ARRANGED LOVE

Chapter 33

Jimin could feel his manager sinking into an eerily thoughtful silence.

Hyejin had, naturally, noticed Jimin was keeping an exceptionally low profile these days. The other members of BTS had all uniformly stated that they didn't know where Jimin had gone, so Hyejin assumed Jimin had simply gone home or something. She didn't give it much thought; when she asked where he was over the phone, it was only a formality.

She certainly hadn't expected to discover their popular boy band's lead dancer had been... taken home by someone else.

Hyejin had just finished watching the first episode of Escape Without a Trace, and she instantly recognized Taehyung's voice.

The popularity of their ship was still rising on Twitter with no end in sight. Hyejin had just been in the middle of worrying about how to control that rampant growth, and Jimin was out there delivering himself directly into Taehyung's hands.

No wonder the other four members of the group had kept their mouths shut about where Jimin had gone, adamantly insisting they didn't have a clue.

Originally, Hyejin had planned on praising Jimin for finally showing some natural charisma on a variety show. But it seemed that charm wasn't a sudden show of acting prowess at all, but rather... there really was something going on with these two.

Her first thought was that they absolutely could not allow the shippers to find out Taehyung and Jimin had met in private.

After taking a long, long moment to calm down, the manager said, "Mr Kim, thank you for looking after our Minnie. He must be inconveniencing you."

Taking Taehyung's status and family background into consideration, Hyejin had settled on a formal and respectful way of addressing him.

"There's no need for that, you can just call me Taehyung," Taehyung said from beside Jimin. "And it's not an inconvenience at all. Minnie has been very well-behaved."

Jimin was still holding the phone, silent.

The manager gave this some more thought before she said, "It would still be best for the two of you to spend some time apart. I'm sure you've seen the trending topics on Twitter already. It won't be good for either of you if these things spread too fast."

"I don't have a problem with it. My achievements aren't affected by anything but my personal skill," Taehyung said. In the esports world, only his wins mattered, and he had complete confidence in his own ability to stay on top. "As for Jimin, the persona your agency set up for him isn't a heartthrob. He isn't playing the part of everyone's dream boyfriend. Why should this be any cause for concern?"

Hyejin was dumbstruck. Jimin was very reasonable and easy to talk to, but it seemed Taehyung had no intentions of being reasonable at all. After he had said his piece, Hyejin had half a mind to get an assistant to fetch Jimin that very night. Obviously he needed to be rescued from the TMW club before Taehyung devoured him whole.

"Don't worry," Taehyung continued. "The club building is very safe, and you don't want to worry about my people. No one will sneak photos of us, and no one will go around telling people Jimin is here."

Jimin couldn't listen anymore. He had to speak up to do his part to reassure his manager. "Hye-jie, really, don't worry. I'll leave bright and early with Eunho tomorrow. I'm only here to do research for my script and my character, anyway. It's all for work. Don't worry, and go get some rest early today."

Hyejin was silent.

They were all telling her not to worry, but there was no way in hell she wouldn't worry.

The Kim family controlled several film, television, and media companies in the entertainment industry. They could do just about anything they wanted, and they could have anything they desired. Taehyung, it seemed, had set his eye on BTS's precious lead dancer and snatched him up faster than anyone could so much as blink.