Page 30 of When Worlds Collide
“Holy hell,” I breathed. Jihoon, who was stood like a statue next to me, sighed loudly.
“Seriously?” he muttered.
“Oh, absolutely.” I said gleefully, pulling him forward – dragging was really the better term.
Walking into that store was like what I imagined being dunked headfirst into a piñata would feel like: colourful, noisy, and being whacked from all sides as people bustled past me, intent on whatever side-quest they were on.
I didn’t know where to start. I wanted it all.
Actually, scratch that: I knew exactly where to start, and I soon spotted the signs that took me where I needed to go.
Right into the GVibes section, because; of course.
“Jagiya, I can get you any of this, just tell me what you want.” Jihoon’s plaintive request didn’t sway me, but it did make it harder to contain my glee as I ran my hands lovingly over the plush toys in front of me.
“Which one’s yours?” I gestured to the super cute stuffies organised on the shelf in front of me under a brightly-coloured sign proudly proclaiming, ‘Viblets’.
For a moment, I didn’t think he’d respond, but then he reached out a graceful hand and plucked an adorable, soft-grey seal from the menagerie of other cutesy animal toys.
“Aww, he’s so cute!” I cooed over the plump, little seal toy. “He kinda looks like you.”
Jihoon scoffed. “He is my son, after all.”
I laughed, turning Jihoon’s Viblet character over in my hands.
“Look later, I don’t want to be here long,” he said, holding his hand over mine as he looked around nervously. I followed his gaze, and no one was looking our way, but it did occur to me that this was either the safest place for him to be – who would ever suspect an idol to be in a place like this – or a very dangerous place for him. His image was all around us, now that I took the time to look. And while there were marked differences between the airbrushed, heavily made-up visuals of those CDs, photocards, posters and candy boxes, the real man standing nextto me was unmistakably the same person. You just needed to look close enough.
I nodded. “Okay, just let me grab a couple albums and we can go.”
“Ky…” he whined, and I knew it was more a reaction to me spending money on his merch, rather than the time we were in here. Little did he know…
I enjoyed the confusion on his face when I headed away from the GVibes section and over to the Sol8 section. Eight very perky, aesthetically pleasing faces looked out at me from every angle and, practically feeling Jihoon’s confusion, I grabbed a pack of photocards and held them up for his inspection.
“Which one should I get?” I asked, innocently. Watching his eyes narrow above his plain face mask filled me with glee, although I kept my face as straight as possible.
Without a word, he turned on his heel and strode back to the GVibes section. By the time he walked back over to me, I had almost swallowed the laugh that was threatening to bubble out of me. When he held out the pack of photo cards to me, with his face on the first card, I had to slap a hand over my mouth.
“I’ve told you before, jagiya; if you want to stare at a man, you will stare at me.”
His eyes held such intensity that I couldn’t help but follow his instruction, until they flicked away to look over my shoulder. “I will wait outside the store,” he said
Following the direction of his gaze, I looked over to see the busy front counter. There was a queue of people lined up there, but what stood out more were the three young girls clustered together, darting glances in our direction. I turned around fully and instinctively took a step away. I didn’t hear Jihoon move behind me, but I felt a slight chill as he moved past me. I didn’t turn around to follow his progress, but kept my eyes forward, keeping the girls in my line of sight as I movedtowards the queue lining up for the till. The girls paid me no attention whatsoever, but they did look towards the front of the store. They talked too low, and in Korean, for me to hear, or understand, but they were whispering furiously – excitedly.
As I stood in the queue, I couldn’t help but draw comparisons to the first time Jihoon and I had gone out into public together, in Pacific Park. I wondered if we’d have to split up now, just as we had then.
By the time I got to the front of the queue, I felt like an ass for not seeing the danger-zone this entire store was.
I quickly paid, and then, with my shiny bag in my hand, I left the store and looked around. Not seeing Jihoon, I pulled out my phone and discovered a new Kakao message from him.
Joon
Meet me at Misun’s shop.
Sent 15:43
He didn’t need to write that it had been necessary for him to leave the area. Maybe those girls hadn’t actually been looking at him, but it was safer to assume they had been.
Guilt weighed heavily on me as I retraced our steps alone, hugging my shiny bag of merch tighter than I needed to, as I took the escalator up to walk back through the shopping centre to where we had begun.
