A/N - This started as a short story for my Chance Encounters one shots series which are up to about 6,000 words each chapter but it's going to be a longer story than that so here is chapter one in what is likely to be 4 to 6 chapters and 10,000 - 15,000 words all up. Hopefully I'll have it all posted by the end of April. Enjoy :)

Chapter 1

I tucked my hair up in to a ponytail, then swept it into a bun, locking it closed with a hair pin. The day was going to be busy and I needed to get moving. Hair around my face would make me too warm, I knew from other years that a day like today meant it wouldn't stop from the time I walked out this door until probably tomorrow. It was going to be a long one.

Taking one last look in the bathroom mirror, I went back out into the office and grabbed the clipboard I needed to keep things on track. My reading glasses grabbed and perched on my nose, I sighed as I read my paperwork. I'd been assigned to artist escort, making sure some of the performers coming in to practice today would get from their dressing rooms to the stage and safely back. Sounds like a dream but my experience was a large chunk of artists thought they were more important than they actually were and I usually ended up with a headache after only a few hours. Still, the pay was great and we didn't have award ceremonies every day so it was just today for practices and tomorrow for the performances and I could go back to my mostly normal life again.

"Hey Charlie," I greeted my colleague as she walked past.

"It's only been ten minutes since I got here and I'm already regretting getting out of bed this morning," she replied, eyes big.

I laughed. This was her second year on staff, at least I had three more years on her here and knew what to expect. "It's OK, this time tomorrow we'll probably have had, I don't know, four hours sleep," I replied. She frowned, knowing it was probably true as I watched her race off to her tasks for the day.

My first artist wasn't too demanding. When I knocked on the door to let her know we were heading over to the stage to practice in five minutes, she only kept me waiting an additional 10 minutes so that wasn't a bad start all things considered, compared to last year. When she was safely back in her room, I knocked on the next door, a band I recognised the name of but wasn't familiar with as they were from Korea. Some of their staff opened the door and I mentioned we'd be leaving as soon as they were ready, preferably now and the staff spoke to the room causing lots of rustling noises from within as the band assembled. I was surprised that within two minutes, I had a group of young men looking at me expectantly, ready to follow me over to the stage. More than that, I was pleasantly surprised at how attractive they all were.

I didn't bother introducing myself. In my experience, the artists didn't care enough to remember so it was easier to just do my job and move onto the next ones. Looking down at my clipboard, I adjusted my glasses before looking up to be met by a sea of beautiful chocolate coloured eyes. "Right, ah, follow me if you're ready," I said and one spoke up.

"Of course, we're all ready to go now," and I smiled at his careful English as I started down the hallway, checking back to see they were all on their way, along with some of their staff. As we neared the venue, we had to cross a place where cars came and went and I came to a halt fairly suddenly when I saw a vehicle approaching, a build up of bodies stopping abruptly behind me, barely missing careening into me and each other.

"Sorry, we just have to wait until it's clear before we can go," I said over my shoulder, dangerously close to some of them. Only dangerous because up close, they were even more attractive and I guessed they were a similar age to myself. I was met by a nod and smile from the one who spoke English and I smiled back, noticing a cute dimple in his cheek.

"I'm RM," he said as a quick introduction. "It's probably best you run things through me as the others don't speak much English."

"Of course, no problem," I replied, keeping an eye on the cars going past.

A voice began speaking quietly in Korean, I only picked up half of what he was saying, my family lived their years ago when my father was stationed there for work but I doubted they thought I spoke any at all from what they were saying.

"What is that amazing smell?"

"It's the teacher."

"The teacher?"

"Yes, the woman taking us over to the stage. Don't you think she looks like a teacher? The hair, the skirt, glasses, papers? She looks like she could take out a stick and punish you."

"You wish."

"Yes I definitely do, don't tell me you wouldn't be up for that too. And Kook, it's coming from the teacher for sure. She smells great."

"Why don't you ask her what she's wearing? You never know, she might be into Korean guys."

"No way. I couldn't do that and she wouldn't be."

"Ah Kook, be brave. You're a superstar after all."

There was a snort at that and the conversation changed but by now, my cheeks had gone a little pink as I thought about their school ma'am description of myself and the fact they were commenting on my scent. I was feeling more than a little self conscious now and very tempted to lift my wrist to check what I was wearing today but I refrained from doing that as I didn't want them to know I understood.

As the car went past, I started walking again, aware of the time and now very aware of the gaggle of men walking behind me and quite possibly watching me. The pencil skirt probably added to the teacher look and I could almost feel myself sauntering ahead of them to accentuate it. Why not have some fun while I worked in what was going to be a very busy day? The rumble of their voices merged together but I did clearly hear one brief exchange, generating a smirk which I was glad they couldn't see.

"Do all American women just know how to move their hips? I mean, look at how she walks."

"Don't remind me, we're about to go on stage. We need to be thinking about the performance."

"You just need to get laid Jimin-ssi, it's been a while huh?" Laughter followed and we arrived at the stage where I pivoted to face them. If they thought I was a teacher, I could go into teacher mode.

"Right everyone, we're here and I'll wait for you to finish your rehearsal and take you back over to your dressing room. Any questions," I asked, raising my eyebrow as I looked over them all, tapping my pen against my clipboard. RM was translating and doing a good job and they all shook their heads at me although a few exchanged some looks, glancing quickly at their staff and twisting their lips together to suppress grins as they did and I wondered what questions they did actually want to ask but held back.

"OK then, just head that way," I said, pointing to where the side of stage was and they started to move before I spoke one more time. "One last thing, which of you is Kook?"

They all stopped moving and heads pivoted as one to the man who looked the youngest and whose eyes had suddenly grown very large. He raised his hand and I had to try not to crack up, after all, he wasn't actually my student so that was definitely unnecessary of him.

"Ah, I'm Jungkook," he said quietly, putting his hand down as he answered.

"You might want to translate this for him," I said, glancing briefly at RM who looked a little confused but nodded before I turned back to meet Jungkook's eyes and his slightly flustered expression.

"I'm not wearing any scent, it's all natural. Maybe it's the pheromones," I said, not dropping my gaze. RM spluttered as he worked out what I said, covering his mouth briefly before speaking in super fast Korean, trying not to laugh. Jungkook's eyes grew even larger and his face went bright pink, his ears changing to red as the rest of his band mates went through a mixture of laughter and looks of mortification as they realised I could speak passable Korean. I had no idea who was saying most of what I had overheard but I had a fair idea as a few of them looked more than a little embarrassed.

"I'm Marley by the way, nice to meet you all. I'll be waiting here when you've finished," I said in Korean, taking a seat and crossing my legs as I looked up at them. They had become stationary apart from shuffling their feet as they watched me and then all quickly bowed, saying nice to meet you in return as they strode off to head onto stage, one of them shoving Kook as they did before he tried to put them in a headlock.

Once they were out of sight, I giggled and grabbed out my phone, checking emails to see if there was anything I could do while I waited. We were always on a tight schedule at these events and their soundcheck was scheduled to take 45 minutes, not long enough but all they had. And I knew they were also booked in later this afternoon to run the dance part of their performance too. It didn't make much sense to not just run it all together but there had been a hold up with some of the set for their stage so we needed to push it back until that arrived and they'd already been told about it. By the time I walked back through the lot, I'd need to turn around and come back to meet them so I scrolled through my messages, firing off a few replies and making some notes as I did.

I could hear the band warming up and their voices were beautiful and varied, the whole venue buzzing with activity but turning to watch. I couldn't see the stage from where I sat but I could see that while people were going about their work, eyes were flicking over to the stage, taking in what was happening. Clearly this band had the special something that caused people to gravitate to them.

I decided to do a quick Google search. It was part of work right since I was working with the band and needed to know more about them, surely? Jungkook was indeed the baby of the group, looking a few years younger than me but surprisingly we were the same age, our birthdays only a month apart. I was shocked at the huge amount of search results that came up when I typed in BTS and could have spent years looking at them all. Instead I focused on finding a little more about them in general and Jungkook specifically. They had won heaps of awards over the years and I hoped they'd win more at these ones, already strangely attached to the group. Apparently Jungkook was the golden one of BTS, multi talented in not just singing and dancing but he could rap and was very athletic. Unsure which of their voices I could hear, I was half listening and half reading as I scrolled and scrolled, absorbed in all the clips I was watching.

I was still sitting looking at my phone when they came off their stage, energised and chatty from their rehearsal, coming to a stop in front of me with a variety of smiles. I uncrossed my legs and stood up, noting Jungkook was trying to make himself small, hiding behind a few of his band mates. I couldn't help but smile at that, hoping they interpreted it as a friendly greeting instead of what it was; amusement at the expense of their band mate.

All a little sweaty from the light dance rehearsal they'd done with the vocal run through, damp hair suited them and I tried not to stare as I spoke. "Happy with your run through," I asked and they nodded at my words. "OK, I'll take you back to your dressing room now then," turning to the doorway, checking over my shoulder to see if they were following. They were more in a clump on the way back rather than the orderly group that had followed me there, seeming to have relaxed a little now their first rehearsal was out of the way. I was still very aware of the words from earlier and felt myself moderating how I walked in case they were watching. They also knew I could speak some Korean now so were very careful with what they said on the way back or at least their speech was more reserved. Or maybe it was just because they were tired.

When we arrived at their door, I stood back as they all went inside. "I need to head to the next group now," I said, glancing at the time on my phone. "There are snacks and drinks there for you and I know you have food ordered for lunch which should be delivered soon. You have a number to call if there are any problems and I'll be back later to take you for the dance practice."

"Looking forward to it," one of them answered, the quiet, shorter one who hadn't spoken much but had some kind of look in his eyes that could be a little dangerous if you looked too long.

"I am too," I answered, with a quirk of my eyebrow before I turned on my heel and left the room, trying not to feel all the eyes on me as I did, hearing their voices mixed together as I walked away.

"Oooo Yoongi,-ssi you're much braver than Kookie today."

"I'm always brave with pretty women."

"That's why you have so many numbers in your phone hyung?"

"Shut it Taehyungie!"

"We have her number?"

"Not her number pabo, the company number."

"I was excited for a minute there, that could be fun."

"Jimin-ah, you didn't even talk to her."

"I will next time Hoba. Don't laugh! Want to make a bet?"

Laughter flowed after me and I was more than a little captivated by their playful banter and fun natures, good looks aside. And part of me wished that their banter about me was more than just boys being boys. I wouldn't mind giving them my number although it was strictly written into our contract that we did nothing of the sort. But it didn't matter, that little snippet of time with them would definitely be the highlight of my day and I sighed as I walked off to the next artists room.