Page 51 of A World Apart (Between Worlds #1)

Joon

Good morning beautiful. I love London, we have a few free hours today to sight see. Seokmin is making us go to the Wax museum lol. Later we’re filming the One Show and then having dinner at the Shard, have you ever been?

The Hyde Park festival wasn’t until tomorrow, so I guess today they were piling as much in as much fun as possible.

That last bit made me laugh a bit though.

The Shard is a massive, pointy skyscraper in central London, kind of like the Empire State building in New York, where you can pay to go all the way to the top and look out over London and yes, there were restaurants in the Shard, but they were way out of the price range of a humble student ? now intern.

Me

Hey you! Now you’re on my turf! I can’t wait to see the pictures you take at Madame Tussauds ? bring me a wax model as a souvenir!

I’m definitely going to watch the One Show ? I can watch it live at work!

And no, I’ve never eaten at the Shard, but I bought a coffee from a street vendor outside it once, that counts! XD Have an amazing day! X

Jihoon’s morning message put me in such a good mood, that later on at work, I didn’t even mind when Donna at the front desk told me my shirt was inside out, which was actually really nice of her to let me know.

Or when I stubbed my toe on a box of coffee pods, which I know I put away the day before.

The Smoking Guns weren’t due in until after lunch, so when 10:50am rolled around, I took my happy butt down to the storage cave on the ground floor, which had become my unofficial hang out, and spooled up my VPN so I could watch the One Show on BBC iPlayer.

I was sat there, eating my sandwich, when the show started.

I had to watch through the first half in nervous anticipation of being caught, because while I did get a lunch break, it was normally at noon, so there was every possibility someone would come looking for me.

But luckily, I didn’t seem to be on the top of anyone’s priority, as I was left in peace.

It wasn’t until the final half of the show when they finally brought on GVibes.

As the group’s leader, Minjae led them onto the stage, where they bowed before sitting on the sofa and the taller chairs behind.

“Welcome, welcome, give a big round of applause, all the way from Seoul, Korea, one of the hottest bands in the world right now, GVibes!” The presenter led the audience in a round of applause and cheers that went on for so long, the two presenters had to eventually call for order.

Clearly some lucky Vibers were in the crowd today.

“Now, gentleman, would you care to introduce yourselves? ”

This was a well-practiced routine that the group must have done thousands of times.

Minjae, as the leader, started by saying, “Hi, I’m Jae, nice to meet you.”

Then Woojin, the main rapper of the group, “Hello, I’m Woojin, you can call me Jin.”

Sungmin, second rapper and the group’s best dancer got up, moonwalked across the stage, which made the audience scream and the group laugh, or put their faces in their hands.

He sat back down, took the mic and said, “What’s up London, you know I’m Lee, who are you?

” I laughed ? he was such a clown. Next up was Jihoon, who took the mic, looked right into the camera and said, “Hello, you. My name’s Joon, good to see you.

” I fluttered my face with my hand, inexplicably feeling flushed from all of that stage presence turned on.

Lastly was Seokmin, the youngest member of the group ? the ‘maknae.’ He took the mic and said to the audience, not the camera, “Hi everyone, I’m Ace, but you know that already.

” The cheeky maknae winked, which just about sent the crowd into apoplectic fits, by the sounds of it.

They were screaming, and he just grinned.

I shook my head. He knew exactly what he was doing, they all did. They were so good at this.

Once calm had been regained in the studio, the presenter led the group in a series of questions that, though pretty rote in nature, managed to come across as both interesting and up to date.

Things like, ‘what made you want to be a performer?’ Vibers, being the answer, of course, leading to yet more screams.

‘What’s your favourite song to perform? – ‘Pulse,’ said Lee, ‘Fall in Love’ said Jae and Jihoon, the other members voted for ‘Work Harder.’

“Who said ‘Fall in Love?’ Was it you, Jae and Joon?” The presenter leaned forward in his seat, all eagerness to pin that word on someone. Jihoon and Minjae gamely smiled and raised their hands.

“Now, it’s interesting that you say that, because idols in Korea are famous ? internationally speaking ? for not being allowed to date.

” He turned to the camera. “Many idols have so-called ‘dating bans’ written into their contracts.” He turned back to the members.

“Jae, perhaps you can answer for the British public here; does GVibes have a dating ban in their contract? ”

The audience predictably screamed, and Jae looked over into what I imagined was a crowd of mostly young women, and smiled before answering.

“No, Patrick, we do not.” The audience lost it’s ever-loving mind over this good news, and the members laughed.

I wasn’t surprised at the short answer, since while it wasn’t a secret that ENT ? their company ? did apply dating bans for fledging idols, it wasn’t a popular policy, especially outside of Korea.

And, since they’d renegotiated their contract last year without the ban, the answer was technically correct.

Plus, it implied the members were on the market, which I supposed was good fan service.

“Wow, okay, clearly some people happy to hear that!” The presenter waved his prompt cards in the audience’s direction. “But tell me, was the song written about someone? An inspiration, perhaps? I think we’d all be interested to know what kind of person could capture the interest of a KPop idol.”

For some reason, Seokmin, ‘Ace,’ laughed, but it was Jihoon who answered this time, giving me an irrational sense of trepidation.

“We all have people in our lives that we love, Patrick. We love our friends, our family, and of course, we love Vibers. Love is love.” All the group nodded and Sungmin clapped Jihoon on the back from where he sat behind him.

As he was pushed forward by Sungmin, I noticed the chain he wore around his neck.

It was a plain looking silver chain, but it had a recognisable, but equally plain silver ring strung on it.

I had already noticed he wasn’t wearing his ring on his finger, but then I hadn’t expected him to.

It was too recognisable of a symbol, even outside of Korea.

But to see that he had it and was wearing it after all… it did things to me. Soft, warm things.

“Well, who can argue with that?” The presenter replied gamely, clearly knowing he wasn’t going to get a less than diplomatic answer from the group.

“And now, without further ado, here they are to perform their latest single, having recently swept several awards for it, please put your hands together again for GVibes with ‘Work Harder’!”

The camera panned away from the interview couch and over to a raised platform where the members now stood in formation, before the backing track cued and as one, they began their complicated choreography.

The audience had started up a well-known fan chant, while others just screamed. I couldn’t blame them; the group were enrapturing to behold .

The fans screaming continued for so long after the end of the song, that the presenter gave up trying to calm them down.

In the background, the members still on the stage could be seen blowing kisses, finger hearts, waving, clearly just playing up to the crowd and I laughed as Jihoon gave a piggyback to Seokmin, running around the stage like kids.

The presenter had to shout to be heard. “If you’d like to see more of the incredibly talented, obviously well-loved GVibes, you can watch their live set at Hyde Park festival on BBC iPlayer, or listen in live on BBC radio 2, this Friday. Thank you, goodnight!”

The camera panned out over the audience to show the many, many dozens of screaming fans, so many light sticks and signs, all saying variations of ‘I love U.’ I smiled to see the love and support they had; it was all so well deserved.

But, real life beckoned, so I shoved my sandwich box back into my bag and closed iPlayer and signed out of my VPN. Time to go back to work.

“Is that them?” Becka leaned on the wall near to me, both of us looking towards the massive entourage huddled in the middle of the lobby.

Becka had come down to speak to Donna, and had found me creeping back out of the storage cave, just as the revolving doors had opened, admitting a huge group of people, some of which were now arguing with Donna.

I didn’t fancy their chances, personally.

“Yup,” I sighed, equally as fascinated by the scene. A handful of very rough looking men were huddled in the centre of the roving mass of people, who I guessed were the band.

“What’s their problem?” Becka actually stamped her foot, a rare break in her professional composure.

“They’re booked in. We’ve acquiesced to pretty much everything they wanted. What could possibly be the matter?”

“Hell if I know,” I shrugged, “I just work here.”

Becka snorted.

“Oh, thank god,” she suddenly grabbed my arm and pointed towards the elevator, from which Celine was just stepping off.

“No one kisses ass like Celine.” Becka sighed as she slumped back against the wall.

“It’s a real talent.” I nodded.

But our observation of the group was cut short as Celine spotted us, and pointed at me before crooking her finger at me.

“Better go before she releases her flying monkeys.”

I hunched my shoulders and rasped, “Yes Master, coming Master.” I heard Becka snorting behind me, but I carried on over to Celine, walking normally.

“This is Kaiya, she’ll be shadowing you today to ensure all your needs are met.” Celine’s smile was sickly sweet as she stared at a short, balding man wearing a leather jacket over a serious pair of dad jeans.

“Hi,” I smiled.

Dad jeans gave me a slow once-over before he landed back on my face and treated me to a sneer that I was pretty sure he intended as a compliment.

“Well then, darlin,’ lead the way.”

From that moment on, it went steadily more downhill in various different ways.

The band themselves were a modest five-man band comprising of lead and bass guitarist, drummer and two singers, a pretty standard setup.

But for some reason, they’d brought not only their manager, but also their publicist, stylist, financial adviser, three bodyguards, their girlfriends and inexplicably, a person dubbed their ‘ wellbeing officer,’ who as far as I could tell was in charge of dispensing little drops of something from a brown bottle under the band member’s tongues once an hour.

I’d had to insist to the manager that only the actual band and himself could be in the room, other members of the entourage had to wait upstairs in the hospitality areas. I’d had some pushback on that, but once the producer had threatened to cancel their booking, they’d reluctantly complied.

Thankfully, at least it wasn’t Trevor Kyle working with the band.

The vocals actually went okay, but when it came to recording parts of the band’s backing track, the lead guitarist was nowhere to be found.

A building-wide search was initiated ? and by that, I mean that I was ordered to search the whole damn building on my own ? which was when I found him upstairs in the lounge, completely unconscious in the lap of one of the girlfriends.

I was still unsure if it was his girlfriend, but honestly, they all kind of looked the same.

The ‘wellbeing officer’ at least had the grace to look embarrassed when he told me the guitarist wasn’t likely to wake up anytime soon, due to an overindulgence in ‘herbal remedies.’

It was with this information that I stormed into Jeremy’s office.

“Boss, there’s a passed-out guitarist in the lounge and the manager won’t stop calling me ‘babycakes.’ I need a personal day.”

He didn’t even bother to look up from his computer screen, but he did sigh to let me know he was listening.

“Do we need to call an ambulance?”

“Not according to his ‘wellbeing officer.’”

That did get Jeremy to glance up, and frowning he asked, “His what now?”

I opened my mouth-

“Never mind, I don’t care.” He put his head down on his desk, and I winced at the thump.

“Look, just… goddamn bands.” Another thump. “You play guitar, right?”

“I-er, what?” I asked, stupidly.

Jeremy pulled his head off the desk to stare at me, the stare of a man who has truly had enough of these goddamn bands.

“I mean, yes?” I said, cautiously.

“Good. Go offer to play for them. ”

“Boss… Shouldn’t we ask tech?”

He snorted. “Good luck. They’re downstairs with the orchestra doing the soundtrack for that new movie with the things in that place with the...” He waved his hand around vaguely.

“ I guess I can offer…”

“That’s the spirit! Go get ‘em, girl.”

I’d lost him, he was already eyeballing his screen as if it held the lotto numbers necessary to buying his ticket out of this place.

“And that, my friend, is how I ended up playing the guitar on three tracks of Smoking Guns’ newest album, available in all good stores, this winter.”

Becka howled as I finished up the story of my shitty day, culminating in the bassist giving me his number in front of his girlfriend, who it transpired had been the girl the lead guitarist had been using as a pillow. Messy, messy, messy.

“Truly, my friend, your life has been raised up to the stuff of legends in the few short months you’ve lived in LA. It’s the dream!” Becka declared, waving a beer in salute at me.

“Yeah, yeah,” I grumbled. “Truly the stuff of dreams.”