north star (knj)

chapter seven

Please say you'll never get bored
Can you blame me for wanting a little bit more?
A little more of you
A little more, a little more of you

A Little More - Alessia Cara

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Upon landing, Mikka and BigHit's master schedule was up and running. I posted a selfie on Instagram of BTS and I, and no one would haved guessed how jetlagged we were judging by our smiles in the photo. I had to remind myself that wrapping my arm around Jungkook and laughing as Jin cracked a joke was all a show. It was all for my international record sales, all for making the Perry name go global.

But Jin's joke had made me actually laugh – my smile was genuine.

A few minutes after I posted the picture, I got a text from Leo. Linked to it was my Instagram post with BTS, which already had thousands of likes and comments pouring in.

Leo: It's official. I have the coolest sister ever.

On the car ride from the airport, Hoseok pulled out his phone and started recording a video on an app I had never seen before. When he flashed the camera over to me, I froze. Korean letters stared back at me as comments flooded in real-time. With horror, I realized I was live. Live in Korea.

Behind the camera, Hanna motioned for me to do something.

"Uh, hello!" I waved at the camera. "I'm super excited to be visiting my friends BTS in Korea!"

Hoseok pivoted the phone back to himself and started vlogging about who knows what. I leaned back in my seat and looked out the window at Seoul, trying not to embarrass myself on camera again.

Namjoon nudged me with his knee. "It's okay. It's just VLive. We use it a lot to stream live to our fans here."

"Did I do okay?" I asked.

I rarely did live vlogs on social media. My life off-camera consisted of me either curled up with a book or elbow-deep in baking flour, neither of which my American fans had any interest in seeing. Watching Hoseok talk to thousands from a car didn't seem particularly exciting either, but I must've been wrong, because more comments and viewers appeared every second.

Namjoon scoffed and nodded. "You could've just blinked, and the fans would've gone wild. Relax. Just be yourself, and the rest will follow."

The city lights flashed through the window, half-igniting Namjoon's face. Through the shadows, I saw a dimple form at the corner of his mouth and his eyes narrow as he grinned down at me. He bumped my knee again before turning to Jin.

Now that I wasn't busy actively finding reasons to hate him, it hit me how easy it would be to Namjoon's friend.

You could have more than friendship, a voice that sounded suspiciously like Leo said in my mind.

My phone buzzed on my lap. I expected the text to be from Leo again, but Mikka's name flashed on the screen.

Mikka: VLive? I'm impressed. Keep it up and you might be a household name in Korea by next week.

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The first few days in Korea passed in a coffee-filled blur. Whatever time I didn't spend on the collab, I spent with Hanna exploring Seoul. The city was unlike anything I had ever seen before. I saw age-old Buddhist temples and shopped at high-fashion malls in the same afternoon, then indulged in bindaetteok, a delicious savory pancake, from a street vendor for dinner. I had thought I would miss sun-soaked Los Angeles, but there was something addicting about the way Seoul blended from mountainsides and sprawling parks to a blooming metropolis. Each night, I returned to the hotel with pink cheeks from the chilly wind, but I returned happy.