12 It’s you again!

"(Excuse me miss!)" A man dressed in a white dress shirt and black pants walked over to the trio who turned their heads at the sudden nearby shout behind them.

They blinked in confusion at the man who began spewing a well-rehearsed speech and gesturing at Cindy before shoving a card in her hand, bowing, and walking away.

"Um… What was that?" The brunette stared blankly at the back of the man and the cars which was intelligibly in Korean. Iris took the card from her cousin's hand and tried deciphering the hangul.

After a minute's deliberation and some Google searches, Iris informed her, "This is a business card from an entertainment company. Or I should say, a card for potential trainees that scouts hand out."

Cindy cocked her head to the side. "You mean someone just tried recruiting me as a k-pop trainee?"

Iris laughed and returned the card to her cousin. "Yes! It looks like foreign looking trainees are starting to become popular after Produce 101 and Seventeen!"

"Oh you mean Jeon Somi and Vernon?"

"Yup! You're kinda similar to them after all!" Iris smacked her oddly slow at times cousin and continued walking.

Cindy followed after uttering a pensive, "Huh."

She never thought she would get a recruiting card since she always considered and thought Iris would be more likely in becoming a k-pop trainee. After all, she could sing, dance, and compose. She was the whole package. But in the end, visuals seem to come first in the eyes of others.

Now Iris was very pretty herself, but compared to Cindy, her cousin was on a different level. In the States, especially in California, the various ethnicities meant that people wouldn't be staring at Cindy as much as the Koreans were here. Additionally, Iris was disguised. So Cindy's bright, youthful face that had little makeup attracted attention.

After they finished their leisurely stroll through Hakdong Park, Iris returned to the Big Hit building while Cindy and Bella went grocery shopping. Before they split up, Cindy asked Iris if it would be all right to drop off some food at her dorm. Ever the lover of food, Cindy had been working on various Korean recipes at the hotel suite.

Iris thought it would be fine as long as she told the staff, so she gave the okay to her cousin. She knew that Cindy was a great cook, so it was too tempting of an offer. Worse case scenario, she'd have to run out and get it herself.

Returning to the entertainment headquarters, Iris decided to peek around the premises. She hadn't ventured around the fifth floor of Big Hit since moving in, so it seemed silly to not take the chance at seeing where BTS possibly trained and worked.

She soon found herself inside a huge room. It was the dance practice studio. Her eyes widened in awe at the place where BTS literally shed their blood, sweat, and tears. Of course, this room was still relatively new, so perhaps that was an overstatement.

Nevertheless, thrill and inspiration burst inside her heart, and she scurried into the room. After surveying the area including the hall, Iris thought it probably would be okay to use the room for a bit. And if anyone asked why she was in there, she'd just say she was trying a new way to compose by physically dancing.

Settling on this silly reason that no one would actually buy, Iris pranced to the front of the mirrors and bent her body forward to peer at herself and the whole room. Little squeals of delight escaped her body, and she began cavorting around the room ecstatically.

Soon those silly movements turned more serious as she tried practicing actual dance moves from previous k-pop covers she had done. Satisfied with the large space and wall of mirrors, Iris decided to visit the dance practice room more often.

Thus in this manner, she spent the rest of the day in the room and returned the following two days without anyone ever telling her not to otherwise. Her composition actually did improve due to the amount of inspiration which flowed from being in that space. She was so engrossed on this third day that she nearly didn't even realize that someone had finally entered the room while she was in it.

"(Oh? Someone's dancing already in here? Did we get new trainees?)" In the dim lighting, J-Hope only briefly made out a silhouette in front of the mirrors.

"(Hm? There's someone inside dancing?)" Jimin stood upon on his tiptoes to see around J-Hope who had blocked the door as he opened it and halted upon seeing the stranger.

Although he didn't know what was going on, J-Hope walked toward the black clothed person who looked awfully petite as he got nearer.

"Annyeong!"

The cheerful sound of a person's voice made Iris jolt and nearly trip over her feet in surprise. She peered deeper into the mirror and made eye contact with J-Hope through it.

"Oh?!" The two pointed at one another through the mirror with wide eyes.

"Iris-ssi!" J-Hope called out and smiled brightly.

"Annyeong J-Hope!" Iris politely turned around and bowed. And then seeing Jimin right behind she repeated the same to him.

Jimin eye-smiled and waved cutely at her in a somewhat shy fashion. "Hat girl! Jal jinaesseoyo?"

"Naega jal haeyo!" Iris responded she was well to Jimin's question on how she had been doing. She found the little nickname of hers to be quite endearing. Who couldn't resist being called by a personal nickname like that by BTS?

"Dance?" J-Hope tried his best at conversing with her and followed up his question with a little jive.

Seeing his funny dance, Iris giggled and nodded. "Ne!"

"Ah!" Jimin looked like he just thought of something smart. "Lez danze?"

Iris had to stifle the "pft" that almost burst out at Jimin's adorable accent in his attempt at English. She seriously couldn't get used to conversing with BTS like this. It was just too precious.

"Ne ne!" Iris jump-spun 180 degrees and planted her feet firmly on the ground in front of the mirror. She looked over at the two members in anticipation. They joined her and began discussing what to dance.

"Jjeoreo!?" J-Hope suggested.

Iris nodded enthusiastically and positioned herself in the starting pose at the chorus. Following her lead, they began dancing and singing along to the lyrics.

"Iris-ssi! Verry good!" J-Hope complimented with a thumbs up in the middle of the bridge part. He was genuinely impressed by the girl's technical dancing which was fluid, practiced, and neat. And she was also able to maintain her vocals too.

"Ahh! Yes yes!" Jimin piped up in accord, not wanting to miss out on talking to the girl.

Iris laughed heartily, "Gamsahamnida!"

Just as they were about to finish the song, two more members burst into the room shouting, "(Hobie~! We're having a mee—)" They stopped dead in their tracks at the scene before them.

Taehyung was the first to speak. "Hat girl!" He bent his knees slightly while pointing at her in an excited manner.

Iris beamed and waved at the typical quirky V reaction. 'It looks like that's going to be my name from now on instead of my actual name. At least, with these two.' She glanced over at Jimin before looking at the person behind Taehyung. It was Jungkook.

Meeting the maknae for the first time face to face while conscious, Iris courteously bowed. She was really starting to pick up the Korean's habit of bowing.

"Hello! I'm Jungkook!" said the Golden Maknae proudly with an edge of bashfulness.

'Gyah~! Those bunny teeth!' Iris internally shrieked before replying cheerily, "Annyeonghaseyo! Iris-imnida. Bangawoyo!"

She found it rather funny how the native Korean speaker spoke in English while the native English speaker spoke in Korean. By the end of this job, she hoped both sides would be able to speak in just Korean.

Although Iris was still far from fluent, she had been diligent in her Korean language studies since she last saw the BTS members. So she wanted to surprise them all as a group when they eventually headed to the recording studio.

And it just happened to be that Namjoon had sent Taehyung and Jungkook to get Hoseok and Jimin. The group was going to have a meeting with Bang PD. In case Iris was going to be called with them, she accompanied them to Bang Shihyuk's office.