Chapter 12 – Admissions & Confessions

HIM

About a week later, we were spending the day at SM for a meeting and some interviews, but the meeting had been delayed, and the interviews weren’t until the afternoon, so we were stuck killing time there until things could move forward.

[Good morning! ^_^ ]

[I hope today is not too crazy. Fighting!!]

My phone buzzed as a text from Sora came through. I perked up, seeing her name flash on my screen, but put the phone back down nonchalantly as I caught Suho giving me a side look from across the table. Then I crossed my arms and laid my head over them, pretending to sleep. I was pretty tired, so just the act of closing my eyes quickly made me start drifting away. Even the noise from D.O. and Baek who were harping away, playing some game next to me didn’t bother me that much…

“It’s my turn! Come on!” whined, Baekhyun, next to D.O. who was holding the PSP at arm’s length, out of his reach. But then the younger boy did catch it, and pulled it out of his hyung’s hands with a victorious tug, smacking me on the arm with it in the process, and pulling me out of my drowsy state.

“Argh! What are you doing?!” I grumbled, startled, and in pain.

“Omg hyung! I’m soooo sorry” mumbled, Baekhyun, his face dropping in genuine disbelief at what he’d just done.

“It’s fine,” I waved him off, rubbing my arm. I grabbed my phone and looked at the time. It was 9:48am. “How much longer is this gonna be?” I asked our manager, who was on the phone with someone so he just shrugged, giving me a I-don’t-know-anymore-than-you-do look. I sighed, standing up, and announced I was going to the bathroom.

On the way there, I replied to Sora’s message, saying it was really boring because our meeting was delayed and we were basically just trapped there until the execs decided to show up, and was surprised when I got an instant reply.

[Aren’t you in class?] I mailed her back.

[No, I’m not teaching 2^nd period ^_^]
 

[Care to keep me company til my meeting starts?]

[Sure. ^_^ for the next 40 minutes, anyways]

I smiled and looked around for a place where I could chat with her without having to worry about someone reading my texts over my shoulder. I finally settled on another meeting room, two doors down, which had some plush couches around a coffee table in a corner. I plopped down on one of them and started texting away.

I didn’t really notice time fly by, and I was so engrossed in the conversation with Sora that I didn’t even hear the door open and close. And it wasn’t until a shadow fell onto the screen of my phone that I looked up to realize all 9 members of my team were standing around me with somber expressions of their faces. My face fell instantly. What the heck was wrong? Was I in trouble? Did someone die? ‘omg, is that why the meeting’s delayed?!’ I thought, in a moment of panic, but then shook myself, thinking I was overreacting.

“What’s going on?” I asked no one in particular, shifting eyes from one stern face to another.

“This is an intervention” said Suho, as if it was very difficult for him to say.

“A what?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“An intervention” repeated Chen, and I was really confused until I saw him bite his lip, as he tried really hard not to crack up. And then he plopped down on the couch next to me, saying, “We demand to know who your new girl is!”

And at that, all the members lost their and broke into laughter, pointing at my confused face and shaking me by the shoulders cuz I’d fallen for it.

“Waae! That’s not funny!!!” I retorted, as Chen slapped my back and laughed more.

“Seriously though, stop lying! We know something’s up! Who is she??” asked Tao, sitting on the couch’s armrest on my other side.

I looked at them, considering, and decided there was no point in going behind their backs, really, so I just told them. I said Sora was my high school sweetheart and that I’d recently gotten back in touch with her, and that yes, I really did like her a lot, but didn’t want to jinx it so that’s why I hadn’t said anything.

“Oooh…” cooed Baek, like a 5 years old, and D.O. smacked him on the head, laughing.

“So can you guys please not rush to conclusions?” I asked them, with what I hoped came off as an honest smile.

“Okay, Minnie… if you say so…” said Chanyeol, still chuckling.

“Thanks.”

HER

[Sorry, my members were harassing me. You still there?]

I only saw the message when I came back from teaching 3^rd period and chuckled, reading his excuse for why he had suddenly stopped replying in the middle of our conversation earlier.

[Harassing you?]

[Yeah. It’s kind of embarrassing… haha]

[What are they like? Is it weird being with those people all the time?]

[Wae, don’t say “those people”! They are like my family! We’ve lived together for 5 years, you know??]

[You have?! Wow, I didn’t know!]

[lol]

[What’s it like?]

I heard the bell ring. I’d been so engrossed in the conversation that I’d barely noticed the 10 minute break fly by and now I had to run to class. I was reluctant to leave and wanted to talk more, but of course, I had to go.

When I returned to my desk, an hour later, there were 22 new messages from Minseok. Twenty-two, lol. So I read through them while eating lunch. It was almost like reading a novel. He talked about all of s, and indeed, it did seem as if he was talking about a group of annoying little brothers, or friends whom he dearly loved. It made me feel a little closer to him to hear him talk about them like that, and made me understand his situation a little better. Once I’d finally gotten through the whole thing, I replied that they sounded really nice and I’d love to meet them, but I guess his meeting had finally started since I didn’t get a reply from him til several hours later.

***

“Sorry I’m late!” I apologized as I slid onto the stool next to Woojin at the bar.

It was Friday night so I’d let her rope me into going out for drinks, but I’d let so much stuff pile up at work that I couldn’t leave on time for the appointed meeting.

“It’s cool. I got your text. And Youngjae here has been keeping me company,” she said, winking at the cute guy behind the bar who smiled back as he wiped a glass dry with a towel.

I rolled my eyes at her, secretly envying the natural ease with which she just flirted with anyone, and ordered a drink.

“You look nice” she said, eyeing me up, “did you go home and change?”

“What? No! I told you I was grading papers til just now!”

“Hmm…” she stirred her drink pensively, “really? You went to work like that?” and pointed to sleeveless burgundy dress, which was admittedly, very form fitting, but it was totally work-appropriate with a jacket thrown over it; which is what I replied to her, making her chuckle.

“Are you trying to seduce that hot teacher still?” she smirked at me.

“What?! No!” I retorted, red rising to my cheeks and she laughed.

“So who are you dressing up for, then? You didn’t use to wear dresses this often before… and I swear you’re looking prettier than normal… did you curl your hair???”

I rolled my eyes at her interrogation, but cringed when she mentioned the hair. I had to admit I had started paying more attention to my appearance recently. And I think we all know what the reason was… even though I felt rather stupid for all the effort I was putting in… After all, it had already been two weeks since I’d even seen Min Seok – and that was just the one time.

“Can’t I just want to look good for no reason?” I asked, innocently.

“Nope” she smirked, popping an olive into .

“So if it’s not Hot Teacher then, who’s he?”

I made an annoyed face at her.

“Come on! We’re friends!!!” she pleaded, draping an arm over my shoulder and hugging me close.

I laughed and pushed her away but she could not be deterred. So I ended up telling her, I’d “accidentally bumped into” my old high school boyfriend and we’d been swapping mails ever since.

“Ooooooh!!!” she cooed excitedly, clapping her hands, “tell me more! What’s his name? What’s he do? Is he cute? You got a picture??”

Outwardly I laughed at her outburst, but I cringed on the inside. There was no way I could tell her the truth about Minseok, so I said he was a salaryman and I didn’t have his photo.

“Shame…” she said, with a disappointed look.

“And I haven’t even been seeing him at all. Yeah, it’d be nice but… at this point, we’re just texting… he’s very busy…”

“Ah yeah,” she nodded knowingly, “dating a salaryman …”

I suppressed a chuckle. Dating an idol more.

Though we weren’t really dating… right?