March 10, 2020
Bella watched BTS as they danced the opening sequence to Boy with Luv. As Yoongi had suggested, they all had caps on except Bella.
They started with the jacket flip into the alternate shoulder lift, transitioning into the blade roll and then onto the ‘come here peep’ by Taehyung and finally the stage exits.
Jimin took center stage asking a girl to tell her how her day went, with Hobi and Jake assisting him. Taehyung took over the vocals, followed by Jin.
The five of them formed a diagonal line and were later joined by Namjoon and Yoongi. They all did a double body wave straight into full on hip thrusts with Jin asking the girl to be his teacher.
They broke formation only to come back together with Jake in the center with more hip thrust actions.
Bella prepared herself. She would be entering the formation soon. BTS did a few more steps and at the pre-chorus, Bella entered the dance just as Jimin sang ‘Yeah you’re making me a boy with love.’
At ‘Oh my my my, Oh my my my’, she danced between Jake and Jimin continuing on until her exit at the turn just before Yoongi’s rap.
She stood outside of the camera lens, waiting for her next entry after Jin’s solo with the members bending their heads to avoid his hand.
Jin sang ‘Yeah you’re making me a boy with love’ and Bella entered the formation again. She was in between Jake and Jimin at first then beside just Jake as they transitioned into the next formation.
At ‘Oh my my my, Oh my my my’, she danced beside Jimin into the body rolls to the left and then the right. Hobi designed a quick bit for her and Taehyung in the next part as he sang ‘Love is nothing stronger’. She then danced the foot stomps beside Jin and into the jumps. She slowly made an exit as BTS ‘freestyled’ into Namjoon’s rap.
She kept alert as she would enter again soon once Namjoon led the group to kneel and she and Jin would be the ones left behind standing.
Jin handed her a rose and they broke formation again into a ‘freestyle’ only to come together back into a line. Bella danced between Jin and Jimin and later just beside Jimin alone as the others condensed into a circle around them.
Finally, it was the last formation and Jake spun to dance the foot stomps beside Bella into the ending sequence where they all turned their backs to the camera and raised their right hands into the ‘ILY’ sign.
They held that pose for ten more seconds then broke formation.
They quickly rushed to Bella’s phone and watched their performance on playback.
“That was a good take, I think.” Jake declared. “Let’s do the one with Bella hiding her face?” To Bella, he said, “I think I’ll send a copy of this to my mom. She would enjoy it.”
Bella responded by kissing him on the lips and went to wear her hat and face mask for the next video.
After Jin picked up the rose he threw earlier, he ran to his initial position in the back beside Namjoon and gave Bella the okay sign.
“Okay guys, here we go.” Bella pressed play on Hobi’s phone and the song came alive once again on the Mang bluetooth speaker.
She listened for her signals to enter and exit the formation, dancing alongside them as she had done so many times that night.
By the time they had completed the dance, they all rushed again to watch the video. It too was a good take but Hobi asked them to redo it two more times.
None of this was surprising to any of the members, even to Bella, who had already come to know of this meticulous side of Hobi. Clearly, he deserved the awe that came with being J-Hope. It was laid out for all to see that he was the undisputed driving force behind the near perfect delivery of their choreography. He did not further his skill by being complacent.
And so it was that they performed at least two more times. They were sweating despite turning up the A/C in the living room.
“Now that was a work out!” Bella exclaimed. “And I wasn’t even dancing the whole time.”
Jake came to sit beside Bella on the marble floor. “This is pretty much how we film MVs, baby. Just over and over again but we’re expected to always give it the same intensity as we did the first time. It’s damn exhausting but this is the life we signed up for.”
Jimin went to sit on Bella’s other side. “I tend to be happy that we have an MV to shoot for. That means we’re releasing another single or another album. That’s always good news to me.”
“It means we still have a job.” Taehyung grinned.
“If only we were as gifted as the hyungs who can produce, rap, write and make good music.” Jimin said to Bella.
“I fully agree with that, Jimin-hyung.” Jake nodded.
“Don’t let his modesty fool you, puppy.” Taehyung countered. “Kookie does write music. He just doesn’t do it as much as the hyungs but he does. Listen to Magic Shop and My Time. Plus, I know he’s working on one single now. And us maknaes actually do have a hand in songwriting. Don't think we don't 'coz the Hyungs wouldn't be happy to hear these things.”
Bella looked at Jake and narrowed her eyes at him. “You know, I initially thought he was a songwriter.” She confessed to the other two.
Jake rubbed the back of his neck. “I never actually said that I was exclusively that, baby. What I said was that I was in the Korean music industry. When you asked me if I wrote songs, I said ‘something like that’.
Bella chuckled. “Fine, it’s my fault for reaching then. But ultimately, I felt that there was something off about the songwriter excuse soon enough.”
Jake rubbed her shoulder. “That’s why you asked me about it at the park and here we are now.”
“I think we got it.” Hobi finally signed off on the video. Claps of approval were heard.
“Let’s relax in the pool, you guys!” Jimin suggested.
“I’m so down with that.” Jin agreed.
Bella removed her face mask and cap. “Join you guys in a minute. I need to change into a suit.”
“Actually, if we all don’t mind, I was thinking of recording us dancing Idol with Bella. And if we’re up to it, Black Swan too.” Hobi spoke up.
When no one said anything, he continued. “No time like the present, right?”
“I’m down for anything! We’d still be doing our 17-hour practice sessions if we weren’t here anyway.” Namjoon shrugged.
Yoongi stood up. “I actually agree. Why not?”
“Let me amend both dances to accommodate her. Idol is pretty straight forward so let’s start with that. Just give me a minute to rethink the choreography.” Hobi instructed.
Three more hours later, all of them were finally swimming and splashing about in the pool. Taehyung and Namjoon headed for the jacuzzi first.
“I liked that improv on the Idol opening sequence, Hobi-hyung. I get to do it with my baby.” Jake grinned.
“It was like watching an instructional video for male and female body rolls.” Jimin teased.
“I said it before and I’ll say it again, when Bella performs that part, its just hawt!” Hobi roared.
“Hyung!” Jake splashed Hobi with water. “As Army says, here’s some Hobi water.”
“Can’t say Hobi and Jiminie’s observations are wrong. It did add a nice new twist to that dance.” Jin commented.
“I still want P to be my stand-in when we perform that. Idol is too jumpy for my old bones.” Yoongi reminded everyone of his wish.
“Yoongi-oppa! You still have so much rhythm and great music sense in that body of yours.” Bella told him.
“He’s just a little lazy cat, Corgi. Don’t mind his comments.” Hobi waved him off.
“We better keep those videos hidden, at least the Idol and Black Swan ones. People might ask us if we secretly have an eighth member.” Jin warned.
“Even if they see those videos, Jin-hyung, we can say for certain that we don’t have an eighth member. Puppy’s Yeontan-sized remember? She’s basically the 7.5th member.” Taehyung teased.
Bella’s jaw dropped at his comment. “Oh my god, V-oppa!”
“Come to think of it, his comment wouldn’t be too far off. Remember Dusit Thani and that Valentine’s Day near-fiasco?” Jimin reminded them.
Jake pulled Bella into a hug as she fake-cried. She wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs onto his waist.
