CHAPTER 6

“Why is there a lacey bra in one of your luggage?” Minjae asked loudly as he rummaged through 2PM’s bags. The said bra was hanging delicately from Minjae’s index finger. It was black and elegant. The 2PM members looked at it in silent shock, all of them unable to move, speak, or blink.

Khun had no idea at first and just stood there, immobile. His eyes darted from the bra to Minjae, then back and forth. But then, slowly, he remembered. That cottage getaway with Victoria! He screamed in his head, and his facial expression changed 180 degrees. Junho noticed it immediately.

“Can I see it, hyung?” Junho smiled, approaching their baffled manager and took the bra from his grasp carefully like it was some piece of evidence not to be tampered with.

“This must be one of the coordinator noonas’ clothes that got mixed up with our stuff when we went to the MBC filming!” Junho exclaimed, side-eyeing Khun, who was now stiff and red in the ears.

“Oh right, everyone was in a hurry so it’s probably one of the make-up artists or the noonas who shared the dressing room with us.” Taecyeon joined in the make-believe skit to save Khun’s . Wooyoung got the point immediately and joined in for the amusement of looking at Minjae’s reactions.

“Definitely. I mean, only those who work in the entertainment industry would casually leave behind underwear that’s bought from VICTORIA’s Secret, right?” Wooyoung chimed, making sure the last part was more theatrical-sounding.

The other members restrained their laughter. Minjae stared at them for a good five seconds before finally gathering his confused thoughts.

“Whatever you kids are up to, I will find it out. But this will have to be…thrown out.” Minjae said, looking at the bra that Junho (who, by the way, was enjoying it) was holding.

“Yeah we’ll take care of it hyung! Don’t get bothered too much!”

“Yeah we’ll do it, you’re too busy already!”

The members swarmed and blocked Minjae, pushing him to the couch while Junho sneakily threw the bra at Khun, who immediately caught it and hid it under his shirt.

“Ya stop touching me! Stop it!” Minjae yelped as the muscled kids threw him down to the couch while showering him with brown-nosing comments like “Relax!” “You think too much, sleep!”

Meanwhile, Victoria was still in the practice room, sitting on the floor, reading Khun’s letter again and again. She was obviously very touched by his words and it was enough to reduce her anger towards him. But the precious moment was ruined almost immediately when Yoona walked in.

“Unnie!” she greeted brightly.

Victoria smiled in return as she hid the letter quickly. Yoona sat beside her and she seemed to look very bubbly and cheerful.

“Why are you so happy?” Victoria asked, looking at Yoona with bulbous eyes.

“Your virtual husband called me up. It actually surprised me. I thought he was just going to have small talk with me but he ended up asking me to go out for lunch sometime. Isn’t that weird?” she laughed, though clearly confused.

Victoria smiled. He probably did this out of anger from last night’s disagreement. If this was his way of letting his anger out on her, then she’ll play along with it. Truthfully, even if she wanted to, she could not develop hatred towards Yoona. She was, in fact, a good friend; someone she knew long before Khun came into her life. She was jealous of her yes, but she was not the type to get angry at someone who has done her nothing wrong.

“Yeah, he’s weird. So are you going out?” Victoria asked her.

“I don’t know yet. I told him I would love to, but I still have to check my schedule. Ah it feels weird. Even though you say it’s okay, I still feel weird talking about this with you.” Yoona said, quite embarrassed.

“No don’t be like this, it’s not like I’m his wife.” Victoria chuckled, slightly pushing Yoona.

They both just sat there for awhile, smiling and contemplating about one boy.

“Although, truthfully I get jealous sometimes you know. I mean, I feel like he’s a part of me now, we’ve been together for a long time and somehow there’s this motherly instinct in me that wants to keep him to myself, not wanting him to wander into someone else’s arms.” Victoria said in a semi-serious tone.

Yoona nodded as if she understood well.

“I see. I don’t even know him that much.” Yoona said as-a-matter-of-factly.

“But hear this. Once we’re done being married, if he’d ever have a change of heart, I’d want you to be his girl.” Victoria grinned, unforced and natural.

The two girls just exchanged smiles as they made a reasonable deal. Nothing was more special than two pop stars talking about love like ordinary, normal folk.

It was nearly 10pm when Khun’s phone rang. He was planning on calling her first, which is why he got quite a surprise when he saw her name on the screen. He was in his room, busy fixing his stuff for the schedule tomorrow.

“Hello?” he answered.

“I’m outside your door. Come out for a while.” Victoria said in a hushed voice.

Startled, Khun immediately sprinted out of his room and went for the door. He opened it and there she was indeed, phone in hand.

“Why are you here?” Khun asked, clearly taken aback by this surprise visit.

“I won’t be long, my manager is waiting in the van downstairs. I told him to give me at least 15 minutes.” She said, as Khun closed the door behind him.

“So, what’s up?” Khun said.

“I read your letter.”

“Oh.”

“It was beautiful.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. I also talked with Yoona today. Don’t think that I’m attacking you, I promise, I’m not.”

“Oh…”

“And I hear you’re taking her out to lunch?”

“Yeah I did. But that was when—“

“I know, you did that out of anger. It’s okay I understand. If you’re going to do that every time you get angry with me, I don’t think that will be okay though.”

“But I promise, I won’t—“

“Khun, you are an exceptionally handsome boy. And you are surrounded by female celebrities as pretty as Yoona and the rest of SNSD. You will call girls when you’re fed up with me. I know that for a fact.”

“Are you sure you’re not attacking me?”

Victoria had to laugh. At moments like this, he still appears to be clueless and idiotic, and ultimately, cute.

“I’m sure. So here’s the thing. You can take her out. Absolutely fine with me, no jealousy, no anger, no bitterness, no nothing. I promise.” She said in all confidence.

“Why?”

She shrugged casually. “I’m a cool girlfriend.”

“I really, seriously don’t know if I should take this seriously right now.”

“Take it seriously. If I find out you stood her up, I will yell at you and you’ll be sorry. Now promise me you will keep your promise to my friend to take her out.”

“Okay, I promise.”

“Good.”

“So does this mean you’re not mad at me anymore? Because you know, the whole fight started because of Yoona.”

“I know. But I’m mature enough to accept the fact that my boyfriend has so many pretty women flocking over him, no one can resist him, so I might as well be generous about it.”

“So you really don’t care about me huh?”

“If you ask that annoying question again one more time I will slap your pretty face.”

They stared at each other eye to eye without blinking. Khun dared.

“So you really don’t care about me anymore?”

Victoria grimaced and lifted her hand and slapped Khun across the face playfully but with enough force to actually hurt him a little. Khun tried to hold her wrist and defend himself but he had to give in to a woman in a physical combat.

“That actually kinda hurt.” He said, slightly chuckling in amusement while rubbing his cheek.

Victoria just eyed him menacingly, almost like a child would do.

“You know you are unusually cute when you’re accepting my apology.” Khun smiled wryly as he tried to pull her into a playful hug but she squirmed and kept pushing him away exasperatedly.

“Aish get off.” She would say, as he would and try to embrace her forcefully.

Their mini-wrestling match (which mostly consisted of Victoria hitting and pulling away from Khun) in the hallway took most of the 15 minutes Victoria was allowed to have which was why they immediately returned to being adults when Victoria’s phone rang.

“It’s my manager. I have to go now.” She said, catching her breath, panting from all the fighting moves she did.

“Kiss meeee.” Khun whined, pouting his lips and leaning his face into hers but she put her palm on his face and pushed it away, crumpling his whole face.

“I’d rather die.” She smirked as she hurried to the elevator.

Khun ran after her and before she could get inside, he smothered her with a bear hug. She struggled to break free immediately.

“ual harassment! ual harassment!” she said though her voice was muffled. Khun stole a kiss before letting her inside the elevator.

Victoria looked all in a disarray and right before the doors closed in, she stuck her tongue out at him like a bitter first-grader.

Khun shook his head in amusement while panting himself. He’s never played a physical combat with a girl like that before. He went back inside the dorm.

“What was all that noise hyung?” Chansung asked, startled.

Khun looked at his arm, which had a small, red mark.

“Nothing, that was me and Victoria fighting.”

All his 2pm members stopped what they were doing and turned to him like he was a criminal.

“We were playing around okay. Look she even bit me.” Khun said defensively.

“Oh. She bit him.” All s mimicked together like it was practiced or something. Khun merely frowned at them.

Victoria made her way back to the van where her manager was waiting for her. She got inside with a blank expression, but with a huge grin in her heart. Her manager turned to her.

“What is with you and him anyway?” he asked as he started to drive.

“Nothing. Well it’s not really any of your business.”

“If I get into trouble because of you…” he said in sing-song.

“Oh stop it, no one’s causing trouble.” She snapped.

“By the way, our boss officially decided that you’ll start your comeback album already. We’ll be advancing to Japan as well, we already signed a contract. So in this case, you’ll be extremely busy, right? I spoke with the PD of WGM, and gave him your three weeks notice.”

She stared and blinked at the passing cars for a few moments, trying to comprehend what her manager just blabbed about.

“What do you mean three weeks notice?” she murmured.

“You’re leaving the show early. We gave them three more weeks to shoot you and you’re off WGM.” He replied curtly and simply. No dramatic pauses, no theatrics, no emotion. It was as simple as a sentence.

You’re leaving the show early.

All she could do to not break down was close her eyes and pretend to fall asleep.