L’S POV
I glanced at the alarm clock on my bedside table. It was 2 AM and I couldn’t sleep. I haven’t spoken to Jihoon in 5 days and he hasn’t even made an effort to reach out. It’s not like I should be one to complain though. We’ve spoken often for the past 2 years since the first time we met and we’ve also spent time when I visited him in Korea a few times but we weren’t official. There were also times where I would doubt if I was important to him or not. Don’t get me wrong, he has never failed to make me feel important AT ALL. If you saw him in the media or in public, you wouldn’t think he was the sweet and sensitive type but he has his ways. There was this one time on my birthday, I was kind of upset because I wanted to take the day off but I had to work. I know it was a bit selfish of me because we had an event that we had planning for the longest time – and there was only 6 of us working together- but this was my birthday. I was super sensitive that day and it seemed like my tasks were more difficult and the other organizers were irritable too. It was not fun at all. Halfway through the day and I was more than happy to just pack up and go home. All I wanted to do was lay in bed with a tub of ice cream and some chips and watch sappy movies while I cried myself to sleep. It also didn’t help that none of my close friends had greeted me happy birthday. Everyone seemed so busy that they forgot all about me – yes, even Jihoon. As soon as we finished our event, we all gathered for a meeting, like we usually did. We all went into a small room with a projector set up. This wasn’t normal for our meetings but since this was a larger event I thought they had something important to discuss. I didn’t think much of it when all of a sudden the lights turned off and Jihoon’s face flashed onto the screen.
“Saengil chukha-hamnida. Saengil chukha hamnida, saranghanun …” he sang while giggling.
The other organizers I was working with walked in with a bouquet of roses and a cake.
“He planned this all for you.” C, one of the organizers said.
Tears started streaming down my face and they wouldn’t stop.
“I…thought… you…all…forgot.” I said, in between sobs. They all gathered around me in a group hug.
“How could we forget? We love you!” M, another organizer answered.
“Sorry we couldn’t give you the day off, we had to make sure you didn’t miss your surprise.” K said.
All of the organizers in our events team went on a one-letter basis. We called ourselves the Alpha-Admins. Corny right? Whatever, we loved it.
“Should I call him or not?” I missed him too much and I couldn’t take the agony of not hearing his voice anymore. I understand how busy he was especially with the pressure of the oncoming comeback but the pain of missing him was much stronger than any sense of rationality at the moment.
I dialed his number and pressed call.
Ring….ring…ring… The subscriber you have called is unavailable at the moment.
I called again. Three times and by this time I was annoyed by the automated voice on the other line.
“He’s probably asleep.” I tried to console myself. “I’m sure he wouldn’t deliberately not answer my calls.” I could feel my heart breaking at the thought of Jihoon not answering.
“L, what are you doing to yourself?! Get A GRIP!” I thought.
I turned my phone off and rolled over in bed, praying that this sinking feeling was gone by the time I woke up.
