일 ┃ ❛❛ You can never have too much of Bangtan's handsomeness. ❜❜
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"I called you three times last night, hoe."
I'm enveloped into a bone-crushing hug as soon as I open the door. For her small figure, the being of sass and fire that stands before me is extraordinarily strong, and I can't talk until I'm finally out of her arms.
"I was sleeping, Han. And I thought I told you to start addressing me normally like every other person?"
"And become the perfect representation of vanilla ice-cream like you? No, thanks." The scoff of her voice cleaves into my ears as I turn around, walking back into the sepia interior of the house.
Trust Kang Haneul to not go the conventional way in literally anything and you willl never be disappointed. When they said that it's in the nature of humans to love familiarity and comfort, they clearly did not consider the rare case that came in the form of a nine-teen year old rebel that she was.
And maybe that's why I automatically snort when she hesitates in walking in, contradicting her usual self that doesn't even require an invitation.
"Why the sudden change of behaviour?"
She replies to my question with one of her own ── "Is he here?"
"You just walked into his house, so I'd say he is."
Haneul rolls her eyes. "No, dumbass. It's obvious Jimin's here. I'm talking about Jungkook."
"Oh, yeah. He's upstairs." Although I was told by my brother to not tell anyone of Jungkook's arrival, naturally, I told Haneul.
From when I was still in diapers, 'everyone' never included her. She was always apart from the crowd; a distinct, shining figure.
A very chaotic shining figure.
For a moment, Haneul looks at me with her wide, dark eyes. Then she lets out a sound that's somewhere between a squeal and a cough.
"Oh my gosh, can he meet me?" She doesn't even realize that her words had come out the wrong way from the anticipation that I'm sure grows within her.
I find it hard not to laugh at her condition. "You're gonna meet Jimin anyway, right? So yes, I guess you'll meet him, too."
"Oh my god, this could be the best day of my life!" She lets out a happy, excited laugh as she follows me up the stairs.
Unlike me, Haneul has done her best to hold on to the fangirl side of her. Despite a lot of obstruction from parents, school and basically all parts of life, her love for Bangtan has never wavered. That one time she had a huge fight with her mother because she blamed her "obsession with these boys" for her bad results suddenly comes back to me. Needless to say, she had to spend that night at my place.
"How's Grandma?" I ask, knowing the conversation would grow from there on.
"Alive and well. Aunt Heeyoung is not getting that house any time soon."
I chuckle. "Can you blame her, really? People would kill for that house."
The most contribution behind Haneul being able to do whatever she loves comes from her grandmother. She's always been the favourite grandchild, and boy does she know to make good use of it.
"Oh, you know what happened back at Gwangju?"
"If this is about another one of your crushes, I'm out."
"He was pretty hot, but suit yourself." She shrugs, making herself comfortable on my bed.
"Whoa, who?"
"I thought you were not interested?"
"Well..."
Haneul smirks victoriously. "It's time you dropped your I-swear-I'm-not-a-hoe-for-the-tea act, Jiyeon. You're clearly failing at it."
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Just when I assume Haneul is getting to the climax of her story, a knock on the door interrupts her. Our gazes move to the source of the sound automatically. "It's probably Mom," I say, getting up. Ever since we started to talk about things that required us to close the door, my mother has interrupted us so many times, it's almost become a tradition.
Before I can take another step, the person on the outside speaks. Both Haneul and I freeze, recognizing the soft, almost honey-like voice.
"Jiyeon-ssi, it's me."
She and I stare at each other for a second before I gesture towards the door. "You did want to meet him," I suggest.
"You're asking me to open the door?" She asks in disbelief, her voice coming out in a choked manner.
At this rate, it can't even be called just a crush.
"Exactly." I sit back down.
Outside, Jeongguk says hesitatingly, "I wanted to borrow something." He waits a second, as if measuring his words. "If that's okay."
"Will you move your ass or not?" I whisper-yell at Haneul, who still can't prepare herself to see Jeongguk in all his glory.
After a few more seconds and another knock, she finally gets up and walks to the door before slowly swinging it open.
"Hi, I was wondering—" Jeongguk stops midway as his eyes meet Haneul's instead of mine.
"Hi," the said girl croaks out. "I'm Haneul and I've always wanted to meet you somewhere other than a fan meeting."
I hold in my chuckle. She has done a lot better of a job of introducing herself than I expected her to. And if I were being honest, I had expected to see a pinnacle of comedy.
"Hello." Jeongguk smiles. Those fan meetings must have given him a lot of experience in talking with people he's never met, because his smile is no less bright than his genuine ones.
But who am I to talk? It's not like I've ever spent enough time with him to know how his genuine smiles really are.
"Nice to meet you, Haneul. I assume you're a friend of Jiyeon's?" He proceeds to make small talk with Haneul and for a second, I'm jealous of his social skills.
After a minute or two, he addresses me. "Jiyeon-ssi, I was wondering if I could borrow a sketch pad of yours? A notebook would do as well."
Han keeps him busy in conversation, asking him questions and informing him again and again of how glad she is to meet him like this. Meanwhile, I frantically search for a sketch pad among the thousand stuff lying messily on my table. The hours I spent the previous day in sorting out which ones I'd be taking with me to Seoul and which ones I'd be leaving here do not help at all.
At last, I find the sketch book I've been searching for all along. It has been given to me a few years back, but it's still as good as new. After all, the only drawings I've ever made were the ones I needed to keep my grades afloat.
He thanks me with a breath-taking smile as I hand it to him and bids Haneul goodbye before turning around and walking back to his room.
She closes the door with shaking hands as she whispers, "I just might faint, Yeon."
"How can you even be so dramatic? You wanna finish your story?"
Sitting back down, she replies dreamily, "What's the point of talking about my grandmother's hot, fresh-out-of-college neighbour when Jeon Jungkook is literally a few feet away?"
"I'm thinking you shouldn't meet Jimin at all." I chuckle. "You've had too much handsomeness for one day."
"True." She nods. "But you can never have too much of Bangtan's handsomeness."
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