Belong | Min Yoongi

01: Present Day

There's always something magical whenever you watch yourself on screen.

It's not due to some narcissistic reason or an insatiable desire for the spotlight; it's not even because you think you're really talented. Sure, you like the attention and just like anyone who's spent years of their lives perfecting their craft, you want to be pretty great at it, but all those thoughts become suspended whenever it's your scene.

During these instances, it's only about your character and her emotions, and that's what you think is remarkable about it - watching yourself is just like being there, in that moment, on that set, feeling it all.

Most actors would say they love acting because it gives them a variety of roles and personalities to play. You like that bit, too, but it's the character's emotions that you commit yourself to the most; it's being able to immerse yourself in the feelings of joy and anger, of contempt and fear, of envy and admiration, of guilt and love. You like the finiteness of it, that with acting comes the feeling, and you know at some point, it's going to end.

Once the scene is over, so is the emotion; you're able to let go of it right away with one breath. You're good at that, you think - holding onto something for as long as it's yours, and then letting it go when it no longer is.

The collective gasp of the people around you breaks your bubble only a little; you release a breath yourself as the last scene unfolds. And with the final shot and the succeeding transition to the end credits, you let go of the sadness.

"I can't believe that only took one shot," your best friend, Taehyung, says in awe. "I would've been crying already knowing how it ends."

"Jin and I challenged each other," you proudly say. "We said we'd do our absolute best for that first try and the director thought it was that good. Seriously, not crying until that last second was so hard; I didn't think I could do it."

The Kim Seokjin, your co-actor and good friend, looks at you from the other side of the couch with that soft and proud look that you only ever get from him once a project is over. You return the sentiment, knowing that you wouldn't have survived your first lead role in a drama series if he wasn't acting alongside you.

He'd been your senior at university where you both took your major in acting. He was already modeling then and snagged a major role in a movie right after graduation; he became a household name after that.

You watched from the sidelines as he achieved his dreams while you took the occasional 30-second roles given to the students, but he didn't forget you. He called regularly to know how you were doing, gave tips when you asked, and informed you of upcoming auditions.

It was the type of friendship that challenged you, given that you both wanted to one day star in a series or movie together, a culmination of all the long hours of rehearsals and line-reading and classes that you both did. He had already made a name for himself; you wanted to be good enough to have yours be opposite his.

It would take a few years, but after a supporting role in a romcom movie that saw people wanting more of you, you and Jin finally got cast in a series about a mortal woman falling in love with a celestial being, which, at the beginning, reflected your respective statuses in the industry. You expected the show to do well - everything that Kim Seokjin touches turns to gold, as the saying goes - but you didn't expect for the public to love you both as a pair as much as they do, given that they want you to star in another show right away.

"I cried as I turned around," Jin says of the scene where he had to go back to his world and leave you behind. "That was heavy and even I'm impressed we did it in one shot."