BTS Eighth Member | The Life: Year 2017

Chapter 21- Jennie

March 26th, 2017:

We were in the suit we usually reserved rehearsing our performance for JBTV which was going to be filmed in an historic musical building in Chicago. Everyone was growing more and more stressed and anxious as we practiced because the stage was a lot smaller than we anticipated and with eight members, it was more than a tight squeeze.

"Okay, but now we can't see Y/N," Sungdeuk says, stopping us as we started to dance to Not Today in the space we had delineated as the stage in the suite, "are you going to be in heels?"

"Is that smart considering the cramped space?" Yoongi quickly says, concerned about the potential pointiness of my shoes.

"I think I might wear the block ones, yeah," I nod.

"Can you wear them? Just to see if they make a difference," Sungdeuk asks, but in the tone of a demand.

I turn to ask Yoona, but she was already shooting me a thumbs-up and going out of the room to find a stylist to get the shoes.

We keep running through it and fixing things as we found issues continually. Even with the heels, being so close to the guys, if I was at the back, I mostly disappeared.

"I don't think we can do Blood, Sweat, and Tears," Jimin says as we moved on songs, "we have to lie down".

We continued brainstorming for another hour. Finally, we all sat down a bit dejected and definitely anxious about how things were going to go down.

"It's just, we won't get to show them all that we've got," Yoongi said upset as a stressed silence hung around us, "like we can't even see Y/N".

"Yeah, forget about showing all we've got for the performances, we can't even show all the members," Namjoon concurs.

"They're talking about it with the organisers," a manager responds, "Hobeom is on it now. But you have to remember it's a place with 30 years of history in Chicago, so they want us to perform with these specifications".

"I completely understand where you guys are coming from," Sungdeuk steps in, "it's going to be our first performance on American TV and we won't get to show them the synchronised choreographies, but that is what the situation is, so we just have to take it as is".

"We know where you guys are coming from, and we agree with you, but we need to adjust to the circumstances," the manager continues, "we'll just have to do our best. We've told them about the limits they've put on you guys and are aware of it. But at the end of the day, we need the go-ahead from the artists. I need your okay for us to send them the final green light".

We all nod as we listened, despite all of us still probably feeling upset about the whole thing. We all look at each, waiting to see who would speak first.

"Of course, we'll go," Namjoon speaks up after looking at each of us in the eyes for confirmation.

"After you've performed, we'll review the result and edit out anything that's not worth showing. Then they can post the video, that's what we've agreed on," the manager says, probably feeling relieved we agreed to it in the end.