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Chapter 5: Epilogue

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Half the phones in the room went off at once.

"What did you post?" Hoseok asked, not looking up from his Nintendo Switch.

Namjoon watched Jimin smile mischievously. He reached for his phone.

"Just some photos," Jimin said innocently.

Namjoon pulled up their Twitter and saw the most recent post. The caption was just #RJRJ and #JIMIN. The four photos were candids of Namjoon with Seokjin: them asleep in a first class lounge between flights, the two of them napping between resets during the music video filming, them asleep on the sofa in Jimin's personal residence. The last was the two of them from behind, standing shoulder-to-shoulder, while looking at a painting -- a canvas in muted blues and grays, the same one Seokjin had admired all those months ago when they'd gone to the gallery together, and which now hung in Seokjin's private residence.

(Privately, Namjoon still thought it looked like cake frosting, but the astonishment in Seokjin's face when Namjoon had presented it to him overruled everything else.)

Already, there were thousands of likes and hundreds of replies.

"Yah," Seokjin complained, looking over Namjoon's shoulder. "It's not April 1st for four more hours!"

While Seokjin and the maknaes bickered, Namjoon smiled to himself. The photos had been carefully cropped -- Seokjin had been toying with the drawstring of Namjoon's sweatpants in the photo on the couch -- to remove the giveaways of their relationship. Jimin had gone so far as to crop all four photos to the same size, too. Namjoon did appreciate a job well done, especially the details.

"It's thematic," Jimin insisted. "Remember the fake Naver search?"

"I remember it too well," Seokjin retorted, fake-angry voice at full volume.

Later, though, when they were waiting for one of the managers, Namjoon showed Seokjin the tweet he planned to send. It was a photo of their forearms pressed together, wearing their blue and pink Rolexes and matching rings from the stage jewelry set, captioned #RJRJ and #ReJend.

Seokjin raised an eyebrow. "Isn't it too obvious?"

"It's nothing the fans haven't seen before," Namjoon pointed out. "They all tweet when we wear those watches, separate or together."

"And those aren't even our actual couples' item," Jin sighed, holding out his hand. They each wore a plain, thin band on their right middle finger: couple rings. "Yeah, okay, post it. I'll pretend to get mad at Jimin."

Namjoon grinned. "You're amazing."

Seokjin beamed back. "Yes, thank you."

Namjoon posted the tweet (triple-checking the account) and then immediately logged out of bts_twt, switching to his private one.

A few moments later, Yoongi tweeted: Hyung sold me bragging rights about their relationship for a bath bomb. This is me cashing in: I knew it, and I told you so!.

Namjoon snickered and showed Seokjin, who rolled his eyes. "Namjoon-ah, what's your favorite part about hiding in plain sight?"

Right then, the car and their manager rolled up, and the two of them clambered into the back seat, greeting them politely as they buckled up.

As they pulled out of the parking garage, Namjoon leaned conspiratorially toward Jin. "Hyung."

"Hmm?"

Namjoon glanced at the front seat, then gently laced his fingers with Seokjin's. (Yes Jin.) "This is my favorite part," he said softly.

Seokjin glanced at their clasped palms, then tilted his head quizzically.

He smiled and squeezed Seokjin's hand. "Not hiding at all."

Notes:

The biggest thank-you to the ficfest for allowing me to join (and to join LATE) as well as giving me the grace to select a self-prompt. From the bottom of my heart, thank you. ♥

Fic was inspired by this tweet and fleshed out by paladinmaxwell with me in DMs. Thank you for yes-and'ing me, cheering me on, and believing in me for all six months that it took to write this. I love you ♥

  • All lyrics that Namjoon jots in his Koya notebook are of my own creation; they might resemble real lyrics? But that's a coincidence. I actually made sure I didn't look at actual bangtan lyrics while writing this, to keep the energy contained.
  • Theme song of the work is Be Kind by Halsey and Marshmello. This includes both the original mix and the stripped-down version of the song.
  • Both their "exes" are just names/OCs/fiction, I cast no aspersions.
  • By contrast to 'landscapes' which had Seokjin POV and thus a more narrator-like prose style, I tried to use a more lyrical/poetic prose style for Namjoon here. That's why there's all those fancy words and even the song lyrics, and honestly the ongoing celestial metaphor about Jin having a gravitational pull. Apparently you all knew it was me the whole time?! But I did try to make the narrative voices be different.
  • Their autumn tour trajectory was a mix of their 2018 and 2019 fall tour stops. If you're wondering how far into the future this takes place, well, Chuseok overlaps with Namjoon's birthday again in 2022 and 2030.
  • For those who didn't catch it: Maybe this, at last, was the flower blooming in the dream that finally came true, Namjoon thought wildly. -- this is the main lyric in "Fake Love" and the last line of the song. See: doolset's translation on her site.
  • I wanted to write a "misunderstanding" that would play on all three sides: Jin, who says what he does because he's in love; Namjoon, who hears what he does because he's scared; and, ARMY, who take Jin's words at face value. I am really happy with the MAMA speech I came up with, and the way I think it plays into each side's fears and joys.

Last but not least, a million thank-yous to lucyrhyme, who came through in the clutch with the kind of beta-reader insight that one often only dreams of. Thank you for reading both versions of this fic, thank you for seeing what this fic could and should be, thank you for believing I'm a good enough writer to write that story, and thank you for supporting me through and despite everything. I love you, friend, more than these words can say.

And, thank you, dear reader. Every one of you is precious to me. I value you ♥

Come say hi on twitter: @kasuchiko