December 24th [COMPLETED]

Part Four: Winged Victory

George worked hard to act like nothing had happened in Amsterdam around the guys. She did her best to pretend like it was totally normal every time she was a part of their security huddle moving through crowds and airports like it was totally expected that there were reporters and cameramen calling her name along with theirs like she totally belonged on the private jets they took late at night that just barely fit all of them.

The members followed her lead and acted completely normal around her. But every once in awhile, during a particularly busy rush from airplane to waiting bus, there were glances in her direction that held just a bit too much concern. Or, sometimes, one of them would walk just a little too slow to stay right next to her, shielding her from the crowd. The only one of them who didn't do this was Jae Min.

Jae Min seemed to be the only one who understood that was George needed most was to work. And work she did. George made herself completely at Jae Min's disposal and he had no problems putting her to work.

She no longer waited outside his hotel room when Seo Joon came to fetch her and instead, walked in when Seo Joon did and started setting up even as the curtains were being opened and Jae Min was just barely waking up. Jae Min didn't seem to mind in the least and so George followed his lead.

It got to the point where he was so comfortable with her in his room that he started taking meetings while she organized his tracks, telling her to get him up when she was done.

George hadn't reached that level with the rest of the guys just yet but they did start following Jae Min's lead and called George more often to help them out. It got to the point where George slept at short intervals and got used to getting woken up to work at all hours of the night. Jet lag had everyone on a weird schedule and so there was no way to know when she might be needed. Things on the road were starting to feel like they used to. The organized chaos and lack of sleep helped.

Due to her complete lack of schedule and the fact that she was constantly on call to go work whenever needed, George and Felix were having a harder time scheduling their phone calls. It didn't help that Felix also had a crammed schedule, with shows almost every night and promo almost every morning. They were a week in on their six-week stint apart and they had managed to talk twice.

George was determined to find a way to connect, even when they couldn't talk. She decided to do whatever it took and so, the first time in her career touring the globe, George starting actively taking pictures. For the first time in her life, she acted like a tourist. She took photos of her hotel and the view from her room in every city she stopped at. Felix did the same. George took panning videos of the stadium and the crowds and as many videos of the shows as she could and sent them to Felix. It helped calm her guilt as she had not managed to take Felix to one of the group's shows yet and he was dying to go.

Felix replied with photos of his own, the same cities George had been in only a few days prior or was scheduled to be in the next week. His photos were of his hotel room view but also of the view from the stage during soundcheck and then again with a full sold out crowd behind him. Sometimes it also whatever radio station he had popped into the perform at after an interview. Everything and anything they sent each other.

And always, every show, without fail, Felix's manager, Benjamina, sent George a video of the speech Felix made right before he played one of his last songs.

George knew Felix's set list. She had helped him decide on the ebb and flow of the show. And so she knew that her personal favorite Felix song, and the one that had received the most positive critical attention, Phoenix, was the third to last song, Felix's last slow song.

Felix had started a tradition on that tour to make a little speech about the song Phoenix as his band left the stage and he took his time plugging in his acoustic guitar, stepping up to the solo mic, stalling as the the spotlight slowly tracked across the arena to land just on him.