Untitled, 2018

Chapter 13: Blend In

Hanna and I spent the next day riding the high of meeting BTS and planning everything out. Then halfway through lunch together with Mateo:

"They're really big stars, you know."
Hanna scoffed, "Why wouldn't we know?"
Mateo smiled wryly, "They meet a lot of people."
I shrugged, "I guess they do."
"Well... I'm willing to bet your charming boys won't even remember your names next week, let alone some promise to take you to their cafeteria for a lunch date."
This time I scoffed, "That's... entirely plausible." Hanna whined, so I continued, "BUT! We're going to be trailing them during promotions too so they'll get to know us."

Mateo laughed, "You and like fifty other people! Though I guess they'll likely learn your names by the end of it at least."
I smacked his arm and he just laughed harder. Well I can think of one person who's probably going to remember my name, I thought, feeling just a bit sad that the reason was such a sucky one.

"Well I think someone definitely took notice of you," Hanna cooed. What? Did she read my mind? "Bang PD stan? You're too funny!" Oh okay, she forgot it.
"Yeah that was pretty good if I do say so myself," I smiled. "I bet Jimin was jealous though, huh?" She looked up with a smirk. Never mind, she remembers.

I just shrugged. "I don't know what you mean."
She leaned in and raised her eyebrows. "Well, he asked you if he could meet you later, didn't he?" Mateo looked at us quizzically, "What? He did?" "Mhm! Though we forgot to tell him that he's your favorite, Riti. That would've made him happy, right?" She leaned in with a goofy smile and I just pushed her away, a little embarrassed.
"Oh my god, Hanna. He just worded his question weirdly. He didn't even talk to me afterwards or anything."
"That's not true! He was staring at you the whole time."
"Because I was the one giving the presentation."
"Nonsense- he was staring staring at you. Maybe he was struck by your beauty."
Mateo and I broke into laughter at that. "As much as I could only dream that Park Jimin was into me, you're imagining things, Hanna." Then I also smacked Mateo for laughing with (and at) me.
_________________________
By Friday, things were back to a workload grind that I had to finish and needed a ridiculous amount of help on. Made me wonder why the heck I had taken on an internship I was so grossly incompetent at.

Once again, I was the last one in the lab, and Kang and Wang chuckled at me for being stressed. It was a lot more peaceful outside now that the stage had been taken down and the only people still on the fields were the athletes of the school.

As the sunset crested on the school grounds I started humming something or another (*cough* out of tune) and concluded my work. Before sunset- that's progress! I arched my back and yawned in my spinny chair, turning to look at the scenic view my window offered.

Instead, I saw a round half black and half white face squished to my glass from the other side, with narrowed eyes and lips tightly drawn together; two hands were squished up against the window on either side of the white head. I screamed. Really loudly. The face jumped back a bit to reveal a surprised Park Jimin staring at me with his big eyes.

I just let my jaw drop with shock. He was wearing a face mask, but by now I think I recognized his features under a mask well enough - besides it was the same jacket and mask from last week, and the guy wasn't wearing a cap for some reason. Stupid guy. Wasn't he afraid people would recognize him? I suddenly remembered all the things he had said the last time he spoke. Instead of acknowledging him I just turned my back and sat on my chair with a "hmph!" I heard him knock on the window. First softly, then harder and more rapidly when he realized I was ignoring him. He could leave for all I cared, thank you very much.

"Hey. Hey! I know you can hear me."
I rolled my eyes. "Hey! It's important, please."
I slowly turned around with a deadpanned glare plastered on my face. The guy had even pulled his face mask down below his chin. "Please listen to me. Please?"
He looked so forlorn I didn't even understand why. Manipulative lil b****, what was he trying to pull this time? I just continued to glare at him and he slowly dragged his hands down the glass, making that annoying squeaky sound.
"Please please just listen?"
He sighed softly and pulled his hands away, inching backwards. Okay fine, he didn't have to leave. Why would I even want that. I stood up and pointedly rolled my eyes at him, and gestured to my right. This time he understood, and we both got to the back exit door of my lab. I grabbed the door handle and jiggled it. Didn't budge. I shook it harder. I heard a knock and a "Hello?" from the other side. I tried pushing the handle down and pushing the door at the same time, to no avail. I guess it was locked?

"It's locked." I said. No response. Did he not hear me? "It's locked!" I repeated.
I heard a muffled, "Should I come in from the front?" I gasped.
"Are you crazy? You're not even wearing a cap."
"Ey don't worry I blend in."
"No, you definitely don't. And please put your face mask back on. It's shockingly effective."
"So you knew who I was?" I stood still with my back to the door. Don't know why but I felt nervous.

"No. I mean, yes, I know who you are. But I didn't realize until after- both times."
"Who am I?" I stayed quiet for a few seconds.

I stared him in the eye. "You're stupid. And an a**hole."

"Hey, what the heck? Why are you acting like we're good friends or something? I'm not stupid."
"Well then, did you recognize me here last week?"
"Of course, drug dealer. You don't blend in in South Korea either. Plus we were handcuffed together. I'm shocked you didn't recognize me. I'm not stupid, you are."
"Excuse me? You were covered head to toe so you wouldn't be recognized, and it was dark the second time. It's just that it was too unlikely to be you!" I scoffed. "There's no way I wouldn't know your eyes."

I sat down, kind of not believing I'd just said that to him. I'd like to believe he did the same because the shadow from the door got thicker and I felt a weight pressing on the door behind me. We sat in silence for a bit.

When he finally spoke, he sounded sad. "I am an a**hole though." I raised an eyebrow.
"I'm sorry. I'm really really sorry. I shouldn't have said that. I never do; I don't know why I behaved that way with you. I just... got scared because I realized that I'm screwed if people found out about me dating... You don't know how much all of what I do means to me."

I sighed. "I do." That feeling of pure adrenaline and raw excitement in doing what you loved with people you loved. I watched them enough to know, after all. There was a reason I was drawn to you, I wanted to explain. To all of them... And damn was I jealous. That feeling that I only felt in short sparks; I could only imagine what it must feel like all the time. Losing that would be devastating.

I felt something hit my hand on the floor, and I saw a folded sheet of paper being pushed under the door. "What?" He responded, "I don't know just open it."
It had "리티" written on the front in pen, and I had to sound it out in my head before realizing it was my name. It was folded like a card, and opened to a cartoonish drawing of Jimin's head looking anxious and saying "I'm so sorry!" in one speech bubble and "Please forgive me!" in another. Next to the giant head was a smaller head that had eyelashes and longer hair. I guess that was me.

"Did you spend like 2 minutes on this?" 

He responded, flustered and indignant, "No?! Well—like—Hey! I'm a busy person, okay?"

I giggled at that, and turned it over to see his name signed in the back. It wasn't his autograph signature though, just 지민. "I could sell this for a fortune."
"Hah! No you can't. That's why I didn't autograph it."
"Knew it. Still think I care that much about money?"
"Well, you had a reason to now, didn't you? After everything I said."

I just admired the drawing with a huge smile on my face. Park Jimin wrote this for me. What a goofball. Through my grin I responded, "Never."
"Then do you accept my apology?"
"Alright. And I'm sorry I thought you were a tabloid journalist and started lecturing you."
"Yeah that's fine."

Then my smile dropped when I remembered. "By the way, why did you date that idol if you were so concerned about being found?" I had my suspicions about something regarding this guy but...
"Hey, I can't control my heart. She stole it. And both of us want to keep our relationship a secret." ...There was the confirmation I needed.
"No way. You- you're still going out with her?"
I heard a sharp intake of breath from him.

"She's literally cheating on you."