Kyun couldn’t sleep alone. It was another of those things he didn’t speak about, but Tae had said it had something to do with his father. Ever since Kyun had moved in with Tae, the two had shared a room—and usually a bed—even through their trainee and rookie days at Atlantis.
There wasn’t a single part of me that was jealous of that, even though both had told me it was purely platonic. Hell, I wouldn’t have cared if they’d said it was more than that. I was just glad Kyun had someone to look out for him.
The thought made me look over at him. Even in his sleep, he was frowning. “Stay,” I told Tae, softly. “Kyun will like it if the two of us are here.”
I picked up a hairbrush to run through my hair, but Tae stepped over, taking it from me. As he started brushing my long length out, he glanced back at Kyun before looking at me via the mirror. “Where did you go tonight?”
“Kyun didn’t tell you?”
“No, which makes me think you took him to see his father.”
I stared back at Tae before shrugging. “It’s Kyun’s choice,” I told him, keeping my volume low. “And if he decides he wants to keep doing that, you can’t get mad at him for it. He doesn’t have any other family.”
“He has us,” Tae said, instantly.
Turning, I took the hairbrush out of Tae’s hand and set it on the dresser before I nodded at him. “Yes. He does.” I stood, my height taking me nowhere near Tae, but closer than sitting. “What we have is completely different, which is why, regardless of whether this goes well or not, we will still be there for him.”
“We will, but it doesn’t mean I like it. You never knew Kyun in middle school. It was like having a Slow Loris in the house whenever we tried to give him anything. That man made him feel worthless and disposable, and it took years for him to start to shake it.”
“Ha Jeonggu got down on his knees and apologized today,” I told him. “And he’s been sober for five years.”
Tae looked at me like I had pardoned a murder. “And now all is forgiven?”
I glanced back at Kyun and shrugged. “I don’t think so. But if Kyun does decide to forgive him, that’s his call. Not ours.”
“Holly, I just want to protect Kyun. He has been through enough.” Tae ran his hand through his dark brown hair, making the loose curls stick out at odd angles. Before I could say anything, he nodded. “You’re right. It’s his call. And for what it’s worth, I do want this to work out.”
“How about we go make a Kyun sandwich?”
Tae arched an eyebrow. “A … Kyun … sandwich?”
“Snuggle time,” I clarified.
Softly shaking his head, Tae moved to the bed, climbing in beside Kyun. As though sensing someone in the bed with him, he rolled onto his other side and flung and arm around his friend.
I quickly changed into the T-shirt, switching on the bedside lamp before I went back into the bathroom to hang the towel up. After fishing out my phone from the pile of clothes on the bathroom floor, I returned to the bedroom, diverting to switch the main light out before getting in bed.
Kyun rolled over, snuggling up under my arm. Without opening his eyes, he reached up and wafted my phone away. “Kyun sandwiches are better without phones.”
I glanced over at Tae. “Kyunnie, how much of that conversation did you hear?”
Kyun opened an eye and stared up at me. “Enough to know you both care, and that if I search whatever a Slow Loris is, I bet I’m going to punch Tae.”
“You won’t punch your hyung,” Tae scoffed, but he was grinning.
“Definitely sounds like you’d fucking deserve it.” Opening his other eye, Kyun relaxed onto his back. “Look, a lot happened to me when I was a kid that shouldn’t have, but I don’t want your sympathy. I didn’t have it as bad as some kids did.”
“It’s not a competition to see who has it worse. It shouldn’t have happened. Period.” Tae reached over, fluffing Kyun’s hair before he pulled him to him and kissed the top of his head.
Kyun wriggled free. Angling his body, he looked at Tae with an expression more serious than usual. “I’m going to meet him again. I don’t know how it will turn out, but I know I’ll regret it if I don’t. But, no matter what, you’re my family, Tae. Always,” he told him, almost begrudgingly.
A huge lump appeared in my throat and I couldn’t stop myself from sniffing.
With pink cheeks, Kyun looked over his shoulder at me. “Don’t be like that. It wasn’t that soft.”
“Of course not, my little marshmallow,” I grinned.
Flipping me the bird, Kyun snuggled into Tae. “I’m supposed to be a fucking sandwich.”
Everyday
Halloween party planning was going well, and H3RO’s promotions were slowly dwindling off.
Best of all, I had cake.
The catering manager was thrilled that the team had been asked to provide the food for the Halloween party and had been sending me regular suggestions. Most had been via email, and then, the tray of cupcakes had arrived.
There were thirty in total. Each one had a different decoration, and according to the note, there were five different fillings or cake mix. After offering some to Inhye who had turned them down, I had taken them home.
“Holy shit, those strawberry’s look like that talking plant!” Jun exclaimed, swiping a cupcake with a giant strawberry sitting on top of a sea of icing. Whoever had decorated them had painstakingly carved a small mouth of teeth into the front of it and covered the teeth in what looked like white chocolate. “Seymour?”
“Audrey II,” Minhyuk corrected him, reaching for one which looked like a miniature cemetery. “But these look incredible.”
Dante frowned. “I don’t understand the reference.”
“Little Shop of Horrors,” Minhyuk explained. His eyes lit up. “We could watch it later.”
Wrinkling his nose, Dante let out a sigh. “Is it a musical?” When Minhyuk nodded, Dante gave him a look of boredom. “Pass.”
“Make sure you save some for Kyun,” I said as Jun swiped a second before Dante had chosen his first.
I looked over at Tae who was stretched out on the couch, reading something on his phone. His lips were moving, but he wasn’t making a sound. “Cupcake?” I offered.
“I’ll eat mine with Kyun later.”
I moved over and sat down beside him. “What are you doing?”
Tae flipped his phone around. It was a language app. “We have a lot of international fans. We can’t keep relying on Nate to translate it all.”
From across the room, Nate’s head lifted from the iPad he was playing on. “International fans are thirsty as fuck. What they’re saying is not what you’re going to find in an app.”
“I can help with that,” Dante offered, grinning wickedly. Not only did he speak English as a second language—Korean was his third—he was probably fluent in Urban Dictionary too. As it was, he was eating a cupcake wearing only a pair of boxer briefs.
Tae looked at me and I shrugged. “I mean… he’s right.”
Jun walked over, two cupcakes in each hand, and somehow vaulted over the back of the couch without dropping them, landing next to Nate. “Whatcha doing?” he asked, peering at the iPad.
“It’s a highly addictive game which involves me matching pairs of items together and dropping them in a hole.”
Jun looked at him like he’d grown a second head. “Right.” Shaking his head, he started licking the icing off the top of the cupcake, his eyes fixed on me.
“You need a room with that cupcake?” Nate asked him, shoving him with his foot.
“I’d rather a room with Holly.”
Watching him eat that cupcake, I wanted a room with Jun.
“But we were going to discuss costume ideas before you had to get back to the dorm,” Minhyuk pouted. “We’ve been working hard on this party.”
“About that,” Dante said. He got up, and walked over, leaning against the wall. “I actually got asked to film a guest spot on a show. They�
��re going to ask you formally tomorrow,” he added, looking at me. “But they’re filming it in Beijing, and we won’t get back until the following afternoon.”
“You never mentioned that,” Jun said, watching Dante with suspicion.
Dante shrugged. “I don’t mention a lot of things. You’re annoying.”
“It’s just one of the many qualities you love about me.”
“It’s one of the many qualities I’d change about you,” Dante shot back at him.
“Much as you two bickering like a married couple is usually entertaining, what’s the show?” Nate asked, shoving Jun with his foot again.
Like Nate, I looked to Dante with interest. He’d not done any variety shows solo, instead preferring modelling. Although, going off a previous conversation, a solo album was also of interest. But a show? In China?
“They want me to guest judge and mentor on a talent show.” He folded his arms, the action making his arm muscles ripple, and then gave Jun a pointed look.
“What?” Jun asked, still suspicious.
“You owe me.”
There was a moment of confusion before Jun groaned. “Fuck.”
Now I was curious. “What did I miss?”
“Back in our rookie days, Jun and I made a bet about who would be there first person to judge on a talent show. I’ve just won and now Jun owes me.”
“Owes you what?” Tae asked, just as suspicious.
“A mixtape,” Jun grumbled.
“A rap mixtape,” Dante said, a huge, shit-eating grin on his face.
Nate looked at Jun, tilting his head. “You’re a vocalist.”
Clapping his hands in delight, Dante nodded. “Exactly.”
“I feel I’ve missed something,” I said, slowly. H3RO had two rappers: Minhyuk and Nate. I’d heard Tae cover one of Nate’s raps once and he could pull it off, but Jun?
“Back when we were rookies, we got drunk—”
I held my hand up. “Hold up. You debuted when you were a kid.”
“Yes,” Nate said, nodding his head. “And we remember those cheesy videos that we had to be in. But this is Jun.”
This was also Korea. Underage drinking was a thing in the US, and while I didn’t think it didn’t happen in Korea, I was surprised that Jun had done it while he was an idol. If he’d have been caught by the media…
“It was one beer with some chicken, but Jun is a lightweight,” Dante clarified.
“I wasn’t drunk.” Jun sat back in the sofa, the two remaining cupcakes on the arm of the chair. “You were drunk.”
Dante gave a nonchalant shrug. “You agreed to a bet where you could release a mixtape with you rapping.”
“You’re a Chinese idol in Korea. The chances of you being asked to judge a talent competition before me was slim, especially back then. The fact you agreed to it shows how drunk you were,” Jun countered.
Dante’s eyes narrowed.
“I think I’m going to go dressed as Cloud Strife,” Minhyuk announced, his cheerful voice cutting through the weird tension.
Whatever Jun and Dante had bet on in the past, I wasn’t going to pass judgement on it. They hadn’t been found out and hell, it wasn’t like I didn’t know plenty of kids at school who had gotten drunk underage. I wasn’t sure how Jun rapping was going to work, but those two could work it out and he could drop it on Soundcloud or something.
Gently shaking my head, as though shaking myself free of the daze I’d fallen in, I twisted my body to look at Minhyuk. “You’re going to need either a wig or a lot of hairspray.”
“And your roots touching up,” Jun added.
Just as Minhyuk and Jun started discussing re-bleaching Minhyuk’s hair, I heard the click of the door to the garage. Beside me, Tae set down his phone. Holding my breath and praying the apprehension wasn’t all over my face, I waited for Kyun to appear.
“Kyun what are you dressing up as for Halloween?” Jun asked the moment he walked into the room.
Kyun ignored him, his gaze settling on me. In an instant, I knew it had gone well.
“Where have you been?” Nate asked as he stretched out. “And you might want to grab a cupcake or try to before Jun inhales the last of them. Unless you’re still dieting?”
“I think a cupcake sounds great.”
All of us watched in disbelief as Kyun walked over to the half empty plate of cupcakes and took two of them. He turned, carrying them over to the spare chair and sat down, pulling a chunk of chocolate tombstone from the top and started eating.
“You are in a good mood,” Dante noted.
Kyun shrugged, and ate his cupcake. “Todoroki.”
There was a moment’s pause before Jun’s mouth fell open and he let out a loud groan. “Oh, that’s good!” he exclaimed. “Damnit.”
I looked at Tae who shrugged. “I think I’ve missed something.”
“Shoto Todoroki. He’s a character in My Hero Academia,” Jun explained, still looking mortified that Kyun had picked whatever it was he had. He fixed his attention on Kyun, eyes narrowing. “First or second hero costume?”
“Second.”
Jun let out another moan and threw himself back into the couch. “Now I’ve got to beat that?”
I had no idea what My Hero Academia was, but considering Jun and Kyun did, I was going for either a comic or anime. Or both.
Although I was desperate to get the details of what had happened, as Kyun still wasn’t telling the others where he had been, I had to wait to ask.
Once Minhyuk let slip that they hadn’t been invited to an Atlantis Halloween party after the one the first year they debuted, I was determined to make sure they had a great time. The seven of us stayed in the living room discussing costume choices and then finding the costumes online.
Their excitement was catching, and I found myself ordering a costume to be shipped from Japan for mine. Almost everyone else was paying for it to be shipped from abroad, and they were happy that they finally started earning money to be able to afford it.
Finally, Manager Kim messaged to say he was on his way to pick the guys up and get them back to the dorm for their early morning call.
“Holly, can I speak to you and Kyun?” Tae asked, giving me a pointed look.
“Yes,” I said, quickly.
None of the others questioned it, instead continuing to find new ideas for their costumes, even though they had their costumes ordered.
I left them to it, following Tae and Kyun to the games room in the garage. Seeing as the minivan would be driven into the garage, we wouldn’t miss Manager Kim arriving. While Kyun jumped up onto the pool table, I took a seat in one of the learn armchairs in front the television.
“I know Holly would want to know how it went before we left,” Tae told Kyun.
The younger man nodded. “I figured. It went… well.”
I waited patiently for him to continue. “What did you two discuss?” I prompted him when he didn’t say anything more.
“My mom.” He ran a hand over his thigh. “I don’t remember much about her, but he told me all these stories about her. She couldn’t dance either.”
Before I met H3RO, I’d assumed they could all dance. I’d initially thought Kyun just got nervous when performing which was why he was the one most likely to make a mistake. Kyun had said once it was only because he could learn routines if he practiced them enough.
I’d caught a few practices where they were being taught new routines and then I realised dancing wasn’t Kyun’s strength. But he always persevered and spent hours longer than any of practicing the others to make sure his performances were perfect.
“I don’t think—”
“And now you know there’s something you inherited off your mom,” I said, cutting Tae off. I knew what Tae was going to say, because I thought the same—dancing ability wasn’t an inheritable trait—but Kyun didn’t need that taking away from him.
Especially not when you could see the happiness in his usually serious eyes when he spoke ab
out her.
“He loved her, you now,” Kyun said, quietly, looking between the two of us. “When she died it broke his heart. He turned to alcohol to numb it all.”
“That doesn’t mean that he should have left you to fend for yourself. You were a kid,” Tae growled.
Kyun nodded, staring down at his lap. “I know. And he apologized again. But if something happened to you,” he looked up at me. “I can’t say I wouldn’t do the same thing.”
“You wouldn’t,” Tae said firmly. “Because not only is nothing going to happen to Holly, I wouldn’t let you take up drinking.”
“What now?” I asked, getting up and walking over before Tae’s doubts clouded the conversation again. I shot Tae a look, subtly shaking my head.
“We’re going to meet again later this week for dinner. I have to check our schedule and then I’m going to message him.”
“Already?” Tae asked, surprised.
The happiness started to slip from Kyun’s face. “Yes. We’ve a lot of time to make up for, and it won’t be long before our schedules are too crazy to be able to see him.”
Reaching for Kyun’s hand, I held it tightly in mine as it rested on his leg. “Tae is just being overprotective.” Outside of the room, I could hear the garage door opening. “I’m glad things went well, Kyun.”
“Will you go let the others know Manager Kim is here?” Tae asked Kyun. He waited for the younger man to leave before turning to me. “I know what you’re going to say, but there’s something about this that doesn’t sit right with me. It seems too good to be true.”
“If it were Kyun trying to reconnect with his father, and not the other way around, I would agree. But Kyun’s the one which had to let him in, and he made that decision.” I reached up and kissed Tae’s cheek. “You’ve got to trust him.”
“I do. It’s his father I don’t trust,” Tae told me before walking out of the room.
My Pace
H3RO ended their promotions with six wins. I couldn’t have been prouder. Even if they’d have come away with no wins, they had all worked hard and a well-earned break was in order.
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