Shae scanned the room for the refreshments table.

Spotted.

She weaved her way through the throng of bodies dressed in black luxury, up to the long skinny table with a flowing white tablecloth fluttering in the breeze. There were three separate bowls of delicious smelling liquid with pre-poured drinks arranged around them. Each set had a pale hint of different color in them: pink, purple and green.

Which to choose?

"I recommend the pink if you're looking for something mild," a bored voice stated in her direction. Shae looked to her right and a very short, very stern, and very disinterested looking man with buzzed black hair stood there giving her a relatively blank look. He held a crystal glass of the pale green liquid and gave it a sip. He was definitely older than her, Shae thought, and yet he had a childlike face.

"Uh, thanks." Shae reached for a crystal glass that had already been poured full of the pink-tinged liquid. She held it up and wafted the smell in front of her. It smelled like a Starburst candy in a cup. "Ooooo...."

"You're Joonie's girl, aren't you."

Shae debated giving the drink a sip or not, still unsure. "I came with him, if that's what you mean."

"Ah, so it's like that," he said lazily, as if he could really care less. "Well, my name's Dee-Oh. Some people call me Doh, but I prefer Dee-Oh. I like your dress."

"Uh, thank you. Dee-Oh." Even when he gave her a compliment, his voice remained flippant. "Are you here with anyone?"

"No. I find the business of escorts to be quite a bore. They always want to fall in love, but I don't have time for that nonsense, so I left mine down at the casino areas." He sipped his drink again, his haugty eyes surveying the room.

"Oh. A common problem for leaders and their escorts then?"

"For some. Depends on your disposition, I suppose. Take that girl over there in the glittery black dress, the one with the giant bow on her ass. That's Jenni, and she's the leader of Sonnee Fortress. She's MADLY in love with her escort from some godforsaken planet called Earth. I mean, can you imagine?"

"Oh?" Shae found this Dee-Oh simultaneously repellant and fascinating.

"Or then there's that guy over there wearing the sunglasses. He's more the five ladies on each arm type in public, but anyone who's anyone knows that he's actually in love with his secretary. They have a kid and everything."

Dee-Oh's tone of voice dripped condescension, but Shae thought the man he spoke of looked friendly enough.

Temptation prompted her, and she simply couldn't say no. "So what do people say about Yoongi and Hoseok?"

Dee-Oh turned to Shae, the corner of his mouth barely flickering into a smile. "You naughty, naughty girl. You want to know Joon's dirty laundry, don't you?"

Shae was kicking herself for being so vulnerable with someone she'd only just met. Especially someone who clearly liked to gossip.

"Fret not, you innocent young fawn. Joon's had his passing flings, but nothing as captivating as I hear things are between the two of you."

"What?" This comment nearly toppled her. She needed to down all of this drink to recover, she thought, but she didn't want to lose her head in the presence of this strange man.

"Most people deal in goods. I can do that too, but I'm much better at dealing in secrets. And let me just say," he looked Shae up and down pointedly, his dull eyes bearing right through the tight folds of her black minidress, "that if it's secrets you're looking for, I'm the man for the job. But that kind of information will cost you."

"Cost?"

Dee-Oh may have been short, but Shae was the one who felt small as he took a subtle step towards her, leaning his back between her and the table next to them as if he were reaching for a glass and she were in his way. His hand moved, and it made a subtle swipe against the bare skin of her thigh while his blank eye's watched her blushing face. "I consider myself the highest quality stock. Therefore, I only accept the best quality goods as payment. And you just happen to fit into that price range. You should feel honored."

It may have been easy for Ava to respond in such a situation with a smack to the cheek or a toss of a cold drink in the offending slimeball's face, but Shae was different. She went deer-in-the-headlights instead.

"Here." Dee-Oh took Shae's wrist firmly in his hand and yanked her closer to him.

"Don't...!"

He held up his opposite wrist to where he held her hand, and Shae watched as their similar black wrist bands flickered little lights of recognition as they rested next to each other a moment. Then he let her hand go, and she took a step away from him with her arm tucked into her chest defensively.

"Now you have my contact information. All you have to do is say my name into your band, and I'll respond and be ready to make a deal. At your leisure." Dee-Oh's gaze swept up and down Shae again.

"I thought I smelled a piece of shit," a bright yet biting voice tore into their moment, making Shae and Dee-Oh turn.

The red haired intruder walked into their conversation with all the robust swagger in his voice and his walk that Dee-Oh lacked. He and Dee-oh commenced a stare down, Dee-Oh's of bored disinterest and Jung Hoseok's of amused superiority. Shae could feel the electric malice that was charging through the air between them.

Dee-Oh downed the rest of his green drink then set his glass on the refreshment table next to him. He began to smooth down the front of his suit jacket slowly. "Here to serve us refreshments, servant boy? If so, I'd like something a bit stronger than this fare, to be able to stomach your tedious company."

Hoseok's tone of voice remained bright and playful, making his words that much more foreboding as he said, "I'll be glad to serve you something that'll knock you straight on your ass if you don't get the fuck lost, Doh boy." Then Hoseok swaggered forward and grabbed Dee-Oh so casually by the lining of his suit jacket you'd have thought he was about to simply adjust the seams. Instead, he shoved the tiny man backwards just hard enough to make his point but not hard enough to knock Dee-Oh over.

"Until we meet again, Lady Shae," Dee-oh said flatly. Then he stalked away, as aloof as if nothing had ever transpired between them.

Hoseok walked up and gruffly pawed the pink drink from Shae's hand, then held it up to his nose and sniffed. "I should've dropped him," he mumbled, then he slowly poured the contents of the drink onto the floor of the box suite between them, taking his sweet time and sliding the cup up and down in the air until its contents were completely drained. He set the glass top-down onto the table with a thud.

"What was in the drink?" Shae asked.

One of Hoseok's hands trailed up his neck to massage the tension out of it. Her soft, delicate demeanor triggered his memory: he recalled her laughter mingled with his during their brief training day, before things had turned south. He may not have had the words for it, but as he'd been spying on Shae and De-Oh across the room just then, he couldn't help but notice Shae's careful and kind manner—or her dress and the alluring shape of her in it—and feel as if he'd been momentarily struck.

Hoseok swallowed. Eyes on the prize. "Just the kind of truth serum you'd expect from a sewer rat playing tricks. It wouldn't have killed you."

"I didn't think you of all people would be bothered either way on my behalf." Shae had categorized Hosoek into a space in her brain that was reserved for 'people that want me dead.' It was a short list, but it held plenty of weight nonetheless. The anxiety and sleeplessness she'd experienced at the mere memory of him drawing a blade to her throat made her skin crawl and her stomach turn.

"You're right. I wouldn't." Hoseok slipped his hands into his brightly colored suit pants pockets. "But somehow I hate him more than I hate you. And that's saying a lot."

"I guess I'll take that as a compliment."

"Do whatever you want with it. I really couldn't care less."

A weighty silence fell between them.

"Did you come interrupt Dee-Oh for a reason, or...?"

Like déjà vu, he leaned towards her with a barely-there smirk playing at the edge of his mouth and reached for her wrist where her black band rested.

He was taller, and had such...presence...that instead of cringing away from him there was something in her that felt pulled into his orbit. His grip on her wrist was relatively light and casual, even while the look in his eyes falling over her face was dark and devious.

He leaned down, and for a moment Shae thought he might be trying to kiss her hand.

Instead, his bright and playful voice spoke at her wristband as if speaking into a hidden microphone.

"'Sup, Jin hyungie, my kinky fairy friend. I know you're dropping some eaves. I've got your golden girl here. Make sure you tell Joonie that I'm eye fucking her by the refreshments table to my heart's content while he's too busy on the veranda kissing ass." Shae registered that Hoseok's gaze was actually turned towards where Joon was conversing in the crowd, not on her. "Tell him he better hurry up with schmoozing Elani before my hands catch up to my eyes." Just as suddenly as he taken it, he let her wrist go, and Shae quickly stepped back from him and began rubbing her wrist where his hand had been.

At the slightest hint of Joonie's slicked back white hair moving towards them through the crowd, Shae looked to her left again—except that just as quickly as he'd appeared, Jung Hoseok had vanished.

He was just toying with them, Shae realized. Or more specifically, with Kim Namjoon.

"Are you alright?"

Joon noticed that Shae was rubbing at her wrist where Hoseok had held her. His eyes swept over the crowd, a snarl on his face.

"Yes, I'm fine. He didn't do anything to me. Not really. Now this other guy, Dee-Oh...."

Joon slid his hand forcefully into Shae's and his face loomed low and close to her own. His voice was slightly menacing as he said, "For the rest of today, you're not leaving my side. Got it?"

Shae suddenly felt very small. "Got it."

She heard him mutter Chimin's name under his breath, and something about "that damn dress."