TOUR DIARY: March 25th 2025 - Los Angeles

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It was nice to spend the money not having to rush. Grace was currently lounging in her bed in her suite, on one of the floors of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. She could already hear Sejin on the phone, hear the bustle of make up artists and hair stylists clearing up the stations from the past few days. Her suite had become 'Queen HQ,' having taken on another Queen name like her team had - here talks were done about interviews, schedules checked, last minute costume checks and the like.

But after tonight, she would be heading on a private plane and heading to Chicago. More interviews, photoshoots, meeting some important people, her concert and then she was off to New York. It was a whirlwind of noise and lack of time - how everything was scheduled to the last minute, trying to cram as much in as possible without overdoing it.

So far, each concert had been met with amazing reviews apart from the good few who were claiming she was nothing without BTS and just another singer who thought they could pull it off. Her numbers so far were totaling 66,000 if everyone attended tonight's concert.

She had also seen the guest list for the VIP's tonight - Beyonce being one of them which made her stomach twist with nerves. One of the biggest artists of all time was coming to see her. The Kardashian's were also in attendance, Harry Styles, and the list went even longer than that.

With a deep sigh, Grace threw back the covers and went to take her shower.

The set list ran through her head, her body doing the dance moves but smaller in the shower and she was singing along to 7 Waves as she got dressed, twisting her wet hair into a messy bun for it to be dealt with later. Her mind then went to Chicago, then New York and then she would fly back to Seoul for another important performance.

If any solo career had looked simple, Grace's had looked complicated.

Everything planned and prepared in secret, from early 2023 right through to her birthday last year when the album had been announced, her tour announcement, the mini album and then her first tour date. Yet in between all that, she was meeting designers, doing interviews to be released later on, making plans for later on.

Always later on.

Never once interfering with her boys' plans.

That had been the major rule: whatever the boys wanted to do, it was going to come first.

She had been there for nearly all of it and she had seen all the good and the bad, she had seen what worked and what kind of didn't. She had been behind the scenes of all of Jungkook's GOLDEN album and his promotion for it. And by the time she had been ready to put her own on display, she had a very good idea of what she knew what was going to work.

Interviews in England, rather than America as they could wait till her tour, focus on Europe as well as Australia and New Zealand even though her tour wouldn't be going there mainly due to time.

And cross fingers, her solo career had been somewhat of an success.

"Morning," she said as she went into the dining area of the suite and flicked the kettle on.

"Morning," various voices came back to her.

"Grace, what do you think about doing a pre-recorded performance for iHeart Radio Awards?" Sejin asked, flicking through some paper while typing something on his laptop.

"Do we have time for that?" she asked, adding two sugars to her tea and a good splash of milk. "When is it?"

"Award show is on the 27th but it could be recorded while we're in Los Angeles, we just delay heading to Chicago until the filming is done. The Grammy Museum have given us permission to use their rooftop venue as well," Sejin read from the email and glanced over.

Grace paused. She knew it would be a good opportunity and she knew it wouldn't have been asked of her to do it if they didn't think it she could do it yet they only had a day to do it, even that.

"Is it my songs or BTS?"

"They want you do 7 Rings and then Butter," Sejin replied.

Another pause.

"Okay, let's do it. See if we mix the two so they can flow together - I'll use one of the tour costumes that we haven't used yet for the show and we just need seven dancers so see if anyone is up for doing this, the rest and the rest of the time can fly out to Chicago to get started on rehearsals. Interviews and everything else, well let's see what time we can get out of L.A."

She must have been mad.

By the time she got the concert venue, her mind had switched off to what else was going on and focused on the concert ahead of her. BTS and TXT songs were playing around the arena and outside where people were already waiting, hoping to catch a glance of celebrities.

A quick change into her gym clothes, Grace made her way to where they had set up a small gym area with a BANGTAN BOMB camera following her. She had a quick laugh with the camerawoman before the filming started. "So, you want to know my tips for how I can sing and dance and run all at the same time?" Grace grinned at the camera, which 'nodded.'

"Here's is the secret technique - pick a song that's really going to make you sing and then get on the treadmill," Grace said as she flicked through the music choices on her phone that was connected to the speakers. Outro: Ego started as Grace set the treadmil to a slow walk then just as Hobi started, she had broken out into a jog.

It was quite impressive to watch her sing along, all the while building up her speed until it got to the chorus where she started doing the choreography albeit not to the full extent as she was stuck on the treadmil.

They still had a few hours left until the concert so a run through was planned, to go over niggles from the night before which was mostly blocking and making the volume loud enough for everyones in-ears.

By the time they were done and back stage getting changed, Staples Centre was open and filling up.

"Los Angeles night two - let's go out there and show Queen B that she is amazing and we love her," Grace said as she was surrounded by her dancers who all laughed. "Okay, just half joking. BANG," she left it off as her dancers followed with "TAN" as they lifted their hands.

Nothing, absolutely nothing could replace hearing the crowd lose their absolute shit as the VCR played and the beginning beats of 7 Ring. Her female dancers glanced at each other then her, grinning and nodding their heads before they were lifted up.

SO MANY ARMY BOMBS!

Even in the VIP area, she could see them and it lit up the whole crowd as the colours changed to the beat. They were constantly out, even when VCR's played so they could do costume changes and the cheers never stopped. Neither did the singing.

"Los Angeles, it's been an absolute pleasure to be with you tonight," Grace started out on the main stage, dressing in her outro gear to finish up the concert. "Thank you for being an amazing crowd, you've certainly outdid yourselves from last night. If you could put down your ARMY bombs for second," Grace paused and watched with a fond smile as every single one dropped out of sight.

"How many of you out there are BTS fans?"

The whole crowd lit up again, screams were heard and then the screaming got louder the moment Dimple was played. Three male dancers joined her on stage, dressed similar to what the boys had worn and even though she was singing in Korean, she swore she could hear the crowd singing along.

By the time she got to Dangerous Woman, got to thank everyone and bow to the crowd, the screams had not stopped. They were still going as she climbed down the few steps off the stage, Sejin there with a bottle of water.

And he did something he rarely did.

He hugged her.

"I'm very proud of you," he said as he let her go to wrap the dressing gown around her shoulders tightly. "We all are."

It took awhile to get back to her hotel after removing her costumes, make up and washing her hair and then getting through the traffic. The moment she got through her hotel door, staff had left her lamps on for her and on the coffee table was a large bouquet of pink roses.

'I'll be seeing you soon

Jinnie x'

Dangerous Woman - BTS 8th MemberDove le storie prendono vita. Scoprilo ora