The Missing Piece

Chapter 2

Despite the relatively small amount of sleep she'd had, Narae felt good about her first hours after coming of age. As it went, they'd been pretty eventful.

As she rode the bus into the heart of the city, she was struck with the stupid and girlish, but common feeling described in the days after your 21st birthday. Everyone she accidentally brushed shoulders with gave her a little thrill. Now that she was of age, officially, every small touch could be enough to trigger the soulmate bond which would be leave her paralysed with love and lust and want of her other half. All it would take was one touch.

But it was winter, and people were trussed up in coats and tights and gloves, meaning her fantasy of a day one bonding was unlikely to come true.

It could be years! She told herself soberly. No guarantees ever, certainly not today! Oh well, it was fun to imagine.

Once at work, she took her kit bag down the gym floor to get in her regular workout, but she found a small queue outside of the changing room entry doors.

"What's going on?" Asked Narae, sliding behind someone she knew worked in the graphics team, but couldn't remember the name of.

"Apparently some of the BTS guys are in there. Someone forgot to update the schedule." Explained the anonymous man. He accidentally bumped his elbow into her arm as the woman in front of him moved back to let the doors open. Narae felt a frisson of excitement. Could it be? No, no massive wave of desire.

One of the group's daily managers had come out of the gym and raised his voice to the small gaggle.

"They're happy for everyone to come in as normal. Just make sure to give them room on anything they're using."

Everyone nodded, shuffling forward in their turn towards the changing rooms and then, once ready, into the main gym.

Narae's day picked up again when she unknowingly chose the cross trained with a direct line of sight to where Kim Taehung and Kim Seokjin were both raising their bare arms, with weights, to the call of the personal trainer. They were sweaty and loosely dressed and buff. Narae said a silent thank you to no one in particular for this late birthday present. Just another perk of working for this company, that every now and again, she'd be trapped in a lift, or crossing in a corridor, with a gorgeous idol in sight.

Like everyone else who worked for HYBE, she knew better than to give a moment's flirtatious thought to trying to further her relationship with them. Discretion, modesty and privacy were just some of the commandments laid down by the whole workforce when it came to their precious singers. More than her job's worth to forget that. With a staff of about 800 working out of the building, there were a lot of people, and a lot of distance between her and the talent and that was how it was going to stay. Still, it was always nice to look.

She smiled down at her phone, adjusting the screen for the programme she was watching while she worked out. She didn't mind a quick glance at them, but after all, she wouldn't like someone ogling her while she was exercising and so she reluctantly afforded them the same respect. But when she looked up a few moments later, she found she was being ogled. Or at least, she was being looked at, intently, intensely, by Kim Seokjin.

Her head reeled back in a quiet shock, not sure how to respond. For a moment she just started back at him, slowing her movements on the cross trainer. She was captivated by his singular beauty. This wasn't the first time she'd seen him up close, but it was the first time they'd stared into each other's faces.

She realised with an embarrassed jolt, that he must be looking at her like that as a warning to back off and give them a little more room. Maybe she'd chosen a machine that was too close to them and now he was trying to get her to move away without actually having to talk to her.