Paper Dolls

Chapter 36

"You're not meeting him alone," I say to Binna sternly, while we head for the lifts. 

Mr. Wan had been enraptured by my beautiful best friend. He'd completely forgotten that I had promised to train with him privately, which is technically good for me but one look at Binna has me feeling heavy with guilt. 

"You saw what happened. He keyed our session into the system," She replies. 

The soft chime of an approaching lift interrupts our conversation and we head inside hurriedly. The doors slide shut with a click and I see my tired reflection staring back at me. 

"He's a pervert," I say, louder now that we are alone. 

Binna leans against the wall and tucks a dark lock of hair behind her ear. "He seemed pretty harmless today. Don't worry Jina, I can handle a middle aged perv. Trust me I've met worse." 

"Tell me when you're going. I'll come with." 

My skin prickles when she laughs, clearly down playing this turn of events. "You're overreacting again but yes, if it makes you happy you may join." 

I can hear the chatter coming from our dance studio, some of the girls already inside and waiting. A quick look at my phone tells me it's ten minutes till Mr Lee shows up to grill us through our routine. 

It is only then that I notice my phone has been flooded with messages. Almost all of them from Jeju. There's one singular one from Hyeon. I open that immediately. 

Found some stuff on J and L. Meet soon to consolidate. 

My heart rate spikes like it usually does whenever Hyeon is involved. A nervous, prickling sensation in the back of my neck that crawls down my spine in trickles. I quickly type out a response, starting with a thumbs up emoji. 

Got the pic. Sending it now. 

I send him the pictures I took in Mr Wan's room and he instructs me to get rid of this SIM card right after. This is the third burner phone he's given me and it's almost comical how the two of us have been acting like a pair of secret agents. 

Sneaking around on people, infiltrating spas, disposing burner phones like toilet paper. When I think about what we've been up to, it feels like another Jina in another life. An escape that might lead to the truth or not, but an escape nonetheless. 

And I wonder who needs this escape more, me or Hyeon. 

Once I'm done with him, I begrudgingly stare at the fifteen messages from Jeju. My cheeks burn, remembering the words I'd last said to him about Rachel. Embarrassment settles on my body like second skin and I skim through his messages as we enter the training room. 

What's this about Rachel?

Is it because of our duet? I thought it would be a good idea that we aren't partners. 

Are you jealous? Jina, there's nothing to be jealous about. 'inserts heart eyes emoji'.

Talk to me. You seemed so off today, I'm worried.

So many messages, all along the same lines. I feel like an idiot for mouthing off so quickly. Maybe nothing's happening between them. Maybe it's all in my head but I hate the feeling all these doubts cause. 

Like there's something roiling about in my veins, growing and festering, feeding me poisonous thoughts and making me imagine unwanted things. It's highly distracting. 

At least solving the Dalia mystery has been helping me focus and prepare for my debut. But this thing with Jiho is throwing me off base and the fact that he can affect me this much is downright scary.