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He ran his thumb across my wrist, where the bracelet might have sat, if I’d been wearing it. “If you never want to wear it again, I’d understand. You can give it away, if you want to. Put it in the back of your closet. It’s yours. Do whatever you like with it.”
I rolled my eyes to cover the blush I felt spreading over my cheeks. “Joon, I’m not going to give it away. I just wanted you to understand.”
He nodded. “I know.”
“I do love it. I’m keeping it.”
He smiled, ducking his head. “Good.”
“But no more jewellery I could use for a house deposit,” I said sternly.
He scoffed, but it sounded more relieved than playful.
“Make sure to buy something with a garden so we can barbecue in the summer.”
I lay back down, laying my head on his chest as his arms came up to wrap around me.
“Bold of you to assume you’re welcome in my house.”
“My jewellery paid for it,” he protested.
I shrugged. “You gave it to me.”
“Maybe you can keep the bracelet. Come stay with me.”
My fingers paused where they had been trailing over his chest.
“Breathe, jagiya. Sleep. It’ll be your turn to sneak out in a few hours.”
Chapter 40
August 18th
Warsaw
It finally felt like we had time to breathe.
The European leg had come to an end at the same time the relentless heat wave that had been baking the continent eased.
It rained on the second day of the Warsaw concerts, soaking everyone. The sudden downpour cut through the oppressive warmth that had smothered the stadium like a blanket, trapping in the heat of tens of thousands of people. The members had laughed joyfully, stomping through puddles faster than the stage hands could mop them up, and stripping off their sodden, heavy jackets, which had produced endless amounts of fancam footage, with particular focus on the soaked fabric clinging to sculpted bodies and see-through white shirts.
But the best thing about the week – better than the concerts, better than the sudden deluge that breathed vibrancy back into the fatigued crew, better than fancams of muscled arms, was the knowledge that the tour was pausing for a two-week buffer before moving onto the UAE for one last international stop before returning to Korea for the final performances.
Reset was winding down, and leaving Europe really drove that message home. There was an air throughout the crew now of being on the home stretch. Most of the permanent techies and roadies would simply switch to another tour, but the majority of us had homes to return to. Families, or even other jobs. It never failed to awe me how so many people who had been brought together in the gravity of this tour would simply break apart and drift away once it reached its conclusion.
For so many months, the machine that was Reset had propelled us across the world. It seemed unfathomable to me that soon this would just… cease to be. The sets would be taken down for the final time, never to be reassembled in this formation. Auriga would never shine across stadiums again, and there would be a final encore before the silence of the last empty stadium. It was coming, and it was coming soon.
August 19th
Poland was officially one of my favourite stops. Warsaw was so much more than I had expected, and I wished we had more time to explore.
Polish Vibers had made sure to give the group an incredible final performance to end the European leg. Apparently, the volume of the crowds had officially reached the highest decibel level the stadium had ever recorded, of any events – performance, sporting, or otherwise. The guys had gotten a kick out of being told that, and I’d promised to make a point of writing it into my article for the city-stop feature.
Jihoon had spent yesterday with the group seeing as much of the city as they could, meeting as many people as they could, because they too felt the finality of it all.
Last night, we’d broken the unspoken protocol we’d established – no staying overnight – but we’d been desperate, and thrown caution to the wind. We hadn’t been alone with each other since Amsterdam, nearly two weeks ago, and the frustration had spilled over from text messages, to flirty dares, to me walking out of my room at ten pm and lying to Sihyeon about staying with someone I knew in the city – which, strictly speaking hadn’t been a lie.
This morning, I’d woken up to Jihoon trailing kisses down my body. There was something wholly different about making love in the morning as a new sun stretched across the sheets. It made everything feel less like a secret and more like something that simply belonged to us.
