Take Me to the Sky | BTS+

Meeting the Pied Piper

Joon turned to where Ava and Jungkook stood arm-in-arm, the leader of Noon Mool slipping out of his thoughtfulness. "I've a few rounds to make. Don't get into too much trouble." He winked at Jungkook, who grinned mischeviously back at him.

Then Joon held out his arm. Shae hesitated, but took it.

Joon lead Shae into the chattering crowd and slid with poise into a small pocket of conversation. Shae was reluctantly fascinated by Joon's effortlessly commanding, diplomatic aura in this new setting. A human rights debate popped up between three leaders in their conversation, and Joon conducted himself with such persuasive magnetism that it gave Shae a fresh reason to feel speechless in his midst...and to once again feel confused about whether or not despising Kim Namjoon was 100% justified.

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Meanwhile, Jungkook downed the rest of his glass, then set it nonchalantly on a table next to him. He smacked his lips in satisfaction at the taste.

"Good?" Ava was feeling coy, and the flirtatious slant of her shoulders in Jungkook's direction only said as much.

"Yes." Jungkook took a deep breath, exhaled slowly with his hands on his hips, then stated rather abruptly, "Gotta use the men's room now."

Ava's shoulders slumped. "Uhhh.... Sure. Of course."

In a flash, Jungkook was gone.

"Story. Of. My. Life." Ava sighed. She reached for a glass of her own on a nearby table and, forgetting etiquette training altogether, downed the whole drink in one go. She put the glass down with a heavy CLUNK and considered which lightly pigmented drink she should try next: purple or pink?

"Ah, you're one of the new pets!" A man with crimped red hair and a goofy, shameless grin was now leaning into Ava's personal space where Jungkook had just been. His mischievous eyes flickered downwards, then back up at Ava's face.

"Oh, right." Ava stretched out a lazy hand.

The man took it, bowed, and gave her hand a dramatic kiss—his head tilting back up at her in that same uncaged smile.

She frowned down at him.

"Jung Hoseok's the name. And you, consort of Noon Mool?"

"Ava." The eff is this guy?

"Looks like your date's ditched you, Ava." He laughed, triggering Ava's purest annoyance. "Jungkook's really not as smooth with the ladies as he seems. After about ten minutes or so, he runs out of things to say, and that noggin of his just," Hobi gave Ava's forehead a gentle flick with his finger, "boop. Reset. And then he makes a quick retreat. Poor kid."

Ava had a few thoughts running through her brain at this point: who the eff is this person getting all up in my personal space, and how does he know so much about Jungkook? Also, where the heck is Jungkook?!

She looked Hobi over more carefully. He wore a floral suit jacket, white blouse, black pants, and glinting golden boots. It all looked both oddly juxtaposed with his red hair, and yet somehow perfectly right.

His long face, his arms, his legs, every part of him ticked with careful expression in it. As obnoxious as she found him, she couldn't help but admit that he was mesmerizing to watch.

Ava asked, "Where are you from again?"

"I didn't say," Hobi grinned tauntingly, "but I tell yah what. If you choose me for the first dance, I'll tell yah a juicy secret about your Noon Mool palls. You won't find it anywhere else! Sounds like fun, doesn't it?"