Cora yawned and blinked rapidly as she exited customs, and then looked around the arrivals area of Incheon International Airport, feeling slightly lost. Suddenly she spotted a familiar face. Park Jiwon was standing there holding a sign with her name on it. She waved merrily, very relieved to see him.

"Ms. Hertshorn, so good to see you again! Let me get your luggages for you."

"Oh, no nee... OK, thank you, Mr. Park! I appreciate you meeting me here!" She handed him her guitar case, which he swung onto his shoulder. He grabbed the handle of her roller suitcase, leaving her feeling awkward and empty handed. She jammed her hands into her jacket pockets.

"It's my pleasure. This way, please." He steered her through the crowd and out to a black SUV with dark tinted windows. "Mr. Min is looking forward to working with you," he said with a smile as he opened the back passenger door.

Cora glanced in and saw Yoongi sitting there, grinning at her. "Hey!!" she said, beaming. "It's you!"

"Yes, it's me. How was your flight, Cora-shi?"

"It was looooong, but not bad." She sat down and just smiled at him in shock for a minute. "This is so weird!" she laughed. "You're really here! Or I'm really here, I guess. How are you, Yoongi-shi?" Mr. Park slammed the back of the SUV closed.

"I'm good! Happy to see you." He smiled.

"Oh, wait, don't start driving yet please, Mr. Park!" she said suddenly, taking off her seatbelt and reaching into the cargo compartment to rummage through her suitcase.

Yoongi laughed. "What are you doing?" he asked, amused.

"I brought you... ouch, dammit... I brought you a birthday present!" Cora explained, zipping the case shut again and turning around. She waved a large mailing envelope triumphantly. "Hopefully it didn't get too crushed or wrinkled during the flight!" She handed it to Yoongi, careful to use both hands. "Happy birthday, Min Yoongi-shi!"

"Wow, what is this?" Yoongi asked. Mr. Park waited until he heard Cora's seatbelt click into place, then pulled away from the curb as Yoongi carefully opened the envelope.

"Nothing much, just a little token of my esteem," Cora said, bouncing slightly in her seat with excitement.

Yoongi pulled four pieces of archival print paper, 11 x 14 size, from the envelope and turned them over. "Oh!" he exclaimed, "you brought these?! Thank you!" He carefully studied the prints of Cora's Seesaw, Mic Drop, and Agust D illustrations, which she had colored with watercolors. He then pulled out a new painting, which showed him as a manga character reaching into a luminous pond to pluck a lotus flower. The flower's glow softly lit his face, which looked peaceful, but bore the faintest hint of a pink scar over the right eye.

Yoongi sucked in his breath. He didn't want to tear up in front of Cora. He composed himself, aware that she was waiting for his reaction. "Cora, this is so beautiful. I can't say thank you enough." On an impulse, he reached over to gently squeeze her hand.

She gave him a serious look, then a faint smile. "I'm glad you like it," she said in a deeper, quieter tone than he had ever heard from her. 

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

Mr. Park came inside to check Cora into the Intercontinental Seoul COEX Hotel. "Please take a nice rest, Ms. Hertshorn. You have an account on the Hybe's card, so feel free to eat at the restaurants here and use the services. I hope it will be comfortable for you!"

"This place looks amazing, thank you, Mr. Park. So fancy! Is Hybe nearby?"

"Yes, it's maybe a kilometer or kilometer and a half? Easy to travel on the bus or by taxi."

"That's very close, I think I'll just walk!" Cora replied, smiling. "When should I come to rehearse?"

"I don't fully know the details, but Min Yoongi-shi will send you the information."

"OK! Thanks so much. I will wait to hear from him." She picked up the key card for her room, slung her guitar over her shoulder, bowed to Mr. Park and headed for the elevator.

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

Cora swam in the indoor pool, took a long shower, and napped for an hour. She woke up feeling unsettled, restless, jet-lagged, and picked up her phone. 'Should I call him? No, he might be working. I said I would wait for him to contact me. But he probably thinks I'm sleeping...' She sighed and looked out the window toward the Hybe building. 'I'll just text him. Less intrusive.'

Yoongi-shi, are you busy now?

Yes, I am in a meeting, but it will finish soon.

OK. I'm bored and can't sleep. Do you have time after the meeting? When are we going to start rehearsals?

The other musician from America will arrive tomorrow, so rehearsals will start after he comes and recovers from travel. Maybe the day after tomorrow? He replied. I have time this evening. Do you want to go for a drive at the sea?

That sounds lovely! But you might be tired from working all day and picking up foreign women at the airport...

😆 You say as if I picked up many women today.

Well, I don't know. I've heard how you rock star types are. 🙄

I will pick up one more woman today, then, in about 45 minutes? I will park at COEX West, near Outback Steakhouse. My car is Hyundai Palisade, dark blue, plate 613 7777.

Ooh, I see what you did there! Did you bribe the license plate people to get that number, Yoongi-shi?!

Cora, I'm in a serious meeting and you make me laugh! See you soon.

She chuckled and looked around her hotel room. "Well, I'm going to be here for a month, so I guess I should unpack," she said, and heaved herself off the bed.

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

Yoongi's heart fluttered in his chest when he spotted Cora walking toward him. She was dressed in a different style than he had ever seen on her: jeans, a peasant blouse, windbreaker jacket, and wedge sandals.

"Ooh, you look so mysterious, Yoongi-shi!" she laughed as she climbed into the SUV.

He grinned at her, but wasn't sure if she could tell behind his dark shades and facemask. He tugged the brim of his baseball cap in greeting, and said, "I am a man of mystery! You look very nice tonight. I like this fashion!"

"Yeah, I didn't want to scare people or draw attention with my usual punk rocker attire, so I wore my normie clothes tonight." She rolled her eyes and then grinned at him.

"'Normie?' What does it mean?" he asked, laughing.

"Like a normal person," she explained, chuckling.

"Ah. Well, I think you are beautiful in normie or punk rocker clothes." Yoongi cursed at a taxi that cut him off, then zipped through a yellow light. "Cora, are you hungry? Do you need something?"

"No, I'm just happy now." She smiled over at him, and he hummed in agreement.

The street lights flickered on as dusk set in, and Yoongi took off his sunglasses. "So, what does it mean, your name?" he asked.

"It can mean 'heart,' from Latin, or it can mean 'maiden' from Greek," Cora replied.

"What does this mean, 'maiden'?" Yoongi asked.

Cora felt a little bit of heat rise in her cheeks. "Uh, it means a young girl, a virgin," she said, laughing.

"Heart or young girl? Those are nice meanings!" he said.

"What does your name mean?" Cora asked.

"It's like shine or gloss," he replied.

"Oh, that's right, like your underground rapper name!" She smiled. "I saw that on a video, but I forgot. That's a perfect name for a star, isn't it?" They both laughed.

"So, we should find all the data," Yoongi said. "What is your blood group?"

"My blood type? Oh, that's right, I forgot that this is a big deal here!" Cora laughed. "My blood type is A+. What about you?"

"Mine is O. That means we are compatible." Yoongi grinned at her. "So we can be friends."

"Whoa, whoa, but we didn't do horoscopes yet, Yoongi-shi. Let's see, Nana is really into that shit. Your birthday is March 9, so you're a Pisces? And I'm a Libra. I don't know if we're supposed to work well together, let me check," she said, getting her phone out. "Ooh, dang, we're the 'ultimate romantic couple,' according to this very reliable random internet site!" she said, laughing and looking over at him. Yoongi just nodded.

"I feel afraid to ask it, but what year is your birth, Cora?" he said.

"2000," she replied. "I'm a millennium baby. So that means you're... seven years older than me. Damn! You're an old man!" She threw her head back and laughed.

Yoongi winced. "Yes, I feel quite old now. But it's OK for me to have a young friend, if you don't mind spending time with the elderly." He chuckled. "So your Asian horoscope is... dragon, is this right?"

"I think so, yeah. What is yours?"

"I am rooster."

Cora typed that into her phone. "Ooh, jeez!" she laughed. "Yoongi-shi, I guess we have to get married now. Listen to this: 'This is an extremely compatible union, and the intelligent Rooster will be enamored of the boldness and optimistic personality of the Dragon wife.'" She turned to look at him "Min Yoongi, are you enamored of my bold and optimistic personality?" She giggled.

He puckered his forehead thoughtfully and nodded. "Yes, I think so," he said, deadpan.

She glanced down at her phone, and continued to read. "The dragon will not be overwhelmed by his dominant nature or his verbosity. She too has a few quirks of her own which he will have to put up with." She laughed loudly. "Well, this is clearly bullshit. I don't have any quirks. I am completely normal and boring."

Yoongi chuckled. "What is 'verb'... What was it?" he asked.

"Ah, verbosity. That means somebody who likes to talk or explain for a long time."

He nodded. "Really, it's very accurate, isn't it?" he said. "You are very bold, and I do talk too much sometimes." He smiled and put on the turn signal to exit onto the coastal highway.

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

The two of them sat on a bulkhead and munched their tornado potatoes from the rest area food court, sharing a bottle of Coke. Once they had had their snack, Cora leaned back and kicked her feet, staring out at the crashing surf.

"It's weird how familiar Korea still feels," she remarked. "I left about ten years ago, but it doesn't feel like that big of a gap."

Yoongi looked at her and studied her face in the moonlight. "So it's comfortable here?" he asked.

She smiled at him. "So far, yes! We'll see when we get into rehearsals. Do you know the other musicians?"

"I know some well, and some I met recently. I hope everyone will work well together."

Cora nodded. "I am just really grateful that the police busted that other bass player," she said, then laughed quietly. "This tour is going to be amazing, Yoongi-shi..."

Yoongi made a "yikes" face at her. "I feel nervous now. Let's talk about something else!" he said.

Cora reached over and linked her pinkie finger with his, then looked out at the sea again.