The seven lads sat looking at the hectic schedule written on the white board at the end of the meeting room.
J-Hope had put his head on the table and Jimin had lost his smile , the others were talking amongst themselves or on their phones .
They already had a busy schedule coming up what with the new song due to be released and now they all had interviews lined up , Suddenly every variety show in Korea wanted them , unlike when they debuted , magazines wanted photo shoots as well, news papers , online media outlets , everyone wanted them and Bang had agreed to them all. In his words " you said you'd fight , so fight "
They all jumped suddenly when Suga shouted "yes!" And everyone looked at him expectantly , he was holding his tablet out for people to see and RM went over to look.
"Our stock prices have gone up by 0.5 and we haven't even started the campaign yet "
This was good news and there were exclamations and cheers all round the room.
'LOVE YOUR TRUE SELF CAMPAIGN' was written atop the schedule list and it had been Jins idea to call it that. They'd previously done a tour and album called love yourself and this was going to be about acknowledging your true self.
Tae and JK had loved it. " right time to go to work guys " said RM looking at the time . " you all know what you're doing and where you're meant to be , you all know what to say , meet back here this evening , dinners on me. Let's do this the way we've always done it, by talking to Army directly "
They all gathered in the room and put their hands on top of each other and did a fighting chant raising their hands to break.
As they were about to leave RM said " one last thing , take security , stay in pairs and make sure your driver knows the password assigned him if you don't recognise him."
With a chorus of yes' they all left , RM, JK and Tae were off to speak to Kwak Yi-kyong , the head of 'Solidarity for LGBT Human Rights of Korea' .
Kwak Yi-kyong had reached out through their agency not long after the Taekook scandle had broken out and Bang had finally agreed.
Jin and Suga were off to give a talk at an informal meet and greet that had hastily been set up , and J-Hope and Jimin off to speak to the head of media at their company.
Every one had a job to do and JK and Tae had felt overwhelmed with gratitude.
Over all things weren't going too badly , there had been a big twitter movement with #kickoutthegays, trending for the last day , but followed right behind had been #welovetaekook and #taekooklove and then just a few more below that #loveyourrealself was also prominent in the hashtag race.
They had ,overnight lost three of their biggest sponsors but in their place five fashion houses had asked the two lads to be ambassadors.
Yves Saint Lauren, Marc Jacobs, Karl lagerfield to name a few , of course Celine and Vogue still loved Tae and now JK also. This had made everyone happy as with each new sponsor, the groups brand stock prices had risen a little bit more .
Every magazine, every news station was reporting on the worlds biggest idol group admitting to having a gay couple, some supporting some not so much but still having to report fairly.
Stars from around the world had shouted out their support ,including Charlie Puth and Snoop dog.
It was a whirlwind week for all of them , each night they met up ,ate dinner and went over each others day.
Some times there had been anger at how they'd been treated and the others would rally round and boost their moral back up again until they felt better , sometimes people had shocked them with their love.
The biggest showing of love that had touched all of the boys had come from China. The Chinese official fan group were known for their elaborate birthday gifts to all the lads , once they'd even changed an airplane to have happy birthday Jimin on !
Well this time they had projected messages of support onto the gate of the orient . This was an outstanding set of towers that meet at the top , there was a picture of JK one side and Tae the other and the LGBTQ rainbow flag was between them . Tae had secretly shed a tear when he saw it .
After a week of this all the boys were exhausted , but as RM had predicted rating were going back up , popularity, and thankfully stock price were rising, Slowly but definitely.
The lads had definitely felt the disappointment of hate from some antis and that had been a hard pill to swallow but over all Army had been amazing, a few Jikook fans had made a bit of a fuss but thank fully no serious death threats.
News of Tae's ordeal had made the headlines also and as far as media could tell ,all fans whether they supported all , some or one had been disgusted by the Sasaeng's behavior .
Taking one of the boys and torturing them was seen as crossing the line.
After seven days of running around and talking till they were hoarse ,RM suggested a v live with their dinner. " Its time " he said .
All of them had been off their own social media since the incident, as had been Bangs instructions, but now things were turning around Bang had decided it was time.
Share prices had risen enough that the company share holders had stopped panicking , and it honestly did seem now like they had weathered the storm, Bang and the other staff no longer looked away and frowned when Tae and JK were sat next to each other or smiling at each other. The power of Army had definitely proven strong too with online being influenced by them.
The love all of the boys had shown Army over the years was now returned to them in support.
In the hashtag wars negative and hateful tags had been buried with the outpouring of love from Army across the globe.
As they all sat around the table Tae spoke quietly to JK. " I'm nervous " he admitted . JK squeezed his hand for assurance. Then he laughed out loud and everyone turned to look at him , " whats funny ? " asked Jin smiling .
" I was just thinking how many yoongie marry me we will get , even more than before I suspect , now ours has come out " a few of the members laughed and Suga rolled his eyes, " I hope not " he said a little embarressed , this just made the other laugh more.
Just then staff brought in a feast of food, some wine and other goodies.
RM opened the wine and poured a little to each member. He then raised his glass and said " a toast " every one raised their glasses , including Tae who was on grape juice as still on medication ,and waited.
" Tae , JK , can I just say congratulations, its been a hard couple of weeks and we are so glad to have you 'Tae' back with us . Our legs ache from all the walking , our voices are hoarse from all the talking but we are still seven , we still have Army and I couldn't be happier for the two of you...cheers "
Jk looked at Tae and they both blushed shyly as everyone repeated cheers.
The Tae stood up , still holding JKs hand
" we honestly both can't thank all you , our brothers enough not only for accepting us but helping us be accepted. At the beginning of this journey we thought it would be us against the world ,but you've all proven we are seven for a reason and we always will be . We love you all from the bottom of our hearts , thank you for everything " JK had stood up next to him and they both bowed low to all the members out of respect .
There was a moment of silence which J-Hope broke by saying jokingly " yeah yeah we're great , let's get on with live " every one laughed and RM pressed the live button.
"Hello, and we are BTS "they all chorused bowing to the camera.
