Despite trying to tell herself otherwise that night at work Summer couldn’t help but be a bundle of nerves.  She wished she could forget all about the instances of the last twenty-four hours and not spend her entire shift running over all the conversations.  Repeatedly she told herself Mei’s words were a joke, and yet the little voice in her head couldn’t seem to stop asking her what if?  What if that was the reason Junhoe had apologised?  Was she supposed to pretend being oblivious?  Even without the disagreement with her best friend earlier she was on edge about the possibility of seeing the boy.  After all, she had yet to receive resolution on how he would act after the apology.  The combination of everything had turned her into a jittery mess and even after she had been chewed out by Heejin she was struggling to keep her mind on the task and do a decent job.

She had been hoping that she would manage to steer clear of iKON tonight, but after another instance of zoning out she hadn’t even packed up her trolley when the studio door opened.  It was exactly who she didn’t want to see, and she froze as Junhoe idly kicked the door shut behind him.  Summer had no idea what to expect, but when she received no more than a glance of recognition in place of a greeting, she forced herself to take a breath and continue collecting her items.  It was hard to say whether it was just her that felt the thickness of the silence, but she found she was actually glad when the door opened again and Bobby entered.

“Yah June, Hanbin’s going to the studio and Donghyuk’s doing private vocal practice, so it’ll just be the rest of us.  Oh, hello noona,” he spoke, grinning when he spotted her and Summer nodded her head in response, continuing to shuffle along.  Unfortunately her body was yet to communicate with her mind amidst all the internal conflict and it seemed the extra movement was too much, causing her to drop everything she held in her hands.  

Even as she bent down to pick everything up with a blush, Bobby was moving to help.  It only caused her to darken in colour and she kept her eyes downcast as she took the items he handed her, muttering a thank you.  “Are you okay?  You look exhausted and unwell.  Have you gotten sick?”

“You mean she doesn’t look that bad all the time?”  Junhoe’s comment cut in before she could form her response and even as Bobby was chiding the younger member Summer felt herself relaxing properly.  It was clear that despite his words the previous night Junhoe had no intention of treating her any differently, and the idea that Mei had tried to plant in her head seemed suddenly laughable.

“Wow, I must look terrible if an idol’s saying that.  I’m okay, just stressed with everything going on right now,” she replied, not failing to notice the way the youngest raised his brows as if to question her schedule in the presence of them.

“Are you sure?  Did you trip again?  You have a bruise on your forehead,” Bobby continued to question worriedly and Summer felt several different things at once.  One was a warmth at the fact that Bobby was standing in front of her genuinely worrying over her, another was embarrassment over the memory of her first meeting of the idols, and another was a smugness of knowing where it had come from as she raised her eyes to look at Junhoe.

“No, that was from a rogue flying shoe,” she answered, and if the rapper noticed her pointed look he didn’t draw it to light.  Junhoe however, seemed to grow uncomfortable under the gaze and she felt satisfaction from watching him squirm and search around for somewhere else to move.  Summer’s gaze was snapped away again by the movement of Bobby as he bent down, picking up a lump of paper that was on the ground and revealing it to be a pamphlet.

“What’s this?”

“That, is the source of my stress,” she announced as he unfolded it, his brows furrowing together as his eyes scanned the page.  “Work placement.  That’s the original one, it’s my job to partake in a revamp and translate it.”

Even Junhoe moved to join now, reading over Bobby’s shoulder and both of them looked thoroughly confused as he lifted a finger and pointed it at the page.  “That’s not even a real word.”

“You should see the original translation.  I’m also pretty sure they haven’t updated it since the nineties,” she said, moving closer to the pair and pointing out the image of a man standing in front of an old house dressed entirely in denim.  “I’ve suggested they at least take one of their phones and get some new pictures.”

“Or maybe denim on denim will make a comeback,” Junhoe commented and Summer looked at him incredulously.

“Well go on then, everyone knows idols have weight in trending fashions.”

“Please, I could so pull that off.”

Before any further retorts could be made Bobby cleared his throat, folding the pamphlet back up and holding it out for Summer to take.  She did so, returning it to the pocket it had fallen out of and he gave another smile.  “Well we’re going to be flying in and out of Japan a lot from next week for concerts, so this room won’t need much cleaning.”

“Thanks for the kind thoughts, but if that’s the case the pamphlet will be done just as you leave,” she said, pulling a face as she did so.  It would have been nice if they had coincided as such so Summer could spent the extra time working on it, but she reminded herself she had to be thankful that she was getting anything lessened.  At least for that week it would hopefully be easier to keep up with her regular studies.

The mention of concerts struck her though and even as she dumped the cleaning items in the trolley she turned back to the pair, training her gaze on Bobby.  “Speaking of concerts, you have one soon in Daegu don’t you?”

“Sure do, why?  You’re not thinking of coming are you?”

“I can’t, I gotta clean up after you lot,” she reminded him, sweeping her arms across the room as she did.  Of course she was meaning her job in general, after all iKON may not have needed the practice room on the night of the concert, but Winner and Akdong would still use theirs, not to mention the hallway and bathrooms.  “I was thinking of getting my best friend Mei a ticket though.  I know we missed Seoul’s concert and it’s a bit of a journey, but I owe her a thank you gift for putting up with my mostly absent self.”

“You should do it, and if you manage to get one close to the stage we’ll try and keep an eye out for her,” Bobby urged and she smiled at him, nodding.  There was strange glint in his gaze that made Summer feel almost uneasy, though she wasn’t about to question it, especially when he turned to Junhoe and inclined his head towards the computer inbuilt into one of the walls.  

Collecting the last of her belongings she made to farewell them, Bobby giving her a distracted wave while Junhoe simply ignored her.