KWON JIYONG
The alarm sound rings on beside my head. I lazily fumble for my phone on the bed as my eyes still don't fly up yet. When I found it, I immediately turn it off.
Ugh. I hate this sound of alarm as hell. Should I make my own alarm sound to compete the Apple? This sound sucks, even though it wakes me best.
Honestly, I just hate waking up early.
It's five in the morning. Time for heading to the airport by seven. We're going to Tokyo today.
I rest an arm onto my eyes.
I've been so tired since yesterday morning, when Seungri slammed my door (again) to wake and told me that it was Bona's birthday. I was quite amazed. I didn't recognize about this day before. So after I thought thoroughly, I immediately ran into T.O.P hyung and asked him to do me a favor. Then I had been coordinating too many lines, such as, calling my managers to get those Care Bears at their shop and I didn't know which character bear is her most favorite, so I told them to get all of them. Plus, I needed to call too many interior designers to help me make the chick room within that day since that room was a T.O.P hyung's so-fucking-mess-and-too-men room before. Calling so fucking lines and also running in Seungri's plans at the building. That kid still scolded me for not showing up all day. But I can't tell him the reason why I was gone all day anyway, he'd probably never stop coming up to the six floors...to Daisies.
My eyes open immediately as thinking about her—especially the name. I reach the box on top of the nightstand, opening and pulling the pin out from it.
I stare at the small daisy pin thoroughly, recalling the memories I've been through yesterday by accident. Me standing behind the wall of the hallway, crossing my arms at my chest and leaning my ear against the wall.
'The police said he must to be arrested for two years'
'Your superhero dad and I didn't want to have you at the first place. We wanted to shut you up by aborting...'
'Next two months when you finish any damn here, you'll go what the hell you want or go into the jail like your dad does. And don't let me see you ever again'
I was listening until I heard the door was cracked and I immediately hid behind the walls. I saw angry Judy left that room before pulling a box from her pocket, and she threw it into a bin next to the room before leaving.
Yes, I kept that box before went to comfort the poor girl in that room.
I pick the handwriting small card in the box and reread it again.
'Please take it. It's your dad's. He bought it for me when you were inside me. Happy 23rd birthday, Daisies.'
Daisies.
A daisy pin.
It's the flower that I dreamed that night,
With a white dress girl.
She is the girl.
She is Daisies.
My dream daisies girl.
I stare at the pin, smiling.
* * *
"Why Bona came with Judy noona? Didn't she take T.O.P hyung's room last night?" Youngbae asks me as we're walking in the aisle of the plane. I swiftly bump my shoulder to his to warn him.
"Shh. Seungri is behind us," I whisper.
"She took it. She just went back home to pack her bag for this trip and tell her mo—her aunt that she's moving to another apartment. Do not let Judy and anyone else know that she's living with us, okay? Oh! Including that kid, too. We're gonna get in trouble if they know," I quietly tell him after we sat on our couple seat.
"Got it," he firmly insists.
I fasten my seat belt before glancing at her—walking in the aisle with her mom, Judy. As her eyes meet mine, she tenderly waves to me and I smilingly wave back.
"Play safe, dude. The mom is here." I turn to T.O.P hyung. Luckily that he speaks Korean as sitting against the window. I hope no one understands what he says.
"Whose's mom?" Seungri leans over, sitting between T.O.P hyung and Daesong.
Thanks to the aisle for making me a bit far from him, otherwise, I would rip his damn mouth from his face.
"Shut up," Hyung tells him, slamming Seungri's head.
"Hyung!" Seungri growls.
"Thanks, Hyung," I say.
Then Judy and Bona found their seats, it's behind me and Youngbae.
Judy sits first. As Bona is about among to sit, Seungri calls,
"Bona ya. Sit here, sit here." And he tells Daesong to get up.
Daesong scolds but still leaves his seat.
"Judy noona. May I have your niece sit here? I have a little question about writing songs with her," Seungri informs to Judy. My bottom lip helplessly drops itself.
This fucking kid.
And then he switches the seats of Bona and Daesong. Bona's surprised a little but agrees to sit with Seungri. I stare at that kid with a warning look. He flinches it but quickly looks away from me.
"Such a player," Hyung murmurs.
However, part of me tries to think positively. Maybe what this kid did is kind of great, though. I know Bona probably didn't want to sit with her mom at the first place. In the meantime, Bona smiles for me crossing the aisle between us. I smile back. I do want to have a chitchat with her so badly. But when the plane slightly flies up, my mind immediately shuts down after I've barely slept lately. Especially yesterday.
* * *
I have no idea how long I've fallen asleep on plane, but all I know is I'm freaking cold. The tiny air condition above my head works too damn good. I've been sniffing and barely able to breathe.
"Youngbae. Turn the air off. I'm fucking cold," I command as closing my eyes. I feel not quite good—sort of having a little headache.
Fuck. Not today. We have a bunch of works to be running out.
"Youngbae ahh. Turn my air off," I repeat, my throat feels a bit hurt as speaking. I tighten my crossed arms against my chest. I tell myself I'll be okay when I land in Tokyo. I just need a nap.
Then I slightly feel him standing next to me, hearing the air button is turned off. He covers my body with the blanket gently.
"Thanks, man," I say, still eyes closed.
* * *
"Jiyong. Jiyong. Wake up. We got here." Youngbae shakes my leg gently. I gradually open my heavy eyelids. So freaking tired.
I get up and try to keep my myself together. I turn to Bona's seat, and it's now empty. So does Judy's. They got off already.
"Thanks." I return him his blanket.
"What?"
"This blanket?"
He shrugs. "It's not mine."
So whose is it? I stare at the blue blanket thoroughly—a white one.
I glance at the edge of the blanket and found a tiny flower embroidery on it. And I can't help grinning before putting it into my bag.
"Dude. Wake up." T.O.P hyung kicks Seungri's leg. He still falls asleep with a widely opened mouth.
Seungri's swiftly startled. "Where's Bona?"
"You made her sit with you but ended up falling asleep. What a lame," Hyung growls.
"Because she took a nap first and I didn't wanna interrupt her, so I went to sleep, too," Seungri explains.
"I think she just tried to escape you. That's all. If I were her, I'd do like her," Daesong snaps.
I giggle.
* * *
Less than three hours later, we started to shoot our photoshoot as soon as we have arrived at the location nearby the airport. I felt not really good and asked managers to go to the hotel first.
I've felt so exhausted but at least it's better that I don't have a headache like I did on the plane. I know my body needs to take a nap. So I'm now in my hotel room alone with my manager who staying in another room next to mine. He's on the move to get me some pills, and I am waiting for him.
Anyway, I haven't seen Bona since I fell asleep on the airplane. I heard last hour that she and some managers, including her mom were going to set other locations for our other photoshoot.
Did she come back to the hotel yet? Is her room on the same floor with mine?
5.12 P.M.
킴보나
xxxibgdrgn : "Where are you now?"
킴보나 is changed to Daisies
xxxibgdrgn : "Hello?"
xxxibgdrgn : sent a sticker
Did she change the sim card yet?
"Jiyong ah." It's my manager, knocking on the door.
"Coming."
I answer the door, and he reaches me a plastic bag of medicine.
"Here's your pills. I also ordered you some food. It's on its way. You must to have some meal before eating these, okay?" he informs me, gesturing at the plastic bag in my hand.
"Thank you."
"You're sure you don't want to go to the doctor, right?" he asks, as if repeating the same sentence for a million time.
And my answer still goes like, "I'm totally fine. I just need a nap."
"I'm in the next door. Call me anytime if you want to, got it?" he says, heading back to his room.
"Hang on." I swiftly reach his sleeve to stop, and he turns to me with a puzzled look. "Do you know where Bona is?"
"Bona? Delansey Kim?"
"Yes. Judy's niece."
"There." He points to the door opposite my room.
"Did she come back, yet?" I ask.
"Yes. I passed her while I was going out to get you the pills."
I secretly smile in relief.
"Okay. Thanks." I nod and pat his back gently.
He doesn't pace just yet. On the other hand, he narrows his eyes on me before asking, "Are you dating with her?"
"Noooo!" I raise my palms up in the air, as if a prisoner. "Absolutely not." Am I overreacting, though?
"Don't you dare date with her." He raises his index finger to my face as if he's warning his son.
I drop my hands to myself, folding my arms defiantly. "When did you become so bossy?" I scoff.
"I'm telling you. This happens to every famous people when they stay close. It's just an attractive feeling. If you think like that, let's forget it. You're very popular. And look how far you two can be together, too. It's impossible," he says with a serious look.
"I just asked how she is. I don't mean dating her, yet."
"I just warned you. I've seen this cycle for my whole work life so far. I don't want you to get in any trouble."
"I will never date her, you're okay?" I scoff.
"Keep it in your mind," he scolds and gets in his room. I inadvertently slam my door so hard behind me and jump to my bed.
"It's impossible? Huh." I stare at the ceiling with a blank brain. "Fuck off."
* * *
Ten minutes later, I almost fell asleep again, but there's an annoying knock on my door. It takes almost everything in me to roll up and go to answer it. When I open the door, there's a waiter with a food cart. He politely greets and reaches me a food tray.
"Thank you," I unenthusiastically say, yawning and take the tray.
"You're welcome, sir," the waiter politely responds and pushes his cart with other trays to the opposite door.
"Excuse me. Is that the order of that room?" I interrupt before he knocks.
"Yes, sir."
"Hold on a second."
I place my tray on my fridge and pick the blanket inside my bag. And I place it beside her tray. The waiter looks totally confused.
"It's the girl's, in there," I tell him.
Then I close the door behind me and lean my head against it.
Why the heck did I do like that, though? I should have given her back in person. Fuck my manager! He made me overthink of his damn words. Should I keep that blanket to myself and wait for her asking?
Yes! That's right.
Take it back, Jiyong!
Shit!! I hear the waiter already knocked on her door. I open mine and emerge the cart to reach the blanket quickly. The waiter seems obviously surprised, but I don't give a shit. I hold that blanket to my chest and head back to my room. In the meantime, the opposite door is opened.
"GD?" Bona calls from behind.
Pressing my lips together then I finally spin to face her.
"Yep?" I awkwardly ask, hiding the blanket behind my back.
"I thought you were out." Her eyes on me before move to the waiter. "Thank you so much," she tells him nicely, taking her tray. I swear I see his face turns shyly red."
"I'm your fan. I'm kinda listening to your songs lately," he shyly tells her, speaking English so eloquently.
Hey, didn't you see we're talking, jerk!?
"Really?" Bona's face lights up apparently. "I'm totally glad you do. Come here." And she gives him an one-armed hug. His face turns to so fucking red like a ripe tomato before leaving his ass out. Leave and never come back again, man!
I can't help rolling my eyes before turn back to my room.
And she shouts behind like I hoped. "Wait!"
I slowly turn around and she glances at my hand.
"Isn't that mine?"
Shit. I forgot to hide it since watching that fucking waiter impressing her.
"Ye—yeah. I'm about to return it to you. Thanks, anyway," I say and reach it to her. She releases one hand from her tray and takes it. She stares at the blanket in her hand thoughtfully for a brief second.
"So, you kinda know my old name?" she asks.
"I googled you." I'm not lying.
I did google her years ago...to find who sings 'Whom I belong to' after it once randomly came up on the radio that I was listening to.
"Really? I guess I never told anyone about my old name," she murmurs in disbelief. In the meantime, my eyes catch up on some guy holding a camera...
Holy shit! There's a paparazzi in the hallway.
I quickly pull Bona's wrist into my room before closing the door behind us.
"What are you doing?" She seems totally surprised, sort of terrified.
"It's a paparazzi out there," I explain.
"Really? Did he see us?" She covers her mouth with a hand in shock.
"I don't think so. He was turning his back. Maybe he didn't see us yet."
"Hope so." She nods, convinced.
I reach for her tray that she's holding up and place it on the table next to the curtained window. "It's better you stay here for a little while—to wait till he left. You can eat here, by the way," I suggest.
"Great. I didn't wanna eat alone, anyway." A childish smile appears on her gorgeous face. She slides a chair backwards and occupies herself.
"Your mom isn't there?" I ask, pointing backwards at the door.
"She left two hours ago."
"Oh." I nod. "Then why would you rather order cater food than eat out. This is Japan, don't you know that?"
She chuckles.
"I'd love to but I dunno how to go. I've never been to Japan. Plus, I thought I'd ask you to go with me. But now I think it ain't great anymore." She means the paparazzi, and I wish they're all gone forever.
"Here we go. Eating together," I say and pick up my tray. But when I place it on the table with hers, they're too crowded. The table is too small for two trays. Bona giggles.
"Come here." She lifts hers and lies it on the floor. She sits down and I then imitate her.
We begin to eat on the floor together. She scolds at first that the way my food obviously looks delicious than her. I adore and trade, but she nicely denies it. So we end up sharing.
"I think I can't have yours anymore. Yours is noodles and there's no any fork. How's this city full of chopsticks!" she growls like a baby.
"Let's try it," I suggest and reach my chopsticks to her. She awkwardly tries but sort of sucks for it. She got just a few noodles at a one-tonging. I laugh and she puts a touchy face to me.
"You know what. Fine. I'm eating mine. I don't care yours anymore."
"You're eating hamburgers which you've probably eaten for your whole life. You're in Japan. You must to try their noodles. It's incredible."
"Never mind." She seems sort of annoyed, eating her hamburger. I adore.
Then, I tong the noodles up to feed her. "Here."
She's surprised for a second before opens her mouth awkwardly and eats it. And I use the spoon to dip the broth. "Here too."
"How was it?"
She swallows. "It's quite spicy but it's freaking so great. I like it."
"Then eat mine. I'm not hungry."
"No, no, no. You must to eat mine too. We're exchanging our country food." She feeds her hamburger to my mouth. I take a bite. It tastes so American eating with her.
We eat in silence for a while until she begins to talk in excitement, as if someone has just switched her channel of thought.
"Oh! I forgot to tell ya. I told my mom about me moving out already."
"What did you tell her?" Tonging another bite to her mouth.
"I told her I'll be living with you 'cause you got me pregnant."
"What!" I almost drop the chopsticks, choking.
Bona bursts out laughing so hard until she can't bear coughing. I reach her a glass of water and rub her back gently. She drinks the water before continues laughing again.
"You should've seen your face. It was so funny."
"It's not funny. Didn't it tell her like that?" My guard lowers itself down—so down. If she isn't going to explain in any more seconds, I'd be totally freaking out.
"Who would've believed if I really said that? I just went from home for less than a month. You really suck!" And she laughs so hard again. I snort before load another big noodle bite into her opened mouth.
"I could even get you really pregnant, so you don't have to lie to her. We can do it right now, just in case you want to," I say.
Seemingly got frozen. Her eyes widen, her bottom lip drops itself.
Looking away for a moment, I burst out laughing till crying. Her face is priceless.
"Seriously?" she shouts and loads the hamburger to my mouth. I chew, still laughing. Still never breaking eyes on her.
"So what did you tell her exactly?" I ask after swallowed.
"I told her I'll live in T.O.P's apartment."
"Stop teasing. I'm serious."
"I am. That's what I told her. This is his idea. T.O.P told me to tell my mom—that he has another apartment and it hasn't been occupied yet, so he lets me stay for free for these two months."
"Did she believe it?" Feeding her another bite.
"Yab—she just asked a few things since she was still mad at me," she describes as chewing.
"Aam." Bona opens her again empty mouth like a kid. I giggle and feed another one. "Say aam," and she commands and feeds me with the hamburger.
Later on, when we finished exchanging our meals. We start to talk about our favorite things from our countries; such as, movies, food, places, and blah blah blah. I exchange our top three movies for each other. I discover that she is a wuss. She totally scares ghosts which doesn't sound like American people at all. So I list the top three scary movies for her. She literally denies it, so I bet if she just dares to watch 'A Tale of Two Sisters with Me' tonight with me, I'll watch every movies she suggests. We finally get a deal. We open the cola cans from the fridge, joining the movies on the floor, leaning our backs against the edge of the bed.
When the movie goes on just half an hour, my eyes feel so heavy, and I inadvertently fall asleep too many times but at least being wakened by Bona—flinching herself every time the shocking scenes come, holding my hand tightly. When there's the halfway of the movie, Bona slightly goes into silence, and I found she closes her eyes to not see it. I growl that she's cheating but let her do that because my eyes seem unable to open. And then my mind gradually shut down itself.
* * *
I slowly let my eyes fly open, glancing at the clock, it's ten p.m. and the TV is showing the end credits. Bona's head is resting on my shoulder, her two arms are still holding my hand loosely. I gently pull my hand out from hers, throwing the arms under her back and her knees, lifting her up into my arms softly.
I place her on the bed and cover her with a blanket. She looks so childish when she's sleeping. I gently tuck her hair behind her ear, placing a soft kiss on her cheek. Feeling like I'm such a thief with a stolen kiss.
"Good night, Daisies," I whisper, picking another pillow beside her head and lay it on the floor. I don't want to feel I'm taking an advantage of her, even though she's an American—she probably doesn't mind about lying together on the bed. But I do.
Save it later when she was really mine.
Less than two hours later, I still can't sleep even if how hard I want to. Bona keeps moving all the time. Her body against the cushion makes a bit nosy. Plus, her hands or her legs keep falling from the bed. Last half an hour ago, her body almost fell into the floor, so I had to take my pillow place it beside her left to block her way on the bed, and I move to lay next to her right; the other side of the bed. I'm blocking her ways to not fall from the bed. She's a sleeping dancer ever. Next half an hour later, it works. She stops rolling on the bed. I get up and check on her. She's holding the pillow tightly. I giggle and go back to sleep. Finally I can really sleep now.
Ugh!
What the fuck.
I open my eyes to check what the hell dropped and still being onto my stomach.
...
.......
God. Can I sleep without any interruptions for at least one real sleep?
Bona's leg falls from the bed and it's now on my stomach. I sigh and put her leg back to the bed properly while still lying. Don't make me get up in there and hold you all night, Bona.
I look at the clock on my phone, and it says two in the morning already. I shut locking my screen and about to back to sleep again. Then I feel some big shadow covers my body... there's the passed-out body of Bona, being on the limit of the bed, her hand and leg in the air. She's going to drop.
"Bona. Bona. Bo—."
I instinctively reach my two hands in the air to hold her and call her out, but suddenly her passed-out body finally drops onto my body. Her face's beside my ear, her two hands fly up next to each side of my head as if a Glico posture, but she's not standing, she's sleeping on top of me. I try to get her up but she even holds my shoulders tightly. Our overlaying bodies now like a hamburger that we just ate last evening.
I sigh.
Then I reach out the blanket from the bed and cover our hamburger bodies with it. I place my hand on her back in case if she could fall again (from my body).
"Good night again, baby Daisies."
And we end up sleepinglike that till the next morning.