♪ one.

I want to tell you a story about someone.
Someone who appears in my mind a thousand times a day.
Someone who cries at my happiness, and smiles at my sorrows.

Every time I tell people this, they get confused. "Do you mean she laughs at you when
you're sad?" Of course that's not the case. She is... contradictive at times. Her way of
showing her emotions is special. She's cheerful and has a lot of tears, just like any other
person. It's just that, she does it a little differently.

One time we went to the zoo, and she just cried out of happiness from seeing the animals.
I'm pretty sure even the most extreme animal lovers don't behave this way. Another time,
she lost her bicycle just one day after she bought it. The weird thing is, she wasn't even
upset. She said it was her fault, and that she hope someone else would make good use of
the bicycle.

She's pretty weird, isn't she?

That was why I wanted to be around her.

Right after the first time we met.

"Yah, Taehyung. Where are you!?"

"Hey hyung. I'm outside at the snack stand. Why?" I took a bite of the hot ddeokbokki and
immediately regretted doing it.

"It's dinner time and you're eating snacks?"

I couldn't reply right away. I was busy cooling down the piece of rice cake with my mouth
open. It hasn't been a great day, so I thought getting snacks would lift up my mood. So far
it gave me nothing but a burnt tongue.

"Sorry, Yoongi hyung. You can eat without me."

"You sure? We're ordering Chinese and go straight back to practice."

Again. I couldn't even remember the last time I did not have Chinese takeouts for dinner.

"Yep. I'm fine with the snacks."

"This is weird coming from you." Yoongi paused. "Ah. Well. See you later."

"Later." I replied, ending the call. I slipped my phone to the back pocket of my pants and
continued my feast. It had been a while since I managed to get some free time for myself.
Even if it's just a five-minute break like this.

I gobbled down the last bite of the ddeokbokki when a cup filled with fish cakes was
placed in front of me. I looked up to see the old lady behind the stand smiling at me.

"Here's some for free. You look hungry."

I gave her my biggest grin. "Thank you very much! I'll eat this reaaaaally really well." I
replied as I rose up from my seat, bowing at her. She gave me a motherly smile before
turning to her other customer. I took the cup and started walking back to the company.

Today's not such a bad day.

I was entering the company building when I saw the elevator door almost closing.

"Hold it!!" I screamed as I ran towards it. The doors closed just when I arrived in front of
it. I groaned before realising the soup from the fish cakes were dripping from the cup onto
my hand. Aaand we're back to a bad day, I thought to myself.

I was about to go to the restroom when the elevator doors opened again. I looked in to see
a girl who was pressing the Open button. She was standing there with an oversized grey
hoodie, black jeans, and running shoes. A big sport bag was on the floor beside her.

"I heard you," she said.

"Oh. Thanks."

I hurried in and pushed the button to the 7th floor. The fish cake soup was starting to drip
on to the floor. A sigh escaped my mouth. Do I really need to the soup off my hand?
I brought the cup in front of my face and stuck out my tongue when I heard a slight gasp
from the girl next to me. I turned to her. She looked surprised that I heard her.

"Oh, sorry... but you shouldn't do that. Wait a minute," she said and kneeled down, starting
to ransack her sport bag. She looked unfamiliar, but she was dressed like she was one of
the dancers of the company.

She took out a pack of tissues and handed me one. "Here you go."

I received the tissue and started wiping my hand. "Thank y-"

My words were cut off by a big clanging sound, followed by the elevator abruptly
stopping. The light was flickering for a few seconds before it turned off completely. I stood
there frozen, not knowing what had just happened.

It took awhile for my eyes to get used to the darkness. I looked at the girl, who stayed quiet.
I need to get us out of here, I thought to myself.

I went to push the emergency button. A flat tone beeped for 2 seconds, and then died. No
one came for the intercom. I pressed the button again. Another flat tone for 2 seconds. I
sighed. I took my phone out to call Yoongi hyung. No answer. I dialed Jimin's number when
I turned around to see the girl sitting on the floor, hugging her legs. Is she scared?

"Hey, Taehyung. Where are you?" Jimin answered.

"I am in the elevator. To be precise, stuck in it."

"Huh?! You're stuck in the elevator??"

"Yeah... It was going up when it stopped. The lights went off too. I think we're at the...
Puhaha."

I had to laugh since the girl was extending her arm, offering me the Lays bag she just
opened. This girl is really weird.

"Taehyung? Why did you laugh?"

"Oh, nothing, sorry. I'm probably at the fifth floor right now."

"Okay, hold on. We'll be right there." Click.

I took some chips from the bag before sitting next to her.

"How come you're not panicking?"

"About being stuck in here, you mean?"

"If things don't go well, we could be stuck here for the next few hours."

She shrugged. "I'm not rushing to be anywhere. But you are kinda in a hurry, right? You
were running for the elevator earlier."

"Not really. I just wanted to catch the elevator."

"That's weird," she giggled.

Weird? If anything she was the weird one. In this kind of situation, usually the girl would
be scared and close to tears, clinging to the guy. But she was just sitting there munching on
chips like she was in her living room.

"Do you work here?"

"Ah, yes, I haven't introduced myself," she brushed her hands and did a slight bow to me.
"I'm Noa, and I will be starting to work here in the dancer team."

Haha, what a cute greeting, I thought to myself. I was right – she would be part of the new
dancer team Hoseok hyung was talking about.

I bowed back to her. "I'm V, but you can call me Taehyung. But I thought the new dancer
team is coming in next week?"

"Yeah, that's right. I just wanted to get ahead with the practicing while getting used to the
building. Well, so far, I've seen the entrance and the elevator, and it's quite a first
impression."

"This building is not crappy, don't worry. It's my first time being stuck in the elevator too
after all these years."

"That is relieving to hear," she smiled. I was feeling a little claustrophobic, but seeing her
so calm, I couldn't help to be relaxed as well.

"Taehyung, are you in there!?"

Jimin's voice came from outside the elevator. I sprung up and got closer to the elevator
doors.

"Yeah, I'm in here."

"Okay, good. We're gonna call the security so they can let you out. Are you by yourself?"

"No, there is someone else here."

Jimin paused. I could hear murmurs from the other side of the elevator, and Hoseok
whispering "Just ask him!!"

"..Is it a guy or a girl?" Jimin asked carefully.

I glanced at her, who was smiling at me. "A girl."

A faint cheering sound combined with teasing 'ooooh's and 'aaahh's were made as clear as
the day. I swear I could hear them elbowing each other.

"Yah, Jimin."

He coughed before replying. "Yeah, um. We're gonna go to the security now. Don't worry,
we'll walk as slow as possible.."

They broke into laughter before I heard Hoseok screaming, "Girl, be careful of Taehyung!"

She was giggling as I sat back beside her. "Sorry about that."

"No worries. Your team members seem like a playful bunch."

I chuckled. "Yeah, they are."

"Are you supposed to be practicing right now?"

I looked at the time on my phone. 7:24 p.m. It had been half an hour since Yoongi hyung
called me, so they must have been done with dinner. If I were there we would get back to
practicing by now. We basically lived in the practice room since we were gearing up for a
comeback. I couldn't remember the last time I've been this relaxed, even though it had to
be in a dark, stuck elevator.

"Yeah."

She didn't reply. Instead, she stretched her legs forwards, making herself comfortable. I
stole a glance at her. She looked peaceful, with eyes closed. She was smiling to herself.

Just as I thought I should leave her alone, she said,
"It must've been hard on you."

I turned my head to her. Her eyes still closed, head leaning back to the elevator wall. She
looked as if she was waiting for me to speak.

"Yeah, it is." I looked down and started fiddling with my phone. "A comeback is nice and
all, but we haven't been resting much. The members are tired."

"And you?"

"I'm the same."
But I can't let it show, or else it would affect the others.

She hummed in reply.

"It's okay though. Our fans had been waiting for our comeback."
It had been half a year since the last comeback. During that time we had such tight
schedules that we missed a lot of holidays. I hadn't seen my family in a long time.

I sighed. "I hope you're prepared to be really busy."

She turned to me. I looked at her to see her looking back at me in the eye. "I'm looking
forward to that." She then smiled.

"But for now, are you gonna eat that?"

She pointed at the cup of fish cakes I got from the snack stand. The soup was all gone and
the fish cakes looked dry.

"Yeah, why not?"

"...Can I have one?" she said while grinning.

I smiled and handed one stick of the fish cakes to her. She took it and promptly chomped
on the fish cake.

AsianFanfics

♪ one.

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