I fumble with the soundboard.
I know she’s going to ask it.
Haneul’s been giving me shit for years about it.
“No girlfriends…boyfriends… Do you even have a cat? A goldfish?”
I let out an annoyed sigh. “I have a cat at the talent apartments.”
She slow claps. “How very risky of you. What’s its name?”
“Slytherin,” I answer quickly. “Now, let’s go back into the booth and lay out the chorus so we can beat the other two to it and kick their asses.”
She jumps to her feet.
“Oh, so that’s how to motivate you. Competition.” I laugh.
“I’m doing it for House Slytherin,” Ah-Ri says. “Haven’t even met your cat, and I’m weirdly already more on his side than yours.”
“Everyone always is.” My sister used to be obsessed with that cat. My dad’s allergic, so I keep it at the talent apartments. He likes to sleep with Haneul, though. Go figure. Even my cat sleeps with other people.
I shudder.
My brain really needs to get off the memory of sleeping with things like a cat so I don’t embarrass myself or remember things I swore I’d forget.
I start the music and go into the booth with Ah-Ri. Both of us stand in front of the microphone, and I press the headphones to my ear so I can hear myself better and wait for the chorus to start.
I’m already wondering how she’s going to harmonize with me. I haven’t given her any direction, wanting to see what she’ll do with it. Will she just sing in unison with me?
I count us down with my hands and then point at the chorus part of the sheet I left in the booth.
We both start to sing the chorus, and then she breaks apart from me and takes the higher harmony.
It sounds how I imagined it would, and I want to keep going because it feels good being in here with her, so I motion for her to keep singing her part.
She does it flawlessly.
We hit the chorus again before it goes into my rap line. I get lost in the words. Music always has a way of distracting me. The chorus pops up again.
Ah-Ri joins in and starts to dance a bit next to me.
I smile and keep singing.
We do four more takes, all of them perfect yet slightly different. By the time we finish the last one, I have so much adrenaline pumping through my system that I could record all day.
She pulls off her headphones and holds up her hand.
I make a fist and punch it lightly.
Ah-Ri throws her head back and laughs. “I guess I deserved that.”
“You really did.” I smirk, then hold up my other hand. “One last chance?”
She sets her headphones on the stand, moves in front of me, and then slowly presses her palm against mine.
Instinct takes over. My fingers slide into hers. Her smile falters as she stares at our joined hands. “Looks like our palms like a seriously long kiss.”
“A lingering kiss,” I tease, licking my lips.
“Lingering, huh?” Her eyes focus on my mouth.
This is a bad idea, my brain screams. Do not fall for your bandmate, the very one you could hate later or have to see on tour every day. In the history of bad ideas, this would be the worst.
Slowly, I pull my hand away from hers.
It falls empty at my side.
It doesn’t hurt, but it doesn’t feel good, either.
It feels like she’s missing when she’s standing right in front of me.
She stares down at her hand, then over at mine before slowly grabbing it again and pressing a kiss to my palm.
Her lips burn a hole through my skin. They create a memory with zero effort, one I’ll never escape from unless someone chops off my hand.
“You guys alive in there?” Haneul’s voice comes through the sound system. I jerk away from Ah-Ri, look through the glass, and leave the booth.
It was a moment of temporary insanity, brought on by high emotions, close proximity, and touching.
No more high-fives.
No more palm kissing.
Am I a toddler or something?
I wipe my hands on my black sweats and casually run a hand through my hair as I walk toward Haneul. Jisoo is in the corner on her phone.
Haneul smirks like he caught me making out.
It was just our hands.
Shit. I need to relax. It’s not like he’s my dad.
“Problem recording?” Haneul smiles wider.
“Um, no. We killed it.” I lean against the board and cross my arms.
“Uh-huh.” Haneul reclines in his chair, legs spread like his dick is so big it needs space. “So, everything went great then in that small, tiny, little room? Did you brush up against her too much or what?”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
Haneul bursts out laughing. “I knew I got here early for a reason, and the universe provides!” He points at my cock. “Should probably take care of that before your anti-fan comes out here and finds out that while you may pretend to hate her, your body definitely isn’t on the same page.” He tilts his head to the right. “Grower not a shower, hmmm?”