Untitled, 2018

Chapter 16: Food Fight

What was it that Kang said? Get close to the marketing team or something? Well, whatever it was, I was on top of my game. On the next Monday the company was having a lunch and I gladly nestled myself between the friend I made the previous week and another assistant. Bangtan wasn't even there, so I wasn't awkward (bless up). After a little bit of listening, I joined in to tell them about myself, and some crazy fan stories about BigHit and BTS I'd seen in general. Hanna was with me and smiled and nodded at whatever I said. It felt like a fun outing with cool strangers, most of whom were under 30. I learned some of their stories of how they joined BigHit, how they reacted to the recent success, and more.

By the end of the hour, they were starting to insist we drop a few formalities, even. I laughed it off for the time-being because I was really not used to calling people "oppa" or "unni" - made me feel a little sheepish because I wasn't Korean. Maybe someday after spending some more time here? They insisted that we have lunch with them the next day before we headed to a music show, and Hanna and I were hardly given the option to refuse. What can I say, I'm such a charmer *hair flip*.

Somewhere through the conversation I realized that the reason I was truly enjoying myself in this crowd. We talked about all the things that draw me to the entertainment industry. I sighed happily, looking forward to working with them. Well, kind of. I'm an intern. 😅

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That Thursday, we were in a hurry to go pick up some files and set up some meeting times at BigHit. Right after, we were supposed to go to an entertainment company to talk the the Producing Director of a big music show right before filming for the day's episode. I was really excited.

I was currently sitting in a taxi smoothing out my dress - flowy and white and darn cute. Today Mateo and I were the only two who were coming, mainly because there wasn't much to do, and I was already the most friendly with the folks at the company. Hanna and Wang were at the lab, and Kang wanted to get to the entertainment company ahead of us. As we got to the lounge, the three assistant guys on the marketing team all exclaimed and greeted me excitedly. Now that I thought about it, most of the core company I'd interacted with was actually male. Oh... lmao.

I smiled and responded equally warmly to them, and another guy called me over to sit on the couches with them. My smile dropped a little from my face with my eyes wide when I saw that Jimin was there too with the Yoongi, Namjoon, and Jungkook, who had all turned to look at the distraction — us. A little nervous, I bowed at them and mumbled something about getting food first. I pulled one of the guys and Mateo to the food table with me.

"Hey, actually we were wondering if we could get those files the marketing director was talking about yesterday. She said something about it being with you?"
He responded, "Huh. I'm not sure. I'll have to check. Do you want to come along and look?"
"Sure, let's go."
One of his friends swung his arm around his shoulder and said "Not you, Riti! Go with Mateo. She needs to come tell Namjoon that story she was telling us yesterday."
I translated to Mateo and he just pushed me towards the crowd as he laughed and walked off with the assistant, leaving me to fend for myself. I awkwardly plopped down by the table with a takeout container of noodles and chopsticks, settled between the couches. On my direct left, Jimin made no move to show he had noticed me at all, eating his chicken with a poker face. He was next to Jungkook, who nodded at me a little stiffly, and Namjoon and Yoongi sat to my right. They acknowledged me a little more normally, and the guy who invited me there before sat in a chair across from me with a few others.

"Riti, you have to tell him that thing you said last time about Namjoon . On your fan account!" At that, Jimin looked up from his food for a second and I swear you could see me starting to sweat nervously.
"Uh... um well," I gulped a little because story-time with Riti was a horrible idea when the people listening in made me nervous to breathe around. "It was almost April and I was Photoshopping beards on one of your faces... and someone messaged me..."