Chances

Chapter 17: On the Other Side of the World

On the other side of the world, Hyejin felt like she hadn't had a single night of good sleep nor a single stress free week in about ten years when in truth she hadn't had a good night rest or a stress less week ever since she had gone back from Ireland in almost three months. A fourth of the year, not one break, not one moment of silence,  not even an average of five hours of sleep, she had worked like a machine for over three months now "and for what?" She thought.

It's not like her back account could get any bigger, besides she had no use for all the money she already earned. Yes, she visits MIlan, Paris, the US, Hongkong, and many other countries regularly, her work had even brought her to Egypt and Dubai, but she hadn't even gone to visit her family since she graduated. Not to mention she hadn't been able to stay in touch with the girls as regularly as she would've wanted, now that she was in good terms with all of them. She decided that she's had enough and would take a break after all the shoots she had booked in December and then she'd be free to do what she wanted.

Before that could happen though, she had massage off the migraine building at her temples. Gulping down her third painkiller that early morning, not being able to close her eyes despite being surrounded by darkness and silence, she picked up her phone the moment it started ringing, with a raspy tone and breathless voice she answered the hand held device.

"Yah!" The other person screamed making her pull the device away from her now sensitive ear and checked the caller ID. Rachel. "It's been three days since I've been calling you and you never picked up once." The loud girl complained, Hyejin could almost picture the wrinkle forming in the middle of Rachel's eyebrows right now. "It's like 2 A.M. here, speak fast and tell me what you want." She was not taking Rachel's attitude too well.

Sensing this Rachel whispered into the receiver that Jimin had basically told her he liked her three days ago and she didn't know what to do. "What?!" It was Hyejin's turn now to scream, no doubt she was wide awake and was ready to make Rachel spill all the details which weren't necessarily plenty.

The younger girl reported how awkward it had been lately since he confessed. Whenever they make eye contact they'd look away and pretend like they didn't just catch each other staring, or when they're in the same room together alone a weird awkwardness begins to build forcing one of them to leave every time, she'd also been crazy hyper aware about how she interacts with the rest of the boys "I even pushed Taehyung off the couch when he tried to rest his head on my lap and I felt so bad when he pouted at me, unnie, ugh so embarrassing." but at least that made Jimin giggle, she noticed. After all her ranting, Hyejin had asked why she was interacting with the boys so much anyway and Rachel forgot to mention the part that she'd been staying there since she got to Korea four days ago earning another "What?!" from the photographer.

"First of all, you have to get out of there, what are you even doing staying at their place?" She was shocked, the audacity of Rachel to inconvenience the boys knowing full well how busy they were. "Stay at your parent's house." She suggested. "I can't they're out of town for another week." The younger replied. "Book a hotel." "They wouldn't let me." "Stay over at a friends'" "Like who?" Rachel had been just out of touch with Korea as Hyejin had been and it's not like she was close enough to anyone else besides them in college to ask them to let her stay at their place. "Call Reyna, she's been in Korea since Ireland." 

"Really?" Rachel hadn't heard from her so she wasn't sure if she could just ask that of her but remembered that Reyna stayed at her parents place with her when they first got back to Ireland so I'm sure she could do the same for her this time around. They rung Reyna so all three of them would be in the call. "What's up?" Reyna answered the call seeing that both other girls were on the line so her curiosity made her press the answer button. Hyejin filled her in on what was happening "Oh my Gosh, Jimin got balls." She commented making Rachel blush.

"So can I stay with you while I think about what to do about him?" Rachel begged but "What's there to think about? Jimin's has everything extremely good looking and just as nice. I recently watched their dance videos and he's super hot, Rachel, give him a shot." Reyna remarked and Rachel had felt a pang of protectiveness over Reyna noticing  how hot Jimin is when he dances, surprising her as fast as the thought came in her head, 'did I really just think he's hot?"

Rachel justified that it was still really awkward and would want some space before she could think clearly, adding how much she wanted to spend time with her dearest friend now that it looked like they would be staying in Korea indefinitely. And Reyna agreed.

Later that day Rachel announced to the guys that she'd be staying with Reyna from now on and thanked them for their hospitality, the boys wanted to treat her out with Reyna this time before sending the two off to which both agreed.

Hyejin, hours later, received a phone call during one of her photoshoots. It was a representative from BIg Hit Entertainment calling to invite her to a gala night they were having on the third week of December. The company had acheieved a lot of milestones and BTS in particular got a lot more popular not just in the music industry but the fashion industry as well thanks to the amazing shots she created for them. Staying humble and mentioning that she was just doing her job and the shots wouldn't have been possible without the boys' already handsome faces and fine physique, the caller laughed along with her and said they'd send her the official invitation via mail and to wait for it but would love it if she RSVP'd soon to which she said she wouldn't miss it for the world.

Meanwhile, Dahee was troubled herself, over-working herself to the point of exhaustion. Despite being pale and her supervisors encouraging her to take a break and go home, rest, drink lots of fluids and eat nutritious food, she declined. The game had she had been developing finally had got approved, she just had to improve the coding to make it better. No, to make it the best game her dad has ever put out to the world. That was always her goal, to make the best designs in order to be seen as the best, or at least be seen as a good daughter. So she wasn't going to stop until it exceeded even her standards.

Finally, the day of the release of the game came, December 15, Hyejin's birthday. Dahee had quickly texted her a happy birthday before she forgot over the excitement or the nervousness she would definitely being later as soon as the game launched and they players at their event played it for the first time. She stood silently at the front of the audience with the rest of the game developers and directors of her dad's company, her father being at the center of them all giving his speech before finally launching the game.

At the end of the event, it had been a huge success, the gamers themselves not wanting to leave, and the company securing a whopping over a million sales on the first day. Dahee's father shined brightly wearing an enegmatic smile than in turn made her beam out as well. Shaking hands with the directors and everyone else who came as they left the door, only leaving her and her dad and some of his trusted people were left at the event's place. Dahee's father approached her near the door and gave her an approving nod of his head and said "I'm invited by a partner company to a gala in Korea, join me." He had asked his assistant to text her the details and said that he'll see her in the airport and tapped her shoulder twice before leaving without another word.

Dahee had let all her exhaustion flood through her body as soon as she heard the elevator on it's way down, collapsing onto herself and crying out of happiness and weariness. She had done it, she had made him proud, why else would he want her company to at a gala, a non-work event. And he tapped her shoulder, he's never done that before! This was the feeling of pure euphoria. This was the feeling of bliss. This was the feeling of a father's love.