"That dimple is illegal ille~gal. No, it's dangerous, oh yes, so I call you illegirl ille~girl. Your existence alone is a crime. Was it a mistake made by an angel? Or a deep kiss? That dimple is illegal ille~gal, but I want it anyway anyway anyway"

0:00 |───────── 3:17

|◁              II             ▷|

"You should do your face like this every day, Jin-hyung." More laughter. Namjoon arched an eyebrow and looked at Rein almost apologetically before yelling at them.

Sternly, he asked, "What's going on here?"

"Oh, shit," a youthful voice whispered. The laughter stopped and was replaced with dead silence.

Her nerves started to quicken. In a weird way, she had proof of their existence, and now that she couldn't see them as objects, it was harder to see them as her personal chess pieces.

The pair went further into the room until they saw the rest of the members, lounging on plush couches, surrounding Jin. When they turned around, Jin turned with them, revealing two peanuts in his nose. Rein snorted, trying desperately to hold back laughter.

Namjoon, on the other hand, wasn't trying at all. He let out a hearty laugh.

"How did that happen?" he asked in English. Before Jin could explain himself, Yoongi cut in.

"I took care of his makeup for the day," he replied in Korean. "Looks nice, doesn't it?" Jin made a noise of protest. Namjoon shook his head with a chuckle.

"He still looks like Mr. Worldwide Handsome," he said. While he continued to talk to the members for a few more moments, Rein had time to process. Everyone looked slightly worn out, but it was probably because they weren't wearing the stage makeup she had seen in photos and videos.

Yoongi had his signature mint hair, and had his glasses on to boot, as well. She assumed the youthful voice came from Jimin, who looked mortified and sat slightly hiding behind Yoongi. Taehyung and Jungkook were sitting next to each other, still giggling and collectively stopping Jin every time he tried to take out the peanuts. They had seafoam and caramel hair now, so she would have to memorize their faces again. Hoseok was looking Rein up and down with more interest than she usually got.

Finally, Jin made eye contact with Rein. He hastily took out the peanuts before Taehyung and Jungkook could stop him, flipped his blond hair, then nodded in her direction.

"Is that the girl?" he asked, flashing her a megawatt smile. Namjoon looked between them and nodded.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot to introduce you to them. Everyone, this is Ms. Jones. Ms. Jones, this is the rest of the team. Y'all will be seeing her for a while, so let's make a good first impression!" Rein smiled. They all waved and said the lines in English they knew, including "hello", "what's up", and "we love ARMY". They seemed quite friendly.

Rein and Namjoon sat down on the remaining couch side by side. Jin rose and glided over to Rein with that same smile. He motioned to himself as he shook her hand.

"I am Jin. I am Worldwide Handsome," he courteously explained. The other members sniggered. Rein grinned.

"Oh, yes. I heard," she said slowly, letting go of his hand. He certainly was handsome, but maybe more so without the peanuts.

Hoseok cleared his throat, then shoved Jin out of the way.

"My name is J-Hope, but you call me Hoseok, yes?" he said with a wink. She turned her face away for a second to catch the eye of Namjoon, who was evidently suppressing a smirk.

"Thank you, Hoseok," she said with an innocent smile.

Namjoon clapped his hands together.

"Let's spend an hour or so here, then go for dinner somewhere downtown. Sound good?" Rein gave an affirmative thumbs up. He translated for the others, and they seemed to like the idea as well. She assumed this was part of the "getting-to-know-each-other" plan, and that Ms. Cho already knew about this arrangement.

They rested in that room for a while, Jimin sitting with Jungkook, Yoongi with Taehyung, and Jin with Hoseok. Namjoon, being the leader, opted in for talking to Rein in a more casual sense in that time.

"I have to tell you something," she said during their chat.

"Yeah, what's up?" he said.

"I... Can speak Korean." It sounded so stupid now that she was saying it out loud. Why didn't she just lead with that from the moment they met? Maybe it was the nerves, or the wanting to keep the element of surprise. Either way, she sounded like an absolute doofus now.

Namjoon blinked, then tilted his head.

"That's so dope! How much can you speak?" he asked, traces of disbelief in his voice. She shrugged.

"Just a bit," she said. She tended to undersell her linguistic abilities, as it would be easier for people to overlook mistakes she might make while speaking.

"How did you learn?" he asked.

"Well, my manager is Korean as you saw, so she taught me some. I also got tutoring for years before I first came here. Uh, I can understand people pretty well, but speaking is a bit harder," Rein said. Namjoon shook his head and looked at her with a mix of surprise and respect.

"I just don't know how you managed to learn Korean that well in America... Wanna try some out with me?" he inquired with a grin.

"Is that an invitation to impress you?" she asked with a smirk, keeping her voice purposely low. His eyes widened.

"Ah, so you weren't kidding, huh? Your accent isn't too bad."

"Thank you! That's the one thing I tried super hard on before I got here. It's a little embarrassing to talk to people in Korean, actually..." Namjoon nodded.

"I totally get that. When I got pretty good at English, it was hard to practice and talk to the press, but you know, the rest of the members aren't really expected to speak English, so it kind of fell on me to just suck it up and do it," he said, avoiding eye contact. It was obviously a bit uncomfortable for him to talk about this.

"That must have been so stressful!" she said, "I can't even imagine... You learned English from watching Friends, right?"

"Yeah, but I couldn't have learned a whole language with just a TV show. My mom helped a lot, too." Ah.

There were so many things Rein wanted to ask. She wanted to ask all of the members everything she could possibly think of. What they were really like off-camera (though they seemed to almost be the same), what their childhood was like, what their favorite color was, everything.

She realized at that point that what she saw in the countless videos were nothing but characters, something for fans to look at. They played a specific role dictated by their managers and the company itself, and they played their roles well. Though she would probably never speak to them again after this partnership, she wanted to know them as normal people.

It was lonely being abroad all the time. It was lonely to have only one person by your side that didn't share your interests and was more like a second, stricter mother. Perhaps if she could make a good rapport with at least one person here, it would let her function in her spare time like a normal, sane person, instead of squandering her life away in countless hotel rooms writing, listening, eating, and repeating the whole process over and over again.

"Hello? Rein? Ms. Jones?" She shook herself from her thoughts. Namjoon was looking at her with furrowed eyebrows.

"Hm?" she said, still a little dazed.

"You okay? You looked pretty bad for a bit there," he said stoically. When she looked at him, he looked so earnest, so serious, that she believed that she did look as bad as could be, even for a split second.

"Oh, yeah. Just thinking," she said. As Namjoon was about to ask for further elaboration, Yoongi and Jimin came up to him, Yoongi leading the maknae by his hand. He had a resolve about him.

"Hey, you bastard, let's fuckin' go already. Jimin's hungry," he said, then turned to Rein making eating motions with his hand. Her eyes widened. She wasn't prepared to hear such harsh language from any of the members, but she also hadn't taken into account the fact that they weren't being filmed. They didn't have to try to be child-friendly. She turned to Namjoon.

"I'm sorry if you're waiting on me for the go-ahead, but I could use some food," she said, already standing up and gathering her things.

"Does anyone want to go eat now?" he called out. Everyone shouted their affirmations and jumped up, some already heading to the door. (Jimin and Jin)

"Do they seem excited to you?" Rein joked. Namjoon laughed.

"I dunno about them, but I am," he said. After looking at them struggling at the front for their shoes, he added, "Let's go before they start a riot, shall we?" She agreed, and they went to collect their shoes.

As she slipped on her sneakers, the members started to talk amongst themselves confirming where they were going to eat. Decisions were made quickly, and there was laughter and talk throughout the hallway and into the elevator. All she could do was follow behind. After all, there was no way she could come in between any of them.

It felt almost awkward to be within their group, a sea of chatter and happiness, as the only thing that didn't fit in, a colorless buoy in that ocean. But she didn't mind. It had been a long time since she had seen anything so teeming with energy. She felt like she was watching a perfect movie, or maybe a music video, something so impossible yet, there it was.

A happy-go-lucky, nothing-can-go-wrong kind of feeling threatened to wash over her, but she knew better. It was nice to take a step back and be the one observing something she didn't necessarily feel. Quieting her mind and heart, being distracted.

It certainly was nice.

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A/N: Thanks for reading! Feedback is appreciated!