Wednesday afternoon, Jin seized the opportunity to go to the mall because he and the other members had the day off. He had been trying to visit the mall all week so that he could visit a  cooking shop that sold a special type of seasoning that he needed. 

Jin had spent about three weeks playing “scavenger hunt” all across Korea, searching for just the right ingredients to make his grandparents signature dish. He wanted to try something new and what better than to create the a meal that had been passed down from his family for generations. 

In his quest for everything, he was nearly complete and was certain that this trip to the Seoul mall would conclude his search.  

Before leaving the dorm he spoke with Rap Monster, who was the only member there.

“Make sure you let Jung Kook in.”

“I can’t, not today. I have to visit my cousin. He’s in town for the week.”

“Hm…” Jin paused for a moment. “That’s okay, don’t worry about it. Jung Kook’s school is not that far from the mall. I’ll just text him and have him meet me there and then we can walk home together.”

“Good idea.” said Rap Monster. “See you then.”

They both exited the dorm at the same time, locking the door behind them, and then made their way off in opposite directions. 

____________

“Bored…” commented Ara to her business partner, Rae. 

Ara and Rae were best friends that had attended college together, then shortly after graduating they teamed up together and opened their fashion designing store in the local mall. Their store was called “Girls’ Are the Best”, and it was located in a busy portion of the mall that was known to attract teenagers and young adults.

The pair were typically busy with customers, however today they had only seen a few shoppers enter and exit their store, leaving them sitting behind  a register counter, bored with nothing to do.  

“Maybe we should close up early for today.” suggested Rae. “We’ve been open for three hours and we’ve only seen eight customers and half of them didn’t even buy anything.”

“No wait,” said Ara far too eagerly after realizing she didn’t have anywhere to go after work. It was far too early to call her friends and she didn’t feel like returning home to her empty apartment. “Lets just give it a few more hours.”  

“Okay.”

The interior of their store was specially designed by the pair with the intention to attractive women of all ages, which would explain why most of the colors consuming the interior were pink and red. 

Ara moved from around the counter and made her way over toward the store’s glass display class and she stared out through the glass at the mob of shoppers who flooded the mall. She wasn’t looking for anything specific and was simply occupying her time by standing stiffly in front of the window, observing the shoppers.  

She stood still for nearly ten minutes, leading some shoppers to believe that she was possibly a mannequin. Ara was lost in her thoughts, over the last couple of letters she had read from JK12345678. She didn’t understand how it was possible that she could have fallen in love with a person, simply by exchanging e-mails. It was unbelievable. They had never spoken via web cam, since her mystery guy claimed he didn’t have one (or a decent camera) and exchanging phone numbers never seemed to come up between them because they were both so busy, they didn’t have time to talk on the phone.  

Ara was ripped from her thoughts at the site of one shopper that drew her attention. She gasped in shock at the face she had spent several hours studying from the photo that she had been sent. She covered …unable to believe what she was seeing. It was him….it was JK12345678 and he was shopping at the mall!