31 A Night to Remember

Hyun-woo came out of the restaurant after paying and stood beside Min-soo, "Young Master where would you like to go now?"

"Drop me off by the bar in Hongdae, I think Nam-joon is probably free."

"Right away, Young Master." Hyun-woo responded, as he left to bring the car up.

Thinking about it, it had been almost a month since Min-soo had been transported to this world. The day he woke up was August 1 and now it was the 30th, the 8th of September was Ji-eun's birthday and the 12th was Nam-joon's. He wondered whether Nam-joon had any plans for his 21st birthday.

It had actually only been a month. Yet the number of things that had happened, made it feel like a long year. A whole new life, a whole new purpose and a whole new set of responsibilities. But Min-soo was thoroughly enjoying it.

He genuinely felt excited for the future. He hoped to quickly find the other members of BTS and begin his plan to dominate the world. Or something like that.

Min-soo felt the car come to a stop and he looked up to see the familiar lights of the bars in Hongdae. The hustle and bustle of students and workers going for drinks after work, all added to the cultured ambience.

Getting out of the car, Min-soo gave Hyun-woo the rest of the night off, before walking down the familiar street to find Nam-joon.

Seeing the usual guard on duty, Min-soo let out a breath of relief, it appeared Nam-joon was in. He gave him a nod as the guard opened the door and made way for Min-soo to enter.

"Thank you. How long's Nam-joon been here for?" Min-soo inquired.

"About three hours now, Mr Lee."

"Take care."

"Thank you, sir." The guard responded politely.

Min-soo walked into the bar and found it uncharacteristically quiet. The bartender nodded in acknowledgement and pointed to a door to the side. He could see the faint light emitted under the door and walked towards it.

As he turned the handle, Min-soo suddenly paused as he heard the soft, faint voice of someone that sounded all so familiar, yet he just could not place where he had heard it before.

He was singing a popular ballad song that had come out a few years back. The sad and dulcet tones lulled Min-soo into a strange state, in this semi-conscious state, he slowly pushed the door open and as a crack emerged, Min-soo got a better feel for the singer and the emotions.

Min-soo continued to listen to the singing as he hung onto the door. Lost in his emotions, he failed to realise that the song had already finished and almost fell as the door swung open heavily. Greeting him was none other than the grinning face of Nam-joon.

"Aye, Min-soo-yah what are you doing here today? Since when did you get back?" Nam-joon asked excitedly as he pulled Min-soo inside.

Just as Min-soo was about to answer Nam-joon's question, he noticed there was another person inside the room. His first impression was, tall. His lanky build only accentuated this, even though Nam-joon was tall, with his stockier build it looked proportionate.

Whereas this stranger… Min-soo took a second look at the face.

"Aish!" Min-soo swore. It was another member of BTS. Fate. Luck. Or whatever it was to be called was being far too kind to him.

"Eh? Why are you swearing Min-soo?" Seeing where Min-soo, no, who Min-soo was looking at Nam-joon quickly introduced.

"Ah, this is my cousin Kim Seok-jin, uh, this is Min-soo."

Seok-jin put out his hand and Min-soo still a little shocked unconsciously followed the motions by shaking his hand. To which Seok-jin only put on a slightly puzzled and embarrassed expression. Min-soo followed where the hand was extended to and saw that there was a water bottle in that direction.

Min-soo felt incredibly embarrassed as he realised that Seok-jin had not been going for a handshake but had been looking to take a sip of water from his bottle.

"Haha. Min-soo, what's with you today?" Nam-joon asked as he continued to laugh at Min-soo.

"Um, Ji-, sorry hyung was it you who sang that song just then?" Min-soo asked with enthusiasm.

Taken aback slightly, Seok-jin responded with a little hesitation, "Yes? Did you like it?"

"Yes, very much. It was very good. Could you sing another song for me?" Min-soo requested.

Nam-joon a little surprised by Min-soo's response quickly jumped in, "Min-soo you just got here, quick take a seat, grab something to drink or eat. Hyung's only just finished, let him rest a bit, yeah? Anyways, why are you here at this time?"

Heeding Nam-joon's advice, Min-soo took a seat as did the other two. The room that they were in was a karaoke room that had been specially created upon Nam-joon's request.

"Well, I got back late yesterday afternoon. Gramps asked me to come back earlier and I came directly from Kwang-sik's restaurant after we had lunch there together."

"Oh? Let me guess, another lunch with a beautiful woman?" Nam-joon asked mischievously.

A little surprised at how accurate his guess was, Min-soo asked suspiciously, "What do you mean?"

"Hehe, so you're the mysterious big shot that is to attend Lee Ji-eun's 18th birthday?"

"Hm? How do you know I am attending? Are you going?" Min-soo reacted a little defensively.

"Haha. For those that know you, it's not too hard to guess that it was you. With all the rumours floating about, it was simple for me to narrow it down. Anyway, who isn't going is a better question. In fact, Seok-jin hyung came into Seoul because he is attending too. You might not know it, but their Lee family has quite the connections, after all, the people your Grandfather would especially take time out to have lunch with, would definitely not be normal. I think they're family is in the logistics industry. So, you can expect the party to be a boisterous affair. Quite a few people are calling it the event of the year." Nam-joon ranted passionately.

Min-soo sat and listened as he absorbed the information and thought deeply about the ramifications of his attendance of the party. The more he thought about it, the more he realised he was overthinking things. In fact, it would be more of a statement if he did not attend. But the possibility of that was almost zero, bar some extenuating life-death crisis.

Meanwhile Nam-joon sidled up to Seok-jin and asked quietly, "Don't you think Min-soo's been a bit weird ever since he saw you, do you know each other?"

Feeling a little distressed Seok-jin responded a little worried, "No. I don't think we've ever met before. Do you think he doesn't like me?"

"Nah. I think you're overthinking things now hyung, Min-soo's not that type of guy. Oh well, we'll get it out of him eventually." Nam-joon responded unworried.

Min-soo snapped out of his thoughts and heard Nam-joon whispering to Seok-jin and butted in without a care. "Oi, Nam-joon, what are you going to do for your birthday?"

"Ah. Um, nothing?" he answered unconcerned.

"Really? That's not like you, your family not throwing anything either?" Min-soo asked suspiciously.

"Yeah, I asked them not to do anything this time. I want to focus more on our joint venture. Oh, speaking about it, well I need a favour from you. Um, well, would you help Seok-jin hyung out too? Can he join us?" Nam-joon asked a little cautiously.

Seok-jin looked at Min-soo with a slightly guarded expression, as if he was expecting nothing else but a rejection. Min-soo smiled in mirth at his response and decided to give him some good news then and there.

"Sure."

Taken aback, Seok-jin and Nam-joon looked at Min-soo in shock. "Really?" Seok-jin asked first.

"Really."

"Thank you. Thank you. I won't let you down." Seok-jin responded passionately.

"Uh, it's good you have confidence in me, but really it's going to be down to your own hard work and perseverance. It's not going to be all rainbows and sunshine. Know that walking down this path will not be easy, even with me backing you." Min-soo lectured in an attempt to ground his expectations.

Unsurprisingly, Seok-jin responded in a mature manner, "No problem. I understand. I just need a chance."

Nam-joon was very happy and ran out to grab some more drinks. He returned with two cases of soju and quickly cracked them open.

"Come, come, let's celebrate. Drink up."

Min-soo and Seok-jin enthusiastically joined in.

The night was one Min-soo, Nam-joon and Seok-jin would remember for a long time. Filled with the bad jokes of Nam-joon and Min-soo's sloppy, drunk singing, fortunately it was remedied by Seok-jin's powerful vocals even while intoxicated.