Chapter 13

I need to call my cousin and talk with her. She still doesn't know that I've spent an ungodly amount of time watching Nine Knots content.

I think I partly haven't told her yet because of my pride. I don't want to admit that she was a hundred percent right and that I love the boys now.

I actually looked online to buy Jae-sang's version of The Charm's album. The only reason why I haven't ordered it is because I'm waiting for my first paycheque.

Here I was, kinda judging her in my heart just a couple of weeks ago, and now I totally get it and I feel like an asshole.

Luckily, I kept my judgy comments mostly to myself. I knew they sucked even before liking the band. But now, I feel even more like a hypocrite.

Clearly you should never judge something if you know nothing about it. I've learned my lesson.

None of this changes the fact that I need to call my cousin.

Should I do it over the phone? Should I tell her this in person instead? I'm sure she'll be ecstatic. And I'm also very excited. She knows more about the band than I do. I'm not against having someone teaching me the Nine Knots ways.

I grab my phone to call my cousin and realized I have a notification telling me Nine Knots started a livestream on Instagram.

I'll call my cousin later. I start the live.

Thomas' face pops up. He's sitting in a room, it looks kinda empty, so I assume it's a work room of some sort. He's wearing his cap backwards, leaning back in his chair a bit, his arms crossed.

The comments are coming in like crazy, hearts and marriage demands and I LOVE YOUs and you're mine messages.

"I really thought it was a good present you know. I bought it at a little shop where they do everything by hand, it was really cute, and the lady at the desk said they were unique pieces. I think her daughter was the one making them. It was like little sculptures of Greek gods as animals, it was adorable, and she likes Percy Jackson, so, it made sense that she'd like little figurines of Greek gods in animal form. I think she just really wanted to argue with me at that point. You know, sometimes people do that, even if everything is alright, they'll make up excuses to be mad at you—"

The door to the room opens. Scotty pops his head in. "Stop talking about your ex," he just says and leaves, closing the door behind him.

Thomas looks back at the screen, "the opinion of the American is irrelevant."

Scotty comes right back in the room. "Now, hold the fuck up. Someone asked you why you like wrapping paper so much, and it's fifteen minutes later, and now you've segued into a rant about why you think hand made gifts are nice while most people take them for granted and you're talking about your ex."

"So, what, you don't like my hand made gifts?" Thomas asks, looking offended.

"I love your hand made gifts, but I've also eaten bath bombs at one point because I thought they were candies, so like, can you really trust my judgement on gifts?"

I laugh. Oh Scotty...

"Exactly, so the opinion of the American is irrelevant," Thomas exclaims.

The comments are going wiiiiiiiiild because Scotty is there now and they're a ship.

"NOT ABOUT YOU RAMBLING ABOUT YOUR EX."

"I'm not talking about my ex. I'm not even thinking about my ex," Thomas whines.

"Look, I might be a bit of an idiot, but at least I know this. You're talking about your ex agaaaaain, and no one wants to hear that."

"I'm just chatting," Thomas replies.

"Overshare about something else, for the love of god."

Thomas looks back at the screen with an evil grin. "Did you guys know that Scotty thought unicorns were real but narwals weren't."

"It's not that weird."

"Scotty, unicorns?"

"Like, not flying unicorns, that poop rainbows, Harry Potter unicorns, you know? Harry Potter unicorns make sense."

"Sometimes you say stuff and I just marvel at your brain."

Scotty grins. "Thank you."

I love them, I think and smile like a lunatic at my screen. It's weird to think that this is live right now and I'm actually seeing them and that if I comment something Thomas might actually read it.

It makes them too real, and I sat beside them at a basketball game, so like it must be even weirder for other fans.

Fans have never had so close access to their idols as we do in these social media days. It's probably a problem.

"My blondies," Matias says, popping his head in the room too, "it's time to get off your phones and come practice."

"Alriiiiiiight. Sorry guys, this was short. I'll try to do this again soon. Sorry, we're getting ready for our tour, so that's a lot of preparation. We can't wait to see you guys on stage," Thomas says.

"Wrap it up, babe," Matias says, making moving motions with his hands.

Scotty laughs and just leaves the room, bumping his shoulder softly with Matias as he does.

"Au revoir mes amours," Thomas says, and closes the live. Goodbye my loves. Knowing French comes handy today.

I stare at my phone. I feel like jumping up and down, but also pouting because it's over.

I really don't know how to do that whole fan thing.

I still need to call my cousin.

I dial her number.

"Hey," she answers after a couple rings.

"Hey," I reply, "So... I have something to admit."

"You remember what Jae smells like?"

"No... actually, I watched all of Seven Wonders. And started Nine Knots on a Couch, and—"

I can't finish my sentence because my cousin screams in my ears. "OHMYGOD! You're a Pretzel? YOU'RE A PRETZEL!"

"My ear, my poor poor ear," I whine, pulling my phone away from it, and rub it.

Ouch.

This doesn't discourage my cousin. "AAAAAAAH! This is so amazing! See! I told you you would love them. It's impossible not to love them. YOU'RE A PRETZEL!"

"A pretzel?" I ask, confused.

"It's our fandom name. Because pretzels are kinda like knots. And the boys went to a carnival once and Scotty got a bunch of pretzel and then started to try to hand them over to the members asking them will you be my pretzel, and from there fans started to call themselves Pretzels. We were almost tenth knots, but since Tenth Knot is our Queen, it just felt wrong. Pretzels is cuter anyway," Dot explains.

I chuckle. "Well, yes then, I guess I'm a Pretzel."

"OH! I love this!" she squeals. "Wait, who's your bias?

"Honestly? I love all of them. Like, I can't choose," I admit. Sure I have a soft spot for Jae-sang, but I also looove Aleksey, and then I love Matias, but I also love Xufeng and Luan, of course Luan, and... yeah, okay I love all of them.

"Perfect, an OT9, the best kind of fan."

"Huh?"

"OT9, it means One True 9. It means you support the whole group and not just one member."

"How can anyone not like all of them?" I ask, in disbelief.

"It happens more than you'd think. And it's kinda awful honestly. It breaks my heart when a member does a live and all the comments are just where is this member, where is that member. Some fans have no manners. I use fan loosely. They're not fans."

"Honestly, I don't see how you can't love all of them. They're like a family. If one of them is missing, it just doesn't work," I say.

"Nine members was not too many members, was it not?" my cousin teases me.

I chuckle again. "Yes, you were completely right, and I apologize for any comments I made that were wrong when I didn't know any better. You were right, about everything and I was wrong about most things."

"No need to apologize, I get it, you didn't know," Dot replies.

"No, I do. And I really should have smelled him."

She laughs. "You really should have."

"I can't believe I didn't talk to any of them," I admit, "I had six of the nine members. I'm sad I didn't look at them more. I'm also sad Luan, Ibrahim and Kiaan weren't there."

"They're sweethearts."

"I want to hug all of them seriously. Like, I love them but I don't want to date them, I just want to be friends with them. They're so fun. Like, I couldn't function dating any of them. I can't even believe I kissed Jae. Like, it does no compute in my brain." Case in point, I can't even express myself properly.

"It's crazy, really. It's the only member you had a chance at kissing, but it's still crazy."

"I took for granted an opportunity of a life time.," I trail.

"Did you want me to come over? Do you want to talk more? I could call up Marisol and Charlie too!" Dot suddenly says, excitedly.

"I would but I have to work in a couple of hours," I admit, disappointed.

"We can meet up this weekend. Talk about all of this. You realize they have a concert in Toronto in February, right?"

My body freezes. Concert? No motherfucking way. "Oh my god, are there any tickets left?"

"None for sale. But if you're nice I might give you my extra one."

I am internally freaking out. "You have an extra one?"

"I was seeing this girl. She doesn't deserve it now though. You can have it."

She can't be serious? She can't just be casually saying I can have her extra ticket?

My cousin is my favourite person at the moment.  "Ohmygod, why did you say this to me now. How am I supposed to function knowing I'll see them in a concert?"

"They're not good seats though, I'm not made of money," she adds, laughing.

"That's okay, that's perfect, any seats are good seats to me. Tell me how much for the tickets and I'll wire you the money when I have my first paycheque."

"Okay, this is fun. I'm enjoying this," she replies, with as much enthusiasm as I have.

"Me too! Thanks for inviting me, and including me."

"You're cute," she laughs again. "Anyway, I have to get to class now. I'll send you a bunch of links of some of my favourite edits."

"Oh!" I remember something, "Before you go, I told Tenth Knot partly about you. She wanted to know your username. Do you want me to give it to her?"

"Wait? You're still talking?" she squeals.

"Yeaaaah," I drag the waord.

"OHMYGOD, NAREE MORRIN! Who raised you? How can you say this just now!"

"Sorry, sorry!" I laugh at her outburst.

"I'm going to be late to class, I hate you, we really need to speak soon. Friday night soon."

"Fine, I work in the morning on Friday," I agree.

"Perfect. I have plans."

"I'll follow the plans."

We say our goodbyes and I hang up.

I'm smiling at my phone again, feeling super excited and ready to jump up and down.

I've rarely felt this excited about anything.

Seriously, what kind of magic has Nine Knots played on me?

Hello my Pretzels!

We finally have a name for the fandom thank to @xuximinaj  I asked the people that were there during my livestream earlier today and this was their suggestion. I love it. It's cute and funny and I'm thinking about all the fun stuff we'll be able to make with that.

I hope you're still enjoying the story. I'm always all ears if you have suggestions or demands. I do have plans, but I always love to have your inputs.

I still owe you guys one more chapter. I'll try to upload it before I go to sleep, but if not I'll upload it tomorrow as soon as I can.

Alright, back to writing! LOVE YOU GUYS! :D