A Year to Change Your Lives

Chapter 30

Sadly, Reader's new philosophy on Jungkook and beautiful Korean women was tested much sooner than she had hoped.

The car journey that morning hadn't been far and they'd been deposited, with camera crews who were following them for the next few hours, at HYBE's training academy. It was a building similar to the current studios but with a much less luxurious entrance and teaching facilities rather than recording studios.

The boys all knew this place well for it was where they'd met, been housed and worked from before their debut to when their success had mandated firstly that they find a bigger and nicer house and that HYBE took on more substantial premises.

Reader, and Laura by her side, were given a tour, led by the excitable boys who were keen to show her, amongst other things, the kitchen facilities, the practice rooms and finally their single room dormitory which had housed three bunkbeds, a small single and all seven of the Bantang boys. Reader, who already knew their backstory well, was nonetheless astonished by their humble beginnings and the very narrow pathway that had led to all seven of them being included in the original line-up. She wished she could have been in the room the first time all seven baby BTS members came together.

They watched videos of their auditions and their first performances, which each of them found hilarious until it was their turn for torture and then they quailed in embarrassment behind their hands.

The boys were told they had to keep their faces blank during the next video or else terrible punishment would ensue. They all agreed and Reader watched with interest to see what they would play them. She gasped in astonishment at the very first seconds of the footage which she knew instantly to be an old home video that her parents must have supplied the producers with. It was a reel of the only live performance Reader had given up until this point, which was her singing Away in a Manger as Mary in her primary school nativity.

Reader crouched forward, and found herself shaken with emotion to see her childhood self, singing in a tiny voice and holding a borrowed baby Jesus doll. Some of the boys dropped their blank faces immediately once they realised what this was, Jungkook amongst them, leaning eagerly towards the screen and cooing over a much more adorable version of Reader. Only Yoongi remained unmoved by the end of the clip which only lasted for two verses of the song.

"Oh god!" moaned Reader, digging the heels of her hands into her eyes when the last frame of her was replaced with a video of Reader's mum, sat at her familiar kitchen table.

"Hello darling!" She spoke from the screen in her broad Cornish accent. "Sorry to embarrass you, but your fans should know how talented you are. We cannot believe how well you're doing and how confident you are. You make us all so proud."

Reader, who's eyes were streaming with tears, had been joined by Laura who held her in a hug from behind. She wasn't at all close with her family, but seeing her mum for the first time in over half a year was a little more than she was prepared for after the fragile state this week had left her in!

Her mum continued for a few minutes, telling her to stay well, telling her to take every chance she was given and to keep looking after those boys. She even attempted a Korean "Hwaiting!" At the end which made them all laugh and then she was waved away.

Reader had left her chair and was dashing her eyes and her nose, grinning with bittersweet sadness and trying to get ahold of herself.

"They're saying they have one more video for you." Laura told her and Reader shook her head out, blowing her nose on the tissue she'd been handed by one of the producers. What torture could they have for her now.