Ara was talking, but even she couldn’t make out what she was saying. In her head she was making, sense, but verbally, her words exited in stuttering, incoherent speech.  

“What’s wrong?” asked Rae who joined her at the window, trying to discover what was causing her friend to react this way.  

“Its….its…him….the…the man of my dreams…”

“What?”

“The guy,” she said while sounding distant. “The guy I told you about…the one I met online…he’s here!”

“What?!”

“HE’S HERE!”

Rae stared at her friend in shock, both seeming to show disbelief over the fact that the guy Ara had been talking about for months was under the same roof as her. They had never discussed meeting in person because JK12345678 claimed that his school schedule didn’t allow him any free time to meet with her, but now, here they were barely a few yards away from one another and it was possible for them to meet.  

“What do I do? What do I do? What do I?” Ara repeatedly nervously, raising her voice slightly each time she asked the question.  

“Hey,” shouted Rae encouragingly. She placed her hands on Ara’s face and turned her in her direction so that she was staring directly into her eyes. “Don’t panic. You said you wanted to meet him in person one day and now’s your chance. Run after him.”

“What? No way…what if he’s busy?”

“Busy?! You said that he said that you’re the girl of his dreams. If he really loves you, then I’m certain he’ll give up whatever he’s doing to see you. You both desperately want to meet, now’s your chance.”

“But the store, I can’t-”

“We haven’t had any customers within the hour and I highly doubt that as soon as you leave they’ll all rush in here at once.” said Rae confidently, lowering her hands at her side. “Seriously, now’s your chance to meet him person.”

Ara stared at her friend for a moment, then she darted her glance through the window at the fading figure of the JK12345678. He was definitely the same person that was in the picture she had been sent nearly a week ago.

She desperately wanted to talk to him in person, hear his voice, and physically be able to touch his hand, something that she had been unable to do, and one of the many disadvantages of online dating. 

“Do I look okay?” she asked,  running her hand through her hair. 

She was wearing blue, jean shorts, a black tank top covered by a checkered black and green shirt, with sandals. Ara didn’t have any idea she would meet him today, otherwise she would have fixed herself up a lot more better and probably applied a lot more makeup to her face.  

Rae looked her up and down from head to toe, scanning her for any imperfections in her appearance, but she was unable to find any.  

“You look fine,” said Rae as she began to lightly push her friend toward the door as an attempt to encourage her to walk. “Now, go, go, go, go, go!”

Ara smiled at her friend then took a deep breathe before exiting the store. She was generally a very confident person, but at that moment she felt weak, vulnerable, and nervous. She moved among the crowd of shoppers, keeping her eyes locked on the back of JK12345678 who walked casually a few yards ahead of her.  

He was usually at school around this time, according to the schedule he often told her about, but for some odd reason he was at the mall. Maybe he had been dismissed early and had seized the opportunity to go shopping. It didn’t make any sense to her because she had told him she worked at the mall. Maybe he had secretly ditched school to come here and visit her!

There were thousands of thoughts flooding her mind and she was so invested in them that she didn’t pay any attention to how quickly she was walking. It was only a matter of minutes before she would reach him.  

_______

A few yards ahead of Ara, Jin was casually walking and scanning the various shops throughout the mall. He had called ahead and received instructions on where the shop was located, but the mall he had chosen to visit was so large that he was finding it difficult to navigate through it.  

Jin slid his cell phone from his pocket to check the time and to his surprise he had already spent an hour wandering the many halls. Jung Kook would be free from school in another hour.  Jin turned the corner and paused in front of a large store that caught his attention. His eyes were immediately drawn to the front of store because there was a rack containing a jacket that suited his style.  

“I guess I could just look at it for a second.” he thought before entering the store.  

A short distance away, Ara spotted Jin entering the store and sighed. She had waited too late and now if she were to meet him, she would have to make her presence known in a store. It didn’t matter, as long as she was able to see him, then that was what mattered to her.  

Ara quickly began to dart the small gap and when she reached the store, she entered slowly. It was mostly empty, leading her to believe that perhaps today was a slow day for shoppers, since this store was empty too. 

In the back of the store, she spotted him. He was standing in front of a rack, staring at several suits that were hanging on the wall. She suddenly had an idea.  

Ara quietly made her way further into the store, ducking behind several aisles and shelves until she was on the opposite aisle as Jin. Jin, who had started off looking at a jacket and now found himself browsing the entire store, turned around when he spotted a row of sweaters that were different colors.  

He quickly began to slide each hanger across the rack to sort through them. Jin thought nothing of the simple gesture most shoppers perform when searching through large bundles of clothing, however when he reached the end of the sweaters, a young woman’s face stared through the opposite side of the rack, startled him causing him to jump back.  

Ara covered and began to quietly giggle to herself. She walked around the aisle so that Jin and her were standing on the same side, and she paused in front of him, allowing him to take in the shock of her arrival.  

However, Jin wasn’t in shock, but instead it more like confusion over why this random customer had chosen to startle him. They stood five feet away from each other, staring at each other. Ara’s eyes twinkled, due to the disbelief of finally being face to face with the man of her dreams. 

Jin was silent for a moment, stunned by the woman’s beauty. Her face was flawless and she was of  ideal height and weight. There was something about her appearance that seemed angelic and if she had wanted to, she could possibly pursue a successful career as a model or actress.

At the same time while he was admiring her, he was baffled and wasn’t sure what to expect and was hoping that the strange woman would speak first.

“Wow…” she said looking him up and down from head to toe. “You’re even taller than I expected.”

“Um…thank you?”

“Can I…?”

“Can you what?” he asked, still baffled by what was going on.  

Ara didn’t elaborate any further, she strode the short distance between them and embraced him in a tight bear hug. Even more confused as to why he was being embraced by a random stranger,  Jin held his hands at his side, not feeling comfortable hugging her back. She embraced him for several minutes until he finially asked her if she let him go so that he could relax.  

“Opps, sorry.” she quickly uttered after releasing him, leaving the smell of her lemon scented perfume, lingering on his clothing.  

“Now that we’ve met…what’s your real name?”

“I’m sorry.” said Jin abruptly. “But who are you?”

“Oh, I see. So that’s how you want to play.” she cleared , deciding that it was worth going along with his little bit, even though she didn’t understand it. She extended her hand towards him. “I’m Ara Lee and who might you be?”

“Me,” said Jin, as he shook her hand which seemed to be a natural response. “My name is Kim Seokjin, but just call me Jin.”

Ara silently did the math in her head. The user name he used was JK12345678, and his real name was Kim Seokjin, so he had created the user name using the first letter of his nick name and the first letter of his last name. It really was him!  

“I’m so happy to finially meet you!!” she said. “We’ll talk more about it over lunch, lets go.”

“Lunch?”

“Yeah, come on, let’s go to lunch.” she said grabbing a hold of his hand.  

“But I-”

“Please, pretty please?” she looked up at him, blinking several times.  

There were so many questions going through his mind at that moment and it was hard to believe that within a matter of minutes that the random appearance of this mysterious woman had caused everything in the world to no longer make sense.  

Jin couldn’t deny that he was fascinated by how openly she showed affection towards him like she knew him well. He wanted to know more about her and figure out why she was so interested in him.

He was already behind in his quest for the ingredients, but those would have to wait because this seemed more important.

“Alright, you pick the place.”

______________

When they arrived at a local burger shop that was located in another portion of the mall, Jin was stunned by how well Ara seemed to know him because when the waitress approached them, after ordering for herself, she quickly ordered for Jin, magically knowing what it was that he liked to eat.  

They both were unaware of the simple explanation for this. Jin typically cooked for the members, so he always cooked dishes that he enjoyed. Jung Kook usually ate whatever his hyung served them so many of Jin’s favorites had also become Jung Kook’s since those were the only dishes he were exposed to.  

Ara, however recalled being told by Jung Kook in one of his e-mails of his favorite dishes and this is how she was able to order for Jin.  

“I’m so glad that we’re sitting here…directly in front of each other.” she commented.  

“Yeah, it’s good to be here.” said Jin. “Can I ask you something?”

“Anything.” she said, while sitting her elbows on the table and resting her head in the palms of her outstretched palms.

“Why are you so…and forgive me if this is too sudden…so interested in me?”

Ara lightly laughed to herself as if to say she couldn’t believe he was so worried about asking her something so minor like that.  

“I could name hundreds of reasons why…but I think the main ones would be that you have a really good heart. You’re considerate, you listen, you understand the beauty of nature, art, and…you understand me…,”

“But that’s just it.” said Jin quickly. “I don’t understand you. I really don’t know you that well.”

“That’s okay.” she added. “When you meet someone, you’re always learning new things about them, even if you feel like you’ve known them all your life.”  

Jin’s phone began to vibrate in his pocket. He reached into his pocket and took out his phone, reading the screen which had an imagine of a clock that he had set as a reminder so that he could text Jung Kook to meet him at the mall instead of heading home.  

Jin began to text Jung Kook. “Meet me at Simjang Mall after school.” He added the name of the restaurant they were eating at and then sent the message to Jung Kook.  

“My friend is going  to join us here, he can’t go home because I have the keys.”

“That’s okay.” she said cheerfully. “I would love to meet your friend anyway. I want to know everything about you.”

Jin was trying to figure out what had drawn this young lady towards him. She seemed devotedly interested in him and she rarely ever took her gaze off of him as though she feared looking away for a second would cause her to miss something important. If she was openly interested in dating him, then he didn’t have any objection against it. Physically she was his ideal type of girl, but he wanted to get to know her better.  

“Lets talk about the last couple of movies you’ve seen.”

_____________

Jung Kook marched through the mall, staring down at his phone, trying to figure out where this random shop was at that Jin had told him to meet him at. His oldest hyung didn’t elaborate in the two sentence text message  as to why he wanted him to meet him at the mall, but Jung Kook was convinced that it was for a good reason because this was rare of Jin to have him meet him at the mall.  

He wandered around for an additional ten minutes until a kind lady was nice enough to point him in the direction that he needed to head in. 

The golden maknae entered the burger shop absent-mindedly and then began scanning the tables for Jin, when he spotted him he felt his face go white in horror…sitting on the other side of the table was the girl of his dreams. 

Ara had met Jin.