Chapter 10: House Party Caller
"Yoboseo?" I groggily answer my phone without taking off my eye mask. I don't even care who the caller is, I just want to go back to sleep. It's 9AM on a Sunday. I really don't understand why anyone would call me at this hour.
"Good morning! Are you busy today?" The caller says, thick American accent slightly waking my senses.
"Hmmm... What?" I moan, turning in my bed. "Who is this?"
"Is she seriously still sleeping?!" Says another voice in the background. I can hear scratches, like someone's grabbing the phone from the caller. I finally decide to take off my mask and check the ID. Mark Tuan.
"Hello?" He says. Wait that's not Mark's voice.
"Hello? Mark?"
"No, it's Jackson. Are you awake now?" Scruffy voice tickling my ear.
"Not really."
"We're on the way to your place right now,"
"M-mwo? Wae?!" I gasp, bolting upright in the most unglamorous way. Since the last Real GOT7 shoot, Mina and I have gotten closer to the crew and the boys, so much so that we were asked to come to all the remaining shoots. Mark and I have been messaging each other a lot—practically every day whenever he's not busy. The three guys have visited me at home at least twice this month already and it's only the middle of November. I really shouldn't be surprised that they've decided to come over today, but this early and even in this cold weather? Really?!
"Because we're bored and we don't know where to go today," Jackson tells me, the English lilt in his voice is making him sound like the world's biggest brat.
"UGH. Fine, who's with you?" I ask, finally getting out of bed to change into something decent.
"It's a surprise!" Jackson answers as I struggle to strip off my pajamas.
"Oh my god, can you please just tell me?!" I toss my clothes to the hamper in the corner of the room and hurriedly open the drawers of my white distressed dresser.
"I'll give you a hint. Hyung, say hello," Jackson's voice is growing fainter.
"Eh? Uh, Hellooo—" Another voice pipes in. Shit. That's definitely JB. I hope Mina's not busy today.
"Do you know who that is?" Jackson again.
"I think I do," I answer while taking out a pair of denim cutoffs and an oversized pink knit sweater from my closet. "Isn't that JB?"
"Ugh, you're no fun. We brought you breakfast so don't bother cooking, okay? See you in like... 30 minutes." The information makes me panic as I stand in my bathroom. I mutter a quick goodbye before running downstairs in my underwear to get the coffee started, and then running back upstairs to take a shower.
The doorbell rings exactly 30 minutes after the call which doesn't really shock me knowing how much Jackson hates being late. I glance at the mirror by the door. My hair is still wet but at least I managed to slap on toner, essence, eye cream, moisturizer, and a tiny bit of tint on my cheeks and lips. I look at the screen of the intercom and true enough GOT7's leader is standing with the foreign members on my doorstep.
"Hey!" I say, opening the door for everyone with a smile. As usual, Mark's the first to come in, giving me a big hug after taking off his shoes. He then sticks his nose up in the air to take a sniff.
"Oh my goodness, coffee! Yes!" He saunters to the kitchen without looking back.
Jackson comes in after him carrying a huge paperbag. "Oh, you smell good! Good job for someone who just woke up!" He winks at me after a quick hug.
"Noona, I hope we didn't catch you at a bad time," JB says politely before giving me an uneasy half-hug. I feel my cheeks heat up a bit at the unusual close contact because JB and I have never been this close to each other. We've had brief conversations during shoots though, which makes it easy to talk to him at this point.
"Ani, ani, you're always welcome here!" I answer, smiling warmly at him. His smile is so nice, I wish I could frame it and give it to Mina.
BamBam closes the door and stands beside JB, his off duty model look distracting me momentarily. "Awww, you look so pretty today!" He comments, hugging me tight. I tell him he looks prettier in his black sweater, black skinny jeans, pink jacket and pink socks. I offer to hang their coats for them, and tell them to make themselves at home—something I really don't have to say anymore but which JB seems to appreciate.
The dining table is all set by the time I get to the kitchen. There's a stack of pancakes on my plate along with some eggs benedict, and bacon. Mark took the liberty of pouring coffee for me and BamBam. JB and Jackson have somehow produced green tea. We all eat in peace, a few chit chats peppering our breakfast table.
Me gustas tu, me gustas tu!
"That's your ring tone?" Jackson asks, clearly surprised when a call came in.
"What?! I like GFriend," I respond before picking my phone up. "Yoboseo?" I see BamBam smiling again the moment I transform into my Korean alter-ego. He seems to find it too cute to handle.
"Omo omo omo omo omo, are they really there? Is JB there?" Kang Mina is ecstatic as heck.
"Ne, we're having breakfast right now. You're coming over, right?" Everyone around me seems interested to know who the other guest is. I put my phone down as soon as I wrap things up with Mina, who's reportedly dashing to the bathroom as we speak.
"Hey, give me your phone," Jackson orders. I hand it to him, curious as to what he's planning to do.
"Is that Mina-ssi?" JB asks, momentarily taking my focus away from Jackson. I nod and tell him she's coming over too since she's not busy today. I yabber more about her, how she likes really spicy ramyeon, and how she compliments my outfit every day.
"That's why I always try to dress nicely. I want to know what she thinks because she's really good at making observations, especially when it comes to style and fashion." I explain to JB, subtly hinting at how daebak my friend is. It's great to know that he's interested in her too, enough to listen to me talk about her quirks.
"Okay, done!" Jackson announces in English, giving me my phone back. "Now I'm calling you!" He then adds in Korean. I swear this table talk is messing with my bilingual brain. My phone starts to light up and we all hear cute holiday tones coming out of it followed by Jackson's low rapping. I look at the caller ID only to find that he not only changed my ringtone, he also took a selfie of him doing a finger heart and then made it his contact photo.
"This is so cute!" I squeal, slightly blushing. I wasn't a fan of GOT7 before joining JYPE and I sure as heck don't have a bias list but that's hard to maintain when you get to see what kind of people they are off cam. "Thank you, this is pretty spiffy," I tell Jackson, my warm smile spreading like melted butter across my face. I really mean it. I like GFriend a lot but it's adorable that Jackson personally made it a mission to remind me that they're my actual friends. He's totally staying on my bias list.
"Ah pali, pali, I need to take your caller ID photos too!" I stand to take Mark and BamBam's photos. "Oh, JB-ssi, I don't have your number yet." I hand him my phone nervously. He mulls for a second, making me regret asking him in the first place. What the heck was I thinking anyway?! The rest of the boys are eyeing us curiously while eating. JB then smiles at me, takes my phone, and types his number in. He even takes a selfie and saves it in his own contact profile named "Jaebum Im". He typed his name in Romanized form. I am instantly impressed by his eye for detail because he seems to understand the way with which I organize my phone. Even my brother is listed in my address book as Hope Kangjeon. The only people who are listed differently are my parents (because if something were to happen to me, the first two things people would search on my phone are 'Mom' and 'Dad').
"Ah, it's so weird seeing JB hyung taking a selca," BamBam comments. We can't help but laugh at JB's bashful smile.
"So what do you guys want to do today?" I ask.
"Chill?" Says Mark.
"We could go shopping?" BamBam suggests, eyes egging me to say yes.
"Ani, let's not go out today. It's too cold. I think it's better to stay indoors." We all look at JB, me most especially. He's not smiling anymore, but he's gazing at me with a resolute look on his face. Somehow, I get the feeling that he wants to talk to me about something important, which is why he came and why he wants to stay.
"Ah, maja!" My answer makes the other three members turn with surprised looks on their faces. "Why don't you guys just watch a movie or play games, and I'll cook fried chicken for you!" They seem to like the idea.
As we start to clean up, Mark and Jackson volunteers to tour JB around my apartment. They promise not to touch anything in my closet this time. BamBam stays behind to help me wash the dishes. "I didn't know you were such a neat freak," I say, watching BamBam scrub each plate twice.
"I just got used to it," He reminds me that his family owns a restaurant chain in Thailand so he's very much used to cleaning up well. "You're the neat freak one, your apartment smells so nice all the time."
I scoff before showing him one of the tiny bottles filled with vanilla scented incense sticks sitting on window sill. "It's because I have these around the house near the windows and the vents. My mom taught me that." I put the bottle back to its original place. "When I come home from work, the scent reminds me of home and it feels really good."
I tell him more about my first year in Korea; How I didn't have a job, how I couldn't speak the language despite the fact that I'm a full-Korean, and how the only piece of furniture in my apartment then was my bed. The extent with which I allowed my mom to help me when I first moved to South Korea was limited to finding a place to stay and opening a bank account. I refused when she begged to buy furniture for me because I told her I'd like to do it on my own, and with my own money. It was pride, I believe, that pushed me to work hard for myself.
"I feel the same way whenever my mom sends me pictures of our new house," BamBam replies. He proceeds to show me photos of the two-storey house he bought for his family in Bangkok and I marvel at the grandness of everything he's showing me, until we hear heavy footsteps upstairs and booming laughter.
"Yah, what are you doing?!" I scream, leaving BamBam with the dishes to run upstairs in panic. Please not my underwear again. PLEASE.