Chapter 4: Simon’s POV

I ended up spending a good portion of the party looking for Irie. I just couldn’t get her off of my mind. I was hoping that I would get the chance to talk to her and get to know her better but unfortunately, she wasn’t kidding when she said that she would be busy. Most of the time I couldn’t find her and the one time that I did, she was on the phone.

It wasn’t until after the party had ended and all of the guests had left, that I spotted her again. She was with her colleagues, busily discussing something with them, only pausing occasionally to check her phone. From the looks on their faces, I could tell that they all were exhausted and even after coming in early to help set up and working endlessly throughout the night to make sure that everything ran smoothly, they still had to clean up the venue before they could go home.

“Simon,” our group’s manager called out. “Make sure you have all of your things. We’re leaving soon.”

Nodding my head in response, I watched him disappear into a different part of the club to go round up the other members before I went to go retrieve my jacket.

On my way back from coat check, I could kind of make out a slim figure next to one of the tables in the dim club lighting. As I got closer, I realized that it was Irie, leaning against the table for support as she massaged her feet.

For once, she was alone and wasn't using her phone. This was my chance to go talk to her. 

But the last thing I wanted to do was bother her when she was obviously tired and in pain. What if she doesn't want to talk to me? But then again, when else am I going to get this chance? This is the opportunity I've wanted and waited for all night to go talk to her and if I don’t take it while I still can, I know I’m going to regret it. Who knows when, if ever, I'll see her again?

“Are you alright?” I asked as I walked up to her.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she replied, quickly slipping her foot back in her shoe before straightening up. “Thank you though. It’s Simon, correct?”

“Yeah,” I grinned. 

She remembered my name.

"And Irie," I said. "That's a Japanese name, right?"

“Yeah. How did you know?” she asked with a slight look of surprise on her face. "Most people don't."

“Really?" I asked. This time, it was my turn to be surprised. "It's a fairly common name."

"I know, right?" she chuckled. "I mean, it's not something really common like Ayaka or Yumi, but you'd think that more people would've heard of it."

"So how did you get the name Irie?" I asked. 

"My parents," she replied. "My mom wanted me to have a Japanese name, my dad wanted me to have a Korean name, but neither of them wanted me to have multiple names so, they gave me a name that could work with both languages."

"My parents weren't that considerate when they were naming me," I chuckled.

I soon learned that Irie was half Japanese and half Korean and just like me, she could speak both languages. I was surprised when she said that she was born and raised California like Daniel, since she spoke Korean so fluently. But after some time, I could see her having some trouble maintaining the conversation in Korean, pausing occasionally trying to rack her brain to find the right words. Eventually, she got so fed up with speaking Korean that she switched to Japanese, which I could tell in an instant that she was far more comfortable speaking. Completely unexpected. But what shocked me the most was that Irie had a thick Kansai accent. 

"Where is your family from in Japan?" I asked. 

"Osaka," she said. "What about yours?"

“Yokohama,” I replied. "I've actually lived there for most of my life."

The longer Irie and I talked for, the more interested I became in her. I’ve never met a person that I’ve found as intriguing as her. It amazed me how easy it was for me to understand her and for her to understand me. From the ways that we thought to the ways that we acted, we were so similar. We just made sense to each other, almost too much sense. With her, I felt like I could truly be myself. Conversation between the two of us was so natural and effortless that I never want to stop talking to her.

“Simon hyung!” Daniel said, walking over to where Irie and I were, right when I was about to ask for her number.

“Hey Danny,” Irie said, switching back from Japanese to Korean. “Are you guys leaving now?”

“Yeah,” he nodded before wrapping his arms around her. “Thanks again for tonight.”

“It’s no problem,” she reassured, gently patting his back before detaching herself from him. 

“Irie!” one of her colleagues then called out.

“Well, I have to go,” she said apologetically. “It was nice meeting you Simon and great seeing you again Daniel.”

“I’ll see you soon, okay?” Daniel said to her in English as he grabbed her in one more hug. “And let me know when you get home.”

“I will,” she nodded. “Bye guys! Goodnight!”

“Goodnight Irie!” Daniel and I both said, waving to her as we watched her walk away.

I hope that we’ll meet again soon, Irie Chae.

A/N: People from the Kansai region (western Japan) have very distinct, tonal accents.