Page 75 of A World Apart

Page List

Font Size:

“I can’t.”

“Why not?” He frowned.

“There’s no one here to give me one.” Ah, the devil had climbed back up. I flashed him a smile that I’m sure wasn’t hard to interpret.

Jihoon groaned and theatrically grabbed his chest, throwing his head back. Then he stood up suddenly and started walking, a determined look on his handsome face.

“Jihoon, where are you going?” I laughed.

“I’m going to the airport.”

I laughed harder, splashing water everywhere.

“Mwo hae?” A voice in the background asked and I didn’t need to know Korean to understand from the tone that someone was asking what the hell Jihoon was doing.

“Don’t interrupt me, hyung,” Jihoon shouted back, “I’m going to the airport.”

“Jihoon, stop!” I cried through my giggles.

Another face very briefly came into view on the screen before it went blank and I heard a muffled, “Wahh!” I could have been wrong, but I would have sworn that was Minjae.

I heard scuffling through the phone, but the screen remained blank, like it was being held to his chest.

“Jihoon!” I called, growing more mortified by the moment. Several heartbeats later, the screen brightened as it was lifted further away. I saw Jihoon leaning back against a wooden door, grinning.

“Did you win?” I asked with a wry smile.

“No,” he laughed. “I am not allowed to come to LA.”

“Probably for the best,” I grumbled, inexplicably and irrationally disappointed.

“Soon,” he promised, slyly grinning at me.

“Really?” I leaned forward, surprise momentarily making me forget that only a generous layer of bubbles was covering me.

“Oops!” I hastily ducked back under as Jihoon smacked a hand over his eyes and I laughed, pretty certain I hadn’t actually flashed him. Well, not much, anyway.

“Jihoon, it’s fine, I’m decent,” I covered my embarrassment with a little laugh. “You were about to tell me when you’re coming here.”

“Oh, um, I’m not sure, we do a lot tof USA shows, so I’m sure it’ll be soon.” He cleared his throat and looked back up at me with an expression that heated the water that had been starting to cool down.

He opened his mouth to say something, but just then, someone pounded on the door he was leaning against. “Jihoon-ah!” the person called. Jihoon rocked his head back against the door, looking pained and sighed.

“I have to go,” he said with such a sad puppy expression I wanted to laugh again.

Instead, I just said, “I understand. I hope you have a good day.”

He shook his head sadly. “It won’t be as good as this.”

I laughed and blew him a kiss, my hand covered in bubbles. He groaned again and closed his eyes.

“Bye Jihoon.” I pressed ‘end’ and put my phone back on the caddy before covering my face with my bubbly hands to muffle the shriek.

Chapter 25

“What in the world is a ‘chicken message?’” Becka said, looking over my shoulder to watch as I translated the Hangul characters into English.

“I have no idea,” I sighed, “but apparently the app developers thought it was important for me to learn.”