"Come on," he said feeling a lot less tense and very hungry. "We'd better get out there before there's nothing else left."
Four sets of curious eyes fixed on them as G.K. and Leila re-entered the kitchen.
“Where were you two," Kwan asked, a bowl of hot and sour soup in his hands.
“Leila showed me more of the loft?” G.K. answered.
Boom gave them a disbelieving look, “And then she made you put some lip gloss on your chapped lips I take it?” Young teased, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively, and pointing at G.K.’s face.
"Hmm, I don't think that shade is plum works for you, G.K." Kwan baited.
"Maybe pink would be better," Boom teased. "Better with his complexion."
Marcia, who seemed to have taken an interest in Kwan, stood next to him giggling. G.K. chose to only make a face at them, before pulling Leila past him to fix their own food.
The rest of the dinner party went well. There was plenty of food and lively conversation as the guys told funny stories about life on the road, the crazy things their fans did or said, and various anecdotes about growing up. Even Kai, once pried away from his vigil for his wife, got into the spirit of good food and good company.
Later Kai and Kwan offered to clean up the kitchen. Young and Boom helped pack away the leftovers which they split between them.
Afterwards they congregated in the living room, happily sated.
"Oh wow, I can't move." Kwan patted his flat stomach, groaning. "I think I ate too much."
G.K. lightly smacked him on the head. "You always say that after you stuff your face like a pig."
"How about a movie everyone," Marcia suggested. "I promise no sappy girly flicks either."
She rattled off a few titles, mostly sci-fi adventure movies or superheroes. They settled on
Gamer
, a movie only one of the guys had seen. Just as the opening credits started G.K. looked at Young. “And none of your running comments.”
Young pouted. “Can I help it if I get into movies? Sometimes they need my commentary!”
"No they don't," Kwan shot back.
“I’ll try," Young huffed. "But I don’t know if I can promise anything. Especially when the guy...OW!” he hollered as G.K., Kai, and Kwan simultaneously lobbed pillows at his head.
G.K. and Leila sat on one end of the sofa, his arm stretched across the back as she sat tucked into his side. Young sat on the floor, Kai and Boom sprawled lazily in the arm chairs. Kwan sat on the other side of the sectional, Marcia next to him.
Young didn’t heed their threats however; talking loudly throughout the film inducing more violence from the others. Leila could barely watch the movie, as she laughed so hard her sides hurt, at the guy’s actions. When the movie had ended, Boom suggested watching one more.
“I don’t know if I want to, you all are too brutal. That last attack has me seeing stars. Quick someone hold up some fingers!” Young pouted. “They warned you didn’t they?” Leila told him.
He looked at her, betrayed, “Leila! I thought you were on my side!” As the others began arguing over what to watch next, Young stood up from his spot on the floor, to go remove the movie from the DVD player. He paused, when he spotted the pictures on the table beneath the TV.
He picked up one picture, staring at it intently for a minute. He turned to Leila abruptly, “Leila who’s this?” he asked, halting the conversation around him. Leila only had one picture on the table, so she answered without hesitation. “That’s me and my sister, Sam.” His eyes widened, “You have a sister?” he said, again staring at the picture.
“It’s not so rare you know,” Kai said,” Lots of people have these things called siblings.” He finished sarcastically. Young didn’t respond, only continued looking at the picture carefully. Leila watched him noiselessly, as the others picked up their debate over what to watch next. She had never seen anyone look at a picture like that, almost reverently.
Interesting,
she thought.
Chapter Nine
“So what did you think? Nice guys huh?”
Marcia nodded, moving the pillows back onto the couch. “They were all really down to earth. When you told me they were these famous musicians I was thinking they would be a little stuck up, but they aren’t. And on top of it all, they’re HOT!”
Leila laughed, and gave Marcia a sly smile, “Especially that Kwan?” Marcia blushed. “I was that obvious huh?”
Leila shook her head, “Probably only to me. You were more subtle than usual.” Marcia childishly stuck out her tongue, grabbing the last throw pillow, as Leila went into the kitchen for a cup of tea.
“That Young is a cutie too, but he looks way too young for me. How old is he anyway, like eighteen or something?"
“No, he's around twenty or twenty-one I think,” Leila answered as Marcia joined her.
“He seemed awfully interested in your sister.”
Leila agreed, after he had sat the photo back down, he had come and sat on the other side of Leila on the couch. While the others had continued arguing about what movie to watch, Young had shyly inquired more about her sister, Sam. Leila had answered each of his questions, telling him more about her. And he had listened raptly, as if cataloguing her every word. At the time, Leila hadn’t thought much of his questions, but now she wondered if something else was behind his curiosity.
"Yeah, I noticed that too. He looked rather disappointed when I told him Sam already had a boyfriend."
They sat at the table as Leila sipped her tea.
“You think Kwan is interested?”
"You two seemed to get along pretty well. I mean, he laughed at your jokes."
"Did he stare at my butt?"
Leila nearly spat out her tea. "Geez Marcia! Warn a girl when you do that! And I wasn't paying attention."
Her roommate shrugged. "Oh well. I’m gonna go to sleep okay?
Buenos noches.”
***
Young had been abnormally quiet on the ride back to the hotel. Normally, that would have been a good thing since they were tired and wanted nothing more than their beds, but he seemed distracted.
Despite all of his teasing and outgoingness in front of his groupmates, Young was actually pretty quiet and extremely private. Prying things out of him was harder than getting Richard Simmons into a pair of pants, pretty much impossible.
When they reached their hotel, G.K. followed Young to his room, instead of going to the one he shared with Kai. Young looked at him strangely, but said nothing as he opened the door. JinYung wasn’t in the room, leaving G.K. and Young alone.
"You okay?” G.K. asked as he went to sit on one of the beds in the room.
"I'm fine," he answered, eyes downcast. "Think I ate too much."
"Are you sure that's all?"
Irritation crept into Young's voice. "Damn G.K. stop acting like you need to know everything that goes on!” G.K. remained sitting there silently, watching Young watch him, and Young huffed in frustration. “Since I know you won't go away, it was that picture of Leila and her sister." G.K. said nothing as the younger man gathered his thoughts.
He didn’t look at him when he said, "I thought she was really attractive.”
G.K. didn’t understand why that would have upset Young like it did, and his confusion must have shown on his face.
Young huffed, “I told you…it doesn’t matter. She has a man so it doesn’t matter. Now get out so I can go to sleep."
G.K. rose quietly, squeezed Young's shoulder companionably and headed to his own room lost in thought.
***
The next day at rehearsal Jin Yung announced another show scheduled for the following evening, this time for the members of their American fan club. It would be held in the theater adjoined to their rehearsal studios. Local press as well as a few from Korea would be there as well.
Of course that meant the majority of the day was spent rehearsing. Michael didn't let up on them one iota. In fact, it seemed he worked them even harder.
"Y'all did great on the live thing," he complimented them. "So you need to keep sharp. Let's take it from the top!"
Just as the dancers entered formation, Kai dashed out of the studio like a bat out of hell.
The dancers looked puzzled. Leila asked G.K. “Where is he going so fast?”
“Noel probably just arrived at the hotel. She'll be here a few days and as you can see, he’s a little excited.”
Leila chuckled, “I wouldn’t have guessed. I’ve seen cheetahs move slower than him.” G.K. released a bark of laughter and grabbed her hand so they could finish the routine.
After another strenuous rehearsal, G.K. and Leila sat, talking quietly. The studio was now deserted since practice had finished and the guys were as eager to see Noel as Kai.
“Our anniversary is coming up,” he whispered, resting their entwined fingers in his lap.
Leila's eyes were wide with surprise. “Our anniversary? What anniversary?” "Our two week anniversary, or had you forgotten?”
Leila counted in her head. “Have we really been dating for two weeks?” She was lost in thought. “Don't people have anniversaries for the big milestones, like every year? And aren't guys supposed to always forget," she winked at him.
G.K. mistook her teasing for seriousness. “It was a milestone for
me.
I fell in love with you the first time I saw you dance."
His eyes widened when he realized what he’d uttered aloud and he resisted the urge to clap a hand over his big mouth as Leila stared open-mouthed at him.
Great, just great! She was going to think he'd lost his damn mind. Perhaps he had.
While he was sure of his feelings, from the look on Leila’s face, he didn’t think she was ready to hear it.
Thankfully the arrival of a smiling Noel and attached-at-the-hip Kai standing in the doorway saved him from digging himself deeper into a hole.
"
Annyoung
, Hey, G.K!
Mweohani
? What’s up?”
G.K smiled at Noel’s new found Korean skill. “
A mugeotdomanhi,
nothing much. Your Korean is getting good, you’re using slang now.”
As the couple came to stop in front of G.K and Leila, G.K. noticed that Noel’s hair was longer than it had been the last time he’d seen her, the ends now hitting her shoulder blades. Her dark skin shimmered with health under the lights. Her smiling brown eyes went between G.K. and Leila.
She laughed. “I try, but my accent is off.”
Kai shook his head. “No way, you sound perfect, like a native speaker.” There was obvious pride in his voice as he kissed her on the cheek.
Noel rolled her eyes in disbelief at Kai’s praise, turning to Leila. “Hi I’m Noel.” She said sticking her hand out. Leila took it smiling, “Hey, I’m Leila.”
***
“So I take it you’re one of the new dancers," Noel asked once she finally managed to send Kai and G.K. on a mission for coffee and "a decent hamburger". He hadn’t been thrilled, but he obeyed, promising that she'd make it up to him later that night.
Leila nodded. “Yes, just for the American and European legs of the tour.”
Noel smiled in understanding. “So how do you like all the guys," the other woman asked bluntly. "And don’t think that just because you work with them, you have to be nice.”
The dancer laughed. Noel reminded her a bit of Marcia. Both seemed to say what they thought.
“They’re all nice, a little crazy sometimes."
"Don't I know it! I had no idea when I began seeing Kai that I'd inherit a bunch of nosy brothers. I love 'em all, but right now I’m enjoying the breather.” She said with a laugh, “And besides I appreciate getting to hang out here and gossip with G.K.'s new girlfriend." She winked. "The guys couldn't wait to tell me about you."
Leila decided she liked Noel even more.
“Well we’ve been dating for almost two weeks. I resisted going out with him at first because I didn't want the other dancers thinking I was sleeping my way into the show." Noel nodded in understanding as she continued. "If it was up to me, we'd be keeping our private lives separate but G.K. is very stubborn when he sets his mind to something. Kind of hard to imagine when I met him he was all shy and tongue-tied."
Noel sighed, seemingly remembering her own early courtship. “A brand new relationship, no complications…”
Leila’s mind went to G.K.’s confession and she swallowed nervously.
Seeing her expression, Noel went on, “Or not.”
“Everything is…was fine...”
“But…” Noel prompted.
Leila worried her bottom lip, “Well G.K.told me earlier that he loves me..."
Noel smiled, obviously not seeing a problem. “And this is a bad thing why?”
Leila was sure Noel had to be suffering from jet lag. “Of course there's a problem. We barely know each other. We dance together, we've gone out alone maybe three times at the most. It's just too soon and I've got a career to think about."