Page 35 of Teach Me K-Pop

“Yes.” His smile is wide, hopeful. “If you wanted. We usually have some time during the day. But we cannot go out much. So we get bored.”

I’m sort of speechless. There’s a lot of possibility in that much time. Opportunity that I did not dare imagine would have existed even earlier today. Chances to spend hours together in the same room. Sharing the same space. Close enough to touch him. I swallow hard. I can’t keep thinking about this right now. “Yes. Whenever you’re available. I’ll find a way to make it work.”

“You have to be at school?” he asks, frowning a little.

“No. I don’t have to be anywhere else if I can be with you instead,” I reply. I don’t just take days off; I’m cautious like that, hoarding the ones I’m given in case I need them somewhere down the line. But this is different. I’ll skip work for the chance to find out what it’s like to be with Nikko, in-person. Up close.

Nikko blushes, pink from his cheeks to the tips of his ears, obviously deeply pleased with my adamant declaration. “You say all the things I hope to hear. It is better than I dream of.”

He’s done it again, implying that he thinks about this—about us—more than I would have ever expected. But it makes me warm, like someone has plugged me into an electrical source, this buzzing sensation of, “Yes, this could really be something.” However unlikely it may seem. Even though we’re quite literally worlds apart.

I can’t resist trying to find out more. “What have you been dreaming about, Nikko?”

He leans in slowly, close to the camera and glances at me for just a second. “You.”

It’s barely a whisper, but I still hear it loud and clear. Just one word, more than enough to make my heart race. I think again of the picture from earlier, what he might look like spread out underneath me. The simmering warmth I’ve been feeling spreads hot through my body in a flash. I scrub my hand over my face, adjust the way I’m sitting in my chair. I’m about ready to beg for details—anything I can get him to tell me—when I see him turn away in response to someone calling his name from nearby.

“I am talking to Jase,” he says, as I watch the screen, admiring the sharp line of his jaw as he speaks, the shape of his ear and the gentle sway of his jewelry.

There’s a soft laugh. “Of course you are.”

“No. You do not have to come over here...” Nikko’s protest dies as the other party appears over his shoulder and he sighs. “Jase, this is Chita. Chita, this is Jase.”

“Hey, Chita.” I try to give him the casual bro-nod as I greet him, but I am amused at the way Nikko practically folds himself up onto the chair to hide while Chita moves closer to get a look at me. Like Nikko, Chita is alarmingly attractive, his dark hair in wild spikes, and even more so as he gives me a friendly smile.

“Hi, Jase. Nice to finally see you. We hear about you a lot,” Chita tells me as Nikko buries his face in his hands and makes a pained kind of noise from behind him. Chita chuckles. “Sorry, but we have to go. Our call time got moved up.”

“No worries. It was nice to see you, too.” I wait until Chita has ambled off, pausing to ruffle Nikko’s hair on his way out, before I start laughing. “So I guess this is a thing now, huh? I meet someone new every time we talk?”

Nikko rolls his eyes. “They are everywhere. All the time.”

“Brothers are like that, I hear.” I smile at him as he starts to give me a pout. “Hey… I’ll see you soon.”

His face transforms immediately. “I cannot wait.”

???

“Shake it off,” I tell Noel as we come in from the rain she was extremely displeased about being subjected to. I grab the little purple towel that I keep by the door for exactly this reason and wipe off her dainty paws before she goes careening around the living room like a Tasmanian devil on speed, rubbing her wet dog aroma all over the furniture and carpet. “Thanks so much for that, baby dog.”

I toss the towel on the staircase to take to the laundry room later and walk into the kitchen, shaking the water out of my hair not unlike Noel just did. Opening the pantry, I stand there, staring at the limited options, disheartened by my choices. I’ve been craving Korean food all day, but the only dish I can even sort of make is pajeon and I don’t have any of the ingredients.

Just as I’m debating giving in and ordering delivery from Kim Chee’s K-FOOD, the only sort of authentic restaurant in the area, my phone rings.

I’m surprised to see it’s Kija. We haven’t even texted much recently, since he’s been busy traveling, doing whatever it is he does. I wonder if I’d understand it more now that I actually have actually learned a few things about idols and groups and such. “Hey! Wasn’t expecting you tonight.”

I’ve barely gotten the words out when he says, “So, I hear you’re going to k-pop your cherry at an RYSING show.”

“Wow.” Not only is his joke terrible, but damn, does word travel fast. Nikko had only invited me a couple of days ago and now Kija knows? The two of them must talk more than I realized.

“What’s going on with you and Nikko?” he asks. I hear a chair squeak and it sounds like he’s getting comfortable, settling in for a story.

I don’t know why I’m hesitant to tell him everything. Maybe because he’s the one who set this whole thing up. Was it a set up? Did he suspect something could happen all along? Or will he be disappointed that I’ve gone and caught feelings for a client we both share? It’s unsettling to not know how he might respond. “I mean, you know I’m going to the show. I guess we’re going to say hi or something?”

“It’s like you forget that I know you sometimes,” Kija comments.

I can’t tell if I should be offended or impressed that he’s still able to tell when I’m not being entirely honest even after all this time apart. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I know what you’re like when you’re into someone,” he replies. “First, you think you’re being all nonchalant when you ask for information, and then you get all cagey and avoid talking about them or downplay what’s really happening.”

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