When Two Unlikely Worlds Meet, Seokjin x Normani

Chapter Twelve

It was two weeks since Jin had returned to South Korea, both their schedules had been extremely packed with events and recording music. They had kept their promise to continue working on her Korean lessons three days per week and Normani was making good progress. They winded up having daily conversations for sometimes five or ten minutes if that was all they could do at the time. After the initial embarrassment at having been caught being thoroughly kissed by Jin, Normani was now able to laugh at the whole incident, she could not stop chiding herself for acting like a high schooler about the whole thing at first. Normani shared the incident account with her best friend, whom after the initial shock of it all, given her dating history and past experiences being mostly platonic in nature, was quick to ask how serious she was about the relationship. Normani disclosed how she felt secure around him, was comfortable talking about any topic or sharing concerns on any subject with him. Her best friend then said, "I think this time you could get in trouble with this guy, you are glowing and look like, if not already, are on your way to falling in love with him, girl..." She paused after that to stare at Normani blushing while recalling something Jin had said on the last conversation they had had not truly listening to her. "You really are in trouble Normani, don't let your manager find out, you are still working on your debut album remember?" She questioningly remarks with a small smile settling on her face. Normani agrees with the advice her best friend gives paying little attention to the specifics of the entire conversation. Recently, it had become easy to remain distracted during different conversations or discussions held around or directed towards her, her mind would become pre-occupied with thoughts about previous conversations with Jin. She made a mental note to try and get her focus back on track, as releasing the debut album needed to be the topmost priority for the moment.

It was meant to be confidential, but Normani was also working on releasing a solo song on a major award show soon, closely followed by a couple of collaborations on songs she had been diligently working on for the past four months. She was nervous, and yet excited about what the reception to these projects from fans and the general public would be. Naturally, a cautious person and at times this impacted the speed with which she would surrender projects she worked on to be viewed by others. This would include viewing just for critical input to assist with solidifying its creative direction. This time there was no holding back opportunity, she needed to work on getting the performance piece ready for the award show and release the songs that were lined up for it. As excruciating as the pain was that she experienced physically while training at times, the grueling practice schedule was designed to perfect the end product viewed by the fans. Normani was determined to stay her course and deliver her best performance. If she had learned anything from years of watching and following her personal entertainment role model Beyonce, it was to never leave anything to chance, always working harder to perfect her craft, room for improvement never ended. If she could do something better, than why not push it to its best level of accomplishment instead.

The reception to the solo song performance and the release of the collaboration projects that followed went phenomenal. It was overwhelming to see the outpour of support from places and countries she had not even imagined would be potential sources for a fan base. Normani took a week after the award show to head home to Houston, to enclose herself in deep meditation and prayer, letting her manager handle the responses to the media outlets wanting to feed the public frenzy the projects had unleashed. Normani had asked Jin to cancel their lessons the week prior to the award show and let him know she would remain out of communication with him for at least three weeks to a month from that call. A personal decision she made to assist with sharpening her focus, minimizing any potential distractions as she prepared for the award show and songs release. It was also so that she wouldn't make a slip, disclosing the plans her company and team had lined up. After spending a week at home and jumping back into the media spotlight, more time was spent doing interviews and updating social media accounts for the complete album release updates, which had a tentative date set for it in place, all without disclosing the exact details. The plan was to resume her Korean lessons when her schedule eased up and perhaps take a short vacation prior to the album release.