Beyond The Story

Chapter 4

WINGS

YOU NEVER WALK ALONE

The "Dumpling Incident" between V and Jimin is one of the most famous BTS anecdotes, known to practically every member of the fandom. V and Jimin even referenced the incident in their duet "Friends" from the February 2020 full-length album MAP OF THE SOUL: 7 with the lyrics "The dumpling incident's a comedy."

In actuality, "incident" is almost too serious a word. As V and Jimin explained to fans many times, they had a disagreement about when to eat mandu dumplings—V wanting to eat during choreography practice and Jimin after practice—and had a brief argument that ultimately only deepened their friendship. In the greater context of BTS, however, this fun but minor incident was more than just a funny memory: it was a reflection of their circumstances circa 2016.

V had wanted to eat during practice because he had been shooting the period drama Hwarang: The Poet Warrior Youth all day and hadn't had a chance to eat. His role on the show was just one of the many new opportunities offered to BTS in 2016 thanks to the runaway success of THE MOST BEAUTIFUL MOMENT IN LIFE series. Premiering on December 19, 2016, Hwarang had the Monday-Tuesday evening primetime slot on KBS, the national broadcaster of South Korea, and also featured then-rising star Park Seo-joon. It was clear to V, BTS, and everyone else that appearing on the show would bring BTS even further into the mainstream.

The problem was scheduling. Unlike with many other Korean TV series, production on Hwarang wrapped completely before the premiere, with the shoot starting in March 2016 and ending in early September the same year. This overlapped almost precisely with BTS's preparations for their second full-length album, WINGS. It was not unusual for members of idol groups to have overlapping independent and team commitments, but between 2015 and 2016, BTS had reached a new milestone in popularity— and not just in Korea.

To give an idea of their meteoric rise, the release of the album THE MOST BEAUTIFUL MOMENT IN LIFE PT.2 in November 2015 coincided with THE MOST BEAUTIFUL MOMENT IN LIFE ON STAGE tour,

which took the team to three cities in Korea and Japan. Then THE MOST BEAUTIFUL MOMENT IN LIFE ON STAGE: EPILOGUE tour, which

followed the release of THE MOST BEAUTIFUL MOMENT IN LIFE: YOUNG FOREVER album, took the team to seven locations across Asia from May to mid-August 2016, with only about a week between concerts to move on to the next location. Compared to the previous year, their schedule was jammed.

V recalls this period:

I was doing both the tour and the Hwarang shoot, so whenever we briefly flew back to Korea, I had to rush straight to the set. It was supposed to be a bit of a break for us back home, but I had to go shoot the drama. When the others asked, "Hey, you all right?" I'd say, "I gotta do this" and head to the shoot, and when the people on set asked, "You can really do this while you're on tour?" I'd say, "I'm fine" and go on camera ... and then I'd go back to the tour.

Doing double duty on the tour and the Hwarang shoot was excruciating for V. He was pushed to his physical limits, but even more challenging was the fact that he had to juggle two completely different kinds of work. Onstage as an idol, he was free to express himself, riding the support of the audience to show off a completely new side to himself each time. However, shooting a TV show required him to perform multiple near-identical takes of the same sequence with his costars, one after another. V explains: