"ANGER IS AN ACID THAT CAN DO MORE HARM TO THE VESSEL IN WHICH IT IS STORED THAN TO ANYTHING ON WHICH IS POURED."

Do you ever think the person around you right now could have a story to tell? A story that needs to be told so that people will know the truth. Maybe they have experienced a love more heartbreaking than The Notebook, or maybe they have been betrayed by the outcome of their lives. But where are their stories? What happens to them?

Stories from this generation are lost, more specifically concealed. Concealed by the writers themselves. And that's because there are too many sad eyes on happy faces these days. This generation is too much broken and mentally incurable, that they never speak out their true intentions. They keep everything inside their heart and pretend the world is colourful, despite being colourblind.

Similarly, Seokjin could've shown his weak, dark sides to his members. When he didn't feel like singing or dancing, when he didn't feel like going to the gym or practice anymore, when he didn't feel like being with them at all. When he didn't want to be a member of BTS. He could've told them if he wanted to.

But he never did. Why? Because he was the eldest. Besides the leader, the eldest member of a team is a guardian of the others. Like a parent, he doesn't show his vulnerable sides and instead encourages them by taking a step first. If he lets fear win over him; the others get scared too and give up easily.

So that's why he stayed with the youngsters and endured everything. For the sake of his little brothers, he behaved like a clown to make them laugh in their gloomy days. He became someone everyone would look at and eventually laugh at. He was always considered as the mood of the team.

Many of us sacrifice and endure for the sake of our loved ones. We don't want them to get hurt. We don't want them to be in pain when we can be the ones to bear their pain. Seokjin thought he was the only person in the world to ever do that.

Until he found Yoon Min. This special girl never failed to impress him.

"This isn't anything special, you know. You stay with every human in this world and you'll realize each of us sacrifice for our loved ones. Similarly, we all have someone we want to give up our everything for them. I think we can say we all have a bit of kindness inside us."

Maybe he wasn't the only member with sacrifices. Maybe Jimin also sacrificed, even Taehyung or Yoongi. Everyone sacrificed for their group to soar high.

"I think people make different types of sacrifices because it's important to them, they have something they're willing to give up to help themselves or others. They make sacrifices for things they care about."

He thought for a few seconds. "Like we sacrificed many things for our f-fans," he realized he was in a mental state where he couldn't call them ARMYs again.

"Exactly. I think BTS and ARMY are the only artist fandom in the world who never hesitate to sacrifice for each other," she smiled proudly.

"I still can't figure out how you guys managed to stream Butter to its 112M views in one day. That's a huge sacrifice of time and patience."

Yoon Min laughed forcedly. "Oh, that was nothing."

He had to look at her. Feeling his gaze, she glanced at him being puzzled. "You don't know, do you? ARMYs have sacrificed more than just time and patience."

His confused face gave her the answer she needed. Seriously he had no idea what she was talking about.

She cleared her throat and explained, "Your popularity didn't come all of a sudden. It took over every country through the years, reaching everyone's taste and touching their hearts. When your fandom was enlarging, so did the anti-fans."

The last word made him bite the inside of his cheeks. He was familiar with the concept of anti-fans.

"As fans started to grow more affectionate towards BTS, they started to use merchandise, shared posts on their profiles, talked about you all day; and eventually they kind of grew obsessed...in a good way. But the anti-fans couldn't tolerate the fans. They couldn't tolerate their obsession with BTS so they started to bully them."

His eyes widened. "Bully?"

"Yes. They taunt and mock ARMYs for wearing merches. When they find any girl or boy being a fan, they publicly harass them or make fun of them. They call the fans by ugly names. Not to mention, they troll their hate posts proudly. They deliberately say mean words about you, call out you as gays or androgynes or plastics. Sometimes they insult the fans to a shameless level, compare them with diseases, and discriminate on the grounds of being a fan. Anti-fans can do anything to bring your group and the fans down."

He didn't know the anti-fans could stoop this low. He heard about it sometimes, but never the details. He was extremely shocked by their cruel behaviour.

With a soft whimper, he questioned, "But why do they attack on the fans? They should come at us if they don't like us."

She replied immediately, "I know it seems like anti-fans are those people who dislike K-pop groups. But they are mostly haters of the fans. They know they can't do anything to you so they attack on the fans for their pleasure and satisfaction."

Some people find it easier to hate. They hate seeing others do better than them, and so they scream the loudest and let their hatred destroy themselves.

"And the crazy fact is, these anti-fans think they look very cool and smart when they spread the negativity. Some people smoke because they think it makes them cool. Similarly, these screwups think hating BTS makes them very smart. Bullshit, right?"

Seokjin was wondering. All this time, he and the members released a few songs dedicated to their anti-fans such as Mic Drop, Run BTS, Ugh, Cypher etc. Those songs contained their enmity with them. But they should've written some songs to protect their fans. It's not them who have to deal with haters daily; it's their fans.

They should have written such songs where they tell the haters to keep away from their precious fans.

"Even after such cruel harassment, why don't the fans stop supporting us?" he asked curiously.

"They do. There are hundreds of ARMYs out there who have stopped being a fan after being bullied. They couldn't endure the toxicity so they stopped everything. You can't blame them, why would they go through this torture for some guys with whom they can't even meet?"

He was baffled by what she said. There are people who leave the fandom because of the anti-fans? Was it true?

"I mean, I kind of feel sorry for them. I get upset that they were so passionate about staying with BTS forever, they made hundreds of promises to protect you. What happened to those words? Why make promises they won't keep? Then I understand it's hard for them and it's their choice. It also proves not everyone can be an ARMY," she sighed.

Listening to her, he wondered how many other facts he didn't know about their fandom. The fans know everything about them, so he felt pity for those fans who were so hurt and lost the strength to remain a fan.

She added, "I once read a post about these fans. Someone said it's okay to stop being an ARMY because it means you've finally healed, you've finally found what you were looking for. Crazy, right?"

It wasn't that they left because they were healed. They were humiliated, insulted, and treated like lifeless objects just for being a fan. They had every right to stop being a fan.

Because in those times, they must've desired to see BTS even for a second. They must've wanted a clue or a sign to prove themselves wrong. But they were never personally there for them.

Glancing at her, he asked, "What about you? Did you have to face haters too?"

Yoon Min replied enthusiastically, "Of course! I was a crazy, childish ARMY during the starting years. Me and my friends would write your names everywhere, talk about you all day, sing and dance to your songs, share posts hourly, and wear merches proudly in public. We were very good at defending BTS. Whenever any anti-fan was ready to roast, we stomped on them and made them think twice before talking. We were very dedicated ARMYs."

He couldn't understand why she was using 'were'.

Her eyes softened slowly as she lowered her head. "But you know...some of my friends started to get offended by the anti-fan's words. They were no longer ready to defend BTS. They stopped wearing merches, stopped talking about you, stopped dreaming. They stopped caring about BTS. It's like suddenly they had more important things to worry about. Gradually, they moved on to other things that piqued their interests.

"My friends said you all changed, that you weren't the same BTS anymore. And I realized they weren't the only people to think that. Many fans had the same perception about your team and that's another one of the reasons why they left the fandom."

He wanted to protest about that. What part of them changed? Their music or their personality? What was the change that angered the fans so much? He thought everything they ever did was for their fans only.

"Do you think we changed?" he didn't know what he was expecting.

She looked at him. "People change, Jin-ssi. It's inevitable. Truth is, I also saw how you guys were changing. There were times it felt like you came on V-live when you didn't want to, as if you were forced to sit there in front of the screen. You looked pretty disappointed when you were compelled to do aegyeos or answer fan's questions. And you guys trying to be like Western artists was something I couldn't agree with at all.

"It was hard a lot of times. But that doesn't mean I hated you. No matter what we, ARMYs think, you will still probably say though there were many changes, you're still the same. You all took new paths and tried different concepts since you thought the fans would love it. In the end, you sacrificed for us."

Even though Yoon Min was positive regarding their change, his head couldn't get off the fact many fans left them for this. Was that it then? Just because they had bigger dreams, bigger wishes, the fans didn't like it? They gave away the spot BTS used to have in their heart to something else. Other fans were disappointed in some of the members' actions and since what they did did not meet their expectations, they left the fandom entirely.

Suddenly, he heard a rumble of thunder nearby. With confused eyes, he glanced at the sky, expecting rain but it was pretty clear. His second guess was her but she hid the fact.

"Wait, I don't see any clouds. Is it going to rain?"

"It was your stomach, Yoon Min."

She glared at him as if he swore at her. "No way that came from me! I'm not even hungry!"

As far as he knew, she wasn't the kind to take enough care of herself and now the random thought of her starving herself scared him. Was she so busy that she forgot to eat?

"Are you perhaps--"

"Nope, you got it wrong. I'm anything but hungry. Stop asking me. I'm sure it came from the clouds at a distance," her rambling made it obvious she was lying.

Seokjin asked her carefully, looking at her, "Did you eat lunch?"

"No," she avoided eye contact. "But that's-"

"Okay, we're getting food. Get up," he surprised both her and himself with his action.

She stared at him. "You are gonna eat too?"

Her question made him realize it was her plan all along; to get him to eat nice foods. She was pretending to be starving so that they could go to some place and eat, but it had to be both of them otherwise she wouldn't eat.

Though he had no appetite right now, he unintentionally nodded his head, just so she could eat.

"Y-Yeah.."

☆THE FAULT IN OUR STARS☆

THANK YOU FOR READING
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A/N: I used BTS and ARMYs as the stereotype culture that is happening in Kpop. The hype, the love, the obsession aren't just there anymore, right?