Gratefulness~ pt.4

A man in a black college sweater and jeans pulls my sleeve and I turn around startled to see what's going on. I spill the hot coffee.
"Ouch," I wave my burned hand in the air and blow on my red thumb.
"Leave that for a while," the man glances at the cup and drops the SLR camera around my neck. He looks like he's in a real hurry.
"But Bobby --," I manage to say.
"Suzy!" he yells at a woman who's running past and he hands the cup of coffee to her. He tells to take it to Bobby.
"Family members are coming," the man shouts at me as he's already running towards the toilets. "Take photos of them!"
I stand still at the end of the stairs. I take the camera in my hands and shrug.
"Well, that man must have had too many coffees," I mumble by myself and turn to face the clothing rooms' doors, ready to snap a few pictures of the artists. And it doesn't take long when Winner's members emerge out of the door. Mino gets confused as he sees me behind the camera, and not the man who is always in charge of it, but then he smirks at me and makes a peace sign at the lense. The photos turn out pretty good in my opinion.

But as the people who are the first ones to get off the stage are TOP and Seungri, I know who to expect next. I try to find the darkest corner and make myself look as invisible as I can. It just doesn't help.
After Taeyang, Lee Hi and Daesung walk down the stairs and into the clothing rooms, G-Dragon walks from behind the partition. He sees me, looks at me with a serious expression and walks to me silently.
"We need to talk," he says and I put the camera down.
"You were with Young Bae again yesterday," he speaks the truth and tries to read my mind by my expressions. I look down and nod.
"Why are you always with him?"
I don't know what to say.
"What kind of a girl are you? Do you just want to date idols? Why Young Bae?"
"Me?" I look at him, trying to ignore the fact that he almost called me a whore. "With Young Bae? How did you --"
"Yeah, I know," I can see how disgusted he is. He looks at me like I was trash.
"Who told you that?" I laugh shortly. He does not believe my innocent face.
"My friend," Ji answers shortly. "I thought you were different," he looks away from me.
"I don't know what kind of a friend tells lies to you because I have nothing, I mean nothing, going on with him!" I get angry and for a second he looks at me scared.
"How dare you to think about something like that? I would never cheat on you," I tell a lie too but he doesn't know it.
"Why are you shouting," he frowns and adds: "There's no reason for Kiko to lie to me."
"Oh!" I laugh. "So it was Kiko?" I get amazed. What is this about now? If Kiko knows my secret, why is she spreading rumours like this? How did she even come to think about -- . No, but... What if she didn't know my secret in the first place. If she only saw me and Young Bae somewhere together and... The picture! The picture she sent me! I laugh relaxedly. I was worrying for nothing.
"Can't you see it?" I laugh. "She doesn't want us to be together. This is exactly what se wants: us to break up."
Ji has to admit that I might be right. This was all just a bad dream.
"Why did you think I was mad then?" he asks at the coffee machine.
"Umm," I mumble and try to think for a good reason for that but nothing comes to my mind.
"I just thought that you had gotten tired of me or something like it," I say. Ji takes his coffee and turns to me. He has calmed down but seems to still be a bit careful with me.
"So, you just kept hanging out with Young Bae. Why didn't you try to contact me?"
"Yeah... I didn't want to bother you. I though that you would have contacted me if you wanted to," I look down embarrassed of the situation.
"Minea," he puts his hand on my shoulder and slides it down on my back.
"We are together in this," he says as we start to make our way to the backdoor. "We should both work for it, right?"
I keep nodding my head, at the same time wondering where we're going. Ji Yong opens the door for me and I walk outside to the quiet backyard of the venue. I hope that the photographer will find his camera from the chair.
Ji sips his coffee. A light breeze blows. It's nice outside, so silent when inside there's so much things happening. Me if someone really misses the peaceful life as I come from a small country. I miss the sounds of nature. The misty forest at sunrise, the colors of sunrays as they peek behind the spruces and pine trees. The sound of dry branches breaking under my feet. The songs of the birds. The wild berries...
Ji finished his coffee and drops the empty can to the trash can. He takes a look at his golden watch that has been decorated green and red jewels and then smiles by himself. He looks at me with a mysterious expression on his face. I stay silent.
"There's still lots of time before the final stage. Can you give me a ride?"
"A ride? For you?"

Notes

Teaser for chapter 28