My Summer in Seoul

What? Like I made a habit of cuddling with random girls, a guy attacked me pretending to be one, and I nearly lost my career.

No. Fucking. Thank you.

Sookie quickly covered for me. “Oh, he was just trying to wake her up, and she must sleepwalk; she’s like a ninja.”

“A sleep ninja,” I added from the floor, looking up at the ceiling in defeat. “Thanks, Sookie. I could have died.”

“I was worried.” Sookie nodded while I rubbed the back of my head.

“Grace…” Rae approached and gently shook her.

Why didn’t she wrap herself around him like an octopus? Did she hate me that much, even in her sleep?

Seriously?

She stretched her arms over her head, drawing my attention to her profile, to her slow sexy smile and curvy body.

I didn’t realize I was staring that hard until Sookie gave me a soft kick then mouthed, “What?”

I groaned and moved to a sitting position while Grace slowly did the same then read the room. “Was I snoring?”

We were all quiet until Jay came barreling into the room. “Oh, the drunken intern awakes. You know, I’ve never seen anyone so drunk from soju in my life, and I”—he took a look around—“Oh, does she not know?”

“No!” Grace cupped her hands over her face. “Oh, no!”

“You also claimed you knew Korean, so if it’s on the news, that’s on you…” Jay laughed. “You were so loud!”

“Noooooooooo.” Grace looked ready to jump off a cliff. Her hands fell. “Wait, I slept here all night? Do I want to even look in a mirror?”

A universal “no” exploded from each of our mouths as if none of us could stop it, earning another moan from her then a leg kick as she stumbled to her feet, tripped on the blanket, made it as far as halfway, only to trip again and finally slam her door shut.

“I think that went well.” Jay nodded his head then smirked over at me. “So, you were in our room all night?”

“Don’t!” I jabbed a finger in his direction. “I was being nice for once, and look what it got me. A near concussion against our floor, and a drunk girl using my blanket.”

“Didn’t you give it to her?” Sookie asked innocently.

“Breakfast,” I blurted. “We need to eat.”

I needed to be more careful when being nice.

Not that it would be an issue since I was a genuine asshole to her.

Feeling marginally better, I got to my feet and started going into the kitchen only to see a body block me from coffee.

“Rae.” I licked my lips. “Something wrong?”

“Be careful.” He warned, his eyes traveling from me toward her door and back again. “She’s… not… accustomed to anything here yet. Don’t give her any ideas.”

I rolled my eyes and patted him on the shoulder. “She doesn’t need my help to self-destruct.”

“I wasn’t talking about that.” The guy didn’t blink. “She’s only here for a little while.”

Why did the room suddenly feel so small? Why did I feel so panicked? The world wasn’t ending; she didn’t mean anything to me. So why did it matter if she was only here for a little while?

“You’re seeing things,” I finally said. “I want nothing to do with her.” Wait a second; he was being awfully protective. “You, on the other hand…”

He stumbled back a bit. “What about me?”

“You seem a bit protective of someone you barely know.” He flinched like I’d just slapped him. “In fact, you completely ignored three out of the last four interns who were girls. Any reason why you’re so protective of this one?”

“No,” he snapped. “I just feel sorry for her, okay? She’s absolutely the last person in the world I would ever date. You know she’s not my type.”

The lie was so bad that I wanted to laugh.

I didn’t realize he’d switched back to English until I heard a small gasp behind me.

Grace was standing there, face fresh, hair in a small ponytail, wearing jeans, a band shirt, and Nikes, ready for the day.

Her face was bright red.

Shit.

I opened my mouth to say something, but she still didn’t know I understood her and was fluent in English, so it felt like the biggest asshole move I could make in that moment.

“I’ll just—” She quickly walked past us and into the kitchen and grabbed a protein bar, then cleared her throat. “The van leaves in twenty.”

She left the room.

We were all dead silent for probably the first time in years.

“Good job, Rae,” Jay swore. “Now she’s going to hate us even more.”

“I—” Rae started and then glared at me like it was my fault. “She’s right; we leave in twenty.”

And that was it.

In just under twenty minutes, we piled into the van.

Grace drove us—safely—to rehearsal.

And didn’t say a word as we all got out and went into the studio.

She went to her usual spot and most likely stared at our schedule for longer than necessary before trying to busy herself on her phone.