Chapter Text
Asking Min Ho if she could come with him was a spur of the moment thing. Come with him where? To the airport to say goodbye? On tour with him, his brother, and his father? Getting into the car, Kitty had no idea what she meant when she asked if she could come but, now, a week later, she sits opposite Min Ho on his family’s private jet bound for Tokyo.
They spent only a week in Seoul, where Joon Ho’s tour started. Which was enough time for Kitty to explain that she wouldn’t be coming home for the summer and to, barely, escape the grilling from Margot and Lara Jean. Escaping Q wasn’t something she accomplished. She looks up at Min Ho from her phone, watching as he flips through a gossip magazine she pulled from one of the airport shops.
“So, if we’re going to multiple countries, why not go to all of the cities in that one country before moving to the next?” She asks.
Min Ho sighs exaggeratedly and looks at her. “Visas, scheduling conflicts, maximizing fan reach and costs—a lot of things need to be considered. So, we start in Seoul and make our way back closer to home towards the end.”
The sound of his father arguing on the phone towards the front of plane pulls both of their attention, but Min Ho only rolls his eyes as he turns back to the magazine. Joon Ho and Eunji commandeered the bedroom at the back of the plane early on, and Eunice is sleeping soundly in the back corner.
Kitty adjusts in her seat, accidentally hitting Min Ho’s leg with her foot as she does, and she notices his throat bob though he doesn’t say anything. Her heart rate picks up but she takes a silent, deep breath and lets it out as quietly as she can. If Min Ho swore off relationships, then she would too. She doesn’t need to berate him with her feelings and besides, getting away from everyone else and have it just be the two of them hanging out—as friends—may be exactly what she needs.
She meant it when she said she missed him at the dance. Now, they’re here.
“You’re staring, Covey,” Min Ho says, looking up at her through his dark eyelashes with his face still pointed towards the magazine. “It’s rude to stare.”
Kitty can feel her eyes widen and she presses her lips together. Before she can say anything, Min Ho tilts his head to the side, that smile she’s come to like spreading on his lips. “Though if you want to admire my beauty, I won’t say no.”
Kitty snorts. “There’s a pimple forming on your cheek.”
Min Ho’s face whips to hers, his eyes narrowing. “You’re lying.”
Kitty shrugs, pulling on her headphones. “If you say so. I’m going to go take a nap before your volcano erupts.”
With that, she stands and makes her way to the row of seats on the opposite side of the aisle from Eunice. When Kitty closes her eyes, she wonders how the rest of the tour is going to go. And what she and Min Ho will tell Dae. And what the hell is going to happen between now and school starting again…
That night, they checked into their hotel close to the venue, then the next day Kitty went to rehearsal with Eunice while Min Ho helped his father with some last minute changes, and now she’s back at the hotel the night before the first show. She and Min Ho have the joy of sharing a two bedroom suite, since apparently he made changes to his original one bedroom reservation the day she asked to come. She originally thought she’d just bunk with Eunice, but maybe getting space to herself, even if Min Ho’s in the other room, wouldn’t be so bad. The first week in Seoul, Kitty bunked with Eunice though their room shared a door with Min Ho’s that allowed them to go back and forth.
It’s been…nice, just getting to be by herself some of the time with Min Ho not far away. She curls up on her side as she scrolls through Instagram. Margot posted the pictures she took with Kitty and their family, and Kitty likes them before adding them to her story. She has a few of her own she’d like to share.
The door to Min Ho’s room opens and Kitty looks up with enough time to realize what’s happening. Min Ho walks out of his room and Kitty’s eyes widen as she realizes he’s wearing pajama pants with a towel thrown around his shoulders. His hair is damp and he doesn’t seem to notice her as he walks to the fridge and grabs a bottle of sparkling water.
It’s only when he’s back in his room that Kitty realizes she was holding her breath. It’s not like she hasn’t seen him in just pajama pants before. After all, she did live in the dorm with him and the other guys for a year. But, before, she just didn’t have this feeling. Whatever feelings they are. She hasn’t quite decided if she loves him, the way he claimed he once loved her, but she knows that the feelings transcend whatever is supposed to be between just friends. But she can do just friends. She can also convince herself that what she really needs is to just spend some time away from everyone else and spending time with her friend is a great way to spend the summer.
When she’s had the take away that Min Ho ordered for dinner, which he didn’t eat since he had to go see Joon Ho about some sort of hair issue on his brother’s part, Kitty heads into her bedroom and falls down onto the bed. She’s spent most of the evening planning her Tokyo sightseeing itinerary with help from Q and she thinks about everything she wants to do tomorrow. She’s sure she doesn’t need to be at every single concert Joon Ho has, not that Min Ho would want her at every single one anyways, but she doesn’t know when she’ll have the chance to visit Tokyo again.
She closes her eyes and rolls onto her side, letting sleep pull her away.
Kitty’s mom smiles at her. Though she can’t be sure it’s actually happening. When was the last time her mom smiled at her? Her mom’s mouth moves, but no words come out. Surely, Kitty should be able to hear her? But then they’re no longer in the backyard, and Kitty is standing on the stairs as blue and red emergency lights flood the front door that’s been opened.
“Covey,” a voice says. “Wake up, Covey.”
Kitty stares at the white sheet on the floor, hot tears staining her cheeks. More sheets appear.
“Kitty, wake up.”
She sobs.
“Wake up, Kitty!”
Kitty bolts awake in bed, the neon lights of Tokyo glowing through her sheer curtains. She can feel her heart racing and the tears on her cheeks, and in front of her is Min Ho. His hands are on her shoulders and his face is only inches from her and full of concern.
She sobs and he pulls her towards him, so Kitty wraps her arms around him as she goes. “You’re okay,” he says. “It’s okay.”
Closing her eyes, Kitty can see the scene from her dream. So, she opens them as she tries to dry her tears. Min Ho’s hand cups the back of her head, similar to how he held her when they first visited her family, and Kitty takes in a deep breath, smelling his soap and shampoo.
When she’s finally stopped crying, she and Min Ho break apart and as she shifts back to lean against the headboard, Min Ho clears his throat and looks down at his lap. Kitty sighs, nudging him with her foot.
“I’m sorry I woke you.”
Min Ho snorts. “You were screaming, it was making it very hard for me to sleep.”
When Kitty tries to smile, it slips off her face quickly. She knots her hands in her lap and sniffles.
There’s a beat. And then, “Do you want to talk about it?”
Kitty looks up at him. “Will you stay with me? Just for a bit.”
Min Ho moves to sit beside her without hesitation, but as he settles against the headboard, he sighs. “I want it known that I’m sacrificing my beauty sleep for this, so if I have bags under my eyes in the morning, I’m blaming you.”
At that Kitty lets out a soft huff, but she finds that she’s smiling. “Of course.”
They sit beside each other for a moment and Kitty listens to Min Ho’s steady breaths. They’re not close enough for their shoulders to be touching, but almost. She takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly, pushing the dream from her vision.
“My mom,” she says slowly, “died from a freak accident. She was in the kitchen and she fell and hit her head. It killed her instantly. Margot was the one who called 911, but Lara Jean found her.” Min Ho shifts beside her, and Kitty leans a little until their shoulders are touching. “I was only three, so I don’t remember a lot about her, or about that day, but sometimes…sometimes I dream about her. She was smiling at me, but I can’t remember her voice. Then I’ll see a sheet on the ground.” Her voice catches and more tears sting her eyes. Despite her efforts to blink them away, they still fall.
She leans her head onto Min Ho’s shoulder, steadying herself. “Tonight,” she whispers, “it was one sheet, then another, and another. And it’s always people I care about. I can feel it.” She inhales deeply and her body shakes. “I also slipped a little in the bathroom earlier after I showered and it scared the hell out of me,” she admits quietly.
“I didn’t know that,” Min Ho says. “Do the dreams happen a lot?”
“Not really. Just every now and then. I think the slide scared me.”
Min Ho hums. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.” Kitty yawns, letting her eyelids flutter closed. “I’m sorry for waking you.”
“You don’t need to apologize.”
They stay with Kitty’s head resting on his shoulder for a moment longer, and then she shifts and slides under the covers a little more. “Would you stay?” She asks, looking up at him. In the glow of the lights, he looks almost ethereal. “Just for a bit?”
Min Ho looks down at her. “Go to sleep, Covey.” There’s a slight tilt to the corner of his lips, and Kitty finds herself hiding her own smile under the covers as she lets sleep take her away.