The Underground Idol

Visitor

"Sorry about the loss." I tell Mino. He shakes his head, but I can see it in his eyes he's hurt. "But I believe that this is a good experience for yourself as a rapper."

"Yeah, the show helped me realize how good of a rapper I am and how I have a lot of potential as an artist." He scoops out a spoonful of ice cream and eats it. "How about you, noona?" He asks. "How's working at an ice cream place going?" He jokes. I smack him on the shoulder.

"I like my job, I might get promoted to level 2 scooper." He laughs. "I figured I should do something for a while before I decide whether I want to stay here and study or go back home." His eyes widen at the words home.

"Noona you can't leave." Mino's eyes sadden. "A lot of people here will miss you and be sad if you leave, I mean who else will Bobby and Loco be able to go crazy over when you leave?" He jokes.

"I just, need to be on my own." I say.

"It's been three weeks since you've been gone." My eyes flicker to him and then the shop where I work at. "Jay's miserable and a mope, all he does is mope, or be a grump." He doesn't mention anything about him, but honestly I wish he wouldn't mention anything about Jay too because it hurts just as much. "Have you seen him?" He asks .

I know who he's talking about but I don't reply and just stay quiet. "I have to go back to work." I mumble.

Mino sighs and scoots out the chair, I walk over to the shop and he follows. "I'll treat you to lunch next time, and I'll bring Loco along." I shake my head and he waves before he leaves.

Work drags on as usual. All the while I try not to think about anything and just focus on organizing the items out back and clean tables, windows, and basically clean anything that I see. I count the money in the register and watch the latest drama when I'm done with cleaning and counting. The drama is too romantic for me so I change the channel and just watch the news.

A few customer's come in and I help serve them, and they sit and chat while watching the news and eating ice cream. Closing time comes and I lock up and head over to grab the bus when a car pulls up and blocks me from walking.

At first I get scared but when he gets out the car a part of me sighs in relief but the other part of me wants to hide. "Esme?" Zico says.

I blink a few times at the sight of him, he looks so strange, like a Zico I no longer recognize. His blonde hair is gone and is replaced by a brown color. His eyes look baggy and sad, something about him seems off but I can't point out what it is.

He walks around the car and leans against it, his eyes waning in the moonlight. I don't know what to do or say so I just stand there and let him look at me. "Can we talk?" He half asks half pleads.

I cross my arms over my chest. "About?"

"Us?" I make a point to laugh at the word us, I don't know why I do but I think a part of me wants to inflict pain on him just so he can feel a bit how I do.

"If us involves you and Hyuna then there is no us." The words take him off guard and suddenly there's pain written all over his face.

"It was a mistake-" He begins.

I cut him off. "What? Did she go back to her boyfriend already?"

"No...she hasn't been with me since the day you saw her at the house. We've lost touch." He takes me by surprise but I quickly compose myself. "I've been wanting to come here since then but when Mino told me you cut ties off with everyone I couldn't face you knowing how much I hurt you." I notice he's wearing what I bought him for his birthday.

"Come with me?" He asks.

I stay quiet contemplating whether or not I want to go with him, but I figured that now was a good time to figure out whether or not I still had feelings for Zico or if all I had was resentment. I shake my head, and he pulls the door open, biting down on my lip I climb inside.

I hadn't realized it but the whole time Jay had been waiting for me on the other side, when Zico crossed my path and he'd seen everything. And when Zico pulls away and down the street, Jay speeds down the other highway.