Jungkook is starting to hyperventilate, and Jin is trying to help him breathe while keeping his eyes on the screen. He sees nurses and doctors rush into the room as AJ rushes in and takes the camera out of the room.
“Everything is okay” he repeats into the camera a couple of times as though he knows he is comforting the boys' thousands of miles away. “Karen started having a violent seizure.”
Jin feels awful for Maleas friend, but he can also breathe a sigh of relief as he tells Jungkook that Malea was okay. The video was still going, but it was just a video of AJ walking around the hospital.
“Why are they showing us this?” Yoongi asks. Jin knows the younger boy doesn't mean to be rude, but they are all anxious about Malea, and the video certainly isn't helping. Suddenly the screen goes dark, and the video is over.
“That was a goodbye video?” Jimin asks bewildered. “It didn't even clarify anything!”
As the boys muttering between themselves, they don't notice a boy rolling something towards the seats they are sitting. Once he gets closer, the screen pops back up, and Malea is seen walking around in regular clothes.
“It's my day out of the hospital as I am wildly improving!” she smiles. “Plus it's lonely in my room without Karen. She’s in the ICU right now, but her condition is also improving." Malea is seen looking up, and she starts to cross the street. “Today I will give you a gift!” and she throws her hands out as though shes presenting something and Jin suddenly is given a tiny bento box. He looks up and sees a young boy with a mask and hat on passing out the seven bento boxes he had. He walked away toward the stage after he completed his task. “Okay open them in three… two...one!” Malea shouts as the screen goes black and the streets of Korea pop up.
The boys open the boxes to find pieces of cake. Jin starts to tear up, and he takes his first bite and wonders how Malea even got the company to do such a thing. He watches as the camera is just randomly going through the streets of Korea via bus and taxi before the person behind the camera is suddenly walking. He stops eating as he realizes exactly where the camera is and where it is heading.
“Isn't that restaurant around here?” Jin asks aloud prompting the others boys to pay closer attention to the weird video playing on the screen.
“Hey! It's the stadium! How cool!” Taehyung exclaims.
“We know that's, not Malea. Maybe one of our fans made it” Namjoon comments while chewing. Yoongi cringes slightly disgusted by his younger member and nods as the idea seems most reasonable until they notice the camera enter the stadium with no issues and suddenly head straight into the big room. They notice that the set is their tour set up, and the camera is getting closer to the stage they can see themselves. They can see themselves through the screen looking at themselves on the screen.
Jungkook, the camera guru, is the first to understand and turn around. It doesn't take even a second before Jungkook is gone from Jin's side and is running while crying to the camera.
“Malea!” he collides the person holding the camera the others start slowly making their way to the person Jungkook is hugging and notice it is Malea. The members start crying while each getting their hugs and Hoseok is the first to ask “how?”
Malea while still hugging Jin laughs and points back toward the stage.
Suddenly Jimin gets hugged from behind, and he screams. Taehyung is the first to try and defend him, but he notices its the young boy from before. However, he no longer has his hat and mask; it is AJ. The younger is crying while hanging onto Jimin and saying how much he missed them. Taehyung finally pried AJ off so Jimin can give the younger one a proper hug and once AJ collected himself, he hugs the other members. Danielle shows up from behind the stage and power walks to the group getting her hugs in as well.
“Did we surprise you?” Malea asks while Jungkook holds onto her hand, scared she might not be real.
“Yes!” Yoongi replies. “How did you even do this?”
Malea smiles at him, and the only explanation she gave was, “Better days have come, Oppa.”
“Oppas!” Maleas' face suddenly pops onto the big screen. The seven members of BTS have already started to tear up. “Once you finally see this video, it'll be the end of your tour!” she smiles and starts clapping in a frenzy congratulating them on a job well done. “ I don't even have to be there in person to know you guys did an amazing job at every show no matter what you say.” she smiles and turns the camera around to show her younger brother. “Anderson say something to the Boys!”
“Hyungs! You guys killed it on stage!” he smiles and gives two thumbs up and then quickly changes them to finger hearts. The boys give a small smile to the ageyo.
“Danielle! You too!” Malea yells while the camera moves again this time focusing on Danielle sitting on a chair farther away.
“You all truly make any stage come alive,” she pauses for one second and then throws out a hand kiss “Fighting!” Malea scoffs and turns the camera back to face her.
“Danielle's ageyo scares me. I blame you Jin Oppa for teaching her that” she comments while giving a fake shiver to emphasize her point.
“Oh! There's someone I want yall to meet!” The camera pans again, and suddenly a girl they have never seen before is shown on the screen. Malea starts talking in the background. “This is my roommate, Karen! She's been here for about two months, and we've become close. I introduced her to yall's music, and she's a fan now! Say hi, Karen!” Karen shyly waves while blushing. The boys here Malea giggle and turns the camera back to face her. “Shes a little shy but she a great person” She explains while moving around. Malea smiles while staring into the camera like she could see them.
“ If six months have passed, then that means some of you had birthdays!” the few members who have had birthdays all freeze. They never got a present from her or her siblings this year. They always got gifts even if they were on tour. The others seem to realize that too, and they look at each other with scared wide eyes. And then there's a loud noise coming from the video. The boys watch as Malea sets down the camera to face a curtain. “Now this is totally going to be late, but it's the thought that counts. 1! 2! 3!” She pulls the curtain back, and the boys see Danielle and Anderson in the shot standing behind a table full of cakes. Malea runs into the shot as the three of them starting singing Happy Birthday. If the seven boys weren't crying already, they were now. The watch as the three siblings finish and blow out the candles clapping and laughing in excitement.
“Sorry, we aren't able to send you presents this year. The medical bills are expensive. These cakes were gifts from some friends, and I thought it'd be better to have “Happy Birthday” cake instead of “Get Well Soon Cake.” Who gives someone a get well soon cake? That defeats the purpose” Malea rambles and the boys laugh touched at her thoughtfulness and her weird rant. Malea cuts a piece of cake for herself and her siblings while rambling on about how she's been listening to their new album nonstop and cannot wait to hear it in person. Jin is the first to notice Malea cut the fourth slice, then a fifth. Soon Malea has cut 11 pieces of cake. “ There! One for each of us!” Malea passes the cake out to her siblings and then gets up to hand a piece to her roommate, Karen. Hoseok notices Anderson finish his piece and go for another one. Malea slaps his hand” Yah. Those are oppas.” she states while glaring.
“They aren't even here! They can't eat it!” the younger boys whines.
“Slice your own damn piece,” Malea says, hitting her younger brother again. Taehyung chuckles. They never change. Anderson slices his piece, says happy birthday to the camera one more time before leaving the room. Danielle takes that as her cue to go and waves with her mouth full of cake. Malea chuckles.
“Don't worry Jin Oppa. I'll give your slices to my nurses and doctors, so it doesn't go to waste” they smile. She knows them too well.
She rambles on about small things while stuffing her face with cake, and the boys are halfway paying attention to her but are mainly focusing on her face, her expressions, her laugh, her voice. They miss her. And they are scared they'll never see her again.
Suddenly their thoughts are cut off when they hear a loud beeping sound come from the camera. Malea is startled and jumps a little from the random noise. They see her eyes go above the camera and suddenly widen. She quickly moves from the frame; the camera falls while Malea is heard shouting for the nurses.
“You said we'd find out today!” Jungkook exclaims toward their manager.
“No, I said we will inform you once the tour is over. You still have a show tonight.”
“This is ridiculous! Do you seriously think I've been focused on this tour? I haven't! I just want to know. Please.” The youngest pleads. Jungkook heard a couple of sighs from around the room.
“Jungkook, we've waited for 6 months. We can wait a few more hours.” Namjoon tells him quietly. “A few hours won't make a difference.”
The room goes quiet. Scared of the possibility that the next few hours really won't make a difference.
“She was improving when we left. She's fine.” Yoongi says after awhile. Jungkook starts to breathe heavy trying to prevent tears from falling.
“But we haven't heard anything in 6 months.” Taehyung cuts in. “6 months is a long time for something to go wrong. She went from level 2 to level 4 in just a month.”
“6 months is a long time for her to get better too,” Jin says before the younger boys thoughts could be plagued with the worst possible scenario. The 7 boys hear the staff call them to get ready for their concert. They get ready trying to distract themselves. 2 and a half more hours until the boys get the news about Malea.
The cheers are loud. The boys are smiling and waving to their fans thanking them for being there.
“Tonight was the last concert of the tour!” Namjoon tells into his microphone. They hear cheers and cries mixed in together. “Let's give our last thoughts to our wonderful crowd tonight! Oldest to youngest?”
As Jin started Jungkook felt tears coming down his face. He was so lost in thought he didn't notice it was his turn until Taehyung nudged him.
“Your turn Jungkookie!” he says while laughing but Jungkook can see fear in his eyes. He's scared too.
“I cannot tell you guys how much these last 6 months have meant to us.” He pauses while the crowd cheers for his kind words but he holds his hand up, asking for silence. “ I could say these last few months were some of the best of my life. We got to tour in countries and cities we have never been to. All of our shows sold out. We have had every seat full.” He hears a few cheers but he doesn't stop. “But” the crowd now goes silent. “ But they weren't. They have been some of the most dreadful months I have ever experienced.” Jungkook looks toward his hyungs. They all had their heads down listening intently to his speech except for Namjoon who was watching the youngest with a controlled expression that could break at any moment. “ Before we started our tour we got the news that a good friend of ours was in the hospital and she wasn't doing so well.” The crowd coos to the boys. It didn't help as Jungkook starts to tear up. “ We pushed back to the tour so we could visit her.” he pauses. Gathering his courage. “In the past 6 months, we haven't heard a single thing about her. If she's doing okay or…” he breathes in deep and starts to sob. He feels arms around him but he just continues to cry. The crowd cries along with him while shouting “Don't cry” over and over. He finally stops, gets ahold of himself and faces the crowd. “Tonight we are scared. We are scared and we are hopeful. But we are also scared to be hopeful.” He pauses again. “ we got through these last 6 months for you guys. Everything we do is for you. And I wish you all can feel our love as much as we feel yours. But tonight, this concert is for her. It's for our good friend” the crowd cheers as Jungkook bows deeply thanking them silently for understanding. Namjoon wiped his tears and explains the situation a little more clearly and then the 7 boys say their final goodbyes. As they head backstage Namjoon approaches Jungkook.
“we said we weren't going to do that.”
“I know. But I had to.” Namjoon nods his head in understanding while patting the maknae on his back. Jungkook takes a deep breath and heads inside the waiting room with the others. This is it. It's time.
“We have to go back on stage? What for?” Namjoon asks their manager.
“They want to get some more photos of you guys for the memory book. I promise it'll be quick”
“You promised you'd tell us about Malea!” Jungkook yells frustrated. The manager doesn't look even a little fazed.
“Once you finish the photos I'll tell you everything.” Jungkook leaves the room in frustration and Namjoon looks at their manager with a disapproving look.
“It's been 6 months. We've waited long enough.” Jin demands. The manager sighs rubbing the back of his neck.
“Boys-”
“We aren't going.” Yoongi cuts in. “ They have enough photos”
“Stop being dramatic-”
“Dramatic?” Namjoon cuts him off. The tension in the room was unbearable. Jimin and Taehyung had tears in their eyes. Hosoek was nervously tapping his feet. Yoongi looked livid. Jin and Namjoon start speaking to the manager at the same time upset with how he was treating them with the situation they are in. And suddenly the door flies open. Bang PD walks into the room. The 6 boys stand up quickly and bow to their CEO.
“Stop Sejin.” Bang PD says. He looks toward the boys and asks them to sit. Jungkook walks in with a flushed face with one of their other managers. He gives a quick bow to the CEO and goes to stand next to Jin who holds his hand. “ It's not pictures.” The boys give confused looks between their manager and their boss. “She left you a video message. She'll tell you everything you need to know” 7 hearts dropped at the mention of the video message. Jungkook starts to shake at the thought of the last goodbye. Jin held one hand and Taehyung another as the boys slowly and quietly walk to the stage scared to watch the video that their friend has sent.
vaporwave
yousharknotpass
