Page 49 of Glitched Fates & Stolen Mates

Jess dropped her arms, and Mia leapt in with, “It’s so nice to meet you! It’s your first time seeing SEVENTEEN, yeah? I saw them last year in Paris. You’re going to die. Like, literally die. The vocals, the choreography… Obviously Jeonghan was doing his military service, so I didn’t get to see him, but he’s back now. We’re seeing eight of them to—”

“I think we should get in the queue,” I interrupted. “It’s already massive.”

Lily shot me a look that promised retribution later, but followed my gaze towards the O2 Arena. The queue snaked around the building like a shimmering, screaming dragon, thousands of fans clutching lightsticks and wearing matching outfits. My heart pounded horribly fast.

This had been such a bad idea.

“Felix is right,” Lily said, linking arms with her friends. “Come on. I want to try and get right to the front.”

The front?! Was she insane?!

We joined the back of the queue, which immediately swallowed us into a world of Korean pop music blasting from portable speakers, fans practising choreography, and conversation conducted entirely in excited shrieks.

“This is going to be amazing,” Lily said, practically glowing with happiness.

I forced a smile and nodded, through my mounting anxiety. She’d been looking forward to this for months, saved up every penny to afford the ticket.

Soul-shaking bass lines. Thousands of screaming fans. Hours of standing in an increasingly cramped space with no clear exit strategy.

Oh, joy.

I pulled out my phone, hoping for any distraction from the chaos around me.

There was nothing aside from a message from Kit to the group chat, lecturing everyone because they hadn’t put their mugs in the dishwasher before they’d left for the weekend yesterday afternoon.

I couldn’t help but laugh out loud. The man really didn’t give up, at anything.

I’d had three training sessions with him so far. Three times I’d turned up to that ballroom and made an absolute fool of myself whilst Kit patiently guided me through the basics of not dying horribly if someone attacked me. Sometimes I caught him fighting a smile when I inevitably tripped over my own feet or punched the air instead of the target.

He was hilariously good at pretending I was improving. The man deserved an Oscar for his performance. Never once did he make me feel stupid for flinching when he moved too quickly, or for the way my hands shook when he demonstrated a hold. Getting used to him touching me had been… complicated. And he had to touch me a lot. Placing his hands on my body to correct my stances, guiding my arms into defensive positions. The contact was brief, professional, but I still found my skin tingling every single time he touched me, my breath coming quicker whenever his hand skirted near my hip.

It most definitely was not helping my concentration during training.

In our water breaks—which there were a lot of—we’d been chatting more and more. Which was… actually nice. Somehow.

In fact, I’d almost say we were friends now. Sort of.

He’d asked about this concert several times now. Maybe I could send him a picture, once I was inside. No. That would be weird.

Not as weird as me suggesting he take Wren’s ticket, which is what I’d thought of doing for one mad moment.

That would’ve been insane. Because Kit wouldn’t want to spend his Saturday night at a K-pop gig with my teenage sister and her uni mate.

Besides, how would I even explain him to Lily? She’d have had a million questions about why my much older, “obviously not from IT” colleague was suddenly joining us. She’d have been convinced we were dating or something, which would have made the whole thing even more excruciatingly awkward.

He’d have had to pretend to work for my fake company, maintain the whole elaborate charade. Maybe I could’ve said he was our security. That might’ve worked. He certainly looked the part.

The image was so ridiculous I almost smiled.

“Oh my God, they’re opening the doors!” Mia shrieked, and suddenly the queue surged forward.

“Yay!” I said. I must have sounded sarcastic because Lily gave me another elbow jab. I’d be covered in bruises by the end of this.

What followed was an eternity of organised chaos—queuing, security checks, and Lily dragging us through the crowds like a woman possessed.

The arena floor was a mass of bodies pressed against each other, everyone straining towards the massive stage ahead. We squeezed into the third row, close enough to see individual pixels on the giant screens.

“This is perfect!” Lily shouted over thousands of chattering fans. She’d linked her arm through mine the moment we’d entered, probably sensing my panic as the crowd compressed around us.