Page 95 of A World Apart
We opened the fridge to inspect the contents.
“Not a lot going on in there,” I let out a huff, putting a fist on my hip and letting the door close. Milk and basic condiments did not a breakfast make.
Jihoon shrugged, rubbing a hand down his neck. “I thought they’d leave food here.”
I hummed and pulled out my phone, pulling up nearby food delivery places and scrolled for a moment.
“We can order in.” I looked up at Jihoon to see he was also scrutinising his phone. He tilted his head to the side and pursed his lips, which had no right to be such an attractive expression. I watched him for a few moments, just enjoying the quiet peace of the kitchen, sunlight glinting off the marble counter tops as bird song drifted in through the open window. Hard to believe we were still in central LA. The birds we had in London were downright scrappy, certainly not cheerful songbirds like were currently in the garden outside.
When I’d lived in Clapham, south-west London, I’d lived in a dingy little bedsit above a corner shop owned by the sweetest old couple in the world, but the old man had kept pigeons on the roof, as a kind of hobby. So not only could I never open the window because of the smell, but seagulls would regularly fly down to harass the sweet, fat old pigeons. London seagulls are something else. You could see it in their eyes; they’d seen some things.
“Kaiya?” Jihoon repeated, shaking me out of my mental tangent.
“Sorry, what did you say?”
“I said, let’s go out.” He put his phone on the counter and came to stand in front of me, pinching the fabric of the sundress I was wearing and pulled me towards him.
I put my arms around his neck, basking in his easy smile as his hands wound around my waist.
“Out?” I smiled up at him, an easy smile that came unbidden as his eyes roamed over my face.
“Yes,” he nodded, “there’s a market I want to see.”
“A market?” I frowned, images of fruit and vegetable stalls coming to mind.
“Yes, a flea market, it’s not far away.”
I thought for a moment, trying to reconcile the words. I’d been to a flea market in France once; it was more like an antiques fair though. In England, we had jumble sales and open-air markets. I kind of think flea markets are a mix between the two.
“Yeah, okay, sure.” I agreed easily, shrugging in the circle of his arms, but then frowned as I thought of something. “Won’t you need to wear, like, a mask, or something?” I thought back to when we’d almost been cornered visiting Pacific Park, so many months ago.
Jihoon laughed a small, self-deprecating sort of laugh and ducked his head before answering me.
“My hyungs said wearing disguises is what makes people look.” Jihoon brought his gaze back up to mine, his eyes twinkling in the light of the morning sun.
“They said−” he said something in Korean I didn’t understand. Turns out two months of a language app won’t make you fluent. At my blank look, Jihoon said in English, “hiding in plain sight.”
“Ah,” I got it. It was like when Henry Cavil went to New York and stood under a Superman billboard for like, an hour, and no one even looked at him. He’d even filmed the whole thing. People don’t look for what they don’t expect to see.
“So, no wigs?” I pretended to pout, earning me a smirk from Jihoon.
“Only if you want to wear one.”
“Oh damn, I left all of mine at home.” I poked my tongue out at him and he laughed, a sound so rich and deep it was almost a surprise. I felt myself go a little slack and knew I probably had a dazed look on my face.
“What?” He stopped laughing and frowned at me.
“You’re just so…” I sighed.
“What?” He rubbed at his face, then looked at his hand as if he expected to see the answer there.
Words went round in my head on a carousel; wonderful, dreamy, sexy, gorgeous.
But to spare both of us, I settled on a more sedate, “cute.”
“Aegyo?” he repeated the word in Korean sceptically. “Like this?” He cupped his face in his hands and made an exaggerated bubble-gum-pop pout, and then screwed his finger theatrically into the dimple on his cheek, winking at me.
I laughed and blushed, it was such a weird combination of sexy and cute and it was kind of doing it for me. Impulsively, I went to pinch his cheek, but he grabbed my wrist and pulled me towards him, all traces of aegyo gone, replaced by a smoulder I almost collapsed under the weight of.
