Tickets To Paradise, Chapter 1
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Hello! Welcome to my first BTS fanfic!! I hope you enjoy! I have no idea who I'm pairing our lovely reader with yet, but I have lots of romance planned, along with all the angst, adventure, drama, reconciliation, and smexy times!! I hope you enjoy!!
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Relationships: BTS ensemble and Fem!Reader
Summary: Our lovely reader and her clever best friend have gotten their hands on tickets to the nearby BTS world tour concert, which had seemed impossible thanks to scalpers and jacked upped prices. Now, preparing to meet her beloved artists, she faces dealing with insecurities, anxiety, and a hell of a lot of just-plain-scared-out-her-mind.
This journey will follow her as she meets the boys of BTS and surprisingly catches their attention by means of her tattoo work, bright and shiny on her best friend's shoulder.
Warnings: none so far
Word Count: 1660
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Part 1 Part 2
“Hey there, darlin,” came the sly laugh from behind me.
“Hey, Smurf,” I responded, sniggering down at the copy machine as I made the 50000th copy of the day.
My coworker and partner-in-crime, Sarah, or “Smurf” as I affectionately named her, leaned against the Beast of a machine to my right, crossing her arms and feigning a nonchalant sigh of boredom.
It had been a long day. A ghastly week. In some ways, it mirrored the movie “Office Space” with the same monotonous routine, over and over and over again. The same managers droning on and on about better customer care and faster call times and working as a team, blah blah blah. Us worker bees of course just side-eyed each other with subtle rolling of the eyes, knowing we had to devote time to each individual customer to fix the problems, which meant longer call times. Which, of course, upper management just didn’t seem to get and completely ignored.
All in all, it was just another week, stuffed into another month, dragged into another year in this slightly stifling office job in the middle of the midwest, surrounded by cornfields and cringey political signs. Honestly, my only saving grace was the few tattoo gigs that popped up every now and again. Usually the loyal clientele that needed a touch up or new artwork done. I was a favorite at the only tat shop in the little town and was allowed to pick my hours. Nice, right?
Smurf huffed out another sigh, this one edging on annoyed, and I huffed one back at her.
“Whatchu want, Smurfs? I’m trying to get His Majesty’s sheets done before closing time.” His Majesty was none other than the Big Boss’ son, slave driver and all around mysoginistic jackass. He really enjoyed giving out the lesser jobs to his more feminine employees. Seemed to get a kick out of lording his authority over them. I swear, he was born in the wrong decade.
“I knooooow,” Smurf grinned, studying her acrylic nails as she swayed her curvy hips in place.
Taking my eyes from the Beast and rolling them in my bestie’s direction, I copied her stance and leaned against the wall behind me. “Smurfs, it's Friday,” I whined. “We’re almost outta here. Why you buggin’ me?”
Smurf finally let her inner demon glee shift her mouth into a huge grin and looked up at me. “So,” she spoke in a bored voice, betraying the utter joy evident all over her face, “You know The Concert That Shall Not Be Named?”
I stiffened. Of course. She HAD to mention the damned concert. Of all the gigs in all the world she had to bring me down with this shit.
I was an ARMY, through and through. Lover of all things BTS, a solid fan, albeit for only half a year, I had been taken into the massive group of fans by a random tiktok that played a piece of their animated music video, “We Are Bulletproof: Eternal”. The vocals, the harmonies, the lyrics, the beautiful artistry, and their incredible dedication to their fans all smacked me right in the face. And I knew it. I was hooked.
Of course, living in the midwest meant I had to show my love from afar. I lived too far away from any concert venue and was way too poor to travel to any shows in the neighboring states. But it was ok, I didn’t allow that to dampen my adoration. The boys were hardworking, dedicated, talented people and I absolutely admired their commitment to their craft and their followers. Honestly, I had never witnessed such love for the fans in any other musicians, never seen the power the fans hold acknowledged in such a precious way. Their humble hearts and minds continued to surprise and endear me with every new song and episode of their shows discovered.
However, the Impossible had happened. On their newest world tour, the PR team announced several new locations to their travel venue. And my heart had nearly lept out of my chest when I realized the boys were coming to the Big City merely an hour away from my little town.
Smurf had called me, nearly in tears, wailing that the tickets were already sold out and the scalpers were selling the hacked tickets for 4 times the original price. It was a Dark Day for us midwestern poor ARMYs. There were many mourning candles lit.
Hah, not really. But Smurf and I were happy for those who could attend, and continued to live our humdrum lives, secretly vibrating in excitement to have the boys in close proximity to us in just a few months.
And now, my traitor of a best smurf, decided to remind me of this damned concert. Right as I was about to declare freedom and make a run for the exit. I already had my weekend planned. Bubble bath, pineapple rum, stuffed crust pizza, the new Dr. Strange movie….
I glared daggers at my friend-turned-traitor. “You dare to mention said concert? On this, the day of my cat’s quinceañera??”
Smurf burst out laughing at the mention of our favorite cat meme. After a moment, she quickly returned to her former stance and glared back at me.
“Be prepared for your life to change, bitch.”
“What the fuck are you on about?” I laughed, clueless to her ramblings.
“I. Got. Tickets.”
My heart stopped.
“I’m sorry, I just hallucinated. What?”
Smurf huffed and dropped her hands, gripping my shoulders. “I. Got. Tickets. To see the babies. Our boys. The fine ass brigade. The glorious hip thrusters, the—”
“SMURF, YOU WHAT??”
My slightly unprofessional shriek in the middle of the large room filled with small cubicles and people readying for the weekend caused a sudden silence.
Ducking low, avoiding eye contact with anyone in the vicinity, I grabbed Smurf by the elbow and dragged her into the nearest conference room.
Tossing her dumb ass at the massive table, I slammed the door shut and stood staring at her, chest heaving.
“You, what… how??” My brain refused to believe anything that was said in the last 5 minutes.
Smurf placed her hands together in prayer form and giggled maniacally. “I got tickets. To the BTS concert. The one close by,” she gasped out.
My brain reeled, trying to imagine how this dirt poor office worker could manage to afford thousands of dollars worth of scalped tickets.
“Smurf, did you take your meds today?” I asked cautiously and slowly.
“Oh pfft,” she replied, waving her hand in the air as if to shove that very important inquiry aside. “You remember back in the day when they would give away tickets on the radio?”
“Oh. Yeah, sure. But… how the hell would they manage the phone lines for a BTS concert?” I pondered, imagining millions of phone calls bombarding a poor haggard DJ.
“See, that’s the thing. My uncle has connections, right? And it was a private giveaway. Apparently for certain… members of his club.”
I… did not even want to delve into that information. The infamous uncle of a supposedly… shifty background was also something we never really discussed. Even with some of the seedier clients that passed through my tattoo shop, we really tried to avoid dipping our toes in that area of the underworld. It was just acknowledged and then put aside.
“So… you called in.”
“I called in.”
“And won tickets.”
“Won front row tickets.”
I blanked, jaw hitting the floor. Front row… the ones that cost tens of thousands….. Holy fuck.
After my brain came back online, cue the AOL start up noises, I blinked several times and closed my mouth.
“....How many tickets did you get?” I asked in a very tiny voice, my brain starting to vibrate with the smallest of hope.
“Bitch, I got 2. Two mothafuckin tickets to see mothafuckin BTS!!!”
We both screamed and batted our hands at each other like absolute twelve year olds, shrieking and jumping around and losing our ever loving minds.
Suddenly, reality came crashing down. In the form of His Majesty himself.
“Uh, girls?” he shouted, head peeking in through the open doorway.
We immediately froze and turned, smoothing down our skirts and hair (damn dress codes).
“I believe it's a bit early for a sexy pajama party,” he sneered, laughing at his joke like the arrogant ass he is.
Smurf and I laughed weakly and nodded, apologizing for making such a ruckus.
“Now, get your butts back to finishing up the week, we aren’t paying you overtime. I’ve got a table at Delgado’s with my name on it.” He winked disgustingly and slipped his oily self back out into the beehive/workroom.
Smurf grimaced and gagged. “Ugh, woe be the woman who got snagged into that date.”
“Mmhmm,” I mindlessly agreed, my hindbrain going over every single detail of every single thing that we need to do to get ready for this experience of a lifetime.
Huffing and shaking off that creepy encounter, Smurf wrapped her arm around my shoulders and dragged me back out into the work room, shoving me at the copy machine.
“Alright, babes, finish up, we got planning to do, this shit is going down next weekend!!”
My heart skipped a beat and I gripped the Beast in shock. One week. Holy hell, the concert is in one week. I need a drink. I need a Xanax. I need a fucking horse tranquilizer.
All silly fangirling aside, my soul shivered in happiness, goosebumps spreading all down my skin. I would have the chance to watch these boys perform right in front of me. I will have the chance to witness their talent and voices and silly goofing and see the adoration in their eyes as they serenade their beloved ARMY.
I will have the absolute honor of witnessing the most acclaimed group of musicians perform on stage.
And I was absolutely panicked.
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K-pop Fan Perception of BTS's Ticket Pricing (Repost)
Anonymous: Hi BPP! Are you going to Vegas? I got tickets just now and I'm so excited I could almost pee on myself!! Sorry haha. It's only been a few months since the LA concerts and I already miss BTS. The energy and quality of their performances always moves something deep inside me. The happiness it brings is so tangible for me. I will gladly spend more and more money on them. Which brings me to my question, kpoppies were upset at floor/barricade tickets going for ~$500. Firstly, why do they care?
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Hi Anon,
I’m happy you got tickets! Honestly, myself and a few friends breathed a sigh of relief that all tickets went on sale for ARMYs first, rather than that SOFI disaster that had randoms and scalpers bleeding people dry. Things have become incredibly busy for me irl recently so it’s possible on that date I might not have the time to go, but yes, I got tickets for the Vegas concerts!
I. Am. Excited.
But I’ll admit I laughed reading your ask. "Why do they care" indeed.
Because they’re k-pop stans.
Serious question: is it possible to be a k-pop stan in 2022 and not be outraged at BTS / ARMY / HYBE on a bi-weekly basis?
That’s a really flippant thing to say, isn’t it? I’m not sure I can write the rest of this post in a way that won’t have a multi coming for my neck lool. But I’m asking a serious question and it’s one I’ve been asking since like 2017. I’m sure these people have what they think are genuine gripes with BTS or whatever. Perhaps there is really some hyper-capitalist theory that damns HYBE’s business practices as ‘immoral’. What I’ve observed however is these bursts of outrage seem to be more from shock than anything else. Pure incredulity. There’s the outrage born of boredom that you’ll frequently see in k-pop spaces, usually in the discourse-for-discourse’ sake -type environs, but genuine surprise also plays a factor sometimes.
Shock that BTS can charge what they do, when no one else in k-pop charges those prices. Awards, streams, album sales numbers - all of those things can be ignored and dismissed after you’ve heard about them often enough. What’s harder to look away from is demand shown in real time and expressed in cold hard fiat currency.
I keep saying k-pop is so inherently competitive and it’s because I’ve seen even those decrying how competitive it is, falling into that same mindset nearly every single time. It’s a really hard mindset to shake off and it’s why these people see BTS’ numbers and instinctively compare to the groups they know. It’s one reason I was laughing non-stop when prices for BTS merch were released. I saw people comparing Jin’s PJs to PJ merch of other k-pop idols (of course priced significantly lower) and then being outraged. BTS merch prices were on par with many Western (and a couple Asian) artists’ merch. At least the pajamas, accessories, hoodies and sweatpants were (Hobi is so unique with the potted plants idea). But k-pop stans expected BTS to be priced similarly to other k-pop groups… when that’s been kind of silly to do for about 3 years now.
There are a lot of questions k-pop stans ask that can be easily answered just by reminding them BTS is the biggest group in the world.
BTS is the biggest group in the world and has been selling out multiples dates of ~100,000 capacity stadiums since 2019, in seconds. Considering this, $500 for barricade/floor seats is a steal. If you’ve ever felt the heart palpitations when buying floor tickets at Coldplay, Adele, Beyonce, or Drake concerts, then I wouldn’t fault you if you weep for joy at the generosity that is BTS’s ticket pricing. Scalpers sold multiple tickets for the LA concert for as high as $22,000/ticket. For the BTS Vegas concerts, HYBE of course offers very affordable options with several tickets going for $50 - $65.
But these fans think either that BTS is not good enough to charge those prices or feel anger that their own favored groups are ‘better’ but not valued as highly… Again, competition. They can’t help it. Price is typically determined by demand and supply, and rather than condescend more than I’ve already done in this post so far, I’ll just leave it at that.
Let’s just let people enjoy things. :)
One really shouldn’t be getting triggered by how fans choose to spend their own money and resources on musicians and artists they love.
Originally posted: March 3rd, 2022 12:54am
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