"Ah fuck it," Ezra growled, cursing under his breath, unaware of her inner turmoil. He jerked a thumb to the door as he spoke. "This is my dorm." He stated, his dark eyes trained upon her face.
Shit.
"I'm a singer. My members stay here with me." He explained, running his fingers through his bangs.
The movement gave her a glimpse of a pale milky forehead before his hair fell to rest over his brow. Then he paused seemingly realising that it was kind of weird for him to be bringing her to a place meant for satisfying basic needs.
"We have a music studio here, just in case we get seriously inspired in the middle of the night or something," he said quickly.
Fuck.
"There's no one home now...right?" She asked softly, wincing at the tremble in her voice. She was scared. Really scared. If MinJae vouched for her status as a crazy fan, she might get sued and deported back to her country.
Plus, it seemed that the soul bond was somehow only working effectively with JieMi. If she were to undergo another body exchange or teleport in front of him she was not counting on JieMi to save her ass.
He would probably haul her damn ass back to jail again.
That was unless her soul bond kept reacting such that his excuses would become pointless. Still, she was not interested in testing the limits of her soul bond. iIf she started appearing in front of the media agencies it could turn really bad, really fast.
Their careers and reputation could potentially be at stake and Amber would never wish for that.
Never.
"No...Why?" Ezra asked, brows raised.
He examined her. His eyes were drawn to her face and she watched as his pretty brows knitted together. She knew that he was reading her fear. He could probably see it on her face and in her body language.
He looked concerned, confused and a little wary at her reaction. His head tilted to reveal the glint of a silver hoop on his ear and his cute pale pink lips were pressed together as he watched her.
Amber forced a chuckle out of her lips. The bark of laughter sounded a bit forced, but it did help relax her tensed muscles. She smothered it with a quick cough.
"Uh. I mean," she struggled desperately for a reason. "I'm not wearing a bra?" She fibbed an excuse that somehow worked because Ezra immediately blushed at her answer. He sobered into a look of apology, nibbling at his lips as he stared at her shyly.
"Oh."
His voice was adorably small as he cleared his throat. His eyes moved to her jacket-concealed chest and back to her eyes. He seemed to realise that he appeared to be checking her out and heat surged across his pale cheeks, the white staining into a deep strawberry pink. He was cute like that, looking sheepish and embarrassed. It distracted her from thoughts of her impending doom.
"Right, it's probably too hot in the house for the jacket. Maybe we should head to your home for a b-bra?" He stuttered the last words out adorably. His mind was probably not used to talking about such womanly things. If Amber were in a better state of mind she would have teased him about it.
She glanced at the man. He had been buzzing with inspiration, fidgety and eager to start the entire way here and she hated to disturb his creative process. He had been shooting rainbows with his eyes when she had agreed to do it today. Even now, those charcoal, dewy eyes, moist from the lack of sleep, were shimmery and pleading. She understood what it was like to really want to work on something, only to be met with obstacles.
It was like being cock blocked.
If they came by later she might risk meeting people like MinJae or JieMi. People usually headed home during the evening and it was already noon. Hell, meeting Sieon would be problematic too. Her mind darted to her weirdly flirty soulmate. The guy texted her every morning, spamming her phone at odd hours in the night and day.
She was not sure how she was going to explain to Ezra that she worked at his company and knew exactly who IDOL was. She wanted to tell him but just wasn't sure how to. Hey, I'm actually a fan of your work. I just didn't say anything in case you thought I'm a crazy fan?
Damn.
"Is there anyone home?" Amber asked again and this time Ezra was more willing to give her his answer.
"No, my members are either at our company or in school. They don't usually head home until dinner time." He explained, scratching the side of his face with his index finger. He looked away sheepishly. "We have about four hours."
School. Amber blinked, so they did physically go to school...She assumed they mostly did online classes.
"Then, I'm okay if it's just you," she replied, chewing nervously on her lips.
"You're okay with me seeing your nipples?" Ezra blinked, staring at her incredulously. Oh, shit. Amber blushed, feeling her cheeks warm and heat with her embarrassment. Why the hell must he say it like that?
Stupid unfiltered Ezra.
"You've already seen them anyway," she replied, blushing heavily. The heat travelled across her face, burning at the tips of her ears. Her words must have unlocked his memory because the pink of his skin flushed into a pretty darker rose that drifted down to his neck.
"I guess, you can see it as much as you want—" She stopped herself before her traitorous mouth continued spewing needy words straight from her heart. What the fuck was she saying? "Oh my God, just open the damn door. I'm going to repay your kindness today, okay?"
"Okay," Ezra replied, a snort of laughter escaping his nose.
The door clicked open and she stepped into their dormitory. It was pretty anticlimactic and there was no random soulmate to jump-scare her. She was left feeling a little apprehensive as she followed Ezra closely. Her eyes absorbed the image of the space into her memory.
She was mostly blown back by the size of their home. The living room alone was bigger than her entire apartment. The space stretching out so far that the television and sofas had practically become two separate entities instead of one collective furniture unit.
She gave it a funny look.
How the hell did they watch TV like this?
Sure the TV was the biggest she'd ever seen. But seriously, what was the point if they planned to sit so far away from it? Ezra seemed to have read her expression because he answered her queries without being prompted to.
"We don't use the sofa. We just camp on the floor." He shrugged, gesturing to the huge pile of beanbags and pillows heaped into a corner, a random splash of colour in the apartment.
"Then what is the sofa for?" She glanced at him, raising a brow.
"Meeting spot or my napping area," he drawled. Amber pictured him curled on the couch with his cold fingers pressed between his thighs. Cute. "Some of us share rooms so if someone's brought a girl home to fuck, the other guy camps out here," he said. Her thoughts flickered to JieMi and she thought of him bringing Ha-Eun home. She bit her lip.
"Convenient and kind of sad." She told him. Whoever bunked with JieMi must sleep on the couch more often than not. Ezra snorted.
"We don't do it anymore. It's not easy with the media hounding our asses," he replied.
It seemed as if he were explaining himself to her. For what, she didn't know. Fun facts? It was interesting to know that most of her soulmates were abstaining from sex.
"What about me?" She pointed out.