Chapter 13: Caught in a Lie

Since Jimin had agreed to go with Ji-Hoon's plan, everyone helped Jimin seem more natural when telling the story before he hopped on V-Live to explain what was going on (or at least what ARMY would believe to be going on). He was very nervous so they had some words of encouragement to help him out.

"Think of Juliette and protecting her," Namjoon said.

"You will be fine once we back you up on Weverse," Yoongi commented.

"It's like acting in a k-drama," Jin told him, "Easy stuff."

"Thank you for this," Juliette added.

She gently kissed his cheek and that helped him calm his nerves. Everyone exited the room and let him start the V-Live after he took a deep breath.

"Hi ARMY," Jimin commenced, "I know you guys are all in shock that someone was pretending to be me while on stage. I bet you're all wondering why I did that and that's what I'm here to tell you about today."

The others were in the living room while Jimin did his live. They read the comments as Jimin told his story. People so far were confused, as expected, but nobody had seemed angry. In fact, many people felt for him even without knowing what was going on.

"Back in September, I had an injury on live TV and was asked to sit out and only sing during the performances that day. I had overexerted my muscles by rehearsing over time unbeknownst to the other members. Once everyone on the team had been made aware of my injury and I was asked to step out of the spotlight for several months, I knew how much it would affect you all if I was not in the performances with everyone. You all remember when my hyung had surgery and stepped aside for roughly three months right?"

He stopped to look at the comments briefly after he asked his question. Everyone started to say that they remembered the time and they were sad when he stepped out.

"As some of you are saying, you were sad when he had to miss performances and events. I didn't want you all to go through that again. I didn't want to disappoint you guys so I had one of our trainees be me to avoid that. I could still participate in interviews since it didn't require dancing and that's why everything seemed normal. I didn't want you guys to find out so you wouldn't be worried or pity me but alas, someone found out and posted that photo."

He took a few seconds to let what he said sink into the minds of everyone who was watching and avoided reading more comments. The others in the living room were contemplating what to write on their Weverse posts that they would make about an hour or so after he finished.

"I'm truly sorry I lied, but I saw no other way of resting and keeping you all happy. ARMY is my priority as without you guys, I wouldn't be where I'm at. Ji-Hoon, thank you for having helped me and I'm also sorry that I dragged you into this. I hope you can forgive me and understand why I did what I did. I love you ARMY."

He then cut off his V-Live and Juliette ran to his room to give him a big hug.

"Thank you Jimin," she told him as they hugged.

Jimin wrapped his arms around her after receiving the unexpected hug and reciprocated her affection.

"I'd do anything for you Juliette, we're soulmates," he told her.

Juliette pulled back from the hug and sat on his lap. They looked into each other's eyes before Juliette softly kissed him.

"I just hope ARMY believes this and understands," he said when she pulled away from the kiss.

"Me too," she replied, "But I have faith that ARMY is very understanding."

"We'll just have to wait until after the others make their Weverse posts."

A couple hours later, the boys each posted their own letters apologizing to ARMY and explained that they wanted to respect Jimin's wishes and understood where he was coming from so they agreed to the whole switch. Slowly but surely, during the next few days, people started to die down on being angry. Ji-Hoon got so much popularity from being known as "the Jimin double" that he got put into a group for Be Lift and would be debuting in the following year. The boys also announced their prolonged break until tour would start next year to which ARMY was very excited for another international tour.

However, even though Jimin's situation was fixed, Juliette still had to deal with all the comments calling her out on not having painted for her Instagram recently. She even got an email from Mrs. Raysse saying that if she really had been lying about her own art on her page, she would never allow her to make her portrait when she returned to France given that she could not work with such a dishonest artist. Nobody had bought her paintings in weeks and the scandal was certainly not helping.

"What do I do, Valerie?" Juliette asked her over the phone.

"Tell the truth? I don't know," Valerie replied.

"I can't do that because then I'd have to reveal that I've been lying."

"Then...continue lying? Fake it 'til you make it? It worked for Jimin."

"I guess so...and he is a k-pop idol and got away with it. But what would I even lie about? I can't paint like that anymore, at least not yet. It'll take me a long time before I can paint like that again because I don't have people helping me relearn like Jimin does with the others."

"Well...you could start posting your new style of painting."

"But then everyone will be so confused on why I changed up my style all of a sudden."

Valerie suddenly lit up with an idea and told Juliette what she was thinking. Juliette was ecstatic at the magnificent plan that she cooked up in that short amount of time they had been talking. Juliette agreed to it and they planned on fixing up everything for it in the next few days.

A few days later, Juliette asked Jimin to help her film a live Instagram video explaining the situation to her fans as to why the date set up changed in the paintings for the last couple months. She put on the same wig from the day they went to the ballet class and sat down on her bed to do her stream while Jimin made sure to start it.

"Bonjour tout le monde (meaning "hello everyone" in French)! I am here to explain to you all the new focus I have for my page. I was going to reveal it in a couple more weeks but seeing as someone caught onto my hint, I have to announce it now to clear everything up."

Jimin, behind the camera, was smiling and giving her thumbs up to continue.

"Some of you have assumed that I did not make my recent paintings because I changed from putting the date on the bottom right corner to putting the date on the bottom left corner. But in reality, I did that on purpose to indicate that a new era in my art style is approaching."

People in the comments of the livestream began putting shocked emoji faces and wondered what the new era was.

"My new era of painting will be drastically different from what I have been making for the past several years and I know that many of you will probably not like it. However, I do not intend on stopping my current art style, I just wish to temporarily try a new style and I'll eventually get back to what I do now. I want to have the freedom to express new styles and I had been wanting to for so long, but I was afraid you wouldn't like the change."

People began to ask what the new style was in the comments.

"My current style is abstract and realism where I focus on people and scenery. But now I want to focus on mixing both styles and use animals or small items as my subjects."

The comments had shocked emoji faces again and party emojis indicating the celebration of a new era in her art.

"I don't know if this will last forever but I want to try it. I'll be back to posting shortly. In the meantime, you are more than welcome to purchase any of the paintings on my page. I appreciate all your support! Merci beaucoup et au revoir (meaning "Thank you very much and goodbye" in French)."

Jimin ended the livestream and gave Juliette a big hug to congratulate her for successfully lying (for her own good).

"Now I know how you felt when you lied. I feel bad but also relieved it's all over," she shared.

"I know," he replied, "Sometimes you gotta lie to protect yourself and those you love."

"Juliette!" Namjoon called out from down the hall, "We need you!"

"We?" Juliette asked.

Juliette took off her wig before they walked down the hallway to the living room where they saw all the boys gathered around with former CEO of Big Hit Entertainment, Bang Si-hyuk. Upon their entrance, his gaze changed from the boys to Juliette.

"You must be Juliette, the Jimin double," Mr. Bang said with a smile.

"I guess I am, it is such a pleasure to meet you!" she replied, confused.

"What are you doing here Mr. Bang?" Jimin asked.

"Juliette, how would you like to become a k-pop idol?"