Sarang was riding on the explosive success of her new EP Lethal Love. It hasn't been that long since the album came out but it had already broken several records and was going viral. Sarang constantly got calls from her friends and seniors telling her how good the album was and how the concept suited her a lot.
Following the rising popularity of the album Sarang was invited to attend several Late Night talkshows in US. She was super nervous when her manager told her about it last week, BTS had sat her down and given her tips since they already had been on several shows themselves.
One thing Namjoon repeated several times was to be cautious of what she says as the interviewers would ask lots of unrelated and controversial questions that will land Sarang in hot waters with the Korean public or even her fans. He told her not to expect much since the interviewers sadly only ever asked dumb questions and rarely asked about their music and album.
Armed with the knowledge and tips her friends had given her, Sarang flew to America. The first show was with Ellen DeGeneres. Sarang tried to calm herself down as she waited to be called in. She brushed off the front of her black dress slightly, making sure she looked presentable
Sarang had opted to wear black or dark colored clothes for her promotion of Lethal Love to go with the dark theme.
Soon the staff signalled her to be on standby and soon enough Sarang heard Ellen's voice.
"Today we have a special guest who came from a far away place, let's welcome our beautiful guest!"
As Sarang stepped into the studio, the audience erupted into cheers and people were calling her name from every direction. Sarang smiled and waved at them all before taking her seat in front of Ellen.
"First of all let's have introductions, introduce yourself." Ellen pointed at Sarang.
"Hi everyone, I'm Sarang. It's a pleasure to see you guys." Sarang smiled sweetly at the audience earning a round of "awww" from them.
"I have an interpreter here with me just in case, but from what I can tell you speak English right? Pretty well. " For some reason Sarang felt like instead of complimenting Ellen was mocking her, but she brushed it off.
There's no way a professional talk show host would do something like that.
"How did you learn it? Personal classes with RM? " As Ellen said this, she gave Sarang a weird smirk that made Sarang feel pretty uncomfortable. She didn't miss what Ellen was insinuating when she said personal classes.
"I actually used a similar way like Namjo- RM did and taught myself English by watching shows, movies and documentaries." Sarang had to correct herself when she almost said Namjoon instead of his stage name.
This wasn't Korea, she strictly was advised to use stage names as a lot of people didn't know their real names.
"Oh what's your favorite movie or show then?" Ellen asked curiously.
"There are plenty of movies and shows that I like but if I have to pick just one I'd say Pride and Prejudice? Yeah I love all versions of it." Sarang happily replied. She had watched all of the versions and has read the book countless times.
"I saw online that you like Harry Potter as well? What's your house and who is your favourite character?" Ellen seemed to be more interested in side talks.
"I'd say Hermione is my favorite character. She's amazing honestly. As for the house I took the quiz and turns out I'm Slytherin so yeah."
Sarang loved talking about Harry Potter. She'd usually talk about it for hours, but right now Sarang wanted to answer questions related to her music only.
After another ten minutes of pointless questions like what's her favorite color, what's her favorite food, is she a cat person or a dog person, Ellen asked her the most uncomfortable question ever.
"So I heard you're close with BTS? Especially the younger members, is that true?"
Sarang had a hunch where Ellen was leading the question to though she had no choice but to go along with the flow. So she replied with a curt "yes."
"Are you guys just friends or like friends with-?" Ellen trailed off, not finishing what she was about to say. Sarang wasn't sure what exactly that meant but judging from the way audience was gasping Sarang figured it wasn't a good thing.
Ellen must have seen the confusion on her face cause she elaborated, and Sarang's face morphed into one of scandalized horror.
"Oh heavens no!" Sarang exclaimed. Ellen just laughed and kept making jokes about a possible intimate relationship between Sarang and one of the members while Sarang tried to deny and clear things up to the best of her ability.
She had never felt more disgusted and uncomfortable in an interview before.
Ellen calmed down after a bit and then finally asked Sarang about her new music.
"Your new album 'Lethal Love' is out and it's doing really well. Do you think you can surpass BTS? I mean you must feel jealous of them right? They're doing very well right now" Ellen wondered, looking like she knew how much uncomfortable Sarang was, but not paying any heed to it.
"We don't see each other as competitions. We think of each other think as family, they're my closest friends, I feel extremely happy when they succed. Would you be jealous of your family and dear ones succeeding? I've never thought of 'beating' BTS or any other artists for that matter. All I want to do is spread love and share my music with people, so that I can be a source of comfort and fun to people."
Sarang was appalled that someone would even think of such things about her and BTS. Why'd you compete and get jealous over your loved one's success? They were usually the first ones to congratulate each other whenever one of them achieved something. Sarang was getting increasingly angry at these questions.
It has been thirty minutes since the shooting started and Ellen was yet to ask her a question related to her new music. Looks like Joon was right. Maybe sensing how annoyed Sarang was feeling, Ellen finally, finally asked her questions about her music.
Just two fucking questions; "Tell us a bit about your new album." and "What was the inspiration behind it." That's it.
As Sarang sat in her manager's car, she was furious. She was ranting the whole way through to the hotel. Her manager being equally pissed off, but she remained silent.
"Can you believe it unnie? Out of hundreds of questions she could have asked me she asked why my favorite color was?" Sarang exclaimed incredulously.
"I don't want to come here ever again unnie. Please tell the marketing team to never accept an invitation from here. I didn't think Ellen would ask me such ridiculous questions. I was here to promote my music and she asked me who I hooked up with in BTS?" Sarang continued her rant.
Unfortunately, most of the late night shows asked the same boring, repetitive and unrelated questions. The only hosts Sarang liked were Jimmy Fallon and James Corden. Jimmy especially was kind and sweet to her and asked her plenty of thoughtful questions.
Though the start of her US TV appearances was a mess she was glad that atleast by the end of it things worked out well.
Once the shows aired her fans and locals alike were mad at all the stupid and indecent questions that were asked. Ellen especially received massive hate for her treatment, considering how she had mistreated BTS in previous interviews too.
As the promotion for her album ended Sarang geared up for her world tour. Getting ready to spend the next few months touring and performing.
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A/N:- I wanted to write Sarang on Jimmy but I figured with how bad the interviewers were in 2017-2019 with BTS especially Ellen, it made sense that Sarang also face such difficulties.
On a side note, Jimmy Fallon is the only late night show host I prefer to interview tannies. Maybe sometime in future I'd write a positive interview 😂
Hope you guys liked this chapter 💗
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