"Thank you for all your birthday wishes!"
Jin was on V Live so he could celebrate his birthday with ARMY. It had been a long time since he had done one by himself, so he felt a little awkward at first. Luckily, his fans' comments gave him lots to talk about.
"Yes, I've seen all your cards on Weverse. ARMY is so talented!"
On Weverse ARMY had posted pictures of the cards they had made him. There was an obvious RJ theme and seeing them all had made Jin very happy.
"Anna? Did ARMY make cards because of Anna?"
He was a little confused at what Anna had to do with his birthday cards. Jin leaned forward to read the comments again.
"Oh, you watched her on YouTube?"
Internally Jin was wondering how he managed to miss this video. All of the members of BTS had been following Anna's YouTube channel, so he was surprised he had missed a video.
What the oldest member didn't know, was that Anna had employed the help of their other soulmates to make sure Jin didn't see the video before his birthday. She wanted it to be a surprise after all.
The video was a craft session and consisted of Anna making some cards, such as BT21-themed Christmas cards, but really focusing on a birthday card for Jin.
"Yes, I've got her card here. Look it's RJ!"
The card Anna had made for him had a cake on the front and when he pulled a tab RJ popped up out of the cake, which he demonstrated to ARMY.
"Speaking of cake..."
Jin lit the candles of the cake the staff had prepared for him and blew out the candles after playing the birthday song.
"What did I wish for? I can't tell you that! Okay, Okay."
Jin leaned toward to camera and held one hand up as if he was whispering a secret.
"I wished that ARMY would always be happy."
He gasped and acted shocked.
"If it doesn't come true, then it's your fault for making me tell!"
The singer went on to talk about what he had been up to recently and answered some questions ARMY commented. At one point he glanced at his phone and laughed causing ARMY to ask what had made him laugh.
"Anna's been sending me jokes all day. Let me read you some."
"What's the most detail-oriented ocean? The Pacific."
"What kind of drink can be bitter and sweet? Reali-tea."
"Which bear is the most condescending? A pan-duh!"
Jin laughed his signature windshield-wiper laugh after each joke, and even if ARMY didn't find the jokes funny, they enjoyed seeing him so happy on his birthday.
He was starting to run out of things to talk about when there was a knock on the door and two smiling faces appeared.
"Hoseok and Jimin are here!"
"Happy Birthday Jin-Hyung!"
The two newcomers moved to stand on either side of their oldest soulmate. Hoseok waved at the camera while Jimin wrapped his arms around Jin's shoulders.
"Are you having fun with ARMY?"
"You looked like you were having so much fun that we decided to join you!"
The three messed around for a bit until the time came for them to say goodbye.
"Sorry ARMY it's time for us to go. We have a very busy schedule at the moment."
"That's right. Are you looking forward to our performance at MAMA next week?"
"Please look forward to it!"
"Bye-bye ARMY!"
"Love you!"
Hoseok and Jimin headed towards the door but stopped when they realised Jin hadn't moved. Their oldest soulmate was on his phone.
"Hyung? You coming?"
"Just a minute... Hey! How did I get unsubscribed from Anna's YouTube channel?"
While Jin frowned at his phone, Jimin's eyes shifted around anxiously as he tried not to look guilty.
"No idea, Jin-Hyung."
"Why? What are you doing, Hyung?"
"ARMY made me special cards for my birthday after watching Anna's video. I wanted to see it for myself."
Jin turned up the sound on his phone and started the video with the other two watching over his shoulders. It made them smile. They could see Anna getting more comfortable in front of the camera with each video and it made them feel so proud of her.
"She's amazing."
"Yeah, she is."
All three of them were smiling sappily when Jin's phone buzzed with a notification. When he read it he started giggling.
"What?"
"Tell us what's so funny, Hyung!"
"Anna just sent me another dad joke."
"Go on then, Jin-Hyung. Tell us."
"How do Idols stay cool? They have lots of fans."
Jimin snorted which made Hoseok start laughing as well.
"Come on, rehearsal time!"
The three of them walked into the dance studio giggling as Jin had spent the walk telling them more of the jokes that Anna had sent him. However, the tense atmosphere in the room soon sobered them up.
They immediately walked over to where the rest of their soulmates were in a deep discussion with some staff members. Anna was standing off the side, her arms wrapped around herself as she bit her lip worriedly. Jin walked over to her, wrapping his arm around her shoulders. Pulling her against him, he placed a kiss on the top of her head.
"What's wrong? What happened?"
"Tae's knee is acting up again. They're worried he won't be able to perform next week, so they're coming up with a backup plan."
"Hm. How are you?"
"I'm fine. Tired from all the training, but I'm enjoying it. How's the birthday boy? Are you having a good day?"
"The best day. Thank you for all the jokes, and the card, and inspiring ARMY to make their own."
Anna just smiled and shrugged. To her, it was the smallest of gestures. Figuring out what to give her soulmates for their birthdays had been extremely difficult as anything she thought of felt either too impersonal or not enough to show how much they meant to her.
"Anna!"
They both turned towards Hoseok who was waving them over.
"Have you come up with a plan?"
"We haven't decided what to do yet, but either way Taehyung can't dance today, so could you fill in for him?"
"What?! Hobi, no, I can't -"
"I taught you the dance before, there will just be some placement changes, and you've been watching us rehearse the past few weeks. You can do it."
"Yeah, but still... Surely one of the other dancers or Son Sungdeuk would be better..."
"They're not available right now."
"Please. Pretty please."
Sometimes Anna wondered why she bothered protesting. Just a pout or a flutter of eyelashes from one of her soulmates and she agreed to do whatever they asked, and this time was no different.
"Fine."
Taehyung wrapped his arms around her and gave her a big kiss on the cheek.
"Thank you."
"I don't think I'll be much help. You'll be spending most of the rehearsal teaching me!"
"No! You got this. I believe in you."
"You can't say stuff like that, Jimin!"
"Alright, let's start. So, Anna, we begin like this."
The rehearsal went surprisingly well. Although the members of BTS weren't surprised, Anna was. Though she still wasn't convinced she helped much by standing in for Taehyung.
"You know, Anna, if this wasn't for an awards ceremony you could perform with us on stage."
"You can be our understudy for our concerts!"
"Ha-ha, very funny."
"That's actually not a bad idea."
"Not you too, Namjoon! None of you are getting injured in the future, so it's a moot point. Okay?"
"Yes, Noona."
Anna smiled and ruffled Jungkook's hair.
"Good boy."
"Are you excited to be going to MAMA with us?"
"Yes! I couldn't believe it when my staff told me. Even if it's just for the experience and ill be backstage doing a vlog and helping out and stuff... I wish I could see you perform in person though."
"Haven't they told you?"
"Told me what?"
"You'll be sitting in the audience."
"Really?!"
"Yeah. Not with us because we're in the artists only section, but we got you a seat with the staff who are going."
"I thought I would be in your dressing room backstage or something."
"We wouldn't let you go to MAMA and not get to see any of the performances."
"So, you organised this for me?"
"Well, yeah."
"Thank you! Thank you!"
Anna started jumping up and down with excitement.
"Cute!"
"Is it that exciting? It's not like she hasn't seen us perform before?"
"Maybe it's not our performance she's looking forward to seeing."
"Jimin..."
"I only meant that there will be a lot of other great performances."
"Sure, you did."
"Let's ask her who she's looking forward to seeing."
Namjoon held Jimin back by grabbing the neck of his top. Luckily, they were interrupted by Yoongi asking a question.
"Who else is performing this year?"
While her soulmates had to take a moment to think, Anna spoke up straight away.
"Oh, I know a few! Umm, TXT, ENHYPEN, ITZY, NCT 127, Stray Kids, and ATEEZ!"
"Does that answer your question, Jimin?"
"That's a lot of competition."
"Maybe you'll get to meet some of them, Noona."
"You think so? I... no, that's okay."
"Do you want to? We could probably introduce you to some of them?"
"No, really, it's okay. I wouldn't know what to say. I'll just see them from a distance. That's enough for me."
"Yeah, no need to push her. Distance sounds good."
Namjoon motioned towards Jimin and Jungkook wrapped an arm around him, covering the dancer's mouth with his hand.
"Let us know if you change your mind. Okay?"
Anna nodded, but she had no intention of telling her soulmates which Idols she would like to meet. Although she knew that Jimin had (mostly) been joking, ever since her last show of fangirling she had been careful not to do it again. This meant that her soulmates had no idea about her most recent obsession, who would just happen to be in the same building as them next week.
Maybe I should think of something to say to them. Just in case.