Page 86 of Wish Upon a K-Star

Maybe I can just focus on that. Kastor’s album came out last Friday, which means they’re doing the circuit of all the weekly music shows.

I type back:Fighting! See you out there!

She sends five muscle emojis and I can’t help laughing at her enthusiasm.

I’m still smiling at how cute Sohee is when I look up and see Minseok walking toward me. I almost don’t recognize him at first. He’s wearing a cap low over his eyes and a face mask. But I’d know his gait anywhere.

“Minseok-ah,” I call, and he pauses but doesn’t look up. For a second, I think he’s going to walk right past and ignore me.

My anxiety flares. Is he mad at me?

Finally, he looks up. “Hyeri-yah, you’re here already?”

I try a smile. “Yeah, I was nervous, thought I’d get reacclimated to the space.” Then I hesitantly add, “How are you?”

“Fine, good.” The answer lacks any of the familiarity we’ve built up recently.

I wanted to convince myself his strange shift in attitude toward me was just in my head, but it’s definitely not. He steps into his dressing room; it’s right across the hall from mine.

The old me would have let him go. The old me wouldn’t have wanted to push too hard for fear of making a bad impression. But this isn’t right. I walk into the room after him. The staff isn’t in there, so it’s just us. Good, we’ll need privacy for whatever this is going to be.

“Are you mad at me?” I start to ask as he pulls off his hat and mask.

“What?” He spins around, clearly surprised. And that’s when I see the bloom of a bruise on his chin.

“Oh my god, what happened?” I rush up to him.

He grabs my wrist before I can brush my fingers over the mark.

“It’s nothing,” he says, grabbing his mask again.

But I stop him from putting it on and lean in to examine his chin. It’s already an angry purple, which means it’s at least a few days old.

“Is this why you’ve been avoiding me?”

He shrugs.

“What happened? Ran into a really tall door?”

“Ran into Jongdae’s fist,” he finally says, dropping onto the couch.

“JD hit you?” I sit next to him.

“He’s not really happy about this.” He darts a finger back and forth between us.

“He punched you because of us?”

“He punched me because he’s being an asshole right now.”

I can’t believe my relationship with Minseok is getting him into physical fights with his best friend. “Should I talk to him?” I wonder aloud, though I’m not sure if that’ll help or make things worse.

“Leave Jongdae to me. We have bigger things to figure out between us.” He scoots closer to lean his head on my shoulder. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize staying away would make you think I was mad.”

“I might have been projecting,” I admit. “Plus I’ve been spiraling about today. Kim Ana is promoting.”

“Oh crap.” He shoots upright, turning to run his hands down my arms. “I didn’t even read the lineup, I’m sorry.”

I smile at his sweet concern, already feeling better. “It’s fine. You’re here and so is Sohee. I’ll be okay.”

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