YoungBae took note of the way Seungri gave sideway glances to Daesung who both looked at Mariana who was sipping on her coffee. Her head was resting on Nina’s shoulder and her eyes fluttered shut. YoungBae saw the dark circles under her eyes and he let out a small sigh. Nina ran a hand through Mariana’s hair as she chatted with SeungHyun about the latest news in South Korea. The situation was slightly odd with the fact that yes, Demmy D was here and they were having breakfast with her. Whilst maknae and Daesung weren’t incredibly big fans of her (such as YoungBae was) but they were still in slight awe. Especially now that had her eyes closed, Seungri could make wild gestures to Daesung who only nodded in agreement. 

 

DEMMY D WAS IN THEIR APARTMENT!!!!!!!!!!

 

“So what are you guys thinking of getting today?” Nina asked conversationally. She looked at YoungBae who was not ready for that conversation. 

 

“Oh, uh JiYong wanted to get some things.” YoungBae said. Then instantly wished he didn’t. He saw the downturned look on Nina’s face, probably his words taking a blow to her insecurity. He knew Nina and knew she would take this as JiYong maybe not wanting to spend time with her. 

 

“It’s a rouse to get to know me.” Mariana said, opening her eyes and sitting up. This caused an awkward moment where Seungri’s rapid movements froze and Mariana saw him and Daesung… as they were. They were both practically standing as they were facing each other, freaking out with hands spread out and frantic looks on their faces. 

 

“Are you guys okay?” Mariana asked. Both of them glanced at each other and lowered their hands, sitting back down and acting casual. Daesung leaned back in his chair and Seungri put a hand under his chin, acting pensive. YoungBae’s head dropped into his hands, hating the fact that his friends could not act cool. 

 

Mariana just laughed. 

 

“To be fair, if I wasn’t so tired, I’d probably do the same about you two to Nina in the kitchen.” Mariana said, taking another sip of her coffee. 

 

“REALLY?!” Seungri all but jumped out of his chair again as he processed Mariana’s words. He looked at Nina who rolled her eyes and stood up, leaving the scene to probably check up on JiYong. YoungBae was almost tempted to go and follow, hoping to clarify things with JiYong so as to smooth over anything that could bring his true intentions of going out to light. However, YoungBae’s ego made him stay as he wanted to hear what Mariana was talking about. 

 

“Yeah, you two were probably my favourite in Let’s Not Fall In Love.” She glanced at SeungHyun who had stopped what he was doing to look at her. “Sorry, SeungHyun. You weren’t in a suit for that video. But hey, if it makes you feel better, your Doom Dada video is probably one of the best videoclips for a song I have ever seen. And I don’t just mean Kpop. I mean, like, ever.” SeungHyun’s lips twitched into a smug smile and he sat up in his chair, continuing to grin to himself. He bowed in gratitude.

 

“Yeah but who had the better part?!” Seungri asked. “Come on, you said I looked pretty. And that the trampoline looked fun.”

 

“She also said that she thought I was funny with the sugar bun.” Daesung muttered under his breath. YoungBae thought of the video and felt anger rush through him as he remembered by that point all that Mariana had done was poke fun of him. 

 

“Sorry guys,” Mariana said, “this one here is my favourite.” She gestured with her head to one kicked-puppy looking Dong YoungBae. He lifted his gaze from a piece of crumble on one of the discarded paper bags atop the table. She was looking at him and smiling. YoungBae felt much better knowing that she had just proclaimed him to be her favourite. He smiled at himself. 

 

And he kept smiling. Even when JiYong came back into the room with Nina and finally introduced himself properly to Mariana. Mariana stood up from her seat, polite manners to great the next guest. She held out her hand and JiYong confidently put his in hers. YoungBae and Nina shared one look of apprehension, knowing very important people in both of their lives were meeting right now. YoungBae felt the urge to stand up also, moving over to come by Nina who was looking at her cousin. YoungBae glanced at JiYong. 

 

“It’s nice to finally meet the girl YoungBae never shuts up about.” JiYong said going to Japanese, his words making YoungBae’s mouth drop open that he would say that. Mariana’s lips twitched but other than that, she remained… professional. 

 

“Likewise. It’s nice to finally meet the boy who’s dominated many of Nina and I’s conversations.” Mariana said. It dawned on YoungBae that still had their hands together. He glanced at them and saw the firm grip they had each other’s hand in. Suddenly, the carefree air dwindled and YoungBae realised just how serious these two were being. He didn’t like it. 

 

“If you hurt her,” Mariana began, “I will kill you.” There was no teasing in her eyes nor was there any of the usual joking friends did when meeting boyfriends. Despite how tired Mariana looked, everyone could tell the underlying threat that was explicitly given. 

 

“If I do, I’ll let you.” JiYong said. “And if you hurt Bae-“

 

“Ji! We’re not even - we’re just friends!” YoungBae was quick to jump in, not really wanting anything to… scare Mariana off. He managed to come in between JiYong and Mariana, his back to her as he gave JiYong to most meaningful look he could give. He knew his friend meant well and didn’t want to see him hurt, but YoungBae wasn’t going to get hurt if Mariana was made so uncomfortable that she didn’t want to have anything with him. 

 

So, it surprised him when he heard Mariana behind him say, “If I do, you’ll be the first person I come to.”

 

YoungBae turned around slowly and saw Mariana standing there, hands limp by her side and a tired look on her face. She looked so tired that for a moment, he thought the words had slipped out due to her delirious lack of sleep state that he knew all too well. There had been many moments he’d said the wrong thing or said something aloud he’d never wished left his mouth - all just because he was so tired rehearsing, recording, doing whatever when he should’ve been asleep. But as he stared at Mariana, he saw the honesty in her eyes and knew that yes, she had meant to say that. After he caught her eyes, she looked down and began twisting a ring on her finger. 

 

“Okay now that is all aside, can I say that you’re one of my favourite rappers and I find it so cool that you have a song with RZA.” YoungBae hard behind him and turned to see JiYong grinning casually. YoungBae stepped aside so Mariana could respond. She looked up and smiled. 

 

“Cheers. You’ve also got…” She paused, as if looking for the next word to say, “uh, bars.” She said in English. YoungBae saw how much JiYong tried to hide how much the compliment meant to him. “Seriously. Your verse on Good Boy.” She brought her fingers to her lips and kissed it, making YoungBae think of Italians and how they showed their sign of approval. Or Seungri whenever he was eating Nina’s cooking. 

 

“Yeah but we all know who was your favourite in that song.” Nina muttered. JiYong through her head back in laughter. YoungBae’s face grew hot and he knew this was payback for all the times he had teased the pair. However, unlike him, Mariana shrugged, apparently unfazed by the comment. YoungBae looked at her and wondered if this was a result of her fatigue. Mariana caught his eyes and then frowned. “What?”

 

“You’re… uh…”

 

“What? She’s right.” She said as if it were the utmost truth. “I don’t think there’s any song where you’re not my favourite.” Then a grin broke out onto her face. “And the one with you riding a horse shirtless.” YoungBae rolled his eyes.

 

“You said you hated it because he wasn’t alone on the horse.” Nina chimed in. 

 

For the first time since walking through the door, Mariana looked awkward. A faint blush appeared in her cheeks, she avoided YoungBae’s gaze and she up her lips as the words hung in the air. She then pointed a finger at Nina and gave her a look, “You don’t, uh, have to say everything.” Nina giggled and looked at YoungBae. 

 

“Oh, I have so much to tell you.”

 

“RIGHT! Shopping! This was nice. Incredible to meet you all! Would really love a photo and autograph but, oh no, the time,” Mariana looked at her wrist which contained no watch, “we best get going!” She grabbed YoungBae’s arm and began dragging him to the door. When they reached it, Mariana stopped and she and YoungBae turned to see Nina and JiYong in a heated kiss. YoungBae looked at the table and saw it empty. They probably left when Mariana got up to shake Ji’s hand he put off his bandmate’s absence to. For some reason, he was glad they gave the four of them that privacy. 

 

“No time for couples cuteness!” Mariana called out, crossing her arms. JiYong stuck out his hand and gave her the finger. YoungBae’s smile dropped from his face, upset that JiYong would be that rude to the girl he (and everyone) knew he liked. Anger began to grow as YoungBae thought of what to say, to defend her honour but also so that JiYong could be polite and nice to the girl who, really, was quite new to-

 

“Hey, hey, you too.” Mariana shot back, making YoungBae’s eyes shoot up in surprise. Since when had these two become so comfortable? Weren’t they tense and threatening moments before? “Like, I was going to say I was excited to go shopping with the fashionable G-Dragon but I’m not going to say that.” 

 

JiYong pulled back and kissed a dazed Nina on the forehead. He muttered a quick goodbye in Korean and turned to make his way to the door. “You just did.” 

 

“Just remember that it’s Bae, me… and you.” Mariana said. YoungBae ducked his head when she put emphasis on him and her. JiYong flicked her head when he passed between them, leaving the hallway. Just before YoungBae closed the door, Mariana yelled something out to one still very much dazed Nina Nathalie. It wasn’t Japanese nor Korean… but something far more… exotic. YoungBae saw Nina’s face flush even more before said goodbye and he closed the door. Mariana waited for him outside, JiYong close nearby. So YoungBae felt… hurried when he needed to take a moment to compose himself. Whatever Mariana had said… he definitely didn’t understand it but it was still ringing in his head. 

 

“You okay?” She asked, this time in clear Japanese.

 

Without looking at her, he asked, “Were you speaking to Nina in Arabic?”

 

“Uh, yeah. How’d you know?”

 

YoungBae looked down and saw. He immediately darted his head up and tried to inconspicuously tug his shirt down to cover it. Mariana left it alone and walked in front of him. When they passed JiYong, his best friend clapped him on the shoulder and laughed in his face. 

 

In Korean, YoungBae swore at him.

 

...... and In real life, I face palmed.

 

SEVEN CHAPTERS.

 

I had endured seven chapters. Well, I don’t know if endured is the right phrase considering I did voluntarily just read all of that. 

 

Oh, you thought this was a story about Taeyang, K-pop sensation falling in love?

 

Whoops.

 

Sorry. 

 

Let me explain to you something: fan fiction. I discovered in when I was undercover one time at some university pretending to study some Arts degree and I heard the tumblr oh my Odin! fangirls who were, ugh, so nerd! With their hipsters glasses, feminism t-shirts, glitter converse and Destiel or Stony or some other gay OTP who will arguing about Severus Snape. It was these people who lead me to fan fiction and suddenly I found another tool of research. 

 

Whilst some of it was downright stupid: a clumsy girl who is someway artistic crafted bumps into a famous guy she’s somehow not a fan of and the famous guy falls in love with her ‘down-to-earthness’ and it’s basically the plot of that ty Be Somebody film with that guy from Vine. Some of it’s like that. Actually, most of it is. Then you have the 250’000 word Avenger fanfictions which go through each of the MCU movies (what a plug) but nevertheless, fanficiton is powerful because, really, you learn a lot of from it. 

 

Take the ones about real people. You read a fanfic about a real person, a real celebrity, and you learn so much from the teenage girls who memorised how many tattoos G-Dragon has and thus put that information into her story of make believe Be Somebody-esque romance. 

 

So here I am, trying to do research on this K-pop band and in doing that, I’m reading fanficition about them. This one had showed promise through being the point of view of Dong YoungBae (see I learnt that from the fanfic) yet I gave up about 327 words ago because I just realised that he wasn’t the one I was supposed to be researching (and thus reading a fanfic about).

 

Top.

 

Whatever the hell kind of name that was. 

 

Why was did I need to research Top?

 

Well, that’s a long story but I’m going to the chapter end right now and tell you how it all went down next time. 

 

Bye kiddies. 

 

...

 

…

 

…

 

Just kidding. 

 

It went something like this: “Nope. Nah. No. Nuh. that. That is not happening. What is nothing happening? This . I will not work my off and then - nah, nope. Nada. Non. Nonononononon. Y’all can forget it from happening because it’s not even a plan. Like, this is not even something up for debate or discussion because NO. As I’ve said already - this was beyond ing ridiculous. Like, you have to be silly. Then ridiculous. Then the beyond of the ridiculous. Keep that beyond in mind because this was way ing beyond that beyond.”

 

“Most people would kill for an opportunity such as this.”

 

I stared at the man in front of me. I stared at his badges. I stared at his hat and I stared at the moustache he really ought to shave. I stared at him, hoping he would see the beyond of ing ridiculous that was this assignment. Then I stared some more. 

 

“Considering our line of work, sir,” I began, “you really should-uh, not use that wording.” The sir in question some Colonel guy I had been brought forth to speak with. And by brought forth I mean I was walking home from the grocery store when some limosine pulled up beside me and a girl in sunglasses handed me a manilla folder. I don’t know if she got the Sherlock reference or not but I still mentally referred to her as Andrea (probably not cause it was mentally) but like damn, she was typing on a blueberry. 

 

“He was attacked last Friday.” The Colonel in front of me brought me back to the present moment of being in some secret room of some secret base that really needed a makeover because the blandness of everything made me sigh. “The government has called in for safety measures.” Colonel guy added.

 

“Don’t say the government like it’s mine. Just because where I am sat, in this stool in this room of this building is on Korean soil does not mean that the Korean government is my government.” I said. “And he’s a popstar. Get someone else.”

 

“They required the best.” He said in a firm tone, thinking that would sway me. I, however, just rolled my eyes. 

 

“Flattered. Get someone else. I will not have gone through the I have gone through to be some k-pop star’s bodyguard because some sasaeng’s parents didn’t spank them enough.” 

 

“This was a full grown man who attacked him.”

 

“I still stand by my statement. Like, I think if we’re gonna reduce sasaengs only to teen girls who need to get a hobby, like, that’s just discrimination. Full grown men can like k-pop.” The Colonel sighed. “Are you telling me that you don’t get your groove on when Fantastic Baby is playing.” I cupped my hands around my mouth. “HOLLAAAAA!”

 

Now it was the Colonel’s turn to stare at me. Which, to be fair, I understand. People who don’t really know me get surprised by… this-ness. I haven’t come up with a word for it yet. Still looking. 

 

“Your professionalism astounds me.” He stated dryly. I crossed my arms and brought my feet up to the table, emphasising his point. “This is a matter of national importance!” He said, slamming his palm on the table. I stared at him, eyes wide at anger that seemed to be radiating off him. 

 

And I burst out laughing. 

 

“A pop star is a matter of national importance?” I asked, throwing my head back and letting out another HA! “Is Gangnam Style your national anthem?” I crossed my arms over in an X and began doing the infamous dance move as I began singing, “Oppa Gangnam style! Wop! Wop! Wop!”

 

“I see the reports were true.” The Colonel said, fists clenched tight as he tried to keep calm. 

 

“What? That I’m a rebellious, loud, cocky, unstable untrustworthy asset who has a frightening ability to fit in anywhere which is useful for hiding in plain sight?”

 

“Yes.” The Colonel said. “Which is why you were chosen for this project.”

 

I frowned, looking at him. Okay, so I didn’t expect that. They chose me because I was an ? Well that was a first. Still, I was not gonna be the bodyguard of some Korean Justin Bieber just because teenage girls and grown men have a tendency to go far with their love for musicians. 

 

“Look, mate, can we just not? I appreciate the offer but my supervisor quota is filled with my goldfish.”

 

“You don’t own a goldfish.” He stated knowingly. Since we were in Korea, I didn’t question how he knew that. 

 

“Not yet.” I said, clicked my fingers and pointing at him. 

 

There was a pause. The Colonel’s head shifted slightly and I picked up on the ear piece that he was listening to. I strained my ears, trying to understand what was being said but I couldn’t hear anything. Well, dang. 

 

“Frankie Underwood,” the Colonel said, looking back at me. He gave me a tight-lipped smile. “you are no longer needed. I can see that no matter what I say, you’ll refuse.”

 

“I’m glad we see eye to eye.” I replied. The Colonel made no movements so I pulled my feet off the table and rolled my eyes. “I’ll just show myself out, shall I?” The Colonel held out his hand, as if telling me to go ahead. I gave him a two finger salute that I was soooooo tempted to finish in giving him the finger. 

 

I walked out of the room only to bump into someone. Years of training had me quickly regaining my balance and stabilising myself. My hands shot out to help the man in front of me. Although I felt like boy would’ve been more suitable. I noted the young, pretty face. He was dressed in nice, expensive looking clothes. His ears were pierced and his face was forlorn. 

 

He apologised in English. I would’ve rolled my eyes had I not been so affected by the kicked-puppy look this boy had about him. I told him it was fine, flexing my language skills. The boy blinked at me, clearly not expecting the fluent Korean. If anything, it felt weird hearing English after hearing and speaking Korean since the moment Andrea With The Manilla Folder And The BlueBerry pulled up. 

 

“Are you okay?” I asked him. He looked up at me and scanned my face. I know that he took note of the different coloured eyes but what I didn’t know was that the coloured eyes triggered some sort of recognition. 

 

“You’re… Frankie.” He said, testing out the Western name on his Asian tongue. I nodded, not really sure how he knew me. I would’ve been on guard had it not been for the pure happiness this boy radiated upon finding out who I am. Which, can I say, it’s been a very long time since someone’s looked so happy to see me. 

 

“Yes.” I said. “You are…”

 

“Lee Seung-hyun.” He said, continuing to look at me brightly. The name triggered the recognition on my part. The expensive clothes and pretty face made sense now: he was a kpop star. Right in front of me was Seungri, one fifth of the boy group BigBang which dominated the South Korean music scene. “You’re the one that’s going to help my hyung?” He asked hopeful. 

 

It took me aback. The fact that someone was asking me something. The fact that someone was asking me to help. I never helped. I took out targets. I gained intel on certain suspects. I tracked. I killed. I fought. I never helped. 

 

“Hyung is really paranoid and I know that even though he says the opposite, having someone will make him feel better.” Seungri continued to say, “Especially since you’re a really pretty girl.” I smiled fondly at the compliment. I was being reminded of children and their innocence. Honestly, staring at Seung-hyun, that’s all I could see: an innocent child. A hopeful innocent child. 

 

the goldfish. 

 

“Yeah. I’m going to look after your hyung.” If they let me. 

 

“Good! I just, uh, need to give my… account,” Seung-hyun’s face became forlorn again, “of, um, what happened.” Then he looked up at me, hopeful again. “Are you going to be there? Listening?”

 

“Yes she is.” I turned around to see the smug Colonel. I noted the way he stood, happy with himself. I looked back at the blissfully ignorant maknae who didn’t realise he’d just been played. I looked back at the Colonel, hating the er for taking advantage of Seeing-hyun. And just hating him in general cause he was an . He gave me a salute.

 

I gave him both fingers.