Let me fill you in on those days before I sent him off, too. Cause...well, have you ever played one of those "What's Wrong With This Picture?" games where you're supposed to search through this perfect looking drawing to find all the little wonky parts?

Test your skills on the next two or three installments of this story. It may save you a whole lot of grief the next time you step out on faith in a new relationship.

Okay, "leggo," as all the K-pop idols say way too much now tryin'a imitate their favorite hip hop dudes:

We finally decided to take turns driving back to Whitman on Sunday evening because were so delirious from lack of sleep that we kept bursting out laughing at the slightest little thing—definitely needed those little naps.

Not for the reason you think—no uglies had bumped yet.

Don't trip—this really isn't one of those wonky parts. It's just that we'd sipped beer, smoked trees and round danced 'til almost sunrise when we had to go make breakfast for the guests and dancers.

So "Bae-J" trudged off with the men for wood and I yawned my way to the cook shack where the women who'd slept instead of partying gave us a whole lotta sass.

Me, especially, of course. Talking about how they'd expected me to be "walking all funny" after—oh, you remember what I told you about them. They were in rare form that morning for sure.

And Lana taught us all how to hula our hips while we were beating big bowls full of eggs and laughing 'til our sides ached too much to wiggle anymore. I wound up loving that woman. I wear her earrings all the time because they make me think of her. And smile.

I smiled the whole way home, too, during my turns at the wheel. Mostly after looking over at the man I hadn't slept with while he was snoozing peacefully on the passenger side.

I could totally understand why those scouts had chased after him. He was the K-pop type from head to toe.

Silk-skin, fine-features, cupid's bow lips. Broad shoulders, slim hips, well-defined dancer's muscles.

With the wind rustling strands of that shiny black hair into that newly tanned face, he was such a perfect picture that I swear I felt a director would yell, "Cut," any minute.

But a big rock hit the windshield instead, spun up from the road by the big semi in front of us.

Didn't crack the glass, thank God. Just startled AJ. Who eased up straight and frowned out at the road...

So I said, "No harm done," to ease his mind.

And he scooched over to pull a few loose strands of my hair out of my face and back behind my ear. Chuckled at the little shiver that gesture caused.

I said, "Don't be scared. No harm done. Go back to sleep."

"Scared the hell out of you, didn't I, though? With the ring thing..."

"What makes you say that?"

"I thought about it while I was out there with those guys chopping wood and sort of easing back to reality. I must've sounded batshit crazy coming at you like that."

I laughed. "At first, I kinda thought you and the guys had hit the pipe or something. Ronnie loves his weed."

"Wasn't the weed. It was the drums and the dancers—us, dancing. That heartbeat drumming through all of us like we were all part of one big, crazy creature—wow, there's the crazy again."

I laughed with him for a minute. And then asked, "Isn't it like that onstage, though? The music kinda pulling everybody together?"

He gave a pensive nod. "Sometimes once it's all muscle memory, the steps and everything, I can just dissolve into the music and the moment like that. But those dancers, the ones that suited up all serious—they humbled the hell out of me. I mean, they weren't out there showing off. They were sacrificing themselves for everybody. Sacred stuff."

"Bet your angels feel that way about you, too."

Eyes on the horizon, he sighed, "But it's so not the same thing..."

"Well, I went to some outdoor festival type things that made me feel like that. When the bands just took it to another level and we all went with them. Especially after I'd been talking and toking up and sharing water and wine and whatnot with all these other people."

"You know, I never even went to a concert before I got scouted. Knew nothing about K-pop until we moved to Korea. The beats and things I put up on Soundcloud were more like the R & B we grew up on. Just me, remembering things. Missing things."

He let out a little laugh and shook his head. "I sang that 'You and I' song by Stevie Wonder that everybody auditions with. I thought they were just going to maybe talk to me about what being a trainee was like—I didn't think I was going to have to sing or anything. So, I thought about how the first time my mother heard it she burst into tears. And that woman never cried. Even when my father beat her within an inch of her life, she wouldn't let us see her shed a tear. But that song almost doubled her over. So, I learned it just because it'd moved her like that. And I closed my eyes and sang it like it was her sitting there. Hoping it'd have the same effect. And it kinda did."

"Well, between that voice and that face they must've thought they'd struck gold, huh?"

He smirked and said, "They thought my nose was too wide, actually."

"What the hell?"

He tapped that nose and said, "Some of Dr. Kim Min Ho's finest work. I'm in the little brag book he shows to potential clients. Who are mostly other trainees and idols and actors, actually."

"You know, the more you tell me about K-pop training, the more I wish I didn't know so much."

"I haven't had any more work done since. But they treat it like a trip to the hair salon or—is that your cell or mine buzzing?"

"Yours, I think."

He fished his cell out of the little backpack thing he'd set down by his feet. The frown on his face made me grip the wheel a little tighter while he swiped and read whatever he'd received.

And the "Wow" that came after that made me grip it even tighter.

So I said, "Bad news?" To get whatever it was over with.

He smiled...sort of...and read:

"'In answer to rumors that the KMH Co. has literally lost track of the most bankable artist on their roster, CEO Kim Min Ho issued a statement declaring that, 'Ahn Ji Yeong has fully committed to all of his upcoming fan meetings and other contractual agreements and would never shirk his responsibilities to the fans or the company. I'm also sure he would like us to shift our focus from where and when he will re-emerge to more effective ways to anticipate and prevent tragedies like the one that recently shocked and saddened us all....'"

I tried not to be too thrown off by the little snort that came afterwards, and just said, "That's a pretty good press release, actually. Had some friends in LA who wrote those things for a living before you could just ChatGPT something up in two minutes."

He nodded and said, "It's not what he said, it's that he said it. And in officialese, to the press."

"Which means..."

He scrolled a little and then shrugged. "He's nervous about speaking to me through my lawyers. And that they keep telling him even they don't know where I am, either. Which they don't. Nobody from that world does. Except a couple of select old friends who shall remain nameless except maybe to one new friend..."

When I smiled at that last part, he said, "I'm going to have to arrange something like what you just did for me, actually..."

"Well, take care of this other stuff first, okay? Cause I'm not gonna lie, if one of my staff members just disappeared they'd have to come with a damned good excuse when they got back."

"That's why I've kept a line open. They're going through a rough patch, the company. So, they're on the lookout for telltale signs that I might be either shopping for or being contacted by other companies. And a few have come callin', but I'm not ready to go that far. I'd like to help them, if I can, before I do something that drastic."

I squirmed a little bit. "I...don't know. The boss in me is kinda squirmy right now."

He laughed and said, "My boss barometer. I like it."

Just as I said, "Our exit. We made it," and eased us off the highway. Trying to process all this star shit I'd never experienced up close and personal before.

I mean, I'd spent the first few years of my life with him almost. Not as a close friend, but we'd spoken. Chased each other a few times out on that playground he talked about so much.

But seemed to make it even harder for me to get used to the fact that there were millions of people—and a few really important ones—hanging on his every word and watching his every movement.

And yet...that same man was sitting right next to me, though. Sipping water, staring out at the little, crumbly two-lane that would lead us out to my little house on the edge of town. Where the county only came out to patch that stretch when they damned well pleased because the gentrification hadn't reached that far yet.

I'd rented, and I thought this was poetic justice of the coolest kind, a little house that had been given to the guys who bossed all the field hands around back in the day. Family house. Relatively large—also well-kept as it'd been something of a status symbol back then.

The Whitman descendants wanted to leave it where it sat for some inexplicable and possibly altruistic reason. A few of the younger ones seemed to be feeling a little liberal guilt of late.

And both because a lot of the newbies wouldn't go near it because they also felt a lot of liberal guilt about all that history, the rent had been more than reasonable. They knew my family name, too. I'd seen it in the way they'd nodded and paused when I introduced myself.

AJ came from all that, too. His history was our history—his family had fed us all.

So, all this K-pop stuff...the world he lived in now...it just didn't fit.

His cell buzzed again as I turned onto the road to my actual house. Call, this time.

He sighed and swiped. Said, "Yeah, I'm doing Elle, but...I don't know. I quit doing fashion mags for a while 'cause I don't want these kids trying to buy thousand dollar t-shirts. They already spend way too much money on merch and now we're all becoming brand ambassadors for all these designers, too."

I reached over and touched him when he said that.

Because I'd seen kids at school kind of staring at the expensive clothes the newbie's kids could afford. When we were coming up even the wealthy kids dressed pretty country. There just wasn't any reason to spend a lot of money on clothes. But now you saw all the latest fashions and brands at the cafes on Main Street. Newbies smirking at natives...

He touched the hand on his thigh and said, "Lemme get back to you, okay?" to whoever he was talking to as I eased up to the front steps.

"Elle Magazine?" I asked, mostly to delay his departure. If there was going to be one...

"Japan. They've been after me to do a shoot for—damn. It's an NDA thing, the name of the designer. What are we gonna do about all the fine print, huh?"

"I know non-disclosure agreements. I had to sign a lot of them so what happened at the afterparty stayed at the afterparty."

He sighed, "No doubt. But I'll have to think this through—so will you."

And then we sat there in an awkward silence, thinking through the "My place or yours?" thing in our heads before saying anything out loud.

But he finally slid over, gave me a nice kiss that told me what was coming. And yet it didn't bother me one bit, when he said, "Get some sleep, okay? I'll check in later and we can make some plans, maybe."

"You're going to be on that phone, though, aren't you?"

He touched my face and said, "I'm too zoned out to make any sense right now—one more..."

Kiss, he meant. A kiss that lingered like the gaze, afterwards.

Carried almost all my stuff in, tired as he was. And after we'd hugged up again I shoved him out of the door playfully. And I watched him trot down the steps to the Jeep feeling pretty light-headed and woozy as I picked up the Courier laying right next to the doormat outside—we were that seriously sleep-deprived...

But the headline woke me up some for sure:

Consolidation Layoff Plans Spark Public Protests and Staff Walkout Threats

I blinked my bleary eyes trying to focus on the first paragraph of the article under those big black letters that read:

"A leaked memo revealed criteria for eliminating duplicate certified and non-certified positions. Established by a well-known educational consulting firm hired to facilitate the controversial consolidation, the recently court-approved plan was set to be officially announced within the next two weeks..."

That woke me up some...