Chapter 17 – Behind the Scenes

We ended up falling asleep in each other’s arms I’m not quite sure when, but when I woke up again the next morning, he was already gone; having taken off like a thief in the night.

I spent the rest of the morning packing my things, and headed off to catch the shinkansen around lunch time. There was not much to do during the trip there, so I just listened to music and exchanged sporadic messages with Tae, who was already at the venue, practicing for their evening performance. I was in a pretty good mood. Even though I’d just spent a month home, followed by a short layover in Korea, I hadn’t been on a trip within Japan in ages, so I found it pretty exciting. I made a quick pit-stop at my hotel, checking in and dropping my luggage, before heading straight over to the venue.

Just like the Tokyo one, there were a LOT of fangirls outside. Lining up, taking pictures, and just generally playing around, trying to kill time until the show.

Since I’d already bought everything I wanted, and wasn’t meeting up with any friends, I didn’t really need to be there that early, but Tae was dead set on trying to smuggle me in again, so I followed his directions to the back entrance once more. However, it was a little trickier this time around… what with the venue being smaller and fans being stationed all around it. In fact, two grumpy looking security guards were stationed by the door, and firmly turned me away as I tried to go in.

I mailed Tae, explaining the situation, and though he didn’t reply, a few minutes later, that same chubby Korean girl poked her head out the door, waving me over. I glanced around, making sure she was really talking to me and then walked over, where the guards reluctantly let me through. Again, she silently asked me to follow her, handing me a large piece of black cottony fabric. A quick inspection revealed it to be a hoodie, with the words “Bangtan Sonyeodan STAFF” printed on the back. Since I was just standing there staring at it, she impatiently gestured for me to put it on; so I obliged.

Apparently, it was all it took for people to leave me alone. Once I had it on, nobody seemed to question my presence there, even when she left me alone for a few minutes to go fetch Tae. He came prancing around ahead of her a few minutes later, stopping right in front of me with a little jump and smiling brightly.

“Komawo, noona,” he said, turning to flash his best eye-smile at silent-girl, and the corner of quirked into a smile before she disappeared behind that door again.

“So that’s your accomplice then?” I asked him, smirking as he took my hand and started playing with it, though that was as far as his normally exuberant displays of affection went.

“Acoomplice?” he repeated, not understanding the word.

“Hum… your secret helper?” I suggested as an alternative.

“Ahh!” he laughed, “Yes. Eunjung-noona is my favorite. I told her about you, so she help me. She’s nice.” he explained.

“Your favorite?” I teased, “I thought I was your favorite noona?”

“It’s not the same, noona…” he pouted, before exclaiming, “You’re my girlfriend!” seeming so pleased at the word. I glanced around quickly, but no one seemed to have heard, or even been paying attention, for that matter.

“Come.” he then ordered, dropping my hand to give me a little wave as he led me inside the room he’d just vacated.

The room was a quiet buzz of activity. I’d only seen its like in Bangtan Bombs and behind-the-scenes videos. It was a large room with white walls, lined up with mirrors and make-up stations on one side. There were several couches and armchairs at various emplacements around the room and two large tables in the center. An enormous rack of clothes took up almost the entire right wall and a bunch of suitcases and equipment boxes were lined up against the back. Hoseok stood next to the clothing racks, apparently in an argument with his coordi-noona about what he wanted to wear, and Jimin was getting his make-up done, while Jungkook stood behind him, holding a video camera and pestering him. Suga was sleeping, curled in a little ball on one of the couches, and nearby, Rapmon was in one of the arm-chairs, listening to music on his phone, while Jin was sitting at one of the big tables… studying? There were also several staff members, walking to and fro with purpose, mostly ignoring the seven boys, talking to each other, or sitting in the various available seats, scrolling through their phones, looking bored. No one gave us a second glance as we walked in, except the manager that I recognized as the one who’d come to fetch me from Starbucks in NYC – a tall, relatively handsome guy who wore glasses. He glanced at me, then Tae, then me again, a curious expression on his face, before returning his attention to his phone.

“V… is it ok for me to be here?” I whispered to him as he led us towards the same table where Jin was sitting.

“Of course! I told everyone you’re my English teacher!” he replied, laughing as if he had just made a really funny joke.

I just stared at him in disbelief, but he either didn’t notice, or decided to ignore me, as he sat down in front of Jin.

“Oh, hello Emma.” the older boy greeted me with surprise, though he still managed to give me a pretty smile.

“Are you studying?” I asked, curiously, looking at the books in front of him.

“Aaah, yes,” he answered, “We’ll go to America again in the fall, so I want to be better.”

I peeked over at his books, noticing they were English activity books, not unlike the ones I sometimes used in my own classes.

“Want some help?” I suggested.

“Would you?” he asked me, sounding hopeful.

“Yes!” exclaimed V, before I could even answer, and I chuckled.

“Alright then…”

If I had ever imagined I’d ever work as an English teacher for BTS, this was definitely not the way my fantasies had played out. Still, it was rather enjoyable. I had them practice some of the activities in the book, correcting their pronunciation and grammar, and just getting them to chat with me in English. Even Jimin came to join us at one point, as well as Kookie and Hobi, though those two quickly lost interest and wandered off somewhere else after 5 minutes. Before I knew it, a staff in a headset came to announce that the boys had to go get dressed because the show was going to start in 30 minutes. I looked at my watch and realized that we’d been at it for nearly 2 hours.

Tae had such a forlorn look in his eyes as he explained that he couldn’t see me off that I had to bite my lip to prevent the smile from creeping all over my face. In fact, I’d been surprised at how well he’d managed to behave himself during the whole afternoon. Not once had he tried to kiss me, hug me, or even hold my hand, although I did catch him stealing glances at me on several occasions, which would always result in him flashing me a gooey smile, before returning his attention to the task at hand.

So anyways, I excused myself, saying goodbye to them and making my way to the auditorium. I guess there was no point going back into the boiling heat just to line up when I was already inside. Once I was in my seat, I removed the STAFF hoodie, stuffed it into a ball inside my bag, and set out to wait. The room slowly filled up and the show proceeded much in the same manner as the two Tokyo dates already had. Once it was over, I filed out with everybody else and took the subway back to my hotel.

Since I knew that Taehyung would probably not be dropping by for quite a while, I took the opportunity to explore the hotel surroundings. Osaka is a really fun place, and its inhabitants tend to be really cheerful and friendly, so I spent the rest of the evening poking around shops, and having dinner at a cute little ramen restaurant, where I chatted with the owner, a sweet little old lady who kept plying me with questions once she found out I could speak Japanese.

Finally, I made my way back to my room and flopped down on the bed, watching TV as I waited for my very in-demand boyfriend to become available.