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CHAPTER 18 : Disaster

MINA’S POV

My heart pounded violently as Luhan’s voice echoed in my mind. Maybe I heard it wrong, I thought. If Luhan were to like anyone in this room, as in like, it would be… me? It almost came off as funny - except no one was laughing. Everyone in the circle was obviously shocked by his answer, they were all silent. To top it off, there was an obvious tension between Woo Jin and Luhan, and I was smack in the middle of it all - literally.

I slowly worked my way to small fake laughs, thinking that it was the only way to break the pressure of the situation. Luckily, the others took the hint and started pretending to laugh as well. It was the very definition of awkward. Luhan and Woo Jin remained pensive, so I decided to give Lay the look - the look that says let’s pretend to continue the game.

“Alright. Whose turn is it?” Lay asked as he spinned the bottle again.

I wasn’t aware of what was happening. While everyone tried their best to avoid looking at Luhan and Woo Jin, I was mindful of them - trying my best to feel out the situation. Without a single word, Woo Jin stood up and went outside. The others pretended as if they didn’t see any of it. Ultimately, I decided that I had no choice but to be the one to follow Woo Jin.

He stood by the patio, looking far away as if deep in thought.

“Are you okay?”

He turned to me, surprised that I had followed him, “Maybe you should be asking Luhan that.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

As if he regretted what he just said, he apologized, “I’m sorry - I’m just a bit lightheaded.”

I nodded. Everyone was pretty much tipsy already, but after what Luhan said, I’m sure I had become more than sober. In fact, me and Woo Jin’s relationship became clearer - and it had started to bother me. I didn’t want to lead him on, but I was scared that my actions were doing the exact opposite.

“Woo Jin,” I moved closer to him, “I’m starting to think that this waiting thing we’re doing is a bit too compli-”

“Don’t.” He faced me at once, “Don’t give me an answer yet. Can’t you think about it more?”

“Woo Jin, you are my friend and I just want to-”

He raised his voice, “I don’t want to be your friend!”

I was completely taken aback. I had never seen Woo Jin angry. No matter how many stupid things I did, he had never shouted at me, not once. Was I hurting him too much? I wondered helplessly. I no longer knew what to do. I didn’t want to think about my feelings - not yet at least. But I would never ever want to be the cause of my friend’s pain. Woo Jin left in a hurry without even a glance at me. For the first time ever, I felt the weight of it all - I had to think about what I really feel, and I had to decide fast.

When I got back inside, it seemed as if everyone had forgotten about what happened. When I looked at Luhan’s place, he was no longer there. I sighed, feeling as if I was being pulled in every direction possible. I dragged my feet and sat beside Hilary. Clearly, I was no longer in the mood to party but I decided to wait it out until everyone goes home. Unfortunately, that took four hours. When Jenna had passed out on the couch, everyone figured that the party had taken its toll.

The next day, I realized that none of it was a dream.

My head felt as if something was drilling on it, and my whole body ached as if I was someone’s punch bag for an entire night. No one likes having a hangover, but having one while going to work at 8 am to a bipolar boss is just worse. Today, EXO was to sing at a countdown show. Although I never get tired of watching them, these types of shows were the most stressful, add that to the fact that the events of last night weren’t exactly inspiring. I wished myself luck as I headed to their dorm, this is going to be a rough day, I thought.

“You’re late.” Luhan said as soon as I arrived. I rubbed my eyes wondering why he was up so early.

“I’m sorry sir, I was-”

“I’m sure I told you that as soon as I wake up, you should be here at this spot, right?”

“I’m so sorry. It won’t happen again.”

“Go get me water.” He ordered.

I rushed to the kitchen and saw the members having breakfast. I greeted them all before taking out an Evian from the fridge. For some reason, it felt as if me and Luhan were back to square one, much like my first day as his assistant. I sighed in frustration, hoping that his sudden change was just a short after-effect of the events of last night.

“Here’s your water.” I handed the bottle to him who sat by the sofa. I went on, “About last night, I-”

He stood up swiftly, “Make sure you bring everything I need for the show.”

I felt uneasy with his dismissal. I didn’t want to think about it but a part of me was starting to believe that what happened last night had broken our truce. All I could do was ask myself what exactly did I do wrong? Unable to find an answer, I decided to focus on doing my job - and put off the drama for later.

When we had gotten to the studio, majority of the contestants were already there. The idea of the show is to have each kpop group perform their single for the audience and judges who will then decide who the winner is. As if things couldn’t get any worse, I noticed that Princess was part of the show, so Yeol Ra will probably make her appearance later.

Luckily, the dressing rooms were separated. When we had gone to EXO’s, the only people there were the other assistants. I noticed that Woo Jin was nowhere to be found and when I asked Xiumin about it, he said that he asked for a leave because he wasn’t feeling well. I realized that as a friend, I should at least visit Woo Jin after the show.

The entire day was spent rehearsing for the show. I stayed beside Luhan most of the time, making sure not to make any mistakes. And for the final rehearsal, all groups performed on stage. An hour before the show started, Mr. Kim called and asked to meet me at the company.

I went up to Luhan, “Sir, I have to go to the company, Mr. Kim just called.”

“Why?”

“I’m not really sure, but he said he needed to talk about something important.”

“Okay.”

I handed him his things, “Here’s your water and jacket, in case you need anything just message me, and uhm sir,” I paused, “Good luck.”

He looked at me blankly as I turned my back. But before I could completely leave, he called out to me.

“Come back right after. There’s something we need to talk about.”

I nodded, though deep inside I feared of the talk that was to come.

It was raining on my way to the company. The past few days, it had obviously rained a lot and people had started to have problems with drainage, some cities have even announced a flash flood watch. Generally, people from Seoul deal with heavy rains easily since the effects it have caused before were never really that serious. And today was no different. From the window of the cab, I could see people battling against the heavy downpour just to get to their jobs. Life goes on, as they say.

About a few minutes later, I reached the company and immediately headed to Mr. Kim’s office. Mr. Kim is a guy in his forties, not really imposing, but a bit authoritative. He’s basically my boss, and EXO’s boss, but it’s safe to say that there is someone of higher position than him. The last time I saw him was my first day as Luhan’s assistant, which didn’t exactly go well. When I entered the room, I looked down hoping that I wasn’t called to be scolded or fired. 

“Mina-ssi, please take a seat.”

“Good afternoon sir,” I bowed, “What is it that you needed me for?”

“I wouldn’t say need, but I was hoping you could do me a favor.”

“A favor?”

“I know Luhan’s dad came to visit him the other day.” I was taken by surprise as he went on, “And of course I know how bad their relationship is.”

“I’m sorry sir, but I don’t really feel comfortable talking about my boss’ private matters.”

“Well, Mina-ssi, that is a bit difficult…” he took out a piece of paper from his drawer and handed it to me.

The paper was freshly printed, on its header, a title was in bold : “Luhan disinherited by his father” My insides shook as I continue to read the article, Luhan and his father were seen fighting… Mr. Han, an owner of various successful businesses… Luhan did not accept his father’s wish to reconciliate… I closed my eyes in shock and put the paper down,

“Sir, with all due respect, what the hell is this?”

“That Mina-ssi, is a news article that we had stopped from being published.”

“Sir, it’s true that Luhan is having a hard time with his father but this article is exaggerating things.”

“The problem is that we cannot stop all articles like this from coming out. Sooner or later, someone will reveal what is happening. And even though not all statements given will be true, people will believe it. And that will ruin Luhan’s reputation.”

“This is crazy,” I muttered under my breath. This will ruin everything Luhan has worked hard for. When that happens, Luhan will hate his father more.

“I don’t really like to ask this from you, but you need to help me fix things between Luhan and his father.”

“Sir, I’m just his assistant, how could I possibly do that?”

“You have to lie to Luhan and tell him that he has to come here tomorrow night for a rehearsal. I’ll be talking to his father so they could meet here, and they could talk, where no press will hear of the matter.”

I admitted, “I don’t think that that will work sir.” 

“Works or not, we don’t have a choice.”

I sighed, and against all of me that hated doing this, I nodded. I had left Mr. Kim’s office quickly, still shaken from the turn of events. I wondered if I could actually lie to Luhan, but realized that I had no choice. I had to protect Luhan’s reputation no matter what the cost.

When I looked at my watch, it was already past six. Most of the occupants in the building were already gone, it was a bit quiet, doors locked and windows shut. I could hear the heavy downpour and the thunder from the outside, making me quiver in unease. I entered the elevator and pressed the button for the basement level. While I waited for it to go down, I checked my phone. Luhan had called and left a message, “The show ended earlier than expected,” he paused, “but I’ll wait for you to get back here.”

Before I could press to reply, the elevator had reached bottom, the floor beneath me staggered heavily, I heard cracks and snaps, and in a second, the lights went dead. I caught my breath in shock, unable to see anything in the total darkness. I quickly felt for the buttons beside the elevator door, and pushed all of them desperately. When my fingers had touched what felt like a speaker phone, I pushed the button beside it, held it, but there was no answer. I pushed it once more, “I need help in here,” I panted, “Anybody?” Again, no reply.

“They have cameras in this place,” I thought aloud trying to calm myself, “They will see that something has gone wrong, they will surely send somebody.” After a few minutes of complete silence, I heard a gush of water and I felt something cold on my feet. A second later, I realized that water had gotten inside the elevator cab. And I panicked. I took out my cellphone and used it like a flashlight. I saw water coming in from under the elevator door. My heart worked in quick beats as I dialed the company’s number. It rang again and again - and then a busy signal. I cursed under my breath and dialed for Mr. Kim, but an answering machine picked up.

As I stopped the call, my phone let out a beep, indicating that my battery was already low. I typed 119 without another thought, but I was directed to a recorded message. “All circuits are busy, please stay on the line until an operator is available.” I waited for a minute, but when I started to feel that the water had reached my leg, I stopped the call and redialed. I heard the recorded message again.

I was already freaking out. Somehow, I was able to bring up the recent calls on my phone. I pressed the return on Luhan’s call. It rang thrice until I was redirected to voice mail. I took my chances, “Luhan, I’m stuck in the elevator at the company.” I choked, “ Water is coming in and I-” Sobs worked its way on my voice. Tears didn’t stop falling “Please come get-” The phone suddenly beeped and died. I screamed in frustration. I stopped putting on a calm demeanor, I pounded on the doors heavily, screamed and shouted till my voice ran out.

LUHAN’S POV

I went to the bathroom of our dressing room to get changed. EXO had already gone back to the dormitory, but since I had to wait for Mina, I decided to stay. After I had folded my costume, I went out to the dressing room and saw Yeol Ra sitting on the couch.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

“I wanted to congratulate you,” she looked around, “Where are the others?”

“They went home.”

“We should go out and celebrate. My favorite restaurant is just right across.”

I shook my head, “I can’t, I’m waiting for someone.” I rummaged through my bag to get my phone, thinking that Mina probably replied, but it was nowhere to be found, “Did you see my phone?”

“No… I didn’t.” She locked her arms with mine, “Look, how about just coffee? We’ll be back real quick.”

 I shrugged her off in annoyance, “You’re not leaving me alone until I say yes, are you?”

“You know me well.” Yeol Ra said as she led me outside of the room.

We walked to the restaurant right across the building and Yeol Ra ordered coffee for both of us. For some reason, it felt as if she was edgy about something.

“EXO performed really well today, you deserved to win.”

“You weren’t bad yourself.”

“Luhan,” she looked at me intently, “Let’s go on a date.”

I choked from the coffee I was drinking. “What?”

Before I could dismiss her complete absurdity, a ringing tone went off from her bag. As I listened carefully, I realized that the ringtone was EXO’s song, Realize. There was no way in hell that anyone other than EXO had that ringtone, since the song was not yet released. I saw Yeol Ra’s tensed face and realized what she had done.

I stood up in anger, “Is that my phone?”

She looked down, speechless. I clenched my fist, I hated it when people touched my things let alone steal them.

“Give it back to me.” I ordered.

She took my phone from her bag and handed it to me. I glared at her intensely, and when I opened my phone, it was left on the voicemail screen. I saw that Mina had sent me a message, and that it had been opened. I looked at Yeol Ra suspiciously, and immediately pushed the button to hear Mina’s call.

“Luhan, I’m stuck in the elevator at the company, water is coming in and I-” I heard her cries distinctively, and felt blood rush up in me. “Please come get-” The message ended. Without missing a single beat, I ran out as fast as I could.