Storm warnings came in hours before she had to report to work. By the time she stepped outside, the sky was already an angry grey, the wind strong and cold, an occasional drizzle then and there covering the wind shield. Roads were already congested, hundreds of vehicles, tricycles and motor bicycles cutting through the crowded road in a haste to return home before the heavy gale rolled in. If her circumstances were any different, Belen wouldn’t even be in her car right now. She’d be in her room, with a book in her hand, the sweetness of warm coffee in her breath, and for once loving the dullness around her. But things never worked out in her favour, the world has always been cruel to her, without fail. While the rest of the city was scrambling in these dark hours to make their way back home, Belen Torres was in her car, on her way to the airport on a task she had been given against her will.

Despite being a language major, fluent in several different languages - including Korean, Belen was not the biggest fan of its music. She found it to be quite overrated, and all the people who followed their beloved singers like a religion never failed to irritate her. She had this one friend who made BTS references just to annoy her, had her workstation covered completely in their merchandise; calendars, table decor, dolls, posters, whatnot. Frankly, Belen found it all to be quite childish. At times, her friend couldn’t even find important files and documents in all that clutter and eventually end up dumping it all on her workstation to locate their whereabouts. Her manager, a small, dull man of somewhere past his thirties was apparently what they called a closet fan. Once, at a christmas party of their company, her friend Faye and herself happened to walk into their manager doing a terrible rendition of what she learned from Faye was ‘Twice’s ‘Cheer up’. Belen worked for an event management agency, which also meant that she would eventually have to tackle situations related to Kpop whether she liked it or not. And her being fluent in Korean never actually worked in her favor. 

A few weeks ago, her company took over the responsibility of a fan meeting of a group called Infinite. Belen didn’t know who they were, regardless of Faye’s excited cheers which disrupted the decorum of their meeting. If she had the choice, she wouldn’t have bothered to know either. But on the day of the meeting, despite Faye’s abundance of knowledge on Boy-group trivia, they were forced to listen to three fourth an hour of a lecture about them. Apparently it was a boy group which was quite famous in their country and had actually had a few concerts in Manila as well. ‘I’d been to their world tour concerts here”, Faye told everyone in the meeting, proudly as if she were speaking of walking on the moon. “And they’re brilliant. Especially the leader, I am sure he’d stolen my heart”

There were seven of them, as if one was not a handful to handle. Fortunately for them, not all would arrive in the country at once.

“All of them have different schedules, so they’d be arriving in groups, pairs or ones. We haven’t got their flight schedules yet” Their manager informed them. He was none too excited about their arrival, and Belen was sure he did this for the money that flowed in. She expected he’d be a lot happier if it was a bunch of girls and would have been secretly excited as Faye was throughout the meeting.

Things were going well for the most part. Venues were booked, hotels were prepared, the marketing team did quite an impressive job with banners and posters littering all the subway stations. Belen herself had a good time being as un-involved as she could. They were the administration, which was all about booking places and handling ticketing and all that. She was responsible for their arrival and flight schedules, which meant that she’d be less busy up to the point of their arrival.

“I can’t believe that you get to see them up close and not me” Faye complained one afternoon during lunch. She sounded like she was joking, but her expression certainly said otherwise. “Only the wrong people get lucky, not fair” She grumpily poked at her rice with her fork, not meeting her eyes.

“That’s only because I’m not crazy about them like you” Belen returned non-committedly. She’d seen the boys in banners and posters and on the web. They were just a bunch of tall lanky guys who looked like they walked two feet above the ground. She wasn’t remotely interested in them and only took over the task as that’s what she was allocated for. 

“I don’t get what’s so special about them” Belen said and swallowed a mouthful. “They’re just...men”

And Faye knew how Belen felt about men. After a couple of ill fated relationships, she’d begun to steer clear of them. They were all the same, she believed. And being famous and good looking only made their egos worse.

“Just men?” Faye gasped. “Just men? Belen, only the best men in the world!”

Belen rolled her eyes. “I thought you only liked these BTS kids”

“I do like them,” Faye shrugged. “But I am a multi”

“What’s a multi?” Belen asked, for the lack of better things to say. It wasn’t that she was actually interested. But Faye didn’t really get the hint of boredom in her tone.

“Multi is a person who followed more than one group” She most diligently explained. “You see, my ultimate group is BTS and my ultimate bias is Junkook. But I also like Infinite. And Day6 and Ikon and Stray kids and Got7 and…”

Belen stopped following somewhere at that point; she listened, or pretended to listen just for the sake of it while in reality in her mind she was just considering her evening plans. She just didn’t get why these girls were so infatuated by these idols. She supposed it was a completely different culture that she probably would never understand.

Belen tried to be as uninvolved as possible, watching the madness from the sidelines. It wasn’t the first time that their company handled a major kpop group event. There were a bunch of others but Faye or anybody else in the company didn’t go as crazy as they were going for this group. Belen had asked Faye about it at some point, just casually slipping the question into one of their post-lunch conversations. Apparently it was because Infinite was the first biggest pitch they've ever handled while the other groups that the company had represented before were much smaller and less known.

“How is that different?” Belen had asked her at some point, to which Faye responded by looking at her as if she’d grown two heads. “Very, very different” She eventually told her. “You’d see”

Belen, frankly, had not wanted to ‘See’. If anything, she’d very much like to ‘not see’ if she could spare herself from witnessing this madness. But no matter how much she’d been wishful thinking, Belen kept being dragged deeper and deeper into the predicament.

It was a week before their arrival that their manager called her in and very dully, uninterestedly informed her that there’d been changes to their flight schedules.

“So, some of them will arrive on Saturday morning while the rest will arrive in the evening, the same day” The manager continued as Belen dismally stared at the sheaf of papers in her hands. “There is one member, however, who will be arriving on friday. He’d be coming from Taiwan as he’s having different schedules there. So you’d have to look into that”

Belen was none too happy that she’d have to face them not all at once but at three different times on two different days. She’d been meaning to just send them their vans and send them off to their respective hotels without really having to personally interact with them. It was just her job, Belen would constantly remind herself as a form of motivation. She was just doing her job and there was no reason why she needed to get agitated over their heightened egos.

But things only seemed to get worse as the day grew nearer. Just a day before the arrival of that one member, perhaps just a few hours before the exact time of the arrival, her manager called her up on her phone. She was off work and was in a shower, the entire room filled with the scent of burning cinnamon candles and essential oil, basking in a few hours of solitary comfort in her busy working life. It was as if her job just couldn’t afford to give her a few hours of peace.

“Belen” told her boss over the phone, and she had to turn the shower down to hear him better.

“Sir” She replied.

“There’s a problem,” He said.

If there was one thing she hated more than hearing a ‘kpop event’ from her manager, it was that they had a problem. Nothing good could come out of either of them with both having equally devastating possibilities.

“Yes sir” Belen sighed.

“That one member who’s scheduled to come on friday…”

Nothing worked out in her favor, that was for sure. Belen had always wondered if her stars were lined up in a way that all the bad things kept happening to her. If it was Faye who’d been given this task, she was certain, she’d be over the moon. But Belen, frankly, couldn’t despise this more. If anything, one more mishap in this entire ordeal could possibly send her spiraling down to the point where she’d consider changing her career for once and for all. 

Like this, Belen found herself in a place and a moment where she did not want to be. Belen hated crowded places, Belen despised the rain. She equally hated kpop idols and now she was in the most unlikely situation of a combination of all three, driving through an impending storm to stand in the crowded airport with a board in her hands, welcoming a possibly deranged kpop idol into her land. 

Belen, as it happened, had no idea what kim Sung Gyu looked like. She even had trouble correctly pronouncing his name as Faye made her say it without even her having seen the syllables which it was written with. She’d seen the pictures, and she did know he was the oldest of them all, but she’d forgotten his face by the time she'd swarmed inside through the crowd.

Inside the airport it was pandemonium. Due to the storm, flights were being delayed, some were being canceled, and those who were unwillingly stranded in the airport weren’t too happy despite the circumstances. There were hundreds of deranged passengers at the arrivals terminal, unable to find transport out to the city as most modes of transport were cancelled due to the storm. Airport hotels and nearby guest houses took advantage of the situation as well as the taxi drivers, asking for large amounts, claiming that they were putting their lives at risk. Belen, at that point, was exhausted. The storm had started to grow in multitudes outside, which also meant that it would be almost impossible to drive back through it. Staying at the airport, of course, was not an option.

Only if this idol guy came through early.

Things couldn’t be worse for Kim Sung Gyu either. Usually the idols were accompanied by their own managers who would be partaking the journey all from their homeland to here along with them. For Kim Sung Gyu, however, things have turned out to be the worst. His manager who travelled to Taiwan with him had apparently succumbed into a terrible allergy reaction which caused him to stay back to attend to his treatments, and in turn, Kim Sung Gyu had to travel alone where he would meet another manager who’d take over from Manila itself. Unfortunately for him, most flights coming in from incheon were cancelled for the day due to the storm, which also meant that he would be left to fend for himself.

And that was where an equally deranged Belen came in.

“You would play the part of his manager for the day” her own manager had told her while she was on her way to the airport. Belen had expected the situation to be different when she’d received the call the previous night. But things seemed to get worse and worse every minute. “He would be a little upset, what with the unexpected turn of events so you might have to tolerate for a while” 

Belen simply didn’t think she had the sheer patience to tolerate an angry idol and his hissy little fits. Like said earlier, men pissed her off, idols made her even madder; a combination of both could only make her livid.

She was going to be given a hefty bonus for doing this, she was told at the end of that call. She was taking a risk, driving in the storm, taking care of an idol which should otherwise be the idol’s company’s responsibility. Belen would do it, without a doubt. She would do it, solely for that money.

Belen’s been standing in the waiting area for nearly an hour as the storm outside took its full form. It was so strong that the sound of loud thunders echoed in the vast airport itself, possibly rattling the glass panels. If the situation was bad enough, it wasn’t helping that Belen was terrified of lightning. Everyone had at least one fear in their life, they said. Faye’s was the possibility of finding out that Junkook had a girlfriend, her Manager’s was his twice obsession being outed. Belen’s, unfortunately for her was the loud rumble of crashing thunder. It took her years back into her dark past; of a relentless cloudburst, of thunder, of empty roads lined by tall, ghostly trees, of cries, of screams and raging fires. She couldn’t tell that to her manager, of course, that she feared the thunder, that she feared lightening. How could she? What good could come out of it? He’d probably think she was a weeny and spread it all over the office until it became a sensation.

It took about an hour and twenty more minutes before Kim Sung Gyu finally showed signs of coming out. She didn’t see him, of course, only because she didn’t know what he looked like. It was only because passengers of that particular flight were finally swarming out, hurried on their feet, their luggage in tow. Belen finally willed herself to climb up on her feet and held her pristine board with his name written in Korean and in bold, high above her head. Belen wasn’t exactly tall in person, she could only hope he could see her in the hectic crowd.

A while later, she noticed the tall, disconcerted man, slowly making his way in her direction. There were a large number of people that she recognised as Korean, but this particular person’s expensive fashion undeniably stood out. Working in this industry made it feasible for her to recognise lavish taste, and that’s exactly what Kim Sung Gyu seemed to have.

In his oversized T-shirt and baggy jeans, his eyes in the shadow of his cap and a facemask, all in black, Kim Sung Gyu stood out from the rest. He looked lost completely, like a child in a large supermarket searching for their mother. He stood in the middle, his trolley laden with bags before him, no care to the other passengers struggling to pass through. He was searching for someone who’d be of a saving grace in a time that no struggle could match to being stranded in an unknown place on their own. Belen could only let out a heavy sigh. This is how spoilt rich kids behaved. They always wanted someone to depend on. She lifted the board as high as she could and started to wave it with a little dance. There was no way that he’d notice her otherwise.

And thankfully, he did. Kim Sung Gyu walked like he put all his weight to the world as he made his way towards her. He was a lot taller than she imagined. If it was that she was just short, she couldn’t tell. She barely reached his shoulders. She bet he had lifts in his expensive shoes.

Belen finally dropped her board and let out a sigh. “Kim Sung Gyu-Ssi?” It was no struggle to bring out her near-perfect korean.

“I am” He replied, his voice muffled behind the mask.

Belen shifted the board from one hand to the other and balanced it by her feet. Then she lifted one for a handshake. “I’m Belen, Belen Torres”

Sung Gyu glanced down at her hand, then looked at her. He didn’t take it, the nerve. 

“Good to meet you,” He said.

Belen didn’t think either of them had given out a good first impression. It’s only been a minute, but she already despised him. 

“Well then” She said, shifting on her feet. “Shall we get going?”

He nodded and followed her en suite.

“I heard about what happened,” Belen told him as the two hurried through the swarm of the crowd. She wasn’t remotely interested in having a conversation with him but she had to do what she should do, which was making him feel comfortable in a difficult situation. “I’m sorry to hear about that” She glanced up at him beside her. “Things aren’t great over here today”

Sung Gyu merely nodded in response.

They were quiet for the longest time afterwards, even as they exited the crowded airport and stood under the shed facing the heavy storm rolling in before them. The sky was an angry dark grey, wind howling and walls rattling as rain crashed in the opposite direction. They were still soaked in the drizzle and Sung Gyu instinctively pulled his hoodie over his head.

“You’d have to wait here” Belen yelled at him over the howling wind. “I’ll get the car and come”

Even the thought of walking through the storm terrified her. There was no point trying to hold an umbrella in this weather, it would simply fly off her grip in a mangled mess, so she had to opt for a raincoat which still did no good. Thunder rumbled on like massive growling monsters; myriad times did lightning make her stop in her tracks. Her hands were shaking and she was in a haze by the time she drove the car back to the arrivals gate. If it was out of fear or by the cold, she couldn’t tell.

Sung Gyu cooperated by loading his own bags to the trunk while she waited. She hadn’t the sheer capacity to step out into the storm again. She had to drive, and for that, she had to keep sane. Would she spend any longer out in the rain, she could swear she’d collapse.

She felt bad to have let him do it all on his own, but Sung Gyu did not complain. He only had a little black pouch in his hands as he climbed into the front seat; quiet but completely drenched. Belen the heater as he was certainly shivering as herself. Without a word, then, she drove off. She had to hold off the conversations until they had both warmed down.

Belen couldn’t see much from her direction, but Sung Gyu had finally taken off his cap and his mask and she could actually see a bit of his face. She recognised him now; at least to the point of giving a face to the name she knew. He was a lot paler than she thought, but his complexion was actually quite nice. What clearly did stand out however, was his wisp of silvery white blonde hair. Belen had always known them idols to sport all sorts of ridiculous hair colors; she’d seen kids with rainbows and unicorn manes for hair on their heads. But she hadn’t expected that from the oldest member of Infinite.

His hair was slightly damp, and when he ran his hand through it, he looked kind of nice.

Belen cleared and focused more on the road. She didn’t realise that she was actually driving like 20 kilometers per hour. 

“Kim Sung Gyu-Ssi” She addressed him, finally interrupting the silence between them. “As the highway is closed because of the storm, we wouldn’t be able to make it to the city centre. Until it dies down, I’m afraid we’d have to look into alternative accommodation”

Sung Gyu let out a heavy sigh and rested his arm on the door. “But isn’t the hotel already booked?”

“It is” Belen nodded. “But for tonight, we would stay somewhere nearby” She said this trying not to show her spite. Belen couldn’t believe how deep she’d been dragged into this mess.

“We?” Sung Gyu easily caught the highlight of her statement.

“I won’t be able to go to the city myself” She said, gripping the wheel tightly in response.

Sung Gyu nodded, turned away, gave it a few seconds before turning back to her. “My manager wouldn’t be here until later tomorrow,” He said.

“So I heard” She pleasantly replied.

“I was told I’d be with someone from your company meanwhile” He continued and scrutinized her with his sharp eyes which she could physically feel upon herself. “Would it be you?”

“I’m afraid so” She sighed. Belen knew that she absolutely wasn’t doing this right. She’d been blatant with how displeased she was all from the beginning. She simply wasn’t made for this job. Perhaps it's time that she changed her profession. 

Sung Gyu just hummed, turning away, and soon he retreated into his own shell as he pulled his phone out, listening to music and dozing off. Belen couldn’t have expected more from him. What would he do? What would any man do in this situation? Make small talks? Build rapport? Make friends with her? She supposed they should have sent Faye instead. At least she’d have had a good time taking sneaky glances and internally squealing the whole time.

Belen stopped at the exact place as per her manager’s instructions, a classy five star airport hotel, fully equipped with a supermarket, a cafe and a pool and whatnot, exactly what somebody his level would expect. It wasn’t that far off from the airport itself but it had taken her ages to merely drive through the storm. By then, Kim Sung Gyu was soundly asleep, his face stern even in his sleep. He gave an authoritative aura, undoubtedly. Conceited, level headed; it was evident from the beginning that they’d never get along.

“Kim Sung Gyu-Ssi, we’re here” She told him.

He grunted, didn’t blink an eye but stayed the same. She bet he’d had a long day. She bet he was jet lagged as well. But Belen was tired too. With a groan, she pulled on her raincoat and finally climbed out of the car. Wind was howling like a beast by then, and she could hear the sky wailing in a ghostly cry. It was by this that Sung Gyu finally scrambled up from his sleep. 

“SungGyu-Ssi, we are here” Belen yelled over the noise, to which he nodded almost dazedly.

The two had to shrink into themselves as they walked the gravelly path towards the hotel lobby. It was already quite crowded with a number of desolate passengers trying to find shelter for the night. She couldn’t be thankful enough to her manager who had booked their rooms beforehand. 

“Wait here” She told Sung Gyu who had followed after her and was now drenched head to toe. She felt quite bad for him, having returned from abroad just about two hours ago and having to go through all of this. He could rest until late afterwards, have a nice shower, a warm cup of tea. But for now, he had to wait.

He nodded, sat down on one of the plush sofas, his face covered in his mask and silver hair hidden underneath the cap and his hoodie. He was probably afraid, being seen in the crowd. He was a celebrity after all. But everyone else was pretty busy trying to get themselves a room than to notice a celebrity among them.

Belen had no choice but cut in through the crowd to get her work done. People protested loudly, yelled at her to stay on the line, but she couldn’t care less. She went to the reception as soon as a couple got their keys and moved away. Then she slammed her hand down on the wooden counter to stop the angered customers behind from pushing her away. 

“Good evening ma'am, how can I help you?” The receptionist spoke pleasantly despite the difficult situation before him. 

“We’ve made a booking for two people for tonight” She gasped.

“Lovely” The receptionist turned to the screen. “Under which name is it?”

“Torres. Belen Torres” She was pretty sure that’s what her manager had registered them in. 

“Torres...Torres…” The Receptionist muttered under his breath as he typed into the computer. There was a minute of silence, then he lifted his head, looking up at her. “There is no booking under that name, m’am” He said.

“Uh…” She raked her brain, trying to recall what her manager had told her. That was what he told her, that he’d be booking under her name. 

“Can you...can you check again?”

He made a show of checking the records again and shook his head. “No ma’am…” He informed her with a smile. “Perhaps we can check with the social security number”

Belen recited the social security number to him, which did no good either. Panicking slightly, she tried again. She told him her manager’s name. Her manager could be a little obtuse now and then, to the point of registering her under his name. But to no avail, there were no records. She felt cold sweats under her collar. If there was no pre-booking, then they’d have to wait in the line to get a room, and there was no way that the hotel had enough room to occupy the entire waiting crowd.

“Wait, lets try one more time”

This once, she tried Sung Gyu’s name and passport number. Much to her chagrin, neither worked. Her mind was completely blank by then; there was nothing more they could try. If none of their names were in, then that only meant one thing; her manager had not booked them in.

So she did what she had to do at that moment. She excused herself from the reception, pulled herself through the angry patrons waiting for their turn and finally approached Sung Gyu who was on the verge of dozing off on the sofa seat. She then called her Manager’s number.

He picked up after the seventh ring.

“Torres. Did you pick him up?” Was the first thing he asked.

“Yes” She sighed. “But we have a problem”

With a single breath, as quickly as she could, Belen recited the predicament that they were in.

“There is no booking?” Repeated her boss Incredulously. “But that’s impossible? I asked Faye do it for you”

“Faye did?” She echoed, her head about to burst. He couldn’t have asked a worse person to do something as important. She gripped her phone harder and ran a hand through her damp hair. “Can you check? Because Sir, I have Kim Sung Gyu here and he’s really tired, he needs to rest”

“I will”  her manager replied almost determinedly. “Meanwhile, keep him on check”

And that’s what Belen did while she waited for him to get back to her. She sat next to an extremely tired Kim Sung Gyu and waited, keeping him in check.

“What’s wrong?” He asked her patiently yet politely for someone who’s stranded in an unknown place. 

“There’s something wrong with the booking, I’m sorry” Belen replied. She expected him to get mad at her, yell at her angrily for not settling things before his arrival. But he didn’t. Perhaps he was too tired for that as he just fell quiet and sat still for the longest time, his head in his hands.

Her manager called back after a while.

“I’m sorry there seems to be a miscommunication, I think” He told her, answering her worst fear. “Faye had thought I’d told her I would book whereas what I really told her was-,”

“Wait” Belen cut in tiredly. “Is it booked or not?” 

There was a beat of silence before he let out a heavy sigh. “It’s not,” he said.

“Nice” Belen managed in response. She’d thought things couldn’t get any worse, but she couldn’t have been more wrong. Her stars were really out to get her, lining up to bring only bad luck. “Great, brilliant, excellent”

“Torres, they still might have rooms available-,”

“I will see'' She grunted, looking at the gathered crowd. There was no point in arguing with him, and frankly, she was too tired to do so. She glanced over at Sung Gyu who looked at her, appearing bored before he looked away. She cut off the line and ran both her hands through her damp hair. These are the kind of moments that she hated the most. Belen was naturally organized, well-planned with almost everything that she did. She hated travelling without itineraries, she hated people who travelled without itineraries. She also hated not pre booking concert tickets and hotel rooms; and now she’d gotten stuck in the exact thing that she despised.

And she wasn’t even in it on her own.

“Wait, let me check” She told much to herself as Kim Sung Gyu was hardly listening and went back to the reception. She spent five to ten minutes there, fighting with fellow patrons and the people in reception up to the point where it became a full fledged argument. Soon everyone was yelling, the reception was smiling although they were equally mad while she was completely hysteric. There were no more rooms available in the hotel.

“But it's a huge hotel!” Was her argument. “What do you mean you don’t have rooms!?!”

“All our rooms are booked in ma’am” The receptionist replied as pleasantly as he could. “As you can see, everyone’s looking for rooms because of the storm”

She was about to yell something in return, gathering all her strength when she felt a hand on her arm.

“It’s fine” Said Sung Gyu behind her, his voice muffled by the mask. “Let’s just leave”