My Summer in Seoul

I growled or made some sort of animalistic noise when his abs were on full display for Grace to see, then wanted to laugh in triumph when she touched her neck exactly where I’d left a hickey last night.

She’d said she was cold this morning—thankfully, it was raining, so the excuse worked as she wrapped a light scarf around her neck.

I smiled to myself.

Kai elbowed me. “If you keep growling and smiling, people are going to think you’ve been medicated.”

I cleared my throat. “Sorry.”

He sighed. “Tell me you actually went to bed last night.”

“I went to bed.” Just later than he thought I had.

Memories of the night before kept rushing to the forefront of my mind. Grace on her knees, me gritting my teeth, attempting not to make a fool out of myself, and wondering if anything had ever felt so good in my entire life.

I nervously cleared my throat again. The last thing I needed was to be live for the world to see, sporting a boner.

Talk about scandal.

Kai elbowed me again.

“What?” I hissed.

“You like her?”

“No, I kiss every girl I see; it’s kind of my thing now,” I said with a heavy dose of sarcasm.

“She leaves soon, you know.” He just had to remind me.

“Not for another two months,” I corrected him.

“Just be careful,” he said under his breath. “Rae’s close to her too.”

“I know.” I bit down on my tongue to keep from saying anything more. “But they’re just friends.”

“She knows that. You know that. Does he know that?” Kai asked under his breath.

Sookie peered around Kai and stared at me with a sadness in his eyes, then whispered in Korean, “Don’t hurt Rae.”

“I won’t,” I lied, not sure I could keep that promise.

Sookie smiled and then adjusted the mic on his shirt before Rae finally joined us at the table.

We were going to read some thirst tweets first, followed by a live Q&A about the music video from our fan group.

Within seconds, the lights were on us, and it was time, time for all the hard work from our comeback to get set into motion. I never imagined that I’d be facing the cameras with an actual smile on my face, happy about my future for the first time in years. Proud of our album, our hard work, and thankful that a messy, noisy intern was the reason I was able to even be on that stage answering questions.

I owed her everything.

She smiled in my direction and placed her hand on her neck again, then winked. I smiled back and turned to Kai only to see Rae looking directly at me, his eyes narrowing.

My smile instantly evaporated.

Shit.

Grace sat in a chair next to her uncle. They high-fived over something, laughed, and then all was quiet on set.

Two hours raced by seemingly without effort…

“Okay, now for our last few questions…” Ji-Ho, a popular actress, was the one interviewing. I used to have such a crush on her when I was a kid; she was basically on every hit drama as I was growing up. I remember asking my mom if she was an angel.

Naturally, I was ignored since my mom didn’t care about me until I started making money.

Ji-Ho had an easy smile, flawless skin, and an ethereal beauty about her. Her hair was a lighter brown, and she was wearing a blue and white designer dress that flawlessly hung on her thin body.

Last year I probably would have been intimidated.

This year?

My eyes kept going elsewhere.

“Another SWEET fan wants to know,” she read from the card. “If MOVE was written from personal experience with a breakup?”

We all started chuckling to ourselves because I was the one who wrote it alongside Rae, and it had nothing to do with a relationship breakup but a friendship between two people, though we’d made it come across romantic since the fans would love it more.

“Actually”—Rae shot me a curious look—“when Lucas and I wrote the song, it was more or less about a breakdown in any sort of relationship, whether it be romantic or not, and how painful it would be to lose that person over something so… stupid.”

I laughed along with the guys even though panic filled my chest. “Yeah,” I agreed. “We really wanted to make sure that our fans understood how important even our friendships are with each other and how we’ll be together until the end, right Rae?”

“Right.” Rae flashed a smile for the cameras.

The tension was thick.

Nobody else would be able to feel it but me and Rae.

He knew.

Fuck.

He knew.

But how?

We were so quiet.

I knew he hadn’t seen us.

Sweating, I tried to focus on the last few questions and somehow seemed to hold it together and give the correct responses. When it was time to finally go back to the apartments, our video had already hit over twenty million views in less than twenty-four hours.