My Summer in Seoul

Lucas gave off that bad boy vibe, and yet, I still wondered.

And Rae seemed too high-strung; he’d probably be the type of guy who would go in for the kiss then tell the girl she was doing it wrong.

I scrunched up my nose.

“Are you going to sneeze?” Kai asked, suddenly appearing in front of me.

“You.” I seethed, pointing my finger at him. “If we weren’t in public, I’d tell you to run, and despite my lack of cardio, I would chase you down, I would tackle you to the floor, and I would—”

“Thank you so much for coming in today!” One of the producers from the UK who had flown out to make sure things ran smoothly came up to us.

“Oh my gosh, it’s their pleasure!” I said in a syrupy sweet voice. “Honestly, any time!”

She thanked us again.

My smile dropped as I glared back at Kai.

He no longer looked amused. “That was scary.”

“What?”

“Your ability to be nice then look like I’m going to end up on one of those TV shows where people end up dead, usually by a crime of passion or that sort of thing.”

“Oh, I’m definitely feeling passionate about something.” Was I foaming at the mouth?

“I think I forgot”—he gulped—“my bag, back in our dressing room and—bye.” He ran in the opposite direction of their dressing room.

Sookie came up next to me and stood as if to say, I’m ready to go home, Mom! I turned toward him. “You’re the only one not in trouble.”

He grinned.

I reached into my bag and handed him a pack of fruit snacks. “More where that came from…”

So what if I was bribing him?

It worked.

He snatched the package from my hand and popped a few in his mouth, closing his eyes in ecstasy before holding out his hand like we were shaking on it.

I took it and gripped it firm. “Nice doing business with you.”

“What business?” Rae asked, approaching with Lucas.

I shook my head at both of them. “Sookie and I will be at the van. Grab your stuff. Oh, and… make sure Kai’s not running for the hills, he looked scared.”

“When has Kai ever been scared?” Lucas muttered under his breath.

“Now actually, just now, when I scared him.” I smiled sweetly and gave him my back. He was lucky he didn’t get a foot in his ass.

“So Sookie, tell me about your parents.” We walked off.

But I felt both of their stares.

I told myself it didn’t matter.

Why should it?

When I was just an intern.

And to them?

A means to an end.

Chapter Twenty

Dead to me, so let’s date!

Grace

The tension was thick back at the apartment, blending into one of those awkward moments where everyone was eating, but nobody was talking, not even casually. The poor chef dropped off some food and fled. I didn’t blame him. It was as if they knew that I was pissed, hurt, and ready to hurl objects in the direction of the first person who spoke.

I was trying to be professional, but my stupid emotions and insecurity kept getting in the way every single time I told myself to calm down.

Once the guys looked like they were close to being done, I walked into the kitchen and read off their schedule.

“You guys have the rest of the night off but remember you need to be in bed by eleven to get ready for your first rehearsal on the comeback stage tomorrow. Sookie, make sure you’re hydrating tonight—you know how you can get. Rae, try not to stay up too late worrying about everyone. Lucas, if I see you on the piano after midnight, I’m tossing a match and starting an indoor bonfire. Kai, your hair kept getting in your face during the interview. Make sure that you pull it back a bit tighter, or tell the stylist to do so for the rehearsal so you can watch everyone and stay in sync. And Jay, well Jay, you did perfect today.”

He grinned widely.

“Which means you’re probably exhausted. You should go to bed a bit earlier and try not to forget the lyrics on stage like you did earlier this morning during practice. Your fans don’t want to see you lip-sync, even if you do have background vocals.”

I had no idea where all of that came from.

I’d never had the balls to order them around.

Maybe it was the exhaustion, but rather than trying to cheer everyone up and make it a super positive environment, I just blandly read my notes to them.

That was it.

There was no, hey wanna put Pringles in Kai’s pants and see how long it takes for Sookie to tackle him and steal one?

Up until this point, I’d been bending over backward, trying to make the environment anything but what it was. Instead, all I’d accomplished was… nothing. The group still wasn’t completely on point, and they didn’t have much time left. I’d set my phone to ping every single time a new article came out about them, and news kept leaking about the pressure they were under.