Don't Call Me Angel || VMIN

τρία

Large display boards hung overhead, filled with information about boarding planes that lit up their screens. A smaller one off to the left directed new arrivals over to their luggage collection. This was the one Jimin, along with everyone else that had flown in with him, followed. It led them along a series of spacious corridors. He had to shield his eyes slightly against the bright white of the walls. It was clear, evidenced by the scent of fresh paint, that they'd recently been touched up, although this seemed unnecessary as they were covered by posters anyway.

Many of them depicted families relaxing on striped sun loungers with iced drinks and cocktails balanced precariously in their hands. Catchy slogans and phrases invited those reading to a series of select hotels in the area, worded well enough to distract everyone's eyes from the obscene prices printed in ridiculously small font on the corners of the pages. It was incredible, really, how many people actually bought into the marketing schemes and he assumed it was mainly due to the 'blissful weekends' and 'fine dining under the stars' that the trips promised.

As he looked around at the people rushing about him, trying not to lose each other amid the chaos, he found it hard to believe that any of them would manage to achieve that level of serenity on their holiday.

However, their frustrated shouts and unanswered orders failed to drown out the familiar pounding resonating from his chest. Mild panic washed over him when he remembered why he was there. It wasn't as though he had forgotten, there couldn't have been the slightest chance that it would slip his mind, his thoughts had just been conveniently distracted for a while. That oasis of distraction was over now, there was no more hiding from whatever was in store for him. It was almost ludicrous to imagine that not even twenty-four hours ago, he had been out from brunch with Hoseok, laughing at the shoppers bustling to and fro on the street outside while they dined on crêpes in a cute café.

He wouldn't have noticed them, his eyes would have merely skimmed passed them with his brain ready to filter them out as another part of the background chaos, if they hadn't been holding his two suitcases. Their metallic shells made them hard to miss amongst the sea of mundane colours.

Brows furrowing in confusion, he began to walk towards the two figures. The one on the right stood a head taller than his companion and was well-built. Body clad in a black suit with a pair of shades obscuring his eyes, he immediately appeared intimidating and Jimin slowed his pace ever so slightly. It wasn't until he was within a few metres of him that he noticed the thin wire of an earpiece looped under his collar and stopped completely.

Suddenly, it clicked. He let his gaze settle on the other. Even though she was a great deal shorter, the lack of height was made up for in the way she held herself. Her posture was so rigid, he wouldn't have been surprised if she had a metal rod in place of her spine, and it gave off an unpleasantly sterile feeling. It was clear she was the one in charge between the pair.

Everything about her looked professionally manicured and he would have been impressed by the neatness of her bangs, maybe even gone as far as complimenting them, but the eyes they failed to hide put him off. Her cold stare was one to rival that of his mother's. There was an unmistakable air of disapproval directed towards the younger. It took a moment for him to register its change and another to realise she was smiling at him; the taught pursing of her lips had been replaced by a flawless smile.

This sent a shiver running through him, how could someone change that quickly? However, he wasn't about to appear any less confident that his usual self, especially not in front of a couple of strangers, and his head lolled casually to the side. These strangers seemed to know exactly who he was, though. That and the abrupt change in the woman's demeanour deeply unsettled him.