Chapter 21

I get to Marisol's house around 6PM assuming that I might be a little too early, and I actually stress for a second over that fact, like someone who enjoys giving themselves anxiety for no goddamn reason.

But all the girls are already there, when I arrive, so that settles that fake problem quite quickly.

I'm greeted quickly and hushed back to Marisol's room.

When I finally sit down, I ask the important question, "So, why have I never heard about Ford?"

"Oh, Ford hanging out with Nine Knots is basically more of a true Pretzel knowledge. I don't think it's something talked about in general. These lives especially. People are a little secretive about them, because we don't want randoms to get in on the fun and ruin it," Charlotte explains, sitting on Marisol's computer chair, swivelling around with a bag of chips on her lap.

"They're super cute together, because Jae is the youngest in the group, so he can't baby anyone. But he can baby Ford because he's two years younger," Marisol adds while putting away clothes in her wardrobe, tidying up her room.

"Nine guys was already a lot. Now I have to add another one to the roster?" I whine while the girls laugh at me.

"Have you been talking with Tenth Knot lately?" Dorothy suddenly asks me.

"Yeah, a few times."

For some reason though, I don't want to show them the conversations. They've been... I don't know, more personal lately, than just stuff about Nine Knots.

Also, if I show this to them, I'm going to have to explain things...

But they're looking eagerly at me, and I don't know why I'm feeling like this. It's not like we said anything weird. So I hand my phone to my friends.

They all kind of collectively stop reading when they get to my drunker texts.

"Wait, wait, wait, what is this? Who did you kiss this time?" Dorothy asks.

I roll my eyes. "No one famous."

"Well, come on, spill girl, spiiiiill," Marisol presses.

"I kissed Frank," I reply a little sheepishly.

Dot frowns. "Frank? The assistant manager?"

"Wait, you kissed your boss? Isn't there like a rule against that?" Charlotte asks, stopping her swiveling, a chip half way to her mouth.

"He's not my boss," I brush the matter away, "He's just my superior."

Dot snorts. "Oh, yeah, that makes it so much better."

"Wasn't he kind of a douchebag?" Marisol asks.

I shrug. I don't actually like all this attention. At least not this kind of attention. And I also know kissing Frank might not have been my best idea. "Yeah, a little, but he's got his moments."

My cousin shakes her head. "How the mighty have fallen. She kissed Jae-sang. And now she's kissing douchebags."

"I can't be kissing perfect boys like Min Jae-sang all the time," I say in my defense.

"You should at last aspire to that," Charlotte says.

"Whatever," I roll my eyes.

"Wait, so? Do you want to talk about it?" Dot presses, being serious.

"I don't knoooooow," I whine, throwing myself on Marisol's bed.

Dot grabs my leg, pulling it while Charlotte and Marisol laugh. "Was it a good kiss?"

"Yeah, sure," I shrug.

"And, do you want it to turn into something?" my cousin continues.

"I don't know," I sigh, turning around to look at her. I'm not trying to dodge the question, I genuinely don't know. "I don't think so. Anyway, it doesn't matter what I want, I'm not sure Frank is thinking about dating me."

"Frank the douchebag would be lucky to date you," Marisol says solemnly.

"We don't know, maybe Frank the douchebag is a wonderful boyfriend," Charlotte adds in my defense.

I smile at her, and the chuckle.

"We're calling him Frank the douchebag. He can't be that extraordinary," Dot points out.

"Rain check on this conversation, the live is starting," Charlotte announces, and casts the live on her big computer screen.

We all go quiet, staring at the boys.

"Wat-dii!" a guy that I assume is Ford from the pictures I've seen says.

"Annyeoooong," Jae says at the same time, sitting beside him.

"S'up biiiitches," Ford, continues in a melodic voice.

"Ford," Jae automatically reprimands him, slapping his arm.

"Dude, this is my account," he replies, and then sings, "I can do what I waaaaaaaant."

"Anything offensive Ford says, I do not condone," Jae says directly to the camera.

"Cancel him with me the second I fuck up," Ford says, coming super close to the camera, "He raised me. All my defaults are his fault."

Jae slaps the back of his head. "Ungrateful child."

Ford just laughs and then asks, "Are you guys ready to have fuuuuun? It's been a while right?"

"Yeah, like what? Four months?"

Ford frowns, thinking about it. "I think so. I was stuck in Thailand shooting a drama."

Ford is from Thailand. I saw that mentioned when I was looking through videos of them out last night. He's got zero accent though, so I could have easily thought he was born and raised in an English speaking country.

He's also pretty cute. But that's like, not surprising at this point.

"My child is an actor now," Jae croons, pressing his hands on Ford's cheeks, squishing them.

Ford swats his friend's hands off his face and says, "Oh hey by the way, speaking of problematic things, that was soda in my glass last night, and not alcohol."

Jae chuckles. "I love the fact that we constantly have to put disclaimers when we go out together and people take pictures of us."

"At least this time we didn't have to explain that we didn't fuck in a bathroom stall."

I burst into laughter at that comment. Did they really have to do that? I don't even have to ask because my cousin tells me it's real knowing what I was thinking.

"Ford is a bad influence because any time he comes over, I do something stupid," Jae continues

Ford rolls his eyes. "You don't need me to do something stupid."

Jae-sang gasp, faking being offended. "Harsh, have more respect, I'm your elder."

"No, no, I'm on American soil right now," Ford says, shaking his hand at me, "so I abide to American customs, therefore I have no respect for anyone anymore."

"THAT'S NOT THE AMERICAN WAY!" Scotty yells, appearing into the frame.

"What's that? Did you hear the irrelevant opinion of an American?" Ford asks, obviously in on that whole teasing Scotty thing.

"I will murder you both, right here right now," Scotty warns.

"Come here, stay babe, staaaaaay," Jae whines, stretching his hand out of frame, probably trying to grab Scotty.

I love these chaotic boys.

Scotty comes into frame. "You both need to respect me now. I'm the elder," he warns, sitting on Jae's lap.

"You're not Thai, or Korean," Ford points out.

"But I abide by Thai and Korean customs," Scotty replies.

"Taking your shoes off inside does not make you Asian, Scotty," Xufeng said, coming in the frame too.

"Chouchou, come here," Scotty shouts, and grabs Xufeng, dragging him on his lap too.

Poor Jae must be completely squishes.

"Oh yes, I want in on that meat sandwich," Xufeng says, shaking around.

"Every time I hang out with you guys I realize how normal I am. It's very unsettling.," Ford says, rolling his eyes, and then looks at the screen, reading comments probably because he says, "Y'all can stop asking me about True Colors boys. I haven't seen them or talked to them in ages. They're busy with their own stuff."

"Hey, Ford, we're the only ones that love you. No one else loves you but us," Scotty tells him.

Ford snorts. "Sweet, but super problematic."

"Alright, so are there any lives going on right now?" Jae asks, with two of his bandmates still on his lap. "The less people watching it, the better."

Some people give suggestions in the comments, and the decide where we should go.

I lose count of how many livestreams we crash.

Everyone reacts differently. Some people think it's some kind of conspiration and those are usually the funniest. There are a few awkward ones too, and every time we come back to Ford's own account afterwards, Jae and Ford squeal and cringe about them. Some of them obviously love the attention and saw weird shit because a lot of people are seeing them.

But in general, even with the weirder ones, it's kinda hilarious.

We're all laughing. And I somehow feel like we're partners in crime with Jae and Ford, which is like... super not good for my mental health and trying to convince myself that I can't be too obsessed with Min Jae-sang.

"What's with Nine Knots and True Colors?" I ask, while the boys have put on a Shania Twain playlist and now they're just dancing around and singing off key. Matias has joined them too now.

"Fanwar," Marisol says like that explains it all.

"Fanwar?"

Dorothy makes a grimace. "Yeah, people always need to pitch themselves against each other, so it's not enough that you have solo stan being toxic in the fandom, you also need to fight with other groups."

"And why exactly are we fighting with True Colors?"

"For many reasons."

"Care to elaborate," I chuckle.

"True Colors are fake," Charlotte just states offhandedly.

"What?"

"Netflix was essentially trying to recreate what Nine Knots achieve organically," Marisol starts to explain. "They created drama where there wasn't any. And I think at first Nine Knots and True Colors kinda got along, but something must have happened, because Nine Knots essentially stopped interacting with them all together."

"I also think Nine Knots are going to drop Netflix. I think they need to renew their contracts soon, and their going to go their own way," Dot continues.

"Lots of drama," Charlotte adds.

"Oh yeah. It's a rollercoaster being a Pretzel," Marisol tells me, chuckling at my expression.

That, it is.

______________

Hello my little Pretzels!

I still haven't decided a day for my Tenth Knot uploading yet. But it's about to be NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, where people write 50,000 words in a month) and Tenth Knot is one of the three projects I want to work on, so yeah. I'm gonna figure out the best day for me to upload soon. :P 

I'll keep you guys updated! But the goal is to have part one of the story completed by the end of the year. :D

Alrighty. I'm gonna go now! Thanks for being patient with me and for sticking around, and loving these characters! <3 I LOVE YOU GUYS! :D