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“Kaiya Thompson. I’m from the UK. I am a print and digital journalist. I am based in the UK, but have worked for global companies, and here in Korea, including for ENT. Thank you for working with me,” I said politely, nodding my head, grateful when we moved onto the next person.

It didn’t take long to go around the table. I had worried that I’d be the least experienced member of the team, but without covertly looking up their professional credentials, we seemed like a fairly-evenly matched group, and eventually we moved on from introductions to discussing the logistics of the trip.

My mind began to wander, and I had to fight to keep myself focused. It wasn’t that the details of the tour bored me, or even that I’d already dug pretty extensively through the documents I’d been sent; it was just that I was exhausted, and if I was honest – a little on edge. Being back here was… overwhelming. It had begun to feel like two worlds colliding – the past me that used to run around this building with all manner of tasks, and the now me who had been personally invited the cover the tour of my secret ex-boyfriend’s group. It contrasted in a way that was almost laughable, and that was when I knew I was in danger of falling asleep.

“You will travel with each other on this tour,” the coordinator said, and I tried to re-focus. “This will usually be by plane, but depending on the country may also be by coach, or train.”

“Will we be travelling with GVibes?” Someone down the table asked.

“No.” The coordinator replied in a tone that seemed firmer than the question merited.

“Excuse me,” said Yuri, a podcaster and vlogger from Japan, “will all of our interviews be conducted in a group setting? Is it possible to have time with the group, or a single member?”

She asked the question in a polite tone, but going from the coordinator’s face, you would have thought she’d asked if she could be allowed to go on a date with one of them.

“All interviews will be conducted with an accompanying manager, or a member from the company's PR team. You have also been issued an extensive list of things you may, or may not ask. Please ensure you are familiar.” The words were polite, apologetic, even, but the expression on her face was barely a step up from accusatory, as if she expected every person in this room to lock the members in a closet and force them to admit to crimes.

I had read the list, and it was actually remarkably lenient compared to other such lists I’d seen. When I’d interviewed the group last year, I had been issued a list of topics I absolutely could not touch on. This newest list actually omitted some of those, such as questions about their family, and their time in the military. It would probably be naive to think the group would answer a direct question with a direct answer, but that they were willing to entertain the topic at all was surprising.

“Any other questions? No? Good. If you could all please gather your things, I’d like to take you on a brief tour of the building to meet some of the teams that have made this tour possible. You may find it helpful in the context of your work.” She stood up and looked at us expectantly. Inwardly, I groaned, but I stood, and grabbed my bag as we all filed out, ready to tour the building I had spent months running around in.

Chapter 7

By the time we took the elevator to one of the upper management floors and filed into yet another, albeit bigger, meeting room, I was dragging my feet. Which was probably why, when I entered the conference room, I nearly tripped over them.

It was identical to the conference room that Jihoon and I had been called to one morning. I took a seat and looked around the room, trying to picture it in the pre-dawn light of five am on a cold, Sunday morning nearly four years to the date. It probably wasn’t the same room, but it seemed to echo with the memory of having to hear that someone had leaked videos of us kissing. Of hearing Jihoon refuse the offer of publicly acknowledging our relationship.

“Hey, you okay?” Sihyeon nudged me gently, and I pulled my focus back to the here and now.

“Hm? Sorry, did you say something?”

“I asked if you wanted to share rooms? For the hotels? They told us to pick, but the only other woman is the vlogger, and she told me she has insomnia and stays up to edit her videos.”

“Oh. Yeah. Sure,” I said, mustering up a smile.

“Can we talk in English? I want to practice,” she said with such ease that implied she absolutely did not need the practice, but I smiled gamely and nodded.

I briefly remembered reading in the travel pack about room assignments. It had said we’d be paired up for most stops, except in unavoidable, or ‘inappropriate’ situations, so I suppose the only other woman on the team just scored a room to herself. I didn’t mind sharing, in theory. It wasn’t like we’d be spending much time in the actual rooms.

The thought of hotel rooms had me fantasising about my own, not far from here. The room with the comfy bed. The bed I very much wanted to be in right now.

I could feel my blinks growing longer with every passing moment. I’d entered the phase of tiredness where I’d gone past the usefulness of coffee, and had begun to feel vaguely queasy.

I was just talking myself out of laying my head on the desk, when the door to the room opened, and everyone around me sat up straighter, with one or two people getting up to bow. I lifted my head higher and looked up, only to immediately question if I was hallucinating, because entering the room were the five members of GVibes.

Fuck!

Okay, no. This was fine. It wasn’t like I hadn’t known I would see them.

But fuck, did it have to be right now?

“This wasn’t on the itinerary,” Sihyeon muttered to me as she smiled nervously, and I nodded in agreement as I simultaneously tried to slump further down in my seat, letting my hair fall into my face as I nodded at the door, not looking at any one person for longer than a moment. Not seeking him out.

There were enough people crowded into the room that it should have been easy to avoid looking at him, and perhaps it could have been, were it not for the inescapable fact that I could have been in a crowded stadium and still been able to find him effortlessly. It was hardwired into me, and denying that didn’t make it any less true.

My eyes slid closed for a moment as I took a breath. I opened them and lifted my head. My eyes collided with his, and for a moment I couldn’t decipher his expression. It was as carefully neutral as I hoped mine was. Except, it also wasn’t, or at least not to me. I could map every facet of his face even after all this time. I was as familiar with his every expression as I was my own.

I stared at him, the ghost of his fingertips running down my spine, and I shivered. He looked at me as if he knew it.