Playing With Fire

You’re probably reading this trying to predict what happened next. No, we didn’t invite Mina back inside for a second round. I did not have a threesome with two idols. Life just doesn’t work that way, no matter how lucky you are. 

But if you guessed that I almost had a panic attack, then you are absolutely right.

I couldn’t speak. Literally. I tried to, I really did, but not a single sound came out of my mouth; I was actually frozen in fear before her. When death stares you right in the eyes, it’s hard not to react that way. 

“You should hurry back,” Mina said, not even looking at me. “Everyone’s looking for you.”

“Is Manager Kim mad?”

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “I texted him a while ago that I found you, and that you’re not feeling well, and I’m taking care of you.”

Sana sighed in relief, giving Mina a big hug. “Ahh, thank you! You’re the best, you know that, right?”

“But you should still hurry back because they’re gonna throw away all the gifts the fans gave you if you don’t sort them out. We’re supposed to leave soon.”

“Oh no! Would they really do that?” Sana said, letting go.

“Don’t you remember what happened last time Momo was late?”

“Ahh, you’re right! Okay, I’m going!” Sana said, running down the hall as if her life depended on it.

Um. Bye, I guess?

This would be the part where I tell you that Mina and I hooked up right as Sana left—if I could rewrite my life. But I can’t.

“H-hi,” I said, awkwardly waving at her.

“Hey.” 

Her gaze was so intimidating, but at the same time, so dangerously captivating. She looked so pretty staring at me that I wanted to scream. I always thought that she had the most beautiful face in Twice, but being in front of her just made it even more apparent.

“We were just taking more pictures,” I lied, which I’m sure did more harm than good.

“I wasn’t born yesterday.”

I held onto my neck, not sure of what else to say to deescalate the situation. “You’re not going to tell anyone, are you?”

“Why would I get her in trouble? She’s my friend.”

“Oh. Thank goodness.”

But the brief moment of relief completely dissipated before I could even catch my breath.

“Just stay away from her,” she said, and then walked away.

So yeah, any hopes I had of being in a relationship with Sana, whether it was romantic or purely sexual, was shot down immediately with just those five words. I guess I’m not that lucky after all.

---

The next Twice fanmeet wasn’t until another two weeks, and I was kind of torn between being excited and being scared out of my mind of seeing Mina again. Why was she so scary anyways? Was it because of her reserved introverted personality? The quiet ones are always the deadliest, right? Or maybe it was just the fact that she knew our secret and now had control over us. But she didn’t seem like the type to blackmail anyone, so what exactly was it that made her so scary? 

Sana stopped replying to my messages after that day, and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t bummed out. I mean, I don’t even know what I expected. Did I really think Sana and I would fall in love and that I would permanently move to Korea to become a trainee or something? Either way, I couldn’t stop thinking about what happened. Even days later, I could still feel every sensation vividly from our brief encounter, and honestly, I would have traded my soul for it to happen again.

It was so bad that it started distracting me from both school and work. Oh yeah—I forgot to mention—I work as a barista at a fancy coffee shop in Gangnam district.

I actually got the job pretty easily, the owner literally came up to me one day, asked me if I wanted to work there, and boom, I was instantly hired. It was a great gig; it paid really well and the schedule was flexible. But the greatest perk was that a lot of pretty girls went there—including celebrities.

And here begins the next chapter of my crazy life.

It was a Saturday, and I was still moping over the whole Sana situation, to the point where I was so down that I told my manager I didn’t want to talk to any customers. So my co-worker ended up working at the register, and I just stood in the back of the bar making all the drinks. And by that I mean I half-assed everything and kept staring at my phone, hoping a Kakao notification would appear to save me from my misery. Spoiler alert—it never happened. 

I’m not the kind of person to make excuses for his own mistakes. I admit that I was extremely sloppy at my job that day. I didn’t exactly care about anything, and I made all the drinks so fast that I wasn’t even sure if I did them correctly. But I know now that I didn’t because some customers were just more vocal than others. 

“Dude, Blackpink’s here,” my coworker Hyunwoo said in a hushed voice, tapping me on the shoulder.

He was a tall, lanky guy who went to the same school as me, and was the biggest fanboy I ever met in my entire existence.

 “What?” I said, almost dropping a pot of hot milk on myself.

“Yeah, look,” he said, as we both poked our heads out from behind an espresso machine that wasn’t even big enough to hide us to begin with. “That last order was theirs.”

Hyunwoo was often wrong about a lot of things, but not when it came to idols and k-pop. Just as he said, at the table furthest away from the door was Jennie, Jisoo, and Rosé, casually sitting by themselves with their oversized shades covering their faces. 

“Where’s Lisa?”

“No idea, but I’m gonna go bring their drinks,” he said, patting my shoulder. “If I’m lucky, maybe I can get a selfie with them.”

“Wait, ask them if I could get one too,” I whispered loudly, but he had already taken off with the three cappucinos that I just winged.

I watched carefully from afar, but it was kind of hard to tell what was happening, so I moved a little closer by the cash register. Hyunwoo dropped the drinks off, and there seemed to have been a bit of a conversation happening. Jennie, however, didn’t seem very interested, as she was just on her phone the entire time, so it was just mainly Rosé entertaining him. Even at that distance, I couldn’t really hear them clearly. There was a lot of hand movement and gestures from Hyunwoo, followed by some laughter from Rosé and Jisoo, while Jennie just looked up a few times, nodding. 

God, she’s so hot. She could ignore me any day.

Now we reach the climax of the story.

Hyunwoo pulled out his phone and popped the question, and I could see Rosé’s lips forming the words “yes, of course!”—just before Jennie raised the cup to her mouth.

She took a sip and instantly made a face, almost spitting it out.

And that’s when I knew I fucked up.

There were more words being exchanged, and a couple of customers tried to order, but I completely ignored them. My attention was fully fixated on what was happening at the right corner of the room.

Hyunwoo put his phone back in his pocket, and his arms started flailing around. I couldn’t tell what was happening, but I saw him pointing back at me a few times. 

“Please give me a—” an ahjumma wearing a white tennis cap tried to order.

“Shh…” I said, putting my hand out. “Blackpink.”