serendipity

(noun)

the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way

Catching her reflection on a conveniently installed wall mirror near the gallery entrance, Taeyeon checked her dress for the thousandth time that evening. It was a beautiful wine-colored chiffon dress that stopped just above her knee. It wasn't the most eye-catching outfit in the crowd, but that's what she loved about it. Truthfully, Taeyeon's only goal was to walk away from the event with the least amount of interaction as possible. It sounded rather cold of her, but she just finished her solo promotions two days ago. She was absolutely drained and there were a million other things she'd rather do on a Friday night, but unfortunately she didn’t have that luxury. She’d be lying if she said she wasn’t nervous—these were people she had never met, with ridiculously high taste and an equally ridiculous amount of opinions. As a celebrity, engaging them in small talk and parting ways with a polite smile was almost second nature. This wasn't her type of crowd though, but she promised she'd show up and support Haru's debut exhibit.

"Don't worry! I already told Tiffany and Soonkyu to come with you. I know you're not the biggest fan of being social. Honestly, I get it. But can you come just this once? Word-of-mouth does wonders to an artist. It'd be really helpful if big names like you came," her friend begged, almost kneeling beside her chair. And they were eating in a restaurant, for God's sake. She knew those big puppy eyes of hers were extremely dangerous.

Realizing she had no choice but to go, Taeyeon frantically motioned her to sit back down. "Okay, okay. Just this once, alright?" Haru let out a loud shriek, quickly forgetting that several people were blissfully dining six feet away from them. Oblivious of the annoyed stares darted her way Haru cooed out, "Taengoo~ What do I do without you? Really, you'll have a good time. The people there are super nice. You'll love it. If things get lonely, you can always turn to my paintings for comfort."

"Thanks for ending that with a high note, Haru," Taeyeon replied sarcastically. "Anyways, people are staring at you. Shut up and chew." Grabbing a small piece of garlic bread, she stuffed it inside her friend's mouth. Haru, mouth still full of wheat, laughed and tried a second time to offer words of encouragement. "It'll last for 3 hours at most. You'll be fine." Although unconvinced, Taeyeon returned Haru's ecstatic mood with a wide grin of her own.

Of course everything will be fine if Tiffany and Soonkyu were actually with her that night. Tiffany was told by management 3 days ago to fly back to Milan and redo shoots for a Cécí editorial. Today, she called Soonkyu thinking she’d be ready to go, but she unexpectedly bailed out as well. Apparently, Soonkyu had sudden “commitments” to attend to that day. Judging from the amount of times she smiled stupidly at her phone lately, Taeyeon would bet her entire fortune that she's having a romantic date someplace else, probably eating good food and drinking red wine to her heart’s desire. She was genuinely happy for her; in fact, it had been a long, long time since she saw her glow like that. Who wouldn’t wish love and happiness for a friend? But couldn't she have warned her at least the night before? (She swears she’s upset at the fact that Sunny didn’t tell her immediately, not because she was feeling the first embarrassing signs of jealousy. Nope, not at all.). Taeyeon could've dragged Seohyun with her; she was way more elegant, more eloquent with her words. Why didn’t she think of passing on this job to her? She clicked her midnight blue heels in frustration, already dreading every single minute inside the intimidating building.

And so that's how she ended up going solo to a noisy, rather cramped art gallery. The artist, her only friend, was nowhere in sight. Haru was undoubtedly busy chatting up potential sponsors and buyers, so Taeyeon didn’t even bother seeking her out. Letting out a soft sigh, she walked further up towards the main hall where the majority of the pieces were. Peeking her head from the doorway, she noticed there were way too many people inside at the moment, all seemingly catching up with each other’s lives. Great, they all know each other here. She decided then to stop by the refreshments table first, take a glass of champagne and roam around the smaller rooms first. Walking through a narrow corridor, Taeyeon took in what the gallery had to offer. There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that Ryu Haru was an incredibly expressive artist: unusual compositions, unafraid of bright and vibrant colors, a mix of bold and delicate brush . She was so experimental, so out of the box with her work. Before she realized it, Taeyeon gravitated towards a massive piece that spanned from the floor to a few inches below the ceiling. She noticed a couple of people hovering around the same piece as well, clearly displaying the same level of intrigue as she was. The subject of the piece was a little girl, suspended in mid-air, head tilted towards the sky. Her face was oddly calm, almost looking relieved despite getting flung off her seat from the swing, her body about 7 feet off the ground. The colour palette was mostly dirty white and moody grey; however, the girl’s vibrant expressions gave the opposite effect. It was absolutely stunning. She moved to inspect it further, curious to see how it looked up close. She almost managed to sneak up front but a taller man—hair slicked back and was that Giorgio Armani she was smelling?—was standing directly in front of her. Not wanting to stir up any drama, she quietly backed up and observed from a distance instead. Glancing at his direction, she realized the guy looked familiar. From what she can deduce from afar, he was wearing a simple black fedora, a well-tailored burgundy blazer, crisp white pants folded just above his ankles, and spiked Louboutin loafers. He definitely stood out from the sea of denim jeans that night. Quirky. And not to mention, extremely rich.

She didn't put two and two together until she saw the infamous angel tattoo on his nape. Oh, so GD sunbaenim's here too? Taeyeon wasn't exactly surprised by this. She knew by now that her senior appreciated the finer things in life, especially art and dining. She'd known him for 8 years now. Naturally, she could list off a couple other minor details about him as well. Like how he has a Keith Haring tattoo on his arm (she didn’t want to admit it but she thought it was cool), how he preferred short-haired girls (she swears she isn't being nosy; she just overheard it from her longtime VIP stylist), how his favorite color’s yellow (again, heard it from stylist unnie), and how he doesn't have the most clean cut reputation right now. To be fair, she couldn’t say she was faring any better with the public either. Breaking up with her labelmate a year ago didn’t exactly leave the nicest effect on her name and image. Guess they both needed to take notes on who to publicly romance in the future.

Looking back, GD-sunbaenim and her didn't talk much. Polite greetings didn't count. The bulk of their conversations, surprising now that she actually thought about it, happened in elevators—chance meetings through years of overlapping promotions. It was a little bit awkward seeing him in a function like this. But now wasn’t the time to think about that, right? There were more pressing issues right now like how to survive the night without getting bombarded with probing questions, how to fake a cheerful mood when she felt like dozing off every 5 minutes, oh, and were they both wearing the same shade of red? Giving him a once-over, she realized that their outfits were awfully similar and way too coordinated. She hoped to the heavens that no one got the wrong idea. She finally came out of her thoughts, attempting to assess the painting in front of her once again... only this time she was looking at something different? Directly in front of her line of sight was Jiyong sunbae, eyebrows slightly raised in confusion and lips quirked up in amusement. Then it suddenly dawned on her. She was staring at him. Incredibly hard. It wasn’t even a quick look; Taeyeon’s traitor eyes bore a hole through her sunbae’s nape while she was daydreaming for five (or was it six?) long dreadful minutes. Damn it, why did she find that tattoo so y anyway? She quickly schooled her features and offered him an apologetic nod from afar. He returned hers with a silent nod as well. She couldn't stop the pesky blush rising up her neck and cheeks. So much for not attracting attention. She needed to save face immediately and the best way to do that, she decided, was to avoid any hint of interaction with the man at all costs.

And so she stealthily made her way to the next rooms.

Glaring down at her watch, it read 7:55. She could leave in an hour if she wanted to, but still she decided to move on to the next art piece. It was the same one from earlier, and she realized she didn’t actually get to observe this from up close. Damn his stupid, distracting and surprisingly appealing tattoos. She cursed under her breath. What an attractive bastard.

“You know, it's pretty rude running away from me for 30 minutes. Not exactly professional for an 8 year veteran.”

Whipping her head towards that voice, Taeyeon immediately took a step back, eyes wide, a tomato-red blush threatening to swallow her whole. She stayed silent for a while, fingers busy fiddling with her purse, not really knowing what exactly to say. Taeyeon bowed silently and offered a polite greeting instead. She couldn’t believe he’d actually approach her after that embarrassing moment earlier. GD-sunbae was definitely not going to let her live the thing down. Just when she thought she was being sneaky.

He bowed in return as well. "I've noticed, by the way. That you’re avoiding me. Any reason why?” he asked oh so innocently, a teasing undertone just slightly peeking through his voice. “You're the only one I know in this whole place, besides Haru obviously."

Ah, so that explains why he’d want to talk to her. "You, of all people, don’t know anyone here? This seems like your type of people, sunbaenim. How'd you know about Haru though? She never told me that you guys knew each other," she replied, trying her best to divert the subject.

He chuckled, flashing her a boyish grin. He knew that she was trying to stall. Someone remind her how she ended up in this awkward conversation again?

"Haru worked as art director for one of my solo releases. We weren’t too close so I guess that’s why she never mentioned me. I might as well support her opening since I was in the area anyway,” he said with a shrug. She nodded quietly in return, desperately finding something to distract herself with. Avoiding his constant gaze, her eyes flitted around the room until they landed on one of Haru’s pieces, the same one from before.

Hands in his pocket, Jiyong followed her gaze until he saw what she was fixated on. He stood there and studied the same painting again—his attention, however, was solely on her.

"I really like this one," she said, breaking the ice between them.

“I don’t get why she looks so happy. She’s so high up. What if she gets hurt from falling down?"

For a while, she mulled over his comment, deep in thought. "I think the girl had been waiting for that moment. She isn’t afraid of letting go because she realizes that the few seconds of peace she felt while in the air was worth savoring, was more important than the inevitable fall," she said. Covering out of embarrassment, “Sorry, I’m rambling.”

He nodded and seemed to digest her words. "Like the girl's finally ready again?"

“Ready for what?”

“I don’t know. Like you said, she looks like she isn’t afraid anymore—of letting go and chasing happiness,” he steadied his eyes on hers, pulling off one of those mysterious gazes that Taeyeon didn’t quite understand. She tried hard not to comprehend it, too scared of overanalyzing. Instead, she gave him a soft smile and looked away.

"Yeah, I guess,” she muttered softly.

After a long pause, he quietly murmured, "I think we both can learn from that." He said it so softly, a string of words she wasn’t quite sure were meant for her to hear.

Gently putting a hand on the small of her back, Jiyong guided Taeyeon towards the food section—a small buffet definitely not fit to feed over 50 people. She was taken aback by his actions, not sure if the sudden heat rising up her neck and cheeks were from the champagne or God Forbid Kwon Jiyong. This guy was dangerous, that's for sure. She suddenly got stiff, her back becoming overly sensitive from his touches. He seemed to notice this too so he lightened his hold on Taeyeon, trying his best not to overwhelm her. Was it still even possible to blush several shades darker than she already was? Jiyong let go and grabbed two small plates for the both of them. After the two selected a couple of appetizers to nibble on, they settled near a corner of one of the smaller rooms. The food was good, but definitely not large enough servings to actually fill up their stomachs.

"Taeyeon-ah, you see that guy wearing the navy green bomber jacket? That's Shin PD."

"What? No way he would wear—" Upon closer inspection, she realized it was him. He had grown a full beard, dark circles prominent on his face. From afar she can still clearly see the guy explaining a story with such grand gestures, obviously trying to win the hearts of the people who had the unfortunate luck of having to talk to him.

"Why is he even here? Thought he still worked for KBS."

"Not anymore. He got sacked after a couple of high-profile people refused to work with him. Can't really have a monstrous PD stay, right? I heard the last straw for the network was a complaint from a top company manager," he said knowingly, side-eyeing her with an annoying smirk. Can't this guy last 10 minutes without smirking?

"Alright, alright.” She held up her hands in defeat. “I told my manager. What do you expect? He kept picking on Seohyun and Sooyoung’s performances when it was clearly their ty sound system's fault. That old bastard."

He chuckled. "Still feisty, I see.”

Gathering up the courage, she poked his side shyly. “And you're still an all-around source for gossip. I guess old habits die hard," she fired back, giggling at the way he slightly choked on a biscuit.

"In my defense, I'm getting better now.  Thank you very much."

They settled into a comfortable silence, which was a nice change for once. They continued munching on peanuts and olive bread, both occupied by the room’s lively chatter.

“6 minutes.”

“What about 6 minutes?” she asked confusedly, still busy people-watching.

“You were staring at me for 6 minutes.”

Now it was Taeyeon’s turn to choke on her wine. Jiyong even went ahead and put on a fake gentleman farce, offering her a towelette out of mock concern. She mumbled a quiet thanks before taking it from his hands. This jackass is clearly enjoying this, isn’t he?

“Chicken wings or jajangmyeon?” she asked, changing the topic once again, praying to the heavens that he’d let her off just this one time.

He responded with a serious gaze, the one from earlier, before one corner of his mouth curved upward. “Are you asking me out on a date?” he teased.

“What? N-n-no. Just curious, that’s all,” she stuttered out a moment too quickly, hands flailing around in the process. Was she drunk? She couldn’t seem to get her sentences straight. The idea was extremely likely—her alcohol tolerance was ridiculously low for a grown adult, but even if she was intoxicated, why in the hell was her heart beating so fast? She swore under her breath again, mentally vowing to sue the man for increasing her heart rate to alarming levels, for his smooth voice, for possessing incredibly gentle hands, for the way he—

“I was going to say jajangmyeon, but isn’t it too late for that?” he teased again, amused at the way she set her eyes on everything and everyone except him. Jiyong continued on, “Don’t tell Haru, but the food here . There’s a tiny restaurant downtown that sells great chicken wings. I know the owner well plus it’s never busy on Friday nights.”

Was he actually offering to eat outside? Didn't he realize that this might end up being detrimental for her? She planned on saying no, but her eyes somehow drifted again to the little girl in the painting. Maybe it was time for her to take risks. When was the last time she did something spontaneous? Sunbae seemed to be a nice guy, seemed to know what he was doing and she was enjoying his company a lot. Besides, he’s offering a free meal. Nothing wrong with accepting that, right?

Taeyeon set her wine glass down and smoothed out her dress. Tilting her head slightly and with a lopsided grin on her face, she playfully asked, “Sunbaenim, are you asking me out on a date?”

“Only if you want it to be one. Otherwise, it’s just a senior treating his very hardworking hoobae to a nice meal,” Jiyong explained. “A very platonic meal,” he carefully added seconds later.

“Can’t deny a free meal, can I? A very platonic one, of course.”

“I’d take that for now.” He grinned and nodded towards Haru, who was finally alone pouring herself a generous amount of alcohol at a vacant table. And so they both made their way to the artist, congratulated her for a successful debut, and headed out the gallery, their mutual friend surprised but not too shocked by the sight of the pair leaving together.

Taeyeon had no idea if the guests paid attention to them or not. What they had to say didn’t really matter; he was, after all, a long-time acquaintance. It wouldn’t hurt going out on a meal with him for once. They knew each other for almost 8 years—that’s something to celebrate, right? Patting down her jacket for her car keys, she wished for the remaining hours to slow down. Jiyong sunbae was already in his car, windows down, waiting for Taeyeon to start up her Porsche. She realized then that she liked this feeling of nervousness and anticipation. It was amazing how things work out sometimes. She'd have to thank Haru for this one.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Please come with me,

See what I see.

Touch the stars for time will not flee.

Time will not flee .

Can you see?

Take my hand,

Live while you can.

a/n: hey guys sorry for disappearing for a while :( life has been extremely busy and priorities have to be... well, prioritized. I apologize if this chapter is a little bit rushed (because it is lol also fluff is so hard to write I always get writer's block when I have to write cute scenes ugh). any kind of feedback would be great though! as always, gtae rise! (seriously, they need to hang out together i don't care if it's as otp or brotp or as sworn enemies tHEY JUST NEED TO BE TOGETHER IN ONE FRAME IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK AAAH)