“Are you nervous? Seriously?” Aria asks her boyfriend, who is definitely nervous, but shakes his head, lying to the entire taxicab, including the driver. “I’ve never seen you so flustered, holy shit, this is amazing!”

I snort, crushed into the other side of the taxicab. Aria’s sitting in the middle, and Ayden sits on her other side, pressed up against the window. I glance over to find him staring outside, not paying attention to either one of us, and Aria slaps his knee to get his attention.

He sighs, the flush to his cheeks actually really cute, and even that, a stupid blush, makes me miss my boyfriend so, so badly, like a physical ache in my chest.

Two more days…just two more days, and then we can see Jaeyong and squish him to death and give him all of the affection. Just two more days…what’s another forty-eight hours, anyway?

You’ve waited this long already.

God, I’ve waiting long, too long.

But after this show and the final shows in Seoul and Busan, Trickshot’s going to go on their six-month hiatus again, working on solo projects and the like—doing whatever it is that each member is currently pursuing whether it’s solo music or acting or producing. I’m going to have six glorious months with Jaeyong, and I cannot wait.

Cannot. Wait!

The car ride is uneventful, and Aria and Ayden both go quiet, although Aria keeps ducking her head to peek outside, wanting to see every single thing that London has to offer, even if it’s road and trees that look the same as they do back home.

It doesn’t take a genius to realize that we’re pulling into a nicer part of town, to put it lightly. The homes get bigger and grander, until we’re finally pulling up to Jesse’s home (last-minute change of plans apparently), and I don’t know what Ayden and Aria are doing but I kind of want to giggle, because honestly, what the hell are we doing here?

The front door’s being pulled open and there stands Maddie, wearing her usual soccer gear, the joggers, and the T-shirt with the Southgate FC emblem on it, waving both her arms as if she’s waving at us from miles away instead of from the end of the driveway.

She looks a little weird in comparison to the palace that belongs to her boyfriend, and I wonder how in hell it all came to this—Aria and her actor boyfriend, Maddie, and her pro-footballer boyfriend and then there’s me, with Jaeyong.

Whoa.

“Hey guys!” she yells, waving us in, disappearing in the doorway as I trudge up the stairs first, kind of afraid to touch anything. I hear Ayden start to hyperventilate behind me, and knowing what I know, I think the poor guy is going to pass right the hell out the second he gets to shake hands with either Maddie or Jesse.

“You’re okay, you’re okay,” Aria murmurs, and when I glance back at her and nearly miss a step, Jesus Christ, Aria’s grinning at me while Ayden looks like he’s going to be sick.

“They’re just normal people like the rest of us,” I say, knowing the feeling of meeting the person you’re a fan of. Hell, I don’t even know how Aria survived meeting Ayden at that convention last year. I have no freaking idea, but it’s kind of fun to see the tables turned, as Ayden finds himself in Aria’s arms, one at his front, the other at his back, holding him upright while she sort of crabwalks sideways up the stairs and we cross the threshold, and behold, behold we all don’t incinerate in fangirl and fanboy flames.

“Yeah, all right,” Ayden says, still looking queasy, and Aria holds onto him as we get inside, Maddie practically beaming at us from the entranceway.

We fumble in taking off her shoes, and I swear to God, Ayden’s actually sweating, looks a little sick in his fanboying, and Maddie puts her hands on her hips, tilting her head, looking between Aria and Ayden to see if everything’s all right.

I head to Maddie, arms out, waiting for a hug, and when she gives me one, I tell her that Ayden’s a fan and he’s having a hard time.

Maddie snickers, and I know she might milk this for all its worth.

When I let go of her and turn back to Aria and Ayden, Aria’s bowling me over to get to Maddie to squeeze around her ribcage and practically lifting her off her feet, which makes her shriek in surprise, hands going out to the walls with her long wingspan, trying to catch herself, distribute her weight evenly so that the both of them don’t topple right over.

“You literally saw me last night, what gives?” Maddie laughs when she gets her feet back on the floor, smiling down at Aria. “And who’s this?” she asks, eyebrows raised high on her forehead, her customary braid falling over her shoulder, arms now crossed over her chest, taking her time, and measuring Ayden up.

Aria pretends to stomp on Maddie’s foot, going for where it would hurt. “Could you not? Don’t be a dick,” Aria says, and Ayden sputters something unintelligible before choking, coughing hard enough that I think he’s going to need a lung transplant.

Guess that was me when I was around Jaeyong. Seriously, I probably choked on air more often than not, too.

Maddie comes closer and Ayden looks a little worried that they’re both of the same height (almost, from this angle), and she slowly stretches out her hand for a shake. “Hi,” she says, grinning all the while, and I swear Ayden looks like he might pass out, poor guy. “I’m Maddie. How are you?”

“Not good,” Ayden blurts and then his cheeks practically glow with his blush. Aria’s laughing, pressing her hands to his cheeks and practically cooing at him and it’s adorable, truly, but it makes me long for Jaeyong so, so badly that I have to look away, have to give myself a chance to control my own emotions. They do a business-like handshake and Ayden’s not weird about it at all.

“Jesus Christ, I said I wasn’t going to be like this. I’m sorry, but I’m a fan.”

“You’re sorry that you’re a fan of mine? Aria, you have some explaining to do,” Maddie says, crossing her arms over her chest, looking intimidating as shit, and Ayden coughs into his fist and stares down at his toes, looking like he’s questioning every moment that brought him here. “Hey, hey, I’m dicking around, okay? Please don’t pass out. Aria will kick my ass.”

“That’s right, so stop being a dick, would you?”

“Should I wait for Jesse to meet you alone? We don’t want you to pass out, man,” Maddie says, reaching forward to clap Ayden on the shoulder and the guy groans miserably.

“I think I just want the floor to open up and swallow me whole right now, thanks,” Ayden says, and he’s so different than the confident celebrity that I met the other day. He’s still looking down at his sock feet, as if they’re the most interesting thing in the room.

“Maddie, what’s taking so long? Oh, hello, everyone,” Jesse says, walking into the entranceway, and both Maddie and I swing our gazes to Aria, still holding Ayden up. “Are you all right there, mate?”

“Yes, sorry, sorry. This is so incredibly embarrassing,” Ayden says, voice clipped, his cheeks burning red.

It’s so cute and endearing and Aria’s the one holding him up, which makes my heart squirm in my chest. She deserves all of this, this kind of relationship where they’re on equal footing.

Now it would just be nice if Jaeyong were here, too. I think he would love these people. He really would.

“He’s embarrassed because he’s a fan of mine,” Maddie says, not being helpful at all.