Page 33 of A World Apart (Between Worlds #1)

“I brought snacks!” Becka said proudly, dumping a string bag full of rustling wrappers onto the kitchen island.

“My hero,” I called, appreciatively, from my seat on the sofa as I tried to find the specific video of the show that had been captioned.

“Do we even know what the group has been nominated for?” Becka asked as she sat down next to me, putting a tray of assorted snacks onto the little coffee table in front of the sofa.

“No idea,” I admitted, “and the videos I found are strictly no spoilers.”

“Very considerate,” Becka nodded.

“Vibers,” I said, as if this was answer enough. “There were online voting options, but they were geo-locked, I couldn’t even see which categories GVibes were up for.”

“Rude. ”

“Right? Oh, here it is!” Excitedly, I selected the captioned video ? it was only two hours long. “They must have cut all the ads out.”

“Very considerate,” Becka said again, nodding her appreciation.

“Vibers.” I grinned.

Together, we watched the show, carefully looking out for when the cameras panned to the talent section, which they did frequently. GVibes certainly got their fair share of air time.

“Handsome SOB’s,” Becka muttered, sipping a glass of wine.

I just nodded, because there was no denying it.

All five members were dressed in a manner similar to that of the music video for ‘Work Harder,’ black suits cut in various styles that suited each member perfectly.

Their hair and makeup was flawless. Their eyes were shadowed and lined, giving them mysterious, moody vibes. Thirstily, I took a gulp of my wine.

Finally, “Here they are!” I pointed at the TV as the first few bars of ‘Work Harder’ were played to an immediate and thunderous roar from the crowd, the lights in the auditorium dimming as the stage lighting flared.

Silhouettes artfully played against a white back-drop as lights strobed across the stage, drumming up the excitement to a near fever-pitch that the other performers just hadn’t managed.

Then, just as the beats from the extended song’s intro began to pound through the speakers, all sound cut off and five figures shot up into the middle of the stage from hidden trapdoors and a camera raced forward to focus solely on Jihoon, now undeniably Baek Ji-Hoon, main vocalist and ‘the visual’ of GVibes.

He began to sing a cappella, no backing-track, just the clear, confident opening lines of the song, turning his head side-on as he tilted his head back. The view of the muscles in his neck flexing as he sang was undeniably sexy.

And then the music flooded back in and GVibes burst into motion ? in perfect sync, a single, living entity. Their movements were graceful yet edgy. Impossible to look away from.

The cameras swooped around them, each vying for the best angle and yet still capturing the whole .

When the song transitioned into ‘Make Some Noise,’ the crowd near exploded with screams and chants.

My feet were tapping away of their own volition and I found I was somehow anxious for Becka to also admire the skill, the catchiness of the song, the outfits and overall performance.

Like I was anxious for her approval, which was ridiculous.

I tried to put it aside, and when the performance finally ended, I tried to pretend I wasn’t as hyped as I really felt ? like my heart wasn’t fit to bursting.

As the house-lights raised, replacing the strobing stage lights, the cameras panned in close as the five of them clustered together, raising their hands and bowing to the audience, all of them smiling widely and shouting words of thanks.

I could see the sheen of sweat glistening on their faces; they’d worked hard.

I hoped they had gotten some rest and good food before the show.

Not long after GVibes left the stage, a podium was carried on, followed by the two hosts. It was time for the awards ceremony.

GVibes wasn’t nominated for the first handful of categories: things like Best Male and Female Acts, Best Solo, Best Newcomer and Best International Tour, but when the MC called out ? and Becka and I read the caption for ? Listener’s Choice, GVibes were one of four groups nominated.

I clasped Becka’s hand and together we waited until…

“GVibes!” The camera panned to where GVibes was sitting in the performers area, capturing the moment where their faces changed from polite blankness to surprised and then delighted, clapping each other on the shoulders.

Minjae, the leader, got up first and lead the group back to the main stage as various other idols and groups watched them pass, some standing to cheer them on.

Minjae accepted the award graciously and they all huddled around the microphone grinning.

They thanked their fans first and foremost, their management and their friends and family for their unwavering support.

Or, at least that’s what I gathered from the captions.

I began to feel the first twinges of annoyance at not being able to understand even a single word? more so when Jihoon spoke, again reinforcing how grateful they were for their fans.

They went on to win three other awards: Best Music Video for 'Make Some Noise', Best Collaboration for 'Fall in Love', which they’d collab’d with Haley for and Fan’s Choice, which I think was one of the online polls.

By the end of the show, I was weirdly exhausted, my emotions feeling so strung out that I felt the need for a relaxing bath.

“You know where the nice oils are,” Becka just said in response, already flicking through episodes of Supernatural.

Even though the bathroom was fairly compact, Becka and I had made the effort to make it as spa-like as we could.

Ben, her ex, had kept promising to re-grout the tiles, but he never had, so when I moved in, one of the first things we did was go to a Lowe’s and pick out some rental-friendly peel-and-stick floor tiles, a new shower curtain and one of those fancy, slatted, bamboo floor mats.

We couldn’t do anything about the small bath/shower, but with the addition of a few scented candles, the room felt 'more yuppy, less guppy' ? as Becka had put it.

Still feeling a bit off-kilter, I lit a couple candles, turned only the over-mirror light on and liberally dosed the bath with essence of ylang ylang. I slid down into the bath as far as I could, bubbles and warm, scented water tickling my collar bones as I tilted my head back and sighed. Bliss.

That was exactly when my phone vibrated in the bath caddy, the noise echoing around the small room.

It took me a moment to get to it though, as I had to dry my hands off on a hand towel first, and then when I saw Jihoon’s face on the screen with an incoming video call, I nearly dropped it.

For a hot second, my finger hovered above the ‘voice call’ button, but then a wild, impulsive and somewhat devilish side of me nudged my finger to the side and hit ‘video’ instead.

I held the phone quite close to my face as Jihoon lit up the screen, greeting me with that smile of his that crinkled his eyes, and made my heart squeeze in my chest.

“Hi,” I said, shy again now.

“Hi!” His voice was bright and happy, and I supposed winning several awards would do that to a person .

“Where are you? It’s so dark,” he said, moving his head around as if that would grant him a clearer view of my background.

There was that devilish impulse again. I tried to repress a small grin as I pulled the phone back, only slightly, to now include a view of my neck and shoulders, the candle on my right illuminating the view more fully, reflecting off the bubbles that skimmed the bare skin of my clavicle.

“Wah…” he trailed off, his jaw falling slack.

I watched as he leaned back in his chair, misjudged whatever was behind him and promptly dropped the phone, the loud bang startling me so that I almost dropped my own phone.

I laughed, holding a hand over my mouth as I watched fingers scrabble for the phone, scrapping noises and darkness, before Jihoon’s slightly reddened face reappeared on the screen.

“Everything alright?” I asked, not trying to hide my laughter.

“Dropped my phone,” he said, sheepishly.

I knew I wasn’t imagining the trajectory of his gaze.

I also knew that I was fully covered, but it was a fine line, and one I was currently quite interested in teasing him with.

That devilish side making me reckless and perhaps something a little more… interested.

I pressed my thighs together, the motion of the water lapping up and down my chest, revealing a little more in the waves as they crested and ebbed away.

“I watched the show,” I said.

Jihoon’s eyes snapped back up to mine, a small crease forming in between his brows.

“Oh!” he exclaimed, if a little late, “did you like the performance?”

I found it adorable that he would ask if I liked watching them perform, before asking if I’d seen them win.

“Very much!” I enthused, “I loved the staging, it was so cool!”

Jihoon ducked his head, grinning. “We had to practice it so many times, the trapdoors were so fast, Seokmin-ah kept falling over.”

I laughed, the image of Seokmin, the youngest member of the group at just nineteen, springing up so coolly, only to ruin the effect by falling. It was very on-brand for the group’s maknae ? who was famous for being able pull off the most challenging dance moves, only to then trip over his own feet.

“You looked so cool.” I was gushing just a bit, but it was hard not to.

Jihoon smiled, embarrassed but clearly pleased. “Thank you, we all worked hard to make sure we gave a good performance.”

“Were you surprised you won so many awards?”

He shrugged, looking off to the side. “It’s always nice, we never expect to win. There are so many talented performers. We work really hard for our fans, so the awards we cherish the most are the fan-vote ones, because it’s them that motivate us to be the best we can be.”

I nodded, this made perfect sense, given how vocal GVibes had always been about their fandom, always crediting them with being the reason they had the success they had, dedicating all their accolades to them and being remarkably tolerant ? even when things got a bit intense.

Last year, a fan had somehow found out what hotel they were staying in on a trip to Singapore and broke into Woojin’s room.

She had been taking a shower when Woojin came back.

Woojin had called his management to the room, but had made them wait in the other room as he’d calmly talked to her through the closed door.

He had waited for her to get dressed before asking his management to escort her out.

ENT had wanted to press charges, but Woojin told them not to and instead offered to pay for her to attend therapy.

The public wouldn’t have even known about half of it, had the fan ? a saesang; someone who takes being a fan to extremes, often to the detriment of the idols ? not spoken about it to Dispatch.

ENT had verified the story but offered no further comments.

It was a huge deal for months. Last I’d heard, the girl had actually taken up the offer of therapy though, so I guess that was a net win.

“Judging by the reaction of the crowd, I’d say the appreciation is mutual.” I smiled, remembering the roar of the crowd, how the light sticks had illuminated the waves of cheering fans.

Jihoon nodded and then yawned widely.

“Are you back in Korea?”

“Yes, we flew back this morning.” That explained why he looked so tired. It wasn’t a long flight, but the show was last night and they’d flown back this morning. Not a lot of down time in their schedule .

“Did you even get to sleep?”

He made a face and a ‘so-so’ gesture with his hand. “We have a free day today and tomorrow, so I’ll get plenty of sleep and eat well, don’t worry.” He smiled at me, such a smile that warmed my chest, and I grinned back at him.

“So, you’re in the bath?” He waggled his eyebrows at me in a way I was not aware he could do, and my cheeks flamed.

“It’s been a hard week,” I said, trying not to sound defensive. Seemed like my little devil had fallen off my shoulder.

“You should get a massage.”

“I can’t.”

“Why not?” He frowned.

“There’s no one here to give me one.” Ah, the devil had climbed back up. I flashed him a smile that I’m sure wasn’t hard to interpret.

Jihoon groaned and theatrically grabbed his chest, throwing his head back. Then he stood up suddenly and started walking, a determined look on his handsome face.

“Jihoon, where are you going?” I laughed.

“I’m going to the airport.”

I laughed harder, splashing water everywhere.

“Mwo hae?” A voice in the background asked and I didn’t need to know Korean to understand from the tone that someone was asking what the hell Jihoon was doing.

“Don’t interrupt me, hyung,” Jihoon shouted back, “I’m going to the airport.”

“Jihoon, stop!” I cried through my giggles.

Another face very briefly came into view on the screen before it went blank and I heard a muffled, “Wahh!” I could have been wrong, but I would have sworn that was Minjae.

I heard scuffling through the phone, but the screen remained blank, like it was being held to his chest.

“Jihoon!” I called, growing more mortified by the moment. Several heartbeats later, the screen brightened as it was lifted further away. I saw Jihoon leaning back against a wooden door, grinning.

“Did you win?” I asked with a wry smile.

“No,” he laughed. “I am not allowed to come to LA. ”

“Probably for the best,” I grumbled, inexplicably and irrationally disappointed.

“Soon,” he promised, slyly grinning at me.

“Really?” I leaned forward, surprise momentarily making me forget that only a generous layer of bubbles was covering me.

“Oops!” I hastily ducked back under as Jihoon smacked a hand over his eyes and I laughed, pretty certain I hadn’t actually flashed him. Well, not much, anyway.

“Jihoon, it’s fine, I’m decent,” I covered my embarrassment with a little laugh. “You were about to tell me when you’re coming here.”

“Oh, um, I’m not sure, we do a lot tof USA shows, so I’m sure it’ll be soon.” He cleared his throat and looked back up at me with an expression that heated the water that had been starting to cool down.

He opened his mouth to say something, but just then, someone pounded on the door he was leaning against. “Jihoon-ah!” the person called. Jihoon rocked his head back against the door, looking pained and sighed.

“I have to go,” he said with such a sad puppy expression I wanted to laugh again.

Instead, I just said, “I understand. I hope you have a good day.”

He shook his head sadly. “It won’t be as good as this.”

I laughed and blew him a kiss, my hand covered in bubbles. He groaned again and closed his eyes.

“Bye Jihoon.” I pressed ‘end’ and put my phone back on the caddy before covering my face with my bubbly hands to muffle the shriek.