Light A Flame || Hoshi

Chapter 14

"Things are good, yeah. The song request got approved. Japan's great, he's also amazing..."

She tried to stop it, cover her nose, tickle it away, but to no avail.

"ACHOO!"

The person in the room quickly halted, her voice waning. Jang-mi could hear some muffled shuffling, until the woman inside exclaimed "sorry, I think there's someone outside. Give me a minute,"

Her footsteps grew closer, reaching a crescendo until she unlatched the door, glaring at Jang-mi.

Fuck. Heejin.

"Hi,"

"Hello."

"I left some stuff with Hana, do you mind if I come in and take it?" Jang-mi asked through gritted teeth, trying to act pleasant towards the rat in front of her. She wasn't jealous because Heejin had managed to win out Hoshi: frankly, she didn't even care. It was her snobbish attitude and rudeness that really did Jang-mi in.

"Fine, but be quick," Heejin rolled her eyes, stepping aside for Jang-mi to enter the room. Jang-mi quickly located the items on Hana's bed, grabbing her plaid coat, hat and leather gloves. All the while, Heejin was staring so intensely she might've burnt a hole in Jang-mi's back.

Before leaving, Jang-mi did a quick scan of the room. The double was fairly quaint but had enough space for the both of them. Nothing out of the ordinary either, with none of their belongings really setting off any alarms in Jang-mi's brain. Heejin's side of the room was littered with clothes and ordinary-seeming things as well as a hot pink hair brush and the hotel's plastic water bottle.

Jang-mi gave Heejin an awkward smile, leaving the room to finally go grab herself a dinner with Coups and Vernon.

**

"I mean, I'm not the only one who doesn't like her, am I?" Jang-mi whined, a bottle of sake in.

Vernon slammed his glass into the table, also drunk. "Right? That's what I've been saying! She's always hanging around, and she just has this weird vibe to her that I can't really trace, but it's there. She seems fake,"

Coups took a large bite of ramen, audibly slurping the delicious noodles with undeniable gusto. "Well, Hoshi likes her, so there's nothing we can do about it," he diplomatically offered. Always the leader.

"Doesn't mean I like her," Vernon mumbled.

"Jang-mi, does this have anything to do with your little stint with Hoshi?" Coups prodded, awaiting her inevitable defensive reaction.

Jang-mi flared her nostrils. "You know well that's not why I hate her. She's just a bitch! And who just comes along unannounced to a world tour of all things? This stuff takes too much planning for her to just freeload and demand her own space in everything," she ranted, bringing up a piece of okonomiyaki to her mouth.

A slight hint of a nod betrayed Seungcheol's impartiality. A waiter then approached the table, setting down a large plate of chicken curry in front of the trio. Jang-mi took in the aroma. It smelled delicious, spices blending together in a symphony of taste that rivaled even her grandma's home cooked meals. Well, no. Not to that extent. Nothing could ever beat grandma's food.

But this came close. The three dove in, all contesting for space as if the dish was the last piece of chicken on Earth, and knowing the strength she was going against, Jang-mi rapidly scooped up a good portion and plopped it onto her plate.

"Hey! No fair, you grabbed like half of it!" Vernon exclaimed.

Jang-mi pat her stomach. "Let's just say I have special rights to more of this chicken today. And didn't you order half the menu already?"

Vernon shrugged. "Yeah, fine,"

"Also, whose idea was it to do Fast Pace as a special performance? And more importantly, why that of all the songs? Couldn't you have done something nice and simple, perhaps without dancing? Did you just forget that All My Love exists, could've done that alongside microwave Kidult," Jang-mi ranted to the two.

Coups laughed out loud. "Microwave Kidult? Seriously? And I really don't know who decided on it. All I know is that Pledis received a... generous sum, with the only condition being the performance. And one other thing, too,"

"What is it?" she asked.

Vernon began shaking his head, causing Jang-mi to playfully slap him on the arm. "Don't hold things from me or I'll find out myself and shave off your eyebrows," she threatened.

Vernon made a cross with his arms, silently signifying Jang-mi was not to be told.

In a final attempt, she turned to Vernon. "You can either tell me what it is, or I'll hold all your Kenzo stuff hostage until you open up. I'd rather choose the former than be left without any clothes, personally,"

He finally gave in.

"The other condition was that you had to perform it with Hoshi. Don't ask why, we know just about as much as you do. Pledis accepted the money and that was that," he said.

"Isn't that an interesting request," Jang-mi sarcastically remarked, curious about the mystery donor with creative conditions. "This person piqued my interest, let's just say. Is there any way to know who donated?"

"No, it was left anonymous, probably for good reason,"

"Oh well, whatever,"

After finishing up their  hearty meal, the three made their way outside of the restaurant to be faced with the crisp evening air, a refreshing contrast to the dining room's homelike albeit stuffy atmosphere.

Bidding goodbye to the two guys, Jang-mi turned to her hotel room. She found alcohol to be quite dehydrating, making a beeline for the water bottle conveniently placed on her bedside table. She paused. Had that always been there? Eventually, she figured it must've been housekeeping restocking the water and opened it up to take a nice swig of the liquid.

@???: feeling thirsty? x

a/n yall can probably tell i was hungry writing this one, and i definitely know you cant go wrong with a good japanese curry. thanks for sticking around, see you next week :)

additional a/n: the story hit 500 views! thank you so much everyone for reading and showing love to this project of mine~ i'm really grateful <3