THE PROMISE

THE INFINITY SERIES: PART III

I clean and dip the mop into the soap bowl, when something quite pink appears on the screen. BOY WITH LUV feat. HALSEY. Halsey? Our Halsey? I know her. I drop the mop and start moving along to the song, trying to copy the moves. It isn’t easy, but I do a decent job. Tired from all the dancing, I drag the mop to the stage, wiping lazily. I hear something in English. I am surprised, because while their songs do have some English lyrics, they never start with English. I jump back down and run to the screen. J-Hope is rapping, ‘Disco overload, I am into that, I am good to go. I’m diamond, you know I glow up… Let’s go!’ It is an all-English song? I laugh, jumping excitedly. I am now mopping more enthusiastically. 

ON and Black Swan play next, and I feel this need to stop and compare. From N.O to ON, the boys have changed so much, and yet, they are exactly the way they were: talented, dedicated and sweet artists who wanted to make music and the world a better place through it.

I drop the mop back into the cart, and grab a wet cloth to clean the tables. The muslin soaks up the juice and water. I make sure every inch of it is clean, as Butter, plays in the background. The narrator tells me it is their latest song.

The work is done. It is fifteen past seven. The rest of the staff and a few teachers would start arriving, in ten minutes. I am drenched in sweat but the hall looks spotless, as though the dance never happened. I check the time left on the video, and there are five minutes left. I wonder how it will end. As if reading my thoughts, the narrator speaks, ‘ARMY-ah, shall we end with this song? I think it is the perfect way to do it.” I wait.

‘Mikrokosmos’ plays. I sit down on the floor and sway from side to side, smiling. The night was nothing like I had thought it would be. I do not know if I was meant to find the video or who it was made by. I have many questions, but in the past five hours, I found answers I didn’t know I was looking for. I feel a little sad, that I did not discover BTS earlier. I feel a little relieved, that I finally did. I find myself making a promise, a promise to find out more about them, and to heal myself properly through their music.

The screen freezes, a shot of BTS as the last slide. The picture is titled: FESTA 2021.

“Did you spend the entire night here, alone?” I turn around and scramble to my feet. It is the School Principal. She looks concerned. For a second, I don’t answer.

I meet her eyes and say, “Not… alone.”