Chapter 25

            The sound of a faint beeping and a calm voice over a speaker slowly began to wake Choa from her slumber.  As her mind awoke, she felt so warm and cozy under blanket.  Her head rested on a firm yet comfy pillow, and she wished she could sleep just a little bit longer.  But her comfort was immediately and embarrassingly disturbed when her pillow began to move.

            Her head shot up from her “pillow” as soon as she realized it was actually Dohyun’s shoulder.  Finally opening her eyes, she forced herself to look over at him and view his tired eyes smiling down at her.

            “Did you sleep well?”

            Her heart was beating so quickly, it was almost impossible to think she was asleep only a few minutes ago.  “Yeah, actually.  Sorry for sleeping on your shoulder.”

            “No, it’s okay,” he laughed quietly.  “I’m pretty sure my head might have fallen on you a couple of times.”

            Choa cringed at the thought of such closeness with this mysterious, hypnotizing man.  As she straightened up in her seat, she reluctantly looked over to check on Ellin.  The girl who had resisted Wifi Jung so passionately was now asleep on his shoulder, drooling on his grey shirt.  Still asleep himself, Wifi Jung leaned over toward the middle aisle with his head precariously rocking up and down every few seconds. 

            “Jung, we’re here,” Dohyun told, tapping Wifi Jung on his shoulder.

            The beefy man slowly began to wake up, blinking his eyes slowly.  When he noticed Ellin’s drool, he jumped up from his seat, immediately waking her up.

            “Ya!  What’s going on?” Ellin exclaimed angrily, looking around the plane.

            “You drooled all over my shirt,” Jung scolded, his hand hovering helplessly over the drool.

            “What?”  Ellin’s eyes quickly filled with fear.  “How could that even happen?”

            “You fell asleep on me, that’s what happened,” Jung growled.

            “What?  Fell asleep on you?” Ellin asked in horror.  “There’s no way!”

            “I got a picture,” Soyul giggled suddenly, leaning forward behind Ellin’s chair.

            “How could you all betray me like this?” Ellin cried, covering her face with her hands.

            “Don’t be so sensitive, Ellin-ah,” Geummi called from behind Choa.  “You’ll laugh about it when you see the picture.”

            “Don’t be so sure!” Ellin yelled crossly.

            As Jung grabbed his bag and rushed out of the plane, Ellin quickly followed him, leaving Choa to wonder if she was really irritated with her or not.  When Dohyun finally moved out of her way, Choa waited for Geummi and Serang and followed them off the plane.  Soyul and Jina quickly tagged along, while the Captain, Earman Kim, and Dohyun followed slowly to discuss a few details of the mission.

            “Ellin seems really upset about something,” Soyul noted, looking at the humorous photo she had taken of her on her phone.  “Wasn’t she supposed to sit with you, unnie?”

            Choa smiled reluctantly and shook her head.  “We both wanted a window seat, so we just compromised.”

            “She’s just embarrassed,” Geummi chuckled, stealing a look at Soyul’s phone.  “I would probably be a little upset, honestly.  But it’s definitely funny.  She’ll see.”

            The Hangzhou airport seemed more crowded than any Korean airport the members had ever been to.  Reports online had stated that today’s air quality wouldn’t be too unbearable, yet many people wore face masks to protect their bodies from pollutants.  Always prepared to protect someone’s health, Geummi pulled a face mask from her purse and held it out to Jina.

            “Jina-yah,” Geummi said in a jolly tone.  “Quick, put this on.”

            “Why does Jina get your face mask, unnie?” Soyul asked with sad eyes.

            “Soyul-ah, you need to be a good unnie,” Geummi retorted sternly.  “Jina-yah is the youngest one here.  You need to treat her well and protect her.”

            “You can have it, unnie,” Jina insisted, holding it out to Soyul.

            “Ah, no, Jina-yah,” Soyul smirked, suddenly helping to put the mask on Jina’s face.  “Why should I hide my face from the world anyway?”

            “You’re such a punk, Soyul,” Serang laughed darkly.

            Ellin stood at the end of gate, already past the Hangzhou security.  She folded her arms as she angrily stared at Wifi Jung who sat on a nearby bench.  He scurried through his bag for a new shirt while making a call on his phone.  When the rest of the members passed through security and reunited with Ellin, the grumpy member made little acknowledgement of Choa.

            “It’s four in the morning; why are there so many people here?” she snarled, looking around at all the bustling people.  “I just want to go to the hotel and sleep.”

            “We’ll have a few hours to sleep, but we’ll need to start practicing soon,” Serang assured.  “I’m confident about your abilities, but we want to make sure the performance is perfect.”

            The Captain, Kim, and Dohyun finally arrived through security and called Jung over to the group.  Pulling three plane tickets from his carry-on bag, the Captain gave a frown.

            “It looks like this is where we leave you, girls,” the Captain remarked with a sigh.  “Our plane to Hong Kong leaves in about an hour.  We’ll just stay here and catch it.  Dohyun will take you to the hotel so you can settle in.”

            “We’d better get moving so you can rest a little,” Dohyun suggested.  “We’ll see you guys later, Captain.”

            “Take good care of them, Park,” the Captain requested somberly.  “We’ll see you tomorrow.”

            Choa gave the Captain a shaky wave goodbye before following Dohyun and her members to retrieve their luggage.  Though Dohyun remained intimidating, he had become a somewhat safer individual.  She knew she could rely on him for simple things like blankets and pillows at least.  Regardless, she wrapped her arms around Geummi’s arm as they took their luggage and left the airport.

            “Excuse me…”  Dohyun appeared lost and embarrassed as he approached the people of Hangzhou for directions.  Choa had expected him to be an expert with Mandarin, but from the insecure look on his face, she knew he wasn’t very skilled.  “共…汽车? ( [Mandarin] Totally…car?)

            Choa cringed at Dohyun’s mispronounced Mandarin and quickly stepped up to the woman he had approached.  “哪里是公交车站? (Where is the bus station?)”

            “巴士站的方式 (The bus station is that way),” the woman replied warmly, pointing down the road to a few yards.

            “Ah…谢谢 (Thank you),” Choa grinned, giving a bow.

            “谢谢,” Dohyun echoed, following in Choa’s bow as well.  He gave Choa a grateful smile and continued to lead them to the bus station.  As they began to walk again, Choa heard Ellin give a restless sigh from behind her.  In frustration, Choa hurried to Dohyun’s side and walked next to him.

            “We aren’t taking a taxi?” she asked.

            “There are just too many of us to do that right now,” he informed.  “Once we’re settled at the hotel, then we’ll take a few taxis to the venue when it’s time.  But the Captain wants us to stay together now.”

            “That makes sense.”

            The bus was fairly comfortable.  Ellin chose to sit with a stranger, forcing Choa to sit with Dohyun again.  Though she despised Ellin’s coldness, Choa didn’t mind having to sit with Dohyun a second time.  She gently corrected his Mandarin and helped him fix a few phrases he had learned to mispronounce. 

            When they reached the hotel, the sun was barely beginning to rise over Hangzhou.  Time still remained to catch a little sleep, and the members scurried into the hotel to get as much of it as they could.  With Choa’s help, Dohyun spoke with the woman at the main desk in order to check them in, and everyone hurried to the fourth floor to their rooms.  In the hallway, Dohyun stopped them and pointed to each door as he spoke.

            “This room belongs to Geummi and Serang,” Dohyun informed.  “And this room is for Soyul and Jina.  Finally, this room is for Choa and Ellin.  Here are your keys.  Try to get some rest, girls.”

            Choa stopped in front of the room door as Ellin took the room key from Dohyun.  She looked at Choa, rolled her eyes, and finally let the both of them in.

            “Unnie, are you actually mad at me?” Choa asked, tossing her luggage onto her twin-size bed.  “What happened wasn’t even my fault.”

            “You could have…done something,” Ellin insisted heatedly, closing their room door.  “I had to sit with Wifi Jung the whole ride.”

            “Hey, I would have had to sit with him if Dohyun had sat with you.”  Choa opened her bag and swiftly found her pajamas.  As frustrated as she was with Ellin, she wasn’t sure how she would fall asleep now.  But she went ahead and changed into her pajamas as Ellin angrily rummaged through her bag on the next bed.

            “Maybe you could have asked him to sit with you,” Ellin suggested.

            “Ask Wifi Jung to sit with me?” Choa laughed, knocking her bag onto the floor and crawling into her bed.  “I don’t know if even Geummi would do that.”

            “Either way, it looks like you and Dohyun got really comfy over there,” Ellin hissed.

            Choa glared at Ellin as she struggled to find her pajamas.  “It seemed the same with you and Jung.”

            “Ugh!” Ellin cried, throwing her bag off of her bed.  “Are you sure you wouldn’t rather share a room with Dohyun?  I’m sure he’d really love that!”

            “Maybe that’s what I should do!” Choa replied, sitting up in her bed.  “But I’m stuck with you!”

            “What a tragedy!” Ellin exclaimed, jumping into her bed and hastily pulling the covers over her head.  “Heo Minjin, turn off the light!”

            In a flurry of livid energy, Choa leapt onto the floor, turned off the room light, and returned to her bed.  She pulled the covers up high and her side to face away from Ellin.  Who could ever lack such logic?  Why did she think she was right in this situation?  This random man who had come out of nowhere was suddenly Ellin’s sole purpose in life.

            Just as Choa began thinking of more reasons why Ellin was so wrong, she heard a faint whimpering from the other bed.  It was a quiet, heartbreaking sobbing that left a knot in Choa’s stomach.  She suddenly felt ill with her mind becoming so hostile toward her friend, and she remembered all the insecurities Ellin had shared with them over the months.

            “…Unnie,” Choa called softly.

            “Gosh, what is it?” Ellin replied aggressively as she sniffled.

            “Are…are you okay?”

            “I’m fine.”

            “Unnie…why do you want him so bad?”

            “He’s…really pretty,” Ellin whispered with a tiny, weary chuckle.  “But, besides that…He’s our age.  I feel like we haven’t really seen many guys our age recently since we’ve been training.”

            “That’s true.”

            “I really just want to know…if it’s possible for someone to like me for who I am.”

            “Of course it’s possible,” Choa reassured in a hurry.  She turned to face Ellin and smiled.  “It’s more than possible.  I’m sure many people like you for who you are even now.”

            “I’m not so sure,” Ellin sighed, giving a high-pitched hiccup.  “I think it’s my destiny to be stuck with scumbags.  I’m not beautiful like you, Choa.”

            “What?”  Within the group, it had been established both officially and unofficially that Ellin was a perfect visual for the team.  Her proportions were ideal; her face was flawless and outstanding.  Choa had wished to have such beauty over and over again, but here the person who had it couldn’t even recognize it.

            “They say you attract what you are,” Ellin muttered dejectedly.  “I guess that makes me trash.”

            “Unnie, stop!” Choa cried, quickly sitting up in her bed.  “No!  You’re not trash!  Listen, your dance teacher was just an isolated incident.  He doesn’t represent your destiny.”

            “He was the only man who ever showed interest in me in any way,” Ellin told gently.  “Throughout my entire life…He was the first one.”

            “Unnie, you’re telling yourself lies.  Don’t believe them.”

            “I’m tired.  Just go to bed, Choa-yah.”

            Choa was stunned by Ellin’s words and behavior, but she reluctantly lay back down in her bed.  Ellin wouldn’t listen to anyone.  Her old dance teacher had definitely done some unfathomable damage that Choa couldn’t fix tonight.  She wished Dohyun would have just sat with Ellin and given her what she needed.  But now Ellin was filling herself with even more lies, and it was Choa’s fault. 

            With all the thoughts and sadness spinning around in Choa’s head, she knew she wasn’t going to get any sleep for the rest of the morning.  All she could do was dwell within her own mind and try to endure the memory of Ellin’s painful words.  At this moment, she wished Minseon was here to offer a new, blunt perspective to both of them.  She would be able to rectify the entire situation.  But she was across the sea, probably waking up with a terrible hangover right now. 

            Maybe it was Ellin’s emotions spilling over to her, or maybe it was the thoughts of Minseon’s tragic life, but Choa felt tears begin to well up in her eyes.  She hoped that Ellin would be too caught up in her own whimpering to hear hers.  In the middle of Hangzhou, only a few hours before her debut performance, Choa felt crushed by everything around her.