Chapter Two (An Indescribable Feeling)

Triumphant Return

As Anna walked through the HYBE building, people everywhere were congratulating her. It was the day of her debut and she had just returned from her first music show recording. She believed that it had gone well, the audience had been friendly and there hadn't been any major incidents. It had been thrilling to perform on a stage like that.

Now she was heading to the room which had been prepared for Anna to do her first V Live and post-release show. The staff had decorated with a 'congratulations on your debut' sign and pictures of her throughout her training. They had also prepared a cake and she thanked them all profusely for their efforts.

Anna settled down before the time she had announced the V Live would start and prepared herself. She had made a couple of talking points of things she wanted to mention and of course, she would be having special guests as promised that morning.

She sat smiling awkwardly at the camera after starting the Live and watched the number of viewers increase steadily. While she gave everyone time to tune in, Anna waved and posed cutely at the camera. After a few minutes, she decided it was time to say hello.

"Hello, everyone! I'm Anna, thank you for tuning in today. This is my first V Live, isn't it exciting!"

She leaned forwards to read the comments.

"Wow. I can see that there are people from all around the world."

She began greeting them in as many languages as she could think of. Then she noticed that they were congratulating her on her debut and album and commenting what their favourite songs were.

"Oh, thank you! Yes, that is why I'm here today. Has everyone listened to my album? Did you like it? Please look forward to the performances."

Anna blinked at all the comments that whizzed past on the screen.

"Ah, I wish I could read all of your comments, but there are just too many! The general consensus seems to be that you enjoyed the album. Yes? Good. I did one music show performance today and I have a few more through the next week.

"I can see that a lot of you are asking questions about the album. I will be doing a V Live on Monday where I will do a full review, with some special guests. Speaking of special guests, we will be having some visitors today. I hope you don't mind."

Guesses of who would be joining the Live flooded the comments. They were all the names of her soulmates. Anna laughed.

"Some of you are correct, but let's wait and see who turns up, yes? Okay... You want to know how I celebrated? I went out for brunch with my soulmates before the release this morning. It was nice to spend time with all of them together like that.

"What are the pictures behind me? Um, let's see..."

Anna turned around and went through each picture, trying to remember where it was from.

"I didn't even realise most of these were being taken. I'm one of those people who doesn't like having my picture taken so usually I'm good at avoiding people with cameras. Obviously, the HYBE staff are experts at being super sneaky."

She settled back down in front of the camera and leaned forwards again to read the comments.

"You liked the concept photos? Thank you!"

Comments about the photos appeared on the screen making Anna blush.

Unnie looked so cute!

Unnie is sexy!

Anna can pull off any style!

"Wow, thank you for your comments. They're very flattering. I was worried since it was my first proper photoshoot that I wouldn't do well. So, I'm glad the photos turned out well. What? You want to know what BTS thought of my photos?"

Her head turned as there was a knock at the door and the Maknae line entered, gathering around Anna. Taehyung wrapped his arm around her shoulders, Jimin rested his chin on her head, and Jungkook leaned in front of her to say hello to the viewers.

"How did it go?"

"How does it feel to be debuted?"

"Noona! You have so many fans watching right now!"

"I think it went well. It's all a bit surreal really."

Jimin looked at the camera.

"Were any of you there? Did you see Anna's debut stage? Did she do well?"

"Oh! There's one, two... Hyung, they're saying she was amazing!"

Jungkook went off-camera to pull over some chairs for the three of them to sit down on either side of Anna. Jimin pouted as he sat in the chair next to Taehyung, furthest away from her.

"What did you do while you waited? The waiting room must be so boring without us there."

"Actually, I enjoyed the peace and quiet."

"Really, Noona?!"

"No, I'm teasing you. Let's see, what did I do... Ah, I thoroughly tested my outfit. You know, making sure nothing would fall down or slide out of place."

Taehyung nodded thoughtfully.

"That's very important."

"I also got lots of messages of encouragement."

Jimin leaned in.

"Who from?"

"The boys of TXT and ENHYPEN, friends, and of course my fans."

"Have you thought of a fan name yet, Noona?"

"No, I can't think of anything!"

"We'll help you. Umm, Bells?"

The boys started laughing and then Anna remembered something.

"That was what you were going to call ARMY!"

"Don't worry Bang PD-nim probably has something in mind already."

The rest of the V Live went well. They had cake and the boys got Anna to sing a few bits of her songs. After they said goodbye, they all headed home where the rest of their soulmates were waiting and had a private celebration altogether.

The next was ARMY day and Anna had convinced her soulmates that the best present they could give was a performance video of Run BTS. They had already been working on a special performance just for Anna, so recording it hadn't been too much of a hardship. It made ARMY very happy.

Over the next week, Anna performed on many music shows. When she went on The Show, Yeosang from ATEEZ was hosting and came to her dressing room to greet her and wish her luck. She thought it was a little sad that HYBE artists didn't perform on Music Core so she wouldn't get to see Lee Know from Stray Kids. However, she had a great time getting to perform three of her songs in front of an audience.

When her second music video came out on the Monday, it also got a positive reaction. Proving You Wrong had a vigorous choreography which the fans loved. Later that day, Anna had done another V Live reviewing her album, with Yoongi and Namjoon as special guests to discuss the songs they worked on with her.

Anna wasn't unaware of the negative press she had received since the news of her debut and album had been released. As she had since becoming BTS's soulmate, she avoided the news and social media as much as possible. Of course, this did mean that she missed important things, but usually, someone else would tell her about it.

It was Namjoon who showed her the tweet by his Idol friend, Jackson Wang, who Anna had met a couple of times before. She was shocked at his public support for her and her music. It also made her laugh that he called her 'his girl' as he did when they last met. He enjoyed poking the bears which were Anna's possessive soulmates.

Although things had changed, and in a big way, it didn't feel as much of a turning point in her life as Anna had expected. Instead, it felt more like a natural progression. However, it also made her wonder what was next. A fan meeting? A concert? A world tour? That would mean travelling for weeks at a time without her soulmates, but it was what she signed up for. Wasn't it?