the photoshoot was done backstage at Brixton in October 2006. the text in the second clipping is about the punctuation change for Pretty. Odd. and then the text in the fourth clipping was about spring 2007 (basically, spencer bought a house & ryan bought a condo, they were at the cabin and then @ fairfax in north hollywood, and ryan got a tattoo with lyrics from a tom waits song).
the second-to-last one was about the bottles being thrown at Reading, and then the last one is an update that says "Panic! At The Disco, who had been hard at work writing songs for their second album, have finished writing eight songs and apparently entered the recording studio on June."
summary: The world tour is over and the Bangtan Boys finally get their well-deserved break. When Namjoon suddenly can’t find Jimin anywhere, things take an unexpected and pretty unbelievable turn.
word count: 2.8k
note: part 1. finally. to be honest, I love this part so much. hope this will explain the title a little better... ✨
warnings: minor angst but fluuuff!
masterlist | moodboard masterlist
[ prologue | one | two | three | four | five | six | seven ]
The World Tour is over. Bangtan has arrived home a couple of days ago. Namjoon still receives proud and cheerful “Well done”s whenever he checks in at the company. It’s obligatory for him and the members to come to the company every now and then even in their time off, a time that should be used for resting. It’s preventive, to avoid a crash-and-burn situation like other artists experience after a great tour. Bangtan’s health, which includes their mental health, is a priority and gives Namjoon once again reason to appreciate how the company takes care of him and the others.
So he comes in every day, spending a couple of hours in his studio, either mixing new songs or writing new lyrics or discussing concepts with the planners who already are on their marks for the next music videos and albums. Yoongi does the same. They go together, both having chosen this option that Bang Sihyuk gave them.
The other members are here and there. Seokjin, Hoseok, Taehyung, and Jungkook have chosen to travel home for a week, all equipped with a to-do checklist they have to complete and turn in diligently. Jimin is still at home, dancing on the grate that runs between being okay and being really sick. He had already been near the crash before he could fight it off.
So Namjoon returns home as soon as he can, to check up on Jimin again. Of course, Jimin is an adult, he could potentially take care of himself but Namjoon doesn’t want him to. As the leader and his hyung, he feels obligated to care for his sick dongsaeng. Also, Taehyung isn’t there, and Hoseok and Seokjin aren’t either, so Jimin will feel lonely, pathetic and pathetically lonely and he can’t have that. No member of Bangtan gets left behind, not under Namjoon’s watch.
Jimin had reported burning muscles, nausea and a feeling of a bursting skull last time he was asked, so Namjoon picks up specific painkillers and medication from the next pharmacy. The younger’s got it bad and he shouldn’t have to wait too long for relief.
Without another stop, Namjoon hurries home, hoping Jimin will feel better today without medication. It’s still relatively early, the sun’s rays just become warm on bare skin and Han River glitters under the beautiful light. If Jimin feels better, they could maybe take a walk together today. Jimin is a good companion for walks. Listening is one of his strengths, kindness is his heart’s language and he is impressionable by nature and beauty and Namjoon knows receiving gentle attention means everything to the younger. He’ll ask him later.
Namjoon’s mind is set on a lot of good and pleasant things when he enters the apartment. When he hears no sounds from anywhere, he assumes Jimin is still sleeping and decides to make some tea before waking the younger up.
However, when he enters Jimin’s bedroom, Jimin is not there. The room is all silent, just as expected, it’s even dark still with the lowered shades. The bed is empty, though, and that’s not expected. The mattress isn’t warm either, the blanket is thrown over the pillow messily and Jimin’s pajamas lie in a heap right where Jimin would have laid. As if he was in a rush.
Oh, Namjoon thinks and goes to check the bathrooms. Nothing. No Jimin. Namjoon frowns, thinking hard, calling out his name twice. Where could he be? Could he be out?
It’s unlikely. Jimin’s jackets and shoes are still in their respective spots, he hasn’t written a note (Jimin always writes notes), he’s still sick (and Jimin loves to be pampered when he is) and Namjoon knows for a fact that today, Jimin had wanted to get revenge for their last Mario Kart match even if Seokjin (their fiercest competitor) isn't home.
Namjoon walks back to Jimin’s room with attentive ears, hoping to find the missing boy or at least a clue. His eyes wander through the clean room where unpacked suitcases still sit on the floor and worn clothes are neatly stacked on Jimin’s chair. His fingers find the round container that holds the pills Jimin takes every day. It’s open and almost empty. Did he go to buy new ones?
He freezes when something begins to rumble, like a little motor that just turned on. It almost sounds like a small fan. The strange sound comes from… Jimin’s bed? Namjoon almost coos when he spots a little kitty that’s nestled between Jimin’s plushies (the two that Taehyung and Jungkook had won for Jimin in LA and New York). It’s sleeping. Namjoon had mistaken it as a plushie itself, with the way it looks so oddly still and soft. The fluffy fur looks golden with tons of dark spots on it and Namjoon can't help but notice how small the cub is in its entirety, dwarfed between the big plushies.
He smiles when he sees the animal but wonders how it got here. Jimin’s window is closed. The logical conclusion is that Jungkook must have left his window open again. So far, they’ve had two cats and one confused bird (plus a ton of big spiders) in their apartment and the common entry point had been Jungkook’s window. Sometimes the maknae is a little thoughtless when it comes to things like cleaning up behind himself.
Obviously, there’s no other option than to take a photo of the small animal. After all, Jimin loves cats and would want to see the little one as well. Namjoon sends the photo to the group chat. Found someone sleeping in your bed, Jiminie. Where are you now?
Namjoon hopes that the prospect of holding a kitty will make Jimin magically appear from wherever he’s off to (much like mentioning the Cypher will make Taehyung appear). A strange feeling spreads through his gut when a bright ding chimes right next to Namjoon. It’s Jimin’s phone. And that’s when he knows something is really wrong. Because off-stage, Jimin always has his phone on him.
The first thing he does is calling Yoongi. It's not a rare occurrence that Namjoon doesn’t know what to do but most of the time, he can resolve the problems on his own. Today, he can’t. So, since Hobi isn't present, Yoongi is his emergency contact.
It’s a possibility that Jimin had just taken off to go to the company while Namjoon was still on the way home and they had missed each other. And that he's forgotten his phone. It’s a very slim likelihood, but Namjoon has to try anyway.
“Joon-ah?” Yoongi answers with a mumble, which indicates that he is busy.
“Hyung, is Jiminie with you?”
“No. He’s at home. Where are you?”
“At home.”
A pause. Namjoon sweats. He locks eyes with the kitty. The kitty doesn’t know where Jimin is either. It looks mildly confused.
“Just call him?”
“Hyung. His phone is right here.”
“Um. Have you checked all the rooms? I mean, I can ask whether he went to the dance studios but I don’t think he checked in-“
“Please do me that favor, hyung. I really don’t know where he is. I’ll look here and you’ll check there, okay?”
“Yeah,” Yoongi says.
They both check, and they both come up with nothing at all. It’s disappointing, to say the least. Among the group and even the fans, it’s no secret that Taehyung and Jimin like to share beds with any of the members. They just need the affection, the feeling of another body close to theirs sometimes. In that sense, it would have made sense to find Jimin in someone else’s bed even if the others are out of town. When he doesn’t, Namjoon is out of ideas. However, he doesn’t fail to notice that Jungkook’s window is, in fact, not open.
He has an odd feeling of déjà-vu creeping into his bones and even the kitty on his arms (he's picked it up very, very gently, taking note of how small the thing is) can’t take the scary tingle away.
“What do we do now?” he asks it. The kitty’s tail wraps around his fingers. The small animal lets out of few meows that would be adorable and at the forefront of Namjoon’s animal-loving mind if figuring out Jimin’s disappearance wouldn’t be occupying that spot already.
“I don’t know, Namjoon,” Yoongi sighs from the other end of the phone. “Do you want me to come home?”
But Namjoon isn’t listening. The kitty has his attention now. There’s something about the way it curls up against Namjoon, the way it just rubs against him, looking up with a gaze that’s so familiar. He notices that it can't be a normal cat, not with that kind of fur coloring. But the eyes - that's what's both the most striking and the most irritating.
“Namjoon-ah?”
The leader can’t answer because his mind is running on high speed right now, like a facial recognition software almost, and more and more tiny movements match. They match. Namjoon pinches his own skin, just to see if it could be real, and then it hurts. He hisses and the kitty’s ears and eyes lock on his face with sweet concern. Immediately, the kitty licks over the reddened sliver of skin, with a crooning noise that leaves no doubt.
“Kim Namjoon!”
“Hyung.”
“Finally.”
“Hyung. How common is it for people to turn into cats?”
---
By the time Yoongi comes running through the front door, Namjoon has googled every possible combination of “human”, “cat”, “leopard” (because he is sure that this is not a random housecat-breed) and “transformation” together with random words. All he gets are leopard attacks, tons of stuff on leopard geckos, a few edits of Yoongi as a leopard (which is not a bad look, actually, who would have thought) and Taehyung as a tiger, and page after page about folklore and characters from tv shows or video games. Apparently, there is no such thing as people turning into leopards randomly, but after scrolling through seemingly endless lists of cat breeds, Namjoon confirms his initial estimation and is sure that he is indeed holding a leopard in his lap.
Because the cub is definitely too sturdy to be a domestic cat, with defined, muscular hindlegs even at this young age and a build that indicates a wild predator rather than a dainty kitty (Namjoon is aware that there are big house cats in the world - at age eight, he’d still assumed his former neighbor’s cat was a large pokemon). Although the leopard - Jimin, as weird as it sounds - is delicate in a way, resembling Jimin as a person. Several pages compare leopard breeds and if the pictures are accurate at all, he’d classify Jimin as an Asian Leopard - an almost extinct breed.
“Woah Jiminie,” he whispers, pulling his dongsaeng back when he puts his paws on the laptop’s keyboard. “Your breed is very rare.”
The cub doesn’t care, it likes the clicking of the keys. Every time Namjoon types something, the leopard’s eyes swivel and follow the clicking sounds. It’s cute. Especially when the little one starts trying to paw and attack the black keys. Namjoon wipes his face when the internet refuses to share more helpful information with him. He holds the cub in front of his face, nuzzling its belly gently. He receives a vibration against his nose and a raspy lick against his cheek. The soft tail of the leopard tickles his collarbone.
And then, Yoongi stands right in front of him, with red cheeks and wide eyes.
“What the hell!?”
The cub jumps, tail puffing up and heart pounding through his thin skin. Namjoon feels the big muscle thrum scaredly against his fingers. However, curiosity wins over and the leopard tumbles off the sofa. It lands on its side in a way that makes Namjoon want to pick it up and check for injuries, but the little ball of fluff seems to be okay. Yoongi stares at the cub nosing at his ankles. Then, looking up with something soft flowing in those brown irises, he repeats his question in a whisper.
“What the hell?”
Namjoon wants to launch into a detailed report of everything he’s found out so far, but the elder insists he can’t sit until he hasn’t checked every room himself - understandable, given the situation - and even then, he paces. While up until now, Namjoon and Jimin had interacted in a calm atmosphere, that serenity is up and out of the window by now. Yoongi brings nervous energy and even if Namjoon doesn’t blame the elder, he can’t ward off the growing irritation.
“How do you know Jimin didn’t go anywhere?”
They discuss this, back and forth, why the cat right here can’t be Jimin, where else Jimin could be, and how ridiculous this is until Namjoon refuses to argue any further. He’s a man of patience but right now, he is slowly running out of it.
“Hyung. I’m telling you, it’s Jimin.”
Yoongi at least sits down. He grabs the cat, turning it over and around to look at it from every angle. He huffs.
“It’s a boy, at least.”
“Hyung! Don’t look at his - oh my God. Just believe me when I say it’s him.”
“Why? It doesn’t make any sense,” Yoongi frowns and of course, it doesn’t make sense, that’s why it’s called magic, Namjoon thinks. Yoongi narrows his eyes.
“Are you pulling a prank on me?”
The younger rolls his eyes in exasperation. It takes every ounce of his self-control to not just - ugh.
Instead, he gently says, “Okay, first of all, you know I don’t pull pranks on you. Often. Big pranks. Stuff like this. Secondly, I came home to the same situation as you. Where would I even hide Jimin? You know he wouldn’t be able to stand still because he’d want to see your reaction so he would have to be here somewhere and you checked every room. Thirdly, who even has an excess leopard baby to hand out for a couple hours? Where would I get a leopard from, hyung? You tell me if this is a prank.”
Yoongi seems to be taken a little aback but can’t lie about the sincerity in Namjoon’s eyes.
“I’m just saying,” he mumbles, “the cub doesn’t listen to Jimin’s name. See? Jiminie,” he calls out but when the cub just keeps rolling around on the thick, feet (and cub)-swallowing carpet happily, he repeats, “Jiminie? Park Jimin. Park Jimin, look at me.”
It’s a failed attempt at best because the cub has better things in mind than to listen to his hyungs, namely to catch an annoying fly that buzzes around his ears. Just before the kitty can start the chase, Namjoon grabs his dongsaeng. He gets an angry mewl in reply. Adorable.
“Shhhhh,” he says, using his fingers to scratch Jimin’s arching back. “Hold still. I don’t know, hyung. Maybe he doesn’t realize he’s a cat.”
“How do you turn into a cat and don’t know?”
“Maybe he just has cat thoughts?”
When the leopard doesn’t stop struggling even with the fingers carding through his fur, Namjoon lets him go. He doesn’t want to be hurt any more. His arms already look horrible with all those small red streaks. And they itch.
“Like what?”
“Just… regular cat thoughts. Like, 'oh, I want to eat' or 'oh, I need to catch that fly'.” He watches the ball of fluff climb onto Yoongi. “Or 'oh, I wonder what hyung’s hand tastes like right now'.”
Yoongi yelps when tiny but sharp fangs dig into his flesh. “Ow, Jimin! Stop.”
That’s what he gets for being so rude, Namjoon thinks and tries his hardest to keep the chuckle in. He’s had his own experiences with those teeth and he knows there will be many more so he shouldn’t laugh but as long as it’s not me, right?
Jimin growls a little when Yoongi pushes him off his leg. They have a staring contest for a minute which makes Namjoon’s skin tingle. Jimin stares at his hyung with a fierce, reckless expression and the elder raises a brow at the little leopard with a mysterious look in his eyes. It’s an electric moment as if the air crackles and the birds stop chirping to indicate that something really big is happening right now. But then it’s over, Jimin’s ears fold backward against his head and Yoongi slacks, almost looking like he’s broken some kind of trance. The kitty croons and receives his hyung’s warm hand with kind licks as if nothing had happened at all.
Namjoon knows it’s probably stupid but he almost expects Yoongi to say something truly fantastical right now. To tell him what revelation he received during this moment of magically glaring into Jimin’s soul. He’s like one of those fantasy characters that had a vision, after all. When Yoongi speaks, Namjoon’s holding his breath.
“Joon-ah.”
“Yeah?”
“Jimin peed on the couch.”
It's anticlimactic, to say the least. It completely breaks whatever magical atmosphere had built and Namjoon tries to hide his disappointment as well as he can but can’t ward off the frown.
“I’ll get a towel.”
“I think we should bathe him.”
Before they decide, Namjoon and Yoongi both stiffen, eyes locked on each other. Something warm is running over their legs.
“Park Jimin!”
“I think he’s trying to mark us, hyung.”
“Maybe we should all take a bath.”
[ prologue | one | two | three | four | five | six | seven ]
P!ATD won awards at two TMF Award shows in October 2006, but they only attended one. The band went to the Dutch show on Friday the 13th. They skipped the Belgian event the next night because they had a concert in Berlin (the two award shows were usually held in different seasons, but in 2006 they happened on consecutive days). P!ATD still won Best Alternative International at the Belgian award show even though they weren’t there. They did their whole thank you speech through a video.
So the pictures are all from the Dutch show (here's a tag for related content). That event seemed like a pretty big deal and was an impressive production. P!ATD performed two songs (IWSNT & BIBIYD) and then won Best International Video for IWSNT. The award figurine for this year was a new design modeled after the Greek god Pan so that’s what they’re holding. You can see it at 5:17 in this TMF video that was filmed in Vienna.
The Dutch TMF award show was trying to focus more on national artists in 2006, so only a couple international performers were even invited. The event’s site kept calling P!ATD “American Rockers” and referencing the VMA performance. Here's a bit from a review:
After hearing all the stories about Panic! At the Disco at Lowlands, I’m looking forward to their performance and curious to see how the band will fare this time. Although there is little to fault in the performance, I fail to see what makes it so special. Here at the HMH, too, the lead singer fails to hit that signature high note at the end of the chorus in ‘I Write Sins Not Tragedies’—which immediately makes the song a lot less interesting.
One fan had recorded an interview with the band, but that video is gone… I mostly remember that the guys were asked if they’d been to the coffeeshops in Amsterdam (they said they hadn’t, but fast forward to 2008 and their answer was very different lol). Here's a dead link. And here's a fan's video:
Some fans thought this moment in Munich was a Ryden thing, since Ryan often played up that angle too. Others thought Ryan was reprimanding Brendon (which happened more at shows in 2008). So who knows. But here's the context for that gif:
The band had a big run of new merch coming in November for the NRWC Tour, so the merch booths during the October international tour felt like the band was getting rid of the leftovers from every tour that had happened previously. I felt kind of bad for kids at some shows getting the obvious dregs, but at the same time it was a very unique setup that made this tour special.
So this booth in Australia (I think) got most of the shirts that had been for sale during the summer tour, except the red one was leftover from even earlier tours. These designs were already for sale in FBR's webstore too:
I remember a girl early in this tour saying that she liked simple designs and was happy to buy a plain maroon shirt at the merch booth that just said "Panic! at the Disco" in white letters. And I remember thinking... wtf did the band's label just dump the last of the 2005 webstore exclusive shirts or what?
Germany still had 3 of the shirts that were sold during the summer tour but then they added the black hoodie from fall 2005 (which had been sold in FBR's webstore for a while by this point):
then on the right side are some girl's versions of the shirts in slightly different colors PLUS this random design?!
People in different cities were getting the most RANDOM merch at their shows, I swear. And there were suddenly super random shirts that the band didn't otherwise sell, too! haha it looked like the label just grabbed any Panic shirt in existence, including the designs that were sold by third-party companies.
Someone recently sent me this picture and was confused why a person said they bought it at a Brixton show in late October:
And I'm like yeah that tracks lol. I bet there's a great story there. Because that's a shirt that was sold by third-party sellers like Hot Topic, NME, and all of those music-related stores/sites.
this moment from Europe in October 2006 was hilarious. various fan stories really did make it seem like Ryan would sometimes do his signature way bigger on purpose just to crowd out Brendon lol:
anyways, as long as i’m grabbing some random pictures, I might as well contrast Ryan’s autograph in both eras... so this is February 2006:
it gradually got bigger and he added more of a Tim Burton flourish until it looked like this in late 2006:
He forget it in his hotel room in New Zealand after the 10/2/06 show and when he went back it was gone. Zack told fans at the next show those details. When asked in an interview about what happened to the vest, Ryan said “I lost it.” So "lost" is their phrasing, but I think most of us were convinced it was stolen. I mean, the fact that the rose vest went missing so quickly after the band checked out of their hotel makes it seem like someone recognized it & kept it. I was a hotel housekeeper for several years in high school and we had to turn in everything to the lost & found that wasn’t very clearly garbage. I doubt anyone would have thrown that vest away so quickly. The band was really big in Australia & New Zealand this season, and fans in NZ knew which hotel P!ATD was staying at. A couple girls said they called the hotel afterwards and asked them to check the lost & found but had no luck
