Chapter 22
Friday came and went in a flash, filled with practice for their performances and events over the next couple of days for ACon. They ended up at the venue for most of the day where they were able to put in a bit of time practicing on the stage and filmed some on-camera interviews and prepared for some live interviews they would have to do on stage tomorrow. Claire spent the day with them as the venue was getting the last touches of setup for the event.
The day ended up feeling very long for everyone. The schedule was hectic and with members having to run off to do something on their own when they could, between everything else. They finally got home and most of the members practically fell into bed when they got back to the room. Claire assured Cheol it would be just fine to skip his night visit, but he came nonetheless. He did, however, fall asleep almost immediately upon curling up under the covers with her.
On Saturday they were scheduled to be a part of the opening performances, along with TEENz and a number of other bands but that wasn’t until the early evening. In the meantime, they had two other scheduled appearances. The first was a panel at 11 where the band would talk about themselves and their music with a moderator who had gathered questions from social media. There wasn’t really too much they could have done to prepare for that but the questions were standard enough. The second, later in the afternoon, was a brief team dance competition between the members who were split into teams to see if they could recall the choreography to a number of songs that would pop up on a screen behind them.
After that everyone headed back to their dressing room to get into their looks for the evening performance. Claire didn’t have much she could do for them that day and so spent the day actually out and seeing all the stuff in the venue with Suhani and Roz. They shopped and went to discussions together, taking a break from everything to grab a spot of lunch in the early afternoon, but basically trying to take in as much as they could during their day together. They came to watch both of the things YTHTonic did, of course, but were too far back for any of the boys to see them in the crowd.
After the second appearance, Claire slipped away from her friends to get them a quick gift they could keep as mementos of the fun day. She had grabbed two copies of the most recent CDs by YTHTonic and TEENz and hurried backstage where she knew everyone would be getting ready to see if she couldn’t get them to sign them for her friends. YTHTonic would be easy enough, half of them had even met her friends already and the rest would be more than happy to do it as a kind gesture for a friend of a friend. TEENz might be a little harder. She hadn’t heard much back from Yejun since they had spoken a few weeks ago, aside from word that he had brought it up to someone at the company. If it didn’t work out, it didn’t work out, there was no sense in worrying about it and she had spoken to a couple of recruiters about other possible jobs at schools and hagwan just to keep her options open.
Because she hadn’t been needed by the boys, she hadn’t traveled to ACon with them, instead deciding to meet her friends and traveling with them to the event. She had decided to dress up again for her friends and to see them perform since she would be stage side with her friends this time. Roz had actually brought over one of her old outfits she hadn’t packed to take with her to Korea, figuring there probably wasn’t a need for it. It was a little blue boat necked midriff shirt and tight jean shorts that went down almost to her knees. The sleeves actually went all the way to her wrist but were made of a billowy and diaphanous material made of barely-there material. It was a perfectly decent outfit but it had always made her feel pretty in it. She had her hair up in a loose topknot held up with a hair stick and was planning to let it down once they weren’t walking around in the overly warm exhibition halls filled with warm bodies.
She found all the boys gathered in their dressing room in various stages of readiness for the stage this evening. Her entry largely went unnoticed in the din of chaos that was their dressing and preparations. Changho was sitting in a corner with his headphones and a notebook out as he waited his turn and seemed as easy a place to start as any. Kneeling down in front of him she held out the albums and a sharpie in his field of view. Looking up from his work, he gave Claire a happy smile.
“They are for Roz and Suhani,” She explained. “Would you mind?”
“Oh sure,” He took the albums and the marker from her. “You look really pretty again today, Claire-ssi.”
“Thank you,” She said, both for the albums and the complement. “I wanted to have fun today and look a little nice to watch you on the stage today. All three of us will be there stage-side, to see you tonight.”
“I’ll look for you,” He promised as he handed them back to her. Giving him a grateful nod, she scooted along the floor to where Hyunwoo was lying on the floor reading.
“Oh Claire-ssi, I haven’t seen you all day!” He greeted her happily. “Oooo, cute! Why are you dressed up today?”
“I’m having fun at the Con with my friends. Would you mind signing these for my friends as a gift to them?” She handed the albums to him and he eagerly signed them before passing them to Jaejin behind him to do the same. “Will we get to meet your friends today then?”
“I don’t know, maybe they can come by after everything if it isn’t too late,” She proposed. “I know they would love to meet you and see your adorable face.” She made her way around to the rest of the members, leaving Cheol to last as he had been getting his make-up done. When he looked like he was free for a moment, she came over next to him, getting his attention with a gentle hand on his arm.
“Hey, I didn’t see you there,” He looked up at her with warm eyes. “What brings you back here looking so lovely?”
“I’m getting these signed for Roz and Suhani,” She laid the albums out in front of him. With a nod he signed both of them with a quick flourish and handed them back.
“You guys are going to be at the performance tonight, right?” His hand lingered a couple of seconds on hers under the cover of the boxes.
“Yeah, just to the left side of the end point of the stage.” She confirmed, pulling back to put the albums in her bag again.
“I’ll see you there and maybe after, if you guys don’t have plans,” He suggested, having felt her absence.
“That would be fun,” She agreed, wanting nothing more than to give him a comforting kiss. “Doesn’t the necklace go well with this shirt?” Deliberately she brought it to his attention that she had worn it again today for him. “I had Roz bring some of my old things since I thought they would go well with it.”
“It’s perfect,” He reached out and brushed his fingers over it.
“I should let you get ready and go back to my friends,” Taking a few steps back, she gave him a close-lipped smile. “But see you in a few hours on stage.”
Letting her go with a wave, he went back to getting ready as she made her way out of the room to try and find the TEENz dressing room to check in with Yejun and get the albums signed if it wasn’t too much bother.
After wandering around for a few minutes, she found a door with their name. Behind the door she could already hear the laughter and controlled chaos of them getting ready. She gave the door a solid but polite series of taps and waited. After a few seconds Shiwoo’s perfectly elegant face appeared from behind the door. He made a happy sound of greeting before opening the door the rest of the way and welcoming her into the room.
“Hey, welcome,” Yejun stood up and came to greet her. “It’s nice to see you.”
“Thank you,” She leaned in and gave him a quick hug. “I was wondering if I could bother you for five minutes to sign a couple of albums for my friends who have come with me today.”
“Ah yeah, of course, of course,” He nodded excitedly, holding out his hands to take the albums. “Everybody, come sign when you have a moment.” With a quick hand he signed the two boxes, he motioned over the other boys over and took Claire to the side to have a word with her. “I’ve been talking to the company and it’s looking good. When you
get back to Korea you can come talk with them and I think we will be working together.”
“That is good to hear,” Claire gave him a grateful smile and patted his arm. “I look forward to working with all of you.” Over her shoulder she could see that the boys had dutifully signed the two albums for her and were back to goofing off and getting ready. “I will see you all from stageside tonight. Good luck!”
“Are you going to watch the show tonight?” Junwoo clapped his hands together excitedly.
“Yep, with my two friend I got those albums for,” She confirmed.
“Did your friends come here to see you and ACon?” Sanghoon sounded impressed.
“Actually they live here,” Claire clarified. “I know them from when I used to live here, too.”
“You’re from New York City?” A low whistle sounded from Taehyun before he gave one of his warm smiles. “Why did you leave? This place is so cool!”
“I wanted to see new places and meet cool new people like you guys,” She shot him a wink and a finger gun as she backed towards the door. “See you from the audience in a couple of hours.” All the boys were laughing as they watched her slip out the door with a final wave.
***
“I have never been so excited in my entire life,” Suhani practically vibrated in place as they stood near the edge of the stage. They all had their light sticks in hand, two each, unable to decide between TEENz light sticks and YTHTonic ones for the night.
“I don’t want to know how much this spot was supposed to cost,” Roz stated as she hugged her two best friends. “Whatever it should have been, it would have been worth it.”
“If we’re lucky you’ll get some sweat dripped on you by some of the members,” Claire joked with her friends
“You jest, but…” Roz gave a big sigh just as the lights went down in the arena. Around them fans of all ages started to cheer and chant as light sticks flickered on throughout the seats. Even if they weren’t getting to see some of their favorite artists, the experience would have been thrilling.
YTHTonic was the third group of the evening and one of the most anticipated rookie groups to come. The standing area right next to the stage was perfect and let the spectators there count the freckles any performer might have as they passed by or performed on that part of the stage. Hyunwoo was the first to spot them by the stage and give them a little smile as he performed. By the time they performed their second song they had all spotted them. After their last song they made a circuit of the stage to greet the stadium. As Cheol passed, he blew them a kiss before doing the same to the rows behind them and waving as he walked backstage.
TEENz performed second to last with a stellar and powerful performance that left Suhani hoarse from cheering. Granted it wasn’t the first performance she had been doing the fanchants for at full volume. Roz cheered, though she never remembered the fanchants, even for her favorite songs. She did, however, remember to shout I love you to Yejun as he passed them during their last performance. The members also noticed them standing there in the crowd and flashed them hearts and waved as they passed on their final pass before leaving the stage.
After all the performances they opted to go back to the hotel to hang out for one last evening. They took a taxi back and Claire messaged to let Cheol know that they would be in her room whenever the rest of them got back. They could come and get them to hang out if they weren’t too tired when they got back. When they arrived, they headed back to the room and collectively flopped onto the bed. Roz insisted on ordering a bottle of champagne for them to share alone with something for them to snack on since they had been on their feet most of the day and hadn’t gotten much other than a snack for dinner.
The champagne came from the bar downstairs and Suhani ordered food to be delivered to the lobby for them. She waited downstairs for the food with Claire while Roz went to the bar to explore their champagne options. By the time she came back, with two bottles as she had been unable to choose between them, the food had been delivered. They headed upstairs with their loot in hand to spend one last evening together like the good old days.
They stuffed themselves full of food and cheesecake as they finished the first bottle together as they chatted about the old days. Claire got to catch up on all the gossip going on in their lives that she just didn’t hear when she wasn’t there day to day. Suhani complained about the head doctor who was overseeing her residency. The man was old and crotchety but too good at his specialty to get rid of and seemed to enjoy making life as hard as possible on the people under him. Roz complained about the lack of funding and resources to do everything she needed to at her job. Half of their clients were pro bono, which they could afford because they charged the clients who could afford to pay for their services. The clients who really needed them almost never had the resources to really defend themselves in court or, sometimes, even hold on to the documentation they needed to prove who they were. It was a frustrating but rewarding job that she wouldn’t give up for anything in the world.
Claire shared what she could about her life in Seoul, careful not to talk much about the private lives of her friends and students. Of course, her friends asked her about Cheol and being with him in the awkward circumstances of dorm life. She had to confess that dorm sex was not her favorite thing, but things were the way they were. It was honestly wearying that pretty much their whole relationship had been spent in that place. Like Cheol she wanted some of that normalcy of dates and coffee and kissing good morning, but in their normal life, it was not worth the risk.
A gentle rap on the door interrupted their giggly conversation. Claire opened the door to find a wet haired Cheol on the other side.
“Haaaaiiiiii,” The one word was extended far longer than the single syllable needed and she leaned against the wall near the opened door.
“Hello,” He returned, a little surprised as he had never seen her drink, let alone tipsy. “What have you been upto?”
“Champagne!” Suhani cheered from over on the foot of the bed. “Oh and cheesecake!”
“We had some real food, too.” Roz offered from the squishy chair by the window. “But yeah, mostly champagne and cheesecake and girl talk.”
“Uh-oh,” Cheol joked. “Girl talk, should I be worried?”
“No no no,” Suhani waved her hand at him. “She makes you sound perfect. Perfect, perfect, perfect.”
“You’re a prince among men,” Roz waxed poetic. “You’re hot, and sweet, and funny, and generous and blah blah blah. The necklace is nice by the way. I was wondering where that came from.”
“Do you want to come and hang out with all of us since we are back?” Cheol put a hand on Claire’s shoulder. “Everyone is hanging out in my room and we just finished a vTube stream.”
“Oh sure,” Claire perked up.
“Take your glass!” Roz reminded her as she picked up the bottle to inspect it. “Hang on everyone, let’s see if we can’t finish this.” Claire made her way back across the room, drinking the third of a flute that was left in it. Both Roz and Suhani tossed back what they had left and all three gathered around to let Roz try to put the last of the bottle into their glasses. It was a close thing, but they managed to empty the last into the glasses with barely any room left. Roz made a sound of triumph and they all took a sip off the top before making their way back to the door to follow Cheol down the hall.
“Oop,” Suhani tipped slightly as she took a misstep into the room. Wonjung caught her and helped her right herself. “Thank you.” She blushed as he smiled up at her. “Wow, you’re cute.” The words escaped her before she could think better of it.
“He is, isn’t he?” Claire agreed with a giggle. “It kinda creeps up on you.”
“Thank you,” Wonjung beamed as he gave his seat to Suhani, moving to squeeze in on the bed with the other boys. Changho gave his chair near the table to Roz who was happy to have a place to set her glass down. Cheol found his seat up near the head of the far bed. Claire set her glass on the bed
side table and crawled up into his lap, looping her arms around his neck and hugging his hips with her thighs.
“Hi there,” Cheol chuckled as she settled her head against his shoulder.
“Hello,” She sighed into his ear. “You smell nice.”
“Do I?” He asked, running his hands along her spine, finding the bare skin between her top and pants. She sighed at his touch and wiggled her hips against his.
“Mmmmm, so good,” Her lips moved against his neck.
“You tasting him over there?” Roz snickered from her seat.
“No, but I could,” Leaning back to see Roz, Claire limberly tipped herself backwards, almost falling off but for Cheol quickly grabbing her hips. “Should I?”
“Yas, girl,” Suhani toasted her from across the room.
“‘’Kay,” She sat up and grabbed a small handful of Cheol’s hair, tilting his head back. Before he had time to react , Claire ran the tip of her tongue along his neck from the notch between his collar bones to the tip of his chin. An involuntary shiver quivered over him.
“Tasty?” Roz asked between hysterical giggles
“Salty, like a margarita,” Claire declared with a thoughtful expression. “It’s a good chaser to all the sweet cheesecake.”
“Oh boy,” FX chucked under his breath. “How much did you all drink tonight?”
“Two bottles,” Suhani held up two fingers and looked at them like she was unclear exactly why she was doing so.
“Each?” Jaejin half joked.
“Noooooo,” Claire scolded, even as she wavered. “We shared it and the very nice dinner.”
“She hasn’t drunk around you, has she?” Roz wisely deduced. “Ugh, I’m a bad influence.”
“No, I just have to be good for my boys,” Claire sighed. “They are very good boys. Oh, and young. I’m not going to contribute to the delinquency of a minor.”
“I’ve almost forgotten what it’s like to hang out with underaged people,” Suhani scrunched up her nose. “You always were the responsible one.”
The Tutor Page 44
