august

The thing about this leadership is that each time BTS has a comeback, it's always a big thing. And each time they have a comeback, there is always an event in alignment to it. The success of Identity and anticipation for Lumiere started it.

So it's not surprising then that it would be the same case for their forthcoming English single, "Dynamite", promoted in what was known as the end of summer event with lessons to learn forever - forever.21. No homage to a clothing line intended.

Unlike Identity and Lumiere though, forever.21 went with what could be considered as one of MDverse's best concepts - and it's actually a very benevolent one. As the second edutainment event following The Great Divide, forever.21 promised an experience of learning through its science concept (or as the girls from Netflix series Project MC² would call it, STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, mathematics) concept), which is something new to the MDverse and something that sets the event apart.

I personally liked the concept. However, before we knew.. the forever.21 era was already becoming something else.

As the days went on, I realized that working on the event was actually harder than I thought. As you may know, the promotional era for the event fell in a time when our family was experiencing a financial problem brought on by the pandemic. That made running the event more difficult, as it made me reconsider my decisions in life - including my plans for the next few events.

On August 6, due to an undesirable experience and an argument with my family while working on the event.. forever.21, on board to becoming another successful event promoting a highly-selling BTS comeback.... almost went into cancellation.

But amidst this setback is a blessing in disguise.. or is it?

August 6 was also the day I became a fan of one of its performers, ONF. I happened to join the fandom on a very interesting date - two days after the anniversary of their debut, and four days before their comeback. Pronounced and stands for on and off, I would like to note that besides BTS, I have been a fan of multiple groups before I knew the six-member boy group - but moving forward, it was the only time for me to seriously stan another group as much as I do with the one with ties to leadership.

But I did not want it to reach the point where leadership itself would be affected.

In spite of the adversity I faced as comeback was nearing, forever.21 actually pushed through as planned, on August 21, with the release of "Dynamite" and more educational content as well as performances on MDTV.

But then unfortunately, things took on a wrong turn immediately following the event. Everything went worse from there.

Our situation, as well as forever.21's wrong timing, called for a realignment. This led to the cancellations of the next few events which should follow forever.21 and left an uncertain future for the MDverse. Three were lined up in the fall - one was already cancelled, the 2020 Rainbow Festa which was supposed to take place after forever.21; another had been pushed back indefinitely and one was in critical state.

In addition, Cara did continue with his leadership but not like how we would expect. Due to realignment.. and my love for the members of ONF, which had since marked the beginning of the dual stanning era.... for the very first time, after more than a year and half into his leadership, Cara was becoming inconsistent.

The comeback was expected to save the leadership from that happening. But that only showed that this isn't always the case. The release of "Dynamite", promoted on forever.21, actually seemed to be instrumental to his instability, which seemed unlikely considering his status over the last 19 months.

I started to worry if this could be the beginning of the end.

Usually, in leadership, when things like this happen, it could be a sign that it will end before we know.

So was it goodbye?

I was afraid I was gonna be answering that with a 'yes'.

But I remind myself that this happens to all leaders, even the best ones. Knowing Cara being the most consistent leader that we know today, I chose to be faithful. There was hope that he'll go back to being the Cara that I loved when he started leading - the Cara I knew in 2018, started in 2019 and continued in 2020. There was hope that we'll go back to how this used to be.

But looking back..

That's when I realize, forever.21 became the event that changed Caratime.