Page 70 of A World Apart (Between Worlds #1)

“ W hat did you say?” I whispered, half afraid I’d misheard, half-afraid I hadn’t.

“Come to Korea with me. Tonight, you can fly over with me.” His face softened, the line between his brows smoothing, his mouth quirking slightly at one side.

But his eyes ? they held mine in a way that made looking away impossible.

His thumb rubbed circles on my wrist, pulling me back to the here and now.

I opened my mouth to speak, the ‘no,’ or ‘I can’t’ forming, and then re-forming before being wiped away like words on a chalkboard. Because, after all, why couldn’t I?

Why wouldn’t I?

“What the fuck did you just say?” Becka’s voice burst through the bubble of my introspection a moment before her physical presence. Her footsteps stomped on the floorboards with such force I just knew that Jose downstairs would be able to hear it.

“Becka- ”

“No, no, not you.” She held up a hand to silence me as she stared up at Jihoon, her face as severe as I’d ever seen it, all the softness somehow transposed to sharp angles and shadows.

“You,” she hissed, pointing at Jihoon, “what did you just say?”

“Becka, stop.” I slid over the wooden floor to put myself between them. “Not okay.” I put my hand on her arm and lowered it, but only because she allowed it. She slid her gaze to me, and I could see the pain there.

Over my shoulder I said, “Jihoon, I need to talk to Becka. Can I call you later with my decision?”

I heard him blow out a breath and could imagine the expression on his face, but I kept my eyes on Becka.

“I’ll be waiting,” he said, “don’t take too long, jagiya.”

I waited until I heard the door click behind him before I said anything, but I didn’t get the chance.

“You can’t go with him.”

“Becka-”

“I’m serious. Go back to London, stay her for two more months. Whichever, but you cannot go to Korea with him.” Her eyes were wide, her jaw set in a tight line as she gripped my hand.

I extracted my hand as gently as I could, because she was hurting me slightly.

“Let’s sit down and talk about it. You’re my best friend; I want your opinion.

” I offered her a smile and though she didn’t return it, she did nod.

We both retrieved our wine glasses and the bottle from the counter and took them over to the sofa.

I topped us both up. Becka didn’t hesitate to take a sip from hers.

“Okay,” I began, “you’ve obviously got some thoughts, and in respect of our years of friendships, you have the floor.”

“I don’t know how else to say, ‘don’t go,’” she snapped, and my own temper flared.

I felt the tic in my eye, but pushed it down, muffled it with a deep breath and tried again.

“Tell me why you think this is such a bad idea. ”

“Did you not SEE yourself this year?” Becka shouted, leaning forward like she would try to press the words into me. “We literally just talked about this, like two months ago!”

“This is not the same thing; don’t you see that?”

“It absolutely is! Once again, Kaiya has to compact herself to suit Jihoon the Idol’s life. It was bad enough when you had to follow your boyfriend’s life online, but now he gets to take you with him so he can take you out and play with you whenever it suits him? How convenient!”

“I’m not a doll, Becka,” I spluttered, bewildered by the barrage of accusations, of how Becka saw this.

“Exactly! But he treats you like one!”

“No, he doesn’t!”

“Oh, grow up, Ky,” Becka scoffed, rolling her head back on her shoulders like she couldn’t stand to look at me.

“How do you think this is going to end? Hmm? You’re going to go over there, he’s going to constantly be away, doing idol things, and you’re going to be alone in a foreign country, with no one you know, just waiting for him to come back.

And then one day, he won’t, he probably won’t even bother to call you, he just won’t bother coming back! ”

Becka burst into tears, her whole body shaking with the force of it. She slammed her wine glass down on the table and grabbed a pillow, shoving her face into it to muffle her cries while I just looked on as my simmering anger vanished like a candle being snuffed.

“Becka… Jihoon isn’t Ben.” I wanted to reach for her, but the divide felt too big.

Finally, she raised her head, her face was splotchy, but she was still one of the loveliest women I’d ever seen. It hurt to see her in this much pain.

“Isn’t he?” She wiped at her cheeks. “Because Ben wasn’t that man, until he was. We had plans, you know. We were going to live together for a few years before we’d get engaged, get married, buy an apartment. It was the plan.” Her chin trembled as she spoke.

“But all our plans turned to shit. Babes, you don’t even have plans. You don’t even have an official relationship.” I flinched. I knew she hadn’t said that to hurt me, but hell if it hadn’t .

“What will you do when he leaves you? You can’t even talk about it to anybody. Because I’m telling you,” her shoulders heaved as she tried to force her words out, “don’t come crying to me when he does.”

A tear slipped down my cheek, but it wasn’t for me. I reached for her, finally, scooting forward until I could wrap my arms around her, half-expecting her to push me away, but she didn’t, and she never would.

“I will always come to you, and you will always be there for me,” I murmured, rocking her slightly, “and I will always be there for you. That’s the deal, that’s always been the deal.”

Becka wound her arms around my waist, holding me tight enough to bruise, but I didn’t complain.

We sat there for who-knows how long, just being with each other, feeling the tension seep out until, still holding each other, we slumped against the back of the sofa.

“I’m going to miss you so much.” She pulled back to look at me, her face now dry but the sadness written on it remained.

“I’m going to miss you too.” What else could I say?

“You better go pack. Good thing you didn’t bring much.”

I laughed, but it quickly turned into a sob, the mix of emotions swirling through me like a carousel. Which one was driving it ? who could tell?

“Now?”

“Yes babes, you can’t wait any longer.”

“Will you help me?”

“Of course, babes.”

Becka stood up, holding her hand out to me to pull me up. I slid my fingers against hers and together, we went into my little LA bedroom and began to pack up my temporary life.

Me

Jihoon. I’m coming to Korea.

End of Book One.