Page 90 of When Worlds Collide
“You’re so fucking sexy when you get grumpy with me.” He ran a tongue across his bottom lip.
“Is that why you’re so annoying?” I put my fists on my hips, and he laughed, dropping his head.
“It’s just hard for me when you look like that.” He looked back up at me, his eyes taking their sweet time travelling over my body before snapping back up to mine, “but I’m not able to tell everyone you are my girlfriend.”
“Caveman,” I sighed, biting back my smile. “Go mingle with your fabulously famous friends, so I can get back to innocently crowd watching.”
“Only if I can watch you right back.”
“Go!” I shooed him away, and he grinned, walking backwards for a few paces, before turning around and disappearing back into the crowd.
The opulence of the evening and the novelty of spotting celebrities like I was marking off my bingo card soon began to run thin. A lot of attendees had begun to remove their masks, but mine, of course, stayed on. I also wasn’t certain I’d be able to remove it without assistance.
Jihoon periodically checked in. He always seemed to be able to find me, moving through the crowd so easily, it was like they parted for him. Sometimes, I’d be looking around, just observing the crowd, and my eyes would meet his, like he was watching me. In another story, another setting, that might have been a bit much, but I liked it. Liked how it made me feel protected, cherished.
I’d just spotted several members of the popular girl group, PrettyYOUngthings. Once upon a time, I might have considered this a highlight of the evening, but having the confirmation that Lee Hyejin – the member Jihoon was often rumoured to be dating – was as stunning in real life as she was on stage was not comforting.
My mood soured as I saw her approach Jihoon. I’d also been keeping tabs on him throughout the evening, as I took turns around the room. He was often in conversation with multiple people at a time, but now he was on his own as she walked up behind him. I edged closer, stepping more into the crowd than I had been, in order to keep them within sight. I acknowledged I was creeping, a little.
I watched as she put her hand on his shoulder, and a tiny shudder ran through me. Jihoon turned around, a polite smile on his face that seemed to morph into surprise as he looked down at Hyejin, who had not removed her hand.
I couldn’t hear what they were saying, and trying to decipher their meaning was made impossible through the masks, yet Icouldn’t tear my eyes away, even as I knew I should. No good would come of me trying to eavesdrop.
I was just inching closer, when a man cut across my path. Abruptly, I pulled to a stop and mumbled an apology, before sidestepping to move around him. Inexplicably, the man moved with me, matching my sidestep like we were shadow dancing.
I halted, pulling back slightly and looked up. He was a few inches taller than me, and good looking, in a generic sort of way. The kind of guy you’d peg as being an accountant, or account manager, or something equally corporate. And he was grinning down at me.
Actually, leered is what he did. His eyes were roaming over the parts of me that were bare, and I felt where his eyes touched me like physical brushes. When Jihoon looked at me like this, his eyes devouring me, I loved the way it made me feel, but coming from this unknown man… it felt like all the times Trevor Kyle had looked at me like I was his to undress.
“Excuse me,” I tried again to sidestep him, but again he matched me, moving into my path, crowding me.
“American?” he asked.
“No.” It was maybe a little blunt, just this side of rude, but he was giving me the heebie jeebies.
“Dance.” It wasn’t a question.
“No.” But then, “Thank you.” Urgh, damn social conditioning.
The man, seemingly having exhausted his list of English words, then said something to me in Korean so fast, I didn’t have a chance of picking it up, but it somehow culminated in him trying to put his arm around my waist.
I shied back, but his body mirrored mine. I put my hands up defensively, involuntarily pressing against his chest as he leaned closer to me – so close I could smell the sweet wine on his breath. I tried to back up, but his hand now pressed against thesmall of my back so firmly that I wouldn’t be able to break loose without causing a scene.
I was just about to do that when-
Suddenly, he was there.
Jihoon wedged himself in between the stranger and me so forcefully that the man was forced to take a step back. Jihoon pressed his chest against the stranger’s, saying nothing but communicating everything as he looked down at him, jaw so tense I could see the flutter of a tic.
The man let go of me and took a step back, holding up his hands in supplication to Jihoon. He said something, his tone implying some kind of joke, some misunderstanding.
Jihoon took a step foward away from me, pushing the man away from me. The stranger backed up. Jihoon bit out a few words, his tone making them seem like light, throwaway comments, but judging by the stranger’s face, they were anything but. He looked between Jihoon and I, before scowling and walking away. As I watched his retreating figure, my eyes inadvertently locked with Lee Hyejin’s. She was standing several feet away, plainly watching us. Her expression was unfathomable, but I knew she’d seen the entire thing play out.
I wondered what she was thinking as she looked at me.
Jihoon turned back to me, his gaze roaming over me, but so different to when the corporate creep had done it. Jihoon’s gaze felt warm, loving, but riding the edge of being frantic.
“Did he touch you?” His tone was like simmering fire, his accent more pronounced around the clipped sounds. His hands were balled into tight fists.
