This wasn’t the biggest award they’d ever won, but it was the first major music industry award they’d won this year, and it was entirely because of their fans.
Seeing them be aware of that was beautiful.
Despite everything, including my Sisyphean effort to compartmentalise my feelings, I was so fucking proud of them.
As the thunderous applause cascaded through the Theatre, and out of the speakers in the TV, I smiled into my drink.
They’d made it. Not because of luck or good marketing. But because people cared.
GVibes was well and truly back in the public scene, and I couldn’t wait to see what they did next.
Chapter 45
It was late when I eventually left the bar. The other reporters and I had watched the entire show. Drinking, talking and writing notes. By the time I’d peeled myself off the stool, I’d had a half-written article, although who could say how coherent it was.
I’d managed to drag myself into the shower to wash off an entire day of nerves, and hours spent in a bar. By the time I was done, I was so tired that I fell into bed still wearing the fluffy, white robe.
I don’t know what time it was when I jerked awake. Disoriented, I looked around, looking for some landmark, or time marker in my pitch-black hotel room, trying to figure out what had woken me up.
The sound came again, and now I knew that was what had woken me up. Three firm knocks that had me bolting upright, drowsiness forgotten, even as my head still spun a little.
“Who the fuck is that?” I quietly asked the darkness.
Not expecting the darkness to provide me with an answer, I pushed to my feet and looked across the room, where only a faint sliver of light shone from underneath the door. As I watched, a shadow moved across the strip of light.
I fumbled for the switch next to the bed, turning on the reading lamp that barely illuminated the room.
The knock at the door came again, fainter this time, as though the person on the other side was rethinking knocking on my door at… I glanced down at my watch, 02:12 am.
Wary, I padded towards the door, pulling on the ties of my robe to cinch it tighter around my waist.
I leaned in to look through the peep hole, and pulled back almost immediately, hand flying to my mouth.
I considered my options for maybe four or five seconds. Then, with trembling fingers, I unlatched the door and swung it open.
He leaned against the door frame, as if only a second ago he’d been resting his head against my door. His hair fell forwards into his face. His suit was rumpled.
He stared at me.
Jihoon was standing in my doorway. Staring at me.
“How did you know what room I was in?” I asked quietly.
“Money.” His voice was pitched so low I had to read his lips to catch the word.
I wanted to feel indignant about how he’d presumed to buy my room number, but I couldn’t seem to move past the fact that he was standing in my doorway.
His shirt was unbuttoned at his neck, and I watched his throat bob as he swallowed. My eyes were focusing on the minutiae of the man in front of me, cataloguing at an almost frantic pace, trying to ascertain if I was dreaming.
Real, or not real.
“Let me in.” It wasn’t a request.
I opened the door wider. He moved past me, and I inhaled reflexively, catching the scent of something spicy. I closed the door, leaning against it for support and watched him move further into my room.
My heart hammered in my chest as I tracked his movements, feeling as if taking my eyes off him would cause him to disappear, and this would all turn out to be a dream.
My fingers ached, and I realised I was clenching them so hard in the fabric of my robe, that my knuckles had turned white. I forced them to relax.
