Miracles on Miracles

Chapter 4

The band walked off the stage after a particularly draining concert. The extreme heat in Sao Paulo was something they were not prepared for. One of the crew members handed out bottles of water to them as they walked by, peeling off their costumes that were, by now, totally sweated through.

"Yunho, I need to see you for a moment," Ms. Choi, one of KQ's rank-and-file said, catching him by the elbow as he tried to walk past her.

Yunho sighed, but stopped despite the fact that all he wanted was to get in a cool shower. "How can I help you, Ms. Choi?" he asked, sounding more obliging than he felt.

"Let's find somewhere private," she replied, glancing around nervously.

"Well, damn. You're starting to scare me," Yunho said as he followed the older woman to a small room backstage. When they had entered and taken their seats, Ms. Choi jumped right in.

"Yunho, I have heard some chatter about you possibly being involved in an improper relationship with one of our employees," she said hesitantly.

"Where did you hear that?" Yunho questioned, narrowing his eyes.

"That doesn't matter," Ms. Choi replied as she smoothed her hair with her hand.

"Well, it matters to me," Yunho argued. "I'd like to know who's out to stab me in the back."

"It's nothing like that, Yunho. Please, understand that this is hard for me," she replied as she struggled to open a water bottle. Taking the bottle from her hands, Yunho opened it on the first try and handed it back to her. "Thanks," she said quietly before taking a long drink. "Listen, this doesn't have to be a big thing, okay? I was just asked to remind you of our policies. We don't allow any personal relationships between out talent and our company workers," she said. "That's it. That's all I have to say about it," she concluded.

"Alright, well, I've heard what you have to say. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get out of these clothes and take a long shower," he replied before walking past Ms. Choi and out of the room.

"Well, that went well," Ms. Choi muttered to herself after he was gone. She rather resented the big wigs putting her in this position. She didn't find it enjoyable at all to have to scold someone half her age about his personal relationships. But the deed was done now. She only hoped that Yunho would take the hint and keep his distance from Carmen.

But Ms. Choi was to have no such good fortune because after leaving the arena, while the other members went back to their hotel rooms, Yunho took a cab to the Bom Retiro neighborhood, which since the 1970s had become increasingly populated by Korean immigrants. Yunho had plans to meet Carmen at a small, nondescript Korean barbeque joint. When he arrived at the restaurant, he found Carmen waiting for him as she sipped from a tall glass of iced tea. She rose to give him a hug and breathed in his freshly showered scent.

"How was the show?" she asked. She typically stayed backstage during the shows, but since they had dinner plans, they had decided that she would go to the restaurant and get a table.

"It was okay," he replied. "Hot. It was hotter than hell," he told her as he stole a sip from her iced tea.

"You're making a face," Carmen observed. "What's with that face?" she asked. Ever since she was quite young, Carmen had known she was different from other people. She had an uncanny ability to read the emotions of others. It was one of the reasons she avoided public spaces because it was overwhelming to have to feel everything that the people around her were feeling.

In response to her question, Yunho crossed his eyes and stuck out his tongue. "What face?" he asked. "I'm not making a face," he joked ironically.

"No, seriously," Carmen redirected. "What's going on with you?"

Yunho chuckled slightly. "It would seem that someone knows about us and decided to tell KQ," he said nonchalantly.

"Oh, my god," Carmen whispered.

Yunho waved his hand in the air slightly. "Girl, it's not anything to worry about," he assured her. "We just need to be a little more careful. That's all," he added. At a neighboring table, Yunho saw a young Korean man looking at his phone. Suddenly a tiny flash went off and he realized that the man had taken a picture of him. Yunho stood up and approached the man.

"No pictures, man. That's not cool," he said, holding his hand out for the phone.

"I'll delete them," the man vowed.

"No, I'll delete them," Yunho corrected. "Hand it over," he said firmly. Reluctantly, the man handed him the phone and watched as Yunho deleted several pictures. "In the future, don't take pics of people without permission," he warned as he gave back the phone.

He returned to his table, slapped some money down for the iced tea, and grabbed Carmen by the arm. "Time to go," he said.

"But we haven't eaten yet," Carmen protested.

"I know, but it looks like I can't keep a low profile even in Brazil," he complained. "We'd better go before there end up being more pics of us floating around cyberspace," he told her. As they walked out of the air-conditioned restaurant, the heat hit them almost like a physical blow.

"You know, you were really cool back there, oppa," Carmen observed.

"Ah, well, I'm glad you noticed," he teased as he bopped her nose with his index finger. Across the street, a scantily clad woman blew a kiss at Yunho.

"Eu poderia fazer algumas coisas por você, lindo," the woman called to Yunho suggestively.

"What did she say?" he whispered to Carmen.

"I don't speak Portuguese, but that was close enough to Spanish for me to get the idea," Carmen replied. "It would appear that my presence at your side didn't seem to keep her from propositioning you," she explained dryly. "¡Ey, gata cualquiera, este lindo es mío!" Carmen yelled back at the woman, hoping that her Spanish would get her point across that she was calling dibs on Yunho and wasn't about to give him over to what Carmen, in her anger, had described as an "alley cat".

The woman lifted her skirt, exposing her brown bottom. She kissed her hand and slapped it against her right butt cheek.

"I guess some things require no translation," Yunho observed with a grin.

"I'm glad you can find something funny in this," Carmen snapped.

"Oh, my gosh, are you jealous?" Yunho asked. When Carmen did not respond, he continued. "You are jealous!" he concluded. With that Yunho doubled over with laughter. When he caught Carmen glaring at him, he stood up and wiped the grin off his face, replacing it with a pouty lip. "Aw, come on, don't take it to heart," he said as he wrapped his arm around her waist. "I'm used to random women hitting on me all the time. I just ignore it. You should too," he advised.

"Easier said than done," Carmen replied.

"Well, at least I know I still got it," Yunho bragged lightheartedly.

"Oh, you never lost it," Carmen assured him.

With that, Yunho pulled Carmen into an alley between the restaurant and a convenience store. "Will you let me show you what I've got?" he whispered in her ear, which caused her to squirm from the tickling sensation of his breath on her ear.

"I think you'd better not show what you're packing here," she teased.

"What if I told you it's no pistol? It's fully automatic," he said suggestively.

Carmen pulled him out of the alley and back onto the sidewalk. "If you're not careful, it's gonna be a sawed-off shotgun," she threatened with a laugh as they walked down the sweltering street where visible steam rose from the pavement as it met the damp night air.