Rae poked his head around the corner. “Curfew, guys.”
“Y-yeah.” Grace stood so quick I thought she was going to fall over from getting dizzy. “I’ll go… first.” She looked back at me. “Thanks, Lucas.” I could tell she wanted to say more and that she was embarrassed because her cheeks flared bright pink.
“Any time,” I found myself saying with a smile I felt all the way down to my toes.
She walked out of the room toward Rae, then stopped and turned back around. “My room’s… that way.”
“Are you okay?” Rae laughed. “Did all that ramen we ate mess with your stomach and your head?”
I nearly slammed my hands down on the piano keys in fury.
Toothpaste? He used toothpaste as an excuse to buy her ramen? My eyes narrowed as she laughed and shook her head.
“No, I’m good, thanks again.”
“Any time,” he said, using the same words I had.
What the hell was happening?
The room was silent when she was gone. Could he see my swollen lips? Or taste the thickness in the air.
“You guys make up?” Rae asked, rooted to his spot. I almost yelled no, then realized he’d said make up, not make out.
“Sure.” If you call kissing the girl you used to yell at, lie to, and still felt semi-confused by making up. Then yeah, we’d made up a lot.
“Good.” Rae nodded. “I know you don’t like people in your personal space, but she’s…” He checked the hall then glanced back at me. “She’s different, you know? Special. Kind. She really cares even if she is a hot mess half the time.”
Oh shit.
I knew that look.
It was impossible for Rae to hide his emotions. Did he like her? And if he did, did it really have to be the guy I respected the most in this world?
Fuck.
“I know.” I looked away. I couldn’t take the enamored expression on his face or the guilt that I’d just kissed Grace and wanted to do it again.
Scratch that. I wanted to break down her door and lock myself inside with her. Already my body was rebelling against me. If Rae walked farther into the room, he’d think that intense conversations and piano benches aroused me.
I thought things were complicated before—well, congratulations, from one scandal ending to another starting because if anyone found out—Rae included—it wouldn’t just be the end of the comeback stage.
It would be the end of SWT.
Chapter Twenty-Two
One week until the Showcase
Lucas
“I’m nervous,” Sookie fired off in rapid Korean next to me. “This is one of our final performances before dress rehearsal, and then everyone’s going to see the new songs, and what if—”
“Stop.” He was making me nervous, and I never got nervous. “Just remember the eight count after the chorus speeds up with my lines, all right?”
He nodded. He was one of the main vocalists and usually left everything on stage, but his dancing at times needed more work than the other guys.
Rae, in the corner taking a much-needed break after going over everything with Sookie and Grace, had just returned with our third order of coffees.
“Ey!” Kai slapped me on the chest. “I asked if you were ready.”
“Yeah,” I said quickly, looking away from Grace as she walked over to her chair and sat, though I was aware of her pulling out her phone, checking our schedules.
She was doing her job while I was having a hard time breathing in the same room as her.
“Sookie isn’t the only one who needs to focus,” Kai said under his breath, right before the music started. “You sure you’re doing okay?”
“Just tired.” I hadn’t slept at all the night before. I’d just kept reliving the forbidden kiss over and over again until I was tempted to sprint across the apartments and knock down her door.
One kiss. Really?
I’d kissed girls before.
True, that had been back in school, when I was trainee; I’d kissed exactly two girls, and I’d been fifteen and had no clue what I was doing, Chae-Won could attest to that.
Shit, she could probably sense my inexperience.
I wanted the ground to swallow me up whole.
Our song Move started, and all thoughts of the kiss dissipated as I kept up next to Sookie, Jay, and Kai.
Jay spun out of the formation as Kai and I danced forward and did our break before the rest of the guys joined us again.
Everyone hit their marks, but we weren’t singing yet, which meant things could go to hell the minute we had mics. Not that we couldn’t pull it off, but that was usually what messed up Sookie.
He preferred to hold his mic, but after last week’s performance, we were giving him a head mic—we didn’t want to take any chances.
The song ended with all of us completely winded, and so went practice for the next two hours while we attempted to perfect every last move along with the songs.