Chapter 8 – Luck is a fickle thing

HIM

The next week went by in a flash. We were really busy, with lots of promos for our new song and there was literally no down time at all. I never even had time to schedule a meeting with ReAh. She’d mailed me to apologize, of course, but I knew in my heart that we were done and that it was pointless. I told her I’d be really busy and would mail her when I got back. I knew it was bad to stall, but I didn’t want to break up with her over the phone.

We even spent 3 days in China, and the schedules there are always busiest for me since EXO-M is suddenly thrown at the forefront. My Chinese has gotten slightly better over the last 2 years, but it’s still a little gut-wrenching to be expected to be cute, funny and talented in a language that is not the one you were born speaking. I know they have translators there for us, but still… Being busy was good though. It prevented me from thinking too much about the things that were bothering me.

We had come back to Korea last night, and today was the first day in a looong time where we didn’t have any promo schedules. Just meetings in the morning and a dinner with some SM bigshots later tonight. So in the afternoon, we all split up into little groups to do our own things. Baek, Chanyeollie and Lay went to the studio to work on new songs, while Kai and Sehun set-up in one of the conference rooms upstairs to study Chinese. Tao, D.O. and Suho went to the studio to practice dancing, but I didn’t feel like joining them so I decided to hit the gym instead. It felt really good to work up a sweat, but I couldn’t forget my troubles the way I did while dancing.

I couldn’t stop thinking about Sora.

HER

Exam week was finally over!!! Aah… well, actually, exam “week” was only 3 days, followed by one day of intense grading, followed by a celebratory (and unfortunately mandatory) teacher’s party at a local bar, where everyone tends to get really drunk and things can get super awkward… Which was the reason why my head was throbbing so badly this morning. Why they have to have those parties on weeknights, I’ll never understand…

I sat at my desk rubbing my temples. At least I had a free period now, which was a small comfort. When I opened my eyes, there was a hand in front of me, offering me two little white pills. I looked up to see Kim Daeyong smiling at me from atop his glasses.

“Go on,” he said, “take them. You’ll feel better.”

I gave a little nod and took the pills, popping them in my mouth and washing them down with a few sips of cold tea.

“Thanks” I offered him a smile. Or at least I tried.

“Last night was pretty intense, huh?” I nodded, not really feeling up to friendly co-worker chat at the moment. I fussed with a few papers in front of me to try and look busy. Lucky for me, the bell rang just then and he had class so he had to go.

“I hope you feel better soon!” he said, patting my shoulder, and I thanked him again.

Urgh. I put my head on the desk, once I was sure he was gone. ‘Intense’ is not really the word I would have used to describe last night. I could think of a few better ones like ‘awkward’ and ‘uncomfortable’ and ‘one-of-the-top-10-places-where-I’d-rather-not-be-right-now.’ Eh. The principal tried to get me drunk, and of course when the principal fills your cup, you have to drink… and Kim Daeyong, in his chivalrous attempts to try and “save” me, just came off as sticky and a little too friendly.

As the minutes passed, I did slowly start to feel better though, and silently thanked him for the medicine. Once I could start focusing again, I got my things ready for the next lesson, and I was pretty much functional by the time the bell the 4^th period rung.

HIM

“What’s up, Baozi?”

Hearing his cheerful voice on the other end of the line nearly made me want to cry.

“Luhan!!” I called out, as if my voice could act as invisible arms to reach across the millions of miles that separated us and wrap around his shoulders in a big hug. I missed him so much it was actually, physically, painful.

He laughed.

“I hope I’m not bothering you?”

It was me who had called him. I was the first one back at the dorm after I’d finished at the gym, and since I was going out of my mind with the weight of my girl troubles, I decided to call the only person who really understood me.

“Oh no, it’s cool. I’m on break. They’re shooting a scene I’m not in right now so we’re good.”

“Oh good” I sighed with relief.

Luhan used to be a member of EXO as well. We were best friends – closer than brothers, really... But he left suddenly last year. Because we were so close, I was the one who was the least surprised when he decided to leave. But I was also the one it had hurt the most.

“So what’s on your mind?” he asked me.

I had planned to ask him about ReAh first, but those were not the words that came out of my mouth. I told him about Sora, and how I’d found out she was working nearby and it was driving me slightly crazy. I could tell him those things because he actually knew about Sora. We had been trainees together when I first joined SM, and he had been the one to pick up the pieces after she’d left me. Honestly, I expected him to say that I should just forget about it, but of course, he was more considerate than I’d given him credit for.

“So go talk to her” he told me, after I’d unloaded my entire story.

“Go talk to her?” I repeated.

“Yeah. If it’s stressing you out this much, just go meet her. Say ‘hi. How have you been?’ It doesn’t have to be a big deal.”

His words made so much sense, I wondered why I hadn’t thought of that myself. I nodded, not realizing he couldn’t see me, so he went on.

“She was an important person to you. It’s normal that you feel curious. It doesn’t mean that anything will happen. You’re both adults now. Go talk to her if it’s bothering you so much.”

“You’re right” I said, feeling instantly better.

I heard someone shout something in Chinese in the background, followed by his shouted response, before he came back saying “hey, Min Seok, break’s over. I gotta go.”

“Oh no, I understand. Thanks for talking to me, Lu.” I told him.

“Anytime, little one.”

“I miss you.”

“Me too.”

And then I heard the click that meant he’d hung up. I let out a deep breath, feeling better than I had in a long time.

HER

By the end of the day, I was feeling like myself again, so I’d agreed to meet Woojin for drinks in Hongdae after work. (I’d be drinking oolong tea though… my poor brain…)

Luckily, there wasn’t much to be done today so I could leave at a reasonably decent hour. It was 6pm now, and I was supposed to meet Woojin at 8:30, so that meant I had time to go home and change before going to meet her. Perfect!

I walked out of the school gates, waving at the old security guard at his desk as I passed him. He told me “thanks for your hard work” and I smiled back.

I hadn’t taken 5 steps away from the school that I heard someone call my name.

“Cheon-shi!” I turned around to see Mr. Kim jogging up to me.

‘Oh no…’ I thought, with an inner eye-roll, but I smiled at him. “Kim-shi”

“Shall we walk together?” he asked, falling in step next to me.

“You could leave earlier today” he went on, seeing as I wasn’t saying anything, “that’s great.” He flashed me a mouth full of teeth.

“Yes,” I nodded.

“Are you going home?”

“Ah, I’m going to meet a friend actually,” I told him.

“Is that so…” was it just me or did he sound disappointed?

“And you?” I asked, trying to keep the conversation going.

“Ah, I’m not sure!” he laughed, “I don’t really have any plans, but maybe I’ll see if some of my friends want to go out.”

“That sounds nice.”

And we just chatted casually like this until the station, where we split up since we were both going in opposite directions.

HIM

I looked at my watch, it was nearly 6pm. I still had about 2 hours before the company dinner, so I decided to borrow one of our managers’ cars and go see if I couldn’t meet with Sora. It wasn’t too late… maybe she was still at school.

When I got there I parked the car across the street, about a block away. I was close enough to have a good view of the front gate, but far enough that she wouldn’t be able to see me, when and if she got out. I felt a little bit like a creepy stalker, but I shoved the thought down, having been empowered by Luhan’s words.

It seemed that luck was on my side again, because not five minutes later, I saw her exit the gates. I got out of the car, quickly, and started walking in her direction, but quickly stopped.

“Cheon-shi!” someone had called.

She turned and I saw a tall man who looked about our age run up to her; she seemed to know him. She laughed at something he said and then they started walking together. Away from me.

I turned around and got into the car. Looks like luck was not with me after all.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Did you like my little XiuHan fanservice moment? XD I had fun writing it :p