Page 76 of Teach Me K-Pop

“I’m just saying, it looked larger on screen. Was it just good angles? Do you do that when you take nudes, too?” I joke as I look around his not-small-at-all apartment.

“This is Hannam, I don’t need more space or to take nudes with an address like this,” he says, smug.

I roll my eyes. “I should have left my shoes on when I walked in here.”

“I will toss your luggage out the window.”

“You don’t even have any windows that open,” I point out, gesturing to the giant floor to ceiling glass that gives a pretty stellar view of the city and part of the Han River.

“I will toss your luggage down the garbage chute,” he amends.

Giving him a thumbs-up, I wander around the rest of the apartment, extremely impressed. I knew he was successful, but I’m not sure I realized just how well he was doing. It makes me proud of him, not only for his achievements at his job, but also for still being exactly who he has always been.

Ever since Kija picked me up at the airport—almost two hours ago thanks to the Seoul traffic—it’s been non-stop roasting and joking, and I could not be happier. Like no time has passed since we were last here together, even though it feels like it was a lifetime ago with all that has happened since then.

When I finish my self-guided tour, Kija is waiting for me in the kitchen, holding two cans of our favorite beer. He hands one to me and sits down at his table. “I think the only time I use this thing is when I’m talking to you.”

“Which makes it basically my table then.” I give the polished top a possessive little pat and then crack open the beer. It’s still early-ish in the day here, but my body still thinks it’s last night, so it’s absolutely time for a drink.

“You’re ridiculous,” Kija mutters and takes a long sip. Then adds, “I’m glad you’re here. It’s good to see you, even though I know you’re not really here for me.”

“I’m notnothere for you,” I argue.

He stares me down with what I assume is his intimidating business face, and I automatically sit up a little straighter. “I have asked you how many times? And not once did you take me up on my offer. But now Nikko is involved, and you couldn’t get here fast enough.”

I chug the better part of my beer before I tell him, “No comment.”

Kija is right, of course. I did put off visits for years, afraid of spending too much or getting here and then not being able to convince myself to leave again. As much as I missed him and South Korea, I hadn’t come, for a lot of reasons that do seem pretty dumb now.

But with Nikko waiting for me, I wanted to move fast. From the phone call where I first gave Kija my ideas, then reaching out to my parents to tell them I was going to Seoul for a while, and ultimately getting on the plane, had been pretty short. I didn’t want to waste a minute that I could be working on getting closer to Nikko quicker.

“I assume you already have plans to see him?” Kija asks.

Shaking my head, I tell him, “Not anything definite. I mean, obviously I’m going to meet up with him somehow, but we hadn’t figured out when or where yet. I wanted to see how the meeting went, since you said that would probably come up.”

“Here’s what I know,” he begins and it’s fascinating to watch the shift from my best friend Kija to Task Force Kija. “From what I can tell, they seem to be in favor of your proposal. It sounds like the idea of having an in-house language tutor had come up before, but with someone who was multilingual. So don’t be surprised if they ask you to learn Spanish or something, too. I think the job aspect is the easy part. I’ve spoken highly of you, and they can see the results with Nikko. But your relationship with him has caused some… displeasure.”

This is news to me. Now I’m nervous about tomorrow’s meeting in a whole new way. A job interview is one thing. Going in to meet the people who control my boyfriend’s life—and apparently don’t like me—is entirely different. “What? You didn’t say anything about that.”

“It’s not necessarily important, but I think you should know before we go in. Everyone wants to get close to these idols; you know that. They’ll do anything to try. There’s always the assumption of ulterior motives with outsiders,” Kija explains.

I frown, but I get it. It also just pisses me off—the fact that so many crazy people who have tried things in the past have made everyone else’s life more difficult now. “Obviously I want to get close to him. I’vebeenclose to him and I want tostayclose to him.”

“You definitely should not mention justhowclose you have been to him.”

“Why would that even come up?” I cannot fathom a reason that I would be discussing my sex life in a meeting with executives at a music label, even if my partner does work for them.

Kija snorts. “You’d be surprised.”

“I just want to focus on what I can provide for the company and their trainees, idols, whoever—and that I promise to keep my mouth shut about everything,” I say, like he’s the one I need to convince about this. “So I’m trusting you to make sure the conversation stays professional.”

“It’s all professional to them if it involves their idols. They have a reputation to maintain—the company and the clients. They’re going to keep tabs on any relationship, but one of their male idols with an American man?” Kija taps his beer can to mine. “Good luck getting them to pay attention to anything else.”

“Great. Can’t wait.”

??? ??

Despite Kija leading me to believe this meeting was basically a formality, that is not the vibe I am getting at all.

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