Page 34 of A World Apart (Between Worlds #1)

“ W hat in the world is a ‘chicken message?’” Becka said, looking over my shoulder to watch as I translated the Hangul characters into English.

“I have no idea,” I sighed, “but apparently the app developers thought it was important for me to learn.”

I was on a nine-day streak for the language app I’d finally gotten around to downloading and I had now moved onto section three: Basic Phrases, which included such cultural treats as ‘the baby’s cucumber,’ ‘chicken message’ and ‘the fox’s newspaper’.

“Will you ever find out what the message is?” Becka asked, feigning a serious expression.

“You know, I really don’t think I will.” I sighed, putting my phone down on the counter.

“That’s one mysterious bird,” she said, nodding in sympathy. “How’s it going otherwise?”

“I’m recognising more of the alphabet now and can pair up the letters, but my pronunciation is... quite literally garbage,” I admitted.

“You can’t be that bad,” Becka protested on my behalf. “You’re pretty decent at French.”

I stared at her. I stared at her for so long she began to squirm. “In what world are the two comparable?”

“I don’t know,” Becka exploded, impotent outrage spilling everywhere. “I was being supportive!”

I huffed out a laugh and rubbed a hand down my face. “In French, the letters don’t switch sounds.”

“It could be worse,” Becka said sagely. “You could be Korean and having to learn English. It’s a way harder language. We spell ‘knife’?”

“With a k, yeah I know.”

“So, stick at it, champ.” Becka clapped me on the arm gamely while I contemplated reaching for a Tylenol for my headache.

I wasn’t sure how much of the language I was actually absorbing, but the app seemed to think I was making marvellous linguistic strides. I was determined to be at least able to introduce myself without making a fool of myself. I was a little embarrassed I hadn’t thought to do it earlier.

Later that month

“When do you leave?” I asked, trying not to stare.

Jihoon had called me this morning wearing full stage makeup and the effect was nothing short of devastating.

The group had just finished a day of shooting a full ad campaign for a Korean fashion house.

He’d already shown me the full effect when he’d put his phone down and walked across the room ? strutted, really ? wearing black leather trousers and a gauzy black shirt that I was sure the post-production team would have to airbrush certain features out of, because it was basically see-through.

I’d had to forcibly shut my mouth to stop myself from panting.

Jihoon ran a hand through his already artfully-mussed hair and said, “In two days. We’ll fly to the camp in Jeju and stay there for ten days and then we have a week off to spend with our families. ”

It was the annual group vacation. They’d announced it last month. The whole group went camping, did fun activities, cooked food together, and just generally hung out.

It sounded idyllic ? were it not for the whole host of cameras and crew members accompanying them to film everything for the never-ending stream of content.

“Is it weird being on vacation, but still being filmed all the time?” I crossed my legs and grabbed a pillow to hug to myself.

Jihoon looked contemplative for a moment. “Yes, but also no because we’re so used to cameras being around. It used to be weird and all our managers would keep saying, “Just relax, be yourself,” but it was hard. Now, it’s not so bad because we know Vibers like it and that makes it easier for us.”

“We want to share parts of our lives with Vibers because…” Jihoon paused, twirling his be-ringed fingers in the air as he searched for the words, “they give so much of themselves to us.”

I nodded. I couldn’t imagine ever feeling at peace with being filmed every day.

“What about when you visit your family, will you be filmed then?” What a crazy notion, I could just imagine how un-chill my mum would be with that.

“No,” Jihoon held up his hands in a cross, “they don’t come home with us, that’s our private lives and the company respects that.”

That was something, I supposed. My mum wouldn’t let them in the house, although my dad would definitely play up to the cameras.

“When was the last time you saw them?”

Jihoon thought for a moment. “Uh, Seollal,” he said after a moment. He must have seen my blank face as he clarified, “It’s Korean New Year festival, we go home to our families and honour our ancestors. And eat a lot.” He laughed.

“Sounds awesome,” I said honestly, although all I could picture was Chinese New Year and I made a mental note to look more into Korean national holidays.

Just then, Jihoon’s watch vibrated loudly. He held it up to read the screen and tutted. “I have to go,” he said, “we have a meeting.”

“Okay,” I said easily. “Will I get to speak to you before you leave for Jeju?”

“I don’t think so,” he said, frowning, “it’s going to be busy. The crew will be here to film us packing, and then we travel there in the morning…”

“I get it, it’s okay.” I tried to sound reassuring, or at least not whiny .

“I don’t know if I’ll be able to speak to you when we’re in Jeju,” he admitted. “Even when they’re not filming, there’s crew everywhere. Minjae-hyung got a lot of online comments last year about being on his cell all the time, the managers weren’t pleased.”

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes; of all the things to get pissy about.

I supposed it was the question of who he might have been contacting that had gotten the fans riled up, although I hadn’t known about that particular scandal.

I was rarely on top of K-Pop scandals and salacious gossip as a lot of it went over my head, I just didn’t understand why half of it was such a big deal.

“It’s okay, I understand,” I said again. “We’ll talk when you’re home. I just hope you have a good time and get to do fun things!” Jihoon smiled, but then frowned when his watch vibrated again.

“You need to go,” I said.

“Yes.” Jihoon sighed. “I’ll message you when I can.”

Okay. Have the best time!”

He smiled. “Bye, Kaiya.”

The Next Week

“So, I was thinking,” Becka began, spreading cream cheese across a toasted bagel as we enjoyed a lazy Sunday morning together.

“Dangerous, but go on,” I joked, taking a sip of coffee.

“Is it weird? You and Jihoon? Now that you’re kinda… a thing?”

“Which part?” I huffed, “the fact that he’s a best-selling artist with millions of fans and I’m a complete nobody? Or that I’m a complete secret, and will always have to be? Or that he’s in Korea and I’m in LA, or that he is literally brain-meltingly handsome and I’m cute on a good day?”

Becka held up a finger and pointed it at me with a dangerous glint in her eyes.

“That’s my best friend you’re talking about, you better put some respect on her name. ”

I rolled my eyes but couldn’t deny the quiet warmth her loyalty sparked in me. “Or is it that we’re not technically together? We’re in a...” I couldn’t think of the word.

“Situationship,” Becka supplied, nodding sagely.

“Yes,” I clapped, “exactly. So, yeah, which part of that do you think is weird?”

“Okay, yeah, sure, all’a that,” she said, waving her hand in a circle, “but more specifically, I meant the part where you’re in a…”

“‘Situationship?’” I supplied helpfully.

“Yeah, that. Is it weird dating someone this way? I mean, it’s been more than three months, you guys talk more regularly than most couples I know, your camera reel is stuffed with photos you have to either delete or encrypt, and you don’t even know when you’ll see each other again.”

“Yeah, thanks for the reminder of that,” I said, sipping my coffee.

“I didn’t mean that!” Becka protested around a mouthful of bagel.

“Animal,” I muttered and Becka rolled her eyes at me, but took the time it took to chew and swallow before saying, “I guess I mean more like… do you feel like you’re in a relationship?

Like, are you unofficially exclusive? Mark asked you out and you fobbed him off with some excuse about having a guy back in London, so like, are you dating, or… ?”

I took another sip as I contemplated my answer.

“Okay, well first of all, Mark wouldn’t stop looking at my boobs the whole time we talked, so really, he asked my boobs out, not me.”

Becka choked on a bagel bite, slapping her chest while I tried not to laugh. Politely, I waited for her to get her breath back before I continued.

“And secondly… yeah, I don’t know,” I admitted. “I don’t know what we are, I don’t know if we’re exclusive, although I get the impression we are.” I frowned. “I really don’t know.”

“God,” Becka exclaimed, doesn’t that chafe the hell out of you?”

“Little bit,” I quipped. “Just a smidge. A tiny fraction.”

“A wee bit,” Becka supplied.

“Tis but a flesh wound.” I grasped my chest for dramatic effect and Becka laughed .

“But in all seriousness,” I said, “I don’t even know how we’d reconcile being in an actual relationship right now.

“I mean, we can’t exactly date. We’re not in close proximity and it would have to be in secret anyway.”

“Does his contract have a dating ban?” She asked, surprising me.

“You’ve been looking into KPop!” I accused, laughing.

“Do you blame me? My roommate and best friend is dating Korean Usher!”

“Okay, I’m not mad about that comparison,” I laughed, “but no, not anymore. The group did have a dating ban in their original contracts, but since they re-signed last year, they don’t anymore.”

“Ooh, any special reason?” Becka waggled her eyebrows at me.

“I think it was more to do with how established they are as a group now,” I said, “they’re so successful that they have a bit more bargaining power. And they’re all older now, not teenagers anymore. Well, all but one of them,” I said, thinking of Seokmin, who was still only nineteen.

“Oh, okay, sure, that makes sense,” Becka nodded, taking another bite, “although it’s still batshit,” she mumbled around the mouthful. I couldn’t disagree.