Chapter 3

I woke up at around 10am to a phone call from Ryan. "Hey Mira, are you up?", he asked. "Nooooo", I groaned making him laugh. "I am waiting in the lobby, we have to find you a house, remember??", he said making me jump out of my bed. I apologized for making him wait and got dressed quickly. Luckily I had bought a few casual tops and a few sweatpants so I didn't have to worry about wearing the same attire. I wore a pair of beige sweatpants and crop top and left to meet Ryan in the lobby.



(This is my attire in this scene)

"Hey", I greeted Ryan who was sitting on a couch waiting for me. He had a casual striped tshirt on and a black pair of jeans. "Good morning, sleeping beauty!", he said. I apologized again and we left.

I had told him that I was looking for a place near Gangnam-gu, so we reached there and checked out a few apartments. Most of them were good but none of those I really liked. By the end of the day, we had visited about 7 apartments. "So you're telling me,  that you visited 7 places in one of Koreas richest neighborhoods and liked none of them!", he exclaimed a little surprised.

"Hey, I'm planning to stay here for the rest of my life. The house needs to be good for a long time. Come on!", I replied. "Are you going to buy a house?", he questioned somewhat surprised. "Yeah why?". "Well, the places we visited were for renting out. I assumed you'd want to rent an apartment so I searched for those.", he said a little embarrassed. I chuckled at his expression and told him it was okay since I hadn't told him about it and that we could try again. We had a cup of coffee and decided to leave as it was getting dark.

"You didn't have to come all the way here. I could have taken a taxi.", I said when we reached the hotel. "That's alright, I actually enjoy my time with you plus you're new here what if someone kidnaps you", he said making me laugh and blush at the same time.

I really felt like I needed to thank him for his help. "Hey.. umm there's a bar in the hotel. Do you wanna get a drink maybe?", I asked to which he agreed. Once in the bar each of us ordered a beer. "So tell me, why are you here?", Ryan asked, by this time we had the table and were comfortable. "Well ... do you want to know the reason I plan to tell everyone or the actual reason?", I asked and laughed. "Both", he replied without hesitation. "Okay, so I actually got promoted. I work for a global travel agency and they plan to expand in Korea and I'm here to make that deal happen and then will continue to manage the regional office here.", I told him. "Wow! You indeed are a big shot! And what is the real reason then?", he inquired. "I had a pretty bad time in my country. I lost my family to the global pandemic and I attended my boyfriends wedding 2 days prior to my flight to Korea. It just felt like that place had nothing more to offer.", I stated lighting my cigarette.

When I looked up at his face he seemed as if he didn't know what to say. So I continued, "don't think too much. Everyone goes through a lot of issues. People suffer the loss of a loved on everyday basis. I think the best we can do is live a happy life, so when they look at us from above, they feel at peace." He nodded in agreement. We spent the later part of the evening talking about my work and his and how we both somehow had interconnected jobs.

"Bye Mira, I had an amazing time and also sorry for the confusion, I'll look for some places that are on sale and let you know.", he said,  when we reached the lobby. "Thank you for helping me today", I replied. He turned around to leave but turned back and kissed me on the cheeks. I wasn't surprised, I had known this would happen as he kept giving me the looks and hints all the while in the bar. However this wasn't a kiss that said I like you or that said I will see you later. It was a kiss that clearly showed sympathy, that said I pity you and for that reason I didn't like it. However I decided not to mention anything as I had been told in the past that I was too direct. So I quietly bid him goodbye and came up to my room.

I was sitting in the balcony in my nightwear smoking a cigarette just when I heard Jimin's balcony door open. He came out with a beer in his hand. He didn't seem to notice me so I took the time to appreciate how handsome he was. He was a little short as compared to the other guys in his band but had a face like an angels. The sharp jawline and those pretty eyes which almost all the times remained hidden behind his hair bangs were the USP.



"Ouch!", I cried out as I ended up burning myself with the cigarette while mindlessly checking him out and immediately scrunched my eyes to avoid any eye contact-embarrassment. "Hey, are you alright?", he asked. I looked at him and he seemed genuinely concerned and luckily hadn't seen why I screamed. "Ummm... yeah I actually, the wind, I.... umm... I am alright now. Thanks.", I stuttered not knowing what to say. He gave me a confused look and was about to say something when his phone rang. He waved at me and went inside to take the call and I breathed a sigh of relief.

It was almost 2 am now and I had a meeting at 12 in the afternoon the next day, so I decided to sleep and almost immediately dozed off.

1 hour later

Jimin POV...

"Yebuseyo?", I answered. My manager always calls me at the worst times. He told me that there were a lot of reporters and fans near the hotel and it was getting difficult to handle them. I was irritated and told him that this wasn't my fault or my job to take care of things like these and hung up, cutting him mid sentence. I did feel bad about being rude to him most of the times, however it was true. I wasn't the one at fault here. If anything I had told him that this would be an issue to which he had assured me that he would take care of it. I was sick of the constant crowd and of not having any privacy. I loved my fans no doubt. They were our army but not every fan is smart enough to understand not to cross a certain line. One crazy fan like that had put me through all of this. I didn't want to be here. I wanted to be with my guys. I missed them. But this seemed to be the only way to deal with the situation so I had agreed to it. However, it only led to more issues. Now all the reporters wanted an update and followed me everywhere, leaving no room for me to breathe. The only time I felt a little better is when I saw her.

I didn't know her name, I knew nothing about her except for the fact that she wasn't Korean and that she smoked a lot. I wondered why though. Whenever I saw her she seemed to be thinking and smoking. What was she so worried about? She was staying at a hotel that I am staying at so certainly money didn't seem like an issue. She looks beautiful except for the fact that she had huge dark circles, which got me thinking more about why she had those and what caused her that kind of distress. I saw her today with a guy in the lobby, he looked okayish and seemed to be very close to her. I was walking past them when he kissed her but she didn't return the same affection, instead she seemed bothered by his action. I wanted to get her out of there but decided against it. I had already embarrassed myself enough by kissing her in the elevator and didn't want to do something like that again. When I asked her if she was ohk I wanted to know about what happened in the lobby but for some reason she seemed like she didn't like me asking her about it. I mean I understand I wouldn't like it either. When I finished the call and went back she wasn't there. So I came back inside cursing my manager.

I was too bored in the room. I saw the time and it was 4 am, I decided to get a coffee or a beer as there wouldn't be much people out there at this time. I wore a mask and black cap to avoid anyone and stepped out of the hotel.

"Hello Jimin, where are you right now? I will come get you.", my manager exclaimed. However I was too out of breath to answer. I was on my way back from the coffee shop when suddenly a bunch of reporters started coming towards me. "Shit!!!", I cried out and started running as I had no answers to their questions. To make the situation more worse, a few girls saw the reporters running behind me and started chasing me with them to get autographs and pictures. In any other situation I would have loved the attention but now was not a good time at all. "Don't worry, I am almost at the hotel.", I said over the phone once I saw the hotel in my vision. "Okay, hurry up, we will come up with a story tomorrow. Right now just get in and hide", my manager told me. I ran inside the hotel and fell on the couch in the lobby, completely out of breath and tired. I thought that they wouldn't be able to follow me inside the hotel. But there were very few people working at the hotel at this hour so the crowd could easily dodge them. I started running again when I saw them make their way inside, I got into the elevator and quickly pressed my floor number. A few people from the crowd got into the next elevator. As soon as I reached, I  rushed inside my room and and closed the door behind me. I took a deep breath and turned around just to realize that I wasn't in my room! "What the hell is going on with me!" I screamed under my breath not to startle anyone staying in that room and tried to get out, however when I peeked through the door the crowd was waiting outside my door for me to come out. I cursed at my situation in my mind and decided to ask for help. I didn't see anyone in the living area so I made my way to the bedroom hoping I don't see or meet anyone weird. I opened the door and saw her.

She was sleeping in a running man position. I went closer tip toeing. I crouched on the floor to take a look at her face. She seemed so peaceful right now. Suddenly she moved making my heart jump out of fear but thankfully didn't get up. She just turned to sleep on her back. I got up and sat on the bed, making sure not to wake her up. She was so small. Her petite body rise and fell as she kept breathing. I slowly moved a curly strand of hair and saw tear marks on her face. "What are you so sad about?", I thought to myself.

Hey sorry for the delay in this chapter guys.

I had a personal issue to take care of.

Anyway I'm hoping you'll are enjoying the book and would love to get feedbacks.

Any picture posted above is not mine.

The story has nothing to do with reality, it's just an imagination. There may be a few parts where you wouldn't like how an army is portrayed or how an idol reacted to the situation so I apologize for it.

However, it was necessary for the twists and the plot of the book, hope you'll understand and take it in a good spirit.

Thanks for reading.