Finding the Right Words

Chapter 38- A Bit of A Joke

I simply could not believe what I had just read. What exactly could Henry want that would compel him to arrange for all of the Wisconsin girls to come visit me in Korea? He was planning something tricky, I just knew it. Don't get me wrong, I was really happy to hear that I would see my friends again soon, but I couldn't help but feel that there was some kind of string attached. 

Slightly confused, I pulled out my phone and texted Henry. "So when were you planning on telling me that you were arranging for my family to visit your family and for my friends to come to Korea?" I wasn't mad, really, just suspicious. 

"Darn. I was hoping they wouldn't tell you in their letters..."

"Henry!"

"It was supposed to be a surprise!"

"What are you planning?"

"Hey, you know Heechul is the evil mastermind, not me!"

">.>"

"I'm not planning anything."

"Sure you're not."

"I'm not!"

"So what exactly are you asking of my friends in exchange for helping them get here?"

"...nothing."

"You are a terrible liar."

He didn't respond after that, so I flopped down on the floor and threw my phone onto my bed. Min Hee looked down at me from her leg stretch.

"So... what exactly is going on?"

"The idols in FASE are helping my friends come visit. But I have a sneaking suspicion that there's something sneaky going on."

"What do you mean? Don't you think they're just giving you a present because they like you?"

I laughed. Min Hee didn't spend that much time with them, did she? The members of FASE loved playing games. Admittedly, I was no exception, but that wasn't the point. 

"Yeah, maybe. But you have to admit, there's something fishy going on here. Any references to Donghae aside."

"Any references to Donghae-sunbae aside, you mean. Come on, Mel, you need to keep using formalities. Just because they're getting attached to you-"

"Doesn't mean I can start being impolite," I finished for her, "Yeah, yeah, I know. I went two years as a fangirl. I'm not used to calling them by anything more formal than 'Oppa'."

"You need to do it eventually. That and your homework. Don't you have a test coming up soon? Maybe you should stop reading letters from your friends back home and start studying!"

I groaned and rolled over, pulling my textbook out from under my bed. "Fiiiiiiiiine..." I wasn't in the studying mood, but I knew that I had to keep my grades up.

I woke up a couple hours later to a puddle of drool on the hardwood floor and the sound of our apartment's version of a doorbell; an angry buzz that sounded like a dying hornet. 

I sat up, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes and wiping the drool off of my face. At least I hadn't fallen asleep on my textbook.

"Who could that be?" Min Hee asked. It was a school night, and already ten at night, not an unusual time for the two of us to be awake and studying and/or practicing, but a slightly unusual time for visitors.

I yawned, reaching for the roll of paper towel on our "counter" to wipe up the drool puddle. "Probably just John." He'd been coming to our dorm more and more frequently and at odder and odder times, claiming that he "needed my help with school", and then not spending any time at all studying, instead talking to Min Hee about "back home in Europe". It was slightly annoying at times.