Prologue

Do you ever wonder who is filming all these Bangtan Bombs, and taking all those twitter pics? Is it a different person every time? Is someone actually paid to do that? Well, wonder no more. My name is Kang Nari, (26) and basically, that’s my job. Yes, my job is to follow BTS around and document their every moment for the fangirls (and fanboys!) of the world. I know, I know, you would kill to have my job... Please don’t.

How did I get it you ask? Ironically enough, it was pretty much by accident. I studied management in university and then started working at the Big Hit offices after graduation because the assistant of the brother of my photography club sunbae’s assistant quit and there was suddenly a job opening. It was supposed to be a boring desk job, but… My first year was pretty much just spent acting as a gopher for my boss, who spent most of his time sending me on the most ridiculous errands. Go get me coffee, ok. Go deliver these papers to this broadcasting company, ok. Help me sort through these piles of trainee applications, ok. Go save me a seat at this event cuz I’ll be late, ok. Take a picture of these kids for their blog, ok. Go pick-up a laggy group member at their dorm and drive them to the studio, ok. Find me the address of a good Thai place, ok… None of those things had been in my job description, but I suppose they did make my work life more interesting.

A few months before Bangtan debuted, my boss got assigned as their official manager, and he picked me to follow along since I already had a good relationship with the boys. I was often around when their most ridiculous antics happened, and since I didn’t have that much to do (unless I was out on another fool errand), I was quick to snap pictures of their silly endeavors. V was always making recordings on that camera of his too so I suggested they start a YouTube channel. They did, and after that things just caught fire.

Before long, the demand got so huge that it became too much to just wait for V’s videos. He didn’t have time to edit them, so I said I didn’t mind doing it, and I could take over the filming too. And that was officially the end of my “cushy desk-job”. lol. After that, it became my duty to be their shadow and capture every YouTube-worthy moment. I even went on trips with them, which, I gotta admit, was pretty cool. But yeah, if you want to know what you need to study to get a job like mine, then I can’t tell you because there’s not really an answer. You just gotta be in the right place at the right time.

Anyways, this story isn’t about me.

The thing about being paid to be an observer though is that you start noticing stuff ALL the time… even when you don’t want to.

But let’s start at the beginning. This all started when I decided to give Hoseok a book…

Now, this is not a wildly known fact, but, during pretty much the entire duration of his trainee days, J-Hope had a girlfriend. Actually, a few of them did at one point or another before the debut, but I think J-Hope was the only one who was really serious about his relationship. They broke up shortly after the end of the promotions for “We are bulletproof”, and after that he was – well – a total mess. For weeks. I mean he was still professional enough that he would turn on the charm as usual when they had to perform, but as soon as cameras were off, he would retreat into himself and not talk to anyone. Or he’d vanish and no one could find him again for hours, until the next schedule. And he would reappear, eyes red and puffy, and no one would say anything because they knew; and they knew that when and if he wanted to talk, he would be the one to open up, and not the other way around.

I felt bad for Hobi. He was usually the most cheerful person on set; everyone’s little ray of sunshine. Although he could be incredibly annoying too… I rather liked him. In the way you like your annoying kid brother. They were all like my little brothers, really. But yeah, I wanted to do something for him, something that would cheer him up. So one day, I brought him a book as a present.

“What’s this?” he asked, as I tossed the rather heavy book into his lap.

“I saw this at the store and thought of you.” I told him, winking.

He picked it up, flipped it over to look at the back and then opened it and turned a few pages. “It’s a kids’ book!!” he exclaimed in sulky, childlike voice, and I couldn’t tell if he was really insulted or if he was playing.

“Like I said.” I grinned.

“Then you should give this to Taetae, not me.” he pointed, using the book, to his dongsaeng who was dancing around by himself in a corner.

“Well then, maybe you can read him a story before bed.” I said, winking, and he laughed.

That was good, a laugh was good.

“Anyways, it’s just an easy read, I thought you’d like it.” I said, getting up.

“Noona,” he said, grabbing my wrist as I was about to go. Then he looked up at me and smiled. A real smile. “Thanks.”

Well yeah, so. My good intentions backfired. The book I had given him was “Scheherazhade and the 1001 nights,” more commonly known as “Arabian Nights”, which my mom used to read me as a kid. That edition in particular was full of really beautiful pictures, and I just thought it would keep his mind off unpleasant things.

You know the story of Arabian Nights, I’m sure… There is a king who discovers that his pretty young wife has been unfaithful, so he has her executed. And then he decides that, in order to never be made a fool of again, he will get married every day to a different girl and behead her the next morning. (lovely, eh?) And this goes on for a while, until he marries a smart girl called Scheherazhade, who is a wonderful storyteller, and tells him a different story every night, ending it on a terrible cliffhanger every night, making him postpone her execution for 1001 days, at the end of which, he decides to not kill her after all because he’s fallen in love with her. Many famous stories, such as “Aladdin” and “Sinbad” come from this book.

Anyways, I thought it would distract Hobi, but the only thing he took from reading it was the concept of “a different girl each day and get rid of her before she can hurt me”. Like seriously, how does one even come to that conclusion from reading that book?!? But yeah. Flashforward to now, nearly 2 years later. And everyone’s favorite “Hope” is actually a huge playboy, and it’s all my fault…