Jimin didn’t just give me his personal earrings, he made earrings for me too. Well, it was for ARMY. But I’d like to think it’s for me as well, because I know that I had a big part in designing it! He came home one day with a tiny box. “This one for you Jagi. I had to contact Weverse myself to get this early.” Jimin grinned as I sat up from my bed and opened the box to reveal a set of silver gold hooped earrings. They were similar to the ones he was wearing except each earring had two hoops.

 “Wow, these are beautiful!” I said as I excitedly took out the contents of the box, which included a photocard of Jimin. “Of course! I design them myself. Hybe will announce our Bts-made merchandise next month. These are the earrings I make.” Jimin said as he pointed out the little nuances of the earrings. He talked about the significance of the number 13 on the back of the earrings, and he got really excited when he began speaking about the earring’s accents.

“Look here Jagi. I ask them to make a red streak just for you. Since you’re so obsess about ‘strands of fate’ and things.” Jimin smiled as he pointed out the little streaks of red that lined each hoop. “There are two hoops instead of only one. Just like two people with the same red strand.” Jimin twirled one earring and two silver hoops dangled around each other.

Each earring represented two people, with one red strand of fate. I remember having bored him with all my philosophical ranting about Chinese folklore because Namjoon wasn’t around to discuss it with me. I didn’t think Jimin was really listening at the time. But he was. Jimin is so sweet and thoughtful. He’s so smart and creative too.

“There’s a boyfriend sweater also but they won’t give it to me!” Jimin theatrically pouted and grinned. “It’s ok right? So you can have all mine instead. Everything in my closet.” He said and we hugged. “I dunno. I kind of like what you have on now.” I grinned as I took off his sweater. Jimin giggled an amused laugh as I pulled him in to feel his skin and smell his aroma. “Thank you so much. I love these.” I clutched on to the box while he held me. Jimin took them from my hand and set them on my nightstand so that we could fully cuddle for the rest of the day.

Around the middle of January, I texted him a picture of myself with the earrings. “Jagi, these are selling out in 60 seconds! I’m so glad I have them and I don’t have to fight ARMY for it!!” He didn’t respond for a few hours and I knew he was busy. “Oh yea?” Jimin briefly texted me. “Tae try to order sweater for you and fail.” Jimin followed up with another text and I laughed at his screenshot of Tae’s text messages. Of course I didn’t understand Hangul but the skeletons and emojis were enough to show me that Tae really did struggle.

It’s so weird to be able to see both sides of them: the famous unreachable kpop idols, and the regular old person (who has trouble ordering things online too). To me, they are both. I feel so lucky to be able to even jump back and forth between these blurry lines. I played with my first-edition, “Jimin-made” earrings that were given to me by none other than the artist himself.

Being able to see the process behind the scenes is so amusing. My favorite reaction was Seokjin. I laughed at how Jin freaked out about the price of his “artist-made” pajamas a few days ago. I remember hyping him up in the kitchen for being so bold about actually complaining on Weverse about it.

“Yes I will complain and why not?” Jin clucked defensively as he stuffed more food into his face. They didn’t have a lot of time, so he had to shove everything in before they left for dance practice.

I’m so happy they’re my family. I can see both sides of them and that’s a real blessing. BTS: Behind the Scenes