Chapter 14

It's Friday evening and I'm on my way to Marisol's house to meet with my cousin and Charlotte so they can give me a Nine Knots crash course.

I actually walked to her place. I wanted to clear my head, and listen to Nine Knots songs. And anyway, the walk from my home is a little over an hour and the tram ride is about forty-five minutes, so it's not that big of a difference.

            I haven't really walked around Toronto ever since I've been back, so I just felt like this was a good excuse to do it.

I'm replaying over and over again K. It's a booty call song really. The person singing wants to be more, but all they can be is a middle of the night text. I like the pre-chorus that goes, "I didn't expect to feel like this, didn't plan to fall in love with your kiss" It kinda hits for me. Not because I think I've fallen in love with Jae-sang, but more because my life's been turned upside down from a kiss. It's either K or Expiration Date that I listen to today.

Expiration Date is thinking about your ex even though you know you shouldn't, even though you know you're looking back at the relationship with pink glasses.

I can't help thinking about what inspired these songs for them.

They have many, many dating rumours, but nothing confirmed. We know some of the boys had exes before they formed the band though.

I wonder if their exes regret breaking up with them.

I know I would.

But all of this makes me curious about what really happened. What made them write those songs.

They wrote their first album in a month, during the months they were given at the end of the TV show to go back home and rest.

It didn't go as planned.

From what I've gathered, Aleksey didn't go back home during those three months. It's pretty clear he doesn't get along with his parents. Instead, he went to stay with Luan in South Africa. And then about a month and a half later, Jae-sang joined them. And a week or so later, all the guys ended up just meeting up at Ibrahim's family place in Egypt. The whole band became close with his family because of that, because they were like a part of the family for the time they stayed there. I need to watch the little making of video they made of it, to get all the details, but I've been putting it off. I know it's going to be good, so I want to watch it when I can give it my full attention.

Full disclosure, I want to watch Seven Wonders again. Just because I know the experience is going to be different now that I love all of them.

            Finally, I'm close to Marisol's house.

            My cousin texted me. They're already there so I just need to knock.

Marisol lives in Cabbagetown in a small colorful Victorian house.

All the houses are cute on her street.

I don't want to complain about living in a high tower, but this feel homier.

I walk up the steps to her front door and knock.

I hear the sound of a little dog barking and Marisol opens the door with a smile, grabbing the poodle before it can pounce on me.

"Sorry, about Ginger, she gets a little excited when we have people over," Marisol says.

"It's okay," I reply, petting the enthusiastic white fluffy dog.

Dorothy and Charlotte are standing a few feet behind her, waving hello enthusiastically.

"We got you a shirt!" Dot squeals, showing it to me.

It's a black shirt with a pretzel on it.

I laugh as Marisol closes the door behind me. "What?"

"You're a Pretzel now, you need to show it proudly," Charlotte explains.

"You guys are adorable," I chuckled, taking my shoes off, and reaching for the shirt.

There's Nine Knots written on the back too.

"Come on, come on," Marisol says, putting her dog back on the ground and gesturing for me to follow her.

We all head p to the second floor, and to what I assume is her room.

I think the walls of her room are white, but they're so much stuff on them that I can't be sure.

She had posters and fanart on every inch of it. There's a harmony to it though, so it doesn't look super tacky.

It's actually cool.

She's got merch everywhere, and even her bed cover is black with little pretzels on it.

Now, that's what I call dedication.

The clash between the colorful house and Marisol's own black on black outfits is not lost on me.

I point it out.

"In terms of fashion, Luan speaks to me at a molecular level," she explains, while Dot and Charlotte sit on her bed, like they're at home and this is standard procedure.

Marisol sits on the chair in front of her desk, so I head to the little grey armchair that stands in the corner of her room, surrounded by pile of books.

"That's beautiful," I reply to her previous comment.

"The only color I accept in an outfit is orange crocs," she adds swiveling in her chair.

Oh, Luan's crocs. I have to ask. "Is there a story behind the orange crocs?"

"Not really no, he's just obsessed with them and the guys are always giving him shit about it," Charlotte answers.

"Do you guys know what it is about them that just makes everything they do so addictive? I've watched like twenty times a compilation video of Jae-sang hiding behind the members when he's watching somethings scary or embarrassing. Like, it's not special or anything. It's not even that interesting. But it's just sooo adorable that I can't stop," I ask. I can say this to these girls, They will not judge me. They'll understand.

"I think it's because one minute you see them doing something cute, and then next something funny and the next you're watching a thirst trap of them singing to a sexy beat, and then it's funny again, and then they say something emotional..." Dot explains.

"And then Xufeng faceplants somewhere," Marisol adds.

I chuckle. "Poor Xufeng."

"There's a reason why everyone says he's a panda. It's not because he's Chinese. It's because it's a miracle he's not extinct. He can't function without constant supervision," Marisol says.

I laugh again.

"So, are you going to tell us what you talked about with Tenth Knot?" Dot asks, bouncing on he bed while cradling a pretzel plushie.

Charlotte is holding one that looks like Pierre the Penis. Marisol actually bought a Pierre the Penis plushie?

Her whole room is a Nine Knots shrine.

"Here," I say and I hand my phone to my cousin and her friends.

They all squeal and Marisol throws herself on the bed so they can all read our conversations.

I wonder for a second if I should have kept them for myself. Maybe it would bother Tenth Knot that I'm showing our conversations to other people.

I should probably ask her the next time I write to her.

"She's sooooo cool. She's sooooo cool. God I want to date her," Dot whines. "Did you see her latest upload? I think Jae and Luan are endgame."

"No, I haven't read it," I admit.

With work and all the videos I need to catch up on, I haven't had time.

"I thought she was going to make Xufeng the second, better option, but now I don't know," she adds, still reading the DMs on my phone.

"It's comfortable with Xufeng. It's electric with Luan," Charlotte says ceremoniously.

"Do you guys have a hard time differentiating the reality with her fanfics," I suddenly ask.

"Oh, no. Her fanfics are a hundred percent fiction. Case in point, she'd never made an Aleksias fanfic," Dot replies, looking up from my phone for a second.

I frown. "Really?"

"Yeah. I think it's because she actually thinks it might be real, so she doesn't want to create more wave by writing a story with them," my cousin explains.

"Yeah, I don't think she wants the boys to ever be uncomfortable," Charlotte adds. "She keeps telling everyone not to bother the boys with our ships too. Like, she says we can ship but we shouldn't keep asking the boys to kiss each other during lives."

I make a grimace. "Some fans are weird."

"Oh yeah," Charlotte agrees.

"Look, look, Dot, she wants to know about your username!" Marisol suddenly squeals, shaking my cousin.

I laugh at their outburst.

"Do you want me to tell her next time?" I ask.

Dorothy looks sooo conflicted. "I don't know. I don't know!"

I laugh again. "Why are you freaking out?"

"I wanted a meet cute kinda beginning of friendship!" she whines, throwing herself back on the bed, hiding her face in the pretzel plushie. "You know, like I comment something and she replies to my comment and then we start talking and then she tells me my eyes are mesmerizing and then we can spend the rest of our lives cuddling and fangirling about Nine Knots. It's the perfect life!" she says kinda hysterically.

"You've really thought about this," I say, my nose wrinkling in amusement.

"Give her a moment. Tenth Knot is her girl crush," Charlotte explains.

"Yeah, I've figured as much," I answer, still finding this hilarious.

"I love the boys, but like, I don't love the boys, you know?" Dot says, sitting up, "But I could love her. I could love her so easily."

"You don't even know what she looks like," I point out. There are no pictures of her anywhere. We don't even know her real name or her age. She could literally be anyone.

"Don't need to. Our souls connect," my cousin replies automatically.

"So? Do you want me to tell her your username?" I ask again. If she loves her so much, they should talk.

"Yes... no. Yes. NO! Wait, okay, no. Don't. I'LL THINK ABOUT IT!"

Me and the two other girls crack up at her outburst, laughing loudly.

This is... this is really nice. I guess this is what it might feel like if I actually had friends...

Hello my Pretzels! :D

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Naree is making friends. And I finally caught up with my uploads for this story! Wooohooo! :P

Well, I still have more writing to do, so I'll go do that now.

I LOVE YOU GUYS! See you all on Saturday! <3