Despite being a fairly new fan, Anna was buzzing with excitement as she found her seat for Stray Kids' concert. It was in a small VIP section, and she wondered who else would be sitting there. Yeonjun had called in the favour Changbin had owed her so that she could get a ticket and she felt very lucky. After meeting her at her fan meeting, Anna had kept in touch with Chan's soulmate, Rose, who upon hearing that Anna was attending the concert had sent her a lightstick.
Anna was fiddling with the Nachimbong as she waited for the show to start. She was a little nervous to be here by herself, although a driver had dropped her off at a special VIP entrance. The boys had insisted she wear a hat and mask, but she was already starting to sweat, and the hat at least would have to come off sooner rather than later.
When an older woman sat down beside her, Anna briefly wondered who she was, but knew that age didn't matter when it came to fans. However, she was surprised when the woman turned to talk to her.
"Hello. Are you a friend of one of the boys?"
"Hello, um, a friend of a friend and a fan."
"I'm Chan's mother. It's nice to meet you."
"Oh! I'm Anna. It's nice to meet you too! Your son is very talented."
"Thank you. I'm very proud of him. I hope you don't mind me asking, but where are you from?"
"England."
"England? Do you live in Korea, or are you just visiting?"
"I live here, um, for almost a year now, I think."
"What made you decide to move?"
"I met my soulmates."
"That's wonderful! And they're Korean? So, you moved across the world for them? How romantic."
"Romantic is a nice way to put it. Impulsive may be more accurate. But it helped that I already knew them, sort of, anyway."
"You knew them? What do you mean?"
"They're Idols... BTS?"
"Oh my! I'm sorry, I should've known. I tend to avoid news about Idols because I know it can be... misleading."
"That's okay. Actually, it's quite nice to know that there are people who don't know who I am."
They both chuckled.
"It must have been a big change for you. Do you know any other soulmates of Idols?"
"Only one, Rose..."
Anna trailed off. Although she knew Rose and Chan had met and had a friendly relationship, she didn't know if the Idol had told his mother about his soulmate.
"Rose? As in my Channie's Rose?"
"Yes. Um, have you met her?"
"Not yet, but my son sounds completely besotted when he talks about her."
The lights dimming stopped their conversation and Anna leaned forward in anticipation.
The concert was amazing. Stray Kids performed all her favourite songs and Anna almost died when they did the OT8 version of Red Lights.
"Wow, that was incredible! It was nice to meet you, Mrs Bang. Please tell Chan Fighting, for me."
"Aren't you coming backstage?"
"Oh, no. I don't think that's arranged for me. Family only."
"Nonsense. Come with me."
Anna did dare say no and so she found herself following the mother of the leader of Stray Kids all the way to their dressing room. The boys greeted Mrs Bang with enthusiastic familiarity while Anna stood timidly in the doorway.
"Anna? Hi, I'm Changbin. It's nice to finally meet you."
"Hello. I hope you don't mind the intrusion... Mrs Bang insisted I tag along."
"Are you really BTS's soulmate?"
"Hyunjin!"
"What's it like?"
"Jisung!"
"What? It's BTS-sunbaenim!"
Anna laughed while Changbin sighed.
"Sorry about them, Anna. Anyway, did you enjoy the concert?"
"Yes! It was awesome! Thank you so much for helping me get a ticket."
"I owed you a favour and you're Rosie-Noona's friend, so of course. I'm glad you enjoyed it."
Jisung cut back in.
"We watched your cover of our song."
"You did?"
"It was great! Is it true you're going to debut soon?"
"Hopefully, the date hasn't been set yet."
"We'll look forward to it. Fighting!"
"Wow. Thank you!"
After talking with Stray Kids for a little while, Anna went home in a daze. She couldn't believe that she had just met and chatted with them. As she lay in bed telling Jungkook about her evening, she could barely recall what she had said to them, and she just hoped that she hadn't embarrassed herself. It was one of those moments where she reflected on what her life had become and couldn't believe that it was real.
The next day some of the members of BTS were taking a break at work.
"Anna-Noona's trending again."
"In a good way or..."
"Good! Don't worry, Jin-Hyung. A fan at the concert recognised her and recorded her fangirling and now, well, everyone's loving it. Stray Kids fans. ARMY. Everyone."
Jimin cocked his head and furrowed his brows.
"ARMY likes seeing our soulmate fangirling over other Idols?"
"Apparently, yes."
"Interesting."
Taehyung spoke up from where he was resting his head on Jimin's shoulder.
"I guess it makes her more real to them, more relatable, because of course she will be a fan of other artists."
"After her first episode of Anna's Adventures aired, I didn't think she could be any more relatable, at least to ARMY. They seemed to love watching her being quizzed about her soulmates."
"And getting things wrong you mean."
"Exactly. While it's impressive when fans seem to know everything about BTS, I don't expect every fan to remember all of that stuff!"
Taehyung noticed Anna about to enter the room behind the others.
"But that's just for fans, our soulmate should get everything right."
"Hyung! How can you say that?"
Anna made herself known and sat down beside Jungkook.
"Tae's just joking, right?"
The singer nodded enthusiastically whilst trying to hide his grin.
"I thought Noona did amazingly."
"That's our Kookie, always teasing his Hyungs, but unable to say anything against his beloved Noona."
"Why would I want to, Hyung? Anyway, Noona's perfect."
"Perfect for us."
"You guys are too much."
"That's not what you said last night."
All the boys started snickering as Anna rolled her eyes, even Jungkook hid his face in her hair. She patted the Maknae on the leg before getting up.
"Boys. Well, I better get back to work. Can I use your studio, Kook?"
Jimin ran his hand through his hair as he smirked at Anna.
"She has to use Jungkookie's because Namjoon-Hyung and Yoongi-Hyung are using theirs."
"What about Hobi-Hyung's?"
"Too distracting."
"What do you m-"
Anna stepped forwards and pointed at the dancer.
"Yah! You can't say anything Park Jimin."
From his seat, Jin reached out and grabbed Anna's arm and pulled her to sit sideways on his lap.
"I was pleasantly surprised when Hoseok told us what you two had gotten up to in his studio. What a long way our girl has come."
"Jin!"
"Maybe I'll be able to convince you to try out the dance studio."
"You just want to look at yourself in the mirror."
"Well... then we can both look at my handsome face."
She raised one hand to Jin's face and leaned in to give him a kiss.
"I'll look forward to that day."
After giving him a peck on the lips, Anna patted his cheek before standing up and heading for the door.
"Does that mean - was that a yes?"
All four of the boys turned towards the door in anticipation of her answer and she just winked at them before leaving. Outside the room, she giggled to herself. Sometimes she still got nervous when it came to things like teasing her soulmates and talking about intimacy. She also felt silly about feeling that way, but when she thought back to when she was scared to even kiss them, she realised how far she had come.
As she walked through the building to where Jungkook's studio was, Anna ran into Taehyun and Hueningkai from TXT and started singing to them.
"Good boys gone bad, good boys gone bad, good boys gone bad, good boys gone bad."
"Hello, Anna-Noona!"
"You've listened to our new song?"
"Yeonjun showed it to me. You boys excited for next week?"
"Yep! But also, a little nervous, I hope MOA like this new concept."
"I love it, so I'm sure they will."
"Thanks, Noona."
"I'll leave you to get back to work. Fighting!"
"Oh, wait, Noona?"
"Yes, Kai?"
"Next time you and Yeonjun-Hyung have one of your English chats, can I join you?"
"Of course, you can. It might be a while until we can find a time in our schedules when we're both free, but you're most welcome."
"Thank you, Anna-Noona."
In Jungkook's studio, worked for a couple of hours before her youngest soulmate came to check on her. He wrapped his arms around her over the back of the chair and leaned down to give her a kiss.
"What are you listening to, Noona?"
"A podcast. This YouTuber who does K-pop reactions started a podcast where she has a different guest each time. This time it's an interviewer, um, Liam... McEwan, who's interviewed you a lot."
"Ah, the hair guy! Cool. What are they talking about?"
"How amazing you are?"
"Noona! Seriously, what's it about?"
"How amazing BTS is."
"Oh."
"It amazes me how you're still not used to people talking about how great you are."
"I don't think I ever will. What are you drawing?"
"Graphic ideas for Anna's Adventures."
"Aren't the staff doing that?"
"Yeah, but I had some ideas I wanted to contribute."
"Noona likes multitasking then."
"Oh, listening to the podcast is like a vacation for my brain. I hadn't realised how much it had been working to talk and understand Korean all the time. Listening to something in English is refreshing."
"I'm sorry, Noona."
"What? Why?"
"We should work harder to speak English with you."
"Oh, no, sweetie. I wasn't complaining, just stating an observation."
"Still, I'm sorry I'm not better at English. It's not fair on you."
"It doesn't bother me. Me and Yeonjun have started having our catchup lunches in English. I'm fine, okay? And besides, your English is pretty good."
"But Joon-Hyung -"
"Is not a good example to compare yourself to. The guy is a genius."
Jungkook pouted but didn't argue any further on the subject.
"So, have you finished working?"
"The work is never finished, but I could stop for today. Why?"
"I was thinking that we could cause a distraction in here?"
"What do you - Jungkook!"