Page 44 of When Worlds Collide
“About uni-” I started, but my dad interrupted me.
“Bollocks to uni,” he said gruffly.
I watched my mum reach over and take his hand, giving it a squeeze I swear I almost felt on my own hand.
“Sometimes,” she said, “the paths we take in life don’t always take us where we think they will. Sometimes they take us where we need to go, and it’s okay if we hit a few bumps in the road.”
“Very poetic, darling,” Dad said, patting my mum’s knee.
“Anyway,” I said, discreetly wiping under my eye. “I’m gonna go, it’s dinnertime here and I’m starving. Speak to you soon?” I said, making a silent promise to myself to be better at keeping in touch with them.
“Okay, love, off you pop.” My dad cheerfully waved, but before I pressed the red button to end the call, my mum held up her hand.
“Ky,” she said, freezing my finger, “we love you, baby.”
I swallowed. “I love you, too.
Mum waved, and I pressed ‘end’.
“You didn’t tell them I’m a singer?” Jihoon leaned casually against the archway between the bedroom and the living room. I guess it wasn’t a stretch to assume he’d been able to hear much of the conversation.
“One thing at a time,” I said, uncurling my legs and standing up, stretching my arms over my head as he moved towards me. I smiled as he wound his arms around my waist.
“So, when do I meet my future in-laws?”
My eyes widened, before I saw the teasing grin on his face. I lightly smacked him on the arm.
Holy hell.
Chapter 15
The next morning, we moved out of the Hyatt to Hyungsoo’s place in Hannam-dong. Before the trip to the shopping centre, and Misun’s store, packing would have taken me all of ten minutes, presuming I’d tossed all of my belongings all over the suite.
Now that I had a full wardrobe of clothes, shoes, and a bunch of other stuff, it took considerably longer.
Blessedly, I’d left most of the new outfits in their various garment bags hanging up in the walk-in dressing room. We’d had to call down to the front desk to get them to send up a luggage trolley so I could hang them up. Along with all my new stuff, the one thing I didn’t have, was any new luggage bags so I’d had to stuff a whole bunch into Jihoon’s.
It seemed like I was borrowing everyone’s bags these days. I had no idea when I’d get to return Becka’s to her, a fact I was reminded of as I loaded it on the trolley.
Just as I’d been about to pack away the bag I’d gotten from the K-Pop store, Jihoon reached for it.
“Wait, you need to do one thing first.” Confused, I watched him dig through the bag until he pulled out the little plushie of a soft, grey seal. Truthfully, I’d been so distracted that I’d completely forgotten about it.
“This,” Jihoon said, holding the little seal plush up, “is Sealy.”
“Your ‘son’,” I smiled, remembering what he’d said in the store.
“Yes, according to the story,” his lips quirked. “My Viblet was almost an owl because of my name, but the company put a poll out that netizens could vote on, and they chose a seal.”
“Your name?” I asked slowly, feeling that familiar pinch of inadequacy that I often felt when it came to the language I wasn’t putting nearly enough effort into learning.
“My name means wisdom,” he waved the information away as though it were unimportant.
“But Vibers decided Minjae was better suited to the wise owl than me.” He huffed, as if he found the idea comical. “And they decided I was more like a seal.”
“Why?”
He looked at me, his eyes conveying a warmth I wasn’t sure the question merited.
