33. Ruwon
Life is like a box of chocolates. Sometimes you only like a few out of the whole box.
Violeta was quiet as we got her bag removed from the plane and waited for it. I held her close, too afraid of letting her go, even though I knew she wasn’t going anywhere. I hoped she would stay with us.
“How is your ankle?” I asked, hating that I was barely remembering she hurt it. “I can carry you to the car and you—”
“It’s sore, but I’m fine,” she said, looking up at me. “I think I just sprained it, at least, that’s what the doctor said yesterday.”
“What doctor?” I bristled.
“Lorenzo had me checked out at his hotel. That's why it took me so long to get to the rental,” she said, looking down. “He said if the pain didn’t subside to go get it x-rayed.”
“I think we should do that anyway,” Levi said, coming up on her other side. “You’re still limping slightly.”
“Ms. Vega, here is your bag.”
I was about to grab it when I realized it wasn’t her bag.
“This is—”
“Thank you,” Violeta said, taking the bag.
“Where did your other bag go?” Levi asked, taking it from her.
“He wanted me to throw it away,” she said, scrunching her nose. “Said I needed to look presentable and that thing was hideous.
“What? He made you throw away your memories, all the patches and—”
“I asked the hotel we were staying at to send it to my brother for me,” she said, interrupting him. “It’s safe. I would not let him get away with that.”
“Good morning, Bella.” Matteo joined us with papers in his hands. “Hungry or shall we all get a good nap in?”
“Food and I have questions before we nap,” she said, looking at us a little warily.
I hated that we had placed doubt in her gaze.
“Good choice, Reina,” Levi said. “We have a car waiting for us in short-term parking.”
We followed Levi outside. I let go of Violeta to put my cap and sunglasses on.
Matteo pulled her close, kissing her head as I looked around, surveying the airport for any sneaky paparazzi.
It had been relatively quiet since we had left this morning, but I kept expecting them to show up at some point.
From all the chaos we had yesterday, it seemed weird we hadn’t seen anyone yet.
Halfway to the car, Levi picked up Violeta through her protesting. She wrapped her legs around him and thankfully, she had a flowy dress that was long enough to hide the important parts. She laid her head on his shoulder, sighing softly.
My heart grew ten sizes too big watching my best friends holding hands and holding our girl. It scared me to take this leap of faith but, I’ve wanted nothing more than this, not even acting.
Levi put Violeta in the backseat and I got in on the other side.
Matteo hopped into the driver’s seat with Levi right next to him, holding his hand as we left the airport.
Violeta looked out the window as we drove, biting her lip.
I kept glancing at her, wishing she would say something, but I didn’t know if she just needed time to process everything.
Matteo pulled into a small restaurant we had scouted when we left for the airport. We had several plans in place because we didn’t know how bad things would get. I got out of the car first, opening the trunk to open her suitcase looking for her white tennis shoes and socks.
Levi opened her door, leaning over and kissing her softly.
He said something to her and she nodded.
Jealousy at how effortless it was with Levi and her hit me.
I wasn’t jealous of him, but I didn’t know how to be like that with her.
A part of me felt like I always had to hold back, subconsciously thinking I couldn’t have her.
“Here, these will be better for your ankle,” I said, slipping her sandals off, putting her socks on and her shoes on as carefully as I could.
“Thanks, Ru,” she said, sniffling.
I looked up as I tied her shoe, seeing a tear falling down her cheek.
“Hey,” I said, leaning towards her to brush the tears away. “You’re safe, and I’m sorry it took us so long to—”
“No, stop apologizing,” she said, leaning into my hand.
“We shouldn’t have let you leave,” I said, hugging her. “My agent got into—”
“Oh, my god, Ru!” she exclaimed as she pushed me back. “He was in on it and told Lorenzo’s PI where we were.”
“Excuse me?” I stepped back like someone had slapped me.
“That fucking asshole,” Matteo snarled, looking at his phone. “Lorenzo said he was using a PI. I’m going to get his name, and Minsoo is going to fucking pay.”
Matteo lifted his phone to his ear, walking away from us.
“I didn’t know how to get ahold of you, my phone shattered and—”
“It’s ok,” I said, grabbing her hand as a million things went through my head.
“I think we should head home,” Levi said, looking over my shoulder at Matteo who was talking rapidly on his phone in Italian.
“No, Vi needs to eat,” I said, helping her from the car.
“Ru we can go to the rental,” Vi said, as I shut the door.
“No, you need to eat and I need to calm down before I do something stupid,” I said, leading her to the door. “I’m hungry too.”
“No, we need to go home.” Violeta pulled me back to the car and I didn’t have enough fight left in me to argue. “I can make something there.”
“No, we can order something.” Levi said, as we got back into the car.
Levi drove while Matteo was on his phone scrolling through something. The car was tense like any moment we were waiting for a bomb to go off. This wasn’t how our reunion was supposed to go. The rental was quiet as we arrived, but something felt wrong as we entered the home.
“Grab your things. We are leaving,” Matteo said, looking around.
“Wait, are we sure that’s the right thing to do?” Levi asked, as Violeta pulled me into my room to pack.
“Sit down, Beautiful. I got this,” I said, bending down to grab my bag and put it on the bed.
She watched me as I threw things on the bed, my hands shaking as I tried to fold my clothes.
Vi helped me in silence, glancing around every few minutes like she didn’t know what to expect.
My eyes stung from the betrayal as I went through everything that had happened yesterday.
Matteo was right, the rental was under his name, so how did they know I was there?
“I’m sorry,” Violeta said, as I zipped my luggage.
“You have nothing to be sorry about,” I said, taking a deep breath. “The people we trust the most shouldn’t do this to us, and if it hadn’t been for my agent, we would never have been in this mess. No one knew where I was, other than my family, and they would never sell my location.”
My phone rang and I saw my mother’s photo. I was about to hit decline when Violeta stopped me, pressing accept instead.
“Nae-saekki,” My mother’s voice made me want to cry. “Are you ok?”
“Yeah,” I said, sitting next to Violeta.
“I’m buying four tickets and you are getting on the first flight here,” she said immediately.
“Four?”
“Oh, Nae-saekki, don’t be obtuse. I know she’s with you and I know that is all of you in the picture with her,” she said quickly.
Violeta smirked.
“How dare those photographers catch photos of her like that?” she scoffed. “How dare they do this to her and why haven’t you made a statement? They are saying horrible things about her.”
“We are trying to be careful,” Violeta said. “We didn’t want the guys to suffer any backlash from this—”
“Hello, Darling. I hope you are ok,” my mother said so protectively. “Backlash? Those boys better be protecting you. I hope you are not going to let her take the fall for you.”
I felt like I was five again, but Violeta’s small smile was worth it.
“No, the guys and I are working on something. Minsoo was the one who orchestrated the entire thing,” I said, his name leaving a bad taste in my mouth.
“Excuse me? This is Minsoo’s fault?” Her voice was steady, but the bite in her tone was full mama bear.
“Long story short, my ex-fiancée had me followed to Europe. Minsoo told his PI where to find us,” Violeta explained.
“I see,” my mother said. “I still want you on a plane. You can lay low here while we figure out what to do with your disgusting ex and your agent.”
“Mom, we can’t leave yet,” I sighed. “Violeta wanted to see VI3E tonight and we have tickets.”
“I can see them another time. I think your mom is right,” Violeta said, rubbing my shoulder.
“No, you wanted to see them and after that we can leave,” I said, shaking my head.
“I can see them another day,” she said, as Levi entered my room. “It makes no sense for us to go to a public place.”
“We can figure out a statement at the airport, but I think we should head back to Italy,” Levi said.
Matteo came up behind him. “I agree, once things have settled down we can take her to as many VI3E concerts she wants. Plus, my mother already has a car waiting for us outside.”
I laughed. “Eomma.”
“I know, Nae-saekki. Come home and we will figure everything out.”
“Ok,” I said..
“She didn’t give us much time to head to the airport, but let’s get going,” Matteo said.
“Are you sure you want to make a statement?” Violeta asked, grabbing my hand. “You don’t owe anyone anything.”
“I figured staying quiet was the wrong way to go about this,” I said, helping her into the car that was waiting for us. “I need to say something because hiding makes it look worse.”
“That makes sense,” she said, biting her lip.
“It might take the heat off of him while we figure things out,” Levi said, sitting next to her.
“What are you going to say?” she asked, her brows furrowed.
“I don’t know. Maybe you can help me?”
“Of course,” she said, looking at Levi and then Matteo, who was leaning against the door. “I know we didn’t get to talk, but I just wanted to say thank you for coming to get me. I was already looking for an out because I couldn’t spend my days wondering ‘what if’?”
“There is no if here,” Levi said, cupping her cheek. “It pissed me off that these two let you get away. I’ve always wanted you, and the fact that you’re with my best friends is more than I could ask for. You leaving needed to happen. If we were to ever do anything, it had to be on our terms.”