Sunoo closed the door to my room and plopped on the bed.
"Ugh. Wait til you see him now. Every girl in the world is drooling over my Hoonie. And every boy, probably." He pouted, "How can I even compete?!"
I rolled my eyes. Sunghoon only had eyes for Sunoo long before he even spoke to him. That won't change.
"Didn't you bleach his hair yourself? It's on you." I said.
Sunoo sighed and nodded. Then said, "Jay isn't back yet, by the way".
"He's not?!"
"No, and neither is Ni-Ki. He stayed with Jay's family and I guess they travelled a bit and got caught up".
I pouted "but rehearsals start soon for our comeback and I can't have him read this at the last minute!"
"Well...you may have to if you want him to read it soon."
I let out a sigh. This is so frustrating. I want to crank this book out, but I also need it to be good. I need him to get hooked into it.
"I don't know how it's going," I told my best friend, "I know you'll love this chapter - the one that I just wrote - but I don't know how you'll feel about the rest of it. Maybe it's terrible and this was a bad idea. It's much more difficult than I thought it was going to be."
Sunoo took the laptop from me and settled into the bed. "You know I'll be honest, Wonnie. Let me read it and I'll tell you what I think."
I nodded and left Sunoo to read, knowing I'd be terribly nervous if I just stood over him waiting for him to say something. I headed into the kitchen where I was greeted by Heeseung and a platinum-haired Sunghoon. My jaw dropped in shock.
(I know I used this Hoonie in my last book but I mean GOOD LORD he's so fine!)
"He looks great, right??" Heeseung asked, "Everyone's going to fall all over him." (This original author who is NOT Jungwon says "yes")
I'll admit. Sunghoon looked extremely good. No wonder Sunoo got nervous, "It looks nice, Hoon," I said, looking down and heading to the refrigerator for a drink.
"It looks better than nice, Jungwon, because you totally just blushed!" Heeseung laughed.
I turned around to face him angrily but could NOT look at Sunghoon, "I did NOT!" I said.
"I don't know," Sunghoon said, "It draws a lot of attention, and that's not really my style." He genuinely looked uncomfortable, which made it much more comfortable to look at him.
"It's good to change your style up, though," Heeseung said, gesturing toward his own hair. It had started out red, but had faded to a darkish pink that looked really good on him.
Sunghoon nodded, still visibly uncomfortable, then looked over at me with surprise, "Hold up! Sunoo is supposed to be with you. This is your 70% time! Don't try to take it back!" He was joking but actually looked annoyed.
"I just came to get us a drink," I said, "and you distracted me so I forgot to grab the second one." I went back to the refrigerator for another bottle.
"Yeah," Heeseung laughed, "You were distracted, alright. I'm telling Sunoo" he winked.
Sunghoon smacked Heeseung's shoulder, "Like hell you are! He's already worried".
Heeseung looked up at Sunghoon with genuine confusion, "Why?? Why would Sunoo be worried. He's the most self-confident person I've ever met. He's worried about...you?"
Sunghoon shrugged, then nodded, "he always gets uncomfortable and a bit insecure when it's anything to do with me or how our fans look at me. Or even other idols," Sunghoon let out a deep sigh, "which is honestly so frustrating because he's my world."
Sunghoon looked over in my direction with desperation in his eyes.
I shrugged, "I don't know what to tell you, Hoon," I said, "you know that I haven't seen him in a relationship with anyone else other than Ni-Ki and that wasn't very deep. He's just afraid to lose you."
"And I'm afraid to lose him," Sunghoon looked down and spoke quietly. "Do you know how huge his individual fandom is? I worry about the same thing. But at the end of the day, I know that fate lined everything up from that first LITERAL collision. So I push my worries down and enjoy my time with him, knowing that he's mine. That will never change."
I nodded. "I know he knows that, Sunghoon," I said, and Heeseung nodded in agreement. "Most relationships just aren't put to the test of the entire world watching while you attempt to hide it".
Heeseung gave a very over-exaggerated nod at that comment, "Ugh, FACTS. I feel that deep in my soul. It's super hard to make sure you don't seem distant, so I make sure and do nice things for Jake regularly. Kind of out of the blue."
Sunghoon looked interested, "really? Like what?"
Heeseung started naming off all of the little ways he and Jake made sure the other felt secure, and I quietly said "I'll see you guys later and leave you to it" as I headed back to my room. Sunghoon nodded and smiled, but Heeseung didn't stop to take a breath.
Back in my room, Sunoo was sitting up on my bed, fully absorbed in my laptop. He had a huge smile on his face and would quietly squeal periodically, so I could imagine where he was in the story. After a couple of minutes, he handed the laptop back to me, then jumped off the bed.
"WONNIE!!! I LOVE IT SO MUCH!! It's so good!!!! I love how you kinda took our concept and twisted it and made it your own."
As soon as I sat my laptop down, he threw his arms around me in a huge hug. "The chapter about me and Hoonie! UGH!!!! I LOVED IT! It made me so happy. And also that you said you loved me, too. I love you bestie. Forever and ever".
"Are you sure you like it, Sunoo?" I searched his eyes for signs that he was deceiving me, but there were none. Then I added, "I mean, besides the chapter on you and Sunghoon?"
"I love it. I love how it's kinda funny and how you really show personalities. The only thing I didn't like was..." he looked like he was trying to find the words and my heart dropped to my stomach, "Like....eating people? Like, is that necessary?"
"I write it in a fun/funny way," I said.
"I mean, yeah, but eating people isn't funny."
"It is if you're a vampire."
Sunoo made a face, "I'm just saying that's the only part I don't like.
"Okay," I said, "I'll change it."
(I wasn't going to change it.)
Sunoo smiled. "Well, other than that, it was perfect. How did you come up with that story?"
I shrugged, "I don't really know. The vampire concept just seemed easy since that's our storyline, but then the rest of it I just...I started writing and it wrote itself. Which is part of why I'm worried. I just kind of wrote all fast, I'm not sure how solid it is."
Sunoo looked at me with a very serious expression. "It's solid," he said, "So now what?"
"Well," I sighed, "I'm honestly not sure. I mean, there's more book to write. But since Jay isn't here yet, I don't know how to get him to read it. I'm nervous to give it to him in the middle of comeback rehearsals because if he rejects me and it becomes a distraction - "
"- he is NOT going to reject you," Sunoo interrupted, "and you should write that into the story. The way he doesn't know what he wants."
I nodded, "I actually was thinking about using some actual things we said when we first met toward the end of the story."
"I think that's a really great idea. Even if he won't know it's you, maybe it will make him raise an eyebrow that the quotes sound awfully familiar" he giggled.
I looked back down at the open laptop with a sigh. I was a little bit stuck on how to proceed from here, so I was really hopeful that the book would continue to write itself.
"Well....I guess I'd better get back to it," I sighed.
Sunoo looked at me confused, "But you said 70/30 for the next few weeks?"
I nodded, "I did. But I need to think. Let's have lunch together tomorrow, okay?"
Sunoo jumped up and gave me a kiss on the cheek. I know he was excited to get back to platinum Sunghoon. I mean, damn. I've never even really noticed Sunghoon, and right now I can't look at him at all!
"Love you, Wonnie!" he bounded out of the room.
"Love you, too, Sun," I replied softly, longing for the kind of love that he was so excited to get back to.