"I'm a mothering idiot."

Oh yes, you are, his mind echoed back his spoken words to his reflection in the mirror. He watched as a lone drop of water tracked down his nose and fell into the sink below; Seunghyun literally went to splash cold water on his face as a reality check. He had a girlfriend. Yet he just told another girl he was single and had been single for a while. my life, he thought. Did this make him a cheater by default? He thought for a few more seconds and wagered that no, he wasn't. And he had no intentions of becoming one either. His phone buzzed and a message notification from Jiyong displayed. 

    "I'm awake now, what's up."

Seunghyun had immediately sent a message to his longtime friend. He had to run this whole thing by someone and Jiyong was going to be that person. He called out to his girlfriend, still asleep in bed.  

"Minhee. Minhee," He raised his voice when he didn't respond the first time, "I have to see Jiyong about some stuff. I'll be back in a few hours."
Minhee rustled under the blankets, and finally poked her face from under them. She grumbled a half awake reply, and laid back on the pillows with her eyes closed. It was always something with Jiyong or his other bandmates, and it pissed her off for the most part. They got to see her boyfriend more than she herself did. Seunghyun came over and placed a kiss on her cheek and rustled her hair with a smile before pulling on a hoodie and face mask. 
~~~~~

Jiyong stared blankly at his bandmate. He blinked, and furrowed his brow as he listened. Oh, he knew who this girl was. Or who Seunghyun said she used to be when they were younger. He had heard about this Bora girl a few times over the years but they all thought Seunghyun was over it when he started dating Minhee. He in a deep breath before speaking.

"I think you don't even know this girl anymore, so the idea of her in your mind is probably not who she is now."
"She seems the same."
"Seems." Jiyong stated, lighting a cigarette and taking a long drag. "Minhee finds out, she's gonna kill you, she's a jealous ."
Seunghyun jabbed a finger against his forehead out of frustration, "She is just an old friend."
Jiyong was shaking his head with an emphatic no, and exhaled a cloud of smoke. He kept shaking his head and waved his free hand to gesture a no as well. "Then why say you're single? You could have told your 'friend' that you have a girlfriend."
"I'm gonna clear that one up."
"One more thing, what exactly did you think would happen when she finds out about your girlfriend, and your job." Jiyong chuckled a tiny bit at the last word. 
Seunghyun was silent. 
"Lemme see her," Jiyong tapped the ash from his cigarette and finally rolled his eyes, "Don't tell me you didn't even get a current photo. How do you know it isn't Minhee testing you then?"

Seunghyun slid his phone across the table to Jiyong, screen unlocked and open to Rachel's photo. The leader took another drag, and studied the photo for a split second before raising his eyes up to Seunghyun and back to the photo one last time. He finally exhaled and sat the phone down infront of him with a devilish grin.

"You've got a pretty friend, hyung. Feel free to introduce me if she ever comes through."

Seunghyun laughed out loud, pocketing his phone. He knew jiyong's remark was harmless. There was no way in a frozen hell that Bora would be showing up here anytime soon. A knock on the door ended his laughter, followed by a second round of knocking. Jiyong stood up and made his way to the door. 

"Must be Seungri. He's early. We're discussing doing a collab." He said as he swing the door open to reveal a disheveled looking Seungri, rubbing his eyes.
He shoved past Jiyong, muttering apolpgies about being late. Jiyong shook his head, and Seungri plopped down beside Seunghyun, yawning. 

"Morning to you as well, sleeping beauty." Seunghyun stated, looking him up and down. He must've slept in those clothes. Ugh. The younger member shot him a sly smile. 

"Hyung, let me see that picture again. Come one." Jiyong motioned with wiggling fingers until Seunghyun handed it over once more. Seungri suddenly looked more alert, leaning forward to try and glimpse the phone's screen. Jiyong saved him from breaking his neck by shoving the screen a few inches from his face. He stubbed out his cigarette and asked the maknae if he knew this girl. Seungri shook his head but grabbed the phone, pinching and zooming on the photo.

"Damn if I wouldn't like to know her, though. I'd fu-"
Seunghyun shoved him and shot him a hard look. "If you don't shut up with that I'll slap you."
"Relax, hyung. You know her or something?"
"She's his buddy from high school." Jiyong answered for him. Seungri gave them both a whatever look, and glanced back at the phone. Buddy had sent Seunghyun a message. he tapped to open it. "She also doesn't know he has a girlfriend, or who TOP is.....not yet, anyway."
~~~~~

One month later

All Seunghyun knew was that if Minhee tried to go through his one more time, he would completely lose it on her. He was tired of her childish attempts to break the passwords on both his phone and laptop. All it managed to do was freeze either device til the correct code was entered. It was his fault, though. He had told her if she could manage it, then she could check all of whatever she came across. She said she thought he was hiding something. But this had also been a running theme of her's since day 1. 

"But you are technically hiding something," Jiyong had reminded him a few days ago, "Someone's gonna get hurt. Probably you. Physically."

"I don't want you to go to Los Angeles! We don't see each other enough, we've been together six months and I bet we've spent less than half that together." Minhee said in a annoyed voice. He could see the displeasure written all over her face. He kept her calm by telling her that it was for the K-CON concert. And truthfully, that was the reason after all. He just hadn't told her that he was leaving 4 days early, without his band mates, tonight. Minhee was busy trying to work on her own debut so even if she complained and seemed fixated on this for now, tomorrow would be another story completely. He hoped. 
~~~~~

There was no way possible she would tell Christina where she was going. Rachel watched the seemingly endless desert road stretch out behind her rearview mirror with the cityline of Los Angeles in the distance front of her. Her room mate would have wanted to be her sidekick in all of this since she grew up in Los Angeles, and while that usually would have been more than welcome, Rachel really wanted to just not involve anyone in anything right now. She told Christina she was driving up to Colorado to visit her parents. 

Her phone chimed, and scared her out of her thoughts.

    "Layover in Honolulu then straight to Los Angeles ^^"

She sent back a one handed reply as she drove on the desolate road with her address and room number as a joke.

    "If you can find it, feel free to just show up after you arrive. If not just call."

She knew Seunghyun wouldn't be able to find it because, well, she just didn't think he would bother findind his way out to east Los Angeles to be honest. She was going to drive the last hour of the trip, check into her hotel and take a nap until her phone woke her up again.
 

(*** Enjoy guys, I felt it was best to fast forward some versus slow plot build, so any flashbacks leading up to this will be noted ^^***)