Big Hit had been teasing something for the past few weeks. Cute images were posted across their social media and everyone started to expect that there was another Grace album coming, even though BTS were amid a comeback. Twitter was aflame with all the ideas and ARMY were trying to see if anything could be hidden in the images by zooming in.
Then on a Friday night, a link was uploaded.
It was a YouTube video which was going to premiere on Sunday afternoon in South Korea. The title of the video: 'Grace Chu - Here In My Arms Mini-Album (Official Live Performance).' This puzzled ARMY and the rest of the world even more as it had been a while since the mini album had been released, on the seven-year anniversary of Seokjin and Grace's relationship.
For Grace, the whole performance was giving her a mixed bag of emotions.
Unbeknownst to everyone, it was the first of many 'last' performances from Grace until she went on maternity leave. Eighteen weeks pregnant and the bump was now full on display, though cleverly hidden by style choices in the early days, but it was getting harder to conceal. It was getting harder to sing and dance, unable to pull off the choreography like she used to.
A meeting had been called to put a plan in motion for BTS to continue their comeback, with Grace still present, but not doing the performances. Her voice would be there, she would still do the interviews and the press conferences and a doctor would be on hand at all times. When 25 weeks came around, she would be put on rest. But for now, while she could still perform, she was going to give ARMY a treat.
A 'see you later' treat and a way to announce her pregnancy.
HYBE's top floor had been cleared and re-done, back to the very basics but hints of pastel colours - ivory, pink, purple, green, yellow, blues, etc. The band that had played with Yoongi during his D-Day tour was drafted in and they, along with Grace, had come up with a small set-list that would do what it needed to do - say goodbye but oh, pregnant!
She was nervous as the hours to the premiere ticked down. The K-Pop world could be unpredictable when it came to idols and their private relationships. Their reaction to her and Seokjin had been more than favourable, but this was something different altogether. They weren't married and the pregnancy had been kind of wanted but also a major surprise.
It had been a major surprise to all the boys when they were given their uncle hoodies.
Grace had banned them from being at HYBE on the day of the performance. It wasn't that she didn't want them there but they were a distraction, having already seen the set the day before and were causing chaos with the flowers that had been brought in. Well, Jimin, Taehyung, Jungkook and Hobi had been causing chaos. Namjoon, Yoongi and Seokjin had been causing chaos by going over the lyrics.
There were a few swear words and obviously, the lyrics were sexually suggestive but that's why this would be a one-off and never done again.
The minutes were ticking by and Grace let out a deep breath, putting a hand on her stomach where there was a slight fluttering. She was standing in the middle of the set, the band behind her with a small orchestra, all dressed in various colours while she was dressed in a pink sparkly dress.
It had been designed to be loose, to hide the bump until she was ready to reveal it. Any camera on her wouldn't be able to tell that she was 18 weeks pregnant, ready to tell the world what she was expecting.
As the premiere ended and the official performance began, ARMY was shocked to see Bang-PD pop up in a recording that had been filmed the day before.
"I'm pleased to introduce to you all, Grace Chu, our female member of Bangtan Sonyeondan. We hope you all enjoy the performance of this amazing album even if we're a bit behind and I hope to see you all in the comments."
It was puzzling and anyone translating had commented that it was such an odd thing to say. Some were beginning to worry that it was going to spell the end of BTS as they knew it.
Finally, the cameras switched for ARMY to see Grace standing here, microphone in hand as the band and orchestra started the intro notes to Positions. The comments started going crazy with everyone watching, each trying to get Grace's attention, not realising she couldn't exactly see them.
The boys, however, in Namjoon's apartment had the performance on his wide-screen TV and could see the comments coming in real-time. Jimin was running a commentary as he held his phone in his hand, his screen showing the comments only as the rest watched along.
They were just as nervous, Seokjin more so. This was going to be a big day with the world knowing their most private news and it was either going to be bad or it was going to be very good. In this idol/K-Pop world, it was hard to know.
So far the comments had been exploding over her voice, how she was glowing and there had been one or two comments who had already suspected what was happening.
"Ah ARMY aren't stupid," Jimin laughed as he pointed out the comment he had quickly screenshotted before it disappeared. "They said this is giving baby vibes and then the other comment said she's going to announce she's pregnant, putting money on it."
"Is there a reason she picked a pink dress?" Yoongi asked, already making note of the particular colour.
Seokjin shrugged, accepting the bowl of food from Hobi who had been sorting out their takeaway food. "I have no idea, we haven't had a gender scan yet. I think the stylists said it was the only material they had which would hide her bump."
Yoongi didn't quite believe it, nor did Seokjin who knew the exact reasoning behind it all.
It was then the most important song came, the boys and everyone holding their breath because it was going to happen within seconds. Staff were ready to start banning, and even lawyers were on standby to start suing.
34+35 started playing, all eyes on the screen as Grace took a breath and stood from the chair she had been sitting in from the previous performance of Safety Net.
"You might think I'm crazy, the way I've been cravin.' If I put it quite plainly," she turned sideways to the camera and smoothed the dress to the now obvious eighteen week bump, "just gimme them babies."
The internet went into utter melt down. Grace carried on with the song, completely unaware of what was happening across various social media pages. All she saw was a thumbs up from Sejin.
Pink confetti started raining down as she got towards the end of the song, finally revealing to the world and to the boys what gender it was.
"You liar!" Yoongi yelled, pointing a finger at a grinning Seokjin.
"Ah I technically wasn't lying, the stylist did pick that material for a reason," the father of a soon-to-be baby girl pointed out, ignoring the rest as they clamoured around him for hugs. Jungkook was crying into Namjoon's chest, blubbering how he was going to be the best big brother ever.
At the end of the performance, at the end of the video, Grace gave the camera finger hearts and patted her stomach with a smile on her face. The screen faded to black with pink wording: Bangtan Baby. Coming April. See you soon.