Total pages in book: 36
Estimated words: 36143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 181(@200wpm)___ 145(@250wpm)___ 120(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 36143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 181(@200wpm)___ 145(@250wpm)___ 120(@300wpm)
I swipe my cheeks and cling to him. “And here I thought I was just your anti-fan.”
“Well, then I guess I’ll spend all my time convincing you to become part of my fan club. I heard we have openings.”
I burst out laughing. “You’re too charming, TD.”
“Take it back.” He laughs and spins me around.
“What? The charming part?”
He looks around and then presses a kiss to my mouth. “You know what part.”
I hold up my fingers. “Is it a small part? I’m confused.”
“If we didn’t have to perform in the next twenty minutes, you’d be so dead right now.”
“From TD?”
He starts tickling me.
Haneul comes around the corner and makes a gagging noise. “You guys need to lay off the PDA before someone snaps a picture.”
We touch foreheads and break apart.
“Sorry,” I say.
“Oh, I already have a billion. So just in case you were thinking of bailing on us today…” Haneul winks.
“Ah, once a bully, always a bully.” I grin.
Jisoo suddenly comes around the corner and holds up her phone. “It’s okay. I totally got him farting in his sleep.”
“WHAT?” Haneul yells.
“Kidding.” She winks. “I just wanted to see your…wait for it.” She snaps a photo with her phone. “Yeah, probably going to save that for the grandkids.”
“The hell?” Haneul yells.
“Oh, yeah, we’re probably going to get married. You’re my type.” She winks. “Are we ready to do this?”
Haneul’s jaw drops.
Instead of crying, I can’t stop laughing.
Ryan slaps a shocked Haneul on the back. “Let’s do this.”
“I don’t even like you!” he yells.
Jisoo nods her head. “Okay, sure.”
He does a double-take. “I do like a woman who takes charge, though. Think you could handle me now that the shyness is gone after sweating by my side?”
“Duh.” She keeps walking next to him, then reaches for his hand.
I smile again.
Craziest debut I could possibly imagine, but here we are, getting ready to stream worldwide on the stage.
We all hold hands.
The lights lower.
The music starts.
And I see it.
A girl with brown hair and red highlights, sitting near the stage, smiling up at us.
She looks exactly like Ryan.
I perform as if my life depends on it, maybe because I know hers ended because of the pressure and stress. This is, after all, not just for Ryan. Or for the rest of us. It’s for her, too.
When we end our first song, I open my eyes and find the seat empty.
I look over at Ryan. He smiles at the seat and holds his microphone close before starting her song.
By the time we’re done, people are openly crying.
We move onto the next song.
Hours later, after our live performances, we’re all at the apartment, and I’m keeping my promise to not look at the comments online. I feel like we did good. I feel like we did the best we could.
Sookie’s been blowing up my phone.
I finally answer it. “Hey, what’s up?”
“I’m so proud to be your friend.” That’s all he says, then freaking hangs up and sends me a text message.
With it is a picture of him.
And Ryan’s sister.
Kissing.
I gasp.
Ryan looks over and then falls off the couch. “What the hell?”
“They were dating!” I shriek.
Ryan scrambles to his knees and calls Sookie over and over again until he finally answers.
Apparently, Sari and Sookie were close or got close. He tried to help her, and this whole time, he blamed himself for not seeing the signs.
Ryan starts to cry.
And I sit and hold him.
Then the rest of the group surrounds him, and I realize that this was how I was supposed to debut all along.
With love.
With family.
With my MXD group.
Because life is too short not to accept something different, something scary. Something that may change your life forever.
Ryan grips my hand.
I squeeze it back.
And I swear I see her face again, smiling down at us.
Mission accomplished.
Epilogue
Ryan
One year later…
Had someone told me a year ago that I’d be dating my best friend, my once sworn enemy, and also looking at our newest music video hit over two hundred million views on YouTube, I would have laughed.
And yet, here we are.
I’m holding Ah-Ri’s hand as we make dinner with Jisoo and Haneul. It seems the video gets more and more hits every few minutes.
“We did it.” Haneul throws his fist into the air and then grabs Jisoo and starts kissing her. “And who really knew that people would love that we’re all dating rather than creating a scandal of the century?”
Ah-Ri snorts.
Jisoo follows and raises her hand.
“Nope, I rebuke this,” I add in. “We took a risk. You girls nearly gave us heart attacks when you did that live!”
Ah-Ri just shrugs and sips her red wine. “There will always be people who hate it, fans that hate it. But I think more and more idols are coming out with details about their private lives. It’s too stressful to keep that kind of secret. I refuse to live that way.”