Chapter Nineteen: Disaster
My Lips are SealedBefore, I continue with the story, I'd just like to say I HAVE 40 SUBSCRIBERS NOW! I want to hug each and every one of you. You're all wonderful! I honestly didn't even expect to have 10 subscribers! ♥
Oh, and, brace yourselves for the next chapter! Things are about to heat up, but not in a good way....
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By now, I knew the way to the T.O.P Media office building. I knew the way there from my house as well as I knew the route to school. Last summer, Dad used to bring me along whenever he had to stop by the office because nine times out of ten, Teen Top was there. I always joked with Byunghun that he and the others lived there; they had a dinky apartment, but they hardly ever spent time there. They spend the majority of their time at the office building, hanging out in one of the many rooms. Sometimes my dad would even bring me to with after school. I’d sit and do homework and watch the boys practice or work out or just hang out together. I remember sitting on one of the couches in Teen Top’s “lounge” while five of the boys fought over the last cups at water dispenser machine right after a vigorous practice session. L.Joe, however, had headed straight towards me. I remember the way his blonde hair had stuck to his sweaty forehead. He flopped down on his back beside me, his drippy head landing in my lap.
“Oh my God!” I had exclaimed when I saw how sweaty he was.
“I’m sorry,” he had panted, a smirk on his face.
I remember pushing his wet hair off his forehead. “Intense practice?” I had reached down and picked up the chilled water bottle at my feet. I had brought it just for him.
Smiling, he snatched the cold water bottle from my hands and took a long drink. “You have no idea,” he had replied. He had closed his eyes and let his heavy breathing return to normal. “I’m so glad you’re here.”
I had been glad to be there, too. I hadn’t cared that L.Joe was sticky and gross with sweat; I was just glad to be with him. Any chance I got to be with him, I’d snatch it up like he had snatched the water bottle. I had come to understand that the time we got to spend together was precious, and we had to make the most of it. Maybe that was why I was so upset about our date completely falling apart.
No. There was more to it than that.
I used one hand to wipe my eyes and the other to yank open the heavy glass doors of the T.O.P Media office building. Byunghun had to be here. I couldn’t think or anywhere else he would be. I didn’t care what he was doing or who he was with. I had to find him.
I flew inside and let the door slam behind me. The receptionist at the front desk, who knew me by name, looked up from her computer. Usually I bow respectfully to her and greet her but I didn’t today. I was seething with anger and melting with disappointment. The receptionist asked if everything was okay, but I completely ignored her. I stormed right to the elevators, jammed my finger against the “up” button and stepped in as soon as the doors opened. I stared blankly through my blurry vision at the elevator door. I had no idea exactly what I was going to say when I found Byunghun, but at this point I was just hoping I wouldn’t choke on my tears.
When the elevator doors opened, I angrily wiped my once-perfectly made-up eyes one last time. I probably looked like a mess. Good. Maybe Byunghun would feel a sliver of sympathy for me.
I stepped out of the elevator and looked down the long white hallway. I felt a surge of fury flood through my veins at the sight of a pink head at the other end of the hallway. He was walking down the hall with Chanhee, throwing his head back and laughing. Normally, his dorky laughter brought a smile to my face. Today, gunfire would have sounded more pleasant.
“Hey!” I found a voice that sounded nothing like my own bark out.
Both heads at the end of the hallway whipped around. The pink-haired figure froze. “K…Kirin?”
Blood boiling with the intensity of a volcano, I marched up to him, throwing my arms out at my side, and furiously cried, “Hi, Byunghun!”
His dark eyes with wide with horror. Chanhee looked at him, but his eyes were fixed on me. “What…what are you doing here?”
I folded my arms across my chest. “I came here to ask you the same question, actually. Do you have any idea what I’ve been doing for almost two hours?!”
Just when I thought his eyes couldn’t get any wider, they grew again. His face went white, matching the color of his baggy t-shirt. “!” he exclaimed in English. “Oh my God, our, our—”
I needed him to shut up. I couldn’t handle hearing his voice right now. “You made a promise, Byunghun,” I was shouting louder than I ever had before. “A promise! Does that mean anything to you? You promised you’d take me on a real date. You were the one that made plans to go to the movies today at two! Remember that? I certainly did! And I’ve been waiting over an hour for you to come! I bought tickets and everything! I sat outside in the freezing cold wondering why the hell you weren’t there!”
“Kirin, I’m so sorry, I—”
“Shut up!” I screamed. “You’re not sorry!”
“Yes I am! Kirin I’m sorry!” He glanced desperately at Chanhee. “Can you give us a moment?”
Chanhee’s eyes were the size of bowling balls. He nodded nervously and backed away, taking off down the hallway.
I was shaking out of control. Byunghun reached out to grab my shoulders to steady me but I slapped his hands away; he was shocked. “Kirin, please calm down, okay, I know I made a huge mistake, but if we can just talk—”
“You wanna talk? Go right ahead and talk, Byunghun. I would love to hear what fantastic excuse you have for completely ditching me at the movies today!”
Byunghun’s hands flew to his head and he tugged on his pink locks, groaning in frustration. “God, Kirin, ’m so sorry, really, I am. We had practice today and it went way longer than I expected and there was just a lot of stuff Andy-sunbae wanted to go over with us, and we even started talking already about our summer comeback and…and…” he closed his eyes and sighed. “I was just really busy.”
I bit my lip and nodded, trying to hold back more tears from escaping my eyes. “That’s what I thought,” I practically whispered.
Byunghun’s face softened. “No, Kirin, don’t…don’t think that I…”
“You forgot about me,” I answered softly.
Byunghun let out a sigh. He closed his eyes. “You know I didn’t mean to…”
I tried to take a deep breath, but my lungs were locked. He had forgotten all about our date, and all about me. His life was so busy, so complicated, and it was finally catching up to him. Eight months ago, Byunghun and I met. It was only a matter of time before we had fallen for each other. It sounded crazy, a celebrity dating a non-celebrity, but we tried anyway. I don’t know how, but something magical happened. We fell crazily in love even though the odds were against us. We went weeks without seeing each other, but those weeks only made us stronger. I thought we could withstand anything. I thought we were invincible.
But who were we kidding?
Byunghun was still talking, but I had completely tuned him out. “…and I swear I’ll do anything to make it up to you. You name it, anything at all! Look, ‘Supa Luv’ promotions are coming to an end soon, so I’ll have way more free time than I do now. Remember that summer we met? We can relive it, Kirin! We can spend all day together just like we used to, just you and me. Doesn’t that sound great? We can definitely go on a real date then, I promise! And this time I swear to God I’ll—”
I couldn’t stand listening to him. It was just one lie after another and I knew it. Maybe Byunghun meant well, but I was in no mood to tolerate this. I had to make this stop.
I had to make us stop.
“Byunghun!” I cried suddenly, cutting him off. “It’s time to face the facts, alright?! Who are we kidding? We were never destined to work out!”
“What? No!” Byunghun cried desperately, his wide eyes filled with dread. “No, Kirin, don’t talk like that!”
"Byunghun! Wake up from your little fantasy, alright? Open your eyes! It’s pretty obvious that we weren’t going to work out--” “Kirin, stop, what on earth are you talking about?” Byunghun said.
“You know exactly what I’m saying, and I know it!” I cried, almost letting the tears spill.
“No, Kirin, I really don’t, what on earth are you saying? Huh?” he exclaimed, breathing heavily.
“Byunghun you know what I’m talking about!” I cried back.
Byunghun scanned my face, looking deep into my eyes. I watched his eyebrows scrunch together. “No, Kirin, I don’t know, so just spit it out!”
“We shouldn’t be together anymore!” I shouted to his face.
Byunghun shook his head from side to side, his eyes filled with horror. “Kirin, what on earth is making you think like that?”
“Because obviously you have no time for me! Don’t even deny it, Byunghun, you just admitted you completely forgot about me today!”
“Kirin, I said I was sorry a million times! I was just a little busier than usual today—”
“Yes, Byunghun, and I get it. You’re a celebrity. And I’m just a random, average girl—”
“You’re not just a random girl to me, Kirin! You’re way more than that and you know that!”
I looked into his eyes, but all I saw was darkness. “Really, Byunghun, really? ‘Cause to be perfectly honest, sweetheart, I don’t know if I believe that anymore.”
“What the , Kirin? Why the would you say that?” Byunghun was never one to shout. He never, ever raised his voice at me before. He’s cursed in front of me, but never to me, especially not in an angry way. Never the f-word. It pissed me off even more that he’d do that to me.
“Don’t you DARE say that word to me!” I yelled angrily.
“Well, you’re really pissing me off right now!” Byunghun spat back.
“Oh, well, I’d hate to make a freaking Prince like you angry! My bad!” I barked.
Byunghun let out a loud grunt of frustration and hit the wall with his fist. “Why are you suddenly being like this?”
I crossed my arms. “Sorry, I’m just a little bit bitter because you broke a promise three times and then stood me up on our date today!”
“I get it, I get that you’re mad at me, but you don’t have to act like such a…”
I raised an eyebrow. “A what?”
“You know!” Byunghun taunted, the way I had taunted him.
“No, Byunghun, I don’t know.” I glared at him. “Spit it out.”
“A !”
My eyes widened. “Excuse me?” I uncrossed my arms, my body temperature rising quickly. “What did you just call me?”
“A , Kirin, a !” he said, inches away from my face. “Don’t you understand my life is complicated enough? Newsflash, I’m an idol, and I have a life. And it doesn’t always revolve around you.”
I felt myself stop breathing for a moment. My lungs literally would not let me inhale oxygen, or even exhale, for the matter. I felt a brigade of tears well up in my eyes and a lump form in my throat. I blinked and swallowed them away, suddenly teething with anger.
“What do you want me to say, Byunghun?” I cried desperately. “Sorry I can’t understand your busy life? Sorry I’m your girlfriend?...Sorry I’m not an idol?”
His eyes squinted. “You know that’s not what I meant—”
“Then what did you mean? Huh?” I cried, my face inches away from his. I looked up at him with scared, furious, wide eyes. He looked down at me with eyes equally as full of emotion. We stared at each other for a while, trying to read each other like we always do, scanning each other’s faces for a trace of familiarity. But I’d never seen Byunghun so mad before. He’d never raised his voice at me. He’d never cursed at me like this. He’d never not told me he loved me and that his life didn’t revolved around me. I looked deep into his almond-shaped eyes but found nothing even remotely familiar. I felt like I wasn’t looking at Byunghun; I felt like I was looking at L.Joe.
What was happening to us?
I let out a sigh. “You know what? I’m done,” I replied bitterly, breathing heavily.
My blood was boiling and my heart was beating so fast I felt like I couldn’t control myself at all. All I knew was, I would not cry again. I refused to cry. If anyone was going to cry, it would be Byunghun. I knew this was coming. I knew I should have prepared myself for this the moment we set out eyes on each other, the moment we had decided we wanted each other in our lives, the moment we fell for each other. I shouldn’t have fallen for it. Byunghun was just a smooth-talking, charming celebrity who was too busy to have a relationship. That’s all he was ever destined to be to me. An idol. Nothing more. How silly of us to think we could actually pull something like this off. How silly of me always think it was okay to put our relationship on the back burner and torture myself by going weeks without seeing him. Was that fair to do to myself? Did I really have to stand back and act like he was a stranger to me, and I was just another admirer? It was better for both of us to just accept that that was all I was ever destined to be.
Byunghun’s fierce, angry eyes suddenly softened. He reached up his hand to softly touch my face. “No, Kirin, no, I didn’t mean what I just said! We can work this out...”
I slapped his hand away. “Byunghun, it’s time to face it, alright!?” I cried, frustrated. I dropped my head and said softly, “We should have known we weren’t guaranteed a happy ending.”
He blinked, shocked. “So that’s it?” he cried, throwing his hands up. “We’re just done? After everything we’ve been through?”
I nodded my head sadly, my eyes fixed on his, which were welling up with tears. I said softly, “You and I both know its better this way.”
Frustrated, Byunghun let out a long, bitter sigh. I saw a tear slide out of his eye. “Fine. If that’s the way you want it, then fine. We’re done. Get out of my life, and I’ll get out of yours.” Angrily, he wiped his eyes, grunting. He stumbled backwards a little and shot me a glare of both resentment and regret. “Are you happy now?” he hissed, right before he trudged away, his steps heavy.
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