It is 2015 and Kim Taehyung had just experienced the pressures of being a K-pop idol. His group, BTS, broke through the Korean mainstream media and was enjoying commercial prosperity. But with that success came with a price. To escape the overwhelmi...
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The sky was dark outside and the heavy curtains in his hotel room were drawn closed when his phone rang. The man lying on the bed reached out for his mobile and peered at the time. It was just after 7 pm.
Crap, the man's head shot up as he tore the blanket off his half-naked body and raced to the washroom. He looked at himself in the mirror; his ebony hair tousled, and his face had marks from sleeping on wrinkled sheets. He'd been tossing and turning, drifting in and out of slumber almost all day.
He still would go for a few more winks but he was already late for a dinner meet-up with his agent, who had been calling him non-stop as he saw ten missed calls within fifteen minutes.
He didn't have time to shower, so he would have to settle with a few dabs of Victoria Secret's Love Spell and a few swipes of the comb. He quickly jumped in a pair of ripped jeans, pulled out the nearest shirt he could rummage from the floor, and exited his room.
The fair-skinned man made his way across the grand lobby of the historic Fairmont Royal York Hotel and headed to the Library Bar located inside.
"Jung-kook!" A silver-grey-haired figure signalled from a distance. "Over here!"
"Hey, sorry bud," Jung-kook said as he approached his friend and pulled out a seat at the bar.
"Wow, you look like shit," the agent told the late arrival.
"Gee, thanks Min-woo," Jung-kook chuckled. "I can see how much you love me."
Min-woo studied his companion. Jung-kook used to be the life of the party, but somehow the break-up with his girlfriend took a toll on him.
"I'm serious, Kook," Min-woo said. "You've gotta snap out of it, that's why you are here, more than 6000 miles away from Seoul."
"I know, I know," Jung-kook shrugged, his eyes puffy from crying over his ex.
"Ji-eun hurt you. You should forget about her and focus on you, on your music. Yugyeom, BamBam, and the whole gang are relying on you, and as their leader, you should show that you can overcome this and not let your emotions control you," Min-woo advised his friend.
"Hey, I didn't come here to get a lecture from you. I thought this was supposed to be a mini-getaway especially for me?" Jung-kook asked, raising his eyebrow at his agent.
Min-woo looked at Jung-kook sheepishly. "Well, I just want to check in on you, make sure you're okay. After you haven't returned to Seoul after a week, we were worried."
"Did the Big Boss put you up with this?" Jung-kook interrogated, "Is he afraid of another scandal?"
"No, no," his friend reassured the raven-haired male whose eyes looked tired and his face forlorn.
"Then what is it?" Jung-kook asked, "Because I hardly doubt that my disappearance will cause a ripple in the K-pop industry... It's not like we're that other band for fuck's sake."
"Look here Jung-kook, I understand you hate them, but frankly, you disappearing make it seem you're admitting defeat," Min-woo said.
Jung-kook hated it when his friend could be right.
