A Year to Change Your Lives

Chapter 8

Because of timings, it was decided in the first days of the new year that a press conference would be held in one of the hotels adjoining Seoul's Incheon International airport, to announce and present Reader to the world as the lucky participant of the BTS World Exchange Project. Afterwards, Reader would do a Q&A broadcast from fan's questions taken from twitter.

All of this was happening at the airport because hours after the Q&A session had finished, they would need to get what sleep they could before a 3am departure. First class or not, that was brutal. Reader was excited for this road trip although she knew it would be physically draining. Although her lessons with the boys had sometimes been challenging, they had been regular and punctuated by good sleep, in comfortable surroundings. Touring, they told her, would be a different story.

She saw the boys becoming more and more focused day by day. They'd often leave early and return late. They might request that her lessons be cancelled so they could continue with whichever part of the show they were working on. HYBE's other coaches took over, but Reader never found herself as engaged with the teachers and trainers as she was with her housemates.

Jin, who had neglected his duties when Reader had first come was now frantically trying to make up for lost time by introducing her to social media websites she'd never heard of and teaching her about the art of self-publication. It all seemed a bit frivolous to Reader, when he had a world tour to prepare for, but Jin promised her that she had no idea of the media-storm that was about to hit her.

She received a stern warning from Sung-Ho to "never lose her phone." And if she did lose her phone to format it online, without question and immediately. This, he said, was to protect the boys and so she nodded compliantly.

Days before they were due to leave, Jin was trying to go through live stream scenarios with her but his English and his attention was failing them both and he kept breaking off into Korean to make Laura laugh, which was only too easy where he was concerned.

"Hyung, don't laugh! Teach her." Jungkook lamented, looking up from his laptop. Jin looked from him to Reader wearily. He spoke in whiney Korean for a while which Reader didn't understand but got the gist of all the same. Laura was still giggling so it couldn't be too offensive. He was plainly just bored with her.

Jungkook rolled his eyes. "Okay, I will then. I can do practice some English." He quickly offered. Without a backward glance, Jin scarpered.

Reader didn't mind. Finding little ways to spend time with Jungkook was a highlight of her day. His shyness of the last weeks had given way to an easy camaraderie that she'd been hoping for all along. There was the Jungkook of YouTube and Weverse and TikTok. Finally! Now that she didn't have to be serious around him all the time, she found he was the easiest to make laugh, the easiest to play with, the easiest to talk to. His English, though still a challenge for him, was better than she'd known.

She was sad every morning when they parted after their regular run knowing that she might not see him again at all. Their schedules were becoming so packed that she found herself making invented excuses to stick her head into his rehearsals or call him out of his room. She was embarrassed by herself but not so much that she'd turn down his offer of help on the Q&A.

Jungkook took Jin's place next to her and took the phone.

"Okay. I read, then you talk." He said carefully, grinning.

"Okay." Reader grinner back.

"How do you like where you live now?" He read steadily.

"Korea? Or this house?" she asked.

"Yes!" he decided enthusiastically.

She thought for a minute and then began. "I've only been to Seoul since I arrived, which is an incredible city. The people are so welcoming and vibrant and I've been very happy exploring around where we live and work. But I'm looking forward to seeing more of Korea, I know it's a beautiful country with a rich history." She gave the smallest of bows with her head as she finished.