4.
JAE'S POV
By this point the coldness as subsided slightly and the day has finally started to feel as though it was progressing. My good friend, Luna, texted and we made plans to get hot chocolate and cookies. I dress comfortably warm and brush my hair to somewhat look decent to go outside.
My brother, David, has just arrived home from school when I walk into the living room. He has his legs kicked up on the coffee table as he munches on a bag of Doritos.
His face is flushed slightly from the cool weather and I roll my eyes at him as I see his hat still on. I walk behind the couch and snatch it from his head.
"Thanks," he mumbles through cheese.
I don't show him my smile as I reach down to grab my boots. As if on cue, (because she is always meddling in our lives) my mom is in the living room with the two of us. She eyes me expectantly.
"Where are you—?"
"Going to the cafe," I reply, already knowing what she will ask.
"Wit—?"
"Luna," I answer for her. I tie the laces on my boot to ensure that they stay on tightly.
I can feel my mom staring at my back as I slip on my other shoe. She is silent and I already know she has a comment.
"Bring your brother."
"What?" I snap my head to look at her, "no!"
She rolls her eyes, "Luna is nice for him."
I want to vomit at the thought of my high school brother dating or being romantically involved with my friends. I am shocked at what she is saying, but I shouldn't be given that her conservative values will bend according to whatever poor David wants.
"She's too old," I say.
"This isn't Korea," my mom has already picked up my brother's hat and is putting it securely on his head like he is a baby.
"You pick and choose when we are in Korea and when we aren't," my words and tone are disrespectful but I am too quick with my thoughts to filter what is coming out of my mouth. I freeze.
My mom sighs heavily, as if she is going to scold me but doesn't.
"Bring him."
"Okay, okay," I finally agree. This is mostly because it seems we did a silent compromise.
David doesn't seem thrilled about the idea either, but because he is babied to death, he knows mom will pay for his hot chocolate and all the cookies in the world. It's predictable when she hands me $20 for him.
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3:45PM EST • 4:45AM KST
✱ ✱ ✱ ✱
David is a nice younger brother. Although we fight sometimes, it seems like he has been maturing as of late. He towers over me now and has been hitting the gym a lot. We used to fight much more often, but I am happy he is finding who he is.
After two minutes of walking, "How far are we walking?" he asks. I'm not sure if he's complaining or just curious.
I look at the street we are on and say, "We're right here."
The bell of the coffee shop rings when I push it open. There aren't many people in here. I enjoy coming to this place because it is family owned and operated.
I see Luna sitting in a booth with her laptop out. I grab David by his jacket sleeve and pull him along with me.
"I want to order something," he whines.
"Fine," I grab the $20 from my pocket, "I want a small hot chocolate and 3 brownie cookies."
"This money was for me," he points out. I want to slap him.
"Use it for the both of us like a normal 17 year old or you won't be eating anything." I threaten him. His wide eyes tell me my threat worked and that I'm still his intimidating older sister.
David walks off towards the counter and I am smiling wide as I approach Luna. We give each other a quick hug and I sit across from her.
"What are you doing?" I look at her laptop. She seems excited as she turns the screen towards me.
Luna can barely catch her breath, "Look at Namjoon!"
Luna runs one of the biggest international Namjoon fansites. Because of her commitment to keeping up with them in the US, she has created a name for herself. She accumulated hundreds of thousands of followers and she dedicates most of her life to getting the best pictures and getting the most recent news about him. This is primarily the reason we became friends. A year ago there was no K-pop club at school, so she joined the Korean Culture Society (which I am a member of). We have been friends ever since.
I smile at the pictures and am in awe at how high definition they are.
"Wow," I am truly impressed, "Their comeback is soon, right?"
Luna nods and closes her laptop. I guess she thinks she's being rude by having it open.
"In May the new album drops," she says, "They're having their comeback in the US."
I am shocked.
"What? Where?"
It may seem strange that I didn't know this, but I consider myself a casual fan of BTS. I support them for everything that they do, but I mostly get specific information primarily from Luna.
"Las Vegas," she tells me, "I am going to book a flight soon."
"Holy crap," my eyes are wide now, "That's crazy."
I look over to see if David is okay. He is waiting patiently with no expression as the worker starts making our drinks.
"You should come with me," she suggests.
"Oh... no.. really? I don't know..." I trail off.
"Come on," she pleads, "Taehyung— in person."
Ugh, why does she have to do this to me?
"And Jungkook too," I gush, "and Yoongi," I add, but I can't help myself, "Hell. All of them."
As much as Luna's proposal for me to join her is tempting, it seems a bit unrealistic. To me it sounds crazy to travel across the country just for a 3 minute performance. But, knowing Luna, she will be also traveling to their California interviews and appearances also.
My phone beeps and I reach for it too excitedly. I almost forget that my mystery man is sleeping.
"Who's the guy?" She knows me too well.
I can't hide my disappointment when I see a spam notification from my school email.
"No one," I say. It's partially true. I have no idea who it is.
"Lies."
"Some guy my mom is making me text." I confess and feel shameful. It sounds so weird to say it out loud.
"Is he cute?"
I bite my lip, "I don't know."
"What do you mean?" Her confusion is basically my life.
"I haven't seen him yet," I explain and pull up the text messages, "But he knows what I look like now."
Luna's facial expression is enough to tell me the whole thing is sketchy.
"What the hell?" She says, reading through the messages, "You didn't even ask."
I grab my phone back, "Hey, isn't it implied that when I share my Twitter he should share something of his too?"
I think my logic is great. It makes complete sense; yet, Justin failed to take the cue. Is he socially inept at knowing when to do things?
"Just ask him," she instructs me. Wow, what a genius.
"Just ask who?" David interrupts us.
He sets my hot chocolate down along with three mouth watering brownie cookies. I smile awkwardly, not knowing what to say. Luna saves the day.
"Nothing! We were talking about BTS." her diversion seems to be enough for my brother when he sits down in content.
My brother's eyebrows raise as he finishes a sip from his coffee, "I know those dudes."
"Really?" I ask. David typically isn't someone who would listen to k-pop, or anything Korean for that matter. He has fully indulged himself in the American life and is ten times worse than I am with our culture.
"Everyone knows them," he says as if it's obvious, "that guy... uh.. Jungkook," he starts, "Makes me think I can achieve muscles."
I want to laugh but instead I stay silent. My brother just indirectly confessed to the reason why he has been going to the gym is because of the maknae of an Idol group.
"That's awesome," Luna interrupts my thoughts. Her smile is warm and it's amazing how much it sounds like she's being sincere. I bite my tongue when my brother's face becomes shy.
Ugh.
"Anyway..." I trail uncomfortably. I take an anxious bite out of my cookie.
"You're coming with me," she insists. I shake my head.
"Where?" David asks.
The emotion on my face indicating not to tell him seems to get lost because Luna still answers him.
"To the Billboard Music Awards on May 20th."
David's eyes go wide, "Yo, let me come too."
"No!" I finally snap. I sound like my mom. "You have school."
David rolls his eyes at me. Rolls them. It seems everyone in my family rolls their eyes at each other during casual conversation.
"I graduate on the 13th."
I want to facepalm myself because of how ridiculous this all sounds. It's a no brainer that I want to go— it's just it will be expensive and I don't know if I'm willing to spend all my time, money and effort on a trip like this. Especially with my brother.
"Do you have money?" I'm trying to find questions that will make him think twice.
"I'm sponsored by Arirang," Luna chirps happily, "I can vouch for you guys as my team."
I'm speechless by the conversation that's going on right now. Is Luna seriously telling me that a trip to Las Vegas is free?
"So everything is free?" David takes my thoughts into words.
"We're not going," I cut the discussion here.
"Why not?" His immature attitude has resurface as he whines at me.
I don't really know why I don't want to go anymore.
"Can we talk about this later?" I say instead of getting into an argument I'm not sure I agree with. I just need time to think about it.
Luna sighs, "I need to know soon. April is next week."
"I guess I'll ask mom..." I hope she will say no for me to bring David.
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9:03PM EST • 10:03AM KST
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When David and I got home from the cafe, mom had gone out to do some errands. I was thankful she wasn't home for me to ask her because I honestly didn't want to. I hope David ends up forgetting about the whole thing and maybe I would just go with Luna alone. I could definitely gather up enough cash for me to use for food and extra spending money. It could be a small vacation.
The weather channel says there should be no more cold weather for the year, given that it's the beginning of April. I'm thankful for this, because I'm more of a warm climate person.
I look like a fool in my room trying to take a good selfie to post on Twitter. The only thing that I've tweeted today was a picture of my brownie cookie. I feel like I need to update something.
As I'm holding my phone up trying to take a selfie, a notification from my texts covers the top of my screen. It's Luna.
Luna: look up his number on kakaotalk
You: ??
Luna: he might have a profile picture
👍🏻👍🏻
You: good idea
I take her advice and go to copy and paste his number into my KakaoTalk application. To my disinterest he has a bunny emoji as his display name and no profile picture.
I take a screenshot and send it to Luna.
You: [picture attached]
I'm scared
Luna: dang girl idk
ask your mom ???
You: she will lie and say he's good looking
Luna: maybe he is?
You: what if I just delete him?
Luna: but he types so cute and seems sweet
You: omg he's a girl?
Luna: ASK HIM
FOR
A PIC
You: omg!!
this is so stressful
ok ok
Luna: decide if you're coming yet?
I leave her on read because I'm having too much stress going on at the moment. I need to tackle one problem at a time.
I exhale a big breath before I begin typing a new text message to J.
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JUNGKOOK'S POV
(translated)
All my energy seems to have vanished after shooting the latest episode of "Run! BTS". Although it is hard work shooting so many episodes and waking up so early on practice days, it is worth it for our ARMY.
We are given an hour resting period before we begin the second week of practicing for the Billboard Music Awards. It's difficult to switch between title track and b-sides practices.
I have my eyes closed and my head cocked back on the leather couch when my phone buzzes. I'm quick to look because I think it's her.
Jae: hi
"Why are you smiling like that?" Yoongi teases from across the room. He's laying on a different couch.
I drop all emotion in my face when I look up at him from my phone.
"I already saw you," he tells me.
"It's a funny video," I say quickly.
"You're not even watching a video."
"Yes I am." I tell him confidently.
"You watch videos with your phone horizontal," he explains his reasoning to me, "Which porn is it this time?"
I furrow my eyebrows with a chuckle and say, "It was from Twitter."
"I don't believe you."
"Why not?" I'm giggling at this point at his foolish behavior.
"You never check Twitter."
"Leave our youngest alone," Jimin interrupts us and takes a seat next to me. I want to thank him for sticking up for me, but he makes it worse when he grabs my phone to read Jae's text.
"See!" Yoongi points at us.
"What's going on?" Taehyung approaches the couches eating grapes.
I want to hide in embarrassment.
"They're hiding something on Jungkookie's phone," Yoongi is instigating a big commotion during our resting period.
Taehyung walks towards me and Jimin casually with a small smirk on his face as though he wants to be in on it. Knowing Yoongi, he won't bother to get up from his comfortable position on the couch, so I'm not worried.
Jimin has Jae's text open and shows it to Taehyung.
"What does it say?" Yoongi asks Taehyung.
He shrugs, "It's English."
The three of us laugh at his response. He technically wasn't lying. Yoongi isn't thrilled with his response.
"You know the most English out of the four of us."
"This is next level English," Taehyung says, in English.
I take my phone back and begin typing a response. I'm happy she texted me today. Although I was very busy with working all morning, I was also afraid to send her a message.
"It's her?" Taehyung whispers.
Jimin puts his hand to his mouth and leans over to Taehyung's ear. He mumbles something about it being Jae and the two of them giggle like pre-schoolers.
"Say, 'how are you?'" Jimin suggests.
I begin typing that.
"No..." Tae stops me by putting his hand on my shoulder, "Give me."
I hand him my phone.
You: what's up?? 😊
"Hey!" I grab it back from his hands, "I don't think that's right."
"Why?" Tae asks in defense for what he sent to Jae.
"Isn't that informal?" I ask. I guess it's too late anyway. He already sent it.
Taehyung is confident in his answer, "No. everyone says that."
"Where's RM hyung?" Jimin asks Yoongi for us.
"I'm right!" Tae pleads.
I guess we'll find out when she responds. My phone makes a noise and my eyes immediately glue to the screen. I'm frightened when Yoongi takes my phone from my hand. I didn't hear him get up.
"I want to leave," I say in embarrassment. I can't get up because Yoongi has his legs at my knees.
"You're texting her in Koreglish?" He jokes.
"What did she say?" The three of us ask Yoongi in unison.
"Um..." he scratches his head.
"Yah!" Taehyung walks to him, "I can read it."
Yoongi reluctantly gives the phone to Tae and the three of us are watching him expectantly. I can tell Taehyung has been practicing his English very hard because of his confidence.
Jae: nothing much!! Just ate dinner 😊
As he's reading her text, my phone goes off again.
"Ah," he says in fright, "she sent another."
I can't stop smiling.
Jae: btw, do u have Twitter or something?? 😇
"She still doesn't know?" Yoongi is confused.
"No," I answer.
"He's getting to know her," Tae mocks deeply.
"She's so cute," Jimin tells Yoongi.
"What am I supposed to reply with?" I intervene.
"Say you're shy and need more time." Yoongi decides to help.
I cock my head to the side and take my phone back from Tae. We all look at him for a correct translation. I already have an idea of what to type but I will wait for hyung's better answer.
"I don't know how to text that," Tae confesses selflessly.
"It's okay," I assure him, "it's my conversation. I can answer."
I type unconfidently.
You: I'm shy ㅋㅋㅋ
can we have more time?
please?
thank you.
I click send and convince myself that I handled it the best way I could.
"You're going to have to tell her soon," Yoongi says.
"Yeah," Jimin agrees.
"She will stop talking to you if she doesn't know what you look like. Any sane girl would."
"I know that," I sigh.
I'm just afraid that after she knows who I am, she won't like me for me but for a person she thinks I am.
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thank you for reading!
Note: This work is purely a book of fiction. All names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner.