BTS Eighth Member | The Life: Year 2017

Chapter 27- They Know Me

French = Italicised + Underlined

April 5th, 2017:

I was in bed about to go to sleep after a long day of rehearsal and meetings about Festa, the tour, and the next comeback. I still hadn't decided if I was going to record an original song, or a cover and the company was getting impatient. The main thing holding me back was that while I had a couple of my own songs ready to go, maybe requiring a few tweaks after review by the real professionals, I didn't feel confident enough in my own work to think it was actually good enough to show to anyone. It was hard being so vulnerable as to show off original works about my own emotions and feelings. I knew I'd have to come to a decision before we leave for Hawaii to shoot the second season of Bon Voyage in a couple days, however.

Just as I was about to put my phone down, Anne texted me. It was a video titled An All You Need to Know Introduction to the BTS Members. She had sent that with the text "I'm in it!".

My first thought was that of concern. She might think it's cool that she's in it, but it frightened me. Firstly, I don't know how they would get any pictures or videos of her when I hadn't shared any. Secondly, to her, being recognised, being "famous", might be cool right now, but it would quickly become a nuisance and most likely scare her. I didn't want that for her.

I click on the lengthy nearly 35-minute video. It went in-depth about each member. The first introduction of each member had the member's stage name, then their real, full names underneath at the top. It then listed their role in the group. Depending on the role, it showed a few clips showing off their talents. It then gave more personal information like their city of birth and nationality, age, family, pets, and any other bits they thought people should know like languages spoken. It then went to describe their personality like funny, or mature, or quiet, etc. Lastly, it added whatever "line" the member was a part of and any other hobbies or quirks the member was known for. As I watched it really was interesting to see how ARMY viewed us and was growing impatient to see how it would describe me. I had been spending so much time trying to think how I would describe myself; I'd never thought ARMY would view me any differently.

Finally, it got to me. It was in order of age, so I was last. As it had done with all the boys, it transitioned from the last clip of Jungkook being a "muscle bunny" to a picture of me from the most recent jacket photo. It then showed my name and then my full name. I was a bit surprised to see my full, full name "Fortin-Lee Y/N". I had never promoted with my dad's name so was a bit surprised to see ARMY call me as such.

This video had put me as a main vocalist. I'd seen others label me as a lead, which was technically more accurate if we were following what Big Hit had decided for us, but I was aware of the debate amongst ARMY. Personally, I'd never really cared. All of us simply worked together and took the lines that worked best for the song and our vocal ranges and preferences, that was it. 

I laughed when it labeled me the female visual. It's not like I had much competition in that regard, but it was a nice change than just being named "the female" if I thought about it. It ended this part of my introduction with the obvious maknae label. After watching clips of me singing and walking on red carpets looking pretty, it went on to the personal description. This was where Anne made an appearance. I was very relieved to realise it wasn't a picture or video, it simply stated that I had a sister S/N, two step siblings Anne and Mathieu, my dad, and Audrey. It had a subsection talking about how my mother had died. It also mentioned Tintin and my old pony. It mentioned that I used to horseback ride and have in a couple of music videos, that I liked to draw, work out, and helped in writing songs for the group.