One in a Million Stars – Chapter 6: Deeper Feelings

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Tae had the bright idea to take the girls back to the hotel he and the boys were staying at. Ok, so maybe it wasn’t that bright of an idea.  But it sounded better than going to bed right now.  The tricky part was sneaking in.  They decided to split up and meet on the roof.  While Nani and Jinie were riding the elevator up to the top, Nani suddenly voiced her thought.

“Am I dreaming?”

Jinie laughed. “Nope.  This is all real.  You’ll probably feel like you’re dreaming for the next few months, though.  I certainly did.  I was afraid I’d wake up one day to discover it was all a dream.  Who knows?  Maybe I’m just still dreaming.”

Nani glanced over at her. “Was that part of the reason you didn’t tell anyone?”

Jinie looked up at her in surprise. “How…how did you know?  I was scared if I told someone, it would all be taken away from me…”

“I’m sorry…if I’d known…I wouldn’t have asked about the text message.”

“No, no.  It’s ok.  I think you finding out and confronting me scared me for a different reason.”

“What was that?”

Jinie hesitated. “It made me realize…it was real.  And it made me realize how hard it is to hide something like this.  More than anything, I feel like I have to tell Jordan and Jae now too.  Don’t they at least deserve and explanation for all those nights I bailed on our plans because it was the first time I could call Tae in months?”

It was then that Nani realized Jinie was crying.  She wanted to comfort her friend, but she wasn’t sure how.

“Well…I’m sure they’d understand.  I’d imagine you didn’t want to put any of us under the pressure of keeping that secret, either.”

Jinie nodded, but their conversation was cut short by the elevator opening to reveal the top floor.  Now all they had to do was climb the stairs to the roof.  Jinie wiped her tears as they went.

When they reached the roof, Nani noticed how dark it was up there.  She could see the whole city from here, though.  The roof may have been dark, but the city was glittering below.  Nani could even see the ocean from here.  She turned back to tell Jinie, but she wasn’t there anymore.

“Jinie?”

She took a cautious step forward, a bit scared to be left up here alone in the dark.  But then she crashed straight into something.  Or rather, someone.  Two strong arms came up to steady her.

“Watch where you’re going.”

She jumped and took a step back. “Jimin?”

He laughed airily. “Yes, that would be me.” He passed for a few moments. “I think they left us up here alone.”

Yes, that sounded just up Jinie’s alley.  Leave Nani to her own devices while she ran off.  And now that Nani had heard how Jinie was handling this particular situation, she knew that Jinie would probably take every chance she could get alone with Tae.

Nani stared up at Jimin for a long beat of time before speaking. “I’m not good at starting conversation.”

He smiled down at her. “That’s all right.  We can just sit up here and look at the stars.”

He took her hand and led her to the other side of the roof.  Then he sat down and pulled her down with him.

“Look, we can see some stars here.  There’s not as many lights here as there are on the ground.”

Nani looked up at the sky.  She could make out a few constellations from here.  She could even see Mars.  She smiled.

“I suppose we can’t be too mad at Tae and Jinie for leaving us up here.”

“I can’t even begin to imagine what they thought we’d do up here.” Jimin replied. “We don’t even know each other.”

“Well…I know a bit about you.  But I think I should probably talk to you a bit more before I assume I know anything at all about you.”

Jimin glanced over at her. “You don’t think you know everything there is to know about me?”

Nani tore her gaze from the stars to look at Jimin instead. “No.  How could I?  I’m sure there’s plenty of things I don’t know.  I haven’t spent hours in your presence.  All I’ve seen is the things the camera allows me to see.”

“That’s…an interesting perspective.”

 

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