Cal
kkkkk no! Just got out of a meeting with Spaceship Entertainment. They weren’t interested in the band but they offered all three of us acting contracts. Soobin would be our sunbae. Imagine.
Lia
I’m sure he could whip your deonggis into shape.
Cal
And yet mine will still be the best.
NINE
TONIGHT - CNBLUE
As much aseverything had changed on the swing set of a random children’s park in Cheongdamdong, Cal and Lia had both been swept away from each other by their work. Cal was trying to fit as many appointments with agencies as he could—he was long past being subtle about the band seeking new representation. So much so that Teddy had to sit him down and tell him to focus on the album first—let that speak to the agencies.
Lia, meanwhile, was always on calls now with people he didn’t know, talking about things like “venue deposit,” “social media,” or “audience engagement.” She seemed happy, though. The spring in her step whenever she showed up for breakfast made her radiate brighter than the still sleepy sun.
But they did have their breakfasts. Thirty minutes to an hour of each day where they sat together on his kitchen island, talking (or more often than not), not talking. It gave Cal a particular pleasure to start his day with a bit of making out. It felt like he was stealing time when he could, and Lia didn’t mind being his willing accomplice.
Here was a fun fact that Lia didn’t realize she needed to know—Cal Ahn was an excellent kisser. He liked to be the one to pull you close, liked to press his lips against yours as he touched as much of your body as you allowed. He liked to touch the tip of his nose to the sensitive spots on your neck that he could find, and liked saying things in between kisses like, “You taste so good.” “May I kiss you again?”
“What are we doing?” Lia asked him, even as her fingers were already slightly tucked in the waistband of his running shorts. The thing about Lia was that she was a greedy kisser too, and kissing Cal always left her breathless. Not him, though. He had the lung capacity of—well—a singer.
“I don’t know,” Cal admitted, his forehead pressed against hers as they caught their breath between kisses. “But I know I like this. This feels nice. You feel nice.”
There really wasn’t much of an opportunity to talk about what this was, what it meant, what it would be—Cal was never a details man, anyway. Who needed details? Psh. All he knew was that Lia was here, now, for however long it would be (56 days), and what would happen after…was an after problem.
Cal
Your brother is scary.
Lia
Oh no, did you try to wake him up from a nap?
Cal
He kicked me out of my office? He said I stopped being helpful to him an hour ago.
Lia
Aw, poor baby.
I’m at home if you want to hang out.
Cal
Hey Lia
Do you want to see my cat?
There was alwayssomething special about the first time. The first time Cal debuted on stage with the band, the first time the band won a music show. The first time the band went on tour around Asia. The first time he managed to open his brain big enough to realize that men could be just as hot as women, and he was into that, actually
First times were always great. But to Cal, the best kind of first time was knowing it wasn’t going to be the last, knowing that there was time to enjoy it, and fully let yourself get lost in that first blush of feeling.
It was late in the night when Teddy kicked him out of the office. To the surprise of everyone, Cal had become something of a perfectionist about the album-in-progress, and was hovering over Teddy’s shoulder as he reviewed their demos of demos, asking if they could change something, add something…
