Ophely thought that she would have fared better in France than she had in Korea. Now she knew that she has been wrong.
Ophely thought that it would be harder to leave France than Korea. Once again, she now knew how wrong she had been.
It was more of an adrenaline rush when she parted ways with her parents at the gate, teary smiles and words of comfort murmured for the teenager as she turned her back and went on the plane. Ophely was elated to go back to Korea, her heart pumped and no worry plagued her mind for the time being. She was just happy to go back. It wasn't hard to leave France.
She thought back to her conversations with Jeonghan during her holidays (hers only, he had a tight schedule, as did the rest of the boys). She was just glad to go back to her shared room with Jeonghan and have banter with the boys as they made dinner, or simply just watching them perform, receiving that rush of energy from Carats. She missed that. The randomness that the boys brought, and how now she could talk to each of them for different reasons.
Now as she sat on the long plane ride, earbuds in, watching the sky turn dark and then brighter again. She had no worries. She was going to graduate from her Korean high school soon, then she was going to go to a university, she didn't really care for prestige, and then she was going to work for Pledis in the meantime. Learning the theory of she didn't know what, and learning the practical in design and creative artist in the K-pop field as an employee.
Finally, she wasn't going to stay being an intern for over six months. She couldn't.
However, it did make her feel good to know that they accepted her as an employee. They could have just said that now that the swapping thing wasn't really a problem anymore that they didn't need her to be close to Jeonghan.
Though she stayed with the agency, Ophely knew that she would have to separate her way from the boys one day or the other. She couldn't just be the fourteenth member in the dorms forever.
Even as she turned the ideas over one side, and turned it again in her head throughout her time on the plane (for over half a day mind you), she still felt light. She knew though, she truly did, that she would have to choose her own path soon. It didn't weigh on her as much as it had a few weeks earlier. Now that she had gone back to France and was coming back to Korea. She knew what she wanted to do.
Right now her life was relatively conformable (if you push aside the fact that she was linked by some weird magic to sometimes swap bodies with idol Yoon Jeonghan), and life was about feeling things with intensity. Ophely was going to search for that high, that fear, that happiness in Korea.
She was going to go to uni, work her job, and spend time with the boys when their schedule didn't clash too much. And then she would search for her own place once she had saved up and that her school year wasn't such a mess and complicated, once things had settled a bit. She groaned to herself thinking about the prices in Seoul. Maybe an apartment or a room was going to have to wait for a bit longer.
-
Roughly fifteen hours after take-off in France, and twenty-one hours on the clock having gone. Ophely was knackered. She wanted to go back to sleep or have a day-long nap in the apartment. Though it was just half past one in the afternoon, and she needed to have lunch before any rest. She was knackered and starving.
Ophely walked down the gate to pick up her luggage, and then she changed her sim card and turned her wi-fi on, having turned it off for the entire flight in need of peace. She was unsurprised to see many messages from the boys' group chats and messages to her only. Though the one that she wanted was from the manager, telling her that he would be there to pick her up with a maroon jacket near the left side of the exit. She visualised the place and left her seat to join the man, and probably one of the members. She knew one of them had pestered the man to bring them with him to pick her up. It was expected after a year living with the boys. They couldn't do things normally.
Ophely was right, when she found the manager with his maroon jacket and a lithe figure standing beside him. She didn't recognise Jeonghan until she was only a few metres away from the pair. She ran the rest of the way. "Han-i!" She said out loud when she was close enough. Ophely was glad, joyful and happy to see Jeonghan there. Making sure her luggage wasn't going to fall, she let it go and wrapped her arms around her friend, hugging him tight.
It felt like it had been much more than just three weeks since she had seen him in the flesh.
Jeonghan hugged her back just as tightly, too glad to have her back with him. "Happy new year." He told her as they separated. She smiled back at him and went to spread her joy over to the manager beside them with a hug as ferocious.
"Come one, dress up and then we can go." Ophely obliged and curled her scarf around her neck, tightened her coat and pulled her gloves on. Jeonghan took out a cap from his bag and pushed it on top of her head at the same time. They exchanged smiles, hers of thanks, and him because she just looked adorable. And then the three braced the frigid weather of Seoul in early January.
Ophely had forgotten that the weather easily went from minus ten to zero degrees Celsius. It hit her full force when they got out and the wind came to her face. It was like taking a cold shower.
"Oh, my." She muttered, already losing feeling in her lips. She pushed her scarf higher up her face and marched forward, to be caught up by Jeonghan and his manager. The both laughing at her demise. She turned to scowl at them, only to receive sheepish smiles and a push in the right direction.
-
Ophely didn't know what to think of it. The fact that she felt such ease in Korea surrounded by the rowdy members of Seventeen. She found her bed again, as well as her clothes, little presents from the boys, and her job at Pledis.
Everything went back in place, she went with one of the multiple cars for the boys to the company, found her desk and worked with the design team for the next comeback, or was it concerts? Maybe both, she didn't care except the fact that she was working in a nice environment. Well, as nice as it could be when some employees still thought that she was a sasaeng from France and she had managed to befriend the boys so she could vouch for her. Though the boys had made it clear that she wasn't like that, as did their manager, some still looked at her from afar. But that wouldn't deter her from working five afternoons a week for a month before receiving emails from places she had asked to study at, and then her graduation had come much faster than she had expected.
The French teenager had woken up early that day, and in the common room of the eighth floor, she started breakfast for her and the boys, now knowing what they each enjoyed in the morning. More often than not it was salty food and a few with coffees, much later in the morning. Ophely was still not used to the dorms even though it had been more than half a year that she had lived with them. She wished for a visit from one of the two beanstalks of the group. They were a calm and reassuring presence while cooking, not that the others couldn't really be, but Seungkwan and Soonyoung and Chan in the kitchen were not calm, and Vernon (as much as he helped her) was not a reassurance. Ju was nice, just mellow. Ophely didn't know what to think of him. He was nice, helped her, they had interesting conversations, but in the kitchen? It was cold.
Ophely shook the thoughts out of her head, she was going to cook on her own, do well and occupy her mind with things other than the graduation process in Korea. She occupied her hands with cutting, and frying, and cleaning, and eating. Her mind following suit. But with a meal beside as she ate her brioche roll and drank a hot chocolate, the graduation fell back on her.
She sighed, letting her head fall on the table, it was stressing her out a bit.
"Good morning." She heard from behind her in the kitchen.
"Morning." She called back, sitting up and watching Jeonghan a few bowls for his breakfast, a bit of stir-fried flat beans, some rice puffs she had made, and a soup that he had prepared the day before. He heated everything up before serving himself a bowl of rice and joining Ophely in the living room.
They ate their breakfast in silence, Ophley gently sipping at her cup while Jeonghan ate rice with whatever banchan he had.
"It's going to be alright, Ophely." Jeonghan said after drinking some soup. She looked at him from her place on the ground against the sofa. "Remember how it went for Soobin last year, the only difference is that you will be on the stage."
"I hate stages."
"I know you do." He couldn't just tell her to not be scared, that would be pointless. "Just think of the end, when you'll be back here all cosy and eating Jjajangmyeon with all of us."
"Please, no!" Ophely laughed, already seeing the scene with all of the boys, rowdy as ever, and cans of beer surrounding them. She knew how they liked to celebrate. Spend all of one's energy, and sleep off the hangover. "I'll be even more tired then." Jeonghan laughed with her, knowing that it was going to happen anyways. They were going to eat at their will, drink a lot, and then sleep deeply.
They stayed for a few more minutes in silence before Ophely left the room to change into her uniform, making sure it was all clean and no creases were present. And then she picked her bag up and quietly left the house waving at her friends as she did. Jeonghna followed her as she did, still in his pyjamas. He wanted to accompany her to the ground floor, giving her as much support as he could give her.
"I'm scared." She said once they were in the elevator.
"It's alright." He answered in tow. Grabbing her hand to rub soothing circles on her knuckles.
"I'm afraid of not graduating. Like, I failed to keep up my grades."
"You will be graduating." Jeonghan looked down at her shuffling beside him, adjusting the straps of her backpack. "Or you wouldn't have been invited to the ceremony. The only important thing is to graduate. We all know you did your best, we know you weren't in any clubs or were above anyone else, but you are graduating. That's great."
"I know. But still, it's scary."
"Don't worry too much, we'll be there to support you." Ophely looked up to see him smiling down at her, bright gaze behind his mask and the telltale sign of the corners crinkling. She narrowed her gaze
"What?" She asked, unsure of where he was going with his statement.
"We'll be in the crowd." Jeonghan stated matter-of-factly and continued to smile, proud of himself for having the staff agree to it.
"You can't come!" Though his elation was short lived, had he misjudged Ophely? It seemed like it because she looked everything but glad that he was going to be there, she had pulled back from him, letting his hand fall back beside him.
"Wha- what do you mean?"
"It's dangerous for you, you'll be seen and all."
"Nah, don't worry." Jeonghan shrugged and held both of her hands in his, tightening his grip in gentle support. She frowned, clearly not appeased yet. "They can't make a scene at the ceremony."
"And after? When it hits the news?" Her eyes were pleading with him, pleading for him not to put her first and think of himself, the members and maybe Pledis (though, really, she thought that they could sometimes do better). He was resilient in front of her. Standing tall, and with that stupid smile on his face.
"Then we are proud members of Pledis' staff that hold in high regard the graduation of our colleague, you." Ophely wasn't really smitten by the idea. But Jeonghan was perseverant, and sly. So she sighed and went to hug him.
"I'll see you later then." She murmured defeated, but still sent him a smile and a wave once the doors opened and she left through the lobby of the building. Jeonghan leaned back and pressed the button to his floor. Ophely was less stressed than she had been , more confident and less worried regarding her passing grade.