Page 53 of GR8VITY

Yoon Ji has his arms wrapped around Liz's shoulders with his chin resting on one of them. At the sound of the voice, she pulls away so that she can turn and face the approaching man. Who just so happens to be the size of a mountain. He's so tall and broad shouldered with massive arms, that when he makes his way to our Liz, he looks like he's going to eat her.

"How've you been, Suk-jin?" she asks in English, grinning up at the big man.

"Good, good," he replies. "Uni is going great. Met a girl, too."

"Ohhh okay," she says, nodding with him still smiling. "That's good news. I hope she's worthy."

He smiles down at her with his cheeks turning pink. "She is. You'd like her. Speaking of which, my brother is finally back from the States. I'm living with him now. He’s been asking to meet you. He's a doctor, you know."

Laughing and dropping her head back, she replies, "I know. I've met someone too, though. So, thanks, but..."

"I hope he's worthy," he repeats her words.

She grins, none too shyly when she says, "Trust me. They are."

This whole conversation has made me question everything that I know about myself. I always thought that I'd felt what it was to feel jealousy. Nothing I’ve felt in all these years has ever been like this. Guilt rides me hard for teasing Jae-un the night we went to the aquarium and he was freaking out over her being in a restaurant full of men. Glancing to my right, sure enough I see all my members’ eyes locked on the two of them. Even Minsul slowed his climb and keeps looking over his shoulder down to us. None of them look as bad off as Kyung and Jae-un, though. Kyung has his hands tucked into his hoodie and is clenching his teeth, making his lips pout out as he deadpan stares at them. Jae-un's arms are folded across his chest, his brows drawn down and lips so thin they're practically nonexistent.

I'm with them this time. Even though it seems innocent and friendly enough, I don't like it.

"So, what are you doing on this side? Practicing?" he's asking her, the conversation continuing in English.

She flicks her gaze to me and Yoon Ji who are the closest as she answers with a laugh, "Something like that. Just taking it easy and spending time with company."

He nods to both of us before turning back to her. Little does he know, we aren't the worst of his problems here.

"Cool. Well, if you are looking for a challenge later, bossman put up a whole new section on the end," he offers, sidestepping around her to head down that way.

"I'll think about it," she tells him as he walks away.

As soon as he's out of earshot, Yoon Ji pounces before the rest of us can, but his isn't led by jealousy. "You want to move down there so we can try it out?"

Switching easily back to Korean, she shrugs, smiling at him. "It doesn't matter. We don't need to steal the show when we're here to celebrate your juniors."

"It's not stealing anything," I tell her, curious myself at this point. Not just to see what she's really got, considering she did look proficient climbing this one, but also to see if either of my brothers will hit their boiling point. "We're here to have fun. Let's wait for Minsul to get down, and we'll go over there."

I decide to make it more fun and help keep her attention on us. Plus, she'll probably owe me at the end of it. "Want to make a bet first?"

Her eyes flick to mine as she fights a smile. "What kind of bet?"

"No matter what the wall looks like, the first one to the top owes the other a favor," I propose.

"Deal," she says, sticking out her hand to shake.

I take it, but Yoon Ji steps to our side. "I want in."

"Okay," she agrees as I say, "Winner gets two favors."

Yoon Ji holds out his hands and we end up in a three-way handshake. All of that has given Minsul enough time to finish his climb and get back on his feet, so we walk over to the other end of walls.

She goes over to her friend first thing as we hang back.

"Going for it?" he asks as he's getting himself set up for the safety harness of one of our juniors.

Turned sideways, she looks over and up to the wall before her head does a slow turn across the upper wall. "I don't know. I'm pretty out of shape for this."

"You wouldn't be if you came in more than every other two months," he teases, still strapping himself in with a rope.

"Yeah, I know. I've been pretty busy. I don't know if I'd make that one tonight," she admits.