First Love

Chapter 58

After Yoongi returned to Seoul, her identity was exposed by the fans who saw their farewell at the train station. When that went out, the masses were curious and looked her up on the internet. Her old recital video that she uploaded a decade ago on her video channel suddenly received a huge amount of likes. Other videos that she uploaded received the same attention. The video of her playing Paganini/Liszt Etude was the favorite.

There were a lot of comments and Jae had to mute off the notification. Some wete positive and some were scathingly toxic. As Yoongi advised, she didn't read through it, but one stood out – With skills as good as that, how could I compete? Jae nearly gave that comment a like but she stopped herself. She logged out of the site. It was better that she didn't interact to any of the comments whether it was good or bad. She's not looking for unnecessary attention.

As for Yoongi, some immature fans went overboard and went on a strike in front of the company telling them to break up. Not many turned up in their rally so it was easily dispersed by the company staff. After a month or two, the general masses seemed to accept the fact that both of them are in relationship whether they like it or not.

Jae went to the game developer studio and was greeted warmly by the staff. She had her own studio room where she could work without interruption which was good. To her delight, it was equipped with the latest studio equipment. She predicted that she would be spending a lot of time there.

Her Japanese were limited. She could understand some words but not in a full sentence. She tried to use it as much as she could which endeared her straight away to the other staff. They were helpful too. She set a challenge to herself to speak Japanese to anyone who made eye contact with her. She was able to speak like a local on her fifth month there. Company get-together was a drag for her. She had to be firm on her non-alcoholic choice of beverage when everyone else were chugging down sake and beer like plain water. It was good that they respected her and didn't push her to drink it

The six months dragged to more. The project gone through a lot of re-doing which included the storyboard and the game reel. Jae was up on her elbows with the songwriting and Yoongi was busy flying around the globe for concerts. Both of them were keeping themselves really busy so that the distance doesn't affect their relationship much. As Jae's dad predicted, their phone bills skyrocketed. They went on video calls when they could, spent a long time talking and managed to at least text each other when they were too occupied with work.

It was now September and Jae took a short break for Chuseok. She bought the tickets in advance knowing that the war for public transport tickets would start. Chuseok is when everyone in Korea make their way to their hometown. Traffic would be crazy and the public transport would be packed. The normal 2 hour drive could double up to 4.

She went out from the ticket gate at the Daegu station and brightened up when she saw Yoongi waiting for her. He was on his first vacation ever since the moment he debuted and he was already there for the festive season. Not caring for the world, she vaulted herself to him. "I miss you!!" she exclaimed. They haven't seen each other for months and that was telling.

He held her tight savoring her warmth in his arms, "I miss you so much."

Jae pulled back and smiled widely at him. He was wearing his face mask and his baseball cap but she could see his eyes lit up. "Let's go before I do something I shouldn't do in public," suggested Jae impishly.

Yoongi laughed, "You're right. Let's go," he took the handle to her big luggage and held onto her hand. "What do you have in here? It's heavy," commented Yoongi.

"I got something for everyone at home. Noah and his family would be there too," said Jae. Originally, she planned to stay at and Airbnb accommodation. On the insistence of her mama, she would be staying at Han's residence since her family was flying in from NY for Chuseok. "I got something for your parents."