𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 — 𝟎. 𝟐
❛ maybe she is
just like you !   ❜

• REC   .   .   .

"Here we are........" the whisper diminished into the silence persisting in the house.

The TinyTAN looked up at the doorknob high above them, pausing on their tracks before the door of Tina's room, their arms still carrying the camera over their heads. Unlike Daisy's room, the door to Tina's room was closed. All of them frowned and exchanged their glances, huffing; their mission could not be forfeited like this.

"We're not stopping, right?" Jungkook looked at RM with gloomy expression; they could still give it a try if his hyungs agreed.

"Ha! We're TinyTAN!! We'll not be stopped!" chanted Jin. V agreed nodding vigorously.

RM looked at each of their faces, "Let's climb on each other and we can surely reach the knob."

J-hope gulped, staring at the unreachable doorknob, as a sweatdrop strolled down the side of his face. This was not going to be good....

"Jungkook should be at the bottom, he's the strongest and can carry all of us easily...." mumbled Jimin.

"What? No! I'm going for the door knob and nobody stopping me," said Jungkook and slammed his hand on his chest.

"Well nobody would like to take that position at will anyway," whispered Jin, then added quickly, "Then I'll stay at the bottom and can carry you all. Done."

"Then— then I'll be on Jin—" J-hope mumbled but in vain; others were already declaring their positions without hearing his feeble voice.

"I'll be on Suga!" announced V raising his arms excitedly, looking at Suga for approval and to his joy, Suga did not reject him, although he received eye-rolls from Jimin and Jin.

"And I'll be on Jin!" declared Jimin.

"I'll be next!" added RM.

"Then me!" Suga joined.

"Ah!" cried J-hope, "WHERE WILL BE ME? I wanted to be on Jin's shoulders..." He frowned and pouted.

J-hope did not want to experience a longer fall and land face-flat on the floor in case something went wrong... He wished to be as close to the floor...

But it had already been decided and the others had climbed on each other's shoulders to form a small but towering figure for themselves and rather quite enthusiastically, unlike him. RM and Jimin were a little nervous but at least they were not at the top of the queue.

The recording camera was still on and running, resting aside on the floor while they were on their 'mission' to open the door. Due to their rapid movements the focus was zooming on and off several times before it was set again, on those minuscule figures....

J-hope took a couple of steps forward, not able to believe that they already formed the column without him, leaving him to take the second position from the top, when they knew about his fears- well, obviously, everyone else feared the fall as well as him and would want to avoid it at any cost. But how could he not notice and get a position at the bottom before the rest of them did?

Jungkook was the only one yet to climb. He turned at J-hope and gave a bunny smile realizing his mental state, "J-hope hyung, come on. It's not that scary and there's no need to be so dramatic-" he giggled, "At least you don't have to go for the top position, I'm doing that, right?"

J-hope followed him with gloomy face as Jungkook gestured with his hand to come close before starting to climb up and he too, took to climb up after him as the others grunted and hushed each other. Jin leant against the door to maintain the balance and so did each of them; they were standing rather than sitting on each other's shoulders, supporting their weights against the door, so that they could reach the doorknob given their tiny sizes.

Jungkook settled on J-hope's shoulders; "Look alive hyung," he grinned, "Think of it as going through the magic door."

"It's nowhere near being the same!" J-hope snapped after him, gripping Jungkook's legs so that he didn't fall off his shoulders.

Grabbing the knob, Jungkook asked, "Everyone, ready?" He turned it quietly and gave the door a push to open it.

The balance remain unhampered only momentarily.

Jungkook was still grabbing onto the knob and with the sway of the door, he lost his balance but before he was about to fall off he hung onto the knob with a silent gasp. J-hope who had a strong grip on Jungkook's legs, swayed at this sudden motion, too. To dodge the fall he struggled to keep his grip steady onto Jungkook's frantically moving legs but his hands were slipping off... He was yelping in whispers, crying out for Jungkook to stop moving his legs or someone to grab him- until he slipped and fell all the way down to the floor shrieking crazily.

V too lost balance as J-hope's feet swooped off his shoulders, almost receiving a kick and he was moving to-and-fro on his toes on Suga's shoulders with "Ah- ah- aaaah!"

The queue was already vibrating to-and-fro dangerously while Suga tried to catch him and even bent down but lost him- and eventually he too fell off with a loud gasp.

"Nobody move further-" cried out Jin desperately as he was stepping to and fro to try to balance and keep the remaining ones from falling but none of their lucks were in favour at the moment.

Suga's feet had hit RM's face and he faltered backwards with a groan- his body was arched... the remains of the queue faltered backwards... and the next second, RM, Jimin and Jin were face-flat on the ground, like the rest of them, just like J-hope had feared.

The red light was beeping on the camera indicating the continuation of recording.....

"Ahhh...."

Tina's sudden groan from inside the room made the TinyTAN fall flat on the floor again who had just got up on their feet and they looked at each other in panic. What if she woke up...?

"How can Daisy be crying at this hour...?" She groaned in her sleep, stirring in her bed and pulling the covers over her head, she fell asleep again.

They waited again until they were sure that she was sleeping, exhaled in relief and shared glances with each other, brushing dust off their clothes.

"See? That's why this shouldn't be done-" J-hope's complaints were cut off by Jungkook's exclaims, "That was so cool!! We should al-" which also stopped abruptly noticing that their feelings weren't mutual on this. J-hope gave a eye-roll at him while getting up on his feet.

"Everyone get moving. Move, move, give a side, for it's coming," Jin lead the group of Suga, V, Jimin and RM carrying the video recorder camera. Jungkook gave a sheepish smile and followed into the room, J-hope following after with a sigh.

This time they went in cautiously, wishing not to wake her up, while looking around for any signs of danger. That's when Jimin noticed the glowing things far ahead them... something like eye... eyes.... pairs of them....

Jimin jerked to a halt, urging others to stop, too. "Uh-uh," he mumbled nervously and pointed that way. Their eyes followed his direction and looked at that being confused at his actions but they too stopped in concern. Tina didn't have any pet cat or anything like that.... then what was it? And there were several of those glowy things, ahead. "What are those?" Jin had gripped onto RM's arms.

All of them were already ready to retreat, slowly backing out when Jungkook stepped forward intending to get a clear view, squinting.

"Don't-!" Jimin fumbled after him but Jungkook cut him off.

"It's those star shaped sticky wall stickers! Pff-" he held in a giggle and nudged Jimin.

Everyone looked at it again, then slowly stepped forward; yes, it was those fluorescent stickers humans put up on walls and ceilings.

"Hff," Jin breathed in relief and so did the others, but the next second, Suga just dashed off for it with a tiny excited squeal.

"Suga..?" V blinked in bewilderment then gaped at the others.

Suga, who was very fond of tiny or cute things, was now striving to pull off a piece of those stickers. V went closer to watch his enthusiasm when RM pushed him aside to make his way to join Suga; RM looked as excited as Suga as he went for another sticker.

"Really?" mumbled J-hope, "again?" RM just had made to pull it off which came off quite effortlessly and in one try, while Suga was still struggling to get his sticker. RM had staggered backwards with the glowing star sticker, almost as big as himself, clutched tightly. He looked at it in awe, them hugged it and Jimin almost fell to the floor giggling.

"Seriously, V and Jungkook already had brought a few. How much more of these do you want?" Jin shook his head acting to be frustrated.

But watching RM taking his piece so easily, Suga was more than determined to get his one off quickly, struggling with it until it came off. He now held the star, bigger in size than himself, over his head in rejoice as he marched back to them, looking serenely happy, "I can't have enough of it."

"Exactly! Tiny glowing thingies!" RM cooed like a child as he followed Suga to join their friends.

"What about the fact that it's regarded stealing ?" Jimin wiggled his brows.

"Look how many of these she put up! How can anybody possibly notice that a few are missing?" RM put up an excuse with a grin and winked.

"She is going to be our friend soon," chimed in Suga with a bracket smile, "I'm sure she won't mind."

"RM hyung! Look," Jungkook called who was up in the bed again unnoticed by the others, "she has the same types of bandaids all over her, just like you have often." The summomned tiny boy turned around, then hastened his tiny feet to climb up the bed but not leaving the glowy star behind.

As he climbed on the bed and headed towards the asleep girl carrying the star over his head, other boys were climbing up and joining his side, too. They gathered round her pillow as they observed her keenly. Jungkook was right. There was a bandaid on her right cheek, there was another bandaid on her fingers of her left hand, and a few others over her arms. The sight was quite alarming in a way and they could not utter a word for a whole minute.

Jimin broke the silence with a hesitant chuckle as he ran his fingers through his hair, "She's fine, right, guys...?"

"But she really didn't seem 'not' fine to me before..." Suga mumbled as they thought about her mental health. No, they were pretty sure; she did not seem to someone prone to self-harm or such. Then the next possible thought occured to them.

"Maybe she's a bad girl... like she gets into fights or something," V voiced it idea, kind of impressed at the thought than dismayed.

"Jumping to negative ideas??" J-hope countered, shaking his head. He liked to see the best of everyone.

V, who was always daydreaming about superheroes, instantly denied, "What? But that would make her cool, no? Fighting the evils—"

"Or... may be she's just like you, RM," Jin spoke up, and turned to look at the mentioned boy with a smile.

"Hmm?" RM blinked in bewilderment.

"Maybe she's just as much of a mess as you," Jin grinned, "tending to break things..."

"She's destructive, too, you think?" J-hope tilted his head, his eyes hovering over the bandaids.

"Maybe?" Jin responded.

"That's what I thought, too, when I first saw these," Jungkook added.

"Yeah... Remember we heard a shattering noise in the evening today? And her yelp, too," Suga joined, recalling the incident earlier.

"And on the day they moved in here, we had heard her scream and shattering noises—twice, if I'm not wrong," J-hope added thoughtfully.

"Then she's just as interesting!"  V cooed with boxy grin.

"I'm not sure she's happy with her destructiveness if our assumption is true, V," Jimin interrupted, "Do you think RM is happy when he breaks things..."

They all were talking, except for RM who was not hearing properly. It occurred to him that if their assumptions were true, then... there might be someone for the first time who would understand... how it felt, how he felt. How it felt to be a destructive mess, to break your favourite things or someone else's... His friends, or family— since he loved them like his family— they never rebuked him for his damaging nature but it still bothered him. So this very thought had lit up a weak hope...

But the next instant he tried to get rid of it and felt guilty for wishing the same for her.

"Come on, guys, let's wrap it up," Jin called the others as he slowly started for the camera which was left abandoned on the ground. He added, "I think we're done here. We can meet and greet tomorrow."

The rest of them joined his side, V bouncing in enthusiasm. "I'm excited for tomorrow!"

As they gathered around the camera which was still on for recording their journey, V and Jimin added quick final commentary, bade goodbye then finally ended their video recording.

They considered closing the door behind them but there was no way they were going to repeat what happened when entering her room. So it was best if they left just like this.

Carrying the camera carefully, the septet started heading out of the room in complete silence, their destination— the attic.

"Goodnight, Tina," smiling, RM whispered while paying a last glance at her sleeping figure, then hurried off to join his friends carrying the star with him carefully.

To be continued....

Next chapters will come after the
book reaches a total of 30 votes ;)

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✧  𝗩𝗢𝗧𝗘, 𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗠𝗘𝗡𝗧 & 𝗦𝗛𝗔𝗥𝗘 !  ✧

𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗞 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗗𝗜𝗡𝗚 !

Assalamu alaikum!
17 September , 2020