Page 82 of A World Apart
“And this is where you’re staying?” I asked, stepping back and looking around for the first time since my eyes had found him. Looking at the foyer now, I could see it was missing the personal touches of a lived-in home. It looked welcoming, but ambiguous, somehow.
“Yes, my stylist, Junsu, he booked this Airbnb under his name, for privacy." Jihoon shrugged as if this was a totally normal thing. I supposed in his world, it was.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?” I turned back to him. He held out his arms.
“Surprise.” He winked at me and I laughed.
“So, you’re staying here for the whole weekend, no babysitters, no bodyguards, no one?”
“Well...” he ran his hand along the back of his neck, looking up at me from underneath his eyelashes.
“I hoped you might want to stay with me.”
I froze, staring at him, seeing the flush on his cheeks as he held my stare.
“You want me to stay here… with you?” Disbelief made my words come out a whole octave higher than my normal tone.
Jihoon’s mouth lifted in a shy smile.
“If you want to. There’s a pool…” he trailed off as pink splotches coloured his cheekbones.
“Oh, well, if there’s a pool count me in!”
He laughed and held out his hand to me, which I took with no hesitation. His warm handed wrapped around mine firmly, making my heart flutter at the possessiveness in that one, small action.
Jihoon led me through the house on an impromptu mini tour. The foyer opened up into an airy living room, where a sectional sofa dominated the space. There was a massive TV on the wall, bigger than any TV I’d ever seen. The kitchen was to the left, through an archway and straight ahead, through an open set of French windows was a perfect, secluded oasis of a garden. The doors opened out underneath a pagoda, draped with flowering vines that swayed gently in a soft breeze. The terracotta tiles transitioned to lush, green grass with stepping stones leading the way across the lawn to a pool area. Around the pool was a tiled area with sun loungers underneath a sun sail and the pool itself, though not large, was a perfect proportion. There was a a separate area at the far end that I guessed was a−
“Hot tub?” I asked, looking up at Jihoon. He nodded and grinned.
“For the cold, LA nights.”
I laughed, the mercury hadn’t gone a degree below 25 C in weeks.
I looked around the garden, so oddly quiet and peaceful, it was hard to believe we were still in central LA.
“I could get used to living in a place like this,” I said wistfully. Jihoon squeezed my hand, gently.
“Do you want to swim?”
“I don’t have anything to wear, I’ll have to go home to get some things.”
“Ah,” he said, chuckling quietly, “I think Becka packed you a bag.”
I turned to look at him sharply, then, as realisation dawned, my mouth popped open.
“My dino bag! That lying snake!”
Jihoon, bless him, frowned in what I assumed was both confusion and concern. I waved a hand and said, “Yeah, I think you’re right. Did she leave it in the foyer?” I turned back around to head back into the house, towing Jihoon behind me, neither of us keen to break the connection of our hands.
Unsurprisingly, my dino backpack was placed on the table in the foyer in plain sight. Unzipping it, I briefly rifled through, seeing a toiletries bag, socks, hair brush, just random things tossed in.
“I think I need to go through this to actually find anything,” I laughed.
“Let me show you where you can change,” Jihoon said, and together we ascended the staircase to the second floor. The landing was a hallway that seemed to run the length of the house, a large window at the end looking out over the garden. Doors led off the hallway on either side. We passed two open doors. One looked to be a bathroom with a massive walk-in shower. The other open doorway led to a mid-sized bedroom, decorated in all neutral colours.
Jihoon led me to a doorway at the end of the hallway on the right. He pushed open the door to reveal a large, well-appointed bedroom. The bed was huge, covered in plush-looking covers and piles of pillows that kind of made me want to jump in and see if I’d get swallowed right up.
To the left was a pair of sliding glass doors leading out onto a balcony that overlooked the garden, and to the right was a partially open door leading to an ensuite bathroom.
