Chapter Text
“Come on!” your friend Christina implored for the hundredth time, her face tiny and nose red on the other side of the screen, hoodie pulled tight to her chin. “You have to put one on! You know I would have!”
“I’m not you though, am I.” You smiled, already reaching for the face paint, brushing your hair to the other side of your head, exposing your neck to Christina on your phone and the mirror in your bathroom.
“You’re no fun!” she exclaims, not noticing you had taken the purple cream stick and already begun to draw the outline of a heart right over your pulse point.
“Nope. No fun at all.” You laugh, shading in the heart. Christina finally notices and gasps.
“Yesssss! Get it! Those Tannies will be all over your cute body just wait!” You snort, finishing your makeup and tying your hair back before packing your small purse to leave.
“I’m really only doing this as a favor to you Chrissy.” It was a lie and you both know it. After all, you had joined the BTS ARMY almost a full year before Christina, you just hadn’t had the time or money to acquire even a concert ticket, forget access to the fansign. Still Christina humored you, teasing you and talking as you walked to catch the bus to the office complex adjacent to the stadium where BTS would be playing that night. She continued to talk your ear off about how jealous she was that you were going to the fan sign and concert instead of her, but grateful that somebody could take her ticket since she had come down with mild Covid.
When BTS kicked off their ‘BE:7’ tour, they had plenty of data from their junior groups on how to resume fan meets as well. It had broken their hearts to see fans of other groups unable to take clear pictures due to plexiglass barriers, unable to hold hands or give gifts, and so Bangtan had put their foot down. They insisted fan meets look, on the surface, the same as they had before the pandemic. That meant behind the scenes things would be radically different.
Ticket holders were required to take a full test three days prior to the event and upload proof of negative status onto the WeVerse portal for the specific event. When Christina had unexpectedly tested positive she texted you immediately, offering the ticket as long as you were negative. You both had been tested for your job in the local university library on the same day, so when your results came back negative you were through the first hurdle. That’s how you ended up where you were now, in line waiting for a second Covid test next to the fanmeet venue. You stood spaced out with two dozen other men and women, boys and girls, all anxiously waiting for the chance to meet their idols, praying that they weren’t positive and asymptomatic. They didn’t want to lose their chance to meet the boys, but the risk of infecting them, even if they were all seven vaccinated now, was still scary. An extra brain poke was only a minor inconvenience.
‘Through screening, just waiting on my results.’ You messaged, at last sitting down in the waiting room in a hard plastic chair, spaced away from the other ARMY, all also waiting on their results. You were mere hours away from meeting the members now.
Christina replied with a gif of Jungkook jumping up and down eagerly, which caused you to laugh quietly to yourself. ‘How’s your heart holding up?’ She asked.
‘Purple heart? Just fine. Actual heart? Pounding out of my chest.’
‘The purple one is the only one I’m worried about. You can’t throw away your chance to touch greatness!’
‘Sure...touch...that’s what you wanted for me when you told me to draw it on right?” Another gif, Jin winking, over the top, directly at the camera. Again you laughed, grateful that your sick friend was trying to help you calm down.
In the old days, rumors flew that occasionally the members of BTS would pick up partners at their fanmeets, somebody to hook up with, no strings attached, and show a good time before moving on to the next stop on tour. The conversation around this always got incredibly heated, with a large portion of the fanbase being young, and a seemingly larger portion insisting the members were celibate angelic musical monks, and not rockstars in their late twenties with genuine, carnal needs. The message boards that didn’t immediately ban the conversations were buried deep beneath pop up banners insisting readers be “of age in their jurisdiction” and “mature fans of both the humans and music of BTS”. Details were scarce, with most so-called encounters being easily proven false by other fans based on circumstances that were publicly known. No stories had been proven conclusively true, but some seemed to have enough of an air of credibility that they were accepted as canon by the community.
The common threads seemed to include that across all the members, they were seemingly interested in nearly any gender and body type, not having a really noticeable pattern when taken in aggregate. All seven members had been rumored to participate at least once since 2016, but the hyung line had been more active than the maknaes. Those selected always had wristbands indicating they were of age in their jurisdiction, always showed up alone to the fan meet, and didn’t give gifts to the members, instead spending their 60 seconds of time talking with them. Lastly, most importantly, almost all the stories that had been ‘verified’ (by whatever standards the particular forum required,) had the lucky lover wearing a purple heart over their pulse point on their neck, seemingly an explicit advertisement of willingness to hook up with the members.
You found yourself feeling quite self conscious of your own purple pulse heart now, imagining the HYBE staff members glaring at your neck, the other older ARMYs judging you for it. Surely nobody had actually noticed you, quiet, tucked away in the corner of the room, not drawing attention, just waiting for your turn. You were happy to let the others babble away and sing along to the music videos playing on the screen up front. They probably had no idea why you put the heart on anyways. Of course you’d jump at the chance to jump in the sheets with any of the members, but it felt strange to tell the rest of the world that, even if you could pass the face paint off as ‘just a way to look cute’. It may have been a while since you’d been with anybody that way, but you were no untouchable flower, no rookie in that realm.
What would it even be like to sleep with a rockstar? Would the guys be as sweet and genuine in bed as they seemed on screen? Did they have any weird kinks or fetishes they’d want to try out? Would they kiss a casual hook up with a fan or just try and get the deed over quickly? Just meet their needs and send me on my way? These questions swirled through your head as you waited for another hour, phone charge running low. You smiled at your lock screen, a picture of Namjoon splayed out in the grass of some field or park, dressed in oversized designer wear, dimples popping. Your homescreen was an action shot of Jungkook from the first night of Sowoozoo, hair pushed back, eyebrow piercing exposed, tattoos peeking through a torn shirt. You undeniably had a soft spot for the Bangtan Virgos, but had gone through phases of intense attraction to all the members. Still, you would always gravitate back to the leader and the maknae, the contrast between them playing a fierce tug of war in your mind. How strange it was that you’d be meeting them both, meeting them all, so soon.
A chime sounded over the intercom in the room and a few dozen numbers were called and displayed on the TV up front. You checked your ticket and found your number was among them and hurriedly sat up, shaking yourself out of your day dream.
‘Heading in to meet the band. Oh my god. Christina this is really happening.’
‘Make good choices! You’ll have to tell me what Tae smells like! I’m dying here!” she replies dramatically. You laugh, stashing your phone in your pocket as you follow the group through another doorway.
You busied yourself with straightening your blouse as you passed a large mirror when walking down the hall, the chatter of the others around you both deafening in intensity and muffled by your nerves. Finally, after another reminder on the rules and confirmation of your negative test status, you all were given wristbands and allowed to remove your masks. You walked through the door, where seven of the most handsome and successful men in the world waited for you eagerly behind a table.
This was really happening. It was time to meet Bangtan.