Page 104 of When Worlds Collide
“His name is Jihyun.”
I almost spat my beer out.
“Yah, watch it,” she chided, tossing a napkin at me as I spluttered, trying not to choke.
“Jihoon? Like… the visual from GVibes?”
I wiped at my mouth, trying to wipe away whatever expression was on my face.
Hana laughed in that weird, slightly too enthusiastic way that she had.
“Wouldn’t that be hysterical? Oh, I’m dating one of GVibes, look at me.”
She pounded her tiny fist on the table, making people on the tables around us look over.
“Not Baek Jihoon,” she rolled her eyes, “Lee Jihyun, I met him at uni.”
I still marvelled at how quickly her accent would change, when she’d say something in Korean and then switch immediately to English. I envied her.
“Did he study entertainment management, as well?”
I took a sip of beer, trying to soothe the slight sting from coughing it up before.
“International business studies,” she said with a flippant wave of her hand. “But that’s why I was allowed to switch from that patchwork girl group.”
And again, I’m struck by her callous tone when referring to the girl group we’d seen in the cafeteria on my first day. They had, indeed, been disbanded, and I often caught myself wondering how they were doing.
“And that,” she said, those dark eyes laser focusing on me, “is how I know you’re seeing someone. And,” she raised her voice, “why I think he also works at the company.”
Hana pointed at me with a small, but pointy fingernail and an equally sharp smile. She sometimes reminded me of a piranha. Small, but I wouldn’t want to go swimming with her.
“Because the company must know your boyfriend, to let you work with the boys. Who is it? Is it one of the executives? Is that why you moved to Korea?”
Her questions came thick and fast, and it was like being under fire from a semi-automatic; pop, pop, pop.
“Whoa!” I chuckled, albeit weakly, “chill with the third degree. I moved to Korea to pursue a career in music, and Director Kang knows I don’t have a boyfriend. I guess that rule isn’t as firm as you think.”
“Uh huh.” Hana eyed me speculatively.
“Anyway, enough about me. What are your life ambitions?” I pointed my bottle at her, trying to deflect the attention off of me.
“I just want to help groups succeed.” She said it so seriously that even the glint in her eyes turned hard, just for a second. It was a normal enough thing to say, a normal enough ambition, even. But the way she said it… it gave me pause.
“I want to be a group manager. When they get the all-kills, it’s going to be because I was there, behind them, pushing them. And if anything gets in the way of that… I’ll remove them.” Her gaze seemed to focus on something in the middle distance, seeing something I couldn’t.
“Them?”
“Hmm?”
“You said ‘them’?” I pointed out, watching as her eyes refocused on me, narrowing slightly.
“Did I?” She giggled. “I meant ‘it’.”
“Uh huh. Has anyone ever told you you’re very intense, Hana?”
If anything, her giggle became more… pointed.
“I’m just very focused. Ah, the meat is here.”
