February 25, 2020
Seoul, South Korea
Our eyes lock for a split second after we pull apart. We stare at each other for what feels like forever and yet not long enough. He smiles at me with delicate, soft eyes and I breathe out a small laugh, gazing into the eyes I've always been so in love with. His thumb strokes my cheek lovingly. We're the only two people in the world.
Then the screaming starts.
We're shaken out of our trance once an ARMY Bomb hits me in the middle of my back. Albums, papers, BT21 plushies, bags, phones, everything within reach is being thrown at the stage. Seokjin holds me by my shoulders, keeping my face in his shirt.
"Don't turn around," he says into my ear. It's hard not to, though. People are yelling, rushing the stage, I even hear crying.
Someone jumps up and grabs my sweater, pulling me out from his hold and nearly off the stage as I stumble fearfully. Jungkook's eyes widen and he dives over the table to grab me from tumbling off the stage and into the suddenly terrifying crowd of ARMYs. I hold onto his arms tightly as a security guard shoves the girl off the stage. Another two guards grab me and haul my body over the table an me backstage as they run the seven members back to safety as well.
"Ophelia!" Rose shouts, reaching her hand out to me. It's that moment that I realize I don't have any of my stuff, not even my phone.
"Get the fan!" I yell back, my grandma's gift being my only priority right now. The big security guard pushes my head to face forward and away from the crowd. "Hey—!"
"Keep your face down, miss," he says hurriedly. "Don't show them your face."
I obey without another word. My heart is pounding in my chest from the panic of the moment.
We're all shoved down the steps and into the nearest dressing room, filled with managers and stylists and all sorts of people I can't even process. A soft but determined hand grabs my wrists and pulls me to lean against a tall, lean body and I instantly know who it is. My fingers hold onto the expensive material of his jacket, desperate for solace in the sudden chaos. Seokjin holds me behind him protectively and I hide behind his shoulder, overwhelmed by the amount of eyes on me now.
"Kim Seokjin," a deep voice, Namjoon's, grumbles. "Are you kidding me right now?"
After a moment, another deep voice speaks up. "Seokjin, don't stand there like you don't know what we're saying. We all saw you."
"She...she's his soulmate," Jungkook defends weakly.
"Okay, and?" Namjoon snaps.
"Can somebody get her out of here, please?" the previous man says. "I don't want her first impressions to be of us yelling."
Another security guard—there are a lot of those apparently—takes my arm and pulls me in the direction of the door. Seokjin reaches out to me desperately in an attempt to keep me next to him.
I take his hand and squeeze. "It's okay," is all I say as I'm shoved out the door.
The guard becomes much more gentle the further we get into the backstage area, but I feel my heartbeat quicken with each step that grows between Seokjin and I. It doesn't help that I can still hear the angry fans.
The man open a door for me and directs me to a grey couch on the other end of the wall. I assume it must be some kind of break room, because there's a mini fridge with drinks, a coffee table that's nearly filled with snacks and food, and a hot water dispenser for instant noodles. I look around and turn back to the guard. He drops his eyes from me and nods his head politely.
"Please wait here for someone to call you," he says before bowing out of the room.
I hesitantly sit on the cold leather cushions, hugging my arms around myself. I wish I at least had my phone with me to take my mind off things. I rub my forehead as my mind replays the last few minutes of my life. Everything happened so fast.
"Stupid," I mumble. Stupid. How has he not learned to control some of his impulsive actions? How did I not see it coming? How could I let my emotions get the best of me? How could I not have taken action to control the situation as soon as we made eye contact? I can only pray that I hid my face well enough in the heat of the moment. There may be pictures of me circulating on the internet right now. I hope I'm not trending on Twitter yet.
Maybe this was a bad idea.
I'm distracted from my overdramatic thoughts by the sound of the door opening and a tall, lanky girl enters. She turns to me and my eyes widen in shock at the presence of another foreign girl who's here with me. Another fan from the meeting, maybe? Why would she be so close to the boys?
"Hi," she says softly and in English. She moves to sit with me on the couch, sticking her hand out to shake mine. "I'm Hope Miller." She smiles brightly at me.
"Um, I'm Ophelia. Ophelia del Monte."
"Nice to meet you," Hope chimes excitedly. "I'm Jungkook's soulmate."
That I definitely did not expect.
"Hm?" I hum, my eyes blinking in shock.
Her brown eyes widen too. "They didn't tell you anything?"
"I just got thrown in here," I tell her. "I didn't know Jeon Jungkook had a soulmate."
"Yeah, not many people do I guess...I understand everything's probably really confusing right now, I know it is for me, but I'm sure someone will be in here soon to explain everything."
Hope sits back and props her feet up on the snack covered coffee table and pulls her fancy iPhone out of her jeans pocket. I take the moment to observe her, take her in. Her hair is long, chestnut brown, thick, and it tumbles prettily around her shoulders. Her face is slender and her jawline is sharp. Her nose is nearly perfect. Her legs are long in her tight dark jeans and she wears a baggy tan sweatshirt with words all over it. It takes me a little too long to realize the words read "Balenciaga." Her black sock-like shoes on her feet read the same thing. She's effortlessly beautiful. With her clean lined yet delicate features and long legs, she could be a runway model if she wanted. She's intimidating to be alone with even though I get a good feeling from her. All I can think is she seems to be the exact kind of girl I could imagine Jungkook with.
The door opens again as we sit in our silence and someone new enters. It's another woman, but she's much shorter than Hope is. Her hair is long and trails down her back in silver dyed tresses. She looks up at us and her eyes settle on me.
Her eyes are a thin monolid very delicate and angled in a way that makes her look innocent, especially with her soft makeup. Her nose is small and the bridge is quite flat on her face, but her face is round and her pink lips are thin a delicate. Her features make her look young and sweet. She's petite in Fram and the baggy black sweatshirt she wears doesn't help with her small size. She wears almost the same thing as Hope, but her shirt is black and she dons leggings instead of jeans.
"Hope, seriously?" the new woman asks in perfect English. "How do we always wear almost the same thing?"
Hope sighs. "I'll have to send you a text every morning so we can have a little more flavor." I find myself smiling at their playful attitudes.
The girl crosses the room to greet me, a small smile on her lips.
"You must be Ophelia," she says in a soft, delicate voice. Her voice fits her look perfectly. "I'm Areum, Min Yoongi's wife."
I gasp at that and start choking on a bit of saliva caught in my throat. The two of them jump up in shock and stare at me for a second.
"Are you okay?" Hope asks urgently, patting her hand on my back.
Areum slaps Hope on the shoulder as I continue coughing and gasping for air. It's always the smallest inconveniences that cause the most aggressive coughing fits for me.
"You didn't tell her anything?" Areum scolds.
"I told her about Jungkook," Hope mutters in reply.
"Are there any other soulmates I should know about?" I ask, finally starting to regain my breath.
Areum and Hope exchange glances.
"Um, well Taehyung and Namjoon have also met their soulmates," Areum clarifies hesitantly. "Taehyung lives here—she's going to college at Seoul National University this year and she's studying Korean. Namjoon's soulmate lives with her girlfriend in Canada, but they've been talking about moving here. Her girlfriend's family is North Korean and they live here in Seoul."
"Girlfriend?" I ask curiously.
"Namjoon's soulmate's name is Raine," Hope says. "She's been in a committed relationship for, like, six years or something like that. They're having a baby soon and Namjoon's the baby's godfather. They want to move here so that their families can all have a relationship with their baby. Raine and Joon aren't in a relationship or anything, but they're good friends despite their...situation...."
Platonic soulmates. I'd only heard of the idea a few times in my life. It's such an uncommon relationship, even in this age. They seemed to be more of a rumor and the practice has always been extremely frowned upon, although romanticized. I'd always wondered if there were soulmates that weren't attracted to each other.
Areum shakes her head, sitting down between Hope and I on the couch with a heavy sigh. "It's a long story and it's not really ours to tell."
I nod and a stent of silence grow between all of us.
"How did they hide a wedding?" I say softly.
Areum smiles and fiddles with the delicate rings in her finger. "I mean, it wasn't much of a wedding, really. We just had a small ceremony at his parents house in Daegu. It was just our immediate family. But one of his friends photographed it for us and we got a little cake, I wore a dress. We got the memory without all the drama and stress of a real wedding. It was nice."
"I'm still mad I couldn't go, though," Hope sighs. "Do you have the pictures from yesterday?"
Areum's face lights up and she pulls a small set of photos from her sweatshirt sleeve. "I went to the main dressing room to get them! I knew you'd want to see."
"Photos?" I hate that all I'm doing is asking questions.
Hope giggles. "Areum's pregnant!"
"Right around six months," Areum confirms. "Whoever's in there is sure taking their time growing, though." She shuffles through the photos and we lean over to see them.
"Oh my gosh, that's a baby!" Hope whispers excitedly.
"Congratulations," I tell her, staring in awe at the little blurry outline of the baby. I can't believe Min Yoongi's a father.
"In the beginning we were waiting to know the gender until the baby was born," Areum says mindlessly. "But after the appointment yesterday we got home and we were just laying on the couch feeling the baby move..." She sniffles slightly as she shuffles through the photos. "We're finding out at the next appointment because we're too impatient."
Hope claps her hands excitedly. "I hope it's a girl. Please let it be a girl."
"When are you due?"
"May sixth," Areum says, rubbing her still small belly. "I hope it's a girl too. Yoongi was so cute yesterday, he said he wasn't gonna be dramatic but at soon as we heard the heartbeat, he started crying right in the office."
Hope snorts. "Never heard of Min Yoongi crying," she says.
"Me neither," I agree with a laugh.
"I'll make sure to get a video next time, I'm positive he'll do it again," Areum promises. "Anybody want some snacks? I'm starving."
—
"So how'd you guys meet your soulmates?"
I talk as best as I can around the massive bite of fried chicken in my mouth. As soon as Areum said she was hungry, she and Hope started grabbing things off the table and made up whatever meal they could. I hadn't been hungry from the nerves pumping through my body, but once the smell of the chicken hit my nose, I was a goner.
"You wanna go first?" Areum nudges Hope. She too has a big piece of chicken in her cheek. She looks like a hamster. It's all I can do to keep from giggling.
Hope shrugs. "Jungkook and I met in 2017, actually. The first time they were at the BBMAs. I lived in Las Vegas before I moved here and I worked for a few years at the T-Mobile Arena. I worked backstage, doing some stage management and set direction, stuff like that. But the night of the BBMAs, I was dressing room coordinator. During a commercial break I was running around like crazy getting sets together and trying to set up the dressing rooms for the next performers and I run straight into this guy. I fell right on the ground and hit my heat on the floor and he was just standing there staring at me, so I started yelling at him. I looked up and one: it's one of the guests at the show. Two—as if it could get any worse—when we made eye contact, I was yelling at my soulmate."
She runs her hand through her hair, laughing at the memory. "He actually came back at the next commercial break with Namjoon and one of their managers and we were able to exchange numbers quickly. The next day, I went to their hotel to meet him and we just clicked so perfectly even with a huge language barrier. I signed an NDA and we had to go our separate ways, but I knew I was just instantly in love with him." Hope smiles softly, messing with a ring I just noticed on her finger. My heart warms at the sight. "We just got engaged in September."
I smile, feeling my eyes sting a little at the sweet story. "Congratulations," I say.
Hope scrunches her nose and leans against the couch shyly. "Thanks," she replies.
We finally turn to Areum who rolls her eyes up to the ceiling in thought.
"Yoongi and I met back in 2015, actually," she starts. "He was taking a night English class at Seoul National University. I was an English major there and was in my last semester, just waiting for my teaching license. The university asked me to be the teacher's assistant for the class. It was something they used to offer for idols who wanted more applied classes than their usual studies; they only chose the best students from the English department to teach, so it was a really big honor.
"Anyway, I walked into the class and I was super nervous because it was all idols, you know. Yoongi was the first person I made eye contact with, right in the middle of the front row. We just kind of stared at each other for a second until I shook it off and taught the class like I had to. I ignored him through the whole thing until the class ended and he came up to talk to me once everyone left." She covers her face and groans in embarrassment. "He was so blunt about his disinterest in me and it made me so mad that he acted like he had this chip on his shoulder...plus Jungkook was my bias so that was a huge disappointment for me at the time.
"In all honesty, although I loved the idea of dating an idol, that was never something I wanted. I wanted to be a teacher, I wanted to settle down and get married and have a family...when I met Yoongi, I felt like my dreams were just going to have to disappear. I didn't want his life of uncertainty and the busy schedule and the jumping all over the world...I didn't want to give up my dreams to be with him, somebody who so clearly didn't even want to give me the time of day. I threw a fit and we fought right there in the school for anyone to walk by and see. It was so embarrassing. For both of us."
"Um, that's not the story I always heard," Hope chimes after a long moment of silence. "Jungkook said you guys met at a fan event."
"Well, do you want to tell your family and friends that you and your soulmate hated each other's guts when you first met? It's not a pretty story..."
"Okay, then how'd you get past it?" Hope asks. "Because you guys started dating in 2016."
Areum's cheeks flush and she covers her mouth slyly with her hand.
"We slept together," she nearly whispers.
Hope sputters out a loud laugh and falls over on the couch, nearly rolling onto the floor.
"Hope!" Areum slaps her on the leg.
"I was not expecting that," I admit with a snort.
"He came over to my parents house out of nowhere one day," Areum explains over Hope's wheezing laughter. "My parents weren't even there, they had gone on a weekend trip with my sister and I had to stay back because I had just started teaching a kindergarten class. It made me so mad that he didn't even think to ask me first if it was okay for him to show up at my house. I hadn't even talked to my parents about who my soulmate was, just that I'd met him one day. We hated each other and rarely talked, any conversation we had would end in a fight and one of us hanging up the phone frustrated.
"So that night, he showed up, and we got into this massive fight—about boundaries, ironically. In the heat of the moment, he kissed me." She rolls her eyes. "It's so dramatic, seriously. I even slapped him and then we kissed again...it's like some kind of cheesy drama moment. Anyway, one thing led to another and, you know. Either way, it all ended well. We're married and having a baby, so..."
"I mean, it's a little dramatic, but some people dream about those kinds of situations," I say with a sigh. "Everybody wants to have their own K-drama romance moment."
"Um, I'm pretty sure you just had yours, Miss Ophelia," Hope says. "We were watching the fan meeting in the dressing rooms for any security issues, so we all saw everything."
"Oh my god," I mumble. "Yes, I got my dreamy kiss and then I almost got murdered for it, very drama moment."
Areum laughs.
"Sleeping with Yoongi didn't make me fall in love with him, but it was really the first time I felt a true connection between us beyond just our soul mark. I really felt like he was my soulmate that day." She rubs her small baby bump fondly. "I'm not a big fan of how it all started, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. I'm still a kindergarten English teacher and I'm about to be a mom, so I did get to live my dreams."
"That's so cute," I gush.
She simply shrugs. "We do our best. We like that movie life." Areum presses her hand to a spot on her belly and sighs. "And said baby is kicking now...it must be all the talking I'm doing."
Hope bounces cutely in her seat. "Can I feel?"
Areum takes both of our hands and places them right where hers was. I feel the tiny bumps of the little feet beneath my fingertips and my chest grows tight. In just this short time I've spent with these women, I already feel a connection to both of them. A forming friendship.
"I haven't felt baby kicks since my friend was pregnant last year," I say in wonder.
"Damn, kick baby Yoongi!" Hope cheers. I laugh at that.
Our chatter is interrupted as their soulmates pop their heads through the door. Jungkook and Yoongi step in and Jungkook's eyes go straight to the food while Yoongi's go straight to all of us with our hands on his wife's belly.
"Come here," she calls out to him in Korean. "The baby's kicking again."
Jungkook sits on the arm of the couch next to Hope and we watch as Yoongi moves faster than I've ever seen him. He nearly trips over and sits down in front of Areum on the coffee table to feel his baby quickening under her skin. His lips pull back into a wide smile for my eyes to see live.
"Where's Seokjin?" I ask hesitantly in Korean.
"He'll be here soon," Jungkook promises, already eating a bowl of ramen. "He's getting lectured right now, but it shouldn't be too much longer."
I frown at that, guilt sinking into my chest.
"No, no, don't feel bad!" he says quickly. "It's not your fault Jin hyung has literally no chill. I'm sure he'll be here in a few minutes."
I nod and try to settle. My nerves from being away from him are returning now that I'm no longer distracted my the other girls around me.
"Seokjin's been gone awhile, huh?" Hope chimes sweetly. It's then that I see she doesn't speak very good Korean. Still, she looks at us and smiles widely. "I heard you guys talking about him."
Jungkook puts his arm around her and kisses the top of her head lovingly. "You're perfect," he tells her. She gives him a small peck in return. It makes me miss Seokjin more.
The door opens for probably the millionth time today, revealing the manager from earlier in the doorway.
"Ophelia, right?" He asks me in a soft voice and I nod. "We'd like for you to join us, please."
—
almost 4000 words...lord i'm too wordy for my own good lol
sorry for the wait, i had a weird week lol
cay💕
3744 words