Chapter 5: The English-Only Zone
It's BamBam.
He's sitting in between Jackson and Mark along with three other people I can't positively identify from where I sit. My cheeks are warming up at the sight of his naughty smile and I raise my glass to him before sipping appreciatively.
"You would not believe what's happening RIGHT. NOW." I type, both in Korean and English. The moment I hit send to both Mina and Liv, a slender shadow towers over me.
"Noona..." I look up to find Mark smiling at me.
"Hey, Mark!" I say, immediately locking my phone screen.
"I realized it's you so I came over," He props his arm comfortably on the bar. Hearing him talk in English is enchanting.
"Yeah, about that..." I steal a glance at BamBam who's watching us anxiously from afar. "He just bought me a drink and I haven't met him personally yet so he probably doesn't know that I'm a JYPE staff. Is he even SUPPOSED to be here?"
"Well he's not really drinking so, yeah..." Mark explains. I nod slightly before taking a sip of my drink again. Damn this one's burning a hole in my gut, what is this anyway?! "So how about you? Are YOU supposed to be here?" He asks and I laugh shyly at his coy question.
"I'm supposed to be here with someone—a friend from Australia. But she got caught up in something and she can't make it so I've decided to go solo tonight," I answer, toying with the pineapple garnish hanging from the lip of my cocktail glass. Whatever this drink is, it's poisoning my mouth. When have I decided to go solo, what am I talking about?!
"You should join us, then!"
"What?! Are you sure?"
"Yeah, of course! BamBam is dying to meet you,"
"Stop, he's like WAAAY too young for me," I warn as I take my purse and hop off the bar stool in my tight navy blue dress and high heels. Mark signals to the barista and asks him to send my drink over to their table. I almost lose my shit when I finally see who the boys are hanging out with.
"Oh hey, who's this?" Says Super Junior's Henry. Everyone in the celebrity circle turns to look at me. I then look at Mark in panic and he flashes a charming smile that would've made any fan faint, but only makes me want to punch him in the arm right now.
"This is Love noona, she's from JYP too," Mark answers before plopping in his rightful place on the couch.
"A-annyeong haseyo! Kangjeon Love imnida." [Hello, my name is Love Kangjeon.] I say, bowing politely to them. Henry holds his hand out to me and introduces himself with "Hi, I'm Henry," like he actually needed to do that. Sitting in between Henry and Jackson, Amber from f(x) reaches out to shake my hand too.
"Oh testosterone break, yay! I'm Amber." She says, giving me the warmest smile ever. I smile back but inside I'm internally screaming. "Are you a trainee at JYP?" She further asks.
"Oh, no, no! I'm a video PD," I say, shaking my head. Never in my life have I imagined myself as a trainee. I look around to find Jackson whispering something to Mark. BamBam looks super flustered in between them. At the other end of the couch beside Henry sits a very comfortable Rap Monster, the well-spoken leader of Bangtan Boys.
"Kim Namjoon, nice to meet you." His handshake is firm. Dammit, how can he be a few years younger than me and way cooler than I'll ever be in 10 lifetimes? "These guys call me Joon so just call me that." I nod in response, struggling to wrap my head around the current situation. It's surprising how easy it is for him to talk to me in English when he's actually 100% Korean. I heard this kid is smart but he sounds way smarter in person.
"Noona, please sit here!" Jackson points to the empty spot in between BamBam and Mark, and I oblige, my arm brushing against theirs. The waiter appears out of nowhere to set my drink on the glass table before us.
"Hi, nice to meet you!" BamBam says in his adorable English. "Did you like the drink? It's a Tequila Sunset." He sputters eagerly while holding his lime fizz. I nod in response. Before I can even say thank you, Amber interrupts us with a nifty question.
"Oh, by the way, did Mark tell you that we only speak English here?"
"Pardon?"
"She'll be fine, she's Australian." Mark answers vaguely as I look from Amber to him and back. He winks at me before bringing the bottle of beer to his lips.
"Oh really?" Jackson pipes in. I never thought his unassuming, wide-eyed smile would look so much more appealing up close. His charming innocence on television looks larger than life right now. "I seriously thought she's Korean!" He adds, addressing everyone.
"I am Korean," I say in my native Australian accent. Everyone looks at me with interest. "Well, I'm half-Australian but I was born in Busan. We moved to Sydney when I was three and I came back here after college."
"How old are you then?" Henry asks.
"I'm 25," I say taking a sip of my drink. Jackson and Mark throw snickering glances at BamBam. It took all my willpower not to elbow Mark. BamBam seems embarrassed but unapologetic of the fact that he bought me a drink.
"Ah, unnie!" Amber responds.
"Hey, you said this is an English-only group so I refuse to be called unnie..." I answer laughing, before turning to the boys beside me. "...Or noona! So you guys are better off calling me Love." Everyone's smiling at me now and it's making me feel like I actually belong to this crowd. They all argue that BamBam should still call me noona because he's the youngest and he agrees.
"Your name fits you very well," Namjoon comments, his dimples making me blush.
"Yeah, you look lovely," BamBam says along with his fan service smile. I've seen that look on him so many times that now I feel like I'm seeing things.
"Thank you, but I don't always look like this, FYI," I snicker. These guys have no idea how long it took me to curl my hair into long, natural-looking waves, figure out what to wear, and do my I-swear-I'm-not-a-celebrity-stalker makeup look.
"Be careful, he's a player," Jackson whispers to me, his muscular arms blocking off BamBam's face. I laugh in response, my heart melting by the minute. The fangirl in me is screaming.
"Oh it's fine, I'm used to him. We may have just met but you'd be surprised at how much I already know about you guys," I answer boldly. This drink will be the death of me, I can tell already. They ask me to explain what my job is about and I oblige, filling them in on the many things I know about GOT7 despite the fact that they barely see me.
"Okay, wait, I have to say this. Your Aussie accent is adorable!" Amber says, a huge smile painted on her face. I can feel the blood forming in my cheeks. "You sounded way different when you spoke Korean a while ago!"
"Honestly, a lot of people say that but I don't hear any difference,"
"There is! I swear there's a difference. Joon, what do you think?" Amber turns to the young rapper.
"It does sound very different," He answers. "You probably don't notice it because you've gotten used to it. I get comments like that too, they say they like my African-American accent but I'm not even trying, really. I just keep listening to music like that and I adapted to it pretty easily."
"Sometimes, I can still hear my Thai accent when I speak English even if I'm studying in an international school," BamBam says. The fact that he's still in school makes it all the more disconcerting for me that his arm is draped comfortably across the back of my seat.
"Jackson sounds American!" Henry, who I think is starting to slur, comments loudly.
"I don't think I sound like anything," Jackson answers.
"Exactly, mate, me too!"
"No, you sound Australian," He says, teasing me. Everyone laughs, including me. I just can't help it with this guy. Everything he says—on tape and in real life—sounds funny as heck. "I speak different languages so I can't adapt an accent. But your accent is cute," He points at me with a scoff. Is this real life?
We talk more about accents and learned languages and living in South Korea, our home far away from home (except for Namjoon, of course). We talk about the last time we came back to our hometowns and how things have changed since the last time we're there. For me, it's been a while since I last went home and as much as I want to come back it's definitely harder now that I'm working full time.
By the time I have finished my Tequila Sunset, I can barely feel my lips and I can tell Henry's shots are taking full effect too. Before he loses his bearing, BamBam asks us to take a group selca. I stand up and offer to take a photo of them instead so I won't have to appear on it. I guess I'm just so used to being behind-the-scenes that the thought of being in a celebrity selca kind of sickens me... Or maybe that's just the drink.
"Love, are you okay?" Mark asks quietly as I sit back down gently. I turn to him with a bright smile, hoping it would lessen my embarrassment at being drunk in front of him.
"I'm fine, just a little bit drunk, thanks to BamBam." I slur, earning a smirk from him. I turn to Bambam with the sweetest smile I could muster. "BamBam-ssi, kamsahamnida!" I say, piling on the aegyo since I'm sure my reddened cheeks would take me to that route anyway.
"Oh, you're so cute!" BamBam says, his smile never leaving his face. Jackson starts shaking BamBam in delight, something the younger member seems to be used to by now. "Noona, can we take a selca? I promise not to post it!" He adds. I scoot near him and he puts his arm around my shoulders while angling his phone to fit the both of us. God, my cheeks are so red.
He takes several photos of us, changing smiles and angles every now and then. After a few shots Jackson and Mark squeezes into the frame and we all make funny faces for the next few photos. "Okay, we're done here," I say squirming away from BamBam who seems to be enjoying holding me close, and Mark who's arguing to take more photos. "You promised not to post that, right?"
"I know I promised, but I still have one condition," BamBam replies, still not taking his hand off my back. I ask him what it is. "I'll keep our picture private... Only if you give me your number." His resolute smile is disconcerting. I start to laugh nervously.