Zhōu JùnJié
The first time I slept with ChíZi was after a never-ending flight from China to Chile. The second time - and the third time - were after a long train journey. Had I set up a routine when we did it in Chile? I was hoping not. But I was still not seeing much proof of her sleeping around.
She got in the shower and I took my chance to ring Alex.
"Hello? Are you ok? Did you get to see Victoria? It's been like four days now and I haven't heard from you at all?" he didn't sound very pleased.
"Sorry...sorry...we've been...busy," I tried not to sound too embarrassed.
"We? What do you mean by we? OHHHH you and Victoria? I knew it! I knew it! I should be a matchmaker! Where are you now? Still in Beijing?" I was sure that he was jumping up and down.
"Yeah, but we're going back to Shanghai as soon as we're ready. It's my sister's birthday tomorrow, do you remember I told you about it? Do you want to come?"
"I'd love to come! Send me the address and I'll see you there!"
One hour later we were on the train back to Shanghai.
"What did you get for JùnQiān?" asked ChíZi.
"A Cooky AirPod case, a Cooky cushion -"
"Talking about cushions, where did you put my Jimin cushion?" She looked mad at me.
"In your BTS room. You don't need Jimin when you've got me, do you?"
"I don't, but -"
"But?"
"You'll be staying in Shanghai and I've got to come back to Beijing. He keeps me company," she was looking out of the window.
"We'll sort something out, don't worry."
"I was expecting Golden Week to be a good one because Alex was supposed to come and keep me busy, but it's been ten times better," she said.
I was surprised that she was actually telling me what was going on in her head for once. I liked that change in her.
"Hey, put some BTS on," I told her while giving her my phone. We were sharing the AirPods.
"BTS? You still listen to BTS?" She laughed at me.
"What?" I laughed. "No, I'm not a Fan Boy, I just like their songs," I explained.
"Same thing!" She teased me.
"Not the same thing."
"Ok...let's see...who sings this one?" she put 'Awake' on.
"That's Jin," I laughed.
"And this one?" She put 'Lie' on.
"That's er...Jimin."
"What about this one?" She put 'Daechwita' on.
"That's Suga."
"No, that's Agust D," she corrected me.
"Min Yoongi, the same person, right?" I was getting embarrassed about knowing all this. She was laughing hard at me.
"And you're not a Fan Boy?" She teased me again. "How about this one?"
She played 'Ego.'
"That's Hobi." Big mistake, I should've just called him J-Hope.
"Hobi? Did you just call J-Hope 'Hobi?'" she was laughing at me uncontrollably.
"After a while you recognise their voices, don't you? It's not hard!" I tried to sound convincing but she was having none of it. She kept finding solo songs.
"What about this one?" 'My Time' was coming out of the AirPods.
"That's easy. It's one of JùnQiān's favourite songs, JK sings it." Yet again my lovely girlfriend was laughing hard at me. "What did I say??"
"JK!! You called him Jungkook 'JK!' Oh, you're a real Fan Boy!"
"I am not."
"You've got two more songs to go and if you pass the final test, you're ARMY."
"Bring it on," I was ready for this. She played 'Inner Child' this time.
"Of course I know who's singing this one!"
"Tell me then."
"Taehyung, I mean V," I looked at her from the corner of my eye.
"JùnQiān's trained you well," she laughed again. "Ok. This is it. The last song." She played 'Trivia: Love.'
"That's Namjoon."
She leaned forward to look directly at my face. "Impressive. You're officially ARMY," she was clapping at me.
"No, my sister and my girlfriend are. That's enough for me not to be ARMY, thank you very much," ChíZi was still looking happily at me. "I like to see you happy."
"I'm happy, but I'm nervous about seeing JùnQiān again," she rubbed her hands together.
"Oh, she'll be happy to see you. She'll probably want to kill you first, but she'll get over it quickly, I'm sure," I told ChíZi to calm her down.
"Have you got the presents with you here?"
"No, they're in my flat. Don't let me forget about them when we go to see her tomorrow."
It was, again, a very long journey to Shanghai, and we both collapsed into bed when we finally arrived in my flat. But it wasn't long until we did our already set routine.
It was about eleven o'clock in the morning when we woke up. I made ChíZi some dumplings for breakfast even though it was nearly lunchtime and we had to get to my sister's.
I gave JùnQiān's presents to ChíZi and I carefully hid the white gold princess cut diamond ring that Auntie Lily had, I assumed, asked Lita to sneak in my suitcase.
*
We got into the lift. I could tell that ChíZi was very nervous because she hardly said a word on our way to my sister's. I couldn't blame her though. The last time she and JùnQiān saw each other, it hadn't ended up very well.
"I'm really nervous about seeing JùnQiān again. By the way, does she even know I'm coming?"
"Oh, I must've forgotten to mention it," I looked down at ChíZi, with my eyes widened.
"Whaaaaat??" she slapped my hand. "Where does she think you've been all this time? Because you haven't been to work, all the restaurants are closed!" She was trying to keep up with my strides as we left the lift.
"I told her I've been trying to catch up on some sleep because I've been working lots of overtime," that was true though, the overtime part. We were outside JùnQiān's door and I rang the doorbell before ChíZi could escape and it was MàoDé who opened the door. ChíZi was hiding behind my back, pulling on my clothes.
"JùnJié! Come in, we were wondering what time you'd be coming today. Come in!" he said, lively as usual. We walked in, ChíZi still hiding behind my back.
"Gē Ge! About time!" JùnQiān came to greet me.
"Shēng rì kuài lè, Mèi Mei! May you stay young forever!" I grabbed ChíZi from behind my back and gave her to my sister as a birthday present. ChíZi held out both her arms and gave JùnQiān the real present.
"Happy birthday, ARMY sister!" ChíZi kept her eyes closed and waited for JùnQiān to react.
"Chén. Chí. Zi." JùnQiān said slowly. ChíZi had buried her head in my chest. "ARMY sister! I've missed you so much!!" JùnQiān grabbed ChíZi off my arms and gave her a hug.
"I've missed you too!" ChíZi returned the hug and looked relieved.
"Hey. What's going on here?" ChíZi looked at JùnQiān and at MàoDé and then at me. "Why didn't you tell me that you're going to be an uncle?"
"I forgot," I apologised.
"How could you forget?"
"Oh, never mind, don't you two start fighting again!" JùnQiān grabbed ChíZi's hand and took her away to show her the baby's nursery room.
"You've been in Beijing all these days?" asked MàoDé.
"I didn't want to tell you or JùnQiān that I was going to Beijing, in case things didn't work out."
"Guess they did work out this time?"
"They did. I've invited a friend of ChíZi's today, is that ok? It's thanks to him that I'm here with her now. Hope you don't mind."
"Of course I don't mind. At least ChíZi is here now and she can have a share of the non-stop baby talk. I'm happy for you, JùnJié," MàoDé patted my back.
Alex arrived five minutes later, carrying a gift bag with him. JùnQiān and ChíZi were still having a chat in the baby's nursery room.
"Alex, this is my brother-in-law and best friend, Hé MàoDé. Hé MàoDé, this is ChíZi's friend - and my friend too -, Alex," they shook hands.
"Nice to meet you, MàoDé. I'm so happy that the plan worked out, JúnJiè," Alex had a massive smile on his face.
"All thanks to you. Hey, I need to ask you both something, while the girls are still chatting away and can't hear," I took the diamond ring out of my pocket and showed it to them.
"No," said MàoDé.
"No!" said Alex as well.
"Why?" I was disappointed about not getting their support.
"You've just got back together."
"You'll scare her off."
"You do know that she's never lived with anyone before?"
"Bad idea."
"Give her time."
"You're here in Shanghai."
"She's in Beijing."
"Definitely a bad idea."
"Awful, actually." MàoDé and Alex were acting as if they had known each other for years.
"Ok! Ok! I got it!" I put the ring back in my pocket.
"Imagine stealing the spotlight off your sister today! That would go down well, wouldn't it?" MàoDé shook his head.
"I'm sorry," I apologised. "I just -"
"Don't want to lose her again, we know," Alex finished the sentence. "But she's just started to face her fears. Give her time. She's a lot better now, I know she is. Otherwise, I wouldn't have sent you to hers. I knew she wasn't going to turn you down this time, but just take it easy," Alex comforted me.
I couldn't help feeling disappointed for the lack of support from my friends, but I guessed they were doing the right thing. I had to wait before I could propose to ChíZi again.
The girls eventually came out of the baby's nursery room.
"Who was at the door just now?" asked JùnQiān. Alex stood up to greet her.
"ALEX!" ChíZi gave him a big hug. "JùnQiān, this is my friend, Alex. Alex, this is my ARMY sister, JùnQiān."
"Hi Alex, nice to meet you," smiled JùnQiān.
"Nice to meet you, JùnQiān, I've heard a lot about you," Alex smiled back at her.
As I did every year, I cooked a lot of different dishes for JùnQiān. We all had a great time celebrating the mum-to-be birthday girl.
The moment to leave my sister's little gathering came around way too quickly.
"I know, I don't want to leave, but I've got a train to catch back to Beijing," ChíZi was hugging JùnQiān.
"You should've never left," JùnQiān gave her a resentful look.
"You can always come to visit me, you know? It'll be nice if you come before the baby arrives."
We waved goodbye to MàoDé and JùnQiān, and walked to the lift with Alex.
"Are you going straight back to Beijing now?" Alex asked ChíZi.
"Tomorrow. Staying at Zhōu JùnJié's tonight," she was holding my hand with both her hands.
"Ok. I'm happy for you two. Keep it up. Or I'll confiscate the BTS collection again," he gave ChíZi a hug.