A Year to Change Your Lives

Chapter 9

Welcome to day 22 of a world tour. Would this be the day when it all soured for her? Reader rubbed her eyes miserably and tried to mentally count down the days until they returned to Seoul. Or at least, to guess when she might see a full eight hours sleep in one single sitting.

Reader was dog tired, more tired than she'd ever been. Any tired before had been fixable with one good meal, a few cups of tea and a night's comfortable sleep. But this kind of tired needed a rest at home, a week of no alarms and a hot languid sandy beach holiday.

"What did he say?" she asked Laura, eyes closed against the brightening sun of the day.

"I have no idea, I don't speak Portuguese." Replied Laura with a yawn.

They'd arrived at Concessionaria Airport at Rio de Janeiro and been hustled into a car. From there, Laura and Reader had no idea if they were headed to a hotel, a studio or a concert and the driver's interspersed chatter wasn't helping them. At this point, it wouldn't matter. Wherever they ended up, they'd just try to find a place to lay their heads for a few hours. The journey here had been over night and only six hours which hadn't left much room for sleep, making it the fifth night in a row that had been lacking.

Despite the acute sleep deprivation, the international tour had been everything she'd thought and hoped. It has surprised her and at every step of the way and had been punctuated with high and low points of the most primitive type. She'd been starving, parched, desperate for the toilet all the time. Too cold and too hot in the space of 24 hours was standard. Stiff and sore, a constant complaint. But then, she was collecting memories which made her eyes fill up when she thought of the pleasure they had brought her, that would live long in the memory. She and Laura bouncing on a fluffy white bed the size of most rooms, flopping down and laughing. The way she'd felt when she'd walked into the empty Rose Bowl Stadium in California right before the boys filled it up with screaming fans. The jubilation on Hoseok's face when she'd nailed the entire routine for Go Go in practice one day. She and Jungkook had taken a run through a foothills pass on an idle day in Peru and seen the sunrise over the grasslands; Reader thought she might never see anything so beautiful again. The connection she felt with her 8 constant travelling companions grew stronger and stronger with each passing day, and although their opportunities to spend time together were few and far between, it made them all the more intense.

She saw now too, the beauty of the relationship the members of BTS had with each other. Any arguments or conflicts within the group dynamic had been whittled down to a handful of words and some gentle cautioning from the other members. Big problems so rarely occurred that the boys would actually flag it up to the always-present camera crew so that they could capture the process. They cared for each other deeply, as was the likely result when they had been each other's constant family for almost a decade. The roost was ruled by Namjoon, Jin – who was the eldest – and Yoongi who assumed a motherly caring role for the younger and more chaotic babies of the group. Together they raised their heads occasionally to govern and mentor the team, keeping everyone on message and in good order.

Hoseok seemed the most independently minded of the group and, as he was loved for, he spread his natural cheer to everyone he walked past or spoke to in the smallest of ways. A glowing smile thrown to a shattered colleague or little jig to break the ice in an interview. More than anyone, Hobi clapped Reader on the back and bucked up her dwindling spirits, giving constantly of himself to others and needing little in return except the mirroring of his own smile.

The young vocalists were living the very best versions of their own life. They had boundless energy for the work that they did and for the fans who loved them. They took from their own free time regularly to update ARMYs on their movements, their mood and the antics throughout the tour.