Chapter 39 - Conspicuous

For all those of you who’ve ever wondered if those music shows are rigged or not: they are. Well, not *technically* but 90% of the time, they know waaaay before the end of the show who is going to win. That’s why BTS made an unexpected, and very sudden, one-day return to TV, when they had all but promised their RUN promos were over and they’d all gone off to various parts of the country on vacation. Apparently the head producer of MB made a very persuasive phone call to Bang PD, and thus the boys were back, in their colorful jackets, Rapmon included, for their 6^th and final win. Or was it 7^th? I lost count.

In a way it was kinda nice that they did come back since they got to close their promos with their leader there; in another, it ed everything up. I wasn’t really supposed to see Tae again before I left (even though he had promised he would, it was just to make our goodbyes easier since I was leaving the next day), but because he came back early (and he is such a needy puppy), I did. Not that I was complaining – I was glad to have gotten an extra evening of playtime with my over eager 20y.o. – but I was supposed to have the whole day of the 8^th to pack leisurely and leave on the 9^th, and as it was, I spent the whole day glued to my phone, and the guesthouse TV, waiting for the win; and made everyone in the house vote for good measure before screaming like a crazy person when then did indeed win, and spending the next 3 hours intermittently on the phone with Tae, squealing and celebrating with him, even though I couldn’t be there. If the landlady had linked the pretty boy who had picked me up a few days earlier, with the made-up one dancing around on the screen, she didn’t say anything about it, but she did look at me with a suspicious gleam in her eye from that moment on until the moment I left. I ended up having to pack in a rush the next morning – half-asleep – and heading over to the airport without even time for breakfast or coffee, looking like I’d just been dragged out of bed (which I had).

It was pretty early in the morning – around 8am – when I left, so I didn’t even think of mailing Taehyung. He would be still sleeping, or just have gotten to bed even, after the celebrations from the previous night. I knew they were flying to Taiwan that day, but I’d assumed it was much later or he would have told me. So lo-and-behold my surprise when I walked onto the Departure floor of the airport, and saw an ocean of girls with cameras crowding the entranceway.

“Oh ….” I muttered to myself, trying to skirt around a group of them with my Hello Kitty suitcase. Even though they weren’t advertising it, there was no doubt who they were there for…

‘Maybe they’re early…’ I thought to myself, heading over to the check-in counter as I watched the bored girls double-checking their cameras or scrolling down on their phones as they waited, ‘Maybe it’s like merch and you gotta show up at 6am to get a good shot…’

*Interlude: Watch Your Every Move *

The lightbulbs started flashing even before the black van had pulled to a full stop across the street from the Departures entrance. The boys all filed out one by one; slowly, pretending to straighten out their clothes, or fetch something they’d forgotten from the car, bend down to tie their already perfectly tied shoe, or simply check out their reflection into the van’s black-tinted window. It was a practiced ritual they were already professionals at – after 3 years. Across the street, fans with giant lenses would take pictures of these few seconds that would end up looking like shots out of fashion magazines, and the clothes that they were wearing would sell out of whatever shop they’d been bought from within a week. But fans would be happy.

After a sufficient amount of time had passed, one of their managers nodded to Namjoon, and he nodded to Jin, who dragged a still half-asleep Jungkook along, and the rest of them followed in a disorderly file, at which the lightbulbs kept snapping.

Taehyung was sleepy. He had a mask on to hide his bare face and his too-long hair drooping in his eyes to hide how tired they were. He’d slept maybe 2 hours the night before. But it was ok, he’d get to sleep on the plane. He was in a bad mood though. He hadn’t gotten to say goodbye to Emma and he knew she was leaving today. He glanced down at his phone again – still no message from her – and sulkily dropped his arm away, somehow still refusing to let go of the device.

“Relax, will you?” Hoseok nudged him, appearing by his side. “She probably just thinks you’re sleeping.”

Instead of cheering him up, the comment seemed to irritate the younger boy even more and Hoseok just rolled his eyes and walked off to annoy Jimin with his cheerfulness. Today was one of his “good” days.

They walked in and the sea of girls assailed them.

To be fair, it wasn’t as bad as when they were in other countries. Korean fans were well-behaved at the airport. They kept their distance – sort of – and didn’t screech their names – only called them out repetitively, in an extremely annoying manner.

The cameras flashed – sometimes way too close to his face – and Taehyung didn’t even pretend to smile. This was also why he was wearing a mask. He held on to the back of his manager’s shirt, so he wouldn’t get lost, but really, his eyes were nearly closed and he wasn’t paying any attention to where he was going until he heard Jungkook exclaim next to him. “Hey, isn’t that Emma-noona?!”

Suddenly his eyes were bright open.

“Where?!” he exclaimed, turning left and right, trying to find the direction that the only member younger than he had been looking at a moment ago without tripping over himself or the fan that had run across his way to try and take a picture of Jimin. He almost yelled at her, but then he spotted the blonde head, waiting in the JAL check-in line, staring at her phone with a look of intense concentration. A smile came over his whole face and he raised his arm up, and was about to open his mouth to shout, when his leader appeared besides him, pulling his arm down rather painfully and muttering in his ear “Down, boy.” and smiling at the fansite in front of him, who took his picture about 20 times as he dragged his dongsaeng along.

Taehyung wanted to yell at Namjoon but realized he’d been about to do something really stupid. He still shot his leader a look full of hatred for good measure (once the fangirl was gone), and didn’t even bother to reply as he grabbed his phone to start texting his foreign girlfriend right away.

Namjoon shook his head and kept on dragging him by the arm, trying to shield him from the cameras at the same time.

[Why you don’t look at me, you bad girl?!]

He looked in her direction again and saw her smile when she got the mail. His whole face went soft again.

[Why didn’t you tell me your flight was this early?] she replied, not answering his question.

They bantered back and forth all the way to security check, and when it was his turn to go, Rapmon actually had to physically pull the phone out of his hands to toss it in the plastic bin.

“Watch what you’re doing, you idiotic kid.” he scolded, in a very un-Namjoon-like voice, which made the younger boy sober up. “unless you WANT all your fans finding out you have a girlfriend?”

Taehyung’s eyes widened at his boldness but they were far enough away that he didn’t think any of the fansites had heard. And unless the airport staff currently waving him through the metal detector – who was male – was a fan, his secret was probably safe.

“They’re gone now,” he muttered, which he knew wasn’t true. There were always at least a couple of fans who followed them through to the other side, all the way onto the plane, and to whatever country it was they were headed, so they were never truly “gone”. But at the moment, for all intents and purposes, he was mostly right.

“Doesn’t matter,” said Rapmon, grabbing his bag from the bin on the other side, “didn’t you hear them? ‘Taehyung-ah! Look here! Taehyung-ah! Who are you texting? Taehyng-ah, look at me! Who’s making you smile like that?’ Taehyungie, please look at me!” he imitated in a girly voice and Tae flattened his eyes at him. “You’re being super obvious.

“You’re just jealous.” muttered the brown-haired boy, making his elder choke on air.

“What?!”

V looked please with himself, which earned him a smack behind the head and made his smirk vanish. The now blonde-again-leader grabbed his younger friend’s arm and dragged him along, whispering roughly in his ear now that there were cameras on them again. “Look, you wanna have a girlfriend, that’s your thing. You’re a big boy. But don’t be an idiot is all I’m saying. You gotta be inconspicuous.”

“Don’t use fancy words so early in the morning…” groaned Taehyung.

Namjoon’s face softened as he tried not to laugh at his dongsaeng.

“At least wait til we’re in the first class lounge to go all googly-face over her?”

Tae looked up at him and held his gaze for several moments before finally sighing and nodding his agreement.

“Good boy” grinned Namjoon, ruffling his hair.

Tae growled back, but he was smiling. At the same time, a fan shouted his name from the second landing of the walkway. “TAEHYUNGIE!!!!”

He looked up and saw a girl holding an iPhone waving frantically at him – not a fansite. He glanced at Namjoon, who raised an eyebrow at him, and put his “V” face on. Then he turned and beamed at the girl, doing a little dance for her that ended in peace signs while she squealed.

“Good boy” repeated Namjoon under his breath.

*

It had helped passed the time a bit, when Tae had noticed me standing in the check-in line, and we’d chatted for a while, but then he’d stopped suddenly and I’d had to wait the line for security detail and immigration like normal people, and although part of me realized that it was much smarter to avoid any kind of contact with my now much-too-famous boyfriend, it was hella boring.

I had just gotten through security finally, maybe 40 minutes before my flight actually started boarding, and was debating what to do when my phone rang with the annoying kkt ringtone. There was only one person that ever called me on kkt….

By the time actually managed to find my phone at the bottom of my bag, the caller had given up and decided to leave a voice message instead.

“Nooooonaaaaaaaaaa!!! Pick uuuuuuuuuup!!! I’m in the special room now, no one here!” Tae’s voice echoed so loud I actually had to pull the phone quite far away from my ear until I was sure he was done talking.

“Geez tone it down, will you?” I said, calling him back, “Or else everyone in here will hear you anyways.”

He giggled, and I melted.

We spent the next 40 minutes making everyone around us sick with our cuteness, until they called for my flight to board and we had to say goodbye. I wished him good luck in Taiwan and he said we’d see each other soon. I smiled, knowing this time, it was true.