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CHAPTER 11 : Come Back

LUHAN’S POV

I never had problems sleeping, I can even sleep pretty much anywhere - in airports, in hotels, alone, in a crowd. But tonight was an exception. I tossed and turned and shut my eyes as hard as I could, but every time I would almost drift off, the thought of being jealous stirred me up. And I didn’t know what bothered me more, the fact that seeing Woo Jin and Mina’s hug angered me, or the fact that they hugged in the first place. Every part of my body screamed to pull Mina away from him, but as reckless as I am, I decided not to.

I immediately told myself that it was just an effect of the intense mood changes I’ve been having the past days. My fight with my mom, the comeback concert - every thing had probably stressed me out. Admit it, you were jealous, the voice inside me persisted.  I tried to logically analyze it, but jealousy just did not make sense. In the end, I was convinced that it was some sort of new emotion, or a mixture of emotions, but it definitely was not jealousy.

When I went down to the dining room the next day, my internal dilemma had completely disappeared.

“You look terrible.” Xiumin said upon seeing my big eye bags.

“Did you see Mina last night?” Lay blurted out of the blue. It’s such a bad habit of his.

“No, I didn’t go out.” I lied.

“Oh. Well anyway I called Woo Jin too, so he probably picked her up.” Lay explained.

I made a sound that seemed like a forced yes.

After breakfast, all of us talked about our comeback concert tonight, making sure that everyone had no problems whatsoever. It was already past 10 when we finished and Mina still hadn’t arrived. The image of Woo Jin hugging her suddenly formed in my head and I found myself getting enraged again. What the hell is happening to me?

MINA’S POV

When I looked at my clock, it was already past noon. I panicked and immediately took a bath, took the first set of clothes I could find, and headed to EXO’s dorm. When I got there, Lay was sitting on the sofa.

“You’re here.” Lay motioned me to sit down.

“Is he mad? ” I asked uneasily, referring to my bipolar boss.

“He’s not - I think. But he’d been asking if you were here yet.”

“He had?”

“Yeah, like ten times,” Lay replied, “in the last hour.”

As if on cue, Luhan appeared on the staircase. He looked like he hadn’t gotten much sleep probably because of the chaos I had caused. He was staring at me with calculating eyes, deciding about something grave. Oh God, is he thinking of firing me? I looked over at Lay hoping he had some encouragement of any kind, but instead he stood up and left us alone, like there was a battle needed to be done.

“Nice of you to show up.” Luhan said sarcastically.

He headed to the open kitchen adjacent to the living room and took a bottle of his Evian water. I watched him search the fridge for food, settling for the left-over pizza yesterday. I kept silent, mainly because I did not know what mood he was in.

“So,” he said after taking a bite of the pizza, “what happened last night?”

He had seated on the dining table, staring at me.

“What happened last night?” I repeated.

“Do I have to speak in another language for you to understand?”

I gulped in nervousness, “Lay texted me that you already found the script… I don’t unders-“

“Did you try looking for it?”

“Yes, I did!” I said defensively.

“And then?”

“And then?” I was confused with what Luhan wanted to hear exactly.

“And- then- what- happened?” he pronounced his words slower as if to mock me.

“Nothing, I didn’t find it so I just- ” I expained.

“I mean in the dump? What happened in the dump?” he asked vigorously.

“How’d you know I went there?” I paused, “Were you there?”

Luhan’s eyes widened in shock to my question, he choked from the pizza he was eating and coughed endlessly. I rapidly moved to his side, handed him his water and patted his back. When he had recovered, he looked up to me, and I could’ve sworn there was a sign of worry in his eyes. I didn’t know exactly about what, but it had already made me feel terrible.

“So,” His voice turned gentle, “tell me what happened.”

“No-nothing else. I just went home when I found out you had the script.”

“Is that all?”

“Yes.”

For some reason, my answer had turned him into a bad mood. His face had showed annoyance again, forcing me to put my guard up.

“Go home, you look like hell.” He said before standing up.

“I’m fine, I can stay.”

“Your socks don’t even match.” He noted, I looked at it and my face turned into a hot color of red, I probably mistook it since I was in such a hurry earlier.

“Be at the concert grounds before 5.” He ordered before heading to his room.

To say that the concert ground was jam-packed is an understatement. People clustered and elbowed their way trying their best to get a good view of the stage. When I arrived at the dressing room, it wasn’t as different. Staffs and assistants were all running around like there was fire. I felt a pang of guilt when I saw Woo Jin and everyone else busying themselves with various responsibilities and so, I decided to help them out.

“I’m sorry I’m late.” I whispered to Woo Jin.

“No worries,” he smiled, “are you feeling better?”

“Yes, thanks for bringing me ho-“

“Mina!” Luhan suddenly shouted, drowning all the other voices in the room.

I quickly went up to him, excusing myself from Woo Jin. He was seated in front of a huge mirror, getting his make up done.

“Is there anything you need?”

“I clearly told you to come here before 5.”

“It’s just uhm… 4 pm sir.” I tried hard to keep myself from laughing.

He quickly changed the subject, “Get me water.” I did as he said and realized that his whole “get me water” order was his form of defense mechanism every time things got awkward. I grinned to myself about the new discovery.

After about an hour, the artist finally finished his make up. Luhan then went to the dressing room to change into his costume and when he came out, my mouth dropped open. He wore a red vest on top of a v-neck silver sequined top that showed off his collar bone in a provocative way. His flashy leather jeans hugged his lean figure in a perfect fit, revealing a certain manliness that was a thousand times more powerful than mere handsomeness. But above it all, it was his face that made my knees weaken, it had a smile on it, not some petty smile you see on magazines, but a sincere - genuine smile.

I glanced over what he was looking at, and realized he had his eyes on a small window where the crowd was visible. It made my heart feel warm, he was looking at his fans and smiling to himself, he was happy of what he was doing. Not a lot of people reach their dreams and actually continue to be happy, but Luhan was exactly like that. And I’ve never seen anything else more admirable.

Without thinking I asked, “Is it okay if I watch,” I hesitated, “I mean out there?”

“Who am I to deny a die-hard fan that opportunity?” He said sarcastically.

LUHAN’S POV

Performing on stage never got easier. You hold your breath before going on stage, feeling every part of you scream in nervousness. But when you’re finally there blinded by the lights, it’s just pure - pure bliss. When you hear the crowd’s scream, you start to feel like you’re on top of the world.

When we appeared on stage for our song, the entire arena was shaken by the cheer of the fans. The intro of Angel played and everybody’s eyes sparkled, waiting for our voices to be heard. On the middle of our song, my eyes found Mina. She was sitting on the front row, she had the same look that I see from my fans everyday, except hers had more depth, more admiration. She was staring at me without pause or delay, and at some point, it made me feel conscious.

When I looked to her right, I realized that she was sitting beside Woo Jin. Like a flash, my mood turned completely sour. It was not comparable, however, to when he took and held Mina’s hands. I was so irritated, so vexed that I almost forgot to sing my part.

She had lied to me this morning, and now she actually had the guts to act all familiar with this guy? I mean, I do have the right to know if my assistant is dating somebody, I am her boss. For crying out loud, if she dated somebody, her job, that she almost always fails by the way, will surely be affected. As the boss, I had every right to keep my assistant in line.

MINA'S POV

It just never gets old… Hearing Luhan’s voice, watching him perform, I feel like every time is always the first time. However, now that I am seated right in the front row, there was no stopping the memories that wanted to flow - that night that I went to their concert and realized that I had missed the chance to see my dad for the last time.

A tear fell from my eyes, and though I could not see much from the blur, I continued to stare at him, not wanting to let go of the moment. I didn’t know why but I imagined that he was looking back at me too, but that was probably purely my fantasy. I was happy enough to be able to look at him, it didn’t really matter whether he looked back or not.

Woo Jin who had probably noticed me crying, held my hand out of concern. I gripped it back tightly because if there was any moment to say that I needed a friend to hold onto, this moment would be it.

When the concert had ended, I went to the backstage hoping to be able to talk to EXO and congratulate them. But before I could walk up to them, Yeol Ra, a lead singer of a girl group appeared in front of me.

“Hi, I’m Yeol Ra.”

“I’m Mina,” I reached to shake her hand, “And I know you, you’re a member of Princess.”

“Yeah,” she smiled kindly, “I was wondering if you could help me out?”

“Sure, what do you need?”

“Could you just help me remove all the buttons in this blouse?” she asked, showing a really flashy top with diamond buttons on the side.

“It looks good with the buttons.” I said, “Why do you want to remove them?”

“My manager told me to, but I have no time, I have to use the restroom.”

“Oh, okay. No worries then, I’ll help you.” I said, and she headed for the lavatory.

After I had removed all the buttons, I raised it up to see if it looked better. I thought of leaving the blouse on the side so I could go see EXO, but decided to just hand it personally when Yeol Ra gets back. But after a while, an angry woman that I haven’t seen before came barging in at me and behind her was Yeol Ra.

“That’s her, unni.” Yeol Ra pointed at me, “She ruined my top.”

WHAT?? My eyes widened in horror. Yeol Ra had completely turned the story around. And I was holding her buttonless blouse and a scissor to prove her claims.

“Do you know what you’ve done?” her manager faced me, “now the group won’t have the same outfits! Who are you anyway? Who allowed you inside?”

Anger had taken over me and I fought back, “I didn’t do anything! Yeol ra asked me to-“

“Mina-ssi, I’m so sorry that you don’t like me…” Yeol ra interrupted with a sad face that made me sick, “but you didn’t have to ruin my blouse.”

This bit** is asking for it!

“Who’s your supervisor? I’ll make sure you’re fired by today!” her manager snapped.

I took a deep breath again and again, trying my best to control the anger that wanted me to pull Yeol ra’s hair and force her to tell the truth.

“Go ahead!” I said defiantly, taking them both by surprise, “Go ahead and call my boss! I didn’t do anything wrong!”

“What’s happening here?” A familiar voice suddenly spoke up.

“Luhan?” Yeol ra called out and my insides turned upside down.

Luhan completely disregarded her and faced me with a serious look, “What happened Mina?”

“Yeol ra is accusing me of-“ I started to explain.

“She ruined my top!” Yeol ra cried out. I clenched my fist tightly.

“Luhan, is she your assistant?” the manager asked, “Well she should be fired, because she just ruined Yeol ra’s top out of dislike.”

Stop me Luhan, I am going to teach these bit*** a lesson.

“Why? Are you her boss? Is she on your payroll? Who are you to say she should be fired?” Luhan snapped.

Ha! I wanted to stick my tongue out. Luhan knows me, he knows that I can never do anything like that. I gasped in relief, at least Luhan was on my side.

“You.” Luhan turned to me, “Apologize. Now.”

Did I hear him right? “What?” I asked in disbelief.

“Apologize now.”

I looked over the witch who conspirated against me and in her face, a triumphant smile was plastered.

“I’m not apologizing. I didn’t do anything.”

“Apologize to Yeol Ra now Mina!”

I wanted to walk out, the anger inside me subsided and instead was replaced with disappointment. Luhan, though he’s mean, had a habit of saving me when I needed it. But now, he was on the other side of the glass, forcing me to do something I did not want to do. But there was no fighting with Luhan, he gets what he wants... like always.

“I’m sorry.” I bowed to Yeol Ra.

With tears in my eyes, I left the room. I went to the rooftop just right above the concert ground and settled myself on the railings, looking afar. In an instant, I felt someone stood beside me. It was Luhan.