Chapter 2
Harmony
Music thumped and lights streaked across the sky well into the night. You’d think I would have managed to stay awake through all of that. Even hyper-focusing on Rae couldn’t keep my eyes from drooping shut. The jetlag was real and slogging through my body like poison. My head sat heavy on my hand until it could no longer bear its weight and it collapsed from under me, and my forehead bashed onto the arm of the makeup chair.
“Oh, that’s gonna leave a mark,” a voice said, shaking me from my stupor. The fog in my head was so thick, I could have sworn it was an Australian accent and not Korean.
I shot out of the chair and nearly toppled the guy over. “I’m awake! I’m awake!” Glancing around, I gripped onto whoever it was for dear life as I searched to make sure Soojin wasn’t looking. Instead, I found the guy with the dark hair and pink highlights staring back at me.
“You should probably have that looked at, mate.” He pointed to my face.
I brushed my fingertips along my forehead. Did they all speak English? “I’m good. Perfectly fine. Have a seat,” I said, fanning my other arm toward the makeup chair.
“Stop beating the staff, Jay,” another voice said, but this time in Korean. His blue eyes and red hair shocked me, yet somehow, I couldn’t picture him having any other color. It suited him.
“Please don’t scare her, she’s all we’ve got!” Grace yelled from behind them.
“I don’t scare that easily,” I replied, handing them each one of the portable fans as they plunked down into the chairs.
“We’ll definitely have to up our game then,” Jay said with a wink.
The redhead laughed and Grace thumped the back of his head. “I mean it, Lucas.” He blew her a kiss.
“Pay them no attention. They have the mentality of twelve-year-olds when it’s late and they’ve been filming all day.” Grace smiled and set me at ease. She was fun and easy to talk to, but shockingly didn’t look much older than me. How did she end up getting a gig taking care of a K-pop band?
“I’ve got four brothers. Trust me, these guys are nothing.” I gave them all the double-eye point glare and winked back.
“I like a challenge.” Rae stared right at me as he leaned against the wall next to Lucas’ chair.
I nearly choked on the air, and perhaps a mosquito, that I just gasped into my windpipe. That was it. No more letting him get to me. He had charm in spades, but I was not going to let him play me like some simping fangirl.
“I think Soojin wants you, Rae. She’s got some of that magical smelling tiger balm with your name on it just waiting for you.” I smirked as I dabbed my hand along Jay’s forehead.
Jay and Lucas laughed in tandem. Clearly, Lucas could at least understand English, but I wasn’t sure yet if he could speak it.
Rae’s lips pouted before they slid into a cocky grin. “But Soojin doesn’t think I’m a demi-god.” In one slick move, he pushed off the wall, slid his hands into his pockets and sauntered over toward Soojin’s station. He craned his neck and locked onto my gaze. “You’ll miss me.”
Okay, probably. But he didn’t need to know that. And why the hell did I watch his ass just saunter away. Focus, Harmony. For love of all that is holy, stop making eye contact with the man!
“I’m totally telling SWEET about this,” Jay said as he snapped a pic of Rae and typed at breakneck speed on his phone.
“Oh god, is that his girlfriend?” I froze. It never even occurred to me that he might have one. And this time, I was legit flirting. Soojin was right. Shit. When I actually tried to flirt, I leaned on banter and sarcasm. Not really a handy tool when you’re in a foreign country and they may not take it the same way.
“He has about twelve million of them according to his Instagram account.” Jay held up his phone. “And…posted. I can’t wait to see the responses. He’ll probably end up a meme.”
Lucas tossed his head back with a laugh.
“SWEET is the name of their fandom,” Grace said, patting my shoulder as she leaned in. “He doesn’t have a girlfriend. But, hell, he needs one.”
A part of me was both relieved and frightened at her response. It took everything in me to not react to that statement. Instead, I kept patting Lucas and Jay down, occupying each of my hands before I volunteered as tribute for that position.
I stared at Rae’s back as he continued his runway style walk to Soojin’s station, not realizing I was no longer patting but smacking the crap out of both Lucas and Jay’s face.
“Hey, that hurts,” Jay said, grabbing my wrist.
Lucas swatted my hand away with some kind of animalistic noise that was a cross between a growl and a love affair with the letter K.
“I’m sorry!” I blinked and stepped back. “Um, I think y’all are good.”
“Y’all?” Jay smirked.
Oh, he did not just go there. He’s the last one that should be teasing me about an accent.
“Yes, mate….y’all,” I said with an almighty drawl that would have made my paw-paw happy.
Jay shrugged. “Point taken. We just don’t get a lot of Texans around here.”
“You clearly need more Texan in your life.” I folded my arms.
“My dance card is full, but if you can pry Rae from Soojin’s fingers, he’d probably saddle a few broncos at your rodeo.” Jay chuckled.
“This conversation is painful. I’m out,” Lucas said in Korean and hopped out of his chair and walked over to Grace, sliding an arm around her waist.
I made a mental note to ask Grace later if they were a couple.
Well, that made three out of the five members that I’d met, and so far, I had yet to impress any of them. My dreams of talking choreography and making any kind of connections in the industry were as far gone as my self-control.
Pressing my back against the wall, I ever-so-slightly glanced in Rae’s general direction and dammit if he wasn’t staring right back at me. I was so not going let him win and continue to unnerve me.
He leaned over and said something to man-bun guy and they chuckled. Why did that bother me? I didn’t even know him. But something about him just got to me, and I had to make it stop. I could have easily walked out of the alley and continued on my journey to my hotel. Nothing was keeping me there. Except I made a promise to help Grace out. I, if nothing else, kept my promises. Reliability and loyalty were what I prided myself on.
At least, that’s what I kept telling myself. So why did I continue to stand there, waiting and hoping he’d somehow come back over to my station and talk to me?
Thankfully, distraction came in the form of light brown hair and dimples. He bowed low. “Hello, I’m Kim Hwan-Sook,” he said in Korean. “But I go by Sookie.”
“I’m Harmony Bryce,” I replied in Korean with a bow.
“So, you speak Korean?”
I smiled. “Let’s keep that on the down low for right now.” I nodded my head toward Rae still in Soojin’s chair.
“Ah, I see. Your secret is safe with me.” He winked.
I handed him a fan and gave him the royal pat-down treatment, hoping and praying Rae watched my every move.
“You’re very good at your job,” Sookie said.
A chuckle escaped my throat. “Apparently, I missed my calling as a professional sweat drier. And here I spent all that money in college for a dance education.”
“Oh, you’re a dancer? How’d you end up as a makeup assistant then?” He quirked a perfectly manicured eyebrow.
“I’m kind of still wondering that myself.” I shrugged. “Karma, I suppose. The universe isn’t done laughing at me.”
“Well, make the most of any endeavor and you’ll always be proud of what you’ve done. Sometimes it’s the littlest jobs that make the biggest difference.”
I blinked. “Wow. So wise for someone so young. You’re like an eighty-year-old man in a teenage body.”
“I may be the maknae, but I’m of legal age, I assure you.” The pride and confidence in his voice made me think there was hidden meaning there.
“I don’t need to lose my head for another one of you guys.” My lips twitched to a smirk.
He laughed. “Which one’s bothering you so I can come to your rescue.”
I punched a hand to my hip and stared him down. “Stop being so cute, or I’ll send you to Soojin. No more of my expert pat downs for you.”
His lips pursed to a fake pout.
I huffed and went back to patting his forehead. “It’s not fair you use dimples like a weapon. Do they train you to do that?”
“Actually, they do.” He shrugged. “Most of the time these days I don’t even realize I’m doing it. Sometimes it’s hard to turn off Sookie and be Kim Hwan-Sook again. It’s not always an easy life, but it’s the road I chose.”
He held a lot of wisdom and moral principles in those pretty brown eyes of his. I sighed and realized Rae was probably not even aware of what he was doing to me. It was just part of his job. Part of who he was trained to be. And I was stupid to think it would, or could, be anything more. “I get it.”
Rae sauntered his way back over, tapping his forehead. “I think Soojin bruised me.”
“Rub some tiger balm on it.” I winked. Crap, why the hell did I wink? What is wrong with me?
“Harmony has lovely non-bruising fingers,” Sookie said in Korean with a cheeky smile.
Rae arched a brow. “Sookie, here, seems to like your lovely fingers.”
“Oh, he does?” I played dumb and glanced down at him. “Please tell him thank you for me.”
A beaming smile a mile long blazed on Sookie’s lips. “She said she’s in love with me and wants to whisk me away to America with her.”
Rae looked at Sookie then back at me. “Is that right?”
It took everything in me to pretend like I had no idea what he just said. My toes curled inside my boots, and I thumped the back of Sookie’s shoulder. What the hell was he doing?
“Wha—what did he say?”
Rae smirked. “He said he feels like he’s coming down with something and you should probably not be near him. You don’t want to catch it.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that, Sookie.” I said in English as I clutched a hand over my heart in mock despair before brushing the back of my hand along his cheek. “Poor thing, you should probably get some rest.” I hope I played it up good and overdramatic for him.
“Yes, Sookie, you should go rest elsewhere.” Rae lifted him out of the chair by the elbow.
Sookie chuckled.
Rae pursed his lips and glared at him before easing his face into pleading puppy-dog eyes. “Bro, you’re ruining my shot here. We’re having fun flirting with each other. Let me have five minutes of believing something could possibly happen.”
Sookie and I glanced at each other before my heart spiraled down to my stomach. Maybe my Korean wasn’t as good as I thought it was. Did I seriously just hear Rae correctly?
“Oh, this is going to be awkward on so many levels. I’m out.” Sookie slapped Rae on the back and wandered over to where the rest of the group was downing bottles of water offset.
Oh crap. What do I do?
He had no idea I completely understood every word he just said. Or maybe he was just playing with me. He had to have seen Sookie and me talking. He probably knows and was just saying that to get another rise out of me. The player.
I forced myself to look at him. As I took in his lean but muscular frame and deep brown eyes, I fell prey to his sweet soft smile. He almost looked like he was blushing, from embarrassment because he knew I understood him, or if he maybe genuinely enjoyed flirting with me, I had no idea. The longer I stared at him, the longer I noticed something not right about his face.
“Oh, shit. I think Soojin really did bruise you.” I brushed my fingertips along his temple.
He slid his fingers over mine as they traced his skin and a jolt of adrenaline zinged through every inch of me, sucking the air from my lungs. His touch was like magic, feeding energy through my skin. Every hair stood on end along my body, and a pulsing heat coursed from my belly to my toes. Our gazes locked and neither of us could seem to look away.
The affect this man had on me…I had to snap out of it.
I pushed him into the makeup chair. “Let me cover that up for you before you start shooting again. You can’t go on camera looking like that.”
Dropping to my knees, I rummaged through my suitcase to find my makeup and something to tone down that lump now bulging along his temple.
“Here, let’s put this on. It should take down any swelling.” I rubbed the gel along his skin.
“What is that?”
“Arnicare. It’s for bruises.”
“You just happen to have bruise gel with you in your suitcase?” He arched a brow.
“Um, I’m accident prone. It’s a thing. Don’t ask.” I cleared my throat.
“Uh huh.” He winced. “It’s cold.”
“Sorry,” I said, massaging it along his forehead. I dabbed a bit of concealer and foundation, adding a bit of contour to try and match his skin tone verses mine. “Okay, that will have to do.”
A smile broke out on his lips. “See, you were destined to be a makeup assistant.”
“I don’t know about destiny, but I’m pretty much MacGyver when it comes to covering bruises. Just don’t ask me to make a bomb out of a yogurt cup and a piece of string.”
Confusion bled on his face as he stared at me like I was crazy. I probably was.
“Nevermind. Lost in translation reference. Go. Away with you. You probably need to get back on set and finish filming.” I shooed him away with my hands before I could get sucked back into his heart-palpitating gaze.
He tilted his head as he turned back to me. “Do you believe in destiny?”
“No. Destiny works a stripper pole and owes me five-hundred bucks.” I smirked. “True story.” I bowed my head with a laugh before glancing back up at him. “But, once in a while, I get lucky.”
“Maybe I will too.” He smiled, shoved his hands in his pockets and spun around to walk back to the rest of the guys.
Good god, I hope he did too. Preferably with me.
