Closer than Ever

Chapter 10 - Outed

So much laughter, so much shouting, a bit too much soju, and one board-toss later, Colleen and I have to admit that Amanda and Kyunghee are the Scrabble queens for the evening. As we're all getting into our pjs and brushing our teeth, I hear my text notification going off.

Eunen Sae, are you still awake?

Yeah, but I'm a little bit drunk. 😄

Have you been drinking?!

I had three sots of soju. Shots. Or four? Maybe four.

😆 Be careful!

Did you have soomething to tell me, Taehyung-shi?

I have a song idea, but we can talk about it tomorrow. Have a good night with your friends!

Tomorrow? It hought you are busy tomroow.

Yes, but we have to drive for a few hours to get to the filming location, so I will text or call you on the way. Good night! Drink some water!

OK. Good night! ❤️

...

I look up and realize that Amanda has been reading over my shoulder. "Taehyung-shi?" she yells. "TAEHYUNG-SHI?!? Jesus fucking Christ, you're texting with Kim Taehyung?!?" Colleen and Kyunghee yank their toothbrushes out of their mouths and shriek, "WHAT?!?"

"No!" My drunk brain comes up with A Very Clever Plan. "It's a, it's a different Kim Taehyung!"

"Tim Kaehyung wants you to drink water and be careful, so you can talk tomorrow!" Amanda yells, and laughs loudly. "He's going to call you while he drives!"

"Shut up, Amanda!" I yell. "You're going to get me fired from my job!" I try to punch her on the arm, but miss.

Amanda laughs really hard. "You suck at drinking, and you suck at lying! You're in love with KIM FUCKING TAEHYUNG!"

"I'm not in love, we just work, we just work together!" I yell at her, getting really mad. "He's the artist I'm assigned to, and we write songs together and stuff!"

"What kind of stuff?!" she yells back. "What kind of stuff do you do? Why does he text you at all hours of day and night?! It's 1 a.m.!"

"I hate you! Musicians just work weird hours. Stop talking to me." I feel like I can't breathe.

Kyunghee and Colleen come out to placate me and shush Amanda.

Amanda says in a quieter voice, "He called you some kind of a bird. Why does he call you a weird bird nickname if you're not dating?"

"Eunen Sae. Songbird. It's my working name, you dumbass. Like Suga or V or Hiss Noise."

"Did you name yourself Songbird?" Colleen asks.

"No, Taehyung named me that."

The three of them exchange looks, and then Kyunghee tactfully changes the subject. "Well, I think we're going to have to abandon the brunch idea for tomorrow morning, and go with hangover soup instead!" she says, cheerfully.

"Hangover soup and mimosas. Yeah!" Amanda says, pointing her finger into Kyunghee's chest. "That's the ticket!"

Colleen hands her a glass of water, and gets another for me.

_________________________________

My phone pings at 8:05 a.m., and I grab it and try to focus my eyes.

Eunen Sae, you're probably sleeping. I hope so. Just wanted to record what I'm thinking of for Never Tomorrow. Tell me what you think when you wake up!