My Summer in Seoul

One of the guys said something under his breath while Sookie stared at the food then back up at me. His slow swallow broke my heart as if he was imagining what it would be like to eat the wasted food.

Tears of embarrassment burned the back of my throat as I stared up at Lucas. “That was rude.”

His nostrils flared as he moved right in front of me, his chest inches from mine, his blue eyes angry as he stared down at me.

Finally, I broke eye contact, but only for a moment, then I looked up again.

His smile was cruel.

Angry.

Totally unnecessary, but there was nothing I could do, nothing I could say, because hello, I couldn’t speak Korean, and on top of that, for me to say anything would probably get me fired too.

What had happened between last night and this morning?

I’d even thought we’d been making progress.

Wrong. So wrong.

“Duro mulrusushpsio,” Rae snapped.

Obviously, it meant something like don’t, or maybe back off, or… who knew? But Lucas sneered as he walked over the spilled food and grabbed a water.

Trying to suck in my tears, I snatched some napkins at the small table, went over, and started cleaning up the mess on the floor as music picked up again.

They were all going to just practice like nothing happened.

Like Sookie wasn’t starving.

Like Lucas wasn’t a giant pain in the ass most days.

Like I was the rude one for saving food for their youngest member, the maknae.

Sighing, I wiped up whatever smelled so good and made a mental note to ask later since I was seconds away from grabbing a fork and digging in off the floor.

Ha! Wouldn’t that just horrify them all?

It was seriously tempting, imagining their disgusted faces. Oh look, the stupid intern’s eating off the floor.

Absolutely perfect.

A pair of Nike sneakers appeared in my line of view, and then Jay was on the floor with me, wiping up the remaining part of the mess and tossing it into the nearby trash.

“Th-thank you,” I stuttered like an idiot.

How had I not noticed the tattoo on his left hand? It was a delicate design of a tree that wrapped around the back of his hand down one of his thumbs.

Beautiful.

“Wow, that’s a pretty tattoo,” I said more to myself than anyone, following after him and throwing the napkins in the trash can.

“Thank you,” he said it in such a cute way. Ugh, of course he did.

He smiled, revealing two dimples, and then he barked out a laugh and said, “You’re right, Rae, that was really fun, but I think I’m gonna stop messing with her for real now and talk in complete sentences.” Seriously, that Australian accent I knew he was more fluent in English than he even let on a few days ago!

“Oh, hell.” I groaned into my hands, feeling dumb; how had it not occurred to me until now? “I just realized that means you heard me too that first day.”

“Wish I could have filmed it.” He laughed again, then went over to Rae and gave him a fist bump.

“So is that it?” I looked between the two guys. “Just you two know English, right? I’m not going to get any more surprises?”

Why hadn’t I asked this before?

“Ulineun iyagihageona yeonseubhagi wihae yeogie issseubnida!” Lucas yelled in an annoyed voice.

My face heated as I quickly walked away from the guys and went back to my new spot on the floor.

I pretended to check my phone, even though I had no messages, just to see the time.

All I knew from the schedule that had been emailed was that the guys had a variety show this afternoon, so they needed to be done with practice in the next hour or so.

The caffeine started to kick in, making my chest ache as they continued to dance.

The door opened and closed again as the music continued. Solia walked in with a panicked look on her face. “Why are they still practicing?”

“Um, the schedule said—”

She waved me off in annoyance. “Didn’t you check your email? You need to be checking your email on an hourly basis! Their schedules change constantly, especially weeks before the Showcase, and after the scandal, things are booked, canceled, rebooked—” She switched over to Korean, her tone sounding like she was cursing at me. I mean, I really should learn the curse words; they seemed most important when dealing with her. She finished with a harsh sigh. “You know nothing!”

Cool reminder.

“Thank you.” I got to my feet and felt dizzy. I was checking my email, just apparently not every ten minutes.

“Let them finish this last sequence,” she said in a stern voice. “I’ll make sure the van is out front so you can take them back. Because of you, they’ll have less than an hour for hair and makeup.”

“Hair and makeup,” I repeated. “But—” I thought better of asking more questions since I hadn’t had a chance to look at the new updated schedule. “Got it, hair and makeup; sounds good. I’ll let them know.”