My Heart and Seoul (14): Appearances

Lishi's POV

I was sitting in the recording studio with Mr Lee looking over their debut music video as it was only a few days away from being released and he was putting some final touches to it.

"I say it would be better if we stuck to the long shot and then the shot where the camera pans over to Minho with a zoom so you can see his face better as he's rapping." I advised showing him the version with my changes. He looked over it for a second in deep thought before letting out a joyful laugh.

"That's great! I didn't think of doing it like that! You're a good one how did you know about editing like that?" He replied looking impressed. Well creative media does come in handy I'll be damned.

"I used to do media in school, so I know a lot about camera angles and such." I said finishing up the video so it looked smooth.

"If you're interested would you like to try on being an assistant producer?" He said what now?

"That would be a great opportunity but I don't think the company would agree." I said after some thought. They did hire me on as a caretaker first, if I suddenly jumped to assistant producer without them agreeing it's a bit wrong.

"I'll talk to the head about this, you have talent in media." He waved off my concerns. Oh that's great then. I shook his hand and said thanks before I left the room and went to my office to fill out some final forms, and checked my phone for the time seeing I had several messages on my phone.

Unknown: GET TO RAE NOW!

L: who the hell is this???

Unknown: it's me the guy who messages Rae. Shes in danger so GO! I'll cover you!

L: oh shit

I ran out my office quickly locking my door behind me, running to the studio. I knew the place because Rae said that's where they're filming today.

Running in heels made me slower but I still pushed on, going in and out of backstreets to try and cut my time taken. In one alley I noticed hard iron pipe lying on the ground and without thinking I picked it up and continued heading forward.

I was about to pass an alley when I heard the unmistakable cursing of my best friend. Going in I saw a giant beast of man about to grab her and I was not about to let this son of a bitch take her.

"GET AWAY FROM MY BEST FRIEND!" I screamed in fury swinging the pipe like a baseball bat and hitting the back of his head. He started swaying on the spot and fell over after a second.

"How in the ever loving fuck did you get here?" Rae asked in disbelief. I poked the guy with my shoe to check if he was fully unconscious before dropping the pipe and rubbing my arms. That fucking hurts after you swing it, nearly dislocated my shoulders ow.

"Ouch that guy is built like a fucking tank. You know that Unknown person? They started spamming me screaming that I should come here immediately so I ran and picked up a random pipe in an alley on the way." When I finished my explanation she looked at me with even more shock.

Damn I'm out of breath, I started wheezing a bit trying to catch my breath when Rae tossed a inhaler at me. The struggles of being asthmatic, comes in at the worst of times.

"Let's go, we're going back and pretending nothing happened." I said taking Rae's arm and pulling her away.

"But what ab-,"

"Unknown said they'll take care of it." I lied and she seemed a bit more relieved.

We walked back out and she bought me a chocolate milk, which I gladly took. My throat was killing me as well from screaming so loudly so I definitely needed it. That and I love chocolate, but thats pretty obvious by now. Before we entered the building out of the corner of my eye I noticed someone in the next door office looking at us, but once he met my eyes he looked away. Coincidence? Maybe but I dont trust this anymore...

"I'll stick with the boys from now, go back to the office and I'll see you soon." Rae said going back inside the studio.

One day, one damn day our adventures will result in someone dead.

I sighed walking back but kept an eye out in case of anybody following me, I didn't dispose of the pipe until I was back to my office area and left it in a nearby alley before heading up.

Just another day with Rae.

Rae's POV

Heading back into the studio I looked definitely a little more shaken up. I'm usually good at keeping my cool but when a hairy Sasquatch was ready to take me away I kinda panicked.

"Rae you okay you look a little freaked out." Minjae said coming up to me concernedly. I waved him off.

"Really? A bird flew into my hair so I spent a good few minutes shooing it away." I lied laughing. He looked visibly better and started laughing as well.

"Did it think your hair was a nest? Wow. Let's go we have to go back now." He said gesturing for me to come with him. I followed along and saw the others ready to go.

"Sorry for the wait." I said giving Jaehyun his water.

We all piled back into the van thing and headed back to the Double B building, where I think the boys had practice and studies again. Seungho had a full day of school tomorrow at Hanlim, and then the day after i forgot so I need to go over the plans once again when I get back. But since Seungho has a full day of school and the boys will be doing their own thing I'm free except for some schedule calls.

Oh I forgot I needed to talk with the book deal lady. I'll handle that tonight, and then see when we can meet up. Hmm maybe Lishi and Seohyun would like to go to a cafe with me tomorrow.

My afternoon and evening was strangely quiet and I enjoyed the peace. In the past few days it's been a mess so getting some quiet time is needed definitely. Besides I needed to finish some writing for my book, it's now a series I'm half way through the second.

I ended up messaging the book lady and set up our Skype call for 10am GMT tomorrow which is about 6pm for me, I'm pretty pleased with that overall.

"Rae-noona!" Just as I was about to leave I saw Seungho pop his head in to my office.

"Seungho? What's wrong?" I asked bringing him in.

"Come with me!" He said tugging on my arm urgently. I followed him quickly thinking something was wrong.

"What happened did someone hurt themselves?" I asked worriedly as we made our way to the practice room quickly.

"Look!" He exclaimed pushing me in. I walked in and was greeted with a giant cake in my face.

"We have cake! And snacks! Savoury snacks!" Lamon exclaimed happily prancing round with the giant chocolate cake. Behind him was a small table with snacks.

"What's all this for?" I said surprised. I saw a lot of different snacks. Some American ones too which was interesting.

"Well we never did a welcome party for you, so we decided to do one now! Daehyun baked the cake and don't worry none of us went into the kitchen." Jaehyun said from behind me, making me jump slightly. In his hands was a little box.

"Here it's not much but it had value." He said opening it. Inside was a small necklace with a circle engraved on the circle was the date that I started working with them. It looked just as beautiful as the ruby one they gave me.

"Aw you guys.... I know part of this is because you guys just want to eat junk with an excuse," we all laugh.

"But I'm really honoured!" I finished earnestly. It was really sweet of them to do this.

"GROUP HUG!" Daehyun shouted being the first one to give me a huge hug. All the guys joined in and it ended up being one big group hug. I felt like a squished ball before I was let go, but my heart warmed at their sweetness.

"Great now lets have cake!" Yamato said releasing me and reaching for the cake, in order to cut it into slices.

"Knock knock I smell chocolate." I turn to see Lishi casually strolling in.

"You have some next level smelling senses when it comes to chocolate." I chuckled at her as she walked over to the cake.

"What can I say? There's no bad time for chocolate." She laughed as well and grabbed a slice.

"What happened to your group then?" I asked referring to the group Lishi works with.

"Currently it's their afternoon break cause they're recording one of their songs right now. I decided to check in on you." She said lowering her voice a little with the second sentence.

Ah she's talking about earlier. The dude still confuses me even now. But I guess some things are better left to Unknown right now.

"Lishi-noona, you like chocolate as well?" Jaehyun said with some realisation. No shit Sherlock. I kinda laughed a little because it was pretty obvious.

"You can just call me Lishi come on, but yeah I like chocolate who doesn't." She said taking a bite out of the cake.

"Chocolate is gross." Daehyun commented, making both of them turn to him with looks of horror.

"Disowned, goodbye. I see you don't have taste." Lishi dramatically turned away making me laugh.

I'm glad to see Lishi getting along with everyone, making some new friends. It's better having friends getting along with each other.

I sat on the floor cross legged in a circle with the others whilst everyone told fun stories from their trainee days. I found out that Seungho accidentally fell asleep when they were colouring his hair and his hair ended up bright purple- like highlighter instead of lilac. They managed to darken it to a smokey colour but the picture they showed of his highlighter hair set us all off on a laughing fit. I didn't realise that Jaehyun was watching me until I felt a hand take mine and hold it. I turned to my right where he was and he was chatting with everyone like nothing was happening. What a dork.

"Hey Rae did you get everything sorted with that Lightbook lady?" Lishi asked curiously.

"Yeah we have a Skype meeting tomorrow evening, and she said she'll be flying out to Seoul next week to get all the paperwork done." I replied taking a bite of my cake slice that I left abandoned earlier because of my laughter.

"Lightbook? You mean the publishing company?" Minjae questioned scooting closer. That set off all the boys and they stopped their talks to look at me. Ah I forgot I didn't tell them about my book.

"A while ago I finished a book on the Lightbook app, and the company heads saw it and they want to publish it into a paperback copy."

"Whaaaaa?! That's amazing Rae!" Jaehyun exclaimed giving me a huge bear hug. Is this 'let's all squish Rae Day'? I mean I don't mind the hugs.

"It's been one of her dreams for a long time to be an author." Lishi said patting my shoulder. Aw I love having my best friend around to celebrate.

"This calls for more cake!" Lamon said making the boys cheer.

Ah these dorks, but I guess I like having them around.

Our laughs lasted for a while before we actually had to get back to work, so I went back and finished everything up. By the time I was done it was mid evening around 8:32 but it wasn't dark out so I decided it wasn't too late to get some items from the store to make a proper dinner out of. We can't just have cake for dinner, a proper meal is due. Lishi finished a little later and met me at the store so we could carry the bags together up to our apartment.

"How much rice did you buy?" Lishi asked seeing me carry the huge bag over my shoulder.

"Well the 15kg bag was on sale I couldn't pass it up!" I explained making her laugh.

"We have enough rice to last three months at the least my god." She continued as we walked up to our door.

I set down the bag for a second to open our door and then hoisted it again as Lishi entered our dark apartment before me.

"Hey turn on the lights!" I called out after her when I locked the door behind me.

"Alright!" She went off to the kitchen to turn the light on and I followed with our bags.

As soon as we turned on the light we both let out bloodcurdling screams.

A male stranger was sat on the couch looking at us with a smile.

"Well it's nice to meet you finally Rae, Alishbah."