,” Namjoon said, smiling proudly.
“This is all my fault,” Aviva said, rubbing her temples. “I’m so sorry, Joonie, I shouldn’t have left this all on you. I knew finding a big enough place nearby would be difficult, so I should’ve checked in.”
“Why didn’t you?” Yoongi wondered.
“I’ve been distracted,” she admitted. “But that’s no excuse.” She bowed. “I apologize, it was my responsibility to find you a place to live, and I didn’t.”
“Aw, manager-nim, no need to be so formal,” Jin said, patting her on the back.
She straightened up.
“Right.” She took a deep breath. “I’ll see you soon.”
“Wait!” Namjoon called after her. “Where are you going?”
“I’ve got to find you somewhere to stay—and someone to stay tonight right away!”
“But you’re busy already,” he protested.
“Gone already.” Yoongi grimaced. “She’s quick.”
“That’s why I didn’t want to mention it to her,” Jungkook said, sighing.
Jimin smiled. “I think we’re in good hands.”
“Right?” Taehyung held his hands over his heart. “I’m touched.”
“I found a temporary spot,” she said, later that night. “The commute isn’t bad, and you’ll have access to a backyard, and the living room and kitchen are a little bigger than the last place, but it’s still a one bedroom so you’ll still have to share.” She grimaced. “I’m sorry.”
“I don’t mind!” Taehyung said happily, wrapping his arm around her shoulders. Namjoon crossed his arms over his chest. “We’ve all slept in the same room before. I’m just happy not to have to sleep on the hard floor!”
Aviva shook her head.
“About that, Tae… it isn’t fully furnished either. I got them to throw in two and a half couches—“
“Half a couch?” Jungkook wondered. Hoseok elbowed Jimin.
“That’s for you, little Jiminie.”
Jimin scowled at him.
“So some of you can sleep on those,” Aviva continued, ignoring them. “But I couldn’t find seven beds on such short notice.” Taehyung’s face fell. “I’ve got two sets of bunk beds.”
“Even just that is impressive in a couple of hours,” Namjoon thought.
Taehyung nodded slowly. “…A couch is still better than the floor,” he decided.
“Yeah, at least bring a sleeping bag next time, dummy,” Yoongi muttered.
“Ah, Yoongi-yah cares so much,” Jin said, slapping him on the back. Yoongi frowned at him. Aviva smiled slightly.
“Anyway, I’ll text you guys the address, so feel free to meet me there.”
“Where are you going, noona?” Jungkook wondered. “Don’t you have a lot of other things to do tonight?”
“I finished the meeting, so I’ll postpone the other things,” she said. “The temporary unit I found doesn’t have any food, so I thought I’d grab some groceries for you.”
“We can do it,” Jin said. “Don’t worry, just continue on with your normal schedule.”
She bit her lip. “You’re sure?”
“Yes, yes, I’m sure,” Jin said. “I can make a dish out of anything, I’m not just a pretty face you know.” She laughed. He grinned at her.
“And I like grocery shopping,” Taehyung commented. “It’s like a treasure hunt!”
“Okay, I’ll see you later then.”
“Before you go.” Namjoon held her notebook out to her. “Don’t forget this again.”
“Oh.” She smiled at him. “Thanks, Joonie.” She waved and hurried off again.
“Thanks, Joonie,” Hoseok imitated in a high-pitched voice. “Hmmm… tell me again why you haven’t asked her out?”
Namjoon flushed slightly, crossing his arms over his chest. “What, you mean, besides the fact we could both lose our jobs?”
Hoseok nodded. “Yeah, besides that. People do break the rules and get away with it, you know. If you decide the risk is worth it…”
Namjoon rubbed the back of his neck. “Is it? I mean, we’ve both been working so hard for this debut, should I really throw it all down the drain just because Aviva-yah is so…?” He waved his hands inarticulately.
“Cute?” Taehyung suggested.
Namjoon frowned at him. “That she is!” Hoseok agreed cheerfully. “But Joonie’s acting pretty adorable right now also.”
“Shut up,” Namjoon muttered. “Anyway, even if I’d be willing to risk it, there are other people involved, Hoseok-ah and Yoongi-hyung especially, I wouldn’t want to ruin all your hard work.” Hoseok nodded, thumping him on the back.
Yoongi rolled his eyes.
“Let’s just go to this new place and get some sleep.”
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