Not Your Lover (2PARK✔️)

Step Seven: Revising

hi, i love you :) also, i love unb & uni.t, don't sue me ;)

Going Crazy by EXO for this chapter, because of some old crap that gets dredged up from out of nowhere

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I stay in a hotel for the rest of the week, and the following week leading up to my contract agreement meeting. Not surprisingly, the funds my mother so kindly donated are far more than what I could ever need. It isn't exactly costly to stay in a decent hotel in the city, most buildings these days having some sort of lodging so hotels aren't as popular as they once were. I still make sure to call her on Tuesday evening to tell her that I'm living well and healthy.

She still makes sure to point out the slight cough I've contracted. "Didn't I tell you to keep your masks on you at all times? We don't need you getting sick without us there."

Waking myself up on the sixteenth of October shouldn't be as hard as it is, but I find that even rolling over to glare at the clock is near impossible. My phone cries out beside my head, urging me to gather the courage and face the day at only six in the morning.

I don't want to go anywhere today, and I don't particularly want to see anyone today, but I tap my phone's screen anyhow and end the alarm. "Good morning," I say out into the empty room, rolling over to stare at the desk beside my bed.

Only a few things are scattered around it, one of them a tabloid with Next5 on the cover. I only bought it to try and learn something about the group that I hadn't already grasped, but all I got were silly stories and ignorant questions.

"Who would you consider your ideal type?" I scoff as I sit up, thinking back on Jihoon's mediocre answer.

"Well, I prefer someone younger than me, shorter than me, and someone I can speak satoori with."

Check, miss, and check. I inwardly groan, tossing my blankets aside and padding my way to my room's white bathroom, the light too bright so early in the morning. "He probably said whatever he could to push me off his trail," I mutter under my breath as I reach into the shower to start up the hot water.

Stripping down, I try not to notice the long scar that trails down the back of my left thigh, a reminder of the life I let end now three years ago. I can't see the scar without being reminded of Minji, and all I did to pretend that she was still with me in life now. How many lies I told to avoid the full truth of everything that had happened. The lies I told to hide how broken our family was, even before the accident.

My skin is a shade lighter along the thin, rigid line. It's something that I can't exactly hide with makeup, the rise of the scar too prominent to cover up fully.

As I step into the shower, I'm reminded of Jihoon's scars cut across the left side of his rib cage. My train of thought leads to the reasons behind those scars, and I bite at the inside of my cheek in disgust.

"Stop thinking about it," I tell myself as hot water hits my chest first. "It's not your business anymore. Working with him doesn't mean he's back in your life, and it doesn't give you any right to worry over him anymore-"

I screech, flinching away from the suddenly scalding water hitting my back like small bee-stings. Grumbling to myself, I let the distraction remove any thoughts from my head, thinking instead on the contractual meeting today when the water's temperature settles itself.

There isn't really much to think about. I can't get out of the contract, that much is obvious. The few calls I made to the agency were painfully honest. I can't back out of this obligation unless I've sustained injury strong enough to leave me unable to perform. Or if I die. That was the gist at least.