ICE CREAM [ completed ]

Forty-Six

I hand the last pieces of my microphone to the teenager and give her a small bow in thanks. She's silent and doesn't say anything to me, just walks away uninterested. Alright. I gather my bag and turn back to Mia, who is scribbling furiously on her notebook after our interview. She gives me a smile.

"Thanks for the interview!" she chirps. "I'm going to be at your game tonight, so I'll edit it with some great clips of you playing, okay? It'll almost be a really cool documentary piece when I'm done with it,"

"That sounds awesome," I shoulder my bag and stand there for a few seconds trying to find my courage to ask her what I really want to know. Mia pushes her hair behind her ear again and gives me another smile. "Look, this is all really new to me,"

"Me too," her face is grinning and she clutches her notebook to her chest. "If you make it big, I'll be the first person who has ever interviewed you! I think it'll do great things for my prospect in journalism,"

"I'm nervous to ask this but...I have to," I say to her. Mia's eyes go a little wide.

"O-okay, what is it?"

"How did you really get this interview?"

I see Mia's face drop a bit, and I realize that she might have been expecting me to ask her something else...

Her cheeks flush in embarrassment.

"Oh, well," her cool demeanor from earlier has returned as she starts to pack up her stuff nonchalantly and puts on a tougher face like she's not phased by me being a tool. "I know a guy who helped me out with the gig. No big deal,"

"Who's the guy?" I pry. I see Mia bite her lip and turn away from me.

"No one you know. He's just helping me out, that's all,"

"I know a guy who likes to help people out..." I lean down so my face is level with her own. She seems nervous now and tries to avoid my eyes. "Is it the same guy?"

"It's not, okay?" Mia gives me a look then, her hair falling into her face as she zips up her bag. The mood has changed suddenly and the the brightness and bounciness of Mia's eyes has completely died. "Just drop it,"

I'm not an idiot, even though apparently Kim Namjoon thinks I might be.

"He hired you, didn't he?" I keep digging and I can see Mia getting really pissed off and defensive. She pushes passed me as she continues to to pack up.

"I don't know what you are talking about," Mia grabs her stuff with a huff then turns to face me one last time. "Good luck at your game, Yoongi. Don't fuck it up. Too many people are relying on you,"

Mia and the teenager storm away. I have an inkling to chase after her and ask her what the fuck she means by that. I groan into my hands and find myself getting equally pissed off at people being so vague and shady around me. I have to remember that Namjoon is shady, and that I agreed to all of this at the end of the day.

Still, it's hard to shake the look in Mia's eyes. 

Because she looked more scared than thankful for Namjoon's help.