summary: teahyung decides it’s time for the groups’ favourite pasttime - teasing their poor maknae
pairing: none! just the boys as a big group of friends
genre: friendship, crack treated seriously, humour, band kids au, musical theatre au
word count: 2343
rating: g
warnings: this one is much more chaotic, teasing but it’s harmless and in good fun, Jungkook is clueless as the butt of the joke, but he’s having a good time, overdramatic😅
~a/n: I hope this one makes you smile!!💜
“It’s time.”
Taehyung spoke up the moment Jungkook left to go to the bathroom during lunch break.
After their rehearsal with the cast yesterday, Adam (who had finally showed up) had plenty to go over with the band today. In all day rehearsal. Jin’s favourite (sense the sarcasm).
“-for the annual ceremony of pin-the-tail-on-the-Jungkook!” Tae was busy announcing.
Jimin and Hobi laughed, already digging impatiently in Tae’s bag as he took out the ‘tails’. Namjoon rolled his eyes along with the eldest two of the group, but wasn’t successful in suppressing his dimpled grin.
Pin-the-tail-on-the-Jungkook had become a tradition, but by no means an annual one as Tae had claimed. No one could remember when it was first played, so now the ‘annual’ resurrection of the game was simply held whenever someone decided they fancied it. The one common denominator was that it happened whenever their maknae was playing viola.
It went without saying that they all loved him, but unofficial orchestra rules were unofficial orchestra rules, and it gave them perfect grounds to poke fun at him. And lord knows he gave back what he got.
“We all know the rules?” Hoseok checked, taking a pack of post-it notes for himself and thrusting a badge into Yoongi’s hand.
“Yes! Now hide them!” Jimin hissed, flapping his hands when he noticed Jungkook coming back.
The rules were simple and self-explanatory. Attach your item to Jungkook without being noticed, with one catch: the game was only on during rehearsal.
So as Jin pulled his violin from his case, a bulky pack of stickers lying in his pocket (definitely not stolen from Tae’s job at the clothing store, how could you think that Jin?), he prepared for the rehearsal to devolve into chaos. Unnoticeable chaos, perhaps, but chaos nonetheless.
Adam called the band to attention and they started their first run-through. First of all, he wanted to practise the strings on their own, and Jin was soon in full-focus, lost in his music. Some passages were very difficult, but he was determined to master them. Beside him, Jimin was equally attentive.
“Okay, the opening was much better that time,” Adam stopped them, “just try to think about- hey guys! Can you quieten down a bit while I run through the violins? Yup, thanks, anyway-“
For a second, the violinists let their attention slide to the back of the band that had just been scolded. They had resorted to whispering as requested, settling down. However, Jin wasn’t put at ease.
Taehyung’s mouth was puckering as he tried to hide a telltale smirk, nodding at the first oboist while his eyes darted between them and the conductor. Most of the woodwind were exchanging little glances, shuffling in their seats.
“Right, from the top! Flutes, can you join us?” Adam rapped his baton on the stand, foiling Jimin’s attempts to catch his best friend’s eye as he turned his gaze back to his music, raising his bow once more.
Rehearsal moved on fairly swiftly. It wasn’t until a good while later that Jin smelled a rat again.
As it happened, Hoseok was the first to shoot his shot. The moment Adam told the brass he would be going over a couple of pieces they weren’t in, he ditched his instrument and dived to retrieve a book from his bag like the rest of the section.
However, from the corner of his eye, Jin could see that all was not as it appeared…
Hoseok’s eyes flicked between the conductor, who was speaking to the horns, and the back of Jungkook’s head. Settling back in his seat, he did his utmost to act nonchalant. It wasn’t convincing. Something about the line of his shoulders… his straight face…
Hoseok always smiled.
Jin narrowed his eyes.
Then, in a blur, Hoseok’s book tumbled from his hands, skidding across the floor.
Bowing his head in apology when Adam looked around, he set off, torso bent parallel with the floor as if that would render him invisible, creeping further forwards. When he reached his stray book, he crouched right down.
He was in position.
Directly behind Jungkook now, he held his breath as he pried the pages of his book open. Grinning prematurely with victory, he took the bright yellow post-it note pad, with ‘TAIL’ written on the top one, from where it was tucked into the pages.
At a painstaking pace, he peeled the first sticky note away. His hand shook as he raised it up, closer and closer until he could place it in the centre of Jungkook’s back as lightly as possible.
Shoulders sagging in relief, he began to shuffle back to his seat. But, hearing the sound behind him, Jungkook looked over his shoulder.
Alas, well-trained agents of the Jungkook-teasing squad always had a backup plan. Hobi’s worked seamlessly; with a smile and nod to the violist, he gestured with the book in his hand so Jungkook knew he had simply been collecting it and there was nothing to see here.
Safely back in his seat, Hoseok winked at Jin. Jimin was muffling his giggles in his jacket sleeve beside him.
For the rest of rehearsal until the next break, nothing more interesting happened. It was safer to spread out their attacks on their youngest friend to avoid suspicion.
After an extended break, they settled back into their seats for the tech run with the cast. Probably the most tiresome part of a show week, often running late into the night with microphones breaking, cast members messing up or directors complaining. All of which equated to a lot of sitting around for the band.
Jungkook had insisted on finishing his snacks before coming back to rehearsal. Yesterday, Taehyung had indeed brought too much and the group had hidden the bag under the tiered seating for extra sustenance today.
Anyway, the end result of this was Jungkook only seating himself once the woodwind had already tuned, in time for the whole band to watch as a yellow sticky note fluttered off his back when he sat down.
Hobi looked devastated.
“Right, mic tests for the band first,” the tech director announced from their position at the top of the audience, “let’s start with violin one, please.”
Everyone played in turn as a harried assistant adjusted mics. Jin was silently practising, staring idly at his music as his fingers mapped out the passagework, when the saxophone was called to play. At first, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but that itself alerted Jin.
Looking around, he found Jimin was already watching the woodwind with an amused smirk.
Usually, Taehyung would play something random and totally unrelated to the show at mic check to make people laugh. He even took requests.
But this saxophonist was sticking to the music.
Sure enough, it wasn’t Tae. Frowning, Jin noticed one of the oboists was on Tae’s chair, playing his saxophone. Searching the section, he spotted Tae with an oboe in his hands. What was going on?
Turning to their conductor, Jin saw Adam flipping through the score. He hadn’t even noticed two of his players had switched places.
When Tae had found the time to plan this was beyond Jin, since the saxophonist had spent the whole of break with the group. Then he remembered whatever the hell went on in the woodwind section during the previous rehearsal. That must have something to do with it…
Oboe was called soon enough, but Tae still didn’t play his normal selection of music. Once again, he stuck perfectly on-script, playing an oboe passage from the beginning of act 2.
Jin had never heard Tae play the oboe before, but that didn’t mean he was surprised. Tae had a habit of picking up random instruments and learning them at the drop of a hat.
He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t a little jealous.
It seemed Tae had succeeded in the first stage of his plan, however. And said plan was becoming more apparent.
Jungkook seemed to be the only one that hadn’t noticed Tae’s new seating plan, which put him as close as possible to the target himself. With the limited space in the pit, the oboes were pushed up close behind the violas.
So while the cast lined up for their mic checks, Taehyung leaned forward and gently pressed a sticker of a fox onto Jungkook’s shoulder. Then, after they had played half the overture and were stopped for the first crackly mic of the evening, Taehyung excused himself for the bathroom. On his return, his accomplice followed suit, and normalcy returned.
Taehyung had got away with it.
Much later on, they had finally reached the point in the middle of act 2 where everything is bleak and the actors are singing about losing hope and never loving again. The heroine in particular had such a song, and was struggling with timing.
As such, they were going over the part where she sings alone with the two violins, namely Jimin and Jin.
With the house lights dimmed to allow the stage lights to be tested for the tech run, the band was in near darkness, only stand lights illuminating their music. Adam and the director were close to a collective breakdown. This section was important and the audience should feel her turmoil, they said, and it wouldn’t work if she got her entry wrong.
Perfect timing, Namjoon.
A light flicking off at the back of the band was the only clue as to what was about to happen.
He had deliberately chosen to wait until this part of rehearsal to make his move. As the furthest away from Jungkook, he couldn’t employ Hoseok or Taehyung’s tactics, and he wouldn’t get away with this in a light theatre.
Placing his double bass down, he prayed the singer would mess up just once more to buy him time. Then he got on his hands and knees. The cellists gave him questioning glances as he crawled past them, but said nothing.
Suddenly, Adam sighed, calling the song to a stop, simultaneously running a hand through his hair and tipping his head down to check the score in front of him. On instinct, Namjoon ducked. Or rather, he dropped right down onto his stomach.
“Again!” the director demanded, and Jin and Jimin started up again. The song was quite beautiful in all honesty, delicate and soaring.
But down below the sweet singer, Namjoon was shuffling through the orchestra on his elbows like a large slug. Just as he got close enough, his foot caught on a music stand, making it rattle slightly.
Wincing, he looked up at Jungkook as he threw a glance over his shoulder. Thankfully, Namjoon’s form was below his line of vision, pressed against the floor as he was, and he turned around without event. Bringing his legs forward so he could kneel behind Jungkook, Namjoon made quick work of applying his own sticker, which he had swapped with Jin for the post-it notes he was first given. He had lost faith in the sticky notes after the fate of Hobi’s.
Although Namjoon had evaded detection by Jungkook and Adam, Jimin was in the perfect position to watch the whole endeavour unfold. His eyes kept straying from his music, even though he was one of the only two playing, and his bow was shaking with the effort it took to suppress his laughter.
On Namjoon’s trek back up the pit, his plot finally came undone.
Perhaps he had thought turning his stand light off would hide him from view, but now it only served to make his part of the orchestra completely dark. When he felt safe enough to get off his knees, he tripped instantly on his stool, only just catching himself before he crushed his instrument, but it was loud.
Adam was sure to be sending a dirty look his way, but tried to press on, though it soon became impossible as Jimin’s bow shuddered across the strings, butchering his passage at the same time as a loud snort escaped him. On stage, the actress had jumped at the sound and subsequently lost where she was in the music.
Calling the song to yet another halt, Adam looked at the end of his tether. Jimin’s shoulders shook as he lowered his violin, wheezes and whimpers escaping him as he fought to control himself, all while Jin stared at him in pure confusion.
Once order had been restored, they continued, eventually completing the cursed song and making it to the end of the show.
The lights went up, chatter erupting immediately from the cast while the band slumped back in their seats, beginning to pack away. It was a late one, definitely already dark outside.
Watching Jungkook, Jin saw the boy rubbing his eyes and decided the game was up. Like always, he and Jimin didn’t really have a chance at the game since they were playing the most out of anyone as violinists.
He quickly folded the green post-it note from Namjoon into an aeroplane and sent it flying straight into Jungkook’s face.
Startled, the violist fumbled with it for a moment, blinking his eyes open. At first, he looked between the paper and Jin in bewilderment. Then, Jin swore he could see the precise moment the light bulb flicked on in the boy’s head.
His mouth fell open and he contorted his body around, trying to pull off an owl-style one-eighty to see what was on his back.
As he peeled off Taehyung’s fox, the other boys approached, laughing and clapping him on the back. In return he gave them a bunny smile while his arm stretched over his shoulder to pick off Namjoon’s sticker that his fingers could barely reach.
Collecting his stuff to leave, Jungkook pressed the stickers onto his viola case. There was somewhat of a growing collection on there.
But as Jungkook left the theatre that day, his back was not bare. Yoongi’s badge dangled from his hood, undetected.
No one ever found out how Yoongi put it there.
Thank you for reading!! Read more on my my main and drabble masterlists💜
So you know how yesterday was InternationalSefieDay (or some made up shit like that) ? And there was this news channel from here covering the story of how and when this trend started and the many artists who’ve taken all these “legendary” selfies they’ve posted online...
But all the while the ONLY selfie they kept showing was this one LOL
