BTS In Wonderland

They're Korean!!

It's a beautiful afternoon. The sun is shining through the small circular window at the top of the wall. My room was in the attic, up at the top of the hall and away from the other room. We had cleaned the attic out a few years ago so I could move in. All of the things we collected over the years, plus all of our holiday items were moved into my old room.

The walls of the attic are covered with posters, photo cards and the shelves are lined with a series of cd albums and merchandise from my favorite boy band. Their latest released song "Not Today" playing in the background, as I was laying on my bed enjoying the feeling of reassurance that I can do anything.

"Jessica!!! What are you doing?" My mom yells from down the hallway.

"I'm listening to-"

"I know that Japanese or Chinese band again," My mom says cutting me off.

"Yes, mom. BTS." I said sarcastically. "They're Korean, mom," I add in a fit of frustrated since we've been over this a million times.

"Why don't you go outside and play with the neighborhood kids? You're turning as white as your boy band" my mom snaps back, " and watch your tone, missy!"

I flop over on to my stomach and yell into my pillow. I was frustrated that my mom still didn't get it. I had a sense of pride when it came to BTS. They had given me something to work towards in my life. I went to work every day after school, that way I can buy merch and albums. I have even been teaching myself Korean, so that I can understand their lyrics. The thing I was most excited about was that their concert announcements was coming and I needed to make sure I had enough money.

"Cause they don't like me, mom. I am tired of being around people who make fun of me every day." I reply with a sigh.

"If you stop talking about the Asian boys, I'm sure they would stop teasing you, and you'd make friends. Your life shouldn't revolve around them."

"THEY ARE KOREAN, MOM! You wouldn't understand!" I snapped at my mom.

I had enough! How hard was it to remember they were Korean. K-pop stood for Korean Pop music. I was sick of my mom always calling then Chinese or Japanese. My mom knew they were Korean; I only told her a million times. I knew she was doing that on purpose to egg me on.

"That's it! You're grounded!" I heard my mom stomp away in a fit of anger.

"UGH!!" I breathed a sigh of relief listening to her walk away.

She had given up and was going to leave me alone. Only to my surprise, I started to hear her stomping start up again, get closer and louder. My eyes had widened in shock when in minutes, my mom swung my room door open, walked into my room with a two big empty box in her hand and then walked over to my BTS collection.

"But mom, please! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell at you. Please don't take my stuff." I pleaded with her.

She remained quiet as she continued. She stood there removing the posters off my wall, then took down my photo cards from my corkboard, and all my albums and merch from my shelves and put them into the boxes. I sat in despair and watching her.

"Mom, can you at least please put them in there nicely? Those are priceless. I paid a lot of money for that collection" I said trying to keep my composure as I was dying internally.

My mom turned and looked at me. If looks could kill, I would have been dead. After about 30 minutes of feeling like my mom dislodged my heart from my chest, I flopped like a rag doll onto my bed.

She looked at me and shook her head as if I was a hopeless closet crackhead. "Go outside and do something with yourself," my mom said to me as she slammed the door behind her.

I stared up at the emptiness which was now my room. I guess I had no choice. I took a deep breath and sighed. I got up and headed downstairs with the little energy that I had left. The energy that I usually get from BTS, I felt had like a vampire named mom had sucked it from me.

I swung open up the back door that leads to our yard. We had about 2 acres of beautiful tall grassy fields. There was a patio close to the house that had a grill, a table, and benches for when we would eat outside. My little brother had toy boxes and a swing set near the end of the house.

Toward the back of the fence, there were a few trees, but my favorite one seemed to have been there for many years. The trunk of the tree was so wide I could barely put my arms around it. My mom said it would cost too much money to have the tree pulled out, so there it stayed forever growing. Every once in a while I would go out and play Hide and Seek with my little brother when the grass got long. We would stay out there for hours playing, but that was back in the days. It had been a while since we did that.

I slowly walked down the stairs to my favorite tree. It was quiet, and my mom couldn't see me hide back there when I needed time to myself - time to myself like I needed now - a place to gather my thoughts and maybe even cry a little.

I started to mull over what my mom had said to me earlier. Maybe I do talk about BTS too much. Perhaps I should take a break from them. They had brought me so much happiness in my time of need. I shook myself out of my thoughts. I didn't want to get on that memory train. The only thing she had left was a picture of my family, in a picture frame, on my dresser.

As I started to approach the tree, I saw a small white rabbit. "Aaaww, how cute. Hey, there little bunny." I said.

The rabbit had stopped and twitched its little nose. The bunny's ears flopped back and forth, and its head was tilted to one side. It was adorable and fluffy. His little cotton tail looked like a puffball. I smiled and wanted to cuddle it.

Without warning, the rabbit winks at me. My eyes grew wide. "Did that rabbit just wink at me?" I said to myself. The rabbit started to hop off, around the tree, and for some unknown reason, I decided to chase after it.

"Wait, bunny! Where are you going?" I said not sure if I wanted a response or not.

I start looking around the big roots of the tree, but I didn't see him. I got down on my knees and brushed my hands around the ground, between crevasses of the tree and in the tall grass, hoping to scare it out.

"What are you doing!?" I hear a deep raspy voice say coming from behind me.

I jumped up and turned completely around. I scanned the area with my eyes as I started to back up, but I didn't see anyone there. I took another step back, and as if I was on a rollercoaster my stomach dropped, and I began to scream. I was falling into a deep dark hole. I desperately reached around me trying to grasp onto something, but nothing was there.

In a panic, I look up at the hole from which I came, and heard a raspy voice echo "see you soon," and then a familiar giggle from someone else.