by J. S. Lee
“I’m sorry,” CX said almost as soon as we sat down.
I gave him a questioning look. “What for?”
“The reason Sungmin doesn’t trust you is because of me.”
I set the menu I had been given down on the table and folded my arms. “Don’t start apologizing for my decisions. I made them, and I’ll own them. Sungmin isn’t pissed because we missed that flight. He’s pissed because I didn’t tell him about it, and I made all of you guys lie about it.”
I waited for CX to acknowledge that before I picked my menu back up, trying to decide between a hot dog and a burger. The hot dog won out – for both of us. It wasn’t until the waitress returned with a chocolate milkshake for CX and a root beer float for me, that I crossed my legs under me and gave CX a sly smile. “I see you and MinMin are getting on well.”
“He’s close to my age, so we end up sharing a room all the time,” CX agreed, not catching my drift. “It’s strange being the youngest.”
“You have younger siblings?”
“I have a younger brother, but I meant Onyx. In Bright Boys, only Hyunseo was older than me.”
I nodded, prodding at the ice cream in my float. I’d read the articles about the disbandment; how Hyunseo had punched a member of the public and half of Bright Boys had been caught up in it. The most I’d gotten from Holly was that trying to come up with a solution had stressed her out, but I’d never known the real details. “Is it bad?”
“Just different.”
Our hot dogs arrived, mine loaded with BBQ sauce, bacon, and cheese, and CX’s a classic chili dog. They were massive and smelled amazing. I wrapped my mouth around it, taking a large bite, letting out an appreciative moan. I’d not realized how hungry I was until I was eating. I felt CX staring at me. I looked up and found him smirking.
I rolled my eyes, but I had to wait until after I had swallowed before I could speak. “Really?”
CX raised a shoulder. “You know I’m not imagining you eating a hot dog, right?”
Calmly, I reached for the small bucket at the end of the booth and extracted a knife and fork, giving him a pointed look as I cut it up and proceeded to eat it with my cutlery.
“It’s too late for that,” he said, the smirk disappearing.
“Your hot dog is going to go cold,” I told him, pointing at the uneaten food with my fork.
“Kate, you’re beautiful,” he told me. I set my fork down. “I like you,” he added, before I could say anything.
“CX – Yongsik…” I sighed.
“And I’m not the only one. I’ve seen the way MinMin looks at you.”
My mouth fell open. “MinMin?”
CX’s lips clamped together, his eyes wide with alarm. He reached out and grabbed my hand. “Please don’t tell him I told you that.”
“MinMin?” I repeated again. MinMin liked me? I wasn’t sure if I wanted to laugh at that. I wasn’t blind. CX had been in mega-flirt mode back in a library in Seoul. However, that had been before the tour had started and there had been nothing flirty since. I’d assumed that with the more time we’d spent together, he hadn’t been interested, which considering I had Youngbin, Xiao, Jiwon, and JongB to keep me occupied, I hadn’t been upset about it.
“I’m not going to speak for MinMin, but I will speak for me. I like you, Kate. Aside from the fact I think you’re beautiful, I can talk to you, and you’re always there for me.” His thumb rubbed the back of my hand. “I’m hoping you feel the same way too.”
I sucked in a deep breath. If the others weren’t a thing, then my heart would have been leaping instead of sinking. “I’m not single,” I told him.
“Kate?”
I’d been so preoccupied with CX that I hadn’t noticed the shadow fall across the booth. I looked up and found none other than my ex staring down at me. “Damien?” I said, words caught in my mouth. This was the first time I’d seen him in months. The last time had been before I had gone to Seoul to do a photoshoot with H3RO, at the end of November. When I’d gotten back it had been to an apartment I couldn’t get into: he’d changed the locks and thrown me out.
“Is this your new boyfriend?” he asked, the slightest hint of a sneer on his lips as he gave CX a disapproving look. “What kindergarten did you get him from?”
I pulled my hand out from under CX’s in an almost automatic reaction as I crossed my arms over my chest. “This is a friend.” I felt no need to defend CX’s age. He was twenty-two and only two years younger, but it was none of Damien’s business.
“You’re not acting like he’s a friend. Does he even speak English?”
“Damien, fuck off,” I told him, getting to the point.
Damien did not fuck off. Instead, he offered out a hand to CX. “I wanted to shake the hand of the man who would find themselves with this frigid bitch, but I guess I’ll have to settle with hand of the boy instead. Makes sense that you wouldn’t be able to find anyone your own age,” he added, throwing the last part in my direction.
I could tell CX wasn’t following the conversation well, but he refused to take Damien’s hand.
Damien lowered it, smiling, before turning back to me. “Tell me, Kate, did you find this Jap in Tokyo while you were with me, or did you realize you weren’t going to do better than me and resort to a mail order bride?”
I stood abruptly, squaring up to him. “Fuck. Off. Damien,” I growled at him, enunciating each word.
Damien rolled his eyes. “Sit down.” He shoved me, and unexpected, I stumbled back into the booth, cracking my elbow on the table as I sent my plate skittering off the side with a loud clatter.
There weren’t many people in the diner, but that didn’t stop everyone looking over. CX was up on his feet in an instant.
Damien was not a small guy. He was over six feet and spent as many hours in the gym as Xiao did. Side note, annoyingly, he wasn’t unattractive either. Or at least, he hadn’t been. As I was no longer wearing the rose-tinted glasses of our relationship, his personality was adding an edge of ugly to him. Now, CX outshined him by miles.
Which was a slight problem when he needed his face for his job, and we were suddenly attracting far too much attention. “CX, let it go,” I whispered at him, in Japanese.
“Is everything all right here?” a man from the next booth asked.
“We’re just leaving,” I assured him, throwing a bunch of bills onto the table as I scrambled out of the booth. “Stay away from me, Damien,” I hissed at the dickhead as I grabbed CX’s hand and tugged him away.
Outside, CX yanked his hand free. “Who the hell was that, Kate? Is that the reason you’re not single?”
“Unfortunately,” I replied, continuing to walk back towards the dentist at a hurried pace. “That is a four-year blip in my history that I cannot undo. But Damien is most definitely not my boyfriend.”
“That’s a very long, very aggressive, blip.”
I shoved my hands into my hoodie pocket, clutching them together in the middle. They were shaking, but it wasn’t because of Damien’s attitude towards me. I was furious over what he’d said about CX. I wanted to get us both out of there before anyone recognized CX. My elbow was also throbbing from where I had fallen against the table, and I wanted to get somewhere where I could nurse it and feel sorry for myself.
Inside the dentist surgery, we found Sungmin in the waiting area, scrolling through something on his phone screen. He looked up when he saw us. “MinMin’s tooth is out. The dentist came out to speak to me, but I didn’t understand the rest of it...” He looked up at me with a frown. “What’s wrong? What happened?”
“I had some drama,” I admitted. “But it’s honestly nothing to be worried about.”
I moved over to the reception to check with the receptionist exactly what the dentist had said. As she went into the back to ask him to speak to me, I glanced over my shoulder and found CX and Sungmin deep in conversation, their gaze looking over at me enough times for me to know CX was giving him a play-by-play.
/> Great. Now Sungmin was going to hate me even more.
I kept my distance from the two of them as we waited for MinMin. CX kept shooting me furtive glances but I didn’t want to discuss it. We had one more day in Las Vegas, one which would be spent at the House of Blues for the fan meeting and concert, which meant the chances of running into him again were pretty much zero.
MinMin appeared then, accompanied by the dentist, who had a pile of papers in his hands. “Mr. Gong was saying something which sounded very much like ‘concert’. You said he was a singer.”
I nodded. “K-Pop.”
“K-Pop? As in BTS?” I was not expecting that of the gray-haired man in his late fifties. Which would serve me right for stereotyping. “My granddaughter is obsessed. She is particularly fond of the one whose name used to be Monster.” Before I could correct him, he handed the papers over. “Mr. Gong has just had a surgery with anesthetic. I have seen the young men of BTS perform and the last thing Mr. Gong should be doing is anything remotely like that for the next forty-eight hours.”
“Is there a problem?” Sungmin asked, joining me with CX.
“Uh…” I scratched at the back of my neck as I glanced at the papers. Instead of answering, I looked at the dentist. “When you say performing, do you mean the singing, or the dancing?”
“Definitely not the dancing,” the dentist said, firmly. “Provided this young man isn’t in too much pain, singing would be acceptable, but he will need to be sitting down.”
I turned to Sungmin. “Maybe.”
제 6 장
Fiancé
The taxi ride back to the hotel was hilarious, despite the seriousness of the situation. MinMin in his ‘still high from the anesthesia’ state, had insisted that I sit with him and CX in the back. CX had tried sitting in the middle, and then MinMin had pouted and wailed until we had swapped, this put me in between them both.
After that, he spent most of the short journey babbling away. I wasn’t completely sure of what he was saying because it didn’t make sense. Or maybe he was just talking nonsense. Either way, CX was giggling away on the other side of me. I was thankful for the distraction. Damien appearing out of nowhere had shaken me more than I was willing to admit.
“Kaaaaaaaaaaaaate,” MinMin whined, as he leaned against me, then slid off my shoulder looking almost up my nose.
“Yes, MinMin?” I said, fighting back a smile. He was drooling just a little bit.
“You’re pretty. I want to marry you.”
CX snorted.
“You’re pretty too,” I told him. I couldn’t help but be amused. MinMin was a very quiet person; even when he spoke, he had a soft voice with a low timbre. The drugs were making him the opposite. At least he wasn’t crying.
“Mmmm,” he agreed. “I am.”
CX snorted again.
“But you’re pretty. You look like the girl out of the Hunger Games. Katniss.”
“You mean Jennifer Lawrence?” I asked, arching an eyebrow. Literally the only thing we had in common was the blonde hair, and even then, mine was bottle-bought.
“Yes. Katniss. Kateniss!”
Well, that was all it took for CX to start giggling to himself again.
“Thank you, MinMin.”
“Does that mean you’ll marry me?” he asked, suddenly sitting upright. The next thing I knew, his head was rolling around like he’d given himself a headrush. He probably had.
“Careful,” I warned him. “You’ll hurt yourself.”
“Are you going to marry me?” I laughed. Despite it being uncharacteristic of him, it was still cute. Until tears started welling up in his eyes. “You’re not going to marry me, are you? I like you, Kateniss.”
“Yes, I’ll marry you, but only if you’ll stop calling me Kateniss,” I said, half rolling my eyes, half hoping that would stop the tears before they really began flowing. It did. A big grin appeared on MinMin’s face, his eyes briefly disappearing into thin lines, before he winced, clutching at his cheek.
“Are you OK?” I asked, alarmed.
“Yes, because you’re going to marry me.” MinMin let go of his face so that he could pull a ring off his finger. “Hand!” he requested. When I handed him my right hand, the one closest to him, he batted it away, reaching for my left, then slipped the ring on it. After that, he leaned forward to look at CX “Mine.”
We pulled up outside the hotel. CX looked at MinMin, his hand on the door. “You’re going to have to learn how to share, hyung.”
My breath caught in my throat, but as CX opened the door, no one seemed to notice. It wasn’t like either of them had a clue, but fuck me, that got my blood pumping. I turned back to MinMin. “You can have your ring back now.”
“We’re getting married.” His eyes lit up. “Kateniss – we’re in Las Vegas! Let’s find a chapel and get married!” He turned serious. “That’s how Americans have weddings, right?”
I stared at him. His dark brown eyes were nearly all pupil. The guy was still high. The ring would have to be returned after he had slept the drugs off. It was a damn good thing the concert wasn’t tonight. “Sure,” I agreed, before sliding out of the taxi.
Before I knew what he was doing, he slipped his hand into mine, holding it up to Sungmin like it was a prize. “Kateniss and I are getting married,” he declared.
Sungmin was less than impressed with that statement. “I know. I heard. I was in the same car.”
I winced. “I’m sorry,” I told him.
Sungmin looked at MinMin who was still clutching at my hand, staring intently at our interlaced fingers. “Honestly, I didn’t think you were his type. MinMin,” he said, addressing the idol. “You need to let go of Kate’s hand now.”
“Nope,” MinMin replied in a sing-song voice, tugging me into the hotel.
“I’ll make sure he gets to his room,” I called back to the hassled manager.
CX and I corralled MinMin into the elevator and up to their floor. The whole time, MinMin refused to let go of my hand – even when we stepped off the elevator and found the rest of Onyx in the corridor. From the looks of things, they had just gotten back from wherever they had spent the day.
“Kate!” JongB exclaimed happily when he saw me. Then he spotted MinMin. “MinMin! Are you OK? How is the tooth?”
MinMin held up my hand. “Kateniss and I are getting married.”
“What?” Jiwon demanded, folding his arms.
MinMin let go of my hand instantly. “Jiwon.”
“MinMin had a tooth extracted under general anesthetic. As someone who has also undergone this procedure, let me assure you that his marriage proposal is certainly odd, but not the strangest thing for people to fixate on.”
JongB shot me a look. “What did you fixate on?”
I scratched at the back of my neck, then cleared my throat. “I tried to convince my best friend who had been kind enough to take me to the dentist, that I was really the Pink Power Ranger.” That friend was Holly. I’d also gotten really upset when she wouldn’t admit to being the Yellow Power Ranger. Thankfully, she had found it hilarious, but I had been mortified when she had told me about it: way to go for a racial stereotype, Kate.
MinMin peered up at Jiwon. “You’re mad. Don’t be mad. I still think you’re the prettiest.” Before I knew what was happening, he stood on his toes and planted a kiss on Jiwon’s cheek. As Jiwon wiped it away with the back of his hand, MinMin spun to JongB and did the same to him. “I like you too.”
I was trying to fight back the laughter. “I think it’s time MinMin went to bed.”
MinMin’s eyes lit up. He reached for my hand, and then reached for JongB’s. “Yes.”
With an impatient sigh, Youngbin stepped forward, pulling MinMin away. “Bed time.”
“Yes, hyung,” MinMin agreed instantly. He allowed his leader to escort him to the room he was using, and the two of them disappeared inside.
I looked at the remaining members of Onyx and raised a shoulder. “Be kind. MinMin was har
mless. I was a dick.”
“You thought you were the Pink Power Ranger?” JongB asked, grinning like the cat which got the cream.
“Yeah,” I started, but got distracted by my phone buzzing. I pulled it out of my pocket. It was a text message from Damien. Kate, that’s not how… I thrust the phone back in my pocket.
“You’ve gone pale,” Xiao observed.
“I’m fine,” I assured him, even though I wasn’t feeling it. “I spent the day at the dentist, and I don’t like dentists.” That wasn’t untrue. “I need to lie down before dinner.” I gave them a bright smile, then waved a goodbye.
In the safety of my room, I sat on the edge of my bed and pulled my phone out again.
Kate, that’s not how I wanted that to go. I’ve been thinking about you a lot recently, and when I saw you, I knew I had to speak to you. You know what I’m like: I got jealous… I guess, what I mean is, I miss you. I think we should meet up and talk.
A couple of months ago, I would have done anything for that message.
I wasn’t sure what I was feeling now, if I was honest.
Before I could process it, there was a knock at the door. I toyed with the idea of ignoring it, but the person knocked again. Knowing it would only be one of Onyx, I got up and answered it.
“CX told me what happened,” Youngbin announced. “Can I come in?”
“It’s not that big of a deal,” I shrugged, while I stepped back to let him in. I shut the door and then followed him into the main area of the room. The problem with hotel rooms was that you were kind of restricted on where you could sit. This room had one chair at a desk, and one armchair. Otherwise, the only other thing dominating the room was the queen-sized bed.
That didn’t bother Youngbin. He walked over to it and sat down on the right-hand side, stretching his legs out in front of him. I finally paid attention to his appearance then. He, like the other members of Onyx (although I hadn’t noticed until now), were all wearing casual clothes. Youngbin was in a pair of jogging bottoms with poppers down the side, and a Lakers basketball jersey. He was also wearing a bandana, keeping the dark hair out of his eyes which were peering out from behind his glasses.
