TRACK 09
INTO YOUR ORBIT
KYUNG
"Okay," she says, holding up her hands in a stop motion as we reach a small restaurant. "Everybody stay out here. I'm just going to run in real quick."
Jae-un gives the inside a glance before asking, "You don't want us to go in with you?"
She snorts softly. "All of us? We'll crowd the place out when all I need to do is grab my order."
Before he can reply, she's already swishing her way through the door, leaving him open mouth staring after her. He mumbles, "There's nothing but men in there."
"What do you think she does when we're not around?" Seong Su asks, his hands still firmly tucked in his pockets.
Jae-un jerks his head to look at him as most of us do, and Seong rolls his eyes. "Not like that. I'm just saying she has to go in places like this all the time without you. She'll survive this trip, too."
Breaking the tension without meaning to, Dav En dramatically plops down on the raised edging around the tree beside the shop and rubs his stomach. "I should've asked her to get me some of their chicken skewers. They have some of the best here."
Absentmindedly, still staring inside, Jae-un chastises him, "It's for the best. I already told you that you shouldn't be eating this late anyway. Look, I'm not making this up in my head. Am I seriously the only one who doesn't like the way that they're looking at her in there?"
There's no helping the way the smile cracks my lips. He's more of a jealous person than I ever could've thought him to be. I try to reassure him, "Let them look. She's a pretty girl. I can tell you right now that she's not looking at them like that."
His head turns slowly my direction, and I can see it in his expression before he even speaks. "She looked at me like that."
I choke down my laugh, because if he thinks that he's going to make me jealous with that, I'd hate to burst his bubble and tell him it had quite the opposite effect. "That she did."
He huffs, throwing a hand out in the direction of the shop, "Does that not make you angry, or even a little upset, like I'm getting right now?"
Shrugging, I answer him honestly, "If I didn't trust her, I'd probably feel the same about her being in there. But, I don't see it that way when it comes to all of you. It's different."
Dav En grunts out a laugh. "That's probably because that's how she looks up at you when she's ---"
"Shut up, Dav En," I growl quickly almost shouting.
He'd been facing our conversation and hadn't seen her walk out of the shop.
She grins down at him. "What did you do this time, Dav?"
Pulling his focus to her, I swear there's a moment when he's looking up at her that I think he's going to answer her question, and I may or may not have to strangle my best friend.
Then, I can practically see his pout as he all but whines, "I wish you would've told me we were coming here so I could've gotten chicken. "
"You mean like this?" she asks, reaching into the bag and pulling out a long stick wrapped in aluminum foil.
Jumping up, he pulls her into a hug, making her laugh before she hands over his prize. He doesn't waste any time opening it and taking a bite. "Thank you," he finally tells her.
"Mmm," she replies, reaching up to wipe the corner of his lip where he's got sauce already.
"I've got two more," she tells us, taking them out and offering them.
Yoon Ji and Minsul both take one, pulling off a piece of each and eating it.
They tell her how good it is before offering to the rest of us.
We all take a bite so we’re not rude. All except Jae-un, of course.
I'm half tempted to tell him his frown I'm sure he's wearing is going to give him wrinkles if he keeps it up.
"You shouldn't be eating that," he murmurs unsuccessfully as they keep at it. Even Seong picks at a piece of Minsul's.
"Why?" she asks, pinching her own bit off Dav En's and taking a nibble off of it.
"We're idols," he states like it's the most obvious reason in the world. "We've got to watch our figures."
"Mmm," she says like she completely understands, and I smile, knowing what's coming.
Showing him the inside she just took a bite off of, she adds, "One of my favorite things about this restaurant is that they only use white meat chicken for their skewers, and as you must know, white meat is leaner than the dark meats.
Plus, they use a sugar-free sauce to cook and coat it in. Take a bite and try it. I dare you."
Everyone freezes. In Se watches with his own bite halfway to his mouth, eyes wide on Jae-un.
Outside of our personal circle, no one knows that Jae-un doesn't back down from a dare. The only time he will is if it’s something that will jeopardize our health or idol status.
Which is why it's absolutely no surprise as he moves close enough to her for their chests to be brushing one another.
Pride blooms in me when she doesn't step away from him, instead, lifting her chin to meet him head on.
In true team fashion, without a single thought about it, we adjust ourselves accordingly so it's harder to see the two of them. It's a small anomaly that I've noticed before but never brought to anyone's attention. I don't want them to stop and think about it, messing up the system.
He pulls off one side of his mask and opens his mouth.
Her gaze flicks down to his lips, and that feeling comes back from earlier.
I'm somewhat beginning to question my sanity, because he's right.
I should be jealous that she's looking at another man like that.
How messed up is it that all I can think is how much I'd love to see the two of them kiss right now?
Jae-un just has to pull one better. Also not one to back down from a challenge, I've learned, Liz pops it into his mouth like she does it all the time.
Only, when she goes to pull her hand back, he grabs her wrist, bringing it back to his mouth.
Their eyes are deadlocked as he reaches out his tongue to lick her fingers before pulling them into his mouth.
He sucks the rest of the sauce off before releasing them with a pop sound.
Never taking his eyes from hers, he adjusts his facemask back on before dropping his tone deep and quietly telling her, "You're right. That is good."
If it wouldn't make things even more awkward, I swear I'd take a picture of everyone's faces to have whenever I need a good laugh.
Leaving her standing with her arm halfway in the air and eyes wide, Jae-un cuts through the circle and starts walking down the sidewalk.
In Se stares after him like he doesn't recognize his best friend of ten years.
Seong, Yeon, and Minsul wear matching looks of horror.
Yoon Ji has his head tilted to the side watching her like he's trying to understand what just happened, and Dav En is frozen solid with a bite of chicken halfway to his mouth.
There's a slight flush to Liz's cheeks as she looks up to me. I shrug and raise an eyebrow with a smile.
She glances down to where Jae-un is practically prancing down the sidewalk. "How far do you think I should let him get before I tell him he's going the wrong way?"
We laugh so hard that Minsul even risks dropping his chicken as he and In Se nearly hit the ground laughing. Leave it up to this woman to ease us out of an awkward moment. I don't think anyone realizes just how much she truly does fit in with us yet.
We're so loud that it captures Jae-un's attention enough to have him turning around. "Are you guys not coming?"
"Oh, we are," she tells him, "but we're going to go this way. You can carry on if you want to."
Looking around like he's actually lost, he struts back to us like nothing ever happened. She snorts softly, probably at his audacity, before she moves to Dav En, gently patting him on the shoulder, "Eat on the go, big guy. We need to get going."
Following her direction, and literally her, we get back on our way.
Seong and Yeon fall back, and I can hear them quietly fussing at Jae-un behind us.
Serves him right for the amount of times we have to hear that we're idols and shouldn't be doing certain things.
Then he's out here licking her fingers clean like it's the most normal thing in the world.
In front of me, In Se is moving from person to person with food and picking at theirs for little pieces when he asks her, "How did you know Dav En would want one?"
She chuckles and gently elbows the man in question with a small shrug. "He's always hungry. It's better to fill him up with the good protein stuff rather than junk."
Yeon cuts through all of us to move in beside her. "Let me carry that for you."
He reaches out to take the bag that she's carrying.
Out of the eight of us, he's the only one to offer.
To be honest, I was just so surprised by Jae-un's forwardness that I seem to have misplaced my reasonable thinking.
I'm sure my other members are the same. It's the first thing that I think we have ever sucked at as a team.
She hands the bag over to him and immediately starts stealing Dav En's chicken, which he doesn't complain about in the least. He even goes as far as to feed her a few bites himself.
After walking for another fifteen minutes with everyone enjoying the spoils that she's provided and getting rid of their trash, she skips out in front of us. "Okay, we're here."
The others all glance around them and then each other before looking back to her.
We're dead stopped in the middle of a sidewalk with absolutely nothing of any kind of importance around us other than buildings.
I fight my laugh, but it doesn't stop my grin.
She catches me and returns it before moving us over to the glass doors of the building to our right.
Knocking on the window a few times, she waves at someone inside that we can't see until he's got the door unlocked and swinging it open for us.