Kim Kibum frowned, impatient. He was loitering just outside one of Seoul’s popular traditional markets, trying his best not to look homeless. It was an unusually hot day and he hadn't been expecting it. The oversized worn denim shirt that he'd thought had been so stylish was now tied frumpily around his waist; his white low top sneakers, which he wore without socks, felt damp with perspiration.

He looked down at the time on his phone screen and groaned. Miho's parents were taking forever, he thought with a grimace, growling to himself with irritation. He felt a bead of sweat drip perilously down his back and he shifted, uncomfortable.

He checked again, swearing under his breath.

"1:30? Un-freaking-believable."

Kim Kibum was a food-lover, a Virgo, a mid-20's legal specialist for a global poverty awareness non-profit, and enjoyed quiet Fridays sipping wine while soaking in the bath tub. He liked to think he was wild, and refused to admit that he'd long ago been tamed. He was perhaps just average height for a man, very good skin (it’s mostly genetic so stop asking for his skin-care routine), averagely hungry, considering he'd skipped lunch. Long eyelashes. Short fuse. Boyfriend: Choi Minho, 5 years. Best friend: Lee Taemin, 20 years. Damage related to parenting/upbringing: minimal. Nose: acceptable. Eyebrows: on fleek despite one having a scar from childhood.

He checked his phone again. 1:37 pm. For heaven's sake.

Minho appeared around the corner and Kibum let out a swift, aggressive sigh.

"What – "

"Mom wanted to get a picture over there," he said, pointing and inclining his head. A former collegiate soccer player, Minho had maintained his wiry muscular physique nicely, and Kibum looked pointedly at the uniformed teenagers gaping in his direction. His t-shirt clung appealingly to his chest, not immune to the unexpectedly punishing heat.

"Well, are you ready, at least?" Kibum asked impatiently, checking over Minho’s shoulder for his boyfriend’s parents.

"Yeah, they're coming," Minho assured Kibum absentmindedly, running his fingers through his hair and putting a hand low on Kibum’s back. Kibum jumped as his sweat-sodden shirt made contact with his skin.

"What?" Minho said, startled.

"It's just so hot," Kibum complained, fanning himself.

Mrs. Choi skipped up to them, her bright, round face glowing with pleasure.

"I just love these vendors!" she exclaimed. "But the smell . . . "

"Oh Christ, the smell," echoed Mr. Choi, following glacially behind her and wrinkling his nose.

"Oh, you’ll get used to it," Kibum said gleefully.

Minho rolled his eyes. "Key loves it here," he said with an eye roll, his tone skeptical.

Kibum nodded solemnly. "It has a great buzz." He snapped his fingers quickly, tapping Minho's chest. "Buzz! That's perfect. I should write that down." He began digging in his pocket for his phone, opening his notes app to write down his thoughts.

Mr. Choi's eyes darted around, following a herd of eccentrically dressed tourists. "Not really my crowd," he admitted, though he appeared nearly enraptured.

Kibum looked up from his phone, letting his eyes sweep over Mr. Choi's conservative khakis and his quintessentially middle-aged New Balance sneakers. "True," Kibum said simply, trying not to scoff. "Should we continue?"

They walked in silence. Kibum smiled pleasantly as he surveyed his surroundings, from the "1,000 won for Free Advice" sign to the wide array of colorful rice cakes. He deeply loved traditional markets. Something about it felt vaguely . . . magical.

"Excuse me," a man said, suddenly stepping into Kibum’s path. His voice was a low baritone, colored with an obvious foreign accent.

He was accompanied by a shorter, pink-haired man, who looked perfectly comfortable in the heat and whose gauzy top seemed dry and breezy - not that Kibum spent much time looking at him; no. It was the first man that caught his interest.

He was about the same height as him, with fashionably wavy dark brown hair and a smooth fair complexion. His eyes were sharp but his smile, damn, his smile was almost blinding. Kibum could feel himself becoming slightly slack-jawed looking at him, for once in his life rendered insufficiently verbose. What was the word he was looking for – refined, perhaps? Sophisticated? He holds himself elegantly, and he looked as though he had a bit of broody nonchalance to him, like it might be enjoyable just to watch him contemplate life in the corner, just to eye the shadows on his face. He was – a word finally leaping to Kibum’s mind – exquisite.

And slightly familiar, Kibum thought, furrowing his brow.

"So sorry to bother you," the man said, his dark brown eyes reticent as he lowered his sunglasses to look at Kibum. "It's – " he stopped abruptly, turning to look quickly at his companion at his side. " – Well, how do you even want me to say this?" He sighed, lifting his chin slightly. "Sorry, really. It's just - Jonghyun's put me up to this."

"It's quite a funny situation," the pink-haired guy, Jonghyun, interrupted, wrinkling his nose as though he found the exquisite man’s reluctance trivial. Jonghyun seemed lively and good-humored, speech also accented. "Jinki and I were just – "

Jinki. An alarm went off in Kibum's head. He did know him, Kibum realized. Everybody in the world knew him.

This was Lee Jinki. He'd starred in a series of blockbuster films that Kibum had loved as a child and then later a teenager – one of those angsty series where children discover magic and then subsequently have to save it. In the films, Jinki – or Andrew Park, as his character had been dubbed – had been clean cut, impeccably dressed, and rather snobbish; in real life, his hair spilled over into his eyes and he wore a thin v-neck t-shirt paired carelessly with a pair of chinos.

"We were just visiting a fortune teller- "

"Just for a laugh, of course," Jinki interrupted quickly, his hands raised as though he wished to physically prevent Kibum from getting the wrong idea. "You know, one of those – "

"And, oh! Jinki, you tell them, would you? I feel so foolish, and they're looking at us like we're absolutely crazy – "

This, Kibum realized, was Jinki's longtime boyfriend, Kim Jonghyun. Kibum felt mildly ashamed of himself for knowing that, as he was fully aware he must have read it in some gossip rag at some point.

"Right, right, fine – "

The two of them had been interrupting each other for several minutes when Jinki finally laughed shakily and held out his hands in weary resignation, a cheeky, charming grin appearing on his handsome face as he regarded his companion.

"Okay, I'll get to the point," Jinki said, sighing. "Jonghyun insisted we pay a visit to a psychic, who told me that I needed to meet someone today, and that he was wearing a blue shirt precisely like yours, with, I don't know, shoes? And whatnot," he said vaguely, barely keeping it together.

"Anyway, I thought to myself – what an oddly specific description? And yet – here you are," Jinki added, as though he didn't particularly care for the way things had gone.

"Well hold on, Jinki," Jonghyun interrupted affectionately, placing his hand on Jinki’s arm. "There was far more to it than that – it's actually quite wild, the fortune teller sketched it out for us – "

Jonghyun unfolded a piece of paper that had a light line drawing of a man who did look very much like Kibum, hair styled like his and a shirt tied loosely around his waist, next to a barely legible scribble.

Minho tilted his head, straining to make out the letters. "Does that say K.K.?"

"Yes K.K.," Jonghyun said, “Does that mean anything to you?"

"Those are my initials," Kibum said hazily, speaking for the first time in this exchange. "Kim Kibum."

At this, Jonghyun's eyes widened, his hand launching out to smack against Jinki's abdomen. "No!" he exclaimed, delighted. "You really should go back and give that woman some more money, Jinki, honestly – "

"My goodness," Jinki replied, rolling his eyes. "The woman picks two random letters and draws me a little cartoon and suddenly you think we should pay her rent - "

Kibum was beginning to lose track of the situation.

"I'm sorry, what was it she told you about me?" Kibum asked, shaking his head. "I mean... wait, can you just start over, maybe?"

Jinki put both hands up, an apologetic gesture. He was a surprisingly physical communicator, Kibum thought. His hands and face and body were constantly in motion as he spoke, despite how sheepish his expression had been at the start. Listening to Jinki made Kibum feel like he should lean in somehow to catch the subtext - as if Jinki were inviting him on an adventure, but only the former knew where they were going.

"Okay, I know, perhaps it's only funny to us," Jinki paused while he and Jonghyun shared a meaningful glance "but we had a quick reading just about half an hour ago? And anyway, the psychic drew this out for me and told me that this man," here he gestured to the drawing in Jonghyun's hands "was my, well. My soulmate, I suppose."

Minho put his arm protectively around Kibum's shoulders, a gesture that did not go unmissed by Jinki.

"Oh no, no no no," Jinki rushed out hurriedly, "I'm so sorry, I should have been clearer. I'm not actually seeking a soulmate, we just saw you and this one here," he gestured fondly to the man beside him, who was grinning wickedly, "thought it'd be funny – this is my boyfriend Jonghyun, and I'm Lee – "

"I know who you are," Kibum said awkwardly, the words feeling heavy and cold on his tongue. He was humiliated to think that this is what he was like in the presence of a celebrity – star-struck into complete idiocy. What happened to the Kibum who was witty, enchanting, carefree?

Jinki's kind smile did not fade, even with Kibum’s admission. Perhaps he was used to this happening, to people throwing themselves at him. Embarrassed as he was by his own behavior, Kibum was finding himself far too distracted by Jinki’s painfully good looks.

Minho extended his hand. "Choi Minho," he said politely, "And you've met Kibum, of course." Jinki took Minho’s hand to shake.

"I'm sorry," Mrs. Choi said suddenly, leaning in, "do you know Minho and Kibum from school?"

Kibum winced at this; how had it possibly escaped Mrs. Choi's notice that there was now a crowd forming around them, and had been since Jinki had removed his dark sunglasses? Was she really going to make him say it?

"No," Kibum said quickly, rushing to intercept Jinki's response. "This is Lee Jinki – from the Andrew Park movies, remember?"

Mrs. Choi clapped her hands together. "Oh yes!" she exclaimed. "Kibum dear, you're such an admirer of those movies, aren't you?"

Kibum felt a heated flush come over his face. He had never been a particularly big fan of his boyfriend’s mother, but he certainly hated her at that moment. "Yes," he admitted, tight-lipped.

Jinki, sensing awkwardness, made a surprisingly fanciful gesture and tipped an imaginary hat to Kibum. "Well, I don't plan to steal you away from your boyfriend," he turned quickly to Minho, "you are the boyfriend, yes?"

"Yes," Minho said a pleasant smile. He was generally unperturbed by the whole situation, which Kibum considered to be an insane lack of reaction. "I am the boyfriend, and these are my parents," he added, gesturing in their direction.

"So nice to meet all of you," Jonghyun said sweetly, as Jinki put his arm around Jonghyun’s waist and kissed him soundly on the forehead. Jonghyun smiled up at Jinki. "Babe, do you think maybe we should let them go? We are being quite strange, right now."

"I'm to just let my soulmate run off, then?" Jinki said with a smirk, refocusing his attention on Kibum.

Kibum shifted uncomfortably, realizing how disgusting he must look, cursing his sweat-matted hair and his shoe choice, and there was nothing he could do to fix it.

Jinki was looking at Kibum far too intently. "You put me through this terrible ordeal, Jjong, the least you can do is make sure he doesn't get away."

"We should do something," Minho announced. "Why don't we all meet up some time?"

Jinki snapped his fingers as a lightbulb seemed to go off in his head, an uncanny recreation of one of Kibum's signature ticks. "My publicist set up a dinner tomorrow night at one of the new restaurants in Gangnam. Maybe you two would like to come?" Jinki looked back at Jonghyun. "It's tomorrow night, right?"

"Yes," Jonghyun said enthusiastically, "Yes! You should come!"

Jinki fished his phone out of his pocket, mumbling as he fiddled with the screen. "Kibum," he muttered as he typed, presumably to enter his contact information.

Jinki looked up at Kibum abruptly and he felt his heart jump, making unexpected eye-contact “A rather common name, isn't it?"

"Yes," Kibum said with a grimace, "I suppose."

"Couldn't forget it if I wanted to, then" Jinki pronounced airily, stepping towards Kibum and handing him the phone. Minho and his parents gravitated towards Jonghyun, who was animatedly asking them about their day.

Kibum put his phone number in quickly and then handed it back to Jinki, their thumbs brushing in the process. Ensuring that Minho and his parents were all occupied, Kibum focused on Kibum's stunningly crafted face.

"I'm sorry if I'm being incredibly awkward," Kibum said, embarrassing himself again with his own earnestness.

"Oh, you're not," Jinki said quickly. "Given the situation, I think it's my behavior that's much more suspect." He smiled rather beatifically, putting his hands in his pockets. "That's the trick with fame – you forget that most people don't like to be randomly approached when they're with family."

"Well they're not really family," Kibum said quickly, "Though I see your point."

"You do seem a little on edge," Jinki commented. "Not that I know you, of course."

"Well, you're certainly not wrong," Kibum replied, flashing Jinki a smirk. "You haven't exactly caught me at peak Kibum."

Jinki raised an eyebrow. "I'm probably not peak Jinki, either. I'd be horrified if you thought that gathering personal information from random men, with my boyfriend in tow, was something I do regularly."

"You're right, put into perspective, your side's much more horrifying."

Jinki considered Kibum carefully, the slightest etch of a smile on his lips. "I think I'd like to get to know you, Kim Kibum," he said in his throaty baritone, and Kibum smiled sincerely for what he realized might be the first time throughout the whole exchange, savoring a moment to let the oddly appealing sentiment float in the air.

"Likewise, Lee Jinki," he replied, biting his lip and fighting a blush. "I think that sounds doable."

They were smiling at each other and Kibum sensed they were having a moment. Not that that meant anything; Kibum had moments with nearly everyone he met. It was, perhaps, more difficult not to have a moment, when having a conversation with Kibum. He was exceptionally relatable – interesting, but non-threatening. Charismatic, but not polarizing. Magnetic, but not for long. A social chameleon of sorts.

"Jinki, babe." Jonghyun called, "These lovely people need to get going – they've just told me they have a reservation."

"Oh goodness, right then," Jinki said hurriedly, stowing his phone back in his pocket. He nodded at Kibum, "I'll call you, then?"

"Sure," he said with a shrug, hoping to maintain some sense of cool as they rejoined Minho and his parents.

"All set?" Jinki asked, putting his sunglasses on and kissing Jonghyun's cheek.

The latter nodded before cordially addressing the others, "So delightful to meet you all."

Jonghyun was very handsome, Kibum grudgingly admitted to himself. The way he and Kibum interacted was so classy, so natural that Kibum couldn't help but be impressed with them.

"I quite liked them," Mrs. Choi said at dinner. Kibum fought not to roll his eyes.

Please Subscribe to read the full chapter