Scent (BTS) - Complete

Chapter 1 - Pheromones

A/N - This started as a short story for my Chance Encounters one shots series which are up to about 6,000 words each chapter but it's going to be a longer story than that so here is chapter one in what is likely to be 4 to 6 chapters and 10,000 - 15,000 words all up. Hopefully I'll have it all posted by the end of April. Enjoy :)

Chapter 1 - Pheromones

I tucked my hair up in to a ponytail, then swept it into a bun, locking it closed with a hair pin. The day was going to be busy and I needed to get moving. Hair around my face would make me too warm, I knew from other years that a day like today meant it wouldn't stop from the time I walked out this door until probably tomorrow. It was going to be a long one.

Taking one last look in the bathroom mirror, I went back out into the office and grabbed the clipboard I needed to keep things on track. My reading glasses grabbed and perched on my nose, I sighed as I read my paperwork. I'd been assigned to artist escort, making sure some of the performers coming in to practice today would get from their dressing rooms to the stage and safely back. Sounds like a dream but my experience was a large chunk of artists thought they were more important than they actually were and I usually ended up with a headache after only a few hours. Still, the pay was great and we didn't have award ceremonies every day so it was just today for practices and tomorrow for the performances and I could go back to my mostly normal life again.

"Hey Charlie," I greeted my colleague as she walked past.

"It's only been ten minutes since I got here and I'm already regretting getting out of bed this morning," she replied, eyes big.

I laughed. This was her second year on staff, at least I had three more years on her here and knew what to expect. "It's OK, this time tomorrow we'll probably have had, I don't know, four hours sleep," I replied. She frowned, knowing it was probably true as I watched her race off to her tasks for the day.

My first artist wasn't too demanding. When I knocked on the door to let her know we were heading over to the stage to practice in five minutes, she only kept me waiting an additional 10 minutes so that wasn't a bad start all things considered, compared to last year. When she was safely back in her room, I knocked on the next door, a band I recognised the name of but wasn't familiar with as they were from Korea. Some of their staff opened the door and I mentioned we'd be leaving as soon as they were ready, preferably now and the staff spoke to the room causing lots of rustling noises from within as the band assembled. I was surprised that within two minutes, I had a group of young men looking at me expectantly, ready to follow me over to the stage. More than that, I was pleasantly surprised at how attractive they all were.

I didn't bother introducing myself. In my experience, the artists didn't care enough to remember so it was easier to just do my job and move onto the next ones. Looking down at my clipboard, I adjusted my glasses before looking up to be met by a sea of beautiful chocolate coloured eyes. "Right, ah, follow me if you're ready," I said and one spoke up.

"Of course, we're all ready to go now," and I smiled at his careful English as I started down the hallway, checking back to see they were all on their way, along with some of their staff. As we neared the venue, we had to cross a place where cars came and went and I came to a halt fairly suddenly when I saw a vehicle approaching, a build up of bodies stopping abruptly behind me, barely missing careening into me and each other.

"Sorry, we just have to wait until it's clear before we can go," I said over my shoulder, dangerously close to some of them. Only dangerous because up close, they were even more attractive and I guessed they were a similar age to myself. I was met by a nod and smile from the one who spoke English and I smiled back, noticing a cute dimple in his cheek.