Chapter 68: Chapter 68: Yoo-Jin Gets Caught While Running Away
After the shoot, we went back to the dorms. Everyone was very exhausted.
“I’m so sleepy.”
I laid down on the couch in the living room as Jia climbed on top of me. Jihyun sat next to my head, tapping away on her phone.
“What are you doing now?” I said, looking up at her.
Jihyun looked rather surprised when she saw me, but readily answered.
“Do you know Joon-hyun Lee?”
“Joon-hyun Lee? Who the hell is that?”
I always tend to get a little aggressive whenever a guy’s name comes up. Who else is going to protect these lambs from the wolves?
“He’s a solo artist from Han Entertainment.”
“Oh.”
Now I remember. From what I recall, he’s a pretty decent guy. He has no scandals and has a good reputation with the public, but he’s not a very good singer. He’s still pretty popular though.
“What about him?” I asked.
“He keeps calling me.”
“Are you a black hole or something? You keep sucking in all these men.” I laughed. Seriously, this girl has way too many guys following her. She recently got another phone just to organize all the male contacts she has.
“Yeah, but he’s relentless. Should I just meet him?”
“Do what you want.”
I turned to look at the TV. Jia was completely laid on top of me at this point and was trying to massage my arms.
“Does that feel good, Sian?”
“Nope.”
It really didn’t. Jia had baby hands and they were too weak for me to feel anything.
“How about now?”
“Ow! That hurts.”
Jia giggled as she pinched my arm again. This little brat.
“I guess I can meet him this weekend. Might as well get a free meal out of it,” Jihyun said.
The mention of food caught my attention.
“Do you want me to go with you?” I asked.
“No,” Jihyun said firmly.
“Hmph.”
I turned back to the TV, but my hearing was focused on Yoo-jin’s room. Oh, that’s my room too, since Jia, Yoo-jin, and I shared a room. But anyways, right now, my thoughts were on Yoo-jin. If what the manager from Han Entertainment said was true, then Yoo-jin will try to run away tonight. I wonder if she really will. Will the man’s predictions prove to be true? If it does, that’d be insane.
“Huh?”
But I couldn’t sense anything coming from the room. Was she sleeping?
“Sian, what’s wrong?” Jia asked, noticing the perplexed look on my face.
“Where’s Yoo-jin?”
“She said she was going to the corner store.”
“Oh, really?”
Since when she did go to the corner store?
“Yeah, she went with Jumi. They’ll be back soon.”
“Okay.”
I turned my attention back to the TV, but something felt off. My instincts are never wrong, which is why I trust them so much. From that, I felt even more alert. I decided to text Yoo-jin.
[Hey, where are you?]
For the next five minutes, I didn’t get a response. So I sent another one.
[Yoo-jin, where are you?]
[Hello? Is anyone there?]
[Hey, Yoo-jin.]
[Yoo-jin Jeong!]
[Yoohoo~ Yoo-jin.]
[Yooohooooooo!]
[Yoo-jiiiiiiiiiiiin]
Still, no response. It was really frustrating, so I called her.
Tonight, I just want to have a drink~♪♫ Thought I might forget~♪♫ So I~ turned around first~♪♫
I heard a song from my favorite singer playing as the ringtone, but in the end, Yoo-jin still didn’t pick up.
[We’re sorry. The number you have dialed is not available. You may hang up or leave a message after the beep.]
The moment I heard the robotic female voice, I hung up.
“Why isn’t she picking up?”
“What is it, Sian?”
“Yoo-jin isn’t picking up her phone,” I said with worry. Was she that hurt by the words the photographer had said to her earlier? I mean, Yoo-jin just turned twenty. She’s still pretty young and susceptible to stuff like that.
Just then, I heard someone put in the passcode and open the door. It was Jumi. She had a bag full of snacks in one hand, but she was by herself. What about Yoo-jin? Didn’t they go together?
“Hey, Jumi. Where’s Yoo-jin?” I asked.
“Oh, Yoo-jin said she had to meet a friend, so I came back first.”
Jumi walked into the living room and tipped the contents of the bag onto the floor. It was a lot of snacks. Lots and lots of tasty-looking snacks.
“Yay!”
The young kiddies attacked the chips and cookies, opening the bags one by one. It wasn’t long before they started munching away.
“It’s good,” I said, popping a chip into my mouth. It was hot spicy flavored and really tasty.
“Hey Sian, when will Mr. Park give us his card again?” Hainan asked, looking hopefully. Since I’m the one who always got the card, I sort of became the unofficial messenger of it.
“Good question. Why don’t you go ask him, Hainan? You can act all cute when you do. I’m sure he’ll give it to you then.”
“Should I?”
“Yeah,” I answered with a nod. But to be honest, I wasn’t sure if that would work. Every time we use the card, we charge up to the millions. The stuff we eat ain’t cheap. We go all out.
“I want to eat shark’s fin soup,” Hainan said immediately.
“When you get the card, we can go,” I said just as quickly. Then I added, “We’ll even get lobster.”
At those words, everyone squealed, already excited at the thought.
Eating snacks really made time fly by and soon enough, it was 11 PM. But unfortunately, Yoo-jin still hadn’t returned.
“Where is she?”
I was sitting in the living room, waiting for her. The other members were already in their rooms, sleeping. We were all tired from our long day.
ZzzzzzzzZz! ZZZZZzzzzzz….!
Someone was snoring. It sounded like a tank pummeling through.
“Did she really run away?”
I tried to call Yoo-jin again, but it just went straight to voicemail. After about thirty minutes, I finally got up. I was going to Seoul Station.
***
I arrived at Seoul Station. I was wearing a pair of sunglasses and a mask. It couldn’t be helped. I’m a celebrity now, after all. Anyways, it was currently 11:50. That Gap-chan guy had said that Yoo-jin would be on the 12:10 train. I swear if he’s wrong, I’m going to rip his tongue out. I quickly hid against the wall and watched the train entrance.
“Where are you, Yoo-jin?”
I channeled my inner senses and tried to find Yoo-jin, but I still couldn’t see her. Was she in the bathroom? After about five minutes, I finally saw her. Sure enough, she was walking out of the bathroom, but her eyes were swollen. Had she been crying?
On another note – wow, she was really here.
“What the hell? So the guy was telling the truth?”
I’m not going to lie – this was kind of scary. How did he know?
“Gap-chan Lee…who are you?”
Now I wanted to know everything about the guy. Anyways, Yoo-jin headed onto the KTX platform and I followed her.
The moment we were both through the entrance, I tapped her on the shoulder. Yoo-jin turned around and gasped when she saw me.
“Oh my god! Sian!”
“Hey Yoo-jin,” I said with an innocent smile. Quick as a flash, I snatched the train ticket out of her hand. It read:
[12:10 BUSAN]
Wow, I couldn’t believe it. The man had been right.
“But…Sian…how did you…?” Yoo-jin stammered.
I grabbed her by the wrist.
“Why Busan?” I asked.
“Well, that’s…” Yoo-jin hesitated. She looked like a child caught with her hand in the cookie jar.
“You didn’t answer your phone.”
“Well…”
“Were you trying to run away?”
“Wha-what? Well, that….”
As Yoo-jin struggled to string a single sentence together, I prepared to rip her ticket…but I stopped.
Hey, we have to get the refund.
“Let’s go back.”
“No, I’m going back to Busan. I can’t go do this anymore,” Yoo-jin said with a shake of her head. Looking at her face, I could tell she really was tired. Of everything. Then again, we’ve been running around like dogs since we debuted.
“Is this about what that old lady said earlier?”
Sure, that woman hadn’t called Yoo-jin a whore directly, but she had meant it all the same. Yoo-jin was young and stuff like that were still bound to get to her. She had pride in being known as sexy, so to hear something like that must’ve been doubly painful for her.
“No, it’s not just that.”
“But it was a huge part of it, right?”
“Well…that…I’m just so tired of it all. I don’t want to be a celebrity anymore,” Yoo-jin admitted as she hung her head.
“Thanks for everything, Sian,” she added, her head still down. “And I’m really sorry. Please tell the others this. I’ll call Mr. Park later myself….”
With that, Yoo-jin looked up, and then looked back. And then around. She turned her head this way and that way, trying to find me, but I wasn’t there.
I was already at the ticket box.
“I would like a refund, please,” I said, handing in Yoo-jin’s ticket.
After receiving the refund, I returned to Yoo-jin, who was still whipping her head around, looking for me.
“Here.”
I handed the money to her.
“This…”
Yoo-jin stared at it.
“Let’s go back. Now. I’ll keep this a secret.”
“Sian…”
“You can do this, Yoo-jin. I’m right here to help you. Let’s help each other. Okay?”
“Sian…”
“What? Are you touched?”
“There’s…supposed to be another 10,000 won…”
“Oh. I counted the change wrong. Hang on.”
I returned to the ticket box.
***
We came back before anyone could realize Yoo-jin was missing and had tried to run away. And the next morning, I went to go visit Han Entertainment.
“Is this it?”
The building was huge. What kind of entertainment company needed a building this big? Then again, Han Entertainment was supposed to be the top-rated agency in the country, but I had no idea it was to this extent. Not that YH Entertainment is a small company, either. It’s ranked in the top 5 agencies in the country, but we were small fry compared to Han Entertainment. That company was way above the rest of us.
Rumble…
Suddenly, my stomach began to growl. Makes sense since I didn’t even have breakfast before coming here. I’ll have to ask Mr. Lee to buy it for me. I called his number. He picked up almost instantly.
Hello, Sian.
Why do I feel like you were waiting for my call?
Because I was. I knew you could call and when as well.
How?
I already told you. I can see the future. I can see yours as well.
“Asshole,” I muttered after covering my mouthpiece.
The idea of someone looking into my future sounded rather unpleasant. Anyways, I brought the phone back to my ear.
That’s pretty impressive.
I’m sure it is.
I could hear the smirk in the guy’s voice. He then added.
So were you able to stop Yoo-jin from running away…Oh. If you’re calling, that must mean that everything happened just as I said it would. Am I right?
His tone of voice had a very distinct “I told you so” ring to it.
Yeah, that’s why I called you. I’m in front of your company building.
Oh, really? Then why don’t you come on up? My office is on the 8th floor.
Oh, but I’m a bit hungry…
I said, hoping he’d offer to buy me food.
Hmm…this isn’t exactly something you say over a meal…after we talk, I’ll personally treat you to the best meal you’ll have!
The best meal, huh?
Define ‘best’…?
I asked.
How does lobster and shark fin soup sound?
Okay.
I hung up and headed up to the 8th floor.
