Chapter 12: A Small Detail

"What do you mean they know it's someone else? Jimin paints exactly like me," Juliette replied.

"Well there's one small detail this person picked up on."

Down the hall in the dining room, everyone was continuing to brainstorm what to do about the photo when suddenly they heard Juliette scream "JIMIN" at the top of her lungs with a very angry tone in her voice. Jimin ran to her room and asked what was going on. By now, Juliette had hung up the phone with Valerie.

"Look at this photo, Jimin," Juliette said.

He looked at it and it was one of Juliette's paintings from before she lost her talent.

"You painted that," he pointed out to her.

"Yes I did. Now notice where the date is placed."

"On the bottom right corner."

"Ok, now look at this one."

She showed him a picture of a painting Jimin made after she lost her talent.

"I painted that," he said.

"And where is the date on this painting?"

"On the bottom...left...corner. Oh no..."

"Oh no is right Jimin. Someone noticed this and is now saying I didn't do those paintings even though you paint exactly like me."

"I mean, they're not wrong. You in fact didn't paint those."

Juliette took a deep breath, trying not to lose it.

"This is no time for jokes Jimin. Please focus."

"I don't see how this is a problem. You can reveal you have a soulmate and explain everything. Just don't mention I'm your soulmate and that's it, problem solved."

"Oh yeah and then I have to explain that I've been lying to my followers for a while and you really think they won't ask me to reveal who it is even if I say I want you to remain private?"

"I see the problem now. But how does one small detail change so much?"

"It's a big detail if I've been doing something one way for years and then suddenly stop doing that. You didn't do this just once either Jimin, you've done this in all the paintings you've made for my page. How did Valerie and I never notice?"

"I'm really sorry Juliette. I'm making your life difficult and I don't even know how to fix it."

"No, I should be sorry. I've been a b*tch this whole time and you're just trying to look out for me."

Jimin gently held Juliette's hand.

"We knew this wasn't going to be easy."

"I know, but I also didn't think it would be this difficult."

"If you want to reveal yourself, that should be your decision. I will protect you as best as I can."

"I don't want to do that anymore, I can see why it's too risky. I'll do whatever you guys decide is best for my safety."

"Let's get back to it tomorrow. We should relax for the rest of the night."

Juliette nodded and they chose to watch a movie before heading to bed for a long day ahead of them; and a long day it was...

The morning started like any other with Jin cooking breakfast for all the members and Juliette so they could go to rehearsal. Namjoon suggested watching the news for once to see if there were any updates on the photo going around.

"Hundreds of fans have gathered outside of the HYBE building and are furious at Jimin after it was revealed that HYBE trainee Kim Ji-Hoon has been impersonating Jimin for the past month and a half at all of their performances," the news reporter said.

Everyone almost choked on their food at the mention of Ji-Hoon.

"He only did it once, but regardless, how was he revealed?" Jimin asked everyone.

"He was revealed to be the impersonator on his personal Twitter account where he tweeted explaining the situation with a handwritten letter," the news reporter on the TV answered, "The letter quickly spread through social media causing the uproar at the HYBE building."

Namjoon paused the TV to read the note Ji-Hoon wrote aloud.

"I am so sorry to let you guys down but I have to come clean. I've been impersonating Jimin per his request. We planned on never exposing this and I respected my hyung by waiting until he was ready to come back to BTS. But since the truth came out in that photo, I figured there's no use in keeping up the lie," Namjoon read.

"Why would Ji-Hoon do that? He threw all the blame on me!" Jimin emphasized.

"I'll talk to him. I brought him into our circle so I will handle it."

Someone knocked on their door and Jungkook answered it. Ji-Hoon walked into the dorms. Jimin and Juliette gave him the stink eye as he approached the dining table. Everyone else was in shock. Jimin stood up in anger and pointed an accusatory finger at Ji-Hoon.

"How could you do this to me Ji-Hoon? We trusted you," Jimin yelled.

Nobody had ever seen Jimin this angry before; Taehyung was especially scared.

"Jimin, relax, I told you I would handle it," Namjoon reminded him, "Now, Ji-Hoon, why are you here?"

Ji-Hoon sat down at the empty seat on the dining table and reached for the banana milk but Jungkook snatched it away from him.

"Don't even think about it," Jungkook said sternly, "I'll get you some water."

Namjoon and everyone else stared Ji-Hoon down as Jungkook got him water. He was very intimidated by everyone's angry faces. When Jungkook returned with the water, Ji-Hoon finally explained himself.

"I know you're all mad and confused but I did this to help you," he said.

"How does this..." Jimin began super angry again but Namjoon cut him off.

"When I said I'd handle it, that means let me handle it," Namjoon began, "What do you mean by 'help' us?"

"By me revealing myself, you won't have to reveal Juliette anymore and all the blame falls on Jimin and me."

"That literally only helps me," Juliette pointed out.

"I'm getting there noona (meaning older sister in Korean)," he continued, "Jimin will now be expected to tell his side of the story. The only way this will work is if he tells them exactly what I wrote on this piece of paper."

Jimin glanced at the paper.

"You don't have to say it word for word," he continued, "change it up a bit and make it sound more natural when you explain it to everyone. To make it even more believable, I was thinking you could explain on a V-Live since then nobody could claim that it was rehearsed (even though it is)."

"Nobody is going to believe this," Jimin scoffed.

"They will if the others back you up on Weverse," Ji-Hoon added.

"Ok let's assume this works. People will expect me to return and dance, right? Problem is, I'm still not at the level I used to be."

"I thought of that too. Since you will be officially returning to the group in the eyes of ARMY, you can announce your tour (which isn't going to be until several months from now) and then say you will be taking a prolonged break until then. During that "break," you can pick up your dance skill with the help of everyone and will be ready to perform by the time the tour starts."

The members and Juliette exchanged uncertain glares.

"We can't do this," Jimin said.

"We kinda have to," Jin said.

"We don't have another option, unless you want to stay silent which will only raise more suspicions," Yoongi added.

"We're already knees deep into this lie so we have to roll with it," J-Hope included.

"I'm all for telling the truth but, noona's safety is more important," Jungkook declared.

"I second Jungkook," Taehyung jumped in, "Noona comes first."

Juliette teared up a little at the other maknaes calling her noona. Seeing how much everyone cared about Juliette reminded Jimin of why he wanted to hide the truth to begin with.

"Fine, let's roll with the story."