The Artist and His Muse

Chapter 3

Edited

Jungkook sat sipping on a cup of tea in the coffee shop around the corner from the company building.  He glanced at his watch.  He had five minutes till she was supposed to arrive.  He relaxed a bit and doodled on his sketch pad. 

A moment later, his peaceful thoughts were interrupted by a chair being drug away from the table.  He glanced up and there she was, frozen under his gaze.

"Yeon Ah, you're early," he said grimly, closing up his sketch book.

"Yes, sir.  I like to be a bit early."  She bowed and then sat down in the chair.   She stared at the table top.

"I asked you to drop the 'sir' and honorifics.  How old are you," he asked curiously.

"Twenty-five."

"Ah, so just a bit younger than myself.  Ok.  Well, here's what I would like to do.  I would like to see if there would be enough interest to set up an exhibition.  Do you have any suggestions on how to do that?" He knew very well that various SNS sites were perfect for this but he wanted to see if she came to the same conclusion and he was not disappointed. 

"Well, we could spread around some SNS and see what kind of reactions we get.  It's going to be important to build up a base following before we do anything big." She paused and looked up at him, only to quickly direct her eyes to the table top again.

Jungkook's eyes widened in surprise.  She had gone all business mode on him and then immediately returned to her mousy self.  What was this woman?

"Oooookay, if you could get on that, I think that would be a good start."  He reached into the sketch book and pulled out a few.  "Let's start with these."  He handed her the sketches and she gasped.

"Sir-"

"Ah ah, no 'sir'.  Please." He grimaced at the word, sir.

"I'm sorry.  Uh...I think these are really good.  You have considerable talent si-," she immediately clamped her mouth shut.

"Jungkook.  My name is Jungkook.  That's all you have to say is Jungkook.  Ok?" He sighed slightly out of frustration.  This was not boding well for their working relationship. "Try saying it."

"Saying what," she said in a distant tone.

"My name." He leaned forward, resting his arms criss-cross on the table in front of him.  He felt a bit of satisfaction when she moved slightly back and away from him. 

"Oh...uh...Jung...Jungkook," she finally managed to say.

"Better.  Practice it.  I much prefer my name over the term 'sir'.  Okay, let me know when you get those up, I would like to keep an eye on them."

"Ok," was all she said.

Jungkook narrowed his eyes at her, pondering a person who could react so strangely to him.  Giving up, he stood and stepped around the table.  "I'll leave you to it then."  Picking up his sketch book and backpack, he left.

Yeon Ah sat there in mortified silence.  She flung her forehead down onto the table and groaned.  This was not starting out well. 

She had been working for BigHit for a little over a month.  She had hired in as an entry level employee which meant, mail room.  Fan mail to be exact.  An outsider never really knew the amount of fan mail members of BTS received on a daily basis.   It was sheer mountains of fan mail.  Letters, packages, post cards.  All of it needing to be weeded through and sorted out to the appropriate member.  Blatant hate mail to mild hate mail, border line sasaeng to full blown sasaeng, envelopes neatly addressed, to envelopes with the ink smudged in places from a fan's tears.  She had definitely gained experience in the Kpop fandom world.