Page 123 of A World Apart
“Go to bed, jagiya.”
“I want to see you,” I whined.
“You’ll see me next week,” he promised. Warmth rushed through me at the thought. GVibes was heading to LA to film their music video with Kylie Morrison, and Jihoon had managed to convince his management to let him stay in the city for his birthday, October 29th, which just so happened to fall on a Friday, meaning he was going to spend Halloween weekend in LA. It made me breathless just to think about it.
“Okay,” I agreed after another yawn. “Hey Joon?”
“Hmm?”
“You looked super sexy tonight.”
He covered his face with his hands, making me laugh at how cute he was.
“Goodnight, Joon.”
“Goodnight, cheon-sa.”
Chapter 38
“Okay, stop, is thatanotherHalloween shop?” I stopped, pointing at the shop across the street that was most definitely a Kombucha pop up the week before, but was now either badly infested with ghosts, or had turned into a Halloween store.
Becka followed my finger, then burst out laughing.
“Welcome to LA in the fall, babes.” She adjusted her burgundy infinity scarf in the mirrored front of an office building, yet again, discreetly patting her matching beanie hat to make sure it was still artfully in place atop her sandy blonde highlights.
I looked down at my cargo shorts and front-tucked t-shirt. I didn’t get it. It was still averaging at about 23-28 Celsius. Why were people wearing knitwear?
It had happened almost overnight, it seemed. One minute people were still wearing shorts and tank tops, moaning about how hot and dry it was, now those same people were sweating under layers of wool, ordering Pumpkin Spice Lattes, but still moaning about how hot and dry it was.
Becka had walked on ahead while I still gaped at the fifth Halloween-themed shop we’d seen this morning.
“How can you tell the difference between summer and autumn?” I grumbled, catching up to her.
“LA has three seasons; Not Summer, Summer, and Fire Season.”
“What the eff is ‘Fire Season?’” I asked with some alarm.
Becka waved a hand dismissively. “It’s whatever the Santa Ana wants it to be.” As if that answered my question.
“Remind me again why we’re walking through the streets of LA on our lunch break?”
“I want to get my steps up before I go home next weekend. I won’t be walking farther than the distance between the front door to the porch, and my mom will stuff me like a turkey the whole weekend.”
“Since when do you care about getting in your steps?”
“Since Celine said my ass filled out my pants nicely.” Becka’s pace increased.
“Is that a bad thing?” I had to jog to catch up with her.
“They were palazzo pants.” She growled.
I didn’t really mind getting out of the building today, truth be told. It was becoming abundantly clearer as the days passed that my employment was becoming unnecessary. Jeremy had less actual work for me, so more often than not I was sent to dogsbody for other teams. I was learning a lot though, so there was an upside. Mentally, I was preparing to go back to the UK in the new year, especially since I didn’t really know what I wanted anymore.
On the down-low, I’d asked Jeremy to put feelers out to people he knew in the industry. He was well aware of the terms of my employment and knew as well as I did that my contract wasn’t going to be renewed. I hadn’t shared my change of heart about music production with him, but it wasn’t like he’d be able to land me a producer’s chair anyway. Still, it might be cool to do sound tech for a venue. At least that way, I might be able to stay in LA.
Everything was still so up in the air that it was hard to feel relaxed about any future plans I tried to make.
I was enjoying how the city had suddenly cloaked itself in the disguise of Autumn. It was bizarre; the way people were suddenly draped in scarves and wearing knee-high boots, sweating underneath it all just for the ‘aesthetic.’
