Bora Note: SUPRISE! I thought this was going to take a few days but it came out easier than I thought. I hope you all enjoy
As a gift to ARMY who had promised to wait for him to come back from his military career, Yoongi had scheduled a surprise episode of Suchwita to be aired the day after his enlistment. Teasers were posted just as the news came that he had entered the military, causing ARMY and the world to take to social media to shout out their excitement. Finally, Grace Chu was going to be a guest.
"So," Yoongi started with a clap. "This was filmed just before I go into the military and I want to give you all a little gift to say I won't be long and that I'll be thinking of you. And what better way to do all that than by giving you the episode you've waited the longest for. Are you ready?" he asked, turning to each camera.
"Okay, my guest today is BigHit's first female trainee, BigHit's ace, Seokjin-hyung's world, Namjoon's trainer, J-Hope's sunshine, Jimin's comforter, Taehyung's translator, Jungkook's mother and my support. She's known as Korea's Noona, ARMY's queen and England's rose," Yoongi read off his iPad, echoing the words of Seokjin all those months ago. "Please give a big welcome to my sister, Gigi."
The video that played for ARMY was a selection of video clips from the early days of their career to the most recent, each clip with a different member to reflect Yoongi's words and ending with Grace on stage on her own with ARMY in the background.
"You always say such lovely things," Grace smiled as she made her way towards the small table as Yoongi stood up, arms open wide with the crew loudly clapping in the background. "You're also very cuddly these days."
"I'm allowed to be. I'm going into the military," he answered as he gave her a quick tight hug then released her. "Now I know you don't do alcohol so I've organised some hot chocolate. But you promised me you'd do a shot of soju so I've got the citrus flavour for us."
"Ah is that the new flavour?" Grace asked, picking up the bottle with an orange top. "Fitting then for the two of us." She accepted the shot glass with a smile and clinked it against Yoongi's, swallowing the shot in one go. "You know, not that bad."
A large white mug with hot chocolate was placed in front of her and Yoongi, as well as finger snacks such as nachos and the like.
"So," Yoongi started as he wrapped his hands around the hot mug. "I've been told not to talk about your solo career, well I've been warned. But I want to ask, for ARMY's sake, stuff is coming right?"
"Stuff is coming. Everything is planned and ready, sort of, but it's coming."
Yoongi stared at her and she grinned, shrugging. "That's all you're getting."
"Gigi," he almost whined. "You need to give more than that."
"Nope. All will be revealed in time, you just have to wait."
She nearly pointed out that he looked like that grumpy cat that was a meme a few years ago but she said nothing, distracting herself by scooping up some nachos and putting them in her mouth.
"Fine," Yoongi finally said. "I did kind of have a plan in my head of what I was going to ask you that wasn't related to your career or anything like that. And I want to start by saying thank you."
She must have looked completely puzzled so Yoongi quickly clarified.
"Thank you for always being there for me and the guys. If it weren't for you, I don't think we would have succeeded. You made sure we went to bed, made sure we were fed and clothed, and looked after us when we were ill. If it wasn't for that support, I don't think any of us would be here today. Especially Jungkook."
"Jungkook was too young," Grace shrugged. "He was only fifteen when he joined BigHit. In fact, everyone was under 20 when they joined BigHit and I had been there before Namjoon about a year beforehand or whatever it was. I was only nineteen when I first joined. So I felt like I had to step up and be the guide for Namjoon at least and then it just carried on for the rest of you. And then it turned into being the nanny."
"Mother," Yoongi corrected with one of his grins.
"This Mother thing," Grace laughed and watched as Yoongi poured himself a shot of soju and then another for her, just in case. "This whole thing started on Twitter or whatever. Even Jungkook never referred to me as mother until he saw it."
"Wasn't that the time we saw the MILF tweet?"
"Oh god that tweet," Grace groaned and buried her hands in her face as Yoongi all but cackled. He turned his body slightly, facing more the camera than her.
"So that story, we might as well tell these stories. It was after a performance, I can't remember which one, but all the tweets we saw were really complimentary and praised us for a job well done. I think it was Jimin, who saw the comment first and took a screenshot, sent it to the group chat. And it was something along the lines of, 'Grace looks amazing. She looks like a proper MILF.'"
Grace quickly butted in, pointing a finger at Yoongi. "And none of you guys were quick enough to try and shield them or me from any of that."
Yoongi shrugged, downing the shot of alcohol. "Namjoon was the one to explain it. And ARMY took it from there."
"I couldn't look at any of you during that week. It was just awkward," Grace sighed and emptied her own glass of alcohol down her throat to Yoongi's surprise. "If we're going to tell these stories, then I need to get somewhat tipsy."
The rapper paused and sat back in his chair, staring up at the ceiling for a moment then towards Grace. "The news about your relationship with Seokjin-hyung is out," he started and laughed when Grace choked on the food she had just put in her mouth. "What? We might as well discuss it."
"Aish, are we really going there?"
"Yes, ARMY needs to know."
"You know, Seokjin was commenting on my LIVE after the news was announced and he said there was an R-rated version," Grace explained as she scooped some salsa onto her nacho. "And since then, that's all they ever asked about."
"Well, we know about PG-rating version so what's the R-rated version?."
"Are you really going to ask me? Are you even allowed to upload this once this has been discussed?"
Yoongi shrugged, shoving a piece of food into his mouth. "Who cares? I'm going into the military soon."
Grace lifted her head to stare at the younger man and the subtitles read on the screen, 'She's wondering whether to kill him or not.'
"Fine, might as well get it over with."
She paused and laughed when Yoongi all but perked up, resting his elbows on the table with his chin in his hands as if he were a little child waiting to hear a bedtime story. This was a story very few got to hear and it had never been fully discussed by anyone, including the boys.
"So, Seokjin & I had a discussion around WINGS or just before. I knew I had started to like him more than a member of the group and he had figured out the same, but we had discussed that it was best we didn't do anything to jeopardise the band, the comeback, the career, etc." Grace started, folding her arms underneath her chest. She didn't realise Yoongi, the crew, and even the audience were on tenterhooks waiting for the big reveal.
"Nothing was done. And nothing was ever said after that. It was just the end. We weren't going to do anything. However," Grace stopped and bit her lower lip, wondering if she should go any further. But then Seokjin had left her in this mess so he could clean it up when he got back.
"However," Grace repeated with a laugh. "We were the only ones in the dorm. I don't know where you all were but we were the only two left behind. And we had the conversation again, you know we can't do anything."
"But something ended up happening," Yoongi summarised.
"On the couch. Twice."
It fell out of Grace's mouth unprompted, causing Yoongi to pause as he lifted his glass of soju. "On the couch," he repeated as if he didn't get what Grace was telling him. You could see the cogs working and turning until finally something clicked.
"On the couch," he all but yelled.
Grace nodded and buried her face into her hands, hiding from everything as Yoongi stood, open mouth and a dazed look on his face.
"You and Jin-hyung, on the dorms couch."
"It was meant to be a one-off to get it out of our system, kind of."
"But obviously it didn't work."
Yoongi sat back down as Grace peeked out from around her fingers.
"You know, I always suspected something happened but not like that. Not you two. Not the father and the mother of the group. We always thought of you two as the stone-cold people who did nothing wrong and yet."
"Well," Grace started and stopped when she realised she couldn't explain it. "It happened and here we are so that's the truth about the relationship. That's the R-rated version. The PG version was the one we told the boys which was something along the lines of 'we like each other, it won't affect the group and we promise to be careful.'"
"Careful in more ways than one it seemed," Yoongi stopped and poured another glass of soju. "That took a turn."
"You wanted to know."
"But I wasn't expecting that," Yoongi laughed and drank the soju. "What's Jungkook going to think about his adopted parents? He's going to be horrified."
"Horrified? He's been singing about fucking people in his songs lately, I don't think he would be that horrified."
"He'll be horrified because it's you. His noona. That kid absolutely adores you and would do anything for you, you know that."
Grace smiled and nodded. "I know he would. You all would."
"I want to talk about that - you and Jungkook because I don't think many people realise what you do for him. Well, what you've done for all of us really. Because you've been there for everyone's shit, especially mine."
She finished off her hot chocolate and set the mug back down, leaning back in the chair. "Is this going to get emotional?"
"I don't do emotional."
"Says the man who broke down on stage."
"That," Yoongi pointed with his chopsticks. "That's the stuff I want to talk about."
"So," Yoongi set the chopsticks down on the table and turned to the camera once again. "Obviously I broke down crying on stage on the last day of the tour. Everything just came tumbling out and I knew, if I couldn't get the words out, Gigi would be there as backup for me. Adora as well but this woman here, left the audience and ran backstage to get ready to be my backup. And you've done that before for me, you've done that for everyone."
"With Jungkook, you became his mother and I don't mean that in the literal sense but you did. You saw a young man, with his big doe eyes and you protected him. You got him through the worst parts of his life and stood there with him, with all of us, without any judgement. He's got his kindness and his sense of worth from you because you made sure to teach him that no matter what happens in life, as long as you know how important you are to yourself then nothing matters. And I took that to heart as well, dealing with my own trauma. I was angry with the world, angry at everything. I was putting everything I had into BTS, into AgustD, into Suga. And you said to me but what about Yoongi? What does Yoongi get? And I had to sit back and think about what do I want for myself?"
"Only because you had gone through so much in the beginning before we had even debuted. Like your shoulder, your mental health, and your relationships. The fact you were looked down on by the underground scene because you were now an idol rather than a rapper. And I remember when I heard The Last, how you spilled it all. I remember sitting there, feeling proud because you were breaking down these barriers slowly and on your own terms," Grace interrupted. "Because I've always felt that no one should tell you who you are. I've come to realise that. It's nice to be known as Korea's Noona but who am I? At the end of the day when I get home to my cat and I sit down on the couch, turn on the tv - who am I? Because at the end of the day, I need to believe in myself."
Yoongi sat there and took a good look at the woman in front of him. There had been many times when he knew Grace struggled with her identity. She was never meant to last more than two albums but Hitman Bang took the risk and extended her contract and then she became the greatest idol there was but she never felt right. There was always something missing. And he knew she had started to work on that and work on her identity, finally finding something for her to stand in and claim as her own.
Her solo career was going to do all that for her.
"And I tried to do that with Jungkook since he was so young and he was going to be easily moulded by what he saw, who told him what. And I wanted to treat him like Jungkook, not JK. He needed to be treated like a fifteen year old. Not an idol. So if that meant he needed a bedtime or he needed someone to make sure he had his uniform for the day, then that's what it was going to take. Same for Tae and Jimin, they needed that. It was a structure that needed to be placed at home, in the dorm. And if I was seen as the mother then that's what it was going to take," Grace finished.
"You were the mother who looked after the boy's needs, Seokjin-hyung was the father in a way he controlled and scolded and cooked and woke us all up," Yoongi started ticking off his fingers but he was interrupted by Grace again.
"You are also the father, technically. Because you do what Seokjin does but in a different way. You're the protector and the fixer as well."
"Well yes, I do all that. So Hobi is next, he's the first child then?"
"Hobi's the first son," Grace started then suddenly laughed, almost leaning backwards. "Oh, this is going to be turned into a meme."
"What? You, me and Jin-hyung as the parents and the rest are the kids?"
Grace nodded, still laughing.
"Sounds like some weird threesome parenting," Yoongi laughed as well, showing off his gums as he clapped with his laughter.
"So Hobi is the first child. He's the cleaner as well, technically. Namjoon is the second son who is the voice of reason. Jimin is third and is the kid who is just parenting gone right. Taehyung is the middle between Jimin and Jungkook, nice but a bit naughty. And Jungkook is the baby."
"Jungkook is the baby," Yoongi agreed. "But also a little shit."
"He is that. But then I can say the same thing about all of you."
"But you and me are too alike," Yoongi pointed out with another glass of soju.
"We are. What are we called, two cats in a pod?"
"Ironic since you've now got a cat."
"Min-ji," Grace grinned as a picture of said cat was shown up on the screen.
"Did you name him after me and Jin-hyung?"
"No, though it seems like it. I was googling Korean names and that one just happened to catch my eye and the meaning fits him well."
"But back to you and me," Yoongi started then laughed. "I watch YouTube videos sometimes of the relationships between the members and you and I had to stop watching ours because it was hilarious. We are two cats in a pod. We are very much alike."
"It's more the mannerisms than anything," Grace agreed as she took the plate of food from him. "And me and Namjoon are kind of like that," she added. "You, me and him have known each other the longest."
"Well, you trained him for a year and then me and Hoseok came along so it became a natural quartet though you lived with your parents, right?"
"I did until I got told by Bang PD that I needed to move into the dorm down the corridor when they had assembled the group. He didn't want me mixing."
"He treats you like a daughter though. You are the favourite, even Namjoon says so."
Grace smiled and shrugged, giving nothing but everything away.
They talked for another hour or more, reminiscing about the past and the future. How they were all waiting to come back together in 2025 when they could be a group again even though Grace knew she would have to finish off her solo tour first.
"There's one thing I do want to ask though, before we finish." Yoongi said, pouring the last of the soju into the glasses.
Grace nodded her head as if to say go on, holding up her glass of soju like Yoongi was doing.
"When are you going to make us uncles?"
Her immediate reaction was to sigh loudly and stare at the man in front of her.
"I'm joking. I promise. But I do want to say though, I'm proud of you. And I know what's to come is going to be amazing and ARMY is going to go mental when they see what's coming. And even though I can't be there, I'll be watching and I'll be there if I can."
ARMY would later say Grace's smile in return to Yoongi's words lit up the whole room.
"And I'm proud of you. And I hope you stay safe, don't get hurt, make sure you look after your shoulder and you come back to us in 2025 because we've got a lot of work to do."
They clinked their glasses together and downed the shot, putting the empty shot glasses back onto the table. The moment was broken by Yoongi clapping his hands once.
"ARMY, I hope you're happy now. Gigi is going to take great care of you and I hope you look after her and support her all the way. I won't be long and I'll come back to you all when I can."
The last Suchwita episode ended with the two hugging, Grace's face buried into Yoongi's shoulder as he held on tight. Almost as if she didn't want to let him go just yet but had to.
However, ARMY was left with one more surprise.
It was a black screen with the words 'She's coming. May 14 2024.'