My Summer in Seoul

Everything came naturally for Rae and Kai, whereas for the rest of us, it always felt like we had to work just a little bit harder.

By the time practice was done, I was exhausted and just wanted a hot shower and food.

Thinking of food just reminded me of Rae and his ramen, which did nothing for my irritated mood.

I grabbed a bottle of water from the table. Grace hadn’t looked up yet, but I didn’t really expect her to, at least not in front of everyone. She’d been all business this morning. Did it affect her the way it did me?

I tried to clear my head and didn’t even notice that Dae-Jung had walked into the room to talk to Solia. He was going to be one of the celebrities tweeting and posting about our new video since it was dropping tomorrow. Even though he was a friend, I hated how flirtatious he was with anything that walked; guys and girls alike, the guy didn’t discriminate; he just liked beauty no matter what package it came in.

Not that he didn’t like a solid personality, but he’d made a reputation for himself that should have gotten him blacklisted. Rumors spread that he was so nice that people forgave a lot when it came to his very public dating life.

Jay stiffened next to me when Dae-Jung walked over. He was dressed in a fitted gray suit with an open black shirt underneath. His wavy hair was styled perfectly, and his attention was solely on Jay.

Of course it was.

“You guys looked good.” He looked between Jay and me. “Do you think you’re ready?”

“Ready as we’ll ever be,” Jay said in a hollow voice that held zero emotion.

It was in moments like this I felt bad for Jay; everyone was drawn to him whether they liked it or not.

“Good.” Dae-Jung’s expression shuttered as he looked between the two of us.

An awkward silence filled the space until Grace came jogging over. “Is it true you filmed at an amusement park today?”

“True.” He laughed. “Why?”

She made a face. “I love amusement parks, and my dad mentioned something about Seoul-Land.” Her face dropped. “Is that where you filmed?”

“It was really fun.” His winning smile spread across his face. “You know they booked it for two days, and if we leave now, I bet we could squeeze in an hour or two of rides as long as we stayed out of the night shots.”

“Sure,” Jay said quicker than I could say no. “Why don’t we all go? We had a really long day and deserve a break.”

“No.” Solia must have been eavesdropping. “Absolutely not. The video drops at midnight tonight; you guys have two reaction videos and another interview—”

“What she’s saying,” Kai continued for her, “is ‘wow, good job guys, you’ve worked so hard, let’s go blow off some steam for an hour, and I’ll help babysit you, so nobody goes crazy and eats a corn dog with extra sugar.’”

Sookie let out a moan.

“Pause.” Grace held up her hand. “Corn dogs have sugar?”

We all looked at each other in amusement before Dae-Jung announced, “Yeah, we’re going—poor girl hasn’t even had a sugared corn dog.”

“I don’t get it. Why would you dip it in sugar?” Grace was adorable, still focused on the sugared corn dog as Dae-Jung turned her toward the door and started to explain.

Rae’s eyes went immediately to his hands on her shoulders. His jaw flexed. I knew that look.

He wasn’t just pissed.

Rae… was jealous.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Silent confessions and heights

Grace

“This is amazing!” The entire theme park was lit up, reminding me of Disneyland or a larger version of the Seattle Center. I did a little twirl in excitement while Dae-Jung stayed back and talked with one of the directors.

“All right.” He jogged toward the group. “They’re shooting on the opposite end of the park, so as long as we stay on this side, we’re fine.”

Solia nervously looked around. “Do they have adequate security to block out the press from—”

“Relax a little,” Kai interrupted. “It’s a closed shoot, which means no cameras and all the fun.”

“But the employees—”

“Have all signed NDA’s and gag orders,” Dae-Jung said triumphantly. “They aren’t even allowed to have their phones on set.”

Solia kept arguing. “But you can’t control—”

“Keep talking and I’m shoving a corn dog into your mouth,” Kai threatened.

Her ears turned bright red.

Kai gave a satisfied nod. “There, silence. That’s better, plus don’t you technically work for us?”

Her eyes narrowed into tiny slits like she was seconds away from doing more than choking him. “I don’t think taking SWT to an amusement park is in my job description.”

“It should be.” He shot her an easy grin.

I appreciated that they were at least arguing in English for my and everyone else’s benefit. In fact, everyone just seemed to slide into it, so I could at least understand what the hell was going on.