By the following day, Valerie and Bryan went out to go to this summer festival called the hot Seoulstice where most people are gathered in the Hangang Park, full of food, drinks, games, and contests. Kids were holding onto the balloons while the parents were buying ice cream for them. The smile on their faces was brighter like the sun and they couldn’t be happier.
“This is so nice, you know. Everything we have is right here except-” Bryan didn’t get to finish his sentence.
“Family,” Valerie guessed with a crestfallen smile.
“Yep,” Bryan pressed his lips together into a thin line as he kept his hands firmly inside his pocket jeans. “We can face-time them this afternoon.”
“My parents are working full-time. Better to send messages to them instead,” Valerie said, frowning.
“I see. We can try with Ava and my family unless you are an extremely shy person,” Bryan smirked with a smug expression on his face.
“Not that extreme. I just don’t know them well as Ava,” Valerie rolled her eyes calmly.
“That is why it’s the perfect time to meet them,” Bryan pointed out and hovered his eyes at the dessert truck that was parked near the sidewalk. “I’ll go buy some funnel cakes. Be right back.”
“Sure,” Valerie chirped and sat down on the bench as she was texting Sally.
“Hey. Are you busy?” She asked.
“No. Why? Anything new? By the way, I’m planning to go and meet my boyfriend in person by the next four weeks. I’m so excited!” Sally said, sending exciting emojis and hearts on the message.
“That’s great news! That means I get to see you, right?” Valerie beamed.
“Totally. We can wander around the beautiful city of Seoul. I would really love to invite Ava, but she’s very occupied with work,” Sally frowned.
“I’ve heard and probably, the four of us will hang out together next time,” Valerie suggested.
“Good idea,” Sally said with a grinning face.
On the other hand, Bryan bowed down and thanked the server as he grabbed on the plates. He turned around and started walking back to where his friend is until a random girl bumped into him, accidentally spilling the Taro bubble tea on his shirt and gasped.
“Woah!” He got shocked as they both examined the stain.
The girl with a light yellow blouse was glistening nervously back and forth, stammering. “I-I’m so sorry! I wasn’t paying close attention.”
Bryan looked up at her and smiled instead. “Hey. It’s okay. You must be in a hurry.”
“Yeah…” she said, panicking and pulled out the tissues from her shoulder bag to dab out the liquid from his shirt. “Sorry…”
Bryan was gazing at her in awe while he was still holding the desserts in a firm grip. “What’s your name?”
“Hara,” she said, biting her lip shyly. “You?”
“Bryan,” he said, smirking and reminded her. “Just be careful where you are heading, okay?”
“Hmm…” she hummed in response cutely, much to his chuckle.
“Alright, see you around!” Bryan gave her a nod and left.
Hara lowered her head down and blushed a little before she looked back at him, then walked away.
A few minutes later, Valerie has her arms crossed and her eyes hovered at how sweaty Bryan was.
“What happened to you? You look like you just finished a marathon,” she commented funnily.
“Spilling incident. But I’m all good. Here you go,” he panted breathlessly and handed the funnel cake over towards her.
“Thanks,” Valerie said and took a handful spoon of the whipped cream as she bit off the strawberry, chewing it carefully and questioned with curiosity. “How did that happen?”
“A girl bumped into me and nothing happened,” Bryan explained truthfully.
“Better be or else, Ava will be mad at you,” Valerie said, laughing.
“Yeah, yeah. I know how jealous she can be. Don’t worry, I promise her that I wouldn’t be flirting with anyone other than her,” Bryan nodded assuringly and ate half of his dessert.
In the late afternoon, they both got home and resumed their work on the case. One of them is on the computer, whereas the other one is drawing red arrows on each picture of the members, listing their own careers below them.
“Right. Chef Jin, Professor Namjoon, Basketball player Yoongi, Tennis player Hoseok, CEO Jimin, Saxophonist Taehyung, and Solo Artist Jungkook,” Valerie enunciated every word slowly.
“Got it,” Bryan muttered lazily as his eyes were fixated on his fingers typing on the keyboard and saving the document file to his hard drive. “Who would’ve thought that they are pursuing their personal dream jobs? I wanted to be an astronaut, so I can land on the moon like Neil Armstrong.”
“Pfft. Keep imagining. Although, I don’t believe that anyone has gone out into space,” Valerie stated.
“Why not? Have you seen how they’ve recorded back on those years? NASA can’t be lying,” Bryan said.
“Pretty sure it is. All those pictures and videos are only based on CGI screens with special effects,” Valerie pointed out.
“Is there evidence? That can’t possibly be fake,” Bryan shook his head in disbelief.
“Well, then. You just got to dig deep into the research because sometimes, they are not always telling the truth,” Valerie shrugged and looked down on the map.
Her phone began to ring loudly in which she answered immediately. “Hello, Mr. Si-hyuk?”
“Ms. Valerie. Have you talked to them individually?” He asked blankly.
“Yes. I have…” she replied weakly.
“Okay, but why do you sound so hesitant?” Mr. Si-hyuk wondered.
“The thing is… they seem to be happy with their current lives. I’m afraid they won’t be coming back as a group,” Valerie explained.
“I see. Not at least one member?” Mr. Si-hyuk thought.
Valerie’s eyes went startled as she began to realize. “There is someone.”
“That’s good. Which one?” He asked excitingly.
“Jungkook,” Valerie said.
“Ah! The youngest member,” Mr. Si-hyuk recalled and continued on. “Invite him to the meeting, even though I’m expecting all seven of them. Still, invite at least one person.”
Valerie gritted her teeth slightly. “I’m working on it.”
“Best of luck. See you soon!” Mr. Si-hyuk said gleefully.
“See you, Mr. Si-hyuk,” Valerie replied back and ended the dial.
She sighed with a slight groan. “Now what? How am I supposed to gather them all together?”
Bryan raised his finger up and smirked. “Letters.”
Valerie wrinkled her eyebrow confusedly and repeated. “Letters?”
“Hmm. We are going to have to send invitations to them,” Bryan said, then he turned his back on her to continue collecting the information on the computer.
“Oh. I see what you mean. Hopefully, this works,” Valerie prayed desperately.
“It will. Always count on the genius,” Bryan boasted.
Valerie snorted and giggled. “Sure, sir Zedler.”
She faced back in the other direction and noticed two little birds flying by the windows. She smiled warmly at how they were so happy and so free, mostly in harmony with one another. She started to think about the possibilities that may occur in life if she had found her soulmate. For Bryan and Ava, they were certainly more than just friends as well as Sally and her boyfriend.
Time was skipping forward in a fast lapse as they both rested on the couch, watching Parasite. The film won six Oscar nominations in a row, making the country proud. Of course, the story depicts some of the real scenes that had occurred before.
The next day, they were still sleeping and snoring at the same time. Valerie’s arms and legs were dangling upside down from the couch, whereas Bryan’s neck was tilted upward with his mouth drooling on the left corner. Both of them heard their cellphones blaring on the table, waking them up. Their eyes were still closed and one of them slid off onto the floor with a thud, scratching her head groggily.
She fluttered them open and pressed the home button to see tons of missed calls from Mr. Si-hyuk. She glanced directly at the clock and panicked.
“Shit!” She cursed out loud as she bolted upright and went straight to the bathroom to get dressed.
Bryan snored and looked straight ahead. He wiped off his saliva away from his cheek and noticed that it was 10:54 am. “We’re late?”
Valerie came out of the washroom after brushing her teeth and tying her hair up into a ponytail. “I’ll go meet up with him. You can stay here and relax.”
“Are you sure, Val?” Bryan asked for reassurance, massaging his right eyelid.
“Yeah,” she answered shortly and wore her NIKE running shoes before slamming the door behind her.
Ten minutes had passed after Valerie had finally responded back to Mr. Si-hyuk and met him at the Korean Dessert cafe.
“I’ve been waiting for you to answer. Thank goodness, you made it,” he said, sighing in relief.
“I’m so sorry for my tardiness. I forgot that this appointment is important. I lost a track of time,” Valerie reasoned out shakily. “It won’t happen again.”
“That’s alright. Anyway, shall we head on to the plan?” Mr. Si-hyuk mentioned.
“Absolutely,” Valerie nodded as the two of them started talking about the gathering and how they will execute it.
During the day, each of the members had received invitation cards while they were working on their jobs. Chef Jin was called by the receptionist lady, who handed him the envelope, whereas Professor Namjoon was also given one by the principal. A basketball player, Yoongi, got a letter from his coach, especially a Tennis player, Hoseok. Business CEO Jimin’s conference was stopped for interruption when one of his assistants gave him one. The same goes for Saxophonist Taehyung and solo artist Jungkook as well.
Later on in the evening, Valerie and Bryan arrived at one of the big private rooms that Mr. Si-hyuk had opened. They were both sitting on the chairs beside each other as one of them was glancing at the clock on the right side of the wall.
She sighed impatiently and mumbled. “I’m going to get some coffee.”
“Go for it,” Bryan insisted, opening his Macbook laptop and continued to type.
Contrarily, Valerie walked up to the thermos machine and pressed the unlock button to pour some hot water onto the cup. Then, she sprinkled the caffeine powder and added a little bit of sugar before she stirred it with the stick.
As soon as the former members showed up one by one, Bryan was looking at them back and forth as he cleared his throat.
“Thank you all for coming in. They will be here in a few minutes, so have some mini cookies on the table,” he greeted politely.
Though, the four guys were giving each other death stares, whereas the other three gave little smiles.
“What am I doing here?” Jin asked dumbfounded.
“Where are the rewards?” Jungkook asked, grinning mockingly.
“We are waiting for the manager and the detective,” Namjoon reminded.
“What for?” Yoongi asked blankly.
“Oh! I know! They will take us on a fun trip!” Hoseok pointed his finger up eagerly with a wide grin.
“Umm… Guys, no. You are not here for those…” Bryan paused and slightly cackled.
“Then, what are we doing here?” Jungkook held his hands up in annoyance.
“Hold on-” Bryan didn’t get to finish his sentence when Valerie walked in with a cup of coffee on her hand.
She stopped in the front of the doorway to stare at them with her eyes widened in surprise. She smiled happily by saying. “Good! You’re all here!”
She secretly looked at Bryan, who wiggled his eyebrows at her amusingly and sat down on her chair comfortably, placing her cup gently on the table.
“Alright. I’m here!” Mr. Si-hyuk exclaimed and walked in with the folder in his right arm. He sat beside Bryan and looked at the former members observantly. “Welcome back. I’m very glad you finally came here on this wonderful evening. How are you all doing?”
The seven members continued to stare at the three of them silently until Hoseok decided to speak up in enthusiasm.
“My upcoming tennis tournament is next week and I want to invite you guys,” he said confidently.
“Cool. We’ll be looking forward to that,” Mr. Si-hyuk nodded encouragingly.
“I’m hosting one of the plays in school,” Namjoon said neutrally.
“Awesome. What kind?” He asked excitingly.
“Yoduk story,” Namjoon answered.
“What’s the whole point of this? I have to prepare for the next project with my co-workers. Clients are waiting for the result,” Jimin said monotonously, crossing his arms.
“I see you have changed, Mr. Park,” Mr. Si-hyuk said, smiling brightly. “You’re the CEO of your father’s company. Is that correct?”
“What about it?” He replied coldly.
“Hey… You don’t need to be so worked up. He was just wondering,” Namjoon retorted back defensively.
Jimin rolled his eyes dismissively while Valerie’s hand was curling into a balled fist, but then Bryan held her hand to warn not to interfere.
“I guess Mr. Smartass over here thinks he is going to thrive. But I’m most likely to be much more,” Jungkook snorted sarcastically.
“And what makes you so special, you wannabe douchebag star?” Jimin remarked with a smirk.
Bryan’s eyes widened in shock. “Woah! Okay…”
“Boys… We are here to have some friendly discussion,” Mr. Si-hyuk hushed them kindly with a frown and nudged Valerie to go on further.
She blinked a few times and folded her hands together. “Now, I know that I’ve asked you all some questions before and I do want to repeat this… What really happened on the New Year’s Eve party incident and your disbandment? Because each of you has told me your stories differently from your own perspectives.”
The awkward silence remained for a moment, then Taehyung raised his hand up to speak, which Valerie gestured to him to do so.
“I was friends with the other groups and Chanyeol thanked me for the help I’ve given them. I texted him back that it was no problem for me because I know how much they needed the choreography for their new song,” he explained shortly.
Jungkook chuckled at loud in ridicule. “Dude. Do you even realize what you’ve done? You were cahooting with EXO without even consulting us.”
“There’s basically nothing wrong with being friends. They would never sabotage our group’s reputation,” Taehyung said annoyingly.
“Oh, really? Then, where are we at right now? If it wasn’t your foolishness, then we would’ve never been here,” Jimin bellowed.
“No. If it wasn’t both of your arrogance and jealousy, we would still be together as a team,” Taehyung corrected.
“And what makes you say that? Hm? You were practically enjoying so much time with them than with us,” Jimin sneered.
“That is not true! Like I’ve said, they only needed my help because it was an emergency. EXO can’t be that bad to us. It’s us that broke each other apart,” Taehyung said honestly.
“It wasn’t us. It’s you,” Jungkook pointed his finger at him angrily. “I sometimes see you getting close to them and you didn’t show up at one of the rehearsals.”
“I was sick. What did you expect? Drag my sickly body there?” Taehyung scoffed.
“He’s right. It’s best to let one member rest. We cannot force ourselves to work if we are not feeling well. You know, I’m trying my best to prevent you guys from arguing. Jungkook, you need to be respectful to your hyungs, including me. I’ve been treating you well,” Jin scolded.
“Have you? You think you’re so righteous all the time, but guess what? You’re a dumbass like Taehyung,” Jungkook snide.
“I never said that, you little shit. I’m here to remind you,” Jin clenched his teeth in frustration.
“Well, I don’t need your lecture,” Jungkook shook his head carelessly.
“So… you’re going to be stubborn like Jimin?” Jin pointed out.
Jimin laughed derisively and said. “Seriously? You have no idea who I am right now.”
“Actually, I do. You’ve got an attitude problem and I’ve heard from one of your ex-employees that you don’t have self-control over your anger. More likely, you seem to be aggressive on other things to them,” Jin said knowingly.
Jimin glared at him and insulted him. “And you’re a pussy who got dumped by a girl-”
“Enough!” Mr. Si-hyuk yelled, which silenced them. “Instead of making peaceful amends, you start blaming on each other’s faults. I thought we came here to settle your problems.”
“Guys… Whatever is causing you to argue, can you at least find out what it was,” Valerie gulped and stared at them glumly. “Have you noticed a suspect during the party and wonder why the doors were locked?”
“Yeah. Taehyung did it,” Jungkook nodded dryly.
“Shut the hell up! I did no such thing. We were unconscious. How is that my doing?” He said exasperatedly.
“Probably Jin… Since he is the chef after all,” Jimin chuckled.
“Go fuck yourself,” he spat.
“Stop!” Valerie demanded and they did when they turned their heads at her with angry looks.
“This isn’t working…” Bryan murmured quietly towards her ear.
“Look. My friend and I came all the way here to solve the case,” Valerie sighed in distress.
“Why the hell would you care, anyway? You, so-called private, detective is absolutely pathetic and pointless. The way you’re trying to do it is completely amateur. Why don’t you just go back to college and study?” Jimin chided.
Valerie stared at him heatedly as her breath hitched when Bryan looked up with his eyes narrowed threateningly.
“Hey! Listen, Mr. Park! You don’t disrespect my friend here. Otherwise, I will be calling your father,” he warned with a growl.
“He’s right. That is no way to treat a lady,” Yoongi agreed.
“Even if you have a fiance, it doesn’t mean that you get to step on other women,” Namjoon pointed out.
“Wow… You’re all ganging up on me just because I was stating a fact? Honestly, Ms. Nowhere needs to get a reality check. She needs to get over her fantasy that our group will be back together. Guess what, little miss Sherlock? It’s never going to happen,” Jimin declared sharply.
“To think we will ever be. No thanks. Being a solo means everything to me. I’m not going to give up my career just to be in a group with you guys,” Jungkook chuckled and stood up from his chair. “I’m out of here.”
“That’s it? You’re just going to walk out as you did three years ago?” Taehyung said, shrugging.
“You’re not the boss of me. I’ve got to practice my song. See you never!” Jungkook exclaimed.
“Me too…” Jin muttered, shaking his head as he walked out. “I have some catering to do.”
Jimin said. “What a waste of my time.”
Then, they opened the other side of the door, leaving the three guys only.
Mr. Si-hyuk watched Taehyung lowered his head down and started calling his friends, waving goodbye at them politely.
“Sorry. I have to wake up early in the morning to help my students rehearse their lines. Excuse me,” Namjoon said, bowing down respectfully at him and the two best friends.
“Got to practice,” Yoongi said.
“Same here,” Hoseok said as they both apologized to them, then exited the door, much to their astonishment.
Mr. Si-hyuk said faintly. “Good luck, boys…”
He sighed and glanced at Valerie, whose eyes were staring numbly into space at the sudden occurrence that they all made. Bryan noticed her sitting quietly without moving an inch and couldn’t help but feel pity. He was afraid that this moment would come and it did.
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