(Bella)

I watched raptly as he sipped his tea carefully then lowered the cup onto the table. I was stunned by his words. He was incredibly perceptive. But he was also too handsome for comfort.  No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't stop my eyes from going over every inch of his body, from the black shirt that barely contained his broad shoulders to the tips of his shiny black Chelsea boots revealed when he crossed his right leg over his left. He leaned back in the chair and turned his face slightly away, looking so much like a model that I expected flashbulbs to go off. Then I saw his gorgeous lips go up at the corner before he turned back to look at me, his head cocked slightly to the side.

"So, is it my turn to inspect you, or would that be considered harassment?" he asked barely above a whisper, his lips twisted into a smirk.

I gasped then lowered my eyes to my lap. I clasped my hands together to keep them from trembling. "I wasn't...I didn't mean..."  My voice faded to a whisper.

His smirk morphed into a broad smile. "I was just kidding. You were just so intense, as if you're studying me for a project. I tend to say silly things when I'm nervous." He paused. "We don't have to just sit here like statues until Jimin breaks down the door. Tell me. Do you find me strange?"

I glanced up at him. His expression seemed a lot less forbidding than before, so I relaxed just a little. "I-I guess I don't know what to say. I just met you."

"Okay. What should we do to get to know each other better?"

His dark eyes were looking at me so intensely that I felt a slight tremor go through my body. "Uh, well, we can just talk."

"Talk? Hm. Not my first choice, but okay," he said and reached for his cup.

I glanced at him nervously, but he was not looking at me. Should I worry? What was I thinking coming to his apartment? I just admitted that I didn't know him. His eyes went from sexy and brooding to curious and friendly in seconds. He must be playing with my emotions. He must know how disconcerting his presence is. He had already gotten me to admit things I did not want to. What else might he get me to do?

"So, what are you studying?" he asked. "What are your plans?" He acted as if he hadn't seen me get flustered by his comments.

"I-I am studying to be a school counselor. Just starting my junior year," I said, hating the stutter I'd suddenly developed when answering his questions.

"Oh," he said. "You mean like helping kids pick out their classes?"

"That's part of it," I replied. "But I hope to have more of an impact on students. I'd like to work at a high school to help young people get through personal issues that might keep them from continuing their education. I want to be a true mentor to those students who are interested in going to college but don't have the means or encouragement. Some kids have so much potential and promise, but they won't meet it if they don't have help," I said. "I volunteer at one of the local schools with a large population of lower-income kids. They rarely get a chance to realize their dreams, and I want to change that."

He nodded. "That's certainly commendable. I wish you well. And I'm sure those students will be thrilled to have a counselor like you. I know I would have been, if mine had looked like you." His eyes were hypnotic.

I inhaled, reminding myself to breathe and not to flirt back. "What did your counselor look like?"

He smiled. "Mr. Lee was in his sixties, with thin gray hair and a wart on the end of his big nose."

I made a face. "That's not very nice of you to say."

He shrugged. "I don't mean anything bad by it. I wasn't making fun. He was cool with me. He talked to me more than my own father did." He stopped talking abruptly and looked down into his tea cup.

I wasn't sure if I should say something, but then he cleared his throat.

"It's not often that I've encountered someone like you with a drive for helping others," he said.

I felt as if I'd missed something. "Uh, like me? What do you mean?"

He inhaled. "I mean that you're very beautiful---as I'm sure you know. Most pretty girls I've encountered tend to be self-absorbed. Serving others falls very low on their list of priorities."

"I'm not sure I would agree," I said. "How can a person's outward appearance determine their personality and behavior?"

"Oh, you'd be surprised," he replied. "I would think the opposite would be true: how can a person's outward appearance not determine their behavior?"

I took another sip of tea now that I felt a little more at ease with the conversation. "You seem to have a low opinion of beautiful people, which is surprising considering that you..." I stopped. I was about to say that he was heart-stoppingly handsome. My heart started beating faster as I sought a way to extricate myself from this sentence.

"That I what?" he prompted. He put both his feet on the ground and leaned forward. "Bella?"

I tried to put my cup on its saucer on the table, but my hand was shaking so much that I spilled some of the tea onto the table. "Oh! I'm...sorry! I don't usually make such messes. I'm very neat, actually."

He got up, grabbed some paper towels, and began mopping up the liquid before I even finished apologizing. "No worries."

"I hope I didn't ruin your lovely table," I said.

He finished cleaning up, took the wet towels into the kitchen, and came back to his seat. "Not at all. My living room is Namjoon-proofed." When he saw my confusion, he added, "Namjoon is forever spilling and breaking things, so I've furnished my apartment with items that are easy to clean, hard to break, and treated to be stain-resistant." He talked a bit about all the things Namjoon had destroyed.

"Oh," I murmured. "Have you all known each other long? How did you meet?"

He seemed to relax as he explained his close ties to the other guys. They had met either through their parents or because they went to the same school. Namjoon's father was a business associate of his father's. Taehyung's father and his father were cousins, which made them relatives. He had met Yoongi and Hoseok when they were enrolled in the same private school. Over the years they had become such close friends that it was not surprising that they all ended up at the same university. He had only met Jimin, however, two years ago when he began rooming with Taehyung. He'd like to think they were friends, but he wasn't as close to Jimin as to the others.

"So what are you studying?" I asked.

His eyes flickered over me from head to toe giving me the indication that I was the subject he was studying. His beautiful lips parted slightly, and almost immediately there was a loud knock at the door.