Anna had been waiting for this day for what felt like forever. Today was, finally, the day of BTS's concert in London. It had been a whole year since the concert had originally meant to of taken place. At the time Anna had only been an ARMY for a few months, but she had fallen hard into the BTS universe and was devastated when they had to postpone their tour.
Of course, it was understandable. The whole world had gotten sick, and it took a long time before anyone realised why. The sickness seemed very random at first, no one under 30, usually people who were single, but sometimes some who were married. Eventually, someone figured it out: soulmates. It was affecting people over 30 who hadn't met their soulmates.
Soulmates always seemed like a dream. A beautiful tale. However, when tattoo-like rings began appearing on people's ring fingers, that was the most obvious sign. A sign of fated love. As time passed it was realised that when you are near your soulmate you will feel a unique feeling, which was a symbol of your connection to your soulmate. Then when you kiss your soulmate unique rings will appear like tattoos on your ring fingers.
After it was announced that those who have yet to meet their soulmates by the age of 30 were at risk of getting the sickness, many people panicked, and the search began.
Luckily, Anna was only 25, she didn't feel the need to panic yet. However, she was a little worried for certain members of BTS. Jin was 28 and had yet to find his soulmate. Anna was sure they would announce it because many ARMYs were worried about him and about Yoongi who is only a few months younger.
Anna pushed these thoughts and her worries aside. Today was a happy day.
A month before she had gotten an email from BigHit which included a questionnaire they wanted her to fill out as someone who had a ticket to one of BTS concerts on this world tour. The email was rather vague on what they would do with the information they gathered from the questionnaires, but Anna glanced over the questions, and they looked harmless. There weren't many questions and she doubted they wanted an essay, so she began to answer the questions.
1) How did you become a fan of BTS?
I became a fan of BTS after watching them on James Corden's Carpool Karaoke. I remember hearing Jungkook sing his solo part in ON, and I thought who is the beautiful one singing those stunning high notes. After that, I watched their performance of ON in Grand Central Terminal on Jimmy Fallon's show and was blown away by their dancing and I've been ARMY ever since.
And proceeded to watch every BTS video on YouTube. Anna thought. At times she felt a little guilty at some of the stuff she watched as if it was invasive to study the boys' lives like that, but she rationalised that she probably wasn't any different to any other ARMY. In fact, sometimes Anna wasn't sure she should call herself ARMY. I still haven't listened to some of their old mixtapes. That was something she felt particularly bad about, but she justified it with the fact that there is so much BTS content. Or watched a lot of their old V Lives. Bad ARMY. Shaking her head, she moved on to the next question.
2) Who is your bias and bias wrecker?
I would say Jungkook is my bias, but then Suga, Jimin, J-Hope, V, RM and Jin are my bias wreckers. Jungkook was the member who made me ARMY, but I fell in love with each member individually.
This was something Anna struggled with, when she first became ARMY honestly there wasn't a single member who really stood out to her. Other ARMYs said it would become apparent with time, but for Anna, it didn't. Instead, she always goes with the order that she fell in love with them, therefore making Jungkook her bias, or sometimes Anna says she is OT7.
3) If you could send a message to the members, what would you say?
Don't hurt yourselves trying to make a perfect performance for ARMY. You are already perfect to us. If you mess up, to us it is proof that you are human and not Gods or Angels. It would only make you more real to us and make us love you more. We understand why you do it but seeing you all in pain because of us only makes us hurt too.
This was something Anna thought about after seeing the backstage videos of the members collapsing after performances, or sometimes almost on stage. She couldn't understand why they would think ARMY would want them to hurt themselves like that. Performances for shows were different, they were for everyone, but concerts were for ARMYs, and ARMY loves BTS no matter what.
4) Have you ever studied music or played an instrument?
I studied music at GCSE and A-level (up until age 18). I played the flute at school in orchestra and wind bands. I love to sing and have joined choirs, but I have never had lessons.
Anna sighed. She truly loved to sing, and she wished she had the confidence to pursue it as a career.
5) What does music mean to you?
Music is feeling. What I love most about BTS's music is the emotion they convey. Without knowing Korean or looking up translations of the lyrics, I can still understand the meaning of the songs. Music means everything to me.
Anna's favourite thing to do was to turn on some music nice and loud and just sing her heart out.
6) Do you speak Korean?
I have been teaching myself Korean for the past year, but I am not fluent.
Anna frowned at this question. She did French for six years in high school, but she could never put together a sentence. She obviously wasn't meant to speak more than one language. Why do I have to suck at languages?
7) Have you found your soulmate?
No.
Anna paused at the last question. Why are they asking about soulmates?
-
All the members of BTS were relaxing in their dorm's lounge. They were enjoying their day off after working so hard the past few weeks. The three youngest members were sitting together when they all nodded at each other before turning towards the rest of the room.
"So, what's the plan?"
The older members looked at Jungkook. Jin and Namjoon shared a glance after noticing the Maknae's determined expression. Hoseok looked at the Maknae-line with a furrowed brow before turning to the others to see if they knew what Jungkook was asking about. He saw Jin and Namjoon's glance. So, they know what this is about. Yoongi was curled up in one of the armchairs, appearing to be asleep, but no one was surprised when he spoke up.
"My plan is to enjoy a day of peace and quiet."
Jin cut off the youngest three before they could start grumbling.
"Plan?"
Jimin and Taehyung perked up at the question before answering.
"The plan, Hyung."
"To find our last soulmate."
Jin knew this conversation was going to happen at some point, but it wasn't one he was excited to have. The fact that his age could be their downfall, that he was causing the rest of the members to worry, sometimes the guilt kept him up at night.
Yoongi was the one to answer. He always seemed calm and cool-headed; it was as if he had been expecting this question.
"We've got two years to find them."
"Hyung, it's been nine years since we became seven. We haven't found them in the past nine years, and you think they will magically appear in the next two without us doing anything?"
Namjoon, as the leader, was generally level-headed and used to being the mediator.
"Watch your tone, Jungkook."
"Sorry, Hyung."
"However, Jungkook has a point. We need to be proactive about this. I'm not certain if our Idol status will help or hinder our search, but either way, the world is a big place. We should start looking now."
He looked at Jin sitting next to him, who gave him a small smile. Namjoon took his hand and gave it a squeeze before addressing the room again.
"Does anyone have any ideas?"
Namjoon looked around the room, all the members had thoughtful looks on their faces. How do we even begin our search? The room was silent for a few minutes before Hoseok suddenly perked up.
"Our tour! We have our world tour starting in a few months, perhaps we can use that in some way."
Some of the other members nodded at this suggestion. It was a place to start.
"A questionnaire."
Everyone turned to Taehyung with question marks on their faces, while Yoongi spoke up.
"Can you elaborate, Tae?"
"We could ask the ARMY's who will be attending our concerts to fill in a questionnaire designed by us. Music is our special connection, so we use that to narrow it down. Then for the chosen one at each concert, we declare they have won a meet & greet with us."
The room was silent as the other members pondered over Taehyung's idea. Jimin jumped on Taehyung, wrapping his arms around him and giving him a kiss on the cheek.
"Genius!"
"Thank you, Jiminie."
While the older members looked on at the pair's cute moment, Jungkook leaned forward eagerly.
"What questions should we ask?"
The members began to think seriously about what questions they should ask to find their soulmate and then Yoongi smirked before answering.
"What does music mean to you?"