The guys come roaring out of the gates and dance to On like their lives depend on it, then straight into Fire and Dope. Poor Jin is relegated to a chair for the more vigorous choreos, his hand still in the cast, and I can see that he is upset to be sitting it out.

Namjoon is very apologetic about the delay during the opening 'ments, but the crowd murmurs reassurances to him. I have seen the Permission to Dance show so many times, now, that it feels wonderfully familiar, yet still new every time. The guys have different outfits than they did in LA or Seoul, of course the 'ments are different, and they also change the set list a bit every night. 'Even if they did everything exactly the same, though, they are just so damn amazing on-stage that it would never get boring,' I think, smiling as they float and pop their way through Black Swan. 'I love them so much...'  The big screens show Namjoon striding up the stage rapping, flanked by Jimin and Tae, and the sheer charismatic swagger of the three of them makes my heart stutter in my chest.

The guys board the carts for Telepathy and start to make their way around the stadium. I am right at eye level, and Yoongi spots me and points, giving me a gummy smile. Jimin looks over, too, and waves, so I wave back and blow them each a kiss. Sheila looks at me, her eyes huge, and I eye-smile at her. On the big screen, I see Hobi nod and put his hand up when a fan on the other side of the stands offers him a bouquet. She tosses it to him, and he catches it. It makes me really uncomfortable, for reasons I can't explain. 'I've never seen them take stuff from the crowd like that, before,' I think. Then Tae catches a water bottle thrown to him by another fan, and I try to telepathically send him the message not to drink it, just in case. As far as I can see, he doesn't, just setting it down on the floor of the cart.

The other cart comes along my side of the stands as they sing Outro: Wings. Jin sees me and makes a finger heart with his good hand, then pats Taehyung's arm and points to me. Tae gives me a snarly smile in greeting and then starts to do his suave, jazzy dance for a few seconds. I fold my arms up above my head in a heart, beaming at him. Hobi watches him and laughs, then looks up into the stands and winks at me. As they go by, Sheila grabs my arm and starts to shake me. "YOU KNOW THEM?!" she yells over the music. I grin and nod, and she looks at me like I just sprouted an extra head.

In his ending 'ments, Tae is telling the audience in Korean about his reaction to the screen malfunction. "We had a problem with the screen and I was thinking, 'Shit.'" I laugh, and then hear the translator say in English, "I was thinking 'Shoot.'" Taehyung turns to look at him and says, "Not 'shoot,'" and the translator blushes and says, "Shit." I cackle so hard my stomach hurts. 'Yep. That's my man!' I think, shaking my head.

As soon as the show is over, Sheila turns to me and yells, "How on Earth do you know the BTS members?!" Several other fans around us stop and turn to listen, too. I glance around, suddenly nervous, and tell them, "I work for Hybe in Seoul." I fish my employee badge out of my bag and show it to them. They regard me with awe, and Sheila finds a piece of paper and a pen in her bag and demands my autograph. I am so embarrassed that I laugh really hard, telling her that she's the first person to ever ask for my autograph, but I sign the receipt: "I enjoyed PTD LV D1 with you, Sheila! Borahae!" I sign it 'Eunen Sae' in hangul and then '(Songbird)'. She reads it and tucks it into her bag, and we say our goodbyes.

As I am being swept along the bridge back to the Strip by a tsunami of happy, singing ARMYs, I feel my phone vibrate. Tae texts me, 'Birdie, we are taking a bunch of staffs out for dinner and drinks because they were so stressed out by the video screen. Do you want to come?'

'Sure, where?'

'Yay! Zuma, private room, I'll make sure you're on the list. Sit by me, OK?'

'Save me a seat, babe! 🥰'

The very next instant I'm having second thoughts - should I really be sitting next to him, in front of a bunch of coworkers? But I dismiss the worries from my mind as best I can, and decide to just enjoy myself.

My phone buzzes again. 'Does Emily want to come, too?'

'I'll text her and see...' 'Tae, she's not answering texts, and I called her but she didn't answer that, either. I don't know?'

🤨 'I hope she's OK. I'll put her on the list, in case. Keep trying!'

'Will do, love, thanks! See you in a minute.'

By the time I get to Zuma, my brain has concocted a bunch of horror stories about Emily being abducted or roofied or something. I show my ID and get directed to the private dining room, where I spot an empty seat at one end of the long table, beside Tae and across from Hobi and Jimin. All three of them look worried. As I am smiling and greeting them, my phone buzzes and I turn away to answer.

"Hello? Emily, are you OK?"

Her voice sounds really sleepy. "Yeah, I'm fine. I was asleep. What's happening?"

"Ohmygosh, I thought you'd been taken by the lizard people or something! I forgot that you aren't nocturnal! Holy shit, I was really freaking out. Do you want to come out to dinner with the guys and a bunch of staff?"

"Uuuuuh, that sounds amazing, but I am already in my pajamas, sleeping. I get to meet them this weekend, right?"

"Yeah. OK, well, sweet dreams, sleepy head. Sorry for waking you!" I do a 'mwah' kiss into the phone.

"OK, have fun, bye!" she replies.

I slump down into my chair, and explain what happened to the guys. "I forget that a lot of people, including the rest of my family, go to bed at 10 p.m. Weirdo freaks!" I laugh. Then I pat my heart. "I almost had a heart attack. She was out on a non-date with an ex-boyfriend tonight, so..." All three guys look at me with concern. I make a 'yikes' face and nod. "He seemed like a nice enough kid, back in high school, but I wasn't a very good judge of character back then," I say, wincing.

"I'm so glad she's fine," Hobi says, giving me his heart-shaped smile. Tae grabs my hand under the table and gives it a squeeze, while Jimin looks at me sympathetically.

"Thanks, guys," I say, smiling at each of them. "OK, enough of that non-drama drama! Have you been here before? What's good?"

___________________________________

On Saturday, Emily and I spend the late morning and early afternoon hiking Red Rock Canyon, then have a swim and soak before it's time to get dressed for the Day 2 concert. She is trying to play it cool, but I can tell she's really excited as she checks and rechecks her ARMY bomb to make sure that it's working.

The crowd tonight is much more rowdy and raucous than last night's. It's probably about one-third guys, lots of younger people, and I notice more people without ARMY bombs, so probably casual fans rather than hardcore ARMYs. It seems like people have been pre-funking pretty hard, too; some are obviously intoxicated. I lean over to tell Emily that this seems to be a kind of weird crowd and she responds that it seems like a normal concert crowd to her. "Not a normal BTS crowd, though," I tell her.

We are sitting 15 rows back this time, facing the screens head-on. Emily bought the tickets resale when she decided to come; I'm not sure what happened to my original seat, but I assume that someone is sitting in it, since the place is packed.

The Permission to Dance video plays, and the opening VCR, and Emily looks at me wide-eyed over her mask. "Here we go!" I yell at her, and she nods. We both dance and sing and scream non-stop through the first set, and during the next VCR, she leans over to say, "This is the most amazing and the craziest thing I've ever seen in my life."

I eye-smile at her. "Isn't it? The energy is insane."

When I glance at her again during Blue and Grey, she has tears streaming down her face, so I reach over and grab her hand, letting my ARMY bomb dangle from its "Taehyung" wrist strap. She squeezes my hand and then lets go to rub her hand over her eyes, looking embarrassed.

I notice a lot of fans in the lower tier holding single flowers or bouquets, and I feel very uneasy about it. When the carts come around during Telepathy, the crowd begins to absolutely pelt the members with flowers, stuffies, little Korean flags, bottled drinks, and all kinds of other stuff. I grimace as I see them trying to deflect flying objects, and stumbling on the debris scattered all over the floors of the carts. "Stop throwing shit at them, you morons!" I yell, but of course it does no good. I can't watch. I shut my eyes and just pray that none of the guys get injured. 'Dear angel, please protect Taehyung and his brothers,' I think, and then laugh at myself.

The guys make it back to the main stage without any major incidents, apparently, and continue with the next set. After the show, Emily just looks at me in amazement and shock. "Holy shit," she says. "What just happened?"

I laugh and nod. "Mmm-hmm. That's BTS live, girl!"

"I'm shook. I may never get over it."

"Well, it gets easier with practice. Come back next weekend!" I say, grinning.

"I wish..." she says, shaking her head, as we climb up the stairs toward the exit. "So, what happens now with" she motions back toward the stage.

"I don't really know what the plan is. They usually have a little decompress/debrief time together, sometimes do a livestream, as you know, plus goodness knows what other sorts of tomfoolery, and then I assume we'll pick up Tae like usual and go home."

"No group dinner tonight?" she asks, and I can hear the disappointment.

"Nah, I doubt it. You'll have to wait until tomorrow." I wink at her.

As we're queued up to get out of the gates, inching past some stadium workers, I hear them talking about ARMY.

"They really are the nicest fans, aren't they?"

"Yes, people keep thanking me and bowing to me and giving me little presents! I've never seen anything like it!"

It makes me feel a bit better to hear that, after my intense disappointment and anger at the crowd for throwing things at the guys earlier. 'It was stupid, but they meant well, I guess.'

Emily and I decide to grab soft drinks from the food court in Mandalay Bay, and then just stroll up the Strip. I don't really want to drive out to the house and then just turn around and come back to get Taehyung, anyway. About forty minutes later, Em and I are sitting on a large planter outside of New York, New York when Tae texts me.

Birdie, Jimin-ie and Jungkook-ie want to stay at our house tonight. Is it OK for you and Emily?

Sure, babe. We don't mind. Em says that she will probably go to bed pretty soon, though.

OK, we won't be noisy. They just want to come and hang out in the hot tub or something.

Sounds good, love. Are you guys ready to go?

Yes, we'll meet you at the sign in 10 minutes! 😚

"Let's go right now, Em, I don't want the three of them standing around on the street corner. They're recognizable enough one at a time! The whole maknae line..." I shake my head.

Emily climbs in the back seat, behind me for some reason. I look at her in the rear view mirror as I pull into traffic. "What are you doing back there, anyway, goofball?" I ask.

"I feel awkward sitting shotgun with you guys. That feels like it's Taehyung's seat."

I laugh at her. "You just want to cuddle up to JK or Jimin, don't you?" I ask.

Her eyes get wide and she starts to panic. "Oh, shit, I wasn't even thinking about it!"

"You can come jump in the front seat when we stop, if you want." I shake my head and chuckle at her.

The guys are already walking across the crosswalk right in front of the sign when we pull up, so Emily doesn't have a chance to switch without opening her door into oncoming traffic. Each of the guys has a small overnight bag, so I pop the trunk. Tae takes shotgun, and Jimin gets the middle seat in the back, with JK behind Tae.

"Hey, guys!" I smile at them in the mirror. "You were awesome tonight, like always!"

Jimin turns to Emily and says in English, "Hello, I'm Jimin!" sounding just like he's doing a 'ment.

"Hi, I'm Emily," she says, her voice unusually squeaky.

"Hi, I'm JK!" Jungkook says, nodding respectfully.

"Emily, nice to meet you!"

"Nice to meet you!" they say in chorus. Tae and I make eye contact, both of us trying not to laugh.

"Well, you guys don't look bruised. I was worried with the rain of flowers and stuffies and who knows what all."

Jimin says, "Yeah, Yoongi-hyung got hit in the face with a bottle." I look at him in alarm, and then at Tae who shakes his head in disbelief. Jimin glances at Emily and says slowly in English, "Suga, a bottle hit his face," and then he acts out the scene to make sure she understands.

"Oh my god, is he OK?" she asks.

"Yes, he is OK."

"Wow. Thank goodness."

The two of them chat the rest of the way home, while I mostly make amused faces at Tae and JK. When we get to the house, JK calls dibs on the game room bed, which surprises me. I was thinking that Jimin would want that one. Jimin gets the middle guest room upstairs, and we all go to our separate spaces to put bathing suits on.

I decide to brush the sugar off my teeth from the cola I drank, and Tae comes in to get the rest of his stage makeup off. I start laughing, remembering the car ride home. "No wonder Jimin always has a girlfriend!" I say, winking at him. "He's so smooth! That guy is a player!"

Taehyung laughs. "Yes, we should warn Emily," he says, grinning.

I tilt my head and say, "I think she knows, love, and she doesn't seem to mind!"