Namjoon and Hoseok were walking to work together. The stunt team_ named the Action Department_ had a training facility right next to the main building, and the two men parted ways at the last minute, Hoseok managing to wrangle a promise out of his friend to meet up for lunch.

The cheery man walked into the training hall with a bright smile on his face, and as always his co-workers greeted him with a series of fake attacks and large grins. He was just swinging a young newbie over his shoulder in a judo move when a tall man called him from a short way away. Hoseok looked up, ignoring the small groan coming from the boy underneath him as he collided with the padded floor.

"You must be Jung Hoseok!" the man said, not unkindly as he stuck his hand out with respect. "I've heard a lot about you, it's an absolute pleasure."

Hoseok casually stepped over the complaining youth and grasped the proffered limb.

"That's me, you must be my 9 o'clock appointment."

"Ah not quite," the other declined, and they strode into the main part of the gym together. "I'm just the manager, my client is your student."

"Oh. And where is he at the moment?" Hoseok asked.

He had been warned that the newbie actor would most likely be a difficult, unprofessional and mostly uncooperative boy, as most singers-turned-actors tended to be. They always seemed to think they knew everything and that the world should bow at their feet_ according to most people in the company. The musical department's chief in particular had looked less than pleased when the casting had been announced. But the broad-shouldered manager was about to surprise him.

"He's getting ready by running through stretches," he smiles, before cupping his hands around his mouth to shout out: "Taehyung-ah!"

A young man was indeed on the other side of the large gym, running through the odd stretching positions common to dancers. When his name rang out, he jogged over smoothly, coming to a halt at a distance to allow him to bow respectfully.

"Hello, I'm Kim Taehyung," he announced, his deep and sorrowful tone contrasting with his childish face and fluffy hair. "Please take care of me."

Hoseok simply nodded, before all social boundaries ran from his mind, pushed out by the cutthroat professionalism he was known for. He strode over and proceeded to prod, poke and measure the singer's muscles, even lifting his arms and massaging his biceps. To his team, this was perfectly normal: he was simply assessing the product to see what changes needed to be made and what strengths they could build on. Taehyung and Jin simply shared a somewhat mixed look of confusion and awkwardness.

For the next several hours, Hoseok ran the young performer through a series of basic routines and tests. He started by showing him how to vault over an obstacle, at which point both Taehyung and his manager clapped enthusiastically, which with their childish expressions and hanging jaws made their teacher grin in satisfaction. Afterwards it was Taehyung's turn, and once the vaulting was perfect obstacles were added on.

By the end of the morning, he was running through a full obstacle course which seemed would never stop growing: vault over, slide under, jump over, vault and slide, climb up, jump down, climb rope, monkey bar crossing, tuck and roll, jazz hands. In that order.

Ever the studious student, Taehyung refused to comment on the last one and complied without a word, which only seemed to make Hoseok like him more. Considering himself content with the test results, the teacher released his student for lunch and headed out to meet Namjoon for food. During their meal, the silver-haired man sat silently, listening to the gushing praise and criticism pouring out of his friend's mouth in regards to their project's main actor. It seemed not every horrid box had been ticked on the 'nightmare project' list.

When he returned, Taehyung and Jin were sat on the padded floor, one of them babbling on about costume designs, and the other stretching. Hoseok grinned, flattered to see the young actor was already taking his advice in trying to improve his flexibility. The student's level of likeability kept growing as he politely asked his manager for water, unlike other stars who might have picked sugary drinks. Jin agreed easily and wandered off, glad to have a job to do except watch the other man tumble through exercises. Around them, a great number of stunt men and women had gathered, forming a large ring around the pair. Hoseok started the lesson again.

"The most important step in any, and I do mean any, stunt is falling. If you don't learn to fall safely, you'll get badly injured. Getting hurt in our industry is the equivalent to backstabbing everyone you work with. Got it?"

Taehyung was staring at him from the floor, eyes wide and drinking his words in, more attentive than any student he had yet taught. From the sidelines, his crew were nodding solemnly. Hoseok smiled once more.

"So how do we protect ourselves? One of the most basic techniques is the good old tuck and roll. DooHyeon, come here."

The young man Hoseok had tackled upon arrival jogged up to them, and as Taehyung watched as, without warning, his teacher launched himself at the youngest, propelling him forward. Caught off guard, the boy yelped even as his body naturally arched forward and roly-polied to safety. Taehyung gaped whilst the eldest spoke up again, as if nothing had happened and his crew weren't chuckling all around them.

"For example, the other day two guys were goofing around, one of them on top of the others' shoulders. They were just shouting in rhymes: 'Perfection is my enemy; this is the real me!' for some insane reason. And the one on top shouted: 'On my own I'm so clumsy but on your shoulders I can see!'". And then they fell over and both broke an arm. If they'd learnt to tuck and roll, maybe they would have been fine!"

Hoseok broke into a rant about stupid accidents in the stunt world, not noticing the distant look spreading over his student's face, turning his body to stone. It's only when Seokjin came back and nudged him that the elder man stopped mid-sentence.

"What's wrong with Taehyung?" Jin asked, mildly worried.

"Huh? I don't know," Hoseok answered, waving his hand in front of the youngest's face to no effect. "Why's he all blank? Taehyung? Can you hear me?"

The manager suddenly started ruffling through his coat pockets, only to bring out a small paper pad and a black pen.

"Wait... I think I might know..." Seokjin mumbled as he stuffed the writing tools into his young charge's hands.

The musician suddenly came to life, his entire existence zeroing in on the items he held; his hands burst into motion, dancing on paper and painting the page with ink.

"Huh!" his manager exclaimed, plopping himself down next to Hoseok. "I didn't know Taehyung was one of those musicians."

"What kind is 'those'?"

Seokjin shrugged, comfortably sat cross-legged and leaning back on his hands by now.

"The kind who can't do anything but write until all their thoughts are down on paper. They'll forget to eat, or sleep, or even react to their surroundings until they've got it all out. My flat mate is the same; honestly without me he'd probably have died from hunger by now. So I suggest we wait; hopefully it won't take too long."

It did in fact take Taehyung relatively little a time to put his pad down, looking up as he did and sighing a great breath of relief. His dark pupils danced merrily; the creative joy having sated his soul.

"Thanks hyung," he said as he handed the pen back. "I guess that must have looked weird."

"No stranger than how you walked into a wall this morning and then burst into laughter, Tae," Seokjin chuckled, causing a blush to creep up Taehyung's neck. "Will you give me the notebook too? I promise not to lose it."

His voice was calm and soothing; a current of trust running through it. The youngest seem to hesitate.

"You won't look at it either? It's not a proper song yet..."

The answering smile was that of an old sage hidden in the mountains, or perhaps a parent coaxing a child into handing over their teddy bear to be washed.

"I won't look at it, I swear."

Taehyung glanced down at his hands, then back at his manager. He uttered a tiny 'okay', and that one simple word demanded he be protected until time and space collapsed and the universe returned to dust; it made the two grown men want to pat him on the head like a puppy. They both resisted the urge as Seokjin retrieved the items and carefully but them in the zipped inside pocket of his coat, tapping it for good effect afterwards.

After that, they resumed their training, Hoseok diligently exhausting the youngest under the third man's watchful gaze. Seokjin, meanwhile, couldn't get over what he had just witnessed. Nowadays it was common to find that most k-pop artists were simply pretty faces, or decent dancers, or good singers or even a mixture of the lot. Few seemed to be true musicians, and he was finding himself honored and highly excited to be in charge of this particular one.

That evening, as he drove Taehyung home, he often glanced in the rearview mirror to see the young man scribbling fervently in the notebook, now several pages in. Even as they arrived at the small flat and Seokjin parked the car, the musician moved on autopilot, still filling his paper pad as he stepped out and somehow one-handedly unlocked his front door before disappearing inside.

The broad-shouldered man shook his head fondly, and made a mental note to buy more notepads as he drove home to his shared apartment, excited to share his eventful first day with his grumpy housemate.

That night, Taehyung wrote the song which would change everything, and Brother Future shook in fear as he stared into nothingness.