Recognize her

"Throw them out!" The first female staff ordered others and they started to move close to them. 'What should we do now? Think, Tiara! Think! I can't let them throw us out… It will be insulting not to mention there are reporters outside which won't be good for my career which isn't even started yet if they kick us out in front of them! Ugh! Think!!' Tiara started to pressure her brain to work.

"Hey hey, wait!!" Tiara yelled at the staff who were coming to capture them and spread both arms to stop them at their spot. She fake coughed while her friends were looking at her in the hope that she may have an idea to get out of that messy situation. "Didn't you recognize me?" Tiara asked the staff and pointed her index figure at herself showing her face correctly to let them see her face properly.

They paused and looked at her with confusion on their faces trying to figure out. "God! Miss Zombie!" A male staff screamed in shock with large eyes and everyone processed what he said looking at Tiara carefully. 'I hate this name! I hate that I am taking advantage of the past. I hate this situation and I hate this hotel with its employees!' Tiara hated everything that was happening but still managed to fake a smile. Everyone realized who she was and seemed a little calmer than before.

"Okay, But what are you doing here?" The same lady as before questioned her. "I'm here to meet them." Tiara answered her truly with innocence. "Are they expecting you to meet them?" She asked Tiara doubtfully and smirked at her. "Uhmm…No, I wanted to surprise them." Tiara lied confidently. "Sorry, But you can't meet them without their permission. You should go." She informed Tiara with a teasing hidden in her voice and gestured for her to go.

"I am not going before meeting them." Tiara said confidently and stood straight after getting the lady's sarcasticness and teasing. "You can't. Please, Show them the way out." She gestured for others to take Tiara and her friends out. "Don't touch us! I am calling them and I know they will come here to get me!" Tiara stopped them to come near herself and her friends again while her friends were startled by what their friend said.

"But you said you don't have their numbers." Charu whispered to Tiara worriedly and confusingly. "Did you lie?" She asked her. "No, I don't have their numbers but I can try to contact them through their social media, right?" Tiara whispered to her and pulled her phone out of her pocket. 'Who should I call? KR? Vin? JJ? Sam?... Joy!? Yes, Joy! He is always on his phone… so there's more chances for him to notice my calls and messages." She thought as she typed Joy's name on the search bar of her social media app.

She hurriedly tapped on the message button after reaching her page and started to type something in a hurry while everyone was looking at her impatiently. 'Joy! It's me. Tiara! I wanted to meet you all but the staff stopped me! I am in the hotel's lobby right now! Please Come fast or else they are going to throw me out of the hotel! I don't want to get insulted.' She messaged him in a hurry and wished he would notice her username and name on social media and read her message on time. "You were calling them." The lady said impatiently. "Yeahh…" Tiara nodded and clicked on the call button hesitantly.

Joy was sitting on his hotel room's bed peacefully and scrolling through reels to be updated with what was going on with their fandom but he noticed another message request pop up on the screen. The notification said 'Tiara wants to send you a message.' He sighed in disgust at it because lots of girls approached them using her name since they lost contact with her.

He didn't like how people were pretending to be her just to get them to reply to them. 'Why can't they stop using her name to message us? Do they think we are dumb to reply to them just because they named their social media Tiara?' Joy thought and continued to scroll through reels. 'But… what if it's really her? I should check the message at least…' He had second thoughts and considered checking out the message.

He opened the messages section to open the message request and opened her chat. 'Joy! It's me. Tiara! I wanted to meet you all but the staff stopped me! I am in the hotel's lobby right now! Please Come fast or else they are going to throw me out of the hotel! I don't want to get insulted.' He read her message carefully, his eyebrows knitted together. 'No greetings. No sweet words. Ordering tone. The confidence in claiming to be Tiara… It can be her.' He was struggling to choose if he should trust the message and go to the lobby or not when he saw a call coming on his phone.

'Only one way to find if it's her or not.' Joy thought and picked up the call quickly. "It's me! Tiara! Come fast!" She yelled at him over the call and he recognized her voice instantly because he could recognize it anywhere, The commanding tone with sweetness and coming straight to the point right away. He jumped out of the bed and ran towards the lift to go down.

'She is here. She is here to meet us! She is waiting for me in the lobby… wait, She said they are about to throw her out of the hotel. I have to hurry! I am coming, my little friend. Don't worry! I swear to god if they touch you even a bit!' He was happy yet, concerned that he may be late. "Hello? Joy!?? Say something!" Tiara yelled at him through the call when she didn't hear anything from his side and he was already inside the lift. "Ma'am, You are wasting our time. They don't want to meet you!" The lady reasoned with her but Joy didn't understand what she said as she was speaking in Hindi but he could tell that it wasn't something nice or welcoming.

"I am… coming." Joy screamed through the call inside the lift. Tiara took a breath of relief and looked at the lady in front of her, There was a smirk on Tiara's lips but the smirk on the lady's face was nowhere to be found anymore. Everyone heard Joy as the call was on speaker and Tiara was smirking at the lady in front of her who was glaring at her, jealousy is such a thing that looks ugly on everyone.

Soon, A ding sound came from the nearby lift indicating that someone had come to the ground floor and everyone's gazes turned to the lift's direction as they knew who it could be. Joy came out of the lift in a hurry as if his life was on the line and he looked around to know where he should go until his eyes fell on the people surrounding the small figure that he knew very well. He ran towards them and shoved Tiara inside his arms, covering her small body with his huge one.

She and everyone were surprised at his sudden action but he was ignoring everything around him, he could only see her, feel her, and hear her breaths. He ignored the hotel's staff, Tiara's friends, or the reporters at the main entrance gate who were surprised but amazed by the new juicy news in front of them. The reporters started to click pictures of Joy and Tiara close to each other.

The reporters screamed once they realized that it was Miss Zombie in front of them who was in Joy's embrace. They were screaming 'Miss Zombie!' 'Oh my god, It's Miss Zombie!' 'Take good pictures, it's going to be huge news!' 'Wow, Are they lovers?' 'I can't believe she came into the spotlight again after hiding for many months!' The reporters were shocked at her sudden appearance in front of the camera again. They knew it would be bigger news than Joy hugging any girl because it was Miss Zombie who stayed with them, kissed one of their members, and killed lots of zombies in Aglos. The same huge worldwide celebrity who disappeared intentionally for months and decided to come back like this.

"I miss you!" Joy whispered to Tiara not ready to let her get away from him. She smiled and patted his back giving him comfort. "I missed you too." She replied to him in a low voice and subtly pushed him away from her because she was aware of the world around them, She knew what could it do if they didn't pull away from each other. She was feeling nervous but she knew she had to present herself casually like it was not new for her in order to make it less kind of juicy news.

Tiara gave him a smile to let him know that she was okay with the hug while he did the same realizing what he did but his eyes shifted to the hotel's staff who were looking at them with surprised faces and his facial expression changed into an irritated one. "Who was throwing her out?" He asked the staff in rage daring them to even touch her. "We are sorry. We thought that they were breaking in to invade your privacy." The lady who kept asking a question to Tiara said in a sweet voice. He groaned in anger and glared at her after he recognized her voice that he heard over the call, He knew she was the one who was trying to cause trouble to Tiara.

He circled his right arm around Tiara's shoulders to pull her toward himself and glared at the lady "She is my friend!" He said in a heavy strong male voice to scare her off and she looked at him with horror scared to lose her job.

Tiara looked at her friends whose jaws dropped after seeing Joy in front of them. They couldn't believe their idol whom they thought they wouldn't be able to meet in their whole life was standing before them taking a stand for them. Joy's expression softened when he turned his head to look at Tiara beside him and gestured for her to come with him by titling his head and starting to drag her away. "Wait." Tiara stopped him from dragging her away and he looked at her with confusion and knitted his eyebrows.

"They are my friends." She pointed her index finger at her friends who were speechless. He made an O face and smiled at them freezing them at their spot with their mind because they couldn't think what they should do. "Come" He said with a soft voice totally different than the tone he used with the staff lady and Tiara smiled gesturing her friends to follow them while Joy started to drag Tiara to the lift.

"We missed you!" Joy said in a loud excited voice and hugged Tiara again more tightly than before. There was no air between them, He wasn't thinking much when he pulled her to himself but he realized how close they were afterwards. Tiara was too stunned to speak anything, She knew she had to say something but didn't know what but she knew he was excited to meet her again when he didn't even expect it. They knew they had to pull away from each other to avoid the awkwardness that was growing second by second between them but they didn't, they couldn't pull out from the strong hug.

Tiara didn't feel uncomfortable between his arms because it was lustless but loveful, Her head was on his chest letting her hear his heartbeats which soothed her thoughts.. She felt comforted but she knew her friends were watching them and there could be a camera inside the lift as well which could capture them like that. "Yeah…" Tiara said in a low voice and shoved Joy subtly to stand straight to avoid any awkward moment and stares from her friends.

"We are Souls!" Prachi said cheerfully to avoid the awkwardness inside the lift. "Nice to meet you." Joy said shyly and gave a smile to Prachi. The silence took place after the smiles that were passed to each other, and awkwardness, and nervousness inside everyone. 'Gosh, What an uncomfortable situation. Should I say something or not? I don't know what to even say.' Tiara was thinking about how to end the silence inside the elevator.

'It feels different to meet him after a long time, he doesn't feel like the same Joy I knew. Maybe he always sent the famous person vibes but I didn't realize before or maybe lots of things changed around him after we parted ways. Who knows. He is sending mature vibes rather than a boy crazy about filming everything around him now but to be honest, I liked his cheerful and weird personality even if it brought me lots of trouble. Did I do right by coming to meet them? What if they don't want to meet me?' Tiara was lost in her thoughts despite the awkwardness in the lift while others were still smiling weirdly at each other.

Tiara came out of her thoughts when she heard a ding sound with a little shake on the surface of the lift telling her that they reached their desired floor. "I will call others." Joy said waving his phone slowly while getting out of the lift. "Okay." Tiara replied to him shortly with a smile. He called other TR-X members in a conference call and waited for them to pick up but his steps didn't stop from walking to his room.

He gestured for Tiara to follow him softly and started to move toward his room but his eyes were fixed on her not letting her go out of his eyesight for even a second. He was having a mixture of emotions including happiness, scared, nervousness, and overwhelmed. Happy because she came to meet them while they got a chance to meet her again, Scared because of losing her all over again, and then end up missing her again. Nervous because they were meeting after a long time and he didn't want to make her uncomfortable. Overwhelmed because the person they were searching for was just right beside him at that very moment, The urge to keep her with him because he felt safe with her. He knew he could be himself in front of her that's why he liked her even more, He knew she wouldn't judge him, He knew she was the same Tiara he knew, despite the time they spent apart from each other. He knew her very well to know that she was feeling weird to come like this to meet them but he knew if he started to talk about it with her then she would feel awkward and embarrassed even more that's why he chose silence.

He opened the gate for Tiara and her friend like a gentleman and welcomed them inside his room. Other members picked up the call while the ladies inside Joy's room settled themself on the couch. Joy moved a little away from them to inform TR-X about her arrival, he tried to keep himself back from screaming out of happiness but he couldn't hold himself back from doing so.

"You won't believe who is with me in my room!!" Joy screamed over the call in Korean making the ladies confused. They exchanged glances with each other in confusion to think about what he was talking about and why he was this happy.

"Room service?" "A fan?" "A crazy fan?" "Reporters?" "Hotel's manager?" "Dog? Puppy?" "Fish?" "Stalker?" Others started to throw their guesses and Joy sighed because none of those was correct. He regretted asking others to guess who was in his room because of their guesses. "Okay okay, that's enough! I will tell you all myself, who it is. It's Tiara! She came to meet us and called-" Joy was about to explain how he met Tiara but Vin cut him off.

"You are lying." Vin accused him of lying. "Yeah, There's no way she will come to meet us herself." Sam agreed with Vin. "You are just playing with us, aren't you?" JJ asked Joy about his intentions. "You shouldn't lie about it because it means you are giving false hope to the others, you know, right Joy?" KR accused Joy of lying and playing with other's feelings making Joy irritated by their assumptions.

But the others weren't at fault as well, They knew Tiara very well to know that she wouldn't come to meet them at their hotel when they didn't even invite her, not like they could because if they could invite her then they would have. They lost hope when they couldn't find Tiara at the marketplace road even when she was right in front of their eyes.

"Shut up! I am not lying, She is here with me!" Joy yelled at his friends over the call making Tiara curious about their conversation. 'Are they not happy about me being here? Are they fighting for me?' The thoughts rushed to her head making her uneasy feeling that she may be spoiling their privacy and taking their precious time to relax. 'Should I leave?' She thought of leaving and looking at her friends who were confused about what Joy was talking about.

She was about to stand up from the couch they were sitting on but Joy came near her and shoved his phone towards her mouth. "Say something." Joy ordered her to say something over the call to make everyone believe that he wasn't lying and prove that she was there with him while he placed the call on speaker. "Uhm… Hello…" She hesitantly said looking at the calling page on the phone which was saying 'conference' but the call ended instantly.

She raised her head to Joy who was speechless at his friend's behaviour. "You all don't want to talk to me nor want to meet me, right?" She asked him in a broken voice but she tried to cover her hurtful voice, she did try but couldn't hide it.