My phone pinged. I cracked my eyes open. « I have a few drafts ready, if you wanna come over and look them over. » said Jason.

I groaned. « Alright. I’ll drop by in a bit. »

Our group chat had been active since I fell asleep. I spent a few minutes catching up on what had gone down. Thalia had gotten her father to get a shipment of some super trendy clothes, and even the greenlight to feature the future article on H&M’s platforms. Jenny had done some research on fashion articles in both English and Korean to highlight the difference in vocabulary and voice. She decided that she would write one of each, and hopefully H&M would share both. Hannah had borrowed some complimentary equipment from her department at school, and had started making a list of places to shoot.

I had a tough job. I needed to get Kyla here. I still had no idea how. I couldn’t think of anyone who could cover the flight. Even if, say, I dipped into my own savings to get her here, what excuse would I have? She was supposed to be busy preparing for debut. I started to think that maybe this was a bad idea.

‘No. It’s not. I can’t believe I never thought of this before.’ Alice was excited to explain. ‘What if I asked to take her there? What if I were going to be attending some sort of dance thing, and I came with her?’

Why would you only take her?

That seemed to trip her up. ‘Huh. I don’t suppose I could take them all.’

Probably not. But there are two American members of Pledis Girlz. You could make the argument that they might be best suited to help you give a class or something.

‘A class? Where will I host a class?’

I’ll try to find something.

In the meantime, I got dressed to go to Jason’s. Simon my face to tell me he wanted to be let out. I opened the back door and he frolicked in the yard.

I left and drove to their neighbourhood. Jenny swung the door open. “Hey, Josh!” she said.

Why was she doing this? Why was she pushing me away so fervently before, and suddenly being so warm now? Was she trying to confuse me?

“Hey, Jen.” I climbed up their front steps in a single stride and we walked in together. “How’s it going?”

“Good. And you? Have you had a chat with Alice?”

‘How does this random girl know me?’

Oh yeah, I forgot you missed that conversation. This is Park Jinhee, a friend of mine.

‘Park Jinhee, who is telepathically linked to Exo’s Kai?’

I narrowed my eyes. How the heck did you know that?

‘Sungkyung figured it out shortly after our link appeared. Just simple deduction, Joshua.’

Jenny was still waiting for an answer so I quickly said, “No, I haven’t.”

She waved a hand dismissively. “Don’t worry. I know what it means when you’re spaced out. I do that all the time.” We entered her room and sat down on the beds while we waited for Jason to come out of the bathroom.

“Right.” Yeah. Umm, Jinhee says you might be the reason I’ve been so tired ever since the link. Apparently your sleeplessness decided to affect me, too.

‘Oh . Sorry. Holy .’

It’s understandable why you can’t sleep so much though. You have so much to do in a day.

‘I’m going to have significantly less when I graduate in a month and a half. I promise to get a full night’s sleep then.’

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We both know you couldn’t sleep all night even if you really tried. Just… Maybe more than three hours a night?

Alice laughed. ‘Doable.’

“There. I’ve had the chat,” I said.

“Okay,” Jenny replied. “You don’t have to report to me. I’m not the boss of you.” She chuckled.

“Right.”

Jason came back. “Oh. Hey. Here to see the drafts?”

“Yeah. Let’s see how much your Korean has deteriorated.”

Jason laughed. “You wish. My Korean is spectacular.”

“That’s what I thought, too.” I took the papers from his hands and began to read. “I’m already gonna need a whole box of red pens.”

He gawked. “My Korean is good!”

***

Choi Minhyun began working the shift right before mine not long after his interview. I found out on the day I arrived early for once in my life. There were a few customers leaving as I walked in.

“Hey,” I greeted. “Used to the job yet?” I dropped my stuff on the ground behind the counter.

He smirked. “Yeah. Pretty much.”

“Cool. Whip me up a quick sundae? Neapolitan.” I stuck a lunch box in the walk-in fridge.

“What happened to your diet?” asked Mr Jung.

I shrugged. “Don’t you think I’m skinny enough?”

“Yes. Why do you think I’ve been making you taste test every new flavour for the past year and a half?” he quipped.

I elbowed him in the arm gently. “And I thought it was because you trusted my taste.”

I went back to the front and picked up my cup of ice cream. Minhyun was staring at the duffel bag on the ground. “It’s my dance stuff. Clothes, small samples of shampoo and body wash I’ve stolen from every hotel I’ve ever stayed at, notebook. Stuff like that.”

He laughed. “Oh wow. You’re a dancer, huh?”

I heaved myself up to sit on a table. “Yeah. You would have found out, if you had, oh I don’t know, bothered to text me.”

“Ooooh,” chimed in our boss from the back. “Dramaaaa.”

He scratched the back of his head. “Actually, the thing is… I lost the napkin.”

I laughed. “How?”

“Well, when I got home, I put it on my desk, and then went to the bathroom. When I got out of the bathroom, my mom sent me to throw the garbage down the chute. I got back, saw that my desk was empty. I asked my mom, and she told me she picked up every piece of trash in my room and threw it into the bag that I threw down the chute.”

“So you literally threw my number in the trash,” I teased.

He smiled sheepishly. “Yeah.”

“So, do you want my number again, or do you want to take the first try as a sign that this isn’t our fate and let it go?”

He wordlessly took out his phone, unlocked it, and handed it to me. I cocked up an eyebrow, and he said “Please?”

I texted myself from his phone, and saved my contact as “Neapolitan”.

He chuckled at the name. He looked up at me. “Is that what you said when you were getting your hair done?”

I held a strand. “Jeez, I haven’t had the time to redo my roots. I may as well just let it grow out at this point.”

“I like it. You’re really channelling the ice cream shop worker in you,” called Mr Jung.

I flipped my hair over my shoulder in mock overconfidence. “I’d like to see you try to rock Neapolitan hair as well as I do.”

“Minhyun, your shift is done, Alice is on the clock now. Stop flirting and let her get to work,” instructed Mr Jung.

“Yes, sir,” Minhyun answered.

“As if we can’t multitask,” I called towards the back. To Minhyun, I said, “Hey, don’t forget to write in the cashbook.” He stared at me blankly, so I asked, “Did no one teach you how to write in the cashbook?” He shook his head. “Okay, come here, I’ll show you.” I explained what all the columns meant, because we had gotten rid of column headers a few months ago. We were just so used to not needing them that we just skipped the part where we’d write them on the top of the page. I took the time to actually write them in for Minhyun’s sake.

“Thanks,” he said, when we were done. “I swear, I will text you later.”

“As long as you don’t up and lose your phone this time,” I said with a wink.

He point