“Uh, yeah. I went back to my psychologist today,” Lia said, and it was her turn to glare at Cal a little. “Don’t worry, Teddy. It was a bit intense, but it was good. Really good. I feel better about everything?—”
“Everything?” Cal asked, and Siwan nudged him with his elbow, giving him a face that asked him what the fuck he was doing. If he was honest, he didn’t know either, he just wanted to make sure that Lia was okay, that she had a good day. He was just being a good host.
“Everything,” she echoed, but didn’t elaborate. “And I really liked going around Yeonnamdong. Trust me, Teds. I’m fine.”
“But you said you were done with therapy. Did something happen?” Teddy was frowning.
“Well, the sad thing about life is that I can be wrong, unfortunately.” Lia sighed, clearly side-stepping her brother’s second question. Then, to Cal, she added. “Thank you for the recommendation. The pie was great emotional support.”
“Friends can be emotional support too,” Cal added, because he had to, and Siwan was definitely glaring at him now, because what the fuck was that? Cal didn’t know either.
“I would love to find one of those.” Lia laughed, and Cal wasn’t sure why the laugh sounded a little bitter and brittle at the same time. “Can I eat these in my room?”
She directed the question at him, and Cal could only stammer “sure,” at the unexpected way she spoke directly to him.
“You didn’t have strawberry milk.” She pouted at him as a parting. “I like strawberry milk.”
Then she bid them all a polite goodnight and turned to go to her room. Cal recognized his own post-Bomseok spiral in her, but he didn’t want to assume anything. But then again. He was a people pleaser. Maybe that was why he wanted to be in the mix of whatever it was that Lia was going through.
“Wait, Lia! What goes well with strawberry milk?” he asked before she could shut the door, wanting her to stay just a tiny bit longer.
And she smiled. It was a real smile. One that made her look like she was keeping something precious and warm in her chest that she couldn’t contain. An inside joke that he wished he could be let in on.
He kind of understood why Siwan kept glaring at him whenever Cal brought her up.
“Everything goes well with strawberry milk,” she said. “Goodnight, guys.”
And with that, she went into the bedroom Cal had assigned to her. Bought nice new sheets for. Cal could feel the weight of his bandmates and producer’s stares, questions on the tips of their tongues. He was sure he didn’t have any satisfying answers to that. Lucky for him, he was the leader and the hyung in the room.
“So, next demo?” he asked, trying to keep them focused on the goals.
“Damn. I was going to ask her if she’d said yes to the job offer yet.” Teddy sighed. “She really would be great at it.”
Cal wanted to ask more about it, to learn more about her. Mostly to be a good host, obviously. But he’d already started to steer them to the work, so the moment was over before Cal could press it.
“It might help if we had a theme for the mini album. I could help us make better choices.” This wasn’t the first time Teddy asked, and it definitely wasn’t going to be the last. Cal could tell that his night was long from over.
Until then, he had to figure out what went well with strawberry milk.
post by@CoBOLT (verified)
Rehearsal Hits: Let's Forget It (?? ??? ??) - Kim Wan Sun (???)
posted 2 years ago
FIVE
PRETTY BOY - M2M
“Is that…strawberry milk?”
It took all of Cal’s strength to keep absolutely still and pretend like he hadn’t been hoping Lia would walk to the kitchen and see the small spread he’d prepared. He managed it for the most part, he even turned around stirring his cortado like it was just another morning in the Ahn apartment. He certainly wasn’t dying to ask her, “do you like it? I hope you like it, because I really wanted to make sure you were okay, and I didn’t get to ask, because you didn’t tell your brother? I’m so sorry I asked about your session, I didn’t know that he didn’t know. Please tell me all about it.”
Easy. Bomseok used to complain that his attention could get “too much.” Antis said it too, that he was too loud, too flirty, too trying to get into someone else’s business. He had to let people come to him. Everyone was a cat and he was a golden retriever puppy.
“Yeah,” he said instead. “It’s homemade from Milk Kiss Cafe, and Siwan recommended it. This is salt bread. It’s pretty popular these days, from?—”
