Page 70 of When Worlds Collide
“Come say hello, Min-ah,” Seokmin gestured to Sungmin, who promptly came round the table to sit down with us. He nudged in next to Seokmin, who’d managed to finagle the phone out of my hand.
Sungmin had far more chill than Seokmin, and instead of preening like an exotic bird, waved cheerily at the screen, grinning as broadly as I’d ever seen him.
“Hello, Becka, we’ve heard good stories about you.”
“Oh, well... they’re probably not all true.” Becka couldn’t hide how flustered she was, but I admired her effort. I would have been deceased by this point, but then GVibes were my bias, not hers.
The look that passed between the two youngest members should have been a warning, but alas, Soju – and I was three shots of soju and one stuffed pancake past caring.
So, when they got to their feet in the kind of fluid movement only seen on ballet dancers and scissor lifts, I could only stare open-mouthed, because there was no way in hell I was getting up without the help of the table, or the sofa.
They walked back round to where Minjae and Woojin were sitting in front of the sofa – although so far, no one had actually sat on the sofa tonight – and plopped down nearly on top of their older members. I’d seen more evidence of puppy piling in the past few hours than in the entire time I spent a summer volunteering for the RSPCA.
Woojin shoved Seokmin off him, while Minjae just rolled his eyes and shuffled over to make room for the two youngest.
I watched in part horror, part fascination as they proceeded to introduce a screen-bound Becka to Woojin and Minjae, the latter of whom was the very image of the cordial, diplomatic leader he was known to be, whereas Woojin politely waved, but otherwise didn’t offer up very much.
I did think, however, that I may have seen a brief flicker of interest cross his face, in the way he tilted his head, ever-so-slightly, flicking his eyes over the screen in a way that very much implied he was taking in the details of whatever it was he saw when he looked at Becka.
But I was not in any fit state to make any such assumptions.
Chapter 22
Christmas seemed to have firmly landed in Seoul by the time the middle of the month rolled around.
Before, it had mostly been the bigger shops that had decorated for the holiday, but now even the smaller shops and restaurants seemed to groan under the weight of gaudy, bright decorations, singing statues and thousands of charming twinkly lights.
Even the plastic-fronted pojangmachas had been decorated overnight – steam curling through tinsel, fairy lights swaying in the brisk winter wind.
Even though Jihoon was technically on Christmas break he still went into ENT nearly every day – either to work on his solo music or for some variation of the many training sessions he did.
I'd never been the kind of person who enjoyed lounging around, so it didn't take long before I started going out into the city, just roaming around.
One of the first things we'd done was buy me a T-money card, which enabled me to use pretty much all the city's transportoptions – which were numerous. Between that card and the Naver app, it was like having the keys to the city.
Somehow, on my second day of solo exploration, I'd managed to accidentally wander into a tour group. I was waiting at a bus stop – the wrong one, as it turned out – and got talking to a group of Germans who were waiting for the bus to take them to Gyeongbokgung Palace. Their plan sounded better than mine, so I gamely agreed to tag along. I was so busy chatting to the friendly folk, that I completely missed the signage on the tour bus before I got on.
Luckily, the tour operator was kind enough to take payment for the tour when we'd arrived at the Palace.
It ended up being one of the best days I'd had since arriving. It would have been better with Jihoon there, but my new German friends made sure I wasn't lonely.
When I recounted the story to Becka later on, she howled with laughter as I described eating packed lunches on the bus – all while singing 'The Grand Old Duke of York' – partially in German.
Becka’s photos of LA looked like the set of that year’s Hallmark Christmas romcom had spilled into the whole city, It seemed that everything had been decked in red, green, and gold. For a moment, I’d felt a pang of regret that I wasn’t there with her, experiencing it the way we’d talked about. We were going to go out to the bars and get ‘snowballs’. She’d never explained what those were. Now I fear I’ll never know.
There had been no further updates about the situation with Pisces and the lawsuit, though I asked Jihoon about it often enough. He always responded with variations of the same answer: the company will deal with it.
I couldn’t answer for why I felt such a need to be involved, somehow. It felt like unfinished business. Having it hanging over me, like the spectre at the feast, made me antsy. Like I was constantly waiting for something to come along and ruin everything.
It had started snowing last night, dropping the already freezing temperature outside to several degrees under. People braving the streets were bundled up in coats so thick, and so long they might as well have been wearing duvets.
All of the other members had left to travel to their family’s homes for Christmas. Jihoon said that even if I wasn’t here,he probably still wouldn’t go home, but I wasn’t sure if I fully believed him. The way he’d said it made me think it wasn’t the whole truth, but when I’d pressed, all he’d say was that the holiday wasn’t a big deal to his family.
Before the members had left, we’d all gone up to Jihoon’s apartment for lunch. I’d tried to insist that I really didn’t need to go. It seemed like a group-only event. I was just a girlfriend, which somehow led to me explaining the concept of a ‘WAG’ – wives and girlfriends - to Jihoon, which led down a rabbit hole of football analogies, which seemed to lead to me being dragged through the door to go upstairs, having lost whatever argument I’d tried to make.
Which… fair.
Thankfully, no alcohol had been involved this time. It turned out Soju hit far harder the morning after, and when I’d woken up after the night I’d met all of GVibes for the first time, I’d felt like I’d been hit with a hammer. Repeatedly.
