By the time the third week came, he was coming over for most lunches and dinners, in part to make sure that she was eating more than just instant noodles. Just working quietly in the corner of her apartment as she graded her student’s work or prepared lesson plans made him happy. He still wished she would come and spend time at the dorms with everyone, but everytime he brought it up, she wouldn’t even let him finish his sentence.
He met with the company again after a month and, while the public opinion in Korea hadn't changed dramatically, it had begun to shift ever so slowly in the right direction. Internationally, sympathy was certainly on their side. In the US and Australia, they were still a popular story people were dying to hear more about. Photos of Cheol coming to visit Claire and of Claire dutifully coming and going to work were enough to fuel the ‘will they, won’t they’ speculation. It was enough for the company to start talking with the group about returning to a normal schedule and allowing them to do appearances and talk with fans again on vTube.
Cheol’s parents and Claire’s friends encouraged them to bravely walk into the limelight and show how adorable they were together. Cheol hadn’t needed much convincing, but understandably, the last thing Claire wanted was to attract attention again. It reminded her of his promise to take her to see the museums and historical places in Seoul. After a few days she finally agreed to a test dinner out with him. Her reluctance was understandable...being stabbed was really enough to make anyone cautious.
The dinner was relatively uneventful despite people clearly recognizing them. A few people took pictures of them as they made their way to the restaurant, but stayed a respectful distance away from them. Cheol made a point to keep an arm around Claire as they walked and sat on the same side as her as they shared dinner. In the restaurant, a few people at nearby tables took pictures of the couple, some more discreetly than others.
Over the next few days, the pictures popped up in the gossip magazines in Korea and then overseas. They were greeted with largely supportive responses, especially overseas. As Australia and the US fell more in love with the pair, opinion started to alter with the local fans.
With the first date having been a success, Cheol arranged for a visit to one of the old palaces in Seoul. Cheol planned the whole day, starting with a breakfast together at a nearby cafe. Nervous as she was, Claire was excited to take some time to see the sites and to be out with her boyfriend. Strangely, it finally felt real, even as she tried not to think too far into the future. It still felt entirely too likely that they wouldn’t be able to make it work and his career had to come first.
Calling the palace, and the grounds it was located on, impressive was an understatement. There were beautiful old buildings, painted with gorgeous bright colors and wide open plazas of stone surrounded by cloister-like colonnades of dark red. Further in, they found a palace that seemed to spring out of a lake. Old trees lined the water’s edge, giving it an oddly ancient feel though it was in the middle of one of the world’s busiest cities.
At lunchtime they had to leave to get food, but Cheol had a surprise in store for her. The historic site had been full of men and women dressed in traditional Hanboks for a good reason. They grabbed a quick bite, then Cheol led her to a three story shop a few blocks away.
“What are we doing here?” Claire asked as they paused outside of it.
“It’s a surprise, come on,” He took her by the hand and led her into the shop. Racks and racks of colorful fabric hung along the walls and throughout the store. Bright reds and blues, whites, blacks, and other colors with gold or floral embroidery along the edges; it was like walking in a kaleidoscope. He led her to a counter where two lovely women dressed in Hanboks were waiting.
“We have an appointment at one to rent Hanboks and get some photographs,” He said when they drew near.
“Ah, yes, of course,” The younger of the two women greeted them with a smile. “Let’s get started with picking out your outfits. Did you have something in mind? Matching hanbok, perhaps?”
“Yeah, that sounds perfect,” Cheol looked over at Claire excitedly and squeezed her hand. “What do you have in blue?”
“Blue? Let’s see,” The woman started off in the direction of some racks with Cheol and Claire in tow. “Were you thinking of something dark or lighter?”
“Darker, I think,” Cheol looked to Claire who gave him a small nod even as she looked around at the sea of fabrics. Off a rack near the wall, the woman pulled a sapphire colored skirt from the midst of a sea of fabrics. It had gold embroidery along the hem and in the shape of flowers and medallions decorating the rest of the fabric.
“What do you think of this?” The smiling woman held up the skirt for Claire to examine.
“It’s beautiful,” Claire reached out with her free hand and gently touched the shiny sea of silk. “Is there something for him to wear that goes with this?”
“Of course,” She nodded excitedly. “We have mens jeogori that are made from the same fabric. Yours will be in a lighter color that contrasts well with the chima.” Claire nodded, more in acknowledgement than understanding, having no experience with hanboks. They picked up the jeogori for Cheol in the same color and some dark blue baji, the billowing pants for the outfit, before heading to a different section to pull a white and gold women’s jeogori with sheer sleeves and floral embroidery that almost matched the skirt.
They moved over to some dressing rooms, where the woman helped Claire dress while someone else helped Cheol to get into his. It felt like she was putting on a dozen layers by the time she was done, with a petticoat to give the skirt the proper volume and even a pair of traditional socks to wear with the traditional slippers they put on her.
With everything on, she stepped out to look at herself in the mirror. I look like a decorative bell, she thought to herself. It was really very pretty but the shape was quite different from anything she had worn before, making her feel slightly self-conscious. Cheol stepped out of his dressing room a moment later, tugging at and adjusting things as he emerged. The fidgeting gave away that he felt less than confident in his outfit as well, eliciting an amused smile from Claire.
“What do you think?” She gave him a slow spin to show off her outfit.
“Wow, you look...just wow,” He let out an excited chuckle. “What about me?”
“You look handsome.” Stretching up on her tiptoes, she gave his cheek a quick kiss.
“You two look lovely,” The woman said, giving them a pleased look. “Shall we do something with your hair?” Claire nodded and followed behind to a makeup counter where she was sat down in front of a mirror and asked to choose the ornaments she wanted in her hair. She chose a mother of pearl like kosaji[81] in the shape of chrysanthemums she could tuck into the low, braided bun hairstyle she thought would look best on her.
Half an hour later, with her hair and makeup done, they were escorted back to the grounds of the castle to take some pictures together. They started by taking a few photos by the stone lions inside the second courtyard before going on to take a few in an empty stretch of colonnade near the first palace. When they were done there, they moved into the gardens by the pavilion on the water. At the suggestion of the photographer, Claire pretended to hide on one side of an old willow while Cheol pretended to search for her from the other side. The photographer captured the ‘chase’ as Cheol crept around the trunk of the tree and trapped her against it with a kiss.
Claire was still blushing and giggling as they made their way, lastly, to the hexagonal pavilion on an island further back in the grounds. They posed together near the entrance to the bridge and got some pictures with the pavilion behind them and the first water lily leaves on the water. By then it had almost been two hours and it was time to head back and turn the hanbok into the store. They changed back into their regular clothes and got digital copies of the photos that were taken at the shop before they headed back to see the rest of the palace before it closed.
They had dinner together at ho
me and looked through the photos. Cheol had a mildly ulterior motive in today’s activity. He was sure someone had photographed them visiting the site and he planned to accidentally allow some of the photos of their adventure to leak to the gossip magazines, not only to show how cute they were, but to give the Korean fans a view of her acclimating and adapting to the local language and culture. If they saw her enjoying and valuing the local culture, they might see her in a new light. It was perhaps a risk, but the public opinion seemed ready to turn if he gave it the right push.
Another month passed and Cheol and the rest of the group were called into the KXO offices to discuss where they stood as a group and their future. Everyone was nervous about what was going to happen to them. All of them had worked so hard and all of them had practiced twice as hard during their suspension to try and prove their desire to come back. They had posted pictures and short videos of their practices, with permission from the company of course, to let the fans know they couldn’t wait to get back on schedule for them.
To their surprise, Claire was there in the meeting room when they arrived with a tight expression on her face. Everyone took a seat around the table, with Cheol taking the open seat beside Claire in a show of support. She hadn’t given him a heads up that she would be there, but by the look on her face, he guessed she hadn’t known they would be there either. The atmosphere was tense as Siwon and Kwang Soo finally filed in, taking seats at the head of the table.
The conversation was remarkably brief and remarkably good, none of which Claire had expected but that Cheol had hoped for and worked on from behind the scenes. YTHTonic would resume a normal schedule and look to release a new album in a month and a half which would mean they would have to work on filming the music video in the next two weeks. This was exactly why they had been working hard during their suspension. Cheol had six tracks that were nearly ready for release and FX, Minjun, and Hyunwoo had been working on the rough choreography for one of the songs for weeks. Even with their preparations, it would be a crunch to get it done in time. It would have to be one of their simpler videos, given the time, but that just meant they had to have a cleaner performance that couldn’t be hidden with creative shots and special effects.
Cheol would continue with the group and continue as its leader. Polling had shown that most fans, even those who were upset with Cheol for the scandal, didn’t like the idea of YTHTonic without him. He did too much, played too vital a role in the group for it to go on without him and have it be remotely the same group. If they wanted to continue with the other members, they needed the things he brought to the mix.
The same polling had shown strong support for Claire with their overseas demographic after Cheol’s statement was released, followed by the photos, and finally, after the police had released the security footage which showed her putting herself between the fan and Cheol. Inside Korea she was still a polarizing figure, but the overall feeling was finally moving up from neutral. Cheol’s calculation that they might identify with her more, sympathize with her, if they saw her not as a foreign interloper who had come to have a fling before heading back home, but as someone who valued the culture and was working to learn about and become part of the local culture, had paid off.
The company gave him the okay to continue seeing her, but they had to go back to being discrete. Coffee dates were fine, as was her occasionally visiting the dorms or vice versa, but it couldn’t look like he wasn’t 100% dedicated to the group and the company. To say that things were going to be hectic was an understatement, but, more importantly, if this was going to work, it couldn’t look like he had divided attention or loyalties. This was, of course, a decision that the company could take back if they felt it was impacting the group or even the perception of the group. They could go back to making it an ultimatum: her or the group.
Cheol felt almost giddy as the meeting finally ended. His grip tightened on the arm of his chair before he rose to bow and bid thanks and farewell to the manager and the founder before they made their exit. It would have been poor taste for him to have done what he most wanted to do when he heard their decision. Mature and rational, that was how he had to come across. This decision rested on the idea that he could balance his relationship with his responsibilities, even when he didn’t have to hide its existence. Literally throwing himself into her arms would not have spoken well of his self control.
The moment that the door closed behind them, the room was humming with the excitement of the members. Not only were they getting back to work, which they desperately wanted, but they had their friend back. Hyunwoo practically bounced his way across the room to draw her into a hug. FX and Changho followed closely behind with all the other members on their heels. Most of them had started to lose hope as their suspension dragged out.
Claire didn’t really believe it. After everything? Just a word from them and it was supposed to be like...it never happened? Like everything is fine? Like they were just anybody? She felt numb. She didn’t trust it to be true, or even if it was, to last. If she did, and it all crumbled away again, honestly, she wasn’t sure she would survive it.
It took them getting through the next comeback, which turned into a number one for them, to start to really trust that things were good. Her job, meager as the salary was, let her get a few more comforts in her life. With Cheol spending nights at her place a couple of nights a week and working late there while she finished her work for the day and ate, she needed more than the bare basics at her apartment. He bought her a couch and she got a small television they could watch on evenings they were together. Some of the other members also came by to visit her, but her place was a bit far to stop by often.
A couple of weeks after the comeback, while the members were in the midst of appearing on every music show possible, Yejun showed up at her door. After keeping their distance from her for so many months, as she had asked them to, his arrival at her door was unexpected. With her no longer being persona non grata with KXO, the door had opened again for the opportunity to work with TEENz. Yejun had been quietly keeping an eye on things, with the help of Junwoo, and had started asking around again when the news broke that YTHTonic was going to be making a comeback and that, most amazingly, Claire and Cheol had somehow managed to get approval to be together. It might still be true that the company wasn’t her biggest fan, but she wasn’t an obstacle or liability as she had been months ago.
He offered her the job he had wanted to give her months ago, not only because she seemed like a genuinely kind person, but because she really seemed like the best person for the job. The team liked her, everyone she had previously worked with had almost nothing bad to say about her, and she clearly worked hard at whatever job she had.
When he actually made the offer, giving her an envelope with a copy of the contract for her to look at, she stared at him and at the envelope in his hands for a noticeable stretch of seconds before she took it. She didn’t say no, but she had an air of distrust as she agreed to look it over and get back to him in a day or two. The job was an excellent offer, giving her far more money than she could make as a teacher at a hagwon and an independent tutor. It also gave her benefits she couldn’t have with most any other job including housing, transportation, vacation time, health insurance, and paid prep and overtime. It would honestly be hard to say no to, but it felt like a risk.
Cheol, unsurprisingly, made his way by later that night. The envelope was still sitting on the table when he got there, with the papers tucked underneath. Unable to resist the curiosity, he peeked at a page to see what it was before asking Claire about it. Of course he had known that Yejun and Junwoo had been keeping tabs on the situation, but he had mostly figured it was a casual interest in the wellbeing of an acquaintance.
As they discussed it, it became very clear to Cheol that much of the reluctance that Claire had about taking the position was rooted in her distrust of what would happen in four or six months again, assuming that something else didn’t go wonky and leave her unemploye
d even sooner than that. There was plenty of reason for her to distrust that where she was now would be stable. The company could take back their permission to see each other, which would undoubtedly end with the other company finding a reason to let her go.
Eventually, Cheol convinced her that even a few months with a good, well paying job would do more for her bank account and stability than this low paying one would, even if it lasted for a year. Admittedly he was right, but she also felt slightly bad about leaving the hagwon and her private students. She promised to think about it and decide the next day.
In the morning, while they ate breakfast, Claire signed the papers while Cheol looked on proudly. She could give notice today when she went in after dropping the contract at CL Entertainment with Yejun. Despite the butterflies in her stomach, she felt good about taking the job in the end, though she wasn’t really looking forward to moving...again. In the scheme of things though, that really wasn’t so bad.
“Welcome home,” Yejun gave her one of his electric grins as he met her outside of his apartment building.
“Home?” Claire repeated, glancing at the skyscraper apartment block behind him.
“Yeah, come on, I’ll show you,” He gave an excited chuckle. Dutifully she followed him in, and then up to the same floor she knew he lived on, and down the hall towards their door. Her nerves were on edge until he turned to open the door across the hall from theirs.
“Really?” She burst out laughing as he pushed the door open. He gave her a wink and let her walk into the apartment first. She stepped into the small entry recess and slid her shoes off to the side and entered the apartment. The main room was a sizable kitchen and living room which opened out onto a balcony. The place was at least twice as big as the apartment she had when she worked for KXO. A small hallway opened up in between the two spaces and led to the bedroom and the bathroom. She scampered into the bathroom and couldn’t keep from letting out a happy squee as she looked at the roomy tiled space with a shower and a bathtub. The bedroom had a small walk-in closet and doors that opened out onto the balcony which also let in lovely morning light and had a beautiful view of the city and the mountains.
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