Page 7 of GR8VITY

I feel like with every answer she gives me, it opens up five more questions I want to ask her, wanting to know everything there is to know.

“What did you want to be when you grew up?” she asks, beating me this time. “Did you always want to be where you are?”

I chuckle. “No, not always. When I was younger, I had two options that I was dead set on. I was either going to be an astronaut or a cowboy.”

She smirks before smoothing her lips together to try to hide it. “Those are good goals too, though. What happened?”

Wistfully, I remember back to the time that I took to dancing after school every day. It made me happy, and I loved it. “I learned that I could dance and was really good at it. I went for an idol audition when I was fifteen and got picked up by a small company for training.”

“So no more cowboy, Kyung?” she teases with a cute little smile.

I laugh again. “I wouldn’t exactly say that. I got to be a cowboy on stage for one of our comebacks. That’s as close as I’ll ever come to that dream.”

“What about the astronaut?” she asks.

Fighting my grin isn’t even an option. My astronaut dream helped name our band and gave us our first concept as a team, even going as far as giving a name to our fandom and our animal representations. But I don’t want to tell her that yet. I’m not sure how much she knows about us yet, and I wasn’t lying when I said I wanted to keep her out of the loop for a little longer.

“It came somewhat true,” I tell her, skirting around the truth. “Just not in the sense that I thought it would. Not everything is black and white.”

“That’s fair,” she murmurs, thinking on my words.

"What did you want to be?” I ask her.

It’s her turn to laugh. “Remember how I just said that I wanted to try everything? It literally changed with the wind. Though, I don’t think cowgirl was ever on my list. Quite disappointed in myself for missing that one.”

I laugh before filling her in, “There’s still time, you know? They always say that it’s never too late.”

She bites her bottom lip with another smile. “I’d probably have to leave Seoul to make that one happen, and I’m pretty content where I’m at right now.”

“Okay,” I tell her, pretty content myself where she’s at right now, too. “What was one of your other options?”

“I don’t know,” she laughs lightly. “Take your pick. A chef. A teacher. An MMA fighter.”

“You’re kidding,” I blurt, the last one catching me by surprise.

Underneath one of the lights, I can see the slight pink fill her cheeks. “Definitely not kidding. My omma just about threw a fit. If I hadn’t already gone down multiple roads already and turned course, she probably would’ve done something extreme to change my mind on that one. But I think she knew I wasn’t destined for something like that and would figure it out.”

“Your face lights up when you speak about her,” I tell her gently, liking the way it happens.

Peering over at me, she smiles. “That’s because she was the best person I’ve ever known.”

"Do you mind me asking what happened?” I ask, not wanting to turn the conversation sour, but curious to know.

“Mmm,” she replies. “She was diagnosed with COPD and eventually lost the battle with chronic pneumonia.”

“I’m sorry,” I say with empathy. I couldn’t imagine losing one of my parents. Especially like that.

“It’s okay,” she tells me with a few small nods, looking at the ground. “Everything happens for a reason. It’s something that she’s always told me. As long as we follow our hearts, we’ll end up right where we’re supposed to be and meet the right people at the right time.”

Her expression takes on a sort of wistful look to it like she can still hear her omma saying those words to her. I give her the moment that she needs in her thoughts as I take in the beautiful person that she is. I’m typically a very good judge of character, and I can tell a lot about someone the first time that I meet them. There’s no doubt in my mind that she’s just as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside. And the outside is definitely beautiful.

Long dark brown hair hangs down in waves around her shoulders and back. The tone makes the brightness of her green eyes stand out even more. I love the fact that she’s so tiny, too. I could literally almost wrap myself around her since her head doesn’t even come to my chin. She’s not stick thin like we’re used to seeing either. The hourglass figure that she’s got going on is something I wasn’t aware that I was so attracted to until this moment.

When her mind finally comes back to the present, she cuts her eyes over to me and slowly smiles at whatever she sees in my face. “Who is your favorite person in the world?”

Ahh, now that is a loaded question, yeah? I can’t sound crazy and tell her that she could easily be climbing that list. Not after only three times of meeting her. So, I answer with the first person who comes to mind. “One of my members and my best friend Dav En.”

“Why’s he your favorite?” she asks.