"Hey there, what can I get for you?" the bartender asks walking over to Hoseok with a flirty smile when she sees him take a seat at the bar.

"Good evening" he smiles widely now being a little more familiar with the girl after a few visits, "I'm actually waiting for someone, I don't want anything just yet."

She frowns at his words and tries to gather some courage reminding herself she can't hold back, now is the time or else it might be too late.

"You know, I was wondering..." she began as she leaned closer, elbows on the bar and arms crossed. There was a glint in her eye, a mischievous one, and Hobi swallowed bracing himself for the next few words.

"Um, yes?" he blurted out nervously.

"Would you want to go out some time?" at her question, his stomach dropped. This was not new, they got all sorts of bold proposals from ARMY. On their vlives, in the street, at concerts, backstage, during events, anywhere really with their popularity.

"I'm flattered, but I'm sorry I-" there was no way to let someone down gently.

"Oh, okay. No, I apologize, that was inappropriate" the waitress bowed repeatedly, blushing bright red and walked away embarrassed.

Hobi pressed his lips together in a tight smile, not knowing what else to say, just trying to be sympathetic. He hated having to do this, but it was necessary not to get their hopes up. Maybe he shouldn't have been overly friendly, he hadn't meant to give her the wrong idea.

It was true that a couple of his bandmates were happily dating fans, but their situations had been very peculiar. With one of the women being related to a staff member and the other being part of the fandom since the early days, it was certainly different.

So many things could go wrong and he was not willing to take the risk with a random woman he barely knew, just as none of them really got involved too personally with fans in general.

Yes, they did love ARMY and appreciate them, but some fans were under the impression it was beyond a parasocial* relationship. The regular person could draw the line, but a few developed an obsession and crossed it.

HYBE regularly opened cases against people who would spread malicious information, sexually harrass them or threatened them in one way or another. It simply wasn't safe and he preferred to be cautious about his moves when it came to his personal life.

An angry or upset fan could be pretty destructive if something went wrong and that could cause a scandal. All the girls that were involved with the group had been attacked one way or another along the years by sasaengs and their safety was not a minor issue.

Even immature people could spread rumors out of spite and he didn't want to be on the wrong side of it, there's the people that start them and those who the rumors are about. There's no way to tell what could happen, on what side he could end up and he'd rather not find out.

Hoseok sighed as he took out his phone and texted his date to ask her to meet up at a different place. He wanted to avoid being seen by this woman with someone else, what if they became irrationally jealous, took pictures or videos and uploaded them to social media?

Getting up from his seat, he made his way back to his car and drove away to the new bar he suggested to meet the woman he'd been seeing for the last couple months. His sister Jiwoo had told him about a friend of a friend who had recently moved to Seoul and could use some company.

She'd been nice to hang out with and he was hoping to invite her over to his place tonight for the first time. Significant steps always made him feel a little anxious, he usually waited some time before any sort of intimacy not to give the idea that he was in it purely for the physical part.

Many were under the impression that because he was famous and busy, he didn't want anything serious, he wasn't ready to settle or lead a lifestyle that required commitment. It was not necessarily a dumb assumption to make, some celebrities were like that and it had unfortunately lead to a lot of misunderstandings.

Just the experience of being linked to fame and riches was enough for women to approach him for the thrill of it. When he was younger and more immature, he couldn't deny it might have been tempting to give into, but he knew better than that.

This was his dream he would be gambling with. There was too much at stake and it was not worth potentially messing his reputation or the band's. If they had had anything close to a scandal, the situations had been minimal.

Just pictures at bars with friends, staff or acquaintances that were misinterpreted. Some photos that had had objects that seemed out of place or that pictured questionable situations that just needed to be ignored or cleared up if worse came to worst.

"Hey!" Hobi rushed to the entrance as he saw the girl standing there waiting for him. "I'm really sorry about the last minute change, sometimes it's complicated to choose a place to meet."

"It's alright, Hoseok-ah, I only just got here. I can only imagine" she smiled sadly, but he was glad she didn't seem to mind all that much about the inconvenience.

After they took a seat in a more private area of the bar, they ordered and caught up on each other's lives for the next couple of hours.

"Would you like to come over to my place? We could have some coffee and relax a little bit more" Hobi offered feeling his heart drum against his ribcage.

"Let me guess, do you have a cat you'd like to introduce me to*?" she flirted and his eyebrows shot up not expecting her to be this straight-forward.

He simply chuckled with a little smirk and got up from the table ready to lead them back to his car. His hand gently holding her waist once he motioned for her to walk ahead and she obliged.

By the time they got to the apartment, their light-hearted chat had transformed into a more serious exchange about what was about to come.

As they walked out of the elevator onto his floor, they bumped into someone that was on their way in and Hoseok stared in shock.

"Good evening" she greeted. His undesireable neighbor was back and he was definitely not happy about it.

Hobi's date answered with a little more enthusiasm than he did, but he greeted her nevertheless remaining polite.

The woman was dressed up and ready to go out and he was suddenly in a bad mood knowing she wasn't gone for good.

He was too busy to pay attention to whether her apartment was empty, had been sold or rented out to someone else.

Hoseok looked back towards the elevators as the doors closed, feeling observed, and he was met with a huge smile and two thumbs up.

Good luck, she mouthed to then bite on her bottom lip as she took a quick appreciative glance at his date.

Hobi's eyebrows furrowed and his jaw fell open in disbelief. So she flirted with him while checking out the woman that he was with? Unbelievable.

He protectively wrapped his arm around his date's waist and nearly pulled her in front of him to shield her from the curious eyes of the seductress.

What the hell had that been?

-

* https://www.vice.com/en/article/k7wnkn/celebrity-kpop-fans-parasocial-relationship-psycholoogy

*² Inviting someone to see someone's cat or come over to eat ramyeon is a way in which people in k-dramas ask their love interest to come to their place back with them. The closest term when it comes to meaning, as far as I'm concerned, would be invite someone over for 'netflix and chill'.