A Year to Change Your Lives

Chapter 37

They were only in New York for five days and there were no concerts, all of which were meant to have been done on the first part of their trip when the boys were convalescing after their injuries. As with any approaching end to a tour, everyone was feeling tired and thinly stretched. Where there was usually a sense of relief, they were all conscious that when they got home there was an urgent and enormous pile of work to do to prepare for the October concerts.

Reader's part in the schedule had been beefed up to give her a little more exposure to audiences of a reasonable size and a little more experience of fitting into the squad. She had been working flat out with the choreographer who accompanied them for a performance she was due to give with Namjoon on the last night of the trip. The other boys actually had nothing to do after the morning of the day before, but they were staying none the less.

Jungkook was increasingly anxious about leaving her since a couple of videos had appeared on accounts which seemed dedicated to trolling Reader and her perceived manipulation of Jungkook. As everyone had expected, the actions he'd taken to give credence to their shipper rumours had sparked further speculation and while the majority of fans didn't notice, didn't care or were quietly happy about it, there was a small section that found it personally difficult to stomach.

The videos were difficult for Reader to watch because she felt they represented a breach between Jungkook and his ARMY, although he was never directly criticised in them. They were meant and edited to show Reader's failed attempts to ensnare him into a couple. A greedy neediness, an inappropriateness, which he had to put up with and respond to with as much good grace as he could.

The videos were unthreatening, if a little disturbing in the minute attention that seem to be paid to their most intimate actions. There were stills of completely different scenes, other groups members, but when they were focused and zoomed in on, there was some tiny detail that the director made their point with. More than disliking the videos, Reader didn't like how conflicted they made Jungkook feel.

Reader had tried to persuade Jungkook to return home and rest, which she thought the others seemed to want and he needed but he shrugged her off. They had been swerving around an argument about the videos, but they'd never had so much as a bicker before, except for their run in with Cho-hee, and Reader found herself deferring to avoid the conflict.

"Don't worry." He told her, putting his arms around her. "We won't let anything bad happen to you."

"Jungkook, I'm not worried about anything happening. I'm worried about BTS." She'd tried to tell him, but their conversation had been cut short by a call from the stage manager before their next call. So they'd left it. Reader hoped if he had enough room to worry about her, it was because he'd already satisfied all his concerns about ARMY and his obligations.

So, for the sake of appearance, he had persuaded the others to all stay with him while Namjoon and Reader prepared for their final performance which was an appearance on the newly formatted Lip Sync battle. They were being hosted by guest judges as well as the regular MC, Drake Chambers. Reader, who had gotten used to her fair share of celebrities now, was privately very excited to meet someone who she – and really anyone – had fallen in love with after he'd shot to fame as the wild haired, snappily dressed heart throb of the last five years. If Eddie could have slipped into her shoes for any moment of this experience, this would have been it.

On the morning before they were due to leave for the set, Jungkook and some of the other members said they would come with them to watch. Reader was a little disappointed by this. Almost every time they left the building together, Jungkook seemed to find some little way to prove to ARMY that their gossip was founded in truth. His touching was becoming more obvious and more frequent and by contrast, all of the other members seemed to be laying off any previous skinship with her out of respect to their relationship.