"Let's play a drinking game!"
Oh dear.
"Come on Rae noona join us!" Yejoon said poking me in the side.
See drinking equals bad choices so I don't drink. But seeing the overly hopeful faces of the others I sighed and gave in. I really should be more assertive but one night of light drinking wouldn't be too bad.
"I've never seen Rae drink before." Seohyun said with a raised eyebrow.
"Ai I'm going to regret this... hand me that." I said taking a can. The majority cheered again and we clinked cans.
"I feel like this is going to go downhill real quick." Lishi said drinking her chocolate milk. She's what I like to call a cocoa fiend. She'll detect chocolate on you within seconds. Safe to say she likes it.
The first game we played was simple, we start with 4 cans. The player who could drink their cans and finish first is the winner and the one who's the slowest owes the fastest player a favour. There's four rounds with four cans each. Right now it's me, Jaehyun, Lamon and Seunghyun who surprised me once again by joining the game.
"Ready.... steady..... go!" Once Minjae said go we rushed to open our cans and chug it down. The bubbles make it hard to chug but I held my own and finished the can in 4 seconds slamming it down dramatically.
"Whaaaaa Rae-noona you drank it so fast!" Yejoon said. It's true I was the first to finish winning the game. Seunghyun came in second, followed closely by Jaehyun and sadly-not so sadly- Lamon came last coughing like he was dying. I patted his back and he was okay after a few seconds.
"Okay you're definitely a lightweight there." I said laughing.
"Yah leave me alone." He pouted turning away from me like a little kid, making me laugh harder.
"Now you owe her Lamon hyung! What does the queen of the game want?" Daehyun said in a strange game show host voice as he turned to me.
"Hmmmmm lift up your bangs." I said to Lamon. He lifted his fair and I flicked him in the forehead.
"There! Now let's get back to the game!" I said already going to my can.
The next game had me lose to Yejoon who took Lamon's spot. I had to do the chicken dance in front of everyone which I'm 100% sure Lishi recorded. The next game we had Daehyun join in but he has zero tolerance and basically fell asleep after demolishing his drink so he couldn't even say what he wanted from Minjae. The last game was intense, since Seunghyun and I tied we went one more round.
"Ahhhhh. The winner is... Seunghyun!!!!" Lamon shouted gleefully. He just wants me to make a fool of myself like the chicken dance all over again. Ah dammit I lost. I turned to Seunghyun.
"So as king of the game what do you want me to do?" I said looking up at him slightly. I may be 5'8 but he's a good 6'3 and towers over me.
"I can't think of anything right now I've had too much to drink." He waved me off holding his head. To be honest it's getting to me as well. I think now would be a good time to stop.
"You can ask in the morning. But for now let's all sleep its way too late." I said checking the time. It was well past 2am and the boys had to be up at 7am sharp.
"Seunghyun, you cant drive home like this so stay with us." I said before he could say anything.
"My room with Daehyun has some space you can stay here. Don't worry you can leave in the morning." Jaehyun offered. He noticed thanking him.
"Lishi, Seohyun lets go home!" I said picking up my bag. They nodded and we all left to go home.
"Hey I thought you said you don't drink." Lishi said raising an eyebrow at me.
"I don't usually," I yawned loudly," But today is a one time thing I like being able to think clearly." I said. My mind was fuzzy but with the air conditioning in Seohyun's car I was feeling better.
"We're checking an apartment tomorrow afternoon. It's really nice and it's nearby." I nodded sleepily at Seohyun's words.
I didn't even remember walking up the stairs into Seohyun's apartment but I promptly fell asleep.
"WAKE UP!" I was awoken to the sound of a pan being smacked by a ladle. It made me jump up but my head was spinning so I clutched it immediately.
"Finally got over my jet lag so yes we're going out and we're finally doing things." Lishi said standing above me. She was already fully dressed in simple black jeans and a BTS hoodie that both of us got as a gift from a good friend.
"Is this revenge for the plane?" I said referring to when I woke Lishi up.
"100% yes. Here pop an Advil and eat some of this hangover soup Seohyun made! We have three apartments to visit, and we're signing up to that dance place you liked."
Ah she's talking about 1 Million Dance Studio. I've been watching their videos for a long time and I've always loved looking at their classes. With slightly renewed spirit- although still nursing a killer hangover- I got up to get dressed.
I decided do the same as Lishi and wear a hoodie and jeans. But I have at least four hoodies so I had to pick from my selection. I decided on the hoodie Jaehyun gave me as I had held onto it. It's still nice and cozy. Letting my curls wild I stepped out and was greeted with some warm spicy soup. I chugged that down so fast Seohyun looked at me as if I was an alien.
"How can you handle that so easily that's so spicy!" She said surprised.
"Ah you should try Lishi's cooking she can make dishes that'll burn your tastebuds to oblivion." My words made Lishi laugh but it's true. Once as a joke she purposely put ghost pepper powder in my soup. I couldn't taste for the rest of the day but it was a good soup.
"Alright first up we have an apartment here in Gangnam it's really nice from the listings and it's super close to our jobs." Seohyun said as we parked in front of the first place.
I looked at its outside and wow this looked nice. And expensive. But nice. It had a white, grey and black sleek look to it once we entered as well. And loads of space. I love Seohyun's cute little apartment but my god the space here is so huge. And we could each have our own bedroom as it's a three bedroom home.
"And here we have the first bedroom." The real estate agent showed us the first bedroom and wow. The bedroom was much bigger than Seohyun and this wasn't even a master bedroom.
The cost for monthly rent was 3.5 million won which if I did my math correctly- was about £2300 per month. For an apartment like this that was cheap.
"We have more than enough for this place! Like cancel our other apartment viewings we need to take this one." Lishi said looking at us excitedly. It's true putting our money together we have enough to split it evenly and not break our banks. Seohyun, Lishi and I did a simultaneous nod and Seohyun started talking with the real estate lady about the agreements.
Right around that time I got a phone call from an unknown number. I looked at it for a second before deciding to pick up.
R: Hello?
Unknown: Hello is this Rae?
R: yes who is this?
Unknown: this is Rachel Houser from Lightbook Inc. We at Lightbook saw your book Exalted Sky on our system and we want to make this a published book. Would you be willing to have us publish it?
R: oh my goodness yes! Thank you so much for this opportunity
Rachel: great! Hopefully I should be able to arrange to meet you to discuss the contract for this. Our headquarters are in London.
R: Ah I recently moved to Seoul, South Korea and I can't take a flight back so easily.
Rachel: hm I should be able to arrange this via Skype at first but I'll try and meet you in Seoul or pay for you to fly out and see us. How does a Skype call next week at 1pm GMT sound?
R: perfect I'll talk with you then!
I turned back to see Seohyun done with her talks and Lishi on her phone before I screeched in excitement scaring them both plus the real estates agent.
"GUYS! I got a book deal!" I shouted making their eyes widen.
"Oh my god congrats!" Lishi said giving me a hug. Seohyun squished me as well and we jumped in excitement.
"Okay today we're having take out- Rae's treat!" Lishi's made me laugh but I nodded. We should definitely celebrate! I can't want to tell the guys about this too. I took out my phone to text Jaehyun when another call interrupted it.
R: Hello?
Seunghyun: Hello Rae is now a bad time?
R: Seunghyun? Umm no now's not a bad time.
Seunghyun: Ah that's good I wanted to meet with you to talk. Is that okay?
R: give me twenty minutes and I can meet you
Seunghyun: okay my company building is-
Seunghyun gave me his company building address before I hung up. Huh I wonder what he wants to talk about.
"Guys I'll be back in about an hour Seunghyun wanted to talk, probably about the game." I said putting my phone back. They nodded understandably but Lishi looked at me with a strange look.
"Hey are you sure he's a good guy. Something about him last night felt... weird." I frowned in thought. What about him was odd or weir last night? Lishi must just be a little protective.
"Okay give me his number, and his company's address at least. I'll be there in exactly an hour to take you with me." Lishi said sternly. Well alright then... she took the info and put it into her phone.
With that I was well on my way walking to the building which was a good ten minute walk away. It was a pretty decently sized with J.K in giant lettering on the side showing the company name.
I walked into the reception area and started talking to the receptionist who pointed me to the direction of the elevator and said to just go all the way to the top. She didn't even look up from her work the entire time of our exchange. I shrugged and walked in pressing the top floor button and looked at myself through the reflective mirror walls of the elevator. I tucked a piece of hair behind my ear just as the doors opened and I was greeted with Seunghyun's face less than a foot away from mine.
"Hi you wanted to talk to me?" I said slightly uncomfortably. Didn't expect that but okay.
"Hello come come sit down do you want a drink? Coffee perhaps?" He offered walking back to his desk.
"I'm good I had lunch before I came here so I don't need anything." I lied.
"Not even iced mocha? Isn't it your favourite drink." He said holding up the Starbucks venti drink I was so fond of. Okay now I get what Lishi was talking about. Only Lishi and Seohyun know I like iced coffees... maybe I said something about it yesterday.
"It's fine. What did you want to talk about?" I said sitting in the chair farthest away from him.
"Oh yes I need you to help me with some of the paperwork your team sent for the game. Jisoo wasn't receiving my emails so I reached out to you." Ohhh he's asking for my help. Okay that's not bad. Damn I was wrong for being creeped out.
I looked over the paperwork with him and pointed out important areas for him to read over. Even highlighted it just in case. Throughout it he kept coming closer and closer, eventually sitting less than 15cm away from me looking over my shoulder. I felt my phone vibrate with a message notification and I didn't know how to open my phone to check without him looking.
"Hey I am getting a little thirsty actually do you have any bottles of water?" I said.
"Ah yes one sec." He said walking over to his little mini fridge and started rummaging through it. I quickly pulled up my phone to check and what I saw made my blood run cold.
Unknown: Get Out Now!
R: what's going on?
Unknown: whatever you do dont drink whatever he gives you. Get out of there now!
R: shit fine.
Shit. Even if this person is wrong I won't take any risks. I need to get out of here. I looked up to see Seunghyun pulling out a bottle of water walking back to me and almost as if the Gods had smiled upon me I realised Lishi should be calling me now and showing up since an hour had passed. I stood up and looked at Seunghyun with fake sorrow.
"I'm sorry but I have to go now my friend made plans for us to go to an archery cafe and she's blowing up my phone cause I'm late." I lied making it seem as if I was so sad to be leaving. He looked disappointed but nodded handing me the water bottle.
"Okay... see you soon?" He said with a hopeful look. I nodded and took my bag almost sprinting out of there.
Before the elevator doors closed I saw a glimpse of a terrifyingly creepy smile.
I rushed out of the reception area and the building nearly making both Lishi and I fall when I bumped into her.
"Oh lord let's get out of here!" I said grabbing her hand and speed walking away before she could get a word out.
I didn't stop walking until we were a good five minutes away and then stopped to take a deep breath so I could breathe.
"Okay what the hell was that about?" Lishi said looking at me with a 'what the hell' look.
"You were 100% right he's not to be trusted AT ALL." I said in between breaths. Damn I was out of breath I practically ran from the building.
"What did he do?!" She was now worried and looked me over.
"Nothing physical dont worry. But I think he's connected to those guys that attacked us." Her eyes widened at my words. I quickly told her everything about the Unknown guy and she looked shocked.
"Okay no we are not getting ourselves killed. What we need is some iced coffee and to never speak to Seunghyun again." She said rubbing her temples. I had a headache from all this too. I sighed in exasperation.
"Come on let's get that coffee and get our minds off of this." I said and she nodded. We walked off keeping to the main roads.
I did not sign up for all this. All I want is a life with adventure. Well be careful what you wish for....