Chapter Text
April 2016
Maya woke up late. It was half past 9 and she was suppose to teach class in an hour and a half. But Maya couldn’t get out of bed for some reason. Her eyes were open and her mind was awake, but her body was resisting all her attempts to even sit up in her bed. It’s hard to wake up when your inner state is in complete chaos. Maya knew she wasn’t physically tired, but emotionally and mentally she was far beyond exhausted. Maya laid there, thinking about the events from the night before.
Maya’s boyfriend, Caleb, had ditched her again at the restaurant they were supposed to meet at after his work. She waited for 2 hours and then came back home. Caleb eventually came to Maya’s house around 10pm. Apparently he had ran into a friend and they went for drinks and he “totally forgot” he had promised to meet Maya at the restaurant. Maya was angry. This was not the first time Caleb had “totally forgot” about her, and she also knew this was not the last. As expected, they fought till late at night. Cruel words were thrown around and tears were shed (only by Maya). In the end, Caleb promised he wouldn’t do it again. Maya accepted the promise half-heartedly.
Truth be told Maya was far too numb from her relationship. At this point, she was mostly in the relationship because it was what was expected from a girl her age. If it was up to her mom, she would have already been married by now. After all, Maya was 22 and being an immigrant with very conservative and traditional parents, her mom had insisted that she and Caleb start considering marriage. However, Maya knew somewhere inside she was not meant to be with him. She knew this relationship was like a time bomb that was just waiting to explode. But,Maya was afraid that if she broke up with him, she would somehow be in more pain than she already was. Fear of loneliness is bigger than fear of being in a bad relationship.
Meanwhile, Maya somehow was managing her first year in a Ph.D. program for English at University of Central Arkansas (UCA), and working a part time job at Teavana, a shop that sells tea, in a small town in Arkansas, United States. Maya’s life wasn’t that terrible, besides her toxic relationship and her heavy course load. Plus, she was teaching an undergraduate class, which was always a hassle.
Maya finally managed to get off of the bed after a few minutes of intense deliberation of skipping her classes today. She thought about how nice it would be if she didn’t have a class, or didn’t have a paper to write, or wasn’t grading assignments for at least one day. However, this was the life she had chosen for herself. The writer in her wanted to take the long road, and so she did. Getting a Ph.D. in English was not a requirement, but Maya rarely ever did anything easy. Perhaps, having a higher than an average IQ came with its own difficulties.
It’s true, that Maya had taken an IQ test in elementary school, and was apparently in the top 10 percentile. At the time, her parents had wanted their daughter to become a doctor or an engineer and use her advanced brain for something that will get her the big paychecks. But of course, Maya was known to disappoint others. Nothing that her parents planned for her ever worked out in their favor. This is why when she told them she was getting a degree in English, they didn’t even bother convincing her otherwise.
Maya did have something to look forward to today, and it was the fact that she only had one class to teach and then she was free the rest of the day. Of course, the rest of the time would be spent in the library or on her computer working on her thesis, but still, she at least didn’t have to deal with people. This small reason gave Maya the motivation to go to her class, stand in front of her students, and pretend like she knew what she was talking about.
Maya’s class ended smoothly. Besides the usual naive questions that students asked, she was able to get through the material she needed to cover. To Maya, that was what was important, since the students were to have an exam in a few weeks. Maya packed her things and headed out the lecture hall. The building where she had her class was gigantic, and her class was on the fourth floor. She had all her papers in her hand as she was walking. She had forgotten to bring her folder where she usually puts all of her papers, and so she was just trying to carry all of the papers in her hand. However, carrying 100 papers from your Introductory English I class without a clip or a folder is harder than it seems. Especially since she was also carrying her other bag which consisted of books she was reading for her own graduate class.
She continued walking and reached a turn in the hallway. She took a turn and suddenly one of the papers from the stack flew out of her hand and landed farther away from where she was. Her gaze followed the paper and she ran after to grab the paper without dropping the others. She finally reached the paper and so she bent down to grab it. Though, before she could bend down she saw a figure bending down in front of her to grab the paper. The person was a man, and he slowly got back up with the paper in his hand. Maya initially didn’t look up to see who it was, as she was too embarrassed. He extended his hand with the paper to return it back to Maya.
“Here you go” the man said with a thick accent.
Maya slowly accepted “Oh, thank you!” She finally managed to look at the man who had so kindly helped her out. As she managed to look up however, she was surprised to find how beautiful the man looked.
Maya’s mind immediately questioned whether this man was a student here or not. From the look, Maya could tell he was Korean. Maya would know since her entire graduate career was built on studying Korean culture and literature, as her thesis was all about Korean culture and its impact on Korean fiction.
What was most intriguing about the man that was standing in front of Maya at the moment was his hair. Her attention immediately drifted to his hair, as it was bright red, and the way it was styled it made it clear to her that this man was definitely not a Arkansas native. Maya realized she probably had been staring for far too long, and so she decided to cut the silence.
“I am sorry, I just forgot my folder at home today, so I am having to carry all these separately. Thanks for your help! Maya smiled.
The man’s expressions were ambiguous, but when he saw Maya smiling he returned the smile. Maya began to wonder if he understood. He just said, “Ah, no problem!”
Just then another man that was standing behind him called his name “Yah, Taehyung. I think it’s this way!” The person was speaking in Korean. Maya was able to understand their conversation because Maya knew Korean. In fact, despite not being Korean, she had to learn Korean and had to take multiple exams to prove that she can speak Korean for he her thesis. After all, she can’t talk about Korean fiction in her thesis without actually reading Korean books.
But Maya didn’t take interest in just Korea. She was also fascinated by many other cultures. For example, she studied abroad for a whole year in Brazil, when she was an undergraduate, and she also took a trip to Marakesh the summer after she graduated from high school. Maya loved cultures in general, and she was constantly trying to implement different cultures in her writing. In fact, that is exactly why she chose this college, as the program she was well-known for their diverse faculty and interesting work. As much as she disliked some aspects of graduate school, she also knew she was at the right place. Unlike the men in front of her. They all seemed lost.
Maya had picked up on a few different things so far. First, the man that had just helped her was someone named Taehyung. Second, the person talking to him also had very strange hair and there was a whole group of them behind Taehyung. Finally, they all seemed to be looking for a particular place, or at least that’s she picked up from the conversation that was taking place amongst the group.
When Taehyung’s name was called he gently bowed towards Maya and went back to the group of strangely haired guys behind him. Maya stood there a second longer as she couldn’t look away from the group of guys in front of her, but eventually she realized she had a huge stack of papers in her hands and she could not afford to lose them, so she began to walk away.
However, as she began to walk away, someone behind her yelled “Excuse me! Excuse me, ma’am! Maya immediately turned around, because she recognized the voice. She knew it was the same voice. It was the guy, Taehyung.
“Yes?” Maya asked as she saw the entire group staring at her when she turned around. She gulped as she began to realize that each guy looked more handsome than the other with their fancy hair and makeup. Taehyung looked over at the guy with the greenish hair. The guy responded in Korean “Go ahead, you ask her”
Taehyung hesitated, but came up towards Maya with a piece of paper. “Hi...umm...do you know this place?” Taehyung said and extended his hand with the paper. Maya slowly took the paper in her hand.
The paper stated the address to a college. However, the college that was written on the paper was not University of Central Arkansas, it was just University of Arkansas. Along with the address, was also the title of the event that these guys are presumably planning to attend.
“Breaking Down Eastern Cultural Barriers With Kpop ”
Maya was shocked to see the title of the event, since she had heard about the event before from her advisor. In fact, her advisor, Dr. Kelly was the one hosting this event, as Dr. Kelly’s entire literary career was based on writing about East Asian music, and was a well-known figure in the field of cultural studies. Maya knew about her event, but she didn’t plan on attending it since the event was being held at University of Arkansas.
It was at that point that Maya had started putting together all the puzzle pieces. She realized that the strangely haired men were most likely some Kpop idols that Dr. Kelly had invited for the event. Maya knew about Kpop and listened to some of the music , however, she was never a hard core Kpop listener. Her music taste varied from day to day, so despite her thesis being on Korean culture, she wasn’t a fan of any particular groups. Maya knew that Kpop and the Hallyu wave was a great tool to transcend music into cultures, and sometimes Maya wished that Korean literature was also as famous as their music.
Maya suddenly felt more obligated to help them out, not only because they were probably celebrities, but also because her advisor was probably having a panic attack since the guys weren’t there yet and the event was supposed to start in 45 minutes.
Taehyung noticed that Maya was quiet, so he asked his question again “Umm, so do you know this place?
Maya nodded. “Yeah, I know this place...but this place is not here.” Maya looked towards the group who was all staring at each other and then back at her. Suddenly the one with the greenish hair began to walk up towards Taehyung and her. He was a smidge taller than Taehyung and had the most proportionate body Maya had ever seen. As he began walking towards Maya, for some odd reason, she felt a bit nervous. He had an authoritative aura to him.
Maya quickly looked away from him as she noticed he was staring at her. He stood up in front of her with a questioning look on his face. “Hi, I am sorry, were you just saying this place is not here? So...so where is it?” The man spoke more fluently than Taehyung, and barely had an accent.
Maya felt bad. She didn’t know how to tell the man that they were at the completely wrong university. She wondered where their staff was. If these guys were really celebrities, don’t they go around with their staff?
“Umm, well this university is University of Central Arkansas, but the university you are supposed to go to is called University of Arkansas. This college is in Little Rock, and you are currently in a town called Conway.” Maya tried to speak slowly, but she also didn’t want to make it seem like she was trying to dumb it down for them, so she kept a consistent pace.
The man with the greenish hair became distressed. He took a deep breath. The guys in back came up to stand next to him all wondering what was going on. “Namjoon, what is it?” one of them asked in Korean. The man with the greenish hair, whose name was most likely Namjoon, at least that’s what Maya presumed, repeated what Maya said in Korean.
All of the guys became distressed now. Maya felt guilty. She thought about how she could help, but she needed to know for sure if her previous assumptions were true.
“I am sorry, but I am assuming you guys are here for the Kpop event? Correct? The one being hosted by Dr. Kelly?”
Namjoon nodded with enthusiasm. “Yes, that’s exactly why we are here. Can you help us? We are from Korea and we need to attend this. Do you know about this event?”
Maya smiled slightly at how hard Namjoon was trying to speak in English. “Yeah, I know this event. Dr. Kelly is my professor. I am a graduate student here. My name is Maya. I can actually speak in Korean, so we can communicate in Korean if that’s easier.” Maya extended her hand for a handshake towards Namjoon.
The man was still in shock from Maya’s words, but when he saw Maya’s extended hand, he decided to introduce himself.
“Hi, I am Namjoon. You can also call me Rap Mon,” Namjoon says in Korean.
(Author’s note: This is 2016 so Namjoon’s name back then was still Rap Monster)
Namjoon extended his hand to meet with Maya’s hand. Moreover, the moment that changed Namjoon and Maya’s lives forever started here, in a small hallway of a building at University of Central Arkansas.
As Namjoon’s hand touched Maya’s, his gaze met with hers as well. However, as he looked into Maya’s eyes and touched her hand, something extraordinary happened.
Namjoon unanticipatedly found himself in a vortex of images appearing and disappearing all at once, some lasting longer than others, some more faded than others. There were some that had no color to them and some that were extremely vivid. There were some sounds that he could hear, others were just mere murmurs, nothing audible. These images captured his entire attention span as his entire cognitive system flooded it’s resources to the novel stimuli. There was one thing common between all these images. All of them contained him and the woman he was shaking hands with in that moment.
One moment Namjoon was standing on the stage and looked out into the crowd and found the woman looking back at him….he was now suddenly sitting in his studio and turned around and found the woman sleeping on the couch which he kept in his studio... then he suddenly saw himself hugging the woman tightly feeling the same feelings he would feel as if he had just hugged a close loved one...the woman said something, but he couldn’t hear her...He then saw the woman looking at the mirror and crying as she saw herself….”I hate myself” she whispered...next he saw the woman being dragged by several hooded figures through a dark and abandoned looking hallway, as she was crying and screaming for help...he then saw himself on the stage again, this time he was going up to the microphone with his brothers and taking a deep breath with tears pouring from his eyes… “I have something to say” he said in the microphone…
Namjoon suddenly blinked and the images disappeared. Namjoon abruptly took his hand away from the woman’s hand and looked away. He was back in the small hallway in that small university where he was not supposed to be at. He felt breathless, like he had just walked a thousand miles and also felt a bit dizzy from overstimulation of his neurons in his brain. He looked around to see if others around him saw the same images he had just seen, but saw no sign of strange behavior, except from her. He noticed the woman was definitely behaving strangely as she slowly took her hand back once Namjoon removed his hand from hers. She ran her fingers through her hair and blinked a few more times. Namjoon began to wonder whether she had also experienced what he just had experienced.
However, his thought was interrupted as his bandmate and brother Seokjin extended his hand towards Maya and began introducing himself.
“Hi, I am Jin,” the bandmate said in Korean. This time Maya was a bit hesitant to shake Seokjin’s hand. She looked towards Namjoon again, before she returned Seokjin’s handshake.
“I am Maya. Maya Shroff”
The other members also took turns shaking hands with Maya and introducing themselves. Namjoon kept looking over again to see if they also had experienced the weird images. However, again none of them seemed to display any strange expressions. So far Namjoon only knew Maya’s name and that she somehow knew Korean, but some part of him had already started to feel like he needed to stay away from her.
After shaking hands with the maknae, Jungkook, Maya turned towards Namjoon again to speak to him. She didn’t know much about Namjoon, but from the little information she had gathered, she realized he was the main guy in the group. “I was just thinking, if you guys want I can take you to the college. The college is about 35 minutes away from here. If we leave now, we can still make it in time for the event.” she said.
Namjoon began speaking as soon as Maya finished the sentence, “NO!”
Everyone else around him was taken aback by his assertive decline of Maya’s offer.
He continued “...I mean, no it’s not necessary. We can handle it. Thank you!”
“Namjoon-ah, I know this is kind of weird since we don’t know this girl, but considering the fact that we running late, we should just take the offer. I still don’t know where manager Sejin and the other staff members are...we don’t want to miss the event because of our stupidity.” Hoseok, the dance prodigy of the group, whispered in Namjoon’s ear.
“We can’t just accept people’s help, when we don’t know them, Hobi.” Namjoon retorted.
“Well do you have any other options?” Hobi replied. Namjoon was silent. He looked back at Maya, who was awkwardly waiting for their response to her offer. She knew they were hesitant since they probably worried she was some die hard fan and would take advantage of them or something, but she really had no interest in that. Maya viewed Kpop idols as just humans that got trapped in system of the Hallyu industry, when all they really wanted was to make music, sing, and dance. She felt that behind all their hair and makeup were a lot of sacrifices. She didn’t really know anything about the group that was standing in front of her. She didn’t know the trajectory of their fame nor the type of music they made.
As Maya waited, Namjoon decided to give his staff members another call. The other group members waited. He really didn’t want to take Maya’s help. Something inside him told him not to get too close to her.
After a few attempts, Namjoon gave up. Not even their stylists were picking up their phones. What was going on?
You see, a couple hours ago, the group and their staff had made a bet about who would get to the event first. They had went into separate vans from the airport and decided that Seokjin, the eldest one in the group of 7, would drive and the rest of the guys would help him navigate to the event. This was a terrible idea, of course, but none of them thought that the guys would actually go to the wrong university. What made things even more unfortunate was that the cellular network at the event’s venue was terrible, which meant the staff members couldn’t pick up their calls. The staff had assumed they were still on their way.
Namjoon’s anxiety was getting worse. He even sent emails to their manager to get them to respond, but the manager didn’t see the email.
Maya became tired of waiting and her hands were beginning to hurt from holding on to the papers. She decided she would try and explain to the guys that she was not some creepy fan and that they could trust her.
“Hey guys, I know this is a weird situation and you are probably having trouble trusting me. I have no idea where your staff is. But seriously, I don’t mind driving you there. I promise, you can trust me. I am just a graduate student in English and the reason I want to help is because my professor is in charge of the event.”
The guys all looked at Namjoon. Because as Maya had correctly suspected, Namjoon really was the leader of the group and he also was the only one in the group who could speak English fluently. The rest of the members trusted Namjoon more than they trusted themselves. They knew that whatever decision he made, would be the best for the group.
Maya saw that they were all waiting for Namjoon’s response, but it seemed like Namjoon was still not convinced by Maya’s explanation.
“Okay, well how about this...how about I call my professor and let her know you guys are lost. You guys can decide with her what you want to do. Sound good?” Maya tried once again to help them.
Namjoon took a few more seconds to consider her response. He really didn’t know if this was a safe idea, because he knew that even one small mistake could really risk his group’s reputation, and he also was well aware of how spread out their fan base was. It also didn’t help that he had that weird dreamlike experience earlier, which made him afraid to go close to this woman.
Nonetheless, when he looked around and saw that the members were just waiting on him to say ‘yes’, he finally gave in to the idea. He thought, what’s the worst that can happen from a phone call to her professor?
“Sure, that sounds okay” Namjoon said hesitantly.
Maya wanted to take out her phone from her bag to call her professor, but because there were so many things in her hand, she was struggling to find it. Jimin, the other dance master in the group noticed Maya’s struggle, and immediately took the papers out of her hand, so she can get her phone out of her bag.
“Oh, thank you” Maya said, as she noticed Jimin was trying to help. She was still really taken aback by how kind these men were. For a split second she thought about her boyfriend, and how he didn’t even help her carry all her bags when they would go shopping together. It almost felt like she had forgotten that not all men have to be jerks, since the ones that she had met were all one worse than the other.
Maya finally managed to pull out her phone from her bag and called her professor. As the phone rang, she could feel all 7 guys staring at her. Maya put the phone on speaker, so that they can hear her. She could tell that Namjoon was still hesitant about the whole situation and wanted to make sure he trusted her.
Finally, Dr. Kelly picked up. “Hello-- Dr. Kelly?” Maya said.
There was initially no response, just bunch of sounds.
“Hello, Dr. Kelly? It’s Maya…”
Finally, the lady spoke.
“Hey, Maya...sorry the signal is really bad here...let me go outside” Dr. Kelly said. She was surprised to receive a call from her student all of the sudden, but felt like it had to be important if Maya had called.
“Hi, Dr. Kelly?...Can you hear me?... I am calling about an important situation. I am not sure if you know this but...umm...the group that’s suppose to be at the event today accidentally came to our university.”
Maya was speaking in English, but the guys all gulped, as they realized she was talking about them on the phone. They knew once their staff found out they would get in trouble.
“What?” Dr. Kelly responded.
Maya thought she still couldn’t hear, so she repeated what she said before. “The Kpop group that’s suppose to attend the event accidentally came to UCA instead of the venue.”
Namjoon interrupted, “tell her it’s BTS. We are BTS.”
Maya said, “Yeah, the BTS group is here. They got lost and came here instead. I ran into them.”
“Yeah I heard the first time, but how did this happened. What are we going to do?” Dr. Kelly seemed frazzled. “Is there a way, you can drive them here.” Dr. Kelly added.
Maya pursed her lips, as she stared at Namjoon. Namjoon sighed. He took the phone from Maya’s hand and began speaking.
“Hi Dr. Kelly. This is the leader of BTS, Rap Monster. Ms. Shroff here offered us a ride already, but we were wondering if we can speak to our staff. It’s better that they pick us up here.”
Dr. Kelly responded,“listen, I will let your staff know. But I think you need to leave with Maya right now, because by the time your staff leaves and brings you here the event will have already started.”
“Can I at least talk to my manager?” Namjoon insisted.
“Sure, let me go get him.” Dr. Kelly gave in to his request.
Dr. Kelly went and found manager Sejin who was talking someone on the phone already. She told him about the situation and he immediately took the phone from her hand and began speaking to him.
“Hello, Namjoon-ah?”Sejin began speaking in Korean.
“Manager-nim, we are at the wrong university. I am not sure what to do.” Namjoon complained.
“Yes, this lady, Dr. Kelly, told me. You should just come here with her student.” Sejin suggested.
“Are you sure?” Namjoon tried one more time. “Yeah, it’s almost started and it’s faster if she just drives you here instead of us trying to come there and pick you up. We’ll handle everything. It’s okay.”
Namjoon sighed again. “Alright, if you say so. Thanks.”
Namjoon ended the phone call and gave it back to Maya.
“Alright, I guess we are coming with you.” Namjoon said to Maya in Korean. He figured at this point, she was probably fluent.
“Great, I have a minivan, so we should be able to fit. Just follow me.” Maya said.
The members followed Maya’s lead to the campus garage where her car was parked. Once they got to the car, they all tried to figure out the seating. Namjoon tried to sit in the back sit, but he was forced to seat in the passenger sit in the front, next to Maya.
“You are the leader. You should sit in the front.” Yoongi, the other rapper of the group, whispered in Namjoon’s ear while smirking.
Namjoon rolled his eyes and sat down in the front. Maya got into the driver’s seat and turned around to count how many people there were.
“What happened?” Taehyung said as he noticed Maya was counting.
“Oh, I was just checking to see every color of the rainbow is present in this van.” Maya jokes. However, no one laughed except Jimin and Taehyung.
Namjoon gave Maya a death glare as she turned back. What was his problem? Maya thought.
“Alright then.” Maya started the car and drove in silence. There were whispers and side conversation in the back of the car. However, Maya remained silent. She was thankful that she didn’t have classes the rest of the day. Who would have thought she would be in her van with Kpop idols today.
It finally sank in for Maya, that she was really driving celebrities around. She should be more excited, right? After all, there are probably girls and guys out there practically dying to see these men. She wondered how popular this BTS group was. She made a note to herself, to check out there music later on.
After 10 minutes into the drive, she decided to break the ice again by talking to the man sitting next to her.
“So, how long have you been in the Kpop industry?” Maya asked innocently.
Namjoon didn’t say anything at first as he was too busy tracing the road to the venue on his iPhone maps app, making sure the girl that was driving them was on the right way to college, and wasn’t kidnapping them or something. But he realized the question was aimed at him, so he responded.
“Umm, we debuted in 2013. So about 3 years.” Namjoon responded and went back to his maps.
“That’s cool.” Maya answered. She really didn’t know what to say to that. However, someone in the back seemed to be more curious about her.
“How come you speak Korean so fluently?” Taehyung asked from the back.
Maya smiled. “Oh, I am a Ph.D. student and I am studying Korean fiction for my thesis, so I had to learn the language.”
“Wow, you are so smart! I am so glad we ran into you. Right, hyung?” Taehyung said referring to Namjoon.
Namjoon didn’t respond. Again, someone else in the back answered. “Yeah, who would have thought we would have found someone who speaks our language in a place like this,” Hoseok added.
“Yeah Arkansas definitely has a very small Korean population,” Maya laughed.
“So, how did you get interested in Korean literature?” someone else from the back asked. It was the grayish haired man, Yoongi.
“Well, I have always been interested in cultures. I just happened to read a lot of books as a kid, and became more interested in Korean literature when I read more books for my East Asian Literature class during undergraduate. So then I thought well, it would be awesome to do some research on how Korean culture shapes a lot of the fictional stories that come from Korea, and how we can bring those stories to the western world. I feel like there is just this barrier between the East and West, and I think books and even music are the best way to break that barrier, you know?” Maya stopped speaking as she realized she had went on a full blown rant. But she couldn’t help it, this was one of those topics she was really passionate about.
“Ah, sorry, guys! I got a little carried away. It’s my thesis topic so I get a bit too excited,” Maya laughed and looked through the rearview mirror to see everyone’s reaction. She saw Taehyung’s mouth hung open, and then she saw Yoongi nodding just slightly before going back to look unamused.
“You are really cool, Maya-ssi” Jimin brightly smiled and responded.
“Aww, thank you! You guys seem cool too.”
Maya turned to look at Namjoon, who was staring at her, but as soon as she made eye contact with him he turned away pretending not to care.
During the rest of the car ride, the guys and Maya continued asking questions from each other back and forth. Maya learned a lot about BTS and the type of music they make. She was surprised to hear that this was not their first time in America. She wondered how big their fan base must be. Maya knew there were a lot of American fans of Kpop, but had never looked into how big that number must be. Maya had not quite realized that the group sitting in her car was at the verge of breaking some big music records with the amount of fans they had. 2016 was the year when BTS was about to breakout big in the music scene. There trajectory was going straight up. Of course, by the time Maya would realize this, she would already be in too deep in too their world.
They soon arrived at University of Arkansas, and Maya parked the car at the auditorium where the event was being held. The guys all got out of the car and followed Maya’s lead, as she led them backstage of the auditorium. She turned around to see if they were following and noticed they all had their face masks on and some even put on their baseball caps. Maya was intrigued by their behavior as they started walking quickly almost pushing her aside and getting in front of her.
It was as if the 7 sweet guys she had met had just transformed into a mafia gang. She couldn’t understand what their purpose was of them walking like they were about to go rob a bank.
One of them whispered to her as they passed “We have to rush before they find us.” She couldn’t pick up on who said it.
She now was following the guys as they led her backstage of the auditorium. Thankfully, they still had 5 minutes to spare before the event started. Once inside, the staff of the group and stage managers all took over. Maya was overwhelmed at how many people were back there. She didn’t realize how big this event was. Maya just stood aside and watched all the chaos. She could hear screaming and shouting outside on the stage and she peeked through the curtains to see how many people were there. Her eyes went wide as she saw the amount of people in the place. There were literally people standing outside the auditorium pushing each other to get a better view of the stage.
Maya realized that there was no way these people were there just to see her professor’s panel. They had to be there for BTS. Now it also made sense to Maya why the guys rushed to get inside the auditorium. They didn’t want to be found by their fans.
It finally hit Maya that the group of guys that she had just drove were not just some ordinary guys.
This was Maya’s first glimpse into BTS’s world and she was already overwhelmed.
Soon the event started and she watched professor’s panel from the backstage screen. After Dr. Kelly’s panel, Dr. Kelly invited CEO of BigHit on to the stage. Maya was shocked when she saw the man walk up on to the stage. Where had she seen him before? Maya learned at that time that BTS was under a company called BigHit and that their CEO was someone named Bang Shi Hyuk. That man seemed familiar.
Mr. Bang Shi Hyuk entered on the stage, and him and Dr. Kelly talked about how BTS and other Kpop groups are a tool that can break the barriers. Maya was really engrossed as he talked about how BTS was formed and the ways in which Kpop industry has changed over time.
In the short span, Maya was learning a lot about the world BTS was from, and she realized that the CEO was quite knowledgeable as well from the way he was speaking in English. But in her mind, she was still trying to remember where she had seen the man before.
After Mr. Bang was finished, Dr. Kelly stayed on stage to introduce BTS. As she announced their name, the group of guys that were just in the car with Maya a few minutes ago, now all walked on to the stage wearing suits. Maya was awestruck at how they transformed from being just ordinary men to idols.
As they went up on to the stage the lights dimmed and they began to perform. Maya watched the performance closely. She had seen Kpop music videos, so she wasn’t surprised that the guys were dancing, but it was still strange to see that the same guys she had just met in the hallway were now performing in front of a loud screaming audience.
There were fanchants and the audience was singing along with the boys. Maya couldn’t help but slightly smile at the way they all moved. Her eyes went towards Namjoon a few times, as he looked a lot less stressed now compared to before. His complete concentration was on his performance. The deep voice during his rap portions filled the auditorium sending goosebumps down Maya’s spine.
When their performances ended, Maya found herself clapping like the audience out in the auditorium. She felt a rush of excitement and contentment as they walked passed her when they walked back from the stage.
Jungkook quickly smiled and waved as he passed her and she returned the wave. Suddenly she heard her name being called, and so she looked to her side to find the source of the voice. It was actually Dr. Kelly that was calling her over as she stood next to Mr. Bang. Maya was confused about what Dr. Kelly could possibly want from her. Maya walked over to her. For some reason she felt nervous walking up to talk to Mr. Bang, but she couldn’t understand why.
“This is my student, Maya.” Dr. Kelly introduced Maya to Mr. Bang.
“Hi, nice to meet you” Maya bowed as she realized this was much more appropriate considering he was Korean.
“Nice to meet you, Maya. I heard you brought the boys here. I just wanted to thank you. You really saved the day today!” Mr. Bang said.
“Oh, it’s okay. I am glad I ran into them,” Maya shyly responded. She thought, what could she possibly say to the CEO of a Korean music entertainment company
“Well, Dr. Kelly thank you for inviting us. This was a great event,” Mr. Bang began talking to Dr. Kelly again.
“Ah, no the pleasure is completely ours. It’s not everyday that we get to see such influential people out here in Arkansas. Right, Maya?”
“Right,” Maya replied.
The conversation between Dr. Kelly and Mr. Bang continued talking, and Maya decided she should just keep quiet. Maya often had the tendency to overstep her boundaries and she didn’t want to risk something like that in front of such famous people.
However, as Maya was standing there, she felt someone walk up behind her so she turned around. It turned out to be Taehyung.
“Hey!” Maya replied as she was surprised to see him walk up behind her.
She saw the rest of the group was also with him.
“What’s up?” She asked curiously.
“We just wanted to say thanks to you, Maya-ssi” Jimin responded. “It was very sweet of you to help us.”
“Ah, no worries guys. I feel like I just got to see a free BTS concert, so I am definitely not going to complain” Maya laughed.
Some of the guys awkwardly laughed at her lame joke. Others looked unamused. Namjoon came more towards the front and looked towards her. Maya felt her breath hitch again.
“Seriously, we are very grateful for your help. Good luck with your studies.” Namjoon said with a very serious and authoritative tone.
“Thank you” was all Maya would mutter as she felt a bit intimidated by his ‘leader’ voice.
-------------------------------------------------
After that day, Maya looked into BTS. She felt like she at least needed to know who these men were that she had met. Little did she know that once you fall into the BTS wormhole, there was no way out.
Within the span of few days, she had engulfed the entirety of BTS discography. She found herself thinking more and more about them as time passed. However, what she thought about the most, wasn’t just the group.
It was one particular instance she had experienced that day. Maya kept replaying the weird dreamlike sequence of images she had experienced the moment she had shaken hands with Namjoon. She hadn’t really thought too much of those images that day, but as time went on, her mind drifted back to that moment. She couldn’t remember all the images though. She remembered bits and pieces, and she kept trying to repeat them in her head to remember them.
Meanwhile, Namjoon and the rest of BTS had continued on with the tour that they were on across North America. After their short stop in Arkansas they had went west towards LA where they had their next concert.
The guys had forgotten the weird experience they had in Arkansas as their lives went on. However, for Namjoon it was impossible to remove those images in his head. He kept wondering why he experienced it. Was it a daydream? Was he just imagining? Why were those images so vivid yet so faded?
Namjoon sat on the plane back to Seoul after BTS had finished the tour in North America, and thought back to the images. He found himself thinking about Maya. However, he stopped himself as he realized instead of Maya, there was someone else he should be thinking about. Among all the chaos of the tour, he had almost forgotten about his girlfriend, Choi Ji Hyu.