My Summer in Seoul

Chapter Fifteen

Jealousy

Grace

We were at Haneul Park, one of the places that my dad said I absolutely had to visit before I came home.

It was nearing eight at night by the time we made it there after Rae insisted on buying several bottles of soju or rice wine, and exhaustion was creeping up on me hard and fast. I was surprised I hadn't already fallen flat on my face. Why was it taking so long to get accustomed? Maybe it was the stress.

The guys kept all of their disguises in place and made sure to look down when people glanced in our direction—not that there were many people at the park that late at night.

I saw a few couples holding hands, some in matching outfits, which was just freaking adorable. Only one person really looked in our direction when we got out of the van and then he was back to probably telling his girlfriend how gorgeous she was.

A stab of envy hit me in the chest.

I'd dated in college but none of the guys had looked at me the way that guy was looking at that girl.

Maybe I'd just been dating in the wrong country?

I smiled at that and looked away, giving them their privacy and nearly bumping directly into Kai's back.

"Sorry." I yawned behind my hand then peered around him at what appeared to be two hundred wooden stairs leading up to heaven. "That looks like a workout I want no part of."

Kai just grunted and started to walk up the stairs.

Yeah, I was afraid of that.

"Wait, why do we need to take stairs to drink soju?" I may as well have been invisible as each guy started going up the stairs leaving me pouting at the bottom until, with a little nudge on my lower back, I was getting propelled forward.

"Hey!" I turned around in irritation.

Lucas, with his bright red hair and gorgeous eyes, jerked his head toward the stairway and gave me an evil smile.

My shoulders slumped. "Fine...but only because we won against that crazy guy, and when I say we I mean you, since I just stood there having a heart attack for about three minutes straight. You guys really are bad for my health."

Lucas stared at me for a few seconds, then smiled and looked away. He needed to be careful handing out so many smiles like that; it really wasn't good for my heart.

Rae was the last to join us. The rest of the group was already a third of the way up while we hung back. Blond hair peeked out around Rae's black beanie as he held out a bag for Lucas to carry.

"So, I want to hear the rest of the story—not the we won part, but who the guy Lucas nearly killed really was."

Rae seemed to think about it for a minute then said. "His nemesis, Byung-Ho."

Lucas muttered something under his breath as we all started to slowly take the stairs.

More cursing maybe?

Rae continued. "Byung-Ho was a trainee at our label, but when it was time to form SWT he didn't make it—Lucas had only been training maybe a year and wasn't expected to debut yet, so when he got the spot over Byung-Ho, well it caused issues."

I frowned. "When you say debut, does that mean your first time on stage? In front of people?"

I focused on the blond pieces of Rae's hair rather than the heat of Lucas's glare at my question, as if he couldn't actually understand how dumb I was for not knowing what a debut was.