Page 31 of A World Apart (Between Worlds #1)

T he phone rang softly, waking me from a dream I forgot the moment my eyes opened. I looked over to my phone and, seeing the incoming video call, I reached out a hand and slid my finger up the screen.

“Good morning, sleepyhead.” Jihoon’s voice had become my favourite way to wake up.

His smooth, accented voice never failed to bring a smile to my face.

If I’d ever thought that regularly hearing his voice would become normal, I’d yet to experience that.

Each time he said my name elicited a thrill like nothing else.

I smiled, sleepily, and rolled over so that I was more fully facing the phone that was docked on my bedside table, Jihoon’s face filling the screen. He was dressed in an over-size, dark blue t-shirt and his hair was rumpled.

“You going to bed?” I asked, stifling a yawn.

“Yes, it was a busy day.” He nodded and copied my yawn, which only made me yawn again.

“Can you tell me anything about it?” I asked, although he couldn’t always say.

He had been clear that if he could, he would discuss the group’s schedule, but his contract was absolutely airtight.

He could only discuss what was publicly known, or at least what had been released to the press, and I didn’t want to push him.

Even if I was wildly curious. I was still a fan, after all.

Jihoon looked thoughtful. It had been speculated about online whether the group would release a new album this year. The expectation was that they would ? they released at least one a year ? but with the expected tour next year, no one was certain.

“I can’t say much, but we’ve just finalised our schedules for the year. It’s going to be busy.” He looked tired, but happy, so I supposed that was a good thing.

“I hope you get to rest though.” They were always doing something, with so few periods of real rest. I hated the thought of him being tired all the time.

“I will, I promise. You’re so cute.” He grinned at me and I pulled my duvet up to my chin, acting as shyly as I really did feel.

It still felt strange to be complimented by someone who looked like he did.

I’d forget about it one moment, and then he’d change his expression, and all over again I’d be knocked on my ass by how good looking he was. I was really out of my league.

“No, you,” I said, and he smiled, a stupid little joke that had become a kind of thing we did now.

I held my arm up to wake my watch and, seeing the time, I bolted upright.

“I gotta get up and get dressed!”

“Don’t let me stop you.” He smirked at me and I resisted the urge to fan my face with my hand. I loved the way that he made me feel so desirable, even first thing in the morning, when I probably had dried drool stuck to my cheek.

“Stop distracting me.” I pointed at him, throwing off the bed covers, careful to make sure my long shirt was covering me appropriately, but I didn’t miss the way his eyes flicked down, or the look of interest that passed his face.

And nor did I really make much effort to make sure my shirt covered a lot of my thighs.

“Call me later?” he asked, innocently.

“If you like,” I replied, nonchalantly.

“I always like.”

Later that mont h

I fluffed my hair up in the mirror reflection of my screen, waiting for the video call to pick up. I was sat at the kitchen counter alone, Becka having already gone to bed.

Jihoon and I had started using KakaoTalk to call and message after the first month we’d started long-distance communicating. It only took one phone bill for me to figure out I did not want to play that game with my phone provider.

“Hey Ky,” Jihoon smiled as he picked up, but I noticed he was in a car, his headphones in.

“Oh, are you busy? I can call you back tomorrow, if you are.” I tried to hide my disappointment.

We only got to actually speak in either the early mornings or the late evenings, and sometimes not even then, depending on his schedule.

Even though we usually called every day, the time we actually got to speak was mere minutes.

It always felt just a little bit rushed.

“I’m always busy,” he laughed, not realising he’d voiced my thoughts. “But we’re actually done for the day now, just going home.”

“I hope you got to do something fun today.”

We did! We just finished taping a variety show. It’ll air later.” His eyes crinkled in that way I had come to recognise when he was really amused by something. It made me smile to see it.

“Oh, awesome! What show was it? I can stay up to watch it.”

“No,” he said quickly, “don’t do that. It won’t be until 8:00pm KST. You need to sleep.”

I did the quick maths in my head. “That’ll be 4:00am here. Yeah, perhaps I’ll catch up on it tomorrow,” I laughed. “Can you send me the show details so I can find it?”

“You really don’t have to watch it. It won’t be captioned.” He smiled, pleased but still embarrassed, which just made me want to watch it more.

“Well now I’m even more interested,” I tease. “Plus, some clever i-Viber will have probably translated it by the time I get to see it, so you might as well give me a hint.”

Jihoon groaned and held a hand over his eyes, which just made me laugh.

“It can’t have been that bad if you had fun!”

“It was a cooking show,” he finally admitted, “we had to try to make jjajangmyeon. ”

“That doesn’t sound so bad.”

“Whilst memorising girl group dances. They rang a bell randomly and we had to drop what we were doing to do the dance.”

I burst into laughter and had to slap a hand over my mouth to make sure I wouldn’t disturb Becka. Jihoon rolled his eyes, but he was clearly trying not to smile.

“And did you manage it?”

“The jjajangmyeon or the dancing?”

“Either.”

He snorted, which on him was far sexier than it had any right to be.

“Sungmin and Jae were the only two who got the dance right, Seokmin and Woojin just ate all the banchan and I... tripped.”

My eyes widened at the description of the chaos, and through the ensuing silence, I know I heard laughter in the background. Jihoon’s eyes kept darting away, so I guessed his members were sharing in on the joke.

“Well, that certainly does sound like a variety. Are you ok?”

He waved my concern away. “Yes, only my pride hurts.”

“Poor Jihoon,” I crooned, and he rolled his eyes at me.

Just then, I had to stifle a yawn.

“You should go to bed, it’s late for you.” And though I wanted to argue the point, I was tired.

“Ok, speak later?”

“Yes. Goodnight, Kaiya.”

June

Jihoon yawned and I frowned but kept my comments to myself.

He’d asked me to call him later than normal today because they were still in the dance studio.

So, while it was only 09:00am for me, for him it was one in the morning.

But he said they had today ? Sunday, for him ? off, so he didn’t mind staying up a little bit.

“Did you get the choreo nailed down, at least?” I asked, noticing the way his eyes were drooping slightly.

“Yes. We know the moves, we just need to perfect it so we can film the practices.”

Due to a “leak,” it was now widely known that GVibes were working on a new single for their comeback. Jihoon had explained that leaking information to the media was a common tactic to build hype ? it required little effort or expense, and both sides benefited.

“When are you recording the song?”

“Next week,” Jihoon sighed. He never complained, but I knew from what I’d read online the comebacks were a busy period of time, and they occurred often enough that I wondered when they ever rested for longer than one day in seven.

“Will it take you long? You were only in the studio a week when you came over in April.” I folded my legs underneath me in bed.

“That was just some solo projects,” he said. “This will take a little longer because we are going to record the remix tracks at the same time.”

“Wow, that sounds like some long days.”

“Yes, but then we’ll have a few days before we start to do the music video.”

“Well, if your studio ever needs someone to rearrange their cables and tune their guitars, you know who to ask.” I pointed both thumbs at myself and flashed my best, winning smile.

Jihoon chuckled, “I wish.”

It was my turn to sigh as I said, “Yeah, me too.”

“Hi, Mum!” I waved at the screen, grinning.

“Hi, baby! Golly, you look so tanned. Doesn’t she look tanned, Ernie?” The phone jostled as she handed it to my dad. He held it at arm's length, peering down his nose at me through the screen.

“Your glasses are on top of your head, Dad,” I said, laughing.

“Oh yeah, that’s where they went.” He chuckled, pulling his glasses down from his forehead and bringing the phone closer. “Oh, you’re right, Val,” he nodded, looking off-screen. “She does look tanned.”

The phone jostled again until my mum came back into view. “Have you been sunbathing, love?”

“No, Mum, it’s just really sunny over here.”

“Yeah, alright, just you mind that skin of yours. I didn’t spend nine months making it just for you to get skin cancer."

"I rolled my eyes but murmured a, “Yes, Mum,” all the same.

“How’re you getting on, love? Your last email made it sound like that studio isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. You doing alright?” Her forehead creased as she peered at me through the screen.

I sighed. “I’m alright, Mum. The studio is great.

It’s just… because I’m only an intern, I don’t get to do anything exciting.

” Telling my parents I was no longer sure I wanted to work in music production felt a little too much like making it real.

Too much like manifesting the end of a career I’d thought I wanted.

I didn’t want to worry them, and, if I was honest, I wasn’t ready to face a future that felt more uncertain than ever.

“Hmm.” My mum pursed her lips, clearly gearing up for a whole speech, so I went in with a derailment.

“Did you get your hair done?”

“What?” She frowned. “Oh, well, no, but I am trying a new mousse.”

“It looks nice! Very chic, very trendy.” I might have been piling it on a bit thick, but she looked pleased.