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“Go, go, go, go, go! Almost there!”
“Oomph!”
“Ya! Namjoon-ah, I told you to stop bothering me! You just made me lose my race! How am I supposed to give Mario justice against Browser if I keep losing to him on the last circuit? This is the Lightning Cup how do you expect me to do this if you keep interrupting my concentration? Give your hyung some respect you brat if I were you I would be thankful to be in the presence of your handsome hyung learning how to play from him and winning all the—”
Turning around, Seokjin realized that he had been talking to himself, and that Namjoon had long ago left him to go bother the maknaes who had been making a V-live episode for the fans. Just as he was turning around again to start grumbling about how could he have lost the race even with Mario as his racing character, he sees a flash of soft, baby pink from the corner of his eyes, making him turn back around.
Alarm racing through his whole body, he realized that as he had been playing, he had started pacing and scrambling from one extreme of airport waiting room to the other, without paying attention to where he was going—which had led him to unknowingly crash into someone wearing a large, baby pink sweater, now struggling to get up from where they had fallen to the floor. Immediately, he froze, a million thoughts running through his mind. How could he have been so careless? This was why he should have made sure to stick closer to the guys, so he wouldn’t end up causing misunderstandings or getting into trouble. OH, NAMJOON WAS GOING TO LAUGH AT HIM. It was usually him the one always breaking things and running into people and just being clumsy in general. His mouth opening and closing, the pained noise coming from below him made him realize that he had just been standing there flaying his arms and staring at the stranger without offering to help them stand up. Just as the unknown individual started moving up, he hovered his hands over them to make sure they wouldn’t fall again if they lost their balance.
Guilt immediately started to pool at his stomach—he knew he was a big guy. He was by no means in obscenely great shape like the maknae who shall not be named (he had recently gotten on Seokjin’s Poop List after following him around the hotel room and snapping a towel against his attractive butt, but he couldn’t stay mad forever, especially when he thought that situation had been funny, too) but his shoulders and overall shape did make him into a bit of a wall, particularly to really small people like the one he just realized he had run into. They barely made it to his chest! Had he run into a kid? Would they start crying now? Would he get in trouble with their parents? What would the fans think? Panic started to set in, but he froze the moment the person looked up. So pretty.
“Agh… sorry I didn’t see you! I was distracted with—. Oh poop!”
Running away from Seokjin, the stranger ran towards the planted pot, kneeling in front of it to retrieve something that had skidded all the way there when she had bumped into him and fallen, leaving her bags unattended in front of Jin.
Shaking himself free of his momentary lack of movement, he realized his mind had gone blank the moment he had fully laid his eyes on her. Had he been panicking before? She was so pretty.
Turning around towards the girl walking back to him, he said as he bent at the waist, “I’m really sorry, I didn’t see you! I thought it was my friend again messing with me so I would lose my race and do you like cows? I know a really funny joke, I know that a joke can’t make it up, but—”
Laughing softly, the girl looked up and him and froze. He froze right after her when he heard her laugh. Dorks. The pair of you.
Stammering, the girl said softly after a moment, “I like cows.”
Blinking slowly back at her for a moment, he realized he had been staring and that the girl had given him a chance to apologize. Looking away and blushing a pretty pink just like the girl’s sweater all the way to his ears, he said, “Well, do you know what’s it called when a cow laughs?”
Cracking a toothy grin, the girl replied after some thought… “I don’t know…”
“Moo-ha-ha-ha-ha!” Laughing nervously as he looked back at the girl, he self-consciously twisted his fingers around his 3DS inside his pockets, where he had put it for safety when he had tried to help the girl stand up. He thought the joke was funny, but then again, Yoongi hadn’t laughed when he told it for the first time, and the other members had mostly laughed at Yoongi’s reaction. Jiminie was an exception, but that was because he knew the boy was a softie at heart and found all of his jokes funny.
“Pfff…”
He was startled when he heard the girl make a funny sound, soon being unable to contain it and laughing loudly at his joke. Laughing along, relief and confidence filled him—of course she laughed, he was handsome and funny.
Still giggling, the girl brought her hands up to her face to make sure the tears that had leaked out of her eyes did not smudge her make-up, which made Seokjin realize what it was that she had dropped when he ran into her.
Feeling his heart skip a beat, he said, “you have a Nintendo Advance!?”
Startled, the girl let out a squeaky ‘yes’ before looking down at the device on her hands. Frowning, she realized the cartage had moved and frozen the game. Fiddling with the game to fully insert it didn’t seem to work…
Panic setting in again when he realized he might have broken her gaming device, he brought his hands up to take the game from her and see if he could help.
“I’m really sorry, I’ve never had an Advance, but a friend once explained to me that they are very fragile if dropped like that, I’m not sure what to do to fix—”
“It’s okay, I know how to fix it. I’ve had it since I was 12, so it has had a good decade and it’s still pretty sturdy for me. Here, all you have to do is take out the cartage and blow on the hole and then try to put it in again… yeah just like that!”
Beaming at Seokjin, the girl watched as he carefully handled her Gameboy and did as instructed, smiling happily at her when he managed to turn the game on and it seemed to be working just fine. Giggling, she made a motion to take the device back from him, thanking him. Before she could take it back, however, Seokjin’s eyes widened when he realized what she had been playing before he caused her to fall.
“You like Mario, too?!”
“Yes! I love all the games, particularly this one, since it was the first Mario game I ever played. First game I played, period. You like Mario, too?!”
His smile broadening as he noticed her excited expression, he handed her game back to her before pulling out his own 3DS to show her.
“I love Mario! I was actually playing Mario Kart 7 when I accidentally bumped into you—sorry about that again, I wasn’t looking where I was going and got too into the game and—”
Cutting him off again, the girl said, “it’s okay. No need to apologize. I’m glad we bumped into each other. None of my friends like to play handheld decides so this was a great treat. I—”
“What? Really? But they’re great! Oh! Sorry, I interrupted you! But thank you for interrupting me I tend to babble when I’m nervous and you’re really pretty—”
“You think I’m pretty? Than-thank you! I-I think you’re handsome and—. Oh! Sorry, I keep interrupting, too.”
Going quiet, both of them awkwardly giggled back and forth as pink and red stained both their cheeks in excited embarrassment.
Quickly leaning down to her carry-on bag, the girl opened up the front pocket to put away the old gaming device, reaching further in to pull out her own 3DS and standing back up.
Breathlessly, she turned it on and started the game that was already placed in the 3DS. Seokjin couldn’t believe his eyes. She was beautiful. And she might just love Mario as much as he did. The girl he had bumped into had just started a game of Mario Kart 7 right in front of his very own eyes.
Smiling fondly at the screen, the girl suggested, “My favorite character to race with is Shy Guy actually. Want to exchange friend codes to play together?”
“Yes!” Realizing he had yelled, he nervously giggled again before turning on his own game to save her FC after he had given her his.
“Now we can race together.”
“Yes, we can. My name is Seokjin by the way.”
Eyes widening comically, the girl looked back up at him with more intensity for a split second. “The-the Seokjin? BTS Seokjin?!”
Letting out an embarrassed giggle at finally being recognized, he proudly puffed out his chest as he let out a confident ‘yes!’
“I’m so glad to know you like to play Mario games! O-oh, yeah! My name is—”
Before the girl could say her name, Seokjin was pulled back by the hand and rushed away from his new friend. Looking at his hand in panic and confusion, he looked up to see Namjoon pulling at him while rambling.
“Hyung we’re boarding the plane, we’ve been searching for you for the past 10 minutes, hurry or we might all miss it—”
Pouting, Seokjin exasperatedly replied to Namjoon, “Ya, you brat, couldn’t you see I was in the middle of a conversation? That was so rude! At least let me say—”
Craning his neck around, he looked back at the spot the girl had been in, only to see her figure rushing away towards her own Gate, realizing she was close to missing her plane and would have missed it had the leader of Bangtan not pulled Jin away from their conversation in time.
Disappointment filled Seokjin, letting himself be rushed away by Namjoon, finally realizing he almost caused their group to miss their own plane and thus guiltily rushing his steps to match Namjoon’s.
After quickly presenting his passport and ID to pass the gates, he was rushed to his assigned seat on the plane next to Jimin. Sighing in disappointment at never having caught the girl’s name, he turned on his game to see if he could finally win the Lightning Cup and beat his number one enemy, Browser.
“Hyung, where were you? We were looking for you.”
Looking back at Jimin, his eyes widened as he animatedly started talking to the maknae about the Shy Guy girl.
“I just met the prettiest girl ever Jimin-ah! I accidentally bumped into her and made her fall, but she loves Mario, too! And she was wearing the coziest, baby pink sweater ever, it was so cute. Can you imagine—”
“You bumped into someone and made them fall?”
Turning around ridiculously fast, Jin realized Namjoon had been listening to their conversation, too.
Peeking through the seats of the plane, the leader started laughing when he realized it hadn’t been him this time to cause an accident.
Laughing along, Jin said, “Joonie, what’s with bothering your hyung today, huh?! Treat me with more respect—”
Hearing all the members of Bangtan start to laugh, his own amusement got the better of him, his laughter increasing as he was unable to jokingly keep berating Namjoon.
Hearing a ping, his laughter decreased as he looked down at his device. It was a SwapNote notification. Opening the application, he started smiling crazily as he realized it was from the Shy Guy girl he had just been rambling about to Jimin a moment ago. Due to all the rushing, he had completely forgotten that they had at least interchanged FC numbers! Excitedly, he quickly opened the unread message.
⎯ My name is _____. Nice to meet you, Jin.
Quickly making a note himself before the plane started moving and he lost signal, he proceeded to hit send after quickly scribbling a reply.
⎯ Let’s play Mario games together from now on _____!
Short, and sweet. Just like his first impression of her.