"Nami-ah!"

I heard Chanyeol call out to me before my vision started to blur. I was feeling dizzy and my world started spinning around as the sound of thundering footsteps approached us.

I staggered to one side as I was enveloped by the herd of fangirls that came screaming as they headed towards Chanyeol and Suji. The fangirls pushed and shoved each other aggressively as they competed on who could get to them first. As they passed me by, I was pushed and flung to the ground and I landed face-flat on the concrete floor.

A jolt of pain shot up my left leg as I was trampled on. The heavy weight of fangirls crushed me as they eagerly tried to catch up to Chanyeol and Suji. I screamed in pain but, not a single one of them paid any attention.

Once the stampede had passed, I gently pushed myself back up, carefully inspecting the damage inflicted on my poor leg. I winced as I tried moving it. It had been badly twisted.

I inspected myself to see if I had sustained any other injuries. And that was when I noticed that my phone was missing. I had dropped it during the stampede!

I searched my surroundings and found it, kicked to the curb, the screen cracked. With my good leg, I hobbled over to it and saw that the screen wasn't switching on. "No, no, no!" I cried, pressing the power button desperately. The green light flashed at the corner to indicate it was on but the screen remained black. I felt tears spring to my eyes. "My photo with BTS..."

The sound of the fangirls screaming again caught my attention. They had Suji and Chanyeol trapped in a captive circle. Chanyeol looked like a wild rabbit staring at headlights as the fangirls pestered him with questions, their phones in front of their faces as they captured his every move on camera.

Chanyeol had his arms around Suji in a protective embrace. He was looking around desperately as if he was searching for something. I didn't know why I was feeling this way but, seeing Chanyeol holding Suji so closely made me feel a stab of hurt. He had protected her from the wrath of the fangirls and had left me to fend for myself.

Didn't I matter?

I was about to go and call out to him when he and Suji suddenly bolted to a black car nearby. I watched as Chanyeol helped Suji inside before he was dragged in and the door was shut only in the nick of time. The fangirls banged on the windows persistently, urging Chanyeol to open up the door. But the black car drove off, leaving a trail of fangirls in hot pursuit. I watched as the black car disappeared into the distance.

"Did you see that girl who was with Chanyeol-oppa?" I overheard one of the fangirls say.

"Yeah! I got a video of them hugging" another one replied.

"Do you think she's his girlfriend?"

"Omo! What if she is?"

I hid my face as I hobbled in the other direction. It was best to avoid the fangirls in case any of them remembered me talking to Suji and Chanyeol earlier. "But the bus stop is in that direction," I told myself out loud. I looked back and saw that there was still a huddle of fangirls, loitering around.

I sighed, "I'll go to the next stop."

As I limped along the pavement, I felt my broken phone in my pocket. "If only I could call Xiumin-oppa" I muttered dejectedly. Not only had I lost my photo with BTS, I had also lost my means of communication with both the EXO members and Richard. Not that I wanted to call Richard anyway.

I winced. My left leg was throbbing with pain. "If only I had some money with me..." I said to myself. My stomach grumbled and I patted it, "Yeah, I know. I hadn't forgotten about you too."

I walked on a little further and saw a nearby playground. It was late in the evening now and the sun had already set. The sky was a black blanket and there would have been stars if it weren't for the light pollution from Seoul's skyscrapers. I held onto my jacket tightly as a chilly breeze whistled by. As I let out a sigh, my breath fogged up in front of me. I decided to take a quick rest at one of the swings in the playground. The pain in my leg was unbearable and I was tired.

"Just five minutes," I told myself. "Then we'll start walking again."

But just as I sat down on the swing, I suddenly heard the rumble of a bus engine and in a few moments, a bus appeared.

My bus.

I watched it pass by, helplessly. I cursed under my breath in Korean and English, not shying away from the worst ones I knew. "Just my luck," I said bitterly after my cursing frenzy.

I sighed defeatedly as I pushed the swing slightly so that I was swinging back and forth. Today had started out like a dream but ended in a nightmare. I thought about how kind Chanyeol had been in the beginning and how everything was going well until a few hours ago. I felt upset. And I wasn't sure why.

Just then, someone covered my eyes with their gloved hands. "Guess who?" asked a deep voice.

A wave of panic overwhelmed me. Was I being robbed right now? It didn't even register to me that the stranger had spoken in English.

Alarmed, I grabbed their hand and twisted it as hard as I could until I heard yelps of pain. With what remaining strength I had, I pulled the stranger from where they were standing behind me to where I could see them. I brought the stranger to their knees and saw them hugging their arm as I released their hand.

"Bloody hell, Mirei!" I heard a familiar voice say. The stranger looked up and I saw who it was. "You're so friggin' strong! What the hell have they been feeding you here?"

"Nikka?"

I took in Nikka's appearance. His long jet-black hair was tied into a man-bun and he had a five-o'-clock shadow around his chiselled jaw-line. His tanned skin contrasted with the white scarf he had wrapped around his neck. His chocolate brown eyes were twinkling as he smiled at me, once he got up from the gravel floor.

"Hey Mirei," he said in that effeminate tone, "glad to see you're still alive."

"Nikka!" I said more gladly as I hobbled over to him. I saw his eyes trail down to my leg when he saw me limping.

"What happened to your foot?" he asked as he offered his arms to me for balance.

"I had a little accident today," I told him evasively. "But never mind that! What are you doing here? When did you arrive?" A million questions flooded my mind as I searched his eyes.

Nikka led me to the swings again so that we could sit down comfortably. "I arrived a few hours ago" he explained. "And I've been trying to call you on your phone to tell you that I was at the airport but, you weren't answering!" he frowned at me. "Didn't I tell you we should meet up?"

He looked at me expectantly and I bit my lip. "I'm so sorry, Nikka! I totally forgot you were coming."

Nikka scoffed, "Yeah, I thought you did."

"I would have contacted you sooner but," I pulled out my phone from my pocket to show it to him, "I broke my phone today."

Nikka's eyes widened. "Oh my gosh, Mirei! What the hell have you been doing?" He inspected my battered phone and saw the green light still flashing. "It's not broken, you know."

"How isn't it? Can't you see it's beyond repair?"

Nikka shook his head. "If it was broken, I wouldn't have been able to find you."

I looked at him quizzically. Kinda think of it, how did Nikka know where I was?

Nikka laughed at my confused expression, "I was able to track down your location using the Find My Phone App" he explained. "Remember? I installed it on your phone before you left."

"Ohhh," I said to him.

"I was worried something bad might have happened to you when you weren't picking up so, I decided to use the app." He peered at my injured leg again, "And it's a good thing I did. What the hell happened? How did you hurt yourself?" he asked with concern riddled all over his face.

"I got trampled on by a stampede of fangirls" I murmured quietly.

I looked at Nikka and saw that he was in disbelief. "A stampede of fangirls?" he repeated, doubt evident in his tone.

I shook my head slowly and saw that he was trying to contain his laughter. "Are you for real?" his voice had gone up a notch, "Fangirls did this to you?"

"I knew you would make fun of me!" I huffed. I slapped Nikka on the shoulder as he laughed heartily.

"How the hell did you get caught up in a stampede of fangirls?" he asked with tears of laughter in his eyes.

I averted my gaze. "It's a long story."

Nikka calmed down and looked at me intently. "Well, I guess you should let me take a look at it." He got off from the swing and proceeded to open his rucksack which he had next to him. He rummaged in it before pulling out a small first aid kit.

"How is it that you're always prepared?" I asked in amazement.

He smirked at me. "I'm Mary Poppins, darling."

He got down on one knee and cradled my left leg on his. He took off my trainer. "Smells like Cinderella needs to wash her stinky foot soon" he joked, pulling a face.

"Idiot," I said, sticking my tongue out at him.

He smiled as he continued to inspect my leg and saw that there was a purple bruise nearby the base of my foot. "It looks like an elephant had stepped on your foot for you to get a bruise this big," he observed, his smile slipping away.

"Is it bad, doc?" I asked in a dramatic voice. "Will I be able to walk again?"

Nikka played along, "I'm afraid it's bad news. We'll have to amputate it."

While Nikka continued to treat my leg, I observed him from where I sat. Nikka was one of my closest friends back in the UK and we also worked in the same department. When I first met him, I thought that he was handsome. He had shorter hair back then and he didn't have a beard or a moustache. His chocolate brown eyes and long curly lashes were his best features. Nikka had a deep and sexy voice and his arabesque features made him stand out amongst our Caucasian colleagues. He could get any girl he wanted with his alluring good-looks. With one wink, he could make a woman swoon and fall head-over-heels for him.

Even I had a crush on him. But that was before I found out. It was a massive shame that Nikka had to be gay.

"All done!" he chimed happily as he gently put my shoe back on. He had wrapped a bandage around my leg.

"Thanks," I tell him.

He smiled up at me, "You know, this wasn't how I planned our reunion."

I looked at him quizzically. "I didn't even know you made plans."

He chortled, "Well, it was meant to be a surprise for tomorrow but," he rummaged around in his bag and pulled out a poorly wrapped present. "Happy birthday, Mirei."

I gaped at him. "I can't believe you remembered!"

Nikka grinned. "Of course I'd remember!" He handed me the present in his hands. "I wanted to give this to you tomorrow but I have work that I can't get out of."

I accepted his present happily, "Thank you, Nikka!" It was funny how just having a friend in an unfamiliar place can give you so much joy. It had been a month since I had arrived in Seoul and today was the first time I had ever felt glad to be here, even when it wasn't out of my own accord.

"Open it."

I tore the wrapping energetically and grinned at what he had got me. "A pink hoodie?"

He smiled. "Yeah. 'Cause I knew how often you wore hoodies and how the only colours you owned were either black or grey." He pointed at the hoodie. "So when I saw this beautiful shade of pink, I immediately thought of you."

I laughed, "Thanks, Nikka. I'll wear it often."

"And you better!" he replied. "That hoodie is made of the finest sepia cotton. And it's dead expensive."

I raised my brow at him. "You bought it from UNIQLO didn't you?"

He stuck out his tongue. "Maybe." He ran his hand across it, "It's so soft! You can even wear it with nothing else underneath."

"Yes, but I'm not gonna do that."

He smiled coyly. "Why lie for, Mirei? I already know you don't wear bras when you wear hoodies."

I blushed. "What?! Who told you that?!"

He jumped back before I had time to slap his shoulder again. Nikka laughed as he sat down on the swing next to me. "So how is life treating you, housekeeper-ssi?" he asked, practising his Korean.

It had been a while since I had last spoken to Nikka about the EXO members. Most of the time, I had been keeping contact with Richard.

"It's been going okay so far" I replied. "I'm making progress on my report and some of the EXO members have been kind to me."

Nikka listened attentively. "And it sounds like your Korean is improving too."

I looked at him questioningly.

"I overheard your little swearing outburst earlier" he chuckled.

I blushed.

"And the EXO members" he prompted, "how are they? Were they everything you expected? You sounded devastated about living with them the last time we spoke."

I thought for a moment. I remembered how well I got on with almost all the EXO members and how I had come to realise my feelings towards a certain someone. I felt my face heat up, the longer I thought about him. Nikka must have seen the smile that was forming on my face because then he asked, "Mirei, have you... fallen in love with one of them?"

I jumped to attention. "What? No!" I denied.

But I could see that Nikka was having none of it. With a straight face, his brown eyes stared back at me intensely. "You can't fall in love with them, Mirei! You're an undercover reporter--getting attached means game over."

"But I'm not in love" I protested.

He looked at me doubtfully, "Alright then, let's do a test." He locked eyes with mine. "Tell me, who do you think of first thing in the morning?"

I blinked. The first face that popped into my head was Chanyeol. What? Chanyeol? I shook my head violently. Why was I thinking about Chanyeol? Didn't I like Xiumin?

"Ri-Richard" I blurted out.

Nikka was taken aback. His face scrunched up to show his disgust, "Eew. Richard? You think of Richard first thing in the morning? Gross!"

"It was a slip of the tongue!" I said quickly.

Nikka laughed. "Well, speaking of Richard, I don't know if he's told you but there's a promotion up for grabs waiting for you when you get back home."

"A promotion?"

Nikka nodded. "He said that he'll be choosing the best candidate based on the last piece of work they had done. That means, if you do a good job on this undercover report, you might stand a chance at getting promoted next year."

I squealed excitedly, "I'll be a regular reporter?"

Nikka nodded. "You can finally do international interviews instead of editing work!"

I smiled at him. A promotion for me would mean a lot of opportunities to go abroad to interview different artists. It would be a dream come true. I would no longer be the lackey of the International Culture Department! And that means, no more doing odd jobs for Richard!

"You've just motivated me to get that promotion!" I told him with zeal.

Nikka grinned, "I just hope that by telling you, you'll stay focused on your job."

I frowned at him. "I am focused."

"Oh?" he said as he pulled out his phone. "Then what do you call this?" He showed me his phone screen and I saw a picture of me back-hugging D.O. I had my arms wrapped around his chest with a seductive look on my face. D.O's eyes had a piercing expression as he stared directly at the camera. I blushed, it was one of the photos from the photo shoot!

"Where did you get that?!" I half-shouted as I snatched his phone. I scrolled down and saw that the other photos, with the members, were there too.

"It's all over Instagram and Twitter" Nikka casually replied. "I follow the official EXO-L Instagram account and some of the EXO members on Twitter."

I looked at him, surprised. "Since when were you into EXO?"

Nikka shrugged. "Well, I had to read about BTS for the interview so I thought, might as well do some wider reading too."

"You're such a geek."

He smirked, "Geeks run the world, darling."

I scrolled down his phone and looked at all the photos carefully. I wasn't even aware that they had released them already. As I scrolled down, I saw the picture of me and Chanyeol together. The photographer had snapped the camera in time to capture the pure surprise on my face as Chanyeol planted a kiss on my forehead. From an onlooker's perspective, it looked like he was angelically kissing me good night.

With renewed annoyance, I scrolled down energetically. "Does Richard know about this?" I asked, panic slowly rising in my gut.

Nikka shook his head. "As if Richard has Instagram!" He drew closer to me as we both looked at the photos together, "I was so surprised when I saw these. I didn't know that modelling was part of your job as a housekeeper."

I frowned at him. "It wasn't. They needed a replacement model and they begged me to do it."

Nikka raised his brows. "You are so unpredictable. Since when did being undercover involve attracting a lot of attention? You should have declined! What if you got caught?"

"I was wearing a mask. No one would know it was me" I replied.

He looked at me dubiously. "You're just lucky it was only me who recognised you." He gave me a warning look as he took his phone back, "Keep a low profile from now onwards!"

"Yes, mother" I replied sarcastically.

Nikka got up from the swing and checked the time on his phone. "It's almost eight. I have to get going soon so that I can check-in in my hotel." I watched as he picked up his bag. "I'll be interviewing BTS soon in the Gayo Daejun concert that's coming up. Did you want to attend with me?"

I smiled at his offer. "You know that I can't. EXO will be going too and we can't let them see us together or we'll risk busting my cover."

Nikka looked me pityingly. "So sorry, hon. I would trade places with you if I could."

"You don't need to." I gestured at the cap on my head, "I actually had the chance to meet them today."

His eyes widened. "Seriously?"

I nodded. "Long story short, one of the EXO members is friends with Suga and we paid them a visit earlier today. Honestly Nikka, it was the best thing ever!"

I told Nikka all that had happened during my visit to BTS' dance studio and how I had danced with them and witnessed an awesome rap battle. I even told him about the photo we took together but since my phone was broken, I wasn't able to show him.

"Well, I'm glad for you, Mirei" he finally said. "But it's getting late and the EXO members must be worrying about you."

"You're right," I told him as I got up from the swing. "We've been talking for ages that I've lost track of time."

"How are you getting home?"

I pointed to a bus that was passing by. I had missed one of my buses again.

Nikka frowned. "Oh, hell no" he replied. "Not with that leg. C'mon. Let's hail a taxi."

"But, I don't have any money on me. I just have my bus ticket."

"I'll pay" he offered. "You can just pay me back by being my translator. Do you know hard it was to tell the taxi driver to get me here? Thank God for Google translate!"

Nikka offered his arm to me for support as I hopped alongside him. "Thanks, Nikka."

He looked at me questioningly. "You've been thanking me a lot today. What are you saying thanks for? The taxi fare?"

I shook my head and smiled at him. "For always being a good friend to me. You're my best friend, you know."

Nikka smiled back. It may have been my imagination but, I thought Nikka's smile looked sad. "I'll always be here for you, Mirei," he said softly, "always."

~*~

Author's Note:

Hi reader! Thank you for reading chapter 18 of Our Little Dorm Mother.

For those wondering, the preview from the last chapter included a photo of Avan Jogia (he was an actor in the Nickelodeon's show, Victorious. He became my model for Nikka after a brief Google search LOL). I'm so glad that I've finally released this chapter because I was waiting for you to finally learn about Nikka.

Did you guess right? Were you surprised that Nikka was a guy? I told you that chapter 3 was going to be important!

Can you guess what Nikka will do next? And could there be more to him than what Mirei already knows?

Stick around to find out!

Next time...

P.S. Please vote, comment and share. Your support will help keep me motivated to keep writing.