Chapter 8

 

St. Pancras International Station

2:30 PM

 

Mark was unable to hold his mixed feelings; he definitely did not imagine Herin would go this far for him. But, at the same time he is also worried that he might disappoint her if she goes on this trip with him when she could have spent her time with her childhood friends.

 

“Calling for passengers for Paris, you may board the train now” the announcement echoes throughout the station, interrupting Mark’s train of thoughts.

 

“What are we waiting for, let’s go!” Herin grabs Mark’s left arm and Mark snatched his handbag from the ground and let himself being dragged to board the train.

 

Still trying to process the situation, Mark finally found himself sitting right next to Herin in 2-seater seat arrangements and a big window next to Herin.

 

“Do you have any bags? Let me put that on the top storage” Mark finally speaks out.

 

“No, I don’t have any” Herin puts her passport back in her small sling bag.

 

Mark snaps his head to look at Herin and gapes at her, “Seo Herin, you’re one mad woman”

 

Herin laughs heartily as a sign of agreement, “I actually can’t believe I’m here either”

It was true, Herin never thought she would do something so spontaneous, or shall you say, crazy.

 

“What can you even fit in that small bag?” Mark points her tiny bag.

 

“Just my phone, my passport, and card holder. All the necessities for me to survive anywhere” She shrugs in response, then she looks at Mark who still has his mouth wide open.

 

Herin can’t help but laugh at this comic reaction and lightly slaps his jaw back up to its place.

 

“That’s why we’re going shopping later and you can’t complain about it, I’ll bite you even if you say a single word of complaint”, she jokingly states.

 

The train finally departs, and the food and beverage cart made their way on the aisles.

 

“Anything you want? Coffee or cake?” Mark asks, as he’s the one sitting in the aisle seat.

 

“I would not ever reject coffee” Herin answers, still looking at the scenery through her window.

Mark chuckles, he feels the same way.

 

Herin and Mark then proceeds to talk about their love for coffee. Mark learns that Herin is lactose intolerant, so she only drinks oat milk. Herin was also stunned that Mark had not drink a sip of coffee though out his vacation, because he wants a break from it. He is usually filled 70% coffee in his system to keep him awake during his unforgiving schedules.

 

“Isn’t it funny how we’re talking about coffee right now? Back then, we didn’t even drink coffee, we thought it was too grown up”

 

“Yeah, all we cared about was succeeding to bake that cake” Herin laughs remembering their attempt to bake cake and almost burned down the kitchen.

 

“Jaemin still clowns me to this day for it. Speaking of, Johnny and Jaehyun are really into coffee and wine these days. Johnny is the true master of coffee”

 

“Oh yeah, how are they doing?” Herin genuinely cares about the other NCT guys as well, they always treated her like older brothers. She remembers Jaehyun supported her a lot when she was too nervous before performing, and Johnny always bought her delicious cakes after hearing that she almost burned down the kitchen with Mark.

 

Herin does not really keep up with the groups after she left, sure she knows her sisters debuted in Red Velvet, including Yeri. But all she knew about NCT was that most of the SM rookies guys she knew debuted.

 

“Jaehyun, Johnny, and I are in the same unit. Let’s not bother talking about the units, I explained the distribution like a thousand times” Mark dramatically rolls his eyes.

“Jaehyun is now MC-ing at Inkigayo, Johnny has his own vlogging series called JCC. You know, he’s really manifesting his vlogger potential.”

 

Herin claps, “I can totally see him doing that!”

 

Mark learns that Herin has not given up on music, which he is especially delighted about. She has too much potential to not do anything related to music.

 

“I write songs in my free time, I also have my own YouTube channel to document my daily life. A lot of people have been requesting me to do a cover or a song on my channel, but it’s too much of a burden for now, you know” Herin shares.

 

Mark nods understandingly, he understands how she might be feeling. As someone who’s been introduced and has performed before, people would have certain expectations of Herin judging from her past performances. Performing an original song is a totally different challenge on its own as well.

 

“Can I maybe see some of your work? It’s totally okay if you don’t want me to” Mark questions.

 

Herin thinks for a moment before taking out a small notepad from her bag, “I don’t have anything to show you now, but I keep this small notepad with me all the time because I don’t know when I’ll get any inspiration”

 

“It’s really nothing. You probably won’t even understand a single thing I wrote in there”, she shyly hands him the notepad.

 

Mark senses how insecure she is about her work and he wants to help her in any way he could as he carefully reads her handwriting on the pages. He could tell that she has not lost her touch, and that her work definitely has great potentials.

 

He believes in her and he wants her to believe in herself as well.

 

Herin feels silly for feeling so nervous as she watches Mark reading and flipping through the pages. She feels as if she’s going through the monthly trainee evaluation in front of the coaches and Lee Soo Man all over again.

 

Mark catches her fidgety fingers from the corner of his eyes and looks up to meet her eyes.

 

“Hey, relax. It’s just me, I’m not Lee Soo Man”, he plays one of his signature grin as he put his hand over her smaller ones before continuing to read.

 

Herin nods and calms down a bit at Mark’s reassuring remarks.

 

Mark unconsciously hums a melody as he reads her lyrics, which intrigues and catches Herin’s ears. The melody was everything she had been searching for, she had it in her imagination but can’t pinpoint what she was missing until she heard Mark’s hum.

 

“That’s it” Herin blurts.

 

“Huh?” Mark looks up at her. “Oh sorry, did I say or hum something? It’s a habit”

 

“I think you have a theme from all your writing, you just need to make it head towards that direction”, Mark channels his musician side and gives a genuine advice.

“I could be totally wrong but I think I see a theme”

 

“What is it?” Herin anticipates if he’s going to see what she’s envisioning.

 

“Wonderlust”

 

She could not believe her ears as soon as she heard that word come out of his mouth. That was exactly it, the theme she wants to convey through her work but too scared to say it with her own mouth just in case people do not catch it.

 

 

 

“He understands me”

 

 

 

 

 

 

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