My Summer in Seoul

She had just turned around when the sound of someone falling had me jerking my head in their direction.

I assumed it was Sookie again.

It was.

He’d fallen onto his knees, sweat dripped down his chin.

I jumped to my feet and rushed over to him. “Are you okay?”

He frowned and gently pulled away from me to stand, nodding his head.

Okay, show no weakness.

Got it.

Consider me officially ignoring every fall from this point on.

“Actually, this is a good stopping point.” I directed the conversation toward Rae. “Solia just said that your variety show got rescheduled, I’m assuming for, wait hold on…”

Lucas sighed in annoyance as he ran a towel across his face. “Sorry, just checking the email. Okay, you guys are the first segment, not the second.”

Rae cursed.

“Sorry.” I held up my phone. “I know. I wasn’t aware that the schedules changed so close to the Showcase. I just need to get you guys back to the apartments real quick. You’ll have around twenty minutes to shower, and then we have to—”

“Gaja,” Lucas barked.

I jumped at his tone and stumbled back. The rest of the members gave me almost guilty looks that I understood as, sorry he yelled, but life is shit and stressful.

Ugh, and we had done so well yesterday.

One step forward, ten steps back.

“It’s fine.” Rae wiped the towel down his face. “It’s just…” He shook his head, “It’s fine. We just have to be careful.” His eyes landed on Lucas, who looked away, his jaw ticking in anger. “Especially during interviews as things get closer.”

What did they know that I didn’t?

I would probably find out once we were in the van and I was attempting to drive them back safely.

Safely being the keyword.

Hands shaking, I checked my email again, trying not to look too stressed out as we walked out of the building. Their stress was wearing on me; their angsty expressions alone had me questioning things again.

Would things shift again as we got closer to the Comeback?

Was there anything else I needed to be aware of? And how did I ask without sounding dumb? I fully understood how serious it was to all of them, not just the members but the record label as well. Still, I felt like someone had thrown me off a cliff and asked me to float after driving a knife through my parachute. There was so much to think about, so much to help them with, and while I was trying to be thankful, I was torn between attempting to protect and shield the guys but also make sure the world knew how amazing they were. It was a strange position to be in because I wanted to thrust them into the limelight and show all their hard work, but it seemed that it just caused more unrest and stress, and I knew they needed their time too, no matter what they said. Maybe I was overthinking it. Maybe I just had too much of a Western perspective.

Random people stopped to gawk as I led the guys back to the van. Others raised their phones for pictures, and the guys just seemed used to it. To me, the ground we walked on was potentially unsteady and could shift any moment. I sighed with relief as we finally made it.

Thank God the schedule was still the same as when I’d just looked. “Should I get you guys food or something since you’re basically going directly to filming?” I asked nobody in general as I started the engine.

Lucas chose that moment to throw his phone onto the floor of the van and then hold his head in his hands.

The rest of the guys reached for him, but he jerked away, his jaw ticked, clenched like he was seconds away from murdering a human, and I was his first choice.

I gulped. The guy wasn’t exactly small, and I wasn’t exactly big; good thing I was in the front seat. Should we go? Did he need a minute?

Sookie reached down and grabbed the phone, then squeezed his eyes shut, handing it over to Rae, who took one look at it and sighed, clutching it tightly in his hands. “Grace.”

“Yeah,” I whispered, hating the look on Rae’s face; pure rage, fear, no not fear, terror.

His eyes locked on mine in the rearview mirror. “Take Lucas’s phone and under no circumstances give it back to him for the rest of the day.”

My brain stuttered. Wasn’t that crossing a personal boundary? I had no time to respond as he tossed it up to me, the screen was unlocked, and even though I knew I shouldn’t look, I did.

It was a site called Koreaboo, and it posed the question: “Should SWT Showcase with Lucas or put him on a much-needed hiatus?”

The comments that followed were horrific. I shouldn’t have scrolled, but I needed to know what I was dealing with.