Chapter Text
14 hours on a plane from Amsterdam to Tokyo is a long time “on the road”.
But Liv was on her way to a job, that she had only been hired for two days ago. She had been given a day to finish her current job and a day to pack her suitcase for being away from home for 6 months.
“We need somebody who can handle the daily finances and compliance on BTS’s current tour. Would that be you?”
Her brain had screamed “Hell yeah!”, but she had accepted in a professional manner, yet still expressed that she was excited for this opportunity. It would be one of the biggest tours she had ever worked on up till now. Liv had worked as a financial staffer on other tours and festivals before, but never one with starts as big as BTS, nor a world tour.
Her predecessor on the BTS tour had fallen and broken her leg on the first day of the tour. The tour management were looking for someone to take over immediately and since Liv’s boss was a good friend of someone of the BTS management team, he had suggested Liv as a replacement.
Normally they would only hire staff who spoke Korean and should you be a woman, then only married. Liv neither spoke Korean, nor were she married, let alone in a relationship. But because they needed somebody to fill in right away and couldn’t find anybody, recommendations were prioritized over personal circumstances.
The job interview was conducted on Skype and lasted 20 minutes. It was a little bit surreal, but now she was on the plane, on her way to Japan, where the tour would move around for the next three weeks. After Japan came more of Asian, then Europe, America, ending in Seoul where the tour also had begun. Her older sister, Ella, had offered to babysit her apartment, since Liv didn’t have the time to make any arrangements.
She knew very little about BTS or South Korea in general. She had googled South Korea, but Wikipedia and the tourism pages were overwhelming and so she only read up on some basic knowledge. As she had understood, she would be the only western member on the regular management staff, so that should make things interesting for sure!
Listening to BTS and watching some music and concert videos on the plane, she tried to suck up as must useful information as she possibly could. She knew she would be a number out in many ways, so she just hoped somebody on the staff would take her under their wing. The ‘work part’ she wasn’t worried about. She was experienced and she was good. But it could get pretty lonely if you weren’t part of the gang.
Liv knew somebody would pick her up at the airport, but the email had come through in Korean and her phone wouldn’t copy/paste into Google translate. Once she landed everything went smoothly at baggage claim and security. Her ponytail was hopping along as she dragged her big ass suitcase behind her, through the doors into the arrival hall.
Liv saw her ´designated somebody´ as soon as she came out through the doors. A woman holding sign with Liv’s full name on it, while fiddling with her phone. The woman looked like fun. Like a cool big sister. Maybe a little older than Liv herself. Long black hair with strikes of pink, held in a ponytail. She was wearing a BTS t-shirt and a black short skirt, sneakers on her feet. Across her upper body hung a purse and she was visibly chewing on her gum. A stark contrast to Liv’s black sneakers, black fitted sweatpants, white t-shirt and army green Adidas hoodie. Liv hooked up in her backpack and walked towards her. The woman holding Liv’s name on the sign looked up from her phone making eye contact. She gave Liv a smile and waved wildly like they already knew each other.
The woman made a tiny bow and stuck out her hand to Liv and they shook.
“Hi, I’m Park Ma-ri, but you can call me Mari. I looked you up on social media to find out what you look like,” Mari said in English with a clear Oxford dialect, much to Liv’s surprise. Liv chuckled. She would have done the same, had she known who was greeting her.
“Nice to meet you, Mari. I’m Liv”, she said and pointed to the sign.
“Then you are the one we need on our team”, Mari said with a bubbly tone and nodded behind them. “We are parked this way.”
They started walking towards the exit. ”How was your flight?”
“It was good. Long, though. I managed to sleep for a bit.”
“There’s gonna be a lot of flying over the next 6 months”, Mari said with a smile and looked Liv up and down. “You look very sporty.”
Liv laughed. “I am absolutely not! I just like getting comfortable when I have to fly.”
Mari smiled. “I feel we will get along just fine”, she chuckled and answered a call, in what Liv assumed was Korean. Mari spoke in the phone all the way while they walked through the airport and down the garage, only ending the call as they approached the car. The driver was waiting for them inside the car, but came out when he saw them and helped Liv with her suitcase, putting it into the trunk. Mari and Liv got in the backseat and Mari briefly spoke to the driver in Korean and they took off.
Mari had a stack of papers in the car that she placed on her lap and started shuffling around. “Ummm… So the drive is about an hour, and you have to start working as soon as we get there, so let’s use the time we’ve got here to get you into things.” She sent Liv a smile and looked down her papers again.
Liv nodded and got ready to receive a lot of information. “Sure! What’s the basics?”
Mari looked up from the papers and turned slightly towards Liv. “Your main task will be the daily finances and compliance, as you know. Money in, money out. The artists accounts, the company accounts. The artists will give you receipts if they have been spending money and used the company card. Shopping, dinners, whatever… Often you will have to collect the receipts yourself, because they forget to hand them over. There could also be receipts from the staff. You manage those as well.”
Liv nodded, listening carefully, as Mari continued her list of useful information.
“Your tasks will not include the artists on a daily basis. But you will interact with them from time to time. You will also go through the hotel bills and if the artists have bought room service, you’ll make sure the bill is refunded and paid by them. Always signatures on every receipt you get! All payments go through you, but will be double checked by the tour manager. He’s also in charge of paying the bill when we leave the hotel as he has ‘the big credit card’. As a bonus assignment, you will be in charge of distributing the keycards to the rooms for the whole team when we arrive at the hotel. We know it’s not in your normal portfolio, but we need somebody who’s organized and structured, because it can get a little out of hand.”
Liv nodded again. “Okay. So far so good. All familiar to me. What else?”
Mira let out a sigh as she took a short thoughtful pause. She looked at Liv and continued, now freestyling her list of information. “The artists are RM, Jin, Suga, J-hope, Jimin, V and Jungkook. Or Kim Namjoon, Kim Seokjin, Min Yoongi, Jung Hoseok, Park Jimin, Kim Taehyung and Jeon Jungkook. You will address them by their stage names or their full names – Family name, given name.”
“Family name, given name”, Liv asked in surprise, raising her eyebrows.
“Yes. In Korea it’s reversed. And you will absolutely not use their first name, unless they say it’s okay. In Korean you speak politely and formally until the oldest or the one with a higher rank says it’s okay to be informal.”
“Okay… That’s new…”, Liv hesitated. “Is it possible to be formal like that in English?”
“Not like in Korean, but you will catch up. You look like someone who can act politely and has manners. We are going straight to the stadium, so if you need to change clothes or freshen up, you can do so there. We are a little behind on your assignments, sooo we need you to make sure bills and salary are paid now.”
Liv nodded and imagined how big the piles with her name on would probably be.
Mari continued, gesturing between them. “We have our own little office at every stadium. You and I will be sharing an office and will over all be working together closely – I’m the problem solver and you are the one who has to say no”, she laughed.
Liv smiled and knew that Mari meant, that their job was to make sure everything went smoothly, but also by the books.
Mari continued, “If we are staying at the same hotel for several days, we often have a suite as our headquarters. On days with no concerts, we work from there, unless it’s one of your days off.”
“There are days off? I’ve never had that before on a tour.”
“There are not many, but a few. I’ll get you the schedule.” Mari fished out a pen from her purse and wrote a note to herself on the papers in her lap. “On your days off you can choose to do nothing and catch up on sleep, or go out with the rest of us and get to see something other than a hotel room or the inside of a stadium. It’s you call. You also don’t have a function during the concerts, so you can watch it with me, where ever we can get seats... If you want to. You can also go back to the hotel.”
“Nono, I wanna go to the concerts. And it’s like that every night?”
“Pretty much. Sometimes they want us back at the hotel to handle the check out, if we are leaving that night. Sometimes we do it during the day, depending on the schedule. Sometimes we travel ahead of them. It depends on the city and country. If we are staying at the hotel for multiple nights, then you and I will often be on our way back to the hotel, during the encores, to make sure everything is okay once the artists arrive. We’ll check up on the artists room, has the laundry been delivered, is the food they ordered on the way and so on. That’s why we always pack up our office before the concert starts. The management and artists will follow as soon as the concert is over.”
Liv knew all too well how stressful the backstage area could become as soon as the show ended. “Got it! Uuummm… I didn’t really catch what your job is.”
“Everything that the rest of the staff don’t do. Everything the artist and management will ask for. Finding wifi-passwords, making sure everything on the rider is available, printing the schedules of the day, helping deliver the laundry. Personal stuff. If anybody needs a toothbrush, socks or anything weird, I’ll run out and get it. You are welcome to come with me if I have to shop for someone. It can be a nice break – if you got the time.”
“Sure, got it. Is there any Korean or something about the culture I need to know? I really know nothing.”
Mari laughed and checked on a text message she got, then looked back up at Liv. “Sorry, there’s a million things going on, you know. Anyway, forget about the Korean. You won’t have learned enough before the tour is over anyway. Just speak English. The artists understand a fair amount of English, but they speak it at different levels, so just adjust to whomever you are talking to. Not everybody among the staff speaks English super well, but the ones you will be working closely with do. And remember to bow, be polite and… everything else is pretty normal. You have read your contract, right?”
Live nodded as she listed a few key points. “Sure. Don’t speak to the artists unless they speak to you, no personal relationships with the artists, no private pictures of the artists, share nothing about the artist on social media, don’t contact the artists on their days off, remember this is a work space and so on.”
“And we all know, that it never holds up”, Mari chuckled and looked down her papers. “I don’t know why they keep insisting on having that in our contracts.”
“Exactly”, Liv laughed and looked out the window, only seeing a highway and other cars passing them. “What are they like?”
“BTS?”
“Yes. I didn’t have much time to research, but I listened to some of the music on the plane and watched a few videos.”
Mari looked thoughtful for a few seconds. “They are sweet and kind. They are professionals, but also a bunch of dickheads sometimes. Some days it’s like a hormonal explosion in their dressing room. 7 men turning into teenage boys”, she said with a wry smile shaking her head. “They are attentive of their staff and they don’t ignore us. You can expect that they will drop by to say hello or stick around for some small talk.”
“Really? The bookkeeping staff isn’t always that interesting to the artists.”
Mari formed a little wry smile again and sucked on her lip. “You are close in age with them. I think they will appreciate that. Most of us are older than they are.”
“Well, let’s see. I have my doubts”, Liv chuckled. ”Have you worked with them for a long time?”
“Yes. I was with them on the last tour and I have been on the staff around them for about… 5 years.”
“Okay… I don’t mean to be rude, but your English…?”
Mari laughed and nodded. “I get that a lot. I studied in England, and the dialect just stuck.”
They continued the drive talking about work and eventually getting to know each other a little bit. The car was approaching the stadium and drove in gnarly ways to get to the entrance and into the basement of the stadium. Liv noticed the crowed of fans already hanging out around the stadium. Mari was on the phone as they got out of the car. The driver helped Liv with her suitcase and Mari hung up.
“Hurray, you’re here! Now let’s go work”, she smiled friendly, carrying the stack of papers under her arm.
The soundcheck was starting up or already taking place. Liv could clearly hear the sound of the bass and drums bouncing around the walls. Mari led Liv down hallways and corridors, getting closer to the music. They appeared at some sort of small square within the stadium itself. It was full of people doing all kinds of work-related stuff. They all spoke Korean and Liv gave up searching for words she could understand. The music now close enough for her to hear harmonies and not only the deep bass.
By a metal staircase some meters away, a group of three stood, fidgeting with what looked like an ear monitor box. Two of them were wearing staff shirts, the other one dressed in black jeans and a black shirt with Snoopy on it, which made his bright red hair stand out completely. She felt like she could recognize him from one of the videos. The group weren’t arguing, but clearly something wasn’t working.
“Remember not to look directly at the artists”, Mari joked with a giggle and pointed to the hallway she was headed down to show Liv the direction.
Liv chuckled at the inside joke, but still turned her head to see the young Korean man with red hair, following her with his eyes as she walked by.