Chapter 8: Payback

After a few weeks, Juliette was a convincing enough Jimin when her hair was dyed and cut to look like his. They decided to film a dance practice to see if anyone would notice something was off. After a week of it being posted, nobody commented on it being different or looking strange (she wasn't even wearing a bucket hat in the video). Juliette eventually got to a point where she was good enough without Jimin in the studio for rehearsals.

One evening after rehearsal, everyone went back to the dorm now that she was officially moved in with them since she was Jimin 99% of the time. When they walked in, there was a huge and beautiful painting in the middle of the living room. The painting was a portrait of Juliette. Jimin was proudly standing next to it with a huge smile on his face as they walked in to admire it.

"What's this for?" Juliette asked him.

"I made it for you as a thank you for taking my place and an apology for switching our talents," he replied with his bright smile.

"This looks exactly like something I would have painted. I'm amazed!"

"Of course it does, I have your talent."

"Uh, we're gonna all go change from our rehearsal clothes," Namjoon commented.

He walked to the hallway and gestured for everyone to follow him so they could have alone time in the living room. Jimin invited Juliette to have a seat on the couch.

"It throws me off that we look so much alike even when you don't have makeup on right now, only the hair," Jimin pointed out.

"It throws me off too but I'm happy to do it to help you."

"And that's another reason why I made the portrait. I feel bad that you haven't posted anything since we switched so I want to help you by painting for your Instagram."

Juliette frowned at the mention of Instagram. Jimin looked at her concerned and gently held her hand to comfort her. She looked back at him and cracked a small smile but sighed and told him what was on her mind.

"I'm scared to post. My views have gone down drastically and I even lost some followers."

"I wish I could help you with that but as you know, I only got my own personal Instagram a year ago and I'm already very well known so I don't need help getting views on my posts. Is there anyone that could help you get back on track?"

"Only my cousin Valerie has ever managed my social media but I'm not on speaking terms with her right now because of what she did with you."

"You didn't tell her about moving to Korea and becoming the new me?"

"I haven't told her anything since I got here. She probably thinks I'm still in Paris."

"It's been a whole month. I think it's time you talk to her again, don't you?"

Juliette sighed as she looked down and gloomy. Jimin gently caressed her hand with his thumb to comfort her.

"You're right, I should call her. Thanks."

Jimin let go of her hand and said he'd give her some space to talk to Valerie. However, her aunt that she had stayed with for a week called her and she picked up.

"Hey auntie, what's up? Everything ok?"

"Hey Juliette, it's Valerie," Valerie said over the phone.

"Oh! Hey! I was about to call you! Did auntie go to Paris and that's why you have her phone?"

"No. I figured you needed some space so a week after you fired me I came to Korea thinking you had stayed back in Paris but auntie told me everything that happened; that you left because Jimin asked you to, that you switched talents permanently because he kissed you, and that you moved into the dorms with them. Is that about it?"

"You've been here for three weeks and didn't think to call me after you found all of that out?"

"To be fair, you've been here for a month and didn't think to call me."

"You got me there. I'm happy you called. Auntie didn't tell you why I moved into the dorms, did she?"

"She didn't, she only told me that you left because of an emergency or something like that but she was confused and didn't pick up what was going on. Also, how is Jimin able to dance if he switched talents with you? There's no way he was able to learn to dance again that quickly."

Juliette walked into her room and laid on her bed as she began to talk to Juliette on the phone for a couple hours and told her everything that had happened. She was happy to be able to tell someone about it and talk to someone who wasn't a guy in a whole month. Valerie attentively listened to her and said that she was amazed she did so much on her own. They discussed Jimin painting for her Instagram and Valerie would take over the account again to help get her views and followers back.

"It was so great to catch up, I really needed this girls talk," Juliette said.

"Me too. Paris is so bland when I don't see you," Valerie replied.

"Well, you have your husband so you shouldn't always be lonely."

"We're having some...issues."

"Issues?"

"Yeah, issues."

"Do you wanna talk about it?"

"He wants to have kids but I don't, at least not biological ones. I'm also not ready to be a mom."

"Did you talk to him about it?"

"I tried to but he got so mad and kept storming off. Every time I try to bring it up again, he says he doesn't want to talk about it or pretends it never happened."

"So you didn't come to Korea only to give me space, right?"

"My husband and I need some space from each other."

"How long did you plan on staying in Korea?"

Valerie explained that she only wanted to stay for a couple weeks until things blew over between her and her husband as well as with Juliette. However, now that Juliette lives in Korea to be Jimin and he will be painting for her account, she'll have to stay a little longer so that she can help her get her Instagram back on track before going back to Paris. Then Valerie asked her a question she had been dreading to answer.

"When will you go back to Paris?"

"I don't know if I can. Even if Jimin learns how to dance again, he is my soulmate. I'd feel bad leaving him."

"Do you want to go back?"

"I'm honestly not sure anymore. As soon as I got here all I wanted to do was leave but now that I'm basically Jimin, I've been having such a great time! I get to know the members on a deeper level, Jimin and I grow closer everyday, I've had so much fun dancing, and I get to be on TV (even if they think I'm someone else). I never felt this way while staying home with a paintbrush in my hand all day hearing about comments on my art. Feeling love from screaming crowds is exhilarating! I don't know how I could go back to such a mundane life."

"Well you can't be Jimin forever! What about next time they go on tour? What will you do then? You can't keep switching and lip sync everything, people will pick up on it eventually."

"You think I planned this? I was only supposed to come until Jimin and I fell in love and so we could experience our switches twice a week together. But then he kissed me and my life has been so different since then. Even if I do paint again, I don't want to go back to that anymore!"

"Well I think that's such a selfish way to think about it."

"Selfish? How?"

"You're only experiencing the good parts of being an idol. The attention, the love in comments, the screams from fans during a performance, the thrill of rehearsal, spending time with all the members, and on top of that you still have privacy when you walk out as yourself. Jimin has all the hard parts! He still has to live stream, do the interviews and answer hard questions, stays home all the time bored while you have fun at rehearsal, and people usually don't scream for them while they get interviewed. He must be miserable and all you can think about is how exhilarating it is for you. He probably misses performing! You never stopped to think about that?"

Juliette stayed silent as everything Valerie told her was a huge slap in the face and a reality check. She never noticed how patient Jimin was being by doing all the not-so-fun things about being an idol.

"Valerie, thanks for the chat but I have to go."

She abruptly hung up on her and walked out of her room to look for Jimin. He was sitting in the living room doing some last touch ups on the portrait of Juliette. She watched him fondly in silence before he even realized she was in the room.

"You're back! How was the chat with your cousin?" he asked her.

"Come to the studio with me. I won't take no for an answer."