Joon came running into the apartment, kneeling in front of his friend.
"What happened, Jiminie?" He asked, lifting his dongsaeng's head to face him.
"I did a stupid thing. And now she is gone."
"She is gone? What do you mean?"
"I cannot find her! She is gone!" The desperation was palpable in Jimin's voice. He had just found her and now she had vanished.
"Hey, calm down. I'm sure she is here somewhere. Have you searched every room?"
The dancer nodded, still sitting on the ground his head between his knees.
"Okay, first of all. Get yourself together! We will find her." Namjoon pulled him up.
"I will go and look outside. Maybe she just went for a walk."
New hope to find her started to spread inside him. He had not given up on her before and he will not do so now.
"And you my friend call Mark. I am sure he knows where she takes off when she feels down."
Namjoon checked one last time with Jimin if he was okay and knew what to do next before he left the apartment to search for Laura.
With trembling hands, Jimin dialed Mark's number.
"Jimin! I did not expect to hear from you this soon. How is Laura?"
"Mark, I'm so sorry." Jimin stuttered in the phone.
"What happened?" The concerns in his friend's voice made him feel guilty, guilty for disappointing them.
"I screwed up and now I cannot find her."
"I am sure you did not screw up. As for finding her, did you search your entire apartment?"
"Yes, every room but she is not there. Joon went to look for her outside."
"I doubt she went outside! She would not risk bumping in someone who could take her back to Claudia." Jimin's stomach turned when he thought about the evil people that could harm her.
"Okay, so she is still in here?"
"Yes, she is! However, she is good at hiding. It took me some time to find her little hideouts in my apartment."
Even if the situation was bad, imagining Laura playing hide and seek with him made him smile.
"Do you happen to have a built-in wardrobe?"
"Yes, next to the front door for my jackets."
"There you go. I am 99% sure you will find her there. Go and check."
Jimin approached the wardrobe with long strides. He turned the doorknob with hesitation and as it did not turn, he felt relieved because he knew he had found her. She was still here.
He let out a big sigh as he let his back slide down against the door of the closet.
"Laura?" No answer.
"Please, Laura. I am sorry."
He leaned closer and heard her sob lightly.
"Can you please come out and talk to me? I beg you!"
"Jimin?" Mark caught his attention back as he called for him over the phone. "Put me on speaker. I wanna talk to her!"
"Okay, " Jimin turned the speaker on and held his phone close to the door, "you are on, Mark."
"Laura?"
"Mark?" Her voice was low yet Jimin felt like her soft voice was taken away the weight that was pushing down on his body.
"Yes! Do you intend to hurt yourself?"
"No!"
'Has she ever done that?' Jimin wondered.
"Are you coming out?"
"No!"
"Will you be okay?"
"Yes!"
"Good, take your time. Call me if you need me. Jimin? Can I talk to you alone for a second?" The dancer took back his phone, turning the speaker off.
"I'll be right back, " he informed Laura before walking over to the living room to look out through the big window, his eyes wandering over the Seoul Skyline.
"Listen to me, my friend. She will come out sooner or later. This is her way of dealing with things when she feels hurt. Don't rush her!" Mark advised him, at the same time reassuring him that she was fine.
As Jimin hung up the phone, he informed Joon that he found her and that she was fine. The latter told him to keep in touch and let him know if they needed help. Jimin thanked him before deciding to go back to Laura's shelter and just sit by her until she was ready to come out.
To his surprise, the door to the closet was wide open when he approached. He rushed to take a look but Laura was nowhere to been seen.
He scanned the room for her when he heard the bedroom door close. At least, he knew where she was. He chose to give her more time to herself, so, he stayed downstairs for another five minutes.
After the longest five minutes in his life, Jimin could not stand it anymore, he needed to see Laura just to make sure she was feeling okay. As he climbed the stairs, he was preparing himself to get rejected by her.
"Laura? Can you just tell me that you are okay?" Jimin begged her after a soft knock.
"Jiminie. You can come in."
Laura's voice sounded different. There was a sensual undertone in it. Jimin slowly opened the door to find her on the bed. She was naked, blindfolded, and spread out. Jimin was surprised and outraged to see her like this.
"What are you doing Laura?" He inquired of her with an unstable voice, looking away from her.
"Is this not what you wanted?"
"What I wanted?" His voice became harsh as he grabbed a blanket that was lying on the chair next to the door.
"I am sorry if I don't meet your expectations."
He could hear little sobs as she spoke.
"I don't understand, Laura." Jimin was not aware of the tears that were slowly rolling over his cheeks.
"I can take the blindfold off..."
"Yes please."
"Okay but it will make this harder for me."
"Harder for you?" Laura was moving her hand to pull the piece of fabric off.
At the same time, Jimin walked towards her, covering her exposed body with the blanket.
Laura looked at him in surprise before removing the blanket.
"You said you would be the next man to claim me. So, you can have me."
Jimin felt how he was losing it. He stood up in anger, needing to put distance between him and the woman who was offering herself to him.
He walked into the dressing room to grab one of his t-shirts and some shorts. After taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, he returned to the bedroom to find Laura still lying uncovered on the bed. Tears were streaming down her face as she looked up to the ceiling.
"Laura?" His voice was soft as only looking at her expression made his emotions change from anger to worry.
She did not look at him when she asked between sobs.
"I know you must be disgusted by me because I am dirty."
"How can you say something like that? You are the sweetest, most gorgeous woman I have ever seen. And I could never feel disgusted by you."
"Then why are you refusing to have me?"
"Here." Jimin put the clothes on the edge of the bed. "Can you get dressed? I want to talk to you and seeing you like that distracts me from having a straight thought."
"I told you! You can have me." Laura was getting up to reach Jimin.
"Stop it. Please." His eyes were locked on hers.
"It is not that I don't want you Laura. Believe me my body screams to be close to you. But when we will come together, I want to make love to you and not only have meaningless sex."
Laura stopped in her tracks, her eyes looking down to the floor.
"Could you please put on some clothes because I want to take you in my arms so badly? And I would do so even now but my body might not be able to control itself if I feel yours on mine."
Laura nodded slightly, walking back to the bed. As she put the shorts on, she mumbled "Thank you".
Then she took the shirt and as soon as her body was engulfed by it, she could feel Jimin's arms hugging her from behind.
Laura started to cry, her body breaking down in his embrace. Jimin held her tight as she cried her heart out.
"I am sorry. I am sorry." She repeated continuously.
"Don't." Jimin turned her in his embrace, brushing her tears off her face with his thumbs. "Don't apologize."
Slowly Laura started to calm down feeling safe in his arms. Jimin sat her on the bed, quickly leaving to bring her a glass of water.
"Here! Do you feel better?"
"Yes, thank you!" Laura gave him the empty glass back, looking up into his beautiful eyes. "Can I ask you something?"
"Anything!" Jimin prepared himself for a personal question.
"Is there any food in the kitchen? I am starving." Jimin chuckled as he took her hand to pull her up.
"Of course there is. And if we don't have enough, we will simply order more."
For the first time since he had seen her sitting at the table with his friends this morning, she gave him a genuine smile, a smile he never wants to see disappear again.
After they ate some ramen and a piece of cake that was in the fridge, they decided to watch a new kdrama. Jimin did not want to push Laura but he was restless. This whole morning has provoked so many emotions in him that he wanted to sort out. And the only person able to give him some more insight on why he was feeling like that was the woman sitting next to him.
"Laura?" Jimin's voice was so low that it even surprised him that she immediately paused the series.
Laura looked over at the handsome face that was reflecting a lot of sentiments. She knew she had to let him in, to put down the high walls that she had built around her heart to give this lovely man a chance.
"I know we need to discuss what happened today. And I also want to tell you about my past. It will be hard. So can you promise me a few things?"
"I will try my best." He replied, smiling to show her he was willing to hear her out.
"My biggest fear is that you will be disappointed in me, so please don't judge me."
"Never." He leaned closer, taking her hand in his.
"Then I don't want you to stop me because I am not sure if I will ever be able to go over it again."
Jimin stood up, locked the front door and the door to the dorm then he took his phone, typing away.
"What are you doing?" She smiled in confusion.
"No disturbance. I informed the boys that I will be unavailable for the rest of the day. If they need me, they will leave a message."
Every action today confirmed to Laura that she was already head over heels in love with this gorgeous human being. She cleared her throat when she started to blush as he stared into her eyes.
"I guess you will get angry along with my explanation. Please don't break things. If you need a minute, I will pause but don't get aggressive. Please."
"Oh! That's a hard one Laura. But I will try my best." He squeezed her hand to reassure her that it will be fine.
"And here is my last plea. When I am finished can you hug me and not let me go until I ask you to."
"I can't agree to that one."
Tears started to come to her eyes as this was the only request she really needed him to accept.
"You don't?" Her voice was already trembling, then his arms came around her and pulled her close. His embrace was strong as if he wanted to show her that he would never let her go of her, no matter what.
As he broke their hug, he cupped her face.
"What if I don't want to let you go when you ask me to?" He announced before kissing her on her forehead. Laura could feel her face heating up at his words.
"Then you just hold me for as long as you want."
"Okay. It might be tomorrow morning though then I have to go to dance practice." Jimin joked in an attempt to lighten the mood and make her more comfortable.
"I would love to!" She confessed, turning to hide her blushing face.
The atmosphere in the room turned totally around as she put a bit more space between them, even retrieving her hand.
Laura closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and avoided looking at him.
"My name is Laura Dryer. I was born and raised in a small town on the East Coast of the US. My birthday is October 13th, 1990."
Jimin smiled brightly as he realized that they were born on the same day.
"Noona?" He called her but she looked at him in panic.
"Why did you call me like that?"
"You are exactly five years older than me." He explained with a smile.
"You are also born in October?"
"Yes, the 13th like you."
"That's cool." Yet her sweet smile transformed into a grim expression. "Can you just not call me Noona? Not a nickname I want to hear anymore."
"Oh! I am sorry. What nickname do you like?" Jimin was so eager to call out for her with a little name they would only share.
"I always wanted to be a princess but I don't like that one either."
"How about Queen? I think that would suit you well because you are beautiful and strong."
How can that man make my heart race faster than if I ran a marathon?
"I love it. Maybe later we will find a Korean one."
This time it was Jimin who looked away as he blushed.
"My life was nothing but normal. Too normal. So innocent Laura decided to take an adventure and try out for an international idol contest. That was 18 months ago. 18 months that I wish I could erase from my life resume."