Cora felt a little bit miffed that Yoongi was already on his phone as she was saying goodbye. 'But he's a very busy global superstar, and you're nobody. Get over yourself!'

As she stepped out onto the sidewalk, she recognized one of the other guys who had been with Yoongi that first day. He was holding open the back passenger side door of a large black SUV. "Ms. Cora? This way, please," he said.

"What? What is this?" she asked.

"Mr. Min wants me to give you a ride to your next appointment. I'm his manager, Park Jiwon."

She blinked at him in astonishment. "No, really, it's fine. It's not important. It's just lunch with my friend, way out in Santa Monica."

"Ms. Cora, I will be in trouble if you don't let me give you a ride. Please."

She hesitated. "Well, OK, then. Just to save you the trouble, Mr. Park. Thank you!" She smiled at him, but he just nodded his head.

He climbed into the driver's seat. "Where to?"

"Maria Sol on the Santa Monica Pier. Please." She looked out the window, frowning at her own reflection. 'Here I was, judging him for being on the phone, but he was arranging a ride for me.'

She shook her head. 'I'm not used to people being this nice to me...'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yoongi sat in the booth, his eyes watching the choir members munching cookies and sipping tea. His mind was miles away, though.

'Tacos with a friend? That could mean anything. Tacos are pretty casual, so it's not a fancy date. Probably just lunch with a friend, actually. But it could be a date with someone really familiar, with a lover. Maybe he's a studio musician, too. They usually don't make a ton of money. She's probably having lunch at the beach with her lover.' He exhaled noisily, then grimaced. 'Get a grip, Yoongi. It doesn't matter. You can't date her, anyway! She's very young and she lives in LA. You live in Seoul. Be realistic!'

"Three minutes, everyone! Three minutes until we start again." His voice sounded a little bit angrier than he intended. The choir members rushed to throw away their paper tea cups and get back into place.

'I will ask Jiwon for all the intel when he gets back. He's good at small talk.'

They spent the next 45 minutes trying to get a good take on an eight-measure long passage, without much success. Finally, Yoongi gave up. "OK, everybody. I think we got what we needed. Thank you again for your hard work today!" He exhaled loudly again. 'I'll just have to bury this part a little further back in the mix, I guess, if I can't clean it up enough. Oh well.'

His security guard, Nam Jiwo, walked into the booth. "You look irritated, boss. Do you need a break?"

"No, I'm OK. Let's just get this over with. Call the brass players in, please."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Traffic downtown was crawling along even slower than usual. Cora drummed her fingers on her knee and hummed a song, looking out at the gridlocked street.

"I'm sorry for the delay, Ms. Cora," Park Jiwon told her.

"Oh, no, it's fine. This is just life in LA, you know?" she replied, smiling at him in the rearview mirror.

"Yes." He nodded. "Traffic is bad in Seoul like this, sometimes, too." She raised her eyebrows at him. "Have you always lived in Los Angeles, Ms. Cora?" he asked.

"Oh, no. My parents were in the military, so we lived all over the world when I was a kid. But I moved here to go to high school, and I've been here ever since. Almost ten years."

Mr. Park nodded again, then fell silent for several minutes as he navigated through traffic. Once he hit the open freeway, he looked at her again and asked, "Is your family here now?"

"Well..." Cora hesitated. "Yes and no. My parents live in Texas, but I hate it there. I live in the guest house of my, well, my grandmother, basically. She isn't a blood relative, but she raised my mother, and I came here to live with her when my parents got transferred away from Korea."

"Oh, you lived in Korea?"

"Yes, for three years. Middle school. It was pretty nice, actually. Although the school there was tough! Very competitive."

Mr. Park actually chuckled. "Yes, our schools are that way. Did you go to an international school?"

"No, I decided to dive right in and go to a public school. Without speaking a word of Korean. I had to learn pretty fast! Unfortunately, I've forgotten almost everything now, because I didn't practice for a decade."

Mr. Park smiled at her. "It will come back, if you need it. I let go of my English for eight years, after attending university here, but it has come back in this job. I end up translating for Min Yoongi-shi quite often."

"Wow, that gives me hope for my Korean language skills! I would never guess that you had taken a break from English. You're very fluent."

"No, no, not fluent." Mr. Park waved his hand in negation. "I can hold a conversation, though." He glanced down at the navigation screen. "We will arrive in two minutes, at 1:57."

Cora grinned. "Carmen will be so impressed with me for being early, for once!" she said.

"Carmen is your friend? Like the opera?"

Cora laughed. "Yes, she's just like the opera. Loud and colorful!"

Mr. Park studied her face in the mirror. "You must be very good friends?" he asked.

"Yes, she's my bestie. Couldn't live without her!" Cora replied. "Oh, there she is! Thanks so much, Mr. Park. Please give my thanks to Min Yoongi, too. I really appreciate it! Goodbye!"

Mr. Park started to hop out of the car to get her door, but she had already gotten out and was jogging toward Carmen, so he just watched for a moment longer and then drove back to LA.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yoongi didn't dare let the brass players take a break, after what had happened with the choir. They just pushed through, recording all of the brass sections in the space of about an hour and a half. It took all of his willpower not to call a break, though, when he saw Park Jiwon slip back into the studio between takes. The manager met his eyes through the glass and raised his eyebrows slightly, letting Yoongi know that he had news about the girl.

'Be a damn professional, Min Yoongi!' he told himself. 'You already got a less than perfect choir section because you let her distract you. Keep it together.'

Once the brass players had packed up and left, Yoongi took his headset off and signaled Park Jiwon with a slight upward nod of his head. The manager came in, a tiny smile on his face. "Yes, Yoongi-shi?" he asked.

"Stop messing around, you know what I want to know!" Yoongi replied, laughing.

Mr. Park grinned. "Yeah, I do. I thought she might be kind of a jerk, with the way she was glaring at you the first time we saw her, but she's actually quite nice, if a little bit abrupt."

Yoongi smiled fondly and nodded, then waited for Park to go on.

"She is from a military family, lived all over the world as a kid, but isn't close with her family now. She lives with a grandmother-like figure who isn't a relative. The friend she was meeting is a woman named Carmen, but I'm not sure if they're just friends or something more..."

Yoongi's eyebrows shot up toward his hairline. "Oh? What makes you say that?"

"Well, she didn't even wait for me to come around and open the door, just jumped out of the vehicle and ran to her friend."

Yoongi stared at him for a moment. 'I never considered that she could be a lesbian!' he thought. 'Damn.' 

Park Jiwon shrugged at him. "I don't know if they're dating, though," he said.

"Did they kiss when they met?" Yoongi asked, afraid to hear the answer.

"No, I didn't see them kiss. They just walked up the pier."

"Holding hands?"

"No..." Mr. Park shook his head. "There just seemed to be a strong attachment there, but nothing definitive."

"Hmm..." Yoongi said, studying his face. 'Well, I won't give up hope until I have more information,' he thought.

"Oh, and one other interesting fact, she lived in Korea for three years when she was a schoolgirl."

"Really?! Where?" Yoongi asked.

"I'm not sure. I didn't ask that."

Yoongi nodded as he stepped into the car. "OK, well, let's go to the house. I think I'll just take it easy and read a book or something this evening."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cora and Carmen didn't talk too much at first, busy stuffing their faces with fish tacos and horchata. As they slowed down, though, Carmen started to ask questions.

"So, Ms. Cora, what was with that big black car that dropped you off?"

"Oh, a producer at the studio offered me a ride. Sort of insisted that I have a ride, actually. But it's whatever."

Carmen arched an eyebrow at her. "A producer? Tell me more!"

"It's no big deal. Today was the first time I even met him! I think he was just being nice. Or flexing. I'm not sure."

"Hmmm..." Carmen analyzed her face. "You're blushing, though. Is this producer guy hot? Is he one of those creeps who make you sleep with him to get on his projects?"

Cora held her hands up defensively. "No, no, no! Nothing like that! He's a really nice guy! He has a great reputation in the industry. Never does that creepy stuff." She hesitated, afraid to say too much. "He's... he's a huge deal, Carmen. And he said he liked the way I play. This could turn into an amazing opportunity for me. Or... it could be nothing. I don't know."

"Huh." Carmen looked like she'd eaten half a lime. "Well, I'm not sure about this nice guy stuff. Don't let him take advantage of you, bonita!"

"Seriously, he's a real gentleman. Don't worry about it! I just hope he hires me..." Cora almost blurted out "for his tour," but caught herself just in time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yoongi cooked a nice dinner for himself and his staff, then sat down to read. His mind was too restless, though. He challenged Jiwon and Jiwo to a basketball game in the backyard, which he won 15-12. He always suspected that they let him win these pickup games.

After a quick workout and shower, he was trying to watch a police procedural drama on Netflix, but still couldn't focus.

"Tomorrow is your last day in LA. If you want to text her, text her. What do you have to lose?" he said out loud.

'My dignity? My reputation? An opportunity to work with the best bass player I've ever heard?' his logical side replied.

He pulled the slip of paper with her number on it out of his wallet, and carefully typed it into his phone under the name 코라 허트손. He clicked "save," then stared at it for several long minutes. Finally, hesitantly, he hit the message icon and started to type:

Hello, this is Min Yoongi. I hope I don't interrupt you. Did you arrive home safely after lunch?

He watched the three little dots pop up, indicating that she had read the message, but it felt like an eternity before she replied.

Is it really you?! Can you prove you're Min Yoongi?

Yes. I helped you find your phone today. And told you about a secret event that is coming soon. 

Hmm... maybe it's you. I've been doing my homework, though. What was Jimin's battle top named in that episode of Run BTS?

Yoongi laughed in surprise and delight. Wait, are you ARMY, Cora? The answer is Rock Bison.

I'm not ARMY. I've just been doing my research. What was your name when you dressed as a schoolgirl in another episode?

Min Yoonji. You have to know that it's me by now.

OK, OK, it's really you... There was a long pause. I'm sorry, I'm still freaking out a little bit. My nana came out to the guest house where I live, behind her house, because I screamed and she thought I was being murdered. 😂 That was probably TMI, I'm sorry, I don't usually freak out like this. OK. I'm calm. Did you have a reason for contacting me this evening, Mr. Min Yoongi? 

Not really, I was just putting your number into my contact list, and wanted to make sure you got home safely.

Ah, OK. Yes, I did. Thank you so much for the ride to Santa Monica. Your manager is really nice, too.

Oh, good. I'm happy to hear.

So... awkward pause. What do global superstar rapper/producers do in the evening?

I prepared dinner, played basketball, worked out little bit, and tried to watch Netflix. Very ordinary. What do world-class bass players do in the evening?

I am watching Run BTS episodes one after another with my smelly old basset hound, Satchmo. 

You have a dog?! Can I see picture?

He's so cute! How old?

He's 13, which is very old for a hound.

Now I miss my Min Holy.

I bet he misses you, too. How much longer will you be in the States, if I may ask?

Tomorrow is my last day, then back to Korea.

Oh. So, uh, this might be inappropriate, but... are you busy tomorrow evening? Can I take you out on the town, before you go?

That could be fun. I can't be seen too public with a female friend, though.

How about take-out food from a good place I know, and then a walk on a beach that not many people know about? But I don't have a car. Do you mind driving? Or having your manager drive?

That sounds amazing. I will drive. We're finished recording tomorrow, can I text you again when I'm finished, Cora?

Yes! Oh, this is going to be fun! 

Well, it's getting late and I should let you rest. Or study Run BTS episodes. ha ha

Yes, and you have to actually work tomorrow. But I will see you tomorrow night, Mr. Min. Goodnight! 

Goodnight, Cora. Sleep well.

He set his phone down on the cushion, a huge, incredulous grin splashed across his face.